Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

One Killed, 37 Injured, by Israeli troops Gunfire in Gaza Land Day Protests

By Ghassan Bannoura | IMEMC News | March 30, 2012

(Reuters/Ammar Awad and Ronen Zvulun)

A Palestinian 20 year old youth was killed, 37 injured, among them a journalist when Israeli troops opened fire at Palestinian protesters marking land day in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources reported that soldiers opened fire at protesters who marched up to the borders with Israel near Gaza city killing Mohamed Zakout, 20, and injuring 37 others. Among those injured were 3 in critical conditions and a local journalist.

In the West Bank Israeli troops injured 100 civilians including an American activist who marked land day in different parts of the West Bank today.

Marking the 36th anniversary of land day today Palestinians and their supporters marched for Jerusalem demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of the city. Protests were organized near the Israeli Lebanese borders as well as the borders with Jordan.

The Land day commemoration started in 1976, when Palestinian residents of the Galilee to the Negev protested Israel’s plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement purposes. Israeli military and police attacked the protests leaving 6 killed, hundreds injured.

Related articles

March 31, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

Jewish settlers attack Palestinian farmer and his children

Palestine Information Center – 31/03/2012

AL-KHALIL — Jewish settlers attacked a 67-year-old Palestinian farmer while tending to his field along with his family in Beit Ummar, to the north of Al-Khalil, on Saturday morning.

Mohammed Awad, the coordinator of the popular committee in Beit Ummar, told Quds Press that Mohammed Salibi, 67, was tending to his farm along with his sons and daughters when suddenly dozens of masked settlers from the nearby settlement of Beit Ayin ran toward them while throwing rocks.

He said that he rushed to protect his children, who were panicked, and took them away to their home leaving his tractor behind.

Salibi said that the savage attack progressed under the very eyes of the Israeli occupation soldiers (IOF), who maintain constant presence in the area and occupy high watchtowers that enable them watch whatever is going on nearby but did not move to protect him or his family.

Elsewhere in Al-Khalil, IOF soldiers kidnapped a Palestinian shepherd near Susiya settlement while watching for his sheep that were grazing nearby.

Ratib Al-Jibour, the coordinator of the popular committee in Yatta town, said that an IOF unit kidnapped Hammad Nawaja, 33, after claiming that he tried to cut the barbed wire near the settlement.

Related articles

March 31, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli police water-cannon, tear-gas Palestinians on Land Day

| March 30, 2012

A Gaza youth has reportedly been killed while over 200 people have been wounded throughout the West Bank.

Related articles

March 30, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian lawmaker wounded in Land Day protest


Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti
Press TV –  March 30, 2012

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti has been injured by Israeli forces attacking peaceful demonstrations marking international Land Day, Press TV reports.

Barghouti was wounded on Friday in the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) where he attended a Land Day rally.

Israeli forces opened fire on peaceful pro-Palestinian rallies across the occupied Palestinian territories, with clashes underway between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Qalandiya.

Earlier reports said at least two protesters were injured by Israeli troops and several others were arrested.

More demonstrations were planned for after the Friday Prayers across the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) despite Tel Aviv restricting access to al-Aqsa Mosque for the weekly prayers.

Pro-Palestinian rallies have been held near border areas in Lebanon and similar demonstrations are expected in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria where activists will also march towards the Palestinian borders.

The rallies, joined by international human rights activists, are part of an international campaign named Global March on al-Quds (Jerusalem), a peaceful international movement that also condemns the Israeli occupation of the holy city.

The event marks Land Day and the Israeli military’s deadly attack on Palestinians peacefully protesting Tel Aviv’s land policies in 1967.

The demonstrations have prompted Tel Aviv to deploy thousands of police and armed forces across the occupied Palestinian territories and around border areas near Lebanon and Jordan.

Related articles

March 30, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , | Leave a comment

On the eve of Land Day: Al Quds anticipates the Global March

29 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

March 30 is Land Day in Palestine. The events of the day annually commemorate the events of 1976, when Israeli authorities seized massive quantities of land from Palestinian owners, and then killed several and injured dozens to crack down on the general strike called to protest the theft.

This year on Land Day, March 30, people from around Palestine and the world will march towards Al Quds  (Jerusalem) to protest the theft in progress today: the isolation and ethnic cleansing taking place in Al Quds, as well as throughout occupied Palestine through illegal settlement activity. Marches are planned towards Al Quds from multiple points in the West Bank, Gaza, inside the Green Line, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria, as well as in Asia, North America, and Europe. The global march aims to highlight the colonization of Al Quds by Zionists and the refusal of access for Palestinians to the holy city.

According to multiple treaties and UN resolutions, Al Quds is recognized as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel seized control of the city in 1967. Al Quds has long been the center of religious, cultural, health, and commercial life for Palestinians, and an estimated 270,000 Palestinians reside in the eastern parts of the city (OCHA 2011).

The Palestinian population and presence in Al Quds is currently under extreme pressure from Israeli authorities and illegal settlers as the Zionist state seeks to take complete control of the city, drive out the Palestinian inhabitants, and eliminate any hope of its future as a Palestinian capital. This pressure is manifested in various ways:

Isolation

Fadwa Khader, an Al Quds resident and organizer of the Global March on Jerusalem remembers a time when Al Quds was “the most important place in Palestine.” Now, the apartheid wall and associated military closures prevent the majority of Palestinians from traveling to Al Quds for any reason. The city’s status as a center of Palestinian life is fading, due to its isolation from the rest of the West Bank. But material realities will not erase Al Quds’s place in the hearts of the Palestinian people. One needs only to view the multitude of images of Al Aqsa mosque in Palestinian homes, businesses, and streets to understand this.

Removal and Denial of Residency

In a systematic effort aimed at reducing the number of Palestinian residents of Al Quds, Israeli authorities seize any opportunity to rescind the residency permits of individuals, even those who are born and have lived their entire lives in the city. If Palestinian residents are known to have lived in the West Bank or abroad, even temporarily, they risk the withdrawal of their residency rights and may never be allowed into Al Quds again, even to visit family.

Fadi, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is a Palestinian who resided in Jordan for example, has retained his Jerusalem IDs. Yet his children who were born in Jordan and whose mother is a Palestinian refugee, have been unable to attain their Jerusalem IDs. “My family’s history is in this city,” said Faid. “The lack of jobs, and the bleak future of Palestinians here forced me to seek these elsewhere. Now that I have returned and have brought my children with me, my children are unable to maneuver throughout the city as they are undocumented in their own father’s hometown. Israel refuses to recognize them as the children of a Jerusalemite, but we will remain here, even if that means that my children and wife live without an ID or any rights.” Fadi continued after a long silence and the evident hurt in his eyes. “This is our resistance to Zionism.”

This policy has the effect over time of reducing the Palestinian population in Al Quds and preventing residents from traveling or living elsewhere for fear of losing residency.

Pressure on existing residents

Fadwa Khader noted another component of Israel’s campaign for the complete colonization and ethnic cleansing of Al Quds: the application of pressure to Palestinian residents in order to drive them out of the city. One way this is manifested is in the denial of municipal services in the eastern parts of the city inhabited by Palestinians.

The residents here pay the same taxes as the Jewish residents of West Al Quds.  Despite this, the municipality of Jerusalem does not provide adequate services to the Palestinian neighborhoods of the city. Ninety percent of the municipality’s sewer lines and paved roads and sidewalks are in West Al Quds (B’tselem). In some neighborhoods, cleaning services come only once every three days as opposed to three times a day in West Al Quds. n February the Wadi Hilweh Information Center  reported the Jerusalem Municipality created a dump at the door of Palestinian neighborhoods.

Khader notes the dual nature of this denial of services: First, to make life in Al Quds miserable and untenable in an effort to convince existing residents to leave. Second, to demonstrate to the internationals that visit Al Quds that the Palestinian residents “don’t care about their neighborhoods” and live in filth.

Pressure is also applied to Palestinian resident through settlement of East Al Quds neighborhoods by extremist Israelis, evictions of Palestinian families, and demolitions of Palestinian homes. The neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan have been particularly affected by this strategy. The goal of the Israeli authorities and Zionist activists is to forcibly settle Jews in East Al Quds through the seizure of land and homes and settlement of Israelis in these areas. In addition, home demolitions make life increasingly untenable for affected residents.

The Global March this Land Day will seek to highlight these issues and call for an end to Israeli Zionist settlement policy, access restrictions, occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Al Quds and throughout occupied Palestine.

Khader has a message for the international Palestine solidarity movement:

“We want to live in peace and liberty  and to feel free. Can you imagine how we suffer and sacrifice for this dream?”

She noted that there can never be a real Palestinian state as long as the Israelis continue to steal land and water, to control borders, and to separate cities and villages of Palestine from each other.

Still, she is hopeful.

“We won’t give up hope. We believe in you (international solidarity activists). You are our voice outside of Palestine, calling for dignity, liberation, and an end to the occupation.”

Related articles

March 29, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Israeli settlers storm into Palestinian home, occupy residence

Al Akhbar | March 29, 2012

Israeli settlers invaded a home in a Palestinian-owned building in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron and took up the apartment as their own, residents and Israeli security forces said on Thursday.

“At 1:30am we heard noises and it was the settlers,” Montasser Abu Rajab, who lives on the first floor of the building in Hebron’s Old City, said.

“They broke the main door and brought their furniture in, accompanied by the army, who locked us in our house,” he said.

Palestinian sources in Hebron said that the property belonged to the Abu Rajab family, who had sold the second floor of the house to another Palestinian family.

But the Israeli army – who confirmed the incident – claimed that “the title to the property is contested.”

“The area has been declared a closed military zone, and soldiers have been put in place to keep the calm,” a spokeswoman for the Israeli army said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said “police have been dispatched to the scene to verify the legal status of the house and the property titles that are apparently the subject of litigation.”

The settlers also claimed that they had titles to the property, which is located near a prominent religious site for both Muslims and Jews.

Speaking to Israeli public radio, right-wing Israeli lawmaker Michael Ben Ari, of the National Union party, said it was “time to recover all the Jewish homes in Hebron stolen by the enemy.”

Right-wing Israeli politicians and figures often incite violence against Arabs, with Palestinians frequently attacked and harassed by settlers as well as the Israeli military, often with impunity.

House demolitions and evictions are among the serious threats indigenous Palestinians face on their native land, as Israel continues to build Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, including in Hebron, in defiance of the international community.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, with the territory being only a fraction of historical Palestine on which the Israeli state is now situated.

Israel maintains a military occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem, imposing harsh restrictions on native Palestinians while providing privileges to illegal Jewish settlers.

(Al-Akhbar, AFP)

Related articles

March 29, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Settlers ‘block entrance’ to Nablus village

Ma’an – March 28, 2012

NABLUS – Dozens of Israeli settlers blocked the entrance to a village near Nablus on Wednesday, officials said.

Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma’an that residents of Itamar and Elon Moreh settlements arrived at Beit Dajan in around 15 cars and closed the main gate to the village.

The settlers were protesting the reopening of the main road from Beit Dajan to Nablus a day earlier, Doughlas said.

The road had been closed by the Israeli military for 12 years, forcing villagers to take long detours to reach Nablus, the nearest city.

Doughlas said Israeli forces arrived and dispersed the settlers.

An Israeli military spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Related articles

March 28, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bibi: First We’ll Take Tehran, Then We’ll Take Istanbul

By Richard Silverstein | Tikun Olam | March 28, 2012

Yesterday, brought ominous news regarding yet another aggressive Israeli projection of its military power in the Mideast.  Since 1967, with but a few exceptions (Osirak being one), Israel has mainly satisfied itself by retaining dominance over its frontline neighbors and not attempting to meddle in affairs of more far-flung states.  But with Bibi Netanyahu’s new policy of projecting Israeli power far outside Israel’s immediate sphere and threatening Iran with attack, we have an Israel ready and willing to step far outside its former comfort zone.

To show that Bibi’s aggressive, interventionist approach isn’t a fluke, UPI reports that Israel is negotiating with Greek Cyprus for placement of an Israeli air base on the island, ostensibly to protect the new Israeli-Cypriot joint gas exploration project:

Israel is already preparing to launch a major security operation to protect the offshore fields and the attendant facilities in its waters.

This will involve missile-armed patrol vessels, round-the-clock aerial surveillance by unmanned drones and other naval detachments, primarily to defend the energy zones against attack by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed force in neighboring Lebanon.

This field is in dispute with Lebanon, which also claims title.  Turkey too disputes the area on behalf of Turkish Cyprus.  This certainly is one reason for the Israeli move.

But an even more important one in the long-term, is Israel confronting Turkey with its power.  It’s a rather naked move.  A flagrant invasion of Turkey’s sphere of influence, which can only bring a Turkish response.  The response will likely come within an area under Israel’s sphere of influence.  Oh say, like Gaza.  Someone with a cool head ought to start looking at this developing rivalry and see where it could lead (or end).

There is only one way to resolve territorial disputes of the nature of the one concerning the Cypriot gas field, negotiation.  Israel, however, doesn’t believe it negotiation.  It believes in naked projections of military strength.  An Israeli base on Cyprus would be a forward projection of Israeli power in the same way that the U.S. base in Diego Garcia is our forward projection of power into the Mideast (currently threatening Iran, but previously used to bolster invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan).

It’s bad enough with the U.S. making a pretense of being the cop of the world and getting itself mired in places it should never be.  But do we want Israel, with its history of wars and endless bloodshed, tangling not just with Palestinians or Arab militant groups like Hezbollah, but with full-fledged regional powers like Turkey?  Let’s not forget that country’s age-old rivalry with Greece which has also led to centuries of historic conflict.  Now Israel is playing footsie with the Greeks and becoming best friends with the current economic basket case of Europe.  Greece is only too happy to oblige and take advantage of the power Israel has to offer.

Do we really want Israel playing with fire in this way?  I fear this can only end badly.

Another related matter that concerns me is the economic bonanza that this new-found oil portends for Israel, one of the most economically striated nations in the world.  The new gas and oil deals promise to make the Israeli elite even richer.  It will bring untold billions to Israeli politicians and generals who will flock to consult for the new enterprises (as has Meir Dagan).  One place this wealth will not go, is into the pockets of those who need it most inside Israel: the poor, the disenfranchised, etc.  The Haredi and Israeli Palestinian poor will stay poor.  There will be few, if any programs to share the wealth or provide benefits to those in need.  After all, this is Bibi Netanyahu, a disciple of Milton Friedman, an economic Hobbesian.  It’s dog-eat-dog in the Likud world.  Just as long as Bibi and his party cronies are taken care of, little else matters.

In truth, this would likely happen whoever was in power.  The only thing that would change is the names and faces of those benefitting.  Labor and Kadima would be no better as anyone who knows about Ehud Barak’s wealth-producing consulting jobs while he was out of power, is aware.  So for any who believe in the dreams of liberal Zionism and the Declaration of Independence, that Israel is a nation meant to realize a vision of brotherhood, tolerance and human dignity, the coming oil boom will frustrate you.  But undoubtedly, if you’re a liberal Zionist, you’ll, as Tim Hardin wrote, “still look to find a reason to believe.”

March 28, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli occupation authority demolished 20 Palestinian homes in West Bank last week

Palestine Information Center – 25/03/2012

RAMALLAH — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has demolished 20 Palestinian homes in the West Bank over the past week, a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian land said on Sunday.

The report said that the demolition streak took place in the Jordan Valley and displaced 60 people including 26 children.

It said that IOA bulldozers damaged 100 dunums in Salfit’s Kufr Al-Deek village and uprooted 100 olive saplings in Beit Dajan village in Nablus at the pretext they were planted in a military area.

OCHA pointed out that 29 Palestinians were wounded in Israeli occupation forces’ crackdown on a peaceful demonstration in Kufr Qadum to the north of Qalqilia last week.

The report also said that a 14-year-old boy was badly injured when Israeli army ordnance exploded near him in the Jordan Valley.

Related articles

March 26, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel Boycotts UN Rights Council over Settlement Investigation Decision

Al-Manar | March 26, 2012

Israel decided on Monday to cut contact with the United Nations Human Rights Council after last week’s decision to establish an international investigative committee on the settlements that the occupation is building in the West Bank, Haaretz reported Monday.

According to the Zionist website, “the Israeli foreign ministry ordered the Israeli ambassador to Geneva to cut off contact immediately, instructing him to ignore phone calls from the commissioner.”

Quoting an un-named official, Haaretz pointed out that this step would enable the Zionist entity to “bar any fact-finding team dispatched by the council from entering Israel and the West Bank to investigate settlement construction.”

“We will not permit members of the human rights council to visit Israel and our ambassador has been instructed to not even answer phone calls,” the official said.

Related articles

March 26, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , | Leave a comment

South Sudan and Israel discuss bilateral cooperation

Sudan Tribune | March 24, 2012

JUBA – South Sudan and Israel on Friday discussed bilateral cooperation and diplomatic relations.

South Sudan said it will establish an embassy in Jerusalem, the Holy city, rather than the political capital, Tel Aviv, following the recent visit of the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir.

On Friday the visiting Israeli ambassador, Dan Shaham, met with the vice president of South Sudan, Riek Machar, and discussed issues pertaining to the bilateral cooperation between the two states.

The issues included the support the Israeli government will provide to the new state as well as the status of some 1,500 South Sudanese currently residing in Israel.

Shaham gave assurances that South Sudanese refugees in Israel will be trained in various skills so they can contribute to the young nation upon repatriation.

Machar stressed the importance of establishing a Hebrew language school in the South Sudan’s capital, Juba.

They also discussed the plans for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by South Sudanese Christian leaders.

The Vice President and the Israeli diplomat also discussed the ongoing disarmament of civil populations in Jonglei state. They also touched on the situation in the Middle East, particularly with the current violent events in Syria.

With the independence of the South Sudan in July 2011, Israel announced on 31 January that South Sudanese are no longer considered refugees and have to leave the Jewish state before the first of April of face forced deportation.

The UN refugee agency, HCR, said only some 60 South Sudanese agreed to return voluntarily to their new nation before April 1. The Israeli Interior ministry recently said no South Sudanese have appealed the decision to deport them or applied for refugee status since January.

Following its decision to send South Sudanese to their country, the Israeli authorities agreed, upon the request of the HCR, to give them the possibility to petition to stay in Israel. The official statics estimate that there are some 3000 South Sudanese in Israel.

Related articles

March 25, 2012 Posted by | Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel Warns Against Global March to Jerusalem

Israel forgets the fact that the United Nations declared Jerusalem to be an “International City” not owned by any one nation in 1947 due to its cultural importance to Christians, Jews, and Muslims. – Window Into Palestine

23 March 2012 / PNN

Israel issued a warning to the nearby Arab states if they allowed the global march to take place next Friday 30th March. Israel also stated that if anyone neared their borders, they would be accused of trespassing.

It claimed that the march is organized by “anti-Israeli parties” and said that this march won’t be allowed to reach Israel’s borders.

Political sources said that the Israeli government sent warning letters to governments including; Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Hamas’ in the West Bank and to the Palestinian authority, asking them to put a stop to the possible escalation of tension as a result of these marches.

Israeli military authorities put a “security plan” in place, to face the risk of the flow of protesters to the borders. The plan will be presented in a meeting of the Israeli government on Sunday, 25th March to implement it.

According to the Israeli correspondent of the Israeli official TV, this plan contains strategies to suppress the masses, which the Israeli military units in the Army and border guards have trained for.

Two months ago, the international committee of the Global March to Jerusalem began organizing the global march under the logo “Freedom for Jerusalem, No Occupation, No Ethnic Cleansing and Segregation, No for Judaising of Palestine, its land and holy sites.”

The committee chose 30th March to coincide with the anniversary of Palestinian “land day”; Palestine Land Day is a day celebrated by Palestinians on 30th March each year. The event marks the events of March, 1976, following the Israeli authority’s confiscation of thousands of dunums of private and public land in the majority of Palestinian areas, especially the Galilee. Following these events the Arab masses inside Palestine declared a general strike, confronting the Israeli authorities for the first time since the occupation of Palestine in 1948. The Israeli response was militant and violent, as the Israeli troops, backed up by tanks, entered Palestinian villages and re-occupied them, causing a number of martyrs and many wounded and detainees among the civilians.

The march will unite the efforts of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and all citizens of conscience in the world to put an end to Israel’s disregard for international law through the continuing occupation of Jerusalem and Palestinian land.

Massive marches will be organized in Palestine, as well as from Asia, Africa and Europe to and in neighbouring countries to Palestine (Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon) and towards Jerusalem or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each country and through the coordination between all groups and institutions of civil society taking part in the march, in coordination with the official and national bodies concerned.
Mass protests will also be organized in front of Israeli embassies in the capitals of different countries and in the main public squares in the big cities of the world, including the Arab and Muslim capitals and large cities.

Related articles

March 25, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »