Life under occupation
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| Title | | Description | Date |
| Homes of 44 Palestinians, including 22 children, demolished | | Amit Gilutz - B`Tselem - As part of Israel’s efforts to take over
more land in the West Bank, authorities yesterday destroyed the
homes of 44 Palestinians (22 of them minors) and cut off entire
communities from the water supply. by Israel are conducting military
training in residential and farming areas, denying Palestinians
access to land, prohibiting construction, preventing connection to
basic infrastructure and confiscating property. With a month left
before the end of the year, Israel has demolished the homes of more
than 900 Palestinians in 2020 (the figure includes the West Bank and
East Jerusalem), compared with 677 in all of 2019. [ak] | 26/11/2020 |
| ... |
| Military colludes with settler incursions and itself intensifies house demolitions | | Ta`ayush - Report of the between November 15-22, 2020 in the
Occupied Territories: Cases of explicit cooperation of the Civil
Administration, Israeli army and police with incursions of settlers
from their outposts into Palestinians’ lands and homes in the South
Hebron Hills – while the pace of demolitions of Palestinian
structures and property throughout Area C and East Jerusalem is
steadily growing; a Palestinian activist was wounded on Friday by
Israeli army fire during a violent dispersion of a protest
demonstration against a new settler outpost in Samiya, in the West
Bank hill range, and a paramedic was detained; activists from
Palestine, Israel and abroad took part in tree planting in the
lands of Sa’ir and Shuyukh, close to the settlement ‘Asfar’. | 26/11/2020 |
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| Gaza`s health system days away from being overwhelmed | | Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) - Health experts in Gaza have
warned that the local health care system is days away from being
overwhelmed, as COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to rapidly spread.
Cases of COVID-19 have more than tripled over the past month in
Gaza, with more than 15,000 people infected and 69 deaths sadly
recorded. Speaking to the BBC, Abdelnaser Soboh, the World Health
Organization`s (WHO’s) Emergency Health Co-Ordinator in Gaza, warned
that "within a week, we will become unable to care for critical
cases." Of 100 ventilators available in Gaza, 79 are already in use,
amplifying fears of the recent warning from the WHO of an increase
in severe cases of COVID-19, with more cases being reported among
people aged 60 and over. | 26/11/2020 |
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| Israeli army launches air raids on besieged Gaza Strip | | Al Jazeera - Israeli military says it struck Hamas positions after an alleged rocket
attack from the Palestinian enclave [ry] | 23/11/2020 |
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| UNRWA fears `disaster` in Gaza as funding runs dry | | AFP - Ynetnews - The "worst financial crisis" ever faced by the UN`s
agency for Palestinian refugees could lead to "disaster" in the Gaza
Strip and insecurity in Lebanon, the organization`s chief has warned
on Sunday. Founded in 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) runs schools
and provides health services as well as other humanitarian aid to an
estimated 5.7 million Palestinians with refugee status.(rh) | 22/11/2020 |
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| Biden may offer some key opportunities for Palestinians and their allies | | Noura Erakat - Washington Post - The Trump administration’s decision
to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, for example,
built on the steady ethnic cleansing of the city’s Palestinian
population through forced removal, residency revocation, denial of
permits for family reunification, retroactive application of
exorbitant taxes, settler takeovers of Palestinian homes and home
demolitions overseen and allowed by successive U.S. administrations
from both political parties. The embassy relocation was a culmination
of this policy and, frankly, removed the emperor’s clothing. Far from
condemning Biden’s refusal to move the embassy back to Tel Aviv, the
2020 Democratic Party Platform insisted that Jerusalem “should remain
the capital of Israel,” and, at some point in time, also be subject
to the farcical peace process.(rh) | 22/11/2020 |
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| The Palestinian leadership chooses captivity : Devoid of strategy, the PA has returned to its role as a subcontractor of the occupation. Luckily, the richest source of Palestinian power is in its grassroots. | | Amjad Iraqi - +972mag - As the opening remarks began, news broke that
the Palestinian Authority had decided to resume civil and security
coordination with Israel, which President Mahmoud Abbas had suspended
in May in protest of Israel’s plans to annex parts of the occupied
West Bank. Claiming they had received assurances that Israel would
adhere to their agreements, the PA’s Civil Affairs Minister Hussein
al-Sheikh hailed the move as “a victory for our Palestinian people.”
The irony was not lost on the webinar participants, who shook their
heads in dismay as the news was shared. In tragic fashion, the
Muqata’a had given evidence in real time to back the speakers’
criticisms of the Palestinian leadership. As Crisis Group analyst
Tareq Baconi predicted, the PA’s relief over Joe Biden’s election win
had “reignite[d] its misplaced faith in the U.S. to deliver
statehood,” compelling it to return to the Oslo arrangements in order
to curry favor with the new administration. That “outward-facing
gesture,” Baconi noted, would likely come at the expense of efforts
to unite the divided Palestinian factions — who were meeting in Cairo
for further reconciliation talks that very same day.(rh) | 22/11/2020 |
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| Reassured by Biden Win, Palestinians Will Resume Cooperation With Israel | | David M. Halbfinger and Adam Rasgon - New York Times - Palestinian leaders had abundant reasons to resume cooperation with Israel and few reasons not to. Their banks, whose liquidity had been depleted by the self-inflicted cash crunch, had informed them they could no longer lend the Palestinian Authority money, endangering its ability to operate. International donors, chiefly in Europe, had been insisting that the Palestinians resume accepting the tax transfers from Israel before seeking further aid.
Israeli and Palestinian experts also said that Democrats seeking to facilitate a return to a peace process under Mr. Biden have urged the Palestinians to take specific steps to show that they will not be obstructionist if the new administration engages on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [bz] | 18/11/2020 |
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| Israel Evicts Palestinian Families for Military Training in Jordan Valley | | The Palestine Chronicle - "Israeli authorities ordered [...] a number of Palestinian
families in the northern Jordan Valley region to leave their homes and make way
for Israeli military training in the area" [ry] | 16/11/2020 |
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| November 6, 2020. Harat Makhul. Humsa al-Foqa. | | David Shulman - The rains have come in force, the hills are muddy,
and there is food for the goats and sheep. Over morning tea in Makhul
we get the weekly litany of hurts. Walid—still a boy—was out alone
with the herd, and settlers came and beat him. It’s really dangerous
to be alone on the hills. A large posse of settlers attacked Qadri
and several others; there were two broken legs. A few days earlier,
settlers killed Qadri’s uncle’s cow.
At Ibziq the army confiscated 21 Palestinian tractors, private
vehicles, and water tanks. It’s hard to survive in the Jordan Valley
without a tractor. At Ein Sukut there was the murdered sheep I wrote
about in my last report. It goes on and on. No day passes without
violence, insult, and hurt. The rains have come in force, the hills
are muddy, and there is food for the goats and sheep. Over morning
tea in Makhul we get the weekly litany of hurts. Walid—still a boy—
was out alone with the herd, and settlers came and beat him. It’s
really dangerous to be alone on the hills. A large posse of settlers
attacked Qadri and several others; there were two broken legs. A few
days earlier, settlers killed Qadri’s uncle’s cow. (rh)
At Ibziq the army confiscated 21 Palestinian tractors, private
vehicles, and water tanks. It’s hard to survive in the Jordan Valley
without a tractor. At Ein Sukut there was the murdered sheep I wrote
about in my last report. It goes on and on. No day passes without
violence, insult, and hurt. | 15/11/2020 |
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| Netanyahu Responds to Biden’s Victory by Announcing New Settlement near Gaza | | Palestine Chronicle Staff- Only hours after Democratic nominee Joe
Biden was projected to be the 46th President of the United States,
the Israeli government approved the construction of a new settlement
adjacent to the border of the besieged Gaza Strip.
The news of the Israeli cabinet’s approval of the settlement was
reported on Sunday by Israel’s Channel 12, Israeli daily newspaper
Yediot Ahronoth and other sources.
Prior to the cabinet meeting, right-wing Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said that the government is now set to approve of
the new settlement near Gaza. “This is a great news for Israel, this
is great news for the communities in the Gaza border area,” Netanyahu
said. According to Yediot Ahronoth, the new settlement, which would
be called “Hanun”, will initially host about 500 Israeli Jewish
families. Citing Israeli media sources, Anadolu News Agency said that
the Israeli government “will allocate one million NIS ($296,000) for
the development of the infrastructure in the new settlement, which
will be within the area of Israel’s Sdot Negev Regional Council.”
(rh)
| 15/11/2020 |
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| Biden’s victory prompts great expectations in Ramallah, quite possibly too great | | AVI ISSACHAROFF - Times of Israel - Joe Biden’s US presidential
victory has restored some color to the cheeks of senior officials in
the PA, Fatah, and mainly Abbas’s close circle. The hope is that four
years of diplomatic drought are ending, and the expectation is that
the PA is back in business. It is doubtful that Biden will prove as
accommodating as the PA would like to believe, however. Ramallah will
need to demonstrate an abundance of readiness to progress in order to
avoid angering the incoming American administration. Now, Ramallah
will not want to irritate Biden from the get-go by reconciling with
the terrorists of Hamas, so that process is likely over. On Tuesday,
indeed, Rajoub announced that the reconciliation was delayed “due to
special circumstances.” As for parliamentary elections, those too are
likely off the agenda, at least until Biden’s policies on the
Palestinian issue start to become clear.//Trump may yet attempt to
complicate matters for his Democratic successor by making a move
Biden would find it difficult to rescind — announce official
recognition of Israeli sovereignty at major settlement blocs such as
Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, or in the E1 area east of Jerusalem,
for instance. Along with looking to restore ties with DC, the PA may
also consider restoring ties with Israel, if annexation stays off the
table. In May, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that
extending Israeli sovereignty to all the settlements and the Jordan
Valley was imminent, Abbas cut off financial and security
coordination, and also refused to accept payments from Israel of
taxes and customs duties it collects on the PA’s behalf.(rh)
| 15/11/2020 |
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| Webinar: Annexation and the Aftermath of the US Election | | FMEP/B’Tselem USA - NB: Date change!
Jordan Valley Nov 3: Israel razed an
entire Palestinian community | 10/11/2020 |
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| `A patriotic leader and great fighter for his people" - President Abbas mourns Saeb Erekat | | WAFA / IMEMC - The departure of our brother and friend, the great
fighter, Dr. Saeb Erekat represents a great loss for Palestine and
our people, and we feel deeply saddened by his loss, especially in
light of these difficult circumstances facing the Palestinian cause.
Palestine today bids farewell to this patriotic leader and the great
fighter who played a big role in raising the banner of Palestine
high and defending the rights of our people and their national
constants in all international forums". [ak] | 10/11/2020 |
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| 11 Palestinian families – 74 people, including 41 children – were left homeless in the Jordan Valley. Finding shelter for sheep and newborn lambs was the most urgent task, as their livelihood depends it | | Amira Hass - Haaretz - The northern migration of the Awawda and Abu al-Kabash families began in the 1970s and 1980s, when the grazing lands near Samu’a and Yatta began to shrink and access became more difficult due to military bans and Israeli construction. In 1948, the families from Samu’a already lost a large chunk of their land that was left on the Israeli side of the Green Line. Due to population growth, the limited water supply Israel permits to the Palestinians, increasing drought and expanding settlements, more sheep breeders from Samu’a moved north to the Jenin and Tubas area.
The Abu al-Kabash and Awawda families lease land owned by people from Tamun and Tubas where they also grow wheat and barley for their own needs.
But Israel declared the area a “firing zone”. Since 2018, the residents of Humsa have had to evacuate at least 20 times due to military exercises in the area. “Israel didn’t leave us any land to plant. Without our sheep, we’ll become beggars,” says Yusef Abu Awad.”
The demolition of each encampment lasted about half an hour. Umm Walid al-Kabash, from the third encampment, says through tears: “If only they had informed us ahead of time. We would have been able to save more things. The taboun for baking bread was also destroyed.” [bz] | 10/11/2020 |
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| Israel criticized over West Bank home demolitions | | Y-Net - Israel has come under heavy criticism after the military
demolished several homes and other structures in a Bedouin community
in the West Bank this week as much of the world’s attention was
focused on the U.S. election.European Union Representative Sven Kühn
von Burgsdorff, who led the delegation, said it was “very clear”
that the demolition of the structures “is contrary to international
law.”“Their vulnerability is further compounded by the onset of
winter and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” she said of the Bedouins
of Khirbet Humsu. “Some of the demolished structures had been
donated as humanitarian assistance.” | 10/11/2020 |
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| Many Israelis mourn Erekat - and are castigated by right-wingers | | Aaron Boxman - Times of Israel - Saeb Erekat helmed for decades
successive Palestinian negotiations with Israel, including talks
that led to the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Many Israeli
current and former officials — including those who sat across from
Erekat at the negotiating table — mourned Erekat as a moderate who
sought peace. Condolences messages were issued by Peace Now, Meretz,
the Labor Party`s Minister Amir Peretz and more surprisingly Likud
Minister Tzahi Hanegbi. Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, offering
her deepest condolences to the Palestinians and to Erekat`s family,
said “Saeb dedicated his life to his people. He used to say that
reaching peace was his destiny, and when falling into his final
illness he still texted me: ‘I’m not finished with what I was born
to do.’ He will be missed”. However, right-wingers such as Knesset
Member Betzal`el Smotrich called Erekat "an anti-Semitic terror-
supporter" and castigated the Israelis who mourned him, and the
extreme-right agitator Bentzi Gopstein called his death "a piece of
happy good news". Former Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher, who built a
friendship with Erekat that outlasted the talks, said he was
“appalled by right-wingers` hatred, curses and death wishes.” [ak]
| 10/11/2020 |
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| Israel carries out largest West Bank demolition operation in a decade | | Ahmad Al-Bazz and Oren Ziv - +972 - Israel demolished over 70 structures in the
Humsa al-Fuqa community in the occupied West Bank, displacing 11 Palestinian
families [ry] | 9/11/2020 |
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| Destroying Palestinian Jerusalem, One Institution at a Time | | Yara Hawari - Al-Shabaka - On July 22, 2020, Israeli police raided
and looted the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, the Yaboos
Cultural Centre, and the Shafaq Cultural Network in East Jerusalem
under the pretext that the institutions were funding terrorism. The
institutions’ directors were also arrested and detained. These
attacks on Palestinian cultural centers are not new and reflect the
Israeli state’s continued systematic destruction of Palestinian
Jerusalem. Jerusalem has historically been central to Palestinian
social and political identity. But since its capture and division
into an Israeli-controlled West and a Jordanian-controlled East in
1948, Israel has thoroughly obscured Jerusalem’s Palestinian identity
with ethnic cleansing campaigns and an ongoing occupation that
renders life unbearable for the city’s Palestinians. Indeed, since
East Jerusalem was occupied in 1967, the Israeli regime has actively
worked to erase the Palestinian presence in the city through the
construction of the separation wall, the imposition of unworkable
residency requirements, urban planning schemes that demolish and
replace Palestinian structures, and frequent closures of Palestinian
cultural and political institutions.(rh) | 8/11/2020 |
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| MAP supports essential respirator training for Palestinian health workers battling COVID-19 | | Medical aid for Palestinians - In September, Medical Aid for
Palestinians (MAP) and the International Medical Education Trust 2000
(IMET2000), supported by the British Consulate General, delivered 15
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) respirators to the
Ministry of Health (MoH) in Ramallah to help save lives amid the
COVID-19 pandemic. These highly-effective CPAP respirators were
developed by University College London (UCL) and manufactured by
Mercedes High Performance Powertrains in the UK. They deliver oxygen
under pressure, enabling many patients to recover without intrusive
ventilation. This allows ventilators to be used for the most
critically ill patients. The IMET2000 team are now training doctors
and nurses in the five West Bank hospitals that will receive the
respirators. Trainings have been conducted at the Military Hospital
in Nablus and the Hugo Chavez Hospital and the Palestinian Medical
Complex in Ramallah, with more planned in the coming weeks in Dura
and Alia Hospitals in Hebron. (rh) | 8/11/2020 |
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| Under cover of US elections, Israel wipes entire Palestinian community off the map | | YUMNA PATEL - Mondoweiss - As the world was engulfed in the unfolding
US elections on November 3rd, Israel quietly demolished an entire
Bedouin enclave in the northern Jordan Valley, leaving more than 70
Palestinians homeless just as temperatures started to drop in the
occupied West Bank. At around 11am on Tuesday morning, the residents
of Khirbet Husna were shocked to see a caravan of Israeli military
jeeps, accompanied by a number of bulldozers and excavators, heading
down the dirt pathway to their village. “The soldiers often come
here to evacuate us when they have military training,” Fatima Abu
Awwad told Mondoweiss, as she sat amidst the rubble of what was her
home just 24 hours earlier.(rh) | 8/11/2020 |
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| The landslide that wasn’t: What the elections say about America : It was supposed to produce a sweeping victory for Joe Biden, so why did so many Americans vote for Donald Trump? | | Marwan Bishara - Aljazeera - The United States presidential elections
were supposed to produce a sweeping victory for Joe Biden and a
decisive win for the Democrats. The vote was supposed to signal a
clear break with the past; ushering in a new morning after a dark
night in America. November 3 was supposed to be “judgement day” when,
after four years of Donald Trump, Americans were finally seizing the
chance to deliver a clear verdict befitting the crimes committed by
President Trump against their democratic institutions and liberal
values.// More importantly, how is it that Trump continues to be so
popular after his utter mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic,
which led to a quarter of a million deaths, unprecedented economic
decline and double-digit unemployment. How is it he remains a
credible option after countless scandals and investigations into his
suspicious record, from abuse of power to tax avoidance not to say
evasion? (rh)
| 8/11/2020 |
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| Israel criticized over West Bank home demolitions : EU representative says demolition of Bedouin village in the northern Jordan Valley, housing 74 people, including 41 minors, is a violation of international law | | Associated Press -Ynetnews - On Friday, a group of European diplomats
visited the community of Khirbet Humsu in the northern Jordan Valley
in a show of support for the Palestinian community against what an EU
representative said was a violation of international law. Israeli
troops with bulldozers and heavy equipment on Tuesday — U.S. Election
Day — demolished 18 tents and other structures that housed 74 people,
including 41 minors, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
The Israeli military said the structures were built without
permission. Israeli troops with bulldozers and heavy equipment on
Tuesday — U.S. Election Day — demolished 18 tents and other
structures that housed 74 people, including 41 minors, according to
the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. The Israeli military said the
structures were built without permission. (rh) | 8/11/2020 |
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| Maher al-Akhras "prevails over jailer," ends 103-day hunger strike | | Tamara Nassar - Electronic Intifada - Al-Akhras took the decision after Israel agreed to release him on 26 November, when his current administrative detention [i.e. detention without trial-bz] ends. Such orders can be renewed indefinitely but Israel has agreed not to renew his. The 49-year-old father of six hails from the occupied West Bank town of Silat al-Dahr, near Jenin, where he owns a dairy farm.
“I don’t want to die. I love life. I do not choose death,” he told Tel Aviv daily Haaretz this week.
Palestinians are crediting al-Akhras’ with rallying national and global support for Palestinian political prisoners. [bz] | 7/11/2020 |
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| In pandemic, of all times: Number of Palestinians Israel has left homeless hits four-year record | | B`Tselem - In the midst of an unprecedented health and economic crisis, more Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) lost their homes in the first 10 months of 2020 alone than in any full year since B’Tselem started collecting this data. 798 Palestinians have already lost their homes in 2020, including 404 minors who lived in 218 homes. In addition to all of these, yesterday, 3 November 2020, on the eve of US elections, the Civil Administration came with a military escort, two bulldozers and two diggers to the community of Khirbet Humsah in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished 18 tents and sheds that housed 11 families. They also destroyed more than 30 tons of fodder for livestock and confiscated a vehicle and two tractors belonging to three residents. While Israel has formally given up on annexing the West Bank, the demolition figures indicate that on the ground, reality remains unchanged. [bz] | 6/11/2020 |
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| IDF destroys Palestinian village in Jordan Valley | | AFP/Ynet - According to Abdelghani Awada, left homeless by the operation, the Israelis who arrived in vehicles and with bulldozers gave people "10 minutes to evacuate our homes".
"Then they started bulldozing," he told AFP.
He stressed that his family had lived in the area for generations and accused Israel of trying to "empty the Jordan Valley of its Palestinian population". [bz]
| 6/11/2020 |
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| “Thank God… another day has gone by without being expelled” | | Musa Abu Hashhash - B`Tselem - “Thank God… another day has gone by
without being expelled”, a 50-year-old Palestinian woman from the
area of Masafer Yatta said to me. She lives in the South Hebron
Hills, in an area the Israeli military has designated “Firing Zone
918”. When I asked how she and the rest of the community were
holding up, she said, “We’re used to the harsh life of the desert.
We’re used to living without electricity or water and walking for
many miles. We shelter against the cold of winter and the heat of
summer in our tents. We’re used to leading a simple life on our
land, by our sheep. We don’t have grand dreams about castles,
playgrounds, or swimming pools for our children. Our dreams are
small: to live in peace on our land, without fear or worry.” [ak]
| 3/11/2020 |
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| Palestinians Don’t Need a ‘Victim Status’ They Have a Right to an Anti-colonial Struggle | | Ramona Wadi - Palestine Chronicle - The US-Israeli narrative on
Palestine goes a step further than the designated humanitarian label
which the international community imposed upon the Palestinian
people. As US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman predicted that up
to ten Arab countries would normalize relations with the settler-
colonial state, Palestinians, he said “must stop clinging to their
victim narrative”. Friedman was speaking during an online event for
members of Friends of Tel Aviv University. The “victim status”, which
was also made popular by US Senior Adviser Jared Kushner in the
prelude to the Trump administration’s so-called ‘deal of the
century’, is not only a political slur against Palestinian history
and narratives. It eliminates the political claims which the UN has
already diluted through its useless resolutions and humanitarian
propaganda. Furthermore, Friedman failed to link the Palestinian
Authority’s corruption with US, Israeli and international complicity.
According to Friedman, the PA’s hoarding of wealth contributes to the
“victim narrative”. Since the Oslo Accords, it was the international
community’s decision to support a compliant political entity that
would divest Palestinians of the opportunity to seek their political
rights. The manner in which the PA exploits the Palestinian people
runs deeper than generating a purported victim status. The PA is an
extension of Israeli colonialism, supported by pro-Israel
institutions and entities, reviled by many Palestinians who are aware
of how their lives and land have been exploited to maintain the two-
state policy myth. (rh) | 1/11/2020 |
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| Ashrawi: US decision to label Jerusalem as Israel is attempt to erase Palestinians | | Wafa News Agency- Following is the full statement by Dr. Hanan
Ashrawi: "The US State Department`s new decision to allow the
labeling of Jerusalem as part of Israel in official US documents is a
falsification of the City´s history and identity, in line with
Israeli criminality and lawlessness. It is also a continuation of
this administration`s sinister scramble to compound injustice and
create new oppressive facts in Palestine ahead of upcoming elections.
This decision comes while Israel is taking unprecedented illegal
measures to displace and replace Palestinians in Jerusalem, including
home demolitions, exile orders, and revoking the ID`s of
Palestinians. By adopting this measure, the US administration is also
retroactively recognizing other illegal Israeli actions, including
the ethnic cleansing of West Jerusalem and the grand theft of
Palestinian property. This is an affront to the City`s history and
identity. It is also a clear violation of UN resolutions 181 II
(1948) and 194 III (1948), which affirmed the status of the whole
city of Jerusalem as Corpus separatum, as well as UN General Assembly
resolution 303 IV (1949) and others that affirmed the inviolability
of Jerusalem`s status. (rh
| 1/11/2020 |
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| Destroying Palestinian Jerusalem, One Institution at a Time | | Yara Hawari - Al Shabaka - The Israeli state has actively sought to
destroy Palestinian Jerusalem since its creation in 1948. Al-
Shabaka’s Senior Palestine Policy Fellow, Yara Hawari, examines the
July 2020 attacks on three Palestinian cultural institutions in East
Jerusalem as part of the Israeli regime’s systematic destruction of
the city’s Palestinian identity. She offers policy recommendations
for protecting Jerusalem’s Palestinian cultural and political
institutions. (rh)
| 1/11/2020 |
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| West Bank Palestinians` olive trees burn as U.N. urges protection for harvest | | Reuters/Ynet - In normal years peace monitors accompany the farmers to protect the harvest. But the coronavirus pandemic has made this harder.
Some Israeli activists are still deploying. "With COVID-19 it is impossible for foreigners to come, harder for Israelis," said one activist, Guy Butavia.
Olive farmers in areas near some Israeli settlements say they face problems each year.
"When we try to reach our fields, the army protects the settlers and prevents us from accessing our olives," said Adnan Barakat, council head of Burqa village, near Ramallah.
In Burqa, Israeli settlers "stoned and physically assaulted Palestinian olive pickers on three occasions, triggering clashes." [bz]
| 30/10/2020 |
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| The Annexation That Was And Still Is | | B`Tselem - both the uproar when annexation seemed imminent and the sigh of relief and renewed indifference afterwards overlook a crucial fact: for years, Israeli governments have treated the West Bank as their sovereign territory, to do with as they please in pursuit of long term goals – without official declaration or legislation. This position paper focuses on that reality and provides updates on the current situation. [bz] | 27/10/2020 |
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| October 18-24, 2020 - in the Occupied Palestinian Territories | | Taayush - Also this week settler attacks against Palestinian olive harvesters, with the robbing of olive crops and heavy damages to olive trees, and the ongoing harassment and chasing away of shepherds from their grazing grounds. The army demolished structures in the South Hebron Hills and in the northern Palestinian Jordan Valley, in the Bethlehem district, in Qalqiliya and Beit Iqsa. A new settler outpost was established on "antenna hill", on the lands of Birin village. Activists accompanied shepherds on Saturday at Umm Al Amad, and helped with the olive harvest at Susya. To join Ta`ayush this Saturday call 055-2770168 [bz] | 27/10/2020 |
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| Palestinian teen dies after being ‘beaten by Israeli soldiers’ | | Al Jazeera - Director of medical centre says Snobar died of neck injuries
sustained while being beaten by Israeli forces [ry] | 26/10/2020 |
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| The enduring power of Rachel Corrie | | PHILIP WEISS - Mondoweiss - Two Saturdays ago, a theater company near
me presented a reading of the play, “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” with
four young women speaking Rachel’s words on a simple stage 50 feet
from commuter rails. About 60 people were in the audience, and there
was none of the political drama that accompanied the play’s New York
premiere in 2006. Israel’s friends did not succeed in shutting down a
progressive theater company‘s production of the show… When the show
did get staged, no one handed out flyers outside the theater with
pictures of Israeli girls killed in suicide bombings. Yet in a way
the play had more raw power last Saturday night than it did when I
first saw it 14 years ago. Director Christine Bokhour chose the work
because she was looking for a piece that would tie into Black Lives
Matter and other protests. “[Rachel Corrie’s] passion for social
activism, and willingness to put her own life on the line for it, is
what is inspiring to me,” Bokhour wrote in the program. “I cannot
imagine a time when I would have had the courage to do what she did.
(rh) | 25/10/2020 |
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| Return to school rekindles fear of Israeli soldier and settler violence Oct 14, 2020 | | Defence for Children Palestine - Ramallah, October 14, 2020—“I was
scared at school,” 15-year-old Amir H. told Defense for Children
International - Palestine. “Whenever I saw soldiers, while on the way
to school, I would be scared and try to get away from them as much as
possible because I had been stopped before, more than once.”
A return to school in September meant that for Palestinian students
living near illegal Israeli settlements, journeys to school and
schooldays would once again be marred by violence at the hands of
Israeli soldiers and settlers. Amir, currently a ninth-grader at Tuqu
Secondary School for Boys, located east of the southern occupied West
Bank city of Bethlehem, has been subjected to numerous attempted
arrests on his way to and from school by the Israeli military. (rh) | 25/10/2020 |
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| Cop who killed Palestinian with autism faces charges | | Associated Press,Ynet - Ynetnews - Prosecutors on Wednesday
recommended charging a police officer with reckless killing in the
deadly shooting of a Palestinian man with autism in Jerusalem earlier
this year. The decision came nearly five months after the shooting of
32-year-old Iyad Halak, a resident of East Jerusalem, who had been
heading to his school for students with special needs when he was
killed. Halak`s family, which had criticized the slow pace of the
investigation and prosecutors` claim that security cameras in the
area had malfunctioned, condemned the decision. They said prosecutors
should have filed much tougher charges.The Justice Ministry said the
officer, who was not identified, would be charged with reckless
killing, pending a hearing in which he can dispute the charges.(rh)
| 25/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Palestinian Volunteers Help Olive Harvesters in Ways the Palestinian Authority Can’t | | Amira Hass - Haaretz - In dozens of villages, the harvest has become
life-threatening, and Israel prevents Palestinian security forces from
protecting farmers. Volunteers have fill the vacuum – but settler
violence isn’t limited to three weeks a year.(rh) | 25/10/2020 |
| ... |
| New Israeli aggression puts life of Palestinian hunger striker Maher al-Akhras in immediate danger | | YOAV HAIFAWI - Mondoweiss - Maher al-Akhras, who has been on a hunger
strike since his administrative detention on July 27, is waging a
battle against the mighty Israeli occupation apparatus. Every day
brings him closer to death, as Israel seems to be trying to prove
through his case that the life of Palestinians, like their freedom
and human rights, are worth nothing. But the formidable insistence of
his hunger strike against the principle of administrative detention,
and his determination that the strike will end only once he is free
or becomes a martyr, is mobilizing more and more people to his
support. On Friday, the 89th day of his hunger strike, it seemed that
his Israeli torturers finally lost their nerve./However, on September
22, taking into account al-Akhras’ medical condition, they decided
that in his current health condition he couldn’t constitute any
“danger to state security”. On this basis they suspended his
detention, but said that even though he was not a detainee, he was
still not allowed to go to his home or to a hospital in the West
Bank. This was to make it easy to renew his detention once his health
improved. Al-Akhras was then actually detained as a “potential-
administrative-detainee” in Kaplan hospital. His wife joined him in
the hospital, and there were several demonstrations in solidarity
with him front of the hospital. His hospital bed became a center of
attention to activists who traveled to stand in solidarity with him.
(rh) | 25/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem intends to demolish 13 Palestinians houses in East Jerusalem | | WAFA - The municipality ordered the demolition of the houses under the pretext they were built without a permit, but there are in the same area of Silwan equally unauthorized houses taken over and illegally inhabited by Israeli settlers, but none of them received demolition orders... [bz] | 20/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Gaza Eases COVID Restrictions: Tawjihi Students Back in School (PHOTOS) | | Wafa Aludaini - Palestine Chronicle - Gaza authorities began easing
up COVID-19 restrictions Saturday, allowing Tawjihi students (final
year of high school) to resume their studies, although under strict
safety measures. Gaza’s Ministry of Education issued a statement
stating that they will evaluate the decision one week from now, to
assess whether other students are allowed to return to school under
similarly strict measures. Tawjihi is a critical year for Palestinian
students, for the results of the final exams alone determine future
college placement. Failure to obtain high grades can make a great
difference for students, who can either join good universities or
have to repeat the final year of high school (rh) | 20/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Diplomatic Bullying: Israel Won`t Renew Visas to UN Workers in West Bank and Gaza | | Amira Hass - Haaretz - Back in February, then-Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz promised to carry out an act of reprisal against OHCHR in the guise of freezing ties with it – because it dared to publish an (incomplete) list of mainly Israeli businesses and corporations (and a few from abroad) that are mired up to their ears in the Israeli settlement enterprise. Katz made a promise, and the Foreign Ministry headed by Kahol Lavan member Gabi Ashkenazi is keeping that promise.
Do other countries who are annoyed by your criticism act the way Israel does, I asked OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville. He replied that on occasion, the work visas of one of the employees is not extended, but "I am not aware of any truly comparable situation anywhere else, where every single visa coming up for renewal has not been renewed." He added: “And this is a unique situation in that the office and staff are not functioning in Israel itself, but they need Israeli visas in order to enter and exit the occupied Palestinian territory.”
[bz]
| 20/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Government to High Court: Dying Palestinian Still a Security Risk | | Amit Gilutz - btselem - Maher al-Akhras, a 49-year-old father of
six, has been on hunger strike for nearly 80 days to protest his
administrative detention. The state offers to "suspend" his
detention order, which means that it would not be renewed when
ending on 26 November 2020, but that al-Akhra will remain
imprisoned without trial until then, sice he is "still dangerous"
(but this danger from him will cease on November 26?). al-Akhras
rejected this compromise, annoncing he will only end his hunger
strike on complete and immediate release from prison. [ak] | 13/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Palestinian Prisoner Continues Hunger Strike as Israeli Court Rejects Petition Calling for Immediate Release | | Palestine Chronicle - Palestinian hunger striker, Maher al-Akhras,
who has been on a 78-day long fast protesting his administrative
detention, today rejected a deal from the Israeli High Court that
recommends his release from prison in return for ending his
hungerstrike. Al-Akhras rejected the Israeli High Court deal after
only recommending his release by November 26 instead of ruling in
favor of his release as requested by his lawyer in the petition
submitted to the Court and rejected today. As a result, according to
his lawyer, al-Akhras decided to continue with his hunger strike
until there is a definite and clear position from the High Court or
the Israeli occupation authorities setting a specific date for his
release and not only a recommendation.(rh) | 13/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Woman Dies After Police Arrested Her Son for Violating Curfew Rules in Nuseirat Refugee Camp | | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - On Sunday, 20 September 2020,
medical sources at Shuhada’ al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah
announced the death of a woman from Nuseirat refugee camp, Central
Gaza Strip, 30 minutes after she arrived to the hospital unconscious;
the cause of death was a severe heart attack that she suffered in a
police assault on her sons and attempt to arrest one of them. The
police arrived at her son’s shop because he had opened his shop after
curfew hours (20:00).(rh)
| 13/10/2020 |
| ... |
| For Israel, tens of thousands of Palestinian newborns don’t exist | | Henriette Chacar - +972mag - After giving birth in April, Shabaro
registered her daughter with the Palestinian Authority. She made sure
the baby had a birth certificate and passport, and that she was
listed on Shabaro’s identification card. When travel was possible
again, Shabaro made plans to leave on July 22. She applied for and
received a UAE visa for her daughter, and bought tickets to fly out
of Jordan. What Shabaro could not anticipate was that, in May, the
Palestinian Authority would halt civil and security coordination with
Israel, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government
announced plans to formally annex large swaths of the West Bank. The
move meant that the PA would also end its decades-long practice of
passing on its record of the population registry to Israel. That
included the information of Shabaro’s daughter. More than 35,000
Palestinian newborns have been registered with the PA since May 20,
according to Palestinian Deputy Interior Minister Yousef Harb. But
for Israel, these children simply do not exist, and therefore cannot
travel freely out of the occupied territories. (rh)
| 13/10/2020 |
| ... |
| People in Gaza sifting through rubbish for food, UN head says | | Oliver Holmes - The Guardian - Palestinians across Middle East suffering
unprecedented poverty, says Philippe Lazzarini [ry] | 12/10/2020 |
| ... |
| 76 days on hunger strike! | | | 11/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Seventy six days on hunger strike! Free Administrative detainee Maher al Akhras NOW! | | We appeal to you, requesting urgent intervention to save the life of
the administrative detainee Maher al-Akhras, since all contacts for
his release have come to naught. Al-Akhras is in dire straits, on
the 76th day of his hunger strike.
Al-Akhras is entitled to the basic human right: to know what he is
accused of and to be able to respond to the accusations. If there
are no charges, he must be released immediately. This right is given
to every person in Israel, and to every person in a free society.
Why would al-Akhras not be entitled to this basic right? The State
of Israel has made the administrative detentions, which allow it to
imprison people without a release date, and without an indictment, a
tool used against Palestinians in an arbitrary and common way.
Al-Akhras, a father of six from Jenin, is on hunger strike in
protest of his administrative detention. [ak] | 11/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Palestinians face constant COVID-19 testing shortage | | YUMNA PATEL - Mondoweiss - As the coronavirus continues to spread
across the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), local news this week
was inundated with warnings of testing kit shortages in the West Bank
and Gaza, the latter of which has seen a worrying spike in cases
recently. The Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kalia told the
Voice of Palestine radio on Tuesday that Israel “obstructed” the
entry of 100,000 COVID-19 testing swabs that were destined for the
West Bank in coordination with the United Nations (UN). As a result,
she said, the MOH will only have enough swabs to last them for three
days, after which time the West Bank would run out of the testing
kits. (rh) | 6/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Repression of speech and scholarship on Palestine needs to end | | Azeezah Kanji, Dania Majid, David Palumbo-Liu - Aljazeera - s lawyers
and academics, we are deeply troubled and exasperated by the
pervasive repression of speech and scholarship on Palestine. This
includes recent reports that the University of Toronto’s Faculty of
law rescinded an employment offer to noted international human rights
scholar Valentina Azarova, following a complaint by a sitting judge
regarding her research on Israel’s occupation policies*. The reported
treatment of Azarova is consistent with a broader and intensifying
climate of suppression. Lawyers, academics, journalists, teachers,
artists, students, activists, and trade unions in Canada have been
subjected to smear campaigns, event cancellations, physical violence,
professional disciplinary measures, and condemnation by the prime
minister and other political leaders for opposing Israel’s gross
violations of international law and expressing solidarity with
Palestinians. In August, Indigenous CBC journalist Duncan McCue was
required to apologise simply for using the word “Palestine” on-air.
(rh) | 6/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Israel to put temporary freeze on demolitions in East Jerusalem | | YUMNA PATEL - Mondoweiss - According to Adalah – The Legal Center for
Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the Israeli government will be
freezing demolitions “across the country,” a move that the government
had reportedly taken at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis back in
March. After COVID-19 death rates declined inside Israel during the
summer months, Adalah noted that Israel “amped” its demolitions of
Palestinian homes back up. Following a letter to Israeli Attorney
General Avichai Mandelblit, sent by Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara,
“demanding an immediate halt to Israel’s accelerated policy of home
demolitions” in East Jerusalem, the Israeli Justice Ministry
announced it would “adjust” the policy to reflect the actions taken
back in March./After re-examining things – and given the restrictions
recently imposed by the government following the further spread of
COVID-19 –it has been decided at this stage, to adjust the
enforcement policy of planning and construction offenses to align
with the state of emergency, similar to the policy decided upon in
March 2020,” the ministry said.(rh) | 6/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Normalizing the abnormal : Forget the normalization efforts of Gulf state oligarchies. as the South African struggle against apartheid showed it is the power of ordinary people that matters. | | HAIDAR EID - Mondoweiss - The official Arab World seems to be intent
on betraying the Palestinian people through an ongoing process of
normalization that was launched by the late Egyptian president Anwar
Sadat in the late 1970s, and continued by the Jordanians and the PLO
in the early 1990s. This led to the UAE and Bahrain joining in,
giving legitimacy to a settler colonial project in the heart of the
Middle East. It has become crystal clear for the Palestinian people
that we have to give up on relying on most Arab governments. Only
civil society–including opposition parties, syndicates, unions,
clubs, women’s organizations and others — is able to mobilize true
support for an end to Israel’s unprecedented crimes against the three
components of the Palestinian people: the Palestinians in the 1967
occupied territories, 1948 Palestinian citizens of Israel, and
refugees in the diaspora. (rh) | 6/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Israeli settler sets up a tent south of Hebron as a nucleus for a new settlement | | WAFA news agency - Tuesday, October 06, 2020 (WAFA) – An Israeli
settler set up a tent on Palestinian-owned land in Birin village,
located to the east of the southern West Bank city of Hebron,
according to a local activist. Member of the Popular Committees in
Southern Hebron, Rateb al-Jbour, said that a settler set up a tent on
a plot of land belonging the Burqan family from Birin, east of Yatta,
and hoisted the Israeli flag in the vicinity as a prelude to seizing
the land for the construction of a new colonial settlement. Located
to the southwest of Bani Na‘im, Birin has a population of 160 and is
flanked by Bani Haiver colonial settlement from the east and the
settler-only bypass Road No. 60 from the west. Its residents were
originally expelled from Naqab desert in the south of the country
following Israel’s creation in 1948 and now depend on agriculture and
livestock as their main source of livelihood. Yet, Israel is trying
to end Palestinian presence in Birin and in the south of the West
Bank in its effort to take over the Palestinian land for its
settlement schemes. (rh) | 6/10/2020 |
| ... |
| UAE - Israel agreement: Palestinians charge Arab World with betrayal, but also blame themselves | | Dr. Khalil Shikaki / Walid Ladadweh - Palestinian Center for Policy
and Survey Research (PSR) - The overwhelming majority of the
Palestinians views the decision of the UAE to normalize relations
with Israel as a betrayal or abandonment of the Palestinian cause,
one that serves only the interests of Israel. A similar majority
thinks that Saudi Arabia and Egypt, by endorsing that normalization,
have in effect abandoned the Palestinian leadership. But most
Palestinians also place the blame on themselves because they are
divided and have normalized relations with Israel long before
others. [ak] | 6/10/2020 |
|
| Palestinian Shot Dead by Israeli Soldiers near Tulkarem | | IMEMC / the Jerusalem Press - Three Palestinians were shot by
Israeli forces east of Tulkarem. Two of them managed to flee the
scene, but the third died shortly after being shot. The dead man was
identified as Samir Ahmad Hmeidi, 28, a university student and
former political prisoner, from Beit Lid, who had spent three years
in Israeli prisons.
According to the Israeli army communique, the three "terrorists"
were shot while throwing Molotov cocktails at an army post,
established to protect the nearby Israeli settlement of Einav. The
communique noted with relief that no Israeli soldiers were hurt.
[ak]
| 6/10/2020 |
| ... |
| Al-Akhras Continues Hunger Strike For 70th Day | | IMEMC News - "The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported, Sunday,
that Maher al-Akhras, a political prisoner held by Israel without charges or trial, is
ongoing with the hunger strike for the seventieth consecutive day despite his
seriously deteriorating health condition" [ry] | 5/10/2020 |
| ... |
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