Category Archives: Palestine

Palestinian official dies after beating by Israeli forces | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

Two versions of this being circulated – in the other story, he died after being struck by a tear gas canister.

A senior Palestinian official died Wednesday after being beaten by Israeli forces during a protest march in the occupied West Bank, medical and security sources told AFP.

Ziad Abu Ein, who was in charge of dealing with the issue of Israeli settlements within the Palestinian Authority, “was martyred after being beaten in the chest,” said Ahmed Bitawi, the director of the Ramallah hospital.

A Palestinian security source told AFP that Israeli forces beat Abu Ein with the butts of their rifles and their helmets during a protest march in the village of Turmus Ayya near Ramallah.

via Palestinian official dies after beating by Israeli forces | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Gaza Fisherman Shot, Critically Injured by Israeli Navy

Israeli naval boat on Wednesday opened fire at 23-year-old fisherman Fakher Abu Rayyala, while he sailing within the six-nautical-miles allowed fishing zone, seriously injuring him.

Abu Rayyala was transferred, with critical wounds, to a hospital for medical treatment, where he was set to undergo urgent surgery.

WAFA noted that Israeli navy continues to target Palestinian fishermen sailing off the coasts of Gaza despite a ceasefire deal, made on August 26th, and which recently put an end to the latest Israeli military aggression on the region.

via Gaza Fisherman Shot, Critically Injured by Israeli Navy.

Israeli forces arrest 8-year-old in East Jerusalem | Maan News Agency

 Israeli special forces on Wednesday detained an eight-year-old Palestinian in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a local information center said.

Majdi Abbasi of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center said in a statement that Obeida Ayesh, eight, was arrested in the Ein al-Lawza area of the neighborhood.

Obeida’s mother was allowed to accompany him, Abbasi said.

There were no clashes going on in the area at the time of the arrest, he added.

According to a 2013 report by the UN children’s fund, Israel is the only country in the world where children were systematically tried in military courts, practicing “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”

Over the past decade, UNICEF noted that Israel has detained “an average of two children each day.”

via Israeli forces arrest 8-year-old in East Jerusalem | Maan News Agency.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s nationality bill is at odds with the Hebrew Bible

It’s politics, racism, and xenophobia, not religious belief driving them!

 

Deuteronomy 10:19 goes as follows: “And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” Its not a one-off passage. Again and again precisely this formula of expression is used to encourage identification with people who find themselves living in someone else’s country and culture. And this sense of solidarity is such that the Bible insists that both Jews and non-Jews are to be subject to the same laws, the latter having the same legal protections as the former. The Book of Numbers has it thus: “The community is to have the same rules for you and for the foreigner residing among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the foreigner shall be the same before the Lord. The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigner residing among you.”

This passage clearly demonstrates that the latest move by the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is a direct contradiction of the Hebrew Bible, both in word and in spirit. For the new nationality bill that he and others are currently fighting to get through the Knesset is designed to deny national rights to non-Jewish Israeli citizens. In its supporters’ minds it is supposed to be all about expressing the Jewish nature of Israel, that this is a state whose lifeblood is Judaism. And as its detractors have pointed out, this sets Israel’s Jewish character above its democratic character, defying the founding principles of Israel as expressed in the declaration of independence in 1948. This is bad enough, but what makes the move utterly absurd is that it flies in the face of the very religion that it is designed to protect.

via Binyamin Netanyahu’s nationality bill is at odds with the Hebrew Bible.

Israel FM supports paying Arabs to leave – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

Foot in mouth award is his and so is jerk of the year!

 

Israel’s foreign minister says he supports paying Arab citizens to leave the country.

Israel’s foreign minister says he supports paying Arab citizens to leave the country.

In a manifesto of his right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party, Avigdor Lieberman said he favoured ceding Arab majority areas in northern Israel to a future Palestinian state and providing economic incentives for Arab-Israelis – about 20 percent of Israel’s population – to encourage them to emigrate.

The manifesto, published on Friday, did not set out positions on the most difficult issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including the status of Jerusalem and Israel’s borders.

But it does acknowledge the necessity of territorial compromise in reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians, and also with moderate Arab countries.

Once a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lieberman is now seen as harbouring prime ministerial ambitions himself.

His offer to pay Israeli Arabs to leave comes as Netanyahu pushes forward with a contentious parliamentary bill to formalise Israel’s status as a Jewish state – a measure that many Arab-Israelis say will institutionalise their status as second class citizens.

The bill, which Netanyahu says is necessary to safeguard Israel’s future, is opposed by a wide range of Israeli political figures, including the largely ceremonial president, but is strongly supported by right wing members of his ruling coalition, including Lieberman.

via Israel FM supports paying Arabs to leave – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

Collective punishment is also a crime against humanity! Israel to Withdraw “Permit of Stay” from Wife of Abu Jamal, Har Nof Synagogue Assailant

How far does this go? Cousins, 1st, 2nd, 3rd? In-

laws? Friends of friends?

Israeli minister of Interior, Gilad Erdan, on Wednesday decided to strip the permit of stay in Israeli-occupied land, from Nadia Abu Jamal, the wife of Ghassan Abu Jamal, one of the two assailants who attacked a Har Nof synagogue in Jerusalem last week.

According to Israeli websites today, Erden bragged about withdrawing Abu Jamal’s permit and his collective punishments. “I’ve ordered the cancellation of Nadia Abu Jamal’s permit of stay in Israel so that anyone involved in terror needs to take into account that there may be consequences also for their families,” he said.

Yedioth Ahronoth mentioned on its website that according to this order, Nadia will be forced to leave the country and will forfeit along with her children any future monetary and social allowances from the state.

Abu Jamal originally lived in East Sawahra-West Bank before getting married to her Jerusalmite husband, Ghassan, which granted her a “family unification” that allowed her to live in Jerusalem. However, Nadia, a mother of 3, will now get expelled from the Israeli territory.

via Israel to Withdraw “Permit of Stay” from Wife of Abu Jamal, Har Nof Synagogue Assailant.

Israeli settlers attempt to torch home in Ramallah-area village | Maan News Agency

Israeli settlers on Wednesday evening attempted to burn down a house in the village of al-Mughayyir east of Ramallah, but were prevented by doing so by local villagers.

The attempted arson comes only a week after settlers attacked the village and burned down a mosque, in an incident that sparked widespread Palestinian fury.

On Wednesday, dozens of settlers approached a house on the outskirts of the village when they were spotted by villagers who started throwing rocks at them.

Settlers were forced to retreat to their nearby settlement under the protection of Israeli soldiers as a result, and no injuries were reported.

via Israeli settlers attempt to torch home in Ramallah-area village | Maan News Agency.

Palestinian child today died of his wounds from July Israeli offensive on Gaza

Mohammed Siam, 14 years, from Gaza lost his leg in an Israeli bombardment during the latest aggression on Gaza last July.

After he lost 12 members of his family, and both of his legs, Mohammad was moved to Jerusalem to receive treatment there.

Later he was moved to Turkey where he obtained artificial legs and finally improved his health.

On Tuesday, Mohammed needed a respiratory tract and lung operation, where he was announced dead.

via Palestinian child today died of his wounds from July Israeli offensive on Gaza.

Price tag violence by settlers now includes casual murder! Palestinian driver found hanged inside Israeli bus | Maan News Agency

Witnesses told Ma’an that other drivers saw al-Ramouni’s bus parked in the bus terminal during his working hours. A driver checked inside the bus and found al-Ramouni’s body hanging from a steel bar in the middle of the bus.

His colleagues cut the body down and he was taken to Hadassah hospital. Medics at the bus station tried to resuscitate him but he was later pronounced dead.

“According to an initial investigation, it appears there is no suspicion of criminal activity, in other words a suicide,” Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement, which said there were “no signs of violence on the body.”

But fellow bus driver Muatasem Fakeh said he had seen evidence to the contrary.

“We saw signs of violence on his body,” he told AFP.

“He was hanged over the steps at the back of the bus in a place where it would be impossible to hang yourself alone,” he added.

The victim’s brother, Osama al-Ramouni said the family did not accept the verdict of suicide, saying his body “had bruises on it,” suggesting he had been “tortured” before his death.

“My brother had children and was a happy man. It is impossible that he killed himself,” he told AFP.

“He had no problems that would make him do it,” he said, adding that a post-mortem would “reveal everything.”

“We reject the suicide theory. We all know it was settlers who killed him,” he said.

via Palestinian driver found hanged inside Israeli bus | Maan News Agency.

JBTC – Israeli forces shoot 10-year-old Palestinian in the head in Shufat | Maan News Agency

Just Because They Can! A Palestinian child was severely injured after Israeli forces opened fire on a car she was traveling in with family near the Shufat refugee camp checkpoint on Friday.

The shooting comes on a day of clashes with Israeli forces across the West Bank and follows the blinding of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy the day before in clashes in the nearby East Jerusalem village of al-Issawiya.

Mayar Amran Twafic al-Natsheh, 10, was riding in her grandfather’s car with her mother, grandfather, and her sibling when a rubber-coated steel bullet smashed through the car’s window and hit her in the face.

She was taken Hadassah hospital near al-Issawiya and medical sources said she suffered a fractured skull as a result of the attack.

Mayar’s father is currently being detained by Israeli forces.

via Israeli forces shoot 10-year-old Palestinian in the head in Shufat | Maan News Agency.