Bethlehem walled off but surfers prevail

Surf's up on the Gaza Strip for the brave regardless of hardship
 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-13/280955-surfs-up-in-gaza-strip-for-the-brave-amid-hardship.ashx
GAZA CITY (AP 13 Dec by Fares Akram) As wintry winds battered the Gaza
Strip, sending many inside, two Palestinian men instead rushed for the
breaking waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Mohammad Abu Jayyab, 41, and his
friend Ahmad Abu Hasira, 35, are two of about two dozen surfers
catching waves in the blockaded strip, which has endured three devastating
wars with Israel in six years, the most recent this summer. The Gaza Surf
Club describes the sport as a way to "forget about the hardships of living
in Gaza." But that's not really the case as the two men splash into water
cold enough to take their breath away even in wetsuits. Raw or only
partially treated sewage now churns into the waves. "We take to the sea
engulfed with fears of infection. In the past, the water was better," said
Abu Jayyab, a father of five. The sewage in the Mediterranean stems from
long-standing electricity shortages linked to a border blockade enforced by
Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007. Rolling power
cuts disrupt pumps handling sewage for the strip's 1.8 million people ...
When Abu Jayyab started out as an amateur in the 1990s, he used homemade
wooden boards that injured him at least four times. Now, the clubs' boards
bears the logos of world organizations that donated them, including Surfing
4 Peace, founded by American surfer Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who died in
November at age 93. "God bless his soul," Abu Jayyab said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-13/280955-surfs-up-in-gaza-strip-for-the-brave-amid-hardship.ashx

Coexistence struggles

JERUSALEM (AFP) 16 December -- Israeli police on Tuesday arrested 10 members of
extremist anti-Arab group Lehava which has been linked to an attack in November
 on a Jewish-Arab school. The attack, which incited violence against
Arabs and equated them to a "cancer", sparked a wave of condemnation and
came amid months of rising tensions and unrest in Israel and the
Palestinian territories. "Ten suspects, members of the Lehava organisation,
have been arrested for questioning following incitement and calls for
racist acts of violence and terror," the police said in a statement. The
suspects were arrested at their homes in the Israeli towns of Petah Tikva
and Netivot, as well as in Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the occupied
West Bank. Police also seized computers belonging to the suspects. Among
those detained was Lehava leader Bentzi Gopstein, who lives in the
flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron. Gopstein's lawyer said the arrests
were political. "The police are acting against Lehava even though it's a
legal organisation fighting against assimilation," Itamar Ben Gvir said,
accusing the "left" of pressuring the police into making arrests. Leftwing
MPs have demanded that Lehava be banned as a "terrorist organisation".
Three Lehava members were arrested last week on suspicion of torching a
classroom at the Hand-in-Hand school, a rare symbol of coexistence in
Jerusalem.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-arrests-10-anti-arab-extremist-swoop-074639541.html;_ylt=A0LEVicCy5BUyTUAeqIPxQt.

Army finishes 'biblical' punishment, Silwan

 Israeli forces on Thursday searched the
demolished home of attack suspect Abd al-Rahman al-Shaludi in the Silwan
neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, family members said. Al-Shaludi's mother
told Ma'an Israeli forces searched the rubble of the house they demolished
in November in the al-Bustan area of Silwan, claiming the family had rebuilt
parts of the home. Israeli officers also raided the home of al-Shaludi's
uncle where his mother and family have been living temporarily. She said
that after searching each room, forces threatened to demolish the house as
well. Al-Shaludi was killed by Israeli police after he drove his vehicle
into a group of pedestrians at a light rail station in the Sheikh Jarrah
area of East Jerusalem. The attack left two dead and several injured.
Israeli forces demolished his family home in a punitive move on November 19.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=746581

To A&E in handcuffs

JERUSALEM  7 December:  A Palestinian man on Sunday succumbed to wounds
he sustained in a car attack on a light rail station in East Jerusalem, his
wife told Ma‘an News Service. Abd al-Karim Nafith Hamid, 60, was injured when a
Palestinian [Ibrahim al-Akkari, 47] slammed his car into the Sheikh Jarrah
tram station, killing a Druze officer in the Israeli border police and
injuring at least 13 other people, Hamid's wife Umm Ibrahim told Ma‘an. She
said her husband suffered multiple fractures in his spine and feet, and
subsequently had a heart attack. Hamid did not receive the necessary
medical treatment right away, Umm Ibrahim said. "After the Israeli forces
identified the injured people, they handcuffed my injured husband because
he is an Arab and didn't offer him the appropriate treatment. Neither did
they evacuate him to the hospital immediately." She said that according to
eyewitnesses, Hamid arrived at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre handcuffed. "He
has been in an intensive care room and he was given all the necessary
surgeries, but he was declared dead today," Umm Ibrahim said. Hamid left
behind 12 children and two widows. His body was taken to the al-Maqasid
hospital in Jerusalem and then to his home village of ‘Anata, east of
Jerusalem. He will be buried at Bab al-Sahira cemetery in the Old City of
Jerusalem.http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=745373

Israeli violence continues

This is part of a bulletin released by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on 27th November:

A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. Witnesses said Fadil Muhammad Halawah, 32, was hunting birds east of Jabaliya when Israeli soldiers shot him dead.

In the West Bank Israeli settlers continue their campaign to terrorise Palestinians living in the West Bank, in collaboration with the Israeli Forces. One family’s house was set alight by settlers, who scrawled racist graffiti on the home. For the first time, sound bombs and tear gas were used by the settlers in this attack.

In Jerusalem one Palestinian was shot in the head with a rubber bullet, and another was attacked by Israelis at his place of work. Another was beaten unconscious by settlers on Friday night. In Jerusalem, gangs of Israeli girls have been beating up Palestinians.

The impunity continues. Due to the fact that DCI Palestine collated and analysed incontrovertible video evidence that  Nadim Nuwara,  was shot in cold blood, when he posed no risk, an Israeli policeman now faces charges. But he is being charged with manslaughter instead of murder. As the boy’s father said: “A Palestinian arrested under these circumstances would be facing murder charges, with the possibility of life imprisonment, and his family’s home would be demolished.”

Meanwhile,  racist attacks against Palestinian citizens are on the increase. The Israeli mayor of Ashkelon announced that Palestinian citizens of Israel are banned from working on construction projects in bomb shelters at local kindergartens during school hours. This comes amid a new wave of Israeli popular racism calling for Arabs to be fired.  Likud leader Yariv Levin has advocated draconian proposals including that people waving an ‘enemy flag’, including the Palestinian flag, during protests, will be arrested and held in remand until the completion of legal procedures against them, with anyone convicted losing social welfare benefits and their driving licence for 10 years.   As Ben White points out, the furore over new Jewish State law misses the point – Israel already discriminates.

Palestine: What Hope Peace

Bristol has been treated to the premiere of this riveting documentary, made by one strong-willed woman, Kerry-Anne Mendoza, before she took it on a tour of the UK. She has managed to take a catalogue of misbehaviour and injustice and present it as more than just another list; the constant cutting among Palestinians at home, in the street, under fire, reflecting on the way things are in general, plus talkers at a major public meeting on the subject, the director talking to camera, her driver and, importantly, a Jewish voice, ensures that the pace never drops - while doing justice to the fact that film is fundamentally a visual medium. Incidentally, you may come away from this as this blogger did, a good deal wiser. For instance, revealed was the fact that Israel's determination to import as many Jews as possible is undermined by the regime's racism extending to that old skin thing - so that immigrant Ethiopian Jewish women found they were being forceably sterilised. Mendoza was right in the middle of things; absolutely no distancing herself in time or place, and her voice-over at one point became a stirring call to action - no surprise as she was standing in the ruins of Gaza City at the time. 
Well worth a second look.

East Jerusalem: 'not news'

This is the current hard truth about East  Jerusalem, hardly ever alluded to by the conventional news media partly because it is nothing new. It was put together by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and it is worth quoting in full:

What the media won’t tell you about East Jerusalem

November 6, 2014
Palestinians in East Jerusalem live their daily lives under the brutality of Israeli occupation. However, their suffering is ignored by most of the western media.
Last week, western journalists turned their focus on Jerusalem only because an Israeli settler, Yehuda Glick, was shot and injured near the Old City on October 29^th.
However, violence against Palestinians is a constant feature of life in East Jerusalem and it goes unreported by our media.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem face expulsion from the city, home demolitions, freedom of movement restrictions, surveillance, and violence from settlers and soldiers. This is in addition to illegal settlement building on their land.

It is through measures such as these – all violations of international law – that Israel is attempting to ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem of its Palestinian population. Israel’s stated goal is to establish and maintain the whole of Jerusalem as its capital.
On October 23^rd, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement reiterating this, saying: ‘United Jerusalem, was, and will always remain, the capital of Israel.’ He called for Israeli sovereignty to be enforced in all parts of Jerusalem through the deployment of extra troops.
Below is a short guide to what life is like for East Jerusalem Palestinians, which aims to fill in the gaps left by media reporting:
Background
Before 1947, all of Jerusalem was Palestinian. Following the UN partition of Palestine that year, the UN designated Jerusalem as an international zone. Israel overran West Jerusalem and established a de facto border known as the Green Line, expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians from that part of the city. In 1967, Israel occupied and then annexed East Jerusalem. Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem is illegal in international law.

Residency permits
Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and claims that it is part of Israel. However, Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, while paying taxes to Israel, do not have Israeli citizenship. They have to apply for residency permits, which need to be frequently renewed.
In order to have a permit renewed, Palestinians have to prove to the Israeli authorities that East Jerusalem is their ‘centre of life’. This requires the provision of extensive documents, including health insurance and bills going back several years, which many Palestinians do not have.
As a result, many Palestinians who have never lived anywhere but East Jerusalem have lost their residency permits. Once deported, they are not allowed to return.
Those who have lived away for more than seven years will also have their residency revoked and are not permitted to return.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law bans the entry of Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and other designated countries into Israel and East Jerusalem for the purpose of family reunification. This has resulted in spouses being separated from each other and children from their parents. Since 2005, two years after the law was passed, more than 125,000 reunification applications have gone unprocessed.

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem who have a child must apply to the Ministry of the Interior for a residency permit for that child. Israel issues the child with a temporary permit that lasts for only two years, and must then be renewed regularly. There are currently around 10,000 Palestinian children living without permits in East Jerusalem, who are consequently denied access to services including education and healthcare.

Since 1967, Israel has revoked the residency permits of more than 14,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians. 11,000 of these were revoked between 1995 and 2013.

House demolitions

On November 4^th, Israeli forces raided the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan and demolished two family homes. They claimed the houses did not have proper construction permits.

Palestinian families live in constant fear of having their homes torn down. Israel has demolished more than 27,000 Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza since occupying those territories in 1967. There are outstanding demolition orders hanging over tens of thousands more homes.

In Silwan, Palestinian homes are being destroyed to make way for an Israeli tourist centre and national park. More than 1,000 Palestinians face losing their homes in Silwan alone.

It is almost impossible for Palestinians to receive construction permits from the Israeli authorities. Nearly all applications, which cost £5,000 to register, are refused.

But Palestinian families, with no new homes being built for decades in East Jerusalem, need to expand their living space. In desperation, they expand without receiving a permit and then have to live with the stress of hoping their house won’t be torn down.

A demolition order, if received, comes with a fine. Israeli police and army accompany the bulldozers, and families are given 15 minutes to get out of their home with as many belongings as possible. They have to pay the cost of the demolition, which runs into thousands of pounds. Those unable to afford the cost can face prison. With 70% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem living below the poverty line, some are forced to demolish their homes themselves.

House demolitions lead to families being split up, illness and psychological trauma, especially amongst children. Aid organisations provide tents as temporary accommodation for families who have lost their homes, and the living conditions are harsh.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods such as Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah protest peacefully every week against the threats to their communities, but these non-violent  protests are mostly ignored in western media reporting.

Settlement building

While Israeli authorities refuse planning permits to Palestinians to extend their homes, every Israeli government since 1967 has engaged in illegal settlement building in East Jerusalem.

On October 27^th, Netanyahu announced that 1,000 new settlement homes would be built in the occupied city.

Around 350,000 Israeli settlers live in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem. Palestinians are banned from living on the settlements which have been built on the land where their neighbourhoods once stood.

The strategic construction of the settlements has resulted in East Jerusalem being physically cut off from the rest of the West Bank.

Violence

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem face ferocious and suffocating violence from the Israeli army, police and settlers.

Settler violence, which includes attacks on property as well as people, usually goes unpunished. More often than not, it will be overseen by Israeli police or army members.

The settlers’ illegal activities take many forms. On September 30^th, for example, settlers took over seven Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem during the night, evicting the families living there. The settlers were accompanied by Israeli police officers.

Right-wing lynch mobs took to the streets of Jerusalem during the summer, not for the first time, looking for Palestinians to attack. Some Palestinian victims were beaten unconscious, with Israeli police either being slow to respond or ignoring the attacks altogether.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem face police and army harassment and violence during the course of their daily lives, including at the checkpoints spanning the Apartheid Wall.

Arrest and detention without charge is common, and, in the last four months, Israel has stepped up a campaign of mass arrests against East Jerusalem Palestinians. Since July, Israeli police have arrested more than 900 Palestinians across East Jerusalem, including children.

The use of tear gas, skunk water (which smells of rotting flesh), drones and low-flying helicopters against East Jerusalem Palestinians has all been increased in recent months.

This week, the situation facing Palestinians in East Jerusalem was described as ‘a struggle for survival’.

Al Aqsa

On 4^th November, Israel’s Housing Minister, Uri Ariel, who is a settler, told an Israeli radio station that he hopes to see a Jewish temple built in place of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

He is not alone.

Moshe Feiglin, a Likud member of Parliament and also a settler, has repeatedly called for the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque and the construction of a ‘Third Temple’ in its place. Feiglin enters the Al Aqsa compound every month, accompanied by other settlers and armed police who keep Palestinians out and prevent them from praying.

Many of the settlers are US-born and openly call for extreme violence against Palestinians, including shooting dead Palestinian children.

Yehuda Glick, the extremist rabbi who was shot earlier this month, also belongs to a group which advocates for the destruction of the mosque and its replacement with a ‘Third Temple’.

Glick and his followers regularly storm the mosque compound and roam its courtyards, often guarded by armed police. In 2014 alone, Glick and his group of settlers entered the compound in January, February, twice in June, July and August. Palestinians who attempt to stop the break-ins face arrest.

Israeli provocation and violence in relation to Al Aqsa, and the restrictions placed on Palestinians worshipping there, are too frequent and, consequently, too numerous to detail here, but can be found here.

These are incidents in October alone: Israeli soldiers and settlers invaded the yards of the mosque, attacking and injuring worshippers, with gas bombs being thrown by the soldiers (Oct 9^th); hundreds of Israeli police raided the compound firing stun grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets (Oct 13^th); the Israeli army invaded the mosque, firing tear gas and blockading unarmed Palestinians inside. This video shows the attack (Oct 14^th).

In the preceding weeks, Israeli forces had barred Palestinians from entering the mosque compound and facilitated the entry of right-wing Israeli extremists.

And, on 5^th November, 300 Israeli soldiers stormed the interior of the mosque, as Palestinians prayed. They were followed by hundreds of Israeli settlers who invaded the compound.

These are not isolated incidents, but are just recent examples of the provocations and violence faced by Palestinians in relation to Al Aqsa which go unreported in the media here. Journalists ignore these attacks, not just when they happen, but have also failed to mention them when reporting on the shooting of Glick, leaving their reports devoid of context and background.

Compounded with their inability to provide information about the daily grind of occupation faced by East Jerusalem Palestinians, and the attempts by Israel to force them from the city, their reports can only be described as fundamentally misleading.

- See more at: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/media-wont-tell-east-jerusalem/#sthash.TDfLg0Rn.dpuf