Gaza starves as 'talks' pantomime sets up again

Things are as bad as they have ever been in Gaza - all supplies are reportedly very low due to the Egyptian army closing  the tunnels. To re-enter peace negotiations while this collective "punishment" proceeds is begging the question - big time.

 

http://www.gisha.org/item.asp?lang_id=en&p_id=2045
 

Human rights groups to DM Ya'alon: Respect Gaza residents' right to freedom of movement

July 22, 2013. A group of Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations wrote to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday 22 July demanding Israel take action to allow Gaza residents affected by the new restrictions at Rafah Crossing to exit and enter Gaza.

Recent turmoil in Egypt has brought new restrictions on passage via Rafah Crossing. Since July 1, exit via Rafah has been reduced to less than one third its usual scope. As a result, more than 10,000 people are stranded in Gaza. An unknown number of others cannot exercise their basic human right to return to their homes, and they are forced into paying for involuntary stays in airports and hotels in foreign countries.

Currently, only medical patients with referrals from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and holders of a foreign citizenship or residence are allowed to enter Egypt from Gaza. Gaza residents present in Egypt are allowed to return home, but those still abroad are not being permitted to land at Egyptian airports. Because Israel does not allow passage to and from Gaza via the air or sea and limits passage via land crossings with Israel, Gaza residents have become dependent on Egypt as their gateway to travel abroad.

Students needing to reach universities abroad, Palestinian residents needing to return to their work places outside Gaza, businesspeople and medical patients without official referrals are all stuck.

Due to Israel's control over the Gaza Strip, it has an obligation, under the law of occupation and human rights law, to enable Gaza residents to lead normal lives, including the opportunity to leave Gaza and return to it. If travel through Rafah is inadequate, Israel must allow Gaza residents to exercise their right to freedom of movement through other crossings, whether on land through the border crossings between Israel and Gaza or by sea and air, to the outside world.

In the past, when traffic at Rafah was restricted, Israel allowed individuals to enter and leave the Strip via crossings with Israel, as part of a shuttle bus system and on an individual basis.

As the situation in Egypt remains volatile, and restrictions at Rafah continue, the undersigned human rights groups calls upon Israel’s defence minister to immediately institute arrangements that will allow Palestinian residents of Gaza to exercise their fundamental right to freedom of movement.
Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of MovementPCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human RightsHamoked – Center for the Defence of the IndividualPHR-Israel – Physicians for Human Rights – IsraelAl Mezan Center for Human Rights

 http://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/LegalDocuments/YaalonLetter-21.7.13/stuckinrafah-letter-21.7.13-en.pdf

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2 women arrested for being in "wrong" place

First published in +972mag.com
The IDF’s Ofer Military Court in the West Bank held its first hearing on Tuesday 9th in the trial of Nariman Tamimi and Rana Hamadah, two Palestinian women who were arrested on Friday, June 28 at the weekly demonstration against the occupation in Nabi Saleh.
The two women were held in Sharon Prison, in Israel, for more than three days before being brought before a military judge and indicted for entering a “closed military zone.” Rana Hamadah was also charged with obstructing a soldier in the execution of his duty.
Hamadah told +972 that during her arrest she asked the IDF soldier why she was being handcuffed, to which he replied: “Because I feel like it.” Hamadah said the pair were left handcuffed and blindfolded for nine hours, and were driven around in a vehicle with two male soldiers for seven more hours before being booked in Sharon Prison.

The arrest (Activestills)

“Seeing the prisoners’ struggle from the inside gives an incredible urgency to their cause,” she said, adding that, “what we don’t see, and easily forget, is that the prisoners really must struggle for every passing minute.”
Nariman Tamimi told +972 this was the fifth time she has been arrested. She speculated that her arrest was part of the IDF’s efforts to crack down on the village’s right to protest, saying that Israel is “trying to make an example out of the village” by inflicting collective punishment.
A foreign national arrested along with the two Palestinian women was released later the same night and barred from entering the village for 15 days.
According to Israeli military law, under which Palestinians live, there is no such thing as a legal protest without permission from a military commander, which is rarely if ever granted (which is why arrests for stone throwing or organizing protests are so rampant).
http://972mag.com/when-non-violence-is-criminal-palestinian-women-stand-trial-for-west-bank-protest/75350/

Repression in US and Israel: tail wags dog

For most of us, but especially the Baby Boomers, America has long been seen as an immutable presence, always reliably in the money (Okay; apart from the Great Depression and the more recent Crash) and the source of all the 20th Century's popular culture. That corner-stone has been chipped away as the USA keeps afloat on credit, to a great extent from China, arguably the new Top Nation which may by default thus have the last say in the future of Israel/Palestine. as there is a limit to how much cash the US can throw at its Zionist colony, and if China says 'no more credit' it could have a direct effect on Israel's military capabilities despite those exports - or because of them if the US is  a major customer. America's status takes another hard knock as the International Jewish AntiZionist Network has published a plea for support for both prisoners in Israel/Palestine, and the US. Israel is already known  to be supplying arms (tested on Gaza) to the US, which is increasingly dependent on imports, of everything from corn to cars which it spent the twentieth century exporting.
          " Israel plays a significant role", states the Network, " in the training of police forces in the United States and elsewhere in population control and Israel and the US share technologies and strategies of surveillance and repression across borders ). As people who support the liberation of all peoples, and oppose all forms of racism, it is imperative that we stand behind striking prisoners, who are willing to risk their lives organizing for their rights and dignity."

'Embassy' opens in Bristol, UK

In the centre of Bristol's old city,  A new Palestinian cultural exchange has opened its doors for the first time. I quote from the Release: Central-Bristol venue, the ARC on Broad Street, was transformed into a “Palestinian Embassy”. Spread across three floors it included a café serving Palestinian food, a cinema showing Palestinian films, and a gallery showing a major exhibition of Palestinian history, culture and solidarity, with West Bank paintings by Bristol artist Hanley. A day-long conference  included talks and workshops on Palestine provided by local and UK solidarity activists together with a live video link to Gaza & West Bank. Professor Manuel Hassassian, Palestine's

Prof. Hassassian greeted by the Lord Mayor of Bristol

Ambassador to the UK, was the welcome special guest.

Karmel Colony: Israelis unite with Palestinians

On Saturday June: 8 an old Palestinian man from the village of Umm Al Kheer, Suleiman Aid Yameen Hadleen, was detained for more than three hours by the Israeli army while affirming his right to access his own land. In the last two days the soldiers denied the Palestinians from Umm Al Kheer  access to their own land until Sunday morning, without any official order. The land in question is on a hill that belongs to the Hadleen family. On the top of it the 'settlers' of Karmel Israeli colony in 2011 planted some olive trees and about two weeks ago built a small tent. Two days ago the settlers started to dig holes on the ground, intending to plant more olive trees in a row that would go along the top of the hill, preventing Palestinians from entering the land behind it. That hill is crossed everyday by Palestinian shepherds, since it is the only way that takes to the valleys grazed by their sheep. On Saturday June 8, three Palestinian shepherds with their flocks, together with other Palestinians, Israeli activists and international volunteers were chased away from the top of the hill by the Israeli army.
< http://palsolidarity.org/2013/06/expansion-of-karmel-settlement-prevents-inhabitants-of-umm-al-kheer-from-accessing-their-land/>link
to palsolidarity.org<http://palsolidarity.org/2013/06/expansion-of-karmel-settlement-prevents-inhabitants-of-umm-al-kheer-from-accessing-their-land/>
Maan News reports that Negev residents protested against a forced displacement
plan.

A campaign poster reading "One Voice: No to Prawer."
(Maan/Naqab.org)

<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=603270>
Beersheba, Israel (Ma‘an) 9 June -- Arab and Bedouin residents in the Negev
announced on Sunday that they would be rallying against a legislative proposal
to be put before the Knesset that would see the dismantling of 'unrecognized'
villages and the forced displacement of residents. The Al-Naqab Association
for Land and Human Beings said all residents were being urged to join
Thursday's protest, which includes a general strike, organized by the Higher Guidance Committee of the Arab Residents in the Negev.
< http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=603270>link to
www.maannews.net <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=603270>

Jerusalem family made homeless

The Jerusalem municipality is billing Badwan al-Salaymeh for the destruction of his home. (Lazar Simeonov)

On a massive pile of rubble that used to be a two-story home, Badwan al-Salaymeh’s cat paced back and forth searching for her two missing kittens.
“The human rights organizations will probably care more about the pets — even animals have more rights than us Palestinians,” al-Salaymeh said as he climbed the mound of concrete and metal.
The front yard gives the impression of a miniature war zone: the collapsed home in the centere, the metal fence dented and bent, the garden uprooted, the trees flattened under the bulldozers.
Early in the morning on Wednesday (29 May), approximately 100 Israeli police officers arrived at his home in the Beit Hanina area of Jerusalem, accompanied by two bulldozers. According to witnesses, two minors were arrested for throwing stones, one of whom was said to be around 12 years old. Another was injured after inhaling tear gas.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-razes-home-13-member-family/12500

16,000 colonial units built in 3 years

armed_israeli_setters_near_hebron__photo_by_michael_ramallah

 Saeb Erekat, member of the Palestinian Liberation
Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee, stated that the Israeli government Continues to exercise the settlement policy on the occupied Palestinian
territories." During a meeting with the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Erekat said: "The total number of Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land after
Benjamin Netanyahu came into office from 2009 to 2012 has reached over 16,000 settlement units. On average, this is 11 new settlement units a day."
He added that an increase of settler acts of violence against the
Palestinians has been observed in the last few years, "At an alarming rate." He explained that the violent acts committed by settlers increased from 2009 to the end of 2012 by 315 per cent. Such acts include killing
innocents and setting fire to trees, mosques, and churches all of which
are carried out under the protection of the Israeli army." He also pointed
out that "Since the appointment of the Minister of Defence, Moshe Ya'alon,
last month, the Israeli 'settlers', along with the occupation army forces,
started establishing road barriers in the West Bank."
< http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/6085-israel-constructed-16000-settlement-units-over-the-past-3-years>link
to www.middleeastmonitor.com<http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/6085-israel-constructed-16000-settlement-units-over-the-past-3-years>