[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Israel/Zionism See other Israel/Zionism Articles Title: Israeli High Court asks Palestinian farmers to drop case against settlers for stealing land Israeli High Court asks Palestinian farmers to drop case against settlers for stealing land Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing High Court asks Palestinians to drop land case against settlers Haaretz 23 Dec by Amira Hass — A High Court of Justice panel has asked farmers from the West Bank village of Yatta to withdraw a petition against settlers who allegedly seized their lands – despite the state’s admission that the Palestinians proved their legal attachment to the land. The State Prosecutor’s Office said the Palestinians should pursue the matter by civil legal action, and the High Court panel’s request that they withdraw the petition indicates that it agrees. This could signal a change in the High Court and State Prosecutor’s Office position of recent years, and it comes amid repeated, increasing incidents of settlers seizing control of Palestinian land … While admitting that the Palestinian petitioners had proved “substantial administrative” attachment to the lands, the state argued that the use of the land by the settlers hasn’t changed since the 1990s, and therefore decrees allowing army commanders to evacuate trespassers within five years of their takeover of the land should not be issued. The petitioners presented evidence that the land seizure did not occur as early as the 1990s, but Naor said she would not hear evidence regarding ownership, but only examine whether the IDF and Civil Administration should take administrative steps to evacuate the settlers. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.564854 Making the desert bloom with new Jewish settlements Haaretz 21 Dec by Zafrir Rinat — Recent right-wing complaints that the government is impotent when it comes to implementing plans to settle Jews in the Negev, supposedly out of fear of public criticism, are unfounded. Facts on the ground make it clear that the government is working tirelessly to make the desert bloom. Since the beginning of the last decade, the government has approved the establishment of more than 20 new communities in the Negev and another three communities in the Lachish region, which borders the northern part of the Negev. Some of the communities have already been established, among them Giv’ot Bar, north of Be’er Sheva, and Merhav Am, in the center of the Negev. In the region of Nitzana, the government approved the establishment of another three communities. North of Nitzana, it gave its seal of approval to dozens of ranches spread out over the area, which in practice are little spots for Jewish settlement … Jewish settlement in the Negev reached a new high about two weeks ago, when the National Planning and Building Council approved the establishment of the community of Sheizaf, near the offices of the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.564637 After Palestinian pressure | | NBC denies plans to shoot TV series in East Jerusalem Haaretz 23 Dec by Nir Hasson — NBC denies it ever intended to shoot ‘Dig’, co-written by Gideon Raff of Homeland fame, at City of David National Park — Palestinian pressure has caused American media and entertainment company NBCUniversal to announce that it will not shoot a new suspense series in the City of David National Park and Silwan. The series, “Dig,” will be produced by the Israel-based Keshet Media Group and co-written by Gideon Raff of Homeland fame. Some six weeks ago, Keshet and the municipality of Jerusalem announced that the series, which will deal with an FBI agent investigating the murder of a female archeologist, would be set in Jerusalem. The press release stated that “the project would be shot in the City of David and present the exciting history of the Old City.” The Israeli-American project is supported by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett. Following the announcement, PLO Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi called on NBC not to shoot the series in the City of David. “Such a production will legitimize the annexation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the authenticity and character of the occupied city,” Ashrawi told the Ma‘an Palestinian news agency. The City of David National Park is immensely popular with visitors, but its management by Elad, a group that encourages Jewish settlement in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, makes it highly controversial. Silwan residents claim that Elad is using the National Park archaeological excavations as a means of promoting Jewish settlement and eradicating the Arab and Islamic narratives from the history of the site. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.564855 Bethlehem Christians unable to celebrate Christmas as they fight for their existence BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 21 Dec – As Christians from all over the world get ready to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, Palestinian Christian residents of this holy city are busy fighting to protect their land and their homes from Israeli takeover. Since its occupation in 1967 by Israel, the landscape of the biblical city of Bethlehem and its area towns such as Beit Jala to west and Beit Sahour to the east, all Christian towns, has changed dramatically. Bethlehem is now surrounded by not only an 8-meter high concrete wall with barbed wire on top that separates it from its historical northern neighbor, Jerusalem, and most of its fertile agricultural land, but also by a series of Jewish only settlements that have suffocated the city and expropriated almost all its land … The Cremisan monastery to the northwest of Beit Jala found itself gradually losing most of its land to that wall, and so is the Salesian school and monastery, which is waiting for an Israeli court to decide if the wall is going to cut right through church land or not. Under the pretext of security, the court is expected to rule in favor of the wall. In addition to the 12 percent taken from the Bethlehem district to the segregation wall, almost 76 percent were expropriated over the years to build four major town-like settlements – Har Homa, Gilo, Har Gilo and Givate Hamatos, not mentioning the cluster of smaller settlements built on land taken from Bethlehem-area villages, including the Gush Eztion settlement block that is gradually growing to reach Jerusalem. As a result, what is left for Bethlehem today is a mere 13 percent of its original area, and even that much Israel is trying to reduce with checkpoints, army installations and major highways to facilitate movement of Jewish settlers to Jerusalem and maybe in the future to the Dead Sea. http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=23868 IOF notified the demolition of 3 houses in the Jordan Valley [and building in Ariel] TUBAS, SALFIT, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Sunday notified three Palestinian families living in the Jordan Valley to demolish their homes. Aref Daraghmeh, head of the local council of Wadi al-Maleh, said that the IOF informed the citizens that they must evacuate their homes in Khirbet al-Farsia within a week. He pointed out that the so-called Israeli organization teams conducted a survey of the area inhabited by shepherds and farmers in preparation for giving them notifications to evacuate their lands. While the occupation authorities are demolishing Palestinian houses, they allow settlers to build more housing units at the expense of Palestinian lands. Eyewitnesses in Salfit reported that settlers from the settlement of Ariel north of the city began building new apartments at the expense of Palestinian farmers’ lands. The witnesses said that huge Israeli bulldozers are preparing lands in Ariel settlement for the construction of multi-story buildings. For his part, researcher Khalid Ma’aly said that building operations are taking place in the area of Wade Abdul Rahman owned by Salfit farmers. link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/ Arabs leasing JNF-owned land face delays in registering homes Haaretz 23 Dec by Jack Khoury — Despite state assurances to the contrary, Arab citizens of Israel who buy apartments on land owned by the Jewish National Fund are still having a hard time registering their homes in the Land Registry (Tabu), Arab residents of Carmiel claim. Nizar Bakri and his brother Qassem both bought apartments in a Carmiel building three years ago and began the process of having the property registered in their names. To their chagrin, while their Jewish neighbors had no problem completing the process in a timely fashion, their apartments have yet to be registered. The Israel Lands Authority makes no bones about the reason. In a letter Bakri received from the ILA, the agency writes: “At issue is a minority lessee and the land on which the apartments are built belongs to the Jewish National Fund, and there is a need to implement a swap between the authorities. There has been a request to execute what was requested but it will take considerable time.” The source of the problem is that the fact that the JNF insists that its lands be sold only to Jews, since historically its lands were purchased with money from Jewish donors for the purpose of settling Jews in the Land of Israel. The issue of Arabs purchasing assets on JNF land, including in Carmiel, has come up before the High Court of Justice and is the subject of a petition filed nine years ago by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, that is still pending. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.564877 Restriction of movement Israel refuses entry to 5 Arab ministers for Christmas celebrations BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 22 Dec — Israel refused entry to five tourism ministers who planned to visit Palestine from various Arab states, a Palestinian Authority official said. Israel refused to issue entry permits to five ministers who were expected to start arriving on Monday in order to attend Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, PA Minister of Tourism Rula Maaya told Ma‘an. Among other events, Maaya said they were scheduled to attend the Christmas Eve midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus’ birth. She said Israel is attempting to damage Palestinian industries, especially the tourism sector, which saw drastic growth this year. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659244 Bethlehem eyes tourist boom after dark decade BETHLEHEM (AFP) 22 Dec — After a decade of unrest, Bethlehem has seen a surge in visits to Christ’s traditional birthplace, raising hopes of a tourism bonanza in the West Bank town despite Israel’s separation barrier. The Palestinian territories’ top tourist destination is a victim of the barrier which cuts off the town from nearby Jerusalem, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away … Palestinian tourism minister Rola Maayah sees the barrier as a key obstacle to encouraging visitors to the town. “Bethlehem, one of our main tourist attractions is circled by 27 settlements. As a result, we are surrounded by high walls, fences and menacing checkpoints which put tourists off,” Maayah said. “We could develop tourism, attract people from all over the world, but it’s not possible because of the Israeli occupation,” she added. The expansion of nearby Israeli settlements has deliberately helped to isolate the city, Palestinians say. But since a UNESCO decision in June 2012 to grant world heritage status to Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity — hailed as a “historic” diplomatic victory by the Palestinians — the town has been eyeing a tourist bonanza that could boost the local economy … Palestinian tourist guides have also complained they suffer because of the favorable treatment granted to their Israeli competitors. Some 150 Israelis are authorized to work as guides in Bethlehem, compared with 42 Palestinians permitted to work in Israel and east Jerusalem, the chamber of commerce said. “They take more than 80 percent of the market,” complained Mohammed Awadallah, a Palestinian guide. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659014 Israeli forces prevent students from reaching school near Qalqiliya QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 22 Dec — Israeli soldiers stationed near a Qalqiliya-area village prevented students from reaching school on Sunday morning, a local official said. Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoint at the entrance to ‘Azzun ‘Atma village in the northern West Bank prevented students from neighboring Beit Amin village from attending their school inside ‘Azzun ‘Atma, chairman of Beit Amin village council Taqi Omar told Ma‘an. He said that on Sunday morning students had left for school in ‘Azzun ‘Atma like on any other day, but Israeli soldiers stationed at the entrance to the village prevented the male students from passing, even as they allowed the female students to go. Omar added that they had informed the education directorate in Qalqiliya as well as the Palestinian liaison of the incident … Although ‘Azzun ‘Atma and Beit Amin are located directly next to each other, the Israeli settlement of Sha’are Tiqwa was built on a small hill between them, thus cutting the villages off from each other. ‘Azzun al-‘Atma is encircled by Israeli settlements and restricted zones, much of which are on land confiscated from local farmers. However, the school for Beit Amin students is located inside ‘Azzun ‘Atma, forcing local students to pass through the checkpoint in order to attend. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659052 IDF barred Israeli activists from West Bank Haaretz 22 Dec by Amira Hass – On commander’s orders, group that came to protect Palestinian farmers was turned back at border — Soldiers prevented activists from Ta’ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership from entering the West Bank on Saturday, by order of the regional commander. For 13 years members of Ta’ayush have been accompanying dozens of Palestinian shepherds and farmers on the southern West Bank every Saturday, to help protect them from Jewish settlers who regularly try to keep them from reaching their private lands … Some of the Ta’ayush members did manage to reach the southern Hebron Hills, but at five different Jewish communities where they planned to help nearby Palestinian villagers they were shown documents declaring the areas closed military areas and signed by Judea Brigade commander Col. Avi Balut. http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.564681 Violence / Raids / Clashes / Repression of protests / Illegal arrests Whilst peace talks are in progress, Israel kills 31 Palestinians and detains 500 MEMO 21 Dec — Member of Fatah Executive Committee Mohammad Shtayyeh has said that Israel has killed 31 Palestinians, arrested 500 and destroyed 208 Palestinian houses since July when the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks resumed. Speaking to diplomats and journalists in Bethlehem, Shtayyeh said: “The talks aimed at ending the occupation and setting up a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.” He added: “This is against what Israel wanted.” He said that the international community has agreed on the solution sought by the Palestinians. He accused Israel of jeopardising that solution and “considering talks a tactic before the international community in order to expand settlements.” link to www.middleeastmonitor.com/ Child killed after being struck by settler’s vehicle in Jerusalem IMEMC — [Sat evening, Dec 21] Palestinian medical sources have reported that a Palestinian child has died of severe injuries sustained after being rammed by an Israeli settler’s car, near Al-Eesawiyya town, north of occupied East Jerusalem. The sources said that the child, Amin Al-Faqeer, 13, lived in a Bedouin community in ‘Anata town, and was riding a donkey when the incident took place. Eyewitnesses said that the settler deliberately rammed the child, and fled the scene, Radio Bethlehem 2000 has reported. The child was initially moved to Hadassah Hospital, in Jerusalem, and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, but died of his wounds later on. His uncle, Khalil Sweilim, told Ma‘an News Agency that the family could not get any information about the incident, and were informed later, on Saturday evening, that the child died of his wounds. The family refused to perform an autopsy, and said that the body of Amin will be handed over to them on Sunday, for prayers and burial ceremonies. The uncle added that the child rode his donkey as he usually does when he was killed, and that his donkey was badly injured. http://www.imemc.org/article/66603 Murad Eshtewi, head of Popular Committee of Kafr Qaddum, has been arrested KAFR QADDUM, Occupied Palestine (ISM – Nablus Team) 21 Dec — Yesterday morning, Murad Eshtewi, the head of the Popular Committee of Kufr Qaddum and leader of the Friday demonstrations was arrested and is still being held by Israeli forces. At around 3:00 on Friday morning, Israeli soldiers entered the village of Kafr Qaddum, in Qalqilya district, arresting two citizens on the accusation of having taken part in the regular Friday demonstrations held in the village. The men were released the following morning without charges. The house of Murad Eshtewi, the head of the Popular Committee of Kafr Qaddum, was also raided during the night incursion and he was subjected to aggressive questioning. Later, at approximately 10:00 on Friday morning, two hours before the demonstration was due to begin, Mr Eshtewi was walking on the outskirts of the village and was ambushed and arrested by soldiers. He did not resist this arrest and yet Israeli forces were extremely aggressive in their use of both pepper spray and stun grenades. He has not yet been released. His attorney, Lymor Goldstein, stated that, “Contrary to the fundamental principles of due process we have not been presented with the accusations against Murad nor has he been interrogated since his arrest. “ In recent weeks there has been a steady escalation of night raids, increasingly violent repression of Friday demonstrations, flying checkpoints and seemingly arbitrary arrests. In the past month alone there have been more than twenty night raids on houses in the village. Last month a new army commander responsible for the area gave a verbal warning to villagers stating that, unless they suspend their Friday demonstrations, the military harassment outlined above would be increased. A typical night raid will involve up to around fifty soldiers surrounding and entering a particular house. Tear gas is often released and live ammunition may be fired into the air to intimidate residents. Israeli soldiers may break windows and doors in order to enter the houses. http://palsolidarity.org/2013/12/murad-eshtewi-head-of-the-popular-committee-of-kafr-qaddum-has-been-arrested/ Israeli forces detain 1, injure 4 Palestinians in clash near Jerusalem JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 21 Dec — Four Palestinians were injured and one was detained east of Jerusalem on Friday when violent clashes broke out between residents and Israeli forces, an official said. Hani Habiya, spokesman of the local popular committee, told Ma‘an that clashes broke out in the village of al-Eizariya between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. Locals threw stones and Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets, injuring four Palestinians, Habiya said. Israeli forces climbed to the roofs of Beit Anieh Church, al-Azar Tomb, and al-Eizariya mosque, and fired tear gas grenades directly toward Palestinians, Habiya said. Dozens suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation. He said the clashes started when Israeli soldiers tried to close a hole in the separation wall that activists had drilled two days before. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=658749 Israeli forces raid 4 West Bank cities overnight, 2 detained BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 22 Dec — Israeli forces raided four areas across the northern West Bank on Sunday morning, including the cities of Hebron, Nablus, and Ya‘bad as well as the village of ‘Araqa west of Jenin. Israeli forces on Sunday detained two Palestinians from Hebron after raiding their houses and causing extensive property damage, locals said. In Nablus, Palestinian security sources told Ma‘an that more than ten military vehicles raided the Balata refugee camp east of the city around 3 a.m., entering from all of the camp’s entrances. No arrests were reported. Palestinian security sources also told Ma‘an that dozens of Israeli forces had raided the village of Ya‘bad near Jenin. Sources also confirmed that special Israeli forces had raided the village of ‘Araqa south of Jenin Sunday morning with three vehicles. No arrests were reported there either. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659021 IOF arrests seven citizens in West Bank RAMALLAH (PIC) 22 Dec — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested at dawn Sunday seven citizens in different provinces of the West Bank, including the son of a martyr from the Qassam Brigades. The WALLA news website reported that the IOF arrested a citizen from the city of Bireh, and 4 others from al-Khalil [Hebron], claiming they were wanted. The soldiers claimed that they found during the arrests weapons and ammunition, according to the news website. The IOF also arrested two students at Palestine Polytechnic University, including the son of the martyr Saleh Talahmeh, after raiding their homes in Dura town near the city of al-Khalil. The detained students were transferred to an unknown destination. In Nablus to the north of the West Bank, two other young men from Balata refugee camp, east of the city, were arrested and taken to an unknown detention center. link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/ Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||