28 apr 2012
Jewish settlers storm Bethlehem village
Jewish settlers stormed the Solomon Pools in Khader village, south of Bethlehem, under Israeli military protection, local sources said.
They said that around 200 settlers stormed the village and bathed in the three Solomon Pools before performing religious rituals.
The settlers routinely visit what they call Jewish religious sights in the West Bank, while Palestinian and other international historians deny they are Jewish.
Occupation forces suppress popular weekly anti-wall protests
Two protesters were wounded, one seriously, at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Kafr Quaddoum weekly protest against illegal settlements and the apartheid wall.
The IOF soldiers fired tear gas to disperse the demonstration which was organized this Friday in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners.
During the demonstration, two Palestinians were wounded: Wassim Borhom, 19, was hit by a tear gas canister in the head, and Mohamed Al-Khatib, 28, was hit by rubber bullets in his leg and hand.
Dozens of locals and foreign activists were treated for breathing difficulty as a result of the IOF shooting of teargas bombs and spraying waste chemicals at the demonstrators.
The popular committees against the wall and settlements confirmed that the occupation forces were shooting tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber bullets into the crowd to disperse the demonstration. Once they arrived near the Apartheid wall the occupation army sprayed the protesters with water mixed with waste chemicals, the committees affirmed.
The protesters raised the Palestinian prisoners' photos while marching in the village streets and chanting slogans calling for national unity, resistance, freedom to prisoners and Palestine.
Meanwhile, dozens of civilians and international peace activists staged a sit-in, after Friday prayers at a Palestinian house that was seized, last week, by Zionist settlers in Beit Hanina in occupied Jerusalem, claiming the land ownership.
The protesters raised Palestinian flags while chanting slogans against settlements and occupation and calling for expelling the settlers from the house.
27 apr 2012
Settlers raise the Zionist flag on the Ibrahimi Mosque
A number of Jewish settlers, on Thursday, raised the Israeli flag on the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil, something which has not been done since the occupation of the city in 1967.
The director of Awkaf in al-Khalil, Zeid al-Ja’bari said that a group of settlers climbed on the mosque and raised the flag under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.
Ja'bari said that what happened is "an aggression on the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and its historic and religious place in the hearts of Muslims. The occupation has not done this since occupying the city of al-Khalil. This aggression provokes the Muslim feelings, as this is a dangerous provocative act that we were surprised with today. The occupation must remove its flags from above our mosques as this is a provocation to all Muslims around the world."
The Israeli occupation government decided, two years ago, to place the Ibrahimi Mosque on the list of “Jewish heritage”, an act which coincided with an increase in attacks on the Mosque and Muslim worshipers. The Athan (Muslim call for prayer) was banned 50 times last March.
24 apr 2012
Settlers attacked Chilean delegation in Al-Khalil
A group of Zionist settlers attacked, on Tuesday, the Chilean solidarity Parliamentary delegation during its visit to the old town and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil, south of the West Bank.
The settlers attacked the Chilean delegation verbally while it was in Sahla region near the Ibrahimi Mosque, accompanied by Al-Khalil Governor Kamel Hamid and a number of public figures and officials in the province.
Guarded by the police and the occupation army, the settlers also tried to prevent the delegation from visiting the region under the pretext 'it is a Zionist land' and those who show solidarity to the Palestinians are not allowed to enter it.
Yet, the Chilean parliamentary delegation responded to the settlers’ anti-Arab insults by chanting 'freedom for Palestine and Palestinians'.
It is noted that about 400 settlers live in four outposts in the old town of Al-Khalil, which are: 'Avraham Avinu' and 'Beit Hadassah' and 'Beit Romano' and 'Ramat Yishai'.
Moreover, the occupation authorities threatened to close ‘Zif’ school that serves a number of communities and hamlets near the town of Yatta south of Al-Khalil (West Bank).
Wajih Aladra, director of the school, explained in a press statement that the occupation forces told him, through the "civil administration", that they are going to close the school under the pretext that its students have thrown stones at settlers' vehicles on the bypass road, which is near the school and which the settlers are used to cross.
Aladra also pointed out that 400 male and female students attended the school which is the only one in the region, and that if the occupation realized this threat, the students will be deprived of completing their education.
Jewish settlers storm Yousuf’s tomb Dozens of Jewish settlers stormed Yousuf’s tomb to the east of Nablus city at dawn Tuesday under heavy Israeli military protection, local sources said.
They said that a big number of Israeli occupation soldiers were deployed in the northern suburbs of the city to provide protection for the settlers who performed Talmudic rituals at the tomb.
The sources noted that PA security personnel disappeared from the streets of Nablus to facilitate the movement of the settlers.
21 apr 2012
Dutch veto against condemnation of settlers’ violations
Jewish settlers storm Bethlehem village
Jewish settlers stormed the Solomon Pools in Khader village, south of Bethlehem, under Israeli military protection, local sources said.
They said that around 200 settlers stormed the village and bathed in the three Solomon Pools before performing religious rituals.
The settlers routinely visit what they call Jewish religious sights in the West Bank, while Palestinian and other international historians deny they are Jewish.
Occupation forces suppress popular weekly anti-wall protests
Two protesters were wounded, one seriously, at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Kafr Quaddoum weekly protest against illegal settlements and the apartheid wall.
The IOF soldiers fired tear gas to disperse the demonstration which was organized this Friday in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners.
During the demonstration, two Palestinians were wounded: Wassim Borhom, 19, was hit by a tear gas canister in the head, and Mohamed Al-Khatib, 28, was hit by rubber bullets in his leg and hand.
Dozens of locals and foreign activists were treated for breathing difficulty as a result of the IOF shooting of teargas bombs and spraying waste chemicals at the demonstrators.
The popular committees against the wall and settlements confirmed that the occupation forces were shooting tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber bullets into the crowd to disperse the demonstration. Once they arrived near the Apartheid wall the occupation army sprayed the protesters with water mixed with waste chemicals, the committees affirmed.
The protesters raised the Palestinian prisoners' photos while marching in the village streets and chanting slogans calling for national unity, resistance, freedom to prisoners and Palestine.
Meanwhile, dozens of civilians and international peace activists staged a sit-in, after Friday prayers at a Palestinian house that was seized, last week, by Zionist settlers in Beit Hanina in occupied Jerusalem, claiming the land ownership.
The protesters raised Palestinian flags while chanting slogans against settlements and occupation and calling for expelling the settlers from the house.
27 apr 2012
Settlers raise the Zionist flag on the Ibrahimi Mosque
A number of Jewish settlers, on Thursday, raised the Israeli flag on the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil, something which has not been done since the occupation of the city in 1967.
The director of Awkaf in al-Khalil, Zeid al-Ja’bari said that a group of settlers climbed on the mosque and raised the flag under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.
Ja'bari said that what happened is "an aggression on the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and its historic and religious place in the hearts of Muslims. The occupation has not done this since occupying the city of al-Khalil. This aggression provokes the Muslim feelings, as this is a dangerous provocative act that we were surprised with today. The occupation must remove its flags from above our mosques as this is a provocation to all Muslims around the world."
The Israeli occupation government decided, two years ago, to place the Ibrahimi Mosque on the list of “Jewish heritage”, an act which coincided with an increase in attacks on the Mosque and Muslim worshipers. The Athan (Muslim call for prayer) was banned 50 times last March.
24 apr 2012
Settlers attacked Chilean delegation in Al-Khalil
A group of Zionist settlers attacked, on Tuesday, the Chilean solidarity Parliamentary delegation during its visit to the old town and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil, south of the West Bank.
The settlers attacked the Chilean delegation verbally while it was in Sahla region near the Ibrahimi Mosque, accompanied by Al-Khalil Governor Kamel Hamid and a number of public figures and officials in the province.
Guarded by the police and the occupation army, the settlers also tried to prevent the delegation from visiting the region under the pretext 'it is a Zionist land' and those who show solidarity to the Palestinians are not allowed to enter it.
Yet, the Chilean parliamentary delegation responded to the settlers’ anti-Arab insults by chanting 'freedom for Palestine and Palestinians'.
It is noted that about 400 settlers live in four outposts in the old town of Al-Khalil, which are: 'Avraham Avinu' and 'Beit Hadassah' and 'Beit Romano' and 'Ramat Yishai'.
Moreover, the occupation authorities threatened to close ‘Zif’ school that serves a number of communities and hamlets near the town of Yatta south of Al-Khalil (West Bank).
Wajih Aladra, director of the school, explained in a press statement that the occupation forces told him, through the "civil administration", that they are going to close the school under the pretext that its students have thrown stones at settlers' vehicles on the bypass road, which is near the school and which the settlers are used to cross.
Aladra also pointed out that 400 male and female students attended the school which is the only one in the region, and that if the occupation realized this threat, the students will be deprived of completing their education.
Jewish settlers storm Yousuf’s tomb Dozens of Jewish settlers stormed Yousuf’s tomb to the east of Nablus city at dawn Tuesday under heavy Israeli military protection, local sources said.
They said that a big number of Israeli occupation soldiers were deployed in the northern suburbs of the city to provide protection for the settlers who performed Talmudic rituals at the tomb.
The sources noted that PA security personnel disappeared from the streets of Nablus to facilitate the movement of the settlers.
21 apr 2012
Dutch veto against condemnation of settlers’ violations
Dutch MP Rosenthal
The Arab Organization for Human Rights in London has revealed that the Netherlands had blocked the official issuance of a European report condemning Jewish settlers’ violations against Palestinian civilians.
The organization said in a statement on Friday that the Rights Forum founded by the former Dutch PM Andreas van Agt leaked the European report about the settlers' violations in the occupied Palestinian territories in April last year, which was modified last February.
The European report stated that the occupied Palestinian territories are witnessing a significant increase in Jewish settlers' violence against the Palestinian people and their properties especially in villages adjacent to settlements.
The settlers’ attacks include random shootings on Palestinian civilians, closing streets, damaging crops, including the destruction of about 10,000 trees, in addition to assaulting children while playing in streets or during school trips where four children were killed by settlers in 2010-2011, the report said, adding that most of the cases brought against the settlers were closed without charge.
The statement of the Arab Organization condemned the Dutch attitude towards the report, describing it as “promiscuous and illegal”, and asked Holland to take the position of the European Union and the international community that condemns settlements in the occupied Palestinian land as “unethical and illegitimate”.
20 apr 2012
Israeli settlers assault UN delegation in al-Khalil
Jewish settlers threw stones and rubbish on a number of foreign law professors, who are participating in a conference about Palestine's membership in the U.N. which is being held at al-Khalil University, while they were touring the old city near the Jewish settlement of Beit Hadasa.
The delegation visited the old city over two days to see how the Israeli occupation soldiers and Jewish settlers deal with Palestinians.
They were guided by Muhammad al-Jarbeeni, a lecturer at the university and an activist in defending al-Khalil, to see for themselves the measures and restrictions against Palestinian residents in the old city, the rough treatment by the occupation army and the harassment by the settlers.
The visiting delegation were also briefed on the closure of Shuhada street and the effect it is having on the local residents and the residents of Tel al-Romaidah.
Lecturer and researcher at Oxford University, Abbas Sheblaq said that the situation in the old city is a clear proof of the fascistic way used by the occupation to uproot Palestinians and the Israeli mentality which aims to eliminate the other.
He further described the occupations practices in al-Khalil as worse than what the defunct apartheid regime's practices in South Africa, adding that what the media relates about the practices of the occupation and its settlers does not exceed 5% of the facts there.
For his part, Guy S.Goodwin-Gill, Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College (Oxford University) said that he has been to many areas of armed conflict around the world, but he has never seen anything like what he saw in al-Khalil’s old city.
Zionist Occupation Forces Storm Al-Khalil and Jenin
IOF troops stormed Yatta town southern Al-Khalil and Kavret village west south Jenin , on Thursday, breaking into several houses and damaging their contents.
Yatta municipality has confirmed, in a statement, that the occupation forces stormed Yatta town, surrounded and searched a number of houses using police dogs and damaging their contents. Residents were dragged out of their houses and were held for five hours leaving them shivering in very cold temperatures, with extensive deployment of occupation soldiers on rooftops of neighboring houses.
In Jenin district, Israeli occupation forces stormed kferet town south west the city, raiding and photographing a number of homes and historical buildings and marking them on maps they had, which provoked the local residents.
Meanwhile, settlers raided two farms in the village of Bardala near Toubas in the northern Jordan valley and damaged crops. Settlers also attacked farmers in the area and threatened them with expulsion and confiscation of their lands.
19 apr 2012
New settlement outpost in Ramallah
A new settlement outpost was established to the north east of Ramallah comprising 20 buildings so far, the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz said on Thursday.
It said that the outpost was called Mitzpeh Cramim and that half of the buildings are mobile caravans.
The paper said that the Israeli civil administration of the West Bank had ordered a halt to the construction works in this outpost but the order passed without notice.
It said that the local council in nearby Deir Jarir village filed a complaint with the Israeli higher court demanding the removal of the outpost.
IOA evicts Palestinian family from its home in O. Jerusalem
Israeli occupation police evicted a Palestinian family from its house in Beit Hanina suburb in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday.
The Israeli occupation authority claimed that the house along with another adjacent to it were owned by Jews and thus ordered the eviction of the 14-member family.
The Israeli police said that one of the two homes was voluntarily evacuated two or three weeks ago.
Lubna Al-Natshe, wife of the house owner Khaled Al-Natshe, told AFP, “They came at 0800 am to evict us and when my husband objected they hit him and arrested him”. She added, “They claim that Jewish settlers purchased the house 73 years ago!”
18 apr 2012
Israel Becomes the Settler State
by Uri Avnery
The other day, the almighty General Security Service (Shabak, formerly Shin Bet) needed a new boss. It is a hugely important job, because no minister ever dares to contradict the advice of the Shabak chief in cabinet meetings.
There was an obvious candidate, known only as J. But at the last moment, the settlers’ lobby was mobilized. As director of the “Jewish department,” J. had put some Jewish terrorists in prison. So his candidacy was rejected and Yoram Cohen, a kippah-wearing darling of the settlers, was appointed instead.
That happened last month. Just before that, the National Security Council also needed a new chief. Under pressure from the settlers, Gen. Yaakov Amidror, formerly the highest kippah-wearing officer in the army, a man of openly ultra-ultra nationalist views, got the job.
The deputy chief of staff of the army is a kippah-wearing officer dear to the settlers, a former head of Central Command, which includes the West Bank.
Some weeks ago, I wrote that the problem may not be the annexation of the West Bank by Israel, but the annexation of Israel by the West Bank settlers.
Some readers reacted with a chuckle. It looked like a humorous aside.
It was not.
The time has come to examine this process seriously: Is Israel falling victim to a hostile takeover by the settlers?
First of all, the term “settlers” itself must be examined.
Formally, there is no question. The settlers are Israelis living beyond the 1967 border, the Green Line. (“Green” in this case has no ideological connotation. This just happened to be the color chosen to distinguish the line on the maps.)
Numbers are inflated or deflated according to propaganda needs. But it can be assumed that there are about 300,000 settlers in the West Bank and an additional 200,000 or so in East Jerusalem. Israelis usually don’t call the Jerusalemites “settlers,” putting them into a different category. But, of course, settlers they are.
But when we speak of Settlers in the political context, we speak of a much bigger community.
True, not all settlers are Settlers. Many people in the West Bank settlements went there without any ideological motive, just because they could build their dream villas for practically nothing, with a picturesque view of Arab minarets to boot. It is these the Settler Council chairman, Danny Dayan, meant, when, in a (recently leaked) secret conversation with a U.S. diplomat, he conceded that they could easily be persuaded to return to Israel if the money were right.
However, all these people have an interest in the status quo, and therefore will support the real Settlers in the political fight. As the Jewish proverb goes, if you start fulfilling a commandment for the wrong reasons, you will end up fulfilling it for the right ones.
But the camp of the “settlers” is much, much bigger.
The entire so-called “national religious” movement is in total support of the settlers, their ideology, and their aims. And no wonder—the settlement enterprise sprung from its loins.
This must be explained. The “national religious” were originally a tiny splinter of religious Jewry. The big Orthodox camp saw in Zionism an aberration and heinous sin. Since God had exiled the Jews from His land because of their sins, only He—through His Messiah—had the right to bring them back. The Zionists thus position themselves above God and prevent the coming of the Messiah. For the Orthodox, the Zionist idea of a secular Jewish “nation” still is an abomination.
However, a few religious Jews did join the nascent Zionist movement. They remained a curiosity. The Zionists held the Jewish religion in contempt, like everything else belonging to the Jewish Diaspora (galut—exile, a derogatory term in Zionist parlance). Children who (like myself) were brought up in Zionist schools in Palestine before the Holocaust were taught to look down with pity on people who were “still” religious.
This also colored our attitude toward the religious Zionists. The real work of building our future “Hebrew State” (we never spoke about a “Jewish State”) was done by socialist atheists. The kibbutzim and moshavim, communal and cooperative villages, as well as the “pioneer” youth movements, which were the foundation of the whole enterprise, were mostly Tolstoyan socialist, some of them even Marxist. The few that were religious were considered marginal.
At that time, in the ’30s and ’40s, few young people wore a kippah in public. I don’t remember a single member of the Irgun, the clandestine military (“terrorist”) organization to which I belonged, wearing a kippah—though there were quite a number of religious members. They preferred a less conspicuous cap or beret.
The national-religious party (originally called Mizrahi—Eastern) played a minor role in Zionist politics. It was decidedly moderate in national affairs. In the historic confrontations between the “activist” David Ben-Gurion and the “moderate” Moshe Sharett in the ’50s, they almost always sided with Sharett, driving Ben-Gurion up the wall.
Nobody paid much attention, however, to what was happening under the surface—in the national-religious youth movement, Bnei Akiva, and their Yeshivot. There, out of sight of the general public, a dangerous cocktail of ultra-nationalist Zionism and an aggressive tribal “messianic” religion was being brewed.
The astounding victory of the Israeli army in the 1967 Six-Day War, after three weeks of extreme anxiety, marked a turning point for this movement.
Here was everything they had dreamed of: a God-given miracle, the heartland of historical Eretz Israel (alias the West Bank) occupied, “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” as one general breathlessly reported.
As if somebody had drawn a cork, the national-religious youth movement escaped its bottle and became a national force. They created Gush Emunim (“Bloc of the Faithful”), the center of the dynamic settlement enterprise in the newly “liberated territories.”
This must be well understood: for the national-religious camp, 1967 was also a moment of liberation within the Zionist camp. As the Bible (Psalm 117) prophesied: “The stone the builders despised has become the cornerstone.” The despised national-religious youth movement and kibbutzim suddenly jumped to center stage.
While the old socialist kibbutz movement was dying of ideological exhaustion, its members becoming rich by selling agricultural land to real-estate sharks, the national religious sprang up in full ideological vigor, imbued with spiritual and national fervor, preaching a pagan Jewish creed of holy places, holy stones, and holy tombs, mixed with the conviction that the whole country belongs to the Jews and that “foreigners” (meaning the Palestinians, who have lived here for at least 1,300, if not 5,000 years) should be kicked out.
Most of today’s Israelis were born or immigrated after 1967. The occupation state is the only reality they know. The settlers’ creed looks to them like self-evident truth. Polls show a growing number of young Israelis for whom democracy and human rights are empty phrases. A Jewish state means a state that belongs to the Jews and to the Jews only; nobody else has any business to be here.
This climate has created a political scene dominated by a set of right-wing parties, from Avigdor Lieberman’s racists to the outright fascist followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane—all of them totally subservient to the settlers.
If it is true that the U.S. Congress is controlled by the Israel lobby, then this lobby is controlled by the Israeli government, which is controlled by the settlers. (Like the joke about the dictator who said: The world is afraid of our country; the country is afraid of me; I am afraid of my wife; my wife is afraid of a mouse. So who rules the world?)
So the settlers can do whatever they want: build new settlements and enlarge existing ones, ignore the Supreme Court, give orders to the Knesset and the government, attack their “neighbors” whenever they like, kill Arab children who throw stones, uproot olive groves, burn mosques. And their power is growing by leaps and bounds.
The takeover of a civilized country by hardier border fighters is by no means extraordinary. On the contrary, it is a frequent historical phenomenon. The historian Arnold Toynbee provided a long list.
Germany was for a long time dominated by the Ostmark (“Eastern marches”), which became Austria. The culturally advanced German heartland fell under the sway of the more primitive but hardier Prussians, whose homeland was not a part of Germany at all. The Russian Empire was formed by Moscow, originally a primitive town on the fringes.
The rule seems to be that when the people of a civilized country become spoiled by culture and riches, a hardier, less pampered, and more primitive race on the fringes takes over, as Greece was taken over by the Romans, and Rome by the barbarians.
This can happen to us. But it need not. Israeli secular democracy still has a lot of strength in it. The settlements can still be removed. (In a future article, I shall try to show how.) The religious Right can still be repulsed. The occupation, which is the mother of all evil, can still be terminated.
But for that we have to recognize the danger—and do something about it.
Thousands of Jewish settlers storm Qalqilia village to perform rituals
Thousands of Jewish settlers stormed the village of Kufl Hares, south east of Qalqilia, on Tuesday night and offered Talmudic rituals at a shrine under Israeli occupation forces’ protection.
Mamun Buziye, a member of the village’s municipal council, told Quds Press on Wednesday that IOF soldiers in dozens of armored vehicles barged into the village at 0900 pm Tuesday and declared it a closed military zone.
Soon afterwards dozens of coaches arrived in the village with around 5000 settlers on board, he said, adding that they offered Talmudic rituals at the tomb of Joshua the son of Nun, as they believe, before leaving the village at 0600 am Wednesday.
Buziye said that IOF soldiers assaulted a number of citizens in the village streets and arrested a young man who was taken to an unknown destination. He noted that the settlers also beat up a number of citizens and insulted them.
He noted that the settlers storm the village every now and then under IOF escort, adding that the soldiers deploy in the village and in its vicinity to provide protection for the settlers.
Settlers Assault Palestinian in Hebron
Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank city of Hebron late Tuesday night, according to local sources.
They said settlers beat Marwan Barqan, injuring him with bruises and scratches all over his body. He was transferred to hospital for treatment.
In a related matter, several settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, broke into several Palestinian houses in the same area.
17 apr 2012
Human Rights Violations Continue despite Decline, says Group
Although there has been a decline in the number of human rights violations in the Palestinian Territory in 2011, a Palestinian rights group said Tuesday that violations still occur almost on daily basis.
According to Randa Siniora, executive director of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), number of complaints of human rights violations has decreased by 33% in 2011.
She said at a press conference in Ramallah introducing the organization’s 17th annual report on the state of human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that even though the situation of human rights in the Palestinian-run areas has improved, there is still room for more improvement.
The reports, which also covered Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, said Jewish settlers’ violence against Palestinians has increased in 2011.
“Aside from the ongoing Israeli violations of human rights in the Palestinian Territory, 2011 witnessed an escalation in settlers’ attacks and infringements on human rights in the West Bank,” ICHR Commissioner Ahmad Harb said.
He said that ICHR is considering the possibility to legally prosecute Israel for its crimes and violations.
The Palestinian division between the two main factions, Fatah and Hamas, since 2007 has also played a major role in the continuous violation of Palestinian rights in the West Bank and Gaza, said Harb.
16 apr 2012
Settlers Plan Takeover of Hebron-Area Land
A group of Israeli settlers Monday set up tents on a Palestinian-owned land east of Yatta, a town south of Hebron, as a prelude to take it over, according to a local activist.
Popular Committee Coordinator in Yatta, Rateb Jabour, told Voice of Palestine radio that settlers set up tents on land located between the Israeli settlements of Carmiel and Ma'on.
He said the settlers most likely will claim the land for themselves and start adding housing units to it to create a new settlement.
Jabour did not say if the land owners, the Abu Subha family, will contest the settlers’ takeover of their land.
Jewish settlers chop off 250 olive trees
Jewish settlers chopped off 250 Palestinian olive trees in the village of Beitello to the west of Ramallah on Monday, local sources said.
Fawzi Bazar said that he was stunned at seeing the olive trees cut off when he went to tend his field along with members of his family on Monday morning.
He said that settlers in a nearby Jewish settlement frequently attack his land and other nearby lands.
He said that the settlers want the Palestinian farmers to leave their land in order to facilitate its annexation to their settlement.
15 apr 2012
Israeli settlers injure three Palestinians, uproot dozens of olive trees in two separate incidents
On Thursday and Friday in the West Bank, groups of armed Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their property. In the northern West Bank on Thursday, armed Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers, injuring three; and in the southern West Bank Friday, a group of settlers destroyed a Palestinian olive grove by chopping down all of the trees.
The incident on Thursday took place in the village of Yanun, near Nablus, where Palestinian farmers were working on their land when several Israeli settlers came onto the land and attacked them. One of the settlers involved in the attack was identified as Matan Fogel, the brother of an Israeli man who was murdered along with his family in the settlement of Itamar last year in an attack that was blamed on local Palestinians.
Fogel and the other settlers called the Israeli military to assist them in dispersing the Palestinian farmers. When the military arrived, soldiers fired tear gas at the Palestinians and abducted five Palestinian farmers, according to local sources.
The Israeli settlers claimed that the Palestinian farmers initiated the attack, and injured two settlers with farming tools. The settlers were all armed with military-grade weapons. None of the Palestinians involved in the incident were armed.
In the attack on Friday, Israeli settlers from the settlement of Maol, near Hebron, entered an olive grove near the village of Kharoubeh and chopped down trees belonging to local Palestinian landowner Jebril Mousa Khalil, according to the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.
Palestinian shepherds and international non-violent activists who were in the area came to the olive grove to try to stop the destruction, and were chased by the settlers to Tuwani village. According to eyewitnesses, the settlers ran after the activists and shepherds and threw stones at them and at Palestinian homes.
Israeli troops then arrived in the area to ‘protect the Israeli settlers’, as they are mandated to do – even when the settlers are the ones engaging in acts of violence.
Israeli settler attacks increased by 50% in 2011, and have continued to increase in the first months of 2012, although official numbers are not yet available.
The Arab Organization for Human Rights in London has revealed that the Netherlands had blocked the official issuance of a European report condemning Jewish settlers’ violations against Palestinian civilians.
The organization said in a statement on Friday that the Rights Forum founded by the former Dutch PM Andreas van Agt leaked the European report about the settlers' violations in the occupied Palestinian territories in April last year, which was modified last February.
The European report stated that the occupied Palestinian territories are witnessing a significant increase in Jewish settlers' violence against the Palestinian people and their properties especially in villages adjacent to settlements.
The settlers’ attacks include random shootings on Palestinian civilians, closing streets, damaging crops, including the destruction of about 10,000 trees, in addition to assaulting children while playing in streets or during school trips where four children were killed by settlers in 2010-2011, the report said, adding that most of the cases brought against the settlers were closed without charge.
The statement of the Arab Organization condemned the Dutch attitude towards the report, describing it as “promiscuous and illegal”, and asked Holland to take the position of the European Union and the international community that condemns settlements in the occupied Palestinian land as “unethical and illegitimate”.
20 apr 2012
Israeli settlers assault UN delegation in al-Khalil
Jewish settlers threw stones and rubbish on a number of foreign law professors, who are participating in a conference about Palestine's membership in the U.N. which is being held at al-Khalil University, while they were touring the old city near the Jewish settlement of Beit Hadasa.
The delegation visited the old city over two days to see how the Israeli occupation soldiers and Jewish settlers deal with Palestinians.
They were guided by Muhammad al-Jarbeeni, a lecturer at the university and an activist in defending al-Khalil, to see for themselves the measures and restrictions against Palestinian residents in the old city, the rough treatment by the occupation army and the harassment by the settlers.
The visiting delegation were also briefed on the closure of Shuhada street and the effect it is having on the local residents and the residents of Tel al-Romaidah.
Lecturer and researcher at Oxford University, Abbas Sheblaq said that the situation in the old city is a clear proof of the fascistic way used by the occupation to uproot Palestinians and the Israeli mentality which aims to eliminate the other.
He further described the occupations practices in al-Khalil as worse than what the defunct apartheid regime's practices in South Africa, adding that what the media relates about the practices of the occupation and its settlers does not exceed 5% of the facts there.
For his part, Guy S.Goodwin-Gill, Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College (Oxford University) said that he has been to many areas of armed conflict around the world, but he has never seen anything like what he saw in al-Khalil’s old city.
Zionist Occupation Forces Storm Al-Khalil and Jenin
IOF troops stormed Yatta town southern Al-Khalil and Kavret village west south Jenin , on Thursday, breaking into several houses and damaging their contents.
Yatta municipality has confirmed, in a statement, that the occupation forces stormed Yatta town, surrounded and searched a number of houses using police dogs and damaging their contents. Residents were dragged out of their houses and were held for five hours leaving them shivering in very cold temperatures, with extensive deployment of occupation soldiers on rooftops of neighboring houses.
In Jenin district, Israeli occupation forces stormed kferet town south west the city, raiding and photographing a number of homes and historical buildings and marking them on maps they had, which provoked the local residents.
Meanwhile, settlers raided two farms in the village of Bardala near Toubas in the northern Jordan valley and damaged crops. Settlers also attacked farmers in the area and threatened them with expulsion and confiscation of their lands.
19 apr 2012
New settlement outpost in Ramallah
A new settlement outpost was established to the north east of Ramallah comprising 20 buildings so far, the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz said on Thursday.
It said that the outpost was called Mitzpeh Cramim and that half of the buildings are mobile caravans.
The paper said that the Israeli civil administration of the West Bank had ordered a halt to the construction works in this outpost but the order passed without notice.
It said that the local council in nearby Deir Jarir village filed a complaint with the Israeli higher court demanding the removal of the outpost.
IOA evicts Palestinian family from its home in O. Jerusalem
Israeli occupation police evicted a Palestinian family from its house in Beit Hanina suburb in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday.
The Israeli occupation authority claimed that the house along with another adjacent to it were owned by Jews and thus ordered the eviction of the 14-member family.
The Israeli police said that one of the two homes was voluntarily evacuated two or three weeks ago.
Lubna Al-Natshe, wife of the house owner Khaled Al-Natshe, told AFP, “They came at 0800 am to evict us and when my husband objected they hit him and arrested him”. She added, “They claim that Jewish settlers purchased the house 73 years ago!”
18 apr 2012
Israel Becomes the Settler State
by Uri Avnery
The other day, the almighty General Security Service (Shabak, formerly Shin Bet) needed a new boss. It is a hugely important job, because no minister ever dares to contradict the advice of the Shabak chief in cabinet meetings.
There was an obvious candidate, known only as J. But at the last moment, the settlers’ lobby was mobilized. As director of the “Jewish department,” J. had put some Jewish terrorists in prison. So his candidacy was rejected and Yoram Cohen, a kippah-wearing darling of the settlers, was appointed instead.
That happened last month. Just before that, the National Security Council also needed a new chief. Under pressure from the settlers, Gen. Yaakov Amidror, formerly the highest kippah-wearing officer in the army, a man of openly ultra-ultra nationalist views, got the job.
The deputy chief of staff of the army is a kippah-wearing officer dear to the settlers, a former head of Central Command, which includes the West Bank.
Some weeks ago, I wrote that the problem may not be the annexation of the West Bank by Israel, but the annexation of Israel by the West Bank settlers.
Some readers reacted with a chuckle. It looked like a humorous aside.
It was not.
The time has come to examine this process seriously: Is Israel falling victim to a hostile takeover by the settlers?
First of all, the term “settlers” itself must be examined.
Formally, there is no question. The settlers are Israelis living beyond the 1967 border, the Green Line. (“Green” in this case has no ideological connotation. This just happened to be the color chosen to distinguish the line on the maps.)
Numbers are inflated or deflated according to propaganda needs. But it can be assumed that there are about 300,000 settlers in the West Bank and an additional 200,000 or so in East Jerusalem. Israelis usually don’t call the Jerusalemites “settlers,” putting them into a different category. But, of course, settlers they are.
But when we speak of Settlers in the political context, we speak of a much bigger community.
True, not all settlers are Settlers. Many people in the West Bank settlements went there without any ideological motive, just because they could build their dream villas for practically nothing, with a picturesque view of Arab minarets to boot. It is these the Settler Council chairman, Danny Dayan, meant, when, in a (recently leaked) secret conversation with a U.S. diplomat, he conceded that they could easily be persuaded to return to Israel if the money were right.
However, all these people have an interest in the status quo, and therefore will support the real Settlers in the political fight. As the Jewish proverb goes, if you start fulfilling a commandment for the wrong reasons, you will end up fulfilling it for the right ones.
But the camp of the “settlers” is much, much bigger.
The entire so-called “national religious” movement is in total support of the settlers, their ideology, and their aims. And no wonder—the settlement enterprise sprung from its loins.
This must be explained. The “national religious” were originally a tiny splinter of religious Jewry. The big Orthodox camp saw in Zionism an aberration and heinous sin. Since God had exiled the Jews from His land because of their sins, only He—through His Messiah—had the right to bring them back. The Zionists thus position themselves above God and prevent the coming of the Messiah. For the Orthodox, the Zionist idea of a secular Jewish “nation” still is an abomination.
However, a few religious Jews did join the nascent Zionist movement. They remained a curiosity. The Zionists held the Jewish religion in contempt, like everything else belonging to the Jewish Diaspora (galut—exile, a derogatory term in Zionist parlance). Children who (like myself) were brought up in Zionist schools in Palestine before the Holocaust were taught to look down with pity on people who were “still” religious.
This also colored our attitude toward the religious Zionists. The real work of building our future “Hebrew State” (we never spoke about a “Jewish State”) was done by socialist atheists. The kibbutzim and moshavim, communal and cooperative villages, as well as the “pioneer” youth movements, which were the foundation of the whole enterprise, were mostly Tolstoyan socialist, some of them even Marxist. The few that were religious were considered marginal.
At that time, in the ’30s and ’40s, few young people wore a kippah in public. I don’t remember a single member of the Irgun, the clandestine military (“terrorist”) organization to which I belonged, wearing a kippah—though there were quite a number of religious members. They preferred a less conspicuous cap or beret.
The national-religious party (originally called Mizrahi—Eastern) played a minor role in Zionist politics. It was decidedly moderate in national affairs. In the historic confrontations between the “activist” David Ben-Gurion and the “moderate” Moshe Sharett in the ’50s, they almost always sided with Sharett, driving Ben-Gurion up the wall.
Nobody paid much attention, however, to what was happening under the surface—in the national-religious youth movement, Bnei Akiva, and their Yeshivot. There, out of sight of the general public, a dangerous cocktail of ultra-nationalist Zionism and an aggressive tribal “messianic” religion was being brewed.
The astounding victory of the Israeli army in the 1967 Six-Day War, after three weeks of extreme anxiety, marked a turning point for this movement.
Here was everything they had dreamed of: a God-given miracle, the heartland of historical Eretz Israel (alias the West Bank) occupied, “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” as one general breathlessly reported.
As if somebody had drawn a cork, the national-religious youth movement escaped its bottle and became a national force. They created Gush Emunim (“Bloc of the Faithful”), the center of the dynamic settlement enterprise in the newly “liberated territories.”
This must be well understood: for the national-religious camp, 1967 was also a moment of liberation within the Zionist camp. As the Bible (Psalm 117) prophesied: “The stone the builders despised has become the cornerstone.” The despised national-religious youth movement and kibbutzim suddenly jumped to center stage.
While the old socialist kibbutz movement was dying of ideological exhaustion, its members becoming rich by selling agricultural land to real-estate sharks, the national religious sprang up in full ideological vigor, imbued with spiritual and national fervor, preaching a pagan Jewish creed of holy places, holy stones, and holy tombs, mixed with the conviction that the whole country belongs to the Jews and that “foreigners” (meaning the Palestinians, who have lived here for at least 1,300, if not 5,000 years) should be kicked out.
Most of today’s Israelis were born or immigrated after 1967. The occupation state is the only reality they know. The settlers’ creed looks to them like self-evident truth. Polls show a growing number of young Israelis for whom democracy and human rights are empty phrases. A Jewish state means a state that belongs to the Jews and to the Jews only; nobody else has any business to be here.
This climate has created a political scene dominated by a set of right-wing parties, from Avigdor Lieberman’s racists to the outright fascist followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane—all of them totally subservient to the settlers.
If it is true that the U.S. Congress is controlled by the Israel lobby, then this lobby is controlled by the Israeli government, which is controlled by the settlers. (Like the joke about the dictator who said: The world is afraid of our country; the country is afraid of me; I am afraid of my wife; my wife is afraid of a mouse. So who rules the world?)
So the settlers can do whatever they want: build new settlements and enlarge existing ones, ignore the Supreme Court, give orders to the Knesset and the government, attack their “neighbors” whenever they like, kill Arab children who throw stones, uproot olive groves, burn mosques. And their power is growing by leaps and bounds.
The takeover of a civilized country by hardier border fighters is by no means extraordinary. On the contrary, it is a frequent historical phenomenon. The historian Arnold Toynbee provided a long list.
Germany was for a long time dominated by the Ostmark (“Eastern marches”), which became Austria. The culturally advanced German heartland fell under the sway of the more primitive but hardier Prussians, whose homeland was not a part of Germany at all. The Russian Empire was formed by Moscow, originally a primitive town on the fringes.
The rule seems to be that when the people of a civilized country become spoiled by culture and riches, a hardier, less pampered, and more primitive race on the fringes takes over, as Greece was taken over by the Romans, and Rome by the barbarians.
This can happen to us. But it need not. Israeli secular democracy still has a lot of strength in it. The settlements can still be removed. (In a future article, I shall try to show how.) The religious Right can still be repulsed. The occupation, which is the mother of all evil, can still be terminated.
But for that we have to recognize the danger—and do something about it.
Thousands of Jewish settlers storm Qalqilia village to perform rituals
Thousands of Jewish settlers stormed the village of Kufl Hares, south east of Qalqilia, on Tuesday night and offered Talmudic rituals at a shrine under Israeli occupation forces’ protection.
Mamun Buziye, a member of the village’s municipal council, told Quds Press on Wednesday that IOF soldiers in dozens of armored vehicles barged into the village at 0900 pm Tuesday and declared it a closed military zone.
Soon afterwards dozens of coaches arrived in the village with around 5000 settlers on board, he said, adding that they offered Talmudic rituals at the tomb of Joshua the son of Nun, as they believe, before leaving the village at 0600 am Wednesday.
Buziye said that IOF soldiers assaulted a number of citizens in the village streets and arrested a young man who was taken to an unknown destination. He noted that the settlers also beat up a number of citizens and insulted them.
He noted that the settlers storm the village every now and then under IOF escort, adding that the soldiers deploy in the village and in its vicinity to provide protection for the settlers.
Settlers Assault Palestinian in Hebron
Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank city of Hebron late Tuesday night, according to local sources.
They said settlers beat Marwan Barqan, injuring him with bruises and scratches all over his body. He was transferred to hospital for treatment.
In a related matter, several settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, broke into several Palestinian houses in the same area.
17 apr 2012
Human Rights Violations Continue despite Decline, says Group
Although there has been a decline in the number of human rights violations in the Palestinian Territory in 2011, a Palestinian rights group said Tuesday that violations still occur almost on daily basis.
According to Randa Siniora, executive director of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), number of complaints of human rights violations has decreased by 33% in 2011.
She said at a press conference in Ramallah introducing the organization’s 17th annual report on the state of human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that even though the situation of human rights in the Palestinian-run areas has improved, there is still room for more improvement.
The reports, which also covered Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, said Jewish settlers’ violence against Palestinians has increased in 2011.
“Aside from the ongoing Israeli violations of human rights in the Palestinian Territory, 2011 witnessed an escalation in settlers’ attacks and infringements on human rights in the West Bank,” ICHR Commissioner Ahmad Harb said.
He said that ICHR is considering the possibility to legally prosecute Israel for its crimes and violations.
The Palestinian division between the two main factions, Fatah and Hamas, since 2007 has also played a major role in the continuous violation of Palestinian rights in the West Bank and Gaza, said Harb.
16 apr 2012
Settlers Plan Takeover of Hebron-Area Land
A group of Israeli settlers Monday set up tents on a Palestinian-owned land east of Yatta, a town south of Hebron, as a prelude to take it over, according to a local activist.
Popular Committee Coordinator in Yatta, Rateb Jabour, told Voice of Palestine radio that settlers set up tents on land located between the Israeli settlements of Carmiel and Ma'on.
He said the settlers most likely will claim the land for themselves and start adding housing units to it to create a new settlement.
Jabour did not say if the land owners, the Abu Subha family, will contest the settlers’ takeover of their land.
Jewish settlers chop off 250 olive trees
Jewish settlers chopped off 250 Palestinian olive trees in the village of Beitello to the west of Ramallah on Monday, local sources said.
Fawzi Bazar said that he was stunned at seeing the olive trees cut off when he went to tend his field along with members of his family on Monday morning.
He said that settlers in a nearby Jewish settlement frequently attack his land and other nearby lands.
He said that the settlers want the Palestinian farmers to leave their land in order to facilitate its annexation to their settlement.
15 apr 2012
Israeli settlers injure three Palestinians, uproot dozens of olive trees in two separate incidents
On Thursday and Friday in the West Bank, groups of armed Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their property. In the northern West Bank on Thursday, armed Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers, injuring three; and in the southern West Bank Friday, a group of settlers destroyed a Palestinian olive grove by chopping down all of the trees.
The incident on Thursday took place in the village of Yanun, near Nablus, where Palestinian farmers were working on their land when several Israeli settlers came onto the land and attacked them. One of the settlers involved in the attack was identified as Matan Fogel, the brother of an Israeli man who was murdered along with his family in the settlement of Itamar last year in an attack that was blamed on local Palestinians.
Fogel and the other settlers called the Israeli military to assist them in dispersing the Palestinian farmers. When the military arrived, soldiers fired tear gas at the Palestinians and abducted five Palestinian farmers, according to local sources.
The Israeli settlers claimed that the Palestinian farmers initiated the attack, and injured two settlers with farming tools. The settlers were all armed with military-grade weapons. None of the Palestinians involved in the incident were armed.
In the attack on Friday, Israeli settlers from the settlement of Maol, near Hebron, entered an olive grove near the village of Kharoubeh and chopped down trees belonging to local Palestinian landowner Jebril Mousa Khalil, according to the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.
Palestinian shepherds and international non-violent activists who were in the area came to the olive grove to try to stop the destruction, and were chased by the settlers to Tuwani village. According to eyewitnesses, the settlers ran after the activists and shepherds and threw stones at them and at Palestinian homes.
Israeli troops then arrived in the area to ‘protect the Israeli settlers’, as they are mandated to do – even when the settlers are the ones engaging in acts of violence.
Israeli settler attacks increased by 50% in 2011, and have continued to increase in the first months of 2012, although official numbers are not yet available.
