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Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid

Documents: Israel used Waqf land to build settlements, separation fence

Haaretz 5 Aug by Akiva Eldar — Land belonging to the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust, has been transferred over the decades to settlements and the separation fence, according to Waqf documents and maps compiled by the Israel Defense Forces’ Civil Administration. The Palestinian Authority and Waqf are trying to get these lands back, an official from the PA’s Interior Ministry has told Haaretz. The plots in question were transferred between 1967 and 2008 and are located mostly in the Jericho area.
The Civil Administration’s maps have been obtained by settlements researcher Dror Etkes following a long legal battle. They show that the Waqf area within land under full Israeli control near Jericho totals 37,000 dunams. Jewish homes and public facilities have been built on some of this land. The land was registered under proper land-registry procedures before the Six-Day War.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/documents-israel-used-waqf-land-to-build-settlements-separation-fence.premium-1.455936

Witnesses: Israeli forces move military checkpoint, annex land
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 5 Aug — Israeli forces moved part a military checkpoint on Sunday near the Bethlehem village of al-Khader, witnesses said. Eyewitnesses told Ma‘an that a checkpoint at the entrance to Newe Daniyyel settlement, built on private Palestinian land, was moved around 400 meters, effectively annexing around 300 dunams [75 acres] of land. Farmers will no longer be able access their fields, an area equivalent to 3,000 sq. meters.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510050

Israel whitewashes its ethnic cleansing with plans to ’help’ Bedouins
JVS 4 Aug — The Israeli Military Administration has announced plans to create “a number of rest areas on the route to Jericho for Bedouins, tourists and travellers to have a break on the road”. This is strange news coming from a state which is constantly demolishing and destroying the homes and animal shelters of these very same Bedouins they claim they want to help. Bedouins of the Jordan Valley are subject to daily harassment and violence from Israeli Occupation Forces and settlers. They are surrounded by checkpoints, watchtowers, military bases. They are denied access to water, electricity, freedom of movement and are frequently forced off their land by Israeli’s in order to expand illegal settlements.
http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=478

EU urges Israel to re-open closed Jerusalemite institutions
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 4 Aug — Diplomatic missions of the European Union in Jerusalem and Ramallah have expressed disappointment at the Israeli decision to renew closure of Palestinian institutions in occupied eastern Jerusalem especially the chamber of commerce and the Orient House. A statement for those missions said that the Palestinian institutions have been closed for the past 11 years and they should be reopened to perform their vital role in service of the Palestinian people in eastern Jerusalem in accordance with the Roadmap plan. The statement expressed concern at the Israeli reasons for maintaining those institutions closed and urged Israel to re-consider its decision and to allow those institutions to function.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Settlers install locked gate to Silwan Spring
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 28 July — Confrontations broke out in the Ein Silwan area on Monday evening, 23 July, when Palestinian residents of Silwan removed a barrier installed by settlers at the southern entrance to Silwan Spring. Israeli settlers had installed the locked steel gate to Silwan Spring that day during the quiet hours of a Ramadan afternoon, claiming that the Imam of Ein Silwan Mosque would be given keys to the gate — a claim refuted by the local Islamic council. Residents responded by attempting to dislodge the gate themselves, which Israeli forces responded to by attacking them with sound grenades. Clashes erupted, with residents throwing stones at Israeli troops ... The northern entrance to the site is already under settler control, and can only be accessed by Israeli settlers and tourists. Palestinians entering through the southern entrance are often subjected to settler harassment.
http://silwanic.net/?p=27753

Watch: Olive trees uprooted near Havot Ma’on
Rabbis for Human Rights— More and more Olive trees been destroyed by Havat Maon’s settlers in South Hebron Hills (4.8.2012)
http://rhr.org.il/eng/index.php/2012/08/olive-trees-uprooted-near-havat-maon/

Traditional stone walls help protect Palestinian land
EIN YABRUD, Palestinian Territories, Aug 6, 2012 (AFP) by Hossam Ezzedine — It has taken four years for Amer Dahabreh to build a traditional stone wall around his land, in what appears to be the ideal solution for protecting it from Jewish settlers. Within the safety of this stone enclosure, this 60-year-old farmer grows apricots, grapes, peaches and courgettes in the village of Ein Yabrud, which is overlooked by the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Ofra. The village is located in Area C, an area under total Israeli control which comprises some 60 percent of the West Bank. "The idea of these enclosures was handed down to us by our ancestors; they were put up to protect the land," explains Dahabreh, who owns an 80-dunum (eight-hectare/20-acre) plot of land. "I think that the moment has come for all Palestinians to take an interest in building them because it is the ideal solution," he told AFP. In the West Bank, Palestinian farmland that appears to be left untended can become a target for Jewish settlers looking to expand a nearby settlement or for creating a new outpost.
http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/traditional-stone-walls-help-protect-palestinian-land

Welcome to Nazareth / Jonathan Cook
August — ...Like all Israel’s Palestinian citizens in the aftermath of 1948, Nazarenes lived for two decades under military rule. To leave the city for work, or to attend a wedding or funeral, or simply to reach their fields, Nazarenes had to apply for a permit from a military governor — much as Palestinians in the West Bank today find their lives controlled by Israeli military rulers known as the Civil Administration. As in the occupied territories, such permits were issued at a high price, requiring Palestinians to inform and collaborate in return for the privilege of free movement. In these circumstances, it was easy for the government in 1953 to confiscate 1,900 dunams (a dunam is a quarter of an acre) of Nazareth’s farmland to the west of the city, which Nazarenes relied on both for income and as a land reserve for future development and expansion. Such expropriations would become a staple of life over the next three decades as more than 70 per cent of the land belonging to Palestinian communities in Israel was nationalized by the state for the benefit not of its citizens but of Jewry worldwide. Today the state owns 93 per cent of the land, with 2 per cent left under the control of Arab municipalities.
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2012-08-03/jonathan-cook-welcome-to-nazareth/

Violence / Raids / Arrests

Palestinian killed in Tel Aviv shooting
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 3 Aug — A Palestinian from Qalqiliya was shot dead late Thursday in Tel Aviv, residents of his hometown said. Rami Jalal Omar from Azoun village in Qalqiliya was working when unknown assailants opened fire, residents told Ma‘an. The young man was taken to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in critical condition but died shortly after arrival, they said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=509589

Dozens injured including child in Israeli police assault on Jerusalemites
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 5 Aug — A Jerusalemite child, a woman and dozens of young men were injured in violent clashes between inhabitants of Bab El-Amud in occupied Jerusalem and Israeli occupation police on Saturday night. Local sources said that the clashes erupted after Jewish settlers insulted a number of Jerusalemite youths, adding that the Israeli police sided with the settlers and attacked the young men who retaliated throwing stones and vegetables at the policemen. They said that the child and the woman were hospitalized while dozens of young men were hurt in the attack, adding that four young men were arrested by the police.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Several injuries in peaceful marches against settlement in West Bank
RAMALLAH (PIC) 4 Aug — Dozens of Palestinians sustained injuries on Friday when the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked their peaceful marches against the segregation wall and settlement expansion.
In Ramallah, IOF quelled, after Friday prayers, the weekly anti-wall march in Nabi Saleh village that started from the Martyrs’ Square and headed to lands threatened with confiscation. Dozens were wounded when Israeli forces fired a barrage of rubber bullets and tear gas grenades and chemical waste water at the anti-wall march in which villagers and international human rights activists...
A Swiss activist was wounded in her hand after she was hit with a teargas canister and many others suffered suffocation after inhaling tear gas during the weekly anti-wall march of Bil‘in village...
In Bethlehem, southern West Bank, the IOF quelled the popular march that started from the main entrance to the village Al-Asra, under the slogan of boycotting of Israeli products.
In Qalqiliya, dozens of Palestinians were injured, including a press photographer, while dozens of olive trees were burnt during the weekly anti-wall march in Kafer Qaddum village which was marching towards the village’s gate that has been closed for years.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Two killed in crash as army chased their car
IMEMC 6 Aug — Palestinian medical sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported that two residents were killed at midnight Sunday, and two others were injured, after their car crashed while being pursued by Israeli soldiers in Ar-Ramadeen area, near Ath-Thaheriyya town, south of Hebron. Local sources reported that the residents were trying to drive into Israel, where they worked apparently without work permits, but the army noticed their vehicle and chased it. One of the killed residents was identified as Jassem Hussein As-Safi, from Kharsa town, south of Hebron, one of the wounded was identified as Hatem As-Sayyad.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64013

8 injured as settlers stone bus carrying worshipers
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 4 Aug — Eight Palestinians sustained injuries late Friday when Jewish settlers pelted a bus with stones on the main road between Ramallah and Nablus, a Palestinian official said. Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma‘an that settlers from Shilo hurled stones at a bus carrying Palestinian worshipers on their way back from al-Aqsa Mosque. The attack, he said, took place at 1:30 a.m. and eight people including men and women were injured. They were taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, he said. Daghlas highlighted that Israeli military forces closed the main road between Ramallah and Nablus for more than two hours after the incident to prevent further attacks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=509775

Jewish settlers attack Palestinian vehicles near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (PIC) 5 Aug — A gang of Jewish settlers threw rocks on Palestinian cars passing near a settlement outpost near Ramallah on Saturday night wounding a Palestinian man from 1948 occupied Palestine. Hebrew media claimed that the settlers even threw stones at the Israeli police forces that arrived at the scene. Three Palestinians were earlier wounded in a similar attack on a bus they were riding near Shilo settlement between Ramallah and Nablus.
The Israeli radio said in another report that Jewish settlers chopped off 15 olive trees owned by Palestinians near Shuweika village, Tulkarem province, and claimed that the Israeli army was investigating the incident.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Lambs to the settlers’ slaughter, screaming and unheard / Amira Hass
Haaretz 5 Aug — There were more than 50 reports of Israelis assaulting Palestinians in the West Bank last month. In the start of a regular series, Haaretz details one particularly violent attack — There is still a bruise under Ibrahim Bani Jaber’s left eye. The blows his brother Jawdat received to his right ear didn’t leave any marks, but they still make his head feel heavy. During our meeting at their home in the West Bank village of Akraba last week, they did not spend much time describing the fear and pain they felt when they were attacked. Instead, they spoke about the family’s sheep, that they had rushed to try and save that day, July 7, when they heard that settlers were attacking them. The violent confrontation - between settlers from Itamar and Giva 777, and Palestinian residents of Akraba - was the worst such incident last month. But it was, nevertheless, merely part of the daily routine of assaults, attacks and incursions. It is only on rare occasions that these incidents become news. In most cases, if there is an investigation there is no indictment.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lambs-to-the-settlers-slaughter-screaming-and-unheard.premium-1.455937

IOF soldiers round up two Palestinian young men
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 5 Aug — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up two Palestinian young men in Silwad town, in Ramallah governorate, at dawn Sunday. The second Hebrew TV channel said that the two were "wanted" for interrogation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

The release of 2 youths and the extension of the arrest of 2 others
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 4 Aug — Last Sunday, the Magistrates’ Court released 2 youths, Lo‘ai al Reshk and Amer Zidani, and extended the arrest of the released prisoner Samer al Esawi and the 18 year old Ahmad Muhammad Hussen Dirbas. In an interview with the youth Amer Zidani he told us that the Magistrates’ Court released him and Lo‘ai al Reshk but they have to attend the Maskubiye police station and sign weekly. He explained that they were investigated after being suspects in an incident in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at a settlement in Ras al Amoud and an Israeli house in the T’awri neighborhood was burnt.
Zidani told us that they were tested by polygraph ... "...One of the investigators tried to hit me and threatened to imprison me for 4-5 years according to the charges and evidence they have. They claimed that my dad and brother testified against me." Zidani added that the investigator told him that he will investigate further and arrest and charge him again.
The Magistrates’ Court also extended the detention of Ahmad Sarhan until Wednesday, and the released prisoner Samer Al Esawi until next Wednesday, accusing him of breaking the rules of the last Prisoners’ Exchange deal.Samer Al Esawi was arrested on 7.7.12
http://silwanic.net/?p=27882

Detention / Legal action

New regulation may bar migrants, Palestinians from filing lawsuits in Israeli courts
Haaretz 6 Aug — Regulations require anyone filing suit in Israeli court must provide an Israeli ID number or foreign passport number — Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman has signed on regulations that require plaintiffs to cite their Israeli ID numbers or foreign passport numbers on the documents they file. Although the ministry said the cases of individuals such as migrant workers, Palestinian residents of the territories and stateless individuals who have no passport will be referred to a registrar or judge, civil rights activists say the new regulation will bar those without foreign passports from filing lawsuits in Israeli courts. The regulations, ... are to take effect on September 1
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/new-regulation-may-bar-migrants-palestinians-from-filing-lawsuits-in-israeli-courts.premium-1.456170

Detainee Aisawi on hunger strike to protest his incarceration
RAMALLAH (PIC) 5 Aug — Detainee Samer Al-Aisawi went on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment in Israeli occupation jails anew despite his release in the Wafa Al-Ahrar deal a few months ago. The Palestine prisoners’ center for studies said in a statement that Aisawi, 33, who was arrested 28 days ago started his hunger strike on 2nd of August. Aisawi was released in the exchange deal after serving ten years of his sentence, the center said, noting that he joined Ayman Sharawne, who has been on hunger strike for 35 days protesting his re-arrest on the part of the Israeli occupation forces.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF storm 60-year-old Abu Hadid’s house a few hours after his release
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 4 Aug — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided the house of liberated prisoner Haj Hussein Abu Hadid, 60, in Al-Khalil, after less than six hours from his release from the Israeli prisons after serving five months in administrative detention. Abu Hadid’s family told the PIC that shortly after the release of Abu Iyad Abu Hadid on Friday, a large force of the occupation army surrounded the house. Soldiers with sniffer dogs broke into the house and started searching it and spoiling furniture and other belongings. "The soldiers searched the house for three hours claiming they were looking for banned substances", added the family.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Report: 66 prisoners held in Israeli jails for over 20 years
GAZA August 4, 2012 (WAFA) – Three Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails joined the list of prisoners who have been in prison for more than 20 consecutive years bringing the total number of prisoners imprisoned for over 20 years to 66, according to a report published on Saturday. Abdul Nasser Ferwaneh, a researcher specialized in prisoners’ affairs, said there are 113 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who were arrested before the 1994 signing of the Oslo accords including one from the Golan Heights, 60 from the West Bank, 10 from Jerusalem, 28 from Gaza, and 14 Palestinians from inside Israel.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20395

Gaza / Sinai

Medics: Israeli airstrike kills man in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Aug — One man was killed and another wounded by an Israeli airstrike targeting a motorbike in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medics said. Abed Okel Hijazi, 22, was killed in the strike west of Rafah, director of ambulance and emergency services Yahya Said Khader told Ma‘an. Hospital officials said they identified the dead man as a former member of the Popular Resistance Committees militant group who had shifted allegiance to "Magles Shoura al-Mujahddin", among Salafi factions that are a fringe presence in Hamas-ruled Gaza. A group by the same name took responsibility for a guerrilla raid from the Egyptian Sinai into Israel in June which killed an Israeli who was helping erect a border fence.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510152

Dozens of rockets fired at south
Ynet 5 Aug — Hours after the Air Force strikes targets in Gaza, several rockets were fired from the Strip at the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damages have been reported. The residents have been instructed to stay indoors and Road 232 has been closed to traffic. Palestinian sources reported that IDF tanks responded to the rockets by firing at the launching areas near Dahaniya International Airport in the southern Gaza Strip. They further reported that there is heavy helicopter aerial traffic east of the Raffah crossing and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4264824,00.html

Egypt says border attack undertaken by Gaza, Sinai militants
CAIRO (Reuters) 5 Aug — The attack on an Egyptian police station on the Israeli border on Sunday was staged by militants who infiltrated from Gaza through tunnels and others from the Sinai region, an Egyptian security official was quoted as saying by the state news agency. At least 15 Egyptian policemen were killed in the attack. "Jihadist elements who infiltrated from Gaza through tunnels, in collaboration with jihadist elements from the regions of Al-Mahdia and Jebel El Halal, attacked a border point on the eastern border," the official was quoted as saying by the MENA news agency. The official said the militants tried to escape to Gaza using two cars after the attack, but were "dealt with", MENA said, without adding any further details.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510250

Hamas condemns deadly attack on Egypt police station
GAZA CITY (Reuters) 6 Aug — Hamas condemned an attack on an Egyptian border post that killed about 15 people on Sunday. The attack took place near the border crossing where the Egyptian, Israeli and Gazan frontiers converge. "Hamas condemns this ugly crime which killed a number of Egyptian soldiers and extends its deep condolences to the families of the victims and to the leadership and the people of Egypt," the Islamist group said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510251

PFLP strongly denounces criminal killings of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai
Commenting on the criminal assault on Egyptian soldiers in Sinai this evening, Sunday August 5, 2012, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and its armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, expressed their strongest condemnation of this heinous crime, which killed at least 13 and wounded a number of Egyptian soldiers. The Front emphasized that Egyptian Arab blood is precious and that the Palestinian people will never forget the thousands of Egyptian martyrs who gave their lives for the Arab cause and Palestinian liberation, whose blood mixed with the martyrs of the Palestinian people.
http://pflp.ps/english/2012/08/pflp-strongly-denounces-criminal-killings-of-egyptian-soldiers-in-the-sinai/

Report: Egypt closes Gaza border after attack on Sinai police station
CAIRO (Reuters) 6 Aug — An Egyptian security source said on Sunday the Rafah border crossing with Gaza had been closed indefinitely, the state news agency MENA reported, after an attack on a police station in Sinai killed at least 15 officers. "A security official announced on Sunday evening that the Rafah land port had been closed for cases of travel and arrivals indefinitely. This comes in the wake of the attack by gunmen on a border checkpoint in Rafah in Sinai," MENA said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510249

Israel calls on Egypt to tighten security in Sinai
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 6 Aug — Israel’s defense minister called on Cairo to assert control over the Sinai peninsula after militants attacked an Egyptian border post on Sunday, killing about 15 people, and drove two vehicles through a border-crossing with Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510253

Hamad: Egypt considering the creation of a trade exchange zone with Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 5 Aug — Palestinian deputy minister of foreign affairs Ghazi Hamad said the establishment of a trade exchange zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is still being studied by the Egyptian side. Hamad stated in a press release on Saturday that the presence of such trade zone would liberate Gaza from its dependence on the Israeli economy.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israel detains Gaza patients
Gaza (GulfNews) 3 Aug — The Israeli occupation authorities persist in continuing their policy of extorting Gaza patients who have no other option but going through the Israeli state in order to leave the besieged strip and receive medical treatment in the hospitals of the West Bank. According to many human rights organisations in Gaza strip, many of the patients who leave Gaza through the Israeli gates face obstacles, harassments and are sometimes detained by the Israeli security.
One of the latest patients detained by the Israeli security forces was, Wael Al Tawel, 40 years old. His wife, Om Kamil Al Tawel, said: "I don’t know why my husband was arrested. He is a sick man whose only desire is to receive his medical treatment and return back to Gaza." ... Mr Khalil Abu Shamala, the head of Al Dameer for Human rights said: Mr AL Tawel received a permit permission from the Israeli side to receive medical treatment in AL Maqasid charity hospital in Jerusalem. Why would they give this man the permission in the first place if they felt like he was a threat?
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/israel-detains-gaza-patients-1.1056691

Drinking the sea in Gaza
PNN 3 Aug By Karl Schembri/Oxfam — As the blockade entered its sixth year, the 1.6 million population of the Gaza Strip is spending as much as a third of household income on drinking water, creating hardships and health risks for the poorest who cannot afford to buy water from vendors. For the latter, the only option is private and agricultural wells that are mostly polluted. The situation is particularly precarious for Gaza‟s children, who make up around half of the enclave‟s population and for whom particular public health threats from unsafe water have been identified. Gaza’s sole water source, the aquifer, is contaminated with dangerous levels of chlorides, nitrates and other pollutants, some far in excess of WHO guideline values, the result of long-standing water-security, sanitation and environmental crises. Also, with sea water seeping into the aquifer as more underground water is extracted, most of the water reaching households is salinated.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/2353-drinking-the-sea-in-gaza

How Israel’s siege on Gaza killed my sister / Yousef M. Aljamal
Pal. Chron. 3 Aug — ...She had a problem with her gallbladder. She had to undergo surgery. The operation was described as ’simple’ by doctors, yet some of the equipment needed for it was not available in Gaza hospitals. She applied to get a permit to travel to Jerusalem to have it there, but she was denied entry under the pretext of her being a security threat to Israel. My 26-year-old sister was a security threat to Israel. A security threat. It took her almost a week to learn that she was denied entry. Poison started to spread in her body through the veins. Her skin turned yellow, literally. I was shocked as I saw yellow invading her body when I went to visit her at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. The Rafah crossing — which separates Gaza from Egypt — was closed most of the time by then as Fatah and Hamas loyalists were fighting in Gaza. The European Union team which had been monitoring the crossing suspended its mission as the entire coastal enclave went into chaos. The crossing was finally opened one last time before Hamas took over the administration of Gaza. My sister, along with my dad and aunt, managed to cross into Egypt in an ambulance. Too Late I talked to her a day before I sat my information technology exam. Her voice sounded like that of someone talking from a deep hole. It was too late. My eldest sister passed away days later in Cairo.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19460

Refugees

Opinion: If Palestinians disappear, who cares? / Osama Qashoo
Ma’an 5 Aug — On June 21, 27 and 29, three asylum seeker vessels heading from the port of Pelabuhan Ratu on the south-eastern coast of Java, a popular embarkation point for Australia’s coast, disappeared. The boats were overladen with men, women and children desperately seeking a new life when they sank.
Such tragedies are all too common in the world of people smuggling. But this horror has an extra dimension to it, as the majority of the missing passengers were Palestinian refugees. This has led to a cruel fiasco of disinterest from all the regional authorities, who, even 30 days after the disappearance have failed to send out any search party for the missing. The trail of disinterest spreads from the Australian government right the way to the Palestinian Authority itself.
Whilst other families of the missing have received some contact and support from the authorities, the Palestinian families, in Iraqi refugee camps, are still left without news of their relatives. Some 28 Palestinians were in the boats believed to have sunk between Indonesia and Australia.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=509888

Palestinians send aid to refugee camps in Syria
RAMALLAH (Reuters) 5 Aug — An aid convoy left Ramallah on Sunday carrying food and medicine in a symbol of support for Palestinian refugees caught up in the crisis in Syria. "Today the first convoy will leave from here, from the West Bank, from Palestinian soil towards Syria," President Mahmoud Abbas said at a press event marking the event. An official donations drive netted around $650,000 worth of food and medical aid from Palestinian companies, businessmen, and individuals during the charitable month of Ramadan. A one percent cut of salaries from the Palestinian Authority’s cash-strapped public sector went toward the convoy.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510167

600 Palestinian families from Syria arrive in Lebanon
BEIRUT (AFP) 5 Aug — Some 600 Palestinian families have arrived in Lebanon from Syria, most of them fleeing violence at the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus, a Palestinian official in Lebanon said on Sunday. "Some 600 Palestinian families have arrived in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps in the past three days," said Marwan Abdel Aal of the Lebanese branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. "Most of these families came from Yarmuk camp," he added. On Thursday, 21 people were killed in Yarmuk when regime forces shelled the area, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights."Most of the families have sought shelter in the Jalil and Taalabaya camps in the Bekaa region" of eastern Lebanon, Abdel Aal told AFP. "Another 50 families went to Nahr al-Bared (north Lebanon), 28 went to Baddawi (north), while the rest went to Ain al-Hilweh near Sidon," in south Lebanon, he added ... The Palestinian official said there were fears that more families would make their way to Lebanon in the coming days. "There are still families on the Syrian side of the border, waiting for permission from the Syrian authorities to cross over," Abdel Aal said. He went on to say that once in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees residing in Syria faced another difficulty, as they only have the right to remain in Lebanon for one week.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/39539/600-palestinian-families-from-syria-arrive-in-lebanon

BADIL issues letter to UN urging the protection of Palestinian refugees
PNN 4 Aug — Yesterday BADIL, the Resource Centre for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights, issued a letter to the UN agencies in Syria to do more to protect Palestinian refugees. Since the outbreak of fighting in Syria 16 months ago more than 1,500,000 people have been displaced, many of whom have sought refugee in neighbouring countries Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. Syria’s Palestinian refugee population, which at number roughly 500,000 have been particularly vulnerable. Their status as Palestinian refugees means that they are treated with suspicion by neighbouring countries and in some instances they have either been denied asylum or returned back to Syria in violation of the prohibition against non-refoulement. The refugee rights group have urged the UN to: 1. Highlight the plight of the Palestinian refugees who are enduring forced displacement as a result of the conflict in Syria;....
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/human-rights/2368-badil-issues-letter-to-un-urging-the-protection-of-palestinian-refugees

Activism / Solidarity / BDS

Promoter who raised money for Israeli army to hold Lollapalooza on ruins of Palestinian village
EI 5 Aug by Benjamin Doherty — Lollapalooza, the corporate concert franchise founded by Jane’s Addiction frontman, pro-Israeli fundraiser and activist Perry Farrell, is to launch in Tel Aviv in August 2013. The lineup will be announced in January 2013 according to Haaretz. Farrell previously raised money for Israeli army soldiers during Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The Lollapalooza music festival — held annually in Chicago — is run by the company of noted Hollywood agent and brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It will also be held next year in an Israeli park built over the ruins of the Palestinian village of Jarisha whose residents were forced to flee their homes under attack by Zionist militias in 1948.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/benjamin-doherty/promoter-who-raised-money-israeli-army-hold-lollapalooza-ruins-palestinian

Join IFPB African heritage delegation to Palestine/Israel
ETO 31 July — In 2011 Interfaith Peace-Builders, a US Campaign member group, sent their first ever African Heritage Delegation to Israel/Palestine. Based on its success and the feedback from the 14 participants, they will send another African Heritage Delegation from October 21-November 3, 2012. Your on the ground experience will enrich your understanding of the conflict as you meet courageous Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and justice, and witness the current realities of life in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Participants on IFPB delegations return to North America energized and transformed. Apply today Applications due August 15.
http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2012/07/join-ifpb-african-heritage-delegation.html

Political / Economic news

Israel bars foreign envoys from West Bank meeting
JERUSALEM (NY Times) by Jodi Rudoren — Israel on Sunday barred the delegations of five countries from attending a diplomatic conference in Ramallah, in the West Bank, upending plans by the Palestinian president to announce his intention to renew the Palestinians’ bid this September for enhanced status in the United Nations. A senior Israeli official said the delegations — from Algeria, Bangladesh, Cuba, Indonesia and Malaysia — were denied permission to use Israeli border crossings because their governments do not recognize the state of Israel. Palestinian officials said the delegations had planned to enter on a helicopter from Jordan, and called the decision "childish," "crude," "irresponsible" and "blackmail," saying it symbolized the larger problem with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank territories it seized in 1967.
"Israel is really trying to not just lay a physical siege but also a political siege," said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "We need to be able to move, to breathe, to act as a member of the community of nations. We cannot constantly be under the boot."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/world/middleeast/israel-bars-foreign-envoys-from-west-bank-meeting.html

Egypt condemns Israel denying non-aligned countries entry to Palestine
AMMAN, August 5, 2012 (WAFA) – Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr Sunday condemned Israel’s prevention of four countries from attending the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Ramallah through denying them entry to the Palestinian Territory ... He said that Israel’s decision contradicts with the international law, pointing out that the committee will not give in and will hold the meeting only in the Palestinian Territory to support the Palestinian people.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20408

Al-Malki: Barred envoys to meet in Amman
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 5 Aug — The Non-Aligned Movement committee on Palestine will hold a press conference in Amman on Sunday after Israel denied entry to four foreign ministers and ambassadors, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister said ... Al-Malki said that by preventing the Ramallah conference, Israel had strengthened the committee’s determination to support the Palestinian cause.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510211

UN envoy ’regrets’ Israeli ban on foreign ministers
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) 5 Aug — The UN Middle East envoy on Sunday urged Israel to reconsider its decision to bar four foreign ministers and ambassadors from attending a conference in Ramallah. "I regret the decision by the Government of Israel to bar the Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, Cuba, Indonesia and Malaysia access to the West Bank to attend the extra-ordinary meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement’s Committee on Palestine," Robert Serry said in a statement. "Denying the Palestinian Authority the ability to engage with members of the International Community in Area A, is yet another step that contradicts the credibility of the Oslo arrangements, which affirm the Palestinian right of self-government," Serry said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510229

Israel sees UN majority for Palestine status upgrade
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 5 Aug — The Palestinian bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations would find majority support but would not bring them closer to statehood and peace with Israel, Israel’s UN envoy said on Sunday. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told reporters in Ramallah on Saturday that President Abbas would make the status request in a speech in September ... A simple majority vote in the 193-member General Assembly would be enough to bestow non-member observer status, bypassing the Security Council - where the United States, Israel’s ally, has a veto. "We are looking forward to getting 180 votes," Malki said. "We will become a non-member (observer) state in 2012." Such status, akin to the Vatican’s, would be an indirect recognition of their claims on statehood in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. It would allow them to join a number of UN agencies, as well as the International Criminal Court. Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, accused the Palestinians of trying to recapture international attention that has shifted to crises in Iran, Egypt and Syria.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510019

CEC: Voter registration opens in West Bank
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 5 Aug — ...At a news conference in Ramallah, Hanna Nasser said 754 voter registration centers would be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday until Thursday. Nasser added that he hoped it would be the last time he announced the start of local elections, which are overdue and have been stalled by the infighting between Hamas and Fatah. Voters will elect representatives in 98 municipal councils, 245 village councils, and 10 local councils in the West Bank, Nasser said. The Jerusalem district will be included but 28 voting centers will be located on the outskirts of the occupied city, and not in East Jerusalem itself, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510110

Nablus protesters denounce PA tax rise plans
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 4 Aug — Dozens of supporters of the Palestinian People’s Party rallied in Nablus on Saturday to protest plans by the Palestinian Authority to raise taxes, especially the value added tax, Ma‘an’s correspondent said. "Our message to the Palestinian government is enough of raising prices and taxes adding more burdens to citizens," PPP member Khalid Mansour said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=509874

Civil institutions call on PA president to ensure thorough investigation in the recent murder case of Nancy Zboun
PNN 4 Aug — The Civil institutions in Bethlehem called on the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form an investigation commission to investigate the negligence in the case of Nancy Zboun, who was killed by her husband on Monday, 30th July. They stressed that it is important to form this commission in order to seek the negligence by the different sides that were responsible for following-up with the case of the victim to ensure that such brutal crimes won’t repeat again. Spokespersons said at a conference, which was held by some of the official institutions and organizations in providing the protection to the victim who was suffering from her husband for more than two years, noting that this negligence led at the end to this crime a day after the man assaulted his wife and the police only made the husband sign a commitment that he won’t assault her again.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/2367-civil-institutions-call-on-pa-president-to-ensure-thorough-investigation-in-the-recent-murder-case-of-nancy-zboun

Escalating crisis in media arena in West Bank and Gaza
PNN 3 Aug — The Palestinian Center For Development & Media Freedoms (MADA) warned of a dramatic deterioration in media arena over the past few days, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank ... The division between Fatah and Hamas has led to a sharp rise in violations against journalists and media organizations in the past few years, and we are worry the new crises will lead to more deterioration of freedom of expression. MADA wants to emphasize the problems must be solved through dialogue, and the two parties must refrain from punishing journalists and media organizations in the differences between them
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/2351-escalating-crisis-in-media-arena-in-west-bank-and-gaza

Palestinian bubble set to burst / Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 5 2012 (IPS) - "It will collapse, and the collapse will be harder when it happens later," says Tareq Sadeq, Palestinian economist and professor at Birzeit University, about the financial bubble building up in the Palestinian Authority government. "It will mean that people will lose their homes. They will lose their cars. They will lose their land sometimes because of the collapse of the bubble. This will affect the whole economy and will also reflect on the Palestinian Authority. So this may be a collapse of the PA itself," Sadeq tells IPS. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced it is facing a funding crisis; it is now relying on donor aid to cover a budget deficit of 1.1 billion dollars and cash shortfall of 500 million dollars. "The Palestinian economy has become more and more dependent on wages, on salaries, for the whole economy, not just for the public sector; around 70 percent of all employees are wage employees. As a result, there is no production in the Palestinian economy. People consume and consume and consume and there is nothing to produce," Sadeq says.
http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/palestinian-bubble-set-burst

Israeli Racism / Discrimination

African diplomats in Israel: We’re afraid to walk down streets
Ynet 5 Aug — In meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon, Ghana’s ambassador says wife gets picked on when she goes shopping — ...The meeting, which was attended by the ambassadors of Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast, was recently held in the Foreign Ministry’s offices in Jerusalem, Yedioth Ahronoth reported ... According to the foreign diplomats, the racial slurs directed at them harm Israel’s public image in Africa. They emphasized Israel’s right to deport foreign migrants, but asked that the issue be dealt with in a humane manner.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4264527,00.html

Financial woes push Israel’s only shelter for Arab sex abuse victims to the brink
Haaretz 5 Aug — Israel’s only facility for Arab victims of sexual abuse faces closure after the Social Affairs Ministry refused to confirm its annual budget allocation. The Haifa Crisis Center is operated by the nonprofit organization Assiwa. Ministry officials contend the funds are being withheld because the center neglected to furnish documentation attesting to its proper financial management ... Workers at the NPO insist that the delay in supplying sound-management authentication stems from technical matters and bureaucracy - that is, from factors beyond its control.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/financial-woes-push-israel-s-only-shelter-for-arab-sex-abuse-victims-to-the-brink.premium-1.455935

Deportation from Israel puts an end to high school hoop dreams of South Sudan migrants
Haaretz 5 Aug — More than 30 pupils of Bialik-Rogozin High School were recently deported to South Sudan, among them five young women who played on the school’s basketball team. The five were the heart and soul of the team, which now consists of only seven players, and its future is uncertain ... At the end of last year Ginosar entered the team in the Education Ministry’s school league ... But Ginosar ran into problems when he tried to place the girls on one of the teams. Association regulations allow only two players without Israeli citizenship on any one team.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/deportation-from-israel-puts-an-end-to-high-school-hoop-dreams-of-south-sudan-migrants.premium-1.456128

Other news

New social networking game IDF Ranks enables spread of IDF propaganda
PNN 5 Aug — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) has taken its public relations battle to a new level in recent times amidst a drastic shift in public opinion regarding Israel and its appalling human rights record. The IOF have launched an online game, entitled IOF Ranks, aimed at "correcting misinformation" and spreading an IOF-friendly version of political reality around the Internet. "Want to help fight the misinformation about Israel and the IOF online?" the IOF website reads."Well; now you can. Here at the IDF Blog you can joinIOF Ranks – the ultimate virtual army."
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/politics/2369-new-social-networking-game-idf-ranks-enables-spread-of-idf-propaganda-online

Israel upgrades Arrow2 anti-missile system
Reuters 5 Aug — Accuracy, reach of ballistic missile shield to improve, senior Israeli defense official says — Israel is upgrading its Arrow II ballistic missile shield in a US-backed "race" against Iran, Syria and other regional enemies, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday. The new "Block 4" generation of guided interceptor rockets, radars and technologies for synchronizing Arrow with US systems was being installed in deployed Israeli batteries, a process that would take several weeks, the official said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4264560,00.html

Iran TV airs confessions in murder of scientists
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) 7 Aug — Iranian state television on Sunday broadcast purported confessions by more than a dozen suspects in connection with the killing of five nuclear scientists since 2010. The broadcast showed some of the suspects re-enacting the assassinations in different districts of the capital Tehran. The 14 suspects shown on TV included eight men and six women. The TV showed pictures from a military garrison it said was a training camp outside Tel Aviv in Israel. It said the suspects took courses there, including how to place magnetic bombs on cars — the method used in the killing of the scientists.
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-tv-airs-confessions-murder-scientists-193352506.html

Analysis / Opinion / Human interest

Haitham al-Khatib’s wonderful photos of Palestinian kids
see more at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Images-From-Palestine/431256660252368
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.431644186880282.96838.431256660252368&type=1

West Bank settlement isn’t irreversible / Elia Leibowitz
Haaretz 5 Aug — In honor of the Ninth of Av, my friend Yossi Sarid wrote a lamentation for the State of Israel ... While the gloomy mood and sorrow in Sarid’s essay are fully justified, his lamentation is based on two mistaken theories. The first is the groundless belief that some situations or processes in the world are irreversible, and that Israel’s occupation and settlement of the territories is one of them. By all the known laws of physics, any process in the universe can be reversed – except death, the irreversibility of which is indeed an enigma ... Jewish settlement in the West Bank is certainly a reversible process. During its 64 years of existence, the State of Israel has uprooted communities and civilians more than once, even when they numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A million human beings left their homes in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel, all within a few years. Such a process cost inestimably more than moving Jewish settlers from their communities in the West Bank to places inside the Green Line.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/west-bank-settlement-isn-t-irreversible-1.455991

An image of Hebron: the Occupation’s ugly face / Patrick O. Strickland
Pales. Chron. 31 July — ...The bus passes through the first military checkpoint, and we are almost out of what the Israeli government anticipates annexing in any two-state solution. We beat on through the mountainous terrain. I see a large Israeli settlement to the right: it has playgrounds, electricity grids, and an immense water tower. It’s as if a small strip of Southern California suburbia was airlifted into the throbbing heart of Palestine. The further we go, the greater the distance between settlements, the larger the Palestinian villages. A litany of armored vehicles is parked in a scanty valley littered with jagged, pale gray rocks. Soldiers sit atop the hills, binoculars in hand, M16s cradled in their laps. Squatting on their haunches, they appear to be focused on something deep in the vast panorama of rolling hillocks.ll I can see in those hills is a child on a donkey, being patiently led by a decrepit old man in a pallid, almost glowing keffiyeh. Behind him, a long pearl robe flows like a blank flag, flutters against the backdrop of the dim day.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19448

Israel’s fading democracy / Avraham Burg
NY Times 4 Aug — WHEN an American presidential candidate visits Israel and his key message is to encourage us to pursue a misguided war with Iran, declaring it "a solemn duty and a moral imperative" for America to stand with our warmongering prime minister, we know that something profound and basic has changed in the relationship between Israel and the United States.
My generation, born in the ’50s, grew up with the deep, almost religious belief that the two countries shared basic values and principles. Back then, Americans and Israelis talked about democracy, human rights, respect for other nations and human solidarity. It was an age of dreamers and builders who sought to create a new world, one without prejudice, racism or discrimination.
Listening to today’s political discourse, one can’t help but notice the radical change in tone. My children have watched their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, kowtow to a fundamentalist coalition in Israel. They are convinced that what ties Israel and America today is not a covenant of humanistic values but rather a new set of mutual interests: war, bombs, threats, fear and trauma. How did this happen? Where is that righteous America? Whatever happened to the good old Israel?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/israels-fading-democracy.html?src=me&ref=general

Torture under occupation: destiny or a surmountable obstacle? / Louis Frankentaler
Ma’an 4 Aug — It remains clear to even the most forgiving observer of Israeli behavior that the occupation involves the routine violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law including torture and ill treatment. In 1987, just prior to the first intifada, the Landau Commission legalized torture in Israel and gave birth to formal civil society opposition to torture and ill treatment. The UN Committee Against Torture, which monitors the implementation by state parties to the UN Convention Against Torture (including Israel) recently released 59 questions on torture and ill treatment to the Israeli authorities. Yet torture and ill treatment continues with impunity, and this is despite a 1999 Supreme Court decision which completely prohibited it.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=509533

Everyone’s an Islamist now / Thanassis Cambanis
Boston Globe 4 Aug — To watch the Arab world’s political transformation over the past year has been, in part, to track the inexorable rise of Islamism. Islamist groups — that is, parties favoring a more religious society — are dominating elections. Secular politicians and thinkers in the Arab world complain about the "Islamicization" of public life; scholars study the sociology of Islamist movements, while theologians pick apart the ideological dimensions of Islamism. This March, the US Institute for Peace published a collection of essays surveying the recent changes in the Arab world, entitled "The Islamists Are Coming: Who They Really Are."
From all this, you might assume that "Islamism" is the most important term to understand in world politics right now. In fact, the Islamist ascendancy is making it increasingly meaningless.
In Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, the most important factions are led overwhelmingly by religious politicians—all of them “Islamist” in the conventional sense, and many in sharp disagreement with one another over the most basic practical questions of how to govern.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/08/04/everyone-islamist-now/xiIC95vGfprtO0qjJtRJ1H/story.html
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