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Persécutions et violations permanentes du Droit international par Israël (ndlr)

TODAY in PALESTINE

Lundi, 11 mars 2013 - 9h44 AM

Monday 11 March 2013

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Land, property theft & destruction / Apartheid / Restrictions on movement

Jerusalem’s Begin Expressway plan angers Arab neighborhood

JERUSALEM (LA Times) 7 Mar by Edmund Sanders — Construction of a freeway extension through one of Jerusalem’s most-prosperous Arab neighborhoods is igniting tension in the once-quiet community and reviving complaints about how the city treats Palestinian residents. If completed as planned in 2015, the nearly 1-mile extension of Jerusalem’s Begin Expressway will slice through the neighborhood of Beit Safafa, home to about 12,000 Arabs. Many residents say the extension would contribute to what they consider a pattern of discrimination and marginalization of East Jerusalem’s Arab residents. Residents also say the project — six lanes wide and lined with an acoustical wall — would shatter the continuity of life in a neighborhood that has already been squeezed by the construction of surrounding Jewish developments and dissected by major roads.
link to www.latimes.com

Another Israeli-only highway set to cut through East Jerusalem neighborhood brings Arab protest

Mondoweiss 7 Mar by Annie Robbins — Residents of occupied East Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood are marching again tonight, protesting the confiscation of privately owned Palestinian land from a densely populated area for the construction of yet another settler highway carving up their land. The road will divide the heart of the neighborhood, separating residents from their mosque, bakery and primary school — and all to shorten the commute to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for Jewish settlers on the West Bank. Mairav Zonszein has a comprehensive report at +972, "A divided Palestinian neighborhood, torn in two by an Israeli highway":
link to mondoweiss.net

Experts probe reach of toxins from West Bank landfill

WADI ABU HINDI, West Bank (Ma‘an) 10 Mar by George Hale --- "They drank from the dark water, and then they died," a Bedouin shepherd boy says of the putrid black liquid oozing from the ground. Half a mile to the east, insects are devouring the carcasses of two animals — one sheep and a goat — rotting in a dry riverbed. From the level of decomposition, it’s clear they died recently. What isn’t so clear is how, but a new environmental survey is turning up clues about toxins in the air and water here. The area, Wadi Abu Hindi, is downstream from the busiest commercial waste site in the occupied West Bank, in a valley overshadowed on both sides by Israeli settlements ... He and other experts believe the liquid’s presence in the valley reflects one of several engineering failures at the Abu Dis landfill, an Israeli dump site that processes trash from both sides of the Green Line.
link to www.maannews.net

New Israeli orders to confiscate hundreds of dunums in Abu Dis town

OCCUPIED PALESTINE (PIC) 8 Mar — Israeli Occupation authorities have recently announced the seizure and the confiscation of hundreds of dunums in the town of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem. The so-called Israeli Civil Administration issued new orders to confiscate and seize lands east of Abu Dis town, in order to expand Jahalin neighborhood established currently on the territory of Abu Dis, The lawyer Bassam Bahar Chairman of the Committee for the Defense of land and resist settlement in Abu Dis said in a press statement on Wednesday. Bahar added that the Israeli new settlement project aimed to deport thousands of Bedouin families from the surrounding areas of Ma’ale Adumim, Kedar, and Mishor Adumim settlements, and all areas surrounding the city of Jerusalem, in order to establish a new settlement neighborhood in Mishor Adumim area.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli army prevents symbolic marriage near barrier

AFP 9 Mar — The Israeli army prevented a symbolic wedding from being held on Saturday near the West Bank separation barrier aimed at denouncing obstacles to unions between Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, an AFP correspondent said. The "marriage" was to have been held at an army roadblock between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the West Bank, with an Israeli Arab bride coming from Nazareth in northern Israel. But the army prevented the bride from arriving at the site and soldiers used stun grenades to disperse about 50 Palestinians who had gathered at the other side of the roadblock, causing no injuries. The ceremony, planned as part of a campaign run under the theme "Love in the time of apartheid" was organised by Palestinians to denounce what they say are "racist laws that prohibit the reunification of families". In January 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court endorsed a law banning Palestinians married to Israeli Arabs from obtaining Israeli citizenship or even residing in the Jewish state.
link to en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com

’Get me to the checkpoint on time!’

[with video, photos] Mondoweiss 10 Mar by Annie Robbins — Yesterday as part of the "Love in the Time of Apartheid" campaign, Palestinian activists scheduled a wedding to expose and challenge "racist laws that prohibit the reunification of families." The wedding was supposed to take place at the Hizma checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Over two hundred guests were in procession to arrive from either direction. The bride looked stunning, the groom excited, and then Israeli forces crashed the event with teargas and stun guns.
link to mondoweiss.net

Tissue test requirement for Israelis living in Gaza goes back to court

Haaretz 10 Mar by Amira Hass — A Jerusalem District Court judge on Sunday lambasted the Interior Ministry suggesting that three sisters living in Gaza undergo genetic testing to prove their Israeli citizenship in response to their petition to pass through the border despite not having Israeli documents. Judge Yoram Noam leveled his criticism during a preliminary debate on the petition submitted by the Dabas sisters, who were born in Israel and are Israeli citizens, and who now live in Gaza and have sought to enter Israel since 2012.
link to www.haaretz.com

FACT SHEET: 65th anniversary of the adoption of Plan Dalet

IMEU 8 Mar 2013 — On March 10, 1948, Zionist political and military leaders, including Ben-Gurion, met in Tel Aviv and formally adopted Plan Dalet (or Plan D). The operational military orders specified which Palestinian population centers should be targeted and laid out in detail a blueprint for their forcible depopulation and destruction. It called for:
"Mounting operations against enemy population centers located inside or near our defensive system in order to prevent them from being used as bases by an active armed force. These operations can be divided into the following categories:
"Destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris), especially those population centers which are difficult to control continuously.
"Mounting search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state."
link to imeu.net

Israeli officials to pressure UN to negate Palestinian right of return

IMEMC 10 Mar — A group of right-wing Zionists met with the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday in New York to put together a plan to pressure the United Nations to revoke the internationally-recognized right of return of Palestinian refugees who were forced from their homes in what is now Israel in 1948 and 1967. Daniel Pipes, the head of the extreme right ’Middle East Forum’ based in Philadelphia which helped organize the session, told participants in the meeting that the United Nations’ approach to the rights of Palestinian refugees "creates a narrative of victimhood" and "promotes extremism" ... The strategy session came just ahead of a press conference planned to take place on Monday by Filippo Grandi, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in which Grandi will make the case that Palestinian refugees are a ’forgotten population’, and will urge that action be taken to address the Palestinian refugee crisis ... Ron Prosor, the Israeli representative to the United Nations, told the participants that "the real obstacle [to peace] is the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees" ... Former Israeli Knesset (Parliament) Member Einat Wilf also spoke at the meeting, telling participants that it is important to "debunk the myth" that there are Palestinian refugees living in tents,
link to www.imemc.org

Israeli settlers attempt to seize land in al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 8 Mar — A number of Israeli settlers broke into a land belonging to Agrepe family in Tel Rumeida area in al-Khalil on Thursday. The group of settlers stormed, under the protection of the occupation forces, a land belonging to Agrepe family in Tel Rumeida in an attempt to take control over it and turn it into a center for the settlers, eyewitnesses told PIC reporter.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

PA official: Settlers destroy over 100 olive trees in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 8 Mar — Settlers uprooted over 100 olive trees south of Nablus on Friday, a Palestinian Authority official said. Settler-monitoring official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma‘an that settlers from Rechalim destroyed at least 120 olive trees in the nearby Palestinian village of As-Sawiya. The trees belonged to Muhammad Jazi and Hamdi Jazi. "This is the second time that settlers uproot my olive trees in the last two years," Muhammad told Ma‘an. The settlers also wrote racist slogans in Hebrew over water barrels in the village, and sprayed the word "punishment," he added.
link to www.maannews.net

Violence / Attacks / Raids / Clashes / Illegal arrests

PCHR Weekly Report: 34 Palestinians wounded, including 10 children, by Israeli troops this week [28 Feb - 6 Mar]

IMEMC 8 Mar — Israeli attacks in the West Bank: The Israeli forces conducted 69 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. At least 60 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children, a photojournalist and a researcher in prisoners’ affairs, were abducted in the West Bank, 46 of whom were abducted during incursions and 13 in peaceful protests. The Israeli forces established dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank. At least 3 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were abducted at checkpoints ... Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip: In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli forces continued to open fire at the Palestinians near the border fence. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a mentally disordered person, were severely wounded. On the same day, the Israeli forces positioned in watchtowers along the border fence, north of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, opened fire at a group of persons, who were few meters away from the fence. As a result, a civilian was wounded. FULL REPORT
link to www.imemc.org

OCHA: 200 Palestinians injured in clashes with IOF within one week
RAMALLAH (PIC) 10 Mar — A UN report shows that more than 200 Palestinians were injured during the clashes that erupted last week with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in different parts of the occupied West Bank. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA) states in a report issued on Sunday that the clashes broke out after the occupation forces suppressed the protests organized by Palestinians in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike in the Israeli jails, and which have continued across the West Bank during the week. The report reveals that at least 214 Palestinians, including 49 children, have sustained different injuries and suffered suffocation. It states: "Approximately 87 Palestinians injured were treated for tear gas inhalation, 85 for injuries sustained from rubber-coated metal bullets, four from live ammunition, and the remaining from other means." The UN report added that six Israeli soldiers were also injured during the suppression of the popular activities.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israel marks International Women’s Day with violent assault on worshipers at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque
EI 8 Mar by Ali Abunimah — Israeli occupation forces violently stormed the al-Aqsa mosque compound in eastern occupied Jerusalem today as Palestinians had gathered for Friday prayers. The above video, posted on the YouTube account FreeQudss, shows Palestinian youths attempting to ward off the massive Israeli invasion force with stones and later attempting to push them back with other projectiles including plastic furniture, pieces of wood and a molotov cocktail. Palestinian news photographer Atta Awisat was injured in the Israeli attack. Medical sources said several dozen others were hurt. Also, at 5:37 in this video Israeli soldiers can be seen violently shoving Palestinian women. Later in the video, worshippers can be seen continuing to pray as Israeli soldiers mill around firing sound bombs. Eventually the occupation forces retreated as worshippers chanted "God is Great."
link to electronicintifada.net

West Bank funeral highlights Israel’s use of live ammunition to provoke violent resistance
[with video] Mondoweiss 9 Mar by Annie Robbins — Palestinians from all over the West Bank poured into the village of Aboud yesterday to walk in the funeral procession for Muhammad Asfour. Asfour would have turned 23 today; he was a college student shot at the entrance to his home village of Aboud, protesting against the inhumane Israeli policies of arresting and imprisoning Palestinians from all walks of life. Just last week 60 Palestinian civilians were arrested by Israel, including 12 children. In the coverage of his death, AP offers this hasbara claim: "The Israeli military says rubber bullets are meant to be ’non-lethal’ means of dispersing protests." But it wasn’t a rubber bullet that cracked the skull of Muhammad Asfour, causing brain hemorrhages for two weeks until he died. It was a rubber coated steel bullet ... Popular resistance leader Bassam Tamimi says the Israel government has become "more terrorist now" [video of the funeral at this link] in an effort to force Palestinians to abandon "this way of resistance," meaning nonviolence: "they want to force us in the corner to go to the hard resistance."
link to mondoweiss.net

Clashes take place near Ramallah
IMEMC 8 Mar — Thursday March 7, 2013; Media sources in the central West Bank city of Ramallah reported that clashes took place between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths in ‘Aboud village, north west of Ramallah, after Israeli soldiers detained the parents of Mohammad Asfour, who died Thursday of wounds he suffered two weeks ago when the army invaded the village.
link to www.imemc.org

Dozens injured in Bil‘in’s weekly protest
IMEMC 9 Mar — Friday March 8, 2013, Dozens of Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and International peace activists, held their weekly protest against the Annexation Wall and settlements, in the village of Bil‘in, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Dozens of injuries have been reported after the army attacked the protesters. The Friends of Freedom and Justice Committee in Bil‘in (FFJ) reported that resident Samir Bornat, 37, was shot by a rubber-coated metal bullet in his left arm, while resident Abdullah Yassin, 21, was shot by a gas bomb in his arm, and cameraman Haitham Khatib, 37, was shot by a gas bomb in his leg.
link to www.imemc.org

IOF soldiers break into home of Bethlehem mufti
BETHLEHEM (PIC) 9 Mar — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) broke into the home of Bethlehem Mufti Sheikh Abdulmajid Amarne in Doheisha refugee camp and served a summons to his son Ayman. The Mufti said that the soldiers, who burst into his home at dawn Saturday, summoned his son for intelligence interrogation in Etzion next Tuesday. Meanwhile, IOF soldiers stormed a number of suburbs in Al-Khalil city and broke into houses for Abu Snene family.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF kidnap Aqsa channel reporter in Kafr Qaddum village
RAMALLAH (PIC) 9 Mar — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Friday kidnapped journalist Tareq Abu Zaid, a reporter for Al-Aqsa satellite channel, during his coverage of popular events north of the West Bank. Eyewitnesses told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that Israeli soldiers kidnapped Abu Zaid as he was covering the weekly anti-wall march organized in Kafr Qaddum village. Video of arrest
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Media Forum: 14 Palestinian journalists in Israeli jails
GAZA (PIC) 10 Mar — Palestinian Media Forum denounced the arrest of the journalist Walid Khaled after the IOF raided his home in the West Bank, bringing the number of detained journalists to14 journalists. "The arrest of journalist Khaled demonstrates that we are facing open war waged by the occupation to keep journalists behind bars, in light of the international news organizations’ silence," the Forum said in a statement on Sunday. The IOF arrested the journalist Khaled, 41, at dawn today after storming his home in the town of "Skak" in Salfit District in the West Bank
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Settlers assault shepherd near Ramallah, kill sheep
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 8 Mar — A group of settlers attacked a Palestinian shepherd north of Ramallah on Friday and killed five of his sheep, a PA official said. Settler-monitoring official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma’an that settlers from Aad settlement outpost attacked Kamal al-Nasan near Al-Mughayyir village, beating him severely. The settlers then killed five of his sheep, Daghlas added. Clashes broke out in the area between villagers and settlers, with Israeli forces arriving at the scene and firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
link to www.maannews.net

Settlers attack 67-year-old farmer in Beit Ummar
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — A group of 30 settlers attacked a 67-year-old farmer in north Hebron on Saturday, a local committee said. Mohammad Abed al-Hamid Jabir Slaibi, 67, and his sons were working on their land adjacent to Bat Ayin settlement when a group of young settlers started swearing at them and throwing rocks, a popular committee in Beit Ummar told Ma‘an. Slaibi and his sons left the area to escape the attack. Israeli soldiers were present at the time of the incident but did not intervene, the committee added.
link to www.maannews.net

Settlers hurl stones at Palestinian car near Hebron
IMEMC 11 Mar — Sunday evening, March 10, 2013, a number of extremist Israeli settlers of the Ma’on illegal settlement, built on Palestinian lands that belong to residents of Yatta town south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, hurled stones at a Palestinian car causing excessive damage but no injuries. Rateb Al-Jabour, Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Yatta, told the Palestine News & Info Agency (WAFA) that the settlers hurled stones at the car of Shaher Hamamda, 40, as he and his family were driving on Road 60 in the area.
link to www.imemc.org

IOF soldiers round up 13 Palestinians including journalist
WEST BANK (PIC) 10 Mar — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up 13 Palestinian West Bankers and Jerusalemites at dawn Sunday including a journalist and an ex-prisoner.
Palestinian sources said that IOF soldiers stormed ‘Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem and nabbed six inhabitants after a search campaign in several houses in the camp.
IOF soldiers also broke into the home of journalist Walid Khalid in Sikaka village, Salfit district, and took him away only six moths after his release from Israeli jails.
IOF soldiers detained Mohammed Harb, also a liberated prisoner, from the same village of Skaka.
Five Jerusalemites were nabbed in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem aged between 18 to 19 years old.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Prisoners / Hunger hungers / Courts

Judge, jury and creditor: How Palestinians finance the Israeli military court system
Haaretz 10 Mar by Amira Hass — In 2011, Palestinians paid NIS 13 million in fines to military courts in the West Bank. Unlike in the civilian criminal court system, in the Israeli military court system where Palestinians are put on trial, fines are an integral part of the penalty. While the Palestinians demand a boycott of products from the settlements and other Israeli goods as a vital part of the popular struggle against the occupation, there is a conspicuous lack of debate on the tactic of refusing to pay fines at military courts. The fines are levied for convictions at military courts for all categories of offenses: traffic violations, criminal offenses, illegal sojourn, order disturbances and hostile terrorist activity.
link to www.haaretz.com

Is there hope of justice for a Palestinian family in Israel’s courts?
ISM 9 Mar — Ziad Jilani’s widow and daughters seek Justice for his killing by Israeli Border Policeman Maxim Vinogradov, for the third time. This Wednesday (13 March) Moira Jilani and her three daughters will come face to face with their husband and father’s killer. "I am dreading facing them for my daughters," Says Moira, "I think I could face them myself but I’m afraid that when I see the pain in my daughters eyes it will kill me." Her husband, Ziad Jilani was killed three years ago by Maxim Vinogradov, an Israeli border patrolman who put his rifle to Jilani’s head and pulled the trigger three consecutive times. Now, for the third time, the family is appealing to Israeli authorities to press charges against Ziad’s killer ... According to Yesh Din in 2012 the MPCID received 240 complaints and various reports of suspected crimes allegedly committed by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Out of these registered complaints, only 103- not even half- have yielded investigations. Not one single indictment has been served to date.
link to palsolidarity.org

Israeli newspaper reports reduced sentences for Israeli assailants
IMEMC 8 Mar — Israeli Newspaper Maariv reported Friday, that Israeli judges and courts ’go easy’ on Israeli perpetrators who assault Palestinians, giving them ’ridiculous’ sentences, which would encourage such assaults. Maariv added that with the reduced sentences given to Israelis who assault Palestinians, these attacks are increasing drastically, and will continue to unless deterrent actions are taken. The newspaper recollects several incidents of reduced sentences
link to www.imemc.org

Investigation into soldier’s attack on Palestinian using sniffer dogs closed
NAZARETH (PIC) 8 Mar — Israeli authorities decided to close the investigation into the case of the occupation soldiers’ attack on Palestinian youth Ahmed Eshteiwi, 24, using sniffer dogs, in March 2012. Eshtewi was seriously wounded when an Israeli soldier gave a signal to the dog accompanying him to attack the Palestinian youth, during the suppression of a peaceful demonstration staged in March 2012 in the town of Kafr Qaddum in the city of Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank. The media coordinator of Kafr Qaddoum’s weekly march, Murad Eshteiwi, said that B’Tselem reported that the leadership of the Israeli army and military police decided to close the file of the incident as "it does not rise to the magnitude of the crime. It is rather an ordinary event that does not require prosecuting the military unit, which had unleashed the dogs against Palestinians," according to Israeli claims.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Hunger striker Samer Issawi rejects Israeli offer to exile him
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 10 Mar — Palestinian hunger striker Samer Issawi refused an Israeli deal giving him his freedom in exchange for exiling him to Gaza or outside Palestine, his sister and lawyer Shirin said. "Samer’s rejection of exile comes out of our belief that we struggle for the return of the refugee and not for their increase," Shirin stated on her facebook page on Saturday.
"The exile means the displacement of the Palestinians, especially the Jerusalemites whose city are exposed to Judaization," she added. Shirin affirmed that an Israeli court had refused a few days ago to release her brother on bail.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Lawyer: Israel wants to end hunger strike
RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 9 (UPI) — A lawyer representing three Palestinian prisoners says Israeli authorities are trying to pressure them into ending a hunger strike. Ibrahim al-Aaraj, who works for the Palestinian Authority’s ministry of prisoners’ affairs, said the men reported being moved from one ward to another with occasional stints in solitary confinement, Maan news agency reported. They have been drinking only water and eating nothing since Feb. 26, protesting imprisonment without trial, he said. Muhammad al-Najjar, one of the three, told the lawyer an intelligence officer at Israel’s Ofer Prison, told them they would be fined and family visits would be cut off if they persist. Najjar said he has lost almost 30 pounds since he began the strike.
link to www.upi.com

Prisoners offer to waive Israeli citizenship to be released
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — A group of Palestinian prisoners say they are ready to give up their Israeli citizenship to be released. The prisoners wrote to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Prisoner Affairs in Ramallah, asking to be included in negotiations for the release of Palestinian detainees ... "After all the years we spent in Israeli jails, we have the right to go back to our homes and continue our lives with our families. However, we are honored to carry the Palestinian ID, and to move to the borders of the state of Palestine," the letter continued. According to the prisoner rights group Addameer, 185 of the 4,812 Palestinian political prisoners are from inside Israel.
link to www.maannews.net

Large rally in Rafah in solidarity with prisoners
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 Mar — Protesters in Gaza organized a massive rally Thursday in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails. Participants raised Palestinian flags, and held pictures of hunger strikers. They condemned aggressive Israeli practices. Palestinian national and Islamic factions participated in the rally.
link to www.maannews.net

Israel has detained 15,000 Palestinian women since 1967
MEMO 8 Mar — Israel has detained more than 15,000 Palestinian women since 1967, the Palestinian Minister of Women’s Affairs said on Thursday. On the eve of International Women’s Day, Jamila Al-Shanti condemned the international silence over Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian women. "Nobody who claims to be fighting for women’s rights has ever taken any action on this issue," she said. "The Israeli occupation authorities practice physical and psychological torture against Palestinian female prisoners," the Minister said in a press statement. "They lock them up with Israeli criminals who always attack and injure them." The Minister’s statement included details of the Palestinian woman who was forced to give birth while she was handcuffed in an Israeli prison clinic.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com

Israeli court extends detentions of 9 Jerusalemites
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 10 Mar — The so-called Magistrate’s Court has extended on Saturday the detention of 9 Jerusalemites from Shu‘fat camp pending interrogation. Al-Dmeer lawyer, Mohammed Mahmoud, told Wadi Hilweh Information Center, that the Israeli Magistrate’s Court extended the arrest of Youssef Farhan, 16, Abadeh Qawasmi, 18, Elias Rajaby, 17, and Ali Bader, 17, for next Monday under the pretext of throwing stones at Shu‘fat checkpoint on Friday evening. Israeli undercover unit has arrested the 4 Jerusalemites on Friday evening at Shu’fat checkpoint, and beat them severely, where one of them was transferred to hospital, said the lawyer....
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Gaza siege

Palestinian seriously injured by army fire in Gaza
IMEMC 9 Mar — Friday March 8 2013, Palestinian medical sources reported that a Palestinian youth was seriously injured by a round of live ammunition after Israeli soldiers, stationed across the border, opened fire at a group of Palestinians, working in their lands, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesperson of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reported that the resident, in his twenties, suffered a serious injury after being shot by a live round to the chest, and was moved to the Kamal Odwan Hospital.
link to www.imemc.org

Egypt seizes 20,000 liters of fuel headed to Gaza
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma‘an) 8 Mar — Egyptian forces seized 20,000 liters of fuel ready to be smuggled into Gaza on Friday, security officials said. Egyptian forces confiscated a truck holding a fuel tank and arrested the driver, who said the fuel was en-route to Rafah to be smuggled into Gaza.
link to www.maannews.net

Jeddah bank to fund Gaza reconstruction projects
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 Mar – The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank has allocated $79.9 million to fund a new package of reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip ... Field coordinator Rifaat Diab told Ma‘an that the new fund is a sixth package which the IDB started after the latest Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip. He highlighted that with the new package the GCC have donated $367.1 million to Gaza reconstruction projects.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli racism

Video: Racist attacks are daily reality in Hebron, even for children
ISM 10 Mar by ’Team Khalil’ — A group of young settlers assault three Palestinian boys, Sharef 15, Ibrahim 14 and Walid Hamad 12, at the entrance of their house. The attack occurred on March 2nd 2013 in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. For many years the Hebron area has suffered from army harassment and settler violence, forcing some families to place iron bars around their windows and balconies, for fear of attacks. The Abu Aesheh family lives in a house surrounded by settlements and an army base. In addition to the harassments from their neighbours they also suffer various restrictions on transportation, building and curfews among many others. All of these control tactics and random hate crimes are used with the purpose of forcing them to leave a home which they have lived in for 50 years, all so the settlers, with the help of the army, can occupy their home and their land.
link to palsolidarity.org

Teens yell, spit at 60-year-old Arab woman in Nazareth Illit
Ynet 10 Mar — Three 14-year-old boys from Nazareth Illit were arrested over the weekend for allegedly spitting on an Arab woman and yelling at her to leave "the Jewish neighborhood." The police said the teens will be punished by giving talks to other teenagers on tolerance and opposing racist violence, and will also accompany police officers on their neighborhood activity. ... The light punishment was given despite Police Chief Yohanan Danino’s instructions to prioritize the treatment of such attacks and to prosecute suspects to the full extent of the law.
Last week saw several incidents of racist violence: Jewish teens threw stones at an Arab teacher’s car in Jerusalem, an Arab couple was attacked on the shores of Lake Kinneret, an Arab woman was attacked by religious teenaged girls in a Jerusalem tram station and a band of 20 youngsters assaulted an Arab street cleaner in Tel Aviv.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Attacked Arab woman: We’ll die on this land
Ynet 10 Mar — "Such incidents will not deter us. We will remain on our lands until we die," said an Arab-Israeli woman from Nazareth who, along with her daughter, was the victim of an alleged racist attack by three Jewish teenagers ... Issa, who has lived with her family in Nazareth Illit for more than two decades, told Ynet the incident was not her first encounter with racism. "Unfortunately, this was not the first time something like this has happened to us. Even guests who come to our home are confronted by racists who attack them verbally and spit at them, particularly when they see Arab women wearing veils."
link to www.ynetnews.com

Sale of home to ’an Arab’ in Akka protested by Jewish residents
IMEMC 8 Mar — Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that residents of a new neighborhood in Akka (Acre) protested the sale of a house to an Arab family, claiming that they have the right to protest the sale, as they want to maintain the Jewish character of the area ... Haaretz reported that residents of the Hakerem Bet neighborhood held a protest against the sale, on Tuesday at night, and waved Israeli flags while calling on the settlers to void the deal ... Cohen said that Firas Ali, the person who bought the home is a member of the Hadash Party (National Front for Peace and Equality) headed by Arab Member on Knesset, Mohammad Barakeh, therefore, according to Cohen; there are political motivations behind this deal ... Ali, the owner of the home, said that the claims are false
link to www.imemc.org

Ethiopian Israelis face most severe hiring discrimination, poll finds
Haaretz 7 Mar — Among all social and ethnic groups in Israel, employers least prefer to hire Ethiopians, according to a survey conducted by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry’s research department, the first of its kind in Israel. The survey’s findings were presented Wednesday at the annual conference of the ministry’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
link to www.haaretz.com

Racism widespread in Israel / Smadar Shir
Ynet 10 Mar — The racism disease has been living within us from time immemorial. Its roots may be found as early as the days of Torah, when the Creator of the universe defined us as the "chosen people," and we were foolish enough not to interpret the definition as a mission but rather as a fact. Already then we saw ourselves as superior and put on airs, and therefore the Torah preached that we should love those who are foreigners.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Activism / Solidarity / BDS

Villages north of Nablus launch anti-settlement event
NABLUS (PIC) 9 Mar — Popular Committee against Wall and Settlements in villages northwest of Nablus launched its first event on Friday in rejection of Israeli abuses represented in dumping sewage of Shavei Shomron settlement on the villages’ lands. One of the Committee’s members said in a statement to the PIC that more than 100 citizens from the villages of Burqa, Sebastia and Naqoura demonstrated on Friday in the region and confronted the Israeli occupation forces that tried to stop them and attacked them.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

South African groups launch ’Israeli Apartheid Week’ at Jo’burg memorial to apartheid
Mondoweiss 10 Mar by Annie Robbins — The 9th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week 2013 campaign launched in South Africa today with a press conference at the symbolic Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. Many South African leaders are participating (including leaders of the African National Congress, the South African Trade Unions, and the South African Council of Churches). The Coalition for a Free Palestine and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, National Spokesperson for Israeli Apartheid Week South Africa Team (IAW South Africa Team) sent out this invitation:
link to mondoweiss.net

Israel Apartheid Week kicks off in Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 10 Mar — The events of the international week against Israel’s apartheid started on Saturday in the Gaza Strip and will continue until next Thursday. Iman Sourani, a member of the preparatory committee for the week in Gaza, said the anti-apartheid events would take place in 250 cities around the world and they would be intended to expose Israel’s segregation practices against the Palestinians. Sourani affirmed that the committee tries to pool its efforts with the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, noting that the events would include meetings with parties and groups supporting the Palestinian cause. She also pointed out that meetings would be held online with students from Johannesburg university in South Africa because it was the first university that academically boycotted Ben-Gurion university. The anti-apartheid week will include interviews with South African singers who released two albums against Israel’s segregation system.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

UK students resist Israeli diplomats’ campus offensive despite repression
EI 7 Mar by Asa Winstanley — The ninth annual Israeli Apartheid Week began in the UK on 25 February, and campuses across the country were hives of activity as students held various events to educate people about Palestine. Israeli diplomats in the UK have also gone on a propaganda offensive, seeking to turn back a popular tide of criticism of Israeli human rights abuses, war crimes and apartheid. In recent weeks, the Israeli embassy in London dispatched various diplomats, including the ambassador Daniel Taub, to various campuses to explain to students why they are supposedly so mistaken and how there is in fact no such thing as Israeli apartheid. But opposition from students has meant these events are usually held under a veil of secrecy. Fear of protest often restricts these events to select audiences, with some being prevented altogether.
link to electronicintifada.net

California BDS debate heats up: Riverside campus passes divestment measure as Stanford rejects the same
Mondoweiss 7 Mar by Alex Kane — The battle over the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement on college campuses heated up again over the past week, with California universities as the focal point. While a pro-divestment measure failed to pass at Stanford University, a similar call won out last night at the University of California (UC), Riverside. And for the second week in a row, UC San Diego debated divesting from companies implicated in Israeli apartheid, as the bill put it, though the vote was tabled until next week. The UC San Diego debate has prompted Congressional representatives from the area to weigh in against divestment.
link to mondoweiss.net

SodaStream lies to keep its products on UK shelves
EI 6 Mar by Amena Saleem — The Israeli manufacturer SodaStream has resorted to manipulation and misinformation in an attempt to ensure its drinks-making products remain on sale in British stores. In a letter sent to the head office of Leekes, a homeware store with outlets in England and Wales, SodaStream wrote: "One of our many manufacturing and assembly sites is located in a city called Mishor Adumim, which is in ’Area C’ of the currently disputed territory in Israel." Mishor Adumim, however, is not in Israel. It is a huge settlement built on the confiscated land of seven Palestinian towns [Abu Dis, Azarya, A-Tur, Issauya, Han El Akhmar, Anata and Nebbi Mussa] in the West Bank; a land theft which, according to Who Profits — the organization monitoring occupation-complicit firms — is "considered the largest single expropriation in the history of the Israeli occupation." The letter was sent to Leekes in response to a complaint by a member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) which had been dismayed to see SodaStream’s products on sale in a branch in the West of England.
link to electronicintifada.net

Political, other news

CEC: Final electoral register to be published April 10
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — The Central Elections Commission on Sunday completed the transfer of voter registry forms from Gaza to Ramallah and will publish the final registry on April 10, the CEC said. In February, Palestinian officials told Ma‘an that Israel was impeding the delivery of the electoral registers. Head of the Central Elections Committee Hanna Nasser said the CEC used scanners to digitally transfer the data as Israeli prevented the transfer of the registration applications to a West Bank processing center.
link to www.maannews.net

Factions to meet in April for unity talks, official says
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — Palestinian faction officials will meet in April under the auspices of Egypt’s leadership to renew national unity talks, a Palestinian official said Sunday. Yasser al-Wadia, the general coordinator for independent political figures, told Ma‘an that President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas chief-in-exile Khalid Mashaal and all national factions have agreed to move forward to end national division.
link to www.maannews.net

PA workers threaten strike action over unpaid salaries
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — The union of Palestinian civil servants said Sunday that it would resume strike action if February salaries are not paid soon.
link to www.maannews.net

Obama is persona non grata in Palestine: Palestinian activists
PressTV 10 Mar — Palestinian activists say US President Barack Obama is "persona non grata in Palestine" due to American policies which are "supportive of the occupation." A group called "Palestinian For Dignity" called in a Saturday statement for nationwide protests against a planned visit by Obama to the Palestinian territories later this month. "We call upon our people to demonstrate against receiving he who considers himself Israel’s No. 1 ally," the group said.
link to www.presstv.ir

Obama to visit Israel even if coalition is not formed
AFP 8 Mar — US president vows to visit Israel regardless of state of coalition talks; ’It is important for the people of Israel to understand that the American people stand with them,’ White House spokesman says
link to www.ynetnews.com

EU parliamentarians seek public condemnation of Erdogan
Ynet 10 Mar — Some 20 European Union Parliament Members sent a letter to the EU Foreign Policy Chief in which they strongly condemned remarks made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month. The Turkish PM drew international condemnation when he said that Zionism is a crime against humanity during a UN conference ... Among the signatories of the letter are EUP members from Poland, Britain, Holland, Romania, Finland, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Spain.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Israel’s Iron Dome grossly over-hyped: scientists
Al Akhbar 9 Mar — Israel’s much touted Iron Dome missile defense system has been grossly over-hyped, a team of renowned scientists have found. The Iron Dome’s success rate of 84 percent, as reported by the Israeli military, may be as low as 5 percent, according to international expert in military defense Theodore Postol. He previously argued that the joint American-Israeli Patriot missile defense system was ineffective against Iraqi Scud missiles in the second Gulf War. Postol and two other scientists, who have worked for billion dollar defense companies Raytheon and Rafael, reviewed video footage of the Iron Dome’s performance and concluded that images said to show rocket interception was actually the Dome’s missiles self-destructing.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Decline in number of IDF recruits seeking combat role
Ynet 10 Mar — The number of recruits seeking to serve in IDF combat units has declined, according to the initial March enlistment rates, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday. The rate of recruits with the required combat fitness who requested to enlist to combat units stands at solely 71.6%.This figure is in line with the ongoing decline witnessed since the end of the Operation Cast Lead, over four years ago. The IDF hopes that the decline in motivation is temporary and will cease to exist and claimed that this data must be compared to parallel enlistment periods with similar distinguishing qualities.
link to www.ynetnews.com

A plague of locusts descends upon the Holy Land, just in time for Passover
Smithsonian Surprising Science blog 8 Mar — Locusts have plagued farmers for millennia. According to the Book of Exodus, around 1400 B.C. the Egyptians experienced an exceptionally unfortunate encounter with these ravenous pests when they struck as the eighth Biblical plague. As Exodus describes, "They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt." Locusts attacks still occur today, as farmers in Sudan and Egypt well know. Now, farmers in Israel can also join this unfortunate group. Earlier today, a swarm of locusts arrived in Israel from Egypt, just in time for the Jewish Passover holiday which commemorates Jews’ escape from Egyptian slavery following the ten Biblical plagues. "The correlation with the Bible is interesting in terms of timing, since the eighth plague happened sometime before the Exodus," said Hendrik Bruins, a researcher in the Department of Man in the Desert at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. "Now we need to wait for the plague of darkness," he joked.
link to blogs.smithsonianmag.com

A look behind state funding of settlements — and down the rabbit hole
Haaretz 9 Mar by Sami Peretz — Outgoing Knesset Finance chairman Moshe Gafni threatened to reveal the billions of shekels Israel devotes to West Bank settlements, touching on the much larger issue of special interests’ control of state funding ...
But we haven’t touched this because all in all they are learning Torah over there. "Consequently, we haven’t talked about the billions that go toward the settlements," Gafni continues. "When there is a debate over major budget cuts like defense, economy, welfare and society, we will no longer be predisposed to transfer billions to a group that preaches equality in distributing of the civic burden when it is the real burden on society. When they talk about equality of the burden … we will show everyone who should really be facing cuts."
link to www.haaretz.com

Despite a clear increase, participation of Palestinian women in public life remains low
MEMO 8 Mar — A statement issued on Thursday by the Palestinian Statistical Bureau said that despite making up half of the population, the percentage of Palestinian women contributing to the workforce was less than 17 per cent while the rate of divorce is only 1.5 per cent. The statement, which was distributed to the press in the wake of International Woman’s Day, said that the percentage of female involvement in the Palestinian workforce had increased over the last ten years. The number of working women recorded in 2012 was 17.4 per cent compared with 10.3 per cent in 2011. However, despite this increase, the rate is still very low.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com

Qatar’s bad bet in the West Bank / Ali Gharib
Daily Beast 7 Mar — There’s noting wrong, in principle, with liquid-gas-rich Arab Gulf states doing business in Palestine. And Qatar’s development work in Gaza is much needed, though the effect of bolstering Hamas’s international standing remains unwelcome. On the other side of the Palestinian schism, Qatar’s doing work, too, funding a billion-dollar for-profit project to develop housing for some 10,000 families a few miles from Ramallah. Rawabi, meaning "the hill," would be Palestine’s first planned city, but there’re some lingering issues, detailed in a report last weekend from NBC News: There are two main practical problems for the new town. All the water has to be piped in, and there is no obvious source. “We are in this project, putting facts on the ground, and things will have to follow,” is [the millionaire Palestinian behind the development Bashar] Al-Masri’s answer, hoping for a miracle. And access. The only road to Rawabi passes through what is known as Area C: that part of the West Bank that is fully controlled by Israel, administratively and militarily. It is a narrow, winding road that the Palestinians can use only with an Israeli permit, which must be renewed each year.
link to www.thedailybeast.com

WATCH: Al Jazeera takes on the segregated bus debate / Omar Rahman
972mag 9 Mar — Al-Jazeera’s Inside Story covers the segregated bus debate and the question of apartheid in Israel. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna is joined by Ben White, Mustafa Barghouti and Gregg Roman in what turns out to be probably the biggest shellacking of an Israeli spokesperson I have ever seen on a mainstream news network.
link to 972mag.com