HISTORY OF ISRAEL

Israeli bulldozers destroy EU-funded shelters in East Jerusalem

Israeli authorities regularly demolish structures inhabited by the Bedouin in the West Bank, and have tried to move communities into housing planned by the state (MEE/Rich Wiles) 

Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished EU-funded shelters in occupied East Jerusalem, the European Union said, denouncing the move.

"We condemn today's demolition of temporary shelters funded by the European Union ... as part of its response to the needs of the affected communities," an EU statement said.

EU funds have helped to pay for some 200 temporary buildings used as shelters in villages inhabited by Bedouin communities in the West Bank, just outside East Jerusalem.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

The structures demolished on Tuesday were small metal constructions put up on the outskirts of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Issawiya, an AFP correspondent said.

The area was empty of residents following the demolition by bulldozer.

The Jerusalem municipality said the process was initiated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. 

A spokeswoman for the authority told AFP the structures were in a national park within the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality, which had been informed of the violation and demolished the structures.

A spokesman for Regavim, a rightwing lobby group, said the move was unusual.

"This doesn't happen every day, and it certainly doesn't happen to EU buildings," the spokesman told AFP.

Israeli authorities regularly demolish structures inhabited by the Bedouin in the West Bank, and have tried to move communities into housing planned by the state.

Critics say Israel is deliberately displacing the Bedouin in order to build settlements in the area of the West Bank just outside East Jerusalem.

The effective annexation of a corridor running through the middle of the West Bank would make the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

Palestinian land levelled near Bethlehem

Meanwhile, Ma’an News Agency reported that Israeli forces levelled private Palestinian land near the village of Kisan southeast of Bethlehem.

The mayor of the village, Hussein Ghazal, told Ma’an that Israeli bulldozers razed 18 acres of land belonging to the Ubayyat family.

Khalid Qaddura, the director of Bethlehem's District Civil Liaison office, said that Israeli authorities had informed his office that they planned to establish a 150-acre industrial zone on Kisan’s land.

Large swathes of the village’s land have already been confiscated by Israel for the Maale Amos and Mizpe Shalem settlements, in addition to the illegal outpost of Eibi Hankhal, according to Ma’an.

Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements accross the occupied West Bank, despite such settlements being considered illegal under international law.

Source : http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-bulldozers-destroy-eu-funded-shelters-east-jerusalem-184605262

UN spokesman renews calls for end of Gaza siege

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric hailed the Egyptian decision to open the Rafah crossing earlier this week

A spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General has renewed calls for Egypt and Israel to lift the siege imposed on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

According to Anadolu, Stephane Dujarric told a press conference that there is a "need" to lift the siege on Gaza. "We consider the Egyptian decision two days ago to open the Rafah crossing from both sides and allow the entry of humanitarian aid a good gesture," he added, speaking before the authorities closed the border again.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, visited Gaza earlier this month and called on Egypt and Israel to change "their failed policies" regarding the territory, and to adopt a new strategy. However, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Badr Abdel Atti, criticised Serry's remarks and stressed Egypt's right to take "all necessary measure to protect and secure" its borders.

The Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing on Monday and Tuesday allowing hundreds of stranded travellers and humanitarian aid to enter the enclave. It has been largely closed since the coup against Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 and subsequent attacks on Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula, which have been blamed on Hamas. The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement denies any involvement in such attacks and points out repeatedly that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/17463-un-spokesman-renews-calls-for-end-of-gaza-siege

9,500 Palestinians still living in Gaza UN schools

Sakher al-Kafarneh in front of his destroyed home in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

 (Shadi Alqarra)

Sakher al-Kafarneh used to have 3,000 chickens, 35 sheep, 5 cows and a horse. That was before Israel attacked his farm in the summer of 2014.

“We have lost everything,” he said. “Only two cows are still alive.”

Ever since the attack al-Kafarneh and his family have been living in a school run byUNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. They make trips to their home in theBeit Hanoun area of Gaza so they can use the toilet. It remains intact, although their house was mostly destroyed.

Al-Kafarneh estimates that it would cost $50,000 to repair the damage inflicted on his home and farm. He desperately wants the house to be made habitable again “to restore even a bit of our dignity.”

“My wife, three children, my parents and my grandmother all live in one classroom of this school,” he said. “I cannot even describe how miserable our life is here.”

Almost 9,500 people in Gaza were taking shelter in UN facilities, according to data released last week. UNICEF, the UN children’s fund, has reported that the humanitarian situation is worse than it was before Israel began its attack.

The “coping skills” of women and children have been badly affected as a result, UNICEF has stated.

“Unacceptable”

Although international donors pledged $5.4 billion towards rebuilding Gaza in October last year, just a fraction of that aid has materialized. Robert Serry, the Dutch diplomat who has been overseeing the UN’s reconstruction activities, said on Monday that the slow pace of aid delivery was “frankly unacceptable.”

Oxfam has warned that at current rates of delivery, it will take a century to meet Gaza’s needs.

More than 43,500 families have been affected by the destruction of homes.

The family of Um Ahmad are among them. Before the attack, this mother of seven enjoyed spending “good times out in the sun” on the roof of the family home.

After that home was leveled to the ground, she took refuge with her sister-in-law inKhan Younis, a city in southern Gaza. She and her husband, Khaled Redwan (also known as Abu Ahmad), sleep beside the sofa in the living room. Ten people are taking shelter in that home, which has only one bathroom.

Ramez Qanou has an apartment in a four-story building in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in Gaza City where Israel carried out a massacre in July.

Qanou is an officer with the local police in Gaza. He has not been paid his salary for approximately eighteen months.

After borrowing some money recently, he is trying to repair his severely damaged apartment using old bricks. With building materials in short supply, he had no choice other than to buy a bag of cement on the black market for almost $30.

Like many others in Gaza, he needs to move back into his old home as a matter of urgency. “I can no longer afford the rent for another home,” he said. “What will I do?”

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

Source : http://electronicintifada.net/content/9500-palestinians-still-living-gaza-un-schools/14328

Veteran US journalist slams Israeli propaganda

Veteran US journalist and former CNN anchor Jim Clancy has spoken out against the Israeli media less than two months after stepping down from the news network.

Veteran US journalist and former CNN anchor Jim Clancy has spoken out against the Israeli media less than two months after stepping down from the news network following his anti-Israeli tweets.

Clancy told Lebanese journalists in Beirut on Friday that the Israeli media is particularly well-funded and is acting in an organized manner in their propaganda campaign, according to The Daily Star.

The veteran journalist noted, however, that the Israeli lobby’s propaganda efforts have failed because an increasing number of young people on university campuses across the US now support the Palestinian cause.

“Hasbara [propaganda] funding has increased for the Israeli lobby, but its propaganda efforts have failed. I mean the number of young people on campuses who now support the Palestinian cause has risen,” he told the audience.

Clancy resigned in January following angry exchanges on Twitter with pro-Israeli commentators.

He quit his job after he appeared to suggest that the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris were provoked by the magazine’s pro-Israel stance.

The former anchor noted Friday that he did not regret making the anti-Israeli comments because he “had enough.”

“I don’t have to put up with this... and I’m not going to. I’d had enough,” he said. 

“In my case I’d rather be Twitter-fried for telling the truth than held out for lying, saying I was somewhere I wasn't or claiming I saw people murdered who weren’t,” Clancy told The Daily Star.

Some who argued with him on Twitter have worked for the Israeli regime and pro-Israel lobby groups like AIPAC.

Clancy has been critical of the Israeli occupation and its treatment of Palestinians.

AHT/HRJ

UNICEF: Israel violates international law in treatment of Palestinian children

In its annual report entitled "Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations", UNICEF has said that Israeli treatment of Palestinian children is "in violation of international law".

"Since March 2013, UNICEF has been engaging in a dialogue with the Israeli authorities on children's rights while in military detention and on specific actions that can be undertaken to improve the protection of these children," the report states.

UNICEF said it met with several senior Israeli officials and related departments in the Israeli ministries to procure information about the treatment of child detainees.

It said: "The dialogue focuses on what a child experiences when arrested and detained for alleged security offences in the West Bank."

According to the report, UNICEF's Working Group on Grave Violations against Children found that children had often been subjected to multiple violations throughout the arrest, transfer, interrogation and detention phases.

The report found that 162 children reported being blindfolded during transfer from the place of arrest to the police station; 189 children reported being painfully hand-tied upon arrest; and 171 children reported being subjected to physical violence during arrest, interrogation and/or detention.

The Working Group also found that 144 children reported being subjected to verbal abuse and intimidation during arrest, interrogation and/or detention; while 89 children reported being transferred from the place of arrest to the police station on the floor of the vehicle.

In addition, it said that 163 children reported not being adequately notified of their legal rights, in particular the right to counsel and the right to remain silent. A further 148 children reported being strip-searched at the police station and 76 children reported being strip-searched upon arrival and transfer to Israeli Prison Services' detention facilities.

The report concluded that the "[i]ll-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalised." Adding that, "[t]hese practices are in violation of international law that protects all children against ill-treatment when in contact with law enforcement, military and judicial institutions."

Source : https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/17274-unicef-israel-violates-international-law-in-treatment-of-palestinian-children

Israeli soldiers set dogs on Palestinian youth

A leaked video showing a 16-year old Palestinian being attacked by two canines, while being held by two IDF soldiers, was posted on Facebook on Monday by former Knesset member and far-rightist Michael Ben-Ari (who later removed it). It quickly spread around the web and made headlines in Israel.

Source : http://972mag.com/watch-soldiers-taunt-set-dogs-on-palestinian-teen/103625/

THE GREAT WALL OF ISRAEL

Israel settlers torch W. Jerusalem Christian school

Israeli settlers torched the rooms of a Christian school and wrote offensive words regarding Jesus Christ.

World Bulletin / News Desk

Israeli settlers on Thursday torched one of the rooms of a Christian religious school in West Jerusalem and inscribed phrases offending to Jesus Christ on its walls.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement that unidentified people had committed a crime of "national proportions."

She added that fire was set to the school room and a toilet used by priests and students of Christianity inside the school.

Samri noted that the attackers also wrote phrases offending to Jesus Christ on walls near the room.

"Firefighters had put off the fire, which caused material damage in the place," Samri said, noting that the fire had not caused any human casualties.

A member of the Revolutionary Council of the Palestinian Fatah movement, meanwhile, said Muslim and Christian places of worship were being increasingly targeted by Jews.

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fully responsible for these crimes," Dimitri Diliani said in a statement.

Diliani called on the United Nations to offer protection for Palestinians and their places of worship.

On Wednesday, a group of Jewish settlers set fire to a mosque near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem and sprayed racist phrases against Arabs and Muslims on its walls, according to a Palestinian official.

Several attacks, called the "price tag," by Jewish settlers targeting Muslim houses of worship have recently been reported in areas across the self-proclaimed Jewish state and the occupied West Bank.

Source : http://www.worldbulletin.net/palestine/155757/israel-settlers-torch-w-jerusalem-christian-school