This is a roundup of news related to Palestine with a particular focus on grassroots action and peaceful civil disobedience in the Occupied Territories and within the borders of Israel proper.
We use the name Filasṭīn, since that is the pronunciation preferred by Arabic speakers (irrespective of faith) for their homeland.
For background on settler violence and the Israeli response to it, please see Yesh Din's report: Standing Idly By. The following organizations deserve your support and report on settler violence (among other things):
- B'Tselem
- Yesh Din
- DCI-Palestine
- +972mag
West Bank murder: Leaders fail to address nature of settler violence
(Natasha Roth's excellent article at
at +972mag)
Friday morning’s “price tag” arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma, which killed Palestinian baby Ali Saad Dawabsha, and left his parents and brother in critical condition, has been labeled an act of terror by nearly all Israeli and Palestinian politicians alike.
Ahmed Tibi, also of the Joint List, wondered this morning whether Avigdor Liberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu still stood bytheir call to implement the death penalty for terrorists, satirically announcing that the houses of the settlers responsible for the arson would not be demolished by Israel.
The response of Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem to the Duma arson was unequivocal regarding who is to blame: “[This event] was only a matter of time. It is due to the authorities’ policy of not enforcing the law against Israelis who attack Palestinians and their property.” Such immunity only encourages settler violence, the statement continues, before warning that another incident of this nature is on the horizon.
Rivlin Turns to Israel Police Over Death Threats
(
at Arutz Sheva)
President Reuven Rivlin has turned to the Israel Police over a number of death threats against him on his Facebook page Sunday, after he wrote a post condemning the arson attack on a Palestinian family in the village of Duma.
"I visited the Dawabash family in the hospital on Friday," he stated, in the post on Friday. "I was ashamed. I was horrified by the power of hatred."
"I was ashamed that in my country, which endured the murders of the Fogel family, Adele Biton, Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali, and Mohammed Abu-Khdeir, there are others who do not hesitate to set a house on fire and burn a baby alive, to increase hatred and terror," he continued. "We must ask: what public atmosphere is this that allows extremism and extremists? [...] Why is it that weeds threaten the safety of the entire flower bed?"
"I pray that there will rise another Yigal Amir, Shlita, who will clean the state from you and from Arabs - I wish you terrible diseases and every evil," one poster threatened, referring to the man who shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
Racist Attacks Stem From a Jewish Principle
(
Opinion in Haaretz -- Gideon Levy)
All those who thought that it would possible to sustain islands of liberalism in the sea of Israeli fascism were shown up this weekend, once and for all. It’s simply not possible to cheer for the brigade commander who shoots a teenager, and then be shocked by the settlers who set a family on fire; to support gay rights, and hold a founding conference in Ariel; to be enlightened, and then pander to the right and seek to partner with it. Evil knows no bounds; it begins in one place and quickly spreads in every direction.
The first breeding ground of those who torched the Dawabsheh family was the Israel Defense Forces, even if the offenders didn’t serve in it. When the killing of 500 children in the Gaza Strip is legitimate, and doesn’t even compel a debate, a moral reckoning, then what’s so terrible about setting a house on fire, together with its inhabitants? After all, what’s the difference between lobbing a fire bomb and dropping a bomb? In terms of the intention, or the intent, there is no difference.
When the shooting of Palestinians becomes an almost daily occurrence – two more have already been killed since the family was burned: one in the West Bank, another on the border of the Gaza Strip – who are we to complain about the fire throwers in Duma? When the lives of Palestinians are officially the army’s for the taking, their blood cheap in the eyes of Israeli society, then settler militias are also permitted to kill them. When the IDF’s ethic in the Gaza Strip is that it is permitted to do anything in order to save one soldier, who are we to complain about right-wingers like Baruch Marzel, who told me this weekend it was permissible to kill thousands of Palestinians in order to protect a single hair from the head of a Jew. Such is the atmosphere, such is the result. Original responsibility for it goes to the IDF.
A burned infant was only a matter of time in view of policy to not enforce law on violent settlers
(
at B'Tselem)
According to B'Tselem statistics, in the past three years since August 2012, Israeli civilians set fire to nine Palestinian homes in the West Bank. Additionally, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Palestinian taxi, severely burning the family on board. No one was charged in any of these cases. The ISA suspects two were related to the perpetrators of June's arson attack on the Church of the Loaves and Fishes, but it is doubtful these cases would have been solved independently of the effort put into the church arson inside Israel.
In recent years, Israeli civilians set fire to dozens of Palestinian homes, mosques, businesses, agricultural land and vehicles in the West Bank. The vast majority of these cases were never solved, and in many of them the Israeli Police did not even bother take elementary investigative actions.
Jewish extremists torch Palestinian homes, killing toddler
(
at WaPo)
Arsonists set fire to two Palestinian homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, killing a toddler and injuring four others in an attack that authorities say was likely carried out by Jewish extremists. The assailants signed their work with a spray-painted message that read “revenge” in Hebrew, next to scrawled image of a star of David.
The killing took place at a time of soaring tensions in the West Bank driven by Jewish settlers at odds with their own government. The arson assault was quickly labeled a “price tag attack” in the Israeli media — a phrase used to describe violence and vandalism carried out by settlers and their supporters to extract “a price” for any actions against them, either by the Israeli government or Palestinians.
Earlier this week, Israeli soldiers and police clashed with Jewish settlers burning tires and throwing rocks at the Beit El community. The Israeli authorities were attempting to demolish two illegal structures at the Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Ramallah that were built without permits on private Palestinian land.
Right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government demanded that the structures be saved and that Jewish settlement construction continue. “The answer to Palestinian terror is settlement, not cowardice," said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who came to Beit El to support the protesting settlers.
Haaretz's editors wrote an editorial titled:
A Lethal Product of Israel's Settlements
The murder of Ali Dawabsheh in Duma early Friday morning was no bolt from the blue. The fire that consumed Ali and injured his family in their sleep was ignited long before and could be seen for miles, like a flare on a dark night. It was not a single attacker who fire-bombed Palestinian civilians, and it was not the first incident of its kind, even though until now the results have been less lethal.
If a commission of inquiry is appointed to look into the terror attack in Duma, it will easily note the negligence of the Jewish division of the Shin Bet security service and the nationalist crimes unit of the Judea and Samaria District Police in eliminating the disease of Jewish terror in the territories.
But just as Goldstein did not actually act alone, but rather within an atmosphere that was hostile to the peace process and hospitable to stopping it using any means possible, and just as Yigal Amir set out to kill Yitzhak Rabin against a background of sympathetic rabbis and ideology, so too was this fire ignited by incitement and, even more so, by deflection.
Palestinians mourn infant killed in Israeli arson attack
(
at Ma'an News)
The funeral of a Palestinian infant killed in an Israeli arson attack took place in the Nablus village of Duma after prayers on Friday. Several thousand people took to the streets in the Palestinian village for the funeral of the toddler, whose body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
President Mahmoud Abbas called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, while senior PA official Riyad al-Maliki rejected Israeli condemnations of the attack as hollow. "We refuse to accept any official Israeli condemnation of the terrorist crime; they hold direct responsibility for the crime by their ongoing silence and deliberate ignoring and rejection of labeling these groups as terrorists," al-Maliki said.
The United States Consul Donald Blome also expressed condolences to the Dawabsha family, referring to the arson as a terrorist attack and condemning what it termed a “crime of hate.” While the US State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Terrorism included “price-tag” attacks -- attacks by extremist Israeli settlers -- for the first time, it noted such attacks were "largely unprosecuted."
Amir Oren writes in Haaretz:
Settlers Are Israel's National Burden
The excuse is the limited abilities of the Shin Bet’s Jewish division. If there is more than one incident, more than one gang, then the Shin Bet is helpless. And this is without mentioning the betrayal of former regional commanders who, according to a senior officer, are working to help the settlers understand the workings of their former colleagues.
Israel restricts access to Aqsa mosque after West Bank arson attack
(
at Ma'an News)
Israeli police imposed restrictions on Palestinian access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Friday following a settler attack in the occupied West Bank which killed a Palestinian toddler, a mosque official said.
Azzam al-Khatib, General Director of the Jerusalem Endowment and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs, told Ma'an that men under 50 will not be allowed to attend Friday prayers.
Chemi Shalev writes in Haaretz:
Like the Newtown massacre, the Palestinian baby’s murder won’t change a thing
The burning of 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsheh in the West Bank village of Douma is completely different, of course, but it is destined to go through a similar process of much ado about nothing. While there is no reason to doubt the genuine expressions of shock and horror voiced by right wing and settler leaders, there is also no expectation that they might recognize any connection between the horror inflicted on the Dawabsheh family and the continued occupation, hatred of Arabs and sabotage of the rule of law that many of them have promoted for decades. And anyone who says so is nothing more than a defaming demonizing demagogue.
Israel's Meekness in the Face of Jewish Extremism Carries a Heavy Price
(
at Haaretz)
But the accumulation of events this past week – the violent confrontations surrounding the demolition of the Dreinoff buildings in Beit El; the indictment of two men for arson at the historic Church of the Multiplication on the shores of Lake Kinneret; the tensions on the Temple Mount during the observance of Tisha B’Av; the killing of three Palestinians by IDF gunfire within a week; the “Day of Rage” declared by Hamas in protest at those shootings – constitute a possible recipe for a larger conflagration. The army understands this. That’s why four battalions have been sent to the West Bank and two more brigades have been confined to base, on alert.
The forgiveness the state has shown over many long years toward the violence of the extreme right – which was also evident this week at Beit El (none of those attacking the police are now in detention) – is also what makes possible the murderous hate crimes like Friday’s in the village of Douma. There is a price for the gentle hand.
Due to the authorities’ softness, those who used to be dismissively called “price-tag offenders” have developed into a real terror organization. The arsonists at the Galilee church appear to be a separate branch of the group that focuses on attacks on Christian religious sites. Their indictment included a startling document that the police confiscated from one of the accused: a detailed “How to” guide for the rookie terrorist – from strict operational security instructions to recommendations for escalating levels of terrorism, including bodily harm. We shouldn’t let the spelling mistakes and substandard language in it lead us astray. There is a determined hard-core developing here, one that is unimpressed by ministerial condemnations or the efforts by the Shin Bet and police to track them down.
Thousands mourn as West Bank deaths mount
(
at Ma'an News)
Thousands of Palestinians on Saturday attended the funeral of Laith al-Khaldi, 17, who was killed by Israeli forces during clashes near the Atara military checkpoint in northern Ramallah the previous night. Al-Khalidi was at least the 20th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2015, not including those killed in attacks by Israeli settlers or prisoners who died while in Israeli jails.
The funeral procession began at the Ramallah hospital where al-Khaldi's body was being held and proceeded towards the al-Jalazone refugee camp where the teen was born. Mourners condemned Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Al-Khaldi was shot in the chest by Israeli forces after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at the checkpoint's army post.
Ma'an is also reporting that
protesters attempted to set fire to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus
Settlers attempt attack on Palestinian farmers near Nablus
(
at Ma'an News)
The day after 18 month old Ali Dawabsheh died, it was back to the usual harassment for some settlers.
Israeli settlers on Saturday morning attempted an attack on Palestinian farmers in village of Qusra south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, a local official said. Dozens of settlers from the illegal Esh Kodesh outpost descended on farmers in their fields between the outpost and Qusra, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank. He said the attackers intended to scare the farmers and push them to abandon their fields. Dozens of local men from the village -- members of voluntary local guard committees -- confronted the settlers, Daghlas added. The settlers and locals clashed and threw stones at one another until the settlers were forced to move back.
In June 2014, villagers from Qusra held more than 15 settlers captive after they raided the village and tried to uproot Palestinian olive trees. Shortly after that they were transferred to Israeli military forces via Palestinian liaison officials.
Residents living throughout the Nablus district have witnessed a massive spread of outposts and settlements in the area in recent years. In February, Israeli settlers set up five mobile homes near Palestinian land and close by the Esh Kodesh outpost. Residents of the Jewish-only Esh-Kodesh outpost regularly harass and attack Palestinians from nearby villages, invading villages or targeting agricultural areas belonging to local farmers.
Many of the attacks are intended to make life difficult for locals in order to force them to leave and allow settlers to expand their settlements. Settlers living in the Nablus region have become notorious for violent and extremist behavior against local Palestinians that is often carried out in the presence of Israeli military forces and rarely investigated by Israeli authorities.
Haaretz covers this harassment in their story:
Family of Slain Palestinian Infant Clings to Life, Clashes in West Bank
Thousands protest against racist, homophobic attacks; place blame on gov't
(
at +972mag)
Thousands of people gathered in cities across the country on Saturday night to protest against the racist and homophobic attacks of the past few days. The demonstrations come in response to Thursday’s mass stabbing attack at the Jerusalem Pride Parade, as well as the arson attack in the West Bank village Duma, where 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha was burned to death.
In Tel Aviv over 3,000 people attended a rally organized by Peace Now, calling for “an iron fist against Jewish terrorism.” Among the speakers were opposition leader Isaac Herzog, who earlier on Saturday called on the government to expand its use of administrative detention against Jews involved in terrorism.
Nasser Dawabshe, the uncle of the slain infant, also spoke, saying that Netanyahu’s condolences were not enough, and that it is the prime minister’s duty to ensure the security of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. “We demand that this be the end of our people’s suffering,” he told the crowed. “Before Ali came Muhammad Abu Khdeir, and we do not know who is next in line. We want these arson attacks to end.”
UN Secretary-General condemns recent settlement approval
(
at Ma'an News)
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned on Wednesday the recent Israeli approval of hundreds of illegal settlements throughout occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The secretary-general reiterated that settlements are "illegal under international law, an impediment to peace, and cannot be reconciled with Israel’s stated intention to pursue a two-state solution."
Some 300 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, as well as the planning and construction of nearly 500 housing units in a number of settlements in East Jerusalem were announced earlier this week. Ban Ki-moon urged the Israeli government to halt and reverse the decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO official, also strongly condemned the announcement yesterday. "These settlement measures and war crimes are part of a plan by Israeli leaders to impose a 'Greater Israel' on historic Palestine and destroy the two-state solution and the chance for peace," a statement from her office said.
The expansion announcement came on the same day as the Israeli High Court ordered the demolition of two houses built in the Jewish-only Beit El settlement.
Two earlier diaries covered these events:
* Israeli Settlers Burn Palestinian Toddler to Death
* Hundreds of Israeli settlers clash violently with police/army over Supreme Court demolition order
Yossi Verter writes in Haaretz: After Beit El, Settlers Learn Violent Threats Pay Off
How do you get Netanyahu to approve new housing units? You threaten soldiers. That is the lesson learned this week from the demolition saga of two West Bank structures.
Man stabs six people at Jerusalem gay pride parade; suspect carried out similar attack in 2005
(
at JPost)
An assaillant stabbed six people marching in the annual Jerusalem gay pride parade on Thursday.
The assailant, an ultra-Orthodox man, was arrested at the scene. The suspect in Thursday's stabbing attack, Yishai Shlissel, is the same man who perpetrated a similar stabbing attack at the 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade. He was recently released from prison after having been convicted of stabbing three people during the parade ten years ago.
Six people were wounded in the incident that took place on the corners of Sokolov and Keren Hayesod streets in the capital.
Gaza 'Black Friday': Cutting edge investigation points to Israeli war crimes in Rafah
(
at Amnesty.org)
New evidence showing that Israeli forces carried out war crimes in retaliation for the capture of an Israeli soldier has been released today in a joint report by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture. The evidence, which includes detailed analysis of vast quantities of multimedia materials, suggests that the systematic and apparently deliberate nature of the air and ground attack on Rafah which killed at least 135 civilians, may also amount to crimes against humanity.
The online report, ‘Black Friday’: Carnage in Rafah during 2014 Israel/Gaza conflict, features cutting edge investigative techniques and analysis pioneered by Forensic Architecture, a research team based at Goldsmiths, University of London.
“There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives. They carried out a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which they have completely failed to investigate independently,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
PA prisoner committee head slams force feed law as 'torture'
(
at Ma'an News)
Head of the Palestinian Authority Prisoner's Affairs Committee, Issa Qaraqe, on Thursday strongly condemned an Israeli law passed in the Knesset which will allow prisoners on hunger strike to be force fed.
The law, which passed by 46 votes to 40, "will be used only if a doctor determines that the continued hunger strike will create an immediate risk to the life of a prisoner or long-term damage to his health," David Amsalem of the ruling Israeli Likud party said. Qaraqe said the law istantamount to legalizing murder and sets a "very dangerous precedent."
“Force-feeding is unethical torture against prisoners that might lead to their death, such as what happened in 1980 in the Nafha prison when 3 prisoners died after being force-fed,” he added.
Israel Allows Hunger-Striking Prisoners to Be Force-Fed
(at NY Times)
Israeli legislators voted Thursday to allow the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners in extreme cases, a move that appeared to be aimed at preventing Palestinian inmates from using fasts to win their release, particularly from indefinite incarceration.
Rights groups condemned the move, and the Israeli Medical Association called it torture and vowed to appeal the legislation. In recent years, hundreds of Palestinians have conducted collective and individual hunger strikes. Some obtained better conditions in detention, and a handful were promised early release if they halted their fasts.
Two Palestinian hunger strikers died in 1980 after they were force-fed. Palestinian prisoner rights activists said force-feeding had been used only very rarely since. Mr. Hadar said the United States, Australia, Austria and some districts of Switzerland also allowed some form of force-feeding. He said Israeli doctors would not be compelled to comply.
Hunger strikes have a long history in non-violent protest movements. They were used extensively by Gandhi and have a long recorded history in Ireland and India.
Rising physical violence against Palestinian child detainees
(
at DCI-Palestine)
Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2015 suffered increasing levels of physical violence, according to Defense for Children International Palestine research.
Data compiled by DCIP since January 2015 shows that 86 percent of Palestinian children experienced some form of physical violence during their arrest or interrogation, a 10 percent increase from 2014. Unlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian children have no right to be accompanied by a parent and, in the majority of cases, no access to legal counsel during interrogation.
Ill treatment of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic in the Israeli military detention system as children arrested by Israeli forces arrive at Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived, according to DCIP documentation.
Israeli forces used blindfolds and hand ties on almost all the children interviewed by DCIP, and in nearly 55 percent of cases they succumbed to strip-searches once in custody. Children continued to report they signed documents during interrogation drafted in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. DCIP documented four cases involving the use of solitary confinement for interrogation purposes by Israeli forces, a practice that amounts to torture under international law.
The Long Road to Bethlehem: Part Three
(
at +972mag)
The third installment of her remarkable memoir of living in the occupied West Bank. In so many ways, this is a deeply sensitive, revelatory, humane account.
In parts one and two, Jewish journalist Mya Guarnieri struggles to find her place in two conflicted societies. In her struggle with forbidden love, desperation is fueled by the innumerable — societal and military — obstacles that seem to lurk beyond every bend. Thankfully, hope often appears when you need it most.
Family, blood stains challenge Israeli account of Qalandiya killing
(
at +972mag)
According to the official Israeli narrative, which was published in Israeli media outlets Monday morning, Abu Latifa resisted arrest and fled onto the roof, at which point the forces shot him in his lower body. According to the Israeli account, he then fell to his death while jumping to another roof. Police said Abu Latifa was wanted in connection with terrorism, an allegation that can at times refer to anything ranging from armed attacks to rock throwing.
A tour of the roof of the building next to his home exposes a compelling, conflicting narrative to that offered by police. Blood splatter on a retainer wall on the roof seems to corroborate that Abu Latifa was shot only after he already escaped from his home — while he was fleeing.
“The army is lying, he did not fall. The blood splash on the corner shows they shot him for no reason. He could not have run away,” asserted Abu Latifa’s cousin, a woman in her 20s who asked not to be identified. The Israeli soldiers ran after him onto the roof and then shot him, she recalled.
Another neighbor who said he saw the incident from his window described what happened after the shooting. “The soldiers carried him back to the roof of his house” he said, pointing to bloody footprints leading back toward the balcony. +972 saw only imprints of a left foot, which the neighbor claimed shows Abu Latifa was carried while injured.
Palestinian killed by Israeli forces during West Bank raid, third fatality in past week.
(
at Haaretz)
An 18-year-old Palestinian fell to his death after being shot by Israeli forces during an arrest raid at the Qalandiya refugee camp in the West Bank late Monday night, the third such incident in seven days.
Israeli border policemen were attempting to arrest two Palestinians suspected of planning a terrorist attack within Israel.
During the operation, one of the suspects, Mohammed Abu Latifa, attempted to flee toward the building's roof. After repeatedly warning the suspect to stop, Israeli forces shot the fleeing suspect in the lower body. The wounded Palestinian then fell after attempting to jump from the building's roof to another roof.
The Land of Settlers' worthy victory over the State of Tel Aviv
(Opinion in Haaretz - Gideon Levy)
The settlers won, and it was a worthy victory. They just wanted it more, so they won. They tried harder, sacrificed more, invested more and persevered. So they deserved to win. The State of Tel Aviv remained mired in complacency, ignorance and blindness. While it refused to choose its targets or a course of action, it was unwilling to sacrifice or even fight (over nothing, by the way). The land of the settlers set clear goals, drew up a plan of action, executed it and won.
While the Tel Avivians busied themselves with the price of cottage cheese and the housing crisis (only when the weather was nice), the people of Beit El fought a wild fight for unchecked expansion, and in recent years have scored irreversible victories. As their armed militias marched forward, Tel Aviv wrote articles.
Now they no longer need to put on their phony presentations. There’s no longer any need for the heartfelt tragedy stories from Gush Katif, the grotesqueries from Beit El or the farce at Sa-Nur. They can close down this absurd theater, it’s no longer needed. Season’s over. We no longer need to hear settlers calling on police to “go deal with Arabs,” or hilltop youth scolding people for “daring to expel Jews.” There’s no need for the defense minister to “fight to preserve law and order,” nor for the Supreme Court to keep its rubber stamp handy.
All these false pretenses, as if there are two rival sides here – the children of darkness versus the children of light. That’s simply false. There are no warring camps. There’s one camp that’s willing to fight, and the other one just isn’t interested. The first camp won.
More stories below the orange separation wall:
Number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention doubled in one year
(
at Haaretz)
Over a year after last summer’s kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces is still holding 391 Palestinians in administrative detention – twice as many as were being held before the murders. The change in the number of people being detained without trial is due to the Military Advocate General’s decision to lower the requirements in such cases for holding people involved in terrorism.
The number of Palestinians in administrative detention had fallen significantly in recent years, from over 1,000 in 2003 – at the height of the second intifada – to 134 in August 2013. Since then, the number has risen again, and in May 2014, before the kidnapping and murders, had reached 191.
The military prosecution in the West Bank has made a conscious decision to lower the bar for the evidence required to hold a prisoner without trial, Haaretz has learned from conversations with Palestinian defense lawyers and sources in the military prosecutor’s office. This has been applied mostly in cases involving bringing funds into the West Bank.
Violence against civilians in the Occupied Territories
(at UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)
Three Palestinian civilians were shot with live ammunition and killed in the context of search and arrest operations in the West Bank: On 22 July, a 21-year-old man was shot in the chest, during clashes involving stone-throwing, in Birqin village (Jenin); on 23 July, a 53-year-old man was shot while reportedly trying to protect his son, who had been shot and injured moments earlier in their home in Beit Ummar village (Hebron); and on 27 July, a 20-year-old man fell from a roof after being shot multiple times while attempting to escape from Israeli soldiers in Qalandiya Refugee Camp (Jerusalem). The immediate cause of the latter death remains unconfirmed. This brings the number of Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank since the start of the year to 17, compared to 19 in the equivalent period of 2014.
Israeli forces injured a total of 66 Palestinians, including five children and five women in multiple incidents across the West Bank. Nearly a third of the injuries (21) took place in the context of search and arrest operations, including those operations noted above resulting in fatalities. Another 12 Palestinians were injured in clashes triggered by the announced entry of settlers; an Israeli Minister; and other Israeli groups into Al Aqsa Mosque Compound on the annual Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av; this is the first entry of an Israeli official since November 2014.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces shot and injured two fishermen, reportedly sailing at 6NM from shore, and a 14-year-old child, who had been playing with other children within 50 meters from the fence. Overall, Israeli forces opened fire towards civilians in the Access Restricted Areas (ARA) on land and at sea on at least 23 occasions during the two-week period. On two occasions, Israeli forces entered and leveled land near the fence inside the Gaza Strip.
Also in Gaza, a 67-year-old woman was injured in her house east of Al Bureij Camp, during an Israeli airstrike targeting a nearby military training site. The airstrike was reportedly launched in response to a Palestinian rocket fire. The Palestinian rockets landed in open area in southern Israel resulting in no injuries or damage.
Seven Israeli settler attacks resulting in injury or damage to Palestinian property were recorded, including the physical assault of a shepherd from Qwawis (Hebron) and a 4-year-old girl near Al Ibrahimi Mosque in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron city; a Palestinian bus driver sprayed with pepper spray in East Jerusalem; a water well vandalized in Deir Istya village (Salfit); five dunums of cropped land damaged in Al Khadr (Bethlehem); and 200 olive saplings uprooted in Turmus’ayya (Ramallah).
Five Palestinian attacks against settlers and other Israelis and their property were recorded. According to Israeli media, the attacks involved stone throwing, and in one case, the hurling of a Molotov cocktail and fireworks at Israeli settlers, their houses and vehicles, injuring four Israeli settlers. All attacks were recorded in the Jerusalem governorate, except one recorded in the Ramallah governorate.
In Area C, Israeli authorities demolished three commercial structures in Idhna village and a water cistern under construction in Beit Ula, both in Hebron governorate, due to lack of building permits; in the latter village the authorities also uprooted and confiscated around 350 olive trees and leveled around 30 dunums of cultivated land on grounds of their location in land designated by Israel as “state land”. In East Jerusalem one Palestinian family sealed their home, and another family demolished their home pursuant to order issued by the Israeli authorities on grounds of lack of Israeli-issued building permits.
For background on al-Aqsa and why it can be such a tinder-box for the region, see my earlier diary: A Third Intifada: Al-Aqsa and the Temple Mount
Dozens of Palestinians clash with Israel Police at Temple Mount
(
at Haaretz)
After a few months of relative calm at the Temple Mount compound, violence was reported at the Jerusalem site Sunday morning, with dozens of Palestinians youths barricading themselves at the Al Aqsa Mosque and clashing with Israel Police forces sent to the scene.
During the altercation, police eventually stormed the mosque itself. An unknown number of officers were wounded, and three East Jerusalem residents were arrested for allegedly throwing rocks at Border Police.
Jerusalem police said they received information about Arab youths barricading themselves within the mosque overnight Saturday to confront police and prevent visits to the holy site on Tisha B’Av – the Jewish day of remembrance for the destruction of the First and Second Temples.
Israeli forces, right-wingers storm Aqsa Mosque compound
(
at Ma'an News)
Israeli forces broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Sunday morning firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Muslim worshipers as they cleared way for right-wing Jews who were visiting the compound to mark a Jewish fast day, witnesses said. Dozens of Palestinian worshipers were reportedly hit with rubber-coated bullets and suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while Israeli police officers were reported to have attacked worshipers with pepper spray, rods and rifle butts. At least three Palestinians were reportedly detained.
The officers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate, Chain Gate and Hutta Gate and clashed with worshipers, witnesses said, before Israeli soldiers then shut down the compound’s gates with chains. Israeli soldiers also reportedly stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque itself and fired rubber-coated bullets inside the holy site. The compound's Palestinian security guards were assaulted and prevented from moving, witnesses said.
Israeli police claimed that they entered the mosque after "masked rioters" threw stones at them, "with the aim of preventing further injury to police."
Israeli police arrests youth for calling Mohammed a pig
(
at Haaretz)
Israel Police arrested on Monday a Jewish youth who shouted insults to the prophet Mohammed, in the second such incident in days and amid heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank, police said.
The religious young man was filmed shouting "Mohammed is a pig" several times in Jerusalem's historic Old City. A young woman was filmed shouting the same phrase on Thursday. Jerusalem police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the police would show "zero tolerance" toward such provocations.
An Israeli settler woman on Thursday was caught on camera shouting "Mohammed is a pig," as a group of Muslim women were heckling a group of Jewish women visiting the Temple Mount. The Muslim women shouted "God is great" and "Slaughter the Jews" at the Jewish women, after which the settler shouted the insult.
Village of Azzun suffers from continuous, targeted attacks by Israeli army
(
at Int'l Solidarity Movement)
Both northern gates, leading to Nablus and Tulkarem, were blocked allowing no cars to pass, only people by foot, until 8:00 in the morning of the following day. In addition, three new checkpoints were created in these two north gates as well as the western gate leading to Qalqilya.
This event should be seen in the larger context of violence, control and surveillance to which the village of Azzun has been subjected to. The main road 55 that connects the village to Nablus, is fenced through 40 kilometers and includes three watchtowers, making villagers feel constantly threatened and controlled. Moreover, the nearby illegal settlement of Maale Shomeron has a large number of watchtowers that constantly surveil the villagers’ movements within Azzun.
This is the third attack this family has suffered in three years. In very similar conditions, Samir was arrested for the first time in 2012 when he was 15 years old, imprisoned for a period of 2 and a half years, with no charges.
Foreign Ministry calls Sunni Arab states 'Israel's allies'
(
at JPost)
The Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, called the Middle East’s Sunni Arab nations “Israel’s allies.”
Gold used the term twice in a presentation Wednesday in New York focused on the shortcomings of the Iran nuclear deal.
“What we have is a regime on a roll that is trying to conquer the Middle East,” Gold said of Iran, “and it’s not Israel talking, that is our Sunni Arab neighbors — and you know what? I’ll use another expression – that is our Sunni Arab allies talking.”
Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime adviser to Israeli prime ministers from the right-wing Likud Party, is also the author of a 2003 book on Saudi Arabia called “Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism.” Saudi Arabia has been one of the most vocal Arab opponents of US-Iran rapprochement and the Iran nuclear agreement.
Israel’s HCJ approves deportation of Nadia Abu al-Jamal and her children
(
at B'Tselem)
On 22 July 2015 Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) allowed the state to deport Nadia Abu al-Jamal – and effectively, her three children as well – from their home in East Jerusalem. Justices Rubinstein, Joubran and Hendel dismissed the argument that the decision should be struck down, inter alia for being vengeful measure. They also denied the possibility of rescinding the deportation on humanitarian grounds. At the request of Israeli human rights NGO HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, the state agreed to defer the deportation until after the Muslim festival of ‘Eid al-Adha which will be celebrated in early October.
The justices issued a short, two-paragraph ruling. The legal argument boils down to a single sentence, in itself a quote from a judgment handed down more than a decade ago: “This court has already ruled that under such circumstances, in the absence of a family unit ‘a foreign resident does not have a right to receive status in Israel by virtue of his children, because a minor is dependent on his parents and his parents are not dependent on him' (Justice Hayut), all based on previous judgments”.
The justices made their decision despite being fully aware of its harmful impact on Abu al-Jamal’s children, aged three, four and six, all permanent residents of Israel. In their ruling, the justices did try to soften the blow by noting that the state was not preventing the children from living in Jerusalem, although they assume the children would prefer to join their mother, as if such young children can really choose where they live. They also note that the state would “favorably consider” any application the mother makes to accompany her children on visits to their father’s family or for medical appointments. While the justices wrote that they saw “room for flexibility” when it comes to considering such applications, they stopped short of ruling that they must be approved. The justice did, however, approve the deportation from the home – separating the children from their family, friends, every institution they know – was approved.
Two Haifa Cinemas Refuse to Allow Screening of Films About Palestinian Nakba
(
at Haaretz)
Two municipal cultural institutions in Haifa – the Haifa Cinematheque and the Tikotin Museum – refused in recent months to allow the group Zochrot to rent a theater to screen short films that were shown in the past at the International Festival for the Nakba. Although these institutions rent out theaters to anyone, and although their representatives told Zochrot that the theaters were available for rental on several dates in the coming months, repeated requests by the association to rent a hall, for pay, were turned down.
The Nakba film festival, produced by Zochrot, has already taken place twice in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The second time, in November 2014, the previous minister of culture, Limor Livnat, threatened to remove her ministry’s support for the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, claiming that it is not reasonable for “an organization supported by the State of Israel to permit an entire festival devoted to preaching that the day of the establishment of the State of Israel is a day of mourning.”
Where are Gaza's ex-settlers now? 10 faces from the disengagement
(
at Haaretz)
Ten years ago, on August 15, 2005, Israel began its unilateral withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. Over the course of one week, roughly 9,000 Israelis were evacuated from 21 settlements in the bloc known as Gush Katif in southern Gaza. It was officially known as the Disengagement Plan, but that’s not a term used by the people forced to leave their homes. For them it was and still is the Expulsion Plan.
“I have awful memories of the day we left,” she says. “The soldiers entered our home at about 11 at night and took the kids out of bed in their pajamas. I didn’t want to fight with them, so I just packed all the kids into the car and began driving. I had no idea where I was going or where I needed to be. There was so much crying, so much pain, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Sixteen-year-old Elkana, the youngest of Eliezer’s Orbach’s five children, remembers his early years in Gush Katif as idyllic. “Sure, we’d have mortar rockets landing here and there, and we never had any warning, but I don’t remember ever being afraid,” he says. “What I do remember are the beaches, the sand dunes, the feeling of living in paradise.”
The third of six children, 16-year-old Shaked Haddad remembers feeling excited the day her family left their home in the settlement of Kfar Darom. “I had no idea what was going on,” she recalls. “People were shouting, there were soldiers in the house, and all I knew was that we were going to a hotel, and that sounded like fun. I couldn’t understand why everyone else around me was so sad.”
On the day of the evacuation, he took a walk alone around the settlement to bid farewell to the familiar sights of his childhood. “It was difficult to accept that we wouldn’t be back,” he says. “And it’s still difficult to accept.” He and his family spent eight months at Alumim, a religious kibbutz, before moving to their permanent homes in Shomria, a new community in southern Israel established by former Gush Katif settlers.
Huckabee: Obama marching Israelis 'to the door of the oven'
(
at Haaretz)
Former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee blasted President Barack Obama on Saturday over the nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers, saying that by trusting the Iranians, the president "will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."
In an interview with Breitbart, the 59-year-old conservative television personality called Obama's foreign policy "the most feckless in American history" and dubbed the Iran deal "the most idiotic thing." "It should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and by the American people," he said.
Susiya: Injustice On Display
(
at JPost)
The pending order to demolish the small Palestinian village of Susiya in the southern Judean Mountains in the occupied West Bank represents the most blatant violation of human rights. The order calls for the forcible removal of several hundred Palestinians who have been living on their land from the time of the Ottoman Empire and still have the ownership deeds to prove their claim. Prime Minister Netanyahu, who never misses an opportunity to remind the world that Israel is a democracy guided by moral principles, seems to care less about displacing Palestinian women and children for the fourth time. His excuse is that this dusty village, established in 1830, is the site of archeological remains both of a 5th century synagogue and a 10th century mosque and it must be preserved.
The real reason is that Netanyahu is leading a coalition government which is committed to preventing the Palestinians from building anywhere in Area C, which represents 61 percent of the West Bank, and is openly seeking its outright annexation.
This is a roundup of news related to Palestine with a particular focus on grassroots action and peaceful civil disobedience in the Occupied Territories and within the borders of Israel proper. The goal is to provide a weekly update on the non-violent resistance movement and the challenges confronting it.
Diplomatic negotiations and actions by armed resistance groups are covered quite widely by the mainstream press and in other diaries on DKos so they are rarely included.
We use the name Filastin, since this is the pronunciation used by Arabic speakers (irrespective of faith) for their homeland. The more familiar Palestine is the Hellenic or Roman variant. Filastin refers to the geographic entity roughly encompassing Israel and Palestine. It is a likely cognate of "Philistine", the name used in the Hebrew bible to describe a rival of the Jewish kingdom of that era.
XVIII) July 26, 2015: Filastin: "Do you know what Obama coffee is?"
XVII) July 19, 2015: Israeli military judge says a Palestinian can defend his home, too
XVI) July 12, 2015: Citizen Odeh: The Arab leader who feels the Jews' pain
XV) July 5, 2015: Israel losing Democrats, "can't claim bipartisan US support," top pollster warns
XIV) June 28, 2015: Israel's Deputy Interior Minister: I'll seek to revoke Arab MKs' citizenship
XIII) June 21, 2015: Prisoner's hunger strike enters 48th day; Vandals torch Church of Loaves and Fish
XII) June 14, 2015: Soldiers remove Palestinians from pool in Area A so Settlers can bathe undisturbed
XI) June 7, 2015: French Telecom Executive's Remarks on Israel Incite Furor.
X) May 31, 2015: Online database "exposes" pro-Palestinian college students to "damage their careers".
IX) May 24, 2015: Soldier pays the price for criticizing the Israel army
VIII) May 17, 2015: Despite literal "smoking gun", settlers cleared of charges for shooting
VII) May 10, 2015: "Palestinians are beasts, they are not human" - new head of West Bank civil administration