Violence / Detentions — West Bank / Jerusalem

Border Policeman knocks handicapped Palestinian off wheelchair

Ynet 16 Feb by Elior Levy — A Border Policeman was filmed Sunday in Hebron pushing a disabled Palestinian and knocking him off his wheelchair. The incident, documented by Palestinian photographers, took place after an attempted stabbing attack in Hebron . Border Policemen and local Palestinians arrived at the scene when some residents started throwing rocks at the officers. Majid al-Fakhouri, a 50-year-old handicapped Palestinian who uses a wheelchair, approached the scene wanting to get near the female terrorist who had been shot by the officers and was lying just 15 meters from him. The police prevented Palestinians from approaching and an altercation began between al-Fakhouri and one of the border policemen. At this point the police officer was filmed pushing al-Fakhouri’s wheelchair of and knocking him backwards. “I arrived at the scene to help and rescue the girl who was lying on the ground after having been shot. I did exactly what a person is expected to do,” recounted al-Fakhouri. “I spoke with the officer standing there in a dignified way and he yelled at me, telling me to go home and then he pushed the chair and knocked me backwards.” “My son and my nephew came immediately and carried me back home. The police should be ashamed of what they did,” Al-Fakhouri added. He was then was evacuated to a hospital in Hebron, but was released a short time later since he was only slightly bruised. He stressed that he was considering filing a complaint against the officers following the incident. The Border Police issued a statement that read: “Upon receipt of the video, it was sent to the internal affairs department which has begun an investigation.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4766751,00.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xan7Wsl_dU

Hasbara exposed: Propaganda group posts Photoshopped video of soldiers dumping Palestinian from wheelchair

IMEMC 16 Feb by Chris Carlson — A Facebook *hasbara (propaganda) group has posted, on their page, a video which has apparently been edited in order to convince viewers to believe that a disabled man’s crutch is a firearm, as he is violently thrown from his wheelchair by an Israeli soldier. The group, called “The Palestinian lie”, posted the video below on February 15th, with the following subtext: . . . During dealing with a riot one of the broder patrol officers suspected an arab terrorist on a wheelchair. The officer pushed the arab terrorist back and as he fell from the wheelchair what fell out of is clothing? An armed gun! The video was posted on Facebook, in response to footage and accompanying news, which surfaced yesterday, February 14th: Though the original footage is slightly murky, one can plainly see, upon replay, that the the two dark objects circled in the doctored footage are, in fact, falling in tandem and make up the top and bottom pieces of an axillary crutch.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74969

Palestinian worker suffers a leg fracture after Israeli soldiers assault him

IMEMC/Agencies 18 Feb — Medical sources have reported that a Palestinian worker suffered, on Thursday morning, a fracture in his leg, after Israeli soldiers assaulted him on military roadblock #300, at the northern entrance of Bethlehem. The sources said that Aysar Shalalda, 23, suffered a fracture in his left leg, and several cuts and bruises to various parts of his body after the soldiers stopped him on the roadblock and repeatedly struck him with their batons, in addition to kicking and punching him. Shalalda was heading to work at a construction site in occupied Jerusalem; he was moved to the Beit Jala Hospital, in Bethlehem, for treatment.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74991

Palestinian worker injured near Bethlehem

IMEMC/Agencies 17 Feb — A Palestinian worker from Nahhalin town, west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, has been injured, earlier Wednesday, after falling from a high point as Israeli soldiers were chasing him. The soldiers also kidnapped thirteen Palestinians in the West Bank. The wounded worker, Wajdi Jamal Najajra, 30, was heading to work in Jerusalem through Wadi Abu al-Hummus road, near al-Khass village, in Bethlehem district, but some Israeli soldiers, stationed on a nearby military roadblock, chased him until he fell from a high point, and suffered fractures in his legs. The soldiers did not proceed to abduct the man, and left the area; locals called for an ambulance, before he was hospitalized suffering moderate wounds, and fractures in his legs.

On Tuesday at night, the soldiers kidnapped a Palestinian identified as Abboud Monther Elba, 19, while he was walking near a military post in the at-Tour Mountain, in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The soldiers also invaded ‘Aseera ash-Shimaliyya town, north of Nablus, searched homes and kidnapped Mo’men Monir Sawalha. On Wednesday at dawn, soldiers invaded Qabatia town, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, searched and ransacked many homes, kidnapped three Palestinians and assaulted two others. The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that the soldiers kidnapped at least thirteen Palestinians, in different parts of the West Bank, on Wednesday at dawn.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74979

Army injures a young man in Bethlehem

IMEMC/Agencies 17 Feb — Palestinian medical sources in Bethlehem, has reported that Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Wednesday at dawn, a young man in the al-Khader town, south of the West Bank district of Bethlehem. Eyewitnesses said several military vehicles invaded the town after surrounding it, and clashed with dozens of local youths, who hurled stones and empty bottles at them. The army fired several live rounds, wounding a young man in his thigh, in the an-Nashash area in the town, before local medics moved him to a hospital. Similar clashes took place near the main entrance of the Deheishe refugee camp, south of Bethlehem.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74978

Three Jewish youth allegedly attack Arab taxi driver

Ynet 14 Feb by Roi Yanovsky — Suspects allegedly assaulted the taxi driver, swearing at him and breaking his glasses, because of his ethnicity; only one of the suspects has been arrested — A 20-year-old Jewish resident of Jerusalem was arrested on Saturday morning on suspicion he attacked an Arab taxi driver. The alleged attacker is suspected of damaging property and perpetrating a hate crime. Two other passengers who allegedly participated in the attack have yet to be caught, but their identities are known to police . . . The three suspects entered a taxi driven by an Arab. The three allegedly started cursing the driver because of his Arab identity, which prompted the driver, who was afraid for his safety, to return to the International Convention Center and ask the three to exit his taxi without payment. At this point, one of the suspects turned to the driver and demanded NIS 20 for a cigarette he gave him. When the driver refused, the suspect assaulted him, breaking his glasses, and then continued his verbal attack of the driver and another taxi driver that drove by, before fleeing the scene with the two other passengers . . . .

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4766178,00.html

Video: Israeli soldier tortures Palestinian with electricity

Eye of Palestine 15 Feb — A new video has divulged the extent of Israel’s continued crimes against Palestinian detainees and the Tel Aviv regime’s blatant disrespect for the international legal rules governing detention. The video, which was broadcast by Israel’s Hebrew-language Channel 2 television network on Sunday evening, shows an Israeli soldier giving electric shocks to a blindfolded young Palestinian man using electrodes attached to his neck.

https://www.facebook.com/TheEyeOfPalestineDK/videos/1102539489769432/

Israel police ignore claims of Jerusalem Palestinians they accidentally injure

Haaretz 18 Feb by Amira Hass — Shot in the eye? Got your door torn down? Don’t hold your breath for compensation if you are an Arab resident or citizen of Israel — When Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem who were not involved in violence suffer injury or property damage during an Israel Police operation, you can be sure they will wait a long time to even to be acknowledged as victims, let alone be compensated. The first step in the process requires the Israel Police to grant what is known as “enemy action” confirmation . . . Itai Mack, a lawyer representing several such victims, has been trying to get the required confirmation since November, in vain. Louay Faisel Abed, from ‘Issawiyah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, lost his eye from a sponge-tipped bullet fired by a Border Police force on October 21. He is still in the medical process of obtaining a prosthetic eye. Abed, who owns a transportation company, was standing on the porch of his house when he was hit. There were no conflicts in the area between the Border Police and residents at the time Abed was injured, say witnesses . . . On October 20, towards dawn, a Border Police force broke into the house of Jihad Zaatari in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras el Amud. Only after breaking down the two entry doors did they realize they were in the wrong house . . . Just like a year ago, in early November, he sent the requests for confirmation to the commander of the Kedem district in the Israel Police, Haim Shmueli. Receiving no answer after three weeks, he went to Shmueli’s office and was told to send the requests directly to the Border Police commander in Jerusalem (he was not told the commander’s name), even though the decision to grant the confirmation, or not, is the prerogative of the Israel Police. (Continued)

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.703966

Soldiers kidnap three Palestinians, assault two others, in Jenin

IMEMC/Agencies 17 Feb — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, the town of Qabatia, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, searched and ransacked many homes, kidnapped three Palestinians and assaulted two others. Several military vehicles invaded the town from various directions, and surrounded many neighborhoods, before the soldiers kidnapped three Palestinians, identified as Raed Abu M’alla, Mo’men Abu M’alla and Mohammad Ziad Odeh, all in their twenties. Eyewitnesses said the soldiers caused property damage in the invaded homes, especially due to violent searches, and interrogated several Palestinians. On Tuesday evening, clashes took place near Beit El Israeli colony and security center, built on Palestinian lands in the Ramallah and al-Biereh District of the West Bank, after the soldiers assaulted dozens of Palestinians, holding a solidarity protest with detained journalist Mohammad al-Qeeq. The army assaulted the protesters and fired several rubber-coated steel bullets and dozens of gas bombs.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74977

Israeli troops detain 10 Palestinians in West Bank raids

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — Israeli forces detained at least 10 Palestinian overnight Monday during raids in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army and local sources said. Locals told Ma‘an that Israeli troops raided the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron and detained three Palestinians, including one minor, after ransacking their homes. The detained were identified as Faleh Abdul-Jawad al-Razem, 16 and from Hebron city, Raed Ishaq Abu Hameed, from the town of Yatta, and Thaer Jihad Abu Sundus, from the village of Dura . . . In the central district of Ramallah’s ‘Abud village, Israeli forces detained three brothers, identified as Muhammad Rashad al-Barghouthi, Nour Rashad al-Barghouthi, and Hussein Rashad al-Barghouthi. In nearby Ramallah city, locals said a Palestinian identified as Jamal Abu al-Leel was detained. Meanwhile, one person, identified as Baraa Ziyad was detained in the Qalandiya refugee camp, just outside of the city.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770286

Israeli policemen arrest girl after claiming she was planning stabbing attack

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 15 Feb — Israeli policemen arrested a Palestinian girl in occupied Jerusalem on Monday afternoon after claiming she tried to carry out a stabbing attack. The Hebrew website 0404 said that the policemen beat the girl with their batons before arresting her near Bab el-Amud [or Damascus Gate] in occupied Jerusalem. Hebrew media sources claimed that the policemen found a knife in the possession of the girl.

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76817

Palestinian suspected of planning attack detained at Damascus Gate

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — Israeli police on Tuesday detained a Palestinian suspected of planning to carry out a stab attack near Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said that Israeli police officers deployed at the gate “noticed an Arab man who was moving in a suspicious way.” The forces then approached the man and detained him after finding a knife under his sleeve, the spokesperson said. Al-Samri identified the man as a 26-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area, adding that he had been taken in for questioning.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770303

IDF chief: No need to pump bullets into Palestinian girl with scissors

JPost 17 Feb by Noam Amir/Maariv Hashavua –The head of the military said on Wednesday that he is opposed to lax rules of engagement that allow security forces to kill Palestinian assailants immediately following a terrorist attack. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot met a group of soon-to-be conscripts at a high school in Bat Yam. When asked by a student about the proper response to attacks similar to those seen during the past few months, the army chief replied: “The IDF doesn’t need to get swept up in clichéd statements like ‘Kill or be killed’ or ‘Whoever comes at you with scissors needs to be killed.’ “The tools that are at the soldiers’ disposal are sufficient,” the chief of staff said. “I don’t want to see a soldier empty a magazine [to shoot] a young girl with scissors.”

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-chief-No-need-to-pump-bullets-into-Palestinian-girl-with-scissors-445237

Israel returns body of Jerusalem Palestinian after 124 days

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — Israeli authority handed over the body of a suspected Palestinian attacker on Sunday night, after having withheld the body of Ahmad Abu Shaaban for 124 days. A resident of occupied East Jerusalem, 23-year-old Abu Shaaban reportedly attempted to board an Egged bus after stabbing a 70-year-old woman in the central bus station, when he was shot dead by Israeli border police on Oct. 15. Abu Shaaban’s body was handed over at 2:00 a.m., when his family was allowed to see him for the last time. Muhammad Abu Shaaban, Ahmad’s brother, told Ma‘an that Abu Shaaban was shot more than 20 times in the head, back, and chest. He added that one of the bullets had shattered his skull into small pieces. Israeli authorities released the body on condition that Abu Shaaban’s funeral be attended by only 14 people escorted by armed Israeli special forces. Abu Shaaban’s father said his family was “shocked when the Israeli army suddenly changed the conditions for the handover in terms of the time and the number of the people allowed at the funeral.” The family’s lawyer, Muhammad Mahmoud, said Israeli authorities initially stipulated that only 50 people could attend the funeral, before changing it to 10. The family had to negotiate to bring the number up to 14, and had to pay 20,000 shekels ($5,150) as collateral, Mahmoud added. “Today we received Ahmad’s body, and we hope all the Palestinian families will receive their sons’ bodies,” Abu Shaaban’s father said. “Ahmad was buried near the al-Aqsa mosque where he wanted to be buried,” his mother told Ma‘an . . . Israeli authorities are still withholding the bodies of nine Palestinians from Jerusalem, including Thaer Abu Ghazaleh since Sept. 8, and Musab al-Ghazali, since Oct. 26. The practice has been denounced by Israeli human rights organization Hamoked as amounting to collective punishment for family members of the dead.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770285

Army terror against the Palestinians that journalists only yawn at

Haaretz 17 Feb by Amira Hass — “We’re not allowed to talk to you,” the soldiers said Monday, offering instead a piece of paper written in Hebrew with an appeal in the name of the “Military Commander, Binyamin Sector.” On Sunday evening they invaded the home of a family in the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, southwest of Ramallah. They ordered the family to take their living-room furniture out of the room, placed a bright yellow chemical toilet in the yard, and hung two Israeli flags on the roof. Eleven people live in that well-kept house on a hill in the southern part of the village. Five or six soldiers have ensconced themselves in the living room and occasionally go up to the roof or into the garden. The women say that even though the soldiers put a portable toilet in the yard, they urinate off the balcony. Turning a Palestinian residence into a military position is a yawn for journalists. A yawn represented by the failure to report; by the lack of public interest. Children’s fear of rifles, the disruption of family life and violent invasive acts have become a natural norm in a state where settlers’ needs define everything. “Dear residents, recently a number of attempts by young people to attack Israeli citizens in your area have occurred,” states the piece of paper the soldiers handed out. “In response, military forces have been forced to act in the village to prevent the continuation of danger to the citizens’ security. The military activity of the military forces in the village is intended to reduce the number of violent incidents against Israeli citizens traveling on roads and living in the area, to protect the security of the region, not to disrupt your routine.” Routine: Military jeeps keep entering the village when the drivers feel like it. Tear gas and stun grenades. Military positions all around. Wide Route 443, built on the land of the village and other villages in the Ramallah district, but forbidden for Palestinians to travel on. (Continued)

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.703805

Still in shock from Dawabsha murders, West Bank village of Duma fears settlers will attack again

Mondoweiss 15 Feb by Matthew Vickery — Baraa Dawabsha slowly paces the ground outside the burned out house of his relatives in the small village of Duma, central West Bank. “This is where my aunt got to before she fell to the ground,” he says pointing to a concrete slab about two meters from the house door. He walks a few more paces forward, and stops, pointing at the ground, “and this was where my uncle fell,” he says with sadness in his voice. The arson attack by extremist Israeli settlers against the Dawabsha family that killed Baraa’s aunt Riham, uncle Sa’ad, and their 18-month old baby Ali, left the rural village of Duma in shock. Only Ahmad – Sa’ad and Riham’s four-year-old son – survived the attack. While the deadly arson attack was over half a year ago, residents in Duma say they must remain vigilant, worried that another similar attack may be just around the corner. The overwhelming feeling in the community is that the Israeli government has done nothing to deter further attacks against the vulnerable rural village. “We don’t feel protected at all,” 15-year-old Baraa told me outside the remains of the destroyed home. “The settlers have tried more than once to get into the village again after the attack. They even gathered near to here and Nablus, and were chanting in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, screaming at people ‘Dawabsha number two,’ threatening they will do it again.” “Young people from the village used to gather at night to keep watch,” Baraa continues. “But now everyone from the village is keeping watch on their own home and their neighbors homes throughout the night, just in case the settlers try again.”

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/02/still-in-shock-from-dawabsha-murders-west-bank-village-of-duma-fears-settlers-will-attack-again/

Home made guns add to Israeli security woes

The Media Line 16 Feb by Robert Swift — The gun that killed Hadar Cohen was not carried into the Palestinian territories through tunnels or smuggled past guards at a checkpoint. It was an improvised firearm, probably home made in a basement or kitchen somewhere in the West Bank . . . Neither of the guns used in the attack – described as Carl Gustav submachine guns – were the ubiquitous Kalashnikov assault rifles favored by the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah. “We’re not talking about military grade, manufactured weapons. These are weapons that are being produced in homemade factories,” Micky Rosenfeld, spokesman for Israeli police told The Media Line. Improvised or not, Cohen’s death demonstrates that such tools’ lethality cannot be underestimated. “These firearms are reaching the level of military made weapons. They fired like an AK47 or M-16,” Rosenfeld noted . . . Weapons of this nature have a long history of use in conflicts involving non-state actors, Nick De Arrinaga, European editor at IHLS Jane’s Defense weekly magazine, told The Media Line. Resistance fighters in France and Poland during World War II; the underground organizations Haganah and Etzel during Israel’s war of independence; and more recently, Chechens seeking to push out the Russian Army, all used improvised weapons, De Arrinaga said . . . “Why is anybody making improvised firearms when conventional weapons seem to be in no great shortage in the West Bank?” Availability and cost are the first two reasons that a group might choose to make their own weapons, De Arrinaga said. If it’s difficult to procure weapons or the cost of doing so is prohibitively high, then an organization might choose to build their own. A third reason, De Arrinaga suggested, is to remain unnoticed by security forces. Homemade guns do not have serial numbers which can be traced . . . The fact that improvised weapons are still being made despite the abundance of guns in the West Bank also shows that the individuals using such weapons are not connected to the mainline terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Brigadier-General Nitzan Nuriel, former head of Counter Terrorism to the Israeli Government, told The Media Line. The individuals making these weapons, “are not connected to any terror groups and want to keep a low profile,” Nuriel said.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Home-made-guns-add-to-Israeli-security-445024

I’m not a terrorist, I’m a baking student

Haaretz 14 Feb by Samah Masarwa — In Jerusalem, a knife in my bag and a headscarf are a combination that could cost me my life in these crazy days — For a long time, my dream of learning to be a baker had been baking slowly inside me, at low heat. The temperature rose after I began working as a food photographer. Then I understood the time had come to take my dream out of the oven. Now I’m fulfilling it, fulfilling myself and feeling satisfaction, but also more than a few stabs to the heart. The reason is simple: I chose to set aside one of the items in the kit I received from the college and leave it at home. It’s a very important item that was supposed to help me realize my dream, and I was supposed to bring it to every meeting of the class. But this item – and it’s not hard to guess what it is – was liable to leave the dream shattered. A knife in my bag and a headscarf are a combination that could cost me my life in these crazy days. I’ve already stopped walking around with my hands in my pockets, for fear of rousing suspicions. And I surely wouldn’t go out into the street with a knife. The moment a policeman, soldier or armed civilian saw the knife lying innocently in my bag, he would draw conclusions immediately and get ready to pull the trigger. If the person who spotted the knife wasn’t armed, but who still breathes the tense air of Jerusalem or roams the pathways of social media, he’d make do with shouting “terrorist!” But even in that case, I’m not certain the outcome would be any different . . .I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to explain that I’m studying in a mixed class – of Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, religious, secular, Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. This is a fabric no knife can cut. When I need to cut something, I borrow a knife from one of the other students, usually a Jewish one. I use it and return it with a big smile.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.703308

Prisoners / Court actions

Lawyer: Hunger-striking journalist ‘screams’ to hear son’s voice

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — The health of Palestinian prisoner Muhammad al-Qiq has deteriorated further, one of his lawyers said Monday, as the imprisoned journalist entered his 83rd day on hunger strike. Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer with the Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, said in a statement that al-Qiq was suffering sharp pain in his chest, numbness in his face, and had begun “shouting loudly, and screaming: ‘Let me hear my son’s voice, please God.” She said: “I have not seen him like that during the whole period of his strike. The situation is painful, saddening, and very critical.” Khatib said the latest deterioration in his health was “unprecedented.” She said a medical team had gone to HaEmek Hospital in Afula, where al-Qiq is being held, but the journalist refused to be touched or treated. Al-Qiq, a 33-year-old Palestinian journalist and father of two, began his hunger strike in November to protest his administrative detention by Israel — internment without trial or charge.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770297

No West Bank treatment for hunger striker – court

JERUSALEM (NEWS24) 15 Feb — Israel’s top court on Monday rejected a Palestinian hunger striker’s request to be moved to the West Bank for treatment, but said he could be transferred to annexed Arab east Jerusalem. The supreme court gave Mohammed al-Qiq until 10:00 (08:00 GMT) on Tuesday to decide whether to agree to his transfer from hospital in northern Israel to Jerusalem’s Palestinian-run Makassed Hospital . . . His internment was officially suspended on February 4, but he was still prevented from leaving hospital in Afula in northern Israel where he is handcuffed to his bed.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/no-west-bank-treatment-for-hunger-striker-court-20160215

PA: Israel concealed prisoner’s hunger strike for 43 days

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 17 Feb — The Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs on Tuesday accused Israel of concealing a 43-day long hunger strike being undertaken by a Palestinian prisoner. Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer with the committee, said the Israeli authorities had attempted to keep prisoner Muhammad al-Mahr out of the public eye by not notifying any of the appropriate Palestinian authorities that he was on hunger strike. Khatib visited al-Mahr at a hospital in Tiberias in northern Israel on Tuesday, where she said the man’s arms and legs were cuffed to his bed. It was unclear when al-Mahr was transferred from prison to the civilian hospital. Al-Mahr was arrested on Nov. 2 for alleged possession of a knife with the intention of assaulting Israeli soldiers near a military checkpoint in Jenin. He denies the charges and went on hunger strike to demand his release from Israeli custody.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770316

Palestinian prisoner moved to hospital after entering coma

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — The Israel Prison Service on Tuesday moved a Palestinian prisoner to an Israeli hospital after the man entered a coma on his sixth day of hunger strike, the Palestinian Prisoners and Former Prisoners’ Affairs Committee said. The committee said Rabie Atta Muhammad Jibril was moved from Negev prison to the Soroka Hospital in southern Israel. Jibril, who has been in Israeli custody since Aug. 19, went on hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention — an Israeli policy that allows Palestinians to be held without charge or trial, indefinitely. The committee said it had warned Israeli authorities days ago, that Jibril’s health was rapidly deteriorating, adding that the man shows signs of cirrhosis and cancer. Before Jibril fell into a coma, the committee said he had lost the ability to stand on his own or relieve his bowels, and was “constantly vomiting.”

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770315

Issawi goes on hunger strike in solidarity with journalist Qeiq

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 15 Feb — Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Issawi, from Occupied Jerusalem, has started an open-ended hunger strike in solidarity with hunger-striking journalist Mohamed al-Qeiq, whose health condition has reached a life-threatening stage. Quds Press quoted the father of Issawi as saying that his son had told him about his solidarity step during a recent prison visit. “Samer has gone through the same ordeal before and knows full well what it is like to have your freedom taken from you without any guilt,” the father added. The Israeli military court in Ofer in May last year had reinstated Issawi’s previous 30-year prison term on a charge of his affiliation with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was one of the prisoners released in Wafa al-Ahrar prisoners swap deal. Issawi has become world famous because of his legendary record-breaking hunger strike during his previous detention.

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76811

Israel sentences 2 Palestinians for ‘bomb-making’

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 17 Feb — An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced two Palestinians from al-Tur in occupied East Jerusalem to prison for making “homemade bombs” and other charges related to their involvement in clashes, their lawyer said. Lawyer Muhammad Mahmoud told Ma‘an that Bakr al-Mughrabi, 22, and Issa Abu Jumaa, 28, were charged with making “homemade bombs,” throwing Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and stones at Israeli forces, and damaging an Israeli military vehicle. Both men were found guilty on all charges. Al-Mughrabi was sentenced to five years in prison, a 5,000 shekel fine ($1,279) and three years’ probation, while Jumaa was sentenced to four and a half years in prison with three years probation. Mahmoud said he would be appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court. In July last year, the Israeli Knesset passed a law that made it easier to prosecute those accused of stone throwing, particularly those found to have thrown stones at Israeli police vehicles.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770320

Jerusalem District Attorney’ office indicts 16-year-old Arab girl for attempted murder

JPost 17 Feb by Daniel Eisenbud — The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office issued an indictment against a 16-year-old female Arab defendant on Wednesday for attempted murder and possession of a knife, stemming from a thwarted terrorist attack outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate earlier this month. According to the indictment, on the morning of February 9, the suspect procured a kitchen knife from her Beit Safafa home in southern Jerusalem, hid it in a bag, and traveled to Damascus Gate “in order to carry out a murderous attack against members of security forces.” At approximately 9:15 a.m., the defendant, whose name is under a gag order since she is a minor, drew the suspicion of Border Police officers stationed in the area, who asked her for identification. When the officers attempted to search her bag, she “grabbed the knife and suddenly attacked one of the officers with the knife raised in her hand, attempting to stab him in the upper body in order to cause death,” the indictment stated. Acting quickly, the officer deflected her hand, causing the knife to fall to the ground. He wasn’t wounded during the attack, and the teenager was immediately arrested.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Jerusalem-District-Attorneys-Office-indicts-16-year-old-Arab-girl-for-attempted-murder-445245

Red Cross visited 13,400 Palestinians in Israeli jails in 2015

GAZA (PIC) 16 Feb — The International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday said it paid visits to some 13,400 Palestinian detainees in different Israeli jails and detention centers in 2015. Representatives of the Red Cross said in a press statement that the organization visited 13,400 Palestinians held in several lock-ups across the Occupied West Bank and 1948 Occupied Palestine. The Red Cross committee also said it kept tabs on the situation of 2,600 detainees in Israeli jails. Follow-up committees were also appointed for 21 Palestinian hunger-strikers in Israeli jails and 13 others in hospitals and Palestinian detention centers. The committee added that efforts have been underway to prevent mistreatment of hunger-strikers and ill prisoners.

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76841

Gaza

Rafah crossing closed after rare 3-day opening

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, after an exceptional three-day opening of the terminal. Officials from Gaza’s Interior Ministry said around 2,000 Palestinians — among them students, people in need of medical treatment, and Gazans residing abroad — were able to leave the besieged enclave in those three days. Ministry of Interior spokesman Iyad al-Buzm confirmed that Egyptian authorities had officially notified Gaza’s government that the crossing would been shut down on Tuesday. Al-Buzm added that three buses of Palestinians were denied entry into Egypt on Monday. The three-day opening of the Rafah crossing was the first of 2016 after 70 consecutive days of closure.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770299

Official: Israel revoking hundreds of Gazans’ entry permits to Israel

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — The Israeli authorities have revoked “hundreds” of entry permits from Gaza to Israel, a senior official in the Palestinian liaison office told Ma‘an on Monday. The official, who spoke to Ma‘an on condition of anonymity, said the permits had been revoked as Gazan permit holders arrived at the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. The revocations first began three weeks ago, the official said, adding that the Israeli authorities had not given any explanation to the permit owners. “When Israel delivers permits to Palestinians, they make announcements about it in media, but in reality a majority of permits are revoked later,” the official said. They added that more than 300 permits had been revoked in the last three weeks. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirmed that a number of permits had been revoked recently, although they would not say how many. “Due to a decision by security forces, several entrance permits for crossings into Israel from the Gaza Strip have been rescinded due to information indicating improper use of issued permits,” COGAT told Ma‘an. “The aim of this move is to prevent further abuse of permits for malicious purposes.” The body said there were more than 1,000 crossings from Gaza into Israel via the Erez crossing every day, “for the purposes of business and trade, prayers at the Temple Mount, medical treatments, academic studies abroad, and more.” COGAT added that there were 186,184 entries from Gaza into Israel throughout 2015, although it did not specify how many people this extended to. Palestinians detained at Erez are often interrogated for several hours, sometimes for days, before they are either allowed into Israel or sent back to Gaza. Israel has revoked entry permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza in the past, often during times of high tension.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770292

Israeli army opens fire on Gaza fishers and farmers

IMEMC/Agencies 15 Feb — Israeli soldiers opened fire, on Monday morning, on several Palestinian farmers in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, while navy ships fired live rounds on fishing boats, in Gaza territorial waters. The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) has reported that Israeli soldiers, stationed in the Kissufim military base, across the border fence east of Khan Younis, fired many live rounds targeting Palestinian farmers, forcing them to leave their lands. In addition, Israeli navy ships opened fire on a number of fishing boats, in Gaza territorial waters, only four nautical miles away from the shore, northwest of Gaza city. The fishers returned to the shore without fishing, to avoid further Israeli violations and assaults.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74955

Israel performs mock raids over Gaza, fires at fishermen

GAZA (WAFA) 17 Feb – Israeli warplanes last [Tuesday] night carried out mock air raids over the skies of Gaza, while Israeli navy gunboats opened their fire at fishermen offshore the coastal enclave, according to WAFA correspondent. Israeli F16 planes flew over the Gaza Strip at low altitude and launched mock raids over the strip. Loud explosions were heard across the strip, spreading fear and panic among Palestinian civilians, particularly children.

Meanwhile, Israeli naval boats targeted fishermen while they were sailing within the six-nautical-mile zone allowed for fishing. Partial damage on the fishermen’s boats was reported. There were no reports of injuries, however.

This came as a number of Israeli armored tanks infiltrated the border with Gaza from the eastern part of al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip district. WAFA correspondence said four Israeli armored tanks and three bulldozers stationed at a borderline Israeli military base advanced over 150 meters into Gaza’s agricultural lands, opening fire toward nearby homes.

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=LZdHSCa30200074443aLZdHSC

Israeli naval forces launch rockets near central Gaza, ground troops level land

GAZA (Ma‘an) 18 Feb — Israeli naval forces shot rockets at the central Gaza coast overnight Thursday, locals said, adding that Israeli ground troops entered southern Gaza and leveled land near the border. Israeli naval forces reportedly fired rockets near al-Zahra city in the central Gaza strip. No injuries were reported. In southern Gaza, Israeli ground troops reportedly entered about 10 meters into the Gaza Strip near al-Qarara village and leveled land along the border, locals said. Locals added that an Israeli military site known as Kissumfin is located in the area where land was leveled . . . UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented four Israeli military incursions into the Gaza Strip since the start of the year, and a total of 56 incursions in all of 2015.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770337

UN delegation visits Gaza Strip to evaluate reconstruction

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 17 Feb — The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, applauding the reconstruction effort in the Strip. Nikolay Mladenov said his delegation “found tangible progress in rebuilding some of the destroyed houses there,” pointing out that the UN continues to support the reconstruction. Mladenov said that the reconstruction process was going well, but criticized some of Hamas’ actions that worked against stability in the Strip. “We carried out an evaluation at the UN and found out that 150,000 people in Gaza have received material to reconstruct their homes, but continuing digging tunnels and launching missiles does not help reach calm in the Gaza Strip and it is important to achieve reconciliation.” The Special Coordinator called on Israel to end the siege on Gaza, and facilitate the entry and exit of goods. He also called on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to come together to create a national unity government.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770329

US-made weapons prevent Gaza man from seeing his son

EI 16 Feb by Hamza Abu Eltarabesh — Luay Subuh was playing with his baby son Baker when he stopped talking. Luay sat in silence for a moment, then said: “I wish I could see him — even once.” Luay lost his sight because Israel has used Gaza as a laboratory for “innovative” weapons, as its arm industry likes to boast of its “combat-proven” products. He was nine years old during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s attack on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009. At one point during that offensive, the people of Beit Lahia felt a sense of relief. It appeared Israel had stopped bombing their town in northern Gaza. As neighbors started venturing outdoors, Luay insisted that he be allowed to play football with his cousins in the yard beside their home. His mother, Fatma, consented. But the lull was extremely short. Luay had only been outside for a matter of minutes when the warplanes reappeared. As bombs were dropped around them, he and his cousins screamed and cried. Luay was rushed to hospital — first to Kamal Edwan in Beit Lahia, then he was transferred to al-Shifa in Gaza City. When he woke up in al-Shifa, “I realized that I had lost my sight,” he said. – Burning substance – Kamal Okasha, a Gaza-based ophthalmic surgeon with the Saint John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital, was called to examine Luay. Okasha realized that huge damage had been caused “the first moment I looked at Luay’s eyes,” he said. “The burning substance had reached his whole eye,” Okasha told The Electronic Intifada. The burning substance in question was white phosphorus. Israel is among a small number of countries to have used white phosphorus munitions against civilian populations. Another is the US, which attacked Falluja, Iraq, with them in 2004. Luay’s mother, Fatma, also confirmed that doctors at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said that Luay had been struck by white phosphorus. Luay was moved to the Saudi hospital after a few days in al-Shifa. – White smoke from wounds – Ayman al-Sahbani, head of the emergency department at al-Shifa, said that hospital staff had no previous experience dealing with the types of injuries they encountered during Operation Cast Lead. “Doctors saw white smoke coming from open wounds,” he said. White phosphorus can cause deep burns — sometimes to the bone — after it comes in contact with a victim’s flesh . . . All of the white phosphorus shells found by Human Rights Watch were made in the US during the late 1980s. Their manufacturer, Thiokol Aerospace, was running the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant at that time. (Continued)

https://electronicintifada.net/content/us-made-weapons-prevent-gaza-man-seeing-his-son/15671

Doctors in Gaza perform rare heart surgery

MEMO 17 Feb — A team of doctors in Gaza carried out the first cardiac catheterisation operation on children in Palestine, QudsNet reported a senior medical official saying on Monday. Head of the Cardiology Department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Dr Mohamed Habib said such operations would now be carried out on Thursdays. In the past, international doctors or Palestinians from abroad used to visit Palestinian hospitals to carry out this operation on children. Habib stated that there are large numbers of Palestinian children who are in need of this operation, but due to the shortage in the resources needed for the procedure, it can only be carried out one day a week. He unveiled the department’s future plans to perform eight to ten catheterisation operations every day. “There is a dire need for help to find alternatives to the high costs of treatment abroad and the closure of border crossings,” he said,.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/23969-doctors-in-gaza-perform-rare-heart-surgery

Gaza: Secrets and lies

Newsweek 17 Feb by Sami Abu Salem — The Photographer, a play staged in Gaza, evokes Palestinian nostalgia — The 800 seats at Rashad Shawwa Cultural Center’s old theater in Gaza City were all taken, with dozens of people standing at the back or sitting on the floor, waiting for the curtains to open and the lights to be dimmed signaling the beginning of the The Photographer, a monologue play. The first act of begins, and silence fills the air. ‘Darwish,’ the main character, played by Ali Abu Yassin, is a photographer from Gaza. He spends his days in his small studio surrounded by old cameras scattered across the table with portraits of different sizes hanging across the walls. In this lonely studio, a rusty iron door flings open and an elderly lady — Suma — enters. Darwish had taken a picture of her teenage son Atallah six years ago, but he was recently killed by Israeli soldiers. Suma asks Darwish for a copy of her son’s photo. He searches Atallah’s archive of thousands of pictures among the photograph, and as he flips through the images and undeveloped films, he relives and narrates the stories of the people frozen in those shots. Each of those pictures brings back memories of incidents that carry a national dimension, which the director, Hussein Al Asmar, expertly captures in Darwish’s tales. The roaring of the sea, sounds of bombing and shooting, and breaking news tracks, forms the soundtrack to a riveting narrative.

http://newsweekme.com/gaza-secrets-and-lies/

21 injured as ceiling collapses on Gaza university campus

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — At least 21 people were injured on Monday after a ceiling collapsed in a building under construction on a university campus in the southern Gaza Strip, a Gaza civil defense service spokesman said. Muhammad al-Midana said the ceiling collapsed during construction work. Sources in the Gaza civil defense rescue service told Ma‘an that both students of al-Aqsa University’s Khan Yunis branch and workers were among the wounded. At least 12 of the injured were taken to Nasser medical center in Khan Yunis while rescue teams were evacuating the others. The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007, which has severely impaired the construction sector in the Palestinian enclave as building materials are hard to come by.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770288

Family: Islamic State fighter from Gaza dies in Libya

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — A Palestinian man from the southern Gaza Strip has been killed in Libya where he was fighting with the Islamic State, his family said on Tuesday. Family members of Muflih Abu Aathira told Ma‘an that they were notified on Monday night that he had been killed in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The family did not give more details surrounding the circumstances of Abu Aathira’s death, or who notified them of his passing. Abu Aathira, who is originally from the city of Rafah, reportedly left for Libya a year ago. He leaves behind a wife and two daughters, his family said. In January 2015, Libya issued an indefinite ban to prevent Palestinian, Sudanese, and Syrian nationals from entering the country, due to suspicions that many were coming to join armed groups. Libya has been in a state of turmoil since a Western-backed uprising toppled the regime of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, with two competing governments currently vying for a solution to the conflict. A number of armed groups, including the Islamic State, have taken advantage of the chaos to establish themselves in the North African country. Palestinian support for the Islamic State group remains relatively small. According to a poll by Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted in December, 87 percent of Palestinians did not believe that the Islamic State group represent Islam.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770298

Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing

Israel levels lands, demolishes structures in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli authorities on Wednesday demolished agricultural structures and leveled land in the outskirts of al-‘Issawiya village in occupied East Jerusalem, locals said. Muhammad Abu al-Hummas, a spokesperson for a local popular committee, told Ma‘’an that bulldozers had started leveling around five acres of land, adding that they “deliberately” ruined the dirt roads used by farmers to access their fields as well as their fences. He said they were accompanied by Israeli police forces as well as officials from Jerusalem’s municipality and the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority. The land is located in an area Israeli authorities have earmarked for a national park, in a controversial plan known as “11092”, which aims to turn around 740 dunams (175 acres) of Palestinian land in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of al-Issawiya and al-Tur into Israeli parkland. The Israeli planning council suspended the plan in September 2014 until the needs of the neighborhoods could be assessed. However, the council, which previously approved the annexation of the 740 dunams, said approval of the plan could potentially be justified and was not fundamentally illegal. Abu al-Hummus said the Israeli authorities were “leveling and ruining private Palestinian lands despite an Israeli court decision to freeze the settlement plans.” One of the owners of the land leveled on Wednesday, Adnan Darwish, told Ma‘an that Israeli bulldozers had ruined eight dunams (two acres) of his property, uprooting a number of olive and cypress trees. He said they had also demolished a structure used as a sheep barn belonging to Salih Abu Turk. Other landowners affected were identified as Ali Abu al-Hummus, Atif Ubeid, and Shaaban Ubeid. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has previously described Israel’s plan in al-‘Issawiya as “part of the Israeli government’s plans to create a Jewish demographic majority in the occupied city.”

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770322

Israel demolishes homes, structures in Nablus-area village

NABLUS (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — Israeli bulldozers under army escort on Monday demolished a number of Palestinian structures built without construction permits in the northern occupied West Bank district south of Nablus’s Khirbet Om al-Rashash village, locals said. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma‘an that Israeli troops forced residents, as well as foreign activists, to evacuate the structures for immediate demolition. Daghlas said the structures included corrugated metal homes, barns and brick buildings. Residents said Israeli forces issued demolition orders on structures two weeks prior to the demolition

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770289

Israel issues 12 demolition orders to Bedouins in E1 corridor

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — Israeli forces on Tuesday issued home demolition orders on 11 Palestinian Bedouin homes and a mosque in the Jabal al-Baba community in the E1 corridor east of Jerusalem, a representative of the community told Ma‘an. Atallah Mazaraa said Israeli forces stormed the community and issued the demolition orders and confiscated two tents. He said the community was “standing firm and will start rebuilding after [Israeli forces] demolish the homes.” Jabal al-Baba, meaning Pope Mountain — because the Catholic church owns land nearby — is one of several Bedouin villages facing forced evacuation due to plans by Israeli authorities to build thousands of homes for Jewish-only settlements in the E1 corridor. Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to suspend work on the housing units in 2013, settlement watchdog Peace Now reported last month that the Ministry of Housing has “quietly” continued planning 8,372 homes in the corridor. Settlement construction in E1 would effectively divide the West Bank between the north and the south, with a strip of Israeli settlements in between, making the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state — as envisaged by the internationally backed two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — almost impossible.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770311

Israeli forces uproot 100 olive trees in Wadi Qana

SALFIT (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — Israeli forces uprooted 100 olive trees in the Wadi Qana area west of the village of Deir Istiya in Salfit district on Tuesday amid ongoing efforts to push Palestinians out of the area, locals said. Farmers from Deir Istiya told Ma‘an the forces arrived in Wadi Qana and uprooted the trees without prior notice. Soldiers then forced locals from the area in order to allow Israeli settlers to arrive there, the farmers said. Ibrahim al-Hamad, director of the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture’s Salfit branch, told Ma‘an that soldiers removed the seven-year-old trees on the grounds that the area is a nature reserve, with planting prohibited in the area. Al-Hamad added that Israeli soldiers also removed a water tank belonging to Palestinian locals. A spokesperson for Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told Ma‘an that “security forces removed about 80 olive tress that were planted illegally, without a permit, within the nature reserve Nahal Kane,” referring to the Hebrew name given to Wadi Qana. “The removal was enforced after the natural growth in the area was damaged, and after alert orders were given,” the spokesperson added. Wadi Qana, a valley that has historically served agricultural and recreational purposes for local Palestinians who own land in the area, was declared a nature reserve by Israel’s Civil Administration in 1983. Israel has used this designation for years to justify uprooting Palestinian crops and forcing Palestinians from the area, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Several Jewish-only Israeli settlements and outposts have been illegally established along the ridges of the valley since the 1970s. Waste water dumped from the settlements has gradually polluted the river, forcing out Palestinians who have lived in and visited the valley for generations.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770304

IOF harasses Palestinian merchants, expands Israeli industrial area

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 14 Feb — The Palestinian merchants in the Damascus Gate are now more than ever targeted by the Israeli occupation authority’s (IOA) municipality in occupied Jerusalem. On the other hand, the same municipality, according to Hebrew sources, decided to expand the industrial zone: Atarot –Qalandia, located north of Jerusalem, to support the settlement activity and the Israeli settlers. The weekly Hebrew newspaper Iroshalim said in its latest edition that after the death of a female Israeli soldier near the Damascus Gate, the Israeli municipal employees stormed the business district adjacent to the incident, and they imposed fines on merchants under the pretext of violation of municipal laws and regulations. They also issued traffic tickets for cars parking illegally, as well as fines for merchants who display their goods outside their shops. They imposed other fines for the dealers and even customers under various pretexts such as throwing cigarettes and spilling coffee on the ground. One of the members of the Committee of the Damascus Gate merchants complained last week that the municipality intentionally harasses his colleagues, he said, “the municipal observers’ harassment increases especially after resistance attacks, this is one of the reasons why the Damascus Gate merchants suffer for a long period a deterioration of their income due to the lack of customers, while the fines issued by the municipal teams cost them hundreds of shekels, these fines aim to tighten the noose more and more on the Palestinian merchants”.

ttp://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76783

IOF to raze 8 structures in southern Jenin

JENIN (PIC) 17 Feb — Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Tuesday handed demolition notices to Palestinians in Barta‘a village to the south of Jenin city. Eight commercial structures will be razed under the pretext of lacking construction permits. Ghassan Kabha, head of Barta‘a village council, said that the notices included the management room in the village’s station, electricity chamber, construction station, a store, stone and marble quarries, poultry, and wood and clay factories.

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76846

BDS

US reportedly reissues labeling order from settlements

IMEMC/Agencies 17 Feb — US Customs has reportedly reissued orders to importers to label all products from West Bank settlements as not being from Israel, Israeli channel 2 said Tuesday, slamming the move as deceiving Congress. US authorities explained that they are just reissuing policies from 1995, while Israeli group International Law Forum said these claims are false. The group noted that the 1995 guidelines only applied to goods from the Palestinian Authority (PA) in West Bank, which was newly established in the Oslo Accords. The guidelines were meant to distinguish PA goods as not being Israeli. Congress is trying to bring US Secretary of State John Kerry in for a hearing to clarify the topic, according to Channel 2, which noted that the State Department claims it was not involved in the January labeling statement. Yesha Council of West Bank settlement said “unfortunately, again, it was discovered that the (Barack) Obama and Kerry administration is working in improper ways against the settlements.”

http://www.imemc.org/article/74984

Greatest threat to free speech in the West: criminalizing activism against Israeli occupation

The Intercept 16 Feb by Glenn Greenwald & Andrew Fishman — THE U.K. GOVERNMENT today announced that it is now illegal for “local [city] councils, public bodies, and even some university student unions … to refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products, or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.” Thus, any entities that support or participate in the global boycott of Israeli settlements will face “severe penalties” under the criminal law. This may sound like an extreme infringement of free speech and political activism — and, of course, it is — but it is far from unusual in the West. The opposite is now true. There is a very coordinated and well-financed campaign led by Israel and its supporters literally to criminalize political activism against Israeli occupation, based on the particular fear that the worldwide campaign of Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment, or BDS — modeled after the 1980s campaign that brought down the Israel-allied apartheid regime in South Africa — is succeeding. The Israeli website +972 reported last year about a pending bill that “would ban entry to foreigners who promote the [BDS] movement that aims to pressure Israel to comply with international law and respect Palestinian rights.” In 2011, a law passed in Israel that “effectively ban[ned] any public call for a boycott — economic, cultural, or academic — against Israel or its West Bank settlements, making such action a punishable offense.” But the current censorship goal is to make such activism a crime not only in Israel, but in Western countries generally. And it is succeeding. THIS TREND TO outlaw activism against the decades-long Israeli occupation — particularly though not only through boycotts against Israel — has permeated multiple Western nations and countless institutions within them. In October, we reported on the criminal convictions in France of 12 activists “for the ‘crime’ of advocating sanctions and a boycott against Israel as a means of ending the decades-long military occupation of Palestine,” convictions upheld by France’s highest court. They were literally arrested and prosecuted for “wearing shirts emblazoned with the words ‘Long live Palestine, boycott Israel’” and because “they also handed out fliers that said that ‘buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza.’” As we noted, Pascal Markowicz, chief lawyer of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, published this celebratory decree (emphasis in original): “BDS is ILLEGAL in France.” Statements advocating a boycott or sanctions, he added, “are completely illegal. If [BDS activists] say their freedom of expression has been violated, now France’s highest legal instance ruled otherwise.” In Canada last year, officials threatened criminal prosecution against anyone supporting boycotts against Israel. In the U.S., unbeknownst to many, there are similar legislative proscriptions on such activism ” (Continued)

https://theintercept.com/2016/02/16/greatest-threat-to-free-speech-in-the-west-criminalizing-activism-against-israeli-occupation/

Palestinians: Israel boycott ban similar to Thatcher’s support for apartheid

BDSMovement 15 Feb — The Palestinian organisation that leads the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement currently under attack by new British government rules says that Prime Minister David Cameron is making a grave mistake similar to Margaret Thatcher’s unwavering support of apartheid South Africa. New rules set to be announced during a visit to Israel this week by Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock will make it harder for local councils and other public bodies including universities to make ethical procurement or investment decisions. The government says the changes are designed to counter the growing BDS movement. Rafeef Ziadah, a UK spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, says:“Rather than working to hold Israel to account for its ongoing human rights violations, UK ministers continue the arms trade with Israel and attack local democracy in order to shield it from any criticism.” “What sort of message does this send to UK companies like G4S and JCB that aid and abet Israel’s violations of international law?” Security company G4S helps Israel run prisons where Palestinians are tortured and JCB supplies bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes.“By undermining local democracy in the service of Israel, David Cameron is standing on the wrong side of history just as Margaret Thatcher did with her support for apartheid South Africa.” David Cameron himself crossed the South African boycott picket line as late as 1989, when international public opinion had already shifted in favor of democracy, by taking an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa to build the case against sanctions of the racist regime. International isolation was crucial in bringing down apartheid in South Africa. Ziadah continued: “The BDS movement in the UK has achieved wide support precisely because of the failure of successive UK governments to take action in response to Israel’s war crimes.”

http://bdsmovement.net/2016/palestinians-israel-boycott-ban-similar-to-thatchers-support-for-apartheid-13713

Ashrawi and Erekat: British boycott ban negates democracy

IMEMC/Agencies 17 Feb — PLO Executive Committee Members Dr. Hanan Ashrawi and Dr. Saeb Erekat (Secretary General), met in separate meetings with the British Minister for Middle East Affairs, Tobias Ellwood, after which Dr. Ashrawi and Dr. Erekat released the following joint statement: “We are seriously concerned at the new British ‘guidance’ that would entail the banning of any kind of ethical procurement by local governments, public bodies and any organization that receives public funding, including some student unions. In practical terms this means that such bodies are forbidden from exercising their democratic right and freedom of choice not to be complicit in the Israeli settlement project and to take a positive, moral and legal stand in the face of such a war crime. This represents a serious regression in British policy and it would empower the Israeli occupation by sending a message of impunity. In order to accommodate the Israeli occupation, the British Government is undermining British democracy and their own people’s rights. Such a law would have prevented British citizens from taking peaceful actions against the South African Apartheid. Such a law also contradicts international responsibility and even the UK’s own practice when it comes to entities violating human rights. (Continued)

http://www.imemc.org/article/74985

Palestinians welcome Academy distancing itself from Oscars gift bag

BDSMovement 17 Feb — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that it is suing Distinctive Assets, the company distributing a luxury gift bag to Oscar nominees, which this year includes an all-expenses paid trip to Israel sponsored by the Israeli government. Palestinians had denounced the inclusion of the trip to Israel as a “cynical and desperate” attempt by the Israeli government to fight its increasing international isolation through bribes to celebrities instead of addressing its human rights abuses against them. Responding to this latest development Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broadest Palestinian coalition that leads the global BDS movement, said: “By distancing itself from the company marketing Israel’s propaganda trip to Oscar nominees, the Academy is taking a step in the right direction. The so-called ‘Oscars swag bag’ has fallen into further disrepute with its association with the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.”

http://bdsmovement.net/2016/palestinians-welcome-academy-distancing-itself-from-oscars-gift-bag-13717

Palestinian refugees – Syria, Lebanon

As in life, so too in death; there’s no peace for the Palestinians

MEMO 16 Feb by Yvonne Ridley — IMAGES — The refugee experience is a relatively new one for most of the Syrians living in the surprisingly neat terraces of temporary cabins that make up the camps in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. This is not, though, the case for Fatima Ahmed Abu Reech. The fragile 78 year-old must be one of the oldest surviving refugees in the world today who still remembers quite vividly the place that she calls home. Tabariyya (Tiberias) in Palestine is where she was born and, she says with a defiant tone honed out of a life of enduring hardship, it is where she wants to die. “I was only 10 when I left but I remember my country very well,” Fatima told me, “and that is where I want to be buried.” . . . While the focus on Syria has, since the war began in 2011, rested very much on the living and stories of survival, death-defying journeys and miracle escapes from Bashar Al-Assad’s brutal armed forces, there is an uncomfortable truth which haunts the thousands of refugees living in the Beqaa Valley today; they have no resting place for their dead. Fatima and her family spent nearly a week trying to persuade villagers in nearby Ber Elias to allow them to have just one plot in the cemetery to bury her beloved husband Moustapha Fahour when he passed away a couple of years ago, aged 82. The process was drawn out and painful, and it cost the family $2,000 before Moustapha was finally laid to rest.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/23944-as-in-life-so-too-in-death-theres-no-peace-for-the-palestinians

Other news

Palestinian teacher among top 10 finalists in global teaching awards

[with VIDEO of her teaching] RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 17 Feb — A Palestinian teacher from the occupied West Bank has been chosen as a top ten finalist in an international teaching competition, it was announced this week. Hanan al-Hroub, from Duheisha refugee camp in the southern occupied West Bank, was chosen as one of the finalists in the Valley Park Foundation’s Global Teacher’s Prize for 2016 out of a pool of some 8,000 teachers who participated. Al-Hroub is being honored for her teaching method, which focuses on non-violence by “teaching through playing” and interweaves counseling for students struggling with behavior problems due to the violence Palestinian children are subjected to through Israel’s occupation. The Palestinian Minister of Education Sabri Saidam and an escorting delegation surprised al-Hroub with the news of her award this week during the school day in one of her classrooms. Saidam said al-Hroub’s award is a victory for Palestine and Palestinian teachers. Al-Hroub was nominated for the award, along with 11 other Palestinian teachers, by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770321

PA security forces detain 22 teachers on strike

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 17 Feb — Palestinian Authority security forces on Wednesday detained 22 Palestinian teachers who took part in a strike demanding the guarantee of teachers’ rights, sources in the Palestinian Teachers’ Union said. The sources said that the teachers, two of whom are principals, were detained in raids across the occupied West Bank. As part of the strike, an estimated 20,000 Palestinian teachers demonstrated in Ramallah on Tuesday to call for the implementation of a 2013 agreement guaranteeing teachers’ rights. Most schools in the occupied West Bank shut down completely in protest, while other establishments closed before noon, as teachers gathered in front of the PA cabinet headquarters to demonstrate. The teachers called for the resignation of the head of the teachers’ union, Ahmad Sahwil, and for the organization of elections within the teachers’ union. “Teachers are not against the union as a union, but against the behaviors and abuses of the union,” one demonstrator, Adnan al-Durubi, told Ma‘an. Al-Durubi said the average Palestinian teacher’s salary did not exceed 3,000 shekels ($767) each month. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly expenditure of a Palestinian family in the West Bank is $1,333.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770328

Palestinian Authority arrests photographer over Istagram posts

EI 16 Feb by Asa Winstanley — A Palestinian user of Instagram spent Monday night in a Palestinian Authority jail cell after posting a photo of a police officer to the social media site. The Instagram user spoke to The Electronic Intifada on condition of anonymity due to fear of PA reprisals. The Instagram user was in a Ramallah area village taking photos as part of their office job. The user took a photo of a PA police officer and later decided to post it to their personal Instagram account. The police officer was not identifiable from the photo, as his face was cropped out, the Instagram user said. Statistics about the PA were posted alongside the photo, such as the fact that 80 percent of the PA’s revenue comes from foreign governments or taxes that are controlled by Israel. For this, PA police later arrested the Instagram user, threatened them with violence and kept them in a cell overnight . . . The Instagram user was accused of being “immoral” and a “foreign agent.” The police officer said the Instagram user “offended me by posting my picture.” The Instagram user claims they were accused of being a “Hamas and Fayyad agent at the same time.” This was a reference to Salam Fayyad, the PA’s unelected former “prime minister.”

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/palestinian-authority-arrests-photographer-over-instagram-post

They’ve arrested me / Dr. Abdul-Sattar Qassim

MEMO 16 Feb — I am a writer. I also happen to be a writer who has been exposed to repressive actions by Arab and Israeli authorities more than most in the modern era. I have been shot repeatedly; on one occasion, by four bullets at once. I lost my job in Jordan and in Palestine and have been arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities and the Palestinian Authority, and put under house arrest and prevented from travelling. For anyone wishing to write about repressive measures taken against Arab writers and intellectuals, I am an example for all of them. Once again — for the seventh time, in fact — the Palestinian Authority arrested me on 2 February because I called for the implementation of laws issued by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority. The offending call was made in an interview with Al-Quds satellite channel, based in Beirut, about the situation in Palestine. I called for the application of two laws, namely the 1979 Revolutionary Law of the PLO and the 2005 Elections Law, which sets the maximum duration for the term of office for a Palestinian president at four years . . . Indeed, the PA president himself is in violation of the Elections Law as, to date, he has been in office for eleven years even though his term should have been over in 2009. (Continued)

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/23951-theyve-arrested-me

The domino effect of persecuting Arab politicians

+972 mag 14 Feb by Amjad Iraqi — Three months ago, when the Israeli government outlawed the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, Palestinian citizens of Israel feared that they were witnessing the beginning of an intensified campaign against Arab political groups. Many suspected at the time that the government’s next target would be the Balad party, the nationalist faction of the Joint List, which has been in the crosshairs of consecutive Israeli governments since the 1990s. Those suspicions were confirmed last week when the Knesset Ethics Committee banned all three of Balad’s Knesset members from attending parliamentary sessions for 2 to 4 months (they can still vote on legislation). The unusual decision was made after the MKs met with families of Palestinians from Jerusalem who had killed or attacked Israelis in recent months. Israeli authorities are refusing to release the attackers’ bodies, and the families were seeking help in arranging their return for burial . . . Despite these debates, Palestinian citizens were nonetheless startled by how Jewish politicians spun the MKs’ meeting to justify the Knesset suspension. The media, and most Israelis, took little interest in the meeting’s purpose, and instead focused on a “minute of silence” in which the MKs stood for the recital of the fatiha (the Quran’s opening verse), as is customary at gatherings for deceased persons. The political storm framed the incident as an endorsement of violence on the part of the Balad MKs. Also not lost on Palestinian citizens was the government’s clear double standard: punishment was being vetted out against Arab MKs for meeting with families of “terrorists,” while Jewish MKs who did the same were condoned. The Ethics Committee’s decision, however, was just the beginning: the prime minister himself ordered that a new law be drafted to drastically expand the Knesset’s powers to remove representatives from the parliament. (Continued)

http://972mag.com/the-domino-effect-of-persecuting-arab-politicians/117031/

Employer turns Palestinian union organizer into a ‘security threat’

+972mag 16 Feb by Haggai Matar — In many respects, this is a painfully simple and well-known story: a veteran factory worker decides to unionize his fellow workers in order to protect their rights. All of a sudden, after many years of work, the employer remembers that the veteran is actually a poor worker who must be fired immediately. Like in innumerable cases, the employer provides a variety of reasons for the dismissal. The union turns to the labor court, but the wheels of justice turn slowly: more than half a year passes since the end of the hearings, and yet we see no ruling. The worker — whose job was his entire life — sits at home for the past year and a half without being able to make a decent living. But the case of Hatem Abu Ziadeh is especially complex and dramatic because of its unique context: Abu Ziadeh is a Palestinian worker in a settlement industrial zone. Palestinian workers organizations refuse, on principle, to represent Palestinians who work in settlements, while Israel’s Histadrut labor federation does not unionize Palestinian workers in the occupied territories, turning the industrial zones into a kind of “no man’s land” where violations of workers’ rights are commonplace. And this despite the fact that Israeli labor laws apply to these industrial zones (aside from one, where employers can legally discriminate against Palestinian workers).

http://972mag.com/employer-turns-palestinian-union-organizer-into-a-security-threat/117116/

Hamdallah: International forces needed to protect Palestinians

IMEMC/Agencies 16 Feb — Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, on Monday, reiterated the urgent need for international forces to protect Palestinian lives, in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, to a visiting British Parliamentary delegation. Hamdallah briefed the delegation about the continuous Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, daily incursions, home demolitions and illegal transfer of Palestinians in Area C. He also informed them, according to the PNN, about Palestinian plans to raise the issue of illegal Israeli settlements at the UNSC no later than April.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74965

Israel slams French peace plan

JERUSALEM (AFP) 16 Feb — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday slammed France’s diplomatic plan for an international conference on Middle East peace with recognition of a Palestinian state if talks fail. Netanyahu called it “mystifying” and counterproductive, arguing that it gives Palestinians no incentive to compromise. “It says, ‘We shall hold an international conference but, if it doesn’t succeed, we are deciding in advance what the consequence will be — we shall recognise a Palestinian state'”, he told reporters during a visit to Berlin. “This of course ensures in advance that a conference will fail, because if the Palestinians know that their demands will be accepted… they don’t need to do anything,” he said. He restated his policy that peace will only come as a result of direct bilateral talks between the sides. He was speaking shortly after France’s ambassador to Israel, Patrick Maisonnave, met the political director of the Israeli foreign ministry to explain the initiative.

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-slams-french-peace-plan-200249893.html

Ma’ariv: Netanyahu asks for German mediation

NAZARETH (PIC) 17 Feb — The Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu has discussed, during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, the file of the captured soldiers in Gaza Strip, Ma’ariv Hebrew newspaper reported. During the meeting, Netanyahu asked for help in revealing the whereabouts of the two Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin who went missing during Israeli ground offensive on Gaza in August 2014. Israel has tried more than once to solicit help in the issue of the captured soldiers’ file in a failed attempt to reveal their whereabouts. However, the Palestinian resistance refused to disclose any information about the captured soldiers until a number of its conditions and demands are met, mainly the release of all ex-detainees who were rearrested after their liberation in Shalit swap deal.

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76858

Japan’s new assistance to Palestinian people (US$78, 210.200)

ReliefWeb 15 Feb – Report from Government of Japan — Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, announced that the Government of Japan has committed Japan’s new assistance of USD 78,210,200 to the Palestinian people through international organizations and Japanese NGOs, on the occasion of his meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas on 15th February in Tokyo, Japan. This new assistance consists of a budget support (US$20,000,000) through the World Bank’s Palestinian Reform and Development Plan (PRDP) Trust Fund and more than 14 projects in partnership with other international organizations and Japanese NGOs (Please see attached list of projects). The new assistance focuses on (1) support for Palestinian refugees suffering under severe conditions through UNRWA, (2) support for social stability of Palestine through a budget support with the World Bank, (3) support for internally displaced persons through Japanese NGOs and (4) support for the improvement of livelihood in health, water sanitation and education sectors in order to drive reconstruction of Gaza forward and then shift to development . . . Japan’s assistance amounts to approximately US$1.7 billion in total since 1993.

http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/japan-s-new-assistance-palestinian-people-usd-78210200

Israeli police briefly detain Washington Post bureau chief

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — Israeli police briefly detained the Washington Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief and West Bank correspondent for alleged “incitement” on Tuesday, prompting the Foreign Press Association to decry Israel’s “heavy-handed tactics.” The FPA said bureau chief William Booth and West Bank correspondent Sufian Taha were detained while interviewing Palestinian and Jewish residents of Jerusalem at Damascus Gate outside the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem. Booth and Taha were interviewing high-school students under a tree when Israeli border police “waved the two journalists over and asked them for their IDs,” the FPA said in a statement. “They presented their Government Press Office cards as identification, but these were waved away and they were asked for official identity documents.” Although the journalists made it very clear that they were reporting a story for the Washington Post, police took them to a nearby police station, where they were held for about 40 minutes, then released. “The FPA added that when the two journalists asked why they had been detained, “police said they had suspected the journalists of ‘inciting’ Palestinians.” . . . Meanwhile, the FPA said it “protests this absurd accusation against a respected international news outlet, as well as the detention, however brief, of an accredited foreign journalist and his Palestinian colleague.”

It said the incident came “in the context of heavy-handed tactics — including violent attacks — deployed in recent months by border police against foreign journalists and their Palestinian co-workers covering the unrest in Jerusalem and the West Bank. “We do not think it is coincidental that a baseless accusation of ‘incitement’ was made at a time when blanket accusations of bias are being leveled against the foreign press by Israeli officials and commentators.” Earlier this month, the FPA expressed dismay after its members were summoned to a subcommittee hearing in the Israeli parliament to account for their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Knesset subcommittee hearing was called to discuss foreign press coverage that it said “in the long-term erodes the legitimacy of (Israel’s) fight against terrorism.”

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770309

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