Israel wird tatsälich ein NATO Mitglieder geworden

israelische Minister ,ruft für “Civil Targeted Killings” of BDS Leaders

The Yediot Achronot conference attacking BDS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukXAFxI8Ix4 has become a veritable carnival of hate. Everyone from delusional Hollywood celebrities (Roseanne Barr) to cabinet ministers, to the leader of the Opposition have pledged fealty to the cause. Two of the speakers are under criminal investigation for corrupt political or financial dealings.
But the apogee came yesterday when Intelligence Minister Israel Katz called for the “civil targeted killing“of BDS leaders like Omar Barghouti. The phrase he used (sikul ezrahi memukad) derives from the euphemistic Hebrew phrase for the targeted killing of a terrorist (the literal meaning is “targeted thwarting”). But the added word ” civil” makes it something different. Katz is saying that we won’t physically murder BDS opponents, but we will do everything short of that.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/03/30/israeli-minster-calls-for-civil-targeted-killings-of-bds-leaders/

Interview: The man behind the BDS movement

As the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement grows, its co-founder, Omar Barghouti, has become a target for Israeli demonization. +972's Rami Younis sits down with Barghouti for a rare discussion about BDS's goals, its recent successes, and increasingly frequent accusations that the boycott movement constitutes anti-Semitism.
http://972mag.com/interview-the-man-behind-the-bds-movement/107771/

Why Israeli companies are fleeing West Bank settlements
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/hebron-soldier-shooting-terrorist-video-image-israel.html#



Israeli forces detain 21 Palestinians in extensive predawn raids(05-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770992

Israeli forces detain 3, close major checkpoint in daytime West Bank raids(05-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770997

Israeli forces detain brother of Duma attack victim, 12 others(04-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770978

Israeli forces detain 6 Palestinians, including football player, across West Bank(03-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770963

Israeli forces detain 11 Palestinians across West Bank(01-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770940


Thousands of Palestinian children injured in conflict

Eleven-year-old Khalid Ishtawy is among more than 2,100 Palestinian children injured during direct conflict in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of October, according to the United Nations.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/thousands-palestinian-children-injured-conflict-160321063755667.html

Israeli forces seriously injure Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem clashes

A 12- year-old Palestinian boy was seriously injured on Monday evening after an Israeli soldier shot him with a rubber-coated steel bullet to the head in the al-Issawiya neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, local sources said.

Local popular committee member Muhammad Abu al-Hummus identified the boy as Yazan Khalid Naaji, 12. He said the boy was hit in the head by the bullet after Israeli forces stormed the neighborhood and deployed heavily in the streets.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770991

Israeli forces shoot, injure 13-year-old Palestinian in Jerusalem

Israeli forces shot a Palestinian teen in the back of the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet while he was walking to school in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday morning, his family told Ma’an.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770960

Israeli forces threaten protesters in Jerusalem's Silwan sit-in
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770951

Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian in Gaza clashes
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770949

Israeli forces disperse Bilin, Kafr Qaddum weekly protests
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770945


Israeli doctors assist in torture of Palestinian prisoners

A growing portion of the Palestinian prisoners held in solitary confinement by Israel have gone on hunger strike to protest their mistreatment.

And a new report reveals the ways Israeli doctors are helping carry out abuses amounting to torture.

As of last Wednesday, three Palestinians serving lengthy prison terms were refusing meals.

Nahar Saadi and Isam Ahmad Zein al-Din are protesting being held in solitary confinement for three and two years respectively.

Abdullah al-Mughrabi, who announced his hunger strike this week, has been held in isolation since February.

Al-Mughrabi was transferred to a solitary confinement cell after he was scheduled to be released.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israeli-doctors-assist-torture-palestinian-prisoners

Palestinian teens report beatings in Israeli custody

A number of Palestinian teenage prisoners have been violently beaten in Israeli detention in recent days, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and family members said Tuesday.

Louay Habis al-Imour, 18, and Malek Jameel Froukh, 15, both from the village of Tuqu, were detained Monday and violently beaten in Israel's Etzion detention center, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771002

Palestinian 12-year-old on run from Israeli forces

The father of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy on the run for a week from Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank has told Middle East Eye that he fears his son will be killed if caught.

Ramzi Abu Ajamia has been in hiding for the past seven nights, the boy’s father, Nasir Abu Ajamia said from their family home in Bethlehem’s Dheisha refugee camp.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-12-year-old-run-israeli-forces-1656081317

11 Palestinian detainees enter new years in Israeli prisons

Eleven Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and Israel on Friday entered new years living under Israeli imprisonment.

Sawt al-Asra Radio (Voice of Prisoners) said prisoner Ahmad Adel Jaber Saadeh, 32, from Jerusalem was detained in 2003, sentenced to 12 lifetimes in prison, and has since served 13 years.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770942

Shalit-deal prisoner continues hunger strike against detention

Palestinian prisoner continued his hunger strike for the eighth consecutive day in protest of his administrative detention by Israel, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said Thursday.

The family of 34-year-old Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Dawood from al-Duheisha refugee camp in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem told PPS that their son was initially released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal but detained again without charge on Nov. 8, 2015.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770935

Islamic Jihad and PFLP prisoners to start protest over incarceration conditions
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770915


Israeli forces demolish slaughterhouse, balcony, well near Bethlehem
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770998

PLO slams Israel after 7 Palestinian homes torn down
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770985

Israeli forces demolish 4 Palestinian homes built without permits

Israeli forces on Monday demolished four homes across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem that they said had been built without permits -- the latest in a wave of demolitions that has left hundreds homeless since the beginning of the year.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770982

Israeli court gives Palestinian family 24 hours to evacuate their house

The Israeli supreme court gave the family of a Palestinian teen prisoner 24 hours to evacuate their house in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday.

The mother of prisoner Abed Mahmoud Dawiyat told Ma’an that the Israeli supreme court approved a decision by the Israeli army’s Home Front Command to confiscate and shutter their house in the neighborhood of Sur Bahir.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770977

'Diseased water': Gazans go thirsty as sewage and pollution poison wells

Most people dependent on aid agencies to drink with 96 percent of water supplies unsafe and 90mn litres of sewage pumped into sea every day - http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-water-shortage-841243299

Gaza woes force educated to leave

When Egypt opened the Rafah crossing in February for three days, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza applied to leave.

Among them were 29-year-old Rani Humeid.

“I’m leaving Gaza to find the future that I dream of,” said Humeid as he was waiting in a makeshift departure hall at the crossing.

Humeid earned a master’s degree in media and public relations in Malaysia in 2012, and he continued studying when he returned.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-woes-force-educated-leave/16066

Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers, level lands in Gaza Strip

Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian farmers and leveled lands in the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning, locals said.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770995

Palestinian fishing boat catches fire, sinks after Israeli 'shelling'
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770953



Why is a popular uprising yet to take off?

Whether history moves in a straight or cyclical line, it matters little. The uncontested fact is that it is in constant motion. Thus, the current situation in Palestine is particularly frustrating to a generation that has grown up after the Oslo Peace Accord because they have been brought up within a strange historical phenomenon: where the earth below their feet keeps shrinking and when time stands still.

The nature of the current uprising in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is a testament to that claim. Previous uprisings were massive in their mobilization, clear in their message and decisive in their delivery. Their success or failure is not the point of this discussion, but the fact is that they were willed by the people and, within days, they imprinted themselves on the collective consciousness of Palestinians everywhere.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770885

Between betrayal and brutalization: “Normalizing” the occupation, an impossible task for Israeli govt.

Twice in a single week, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon was forced to take opposing positions when relating to events that happened in his own backyard. The first time was a news item on Channel 2 that showed putative activists of "Breaking the Silence" (an organization which exposes the moral effects of the occupation on the Israeli occupation forces) recording testimonies of discharged soldiers. These "activists," it turns out, were right-wing moles; they claimed that Breaking the Silence was collecting sensitive and classified information on Israeli military operations. Ya'alon quickly called Breaking the Silence a group of traitors. Thus he joined a right-wing smear campaign against human rights organizations whose activities are perfectly legitimate.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17611


Justice Ministry refuses to prosecute soldiers, officers for excessive or lethal force

Last week, the Israeli government shut down three separate investigations into the use of excessive or lethal force by occupation forces.

No charges were brought against the police officer that killed Sami Ja‘ar, a 20 year-old factory worker from Rahat whose father Khalid is a veteran of the Israeli Border Police and gives tours of Rahat for Taglit-Birthright. No charges were brought against Ben Deri, who, while serving as a conscript in the Israeli Border Police shot dead two protesters – Muhammad Abu Daher and Nadeem Nawara – on Nakba Day using live fire, an act against Israel’s own rules of engagement. No charges were brought against the Israeli Police in the case of Yosef Salamsa who committed suicide months after being arrested and abused by Israeli Police in Zichron Ya‘akov.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1336-ministry-cites-lack-of-evidence-to-prosecute-officers-for-excessive-lethal-force

What will wake Israelis from their collective coma?

Our collective moral compass has become so fundamentally twisted that even the most decent of people, those who are not considered extremists, believe that there is nothing wrong with shooting a man as he lies dying on the ground.
http://972mag.com/what-will-wake-israelis-from-their-collective-coma/118159/

Israelis don’t exist

Just before leaving Israel last week, I had a little conversation with my nephew aged 7. He asked me whether Denmark was a Christian country. I said that whilst the majority are considered Christians (most of whom don’t go regularly to church), there are people of other religions and faiths. He asked me whether Christians were enemies of Jews, and I said they weren’t. He said that was good, because then he would be enemies with my children, his cousins (who in fact are not Jews).

Then he said he’s not Jewish himself, because he was born in USA. I told him that Judaism is a religion – and here I had to tell him a truth which caused a roaring silence amongst the family bystanders – I told him that a Jew can be born anywhere in the world, because Judaism is a religion – and not a nationality… and this is where I was obviously speaking diametrically against the deceit of the State of Israel, in its considering Jews a “nation”, whilst denying the recognition of an Israeli nationality – officially so – and in addition deceiving the world on Israeli passports marked “Nationality – Israeli”.

You might think I’ve got to be kidding, or exaggerating. No, not a joke – in fact, a very serious issue with grave ramifications.
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/israelis-dont-exist/#sthash.bFDefVPz.dpu

How this Israeli checkpoint turns morning commute into 5-hour ordeal

The scene each day at the Bethlehem checkpoint is horrifying. Lucky Palestinians who have managed to obtain authorization to work in Israel — the “ticket to life,” they call it — undergo an exhausting, agonizing wait that can last five hours, even when they arrive early in the morning to beat the crowds.

This is the journey thousands must make to reach jobs that help them survive the economic distress in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

The inhumane overcrowding to get through the “lines” at the checkpoint forces many workers to climb the fences just to avoid suffocation. Some workers, many in their 40s and 50s who don’t have it in them to withstand the long hours of crowding, try to arrive at 2 a.m. to avoid the misery that will increase as more laborers arrive.

“The fight for a piece of railing is the hardest of all,” said Ahmed Darajah, a 42-year-old father of eight from Beit Sahour who works in a quarry. “Only the strong can climb the railing and hold tight to the barbwire fence for hours. Not everyone has the strength to keep hanging in the air all night, and only the strong survive [and keep their place in line]. The rest pray to God.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/bethlehem-palestinian-laborers-checkpoint-300-danger.html#

How DNA tests proved Palestinian's innocence of false knife claim

On 27 November 2015, Ahmad Azza, a 16-year-old Palestinian human rights activist, was arrested by Israeli police on charges of possessing a knife in public and fleeing from soldiers when asked to stop. But according to Azza, he was not in the area where soldiers claimed they had seen him when the knife was allegedly found.

After seven days in prison, he was released on 3 December 2015, after a DNA test exonerated Azza and proved that the charges were false. He had to remain in prison until the official results were made available, but the only DNA found on the knife belonged to an Israeli soldier.

Azza is a young activist from the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, currently a closed military zone in Hebron. He is a member of the local organisation Youth Against Settlements (YAS). The organisation’s website states they are a non-violent direct action group seeking to end the building and expanding of illegal Israeli settlements through non-violent popular struggle and civil resistance.

Ahmad’s recent arrest highlights the way many young Palestinian human rights activists have been targeted and arrested on false charges since the recent wave of violence that began in October 2015.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/palestinian-teen-speaks-about-how-dna-tests-proved-his-innocence-1132067181

Screams, threats and beatings: Palestinian children abused in detention

The number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli police has skyrocketed since October, when a wave of violence began in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Human Rights Watch has reported.

Children being arrested on charges such as throwing bottles, or because forces suspect they might have a knife, are being beaten, handcuffed to chairs, and having their rights denied, the report said.

The rise in arrests of more than 150 percent when compared to this time last year, began in October when protests in the West Bank and Gaza escalated, resulting in the use of live fire against demonstrators by Israeli forces.

By February 2016, 440 Palestinian children had been arrested compared to 182 the year before.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-children-abused-detention-141419905

Border Police Shoots Teenager on Way to School

Israeli Border Police shot a Palestinian teenager in the head with a rubber coated metal bullet while he was walking to school on Saturday morning in Silwan. The teen, Hatem Abu Mayaleh (13) was brought to Hadassah Ein Kerem where he received internal and external stitches on his head.

Ma‘an News Agency and Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC) reported that Abu Mayaleh left his home to walk to school with his twin brother. The two parted ways to avoid getting caught up in clashes between occupation forces and Palestinians in Silwan. The police shot Hatem after he left a grocery store. While he lay on the ground, 6 Border Police officers surrounded him, beat him and detained him.

According to his father, Yasin Abu Mayaleh, the police decided to release Hatem to Hadassah on the condition that the family brings him to an Israeli interrogation center after his recovery. The police allege that he was throwing stones.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/16-jerusalem/1331-border-police-shoots-teenager-on-way-to-school

Execution of Palestinian exposes Israel’s military culture

It might have been a moment that jolted Israelis to their senses. Instead the video of an Israeli soldier shooting dead a young Palestinian man as he lay wounded and barely able to move has only intensified the tribal war dance of the Israeli public.

Last week, as the soldier was brought before a military court for investigation, hundreds of supporters protested outside. He enjoys vocal support too from half a dozen cabinet ministers, former army generals, rabbis and – according to opinion polls – a significant majority of the Israeli Jewish public.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-04-04/execution-of-palestinian-exposes-israels-military-culture/

Israel excuses killing of fleeing Palestinian teen as “professional mistake”

The Israeli army has closed its investigation into the colonel who shot a 17-year-old Palestinian boy to death while he was fleeing.

Last July, Yisrael Shomer, a commander of the Binyamin Brigade, shot Muhammad al-Kasbeh with live ammunition.

Muhammad had allegedly thrown a rock at Shomer’s jeep near the military checkpoint at Qalandiya in the occupied West Bank.

The shooting took place in the early morning after Muhammad and his friends had tried to cross Qalandiya, which separates East Jerusalem from the remainder of the West Bank.

They had hoped to attend prayers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-excuses-killing-fleeing-palestinian-teen-professional-mistake

124 Palestinians made homeless by Israeli demolitions in single day

Multiple demolitions in the occupied West Bank left 124 Palestinians homeless in a single day, 60 of them children, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in a statement Friday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771054


Hundreds of Palestinians Displaced in Routine Demolitions

This morning the Israeli army invaded Om Al Khair village in the South Hebron Hills without prior warning to demolished six families' homes.

Army bulldozers destriyed tge home of Adel Hadallen family with 6 members, Khadra Sulaiman Hadaleen family with 3 memebrs, Sulaiman Abed Hadallen family with 10 members, Khairi Hadallen family with 5 members, Abed Sulaiman Hadaleen familywith 5 members and Muatasem Hadaleen family with 5 members.according to the eyewitness Bilal Hadaleen dozens of soldiers entered the village early morning and asked the families to leave their houses then by bulldozers demolished the houses.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/15-hebron/1337-hundreds-of-palestinians-displaced-in-routine-demolitions

Israeli forces raid Silwan, deliver demolition orders(17-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771159


Israeli forces detain 8 Palestinians across West Bank(13-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771104

Israeli forces detain 14-year-old girl at Bethlehem checkpoint(13-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771109

Israeli forces detain 35 Palestinians, many elderly, in overnight raids(14-04)

Israeli forces detained at least 35 Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied Palestinian territory between Wednesday and Thursday, including at least a dozen elderly Palestinians across occupied East Jerusalem.

Local Palestinian sources told Ma’an at least 18 people had been detained overnight in East Jerusalem, the majority of them over the age of 60.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771119

Israeli police detain 2 children suspected of planning attack in Jerusalem(14-04)

Israeli police detained two Palestinian boys for allegedly planning a stab attack in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.

A statement from an Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said that Israeli police and border guards suspected two boys who were later identified as 12-year-old Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.

Al-Samri added that police stopped and searched them and found three knives, one hidden in an inside pocket, in addition to a farewell letter written by one of the teens to his family.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771127

Israeli forces detain Palestinian teen, injure taxi driver in Hebron(14-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771133

Israeli army detains 11 Palestinians in predawn raids(15-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771135

Israeli soldiers assault, interrogate Palestinian near Jerusalem(16-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771160

Israeli forces detain 9 Palestinians in predawn raids(17-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771166

Activists seek release of Palestinian circus performer jailed without trial

Human rights groups have in recent weeks put a spotlight on the case of a 23-year-old Palestinian circus performer and trainer who has been held in an Israeli prison since last December without trial or charge.

Calling for the release of Muhammad Faisal Abu Sakha, Amnesty International said: "He hasn't been charged with a crime and the authorities refuse to give a reason for his detention."

Abu Sakha was working as a circus performer and teacher at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit -- where he specialized in working with children with learning difficulties -- when he was detained on Dec. 14.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771050

43 journalists jailed by Israel since October

The Committee to Support Palestinian Journalists said on Saturday that Israel has detained 43 journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 2015, including two foreign reporters.

The New York-based committee said in a report that during detention and imprisonment, journalists have reported torture, medical negligence, and unreasonable and illegal rulings by the Israeli authorities.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771154


Poetic Injustice: Free Dareen Tatour!

At 3:00am before dawn, on October 10, 2015, patrol cars from Nazareth police, escorted by a unit of Israel’s notorious “Border Guards”, surrounded a quite house in the nearby village of Al-Reineh. They broke in and waked up the terrified family. Their target was Dareen Tatour, 33, a Palestinian poet, photographer and activist. They didn’t have a search order, neither an arrest warrant, but they carried the astonished Dareen with them anyway.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1351-poetic-injustice-free-dareen-tatour


Residents fight off settler, army provocations in Nablus

Around 1000 settlers raided Joseph's Tomb last night. The settlers came to the Tomb, which is located in Area A in about a dozen buses under the protection of occupation forces. Clashes happened with groups of about 5-10 youths from the nearby Askar and Balata refugee camps. The soldiers used rubber coated bullets and live fire. Five protesters were taken to the hospital in what local residents descibed as an ambush similar to what happened two nights ago in Madama. In Nablus last night occupation forces deployed in Nablus as well as in surrounding areas, like the student village of Najah University, which is located some five kilometers west of the city.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1341-settlers-invade-joseph-s-tomb

Israel jails man who protested attack on his home

Muhannad Saad Salah is being detained by Israel after daring to protest against attacks on his home.

On 10 March, Salah’s home in Shushahla, a small village south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, was set on fire by suspected Israeli settlers.

Salah and his family were not at home at the time. Salah had brought his wife and daughter to stay with relatives in the nearby town of al-Khader after settlers had thrown rocks at their house earlier in the day.

A few days later, Salah and other community activists in al-Khader held a protest against the arson attack. The demonstration was broken up by Israeli forces using tear gas, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition. A 16-year-old boy was shot by the soldiers, with a bullet narrowly missing his heart.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-jails-man-who-protested-attack-his-home/16191

10-year-old Palestinian hit by settler car near Hebron
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771022

Israeli forces injure 3 Palestinians in Friday clashes
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771147

Israeli forces cause fire in Ramallah money exchange office during dawn raid
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771118

Israeli soldiers torch Palestinian flag at Nablus checkpoint
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771106

Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers, level lands in southern Gaza
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771153

Israeli police uproot, burn olive tree saplings in East Jerusalem
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771017

West Bank killing ends 3-week break in deadly violence

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man outside al-Arroub refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after the man allegedly attempted to hit a soldier in the head with an ax.

The incident was the first such killing since two Palestinians were executed in the nearby city of Hebron three weeks ago.

One of the soldiers involved faces manslaughter charges after he was caught on video shooting the head of one of the men as he lay injured on the ground.

The Palestinian slain on Thursday was identified as 50-year-old Ibrahim Baradiya from the Hebron-area town of Surif.

No Israelis were reported injured during the incident.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/west-bank-killing-ends-3-week-break-deadly-violence

Dozens of Palestinian detainees injured during prison raid

Dozens of Palestinian prisoners were injured on Wednesday when Israeli forces raided section 14 of the Nafha prison, the head of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said.

Issa Qaraqe said Israeli forces “brutally” and randomly attacked prisoners with batons and pepper spray.

At least one prisoner, who has yet to be identified, was critically injured, Qaraqe said. Injured prisoners were taken to the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771114

Palestinian prisoner enters 40th day on hunger strike

Palestinian prisoner Sami al-Janazreh entered his 40th day on hunger strike to protest his internment without trial or charge, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners' Affairs said Wednesday.

Mutaz Shqerat, a lawyer with the committee, told Ma'an the 43-year-old prisoner from al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, continued to be held in solitary confinement and was suffering from pains across his body and could no longer walk.

He is only drinking water and has refused to take vitamins, Shqerat said, adding that al-Janazreh had pledged to continue his hunger strike until Israel agreed to release him.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771110


Take Action for Palestinian Prisoner’s Day

As Palestinians prepare to mark Prisoners' Day on April 17, a day to be in solidarity with thousands of Palestinian political prisoners by demanding their freedom from Israeli jails, the US Campaign to End the Occupation launched a new website G4S Facts highlighting the various injustices perpetrated by G4S, the world's largest private security company, in the United States, Palestine, and beyond.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/26-solidarity/1348-worldwide-solidarity-for-prisoner-s-day

Palestinian youth see 'bleak' future ahead, poll finds

- A recent survey has painted a bleak picture of the Palestinian youth's outlook on the future, with two-thirds believing Palestine is heading in the wrong direction and a majority not registered to vote in future Palestinian elections.

The Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), which interviewed 1,200 youths aged 18 to 25 in late March, said the results published Tuesday "show a gloomy view of current trends and future prospects."

The poll found that 67 percent of Palestinian youth in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip believe Palestine is heading in the wrong direction, while 73 percent say they have a "bleak future outlook."

AWRAD found wide disaffection with Palestinian state institutions; only 47 percent of the younger generation is registered to vote, while among those not registered, 57 percent have no plans to register.

It has now been more than 10 years since the last Palestinian elections, and 64 percent view the participation of Palestinian youth in national decision-making as unsatisfactory, and corruption in public life is the generation's third greatest concern.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771108

Some Gazans fear Turkish generosity may come at high price

Since Israel imposed its blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 legislative elections, besieged Gazans have received remarkable regional and international support, including health and infrastructure projects, the rebuilding of destroyed houses and the construction of schools.
Turkey’s presence in this regard owes perhaps to good ties with Hamas, although Turkey has also funded projects in the Fatah-controlled West Bank, most notably the Jenin industrial estate in the north that created 15,000 jobs.

Some observers are impressed with Turkey's generosity, but is it too good to be true? Some suspect more than altruistic motivations that may have to do with Turkey's interest in establishing itself as a key political player in the West Bank's future.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/04/turkey-projects-influence-gaza-interests-jobs.html#

Apartheid in Südafrika und Apartheid in Israel: die erste wurde gebannt, die zweite umarmt

1948, im selben Jahr der Gründung des Staates Israel, machte Südafrika aus der Apartheidpolitik das Gesetz des Landes. Diese Politik der ethnischen Diskriminierung wurde über 55 Jahre beibehalten und verursachte unermessliches Leid für Millionen von Menschen.

Die Bedingungen unter dem Apartheidregime in Südafrika sind vielleicht nicht allgemein bekannt oder verstanden. Dieses Regime bedeutete getrennte und minderwertigere öffentliche Dienste, Sitzbänke, Eingänge für alle, die nicht weiß (Europäer) waren. In einem Artikel für Associated Press, beschrieb Michelle Faul das Leben im Apartheidregime in Südafrika: Zugabteile für Schwarze (Afrikaner) und Mischlinge oder andere Nicht-Weiße (Farbige) waren „heruntergekommen“, und obwohl Tankstellen Kraftstoff an nicht-weiße Fahrer verkauften, durften diese Fahrer nicht die Toiletten benutzen.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17647

Im ausgebluteten Gaza füttern die Bauern ihr Vieh mit billigem recycled Futter

Anadolu-Agentur, Gazastreifen- Auf Grund der grässlichen wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen haben die Palästinenser im Gazastreifen unter der strengen israelischen Belagerung experimentiert und wurden so zu Experten von Recycling von allem, sogar was das Futter des Viehbestands betrifft.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17700

Intifada for Dummies

Whether history moves in a straight or cyclical line, it matters little. The uncontested fact is that it is in constant motion. Thus, the current situation in Palestine is particularly frustrating to a generation that has grown up after the Oslo Peace Accord because they have been brought up within a strange historical phenomenon: where the earth below their feet keeps shrinking and when time stands still.

The nature of the current uprising in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is a testament to that claim. Previous uprisings were massive in their mobilization, clear in their message and decisive in their delivery. Their success or failure is not the point of this discussion, but the fact is that they were willed by the people and, within days, they imprinted themselves on the collective consciousness of Palestinians everywhere.

The current uprising is different; so different, in fact, that many are still hesitating to call it an ‘intifada’; as if intifadas are the outcome of some clear-cut science, an exact formula of blood and popular participation that must be fully satisfied before a eureka moment is announced by some political commentator.

It is different, nonetheless, for there is yet to be a clear sense of direction, a leadership, a political platform, demands, expectations and short and long term strategies. At least that is how the 1987-93 Intifada played out and, to a lesser extent, the 2000-05 al-Aqsa Intifada as well. But is it not possible that the outcomes of these previous intifadas is what is making the current uprising different?
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/intifada-for-dummies-why-is-a-popular-uprising-in-palestine-yet-to-take-off/

The Palestinian Intifada: Six months, six observations

What are some of the key observations that can be taken from the cycle of confrontation and violence taking place in Palestine/Israel since October 2015? Six main conclusions can be drawn from this period.

First, the last few months showed how weak and illegitimate the Palestinian political parties are from across the entire political spectrum. These “historical” political parties have failed to provide the needed institutional representation and political support for the Palestinian youth revolting in a wave of anger against the multiple sources of oppression.

They have failed to mobilise the masses, failed to equip the revolting youth with much needed political education and hope for the future, and failed to challenge the security apparatuses and political decisions of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Some parties even seem uninterested in resuming the national struggle for political and civil rights and appear instead more keen on sustaining the status quo of persistent military occupation.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/palestinian-intifada-six-months-six-observations-1867885210

100% menschlich: Fünf Jahre ohne Juliano Mer-Khanis

In einem kleinen Café in Berlin, fand ich mich von palästinensischen Flüchtlingen aus Jarmuk umgeben, die meinen Freund Juliano kannten und liebten, einen Mann, der ein hundertprozentiger Palästinenser und ein hundertprozentiger Jude war
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17742

Der Author Udi Aloni hat dieser Jahr der Primie an der Bernilane mit dem Film Junction 48 http://junction48.com/udi-aloni1.html



Israeli forces detain 4 Palestinians in Hebron during Passover(25-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771280

Israeli police detain 2 Palestinians, evacuate 9 Israelis from tense Aqsa(24-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771268

4 Palestinians detained, 2 injured in overnight raids(24-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771265

Israeli forces detain 2 Palestinian fishermen off Gazan coast(24-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771267

Israeli police ban 29 Palestinians from tense Aqsa, detain 7 Israelis(23-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771246

20 Palestinians detained in Jerusalem amidst tightened Passover security(22-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771239

Israeli forces detain 13 Palestinians in West Bank, East Jerusalem raids(21-04)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771230


Occupation forces "beautify" Isawiya

Israeli Police and Border Police detained at least 30 residents of Isawiyya in an invasion of the village in northeastern Jerusalem that began late Tuesday night and continued till nearly mid-day Wednesday April 20th.

Accompanying the occupation forces were civil servants from the Jerusalem Municipality’s Beautification and Sanitation Departments, according to a statement released by police spokesperson, Luba Samri. “Expelling criminals and terrorists from the public space, bringing them to trial and their placing them behind bars will allow the public to have a high-quality and safe lifestyle,” Samri said. “The combined operations will continue, where necessary and to the extent required, as part of a target including institutionalizing the norm of obedience to the law enforcement deterrent against repeat offenders.”
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1358-occupation-forces-civil-servants-beautify-isawiya

Israeli forces raid Silwan, threaten indictments against homeowners
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771253

Netanyahu: Israeli army to continue incursions in Area A

In spite of recent talks with Palestinian officials, Israeli armed forces will continue to intervene in parts of the occupied West Bank under full Palestinian Authority (PA) control, high-ranking Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

During a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, and Israeli army Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot “made it clear that the IDF (Israeli army) maintains -- and will maintain -- the possibility of entering Area A, and anywhere necessary, according to operational needs,” a statement read.

“There is no other agreement with the Palestinians,” the statement added.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771227

Israeli forces raid East Jerusalem villages overnight, injure 16

Israeli forces carried out raids in the villages of al-Eizariya and Abu Dis in occupied East Jerusalem early on Thursday, injuring 16 Palestinians with rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas and detaining a youth.

Israeli forces raided two metal workshops, a carpentry workshop, several stores and homes, before detaining a young Palestinian at one of the workshops.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771225

Teenager injured as Israeli forces suppress weekly protests
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771248

Israeli forces injure 5 Palestinians in weekly Gaza protests
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771250

Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers in southern Gaza
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771252

Israeli soldiers assault 4 Palestinian youths in Eilat
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771255

15 injured as occupation forces attack school in Hebron
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1355-15-injured-as-occupation-forces-attack-school-in-hebron


Hundreds of Israeli settlers pass through Beit Ummar village
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771269

Palestinian bus attacked by Israeli settlers near Qalqiliya
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771251

Palestinian teen run over by Israeli settler in Hebron
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771233

Israeli settler threatens Palestinian family with gun near Hebron
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771228


Israel to confiscate 1,250 acres of Palestinian land for illegal outposts
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771256

Israel seizes 115 dunams as 'state land' in northern West Bank
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771243

Al-Araqib razed for the 97th time

The Israeli government razed the Bedouin village Al-Araqib for the 97th time today. Al-Araqib is located in the Naqab Desert five miles north of Be'er Sheva. Israeli bulldozers last came to the village on April 5 2016. The Israeli government is demanding that the village pay for the demolitions (2 million shekels), and imposes a fine of 50,000 shekels-a-day on any resident who continues to live there.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1357-al-araqib-razed-for-the-97th-time

Das israelische Atomwaffenprogramm und die Vertreibung der palästinensischen Beduinen

Lance Bartholomeusz, Direktor der UNRWA-Operationen im Westjordanland verurteilte Israels letzte Runde großflächiger Zerstörungen von Wohnstätten in der palästinensischen Beduinen-Flüchtlings-Gemeinde Um-Al Khair im besetzten palästinensischen Westjordanland. Israel nutzt Teile der Negev-Wüste, um Waffen mit nuklearem Material zu testen und nukleare Abfälle von der nicht IAEA-überwachten Anlage in Dimona zu entsorgen.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17774


Israeli forces crack down on Palestinian prisoners in Nafha
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771218

Palestinian hunger striker suffers head injuries after fainting
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771237

Hunger-striking Palestinian returned to prison after hospitalization
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771290

'There's always an Intifada inside the prisons'

Anger is building up among Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, with several inmates on long-running hunger strikes in a number of prisons and clashes erupting in the Nafha jail in southern Israel.

Rights groups have warned that the health of a hunger-striking jailed Palestinian has plummeted as his fast hits 51 days.

Sami Janazrah, 43, launched his hunger strike on March 3 to protest against being held in solitary confinement and administrative detention, a practice in which Israel jails Palestinians on "secret evidence" without charges or trial.

Janazrah, who is a married father of three from the al-Fuwwar refugee camp in Hebron, is reportedly suffering from low blood pressure and arrhythmia, causing seizures and fainting spells. Meanwhile, his weight has sunk to 52 kilogrammes.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/intifada-prisons-160422032352904.html


Thousands rally in Tel Aviv in support of soldier who 'executed' Palestinian

More than 2,000 people gathered in central Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening in a raucous nationalist gathering to demonstrate support for an Israeli soldier who controversially killed a wounded alleged Palestinian attacker in the occupied West Bank.

On a warm evening in the Mediterranean city, droves of people with Israeli flags draped around their shoulders walked down a palm tree-lined avenue towards the central Rabin Square to challenge a court decision to charge Sergeant Elor Azaria with manslaughter over the killing of Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif in Hebron on 24 March.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/thousands-rally-tel-aviv-support-soldier-who-executed-palestinian-hebron-1087042161

Video: Inside Tel Aviv’s “Death to the Arabs” rally
https://electronicintifada.net/content/video-inside-tel-avivs-death-arabs-rally/16411

Sergeant Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier who assassinated a wounded Palestinian, was released Friday on furlough from on-base detention to his home for the Passover holiday.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1360-elor-azaria-released-from-jail-for-passover


Why Israel fears nonviolent resistance

The growing international Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement is becoming the major target for Israel diplomatically, while at home it is the whistle-blowers and truth-tellers who are being most savagely attacked. Special venom is reserved for them.

In the West Bank, communities under occupation have been increasingly responding to land grabs, house demolitions and arbitrary arrests by organising regular and patient sit-ins and demonstrations, with occasional more high-profile projects, like the setting up of the Bab al-Shams tented village.

To these actions, Israel reacts with routine violence – despite the fact that the ensuing scenes are viewed worldwide on social media, over which Israel has no control. The West Bank village of Bil’in is probably the best known centre of nonviolent resistance, thanks in part to the prize-winning film 5 Broken Cameras.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/why-israel-fears-nonviolent-resistance-130574838

Israel’s Dangerous New Transfer Tactic in Jerusalem

Israel is adept at creating new Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, taking advantage of every opportunity to do so and exploiting temporary crises to promote permanent measures. Today, it is using the recent violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) to introduce a dangerous new twist to its long-standing residency revocation policy to force Palestinians out of East Jerusalem.

This new concept –"breach of allegiance" to the state of Israel – is now being used to revoke the residency of Palestinian Jerusalemites, in addition to possible demolition of their family homes. The Israeli government is describing these actions as regular law enforcement measures, but analysis shows that they are part of its ongoing policies of forced displacement, with the aim of making long-term demographic changes and maintaining an overwhelming Jewish majority in Jerusalem.
https://al-shabaka.org/commentaries/israels-dangerous-new-transfer-tactic-in-jerusalem/

Palestine: A distinctive voice for climate action
Those illegally denied control over their natural resources must be heard in the global climate conversation.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/04/palestine-distinctive-voice-climate-action-160422170052768.html

Palestine losing $285m a year due to aging Israel agreements: World Bank

The Palestinian economy is losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year over outdated or insufficiently enforced fiscal agreements with Israel, a World Bank report said on Monday.

The lost revenue of $285m annually was equivalent to 2.2 percent of Palestinian Gross Domestic Product, according to the report prepared ahead of the bi-annual meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) which coordinates international donor support for the Palestinians.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) "suffers from substantial revenue losses under the current revenue sharing arrangements outlined by the Paris Protocol," the report said of the 1994 agreement which governs economic ties between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-losing-hundreds-millions-due-aging-israel-agreements-world-bank-460342313

„Israel hat Gaza ins Mittelalter zurückversetzt“

Der Direktor des Palästinensischen Zentrums für Menschrechte Raji Sourani wies darauf hin, dass die Besatzungsmacht den Gazastreifen in den letzten Jahren (2008, 2012 und 2014) dreimal angegriffen und seit zehn Jahren eine Blockade verhängt hat. Es handelt sich um eine kollektive Bestrafung mit einer verheerenden Auswirkung auf die Zivilbevölkerung.

„Diese Situation ist eine Schande. Es gibt keinen Ort in Gaza ohne die Auswirkungen der israelischen Feindseligkeit in einem der am dichtesten bevölkerten Gebieten der Welt mit nahezu zwei Millionen Einwohnern auf 368 km2“, sagte Sourani Prensa Latina während eines Treffens mit Journalisten.

Dem Aktivisten zufolge hat sich nach den 51 Tagen israelischer Bombenangriffe im Bereich des Wiederaufbaus trotz der Versprechen von Hilfe von Seiten der Geberländer, die auf einer Konferenz in Kairo vor anderthalb Jahren gegeben wurde (mehr als fünf Milliarden $), kaum etwas getan.

Krankenhäuser und Schulen, inklusive die der Vereinten Nationen, und die Häuser sind immer noch von den Angriffen gezeichnet, warnte er.

Nach Sourani wurden Betriebe, Bauernhöfe, die schönsten Anlagen, die Müllentsorgung und der einzige Stromerzeuger des Gazastreifens von israelischen Bomben zerstört.

„Falls sie die Hamas oder die Al Fatah angreifen wollen, sollen sie es tun. Denn sie sind stark und wissen, wie man darauf antwortet; aber tötet nicht unschuldige Zivilisten“, bemerkte er.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17730

Im ausgebluteten Gaza füttern die Bauern ihr Vieh mit billigem recycled Futter

Mohannad Abu Ajwa, ein 30-jähriger Palästinenser, der im belagerten Gazastreifen lebt, füttert sein Vieh täglich mit Futter, das vor allem aus alter Getreidesaat besteht und aus Weizen, das für menschliche Nahrung nicht mehr geeignet ist.

Wegen Gazas zerstörter Wirtschaft verwerten einige Viehbestand-Besitzer alte Kornsaat und Weizen, gemischt mit frischem Futter, um die Kosten zu senken. Abu Ajwa erhält die Futtermischung von Gazas Landwirtschaftsministerium.

Abu-Ajwa, der 100 Kühe und 50 Ziegen besitzt, sagt, das Futter von alter Getreidesaat lässt die Tiere in kürzerer Zeit satt fühlen, was die erforderliche Menge von Futter reduziert.

Er sagt, er musste rund 6400 Isr. Schekel täglich (rund 1500 €) für das Futter für sein Vieh bezahlen, aber gibt jetzt rund 4800 Schekel (1120 €) aus.

Abu Ajwa lässt seine Tiere alle 6 Monate impfen, um eine Vergiftung zu verhindern, im Falle dass das Futter, mit dem er sie füttert, sich als verdorben herausstellt.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17700

Hamas role in Jerusalem bus bomb remains unclear

Israel has reportedly rounded up Palestinians in the occupied West Bank affiliated with Hamas after one of the group’s adherents was said to have set off a bomb on a Jerusalem bus earlier this week.

The alleged bomber, Abd al-Hamid Abu Srour, a 19-year-old from Aida refugee camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, died in an Israeli hospital on Wednesday from wounds sustained during the explosion two days prior.

At least 20 persons were wounded in the blast, and four of those injured were still in hospital, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday.

The paper added that Monday’s incident “is the first suicide attack in Israel in five years.”

Use of the tactic dropped sharply and eventually fell out of use after Hamas declared a unilateral ceasefire in the West Bank in late 2004.

Other Palestinian factions that used the tactic, including groups affiliated with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, also abandoned the practice.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/hamas-role-jerusalem-bus-bomb-remains-unclear

„Israel ist besatzungssüchtig“: der israelische Journalist Gideon Levy prangert die US-Unterstützung des „Apartheidsystems“ und des Aufkommens des Faschismus an

„Israel ist besatzungssüchtig“, sagte der renommierte israelische Journalist Gideon Levy, ein Kolumnist der führenden israelischen Zeitung Haaretz.

„Der Drogenabhängige, der dein Freund ist, wenn du ihm Geld gibst, wird sich wirklich um dich kümmern. Aber kümmerst du dich wirklich um ihn?“ fragte Levy, der Israels fast 50-jährige illegale militärische Besatzung des palästinensischen (Rest)Landes „kriminell“, „brutal“ und „hundsgemein“ nannte.

Er sprach vor dem National Press Club in Washington D.C. anlässlich der jährlichen Israel’s Influence Konferenz. Die Veranstaltung am 18. März untersuchte die enge Beziehung zwischen der US-amerikanischen und israelischen Regierung und deren Auswirkung auf den Rest des Nahen Ostens.

Die USA unterstützt jedes Jahr die israelische Regierung mit einer bedingungslosen militärischen Hilfe von mehr als 3,1 Milliarden $. Israel ist bei Weitem der größte Empfänger der US-Hilfe. (Ägypten erhält als zweiter 1,5 Milliarden $ jährlich). Und jetzt möchte die israelische Regierung, aus Protest gegen das Atomabkommen der USA mit dem Iran, sogar noch mehr - bis zu 4,5 Milliarden $ pro Jahr.

„Alles, was Israel heute tut, geschieht mit dem totalen Einverständnis und der vollständigen Finanzierung der USA“, erklärte Levy.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17726

Israel General: ich sehe Ähnlichkeit was wir machen und die nazi Deutschland

Golan, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, made his controversial address on Wednesday evening, a day before Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"If there's something that frightens me about Holocaust remembrance it's the recognition of the revolting processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then – 70, 80 and 90 years ago – and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016,”
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-military-deputy-did-not-intend-compare-israel-nazi-germany-1420036297
(Ich habe dieser Post in "links"unten gepostet und nach 5 Minuten haben sie gelöst....)

Israel arrests 567 Palestinians in April

567 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces during April 2016, bringing the number of those arrested since the beginning of the popular uprising in October 2015 to 5334 Palestinians. The highest number of arrests were in Jerusalem, where 213 were arrested including 60 minors; al-Khalil, where 120 were arrested; followed by 43 in Ramallah, 40 in Nablus, 38 in Bethlehem, 35 in Qalqilya, 23 in Jenin, 12 in Tulkarem, 9 in Tubas, five in Salfit and four in Jericho; in the Gaza Strip, 25 were arrested, including 20 fishers who were subjected to firing and attacks in the sea, two who passed Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing, and three near the “border” of Gaza.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1368-israel-arrests-567-palestinians-in-april-5334-from-october

PA forces detained 40 percent of 'suspected terrorists' in W.Bank in past months
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771400

Die in London basierende al-Quds al-Arabi Zeitung liess am Montag verlauten, dass die kontroverse arabisch-israelische Parlaments-Abgeordnete Haneen Zoabi das palästinensische Volk zur Revolte gegen die palästinensischen Behörden und ihren Sicherheitsabkommen mit Israel aufgerufen hat.
http://www.audiatur-online.ch/2016/04/26/arabisch-israelische-abgeordnete-ruft-palaestinenser-auf-gegen-palaestinensische-behoerden-zu-revoltieren/

Israel to open permanent office in NATO headquarters

NATO gave Israel the green light this week to open a permanent office in the Belgium headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after Turkey lifted its veto.

“The North Atlantic Council has agreed ‎to accept the request that an official Israeli mission be established at NATO headquarters,” NATO said in a statement on Tuesday. “The ambassador of Israel to the European Union will therefore be the head of the mission of Israel to NATO.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771405


Witnesses: Palestinian siblings posed no threat when shot dead

Witnesses to an alleged stab attempt on Israeli border police at a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank Wednesday said two siblings shot dead during the incident posed no threat at the time the Israeli officer killed them.

Witnesses told Ma’an that 23-year-old Maram Salih Hassan Abu Ismail, five months pregnant, and her 16-year-old brother Ibrahim were en route to Jerusalem when they took a path intended for vehicles, not pedestrians, into Qalandiya checkpoint near Ramallah. The two were apparently unable to understand Israeli officers yelling in Hebrew, and stopped walking.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771316

......The Israeli who shot and killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her teenage brother at the notorious Qalandiya checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday was a private security contractor, not a member of the police forces, Israeli media revealed on Sunday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771360

Thousands attend funeral of Palestinian killed after alleged car-ramming attack

......Shehada’s brother Abu Malek denounced Israeli soldiers’ “execution” of his brother, saying that the soldiers could have detained him instead of killing him.

Malek added that his brother worked in aluminum manufacturing and was on his way home after helping his aunt with repairs in her home in a village west of Ramallah when he was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771396

.....Witnesses told Ma’an a Palestinian was quickly driving a mid-sized truck on a road between the villages of Beitunia and Ein Arik and hit three Israeli soldiers with his vehicle while they were crossing the street. The witnesses said it appeared the driver hit the soldiers by accident.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771389

Israeli forces detain 15 Palestinians in West Bank, East Jerusalem raids(05-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771407

Israeli forces detain 31, including blind man, in West Bank, East Jerusalem raids(03-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771382

Israeli forces detain 8 Palestinians in West Bank raids(02-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771364

Israeli forces detain 6 Palestinians in West Bank raids(01-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771358

Israeli forces injure 3 Palestinians during Kafr Qaddum protests
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771346


50 Palestinians prevented from crossing Allenby this week, 31 detained

Israel prevented 50 Palestinians from traveling via the Allenby Bridge over the last week for alleged security reasons, while 31 were detained, according to a statement by the Palestinian police.

The statement reported that the 31 Palestinians detained were wanted by the Israeli authorities and banned from entering or leaving via the bridge between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771349

Four-fold increase in Israeli demolitions this year

UN figures released Thursday revealed a four-fold increase from last year in the rate of Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures, that have left a record-high 808 Palestinians displaced since the start of 2016.

According to UN documentation, the Israeli authorities have destroyed some 588 Palestinian structures across the occupied Palestinian territory since January.

The over 800 Palestinians to be displaced this year far surpasses the number displaced during the entirety of 2015, while well over 1,000 Palestinians were also affected after losing structures related to their source of income.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771336

Israeli forces demolish Bedouin homes in Negev, city of Lod

Israeli authorities demolished several homes belonging to Bedouin Palestinians in the Negev and the city of Lod in central Israel on Wednesday.

Lod residents told Ma’an that bulldozers demolished two Bedouin houses in the area, belonging to the al-Naqeeb and al-Farajat families.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771395

Israeli forces demolish Nablus apartment belonging to suspected attacker's family
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771381

Israel posts demolition orders in East Jerusalem neighborhood
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771368

UN: Israel's cement ban prevents hundreds of Gaza families from rebuilding homes

Israel’s punitive ban on cement imports into the Gaza Strip has prevented hundreds of families from rebuilding their homes devastated by the 2014 war, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release Thursday.

As a result of the debilitating cement scarcity and price increases, “organizations providing assistance have had to suspend cash assistance for house repairs to over 1,370 families,” OCHA reported.

“In addition, payment to 1,550 families scheduled to start reconstruction are being delayed due to the lack of available cement.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771330


Palestinian family regains access to Jerusalem home after settler takeover

A Palestinian family has regained access to its house in occupied East Jerusalem, ending a lengthy legal battle which began when an organization of Israeli settlers took over the home a year and a half earlier, a local information center said on Thursday.

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the family of Safiq al-Khayyat had regained access to their house after a 20-month legal battle against Israeli settler organization Ir David, also known as Elad, which evicted the al-Khayyats and 22 other families from their homes in the neighborhood of Silwan in September 2014.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771410

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian activist in Hebron

A Palestinian social media activist was hospitalized on Wednesday after being attacked by a group of Israeli settlers in the city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.

A witness told Ma’an that he and a group of other Palestinians managed to rescue the activist, Raed Abu Mayyala, after he fainted while being “violently attacked” by a group of Jewish settlers near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771399

Israeli forces attack Palestinian journalists at World Press Freedom demo
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771386

Gaza's fishermen risking Israeli bullets to bring home daily catch

Kamel Baker’s father taught him how to fish when he was just 10 years old. Now 55, Baker has been trawling the waters off the coast of Gaza ever since.

“For 45 years I have been making my living this way,” Baker told MEE, sitting on the deck of his fishing boat, happily telling stories as he waited for a pot of coffee to brew. “We are close neighbours of the sea.”

Born in al-Shati, Gaza’s poorest refugee camp, Baker talks wistfully about the “golden days” of Gaza’s fishing industry when he could earn up to 6,000 shekels ($1,590) a day – more than a doctor or engineer – and would have to turn back to port early because his nets were full.

“We would eat fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he recalled, as his 25-year-old son Talaat, one of the 15 crew members including Baker’s three sons and several related children, looked on and smiled.

“Where are those days now, Daddy?” Talaat asked as one of his brothers steered the boat westward out of the harbour towards the setting sun.

Most aboard the boat will go home with barely enough to feed their families. On a good night nowadays, Talaat might hope to take home a kilo of fish and about 50 shekels ($13) for his wife and one-year-old son.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-fishing-israel-828987562

Israeli forces open fire on fishermen, level land in Gaza
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771363

Power supply in Gaza is reduced to 6 hours for every 18 hours

Electricity grids for all districts in the Gaza Strip will only be providing power for six hour intervals followed by 12 hours without power, due to a problem with the Egyptian power lines, Gaza’s electricity company announced Monday morning.

The company’s Public Information Officer Tariq Labad told Ma’an that Egypt promised to fix the problem as soon as possible.

Labad added that once the Egyptian lines are fixed, electricity grids in the Gaza Strip will return to operating eight hours on, eight hours off, as usual.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771365


After 9 weeks on hunger strike, Palestinian stops taking water

After refusing food for more than nine weeks, Palestinian hunger strike Sami Janazreh has reportedly now stopped drinking water in protest against his ongoing detention without charge and abusive treatment by Israel.

After weeks of refusing sustenance, Janazreh has lost 55 pounds and his health has sharply deteriorated.

He has had intermittent seizures, and is reportedly suffering from hypothermia, failing kidneys and his his teeth have begun falling out.

His heart rate has also slowed and his blood pressure has dropped.

Janazreh, 43, was transferred to Soroka hospital in the south of present-day Israel last Friday after being held in solitary confinement at Ela prison.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/after-9-weeks-hunger-strike-palestinian-stops-taking-water

Gaza families visit imprisoned relatives in Israel
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771366

4 Palestinians continue hunger strikes in protest of administrative detention
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771347


Hamas Defector, Sami Atawna, Exposes Location of Second Hamas Tunnel; Israel Lies About Its Discovery

The IDF announced today that it had discovered a second major tunnel leading from Gaza towards Israeli territory. The exposure of this tunnel, like that of the first one reported recently came, according to my Israeli security source, as the result of the defection of a senior Hamas commander, Sami Atawna, age 29.

This has not stopped IDF Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, the prime minister and defense minister from lying to the public, claiming sophisticated new tunnel detection techniques and systems have uncovered these excavation projects. Take Isabel Kershner’s entirely too credulous reporting:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/05/06/hamas-defector-sami-atawna-exposes-location-of-second-hamas-tunnel-israel-lies-its-discovery/

Palestinians blast Eurovision Song Contest's flag policy

West Bank: Palestinian leaders are blasting the Eurovision Song Contest for preventing their flag from being flown during the event this month.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat voiced his dismay in a letter to Jean-Paul Philippot, the head of the European Broadcasting Union which oversees the yearly contest. In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press Sunday, Erekat says the decision is "totally biased and unacceptable." The Palestinians do not compete in the contest.

The EBU published a list of banned flags last week. Among them were the flags of Northern Cyprus, Kosovo, Spain's Basque region and ISIS's flag.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2016/May-01/350079-palestinians-blast-eurovision-song-contests-flag-policy.ashx

Criminal violence flares up in Palestinian towns in Israel amid dearth of policing

A wave of criminal violence spread across Palestinian towns in Israel Sunday night, following unanswered demands by Palestinian leadership in Israel’s Knesset to crack down on illegal weapons in Palestinian communities in Israel.
.........Erdan revealed during the discussion that 90 percent of illegal firearms in north Israel are obtained from the army.

MK Basel Ghattas, also of the Joint List, echoed the issue of mutual mistrust between Israeli police and Palestinian-majority towns in the face of rising violence: “Police view the Arab as an enemy, and we view the police as a hostile entity, and this affects everything. How is it that suddenly police stations are popping up in the villages and the amount of weapons is increasing?”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771371

Israeli academic elite's complicity in oppression

Israel's academic elite is mobilised on behalf of the national project, and is well compensated by the regime. When its members shout things such as “fascism”, it's appropriate that this criticism be directed at itself as well.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1369-israeli-academic-elite-s-complicity-in-oppression

100,000 IDF Troops “Maintain Quiet” in West Bank at Nearly $600-Million Annual Cost

To give you an idea of the bloated mess that is the IDF, veteran security correspondent Yossi Melman says (Hebrew) that 60% of the IDF active duty forces are tasked with keeping the lid on the West Bank. The Israeli Institute for National Security Studies estimates (pdf) that the active duty force consists of over 176,000 soldiers. That means that nearly 100,000 troops do nothing but maintain the Occupation in the West Bank.

The annual cost to Israel of maintaining the Occupation is $600-million per year. Using much broader terms which include related civilian costs, Israeli military economist Shir Hever estimated the cost at $9-billion. And the cumulative cost to Israel of the Occupation, according to a different Ynet article, has been $50-billion between 1967 and 2007. That averages well over $1-billion per year over that period.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/05/04/over-100000-idf-troops-maintain-quiet-in-west-bank-at-cost-of-nearly-600-million/

Video: Don’t call us “Arab lovers,” says head of Israel’s “peace camp”

Isaac Herzog, the head of Israel’s official opposition, the Zionist Union, doesn’t want his party to be seen as a bunch of “Arab lovers.”

This is the same Herzog who is habitually presented in The New York Times as the leader of a “center-left” party “who advocates a peace deal” with the Palestinians.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/after-9-weeks-hunger-strike-palestinian-stops-taking-water


Palestine: End of time?



Basil Al-Araj is in a Palestinian jail. He is a young Palestinian pharmacist who worked at a pharmacy in Shufat refugee camp in Jerusalem. I knew him because he is from Al-Walaja, a village that was struggling as “Israel” builds a wall around the remaining houses of the village (already 90% of the residents are refugees elsewhere). Village wells and lands were stolen by the Israeli colonizers starting in 1948 and continuing till today.

Basil had a love of Palestine and a hatred of injustice. Like most young people they searched for ways to act on their convictions. He participated in nonviolent demonstrations at his village but was not satisfied with their outcome. He read my book on “Popular Resistance in Palestine” in Arabic and gave me his feedback. He said he learned much about history of the Palestinian struggle. He said the book’s Arabic could use some editing. He worked briefly as a researcher for the Palestinian museum after he lost his job in Shufat. He tried other methods of action. He and a few others tried to block the main road near the colony of Maale Adumim. He and I and four others were the six Palestinian Freedom riders arrested in 2011 while demonstrating Israeli apartheid policies.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1362-palestine-end-of-time

UNICEF says 25 Palestinian children killed in three months

Twenty-five Palestinian children were killed in the last three months of 2015 during a wave of anti-Israeli attacks and the number detained was the highest in seven years, the UN children's agency said on Saturday.

"Serious concerns arose regarding excessive use of force, particularly in relation to incidents where Palestinian children were shot dead by Israeli security forces after carrying out or being suspected of carrying out stabbing attacks," UNICEF said in a report.

It said more than 1,300 Palestinian children were injured during the spike in attacks, almost all in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while three Israeli children were hurt in the West Bank and West Jerusalem.

UNICEF cited the example on 25 October in Hebron in the West Bank of a 17-year-old girl who was "taken by IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers for a search, shot with at least five bullets and killed".
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/25-palestinian-children-killed-3-months-unicef-426054255

Berlin: Palästina-Demo am Nakba-Tag durch Neukölln und Kreuzberg

Am 15. Mai 2016 fand in Berlin wieder eine Demonstration zum Gedenken an die NAKBA* - die gewaltsame Vertreibung der PalästinenserInnen 1948 - statt. Zur Demo hatte das Linke Palästina Bündnis Berlin aufgerufen, bis zu 500 Menschen verschiedener linker Gruppen beteiligten sich an der Demo durch Neukölln und Kreuzberg.
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/179057

PA forces prevent Nakba Day protesters in Ramallah from reaching Israeli checkpoint

Palestinian security officers on Sunday prevented dozens of Palestinian demonstrators commemorating Nakba Day from reaching an Israeli military checkpoint near the illegal settlement of Beit El north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771525

Hundreds of Palestinians march to destroyed village in Haifa for 68th Nakba anniversary

Hundreds of Palestinians commemorated the anniversary of the Nakba -- or “catastrophe” -- on Saturday with a “March of Return” in Haifa to the site of a Palestinian village destroyed by Israeli forces in 1948.

The march was held in order to highlight the internationally-recognized right of Palestinians who remain refugees or internally displaced to return to their homes and villages in Israel, a right which has been enshrined in international law following the adoption of United Nations Resolution 194.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771512

Annual 'March of Return' draws thousands of Palestinians to the Negev

Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel participated in the annual "March of Return" on Thursday afternoon near Bedouin towns in the Negev (Naqab) in southern Israel, commemorating the 1948 Nakba, amid the conclusion of Israeli independence day celebrations.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and held banners emblazoned with support for the right to return for Palestinian refugees abroad and Palestinians internally displaced from their villages in Israel, as they made their way across the Negev in the dry afternoon heat.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771498

Palestinian factions call for national unity at Gaza Nakba rally
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771523

On Nakba Day, tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria remain under siege

As Palestinians worldwide on Sunday marked the 68th anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe" that occurred during the establishment of the state of Israel, Palestinian refugees displaced a second time by civil war in Syria remained under siege and under threat by ongoing armed fighting.

Some 12,000 people, including 3,000 children, have reportedly been trapped in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Khan al-Shih near Damascus, amid heavy shelling, barrel bombs, and sniper fire that bombarded the area in recent days, international aid organization Save the Children reported on Friday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771517


'Return Train' tours Bethlehem for Nakba anniversary

A "Return Train" traveled through part of the occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem on Sunday morning, as a symbolic demonstration of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the homes and villages they were forcibly displaced from 68 years ago during the creation of Israel.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771520

Ethnic cleansing is an everyday reality

Thousands marched last week to commemorate the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Held in the southern Naqab (Negev) region for the first time in 19 years, the 2016 March of Return is being hailed as the largest such event for Palestinians living inside present-day Israel.

Organized by the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced, the 12 May protest emphasized that the Nakba — Arabic for catastrophe — continues today.

Not only did participants assert the right to return of Palestinians uprooted and exiled in 1948, they also drew attention to Israel’s ongoing efforts to internally displace Palestinians inside its de facto borders.

The annual event has previously been held in destroyed villages in the northern Galilee region. The significance of the geographical move was underscored by activist Rafat Abu Aish, one of the march’s organizers.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/ethnic-cleansing-everyday-reality/16691

Nakba: and what about Israel

We are reviewing nearly seven decades since the Palestinian nakba, and all eyes are on the current crisis situation of the Palestinian people, struggling for return, self-determination and an independent state. This struggle is currently being conducted at a time of great setbacks for the national project; despite the numerous sacrifices made by the Palestinians, there is a decline in the prominence of their issue on the Arab, regional and international levels.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1374-nakba-and-what-about-israel


Palästina trauert, Israel feiert: Verteidigungsminister bekundet vor Unabhängigkeitstag Härte

Mit markigen Worten hat sich Israels Verteidigungsminister Mosche Jaalon vor den Feiern zum Unabhängigkeitstag zu Wort gemeldet. »Wir werden auf alle, die sich mit uns anlegen, mit eiserner Faust reagieren, wo auch immer sie sich befinden«, bekundete das Kabinettsmitglied am Mittwoch bei einer Zeremonie zum israelischen Tag der Gefallenen und Anschlagsopfer auf einem Soldatenfriedhof in Tel Aviv. Die Drohung war an die im Gazastreifen regierende Hamas gerichtet, gemeint waren gleichwohl alle Palästinenser, die gegen die israelische Okkupation Widerstand leisten.
http://www.jungewelt.de/2016/05-14/028.php?sstr=Nakba

Israel's UK ambassador blames Palestinians for having no state on Nakba day

The Israeli ambassador to the UK Sunday said Palestinians were to blame for not having a state of their own, during a speech on the day when Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, or the day of destruction.

Mark Regev, a veteran diplomat and former press spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was speaking during a plenary meeting of the British Board of Deputies, an organisation that describes itself as “the voice of British Jewry”.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-ambassador-uk-nakba-day-blames-palestinians-state-1511674141


‘The Nakba continues': Israeli forces conduct multiple raids across the occupied West Bank(15-05)

Israeli forces raided multiple neighborhoods across the occupied West Bank overnight Saturday, detaining at least three Palestinians, launching tear gas canisters and stun grenades, and setting fire to olive trees, as Palestinians around the world commemorated the 68th anniversary of the Nakba.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771518

Israeli forces detain 10 Palestinians, including 16-year-old, in pre-dawn raids(17-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771544

Israeli forces detain 17 Palestinians including teenage girl in West Bank raids(16-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771535

Israeli forces detain 10 Palestinian fishermen off Gaza coast(16-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771533

Israeli forces detain 3 Palestinians, including teenager, in overnight raids(12-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771495

Israel issues 13 administrative detention orders against Palestinians(12-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771487

Israeli forces target 2 female students, detain 24 other Palestinians in West Bank raids(9-05)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771445

Palestinian injured by Israeli bullet to the head while trying to cross separation wall

Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian east of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank as he tried to reach Jerusalem through Israel’s separation wall on Sunday evening.

Local sources said 32-year-old Ahmad Abu Omar from Bethlehem was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet to the head. He was trying to pass the separation wall from the outskirts of the village of Dar Salah east of Bethlehem to work in Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771536


Six Palestinians injured, peace activist detained in Friday protests
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771505

Israeli forces open fire at Palestinians in southern Gaza Strip
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771496

Israeli navy detain 2 Gaza fishermen as 2 others remain in custody
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771542

Israeli forces raid Palestinian village near Bethlehem
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771540

Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers in southern Gaza Strip
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771507

Israeli forces detain Palestinian police officer, family denies he was planning attack

Israeli forces detained a Palestinian police officer on Saturday afternoon near the illegal Israeli settlement of Mishor Adumim in the central occupied West Bank outside of Jerusalem, on suspicion of “planning a terrorist attack.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771514

Israel postpones indictment of Palestinian journalist over alleged online 'incitement'
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771491

Israeli court hands prison sentence to Palestinian astrophysicist over Facebook posts
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771491


Israel orders evacuation of 3 Palestinian-owned properties in East Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Magistrate Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of three Palestinian-owned properties in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, claiming they were owned by Jews before 1948.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771550

Israeli forces demolish 2 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem's Old City

Israeli forces demolished two homes on Tuesday morning in the al-Suwwana neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem near the eastern wall of the Old City, leaving 23 Palestinians homeless.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771548

Israel dismantles EU-funded homes in Jerusalem-area Bedouin neighborhood

Some 90 Palestinian Bedouins, the majority of them children, were left homeless on Monday when Israeli forces disassembled EU-donated mobile homes without giving prior notice in the Jabal al-Baba neighborhood in the outskirts of the village of al-Eizariya east of Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771530

Israel targets Jerusalem home of imprisoned Palestinians with demolition order
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771503


Jewish extremist arrested in Dawabsha murders case to be released in two weeks

A Jewish extremist arrested in the wake of a deadly arson attack that killed three members of the Palestinian Dawabsha family in the occupied West Bank last summer is to be released from Israeli custody, it was revealed on Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771549

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian mother and child in Hebron

A group of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian woman and her child late Friday night during an incursion into a home in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron's Old City in the southern occupied West Bank.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771508

Israeli right-wing settler group builds on Palestinian land despite ongoing legal battle

An Israeli right-wing pro-settlement group has continued construction on privately-held Palestinian land in the area of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, despite the family's ongoing appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court.

After years of legal battles, the Israeli Amana settlement group took over three dunums of land privately-held by the Abu Taah and Siam families.

Muhammad Issa Abu Taah, a member of one of the families, told Ma’an that the family was battling the extremist settler organization for 18 years.

“My mother filed several lawsuits to regain the land and I continued the battle in Israeli courts. The Israeli government claims that the land was acquired by the military, but about five years ago a defense lawyer proved that the land was never confiscated for military purposes,” Abu Taah said.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771499

Israeli settlers occupy building in East Jerusalem's Old City
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771446

Video: Extremist settlers attack Palestinian human rights activists in Hebron
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771436


Shackled to a bed, starving for freedom

Mahmoud Darwish — named after the great Palestinian poet — was hoping to celebrate his ninth birthday with his father, Sami Janazreh. Instead, he had to mark the day in a protest tent.

The tent was set up in Fawwar refugee camp, near Hebron, to support Janazreh, one of its residents, whose family originally hails from the ethnically cleansed village of Irak al-Manshiyeh. Imprisoned without charge or trial — under what Israel calls administrative detention — he has been on hunger strike since 3 March.

“Despite his young age, Mahmoud Darwish speaks as though he was a legal expert because of how closely he has been following his father’s case,” Rima Janazreh, Sami’s wife, told The Electronic Intifada. “Kids of his age are supposed to talk about sports or school but my son only talks about administrative detention and military trials.”
https://electronicintifada.net/content/shackled-bed-starving-freedom/16681

Palestinian hunger-striking prisoner moved to hospital over deteriorating health

A Palestinian prisoner was transferred to the hospital on Monday over his severely deteriorating health following 44 days on hunger strike to protest his administrative detention -- internment without trial or charges.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Society said that Adib Mafarja was moved from the Eshel prison in southern Israel to the Soroka hospital in Beersheba, following a visit by a lawyer from the Palestinian organization.

The lawyer reported that Mafarja had already lost 30 kilograms because of his hunger strike.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771538


Israel: "Wir werden die Golanhöhen niemals verlassen"

Die Golanhöhen sind international anerkannter Teil Syriens. Zwei Resolutionen des UN-Sicherheitsrates - 242 und 497 - stellen das unmissverständlich klar. Israel hat das Gebiet annektiert. Dem israelischen Ministerpräsidenten Netanjahu sind solche Einwände egal, wie er mit einem nicht nur für die syrische Regierung höchst provokanten Auftritt dokumentierte.

Am Sonntag ließ er dort sein Kabinett zusammenkommen - eine Premiere -, um zu deklamieren, dass Israel die Golanhöhen "niemals verlassen wird". Er versprach, dass er die Ansiedlung von weiteren Tausend Familien unterstützen werde. "Die Welt soll endlich Israels Souveränität über die Golanhöhen anerkennen."
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/47/47993/1.html

Israeli economic occupation of Syrian Golan

Despite the international community rejecting (see statements from the US, EU and UN Israel's illegal claims to sovereignty over the Occupied Syrian Golan, following recent inflammatory statements from Israeli government figures,government figures, Israel is continuing to seek to create 'facts on the ground' by rapidly increasing the settler population and the extraction of natural resources, to strengthen its control of the Occupied Syrian Golan.

The illegal establishment and expansion of settlements, and control and extraction of natural resources, in the Occupied Syrian Golan, is a continuation of policies implemented by Israel immediately following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1371-read-israeli-economic-occupation-of-syrian-golan

Israel rabbi to paramedics: 'Leave Palestinians to die'

There is mounting evidence that Israeli ambulance crews are withholding treatment from Palestinians injured during a wave of attacks over the past six months, according to rights groups.

Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, a medical watchdog group, found that wounded Palestinians had been left untreated for as long as two hours.

In some cases, medical teams are suspected of failing to tend to the injuries of suspected attackers as revenge, in the expectation that they will die from their wounds.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/israel-paramedics-accused-medical-violations-160419061726256.html

Palestinian student leaders facing jail for opposing occupation

Students at Palestine’s leading university will choose their new president on 16 May, after recent elections in which a Hamas-linked bloc won a majority of seats, but a prominent student activist says their new leader will almost certainly be imprisoned by Israeli authorities.

The three men and two women who make up Birzeit University’s student council have faced no problems in finding candidates to become the new president, despite incumbent Saif Islam Ghaghlas being held without charge in an Israeli prison since December last year.

Ghaghlas is one of 90 students, one university employee, and two instructors from Birzeit who are all currently in Israeli prisons, according to a university statement, which said the detentions were an attack on the “right to education”.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/poisoned-chalice-being-student-leader-palestine-539564373

Shot looking for work: Palestinians face Israeli bullets at illegal crossings

Hundreds of Palestinians in search of work enter Israel illegally from West Bank every day; recent tensions have led to spike in shootings
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-west-bank-illegal-workers-830421839

Is Israel inching closer to fascism?

Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, spoke about trends in Israeli society reminiscent of the dark European era between the world wars at a May 4 event marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, the start of an emotional and special period in which Israelis remember the Holocaust, honor their war dead (May 11) and celebrate their independence (May 12). Almost at the same time, the prime minister of Israel once again pointed to the anti-Semitic phenomena in the world and the Middle East, saying they remind him of the dark era that preceded the 1930s in Europe.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/zeev-sternhell-holocaust-fascism-nationalistic-education.html#

A Palestinian Perspective on Britain’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ Controversy

There is a witch-hunt in the British Labour Party. Britain’s Opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is being hounded for not rooting out alleged anti-Semitism in his party. Those leading the charge are pro-Israel Zionists and their supporters within the party, members who are mostly allied with the former Prime Minister, the largely discredited pro-war Tony Blair. The Blairites are quite unhappy that Corbyn, who won the party’s leadership election last September with a landslide victory is a non-elitist politician, with a deep-rooted grassroots activist past, and, yes, a strong stance for Palestinian rights.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestinian-perspective-britains-anti-semitic-controversy/

Why more and more Israeli Druze prefer prison to military service
When Druze Mostafa Zahr ad-Din Saad turned 18, he received a notice for military service in the Israeli army. He refused to serve just like his brother had done a year and a half before and their father many years ago. On April 17, Saad posted on his Facebook page a picture of the letter that he had received informing him that he was exempted from the military service.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/israel-druze-reject-military-service.html#

Israel's privatisation of a 'shoot-to-kill policy' against Palestinians

Palestinian taxi driver Mustafa Abu Ramouz had seen Palestinians killed by Israeli forces at Qalandiya checkpoint, before two Palestinian siblings were shot dead there last month.

Pregnant 24-year-old Maram Salih Abu Ismail was killed alongside her 16-year-old brother Ibrahim Taha by private guards at the checkpoint on 27 April after Maram allegedly threw a knife at a police officer.

The siblings were travelling to Jerusalem when police said they refused demands to return to the pedestrian walkway after they had entered a vehicle access area with the intention to carry out a “terrorist attack”.

However, witnesses said Maram did not have a knife, and that the two did not understand the Hebrew demands to turn around after they entered the wrong areas, something Abu Ramouz told Middle East Eye he saw take place regularly due to unclear signage.

“It’s happened several times in front of me, when people entered the wrong area and were asked to go back by the army,” Abu Ramouz said.

“All of the time people go back. But this time they [Maram and Ibrahim] were killed, they were not given the chance.”
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-qalandiya-privatisation-shoot-kill-1851248194

Zionism’s roots help us interpret Israel today

.......In their different ways both comments refer back to a heated argument among Jews about whether Zionism was a blessing or a blight. Although largely overlooked today, the dispute throws much light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Those differences came to a head in 1917 when the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, a document promising for the first time to realise the Zionist goal of a “national home” for the Jews in Palestine. Only one minister, Edwin Montagu, dissented. Notably, he was the only Jew in the British cabinet. The two facts were not unconnected. In a memo, he warned that his government’s policy would be a “rallying ground for anti-Semites in every country”.

He was far from alone in that view. Of the 4 million Jews who left Europe between 1880 and 1920, only 100,000 went to Palestine in line with Zionist expectations. As the Israeli novelist A B Yehoshua once noted: “If the Zionist party had run in an election in the early 20th century, it would have received only 6 or 7 per cent of the Jewish people’s vote.”
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-05-09/zionisms-roots-help-us-interpret-israel-today/

Palestine: End of time?

Basil Al-Araj is in a Palestinian jail. He is a young Palestinian pharmacist who worked at a pharmacy in Shufat refugee camp in Jerusalem. I knew him because he is from Al-Walaja, a village that was struggling as “Israel” builds a wall around the remaining houses of the village (already 90% of the residents are refugees elsewhere). Village wells and lands were stolen by the Israeli colonizers starting in 1948 and continuing till today.

Basil had a love of Palestine and a hatred of injustice. Like most young people they searched for ways to act on their convictions. He participated in nonviolent demonstrations at his village but was not satisfied with their outcome. He read my book on “Popular Resistance in Palestine” in Arabic and gave me his feedback. He said he learned much about history of the Palestinian struggle. He said the book’s Arabic could use some editing. He worked briefly as a researcher for the Palestinian museum after he lost his job in Shufat. He tried other methods of action. He and a few others tried to block the main road near the colony of Maale Adumim. He and I and four others were the six Palestinian Freedom riders arrested in 2011 while demonstrating Israeli apartheid policies.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1362-palestine-end-of-time

Der Bericht einer US-Denkfabrik, von Israelis mitverfasst, drängt auf die Erfassung „biometrischer D

Der Bericht einer US-Denkfabrik, von Israelis mitverfasst, drängt auf die Erfassung „biometrischer Daten“ von Palästinensern

Das Zentrum für eine neue amerikanische Sicherheit (Center for a New American Security, CNAS) ist eine Denkfabrik mit Sitz in Washington, die durch liberale clintonsche Interventionen ins Leben gerufen wurde (die Neokonservativen sehr gut passen). Diese Denkfabrik hat vor kurzem einen neuen Bericht veröffentlicht, der das Ziel verfolgt, die Zweistaatenlösung wiederzubeleben, indem man auf die Sicherheitsbedürfnisse der Israelis und Palästinenser eingeht.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18081

Gazans on Brink of Further Humanitarian Disaster as Blockade's Battering Goes On

As the blockade of Gaza—widely denounced as "collective punishment"—marks its ninth anniversary this month, Oxfam is urging the global community to apply pressure on Israel to allow the territory's residents to exercise their most fundamental human rights.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 when Hamas gained control of the territory, and is, according to a panel of experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council, in "flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law."

And, according to the international aid group's Country Director Chris Eijkemans, it "is making a dire situation worse."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/03/gazans-brink-further-humanitarian-disaster-blockades-battering-goes



How Israel justifies increased arrest rate of Palestinians

At the onset of 2016, the number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons increased significantly, specifically those detained for social media posts. This is the latest Israeli strategy against Palestinians to halt the uprising.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/incitement-on-facebook-israeli-accusation-palestinian-women.html


Israeli forces detain 12 Palestinians, carry out large-scale raids in West Bank, East J'lem(10-6)http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771823

Israeli forces detain 11 Palestinians, including slain Fatah leader's sons, in overnight raids(9-6)http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771811

Israeli forces detain Palestinian woman in Jerusalem's Old City(8-6)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771805

Israeli forces detain 20 Palestinians in overnight raids(8-6)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771794

Israeli navy detains 3 Gaza fishermen, sink their boat(8-6)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771793

Israeli forces detain 5 Palestinians in West Bank raids(7-6)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771782


Israel sentences young Palestinian to 3 months administrative detention
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771840

Israeli forces hold 100 Palestinian high school students at checkpoint in Yatta
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771816

Israeli forces disperse weekly protests in Kafr Qaddum

Dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation when Israeli forces suppressed weekly Friday demonstrations in the occupied West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum, while protests were also staged in the village of Bilin.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771835

Funeral held near Nablus for Palestinian youth killed in clashes

Thousands of Palestinians took part in the funeral of Jamal Dweikat, 20, in the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus on Wednesday afternoon.

Dweikat, whose body was returned by Israeli authorities at dawn on Wednesday, was hit by several bullets in the head during clashes with Israeli forces on Friday near Joseph’s Tomb after several buses transported Jewish worshipers to the site.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771802

Israel demolishes Hebron home of 16-year-old Palestinian accused of killing Israeli settler
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771838

Israeli settler runs over Palestinian shepherd's flock of sheep, kills 25

An Israeli settler ran over a flock of sheep belonging to a Palestinian shepherd near the al-Zubeidat village in the occupied West Bank district of Jericho on Friday, causing the death of 25 of the sheep, according to Palestinian sources.

Palestinian security sources told Ma'an that an Israeli settler was driving at a high speed and ran over the flock of sheep while they were crossing the road.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771822

Israeli doctors condone solitary confinement for Palestinian prisoners

During his harrowing 65-day placement in solitary confinement in Israeli custody, Muhammad Hammad suffered from injuries in three places that had been inflicted by Israeli forces during his 2002 arrest.

Despite his desperate need for surgery, the only medical treatment he received consisted of a couple tablets of Advil.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771343

Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody close to death, in need of heart surgery

Palestinian prisoner Bassam Amin al-Sayeh, 43, from the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank was reported to be in critical need of a pacemaker implantation surgery to save his life.

Mona Abu Bakr al-Sayeh told Palestinian radio station Sawt al-Asra (Voice of Prisoners) that her husband suffers from both bone marrow and blood cell cancer, in addition to serious lung inflammation, osteoporosis, and muscle atrophy in his heart.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771839


A funeral is set to be held this month for Omar al-Nayif, an escaped Palestinian prisoner who many believe was assassinated by Israel in the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria in February, Nayif’s family said in a statement on Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771723

In Jerusalem, eve of Ramadan marked by extremist Israelis' racist taunts

In the Muslim quarter of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli army checkpoints, barriers, raids, and the presence of extremist Jewish groups are an almost daily occurrence, the holy month of Ramadan is anticipated as a time of relative calm and respite.

As the month-long Muslim holiday begins, Palestinian residents and Muslim worshipers transform the typically dark, narrow alleyways of the Old City into glittering walkways, adorned with hanging lights, lanterns decorated with Arabic scripture, and filled with the sounds of Ramadan songs as worshipers prepare for the first day of fasting.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771774


Israeli soldiers apparently kick knife towards body of man 'executed' in Hebron

A video has emerged that seems to show a knife being kicked in the direction of an alleged Palestinian attacker who is seen lying on the ground.

The new footage, obtained by Israel's Channel Two, may show what happened shortly before an Israeli soldier shot the Palestinian in the head in March, despite him being wounded and lying on the ground. It is not clear who moves the knife in the video but voices are heard calling for the knife to be kicked closer to the body.

The March killing of 21-year-old Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif caused widespread shock and condemnation from rights groups and liberal Israelis, some of whom have dubbed the killing an execution.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/watch-israeli-soldiers-apparently-kick-knife-body-man-executed-hebron-741769992


The vulnerability of Palestinian women in Israel

"I think twice before going out to Tel Aviv. I calculate how long the trip is, how long it will take, what the route is," said Sawsan Kurdi, a 53-year-old mother of six from Jaffa.

"We're talking about traditional women with a headscarf," she added. "If you get on a bus, they might ask you to leave. Or they might try to take your scarf off."

One of the oldest port cities in the world, Jaffa was the centre of Palestinian life before 1948. Today, the city is part of the Tel Aviv municipality and is fast being gentrified. Around 20,000 Palestinians remain, comprising a third of Jaffa's inhabitants.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/vulnerability-palestinian-women-israel-160502072755923.html

Israel's smartest student is an Arab

Mohammed Zeidan, from the Arab community of Kafr Manda in northern Israel, is the only Arab in Israel who has been able to get the ultranationalist Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi from the Joint List to exchange warm greetings. Zeidan, 19, scored an 800 on Israeli's Psychometric Entrance Test, the highest possible score. Tibi praised his achievement on Twitter, and Bennett was quick to retweet Tibi’s greeting, leading the two political foes to exchange kind words.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/sat-best-score-israel-arab-high-school-integration-technion.html


Israeli Woman Admits Concocting Palestinian Rape Story That Benjamin Netanyahu Called ‘Horrific Crime’
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/341658/israeli-woman-admits-concocting-palestinian-rape-story-that-benjamin-netany/

LGBT activists accuse Israel of 'pinkwashing' Palestinian occupation

Tens of thousands of revellers took part in Friday's Gay Pride parade in Tel Aviv, an annual event promoted and funded by the city that draws worldwide attention.

But Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender campaigners have accused Israel of spending lavishly to paint itself pink in an effort to restore a liberal image tarnished by its occupation of the Palestinian territories.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/lgbt-activists-accuse-israel-pinkwashing-palestinian-occupation-1836120711

Someone Is Launching Cyber Attacks on Websites Critical of Israel

Early this year, swarms of thousands of bots took aim at the main website for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, with the intent of taking the website offline for good.

The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) employed tens of thousands of unique IP addresses to send a huge flux of malicious traffic to the website. To do it, they employed two so-called 'botnets' — basically linked networks of dummy or infected computers that work in unison.

But the committee's website, bdsmovement.net, wasn't the only one targeted, raising the possibility that this wasn't run-of-the-mill cyber vandalism, but instead a targeted campaign by the opponents of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.
https://news.vice.com/article/someone-is-launching-cyber-attacks-on-websites-critical-of-israel

Israel's selective memory on Armenian genocide

News broadcasts on Israeli TV June 2 were dominated by two stories. The first reported that the German parliament had voted to recognize the World War I massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. The resolution was approved by a majority of lawmakers from all parties, headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. In response, Ankara recalled its ambassador from Berlin “for consultations.” The second news report heralded a breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and Turkey on settling the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla crisis and easing the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Officials in Jerusalem predict the Turkish ambassador, who was recalled back to Ankara at the time, will soon be reinstated in Tel Aviv.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/israel-armenian-genocide-double-standard-german-resolution.html

Das jüdische Volk ist wieder in großer Gefahr und die Welt schweigt

Das jüdische Volk ist wieder in großer Gefahr. Nicht das gesamte Volk, nur ein Teil davon. Der im östlichen Mittelmeerraum versammelte Teil. Diesmal haben sich nicht die üblichen Bösewichte erhoben, um uns auszurotten. Diesmal kommen sie aus unserer eigenen Mitte. Denn eigenhändig haben wir die über uns herrschenden Hunnen inthronisiert. Eine wildgewordene, bösartige, erwartungs- und hemmungslose Clique, die ihre Herde mit dem Kopf direkt an die Wand fährt.

Und die Welt schweigt...
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18031

Adolf Eichmann: “If I Were a Jew, I’d Be a Fanatical Zionist”
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/05/27/adolf-eichmann-if-i-were-a-jew-id-be-a-fanatical-zionist/

Die britische Historikerin Catherine Hall lehnt einen israelischen Preis von 300 000€ aus „politischen Gründen“ ab

Eine renommierte britische Historikerin hat einen israelischen akademischen Preis von Hunderttausenden von Pfund abgelehnt, nachdem sie „zahlreiche Diskussionen“ über den israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikt geführt hatte.

Professor Catherine Hall des University College London lehnte den Forschungspreis von 300 000 € ab und beschrieb ihre Entscheidung als „eine unabhängige politische Wahl“.

Professor Hall, die in Kolonialgeschichte spezialisiert ist, sollte während der Zeremonie Sonntagabend in Tel Aviv einen Preis von der Dan David Stiftung entgegennehmen, verzichtete aber auf die Teilnahme.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18038

What’s behind the US media’s special relationship with Israel?

The Occupation of the American Mind poses the question: why are mainstream US media such a reliable conduit for Israeli propaganda compared to other countries?

In attempting to answer this question, the film, narrated by Roger Waters, illuminates not just the inner workings of Israeli hasbara (propaganda) but also the root causes of the occupation itself by depicting the systematic denial of Palestinians’ human and national rights.

This film could not possibly arrive at a better time, given the extent to which Israeli hasbara will be promoted during the US presidential election campaign.

It explores a relatively unexamined aspect of the US-Israel “special relationship” and helps explain why a majority of Americans influenced by media bias support and identify with the Israeli narrative.

The revelations made in the documentary will engage both those unfamiliar with the Palestinian narrative along with veteran solidarity activists who may think they’ve seen it all.https://electronicintifada.net/content/whats-behind-us-medias-special-relationship-israel/16951

Hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel since beginning of Ramadan

At least 330 Palestinians have been detained since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on June 6, according to a statement released Saturday by the Palestine Prisoners' Center for Studies, which said that the detentions reflected Israel’s disregard for the sanctity of the holiday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772001

91 Palestinian and international organizations join Call to Action: 24-25 June – Days of Action to Free Bilal Kayed and End Administrative Detention
http://samidoun.net/2016/06/91-palestinian-and-international-organizations-joint-call-to-action-24-25-june-days-of-action-to-free-bilal-kayed-and-end-administrative-detention/

Palestinian PFLP prisoners on hunger strike in Israel

Protest comes in solidarity with Bilal Kayed who was put on administrative detention after completing 14-year sentence.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/palestinian-pflp-prisoners-hunger-strike-israel-160620104413494.html

Israeli forces raid cells of PFLP prisoners following mass hunger strike

Officers of Israel’s prison service on Tuesday stormed the cells of Palestinian prisoners affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at Israel’s Ramon prison and searched their belongings, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement.

Forces from Israel Prison Services' Masada special unit raided cells in three wards of the prison, and carried out punitive measures against PFLP-affiliated prisoners, including confiscating their electronic devices, according to PPS.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771957

Seit mehr als 10 Tage die http://www.alternativenews.org/english/ es nicht erreichbar weil pro israelische seine Server angegrifen haben https://news.vice.com/article/someone-is-launching-cyber-attacks-on-websites-critical-of-israel

Israel lawfare group plans “massive punishments” for activists

“Why are we using the word Palestinian? There’s no such thing as a Palestinian person,” Brooke Goldstein declared to enthusiastic applause at a meeting of key Israel lobby operatives in New York earlier this month.

Goldstein is the director of the Lawfare Project, a legal group that aims, in her words, to “make the enemy pay” – that “enemy” being mainly comprised of Palestine solidarity activists and students.

The Lawfare Project was founded with the support of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an important forum for anti-Palestinian organizing in the US.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lawfare-group-plans-massive-punishments-activists


Down syndrome man, child, killed by Israeli soldiers

Israeli soldiers opened fired on a car of young Palestinians returning from a late-night pool party celebrating Ramadan, killing 15-year-old Mahmoud Badran and injuring four others.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/down-syndrome-man-child-killed-israeli-soldiers

Palestinian shot by Israeli forces last month succumbs to wounds(23-6)

A young Palestinian man died on Sunday evening after succumbing to wounds he sustained when Israeli forces shot him during clashes in his hometown of Sair in the southern occupied West Bank, his family told Ma’an.

Arif Jaradat, 22, who had Down syndrome, was shot by Israeli soldiers with a live bullet to his abdomen on May 4 when clashes erupted after Israeli forces stormed the Ras al-Aroud area of Sair in Hebron.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771942

Israeli soldier who 'executed' Palestinian said he 'needed to die'(16-6)

An Israeli soldier filmed as he shot an injured Palestinian attacker in the head told his commander that the “terrorist was alive, and needs to die”, an Israeli court heard on Thursday.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-soldier-who-executed-palestinian-attacker-said-he-needed-die-1633822646

Why has Israel jailed ailing Gaza mother?

The family of Nisreen Hassan is being denied contact with her.

In October last, Hassan was arrested at Erez, the military checkpoint between Gaza and present-day Israel. She has been imprisoned by Israel since then.

Hassan, a 41-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, has been diagnosed with lymphoma, according to her family. She had been undergoing chemotherapy in Gaza before her arrest and had responded well to treatment.

Although her family have been assured by Hassan’s lawyer that she is receiving adequate medical care, they are not able to speak with her. The last time Hassan was allowed to phone Hazem Abu Kmail, her husband, was in February.

“She told me that she was fine and sent her love to the kids,” Abu Kmail said.

Hassan has been accused of photographing Israeli military sites in order to benefit Palestinian armed groups.

She has rejected the accusation.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-has-israel-jailed-ailing-gaza-mother/17071


Israeli forces injure Palestinian youth with live fire during raids in Bethlehem
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771986

Israeli forces injure 3 Palestinians during raid in Tulkarem-area refugee camp(23-6)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771955

Israeli forces disperse weekly protest in Kafr Qaddum
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771993

Israel moves to keep interrogations from being filmed

Israel’s Public Security Ministry proposed its latest bill to prevent “security” interrogations from being videotaped, for “fear the footage could reach terror groups that would learn Israeli interrogation techniques,” Israeli media said Friday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771988

Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian agricultural lands near Nablus

Israeli settlers set fire to dozens of dunams of Palestinian agricultural lands on Thursday afternoon near the Qablan junction south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.

Abd al-Khaliq Salih, a resident of the nearby al-Sawiya village told Ma'an that several settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Rachalim near the village set fire to dozens of dunams of farmlands in the al-Tulma area which is owned by people from al-Sawiya, and is located near Qablan junction.

Salih said large parts of the surrounding area quickly caught fire due to the heat, causing dozens more olive and other trees to burn.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771982

Pro-settlement Israeli group backs Brexit over EU West Bank policy

Campaign video features a mock-up of a masked Palestinian militant urging UK citizens to stay in the EU because it supports Palestine
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pro-settlement-israeli-backs-brexit-over-eu-west-bank-policy-505691444

Story Claiming West Bank Rabbi Endorsed Poisoning Palestinian Wells Likely Zio-Hoax

Middle East Monitor (MEMO) published a story (update: it appears to have been taken down) based on an earlier report from the Anadalou News Agency claiming a settler rabbi endorsed poisoning the wells of West Bank Palestinians. If true, this would be yet another outrageous, racist, even genocidal statement in a long line from such settler rabbis. But it isn’t true. For the following reasons:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/20/whose-hoax-is-this/

Israeli navy opens fire at Palestinian fishermen

Israeli army boats opened fire at Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip late Wednesday, Palestinian sources said.

Zakariya Bakr, the head of Gaza’s fishermen committee, told Ma'an that Israeli boats opened fire in the direction of fishermen four nautical miles off the coast of Khan Yunis, well within the designated fishing zone.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771972

Suffocated at sea

A group of Gaza fishermen were working an early morning shift when the Israeli navy opened fire.

Rajab Abu Riyala and his brother Khaled were shot during that 31 May incident. A bullet had to be removed from Rajab’s knee as a result.

They were among five fishermen arrested on two vessels by Israel. All were brought to Ashdod, a port in present-day Israel, and were detained for most of the day. Both of the vessels were confiscated. “Every Gaza fisherman who is arrested undergoes a long and cruel process of interrogation and strip searches,” said Bashir Abu Riyala, one of the five.

Bashir, a cousin of Rajab and Khaled, questioned why Israel behaves as if fishermen are a security threat. “The way they harass us cannot be tolerated,” he said. “Each time they arrest fishermen, they fail to get the information they are looking for. We do not know anything. All we want is to fish freely and safely.”
https://electronicintifada.net/content/suffocated-sea/17181

Israeli forces demolish structures, assault locals in West Bank village(19-6)

Four people were injured and 26 Palestinians were left homeless on Sunday afternoon after Israeli forces assaulted locals and demolished Palestinian structures in the village of Susiya in the southern occupied West Bank, in contravention of written commitments to refrain from demolitions during the holy month from Ramadan.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771939


Israel's cabinet paves way for widespread demolition of Palestinian homes in Israel

The Israeli cabinet approved a new budget Sunday that would see an Israeli governmental entity established to supervise the planning and construction of Palestinian communities inside Israel, paving the way for widespread demolition of Palestinian homes built without the required permits.

The resolution was presented by Israel’s government as a much needed boost in law enforcement for the underserved communities, putting billions of shekels in funding on the table for Palestinian communities that agree to crack down on building violations in their municipalities.

The decision has been condemned as a move to further formalize the systematic rejection of building permits for Palestinians which forces them to building illegally, which has been a de facto policy in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory for years.

As a result, the proposed legislation puts more than 10,000 Palestinian residents in a number of communities in Israel at risk of having their homes demolished, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771950


Video: Israeli occupation, colonization at root of violence

On Friday, I appeared on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, to debate the developments surrounding Wednesday’s Tel Aviv attack that killed four Israeli civilians.

The other guests were two former Israeli officials: Daniel Levy, of the European Council on Foreign Relations who worked as an advisor to one-time Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, and Mitchell Barak, who was a spokesperson for Shimon Peres when he was Israel’s president.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-occupation-colonization-root-violence


Erdogan to Betray Gaza for Israeli Oil

Israeli and world media have featured screaming headlines over the past few days that Turkey and Israel are about to resume diplomatic relations broken off after Israeli naval commandos murdered 10 Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara in 2010 (including one U.S. citizen). The freeze between the two countries cut off Israeli trade and military coöperation with one of the largest and most influential Muslim nations in the region. Prior to the massacre, Turkey and Israel’s militaries conducted joint military exercises, intelligence agencies freely shared information, and bilateral trade flourished.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/25/erdogan-to-betray-gaza-for-israeli-oil/

Outcry from Arab states as Israel wins UN committee chair for first time

Palestinian and Arab representatives have heavily criticised the election of Israel to chair a UN committee for the first time in the world body's 71-year history.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon won the chair of the legal affairs committee of the General Assembly on Monday by picking up 109 votes from the 193 member-states.

Danon's candidacy was put to a vote by secret ballot at the request of Arab countries. All of the other UN committee chairs are chosen by consensus.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour criticised the Western Europe regional group, which includes Israel, for putting forward Danon's candidacy, saying he was divisive and unworthy of the task.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-first-time-wins-un-committee-chair-996469229

UN genocide official warned not to be complicit in Israel’s crimes

Pressure has continued to mount on organizers of a major international conference on genocide to move the venue from Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, a South African organization announced it was pulling out of the conference, organized by the International Network of Genocide Scholars, because of concerns over Israeli abuses of Palestinian human rights.

But organizers and sponsors have ignored or rebuffed the appeals from hundreds of scholars, dozens of civil society groups and at least one former UN human rights official to move the conference.

A current UN official, the special advisor to the secretary general on genocide, is still scheduled to speak at the conference.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/un-genocide-official-warned-not-be-complicit-israels-crimes

Israeli Air Force Personnel Ordered to Form Google Logo at Airbase

The next Israel Independence Day, expect to see the letters of the Google logo featured on the company’s homepage shaped by Israeli air force personnel and framed by two F-16 jets. No, this is not a hoax and not from The Onion. It was reported by Israel state radio (IBA) veteran military reporter, Carmella Menashe.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/20/israeli-air-force-personnel-ordered-to-form-google-logo-at-airbase/

Man died after a crowd of bystanders pulled him from a car after he reportedly had a heart attack at the wheel and crashed into a restaurant
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-driver-mistaken-palestinian-attacker-beaten-380656976

Israel’s fear of the ‘desert’ Jews in its midst

In a little-noticed move last week, Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman barred an official close to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas from entering Israel. Mohammed Madani is accused of “subversive activity” and “political terror”.

His crimes, as defined by Lieberman, are worth pondering. They suggest that Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is rooted less in security issues and more in European colonialism.

In his role as chair of the Palestinian committee for interaction with Israeli society, Madani had understandably used his visits to Israel to meet Israeli Jews – but he chose the wrong kind.

He tried to open a dialogue with what are known in Israel as Mizrahim, Israelis descended from the Jews who emigrated from Arab states following Israel’s creation in 1948. Today these Arab Jews comprise about half of Israel’s population. Abbas is known to be keen to forge ties with them.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-06-22/israels-fear-of-the-desert-jews-in-its-midst/

The Holocaust and Zionism’s “Broken Oath”

The following guest post was written by Prof. Ilan Sadeh, a native-born Israeli, child of Holocaust survivors and now a professor of computer science at a Chinese university. The original was published in Hebrew by HaGadah HaSmolit [“The Left Bank”]:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/15/the-holocaust-and-zionisms-broken-oath/


Why Israel is blocking access to its archives


Israel is locking away millions of official documents to prevent the darkest episodes in its history from coming to light, civil rights activists and academics have warned as the country’s state archives move online.

They claim government officials are concealing vital records needed for historical research, often in violation of Israeli law, in an effort to avoid damaging Israel’s image.

The Israeli army has long claimed to be the “most moral” in the world.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-06-09/why-israel-is-blocking-access-to-its-archives/

The race to replace Abbas: Jordan, Egypt push Palestinian succession plans

Jordan and Egypt have been contacting Fatah officials to begin planning for the era that will follow the leadership of current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Middle East Eye can confirm.

Confirmation from Palestinian and diplomatic sources comes after MEE revealed the existence of a plan by Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt that would see Abbas’s Fatah arch rival Mohammed Dahlan oust him.

The sources also say the exiled Fatah leader has been moving from one Arab capital to another, talking to officials, reaching out to Fatah activists and leaders with one mission: preparing the stage for the post-Abbas era.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/succession-abbas-dahlan-jordan-egypt-pa-palestinian-rjoub-2055273061

Israel’s Right to Sweep Away Palestinians

Why are people so shocked that Israel has jailed a professor of astrophysics over his posts on Facebook, along with young girls who brandished knives? It has every right to do so. This right follows naturally from Israel’s essence and past, and can be summed up in a term derived from a statement by Uzi Narkiss, who headed the army’s Central Command in the June 1967 war: the right to sweep away.

“I don’t know if anything will happen,” Narkiss said on the eve of that war, according to Israel Defense Forces documents recently released for publication. “But if something does happen, it will take less than 72 hours for us to sweep all the Arabs out of the West Bank.”
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/israels-right-to-sweep-away-palestinians/

I Went to See the Plight of the Dried-out Settlements.I Found a Pool

With Israel having cut the Palestinians’ water supply, I visited two settlements where the people are supposedly suffering too.

Thus tweeted MK Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) on Friday: “No joke: We’ve gone back 100 years!” He reported on five stations for providing drinking water that were placed that morning in the settlement of Kedumim.

That day, the religious Zionist weekly Makor Rishon published an article titled “The water crisis in Judea and Samaria: In the settlement of Eli huge bags of drinking water were distributed to the residents.”

So I set out to witness this suffering at two settlements. I left before I saw the tweet by one Avraham Benyamin in response to Smotrich: “We’re waiting for a series of empathetic articles in Haaretz. We’ll continue to wait.”
http://htz.li/5Td

Israel Incapable of Telling Truth About Water It Steals From Palestinians

Israeli spokespeople have three answers ready to pull out when they respond to questions on the water shortage in West Bank Palestinian towns – which stands out starkly compared to the hydrological smugness of the settlements: 1) The Palestinian water system is old, so it suffers from water loss; 2) the Palestinians steal water from each other, and from the Israelis; and 3) in general, Israel has in its great generosity doubled the amount of water it supplies to the Palestinians, compared to what was called for in the Oslo Accords.

“Supplies,” the spokespeople will write in their responses. They will never say Israel sells the Palestinians 64 million cubic meters of water a year instead of the 31 million cubic meters agreed to in the Oslo Accords. Accords that were signed in 1994, and that were supposed to come to an end in 1999. They will not say that Israel sells the Palestinians water that it first stole from them.
bit.ly/28Q0rWC


Israeli forces detain at least 73 Palestinians in the last week
http://bit.ly/29f6gCm


“We’ll never give up”

“We love our land and we will fight.”

So reads a mural painted on a wall in Kafr Qaddum, a Palestinian village in the northern occupied West Bank.

The slogan, adorned with butterflies in the color of the Palestinian flag flying over a barbed wire fence, is the backdrop to the regular demonstrations against the Israeli occupation held in the village since July 2011.

For five years now, villagers have protested every week, demanding access to the main road leading to the city of Nablus and other nearby towns.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/well-never-give/17266

In Photos: Five years of popular struggle in Palestinian village Kufr Qaddum
http://972mag.com/in-photos-five-years-of-popular-struggle-in-palestinian-village-kufr-qaddum/120308/

Palestinian dies of tear gas inhalation, 40 others wounded in clashes at Qalandiya

A Palestinian man was pronounced dead on Friday after suffering from excessive tear gas inhalation after Israeli forces heavily fired tear gas at crowds, reportedly wounding some 40 others, as Palestinians attempted to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint from Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank into Jerusalem to attend prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The man, identified by medical sources as Muhammad Mustafa Habash, 63, from the Asira al-Shamaliya village in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, was one of at least 40 Palestinians who suffered from severe tear gas inhalation during clashes that broke out at the Qalandiya checkpoint.

Witnesses told Ma’an that Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics were prevented by Israeli forces from treating the man at the start of the incident. However, they eventually were able to reach him.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772079

Israeli forces injure 3 Palestinians with live fire during protests in Kafr Qaddum
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772085

2 Palestinians injured by live fire in Hebron-area clashes with Israeli forces

Two Palestinian youths were shot and injured and several others suffered from tear-gas inhalation during clashes with Israeli forces Saturday afternoon in the Hanina area of the village of Dura in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772095

Hebron on lockdown after two days of deadly attacks

The Israeli military imposed closure on the occupied West Bank city of Hebron and its surroundings on Friday, affecting some 700,000 people, following a spike in deadly attacks over the past two days.

An Israeli army spokesperson told the Ma’an News Agency that movement in and out of the city and its surrounding villages would be closed indefinitely.

The closure has been described by the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz as the largest since a massive crackdown following the kidnapping and slaying of three Israeli youths in the West Bank in June 2014.

The closure affects only Palestinians, and not Israelis living in settlements in the area, an army spokesperson told media.

Such collective punishment measures are considered war crimes under international law.

The closure was declared after an Israeli and two Palestinians were killed in three separate incidents in the West Bank on Friday, and one day after the slaying of an Israeli girl at a settlement, after which her attacker was shot dead, and another Palestinian was killed after allegedly stabbing and injuring two Israelis in the city of Netanya.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/hebron-lockdown-after-two-days-deadly-attacks


Israel can’t crush solidarity

Amal Mukhamara is fed up with the questions. She is tired of journalists inquiring why her son Khaled and his cousin Muhammad killed four Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier this month. She is tired of being asked if she condemns their actions or if she knew of their plans beforehand.

“No mother will allow her son to put his life in danger,” she said. “But our sons do not ask us for our opinions or approval. They are driven to act because of all the injustice and aggression they have been subjected to by Israel.”

The killings took place in an upmarket Tel Aviv square. Both of the alleged attackers were wounded before being arrested.

Israel is using the Tel Aviv killings as a pretext to inflict more injustice and aggression on their family and neighbors in Yatta, a town near Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-cant-crush-solidarity/17261

Israeli settlers raid lands in Bethlehem, spray "Death to Arabs" on Palestinian property

Israeli settlers from the illegal Betar Illit settlement raided Palestinian lands in the village of Wadi Fukin in the central occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem on Tuesday, according to local witnesses.

Ahmad Sukkar, the head of the Wadi Fukin village council, told Ma’an that a group of Israeli settlers raided agricultural lands in the al-Fuwwar area of the village, destroying two greenhouses and tearing up plants belonging to local residents Maher Sukkar, Jamil Assaf, and Muhammad Manasra.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772053

Israel to construct new housing in Hebron settlement after killing of teenage resident

The Israeli government reportedly approved on Friday the construction of new housing units in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, after a Palestinian boy stabbed an Israeli girl to death in her bedroom in the settlement Thursday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772098

Israeli forces demolish Bedouin village in Negev for 100th time in six years

Israeli authorities demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib on Wednesday for the second time during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and 100th time total, locals told Ma'an.

“The Israeli authorities have left us homeless after they demolished the village for 100th time," local activist Aziz Sayyah al-Tuhri said.

"Imagine that you eat sahour at 4 a.m in your house," he continued, referring to the meal Muslims who fast during Ramadan eat before dawn, "and shortly after that the house is demolished?”

“The authorities do not care about Ramadan or other times as they practice this police of displacement and uprooting, as the only language they understand is that of power and criminality," al-Tuhri said. "They want us to reach desperation and leave our land willingly.”

Fellow activist Salim al-Arakib described the demolition as "tyrannical," saying that the "criminal policy seeks to uproot us and displace us, but this policy will only make us more determined and more adamant to stay firm in the land of our fathers and grandfathers.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772046

Israeli court rejects appeal against punitive demolitions of Tel Aviv suspects' family homes

An Israeli military court rejected an appeal against house demolition orders presented to the families of two Palestinians suspected of carrying out a deadly attack in Tel Aviv earlier this month.

Muhammad Ahmad Moussa Makhamreh and Khalid Muhammad Moussa Makhamreh, two cousins from the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, were detained after a shooting attack which killed four Israelis in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on June 8.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772055

PFLP political prisoners suspend hunger strike for Bilal Kayed pending upcoming Israeli ruling

Palestinian political prisoners affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced a ten day suspension of their hunger strike on Wednesday until Israeli authorities' issue a ruling on Bilal Kayed's freedom.
https://www.facebook.com/alternativenews.org/posts/1025983220772926

Prisoners determined to resist dangerous precedent set by Israel

Twenty-nine Palestinian prisoners suspended a hunger strike launched in solidarity with Bilal Kayed, who was ordered to remain in prison under administrative detention after completing a nearly 15-year prison sentence.

But they are set to resume it if Kayed is not freed at a hearing early next month.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/prisoners-determined-resist-dangerous-precedent-set-israel



[VIDEO] Not an occupation? Whatever it is, it's disgusting

Black-clad mounted Border Police galloping into and nearly trampling a crowd of unarmed civilians, old men and women lucky enough to meet the army’s criteria to pray in Jerusalem mutely line up to pass through what look like cattle lanes. Notes on one scene of ugliness and occupation.
http://972mag.com/not-an-occupation-whatever-it-is-its-disgusting/120346/

Sorry, Mahmoud Rafat Badran, 15, Was Killed by 'Mistake'

By mistake the soldiers stood on the bridge, by accident they sprayed the car driving on the road below them with heavy fire, without any idea who was in it. Unintentionally they killed the youth, by accident wounded four of his friends seriously. By mistake the soldiers thought the passengers of the car had thrown rocks and poured oil on the road, mistakenly they thought this allowed them to shoot to their hearts’ desire.

Clearly by accident, because if the youth had thrown rocks, they would have been allowed to kill him. By mistake the IDF initially reported that its soldiers had killed the “terrorist” and wounded his partners, and only after a few hours corrected the mistake and admitted the youth was killed “by accident.” Unintentionally, Israelis have forgotten that Route 443, the high road to the capital, passes deep through the occupied territories on the lands of the surrounding villages, whose residents cannot drive on that road to anywhere.
dlvr.it/LdG75d


Turkey-Israel deal leaves Gaza siege intact

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip expressed anger and dismay on Monday about the deal normalizing relations between Israel and Turkey that leaves them under a suffocating siege.

An Israeli human rights group that monitors the decade-old Israeli blockade of Gaza has also confirmed that the deal does not end Israel’s tight control over the territory that has greatly exacerbated the devastation to Gaza’s economy and society from three major Israeli military assaults since 2008.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/turkey-israel-deal-leaves-gaza-siege-intact

British Muslims detained in Israel and kicked off flight home

Four people, including 10-year-old boy, had planned to visit al-Aqsa mosque but were detained and deported from Israel
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/british-muslims-kicked-flight-home-after-days-israeli-detention-283322852

Israel’s killer bureaucracy

There are scores of ways by which Israel kills Palestinians; shedding their blood with sophisticated weapons is only one.

This is the story of my cousin Awad Alareer, who died because Israel imposes severe restrictions on Palestinian patients seeking medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip, especially in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.

Awad, an 18-year-old from Gaza, died less than a year after he was diagnosed with bone cancer.

He needed permits to get treatment outside Gaza. Israel delayed issuing those permits on several occasions.

Awad came from a family of farmers. They were expelled from land in the greater Gaza Strip during the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-killer-bureaucracy/17226

Neocon NGO Pressures Google, Facebook to Censor Content

Executives from Google and Facebook have faced enormous political pressure from forces as diverse as Pres. Obama himself to the Israel Lobby, to rid their sites of Islamist content. Over the years, videos portraying ISIS beheadings have outraged the public (though not on YouTube or Facebook, which immediately removes them). Now it appears that the Israel Lobby and their right-wing allies are demanding further action restricting access for videos they deem offensive.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/27/neocon-ngo-pressures-google-facebook-to-censor-content/


Elie Wiesel’s Decidedly Mixed Legacy

decidedly mixed legacy. He was initially a sainted Holocaust survivor, international moral witness to depravity, captivating storyteller; later he morphed into a Palestine denier, settler advocate, Iranophobe and right-wing apologist for Israel.
When I was 12 or 13, my congregation Rabbi Henry Sosland, would drive me to hear him speak at synagogues in Rockland County (NY) where I grew up. He was a mesmerizing raconteur, a profound Jewish moral witness with charisma beyond measure. As an audience member, you felt under a spell of brilliance, drama, and pathos.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/07/02/elie-wiesels-decidedly-mixed-legacy/

Ich bin Jüdin und möchte, dass die Leute Israel boykottieren

2009 lebte ich während der Operation Gegossenes Blei in Tel Aviv. Während jenes Angriffs tötete Israel ungefähr 1.400 Palästinenser in Gaza. Wenn wir in kleinen Gruppen auf die Straßen gingen, um gegen den Krieg zu demonstrieren, wurden wir oft von Passanten mit Eiern beworfen oder angegriffen. Als ich meine Kinder von deren Vorschule abholte, unterhielten sich die Eltern, als würde gar nichts Ungewöhnliches im Gange sein. Als sie mich fragten, was schief ginge, antwortete ich ihnen, ich sei von den Ereignissen in einer Entfernung von nur 40 Meilen von uns zutiefst betrübt. Ihre Antwort: ein peinliches Schweigen oder eine wütende Verteidigung der israelischen Operationen.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18290

Israeli military’s new chief rabbi implied soldiers can rape during wartime

Israeli rabbi who advocated rape of ‘comely gentile women’ during war becomes chief army rabbi

Just on my way to my flight from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, I noticed this cover headline in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper front page:

“New IDF Chief Rabbi: It is permissible to rape during war”. Under that: “Col. Eyal Qarim has declared in the past “draft of girls is totally forbidden” – and claimed that in times of war it is permissible for soldiers to “have sex with comely gentile women against their will”.
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/07/israeli-advocated-becomes/

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett advocated on Thursday for Israel to kidnap

Palestinian to be used as leverage to obtain the release of two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers held in the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.(09-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772157


B'Tselem: Eyewitness report casts doubts on army's narrative in Palestinian woman's killing(09-7)

Eyewitness testimony and video footage have cast doubts on the Israeli narrative surrounding the death of a Palestinian woman on Friday in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reported on Tuesday.
On July 1, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian woman, identified as 27-year-old Sarah Tarayra, after she allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack against border police officers near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron’s Old City.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772135





Israeli forces kill 1 Palestinian youth, injure 1, and detain 1 other(13-7)

A Palestinian youth was killed and another injured by Israeli forces while a third was detained early on Wednesday, as soldiers opened fire at the youths' vehicle in the town of al-Ram in the occupied West Bank's Jerusalem district.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772219

Weekend headlines from Palestine: 20+ injured, 32 arrested
https://www.facebook.com/alternativenews.org/posts/1035799983124583:0




Israeli forces detain 27 Palestinian in large-scale West Bank raids(12-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772208


Israeli forces detain 34 Palestinians in overnight raids(13-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772220


Israeli forces detain Palestinian activist at West Bank checkpoint(13-7)

Israeli forces detained a Palestinian activist and former prisoner on Tuesday at the Beit Ur al-Fuqa checkpoint in the Ramallah district of the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners rights group Addameer.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772221



Israeli forces detained a Palestinian photojournalist, known for his coverage of weekly protests, in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday.(14-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772234


Israeli forces detain 9 Palestinians during predawn raids in West Bank, East Jerusalem(14-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772242


Israeli forces detain at least 15 activists in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron(15-7)

Israeli forces detained at least 15 activists Friday as they were cleaning an area located in the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron in order to establish a cultural cinema, according to the Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772250

Israeli forces detain 5 in Hebron, nearby village remains partially blockaded(16-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772257


Brother of Palestinian shot dead after stab attack indicted by Israeli military for 'incitement'(15-7)

The Israeli military's public prosecutor issued an indictment on Thursday against Tamer Tarayra -- the brother of 17-year-old Muhammad Nasser Tarayra who was killed by Israeli forces after carrying out a stabbing attack on an illegal Israeli settlement in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, killing a 13-year-old Israeli girl -- for alleged “incitement,” according to sources.

Tamer, the brother of Muhammad and resident of the village of Bani Naim in Hebron, was issued an indictment for alleged “incitement” and supporting Palestinian attacks against Israelis, joining his sister Lara who is being prosecuted by Israeli military courts for allegedly supporting the attack on the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba last month, as she reportedly said that “the attack added pride to the Tarayra family and the Bani Naim town” during an interrogation with Israeli authorities.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772247


Palestinian sentenced to 8 years in prison for throwing stones at Israeli officer
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772243





Israeli officials have blamed social media for inciting a wave of violent attacks by Palestinians that began in October 2015. Since then, Israeli security forces have arrested about 400 Palestinians for social media activity, according to Palestinian rights groups Addameer and Adalah. Most of the arrests have been for postings on Facebook, a popular network among Palestinians.
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/07/israel-targeting-palestinian-protesters-on-facebook/


Poetry is Not a Crime: Nine Pulitzer-Winners among 150+ Literary Figures Calling for Israel to Release Palestinian Poet

Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, is one of over 400 Palestinians arrested by Israel since last fall for political statements on social media. Tatour’s ordeal began in October 2015, when she was arrested in the middle of the night. She has been charged with incitement to violence and terrorism based on Facebook postings and a poem posted to YouTube called “Qawim ya sha’abi, qawimhum” (Resist my people, resist them). Tatour spent the first three months of her detention in three different prisons before being transferred to house arrest.
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/poetry-not-crime-nine-pulitzer-winners-among-150-literary-figures-calling-israel-release-palestinian-poet/



Palestinians injured across West Bank and Gaza during Friday clashes with Israeli forces(15-7)http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772252


11 Palestinians injured with live fire after clashes erupt near Birzeit University in Ramallah(15-7)http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772246


Israeli forces shoot Palestinian youth attempting to prevent another's detention(14-7)

A Palestinian youth was wounded by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem on Thursday morning after he reportedly tried to help another Palestinian being detained by Israeli border police.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772240

Palestinian youth injured by Israeli forces in northern Gaza Strip(12-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772217

Israeli siege of Hebron area persists for 11th day

Today, Israeli authorities upheld the siege on the Palestinian towns of Sa’ir and Beni Neim for the 11th day in a row. Both towns are in the southern West Bank district of Hebron.
https://www.facebook.com/alternativenews.org/posts/1032114470159801:0

Last night dozens of soldiers invaded the town of Sa’ir, north east of Hebron. About 25 thousands Palestinians live in Sa’ir.
Israeli soldiers raided many homes and shops in the town. About ten security cameras were confiscated from local stores and homes. (10-7)
https://www.facebook.com/alternativenews.org/posts/1031576946880220




Israeli forces injure international activist during Friday Kafr Qaddum protest(12-7)

Israeli forces shot and injured an international solidarity activist on Friday during weekly demonstrations against illegal Israeli settlements in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the northwestern occupied West Bank district of Qalqiliya, according to locals.

The spokesman of Kafr Qaddum weekly protest, Fatah official Murad Shtewei, told Ma’an that Israeli forces stormed the village in the early morning hours, shooting tear gas canisters and stun grenades into the community.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772203




Bethlehem-area residents close main road to protest water shortages
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772200


How Israel Uses Water as a Weapon of War

Entire communities in the West Bank either have no access to water or have had their water supply reduced almost by half.
This alarming development has been taking place for weeks, since Israel’s national water company, “Mekorot”, decided to cut off – or significantly reduce – its water supply to Jenin, Salfit and many villages around Nablus, among other regions.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/24/how-israel-uses-water-as-a-weapon-of-war/



Israel stellt den Palästinensern die eigene Wasserversorgung ab

Einem erfahrenen Palästinareporter zufolge wurde einer Stadt von 40.000 Einwohnern gerade im Monat Ramadan, in dem die „Menschen am meisten den Zugang zu Lebensmitteln und Wasser benötigen“, 50% des Wassers abgestellt. Einem erfahrenen Palästinareporter zufolge wurde einer Stadt von 40.000 Einwohnern gerade im Monat Ramadan, in dem die „Menschen am meisten den Zugang zu Lebensmitteln und Wasser benötigen“, 50% des Wassers abgestellt.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18364



Israeli cabinet approves 50-million shekel plan to 'strengthen' Kiryat Arba settlement

The Israeli cabinet approved on Sunday a 50 million shekel ($12.8 million) plan to “strengthen” the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank, in a move which anti-settlement group Peace Now said in a statement Monday was part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to “prioritize the most extreme settlements.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772178

Israeli settlers throw rocks at Palestinian vehicles in northern West Bank(16-7)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772255

As tribute to deceased child, Israeli settlers violate al-Aqsa's status quo
According to the Wadi Hilweh Information center, 285 Israeli settlers provocatively toured al-Aqsa Compound yesterday, accompanied by the Israeli police, including the police commander.
https://www.facebook.com/alternativenews.org/posts/1033221436715771:0

Activists prevent Israeli bulldozers from continuing work on settler road in Ramallah
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772230






Israeli forces demolish 3 homes in East Jerusalem neighborhood(13-7)
Israeli bulldozers demolished three houses under construction and a steel structure in the Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, after Israeli forces claimed the owners lacked proper licenses.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772225


Red Cross cuts family visits to Palestinian prisoners

Naimeh Shamlawi missed her youngest son more than ever during Ramadan, which concluded earlier this month.
Ali, 19, has spent the last three years in Israeli military detention on attempted murder charges. Israeli prosecutors claim that he and four friends threw rocks at an Israeli settler’s car, causing a crash that resulted in the death of a young Israeli girl.
Though they took a plea deal, Ali and his friends, known as the Hares Boys, have maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration.
The evidence against them, they say, was based on “confessions” extracted under torture. But that’s small comfort to their mothers who say they felt the loss acutely every time the rest of the family gathered to break the Ramadan fast.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/red-cross-cuts-family-visits-palestinian-prisoners/17351


Israeli forces raid PFLP section in Rimon prison, impose total closure(17-7)

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society said on Sunday morning that Israeli Prison Service (IPS) forces raided section 5 of Israel's Rimon prison, where they searched room number 72 and imposed a total closure on the section, which holds exclusively prisoners affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The group added in a statement that the acts of the prison administration and its forces are part of its collective punishment on PFLP prisoners across all Israeli prisons, in response to their support of Bilal Kayid, who has been on a hunger strike since June 14 in protest of his administrative detention order. http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772262

Hunger striking Palestinian prisoner to be transferred to hospital due to deteriorating health

Lawyers for Palestinian political prisoner Bilal Kayed expect Israeli authorities to transfer him from Ashkelon prison to Barzilai Hospital at any time due to his deteriorating health.
https://www.facebook.com/alternativenews.org/posts/1032167093487872:0

Israel issues 34 administrative detention orders to Palestinian prisoners

Israeli authorities issued administrative detention orders against 34 Palestinian prisoners for periods between three to six renewable months on Tuesday .
Palestinian Prisoner’s Society lawyer Mahmoud al-Halabi said in a statement that 24 of the orders were issued against prisoners who had already spent months and years in Israeli administrative detention.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772218




Israeli Commandos Penetrate Syria, Lebanon; Plant Spy Devices And Murder Civilians

The Israeli Defense Forces intelligence apparatus uses sophisticated listening devices planted in southern Lebanon — just one of the many surveillance tools at Israel’s disposal — to eavesdrop on the Lebanese militant group’s communications and track troop movements, among other things.
Rumors have trickled back from the front to Israeli reporters that the forays into Lebanon by the IDF’s elite commando units, Sayeret Matkal and Maglan, weren’t always clean operations. In fact, Israeli forces have encountered Lebanese civilians while planting their equipment more than once. Like Bob Kerrey and John Kerry during their days as commandos in Vietnam, when this happens, there’s only one option: eradicate the threat.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/07/08/israeli-commandos-penetrate-syria-lebanon-to-plant-spy-devices-and-murder-civilians/

Mossad-linked group sues Facebook for $1 billion

Facebook has shut down Palestinian leaders’ profiles, deleted pages calling for a “third Intifada” and cooperated with the Israeli army, but a new lawsuit filed by Shurat HaDin says the social media platform has not gone far enough.
On Monday, the Israeli lawfare group filed a $1 billion lawsuit in a New York federal court alleging that Facebook violates the Anti-Terrorism Act [by serving as a platform for Hamas and “knowingly … facilitat(ing) this terrorist group’s ability to communicate, recruit members, plan and carry out attacks, and strike fear in its enemies.”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/mossad-linked-group-sues-facebook-1-billion

Knesset approves bill criminalizing efforts to stop Christians from joining Israeli army

The Israeli Knesset approved a controversial bill last week cracking down on efforts to prevent Palestinian Christians from joining the Israeli army, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee voted in favor of the bill, which criminalizes efforts to stop Christian enlistment in the army, by mandating prison terms for anyone who dissuades Christian Palestinians from volunteering for Israeli military service, or convinces them to leave once they’ve joined.
The circumstances under which the bill were passed also drew criticism and controversy, as the meeting to vote was held by only Jewish Knesset members during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, despite the request of Palestinian Knesset members from the Joint List to postpone the vote so that they could be present.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772186


Yair Lapids zerstörende Verschwörung des Schweigens über Israel

Die Diskussion über die Besatzung kann nur im Ausland geführt werden. Eine solche Debatte erfordert die Existenz einer freien demokratischen Gesellschaft, wo  die Leute wissen, was vor sich geht. Die Debatte kann demnach nicht in Israel geführt werden, so wie eine Diskussion über die Jesiden im Irak oder eine Diskussion über Gays oder Journalisten in Russland nicht möglich ist.
Unter dem israelischen Regime leben zwei Gesellschaften, die nicht in der Lage sind eine Diskussion über die Besatzung zu führen. Es gibt die jüdische Gesellschaft, die in Verleugnung und Repression lebt, die nichts weiß und nichts wissen will; und die palästinensische Gesellschaft, die alles weiß, aber keine Rechte hat. 
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18401

One Broken Camera

Shuhada kindergarten may be one of the most vulnerable schools in Hebron. The school sits halfway to the crest of Tel Rumeda, the oldest site in Hebron, Palestine, where pottery shards dating to 3,500 BC have been found. Just fifty meters behind the school lies a community of Israeli settlers who employ harassment and violence to pry from the hands of Palestinian owners as many homes and as much of the land as possible. To protect the settlers, a fortress of more than a dozen Israeli military checkpoints, guard towers and mobile military bases ring the settlement and the school. Razor wire is everywhere. It lines the school’s chain-link fence and is almost invisible in the tangled weeds and brush through which the children, their parents and teachers walk to and from the school
http://imeu.org/photo_essay/one-broken-camera




Humiliation: The hammer crushing Palestinian society

While the exercise of military control over an occupied country may be expected to inflict inevitable pain and trauma on the citizens of that country, the history of Israeli policy has far exceeded any “pragmatic” needs of an occupier to dominate and subdue a local population. The Israeli humiliation of Palestinians is an end in itself. Humiliation is thus one of the most important injuries experienced in the Palestinian context and yet, it is under-reported to such a degree that humiliation is viewed as almost normal.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160630-humiliation-the-hammer-crushing-palestinian-society/

Gaza tunnels seen as vital tool of resistance

It was a warm night in Jabaliya, northeast of Gaza City. Abu Zein and his wife were fast asleep when what the couple first thought was an earthquake shook their bed so hard, its legs buckled.
They immediately jumped up and ran out of the home they had only recently moved into after getting married. But outside was quiet. No one was stirring, no damage was visible, the ground stayed still.
The only movement came from the shadows where a couple of fighters with the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, emerged to ask the couple what had happened.
When Abu Zein — who did not want to give his real name for this article out of concern for his safety — told them, the fighters promised to repair any damage in the couple’s house. The next day, a man turned up with tools to repair the damage to the floor and money as compensation for the damaged furniture.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-tunnels-seen-vital-tool-resistance/17216

Gaza garbage puts public health at risk
The view from Omayma Nasser’s home is getting uglier.
Huge heaps of waste — collected and thrown in an ad hoc landfill not a kilometer from her home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza — dominate the view.
“The sight is killing me,” the 37-year-old mother of six said. The overpowering stench is acutely nauseating, especially in the summer: “The smells waft over earlier in the mornings than at any other time of the year.”
The rubbish mounds also attract hungry animals, including stray dogs that terrify children and parents alike. Nasser’s children refuse to go to school unless their father escorts them past the notorious landfill.
But the sight, pungency and inconvenience are just the noticeable effects experienced by those who live around what are increasingly common ad hoc landfills in residential areas in Gaza that officials say they simply have no choice but to create.
Far more pressing are the potential health risks. Due to a lack of resources, waste in Gaza is rarely sorted. Domestic, industrial, agricultural and medical waste can all be mixed in landfills, say experts. When these are burned, poisonous and sometimes carcinogenic fumes are released that pose a health hazard to those nearby.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-garbage-puts-public-health-risk/17146

No justice, no aid: Gaza on its knees two years after war, say reports

Two years after Gaza's last devastating conflict with Israel, rights groups vented frustration on Thursday over the slow pace of reconstruction in the Palestinian territory and lack of war crimes prosecutions.
Amnesty International said it was "indefensible" that no criminal cases had been brought for alleged war crimes committed by Israel or the Palestinians, while a coalition of leading NGOs urged Israel to lift its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
The July-August 2014 war between Israel and Gaza killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and 73 people on the Israeli side, and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes in besieged Gaza.
Reconstruction has been painfully slow, with the United Nations taking over a year to rebuild its first destroyed home.
Israel has maintained a blockade on the enclave, limiting the entry of many goods essential for construction that officials fear could fall into the hands of Hamas and be used for another military build-up.
Only three Israeli soldiers have been charged over the war, all on minor charges, the Amnesty report said, ahead of Friday's anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict.
"The fact that no one has been held to account for war crimes that were evidently committed by both sides in the conflict is absolutely indefensible," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa head.
"Two years have passed and it's high time the wheels of justice started turning."
In a separate report, AIDA - an umbrella body for major international NGOs working in Israel and the Palestinian territories - said Israel's decade-long blockade was "severely impeding reconstruction and recovery" in Gaza.
"Unless it is lifted, Palestinians living in Gaza will be unable to move on with their lives and live in freedom, dignity and safety," said Chris Eijkemans, country director at AIDA with the British charity Oxfam.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/2-years-post-war-gaza-reconstruction-justice-lacking-reports-128446882

Gaza family files complaint against French company for complicity in war crimes


A Palestinian family from Gaza City has filed a complaint against a French company, accusing it of complicity in war crimes for manufacturing a component of an Israeli missile that targeted the family’s home in 2014, killing three children.
The Shuhaiber family say five children were feeding pigeons on their grandfather’s roof when a missile struck the home on 17 July 2014. Brothers Jihad, 11, and Wassim, 8, and their cousin Afnan, 8, were killed immediately. The other two boys, Basel and Oday, suffered serious injuries. Even after extensive surgeries, they are unlikely to ever fully recover.
“The French arms industry cannot escape its moral and legal responsibility,” Ingrid Metton, an attorney with the Paris-based law firm Ancile Avocats, stated in a press release. “Selling pieces and components used to commit war crimes must be severely punished.”
This is believed to be the first time a complaint has been filed against a French company for complicity in war crimes, Hélène Legeay, program director at Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture, told The Electronic Intifada.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/gaza-family-files-complaint-against-french-company-complicity-war-crimes

Stop Living in Denial, Israel Is an Evil State

Israel may not be Nazi, nor even a fascist state. Yet it is a member of the same terrible family, the family of evil states. Just consider these acts of evil perpetrated by the state...

After we’ve cited nationalism and racism, hatred and contempt for Arab life, the security cult and resistance to the occupation, victimhood and messianism, one more element must be added without which the behavior of the Israeli occupation regime cannot be explained: Evil. Pure evil. Sadistic evil. Evil for its own sake. Sometimes, it’s the only explanation.
Eva Illouz described its signs (“Evil now,” Haaretz Hebrew edition, July 30). Her essay, which challenges the idea of the banality of evil, considers the national group as the source of the evil. Using philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept, she finds a “family resemblance” between the Israeli occupation and history’s evil regimes. This similarity does not mean that Israel is Nazi, nor even fascist. And yet it is a member of the same terrible family, the family of evil states. It’s a depressing and brilliant analysis.
http://jpdg.de/meldungen/2016/7/31/gideon-levy-haaretz-30072016-stop-living-in-denial-israel-is-an-evil-state

300 Palestinian prisoners now participating in mass hunger strike

More than 300 Palestinians are currently participating in an open hunger strike in Israeli prisons, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said on Thursday.

PPS said that 285 Hamas-affiliated prisoners held at the Eshel and Nafha prisons entered an open hunger strike on Thursday to protest suppressive measures by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), while some 40 prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were striking in support of fellow prisoner Bilal Kayid.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772515

Hunger striker Bilal Kayed refuses to see doctors

Bilal Kayed has now been on [hunger strike] for 50 days.

In mid-June, he was supposed to return to his home in the West Bank village of Asira al-Shamaliya after serving nearly 15 years in an Israeli prison.

But when Israeli authorities reneged and placed him under administrative detention instead, he began refusing food.

His protest has drawn strong support: around 100 Palestinian prisoners have joined a hunger strike in solidarity with him.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/hunger-striker-bilal-kayed-refuses-see-doctors


Bilal Kayed begins fifth week of hunger strike

“To all freedom loving people of the world,” begins the August 1st letter of Bilal Kayed, a Palestinian political prisoner who is on his 51st day of hunger strike in protest of his unjust detainment.

In the letter, Kayed announces the second phase of his protest, which “will focus on the unity with all prisoners of all categories and all parties.” Despite his deteriorating heath, Kayed also announced his intentions to deny medical tests and return back to prison. His decision comes after an Israeli military court rejected his request to have the detention order lifted.
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php/headlines/150-bilal-kayed-begins-fifth-week-of-hunger-strike

Hamas prisoners reach agreement with Israel Prison Service to end mass hunger strike

Hamas-affiliated prisoners reached an agreement Saturday with the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to end their mass hunger strikes, according the the Prisoner’s Media Office, a Gaza-based organization covering Palestinian prisoner-related news.

The group published the terms of the agreement that was reached, which included ending all types of “humiliating searches” -- specifically strip searching -- improving the living conditions of Hamas-affiliated prisoners in Israel’s Nafha prison, by installing proper ventilation and reducing prisoner congestion.

The terms of the agreement also included returning the head of the Higher Commission of Hamas Prisoners, Muhammad Irman, from Israel’s Hadarim prison back to Nafha prison within a period of six months, as well as returning all prisoners who were previously moved to other prisons, back to their original locations.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772548

41 Palestinian women, including 12 minors, currently held in Israel's HaSharon prison

Several dozen Palestinian women, including 12 minors, are currently being held in Israel’s HaSharon prison, according to a statement released Thursday by the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.

The committee said in the statement that 41 Palestinian women and girls are being held in the prison, with some suffering from deteriorating health conditions, adding that Israel’s treatment of women prisoners is against international law, and requires “international institutions to end their silence" and to stop Israel's "perpetual crimes.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772526

Hundreds gather in solidarity with hunger-striking prisoners in Ramallah sit-in

Hundreds of Palestinians took part in a sit-in the city of Ramallah in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons on Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772511

Israeli authorities deny families of Palestinian prisoners entry into Israel

Several Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s Ashkelon prison filed complaints against Israeli forces and authorities after their family members were denied entry through Israeli-controlled checkpoints despite holding Israeli permits for family visitations, according to a statement released Saturday by a lawyer from the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772547

Palestinian journalists launch campaign to support hunger striker Omar Nazzal

A representative for the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) announced on Thursday that the group would organize a solidarity sit-in to support the prominent Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal, who began a hunger strike on Thursday in protest of being held by Israeli authorities without charge or trial.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772531

Israeli authorities transfer critically ill Palestinian prisoner to solitary confinement

Israeli prison authorities reportedly assaulted and transferred a critically ill Palestinian prisoner to solitary confinement on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

Israeli forces transferred 42-year-old Alaa al-Hums to solitary confinement while he continued to suffer from a tumor in his throat and chest. Al-Hums’ heavy medication regimen has also reportedly caused him to develop a stomach and nerve disease, and in 2012 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772489

Israel passes law allowing imprisonment of East Jerusalem Palestinians ages 14 and under

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a bill into law on Wednesday permitting the imprisonment of children under the age of 14 if the child committed acts of "terrorism," according to a statement released by the Knesset.

The legislation, labeled the “Youth Bill,” would allow Israeli authorities to imprison a child if convicted of “terrorism” against Israeli civilians or military personnel.

The statement said that Israeli courts were now permitted to “set discussions regarding the imprisoned juvenile while he or she is being held at a close facility,” and that during the discussions the courts “will be allowed to postpone the convicted minor’s transfer date from the closed facility to a prison, shorten the convicted minor’s prison sentence or cancel the prison sentence.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772507

Israel approves prison sentences for 'terrorists' as young as 12

Rights groups have slammed the measure saying that jailing 'such young minors denies them the chance of a better future'
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-approves-jailing-terrorists-age-12-126821637



Palestinian leaders call mass hunger strike in Israel's prisons an 'intifada against injustice'

Palestinian leaders gathered at a solidarity sit-in for hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, as the Head of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs addressed the participants, saying that Israeli prisons have turned into a “battle field” and an “intifada against injustice, humiliation, and racist arbitrary laws.”

Issa Qaraqe cited the mass hunger strike under way throughout Israel’s prisons, first launched in solidarity with hunger striker Bilal Kayid, which evolved into a mass protest against administrative detention -- Israel’s policy of detention without charge or trial, as well solitary confinement, humiliating raids, and other severe measures imposed on Palestinian prisoners.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772550


Israeli forces detain mother and brother of wanted Palestinian, demand he turn himself in

sraeli authorities Monday detained the mother and brother of Malik Ubeid, a wanted Palestinian from the village of Farun in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tulkarem, in an attempt to pressure Malik into turning himself in to Israeli authorities in exchange for their release.

According to Amir Awad, a member of the Farun village council, Israeli authorities summoned Wafiqa Daoud Nasser Ubeid and her son Suleiman Ahmad Abd al-Qader Ubeid to the Israeli liaison offices before detaining them.

Awad told Ma’an that Israeli authorities reportedly called Malik’s brother-in-law, who lives in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and threatened to detain Malik’s sisters if he didn’t turn himself in.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772493


Israeli forces raid, search house of wanted Palestinian in Jenin(05-08)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772538

Israeli forces detain 3 siblings of wanted Palestinian in Tulkarem(03-08)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772500

Israeli forces detain 26 Palestinians, including 3 minors, during raids(03-08)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772506

25 Palestinians detained in raids, as Israeli forces close main Hebron entrance(02-08)

At least 25 Palestinians were detained in raids from Monday evening to the early morning hours on Tuesday, as Israeli forces stormed multiple villages and cities across the occupied West Bank, and sealed off the main road to the southern city of Hebron.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772480

Several Palestinians injured in clashes, Israeli forces storm southern Nablus villages(07-08)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772555

Clashes break out in Beit Ummar, several Palestinians suffer from tear gas inhalation(06-08)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772546

6 Palestinians injured with Israeli live fire in Gaza clashes(05-08)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772545


Israeli forces closes major checkpoint in Ramallah
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772504

Israeli navy opens fire at Palestinian fishermen off Gaza coast
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772518

Israeli forces close roads in Nablus
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772481

Israeli forces demolish structures in Hebron(05-08)

Israeli forces reportedly demolished two structures used for agricultural purposes and a water well on Thursday evening in the Farsh al-Hawa area of western Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772544

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian structures in Jericho(04-08)

Israeli forces Thursday demolished residential structures in the al-Moarajat area in the northern part of the occupied West Bank district of Jericho on Thursday, according to Palestinian officials.

Israeli bulldozers, escorted by Israeli bulldozers, reportedly demolished two residential mobile homes, two offices, two kitchens, a bathroom, residential barracks, and three water tanks owned by Ali Suliman Mlehat.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772529

Israel demolishes commercial structures in East Jerusalem neighborhood(02-08)

Israeli bulldozers demolished a car dealer’s office and two shipping containers in the occupied East Jerusalem village of Sur Bahir during the predawn hours of Tuesday morning, while a Palestinian man in Silwan demolished his own home following an Israeli order, amid a large-scale demolition campaign targeting Palestinian communities across the city.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772481

Israeli forces demolishes homes of Tel Aviv attack suspects(04-08)

Israeli forces raided the town of Yatta in the southern occupied West Bank late on Wednesday night and demolished the family homes of two Palestinian cousins who carried out a deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv in June which killed four Israelis.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772517

Israeli bulldozers level lands in southern Gaza Strip
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772497

Israel demolishes Palestinian home in East Jerusalem for 6th time in 10 years

Israeli bulldozers on Wednesday demolished a Palestinian family's home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina -- the sixth time since the family began seeking an Israeli-issued building license more than a decade ago -- amid a massive escalation of demolitions in the city over recent weeks.

The owner of the house, Izz al-Din Abu Nijma, told the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Jerusalem that the demolition “caught him by surprise” and occurred without prior notice.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772505

Susiya village on brink of destruction by Israel

Israel’s high court placed the fate of the Palestinian village Susiya and its 340 residents in the hands of defense minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday, leaving it to him to decide whether the army will demolish nearly half its structures, mostly ramshackle dwellings.

On Monday, the court punted a petition the village had submitted with Rabbis for Human Rights requesting that it compel Israel’s occupation administration to recognize the legality of structures that Palestinians had built without permits from the army.

The president of the court, Miriam Naor, said she would reject the petition, but left the decision to Lieberman.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/susiya-village-brink-destruction-israel



Private Palestinian land under threat of confiscation for evacuees of illegal Israeli outpost

Israeli human rights watchdog Peace Now slammed on Tuesday a recent position by an Israeli government committee advocating the leasing privately held Palestinian property for the resettlement of Israeli settlers residing in the nearby illegal outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus, which was ordered by Israel’s Supreme Court to be demolished by the end of the year.

According to the group, Israel's Army Radio reported Tuesday morning that a committee established to relocate the residents of the Amona outpost issued a legal opinion to the attorney general, suggesting the takeover of nearby Palestinian land whose owners are currently residing outside of the West Bank, in order to transfer the settlers there.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772491

Hundreds of Israeli settlers raid Nablus-area village

Some 400 Israeli settlers entered the village of Awarta in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus in the early morning on Friday and performed religious rituals in the area, according to Israeli sources.

Israel’s Channel 7 reported that the Israeli settlers raided the village as they were escorted by Israeli forces, prompting clashes to erupt between Palestinian youths, Israeli settlers, and soldiers.

Israeli forces reportedly detained seven Palestinians from the village for allegedly throwing rocks at the settlers.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772539

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian girl in Ramallah, stab and kill her sheep

A group of Israeli settlers attacked and beat a Palestinian girl in the village of Rammun in the eastern part of the occupied West Bank district of Ramallah on Thursday, according to Palestinian locals and an Israeli police spokesperson.

The Palestinian girl, who was herding sheep in the village at the time, sustained injuries after the incident, while 11 of her sheep were reportedly stabbed by the Israeli settlers, locals told Ma’an. Several of the sheep died of their stab wounds.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772527



A guide to online security for activists

The last year has seen an uptick in digital threats faced by individuals and organizations around the world, and those working on the question of Palestine are no exception.

Over the past few months, there have been attacks on boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement websites, threatening emails to activists and new information emerging on Israel’s surveillance capabilities.

“The latest cyber-attacks against BDS seem to be part of a full-fledged Israeli war on the movement that includes McCarthyite legal repression, use of intelligence services and yet more funding for ‘brand Israel’ propaganda,” said Mahmoud Nawajaa, the general coordinator of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC). “These attacks smack of Israel’s despair at its growing isolation around the world, after failing for years to stem the growing support for the nonviolent BDS movement as a strategic and effective means to achieve Palestinian rights under international law.”
https://electronicintifada.net/content/guide-online-security-activists/17536

Israeli guard grabs Palestinian girl's bike and throws it into bushes

An armed Israeli border guard has been caught on camera seizing a Palestinian girl's bicycle and throwing it away after she allegedly rode along a path reserved for illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank.

B’Tselem volunteer Raed Abu Ramileh captured the moment on Monday, 25 July when Anwar Burqan was confronted by the officer near the town of Hebron.

The officer runs to the girl and steps on the bicycle. Burqan is then seen crying and running away, before the officer throws the bike into nearby bushes.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/video-israeli-police-officer-grabs-crying-palestinian-girls-bike-and-throws-it-bushes-162837150


Palestinians buried after Jerusalem killings

Two Palestinians who were shot dead in the Jerusalem suburb of al-Ram during separate incidents over the past week were buried on Wednesday.

Muhyee Sidqi al-Tibakhi, 10, died after he was shot in the chest and head on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry told media.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinians-buried-after-jerusalem-killings

Six years of struggle in al-Araqib

“Today we say to the world that we are going to remain on this land,” says one young resident of the village of al-Araqib.

Al-Araqib, in the Naqab desert in the south of present-day Israel, has been razed 101 times already.

It is one of several villages in the area not recognized by the Israeli government, which also means it lacks basic services like electricity and water.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/six-years-struggle-al-araqib/17606

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour is home, but still not free

Palestinian poet and political prisoner Dareen Tatour finally returned to her hometown of Reineh last week after enduring various forms of Israeli detention for nearly nine months.

Her family and supporters joyously greeted her with music, food and fireworks when she arrived to the village on July 26th.

Yet Tartour’s future remains uncertain: she will remain under house arrest and electronic surveillance in her family’s home. Moreover, her trial remains ongoing. If Israeli authorities find her guilty of “incitement to violence,” she will be taken back to prison for up to eight years.

Israeli forces arrested Tatour on October 11th 2015. They charged her with incitement to violence, based on a YouTube video showcasing a poem she wrote titled Resist, My People, Resist Them, as well as two statuses and an image of Israa Abed posted on her Facebook profile.
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php/headlines/149-palestinian-poet-dareen-tatour-is-home-but-still-not-fre


Palestinians inside Israel are under attack

Was it meant as an epic parody or an insult to his audience’s intelligence? It was hard to tell.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media to apologise for last year’s notorious election-day comment, when he warned that “the Arabs are coming out to vote in droves” – a reference to the fifth of Israel’s population who are Palestinian.

In videos released last week in English and Hebrew, Mr Netanyahu urged Palestinian citizens to become more active in public life. They needed to “work in droves, study in droves, thrive in droves,” he said. “I am proud of the role Arabs play in Israel’s success”.

Pointedly, Ayman Odeh, head of the Palestinian-dominated Joint List party, noted that 100,000 Bedouin citizens could not watch the video because Israel denies their communities electricity, internet connections and all other services.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-08-01/palestinians-inside-israel-are-under-attack/


The right man in the right place

Following Eyal Karim’s appointment as chief rabbi of the Israeli military, secular Israelis must realize that their allies in the fight for a secular democratic state are none other than Palestinians.
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php/comment/147-the-right-man-in-the-right-place



Yair Lapids zerstörende Verschwörung des Schweigens über Israel

Die Diskussion über die Besatzung kann nur im Ausland geführt werden. Eine solche Debatte erfordert die Existenz einer freien demokratischen Gesellschaft, wo die Leute wissen, was vor sich geht. Die Debatte kann demnach nicht in Israel geführt werden, so wie eine Diskussion über die Jesiden im Irak oder eine Diskussion über Gays oder Journalisten in Russland nicht möglich ist.

Unter dem israelischen Regime leben zwei Gesellschaften, die nicht in der Lage sind eine Diskussion über die Besatzung zu führen. Es gibt die jüdische Gesellschaft, die in Verleugnung und Repression lebt, die nichts weiß und nichts wissen will; und die palästinensische Gesellschaft, die alles weiß, aber keine Rechte hat.

In einer Situation, in der die eine Gesellschaft die Macht zur Beeinflussung hat, aber die Realität nicht anerkennt, während die andere Bescheid weiß, aber nicht nach ihrer Meinung gefragt wird, ist es unerlässlich, die Diskussion hinaus zu bringen und so dafür zu sorgen, dass die Welt weiß, wie die israelische Besatzung aussieht und ihre Verbrechen bekannt werden. Das ist der Weg sie zu beenden.
http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=18401


Film takes aim at media coverage of 2014 Gaza attacks

A short new film on the historical, political and humanitarian situation in Palestine takes aim at the corporate news media’s coverage of Israel’s July-August 2014 assault on Gaza.

Israel killed 2,251 Palestinians during the attacks, including 551 children. Approximately 75,000 people remain displaced two years later.

“Despite overwhelming evidence of the disparity of power between Israel and all Palestinians and the aggressiveness of Israel’s exercise of its power, including excessive and brutal violence and collective punishment in Gaza in the form of occupation, siege, and frequent military assaults against dense and captive civilian populations,” the film’s producers assert, “mainstream media and educational materials continue to frame Israel as the victim.”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/film-takes-aim-media-coverage-2014-gaza-attacks