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Terrorisme israélien (ndlr)

TODAY in PALESTINE

Mercredi, 5 juin 2013 - 10h52 AM

mercredi 5 juin 2013

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Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid

Israel razes homes in Palestinian-controlled area

JERICHO, Palestine (AFP) 5 June — Israeli bulldozers demolished four homes Tuesday in an area of the Jordan Valley just north of Jericho that is supposed to be under full Palestinian control, the family and the city’s Palestinian governor said.
The Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed the demolitions in Al-Nuwei‘ma but did not specify whether the houses lay in so-called Area A of the occupied West Bank, lands on which the Palestinians are supposed to enjoy full civil and security control. Mohammad al-Zaid, 66, whose sons own the bulldozed properties, told AFP the homes were located in a section of Area A land just north of Jericho, one of the few parts of the Jordan Valley where Palestinians can build. Zaid said that nonetheless the Israelis had been informed of the plans for their construction and had given their consent. « My sons and I built in this area with the consent of the Israelis through plans presented to them by the Palestinian liaison, » he said. « I do not know why the occupation’s bulldozers demolished the houses, where more than 40 people live — my sons and grandchildren. » Jericho Governor Majid al-Feytani confirmed the houses were located in Area A and strongly condemned their demolition.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb

Israel approves construction to transfer West Bank Bedouin

Mondoweiss 4 June by Allison Deger — Israel has announced construction of a large-scale village near Jericho that planners are calling a « dump site » for Palestinian Bedouins residing outside of Jerusalem. Mondoweiss became aware of the relocation after the Israeli daily Ma’ariv published a locality in the Jordan Valley was given a green light for construction. The initial Israeli report presented the village, « Nueimah, » as a rare, but innocuous example of new legal construction in the West Bank set to accommodate overpopulation. The locality will « make land pirated by Palestinians legal holdings » said a member of the government to Ma’ariv, explaining that the village was for those inhabiting areas of the West Bank without Israeli verified deeds, such as the Jahalin ... However, the program was first documented last fall as a transfer plan.
link to mondoweiss.net

Bedouin forced to live beside dump contract unknown diseases

UNITED NATIONS (EI) 3 June by Lucy Westcott — For thousands of years the Bedouin people have made their home in Palestine. But for almost the last six decades, the Palestinian Bedouin have been on the move, repeatedly relocated to make room for Israeli settlements ... LW : What is the situation like for the Bedouin in 2013 ? Eid Jahalin : One of the worst problems is that many children, some eight and younger, have diseases after being born next to the garbage dump, that not even Hadassah, the main Israeli hospital in Jerusalem, recognizes. There is one family — a mother, father and three children — that have this disease, and nobody knows what it is. Hospitals have said it’s the first time they’ve seen this disease and it’s unusual. The children are sick to this day, staying at home with the parents. If you go down to Jerusalem from the Jordan Valley you’ll see Bedouin living next to the side of the roads. The government pressured the Bedouin : they can’t be on the desert on either side of the road, so they’re only able to be next to the road. If you allowed them, if you gave permission, you wouldn’t find one Bedouin next to the road.
link to electronicintifada.net

Palestinians, Israeli forces clash in Abu Dis

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 3 June — Young Palestinian men and Israeli forces clashed in East Jerusalem’s Abu Dis neighborhood on Monday as Israeli Civil Administration officers delivered a demolition order for a building in the village. Dozens of students from the Al-Quds University campus in Abu Dis were among those showered with tear gas canisters fired by the Israeli forces, a local Fatah official Anwar Badr said. A female student fell while running from the tear gas and sustained facial injuries, Badr told Ma‘an. Israeli forces also fired tear gas at a mosque by the campus, affecting worshipers and passersby. The Israeli officers were accompanying Civil Administration officials who posted a demolition order to a building being constructed by Ibrahim Abu Sneina, witnesses said. The Israeli forces closed all streets in the area, preventing students from accessing campus for final exams.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli forces issue demolition order for East Jerusalem home

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 3 June — Israeli forces on Monday issued demolition orders to a property in East Jerusalem, locals said. Jerusalem municipality staff left a demolition order on the property of Hussein al-Kaswani in Beit Hanina. The 300-meter-square house was built 10 years ago and is home to 20 people. Earlier this week, demolition orders were issued for shops belonging to al-Kaswani in Beit Hanina.
According to the UN, 33 percent of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem lack Israeli-issued building permits, potentially placing at least 93,100 residents at risk of displacement.
link to www.maannews.net

IOA approves the confiscation of Palestinian land in Qalqilya

QALQILYA (PIC) 4 June — Israeli Court issued a decision on Tuesday that approves the confiscation of Palestinian land in Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank, for settlement projects. The Israeli decision handed the land to an Israeli construction company for a whole year in order to use it as road to reach the construction site. Harry Zahav Company has stormed agricultural land belonging to the Palestinian citizen Shahrat Abu Sherifa under the pretext of reaching the construction site in high-Zahav neighboring settlement.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

After the flames, only determination remains in Burin and Madamah
[photos] Burin & Madama, Occupied West Bank (ISM) 3 June — On Monday 3rd June, around a dozen settlers from the illegal colony of Yizhar set fire to Palestinian’s fields in the villages of Burin and Madama, destroying at least 50 acres of arable land with olive trees. The settlers were joined by a jeep of border police when 40-50 Palestinians from the village of Burin came out to attempt to put out the fire, with some being stopped from doing so by the border police present. As people from the two villages south of Nablus were hoping for an uneventful workday, the settlers from Yizhar, renowned for being one of the worst for settler violence, set fire to fields in the Khallat al-Injas neighbourhood of Madama. One young person there desribed how, « then I went there quickly with my friends and tried to extinguish it. During that time the settlers went to the eastern area which is between Madama and Burin. They set fire into the hills there. » Before long, the enormous fires spread across the field and towards the olive tree groves of neighbouring Burin. Shortly after, Israeli border police turned up at the scene in Burin’s land, delaying the extinguishing of the fire... [Ma‘an news : about 1,000 almond and olive trees were torched.]
link to palsolidarity.org

Israeli treatment of non-Jewish religions

Kairos Palestine strongly condemns ’price tag’ attack on Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey
PNN — On Tuesday 4th June, Kairos Palestine expressed in a press statement its deep concerns about the ’price tag’ attack on Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey last Friday. Overnight Friday, vandals attacked the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem by spraying graffiti on its walls with anti-Christian slogans saying « Christians are monkeys », « Christians are slaves » and « Havat Maon », referring to a settler outpost in the West Bank. Two days before this attack, Palestinian cars in Jerusalem were ’price tagged’ with graffiti as well.
This assault on a Christian holy site and on Palestinian property is not the first one, Kairos added. In the last months, Muslim and Christian holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territory as well as in Israel faced terror attacks especially from Israeli settlers and their so-called ’price tag’ policy.
link to english.pnn.ps

Church denies Israeli municipality use of its property for lights festival
JERUSALEM, June 4, 2013 (WAFA) – The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem said Tuesday that it will not allow the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem to use church property in the Old City for a lights festival because of Israeli police mistreatment of Christians during their holidays ... Musleh said that at the time [when] Israeli police attack worshipers and religious men during Christian holidays, particularly during the Saturday Holy Fire, close roads in the face of worshipers, deny freedom of worship in Jerusalem for Christians from Gaza and West Bank, Israeli fanatics attack churches, cemeteries and religious people, monks are held for interrogation as was the case with the spiritual leader for Ramallah Elias Awwad who was held and interrogated at Tel Aviv airport, and other measures against the Christian and Muslim holy places, « It would not be sensible that anyone should expect any cooperation to make successful festivities not related to us or Jerusalem, which are also sources of big annoyance to the residents of the holy city through the behavior of the visitors and participants based on extreme nationalist reasons and their attacks on the residents of the city, which mostly go unpunished or without accountability. »
link to english.wafa.ps

IOA bans call for prayers 55 times last month
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 3 June — The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) banned the Adhan or call for prayers at the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil [Hebron] 55 times last month. Tayseer Abu Snene, the director of Awkaf department in Al-Khalil, said on Sunday that the IOA banned the Adhan at the pretext it was disturbing Jewish settlers in the « usurped section of the mosque ». The IOA step is in absolute disregard of Muslim beliefs and holy shrines.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Violence / Raids / Attacks / Suppression of protests / Arrests

Videos : Five years of struggle against the Israeli segregation wall in Ni‘lin
Ni‘lin Village 3 June — This Friday was the anniversary of start of the popular struggle against the annexation wall in Ni‘lin. The village now enters a sixth year of resistance against Israeli colonization. As always the demonstration gathered in the olive groves outside the village after the midday Friday prayer. An empowering speech was given to encourage the people of the village to remind the colonizers of their crimes during the past five years. Hundreds of villagers have been arrested and five have been killed during the past years of resistance against the land grabbing of the Israeli colonization. The speech also condemned the nightly invasions into the village that has become a common occurrence in Ni‘lin. During some periods Israeli soldiers invade the village as much as two or three nights a week. In the last months alone some 25 villagers have been arrested in these nightly raids, turning nighttime in Ni‘lin into a time of great uncertainty. Further the demonstration as a whole condemned the recent settler attack which took place only two weeks ago. A group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Hashmonaim killed more than 2500 trees in the village by setting fire to the dry summer fields in a so called price-tag attack. Another issue addressed by the demonstration was the tunnel being built under the wall by the occupation forces which in the future will serve as the only entrance and exit for Ni‘lin, effectively sealing Ni‘lin at the army’s will. All this is being done meanwhile the nearby settlement of Ni’li keeps on expanding to the north. As the demonstration reached the gate in the annexation wall that has marked the end of so many demonstrations before, the soldiers began to shoot huge amounts of tear gas grenades. They used a launching pad mounted on a truck to fire more than 30 canisters at a time.
link to www.nilin-village.org

Settlers attack residents, hurl stones at cars in East Jerusalem
IMEMC 5 June — Tuesday evening, June 4 2013, a number of extremist Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles in the At-Tour Palestinian town, in occupied East Jerusalem, and attacked local youths who tried to stop them. Israeli Policemen arrived at the scene, and kidnapped three Palestinians. Local sources have reported that the settlers, living in Beit Ort illegal settlement, built on Palestinian lands in At-Tour, gathered at a main road and hurled stones at Palestinian cars causing damage to at least three vehicles. The sources added that several local youths tried to stop the settlers, before Israeli police officers arrived at the scene and kidnapped three of the Palestinian youths instead of apprehending the settlers, or at least removing them from the area.
link to www.imemc.org

IOF soldiers storm al-Khalil villages
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 4 June — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed a number of villages south west of Al-Khalil at dawn Tuesday and broke into and searched many homes. Eyewitnesses told the PIC that IOF soldiers burst into four villages south of Doura town, and searched and ransacked many houses. They said that other IOF units patrolled Marah Al-Baqar hamlet with no arrests reported. The witnesses said that IOF soldiers set up roadblocks near the settlement of Negohot established on Palestinian land south of Al-Khalil and examined IDs of passersby. Another roadblock was set up at the entrance to Beit Uwa village.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Soldiers kidnap four Palestinians in Bethlehem
IMEMC Tuesday June 4 2013, dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded the West Bank district of Bethlehem, and kidnapped four Palestinians from the villages of Husan and Al-Asakra.
On Monday, the army kidnapped at least ten Palestinians in the West Bank districts of Qalqilia, Bethlehem and Hebron.
link to www.imemc.org

Palestinian teen describes being used as a human shield by Israeli forces in Abu Dis
[with video] Mondoweiss 4 June by Dina Elmuti — Yanking him by the collar and shoving him in the neck, the armed Israeli soldiers proudly paraded the handcuffed teen up and down the street, making a public spectacle of him in the occupied West Bank town of Abu Dis. Armed with live ammunition, steal-coated rubber bullets and tear gas, on Friday, April 19, at least 10 Israeli soldiers confronted the crowd of protesters using 17-year-old Muhammad Rabea as a human shield. They forced him to walk at gunpoint with his hands raised in the air as they approached the protesters. Muhammad told Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-Palestine) that he recalls inhaling the caustic smell of the tear gas, hearing the piercing sound of gunfire, and feeling the heat of the shell casings brush past his stomach as the soldier to his left opened fire at the crowd with live ammunition. In October 2005, the Israeli High Court of Justice banned the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. Failing to effectively implement the court’s decision, the soldiers also failed to realize their act was being captured and exposed.
link to mondoweiss.net

Hamas leader detained in Salfit
SALFIT (PIC) 4 June — Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies and human rights denounced the Israeli arrest of Hamas leader Hussam Harb from his hometown of Skaka [or Iskaka] in Salfit district at dawn Tuesday. Fuad Al-Khuffash, the director of Ahrar center, said that Harb, 55, is a liberated prisoner and is a well known figure in Salfit. He said that Harb was only released from Israeli custody ten months ago after serving 30 months in administrative detention, without trial or charge. Khuffash said that Harb was routinely held in Israeli custody for no charge except their claim that he « poses danger on the region ».
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Rights group blasts PA journalist arrest
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 4 June — The arrest Monday of the general manager of a Bethlehem radio station contradicts Palestinian Authority commitments to free speech, a watchdog group said Tuesday. The Ramallah-based Mada organization, which monitors violations of press freedom by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, said George Canawati’s treatment called into question guarantees from public prosecutor Ahmad Barak a month earlier...
The PA released Canawati on bail Tuesday after charging him with inciting sectarianism, defamation, and forgery after he published a statement attributed to Fatah’s armed wing. The al-Aqsa Brigades denied authoring the statement, which threatened the mayor of Bethlehem after police jailed Canawati’s cousin. Canawati also published the denial. Palestinian officials insist the charges are unrelated to Canawati’s work as a journalist.
link to www.maannews.net

PA security arrests 7 Hamas affiliates
WEST BANK, GAZA (PIC) 4 June — The Palestinian Authority security apparatuses arrested 7 members of Hamas, and summoned a university student and a liberated prisoner to their headquarters for interrogation ... Hamas movement said in a report that the PA’s security apparatuses in Ramallah kidnapped last month 68 of its members and leaders in the West Bank ; including 38 liberated prisoners, 11 university students, 2 journalists and a mosque’s preacher. It added that the security services have also summoned 47 Hamas affiliates, and extended the arrest of 10 others, although the courts issued decisions to release them.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli racism

2 Jewish youths charged with racially motivated assault of Arab
Ynet 4 May by Aviel Magnezi — Group of six Jews attacks Arab youth in Jerusalem, cause him injuries to all body parts : ’Get out of our neighborhood, Arab bastard’ — A minor and an 18-year-old were charged Tuesday with perpetrating a racially motivated attack against an Arab youth in Jerusalem’s Old City last week along with four of their friends who remain at large.The incident at the Jewish Quarter of the Old City began when an assailant whose identity remains unknown to police started to curse the Arab youth, and then grabbed the Arab by his shirt and pushed him...
link to www.ynetnews.com

Arab taxi driver attacked by Jewish teens
Ynet 3 June by Aviel Magnezi — Naim Aline, 61, a Jerusalem taxi driver, was attacked Monday by two Jewish teens. According to police investigation, Aline stopped for the two passengers with his taxi and they asked to be taken to central Jerusalem. During the drive, they told him to go into a side street, where they allegedly put a knife to his neck. When trying to fight the attackers, Aline was cut on his hand. The suspects then escaped and the taxi driver sought medical treatment at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Police launched an investigation of the case, and are looking into the possibility that the crime was nationalistically motivated. « They got in the cab at 3 am, » Aline said after leaving the hospital. "They seemed completely normal — asked to go to Pisgat Zeev, but that we first pick up a friend in Gilo (Jerusalem neighborhoods). We agreed on a price and drove...
link to www.ynetnews.com

Israel reaches deal to deport immigrants
Ynet 2 June by Aviel Magnezi — In High Court debate over jailing of immigrants without trial, State says three countries to accept immigrants ; 2,100 North Sudanese already deported
link to www.ynetnews.com

Gaza blockade

IOF shooting starts huge fire in southern Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS (PIC) 4 June — Huge fires gutted through Palestinian farms to the east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday evening after Israeli soldiers fired at them. A field observer told Quds Press that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) positioned east of Khan Younis opened heavy gunfire at Palestinian cultivated land in the Farahin area. He said that a huge fire resulted, adding that Israeli F16s were flying over the area at time of the shooting.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli forces release Palestinian from Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 4 June – Israeli forces released a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday a month after he was detained near the border while traveling to Jerusalem. Zuheir Maarouf’s son Yousef told Ma‘an that Israeli troops seized his father at the Beit Hanoun border area while he was travelling with his mother to Jerusalem for medical treatment.
link to www.maannews.net

Jordan Islamist delegation enters Gaza via tunnels
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma‘an) 5 June — A delegation of Jordanian politicians entered the Gaza Strip this week via smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border, Egyptian security officials said Wednesday. Members from Jordan’s Islamist Freedom and Justice party spent two days in Gaza, and reportedly met with Hamas officials. A senior Egyptian security official told Ma’an that the delegation would have been allowed to travel to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, but instead chose to enter via smuggling tunnels in order to keep the visit a secret from the Jordanian government.
link to www.maannews.net

OIC calls for extending urgent relief assistance to refugees fleeing Syria
GAZA (PIC) 3 June — The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called for extending badly needed relief material to Palestinian families who fled Syria and sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. It said in a report on the conditions in Gaza that the Palestinian refugees, who fled the Syrian inferno, were in urgent need of mobile homes and other relief assistance. The report by the OIC humanitarian affairs department said that around 235,000 Palestinian refugees had left Syria and that more than 200 families had landed in Gaza.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Five church schools in Gaza face closure after Hamas order
CatholicHerald 4 June by Judith Sudilovsky — Five schools in Gaza – two Catholic and three Christian [??] — face closure if the Hamas government follows through on an order forbidding co-educational institutions, according to the director general of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine and Israel. Fr Faysal Hijazin said : « This will be a big problem. We hope they will not go through with it, but if they do, we will be in big trouble. We don’t have the space and we don’t have the money to divide our schools. » In addition to finding additional space, he said, the schools face having to hire more teachers. Men and women teachers would not be allowed to teach classes of the opposite sex older than 10 under Islamic law. « We will never accept this even if we have to close the schools, » Fr Hijazin said. He said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem hoped to speak with Gaza’s prime minister, Ismail Haniya, to discuss the Church’s concerns.
link to www.catholicherald.co.uk

Mohammad Assaf to perform in West Bank
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 4 June — Mohammad Assaf, the Palestinian star of Arab Idol, will perform in the West Bank, concert organizers revealed Tuesday. Assaf, a singer from Gaza and a favorite to win the televised singing contest, will perform in Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah, Design Solutions said in a statement. Rami Shabaneh, head of Public Relations at Design Solutions, said the company was excited to organize the concerts because of Assaf’s huge fan base in Palestine. Shabaneh said Assaf had united Palestinians with his voice, and had symbolically broken the siege on Gaza.
link to www.maannews.netViewDetails.aspx?ID=601887

Gaza youth flee harsh life to Israel
Al-Monitor 4 June by Abeer Ayyoub — Mohammad Abu Huzayen dropped out of elementary school to look for a job to support his nine-member family. Frustrated with the lack of opportunities, the 17-year-old from Al-Nusayrat refugee camp in central Gaza turned to an unexpected option : escaping to Israel. Along with three friends of roughly the same age, Abu Huzayen planned to take the risk of sneaking into Israel in February. The motivation of the four friends was to seek a modest life after losing hope finding it in their besieged enclave. The teens were sure they would either be able to sneak in or get arrested ; both options were welcome to them. « We wanted anything outside Gaza, even if it was jail. It’s not even a life here, » Abu Huzayen told Al-Monitor. The teens started the journey by crossing the eastern Gaza border in an early morning in February Abu Huzayen cannot precisely recall. They walked for more than a kilometer into Israel, thinking that they had successfully made it across, before being spotted by Israeli troops, who hastily detained them ... The four friends were kept for two days at the Israeli prison in Beersheba before they were transferred to Ofer prison, to the west of Ramallah. They spent three months there before being released less than a month ago, according to Abu Huzayen ... Sneaking into Israel to find work is common for Gaza’s residents who live near the eastern border. It’s rarely heard about in other areas of the besieged coastal enclave, but people of this area speak of young men sneaking regularly into Israel
link to www.al-monitor.com

Radio : 15 tons of wheelchairs to arrive in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 June — A shipment of 15 tons of wheelchairs and canes are set to be delivered to the Gaza Strip via Alexandria, a local radio station said Monday. Fursan al-Erada radio, based in Deir al-Balah, reported that the final procedures were taking place at the Egyptian port. It said the goods would be released by the end of the week.
link to www.maannews.net

Ali Abunimah’s blog : In Gaza, I found Hebrew everywhere
4 June — ...Hebrew is everywhere you look in Gaza — With Gaza’s forced dependency on goods imported from Israel (except for those that come through tunnels), Israeli goods — labeled in Hebrew — are ubiquitous. I also saw some Hebrew graffiti left by occupation forces on Israeli-built fortifications near the Rafah crossing — but I was not quick enough with the camera to get pictures. During my visit no one commented specifically on the presence of Hebrew (as opposed to Israeli goods which were a topic of discussion). Is it simply a fact of life under Israeli occupation and siege that people living in Gaza don’t notice any more ? II found it fascinating, and these photos show some of the many places where Hebrew appears in Gaza — just about everywhere you look.
link to electronicintifada.net

Detainees

UFree report on kidnapped prisoner Dirar Abu Sisi
PNN 3 June — Israeli violations of International law reached beyond borders. The state of Israel expanded its hostile activities to reach many countries like UAE when it assassinated Mahmud Al-Mabhooh and now in Ukraine when it kidnapped a Palestinian citizen living in the country, UFree Network to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners said in a press statement. General Director of the sole power plant in the Gaza strip, Dirar Abu Sisi, was kidnapped in Ukraine, and then forcibly deported. The journey of kidnapping included humiliation, torture and many violations of International law. It has been 2 years since he was kidnapped, yet no human rights or legal framework has campaigned for Abu Sisi. According to various investigative reports obtained by UFree Network, Intelligence security services carried out the kidnapping process in flagrant violation to the international human rights norms and conventions. UFree Network reveals details of the kidnapping process of Abu Sisi. This report cites to testimonies issued by Abu Sisi’s family and liberated prisoners who met him in addition to Israeli and Ukrainian newspapers. LINK TO THE REPORT
link to english.pnn.ps

Israel allows Gaza residents to visit jailed relatives
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 June — Over 100 Gaza residents visited their relatives detained in Israel’s Nafha prison on Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. ICRC spokesman Nasser al-Najjar told Ma‘an that 98 adults and 19 children visited 48 prisoners in Nafha jail. It was the largest group from Gaza allowed to visit prisoners since Israel resumed family visits in July 2012 after a five-year ban ... Prison visits were reinstated after a mass hunger strike in Israeli jails. Under international law, detainees are entitled to receive family visits.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli court postpones the trial of two female prisoners
PNN 30 May — Ahrar center for Prisoners studies and human rights confirmed in a statement that an Israeli court has postponed the trial of prisoners Nawal Al-Sa‘di and Muna Qa‘dan from Jenin city. Nawal Al-Sa‘di, 53, was arrested on 4/11/2011 and Muna Qa‘dan, 40, was arrested on 13/11/2012 and both are held at Hasharon prison without charges.
link to english.pnn.ps

Bsharat’s family : We entered the medicine because our brother’s health deteriorates
PNN — The family of prisoner Khader Bsharat, 30, from Tammon town and sentenced to twenty years, stressed to Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights that the occupation forces arrested Fahmi Bsharat, 46 and Safieh Bsharat, 43 because they tried to enter the medicine in which Khader needs because the Israeli prison authorities refuses to give it to him. Fahmi and Safieh were transferred to the investigation and may have to pay a fine because they violated the Occupation prisons’ law. Director of Ahrar Center, Fuad Al-Khuffash, said that prisoner Khader Bsharat was arrested on 1/6/2002, is suffering from psoriasis and the Israeli prison authority refuses to give him the treatment
link to english.pnn.ps

Political, other news

Hamdallah : New cabinet to be announced Thursday
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 4 June — Newly appointed Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah plans to announce a new 24-member Palestinian Authority cabinet on Thursday, he said Tuesday. « I thank President Mahmoud Abbas for trusting me for this task especially in light of the dire political and economic conditions the Palestinian people are suffering, » Hamdallah said as he signed a cooperation agreement with the Palestinian Judicial Council. He said his new government would serve until Aug. 14, when a unity government is due to be created according to an agreement between Fatah and Hamas.
link to www.maannews.net

Civil servants suspend protests to give new govt a chance
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 3 June — Civil servants in the West Bank will suspend all protests against the Palestinian Authority to give time to the newly appointed prime minister Rami Hamdallah, their union said Monday. The council of the government employees union convened Monday and welcomed the appointment of Rami Hamdallah, who replaces Salam Fayyad. Union chief Bassam Zakarna said the council decided to suspend protests to give Hamdallah’s government an opportunity to organize itself. The council will work side-by-side with the government as long as employees’ rights are respected, Zakarna said in a statement, urging the new premier to be a « cooperative and transparent partner. »
link to www.maannews.net

Nablus demonstrators protest high cost of living
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) updated 2 June — Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets in Nablus on Saturday to protest the high cost of living and demand the cancellation of the Paris Protocol signed in 1994. Protesters called on the Palestinian Authority to reduce the cost of essential commodities, urging PA officials to raise salaries and not the price of basic goods. Earlier this week, protesters marched against high prices and unemployment in Duheisha refugee camp, Bethlehem, calling on the PA to lower prices so people can meet their everyday needs. The PA announced last week that it would raise VAT by 1 percent starting in June. Head of taxes and VAT Ahmad Al-Hilo told Ma‘an that the raise will lead to an increase of 1 percent in overall prices. The rise puts the overall tax rate on goods at 16 percent.
link to www.maannews.net

Fatah, Hamas leaders hold unity talks in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 4 June — Hamas and Fatah leaders met in Gaza City on Tuesday to discuss national reconciliation. Fatah central committee member Nabil Shaath and Fatah MP Faisal Abu Shahla joined Hamas’ Imad Alami and Ghazi Hamada to discuss obstacles to implementing national reconciliation. Fatah reiterated the importance of « building bridges » between the rival factions and raised the recent arrests of Fatah affiliates in Gaza, Abu Shahla told Ma‘an. Hamas has repeated complained that its members are still being arrested in the West Bank by forces from the Fatah-led PA.
link to www.maannews.net

Palestinians to pursue Israel at UN if talks fail
Ramallah, West Bank (AP) 4 June by Mohammed Daraghmeh — With no signs of progress in U.S attempts to restart peace talks with Israel, the chief Palestinian negotiator said Tuesday that the West Bank government is ready to resume its campaign to join U.N. and other international bodies in order to prosecute Israel. The remarks by Saeb Erekat came ahead of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to the region next week for consultations. The trip will be the fifth to the area since Kerry took office early this year and promised to launch a fresh effort to restart negotiations.
link to www.sunherald.com

’Symphony for Palestine’ finally opens in Palestine
[with VIDEO] Mondoweiss 4 June by Annie Robbins — Dresden Symphony Orchestra, otherwise know as Dresdner Sinfoniker , accomplished its long cherished goal of performing « Symphony for Palestine » in Palestine after years of effort. The three night tour was capped off last night at Cinema Jenin in Jenin, home of the late Juliano Mer-Khamis’s Freedom Threatre. The symphony, by Iranian composer Kayhan Kalhor, is dedicated to Mer-Khamis along with Ahmed Khatib also from Jenin, two people whose lives were brutally cut short but whose contributions to the living are immeasurable. « Symphony for Palestine » is an eclectic collaborative effort between Dresdner Sinfoniker, one of the leading symphonies for contemporary music, and Palestinian and Azerbaijani soloists. Dresdner Sinfoniker is famous for multi-cultural multi-genre music mixing classical, jazz, rock, and pop. This symphony was composed especially for Palestine and combines Arabic folk music with traditional Persian melodies accompanied by traditional Oriental instruments as well as a European string orchestra.
link to mondoweiss.net

Hizb al-Tahrir members rally in Ramallah
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 4 June — Hundreds of Hizb al-Tahrir supporters rallied in Ramallah on Tuesday to mark the 92nd anniversary of the fall of the Islamic Caliphate. The demonstrators held signs calling for the return of the Islamic state, and declaring their solidarity with the « revolution of Damascus. » A spokesman for the pacifist Islamist group called on Muslims to undertake « serious work » to establish an Islamic caliphate.
link to www.maannews.net

Analysis / Opinion

The wandering Europeans / Sam Bahour
Le Monde diplomatique 4 June — Next to U.S. support for Israel, the main reason why the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip continues is that the Europeans have reduced themselves to a subservient role in the Middle East Peace Process : one in which they underwrite the cost of Israel’s occupation by artificially propping up the Palestinian Authority, which created from the Oslo Peace Accords but has no sovereign authority whatever. Coming on the heels of a recently published open letter on the Middle East peace process from ’the European Eminent Persons Group’, a new report from the European Council on Foreign Relations, Europe and the Vanishing Two-State Solution, spills the beans, and they’re all Europeans beans. The author is not your average run-of-the-mill report writer, he is Nick Witney, who previously worked for the European Defence Agency where he was first chief executive ... After reading this new report, I was moved to write this opinion piece and call it « The wandering Europeans » ... This piece concerns a European Union of 27 states, comprising of a population of over 500 million (7.3% of the world population), which entered the Middle East peace process in the back seat of an American-driven U.S. car ; it paid the ride’s expenses but refused to take the wheel, acknowledging that the driver was drunk and swaying near the cliff.
link to mondediplo.com

Why John Kerry is wasting eveyone’s time / Shereen Eldaly
Mondoweiss 4 June — It’s back ladies and gentlemen. The latest installment in the Israeli-Palestinian peace- process-charades is upon us once again. US Secretary of State John Kerry was back in the Middle East last month trying to re-start talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis for the fourth time since being sworn-in in early 2013. While most of the world is yawning in boredom at this latest attempt to bring both parties to the negotiation table, Kerry and the Obama administration are stubbornly insisting that talks resume as soon as possible. What they fail to realize however, is that we are further away from a peace deal than we have ever been, and if peace were to happen, it will not come from the Americans. Here is why.
link to mondoweiss.net

Palestinians not counting on Kerry’s $4 billion / Akiva Eldar
Al-Monitor 3 June — By the end of this week, the first in June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) are supposed to present US Secretary of State John Kerry with their positions regarding the renewal of negotiations based on the Arab Peace Initiative. Al-Monitor has learned that the Palestinian leadership decided after internal deliberations to tell Kerry that it would not give up its demand to launch negotiations based on the 1967 borders at any price. At most, Abbas will agree to one meeting with Netanyahu, on the condition that the prime minister commits to presenting his map for permanent borders at that meeting. Only then, they assume, will it finally become clear what Netanyahu means when he says « two states for two people. » So here’s a bit of friendly advice : Don’t hold your breath. After all, this week marks 46 years of occupation. What’s the rush ?
The Palestinian leadership’s decision to insist on the 1967 borders as a precondition for renewed negotiations came the day after the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting ended in Jordan on May 27 ... It was exciting and moving to see Zionist religious Israelis, with their knit skullcaps, sitting in the conference hall side by side with Arabs in white kaftans. I wanted to write that I felt like a tenant in the home shared by the wolf and the lamb, but then I remembered another joke : In the Middle East, they bring the wolf a new lamb every day. This is exactly like Kerry’s « economic peace. »
link to www.al-monitor.com

Hamas Islamization policies mold Gaza / Akram Atallah
Al-Monitor 3 June (translated from Al-Ayyam 26 May) — ...the success of the Palestinian contestant in reaching the final round has raised the matter of Palestinians’ interaction with their native son [Mohammad Assaf] into an issue relevant to national identity, in all its innocence and purity. Palestinians dream of upholding the name « Palestine » forever ; they feel pride when their homeland’s name is uttered on this, the most famous of pan-Arab television shows, watched by millions throughout the Arab world. For this reason, the idea of attacking Assaf is simply out of the question ; indeed, the streets of Gaza are empty whenever the program airs. The strange thing is that in some of the mosques [the imams’] sermons have focused on inciting people to bring down Assaf « as a religious necessity. » As though the success of this up and coming young man would somehow delay the liberation of Palestine. Indeed, there are some reasonable men who have accurately read the movement of the street and hastened to save the faith by distancing it from this question. [They recognize that] the people have simply chosen to follow and support their « beloved » native son. This puts religion in the uncomfortable position of moving against the tide of public opinion and sentiment. But the issue is not confined to such superficial matters alone. The question of this rising star is a cultural venture that stands in opposition to Hamas’ project of striving by all available means to « mold » Gaza — that is, to mold it in Hamas’ image.
link to www.al-monitor.com

New Report : Acting the Landlord : Israel’s policy in Area C, the West Bank
B’Tselem 4 June — Some 60 percent of West Bank lands have been classified as ’Area C’ and are under full and exclusive Israeli control. Area C is home to an estimated 180,000 Palestinians and includes the major residential and development land reserves for the entire West Bank. Israel prohibits Palestinian construction and development on some 70 percent of Area C territory, arguing various rationales, such as being ’state lands’ or ’firing zones’. Israel’s planning and construction policy virtually ignores the needs of the local population : it refuses to recognize most of the villages in the area or draw up plans for them, prevents the expansion and development of Palestinian communities, demolishes homes and does not allow the communities to hook up to infrastructure. Thousands of inhabitants live under the constant threat of expulsion for living in alleged firing zones or ’illegal’ communities. In addition, Israel has taken over most of the water sources in Area C and has restricted Palestinian access to them. In theory, Israel retains full control in the West Bank only of Area C. In practice, Israel’s control of Area C adversely affects all Palestinian West Bank residents.
link to www.btselem.org

On anniversary of Arab-Israeli war, a Palestinian plea / Isabel Kershner
LATRUN, West Bank (NY Times) 4 June — On the second night of the war in June 1967, Israeli forces captured the fort at Latrun, a West Bank enclave that protrudes like a half-blown bubble into Israeli territory. Israel had tried to take in 1948 — and failed. Control of Latrun was considered essential because of its commanding position over the narrow Tel Aviv-Jerusalem corridor. Israel swiftly evicted the Palestinian residents of three villages in the area, reducing the houses to rubble. It was here on the wooded slopes of Latrun on Tuesday that Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, chose to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1967 war and to call for an end of Israeli occupation. « I am sure many of you are asking why is Saeb Erekat bringing you to this point, » Mr. Erekat said to a group of diplomats and reporters as he stood against a backdrop of green fields, a reservoir and an Israeli settlement of red-roofed houses in the valley below. « It is not because I want to demarcate the maps or finalize the negotiations, » he said, referring to the intensive efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry to get the Israelis and Palestinians to return to peace talks."I just want to stand here and say, ’It is 46 years later.’ " If nothing else, Mr. Erekat’s selection of Latrun spoke to the great distance between Palestinians and Israelis. Many Israelis consider Latrun to be an integral part of Israel ... « The fact that they are raising the issue of Latrun is not a good sign » said a senior Israeli official, insisting on anonymity because of the American diplomatic efforts to restart talks. The official said he was unable to imagine any peace agreement that did not place Latrun under Israeli sovereignty.
link to www.nytimes.com
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