Palestinian unity deal signed in Egypt, but questions remain

Mondiweiss

by Kate on May 3, 2011

Palestinian factions sign unity deal in Cairo

CAIRO (AFP) 3 May -- Palestinian factions gathered in Cairo on Tuesday signed a reconciliation deal that will pave the way for elections within a year, an AFP correspondent said. Representatives of 13 factions, including President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and its rival Hamas, as well as independent political figures inked the deal following talks with Egyptian officials. A formal signing ceremony will be held on Wednesday, and will be attended by Hamas chief Khalid Mash‘al and President Mahmoud Abbas ... "We signed the deal despite several reservations. But we insisted on working for the higher national interest," said Walid Al-Awad, a politburo member of the leftist Palestine People's Party ... The deal largely maintains the status quo, leaving Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank ... Commenting on the nature of the new union, Fayyad said sides had already determined that violence should not be used as a means of struggle against Israel's occupation.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad pledge to honor truce with Israel under unity government

(AP) 3 May -- Hamas officials said Monday that the Islamist militant group would honor an unofficial truce with Israel after forming a new unity government with Palestinian rivals from the West Bank ... Officials also said that Islamic Jihad, which has fired barrages of rockets and mortar shells at Israel in recent years, had agreed to honor the truce as well ... Although Hamas has insisted it will not change its stance on recognizing Israel, security officials from the organization said on Tuesday that militants have agreed to hold their fire after the new government is formed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the cease-fire is not officially part of the deal.

Smaller Palestinian factions endorse reconciliation deal, prompting Israeli warning

CAIRO - Fifteen Palestinian factions, including militant Islamic groups, endorsed a reconciliation deal Tuesday meant to end a four-year rift between the two major Palestinian political movements, Hamas and Fatah. The declaration paved the way for the two groups to sign the agreement on Wednesday, then form a unity caretaker government to prepare for national elections next year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a last-minute appeal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel the impending unity deal, which he called a "hard blow to the peace process."

Text of the agreement between Fatah and Hamas

Pal. Monitor 3 May -- Translated by Al Mubadara, the Palestinian National Initiative, this document is currently in the process of being signed by all of Palestine’s factions and parties.

but...

PA rounds up 4 Hamas men in West Bank, summons dozens

WEST BANK, (PIC) 3 May -- Palestinian Authority security forces rounded up four Hamas men and summoned dozens for questioning including women as Fatah and Hamas politicians near the signing of a national reconciliation deal in Cairo. PA security chiefs have openly rejected the agreement between parties ruling Palestine and vowed to continue targeting Hamas in the West Bank, as it sees the group as a security threat to the Israelis.

In a related development, security agencies in Nablus have brought 19 men in Al-Juneid prison to a military tribunal where it was ruled that their trials would be postponed until June 12.

Abunimah: "Text" of Hamas-Fatah deal emerges and it doesn’t look good

Palestine Monitor, the website affiliated with the Al Mubadara movement of Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, has published what it says is the “Text Of The Agreement Between Fatah And Hamas” to be officially signed in Cairo this week. If this text is genuine – and while the source is trustworthy there is no way to verify that it is genuine – then it shows the questions I raised about the agreement when it was first announced last week are no closer to being answered.
And more news from Today in Palestine:

PM urges Abbas to cancel Hamas agreement

Ynet 3 May -- Netanyahu continues to press Palestinian president day before formal signing of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4064061,00.html

Netanyahu to lobby UK, France over Palestinian state

JERUSALEM (AFP) 3 May -- When Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu visits Britain and France this week, he will point to a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal as part of his fight to head off UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384449

Palestinian PM's future uncertain as Hamas and Fatah move toward unity

AP 3 May -- The ouster of internationally respected Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad could cost the Palestinians millions of dollars in aid; Hamas claims Fayyad is a tool of the West ... Both Fatah and Hamas don't want Fayyad as prime minister, said Hani Masri, a Palestinian independent who has been mediating between the factions. Nothing is impossible in politics, but so far Fayyad is not the preference of either side. .
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-pm-s-future-uncertain-as-hamas-and-fatah-move-toward-unity-1.359582

Palestinian government workers face pay cuts after Israel freezes tax money

Reuters 3 May -- Israel withholds transfer of $105 million in customs duties and other levies it collects on behalf of the PA, fearing the money would fall into the hands of Hamas; PM Fayyad says PA won't be able to pay wages unless Israel releases the funds ... But many believe the surprise agreement between President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction and Hamas Islamists in Gaza will be worth the price if it brings statehood closer.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-government-workers-face-pay-cuts-after-israel-freezes-tax-money-1.359595?localLinksEnabled=false

Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid / Settlers

IOA exiles Jerusalemite woman from Sheikh Jarrah zone for 5 days

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 3 May -- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) decided on Monday to exile a Jerusalemite woman called Maysoun Al-Ghawi from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for five days on allegation of assaulting Jewish settlers. The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) had detained Ghawi at Qalandiya checkpoint, north of occupied Jerusalem, as she was with her three-year old daughter and a relative on her way back home after a visit to a relative of hers in Kafr Akeb [Kafr ‘Aqab] town.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO

Settlers set fire to Huwwara prayer hall

NABLUS (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Ultra-orthodox Jewish Israeli settlers raided the northern west Bank town of Huwwara in the early hours of Tuesday morning and according to residents set fire a prayer hall in the local school ...

Locals reported the incident after hundreds of settlers entered the northern West Bank city of Nablus heading to Joseph's Tomb for prayer.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384221

Coordinated Joseph Tomb visit ends in riots, stoning

Ynet 3 May -- Under heavy IDF escort relatives of Itamar massacre victims Ben Yosef Livnat visit Joseph's Tomb in Nablus but infiltration of settler youths, refusal to leave tomb lead to riots
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4063729,00.html

Witnesses: Hebron settlers attack construction workers

HEBRON (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Dozens of Israeli settlers assaulted a group of Palestinian construction workers in Hebron's city center on Tuesday, residents said. Nayef Da'na told Ma‘an that settlers attacked him and other workers as they restored a home near Ash-Shuhuda street, an area long closed down due to settler violence and military patrols.
The owner of the home, Mufeed Ash-Sharabati, said the altercation began with insults being thrown by settlers at the workers, who responded in kind, and escalated into physical violence.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384376

IOA prevented call for prayers at Ibrahimi Mosque on 68 occasions in April

AL-KHALIL [Hebron], (PIC) 3 May -- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) banned the call for prayers at the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil city on 68 occasions during the past month of April. Director of Awqaf in the city Zeid Al-Jabari said in a statement on Monday that the step was made at the pretext that the call for prayers was annoying settlers in the occupied sector of the mosque.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2

IOF soldiers damage Palestinian land in Jordan Valley

JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC) 2 May -- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed tens of dunums of cultivated land in Wadi Al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley on Sunday evening, local sources said. They added that the solders deliberately destroyed 30 dunums owned by Mahmoud Anis, adding that the soldiers this time each year damage the crops in the same area in the hope to convince farmers not to cultivate their land again. The sources noted that the troops did not leave the area after destroying it since last night. Farmers in Wadi Al-Malih's Burj area are the constant target of attacks by the IOF soldiers and Jewish settlers who systematically burn or destroy their crops.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc

Seven piles of rubble

[with photos] Sad Oranges blog 27 Apr -- Last night we drove to Lod, another Israeli city where Jews and Arabs apparently co-exist. Except that the municipality doesn’t invest in the Palestinian areas and doesn’t recognise the local villages ... To our right was the unsecured train track which has been built through unrecognised Palestinian villages, resulting in child injuries. To our left was a wall separating this painful reality from a very different one. As in so many parts of Israel, the Jewish community is able to pass through life without ever having to look at what its society is doing to the Palestinians ... On 13 December 2010, Israeli police and bulldozers arrived in this area, installed a roadblock and demolished seven buildings. The families were not allowed access, not allowed to remove their belongings, not given compensation. 74 innocent people, 54 of them children, remain homeless. 
http://www.sadoranges.co.uk/diary/seven-piles-of-rubble/

Zeita Jamma‘in

[with photos] Words from Palestine blog 29 Apr -- Yesterday we went to the village of Zeita Jamma‘in. By the way the crow flies it is a short distance from Deir Istiya. However, the 'Settler only' roads can increase the travel time fourfold. Fortunately, our driver knows narrow back roads that skirt the settlements. We have been called there because settlers have began laying claim to upwards of 150,000 dunums of Zeita Jamma‘in’s land. Representatives from popular committees all over the West Bank have gathered to plan a resistance. They quickly decide they need to draw up a detailed map, build a road that makes it easy access for farmers to plant this land (it has up until now been used for animal grazing by villagers from around the area and nomadic Bedouins) and get media support for their cause. Then we are off to see the land. OMG! An expanse of rolling hills, pristine… covered with native trees and flowers every way you look… unless you look to the top of the hills. There you see the settlements. They are already illegally occupying Palestinian land, and yet they want more…. Always more. After about half an hour walk we come across the ruins of a very ancient village, perhaps predating Roman times, so at least 2000 years old or older ... It is this ancient village that the settlers are trying to lay claim to. It is the usual story. They claim it is a religious heritage site, the area becomes a closed military zone and soon (very soon) an 'outpost' appears, and then of course another illegal settlement.
http://wordsfrompalestine.org/?p=627

Netanyahu suspends East J'lem construction plan

Ynet 3 May -- PM orders discussion on massive east J'lem construction projects to be taken off planning committee's agenda - ahead of US trip ... One project is a plan to build 930 homes at the neighborhood of Har Homa, and the other is slated to see the construction of dozens of units in Pisgat Ze'ev.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4064026,00.html

State: Fallen solder's outpost home to be spared

Ynet 3 May -- State tells High Court Eli home of Major Eliraz Peretz, who was killed in Gaza, will not be razed pending alternative housing solution for his family
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4063922,00.html

Army incursions

Witnesses: Army raids Nabi Saleh

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Israeli forces closed the village of An-Nabi Saleh on Monday night, shutting down entrances with roadblocks and restricting movement of residents, witnesses said. Israeli troops were deployed throughout the village for unknown reasons, leading to clashes with teenagers, witnesses said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said there was no military activity in the area overnight. Military jeeps remained stationed at the entrances to the village well into Tuesday morning, local residents told Ma‘an, saying they feared several pending home demolition orders were about to be executed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384199

When Israeli soldiers came to arrest my father / Hanin Ahmad Qatamesh

EI 2 May -- Last week, on 21 April, Israeli soldiers invaded my home in Ramallah, held hostage all those present, and forced me at gunpoint to call my father, a writer and human rights advocate, in order to demand his surrender. This is common operating procedure for Israeli occupation forces. This time, however, they had taken hostage an American citizen willing to speak out. And I will not be silent ... Last Wednesday night, just past midnight, my mother and I were chatting when we suddenly heard pounding on the door and someone shouting in chillingly familiar broken Arabic, “iftakh bab!” (open the door). We looked carefully from behind the slit-open curtain to realize that many Israeli occupation soldiers were surrounding the house, heavily armed and in combat formation. Shortly afterwards, they broke in and occupied the house.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/when-israeli-soldiers-came-arrest-my-father/9901

Detention

Ofer military court sentences Palestinian boy to month in prison

RAMALLAH, (PIC) 3 May -- The Israeli Ofer military court near Ramallah city has sentenced 14-year-old Palestinian boy Yazin Jamal Dandan to thirty days of actual prison time in addition to USD 600 in fines. Dandan's father was forcefully removed from the courtroom when he attended Tuesday, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said. Dandan was arrested Nov. 1 and has since been detained at the Rimonim prison in the northern 1948-occupied Palestinian territories.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%

Troops arrest 7 Palestinians; residents clash with settlers

IMEMC 3 May -- Israeli troops arrested on Tuesday morning seven Palestinian civilians among them two children during invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities. In Bethlehem city, southern West Bank, Israeli forces invade Aida refugee camp and arrested Firas al-Haj, 27. Another youth, Malik Hassan, 20, was arrested when troops searched homes in Bethlehem city ... in northern West Bank, two Palestinian civilians were also arrested by Israeli soldiers during house to house search they did in Salfit city.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61167

Prisoner strike secures eye surgery for inmate

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- A successful prisoners strike saw a Palestinian detainee in Israel receive eye surgery, which friends and relatives said was long overdue, Hussam Detainees' Center said. Sufian Al-Zibda, from Gaza City, had an operation on his left retina at the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, the center said. A prison doctor had reportedly said the detainee needed urgent surgery but Israel's Prison Service had refused to allow his treatment. Prisoners launched a strike in protest of the decision.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384277

Israeli forces detain PLC member in Jericho

JERICHO (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Israeli forces detained Palestinian Legislative Council member Ali Romanin from his home in Al-Ouja [Al-‘Awja] village north of Jericho on Tuesday morning, officials confirmed. The legislator, elected with Hamas' Change and Reform Bloc, was released in October 2010 after more than four years in an Israeli prison.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384288

Targeted assassinations / Killing of bin Laden

Mofaz urges Israel to boost assassinations of Hamas leaders

NAZARETH, (PIC) 3 May -- Shaul Mofaz, former minister of Israel's military, has called on Netanyahu's government to increase assassinations against the leaders of Palestinian resistance forces after the US successfully killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin in Pakistan. "If terrorist attempts continue in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leaders must know that they represent a target for liquidation," Mofaz, also a member of the Israeli Knesset, threatened. "This bears unquestionable legitimacy." Separately, another Knesset member from the Kadima party has stated that the United States had adopted Israel's strategy in the bin Ladin hit, which is to target leaders of alleged terrorist organizations, "a strategy proven efficient throughout the years."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood rejects assassination as a tactic and affirms the legitimacy of resistance

MEMO 3 May -- The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has rejected assassination as a tactic in a response to the killing of Osama Bin Laden by US troops. The group also confirmed that while it rejects violence it supports legitimate resistance against foreign occupation of any country ... According to the statement, the Muslim Brotherhood is against the use of violence in general and assassination in particular. "We support fair trials for criminals, no matter what kind of crime they have committed."
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2293-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-rejects-assassination-as-a-tactic-and-affirms-the-legitimacy-of-resistance

Should bin Laden have been captured and tried?

BERLIN, May 3 (Reuters) - While many world leaders applauded the U.S. operation that killed al Qa‘eda leader Osama bin Laden, there were concerns in parts of Europe that the United States was wrong to act as policeman, judge and executioner ... "It was quite clearly a violation of international law," former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV. "The operation could also have incalculable consequences in the Arab world in light of all the unrest."
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/should-bin-laden-have-been-captured-and-tried

Dozens of Palestinians pay tribute to bin Laden in Gaza

Haaretz 3 May -- Some two dozen Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pay tribute to slain al-Qa‘ida leader Osama bin Laden. About 25 people holding pictures and posters of bin Laden rallied outside a Gaza City university. The crowd included al-Qa‘ida sympathizers as well as students who said they opposed bin Laden's ideology, but were angry at the U.S. for killing him and consider him a martyr. Hamas police did not interfere with the demonstration
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/dozens-of-palestinians-pay-tribute-to-bin-laden-in-gaza-1.359607

Al-Aqsa spokesman denies bin Laden statement

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- The spokesman of Fatah's military wing on Tuesday denied issuing a statement marking Osama bin Laden's death. Abu Uday of the Al-Aqsa Brigades said the group did not and had no plans to comment because bin Laden's death was unrelated to Palestine ... Palestinian reactions to the death of bin Laden have been mixed. Salam Fayyad, the premier in Ramallah, said it increased chances for peace, while Gaza-based prime minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned it as an extension of American's foreign policy based on killing.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384458

No dignity at Ground Zero / Mona Eltahawy

Guardian 3 May -- As a US Muslim I abhor the frat boy reaction. We should be celebrating the Arab spring, not this ... It was minutes after President Obama's announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed, and I was heeding a friend's suggestion that we – both Muslims – take candles and stand in vigil where the World Trade Centre stood before Bin Laden's foot soldiers took it down. So it was a shock to find hundreds of others had turned that hallowed ground into the scene of a home crowd celebrating an away victory they hadn't attended, the roots of which they were probably not there to experience or were too young to remember.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/03/no-dignity-ground-zero-frat-boy

Siege

Siege brings Gaza's garment industry to a halt

EI 3 May -- Near an abandoned sewing factory in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Mohammad Khamis Hamdan runs a small travel agency dedicated to serving pilgrims to the Saudi Arabia city of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site. Hamdan opened the travel agency after being forced to shut down the sewing factory following Israel’s imposition of a devastating blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Hamdan, 50, a father of 14 children and married to two women, said he lost hope of returning back to the cycle of production at his Hamdanco garment factory, which he owned along with two of his brothers.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/siege-brings-gazas-garment-industry-halt/9904

Gaza's sole operating crossing partly open

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Around 260 truckloads of goods in addition to limited amounts of cooking gas will be permitted into Gaza by Israel's crossings authority on Tuesday, a Palestinian liaison officer said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384192

Racism

Case of Arab man accused of raping Jewish woman brought to Supreme Court

Haaretz 3 May -- The Supreme Court heard an appeal on Monday by an Arab man who was convicted of rape last July for having consensual sex with a Jewish woman who believed him to be Jewish ... Kashur, who was indicted for forcible rape, a charge later reduced to rape by deception as part of a plea bargain, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was also convicted of performing an indecent act on the woman, who had sex with him shortly after they met two years ago. When she discovered Kashur, who presented himself as a bachelor named "Dudu," wasn't Jewish, she filed a police complaint.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/case-of-arab-man-accused-of-raping-jewish-woman-brought-to-supreme-court-1.359500

Other news

Marking World Press Freedom Day in Palestine

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Palestinian journalists were oppressed during the past year, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said marking the annual World Press Freedom Day. According to the syndicate, there were 280 violations of journalists’ rights during the past year 179 of which were by Israeli forces and settlers while the other 101 by security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384424

Egypt wants Palestinian students to prove good conduct

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who are enrolled in Egyptian universities have been asked to proof of a background check for security-related issues. As they have only one week left before deadline, they appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas and officials in Cairo to look into their case and try to work out a solution for the problem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384305

US immigration separates Palestinian mother from her 4 children / Sameh A. Habeeb

2 May -- ...On Friday April 13, 2010 ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) invaded my home at about seven thirty in the morning. My mother, Faten Hakim, was preparing her usual work on a normal day in Ramadan. A very loud noise like banging on the door had awoken me. I was surprised at the noise but brushed it off thinking it was one of our neighbors. All of a sudden my mother came into my room to wake me and said “Wake up the police is here to take me.” My heart dropped. What could they want from my mother? I was shocked. My mother had been in the US illegally for about 22 years. I never thought there would be a day where she would be asked to leave. Out of the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, I never thought my mother would be caught. She gave birth to me and my three siblings in the United States.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/palestinian-refugees/9059-us-immigration-separates-palestinian-mother-from-her-4-children.html

From slave to IDF officer: a Guinean's story

Ynet 3 May --  At just 15 Avi Be'eri was sold to slave traders who smuggled him into Israel from Guinea, he managed to turn his life around and will now become an IDF officer [doesn't look as if he was ever actually a slave, just an illegally trafficked immigrant, but it's an interesting good-luck story anyway]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4063352,00.html

Analysis / Opinion / Interviews / Reviews

Guardian editorial: Fatah and Hamas: Tectonic plates start to shift

2 May -- A future environment composed of free Egyptians, Jordanians and even possibly Syrians could well fashion Israel's borders ... There are three chief reasons why, after four years of bitter and violent conflict between the rivals, Fatah acceded to all of Hamas's political conditions to form a national unity government.The first was the publication of the Palestine papers, the secret record of the last fruitless round of talks with Israel. The extent to which Palestinian negotiators were prepared to bend over backwards to accommodate Israel surprised even hardened cynics. The Palestinian Authority found itself hemorrhaging what little authority it had left. The second was the loss to the Palestinian president, Abu Mazen, of his closest allies in Hosni Mubarak and his henchman Omar Suleiman. While they were still around, Gaza's back door was locked. But the third reason had little to do with either of the above: Abu Mazen's faith in Barack Obama finally snapped.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/29/fatah-hamas-tectonic-plates-editorial

Love during Wartime: the Israel-Palestine conflict. within a marriage

Atlantic 1 May -- A conversation with Gabriella Bier, whose new documentary explores the relationship between an Israeli woman and her Palestinian husband
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/love-during-wartime-the-israel-palestine-conflict-within-a-marriage/238108/

Book review: Palestinian Women: Narrative histories and gendered memory

By Fatma Kassem -- Based around a series of interviews with a group of Palestinian women, who lived through the horrific events of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) and then found themselves living in the state of Israel itself, this is a fascinating text.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/104187

http://www.theheadlines.org/ (archive)

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

IOF soldiers damage Palestinian land in Jordan Valley

[ 02/05/2011 - 09:43 PM ]

JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed tens of dunums of cultivated land in Wadi Al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley on Sunday evening, local sources said.

They added that the solders deliberately destroyed 30 dunums owned by Mahmoud Anis, adding that the soldiers this time each year damage the crops in the same area in the hope to convince farmers not to cultivate their land again.

The sources noted that the troops did not leave the area after destroying it since last night.

Farmers in Wadi Al-Malih's Burj area are the constant target of attacks by the IOF soldiers and Jewish settlers who systematically burn or destroy their crops.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Hundreds of rabbis sign edict prohibiting withdrawal from WB

[ 26/04/2011 - 07:07 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Jewish rabbis sent a message to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday telling him that withdrawing troops from the West Bank was religiously forbidden.

The message signed by 350 rabbis protested Netanyahu’s declaration that he was ready to evacuate a number of areas in the West Bank and deliver them to the Palestinian Authority along with readiness to resume negotiations with it.

The rabbis included a Toratic edict in their message which prohibited withdrawing from West Bank land, describing it as the borders of the “Hebrew state”.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Settlers set up a new settlement post near Awarta

[ 22/04/2011 - 09:24 AM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers started on Thursday bulldozing large areas of Palestinian land belonging to the villagers of Awarta to the south east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus to establish a new settlement outpost.

Eyewitnesses said that occupation bulldozers levelled areas of land to setup mobile homes left there more than a month ago by settlers in response to the murder of a settler family in nearby Itamar settlement which the occupation blamed on the Palestinians.

The setting up of this new settlement outpost is a new attempt by the occupation to impose a fait accompli on the ground confiscating more Palestinian land. The village of Awarta has so far lost 90% of its lands.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

IOF soldiers, settlers storm WB cities, villages

[ 20/04/2011 - 03:01 PM ]

QALQILIA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the city of Qalqilia on Wednesday, detained citizens, and questioned them before handing six of them summonses to the intelligence headquarters.

Local sources said that IOF troops in four army vehicles entered the city in the company of an intelligence officer ad picked a number of young men at random and questioned them.

IOF soldiers arrested a Palestinian youth in Bardala village, east of Tubas city, at a roadblock on its entrance on Wednesday. They later burst into the village and stole the car of a 55-year-old Palestinian man before leaving the village.

Similar roadblocks were installed east and west of Jenin city but no arrests were reported.

The soldiers in Awarta village installed electricity poles east of the village, its municipal council chairman Qaid Awad said in a radio statement.

He added that the electricity poles would be used to supply power to a number of settlers' caravans in addition to an army base to be pitched on 1000 dunums of village lands that were earlier confiscated. Awad warned that the IOA was planning to confiscate 4000 more dunums of the village land.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses in Burin village, south of Nablus, said that dozens of Jewish settlers entered the village in buses on Wednesday morning.

Locals warned of possible attacks after the settlers on Tuesday assaulted and wounded a farmer. The head of the municipal council in the village said that the settlers were planning to set up a settlement outpost south of Nablus near the village.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Palestinian citizens call for their rights during Land Week

Budour Youssef Hassan

The Electronic Intifada

18 April 2011

Palestinians commemorate Land Day in Jaffa (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

Last month I toured Lifta as part of Palestinian Land Week, a series of activities organized by the Balad Student Movement at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day. The underlying purpose of Land Week 2011 was to reiterate that Land Day, which commemorates the slaying of Palestinian citizens demonstrating for their rights by Israel in 1976, goes far beyond the narrow geographical limits and the traditional annual demonstrations held in the Galilee villages of Sakhnin and Arraba.

Although the Land Day demonstrations originally erupted in Sakhnin, Arraba and Deir Hanna — known as the Land Day Triangle — the March 1976 events, when six Palestinian civilians were murdered by the Israeli police, carry an enormous practical and symbolic significance that should not be reduced to mere folklore. Shackled for years by a repressive military regime, Palestinian citizens of Israel broke the psychological barrier of fear and braved the austere emergency rules to organize peaceful demonstrations against the mass land expropriation in an inspiring act of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.

Adamant to expand the scope of Land Day, we kick-started Land Week 2011 with a massive demonstration of approximately 2,000 protesters in the southern city of Lydd on Tuesday, 29 March, in order to show our unwavering solidarity with its Palestinian inhabitants who have been the victims of a systematic policy of house demolition that exclusively targets Palestinian citizens.

The demonstration was unique in the sense that it was not organized by the High Follow-Up Committee for the Arab Citizens in Israel, an umbrella organization representing Palesitnian citizens of Israel on a national level, but rather by university students and young activists. That Tuesday’s demonstration drew thousands of Palestinian youngsters from the south, the north and Jerusalem as well as Jewish solidarity activists. They flooded the streets of Lydd, chanting against the occupation, land confiscation, house demolitions, the siege on Gaza, racist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the totalitarian regimes in the Arab world and the harmful intervention of the US in the region.

On 30 March, Palestinians from all walks of life — students, teachers, workers and shop owners — went on the annual public strike.

On Friday, 1 April, we participated in the Lifta tour organized by the Civic Coalition to Save Lifta and followed it by taking part in the weekly demonstration in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. There, we voiced our support for all the Palestinian families who have been evicted from their own homes to make way for settlers in occupied East Jerusalem. The families of Ghawy, al-Kurd and Hannoun — to name just a few — have been expelled from their own homes by Israeli forces in the last few years. These same forces have been unashamedly turning a blind eye to the violent settler attacks against Palestinian residents and have tried on countless occasions to crush the peaceful demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan with tear gas, bullets and arbitrary arrests.

Land Week 2011 came to a close on Wednesday, 6 April. The final event was titled “The Youth Revolution” and took place at Hebrew University. The evening’s events, however, were overshadowed by the tragic death of the great Palestinian filmmaker, actor, theater director and freedom fighter Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was murdered days earlier by unknown gunmen outside the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. We screened a short but touching documentary filmed in the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, in which “Jule” and his students explain what freedom means to them (“The Freedom Theatre”).

The evening was capped off by the Haifa-born revolutionary singer and songwriter Ala Azzam, who sang for Palestine and social justice and against blithe apathy and the status quo. Azzam, singing and playing the oud in front of the Palestinian flag, articulated with his lyrics the challenges that Palestinian citizens in Israel face, along with our insistent yearning for freedom and justice.

Land Week may have officially concluded, but our nonviolent struggle against the ongoing onslaught of the racist, apartheid government against the Palestinian land and collective memory — demonstrated with the newly-approved “Nakba law” which criminalizes the commemoration of the Nakba (the dispossession of historic Palestine in 1948) and continuous land confiscation and house demolitions — will go on.

Budour Youssef Hassan, originally from Nazareth, is a Palestinian socialist activist and third-year Law student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/Budouroddick.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli education ministry launches Land Day witch hunt

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 13 April 2011

Palestinians mark Land Day in Jaffa, March 2011. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)

Educators and students who took part in the 35th annual Land Day commemorations on 30 March are being investigated by the Israeli education ministry, which sent letters to Palestinian schools inside Israel demanding to see attendance reports.

Land Day is the annual day of remembrance for six Palestinians with Israeli citizenship gunned down by Israeli forces in 1976 during a general strike in protest of expanded land confiscation inside the state. Since Land Day protests began, many Palestinian citizens of Israel, across all sectors, have engaged in general strikes on 30 March.

The Alternative Information Center reported that "Dr. Orna Simchon, director of the [Israeli] Education Ministry's northern district, sent a letter to Palestinian schools in the region on Land Day, demanding to know whether classes were held that day and if not, why. They were also asked to immediately report the attendance records for the day, including lists of teachers who had and had not come to school" ("Israel Begins Witch Hunt against Palestinian Educators, Pupils who Honoured Land Day," 6 April 2011).

The Follow-up Committee on Arab Education - Israel responded to the investigation, sending a letter to members of the Knesset (Parliament) and the Ministry of Education.

The letter stated, in part: "We wish to emphasize that this is the full right of the Arab population, as a national minority and as citizens with equal rights, to conduct a strike in order to protest policies of discrimination and home demolitions, together with the worrying racist tendencies that have picked up speed in the state, in addition to the raging racism that is expressed by, amongst other ways, racist legislation that pushes Israel to become an apartheid state."

The letter demanded that education ministry officials cease the investigations and "persecution of the Arab teachers," and added that "[s]uch inexplicable steps serve solely to increase the feeling of distrust of the Arab public in the system and the alienation amongst Arab pupils, teachers and parents."

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Palestinian schools in Lydd were personally visited by education ministry representatives, who conducted "surprise visits that morning and checked which teachers were absent" ("Education Ministry hunting for Arab teachers absent on Land Day," 11 April 2011).

A teacher told Haaretz: "We felt like we were under a military regime ... Like they were searching for criminals."

This attack on Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who participate in actions that commemorate Palestinian struggle and resistance comes on the heels of the Knesset recently passing the so-called Nakba Law, which criminalizes recognition of the expulsion of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947-48.

Remember Beita …. Remember Awarta

Posted on 13/04/2011 by reham alhelsi

Remember Beita?
Beita; the beautiful, steadfast Palestinian village?
Beita; the warm houses, the green fields and the olive trees?
Beita; the villagers working their lands, the children playing in the streets?
Beita; the smell of Taboun bread, the singing of birds with every Palestinian morning?

Remember Beita?

Beita; the land stolen by Zionist colonists?
Beita; the homes demolished by Israeli occupation militias?
Beita; the hundreds thrown into the dark dungeons of Zion?
Beita; the martyrs murdered in cold blood?

Remember Awarta?
Awarta; the picturesque, steadfast Palestinian village?
Awarta; the ancient arches, the wavy weadows and the olive trees?
Awarta; the villagers harvesting the fields, the youth dancing the dabkeh?
Awarta; the taste of Za’tar and Zeit, the feel of fresh breeze with every Palestinian morning?

Remember Awarta?
Awarta; the land stolen by Zionist colonists?
Awarta; the homes demolished by Israeli occupation militias?
Awarta; the hundreds thrown into the dark dungeons of Zion?
Awarta; the martyrs murdered in cold blood?

The story of Beita is the story of many Palestinian villages, the story of many Palestinians. But Beita is also the story that is seldom told and, although Beita occurs over and over again, it is seldom remembered. The story of Beita begins with the Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestine. Hundreds of beautiful Palestinian villages erased off the face of the earth to create a myth of “those who made the desert bloom”. Thousands over thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes and their lands to create a myth of “a land without a people for a people without a land”. Hundreds of massacres committed against civilian populations by terrorist militias that continue to commit massacres in the name of “self-defence”. Beita, the beautiful Palestinian village was to witness death, expulsion, demolition, confiscation and detention so Zionist colonists can have more Palestinian land to occupy, more Palestinian land to colonize.

On 8:30 of the morning of 06.04.1988 a group of Zionist colonists from the Zionist colony of Elon Moreh stopped outside the Palestinian village of Beita. The group consisted of children and their armed guards. One Palestinian resident, Tayseer, tried dissuading the settlers from entering the village and offered to show them an alternative road around the village. The Zionists refused, and by that time, some villagers who were working in the fields had gathered to see what the colonists wanted and why they had come to their village and homes. One armed Zionist guard, Rumain Aldubi, who was a known fanatic and violent colonist and the leader of the Nablus cell of Gush Emunim, ordered the residents of Beita to leave. As Tayseer turned to leave, the guard shot him in the stomach and the leg. And while the villagers were trying to find refuge, he continued shooting around him and killed Mousa Daoud Bani Shamsi (20 years). The colonists then went down to the village and were met by the rest of Beita villagers who had heard the shooting and come to investigate. Some residents of Beita suggested keeping the colonists there until the Israeli occupation forces came and then to hand them the murderers of Mousa. Others were in favour of letting them go. And while the villagers argued, the guard Aldubi began shooting again and killed Hatem Fayez Ahmad Jaber (22 years). According to the residents, one of the settler children, Tirza Porat, tried stopping Aldubi from shooting. She grabbed his arm and told him that what he was doing was terrible. It was then that he shot her. Bani Shamsi’s mother who was present hit Aldubi on the head. When he fell unconscious to the ground, the resident took his gun and that of the other guard and laid them on the ground until the IOF came. In the meantime the residents took care of the Zionist children and protected them. When the Israeli occupation army finally arrived, it was 10:30.

The first thing the Israeli occupation forces did was declare Beita a closed military area, so no one was allowed to leave or enter and no media was allowed into the village. The Israeli occupation forces had decided that Beita was to be blamed for the death of settler girl, although no Palestinian owned a gun and she was killed by one of the settler guards, and that Beita was to be punished. A curfew was imposed and the village school was turned into a detention centre and hundreds of residents were detained from their homes. One Beita resident, Isam Abdel Halim Mohammad, 15 years, was shot dead by the IOF as he fled the village during the detention raid. On that same day, tens of olive trees were uprooted and 5 Palestinian homes were blown up. The IOF told reporters at the time that they couldn’t establish a direct link between the “killing of the settler girl” and the demolished houses, i.e. the houses were chosen randomly to be demolished as a collective punishment of the whole village for a murder the villagers didn’t commit. Another 8 Palestinian houses were blown up the next day even after an Israeli military report found that it was in fact Aldubi’s gun that killed the girl. One of the houses demolished belonged to a family which protected the settler children. The Israeli occupation army report confirmed that the bullet in the girl’s head was from Aldubi’s gun, the same gun that killed the two other Palestinians as well. The report noted also that when the guns were grabbed by the Palestinians, after the settler had killed the Zionist girl and the two Palestinians, their magazines were empty. It also confirmed that the Palestinians had in fact protected the settler children. Demolishing Palestinians homes and detaining Palestinians was not enough, Beita was to be punished more. 6 residents of the village were expelled from occupied Palestine as a further collective punishment for a murder committed by a settler.

Even after the release of the Israeli military report, the Zionist entity continued accusing the Palestinians of killing the girl and stealing the guns from the guards. Israeli politicians, settler leaders and others claimed first that the Palestinians grabbed the guns and killed the settler girl and injured another 15. Then they claimed that the settler girl was stoned to death and that the 15 were injured by stones. And despite the military report, they called for the death penalty for “those who killed the girl” and the deportation of all youth in Beita. They also called for revenge and for a brutal action against the Palestinians of Beita. Israeli minister of religious affairs at the time said that Beita doesn’t exist on the map anymore and that a settlement called Tirza Porat should be built in its place. During the funeral of the settler girl Kahane signed autographs.

What happened in Beita is only one example of the nature of Zionism and Zionist colonists: they killed innocent civilian Palestinians for the sake of killing Palestinians. They killed a Jewish girl, then blamed the murder of the girl on the Palestinians and incited against them. And in the end it was the Palestinians who were punished for a crime they didn’t commit and punished for being the victims of this Zionist terrorist act.

No Zionist colonist was ever punished for the murder of the 3 Palestinian residents of Beita.
And the story of Beita is the story of Awarta.

Awarta; the beautiful Palestinian village, until Zionist colonists came and destroyed its lands to build their alien colonies.

Awarta; the peaceful Palestinian village, until the Zionists came and stole its land and terrorized its people.
Beita and Awarta are one in pain, in suffering, one is steadfastness. Beita and Awarta are two Palestinian villages that pay the price of crimes committed by Zionists and blamed on Palestinians. Everyone in occupied Palestine, especially those on whose lands illegal colonies are built, knows that it is impossible to enter a Zionist colony and leave without being searched and interrogated, let alone enter and allegedly kill settlers and manage to leave alive. Even Palestinian workers who are given permits to work in some settlements are thoroughly searched, escorted and closely watched during their work. One doesn’t even need to enter a Zionist colony to be interrogated or harassed, just passing by a settlement makes one a possible target of settlement guards. Even when walking in your own land, working your own land, endangers your life if your land is close to a Zionist colony.

Palestinians farmers working their land close to Zionist colonies would be attacked, brutally beaten and often shot by Zionist colonists. Palestinian children playing on their family’s land close to Zionist colonies would be attacked and shot by Zionist colonists. Zionist colonists attack villagers, attack cars and buses, attack Palestinian homes, attack farmers and when villagers try and defend themselves they get shot at or arrested by the Israeli occupation forces and the settler militias. Zionist colonists attack Palestinian villages, kill Palestinians and it is always the Palestinians who are punished.

The settlers are on the other handed rewarded; their illegal settlements expand and more Palestinian land is confiscated. Itamar, the Zionist colony built on the lands of Awarta, is not different from other Zionist colonies. It is even more secured than some other settlements. It is like a high-security prison with video surveillance system that monitors the area day and night and observes every single movement in the colony and around it and with sensors that alert the guards to any attempt to break into the colony. No one comes close to the settlement without being seen or targeted. One example is the murder of two Palestinians from Awarta almost a year ago. Israeli soldiers guarding Itamar murdered Mohammad Faisal Qawareq (19) and Salah Mohammad Qawareq (19) who were working their lands close to the colony.

And as with Beita, the story of Awarta began long before 11.03.2011. It began with the Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestine. Two-thirds of Awarta lands were confiscated to build the Zionist colony of Itamar, “home” to terrorists who terrorize Palestinian families day and night, murder Palestinian farmers, demolish land, uproot trees and destroy water wells. But on 11.03.2011, a new crime was to be committed against Awarta, one of a large scale. And while most media outlets concentrated and continue to report on the killings in Itamar and blame them, without any evidence, on the Palestinians, the crimes committed daily against Awarta are largely ignored.

On Friday, 11.03.2011, five members of a Zionist colonist family were killed in the Zionist colony of Itamar. Motives are unknown, assailant are unknown. Nonetheless, the Zionist entity rushed to blame this on the Palestinians, as if no Israeli would kill another, as if no Israeli would fight with another. And Zionist media and co. rushed to condemn the Palestinians, without evidence, without the “innocent until proven guilty” slogan we keep hearing, for what the terrorist Zionist entity says shall be; and the Zionist entity says that the Palestinians and only the Palestinians shall be blamed for every crime committed under the sun. Immediately, without evidence, without a single clue, Awarta, the Palestinian village on whose land Itamar is built, was invaded by large numbers of Israeli occupation soldiers who set up checkpoints around the village. The village was besieged, all its entrances closed, a curfew was imposed and the area was declared a closed military zone which means no media is allowed into the village.

A wide-scale military operation was declared as Israeli military helicopters and drones accompanied the siege. The first of many waves of arrests started in the early hours of Saturday, home to home searches were conducted, accompanied by sniffer dogs, and some 20 Palestinians were detained. During these house raids, residents were aggressively inspected, furniture was destroyed, personal property smashed, cameras confiscated and cash and gold stolen.

On Monday morning, 14.03.2011, under the cover of a continued curfew and siege, Israeli occupation soldiers called for all residents aged 15 to 40 to gather in the yard of the village school, where over 300 people were detained. According to a report of the Imemc News: “all boys and young men were ordered to report to a local school, at which point they were split into two groups of approximately 150 persons each. One group reported that they were held for around 2 hours in a square in the village, followed by 13 hours inside, during which the detainees were not allowed the use of bathroom facilities, were not allowed to receive the food residents took to them, and were not allowed to drink water.

During this detention young men were repeatedly beaten for speaking against this treatment, with those doing so taken to an unknown detention facility. Three young men, one a child aged sixteen, who are brothers of a man from Awarta who was murdered by the Israeli military last year, were blindfolded, handcuffed and thrown to the ground, at which point the military personnel began to fire live ammunition on the ground around the bodies. These three persons are still detained. A man, reported to be mentally ill, was attacked by a military dog, used for the search of explosive materials, whilst walking in the street.”[1]

Houses were raided again and some homes were searched and targeted more than three times. Residents report that “soldiers had been searching for cameras, photos and images of destroyed houses.”[2]

At the time, some Thai workers employed at Itamar, were rounded up and interrogated. It is worth mentioning here that “reports began to surface that the murdered family had owed an immigrant worker, of Thai nationality, the sum of 10,000 shekels for services rendered, and that upon refusing to pay the money owed, the worker had threatened to murder the family if they did not settle the debt.”[3]

Nonetheless, it was the Palestinians of Awarta who were being targeted and collectively punished. It was the residents of Awarta who were accused of the killing without any evidence, but just for being Palestinians. One resident, Samer Awwad, who was detained for hours, said that “Israeli interrogators, without any legal warrants or court rulings, are interrogating the residents, and that they start the interrogation by stating “you are accused of killing Israeli citizens in Itamar, where were you that night?”[4] And as siege and curfew continued, medicine and basic food supplies were running short.

Ambulances were initially not allowed into Awarta, and later given limited time and access inside the village. In one incident, ambulances were “prevented from accessing some patients including a one-year-old girl suffering an asthma attack”.[5]

Also, ambulances were not allowed to transfer all sick people to the hospital. While one 75-year-old Awarta resident who was beaten by the Israeli soldiers was allowed to be transported, two elderly women with heart problems were prevented from leaving the village. Meanwhile, Zionist colonists continued their terror attacks on Awarta, and in one incident dozens of masked colonists attacked the village and threw stones and empty bottles at the homes injuring a number of people.

They also uprooted over 100 olive trees and destroyed 4 water tankers. And to confiscate what is left of Awarta land, under the excuse of commemorating the slain settler family (again no evidence whatsoever they were killed by Palestinians), the Zionist colonists of Itamar declared that they will expand the colony and create an outpost in the name of the slain settler family. Caravan homes were installed on land privately owned by Palestinians from Awarta and Nablus and settlers were seen driving bulldozers and preparing to set up greenhouses. And after almost a week of curfew and siege, on Wednesday, 16.03.2011, Israeli occupation forces withdrew from Awarta, leaving behind huge damage to homes and property.

According to one report: “Senior officers used the four day curfew to train younger soldiers as to tactics used during searches, explicitly instructing them to damage property.”[6] Within this time hundreds of Palestinians were detained and at least 40 Awarta residents remain in detention, although no suspects were identified or charged.

But this was not the end of the story, for the Zionist entity had decided from the beginning that the Itamar killings were to be blamed on no one but the Palestinians, with or without evidence. For there is much more political win to make if the Palestinians were portrayed are the “murderers”; more land confiscation, expansion of illegal colonies, mass arrests, house demolitions and, not to be forget, whining to the world about being “an island of peace among a sea of terrorists”. And to continue the charade of “investigating the killings” aka collective punishment of Palestinians for something there is no evidence they committed, the Israeli occupation forces raided Awarta again on Tuesday, 22.03.2011, and imposed a new curfew for the 2^nd time in a month.

A third raid was followed on Tuesday, 29.03.2011, and while 40 Awarta residents were still in detention, around 60 others were taken from their homes, subjected to forced DNA testing and their fingerprints taken. During a fourth raid on Tuesday, 05.04.2011, another 6 residents of Awarta were detained, and on Thursday, 07.04.2011, in a 5th raid, the village was stormed just before midnight, curfew imposed and more than 100 women were detained, many taken by force and some in their 60s, along with tens of men. Residents report that the Israeli occupation army came accompanied by a number of buses in which the women were transported to Huwara military camp.

Detaining elderly women is just another proof that the IOF had decided that it is the Palestinians to be framed for the killings and maybe they thought that elderly people would collapse and confess to something they didn’t do. And with the detention of over a 100 women, the Israeli occupation forces maybe hoped to force Palestinians into confessing to something they didn’t commit. Um Adam, an elderly Awarta resident detained together with her 80-year-old husband and 3 of her married daughters and their husbands said: “An interrogator accused me about the murdering of five settlers in Itamar. I answered him that I am a seventy-year-old sick woman, that it would be fanciful to believe that I could have been involved … then they took my fingerprints and released me four hours later in the early morning cold”. .. “Umm George said her family home was ransacked five times. During the raids, she said all of the family members were detained and interrogated including she and her husband. Samples for DNA testing were taken and fingerprints were copied.

Her sons George and Hakim remain in the custody of Israeli forces, she said.  Every time the soldiers raided the house, they turned everything upside down, during the fifth raid, she said she and her teenage daughter were detained. That time, she added, a sound bomb was launched into the home before they were taken away.” [7] On Sunday, 10.04.2011, morning raids resumed in Awarta and with every raid property was destroyed and residents beaten. One Awarta resident, Um Majdi, reports: “They brutally beat my sons; Majdi, who is 21, Amhad, who is 19, and 17-year-old Hakam. They beat them for no reason, they handcuffed my husband and broke everything inside the house; windows, the refrigerator, the washing machine and kitchen appliances. The spilled oil, sugar, salt and flour all together on the floor.”[8]

On Tuesday, 12.04.2011, three Awarta residents were kidnapped from their apartments in Ramallah. Israeli occupation soldiers surrounded the building where the three live, and forced all residents, including the children, out in the cold from 3 am till 9 am. Two of those kidnapped are brothers, one of whom suffers from kidney failure and requires medical attention. He was staying in Ramallah for treatment sessions and his brother accompanied him. On the same day, in a renewed raid on Awarta, the house of Awwad family was occupied by the IOF and 20 members of the family were detained, including 10 children and a pregnant woman. “One of the women required medical assistance after fainting earlier, but the Israelis prevented an ambulance from reaching the house from 9 a.m. until 11:30 am”.[9]

No Palestinian faction claimed responsibility for the killings in Itamar and all Palestinian factions stated they don’t target children. But although no evidence whatsoever was ever presented or any Palestinian was ever charged with the Itamar killings, the Zionist entity blamed the Palestinians from the very beginning, and with the exception of the brief detention of some Thai workers, refused to consider any other suspects or any other reasons for the killing and even put a gag order on the investigation and prohibited the publication of any information on it. And amidst a complete lack of evidence, Awarta has been repeatedly raided since 11.03.2011. and the timeline of repeated raids and mass arrests in Awarta is an example of what many Palestinian villages face whenever Zionist colonists or Israeli occupation militias attack Palestinians. It is always the Palestinians who are blamed, it is always the Palestinians who are punished. Immediately after the killings at Itamar, Netanyahu gave a green light for the construction of 500 more settler

homes “in retaliation” and on 12.04.2011 he approved construction plans for building more settler units in Itamar. Since 11.05.2011, some 500 Palestinians from Awarta were kidnapped from their homes and detained by the Israeli occupation forces, including some 200 women and elderly, sick people and children. Today, no less than 71 people remain in detention without charges, including two elderly women, a 15-year-old girl, who was detained with her father and mother and brother, and 5 children.

Remember Beita … Remember when Palestinians were blamed for a crime committed by Zionists in broad daylight. Remember every time Palestinians were blamed for terror actions committed by the Zionists themselves. Despite Palestinian outcry, it is often that the truth comes to light long after the Zionist entity had made enough political win from these crimes committed by Zionists themselves and blamed on the Palestinians. Remember Beita and think of Awarta. For Awarta is not the first Palestinian village to be blamed and punished for a crime without evidence.

Awarta will not be the last Palestinian village to be punished and pay the price for a crime without evidence. And it wouldn’t surprise me if false “confessions” were extorted under torture, just so the Zionist entity can continue to blame Palestinians for everything. For the Zionist entity did it before and will do it again because we live in a world that hears, sees and says nothing when Zionists commit crimes against the Palestinian people and against humanity. We live in a world that will readily take the word of the oppressor over that of the oppressed, the word of the occupier over that of the occupied, the word of the killer over that of the victim, the word of a Zionist over that of a Palestinian. The world might believe the lies and myths of the Zionist entity, might for the time being, but we will continue to tell the truth and we will continue to expose the lies of the Zionist entity because no injustice lasts forever and one day justice will prevail.

© http://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/

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Footnotes:

[1] http://www.imemc.org/article/60881

[2] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=369139
[3] http://www.imemc.org/article/60881
[4] http://www.imemc.org/article/61018
[5] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=368750
[6] http://www.imemc.org/article/60881

[7] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=377850

[8] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=377850
[9] http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15866

 River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian