17 aug 2011
IOF launches arrest sweep, burns down farmland in Jenin vicinity
Israeli occupation forces launched wide-ranging arrest sweeps around the West Bank city of Jenin, and burned dozens of dunams of farmland west of the city.
Witnesses said several patrols raided Kafr Rai village south of Jenin and deployed throughout the streets. The home of 16-year-old Bilal Nabil Jawabira, 16, was searched in the operation.
The sources added the soldiers set up ambushes in the local cemetery, in the olive groves, and on the rooftops of nearby homes.
IOF troops raided several other villages in the area with patrols that went on until early morning without report of arrest.
Meanwhile, IOF soldiers set fire to dozens of dunums (1 Dunum= 1000 square meters) of olive groves and almond fields causing heavy damage in the village of East Barta’a in the southern region of Jenin governorate.
Locals said troops posted at the Barta’a checkpoint stopped fire vehicles from Jenin’s civil defense service from arriving to fight the blaze.
They said Israel forces had been burning grass piled on the sides of the roads where they were patrolling, when fire spread to nearby olive groves.
Meantime, locals reported that a gang of Jewish settlers burned down tens of dunams of farmland in the dismantled Jewish settlement of Homesh and directed verbal insults at Arabs and tried to assault the vehicles of Palestinians who drove along the road between Jenin and Nablus.
Witnesses said the settlers set fire to hundreds of olive and almond trees as Israeli military forces remained idle. IOF troops arrived to the region for the protection of the settlers, they said.
PA condemns conference hosted by hard-line Rabbi
The Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli government on Wednesday for allowing a conference hosted by a hard-line Rabbi to take place Tuesday in the Pisgat Zeev settlement in East Jerusalem.
"The Israeli authorities’ ongoing and consistent tolerance towards hate speech and incitement against Palestinians leads to actions," director of the PA's media center Ghassan Khatib said Wednesday.
The conference was hosted by Rabbi Yitzshak Shapiro, a co-author of the notoriously racist "King's Torah", and called for halting construction of a Palestinian school in between Pisgat Zeev and Nabi Taakov settlements in East Jerusalem, as well as preventing Jewish girls from dating Arab men.
In addition, the conference demanded that the Jerusalem light railway project should be banned from passing through Palestinian neighborhoods, a PA statement said.
"In the name of freedom of speech, settlers are given freedom of incitement and freedom to use violence against Palestinians," Khatib added.
The Palestinian Government Media Center "calls upon the Israeli authorities and the government to take serious actions to prevent continuing settler incitement and violations.
"We, also, call upon the international community to hold the Israeli government accountable for permitting incitement and violence of settlers to go unpunished."
The "King's Torah", which has been banned from sale in Israel, 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."
"Anywhere where the influence of gentiles constitutes a threat to the life of Israel, it is permissible to kill them," the authors wrote.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413931
16 aug 2011
PA: Settlers torch farmland near Nablus
Israeli settlers on Tuesday set fire to farm land in an evacuated settlement near Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas said settlers torched hundreds of trees around Homesh settlement shortly before Iftar, the traditional meal to break the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413691
UK bans Israeli settler rabbi who called for killing of non-Jews
Palestinian religious leader and rights activist Sheikh Raed Salah was arrested by the UK government in June, supposedly for “flouting” a ban on entering the country, as much of the UK press put it.
But it later emerged that Home Secretary Theresa May issued the exclusion order only two days before Raed Salah entered the UK for a speaking tour. Crucially, neither he nor his tour organizers had any idea there was such a ban in place. A lawyer acting for the Home Office admitted as much in the High Court on 15 July, saying Salah “didn’t do anything wrong.”
Following his initial arrest, UK courts have released Salah on bail pending the outcome of his challenge to a government order that he be deported, and have also rejected a government appeal aimed at having his bail revoked.
While the UK Border Agency (UKBA) gave no prior warning to Salah, it was revealed last Wednesday that the same agency gave a written warning of a ban to an extremist Israeli settler named Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, who has incited the murder of non-Jews, including civilians and children.
A UKBA letter to Elitzur detailing an exclusion order was published by the Voice of the Jews website on Wednesday. It said Elitzur fell foul of UK policy against “Unacceptable Behavior,” and gave examples including the justification of “terrorist violence” (“Restraining order from the UK to author of The King’s Torah” [Hebrew], 10 August 2011).
The letter is addressed 20 July, only two days after Salah was released on conditional bail pending a full hearing of a judicial review against his deportation from the UK. It states that Theresa May on 11 July (while Salah was still detained) “personally directed that you [Elitzur] should be excluded from the UK on the grounds that your presence here would not be conducive to the public good” — exactly the same grounds she used to exclude Salah.
It then goes on to specify Elitzur’s authorship of a book called Torat Hamelech or The King’s Torah, which details how Jewish religious law supposedly permits the killing of non-Jews and “advocates Jewish discrimination against Gentiles,” as the UKBA put it.
According to the letter, the book further states: “Anywhere where the presence of a gentile poses a threat to Israel, it is permissible to kill him, even if it is a righteous gentile who is not responsible for the threatening situation.” Israeli media reported quite extensively on the book from the time it was published (see “Another rabbi detained over ‘racist book’,” Ynet, 19 August 2010).
Why wait till now?
While Salah strongly denies making the anti-Semitic statements attributed to him by enemies, and cited by the Home Office, Elitzur make no bones about writing the racist book. The website of the Jewish religious school in Yitzhar (an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank) openly lists Elitzur as the author of The King’s Torah, along with another rabbi, Yitzhak Shapira (“Od Yosef Chai” [Hebrew], accessed 11 August 2011).
Why the ban was only issued last month remains unclear. The King’s Torah was published in 2009, and got more attention in the Israeli press in 2010 when Elitzur and Shapira were arrested for incitement to racism. The Voice of the Jews article claims “Elitzur had no plans to travel to Britain in the near future, and the step was taken as a preventative one.”
Home Office confirms letter
The Electronic Intifada contacted the Home Office — the UK’s interior ministry — to ask why the letter had been issued now (the UKBA is part of the Home Office). Although a spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the letter, the official refused to comment on the timing, stating only: “We can confirm that Mr. Elitzur has been excluded from the UK on grounds of unacceptable behavior. The government will refuse people access to the UK if we believe they might seek to undermine our society. Coming here is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who seek to subvert our shared values.”
The spokesperson also declined to comment on whether the case had been coordinated with Israel, or if it had any links to Salah’s case, saying that they don’t discuss the details of individual cases.
Could the UKBA’s ban on Elitzur be designed to “balance out” the ban on Salah and make it appear as if UK policy is non-discriminatory, or to somehow equate Salah — a well-respected community leader who has not called for violence — with a racist extremist who has? It is difficult to tell from the evidence. However, it is clear that while allegations of racism against Salah are, at best, based on extremely shaky evidence, Elitzur’s racism is not in doubt.
“Settler revolt”
As a settler leader, Elitzur has been at odds with the Israeli state, mainly on the basis that Jewish settlers should have an even freer hand to colonize the West Bank. In 2009 he was involved in what Israeli journalist Didi Remez described as a “settler rebellion” against the so-called settlement freeze.
Elitzur detailed plans for how to thwart the Israeli army and police: “When in every settlement a police patrol car becomes an unwanted presence, and administration inspectors understand they have 10 minutes to run away before their tires are punctured, the government’s ability to enforce its decrees will drop sharply” (“Document: Settlers prep to terrorize West Bank,” Didi Remez’s Coteret blog, 6 December 2009).
Elitzur was arrested by the Israeli police in 2010 over his co-authorship of The King’s Torah (“Another rabbi detained over ‘racist book’ “, Ynet, 19 August 2010).
The case seems to have been quietly dropped since then, although it is possible the charges are still technically active. The UKBA letter to Elitzur was addressed to “Mr Yosef ELITZUR, Yitzhar, West Bank.” The copy appearing on the Voice of the Jews site included headers suggesting it had been faxed to the yeshiva.
Israeli goverment and US tax-exempt support for extremism
Despite apparently being at odds with the school, it emerged at the time that Israel actually funded Od Yosef Chai yeshiva. According to journalist Max Blumenthal, the school received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Israeli government departments in between 2006 and 2010. It also benefited from donations from a US tax-exempt, nonprofit organization called the Central Fund of Israel.
Blumenthal says Yitzhar and its yeshiva are notorious for hosting “a small army of fanatics who are eager to lash out at the Palestinians tending to their crops and livestock in the valleys below them.” The settlement also has apparent links to alleged Jewish terrorist Jack Teitel, and was apparently the launching base for 2008 attacks on the Palestinian village of Burin using homemade rockets (“How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book’s Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews,” Alternet, 30 August 2010).
The timing of the UKBA letter to Elitzur, two days after Salah was released on bail, seems unlikely to be a coincidence. Did the government have reason to believe Elitzur was intending to travel to the UK, perhaps to speak or raise funds? We simply don’t know, and the government won’t comment. If we take Elitzur at his word when he says he was not intending to travel soon, the government ban smacks of tokenism after the ban of Salah. And why was Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, the other author of The King’s Torah, not also banned? Many questions remain unanswered, but perhaps the only thing Salah and Elitzur do have in common is that the Israeli government is unlikely to shed any tears over their respective exclusion orders from the UK.
Dena Shunra contributed reporting and translation from Hebrew to this article.
Asa Winstanley is a freelance journalist based in London who has lived in and reported from occupied Palestine. His first book Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupationwill be published by Pluto Press in October. His website is www.winstanleys.org.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/uk
15 aug 2011
Map of “Greater Israel” Published by Radical Settler Movement
“The process of national revival of the Jewish people is irreversible and has its internal logic. We shall have no peace as long as the whole territory of the Country of Israel will not return under Jewish control. This might sound too hard, but such is the logic of history. The war on the Holy Land has been already fought for four thousand years and the end cannot be seen.
A stable peace will come only then, when Israel will return to itself all its historical lands, and will thus control both the Suez and the Ormudz channel. The state will find at last its geostrategic completeness. We must remember that Iraqi oil fields too are located on the Jewish land. This may seem utopia to many now – but an even greater utopia seemed a hundred years ago the revival of the Jewish state…If you want it, this will not not be a fairy tale” –Rabbi Avrom Shmulevic of the Bead Artzein (“For the Homeland”) Movement.
The Shrinking Map of Palestine
“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”
– David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99
“We must expel Arabs and take their places.” — David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.” — David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan’s “Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech
“We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’ Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out!” — Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.
“Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.” — Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.
“It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.” — Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.
“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours…Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” — Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.
“Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial.” — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 25 March, 2001 quoted in BBC News Online.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel
Settlers attack bus of relatives of Palestinian prisoners
Jewish settlers attacked a bus carrying relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails while on its way to visit detainees in Nafha desert prison on Monday.
The settlers, who call themselves “Activists for Shalit”, demanded the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who has been held in the Gaza Strip for more than five years.
The activists hung signs on the bus saying, "Who is visiting Shalit?" and kept it from passing into the parking lot. "No visit for Shalit means no visit for you," they called out.
The relatives said that the Israeli police did not intervene and even prevented the relatives from leaving the bus.
Settlers provoke and undercover forces arrest two children and 17 years old
The settlers guard Jeep and during the calm periods tries to provoke the children in order to prepare the atmosphere to the undercover units to commit the abduction of children.
So they kidnapped Muslim Audeh 10 years and Hamada Audeh 13 years and a third anonymous child, while they were washing their donkey as a kind of recreation, This ws was accompanied by a campaign against the Neighborhood of Al- Bustan where there, they arrested Kazem Abu Shafi 17 years, within these campaigns a large group of Israeli military forces were shooting sound bombs heavily to support the undercover forces while doing the arrests.
http://silwanic.net/?p=19092
12 aug 2011
Fanatic Jewish settlers regularly attack Palestinians at Iftar time
Fanatic Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian homes in the old city in al-Khalil on Wednesday evening for the second time in two days. The attacks take place when families gather at sunset to break their fast (Iftar).
Settlers from the Yeshai settlement built on confiscated Palestinian land at the centre of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil attacked Palestinian homes in Tal al-Rumaida and Jabal al-Rahma throwing stones at the homes and terrorising Palestinian families living there.
A Palestinian residents who lives at Jabal al-Rahma said that a group of settlers from the Yeshai settlement crossed lands belonging to local residents, threw stones at Palestinian homes in the vicinity and chanted anti-Arab slogans.
Meanwhile, settlers in Tel al-Rumaida attacked the home of Muhammad Abu Eisheh with stones and destroyed a support wall belonging to the family of Sayyed Ahmad.
11 aug 2011
Jewish settlers seize Palestinian homes by force
Jewish settlers forced their way into Palestinian homes in the Old City of Al-Khalil and expelled their inhabitants out at dawn Thursday, eyewitnesses said.
They said that the settlers used digging tools to force their way into those homes overlooking the settlement outposts in the city.
The Old City in Al-Khalil has always been coveted by the Jewish settlers, who, backed by the Israeli occupation forces, use arms to expel the Palestinian indigenous inhabitants and seize their homes.
Israel approves 1,600 Jerusalem settler homes
Israel's interior minister Eli Yishai has given final approval for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, his spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
The move is likely to anger both the Palestinians and the international community, as it struggles to find a way to relaunch peace talks in a bid to head off a Palestinian plan to seek United Nations membership.
Roei Lachmanovich also said the interior minister was set to give final approval for another 2,700 settler homes in east Jerusalem neighborhoods in "a couple of days."
"He has approved 1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo and will approve 2,000 more in Givat Hamatos and 700 in Pisgat Zeev," Lachmanovich said.
The 1,600-house construction in Ramat Shlomo has already caused a diplomatic rift between Israel and Washington.
It was first announced as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the region in March 2010 for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a bid to lay the ground for new direct peace talks between the two sides.
The timing of the announcement angered Washington and prompted the Palestinians to accuse Israel of lacking a commitment to restarting the peace process.
But Lachmanovich said the final approvals were "economic" not political, tying the final go-ahead to protests over housing prices and the cost of living that have shaken Israel in recent weeks.
"These are being approved because of the economic crisis here in Israel, they are looking for a place to build in Jerusalem, and these will help," he said.
"This is nothing political, it's just economic."
The latest escalation in settlement building comes as Israel's interior ministry announced last week that it had approved the construction of 900 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Har Homa.
The move was widely condemned by the international community, including the United States and the European Union.
Israel captured east Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity, calling both east and west Jerusalem its "eternal, indivisible" capital, and some 200,000 Israelis now live in east Jerusalem amid nearly 270,000 Palestinians.
The international community, including the United States, has regularly criticized Israel for building settlements in the West Bank and particularly east Jerusalem, describing them as counterproductive and calling for a halt to all such construction.
More than 300,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and settlement construction is a major obstacle to the resumption of negotiations.
Israel openly opposes the Palestinian bid for UN recognition in September, instead insisting that the Israeli government is willing to begin peace talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412313
Rights group: Israeli settlers entrance into al-Aqsa mosque provocative
IOF launches arrest sweep, burns down farmland in Jenin vicinity
Israeli occupation forces launched wide-ranging arrest sweeps around the West Bank city of Jenin, and burned dozens of dunams of farmland west of the city.
Witnesses said several patrols raided Kafr Rai village south of Jenin and deployed throughout the streets. The home of 16-year-old Bilal Nabil Jawabira, 16, was searched in the operation.
The sources added the soldiers set up ambushes in the local cemetery, in the olive groves, and on the rooftops of nearby homes.
IOF troops raided several other villages in the area with patrols that went on until early morning without report of arrest.
Meanwhile, IOF soldiers set fire to dozens of dunums (1 Dunum= 1000 square meters) of olive groves and almond fields causing heavy damage in the village of East Barta’a in the southern region of Jenin governorate.
Locals said troops posted at the Barta’a checkpoint stopped fire vehicles from Jenin’s civil defense service from arriving to fight the blaze.
They said Israel forces had been burning grass piled on the sides of the roads where they were patrolling, when fire spread to nearby olive groves.
Meantime, locals reported that a gang of Jewish settlers burned down tens of dunams of farmland in the dismantled Jewish settlement of Homesh and directed verbal insults at Arabs and tried to assault the vehicles of Palestinians who drove along the road between Jenin and Nablus.
Witnesses said the settlers set fire to hundreds of olive and almond trees as Israeli military forces remained idle. IOF troops arrived to the region for the protection of the settlers, they said.
PA condemns conference hosted by hard-line Rabbi
The Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli government on Wednesday for allowing a conference hosted by a hard-line Rabbi to take place Tuesday in the Pisgat Zeev settlement in East Jerusalem.
"The Israeli authorities’ ongoing and consistent tolerance towards hate speech and incitement against Palestinians leads to actions," director of the PA's media center Ghassan Khatib said Wednesday.
The conference was hosted by Rabbi Yitzshak Shapiro, a co-author of the notoriously racist "King's Torah", and called for halting construction of a Palestinian school in between Pisgat Zeev and Nabi Taakov settlements in East Jerusalem, as well as preventing Jewish girls from dating Arab men.
In addition, the conference demanded that the Jerusalem light railway project should be banned from passing through Palestinian neighborhoods, a PA statement said.
"In the name of freedom of speech, settlers are given freedom of incitement and freedom to use violence against Palestinians," Khatib added.
The Palestinian Government Media Center "calls upon the Israeli authorities and the government to take serious actions to prevent continuing settler incitement and violations.
"We, also, call upon the international community to hold the Israeli government accountable for permitting incitement and violence of settlers to go unpunished."
The "King's Torah", which has been banned from sale in Israel, 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."
"Anywhere where the influence of gentiles constitutes a threat to the life of Israel, it is permissible to kill them," the authors wrote.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413931
16 aug 2011
PA: Settlers torch farmland near Nablus
Israeli settlers on Tuesday set fire to farm land in an evacuated settlement near Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas said settlers torched hundreds of trees around Homesh settlement shortly before Iftar, the traditional meal to break the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413691
UK bans Israeli settler rabbi who called for killing of non-Jews
Palestinian religious leader and rights activist Sheikh Raed Salah was arrested by the UK government in June, supposedly for “flouting” a ban on entering the country, as much of the UK press put it.
But it later emerged that Home Secretary Theresa May issued the exclusion order only two days before Raed Salah entered the UK for a speaking tour. Crucially, neither he nor his tour organizers had any idea there was such a ban in place. A lawyer acting for the Home Office admitted as much in the High Court on 15 July, saying Salah “didn’t do anything wrong.”
Following his initial arrest, UK courts have released Salah on bail pending the outcome of his challenge to a government order that he be deported, and have also rejected a government appeal aimed at having his bail revoked.
While the UK Border Agency (UKBA) gave no prior warning to Salah, it was revealed last Wednesday that the same agency gave a written warning of a ban to an extremist Israeli settler named Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, who has incited the murder of non-Jews, including civilians and children.
A UKBA letter to Elitzur detailing an exclusion order was published by the Voice of the Jews website on Wednesday. It said Elitzur fell foul of UK policy against “Unacceptable Behavior,” and gave examples including the justification of “terrorist violence” (“Restraining order from the UK to author of The King’s Torah” [Hebrew], 10 August 2011).
The letter is addressed 20 July, only two days after Salah was released on conditional bail pending a full hearing of a judicial review against his deportation from the UK. It states that Theresa May on 11 July (while Salah was still detained) “personally directed that you [Elitzur] should be excluded from the UK on the grounds that your presence here would not be conducive to the public good” — exactly the same grounds she used to exclude Salah.
It then goes on to specify Elitzur’s authorship of a book called Torat Hamelech or The King’s Torah, which details how Jewish religious law supposedly permits the killing of non-Jews and “advocates Jewish discrimination against Gentiles,” as the UKBA put it.
According to the letter, the book further states: “Anywhere where the presence of a gentile poses a threat to Israel, it is permissible to kill him, even if it is a righteous gentile who is not responsible for the threatening situation.” Israeli media reported quite extensively on the book from the time it was published (see “Another rabbi detained over ‘racist book’,” Ynet, 19 August 2010).
Why wait till now?
While Salah strongly denies making the anti-Semitic statements attributed to him by enemies, and cited by the Home Office, Elitzur make no bones about writing the racist book. The website of the Jewish religious school in Yitzhar (an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank) openly lists Elitzur as the author of The King’s Torah, along with another rabbi, Yitzhak Shapira (“Od Yosef Chai” [Hebrew], accessed 11 August 2011).
Why the ban was only issued last month remains unclear. The King’s Torah was published in 2009, and got more attention in the Israeli press in 2010 when Elitzur and Shapira were arrested for incitement to racism. The Voice of the Jews article claims “Elitzur had no plans to travel to Britain in the near future, and the step was taken as a preventative one.”
Home Office confirms letter
The Electronic Intifada contacted the Home Office — the UK’s interior ministry — to ask why the letter had been issued now (the UKBA is part of the Home Office). Although a spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the letter, the official refused to comment on the timing, stating only: “We can confirm that Mr. Elitzur has been excluded from the UK on grounds of unacceptable behavior. The government will refuse people access to the UK if we believe they might seek to undermine our society. Coming here is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who seek to subvert our shared values.”
The spokesperson also declined to comment on whether the case had been coordinated with Israel, or if it had any links to Salah’s case, saying that they don’t discuss the details of individual cases.
Could the UKBA’s ban on Elitzur be designed to “balance out” the ban on Salah and make it appear as if UK policy is non-discriminatory, or to somehow equate Salah — a well-respected community leader who has not called for violence — with a racist extremist who has? It is difficult to tell from the evidence. However, it is clear that while allegations of racism against Salah are, at best, based on extremely shaky evidence, Elitzur’s racism is not in doubt.
“Settler revolt”
As a settler leader, Elitzur has been at odds with the Israeli state, mainly on the basis that Jewish settlers should have an even freer hand to colonize the West Bank. In 2009 he was involved in what Israeli journalist Didi Remez described as a “settler rebellion” against the so-called settlement freeze.
Elitzur detailed plans for how to thwart the Israeli army and police: “When in every settlement a police patrol car becomes an unwanted presence, and administration inspectors understand they have 10 minutes to run away before their tires are punctured, the government’s ability to enforce its decrees will drop sharply” (“Document: Settlers prep to terrorize West Bank,” Didi Remez’s Coteret blog, 6 December 2009).
Elitzur was arrested by the Israeli police in 2010 over his co-authorship of The King’s Torah (“Another rabbi detained over ‘racist book’ “, Ynet, 19 August 2010).
The case seems to have been quietly dropped since then, although it is possible the charges are still technically active. The UKBA letter to Elitzur was addressed to “Mr Yosef ELITZUR, Yitzhar, West Bank.” The copy appearing on the Voice of the Jews site included headers suggesting it had been faxed to the yeshiva.
Israeli goverment and US tax-exempt support for extremism
Despite apparently being at odds with the school, it emerged at the time that Israel actually funded Od Yosef Chai yeshiva. According to journalist Max Blumenthal, the school received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Israeli government departments in between 2006 and 2010. It also benefited from donations from a US tax-exempt, nonprofit organization called the Central Fund of Israel.
Blumenthal says Yitzhar and its yeshiva are notorious for hosting “a small army of fanatics who are eager to lash out at the Palestinians tending to their crops and livestock in the valleys below them.” The settlement also has apparent links to alleged Jewish terrorist Jack Teitel, and was apparently the launching base for 2008 attacks on the Palestinian village of Burin using homemade rockets (“How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book’s Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews,” Alternet, 30 August 2010).
The timing of the UKBA letter to Elitzur, two days after Salah was released on bail, seems unlikely to be a coincidence. Did the government have reason to believe Elitzur was intending to travel to the UK, perhaps to speak or raise funds? We simply don’t know, and the government won’t comment. If we take Elitzur at his word when he says he was not intending to travel soon, the government ban smacks of tokenism after the ban of Salah. And why was Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, the other author of The King’s Torah, not also banned? Many questions remain unanswered, but perhaps the only thing Salah and Elitzur do have in common is that the Israeli government is unlikely to shed any tears over their respective exclusion orders from the UK.
Dena Shunra contributed reporting and translation from Hebrew to this article.
Asa Winstanley is a freelance journalist based in London who has lived in and reported from occupied Palestine. His first book Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupationwill be published by Pluto Press in October. His website is www.winstanleys.org.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/uk
15 aug 2011
Map of “Greater Israel” Published by Radical Settler Movement
“The process of national revival of the Jewish people is irreversible and has its internal logic. We shall have no peace as long as the whole territory of the Country of Israel will not return under Jewish control. This might sound too hard, but such is the logic of history. The war on the Holy Land has been already fought for four thousand years and the end cannot be seen.
A stable peace will come only then, when Israel will return to itself all its historical lands, and will thus control both the Suez and the Ormudz channel. The state will find at last its geostrategic completeness. We must remember that Iraqi oil fields too are located on the Jewish land. This may seem utopia to many now – but an even greater utopia seemed a hundred years ago the revival of the Jewish state…If you want it, this will not not be a fairy tale” –Rabbi Avrom Shmulevic of the Bead Artzein (“For the Homeland”) Movement.
The Shrinking Map of Palestine
“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”
– David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99
“We must expel Arabs and take their places.” — David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.” — David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan’s “Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech
“We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’ Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out!” — Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.
“Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.” — Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.
“It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.” — Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.
“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours…Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” — Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.
“Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial.” — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 25 March, 2001 quoted in BBC News Online.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel
Settlers attack bus of relatives of Palestinian prisoners
Jewish settlers attacked a bus carrying relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails while on its way to visit detainees in Nafha desert prison on Monday.
The settlers, who call themselves “Activists for Shalit”, demanded the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who has been held in the Gaza Strip for more than five years.
The activists hung signs on the bus saying, "Who is visiting Shalit?" and kept it from passing into the parking lot. "No visit for Shalit means no visit for you," they called out.
The relatives said that the Israeli police did not intervene and even prevented the relatives from leaving the bus.
Settlers provoke and undercover forces arrest two children and 17 years old
The settlers guard Jeep and during the calm periods tries to provoke the children in order to prepare the atmosphere to the undercover units to commit the abduction of children.
So they kidnapped Muslim Audeh 10 years and Hamada Audeh 13 years and a third anonymous child, while they were washing their donkey as a kind of recreation, This ws was accompanied by a campaign against the Neighborhood of Al- Bustan where there, they arrested Kazem Abu Shafi 17 years, within these campaigns a large group of Israeli military forces were shooting sound bombs heavily to support the undercover forces while doing the arrests.
http://silwanic.net/?p=19092
12 aug 2011
Fanatic Jewish settlers regularly attack Palestinians at Iftar time
Fanatic Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian homes in the old city in al-Khalil on Wednesday evening for the second time in two days. The attacks take place when families gather at sunset to break their fast (Iftar).
Settlers from the Yeshai settlement built on confiscated Palestinian land at the centre of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil attacked Palestinian homes in Tal al-Rumaida and Jabal al-Rahma throwing stones at the homes and terrorising Palestinian families living there.
A Palestinian residents who lives at Jabal al-Rahma said that a group of settlers from the Yeshai settlement crossed lands belonging to local residents, threw stones at Palestinian homes in the vicinity and chanted anti-Arab slogans.
Meanwhile, settlers in Tel al-Rumaida attacked the home of Muhammad Abu Eisheh with stones and destroyed a support wall belonging to the family of Sayyed Ahmad.
11 aug 2011
Jewish settlers seize Palestinian homes by force
Jewish settlers forced their way into Palestinian homes in the Old City of Al-Khalil and expelled their inhabitants out at dawn Thursday, eyewitnesses said.
They said that the settlers used digging tools to force their way into those homes overlooking the settlement outposts in the city.
The Old City in Al-Khalil has always been coveted by the Jewish settlers, who, backed by the Israeli occupation forces, use arms to expel the Palestinian indigenous inhabitants and seize their homes.
Israel approves 1,600 Jerusalem settler homes
Israel's interior minister Eli Yishai has given final approval for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, his spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
The move is likely to anger both the Palestinians and the international community, as it struggles to find a way to relaunch peace talks in a bid to head off a Palestinian plan to seek United Nations membership.
Roei Lachmanovich also said the interior minister was set to give final approval for another 2,700 settler homes in east Jerusalem neighborhoods in "a couple of days."
"He has approved 1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo and will approve 2,000 more in Givat Hamatos and 700 in Pisgat Zeev," Lachmanovich said.
The 1,600-house construction in Ramat Shlomo has already caused a diplomatic rift between Israel and Washington.
It was first announced as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the region in March 2010 for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a bid to lay the ground for new direct peace talks between the two sides.
The timing of the announcement angered Washington and prompted the Palestinians to accuse Israel of lacking a commitment to restarting the peace process.
But Lachmanovich said the final approvals were "economic" not political, tying the final go-ahead to protests over housing prices and the cost of living that have shaken Israel in recent weeks.
"These are being approved because of the economic crisis here in Israel, they are looking for a place to build in Jerusalem, and these will help," he said.
"This is nothing political, it's just economic."
The latest escalation in settlement building comes as Israel's interior ministry announced last week that it had approved the construction of 900 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Har Homa.
The move was widely condemned by the international community, including the United States and the European Union.
Israel captured east Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity, calling both east and west Jerusalem its "eternal, indivisible" capital, and some 200,000 Israelis now live in east Jerusalem amid nearly 270,000 Palestinians.
The international community, including the United States, has regularly criticized Israel for building settlements in the West Bank and particularly east Jerusalem, describing them as counterproductive and calling for a halt to all such construction.
More than 300,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and settlement construction is a major obstacle to the resumption of negotiations.
Israel openly opposes the Palestinian bid for UN recognition in September, instead insisting that the Israeli government is willing to begin peace talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412313
Rights group: Israeli settlers entrance into al-Aqsa mosque provocative
|
A statement by the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights claims that the Israeli settlers daily entrance into al Aqsa Mosque with the help of the Israeli occupation forces confirms that Israel is attempting to take a big negative in Jerusalem, adding fuel to the current situation.
The center warned of a possibility of ignition of the political situation in Al Quds at any moment due to the Israeli occupations work to implement a new plan for Al Aqsa after the end of Ramadan. This is not the first time that Israel intimidates the Palestinian Muslims in their holy fasting month. The Israeli Occupation forces have tightened its restrictions on movement of Palestinians in Jerusalem on the holy month, only to allow extremist Israeli settlers’ entrance to the Mosque. |
Palestinian
clerics and observers fear that these acts of intimidation by
Israel during the Holy month of Ramadan are just the beginning of a
bigger plan that the occupation is starting to implement in order to
ignite the political situation.
10 aug 2011
Rightists enter Aqsa mosque compound
Religious and right-wing Israelis entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Tuesday guarded by Israeli security forces, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said.
Around 100 Israelis toured the mosque area on the day which they believe marks the destruction of a biblical temple, leading to minor scuffles with Palestinians in the mosque, the foundation said.
Four Palestinians were briefly arrested during the episode.
Settler leader David Haivri said an Israeli citizen was also arrested during the event.
The visit, he wrote on Twitter, was intended to mark the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, when "we remember the great Temple that stood in Jerusalem [and] pray [to] see it rebuilt."
The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411955
Jewish settlers infiltrate Al-Khalil under police protection
Dozens of Jewish settlers leaked into downtown Al-Khalil on Tuesday to perform religious rituals at a local shrine amid the Palestinian population there.
They managed to get past Israeli soldiers who prevented their entry for their own security and proceeded to the alleged shrine located on Beersheva Street. Among them were armed men.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers and police arrived to give protection and shut off the streets and raided several homes and ascended to the rooftops before the settlers were returned to their homes.
The raid came as Muslims were ending daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
Separately, the Al-Khalil Islamic waqf authority has said that Israeli forces have erected a gate with electronic coils on the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque, located in the city.
It cuts off access to the mosque’s only southern entrance.
Meanwhile, dozens more settlers were spotted organizing religious celebrations in the Tel al-Freidis area south Bethlehem governorate in the West Bank.
The Israeli army also set up military checkpoints and patrolled several areas of the governorate without report of arrest.
Also, a bus carrying Jewish settlers had been stoned near Tekwa southeast of Bethlehem causing damage but no injuries.
9 aug 2011
Extremist Jews invade Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second day
Under heavy police protection, Jewish settlers for the second day are provocatively roaming the Islamic Al-Aqsa Mosque as they mark Tisha B'Av, in memory of the destruction of the alleged Temple.
Since 7am Tuesday, police have been seeing that Jews enter the mosque through the Mughrabi gate in back-to-back small groups in numbers larger than those who entered the mosque a day earlier.
The intruders have been roaming in the mosque’s courtyards and prayer areas as Israeli police have threatened to prosecute and eject any Muslims who approach them. Reports show that Muslims observing I'tikaf at the mosque have even been forced out.
Turmoil has enveloped the Muslim worshipers, and they have responded to the provocation by chanting “God is greater” in the faces of the intruders.
Israeli Radio has reported that two Jerusalem natives have been arrested for resisting the settler invasion.
On Monday, some one thousand Jewish settlers have flooded the streets of Jerusalem calling for the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque, called by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Among those who joined the march as it heads for the Buraq Square (Western Wall) are Israeli Knesset members Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad, from the rightist National Union party.
Many public facilities have been closed and life has been disrupted as the Jews fast and hold prayers according to a variety of Jewish traditions.
According to Jews, the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and again by the Romans in 70 CE.
Meanwhile, Muslims are marking the holy month of Ramadan with fasts and prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest in Islamic tradition.
In a statement, Palestinian MP Salim Salama condemned the Jewish invasion of Al-Aqsa Mosque, warning that the acts served as a prelude to dividing Al-Aqsa Mosque as had been done to the the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil.
He called on worshipers to remain stationed in the mosque to defend it and to block repeated attempts by Jews to intrude and desecrate it.
8 aug 2011
Jewish settlers storm the Aqsa Mosque
Tension is running high in the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem after Jewish settlers stormed and roamed the plazas of the holy site at the early morning hours on Monday.
The Aqsa guards said that Israeli occupation police escorted the groups of settlers who were roaming the mosque in provocative tours.
They said that the policemen were barricading the settlers in face of the angry Muslim worshippers, who were preparing to confront the settlers.
Israeli policemen and special forces broke into the holy site on Sunday night and forced out worshippers for the third straight night.
IOA closes shops in Qatanin market
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) ordered the closure of all shops in Qatanin (textile) market in occupied Jerusalem on Monday.
The Israeli police ordered the closure to facilitate influx of Jewish settlers who plan to perform religious rituals to mark the so-called “Destruction of the Temple” anniversary.
The shop-owners said that they were told by the police to close their shops from 5pm to midnight Monday.
They said that the IOA closes their market once each month to allow for similar rituals by the settlers.
Report: Israeli security arrest 2 settlers accused of arson
Israeli security forces arrested two settlers on Sunday accused of violence against Palestinian communities, Israeli news site Walla reported.
Both men, aged 16 and 22, were from the notoriously hard-line Yitzhar settlement near Nablus.
The Israeli Shin Bet, or internal security service, suspect that the two settlers may be linked to a string of attacks on Palestinian mosques in the West Bank, the Israeli news site added.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said there were inaccuracies in the event as reported by Walla, noting that one man was arrested near Tel Aviv.
An Israeli police spokesman could not be reached for comment.
On August 2, the Israeli military said twelve Israeli settlers living near Yitzhar were handed down restraining orders limiting their movement in the West Bank after information linked them to arson attacks on Palestinian mosques, property and vehicles.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411469
7 aug 2011
OCHA: Jewish settlers persistent in their attacks on Palestinian property
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian lands (OCHA) said the attacks waged by Jewish settlers on Palestinian agricultural properties in the West Bank continued last week.
According to its weekly report, the Jewish settlers set fire to agricultural lands in Turmusaya village in Ramallah city, and Burin and Awarta villages in Nablus city destroying 400 almond and olive trees. They also attacked firemen in Burin as they were trying to extinguish the fire.
The report noted that the Jewish settlers have uprooted and destroyed about 4,000 trees belonging to Palestinian farmers since the start of this year.
OCHA emphasized that all Israel's settlements are illegal under international humanitarian law regardless of their planning status as well as settlements are one of the main factors behind access restrictions, insecurity and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank, undermining the living conditions of many Palestinians in the West Bank.
In the context of a petition filed by the Israeli NGO, Peace Now, in June 2006, the Israeli higher Court issued a ruling ordering the Israeli occupation authority to dismantle the unauthorized settlement outpost of Migron in Ramallah city by March 2012.
To date, there are some dozens of Jewish settlers living in this outpost, considered to be the largest in the West Bank. The outpost was built on private and registered land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages of Deir Dibwan and Burqa, OCHA said.
Rightists try to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
A group of right-wing Israelis tried to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Friday evening but were obstructed by Palestinian youth, a Ma'an correspondent said.
Ma'an's reporter said local youth clashed with the Israelis, who they described as settlers, at Bab Al-Majlis gate during the Tarawih, an evening prayer performed in the holy month of Ramadan.
No injuries were reported.
The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam after Saudi Arabia's Mecca and Medina, and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood.
A massive Israeli police presence deployed to the area ahead of the first Friday prayers during Ramadan. Israeli authorities blocked access to the site for Muslim men under the age of 45 and West Bank Palestinians under the age of 35.
Thousands of Israeli police were deployed to the area ahead of the first Friday prayers during Ramadan. Israeli authorities blocked access to the site for Muslim men under the age of 45 and West Bank Palestinians under the age of 35.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411104
10 aug 2011
Rightists enter Aqsa mosque compound
Religious and right-wing Israelis entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Tuesday guarded by Israeli security forces, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said.
Around 100 Israelis toured the mosque area on the day which they believe marks the destruction of a biblical temple, leading to minor scuffles with Palestinians in the mosque, the foundation said.
Four Palestinians were briefly arrested during the episode.
Settler leader David Haivri said an Israeli citizen was also arrested during the event.
The visit, he wrote on Twitter, was intended to mark the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, when "we remember the great Temple that stood in Jerusalem [and] pray [to] see it rebuilt."
The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411955
Jewish settlers infiltrate Al-Khalil under police protection
Dozens of Jewish settlers leaked into downtown Al-Khalil on Tuesday to perform religious rituals at a local shrine amid the Palestinian population there.
They managed to get past Israeli soldiers who prevented their entry for their own security and proceeded to the alleged shrine located on Beersheva Street. Among them were armed men.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers and police arrived to give protection and shut off the streets and raided several homes and ascended to the rooftops before the settlers were returned to their homes.
The raid came as Muslims were ending daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
Separately, the Al-Khalil Islamic waqf authority has said that Israeli forces have erected a gate with electronic coils on the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque, located in the city.
It cuts off access to the mosque’s only southern entrance.
Meanwhile, dozens more settlers were spotted organizing religious celebrations in the Tel al-Freidis area south Bethlehem governorate in the West Bank.
The Israeli army also set up military checkpoints and patrolled several areas of the governorate without report of arrest.
Also, a bus carrying Jewish settlers had been stoned near Tekwa southeast of Bethlehem causing damage but no injuries.
9 aug 2011
Extremist Jews invade Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second day
Under heavy police protection, Jewish settlers for the second day are provocatively roaming the Islamic Al-Aqsa Mosque as they mark Tisha B'Av, in memory of the destruction of the alleged Temple.
Since 7am Tuesday, police have been seeing that Jews enter the mosque through the Mughrabi gate in back-to-back small groups in numbers larger than those who entered the mosque a day earlier.
The intruders have been roaming in the mosque’s courtyards and prayer areas as Israeli police have threatened to prosecute and eject any Muslims who approach them. Reports show that Muslims observing I'tikaf at the mosque have even been forced out.
Turmoil has enveloped the Muslim worshipers, and they have responded to the provocation by chanting “God is greater” in the faces of the intruders.
Israeli Radio has reported that two Jerusalem natives have been arrested for resisting the settler invasion.
On Monday, some one thousand Jewish settlers have flooded the streets of Jerusalem calling for the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque, called by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Among those who joined the march as it heads for the Buraq Square (Western Wall) are Israeli Knesset members Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad, from the rightist National Union party.
Many public facilities have been closed and life has been disrupted as the Jews fast and hold prayers according to a variety of Jewish traditions.
According to Jews, the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and again by the Romans in 70 CE.
Meanwhile, Muslims are marking the holy month of Ramadan with fasts and prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest in Islamic tradition.
In a statement, Palestinian MP Salim Salama condemned the Jewish invasion of Al-Aqsa Mosque, warning that the acts served as a prelude to dividing Al-Aqsa Mosque as had been done to the the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil.
He called on worshipers to remain stationed in the mosque to defend it and to block repeated attempts by Jews to intrude and desecrate it.
8 aug 2011
Jewish settlers storm the Aqsa Mosque
Tension is running high in the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem after Jewish settlers stormed and roamed the plazas of the holy site at the early morning hours on Monday.
The Aqsa guards said that Israeli occupation police escorted the groups of settlers who were roaming the mosque in provocative tours.
They said that the policemen were barricading the settlers in face of the angry Muslim worshippers, who were preparing to confront the settlers.
Israeli policemen and special forces broke into the holy site on Sunday night and forced out worshippers for the third straight night.
IOA closes shops in Qatanin market
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) ordered the closure of all shops in Qatanin (textile) market in occupied Jerusalem on Monday.
The Israeli police ordered the closure to facilitate influx of Jewish settlers who plan to perform religious rituals to mark the so-called “Destruction of the Temple” anniversary.
The shop-owners said that they were told by the police to close their shops from 5pm to midnight Monday.
They said that the IOA closes their market once each month to allow for similar rituals by the settlers.
Report: Israeli security arrest 2 settlers accused of arson
Israeli security forces arrested two settlers on Sunday accused of violence against Palestinian communities, Israeli news site Walla reported.
Both men, aged 16 and 22, were from the notoriously hard-line Yitzhar settlement near Nablus.
The Israeli Shin Bet, or internal security service, suspect that the two settlers may be linked to a string of attacks on Palestinian mosques in the West Bank, the Israeli news site added.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said there were inaccuracies in the event as reported by Walla, noting that one man was arrested near Tel Aviv.
An Israeli police spokesman could not be reached for comment.
On August 2, the Israeli military said twelve Israeli settlers living near Yitzhar were handed down restraining orders limiting their movement in the West Bank after information linked them to arson attacks on Palestinian mosques, property and vehicles.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411469
7 aug 2011
OCHA: Jewish settlers persistent in their attacks on Palestinian property
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian lands (OCHA) said the attacks waged by Jewish settlers on Palestinian agricultural properties in the West Bank continued last week.
According to its weekly report, the Jewish settlers set fire to agricultural lands in Turmusaya village in Ramallah city, and Burin and Awarta villages in Nablus city destroying 400 almond and olive trees. They also attacked firemen in Burin as they were trying to extinguish the fire.
The report noted that the Jewish settlers have uprooted and destroyed about 4,000 trees belonging to Palestinian farmers since the start of this year.
OCHA emphasized that all Israel's settlements are illegal under international humanitarian law regardless of their planning status as well as settlements are one of the main factors behind access restrictions, insecurity and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank, undermining the living conditions of many Palestinians in the West Bank.
In the context of a petition filed by the Israeli NGO, Peace Now, in June 2006, the Israeli higher Court issued a ruling ordering the Israeli occupation authority to dismantle the unauthorized settlement outpost of Migron in Ramallah city by March 2012.
To date, there are some dozens of Jewish settlers living in this outpost, considered to be the largest in the West Bank. The outpost was built on private and registered land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages of Deir Dibwan and Burqa, OCHA said.
Rightists try to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
A group of right-wing Israelis tried to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Friday evening but were obstructed by Palestinian youth, a Ma'an correspondent said.
Ma'an's reporter said local youth clashed with the Israelis, who they described as settlers, at Bab Al-Majlis gate during the Tarawih, an evening prayer performed in the holy month of Ramadan.
No injuries were reported.
The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam after Saudi Arabia's Mecca and Medina, and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood.
A massive Israeli police presence deployed to the area ahead of the first Friday prayers during Ramadan. Israeli authorities blocked access to the site for Muslim men under the age of 45 and West Bank Palestinians under the age of 35.
Thousands of Israeli police were deployed to the area ahead of the first Friday prayers during Ramadan. Israeli authorities blocked access to the site for Muslim men under the age of 45 and West Bank Palestinians under the age of 35.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411104
6 aug 2011
Pro-settlement activists co-opt protests in Israel
Pro-settlement activists co-opt protests in Israel
|
Israeli settler children throwing stones at volunteers in Hebron
Myself and an international volunteer from Britain wanted to take the shorter route out of Tel Rumeida in Hebron where we were just visiting a Palestinian family that still lived within the settlement. They had been telling us about the settler violence/harassment that is committed on almost a weekly basis against them. When we approached the main road (shorter route), some Palestinian kids warned us about going down. I had walked down the main road several times before so I was sure it wouldn't be a problem. however, as we approached, Israeli settler children started screaming at us and pointing at me specifically (as I look Palestinian being of Arab descent and wearing hijab) and throwing stones at us. In the top left corner, a soldier can be seen watching. We turned back so as to avoid a confrontation. When we went back around, I spoke to three different soldiers about what had happened and asked why they stood and watched. They said, "why didn't you call the police." I responded with "the police were down the road anyways and why would I call the police when you guys were right there?" and the one soldier responded with, "we aren't the police" as if to say it's not our job to protect or stop random acts of violence. Then what is their purpose? After, I stopped recording because I had turned around, my friend and international volunteer picked up where I left off and continued to record. Settlers try to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque compound A group of settlers tried to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Friday evening but were obstructed by Palestinian youth, a Ma'an correspondent said. Ma'an's reporter said local youth clashed with the settlers at Bab Al-Majlis gate during the Tarawih prayer, an evening prayer performed in the holy month of Ramadan. No injuries were reported. The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam after Saudi Arabia's Mecca and Medina, and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood. |