|
|
Dawabsha family, july 31 2015 burned by settlers |
29 july 2019
The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in his latest weekly report , that the Israeli occupation authorities continue the policy of ethnic cleansing and demolishing houses of Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem and its surroundings, ignoring all warnings issued by the UN, international groups and human rights organizations covered by the high court, demolished 100 apartments in Wadi Al-Homs being close to the Annexation Wall.
Worth mentioning here that the ICJ legal opinion issued on July 9th, 2004 affirmed that Israel violates the International Law and called for the removal of the wall as well as repairing damages of official and public institutions and departments, including village and municipal councils.
The buildings in question that were demolished owned by Ghaleb Abu Hadwan, Ali Hamadeh, Na’im Muslim, Ala ‘Amira, Akram Zawahra, Bilal Al-Kiswani, Rafat Obaidat, Jafar Abu Humaid, Tariq Al-ahamid and Moh’d Idris Abu Tair.
It should be noted that this area, which has been demolished by the Israeli occupation authorities fall within the areas A, taking into account that the buildings have obtained all the necessary permits, with an area estimated by 300 donums.
On the other hand, the demolition was met with widespread condemnation by humanitarian officials, Jamie McGoldrick, UNRWA Director of West Bank, Gwyn Lewis and the head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, James Henin, they asserted that Israel’s actions violated international humanitarian law, and that the policy pursued by Israel in the destruction of Palestinian property is not in line with the obligations imposed by international humanitarian law, especially the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949.
With the endless US support for the occupation government and the settlers, the USA prevented an attempt by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa to issue a statement from the UN Security Council condemning the demolition of Palestinian homes.
On the other hand, the National Bureau welcomed McGoldrick, Lewis, Henin, Lenk and EU missions stances, which condemned the policy of demolishing Palestinian homes, and called on Israel to respect its obligations considering it as the occupying power.
The international community called on the ICC to invite General Prosecutor, Fatu Bensuda to refer the crimes of the demolition of Palestinian homes and crimes of ethnic cleansing to the judicial branch of the court as well as opening an immediate investigation. Within the same context, it warned Israel of demolishing Al-Khan Al-Ahmar village before the Knesset elections, which will be held on Sep. 17th.
Last week, the settler movement” Regaim” published large ads in the newspapers, under the headline “State of Terror Behind the Curve,” claiming that the Palestinians built 28651 new buildings in area C, which is under Israeli control according to Oslo Accord. The “Regaim” movement is calling on ministers and Knesset members to begin working immediately to prevent the establishment of a terrorists state.
Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman said that Al-Khan Al-Ahmmar is “an indication of Palestinian Authority’s control of the state’s land. On July 10, Netanyahu stated that Israel under his leadership will not repeat the mistakes of the past. “
Since 2017, the Israeli occupation authorities have facilitated the construction of about 16 new settlement outposts scattered throughout the West Bank, from the southern Hebron hills to the northern Jordan Valley, in the Gush Etzion settlement blocs between Bethlehem and Hebron, and from Matei Binyamin from Jerusalem to Ariel settlement on Salfit lands. Construction is being carried out on land that the occupation considered as “state land”, although decisions have been issued to demolish some of them, but not implemented.
The Peace Now Movement conducted a survey of 16 settlement outposts, noting that since 2012, 31 new illegal outposts have been established, including 21 farms that occupy large areas for grazing cattles. Fifteen outposts were also legitimized and turned into settlements or neighborhoods in existing settlements. In the meantime, the occupation authorities are legitimizing 35 settlement outposts.
Within the context of supporting the Israeli judiciary in general and the settlers in particular, the Judge of the Israeli Lod Court attempted to put pressure on the Israeli Attorney General’s Office to amend the indictment against a settler involved in the burning and murder of Dawabsha family in Duma, Nablus, at the end of July 2015.
Worth mentioning here that the ICJ legal opinion issued on July 9th, 2004 affirmed that Israel violates the International Law and called for the removal of the wall as well as repairing damages of official and public institutions and departments, including village and municipal councils.
The buildings in question that were demolished owned by Ghaleb Abu Hadwan, Ali Hamadeh, Na’im Muslim, Ala ‘Amira, Akram Zawahra, Bilal Al-Kiswani, Rafat Obaidat, Jafar Abu Humaid, Tariq Al-ahamid and Moh’d Idris Abu Tair.
It should be noted that this area, which has been demolished by the Israeli occupation authorities fall within the areas A, taking into account that the buildings have obtained all the necessary permits, with an area estimated by 300 donums.
On the other hand, the demolition was met with widespread condemnation by humanitarian officials, Jamie McGoldrick, UNRWA Director of West Bank, Gwyn Lewis and the head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, James Henin, they asserted that Israel’s actions violated international humanitarian law, and that the policy pursued by Israel in the destruction of Palestinian property is not in line with the obligations imposed by international humanitarian law, especially the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949.
With the endless US support for the occupation government and the settlers, the USA prevented an attempt by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa to issue a statement from the UN Security Council condemning the demolition of Palestinian homes.
On the other hand, the National Bureau welcomed McGoldrick, Lewis, Henin, Lenk and EU missions stances, which condemned the policy of demolishing Palestinian homes, and called on Israel to respect its obligations considering it as the occupying power.
The international community called on the ICC to invite General Prosecutor, Fatu Bensuda to refer the crimes of the demolition of Palestinian homes and crimes of ethnic cleansing to the judicial branch of the court as well as opening an immediate investigation. Within the same context, it warned Israel of demolishing Al-Khan Al-Ahmar village before the Knesset elections, which will be held on Sep. 17th.
Last week, the settler movement” Regaim” published large ads in the newspapers, under the headline “State of Terror Behind the Curve,” claiming that the Palestinians built 28651 new buildings in area C, which is under Israeli control according to Oslo Accord. The “Regaim” movement is calling on ministers and Knesset members to begin working immediately to prevent the establishment of a terrorists state.
Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman said that Al-Khan Al-Ahmmar is “an indication of Palestinian Authority’s control of the state’s land. On July 10, Netanyahu stated that Israel under his leadership will not repeat the mistakes of the past. “
Since 2017, the Israeli occupation authorities have facilitated the construction of about 16 new settlement outposts scattered throughout the West Bank, from the southern Hebron hills to the northern Jordan Valley, in the Gush Etzion settlement blocs between Bethlehem and Hebron, and from Matei Binyamin from Jerusalem to Ariel settlement on Salfit lands. Construction is being carried out on land that the occupation considered as “state land”, although decisions have been issued to demolish some of them, but not implemented.
The Peace Now Movement conducted a survey of 16 settlement outposts, noting that since 2012, 31 new illegal outposts have been established, including 21 farms that occupy large areas for grazing cattles. Fifteen outposts were also legitimized and turned into settlements or neighborhoods in existing settlements. In the meantime, the occupation authorities are legitimizing 35 settlement outposts.
Within the context of supporting the Israeli judiciary in general and the settlers in particular, the Judge of the Israeli Lod Court attempted to put pressure on the Israeli Attorney General’s Office to amend the indictment against a settler involved in the burning and murder of Dawabsha family in Duma, Nablus, at the end of July 2015.
25 july 2019
Tariq Zabania 7
This violence will only stop with the end of racist ideology that rationalizes murder
Seven-year-old Tariq Zabania from Al-Khalil (Hebron) was killed on the spot when an Israeli Jewish settler ran his car over him on July 15.
Little Tariq’s photograph, lying face down on the road, was circulated on social media. His untimely death is heartbreaking.
Tariq’s innocent blood must not go in vain. For this to happen, we are morally obliged to understand the nature of Jewish settler violence, which cannot be viewed in isolation from the inherent racism in Israeli society as a whole.
We are all often guilty of perpetuating the myth that militant Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories are a different and distinct category from other Israelis who live beyond the so-called “Green Line”.
Undoubtedly, the violent mentality that propels Israeli society, wherever it is located, is not governed by imaginary lines but by a racist ideology, of which disciples can be found everywhere in Israel, not just in the illegal Jewish colonies of the West Bank.
Israel is a sick society and its ailment is not confined to the 1967 Occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
While Palestinians are imprisoned behind walls, fences and enclosed regions, Israelis are a different kind of prisoners, too. “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness,” wrote [pdf] the late anti-Apartheid hero and long-time prisoner, Nelson Mandela.
It is this racism and bigotry that makes Tariq invisible to most Israelis. For most Israelis, Palestinian children do not exist as real human beings, deserving of a dignified life of freedom. This callousness is a defining quality, common among all sectors of Israeli society - right, left and center.
An example is the terrorist attack carried out by Jewish settlers against the Palestinian Dawabshe family in the village of Duma, in the northern West Bank in July 2015, resulting in the death of Riham and Sa’ed, along with their 18-months old son, Ali. The only member of the family spared that horrific death was Ahmad, 4, who was severely burned.
This cruelty was further accentuated in the episodes that followed this criminal incident. Later that year, Israeli wedding guests were caught on tape while dancing with knives, chanting in celebration of the death of the Palestinian baby.
Three years later, as the Dawabshe family members were leaving an Israeli court, accompanied by Arab parliamentarians, they were greeted by a crowd of Israelis chanting “Where is Ali? Ali’s dead” and “Ali’s on the grill.”
The passing of time only cemented Israelis’ hatred of a little child whose only crime was his Palestinian identity.
The only survivor, Ahmad, was punished thrice: when he lost his whole family; with his severe burns and when he was denied compensation. The then Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, simply resolved that the boy was not a “terror victim.” Case closed.
Although the Dawabshes were killed by Jewish settlers, the Israeli court, army and political system all conspired to ensure the protection of the killers from any accountability.
This was no different in the case of Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, who, on March 24, 2016, killed an unconscious Palestinian man in Hebron. In his defense, Azaria insisted that he was following army manual instructions in dealing with alleged attackers, while top Israeli government officials came out in droves to support him.
When Azaria was triumphantly released following only nine months in jail, he was hailed by many Israelis as a hero. Possibly, he will have a successful career in politics should he decide to pursue that route. In fact, he was courted by Israeli politicians to help them garner more votes in April’s general elections.
Condemning solely Jewish settlers while sparing the rest of Israeli society is equivalent to political whitewashing, one that presents Israel as a healthy society prior to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This view presents Jewish settlements as a cancerous disease that is eating up at the otherwise proud and noble achievements of early Zionists.
It is convenient to classify Jewish settlers as rightwing extremists and to link them with Israel’s ruling right-wing political parties. But history proves otherwise.
It was Israel’s Labor Party that created the settlement projects originally, soon after the colonization of the West Bank. Some of Israel’s largest, and most militant colonial enterprises, in occupied East Jerusalem - Ramat Eshkol, Gilo, Ramot and Armon Hanatziv - are all the creation of the Labor Party, not the Likud.
Neither is the ‘settler’ a new phenomenon. Historically, the early settlers who preceded the establishment of Israel in 1948 were idealized as true Zionists, celebrated as “cultural heroes” - the Jewish redeemers, who eventually ethnically cleansed historic Palestine from its native inhabitants.
“The original Labor movement,” wrote Amotz Asa-El in The Jerusalem Post, “never thought settling beyond the Green Line was illegal, much less immoral.” If there was any debate in Israel regarding settlements, it was never truly concerned with the issue of legitimacy or legality, but practicality: whether these colonial projects can be sustained or defended.
Protecting the settlements is now the overriding task of the Israeli occupation army. The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, which monitors the conduct of the Israeli army and Jewish settlers in the West Bank, explained the nature of this relationship in a report published in November 2017.
“Israeli security forces not only allow settlers to harm Palestinians and their property as a matter of course – they often provide the perpetrators escort and back-up. In some cases, they even join in on the attack,” B’Tselem wrote.
Another Israeli organization, Yesh Din, concluded in a report published earlier that 85% of cases involving settler violence against Palestinians are never pursued by law. Of the remaining cases, only 1.9% led to conviction, which is likely to be inconsequential.
Jewish settler violence should not be analyzed separately from the violence meted out by the Israeli army, but seen within the larger context of the violent Zionist ideology that governs Israeli society entirely.
This violence can only end with the end of the racist ideology that rationalizes murder, like that of little Tariq Zabania.
This violence will only stop with the end of racist ideology that rationalizes murder
Seven-year-old Tariq Zabania from Al-Khalil (Hebron) was killed on the spot when an Israeli Jewish settler ran his car over him on July 15.
Little Tariq’s photograph, lying face down on the road, was circulated on social media. His untimely death is heartbreaking.
Tariq’s innocent blood must not go in vain. For this to happen, we are morally obliged to understand the nature of Jewish settler violence, which cannot be viewed in isolation from the inherent racism in Israeli society as a whole.
We are all often guilty of perpetuating the myth that militant Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories are a different and distinct category from other Israelis who live beyond the so-called “Green Line”.
Undoubtedly, the violent mentality that propels Israeli society, wherever it is located, is not governed by imaginary lines but by a racist ideology, of which disciples can be found everywhere in Israel, not just in the illegal Jewish colonies of the West Bank.
Israel is a sick society and its ailment is not confined to the 1967 Occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
While Palestinians are imprisoned behind walls, fences and enclosed regions, Israelis are a different kind of prisoners, too. “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness,” wrote [pdf] the late anti-Apartheid hero and long-time prisoner, Nelson Mandela.
It is this racism and bigotry that makes Tariq invisible to most Israelis. For most Israelis, Palestinian children do not exist as real human beings, deserving of a dignified life of freedom. This callousness is a defining quality, common among all sectors of Israeli society - right, left and center.
An example is the terrorist attack carried out by Jewish settlers against the Palestinian Dawabshe family in the village of Duma, in the northern West Bank in July 2015, resulting in the death of Riham and Sa’ed, along with their 18-months old son, Ali. The only member of the family spared that horrific death was Ahmad, 4, who was severely burned.
This cruelty was further accentuated in the episodes that followed this criminal incident. Later that year, Israeli wedding guests were caught on tape while dancing with knives, chanting in celebration of the death of the Palestinian baby.
Three years later, as the Dawabshe family members were leaving an Israeli court, accompanied by Arab parliamentarians, they were greeted by a crowd of Israelis chanting “Where is Ali? Ali’s dead” and “Ali’s on the grill.”
The passing of time only cemented Israelis’ hatred of a little child whose only crime was his Palestinian identity.
The only survivor, Ahmad, was punished thrice: when he lost his whole family; with his severe burns and when he was denied compensation. The then Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, simply resolved that the boy was not a “terror victim.” Case closed.
Although the Dawabshes were killed by Jewish settlers, the Israeli court, army and political system all conspired to ensure the protection of the killers from any accountability.
This was no different in the case of Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, who, on March 24, 2016, killed an unconscious Palestinian man in Hebron. In his defense, Azaria insisted that he was following army manual instructions in dealing with alleged attackers, while top Israeli government officials came out in droves to support him.
When Azaria was triumphantly released following only nine months in jail, he was hailed by many Israelis as a hero. Possibly, he will have a successful career in politics should he decide to pursue that route. In fact, he was courted by Israeli politicians to help them garner more votes in April’s general elections.
Condemning solely Jewish settlers while sparing the rest of Israeli society is equivalent to political whitewashing, one that presents Israel as a healthy society prior to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This view presents Jewish settlements as a cancerous disease that is eating up at the otherwise proud and noble achievements of early Zionists.
It is convenient to classify Jewish settlers as rightwing extremists and to link them with Israel’s ruling right-wing political parties. But history proves otherwise.
It was Israel’s Labor Party that created the settlement projects originally, soon after the colonization of the West Bank. Some of Israel’s largest, and most militant colonial enterprises, in occupied East Jerusalem - Ramat Eshkol, Gilo, Ramot and Armon Hanatziv - are all the creation of the Labor Party, not the Likud.
Neither is the ‘settler’ a new phenomenon. Historically, the early settlers who preceded the establishment of Israel in 1948 were idealized as true Zionists, celebrated as “cultural heroes” - the Jewish redeemers, who eventually ethnically cleansed historic Palestine from its native inhabitants.
“The original Labor movement,” wrote Amotz Asa-El in The Jerusalem Post, “never thought settling beyond the Green Line was illegal, much less immoral.” If there was any debate in Israel regarding settlements, it was never truly concerned with the issue of legitimacy or legality, but practicality: whether these colonial projects can be sustained or defended.
Protecting the settlements is now the overriding task of the Israeli occupation army. The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, which monitors the conduct of the Israeli army and Jewish settlers in the West Bank, explained the nature of this relationship in a report published in November 2017.
“Israeli security forces not only allow settlers to harm Palestinians and their property as a matter of course – they often provide the perpetrators escort and back-up. In some cases, they even join in on the attack,” B’Tselem wrote.
Another Israeli organization, Yesh Din, concluded in a report published earlier that 85% of cases involving settler violence against Palestinians are never pursued by law. Of the remaining cases, only 1.9% led to conviction, which is likely to be inconsequential.
Jewish settler violence should not be analyzed separately from the violence meted out by the Israeli army, but seen within the larger context of the violent Zionist ideology that governs Israeli society entirely.
This violence can only end with the end of the racist ideology that rationalizes murder, like that of little Tariq Zabania.
26 june 2019
Amiram Ben Uliel in court, June 26, 2019 video
Lawyers for Amiram Ben Uliel say his silence protests partial approval for confession exacted under torture; defendant's mother-in-law says 'Arabs' actually behind arson attack Riham and Saad Dawabshe and their 18-month-old son
The Israeli accused of murdering three members of a Palestinian family in a 2015 arson attack on their home refused Wednesday to testify in his trial.
Amiram Ben Uliel is charged with killing 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe and his parents Riham and Sa'ad when their home in the West Bank village of Duma was firebombed in July 2015. The family's other son, four-year-old Ahmed, suffered major burns over more than half of his body.
According to the indictment, Ben Uliel threw a Molotov cocktail into the parents' bedroom, deliberately intending to cause death. He has also been charged with two counts of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a crime motivated by racism.
Ben-Uliel, who was 21 at the time of the murders, declined to present his version of events at the trial in Lod District Court.
His lawyer Asher Ohayon of the Honenu organization, which offers legal services to Jews accused of terrorism, told the court that "the decision not to testify is an expression of his sense of injustice… when the court dismissed only part of his confession, even though it was made due to the torture that preceded it."
The head of the panel of judges, Ruth Lorch, asked whether Ben Uliel understood the significance of his refusal to testify, and his defense attorney said that he did.
The refusal by a defendant to testify at a criminal trial could potentially strengthen the evidence against them.
Ben Uliel's other Honenu attorney, Yitzhak Bam, said: "We disagree with the decision to accept parts of the confession. It was made as a result of torture, and I believe that it would be unfair to require the defendant to relate to this confession, which was not made voluntarily but rather out of fear of torture, on the witness stand."
The defendant's mother-in-law testified in court that the Arab assailants were behind the attack on the Dawabshe family, and not Ben Uliel.
"I know that Amiram is not connected to any terrorist incident," she said. "I am convinced to this day that the attack in Duma was carried out by Arabs."
During her own testimony, Ben Uliel's wife Orian told the court that her husband had been with her at the time of the attack.
"We lived in a truck at the time," she said. "It was never the case that Amiram did not return in the evening and left me alone in the house."
"We went to sleep together like every night. When I woke up at 4am I did not know what time it was, I looked at my phone and went back to sleep. At 5am I woke Amiram up, I left the house and told him 'look after the girl'. Any suggestion that he could have gone out at night and come back is utterly absurd. Our door was a makeshift one and very creaky; there was no way he could have gone out without me waking up. "
Ben Uliel's alleged accomplice in the attack, who is unnamed due to the fact that he was a minor at the time, last month signed a plea deal confessing to conspiracy to commit a crime motivated by racism, arson, corruption, racial prejudice, and racially motivated harm. The State Prosecutor's Office is set to request a five-and-a-half year sentence.
Lawyers for Amiram Ben Uliel say his silence protests partial approval for confession exacted under torture; defendant's mother-in-law says 'Arabs' actually behind arson attack Riham and Saad Dawabshe and their 18-month-old son
The Israeli accused of murdering three members of a Palestinian family in a 2015 arson attack on their home refused Wednesday to testify in his trial.
Amiram Ben Uliel is charged with killing 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe and his parents Riham and Sa'ad when their home in the West Bank village of Duma was firebombed in July 2015. The family's other son, four-year-old Ahmed, suffered major burns over more than half of his body.
According to the indictment, Ben Uliel threw a Molotov cocktail into the parents' bedroom, deliberately intending to cause death. He has also been charged with two counts of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a crime motivated by racism.
Ben-Uliel, who was 21 at the time of the murders, declined to present his version of events at the trial in Lod District Court.
His lawyer Asher Ohayon of the Honenu organization, which offers legal services to Jews accused of terrorism, told the court that "the decision not to testify is an expression of his sense of injustice… when the court dismissed only part of his confession, even though it was made due to the torture that preceded it."
The head of the panel of judges, Ruth Lorch, asked whether Ben Uliel understood the significance of his refusal to testify, and his defense attorney said that he did.
The refusal by a defendant to testify at a criminal trial could potentially strengthen the evidence against them.
Ben Uliel's other Honenu attorney, Yitzhak Bam, said: "We disagree with the decision to accept parts of the confession. It was made as a result of torture, and I believe that it would be unfair to require the defendant to relate to this confession, which was not made voluntarily but rather out of fear of torture, on the witness stand."
The defendant's mother-in-law testified in court that the Arab assailants were behind the attack on the Dawabshe family, and not Ben Uliel.
"I know that Amiram is not connected to any terrorist incident," she said. "I am convinced to this day that the attack in Duma was carried out by Arabs."
During her own testimony, Ben Uliel's wife Orian told the court that her husband had been with her at the time of the attack.
"We lived in a truck at the time," she said. "It was never the case that Amiram did not return in the evening and left me alone in the house."
"We went to sleep together like every night. When I woke up at 4am I did not know what time it was, I looked at my phone and went back to sleep. At 5am I woke Amiram up, I left the house and told him 'look after the girl'. Any suggestion that he could have gone out at night and come back is utterly absurd. Our door was a makeshift one and very creaky; there was no way he could have gone out without me waking up. "
Ben Uliel's alleged accomplice in the attack, who is unnamed due to the fact that he was a minor at the time, last month signed a plea deal confessing to conspiracy to commit a crime motivated by racism, arson, corruption, racial prejudice, and racially motivated harm. The State Prosecutor's Office is set to request a five-and-a-half year sentence.
