TODAY in PALESTINE

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Land, property theft & destruction / Judaization / Ethnic cleansing / Restriction of movement

Settlers raise Israeli flag over West Bank church

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Israeli settlers on Friday took over a monastery in a village near Ramallah and raised an Israeli flag over the building. Priest Aziz Raei told Ma‘an that Israeli settlers used force to occupy the monastery and its adjacent chapel in al-Taybeh, a Christian village in the central West Bank. They raised a flag over the monastery, which was built by a French monk.
link to www.maannews.net

Warning of Israeli plan to deport Bedouins in the Khan al-Ahmar

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 19 Apr — Bedouin communities in Khan al-Ahmar held a press conference on Thursday to explain the dimensions of the occupation authorities’ scheme that aims to expel them to Nowayma village near the city of Jericho. Eid Abu Dahuk, official in school assembly in Khan al-Ahmar, said during the conference that he and other Bedouins were deported from Tel Arad in the Negev in 1951, to settle down in Khan al-Ahmar and Jerusalem since that date. He pointed to the close alliance between the settlers and the successive Israeli governments that have been impeding the development process in the region in order to push the Bedouins to leave. The lawyer Shlomo Lecker, in charge of defending the right of Bedouin communities in the Israeli courts pointed out that the Supreme Court has frozen the decision to deport the Bedouins to a landfill site in Abu Dis. Lawyer Lecker added that within 60 days, the Israeli Defense Minister will sign on the new plan that aims to deport the Bedouins from Khan al-Ahmar to Nowayma village near Jericho.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Jahalin Bedouins fear new Israeli transfer plan

Ynet 20 Apr The Media Line — Entire community faces demolition orders, move to Jordan Valley. Civil Administration : We are trying to improve living standards of both Palestinians, Israelis — Id Khamis Jahalin sits in his sparsely furnished, illegally-built shack, and worries about his future. A father of seven, he was born in this community of tents and shacks about 10 miles east of Jerusalem. Sitting on a thin mattress that substitutes for a couch during the day and a bed at night, Id Khamis told The Media Line that a new Israeli plan to relocate the Jahalin Bedouin community, “is the worst one yet. It is not appropriate for us at all. The place they want to move us to is surrounded on all four sides and it is very crowded. I am a Bedouin and I want to live like my parents.”
link to www.ynetnews.com

In Jerusalem, road project takes political turn as it cuts through Arab neighborhood

JERUSALEM (WaPo) 20 Apr by Joel Greenberg — Cutting a wide swath through the stone homes and terraced olive groves of an Arab neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, a new Israeli road-building project is stirring growing discontent. Graffiti covers metal barriers around the construction site. "Racism,”"says one. "People before roads." A black flag of protest flies from one of several houses that are yards away from the planned high-speed route ... City officials call the project a transport solution that will enable motorists to travel quickly from Jerusalem’s southern entrance to neighborhoods across the city and points north. But critics say the new road is meant to serve Jewish settlers from the southern West Bank, providing them speedy access to the Jerusalem freeway and onward toward Tel Aviv. Lacking access points from inside the village, the road will not serve Beit Safafa residents but only disrupt life there, according to the critics. "This is destroying the village, slicing it up," said Mustafa Salman, 65, as he stood near the broad trench gouged out near his house.
link to www.washingtonpost.com

Israel court suspends land confiscation in Beit Safafa

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 19 Apr – An Israeli central court in Jerusalem on Friday suspended a legal case by the Israeli municipal council of Jerusalem seeking to confiscate a private tract of land owned by Palestinian Salman family in Beit Safafa neighborhood, a lawyer says. Qays Yousif Nasser, who represents the Palestinian family, said in a statement that the court decided to wait until the Supreme Court makes its final decision into the case. Nasser highlighted that a local Palestinian committee from Beit Safafa neighborhood had appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court contesting the municipal plans to build a new road known as route 4. "The decision is of great importance as it could help freeze other legal proceedings submitted by the municipality of Jerusalem asking to confiscate private lands in other locations in the neighborhood," the lawyer said.
link to www.maannews.net

Israel’s AG issues new directive on rights of Palestinians living outside Jerusalem, inside separation fence

Haaretz 18 Apr by Nir Hasson — Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has ordered an end to the revocation of social welfare rights of Jerusalem Palestinians who moved outside the city’s municipal borders but on the Israeli side of the West Bank separation barrier. The decision remedies a long-standing grievance of tens of thousands of Palestinians. It also strengthens the barrier’s status as Jerusalem’s de facto border, not the city’s actual municipal boundaries. According to existing law, Jerusalem Palestinians who move beyond the municipal border lose their Israeli residential status as well as their eligibility to National Insurance Institute benefits. Following Weinstein’s directive, however, those who move to areas between the city limits and the separation barrier will keep their NII benefits. In many past cases, the NII halted payment of benefits to Palestinians who had moved only several meters beyond Jerusalem’s official borders.
link to www.haaretz.com

IOA prevents Jerusalem Shopping Spring Festival

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 19 Apr — The so-called Israeli Homeland Security Secretary issued on Thursday a decision to prevent Jerusalem Shopping Spring Festival under the pretext of being held under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority. The Festival was planned to be held in "Islamic Orphanage School," and "the Jerusalemite Children Club," and "Stork Tower Community Society." Stork Tower Community Society’s director stated that the festival aims to revitalize the city of Jerusalem, and its streets and alleys in the Old Town through encouraging shopping in the city. The festival came in order to strengthen the relationship between Jerusalemites and the Old Town and to encourage purchasing Palestinian goods within the Jerusalemite community in light of the Israeli attempts to isolate the occupied city economically from the West Bank.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Jerusalem Palestinians face neglect, displacement

JERUSALEM (Al-Monitor) 19 Apr by Jihan Abdalla — Once the political, social and commercial hub for Palestinians, Jerusalem has slowly disintegrated into an isolated, neglected and impoverished community as Israel continues to tighten its grip on the Holy City ... Residents of Silwan say their lives are consumed with the imminent fear of demolition and daily friction with the settlers. Ahmad Qareen was shot twice in the legs three years ago by a settler guard and walks on crutches. He is now unable to work and his family relies on his wife’s income. A month ago, Qaraeen’s 15-year-old son was detained along with his friends outside his school, and released 12 hours later. "Every family here has, at any given time, at least two or there lawyers representing them," Qareen tells Al-Monitor, "whether to fight a pending demolition order on their home or to free an imprisoned child." ... Palestinian cartographer Khalil Tafakji says since 2001, Israel closed down 26 Palestinian institutions in east Jerusalem, most notably the Orient House, the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "The void created by the absence of institutions and effective policing has given rise to a culture of gangsters, drugs and crime," Tafakji tells Al-Monitor. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says 78% of residents live below the poverty line.
link to www.al-monitor.com

Palestinian activists seek to derail major Jerusalem film
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 19 Apr — Palestinian activists tried to derail an ambitious European documentary shot in Jerusalem this week, complaining that the film would reinforce an image of Israeli sovereignty over the deeply divided city. Producers of the Franco-German "24h Jerusalem", which sets out to depict a day-in-the-life of the troubled city, said on Friday that their plans had been badly disrupted by a last minute campaign of "intimidation and harassment" ... "This is not one city, it is two cities," said Dimitri Diliani, spokesman in East Jerusalem for the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who holds sway in Palestinian self-rule areas of the nearby West Bank. "The whole idea of accepting the occupiers’ claims that this is one city is totally wrong. This has political ramifications," he told Reuters. He denied accusations that opponents of the film had threatened any of those involved.
link to www.reuters.com

PHOTOS : First Palestine Marathon runs between walls in Bethlehem
972blog 22 Apr Photos by Activestills.org ; Text by Haggai Matar and Michael Omer-Man — Runners in the first ever Bethlehem Marathon were forced to run two laps of the same course on Sunday, as Palestinians were unable to find a single stretch of free land that is 42 kilometers (26 miles) long (in Area A, where the PA has both security and civil authority). The marathon took place in spite of harsh and untypical weather conditions and the winner was Abdel Nasser Awajneh, a Palestinian man from Jericho. Palestinians "do not have a state, and their lands are controlled by a foreign army – that army controls their movement with roadblocks, checkpoints, military zones, an illegal wall and a complex set of discriminatory laws," the marathon organizers explained in a statement. "The EU and the U.S. talk about a two-state solution, an independent Palestine – but we cannot find the 42 kilometers needed for a marathon. Not 42 kilometers of an area, which [is] supposed to be an independent state [that is] controlled by the Palestinian themselves."
link to 972mag.com

Video : Celebrating ethnic cleansing
Apartheid4All 18 Apr — We went on "Israeli Independence Day" Rabin Square Tel -Aviv to celebrate the "ethnic cleansing" along with the people of Israel. We Distributed maps prepared by "Zochrot" documenting the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the beginning of Zionism to 67. Reactions ? :’Best’ you can find on the Zionist streets. Those who agreed with us, and answered our wish "Happy dispossessing" with "thanks", some agreed there was deportation and dispossession but didn’t agree with the term "ethnic cleansing" because ’we won they lost". Those who were angry and called us racists ... we want to thank "Zochrot" for their wonderful work and that they don’t let us forget the crime Israel was built on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j1CRUEnwCBE

Violence / Raids / Attacks / Clashes / Arrests

PCHR weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (11-17 April 2013)
Shooting : During the reporting period, Israeli forces wounded 10 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children and a Palestinian and a Spanish human rights activist in the West Bank ; 6 of whom were wounded during peaceful protests against the annexation wall, settlement activities and in support of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails. The 4 others were wounded during incursions conducted in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces wounded a shepherd from al-Bureij refugee camp, in the centre of the Gaza Strip. They also continued to open fire at Palestinian fishing boats, restricting the permitted fishing area to 3 nautical miles instead of the 6 nautical mile limit which was agreed in the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in November 2012 ... Incursions : During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 71 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these incursions, Israeli forces arrested at least 40 Palestinians, including 7 children... Restrictions on movement : Israel continued to impose a tightened closure of the oPt, imposing severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
link to www.pchrgaza.org

Four citizens including old lady wounded in confrontations with Israeli soldiers
RAMALLAH (PIC) 20 Apr — Four Palestinians, including an old lady in her seventies, were wounded in confrontations with Israeli occupation forces (IOF) near Ramallah afternoon Friday. Eyewitnesses told the PIC in a telephone contact that IOF soldiers arrested ten demonstrators, who sought refuge in a building after it was stormed by the soldiers, in Silwad village to the east of Ramallah. They said that the soldiers beat up the citizens after handcuffing and throwing them on the ground. The sources said that a 70-year-old Palestinian woman was wounded with a rubber bullet in her chest after the soldiers took control of her home and forced her out of it.
Meanwhile to the east of Silwad, inhabitants of Deir Jarir village offered the Friday prayers on a land threatened with confiscation. Jewish settlers from Ofra settlement, who want to annex the land to their settlement, tried to attack the worshipers but were confronted by villagers who threw stones on them and chased them away. However, IOF soldiers intervened and fired live and rubber bullets in addition to teargas canisters to disperse the villagers.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

3 injured at Nabi Saleh protest
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Two activists and a journalist were severely beaten by Israeli forces in clashes in Nabi Saleh village north of Ramallah on Friday, activists said. Dozens of Palestinians and activists participated in the village’s weekly protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets and used water canons to disperse protesters. Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation. Israeli forces severely beaten a Palestinian journalist, and two activists, one Palestinian and one Israeli.
link to www.maannews.net

17 injured in clashes in Beit Ummar
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Seventeen Palestinians were injured with rubber coated steel bullets in clashes in Beit Ummar village near Hebron, a local official said. A spokesman of the popular committee against the wall and settlements told Ma‘an that the injured are aged between 15 and 22, and one of them was shot in the neck. He added that several others including eight children suffered tear gas inhalation.
A medic was also injured in the hand with a rubber coated steel bullet as Israeli forces targeted medics who were trying to evacuate an injured youth, the official said.
link to www.maannews.net

IOF raids several Palestinian towns in WB
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 21 Apr — The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided several towns in Bethlehem and al-Khalil southern occupied West Bank, while summoning a Palestinian citizen for investigation. The sources confirmed that Israeli forces raided the towns of Nuba, Dahria and several suburbs in the city of al-Khalil, while dozens of settlers stormed Qalks town under the protection of Israeli soldiers for several hours. The Israeli army stormed the towns of Dar Salah, Kheder, Dheisheh, ‘Aida refugee camp, and several suburbs of the city of Bethlehem, while the occupation summoned the citizen Ramzi Mesaieed, from ‘Aida refugee camp, to Etzion detention center near Bethlehem for interrogation
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Palestinian youth shot dead by Israeli policeman
NAZARETH (PIC) 21 Apr — A 20-year-old Palestinian young man from the town of Tayeba in the occupied territories died on Sunday from wounds he sustained after being shot by Israeli police last night. The Hebrew "Walla" news website reported that an Israeli police patrol claimed seeing two Palestinian youths carrying weapons in the city of Tira in the 1948-occupied territories, and started chasing them, when one of the young men threatened the policemen to shoot, according to the Israeli police claims. An Israeli policeman shot the Palestinian youth causing him serious injuries. He was then taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on Sunday morning.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Settlers attack farmers north of Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 20 Apr — Settlers attacked a group of farmers north of Hebron on Saturday, a local committee said. Committee spokesman Muhammad Ayad Awad told Ma‘an that Hamad al-Sulaibi, 78, was working his land with his nephews when 13 settlers started throwing stones at them in an area known locally as Wadi Abu al-Rish, located opposite the illegal settlement of Bat Ayin. Settlers forced the farmers to leave the area, in the presence of Israeli forces, Awad said.
link to www.maannews.net

Settlers harass Palestinian residents of Hebron as soldiers watch
ISM 20 Apr by Team Khalil — Hashem Al-Azzeh, activist and resident of Tel Rumeida (a neighbourhood in Israeli-controlled H2 Hebron) was today attacked by Israeli settlers who broke into his brother’s house and attempted to force their way through his garden. Hashem caught the settlers leaving the house at around 11am, and when he questioned them about their presence on his premises, they replied that God had given them this land, according to the Bible. Quickly several other settlers arrived on the scene and soon around 20 settlers, in addition to 20 settler children, occupied Hashem’s front porch as well as the path leading up to it. The settlers tried to force their way through Hashem’s garden and backyard, but he managed to stand his ground and insisted that it is illegal for them to pass between the Palestinian houses.
After approximately 20 minutes, around 10 soldiers arrived at the scene, after a nearby guard had previously been alerted by Hashem’s children. The soldiers, who had just been woken up, mostly merely stood around watching and seemed at a loss about what to do. They did not confront the trespassing settlers and did not tell them to leave and stop harassing Hasehm. However they stopped the two Palestinian workers who had been decorating the house from working and confiscated their ID cards. A Swiss journalist who arrived at the scene to document the incident was refused access and removed by the army despite presentation of his official press card.
link to palsolidarity.org

Barhoum : Arrest of Islamic bloc leaders blatant intervention in elections
GAZA (PIC) 21 Apr — Hamas movement denounced the Israeli occupation’s campaign of arrests in lines of Islamic bloc leaders at the Najah university in Nablus. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said in a press release on Sunday that the campaign of arrests only two days before the students’ elections is a clear intervention in the election process and students’ representation. He said that it also reflected the Israeli occupation’s concern over the success of the Islamic bloc, affiliated with Hamas, and its resistance program that has won escalating support as evident in the elections in other West Bank universities over the past few weeks.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

The occupation and children/minors

Child arrests continue in Hebron
ISM 20 Apr by Team Khalil — UPDATE : Child arrests in Hebron continue today as a 15 year old Palestinian boy , Az Dweik , was arrested in the morning. He was allegedly carrying a knife around the Ibrahimi mosque and taken to the Kiryat Arba police station. In the afternoon Muhammad Almayele , 9 years old , was thrown to the ground near Shuhada street by three soldiers before being held in an an army base for one hour. A soldier told us that "The reason we scare them , is so that they don`t come here again"
— Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes.
link to palsolidarity.org

Arrest and abuse of ill 16-year-old in Urif
ISM 21 Apr by Team Nablus — An innocent 16-year-old boy was abused and arrested on Tuesday April 16th in Urif, despite his grandfather and uncle rushing to show documents that he is seeking medical attention for a possible cancer diagnosis. He was wrongfully accused of stone-throwing as he was leaving his uncle’s home. Twelve soldiers had arrived in the village at around noon and were forcefully entering houses and shooting rubber-coated steel bullets down two main streets in Urif. They entered five different houses and in the fifth house, randomly attempted to take a boy in his last year of high school. His family protested and the soldiers moved on. Stones were thrown in protest at the Israeli jeep invading the village, and the 16-year-old boy, who had been visiting his uncle and whose illness causes him to walk slowly, was taken in retribution for the stone-throwers. The boy’s hands and legs were bound, he was blindfolded and soldiers ignored his uncle and grandfather hurriedly showing medical documents about his diagnosis. Stone-throwing resumed in protest as the jeep drove away with the ill 16-year-old. The boy reported that for every stone thrown at the jeep, he was kicked by the Israeli soldiers who were yelling at him in Hebrew.
link to palsolidarity.org

Israel police parade cuffed teenager to protesters
[with video] JERUSALEM (AFP) 20 Apr — Israeli police paraded a cuffed Palestinian teenager to protesters in what a human rights group charged Saturday was abuse of a "human shield" but an Israeli spokesman said was a move to calm violence. Defense for Children International-Palestine posted a 76-second video clip on YouTube showing helmeted border policemen removing a young Palestinian it identified as "Muhammad R,17," from their armored jeep and forcing him to stand beside them, cuffed hands raised above his head.
link to www.maannews.net

12-year-old arrested and blindfolded in Hebron
ISM 10 Apr by Team Khalil — Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes. He was then driven in a military jeep to checkpoint 56 where he was eventually released into the custody of the Palestinian police, who registered Ahmed’s details and completed some paperwork before taking him home to his family. Upon questioning by international activists, Israeli soldiers claimed that Ahmed had been arrested due to throwing stones at the Israeli military in the morning, however Ahmed denies this. The Israeli occupation forces regularly accuse children and young men of stone-throwing and use this as an excuse for arrests, which often happen at random.
link to palsolidarity.org

Video : 20 April 2013
In Arabic with Hebrew translation - An emotional video of Palestinian boy telling Israeli solider who has come into his house to arrest him ’please don’t detain me today, I have an exam. Please I will fail. Come tomorrow and I promise I will go with you"
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=568465076526733

Israeli TV report to improve the occupation’s image
NAZARETH (PIC) 21 Apr — The Israeli military censor has allowed the Israeli Channel 2 television crew to document Palestinian children’s arrest process in al-Khalil for allegedly throwing stones in an attempt to demonstrate the “Israeli positive image” during arrest processes. The Israeli TV report tried to improve the Israeli soldier’s image during storming Palestinian houses in "kindly" way, giving the detainee’s family the opportunity to say goodbye to their children and to check on their condition after arrest.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Detained : Testimonies from Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel
972blog 19 Apr by Samar Hazboun — ’Detained : Testimonies from Palestinian Children Imprisoned by Israel’ uncovers one of the most painful experiences that Palestinian children endure in the ongoing Israeli occupation. Through interviews with ex-detainees and mothers of minors presently in detention, the project documents their stories and aims to lend a voice to those who are silenced from fear of negative repercussions — Over the past 11 years, according to Defence for Children International, some 7,500 children have been detained in Israeli prisons and detention facilities. Muhammad Daoud Dirbas, at the age of six, was the youngest child to have been detained by Israeli soldiers. Such practices are considered illegal under international law, as are other policies that children are subjected to, such as solitary confinement. I started working on "Detained" about one year ago, because of the lack of visual documentation on the subject.
link to 972mag.com

UNICEF tones down report on child detainees in wake of Israeli pressure
972mag 20 Apr by Haggai Matar — A story in The Australian newspaper offers a glimpse into the makings of a UN report on Palestinian children detained by Israel, including a look into how Israeli pressure muffled the report’s criticism. The issue of Israel’s treatment of detained minors has been gaining more and more attention in recent weeks. Aside from ongoing parliamentary debates in the UK, Israel’s Channel 2 News aired a story on the nighttime arrests of child stone-throwers in the Al-Arub Refugee Camp (Hebrew), and we at +972 published Samar Hazboun’s beautiful and horrific photo essay of children’s testimonies from their detention. Both of these were preceded by a UNICEF report published last month, which has gained much attention for its criticism of Israel’s policies towards minors in the occupied territories.
link to 972mag.com

Prisoners / Hunger strikers / Court actions

Israeli military court to hold ’urgent’ hearing for Issawi
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 21 Apr — Israel’s Ofer military court will hold an "urgent" hearing for Samer Issawi on Monday after he decided to stop taking vitamin supplements, his lawyer said Sunday. Palestinian Prisoner Society lawyer Jawad Boulos told Ma’an that Issawi stopped taking supplements on Thursday to protest dissatisfaction with ongoing negotiations with Israel about his release. There has been no positive progress in talks with Israel so far, Boulos added.
link to www.maannews.net

Minister : Issawi close to finalizing deal with Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 21 Apr — Long term hunger striker Samer Issawi is close to agreeing a deal with Israel to end his hunger strike, a Palestinian Authority minister said Sunday. Minister for prisoners Issa Qaraqe told Ma’an that "Issawi accepted an offer presented by Israel, on the condition that a written agreement is signed in the presence of lawyers and red cross representatives." The deal would entail serving six months in prison in exchange for ending his hunger strike, Qaraqe said, without providing further details.
link to www.maannews.net

2 prisoners join solidarity hunger strike for Issawi
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Two Palestinians in Israel’s Negev prison on Friday announced an open hunger strike in solidarity with Samer Issawi ... Shadi Mali and Salih al-Jaedi, from Bethlehem’s Duheishe refugee camp, said they would go hunger strike to support Issawi and called on all Palestinians to show solidarity with him. On Wednesday, nine prisoners affiliated to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine also announced a hunger strike they said they would continue until Issawi’s release to East Jerusalem.
link to www.maannews.net

Lawyer : Sick prisoner stops taking medication
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 21 Apr — A sick prisoner on Sunday stopped taking medication in protest against Israeli medical negligence, according to a lawyer from the Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ affairs. Ahmad Saed al-Damouni, 43, from the Gaza Strip, has been held in Ashkelon jail since 1994. He is sentenced to a life term ... Karim Ajwa, a lawyer for the prisoners ministry, said al-Damouni suffers from heart problems and underwent two cardiac operations. Doctors say he needs catheter surgery each year.
link to www.maannews.net

Palestinian prisoner suffers speaking difficulty after wrong injection
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 20 Apr — A Palestinian captive in the Israeli occupation jails, sentenced to life imprisonment, is suffering from a serious health status after his jailers gave him wrong injections. The Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-prisoners’ Affairs said that the captive Naim Younus Shawamra, aged 43 from al-Khalil and who has been sentenced to life imprisonment since 1995, began to suffer from difficulty to speak, weakness in the feet and hands, difficulty of eating and severe pain in the head, after he was given wrong injections ... The captive said that due to his continued pains and his protests at the prison administration’s neglect of his status, he was transferred to the Israeli Barzillai hospital, where a specialized doctor acknowledged that the cause of these symptoms is the wrong injections he was given.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Family of al-Taj asks Saudi Arabia to provide medical treatment
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — The family of Mohammad al-Taj, whom Israel freed on health grounds on Thursday, has appealed to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment for the former prisoner. Al-Taj’s relatives and the Palestinian Prisoners Society made the joint appeal to Saudi Arabia, custodian of the holy mosques, on Friday ... The PA Health Ministry undersecretary Anan al-Masri said the ministry would provide any treatment al-Taj needed and that he would be sent abroad if necessary. "He suffers from pulmonary fibrosis and heart hypertrophy. Pulmonary fibrosis can be treated by a lung transplant, but that is a difficult and uncertain surgery," al-Masri told Ma‘an.
link to www.maannews.net

Interesting
PA liaison secures release of Nablus man
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — The Palestinian Authority liaison office in Nablus on Friday secured the release of a Palestinian from Israeli custody. PA liaison officials negotiated with their Israeli counterparts to free Muhammad al-Deik, a resident of al-Sawiya village, after he was arrested by Israeli forces near the Eli settlement, the office said in a statement. Palestinians should call the office as soon as a relative is detained, the statement added. On Thursday, the PA liaison office in Ramallah secured the release of Khaled al-Uri from Beit Ur near Ramallah. Israel had detained the 16-year-old on Monday.
link to www.maannews.net

Palestinian prisoner stabs Israeli warden with screw
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 20 Apr – A Palestinian political prisoner attacked an Israeli warden in Shikma prison with a screw, Israeli radio reported Saturday. The prisoner serving an 18-year sentence managed to wound the warden with a screw he managed to obtain and sharpen purposefully, according to the report.
link to www.maannews.net

Gaza siege

Egyptian security destroy ’giant’ smuggling tunnel
EL-ARISH (Ma‘an) 19 Apr – Egyptian border police have destroyed a giant smuggling tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, says the governor of northern Sinai. Abdul-Fattah Jarjour explained in a news conference Friday that the tunnel was used for smuggling big lorries. The tunnel, he added, was destroyed and security officers were deployed in the area to make sure it will not be open again.
link to www.maannews.net

Police : Gaza rockets hit southern Israel
JERUSALEM (AFP) 19 Apr — Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel overnight without causing casualties or damage, a police spokeswoman told AFP on Friday. "Two rockets fell into uninhabited areas of the Eshkol region," said Louba Samri. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
link to www.maannews.net

Loud blasts heard over Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Residents reported hearing loud blasts across the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday from low-flying Israeli warplanes. The blasts were caused by Israeli F-16 planes breaking the sound barrier, but residents said the noises sounded like airstrikes, causing many to panic.
link to www.maannews.net

Israel to ’exact price’ for Eilat rocket attack
JERUSALEM (AFP) 21 Apr — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed Israel would "exact a price" from the Gaza militants who recently fired missiles from Sinai at the southern resort city of Eilat ... On Wednesday, militants fired two rockets from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula at Eilat which hit inside the city but caused no casualties. The attack was claimed by a Gaza-based Salafi group called the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which has in recent months fired rockets from Gaza into Israel ... Since the ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, Israel’s border with Sinai has seen multiple security incidents, with militants using the lawless peninsula to stage attacks....
Israel police said another rocket hit southern Israel overnight without causing casualties or damage. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
link to www.maannews.net

Official : Hamas to focus on removing name from terrorism list
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 21 Apr – The Hamas movement has been holding a series of closed-door meetings in the Qatari capital of Doha to distribute positions on the new members of its politburo, says senior leader Ahmed Yousif. Yousif told Ma‘an Sunday that the task would be completed this week ...
The new Hamas politburo, added Yousif, is expected to focus on benefiting from the Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities in Europe to recruit support to Hamas in Europe, and try and take the movement’s name off terrorism lists. "Hamas will focus on convincing European countries to take its name out of the terrorism list. Hamas is certain that the US will not agree to take its name off the list. However, European countries set only one condition to do that — avoiding martyrdom attacks inside Israel, and Hamas hasn’t carried out any attack since 2004."
link to www.maannews.net

Foreign agencies in Gaza protest new exit rules
GAZA CITY (NY Times) 18 Apr by Fares Akram — About two dozen international aid agencies that operate in Gaza have suspended travel by their local employees to Israel and the West Bank to protest new exit permit requirements imposed by the Hamas-led government. Leaders of several nongovernmental organizations said the permit requirements, announced April 4, were an effort by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, to collect information about their groups through application forms and interviews. Hamas has also sought salary information for the local employees to collect income tax, and it wants to tax vendors providing materials to internationally financed projects in Gaza, which the aid agencies oppose.
link to www.nytimes.com

Attackers torch Fatah leader’s car in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Apr — Assailants set fire to the car of a Fatah leader in the southern Gaza Strip late Thursday, Fatah said Friday. Unidentified attackers torched Mahmud Hussein’s car outside his home in Rafah, Fatah said in a statement. Fatah condemned the attack and vowed to prosecute the perpetrators. Hussein is the party’s secretary-general in the Hamas-run enclave.
link to www.maannews.net

Qatar donates $11 million to build Gaza law courts
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 21 Apr — Qatar announced Sunday that it will donate $11 million to Hamas to build new law courts in the Gaza Strip ... Last year, Qatar pledged $400 million in reconstruction funds to the Gaza Strip, and construction material for the projects entered Gaza in late December, breaking a six-year ban enforced by Egypt and Israel.
link to www.maannews.net

Gaza’s historic Turkish bath still entices tourists
Al-Monitor 18 Apr by Abeer Ayyoub — Between the crowded alleyways of the Old City of Gaza, one of the oldest Turkish baths, and the only one still existing in the city, is located. Hammam al-Sammara, which is estimated to be over 1,000 years old, is still receiving local and foreign guests despite repeated conflicts in the area. In typical oriental style, the 500 square-meters (1,800 square feet) bath has a domed roof with small holes that allow sunlight to enter. The hammam is divided into a large steam room with many faucets and metal dishes for pouring, a small, deep hot pool, and a smaller space for relaxing and olive-oil massage. An open setting with oriental furniture is only used by men. The bath opens daily from 5 a.m. until midnight, with rotating time slots for women and men, except for Fridays which are for men only.
link to www.al-monitor.com

Gaza singer qualifies for Arab Idol final
[with video] BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 20 Apr — Palestinian singer Muhammad Assaf on Friday qualified for the final of MBC’s popular singing competition Arab Idol. Assaf, from Gaza City, sang popular Palestinian song ’Ya Teir el-Tayir’, ’Oh Flying Bird’, after the results were announced, bringing applause from the judges and audience. The Palestinian singer is one of 12 finalists competing to win. Assaf was hospitalized Thursday after he was found unconscious backstage, MBC reported.
link to www.maannews.net

Activism / Solidarity / BDS

Half of EU countries support labeling settlement goods from West Bank, East Jerusalem
Haaretz 20 Apr by Barak Ravid — Half of European Union states notified EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton of their support for local businesses to label products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. At this point, those states are asking Ashton to form agreed-upon guidelines before taking any real action. On Friday afternoon, the French news agency published a letter sent to Ashton on April 12, bearing the signatures of 13 out of 27 EU foreign ministers. Among those who signed the letter were the foreign ministers of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Denmark, Malta, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Ireland, and Slovenia.
link to www.haaretz.com

G4S to quit key contracts in Israel
Financial Times 21 Apr by Gill Plimmer — G4S, the world’s biggest security company by revenues, has confirmed it is planning to quit key contracts in Israel amid protests against its involvement in settlements within occupied Palestinian territories. The company employs 6,000 people in Israel, where it provides and maintains screening equipment for several West Bank military checkpoints. It also manages security systems at the controversial Ofer Prison in the Occupied West Bank.
link to www.ft.com

’Don’t serve in Israel’s military,’ refusenik urges compatriots
EI 19 Apr by Sawsan Khalife’ — Natan Blanc, a 19-year-old from Haifa, has spent more than 120 days in prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli military. He began thinking about resisting conscription during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week offensive against Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 ... Conscientious objection to military service is considered a felony in Israel. It is usually punished by imprisonment for a few weeks — during which pressure is put on an objector to change his or her mind. Following that spell in jail, the objector is summoned again to a military recruitment committee. Continued refusal to serve can lead to further imprisonment. In total, Blanc has been summoned to a recruitment committee eight times. On each occasion, he has been sent to jail. He is scheduled for release in three weeks’ time. Recently released for two days for good behavior, Blanc spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Sawsan Khalife’.
link to electronicintifada.net

The art of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners
Haaretz 17 Apr by Lauren Gelfond Feldinger — When Israeli artist Rafram Chaddad was held without charge for 170 days in solitary confinement in a Libyan jail in 2010, he spent the long and lonely hours building a chess set from the cardboard boxes used to deliver his meals. Now, in solidarity with a Palestinian political cartoonist in Israeli custody since February, the former prisoner is exhibiting his prison artwork in the Israeli online art magazine Erev Rav, together with the works of 75 other Israeli artists. The artists initially protested cartoonist Mohammad Sabaneh’s being denied due process. The Israeli military later said it arrested Sabaneh because of contact with “enemy elements” in Jordan, but many of the artists continue to believe that the real reason for his arrest was his drawings about Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
link to www.haaretz.com

Political and other news

From prisoner protests to the Boston bombings : A week in photos — April 11-17
Activestills 19 April ... An Israeli activist from Zochrot (“Remembering”) organization, shows Israelis a map highlighting the Palestinian villages destroyed during the 1948 Nakba, in the midst of the Israeli Independence Day celebration, in central Tel Aviv, April 16, 2013. Zochrot launched the first project in Hebrew mapping all the Palestinian villages destroyed by Israeli forces from the beginning of the Zionist movement and until the 1967 War. (Photo by : Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
link to 972mag.com

Israeli PM’s advisor ’bullish’ Israel will benefit from Boston bombing — just like Netanyahu after 9/11
EI 21 Apr by Ali Abunimah — In comments reminiscent of Benjamin Netanyahu’s own on 11 September 2001, a senior advisor of the Israeli prime minister has expressed confidence that Israel will benefit from the 15 April Boston Marathon bombing. Speaking to US Jewish leaders, Ron Dermer, a senior advisor to the Israeli prime minister, praised Netanyahu’s leadership before stating : "I’m pretty bullish about the prospects for strengthening cooperation with the United States. Support for Israel – you all can tell me yourselves – I see polls that show that its almost at record highs… The American people stand firmly with Israel. I think they identify with Israel. I think if you look historically, there’s a big change after 9/11. I’m sure that after the bombing, the tragic bombing in Boston, I believe that people will identify more with Israel’s struggle against terror and I think we can maintain that support."
link to electronicintifada.net

Palestinian-Jordanian crossing open for trade for the first time
MEMO 19 Apr — Chief of General Committee for Crossings and Borders, Nazmi Mohana, announced on Thursday that Al-Karama Crossing connecting Jordan with the West Bank will open on Friday for the first time for commercial purposes. "This is the first time the crossing is going to be used for commerce," Mohana said in a statement. "This is to lessen the sufferings of the Palestinian traders in the West Bank and to facilitate the entrance of goods and commercial tracks condensed in the Jordanian side of the Crossing." The statement also said the crossing will be opened from 8am to 3pm. Mohana said the opening of the crossing has been arranged between the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Israel. Al-Karama Crossing is the only exit for Palestinians in the West Bank to the outside world. It is administered jointly by the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupation, and is only used by people.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com

Senior EU officials : ’Oslo process has nothing more to offer’
972mag 20 Apr by Noam Sheizaf — An unprecedented letter by former European leaders and peace process veterans recognizes Western support for the occupation and calls for immediate steps that will bring an end to it. 13 European states support labeling products from Israeli settlements — A group of senior former European officials, including former prime ministers, foreign ministers and diplomats, is urging the European Union to abandon the Oslo process and come up with new urgent measures that will put an end to the occupation, Ali Gharib reports for Open Zion.
link to 972mag.com

Photo essay — Team in search of a nation - women’s football in Palestine
20 Apr — The first football match in the Palestinian Women’s League took place in Ramallah on February 10, 2011 : Diyar Bethlehem versus Seryiet Ramallah. Swiss photographer Meinrad Schade followed the team on and off the pitch a year later.
link to www.swissinfo.ch

Kerry asks Turkish leader to postpone trip to Gaza
ISTANBUL (NYTimes) 21 Apr by Michael R. Gordon — Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that he had urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to put off his visit to Gaza to avoid disrupting efforts to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
link to www.nytimes.com

Hamas denounces Kerry’s call for Erdogan to delay Gaza visit
AFP 21 Apr — The Hamas rulers of Gaza on Sunday slammed US Secretary of State John Kerry for urging the Turkish prime minister to delay a visit to the Palestinian territory. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Kerry and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas — who met in Istanbul earlier in the day — of "collusion in a bid to maintain the (Israeli) blockade on Gaza."
link to en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com

Palestinians doubt Erdogan will visit Gaza
Al-Monitor 19 Apr — Although Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the Palestinian issue his vehicle to move Turkey closer to its Muslim neighborhood, and earned an unprecedented popularity on the Arab street like no other Turkish leader, he may be risking for the first time losing the support of at least a part of the Palestinian population if he chooses to travel to Gaza toward the end of May, before the Palestinian rift between Fatah and Hamas can be reconciled. And it seems the chances of overcoming this separation by then are dim.
link to www.al-monitor.com

Tough Gaza flotilla compensation talks a test for Turkey-Israel ties
ANKARA (AFP) 21 Apr — Israeli and Turkish officials meet on Monday for talks on compensation over a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which if successful could get the two states’ rocky relations back on track. But demands by families of the Turks who lost their lives in the May 2010 assault by Israeli commandos look set to complicate the high-stakes negotiations ... "The families place priority on the lifting of both the embargo and the blockade on Gaza," and want to personally verify that step, lawyer Ramazan Ariturk, representing 430 out of 450 victims’ relatives in Turkey, told AFP.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Israel seeking to buy $2.67 billion in fuel from US
Haaretz 19 Apr by Gili Cohen — News comes in U.S. Department of Defense announcement — The Israeli government is seeking to buy 864 million gallons of petroleum products from the United States, including jet and diesel fuel, at an estimated cost of $2.67 billion, the U.S. Department of Defense has announced. The fuel is to be used mostly by Israel Air Force planes as well for the Israel Defense Forces’ land-based equipment.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israel navy’s first unmanned surface vehicle keeps an eye on the sea
[with video] Haaretz 17 Apr by Inbal Orpaz — Meet the newest member of Israel’s Navy : The Protector Unmanned Surface Vehicle, which also joins the pioneering generation of unmanned surface vessels. While drones have become an inseparable part of aerial warfare, at sea the revolution is still in its infancy. The Protector is equipped with a weapons system, as well as a system that enables real-time surveillance day and night. It can be operated remotely from a control room on dry land and can carry out security operations at sea without endangering human lives.
link to www.haaretz.com

Analysis / Opinion

New Knesset member visits a friend in Ramallah : ’This is not normal’
972mag 21 Apr by Noam Sheizaf — Adi Koll, a relatively unknown Knesset member from Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party, posted this picture along with an uncharacteristically long and emotional status on Facebook, the day after she paid a visit to the home of a Palestinian friend in Ramallah. (Translated in full below) "...Even if I post a picture of the dirty, frozen compound at Qalandia Checkpoint that I passed yesterday on my way back from Ramallah, you wouldn’t be able to see and surely you wouldn’t be able to feel the humiliation and insults, like the permit-holding Palestinians who have to pass through it day after day. You won’t be able to hear the soldier who was barking at us (’Knesset member ? Which Knesset exactly ?’) through the sealed glass, demanding that we go back and forth, again and again for no reason at all..."
link to 972mag.com

Finding a place in the Middle East through music / Mati Shemoelof & Ophir Toubul
972blog 21 Apr — Although the racism and hatred between Israel and its neighbors seems as entrenched as ever, many Mizrahi artists are connecting to their Arab roots. Does this trend portend a brighter future for the Middle East ? — In an interview with Al Arabiya several years ago, popular Israeli singer Zehava Ben stated that she was interested in performing throughout the Arab world, and especially in Beirut and Gaza. Israel’s security system forbade her entrance into the Strip, due to the fact that Hamas rules the territory. In a later interview, she said that her dream is to perform in Cairo’s Opera House, where her favorite singer, Umm Kulthum, once regularly performed. Ben’s words express the natural desires of many Mizrahi Jews in Israel to connect to the roots of the Arab culture in which their parents lived for generations. Mizrahi music represents the longing of almost half of the state’s citizens for the elements of Arab culture that they know so well. But beyond the question of origin, history and biography, it is a question of Israel’s place in the Middle East, which affects every citizen, Mizrahi or not.
link to 972mag.com