Netanyahu the devil
By Gideon Levy
From Haaretz
They're playing that old tune again: Anybody but Benjamin ("they're-afffraid") Netanyahu. Shaul Mofaz loves peace, Tzipi Livni will end the occupation, Ehud Barak will treat the Palestinians like human beings. Only Netanyahu will bring disaster. Once again, the political fashion is to discuss how to stop the king of the opinion polls and the prince of disaster.
The Likud chairman's demonization by the Anti-Netanyahu Defense League is not new. It has one goal: presenting all the other candidates as better, because they are so different from the devil Netanyahu. It is an old, tried-and-true method in Israeli discourse: For example, we will fight the "illegal outposts," thus koshering all the other, meticulously "legal" settlements. Just as there is no difference between Ariel and Asael - both are patently illegal - there is no real difference between Netanyahu and all the other candidates. None is a harbinger of peace or the end of the occupation, but only Netanyahu is painted in frightening hues, thus rendering the others kosher.
Netanyahu, the man of our nightmares, met with Yasser Arafat, signed the Hebron agreement and did not bring peace. The prime ministers who succeeded him - Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert - did not lead Israel even one step closer to peace. Netanyahu did open the Western Wall Tunnel, a fiasco that ended with dozens killed. And who was his partner in that move? Olmert, then mayor of Jerusalem, who has never been as horrifying as Netanyahu. True, Olmert's rhetoric as prime minister was much more pleasant to peace-loving ears than Netanyahu's; he conducted negotiations, he was hospitable to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and he even sent emissaries to Turkey to conduct talks with Syria. But what did we get out of all that? More settlements, and more brutal occupation. Netanyahu, at least, did not set off on a useless, foolish war.
The point of these arguments is not to praise Netanyahu. According to his declared ideology, he supports a one-state solution, an eternal apartheid state. But how the devil is he different from the others? Mofaz, for example, should frighten us much more: His hands have a great deal more blood on them than this scary Netanyahu has. While Netanyahu dispatched a representative to the Sryian president and sent out feelers about an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, Mofaz pledges "peace for peace," insults our intelligence, and actually promises another war in the north. The father of assassinations, he turned the Israel Defense Forces into a vengeful gang in the occupied territories. In any proper country Mofaz would have long ago been delegitimized because of his responsibility for what are considered war crimes elsewhere in the world. If he is elected prime minister, he will not be able to visit certain countries for fear of being arrested. Neither has anyone settled accounts with him over his part in the IDF's unpreparedness for the last war. But even Mofaz is not as frightening as Netanyahu.
Barak's current term as defense minister does not give us reason to fear him any less than Netanyahu: This was a period of disproportionate and unbridled killing in Gaza. This is the man who invented the false no-partner theory and smashed the remnants of the Israeli peace camp. And now he is even going back to using that rusty and criminal weapon - demolishing terrorists' homes - in the name of the Israeli labor and peace movement. Can everyone who was shocked by Netanyahu's cruel capitalism depend on Barak? Has anyone ever caught this social democrat improving the welfare of anyone who was not his neighbor in a luxury high-rise? And yet, even he is not as frightening as Netanyahu.
And what about Livni? She is certainly not as fearsome as Netanyahu. But she, too, thinks that talks with Syria and the Palestinians are moving too fast. After 40 years of occupation and bloodshed, Olmert's turtle-like pace is too fast for his "moderate" foreign minister.
That is the choice. That is the arsenal of candidates seeking to succeed Olmert. None speak in the name of any ideology whatsoever. A past prime minister who failed at his post and brought about the second intifada; a former chief of staff and defense minister, a cruel military man, who fanned the flames and knows only how to sow destruction and death; a mild-mannered foreign minister who has not advanced peace in any way; and Netanyahu - the person everyone loves to hate. No worse than his fellow candidates, but immeasurably more persecuted. The media embraces Livni, accepts Mofaz as legitimate, sometimes supports Barak, but is terrified only by Netanyahu. Why?
This article was originally printed in Haaretz, and reflects only the author's opinion.
Palestinians block an Israeli attempt to occupy a house near east Jerusalem
Palestinians successfully blocked an attempt by Israeli settlers to take over a house in the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa, in East Jerusalem on Saturday.
The house is owned by Baha Ad-Din Darwish, and borders the illegal Israeli settlement of Gilo. It is built on a 12 dunam (12,000 square meter) plot of land owned by Darwish.
A group of Palestinian residents headed by Hatem Abed-Al Qader an advisor on Jerusalem affairs for the caretaker government of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, broke into the house and cleared it of the furniture placed there by settlers. Abed Al-Qader said the house will be closed, in preparation for a Palestinian family to live in it.
Israeli settlers assault Palestinian women in Hebron
A Palestinian woman, a resident of the southern West Bank city of Hebron was hospitalized on Sunday after she was attacked by Israeli settlers.
Israeli settlers occupying the Ar- Rajabi building in Hebron assaulted a passing group of Palestinian women, severely beating 25-five-year-old Nahida Jameel Al-Ja'bari, local sources said. Witnesses said Al-Ja'bari sustained bruises all over her body.
Al-Ja'bari was taken to the government hospital in Hebron.
Israeli forces invade Tulkarem, overrun vegatable market
Around 12 Israeli military jeeps invaded the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Saturday afternoon and attack a vegetable market.
The Israeli military jeeps rolled through the market, destroying vendors' stalls and firing sonic bombs.
A Palestinian security source in the city denounced the attack, which he said aimed at disturbing the security of the city and the enforcement of law and order. He said the attack would weaken the work of the Palestinian security forces.
Israeli settlers storm Ibrahimi mosque; settler aggression on the rise
Outside the Ibrahimi mosque
A group of 50 armed Israeli settlers attempted to storm the Ibrahimi Mosque on Friday. The attack marks the fourth recorded settler attack in the West Bank in four days, and a general rise in aggressive tactics of settlers.
The Ibrahimi mosque is believed to be the burial site of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah; also known as the tomb of the patriarchs, and is located in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The group of settlers attempted to enter what is now the Muslim section of the mosque, an area that represents about 81% of the structure and is under the control of the Awaqf Ministry (the traditional trust) in Palestine. All Palestinians entering the area, however, are searched by Israeli soldiers guarding the area. The remaining section is used as synagogue for Israeli settlers in and around the city of Hebron.
The Hebron settlers were able to enter the Muslim portion of the mosque on Friday before Israeli forces were able to pull the attackers out and remove them from the Palestinian area.
Attacks on the mosque by settlers are a semi-regular occurrence. On Thursday a group of settlers who have been occupying an area near the building for the past several years, threw dust at the entrance and surprised the skeikhs and mufti's in the building.
Also this week five settlers were arrested by Israeli soldiers in Nablus after trying to sneak into Joseph's shrine. Settlers are not permitted into Palestinian areas without Israeli army security, though an increasing number of violations are being recorded.
On Thursday in Beit Sahour just outside of Bethlehem, settlers assaulted peaceful worshipers trying to protect what is planned as the site of a multimillion dollar children's hospital.
Almost every week since May, steadily larger groups of Israeli settlers, mainly from the nearby settlements Har Homa, Gush Etzion, and Tekoa, have come to the area slated for hospital construction, which was an Israeli military base abandoned in 2005.
On 1 August, settlers attacked a Hebron wedding, throwing stones and bottles at those celebrating; a rock was also thrown through the windshield of a pregnant Palestinian woman's car near a Nablus settlement, injuring both her and her 7-year-old daughter. On 2 August, a young Palestinian boy in Hebron was pushed off the roof of his home by a settler. The boy broke his back and is in Hospital.
On 6 August settlers were arrested by Palestinian police after entering Nablus illegally, they were handed over to Israeli authorities. On 7 August settlers attacked British diplomats visiting Hebron, and on 8 August five settlers were arrested by Israeli soldiers after they illegally entered Nablus.
Israeli media reported this week that the army intended to "boost" security around illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, after settlers hospitalized the Pregnant woman and her daughter.
The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli defense authorities in the West Bank ordered a special alert near for Israeli soldiers guarding the Nablus, and Hebron settlements of Havat Gilad, Adei Ad and Ma'on.
The heightened security order comes after increasing aggression and attacks by Israeli settlers all over the West Bank.
Responding to the most recent attack on the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, Minister of Al-Awaqf (Islamic trust sites) and Islamic Religious Affairs Al-Sheikh Jamal Bawatnah condemned the settlers' attempt to storm the portion of the mosque that still belongs to Muslims.
Such an attack, he said, was a "violation of the holiness of the mosque" and a serious attempt wrest control over the area away from its Muslim caretakers. He said that he feared a new massacre against "the holiness of our religious places."
The Minister phoned Ma'an on Saturday and issued a statement to Palestinian President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad and all Arabs and Muslims to redouble their efforts to oppose such Israeli practices. He appealed to all forces of the world to stand by Palestinians at this difficult time for fear of later steps to be taken by settlers.
Report: Homemade projectile from Gaza lands in Israel
Hamas plans demonstration urging Egypt to open Rafah crossing
Israel Channel 10 to drop "racist" Nissan commercial
Recent survey shows 40% of Gazans think about leaving
Israeli forces attack protesters in Al-Ma'sara
The Popular Campaign Against the Wall (PCAW) organized a demonstration in the village of Al-Ma'sara in the Bethlehem district, to protest against Israeli expansionist plans. The demonstration took place on Friday.
The Palestinian National Initiative (PLI), political party headed by Mustapha Al-Barghouthi PLC member, attended Friday's rally to support popular protests against the Israeli occupation.
As the protesters moved towards the land that will be confiscated for the construction of the separation wall, Israeli soldiers cut the area off with barbed wire and attacked protesters with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber coated metal bullets.
Mazen Al-A'za, coordinator of PCAW said that the protest activities will continue despite the oppressive tactics of Israeli forces.
The Bethlehem district, said Al-A'za, is one of the worst affected by the increasing expansion of settlements and the destructive path of the separation wall. More than 80 thousand settlers occupy the district, and the wall cuts Bethlehem and surrounding areas off from Jerusalem.
Israeli army sprays toilet water at Bil'in protesters
Israeli forces used a new weapon against Bil'in protesters on Friday, and opened up streams of contaminated water on Palestinians, Israelis and international activists protesting the construction of the separation wall on village lands.
Protesters gathered at the center of the village and moved towards the construction site. Once they arrived at the site and chanted - while raising photos of the murdered children Ahmed Husam Yousif Musa and Yousif Ahmed Amera - slogans against the occupation soldiers and their officers that command them to shoot unarmed civilians.
Soldiers soon began firing tear gas and then pulled out hoses and sprayed water at the group. Several protesters were immediately sick after they were sprayed with the water. The Bil'in popular committee against the wall plans to have samples of the water taken in for analysis.
According to villagers, this is the first time that contaminated water has been used as a weapon against peaceful protesters. It is thus added to the arsenal of tear gas, many types of rubber bullets, clean water, water mixed with gas, sound bombs, saltballs (small bags of salt designed to explode on impact) , and sackbeans (fabric beanbags about the size of a tea bag filled with lead pellets fired at protesters).
Israeli army and Shin Bet argue over course for Gaza truce
The truce between Israel and Hamas is approaching its two month mark, but the Israeli army and the Shin Bet (Israeli general security services) are still arguing over the best way to handle the current situation in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army insists on continuing the truce with Gaza, however, according to Israeli media sources, Shin Bet leader Yuval Diskin called on the army to be prepared for a military attack that covers the area.
The leadership of the Israeli army sees the truce as positively effecting the situation in the Negev and the areas close to the Gaza Strip since for the last few weeks there have been no projectile attacks
The leadership of the Shin Bet, on the other hand, is keen to launch a military attack on the Gaza Strip and said that the truce has been used by Hamas as a period of quiet in which to train Palestinian elements. The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reported Friday that the Shin Bet believes any decrease in pressure on Gazans and Hamas is a decrease in the likelihood of an exchange deal for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
So far during the truce four sets of projectiles were launched from Gaza, which Israel to restrict the flow of goods in to the area. After successive days of calm borders were gradually re-opened but the level of goods transferred in is still less than the basic amounts that are needed according to the truce agreement.
Gazans have also been crying foul against the increase in Israeli presence in the West Bank as they claimed truce with Gaza.
The truce was complicated on 25 July when a car bomb killed four Hamas-affiliated leaders and one young girl, which sparked a series of arrests throught Gaza of Fatah-affiliated supporters. This lead to the 2 August street battle between the Fatah-supporting Hillis family and de facto Hamas police forces. Nine were killed in the battle and 107 injured and almost 200 Hillis family members fled Gaza for the West Bank, and many were treated in Israeli hospitals.
The internal complexity of the Gaza situation and the instability some claim will result is the point over which the Israeli army and the Shin Bet seem to be arguing.
Both sides presented these different opinions during political and security meetings held throughout the past month. Several meetings have been called to study the results of the truce, its affect on Israelis living in the Negev and future action.
De facto interior ministry: no more cooking oil in Gaza cars
Waiting for treatment 6 ill Gazans die in 24 hours
816 new settlement homes to be constructed
Israeli forces detain Islamic Jihad leader Qassim As-Sa'di
Settlers scuffle with peaceful worshipers at abandoned military base in Beit Sahour
Settlers assault worshipers
More than 200 Israeli settlers occupied an abandoned Israeli military base in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour on Wednesday night, assaulting an ecumenical peace group that had gathered nearby.
Two dozen international and Palestinian worshipers were attending a non-denominational, but strongly Christian-toned, religious service when the settlers arrived.
The organizers of the worship service said beforehand that they did not plan for a confrontation with the settlers, and would move if the Israeli military asked them.
As the settlers filed into the abandoned base, two dozen armed soldiers, border police, and civilian police looked on. The settlers set out rows of plastic chairs, a public address system, and lights, powered by a generator.
The settlers delivered a series of speeches in Hebrew, then a Jewish prayer service. As the event wore on for over two hours, the settlers lost their cool at the peace demonstrators, eventually attacking them. Israeli border police finally intervened. A few of the worshipers were mildly injured.
In organizing the peace service, Nathan Dannison, from Michigan in the United States, said, "For me, a lot of the impulse came out of being labeled an international anarchist, when in fact I'm a Christian Democrat."
He was referring to the label settler groups have applied to the small band of American and European supporters who have been aiding the Palestinian response to the settlers' repeated occupation of the site.
Deena Sattler, a mother of seven who moved to Israel from New York 38 years ago and currently resides in the Har Homa settlement, said, "These guys are anarchists." Sattler said she believes that the "anarchists" are seeking to drive Jews not just out of the occupied Palestinian territories, but out of Israel itself.
Almost every week since May, steadily larger groups of settlers, mainly from the nearby settlements Har Homa, Gush Etzion, and Tekoa, have come to the old base to assert their claim that the area should stay "out of Palestinian hands."
Asked about their plans for the site, the settlers said they want to prevent Palestinian construction on the land. The area, which was evacuated by the Israeli army in 2006, is currently designated for a multimillion dollar children's hospital. Several settlers said they were concerned that even a hospital could somehow be used for "terrorism."
Sunny Hallanan, an Episcopal priest from Pennsylvania, led the peaceful service along with Dannison, in prayer and signing songs such as "We shall overcome."
"We are praying that the former military base be transformed into a new children's hospital for all the little ones of Palestine. We are praying that the peaceful people of Beit Sahour do not lose their homes to new Israeli settlements. We are praying that Israel stands by its promise to the people of Beit Sahour - that the army will allow the people of Beit Sahour to build this hospital," the organizers of the worship service said in a statement.
Dozens injured at Ni'lin demonstration
Dozens of demonstrators were injured in the West Bank village of Ni'in on Thursday when Israeli forces responded violently to a march marking the death of Yousif Amira who was shot and killed by Israeli forces last week.
On Tuesday night Israeli forces stormed the house of Zurul Amira and detained a member of the Popular Committee against the Israeli wall in the village, Salah Tayeh.
On Thursday the demonstrators approached the Israeli construction vehicles, hoping to block their work on the Israeli separation wall. They were showered with rubber-coated metal bullets and sound bombs.
The coordinator of the Ni'lin committee Ahed Al-Khawaja said on Thursday that the Israeli forces took advantage of a mourning period in the village to push work forward on the wall, which local officials say will result in the confiscation of much of the town's farmland.
Al-Khawaja said that the Israeli attacks would not stop the demonstrations, but rather increase them.
Gaza patients asked to spy to get treatment, rights group says
(IRIN) - An Israeli rights group said on 4 August it had collected 32 affidavits over the past 12 months from Palestinian patients who said they were prevented from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment due to their refusal to cooperate with the state's internal security service.
A new report by the Israeli Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), entitled "Holding Health to Ransom," which includes 11 testimonies of Gazan patients who underwent interrogation at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel, blamed the Israel Security Agency for trying to take advantage of "the most helpless members of society".
"The exploitation of ill people who are helpless in the face of the demand to inform and report on their relatives, acquaintances and others, constitutes intolerable intimidation and a moral problem of serious magnitude," PHR said in the 80-page report [http://www.phr.org.il/phr/files/articlefile_1217865604015.pdf].
Some patients use Erez to go to Israeli hospitals, while others only transit through to reach the West Bank or Jordan.
Patients were routinely asked all sorts of questions about their political and social beliefs or activities, although at times the information asked was about relatives or regarding issues to which the people did not know the answer.
According to one affidavit, a patient was told by an interrogator that to reach a hospital he would have to give information on people. He said he was also offered money in return for information on Hamas activists.
Another man said he was told: "You will not be able to receive treatment in Israel if you don't give us additional information."
Several patients were arrested and placed in detention, PHR said, after being summoned to Erez on the pretext of being allowed in for treatment.
The group, backed up by the sworn statements, said some people were giving up on medical treatment in order to avoid interrogations.
Gazans need treatment outside the Gaza Strip due to local deficiencies, particularly in some specialist fields and because of a lack of equipment, such as machines and devices for radiology, which Israel refuses to let into the enclave for security reasons.
Miri Weingarten from PHR said in the past labourers had been the primary target of such interrogations, but as workers no longer entered Israel from Gaza, the security agency had apparently switched to the only group still allowed in.
Bella Kaufman, an oncologist and member of the Israeli group, told reporters that "the cancer survival rate in Gaza was very low" due to the quality of treatment available in the enclave.
She did say, however, that in her ward at a Tel Aviv hospital many Palestinian patients received treatment.
Israeli officials said security checks were conducted, but egress and medical treatment were not made contingent on a patients' willingness to collaborate with the authorities. The tight security was needed, they said, due to some previous incidents in which Palestinian militants tried to obtain permits to Israel to carry out attacks on soldiers and civilians.
This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The information in this article is not compiled by Ma'an reporters.
PLC speaker still in poor health after two years in Israeli prison
Israeli forces overrun Jenin and Tubas
Israeli forces overran on Tuesday at dawn the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tubas, closed the entrance of the village of Tamon, near Jenin, searched the area and set up checkpoints.
Security sources said that Israeli forces patrolled the streets of Jenin, concentrating themselves at the southern entrance of the city and the city center. Israeli troops fired in the air.
In Tubas, Israeli forces deployed on the eastern side of the city, then moved throughout the town. No one was arrested.
Israeli forces also closed the entrance of the village of Tamon, preventing locals from accessing the town. Israeli troops conducted a search of agricultural land.
Locals reported that the Israeli forces set up checkpoints on the road that links Tamon town with Al-Far'a refugee camp, searching residents and inspecting ID cards.
Hamas: Barak's threats of military action in Gaza are 'foolish'
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's comments on conducting a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip were foolish, Hamas said on Monday.
"Barak's declarations show that the Israeli government failed to cope with Hamas and the Palestinian resistance's steadfastness, and they also failed because the Palestinian people supports the resistance." said Hamas Spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum.
Barhoum said that Barak's comments were nothing more than election-year propaganda, in light of disagreement and rivalry amongst Israeli political and military organizations.
"Barak and his fruitless government do not know that if they commit such follies, they will pay a heavy price. Violence, cruelty and terrorism can't provide occupation with safety and security," Barhoum added.
Abu Salim, the official spokesperson of National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), said that Barak is still seeking to recover the image of the Israeli military, which was tarnished in the 2006 war in Lebanon.
"We confirm our readiness along with other factions' readiness to respond to any attack against our people," Abu Salim.
Abu Salim accused Barak of attempting to exploit the current internal divisions among Palestinians in order to carry out an aggressive strategy against the Palestinians.
Speaking at an Israeli Labor Party event in Jerusalem on Monday evening, Barak said "anyone who misses the military operations in Gaza mustn't worry, they will come."
Following Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement that he will resign, Barak is vying against Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima-affiliated Foreign Minister Tzip Livni to become Prime Minister.
A ceasefire went into effect in the Gaza Strip on 19 June. The six-month Egyptian-brokered truce was negotiated indirectly between Hamas and Israel.
Settler groups awaiting Gaza invasion
Separately Israeli settler groups are expected to announce on Tuesday their intention to re-occupy settlements in the Gaza Strip that Israel unilaterally evacuated in 2005.
Boaz Haetzni, one of the leaders of the Homesh First Movement, a settler group, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the settlers plan to follow the Israeli military into Gaza during the next major invasion.
Haetzni told Haaretz that as soon as the Israel Defense Forces reenters the Gaza Strip, "and in our estimation the 'big operation' is only a matter of time, we will follow them in. We will not ask for permission from anyone. The [settlement] groups will be ready, and this evening we will start an organized sign-up for them."
Israeli forces detain two civilians in Tulkarem
5 arrested by Israeli forces, homes invaded in Tubas
Israeli forces detain three young men in Nablus
Barak: Gazans can expect widespread military action in chaotic Strip
Palestinians should expect widespread Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip as a response to the deteriorating security situation in the area, said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday night.
Those who "miss Gaza raids don't worry" he said of mounting pressure to act on the situation, "they'll come."
The comments came at a meeting of the Israeli Labor Party where Barak also discussed ongoing indirect discussions between Israel and Syria. He called current efforts "initial connections" that would make talking to Syria less of a "violation" of Israeli policy in the future.
Israel has learned from its talks, he said, that Syria adheres to old attitudes because they are not convinced that a shift in rhetoric would bear diplomatic or material fruits. Efforts such at the current one, however, are considered highly important and must be continued and the process studied.
With regard to the relationship between the current internal Palestinian situation and the chances of success of Labor party in next elections, Barak said that Labor leadership is not an experimental issue and people must to decide who will be best able to make critical decisions when the time comes.
Israeli forces raid two villages east of Bethlehem
Israeli forces stormed Beit Ta'mar and Za'tara, two villages east of Bethlehem, on Monday morning . Soldiers ransacked homes and imposed a curfew in both villages.
Invading forces took control of the home of Yousif Abi Amiriyya and used it as military base erecting a tent on the roof to monitor movement of residents. An Israeli helicopter airdropped additional troops at the outskirts of Beit Ta'mar.
Locals told Ma'an via telephone that Israeli soldiers inspected nearby fields and deserted homes using police dogs and metal detectors.
Israeli troops withdrew on Monday afternoon, but they left the monitoring tent they erected on the roof of Abu 'Amiriyya's home. No arrests or casualties have been reported.
Israeli warships fire at fishermen in Gaza
Israeli warships opened fire at Gazan fishermen on the coast near As-Sudaniyyah and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning.
Palestinian sources told Ma'an that warships fired on fishermen in the north near As-Sudaniyyah and in the south near Khan Younis.
No casualties have been reported.
De-facto ministry of agriculture condemns Israeli shootings at fishermen
Firing live bullets at Gazan fishermen and at public beaches on the Gaza Strip is unacceptable, said the de facto ministry of agriculture for the Hamas-led de facto government.
The comments came during the weekly meeting at the de facto ministry of agriculture as Mohammad Ramadan Al-Agha spoke with professional and administrative staffs.
The ministry said that it considered the random shooting from warships a violation of the truce and that this was the third such incident this week.
All violations are recorded and followed up on, said Al-Agha, and if the aggression is intended to push Palestinians out of their homes, they are useless.
Palestinian Prisoners Society reports poor health and severe beatings in Israeli jails
Gaza: weekly shipment of cooking gas consumed in one day
Israeli High Court orders Bil'in area wall re-routed for second time
Israeli forces arrest six Nablus residents
Israeli forces storm house of Al-Manar TV reporter, arest Ramattan news man
Israeli forces stormed the home of Al-Manar TV correspondent Dib Horany in the West Bank early on Saturday morning.
Sources said that Israeli forces ransacked the home and arrested Anis Jamil Saqqouri who works in the Ramattan news agency in Ramallah.
Hebron: boy pushed from roof in second settler attack in two days
Israeli settlers pushed 15 year-old Palestinian Hamza Abu Hattah from the roof of his Hebron home on Saturday afternoon, breaking his back.
The young man was transfered from Israeli police to Palestinian police and then to hospital where medical sources say he is in serious condition.
Ma'an's correspondent said that settlers attacked a wedding party in near the home of the young man and injured two locals. The Hattah home is in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, next to the illegal Israeli settlement of Kirya Arba.
Five others were injured on Friday evening after Israeli settlers attacked a wedding party in the same area.
Settlers occupying a house belonging to Ar-Rajabi family pelted the wedding party with stones and empty bottles, injuring Ramzi Al-Ja'bari, Fadi Al-Ja'bari and a woman from Al-Ja'bari family, according to Bassam Al-Jabir, an eyewitness who lives near the Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba. Al-Jabir also reported that the settlers attacked the home of Palestinian magistrate judge Munthir Da'na with stones.
Israeli soldiers brutally beat 'Issa Amr and Jamal Isu'eifan, Al-Jabir added, confiscating three cameras provided by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
Furthermore, Israeli forces arrested Fahid Al-Ja'bari for several hours before releasing him on bail of 2000 NIS.
These assaults came as a reaction to Israeli forces removing a tent which settlers erected on Palestinian land belonging to Ziyad Al-Jabir and Mahmoud Al-Bouti near the Isralie settlement of Kiryat Arba, according to the local Ma'an correspondent. Settlers erected two new tents on the same location after the first tent was removed.
PCBS: 39 times more settlers in Palestine then in 1972
Water being denied Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
PPSF condemn Israeli attack on protesters south of Hebron
Released prisoner reports: Israel reducing food and medical services in jails
Israeli army invades Jalazun Camp, arrest 5 injure 3 brothers
Five residents of Jalazun Refugee Camp were shot and three brothers arrested during an Israeli invasion of the camp north of of Ramallah on Friday.
The five shot sustained minor injuries and were transfered to an unknown location.
The three brothers arrested were identified as Ashraf, Shareef and Mohamad Al-Bayid.The Israeli forces withdrew shortly after.
Local witnesses told Ma'an that more than twenty Israeli military jeeps invaded the camp Friday evening and started firing rubber-coated metal bullets.
Palestinian serving 67 back-to-back life sentences beaten and abused
Abdullah Al- Barghouthi, who is serving 67 back to back life sentences in Israeli prisons, has sustained severe bruising after he was attacked in Ashkelon prison which is north of the Gaza Strip.
Buthaina Duqmaq, lawyer and head of the Mandela Foundation announced the news on Friday after visiting Al-Barghouthi in prison.
She said that Al-Barghouthi reported not feeling well after being the victim of a surprise attack by Israeli interrogators who broke into his cell the day of Lebanese prisoner Samir Quntar was released on July 16.
Al-Barghouthi reported that he had been surprised while watching TV in his cell, when eight masked soldiers from "Metsada" entered and attacked him using fists and batons. According to Duqmaq soldiers continued to attack as he lay "on the ground helplessly." His report continues, saying that soldiers dragged him out of the cell and forced him into a small dark space for four hours.
When he returned to his cell he found it ransacked and all its contents "including my clothes and TV," missing. He demanded treatment for his injuries, but the third day after his attack soldiers broke into his cell again and searched it and confiscated the TV and the refrigerator.
Al-Barghouthi has denounced the acts, describing them as violent and unjustified.
Duqmaq described the beatings and vandalism as against the legal rights of prisoners.
She added that the Israeli prison administration is following a systematic policy of mistreatment against the prisoners in solitary confinement. She affirmed the necessity of the intervention of the Red Cross to pressure the prison authorities so that Al-Barghouthi can receive treatment, preferably in public facilities.
Duqmaq said that since he was arrested on 5 March 2003 Al-Barghouthi has been subjected to solitary confinement and harsh interrogations. He was moved to Heledar prison under strict surveillance, and had surveillance cameras were installed in his cell. He was recenytly transferred to Ashkelon prison, where he has been kept in solitary confinement for over a year. His family has also been denied permits to visit him, and his lawyers have also been subjected to restricted visits.
Palestinian woman stoned near West Bank settlement outside Nablus
A Palestinian woman and her daughter were seriously injured when a large stone was launched through the window of their car near the illegal West Bank Israeli settlement Yizhar south of Nablus.
Israeli media sources reported an eyewitness as saying that a car with yellow Israeli license plates was seen driving away from the injured woman.
It appears that Israeli settlers threw the rock at the car, carrying 31-year-old Filistine Sa'ad Mu'la, her husband, and her 7-year-old daughter Hadil Hazim.
Medical sources say that Filistine is in critical condition, and her daughter sustained moderate head injuries.
Palestinian Authority police said that the injured were transferred to Rafidah hospital in Nablus, but said they are coordinating with Israeli officials to have them moved to Tel Hashomer hospital north east of Tel Aviv.
All three passengers are residents of Ramallah.
Bil'in: dozens injured after inhaling tear gas, town waits for court verdict
Dozens of residents and a Palestinian journalist suffered breathing problems after inhaling tear gas fired on them by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful protest in the village of Bil'in on Friday afternoon.
The protest is a weekly event against the construction of the separation wall which cuts the village off from its ancestral land.
After Friday noon prayers, Bil'in residents took to the streets alongside international and Israeli peace activists, carrying Palestinian flags and banners denouncing Israeli policies such as construction of the wall, land confiscation, settlement building, road closures, the siege of Palestinian cities, and the killing of civilians, especially children. Other slogans condemned shooting detainees while they were hand-cuffed and blind-folded, as Israeli forces were recently filmed doing in the nearby village of Nil'in.
Demonstrators chanted slogans calling for national unity as they made their way to the wall in an attempt to cross into the village lands. The group carried with them a picture of Ahmad Husam Musa, a boy who was killed by the Israeli army in the village of Ni'lin on Tuesday while participating in a demonstration.
Israeli soldiers attacked the demonstration, firing tear gas bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets on the crowd. Dozens were treated for tear gas inhalation, including Imad Burnat, a Palestinian journalist.
On Wednesday, a group of Italians visited the wall in the village and listened to a detailed presentation on the wall and its deleterious affects on the village by the Popular Committee Against the Wall. The Italian group tried to access the village lands behind the wall, but Israeli soldiers prevented them from doing so. The delegation headed to Ni'lin, a village northeast of Bil'in, where they hoped to extend condolences to the family of the child killed Tuesday. Israeli soldiers, however, prevented them from entering the village.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil'in denounced the violent Israeli attacks on the demonstrators.
On 4 September 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the Israeli authorities to redraw the path of the wall because the current route was deemed "highly prejudicial" to the villagers of Bil'in. In July a new route for the wall was submitted to Israeli authorities. The new plan will return some of the agricultural area that has been destroyed by the construction process, but the new route will cut into a second agricultural sector. According to the group's lawyer, the new route will actually take more land away from the town than the original.
The town has objected to the plan and is awaiting a court hearing scheduled for 4 August.
Five injured in Ni'lin protest
Five locals were injured after being hit by rubber coated metal bullets at a protest in the West Bank village of Ni'lin on Friday.
The demonstration was held to protest the construction of the separation wall that will see large tracts of the village's land confiscated. It began with a peaceful march to the construction site where demonstrators began to carry out their Friday prayers. The crowd was attacked by Israeli forces, who fired barrages of rubber bullets and tear gas, injuring five.
Local sources say that the soldiers pursued the locals to the entrance of the village where they fired teargas into some houses causing breathing problems amongst residents, including women and children.
Ayman Nafi, head of Ni'lin municipality said that a number of gas canisters were fired at the health clinic and started a fire in the surrounding area which was extinguished by fire fighting vehicles that rushed to the scene.
There have been regular demonstrations in recent weeks in Ni'lin to protest the confiscation of land belonging to the village's residents. There have been dozens injured and this week two locals were killed after being shot by Israeli forces.
Ma'an Arabic Poll: majority believe truce should be scrapped
The majority of respondents of a Ma'anArabic poll this week believe that if Gaza crossings do not open soon the truce should be cancelled.
The poll asked whether the Israeli failure to open the crossings constituted a failure of the terms of the truce.
Out of 11439 respondents, 7559 (66.08%) answered that yes, if the Gaza borders are not opened the truce should be declared void
A minority, 2918 (25.51%) said that Palestinians should continue with the truce in order to make it work, even if Israel does not open crossings immediately.
A small percentage, 8.41%, of respondents indicated that they were unsure how to react to the current situation of the truce that began on 19 June.
Five PLC members injured in Israeli custody
Israeli authorities deliberately injured five detained members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) causing two to be hospitalized, Dr Ahmad Shweidih, Minister of Detainee's Affairs for the de facto government in Gaza, said on Friday.
The minister said that the deputies had deliberately been injured to provoke and humiliate them while being transported in a prison truck.
Dr Shweidih claimed that this is not a one-off incident, but a regular occurrence, particularly when imprisoned PLC deputies are concerned, because they are seen as symbols and representatives of the Palestinian resistance. He added that the injuries were sustained when the truck driver who was transporting the deputies to court intentionally braked hard several times so that the deputies, who were hand-cuffed, would be flung from their seats in the back of the vehicle.
Deputy Mohammed Abu Teir and Deputy Nayef Rajoub, both from the Hamas affiliated Change and Reform bloc, sustained injuries to their heads after they were struck against the truck's metal walls, resulting in severe bleeding and were transferred to Ramle prison hospital, the minister claimed.
Dr Shweidih added that these deputies are tortured and harassed on a daily basis in prison and are intentionally transferred from department to department in order to tease and provoke them. Moreover, he said, they are deprived of family visits and proper medical treatment.
Female detainees suffering in Israeli prisons
Al-Quds Brigades will not stand for 'Israeli violations'