- 1 juli 2011
Report: Men under 45 blocked from Al-Aqsa Friday
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli police said Friday that they will block the entry of men under 45 to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli media reported.
Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post said the police restrictions came after intelligence on "plans to disrupt the peace at the site."
Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam, and lies in a compound, the Haram Ash-Sharif, that abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Jewish Temple stood.
Israeli authorities regularly restrict entry of men under 45 on occasions such as Israeli holidays, while Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza must request special permission to pray at the holy site. Special communal prayers are held on Fridays in Islam, which is regarded as a day of rest and worship.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=401387 24 sep 2012, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 3 juli 2011
IDF officers, the marked enemies of the settlements
By Amos Harel
Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon
Although the vast majority of settlers are law abiding, the machinations and provocations of Itamar Ben Gvir and his followers make them silent accomplices.
Middle of last week, in Samaria: At knife-point, two Palestinians steal a car from a female driver who lives in a nearby settlement. In response, several dozen settlers go to the nearby junction, stop traffic and set ablaze a Palestinian field. An IDF and Border Police force arrives at the scene and is received with a few stones and paint bottles.
The incident was barely covered in the media. The radio newscasts quoted "a claim by military sources," which was followed by an immediate, almost shocked, denial by the spokesman of the settlement. Once more innocent people are being falsely accused. But a conversation with IDF soldiers who were on site and whose testimony appears reliable to me, suggests that the incident did indeed take place: Stones were thrown at the force (not even the settlers are denying the fact that the field was set on fire ). For the most part, the media ignored this incident.
The defense establishment, like the leadership of the Yesha Council of settlements, are in a constant process of giving in to the pressure of the extreme right. It is more or less from the same ideological setting that the McCarthyist campaign to silence Army Radio has emerged (a campaign in which activists from the secular right are also taking part ). The same ideological forces are behind the fierce defense of Rabbi Dov Lior as well as the attacks on Shai Nitzan, a senior figure in the State Attorney's Office. But nowhere is this campaign more efficient, systematic and ongoing than that being waged against IDF officers in the territories.
What was once the case with police officers in Hebron, who considered being stationed in the city an obstacle to any future chance for promotion, is now happening to the senior officers of Central Command and of the Judea and Samaria division. Yair Naveh, who is religious, and was GOC Central Command, was the first to be marked as enemy of the settlers. Similarly treated have been his replacement, Gadi Shamni, (to a lesser extent the current GOC Avi Mizrahi ), some brigade commanders, the division commander, Brig. Gen. Noam Tivon, and of late, his replacement, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon.
This systematic assault, with placards on Saturday at the synagogues, and demonstrations in front of the officers' homes, is receiving very minor and mumbled criticism from the Yesha Council. The chairman of the council, Dani Dayan, who can hardly be described as a fanatic, while decrying the comparison made between Alon and Adolf Eichmann, argued that the division commander "is prejudiced against the settlers."
Numerous accusations have been leveled at Alon, among them: a distorted quotation attributed to him following the murders at Itamar; his orders to prevent soldiers who support the outposts from having early information on an evacuation operation; the charge that he has a "leftist" world view. And so, the former commander of the Sayeret Matkal, who commanded many operations inside enemy territory, was transformed in a few weeks into the enemy of the nation.
It appears that even though the assault was directed at Alon, it is aimed more at his successor, Brig. Gen. Hagai Mordechai, who will take over in October. In view of the case of the deputy head of the Shin Bet, A., who in May was not selected to head the organization because of the campaign of slander against him by figures on the right (who did not appreciate his determination in carrying out his duties as the officer in charge of the Jewish department in the security agency ), deterrence has been achieved.
All those in the IDF, the police, and the Shin Bet know that whoever wants to protect himself should stay away from Samaria. If an officer is sent there, then he should do everything possible to avoid political complications. Assuming that he still wishes to advance, he should focus on embracing the setter leaders and tread lightly every time someone mentions the evacuation of outposts.
The vast majority of settlers are law abiding. The number of combat officers among them is higher than any other community in the population. But in light of the machinations and provocations of Itamar Ben Gvir and his followers, the settlers' continued silence, like that of their official leadership (which has become weaker since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip ), makes them, in practice, accomplices to the persecution.
http://fwd4.me/05Yl 24 sep 2012, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 4 juli 2011
IOF troops storm Nabi Yusuf tomb to protect Jewish “visitors”
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the Nabi Yusuf tomb in Balata village to the east of Nablus city before midnight Sunday to protect 1000 Jewish settlers who arrived to offer rituals.
Citizens said that IOF soldiers mounting 10 armored vehicles escorted 20 buses which carried 1000 settlers to the tomb, adding that they left by dawn Monday.
They said that the IOF soldiers closed off the eastern area of Nablus especially near the tomb and deployed dozens of soldiers in its vicinity.
IOF soldiers closed the Hawara roadblock and another one to the west of Nablus while measures were tightened on the others.
http://fwd4.me/05by 24 sep 2012, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 5 juli 2011
Gaza's no-go zone, 3 years on
By Kharda Hamdan
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Hundreds of hectares stretched along Israel's barrier with the Gaza Strip are deserted because of a no-go zone, what solidarity activists call the “buffer zone”.
Only a small number of locals and internationals dare to tread simply because at any moment an Israeli patrol could show and open fire, seemingly depending on the soldiers’ mood.
Many people have been killed since Israel announced this no-go zone three years ago. Some of the victims were children whose only crime was to attempt to taste the season’s first lemons or oranges.
On Tuesday, a small number of international activists and locals from the popular campaign against the no-go zone approached the area courageously and cautiously.
They progressed quickly and erected a Palestinian flag only 200 meters from the fence and withdrew as quick as lighting because they breached an Israeli rule which basically says nobody is authorized to overstep a 300-meter distance from the fence. In fact, everybody seen within that range will be shot at.
To be more precise, the no-go zone started with 300 meters, but very swiftly, the range extended to 800 meters, and in some cases people were shot dead while they were a kilometer away.
Israel's army says it consider the area a combat zone.
It says its soldiers fire warning shots before targeting those who enter the area.
Coordinator of the local campaign Sabir Zaanin told Ma’an that the founders of that campaign would not give up until their mission to change the status quo is completed.
Khalil Nasr, who is in charge of volunteers, was busy watching in all directions to try and protect the motivated young people zealous to approach their land and challenge Israel's decisions.
He highlighted that the no-go zone took “20 percent of the Gaza Strip’s lands.”
The most veteran of international solidarity activists, 68-year-old Nils from Sweden, says “Israel has been behaving as it wishes, and this is violating international law.
"The Palestinians are entitled to independence and to make use of their lands.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402663 24 sep 2012, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 6 juli 2011
IOA bars 8-years old Palestinian girl from travel
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) unashamedly banned an eight-year old Palestinian girl named Banan Obeid from traveling to Jordan at the pretext she presented a security threat to Israel.
An informed source said the girl was along with her mother on their way to Jordan to visit their relatives there on Monday evening when Israeli troops at King Hussein Bridge detained them for three hours and confiscated their passports.
The troops told her mother that there was a ban on their travel abroad for security reasons, according to the source.
The father of Banan is a prominent Islamic leader in the West Bank and was one of the deportees to the Marj Al-Zohour area in south Lebanon. He also spent sporadically six years in Israeli jails.
http://fwd4.me/05r0 24 sep 2012, 10:07 , Respect -
Maria 9 juli 2011
Israel arrests Gaza man crossing borders for treatment
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Health Ministry has strongly condemned Israel's inhumane arrest of Aaid Rafeeq Abdul-Jawwad Ziyada, 27, while he was crossing borders to get medical attention in Jordan.
The ministry said in a statement on Saturday: “Not only have [Israeli] occupation authorities prevented medicines and medical consumables from entering to the Gaza Strip's patients...but it has increased its abusive and unethical practices by extorting the patients transferred abroad who use the Beit Hanoun crossing to move to the outside world for treatment.”
According to figures provided by the ministry in the fresh statement, 140 medicines and 160 medical consumables are out of stock in the Gaza Strip.
The ministry called on the Red Cross and rights groups to urgently intervene and help stop Israel's violations of humanitarian and international law.
The ministry also called on Egyptian authorities to ease restrictions at the Rafah crossing on its border with the Strip, as it is the only outlet for the besieged coastal enclave. It emphasized the need to facilitate travel of Gaza patients, who have been transferred abroad to get treatment, and to allow needed medicines into the Strip.
http://fwd4.me/06Ct 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 9 juli 2011
Israeli troops attack non-violent protests in four West Bank villages
Non-violent march in Nabi Saleh
On Friday, Israeli troops attacked the weekly nonviolent protests in a number of West Bank villages. This week, protesters marched in solidarity with Freedom Flotilla 2 detained in Greece and the Welcome To Palestine participants.
Protests were reported in the villages of al-Nabi Saleh, Bil’in, and Nil’in in the central West Bank, as well as al-Ma’ssara in the south.
In Bil’in village on Friday, international and Israeli supporters joined villagers and replanted trees on land given back to local farmers after the army adhered to the court order and rerouted the wall around Bil’in, giving the village half of their stolen land back.
Also on Friday, one boy and a youth were slightly injured when troops fired tear gas at the marchers in the village of al-Nabi Saleh near Ramallah. Villagers and their Israeli and International supporters dragged a mock-ship they named “Popular Resistance Flotilla.” As soon as they moved outside of the village, Israeli troops showered them with tear gas. In addition to the two injured, many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Protests were held in Greece after the Greek government prevented the Gaza flotilla boats from sailing from its shores to Gaza. Passengers, mostly Americans, gathered in front of the U.S embassy in Athens to demand the release of the captain and the ships as well. The flotilla passengers stated their goal is to reach Gaza and bring to its population essential material, Israel forbids its entry to the besieged coastal region.
In the nearby village of Nil’in, where the residents and their Israeli and international supporters held the Friday midday prayers near the Israeli wall, protestors then marched up to the wall. Troops fired tear gas at protesters causing many to suffer from tear gas inhalation.
In the southern west Bank on Friday, villagers protested against the wall and settlements in al-Ma’sara village near Bethlehem. Israeli troops stopped villagers from reaching the construction side of the wall, and fired tear gas at them to force them back into the village.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61643 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 10 juli 2011
IOF continues to crack down on West Bank protests
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces cracked down Sunday on peaceful demonstrations welcoming foreign pro-Palestinian activists near the Dome Barrier outside of Bethlehem.
The troops fired tear gas and bullets into the crowd of around 200, causing breathing difficulties to dozens.
The organizers, a Bethlehem resistance campaign, said the march came to compliment the popular movements this week protesting the apartheid wall and the occupation.
Activists celebrated this year the seventh anniversary of the ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Hague condemning the apartheid wall in the West Bank and Jerusalem as illegal.
Separately, several Palestinians were injured and sustained breathing difficulties during an anti-wall and anti-settlement sit-in in the Al-Tawana area south of Al-Khalil province in the West Bank.
Locals said Israeli border guards raided the village and declared it a closed military zone and dispersed protesters sitting on their own land with a barrage of rubber bullets and gas canisters, injuring several locals.
Also on Sunday, dozens of Palestinians backed by foreign activists demonstrated at the separation wall north of Bethlehem in a bid to breach Israel's military roadblock dividing Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
IOF troops prevented the protesters' objective by attacking them and threatening to shoot down anyone who proceeded towards the roadblock.
http://fwd4.me/06HY 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 11 juli 2011
Teen arrested as village faces continuous raids
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces detained two people, including a minor, from Husan village east of Bethlehem on Monday.
Israeli troops entered the village, ransacking a number of homes, before detaining Montaser Mohammed Za'ul, 20, and Ahmed Ali Hamamra, 15, witnesses told Ma'an.
An Israeli army spokesperson said the detentions were a "criminal matter." The Israeli police could not be reached for comment.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Detainees' Affairs said 30 teenagers had been arrested in Husan between June and July. The ministry report said the Israeli army seized the youth in night raids, and took them for interrogation at Ofer and Kefar Ezyion jails.
Ministry lawyer Hussein Ash-Sheikh met the teens at Kefar Ezyion, the report said, where they told him their interrogation included beatings and threats, and that they were forced to sign statements they did not understand.
Munter Az-Zu’ul, 16, said an interrogator had insulted and beaten him, and painfully slapped his face several times. When he refused to sign a statement, Az-Zu’ul said, interrogator had beaten him.
Ali Abed Al-Wahhab, 17, told Ash-Sheikh that he was beaten with rifles and sticks, which had left marks all over his body.
Husan village is overshadowed by Jewish-only settlement Betar Illit, and encircled by the planned route of Israel's separation wall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=404208 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 13 juli 2011
Israeli occupation night raid on Nabi Saleh Village
(1:35) Israeli occupation night raid on Nabi Saleh Village - 13 /7/ 2011
24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 13 juli 2011
Silwan: 11 youths arrested for throwing stones
Eleven juveniles aged 14-17 were arrested on suspicion of throwing stones and firebombs at Beit Yehonatan in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
In addition to their arrests, Jerusalem Police also detained the owner of a store at which they bought flammable and explosive materials used to produce the firebombs. Indictments are to be filed in the coming days.
http://fwd4.me/06Vq 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 13 juli 2011
Army trucks tour Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Three Israeli army vehicles briefly entered the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday afternoon, puzzling bystanders who rarely see soldiers operating in the daytime.
The army occasionally raids Bethlehem and other cities in the West Bank late at night but according to previous agreements, the Palestinian Authority maintains security control of territory designated "Area A."
An army spokeswoman described the daytime visit as "routine operational activity."
The last time military vehicles were spotted in the central West Bank city during daylight hours was in September 2009, when a convoy of four armored jeeps arrived in coordination with the Palestinian Authority.
At the time, the governor described the event as a "standard meeting" but refused to elaborate.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=405023 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 14 juli 2011
IOA imposes $900000 fine on Jerusalemite children in past 10 months
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority has imposed 900000 dollars in fines on Jerusalemite children in Silwan for throwing stones at Israelis vehicles and settlers over the past ten months.
Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the committee for the defense of Silwan real-estate, said in a press release on Wednesday that the Israeli courts blackmail the Silwan inhabitants by imposing heavy fines on their children, because they know the families would be forced to pay the fines to secure the release of their children.
He said that many Jerusalemites go in debt to secure the money while others could not and their sons remain in jail.
Abu Diab said that large sums of money go to bail out the detained children and are liable to be lost in the event the court conditions were not met.
http://fwd4.me/06aY 24 sep 2012, 10:08 , Respect -
Maria 15 juli 2011
Israeli Troops Attack Anti-Wall Protesters; Injuring One and Arresting One
Ramallah – PNN- one injured, another arrested, while scores were treated for effects of tear gas inhalation, as Israeli troops attacked on Friday nonviolent protests organized in a number of West Bank communities.
Protests were reported in the villages of al-Nabi Salleh, Bil’in, and Nil’in in the central West Bank, as well as al-Ma’ssara in the south.
One man was injured, scores treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when soldiers attacked the weekly anti wall protest at the village of Bil’in on Friday. International and Israeli supporters joined villagers and tired to reach local farmers lands the army gave back after rerouting the wall there. Troops fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters injuring the head of the local village committee Iyad Burnat. Many other protesters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Also on Friday Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti-wall protest in the village of Nil’in, where the residents and their Israeli and international supporters held the Friday midday prayers near the Israeli wall, protestors then marched up to the wall. Troops fired tear gas at protesters causing many to suffer from tear gas inhalation.
In the nearby al-Nabi Salleh, villagers and their Israeli and international supporters marched to local farmers lands Israel took to build a new settlement there. Troops attacked protesters with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Soldiers then arrested Eyad Tamimi, a local organizer after beating him up. Other residents suffered effects of tear gas inhalation.
International and Israeli supporters also joined villagers at al-Ma’sara village near Bethlehem, southern West Bank. Troops attacked villages before they left the village and did not allow them to reach their lands where Israel is building the wall. Soldiers fired tear gas at protesters and forced them back into the village. Local sources reported cases of tear gas inhalation among protesters.
http://fwd4.me/06iv