- 4 dec 2011
Israeli Forces Give Eviction Ultimatum to a Palestinian in Qalandia
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces Sunday gave an eviction ultimatum to Palestinian resident Sharif Awad Allah, from Qalandia, a village north of Jerusalem, according to witnesses.
Witnesses told WAFA that the Israeli forces threatened Awad Allah that his house will be behind the Separation Wall, which they are building.
The Israeli forces gave Sharif Awad Allah an ultimatum until Monday to evacuate his home, which includes a garden and storage and through which the Wall will pass.
Confrontations erupted between the villages’ residents and the occupation forces causing five suffocation cases and a number of arrests.
The Israeli high court issued a final decision in “the wall around Qalandia village” case, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, by which the authorities obliged the establishment of the pedestrians and vehicles ‘terminal’, on the entrance of Qalandia village, to enable the village’s residents to reach Jerusalem.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18238
Israel Hands Palestinians 75 Demolishing Notices, says Rights Group
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) – Rabbis for Human Rights attorney, Qamar Masharki Asaad, Sunday said the number of Israeli demolishing notices handed to residents of Khirbet Dakika locale east of Hebron has exceeded 75.
She told Voice of Palestine that the Israeli policy aims to drive out residents and steal their land.
Asaad said the organization has presented a plea which includes a report by international lawyers, who affirmed that demolishing the houses and displacing their residents violates international laws.
Governor of Hebron Kamil Hameed said the Palestinian Authority is following this case through international organizations and by organizing media campaigns to expose the Israeli policies.
He said the Israeli army has demolished nine tents and one classroom under the pretext of building with no permits.
About 400 Palestinians live in Khirbet Dakika.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18234 6 dec 2011, 20:46 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2011
IOA razes Palestinian home in Beit Hanina
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Bulldozers of the Israeli municipality of occupied Jerusalem razed a Palestinian home in Beit Hanina, north of the holy city, on Monday the second in a single day.
Large numbers of policemen, special forces, and border police encircled the Ashqariya neighborhood in Beit Hanina and tore down the house of Majdi Salayma at the pretext of lack of construction permit.
The 50-square-meter house provided shelter for Salayma, his wife, and four sons the eldest 10 years old and the youngest 5 years old.
The municipality bulldozers had earlier Monday leveled a Palestinian home in Yasul in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa Mosque.
Local sources said that the 150-square-meter house owned by Zakaria Burqan used to shelter eight individuals.
http://fwd4.me/0i6a
Jewish settlers burn Palestinian farmland, abduct old shepherd
JENIN, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers burnt Palestinian farmland in the location of the evacuated settlement of Homesh south of Jenin city and tried to attack nearby Palestinian homes, local sources said.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers blocked the road in the area under the eyes of the Israeli occupation forces, who did not act to stop them, before starting their rampage.
They said that Jenin fire brigades extinguished the fire before spreading in the area, adding that the settlers routinely wreak havoc in the area in an attempt to rebuild the settlement.
Meanwhile, another group of settlers abducted an old Palestinian shepherd after beating him up near Orif village south of Nablus city on Monday evening.
Fawzi Shehade, the chairman of the municipal council in Orif, said that the settlers assaulted Salim Eshahde, 60, while rearing his sheep near the village’s secondary school and then took him away along with 50 of his sheep heads, which were grazing in the area.
http://fwd4.me/0i6Z
IOA razes Palestinian industrial installation
QALQILIA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) razed a Palestinian industrial facility in Zoun village to the east of Qalqilia in the West Bank on Monday, local sources said.
They said that tens of armored vehicles escorted huge bulldozers that surrounded the facility to the west of the village and demolished two thirds of it before technical problems crippled the bulldozers.
The locals said that the factory specialized in cutting stones was owned by Ibrahim Ghannam, adding that most of the equipment were destroyed in the process.
http://fwd4.me/0i6Y
Official Warns of Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Policy in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) - Ahmed Qurei, head of the Jerusalem affairs department in the PLO, Monday warned of what he described as Israel’s quiet ethnic cleansing and displacement policy against Palestinians in Jerusalem, according to a press release issued by his office.
Qurei, who formerly served as president of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a former prime minister, warned that Israel was implementing this policy through demolition of Palestinian homes in the Old City, as well as in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other Jerusalem area neighborhoods.
He also warned against Israel’s seizure of land in East Jerusalem and its violation of the sanctity of holy sites, including Islamic and Christian cemeteries. He said Israel was proceeding with efforts to turn Jerusalem into a Jewish city, adding that the checkpoints its erects around it turn its neighborhoods into cantons and isolated areas.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18248
Israeli Bulldozers Demolish House in Silwan
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) - Bulldozers of the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem Monday demolished a Palestinian house in Yasoul, an area in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, according to local sources.
Member of the Committee for the Defense of Silwan, Fakhri Abu Diab, told WAFA that Israeli bulldozers, under Israeli police protection, targeted the house of Borhan Burqan, did not allow the family members to carry their belongings out, and demolished the house.
The bulldozers also demolished barracks used by the family for poultry farming, as a source of income.
Israeli authorities had recently demolished an additional wing that was added to the house in 2009, and fined Burqan with 50,000 NIS ($13,500). He received a demolition notice for his entire house from the Israeli municipality a week ago, under the pretext that it was built without a building permit, added Abu Diab.
He added that Burqan and seven family members that have been living in the house for 40 years became homeless in the winter.
Abu Diab described the house demolition as “malicious” and said it was a warning of a grand demolition campaign that the Israeli municipality, in cooperation with the ministry of interior, plans to conduct in Silwan.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18242
Jewish Settlers Kidnap Elderly Palestinian Shepherd
NABLUS, (WAFA) – Armed Jewish settlers Monday kidnapped an elderly Palestinian shepherd while herding his sheep in an open area east of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local activist.
Ghassan Douglas, who monitors settlers’ activities in the northern part of the West Bank, said he believes the settlers took Salim Shehadeh, 60, to the nearby settlement of Yitzhar and seized his sheep.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18247
Israeli Municipality Demolishes Residential Barracks East of Jerusalem
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Bulldozers of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished Palestinian residential barracks Monday in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, claiming it was built without permit, according to the head of Beit Hanina Club, Hazem Gharably.
He said the owner of the barracks was forced to live in it when he could not obtain a permit from the Israeli municipality to build his house; nevertheless, Israeli forces demolished the barracks.
The demolition led to confrontations between neighborhood residents and Israeli forces accompanying the bulldozers.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian quarry built since 2008 in Azzoun, a town east of Qalqilia in the northern West Bank, according to witnesses.
They said that Israeli bulldozers, under the protection of dozens of military vehicles, surrounded the quarry and demolished two-thirds of it. A technical problem with the bulldozers prevented them from continuing the demolition.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18244 6 dec 2011, 23:48 , Respect -
Maria 6 dec 2011
IOA razes third Palestinian home within 24 hours in OJ
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) leveled a Palestinian home in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday, the third to be demolished over the past 24 hours, eyewitnesses said.
They said that the IOA bulldozers razed the 70-square-meter home of Khamis Al-Dadu, which used to shelter nine individuals.
The house in Khalila suburb to the north of occupied Jerusalem is the third to be demolished in the holy city in the past 24 hours after two others were knocked down in Silwan and Beit Hanina rendering 14 persons homeless.
http://fwd4.me/0iBg
Hamas denounces Israeli plan to build park on Palestinian land in OJ
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas denounced the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) for planning to build a public park on Palestinian land east of occupied Jerusalem between Tur and Aisawiya towns.
Hamas strongly condemned in a press release on Tuesday the IOA for robbing Palestinian land and demolishing Palestinian homes in occupied Jerusalem to serve its settlement schemes.
It described the IOA act as a flagrant violation of the international law and a racist practice targeting the Palestinian presence in the holy city.
The IOA policy of demolishing houses and stealing land would only boost the Palestinian people’s insistence on their rights and constants, the movement underlined.
Hamas concluded by calling on the Islamic cooperation organization and human rights groups to stand up to such “Zionist policy”, and to check the IOA criminal practices against the Palestinian people and land.
Hebrew daily Ha’aretz said that the organization and construction committee in the Jerusalem municipality had decided to build the park on an area of 734 dunums of land mostly owned by Palestinian citizens.
http://fwd4.me/0iBk
Israeli Bulldozers Demolish House near Jerusalem
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Israeli bulldozers Tuesday demolished a house under the pretext of building with no permit in al-Khalayleh neighborhood in al-Jib village, northwest of Jerusalem, according to local sources.
Head of al-Khalayleh neighborhood, Ismail Abu Rabah, said Israeli soldiers accompanied by bulldozers and military vehicles closed down the area before demolishing the house.
The 70 square meter house which was built 15 years ago houses nine family members.
Witnesses said that soldiers also hung up demolishing orders on a number of other houses in the neighborhood.
Giv’at Ze’ev settlement was built on lands in the area; Israel aims to displace the residents of al-Khalayleh neighborhood in order to link all settlements in the area with each other.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18256
Report: Israel plans park to block Issawiya expansion
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- A left-wing member of Israel's Jerusalem city council says a plan for a new "national park" in the Mt Scopus area is a "ruse" to block development of two Palestinian neighborhoods.
Meir Margalit of the Meretz party told Israel's Haaretz daily that the park "is a farce. There's nothing there but rocks and thorns, certainly nothing to justify a national park."
He added: "The only reason for such a plan is to seize lands and hold them as a reserve for a future settlement, while suffocating the Palestinian neighborhoods."
Efrat Cohen, an architect and activist with the rights group Bimkom, said the park is intended to stop the group's plan to renovate areas in al-Tur and Issawiya, which are populated by Palestinians.
"These two neighborhoods are boxed-in from all sides, they have no other way for development".
The report said authorities had meanwhile stopped plans for settlement in the the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, construction that had sparked criticism from the US.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=442376 7 dec 2011, 11:40 , Respect -
Maria 7 dec 2011
Troops Demolish Another Home In East Jerusalem
Palestinian sources reported that Israeli soldiers demolished, on Tuesday morning, a Palestinian home in the Al Khalayla neighborhood, north of occupied East Jerusalem. The home was the third to be demolished in just 24 hours.
Eyewitnesses reported that the seventy square metre home belongs to Khamees Ad-Dado and his eight family members.
The home was the third to be demolished by the army in illegally annexed East Jerusalem the last 24 hours. On Monday, soldiers demolished a home belonging to Majdi As-Salayma, in Al Ashqariyya neighbourhood in the city. Six family members lived in the now demolished property.
Earlier on Monday, soldiers also demolished a home in Yasoul neighborhood, in Silwan, East Jerusalem. Resident Borhan Zakariyya lived in the 150 square meter home along with his seven family members.
The usual claim Israel provides when demolishing Palestinian homes is that the constructions were not approved and licensed by the Jerusalem Municipality.
While Israel is ongoing with its settlement construction and expansion activities, Palestinians living in the Old City of Jerusalem and nearby areas are rarely granted construction permits.
East Jerusalem is considered an occupied city under International Law; it was captured by Israel, along with the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, during the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel annexed East Jerusalem weeks after war, and in 1980 the Israeli Knesset (parliament) declared the whole of Jerusalem the undivided and eternal capital of Israel.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62622
PLO: 2,900 New Settlement Units and 8,900 Stolen Dunums in November
The illegal Israel settlement of Nevi Daniel, near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Department of International Relations said in its monthly report on Thursday that in November, Israeli forces confiscated 8,912 dunums of land (a dunum is about a quarter of an acre), demolished 39 buildings, uprooted 715 trees and arrested 181 Palestinians. In the same period, the Israeli government authorized 2,934 new settlement units.
The Israeli army and Israeli settlers combined killed five Palestinians, four of them in airstrikes on the Gaza and one Palestinian struck in purpose by a settler’s car near Salfit. Thirty people were injured in November as a result of Israeli military assaults against peaceful marches against the wall.
According to the report, Israeli troops arrested 180 people in November and detained an additional 253 during nighttime raids. Several released prisoners have faced harassment and interrogation by Israeli intelligence agents, and 84 released prisoners were forbidden from going on the Hajj pilgrimage.
Meanwhile inside Israeli military prisons, the PLO claimed prisoner administrators had stepped up abuses, renewing terms of solitary confinement for many of them, refusing to medicate sick prisoners, and withholding warm clothes for the winter.
The report also mentioned the November arrests of Palestinian journalists Israa Salhab and Ra’ed al-Sharif as well as the renewed detention of journalist Walid Khalid. The journalist Majdi Ishtayeh was injured when a tear gas canister struck his left foot during a protest in al-Nabi Saleh.
Also in the monthly report were the arrests of 11-year-olds Omar and Ala’ Abu Madi, boys from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, as well as the withdrawal of residence rights from Ammar Badreya and his family, who live in the al-Matar neighborhood in Qalandia, under the pretext that their house is on the borders of the West Bank .
Settlers also perpetrated “price tag” attacks in the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, writing racist slogans such as “Death to Arabs” on graves and a nearby wall. The 1000-year-old site is due to be destroyed to make room for the Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance.
In the same month, the PLO said Israeli authorities had prepared a document authorizing 60,718 settlement units to be built over the next twenty years. Of those, 53,000 will be on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem, including a 2,580-square-meter parcel of land in Silwan designated to be a public garden and parking lot.
West Bank Bedouin after house demolition
The Israeli Interior Ministry started taking construction bids on 750 settlement units in Gilo, near Bethlehem, and 65 settlement units in Pisgat Ze’ev, near Jerusalem.
According to the report, the Israeli army assumed control over 8,912 dunums of land in November (about 2,250 acres), including 7,000 dunums in Bethlehem, under the absentee property law in which the State of Israel takes over land rights from absent or exiled Palestinian owners. Twelve dunums were handed over to Israel in the village of al-Khader, 1,500 were annexed from the Bardala region in the northern Jordan Valley to kibbutzes inside the Green Line, and 400 dunums were taken from Qalandia to build the wall.
Israeli demolition operations continued against Palestinian communities, resulting in the destruction of one mosque, 12 houses, 14 Bedouin tents, six greenhouses, and seven underground wells. Israeli authorities also served demolition warnings to homeowners in Qabod village, south of Hebron, citing their lack of building permits. The principal of Susya school in the South Hebron Hills was also given a demolition notice for the school, water well, and three nearby greenhouses.
http://fwd4.me/0iAO 8 dec 2011, 20:26 , Respect -
Maria 8 dec 2011
Israel hands confiscation, demolition orders in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to ten landowners in villages near Hebron on Thursday, locals told Ma'an.
The troops also handed demolition orders for 14 houses in southern Hebron village Susiya, residents said.
Israeli authorities told four landowners in Surif village, which neighbors Susiya, that their land would be seized. The lands belong to
--Ismael Musa Othman Ighnnimat,
--Atef Atallah Ibrahim Ighnimat,
--Mohammad Abdullah Ahmad al-Qadi, and
--Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hour, a Ma'an reporter said.
North of Hebron, Israeli forces told six landowners in Kharas their land would be confiscated. The orders were received by
--Hassan Musallam Ismael,
--Mohammad Hussain Ismael Nimir,
--Ahmad Husssain Ismael Nimir,
--Ibrahim Abdul Hadi Halahla,
--Abdul Majid Mahmoud Musallam and
--Abdul Raheem Mahmoud Musallam, Ma'an has learned.
In nearby Beit Ula, the Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall said Thursday that Israeli troops bulldozed a field belonging to
--Fayez Mohammad Abdul Ghani al-Omla, including electricity and water networks supplying his property.
Research by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has found that 990 people -- including 507 children -- have lost their homes so far this year to Israeli demolitions, more than double the number for 2010.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=443210
Muzaini slams Israeli demolition orders against two schools in Al-Khalil
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian minister of education Dr. Osama Al-Muzaini strongly denounced the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) for issuing demolition orders against two Palestinian schools, Manezel and Susya, south of Al-Khalil city in the West Bank.
In a press release on Thursday, Muzaini said his ministry is seriously concerned about the international silence over Israel's arbitrary actions against the Palestinians and their educational institutions.
The minister noted that the IOA submitted notifications to the administrations of the two schools ordering them to demolish the health unit of Manezel school and the whole building of Susya school.
The minister appealed to the UNESCO to assume its responsibilities in this regard and protect the educational institutions in occupied Palestine.
The IOA have issued lately 12 demolition orders against buildings and water wells in Susya and Wadi Arakim areas of Al-Khalil.
It also demolished a while ago one of the mosques in Al-Khalil city and still intends to raze the Maghariba Gate bridge near the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
http://fwd4.me/0iGo
Israel to Seize Land in Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM, (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers Thursday handed Palestinians from Khadir town, south of Bethlehem, notices to seize their agricultural lands, according to local sources.
Khadir Municipality member, Mahmoud Abdullah, told WAFA the decision states that 150 dunums of Palestinian land in Ras Salah area, near Daniel settlement, will be confiscated by Israeli authorities.
Abdullah said the town’s residents contacted a lawyer, who immediately started working to stop the order and protect the land from a decision, which comes within an Israeli plan to control more Palestinian land.
In a related matter, Israeli soldiers handed a Palestinian a demolishing notice of a farming hut in Khalit Fahim area, near Khadir town.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18285