30 june 2011
15 year old injured after attack with stones in Hebron
On Sunday June 25, 15 year old Muhammed Jabari was attacked by settlers throwing stones in Hebron, causing injuries to his wrist and leg.
The land and house of the Jabari family is situated between the illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha’avot in east Hebron, making the family exposed to harassment and attacks by settlers as reported previously. On Sunday settlers from Givat Ha’avot took one duck and four goslings from the land of the Jabari family, stealing them away to the illegal settlement. Muhammed and his younger brother were allowed by settler guards to go inside and get the birds.
Bystanders were prevented from filming by soldiers guarding the illegal settlement. They returned after they heard the 15 year old boy screaming in pain. Approximately seven teenage settlers threw stones at him, injuring his wrist and his leg.
No one interfered when the boy was attacked. At least one soldier was watching the attack, and there are several surveillance cameras covering the area. Additionally, thesite of the attack is about two minutes away from the Israeli police station of Kiryat Arba. Muhammed was taken to hospital after the attack.
Settler arson attack in the village of Burin
On Thursday 30 June at 11:00 AM, the villagers of Burin reported that a fire was started by a group of settlers in one of the village´s crop field in the hills.
According to a villager who witnessed the events, Walid M. N. noted that before the fire began to burn, approximately 50 settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, including some children, were seen atop the hill which is just situated in the southwest portion of the village.
ISM was told that many villagers went up to the blaze to try to stop it, but the Nablus Fire Department had to be called afterwards to put the fire out.
When ISM went to see where the attack had taken place, a jeep of Israeli soldiers could be seen watching the area.
Burin is located in the southwest of Nablus. It has a population of approximately 4000 inhabitants. The villagers have been suffering from regular settler attacks for many years.
29 juni 2011
Palestinians clash with settlers at Geon Hayarden outpost
Palestinians who arrived at the West Bank outpost of Geon Hayarden clashed with settlers and lightly injured one of them with a knife. Police have detained two Palestinians and launched an investigation.
Meanwhile, settlers attempted to block off Route 60, near the outpost of Ramat Migron, following its demolition. Two were arrested.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4088849,00.html
Outpost razed; settlers clash with police
Three buildings at illegal outpost Ramat Migron demolished; two girls arrested for throwing paint bottle at police.
Civil Administration forces razed on Wednesday morning three structures at the West Bank outpost of Ramat Migron - a settlement that has been demolished several times in the past.
Settlers clashed with the security forces that accompanied the Civil Administration team. Some arrests were made.
Police arrived on the scene and cordoned off the entrance to the settlement, declaring the area a closed military zone. Despite the forces' efforts, dozens of settlers were alerted to the outpost. Two teenage girls were arrested after refusing to descend from one of the structures' roofs. The teens are also suspected throwing a paint bottle at the police.
Six settlers were arrested in February for clashing with security forces during the last evacuation of the outpost. Some threw stones at security officers and tried to block their way.
The settlement was previously demolished – and consequently rebuilt by settlers – in November of 2009 and in January and October of 2010.
MK Yaakov Katz (National Union) said in the beginning of June that the Defense Ministry has ordered two permanent structures in the outpost to be razed.
Over the past year the state has avoided demolishing permanent buildings at settlements, but continued to raze temporary structures like the ones recently destroyed in the outpost of Alei Ayin.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4088795,00.html
28 juni 2011
'Mohammed is dead' sprayed on home
Palestinian village of Beit Ilu sustains yet another attack by vandals in form of racist graffiti.
Unknown persons sprayed racial slurs and a Star of David on a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Beitilu. The vandals wrote among other things: Mohammed is dead. Police are searching for the culprits.
Mohammed Raduan, head of the village council, told Ynet that the graffiti was found Tuesday morning. He added that it was not the first time Beit Ilu had been targeted in such a fashion.
"They wrote, 'Mohammed is a pig' and 'Mohammed is dead', as well as 'Revenge' and 'Settlement 18'," he said. The latter may have been in reference to a recently evacuated settlement near Beit El.
Raduan says village residents claim they heard noises during the night as well as barking dogs, but were too afraid to leave their homes to investigate.
"Once we found the graffiti, we notified the authorities," Raduan said.
The village, which is located near Ramallah, has been targeted by vandals in the past. Vehicles have been torched and graffiti has been sprayed as part of what settlers call the 'Price tag policy', which includes acts of revenge.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4088476,00.html
Top settler rabbi briefly arrested in racism row
Israeli police briefly detained a leading settler rabbi on Monday in connection with an investigation into a book justifying the killing of non-Jews, police said.
Several months ago, police issued an arrest warrant for Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and other settlements around Hebron in the West Bank, after he failed to present himself for questioning in a probe against incitement.
"Rabbi Lior was detained and questioned for about one hour before being released," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, saying he had been quizzed over his endorsement of a book called "The King's Torah" which says it is permissible to kill non-Jews.
In a rare move sparked by the arrest, Israel's two grand rabbis issued a joint statement denouncing it.
"We deplore this grave offense against the honor of one of the most important rabbis and leaders of religious opinion," Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar said.
Lior, who also heads the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria, Israel's term for the West Bank, is one of the main spiritual ideologists of the settlement movement.
Right-wing activists immediately called on supporters to gather outside various police headquarters to protest, and Rosenfeld said several youths briefly blocked the main highway leading into Jerusalem from the west.
An AFP correspondent also saw more than 100 protesters blocking another major road nearby.
Last August, Yosef Elitzur, a settler rabbi who co-authored the book, was arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence but freed without charge days later after a court found police had not followed proper procedure.
Written by Elitzur and another rabbi, the book reportedly says babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed in certain circumstances since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us."
It also said non-Jews were "uncompassionate by nature" and that attacks on them "curb their evil inclination."
"Anywhere where the influence of gentiles constitutes a threat to the life of Israel, it is permissible to kill them," the rabbis wrote.
The book, published earlier this year, has drawn sharp criticism from numerous rabbis who say it contradicts the teachings of Judaism.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=400613
27 juni 2011
Key Nablus checkpoint closed
Israeli forces closed a military checkpoint south of Nablus on Monday.
The troops forced passengers to travel through the Awarta military checkpoint after a large crowd gathered, a reporter said.
Troops closed the checkpoint because settlers gathered near it and wanted to demonstrate condemning the arrest Rabbi Def Lior, a Ma'an correspondent reported from the scene.
The area was declared a closed military zone, an Israeli military spokeswoman added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=400496
26 juni 2011
Heavy fire in Baten el Awa burning a section of the settlers building, Beit Yonatan
We can still hear the sounds of live bullets being fired from Baten el Awa neighborhood by the militia of the settlers.
The private security guards and police officers are working to ensure the protection of the inhabitant of a settlement called Beit Yonatan, as well as soldiers from the military barrack erected on the roof of a Palestinian housing building.
Clashes erupted earlier this evening and Beit Yonatan have been the target of some Molotov cocktails causing the fire of an external part of the building.
Residents have described the atmosphere in the neighborhood as very tense but no injuries have been reported so far.
http://silwanic.net/?p=18442
15 year old injured after attack with stones in Hebron
On Sunday June 25, 15 year old Muhammed Jabari was attacked by settlers throwing stones in Hebron, causing injuries to his wrist and leg.
The land and house of the Jabari family is situated between the illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha’avot in east Hebron, making the family exposed to harassment and attacks by settlers as reported previously. On Sunday settlers from Givat Ha’avot took one duck and four goslings from the land of the Jabari family, stealing them away to the illegal settlement. Muhammed and his younger brother were allowed by settler guards to go inside and get the birds.
Bystanders were prevented from filming by soldiers guarding the illegal settlement. They returned after they heard the 15 year old boy screaming in pain. Approximately seven teenage settlers threw stones at him, injuring his wrist and his leg.
No one interfered when the boy was attacked. At least one soldier was watching the attack, and there are several surveillance cameras covering the area. Additionally, thesite of the attack is about two minutes away from the Israeli police station of Kiryat Arba. Muhammed was taken to hospital after the attack.
Settler arson attack in the village of Burin
On Thursday 30 June at 11:00 AM, the villagers of Burin reported that a fire was started by a group of settlers in one of the village´s crop field in the hills.
According to a villager who witnessed the events, Walid M. N. noted that before the fire began to burn, approximately 50 settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, including some children, were seen atop the hill which is just situated in the southwest portion of the village.
ISM was told that many villagers went up to the blaze to try to stop it, but the Nablus Fire Department had to be called afterwards to put the fire out.
When ISM went to see where the attack had taken place, a jeep of Israeli soldiers could be seen watching the area.
Burin is located in the southwest of Nablus. It has a population of approximately 4000 inhabitants. The villagers have been suffering from regular settler attacks for many years.
29 juni 2011
Palestinians clash with settlers at Geon Hayarden outpost
Palestinians who arrived at the West Bank outpost of Geon Hayarden clashed with settlers and lightly injured one of them with a knife. Police have detained two Palestinians and launched an investigation.
Meanwhile, settlers attempted to block off Route 60, near the outpost of Ramat Migron, following its demolition. Two were arrested.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4088849,00.html
Outpost razed; settlers clash with police
Three buildings at illegal outpost Ramat Migron demolished; two girls arrested for throwing paint bottle at police.
Civil Administration forces razed on Wednesday morning three structures at the West Bank outpost of Ramat Migron - a settlement that has been demolished several times in the past.
Settlers clashed with the security forces that accompanied the Civil Administration team. Some arrests were made.
Police arrived on the scene and cordoned off the entrance to the settlement, declaring the area a closed military zone. Despite the forces' efforts, dozens of settlers were alerted to the outpost. Two teenage girls were arrested after refusing to descend from one of the structures' roofs. The teens are also suspected throwing a paint bottle at the police.
Six settlers were arrested in February for clashing with security forces during the last evacuation of the outpost. Some threw stones at security officers and tried to block their way.
The settlement was previously demolished – and consequently rebuilt by settlers – in November of 2009 and in January and October of 2010.
MK Yaakov Katz (National Union) said in the beginning of June that the Defense Ministry has ordered two permanent structures in the outpost to be razed.
Over the past year the state has avoided demolishing permanent buildings at settlements, but continued to raze temporary structures like the ones recently destroyed in the outpost of Alei Ayin.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4088795,00.html
28 juni 2011
'Mohammed is dead' sprayed on home
Palestinian village of Beit Ilu sustains yet another attack by vandals in form of racist graffiti.
Unknown persons sprayed racial slurs and a Star of David on a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Beitilu. The vandals wrote among other things: Mohammed is dead. Police are searching for the culprits.
Mohammed Raduan, head of the village council, told Ynet that the graffiti was found Tuesday morning. He added that it was not the first time Beit Ilu had been targeted in such a fashion.
"They wrote, 'Mohammed is a pig' and 'Mohammed is dead', as well as 'Revenge' and 'Settlement 18'," he said. The latter may have been in reference to a recently evacuated settlement near Beit El.
Raduan says village residents claim they heard noises during the night as well as barking dogs, but were too afraid to leave their homes to investigate.
"Once we found the graffiti, we notified the authorities," Raduan said.
The village, which is located near Ramallah, has been targeted by vandals in the past. Vehicles have been torched and graffiti has been sprayed as part of what settlers call the 'Price tag policy', which includes acts of revenge.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4088476,00.html
Top settler rabbi briefly arrested in racism row
Israeli police briefly detained a leading settler rabbi on Monday in connection with an investigation into a book justifying the killing of non-Jews, police said.
Several months ago, police issued an arrest warrant for Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and other settlements around Hebron in the West Bank, after he failed to present himself for questioning in a probe against incitement.
"Rabbi Lior was detained and questioned for about one hour before being released," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, saying he had been quizzed over his endorsement of a book called "The King's Torah" which says it is permissible to kill non-Jews.
In a rare move sparked by the arrest, Israel's two grand rabbis issued a joint statement denouncing it.
"We deplore this grave offense against the honor of one of the most important rabbis and leaders of religious opinion," Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar said.
Lior, who also heads the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria, Israel's term for the West Bank, is one of the main spiritual ideologists of the settlement movement.
Right-wing activists immediately called on supporters to gather outside various police headquarters to protest, and Rosenfeld said several youths briefly blocked the main highway leading into Jerusalem from the west.
An AFP correspondent also saw more than 100 protesters blocking another major road nearby.
Last August, Yosef Elitzur, a settler rabbi who co-authored the book, was arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence but freed without charge days later after a court found police had not followed proper procedure.
Written by Elitzur and another rabbi, the book reportedly says babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed in certain circumstances since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us."
It also said non-Jews were "uncompassionate by nature" and that attacks on them "curb their evil inclination."
"Anywhere where the influence of gentiles constitutes a threat to the life of Israel, it is permissible to kill them," the rabbis wrote.
The book, published earlier this year, has drawn sharp criticism from numerous rabbis who say it contradicts the teachings of Judaism.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=400613
27 juni 2011
Key Nablus checkpoint closed
Israeli forces closed a military checkpoint south of Nablus on Monday.
The troops forced passengers to travel through the Awarta military checkpoint after a large crowd gathered, a reporter said.
Troops closed the checkpoint because settlers gathered near it and wanted to demonstrate condemning the arrest Rabbi Def Lior, a Ma'an correspondent reported from the scene.
The area was declared a closed military zone, an Israeli military spokeswoman added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=400496
26 juni 2011
Heavy fire in Baten el Awa burning a section of the settlers building, Beit Yonatan
We can still hear the sounds of live bullets being fired from Baten el Awa neighborhood by the militia of the settlers.
The private security guards and police officers are working to ensure the protection of the inhabitant of a settlement called Beit Yonatan, as well as soldiers from the military barrack erected on the roof of a Palestinian housing building.
Clashes erupted earlier this evening and Beit Yonatan have been the target of some Molotov cocktails causing the fire of an external part of the building.
Residents have described the atmosphere in the neighborhood as very tense but no injuries have been reported so far.
http://silwanic.net/?p=18442
|
An 18-year-old Hasidic student pleaded not guilty today to attempted murder charges for allegedly lighting a father of four on fire in New Square.
Shaul Spitzer is accused of severely burning a neighbor, Aron Rottenberg, outside Rottenberg's home. Rottenberg claims in a lawsuit that Spitzer was acting at the direction of the village's grand rabbi, David Twersky, because Rottenberg had stopped praying at Twersky's synagogue and instead began worshipping at a nursing home. Rottenberg suffered third-degree burns on half his body in the pre-dawn hours of May 22 when he confronted someone carrying a flammable liquid outside his home. Rottenberg, who was hospitalized until Monday, was not in court Friday. |
Spitzer was accompanied by relatives as he was arraigned in Rockland County Court on charges of attempted murder, attempted arson and assault.
His lawyer, Kenneth Gribetz, entered not guilty pleas to all charges. He says his client is full of regret and wishes he could turn back the clock.
Gribetz said outside court that Spitzer did not intend to harm anyone or to burn down Rottenberg's house, as police have alleged.
Spitzer was allowed to remain free on $300,000 bail until a July 28 court date, but was ordered to stay away from the Rottenberg family. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.
Settlers intensify their tours of West Bank mountains
Acquainted sources said that Zionist usurpers have lately intensified exploratory tours to the mountains of the West Bank.
A number of farmers from different areas in the West Bank said that groups of settlers, ranging in number between ten and forty settlers were seen on group tours of the mountains and valleys of the West Bank.
The farmers added that the settlers are focusing in their tours on the springs and archaeological sites, and they are in possession of maps of the places they visit sometimes leaving marks in those places.
Palestinians fear that these tours are a prelude to theft and control of those places by the settlers in the absence of any resistance in the West Bank.
His lawyer, Kenneth Gribetz, entered not guilty pleas to all charges. He says his client is full of regret and wishes he could turn back the clock.
Gribetz said outside court that Spitzer did not intend to harm anyone or to burn down Rottenberg's house, as police have alleged.
Spitzer was allowed to remain free on $300,000 bail until a July 28 court date, but was ordered to stay away from the Rottenberg family. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.
Settlers intensify their tours of West Bank mountains
Acquainted sources said that Zionist usurpers have lately intensified exploratory tours to the mountains of the West Bank.
A number of farmers from different areas in the West Bank said that groups of settlers, ranging in number between ten and forty settlers were seen on group tours of the mountains and valleys of the West Bank.
The farmers added that the settlers are focusing in their tours on the springs and archaeological sites, and they are in possession of maps of the places they visit sometimes leaving marks in those places.
Palestinians fear that these tours are a prelude to theft and control of those places by the settlers in the absence of any resistance in the West Bank.
23 juni 2011
Update: Israeli settlers attempt take over of Jerusalem home
A Beit Safafa family said several members were brutally beaten by Israeli settlers on Wednesday morning, in an attack that was said to have lasted four hours starting just after midnight.
The Zawahra family lives adjacent to an Israeli settler outpost known as Giv’at Hamtous, located in a Palestinian home confiscated through a court process which observers said used spurious documents showing ownership.
Akram Zawahra told Ma'an that shortly after midnight a group of settlers from the home forcibly entered the Zawahra building in what he described as an attempt to take over the home and expand the settlement.
The man's 27-year-old brother was stabbed and later run over by the settlers, causing severe bleeding and a break to his right leg. He was taken to the Makassed Hospital and then was transferred to the Hadassah Hospital for surgery, his brother said.
Three other members of the family, including Akram, his wife Ala'a and son Farouq were also injured, he said, noting the home sustained damages during the family's attempt to keep he settlers out.
Police arrived at the home hours after the attack began, Akram said, detaining him and three sons, who were all taken to the local police station and interrogated he said. The men were released on bail several hours later.
Israeli police spokesman said he had no knowledge of the incident.
Akram said police remain in the home, which is being held pending a review by officers and border police.
The neighborhood of Beit Safafa is located within the West Bank, on the eastern side of the 1967 borders, but was illegally annexed as part of Israel's municipality of Jerusalem in the 1980s.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398929
21 juni 2011
Jewish Settlers in West Bank Nurture Land to Consolidate Palestinian Territories
Jewish settlers that are living in the West Bank are opening their guarded gates to the world and to other Israelis, in an attempt to show the international community what is going in the West Bank, through their eyes. One day tours that are booked through a regional settler council attempt to illustrate how settlers are nurturing and cultivating the land that Palestinians want back in order to gain sovereignty and declare a Palestinian State.
The tours takes groups around several of the settlements in the West Bank, some of which have no official building permit- although this is all lost on the settlers who live there, claiming that they are exercising their ‘biblical’ right to the land as promised in the scriptures.
All this costs $50, but if one were to feel uneasy about being in the Palestinian Territories, another $80 will secure the armoured bus, and it’s a cultural exchange not like any other. Simply put, it is a great tool of propaganda, using one part of the landscape in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and using that as the ultimate determinant of what is happening.
Tour groups are able to enjoy the lush organic farms as well as rolling vineyards which are the staple of the wines sold in boutiques; unfortunately they are unable to enjoy any organic Palestinian food or culture, because apparently this is not important or even a part of the cultural landscape of the West Bank.
One should also not expect to meet with any of the local Palestinian farmers- or ‘local Arabs’ as the tour calls them- that own this land and more than likely were the ones cultivating it before the occupation.
Most of the tour group members see themselves as ‘former Christians’ who firmly believe that Jesus Christ is the messiah and saviour, but many of them partake in Jewish traditions and abide by some of the Jewish law.
Reuters reported that Nati Yisraeli, tourism coordinator for the settlers' regional council, said that he hopes these kinds of tours will ‘end the ignorance’ by showing people the reality of the occupied territories.
20 juni 2011
Israel Land Fund incites for Ras al-Amud mosque demolition
A Jewish settler organization has been inciting for the demolition of a mosque in Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud district, with hopes of rallying support of high-profile Jews meeting for the Israeli Presidential Conference this year.
The Israel Land Fund, which advocates and funds Jewish settler activity in the holy land, has claimed that locals carried out “illegal” restoration works on the Mohammad Al-Fatih mosque, which overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque southeast of the Old City.
Earlier in January, the mosque was raided by Jewish settlers claiming the municipality had ordered to halt restoration works. They also called police, whose elements raided the mosque alleging to be looking for illegal Palestinian construction workers from the West Bank.
ILF director and founder Arieh King has accused Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of inaction on thwarting the mosque’s restoration aimed at expanding the mosque, which he says lies close to the burial site of former prime minister Menachem Begin, who founded the organization after the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.
King has sights set on garnering support from top Jewish leaders who will gather in Jerusalem for the Israeli Presidential Conference, which will be held this year on June 21-23.
The ILF head said one of the speakers would bring the topic up at the conference. He said he works under the premise that matters that may not bother Israeli officials may bother Jews abroad, according to Israeli media outlets.
19 juni 2011
Molotov cocktails thrown at settler guard jeep
Molotov cocktails were thrown at a settler guard’s armoured jeep in Bir Ayyub district of Silwan last night, say eyewitnesses. The cocktails were reportedly thrown at the jeep as it drove from Baten al-Hawa to Wadi Hilweh through Bir Ayyub, setting the vehicle alight. The guards stopped the jeep and extinguished the fire, and no injuries were reported.
The guards, whose salaries are paid by taxpayers through the Israeli Ministry of Housing have a reputation for violence in the village. Thirty-four year old Silwan resident Samer Sarhan was shot dead by a settler guard last September, and 17-year old Milad Ayyash of Baten al-Hawa district was reportedly shot by a settler guard several weeks ago during clashes.
http://silwanic.net/?p=18301
18 juni 2011
Medics: Settlers assault Palestinian in central Hebron
A group of Israeli settlers harshly beat a young Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, medics said.
Anas Hashem Abu Al-Halawa, 21, came under attack while walking in central Hebron, Red Crescent official Naser Qabaja said.
The incident, on Shuhada street, left Abu Al-Halawa with extensive bruising. He was admitted to the government hospital.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397753
Witnesses: Settlers torch farmland near Ramallah
Dozens of settlers on Friday set fire to farmland in Al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah, witnesses said.
Villagers said settlers torched around 35 dunums of wheat.
Israeli forces and Palestinian and Israeli liaison officials visited the area to investigate the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397534
Update: Israeli settlers attempt take over of Jerusalem home
A Beit Safafa family said several members were brutally beaten by Israeli settlers on Wednesday morning, in an attack that was said to have lasted four hours starting just after midnight.
The Zawahra family lives adjacent to an Israeli settler outpost known as Giv’at Hamtous, located in a Palestinian home confiscated through a court process which observers said used spurious documents showing ownership.
Akram Zawahra told Ma'an that shortly after midnight a group of settlers from the home forcibly entered the Zawahra building in what he described as an attempt to take over the home and expand the settlement.
The man's 27-year-old brother was stabbed and later run over by the settlers, causing severe bleeding and a break to his right leg. He was taken to the Makassed Hospital and then was transferred to the Hadassah Hospital for surgery, his brother said.
Three other members of the family, including Akram, his wife Ala'a and son Farouq were also injured, he said, noting the home sustained damages during the family's attempt to keep he settlers out.
Police arrived at the home hours after the attack began, Akram said, detaining him and three sons, who were all taken to the local police station and interrogated he said. The men were released on bail several hours later.
Israeli police spokesman said he had no knowledge of the incident.
Akram said police remain in the home, which is being held pending a review by officers and border police.
The neighborhood of Beit Safafa is located within the West Bank, on the eastern side of the 1967 borders, but was illegally annexed as part of Israel's municipality of Jerusalem in the 1980s.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398929
21 juni 2011
Jewish Settlers in West Bank Nurture Land to Consolidate Palestinian Territories
Jewish settlers that are living in the West Bank are opening their guarded gates to the world and to other Israelis, in an attempt to show the international community what is going in the West Bank, through their eyes. One day tours that are booked through a regional settler council attempt to illustrate how settlers are nurturing and cultivating the land that Palestinians want back in order to gain sovereignty and declare a Palestinian State.
The tours takes groups around several of the settlements in the West Bank, some of which have no official building permit- although this is all lost on the settlers who live there, claiming that they are exercising their ‘biblical’ right to the land as promised in the scriptures.
All this costs $50, but if one were to feel uneasy about being in the Palestinian Territories, another $80 will secure the armoured bus, and it’s a cultural exchange not like any other. Simply put, it is a great tool of propaganda, using one part of the landscape in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and using that as the ultimate determinant of what is happening.
Tour groups are able to enjoy the lush organic farms as well as rolling vineyards which are the staple of the wines sold in boutiques; unfortunately they are unable to enjoy any organic Palestinian food or culture, because apparently this is not important or even a part of the cultural landscape of the West Bank.
One should also not expect to meet with any of the local Palestinian farmers- or ‘local Arabs’ as the tour calls them- that own this land and more than likely were the ones cultivating it before the occupation.
Most of the tour group members see themselves as ‘former Christians’ who firmly believe that Jesus Christ is the messiah and saviour, but many of them partake in Jewish traditions and abide by some of the Jewish law.
Reuters reported that Nati Yisraeli, tourism coordinator for the settlers' regional council, said that he hopes these kinds of tours will ‘end the ignorance’ by showing people the reality of the occupied territories.
20 juni 2011
Israel Land Fund incites for Ras al-Amud mosque demolition
A Jewish settler organization has been inciting for the demolition of a mosque in Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud district, with hopes of rallying support of high-profile Jews meeting for the Israeli Presidential Conference this year.
The Israel Land Fund, which advocates and funds Jewish settler activity in the holy land, has claimed that locals carried out “illegal” restoration works on the Mohammad Al-Fatih mosque, which overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque southeast of the Old City.
Earlier in January, the mosque was raided by Jewish settlers claiming the municipality had ordered to halt restoration works. They also called police, whose elements raided the mosque alleging to be looking for illegal Palestinian construction workers from the West Bank.
ILF director and founder Arieh King has accused Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of inaction on thwarting the mosque’s restoration aimed at expanding the mosque, which he says lies close to the burial site of former prime minister Menachem Begin, who founded the organization after the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.
King has sights set on garnering support from top Jewish leaders who will gather in Jerusalem for the Israeli Presidential Conference, which will be held this year on June 21-23.
The ILF head said one of the speakers would bring the topic up at the conference. He said he works under the premise that matters that may not bother Israeli officials may bother Jews abroad, according to Israeli media outlets.
19 juni 2011
Molotov cocktails thrown at settler guard jeep
Molotov cocktails were thrown at a settler guard’s armoured jeep in Bir Ayyub district of Silwan last night, say eyewitnesses. The cocktails were reportedly thrown at the jeep as it drove from Baten al-Hawa to Wadi Hilweh through Bir Ayyub, setting the vehicle alight. The guards stopped the jeep and extinguished the fire, and no injuries were reported.
The guards, whose salaries are paid by taxpayers through the Israeli Ministry of Housing have a reputation for violence in the village. Thirty-four year old Silwan resident Samer Sarhan was shot dead by a settler guard last September, and 17-year old Milad Ayyash of Baten al-Hawa district was reportedly shot by a settler guard several weeks ago during clashes.
http://silwanic.net/?p=18301
18 juni 2011
Medics: Settlers assault Palestinian in central Hebron
A group of Israeli settlers harshly beat a young Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, medics said.
Anas Hashem Abu Al-Halawa, 21, came under attack while walking in central Hebron, Red Crescent official Naser Qabaja said.
The incident, on Shuhada street, left Abu Al-Halawa with extensive bruising. He was admitted to the government hospital.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397753
Witnesses: Settlers torch farmland near Ramallah
Dozens of settlers on Friday set fire to farmland in Al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah, witnesses said.
Villagers said settlers torched around 35 dunums of wheat.
Israeli forces and Palestinian and Israeli liaison officials visited the area to investigate the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397534
17 juni 2011
Settlers set fire to Palestinian crops, IOF troops burn olive groves
Extremist Jewish settlers on Thursday torched Palestinian crops in agricultural land belonging to the villagers of Awarta to the south east of the Northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Qais Awwad, head of the village council of Awarta, told the PIC correspondent that settlers from Itamar and Yitzhar settlements were behind the fires in the villagers fields.
Awwad added that seven dunums (1 dunum= 1000 square meters) planted with wheat was affected by the fire before the Palestinian fire brigades managed to control the fire.
He also said that settlers riding cars hurled rocks at Palestinian cars at the main entrance of the village.
Awwad added that villagers’ lands close to the Hawwara military camp are polluted by sewage water from the camp which is purposely disposed of in this way to cause damage to the Palestinian agricultural sector, not to mention the resulting presence of mosquitos and diseases associated with sewage water.
Meanwhile, IOF troops combing areas close to the village of Ya’bad west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin set fire to olive groves on Thursday afternoon resulting in a fire which went out of control.
Local sources said that the IOF troops started the fire and local residents as well as the Palestinian fire brigades fought the fire and managed to put it off, but only after the fire destroyed 30 dunums of olive groves.
1,000 settlers visit Salfit village tombs
One thousand Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli military patrols entered northern West Bank village Kifl Haris overnight Thursday, villagers said.
Checkpoints were installed at all village entrances and soldiers manned the roads, as the settler group came to pray at sites revered by both Muslims and Jews, a local center said in a statement.
Settler news site Arutz Sheva reported that the settlers and army spent five hours in the Salfit-area village, which houses tombs believed to contain Joshua and Caleb, historical Jewish figures, and is surrounded by illegal settlements of Ariel, Revava and Immanue'l.
On another mass settler-visit to Kifl Haris in April, to mark the anniversary of Joshua's death, an Orthodox Jewish man was hounded by settler crowds shouting "don't buy in Arab shops" after he purchased a nargila pipe from a Palestinian, Israeli news site reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397483
Update: Israeli court dismisses petition to re-open Hebron road
Israel's High Court threw out a petition seeking the re-opening of a market street in Hebron's city center, which would have overturned 21 military orders mandating the closure of the area for "security reasons."
Judge Dorit Beinisch presided over the case, which was submitted in 2004, and ultimately deemed that the security situation in Hebron's Old City mandated the closures, citing next to zero confrontations in the area between a 700-strong settler population and local residents.
"If you take cars off the roads there will be no accidents," Director of Hebron's Rehabilitation Committee Imad Hamdan commented after receiving the news of the dismissal."
Ash-Shuhada Street, once the main shopping area in the city's ancient downtown, is now divided down the center with concrete blocks, one side for Palestinian residents who can prove that they live down the street, and the other for settlers who have taken over homes in the area.
Most Palestinians are prohibited from walking on the street, which resembles a ghost town dotted with soldiers who patrol the area.
Justice Beinisch's decision, handed down on June 6, was a "great disappointment," Hamdan said.
During the seven years that the petition was before the courts, the restrictions put in place by the Israeli military were reviewed by its Civil Administration.
"Proposals would be made to move one checkpoint a block away, or change the location of a guard tower from the roof of a house," Hamdan explained, adding that none of the suggested changes would have allowed Palestinians free movement in the area, and were rejected each time.
The 21 military orders, which according to reports from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem have closed 440 shops in the area, are renewed by the army every six months.
"This policy led to the economic collapse of the center of Hebron and drove many Palestinians out of the area," B'Telem said in a report on conditions in the city.
"At the moment, we have no plans to file a new petition," Hamdan said, "we are heartened that the closure was never made permanent, and hope to continue pushing for better interpretations of the orders, perhaps there will be a political change, and when that chance comes we will take it."
On Tuesday, residents of Ash-Shuhada Street reported a gathering of an estimated 100 settlers, who threw stones and chanted anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian slogans at the homes of four families.
One resident commented that the judge's decision to dismiss the petition had given the settler community courage to continue harassing local residents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397287
Update: Factions say 'no way' to settler visits in Nablus
A committee in Nablus have said they "refuse and condemn" Palestinian Authority dialogue with settler groups who wish to visit Joseph's Tomb, a holy site in the city where biblical figure Joseph is thought to be buried.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Factional Coordination Committee, including six leftist groups, addressed a Tuesday night event which saw PA police facilitate a visit to the shrine by eight right-wing members of Israel's parliament.
The group called the move a "dangerous indication," saying PA police should "protect our people from occupation forces and settler aggression instead of protecting the settler leaders."
Factions questioned the motives of the police, and cast suspicion on increased coordination with Israeli forces, accusing them of colluding with the occupation and working to oppress Palestinians.
The statement, signed by officials from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People's Party, the Palestinian Democratic Union (Fida), the Palestinian Liberation Front, and the Arab Liberation Front, was the latest reaction to changes in the way visits to the area are coordinated.
Israel has made illegal settler visits to the area without military accompaniment, citing security concerns.
The tomb area has experienced a fraught history since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, with an 1975 order prohibiting Palestinians from visiting the area, despite its integration into local worship and culture.
This move was followed closely by the establishment of a Jewish religious school in the tomb, with tents set up outside, and large wire fences erected around the area.
Samaritans, a community of Jews living on Mount Gerazim who hold Palestinian identity cards and who live and work in the city as part of Nabulsi society, also revere the site. The original tomb was angled towards the mountain where the community lives. It was recently re-positioned to face Jerusalem by settler groups.
The site was part of an Israeli military outpost adjacent to the village of Balata, now a suburb of Nablus.
In the late 1990s, Nablus was handed over to Palestinian Authority control, but the area around the tomb remains in Area C, under Israeli jurisdiction.
After handing security control over to the PA, Israel coordinates visits with officials. Most visitors are settlers.
Some settlers felt the military was not giving them enough free access to the tomb, as visits were mostly coordinated at night to minimize the impact on Nablus residents of the military closures which visits entail.
Settlers have repeatedly vandalized three schools nearby the tomb over the last couple of years, contaminating water tanks and leaving graffiti on buildings used as temporary military posts during visits.
In May, PA police apprehended some 30 settlers breaking into the site. They had not coordinated their visit with the local police or the military. Police said they shot warning fire into the air to scare off the group, who later reported the death of one settler by the shots.
Since then the Israeli military has organized a visit for some 1,600 Jewish worshipers, all of which took place at night.
The recent daytime visit by right-wing Israeli leaders is the first coordinated with the local police.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397226
Settlement Activity in the Old City of Hebron
Settlers set fire to Palestinian crops, IOF troops burn olive groves
Extremist Jewish settlers on Thursday torched Palestinian crops in agricultural land belonging to the villagers of Awarta to the south east of the Northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Qais Awwad, head of the village council of Awarta, told the PIC correspondent that settlers from Itamar and Yitzhar settlements were behind the fires in the villagers fields.
Awwad added that seven dunums (1 dunum= 1000 square meters) planted with wheat was affected by the fire before the Palestinian fire brigades managed to control the fire.
He also said that settlers riding cars hurled rocks at Palestinian cars at the main entrance of the village.
Awwad added that villagers’ lands close to the Hawwara military camp are polluted by sewage water from the camp which is purposely disposed of in this way to cause damage to the Palestinian agricultural sector, not to mention the resulting presence of mosquitos and diseases associated with sewage water.
Meanwhile, IOF troops combing areas close to the village of Ya’bad west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin set fire to olive groves on Thursday afternoon resulting in a fire which went out of control.
Local sources said that the IOF troops started the fire and local residents as well as the Palestinian fire brigades fought the fire and managed to put it off, but only after the fire destroyed 30 dunums of olive groves.
1,000 settlers visit Salfit village tombs
One thousand Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli military patrols entered northern West Bank village Kifl Haris overnight Thursday, villagers said.
Checkpoints were installed at all village entrances and soldiers manned the roads, as the settler group came to pray at sites revered by both Muslims and Jews, a local center said in a statement.
Settler news site Arutz Sheva reported that the settlers and army spent five hours in the Salfit-area village, which houses tombs believed to contain Joshua and Caleb, historical Jewish figures, and is surrounded by illegal settlements of Ariel, Revava and Immanue'l.
On another mass settler-visit to Kifl Haris in April, to mark the anniversary of Joshua's death, an Orthodox Jewish man was hounded by settler crowds shouting "don't buy in Arab shops" after he purchased a nargila pipe from a Palestinian, Israeli news site reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397483
Update: Israeli court dismisses petition to re-open Hebron road
Israel's High Court threw out a petition seeking the re-opening of a market street in Hebron's city center, which would have overturned 21 military orders mandating the closure of the area for "security reasons."
Judge Dorit Beinisch presided over the case, which was submitted in 2004, and ultimately deemed that the security situation in Hebron's Old City mandated the closures, citing next to zero confrontations in the area between a 700-strong settler population and local residents.
"If you take cars off the roads there will be no accidents," Director of Hebron's Rehabilitation Committee Imad Hamdan commented after receiving the news of the dismissal."
Ash-Shuhada Street, once the main shopping area in the city's ancient downtown, is now divided down the center with concrete blocks, one side for Palestinian residents who can prove that they live down the street, and the other for settlers who have taken over homes in the area.
Most Palestinians are prohibited from walking on the street, which resembles a ghost town dotted with soldiers who patrol the area.
Justice Beinisch's decision, handed down on June 6, was a "great disappointment," Hamdan said.
During the seven years that the petition was before the courts, the restrictions put in place by the Israeli military were reviewed by its Civil Administration.
"Proposals would be made to move one checkpoint a block away, or change the location of a guard tower from the roof of a house," Hamdan explained, adding that none of the suggested changes would have allowed Palestinians free movement in the area, and were rejected each time.
The 21 military orders, which according to reports from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem have closed 440 shops in the area, are renewed by the army every six months.
"This policy led to the economic collapse of the center of Hebron and drove many Palestinians out of the area," B'Telem said in a report on conditions in the city.
"At the moment, we have no plans to file a new petition," Hamdan said, "we are heartened that the closure was never made permanent, and hope to continue pushing for better interpretations of the orders, perhaps there will be a political change, and when that chance comes we will take it."
On Tuesday, residents of Ash-Shuhada Street reported a gathering of an estimated 100 settlers, who threw stones and chanted anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian slogans at the homes of four families.
One resident commented that the judge's decision to dismiss the petition had given the settler community courage to continue harassing local residents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397287
Update: Factions say 'no way' to settler visits in Nablus
A committee in Nablus have said they "refuse and condemn" Palestinian Authority dialogue with settler groups who wish to visit Joseph's Tomb, a holy site in the city where biblical figure Joseph is thought to be buried.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Factional Coordination Committee, including six leftist groups, addressed a Tuesday night event which saw PA police facilitate a visit to the shrine by eight right-wing members of Israel's parliament.
The group called the move a "dangerous indication," saying PA police should "protect our people from occupation forces and settler aggression instead of protecting the settler leaders."
Factions questioned the motives of the police, and cast suspicion on increased coordination with Israeli forces, accusing them of colluding with the occupation and working to oppress Palestinians.
The statement, signed by officials from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People's Party, the Palestinian Democratic Union (Fida), the Palestinian Liberation Front, and the Arab Liberation Front, was the latest reaction to changes in the way visits to the area are coordinated.
Israel has made illegal settler visits to the area without military accompaniment, citing security concerns.
The tomb area has experienced a fraught history since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, with an 1975 order prohibiting Palestinians from visiting the area, despite its integration into local worship and culture.
This move was followed closely by the establishment of a Jewish religious school in the tomb, with tents set up outside, and large wire fences erected around the area.
Samaritans, a community of Jews living on Mount Gerazim who hold Palestinian identity cards and who live and work in the city as part of Nabulsi society, also revere the site. The original tomb was angled towards the mountain where the community lives. It was recently re-positioned to face Jerusalem by settler groups.
The site was part of an Israeli military outpost adjacent to the village of Balata, now a suburb of Nablus.
In the late 1990s, Nablus was handed over to Palestinian Authority control, but the area around the tomb remains in Area C, under Israeli jurisdiction.
After handing security control over to the PA, Israel coordinates visits with officials. Most visitors are settlers.
Some settlers felt the military was not giving them enough free access to the tomb, as visits were mostly coordinated at night to minimize the impact on Nablus residents of the military closures which visits entail.
Settlers have repeatedly vandalized three schools nearby the tomb over the last couple of years, contaminating water tanks and leaving graffiti on buildings used as temporary military posts during visits.
In May, PA police apprehended some 30 settlers breaking into the site. They had not coordinated their visit with the local police or the military. Police said they shot warning fire into the air to scare off the group, who later reported the death of one settler by the shots.
Since then the Israeli military has organized a visit for some 1,600 Jewish worshipers, all of which took place at night.
The recent daytime visit by right-wing Israeli leaders is the first coordinated with the local police.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397226
Settlement Activity in the Old City of Hebron
|
Al Haq has produced a new documentary video on Settlement Activity in the Old City of Hebron.
It features testimony from a Palestinian family who live near Israeli settlers. They describe the frequent attacks they suffer from settlers who throw stones and even buckets of urine on them as they go about their daily life. The Israeli soldiers do not protect the Palestinian civilians even when faced with video evidence of settler attacks. |
16 juni 2011
PA official: Settlers burn farmland near Nablus
Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian farmland south of the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, a Palestinian official said.
Ghassan Doughlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement affairs in the northern West Bank, said the incident occurred near the illegal settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus.
The settlers burned 15 dunnums of farmland of olive trees in an area known as Berkat Al-Marah, which belongs to residents from Roujeeb in the southeast of Nablus, Doughlas said.
He said the settlers deliberately targeted lands belonging to owners Hafeth Suleiman Darwish Dweikat and Ahmad Hafeth Dweikat, and said the residents were present during the attack.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397365
Jewish settlers burn olive trees west of Ramallah
Jewish settlers torched tens of Palestinian olive trees in Bilin village land behind the separation wall west of Ramallah city, the popular anti wall committee said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said that the fire started last night near a Jewish settlement, which was established on Bilin village land.
It pointed out that the Israeli occupation forces stationed at the wall’s gate blocked entry of fire brigades to extinguish the blaze, which led to the spread of fire.
The statement said that young men from the village gathered in front of the gate in a bid to help in putting off the blaze but the IOF soldiers prevented them and fired teargas at them.
The committee held the IOF responsible for providing protection for the settlers and for refusing to remove the wall as ruled by the Israeli high court four years ago.
Settlers Torch Olive Orchards Near Ramallah
A number of armed extremist Israeli settlers torched on Wednesday at night dozens of olive trees that belong to villagers of Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. The trees are located in Palestinian orchards isolated behind the Annexation Wall.
The Popular Committee Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements issued a press release on Thursday stating that the torched olives are in the western side of the village, close to the Metatyahu illegal settlement built on orchards illegal annexed from the residents.
The Committee added that Israeli soldiers stationed in the area obstructed the work of local firefighters trying to reach the burning orchards. The orchards became isolated behind the wall and the firefighters were delayed at the Wall gate.
It also stated that dozens of youth gathered near the gate in an attempt to help the firefighters but the army fired gas bombs at them leading to clashes.
The Committee held Israel fully responsible for the attack as the army provides ‘protection’ for the armed settlers instead of stopping their violations and assaults.
On July 9th 2010, the International Court at The Hague ruled that the Israeli Annexation Wall in the West Bank and around occupied East Jerusalem is illegal, and must be removed. It also called for compensating the victims.
The Court said that signatories of the Geneva Convention, including the UK, US, have the responsibility to oblige Israel to uphold the ruling and remove the Wall. Israel ignored the ruling the same way it ignored all Security Council and General Assembly resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israel and Arab-Israeli conflict.
Settlers harass, stone Hebron residents
Israeli settlers threw stones on homes in the area of the closed down Ash-Shuhada Street on Tuesday night, terrorizing families in the neighborhood.
The street, closed by military order in the 1990s, is a local flashpoint, divided in the center with half designated by the military for exclusively settler use, and the other section for Palestinians. Shops and businesses along the road were forced closed, their doors welded shut.
Mufeed Ash-Sharabati, an Ash-Shuhada street resident, said 100 settlers protected the soldiers advanced toward his home, as well as the homes of Abed Ar-Rahman Ragheb As-Salymah, Idris Zahdeah and Ali An-Nather, some of the few families who have remained in the area who have not been forced out by eviction, or harassed into moving for the safety of children.
"Ever since we started campaigning to have Ash-Shuhada street opened, there has been more settler harassment," Ash-Sharbati said, noting that on Tuesday afternoon Israeli settlers working to claim large swaths of the Palestinian city had harassed workers carrying out renovations on his home, throwing stones as soldiers escorting them through the area looked on.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=396873
Settler arrested for killing Palestinian
PA official: Settlers burn farmland near Nablus
Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian farmland south of the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, a Palestinian official said.
Ghassan Doughlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement affairs in the northern West Bank, said the incident occurred near the illegal settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus.
The settlers burned 15 dunnums of farmland of olive trees in an area known as Berkat Al-Marah, which belongs to residents from Roujeeb in the southeast of Nablus, Doughlas said.
He said the settlers deliberately targeted lands belonging to owners Hafeth Suleiman Darwish Dweikat and Ahmad Hafeth Dweikat, and said the residents were present during the attack.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397365
Jewish settlers burn olive trees west of Ramallah
Jewish settlers torched tens of Palestinian olive trees in Bilin village land behind the separation wall west of Ramallah city, the popular anti wall committee said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said that the fire started last night near a Jewish settlement, which was established on Bilin village land.
It pointed out that the Israeli occupation forces stationed at the wall’s gate blocked entry of fire brigades to extinguish the blaze, which led to the spread of fire.
The statement said that young men from the village gathered in front of the gate in a bid to help in putting off the blaze but the IOF soldiers prevented them and fired teargas at them.
The committee held the IOF responsible for providing protection for the settlers and for refusing to remove the wall as ruled by the Israeli high court four years ago.
Settlers Torch Olive Orchards Near Ramallah
A number of armed extremist Israeli settlers torched on Wednesday at night dozens of olive trees that belong to villagers of Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. The trees are located in Palestinian orchards isolated behind the Annexation Wall.
The Popular Committee Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements issued a press release on Thursday stating that the torched olives are in the western side of the village, close to the Metatyahu illegal settlement built on orchards illegal annexed from the residents.
The Committee added that Israeli soldiers stationed in the area obstructed the work of local firefighters trying to reach the burning orchards. The orchards became isolated behind the wall and the firefighters were delayed at the Wall gate.
It also stated that dozens of youth gathered near the gate in an attempt to help the firefighters but the army fired gas bombs at them leading to clashes.
The Committee held Israel fully responsible for the attack as the army provides ‘protection’ for the armed settlers instead of stopping their violations and assaults.
On July 9th 2010, the International Court at The Hague ruled that the Israeli Annexation Wall in the West Bank and around occupied East Jerusalem is illegal, and must be removed. It also called for compensating the victims.
The Court said that signatories of the Geneva Convention, including the UK, US, have the responsibility to oblige Israel to uphold the ruling and remove the Wall. Israel ignored the ruling the same way it ignored all Security Council and General Assembly resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israel and Arab-Israeli conflict.
Settlers harass, stone Hebron residents
Israeli settlers threw stones on homes in the area of the closed down Ash-Shuhada Street on Tuesday night, terrorizing families in the neighborhood.
The street, closed by military order in the 1990s, is a local flashpoint, divided in the center with half designated by the military for exclusively settler use, and the other section for Palestinians. Shops and businesses along the road were forced closed, their doors welded shut.
Mufeed Ash-Sharabati, an Ash-Shuhada street resident, said 100 settlers protected the soldiers advanced toward his home, as well as the homes of Abed Ar-Rahman Ragheb As-Salymah, Idris Zahdeah and Ali An-Nather, some of the few families who have remained in the area who have not been forced out by eviction, or harassed into moving for the safety of children.
"Ever since we started campaigning to have Ash-Shuhada street opened, there has been more settler harassment," Ash-Sharbati said, noting that on Tuesday afternoon Israeli settlers working to claim large swaths of the Palestinian city had harassed workers carrying out renovations on his home, throwing stones as soldiers escorting them through the area looked on.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=396873
Settler arrested for killing Palestinian
|
Israeli forces on Wednesday arrested an Israeli settler for the murder of a Palestinian man near Nablus nearly five months ago, Israel's daily news site Ynet reported.
According to the report, Israeli police arrested a man residing in Jerusalem, who admitted to shooting an Iraq Burin shepherd, but claimed he did so in self-defense after stones were thrown. Video footage captured from a nearby military base shows an altercation between the settler and two villagers, although the footage was shot from a distance, the site reported. The man is expected to be indicted for the crime, and charged in court. |
Statistics show little chance for justice, however, with a 2006 report from Israeli human rights group Yesh Din showing that over 90 percent of complaints by Palestinians against settlers resulted in no indictments, despite there having been an investigation by Israeli police.
In March, Jerusalem's Magistrates Court acquitted a settler woman, a resident of Hebron, who had been accused of assaulting a nine year old minor in five years earlier.
Residents and the Israeli rights group B'Tselem had caught the woman on tape harassing a local family with vicious anti-Arab statements.
The judge dismissed the case saying testimonials were contradictory.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397174
In March, Jerusalem's Magistrates Court acquitted a settler woman, a resident of Hebron, who had been accused of assaulting a nine year old minor in five years earlier.
Residents and the Israeli rights group B'Tselem had caught the woman on tape harassing a local family with vicious anti-Arab statements.
The judge dismissed the case saying testimonials were contradictory.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397174
15 juni 2011
Israeli Jerusalem Municipality Plans 7900 Settler Homes in the City
The Israeli human rights group, Ir Amim, announced in a press release today that the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem has discussed plans to build 7900 settler homes in East Jerusalem.
According to the press statement, the plan was proposed by what is known as the Israeli Sub-Committee to Advance Settlements. Ir Amim explained that the new settler homes would be added to the 4400 settler units already existing in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked the municipality of Jerusalem to form the Sub-Committee to Advance Settlements, in an attempt to lower the prices of real estate and quicken the building of settler homes in East Jerusalem.
Ir Amim explained that to achieve the lower real estate prices, plans will be implemented to build 940 homes in Har Homa and 942 homes in Gilo, two settlements located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. There are also plans to build 1,500 homes in Ramat Rahil.
In the northern part of Jerusalem, the planning committee discussed plans of 625 settler homes in Bisgat Zaiv, in addition to 1600 homes in the settlement of Chufat. The settlement in Chufat drew condemnation by the US administration last year.
There are currently half a million Israeli settlers living in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. In September 2010, Washington started peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis. Those talks reached a deadlock two weeks after they started, when Israel refused to freeze construction of West Bank settlements in East Jerusalem.
14 juni 2011
Israeli Knesset members, fanatics storm Nabi Yusuf in broad daylight
Israeli Knesset members and fanatics stormed the Nabi Yusuf shrine in Nablus city on Tuesday morning for the first time in broad daylight under protection of Palestinian police.
Israeli fanatics used to storm the shrine after midnight and it was the first time they “visited” it in the morning with Palestinian escort.
Israeli war minister Ehud Barak allowed the morning “visit” over two weeks ago but the PA asked for its postponement to avoid clashes after numerous Palestinian factions and forces called on citizens to confront such a step.
Hebrew media reported that the Israeli army allowed the “visit for prayers” this morning after coordination with the Palestinian police, which were deployed in hundreds to protect the “visitors”.
A number of Knesset members had asked the army to allow morning “visits” in response to the incident in which the Palestinian police killed a settler and wounded five others on 24 April when Israeli settlers stormed the shrine without prior coordination with the police.
Report: Palestinians assist visit to flashpoint holy site
With assistance from the Palestinian Authority, eight right-wing members of Israel's parliament visited Joseph's Tomb in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.
Hundreds of Palestinian officers were deployed on main Nablus traffic routes as the lawmakers entered the city on a guarded bus in the first visit during daylight hours since 2000, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.
"We came not only for historic reasons, but to make Arabs see that there is no place in the Land of Israel we cannot enter," Knesset member Arieh Eldad said, according to the report.
In May, Palestinian Authority police shot dead a Jewish settler caught sneaking into the tomb along with 30 others in an incident labeled "unwarranted" by Israel's chief of staff.
Also in May, soldiers escorted 1,600 settlers into the northern West Bank city to visit the shrine.
Under the Oslo accords, the city of Nablus is in the so-called Area A and is part of the 17 percent of the West Bank under Palestinian civil and security control.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=396666
13 juni 2011
Bethlehem resident in 30 year fight to defend land
Maher Mohammed Seb'a says he will stay on his land despite 30 years of harassment, intimidation and bribery by Israeli forces seeking to displace him.
On 2 June, Maher said he woke up to find more than 250 of his olive trees destroyed by settlers. He said he was shocked, but not surprised.
An area of agricultural land south of Al-Khader, the Bethlehem-area land knows as Khirbet A'liya abuts the Jewish-only settlement of Efrata. Built more than seven kilometers inside the West Bank, the illegal settlement has eaten more than 2,000 dunums of private Palestinian land, and thousands more of village lands.
The network of settler-only roads leading to the settlement, and the growing path of construction of Israel’s separation wall have further encroached on the area.
Maher Mohammed Seb'a, 48, has been at the forefront of resisting a campaign by settlers, the Israeli army, and Israeli courts to seize Khirbet A'liya and expand settler infrastructure.
His struggle began in 1982 when his house, built on land his father purchased in 1962, was confiscated by the Israeli army after members of the Palestinian resistance movement used it to fire at soldiers during the Second Intifada.
In 1998, the Israeli military built a base on part of his land. Through court action, Maher said, he managed to expel them in 2002 proving his ownership.
Despite the legal success, the years that followed saw repeated attacks on his property by settlers. In 2004, one such attack nearly resulted in his death when 30 armed settlers assaulted him and his nephew as they worked on the home. The Israeli military eventually intervened in the incident, but informed Maher that he was forbidden to return to the area because his safety could not be guaranteed, he recalls.
After being unable to visit Khirbet A'liya, Maher said he received a few years later, a claim from settler groups that they had a deed to the land.
Maher said he complained to the Civil Administration, but was told that since he had not been on the land in years, it had been declared 'absentee property.' It was registered under his father’s name, and his father had long since died.
In order to contest the claim, Maher said, he had to pay 80,000 shekels ($23,285) to transfer ownership to his name.
Now the official owner of the land, Maher said he was offered huge sums of money by the Civil Administration from their offices in the Etzion settlement bloc, to sell up. In addition to being offered over $30 million, he told Ma'an that his family was also offered Israeli passports. He said he declined all of the overtures.
Despite his refusal to sell the land, Maher said eight dunams were still confiscated, he said in order to build a street to connect to the nearby settlement of Efrata. He was then offered $250,000 to build a street which would pass directly through his land, but again refused the offer, he said.
In his most recent struggle in the Israeli courts, Maher managed to save part of his land from confiscation for construction of the separation wall. He said he is still awaiting a response to an amended plan for the route of the wall, which stopped west of Al-Khader.
He told Ma'an that the Bethlehem governorate had promised to pay him 68,000 shekels ($20,000) to provide his home with power and water, but that he has only received a cheque of 6,800 shekels to cover part of the cost.
“Over the years I could have become a rich man,” he said, adding that he preferred to join the many Palestinians who have remained steadfast in their refusal to be displaced.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=394945
Arrest of Four in Yitzhar Settlement
Around 100 Israeli police and border guard officers raided the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar near the city of Nablus on Monday and arrested four people, including one reporter from the pro-settler website “Jewish Voice.”
Three of the Yitzhar residents, including the reporter, were suspected of having been involved in riots, incitement, and the harassment of a public servant. Officers suspected the fourth of having set fire to a field belonging to Palestinians a few months ago.
The Yitzhar settlers claimed that the police raided the offices of the “Jewish voice” website and confiscated computers belonging to the site’s administrators.
The website called the action by the police bizarre. “The Jewish Voice website has been openly operating for many months and if there was an offence, indictments can be filed,” the website said.
The website said that Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, was among the police and that the warrant presented to them read “Violation of Shin Bet Law.” “This is an intimidation attempt using Shin Bet means when they have no proof of any violations,” the website claimed.
“Jewish Voice” had reported on Sunday that Brigadier-General Nitzan Alon, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division of the Israeli army, had ordered his low-level officers to identify any soldiers who might notify settlers of possible evacuations or otherwise “have the potential to harm state security.”
The leak by the website may have prompted the raid.
“Jewish Voice” reporter Elhanan Gruner had been arrested following the evacuation of the Ali Ayin outpost earlier in June.
At the time website workers said police confiscated two cameras and a computer and then destroyed evidence. Police rejected these claims and said they seized the equipment only for investigation purposes.
Homes to be Destroyed in Migron Outpost
For the first time since the bulldozing of homes in the West Bank settlement of Amona in 2006, Israel will again raze permanent structures in a West Bank outpost. The State has declared its intention to destroy three buildings in the outpost of Migron within the next 45 days.
While the state has moved in recent years against caravans and other ramshackle dwellings, the pledge to take on buildings in Migron, a settlement five kilometers north of Jerusalem, will mark the first time since 2006 that the state will destroy homes in a "full-fledged" outpost.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice on behalf of the Palestinian owners of the land where the homes are located.
The Israeli human rights group Peace Now plans to petition the court against the entire outpost next month.
With about 50 families, it is the largest of the 24 outposts built after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in 2001 and which Israel has told the United States it would remove.
Since taking office in 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted a new position with regards to some 100 outposts, with the 24 among them. His government has sought to legalize outposts built on state land and evacuate those on private Palestinian land such as Migron.
Migron's residents have in the past said that they would refuse to leave their homes and have said that the settlement could easily be reclassified as state land, but that politics has kept their community from receiving legal status.
Migron was constructed back in May of 2001 near the Kochav Ya’acov settlement.
2 juni 2011
Update: PA: Armed settlers enter Nablus village
Dozens of armed Israeli settlers on Saturday assaulted residents of Qusra village in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
PA settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas said settlers beat several residents at the entrance of the village, south of Nablus, and smashed the windscreen of a truck belonging to Husni Abu Reeda.
Doughlas said the settlers were from an illegal outpost Alei Ayin, which the Israeli army recently evacuated.
Settlers from the demolished outpost were suspected of torching and vandalizing a mosque near Ramallah on Tuesday.
Among anti-Arab slogans sprayed in graffiti on the walls of the mosque, vandals sprayed "Alei Ayin" and "price tag," referring to a settler policy to exact a "price" on Palestinians and their property every time the Israeli military limits settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land. The policy is meant to deter the military from acting against settlers.
In the nearby village Iraq Burin, Israeli forces sprayed tear gas and shot stun grenades at protesters in a weekly anti-settlement rally, residents said.
Locals told Ma'an that Israeli forces surrounded the village on Saturday morning to stop activists joining the protest.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=395788
Israel orders 3 settler buildings to be destroyed
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered Israeli forces to demolish three buildings in a West Bank settlement outpost within 45 days, Israeli media and his office said on Sunday.
The move comes after the Israeli state told a court on Friday that it would remove the buildings, which are part of the Migron settlement outpost in the northern West Bank and built on private Palestinian land, the Haaretz daily reported.
Barak's office confirmed the report.
"The position of the defence minister, in accord with the prime minister, is that illegal construction on private Palestinian land must be prevented and such buildings will be destroyed," his office said in a statement.
"This obviously applies to Migron too."
The Israeli government has said it is committed to removing settlements on private Palestinian land, but the Palestinians and the international community consider all settlements built in the West Bank to be illegal.
Israel only considers those settlements built without government approval to be illegal, and of that category has said it will only remove buildings that are built on private Palestinian land.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has filed a series of petitions on behalf of Palestinians seeking to force the Israeli government to remove outposts they claim stand on their private land.
Under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan, Israel pledged to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001 and a government commission later determined there were 26 such wildcat settlements in the West Bank.
Watchdog groups number dozens of such unauthorized outposts.
Successive prime ministers have made commitments to remove them but, despite strong US pressure, they have not been dismantled.
The government has been seeking to differentiate between outposts built on private Palestinian land and others built on public land.
Palestinians claim all Israeli construction in the West Bank is in violation of international law and the settlement issue has been a major obstacle to the resumption of peace talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=396006
Subaih calls for swift international intervention to curb Israeli violations
Mohammed Subaih, the assistant Arab League secretary general for Palestine affairs, has said that the world community is morally obliged to swiftly intervene and put an end to Israeli violations and settlers’ provocations.
He said in a statement on Friday that the world should intervene to enable the Palestinian people to have their own fully sovereign, independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Ambassador Subaih expressed absolute dismay at the escalating Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people, their holy shrines, and representatives at the legislative council.
He denounced, in this respect, the Jewish settlers’ burning of a mosque in the West Bank, describing the act as a serious, racist behavior. He said it would not be the last mosque to be attacked, warning that such behavior could not be met with silence.
Subaih also condemned the Jewish settlers’ rampage over the past four days during which many Palestinian cultivated lands were put on fire and vineyards sprayed with chemicals.
Israeli Jerusalem Municipality Plans 7900 Settler Homes in the City
The Israeli human rights group, Ir Amim, announced in a press release today that the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem has discussed plans to build 7900 settler homes in East Jerusalem.
According to the press statement, the plan was proposed by what is known as the Israeli Sub-Committee to Advance Settlements. Ir Amim explained that the new settler homes would be added to the 4400 settler units already existing in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked the municipality of Jerusalem to form the Sub-Committee to Advance Settlements, in an attempt to lower the prices of real estate and quicken the building of settler homes in East Jerusalem.
Ir Amim explained that to achieve the lower real estate prices, plans will be implemented to build 940 homes in Har Homa and 942 homes in Gilo, two settlements located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. There are also plans to build 1,500 homes in Ramat Rahil.
In the northern part of Jerusalem, the planning committee discussed plans of 625 settler homes in Bisgat Zaiv, in addition to 1600 homes in the settlement of Chufat. The settlement in Chufat drew condemnation by the US administration last year.
There are currently half a million Israeli settlers living in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. In September 2010, Washington started peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis. Those talks reached a deadlock two weeks after they started, when Israel refused to freeze construction of West Bank settlements in East Jerusalem.
14 juni 2011
Israeli Knesset members, fanatics storm Nabi Yusuf in broad daylight
Israeli Knesset members and fanatics stormed the Nabi Yusuf shrine in Nablus city on Tuesday morning for the first time in broad daylight under protection of Palestinian police.
Israeli fanatics used to storm the shrine after midnight and it was the first time they “visited” it in the morning with Palestinian escort.
Israeli war minister Ehud Barak allowed the morning “visit” over two weeks ago but the PA asked for its postponement to avoid clashes after numerous Palestinian factions and forces called on citizens to confront such a step.
Hebrew media reported that the Israeli army allowed the “visit for prayers” this morning after coordination with the Palestinian police, which were deployed in hundreds to protect the “visitors”.
A number of Knesset members had asked the army to allow morning “visits” in response to the incident in which the Palestinian police killed a settler and wounded five others on 24 April when Israeli settlers stormed the shrine without prior coordination with the police.
Report: Palestinians assist visit to flashpoint holy site
With assistance from the Palestinian Authority, eight right-wing members of Israel's parliament visited Joseph's Tomb in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.
Hundreds of Palestinian officers were deployed on main Nablus traffic routes as the lawmakers entered the city on a guarded bus in the first visit during daylight hours since 2000, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.
"We came not only for historic reasons, but to make Arabs see that there is no place in the Land of Israel we cannot enter," Knesset member Arieh Eldad said, according to the report.
In May, Palestinian Authority police shot dead a Jewish settler caught sneaking into the tomb along with 30 others in an incident labeled "unwarranted" by Israel's chief of staff.
Also in May, soldiers escorted 1,600 settlers into the northern West Bank city to visit the shrine.
Under the Oslo accords, the city of Nablus is in the so-called Area A and is part of the 17 percent of the West Bank under Palestinian civil and security control.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=396666
13 juni 2011
Bethlehem resident in 30 year fight to defend land
Maher Mohammed Seb'a says he will stay on his land despite 30 years of harassment, intimidation and bribery by Israeli forces seeking to displace him.
On 2 June, Maher said he woke up to find more than 250 of his olive trees destroyed by settlers. He said he was shocked, but not surprised.
An area of agricultural land south of Al-Khader, the Bethlehem-area land knows as Khirbet A'liya abuts the Jewish-only settlement of Efrata. Built more than seven kilometers inside the West Bank, the illegal settlement has eaten more than 2,000 dunums of private Palestinian land, and thousands more of village lands.
The network of settler-only roads leading to the settlement, and the growing path of construction of Israel’s separation wall have further encroached on the area.
Maher Mohammed Seb'a, 48, has been at the forefront of resisting a campaign by settlers, the Israeli army, and Israeli courts to seize Khirbet A'liya and expand settler infrastructure.
His struggle began in 1982 when his house, built on land his father purchased in 1962, was confiscated by the Israeli army after members of the Palestinian resistance movement used it to fire at soldiers during the Second Intifada.
In 1998, the Israeli military built a base on part of his land. Through court action, Maher said, he managed to expel them in 2002 proving his ownership.
Despite the legal success, the years that followed saw repeated attacks on his property by settlers. In 2004, one such attack nearly resulted in his death when 30 armed settlers assaulted him and his nephew as they worked on the home. The Israeli military eventually intervened in the incident, but informed Maher that he was forbidden to return to the area because his safety could not be guaranteed, he recalls.
After being unable to visit Khirbet A'liya, Maher said he received a few years later, a claim from settler groups that they had a deed to the land.
Maher said he complained to the Civil Administration, but was told that since he had not been on the land in years, it had been declared 'absentee property.' It was registered under his father’s name, and his father had long since died.
In order to contest the claim, Maher said, he had to pay 80,000 shekels ($23,285) to transfer ownership to his name.
Now the official owner of the land, Maher said he was offered huge sums of money by the Civil Administration from their offices in the Etzion settlement bloc, to sell up. In addition to being offered over $30 million, he told Ma'an that his family was also offered Israeli passports. He said he declined all of the overtures.
Despite his refusal to sell the land, Maher said eight dunams were still confiscated, he said in order to build a street to connect to the nearby settlement of Efrata. He was then offered $250,000 to build a street which would pass directly through his land, but again refused the offer, he said.
In his most recent struggle in the Israeli courts, Maher managed to save part of his land from confiscation for construction of the separation wall. He said he is still awaiting a response to an amended plan for the route of the wall, which stopped west of Al-Khader.
He told Ma'an that the Bethlehem governorate had promised to pay him 68,000 shekels ($20,000) to provide his home with power and water, but that he has only received a cheque of 6,800 shekels to cover part of the cost.
“Over the years I could have become a rich man,” he said, adding that he preferred to join the many Palestinians who have remained steadfast in their refusal to be displaced.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=394945
Arrest of Four in Yitzhar Settlement
Around 100 Israeli police and border guard officers raided the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar near the city of Nablus on Monday and arrested four people, including one reporter from the pro-settler website “Jewish Voice.”
Three of the Yitzhar residents, including the reporter, were suspected of having been involved in riots, incitement, and the harassment of a public servant. Officers suspected the fourth of having set fire to a field belonging to Palestinians a few months ago.
The Yitzhar settlers claimed that the police raided the offices of the “Jewish voice” website and confiscated computers belonging to the site’s administrators.
The website called the action by the police bizarre. “The Jewish Voice website has been openly operating for many months and if there was an offence, indictments can be filed,” the website said.
The website said that Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, was among the police and that the warrant presented to them read “Violation of Shin Bet Law.” “This is an intimidation attempt using Shin Bet means when they have no proof of any violations,” the website claimed.
“Jewish Voice” had reported on Sunday that Brigadier-General Nitzan Alon, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division of the Israeli army, had ordered his low-level officers to identify any soldiers who might notify settlers of possible evacuations or otherwise “have the potential to harm state security.”
The leak by the website may have prompted the raid.
“Jewish Voice” reporter Elhanan Gruner had been arrested following the evacuation of the Ali Ayin outpost earlier in June.
At the time website workers said police confiscated two cameras and a computer and then destroyed evidence. Police rejected these claims and said they seized the equipment only for investigation purposes.
Homes to be Destroyed in Migron Outpost
For the first time since the bulldozing of homes in the West Bank settlement of Amona in 2006, Israel will again raze permanent structures in a West Bank outpost. The State has declared its intention to destroy three buildings in the outpost of Migron within the next 45 days.
While the state has moved in recent years against caravans and other ramshackle dwellings, the pledge to take on buildings in Migron, a settlement five kilometers north of Jerusalem, will mark the first time since 2006 that the state will destroy homes in a "full-fledged" outpost.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice on behalf of the Palestinian owners of the land where the homes are located.
The Israeli human rights group Peace Now plans to petition the court against the entire outpost next month.
With about 50 families, it is the largest of the 24 outposts built after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in 2001 and which Israel has told the United States it would remove.
Since taking office in 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted a new position with regards to some 100 outposts, with the 24 among them. His government has sought to legalize outposts built on state land and evacuate those on private Palestinian land such as Migron.
Migron's residents have in the past said that they would refuse to leave their homes and have said that the settlement could easily be reclassified as state land, but that politics has kept their community from receiving legal status.
Migron was constructed back in May of 2001 near the Kochav Ya’acov settlement.
2 juni 2011
Update: PA: Armed settlers enter Nablus village
Dozens of armed Israeli settlers on Saturday assaulted residents of Qusra village in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
PA settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas said settlers beat several residents at the entrance of the village, south of Nablus, and smashed the windscreen of a truck belonging to Husni Abu Reeda.
Doughlas said the settlers were from an illegal outpost Alei Ayin, which the Israeli army recently evacuated.
Settlers from the demolished outpost were suspected of torching and vandalizing a mosque near Ramallah on Tuesday.
Among anti-Arab slogans sprayed in graffiti on the walls of the mosque, vandals sprayed "Alei Ayin" and "price tag," referring to a settler policy to exact a "price" on Palestinians and their property every time the Israeli military limits settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land. The policy is meant to deter the military from acting against settlers.
In the nearby village Iraq Burin, Israeli forces sprayed tear gas and shot stun grenades at protesters in a weekly anti-settlement rally, residents said.
Locals told Ma'an that Israeli forces surrounded the village on Saturday morning to stop activists joining the protest.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=395788
Israel orders 3 settler buildings to be destroyed
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered Israeli forces to demolish three buildings in a West Bank settlement outpost within 45 days, Israeli media and his office said on Sunday.
The move comes after the Israeli state told a court on Friday that it would remove the buildings, which are part of the Migron settlement outpost in the northern West Bank and built on private Palestinian land, the Haaretz daily reported.
Barak's office confirmed the report.
"The position of the defence minister, in accord with the prime minister, is that illegal construction on private Palestinian land must be prevented and such buildings will be destroyed," his office said in a statement.
"This obviously applies to Migron too."
The Israeli government has said it is committed to removing settlements on private Palestinian land, but the Palestinians and the international community consider all settlements built in the West Bank to be illegal.
Israel only considers those settlements built without government approval to be illegal, and of that category has said it will only remove buildings that are built on private Palestinian land.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has filed a series of petitions on behalf of Palestinians seeking to force the Israeli government to remove outposts they claim stand on their private land.
Under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan, Israel pledged to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001 and a government commission later determined there were 26 such wildcat settlements in the West Bank.
Watchdog groups number dozens of such unauthorized outposts.
Successive prime ministers have made commitments to remove them but, despite strong US pressure, they have not been dismantled.
The government has been seeking to differentiate between outposts built on private Palestinian land and others built on public land.
Palestinians claim all Israeli construction in the West Bank is in violation of international law and the settlement issue has been a major obstacle to the resumption of peace talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=396006
Subaih calls for swift international intervention to curb Israeli violations
Mohammed Subaih, the assistant Arab League secretary general for Palestine affairs, has said that the world community is morally obliged to swiftly intervene and put an end to Israeli violations and settlers’ provocations.
He said in a statement on Friday that the world should intervene to enable the Palestinian people to have their own fully sovereign, independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Ambassador Subaih expressed absolute dismay at the escalating Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people, their holy shrines, and representatives at the legislative council.
He denounced, in this respect, the Jewish settlers’ burning of a mosque in the West Bank, describing the act as a serious, racist behavior. He said it would not be the last mosque to be attacked, warning that such behavior could not be met with silence.
Subaih also condemned the Jewish settlers’ rampage over the past four days during which many Palestinian cultivated lands were put on fire and vineyards sprayed with chemicals.