20 jan 2012
OCHA says 'Legalizing' Settlement Outposts Can Provoke Violence
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) strongly criticized Friday Israeli attempt to give legal status to settlement outposts built in the West Bank without government authorization saying this move may provoke violence.
It said in its Protection of Civilians weekly report that many such outposts are located on private Palestinian land “forcibly taken over” by Israeli settlers.
“While the recent dismantlement of structures in settlement outposts is welcome, there are concerns over new initiatives aimed at ‘legalizing’ these settlement outposts under Israeli law that are being currently promoted, and partially implemented, both by the Israeli government and at the Knesset,” it said.
“These attempts to ‘legalize’ outposts reinforce an atmosphere of impunity and are likely to encourage further violence and encroachment on Palestinian land,” said OCHA.
It said in the report that Israeli forces and settlers injured 17 Palestinians throughout the West Bank during the past week.
Eight of the Palestinians sustained injuries in clashes with Israeli forces during raids on the village of Azzun, in the Qalqiliya area, and Madama in the Nablus region.
Another four were injured in clashes during a weekly demonstration against the closure of the main entrance to Kafr Qaddum village, also near Qalqiliya.
Israeli settlers physically assaulted and injured two Palestinians in Hebron and stoned and injured another man near Shilo settlement in the Ramallah region, said the report.
Settlers also vandalized 40 olive trees belonging to Palestinians near Kfar Tappuah settlement; stoned or set on fire eight Palestinian vehicles in the Salfit, Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron governorates; and wrote graffiti on the walls of a mosque in Deir Istiya, Salfit area.
“These incidents took place in the context of the ‘price tag’ strategy, after the Israeli authorities demolished 10 structures in an outpost near Kiryat Arba’ Israeli settlement on 11 January,” said OCHA.
The international humanitarian organization said the Israeli authorities had also demolished 12 Palestinian-owned structures, nine of which were related to a source of livelihood for Palestinian families, due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits.
Clashes between Palestinians and settlers in Beit Ummar
Fierce clashes took place on Friday morning between residents of the village of Beit Ummar to the north of al-Khalil and groups of Jewish settlers supported by IOF soldiers, resulting in the injury of a number of Palestinians.
The clashes took place after a provocative tour by the Jewish settlers of the Mantara neighbourhood to the north of the village, during which they tried to attack a number of Palestinian homes in the northern part of the village near the "Gush Atsion" settlement.
Local sources in the village said that dozens of settlers from the settlements of Etsion and Bei Ein raided the northern part of the village protected by IOF troops and provoked the villagers prompting them to throw stones and empty bottles at the invaders to which the IOF responded by firing rubber-coated bullets, live bullets and teargas canisters resulting in many cases of breathing difficulty, the injured were taken to hospital.
Spokesman for the popular committee against the wall in Beit Ummar, Muhammad Awad, said that dozens of settlers provoked the local population when they toured the northern part of the village. He added that settlers came close to homes in the Manthara neighbourhood, near the Etsion settlement resulting in clashes between the local residents on the one hand and the settlers and IOF troops on the other.
Awad also said that settlers, who were armed, carried maps of the area and cameras which automatically prompts Palestinians to worry about planned expansions of settlements which threatens what is left of their land and threatens more home demolitions.
19 jan 2012
Israeli forces demolish illegal settler outpost
Israeli military forces evicted settlers from an outpost early Thursday leading to clashes between residents and the army, Israeli media reported.
Hundreds of security force personnel arrived at the Mitzpeh Yeriho settlement east of Jerusalem early Thursday, Haaretz quoted army radio reports as saying.
Six houses were demolished and three Israeli police officers wounded as violent clashes broke out, the Israeli daily said.
Last week, Israeli forces dismantled the illegal settler outpost of Mitzpe Avichai, near Hebron.
A few days earlier, Israeli forces demolished four trailers at the illegal settlement outpost of Givat Gal Yoseph in the northern West Bank. The outpost is near the government-sanctioned Shilo settlement, which lies on the main passageway between Ramallah and Nablus.
A Salfit mosque was vandalized by settlers in a "price tag" revenge attack for the evacuation of Givat Gal Yoseph outpost. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that vandals painted "price tag" and "Gal Arye Yoseph" on the mosque walls.
The term "price tag" is used by Jewish settlers to describe a policy of attacking Palestinians and their property in retaliation for perceived anti-settler actions by the Israeli government.
Settler attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians increased by more than 50 percent in 2011, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The international community regards all settlements built on occupied Palestinian land to be illegal, while the Israel government distinguishes between the more than 100 state-sponsored settlements and dozens of unauthorized outposts.
Nine Settlers Injured during Demolition of Two Settlements, Jericho
On Thursday, forces from the Israeli Army and Police demolished the Israeli arbitrary settlement outposts "Yisa Bracha" near Jericho, in which five families lived in wooden buildings.
The Israeli police said that the settlers claimed that the police treated them "violently", which led to the injury of nine settlers.
The police also said that one of the settlers refused to come down voluntarily from one of the buildings, and when the Police tried to drag him down the roof collapsed which caused injury to three policemen.
Three settlers were arrested on charges of assaulting police officers.
17 jan 2012
Jewish settlers assault Palestinian shepherd, Jerusalemite youth
Jewish settlers assaulted a Palestinian shepherd in the northern Jordan Valley area of Wadi Al-Malih and threatened other shepherds against bringing their sheep for grazing near the Maskiot settlement in that area.
The local council of Wadi Al-Malih and Bedouin tribes in the area said in a press release on Monday afternoon that the guard of that settlement beat up the shepherd and detained him and threatened any other shepherd passing near the settlement.
In another incident, Jewish settlers attacked a Jerusalemite youth with batons and sharp tools while at work in western Jerusalem on Sunday.
The victim Majdi Abu Ghazala, 21, said that eight settlers, one of them a woman, surrounded him outside the restaurant where he was working and attacked him after shouting “kill him”.
He said that he fled back into the restaurant and one of the workers there called the police as three of those settlers remained watching from a distance.
Abu Ghazala said that police questioned him after arriving at the scene and only searched one of the settlers, who were still standing nearby, and ordered them out of the place.
He said that fanatic Jews daily provoke and insult Palestinians using racist slurs, adding that the absence of deterrence encourages them to continue in their behavior.
The attack on Jerusalemites while passing or working in western Jerusalem has been on the rise over the past two years as one of those attacks led to the death of Husam Ruwaidi while others were hospitalized with broken limbs. Israeli police always close investigations into such incidents for “lack of evidence”.
16 jan 2012
Jewish extremists assault a youth from Jerusalem on Jaffa Street, West Jerusalem
At dawn on Sunday, 15 January, Jewish extremists assaulted Majdi Muhammad Abu Gazaleh, 21, using wooden sticks, sharp tools and iron sticks. Abu Gazaleh was at work on Jaffa Street in West Jerusalem when the incident occurred. Abu Gazaleh stated that the assault took place at 4:00 am while he was doing his work in a restaurant in Jaffa Street.
He said, “Some Jewish extremists started pointing at me but I paid them no attention. All of a sudden they surrounded me and they were holding stones, knives, iron hand tools and sticks- there were 7 men wearing kippas, and one woman.
Abu Gazaleh added “they circled me and one of them said ‘kill him, kill him.’ Then they started beating me with their sticks, but incredibly, I managed to escape from their hands into the restaurant, and when the boss saw what was happening, he called the police.
Three member of the group stayed on the other side of the street.” Abu Gazaleh continued, “The police arrived and made a quick interrogation with me and I pointed to the three people who were standing close to the restaurant as the ones who assaulted me.
The police immediately took down their identity numbers and searched one of them, then asked them to go away.”Abu Gazaleh continued, “We are exposed to daily harassment, provocation and derogatory language from the extremist Jews and what allows these practices to continue is the lack of legal procedures taken against them.”It is noteworthy that a wide range of assaults are taking place on a daily basis against youth who pass through the streets of Western Jerusalem, becoming almost common practice.
Local Human Rights centers have documented many cases of assault against youth from Jerusalem.
These cases included the martyr Husam Al Rwaidi, others who were injured and kept home for many days, and others who had traumas, broken bones and other injuries.Most of the time these incidents are registered against unknown assailants and the cases are mostly closed due to insufficient evidence.
Settlers construct buildings and use public land as dumps
Whether Settlers have construction permits or not, they continue with new construction as they are not held legally accountable and are not threatened with housing demolition. Moreover, settlers turn the Palestinians’ public buildings into dumps for their trash as is the case in Wadi Hilweh, Silwan.
A group of settlers living in Wadi Hilweh had a permit to repair one of their roofs however; they instead expanded their construction to reach 120 square meters . Settlers also got a permit for a 165 sq. m. addition, including a kitchen and a bathroom, to an existing building in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh.
At the same time, Palestinian residents of Silwan are completely prohibited from building.A Palestinian who owned a house that has been demolished stated that “the settlers manipulate the laws of occupation conspiring with the Jerusalem Municipality; hence Wadi Hilweh is considered a green area where construction is forbidden.
The Jerusalem Municipality issues construction permits to build additional kitchens and bathrooms on huge areas fit to build castles; on the other hand I am deprived of building one room on a 9 meter area.”
He added, “if I leave a rubbish sack in the street the Municipality employees will come accompanied with Israeli troops and hand me a ticket; isn’t this discrimination by itself?”
Israeli Parliamentarians Support ‘Price Tag’ Acts, Charges Lawmaker
Several members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, support violent acts by extremist Israelis involved in the “price tag” operations carried out by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, according to charges by an Israeli lawmaker published Monday.
Member of Knesset Zahava Gal-On, of the leftist Meretz party, Sunday asked the Knesset Ethics Committee to investigate ties between right-wing Knesset members and the extremist settlers, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.
She charged that the right wing lawmakers, including the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, openly praised acts of the settlers during a committee session attended by some of the extremist settlers, some of whom were later banned from entering the West Bank for their role in the price tag attacks and one was later arrested on suspicion of arson of a mosque in Israel.
She said a wanted extremist was arrested outside the Knesset when he was trying to enter the building at the invitation of a lawmaker from the right-wing National Union.
Gal-On even accused a lawmaker from the ruling Likud, who is also coalition chairman, of undermining Israeli army activities in the occupied territories by passing on information to settler leaders. The lawmaker had openly admitted to doing that and intends to continue doing it.
Several world governments, including the United States, had asked the Israeli government to pursue and prosecute members of the price tag organization involved in violent acts against Palestinian civilians and property in the West Bank.
Vandals torch PA intel officer's car
A Palestinian Authority intelligence officer says Israeli settlers burned his car early Monday in the occupied West Bank, in the latest in a string of similar attacks in recent months.
Mohammad Ghannam said the car was parked in front of his house in Dir Dibwan village, near Ramallah, when it was set on fire by Israeli extremists who later escaped the scene.
Ghannam, an officer in the PA Authority intelligence services, is the brother of Ramallah's governor.
The attack, which came a day after residents said settlers burned a car in Hebron, also followed an incident this week in which settlers targeted cars carrying a senior PA security official.
An officer in the northern West Bank was injured when his vehicle and another car were driving on the road between Ramallah and Tulkarem near Shilo settlement Wednesday, Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Hneihin said.
Hneihin told Ma'an that settlers fired on the vehicle and pelted cars with stones. Hneihin said he lodged an official complaint with Israeli liaison officials who arrived at the scene.
The security commander for the Tulkarem district said one of his entourage Suleiman Abed Rabbo was injured and taken to hospital.
The UN humanitarian affairs unit said Tuesday that five Palestinian were killed and 1,000 injured by settlers or security forces in incidents related to the settlements during the year.
Two children were among those killed, and nearly a fifth of all injuries were suffered by under-18s, UN OCHA said.
15 jan 2012
Jewish fanatics threaten to kill Tibi
Ahmed Al-Tibi, the Arab member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), has received death threats on his Facebook page, a statement by his office on Sunday said.
It added that a group of “fanatic fascists” wrote death threats and insults on the page run by his supporters.
Some of the threats “advised” Tibi to run away or else he would be killed and others said: “You will soon die”.
The statement said that the threats were made after Tibi’s remarks on the act of another Israeli MK member when she threw a glass of water at another Arab MK during a meeting for a parliamentary committee and in view of his stands in support of Arab rights in 1948 occupied Palestine.
Jewish settlers burn the car of Palestinian woman
Jewish settlers torched the car of a Palestinian woman in Tal Al-Rumaida suburb in downtown Al-Khalil on Sunday, local sources said.
They told the PIC that the Subaru car was parked near the home of its owner Hana’a Abu Haikal.
They noted that the woman is the constant target of harassment on the part of those settlers as they routinely attack her house, property, and family members.
The incident was the second of its kind in two weeks as the settlers had burnt a car near Kiryat Arba settlement to the east of Al-Khalil.
Jewish Settlers Set Fire to Palestinian Car for 5th Time in Hebron
Jewish settlers Sunday set fire to a Palestinian-owned car in Tel Rumeida area, in the Old City of Hebron in south of the West Bank, for the fifth time, according to the owner.
Hana’ Abu Haikal told WAFA that setters stoned her house and completely burnt her car for the fifth time, in an attempt to terrorize her to leave her residence for settlers.
Jewish settlers constantly target and assault Abu Haikal to force her out of her house in the Old City, and have previously offered her $24 million to move somewhere else.
14 jan 2012
Jewish settlers assault two young men and the soldiers arrest them
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested two Palestinian young men in Al-Khalil city after a group of Jewish settlers assaulted them on Friday.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers violently beat up the two youths before the soldiers came and took away the young men.
In another incident, Jewish settlers in Nablus threw stones at Palestinian cars and smashed the window shields of two vehicles while passing near Yitzhar settlement on their way to Hawara village.
Local sources said that the two cars are owned by Palestinians from Assira Qabalia village south of Nablus.
Two Palestinians attacked by settlers, then abducted by soldiers
A number of fundamentalist Israeli settlers attacked, on Friday, two Palestinian youths in Ash-Shuhada Street, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene and kidnapped the two Palestinians; while the settlers were not even questioned.
The Maan News Agency reported that the settlers violently attacked the two Palestinian youth while they were crossing the street, punched and kicked them repeatedly, and the soldiers “intervened” to kidnap the victims instead of the attackers.
The soldiers went on to handcuff the two Palestinians and took them to an undisclosed location.
Also on Friday, extremist settlers cut at least 100 olive trees that belong to Palestinians residents in the Central West Bank district of Salfit.
Fundamentalist settlers groups have recently stepped up their assaults against the Palestinians, their orchards and lands and their property, and even went on to burn and deface several mosques, and a church.
The settlers also defaced property that belongs to activists of the Israeli Peace Now Movement.
Fundamentalist settlers even attacked Israeli military and police vehicles. They blame the Palestinians and Israeli peace groups to the evacuation of some random settlement outposts that were dismantled by the army.
Settlers Cut More Than 100 Olive Trees Near Salfit
A number of fundamentalist Israeli settlers cut on Friday more than 100 Palestinian Olive trees, including some ancient Roman trees that belong to residents of Yasouf and Jam’een towns, near the central Went Bank district of Salfit.
Local sources reported that the settlers came from the Tapoah illegal settlement, and started cutting the trees that are located in Al-Mafqa’a area, near Yasouf.
The sources specifically blamed one settler who owns more than 100 sheep, as he repeatedly harassed the residents and is believed to be behind incitement that led to the attack.
The settlers are attacking Palestinian orchards and lands in that area in an attempt to force the Palestinians out, so that they can expand the settlement.
Earlier on Friday, settlers attacked and punched two Palestinian youth in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Soldiers, stationed at the area, kidnapped the two Palestinians; the settlers were not even detained.
13 jan 2012
PLO envoys to US say settler build increase 'alarming'
The PLO delegation to the US said on Thursday that Israel's increase in settlement construction during 2011 is "alarming", and urged the US administration to hold Israel to its international commitments.
Last week, a report by Israeli group Peace Now showed construction of illegal settler homes grew 20 percent during the year. The Palestinian Liberation Organization envoys said the rise was "political deception at its core."
Accelerating settlement expansion shows Israel's "peace rhetoric is nothing more than a thin veil to their true intentions with regards to establishing a viable, fully sovereign Palestinian state," the PLO delegation said in a statement.
"These alarming findings demonstrate that the Palestinian objections to resuming talks without a settlement freeze were genuine and well founded; they were not red herrings as pro-Israel apologists in the US claimed."
PLO officials have held two rounds of talks with Israeli representatives in Amman during January, but say they will not return to full negotiations until Israel halts building settlements on Palestinian lands.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian security officers
A group of Israeli settlers attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying Palestinian Authority security officers, including a senior official, in the northern West Bank on Wednesday.
The attack took place near Shilo settlement between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Tulkarem, just two days after Israeli troops removed an illegal settlement outpost outside Shilo.
When the outpost was removed on Monday, Palestinian officials warned the civilian population of the northern West Bank to take extra precautions on the road that passes near the Israeli settlement of Shilo, in case there were any revenge attacks.
Wednesday’s incident appears to be just such a ‘revenge attack’, according to Palestinian officials. During the attack, settlers hiding out near the road began pelting the vehicles with rocks and then shooting live ammunition, injuring one Palestinian security officer, identified as Suleiman Abed Rabbo.
Incidents of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have increased significantly over the last two weeks, and have included mosque burnings, attacks on churches, shooting at Palestinians, the attempted takeover on an Israeli military base and many acts of vandalism of Palestinian buildings and vehicles.
The senior Palestinian security officer for the Tulkarem district, who was part of the convoy that was attacked by settlers, said that he filed a complaint with the Israeli military officers charged with overseeing the area.
Army Evacuates A Settlement Outpost in Hebron
The Israeli army has evacuated the unauthorized settlement outpost of Avichay near “Kiryat Arba” settlement in the eastern part of the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian news agency, Ma’an reported on Thursday.
According to Ha’aretz Israeli paper, on Thursday at dawn, the army evacuated the settlement outpost established in 2007. The outpost bears the name of Avichay Levy, an Israeli who was killed during a shooting in 2007.
The Israeli army has demolished this settlement outpost several times since its establishment, and the Israeli settlers have always rebuild it again.
The paper added that the soldiers have demolished ten buildings in the outpost and evacuated nine settler families.
This is the third settlement outpost that has been demolished by the army since the beginning of this week.
The reason behind the demolition is that these settlement outposts are not authorized. The Israeli courts have not given permissions for the settlers to build them.
OCHA says 'Legalizing' Settlement Outposts Can Provoke Violence
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) strongly criticized Friday Israeli attempt to give legal status to settlement outposts built in the West Bank without government authorization saying this move may provoke violence.
It said in its Protection of Civilians weekly report that many such outposts are located on private Palestinian land “forcibly taken over” by Israeli settlers.
“While the recent dismantlement of structures in settlement outposts is welcome, there are concerns over new initiatives aimed at ‘legalizing’ these settlement outposts under Israeli law that are being currently promoted, and partially implemented, both by the Israeli government and at the Knesset,” it said.
“These attempts to ‘legalize’ outposts reinforce an atmosphere of impunity and are likely to encourage further violence and encroachment on Palestinian land,” said OCHA.
It said in the report that Israeli forces and settlers injured 17 Palestinians throughout the West Bank during the past week.
Eight of the Palestinians sustained injuries in clashes with Israeli forces during raids on the village of Azzun, in the Qalqiliya area, and Madama in the Nablus region.
Another four were injured in clashes during a weekly demonstration against the closure of the main entrance to Kafr Qaddum village, also near Qalqiliya.
Israeli settlers physically assaulted and injured two Palestinians in Hebron and stoned and injured another man near Shilo settlement in the Ramallah region, said the report.
Settlers also vandalized 40 olive trees belonging to Palestinians near Kfar Tappuah settlement; stoned or set on fire eight Palestinian vehicles in the Salfit, Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron governorates; and wrote graffiti on the walls of a mosque in Deir Istiya, Salfit area.
“These incidents took place in the context of the ‘price tag’ strategy, after the Israeli authorities demolished 10 structures in an outpost near Kiryat Arba’ Israeli settlement on 11 January,” said OCHA.
The international humanitarian organization said the Israeli authorities had also demolished 12 Palestinian-owned structures, nine of which were related to a source of livelihood for Palestinian families, due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits.
Clashes between Palestinians and settlers in Beit Ummar
Fierce clashes took place on Friday morning between residents of the village of Beit Ummar to the north of al-Khalil and groups of Jewish settlers supported by IOF soldiers, resulting in the injury of a number of Palestinians.
The clashes took place after a provocative tour by the Jewish settlers of the Mantara neighbourhood to the north of the village, during which they tried to attack a number of Palestinian homes in the northern part of the village near the "Gush Atsion" settlement.
Local sources in the village said that dozens of settlers from the settlements of Etsion and Bei Ein raided the northern part of the village protected by IOF troops and provoked the villagers prompting them to throw stones and empty bottles at the invaders to which the IOF responded by firing rubber-coated bullets, live bullets and teargas canisters resulting in many cases of breathing difficulty, the injured were taken to hospital.
Spokesman for the popular committee against the wall in Beit Ummar, Muhammad Awad, said that dozens of settlers provoked the local population when they toured the northern part of the village. He added that settlers came close to homes in the Manthara neighbourhood, near the Etsion settlement resulting in clashes between the local residents on the one hand and the settlers and IOF troops on the other.
Awad also said that settlers, who were armed, carried maps of the area and cameras which automatically prompts Palestinians to worry about planned expansions of settlements which threatens what is left of their land and threatens more home demolitions.
19 jan 2012
Israeli forces demolish illegal settler outpost
Israeli military forces evicted settlers from an outpost early Thursday leading to clashes between residents and the army, Israeli media reported.
Hundreds of security force personnel arrived at the Mitzpeh Yeriho settlement east of Jerusalem early Thursday, Haaretz quoted army radio reports as saying.
Six houses were demolished and three Israeli police officers wounded as violent clashes broke out, the Israeli daily said.
Last week, Israeli forces dismantled the illegal settler outpost of Mitzpe Avichai, near Hebron.
A few days earlier, Israeli forces demolished four trailers at the illegal settlement outpost of Givat Gal Yoseph in the northern West Bank. The outpost is near the government-sanctioned Shilo settlement, which lies on the main passageway between Ramallah and Nablus.
A Salfit mosque was vandalized by settlers in a "price tag" revenge attack for the evacuation of Givat Gal Yoseph outpost. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that vandals painted "price tag" and "Gal Arye Yoseph" on the mosque walls.
The term "price tag" is used by Jewish settlers to describe a policy of attacking Palestinians and their property in retaliation for perceived anti-settler actions by the Israeli government.
Settler attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians increased by more than 50 percent in 2011, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The international community regards all settlements built on occupied Palestinian land to be illegal, while the Israel government distinguishes between the more than 100 state-sponsored settlements and dozens of unauthorized outposts.
Nine Settlers Injured during Demolition of Two Settlements, Jericho
On Thursday, forces from the Israeli Army and Police demolished the Israeli arbitrary settlement outposts "Yisa Bracha" near Jericho, in which five families lived in wooden buildings.
The Israeli police said that the settlers claimed that the police treated them "violently", which led to the injury of nine settlers.
The police also said that one of the settlers refused to come down voluntarily from one of the buildings, and when the Police tried to drag him down the roof collapsed which caused injury to three policemen.
Three settlers were arrested on charges of assaulting police officers.
17 jan 2012
Jewish settlers assault Palestinian shepherd, Jerusalemite youth
Jewish settlers assaulted a Palestinian shepherd in the northern Jordan Valley area of Wadi Al-Malih and threatened other shepherds against bringing their sheep for grazing near the Maskiot settlement in that area.
The local council of Wadi Al-Malih and Bedouin tribes in the area said in a press release on Monday afternoon that the guard of that settlement beat up the shepherd and detained him and threatened any other shepherd passing near the settlement.
In another incident, Jewish settlers attacked a Jerusalemite youth with batons and sharp tools while at work in western Jerusalem on Sunday.
The victim Majdi Abu Ghazala, 21, said that eight settlers, one of them a woman, surrounded him outside the restaurant where he was working and attacked him after shouting “kill him”.
He said that he fled back into the restaurant and one of the workers there called the police as three of those settlers remained watching from a distance.
Abu Ghazala said that police questioned him after arriving at the scene and only searched one of the settlers, who were still standing nearby, and ordered them out of the place.
He said that fanatic Jews daily provoke and insult Palestinians using racist slurs, adding that the absence of deterrence encourages them to continue in their behavior.
The attack on Jerusalemites while passing or working in western Jerusalem has been on the rise over the past two years as one of those attacks led to the death of Husam Ruwaidi while others were hospitalized with broken limbs. Israeli police always close investigations into such incidents for “lack of evidence”.
16 jan 2012
Jewish extremists assault a youth from Jerusalem on Jaffa Street, West Jerusalem
At dawn on Sunday, 15 January, Jewish extremists assaulted Majdi Muhammad Abu Gazaleh, 21, using wooden sticks, sharp tools and iron sticks. Abu Gazaleh was at work on Jaffa Street in West Jerusalem when the incident occurred. Abu Gazaleh stated that the assault took place at 4:00 am while he was doing his work in a restaurant in Jaffa Street.
He said, “Some Jewish extremists started pointing at me but I paid them no attention. All of a sudden they surrounded me and they were holding stones, knives, iron hand tools and sticks- there were 7 men wearing kippas, and one woman.
Abu Gazaleh added “they circled me and one of them said ‘kill him, kill him.’ Then they started beating me with their sticks, but incredibly, I managed to escape from their hands into the restaurant, and when the boss saw what was happening, he called the police.
Three member of the group stayed on the other side of the street.” Abu Gazaleh continued, “The police arrived and made a quick interrogation with me and I pointed to the three people who were standing close to the restaurant as the ones who assaulted me.
The police immediately took down their identity numbers and searched one of them, then asked them to go away.”Abu Gazaleh continued, “We are exposed to daily harassment, provocation and derogatory language from the extremist Jews and what allows these practices to continue is the lack of legal procedures taken against them.”It is noteworthy that a wide range of assaults are taking place on a daily basis against youth who pass through the streets of Western Jerusalem, becoming almost common practice.
Local Human Rights centers have documented many cases of assault against youth from Jerusalem.
These cases included the martyr Husam Al Rwaidi, others who were injured and kept home for many days, and others who had traumas, broken bones and other injuries.Most of the time these incidents are registered against unknown assailants and the cases are mostly closed due to insufficient evidence.
Settlers construct buildings and use public land as dumps
Whether Settlers have construction permits or not, they continue with new construction as they are not held legally accountable and are not threatened with housing demolition. Moreover, settlers turn the Palestinians’ public buildings into dumps for their trash as is the case in Wadi Hilweh, Silwan.
A group of settlers living in Wadi Hilweh had a permit to repair one of their roofs however; they instead expanded their construction to reach 120 square meters . Settlers also got a permit for a 165 sq. m. addition, including a kitchen and a bathroom, to an existing building in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh.
At the same time, Palestinian residents of Silwan are completely prohibited from building.A Palestinian who owned a house that has been demolished stated that “the settlers manipulate the laws of occupation conspiring with the Jerusalem Municipality; hence Wadi Hilweh is considered a green area where construction is forbidden.
The Jerusalem Municipality issues construction permits to build additional kitchens and bathrooms on huge areas fit to build castles; on the other hand I am deprived of building one room on a 9 meter area.”
He added, “if I leave a rubbish sack in the street the Municipality employees will come accompanied with Israeli troops and hand me a ticket; isn’t this discrimination by itself?”
Israeli Parliamentarians Support ‘Price Tag’ Acts, Charges Lawmaker
Several members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, support violent acts by extremist Israelis involved in the “price tag” operations carried out by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, according to charges by an Israeli lawmaker published Monday.
Member of Knesset Zahava Gal-On, of the leftist Meretz party, Sunday asked the Knesset Ethics Committee to investigate ties between right-wing Knesset members and the extremist settlers, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.
She charged that the right wing lawmakers, including the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, openly praised acts of the settlers during a committee session attended by some of the extremist settlers, some of whom were later banned from entering the West Bank for their role in the price tag attacks and one was later arrested on suspicion of arson of a mosque in Israel.
She said a wanted extremist was arrested outside the Knesset when he was trying to enter the building at the invitation of a lawmaker from the right-wing National Union.
Gal-On even accused a lawmaker from the ruling Likud, who is also coalition chairman, of undermining Israeli army activities in the occupied territories by passing on information to settler leaders. The lawmaker had openly admitted to doing that and intends to continue doing it.
Several world governments, including the United States, had asked the Israeli government to pursue and prosecute members of the price tag organization involved in violent acts against Palestinian civilians and property in the West Bank.
Vandals torch PA intel officer's car
A Palestinian Authority intelligence officer says Israeli settlers burned his car early Monday in the occupied West Bank, in the latest in a string of similar attacks in recent months.
Mohammad Ghannam said the car was parked in front of his house in Dir Dibwan village, near Ramallah, when it was set on fire by Israeli extremists who later escaped the scene.
Ghannam, an officer in the PA Authority intelligence services, is the brother of Ramallah's governor.
The attack, which came a day after residents said settlers burned a car in Hebron, also followed an incident this week in which settlers targeted cars carrying a senior PA security official.
An officer in the northern West Bank was injured when his vehicle and another car were driving on the road between Ramallah and Tulkarem near Shilo settlement Wednesday, Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Hneihin said.
Hneihin told Ma'an that settlers fired on the vehicle and pelted cars with stones. Hneihin said he lodged an official complaint with Israeli liaison officials who arrived at the scene.
The security commander for the Tulkarem district said one of his entourage Suleiman Abed Rabbo was injured and taken to hospital.
The UN humanitarian affairs unit said Tuesday that five Palestinian were killed and 1,000 injured by settlers or security forces in incidents related to the settlements during the year.
Two children were among those killed, and nearly a fifth of all injuries were suffered by under-18s, UN OCHA said.
15 jan 2012
Jewish fanatics threaten to kill Tibi
Ahmed Al-Tibi, the Arab member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), has received death threats on his Facebook page, a statement by his office on Sunday said.
It added that a group of “fanatic fascists” wrote death threats and insults on the page run by his supporters.
Some of the threats “advised” Tibi to run away or else he would be killed and others said: “You will soon die”.
The statement said that the threats were made after Tibi’s remarks on the act of another Israeli MK member when she threw a glass of water at another Arab MK during a meeting for a parliamentary committee and in view of his stands in support of Arab rights in 1948 occupied Palestine.
Jewish settlers burn the car of Palestinian woman
Jewish settlers torched the car of a Palestinian woman in Tal Al-Rumaida suburb in downtown Al-Khalil on Sunday, local sources said.
They told the PIC that the Subaru car was parked near the home of its owner Hana’a Abu Haikal.
They noted that the woman is the constant target of harassment on the part of those settlers as they routinely attack her house, property, and family members.
The incident was the second of its kind in two weeks as the settlers had burnt a car near Kiryat Arba settlement to the east of Al-Khalil.
Jewish Settlers Set Fire to Palestinian Car for 5th Time in Hebron
Jewish settlers Sunday set fire to a Palestinian-owned car in Tel Rumeida area, in the Old City of Hebron in south of the West Bank, for the fifth time, according to the owner.
Hana’ Abu Haikal told WAFA that setters stoned her house and completely burnt her car for the fifth time, in an attempt to terrorize her to leave her residence for settlers.
Jewish settlers constantly target and assault Abu Haikal to force her out of her house in the Old City, and have previously offered her $24 million to move somewhere else.
14 jan 2012
Jewish settlers assault two young men and the soldiers arrest them
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested two Palestinian young men in Al-Khalil city after a group of Jewish settlers assaulted them on Friday.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers violently beat up the two youths before the soldiers came and took away the young men.
In another incident, Jewish settlers in Nablus threw stones at Palestinian cars and smashed the window shields of two vehicles while passing near Yitzhar settlement on their way to Hawara village.
Local sources said that the two cars are owned by Palestinians from Assira Qabalia village south of Nablus.
Two Palestinians attacked by settlers, then abducted by soldiers
A number of fundamentalist Israeli settlers attacked, on Friday, two Palestinian youths in Ash-Shuhada Street, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene and kidnapped the two Palestinians; while the settlers were not even questioned.
The Maan News Agency reported that the settlers violently attacked the two Palestinian youth while they were crossing the street, punched and kicked them repeatedly, and the soldiers “intervened” to kidnap the victims instead of the attackers.
The soldiers went on to handcuff the two Palestinians and took them to an undisclosed location.
Also on Friday, extremist settlers cut at least 100 olive trees that belong to Palestinians residents in the Central West Bank district of Salfit.
Fundamentalist settlers groups have recently stepped up their assaults against the Palestinians, their orchards and lands and their property, and even went on to burn and deface several mosques, and a church.
The settlers also defaced property that belongs to activists of the Israeli Peace Now Movement.
Fundamentalist settlers even attacked Israeli military and police vehicles. They blame the Palestinians and Israeli peace groups to the evacuation of some random settlement outposts that were dismantled by the army.
Settlers Cut More Than 100 Olive Trees Near Salfit
A number of fundamentalist Israeli settlers cut on Friday more than 100 Palestinian Olive trees, including some ancient Roman trees that belong to residents of Yasouf and Jam’een towns, near the central Went Bank district of Salfit.
Local sources reported that the settlers came from the Tapoah illegal settlement, and started cutting the trees that are located in Al-Mafqa’a area, near Yasouf.
The sources specifically blamed one settler who owns more than 100 sheep, as he repeatedly harassed the residents and is believed to be behind incitement that led to the attack.
The settlers are attacking Palestinian orchards and lands in that area in an attempt to force the Palestinians out, so that they can expand the settlement.
Earlier on Friday, settlers attacked and punched two Palestinian youth in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Soldiers, stationed at the area, kidnapped the two Palestinians; the settlers were not even detained.
13 jan 2012
PLO envoys to US say settler build increase 'alarming'
The PLO delegation to the US said on Thursday that Israel's increase in settlement construction during 2011 is "alarming", and urged the US administration to hold Israel to its international commitments.
Last week, a report by Israeli group Peace Now showed construction of illegal settler homes grew 20 percent during the year. The Palestinian Liberation Organization envoys said the rise was "political deception at its core."
Accelerating settlement expansion shows Israel's "peace rhetoric is nothing more than a thin veil to their true intentions with regards to establishing a viable, fully sovereign Palestinian state," the PLO delegation said in a statement.
"These alarming findings demonstrate that the Palestinian objections to resuming talks without a settlement freeze were genuine and well founded; they were not red herrings as pro-Israel apologists in the US claimed."
PLO officials have held two rounds of talks with Israeli representatives in Amman during January, but say they will not return to full negotiations until Israel halts building settlements on Palestinian lands.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian security officers
A group of Israeli settlers attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying Palestinian Authority security officers, including a senior official, in the northern West Bank on Wednesday.
The attack took place near Shilo settlement between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Tulkarem, just two days after Israeli troops removed an illegal settlement outpost outside Shilo.
When the outpost was removed on Monday, Palestinian officials warned the civilian population of the northern West Bank to take extra precautions on the road that passes near the Israeli settlement of Shilo, in case there were any revenge attacks.
Wednesday’s incident appears to be just such a ‘revenge attack’, according to Palestinian officials. During the attack, settlers hiding out near the road began pelting the vehicles with rocks and then shooting live ammunition, injuring one Palestinian security officer, identified as Suleiman Abed Rabbo.
Incidents of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have increased significantly over the last two weeks, and have included mosque burnings, attacks on churches, shooting at Palestinians, the attempted takeover on an Israeli military base and many acts of vandalism of Palestinian buildings and vehicles.
The senior Palestinian security officer for the Tulkarem district, who was part of the convoy that was attacked by settlers, said that he filed a complaint with the Israeli military officers charged with overseeing the area.
Army Evacuates A Settlement Outpost in Hebron
The Israeli army has evacuated the unauthorized settlement outpost of Avichay near “Kiryat Arba” settlement in the eastern part of the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian news agency, Ma’an reported on Thursday.
According to Ha’aretz Israeli paper, on Thursday at dawn, the army evacuated the settlement outpost established in 2007. The outpost bears the name of Avichay Levy, an Israeli who was killed during a shooting in 2007.
The Israeli army has demolished this settlement outpost several times since its establishment, and the Israeli settlers have always rebuild it again.
The paper added that the soldiers have demolished ten buildings in the outpost and evacuated nine settler families.
This is the third settlement outpost that has been demolished by the army since the beginning of this week.
The reason behind the demolition is that these settlement outposts are not authorized. The Israeli courts have not given permissions for the settlers to build them.
