One Dead, Five Injured in Israeli Shelling in the Gaza Strip

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by George Rishmawi

 One Palestinian was killed and five were injured in an Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, a Palestinian medical source reported.

 The source identified the dead as Mo'min Abu Daff, who at appears was killed in an artillery shelling that targeted Juhr Eddik neighbourhood, east of Gaza city.

The other wounded five are farmers who were working in their land when the Israeli artillery hit the area. They were moved to Al-Shiffa hospital for treatment, and one of the wounded is said to be in critical condition.

The Ma'an News Agency reported that the dead is a member of an Islamic Salafist group, known as Jund Ansar Assuna.

Israel has escalated attacks against the Gaza Strip in the past few months, targeting several areas of the coastal region.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62748

PCHR Weekly Report: One Palestinian killed, 11 wounded by Israeli forces this week

Zionist Occupation Forces demolish agricultural
facilities in Ethna village, west of Hebron

by Saed Bannoura

 In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 22- 28 December 2011, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that a Palestinian resistance fighter was killed and 5 others were wounded in two extra-judicial execution attempts by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. 6 additional Palestinian civilians, including two children, were wounded by Israeli forces.

Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:

The 27th of December marks the third anniversary of the commencement of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip. The PCHR believes that Israeli forces committed serious violations of IHL and IHRL over the course of the offensive. Violations entailing individual criminal responsibility include – but are not limited to – the crimes of willful killing, the extensive destruction of civilian property, the direct targeting of civilians and civilian objects, the use of human shields, and the launching of indiscriminate attacks.

The PCHR calls upon the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, to refer the situation in Israel and Palestine to the International Criminal Court. The PCHR also reminds States, as High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention, of their pressing legal obligation, to search for and prosecute all those suspected of committing war crimes, regardless of their nationality.

During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian resistance fighter and wounded 10 Palestinians, including two children in the Gaza Strip.

On 27 December 2011, Israeli forces extra-judicially executed a Palestinian resistance fighter and wounded another one and 3 civilian bystanders, including a child. An Israeli drone fired a missile at two fighters of a Salafist group who were traveling on a motorcycle opposite to Concorde Gallery near Abu Sharekh Square in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya. As a result, one of the fighters was killed, and the other one was wounded by shrapnel to the chest. Additionally, 3 civilian bystanders, including a child, were wounded. Two houses and 4 shops were also damaged, and a civilian car was completely destroyed.

On the same day, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a civilian vehicle, in which 4 Palestinian resistance fighters were traveling, in al-Jalaa’ Street in the north of Gaza City. As a result, the four fighters were wounded, one of them sustained a serious wound. Additionally, a civilian bystander was lightly wounded.

Also on the same day, a Palestinian child was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the central Gaza Strip.

On 23 December 2011, Israeli forces fired 3 artillery shells at agricultural areas to the east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. No casualties were reported.

Israeli attacks in the West Bank:

During the last week, Israeli forces conducted 32 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they abducted 28 Palestinians, including 4 children and a university professor.

In addition, Israeli soldiers abducted two Palestinian civilians at various checkpoints in the West Bank.

In an example of this week’s invasions, on Thursday, 22 December, at approximately 02:00, Israeli forces moved into Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron. They raided and searched a house belonging to Wajeeh Hmaid Abu Maria, and abducted his two sons: Ahmed, 18; and Mohammed, 17. At the same time, Israeli forces raided a house belonging to the family of Mohammed Saqer Abu Maria, 20, to abduct him but he was not there. Israeli soldiers attempted to hold his sister as a hostage to force to him to surrender, but the family intervened and prevented them. So, Israeli soldiers confiscated the ID card of his brother, Napoleon, 25.

On the same night, at approximately 02:00, Israeli forces moved into Jenin refugee camp. They raided and searched a number of houses and abducted 8 Palestinian civilians to question them in regard to the death of a Palestinian theatre director who held Israeli citizenship, Juliano Mir Khamis, who was shot dead on 04 April 2011. The detainees were released a few hours later.

These are just two examples of this week’s 32 invasions by Israeli forces into West Bank towns and villages, most of which occurred in the early hours of the morning while people were sleeping.

Israeli settlement activities:

Israeli forces have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

On 28 December 2011, the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem approved the construction of 130 settlement units in “Gilo” settlement, south of Jerusalem. It also approved the establishment of a large tourist project in Silwan village to the south of the old town of Jerusalem. On Tuesday, 27 December 2011, the Israeli daily Maariv reported about a planned settlement project in Silwan village to the south of the old town of Jerusalem. This project is planned by the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem and “Elad” settlement association. The Israeli newspaper reported that “the large tourist project” is a joint project planned by the settlement association, the municipality of Jerusalem and “Nature and Gardens Authority.” It includes the establishment of archaeological centers, pools and basins. According to the newspaper, the local committee of planning and construction of the municipality of Jerusalem is expected to approve presenting the plan for any possible objections. The project is planned on a 5,400-square-meter area of land. According to “Elad” association, a car park absorbing about 250 cars will be established.

During the reporting period, Israeli forces demolished a house and destroyed 5 wells, 4 water tabks and 4 agricultural rooms in Ethna village, west of Hebron, claiming that they were established without licenses. They also confiscated some agricultural equipment.

Israeli forces also destroyed a well and 9 agricultural pools in Dura village, southwest of Hebron. They also confiscated some agricultural equipment.

Israeli Annexation Wall:

During the reporting period, Israeli forces used force against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders in protest to the construction of the Wall and settlement activities in the West Bank, and in protest to the establishment of a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip. As a result, a Palestinian civilian was wounded. Additionally, dozens of Palestinian civilians and human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. Israeli forces also abducted a Palestinian civilian.

Following the Friday Prayer on 23 December 2011, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration in Bil'ein village, west of Ramallah, in protest to the construction of the annexation wall and support for efforts to achieve national reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah movements. They raised the Palestinian flag and called for ending political division. They then moved towards areas of Palestinian land, which the Israeli High Court ordered to be returned to their Palestinian owners. Israeli soldiers stationed in the area fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. As a result, a number of civilians suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Also following the Friday prayer on 23 December 2011, dozens of Palestinian civilians and Israeli and international human rights defenders gathered in the center of al-Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, to start the weekly peaceful protest against the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities. The protesters walked towards the gate erected by Israeli forces near the entrance of the village and leading to Palestinian lands that Israeli settlers from the nearby "Halmish" settlement are trying to seize. Israeli soldiers who had been extensively deployed in the area and near all the entrances of the village since the morning, began to confront the protesters who wanted to walk towards the affected lands. Israeli soldiers fired live and rubber-coated bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the protesters. As a result, Waleed Yousef al-Barghouthi, 22, was wounded by a bullet to the foot, and dozens of civilians suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Also following the Friday Prayer on 23 December 2011, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration in Ne'lin village, west of Ramallah, in protest against the construction of the annexation wall. They clashed with Israeli troops positioned near the annexation wall. Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at demonstrators. As a result, a number of demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Recommendations to the international community:

Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHR made several recommendations to the international community. Among these was a recommendation that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention comply with their legal obligations detailed in Article 146 of the Convention to search for and prosecute those responsible for grave breaches, namely war crimes.

In addition, the PCHR called for the immediate implementation of the Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice, which considers the construction of the Annexation Wall inside the West Bank illegal.

The PCHR recommends that international civil society organizations, including human rights organizations, bar associations and NGOs, participate in the process of exposing those accused of grave breaches of international law and urge their governments to bring the perpetrators to justice.

For the full text of the report, click on the link below:

palestine | human rights | news report saed at imemc dot org

Related Link(s): http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_...d=183

Arab League on Gaza: The world community should assume responsibility

CAIRO, (PIC)-- The people in Gaza are paying a heavy price for the ongoing Israeli siege in their educational, health, infrastructure, economic, and construction sectors, the Arab League said in a statement on Tuesday on the occasion of the third anniversary of the devastating Israeli war on the Strip.

The statement warned of the renewed Israeli calls for a new war on Gaza, charging that the world community’s silence toward that aggression was encouraging Israel to go ahead in its aggressive policy against the Palestinian people without expecting any penal or deterrent measure.

The Arab League urged the world community especially the UN and its secretary general along with the international quartet committee to assume their responsibility and lift “this oppressive siege” and to punish the Israeli war criminals.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF troops raze home in Jenin, threaten to demolish 5 others in Silwan

JENIN, (PIC)-- Israeli bulldozers razed a Palestinian building and affiliated animal pens in Barta’a village to the west of Jenin on Wednesday morning, local sources said.

They said that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) encircled the area and refused to allow inhabitants to get out their belongings and knocked down the building on the furniture.

The sources said that the building and the animal pens were owned by two brothers, adding that they suffered thousands of dollars in losses.

They said that the Israeli organization and construction committee, which oversaw the demolition, warned the citizens against rebuilding the demolished home and pens or else face heavy fines.

Meanwhile, Jerusalem municipality teams served demolition notices to five houses in Silwan, south of occupied Jerusalem, on Wednesday in addition to a number of shops at the pretext of lack of construction permits.

Abdul Karim Abu Snene, a member of the committee for the defense of Silwan land, called for building new homes instead of each one destroyed in the town to boost steadfastness of the people in Jerusalem and to stand up to the Israeli schemes against the holy city.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF soldiers round up 17 Palestinians including journalist, minors

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blasted their way into the home of Palestinian journalist Amin Abu Warda at the entrance to Balata refugee camp east of Nablus city on Wednesday before taking him away.

Wife of the journalist said that the soldiers encircled the building before dawn and isolated all males, her husband and his brothers who are all living in the same building but in different apartments, and checked their IDs then took away Abu Warda.

Abu Warda, 46, was about to obtain a doctorate in electronic journalism from Malaysia and is considered one of the most prominent Palestinian bloggers. He worked for Quds Press as a correspondent for 15 years and owns a media office in Nablus.

Local sources said that IOF troops rounded up 16 other Palestinians citizens in a rabid arrest campaign on Wednesday including two minors in Al-Khalil province and four Jerusalemites from Alezariye village to the east of occupied Jerusalem.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israel Kidnapped More Than Three Thousand Palestinians In 2011

by Saed Bannoura

 Former detainee and Palestinian researcher specializing in detainees’ affairs, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, stated that Israeli soldiers arrested 3,312 Palestinians, including children, since the beginning of this year.

 He said that the army conducted an average of 276 arrests each month, nearly nine arrests a day.

Farawna stated that the army detained men, women and children, and even went on to take patients and people with special needs. This is besides arrests targeting elected Palestinian political officials and legislators.

The Palestinian researcher said that the vast majority of the arrests were carried out in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in addition to 38 carried out in the Gaza Strip, including those that targeted fishermen, and even patients at the Erez terminal, while on their way to receive medical treatment in Israel or in the West Bank.

In a report published on December 19, the Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association stated that since October 18, 2011, when Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was released in exchange for 477 detainees in the first stage of the swap-deal, Israeli soldiers abducted nearly 470 Palestinians, seventy of whom were children.

It said that in the first 15 days of December, the army kidnapped more than 21 youth, including 11 children, from the Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62727

Palestinian Killed, 11 Wounded, As Army Bombards Gaza

by Saed Bannoura 

 Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported that one Palestinian was killed and eleven others were wounded in two Israeli Air Strikes in one hour, which targeted Gaza City

 The sources stated that eight Palestinians were wounded, two seriously, when the army fired missiles at a Palestinian Jeep driving near a gas station in Al Jala’ neighborhood in Gaza City.

One Palestinian was killed and three others were wounded in an earlier air strike targeting a Palestinian driving a motorcycle in Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army claimed that the attack targeted fighters who fired shells at Israeli areas adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

In a separate attack, soldiers fired rounds of live ammunition at homes and property east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip; no damages or injuries were reported.

December 27, marks the third anniversary of the three-week Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in which more than 1,419 Palestinians were killed and thousands were wounded. Among the killed were 412 children, and approximately 280 medics and members of the civil defense.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, reported that December 27 2008, the day the Israeli war started on Gaza, was the bloodiest day as Israeli soldiers killed 334 Palestinians (77% of them civilians).

The PCHR said that 1,419 Palestinians were killed during Operation Cast Lead, 1,167 (82.2%) of whom were civilians. A further 5,300 were injured. Israeli forces directly targeted and attacked private homes and civilian institutions, including hospitals and schools.

Updated From

One Killed, 3 Injured in Israeli Air Strike North of Gaza

Tuesday December 27, 2011 21:39 by Alaa Ashkar - IMEMC & Agencies

One Palestinian was killed and three others were injured as an Israeli air strike targeted on Tuesday evening a Palestinian vehicle near Abu-Sharkh Square in the city of Jabaliya, north of the Gaza Strip, the Maan News Agency reported Tuesday evening.

The Hamas Government Minister of Health spokesman, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qurah, said that ambulances transferred the dead man, identified as Abdullah At-Telbani (22 years old) from the city of Gaza, and three others injured Palestinians to Kamal Odwan Hospital.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses confirmed that at least three Palestinians were riding a vehicle when an Israeli warplane fired one missile towards them.

PCHR Report On The Third Anniversary of the War

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62735

Nine Security Council Member States Condemn Israeli Settlement Expansion

by Saed Bannoura

 In a letter issued Tuesday, the four European member states of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, condemned the recent Israeli announcement that the Israeli government had approved the construction of 1,000 new settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In addition, South Africa, India and Brazil condemned the expansion.

 The four European countries reiterated the fact that Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories are considered illegal under international law, and said the Israeli decision to expand the settlements was a “wholly negative development," and will hinder a return to the negotiating table.

In their letter, the representatives wrote, "The viability of the Palestinian state that we want to see and the two-state solution that is essential for Israel's long-term security are threatened by the systematic and deliberate expansion of settlements," adding, “We condemn the disturbing escalation of violence by settlers, including the burning of mosques in the West Bank and Jerusalem....It is clear that these deliberately provocative attacks on places of worship were designed to aggravate tensions.”

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant read the statement in a press conference in which he called on Israel to halt settlement expansion and prosecute any settlers found to have engaged in criminal activity.

The South African Ambassador, Baso Sangqu, read a statement signed by the 120-nation bloc of non-aligned countries in the UN General Assembly saying that Israeli settlements are “the main impediment to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

These sentiments were echoed in a statement submitted by Brazil, South Africa and India, all of which are currently members of the UNSC. In total, nine members of the Security Council condemned the Israeli settlement expansion and recent violence.

In response, a spokesperson for the Israeli mission at the United Nations stated that the main impediment to peace is not Israeli settlement expansion, but “the Palestinians’ claim to the so-called right of return and its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62709

Israeli troops invade Tulkarem, firing live rounds and tear gas

City of Tulkarem

by Saed Bannoura

 A number of Israeli military vehicles invaded the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and the nearby refugee camps Tuesday afternoon.

 Local youth began throwing stones at the jeeps and armored vehicles, and soldiers responded with tear gas and live ammunition. No injuries were reported.

According to local sources, at least five Israeli military vehicles were seen in both the city of Tulkarem and in the refugee camps around the town.

The clashes occurred in the eastern part of the city of Tulkarem.

Israeli troops frequently invade Palestinian towns and villages, usually for the purpose of abducting individuals that are ‘wanted’ by the Israeli military.

The occupying military force maintains long lists of Palestinians alleged to have engaged in some anti-Occupation activity, although human rights groups have criticized those lists for inaccuracy and targeting of non-violent activists. The main sources of the names are from paid Palestinian informants.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62711

Settlers burn 5 cars in Ramallah village

A Palestinian man stands near cars which locals say were torched
by phsycotic Jewish extremists, in the West Bank village of Beitin
near Ramallah on Dec. 19, 2011.

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Dozens of settlers raided a Ramallah village on Monday morning and set fire to five cars.

Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli military forces arrived in the village of Beitin and dispersed the settlers without arresting any of them.

Beitin is situated near the village of Burqa, which was attacked by settlers last week.

Jewish settlers on Thursday torched the Burqa village mosque and sprayed racist graffiti in Hebrew on its walls, witnesses said.

That attack came a day after Jewish extremists torched a 13th century mosque in Jerusalem, spraying "Death to the Arabs" and "Muhammad is a pig" on the building.

Settler attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians have increased by more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Israeli settlers number 500,000 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, living in Jewish-only communities that are illegal under international law.

 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=446133

Israel to Build 1,000 More Units in West Bank, Jerusalem Settlements

Illegal Jewish serrlement

by Saed Bannoura

 The Israeli government decided on Sunday to build an additional 1,000 units in a number of Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in illegally annexed East Jerusalem.

 Israeli Yedioth Aharonoth reported that the Israeli Housing Ministry and the so-called “Israel’s Land Authority” decided to build the new units in three settlements, located in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The approval is part of a larger plan that aims at building 6,000 units in 44 settlements in different parts of the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The plan is the building of 348 units in Beitar Eilit settlement, west of Bethlehem, 500 units in Jabal Abu Gheim (Har Homa) settlement east of Jerusalem, and 180 units of Pisgat Zeev, north of Jerusalem.

According Yedioth Aharonoth, the Israeli government tried to delay the announcement of the new projects in order to avoid ‘condemnations’ from the United States and the European Union.

The Israeli government insists on what it calls “Israel’s right to build housing projects for its citizens”, yet, settlements violate International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, as they are built in territories that are under occupation.

The Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas had to quit peace talks with Israel in September 2010, due to its illegal settlement activities, and its ongoing invasions and assaults in the occupied territories.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62693

The Jewish war on Islam in Palestine

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

Editors note: There is a Jewish war on Islam though out the west, being waged by Jewish Nazis like  Robert Spencer, Pam Geller and David Horowitz, spreading propaganda and hatred.

 As Jewish terrorist attacks on  mosques in  occupied Palestine are assuming  a phenomenal frequency.
 
 Indeed,   with the Israeli government and security establishment doing next to nothing  to  put an  end  to this wanton and unprovoked terror, a  huge  fire is being  started in the region.

In religious wars, all  sides  are usually variably culpable and blamable . However, in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jewish fanatics bear  nearly 100% of  the blame. 
 
Their attacks against mosques  are not provoked by similar Palestinian attacks against Jewish religious places. In fact, Jewish terror groups readily admit  that arson  attacks against  mosques are meant to embarrass the Israeli  occupation army.
 
The attacks are perpetrated under the slogan "Price Tag" every time the Israeli army moves to dismantle a Jewish settlement outpost. 
 
So why is it that  the Palestinians and their places of worship are attacked, not the Israeli army?
 
Well, it takes a thoroughly  sick mind to rationalize, even glamorize  such attacks, but the Israeli  settler camp  never faces a shortage of  virulence,  mental depravity and  mental sickness.
 
We are talking after all about the worst of the worst that racist, Talmudic Judaism could breed, people who view the rest of mankind as subhuman. 
 
The practical implications  of such a venomous ideology are enormous and absolutely nefarious. If non-Jews are subhuman, then  their lives must be worthless,  have no sanctity and expendable.
 
Think not I am making an exaggeration as it is difficult to exaggerate the evilness  of these racist thugs who spend a lifetime demonizing and dehumanizing humanity as they celebrate their Chosen-people or Master-race status.
 
Unfortunately, the Israeli government and security establishment are giving these criminal-minded thugs a free rein to gang up on virtually unprotected Palestinian civilians, torch mosques and churches and vandalize olive groves throughout occupied Palestine.
 
It is very hard to buy the Israeli government's argument that these terrorists are a marginal group. But even if they were a marginal group, this wouldn't  minimize the  gravity of their terrorist actions.
 
The Nazi Hitler Youth was once viewed as a marginal group. However, the world saw what that "marginal" group was able to do during Kristalnacht in November, 1938.
 
Hence, the question begs itself whether the Israeli government should wait until the so-called hill-top "troublemakers" morph into a Jewish Hitler Youth. 
 
Unfortunately, the Israeli government, the most fascist ever, can't be given the benefit of the doubt. 
 
In the final analysis, the suspected connivance and obvious leniency with which the Netanyahu government treats these despicable criminals, along with the mind-boggling reluctance  to prosecute them raise many hard questions about the nature of that government.
 
One Israeli writer, when asked recently why the government didn't exercise its legal authority to arrest and try Jewish terrorists who attack Muslim and Christian holy place, said a venomous snake wouldn't bit its own tail.
 
There is another worrying dimension to this obscenity, namely the virtually complete absence of  real  condemnations of  these terrorist acts  by Jewish leaders  in Israel and abroad.
 
Jewish leaders in Europe and North America wouldn't wait a minute to condemn the slightest anti-Semitic attack  on Jewish targets,  even if this target happened to be a lone Jewish grave in  an isolated village in  Eastern Europe .
 
Even remarks or even slip-of-the-tongue jokes are castigated and people are made to pay a price.
 
However, when fellow Jews carry out  outrageous acts of terror,  arson  and  vandalism against  mosques and churches,  we see that these same Jewish leaders  become speechless as if the acts of terror took place in a different galaxy.
 
The Jewish leadership must realize that the orphans  of  Kahana and thuggish  terrorists of  Gush Emunim  are more than trouble makers. They are in fact criminal fire-starters whose pyromania could burn Jews as well as non-Jews.
 
Hence, Jewish leaders must have the necessary courage and rectitude to admit that Jewish terrorism is a two-lane street and that Muslims won't stand idle if their peaceable  holy places continue to be torched and vandalized in the most blatant and unprovoked manner.
 
Of course, it would be naïve to expect verbal  condemnations by Jewish leaders to stem the tide of  Jewish settler terror against Muslim and Christian holy places.
However, this is the very least Jewish leaders should and can  do to  exonerate themselves from the ostensibly logical Charge that these leaders adopt a duplicitous attitude toward Jewish terror in Palestine by denouncing it when speaking to  a non-Jewish audience while praising it privately.
 

Finally, the Palestinians themselves must not entrust the task of  protecting  mosques and Churches to Israel .  The Palestinian Authority (PA) must deploy armed  guards in the vicinity of mosques in order to protect them from Jewish terror.

 

Crying out for help won't help very much. We have to do our own duty first and none would blame us for doing what anyone  else would if they were in our shoes.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Obama assures Jewish Conference: US support for Israel is ‘unshakeable’

Obama grovels to Jewish supremiset 

by Saed Bannoura

Editors note: If Obama and the rest of the cowards that control the US government cared just half as much for the American people as they do the Jewish vote and their masters in Tel Aviv There would be no wars or crashing economy.

 In a speech given to the Conference of Reform Jews in the US on Friday, President Barack Obama assured the audience that his administration was doing more than any previous administration in US history to serve the cause of Israel, and that US support for the Jewish state is ‘unshakeable’


President Obama made the speech in the global context of increased isolation of Israel due to its ongoing violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people, lack of compliance with its obligations as an Occupying Power under international law, and disregard for past signed agreements with the Palestinians which forbid the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and call for withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Just prior to giving the speech at the conference, President Obama met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The two did not discuss the recent upsurge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and against Christian and Muslim holy sites. According to a spokesperson for Obama, the two discussed ‘regional security’.

In his speech to the conference audience of several thousand Reform Jews, Obama stated, "It's hard to remember a time when the [U.S.] administration gave more support to the security of Israel. Don't let anyone to tell you otherwise. It's a fact."

Some political pundits have claimed that President Obama, in this talk, has launched his campaign for the Jewish vote for his re-election in 2012. Jews make up around 2% of the US population.

In a debate last week, all of the Republican candidates for President reiterated their strong support for Israel and Israeli policies.

President Obama also said in his talk Friday, "We stand with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. America's commitment and my commitment to the security of Israel is unshakeable."

He did not address the issue of a contradiction between a state defining itself as both a theocracy (Jewish state) and a democracy. He stated that peace between Israel and the Palestinians could not come from outside, but would have to be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves. But the US President made no mention of the US military and financial aid provided each year to Israel – an aid package larger than any other US aid package in the world, which Palestinian leaders say is a major hindrance to peace negotiations, as it shows extreme US favoritism toward one side in the conflict.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62686

Soldiers: “West Bank Problem Is Jews, Not Palestinians”

Psychotic Illegal Jewish settlers.

by Saed Bannoura

 As extremist settler groups in the occupied West Bank step up their attacks against the Palestinians, their property and their holy sites, in addition to attacking Israeli peace groups and even Israeli soldiers and policemen, Israeli soldiers said that the problem they face in the West Bank is with Jewish fanatics, not the Palestinians.

 Israeli daily, Haaretz, quoted an army officer, who was discharged from the military last year, stating that “while the army is tasked with protecting the settlers, extremist settlers are actually the ones who are causing their problems.”

The soldier said that when the army operates in the Palestinian territories, the orders are clear, and the soldiers follow these orders. But when the soldiers are attacked, not by the Palestinians, but by extremist settlers, who throw rocks at them or sabotage their vehicles, then the soldiers get confused.

He further stated that the orders soldiers receive from their commanders are different from what takes place in real life.

On Thursday, Haaretz published a report stating that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recently issued instructions on how to deal with Jews who attack the army, and that such orders are different when dealing with field incidents.

Another soldier, who served in Hebron nearly three months ago, said that he and his fellow soldiers discussed issues on how to deal with possible clashes with the Palestinians, but when the soldiers dismantled the illegal Mitzpeh Eshtamoa outpost, they did not know how to deal with the issue, especially when Palestinians and settlers had a standoff because the settlers wanted to occupy a land used for grazing.

The soldiers, according to Haaretz, said that some fifteen settlers were swearing at them, and that the chief commander of the unit told the soldiers that “this is what usually happens,” adding that the settlers will even punctured the tires of his car.

Another soldier stated that most of the clashes that take place between Israeli soldiers and settlers happen on roadblocks, especially when the settlers just speed through them, and some of them even harass the soldiers and humiliate them.

He added that the soldiers have a code they use when referring to Palestinians hurling stones at them, but they now are using the same code to refer to settlers throwing stones at the Palestinians.

There have been several incidents of violent clashes between Israeli soldiers and settlers, especially during the evacuation of some illegal outposts. Such clashes led to injuries and property damage.

The settlers are also attacking offices and vehicles that belong to leftist Israelis and peace groups such as Israel’s Peace Now Movement.

The settlers recently escalated their attacks, burnt Palestinian property, and even torched a number of mosques.

The attacks are carried out under the “Price Tag” policy as the settlers blame the Palestinians for any evacuation of illegal settlement outposts in the occupied territories. They also blame Peace Now and similar organizations for the evacuation of these outposts.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62683

An Eyewitness Account of the Israeli Attack on Mustafa Tamimi’s Funeral

By Holly Rigby

December 14, 2011 "Information Clearing House" --  This has been one of the darkest and most disturbing days I have ever had to experience. The funeral of Mustafa Tamimi, murdered by the IOF at a demonstration at Nabi Saleh on Friday, ended with the IOF shooting endless rounds of the teargas canisters that killed Mustafa at unarmed mourners, beating and arresting people with impunity as they walked across Nabi Saleh village after the funeral.

Nabi Saleh, a small village of only 550 people, has been organising non-violent protests against the theft of their land since 2009. The illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish has continued to grow and expand since 1976, and the tiny village has been holding the demonstration for two years protesting against the confiscation of the village’s main water supply, the Kaws Spring. Nabi Saleh has become infamous for its violence and arrests against Palestinians, but until yesterday nobody had been killed there by the IOF.

Mustafa, a 28 year old Palestinian activist, died on Saturday morning after being critically injured when a tear gas canister was shot directly at his face from the inside of an armoured Israeli jeep only ten meters from where he was standing. The tear gas canister ripped through one side of his face causing a massive brain haemorrhage, and despite initial optimism he would survive on Friday night, he tragically passed away on Saturday morning.

I was initially supposed to be going to the Golan Heights today with the other volunteers from ICS, but when a funeral march was organised from the hospital where Mustafa died back to his village, I knew there was no way I could go and enjoy the tourist trappings of the Golan Heights on this terrible day for Palestine. Having always followed the tragic events that happen here, I had heard many times of Palestinians murdered by the IOF, but since being here the Palestinian struggle has become my struggle – when Mustafa died I felt my heart breaking at this unnecessary and cruel loss of life, and wept last night as if he were my own.

Around 200 people marched through the streets of Ramallah this morning carrying Mustafa’s body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag with a kuffieyeh to cover his head. As his body was laid in the ambulance, we got into a service to follow it to the village. On the way there, I called an activist friend of mine to let her know where we were going, and she warned me to be careful. I assured her that there was surely no way that the IOF would be able to unashamedly devastate the funeral of a young man with violence. I now realise just how naive that was, and how deeply I underestimated the savagery of the Israeli army.

By the time we arrived in the village of Nabi Saleh, there were more than 2000 people who had joined the funeral procession, the men carrying his body above their heads with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is Great’) and the chilling howls of the village women calling Mustafa’s name echoing through the tiny village streets.

We saw Mustafa’s sister walking distraught but defiant, with tears wracking her face, and his father being held by both arms by men around him, almost unable to walk, crippled by his grief. This was the death of a martyr for the Palestinian struggle, and the devastating effects of his death could be seen in every face I turned to.

His body was carried through the streets to his home for a final goodbye, to the mosque where the funeral prayers were spoken, and then eventually to the grave overlooking the beautiful Palestinian valleys on the outskirts of the village. My flatmate wanted to say some prayers for Mustafa so we walked back towards the mosque, but when we returned to the cemetery I was surprised to see the mourners had dispersed, when suddenly I recognised the acrid smell of tear gas fill my nose and my stomach turned as I realised what was taking place.

As I sprinted down the rocky terrain towards the entrance of the village, I saw elderly women and children running back up the other way, their faces blotchy and red with burning tears, doubled over and wretching as they tried to move away from where the army was firing. Unarmed mourners who only moments before had been grieving tears for their lost son, were now being attacked by the Israeli army with round after round of tear gas and being sprayed with skunk water, a foul smelling liquid unlike any waste sewage you have ever smelt.

As I moved closer to the protesters, I asked what had happened and they explained that the ten Israeli army jeeps I could see in the distance had arrived during the funeral, and were placed there to taunt and goad this grieving village. In the distance I could see the young men throwing stones at the army vehicles, a symbolic gesture expressing their deep anger against the death of their brother and against this cruel and twisted occupation.

Suddenly, I heard a loud crack and all around me the silver tear gas canisters that had killed Mustafa were being shot directly at where I was standing with other activists from ISM, and we ran up the road through clouds of billowing tear gas smoke, desperately trying to avoid the path of these silver bullet-like objects.

We were called up the road by a Palestinian from the village and he pointed down the hill to the east of the village where another unit of IOF soldiers were standing languidly at the bottom – waiting, goading, intimidating – knowing that the Palestinians would not stand by as another group of soldiers occupied their land on this day. 

We ran down the rocky slope where at the bottom the women who earlier had been sobbing and lamenting the death of Mustafa were now screaming into the faces of these IOF soldiers, holding his picture to their faces and demanding to know which one of them had killed their brother.

As I stood taking photographs of this painful scene, time suddenly collapsed into itself when I saw one of the soldiers smirk and tear the poster of Mustafa from a woman’s hands and rip it into pieces at the same moment a sound bomb exploded next to me, quickly followed by a tear gas canister that had been thrown and detonated at my feet. My face, my head, my mouth, my whole body was suddenly filled with tear gas and I ran away blindly as my face scorched from the gas and I felt like my head was going to explode on itself. I couldn’t breathe nor see nor think of anything apart from the burning that filled my lungs and head, and in the panic and confusion I ran as fast as I could from the canister.

But no demonstration I have attended here could have prepared me for the scene that was unfolding when I finally managed to regain my balance and ran back up the road to where the soldiers and Palestinians had gathered.

IOF soldiers were savagely beating anybody within their vicinity, three or four soldiers at a time grabbing men and throwing them to the floor, kicking them violently and stamping on their heads. As I stood back from the scene taking photographs, a soldier suddenly lunged towards us entirely unprovoked and threw one of the ISM activists I was with against the barrier of the road, doubling him over it as his body crashed to the ground. I screamed in his face WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING YOU ANIMALS and he shoved me out the way and turned back to the group of soldiers that has amassed to join in the violent spree.

As they tried to arrest more and more people the group of strong and defiant Palestinian women we were with threw their bodies over the men they were trying to drag away, and the soldiers began dragging these women by their hijabs, their clothes, wringing the necks of the men who were under this pile of women and trying to pull them from underneath. Covering and protecting the bodies of those trying to be arrested, the women were screaming so loudly for the soldiers to stop and this sound pierced my heart more deeply than any sound bomb could ever have done.

As I stood a few paces back from what was happening, my whole body was wracked with uncontrollable sobs as I helplessly looked on as the scene unfolded. Never in my life have I felt more powerless, weak and unable to do anything to intervene in the horrific scene that was playing out in front of my very eyes. The soldiers there were like savages, no remorse in their faces as their murderous hands grabbed and pulled the bodies of these innocent people who had come that day to mourn the loss of their brother.

After arresting three and beating many more, the group was forced to retreat back up the hill we had come from, running from the soldiers as they fired round after round of tear gas after us. A tear gas bomb exploded directly at the feet of one of the protesters, and inhaling the thick plumes of smoke he began suffocating and collapsed on the ground. As people gathered around him trying to help him, the soldiers who were watching what was happening started firing tear gas directly at the group that was helping the unconscious man, and they were forced to drag his body up the hill to escape.

We spent the next twenty minutes dodging tear gas as we made our way back up the hill, until eventually things began to calm so we made our way back to where the protest had  begun originally, and the violence there too had dissipated.

As we sat in the service on the way back to Ramallah, I came to understand what the word ‘shell shocked’ really means. My mind was almost numb as we drove through the Palestinian valleys, unable to truly comprehend the things I had seen. It was only when I got back to my flat and recounted what had happened to my anxious flatmates that all my anger and distress bubbled to the surface once again, and I sobbed uncontrollably as I tried to understand what I had just experienced.

Knowing that this level of violence is what the Palestinian people have experienced for 64 years, almost powerless against the brutal, mechanised force of a murdering Israeli army, serves to only more deeply cement my hatred for the IOF and the terrible things they inflict on the wonderful people I have spent the last three months with. Its difficult to put into words the grief and humiliated anger that I feel as I sit here writing this, and yet I still cannot believe that the Palestinians are so strong and defiant against this savage, repressive force.

The injustice of the occupation courses through my veins, and I cannot begin to get my head around the mentality that would allow the Israeli soldiers to act as they did today. As one of my flatmates said, the IOF have no respect for the living, so why would we think they would have even an ounce of respect for the dead? What I saw today was humanity at its very worst, savagery that I did not think possible. Yet still knowing that this is only scratching the surface of the suffering experienced by Palestinians as they try to defend their lives, their lands and their homes hurts me more deeply than anything I have experienced in my life.

This is not propaganda. This is not my opinion. This is an account of a terrible scene that should only reinforce how destructive and cruel this occupation really is. Those who try to explain or justify the behaviour of the Israeli army are as complicit in these actions as the soldiers perpetrating these terrible crimes. Silence is compliance – I will not be silenced.

‎”I loathe my enemy. I will never forgive, I will never forget. People who say such hatred transforms a person into a bitter cruel shell know nothing of the Israeli army. This hatred will not cripple me. What does that mean anyway? Do I not continue to write? Do I not continue to protest? Do I not continue to resist? Hating them sustains me, as opposed to normalizing with them. Their hatred of me makes reinforces the truth of their being murderous machines. 

My hatred of them makes me human.” – Linah Alsaafin
http://electronicintifada.net/content/no-miracle-yesterday-nabi-saleh-mustafa-tamimi-murdered/10678

In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians. RIP Mustafa Tamimi – you will never be forgotten.

Holly Rigby's blog Carbonating Change

Haniya asserts Hamas' constants says Palestine belongs to Palestinians

Prime Minister Ismael Han

 Khalid Amayreh

In a comprehensive speech marking the passage of 24 years since the establishment of the Palestinian Islamist liberation movement, Hamas, the elected Prime Minister of the Gaza-based Palestinian government Ismael Haniya vowed to keep up the struggle against the apartheid state of Israel until the liberation of Palestine.

Speaking before hundreds of thousands of Gazans, Haniya said armed resistance was the only strategic choice for the liberation of Palestine.

Paying tribute to the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, and Hasan el Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood organization in Egypt, Haniya said Hamas was a main component of the Palestinian people.

"Hamas can not be defeated, marginalized, bypassed or sidelined."

Hamas is considered a legitimate daughter of the Muslim Brotherhood, the party that has won a plurality amounting to a majority in the ongoing Egyptian elections, the freest and most representatives ever.

Yasin was murdered by the Israeli army in 2004 shortly after he performed dawn prayer at a mosque not far from his home in central Gaza. 
 
Haniya said the Hamas factor was not merely a variable but rather a constant, adding that the triumph of Hamas was not a passing summer cloud which could be undone by new elections or additional conspiracies.

He added that Hamas had experienced agonizing years, including aggression, war, siege and a lot of plots by brother and foe alike.

"But Hamas has remained a hard number and honest guardian of Palestinian rights and constants."

The Islamist prime minister said Hamas didn't accept the principle of land sweep and compromises regarding the refugees.

He added that despite the monumental odds and challenges facing the movement, Hamas didn't give up or give in on its main principles.

"Hamas is still at the center of the square of principles. It won't abandon them."

Haniya pointed out that Hamas, despite the vast imbalance of power with Israel, was able to "liberate our brave prisoners and captives from the clutches of the enemy."

Speaking on the subject of national unity, Haniya said Hamas was doing its utmost to rebuild national unity, especially with Fatah.

"I say national unity is a paramount task, I say to our brothers in Ramallah you must liberate the Palestinian will from external pressures that impede national reconciliation."

He added that national reconciliation must be based on a national program that protects and preserves our constants.

As to elections, Haniya said guarantees must be given in order to ensure the conduct of free and transparent elections. 

Vowing that Hamas will never ever recognize Israel's legitimacy, Haniya called for the establishment of  the " Jerusalem's army" in every Arab and Islamic capital.

He praised the Arab revolutions, saying that Hamas, through its steadfastness and resilience inspired the Arab masses to rise up against their tyrants and despots.

He said Arab revolutions would have to move from their particular domestic issues to the central Arab issue, the Palestinian issue.

He saluted Egypt, saying the Gaza security was an Egyptian security and vice versa.

The huge multitude attending Hamas's celebration shows that the popularity of the movement  was far from  dwindling as alleged by opinion polls administered in the West Bank mainly by pro-Fatah bodies.

The Arab Spring, which seems to have brought Islamist political parties to fore in countries such as Tunsia, Libya, and Egypt, has boosted the Islamists' morale and made them more hopeful about the future than ever before.

Many Palestinian Islamists hope that with their ideological brothers in the lead, if not leadership, Israel would face a new Arab world that is more sympathetic with the Palestinians.

Some Palestinian leaders, Islamists and otherwise, hope that an Islamist-led Egyptian government would make Egyptian commitment to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty conditional on the way Israel treats the  Palestinians.

Over the years, Israel committed every conceivable atrocity and act of persecution and humiliation against the virtually vanquished and helpless Palestinians without drawing any meaningful reaction from Arab capitals, including Cairo .

Some Egyptian politicians who are affiliated with the Islamist trend have been quoted as saying that the Camp David peace treaty with Israel would have to be renegotiated.

Such statements are viewed as anathema in Israel.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Legislator Taken By Israeli Army In Ramallah

Legislator Ayman Daraghma

by Saed Bannoura

 On Wednesday at dawn, Israeli soldiers kidnapped an elected Palestinian legislator, identified as Ayman Daraghma, from Ramallah. Daraghma is a member of the Hamas Change and Reform Bloc, the largest bloc at the Palestinian Legislative Council.

 At approximately two a.m. on Wednesday, troops broke into the home of Daraghma, in Al Masayef neighbourhood in Ramallah. They searched the property and arrested the legislator after informing him of a military warrant for his arrest.

The wife of Daraghma stated that her husband previously spent at more than twenty months in Israeli prisons before he was released nearly a year ago.

The number of elected Palestinian Legislator currently imprisoned by Israel is 24; most of them are members of the Change and Reform Bloc.

Hamas said that the ongoing arrests against the elected officials aim at obstructing the conducts of the elected officials, and to sabotage the efforts to maintain the Unity Agreement between Fateh and Hamas.

The Change and Reform Bloc is the largest parliamentary block, since Hamas achieved a majority in the 2006 elections; Israel obstructed the work of the Council by kidnapping and imprisoning the elected officials.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62670

Israeli Settlers Try To Torch Historic Mosque In Jerusalem, Spray-paint Anti-Muslim Graffiti

Mosque in Bruqin Burnt On December 7

 by Saed Bannoura

Late on Tuesday night, a group of Israeli settlers attempted to burn down the now disused mosque of Akasha Bin Mohsin. They were unable to obtain entry, and so proceeded to torch the exterior, and spray-painted graffiti including ‘Mohammed is a pig’ on the blackened walls.

 The mosque, which was excavated in 2003, is located in West Jerusalem off Jaffa Street, and marks the burial site of Muslim disciple Akasha Bin Mohsin (a tenth century follower of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad). He is believed by Muslims to have been killed in battle, and washed by angels between earth and heaven. The building still hosts a minaret, but is currently being used for storage by the city council.

Israeli police cordoned of the Mosque and the street leading up to it, and Israeli authorities said that an investigation of the incident would be carried out. As of yet no suspects have been apprehended or questioned, and there are no official leads.

In addition to the graffiti reading ‘Mohammed is a pig’, the arsonists wrote graffiti that said “Mohammed is dead” and “Pricetag” in Hebrew. ‘Pricetag’ is a reference to a campaign by Israeli settler youth to ‘force the Palestinians to pay for evacuations of Israeli settlements in the West Bank by the Israeli authorities.

The attack on the mosque is the latest in a series of incidents this week by Israeli settlers which has been marked increase in Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian Muslim and Christian holy sites, including the takeover of buildings on the site where Jesus is believed by Christians to have been baptized by John the Baptist.

Several mosques have been burned by Israeli settlers over the last few months, including an arson attack in Tuba-Zangaria, which completely destroyed the town mosque, and also included graffiti saying ‘price tag’ in Hebrew.

Before this latest incident, the most recent attack against a mosque attack was carried out last week, and targeted a mosque in the western part of Al-Quds (Jerusalem). The settlers burnt parts of the mosque and wrote anti-Arab graffiti on the walls.

Although Israeli police arrested several Israeli settler youth in relation to that arson, no charges were filed and all were subsequently released. Israeli media have reported that the settlers engaging in the price tag campaign no longer fear repercussions from the Israeli police for their attacks on Palestinian mosques and other holy sites.

The ‘price tag’ slogan has also been spray-painted recently on the offices of Israeli group Peace Now, and its members have also received numerous death threats over the phone and via text messages.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62668

Resident Seriously Injured By Army Fire In Gaza

Gaza Shelling

by Saed Bannoura

 Palestinian Medical Sources in the Gaza Strip reported that one resident was seriously wounded on Wednesday morning, after the Israeli army opened fire at him east of Gaza city.

 The sources stated that the resident, in his twenties, was shot in the thigh, and he was moved to a nearby hospital for treatment.

On Tuesday, two Palestinians, including one child, were injured after the Israeli army invaded an area east of the Al-Boreij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

Several military vehicles, tanks and army bulldozers invaded the area and uprooted trees and farmlands.

Furthermore, soldiers invaded an area east of Gaza city and opened fire; damage was reported, but no injuries were.

On Sunday, Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency Services in Gaza, reported that in 2011, Israeli soldiers killed 19 children and injured more than 200, in air strikes and bombardment targeting the Gaza Strip.

Last September, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza reported that 5,151 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli fire and shells since the Al Aqsa Intifada started in September 2000.

The numbers do not include Palestinians killed in armed confrontation with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The number of combatants killed in the same timeframe is 1,499. Total number of civilians and non-civilians killed in the same timeframe is 6,631.

One third of civilians were killed within the West Bank, and two thirds in the Gaza Strip. One in four was children, and 5.5% (nearly four hundred) were women.

Of the civilians killed in the West Bank, children make up one in five (343 deaths), with the children of Gaza making up 28% (939) of the civilian deaths. An estimated 84 children have also been killed in Gaza during assassination operations carried out by the Israeli army against armed resistance fighters and senior political leaders.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62671

PCHR Concerned over Medical Shortages in Gaza Strip Hospitals

by Palestinian Center For Human Rights

 The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expresses concern over the extreme shortage of medicines in the Gaza Strip hospitals. PCHR warns of the potential catastrophic repercussions on the health of the Gaza Strip population, especially patients who suffer from renal failure due to the shortage in blood filters used in dialysis.

 PCHR is concerned that the lack of such blood filters may stop dialysis in the Gaza Strip hospitals, and hence endanger the lives of 450 patients.

According to Dr. Ashraf al-Qidwa, Spokesman of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dialysis filters 5 and 6, which are major consumables that function like normal kidneys and serve to remove toxins from the blood during dialysis. These filters are about to run out from hospitals and medical care centers in the Gaza Strip.

According to al-Qidwa, only 24 pieces of these consumables are available now, which does not suffice according to the needs of 450 patients who undergo dialysis three times a week. This amount is only sufficient for a weekly dialysis of the patients’ blood only.

Al-Qidwa stated that if blood filters ran out, all dialysis apparatuses in hospitals would be stopped. He attributed the shortage in medical consumables to the abstention of the Ministry of Health in Ramallah from supplying the Gaza Strip’s medical needs as agreed.

PCHR has followed up the developments in the health conditions in the Gaza Strip. In June and December 2011, PCHR received complaints from patients concerning delayed receipt of their medicines from health facilities in the Gaza Strip as many medicines and medical consumables ran out.

At that time, PCHR found out that such delay was essentially attributed to the running out of such medicines and medical consumables as they were not regularly supplied to the Gaza Strip, or their amounts were decreased to the minimum, by the General Directorate of Pharmacy in Ramallah; only 20% of the Gaza Strip’s actual needs have been supplied in 2011.

According to PCHR’s documentation, 178 medicines and 190 medical consumables ran out from public health facilities in the Gaza Strip, and in December, 120 medicines and 140 consumables ran out, because they were not supplied by the Ministry of Health in Ramallah.[1] PCHR has warned of the impact of the shortage of medicines on the lives of patients in the Gaza Strip, but the crisis has not been improved and it has reemerged with the shortage of medicines necessary for renal diseases.

Click here to read the story of Shahinaz Khouf, a mother of six who suffers from kidney failure and whose health is deteriorating because she receives insufficient dialysis sessions.

PCHR expresses utmost concern over the deterioration of health conditions of Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip, and:

1. Calls upon President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately intervene with the Ministry of Health in Ramallah to ensure the prompt flow of consignments of medicine and medical needs to health facilities in the Gaza Strip;

2. Calls for making necessary coordination to remove obstacles between the Ministries of Health in Ramallah and Gaza, especially under the current atmosphere of reconciliation;

3. Calls upon the Ministry of Health in Ramallah to immediately supply all medicines and medical needs that are necessary for health facilities in the Gaza Strip to avoid further risks to the health and lives of the population of the Gaza Strip.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62673

Preparations For Second Phase Of Swap Deal To Start Tuesday

Saleh Al-Aroury

Member of the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement, Saleh al-Aroury, stated that the Israeli army will start gathering all Palestinian detainees scheduled to be released under second and final phase of the prisoner-swap deal that was reached on October 11, between Israel and the Hamas movement.

 Al-Aroury added that the detainees will be released directly after Gaza Strip detainees are sent to the Negev Detention Camp, and West Bank detainees are send to the Ofer Prison.

The Hamas official denied reports claiming that a specific date was set for the actual release of the detainees, adding that Egypt, the mediator, informed Hamas that a specific time and date was not determined due to “logistics”.

But he affirmed that December 18 is the final date all detainees included in the swap-deal should be let go.

Israel will be releasing 550 detainees of its choice, including sick detainees, elderly, children, and detainees who fit other categories that were not explained. Israel said it will not be releasing detainees it labels as "prisoners with blood on their hands".

Al-Aroury further said that unlike the first phase of the deal, no detainees will be exiled out of Palestine, and that they will all be allowed back to their homes.

In addition, Al-Aroury denied some reports that claimed that prisoners held on criminal charges will be released, confirming that all freed detainees under the prisoner-swap deal were arrested and imprisoned by Israel for their political activities and their affiliation with the resistance.

Egypt mediated and supervised the talks for several years until a deal was brokered in October.

On October 18, Israel released 477 detainees, named by the resistance, while the captured Israel soldier, Gilad Shalit, was handed by the resistance to Egypt, before he was escorted by Israeli officials back home.

Israel is supposed to release the remaining 550 detainees, named in the second phase of the deal that should be implemented by December 18.

Once the detainees are released, the total number of detainees released under the deal will be 1,000 male detainees, and 27 female detainees.

It is worth mentioning that on October 2009, Israel release 20 female detainees in exchange for a video recording of Shalit proving that he is alive and well.

The total agreed number of detainees to be released under the deal is 1,027. Israel is refusing to release Fatah strongman, Marwan Barghouthi, and PFLP Secretary-General, Ahmad Saadat, in addition to dozens of political leaders and members of the resistance.

The deal includes the release of 180 detainees held by Israel prior to the signing of the Oslo peace agreement.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62661

Settlers Break Into Israeli Military Base, Sabotage Property

Insane Jewish settlers

by Saed Bannoura

Israeli sources reported Tuesday that a group of extremist Israeli settlers of the Hilltop Youth settler movement infiltrated, on Monday at night, an Israeli military base near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, sabotaged property and vehicles, and hurled stones at the soldiers, wounding a senior officer.

The sources stated that Lieutenant Ran Kahana was mildly wounded after being hit in the head by a stone hurled by one of the settlers. The army chased the infiltrators but did not make any arrests.

The settlers also blocked a main road in the area and hurled stones at Palestinian cars causing damage to a number of vehicles.

Israeli media sources stated that the attacks seem to be motivated by Israeli intentions to dismantle some random settlement outposts in the West Bank by March of next year.

An Israeli Army spokesperson stated that approximately 100 settlers arrived in the area and starting throwing rocks at Palestinian vehicles, in addition to throwing rocks at Israel military vehicles before burning tires near the military base.

The spokesperson added that approximately 50 settlers infiltrated into the military base and started throwing stones at military vehicles in addition to throwing nails inside the base and on the road that leads to it.

An extremist settler with the “Hilltop Youth” movement held Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, responsible for the escalation, and claimed that Barak “discriminates against the settlers and their settlements.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued orders to the army to act in a decisive manner against the settlers who attacked the base.

Several Israeli leaders, including some leaders of the Yesha Council of Settlements condemned the attack against the base.

In related news, the Israeli Police apprehended 17 extremist settlers who barricaded themselves, on Monday, at the site of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

They settlers hung banners with photos of the right-wing Jewish leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who called for the "Jewish state to expand beyond the Jordan river into the state of Jordan and all the way to Iraq.”

According to Israeli Yedioth Aharonoth, the settlers entered a closed military zone behind the border fence with Jordan, and barracked themselves in the site, very close to where Jordanian soldiers are stationed.

The site, 10 kilometers away from the West Bank city of Jericho, is one the most sacred sites for Christians after the Nativity Church in Bethlehem and the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62662

Two Palestinians Injured By Army Fire In Gaza

by Saed Bannoura

 Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported, Tuesday, that two Palestinians, including one child, were injured after the Israeli army invaded an area east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

 The Higher Committee of Medical and Emergency Services In Gaza reported that a 48 year-old man, and a 14 year-old child, suffered moderate injuries and were moved to the al-Aqsa Hospital in Dir al-Balah.

Local sources reported that several military vehicles, tanks and army bulldozers invaded the area and uprooted trees and farmlands.

Furthermore, soldiers invaded an area east of Gaza city and opened fire at random; damage was reported, but no injuries.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62663

Report: “19 Children Killed, 200 Injured, By Israeli Shells In 2011”

Yousef Az-Za’lan, 10

by Saed Bannoura

December 11, 2011

Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency Services In Gaza, reported that, in 2011, Israeli soldiers killed 19 children, and injured more than 200, in Air strikes and bombardment targeting the Gaza Strip since the beginning of this year.

Abu Salmiyya added that the youngest of the slain children were identified as Malak Shaath, 2, and Islam Qreiqe’, 3, adding that most of the slain children faced horrific deaths as Israeli military shells mutilated their bodies.

He further stated that more than one-third of the wounded Palestinians in 2011 are children, adding that Yousef Bahjat Az-Za’lan, 10, is still in the intensive care unit after a shell fired by the Israeli army on Thursday killed his father, Bahjat, 42, and his brother Ramadan, 12 years old; at least 17 residents were wounded in the shelling, seven of them were children.

Abu Salmiyya accused the Israeli Army of deliberately targeting the civilians during the illegal and random bombardment of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, especially during late night hours and at dawn.

He added that the repeated offensives against the Gaza Strip are impacting the psychological conditions of the children in Gaza, and called on different international humanitarian groups to ensure the protection of the Palestinian children and civilians in the coastal region in particular, and in Palestine in general.

 http://uruknet.com/?p=m83819&hd=&size=1&l=e

Israel’s Latest Apartheid Law

by ILAN PAPPÉ

Those of us who have been veteran comrades in the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine have quite often been frustrated by the inability to galvanize enough support in the political and media establishments in the West against the brutal occupation of the West Bank and the strangulation of Gaza.  We believed that clear cut evidence of the oppression and the highly visible criminal policies that raged since 1967 should have at least triggered a world reaction similar to the one that now takes place against Libya, and even more so. 

But we know all the reasons why it did not, and will not happen. And yet we may have overlooked one particular reason, indeed one successful ploy of the Israeli peace camp that seems to have aborted any such effort in its buds. The liberal Zionists believe strongly in the existence of two discrete entities one Israel and one that lies on the other side of the 1967 green line which have very little in common. The acceptance of this line as a hard fact is the main justification given in the West for the inaction against Israel (one which is also supported by some of Palestine’s best friends and of course the Palestinian Authority). The line drawn is not just a political boundary it is mainly a moral border. Everything that is happening in the occupied world is diametrically opposed to life in democratic Israel and hence the argument is that if you treat Israel as a pariah state then you will also harm the ‘good’ part, the pre-1967 state. This is also the basis to the continued support for the two states solution that bases peace on the ability of moral Israel to re-invent itself in the pre-1967 borders. 

I hope this distinction would at least disappear from the vocabulary and dictionary of the Western solidarity movement with Palestine (where it can still be heard in loyalty to the peace camp in Israel, the PA and the invisible lord of realpolitik).That this distinction is false was proved once more this week (20 March, 2011) when yet another apartheid law was passed in Israel. This new law allows Jewish settlements built on state land inside Israel not to admit Israeli Palestinian citizens as residents and  legalizes the wish of these new settlers not to sell land to  the Palestinians citizens of the state. This is one of many such laws passed recently (the loyalty oath law that turns the Palestinians in Israel to second class citizens by law and one which does not allow them to live with their Palestinians spouses from the occupied territories are two of the more famous apartheid laws passed recently). The new law, like the previous others,  institutionalize the Apartheid State of Israel  or for short ASOI. 

ASOI is now one of worst apartheid regimes in the world. It controls almost all of Palestine (apart from Gaza which it imprisoned hermetically since 2005). It has, in absolute terms the highest number of political prisoners (China was reported to have less then 1000, Iran has few thousands); Israel holds nearly 10,000 of them. It has the largest number of apartheid laws and regulations than any country in the world and apart from the Arab regimes that are now collapsing and rogue states such as  Miramar and North Korea,  has the longest imposition of emergency laws and regulations that rob citizens of their most basic human and civil rights. Its policies against the discriminated native population, now composing nearly half of the overall population in ASOI,  include atrocities such as  barring people from using water sources, from cultivating their fields, building more houses, from getting to work, schools or universities and it bans them from commemorating their history and in particular the 1948 Nakbah. 

ASOI is protected by left wing philosophers, mostly Jewish but not only, in the USA and the West as well as by the new members of the European Union whose deplorable record during the holocaust may explain their unconditional support for ASOI. It enjoys the unconditional backing of many Jewish communities in the World, Christian Zionists and cynical corporations who benefit from ASOI’s military elite’s  proclivity to use lethal weapons at will and from the state’s progressive banking system and a high tech know how. 

ASOI could become the Free Republic of Israel and Palestine (FRISP) or any similar name, where people would enjoy the same rights now fought for all over the Arab world and which the West claim to disseminate and protect all over the world. If ASOI will not become FRISP, any action such as the one taken now by the West in Libya would rightly be regarded suspiciously as cynical and dishonest. 

Linkage has lost it attraction since it was misused by Saddam Hussein in 1991. But now is the time to revive it. It is time to realize that there will not be a new Middle East – in fact, there will no world peace – if ASOI continues to enjoy immunity and is not curbed and stopped – and hopefully one day  – replaced by the democratic FRISP. 

Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist. His books include A Modern History of Palestine, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Gaza in Crisis (with Noam Chomsky).

 http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/22/israel-s-latest-apartheid-law/