17 dec 2011
Leading Settler Rabbi, Owner of Major Internet Portal, Incited Price Tag Violence, Vigilantism, Genocide, Insurrection Against State
Rabbi Yeshayahu Rotter
Rabbi Yeshayahu Rotter, the founder of Rotter.net, Israel’s major news and gossip portal, wrote a column in HaKol Hayehudi, a website maintained by the extremist Yitzhar yeshiva run by Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg (co-author of Torat HaMelech, which advocates murdering Palestinian children since they’ll grow up to murder Jews)
In the column published last March, he foreshadows (and incites) some of the most incendiary acts of violence in the entire history of price tag activities: a few days ago settlers directly attacked an IDF West Bank outpost and threw a brick at a senior IDF officer in his vehicle, injuring him.
This follows three mosque arson attacks, repeated death and bomb threats against Peace Now leaders, sexual assaults against peace activists and much more. It’s reasonable, in fact, to wonder whether the very yeshiva students who read this article last March didn’t take it to heart. Their current activities could in fact be seen as acts of homage to their saintly teach, Rabbi Rotter.
Unlike settler rabbis harboring similar views, Rabbi Rotter lives in Haifa. But he might as well live in Yitzhar for all the difference in his views from those who wrote Torat HaMelech. I call him a “settler rabbi” because he is a rabbi of the settlers even if he doesn’t live there.
Haaretz cartoon: the wages of Palestinian terror are DEATH
Similarly, the good rabbi can be proud because while he carefully distinguishes his incitement to violence from actual violence, his son Meir, a police officer widely known to Sheikh Jarrah protesters for his especially violent ways, published his own incitement to violence against demonstrators in the Rotter forum.
Meir Rotter urged police officers to vandalize cars of protesters, slash tires and perform other acts of violence to teach these disgusting leftists a thing or two about how Israel should be run. You can no doubt be certain that Rotter Jr. doesn’t just write, but he does. Do you think Meir has been reprimanded for his extracurricular taunting at Rotter? Of course not. Abba can’t be quite as explicit. He’s a rabbi after all. But the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Rotter’s statement is a lit match on a pool of gasoline. It is the equivalent of a bunch of neo-Nazi Skinhead thugs beating up an Arab, after which a leading Christian cleric endorses the violence.
Rabbi Rotter isn’t stupid. He makes clear (totally disingenuously, I might add) that he is merely stating his “personal opinion” and not inciting anyone to take any action illegal or otherwise. This, he believes, gets him off the hook. Of course, he neglects that he runs one of Israel’s most popular websites and that his views carry weight and authority especially in the far-right settler community.
I was raised always to respect rabbis and though I’ve learned otherwise (regarding some rabbis) over the years, I try to give any rabbi the benefit of the doubt since they still retain at least an aura of moral authority. But not Rabbi Rotter. What he’s counseling is not just immoral and illegal, but he’s counseling violence as both a tactic and strategy for the settler movement. Given his stature, what he’s doing is evil.
It is very hard for me to say that anything a rabbi would do is evil. But this is. If his was just Baruch Marzel or David HaIvri I’d just chalk it up to political sloganeering, but once you mix in Judaism, halacha and related issues, you have a rabbi declaring that our religion countenances violence, illegality and hilul haShem. This cannot be. This is a rabbi who must be denounced by other rabbis and anyone who cares about Judaism. Rabbi Rotter is perverting Judaism.
The rhetoric below is little better than Der Shturmer. In fact, it’s the Jewish equivalent. Do we want genocidaires among us Jews? For that is what Rabbi Rotter is. He believes he’s saving Jewish lives and avenging Jewish dead. But that is not what the State of Israel needs right now. It doesn’t need avenging angels. In fact, avenging angels in the current political climate are Angels of Death. And they will kill Jews and Palestinians without distinguishing between them.
Here is his op-ed:
In the calculations of the murderers [Palestinians] these days more than previous ones, there is no sense of deterrence. Every potential murderer among the Palestinians knows that he will receive the critical support from the Arabs and from Jewish leftists who hate settlers more than Arabs hate them. The only thing that restrains murderers from slaughtering Jewish families in the Land of Israel is “price tag.”
In the past I was very much against this. Because in essence this is taking the law into one’s own hands and you cannot have such a situation in a civilized country. Even this statement could place me in trouble with Shai Nitzan [State prosecutor who pursues security cases]. But I am expressing an opinion and not inciting anyone to act on such an opinion. I am not organizing anyone to do anything, only expressing a difficult opinion in a difficult time.
In a civilized society which takes responsibility for its citizens, who know that it will take every possible measure to protect their lives and will respond with all possible strength to deter such deaths, there is no reason to take such measures [as price tag]. In fact, this is something that is absolutely forbidden. But the question is whether the State of Israel today, under the leftist domination of a twisted media, extreme leftist media figures, some of whom justify crimes against the settlers, and obtuse courts which act as if they are in Belgium or Holland–is it not the case that in such circumstances [the rules prohibiting] taking the law into one’s hands in the face of the enemy slaughtering children upon their parents [the reference is likely to the Fogel family murdered in Itamar] is no longer relevant.
As I said, for these murderers there is no deterrence, it’s only a question of opportunity. They don’t murder every day not because anyone frightens them off, but only because they don’t have opportunity to murder children, women, and the elderly.
When there is no deterrence, when there is no price tag then there is no cost for the murderers ["everything is free"]. What is free? Even the blessings and satisfaction offered by various Israelis who arent’t afraid to express their views [favoring killing settlers] and the media which airs these views.
In such circumstances we must examine deterrent forces like price tag and just as in a there are no limits [constraints], “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” ”In a place where there is no man, be a man.” To my sorrow, in everything concerning settlers and deterrence “there is no man.”
If there is only one consideration why not let it be price tag, since the only price to be paid is by the person who commits such an act. He will find himself in prison for many years and he and his family will suffer greatly for this. Therefore, it’s appropriate to consider the cost when considering price tag [attacks].
But this should be his only consideration and nothing beyond it [i.e. he shouldn't take into account any moral considerations either regarding the State of Israel or the intended victims]. Because the Palestinians are “dead men” [a chilling locution meaning "as good as dead" or lit., "children of death"]. There is no better definition for them. Every one of them intends to kill us, even an infant a single month old.
There is much to consider in this racist, rancid rant. First, I’d say Rabbi Rotter is not just an extremist, but he’s delusional. In fact, Biderman’s cartoon above is a perfect representation of the minds of Jewish paranoiacs like him. He has absolutely no sense of reality.
He’s little different from schizophrenics and individuals with bipolar disorder who engage in acts of violence because they misperceive reality. But in this case, it isn’t just himself that he endangers or those around him. He in fact incites others who respect and admire him and infects them with his own demented perception of the world.
Second, price tag as a policy will not deter a Palestinian militant as Rotter claims. In fact, as was shown in the case of the Palmer stoning incident, those Palestinians threw rocks because settlers had previously torched their village mosque in a price tag attack. Such acts incite Palestinian violence, not deter it.
Price tag has little to do with the Palestinians in fact. It is actually an act of political protest meant to both damage the State’s power and protest policies which rein in settler power. The only way price tag might become a deterrent to Palestinian violence is if it turned into mass pogroms against Palestinians. And even then, it would still do just the opposite. For every Palestinian into whom was thrown the fear of God, there would be two who would turn in the opposite direction and attempt to take it to Israelis and make them pay. That’s the thing about price tag. Everyone pays, not just the Palestinians.
The ultimate goal of price tag and Rabbi Rotter isn’t just vengeance against Palestinian murderers, it is the toppling of the civil state and its replacement with a Torah-true kingdom in which religion and nationalism have become united. Sort of an Islamic Republic of Iran, if you will. There will be no democracy there. No Arabs too. No secular Jews. And God forbid, no leftist media. Only Torah-true Jews. Judeans, if you will.
You can just imagine what will be necessary to attain this vision. How much blood will be shed. Both Palestinian and Israeli, Jewish and Muslim. Make no mistake, this is the cry of the genocidaire. It was like Milosevic’s cries for Serbians to kill Croat Muslims in Srebrenica before they could kill Serbians. Others may think of other parallel historical situations. If your enemy has nothing but murder in his heart, then you’re justified in killing him first. That’s why Rotter must lie and claim that it is the Palestinians who will be guilty of the genocide he wishes for them.
http://fwd4.me/0jN4
16 dec 2011
Update: Netanyahu: Violent extremists are not terrorists
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he would not define violent Jewish extremists as terrorists after a string of attacks on mosques and Israeli army bases.
Israeli ministers formed a list of recommendations for the prime minister, including defining the ultra-nationalist attackers as terrorists.
While Netanyahu rejected the definition, he accepted other recommendations including issuing Jewish rioters with administrative detention orders, trying them in military courts and allowing soldiers to arrest them. The measures are commonly employed against Palestinians.
While soldiers arrest dozens of Palestinians every week -- often during night raids on their homes -- until now Israeli police had to be called to a crime scene to conduct arrests of Israelis, giving perpetrators time to flee.
Netanyahu compared settlers who went on a rampage Monday at an Israeli military base, threw rocks at a commander and his deputy, smashed windows and slashed vehicle tires, to Palestinian activists who hold weekly protests in Bilin against the confiscation of their land.
But, he added that the Jewish rioters were "a small group that does not represent the public that lives in Judea and Samaria," the name used by the Israeli government for the West Bank.
Security sources said the radical settlers, frequently known as the "Hilltop Youth" for their rogue outpost-building and pioneer rhetoric, number several hundred but enjoy wider, tacit support among the 500,000 Israelis living in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, radical Jews burnt the facade of a Jerusalem mosque not recently in use and scrawled "Death to the Arabs" on its walls, an assault blamed on a group that has vandalized other Muslim houses of worship over the past two years.
In an unusually swift response, Israeli police said they had arrested five Israeli men suspected of involvement in "nationalistically motivated crime."
Human rights groups have long accused Israel of failing to arrest or try most settlers accused of involvement in violence against Palestinians. Israel has arrested settler suspects in the past but rarely put any on trial.
High birthrates among religious Jews look likely to perpetuate Israel's rightist tack and its grip on the West Bank, where the Jewish-only settlements are illegal under international law and viewed by almost all world powers as an impediment to Palestinian statehood.
One settlement leader, Shaul Goldstein, said the radicals were marginal, contrasting their behavior with his community's record of volunteering for the military's top combat units.
Some zealots are exempted from conscription because they have police records or are designated as psychologically unfit. But three soldiers were arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in pro-settler vandalism and arson.
Attempts to demolish unauthorized outposts have been resisted by settlers who scuffle with troops or carry out night-time sabotage against military garrisons to inflict what they call the "price tag" for "selling out" the settlements.
Hoping to provoke Palestinian reprisals that would divert the soldiers, settlers frequently desecrate mosques and Muslim cemeteries and destroy Palestinian olive trees and cars.
"These things both endanger human life and distract from the (Israeli army's) main mission," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio on Wednesday. "And they threaten the very sensitive fabric of our relations with our neighbors."
"In terms of their conduct, there is no doubt that this is the conduct of terrorists: terrorism, albeit Jewish."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445115
PA: Mosque attacks show 'contempt' for Palestinians
The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday that the burning of three Palestinian mosques in seven days highlighted the double standards applied to Jewish settlers living in the West Bank.
"While Palestinian protest is met with the reckless use of legal force, as in Nabi Saleh, the Israeli forces do nothing to prevent or punish the rising trend of settler violence," a statement from the Government Media Center said.
Mustafa Tamimi, 28, was killed last Friday after being hit in the head by an Israeli tear gas canister in the central West Bank village. The PA
said the actions of the Israeli army stood in sharp contrast to the "impunity" it affords Israeli extremists who have torched mosques near Ramallah, Jerusalem and Salfit since last Wednesday.
The government release said Israel's lack of sanctions on settlers "encourages settler hate crimes against Palestinians and their places of worship."
"This whole episode shows the contempt which Israel has for the rule of law and for the international community, whose calls for legal behavior are always ignored. Above all it shows contempt for Palestinian lives, religions and property."
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi also slammed the arson attacks on Thursday, saying they "fit a longstanding pattern of settler extremism and the terrorization of Palestinians and their holy sites."
"It is not only the settlers who bear responsibility for the unruliness; the inability of the Israeli government to hold these settlers accountable is contrary to the basic moral values and legal principles that must be adopted by a supposed honorable democracy," she said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445353
15 dec 2011
Settlement rabbi: Expel mosque arsonists
The head rabbi of an Israeli settlement in the West Bank said Thursday that Jewish extremists who attack Palestinian mosques and property should be expelled from the country.
Menachem Froman, the chief rabbi of the Teqoa settlement near Bethlehem, told Ma'an TV that Jewish groups who attack Islamic holy sites have nothing to do with the Jewish religion.
He was speaking after three mosques were torched in the West Bank and Jerusalem in seven days.
The 66-year-old said the perpetrators and their families "should be kicked out of the country to the US from where they came," and deserve to have stones thrown at them.
He described the assailants, suspected to be extremist settlers opposed to the Israeli government's restriction on outposts of the settlements without official approval, as "men of the devil."
The Al-Nour Mosque in Burqa village near Ramallah was torched and spray-painted with racists slogans Thursday, a day after a similiar attack on a Jerusalem mosque.
A week earlier a mosque was set ablaze in the West Bank village of Bruqin.
The rabbi warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Wednesday rejected a recommendation to classify the extremists as terrorists, that his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin "was killed by rioters who said it was in the name of religion."
Froman is a well-known advocate of inter-faith dialogue, and expressed support in August for the Palestinian bid for full membership of the UN.
He spoke out against fellow settlers after a West Bank mosque was torched in 2009.
Froman told Ma'an on Thursday that he came to Bethlehem for the interview "because I feel it’s my duty to speak to my Muslim brothers and neighbors, it is like a prayer because this country is the land of the Lord which is the land of peace.”
He also called on the international community to support the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"For 35 years, I’ve been telling the press and Israeli governments that there will be no peace without a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
The rabbi welcomed the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, and said it would support the search for peace, as "there is no peace without Islam."
He called on all religious people in Palestine, and across the Muslim and Arab worlds to support President Abbas' bid for peace.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445357
Settlers Set Fire to Mosque near Ramallah
Jewish settlers Thursday morning set fire to a mosque in Burqa village northeast of Ramallah governorate, according to witnesses.
They said that settlers set fire to the third floor of the Al-Noor mosque, which is located near a settlement established on Burqa lands.
The settlers scrawled slogans in Hebrew on the walls of the mosque such as “War” and “Yitzhar Settlers.”
Head of the village council, Abed al-Qader Sumareen, told Voice of Palestine that the settlers set fire to the mosque at dawn and the flames damaged most of its contents.
He said the settlers’ attacks against the village are escalating; in the latest attack, settlers cut down a large number of olive trees.
Ramallah and Al Bireh Governor, Laila Ghannam, said this campaign launched by the extremist settlers under the protection of the Israeli army comes within the Israeli government’s settlement expansion policy, to hinder the peace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18372
Abu Rudeineh Condemns Arson of Mosque near Ramallah
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the arson of Al-Noor mosque in Burqa village, northeast of Ramallah governorate, on Thursday.
He said that setting fire to the mosque is a declaration of war by the settlers against Palestinians.
Abu Rudeineh held the Israeli government responsible for this assault and called on the international community to interfere and stop these attacks.
Jewish settlers set fire to the third floor of the Al-Noor mosque, located near a settlement established on Burqa lands, and scrawled slogans in Hebrew on the walls of the mosque such as “War” and “Yitzhar Settlers.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18373
Ashrawi Denounces Israeli Recent Torching of Palestinian Mosques
PLO Executive Committee member and Palestinian lawmaker, Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced the recent torching and vandalism of the al-Nebi Akasha mosque in Jerusalem and al-Noor mosque in the village of Burqa, northeast of Ramallah, Thursday said a press release.
It said that Ashrawi stated, “Such radical acts of hatred are extremely deplorable and signify serious violations of the human and religious rights of the Palestinian people. These are not isolated incidents, but rather they fit a longstanding pattern of settler extremism and the terrorization of Palestinians and their holy sites.”
She added that “it must be emphasized that it is not only the settlers who bear responsibility for the unruliness; the inability of the Israeli government to hold these settlers accountable is contrary to the basic moral values and legal principles that must be adopted by a supposed honorable democracy.”
“ It is evident that the government of Israel is not serious about the two-state solution and that settler extremists are turning this into a religious conflict, thereby destroying any and all prospects for achieving a solution. Israel and its settler population are not above the law and these crimes of war and hatred must cease immediately before it is too late,” said Ashrawi.
She concluded, “We call on the Quartet and the international community not just to condemn these acts of religious intolerance and bigotry, but to hold Israel and its settler population liable for their violations of the rights and protections of the Palestinians. As long as Israel continues to create facts on the ground intentionally devised to obstruct peace, returning to negotiations is unthinkable and no Palestinian state can be viable.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18379
Fatah: Netanyahu’s Inciting Policy Inflames Religious Conflict
Fatah movement Thursday said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive and inciting policy against Muslim and Christian holy places inflames religious conflict in the area, according to a press release.
Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi said the escalating number of settlers’ attacks against mosques reveals the size of extremism fed by Netanyahu’s policy which favors and protects these settlers.
He said the Israeli policy is what encouraged the settlers to set fire to Al-Noor mosque in Burqa village, near Ramallah, only 24 hours after they vandalized Okasha mosque in Jerusalem.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18376
National conference: Settlers' arson attack on J'lem mosque a declaration of war
The secretariat of the popular national conference for Jerusalem strongly denounced the arson attack that was carried out by Jewish settlers on a Mosque west of the occupied holy city and described it as a "declaration of war."
In a press release on Wednesday, this popular movement said the repeated arson attacks on Mosques in the occupied Palestinian lands are a war waged by the Israeli government which provides full support for the settlers' violations.
"The Zionist entity's adoption of the policy of settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian lands has contributed greatly to promoting the systematic hostile activities of the settlers as their attacks, through organized gangs, are accelerating and increasing against everything Palestinian," the secretariat stressed.
"The Israeli security apparatuses stand watching and taking no action to deal with these attacks, the thing which has strengthened the capabilities of those gangs that are working day and night in a race against time to impose a new fait accompli and violate Palestinians' honor and holy sites throughout the homeland," it added.
"Such systematic violations of the settlers have left the Palestinians with no choice but to confront and repel their repeated attacks."
Settlers Cut Down Olive Trees South of Nablus
Jewish settlers Thursday vandalized olive fields and cut down more than 15 olive trees in Burin village, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to witnesses.
They said the settlers sneaked into one of the fields belonging to a Palestinian and cut down olive trees before retreating to a neighboring settlement.
A vicious series of attacks by extremist settlers is being conducted against Palestinians and their properties and holy places in the West Bank.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18375
14 dec 2011
Jewish settlers burn a mosque in Jerusalem, threaten further assaults
A large number of Jewish settlers at dawn Wednesday set fire to a mosque in the occupied Jerusalem as part of the “price tag” campaign by the extremist settlers against Palestinians.
Palestinian and Israeli sources said that a group of settlers broke into "Ukasha" mosque in the west Jerusalem and set fire to it causing some damage.
The assailants daubed the walls of the mosque with anti-Arab, anti-Muslim graffiti and insults to Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). They also wrote in Hebrew "price tag". The attack is similar to a series of attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian people, property and holy places in the West Bank and 1948- occupied areas. Each time further attacks are threatened.
Spokesman for the fire brigades Assaf Abras said that initial investingation into the fire indicate arson and said that the Jerusalem municipality ordered the closure of the mosque after the fire was put out.
Settlers Increase Attacks against Holy Sites, Burn Cars near Nablus
On Wednesday, settlers set fire to the al-Nabi Akasha mosque in southern Jerusalem and burned two vehicles in Salfit governorate, as well as a water tank and vehicle in Nablus.
Al-Nabi Akasha Mosque was burned and vandalized with spray paint reading “Price tag,” “Mohammed was a pig” and “Mohammed is dead,” as well as “The only good Arab is a dead Arab.”
The al-Aqsa Association condemned the mosque’s attack and said in a press release, “The Israeli attacks on the Islamic and Christianity holy sites have been increasing lately in Jerusalem and inside the lands of 1948. The latest act was the burning of Akasha mosque. This mosque has been closed by Israel since 1948.”
“We condemn this attack and we fully blame the Israeli government for this crime and other attacks on holy sites,” continued the press release. “When the Israeli government doesn’t condemn those who do these attacks, they will continue against Palestinians and their properties.”
Director of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, told PNN, “These Israeli attacks are dangerous, especially when they happen to holy sites: the Israeli government must stop protecting and supporting settlers.”
“Provoking Muslims may lead to a religious war, where there is no predicting the consequences,” he said.
In Duma village, south of Nablus, settlers also burned a water tank and a vehicle. Locals said that the village’s citizens found spray paint on walls reading, “A present from Yitzhar Youths to Arabs.”
Yitzhar is a far-right ideological settlement south of Nablus in which the head rabbi of the yeshiva authored a book called the King’s Torah, which authorizes the killing of non-Jewish children.
Settlers from the Tapuah junction area also attacked the house of Mohammad Ibrahim Musleh, from Yasouf village, east of Salfit, and burned the car parked in front of his house.
Locals said that settlers snuck up into the village in the middle of the night and tried to burn Musleh’s house with cans of gasoline. They also burned a car belonging to Ahmad Abdul Aziz from the nearby village of Kaffal Hares.
Two Knesset members intend to desecrate Aqsa Mosque this morning
Two Knesset members from the right-wing national union party called Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad declared their intention to desecrate the Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday as a step to urge the Israeli government to demolish Al-Maghariba Gate ramp.
The two members said this step, likely to provoke the feelings of Muslims in the holy city, would be in protest at the Israeli government's decision to close the ramp to make repairs to it rather than its earlier intent to raze it.
These Knesset members along with supporters of the so-called temple mount are due to arrive this morning at eight o'clock at Al-Maghariba Gate ramp to demand the opening of one of the Aqsa Mosque's gates before Jews other than the one closed, which is Al-Maghariba Gate.
They threatened to storm the Aqsa Mosque through another gate if they were not allowed to use Al-Maghariba Gate.
Ariel told Maariv newspaper that the Israeli government should find a replacement for an immediate entry of Jews to the temple Mount (Aqsa Mosque) and embark on demolishing Al-Maghariba Gate and building another one in its place.
Eldad demanded the government to stop what he described as its submission to Arabs and allow the Jews to use one of the many gates of the temple as long as Al-Maghariba Gate is closed for repairs.
Jerusalem mosque falls prey to arson
Vandals attempt to set abandoned mosque in capital ablaze; graffiti defaming Islam found on several walls. Building sustains light damage.
Jewish terror in Jerusalem? Vandals attempted to set an abandoned mosque in Jerusalem's Strauss Street on fire overnight.
Firefighters who arrived at the scene were able to overcome the fire quickly and the building sustained only light damage. No injuries were reported.
Security officials found graffiti defaming Islam and Arabs on the building's walls, as well as graffiti reading "price tag."
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services received a call about a fire in the city's center.
"The fire took hold of the west side of the mosque," Assaf Abras, Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services spokesman, told Ynet.
Once the fire was out, firefighters inspected the building and found that slogans defaming Islam, Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad had been sprayed on the walls.
Some of the slogans read: "Price tag," "Kahane was right," "Muhammad is dead," and "marked for razing."
Initial investigation suggests foul play. The mosque sustained only light damage and the police have closed the building, which is currently undergoing renovations. A joint police-Shin Bet investigation has been launched into the case.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat strongly denounced the attempted arson: "We must show zero-tolerance for any kind of violence and maintain the coexistence in the city," he said.
Meanwhile, the IDF said that two Palestinian cars were set on fire in the West Bank overnight, one south of Nablus and the other near Qalqilya.
Graffiti was found in both scenes. Security forces are investigating.
Rioting settler: We were pushed into a corner
'It's a shame we've reached the point where we clash with our brothers,' rightist who took part in disturbance near Ramat Gilad outpost tells Ynet. Settler leader: We must remember these are good kids, our finest sons.
"We were certain that the evacuation had begun. People were frustrated, helpless. They hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles, and suddenly the brigade commander's vehicle arrived. A number of youngsters who don't even live here opened the door and threw a cinderblock inside." This is how one of the rightists who took part in the riots near the Ramat Gilad outpost in the West Bank overnight Tuesday described the mayhem.
Speaking to Ynet Tuesday night, the right-wing activist said hundreds of youngsters and dozens of adults from all over the country travelled to the area ahead of the outpost's possible evacuation. "People came from Afula, Jerusalem, Haifa, Dimona and the surrounding communities. At some point we spotted police squad cars heading towards Ramat Gilad. There was tension in the air. The youths started running towards the forces," he recounted.
The activist stressed that the incident was spontaneous. "The IDF spokesman's claim that the events were planned and intentional is false. The rage and despair got out of control. No one wanted things to end the way they did," he told Ynet.
The rightist complemented Ephraim Brigade Commander Colonel Ran Kahane, who was injured in the incident. "He is a decent and serious man. It's a shame this happened. I regret what happened, though I personally did not raise a hand on anyone. All this is happening because we are being pushed into a corner.
"It is a shame we've reached a point where I have to clash with my brothers when we serve in the same army," said the rightist.
Itai Zar, one of the founders of the Havat Gilad outpost, said settlers were against hurting IDF soldiers. "We love the soldiers, who do god's work. I served in the Givati Brigade and took part in Operation Cast Lead as a reservist."
A settler leader who asked to remain anonymous condemned the rioters and called for harsher measures against them. "We have to ask ourselves why this is happening," he said.
The settler leader claimed the disengagement from Gaza and the 2006 evacuation of the West Bank settlement of Amona were partly to blame: "Our youth has been slapped in the face by the State, and they are not willing to be trampled on any longer. After the disengagement, our youth was highly disappointed from their leadership, for cooperating with state authorities and in effect with the destruction of the Gush Katif communities."
He also noted that those who took part in the riots also serve in the IDF. "We must remember that these are good kids, our finest sons. They enlist in the most elite combat units. This was an act of disapproval and protest against the disgrace that we've been subjected to. We are against harming IDF soldiers, but it happened," he said.
Meanwhile, the government and security establishment are holding discussions on exacerbating penal sanctions against extremist elements in the West Bank. Among the measures being considered is the removal of activists from the area based on prior intelligence.
Related http://fwd4.me/0iYr
Justice minister will decide: Are right wing extremists terrorists
Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman is holding a debate with police officials over the recent violence of extremist right wing activists against the soldiers of the Ephraim Brigade and the attack of the brigade commander and his deputy on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tasked Ne'eman with the role of heading a team to offer recommendations on how to deal with the violent phenomenon. The debate will examine whether the violent activists should be defined as a terror group. At the end of the deliberations Ne'eman will present Netanyahu with his conclusions.
13 dec 2011
Haredi sex abuse scandal revealed in NY
After years of silence, 85 men from Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community suspected of molesting 117 kids.
It happened for a very long time: Eighty-five men from Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community are suspected of sexually abusing more than 100 of the community's children and teenagers.
Many, including the victims' parents, allegedly knew about it but chose to keep silent – until one of the community organizations decided to reveal the horrible secret and went to the police.
The affair was reported by the New York Post on Sunday. The New York police are still unsure when the abuse began, but it clearly stretched over several years. Several years of suffering, trauma and perhaps the worst thing of all – a conspiracy of silence aimed at preventing humiliation and shame, all at the expense of the helpless children.
An initiative called Kol Tzedek (“voice of justice") decided to expose the dreadful acts, and as the months went by more and more men were arrested. The organization members located children who fell victim to the abuse and convinced them to complain.
The case involves 117 victims – 89 of whom are under the age of 17. The number of arrests is expected to increase as the affair unfolds.
So far, 38 indictments have been filed and 14 of the detainees have already been sent to jail for up to 20 years for rape, sodomy and kidnapping. Another 24 suspects have been released on bail, and the rest are still being questioned.
According to the investigation, in some of the cases parents knew their children were being molested but gave in to community pressure and chose to remain silent.
'Victims were troubled kids'
One of the suspects is Andrew Goodman, 27, who worked for Jewish social-service agencies and looks like a movie star. According to the New York Post, many members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community believe he is a monster.
Goodman was already arrested in 2010, but was released on bail. The price of his freedom appears to have been heavy: Since returning home, he hosted dozens of children and allegedly abused them during parties with liquor and child porn. Some of the kids were photographed by neighbors entering and leaving the apartment.
So far, authorities have charged him with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys for years in Flatbush — one from age 11 to 15, the other from age 13 to 16.
According to the 144-count indictment, which alleges numerous violations since 2006, Goodman filmed sex acts with the youngsters on a Web cam. Court papers and source say he also “threatened the life” of a boy who reported him to authorities.
“Andrew Goodman is known in our community as a lifelong molester who preys on young boys and ruins their lives,” a Talmudic scholar at Congregation Bais Torah wrote to Brooklyn Judge Martin Murphy, who is hearing the case, the New York Post reported.
Rabbi Shea Hecht, of the Hasidic Lubavitch group, accused Goodman on a Jewish radio show of "hunting" for prey.
He said Goodman went to yeshiva playgrounds, once offering a reward for any boy who found his “lost glasses". Goodman also pressured boys to recruit others, the rabbi said.
Goodman is currently in detention and has pleaded not guilty. “These were not forceful — no one was held against their will," he lawyer said, adding that the alleged victims were “troubled kids who did not have a good home life.” He claimed that one had boy ran away and Goodman “gave him a safe haven."
According to the newspaper, Goodman studied in a yeshiva in Israel several years ago and "stopped being religious" in recent years.
http://fwd4.me/0tzG
The IDF exposed its bias in treating settler pogromchiks and Palestinians protesters in diametrically different ways
Gotta hand it to the IDF. We could never have high-lighted its apartheid policy better.
Last night, three days after the killing of Mustafa Tamimi – who was killed by a 40mm grenade to the face by a soldier sitting in a protected vehicle – several young settler hoodlums tried to forcibly cross the border to Jordan, in order to create an outpost there. Ha’Kol Hayehudi, Israel’s equivalent of the Rwanda Radio, claimed their purpose was to remind us all that Jordan, too, is a part of Israel. Others said this was retaliation for Jordan’s participation in the crisis over a bridge near the West Wall.
Such an infiltration, if successful, could be considered to be a casus belli. The rioters managed to cross the security perimeter near the border, when surprised IDF troops managed to encircle them. At this point, an IDF Spokesman soldier told me last night, the brigade commander informed the rioters that “they won’t make it to Jordan tonight”, and that he was trying to convince them to go home. I asked whether this was a negotiation;
The soldier preferred to term it ambiguously as “dialogue”. I asked why, come to think of it, they aren’t in cuffs already. He didn’t understand the question. I repeated it: After all, they are in a closed military zone and have attempted to force the border. Why aren’t they in cuffs? We don’t do arrests, he said. That’s not our department. Speak to the police.
I have seen with my own eyes people arrested and cuffed for the crime of entering a closed military zone. I have listened as a major explained patiently that the army has declared the entire village of Al Mu’asara as such a zone. I have seen the detainees being hooded and forced into military vehicle. Somehow, when it comes to right wing rioters in the West Bank, that doesn’t happen. Hours later, some arrests were made – presumably the police showed up.
Actually, we have some experience in the IDF rules of engagement when it comes to unarmed demonstrators trying to cross a border. You just have to ask the Lebanese and Syrians who overran the fences in the Golan heights or attempted to get near the border with Lebanon how the IDF treated them. A hint: The local brigade commander didn’t waste time on attempting “dialogue” with them.
Another incident yesterday took away most of the attention from the Jordanian border incident. A large number (some 300, we’re told) of yarmulke-wearing pogromchiks stoned Palestinian vehicles, stormed a military base, caused severe damage to equipment there, stoned a brigade commander and his XO – the stones were thrown into their command vehicle, no less – and managed to get away with it without having any pogromchik being shot in the face by a gas grenade. Actually, the IDF only managed to detain one of them.
When military reporter Carmela Menashe asked the IDF Spokesman, Brigadier Yoav Mordechai, this morning how would the brigade commander react of he was stoned by a Palestinian, Mordechai answered (Hebrew recording, circa 12:00) that “I assume, Carmela, that you wouldn’t expect the brigade commander to open fire at a Jew standing in front of him, I am certain you didn’t mean that.”
And there you have it. The IDF’s official spokesman defines the apartheid regime in the West Bank. There are stone-throwers who may be shot, and there are some, those of the Chosen People, who can’t be. Same offence, same region, different reaction. I wrote yesterday in my Hebrew blog that the IDF has metamorphosed into a gang of frightened gunmen; But the main problem is the cowardly officers leading them.
Oh, they don’t lack for physical bravery; They’ll charge a machine gun nest without thinking twice (the fact that the IDF is familiar with only manouver, the charge, is a problem for another post). But they have not a shred of civic courage. They know what damage the settlers can do to their careers. They know that gang of settlers can besiege their houses and intimidate their families. So they retreat, and let the enemies of Israel win; They turn the IDF into the SSA, the Settlers’ Service Army.
For decades, the IDF repeatedly claimed that it is not a political entity, and that it does “choose its own missions.” Those arguments were used against conscientious objectors from the left. But, as we see, the IDF knows perfectly well to choose its missions:
Defending lands stolen by the settlers near Nabi Salah, while shooting the demonstrators? Sure thing, it’s our pleasure. Defending Palestinians from “price tag” pogroms? Fuggetaboutit, we’re now the Czar’s police. Defending itself from Jewish rioters? “I assume, Carmela, that you wouldn’t expect the brigade commander to open fire at a Jew standing in front of him, I am certain you didn’t mean that.”
We should thank the IDF Spokesman for his frankness. We should thank him for making it clear that, like the rabbis eating it from within, it reacts to events according to the blood of the people involved. If someone still had a doubt whether serving in the Settlers’ Service Army might be immoral, consider it removed. And, to quote one of my readers: The IDF Spokesman should be viewed through the same lens Arafat’s speeches were viewed – that is, we should pay attention to what it says to its own public in Hebrew, not to what it says to the world in English.
http://ygurvitz.net/?p=223
IDF chief: Settler violence absurd
After settlers injure army brigade commander and his deputy, Gantz calls reality in West Bank 'dangerous.' Netanyahu: Soldiers protect us, we'll protect them.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz called the recent settler riots in the West Bank "inconceivable absurd."
Speaking at a reunion of National Security College graduates Tuesday evening, Gantz said Jewish violence in the territories was "a dangerous reality."
Some 300 settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles overnight Tuesday on the main road near the outpost of Ramat Gilad fearing it would be evicted. They also opened the door of the Ephraim Brigade commander's jeep and pelted the vehicle with stones, causing the officer and his deputy light wounds.
In a separate incident, some 50 settlers and right-wing activists broke into the Ephraim Territorial Brigade's base in the West Bank in protest of the possible eviction of several illegal outposts early on Tuesday. Once inside the base, they torched tires, hurled Molotov cocktails and stones, and caused damage to vehicles.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to the graduates after Gantz, vowed to deal with the rioters with a heavy hand and said the settlers had crossed a red line when they attacked IDF soldiers.
"We will ban the rioters from the territories," the PM said in his speech. "We will not allow anyone to raise an arm against IDF soldiers and Israel Police officers. These people protect us all, and we will protect them.
Netanyahu stressed that the rioters do not represent the settler community.
The IDF chief also addressed a request by Israel's chief rabbis to excuse religious soldiers from events in which women sing. "The army belongs to the entire nation – to secular and religious people, men and women. I wish to take this opportunity to stress that the IDF does not exclude women from any place of position. There is no ban on female singing," he said.
"The army has terrific female officers, commanders and soldiers and it is proud of their contribution. They can serve anywhere," he added.
Palestinian police fire on illegal Israeli pilgrims
Palestinian police shot at a group of Israelis illegally visiting a West Bank religious site, injuring one, Palestinian security officials said Tuesday.
The police opened fire after shouting warnings at the small group of Israeli worshipers who had entered Joseph's Tomb near the northern West Bank city of Nablus overnight, said the officials.
The Israeli military said it had no comment on the incident.
Israeli public radio said the group was composed of seven ultra-Orthodox Jews, who entered the site without the required coordination with the Israeli military.
Many Jews believe the tomb to be the final resting place of the biblical figure Joseph, and the site is a pilgrimage destination.
But it lies in a Palestinian-controlled area and Israelis are not allowed to visit unless they are part of an Israeli military escorted trip coordinated in advance with the Palestinian Authority.
In April 2011, one Israeli was killed and several others were wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on an unauthorized group near the tomb.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444638
Israel Responsible for Settlers’ Attack on Church, says Official
Member of the Revolutionary Council of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), Dimitri Diliani, Tuesday held Israel fully responsible for the settlers’ attack on a church near the Jordanian border, under the watch of Israeli soldiers.
Diliani said in a press release that the Israeli army evacuated the church at one o’clock in the morning, after more than four hours spent by the settlers in damaging the church and its contents.
The attack on the Orthodox church of St John the Baptist, located a few kilometers east of Jericho, came after strong opposition from Jordan against demolishing Magharbe gate ramp in East Jerusalem.
Diliani said these settlers’ attacks are a result of the Israeli government’s policy that encourages such terrorist groups to attack Palestinians and their holy sites.
He said that the extremist group vandalized the church and its contents under the watch of the Israeli army, damaging the church’s crosses, doors and windows.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18342
Settlers 'attack family near Qalqiliya, injuring toddler'
Settlers threw rocks at a Palestinian car on a main road east of Qalqiliya on Monday, injuring three people including a toddler, the driver of the vehicle said.
Adnan Suwwan told Ma'an that he was traveling back from al-Nabi Elias village with his family when a group of settlers stopped the car and started throwing stones at the vehicle, smashing the windshield.
“It was only God’s mercy that prevented a disaster after a huge stone penetrated the windshield,” Suwwan said, adding that Israeli military patrols were in the area but did not intervene.
The family was taken to hospital by the Palestinian Red Crescent and treated for light injuries.
Settler attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians are extremely common. One of the Israeli army's tasks in the West Bank is to protect settlers, and they rarely intervene to prevent attacks on Palestinians.
The Israeli legal system also provides scant protection for Palestinian victims of settler violence.
Annual figures compiled by the Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler crimes fail to lead to a prosecution.
Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444507
Settlers vandalize Israeli military base in West Bank
Over 50 settlers infiltrated an Israeli military base near Tulkarem early Tuesday, the army said.
Right wing settlers set fire to tires, vandalized vehicles and placed nails along the road at the Ephraim regional division headquarters. They also threw stones at the base commander's vehicle, the army said in a statement.
No injuries were reported and the army and Israeli police managed to remove settlers from the area, the military added.
The army condemned the violence as "extremely severe" but vowed continue to enforce the law in "Judea and Samaria," the name the Israeli government uses for the West Bank.
"These are criminals, Jewish terrorists who are harming the security of Israel," Israel Civil Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio.
Israeli Army Spokesman Yoav Mordechai told Army Radio there had been a string of "grave incidents" in the West Bank after rumors spread of an imminent eviction of settlement outposts.
"Dozens of right wing activists threw stones at Palestinian and Israeli army vehicles," Mordechai said, after which they entered an army base, "cursed, threw paint bottles, punctured army vehicle tires and smashed a car window".
In a separate incident, a group of hardline settlers crossed into a military zone close to the border with Jordan late Monday evening to demonstrate against Jordanian protests over an Israeli decision to shut a footbridge at Jerusalem's holiest site.
Mordechai said he thought the incursion next to the Jordan border and the subsequent attack on the army base near Tulkarem were connected.
"I don't believe in coincidences. I think that to mobilize over 100 people takes organization. ...We will not allow such disturbances with people taking the law into their own hands," he said.
In July, Israeli settlers vandalized an Israeli army base in the first reported case of "price tag" attacks carried out against Israeli forces.
The perpetrators sprayed "graffiti against (Israeli military) commanders and against dismantling of structures in the Jewish community of Migron," an army statement said.
Settler attacks against Israeli military infrastructure in the West Bank are extremely rare and would represent a worrying development for Israel's army.
Settler violence against Palestinians is very common in the West Bank, however, with perpetrators rarely held accountable by the Israeli legal system.
Under what settler leaders have called a "price-tag" policy, settlers attack Palestinians and their property in retaliation for the Israeli government's occasional curbs on settlement activity.
Some 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same territory.
All settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444498
12 dec 2011
Report: Netanyahu endorses loudspeaker ban in Mosques
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday expressed support for a bill to ban mosques from using loudspeakers for the Islamic call to prayer.
"There's no need to be more liberal than Europe," Netanyahu said during a Likud ministers meeting, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The ban was proposed by right wing party Yisrael Beiteinu and would apply to all places of worship, although it effectively only targets mosques.
MK Anastassia Michaeli, who proposed the bill, said hundreds of thousands of Israelis suffer from the noise caused by mosques.
Yisrael Beiteinu, headed by controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, has sponsored several nationalist policies in the past which critics say target the Palestinian population in Israel.
The most recent bill faced criticism from other ministers and Netanyahu proposed it be debated next week, Haaretz reported.
Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said the law targeted Muslims, while Limor Livnat, minister for culture and sports, said existing laws could be used to deal with any issue concerning noise pollution.
Around 20 percent, or 1.3 million people, of Israel's population are of Palestinian origin.
They are largely the descendants of Palestinians that managed to remain during the 1948 war, when an estimated 700,000 were expelled from or fled their homes during fighting that would see the establishment of the state of Israel.
Rights groups say that Israelis of Palestinian origin face discrimination in employment, education and public funding within Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444375
Israeli settlers raid Jordan border
Israeli settlers raided the Jordanian borders on Monday evening in protest over Amman's involvement in a dispute over a footbridge to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said initial reports indicated that 30 Israelis crossed the security fence and entered a closed military zone on the border of the West Bank and Jordan, but she said they had not entered Jordanian territory.
She added that Israeli soldiers and border police were "operating to restore order" in the area.
The right-wing Israelis barricaded themselves after nightfall at a Christian holy site by the banks of the Jordan River revered by many Christians as the place where biblical Saint John was baptized.
The settlers, known as the "Hilltop youth," were threatening to establish an outpost in the area as Israeli soldiers looked on from the border, the Hebrew-language news site Maariv reported.
According to Israel's Channel 2, the group are threatening to breach the border.
The settlers are protesting Jordan's role in a row over a footbridge to the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israel on Monday closed the ramp after Jerusalem's city engineer deemed it structurally unsafe. Israeli media reports said Israel would consult with the king of Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, on the future of the bridge.
The ramp was to have been torn down last month but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the demolition on the advice of Israeli diplomats and security officials, government officials said.
Netanyahu was cautioned that removing the structure and building a new bridge could enrage Muslims, especially in turbulent Egypt, who might believe the work could damage al-Aqsa, said the officials, who insisted no harm would come to existing buildings.
Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem, said Islamic religious authorities opposed demolition of the existing structure and construction of a new one.
Any construction at the site can be politically explosive. During Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, his opening in 1996 of a new entrance to an access tunnel for tourists near the compound touched off Muslim protests and gun battles in which 60 Palestinians and 15 Israelis were killed.
Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444477
Jewish settlers wreak havoc in West Bank village
Jewish settlers attacked Assira Al-Qabaliya village, south of Nablus, after midnight Sunday and threw stones at Palestinian homes and cars.
Local sources said that the settlers, from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar, tried to set a car on fire after smashing its window shields and damaged other parked cars.
They said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) were deployed in the village later on to cover up for the settlers’ withdrawal and to ensure that they would not be attacked by villagers.
Yitzhar is only 200 meters away from the village, which comes under systematic attacks by settlers.
Similar attacks were reported in Al-Khalil city as settlers attacked Palestinian pedestrians in the Old City while the IOF soldiers were installing barriers at its entrance before storming it.
The city has been under intensified attacks by settlers recently coupled with tightened security measures imposed by the IOF.
Israeli Settlers Continue Their Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Their Property in the West Bank
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns attacks launched by groups of Israeli settlers in the early morning in two Palestinian villages to the southeast of Nablus. PCHR calls upon the Israeli Occupation Forces to open investigations into these attacks and bring perpetrators to justice.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 00:15 on Monday, 12 December 2011, more than 100 Israeli settlers from "Yizhar" settlement which is established on Palestinian lands in the east of Southern Assira village, south of Nablus, attacked Palestinian houses in Southern Assira village.
The majority of settlers were wearing black clothes and a number of them were wearing green clothes.
As they approached Palestinian houses, which are approximately 350 meters from "Yizhar" settlement, they threw stones and empty bottles at houses. Palestinian residents, especially children and women, were in intimidated and panicked as a result of the attack.
There are 62 people, including 46 children and 7 women, living in the targeted houses. As a result of the said attack, the windows of seven of the targeted houses were smashed. Similarly, the windows of a taxi that was parked in front of one of the targeted houses were smashed.
Thirty minutes later, IOF military jeeps arrived at the scene and the Israeli settlers withdrew.
IOF have not taken any measures against the settlers who launched the attack.
The attacked houses belong to:
1. Abdul Rahman Mohammed Abdul Rahman Ahmed. Twelve individuals, including 8 children, live in the house. Israeli settlers also destroyed the windows of a taxi owned by Ahmed.
2. Basem Mohammed Hassan Saleh Hammad. Nine individuals, including 7 children, live in the house.
3. Jamil Abdullah Hamdan Saleh. Five individuals, including 3 children, live in the house.
4. Khalil Mohammed Mahmoud Saleh. Nine individuals, including 7 children, live in the house.
5. Ibrahim Mohammed Suleiman Makhlouf. Eight individuals, including 6 children, live in the house.
6. Rasem Abdul Fattah Mohammed Abdul Rahman. Eleven individuals, including 9 children, live in the house.
7. Abdul Baset Mohammed Abdul Rahman Ahmed. Eight individuals, including 6 children, live in the house.
At approximately 01:15 on Monday, a group of Israeli settlers also from "Yizhar" settlement threw Molotov cocktails at the house of Jamal Abdullah Yousef Shehada in Orif village, southeast of Nablus. One of the windows in the southern walls of the house was set alight and smashed as a result.
Seven individuals, including 5 children, live in Shehada's house, which is located approximately one kilometer from "Yizhar" settlement.
PCHR condemns the above attacks and warns of escalation of attacks by settlers in the few coming days and:
1. Calls for putting an end to protection provided by IOF to settlers and to the immunity provided by IOF to settlers' crimes against the Palestinian civilians and their property, which encourages settlers to commit more crimes.
2. Calls upon the international community to exert pressure on the government of the State of Israel in order to fulfill its obligations under international law and put an end to all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
3. Reminds the international community that settlement is a war crime in accordance to international law. Thus, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, individually or collectively, must assume their legal and moral responsibilities and fulfill their obligations relating to ensuring Israel's respect for the Convention in the OPT, as per Article 1 of the Convention.
Hundreds of settlers attack Nablus village
Hundreds of settlers stormed the Nablus village of Asira al-Qibliya overnight Sunday, causing damage to Palestinian property.
Witnesses told Ma'an that around midnight more than 200 settlers from the notorious Yitzhar settlement entered the village and threw rocks at Palestinian homes.
Local resident Ibrahim Makhlouf said that the settlers smashed the windows of a bus and tried to set it on fire.
“They were armed and wearing black uniform as if it was an organized militia,” he told Ma'an.
The attackers smashed the windows of three other houses belonging to Basim Salih, Jamil Abdullah and Khalil Mahmoud Salih, Makhlouf added.
Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories.
Last week, a mosque was set on fire by settlers in the West Bank village of Bruqin, near Salfit, local officials said.
A report released by The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees found that in October, over 53 percent of settler attacks had taken place in the Nablus district.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444212
9 dec 2011
UK envoy condemns West Bank mosque arson
The UK Consul General in Jerusalem on Thursday condemned the "senseless arson attack" on a West Bank village mosque a day earlier, which local officials blamed on settlers.
On Wednesday, assailants threw a burning tire into a mosque in Bruqin and sprayed graffiti on its walls.
Vincent Fean visited the village on Thursday and met with Bruqin's mayor, Accra Samara. Deploring the attack, Fean also commended villagers' restraint in a statement.
"This despicable attack on a place of worship is a pre-planned crime intended to provoke violence. I call upon the Israeli government to pursue the criminals responsible and bring them to trial.
"I warmly commend and respect the restraint shown by the people of Burqin. I am deeply impressed by their self- restraint under severe provocation. I greatly admire their refusal to be drawn into retaliation against such acts of mindless violence."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=443451
8 dec 2011
Settlers Fire at Shepherds near Nablus
A number of Jewish settlers Thursday fired at Palestinian shepherds near Yanun village, east of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to witnesses.
The shepherds told WAFA that four settlers approached the village and fired at them. No injuries were reported.
The shepherds said they hid in nearby valleys to escape the firing by the settlers, who also stoned their cattle.
British Consul-General Condemns Mosque Attacked by Settlers in Burqin
The British Consul-General in Jerusalem Vincent Fean visited Thursday the mosque in the village of Burqin, and condemned the arson attack by Israeli settlers on it, according to a press release by British Consulate-General in Jerusalem.
It said Fean visited the mosque to see on the ground the damages caused by the attack, where a flaming tyre was thrown into the entrance of the mosque and its walls were sprayed with graffiti.
Meeting with the Mayor of Burqin, Ikrima Samara, and locals there, he expressed his support and solidarity with the people of Burqin against these criminal attacks.
On the attack, Fean stated: “On behalf of the British government, I deplore the senseless arson attack on the mosque in the West Bank village of Burqin on Dec 7th, 2011. This despicable attack on a place of worship is a pre-planned crime intended to provoke violence.”
He called upon “the Israeli government to pursue the criminals responsible and bring them to trial.”
He concluded, “I warmly commend and respect the restraint shown by the people of Burqin. I am deeply impressed by their self- restraint under severe provocation. I greatly admire their refusal to be drawn into retaliation against such acts of mindless violence.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18298
EU’s Ashton Condemns Mosque Arson by Settlers
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the attack against the mosque of Burqin village in the West Bank, according to a statement published on Thursday.
The statement issued by Ashton’s spokesperson said that 'Ashton condemns the attack on December 7, 2011, in which a flaming tyre was thrown into the entrance of the mosque and the mosque's walls were sprayed with graffiti.”
It said, “Accountability and the rule of law are essential. Attacks against places of worship are particularly troubling. The EU calls on the Israeli authorities to investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Provocative actions like this undermine efforts to promote peace in the region, the statement said.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18288
Leading Settler Rabbi, Owner of Major Internet Portal, Incited Price Tag Violence, Vigilantism, Genocide, Insurrection Against State
Rabbi Yeshayahu Rotter
Rabbi Yeshayahu Rotter, the founder of Rotter.net, Israel’s major news and gossip portal, wrote a column in HaKol Hayehudi, a website maintained by the extremist Yitzhar yeshiva run by Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg (co-author of Torat HaMelech, which advocates murdering Palestinian children since they’ll grow up to murder Jews)
In the column published last March, he foreshadows (and incites) some of the most incendiary acts of violence in the entire history of price tag activities: a few days ago settlers directly attacked an IDF West Bank outpost and threw a brick at a senior IDF officer in his vehicle, injuring him.
This follows three mosque arson attacks, repeated death and bomb threats against Peace Now leaders, sexual assaults against peace activists and much more. It’s reasonable, in fact, to wonder whether the very yeshiva students who read this article last March didn’t take it to heart. Their current activities could in fact be seen as acts of homage to their saintly teach, Rabbi Rotter.
Unlike settler rabbis harboring similar views, Rabbi Rotter lives in Haifa. But he might as well live in Yitzhar for all the difference in his views from those who wrote Torat HaMelech. I call him a “settler rabbi” because he is a rabbi of the settlers even if he doesn’t live there.
Haaretz cartoon: the wages of Palestinian terror are DEATH
Similarly, the good rabbi can be proud because while he carefully distinguishes his incitement to violence from actual violence, his son Meir, a police officer widely known to Sheikh Jarrah protesters for his especially violent ways, published his own incitement to violence against demonstrators in the Rotter forum.
Meir Rotter urged police officers to vandalize cars of protesters, slash tires and perform other acts of violence to teach these disgusting leftists a thing or two about how Israel should be run. You can no doubt be certain that Rotter Jr. doesn’t just write, but he does. Do you think Meir has been reprimanded for his extracurricular taunting at Rotter? Of course not. Abba can’t be quite as explicit. He’s a rabbi after all. But the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Rotter’s statement is a lit match on a pool of gasoline. It is the equivalent of a bunch of neo-Nazi Skinhead thugs beating up an Arab, after which a leading Christian cleric endorses the violence.
Rabbi Rotter isn’t stupid. He makes clear (totally disingenuously, I might add) that he is merely stating his “personal opinion” and not inciting anyone to take any action illegal or otherwise. This, he believes, gets him off the hook. Of course, he neglects that he runs one of Israel’s most popular websites and that his views carry weight and authority especially in the far-right settler community.
I was raised always to respect rabbis and though I’ve learned otherwise (regarding some rabbis) over the years, I try to give any rabbi the benefit of the doubt since they still retain at least an aura of moral authority. But not Rabbi Rotter. What he’s counseling is not just immoral and illegal, but he’s counseling violence as both a tactic and strategy for the settler movement. Given his stature, what he’s doing is evil.
It is very hard for me to say that anything a rabbi would do is evil. But this is. If his was just Baruch Marzel or David HaIvri I’d just chalk it up to political sloganeering, but once you mix in Judaism, halacha and related issues, you have a rabbi declaring that our religion countenances violence, illegality and hilul haShem. This cannot be. This is a rabbi who must be denounced by other rabbis and anyone who cares about Judaism. Rabbi Rotter is perverting Judaism.
The rhetoric below is little better than Der Shturmer. In fact, it’s the Jewish equivalent. Do we want genocidaires among us Jews? For that is what Rabbi Rotter is. He believes he’s saving Jewish lives and avenging Jewish dead. But that is not what the State of Israel needs right now. It doesn’t need avenging angels. In fact, avenging angels in the current political climate are Angels of Death. And they will kill Jews and Palestinians without distinguishing between them.
Here is his op-ed:
In the calculations of the murderers [Palestinians] these days more than previous ones, there is no sense of deterrence. Every potential murderer among the Palestinians knows that he will receive the critical support from the Arabs and from Jewish leftists who hate settlers more than Arabs hate them. The only thing that restrains murderers from slaughtering Jewish families in the Land of Israel is “price tag.”
In the past I was very much against this. Because in essence this is taking the law into one’s own hands and you cannot have such a situation in a civilized country. Even this statement could place me in trouble with Shai Nitzan [State prosecutor who pursues security cases]. But I am expressing an opinion and not inciting anyone to act on such an opinion. I am not organizing anyone to do anything, only expressing a difficult opinion in a difficult time.
In a civilized society which takes responsibility for its citizens, who know that it will take every possible measure to protect their lives and will respond with all possible strength to deter such deaths, there is no reason to take such measures [as price tag]. In fact, this is something that is absolutely forbidden. But the question is whether the State of Israel today, under the leftist domination of a twisted media, extreme leftist media figures, some of whom justify crimes against the settlers, and obtuse courts which act as if they are in Belgium or Holland–is it not the case that in such circumstances [the rules prohibiting] taking the law into one’s hands in the face of the enemy slaughtering children upon their parents [the reference is likely to the Fogel family murdered in Itamar] is no longer relevant.
As I said, for these murderers there is no deterrence, it’s only a question of opportunity. They don’t murder every day not because anyone frightens them off, but only because they don’t have opportunity to murder children, women, and the elderly.
When there is no deterrence, when there is no price tag then there is no cost for the murderers ["everything is free"]. What is free? Even the blessings and satisfaction offered by various Israelis who arent’t afraid to express their views [favoring killing settlers] and the media which airs these views.
In such circumstances we must examine deterrent forces like price tag and just as in a there are no limits [constraints], “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” ”In a place where there is no man, be a man.” To my sorrow, in everything concerning settlers and deterrence “there is no man.”
If there is only one consideration why not let it be price tag, since the only price to be paid is by the person who commits such an act. He will find himself in prison for many years and he and his family will suffer greatly for this. Therefore, it’s appropriate to consider the cost when considering price tag [attacks].
But this should be his only consideration and nothing beyond it [i.e. he shouldn't take into account any moral considerations either regarding the State of Israel or the intended victims]. Because the Palestinians are “dead men” [a chilling locution meaning "as good as dead" or lit., "children of death"]. There is no better definition for them. Every one of them intends to kill us, even an infant a single month old.
There is much to consider in this racist, rancid rant. First, I’d say Rabbi Rotter is not just an extremist, but he’s delusional. In fact, Biderman’s cartoon above is a perfect representation of the minds of Jewish paranoiacs like him. He has absolutely no sense of reality.
He’s little different from schizophrenics and individuals with bipolar disorder who engage in acts of violence because they misperceive reality. But in this case, it isn’t just himself that he endangers or those around him. He in fact incites others who respect and admire him and infects them with his own demented perception of the world.
Second, price tag as a policy will not deter a Palestinian militant as Rotter claims. In fact, as was shown in the case of the Palmer stoning incident, those Palestinians threw rocks because settlers had previously torched their village mosque in a price tag attack. Such acts incite Palestinian violence, not deter it.
Price tag has little to do with the Palestinians in fact. It is actually an act of political protest meant to both damage the State’s power and protest policies which rein in settler power. The only way price tag might become a deterrent to Palestinian violence is if it turned into mass pogroms against Palestinians. And even then, it would still do just the opposite. For every Palestinian into whom was thrown the fear of God, there would be two who would turn in the opposite direction and attempt to take it to Israelis and make them pay. That’s the thing about price tag. Everyone pays, not just the Palestinians.
The ultimate goal of price tag and Rabbi Rotter isn’t just vengeance against Palestinian murderers, it is the toppling of the civil state and its replacement with a Torah-true kingdom in which religion and nationalism have become united. Sort of an Islamic Republic of Iran, if you will. There will be no democracy there. No Arabs too. No secular Jews. And God forbid, no leftist media. Only Torah-true Jews. Judeans, if you will.
You can just imagine what will be necessary to attain this vision. How much blood will be shed. Both Palestinian and Israeli, Jewish and Muslim. Make no mistake, this is the cry of the genocidaire. It was like Milosevic’s cries for Serbians to kill Croat Muslims in Srebrenica before they could kill Serbians. Others may think of other parallel historical situations. If your enemy has nothing but murder in his heart, then you’re justified in killing him first. That’s why Rotter must lie and claim that it is the Palestinians who will be guilty of the genocide he wishes for them.
http://fwd4.me/0jN4
16 dec 2011
Update: Netanyahu: Violent extremists are not terrorists
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he would not define violent Jewish extremists as terrorists after a string of attacks on mosques and Israeli army bases.
Israeli ministers formed a list of recommendations for the prime minister, including defining the ultra-nationalist attackers as terrorists.
While Netanyahu rejected the definition, he accepted other recommendations including issuing Jewish rioters with administrative detention orders, trying them in military courts and allowing soldiers to arrest them. The measures are commonly employed against Palestinians.
While soldiers arrest dozens of Palestinians every week -- often during night raids on their homes -- until now Israeli police had to be called to a crime scene to conduct arrests of Israelis, giving perpetrators time to flee.
Netanyahu compared settlers who went on a rampage Monday at an Israeli military base, threw rocks at a commander and his deputy, smashed windows and slashed vehicle tires, to Palestinian activists who hold weekly protests in Bilin against the confiscation of their land.
But, he added that the Jewish rioters were "a small group that does not represent the public that lives in Judea and Samaria," the name used by the Israeli government for the West Bank.
Security sources said the radical settlers, frequently known as the "Hilltop Youth" for their rogue outpost-building and pioneer rhetoric, number several hundred but enjoy wider, tacit support among the 500,000 Israelis living in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, radical Jews burnt the facade of a Jerusalem mosque not recently in use and scrawled "Death to the Arabs" on its walls, an assault blamed on a group that has vandalized other Muslim houses of worship over the past two years.
In an unusually swift response, Israeli police said they had arrested five Israeli men suspected of involvement in "nationalistically motivated crime."
Human rights groups have long accused Israel of failing to arrest or try most settlers accused of involvement in violence against Palestinians. Israel has arrested settler suspects in the past but rarely put any on trial.
High birthrates among religious Jews look likely to perpetuate Israel's rightist tack and its grip on the West Bank, where the Jewish-only settlements are illegal under international law and viewed by almost all world powers as an impediment to Palestinian statehood.
One settlement leader, Shaul Goldstein, said the radicals were marginal, contrasting their behavior with his community's record of volunteering for the military's top combat units.
Some zealots are exempted from conscription because they have police records or are designated as psychologically unfit. But three soldiers were arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in pro-settler vandalism and arson.
Attempts to demolish unauthorized outposts have been resisted by settlers who scuffle with troops or carry out night-time sabotage against military garrisons to inflict what they call the "price tag" for "selling out" the settlements.
Hoping to provoke Palestinian reprisals that would divert the soldiers, settlers frequently desecrate mosques and Muslim cemeteries and destroy Palestinian olive trees and cars.
"These things both endanger human life and distract from the (Israeli army's) main mission," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio on Wednesday. "And they threaten the very sensitive fabric of our relations with our neighbors."
"In terms of their conduct, there is no doubt that this is the conduct of terrorists: terrorism, albeit Jewish."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445115
PA: Mosque attacks show 'contempt' for Palestinians
The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday that the burning of three Palestinian mosques in seven days highlighted the double standards applied to Jewish settlers living in the West Bank.
"While Palestinian protest is met with the reckless use of legal force, as in Nabi Saleh, the Israeli forces do nothing to prevent or punish the rising trend of settler violence," a statement from the Government Media Center said.
Mustafa Tamimi, 28, was killed last Friday after being hit in the head by an Israeli tear gas canister in the central West Bank village. The PA
said the actions of the Israeli army stood in sharp contrast to the "impunity" it affords Israeli extremists who have torched mosques near Ramallah, Jerusalem and Salfit since last Wednesday.
The government release said Israel's lack of sanctions on settlers "encourages settler hate crimes against Palestinians and their places of worship."
"This whole episode shows the contempt which Israel has for the rule of law and for the international community, whose calls for legal behavior are always ignored. Above all it shows contempt for Palestinian lives, religions and property."
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi also slammed the arson attacks on Thursday, saying they "fit a longstanding pattern of settler extremism and the terrorization of Palestinians and their holy sites."
"It is not only the settlers who bear responsibility for the unruliness; the inability of the Israeli government to hold these settlers accountable is contrary to the basic moral values and legal principles that must be adopted by a supposed honorable democracy," she said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445353
15 dec 2011
Settlement rabbi: Expel mosque arsonists
The head rabbi of an Israeli settlement in the West Bank said Thursday that Jewish extremists who attack Palestinian mosques and property should be expelled from the country.
Menachem Froman, the chief rabbi of the Teqoa settlement near Bethlehem, told Ma'an TV that Jewish groups who attack Islamic holy sites have nothing to do with the Jewish religion.
He was speaking after three mosques were torched in the West Bank and Jerusalem in seven days.
The 66-year-old said the perpetrators and their families "should be kicked out of the country to the US from where they came," and deserve to have stones thrown at them.
He described the assailants, suspected to be extremist settlers opposed to the Israeli government's restriction on outposts of the settlements without official approval, as "men of the devil."
The Al-Nour Mosque in Burqa village near Ramallah was torched and spray-painted with racists slogans Thursday, a day after a similiar attack on a Jerusalem mosque.
A week earlier a mosque was set ablaze in the West Bank village of Bruqin.
The rabbi warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Wednesday rejected a recommendation to classify the extremists as terrorists, that his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin "was killed by rioters who said it was in the name of religion."
Froman is a well-known advocate of inter-faith dialogue, and expressed support in August for the Palestinian bid for full membership of the UN.
He spoke out against fellow settlers after a West Bank mosque was torched in 2009.
Froman told Ma'an on Thursday that he came to Bethlehem for the interview "because I feel it’s my duty to speak to my Muslim brothers and neighbors, it is like a prayer because this country is the land of the Lord which is the land of peace.”
He also called on the international community to support the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"For 35 years, I’ve been telling the press and Israeli governments that there will be no peace without a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
The rabbi welcomed the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, and said it would support the search for peace, as "there is no peace without Islam."
He called on all religious people in Palestine, and across the Muslim and Arab worlds to support President Abbas' bid for peace.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445357
Settlers Set Fire to Mosque near Ramallah
Jewish settlers Thursday morning set fire to a mosque in Burqa village northeast of Ramallah governorate, according to witnesses.
They said that settlers set fire to the third floor of the Al-Noor mosque, which is located near a settlement established on Burqa lands.
The settlers scrawled slogans in Hebrew on the walls of the mosque such as “War” and “Yitzhar Settlers.”
Head of the village council, Abed al-Qader Sumareen, told Voice of Palestine that the settlers set fire to the mosque at dawn and the flames damaged most of its contents.
He said the settlers’ attacks against the village are escalating; in the latest attack, settlers cut down a large number of olive trees.
Ramallah and Al Bireh Governor, Laila Ghannam, said this campaign launched by the extremist settlers under the protection of the Israeli army comes within the Israeli government’s settlement expansion policy, to hinder the peace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18372
Abu Rudeineh Condemns Arson of Mosque near Ramallah
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the arson of Al-Noor mosque in Burqa village, northeast of Ramallah governorate, on Thursday.
He said that setting fire to the mosque is a declaration of war by the settlers against Palestinians.
Abu Rudeineh held the Israeli government responsible for this assault and called on the international community to interfere and stop these attacks.
Jewish settlers set fire to the third floor of the Al-Noor mosque, located near a settlement established on Burqa lands, and scrawled slogans in Hebrew on the walls of the mosque such as “War” and “Yitzhar Settlers.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18373
Ashrawi Denounces Israeli Recent Torching of Palestinian Mosques
PLO Executive Committee member and Palestinian lawmaker, Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced the recent torching and vandalism of the al-Nebi Akasha mosque in Jerusalem and al-Noor mosque in the village of Burqa, northeast of Ramallah, Thursday said a press release.
It said that Ashrawi stated, “Such radical acts of hatred are extremely deplorable and signify serious violations of the human and religious rights of the Palestinian people. These are not isolated incidents, but rather they fit a longstanding pattern of settler extremism and the terrorization of Palestinians and their holy sites.”
She added that “it must be emphasized that it is not only the settlers who bear responsibility for the unruliness; the inability of the Israeli government to hold these settlers accountable is contrary to the basic moral values and legal principles that must be adopted by a supposed honorable democracy.”
“ It is evident that the government of Israel is not serious about the two-state solution and that settler extremists are turning this into a religious conflict, thereby destroying any and all prospects for achieving a solution. Israel and its settler population are not above the law and these crimes of war and hatred must cease immediately before it is too late,” said Ashrawi.
She concluded, “We call on the Quartet and the international community not just to condemn these acts of religious intolerance and bigotry, but to hold Israel and its settler population liable for their violations of the rights and protections of the Palestinians. As long as Israel continues to create facts on the ground intentionally devised to obstruct peace, returning to negotiations is unthinkable and no Palestinian state can be viable.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18379
Fatah: Netanyahu’s Inciting Policy Inflames Religious Conflict
Fatah movement Thursday said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive and inciting policy against Muslim and Christian holy places inflames religious conflict in the area, according to a press release.
Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi said the escalating number of settlers’ attacks against mosques reveals the size of extremism fed by Netanyahu’s policy which favors and protects these settlers.
He said the Israeli policy is what encouraged the settlers to set fire to Al-Noor mosque in Burqa village, near Ramallah, only 24 hours after they vandalized Okasha mosque in Jerusalem.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18376
National conference: Settlers' arson attack on J'lem mosque a declaration of war
The secretariat of the popular national conference for Jerusalem strongly denounced the arson attack that was carried out by Jewish settlers on a Mosque west of the occupied holy city and described it as a "declaration of war."
In a press release on Wednesday, this popular movement said the repeated arson attacks on Mosques in the occupied Palestinian lands are a war waged by the Israeli government which provides full support for the settlers' violations.
"The Zionist entity's adoption of the policy of settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian lands has contributed greatly to promoting the systematic hostile activities of the settlers as their attacks, through organized gangs, are accelerating and increasing against everything Palestinian," the secretariat stressed.
"The Israeli security apparatuses stand watching and taking no action to deal with these attacks, the thing which has strengthened the capabilities of those gangs that are working day and night in a race against time to impose a new fait accompli and violate Palestinians' honor and holy sites throughout the homeland," it added.
"Such systematic violations of the settlers have left the Palestinians with no choice but to confront and repel their repeated attacks."
Settlers Cut Down Olive Trees South of Nablus
Jewish settlers Thursday vandalized olive fields and cut down more than 15 olive trees in Burin village, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to witnesses.
They said the settlers sneaked into one of the fields belonging to a Palestinian and cut down olive trees before retreating to a neighboring settlement.
A vicious series of attacks by extremist settlers is being conducted against Palestinians and their properties and holy places in the West Bank.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18375
14 dec 2011
Jewish settlers burn a mosque in Jerusalem, threaten further assaults
A large number of Jewish settlers at dawn Wednesday set fire to a mosque in the occupied Jerusalem as part of the “price tag” campaign by the extremist settlers against Palestinians.
Palestinian and Israeli sources said that a group of settlers broke into "Ukasha" mosque in the west Jerusalem and set fire to it causing some damage.
The assailants daubed the walls of the mosque with anti-Arab, anti-Muslim graffiti and insults to Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). They also wrote in Hebrew "price tag". The attack is similar to a series of attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian people, property and holy places in the West Bank and 1948- occupied areas. Each time further attacks are threatened.
Spokesman for the fire brigades Assaf Abras said that initial investingation into the fire indicate arson and said that the Jerusalem municipality ordered the closure of the mosque after the fire was put out.
Settlers Increase Attacks against Holy Sites, Burn Cars near Nablus
On Wednesday, settlers set fire to the al-Nabi Akasha mosque in southern Jerusalem and burned two vehicles in Salfit governorate, as well as a water tank and vehicle in Nablus.
Al-Nabi Akasha Mosque was burned and vandalized with spray paint reading “Price tag,” “Mohammed was a pig” and “Mohammed is dead,” as well as “The only good Arab is a dead Arab.”
The al-Aqsa Association condemned the mosque’s attack and said in a press release, “The Israeli attacks on the Islamic and Christianity holy sites have been increasing lately in Jerusalem and inside the lands of 1948. The latest act was the burning of Akasha mosque. This mosque has been closed by Israel since 1948.”
“We condemn this attack and we fully blame the Israeli government for this crime and other attacks on holy sites,” continued the press release. “When the Israeli government doesn’t condemn those who do these attacks, they will continue against Palestinians and their properties.”
Director of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, told PNN, “These Israeli attacks are dangerous, especially when they happen to holy sites: the Israeli government must stop protecting and supporting settlers.”
“Provoking Muslims may lead to a religious war, where there is no predicting the consequences,” he said.
In Duma village, south of Nablus, settlers also burned a water tank and a vehicle. Locals said that the village’s citizens found spray paint on walls reading, “A present from Yitzhar Youths to Arabs.”
Yitzhar is a far-right ideological settlement south of Nablus in which the head rabbi of the yeshiva authored a book called the King’s Torah, which authorizes the killing of non-Jewish children.
Settlers from the Tapuah junction area also attacked the house of Mohammad Ibrahim Musleh, from Yasouf village, east of Salfit, and burned the car parked in front of his house.
Locals said that settlers snuck up into the village in the middle of the night and tried to burn Musleh’s house with cans of gasoline. They also burned a car belonging to Ahmad Abdul Aziz from the nearby village of Kaffal Hares.
Two Knesset members intend to desecrate Aqsa Mosque this morning
Two Knesset members from the right-wing national union party called Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad declared their intention to desecrate the Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday as a step to urge the Israeli government to demolish Al-Maghariba Gate ramp.
The two members said this step, likely to provoke the feelings of Muslims in the holy city, would be in protest at the Israeli government's decision to close the ramp to make repairs to it rather than its earlier intent to raze it.
These Knesset members along with supporters of the so-called temple mount are due to arrive this morning at eight o'clock at Al-Maghariba Gate ramp to demand the opening of one of the Aqsa Mosque's gates before Jews other than the one closed, which is Al-Maghariba Gate.
They threatened to storm the Aqsa Mosque through another gate if they were not allowed to use Al-Maghariba Gate.
Ariel told Maariv newspaper that the Israeli government should find a replacement for an immediate entry of Jews to the temple Mount (Aqsa Mosque) and embark on demolishing Al-Maghariba Gate and building another one in its place.
Eldad demanded the government to stop what he described as its submission to Arabs and allow the Jews to use one of the many gates of the temple as long as Al-Maghariba Gate is closed for repairs.
Jerusalem mosque falls prey to arson
Vandals attempt to set abandoned mosque in capital ablaze; graffiti defaming Islam found on several walls. Building sustains light damage.
Jewish terror in Jerusalem? Vandals attempted to set an abandoned mosque in Jerusalem's Strauss Street on fire overnight.
Firefighters who arrived at the scene were able to overcome the fire quickly and the building sustained only light damage. No injuries were reported.
Security officials found graffiti defaming Islam and Arabs on the building's walls, as well as graffiti reading "price tag."
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services received a call about a fire in the city's center.
"The fire took hold of the west side of the mosque," Assaf Abras, Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services spokesman, told Ynet.
Once the fire was out, firefighters inspected the building and found that slogans defaming Islam, Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad had been sprayed on the walls.
Some of the slogans read: "Price tag," "Kahane was right," "Muhammad is dead," and "marked for razing."
Initial investigation suggests foul play. The mosque sustained only light damage and the police have closed the building, which is currently undergoing renovations. A joint police-Shin Bet investigation has been launched into the case.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat strongly denounced the attempted arson: "We must show zero-tolerance for any kind of violence and maintain the coexistence in the city," he said.
Meanwhile, the IDF said that two Palestinian cars were set on fire in the West Bank overnight, one south of Nablus and the other near Qalqilya.
Graffiti was found in both scenes. Security forces are investigating.
Rioting settler: We were pushed into a corner
'It's a shame we've reached the point where we clash with our brothers,' rightist who took part in disturbance near Ramat Gilad outpost tells Ynet. Settler leader: We must remember these are good kids, our finest sons.
"We were certain that the evacuation had begun. People were frustrated, helpless. They hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles, and suddenly the brigade commander's vehicle arrived. A number of youngsters who don't even live here opened the door and threw a cinderblock inside." This is how one of the rightists who took part in the riots near the Ramat Gilad outpost in the West Bank overnight Tuesday described the mayhem.
Speaking to Ynet Tuesday night, the right-wing activist said hundreds of youngsters and dozens of adults from all over the country travelled to the area ahead of the outpost's possible evacuation. "People came from Afula, Jerusalem, Haifa, Dimona and the surrounding communities. At some point we spotted police squad cars heading towards Ramat Gilad. There was tension in the air. The youths started running towards the forces," he recounted.
The activist stressed that the incident was spontaneous. "The IDF spokesman's claim that the events were planned and intentional is false. The rage and despair got out of control. No one wanted things to end the way they did," he told Ynet.
The rightist complemented Ephraim Brigade Commander Colonel Ran Kahane, who was injured in the incident. "He is a decent and serious man. It's a shame this happened. I regret what happened, though I personally did not raise a hand on anyone. All this is happening because we are being pushed into a corner.
"It is a shame we've reached a point where I have to clash with my brothers when we serve in the same army," said the rightist.
Itai Zar, one of the founders of the Havat Gilad outpost, said settlers were against hurting IDF soldiers. "We love the soldiers, who do god's work. I served in the Givati Brigade and took part in Operation Cast Lead as a reservist."
A settler leader who asked to remain anonymous condemned the rioters and called for harsher measures against them. "We have to ask ourselves why this is happening," he said.
The settler leader claimed the disengagement from Gaza and the 2006 evacuation of the West Bank settlement of Amona were partly to blame: "Our youth has been slapped in the face by the State, and they are not willing to be trampled on any longer. After the disengagement, our youth was highly disappointed from their leadership, for cooperating with state authorities and in effect with the destruction of the Gush Katif communities."
He also noted that those who took part in the riots also serve in the IDF. "We must remember that these are good kids, our finest sons. They enlist in the most elite combat units. This was an act of disapproval and protest against the disgrace that we've been subjected to. We are against harming IDF soldiers, but it happened," he said.
Meanwhile, the government and security establishment are holding discussions on exacerbating penal sanctions against extremist elements in the West Bank. Among the measures being considered is the removal of activists from the area based on prior intelligence.
Related http://fwd4.me/0iYr
Justice minister will decide: Are right wing extremists terrorists
Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman is holding a debate with police officials over the recent violence of extremist right wing activists against the soldiers of the Ephraim Brigade and the attack of the brigade commander and his deputy on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tasked Ne'eman with the role of heading a team to offer recommendations on how to deal with the violent phenomenon. The debate will examine whether the violent activists should be defined as a terror group. At the end of the deliberations Ne'eman will present Netanyahu with his conclusions.
13 dec 2011
Haredi sex abuse scandal revealed in NY
After years of silence, 85 men from Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community suspected of molesting 117 kids.
It happened for a very long time: Eighty-five men from Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community are suspected of sexually abusing more than 100 of the community's children and teenagers.
Many, including the victims' parents, allegedly knew about it but chose to keep silent – until one of the community organizations decided to reveal the horrible secret and went to the police.
The affair was reported by the New York Post on Sunday. The New York police are still unsure when the abuse began, but it clearly stretched over several years. Several years of suffering, trauma and perhaps the worst thing of all – a conspiracy of silence aimed at preventing humiliation and shame, all at the expense of the helpless children.
An initiative called Kol Tzedek (“voice of justice") decided to expose the dreadful acts, and as the months went by more and more men were arrested. The organization members located children who fell victim to the abuse and convinced them to complain.
The case involves 117 victims – 89 of whom are under the age of 17. The number of arrests is expected to increase as the affair unfolds.
So far, 38 indictments have been filed and 14 of the detainees have already been sent to jail for up to 20 years for rape, sodomy and kidnapping. Another 24 suspects have been released on bail, and the rest are still being questioned.
According to the investigation, in some of the cases parents knew their children were being molested but gave in to community pressure and chose to remain silent.
'Victims were troubled kids'
One of the suspects is Andrew Goodman, 27, who worked for Jewish social-service agencies and looks like a movie star. According to the New York Post, many members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community believe he is a monster.
Goodman was already arrested in 2010, but was released on bail. The price of his freedom appears to have been heavy: Since returning home, he hosted dozens of children and allegedly abused them during parties with liquor and child porn. Some of the kids were photographed by neighbors entering and leaving the apartment.
So far, authorities have charged him with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys for years in Flatbush — one from age 11 to 15, the other from age 13 to 16.
According to the 144-count indictment, which alleges numerous violations since 2006, Goodman filmed sex acts with the youngsters on a Web cam. Court papers and source say he also “threatened the life” of a boy who reported him to authorities.
“Andrew Goodman is known in our community as a lifelong molester who preys on young boys and ruins their lives,” a Talmudic scholar at Congregation Bais Torah wrote to Brooklyn Judge Martin Murphy, who is hearing the case, the New York Post reported.
Rabbi Shea Hecht, of the Hasidic Lubavitch group, accused Goodman on a Jewish radio show of "hunting" for prey.
He said Goodman went to yeshiva playgrounds, once offering a reward for any boy who found his “lost glasses". Goodman also pressured boys to recruit others, the rabbi said.
Goodman is currently in detention and has pleaded not guilty. “These were not forceful — no one was held against their will," he lawyer said, adding that the alleged victims were “troubled kids who did not have a good home life.” He claimed that one had boy ran away and Goodman “gave him a safe haven."
According to the newspaper, Goodman studied in a yeshiva in Israel several years ago and "stopped being religious" in recent years.
http://fwd4.me/0tzG
The IDF exposed its bias in treating settler pogromchiks and Palestinians protesters in diametrically different ways
Gotta hand it to the IDF. We could never have high-lighted its apartheid policy better.
Last night, three days after the killing of Mustafa Tamimi – who was killed by a 40mm grenade to the face by a soldier sitting in a protected vehicle – several young settler hoodlums tried to forcibly cross the border to Jordan, in order to create an outpost there. Ha’Kol Hayehudi, Israel’s equivalent of the Rwanda Radio, claimed their purpose was to remind us all that Jordan, too, is a part of Israel. Others said this was retaliation for Jordan’s participation in the crisis over a bridge near the West Wall.
Such an infiltration, if successful, could be considered to be a casus belli. The rioters managed to cross the security perimeter near the border, when surprised IDF troops managed to encircle them. At this point, an IDF Spokesman soldier told me last night, the brigade commander informed the rioters that “they won’t make it to Jordan tonight”, and that he was trying to convince them to go home. I asked whether this was a negotiation;
The soldier preferred to term it ambiguously as “dialogue”. I asked why, come to think of it, they aren’t in cuffs already. He didn’t understand the question. I repeated it: After all, they are in a closed military zone and have attempted to force the border. Why aren’t they in cuffs? We don’t do arrests, he said. That’s not our department. Speak to the police.
I have seen with my own eyes people arrested and cuffed for the crime of entering a closed military zone. I have listened as a major explained patiently that the army has declared the entire village of Al Mu’asara as such a zone. I have seen the detainees being hooded and forced into military vehicle. Somehow, when it comes to right wing rioters in the West Bank, that doesn’t happen. Hours later, some arrests were made – presumably the police showed up.
Actually, we have some experience in the IDF rules of engagement when it comes to unarmed demonstrators trying to cross a border. You just have to ask the Lebanese and Syrians who overran the fences in the Golan heights or attempted to get near the border with Lebanon how the IDF treated them. A hint: The local brigade commander didn’t waste time on attempting “dialogue” with them.
Another incident yesterday took away most of the attention from the Jordanian border incident. A large number (some 300, we’re told) of yarmulke-wearing pogromchiks stoned Palestinian vehicles, stormed a military base, caused severe damage to equipment there, stoned a brigade commander and his XO – the stones were thrown into their command vehicle, no less – and managed to get away with it without having any pogromchik being shot in the face by a gas grenade. Actually, the IDF only managed to detain one of them.
When military reporter Carmela Menashe asked the IDF Spokesman, Brigadier Yoav Mordechai, this morning how would the brigade commander react of he was stoned by a Palestinian, Mordechai answered (Hebrew recording, circa 12:00) that “I assume, Carmela, that you wouldn’t expect the brigade commander to open fire at a Jew standing in front of him, I am certain you didn’t mean that.”
And there you have it. The IDF’s official spokesman defines the apartheid regime in the West Bank. There are stone-throwers who may be shot, and there are some, those of the Chosen People, who can’t be. Same offence, same region, different reaction. I wrote yesterday in my Hebrew blog that the IDF has metamorphosed into a gang of frightened gunmen; But the main problem is the cowardly officers leading them.
Oh, they don’t lack for physical bravery; They’ll charge a machine gun nest without thinking twice (the fact that the IDF is familiar with only manouver, the charge, is a problem for another post). But they have not a shred of civic courage. They know what damage the settlers can do to their careers. They know that gang of settlers can besiege their houses and intimidate their families. So they retreat, and let the enemies of Israel win; They turn the IDF into the SSA, the Settlers’ Service Army.
For decades, the IDF repeatedly claimed that it is not a political entity, and that it does “choose its own missions.” Those arguments were used against conscientious objectors from the left. But, as we see, the IDF knows perfectly well to choose its missions:
Defending lands stolen by the settlers near Nabi Salah, while shooting the demonstrators? Sure thing, it’s our pleasure. Defending Palestinians from “price tag” pogroms? Fuggetaboutit, we’re now the Czar’s police. Defending itself from Jewish rioters? “I assume, Carmela, that you wouldn’t expect the brigade commander to open fire at a Jew standing in front of him, I am certain you didn’t mean that.”
We should thank the IDF Spokesman for his frankness. We should thank him for making it clear that, like the rabbis eating it from within, it reacts to events according to the blood of the people involved. If someone still had a doubt whether serving in the Settlers’ Service Army might be immoral, consider it removed. And, to quote one of my readers: The IDF Spokesman should be viewed through the same lens Arafat’s speeches were viewed – that is, we should pay attention to what it says to its own public in Hebrew, not to what it says to the world in English.
http://ygurvitz.net/?p=223
IDF chief: Settler violence absurd
After settlers injure army brigade commander and his deputy, Gantz calls reality in West Bank 'dangerous.' Netanyahu: Soldiers protect us, we'll protect them.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz called the recent settler riots in the West Bank "inconceivable absurd."
Speaking at a reunion of National Security College graduates Tuesday evening, Gantz said Jewish violence in the territories was "a dangerous reality."
Some 300 settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles overnight Tuesday on the main road near the outpost of Ramat Gilad fearing it would be evicted. They also opened the door of the Ephraim Brigade commander's jeep and pelted the vehicle with stones, causing the officer and his deputy light wounds.
In a separate incident, some 50 settlers and right-wing activists broke into the Ephraim Territorial Brigade's base in the West Bank in protest of the possible eviction of several illegal outposts early on Tuesday. Once inside the base, they torched tires, hurled Molotov cocktails and stones, and caused damage to vehicles.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to the graduates after Gantz, vowed to deal with the rioters with a heavy hand and said the settlers had crossed a red line when they attacked IDF soldiers.
"We will ban the rioters from the territories," the PM said in his speech. "We will not allow anyone to raise an arm against IDF soldiers and Israel Police officers. These people protect us all, and we will protect them.
Netanyahu stressed that the rioters do not represent the settler community.
The IDF chief also addressed a request by Israel's chief rabbis to excuse religious soldiers from events in which women sing. "The army belongs to the entire nation – to secular and religious people, men and women. I wish to take this opportunity to stress that the IDF does not exclude women from any place of position. There is no ban on female singing," he said.
"The army has terrific female officers, commanders and soldiers and it is proud of their contribution. They can serve anywhere," he added.
Palestinian police fire on illegal Israeli pilgrims
Palestinian police shot at a group of Israelis illegally visiting a West Bank religious site, injuring one, Palestinian security officials said Tuesday.
The police opened fire after shouting warnings at the small group of Israeli worshipers who had entered Joseph's Tomb near the northern West Bank city of Nablus overnight, said the officials.
The Israeli military said it had no comment on the incident.
Israeli public radio said the group was composed of seven ultra-Orthodox Jews, who entered the site without the required coordination with the Israeli military.
Many Jews believe the tomb to be the final resting place of the biblical figure Joseph, and the site is a pilgrimage destination.
But it lies in a Palestinian-controlled area and Israelis are not allowed to visit unless they are part of an Israeli military escorted trip coordinated in advance with the Palestinian Authority.
In April 2011, one Israeli was killed and several others were wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on an unauthorized group near the tomb.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444638
Israel Responsible for Settlers’ Attack on Church, says Official
Member of the Revolutionary Council of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), Dimitri Diliani, Tuesday held Israel fully responsible for the settlers’ attack on a church near the Jordanian border, under the watch of Israeli soldiers.
Diliani said in a press release that the Israeli army evacuated the church at one o’clock in the morning, after more than four hours spent by the settlers in damaging the church and its contents.
The attack on the Orthodox church of St John the Baptist, located a few kilometers east of Jericho, came after strong opposition from Jordan against demolishing Magharbe gate ramp in East Jerusalem.
Diliani said these settlers’ attacks are a result of the Israeli government’s policy that encourages such terrorist groups to attack Palestinians and their holy sites.
He said that the extremist group vandalized the church and its contents under the watch of the Israeli army, damaging the church’s crosses, doors and windows.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18342
Settlers 'attack family near Qalqiliya, injuring toddler'
Settlers threw rocks at a Palestinian car on a main road east of Qalqiliya on Monday, injuring three people including a toddler, the driver of the vehicle said.
Adnan Suwwan told Ma'an that he was traveling back from al-Nabi Elias village with his family when a group of settlers stopped the car and started throwing stones at the vehicle, smashing the windshield.
“It was only God’s mercy that prevented a disaster after a huge stone penetrated the windshield,” Suwwan said, adding that Israeli military patrols were in the area but did not intervene.
The family was taken to hospital by the Palestinian Red Crescent and treated for light injuries.
Settler attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians are extremely common. One of the Israeli army's tasks in the West Bank is to protect settlers, and they rarely intervene to prevent attacks on Palestinians.
The Israeli legal system also provides scant protection for Palestinian victims of settler violence.
Annual figures compiled by the Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler crimes fail to lead to a prosecution.
Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444507
Settlers vandalize Israeli military base in West Bank
Over 50 settlers infiltrated an Israeli military base near Tulkarem early Tuesday, the army said.
Right wing settlers set fire to tires, vandalized vehicles and placed nails along the road at the Ephraim regional division headquarters. They also threw stones at the base commander's vehicle, the army said in a statement.
No injuries were reported and the army and Israeli police managed to remove settlers from the area, the military added.
The army condemned the violence as "extremely severe" but vowed continue to enforce the law in "Judea and Samaria," the name the Israeli government uses for the West Bank.
"These are criminals, Jewish terrorists who are harming the security of Israel," Israel Civil Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio.
Israeli Army Spokesman Yoav Mordechai told Army Radio there had been a string of "grave incidents" in the West Bank after rumors spread of an imminent eviction of settlement outposts.
"Dozens of right wing activists threw stones at Palestinian and Israeli army vehicles," Mordechai said, after which they entered an army base, "cursed, threw paint bottles, punctured army vehicle tires and smashed a car window".
In a separate incident, a group of hardline settlers crossed into a military zone close to the border with Jordan late Monday evening to demonstrate against Jordanian protests over an Israeli decision to shut a footbridge at Jerusalem's holiest site.
Mordechai said he thought the incursion next to the Jordan border and the subsequent attack on the army base near Tulkarem were connected.
"I don't believe in coincidences. I think that to mobilize over 100 people takes organization. ...We will not allow such disturbances with people taking the law into their own hands," he said.
In July, Israeli settlers vandalized an Israeli army base in the first reported case of "price tag" attacks carried out against Israeli forces.
The perpetrators sprayed "graffiti against (Israeli military) commanders and against dismantling of structures in the Jewish community of Migron," an army statement said.
Settler attacks against Israeli military infrastructure in the West Bank are extremely rare and would represent a worrying development for Israel's army.
Settler violence against Palestinians is very common in the West Bank, however, with perpetrators rarely held accountable by the Israeli legal system.
Under what settler leaders have called a "price-tag" policy, settlers attack Palestinians and their property in retaliation for the Israeli government's occasional curbs on settlement activity.
Some 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same territory.
All settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444498
12 dec 2011
Report: Netanyahu endorses loudspeaker ban in Mosques
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday expressed support for a bill to ban mosques from using loudspeakers for the Islamic call to prayer.
"There's no need to be more liberal than Europe," Netanyahu said during a Likud ministers meeting, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The ban was proposed by right wing party Yisrael Beiteinu and would apply to all places of worship, although it effectively only targets mosques.
MK Anastassia Michaeli, who proposed the bill, said hundreds of thousands of Israelis suffer from the noise caused by mosques.
Yisrael Beiteinu, headed by controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, has sponsored several nationalist policies in the past which critics say target the Palestinian population in Israel.
The most recent bill faced criticism from other ministers and Netanyahu proposed it be debated next week, Haaretz reported.
Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said the law targeted Muslims, while Limor Livnat, minister for culture and sports, said existing laws could be used to deal with any issue concerning noise pollution.
Around 20 percent, or 1.3 million people, of Israel's population are of Palestinian origin.
They are largely the descendants of Palestinians that managed to remain during the 1948 war, when an estimated 700,000 were expelled from or fled their homes during fighting that would see the establishment of the state of Israel.
Rights groups say that Israelis of Palestinian origin face discrimination in employment, education and public funding within Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444375
Israeli settlers raid Jordan border
Israeli settlers raided the Jordanian borders on Monday evening in protest over Amman's involvement in a dispute over a footbridge to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said initial reports indicated that 30 Israelis crossed the security fence and entered a closed military zone on the border of the West Bank and Jordan, but she said they had not entered Jordanian territory.
She added that Israeli soldiers and border police were "operating to restore order" in the area.
The right-wing Israelis barricaded themselves after nightfall at a Christian holy site by the banks of the Jordan River revered by many Christians as the place where biblical Saint John was baptized.
The settlers, known as the "Hilltop youth," were threatening to establish an outpost in the area as Israeli soldiers looked on from the border, the Hebrew-language news site Maariv reported.
According to Israel's Channel 2, the group are threatening to breach the border.
The settlers are protesting Jordan's role in a row over a footbridge to the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israel on Monday closed the ramp after Jerusalem's city engineer deemed it structurally unsafe. Israeli media reports said Israel would consult with the king of Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, on the future of the bridge.
The ramp was to have been torn down last month but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the demolition on the advice of Israeli diplomats and security officials, government officials said.
Netanyahu was cautioned that removing the structure and building a new bridge could enrage Muslims, especially in turbulent Egypt, who might believe the work could damage al-Aqsa, said the officials, who insisted no harm would come to existing buildings.
Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem, said Islamic religious authorities opposed demolition of the existing structure and construction of a new one.
Any construction at the site can be politically explosive. During Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, his opening in 1996 of a new entrance to an access tunnel for tourists near the compound touched off Muslim protests and gun battles in which 60 Palestinians and 15 Israelis were killed.
Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444477
Jewish settlers wreak havoc in West Bank village
Jewish settlers attacked Assira Al-Qabaliya village, south of Nablus, after midnight Sunday and threw stones at Palestinian homes and cars.
Local sources said that the settlers, from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar, tried to set a car on fire after smashing its window shields and damaged other parked cars.
They said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) were deployed in the village later on to cover up for the settlers’ withdrawal and to ensure that they would not be attacked by villagers.
Yitzhar is only 200 meters away from the village, which comes under systematic attacks by settlers.
Similar attacks were reported in Al-Khalil city as settlers attacked Palestinian pedestrians in the Old City while the IOF soldiers were installing barriers at its entrance before storming it.
The city has been under intensified attacks by settlers recently coupled with tightened security measures imposed by the IOF.
Israeli Settlers Continue Their Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Their Property in the West Bank
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns attacks launched by groups of Israeli settlers in the early morning in two Palestinian villages to the southeast of Nablus. PCHR calls upon the Israeli Occupation Forces to open investigations into these attacks and bring perpetrators to justice.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 00:15 on Monday, 12 December 2011, more than 100 Israeli settlers from "Yizhar" settlement which is established on Palestinian lands in the east of Southern Assira village, south of Nablus, attacked Palestinian houses in Southern Assira village.
The majority of settlers were wearing black clothes and a number of them were wearing green clothes.
As they approached Palestinian houses, which are approximately 350 meters from "Yizhar" settlement, they threw stones and empty bottles at houses. Palestinian residents, especially children and women, were in intimidated and panicked as a result of the attack.
There are 62 people, including 46 children and 7 women, living in the targeted houses. As a result of the said attack, the windows of seven of the targeted houses were smashed. Similarly, the windows of a taxi that was parked in front of one of the targeted houses were smashed.
Thirty minutes later, IOF military jeeps arrived at the scene and the Israeli settlers withdrew.
IOF have not taken any measures against the settlers who launched the attack.
The attacked houses belong to:
1. Abdul Rahman Mohammed Abdul Rahman Ahmed. Twelve individuals, including 8 children, live in the house. Israeli settlers also destroyed the windows of a taxi owned by Ahmed.
2. Basem Mohammed Hassan Saleh Hammad. Nine individuals, including 7 children, live in the house.
3. Jamil Abdullah Hamdan Saleh. Five individuals, including 3 children, live in the house.
4. Khalil Mohammed Mahmoud Saleh. Nine individuals, including 7 children, live in the house.
5. Ibrahim Mohammed Suleiman Makhlouf. Eight individuals, including 6 children, live in the house.
6. Rasem Abdul Fattah Mohammed Abdul Rahman. Eleven individuals, including 9 children, live in the house.
7. Abdul Baset Mohammed Abdul Rahman Ahmed. Eight individuals, including 6 children, live in the house.
At approximately 01:15 on Monday, a group of Israeli settlers also from "Yizhar" settlement threw Molotov cocktails at the house of Jamal Abdullah Yousef Shehada in Orif village, southeast of Nablus. One of the windows in the southern walls of the house was set alight and smashed as a result.
Seven individuals, including 5 children, live in Shehada's house, which is located approximately one kilometer from "Yizhar" settlement.
PCHR condemns the above attacks and warns of escalation of attacks by settlers in the few coming days and:
1. Calls for putting an end to protection provided by IOF to settlers and to the immunity provided by IOF to settlers' crimes against the Palestinian civilians and their property, which encourages settlers to commit more crimes.
2. Calls upon the international community to exert pressure on the government of the State of Israel in order to fulfill its obligations under international law and put an end to all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
3. Reminds the international community that settlement is a war crime in accordance to international law. Thus, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, individually or collectively, must assume their legal and moral responsibilities and fulfill their obligations relating to ensuring Israel's respect for the Convention in the OPT, as per Article 1 of the Convention.
Hundreds of settlers attack Nablus village
Hundreds of settlers stormed the Nablus village of Asira al-Qibliya overnight Sunday, causing damage to Palestinian property.
Witnesses told Ma'an that around midnight more than 200 settlers from the notorious Yitzhar settlement entered the village and threw rocks at Palestinian homes.
Local resident Ibrahim Makhlouf said that the settlers smashed the windows of a bus and tried to set it on fire.
“They were armed and wearing black uniform as if it was an organized militia,” he told Ma'an.
The attackers smashed the windows of three other houses belonging to Basim Salih, Jamil Abdullah and Khalil Mahmoud Salih, Makhlouf added.
Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories.
Last week, a mosque was set on fire by settlers in the West Bank village of Bruqin, near Salfit, local officials said.
A report released by The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees found that in October, over 53 percent of settler attacks had taken place in the Nablus district.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444212
9 dec 2011
UK envoy condemns West Bank mosque arson
The UK Consul General in Jerusalem on Thursday condemned the "senseless arson attack" on a West Bank village mosque a day earlier, which local officials blamed on settlers.
On Wednesday, assailants threw a burning tire into a mosque in Bruqin and sprayed graffiti on its walls.
Vincent Fean visited the village on Thursday and met with Bruqin's mayor, Accra Samara. Deploring the attack, Fean also commended villagers' restraint in a statement.
"This despicable attack on a place of worship is a pre-planned crime intended to provoke violence. I call upon the Israeli government to pursue the criminals responsible and bring them to trial.
"I warmly commend and respect the restraint shown by the people of Burqin. I am deeply impressed by their self- restraint under severe provocation. I greatly admire their refusal to be drawn into retaliation against such acts of mindless violence."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=443451
8 dec 2011
Settlers Fire at Shepherds near Nablus
A number of Jewish settlers Thursday fired at Palestinian shepherds near Yanun village, east of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to witnesses.
The shepherds told WAFA that four settlers approached the village and fired at them. No injuries were reported.
The shepherds said they hid in nearby valleys to escape the firing by the settlers, who also stoned their cattle.
British Consul-General Condemns Mosque Attacked by Settlers in Burqin
The British Consul-General in Jerusalem Vincent Fean visited Thursday the mosque in the village of Burqin, and condemned the arson attack by Israeli settlers on it, according to a press release by British Consulate-General in Jerusalem.
It said Fean visited the mosque to see on the ground the damages caused by the attack, where a flaming tyre was thrown into the entrance of the mosque and its walls were sprayed with graffiti.
Meeting with the Mayor of Burqin, Ikrima Samara, and locals there, he expressed his support and solidarity with the people of Burqin against these criminal attacks.
On the attack, Fean stated: “On behalf of the British government, I deplore the senseless arson attack on the mosque in the West Bank village of Burqin on Dec 7th, 2011. This despicable attack on a place of worship is a pre-planned crime intended to provoke violence.”
He called upon “the Israeli government to pursue the criminals responsible and bring them to trial.”
He concluded, “I warmly commend and respect the restraint shown by the people of Burqin. I am deeply impressed by their self- restraint under severe provocation. I greatly admire their refusal to be drawn into retaliation against such acts of mindless violence.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18298
EU’s Ashton Condemns Mosque Arson by Settlers
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the attack against the mosque of Burqin village in the West Bank, according to a statement published on Thursday.
The statement issued by Ashton’s spokesperson said that 'Ashton condemns the attack on December 7, 2011, in which a flaming tyre was thrown into the entrance of the mosque and the mosque's walls were sprayed with graffiti.”
It said, “Accountability and the rule of law are essential. Attacks against places of worship are particularly troubling. The EU calls on the Israeli authorities to investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Provocative actions like this undermine efforts to promote peace in the region, the statement said.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18288
7 dec 2011
Jewish settlers wage arson attack on mosque and cars in Bruqin village
Armed Jewish settlers at dawn Wednesday set fire to a mosque's entrance in Bruqin village west of Salfit city and some nearby cars, and fled away after committing their crime.
Eyewitnesses said a group of armed settlers attacked the village at dawn and tried to break into the mosque, but when they failed to open the gate, they instead burnt its entrance.
The villagers of Bruqin also complained that the Jews from Ariel settlement keep appropriating and destroying their lands in order to annex them to their settlement.
The Jewish settlers also pump deliberately industrial waste and sewage water into the village, farmers said.
Palestinian residential and agricultural areas in the village of Bruqin suffer acute ecological problems as a result of the deliberate pumping of industrial waste and sewage water into its lands from nearby Israeli settlement outposts.
Such ecological problems are affecting man, animal and nature. They include, amongst others, poisoning, spread of diseases, air contamination, breathing difficulties, damage of underground water, destruction of trees and crops as well as the ensuing damage caused to wild life in the area.
Settlers Attack House near Nablus
Jewish settlers Wednesday attacked a house and damaged it in Asira al-Qibliya, a village south of Nablus, according to witnesses.
The house’s owner, Um Ayman, said that a number of settlers surrounded her house and stoned it.
She added that they smashed the windows and threw paint on the walls.
She said that after the attack they withdrew to a mountain near 'Yitzhar' Settlement.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18274
Settler Sentenced To Three Months Public Service For Repeatedly Ramming Palestinian
Jewish settlers wage arson attack on mosque and cars in Bruqin village
Armed Jewish settlers at dawn Wednesday set fire to a mosque's entrance in Bruqin village west of Salfit city and some nearby cars, and fled away after committing their crime.
Eyewitnesses said a group of armed settlers attacked the village at dawn and tried to break into the mosque, but when they failed to open the gate, they instead burnt its entrance.
The villagers of Bruqin also complained that the Jews from Ariel settlement keep appropriating and destroying their lands in order to annex them to their settlement.
The Jewish settlers also pump deliberately industrial waste and sewage water into the village, farmers said.
Palestinian residential and agricultural areas in the village of Bruqin suffer acute ecological problems as a result of the deliberate pumping of industrial waste and sewage water into its lands from nearby Israeli settlement outposts.
Such ecological problems are affecting man, animal and nature. They include, amongst others, poisoning, spread of diseases, air contamination, breathing difficulties, damage of underground water, destruction of trees and crops as well as the ensuing damage caused to wild life in the area.
Settlers Attack House near Nablus
Jewish settlers Wednesday attacked a house and damaged it in Asira al-Qibliya, a village south of Nablus, according to witnesses.
The house’s owner, Um Ayman, said that a number of settlers surrounded her house and stoned it.
She added that they smashed the windows and threw paint on the walls.
She said that after the attack they withdrew to a mountain near 'Yitzhar' Settlement.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18274
Settler Sentenced To Three Months Public Service For Repeatedly Ramming Palestinian
|
|
|
The Israeli District Court in Jerusalem sentenced a settler, who rammed
and repeatedly drove over a wounded Palestinian with his car, to three
months “Public Service”.
The Palestinian has been identified as Waseem Maswada, a resident of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Maswada went to the entrance of the Keryat Arba’ settlement in Hebron, and proceeded to stab two settlers, man and women.
Israeli soldiers then shot Maswada, and wounded, he fell to the ground.
Shortly after the shooting, settler “David Mizrahi” attacked the wounded settler male, mistaking him for the Palestinian stabber. When he realized his mistake, he drove his car over the wounded Palestinian back and forth despite the presence of Israeli soldiers on the scene.
As part of the plea bargain, Mizrahi confessed to committing the ramming act, while the court regarded it as “an act of self-defense” and not premeditated. The bargain disregarded the fact that the Palestinian was already injured, lying on the ground, and bleeding.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62619
Settlers Burn Mosque Entrance Near Salfit
Israeli settlers burnt, on Wednesday at dawn, the main entrance of Broqeen Mosque, near the West Bank city of Salfit, and a number of Palestinian cars parked nearby.
Local sources reported that several armed Israeli settlers invaded the village and tried to burn the mosque but were only able to set its entrance ablaze. The settlers then burnt a number of cars parked near the mosque.
The recent attack is part of a larger “Price Tag” campaign against the Palestinians, their holy sites and their lands.
The settlers blame the Palestinians for any evacuation of illegal settlement outposts in the occupied territories.
They even defaced and vandalized homes and vehicles that belong to Israel’s Peace Now Movement, and its activists.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, November 8 and 9, extremist settlers killed one Palestinians, and set three Palestinian cars ablaze, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The settlers also fired tear gas on a family of Palestinians in Ertas village, near Bethlehem.
A ten-year old child was among those attacked, and he was transferred to a hospital in Beit Jala after being rendered unconscious by the gas.
Earlier in November, a number of Israeli settlers set fire to a tractor belonging to a Palestinian farmer, after trying to attack him in the northern West Bank city of Nablus
.
In June this year, setters burnt a mosque in Al-Mughayyir village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. The settlers also wrote racist graffiti in the walls of the mosque.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62624
Hamas strongly condemns the Jewish settlers arson attack on mosque
Hamas strongly condemned the Jewish settlers’ arson attack on a mosque in Brukin village west of Salfit and held the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) fully responsible for repercussions of such “criminal attacks”.
Hamas, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the attack ran contrary to the teachings of heavenly religions and articles in the international law.
The movement asked the Islamic cooperation organizations and human rights organizations to protect the Islamic holy sites from the settlers and soldiers.
For its part, the Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage denounced the attack the burnt part of the mosque, recalling past similar crimes against mosques and churches in various parts of Palestinian land.
Such recurrent practice indicates that it was not individual or unplanned but rather proves that it was systematic based on racist programs, the foundation said, warning that the practice was similar to some kind of “religious war”.
6 dec 2011
Settlers 'burn 3 cars' in Hebron
Israeli settlers from the illegal Gush Etzion settlement attacked Palestinian houses in Beit Ummar and set fire to three cars overnight, a local activist said.
Muhammad Awad said the settlers damaged cars belonging to Habes Hussein Baragheeth and Suheil and Yousef Muhammad Hussein Baragheeth.
The settlers also wrote racist slogans around the area, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=442564
Israel arrests troops for anti-Palestinian vandalism
Three Israeli soldiers were arrested Tuesday for suspected involvement in pro-settler vandalism and arson, the military said, following a series of attacks in the West Bank that have exacerbated tensions with Palestinians.
Mosques have been torched, graffiti daubed, and Palestinian trees chopped down in the "Price Tag" attacks, so called because they seek to make Palestinians pay for violence against Israelis and the Jewish state pay for its occasional curbs on settlement activity.
Fearing a flare-up in violence, Israel has ordered a police crackdown on the suspected far-right Jewish groups behind the attacks which have also targetted some of Israel's West Bank garrisons, slashing vehicle tires and defacing property.
Channel Ten TV said the three soldiers were suspected of damaging both Palestinian and Israeli military property.
The arrests are a rare example of conscript troops' involvement in the Price Tag campaign and a military spokeswoman declined to detail allegations against them, saying that an investigation was under way.
But she said they were taken into custody following the arrest by civilian police on Sunday of a woman and six girls, some of them settlers, for incidents including vandalism of Palestinian trees and army property.
Channel Ten TV said one of three lived in an unauthorized settler outpost, adding that one was also a combat soldier.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=442653
5 dec 2011
Jewish Settlers Kidnap Elderly Palestinian Shepherd
Armed Jewish settlers Monday kidnapped an elderly Palestinian shepherd while herding his sheep in an open area east of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local activist.
Ghassan Douglas, who monitors settlers’ activities in the northern part of the West Bank, said he believes the settlers took Salim Shehadeh, 60, to the nearby settlement of Yitzhar and seized his sheep.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18247
Jewish settlers burn Palestinian farmland, abduct old shepherd
Jewish settlers burnt Palestinian farmland in the location of the evacuated settlement of Homesh south of Jenin city and tried to attack nearby Palestinian homes, local sources said.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers blocked the road in the area under the eyes of the Israeli occupation forces, who did not act to stop them, before starting their rampage.
They said that Jenin fire brigades extinguished the fire before spreading in the area, adding that the settlers routinely wreak havoc in the area in an attempt to rebuild the settlement.
Meanwhile, another group of settlers abducted an old Palestinian shepherd after beating him up near Orif village south of Nablus city on Monday evening.
Fawzi Shehade, the chairman of the municipal council in Orif, said that the settlers assaulted Salim Eshahde, 60, while rearing his sheep near the village’s secondary school and then took him away along with 50 of his sheep heads, which were grazing in the area.
4 dec 2011
Jewish settlers attack Palestinians and their cars near Beit Ummar town
A group of Jewish settlers savagely on Saturday evening threw stones at Palestinian drivers and their cars at the entrance to Beit Ummar town north of Al-Khalil city causing damage to some of them.
Eyewitnesses said more than 25 settlers under military protection gathered at the entrance to the town while Israeli soldiers stood idly watching them hurling stones at the passing cars.
Palestinian young men from Beit Ummar rushed to the entrance in order to fend off the settlers and prevent them from attacking homes.
In a separate incident, another group of fanatic Jewish settlers broke into and ransacked the Arab elementary school in Beersheba town in the 1984 occupied lands.
The settlers wrote racist slurs against Arabs and Muslims on walls calling for killing and expelling them.
Reliable Palestinian sources said these settler-related attacks are part of a vicious campaign called "the price tag" and regularly organized by Jewish settlers under military protection from the Israeli occupation army in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands.
3 dec 2011
Jewish settlers attack Salem village in Nablus
Dozens of Jewish settlers under military protection savagely attacked Saturday morning Salem village east of Nablus city and assaulted its Palestinian farmers.
Eyewitnesses said that settlers from Elon Moreh and Gideon settlements opened fire at the village's famers and attempted to steal herds of cattle from them.
They added that a large group of the village's young men rushed to the area and bravely fended off the settlers who retreated amid the protection of Israeli soldiers.
Dozens of Palestinian young men are still guarding their village's borders while the fleeing settlers are standing along a bypass around the village in an attempt to launch another attack.
Jewish Settlers Attack Shepherds near Nablus
Jewish settlers Saturday attacked Palestinian shepherds near Salem, a village east of Nablus, according to local sources.
Witnesses said a group of settlers battered Najeh Abdul Qader, 60, while herding his sheep.
Ghassan Daghlas, an activist monitoring settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said settlers also attacked seven shepherds near Salem, but the village residents intervened before the Israeli army had stepped in.
Armed settlers were also seen at the entrance of Beit Fourik, a town west of Nablus.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18221
Settlers 'beat elderly farmer' near Nablus
Israeli settlers assaulted a 60-year-old man cultivating land in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Najih Abdul-Qadir was tilling his fields near the illegal Itamar settlement east of Nablus when a group of ultra-orthodox Israelis approached him and beat him severely, PA settlement monitoring official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an.
Abdul-Qadir was moved off his lands by the group, Douglas added.
Settlers from Itamar have violently blocked Palestinians from tending land near the compound, where a young couple was stabbed to death along with three of their young children in March.
Amjad Awad was found guilty of the killings by an Israeli court on Monday, and his cousin Hakim Awad has been jailed for life for the murders.
Palestinians say the Israelis living inside the West Bank exercise a violent campaign against them with virtual impunity from Israel's army, to intimidate them and push them from their lands.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same territory.
All settlements are considered illegal under international law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441425
2 dec 2011
Israeli forces 'close Hebron farmland'
Israeli forces blocked a group of Palestinians from working on their land in southern Hebron on Thursday, farmers told Ma'an.
Ibrahim Abu Subha said around 30 farmers went to the fields near Susiya village, close to the southern edge of the West Bank, on Thursday morning.
When they began work, Israeli forces arrived and ordered them off the land, declaring the 2,000 dunum area a closed military zone.
Settlers from nearby Jewish-only communities inside the West Bank "incited forces against the Palestinians," when the group told soldiers they owned the fields, Abu Sabha said.
An Israeli military spokesman said he was not familiar with the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441275
1 dec 2011
Settlers attack Nablus village
Armed Jewish settlers attacked the village of Irak Burin, south of Nablus, on Thursday evening and where confronted by locals who threw stones at them.
Ghassan Daglass, monitoring Jewish settlement activity north of the West Bank, said that villagers erected barriers to block advance of the armed settlers.
He pointed out that Israeli occupation forces stormed the village later on and attacked the villagers.
Outpost built in memory of Fogel family razed
Civil Administration, IDF forces demolish Givat Ariyeh outpost, set up after murder of five family members in Itamar.
Civil Administration personnel and police and IDF forces on Wednesday night razed the illegal West Bank outpost of Givat Ariyeh, located near Itamar.
The outpost, which was set up following the murder of the five Fogel family members in March, housed two families and five men.
During the operation, three permanent structure, two makeshift structures and a synagogue were razed. The demolition team met no resistance, but the settlers claimed that the forces also destroyed a control panel and the electricity system that powered a security camera purchased by the Shomron Regional Council in the aftermath of the Itamar murders.
The council stressed that the camera was purchased by donations, and was not funded by the Defense Ministry.
"As a result, the entire community is cut off from the electronic security system that protected it since the massacre," claimed a council member.
A security official argued in response that the electric system was built illegally and was disconnected in order to prevent the Civil Administration personnel from being electrocuted during the demolition.
Meanwhile, the Shomron Settler Committee claimed that a garden, a holy ark and religious artifacts were destroyed during the demolition, adding that three torah scrolls were confiscated as well.
Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika arrived at the site shortly after the demolition work had begun and expressed his support for the residents, vowing that the outpost will be rebuilt.
"To brutally destroy a neighborhood built in memory of the (Fogel) Family immediately after their murderers' verdict was read is an obtuse and evil act," he said.
http://fwd4.me/0huF
Israeli forces demolish settlement outpost
Israeli military and police forces demolished an illegal settlement outpost near the Itamar settlement in the Nablus district of the northern West Bank, officials said Thursday.
Settlers threw stones at the soldiers as they evacuated the outpost, Israeli radio reported.
The settlers accused the army of destroying cameras which were placed on a barrier fence surrounding the settlement, the report said. Six temporary buildings were removed in total.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=440980
The Palestinian has been identified as Waseem Maswada, a resident of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Maswada went to the entrance of the Keryat Arba’ settlement in Hebron, and proceeded to stab two settlers, man and women.
Israeli soldiers then shot Maswada, and wounded, he fell to the ground.
Shortly after the shooting, settler “David Mizrahi” attacked the wounded settler male, mistaking him for the Palestinian stabber. When he realized his mistake, he drove his car over the wounded Palestinian back and forth despite the presence of Israeli soldiers on the scene.
As part of the plea bargain, Mizrahi confessed to committing the ramming act, while the court regarded it as “an act of self-defense” and not premeditated. The bargain disregarded the fact that the Palestinian was already injured, lying on the ground, and bleeding.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62619
Settlers Burn Mosque Entrance Near Salfit
Israeli settlers burnt, on Wednesday at dawn, the main entrance of Broqeen Mosque, near the West Bank city of Salfit, and a number of Palestinian cars parked nearby.
Local sources reported that several armed Israeli settlers invaded the village and tried to burn the mosque but were only able to set its entrance ablaze. The settlers then burnt a number of cars parked near the mosque.
The recent attack is part of a larger “Price Tag” campaign against the Palestinians, their holy sites and their lands.
The settlers blame the Palestinians for any evacuation of illegal settlement outposts in the occupied territories.
They even defaced and vandalized homes and vehicles that belong to Israel’s Peace Now Movement, and its activists.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, November 8 and 9, extremist settlers killed one Palestinians, and set three Palestinian cars ablaze, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The settlers also fired tear gas on a family of Palestinians in Ertas village, near Bethlehem.
A ten-year old child was among those attacked, and he was transferred to a hospital in Beit Jala after being rendered unconscious by the gas.
Earlier in November, a number of Israeli settlers set fire to a tractor belonging to a Palestinian farmer, after trying to attack him in the northern West Bank city of Nablus
.
In June this year, setters burnt a mosque in Al-Mughayyir village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. The settlers also wrote racist graffiti in the walls of the mosque.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62624
Hamas strongly condemns the Jewish settlers arson attack on mosque
Hamas strongly condemned the Jewish settlers’ arson attack on a mosque in Brukin village west of Salfit and held the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) fully responsible for repercussions of such “criminal attacks”.
Hamas, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the attack ran contrary to the teachings of heavenly religions and articles in the international law.
The movement asked the Islamic cooperation organizations and human rights organizations to protect the Islamic holy sites from the settlers and soldiers.
For its part, the Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage denounced the attack the burnt part of the mosque, recalling past similar crimes against mosques and churches in various parts of Palestinian land.
Such recurrent practice indicates that it was not individual or unplanned but rather proves that it was systematic based on racist programs, the foundation said, warning that the practice was similar to some kind of “religious war”.
6 dec 2011
Settlers 'burn 3 cars' in Hebron
Israeli settlers from the illegal Gush Etzion settlement attacked Palestinian houses in Beit Ummar and set fire to three cars overnight, a local activist said.
Muhammad Awad said the settlers damaged cars belonging to Habes Hussein Baragheeth and Suheil and Yousef Muhammad Hussein Baragheeth.
The settlers also wrote racist slogans around the area, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=442564
Israel arrests troops for anti-Palestinian vandalism
Three Israeli soldiers were arrested Tuesday for suspected involvement in pro-settler vandalism and arson, the military said, following a series of attacks in the West Bank that have exacerbated tensions with Palestinians.
Mosques have been torched, graffiti daubed, and Palestinian trees chopped down in the "Price Tag" attacks, so called because they seek to make Palestinians pay for violence against Israelis and the Jewish state pay for its occasional curbs on settlement activity.
Fearing a flare-up in violence, Israel has ordered a police crackdown on the suspected far-right Jewish groups behind the attacks which have also targetted some of Israel's West Bank garrisons, slashing vehicle tires and defacing property.
Channel Ten TV said the three soldiers were suspected of damaging both Palestinian and Israeli military property.
The arrests are a rare example of conscript troops' involvement in the Price Tag campaign and a military spokeswoman declined to detail allegations against them, saying that an investigation was under way.
But she said they were taken into custody following the arrest by civilian police on Sunday of a woman and six girls, some of them settlers, for incidents including vandalism of Palestinian trees and army property.
Channel Ten TV said one of three lived in an unauthorized settler outpost, adding that one was also a combat soldier.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=442653
5 dec 2011
Jewish Settlers Kidnap Elderly Palestinian Shepherd
Armed Jewish settlers Monday kidnapped an elderly Palestinian shepherd while herding his sheep in an open area east of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local activist.
Ghassan Douglas, who monitors settlers’ activities in the northern part of the West Bank, said he believes the settlers took Salim Shehadeh, 60, to the nearby settlement of Yitzhar and seized his sheep.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18247
Jewish settlers burn Palestinian farmland, abduct old shepherd
Jewish settlers burnt Palestinian farmland in the location of the evacuated settlement of Homesh south of Jenin city and tried to attack nearby Palestinian homes, local sources said.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers blocked the road in the area under the eyes of the Israeli occupation forces, who did not act to stop them, before starting their rampage.
They said that Jenin fire brigades extinguished the fire before spreading in the area, adding that the settlers routinely wreak havoc in the area in an attempt to rebuild the settlement.
Meanwhile, another group of settlers abducted an old Palestinian shepherd after beating him up near Orif village south of Nablus city on Monday evening.
Fawzi Shehade, the chairman of the municipal council in Orif, said that the settlers assaulted Salim Eshahde, 60, while rearing his sheep near the village’s secondary school and then took him away along with 50 of his sheep heads, which were grazing in the area.
4 dec 2011
Jewish settlers attack Palestinians and their cars near Beit Ummar town
A group of Jewish settlers savagely on Saturday evening threw stones at Palestinian drivers and their cars at the entrance to Beit Ummar town north of Al-Khalil city causing damage to some of them.
Eyewitnesses said more than 25 settlers under military protection gathered at the entrance to the town while Israeli soldiers stood idly watching them hurling stones at the passing cars.
Palestinian young men from Beit Ummar rushed to the entrance in order to fend off the settlers and prevent them from attacking homes.
In a separate incident, another group of fanatic Jewish settlers broke into and ransacked the Arab elementary school in Beersheba town in the 1984 occupied lands.
The settlers wrote racist slurs against Arabs and Muslims on walls calling for killing and expelling them.
Reliable Palestinian sources said these settler-related attacks are part of a vicious campaign called "the price tag" and regularly organized by Jewish settlers under military protection from the Israeli occupation army in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands.
3 dec 2011
Jewish settlers attack Salem village in Nablus
Dozens of Jewish settlers under military protection savagely attacked Saturday morning Salem village east of Nablus city and assaulted its Palestinian farmers.
Eyewitnesses said that settlers from Elon Moreh and Gideon settlements opened fire at the village's famers and attempted to steal herds of cattle from them.
They added that a large group of the village's young men rushed to the area and bravely fended off the settlers who retreated amid the protection of Israeli soldiers.
Dozens of Palestinian young men are still guarding their village's borders while the fleeing settlers are standing along a bypass around the village in an attempt to launch another attack.
Jewish Settlers Attack Shepherds near Nablus
Jewish settlers Saturday attacked Palestinian shepherds near Salem, a village east of Nablus, according to local sources.
Witnesses said a group of settlers battered Najeh Abdul Qader, 60, while herding his sheep.
Ghassan Daghlas, an activist monitoring settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said settlers also attacked seven shepherds near Salem, but the village residents intervened before the Israeli army had stepped in.
Armed settlers were also seen at the entrance of Beit Fourik, a town west of Nablus.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18221
Settlers 'beat elderly farmer' near Nablus
Israeli settlers assaulted a 60-year-old man cultivating land in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Najih Abdul-Qadir was tilling his fields near the illegal Itamar settlement east of Nablus when a group of ultra-orthodox Israelis approached him and beat him severely, PA settlement monitoring official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an.
Abdul-Qadir was moved off his lands by the group, Douglas added.
Settlers from Itamar have violently blocked Palestinians from tending land near the compound, where a young couple was stabbed to death along with three of their young children in March.
Amjad Awad was found guilty of the killings by an Israeli court on Monday, and his cousin Hakim Awad has been jailed for life for the murders.
Palestinians say the Israelis living inside the West Bank exercise a violent campaign against them with virtual impunity from Israel's army, to intimidate them and push them from their lands.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same territory.
All settlements are considered illegal under international law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441425
2 dec 2011
Israeli forces 'close Hebron farmland'
Israeli forces blocked a group of Palestinians from working on their land in southern Hebron on Thursday, farmers told Ma'an.
Ibrahim Abu Subha said around 30 farmers went to the fields near Susiya village, close to the southern edge of the West Bank, on Thursday morning.
When they began work, Israeli forces arrived and ordered them off the land, declaring the 2,000 dunum area a closed military zone.
Settlers from nearby Jewish-only communities inside the West Bank "incited forces against the Palestinians," when the group told soldiers they owned the fields, Abu Sabha said.
An Israeli military spokesman said he was not familiar with the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441275
1 dec 2011
Settlers attack Nablus village
Armed Jewish settlers attacked the village of Irak Burin, south of Nablus, on Thursday evening and where confronted by locals who threw stones at them.
Ghassan Daglass, monitoring Jewish settlement activity north of the West Bank, said that villagers erected barriers to block advance of the armed settlers.
He pointed out that Israeli occupation forces stormed the village later on and attacked the villagers.
Outpost built in memory of Fogel family razed
Civil Administration, IDF forces demolish Givat Ariyeh outpost, set up after murder of five family members in Itamar.
Civil Administration personnel and police and IDF forces on Wednesday night razed the illegal West Bank outpost of Givat Ariyeh, located near Itamar.
The outpost, which was set up following the murder of the five Fogel family members in March, housed two families and five men.
During the operation, three permanent structure, two makeshift structures and a synagogue were razed. The demolition team met no resistance, but the settlers claimed that the forces also destroyed a control panel and the electricity system that powered a security camera purchased by the Shomron Regional Council in the aftermath of the Itamar murders.
The council stressed that the camera was purchased by donations, and was not funded by the Defense Ministry.
"As a result, the entire community is cut off from the electronic security system that protected it since the massacre," claimed a council member.
A security official argued in response that the electric system was built illegally and was disconnected in order to prevent the Civil Administration personnel from being electrocuted during the demolition.
Meanwhile, the Shomron Settler Committee claimed that a garden, a holy ark and religious artifacts were destroyed during the demolition, adding that three torah scrolls were confiscated as well.
Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika arrived at the site shortly after the demolition work had begun and expressed his support for the residents, vowing that the outpost will be rebuilt.
"To brutally destroy a neighborhood built in memory of the (Fogel) Family immediately after their murderers' verdict was read is an obtuse and evil act," he said.
http://fwd4.me/0huF
Israeli forces demolish settlement outpost
Israeli military and police forces demolished an illegal settlement outpost near the Itamar settlement in the Nablus district of the northern West Bank, officials said Thursday.
Settlers threw stones at the soldiers as they evacuated the outpost, Israeli radio reported.
The settlers accused the army of destroying cameras which were placed on a barrier fence surrounding the settlement, the report said. Six temporary buildings were removed in total.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=440980
