TO DAY in PALESTINE

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Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid / Restriction of movementUprooting Palestinian trees — and lives / Amira Hass
Haaretz 16 July — Residents of the Palestinian village Beitilu watch helplessly as their trees are mysteriously mutilated — ...Were they to have made a bit more of an effort, the soldiers would have known that the journalists’ excursion was preceded by a press conference in Ramallah organized by UNICEF, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel ‏(EAPPI‏), and the human rights groups B’Tselem and Al-Haq. Had they wanted to know, the soldiers would have heard speakers at this press conference warn about the authorities’ lack of response to mounting settler violence. “The violence aids the expansion of the settlements,” dozens of international journalists were told. And they were about to witness it first-hand ... Here and elsewhere in the West Bank, this is the method by which people are stopped from plowing and working their land. Thus, the weeds flourish; summer comes, the weeds dry out, and thorns and thistles abound; fire can easily erupt on the ground. Fire from the sky or from the hands of arsonists. And then it is so easy to say: The Palestinians don’t cultivate their lands. They don’t deserve them.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/uprooting-palestinian-trees-and-lives.premium-1.451306

Israel slams UN agency over aid to displaced Palestinians
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 July — Israel’s military department governing civil affairs in the occupied West Bank regards a UN agency’s assistance to displaced Palestinians as illegal operations, a spokesman said Sunday. Israeli daily Haaretz reported earlier that the department, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are seeking to "reassess" the role of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank. The UN office "are assisting Palestinian communities who have demolitions because they are built in an illegal way. OCHA gives them tents and by that is doing illegal work, without seeking Israeli permission," COGAT spokesman Guy Inbar told Ma‘an. Humanitarian officials say providing a temporary tent to a displaced family falls under international definitions of emergency humanitarian assistance, rather than a building project that requires a permit ... Haaretz reported that COGAT asked the Foreign Ministry to lodge a formal complaint with the UN, and on July 10 Israel’s UN ambassador wrote to the UN humanitarian affairs chief asking for staff lists, past and future activities and a review of the agency’s role. Israeli authorities are considering limiting visas for foreign OCHA employees and stopping work and travel permits for Palestinian staff members, the newspaper said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504444

In Photos: Popular resistance festival in South Hebron Hills
AIC 15 July — On Saturday 14 July and for the fifth year in a row, the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills celebrated a popular resistance festival upon completion of the annual summer camp for local children. This year the festival was held in the community of Al Mufaqarah, a village threatened by Israeli displacement policies.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/component/content/article/2-hebron/4781-in-photos-popular-resistance-festival-in-south-hebron-hills-.html

Israel retreats from pledge to deny subsidies to West Bank settlements
JERUSALEM (AP) 16 July — The Israeli government has quietly agreed to grant subsidies to build more than 500 new homes in the West Bank, backtracking from a promise this year to deny these incentives to the settlements, The Associated Press has learned. The planned construction, at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to shore up support among settlers, has enraged Palestinians and could cloud a visit starting Sunday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The housing units are benefiting from the government’s designation of the settlements as "national priority" areas — a status normally reserved for low-income cities and towns where the government wants to encourage development.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_21082228/israel-retreats-from-pledge-deny-subsidies-west-bank?source=rss

20,000 new housing units in the vicinity of Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 15 July — The Israeli government has endorsed the construction of 20,000 new housing units in the vicinity of occupied Jerusalem, Jad Isaac, a settlement expert and director of Areej institute for applied sciences, said. Isaac said in a statement on Sunday that the Israeli government was merging minor settlements into bigger entities within an apparent scheme to control 70% of area C in the West Bank, which constitutes 60% of the overall West Bank area. He said that Israel was trying to buy time in a bid to create a new de facto situation on the ground, exploiting the USA’s preoccupation with its elections and regional changes to draw its final borders with its bulldozers.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOA bans entry of liberated Jerusalemite into Aqsa
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 15 July — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has ordered a liberated Jerusalemite prisoner not to enter the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem. The Wadi Hilwa information center said on Saturday that the Israeli police summoned Misbah Abu Subaih to the Maskobeh interrogation center and told him he was banned from entry into the holy site for four and a half months. It noted that the period was the same that Misbah had served in Israeli jails before his release a few days earlier.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Violence / Raids / Arrests / Provocations

PMG Daily Situation Report 08:00 15 July - 08:00 16 July
PLO Palestine Monitoring Group Summary of Events — Injury: 3 — 1 resident injured after being rammed with an Israeli military vehicle during demonstrations in Ramallah and 2 residents injured after Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicle in Hebron. Detention: 11 — 4 in Ramallah, 1 in Jenin,1 in Tulkarem,1 in Nablus,2 in Bethlehem and 2 in Hebron including a university student. Raids: 19 — 1 in Jerusalem,3 in Ramallah, 2 in Jenin, 1 in Tulkarem, 5 in Nablus, 1 in Salfit, 1 in Jericho, 2 in Bethlehem, 2 in Hebron and 1 in North Gaza....
http://www.nad-plo.org/userfiles/file/pmg-reports/dailyr/PMG.Daily.Sitrep.16.07.12.pdf

Soldiers beat teenager during arrest, family says
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 July — Israeli soldiers assaulted a teenager overnight Saturday while arresting him, his family told Ma‘an. Mahmoud al-Badan, 17, was arrested by Israeli forces from his home in Tuqu‘, south of Bethlehem, his father said. Soldiers then took Mahmoud outside and closed the front door so the family could not see what was happening. Neighbors told the boy’s father, Muhammad al-Badan, that the soldiers brutally beat the teenager before blindfolding and handcuffing him. He was then taken to an unknown location, the witnesses said. Muhammad al-Badan told Ma‘an that after the incident there was a lot of blood on the ground outside the house.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504613

The occupation army injures an elderly woman and arrests others
PNN 16 July — Two Palestinian citizens were shot, last night, by the Israeli army on the bridge of Halhoul, in the north of Hebron. The media reported that the occupation soldiers had shot at a car and they had injured Rabiha Sbeitan (56 years) and Ibrahim Youssef Islemyyeh (20 years). And they were transferred to the government hospital in Hebron and the medical resources reported that they suffered from minor injuries.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/politics/2197-the-occupation-army-injures-an-elderly-woman-and-arrests-others

Light sentence in brutal murder shows double standard for Jews, Palestinians
Mondoweiss 15 July by Ira Glunts — A Jerusalem teenager, identified only as ’A’, was given a perplexingly short 8-year sentence after a plea bargain for the stabbing death of a Palestinian, Hussam Rawidi, following a brutal and apparently unprovoked attack. The charge was reduced from ’murder’ to ’killing (manslaughter)’, which enabled the court to impose the lenient sentence. The crime occurred on February 11, 2011. Rawidi was 24 years old when he was killed ... In addition to the prison term, the defendant was ordered to pay a sum of 5000 shekels (approx. 1200 US dollars) to the family of the victim. This sum was described by Ha’aretz as minuscule (זעומים). (Hebrew report only). The father of the victim, Hussain Rawidi, told the newspaper, "This is not worth anything, that he serves eight years for what he did…. Those are the courts, I can’t do anything. He murdered my son just because he is an Arab." (Hebrew only)
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/07/light-sentence-in-brutal-murder-shows-double-standard-for-jews-palestinians.html

Israeli forces detain Hamas lawmaker near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 15 July — Israeli forces detained a Hamas-affiliated lawmaker early on Sunday from his West Bank home, witnesses said. Israeli troops surrounded the apartment of Ahmad Abdul-Aziz Mubarak in al-Bireh, near Ramallah, before ransacking his home and detaining the parliamentarian, locals said. Mubarak was imprisoned in 2006 just after he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council with the Hamas- affiliated Change and Reform bloc. He was sentenced to four years in jail by an Israeli military court...
In a separate incident, locals said Israeli forces detained a Palestinian youth from Beit Rima village north of Ramallah. They said troops raided the village overnight, prompting clashes with residents, and then detained Muhammad Mutasim Rimawi.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504440

The occupation arrests ten civilians at dawn
RAMALLAH (PIC) 15 July — The IOF arrested at dawn Sunday ten Palestinian civilians during raids in different districts of the West Bank. Media sources inside the entity reported that the army arrested four Palestinians from Jenin in the northern West Bank, while three others were arrested in the province of Ramallah. The occupation soldiers also arrested, in Bethlehem, three other citizens claiming that they were wanted for its security services.
Meanwhile, the IOF arrested two youths, Luay Qasim Zakarneh (22 years), and Muhammad Walid Zakarneh (21 years), from the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, The sources pointed out that the two young men were in Mohammed Ahmed Kamel Zakarneh’s house when the IOF unexpectedly broke into the house, searched it using sniffer dogs and interrogated Zakarneh’s family members before detaining the two youths
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

IOF soldiers round up 5 Jerusalemites
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 16 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up five Palestinian Jerusalemites in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, on Sunday. Local sources said that members of special police and army units stormed the town and broke into many houses in various suburbs.
They said that Israeli courts renewed the detention of a number of other Jerusalemites from Silwan.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Settlers storm village, attack homes in Nablus
NABLUS, July 15 (WAFA) – A number of extremist Jewish settlers Sunday stormed Jalud, a village southeast of Nablus and attacked residents’ houses, according to a local activist. Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of settlements file in the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, told WAFA that settlers of a nearby settlement stormed the village, threw rocks at residents’ houses and tried to break into several homes. [PIC: The attack followed the eviction of a settlement outpost south of Qasra village to the southeast of Nablus.]
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20264

Palestinians grappled with extremist settler groups that stormed Nazareth
NAZARETH (PIC) 16 July — Hundreds of Palestinians in Nazareth, within the territories occupied in 1948, have grappled with extremist settler groups from Chilano Yisrael movement and other right-wing groups led by the radical Baruch Marzel on Sunday. The settler groups demonstrated in the city of Nazareth under the protection of 1200 policemen and two helicopters to demand 1948- Arabs’ participation in national service under the framework of the so-called "burden sharing", presented by the Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rejected by Arab citizens in the occupied Palestinian territories, and to delegitimize the party "NDA", founded by former Arab MK in Azmi Bishara. Many Palestinians have participated in a counter-protest, including Arab MKs and Arab figures in the occupied territories, chanting slogans against the Israeli right-wing groups and against national service.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Prisoners

BBC News Video: First Gaza families visit jailed relatives in Israel
16 July The BBC’s Jon Donnison: "It’s a pretty arduous journey, with lots of security checks"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18854223

Photos: Families of Palestinian prisoners allowed to visit Israeli prisons
http://www.china.org.cn/photos/2012-07/16/content_25919967.htm

Gaza families visit jailed relatives in Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 July — Families in the Gaza Strip will visit relatives detained in Israeli jails on Monday for the first time since 2007, a prisoners group said. Gaza-based group Husam told Ma‘an that 48 family members would visit 25 relatives being held in Israeli jails. There are a total of 473 Gazan prisoners detained in Israel, group spokesman Muwaffaq Hmeid said. The families left Gaza City at 4.00 a.m. to travel to the Erez crossing, he added. Another group of families is expected to visit relatives on July 23, Hmeid said. "This is a first step and we hope that visits by residents of Gaza will resume in full," said Juan Pedro Schaerer, the head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the occupied territories.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504791

Nelson Mandela Foundation calls for UN to act on Israeli violations
IMEMC 16 July — On Sunday the Nelson Mandela Foundation for Political Prisoners urged the UN to investigate human rights violations in Israeli jails. In testimony given to the UN, Buthaina Duqmaq, head of the foundation, claimed that Israel was attempting to isolate prisoners from the rest of the world. Israel routinely transfers prisoners from the occupied territories to jails inside Israel, a practice which violates the Fourth Geneva Convention. Duqmaq reported that there are 1,200 Palestinian families unable to visit relatives held by Israel.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63914

95 days of hunger strike: Act now to save Akram al-Rikhawi’s life!
Samidoun 15 July — Akram al-Rikhawi has now been on hunger strike for 95 days. He is the longest serving hunger striker anywhere in the world. He is suffering from numerous medical conditions, including diabetes, asthma, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, glaucoma, kidney problems and immune deficiency ... Akram began his hunger strike on April 12 of this year to demand his early release due to his heath circumstances. He also has eight children, and he and his wife are also responsible for the care of the five children of his late brother. Despite his severe health circumstances and his difficult family and economic straits and responsibility for 13 children, his appeals for early release in 2012 and on June 5, 2012 were both rejected.
http://samidoun.ca/2012/07/95-days-of-hunger-strike-act-now-to-save-akram-al-rikhawis-life/

Mahmoud Sarsak: Israel was threatened
Al Akhbar 16 July — The Palestinian footballer that Israel imprisoned and tortured for three years without trial is finally free after a hunger strike that lasted for 92 days. Here, he tells Al-Akhbar the story of his arrest, imprisonment, and release, as well as messages sent through him from fellow prisoners he left behind. Shuaib Abu Jahal (SAJ): How were you arrested? Mahmoud Sarsak (MS): I was not arrested. I was kidnapped at the Beit Hanoun-Erez crossing in July 2009. I was on my way to sign a deal with the Balata Youth Center in Nablus in the West Bank when I was kidnapped and questioned for 35 days.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/mahmoud-sarsak-israel-was-threatened

Israel to release PLC speaker from jail
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 16 July — Israeli authorities are set to release the Palestinian parliamentary speaker from jail on Thursday, after detaining him for six months under administrative detention. Aziz Dweik said via his lawyer that Israeli authorities informed him they would not renew his administrative detention. Dweik, who heads the Palestinian Legislative Council, was arrested at a Ramallah checkpoint in January. An Israeli military court ordered his detention without charge for six months...
Since Dweik’s detention, three other MPs and a former minister, all members of the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform Bloc, have been seized by Israeli forces.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504927

Ex-detainee Asfour: Administrative detention is a fire burning our youth
NABLUS (PIC) 16 July — Dean of the administrative prisoners Adnan Asfour described after his release on Sunday the administrative detention as a fire burning the youth of Palestinian young men and a sword on the necks of ex-detainees. In a press statement to the Palestinian information center (PIC), Asfour called for pooling the efforts to end the administrative detention. He said many Palestinian prisoners were sent back to administrative detention after their release many times and during separate periods, describing this situation as similar to a life sentence.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Special investigator dies in Palestinian custody
AP 16 July — A senior Palestinian official suspected of embezzling public funds fell to his death from the third-floor kitchen window of a West Bank security compound where he was being interrogated, officials said Monday. The official investigating the incident said Osama Mansour jumped and that there is security camera footage to prove it. Mansour’s family and a leading human rights activist called for an autopsy in the presence of an independent doctor.
Mansour’s job was to track Palestinians who sold land to Israelis, and the case is training a spotlight on the murky world of secret West Bank land deals. Israeli settlers often try to buy Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to strengthen their hold on occupied territories the Palestinians want for their state. Those convicted of selling land to Israelis face the death penalty, though executions in such cases have not been carried out...
Mansour, who worked in the attorney general’s office, was given large sums by the Palestinian Authority to buy back land sold to Israelis whenever possible, said Abdel-Latif al-Aidi, an official leading the investigation into Mansour’s death.More than three weeks ago, Mansour was arrested on suspicion he pocketed some of that money by claiming he had successfully bought back property when he had not...
Currently, 141 Palestinians are being held in West Bank prisons for selling land to Israelis, court officials said
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/special-investigator-dies-palestinian-custody

Rights commission concerned by death in PA custody
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 16 July — The Independent Commission for Human Rights said on Monday that is is concerned by the death of a retired Palestinian security officer in a Ramallah detention facility a day earlier ... The human right ombudsman said two investigation committees had been formed, one from intelligence forces and another by the Palestinian Authority interior ministry. It urged the establishment of a neutral body to investigate the death, and for it to transparently publish its findings.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=505060

PA to release 3 prisoners affiliated with Hamas
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 July — Palestinian Authority security forces on Monday reached an agreement to release three Hamas prisoners detained in the West Bank, security sources told Ma‘an. The agreement was reached between PA intelligence services in Bethlehem and the elders of several clans based in Hebron. The prisoners are from Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus and will be released within the next few days, Hamas informed family members. More prisoners are expected to be released in the near future, a security source said. Several protests have taken place recently in Bethlehem and Hebron demanding the release of prisoners arrested for politically motivated reasons.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504768

Hamas chooses its leadership inside Israeli jails
Middle East Monitor 14 July — The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has chosen the members of its High Leadership Committee inside Israel’s jails through a democratic process. Details have been provided by the Ahrar Centre for Prisoners’ Affairs. ... According to [researcher Adnan] Al-Khefish, most of the committee members, including the vice-chair, are youth and have been released recently from solitary confinement. Al-Khefish also said that most were also leaders of the hunger strike earlier this year which led to the release of all prisoners from solitary confinement except Derar abu Sisi, who was kidnapped by Israel’s spy agency Mossad from the Ukraine last year. Hamas, said the Ahrar Centre, has held these elections annually for the past five years to choose the High Leadership Committee for the prisoners.
http://gaza.scoop.ps/2012/07/hamas-chooses-its-leadership-inside-israeli-jails/

Gaza

Report: Clinton assures Israel Mursi will keep Gaza closure
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 16 July — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Israeli officials during her visit to the country on Monday that the new Egyptian president had promised her he would not end the closure of the Gaza Strip, an Israeli news site said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504956

Hamas seeks new Gaza policy from Egypt
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 16 July — Egypt’s new president holds the key to blockaded Gaza, but he is signaling that he won’t rush to help the territory’s Hamas rulers by striking a border deal with them, even though they are fellow members of the region’s Muslim Brotherhood. A bilateral border agreement between Egypt and Hamas could hurt chances of setting up a single Palestinian state, made up of the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel. "I don’t think they (the Egyptians) are ready for that," said Palestinian economist and business leader Samir Hulileh. Hamas was jubilant over Morsi’s election in neighboring Egypt in June, hoping the Egyptian leader would lift years of travel and trade restrictions that have hit the Gaza economy hard. But for now Morsi is keeping Hamas at arm’s length, focusing on his relationship with Egypt’s powerful military and with the U.S., which gives Egypt $1.3 billion in annual military aid. [always supposing that Morsi has any power to do anything, with the military still in control]
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/16/3706517/hamas-seeks-new-gaza-policy-from.html

Source: Egypt restricting fuel deliveries to Gaza
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma‘an) 16 July — Egyptian authorities have restricted the amount of Qatari fuel entering the Gaza Strip through an Egyptian crossing with Israel, an Egyptian source said Monday. While the Al-Ouja crossing in Egypt’s northern Sinai has the capacity for ten trucks of fuel per day, Egypt only permits six trucks to cross, the official said, noting that this amount cannot meet Gaza’s energy needs. The Egyptian source said an estimated four million liters of Qatari fuel have arrived in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks. Gaza had been plagued by a fuel crisis since mid-February, when Egypt cut off supplies via a tunnel network under the border between the countries.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504925

The Energy authority : the deficit in the power supply in Gaza reaches 50%
GAZA (PIC) 15 July — The Energy and Natural Resources authority in Gaza has announced that the deficit in the power supply has reached 50%, in light of the doubling of electricity consumption due to the hot summer climate. Ahmed Abu Amrain, the Director of Information Center of the Energy Authority, said during a press conference today Sunday that the Authority and Gaza Electricity Distribution Company are working on scheduling the electricity consumption in order to manage the crisis noting that the electricity will be running for 8 hours then cut off for 8 hours, successively throughout the 24 hours.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Report: UN delegation arrives in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 15 July — A delegation from the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner’s office arrived in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening via Egypt’s Rafah crossing, Egyptian media said. The 11-member delegation will discuss Israel’s violations of human rights in the coastal enclave, according to Egypt’s Middle East News Agency. In March, the UN Human Rights Council launched a probe into Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, prompting Israel to cut ties with the body.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504415

PA upset at Qatar’s Gaza reconstruction project
MEMO 13 July — The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority is acutely embarrassed by the State of Qatar’s decision to begin reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip by the end of August, Palestinian sources said on Wednesday. Qatar has decided to cooperate with the Palestinian government in Gaza on the reconstruction of the besieged territory. This decision has aroused in the PA a lot of anger, although it has decided against taking any reactive measures.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/3982-pa-upset-at-qatars-gaza-reconstruction-project

The Attorney General: There are no political detainees in Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 15 July — The Attorney general in Gaza, Mohammed Abed, asserted that there are no political detainees in the government’s prisons. Abed asserted that the government’s prisoners have been detained for other reasons than political affiliation, and called all those who claim that there is any political detainee in Gaza’s jail to recourse to the courts in order to appeal against the rule of detention issued against that prisoner "and we will implement the court ruling whatsoever." ... He noted that more than 90 percent of the cases held by the public prosecutor, comes within the framework of minor offenses and violations and that the number of prisoners ranges from 1200 to 1500 detainees held for cases related to sales, debts and trading.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Army: Rocket fired from Gaza, no injuries reported
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 July — A rocket was fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, Israel’s army said. The rocket landed in an open area in the Shar Negev regional council, an army spokesman said, with no injuries reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504806

Troubled Israeli town revives / Noga Tarnopolsky
Salon 15 July (orig. pub. on GlobalPost) — SDEROT, Israel — Amid more bombastic Middle Eastern news, it is easy to forget that the rockets and missiles keep falling here, often on a daily basis. While Israelis were distracted by political machinations in Jerusalem this week, several rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit rural areas in the vicinity of Sderot, a city that has come to symbolize the decade-long rain of projectiles. It is a modest, dusty town in the Negev desert that has been on the receiving end of thousands of explosives launched from Gaza over the years. More than 400 rockets and missiles have been lobbed into southern Israel so far this year alone. But the bombs, it seems, don’t keep people away...
The rockets themselves are hardware-store marvels, improvised from pipes sent to Gaza from Israel for the purpose of construction projects, fertilizer, sugar and homemade TNT. Small wings are soldered to their ends, and the contraptions are sealed off with remarkably sturdy cement plugs.
In the past eight years, 11 of Sderot’s 22,000 citizens have died as a result of direct hits, and hundreds have been hurt. [while according to B’Tselem 3,336 Gazans have been killed by Israel since mid-2004, 1390 of them in the assault on Gaza 27 Dec 2007-18 Jan 2009 and 245 of them since then.]
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/15/troubled_israeli_town_revives/singleton/

BDS

Disney family member renounces her investments in Israel’s Ahava cosmetics
Haaretz 16 July — Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, who co-founded The Walt Disney Company with his brother Walt, says she disclaims Ahava investment because it is located in an ’Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.’ ... Disney announced Monday that she will donate the profits and a sum equal to the worth of her shares to "organizations working to end this illegal exploitation."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/disney-family-member-renounces-her-investments-in-israel-s-ahava-cosmetics-1.451506

No municipal contracts for Veolia as long as it keeps the occupation moving
Mondoweiss 16 July by Deppan Webber — The above map shows that the Veolia bus #7 runs from Israel across the Green Line and into the West Bank settlement of Modi’in Illit. The map is available online on the Connex website as of July 16, 2012. Under the Rome Statute of 1998, The International Criminal Court defined the following act as a war crime: "The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory." Veolia’s participation in serving the Israeli civilian population in the West Bank is clearly a grave violation of human rights, and according to international law the company may be actively participating in the facilitation of a war crime.
Veolia currently operates 253 facilities in the US, and activists around the world are pressuring their local authorities to disqualify Veolia from eligibility for public service contracts. To start a campaign against municipal contracts with Veolia in your area visit www.wedivest.org/learn-more/veolia
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/07/no-municipal-contracts-for-veolia-as-long-as-it-keeps-the-occupation-moving.html

Political / Economic / Diplomatic news

Minister: Govt salaries will be paid when Saudi aid arrives
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 16 July — PA Finance Minister Nabil Qassis said Monday that the ministry will pay the remainder of overdue government salaries as soon as pledged aid from Saudi Arabia arrives. Saudi Arabia agreed to donate $100 million to the Palestinian Authority after President Mahmoud Abbas met the country’s king on Friday, amid a severe financial crisis within the West Bank government. PA officials describe the Saudi payment as imminent ... The government has yet to pay full salaries for June, last week providing emergency measures through payments for low-paid employees and partial salaries to others ...
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=505062

Envoy: Arab League summit to address PA financial woes
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 July — A Palestinian envoy said Sunday that next week’s Arab League summit will activate regular payments from the region to the Palestinian Authority, offsetting the government’s financial crisis. The Arab peace initiative follow-up committee will meet in Doha, Qatar on July 22 at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, an Arab League official said Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504512

France stresses its support of Palestinian economy
KHAN YOUNIS/GAZA (WAFA) 16 July — The Consul General of France in Jerusalem, Frederic Desagneaux, Sunday, during a project workshop funded by France in Gaza, stressed his country’s exerted effort to support the Palestinian national economy and its private sector. Desagneaux called on the private sector to benefit from the project’s grant in order to develop the Palestinian economy, particularly the private sector. He stressed that they will work on removing all obstacles facing the implementation of this project.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20269

Fatah MP Abu Bakr accuses PA finance ministry of corruption
RAMALLAH (PIC) 15 July — Fatah lawmaker Najat Abu Bakr accused the de facto ministry of finance in Ramallah city of corruption and administrative abuse, and demanded the Palestinian authority (PA) to form an inquiry committee to probe the financial infringements. MP Abu Bakr said she obtained documents proving that two men only in the PA ministry of finance control the financial decision-making inside the ministry, especially with regard to the grants and tax breaks for big companies.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Mashaal leads Hamas delegation to Morocco
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 July — Hamas chief in exile Khalid Mashaal led a delegation to Morocco on Sunday, meeting with government officials, a statement said ... The Hamas delegation was invited to participate in the seventh national conference of the justice and development party, the ruling party in Morocco.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504723

PNI launches second phase of Israel boycott campaign
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 14 July — The Palestinian National Initiative launched a second stage of its ’Bader’ campaign to boycott Israeli products in cities across the occupied territories. Under the slogan "break your chains on your own," PNI leader Mustafa Barghouti said the second stage of the campaign would target Israeli products. He says the campaign already reduced consumption of Tapuzina juices by 70 percent in the West Bank. At a news conference in front of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, Barghouti said Israel sells about $4 billion worth of products in the Palestinian territories, which is its second foreign market after Europe. He told reporters that the campaign aimed to "balance the scales" to benefit the Palestinian cause and "that won’t happen without escalating Palestinian popular resistance to punish Israel." Even a 10 percent reduction in the consumption of Israeli products would add 100,000 jobs to the Palestinian economy, he said, noting that unemployment hovers at about 40 percent for new graduates.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=504333

Israeli Racism / Sexism / Discrimination

Premier Palestinian medical school graduates struggle to work in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (WaPo) 16 July — Basel Nassar, a young Palestinian doctor from this city, is not allowed to practice medicine here. So instead, he flew to Houston last week to take the last phase of a licensing exam that will qualify him to work in the United States. "I am forced to do this," Nassar, 33, said on the eve of his departure. "Israel is so close, but it is making trouble for us for some trivial reason. I can’t work 15 minutes from my house, where they accepted me in a specialty I was dreaming to get. I simply can’t understand it." Nassar’s predicament, shared by dozens of Palestinian doctors from East Jerusalem, is the result of a bureaucratic impasse linked to the long-standing struggle over this contested city. The doctors in question received their medical degrees from Al-Quds University, a prominent Palestinian institution of higher learning. Although it is the leading Arab university in the Jerusalem metropolitan area, graduates of its medical school are not allowed to take the Israeli licensing exam needed to work in the city. As a result, a heavily burdened health-care system in the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, where specialists are sorely lacking, is deprived of an infusion of new physicians to help serve a population of some 300,000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/premier-palestinian-medical-school-graduates-struggle-to-work-in-jerusalem/2012/07/15/gJQAlzpDoW_story.html

Palestinian journalists balk at strip search
Jerusalem (AP) 16 July — A Palestinian journalist says he and three colleagues trying to cover U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s news conference walked away after being asked to drop their pants in an Israeli security check. The Palestinian journalists were invited to Monday’s event by the U.S. consulate, which sent a staffer to guide them through security. Mohammed Abu Khdeir of the Al Quds newspaper says Israeli and foreign journalists were not asked to strip.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018700213_apmlisraelsecuritycheck.html?syndication=rss

Photoblog — Racism in Israel: People call us slaves
Al Akhbar 16 July
http://english.al-akhbar.com/photoblogs/racism-israel-people-call-us-slaves

Majority of Israelis support sending migrants home
JPost 15 July — A survey published in the current edition of The Jerusalem Report reveals that an overwhelming majority of Israelis support government plans to send illegal migrants back to their countries of origin. The poll was carried out in late June after a series of demonstrations against the migrant workers in Tel Aviv, some of which turned violent ... In response to the question, "Do you support or oppose the expulsion of the African infiltrators?" 75% of Israelis, an unambiguous majority, support the government policy even when it is described using the loaded term ’expulsion’.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=277494&R=R2

Pilot’s assault on Air Force base causes uproar
Ynet 16 July — Major A attacked in Ramat David by three soldiers over driving complaint, but they claim their attack was in response to racist remarks
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4256194,00.html

Knesset committee approves bill ensuring equal pay for women
Haaretz 16 July — Bill would allow women to sue employers retroactively for up to five years of back pay in cases where men were paid more for doing the same job.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/knesset-committee-approves-bill-ensuring-equal-pay-for-women-1.451495

Other news

Jewish leaders criticize West Bank report
JERUSALEM (AP) 16 July — Dozens of American Jewish leaders and scholars have made a rare appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to make sure his government rejects a controversial report that denies Israel is occupying the West Bank. In a letter to Netanyahu, more than 40 prominent Jewish figures predicted the report authored by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy would tarnish Israel’s image and jeopardize prospects for peace with the Palestinians ... Signatories included businessmen and philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Stanley Gold, the former head of the Israel lobby in Washington, Tom Dine, and former Jewish Agency board chairman Richard Pearlstone.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-jewish-leaders-criticize-west-bank-report-132026196.html

Violations of media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories during June 2012
PNN 12 July — Media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories suffered a setback in June 2012, due to Israel’s continued policy of targeting journalists, and due to fading hopes for the implementation of the Palestinian reconciliation agreements, which was reflected negatively on media freedoms, and the violations committed against journalists by various parties continued last month. The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) monitored the disturbing violations against journalists — most notably the Israeli occupation’s on-going policy of arresting journalists, extending their administrative detention and preventing them from covering events. On the Palestinian side, the level of media freedoms fell for the second consecutive month, due to violations committed by various Palestinian parties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/human-rights/2166-violations-of-media-freedoms-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territories-during-june-2012

’You’re dead’ daubed near Peace Now activist’s flat
Ynet 16 July — The words "Hagit, you’re dead" and "Kahane was right" were daubed near the apartment of Hagit Ofran, the director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project ... Ofran says she is not deterred by the threats. "I think extreme rightists are trying to frighten us, but we — the Peace Now activists — are not scared. Unfortunately, they are succeeding in scaring the government and the State Prosecutor’s office," she said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4256288,00.html

J’lem bus station stops security checks at entrance
JPost 16 July — For 1st time since bus station opened over a decade ago, security guards will no longer check every passenger with a metal detector ... Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said the bus station security would focus more on profiling passengers and being selective with security checks.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=277621&R=R2

Israeli film depicting life of Bedouin family takes honors at Jerusalem film festival
Haaretz 16 July — Ami Livne’s ’Sharqiya’ wins three prizes; ’Five Broken Cameras’ — jointly directed by Palestinian and Israeli directors — chosen as best documentary ... ’Sharqiya’ follows a Bedouin (Adnan Abu Vadi) living in an unrecognized village in the Negev who is informed that the authorities plan to demolish his home. "This film began from nothing, was filmed with an almost nonexistent budget, and it’s amazing that it made it to here," Livne said after receiving the award. "I hope it will get enough exposure, perhaps bring about a change in attitudes concerning the Bedouin living here and help make Israel a better place to live in, for everyone," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/israeli-film-depicting-life-of-bedouin-family-takes-honors-at-jerusalem-film-festival-1.451273

Analysis / Opinion

Hani Al-Hassan: 1938-2012 / Khalid Amayreh
PNN 15 July — After a long battle with illness, Hani Al-Hassan, the prominent Fatah leader, died in Amman last week aged 74, leaving a rich legacy of struggle and resistance against the colonialist Israeli regime that occupied his country and drove him away from his childhood village at the age of 10. Born at the village of Ijzem near Haifa into an educated and well-to-do family, Al-Hassan couldn’t come to terms with being rendered a refugee. Like many Palestinians of his time, he joined the Fatah movement, which he hoped would liberate historic Palestine from "Zionist gangs". He lived in an environment where faithfulness and loyalty to the homeland was a sublime religious duty. His father, Said Al-Hassan, was the preacher at the Istiglal Mosque in Haifa who had been warning Palestinians and Arabs about the looming danger of the Zionist movement, for which he earned the wrath of the British colonialist authorities.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/2187-hani-al-hassan-1938-2012

The Turkey and Gaza relationship
MEMO 16 July — There were no economic, commercial, military or political ties between Turkey and the Gaza Strip before 2006. It seems that the ongoing humanitarian crisis has encouraged Turkey to put the beleaguered territory at the centre of its interests in the area since the start of Israel’s siege ... Turkey’s Prime Minster, Recep Tayyep Erdogan triggered his country’s relationship with Gaza when he announced his support for the right of Hamas to form a Palestinian government as a freely elected movement. That stance was rejected by the Ramallah PA, Arab regimes and international bodies. The former Egyptian president explicitly called for Turkey to stay away from Arab affairs. The savage Israeli war against Gaza in 2008/2009 was a turning point in the political relationship between Gaza and Ankara. In the face of international hostility and the unbelievable Arab and Islamic world’s silence, Turkey took the role of defender of the Palestinians at international summits.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/3992-the-turkey-and-gaza-relationship