- 1 juli 2012
IOA razes four shops in occupied Jerusalem
Bulldozers of the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) razed four Palestinian shops at the entrance of Bab Al-Amud in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem on Saturday evening.
The shop owners said that their businesses were destroyed in an arson attack a week earlier but the IOA did not reveal the culprits.
They said that the IOA destroyed their shops without prior notice, charging that the IOA was intent on destroying their shops for a long while in line with its judaization schemes in the holy city.
http://fwd4.me/14Ub 2 jul 2012, 12:52 , Respect -
Maria 2 juli 2012
Israeli border police break into Palestinian shops in Jerusalem
Israeli border police broke into a number of Palestinian shops in Hazma village, east of occupied Jerusalem, on Sunday and threatened to raze them.
Eyewitnesses told the PIC that the occupation police stormed the shops at the entrance to the village and said that they should be demolished because they had received demolition notices.
The occupation authorities had razed seven shops, vendor carts, and a carwash in the same area last month at the pretext of expanding the street and preserving settlers' security.
Meanwhile, Jerusalemite MP Ahmed Attoun, who was deported to Ramallah by the Israeli occupation authorities, lashed out at the IOA for destroying four shops in Bab Al-Amud in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem a couple of days ago.
He described the act as a new “crime” against the holy city and its inhabitants, adding that the IOA was racing against time to Judaize the Islamic suburbs in the holy city.
The MP urged the world community to check the IOA practices that targeted Jerusalemites with confiscation and/or destruction of property, imposing heavy taxes, isolating the city, allowing free settlement activity inside it, and exiling its national and Islamic figures.
http://fwd4.me/14YS 3 jul 2012, 15:06 , Respect -
Maria 3 juli 2012
Israeli new plan to Judaize Jerusalem
The Islamic-Christian commission for the support of Jerusalem and holy sites condemned, on Tuesday, the Israeli Judaization plan to establish a military college on 14 dunums in the Mount of Zeitoun (Olives) near Matle’ hospital in the eastern part of Jerusalem, pointing out to the continued Israeli policy to Judaize the city of Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites.
The commission said, in statement, that the occupation forces practiced an unprecedented measures in total violation to the international laws, conventions, and norms in an attempt to impose fait accompli on the ground, where they aimed to establish military college in east Jerusalem that supposed to be the Palestinian capital city.
I am afraid that Jerusalem issue reaches the point of no return where Israel succeeded to occupy Jerusalem, to desecrate Islamic and Christian holy places particularly al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to establish Jewish settler outpost in Jerusalem and its environs, to complete the apartheid wall, the Secretary-General of the Commission, Dr. Hanna Issa, said, now It is continuing to strengthen its civilian and military control over east and west Jerusalem in order to confirm Jerusalem as a capital for the Jewish state, he added.
He urged the international community and human rights institutions and organizations to act seriously to stop Israeli Judaization process in the city of Jerusalem.
In the same context, the commission warned against the daily Israeli raids into Al-Aqsa Mosque, denouncing at the same time the selling of 24 housing units built on Aarot settlement few meters away from the mentioned military college. It also pointed out to a broad scheme aiming to Judaize the Mount of Zeitoun (Olives), in addition to approving the build of 180 housing units in the settlement of Talpiot and 171 new housing units in Jabal Abu Ghoneim.
http://fwd4.me/14iL
Israel declares plan to establish military college in east Jerusalem
The Israeli district committee for planning and building approved a plan to build a military college in the Mount of Zeitoun (Olives) near Matla hospital in the eastern part of Jerusalem.
Field researcher in settlement affairs Ahmed Sablaban said the military college would be built on 14 dunums of Palestinian land east of the old city of Jerusalem.
According to the plan, the college will include a military academy for army commandership and war administration and special offices for senior Israeli army officers, and it can absorb about 400 military students and 130 academics.
Sabalaban affirmed that this plan is part of a broader scheme aimed at moving and establishing government headquarters in east Jerusalem in order to confirm Jerusalem as a capital for the Jewish state.
He warned that Israel, through such step, would continue to strengthen its control over east Jerusalem and create further fait accompli on the ground.
http://fwd4.me/14eY
IOA bulldozers raze Palestinian house in Aisawiye
Bulldozers of the Israeli-controlled municipality of Jerusalem razed to the ground a Palestinian house at the entrance to Aisawiye village in occupied Jerusalem on Monday.
Eyewitnesses told the PIC that the municipality team, escorted by a large number of policemen, destroyed the house that also included a shop for sanitary ware.
They quoted the team members as saying that the house was built without permit.
The same building was previously demolished by the municipality three years ago, the locals said.
The Israeli occupation authority had destroyed many homes and threatened to raze many others in occupied Jerusalem in line with its Judaization campaign against the occupied holy city.
http://fwd4.me/14eS
IOF soldiers infiltrate in southern Gaza
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided an area to the east of Rafah, south of Gaza Strip, on Tuesday morning, local sources told the PIC reporter.
They said that a number of armored vehicles escorted bulldozers that started leveling land east of Rafah.
They pointed out that the IOF soldiers were opening random fire at Palestinian neighborhoods to the west of the targeted area.
http://fwd4.me/14ej 4 jul 2012, 19:31 , Respect -
Maria 4 juli 2012
IOF confiscates Palestinian land to establish military position
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) informed citizens near Dhaheria village, south of Al-Khalil, that the army intends to confiscate two dunums of land to establish a military outpost.
Abdulhadi Hantash, an expert in settlement activity, said on Wednesday that the IOF command plans to confiscate two and a half dunums of Palestinian land near Dhaheria crossing.
He said that the IOF plans to build a military position, southernmost of the town of Dhaheria, to monitor traffic on the Ramadin-Dhaheria crossing, in line with its ongoing scheme to gain full control on all Palestinian land.
http://fwd4.me/14lO
Israel Issues Eviction Orders to Palestinians near Bethlehem
Four Palestinians from the village of Housan, west of Bethlehem, received Israeli army eviction orders from their land adjacent to the settlement of Bitar Illit, according to local sources.
One of the land owners said he found eviction notices in his land. He expressed fear that Israel intends to seize the land to expand the settlement.
Member of the popular committee against the Wall and settlements in Bethlehem Hasan Breijeh said the Israeli government continues to seize private Palestinian land to establish new realities on the ground.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20205
Hamas urges Arab League, OIC to act against Israeli theft of Palestinian land
The Hamas Movement called on the Arab League and the organization of Islamic cooperation to intervene to curb the Israeli regime and its settlers from appropriating more Palestinian property and lands in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Jerusalem.
In a press release, Hamas stressed that the Israeli occupation's appropriation of Palestinian lands and real estate and its support for the settlers to own them illegally are blatant acts of theft and a desperate attempt to falsify the Palestinian history.
The Movement also condemned the Israeli intent to build a military college on the Mount of Zeitoun (Olives) as a crime and said it would fail to change the fact that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Palestine.
For their part, Palestinian lawmakers from the West Bank warned that Israel started to issue title deeds to Palestinian property and real estate for Israeli companies in order to prevent the Palestinians from raise objections against them.
The lawmakers added in a press release that the Palestinians would fail to file legal objections against such Israeli step because the owners are companies and the Israeli courts reject any Palestinian objection in this regard.
They affirmed that Israel wants through such step to impose further fait accompli in the occupied Palestinian territories.
They highlighted that Israel's use of sly moves and means of fraud to circumvent the law in order to sieze more Palestinian property and lands can never revoke the Palestinians' right to them.
The MPs added that all the documents and contracts issued by and under the occupation are void and illegal in accordance with international law.
http://fwd4.me/14ks 5 jul 2012, 09:58 , Respect -
Maria 5 juli 2012
Israeli plan to confiscate Mount of "Gerizim"
The Israeli occupation government decided to convert Mount of "Gerizim" in Nablus to a garden and a nature reserve run by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority and the Israel Antiquities Authority in an attempt to confiscate it.
Palestinian sources considered this measure as a new Israeli assault and piracy to take control over Palestinian heritage in total violation to the International conventions that protect the cultural heritage during occupation, guided by the principles concerning the protection of cultural property during armed conflict established in 1907, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and the Hague Convention of 1954 that states “damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind, since each people makes its contribution to the culture of the world”.
This step came to implement the occupation government's decision in 2010 to transfer a number of Palestinian cultural heritage sites to "Israeli" sites and attach it to the Occupying state.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers continued their attacks against the Palestinian people and lands, where Jewish settlers broke into the evacuated Homesh settlement south of Jenin in the northern West Bank, under Israeli soldiers’ protection.
Local sources confirmed that the settlers blocked the former settlement's entrance causing traffic jams. They also gathered on the hill mountain which the settlement was built on before 2005, and chanted hymns and spread through the olive groves in the territory of Silat Daher and Borqa.
http://fwd4.me/14oY
Oxfam: Palestinian Communities Under Threat in the Jordan Valley as Settlement Expansion, Demolitions Escalate
Settlement expansion, enabled by discriminatory restrictions on Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, is destroying the viability of a future Palestinian state, a new report by Oxfam said today.
The report, "On the Brink: The Impact of Settlements on Palestinians in the Jordan Valley," says the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank, has the potential to be the Palestinian bread basket, yet restrictions on Palestinians use of land, water, and on building in the valley are keeping them poor while helping nearby Israeli settlements thrive.
By one estimate, the Palestinian economy could gain an additional $1 billion a year in agricultural revenue if the restrictions on Palestinian use of land, water, and mobility in the Jordan Valley were removed.
The report shows that Palestinians can use just 6 percent of the land in the Jordan Valley, while Israeli settlers, who account for just 13 percent of the valley's people, have control over 86 percent of its land. Settlements in the Jordan Valley—illegal under international law—have established industrial farms that produce high value crops for sale in markets locally and abroad, and are supported by a range of Israeli government grants and subsidies that facilitate their growth and sustainability. At the same time, the poverty rate for Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley is nearly double that of the rest of the West Bank as many struggle to make a living from farming and animal rearing without adequate access to land.
"Settlements and related Israeli policies, such as systematic demolitions and restrictions on land and water use, are creating a wretched reality for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley," said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs. "The government of Israel has an obligation to keep all people safe, but such excessive restrictions on Palestinians inside the West Bank would not be necessary if Israelis were not settling there. These discriminatory policies and practices have pushed more Palestinians into poverty and are destroying the prospects for two states living side by side in security and peace."
The report calls on Israel's largest trading partner and the biggest donor to the Palestinians, the European Union and its member states, to take urgent action to press the government of Israel to immediately stop building settlements and end the demolition of Palestinian structures, including homes, animal pens, water cisterns, and solar panels. The EU has an opportunity to move beyond statements as Jose Manuel Barroso, the current President of the European Commission, is set to visit Israel and the West Bank in the coming days and the highest level meeting between the European Union and Israel , the EU – Israel Association Council will take place later in this month.
"World leaders have long been saying the right things, but strong words alone are not helping the Palestinian farmers and herders who live in the Jordan Valley develop their own economy and build the infrastructure necessary for positive community growth," says Hobbs.
Oxfam's call comes on the heels of the European Union's unprecedented statement, made on 14 May, against demolitions carried out in Israeli controlled parts of the occupied West Bank. Since that time, Palestinians have seen no meaningful change on the ground, as the government of Israel demolished at least 59 Palestinian structures and 34 Palestinian families were displaced when their communities were used as the site for an extensive military training in an area of the Jordan Valley where Oxfam works.
Oxfam says the situation is likely to deteriorate further unless action is taken now. Year 2011 saw a 20 percent rise in new settlement construction across the West Bank as compared to 2010. Over the same period, the number of Palestinians displaced by demolition doubled, with 60 percent of these demolitions carried out in areas close to settlements.
http://fwd4.me/14nV 6 jul 2012, 21:13 , Respect -
Maria 6 juli 2012
UN names experts to probe Israeli settlements
GENEVA (Reuters) -- The United Nations named French judge Christine Chanet on Friday as the leader of a team of three experts who will investigate whether Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories violate human rights law.
The other team members are Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir and Botswana judge Unity Dow. Jahangir has been the subject of human rights cases in the past, having been put under house arrest in 1983 and warned of a plot to assassinate her last month.
The UN Human Rights Council launched the probe in March under an initiative brought to the 47-member forum by the Palestinian Authority. Israel's ally the United States was the only member to vote against it.
The council said Israel's planned construction of new housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem undermined the peace process and posed a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel on Friday condemned the investigation. "The establishment of this mission is another blatant expression of the singling out of Israel in the UNHRC," a Foreign Ministry statement said.
"This fact-finding mission will find no co-operation in Israel, and its members will not be allowed to enter Israel and the Territories."
The council's president, Uruguay's ambassador Laura Dupuy Lasserre, announced the names of the investigators after holding consultations among member states, diplomats said.
As the team will not be allowed access to Israeli settlements, they are likely to have to gather information from second-hand sources, including media.
Even if the investigators conclude settlements violate human rights law, US opposition is likely to stymie any attempt to impose any punishment on Israel.
About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. Palestinians seek the territory for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians say settlements, considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the highest UN legal body for disputes, would deny them a viable state.
Israel cites historical and biblical links to the West Bank and says the status of settlements should be decided in peace negotiations.
On Monday Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, told a news conference that the acceleration of settlement building had "closed the book" on the feasibility of a two-state solution.
"The Palestinian position gets weaker and weaker through time and the Israelis get more and more of a fait accompli through their unlawful activities," he said.
"Is it just a delaying tactic that allows the Israelis to expand the settlements, expand the settled population, demolish more and more Palestinian homes and structures and engage in a program that has assumed such proportions that the language of ethnic cleansing is the only way to describe the demographic changes in East Jerusalem?"
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501916
EU parliament condemns Israel's violence against Palestinians
The European lawmakers have condemned acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
In a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday, the lawmakers also urged Israel to bring the perpetrators of such acts to justice.
In recent years, extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank have often assaulted Palestinians and vandalized their property. However, Tel Aviv rarely detains the assailants.
The parliament also called for "an immediate end to house demolitions, evictions and forced displacement of Palestinians."
Palestinians say that their efforts to construct a free and independent Palestinian state will prove fruitless as long as Israel continues to demolish Palestinians' homes.
Meanwhile, Tel Aviv was urged to stop its illegal settlement projects in the occupied territories. The resolution said the projects are "a major obstacle to peace efforts."
Israel occupied the West Bank as well as East al-Quds, considered by Palestinians as the capital of their homeland, during the 1967 Six-Day War.
http://fwd4.me/14ut 8 jul 2012, 11:07 , Respect -
Maria 8 juli 2012
IOF bulldoze land to prepare for new settlement in Al-Khalil
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bulldozed vast tracts of Palestinian land west of Al-Khalil city in preparation for establishing a new settlement.
Local sources told the PIC that the bulldozing of 100 dunums of land on Saturday took place in Deir Al-Asal beyond the separation wall west of the village.
Dozens of bulldozers and tractors are working in the area under IOF protection, the sources said.
The IOF command approved the establishment of hundreds of settlements and outposts in the West Bank mostly concentrating in the southern areas.
http://fwd4.me/14zU 9 jul 2012, 13:51 , Respect -
Maria 9 juli 2012
Israeli Forces Remove Mobile Homes set as Shelter
Israeli forces seized late Sunday three mobile homes an aid agency had donated to three families in the village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, to shelter them after the Israeli authorities had demolished their building, according to one of the house owner.
Mohammad Ka’abneh said Israeli forces seized the mobile homes, which were given to the families by an international aid agency after they had their building demolished, before an Israeli court was scheduled to rule on the issue.
He said the court had set Sunday to rule on a family petition against the removal of the homes.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20229
Legal expert: If Israel isn't occupying West Bank, it must give up land held by IDF
Legal experts respond to report published by Levy Committee on illegal outposts regarding West Bank construction; Talia Sasson: 'Israel in a dangerous position.'
Prof. David Kretzmer, an expert on international law, also commented on the findings of the Levy committee, appointed to investigate the legality of building outposts in the West Bank. "If Israel is not an occupying force, it must immediately relinquish ownership of all private lands seized over the years for military use, taken with authority as the occupying force in an occupied territory, and restore the lands to previous owners," said Kretzmer.
"I cannot understand how someone claims that Israel is not an occupying force in the West Bank, after over forty years of government petitions to the High Court of Justice, citing authority as an occupying force in an occupied territory," said Kretzmer.
The committee, headed by retired judge Edmond Levy, determined that construction in the occupied territories is in fact legal.
Lawyer Talia Sasson, who served in the past as the head of the special tasks department of the state Attonery General's office published a report in 2005 concerning illegal outposts in Judea and Samaria, also commented on the findings of the report.
"If the Levy Committee is pushing the government to determine that Israel's presence in the West Bank does not violate international law, Israel is in a dangerous position facing the rest of the world," said Sasson this morning to Haaretz.
According to Sasson, the Levy committee's report will not be accepted by the government without approval from the state Attorney General. "The state Attorney General is responsible for enforcing laws, and he is forced to follow the rulings of the High Court of Justice on this issue handed down over the last few decades. Without the Attorney General's approval, it does not matter who wrote the report, however lofty their legal position might be," said Sasson.
The committee determined that Israel is not an occupying force in the West Bank, and recommended to authorize all outposts without the need for retroactive government decisions, to repeal regulations requiring permission from ranking government officials for each and every stage of the building process, and not to carry out demolition orders.
http://fwd4.me/154T 10 jul 2012, 15:22 , Respect -
Maria 10 juli 2012
Israeli forces raze modest cultural center in Silwan
(3:06) Israeli forces raze modest cultural center in Silwan - Press TV News
From Silwan comes a remarkable story of determination and resilience. Just few months after Israeli bulldozers demolished a play ground and a cultural center on this lot of land, residents have rehabilitated the play ground in preparation for a much needed summer camp for the kids of the neighborhood.
The Suburb of Silwan is run down and densely populated. Municipal services here are poor. These images are what adults and kids alike often witness.
Last February bulldozers accompanied by a heavy Israeli police force moved in under orders of Israel's Jerusalem Al Quds municipality, and razed a modest cultural center. The adjacent and only play ground in the neighborhood was damaged as well. Residents were shocked, but not dispirited.
Immediately; they began the painful clearing of the rubble to restore what had been destroyed.
On Monday afternoon the 7th annual summer camp kicked off. The joy was evident. The modesty of the place, what had happened few months earlier did not seem to affect the current moment. The boys and girls were laughing.
Sa'eda Abbasi, a teacher and a volunteer says that this playground is the only safe place for children to play.
Israeli settlers and a number of archaeologists claim that this is the place where the city of David once stood. But Palestinian residents say that the visitors are hardcore Israeli ideologues with an aggressive agenda to drive the Palestinian population out of the suburb to make way for Israeli settlers to move in.
The result is daily violent and sometimes deadly clashes between the settlers and their security personnel on one side and Palestinians on the other.
Hundreds of Palestinian kids have been arrested, and traumatized from what they've seen and experienced in the past two years alone.
http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/250264.html
Warnings against Israeli plans to Judaize the whole Al-Buraq square
The Islamic-Christian commission for the support of Jerusalem and holy sites warned against the new Israeli practical step in the course of “the development” of Buraq Square, which was announced officially by the occupation on 22 October 2010 to restructure the area in accordance with the Jewish vision in order to control it.
The Israeli plan aims to establish more Jewish prayer rooms, to increase the pace of building synagogues, museums, Talmudic parks in order to give the impression that Jerusalem contains more Jewish landmarks than Islamic and Christian ones, to promote its lie that it calls “the Jewish historical right” in Jerusalem.
The commission stated, in a press release on Tuesday, that the Israeli occupation authorities and its various executive arms led by the Jerusalem Municipality have developed a plan to expedite Judaizing Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It also pointed out that the Israeli plan aims to Judaize first Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy city Secondly, and to implement all Israeli stored Judaization projects as soon as possible in order to obliterate Jerusalem's Arab and Muslim history, warning against the Israeli success in implementing its plans.
http://fwd4.me/15Bv
Official: Israeli forces evict 3 Bedouin families
Israeli forces evicted three Bedouin families from their homes in northwest Jerusalem overnight Sunday, a Palestinian official said.
Three families living in the Beit Hanina al Balad area were evicted from their caravan homes after Israeli soldiers raided the area overnight, director of the PA's Jerusalem governorate Muhammad Taree said.
The families had been living in the caravans since their homes were demolished by Israeli forces in November 2011.
Their belongings were thrown away by Israeli forces upon eviction.
Israeli actions like these are akin to robbery and organized crime, Taree said.
Israeli forces also notified the families that they must move the caravans from the area under the pretext that they are living in Area C.
Legal action is set to be taken against Israeli policies of displacement by Husam Younis on behalf of the Jerusalem governorate.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency says approximately 17,000 Bedouin live in the occupied West Bank. Most struggle with Israeli restrictions on their movements and access to grazing fields that are located in so-called Area C, where Israel retains authority over planning and zoning.
http://fwd4.me/15AY
Israeli Soldiers Destroy, Uproot Ancient Trees near Qalqilya
QALQILYA, (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers Tuesday destroyed and uprooted several ancient cypress trees at the entrance of Amatin, a town east of Qalqilya, said Head of Amatin Village Council, Haitham Sawan.
He told WAFA that Israeli soldiers, accompanied by military bulldozer, completely destroyed and uprooted numerous trees aged over several hundred years.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20231
Israeli Bulldozers Demolish Water Wells near Hebron
Israeli bulldozers Tuesday demolished wells used to collect rain water in Farsh al-Hawa area in north of Hebron, which is part of area ‘C’ that falls under the complete Israeli military and civic control, according to local sources.
They told WAFA that Israeli bulldozers demolished several wells that belong to a Palestinian family residing in the area; while Israeli soldiers prevented other Palestinians from reaching the demolished wells.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20236