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>

Gaza 'forbidden zone' expands

The Coordinator of Government
Activities in the "Territories" has clarified that the 'forbidden39; buffer
zone in Gaza strip stretches 300 metres from the 'fence' (the Israeli
border), and not 100 metres as it previously announced. Civilians who enter
the area risk being shot by the army. In the past, the killing of
Palestinians who wandered into the forbidden zone has led to retaliatory
rocket launching from the Strip into Israeli territory. The clarification
was made following a request by the human rights organization
Gisha<http://www.gisha.org/>.
Gisha had noticed that the IDF Spokesperson’s messages stated a different
distance than did the Coordinator of Government Activities in the
Territories, which claimed that Gazans are not allowed into an area
stretching only 100 metres from the barrier. Recently, the army notified
Gisha that the forbidden zone is indeed three times larger than previously
reported. The army has refused to fully detail the methods it uses to warn
farmers and other civilians from wandering into the forbidden zone it
declared. A spokesman for the army has told Gisha that such methods are
part of "the opening fire procedures, and cannot be disclosed."
< http://972mag.com/idf-forbidden-zone-in-gaza-three-times-larger-than-previously-stated/71282/>link

'Settlers' invade monastery

Settlers raise Israeli flag over West Bank church

graffiti sprayed on a wall at the entrance to
the Latrun Monastery near Jerusalem September 4, 2012.
(Reuters/Baz Ratner)

 

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Apr -- Israeli settlers on Friday took over a monastery in a village near Ramallah and raised an Israeli flag over the building. Priest Aziz Raei told Ma‘an that Israeli settlers used force to occupy the monastery and its adjacent chapel in al-Taybeh, a Christian village in the central West Bank. They raised a flag over the monastery, which was built by a French monk. www.maannews.net

Israel to sieze Dead Sea as 'state land'

Just 0.7% of state land in the West Bank has been allocated to Palestinians, Israel admits
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/just-0-7-of-state-land-in-the-west-bank-has-been-allocated-to-palestinians-israel-admits.premium-1.512126>
Haaretz 28 Mar by Chaim Levinson -- Over the past 33 years the Civil Administration has allocated less than one percent of state land in the West Bank to Palestinians <http://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/Palestinians-1.477125>,
compared to 38 percent to settlers, according to the agency’s own documents
submitted to the High Court of Justice. The West Bank includes 1.3 million dunams (approximately 325,000 acres) of "state land," most of which is allocated to Jewish colonies. The declared policy of the previous Netanyahu government was to remove Jewish construction from private Palestinian land in the West Bank and to approve all construction on state lands. According to the classification of the Civil Administration, a small amount of "state land" was registered with the Jordanian authorities until 1967. But most declared "state land" was declared as such after 1979. The need for such a declaration emerged in October 1979, when the High Court struck down as unconstitutional the state’s practice of seizing Palestinian land, ostensibly for "military needs" but in practice in order to establish Jewish settlements. It was after 1979 that the process of the wholesale declaration of territory as state land began. According to the law in the West Bank, any land with continuous agricultural cultivation for at least 10 years becomes the property of the farmer; land under cultivation cannot be seized by the state. Although the Civil Administration team charged with determining which lands are cultivated is supposed to base their conclusions on testimony and aerial photos, a senior official in the Civil Administration conceded recently in the Ofer Military Court that the decisions are political. The hearing at which the official was speaking was over the state lands declared with regard to the Hayovel outpost. The latter has been at the heart of a High Court case for over seven years. The state had decided to retroactively authorize Hayovel, but aerial photos clearly show a number of houses and cultivated land, and the road to Hayovel goes through private Palestinian land. The state therefore devised a method of declaring the area between cultivated spots, for example, between trees, as "uncultivated" and thus it could deem it state land.
<http://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/Israel%20settlements-1.477056>
First published at Today in Palestine

2 Bristol activists brave violence

Tom Woodhead and audience, Bristol

Ruby Gracesza and friends

Friends have spoken to Tom Woodhead who was being held in a deportation prison in Israel following his arrest in Palestine. While being held, he described how he and two other Palestinians were lined up against a wall while Israeli soldiers cocked their rifles for a “mock execution”.

“I felt my legs start to shake” says Tom, “I thought I was about to die.”

Tom has described the events of his arrest in more detail to friends:
“Three of us were arrested at the same time, me and two Palestinians.
The soldiers hit one of the Palestinians over the head with a rock.
 I was punched in the face and blood started to pour from my eye.
Then I was then beaten about the back of my head
Then I was struck with a hard object, I think it was a rifle butt.
All three of us were handcuffed with cable ties and then blindfolded. We were pushed against a wall with our heads down. Then I heard the soldiers cocking their rifles like a “mock execution”
I felt my legs start to shake, I thought I was about to die.
Then I was punched again and they shouted at me - was I Palestinian?
Then they hit me again and shouted again - was I half Palestinian, or even a bit Palestinian?
This seemed absurd. When they discovered I was British they stopped. All three of us were loaded into a vehicle, there was a cage with only space for two people but all three of us were crushed into the cage.
We were taken to the Israeli Police station and held in solitary confinement, and some time later taken to a court. They accused me of throwing stones but they had no evidence
I heard the Palestinians were sentenced to nine months even though I didn’t see either of them throwing stones.
Then I was taken to the deportation prison. I am in a cage-type cell the size of a normal room but with bunk beds for sixteen people.
Everyone else in this caged cell are deemed to be illegal immigrants and awaiting deportation. I have been visited by people from ISM (International Solidarity Movement) who are doing a great job.
I have been visited by the British Consul who was shocked to hear about the mock execution but hasn’t been able to do anything else for me.

I will be flown back to the UK from Tel Aviv airport but haven’t been told when, someone else in my cell was given 24 hour notice of departure, but not me, so it will be at least Tuesday now.”

Tom, and fellow Bristolian activist Ruby Gracesza, who was attacked by ‘settlers’ on her recent Palestine visit, talked about their experiences to a full house at the March monthly Bristol PSC meeting.

　

Zionists deny Easter

Palestinian Christians

Bearing the cross of colonization: the Via Dolorosa
<http://english.pnn.ps/images/easter2013.pdf>
 The Via Dolorosa (Latin: 'way of suffering')
begins in the old Muslim Quarter of the city and ends in the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. There are 14 stations marking the path which Jesus Christ
took before his crucifixion. Each of the 14 stations along the Via Dolorosa
is marked with a plaque. Israeli settlers have another way of marking the
"Via Dolorosa": through their settlement activity. There are eight stations
that can easily be recognized by the presence of illegal Israeli
settlements, tens of surveillance cameras and Israeli flags hanging above
them. These houses originally belonged to Palestinian families who have
been evicted by Israeli settlers supported by the Israeli state. For
example ... The third station is where a Palestinian Christian family was
evicted from their home by former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon. At station 5 a
heavily protected settlement located over Palestinian homes and shops has
changed the landscape of the station, where it is believed by Christians
that Jesus fell the first time on his way to the crucifixion. At Station 9
there is a settlement located over the Souq (market) going to Al Aqsa
compound, visible from the Coptic neighbourhood, while at stations 11, 12,
13 and 14 (Holy Sepulchre) one finds the Moristan settlement, known
previously as "Saint John". This confiscation of property led to the forced
eviction and displacement of an estimated 44 Palestinian families. Settlers
have also attempted to take over a monastery located in front of the Holy
Sepulchre.
  During the annual Palm Sunday procession, Palestinian Christians protest over 
permits delayed and denied during the Easter season -- In the annual Palm Sunday procession, Palestinian Christians carry signs naming their West Bank communities, all of which are cut offfrom Jerusalem by the Israeli separation barrier, requiring their residents
to obtain special permits to enter, March 24, 2013. Such restrictions have
dramatically reduced the number of Palestinians able to participate in
religious traditions of any faith in Jerusalem.
<http://972mag.com/photos-palestinian-christians-protest-permit-regime-during-palm-sunday-procession/68188/>linkto 972mag.com<http://972mag.com/photos-palestinian-christians-protest-permit-regime-during-palm-sunday-procession/68188/>

 

 

First published by http://972mag.com

Palestinian hunger striker beaten unconscious

A Palestinian hunger striker in Israel's Ramleh prison was knocked unconscious by prison guards earlier this week in the most recent abuse of prisoners, a coalition of human rights groups said on Thursday.

Hassan Safadi, who has gone 57 days without food, had his head slammed against the steel door of his prison cell during an assault on him and another hunger striker, Samer al-Barq.

The assault occurred after they refused to be transferred to a new cell, Addameer, al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said in a joint statement.

"During the attack, Mr Safadi’s head was slammed against the iron door of the cell two times, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Prison guards then dragged him through the hall to be seen by all the other prisoners," it said.

Safadi announced after the beating that he would no longer be drinking water.

The two prisoners are refusing food to protest their detention without trial under a system Israel calls administrative detention.

Over 2,000 Palestinian prisoners ended a mass hunger strike in May after reaching a deal with Israel.

The deal specifically stipulated that Safadi would be released following the expiration of his detention order, but the agreement was not upheld.

Two other Palestinian prisoners, Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi, have also been refusing food for 47 and 16 days, respectively.

Israel's draconian administrative detention allows for the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable six month periods.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have slammed the policy as a violation of international humanitarian law.

Published  by Al Akhbar, Thursday, August 16, 2012 http://english.al-akhbar.com/search/node/hunger%20striker