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26/02/2021
| | Is Israel trying to keep Hamas from running in Palestinian elections?
Adnan Abu Amer - Al-monitor - The Israeli army has in the past
carried out arrests of members of Palestinian factions,
especially Hamas, to thwart their plans to carry out armed
operations. This is different from what is happening in recent weeks
- ever since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the
general election dates, Israel has been increasingly arresting Hamas
cadres involved in the elections campaign. In
January alone, the number of detainees amounted to 461, including
members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), political
leaders, as well as students and union activists. [ak]. | | | Humanitarian Coordinator calls on Israel to halt all demolitions of Palestinian homes and possessions
WAFA - The Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Lynn Hastings, today called on Israel to halt all demolitions of Palestinian homes and possessions and to allow the humanitarian community to provide shelter, food and water to the vulnerable Palestinian communities living in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under Israeli military control.
Hastings’ statement came a day after visiting the community of Humsa al-Baqaia, in the northern Jordan Valley, where the homes and belongings of the families living there were either demolished or seized by Israel five times in the last month in an effort to drive them out of their homes and lands.
Tents, food, water tanks and fodder for the community’s livestock have all been confiscated despite repeated calls by the international community for these actions to stop in accordance with international law, said Hastings.
"As we have noted previously, situations where communities are put under pressure to move raises a real risk of forcible transfer," said the Humanitarian Coordinator. [bz] | | | Litigation works! Georgia amending and narrowing its anti-BDS law!
Michael Arria - The Shift - You might remember that Georgia Southern
University was sued last year, after it tried to force Abby Martin
to sign a loyalty oath to Israel. Martin made a film called Gaza
Fights for Freedom and was scheduled to appear at a media conference
hosted by the school. As a result of the state`s anti-BDS law, she
was required to sign a contract promising that she wouldn`t boycott
the country. She refused to sign it and the conference ended up
getting canceled. "My right to speak at a media conference at a
public university was conditioned on my pledge to never participate
in my constitutional right to engage in peaceful political action,”
she said at a the time. “Situations of oppression, racism, and
violations of international law that are funded by my tax dollars is
something that I care very deeply about.” Now it seems like Georgia
is attempting to amend its anti-BDS law to avoid this kind of
litigation in the future. The modification would mean that only
businesses or individuals entering state contracts of over $100,000
would have to sign such an oath. This has become a pretty standard
move throughout states. Texas narrowed the extent of its law in
2019, after it was sued by an elementary school employee who also
refused to sign such an oath.[ak] | | | Blinken affirms US support for the Two-State Solution
Jacob Magid - Times of Israel - Speaking with Israeli Foreign
Minister Ashkenazi, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated
the Biden administration’s belief that a two-state solution to the
conflict with the Palestinians is "the only viable solution" and
"the only way to maintain both Israel’s Jewish character and its
democratic one". This was a clear return to traditional US policies
and a repudiation the Trump approach, in which Israel would have
been allowed to annex 30% of the West Bank and leave the
Palestinians trapped in a narrow enclave. Whereas Blinken and
Ashkenazi have been speaking regularly, it took President Biden four
weeks before he called Netanyahu last week. As Biden and Blinken
must be well-aware, Prime Minister Netnayahu and his Foreign
Minister Ashkenazi belong to rival parties, at loggerheads in the
current elections campaign, and Ashkenazi is likley to withdraw to
private life once a new cabinet is formed after the March 23
elections. [ak] | | | Rare Israeli Bedouin audio archive sheds light on nomadic society
AFP/Ynet - Impoverished and often living on the margins, Bedouin culture is understudied in Israel, a problem Clinton Bailey`s recordings will help address, said Raquel Ukeles, head of collections at the National Library. The library has consistently prioritized material on Islam but put less prime on the culture and history of indigenous Arab communities, she said. The content includes Bedouin poetry, legal issues, religion, history and environment.
The Bedouins once laid claim to much of the Negev desert, but the minority community now survives on the margins of Israeli society and often in poverty. Land ownership is one of the main bones of contention between the Bedouins and Israeli authorities.
The Israeli government "decided not to recognize their claims to any plots or any areas they held in common, because they had no written deeds," Bailey said, faulting Israeli policymakers for alienating the Bedouins.
Bedouin property rights are codified in their oral legal system, and as a result tensions over land issues have persisted. (In 1994, Bailey won a human rights award from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel for his advocacy.) [bz]
| | | Should an Australian public health expert accept an Israeli award while Israel denies immunization to Palestinians?
BDS Australia - Tel Aviv University announced that its prestigious
Dan David Prize, amounting to a million Dollars, will be awarded to
Prof. Alison Bashford of the University of New South Wales in
Sydney, Australia, described as a "world-leader and an agenda-setter
in the history of health and medicine", whose books constitute a
major resource for understanding the current global pandemic.
However, an open letter signed by numerous academics, researchers
and students called upon Prof. Bashford to decline the "tainted"
prize and refuse to be honored in Israel at the time when "Israel -
hailed for vaccinating its own population - is refusing to immunize
all Palestinians under its rule, as is its responsibility, and is
placing obstacles in the way of transfer of vaccines into Gaza and
the West Bank, entry to which it fully controls." Back in 2018,
Prof. Catherine Hall of University College, London declined the Dan
David Prize, saying “I have withdrawn from the prize – this was an
independent political choice, undertaken after many discussions with
those who are deeply involved with the politics of Israel-Palestine,
but with differing views as to how best to act.” [ak] | | | Dimona nuclear pile undergoes extensive renovations
Associated Press - Satellite photos show that the Israeli nuclear
facility at Dimona is is undergoing what appears to be its biggest
construction project in decades. A dig about the size of a soccer
field and likely several stories deep now sits just meters from the
aging reactor. The facility is already home to decades-old
underground laboratories which are widely considered to be involved
in reprocessing the reactor’s spent rods to obtain weapons-grade
plutonium for Israel’s nuclear bomb program. The Israeli government,
under its policy of "nuclear ambiguity", neither confirms nor denies
having atomic weapons, and has refused to explain the purpose of the
new facilities being constructed at Dimona. This comes at the same
time that Israeli officials increase their vociferous protests at
the Iranian nuclear program, Army Chief of Staff Kochavi having made
an explicit threat to have the Israeli Air Force attack the Iranian
nuclear facilities, involved in the same kind of activity as the one
at Dimona but in a far less advanced stage. "What the Israeli
government is doing at this secret nuclear weapons plant is
something for the Israeli government to come clean about,” said
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms
Control Association. However, the Biden Administration - like all
its predecessors, Democrat and Republican alike - keeps silen on
this topic. [ak] | | | The weather forecasts predicted a snowstorm - and the army arrived at Hamsa to confiscate tents
Taayush - Just as a snow storm approached, the occupation forces
confiscated tents that had been donated to the Humsa community after
the village was demolished; Palestinian shepherds are expelled from
their grazing grounds by settlers and soldiers in the Palestinian
Jordan Valley, West Bank Hill Range, and the South Hebron Hills;
this week activists managed to prevent settler flocks from invading
Palestinian fields in the West Bank Hill Range; home demolitions in
neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[ak] | | | WEBINAR: Israel-Palestine at the International Criminal Court
B`Tselem USA - FMEP is pleased to invite you to join us for this
webinar — featuring a panel of Israeli, Palestinian, and
international legal experts — examining the latest ICC ruling and
its implications for the fight for accountability, justice, and
human rights in Israel/Palestine.
On February 5, 2021, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), found that “the Court’s territorial
jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine, a State party to the ICC
Rome Statute, extends to the territories occupied by Israel since
1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” This
ruling – explained by the ICC itself here – opens the door for
investigations into alleged war crimes perpetrated by “members of
the Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli authorities, Hamas, and
Palestinian armed groups.”
This webinar is a follow-up to the ICC-focused webinar FMEP convened
in April 2020, in the context of the ICC’s then-ongoing
consideration of opening a formal probe into Israeli and Palestinian
actions in the Occupied Territories. That webinar — which attracted
nearly 1000 viewers in real time, and which has been viewed nearly
1000 times since — can be watched here. [ak] | | | Why so harsh?
Gush Shalom - No vaccines and no humanitarian aid, says the would-be Justice Minister. [bz] | | | For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections | |
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Gideon Spiro on looting of Palestinian property
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