UN: Israeli settlement "not in line with international law"

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 12:46

Dujarric said that Mr. Ban received a letter from the Palestinian Authority asking the Security Council to hold a meeting on the Israeli settlements

Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said on Tuesday that Israeli settlement activity is against international law.

Replying to a question during a press conference in New York, Dujarric said that Mr. Ban received a letter from the Palestinian Authority asking the Security Council to hold a meeting on the Israeli settlements. He said that "they are waiting to hear from the Presidency of the Council."

The Secretary General's position on settlements, he said, are that they "are against international law" and "do not serve the peace process."

"The Secretary-General has been very clear in his public statements, in his discussions with the Israeli leadership... [and] with senior Israeli officials here on his position on the settlements... [They are] not helpful to the peace process and was not in line with international law."

According to Anadolu news agency, the Security Council is to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue of Israeli settlement building in the Occupied Palestinians Territories.

On Monday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a directive to start building 1,060 settlement units in two illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

The previous night, Israeli TV Channel Two revealed an agreement between Netanyahu and the Israeli Economic Minister Naftali Bennett that included the approval of a new settlement project in the West Bank.

Replying to criticism, Netanyahu said: "I heard a claim that our construction in the Jewish settlements of Jerusalem is pushing peace away, it is criticism that is pushing peace away."

He continued: "We will continue building in Jerusalem, our eternal capital. We have built in Jerusalem, we are building in Jerusalem and will continue building in Jerusalem."

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/14942-un-israeli-settlement-qnot-in-line-with-international-lawq

Israeli Military Detention - No Way to Treat a Child

HE STAGES OF ISRAELI MILITARY DETENTION OF PALESTINIAN CHILD PRISONERS
The following account of treatment of Palestinian children is based on aUNICEF report, which drew its evidence from a database of more than 400 cases of child detention and ill treatment.	1) ARREST.  Palestinian children first encounter the military detention system when they are arrested.  It often happens at home, in the middle of the night.  Soldiers force the child to come with them.  Often neither the child nor the parents know where he is going or when he will return.
2) TRANSFER. Arrested children are blindfolded and taken to an interrogation center, a journey that can take from an hour to a whole day.  In some cases, they endure verbal or physical abuse and have no food, water, or access to toilets.	3) INTERROGATION. Children have no lawyers or family members present during interrogation.  In order to force them to confess, children are subject to physical violence and threatened with death and sexual assault.  Not surprisingly, most children confess.  Some are put in solitary confinement until their court hearing.
4) HEARING. Children shuffle into a military courtroom wearing prison uniforms and shackled with iron leg chains.  Usually the main evidence against a child is a confession made under duress.  Bail is usually denied.  The military judge can extend a child’s pretrial detention up to 188 days.	5) SENTENCE. With so much stacked against them, almost all children plead guilty in hopes of reducing the length of their pre-trial detention.  Imprisoned children are allowed one 45-minute visit from family members every two weeks.  However, those who go to prison are often sent to prisons inside Israel, making it difficult toimpossible for Palestinian families to travel to Israel to visit an incarcerated child.

Children suffer emotionally and physically from the military detention system.  They are torn from their families and communities and subjected to harsh treatment with no one to defend them.

Source: 

Two journalists hit by Israeli rubber bullets while covering protest (VIDEO)

28th October | Operation Dove | Um Al Kheir, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday, Israeli forces demolished a total of seven structures in the Bedouin village of Um al Kheir. The structures demolished are, three houses made of concrete, a caravan donated by the United Nations (United Nations Human Rights Response Fund with the support of Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom) to be used as a home, a tinplated house, a tinplated kitchen, and a traditional oven.

“The impact was so strong that it made me fall to the ground,” Mohammed said. “The policeman aimed straight at us ... even though we were clearly a group of media people and there were no protesters at all around us.”

Both journalists reported minor injuries and Simeonov’s camera was also damaged.

AP said it would lodge a protest with the Israeli government. John Daniszewski, AP’s senior managing editor for international news, said the incident showed “outrageous disregard for the safety of journalists” lawfully doing their jobs.

Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said it was not immediately clear why the border patrol policeman had opened fire on the journalists. He added the police “dispersed hundreds of rioters,” some of whom threw firebombs and stones at the Israeli forces.

Source: http://rt.com/news/199955-israel-journalists-rubber-bullets/

Palestinian journalist and human rights activist was arrested and physically assaulted by Israeli Occupation Forces

In "Israel", if you are Palestinian, you may be arrested, assaulted, humiliated and tortured by MISTAKE... You know... It happens!

Ahmad Sub Laban, a Palestinian journalist and human rights activist from Jerusalem, was arrested and physically assaulted by Israeli Occupation Forces last Friday 24th of October. Ahmad, 35 years old, father to two children and resident of the Old City of Jerusalem left his house on Friday night going to the nearby grocery to buy milk and document the clashes taking place in the Old City as he is the field researcher for a human rights NGO.

Ahmad said: “I saw a boy running from three soldiers that were chasing him. They grabbed the boy and started to beat him. I wanted to take pictures but I feared they will attack me too. I decided to go back home, however I know I shouldn’t run away but stand in my place so the soldiers will understand I am not part of the clashes taking place. Nevertheless, three soldiers grabbed me and accused me of throwing stones. I tried to explain that I am a journalist but they started beating me up. One of them grabbed my neck and choked me. They then took me to the police station. With me were two teenagers aged 17 and 20. They kept beating us all the way to the police station including beating us with the butts of their M-16 rifles.”

He continue: “In the police station, they sat me on a chair and started to beat me again. They asked me: ‘who threw stones?’ I tried to explain to them that I work with Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights NGO, but they continued to beat me. They were four border control police and one policeman who started laughing. Ten minutes later, another policeman arrived and asked them to take us outside where they continued to beat us. I decided to shut up as I realized nothing I say will help and they will beat me even more if I say anything. The worst part is that we didn’t have the right to say a single word, because if you speak, you would be beaten. You feel like a child.”

“An hour later, an officer came in and I hear that he had an argument with the policemen who arrested us. He told them that we did nothing. Nevertheless, an hour and a half later we were taken to Al-Kishleh Police Station. We were detained there while being handcuffed. The 17 year old boy was kicked between his legs and he had to go to the toilet several times, maybe around 15 times. At 5.30 Am, an investigator went in and ordered the policemen to take the handcuffs off my hands. He then told me: ‘Listen, we are sorry, we arrested you by mistake!’”
The most painful part was when my two year old son asked me: “Dad, did the Jews arrest you?” He had heard me shouting downstairs from the window when they arrested me and see the blood. I try to raise my children away from this conflict, but every time the practices of the Israeli authorities puts them in the middle of it.”
Israeli police later released a statement that three men were arrested and were released later after checking the security cameras which proved that they were not involved in throwing stones. The police did not comment on the aggression and assaults on those who were arrested.

Source : http://blogs.haaretz.co.il/nirhasson/

Related :
http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/2014/10/soldiers-kidnap-palestinian-researcher.html

See More at :

http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/2014/10/israeli-soldiers-blindfold-and-detain.html\

http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/2014/08/gaza-massacre-2014.html

http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/

1,060 new settlement homes announced as anger grows over al-Aqsa

Plans for 1,060 new settlement units in Jerusalem were approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning.

The settlement expansion will see 400 new houses added to the Har Homa block north of Bethlehem, and 660 to the northern East Jerusalem block of Ramat Shlomo, which already houses some 20,000 Israeli settlers.

Read more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/west-bank-1192674398…

(Photo shows the Palestinian area of Jebal Abu Ghneim in 1997
and a picture taken in 2003, showing its transformation into the illegal settlement of Har Homa. Photo from:http://spiritofresilience.blogspot.com/).

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Source  : https://www.facebook.com/ismpalestine?fref=nf

(International Solidarity Movement)

900 Palestinians Detained in East Jerusalem

Monday October 27, 2014 21:59 

Israel has detained 900 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and pressed charges against 300 of them since the July 2 murder of East Jerusalem teen Mohammad Abu Khdeir, according to Israel's public security minister.

photo -- DCI-Palestine

10/27/14 -- The Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Israel's Minister of Public Security, Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beitenu), gave these figures to the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee Monday, according to the settler-affiliated news site Arutz 7. The powerful committee held a discussion about the security situation in Jerusalem, during which Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called for creation of a special police force for areas in which clashes are prevalent. Barkat claimed that “Residents of the Arab neighbourhoods ask that we bring the police”.

At the request of Aharonovich and others, Israel's State Attorney has issued directives to carry out arrests and toughen punishment for rock throwers, including possible fines for the parents of minors who throw rocks. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu further urged Monday that additional directives to substantially stiffen penalties for rock throwers be moved speedily forward. Such tactics were utilised – unsuccessfully – by Israel during the first Intifada.

Clashes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Silwan, Ras al Amud and Issawiya continued Monday, as Israeli police and border police used “riot dispersal means” against Palestinian protesters. Israel had arrested eight Palestinians throughout East Jerusalem early Monday, four of whom were minors.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent an urgent message to the US on Sunday, requesting its intervention against Israeli policies in Jerusalem, and in particular attempts to change the status quo in the al Aqsa mosque compound (Temple Mount).

Source : http://www.imemc.org/article/69536

Israeli army kills 14-year old Palestinian with U.S. citizenship

© Shadi Hattem
14-year old slain Palestinian youth, Orwa Hammad who is also a U.S. citizen, was killed by the Israeli army, October 24, 2014

A Palestinian teen with U.S. citizenship was killed today by the Israeli army at a demonstration in the West Bank town of Silwad, near Ramallah. Fourteen-year old Orwah Hammad was shot with a live bullet that entered his neck and exited through his head, according to Ramallah hospital staff. He died while being treated at Ramallah hospital around 6 p.m. this evening, Jerusalem time.

The killing comes eight days after Israeli soldiers killed a 13-year-old boy during a raid on a West Bank village.

Hammad’s father, Abdulwahhab Hammad, lives in Louisiana and was informed of his son’s killing via telephone. His mother, Ikhlas Hammad, is in Jordan visiting relatives, but is said to be traveling back to the West Bank this evening.

“The Israeli soldier shot directly at the child,” said mayor of Silwad Abu Salah. “His father wanted his children to live here, not in America,” he continued.

The slain youth’s remains will be held in the morgue of Ramallah hospital until Sunday, when his father is due to arrive. A funeral will be held the same day with a procession in Ramallah, and a burial in the family’s home village of Silwad.

Hammad was shot while taking part in a weekly Friday protest against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Witnesses said Hammad was stone throwing when he was struck.

“Orwah is the tenth Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces with live ammunition in the occupied West Bank in 2014,” said Brad Parker, attorney and international advocacy officer at Defense for Children International-Palestine. “Impunity is the norm for Israeli soldiers that commit violence against children as they consistently violate their own live-fire regulations and know that they will not be held accountable for their actions no matter what the result. There is no justice or accountability for child victims.”

Update: Here is the State Department statement from Jen Psaki today:  “Death of US minor in Silwad.”

The United States expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a U.S. citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad on October 24.  Officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem are in contact with the family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance. We call for a speedy and transparent investigation, and will remain closely engaged with the local authorities, who have the lead on this investigation.  We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/israeli-palestinian-citizenship#sthash.hBg25V5n.dpuf