Category Archives: Palestine

Taking advice from CIA Candy Makers? Israel drops anti-Hamas lollipops in the WB | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

BEIRUT: The Israeli military scattered lollipops and matchboxes with anti-Hamas messages attached in the West Bank.

Residents of Ramallah and Nablus were surprised Sunday to see large amounts of lollipops thrown all around their streets.

Attached to every candy was a small paper with an anti- Hamas message in Arabic:

“Ramadan Kareem. Here are some sweets because Hamas is making life bitter in the West Bank.”

An IDF officer told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he knew nothing about the issue, but residents of the towns reportedly saw Israeli soldiers spreading the lollipops.

via Israel drops anti-Hamas lollipops in the WB | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

ISIS declares leader al-Baghdadi ‘caliph of the Muslims,’ changes name | News | DW.DE | 29.06.2014

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Sunday released an audio recording declaring its leader the caliph, also saying that it would change its own name, removing references to Iraq and Syria to call itself Islamic State.

“The Shura (council) of the Islamic State met and discussed this issue,” ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani said in the recording. “The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims. The jihadist cleric Baghdadi was designated the caliph of the Muslims.”

via ISIS declares leader al-Baghdadi ‘caliph of the Muslims,’ changes name | News | DW.DE | 29.06.2014.

Israel demolishes mosque walls in Jerusalem’s Shufat camp | Maan News Agency

Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It has demolished at least 27,000 Palestinian homes and structures since occupying the West Bank in 1967, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

via Israel demolishes mosque walls in Jerusalem’s Shufat camp | Maan News Agency.

Peace talks can now be held in Israeli jail? 23 Palestinian members of parliament in Israeli jails | Maan News Agency

Twenty-three Palestinian lawmakers are currently being held in Israeli jails, a majority of whom have been detained in the last two weeks during the Israeli arrest campaign across the West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said on Wednesday.

Eleven of the 23 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council were detained prior to the campaign, the first of whom was Marwan Barghouthi in 2002.

The two most recently-detained lawmakers were taken on Tuesday night during a raid in Bethlehem.

More than 500 Palestinians have been detained in the last two weeks as part of an Israeli search for three Jewish teenagers who went missing from the Gush Etzion settlement in the West Bank.

Detainees who have been tried and sentenced:

1. Marwan Barghouthi, Ramallah, sentenced to five life sentences.

2. Ahmad Saadat, Ramallah, sentenced to thirty years.

3. Ahmad Atwan, Jerusalem, suspended sentence.

Administrative detainees being held without charge or trial:

1. Mahmoud al-Rimhi, Ramallah.

2. Abduljaber Fuqahaa, Ramallah.

3. Muhammad Jamal al-Natsheh, Hebron.

4. Hatem Qfish, Hebron.

5. Nizar Ramadan, Hebron.

6. Muhammad Badr, Hebron.

7. Muhammad Abu Teir, Jerusalem.

8. Yassir Mansour, Nablus.

Detained during the recent Israeli campaign, some of whom have been sentenced to administrative detention:

1. Aziz Dweik, Hebron.

2. Hassan Youssif, Ramallah.

3. Ahmad Tahtuh, Jerusalem.

4. Abdulrahman Zeidan, Tulkarem.

5. Ibrahim Abu Salem, Jerusalem.

6. Husni al-Burini, Nablus.

7. Azzam Salhab, Hebron.

8. Ahmad Mubarak, Ramallah.

9. Ahmad al-Hajj ali, Nablus.

10. Ayman Daraghmah, Tubas.

11. Khalid Tafish, Bethlehem.

12. Anwar Zboun, Bethlehem.

via 23 Palestinian members of parliament in Israeli jails | Maan News Agency.

Israel: Policeman killed in April shot by freed Shalit deal prisoner | Maan News Agency

{Announced now to justify calls for going back on deal to exchange hostage and release imprisoned.}

Israeli forces arrested Ziad Awad, 42, and his 18-year-old son, on May 7 and they were charged in a military court on Monday, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Ziad is a former prisoner who was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.

Israeli police officer Baruch Mizrahi was shot dead while he was driving near Hebron in the southern West Bank on April 14. His wife and son were also injured in the shooting.

via Israel: Policeman killed in April shot by freed Shalit deal prisoner | Maan News Agency.

Settlers vandalize 12 Palestinian cars in East Jerusalem | Maan News Agency

Settlers vandalized 12 Palestinian vehicles and a school bus in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina on Monday, locals said.

Owners of the vehicles told Ma’an that three masked settlers raided the al-Ashqariya neighborhood at 3 a.m. and punctured tires on 12 cars.

The settlers also sprayed “Death to Arabs” and “Revenge” on a school bus and another private vehicle.

Local resident Mahmoud Shanak told Ma’an that this is the first incident of its kind in al-Ashqariya.

The damaged vehicles belong to Riyad al-Halwani, Ramadan Bader, Mahmoud al-Shanak, Muhammad al-Shanak, Alaa al-Leftawi, Ulfat al-Bakri, Muhammad Hussein Barqan, Nisreen Hamad, Younes Ghazawi and Issa Jabarin.

via Settlers vandalize 12 Palestinian cars in East Jerusalem | Maan News Agency.

Israeli settlers posse’s shoot at Palestinians near Ramallah | Maan News Agency

Israeli settlers opened fire at Palestinians northwest of Ramallah late Sunday in the second such incident in hours, locals said.

Two settlers shot at nine men who were working in a quarry near the village of al-Mazraa al-Gharbiya, without causing injuries, the workers told Ma’an.

They said they noticed the settlers sneaking into the quarry and fled the scene as settlers opened fire with an automatic rifle.

After being chased for nearly two miles, the workers reached al-Mazraa al-Gharabiya unscathed, they told Ma’an.

via Israeli settlers shoot at Palestinians near Ramallah | Maan News Agency.

Abbas: ‘We will find the missing settlers, get them back and punish those responsible’

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas declared today that the Palestinian authorities are coordinating with the Israeli authorities to find the three missing Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The security coordinator is trying to protect the Palestinians from a 3rd Intifada.

He made this statement during his speech in the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers that is taking place in Saudi Arabia. He also said that the three missing settlers are humans like the rest of us, and the Palestinian authority is searching for them to take them back to their families. He added that the people responsible will be punished for this operation as the kidnapers are trying to destroy the Palestinian authority.

Abbas said that the security coordination with the Israeli authorities benefits the Palestinians, and that Palestinians should be committed to it as they committed to the Palestinian Unity government.

via Abbas: ‘We will find the missing settlers, get them back and punish those responsible’.

Kidnappings put Netanyahu back on offense – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The kidnapping of the three teenage boys suddenly dominated both the media and the public agenda. And it was with the same rapidity that Netanyahu regained his stature as the responsible adult in the room, and the person with the most diplomatic and security mileage in the government and Cabinet.

In an instant, the kidnapping erased any memory of one of the, politically speaking, worst weeks Netanyahu has had in his current term, if not the worst. His unfocused, emotional plotting to thwart the election of his sworn enemy Reuven Rivlin came crashing down around him, and he was forced to congratulate the newly elected president, though he did so without any show of enthusiasm.

via Kidnappings put Netanyahu back on offense – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Israel/Palestine: Free 3 Abducted Youth | Human Rights Watch

{My question is this: I thought nearly all cell phone were traceable – so why have they not been found?}

Any Palestinian armed groups unlawfully holding three Israeli teenagers should release them immediately and unconditionally. Israeli forces searching for the three should respect the laws of war with respect to the Palestinian population in the occupied territory and not carry out mass, arbitrary arrests. The three teenagers apparently were abducted in the West Bank on June 12, 2014.

Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gil’ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, both 16, were reported missing after they tried to hitchhike home from the southern West Bank, near the Kfar Etzion settlement. The three attend Jewish religious schools in Kfar Etzion and in Kiryat Arba, another settlement, Israel media reported.

“There is no justification for abducting civilians,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “It is a disgrace to drag children into this conflict, whether Israeli or Palestinian.”

One of the youths called an Israeli police hotline at about 10:30 p.m. on June 12 and said, “We’re being kidnapped,” before the call was disconnected, Israeli news media reported. Human Rights Watch could not confirm two separate reported claims of responsibility by Palestinian armed groups.

via Israel/Palestine: Free 3 Abducted Youth | Human Rights Watch.