30 nov 2011
Death Threats Continue Against Peace Now In Israel
The Israeli Peace Now Organisation reported that one of its activists recently received a death threat via text message as she was picking up her children from school. The incident is part of several attacks targeting Peace Now activists, homes and offices.
Lee of Peace Now stated that the message reads “Lee, Today I Will Kill You”; other Peace Now activists also received similar death threats, and reported the issue to the Police.
The movement stated that it was revealed that the death threats were made by the same fanatic who, a few weeks ago, told Peace Now Director, Yariv Oppenheimer, that he “will put a bullet in his head.”
The assailant also called in a bomb threat to Peace Now offices, in addition to defacing the Jerusalem branch of the movement.
The movement stated that the assailant was apprehended by the Israeli Police, and released, three times, without having any charges brought against him.
“He has been arrested 3 times, and released 3 times… why? Because his dad has connections with high up people - when will his Dad realize that his son is dangerous and needs to pay the price for his actions? Will they only do something when he eventually kills someone?” peace now said.
The movement slammed the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu for passing legislation meant to weaken and hinder the work of certain NGO’s and leftist groups in the country.
“There are calling us traitors”, Lee stated, “Some members of Knesset are also calling us ‘enemies within’.
On November 27, Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that the suspect, believed to be affiliated to “Price Tag” assaults against Israeli peace activists, has been sending death threats by email to senior Peace Now members.
Haaretz added that the suspect, 21, sent these messages only one week after a house arrest order against him was lifted.
The suspect was indicted, nearly two weeks ago, for several instances of vandalism and racism. He also confessed to spraying racist “Price Tag”, “Death To Arabs” graffiti in a number of areas in and around the city of Jerusalem.
Recently, Israeli Public Security Minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, told Knesset members he believes that threat of another political assassination in the country is real.
His statements were made as the Knesset held a session called for by Member of Knesset, Isaac Herzog, to discuss the repeated threats against Peace Now, and its member Hagit Ofran, as Price Tag graffiti was found outside her apartment.
Extremist settlers use the “Price Tag” when attacking Palestinians, Israeli peace activists and even the Israeli Police as they hold them responsible for the evacuation of some illegal settlement outposts built on Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
Aharonovitch stated that the investigations are ongoing, and that one of the arrested suspects is still behind bars. “We are conducting all what we can to stop these threats and attacks”, he added.
He also stated that the threat of another political assassination in the country is real, adding that the Police and the Shin Bet Security Agency are actively involved in investigating these threats.
On November 4, 1995, Israeli extremist, Yigal Amir, assassinated the then-Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin of the Labor party, as he attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Earlier this month, the Peace Now movement reported that the home of the director of the movement’s Settlement Watch Project, Hagit Ofran, was targeted for the second time in recent months. Swastikas and other racist graffiti were sprayed on Ofran’s home.
The graffiti also includes a direct death threat to Ofran with the extremists writing: “Hagit Ofran, Rabin is waiting for you”.
The settlers sprayed “Givat Assaf Revenge” and “Greetings from Moaz Etzion” referring to two illegal Israeli settlement outposts that were dismantled by the Israeli army.
The settlers also vandalized a “Peace” bumper sticker on a car that was parked in the area. The Israeli police opened an investigation into the issue after the neighbors reported it to the police, Haaretz added.
Following the attack, Peace Now issued a statement blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners for the escalating Price Tag attacks, and stated that “incitement and the harsh words of the government coalition members in favor of illegal outposts and against the justice system and left-wing organizations, are seeping into the ground, and giving support to the price tag vandals.”
http://www.imemc.org/article/62585
29 nov 2011
Settlers Destroy Olive Trees in Nablus
A group of Jewish settlers Tuesday destroyed several olive trees in Nadama, a village south of Nablus, according to a local official.
Head of the Village Council, Ehab al-Qitt, told WAFA that a group of settlers from Yitzhar settlement south of Nablus raided the village, chopped off ten olive trees and destroyed them.
The settlers fled the scene once the village residents arrived, added al-Qitt.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18169
Settlers irked by 'tight security' at roadblocks
Settlers say 'strict security checks' at Hizma roadblock causing major delays. Police officials dismiss claims, say delays caused by heavy traffic.
Not just a Palestinian issue: Many settlers have been complaining recently of major delays at West Bank roadblocks.
The complaints prompted National Union Knesset members to look into the matter by visiting the Hizma checkpoint on Tuesday. While the settlers claim they were delayed for no reason, police say the delays were merely the result of heavy traffic.
Settlers from Binyamin are claiming that recent weeks have seen repeated delays at the checkpoints, specifically in the morning hours. Heavy traffic was felt "due to strit security checks which do not spare Israeli citizens," one settler official said.
According to the settlers, Border Guard officers stationed at the checkpoint north of Jerusalem take a long time checking the trunks of their cars while ordering passengers to step out of their vehicles.
MKs Yaakov Katz, Arieh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari visited the Hizma checkpoint Tuesday morning. Settlers claimed that heavy traffic was felt in the area prior to the lawmakers' arrival and having spotted them, Border Guard forces made sure to man all stations and consequently relieved the congestion.
"IDF checkpoints in Judea and Samaria's seam lines have turned from a means to fight Arab terrorism into a means to make the lives of Jewish settlers miserable due to lack of consideration, unwillingness to assist, and imperviousness," MK Eldad said.
He noted that the Hizma checkpoint "operated well this morning" adding: "We realized that when all three routes are fully manned, traffic flows and checks are properly performed."
Jerusalem Police said in response: "No changes were made to the security checks and an effort is being made to make the lives of residents passing through the checkpoints easier." Police said the delays were the result of "normal morning traffic."
28 nov 2011
Private security guards kill with impunity in East Jerusalem
A photo of Samer Sarhan, killed by a settler security guard in 2010, is held by one of his six children.
Ahmed Qaraeen walks with a limp, more than two years after he was shot twice, in the hip and left knee, by an Israeli settler near his home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
“It was Ramadan,” Qaraeen said, his grey crutch leaning against the wall behind him. “I was sleeping in my house and I heard people shouting in the street. I went out and saw a settler point his M-16 [machine gun] at my son.”
The 41-year-old father of two said that he was shot in full view of private security guards, who were employed by Israeli settlers in Silwan, shortly after he confronted the settler who had threatened his child.
“I fell down and people started shouting around me. I was bleeding, and my two children were at my side, crying,” Qaraeen said. “The settler guards were there. They saw what happened, everything, but they did nothing. They’re here to protect the settlers, not to protect us.”
According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), 350 private Israeli security guards are currently employed in East Jerusalem by private security firm Modi’in Ezrahi, which is subcontracted by the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction.
The guards’ stated purpose is to protect approximately 2,000 Jewish-Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem from the Palestinian population of the area.
Lack of accountability
In an attempt to combat the lack of accountability benefiting these settler security guards, ACRI and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem submitted a petition to the Israeli high court on 31 October, demanding an end to their use in Israeli settlements in the city.
“Unlike police officers, who are subject to the laws and ordinances governing police behavior, private security guards in East Jerusalem do not labor under these laws, nor do they share any commitment to the basic norms that guide the police in carrying out their role as a public body serving the entire public and not just one particular sector,” ACRI wrote in its high court petition.
“Whenever privatization increases the potential for violating human rights and endangering human life, an increased level of oversight must be demanded and more sophisticated and effective supervision mechanisms put in place, by as many regulatory bodies as needed. Unfortunately, regarding the current security arrangement in East Jerusalem, this is not the case,” ACRI found.
In 2005, the Israeli housing ministry appointed a public committee to investigate the security arrangement in Israeli settlement compounds in the Old City and East Jerusalem. The committee recommended that responsibility for security be given back to the Ministry of Internal Security and the Israeli police.
Still, while the Israeli government voted in a resolution to implement this recommendation, it shortly thereafter revoked its decision and returned the situation to the status quo.
According to ACRI, the budget for this private system of protection in East Jerusalem has grown from seven million Israeli shekels ($1.8 million) in 1991 to 76 million shekels ($2 million) in 2011, a sum entirely financed by Israeli taxpayers.
“As stated in Article 7 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law’. The decision to operate private security guards, funded by the state, in order to protect one segment of the population, Jewish, from the other segment of the population, Palestinian, clearly violates this principle,” ACRI found.
Privatized murder
In September 2010, Silwan resident Samer Sarhan was shot and killed by a settler security guard. Sarhan’s death sparked violent clashes in the neighborhood between Israeli police and Palestinian youth, while the security guard responsible was never formally charged in the killing.
A settler security guard also shot and killed 17-year-old Milad Ayyash in May of this year, when clashes broke out between Palestinian youth and Israeli security forces near Beit Yonatan, an Israeli settlement compound in Silwan’s Baten al-Hawa neighborhood. The guard claimed Ayyash had been involved in the clashes and that he wasn’t held responsible for his death.
“The settler security guards are like a militia. They can do anything and they have the green light from the state to do anything they want,” Ahmed Qaraeen said.
According to Qaraeen, while limiting the impunity with which settler security guards operate is important, the only way to ensure the safety of Palestinians in East Jerusalem is to dismantle the Israeli settlements there completely.
“The settlers, the guards, the police, they are all the same. They all have weapons. The thing that we need is to get the settlers out of our village. The settlers brought for us problems. They brought for us the police, the security guards,” he said.
“They want the people to be afraid. My children feel that nobody can protect them, not even their father.”
http://fwd4.me/0hdC
27 nov 2011
Residents stage Friday prayer outside threatened Sumrain house
A public prayer was held on Friday, 25 November outside the threatened ’s house in Wadi Hilweh. Authorities issued an eviction notice to the family several weeks ago.
Dozens of Silwan residents flocked to the Sumrain home for the Friday prayer in an expression of solidarity with the family and rejection of the settler agenda in Silwan. Those attending expressed support for the Sumrains’ long legal battle with Israeli authorities attempting to evict them, and the multitude of fines they have been ordered to pay in an attempt to pressure them out.
The speaker leading the prayer spoke out against the illegality of the settlements in general, and the City of David archaeological tourism settlement in Wadi Hilweh in particular.
http://silwanic.net/?p=22388
26 nov 2011
The Israeli settlement groups of East Jerusalem are hard at work to establish their “Jewish ring” around Silwan and the Old City
The Israeli settlement groups of East Jerusalem are hard at work to establish their “Jewish ring” around Silwan and the Old City of Jerusalem in a bid to establish the “biblical basin” of the region. The plan involves the Judaization of the Old City, making its Palestinian residents a minority.
The Israeli police serve as the “muscle” in implenting these plans: the unwarranted arrest of countless Palestinian children; physical assault of residents and close collusion with settlers’ personal guard squads. Guards commonly file false complaints and testimonials against local Palestinian residents, providing police with a pretext to carry out further arrests and intimidation.
The most recent such attack took place on November 22, with 15-year old Muhammad Raid Siyam was taken by Israeli forces after settler guards accused him of tampering with one of the vast number of settler surveillance cameras that form a network throughout Wadi Hilweh district of Silwan.
On the same day, two 11-year old children were taken by Israeli police on their way home from school.
Undercover agents arrest children in Silwan
Arrested children that the authorities cannot successfully imprison are exiled to house arrest sentences outside their home neighborhoods. All residents young and old, however, suffer the collective punishment of the Israeli network of temporary checkpoints, home demolitions, and the arbitrary issuing of traffic fines.
Bodies that support the settler movement in Silwan make no secret of their intention to evict the village’s original residents and establish a Jewish majority. Racist laws such as the 1950 Absentee Property Law are employed extensively to formerly deny Palestinian residents’ ownership of their land and property and reacquisition it.
The law also denies the rightful inheritors of land to claim their property if the original owners, forced to abandon their homes in 1948 or 1967, now reside in Jordan – despite the fact that Israel has signed a peace treaty with Jordan.
Eviction of families has recommenced in earnest in recent times. The Sumrain family has issued an eviction order several weeks ago, while the Abu Diyab family has also received an order. Authorities, with the aid of collaborators and property brokers, have attempted to evict the Siyam family home.
http://silwanic.net/?p=22367
Child abducted from Wadi Hilweh
Fifteen-year old Muhammad Siyam was abducted by Israeli forces under suspicion of tampering with a settler surveillance camera. A witness stated that Siyam’s home was surrounded by a squad of Israeli settler guards, and the arrest then carried out by Israeli armed forces.
This arrest is not the first to have occured with close coordination between settler guards and Israeli armed forces, with guards seemingly wielding the same authority as police.
The settlers’ network of surveillance cameras throughout Wadi Hilweh have all but removed what is left of Palestinian residents’ privacy.
http://silwanic.net/?p=22361
Report: Authorizing Settlers to Use 'Absentee' Land in Jerusalem Increases
The National Bureau for the Defense of Land and Resisting Settlement said in its weekly report published on Saturday that there was a rise in Israeli government authorizing settlers to use Palestinian land in East Jerusalem alleged to be absentee property.
The Israeli government authorized and funded settlers groups to use alleged absentee property that included houses and land in the Old City, Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, said the report.
It added that Israel also planned to build a Talmudic garden on the east side of Mount Scopus and al-Issawiya in Jerusalem, thus changing the land status from public construction areas to national gardens, where construction is restricted for Palestinians yet expedited for settlement purposes to geographically link settlements around Jerusalem.
The National Bureau considered the Israeli plan “dangerous” and in line with the escalating settlement practices in Jerusalem to demographically change Jerusalem population by increasing the Jewish presence.
The report also featured a rise in Israeli army and settlers’ attacks in Hebron, including continuous demolition of property, razing and confiscating land for settlements expansion, and assaulting Palestinians.
Israeli authorities handed Palestinians in Rabod, a village south of Hebron, orders to stop construction in four houses under the pretext of having no building permits, as well as destroyed a water well, along with its retaining walls.
Settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement, east of Hebron, and in its old city continued their attacks on Palestinians, whereas settlement activities in Bethlehem increased after the Israeli government confiscated 700 dunums of Palestinian land in northern Bethlehem behind the Apartheid Wall which will completely separate Jerusalem from its surrounding Palestinian towns.
The report also registered settlers’ assaults in Nablus, Salfit and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.
Armed settlers raided Palestinian villages in southern Nablus under the Israeli army protection, and raided Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus, to perform Jewish rituals and prayers.
Wastewater from Revava settlement flooded Palestinian land in the nearby town Deir Estia, which completely destroyed dozens of olive trees and flooded hundreds others, causing severe loss to farmers, said the report.
In Qalqilya, Israeli bulldozers razed hundreds of orange and olive trees along with several greenhouses in Azzun, a village south of Qalqilya, to resume the construction of a new part of the Apartheid Wall, which will take over thousands of dunums.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18131
25 nov 2011
Friday prayers held at the Samrin family home threatened with confiscation
Dozens of local Silwan Palestinians held the Friday prayers today at the house of the Samrin family in the Wadi Hilwa to the south of the Aqsa Mosque. The Samrin family home is threatened with confiscation by settler organisations. The function was called for by the Committee to Defend Silwan Real Estate.
The Samrin family received a notice to pay about 2 million shekels in fines and to leave their home by 28 November.
Lawyer Ahmad Al-Ruwaidi, who participated in the prayers, said that the home of the Samrin family is one of a number of homes that settler organisations plan to arrogate and expel Palestinian residents of those homes for the purpose of establishing new settlement outposts, especially in the old city of Jerusalem and Wadi Hilwa in Silwan.
He also said that settler organisations are working in full coordination and cooperation with the occupation government as the budget, the security plans were approved to facilitate the removal of Palestinian families from those homes and make them available to settlers.
He said that holding the Friday prayers there is one of the activities approved by the meeting of Jerusalemite activists to prevent the eviction of the family from its home, in addition to following the matter in courts of law through the family lawyer.
Ruwaidi added that the matter is not a legal one but a political one through which the occupation forces are trying to control all the area surrounding the old city, especially that which is adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque.
The Samrin family home lies near the Maghareba gate where the occupation authority intends to build a bridge leading to the Aqsa Mosque as well as biblical parks and synagogues in what is called the Holy Basin project according to plans for 2020 which the occupation government is implementing in Jerusalem.
For its part the Samrin family said that it will adhere to its right to live in its home and that eviction threats is part of the occupation attempts to empty Jerusalem of its indigenous Palestinian population.
Death Threats Continue Against Peace Now In Israel
The Israeli Peace Now Organisation reported that one of its activists recently received a death threat via text message as she was picking up her children from school. The incident is part of several attacks targeting Peace Now activists, homes and offices.
Lee of Peace Now stated that the message reads “Lee, Today I Will Kill You”; other Peace Now activists also received similar death threats, and reported the issue to the Police.
The movement stated that it was revealed that the death threats were made by the same fanatic who, a few weeks ago, told Peace Now Director, Yariv Oppenheimer, that he “will put a bullet in his head.”
The assailant also called in a bomb threat to Peace Now offices, in addition to defacing the Jerusalem branch of the movement.
The movement stated that the assailant was apprehended by the Israeli Police, and released, three times, without having any charges brought against him.
“He has been arrested 3 times, and released 3 times… why? Because his dad has connections with high up people - when will his Dad realize that his son is dangerous and needs to pay the price for his actions? Will they only do something when he eventually kills someone?” peace now said.
The movement slammed the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu for passing legislation meant to weaken and hinder the work of certain NGO’s and leftist groups in the country.
“There are calling us traitors”, Lee stated, “Some members of Knesset are also calling us ‘enemies within’.
On November 27, Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that the suspect, believed to be affiliated to “Price Tag” assaults against Israeli peace activists, has been sending death threats by email to senior Peace Now members.
Haaretz added that the suspect, 21, sent these messages only one week after a house arrest order against him was lifted.
The suspect was indicted, nearly two weeks ago, for several instances of vandalism and racism. He also confessed to spraying racist “Price Tag”, “Death To Arabs” graffiti in a number of areas in and around the city of Jerusalem.
Recently, Israeli Public Security Minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, told Knesset members he believes that threat of another political assassination in the country is real.
His statements were made as the Knesset held a session called for by Member of Knesset, Isaac Herzog, to discuss the repeated threats against Peace Now, and its member Hagit Ofran, as Price Tag graffiti was found outside her apartment.
Extremist settlers use the “Price Tag” when attacking Palestinians, Israeli peace activists and even the Israeli Police as they hold them responsible for the evacuation of some illegal settlement outposts built on Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
Aharonovitch stated that the investigations are ongoing, and that one of the arrested suspects is still behind bars. “We are conducting all what we can to stop these threats and attacks”, he added.
He also stated that the threat of another political assassination in the country is real, adding that the Police and the Shin Bet Security Agency are actively involved in investigating these threats.
On November 4, 1995, Israeli extremist, Yigal Amir, assassinated the then-Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin of the Labor party, as he attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Earlier this month, the Peace Now movement reported that the home of the director of the movement’s Settlement Watch Project, Hagit Ofran, was targeted for the second time in recent months. Swastikas and other racist graffiti were sprayed on Ofran’s home.
The graffiti also includes a direct death threat to Ofran with the extremists writing: “Hagit Ofran, Rabin is waiting for you”.
The settlers sprayed “Givat Assaf Revenge” and “Greetings from Moaz Etzion” referring to two illegal Israeli settlement outposts that were dismantled by the Israeli army.
The settlers also vandalized a “Peace” bumper sticker on a car that was parked in the area. The Israeli police opened an investigation into the issue after the neighbors reported it to the police, Haaretz added.
Following the attack, Peace Now issued a statement blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners for the escalating Price Tag attacks, and stated that “incitement and the harsh words of the government coalition members in favor of illegal outposts and against the justice system and left-wing organizations, are seeping into the ground, and giving support to the price tag vandals.”
http://www.imemc.org/article/62585
29 nov 2011
Settlers Destroy Olive Trees in Nablus
A group of Jewish settlers Tuesday destroyed several olive trees in Nadama, a village south of Nablus, according to a local official.
Head of the Village Council, Ehab al-Qitt, told WAFA that a group of settlers from Yitzhar settlement south of Nablus raided the village, chopped off ten olive trees and destroyed them.
The settlers fled the scene once the village residents arrived, added al-Qitt.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18169
Settlers irked by 'tight security' at roadblocks
Settlers say 'strict security checks' at Hizma roadblock causing major delays. Police officials dismiss claims, say delays caused by heavy traffic.
Not just a Palestinian issue: Many settlers have been complaining recently of major delays at West Bank roadblocks.
The complaints prompted National Union Knesset members to look into the matter by visiting the Hizma checkpoint on Tuesday. While the settlers claim they were delayed for no reason, police say the delays were merely the result of heavy traffic.
Settlers from Binyamin are claiming that recent weeks have seen repeated delays at the checkpoints, specifically in the morning hours. Heavy traffic was felt "due to strit security checks which do not spare Israeli citizens," one settler official said.
According to the settlers, Border Guard officers stationed at the checkpoint north of Jerusalem take a long time checking the trunks of their cars while ordering passengers to step out of their vehicles.
MKs Yaakov Katz, Arieh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari visited the Hizma checkpoint Tuesday morning. Settlers claimed that heavy traffic was felt in the area prior to the lawmakers' arrival and having spotted them, Border Guard forces made sure to man all stations and consequently relieved the congestion.
"IDF checkpoints in Judea and Samaria's seam lines have turned from a means to fight Arab terrorism into a means to make the lives of Jewish settlers miserable due to lack of consideration, unwillingness to assist, and imperviousness," MK Eldad said.
He noted that the Hizma checkpoint "operated well this morning" adding: "We realized that when all three routes are fully manned, traffic flows and checks are properly performed."
Jerusalem Police said in response: "No changes were made to the security checks and an effort is being made to make the lives of residents passing through the checkpoints easier." Police said the delays were the result of "normal morning traffic."
28 nov 2011
Private security guards kill with impunity in East Jerusalem
A photo of Samer Sarhan, killed by a settler security guard in 2010, is held by one of his six children.
Ahmed Qaraeen walks with a limp, more than two years after he was shot twice, in the hip and left knee, by an Israeli settler near his home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
“It was Ramadan,” Qaraeen said, his grey crutch leaning against the wall behind him. “I was sleeping in my house and I heard people shouting in the street. I went out and saw a settler point his M-16 [machine gun] at my son.”
The 41-year-old father of two said that he was shot in full view of private security guards, who were employed by Israeli settlers in Silwan, shortly after he confronted the settler who had threatened his child.
“I fell down and people started shouting around me. I was bleeding, and my two children were at my side, crying,” Qaraeen said. “The settler guards were there. They saw what happened, everything, but they did nothing. They’re here to protect the settlers, not to protect us.”
According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), 350 private Israeli security guards are currently employed in East Jerusalem by private security firm Modi’in Ezrahi, which is subcontracted by the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction.
The guards’ stated purpose is to protect approximately 2,000 Jewish-Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem from the Palestinian population of the area.
Lack of accountability
In an attempt to combat the lack of accountability benefiting these settler security guards, ACRI and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem submitted a petition to the Israeli high court on 31 October, demanding an end to their use in Israeli settlements in the city.
“Unlike police officers, who are subject to the laws and ordinances governing police behavior, private security guards in East Jerusalem do not labor under these laws, nor do they share any commitment to the basic norms that guide the police in carrying out their role as a public body serving the entire public and not just one particular sector,” ACRI wrote in its high court petition.
“Whenever privatization increases the potential for violating human rights and endangering human life, an increased level of oversight must be demanded and more sophisticated and effective supervision mechanisms put in place, by as many regulatory bodies as needed. Unfortunately, regarding the current security arrangement in East Jerusalem, this is not the case,” ACRI found.
In 2005, the Israeli housing ministry appointed a public committee to investigate the security arrangement in Israeli settlement compounds in the Old City and East Jerusalem. The committee recommended that responsibility for security be given back to the Ministry of Internal Security and the Israeli police.
Still, while the Israeli government voted in a resolution to implement this recommendation, it shortly thereafter revoked its decision and returned the situation to the status quo.
According to ACRI, the budget for this private system of protection in East Jerusalem has grown from seven million Israeli shekels ($1.8 million) in 1991 to 76 million shekels ($2 million) in 2011, a sum entirely financed by Israeli taxpayers.
“As stated in Article 7 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law’. The decision to operate private security guards, funded by the state, in order to protect one segment of the population, Jewish, from the other segment of the population, Palestinian, clearly violates this principle,” ACRI found.
Privatized murder
In September 2010, Silwan resident Samer Sarhan was shot and killed by a settler security guard. Sarhan’s death sparked violent clashes in the neighborhood between Israeli police and Palestinian youth, while the security guard responsible was never formally charged in the killing.
A settler security guard also shot and killed 17-year-old Milad Ayyash in May of this year, when clashes broke out between Palestinian youth and Israeli security forces near Beit Yonatan, an Israeli settlement compound in Silwan’s Baten al-Hawa neighborhood. The guard claimed Ayyash had been involved in the clashes and that he wasn’t held responsible for his death.
“The settler security guards are like a militia. They can do anything and they have the green light from the state to do anything they want,” Ahmed Qaraeen said.
According to Qaraeen, while limiting the impunity with which settler security guards operate is important, the only way to ensure the safety of Palestinians in East Jerusalem is to dismantle the Israeli settlements there completely.
“The settlers, the guards, the police, they are all the same. They all have weapons. The thing that we need is to get the settlers out of our village. The settlers brought for us problems. They brought for us the police, the security guards,” he said.
“They want the people to be afraid. My children feel that nobody can protect them, not even their father.”
http://fwd4.me/0hdC
27 nov 2011
Residents stage Friday prayer outside threatened Sumrain house
A public prayer was held on Friday, 25 November outside the threatened ’s house in Wadi Hilweh. Authorities issued an eviction notice to the family several weeks ago.
Dozens of Silwan residents flocked to the Sumrain home for the Friday prayer in an expression of solidarity with the family and rejection of the settler agenda in Silwan. Those attending expressed support for the Sumrains’ long legal battle with Israeli authorities attempting to evict them, and the multitude of fines they have been ordered to pay in an attempt to pressure them out.
The speaker leading the prayer spoke out against the illegality of the settlements in general, and the City of David archaeological tourism settlement in Wadi Hilweh in particular.
http://silwanic.net/?p=22388
26 nov 2011
The Israeli settlement groups of East Jerusalem are hard at work to establish their “Jewish ring” around Silwan and the Old City
The Israeli settlement groups of East Jerusalem are hard at work to establish their “Jewish ring” around Silwan and the Old City of Jerusalem in a bid to establish the “biblical basin” of the region. The plan involves the Judaization of the Old City, making its Palestinian residents a minority.
The Israeli police serve as the “muscle” in implenting these plans: the unwarranted arrest of countless Palestinian children; physical assault of residents and close collusion with settlers’ personal guard squads. Guards commonly file false complaints and testimonials against local Palestinian residents, providing police with a pretext to carry out further arrests and intimidation.
The most recent such attack took place on November 22, with 15-year old Muhammad Raid Siyam was taken by Israeli forces after settler guards accused him of tampering with one of the vast number of settler surveillance cameras that form a network throughout Wadi Hilweh district of Silwan.
On the same day, two 11-year old children were taken by Israeli police on their way home from school.
Undercover agents arrest children in Silwan
Arrested children that the authorities cannot successfully imprison are exiled to house arrest sentences outside their home neighborhoods. All residents young and old, however, suffer the collective punishment of the Israeli network of temporary checkpoints, home demolitions, and the arbitrary issuing of traffic fines.
Bodies that support the settler movement in Silwan make no secret of their intention to evict the village’s original residents and establish a Jewish majority. Racist laws such as the 1950 Absentee Property Law are employed extensively to formerly deny Palestinian residents’ ownership of their land and property and reacquisition it.
The law also denies the rightful inheritors of land to claim their property if the original owners, forced to abandon their homes in 1948 or 1967, now reside in Jordan – despite the fact that Israel has signed a peace treaty with Jordan.
Eviction of families has recommenced in earnest in recent times. The Sumrain family has issued an eviction order several weeks ago, while the Abu Diyab family has also received an order. Authorities, with the aid of collaborators and property brokers, have attempted to evict the Siyam family home.
http://silwanic.net/?p=22367
Child abducted from Wadi Hilweh
Fifteen-year old Muhammad Siyam was abducted by Israeli forces under suspicion of tampering with a settler surveillance camera. A witness stated that Siyam’s home was surrounded by a squad of Israeli settler guards, and the arrest then carried out by Israeli armed forces.
This arrest is not the first to have occured with close coordination between settler guards and Israeli armed forces, with guards seemingly wielding the same authority as police.
The settlers’ network of surveillance cameras throughout Wadi Hilweh have all but removed what is left of Palestinian residents’ privacy.
http://silwanic.net/?p=22361
Report: Authorizing Settlers to Use 'Absentee' Land in Jerusalem Increases
The National Bureau for the Defense of Land and Resisting Settlement said in its weekly report published on Saturday that there was a rise in Israeli government authorizing settlers to use Palestinian land in East Jerusalem alleged to be absentee property.
The Israeli government authorized and funded settlers groups to use alleged absentee property that included houses and land in the Old City, Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, said the report.
It added that Israel also planned to build a Talmudic garden on the east side of Mount Scopus and al-Issawiya in Jerusalem, thus changing the land status from public construction areas to national gardens, where construction is restricted for Palestinians yet expedited for settlement purposes to geographically link settlements around Jerusalem.
The National Bureau considered the Israeli plan “dangerous” and in line with the escalating settlement practices in Jerusalem to demographically change Jerusalem population by increasing the Jewish presence.
The report also featured a rise in Israeli army and settlers’ attacks in Hebron, including continuous demolition of property, razing and confiscating land for settlements expansion, and assaulting Palestinians.
Israeli authorities handed Palestinians in Rabod, a village south of Hebron, orders to stop construction in four houses under the pretext of having no building permits, as well as destroyed a water well, along with its retaining walls.
Settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement, east of Hebron, and in its old city continued their attacks on Palestinians, whereas settlement activities in Bethlehem increased after the Israeli government confiscated 700 dunums of Palestinian land in northern Bethlehem behind the Apartheid Wall which will completely separate Jerusalem from its surrounding Palestinian towns.
The report also registered settlers’ assaults in Nablus, Salfit and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.
Armed settlers raided Palestinian villages in southern Nablus under the Israeli army protection, and raided Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus, to perform Jewish rituals and prayers.
Wastewater from Revava settlement flooded Palestinian land in the nearby town Deir Estia, which completely destroyed dozens of olive trees and flooded hundreds others, causing severe loss to farmers, said the report.
In Qalqilya, Israeli bulldozers razed hundreds of orange and olive trees along with several greenhouses in Azzun, a village south of Qalqilya, to resume the construction of a new part of the Apartheid Wall, which will take over thousands of dunums.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18131
25 nov 2011
Friday prayers held at the Samrin family home threatened with confiscation
Dozens of local Silwan Palestinians held the Friday prayers today at the house of the Samrin family in the Wadi Hilwa to the south of the Aqsa Mosque. The Samrin family home is threatened with confiscation by settler organisations. The function was called for by the Committee to Defend Silwan Real Estate.
The Samrin family received a notice to pay about 2 million shekels in fines and to leave their home by 28 November.
Lawyer Ahmad Al-Ruwaidi, who participated in the prayers, said that the home of the Samrin family is one of a number of homes that settler organisations plan to arrogate and expel Palestinian residents of those homes for the purpose of establishing new settlement outposts, especially in the old city of Jerusalem and Wadi Hilwa in Silwan.
He also said that settler organisations are working in full coordination and cooperation with the occupation government as the budget, the security plans were approved to facilitate the removal of Palestinian families from those homes and make them available to settlers.
He said that holding the Friday prayers there is one of the activities approved by the meeting of Jerusalemite activists to prevent the eviction of the family from its home, in addition to following the matter in courts of law through the family lawyer.
Ruwaidi added that the matter is not a legal one but a political one through which the occupation forces are trying to control all the area surrounding the old city, especially that which is adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque.
The Samrin family home lies near the Maghareba gate where the occupation authority intends to build a bridge leading to the Aqsa Mosque as well as biblical parks and synagogues in what is called the Holy Basin project according to plans for 2020 which the occupation government is implementing in Jerusalem.
For its part the Samrin family said that it will adhere to its right to live in its home and that eviction threats is part of the occupation attempts to empty Jerusalem of its indigenous Palestinian population.
24 nov 2011
700 settlers break into Yousuf's tomb
More than 700 Jewish settlers led by Israeli Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, on early Thursday stormed Nabi Yousuf's tomb in the east of Nablus under Israeli soldiers' protection.
According to local sources, Israeli occupation forces invaded the area and started firing gas and sound bombs at Palestinians who were throwing stones at settlers during their entry to the tomb.
Sources added that two Palestinian were arrested by Israeli soldiers after raiding and searching their homes at the pretext of throwing stones at those settlers.
Minister Yishai said during his visit to the tomb that it must be fully seized by Israeli authorities in order to enable settlers to perform their rituals there without a prior permit.
Palestinian residents used to be provoked by the scene of settlers storming one of their holy sites in Palestine.
Settlers Break into Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus
A number of Jewish settlers Thursday at dawn broke into Joseph’s Tomb, east of the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to security sources.
They told WAFA that about 14 buses carrying settlers broke into the Tomb and performed rituals and prayers under the protection of the Israeli army.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Eli Yishai, while praying once in Joseph’s Tomb, had called for the restoration of Israeli control over the area.
He told Israeli media that Joseph’s Tomb belongs to Jews, adding, “We must restore Israeli control over the tomb because we have to do what is best for Israel.”
Security sources said the Israeli army raided Nablus, searched Palestinian homes and arrested one Palestinian from Ein Beit al-Maa camp.
Witnesses said the army intensified its presence and military operations at checkpoints surrounding the city and inspected Palestinians’ identification papers.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18113
Yishai calls for Israeli presence in Joseph's Tomb
Yishai accuses Palestinians of violations
Interior minister visits holy site in Nablus together with 1,500 Jewish worshippers, says 'Tomb belongs to us and we must resume full control'.
Some 1,500 worshippers led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai arrived at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on Wednesday night. The visit was coordinated with the IDF and the police.
"It's a huge privilege to be here," Yishai said. "Joseph's Tomb belongs to us. Of course we should resume full presence in Joseph's Tomb. The current situation is a blunt violation of the Oslo Accords and that must be fixed. "
Police arrested 13 Israelis who entered Nablus illegally including three who are under restraining orders. They were turned over for questioning. A Palestinian who hurled stones at an IDF force was also arrested.
Minister Yishai said, "The visit here is important and I hope the impairments will be corrected. The answer to the Palestinian Authority is to act according to what we believe in."
Leaving the compound, the interior minister also addressed the issue of settlement construction. "Building permits are the right answer to the many violations of agreements by the Palestinian Authority but that's not enough," he said.
Asked about the issue of women soldiers' singing, he said: "If we want haredim to serve in the army we must find a way to allow them to serve and at the same time maintain their beliefs and way of life."
Since the second intifada, Joseph's Tomb has been under Palestinian control. The IDF allows organized groups to visit the site at nights. However, some breslov hassidic groups arrive at the compound without coordinating their visits.
The passing year has seen recurring clashes between Israeli worshippers and Palestinians with IDF forces caught in the middle.
Last April, 24-year-old Joseph Ben-Livnat was shot to death by Palestinian officers in an incident at the site.
http://fwd4.me/0hMS
21 nov 2011
Jewish settlers given green light to seize more Jerusalemite property
Palestinian lawyer Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi said, according to confirmed information, that Jewish settler societies received recently the green light from the Israeli government to appropriate more Palestinian real estate from the natives in occupied Jerusalem.
Ruwaidi, one of the Jerusalemite natives, added that official parties in the Israeli government set a scheme to seize the Palestinian property and earmarked a budget for that.
He explained that the scheme will start during the coming days by seizing a property owned by Samreen family in Silwan district, a few meters away south of the Aqsa Mosque, and the house of Zalloum family in Sa'diya neighborhood of the old city.
According to the information the lawyer has, the scheme will involve attempts to offer money to the Palestinian owners to make them leave their property or to use police force with the help of Jewish settlers to take hold of them during night raids if they refused to leave.
These houses are part of a network of Palestinian homes in the old city and Silwan district, which was exposed to many seizure attempts by the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) and Jewish settlers, and Israeli courts issued many verdicts on them during the past 20 years, but the IOA was waiting for certain political circumstances to take control of them and other property in Jerusalem, the lawyer clarified.
The scheme will target the old city of Jerusalem, and the areas of Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, Wadi Joz and Ras Al-Amud and the IOA will use the custodian of absentee law to implement it, the lawyer noted.
He stressed that despite the cooperation of the Palestinian owners who filed legal petitions with Israeli courts and provided all authentic documents that confirm their ownership, but the Israeli judiciary proved itself as part of this scheme as it did earlier when it allowed Jewish settlers having forged real estate papers to seize dozens of Palestinian homes in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and the old city.
Presidential adviser: Settlers target Jerusalem homes
Israeli settler organizations have been given the green light by the Israeli government to take over a number of central Jerusalem homes belonging to Palestinians, a presidential legal adviser said on Sunday.
Ahmad Ruweidi said the Israeli government had waited until the timing was right politically to implement court decisions evicting Palestinians from a number of homes near the Old City.
An eviction order for the Silwan house of the Sumarin family on Nov. 28 is the beginning of a campaign against Palestinian properties, he said in a press statement.
Their house, declared absentee property and transferred by the government to the Jewish National Fund subsidiary Himnuta in 1991, lies at the entrance of the East Jerusalem neighborhood and adjacent to the controversial Israeli-built City of David tourist site.
Himnuta's takeover of the home will "dramatically change the character" of Silwan, Settlement Watch director at Israeli Peace Now organization Hagit Ofran warned in an article on the Huffington Post.
Ruweidi said the eviction would be followed by the takeover of houses belonging to the Palestinian Zalloum family in the Old City, which has also been deliberated by Israeli courts for decades.
Settlers groups will offer high prices for the properties, and raid the house with troops if families do not comply, he said.
The Israeli government helps transfer ownership of Palestinian homes to settler organizations, he explained.
Legal scholars say the the Absentee Property Law enables Jewish individuals or associations to claim rights to property allegedly owned prior to 1948, while not recognizing similar Palestinian claims.
Silwan families have lost a number of homes to demolitions and evictions by Israeli forces. Jewish settlers illegally built the seven-story building Beit Yonatan in Silwan, and a number of court orders decreeing its eviction have never been implemented.
Israel insists that Jerusalem is its "eternal and indivisible" capital, and annexed the city's eastern sector after a 1967 war in a move never recognized by the international community.
For Palestinians, East Jerusalem is the capital of their promised state.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=438226
Report: 'Hebrew Labor' aims to stop public buying from Arabs
A group of young settlers is working on a project to "warn the public" against buying from businesses that employ Arabs, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Monday.
Around 20 people, many of whom are from the notorious Yitzhar settlement in the northern West Bank, have been touring Jerusalem neighborhoods and making a list of businesses with Arab employees, Haaretz reported.
Meir Ettinger, 19, told police he was working for "Hebrew Labor" after a merchant reported his suspicious behavior. Police have since questioned four other men working on the same project, the report said.
Moshe Ben Zikri, a resident of Jerusalem working on the project, told Haaretz: "A booklet with a list of places that employ Arabs will be published soon."
He added: "That will be followed by hanging up posters and signs with these lists in the streets - just so that the public will know and be cautious."
In August, Israel slapped restraining orders on 12 settlers living by Yitzhar accused them of torching Palestinian mosques, vehicles, and buildings.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=438350
20 nov 2011
IOF soldiers detain Palestinian, settlers attack others
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a Palestinian man in Yatta village, south of Al-Khalil, on Sunday while settlers beat up two others in the city of Al-Khalil.
Eyewitnesses said that a group of IOF soldiers stormed the family home of Nazih Nawaja’a and took him away after searching the house.
Meanwhile, settlers assaulted two Palestinians in Al-Khalil and bruised them while another group of settlers broke into the home of a Palestinian in the Old City of Al-Khalil and destroyed his furniture and personal belongings.
In the same neighborhood, the settlers attacked the home of Hani Jaber who was recently released in the prisoners’ exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. The IOF soldiers arrested Jaber’s brothers instead of the settlers.
Settlers had raised a 100000 dollars “bounty” for the head of Jaber.
Israelis attack home of freed Palestinian
Dozens of Israeli settlers have attacked the house of a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) to avenge him on his release in a prisoner swap deal.
On Saturday, the Israelis stormed the house of Hani Jaber, who was accused of killing an Israeli settler back in 1993, Reuters reported.
The 35-year-old Jaber was released in October after 18 years in Israeli detention, along with hundreds of other Palestinians, in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier.
On his return home to al-Khalil, Israeli settlers sought to take revenge on the Palestinian man and offered a USD 100,000 award for his killing.
"Today, since this morning, the settlers have been attacking us frequently and they were pointing at this house and saying this was the house of the killer Hani Jaber and we were confused. About half an hour go, around 250 settlers attacked the house," said resident Arif Jaber.
A video of the event showed the Israeli army dragging away a number of Palestinians.
Tel Aviv and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a prisoner exchange last month, which saw the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit.
Shalit had been captured by Palestinian fighters in June 2006.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/211043.html
19 nov 2011
Settlers attack the villages of Aqraba and Awdla to the south of Nablus
More than fifty settlers at midnight Thursday stormed the villages of Aqraba and Awdla, to the south east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus and wreaked havoc in both villages.
Local sources said that settlers travelling in cars rolled into both villages without warning, they were armed with machineguns spreading fear amongst the local population.
The IOF claimed that the settlers stormed both villages looking for lost cattle that belong to them.
18 nov 2011
Al-Walajeh Protestors Walk on Settlers Road, Three Injured in Nabi Saleh, Settlers Beat 70-year-old
During Friday’s weekly protests around the West Bank, the Israeli army failed to stop a group of Palestinian and international from walking on a settlers’ only road in the Palestinian village of al-Walajeh, near Bethlehem, while suppression of other protests was widely reported and a settler attack near Bethlehem injured a 70-year-old man.
In al-Walajeh, the protesters were assaulted by Israeli soldiers shortly thereafter, according to protest organizer Mohammed Ahmed Bashir. “Dozens” were detained for trespassing in the illegal settlement of Har Gilo. Israeli soldiers also fired sound bombs and tear gas as well.
Mazen al-Azzeh, coordinator of the Bethlehem Popular Campaign Against the Wall and Settlements, said Friday’s protest was a “response to a policy of plunder, confiscation, and land destruction.”
In the central West Bank village of al-Nabi Saleh, the Israeli army invaded homes in the early morning and closed the village before the weekly protest began. Nevertheless protesters clashed with troops throughout the afternoon and at least three Palestinians were hit directly with tear gas canisters.
Shooting tear gas canisters directly at protesters is against Israeli army open-fire codes, which specify the canisters—which can be lethal—must be released in arcs in the air.
In the village of al-Khader, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, a group of Israeli settlers attacked and injured a 70-year-old man. The man’s name was not reported but his son, Hassan Salah, told Palestinian government news wire Wafa that he and his family had been “surprised” by a large group of settlers picking from the Salah family’s olive trees.
“While we were trying to stop them from picking from our trees, they attacked us with sticks and loosed a dog on us,” said Hassan. “My father was injured when they hit him with a stick.”
The family confronted Israeli authorities about the incident at the Etzion settlement but were turned away.
Salah told Wafa that the settler responsible for the attack, Nadia Matar, was the same woman who attacked elderly Palestinian farmers from Artas village during Eid al-Adha. She has been leading these attacks, according to Salah, in order to scare Palestinians off their land and make more room for the expansion of the area settlements.
Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation were also reported in Kafr Qadum, al-Ma’sara, Bil’in, and Beit Omar.
In Beit Omar, a town lying directly between the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, Israeli border guards arrested one youth and fired tear gas directly into some homes. They also injured two elderly Palestinian men participating in a demonstration against the seizure of Beit Omar’s agricultural land.
Both 75-year-old Mahmoud Musa al-Salibi and 78-year-old Saeed Shahada Adi suffered “heavy bruising” to their bodies, according to Wafa.
Settlers Attack Palestinian Family in their Farm Land
On Friday, a group of Israeli settlers attacked a family in al-Khader Village, near Bethlehem, while they were in their farm. The land is located near the illegal settlement “Eliezer”, the Palestine news & info agency reported (WAFA) reported.
Hassan Salah, one of the family members, said that they were surprised when they saw the settlers cultivating olive trees on their land.
The settlers used their dogs and sticks to assault them when they tried to stop them. This resulted in the injuries to the mother aged 70.
Hassan said that the two parties headed to the Israeli police station in the nearby illegal settlement “Etzion”, but the police claimed that the case was transferred to the court.
He added that the Palestinian farm lands are subject to ongoing Israeli attacks and attempts to take over the land for the benefit of new settlement construction.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62527
Study: Rise in settlers taking army combat roles
Six out of 10 Jewish settlers were drafted into combat units for their compulsory military service, an Israeli army study showed on Friday, indicating a sharp rise in numbers.
According to a study on draft trends which was published by the military's personnel division, Jewish settlers are more likely than regular Israelis to try to join combat units.
Figures in the report show that 61 percent of the 310,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank people spent their military service in combat units, compared with 44.2 percent among the rest of the population.
Last year, only 45.8 percent of settlers signed up for a fighter unit, the study showed.
The report also confirmed a rise in the number of young people not doing their compulsory military service, in a development viewed by the army as worrying.
In 2011, only 67 percent of those expected to enlist entered the military, compared to 74.7 percent in 1990.
Should the trend continue, only around 40 percent of Israelis will be carrying out their compulsory military service by 2020 -- a projection which is causing concern within the military.
Israel's Palestinian minority, which makes up 20 percent of the population, does not serve in the army, while ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are also exempted in order to pursue their religious studies.
Army officials believe the problem of recruitment is likely to increase due to the growth of the ultra-Orthodox population and the fall in overall Jewish immigration.
Military service is compulsory for Israelis over the age of 18, with men serving three years and women two years.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=437579
'Troops will die rather than listen to women'
Samaria Chief Rabbi Elyakim Levanon blasts IDF committee's expected recommendation not to exempt religious soldiers from official ceremonies which include performance of women. 'Troops must give their life for this issue,' he states.
Samaria Chief Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the Elon Moreh hesder yeshiva, has slammed the expected recommendation of a committee appointed by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to force religious soldiers to attend official ceremonies which include the performance of women.
Elyakim warned that if the IDF were to adopt the recommendations, many rabbis would orders their students to walk out of these events, "even if they are faced by a firing squad for doing so."
In an interview to Kol Hai Radio, the rabbi blasted the expected recommendation, saying that soldiers must "give their life for this issue."
According to Levanon, this is a move of coercion on the part of the army against its religious soldiers, which would send them into a situation in which, according to Halacha, a person must not give in and violate even the simplest mitzvot under any circumstances.
Rabbi Levanon stated that in such a case he would instruct his students to stop joining the IDF, as it would no longer be a Jewish army, and would expect Military Rabbinate officials to resign.
"People don't understand the halachic entanglement they're getting themselves into," the Samaria rabbi said. "They are leading to a situation in which rabbis will be forced to instruct their soldiers to walk out of such events even if they are faced by a firing squad outside and shot to death.
"They have to understand what they are getting themselves into… Everything that has been agreed on is being broken.
"If the IDF accepts the committee's recommendation, which means that a religious soldier must be present when a woman sings, and I say this carefully, there will be many rabbis and religious authorities who will issue an instruction that a soldier must give his life and walk out of such an event…"
Rabbi Levanon strongly criticized the discussion of this issue. "Never mind forcing soldiers to attack against their will, but this is about listening to a female singer! Is this what the army is about? Is this what makes a person a better soldier? This whole issue is clearly an attempt to harass religious soldiers."
Asked by the interviewer, Elad Kinset, whether a Religious Zionist Rabbi should not be more flexible in favor of the army's intactness, Levanon responded: "We are all subject to Shulchan Aruch, Maimonides, the Talmud – both the haredi sector and the national-religious sector… Once there is coercion, Halacha cannot be compromised.
"I certainly hope that there will be some smart people there who will curb this awful move, but if not – we'll have no choice… I'll recommend to anyone who asks me not to enlist anymore."
IDF rabbi: Soldiers mustn't refuse orders
Chief Military Rabbi Rafi Peretz, on the other hand, stressed his strong objection to soldiers refusing orders when he appeared before the committee.
Nonetheless, the IDF rabbi opposes the committee's expected decisions, as he believes that clear rules should be set for exempting soldiers from ceremonies which include the singing of women and that commanders' discretion on the matter must be limited as much as possible.
He said the recent events – which climaxed with the dismissal of religious cadets from an officers' course after they refused to listen to women sing – proved that the commanding ranks sometimes found it difficult to make the right decision.
According to Peretz, there is no doubt that women will continue singing in the IDF, but an effort should be made to provide a suitable solution for a soldier whose conscience tells him not to listen to them.
http://fwd4.me/0h48
17 nov 2011
What a Jewish terrorist might look like
700 settlers break into Yousuf's tomb
More than 700 Jewish settlers led by Israeli Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, on early Thursday stormed Nabi Yousuf's tomb in the east of Nablus under Israeli soldiers' protection.
According to local sources, Israeli occupation forces invaded the area and started firing gas and sound bombs at Palestinians who were throwing stones at settlers during their entry to the tomb.
Sources added that two Palestinian were arrested by Israeli soldiers after raiding and searching their homes at the pretext of throwing stones at those settlers.
Minister Yishai said during his visit to the tomb that it must be fully seized by Israeli authorities in order to enable settlers to perform their rituals there without a prior permit.
Palestinian residents used to be provoked by the scene of settlers storming one of their holy sites in Palestine.
Settlers Break into Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus
A number of Jewish settlers Thursday at dawn broke into Joseph’s Tomb, east of the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to security sources.
They told WAFA that about 14 buses carrying settlers broke into the Tomb and performed rituals and prayers under the protection of the Israeli army.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Eli Yishai, while praying once in Joseph’s Tomb, had called for the restoration of Israeli control over the area.
He told Israeli media that Joseph’s Tomb belongs to Jews, adding, “We must restore Israeli control over the tomb because we have to do what is best for Israel.”
Security sources said the Israeli army raided Nablus, searched Palestinian homes and arrested one Palestinian from Ein Beit al-Maa camp.
Witnesses said the army intensified its presence and military operations at checkpoints surrounding the city and inspected Palestinians’ identification papers.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18113
Yishai calls for Israeli presence in Joseph's Tomb
Yishai accuses Palestinians of violations
Interior minister visits holy site in Nablus together with 1,500 Jewish worshippers, says 'Tomb belongs to us and we must resume full control'.
Some 1,500 worshippers led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai arrived at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on Wednesday night. The visit was coordinated with the IDF and the police.
"It's a huge privilege to be here," Yishai said. "Joseph's Tomb belongs to us. Of course we should resume full presence in Joseph's Tomb. The current situation is a blunt violation of the Oslo Accords and that must be fixed. "
Police arrested 13 Israelis who entered Nablus illegally including three who are under restraining orders. They were turned over for questioning. A Palestinian who hurled stones at an IDF force was also arrested.
Minister Yishai said, "The visit here is important and I hope the impairments will be corrected. The answer to the Palestinian Authority is to act according to what we believe in."
Leaving the compound, the interior minister also addressed the issue of settlement construction. "Building permits are the right answer to the many violations of agreements by the Palestinian Authority but that's not enough," he said.
Asked about the issue of women soldiers' singing, he said: "If we want haredim to serve in the army we must find a way to allow them to serve and at the same time maintain their beliefs and way of life."
Since the second intifada, Joseph's Tomb has been under Palestinian control. The IDF allows organized groups to visit the site at nights. However, some breslov hassidic groups arrive at the compound without coordinating their visits.
The passing year has seen recurring clashes between Israeli worshippers and Palestinians with IDF forces caught in the middle.
Last April, 24-year-old Joseph Ben-Livnat was shot to death by Palestinian officers in an incident at the site.
http://fwd4.me/0hMS
21 nov 2011
Jewish settlers given green light to seize more Jerusalemite property
Palestinian lawyer Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi said, according to confirmed information, that Jewish settler societies received recently the green light from the Israeli government to appropriate more Palestinian real estate from the natives in occupied Jerusalem.
Ruwaidi, one of the Jerusalemite natives, added that official parties in the Israeli government set a scheme to seize the Palestinian property and earmarked a budget for that.
He explained that the scheme will start during the coming days by seizing a property owned by Samreen family in Silwan district, a few meters away south of the Aqsa Mosque, and the house of Zalloum family in Sa'diya neighborhood of the old city.
According to the information the lawyer has, the scheme will involve attempts to offer money to the Palestinian owners to make them leave their property or to use police force with the help of Jewish settlers to take hold of them during night raids if they refused to leave.
These houses are part of a network of Palestinian homes in the old city and Silwan district, which was exposed to many seizure attempts by the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) and Jewish settlers, and Israeli courts issued many verdicts on them during the past 20 years, but the IOA was waiting for certain political circumstances to take control of them and other property in Jerusalem, the lawyer clarified.
The scheme will target the old city of Jerusalem, and the areas of Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, Wadi Joz and Ras Al-Amud and the IOA will use the custodian of absentee law to implement it, the lawyer noted.
He stressed that despite the cooperation of the Palestinian owners who filed legal petitions with Israeli courts and provided all authentic documents that confirm their ownership, but the Israeli judiciary proved itself as part of this scheme as it did earlier when it allowed Jewish settlers having forged real estate papers to seize dozens of Palestinian homes in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and the old city.
Presidential adviser: Settlers target Jerusalem homes
Israeli settler organizations have been given the green light by the Israeli government to take over a number of central Jerusalem homes belonging to Palestinians, a presidential legal adviser said on Sunday.
Ahmad Ruweidi said the Israeli government had waited until the timing was right politically to implement court decisions evicting Palestinians from a number of homes near the Old City.
An eviction order for the Silwan house of the Sumarin family on Nov. 28 is the beginning of a campaign against Palestinian properties, he said in a press statement.
Their house, declared absentee property and transferred by the government to the Jewish National Fund subsidiary Himnuta in 1991, lies at the entrance of the East Jerusalem neighborhood and adjacent to the controversial Israeli-built City of David tourist site.
Himnuta's takeover of the home will "dramatically change the character" of Silwan, Settlement Watch director at Israeli Peace Now organization Hagit Ofran warned in an article on the Huffington Post.
Ruweidi said the eviction would be followed by the takeover of houses belonging to the Palestinian Zalloum family in the Old City, which has also been deliberated by Israeli courts for decades.
Settlers groups will offer high prices for the properties, and raid the house with troops if families do not comply, he said.
The Israeli government helps transfer ownership of Palestinian homes to settler organizations, he explained.
Legal scholars say the the Absentee Property Law enables Jewish individuals or associations to claim rights to property allegedly owned prior to 1948, while not recognizing similar Palestinian claims.
Silwan families have lost a number of homes to demolitions and evictions by Israeli forces. Jewish settlers illegally built the seven-story building Beit Yonatan in Silwan, and a number of court orders decreeing its eviction have never been implemented.
Israel insists that Jerusalem is its "eternal and indivisible" capital, and annexed the city's eastern sector after a 1967 war in a move never recognized by the international community.
For Palestinians, East Jerusalem is the capital of their promised state.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=438226
Report: 'Hebrew Labor' aims to stop public buying from Arabs
A group of young settlers is working on a project to "warn the public" against buying from businesses that employ Arabs, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Monday.
Around 20 people, many of whom are from the notorious Yitzhar settlement in the northern West Bank, have been touring Jerusalem neighborhoods and making a list of businesses with Arab employees, Haaretz reported.
Meir Ettinger, 19, told police he was working for "Hebrew Labor" after a merchant reported his suspicious behavior. Police have since questioned four other men working on the same project, the report said.
Moshe Ben Zikri, a resident of Jerusalem working on the project, told Haaretz: "A booklet with a list of places that employ Arabs will be published soon."
He added: "That will be followed by hanging up posters and signs with these lists in the streets - just so that the public will know and be cautious."
In August, Israel slapped restraining orders on 12 settlers living by Yitzhar accused them of torching Palestinian mosques, vehicles, and buildings.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=438350
20 nov 2011
IOF soldiers detain Palestinian, settlers attack others
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a Palestinian man in Yatta village, south of Al-Khalil, on Sunday while settlers beat up two others in the city of Al-Khalil.
Eyewitnesses said that a group of IOF soldiers stormed the family home of Nazih Nawaja’a and took him away after searching the house.
Meanwhile, settlers assaulted two Palestinians in Al-Khalil and bruised them while another group of settlers broke into the home of a Palestinian in the Old City of Al-Khalil and destroyed his furniture and personal belongings.
In the same neighborhood, the settlers attacked the home of Hani Jaber who was recently released in the prisoners’ exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. The IOF soldiers arrested Jaber’s brothers instead of the settlers.
Settlers had raised a 100000 dollars “bounty” for the head of Jaber.
Israelis attack home of freed Palestinian
Dozens of Israeli settlers have attacked the house of a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) to avenge him on his release in a prisoner swap deal.
On Saturday, the Israelis stormed the house of Hani Jaber, who was accused of killing an Israeli settler back in 1993, Reuters reported.
The 35-year-old Jaber was released in October after 18 years in Israeli detention, along with hundreds of other Palestinians, in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier.
On his return home to al-Khalil, Israeli settlers sought to take revenge on the Palestinian man and offered a USD 100,000 award for his killing.
"Today, since this morning, the settlers have been attacking us frequently and they were pointing at this house and saying this was the house of the killer Hani Jaber and we were confused. About half an hour go, around 250 settlers attacked the house," said resident Arif Jaber.
A video of the event showed the Israeli army dragging away a number of Palestinians.
Tel Aviv and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a prisoner exchange last month, which saw the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit.
Shalit had been captured by Palestinian fighters in June 2006.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/211043.html
19 nov 2011
Settlers attack the villages of Aqraba and Awdla to the south of Nablus
More than fifty settlers at midnight Thursday stormed the villages of Aqraba and Awdla, to the south east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus and wreaked havoc in both villages.
Local sources said that settlers travelling in cars rolled into both villages without warning, they were armed with machineguns spreading fear amongst the local population.
The IOF claimed that the settlers stormed both villages looking for lost cattle that belong to them.
18 nov 2011
Al-Walajeh Protestors Walk on Settlers Road, Three Injured in Nabi Saleh, Settlers Beat 70-year-old
During Friday’s weekly protests around the West Bank, the Israeli army failed to stop a group of Palestinian and international from walking on a settlers’ only road in the Palestinian village of al-Walajeh, near Bethlehem, while suppression of other protests was widely reported and a settler attack near Bethlehem injured a 70-year-old man.
In al-Walajeh, the protesters were assaulted by Israeli soldiers shortly thereafter, according to protest organizer Mohammed Ahmed Bashir. “Dozens” were detained for trespassing in the illegal settlement of Har Gilo. Israeli soldiers also fired sound bombs and tear gas as well.
Mazen al-Azzeh, coordinator of the Bethlehem Popular Campaign Against the Wall and Settlements, said Friday’s protest was a “response to a policy of plunder, confiscation, and land destruction.”
In the central West Bank village of al-Nabi Saleh, the Israeli army invaded homes in the early morning and closed the village before the weekly protest began. Nevertheless protesters clashed with troops throughout the afternoon and at least three Palestinians were hit directly with tear gas canisters.
Shooting tear gas canisters directly at protesters is against Israeli army open-fire codes, which specify the canisters—which can be lethal—must be released in arcs in the air.
In the village of al-Khader, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, a group of Israeli settlers attacked and injured a 70-year-old man. The man’s name was not reported but his son, Hassan Salah, told Palestinian government news wire Wafa that he and his family had been “surprised” by a large group of settlers picking from the Salah family’s olive trees.
“While we were trying to stop them from picking from our trees, they attacked us with sticks and loosed a dog on us,” said Hassan. “My father was injured when they hit him with a stick.”
The family confronted Israeli authorities about the incident at the Etzion settlement but were turned away.
Salah told Wafa that the settler responsible for the attack, Nadia Matar, was the same woman who attacked elderly Palestinian farmers from Artas village during Eid al-Adha. She has been leading these attacks, according to Salah, in order to scare Palestinians off their land and make more room for the expansion of the area settlements.
Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation were also reported in Kafr Qadum, al-Ma’sara, Bil’in, and Beit Omar.
In Beit Omar, a town lying directly between the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, Israeli border guards arrested one youth and fired tear gas directly into some homes. They also injured two elderly Palestinian men participating in a demonstration against the seizure of Beit Omar’s agricultural land.
Both 75-year-old Mahmoud Musa al-Salibi and 78-year-old Saeed Shahada Adi suffered “heavy bruising” to their bodies, according to Wafa.
Settlers Attack Palestinian Family in their Farm Land
On Friday, a group of Israeli settlers attacked a family in al-Khader Village, near Bethlehem, while they were in their farm. The land is located near the illegal settlement “Eliezer”, the Palestine news & info agency reported (WAFA) reported.
Hassan Salah, one of the family members, said that they were surprised when they saw the settlers cultivating olive trees on their land.
The settlers used their dogs and sticks to assault them when they tried to stop them. This resulted in the injuries to the mother aged 70.
Hassan said that the two parties headed to the Israeli police station in the nearby illegal settlement “Etzion”, but the police claimed that the case was transferred to the court.
He added that the Palestinian farm lands are subject to ongoing Israeli attacks and attempts to take over the land for the benefit of new settlement construction.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62527
Study: Rise in settlers taking army combat roles
Six out of 10 Jewish settlers were drafted into combat units for their compulsory military service, an Israeli army study showed on Friday, indicating a sharp rise in numbers.
According to a study on draft trends which was published by the military's personnel division, Jewish settlers are more likely than regular Israelis to try to join combat units.
Figures in the report show that 61 percent of the 310,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank people spent their military service in combat units, compared with 44.2 percent among the rest of the population.
Last year, only 45.8 percent of settlers signed up for a fighter unit, the study showed.
The report also confirmed a rise in the number of young people not doing their compulsory military service, in a development viewed by the army as worrying.
In 2011, only 67 percent of those expected to enlist entered the military, compared to 74.7 percent in 1990.
Should the trend continue, only around 40 percent of Israelis will be carrying out their compulsory military service by 2020 -- a projection which is causing concern within the military.
Israel's Palestinian minority, which makes up 20 percent of the population, does not serve in the army, while ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are also exempted in order to pursue their religious studies.
Army officials believe the problem of recruitment is likely to increase due to the growth of the ultra-Orthodox population and the fall in overall Jewish immigration.
Military service is compulsory for Israelis over the age of 18, with men serving three years and women two years.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=437579
'Troops will die rather than listen to women'
Samaria Chief Rabbi Elyakim Levanon blasts IDF committee's expected recommendation not to exempt religious soldiers from official ceremonies which include performance of women. 'Troops must give their life for this issue,' he states.
Samaria Chief Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the Elon Moreh hesder yeshiva, has slammed the expected recommendation of a committee appointed by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to force religious soldiers to attend official ceremonies which include the performance of women.
Elyakim warned that if the IDF were to adopt the recommendations, many rabbis would orders their students to walk out of these events, "even if they are faced by a firing squad for doing so."
In an interview to Kol Hai Radio, the rabbi blasted the expected recommendation, saying that soldiers must "give their life for this issue."
According to Levanon, this is a move of coercion on the part of the army against its religious soldiers, which would send them into a situation in which, according to Halacha, a person must not give in and violate even the simplest mitzvot under any circumstances.
Rabbi Levanon stated that in such a case he would instruct his students to stop joining the IDF, as it would no longer be a Jewish army, and would expect Military Rabbinate officials to resign.
"People don't understand the halachic entanglement they're getting themselves into," the Samaria rabbi said. "They are leading to a situation in which rabbis will be forced to instruct their soldiers to walk out of such events even if they are faced by a firing squad outside and shot to death.
"They have to understand what they are getting themselves into… Everything that has been agreed on is being broken.
"If the IDF accepts the committee's recommendation, which means that a religious soldier must be present when a woman sings, and I say this carefully, there will be many rabbis and religious authorities who will issue an instruction that a soldier must give his life and walk out of such an event…"
Rabbi Levanon strongly criticized the discussion of this issue. "Never mind forcing soldiers to attack against their will, but this is about listening to a female singer! Is this what the army is about? Is this what makes a person a better soldier? This whole issue is clearly an attempt to harass religious soldiers."
Asked by the interviewer, Elad Kinset, whether a Religious Zionist Rabbi should not be more flexible in favor of the army's intactness, Levanon responded: "We are all subject to Shulchan Aruch, Maimonides, the Talmud – both the haredi sector and the national-religious sector… Once there is coercion, Halacha cannot be compromised.
"I certainly hope that there will be some smart people there who will curb this awful move, but if not – we'll have no choice… I'll recommend to anyone who asks me not to enlist anymore."
IDF rabbi: Soldiers mustn't refuse orders
Chief Military Rabbi Rafi Peretz, on the other hand, stressed his strong objection to soldiers refusing orders when he appeared before the committee.
Nonetheless, the IDF rabbi opposes the committee's expected decisions, as he believes that clear rules should be set for exempting soldiers from ceremonies which include the singing of women and that commanders' discretion on the matter must be limited as much as possible.
He said the recent events – which climaxed with the dismissal of religious cadets from an officers' course after they refused to listen to women sing – proved that the commanding ranks sometimes found it difficult to make the right decision.
According to Peretz, there is no doubt that women will continue singing in the IDF, but an effort should be made to provide a suitable solution for a soldier whose conscience tells him not to listen to them.
http://fwd4.me/0h48
17 nov 2011
What a Jewish terrorist might look like
“Price Tag.” on the back
This picture was posted, along with several others, on the right-leaning citizen journalism site Rotter.net. It was taken at a memorial evening for Rabbi Meir Kahane, held openly in Jerusalem and attended by well over 1,000 people. The slogan on the back of the shirt reads “Price Tag.
The military issue M-16 would most likely mean that the man in the picture is either a conscript or a reserves soldier. It’s unclear if the man is an actual Price Tag member/activist or simply signals his support.
This picture was posted, along with several others, on the right-leaning citizen journalism site Rotter.net. It was taken at a memorial evening for Rabbi Meir Kahane, held openly in Jerusalem and attended by well over 1,000 people. The slogan on the back of the shirt reads “Price Tag.
The military issue M-16 would most likely mean that the man in the picture is either a conscript or a reserves soldier. It’s unclear if the man is an actual Price Tag member/activist or simply signals his support.
The context of the pic:
But the picture still aptly illustrates that while “price tag” activists confined themselves so far to non-lethal action – torching mosques, spraying graffiti and general heavy bullying – they’re well on their way to become a proper paramilitary organisation, perhaps, like many conservative paramilitary groups around the world, with some overlapping membership in the state security forces.
My guess is it’s really a matter of time before a proper “retaliatory” or “preemptive” firearm attack is carried out against a civilian Palestinian target.
http://fwd4.me/0gyN
But the picture still aptly illustrates that while “price tag” activists confined themselves so far to non-lethal action – torching mosques, spraying graffiti and general heavy bullying – they’re well on their way to become a proper paramilitary organisation, perhaps, like many conservative paramilitary groups around the world, with some overlapping membership in the state security forces.
My guess is it’s really a matter of time before a proper “retaliatory” or “preemptive” firearm attack is carried out against a civilian Palestinian target.
http://fwd4.me/0gyN
16 nov 2011
Clashes Erupt in an East Jerusalem Neighborhood
Clashes erupted Wednesday between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces in Al-Thawri, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, according to witnesses.
Witnesses said that the clashes erupted when a military vehicle invaded the neighborhood and a settler fired his gun in the air, provoking the residents.
They said that the Israeli police fired rubber bullets and tear gas bombs at Palestinians, while the latter answered back by throwing rocks and glass bottles.
They added that the young Palestinians closed the main road with rocks and burning tires when Israeli police back up reached the place.
To be noted, there are a number of settlers’ houses in the neighborhood, close the residents’ homes. Settlers deliberately provoke and harass the residents as a means to force them to leave the neighborhood.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18029
The Independent: Jewish settlements are encroaching on Palestinian territory
The Independent newspaper said Monday that the Jewish settlers are expanding their presence in the occupied city of Jerusalem as the number of Palestinian natives continues to shrink.
The newspaper noted that the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa, northeast of Jerusalem, is choked up with the building of new settlement outposts which were endorsed by the Israeli government recently.
It quoted one of the town's Palestinian residents as saying that the lands of Beit Safafa are being swallowed by the new settlement outposts and its natives are suffering from exacerbating housing crisis.
Sami Rashid, a lawyer and a resident of this town, also belied the pledges made by the Israeli municipal council in Jerusalem to give the Palestinians some houses that would be built in the town, the Independent said.
He affirmed that the Israeli government is not building these houses for settlers inside settlements but inside the town, that is already crammed with illegal settlement outposts.
Clashes Erupt in an East Jerusalem Neighborhood
Clashes erupted Wednesday between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces in Al-Thawri, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, according to witnesses.
Witnesses said that the clashes erupted when a military vehicle invaded the neighborhood and a settler fired his gun in the air, provoking the residents.
They said that the Israeli police fired rubber bullets and tear gas bombs at Palestinians, while the latter answered back by throwing rocks and glass bottles.
They added that the young Palestinians closed the main road with rocks and burning tires when Israeli police back up reached the place.
To be noted, there are a number of settlers’ houses in the neighborhood, close the residents’ homes. Settlers deliberately provoke and harass the residents as a means to force them to leave the neighborhood.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18029
The Independent: Jewish settlements are encroaching on Palestinian territory
The Independent newspaper said Monday that the Jewish settlers are expanding their presence in the occupied city of Jerusalem as the number of Palestinian natives continues to shrink.
The newspaper noted that the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa, northeast of Jerusalem, is choked up with the building of new settlement outposts which were endorsed by the Israeli government recently.
It quoted one of the town's Palestinian residents as saying that the lands of Beit Safafa are being swallowed by the new settlement outposts and its natives are suffering from exacerbating housing crisis.
Sami Rashid, a lawyer and a resident of this town, also belied the pledges made by the Israeli municipal council in Jerusalem to give the Palestinians some houses that would be built in the town, the Independent said.
He affirmed that the Israeli government is not building these houses for settlers inside settlements but inside the town, that is already crammed with illegal settlement outposts.
