West Bank: Israel turns off the tap

The year 2012  is ending with a sombre record – just in its first 10 months, Israeli armed forces destroyed 36 rainwater cisterns used by the Palestinian communities in the Area C of the West Bank, affecting over 1600 people, an increase from 34 cisterns destroyed in 2011. The communities whose cisterns were destroyed live unconnected to the water network and are forced to rely on rain harvesting and/or water purchases from vendors. Most of the communities that have been subject to demolition of cisterns live  near to Israeli 'settlements' and unauthorized outposts that enjoy a regular water supply.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/human-rights/3413-aid-agencies-call-for-halt-to-recurring-demolitions-of-water-cisterns-in-area-c

More colonial homes in Palestine

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=549128>
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 18 Dec -- Israeli officials said they would press on with plans this week to build 6,000 homes for 'settlers' on Palestinian land, defying criticism from Western powers who fear the move will hit already faint hopes for a peace accord. Stung by the de facto recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in a UN General Assembly vote last month, Israel announced it would expand the so-called settlements in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem.

Homes flattened for theme park

Israeli occupation municipality officials broke into Bustan in Silwan town, Jerusalem on the 3rd December and handed a number of residents demolition orders.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the Committee for the Defence of the Bustan neighbourhood, said in a press statement that the officials handed over to the citizens new administrative demolition orders for their houses after raiding them.

In an echo of Donald Trump's recent attempt to convert a chunk of Scotland's coastal greenery into a tourist-friendly golf course,the Israeli Occupation had issued earlier decisions to demolish 88 houses in the suburb in order to build a biblical theme park.

Zionists rename West Bank

In a legal sleight-of hand way, Israel is pushing its annexation of the West Bank by stamping visas of visitors there, 'Judea and Sumaria only' .This is in addition to the long-established policy of denying many people born in Palestine the right to enter their country except as 'visitors', while Jewish visitors from any part of Planet Earth are still automatically afforded citizenship.

Even though many foreign nationals live and work in the West Bank, there is no such thing as a work permit that allows them to work for Palestinian institutions or companies based in the occupied West Bank, or simply to live there securely. The only option for such people would be Israeli “tourist” visas which they have to constantly renew and which are often arbitrarily denied.
It is not just ordinary people who are denied entry by the occupying regime, but even foreign government officials trying to meet with the Palestinian Authority.
This is where Zionism will have  the 'roadmap to peace' leading.  A single state ghetto.

What cease-fire?

During the present 'cease-fire' between the occupying forces and the Gazan authority Hamas, it's business as usual for Zionism. Attacks on Gaza itself continue. In Jerusalem, more illegal colonies have been built since Palestine's winning of observer status at the UN, while one non-Jewish family was forced to demolish its own home. Daily attacks on fishermen. Mosques destroyed. violence and delays, often fatal, at checkpoints.

Palestine - One Four Nine!

the UN  has voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine as the world's 194th state. It’s a largely symbolic but huge victory for the Palestinian people and for peace, and people across the world are joining with huge crowds in Palestine to celebrate.

The Palestinian people's journey to freedom is far from over. Zionist pressure groups managed to persuade the US to stand against this move, and the British Government, as ever more mindful of the 'Special Relationship' than anything else, cravenly kept out of the vote. The online pressure organisation Avaaz played a considerable part in the lead-up; the photo shows their banner hanging in Brussels.

Attack on Gaza widely condemned

Picture by Gaza artist Majed Badra

The 'fish in a barrel' analogy is undoubtedly a cliché, but it is difficult to come up with a more graphic description of the attacks the Israeli Occupation carries out on the giant open-air prison of Gaza; and no less the current one. Here is a pithy summing-up of both the on-going situation and the recent history leading to today's violence: http://imeu.net/news/article0022250.shtml
Probably the most important thing to remember is that the people of Gaza have long been serving as guinea-pigs for Israel's high-earning arms industry - certainly since all Jewish colonists were moved out.

trial threatens Israel's impunity

 

Earlier this week PSC’s Director, Sarah Colborne, gave evidence in Istanbul alongside hundreds of other witnesses, on Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara on 31 May 2010. Four senior Israeli commanders are being tried in Turkey as ‘fugitive suspects’. The case is being brought on behalf of 490 plaintiffs and victims including flotilla passengers and relatives of the dead and injured. Among those present were convoy veteran Bristol's Sakir Yildirim, who was en-route,taking aid to Syria.  Sakir Yildirim on the road Israeli response was initially to try and block the trial. Israel’s concerns about this trial are well-founded. If, as a result of this trial, international arrest warrants are issued for those responsible, this will have a major impact on the freedom of movement of senior Israeli generals.

Egypt negotiates ceasefire in Gaza

 

    

Gaza City  wikipedia.org

After the negotiated ceasefire, Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi vowed to 'stand by Palestinians' http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/10/25/245791.html
Al Arabiya/AFP 25 Oct -- A ceasefire between Israel and armed Palestinian groups in Gaza, negotiated with the help of Egypt, came into force early on
Thursday, a Palestinian source told AFP. "The Egyptians negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian armed groups," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, without giving further details ... The
negotiated ceasefire came into effect after President Mursi said during his first Eid al-Adha speech on Wednesday that "without declaring war against anyone," Egypt would do its best to support Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli occupation. "We will never accept any assault or siege on the Palestinian people. Egypt provides Palestine with all its needs such as food and clothing," the Cairo-based Ahram Online quoted Mursi as saying.

source: Today in Palestine!

Judaization of Jerusalem's streets

The Zionist municipality controlling Jerusalem decided to start changing the names of the streets in the occupied holy city to Hebrew names, to tighten the occupation’s grip on the city.

The financial committee at the municipality said that it has allocated about $255,000 as a starting budget for the project of Judaizing the names of the streets in east Jerusalem with a clear message to the Palestinian side that Jerusalem is part of the Zionist entity.

The project of changing the names of streets and numbering houses, which was initiated by the occupation's mayor of Jerusalem, the extremist right winger, Nir Barakat, is going to include all streets and alleyways and houses, even those which were built without a permit.

The project is to be carried out with the assistance of aerial pictures and maps and is planned to be completed by the end of this year.

Source for this news: Voice of Palestine

West Jerusalem: Jewish streets with Arab houses

border at the Old City

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25303&CategoryId=13
MIFTAH 26 Sept by Melkam Lidet 
If the two-state solution was to come into effect, west Jerusalem would be the Jewish Israeli side and east Jerusalem would be the Arab Palestinian center. But taking part in a walking tour of some of the most expensive neighborhoods of west Jerusalem last Friday taught me differently: west Jerusalem was home to Palestine’s most affluent Christian and Muslim Arabs before the 1948 war ... Walking on these streets and stopping by some of the houses to listening to the stories of the people that built, furnished, lived and raised families in these houses as recounted in their own journals and memoirs, I realized how the neighborhoods that now look peaceful were battle grounds in the wake of the Nakba. I tried to imagine the fear and terror that drove Palestinians out of their houses: news of the Deir Yassin massacre and the constant patrolling of the Haganah and the Lehi in their neighborhoods warning or forcing them to leave ... What I find appalling is not only the injustice in writing Palestinians off their land, property, history and identity at the wake of the Nakba in the name of Zionism, but the absence of any kind of acknowledgement of this injustice.http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfmDocId=25303&CategoryId=13
Source:Today in Palestine!

farmland stolen for roads

PA officials: Israel to confiscate 675 dunams of Nablus
land*<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=519384>
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 12 Sept -- Israeli authorities issued orders late Tuesday to
confiscate 675 dunams of land in Nablus, having issued similar orders
earlier in the day to confiscate 800 acres of land in a western area of the city, a PA official said. Ghassan Doughlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma‘an that the Israeli decision will confiscate land from Awarta and Burin villages in the centre and east of Nablus. Confiscation orders were delivered to the villages late on Tuesday, Doughlas said, adding that the land set to be annexed consists mainly of olive tree groves.
Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to several farmers in the Nablus villages of Beit Iba, al-Naqura, Zawatta and Ijnisinya on Tuesday, which will see 800 acres of land annexed in order to build an  exclusively Israeli bypass road. The dunam is a measurement unit dating back to the Ottoman empire,  equivalent to 1,000 square metres (1/4 acre)
.http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=519384
Source: Today in Palestine!

Delivering art in Palestine

Palestinian artists have been invited to show their work in Jordan. This means an interminable journey through checkpoints and over the Bridge.  For details, see: Palestinian artists invited to present their work across the bridge that both connects and separates them from Jordan Since the second Intifada, Atarot Airport between Jerusalem and Ramallah has been closed and the Israeli authorities have prohibited Palestinians from using Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. This leaves the King Hussein Bridge as the only international exit from the occupied West Bank for Palestinians ... Sadly, crossing back over to the occupied Palestinian territories is a luxury reserved for people with Palestinian identity documents. Yet another deterrent to undertaking the journey across the Jordan is the effort it actually takes to cross the bridge. It should only take about two hours to get to the other side, but lengthy delays are routine. Repeated passport and baggage checks and seemingly endless orders to get into and out of buses are inevitable. In the summer, the heat and flies make the journey very unpleasant.
The growing distance between Palestinians living on either side of the river, an issue exacerbated by what happens on the bridge, is the issue that a new curatorial project, "The River has two Banks", will address. The idea behind the project is to bring two communities together who share history and culture, but have been divided by political circumstances.http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/culture/4202-

Source: Today in Palestine!

US recognises 'settler' violence as terrorism

As a Palestinian family is firebombed in their car, the US State has announced that it will now recognise ‘settler’ violence as terrorism.

More: Arsonists attempt to burn down home in Far’a

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=282086&JerusalemPost22August

Police have begun an investigation into the attempted arson of a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Far‘ataon 20th August. They said the investigation is examining all possible angles, including the possibility that the act was a 'price tag' attack on Palestinians by Jewish extremists. Police said no arrests have been made so far in connection with the attempted arson, which charred the entryway of a family's home. The IDF said following the attack that they had launched a search of the area to no avail, and then turned the investigation over to police. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Tuesday it is assisting police in the investigation. Itidal Tawil and her three children were in their house in the village when unknown assailants tried to set the house on fire at 12:10 a.m. Tuesday morning. "I was watching TV and it was very noisy when my brother-in-law called me to warn us about the fire."

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=282086&R=R1

Pollution increases with enforced demolitions

The concrete skin continues to spread over Palestine/Israel in a grim contrast with the Israeli promo films, mostly crafted in a digital 'studio', while greenery shrinks and homes are flattened. Here are two recent examples, from f_shadi's news round-up:

Palestinian villages struggle as Israeli settlement waste contaminates the environment
Mondoweiss 7 Aug by Marta Fortunato -- "The bad odor is constant here and nowadays it has become normal to find rodents and insects in this area," Ahmed, a resident of Burin, tells staring at the smelly polluted water flowing less than 10 meters from the houses of his village located between Salfit and Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank -- "It's not only about the smell. In the village a lot of people suffer from skin diseases, asthmas, and other illnesses." The waste water stemming from Ariel settlement has played a major role in the contamination of water and in the pollution of the environment in the Salfit area. Due to the concentration of pollutant elements in this zone, many agricultural fields have been destroyed and many animals and plants have been killed. Moreover, many infectious waterborne diseases, like diarrhoea, have broken out especially among children.http://mondoweiss.net/2012/08/palestinian-villages-struggle-as-israeli-settlement-waste-contaminates-the-environment.html

Settlers inaugurate park built on seized Palestinian land
BETHLEHEM, August 9, 2012 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers Thursday announced the opening of a park built on land seized from Palestinians from the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, according to a local activist. Coordinator of the committee against the Apartheid Wall, Ahmad Salah, told WAFA that Efrat settlers announced the opening of the new park during a big ceremony. The settlers first started working on the project in 2000, taking advantage of al-Aqsa Intifada and unstable political conditions, and took over large area of land. Salah said that they took over a well that was used to water crops and feed Solomon's Pools.http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20436

Palestine Olympic Team in London

The Palestine Olympic team has been welcomed to London  in a ceremony at City Hall. The members of the team have travelled from Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem; and include a Palestinian refugee living in Egypt. They met for the first time in London a week before and are preparing to compete in swimming, judo and athletics. The ceremony was attended by MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Andy Slaughter as well as Baroness Jenny Tonge, and PSC representatives. Getting to London is a victory for the team - Jeremy Corbyn MP said how inspired he was by Palestinian youth who train, and aim to make their mark, in spite of much adversity. First published by Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Further isolation for Palestinians

OCHA: 23,000 Palestinians will be isolated when barrier is
completed
RAMALLAH 13 July -- The UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last week issued a fact sheet about the
segregation wall being built by the Israeli occupation and the impact it is
having and will have on Palestinian lives when it is completed. According
to OCHA, 85% of the wall's route will run inside the West Bank rather than
along the Green Line, isolating 9.4% of the West Bank. "Around 7,500
Palestinians who reside in areas between the Green Line and the Barrier
(Seam Zone), excluding East Jerusalem, require special permits to continue
living in their own homes; another 23,000 will be isolated if the Barrier
is completed as planned," the report stated adding that those Palestinians
whose land lies behind the barrier have to have special permits to enter
their land.http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/<http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2BcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2Bi1s7l06Vf8QkEXB7LLwGJ%2F7OjCV38JHCME%2FP34bszJC26VXhHgKhP%2FeDobWacYqUelYaYKScaK4IegND3X6ihA9Y4809Cw0O4ovpVknnTDuciHY%3D>
*Greater Israel watch ,Daily Beast 12 July by Andrew Sullivan
ctd.<http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/greater-israel-watch-ctd-1.html>
 --  Greater Israel Watch posted a photo of the collection can of the Jewish National Fund, showing a map of Israel that shows no boundary between Israel and the occupied territories. Compare the two images after the jump:  jumphttp://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/greater-israel-watch-ctd-1.html

Slow-motion genocide

by  Stephen Lendman

Israel’s committing slow-motion genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s claimed easing is false. Besieged Gazans remain isolated. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) assessed conditions in January.
Except for limited amounts of agricultural products, Gaza’s export economy’s suffering. In addition, imports of basic needs and raw materials fall well below minimal needs.
Karm Abu Salem crossing was closed nearly 30% of the time. Incoming truckloads are 28.5% of pre-siege levels.

Out of 60 million flowers produced annually, export permission’s granted for only a tiny fraction. In 2005, 70 truckloads of agricultural products were exported daily. Now it’s a shadow of that amount.

Before June 2007, 570 average daily truckloads entered Gaza. Now it is around 150.
Karm Abu Salem crossing handles commercial traffic only. Currently, it doesn’t meet Gaza’s needs. Previously, goods entered through four crossings. In March 2011, Israel began demolishing the main al-Mentar (Karni) commercial crossing.
It once handled 75% of Strip needs. Its closure and dependence on Karm Abu Salem severely restricted movement of goods. Moreover, high transportation expenses increased import prices, and farmers incurred higher export costs.
Al-Mentar crossing opened in 1995. According to the 2005 Crossings Agreement, its operational capacity allowed 400 export trucks daily and 600 entering. Yet Israel’s bureaucracy prevented attaining these levels even before imposed siege restrictions.
Gaza’s commercial crossing is important. During Cast Lead it was destroyed. In addition, Private Transport Association secretary-general Jihad Salim said shipping a container from Ashdod, Israel to Gaza cost more than from China to Ashdod. It is because onerous import fees impose burdensome expenses.
Besides agriculture, Gaza’s export economy relies heavily on textiles and furniture. Producers are hard-pressed to survive. Many can’t and shut down.
In January, 2,800 tons of cooking gas entered Gaza. It represents less than half what’s needed. Israel permitted 330,000 litres of diesel and 70,000 litres of benzene. It is far less than what Gazans need. As a result, tunnel smuggling is essential.
A total ban on construction materials remains for private sector use. International organizations are permitted limited quantities, including 70,000 tons of construction aggregate, 7,400 tons of cement, and 1,435 tons of iron. Limited amounts of tar, other construction materials, plumbing tools, ceramics and marble were also allowed.
Vehicular traffic restrictions reduced entry to half its normal flow. An agreement to permit more wasn’t implemented.
Fewer patients were given travel permission to visit Israeli, West Bank and Jerusalem hospitals. The level represents half the early 2006 level. Certain categories were excluded altogether, including blind patients, those with amputated limbs, and others Israel won’t qualify as needing urgent treatment.
Under complicated bureaucratic procedures, 46 international journalists, 93 diplomats, and 548 international humanitarian organization workers entered after several days of delay.
Business people endured five border crossing closures. During the 26 open, 2,300 traders were let in. It represents half the June 2007 level.

For over 56 months, families of about 500 Gazans detained in Israeli prisons were prevented from visiting loved ones. No rational reasons were given. Doing so violates Fourth Geneva’s Article 116, stating:

“Every internee shall be allowed to receive visitors, especially near relatives, at regular intervals and as frequently as possible. As far as is possible, internees shall be permitted to visit their homes in urgent cases, particularly in cases of death or serious illness of relatives.” Rafah International Crossing Point conditions improved. About 15,760 entered Egypt. Another 774 returned. Palestinian males aged 18 to 40 are prohibited traveling either way. Opened five days a week, it’s closed on weekends and official holidays.

Beit Hanoun (Erez) Crossing handles pedestrian traffic. Israel closed it with few exceptions. They include patients with serious illnesses, Arabs with Israeli IDs, international journalists, international humanitarian organization employees, businesspeople, and persons traveling via al-Karama crossing. Even they endure burdensome delays.
Gaza’s siege is illegal. Isolation this long represents cruel and unusual collective punishment. Pressure’s vital to end it entirely, including for seaborne entry. Israel maintains it repressively, despite serving no useful purpose.
As a result, 1.7 million Gazans endure severe hardships. They’re suffocating because too few vital to life supplies enter. Others remain at Israel’s whim to curtail or cut off entry entirely for any reason or none at all. This must end.

Fourth Geneva’s Article 55 states:“
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores, and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.”“The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles, or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account.”
Under Article 1, Fourth Geneva’s “High Contracting Powers” are obligated to ensure implementation of the convention’s provisions to assure proper treatment for occupied people.
For nearly 45 years, Israel never treated Palestinians responsibly. As a result, they continue enduring appalling hardships, especially for besieged Gazans.

 At hundreds of checkpoints, Israel harasses Palestinians repressively. On January 25, Haaretz writer Amira Hass headlined, “New Israeli search method at West Bank checkpoint worries Palestinians,” saying:
According to international aid workers, “Israel Police have begun implementing a new method of searching Palestinian vehicles through use of (unknown, perhaps toxic) nausea-inducing chemicals at a Bethlehem checkpoint.”Cars are pulled over, then “passengers are asked to roll up all windows, apart from that of the driver — and exit the vehicle. Two tubes are then connected to the vehicle — one is connected to an air pump, the other, which passes through a tiny filter, is attached to the vehicle. A policeman with a stopwatch flicks the air pump switch.” 

One international user described the experience as follows:
“[T]he tube is left connected for approximately 10 minutes. Afterward, the filter is removed and taken to a nearby building. The worker says she was under the impression that some kind of chemical was disseminated into the vehicle, as she and another passenger began feeling nauseous and suffered from headaches several days afterwards. The worker has informed her country’s embassy.”

In combat, Israel tests new terror weapons in real time. Apparently Palestinians are test subjects to see how well or poorly they handle this substance, whatever it is. An Israeli official explained the procedure offhandedly, saying:

“(I)t must conduct arbitrary, rudimentary checks through use of sophisticated technological means, all the while alleviating the experience of those being checked.” No further explanation was given.

Begun in December, it continues. Palestinians with Israeli license plates and foreign residents are excluded. What’s used and its potential short or longer term effects aren’t known.
Israel’s unconcerned about Palestinians’ health and well-being. Gazans endure critical fuel and medical supply shortages. About 90% of Gaza’s water is unsafe, and raw sewage dumped into the Mediterranean poses serious health hazards.
In conflicts, illegal weapons, depleted uranium, and other toxins are used freely. What’s a dose of unknown gas besides all that. They add up and take a toll.
Reprinted from Occupied Palestine

Freedom of movement: small concession from Israel

 Israel agrees to register 216 Gazans in West Bank
  http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501345
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 4 July-- Israel has agreed to register 216 Palestinians
originally from the Gaza Strip as residents of the West Bank, a Palestinian
Authority liaison department said  on Wednesday. The Civil Affairs department,
tasked with coordinating the population registry with Israel, released the
names  http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501326  of
Palestinians who will now be able to reside in the West Bank without fear
of detention. It said the department would continue efforts to change the
residency status of all Palestinians from Gaza who are living in the West
Bank. Palestinians living in the West Bank whose registered address is in
the Gaza Strip have been detained by Israel as "illegal aliens." ... Israel
received an estimated 120,000 change of address applications that it did
not process between 2000 and 2005, according to Human Rights Watch. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501345

Lifta: living history under threat - film-in-progress

The little town of Lifta is one piece of historical Palestine that has managed to remain more or less as it was before the 1948 Israeli war, but now its survival is threatened by the expansion of Israeli Jerusalem as over 250 luxury villas, shops and a hotel.  The Arab heritage, architecture and history are about to be erased by Jerusalem’s municipality.  Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews are standing together against this; the result of their solidarity could be the beginning of a reconciliation and a stronger, secure future for all.

Israeli Minister comes clean on human rights

 Quote of the week

On Today earlier this week the Israeli Minister made this priceless observation to John Humphrys –

"Anyone who listens to this programme and follows the news regularly will know which regimes are associated with human rights abuses and they will not be coming to our Games."

I swear I didn’t make it up but, knowing that the BBC does its utmost to conceal or play down what is hurtful to Israel’s image, perhaps the Minister and Humphrys can be forgiven their naivety.

 Liverpool correspondent

Beit Hanina shops targeted

As you gfrieve for the loss of your corner shop, spare a thought for the residents of Beit Hanina, in East Jerusalem, where the ruling authorities have decided that as of Thursday 14 June there should be no shops of any kind. Israeli bulldozers recently demolished several. The shops, belonging to the Edris family of Jannet Adan area of Beit Hanina were demolished by Municipality bulldozers, were the second site of destruction that day. 700 square metres of retail buildings belonging to Sal’a neighbourhood resident Aziz Ja‘aibes were also demolished, leaving the five families whose businesses it supported with no income.http://silwanic.net/?p=27237

Bedouins forced to move to landfill sites

Bedouin tents and wandering goats and sheep dot the barren hills from Jerusalem down to the Dead Sea, giving residents and visitors a glimpse of how the Holy Land must have looked in pre-biblical times.

With their corrals, water cisterns and tractors the camps look more like rudimentary homesteads, reports
Jihan Abdalla. But the land-friendly nomadic Bedouin tradition is slowly dying out as Israel clears the camps to make way for ever-expanding Jewish urban colonies, further breaking up any plans for a contiguous Palestinian state; and worse: the regime expects these people, who have for countless generations been at one with the land, to live on top of land-fill. The areas they are currently expected to move to are the worst kind of wasteland.

More on this from Maan News Agency

Denial of water to Palestinians

The behaviour of Israeli troops as reported below by Palestine Today - The Headlines makes it undeniable that, not content with syphoning off Palestine's precious water resources at source, the Regime's priority is flatly to deny water to all who belong to the 'wrong tribe'.
Occupation forces conduct a survey of water wells west of Jenin

Dry well, Bethlehem

JENIN (PIC) 17 June -- The Israeli occupation forces have stormed, on Sunday afternoon, Marj Bin Amer Plain west of Jenin and launched combing operations in search of water wells, investigating a number of farmers. Local sources pointed out that several equipped vehicles accompanied by white military jeeps belong to the Israel Water Authority have entered to the plains of Silat Harithiya, Ta‘anak [Ti‘inik], and Yamoun towns and conducted a survey of private drinking water wells, an act which has been repeated in the recent times. The occupation forces have interrogated the farmers in that region, and asked them about the water wells which they used in light of an extensive campaign aimed at targeting water resources in the occupied West Bank. The occupation forces had demolished, last week, six wells east of Jenin, in addition to dozens [of] wells that were filled [in] during the past year.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk


New settler tourism and sewage facilities to be built in Ein al Daraj
Jerusalem (Silwanic) 17 June -- The Jerusalem City Planning Committee announced this week that a new tourism centre and sewage facilities servicing Israeli 'settlers' in the Ein al Daraj neighborhood of Silwan are scheduled for construction ... Land seizure began in Ein al-Daraj in 1995, when settlers successfully had the area closed off for archaeological excavation and development. Local residents’ lives were thrown into disarray as the excavations blocked their access to the primary water source in the area, land used for agriculture and recreational areas for children. The area is now the exclusive domain of Israeli settlers and Zionist tourists.
http://silwanic.net/?p=27234

One piece of good news in the middle of all this:

Israeli Supreme Court orders return of land stolen from Dura al Qare‘ farmer
Stop the Wall 17 June -- "The only alternative that would be acceptable to me would be your complete withdrawal from all Palestinian land." The case of Khalid Abdullah Yassin. Thus spoke Khalid Abdullah Yassin, a farmer from the small village of Dura, near Ramallah, when the Israeli government offered him a huge sum of money to lease from him the land upon which Israeli settlers had illegally built. Though comprising no more than 11 acres of land, this small patch of Palestine, and what happens to it over the coming weeks, could become a litmus test for Israel’s further spiral into outright contempt and blatant disregard for not only international law, but also Israeli. The story of Khalid and the villagers began in 1995, when, living in the shadow of the Israeli settlement of Beit El, they began to notice that settlers were regularly encroaching upon their land.
http://stopthewall.org/2012/06/17/israeli-supreme-court-orders-return-land-stolen-dura-al-qare-farmer

Mass demo planned for Scotland Euro clash

copyright www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk

As reported in The Scotsman 15 June, a high-profile European qualifying match in the capitol is liable to be targeted by hundreds of protesters over the alleged detention of Palestinian football players. Campaigners are set to gather at Tynecastle Stadium as Scotland play Israel in a women’s Euro qualifier on Saturday. Organisers said that the demonstration would be mounted both outside the stadium and on the terraces during Saturday’s game. They refused to rule out the possibility of direct action such as a pitch invasion.
http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/2355741


update: 
Not the BBC Sports News -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMnimP0o1NQ

Hamas' 5th anniversary in Gaza

Iseems like more than five years since Hamas were voted in and fought off the US-sponsored Fatah to secure control of Gaza, for better or worse; it has been a period of such profound change and activity. The Guardian is looking at life there in depth: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2012/jun/08/gaza-live-blog

Also in the news:
'Settlers' torch wheat fields near Nablus

Colonists set fire to wheat fields in Palestinian villages near Nablus on Sunday.

Four locations were set alight in the villages of al-Sawiya and al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, located by Eli settlement.
Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlas said the arson attacks were designed to destroy the entire fields, adding that settlers attempt to burn Palestinian agricultural crops at the beginning of every summer.

Last Monday, a group of settlers set fire to wheat fields in the Hebron town of Yatta. Palestinians from nearby village Susiya found seven piles of harvested grain had been torched in a field near an Israeli settlement earlier last week.

In the West Bank, over 90 percent of villages which have experienced multiple attacks by settlers are under Israeli security control, The Palestine Center says, meaning local Palestinians only have the official protection of an army which they claim ignores settler violence.

Hezbollah flag

This is based on an article published by Ma'an News Agency  and acknowledged with thanks

War planes strafe Gaza

In May 2012, the regime in Palestine continued to behave as if at war with its own citizens.

In Northern Gaza – in May 2012, two people were wounded when Israeli war-planes strafed people in Beit Lahia.

And in the West Bank -

Jerusalem: Israeli forces positioned at the Qalandya checkpoint, fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas grenades at pedestrians.

Economic sabotage continues: near Rafah, the Israeli Navy intercepted fishing boats and imprisoned three fishermen.

picture: school, Beit Lahia

Behind the Wall

Rich Wiles is a photographic artist who has been living and working in Palestine for some years. His photographic work has been shown around Europe, the US, Australia and in Palestine itself. Since 2006 he has been writing from Occupied Palestine under the title Behind the Wall. Much of this work is based in and around the refugee camps in Palestine, highlighting daily life and memories of refugees who still live in forced exile for over 60 years since al Nakba (The Catastrophe). www.richwiles.com

hunger strike ends

On the evening of 14 May, Palestinian prisoners' ended their hunger strike. The prisoners' committee representing the hunger strikers announced the agreement that they had won: an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for "security" reasons - with Israel currently keeping Palestinians in isolation for up to 10 years; for an end to the denial of family visits; and that no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders will be issued for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contain "very serious" information.

Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh spent an incredible 77 days on hunger strike, and over 2000 spent almost a full month without food. The steadfastness of those hunger strikers was inspirational - and your support was critical. As with any non-violent direct action, international support and solidarity was essential in raising the issue on a global stage, and increasing pressure on the Israeli government to abide by human rights law. Despite the mainstream news media's silence, the creative use of social media including twitter, with #75DaysVSApartheid trending internationally, successfully broke the silence, and spread the word about the protests inside Palestine, and internationally.

As Richard Falk points out: ‘the animating hunger of these Palestinians is for peace and justice, for love and dignity, and that their heroic strikes would have impossible without cherishing life and future freedom for the people of Palestine'.

This report: from Palestine Solidarity Campaign

More land-grabbing - Olive trees in jeopardy

Ousra loses more land to the ever-expanding colonies

Sunday, April 29, a group of settlers bulldozed agricultural lands belonging to the village of Qusra, in Nablus district. In the morning hours, the settlers went to the piece of land, which is even located far from the settlements surrounding the village but had been targeted before by the settlers. Many times, the area was a location of clashes between the people from Qusra that were out there to protect their lands against the settlers’ usurpation.
link to www.stopthewall.org

IOA plans to uproot 1,000 olive trees

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has informed Palestinian farmers in Wadi Qana in Deir Estiya village, west of Salfit, that one thousand of their olive trees would be chopped off.

May Day illustration by Majed Badra

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

news in april

48 hours before 8am 16 April 2012 [Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG) - Thanks too, to Laura Stuart

Dawn: Israeli air strike hits Gaza City

Israeli Army tanks shell Northern Gaza

Israeli Army missiles hit Gaza farms

Israeli Navy opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats

Settler militants stone international cyclists

Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 20 towns and villages

1 air strike – 5 attacks – 47 raids including home invasions – 5 beaten – 6 injured – 2 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 11 taken prisoner – 22 detained – 107 restrictions of movement

Home invasions & occupations:11:00, Jayus - 01:30, Jayus town - 03:45, Al-Ubeidiya. 10:50, Seida - 02:50, Bethlehem - 23:15, Hebron.

Peace disruption raids:01:05, Deir Sudan - 02:25, Burhan - 14:30, Al-Araf - 22:15, Zabuba - 00:15, Al-Yamun - 00:45, Beit Qad - 14:40, Beit Lid - 16:50, Izbat Shofat - evening, Anabta - 20:50, Izbat Al-Tabib - 23:00, Nabi Elias - 06:25, Beit Ibba - 07:00, Jericho - 19:00, Bethlehem - 19:20, Al-Thahiriyye - 00:40, Hebron. dawn, Gaza. 15:25, Abu Dis - 21:30, Al-Ram - 14:10, Ramallah - 14:10, Al-Bireh - 16:00, Jalbun - 17:00, Zubaba - 22:50, Arraba - 09:45, Allar - 22:50, Zeita - 00:15, Anabta - 00:25, Tulkarem - 15:00, Hablat - 15:00, Ras-Terih - 01:15, Qalqilya - 21:40, Beita - 14:35, Al-Khadr - 22:10, Al-Khadr - 09:25, Bani Na’im - 11:45, Qalqis, - 12:00, Deir Samit - 13:00, Dura - 14:10, Al-Thahiria - 16:00, Yatta - 16:00, Beit Ammra - 22:00, Al-Sima.

illustration: Majed Badra

Easter Monday - Gaza this week

Life continues as 'normal' in the Strip.In the past week, Two people were injured in Israeli air strikes on Gaza. Israeli tanks fired on, and invaded Gaza farmland, ruining crops. Gaza farms were under Israeli fire from the Green Line.

(Collated by Laura Stuart)

Short-lived cease-fire in Gaza

The citizens of Gaza continue to suffer attacks by the Israeli military, power cuts and various deprivations of life's necessities. A cease-fire brokered today lasted a few hours  until an Israeli attack on a funeral. More details here

Fun with mom and pop - making holes

Laura Stuart, eagle-eyed and vigilant observer, has just posted this interesting piece about alternative holidays. If you grew up with hollywood westerns and any kind of gun culture it might look like the most natural and wholesome "fun" thing to do together as family. If this is your idea of fun, a firm called Caliber 3 will provide top Israeli anti-fright experts to show you how to pull that trigger:

Latest "Family Holiday"
Take the family to Israel and learn how to shoot guns
http://caliber3.webads.co.il/

picture: "Settlers" carry on the Hollywood tradition