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one of his killers Yosef Ben-David
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Mohamed Abu Khudeir, 16, june 12 2014 Burned alive by settlers |
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.
4 july 2018
Relatives of Mohammed Abu Khdeir hold pictures of him outside his home in Jerusalem (photo: the Guardian)
The 2nd of July, 2018, marks four years to the day since the kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy from Shu’fat, East Jerusalem. The shocking nature of his murder and its context, occurring only 6 days before the 2014 Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza, make it a painful memory for Palestinians.
Mohammed was waiting for friends to eat the pre-dawn meal for Ramadan, and was outside his home at 3:45 in the morning. He was dragged into a car by two or three settlers, screaming, “Father, save me!” The four settlers who took part (two of whom were minors) then proceeded to beat Mohammed, covering him in petrol and setting him on fire. The autopsy confirmed he had inhaled the burning material, confirming that he was still alive when he was set on fire, and that he suffered internal as well as external burns covering 90% of his body.
While many in the Israeli government expressed condolences against the violence, the boy’s family was not yet at an end. His cousin Tariq, a U.S. citizen, was abducted and beaten by Israeli police in East Jerusalem only a few days later. He recalled: “They hit me, and they kept hitting me, and then I fell asleep, and then I woke up in the hospital.” The police said that he had been involved in violence, but journalists noted that there was no mention of this accusation at the court hearing. He was 15 at the time.
While the killers were eventually sentenced (although the minors may be released in under 15 years), the horrific incident must not be viewed as an isolated outbreak. Instead, it should be located within
a collection of sentiments coming from the settler community, the military, the media and the government of Israel. The inevitable result is terrorism against Palestinians. From Mohammed’s killer, Ben-David, to the settlers who spat at the Abu Khdeir family when they arrived for court, to even the Israeli government, the Palestinians and their children continue to be viewed as “little snakes” and “wild beasts”, and legitimate targets for violence. At 16, Mohammed Abu Khdeir was training to be an electrician.
The 2nd of July, 2018, marks four years to the day since the kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy from Shu’fat, East Jerusalem. The shocking nature of his murder and its context, occurring only 6 days before the 2014 Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza, make it a painful memory for Palestinians.
Mohammed was waiting for friends to eat the pre-dawn meal for Ramadan, and was outside his home at 3:45 in the morning. He was dragged into a car by two or three settlers, screaming, “Father, save me!” The four settlers who took part (two of whom were minors) then proceeded to beat Mohammed, covering him in petrol and setting him on fire. The autopsy confirmed he had inhaled the burning material, confirming that he was still alive when he was set on fire, and that he suffered internal as well as external burns covering 90% of his body.
While many in the Israeli government expressed condolences against the violence, the boy’s family was not yet at an end. His cousin Tariq, a U.S. citizen, was abducted and beaten by Israeli police in East Jerusalem only a few days later. He recalled: “They hit me, and they kept hitting me, and then I fell asleep, and then I woke up in the hospital.” The police said that he had been involved in violence, but journalists noted that there was no mention of this accusation at the court hearing. He was 15 at the time.
While the killers were eventually sentenced (although the minors may be released in under 15 years), the horrific incident must not be viewed as an isolated outbreak. Instead, it should be located within
a collection of sentiments coming from the settler community, the military, the media and the government of Israel. The inevitable result is terrorism against Palestinians. From Mohammed’s killer, Ben-David, to the settlers who spat at the Abu Khdeir family when they arrived for court, to even the Israeli government, the Palestinians and their children continue to be viewed as “little snakes” and “wild beasts”, and legitimate targets for violence. At 16, Mohammed Abu Khdeir was training to be an electrician.
24 apr 2018
Abu Khdeir's parents
Family of young Arab boy immolated in 2014 sues mastermind, 2 minors behind murder for NIS 5.5 million in torts claim; parents 'left with nothing after son's death,' suit alleges.
The family of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive by three Jewish terrorists, is suing his murderers for NIS 5.5 million in damages.
The main defendant, Yosef Haim Ben David, was sentenced to a life term plus 20 years in prison, while another defendant, a minor at the time of the murder, got a life sentence, and a third defendant, also a minor, was sentenced to 21 years.
In February, the High Court of Justice rejected the appeals filed by the three defendants of their punishment. Now that the criminal proceedings against them have concluded, the Abu Khdeir family can file their civil lawsuit.
The lawsuit by the victim's family stated, "There is no doubt there is no adequate compensation for such a needless and outrageous loss of a young man's life.
"This was done with the respondents' malicious intent to harm the deceased. They displayed indifference and cynicism in the face of the most horrible outcome of all—the death of the deceased in suffering and agony. They also did not spare the parents of the deceased, who were left with nothing after the death of their son.
"Courts in Israel have recognized the possibility of obliging a damager to pay punitive remuneration. Such remuneration is meant to serve as both a tool of education and deterrence."
In the Supreme Court's decision from two months ago to reject the defendants' appeal, Justice Yitzhak Amit wrote, "The murder may be termed a strategic terror attack that ignited Jerusalem in general and east Jerusalem specifically."
"The murder necessitates a harsh reckoning in Israeli society regarding the handling of racism and its various expressions, self-examination from the bottom up to excise it from the state's body," he added.
Hussein Abu Khdeir, Mohammed's father, welcomed the court's decision at the time, saying, "They burned not only Mohammed but an entire family. Their appeal to reduce their sentence drove me mad. Had they been given a lighter sentence, more such crimes would follow. I want Mohammed to be the last victim of such a crime."
"The murderers are like the Nazis who burned people," the father concluded.
The murder of Abu Khdeir in Shuafat in July 2014 ignited a wave of terrorism in Jerusalem. The young Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and then murdered by three Israelis after the funerals of Naftali Frenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach—whose own kidnapping and murder sparked an IDF operation to locate them in the same year.
A day before Abu Khdeir's kidnapping the three attempted to kidnap 7-year-old Musa Zalum while he was walking with his mother and two brothers in Beit Hanina. The three drove around from the Old City's Damascus Gate to Wadi al-Joz and Beit Hanina until finally settling on Shuafat.
They canvassed the neighborhood for about 20 minutes arguing amongst themselves on the question of who they should kidnap. "Let's kidnap a young man," one suggested. "A woman screams more than a man."
In the three's sentence by the Jerusalem District Court from two years ago, judges determined that the fact that the group's ringleader Ben David "worked on the first night to find a victim, and did so again on the second night, shows determination and a conscious, ideologically-motivated decision to exact revenge, rather than uncontrolled obsessiveness."
Family of young Arab boy immolated in 2014 sues mastermind, 2 minors behind murder for NIS 5.5 million in torts claim; parents 'left with nothing after son's death,' suit alleges.
The family of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive by three Jewish terrorists, is suing his murderers for NIS 5.5 million in damages.
The main defendant, Yosef Haim Ben David, was sentenced to a life term plus 20 years in prison, while another defendant, a minor at the time of the murder, got a life sentence, and a third defendant, also a minor, was sentenced to 21 years.
In February, the High Court of Justice rejected the appeals filed by the three defendants of their punishment. Now that the criminal proceedings against them have concluded, the Abu Khdeir family can file their civil lawsuit.
The lawsuit by the victim's family stated, "There is no doubt there is no adequate compensation for such a needless and outrageous loss of a young man's life.
"This was done with the respondents' malicious intent to harm the deceased. They displayed indifference and cynicism in the face of the most horrible outcome of all—the death of the deceased in suffering and agony. They also did not spare the parents of the deceased, who were left with nothing after the death of their son.
"Courts in Israel have recognized the possibility of obliging a damager to pay punitive remuneration. Such remuneration is meant to serve as both a tool of education and deterrence."
In the Supreme Court's decision from two months ago to reject the defendants' appeal, Justice Yitzhak Amit wrote, "The murder may be termed a strategic terror attack that ignited Jerusalem in general and east Jerusalem specifically."
"The murder necessitates a harsh reckoning in Israeli society regarding the handling of racism and its various expressions, self-examination from the bottom up to excise it from the state's body," he added.
Hussein Abu Khdeir, Mohammed's father, welcomed the court's decision at the time, saying, "They burned not only Mohammed but an entire family. Their appeal to reduce their sentence drove me mad. Had they been given a lighter sentence, more such crimes would follow. I want Mohammed to be the last victim of such a crime."
"The murderers are like the Nazis who burned people," the father concluded.
The murder of Abu Khdeir in Shuafat in July 2014 ignited a wave of terrorism in Jerusalem. The young Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and then murdered by three Israelis after the funerals of Naftali Frenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach—whose own kidnapping and murder sparked an IDF operation to locate them in the same year.
A day before Abu Khdeir's kidnapping the three attempted to kidnap 7-year-old Musa Zalum while he was walking with his mother and two brothers in Beit Hanina. The three drove around from the Old City's Damascus Gate to Wadi al-Joz and Beit Hanina until finally settling on Shuafat.
They canvassed the neighborhood for about 20 minutes arguing amongst themselves on the question of who they should kidnap. "Let's kidnap a young man," one suggested. "A woman screams more than a man."
In the three's sentence by the Jerusalem District Court from two years ago, judges determined that the fact that the group's ringleader Ben David "worked on the first night to find a victim, and did so again on the second night, shows determination and a conscious, ideologically-motivated decision to exact revenge, rather than uncontrolled obsessiveness."
Facts on the ground show that Israel’s investment in the occupied West Bank is much more than the one inside the occupied 1948 borders. Within this context, the Israeli government allocated NIS 417,000,000 for developing settlements, in the Dead Sea area, in order to attract more settlers, expand the settlements outside the Green Line and Judaize it.
According to the above information, the budget is not allocated to remedy the Dead Sea drought, but to strengthen and support the settlement outside of the Green Line, within the so-called “Regional Council Megillot”, north of the Dead Sea, which means expansion under the slogan of development of tourism and maintenance of road no. 90.
In turn, Head of the Tamar Regional Council and a member of Kibbutz Ein Gedi, Dov Latinov, said the decision will serve as a lifeline to save the Dead Sea and to further develop the settlements there, as the sea is an irreplaceable national treasure,” after the government decision.
According to the PNN, the Jordan Valley region is considered part of the Afro-Asian crater pit, one of the lowest in the world, located at a low of about 380 miles below sea level. The Palestinian Jordan Valley stretches along the eastern side of the West Bank, from Ein Gedi (the Dead Sea) southward, to the so-called “Tal Makhkhoz”, on the borders of Bisan, northward inside the Green Line, and from the Jordan River in the east to the eastern slopes of the West Bank of the Jordan Valley in the west. This area accounts for 28.5% of the West Bank 2,400 sq km. Settler profits through investment in the northern Jordan Valley amount to $ 650,000,000, annually.
At the same time, the attacks and violations of the “pay the price gangs”, against Palestinians and their properties, escalated under the protection of the occupation government and silent encouragement from the American administration, during the past week. These terrorist groups carried out several attacks, including those perpetrated against the the eastern village of Lubban, attacking citizens’ property and assaulting farmers from the village of Madma, during the plowing of their land, and forcing them to leave by way of tear gas bombs.
Moreover, they assaulted the villagers of Al-Tawana in Mafassar Yatta, threw rocks at them, attacked a school bus in Yatta, resulting in the injury of 13-year-old Ahmed Abu Aram, as well as assaults on students in the Salameh neighborhood, in the Old City of Hebron, puncturing the tires of 45 vehicles in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, and cutting down about 100 olive fruitful trees in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and 15 others in the Urief village.
For their part, settlers launched a campaign on Facebook, calling for the killing of Palestinians, to slaughter and burn them, calling hospital maternity wards and threatening to cut off the heads of recently born babies. Another said, “We must revenge for every Jew injured or killed.”
Within this context, the occupation Attorney General decided to abandon the confessions of the perpetrators of the arson attack on the Dawabsha family, in the village of Douma, south of the city of Nablus, 2 years ago, under the pretext that the confessions were illegal because they were obtained in an unusual way. Moreover, the Israeli Kern Keimet Fund decided not to allow the establishment of a memorial for Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who died after he was burned alive, in a crime committed by 3 Israeli settlers in July of 2014, in a forest around Jerusalem.
On the other hand, the 3rd annual report of the Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies (MADAR), on the “Register of racist and supportive laws for the occupation and settlement,” finds that the situation has been escalated, and even accelerated, by the Israeli right to enact legislation aimed at consecrating Israeli control of as much of the West Bank as possible.
During the 3 years of the parliamentary mandate of the Knesset, 185 laws were enacted, including 54 that were passed or entered into legislation. This clearly implies the involvement of the Knesset in imposing racist legislation aimed at restricting Palestinian citizens and controlling their land and property. Pal Legislation on the Judaization of Jerusalem and legislation on settlement expansion, since the beginning of the Knesset’s 20 mandate, has dealt with 43 laws for the direct and indirect annexation of the occupied West Bank or settlements.
The most important laws that have finally been passed are the Land Grab and Land Privileges Law, the Law for the Consolidation of Jerusalem, the Israeli Higher Education Law on Settlements Institutes, the University in Ariel, and 2 other academic colleges.
The National Bureau said that the positions of US officials helped in radicalizing the behavior of Israelis in general, and settlers in particular, and pointed out that the new escalation in attacks and violations of the terrorist “paying the price gangs” would not have continued seriously in the last few days and weeks, otherwise.
According to the above information, the budget is not allocated to remedy the Dead Sea drought, but to strengthen and support the settlement outside of the Green Line, within the so-called “Regional Council Megillot”, north of the Dead Sea, which means expansion under the slogan of development of tourism and maintenance of road no. 90.
In turn, Head of the Tamar Regional Council and a member of Kibbutz Ein Gedi, Dov Latinov, said the decision will serve as a lifeline to save the Dead Sea and to further develop the settlements there, as the sea is an irreplaceable national treasure,” after the government decision.
According to the PNN, the Jordan Valley region is considered part of the Afro-Asian crater pit, one of the lowest in the world, located at a low of about 380 miles below sea level. The Palestinian Jordan Valley stretches along the eastern side of the West Bank, from Ein Gedi (the Dead Sea) southward, to the so-called “Tal Makhkhoz”, on the borders of Bisan, northward inside the Green Line, and from the Jordan River in the east to the eastern slopes of the West Bank of the Jordan Valley in the west. This area accounts for 28.5% of the West Bank 2,400 sq km. Settler profits through investment in the northern Jordan Valley amount to $ 650,000,000, annually.
At the same time, the attacks and violations of the “pay the price gangs”, against Palestinians and their properties, escalated under the protection of the occupation government and silent encouragement from the American administration, during the past week. These terrorist groups carried out several attacks, including those perpetrated against the the eastern village of Lubban, attacking citizens’ property and assaulting farmers from the village of Madma, during the plowing of their land, and forcing them to leave by way of tear gas bombs.
Moreover, they assaulted the villagers of Al-Tawana in Mafassar Yatta, threw rocks at them, attacked a school bus in Yatta, resulting in the injury of 13-year-old Ahmed Abu Aram, as well as assaults on students in the Salameh neighborhood, in the Old City of Hebron, puncturing the tires of 45 vehicles in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, and cutting down about 100 olive fruitful trees in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and 15 others in the Urief village.
For their part, settlers launched a campaign on Facebook, calling for the killing of Palestinians, to slaughter and burn them, calling hospital maternity wards and threatening to cut off the heads of recently born babies. Another said, “We must revenge for every Jew injured or killed.”
Within this context, the occupation Attorney General decided to abandon the confessions of the perpetrators of the arson attack on the Dawabsha family, in the village of Douma, south of the city of Nablus, 2 years ago, under the pretext that the confessions were illegal because they were obtained in an unusual way. Moreover, the Israeli Kern Keimet Fund decided not to allow the establishment of a memorial for Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who died after he was burned alive, in a crime committed by 3 Israeli settlers in July of 2014, in a forest around Jerusalem.
On the other hand, the 3rd annual report of the Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies (MADAR), on the “Register of racist and supportive laws for the occupation and settlement,” finds that the situation has been escalated, and even accelerated, by the Israeli right to enact legislation aimed at consecrating Israeli control of as much of the West Bank as possible.
During the 3 years of the parliamentary mandate of the Knesset, 185 laws were enacted, including 54 that were passed or entered into legislation. This clearly implies the involvement of the Knesset in imposing racist legislation aimed at restricting Palestinian citizens and controlling their land and property. Pal Legislation on the Judaization of Jerusalem and legislation on settlement expansion, since the beginning of the Knesset’s 20 mandate, has dealt with 43 laws for the direct and indirect annexation of the occupied West Bank or settlements.
The most important laws that have finally been passed are the Land Grab and Land Privileges Law, the Law for the Consolidation of Jerusalem, the Israeli Higher Education Law on Settlements Institutes, the University in Ariel, and 2 other academic colleges.
The National Bureau said that the positions of US officials helped in radicalizing the behavior of Israelis in general, and settlers in particular, and pointed out that the new escalation in attacks and violations of the terrorist “paying the price gangs” would not have continued seriously in the last few days and weeks, otherwise.
