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Violence / Detention — West Bank, Jerusalem

Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian near Nablus

IMEMC/Agencies 17 Jan — Israeli soldiers shot dead, on Sunday afternoon, a young Palestinian man, allegedly after attempting to stab a soldier, at the Huwwara military roadblock, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinian medical sources said the young man has been identified as Wisam Marwan Qasrawi, 21, from Msalya village, southeast of the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The Israeli military reported no injuries among the soldiers, pushed dozens of additional troops into the area, and closed the roadblock. His father refuted the Israeli claims of an "attempting stabbing attack", and said Wisam headed to his work at the brick factory, where he has been working for several years, and accused the military of executing him. He added that his slain son was helping the family provide livelihood for his five brothers, including children. Qasrawi is the 159th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli fire since October 1, 2015.

http://www.imemc.org/article/74617

Palestinian shot, injured after allegedly stabbing Israeli woman

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Jan — A Palestinian was shot and injured on Monday in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, following an alleged stabbing attack which left one Israeli in serious condition, an Israeli army spokesperson told Ma‘an. An Israeli army spokesperson said a "terrorist" broke into a building in the illegal Israeli settlement of Tekoa and stabbed a 30-year-old Israeli woman, before being shot and injured by "security personnel" on the scene. Both of the injured have been evacuated to the hospital. Initial reports indicated that the attacker was shot and killed, but Israeli army and medics have now reported that the attacker was shot and seriously wounded. A spokesperson with Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, said the Israeli who was stabbed and injured is a pregnant woman in "moderate to severe" condition. The Palestinian shot and injured has yet to be identified.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769856

Several Palestinians injured near Nablus
IMEMC/Agencies 18 Jan — Israeli soldiers shot and injured, Sunday, a Palestinian child, while many residents suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, after several Israeli military vehicles invaded Beit Forik town, east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Monadel Halabi, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Struggle Front, said the soldiers invaded al-Qa’da area, east of Beit Forik, and clashed with dozens of local youths, who hurled stones at the invading military jeeps. The army fired several live rounds, wounding one child, identified as Ali Najeh Hanani, 16, in the leg, before he was moved to the Rafidia Hospital, in Nablus, while medics provided the needed treatment to many residents who suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
http://www.imemc.org/article/74627

Palestinian shot in head during raid by Israeli forces
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 Jan — Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian in the head after raiding the occupied West Bank town of al-Khader in southern Bethlehem late Friday, locals said. Locals told Ma‘an that clashes broke out between residents and military forces during the raid. Abdullah Salah, 28, was injured by a live bullet in the head and was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem for treatment. Salah was reportedly in stable condition.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769829

Israeli soldiers fire gas bombs at Palestinian soccer players during training
IMEMC/Agencies 17 Jan — Several Palestinian soccer players of the al-Khader team, in the al-Khader town, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, suffered severe effects of tear gas inhalation, on Saturday evening, after Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs on them during training. Athletics supervisor in the al-Khader Club Hussein Abdullah said the soldiers fired many gas bombs while the players were training, causing many of them to suffocate. He added that the players had to stop their training due to the Israeli attack. It is worth mentioning that the al-Khader soccer field has been subject to frequent Israeli military assaults, including attacks with gas bombs.
http://www.imemc.org/article/74613

House raids and arrests : Queitun area violentsly invaded by Israeli forces
HEBRON, Occupied Palestine 17 Jan by ISM, Al-Khalil Team — Yesterday, 16th of January 2016, the area of Queitun in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank was invaded by more than 50 Israeli forces and more than six military jeeps and two police cars. The Israeli Forces raided multiple houses in the area from 4 pm until 7 pm and arrested at least seven Palestinians from the area before finally leaving the families alone. According to witnesses, the Israeli forces entered the area explaining that they heard shooting coming from an unidentified Palestinian home close to the Queitun Checkpoint that leads into the area. However, Palestinians in the neighborhood did not hear any such noises throughout the day. After the Israeli Forces entered the checkpoint, they raided multiple family homes nearby. In some homes, the soldiers damaged the residents’ belongings and left the homes wrecked. They also beat some residents without any reason. A young man from one of these homes needed medical treatment in the hospital after soldiers violently attacked him. During the three hours that the Israeli Forces spend terrorizing the area and harassing the residents, they arrested at least 7 Palestinians. Three of the arrestees were taken around 4 pm and were all from the Karaki family. They were released after less than three hours. At the same time 40 soldiers entered the Abu Ramooz family home in Queitun to search before going to the neighbor’s house to arrest Hammad Said, 19. During that time, the 8-year-old sister of Hamad was struck in the head by a soldier after asking the Israeli Forces why they were attacking her brother and taking him away. . . .
http://palsolidarity.org/2016/01/house-raids-and-arrests-queitun-area-violently-invaded-by-israeli-forces/

Palestinian stabs, kills Israeli settler near Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 17 Jan — An Israeli woman was stabbed and killed in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron on Sunday, an Israeli army spokesperson said. An Israeli army spokesperson said a "terrorist" broke into the home of a woman in the illegal Israeli settlement of Otni’el, south of Hebron city, and stabbed her, before fleeing the scene. Before the woman succumbed to her wounds, a spokesperson from Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical service, said an Israeli woman was being treated in "severe condition." Israeli forces told residents of Otniel to remain in their homes, as large numbers of soldiers and police officers begin to search for the suspect, Hebrew media reported. The victim of the attack has yet to be identified.[Dafna Meir, 39].
Hours before the incident, Israeli border guard officers stationed at a checkpoint at the western entrance to the illegal Kiryat Arbaa settlement in Hebron detained a teenage Palestinian woman after they reportedly found a knife in her bag. Local sources in Hebron identified the girl as 18-year-old Nivin Muhsin al-Jaabari.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769850

Yes, Israel is executing Palestinians without trial / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 17 Jan — We should call it like it is : Israel executes people without trial nearly every day. Any other description is a lie. If there was once discussion here about the death penalty for terrorists, now they are executed even without trial (and without discussion). If once there was debate over the rules of engagement, today it’s clear : we shoot to kill – any suspicious Palestinian. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan outlined the situation clearly when he said, “Every terrorist should know he will not survive the attack he is about to commit” – and almost every politician joined him in nauseating unison, from Yair Lapid on up. Never have so many licenses to kill been handed out here, nor has the finger been so itchy on the trigger. In 2016, one doesn’t have to be Adolf Eichmann to be executed here – it’s enough to be a teenage Palestinian girl with scissors. The firing squads are active every day. Soldiers, police and civilians shoot those who stabbed Israelis, or tried to stab them or were suspected of doing so, and at those who run down Israelis in their cars or appear to have done so. In most cases, there was no need to shoot – and certainly not to kill. In a good many of the cases, the shooters’ lives were not in danger. They shot people to death who were holding a knife or even scissors, or people who just put their hands in their pockets or lost control of their car. They shot them to death indiscriminately – women, men, teenage girls, teenage boys. They shot them when they were standing, and even after they were no longer a threat. They shot to kill, to punish, to release their anger, and to take revenge. There is such contempt here that these incidents are barely covered in the media. Last Saturday, soldiers at the Beka’ot checkpoint (called Hamra by the Palestinians) in the Jordan Valley killed businessman Said Abu al-Wafa, 35, a father of four, with 11 bullets. At the same time, they also killed Ali Abu Maryam, a 21-year-old farm laborer and student, with three bullets. The Israel Defense Forces did not explain the killing of the two men, except to say there was a suspicion that someone had drawn a knife. There are security cameras at the site, but the IDF has not released video footage of the incident . . . .
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.697788

Child survivor of West Bank arson murders doesn’t know his family was killed
Haaretz 16 Jan — Ahmad Dawabsheh, the four-year-old survivor of the West Bank arson attack that killed his parents and baby brother, does not know that his family is dead. Dawabsheh’s 51-year-old grandfather told NBC News that specialists at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer [decided ?] not to tell Ahmad about the July 2014 attack at his home in Duma. "Ahmad is a very smart boy and the hardest moment for me is when he asks me about his parents. How can I answer him ? Where do I start ?" Hussein Dawabsheh told NBC News, adding that he plans to tell Ahmed the truth this week. Dawabsheh is expected to be released from the hospital in three months, when he has a standing invitation to visit Real Madrid and meet star player Cristiano Ronaldo. Israeli prosecutors filed murder charges against two Jewish citizens for the arson attack earlier this month. Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old from Jerusalem, was charged with three counts of murder, as well as attempted murder for the unsuccessful attempt to set alight another house.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.697748

The accuser from Hebron, the accused from Duma
Haaretz 17 Jan by Amira Hass — A notorious Hebron settler has filed a complaint against the elder of the Dawabsheh family, who lost a son, daughter-in-law and grandson to an arson fire allegedly set by settler terrorists — Noam Federman, one of the dignitaries of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, filed a complaint with the police last week against Mohammed Dawabsheh, father of Sa’ad, who was burned to death in the July firebombing of his family’s house in the West Bank village of Duma that also killed Sa’ad’s wife Reham and 18-month-old son Ali. The complaint was based on an interview that Assaf Gibor, a reporter with the Makor Rishon weekly and the nrg news website had with the grieving Mohammed Dawabsheh. Federman posted the following description of his complaint on Facebook : “I filed a complaint with the Hebron police against Mohammed Dawabsheh, the father and grandfather of … from the village of Duma, for incitement and sedition to harm Jews.” (The names of the dead from the Dawbasheh family were deleted in the original.) Federman goes on to state : “Dawabsheh, who gave an interview to Makor Rishon and nrg reporter Assaf Gibor, said among other things : ‘I tell the youth get stronger in your faith and get closer to Allah, and then go for Jihad against the Jews.’ . . . So much for Federman. Now to Gibor’s report, which appeared on January 3 on the nrg website under the headline, “Mohammed Dawabsheh : ‘Only the intifada will avenge the blood of those murdered.’” . . . The Internet video is just 52 seconds long. The recording begins with comments by the grandfather in Arabic, expressed with some effort : “Inshallah, the intifada will avenge them,” followed by a brief pause. “The Dawabsheh family and Al-Aqsa. After all, Al-Aqsa is holy, holy, holy to the Dawabsheh family. You see, that is to say, as the Dawabsheh family is.” The translation into Hebrew on the video insert, however, is different : “Inshallah that the intifada will avenge the blood of the members of the Dawabsheh family and Al-Aqsa. Al-Aqsa was sacred to the family and now the shahids [martyrs] of the members of the family are holy like the Al-Aqsa mosque.” . . . .
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.698014

Death and humiliation : a tale of a Palestinian village
Sa‘ir, Occupied West Bank (Al Jazeera) 17 Jan by Matthew Vickery — The gathered men scramble to find their phones as news reached Sa‘ir village that yet another young man from the small rural community has just been killed. With no name known yet, frantic phone calls are made all along the main street. Villagers pace the road, walking under freshly printed plastic banners showing the faces of the village’s youth - young men recently shot down by the now ever-present Israeli army that encircles the village and the surrounding area. "This reminds me of before," Mohammed Kawazba says worriedly as the scene evolves around him. "Maybe this time it could be my brother or one of my other cousins killed. This is becoming so normal now ; it’s happening all the time." A name eventually comes through. It’s a cousin of Kawazba. There is sadness and anger in the air, but not surprise. It’s Kawazba’s fourth cousin killed by the Israeli army in a week, all involved in alleged stabbing attacks on Israeli soldiers at the nearby Beit Einun junction. A stinging déjà vu hangs in the air. Sa‘ir’s graveyard continues to fill now, as new bodies are laid down next to grey gravestones imprinted with the names of villagers killed during previous uprisings. The village of 20,000, nestled in a valley in the Hebron Hills, has seen 12 of its sons killed in the recent escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/death-humiliation-tale-palestinian-village-160114060814807.html

Bethlehem committee demands return of bodies of killed Palestinians
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 Jan — A local committee was elected near Bethlehem on Saturday by families of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces to advocate for the return of bodies withheld by Israel. The meeting, held in the village of al-Duha near Bethlehem, was entitled “We want our sons.” The head of the Palestinian National Committee for Retrieving Bodies of Martyrs, Issam al-Arouri, and prominent lawyer Suleiman Shahin attended the meeting. Shahin said he had obtained a written pledge from an Israeli court to return the bodies of 119 Palestinians, including residents of Bethlehem, who have been kept by Israel for lengthy periods of time. Member of the committee, Ahmad Dabash, whose brother’s body has been held by Israel for 14 years, said : “Our demand to return the bodies of the martyrs to their families is humane, and activities will continue until our demand is achieved.” The committee agreed upon a number of activities, including a permanent protest tent and issuing posters of the killed Palestinians to re-awaken the popular drive to demand that the bodies be returned to their families and buried according to their religious rites. Israel in October decided to hold the bodies of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israeli military and civilians. Several have since been returned, and handovers of the bodies of Palestinians killed this month have been near-immediate. Although the issue of withheld bodies has come back into the spotlight since the beginning of a wave of unrest in the West Bank, around 262 Palestinian bodies were believed to be held by Israel prior to October. Israel has long had “cemeteries for the enemy dead,” also referred to as “cemeteries of numbers,” where Palestinians who died during attacks on Israelis are held in nameless graves marked by numbers.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769836

Israeli settlement security guards detain Palestinian shepherd
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 17 Jan — Israeli civilian security guards from the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem detained a Palestinian shepherd on Sunday morning, locals said. Local sources said the shepherd was identified as Salim Ahmad Ziyada, 20, from the southern Bethlehem village of Wadi Rahhal. He was leading a herd of sheep near the settlement’s fence on a hilly area on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Artas with his cousin when he was detained, relatives told Ma‘an. Ziyada’s cousin, identified as Dirar, 18, said that two Efrat security guards arrived in a vehicle, handcuffed Ziyada and took him to an unknown location.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769847

Israeli forces detain 8 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 17 Jan — Israeli force detained seven Palestinians across the occupied West Bank overnight Saturday, local sources told Ma‘an. In Bethlehem’s Duheisha refugee camp, Israeli forces detained the wife of Palestinian prisoner Ahmad al-Mughrabi, local sources said. Israeli forces reportedly detained the woman after ransacking her house during raids in the camp. An Israeli army spokesperson said that a "Hamas operative" had been detained in Duheisha, but did not identify the detainee in question. Israeli forces also summoned a number of residents — including recently released prisoners Adnan al-Afandi, Nidal Abu Aker, and Ghassan Zawahra — to meet with Israeli intelligence for questioning. Locals said clashes broke out as Israeli forces initially entered the camp to begin the raids, with Israeli forces shooting tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at residents in the camp, who responded by hurling stones and empty bottles at Israeli forces. Israeli forces ransacked several houses during the overnight operation.
In the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, Israeli forces detained at least seven Palestinians during overnight raids. Local sources told Ma‘an that Israeli forces raided several houses in the Talat Abu Hadid neighborhood of southern Hebron City and detained four people in the area after shots were fired near the Ibrahimi Mosque. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an on Saturday that shots had been heard in the area, but that no injuries were reported.
In Sa‘ir village, northeast of Hebron city, locals said Israeli forces detained two Palestinians during raids in the village. One of the detainees was identified as Muhammad Asad al-Froukh,17, who was shot and injured in the back by Israeli forces two months previously. The other detainee was identified as Bilal Idrees Jaradat.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769840

Israeli forces detain 27 Palestinians across the West Bank
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Jan — Israeli forces overnight Sunday detained 27 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank during night raids, locals sources told Ma‘an. The bulk of the detentions took place in Silwad, a small village northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank, where Israeli forces detained 13 Palestinians during night raids, locals said. An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the 13 detentions, but could only provide details on two of the detainees who were taken in for being alleged "Hamas operatives." Another two Palestinians were detained in the Ramallah district in the villages of Kharbatha al-Musbah and Beit Surik. In the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, another six Palestinians were detained. In addition, Israeli forces detained one man from Marah Rabah village in Bethlehem, two more in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarem, two in Qalqilya and another in Nablus.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769852

Gaza

Israeli naval forces open fire on Gazan fishing boats
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 Jan— Israeli navy vessels opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. Witnesses told Ma‘an the fishing boats were six nautical miles off the coast when Israeli boats opened fire, forcing them to return back to shore. No injuries were reported . . . A similar incident was reported on Friday off the northern coast of the Gaza Strip. As part of Israel’s blockade of the coastal enclave, Gazan fishermen are required to work within a limited "designated fishing zone" of six nautical miles off the coast, but the Palestinian Center for Human Rights says that Israeli naval forces often shoot at fishermen within these limits. Due to the high frequency of the attacks, live fire on fishing boats often goes unreported.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769832

IOF opens fire at farmers east of Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 17 Jan — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Sunday morning opened machinegun fire at Palestinian farmers working on their plots of land east of Khan Younis, [in the] south of the Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses said that Israeli border soldiers opened fire from watchtowers and military jeeps at farmers near Sharab al-Asal Gate, east of Khan Younis. The eastern agricultural areas of Gaza are exposed to Israeli gunfire attacks almost on a daily basis.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76202

More than 1,000 Palestinian families take possession of new Qatar-built apartments in Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) 16 Jan by Fares Akram — More than 1,000 Palestinian families took possession of new apartments Saturday as part of a large Qatari-funded housing project in the Gaza Strip. The units are the first batch of a 3,000-apartment complex that was announced when the former Qatari ruler, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, became the first head of state to visit Hamas-ruled Gaza in 2012. Hamad City sits on dunes that were part of the former Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. They started before the Israel-Hamas war in 2014 that damaged or destroyed nearly 100,000 homes. The construction of the residential city is separate from the post-war rebuilding, but being the largest housing project ever makes it significant for the 1.8 million residents of the coastal enclave, who live under Israeli and Egyptian blockade and travel restrictions. Israel restricts building materials to Gaza for fears that the coastal strip’s Islamic Hamas rulers may use them in building its attack tunnels. To overcome the restrictions, Qatar arranges with Israel and the Palestinian Authority directly to deliver the needed materials for its projects. Qatar allocated $145 million for Hamad City. The Qatari envoy overseeing the project, Mohammed al-Amadi, says Gaza needs 130,000 housing units. "We are replenishing parts of Gaza’s needs," he said. On Saturday, Qatari and Palestinian flags adorned the complex as buses dropped hundreds of people who will receive the apartments. Posters of the former Qatari emir, his succeeding son and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hung from the buildings. The families received certificates at the event, but won’t move in for another two months due to minor infrastructure work, such as paving the roads to the city and connecting it with a water network.
http://www.newser.com/article/73833aac31d341ec9f1adc8174c31b47/more-than-1000-palestinian-families-take-possession-of-new-qatar-built-apartments-in-gaza.html

Israeli restricts movement of Gaza-bound cargo trucks
NAZARETH (PIC) 15 Jan — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has decided to put more restrictions on the travel of Gaza-bound cargo trucks on the roads used by Jewish settlers during rush hour. According to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Thursday, Israeli minister of transportation Yisrael Katz has issued a verdict preventing all trucks carrying shipments for Gaza from using all roads to Karam Abu Salem crossing. The Israeli minister claimed the measure was aimed at protecting the safety of Israelis who use the roads heavily during certain times. Consequently, hundreds of trucks loaded with building materials as well as food and fuel shipments would find a hard time to reach Gaza. According to the Israeli decision, only Gaza-bound trucks will not be able to travel to Karam Abu Salem from seven to nine o’clock in the morning and from three to five in the afternoon. However, the decision excluded all cargo trucks which carry goods for areas other than Gaza as well as the Israeli heavy military vehicles traveling on the same roads.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=76164

Life-changing transplants completed in Gaza by surgeons trained at the Royal in Liverpool
Echo 17 Jan by Cristina Criddle — Over 600 people are suffering from kidney failure in war-torn Gaza — The Royal is training up doctors to help save patients dying of kidney failure in war-torn Gaza. The project, which began in 2012, sends medics from Gaza for training in Liverpool as part of the Liverpool International Transplant Initiative. Surgeons from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital aim to establish a locally run transplant unit in the conflict-hit Gaza strip. Liverpool’s partnership is with al-Shifa Hospital, the biggest public healthcare provider in the Gaza Strip, which was attacked in the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. Dialysis patients at Al-Shifa hospital are at risk due to a lack of fuel for Al-Shifa’s generators. At the moment they are looking to fund a tissue typing laboratory, so they can test blood in Gaza rather than sending it to Liverpool, as well as other medical equipment, costing around £500,000. Last year, 11 people were trained over two months, and two surgeons are due to come to Liverpool in February along with five other medics in June. They have completed 23 transplants on patients aged from six to 60 and are planning to visit Gaza again in February for four more. Mariam El-Dabagh is just one of the patients saved by this project in 2014. The 13-year-old was taken to a doctor with flu, but was then diagnosed with kidney failure. Missing school because of renal appointments, being on dialysis three times a week, Mariam said she wanted to “hopefully go back to school and have fun with my friends, I do believe that God won’t leave me alone”. She had a kidney donated by her brother and has since gone back to school, no longer needing dialysis. She now wants to train to become a doctor in order to : relieve their [the patients’] pain and help them get back to their normal life as Dr. Hammad helped me”. Dr Abdul Hammad started the scheme and says exporting medical equipment into Gaza has always been difficult because of the continuing embargo in the area, but the escalation in the conflict is making that task even more problematic. . . .
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/life-changing-transplants-completed-gaza-10747614

Gaza scrap collectors finally back in business
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Al-Monitor) 17 Jan by Fadi Shafei — After seeing their profession almost disappear, scrap collectors once again are roaming the cities and camps of the Gaza Strip in their carts and tuk-tuks (motorized rickshaws). The work isn’t easy and has its hazards, but the workers are glad to be back in business. The collectors buy discarded metal products such as refrigerators, washing machines and electrical cables. The products are stored, sorted, cleaned and then exported to smelting factories in Israel for recycling. Israel halted the scrap metal business when it imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007. As a result, thousands of tons of stamped scrap metal that were ready for export piled up. “Arab and international parties have, for a while, been making efforts to export these huge quantities from the Gaza Strip," Samir Moussa, a senior member at the Consortium of Independent Palestinians, said in June. But a few months ago, Israel began allowing scrap metal exports again — some 80,000 tons, according to Moussa. “Allowing the exportation of nearly 60,000 tons of scrap metal and 20,000 tons of scrap copper from Gaza is a positive step to promote the collapsed national economy and reinvest the workforce specialized in collecting and sorting,” he said. . . .
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/palestinian-scrap-metal-exports-gaza.html

QRCS begins vocational training in Gaza
DOHA (The Peninsula) 1 Jan — The Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has undertaken a $664,240 (QR2,416,460) vocational training project for people with disabilities in the Gaza Strip, in partnership with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. The project is implemented through Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children (ASDC). It is funded by the GCC Programme for the Reconstruction of Gaza and Qatar’s Al Fakhoora Foundation (Education Above All), under the supervision of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). Lasting from May 2015 until this April, the project aims to provide vocational training for young men and women with hearing, visual or physical disabilities to help them find jobs, earn their livelihood, and interact effectively with the community.
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/366532/qrcs-begins-vocational-training-in-gaza

Closure / Control

Military redeploys to West Bank positions and checkpoints it shuttered years ago
Haaretz 18 Jan by Gili Cohen — Redeployments include permanent garrison at Shdema, pillboxes in Nablus area and checkpoints outside Arab towns — Four months into the current wave of Palestinian terror, the Israel Defense Forces is changing its operational deployment in the West Bank and returning to positions it had abandoned in previous years. Over the past few weeks, the Central Command and the IDF’s construction unit have been getting various positions ready for the soldiers’ return. A permanent garrison has already returned to the Shdema outpost, near the Palestinian town of Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem region . . . The IDF is also setting up several new pillbox positions in the West Bank. Israeli officials recently notified their counterparts in the Palestinian Authority that the army intended to set up additional guard posts in the northern West Bank, primarily in the Nablus region. The IDF confirmed that it plans to build several new pillboxes, including one near the place where Eitam and Naama Henkin were murdered in October, not far from the settlement of Itamar. Meanwhile, the army is also continuing its policy, begun two months ago, of putting military checkpoints at the entrances and exits of Palestinian towns from which large numbers of assailants have come. Some of the access roads to Sa‘ir, for instance, have been blocked, forcing traffic to go through the military checkpoint erected at one of the town’s entrances. The IDF said it decided to expand and repopulate outposts that had previously been abandoned because it needs a place to put the extra manpower it is deploying to the West Bank. In response to the upsurge in terror of the past few months, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot decided to put an extra four battalions on operational duty in the West Bank this year, including two battalions of reservists . . . .
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.698027

Israeli military seals main entrance to Ramallah-area village
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 Jan — Israeli forces closed the main entrance to the occupied West Bank town of Nabi Saleh on Saturday, amid ongoing tension between residents and the military. Locals told Ma‘an that military forces sealed the main road leading into the Ramallah-area town around 8.00 a.m. without prior notice. An Israeli army spokesperson said that “due to violent riots yesterday, forces temporarily closed a route into the village.” The spokesperson was unable to confirm the expected duration of the closure, but told Ma‘an that reopening the road would be “based on operational assessment” of the area by the military, adding that alternate routes in and out of the village remained open. A website for the village reported that Israeli forces had raided Nabi Saleh on Friday “firing large quantities of tear gas.” According to the report, a resident was hospitalized after the forces fired tear gas into homes. Since a wave of unrest spread across the occupied Palestinian territory in October, the entrance into Nabi Saleh has been closed a number of times by Israeli military forces, locals told Ma‘an following Saturday’s closure.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769833

Prisoners / Court actions

Palestinian teen could face ’maximum sentence’
Occupied West Bank (Al Jazeera) 17 Jan by Yienia Gostoli — The trial of Ahmed Manasra, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, charged by an Israeli court with two counts of attempted murder, is expected to resume today in a Jerusalem court. Manasra could face the maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, his lawyers said. "The allegation against him [Manasra] is not that he stabbed anybody, but that he had the intention to kill," said Lea Tsemel, Mansara’s lawyer. "We will have to prove he did not have that intention, but rather to cause pain and frighten," Tsemel told Al Jazeera. Israel’s Jerusalem District Court indicted Manasra on charges of attempted murder on October 30, following an attack on two Israelis on October 12 at the illegal Pisgat Ze’ev settlement. The two Israelis survived their wounds. Israeli Police shot dead Hassan Manasra, Ahmed’s cousin who accompanied him at the time, and a passing car ran over Manasra. A video of Ahmed, gasping and reaching his hand out for help, a terrified expression on his face, went viral and sparked outrage. In the video, someone is heard shouting and cursing him in Arabic with an Israeli accent : "Die, son of a whore, die !" Other bystanders cursed him and shouted "Die !" in Hebrew. He was admitted into the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and was recovering from a broken skull. Manasra is currently being held in a closed treatment facility in northern Israel, with the court rejecting the family’s request that he be placed under house arrest. As his birthday approaches later this month, so is the likelihood that he will be sentenced once he turns 14.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/palestinian-teen-face-maximum-sentence-160116194805598.html

Hunger-striking Palestinian reporter’s appeal rejected
Al Jazeera 17 Jan by Patrick Strickland — Rights groups criticise Israel’s detention of Muhammad al-Qeq, in critical condition after refusing food for 54 days — An Israeli military court has rejected an appeal to end the detention of a Palestinian journalist who is in critical condition because of an ongoing hunger strike, which has spanned 54 days so far. Thrown out by an Israeli military court on Saturday, the appeal called for Israel to end 33-year-old Muhammad al-Qeq’s administrative detention. Qeq launched his hunger strike on November 24 and vowed to continue until he is released. Administrative detention is a practice in which Israel jails Palestinians for renewable six-month intervals on "secret evidence" without charge or trial. Of the estimated 6,800 Palestinians behind bars in December, at least 660 were administrative detainees, according to Addameer Prisoner Support Network. The decision came just days after Qeq started to refuse vitamins and was transferred to a hospital in Afula, a city in northern Israel. The journalist, who is from the Hebron area of the southern occupied West Bank, is in critical condition, a Palestinian official confirmed. Laith Abu Zeyad, an international advocacy officer for Addameer, said Qeq has been forced against his will to undergo medical examinations, including a blood test and a glucose injection. Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Authority’s prisoner committee, said Qeq has also been threatened with force-feeding. "Force-feeding is illegal and it’s torture," he told Al Jazeera. "This isn’t the first time Qeq has been targeted. He’s been arrested several times in the past," Qaraqe said, adding the journalist has lost 22kg since he stopped eating . . . .
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/hunger-striking-palestinian-reporter-appeal-rejected-160117045853138.html

Palestinian hunger striker Muhammad al-Qiq taken to ICU after fainting
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 17 Jan — Hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Muhammad al-Qiq was taken on Friday to an intensive care unit for resuscitation after he fainted, a Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) lawyer said. In a statement received by Ma‘an, lawyer Jawad Boulos quoted al-Qiq, who has been on hunger strike for 54 days, as saying that doctors and officials from the Israeli Prison Service tried to convince him to break his strike with food. Al-Qiq reportedly refused and told doctors not to intervene “even if he faints.” Boulos said al-Qiq refused to take vitamins after his condition stabilized in the ICU. The lawyer said al-Qiq suffers from severe pains in his abdomen, eyes and limbs, but that “the Israeli Prison Service continued to bind him to the hospital bed.” Al-Qiq told Boulos that he would not end his hunger strike until he is released. Israel’s military court rejected on Saturday an appeal to end al-Qiq’s administrative detention, an Israeli policy that allows prisoners to be held without trial or charge for renewable six-month periods. Qadura Fares, the head of the PPS, said his organization plans to bring another appeal before Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday. He said the new appeal could take several days, but that due to the al-Qiq’s critical health condition, he is unsure if al-Qiq can make it through to the appeal if his strike continues.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769849

Israel refuses to allow prisoner to get needed heart surgery
IMEMC 17 Jan by Celine Hagbard — The Israeli Prison Service has refused to allow a 45-year old Palestinian prisoner to receive medically indicated, lifesaving heart surgery. The prisoner is now in an intermittent coma as a result, and is likely to die unless the surgery is performed, according to local sources. 45-year old Riyadh Dakhlallah al-‘Amor underwent open-heart surgery two years ago in an Israeli prison hospital and a pacemaker was installed in his heart. But the pacemaker has continually caused problems for al-‘Amor, and medical personnel say it must be replaced. Israeli authorities at the prison refuse to allow the surgery. As a result, al-‘’Amor’s health has severely deteriorated. In 2011, al-‘Amor was given the wrong injection at an Israeli prison hospital while receiving treatment for his chronic heart condition. The injection he received caused temporary paralysis, and Al-‘Amor had difficulty moving or walking for months after the injection was given. Al-‘Amor is married with five children, but is rarely able to see his family due to Israeli restrictions on visitations. He is sentenced to 11 life terms, and is serving his term in Eshel prison in Israel. His health problems trace back to his arrest by Israeli troops, when he was shot multiple times in the back, and had part of his intestines and liver removed.
http://www.imemc.org/article/74616

Palestinian detainees escalate protests in Megiddo prison
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 Jan — Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli Megiddo prison have reportedly escalated protests over being held in a "transfer" section for several weeks due to the detention facility’s overcrowdedness. Palestine Prisoners’ Center for Studies spokeswoman Amina Tawil said in a press release that prisoners informed the Israeli Prison Service of their protest on Thursday. The detainees then refused to return to their rooms and refused meals, during which some detainees were assaulted by prison personnel who forced them back into their cells. Tawil added that the prison services had moved 10 prisoners to solitary confinement after they announced their open hunger strike. Those transferred included Amir Muhammad Ishtayeh, Ahmad Shaltaf, Kamel Hamran, Tawfiq al-Kharraz and Islam Bani Shamseh, all from Nablus. Tawil said the prison services decided to impose strict sanctions against prisoners held in the "transfer" section of the Megiddo prison by cutting off electricity in whole section, banning prisoners from going out to the prison’s yard, searching rooms and confiscating prisoners’ possessions, clothes and covers. Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Committee lawyer Hiba Masalha said Thursday that the Megiddo prison had declared a state of emergency after prisoners of Section 1 refused to move to other sections. Masalha said 97 minors under the age of 16 held in Section 3 were being assaulted and humiliated.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769834

3 Israelis indicted for attack on Palestinian photographer
Times of Israel 17 Jan by Tamar Pileggi — The state prosecution on Sunday indicted three Israelis for attacking a Palestinian photojournalist two years ago while IDF soldiers allegedly turned a blind eye to the assault. The three — Mirhi Pinhasov, 48, of the settlement of Beit El, 25-year-old Yehiel Zilber of Jerusalem, and an unnamed minor — were charged at the Jerusalem District Court in a series of severe offenses that could land them in prison. The three participated in a violent exchange between settlers from Beit El and residents of the nearby Jalazoun refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on March 7, 2014, that featured rock throwing on both sides, the indictment said. At one point, AFP photographer Abbas Momani drove by slowly in order to document the scene, and the three allegedly pelted his vehicle with rocks. Pinhasov threw a large rock at the car from close range, the indictment said. Photos and videos from the scene corroborated testimonies that said the Israeli rioters stoned Momani’s car, which had “PRESS” written on it. In photographs of the incident, four settlers are seen running, three of them with pistols. Another shows rioters stoning the car while the soldiers appear to look on. At the time, Momani said the soldiers at the scene did not intervene to prevent the attack on him. An Israel Defense Forces officer from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories — the unit that implements government policy vis-à-vis Palestinian civilians in the West Bank — arrived at the scene shortly after the attack and corroborated Momani’s account. While he requested that soldiers at the scene arrest the settlers for the assault, the battalion commander ordered the soldiers to move the settlers instead . . . .
http://www.timesofisrael.com/settlers-to-be-indicted-for-attack-on-palestinian-photographer/

Urgent Action - Israel detains circus performer
Amnesty International 15 Jan — A 23-year-old Palestinian man, Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, has been detained by the Israeli military, without charge or any explanation, since 14 December. He has not been allowed visits from his family. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was detained by Israeli soldiers on 15 December, as he was on his way from his parents’ home, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, to his work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Zaatara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told his parents that he is now in Megiddo prison, in northern Israel, though his family have not been allowed to visit him. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order in late December, allowing them to detain him without charge indefinitely. The Al Jazeera news website quoted an Israeli military spokesperson that day as saying that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was being held because he posed a "danger... to the security of the region” and that the details of his case were "confidential”. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007 and became one of its performers in 2011, also training children in circus acts. He specializes in teaching children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. . . .
http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/uaa01216.pdf

Other news

Palestinian negotiator aide arrested for ’collaborating’ with Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 17 Jan — An employee with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s negotiation affairs department has been detained on charges of "collaborating with Israel," a senior PLO official told Ma‘an on Sunday. The official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the man who was detained was an administrative employee who did not work with political affairs in the office. "The detainee is not a member of the negotiation advisor and has never attended any negotiation team meetings, neither has he been involved in coordination with the Israelis at administrative level or other levels," the official said. A high-ranking Palestinian security source, also speaking under the condition of anonymity, told Ma‘an that Palestinian intelligence forces had made the arrest after finding that the employee was "collaborating with the enemy." The sources said the suspect was detained in Ramallah, after being monitored for a "long period of time." The employee who was detained had worked for the negotiations office for 20 years. The suspect reportedly confessed to passing information on to Israeli authorities, but sources said the investigation is ongoing, as files are being prepared for court. The source continued that Palestinian intelligence, legal, and political institutes are investigating their offices to estimate the damage caused by the suspect in order to evaluate the security breach, and to bring more potential evidence to the future court case being filed against the former employee. Under Palestinian law, the suspect could face the death penalty if found guilty of working with Israel. The incident is not the first security breach in the negotiations office. In 2011, an administrative employee with the office leaked 1,600 internal documents from the Israel-Palestine negotiations from 1999-2010 to al-Jazeera news agency.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769839

Mossad proxy faked violent Facebook anti-Semitism
EI 16 Jan by Asa Winstanley — An Israeli legal group with intimate ties to the state’s intelligence agencies has admitted to faking an ostensibly pro-Palestinian Facebook page and using it to post anti-Semitic statements including “Death to all the Jews.” The Israeli group has also filed a lawsuit against Facebook, for allegedly permitting Palestinian “incitement.” Shurat HaDin claims to be a “civil rights organization.” Various media reports have described it as an “Israeli non-governmental organization,” an “advocacy group,” or even a neutral-sounding “law center” – the group’s self-description also adopted by The Guardian and PBS. But US embassy cables leaked by Chelsea Manning and published by WikiLeaks tell a very different story. Shurat HaDin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner privately told a US embassy official that her group “took direction” on which court cases to pursue. She claimed that she “receives evidence” from Israel’s international espionage and assassination agency Mossad and from Israel’s National Security Council. - Mossad anti-Semitism - In a video published to YouTube last week, Shurat HaDin claimed responsibility for the creation of a Facebook page titled “Stop Israelis” on 29 December . . . .
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/mossad-proxy-faked-violent-facebook-anti-semitism

Israeli settlers scrawl hate graffiti on Jerusalem church
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 17 Jan — Suspected Israeli extremists wrote threatening hate speech on the doors of an ancient church in the Old City of Jerusalem overnight Saturday, Wadie Abu Nassar, a senior advisor to the Catholic Church who is considered close to the Vatican, told Ma‘an. Abu Nassar said the doors of the Dormition Abbey church were vandalized with threats scrawled in Hebrew that read : "Kill the Christians, the enemy of Israel" and "The revenge is coming very soon," as well as "Send Christians to hell.” Abu Nassar condemned the graffiti, calling it racist, and pointed out that the incident was not the first Israeli attack against Dormition Abbey. In 2014, a suspected Israeli extremist lit a prayer book on fire in the abbey, in what police at the time said was a suspected arson attack just hours after Pope Francis held mass at a nearby Christian holy spot during a visit to the area. A year before that, Israeli extremists spray-painted "Jesus is a monkey" in Hebrew outside the church . . . .
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769842

Israeli Arab town with 25,000 residents wins city status
Haaretz 17 Jan by Jack Khoury — The Arab community of Arabeh, in the Galilee, is to become a city after Interior Minister Arye Dery signed the order on Thursday. The Interior Ministry said Dery had accepted the recommendation of a public committee that was established a year ago to review Arabeh’s official status. The panel recommended upgrading it from a local council to a city. Arabeh has a population of 25,000. “I am happy that one of my first decisions as interior minister is turning Arabeh into a city. This decision is important to Arab society in Israel and to strengthening the integration into Israeli society,” Dery said in a statement. The decision was reached after the local authority succeeded in keeping its budget balanced for a period of several years properly for years, he said, adding that the collection rate for property taxes in the community (arnona) is high. “I hope the city of Arabeh will continue to strengthen and develop on behalf of its residents, and to strengthen the ties between Jews and Arabs in Israel,” said Dery . . . Arabeh Mayor Ali Asala told Haaretz that the change should benefit residents. He added that one of the major items on the new city’s agenda is to expand its borders. “We are very pleased about the decision and hope it will be translated into budgets and resources, too,” he added.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.697837

Israel cancels cultural event in E. Jerusalem saying Palestinian Authority was behind it
Haaretz 18 Jan by Nir Hasson — Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has ordered the cancellation of a cultural event in East Jerusalem on the grounds that the Palestinian Authority was behind it. The event, whose theme was to be the revival of Palestinian Culture in the city, was scheduled to take place Sunday at El-Hakawati, the Palestinian National Theater. Palestinian sources in the city said it was strictly a cultural event, not a political one. Nevertheless, Palestinian Culture Minister Ehab Bessaiso, a poet who teaches at Birzeit University, was to have attended the event. Under Israel’s agreements with the Palestinians, the PA is not allowed to operate in Jerusalem. The Israel Police regularly shut down cultural events and press conferences, citing suspicions that the organizer has connections to the PA. The order prohibiting the event, signed by Erdan yesterday, states that neither the theater nor anyone else may hold the event “in Jerusalem, or anywhere else within the borders of the State of Israel.” “I won’t allow any undermining of Israeli sovereignty or grant any foothold to the PA within the territory of the State of Israel,” Erdan said afterward.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.698028

Meet the outlawed women of Israel’s Islamic Movement
+972 mag 16 Jan by Samah Salaime — They are journalists, educators, and physicians, who until very recently were dependent on the recently-outlawed Islamic Movement for their living. Now they leave behind a void that cannot be filled. An inside look at the women who play a critical role in Israel’s Palestinian society — The outlawing of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel received some attention from the Israeli media, before it vanished from the news cycle. When the movement did make headlines, however, it was portrayed as religious, militant, nationalistic and male-dominated. The truth is that alongside the women of murabitat, who seek to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from extremist settlers, the decision to ban the group also outlaws the activity of many women who have done invaluable work within Arab society. And yet no one mentions them. So who are the women of the Islamic movement ? They number in the tens of thousands, they are religious, they are diligent activists, and are committed to the cause . . . Sawsan [Masarwa] has devoted 25 years of her life to building the Organization of Islamic Women, which the state has decided to destroy in a single day. “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and persuade myself that it must be a dream. By 7:30 a.m. I’m on the road, showing up at the office, driving to branches throughout the country, participating in women’s events everywhere. Some days would begin with the camp we opened in Kafr Manda, followed by Nazareth to give a lecture, back to Umm Al Fahm for a women’s evening, and then back home after dark. At times I worked like a madwoman 16 hours a day. Now there is nothing — I am not allowed to do anything. . .” Twelve district coordinators, responsible for 689 counselors who presided over 10,000 children worked under Sawsan — of them 6,000 girls who would also attend religious enrichment classes, study tutorials, literacy, and alternative extracurricular activity. “Thousands of girls are impacted by closing down the organization. No one will be teaching them in the afternoons. An intimate social framework has fallen apart. How shall we explain to a young girl that it is the government’s resolution that she will not learn Arabic or have Koran studies ?”
http://972mag.com/meet-the-outlawed-women-of-israels-islamic-movement/116001/

Hamas rejects Iranian financial aid over regional split : Report
MEE 16 Jan — Hamas has refused an offer of financial aid from Iran in return for adopting an anti-Saudi Arabia stance in the current diplomatic stance rift between the two countries, sources from the movement have said. The decision to reject the offer of Iranian support came from Khaled Meshal, head of Hamas’s political wing, a source told Saudi-owned news site al-Sharq al-Awsat on Friday. The source said Meshal feared that siding with Iran against Saudi Arabia would mean Hamas risked losing its “Sunni support base”. Long-time foes Iran and Saudi Arabia have been embroiled in a renewed row since the execution in Saudi Arabia of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, on 2 January. Last month Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, addressed a video message to the people of Iran, calling on them to support what he called a “third intifada” in Palestine. Since October there has been an upsurge in violence in the West Bank and the Occupied Territories, with over 150 people killed on both sides. Earlier this month, Iran pledged that it would increase financial support for Hamas and recognize it as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, in exchange for the movement expressing an explicitly anti-Saudi stance, Breitbart International reported. However, al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Friday that the offer had been rejected, quoting a West Bank Hamas source as saying that the movement “would never stand in any coalition against the Sunni world”.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-rejects-iranian-financial-aid-over-regional-split-2012759364

EU foreign ministers likely to debate tensions with Israel over Area C
JPost 17 Jan by Tovah Lazaroff — The European Union has been fairly public in the last few years about its financial support for illegal Palestinian construction in Area C, including the placement of its logo on those structures — European foreign ministers likely will discuss the growing tension with Israel over their support for Palestinian development of Area C of the West Bank when they meet in Brussels on Monday, diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post . . . On Wednesday, Avivit Bar-Ilan, director of the Foreign Ministry Department for European Organizations, warned that the EU was weighing whether to demand monetary compensation from Israel for illegal Palestinian structures that the IDF demolished even though they were funded by the EU. Area C of the West Bank, where all the settlements are located, is under full Israeli military and civilian control. All construction and development of that area falls under the authority of the civil administration. The EU believes Israel’s presence there is illegal and that Palestinian development of that area is vital to the Palestinian economy. As the peace process faltered and then froze altogether, the EU has increased its efforts to help the Palestinians develop that area, including supporting illegal construction. It believes such efforts are the kind of humanitarian aid allowable under international law. In the past year, the non-governmental group Regavim has lobbied against such building, and last Sunday brought politicians to the area of Ma’aleh Adumim so they could see for themselves the extent of the EU-supported construction . . . .
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/EU-foreign-ministers-likely-to-debate-tensions-with-Israel-over-Area-C-441736

Netanyahu tweaks controversial NGO transparency bill
Times of Israel 17 Jan by Tamar Pileggi — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced amendments to a controversial bill affecting NGOs, which he said would make the legislation more like existing US laws on foreign lobbying efforts. Netanyahu said the so-called NGO Law — or Transparency Law — would no longer require all Israeli groups that receive at least half of their budget from foreign governments to wear prominent name tags while operating in the Knesset. However, the tweaked bill would require all nonprofit organizations to account for all of its foreign funding, not only those receiving over 50 percent of its budgets from abroad as originally proposed . . . Critics charged the legislation, sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, was an effort to silence left-wing groups that tend to receive the majority of their funding from abroad . . . .
http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-moves-to-soften-controversial-ngo-transparency-bill/

The rocky relationship
Arab News 17 Jan by Rasheed Abou-Alsamh — The recent visit of leftist Brazilian congressman Jean Wyllys to attend an academic conference at Hebrew University in Jerusalem caused a mini-storm of controversy in Brazil, with many pro-Palestinian activists accusing Wyllys of supporting Israeli propaganda and letting down the cause of the Palestinians. It all started when the congressman posted a picture on his official Facebook page showing him standing in front of a Hebrew University sign. Critics were quick to point out that one of the university’s campuses is built on land confiscated from Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem Members of his Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) harshly criticized him . . . Wyllys’ trip brought up the whole controversy surrounding the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure the Israeli government into accepting an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, into focus. The congressman said he was deeply opposed to any sort of boycott movement, saying that it only strengthened extremists on both sides of the conflict . . . .
http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/866106
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