"Settlers" go on rampage, West Bank

Israeli settler opens fire at a Palestinian market in Jerusalem
 http://www.imemc.org/article/70225
IMEMC/Agencies 11 Jan -- An armed Israeli settler provocatively entered a Palestinian market, in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, started insulting local residents before attacking a young man, and opened fire. Local sources said that the Israeli assailant lives in one of the illegal colonial outposts in the Old City, and that he started walking provocatively in the market, while carrying his government-issued automatic rifle. He then started shouting and cursing at the Palestinian merchants and residents before assaulting a young man, identified as Anwar Mona, 24-year-old. The settler also opened fire at the Palestinians in the area, causing no injuries, while Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene, provided protection to the Israeli, and abducted Anwar. The soldiers also installed sudden roadblocks, on Saturday evening, blocking most Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem, especially Bab al-Amoud (Damascus Gate), Bab
al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes) and Bab al-Khalil (Hebron Gate), and prevented the Palestinian from entering or leaving the area for more than 30 minutes. The soldiers also stopped and interrogated dozens of Palestinians, especially young men, and inspected their ID cards.http://www.imemc.org/article/70225

 Settler shoots Palestinian in village south of Hebron
 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=752770
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 10 Jan -- A Palestinian youth was injured Saturday when an
Israeli settler shot him while he was in the Palestinian village of al-Rihiya south of Hebron. Locals told Ma‘an that Ibrahim Issa Suleiman al-Tubassi was injured after an Israeli from the nearby Jewish-only settlement of Beit Haggay opened fire. Al-Tubassi was taken to the Hebron Governmental Hospital for treatment. Medical sources said the youth was struck in the thigh. An Israeli military spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment. Beit Haggay is on a major road south of Hebron, and is built on land taken from a number of neighbouring Palestinian farming villages.http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=752770

 12-year-old injured after settlers hurl rocks at Palestinian car
< http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=752974
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 11 Jan -- A Palestinian girl from Nablus sustained wounds on Saturday night after a group of Israeli settlers hurled rocks at the car she was travelling in. Local sources said that 12-year-old Rua Hazim Sawalha was in a car just north of Ramallah near the Jewish-only 'settlement' of Beit El when the rocks struck her car and injured her.
Sawalha was evacuated to St. Luke's Hospital in Nablus as a result of her injuries. The group of settlers was reportedly standing on the side of the main road, throwing rocks at cars with white Palestinian licence plates.
Jewish settlers in the West Bank have yellow Israeli licence plates.
 Meanwhile, In 2014, there were at least 329 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the UN.
 

 Settlers attack snowstorm emergency crew in Hebron
 http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=27528
Hebron (WAFA) 8 Jan -- Israeli settlers residing illegally in the 'settlements' of Susiya and Ma'on, east of Yatta in Hebron, Thursday chased after a team of Palestinians deployed to provide services to residents in need during the harsh snowstorm that has affected the region
since late Tuesday. Coordinator of Anti-wall and Settlement Popular Committee Ratib Jabbour told WAFA that a group of settlers chased after a vehicle which was providing immediate care to those in need. They arrived in the area to attend to a man who sustained a broken foot in the Shu‘ab al-Batam area, but were confronted by settlers who raised their weapons towards the unarmed crew, who left the area immediately.

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.