"Settler" attack becomes mainstream

The latest attack by hardline Zionists against Palestinians, in which an 18-month child was killed during an attack on a home, has been recognised by the mainstream press including the BBC. The Today interviewer managed to get the Zionist spokesman, Mark Regev, to answer the question asked, e.g. about the percentage of complaints about previous 'settler' violence that have resulted in prosecution. Although he is usually well-armed with all relevant names and dates, on this occasion he was unable to lay his hands on the facts. He claimed that for this, as with all actions by unaligned groups, there would be prosecution and justice. He did not volunteer any information about the Israeli army's (and hence the state's) usual support for the 'settlers' in all circumstances.

Christian and Muslim schools threatened by Israelis

The Israelis are trying to destroy the roots of non-Jewish society in occupied Palestine, as this report by Jonathan Cook details:
Church-run schools in Israel face ‘death sentence’ 29 June 2015 - Israel is seeking to bring dozens of church-run schools under government control, a move that community leaders warn will curb the last vestiges of educational freedom for the country’s large Palestinian minority. The schools, which educate Christians and Muslims and are among the highest-achieving in Israel, are the only hope for most families trying to escape dire conditions in the government-run Arab education system. - See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/#sthash.m6PEO138.dpuf

Israel delivers four stop-work orders in Bethlehem

*
< http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766597
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 22 July -- Israeli forces delivered four stop-work
notices to Palestinians from the village of Za‘tara in eastern Bethlehem
on Wednesday, claiming the buildings were not licensed, locals said.
Muheisen Abu Amriyeh, a local resident, told Ma‘an that Israeli military
vehicles escorted by Israeli Civil Administration officers raided the area
and delivered stop-work notices to houses belonging to the Hassan Muheisin
family. A total of eight houses belonging to the family are now threatened
with demolition, as Israel delivered another four notices to the same
family 10 days ago, Abu Amriyeh said. Five of the houses are at an early
stage of construction while the other three are already inhabited.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766597

Israeli forces destroy 450 olive trees, Roman-era well in Hebron
 http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766595
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 22 July -- Israeli forces on Wednesday destroyed 450 olive
trees, levelled land, and demolished a Roman-era water well in the village
of *Beit Ula in northwestern Hebron, after claiming the Palestinian land
belonged to Israel, locals said. Issa al-Imla, the coordinator of a local
popular committee in Beit Ula, told Ma‘an that the olive trees were more
than 10 years old and belonged to a local farmer, Farid Abd al-Latif
al-Imla. Al-Imla said that Israeli forces also levelled lands belonging to
Abd al-Qader al-Imla and demolished the village water well that dated from
the Roman era. Al-Imla said that Israeli forces, officials from the Israeli
Civil Administration, and three bulldozers also raided the Attus and
al-Mekheh areas in western Beit Ula and destroyed crops. On January 27, an
Israeli court issued an order to confiscate hundreds of dunams of land in
western Beit Ula. Al-Imla said that Palestinian landowners followed up the
case in Israeli courts, but added that Israeli courts generally assist
settlers in confiscating Palestinian land. He called on the Palestinian
Minister of Agriculture and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to help farmers
re-plant trees.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766595

Navy injures fishermen; power cut hits Gaza

Gaza as a destination for the world's sun-worshipping surfers may still be a way off, as attacks by the navy, and power cuts continue - as in these details from the International Middle East Media Center:
Two fishermen injured by navy fire http://www.imemc.org/article/72306
IMEMC 22 July -- Israeli navy ships opened live fire, on Tuesday at dawn,
on a number of Palestinian fishing boats in Beit Lahia, in the northern
part of the Gaza Strip, wounding two fishers, and kidnapped two including
one of the wounded, before towing a boat to the Ashdod Port. *Ahmad Ismael
Sharafi*, 20 years of age, was shot with a live round in the back, and
several rubber-coated metal bullets in his arm, and was moved to the Shifa
Medical Center in Gaza, suffering a moderate injury. The two kidnapped
fishers were released approximately at six in the evening, while one of
them was moved to a medical center for treatment of wounds resulting from
the Israeli attack, the Union for Agricultural Work Committees has
reported. On Monday evening, the navy attacked a fishing boat belonging to
Yousef Fayez Barakat, 22 years of age, and kidnapped him, along with
Haitham Tareq Bakr, 25.
http://www.imemc.org/article/72306

 Blackouts hit Gaza as power plant shuts amid tax dispute
 http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766575
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 21 July -- The Gaza Strip was reduced to eight hours of
electricity per day on Tuesday after its sole power plant shut down because
it was unable to afford PA-imposed taxes. The Gaza distribution network
will provide just six hours of electricity for every 12 hours without,
averaging eight hours of total power a day

'Settlers', army, stop Hebron shops opening

e 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Al Khalil, Occupied Palestine

Around 8:30 this morning on Shuhada street in Hebron, Israeli settlers, soldiers, and border police arrived and put up a breakfast tent right outside of two shops owned by a Palestinian man. The settlers remained in front of his shops for around three and a half hours under Israeli police and army protection.

The owner of the shops, which will be used to grind wheat into flour, is Ghassan Azzedine Abu Hadid. HRC has been working with him to facilitate the restoration of his two shops. Because of the presence of the settlers, he has been prevented from working on his shops in order to make them ready for opening.

International Solidarity Movement activists were present and asked Ghassan for a statement on what was happening to which he replied “I cannot say anything, I just want to open my shops and continue my work.”

ISM report

Israeli soldiers caught by camera

Following reports of the shooting of two Israelis, by a Palestinian citizen and by the Hamas military wing <http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766055>, this report comes from Haaretz:
< http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.661513>
Haaretz 17 June by Amira Hass -- *Had it not been for the cameras, the
eyewitness reports about the armed soldiers who beat a Palestinian
protester would have been dubbed as dubious 'allegations.' -- *The mistake
made by the armed soldiers< http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.660994> from the Netzah Yehuda battalion was that they allowed cameras to document their
bestiality and cowardice while attacking a brave Palestinian civilian,armed with a visor cap and T-shirt, last Friday. For this error, their commanders punished them.
< http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.661146> this week by meting out negligible disciplinary punishments. Their commanders couldn’t punish them for their crude assault, their loss of control, their arrogance or their abuse; you don’t punish a person for something that is the social norm, as well as a metaphor for the balance of power between Israel and the Palestinians ... Journalists’ reports, based on a clip from Palestinian television, stressed that the soldiers were filmed beating a Palestinian after they had already “gotten him under control.” The reports also emphasized the curses they showered him with. If there were a hidden camera at every arrest, we would have to admit that soldiers beating
Palestinians whom they have already “gotten under control” is not unusual. And curses? There are Palestinians who conclude, from their run-ins with soldiers, that Hebrew consists of only eight words. Five of them are curses, and the other three are “halt,” “scram” and “forbidden.” All eight are barked out, like the videotaped barks and growls of the Netzah Yehuda soldiers ... The Hebrew-language reports about the soldiers who beat a Palestinian in front of the cameras missed one obvious fact that arises from the video clip: Ghabashi’s courage. He went out to the soldiers to protest against the tear gas grenades they threw into his house in the Jalazun refugee camp while they were facing off with the young people from th camp, who demonstrate there every week against the occupation, the army,
the settlement of Beit El. Ghabashi knows very well what armed, nervous soldiers can do to a Palestinian who dares to argue with them and disobey them when they order him to get lost; curses, punches and arrest are the least of it. They could also have shot him, and then invented some excuse.The valiant Ghabashi represents a Palestinian norm.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.661513

Hunger strikers face torture

Khader Adnan: 'The more they torture me, the more determined I become'
 http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765991
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 16 June -- Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who is now
on his 42nd day on hunger strike against the Israeli practice of
administrative detention, said Tuesday that "the more [the Israelis torture me, the stronger and more determined I become." Adnan, 37, made the comments to the chief lawyer of the Palestinian prisoner’s society Jawad Bulous, who was visiting him at Israel’s Assaf Harofeh medical center. Bulous said that "new dangerous symptoms" had appeared indicating that Adnan's health has seriously deteriorated. "He suffers severe pains all over his body with blue spots on his shoulder and clear speaking problems."
Bulous said that despite Adnan’s sufferings, there has so far been no discussion about his case, although he said officers from the Israeli prison service visited Adnan on Monday to see how dangerous his condition was. "Despite his complaints about detention conditions in hospital, wardens made these conditions worse by fixing a curtain at the outer door of his room and three wardens were sent to his room while his hand and his leg were tied to his bed," said Bulous. Adnan also told the lawyer that a delegation representing the International Committee of the Red Cross had attempted to visit him several days ago, but that they canceled the visit after Israeli officers insisted on attending and keeping Adnan tied to the bed. On Friday, the director of the prisoner's society, Rafat Hamduna, said that Adnan's weight was dropping to dangerous levels and he was no longer
able to stand up or move.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765991

 Israel seeks force-feeding powers as hunger striker enters danger zone
< http://972mag.com/israel-seeks-force-feeding-powers-as-hunger-striker-enters-danger-zone/107901/>
+972 mag 16 June by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man -- The head of the Israeli
Medical Association says he will instruct physicians to ignore the new law
if it is passed, saying it contradicts medical ethics -- *The Israeli
parliament is expected to soon vote on a bill that would permit authorities
to force feed Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike; the cabinet gave the
measure its seal of approval on Sunday. Although no direct correlation has
been shown, the move comes as Israel/Palestine’s most famous repeat hunger
striker, Khader Adnan, has gone more than 40 days without food or
nutrients. Adnan is protesting being held under administrative detention,
which means he has no access to due process, has not formally been accused
of any crime, and has no way of defending himself. He is currently being
held in a hospital in central Israel where he is reportedly shackled to his
bed and is refusing to be treated by hospital medical staff. Adnan has said
he will only agree to be treated by a doctor from Physicians for Human
Rights Israel (PHR), who is expected to see him on Wednesday 17th. Force feeding hunger strikers is extremely inhumane and painful for the "patient", described by the ACLU
< http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-prisoners-rights-human-rights/video-yasiin-bey-mos-def-undergoes-force>
as “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.” In the *video above Yasiin
Bey (aka Mos Def) volunteers to undergo the “treatment”   ... By force feeding hunger striking Palestinian prisoners,Israel hopes to undercut the only non-violent path prisoners have to protest against their treatment and denial of due process. Hunger strikers have
gained significant support on the Palestinian street, and Israeli authorities have long warned that letting high-profile hunger strikers die could spark unrest. Israeli politicians also believe that Israel would face international pressure over its practice of administrative detention if
hunger strikes go on for too long. Opposition to the bill came from an unexpected corner this week when former foreign minister MK Avigdor Lieberman said his party, which is in the opposition, would oppose the bill.  “[Israel] should learn from what happened to the Irish underground during the time of Margaret Thatcher,” Haaretz quoted
< http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.661301> 
well.”