TO DAY in PALESTINE

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

Pack up your homes, people, the IDF needs to hold a drill / Gideon Levy

Haaretz 6 July — When the army needs to hold drills with live fire, the Bedouin of the Jordan Valley have to vacate their tent encampments — Amjed Zahweh is 10 days old. Last week, Civil Administration inspectors demolished his family’s tent in the Jordan Valley. Now he’s lying in his iron crib, covered with a blanket and rags in the stifling heat. His family sprawls on the ground near him in the tent that was destroyed but was rebuilt again this week. With them are dozens of families that live without running water, without electricity, without minimal sanitary conditions. Across from their encampment are verdant settlements ... In the Jordan Valley, which a majority of Israelis do not consider to be occupied land per se, there actually aren’t any fanatical settlers with long earlocks. Here we are dealing with moshavniks [members of Israeli collective agricultural villages]. From their zooming cars they can see a barrier of dirt dozens of kilometers long that Israel built in recent years, to imprison the Palestinian occupants of Ain al-Hilweh, thus preventing them from being able to reach the road easily ... Some 450 families live in [head of the regional council Arif] Daraghmah’s district. Ain al-Hilweh is in the Hamam al-Maliah region, in the northern part of the valley. "Why don’t they do live fire exercises in the settlements too?" he asks.
In the first tent: Bissan is on the ground, her legs crooked and distorted, paralyzed from the waist down. This child, 7 years old, was also compelled to vacate her tent last week with her family, in honor of the IDF exercise. They received notice that they must be gone by 6 P.M. the following day, for 24 hours, with no recourse to appeal. She spent a day and a night last week as well, under the heavens at the side of the road. After he was ordered to do so, her father loaded her onto the tractor cart, along with the rest of the family, 13 children, and took them to their place of refuge on the side of the road until the exercise was over.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/pack-up-your-homes-people-the-idf-needs-to-hold-a-drill.premium-1.449263

Official: Israeli forces evict 3 Bedouin families
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 10 July — Israeli forces evicted three Bedouin families from their homes in northwest Jerusalem overnight Sunday, a Palestinian official said. Three families living in the Beit Hanina al Balad area were evicted from their caravan homes after Israeli soldiers raided the area overnight, director of the PA’s Jerusalem governorate Muhammad Taree said. The families had been living in the caravans since their homes were demolished by Israeli forces in November 2011. Their belongings were thrown away by Israeli forces upon eviction. Israeli actions like these are akin to robbery and organized crime, Taree said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503142

Walls of Palestinian houses come tumbling down
NPR 10 July by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Israel has dramatically increased its demolitions of unauthorized Palestinian homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a recent United Nations report. Last year, 1,100 Palestinians — more than half of them children — were displaced, an 80 percent increase from the previous year. And demolitions this year continue at a high rate. For Sami Idriss, the Israeli bulldozers came while the 26-year-old Palestinian was at work. "I came back and they were already tearing my house down," he says. Idriss says he pleaded with the workers, saying he hadn’t received any notice or warning. He says they pushed him out of the building and continued to demolish his home. Idriss says all of his savings went into the building. He was hoping to get married in three months but now he says he can’t, because there is no place to take his bride ... Thousands of Arab homes have demolition orders against them in east Jerusalem and the West Bank’s Area C ...
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/155361221/walls-of-palestinian-homes-come-tumbling-down?ft=1&f=1001

Israel confiscates temporary shelters of evicted families
IMEMC 9 July — Three families in the village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, were evicted a second time by the Israeli military according to WAFA news. When Israeli authorities demolished their building, an aid agency provided three mobile homes for the families to use as shelter, but late Sunday Israeli forces seized those as well. One of the homeowners, Mohammad Ka’abneh said an Israeli court was set to rule on a family petition against the removal of the homes on Sunday, but the military seized their homes before the court could rule on the matter.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63871

Local officials: 8 years on, wall keeps farmers from land
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 10 July — A local official said Monday that more than 3,000 Palestinians have lost land behind Israel’s separation wall in the northern West Bank town of Qalqiliya, in remarks on the eighth anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s ruling its route is illegal. PA official monitoring the wall in Qalqiliya Mohammed Abu Sheikh said Israel circumvented the ruling by following Israeli court decisions to annex land behind the wall ... Local farmer Yousef Al-Raee told Ma’an his agricultural livelihood is threatened every season as the Israeli authorities delay issuing permits to him and his family in order to tend land behind the wall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502938

East Jerusalem suffers economic tailspin / Ben Lynfield
Jerusalem (Forward) — Call it patriotism or doing something to express his Palestinian identity — Taisir Jubeh wanted to start a business in Jerusalem. So five months ago, after handing over the reins of his Ramallah bookshop to relatives, he opened a men’s casual wear store in the new Addar Shopping Mall, off Salah el-Din Street. The mall, opened earlier this year in downtown East Jerusalem by Muhammad Nuseibeh, a member of one of East Jerusalem’s most prominent families, had sparked hope that its 40 stores and offices would inject new life into the struggling area. Instead, Jubeh and his fellow merchants are now in trouble. There are few, if any, customers, and many shops are already vacant. That’s a dispiriting contrast with the teeming business areas in Jewish West Jerusalem. More tellingly, it contrasts with the boom in commerce now taking place in West Bank Palestinian cities such as Ramallah ... "The city is dying," businessman Nabil Feidy said. "East Jerusalem has always been poor, but the political situation and the wall have destroyed the economy completely." In their endless battles over Jerusalem, Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs routinely invoke God and history in asserting their respective right to sovereignty over the city’s Eastern sector. But for the Palestinians, there is an additional, very practical issue: East Jerusalem is the longtime commercial capital of the West Bank. Cut it off from its hinterland, and its economic rationale vanishes — along with its ability to sustain the 360,882 Palestinians living there.
http://forward.com/articles/158914/east-jerusalem-suffers-economic-tailspin/?p=all

Foundation: Israel dug under Al-Aqsa compound gate
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 9 July — Israeli workers have dug a patch of earth from the bottom of the Mughrabi gate of the compound housing Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage said Monday. The foundation said trucks transported the dirt from the base of the holy site after it was dug up manually overnight to avoid notice. It warned that Israel is conducting secret excavations at night which will obliterate Palestinian heritage ... Any construction or interference at the site can be politically explosive. On September 28, 2000, Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa compound surrounded by a 1,000-strong security force. The move is widely believed to have contributed to the beginning of the second intifada, or uprising, against Israeli military occupation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502726

IOF bulldoze land to prepare for new settlement in Al Khalil
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 8 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bulldozed vast tracts of Palestinian land west of Al-Khalil [Hebron] city in preparation for establishing a new settlement. Local sources told the PIC that the bulldozing of 100 dunums of land on Saturday took place in Deir Al-Asal beyond the separation wall west of the village. Dozens of bulldozers and tractors are working in the area under IOF protection, the sources said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF troops storm Al-Khalil town in 17 vehicles
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 8 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in 17 military vehicles stormed Ein Sinjer hamlet on the road between the town of Dura and Al-Khalil city on Sunday. Eyewitnesses told the PIC that dozens of IOF soldiers mounting 14 jeeps and three personnel carriers broke into the hamlet then continued their advance into Dura.
They said that the soldiers in Ein Sinjer were carrying maps that raised fears among the hamlet’s population that they were planning for a new settlement outpost on its land.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOA accelerating settlement building south of Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 9 July — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is accelerating building of settlement units in HarHoma and Gilo settlements, Jamal Omer, a Jerusalemite expert, said on Monday. He told the PIC that the IOA was planning to link those two settlements, the first to the south of occupied Jerusalem and the second to the north of Bethlehem. Omer said that thousands of settlement units would be built between the two settlements in a bid to foster a new third settlement in that area and to foil any Palestinian attempt to expand southwards from Jerusalem.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

West Bank settlers surge under Netanyahu
JERUSALEM (AP) 10 July - Since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected more than three years ago, the Jewish population in the West Bank has ballooned by 18 percent, drawing tens of thousands of Israelis to the territory the Palestinians claim as the heartland of a future state, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press. The rate of growth — nearly twice that of Israel proper — has deep implications for an already moribund peace process ... The rising settler numbers are "consistent with Netanyahu’s commitment to maintain the Israeli control over the Palestinian territories and consistent with his lack of commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution," Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/nationworld/west-bank-settlers-surge-under-netanyahu-_2012-07-10.html

West Bank site preservation is struggle for heritage
GPB News 8 July — ...Preserving historic sites has long been a national priority for Israel. Biblical sites that point to a Jewish past aren’t just good for tourism. For Israelis, they justify why their country deserves to exist in the first place. Now that the Palestinians are trying to build a state, they’re also seeking to claim sites as part of their own heritage. The problem is Israelis and Palestinians are fighting over many of the same sites, like Mount Gerizim. It’s an archaeological site with panoramic views of the surrounding West Bank hills. Palestinian officials are asking UNESCO to deem this mountain along with a list of 20 other West Bank sites as belonging to Palestinian heritage. But the crisp, new Israeli flags whipping in the wind make it abundantly clear who’s the boss here. A few days ago, Israel declared this a national park. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan said the Palestinian Authority claims this site as its own in order to deny Israel’s biblical rights to the Holy Land. "Our response," he said, "is to develop and invest in this place."
Then, the high priest of the tiny Samaritan community an old man in a red turban got up to bless the crowd. The biblical Samaritans built their temple on this site, where Samaritans still pray today. Half of the community lives in Israel. The rest are here. They speak Arabic and attend Palestinian schools. Palestinians see them as proof of their own deep roots in this land.
http://www.gpb.org/news/2012/07/08/west-bank-site-preservation-is-struggle-for-heritage

Diaspora Palestinians arrive for ’Know Your Heritage’ tour
[with photos] BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 10 July — Palestinian youth living in five countries in the Diaspora arrived in Palestine on Monday to embark on a tour designed to connect them to their homeland. The delegation of 41 Palestinians, living in the US, Australia, Canada, France and the UK, crossed into the West Bank from Jordan to begin a two-week "Explore & Live Palestine" trip organized by the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation. The ’Know Your Heritage’ program, inaugurated in 2011 with a group of Palestinian American visitors, aims to connect Palestinians abroad to their roots. In 2012, the delegates come from families who left Haifa, Jericho, Hebron, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Birzeit, Gaza, Ramallah, and 20 other towns and villages in historic Palestine, HCEF said. [amazing that they got in - was it because it was a Christian organization?]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502833

Hebron governor denied visit to own constituents
IMEMC 9 July — Governor Kemal Hemaid of Hebron was prevented from traveling to visit a family in the village of Imneizil in the southern part of his district by the Israeli military on Monday according to Ma‘an news. Governor Hemaid explained that the reason he was given by Israeli forces was that he needed to apply for permission from the Civil Administration, the Israeli military department that regulates the occupied West Bank. He expressed outrage at the event saying, “[w]hat is the feasibility of the Palestinian Authority when the Israeli government prevents it from providing its duties and services to the citizens, especially in the marginal areas?"
http://www.imemc.org/article/63873

Israel approves road bridge for Jericho town
JERICHO (Ma‘an) 9 July — Israeli authorities have approved the construction of a passenger bridge for a Palestinian town bisected by a major Israeli highway in the occupied West Bank, a local official said Monday. Residents of Al-Auja, north of Jericho, have been waiting for Israeli approval to build the pedestrian crossing over road 90 since it first submitted a request in 1999, the chair of the town’s board Turki Ishibat said.
The road is a major thoroughfare, particularly for cargo, and Ishibat said nine Al-Auja residents had been killed on the road. Schoolchildren have to cross it daily to reach their classes, he said ...
Although the town is located in Area A — the urban areas of the West Bank under full Palestinian control — the bridge needs Israeli permission because it will be constructed over an Israeli-built road.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502773

Levy Report

’Government must legalize settlements’
Ynet 9 July — Committee headed by Justice Edmond Levy says ’Israel not occupation force’; State must ’ease land acquisition for Jews residing in Judea and Samaria’ ... The committee’s recommendations were submitted to Netanyahu in June, but have yet to be made public ... The committee’s findings stand to significantly change the legal reality in the West Bank, especially when compared to the 2005 Sasson Report on construction in the West Bank, which deemed 120 outposts as illegal.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4252945,00.html

’Nonexistent occupation’ memes go viral in social media
972blog 9 July by Ami Kaufman — As soon as the news about the Levy committee findings hit the web, social media networks in Israel were swamped with memes making fun of the fact that apparently there was no occupation to begin with. Here are a select few (I might add some more later if I find any good ones).
http://972mag.com/nonexistent-occupation-memes-go-viral-in-israeli-social-media/50531/

Israeli govt study declares West Bank not occupied, earth flat / Adam Horowitz
Mondoweiss 9 July — Earlier this year Benjamin Netanyahu formed an Israeli government panel to judge on the legality of the settlements. The panel was headed by former Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy and was intended to respond to the 2005 Sasson Report on government complicity with the settlement project (and possibly head off an impending UN study into the settlements). Today, the "Levy Committee" issued its findings and among other things declared that Israel is not an occupying force in East Jerusalem and the West Bank: "...Members of the panel accepted the legal opinion presented by the right. They explained that the generally accepted concept of occupation relates to short periods in which territory is captured from a sovereign state until the dispute between the two sides is resolved. But Judea and Samaria have been under Israeli control for decades, and it is impossible to foresee a time when Israel will relinquish these territories, if ever."
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/07/israeli-govt-study-declares-west-bank-not-occupied-earth-flat.html

PM vows to discuss Levy Report on outposts
Ynet 9 July — Netanyahu says Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs will consider and decide on report calling for legalization of West Bank outposts
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253282,00.html

US displeased with Levy Report
Ynet 10 July — DC official says US ’does not accept legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253423,00.html

Violence / Raids / Arrests / Provocations

Jewish settler declines to help child after running over him
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 10 July — A Jewish settler sped away in his car after running over a Palestinian child in Susiya, south of Al-Khalil [Hebron], on Tuesday without extending a helping hand. Medical sources said that the 13-year-old child Mohammed Mahariq suffered injuries and a broken foot in the accident. The sources said that the child’s condition after his treatment was "moderate".
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Jewish settler stabs Palestinian shepherd
NABLUS (PIC) 8 July — A Jewish settler stabbed a Palestinian shepherd from Aqraba village, south of Nablus, on Saturday, eyewitnesses said. They said that a group of settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and shepherds while tending to their land and rearing their sheep. The settlers stabbed the shepherd and dozens of his sheep and cattle heads, the witnesses said, adding that the shepherd suffered moderate wounds.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Jewish settlers throw rocks at Palestinian car, injure driver
BETHLEHEM (PIC) 9 July — A group of Jewish settlers threw rocks at a Palestinian vehicle passing near Eliezer settlement, south of Bethlehem, smashing its front window and injuring the driver. Mohammed Awad, the coordinator of the national anti-settlement committee in Beit Ummar village to the north of Al-Khalil, said that five Jewish settlers attacked Ibrahim Sabarna, 35, while driving near the settlement at an early morning hour on Monday. Awad quoted Sabarna, from Beit Ummar, as saying that Israeli policemen standing nearby did not attempt to stop the settlers despite throwing rocks at a main road. He said that he was rebuked by those policemen when he stopped his car and went to complain to them. Sabarna’s car front window was completely smashed and his hands were slightly injured while his eyeglasses prevented a serious injury to his eyes. Sabarna lost eyesight in one of his eyes at the start of the Aqsa intifada.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Report: Palestinian worker attacked in Nablus settlement
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 10 July — A Palestinian worker suffered minor injuries on Tuesday when residents of the settlement where he works threw stones at him, Hebrew-language media reported. The man was treated at the scene in Maale Shomron settlement, before being evacuated to hospital, Walla news site reported. Israeli forces arrived and began searching for the culprits, Walla said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503147

Human rights organization: Settlers release wild boars to attack Palestinians
LONDON (PIC) 9 July — The Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain said that wild boars have been released by the Israelis into Palestinian villages in an attempt to force the Palestinian residents to leave their lands. According to a report issued by the Organization on Monday July 9, the Israelis have been raising the wild boars in large numbers in the settlements, so they can release them in the evening into Palestinian residential areas to destroy agricultural crops, to attack the citizens and terrorize the children. "This weapon (the wild boars) has been used by the settlers for over eight years," stated the report, adding that the occupation forces have been refusing to provide the local authorities with the means to fight them.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Fatah: Israel detains Palestinian en route to hospital
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 July — Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man Sunday at the Erez crossing while he was en route to a hospital, Palestinian officials said. The detainee was identified as Wael al-Tawil who was being held in an Ashkelon prison for investigation. The party said Israel would be held responsible for the man’s fate as he is in need of medical treatment. His family has been informed of the incident, Fatah said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502813

overnight Sunday-Monday: Locals: Israeli forces detain 9 across West Bank
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) 9 July — Local officials said Israeli forces detained nine Palestinians throughout the West Bank overnight. According to local police, Ahmad Hassan Abed Al Azziz Baarat and Mohammad Adel Gamaat, both aged 17, were seized from Kafr Malik town near Ramallah. Israeli forces detained three Palestinian youth in Jenin, named as Mohammad Ghanem, 22, Sami Mohammad Ghanem 20, and Walid Ali Qasem Murtada, 22. In Azzun, near Qalqiliya, soldiers detained Mohammad Samer Abu Haniyeh 20, and Imad Yasser Abed Al Kareem Hussien. Meanwhile, Mohammad Mousa from Jannateh, near Bethlehem and Rabee Ayman Hassan Baker, 20, from Salfit, were also detained, officials said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed two detentions in Kafr Malik, but said she was only aware of two other arrests overnight, one Palestinian in Burqin near Jenin, and another in Al-Majd near Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502655

Monday: The occupation arrests 8 citizens in the West Bank today
JENIN (PIC) 9 July — The IOF arrested on Monday July 9 eight citizens from different districts of the West Bank claiming that they are "wanted" by the intelligence ... Local sources from Jenin also told the PIC reporter that more than a dozen military vehicles raided today the town of Burkin where they searched and broke into houses of citizens before arresting a number of the residents and transferring them to an unknown destination. Meanwhile, the occupation soldiers were present in large numbers in the town’s streets, and transferred the detainees to interrogation centers under the pretext of being "wanted" by the intelligence.
The occupation forces also broke into the neighboring Hashemiya village and set up a checkpoint at its entrance, and stormed Wadi Burkin, the regions adjacent to Jenin Refugee camp and Kafert village, where no arrests had been reported.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

overnight Monday-Tuesday: Israeli forces detain 8 across West Bank
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 10 July — Israeli forces detained eight Palestinians across the West Bank overnight Monday, the army said. Ibrahim Youssef Khaled Sabarna, 19, Mohab Ibrahim Issa Bahar, 18, and Alaa Jihad Ali Sabarna, 15, were detained in the Hebron town of Beit Ummar, local committee spokesman Muhammad Ayyad Awad said.
An Israeli military spokesman said in addition to three detentions in Beit Ummar, forces arrested two Palestinians in Beit Ur al-Tahta near Ramallah, and three others in Qalqiliya, Kharas near Bethlehem and al-Tabaqa in Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503049

Israeli forces re-arrest liberated Jerusalemite prisoner
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 8 July — Israeli occupation forces re-arrested liberated Jerusalemite prisoner Samer Al-Aisawi from his home in Aisawiye town east of occupied Jerusalem on Saturday night. His sister and lawyer Shireen Al-Aisawi said that the Israeli soldiers took away her brother without giving a reason. Samer, 34, was released in the first batch of the Wafa Al-Ahrar exchange deal late last year between Hamas and Israel after serving ten years of his 30-year sentence.
The Israeli occupation forces have thus re-arrested eight prisoners liberated in that deal despite an article in the deal prohibiting their re-arrest. The Israeli prosecution is demanding that some of those re-arrested should complete their sentences after claiming they violated their release conditions.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

PA security forces raid house of Hana Shalabi, kidnap her brother
WEST BANK (PIC) 8 July — The Palestinian Authority preventive security forces kidnapped Ammar Shalabi, the brother of ex-detainee Hana Shalabi who went on epic hunger strike for long days before her release from an Israeli jail recently. Shalabi was kidnapped after a violent raid on the house of his sister in Bruqin village west of Jenin city. He had been detained several times by the PA security forces.
In Qalqiliya, the PA intelligence forces kidnapped a Palestinian young man named Mohamed Ghanem after being summoned for interrogation. They also summoned another young man called Abdulrahman Mansour and detained his brother Nouruddin.
Abdulkareem Luleh, a Palestinian young man from Awarta village east of Nablus city, was also summoned for interrogation by the PA preventive security.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

French activist injured by tear gas canister in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 10 July — A French citizen was injured on Tuesday as Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and sound grenades in the old city of Hebron, Ma‘an’s correspondent said. Soldiers opened fired in the al-Laban market as clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinians, injuring a French citizen in her shoulder, witnesses said. Israeli forces closed all entrances to the old city.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503258

Israeli held in custody for 3 days on baseless charge of throwing stones
72blog 9 July by Mairav Zonszein — IDF allegations that Israeli activist Elyakim Nitzany threw stones in Nabi Saleh had no evidence and no basis. Despite that, he was held in jail for three nights before being released. Another case of unfounded police claims ... Attorney Gaby Lasky told +972 that the three Border Police officers who filed the claims against Nitzany requested that the judge hold him in custody until the end of proceedings, which could last years. The judge decided to release him Monday evening but barred him from engaging in any weekend popular resistance protests in the West Bank for the next the months – a highly irregular period of time.
http://972mag.com/israeli-held-in-custody-for-3-days-on-baseless-charge-of-throwing-stones/50485/

Gaza

Tuesday morning: Israeli jets strike south Gaza, no injuries
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 10 July — Israeli fighter jets on Tuesday morning bombarded several sites in the southern Gaza Strip, without causing injuries. Three missiles landed in a militant base of the Al-Ansar Brigades, the military wing of Al-Ahrar movement, in Khan Younis, witnesses said. The airstrike caused material damage, but no injuries were reported. Another unidentified site was bombed in Rafah.
An Israeli military statement said the forces targeted "two Hamas terror activity sites," confirming direct hits. It said the airstrikes were in response to gunfire from Gaza on Monday into an Israeli residential kibbutz, Yad Mordechai, near the border. [Ynet: Shots fired from the Gaza Strip Monday evening struck two vehicles and a restaurant wall at a commercial plaza located near the Yad Mordechai Junction in southern Israel. No injuries were reported.]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502932

Tuesday morning: Witnesses: Israeli military vehicles fire on south Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 10 July — Israeli military vehicles entered the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, firing gunshots, locals said. No injuries were reported. Eyewitnesses told Ma‘an ten vehicles escorted bulldozers to level Palestinian land near the village of Al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis. Gunshots were fired in several directions, they said.
Separately, witnesses said Israeli troops stationed east of Gaza City’s al-Shujaiyya neighborhood opened fire toward Palestinian homes early Tuesday, without causing injuries.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces carried out routine activity near Al-Qarara, and she was not aware of any incident near Gaza City.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503021

Tuesday afternoon: IOF incursion in central Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 10 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced in central Gaza afternoon Tuesday amidst heavy firing, local sources said. They said that IOF troops atop several army vehicles reached the outskirts of Juhr Al-Deek and Maghazi and Breij refugee camps and fired at residential quarters and farms. The sources noted that the troops fired two LAU missiles and forced farmers to leave their plantations as reconnaissance planes hovered overhead.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Monday: Palestinian man shot in Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 9 July — A Palestinian man was shot and injured at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Qarara town to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Monday. Medical sources said that a 30-year-old man was hit with a bullet in his foot when IOF soldiers fired at him from a military watchtower. In another development, eyewitnesses said that resistance fighters fired a projectile at an Israeli army tank to the east of Khan Younis, but did not mention any further details.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Gaza govt begins demolition of homes
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 July — The Gaza government on Sunday began the demolition of several homes in Gaza City, saying they are built on government land. Abu Al-Abed Abu Omra, whose house is threatened with demolition, told Ma‘an that police officers arrived late Saturday night and told residents to evacuate their homes in order to facilitate the demolition. He said that there are more than 120 families living in the 15-dunams area under threat, near Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, and they have been there since 1948. He called on the Gaza cabinet to provide the families with homes in neighboring area al-Sheikh Ijleen in exchange, which he said had been promised to them. The families had rejected an offer to move to the southern areas of Deir al-Balah and Karni as they are too close to Israel’s dangerous no-go zone surrounding the barrier, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502470

Prisoners / Court actions

Palestinian prisoner near death
IMEMC 9 July — Akram al-Rikhawi, who has now been on hunger strike for 91 days is unable to move his left leg and is at risk of dying, his lawyer and doctor both reported Monday. Al-Rikhawi, who is married with eight children, was sentenced to 9 years in prison by an Israeli military tribunal after being stopped by Israeli military forces near Rafa in 2004. Since being imprisoned he has been denied access to his medication which has led to severe health complications.
Al-Rikhawi’s lawyer also visited another Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike. Sami al-Barq has been imprisoned without charge for 2 years. He has been on hunger strike for 48 days.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63869

Former hunger striker al-Sarsak arrives in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 10 July — Former hunger-striker Mahmoud al-Sarsak arrived on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip after being released from Israeli custody. Relatives gathered at the Palestinian side of the Israeli Erez crossing in northern Gaza to welcome the freed prisoner, who refused food in Israeli jail for over 90 days to protest his imprisonment without charge. He was transferred to Shifa hospital in Gaza City for medical attention, where hundreds gathered to greet the former hunger-striker, who looked in a stable condition, a Ma‘an reporter said. "I thank God and all the athletes of the world," Sarsak said, between sips from a bottle of water...
The 25-year-old soccer player from the Gaza Strip had been imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial since July 2009.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503080

IOA renews administrative detention of six Palestinians including Hamas leader
TULKAREM (PIC) 9 July — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has renewed the administrative detention, without charge, of six Palestinian detainees on Monday including Rafat Nassif, a Hamas leader in Tulkarem. Osama Makbul, a lawyer with the Tadamun foundation for human rights, said that the Israeli military commander imposed the administrative sentences. He recalled that Nassif, who received a six-month renewal of his detention, was arrested on 19/3/2009 from his house in Tulkarem and is considered one of the oldest serving administrative detainees. The lawyer said that the Israeli prison authority was deliberately moving Nassif from one prison to another in another form of harassment, noting that he was moved for 30 times in the course of his detention since 2009.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Policemen who left Palestinian for dead get jail time
Ynet 9 July — The Jerusalem District Court sentenced police officers Baruch Peretz and Assaf Yakutiel to 30 months in jail Monday, for their involvement in the death of Gaza resident Omar Abu Jariban, in 2008. Jariban, who was an illegal Palestinian alien, found dead on the side of the on Highway 443, which connects Jerusalem and Modiin, near the Atarot Junction. Two weeks prior to his death, he was the victim of a car accident ... Once stable, he was to be transferred to the Ofer detention facility ... According to the indictment, after the transfer order came through, the police officer in charge ordered — contrary to police procedure — that Jariban be transferred back to Gaza. Chief Inspector Peretz tasked officer Yakutiel with the transport. The latter dropped Jariban near the detention facility, with no food or water and wearing noting but hospital pajamas. He died of exposure and dehydration and was found dead two days later.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253044,00.html

Palestinian youths arrested for setting J’lem fire
Ynet 9 July — Two teens, 17 and 18, from the Palestinian village of Kfar Katna, are suspected of setting a large wildfire near Kibbutz Ma’aleh Hahamisha some two weeks ago. According to police, the two admitted to the act when questioned, as well as to setting other fires. The Ofer Military Court has remanded them for eight days.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253261,00.html

The Death of Yasser Arafat

PA cautiously advances Arafat probe
RAMALLAH (Reuters) 10 July — A week after fresh allegations that their late leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned, Palestinian officials are still discussing behind closed doors when and how to exhume his body for examination. Revelations about the former president’s unexplained death in 2004 could stir more turmoil in the Palestinians’ already deeply divided ranks. "The team must follow procedures, and in order to be proper must be far from the media. We don’t want to perform all our actions on TV screens," Tawfiq Tirawi, head of a long-standing official committee looking into Arafat’s death, told Voice of Palestine radio.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503187

Arafat’s widow to bring case in France over death
PARIS (Reuters) 10 July — Yasser Arafat’s widow will launch a court case in France into the unexplained death of the iconic Palestinian leader eight years ago after a media report suggested he may have been poisoned, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Allegations of foul play have long surrounded Arafat’s demise in November 2004 after French doctors who treated him in his final days said they could not establish the cause of death ... "Madame Arafat hopes that the authorities will be able to establish the exact circumstances of her husband’s death and uncover the truth, so that justice can be done," lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sud said in a statement. The exact nature of the legal complaint by Arafat’s 48-year-old widow, Suha, is yet to be determined but it is expected to be presented before the end of this month, the lawyer said. It would be presented against a person or persons unknown, the lawyer said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503229

Political / Economic News

Minister: Abbas refused Israeli offer of selective prisoner release
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 9 July — Palestinian Authority Prisoners Minister Issa Qaraqe‘ said Monday that President Mahmoud Abbas refused an Israeli offer for the staged release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for returning to peace talks. Abbas insists that all 123 prisoners held since before the 1994 Oslo agreement be freed in a single release, Qaraqe‘ said. Israeli daily Haaretz reported earlier Monday that Israel offered to release some 25 Palestinian prisoners convicted of the murder of Israelis, followed by another 100 prisoners by the end of the year.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502680

Source: New batch of officials to be charged with corruption
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 9 July — Legal authorities are putting the final touches on a fresh series of indictments of public officials for corruption and misuse of public funds, an informed source told Ma‘an on Monday. The defendants in this new batch of corruption cases will now be summoned for interrogation, the source said. A senior official recently tried to travel to Jordan via Jericho, but police prevented his exit and ordered him back to Ramallah for interrogation, Ma‘an has learned. The Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating a number of government ministers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502598

Hamas condemns announcement of Palestinian elections
RAMALLAH (Reuters) 10 July - The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday announced it planned to hold local elections in October in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, angering Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers. "The Palestinian cabinet approved during its meeting today ... conducting local elections on 20 October 2012 in all local councils in the homeland," The PA said in a statement. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri responded: "Hamas regards this unilateral step as undermining reconciliation and a decision of escalation that would further complicate the file of reconciliation and therefore, Hamas holds the Fatah movement responsible for the consequences that may result."
http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-condemns-announcement-palestinian-elections-140706459.html

League chief: Arab states must fulfill financial obligations to PA
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 10 July — ...Nabil al-Arabi and Muhammad Subaih, the Arab League’s head of Palestinian affairs, said that the PA’s financial situation is "stifling and disturbing," official news agency Wafa reported. "We remind all the Arab countries of prior summits and decisions to create a safety net for the PA. Therefore, all Arab Countries are urged to uphold their financial obligations toward the PA," al-Arabi said. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the largest Arab donors to the PA.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=503199

Presidential adviser: PA did not try to join OSCE
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 8 July — President Mahmoud Abbas’ diplomatic adviser denied on Sunday reports in Israeli media that Palestine had tried to join the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. "Joining the organization is not one of the Palestinian Authority’s priorities," Majdi al-Khalidi told Ma‘an. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported earlier Sunday that the PA tried to secure observer status at the OSCE’s annual Parliamentary Assembly this weekend. The report said a vote to accept Palestine as an observer was defeated by 28 states, including Turkey, against 21 states who supported the move.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502555

Israeli Racism / Discrimination

Ethiopian shares story of racist assault on Facebook
Ynet 8 July — Jajao Bimero describes being assaulted with electric shocker by policeman who told him ’go back to Africa.’ Post gets thousands of comments ... A student at the Hebrew University and former combatant at an elite IDF unit, Bimero filed a complaint several days later. He provided the Justice Ministry with photos and testimonies but is skeptical as to the chances that any charges will be pressed ... Attorney Evyatar Knoller, who is representing Bimero, welcomed the media attention given to the case but stressed that the real issue should be "the racism spreading among us, whether it is directed at Arabs, Sudanese, Russians or Ethiopians." He added, "This case reflects the outcomes of racism in their toughest form."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4252601,00.html

Justice ministry steps up fight against infiltrators
Ynet 9 July — New legislation proposes to criminalize wire transfers sent by illegal migrant workers to their families abroad. Offense will carry penalty of NIS 29,200 or a six-month prison sentence. Eritrean refugee: Bill will endanger lives of our sick, elderly relatives
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4252880,00.html

Netanyahu orders to expedite construction of Israel-Egypt border fence
Haaretz 8 July — Number of African migrants crossing Israeli-Egyptian border halves from May to June; some 4,000 places added to new detention facility for African migrants in country’s south.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/netanyahu-orders-to-expedite-construction-of-israel-egypt-border-fence-1.449728

Incitement case against Safed rabbi dropped
Ynet 8 July — AG halts probe into Rabbi Eliyahu’s alleged anti-Arab comments due to lack of evidence ... Last November, the attorney general had ordered a probe into the rabbi on suspicion of incitement to racism after he allegedly told reporters that the Arab culture is cruel and is predisposed towards violence and theft. The comments were purportedly said in support of an edict issued by Eliyahu and 50 other rabbis, warning followers against renting or selling homes to anyone who isn’t Jewish.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4252803,00.html

Hospital eases African refugees’ isolation policies
Ynet 8 July — Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center has rescinded some of its strict policies regarding the treatment of African refugees, which included their isolation from the general public – a move that sparked condemnation from the Health Ministry and doctors across Israel ... After receiving a letter which outlined the new policies which are intended to protect patients and hospital staff, doctors called Barbash’s decision "patient care apartheid." ... Over the weekend, the Health Ministry published refugee patient care guidelines that are to be implemented in the hospital: African women in labor are to be isolated in a separate ward until they are screened for infectious diseases, while African women in labor who are suspected of carrying an infectious disease will be transferred to an internal ward but are not to be isolated.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4252819,00.html

On the run elsewhere in Israel, African migrants find refuge in Bedouin town
Haaretz 9 July — Unlike in the rest of the country, there has been almost no friction between the Bedouin residents and the Sudanese, with the Muslim newcomers assimilating into the veteran population.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/on-the-run-elsewhere-in-israel-african-migrants-find-refuge-in-bedouin-town-1.449923

Other news

NIS 3B needed for gas rig defense plan
Ynet 10 July — Plan will create IDF ’extension’ 180 km off Israel’s shores; entails use of at least seven ships. Major manpower, constant patrolling included in bid to protect ’strategic asset’ ... "This is a strategic asset, it’s like shifting land the size of the State of Israel to the sea," stressed Naval Commander Brigadier General Ram Rotberg. [and who pays for this? The American taxpayer? Not to mention that it is unclear if the gas actually belongs to Lebanon or Gaza]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253581,00.html

Olmert found guilty of fraud, acquitted on bribes charge
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 10 July — Ehud Olmert was found guilty on Tuesday of a corruption charge in the first criminal trial of a former Israeli prime minister, but acquitted on two other counts in what was widely seen as a significant victory for him.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=502970

Netanyahu’s Likud approves report on IDF draft, urges debate on Arab service
Haaretz 8 July — Vote takes place days after prime minister disbands so-called Plesner committee; PM: Everyone must carry the burden; new bill to be presented to cabinet in one week.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/netanyahu-s-likud-approves-report-on-idf-draft-urges-debate-on-arab-service-1.449617?localLinksEnabled=false

Analysis / Opinion

If there are no Palestinians there is no Israeli occupation / Aeyal Gross
Haaretz 10 July — The panel said it based its finding on the fact that the area was conquered from Jordan, which it said never had a solid legal claim and has since forfeited any interest in the land. In any case, the committee has decided that the Geneva Convention’s prohibition is not relevant to Jewish settlement in the West Bank, given the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate, whose documents referred to a national home for the Jews in Palestine and did not mention any national rights of the Arabs ... These declarations, of course, ignore the existence of a Palestinian population in these areas and the fact that when we talk today about the occupation, we are speaking first and foremost about the occupied population, which is being denied its right to self-determination ... What would you call an occupation where the occupying state inhabits its citizens while exploiting its ground, water and other natural resources? And what would you call a regime where two populations under different law, applied according to their nationality? If any good could come out of the Levy committee, is the unveiling of the hypocrisy that under the perception of occupation lays a regime which better resembles a combination of colonialism and apartheid.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/if-there-are-no-palestinians-there-s-no-israeli-occupation.premium-1.449988

There. It’s finally done, Israel has ended the occupation. Tick. Tick. Tick. / Bradley Burston
Haaretz 10 July — ...I thought that when at last the occupation came to its close, we would get our loved ones back, some of them in uniform, some of them in protest, from the conglomerate called occupation. This monster which we cannot really see and which we pen up behind a wall. This monster which takes our loved ones, and those of the other side, and mires them in the rage and the violence and the isolation and the curbs on freedom for both the occupied and the occupier that the occupation manufactures day and night, no time off, Sabbath and holidays included. Yes, we think to ourselves, but what choice do we really have? And, with that simple sentence, we narrow our choices, and our future, to zero.
For all that it draws on distinguished legal scholarship and voluminous research, the take-home message of the Levy Commission report boils down to something very close to this: In Israel, ending the occupation is as easy as closing your eyes.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/there-it-s-finally-done-israel-has-ended-the-occupation-tick-tick-tick.premium-1.450182

Israel shouldn’t force Arabs to serve / Akiva Eldar
Haaretz 9 July — ...If the Knesset decides to obligate young Arabs to serve the community, it will not be doing this to implement the principle of "if they give, they’ll get; if they don’t give, they won’t get" - a phrase Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coined with regard to negotiations with the Palestinians in the occupied territories. If the standard was equal obligations in exchange for equal rights, Arab citizens would owe nothing to the state. The worn-out idea of requiring Arabs to do national service has come back to the Knesset only because the Arab minority cannot threaten the stability of the coalition.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-shouldn-t-force-arabs-to-serve.premium-1.449760#