Israel Decides To Build 900 Units In Gilo Settlement
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | July 05, 2011
The “Construction and Planning Committee” of the Jerusalem Municipality decided Tuesday to build 700 units for Israeli settlers in the Gilo illegal settlement, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Member of the Jerusalem City Council, Elisha Peleg, stated that the municipality recently approved a plan to construct hundreds of new residential units in Jewish settlements in the area.
Peleg added that “the Construction and Planning Committee approved a plan to build 900 units in Gilo settlement”. There are more than 40.000 Israeli settlers living in Gilo.
Gilo was built on privately-owned Palestinian lands occupied by Israel in 1967, and was annexed to the Jerusalem district.
Peleg added that “there is no difference between Gilo and any other part of Jerusalem”, and that Israel “has the right to build anywhere it wants”.
The new construction plan still requires the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Interior and will likely be implemented within a year or two, the Times Live reported.
All settlements in the occupied territories, including in occupied East Jerusalem, are built in direct violation of the International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention as “an occupying power cannot move all or part of its population into areas it occupies”.
Israel’s ongoing construction and expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was one of the main issues that pushed the Palestinian Authority to withdraw from peace talks with Israel.
Israel’s refusal to hold talks core issues, such as borders, the refugees and the future of Jerusalem, in addition to the ongoing invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, the demolishing of homes and settler takeover of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, pushed the Palestinian Authority to halt peace talks with Israel.
There are more than 500.000 Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel Plans To Double Settlement Area In Jordan Valley
By Kevin Murphy | IMEMC and Agencies | July 01, 2011
Israel has announced a plan to double the size of its settlements in the strategic Jordan Valley area in the West Bank. The move was announced in Haaretz’ daily financial paper The Marker. The plan foresees a doubling in agriculture areas given to settlers in the region.
The settler department of the Zionist Federation proposed new plan for the Jordan Valley, which is expected to be approved by the Agriculture Ministry, will raise to 80 Durnams the amount of land given individually to settler farmers, an increase of 130%. The plan also raises from 30 cubic metres to 51 cubic metres of water per settler farmer per year in an area already plagued by water shortages for Palestinian farmers.
The plan is designed to accommodate the growth of current settlements as well as attract new settler families to the resource rich Valley, according to the Zionist Federation.
Human rights organization BT Selem has strongly criticized Israeli settlement and natural resource exploitation policies in the mineral and resource rich region. The organization reported extensive exploitation of water and mineral resources such as rock and dead sea minerals as well as the financial exploitation of religious and other tourist sites in the area by the Israeli state.
The head of the settlement department, Yaron ben Ezra, claimed the value of agricultural goods in the region reached NIS 458m in 2010 not including Palestinian farmers output.
The Jordan Vally is the most resource and mineral rich area of Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Israel has extensively targeted the region for Israeli settlement allowing it to divert the local resources from Palestinian use as well as creating a defensive “buffer zone” between Israel and Jordan.
A recent opinion poll by the Israeli Association for Civil Rights showed that most Israeli’s are unaware that the Jordan Valley is occupied under international law and that Palestinians constitute the the majority of residents in the area.
Soldiers block critical mass cyclists, string barbed wire across street
Street declared a “closed military zone”
International Solidarity Movement | June 30, 2011
70 cyclists from Hebron and surrounding areas, as well as 15 international cyclists, pedaled through Hebron on Tuesday in an attempt to challenge restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement. The group set off from near the centre of the city and cycled in unison through the streets of Hebron, waving Palestinians flags. Bikes were decorated with signs saying “We have the right to move”, “The wheels of change are in motion”, and “Bikes against borders” in English and Arabic.
The demonstration was guided by the Palestinian National Cycling Team and included both children and adults who demanded the right to move freely, cycle, and play in their city without the threat of violence and intimidation from the Israeli occupation forces. As the bikers moved through the streets, people waved, shouted and honked in support.
As the cyclists tried to cycle towards the Old City they found that the demonstration’s route had been blocked by 30 border police and soldiers, as well as two barbed wire fences stretched across the street. The group peacefully asked the border police to let them pass and continue their journey as soldiers pointed guns at them from the roofs of a nearby house. The police and the soldiers informed the cyclists that the street had been declared “a closed military zone,” but refused to show a document proving it. The cyclists were ordered to turn back and leave the area, without being given any explanation for the street closure other than usual ambiguous “security reasons”. The group stayed at the road blockade for 20 minutes, peacefully negotiating with the soldiers and stating their opposition to violation of their right to freedom of movement. Finally, the cyclists moved away from the barbed wire and the Israeli occupation forces and continued their demonstration on an alternative route for another 30 minutes.
Palestinian man still under arrest after demonstration in Beit Ommar on Saturday
29 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Ommar
Two international activists are released following their arrest and court hearing in Jerusalem, while a Palestinian man is still under custody following a peaceful demonstration in Beit Ommar that occurred on June 25th.
The two international activists and a 22 year old Palestinian were brutally arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Beit Ommar, in the southern region of the West Bank. The non-violent demonstration took place there and was nearing its end when approximately ten Israeli soldiers and border police arrested the 22 year old Palestinian man with force. The man’s t-shirt was ripped into pieces as he was being arrested. He was restrained to the ground and kneed in the chest. A soldier later twisted his handcuffs aggressively, contorting the man’s wrists, cutting the man on both wrists. When trying to reach the Palestinian man and assist him, an international activist was violently thrown to the ground by a border police. The activist, from Sweden, landed on her back and a soldier pinned her to the ground, laying heavily on top of her and making it hard for her to breathe. Another activist, also from Sweden, identified him as the captain in charge of the soldiers that day. A sound bomb was thrown next to the activist, after which she was handcuffed and arrested. In the tumult occurring after the sound bomb, another international activist was grabbed and arrested while trying to help the other from the ground.
Both activists were blindfolded for three hours at a military base, and then taken to a police station. One of the activists was released after 12 hours, and the other was released after 24 hours, after being taken to jail and court in Jerusalem. They were both released without charges. The Palestinian man, however, is still under custody awaiting his trial in court, which has been postponed until Thursday, June 30th.
Beit Ommar is located to the south of Hebron, with a significant amount of village land usurped by the “security fence” of the neighboring illegal settlement Karmei Tzur, built about five years ago.
Israel passes draft law requiring Palestinians to pay for their own home demolitions
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News | June 29, 2011
A Committee of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a first draft of a law that will require that Palestinians whose homes are destroyed by Israeli forces pay the Israeli government for the demolition costs.
The law will now be passed to the full Knesset for a final reading, where it is expected to pass due to the current makeup of the Knesset.
Since 1967, Israeli forces have demolished 24,813 Palestinian homes. 90% of these homes were destroyed for ‘administrative’ reasons – because they either lacked a permit or were in an area designated for expansion by the Israeli military. No permits have been issued by Israeli authorities for Palestinian construction in the Occupied Territories since 1967. The remaining 10% of the demolitions have been ‘punitive’ demolitions of the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israel, or of their families’ homes.
In the first five months of 2011, Israeli forces demolished more Palestinian homes than in the entire year of 2010, rendering homeless 706 Palestinians, including 341 minors. This is according to the most recent numbers released by the Israeli Civil Administration.
If the law passes the full Knesset, any Palestinian whose home is destroyed by the Israeli military will have to pay thousands of dollars to cover the cost of the demolition. Already, many Palestinian homeowners, mainly in Jerusalem, have been forced to pay for the forced demolition of their homes.
Israeli forces use US-made armored D9 bulldozers, manufactured by the Caterpillar Corporation, to carry out the demolition of Palestinian homes. This has led US and international activists to call for a boycott of the Caterpillar corporation, saying that the use of the bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes is a violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Challenging Racism by Israelis on Every Front
By Gulamhusein A. Abba / Dissident Voice / June 27, 2011
The pressure on Israel is building. Non violent protests by the Palestinians are increasing in numbers and size. As predicted by me in an earlier article, they will soon escalate and go one notch further, adopting Gandhi’s concept of not mere passive protest but active non-violent civil disobedience. It will not be long before thousands of Palestinians and their Israeli supporters will march to checkpoints and attempt to break through without waiting for “clearance” from young, arrogant Israeli soldiers manning them. Tunisian and type mass protests that are taking place all over the Middle East are bound to take place in Palestine also. No one need be surprised to see many Israelis joining them.
It is encouraging to see that while the international community represented in the UN seems paralyzed, the common, peace and justice loving people from around the world are ready to lend their support to the brave people of Palestine. They are beginning to say “enough is enough”. They are demanding that Israel comply with International law and human rights.
On July 8 hundreds of activists – about 500 estimated so far — from all over the world will converge on Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, and this time they will not lie about their reason for being there. They will openly and truthfully declare to the Israeli security that they are there to go to the West Bank to help the people there and participate in nonviolent solidarity actions.
These solidarity actions are scheduled to take place from July 8-16 in coordination with 15 Palestinian civil resistance organizations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The purpose of these actions is to show that not only are the actions of Israel in Gaza reprehensible but that Israeli repression in the West Bank and Jerusalem is no less condemnable and is part of an attempt by Israel at ethnic cleansing and colonization.
I long to join them. Unfortunately, I do not have the money to go there. Also, my holding an Indian passport and living in the US makes getting the necessary paperwork done difficult – not to mention my 83 years and poor health.
Why are hundreds of internationals giving up the comforts of their homes to go to Ben Gurion Airport and subject themselves to the certain humiliations and invasive interrogations by the Israel security — and deportation that seems certain to follow?
Why are other internationals sailing in boasts to go to Gaza and risk being bombed by the Israelis?
Why do I long to go there?
Basically because having come to know of the injustice, hardships, trials and tribulations, deaths and tragedy on a vast scale being suffered by the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, being quiet, saying nothing, doing nothing, is no longer an option. Silence, in such situations, is complicity.
For long we have agonized over our helplessness to help. For long we have wondered what we could do.
Michael Riordon in his book Our Way to Fight writes: “Yet in the face of overwhelming harm, the question arises: “What can I do?” The victims ask, our conscience asks. So does a shared interest in a livable world. What can I do?
“During Athens street protests in 2008, a Greek blogger answered, beautifully: “We have a duty to move here, there, anywhere except back to our couches as mere viewers of history, back home to the warmth that freezes our conscience.”
The convergence at the Ben Gurion Airport on July 8, the solidarity actions in Palestine from July 8 to 16, sailing on Flotilla II provide some opportunities to do something.
Israeli apartheid days are numbered, and now is the moment to challenge it on every front.
Action is the best antidote to despair. Besides, it bears repeating, silence is complicity.
Soldiers order Palestinian farmers to stop work
Ma’an – 27/06/2011
NABLUS — Israeli forces on Monday stopped Palestinian farmers working on their land in villages in the northern West Bank, a local agricultural committee said.
Farmers were working in Jurish and Aqraba villages as part of a land reclamation project but soldiers said the farmland had been confiscated and now belonged to Israel, committee coordinator Yousif Deiriyya said.
Deiriyya added that forces confiscated a backhoe.
The committee for the union of agricultural workers said Friday that Israeli forces confiscated a vehicle from farmers and ordered them to stop work in the same area.
Land reclamation projects aim to improve the source of income for families which rely on agriculture and also serve to protect vulnerable land from Israeli confiscation.
The project is carried out by the committee for the union of agricultural workers in partnership with Palestinian non-governmental organizations under the management of agricultural relief committees. It is funded by the Dutch government.
Ethan Bronner’s ‘benign occupation’
By Ilene Cohen | Mondoweiss | June 26, 2011
Prior to the First Intifada in December 1987 Israelis used to boast about their “benign” occupation—indeed, the “most benign occupation” in the world. Following the outbreak of the First Intifada, that mantra disappeared from the discourse. But, when things are looking bad on the PR front and you’ve got nothing else to pull out of your hat, I guess it’s time to bring it back. The “benign occupation” trope (again, without using those words) has been a key Netanyahu talking point in discussing the “economic miracle” of the West Bank. They lapped it up in Congress last month.
Presumably even Ethan Bronner doesn’t have the chutzpah to use those words, but the meaning of his front page article in today’s New York Times is clear. Here is the opening:
GAZA — Two luxury hotels are opening in Gaza this month. Thousands of new cars are plying the roads. A second shopping mall — with escalators imported from Israel — will open next month. Hundreds of homes and two dozen schools are about to go up. AHamas-run farm where Jewish settlements once stood is producing enough fruit that Israeli imports are tapering off.
As pro-Palestinian activists prepare to set sail aboard a flotilla aimed at maintaining an international spotlight on Gaza and pressure on Israel, this isolated Palestinian coastal enclave is experiencing its first real period of economic growth since the siege they are protesting began in 2007.
“Things are better than a year ago,” said Jamal El-Khoudary, chairman of the board of the Islamic University, who has led Gaza’s Popular Committee Against the Siege. “The siege on goods is now 60 to 70 percent over.”
The article’s title in the paper I received this morning was “A Construction Boom in Gaza’s Lingering Ruins.” It now appears online as “Building Boom in Gaza’s Ruins Belies Misery That Remains.” Either way, the takeaway is the same – what is freedom or liberty or self-determination when you’re lucky enough to have Israel as your occupier/overlords?
11 Settlers Armed with Knives, Stones Attack Palestinian Shepherds in South Hebron Hills
26 June 2011 | Operation Dove, Christian Peacemaker Teams
Around 10 am on Saturday 25 June, Palestinian shepherds were grazing their sheep and goats in the Meshakha Valley when they were attacked by 11 settlers who came over the hill from the nearby illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on, armed with stones and knives.
Israeli soldiers watch as settlers attack Palestinian shepherds in the South Hebron Hills (photo: Operation Dove)
Some of the settlers were masked as they ran toward the shepherds throwing stones, yelling blasphemies against Islam and stating that internationals were now not present to protect them. According to Shaady from Maghayr al Abeed, a settler attacked his donkey with a knife, and when he attempted to stop the attacker and protect his donkey, he was then hit by stones in the back and torso. Blows that took his breath away. Shaady has a huge welt on his back and bruising as a result of the attack.
Sheep and goats were also pummeled with rocks and the shepherds were forced to run to protect their flock. The shepherds were chased for several hundred meters. According to the Palestinian shepherds the soldiers saw the incident and refused to get involved. After the attack, Israeli soldiers were seen greeting and shaking hands with the settlers as they walked back into the trees of the outpost of Havat Ma’on.
Shaady stated that “we need all the people of the world, Europe and America, to see who is the aggressor and how the Palestinians are being treated by the settlers.”
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
Israel Bulldozes Muslim Historic Cemetery To Construct Oxymoronic “Museum of Tolerance”
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | June 26, 2011
Israeli bulldozers started on Saturday at night the destruction of the Ma’man Allah ancient Muslim cemetery, in occupied Jerusalem, as part of the Israeli plan to construct the so-called “Museum of Tolerance” on the cemetery ruins.
The Al Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Foundation reported that the attack was initiated at 11 PM on Saturday at night when three huge bulldozers and two smaller ones, and twenty municipality workers, started the destruction of nearly 100 graves in the three remaining areas of the graveyard.
The destruction targeted the eastern side, the western side and the pool of Ma’man Allah, and aims at including the graveyard area, after its destruction, to be part of the so-called “Tolerance Museum” Israel is planning to build.
The work continued until dawn hours; the graves and the stones were loaded in trucks and were taken away.
The cemetery is in West Jerusalem and is considered one of the largest cemeteries in Jerusalem as it stands on an area of 200 Dunams (nearly 90 acres).
Representatives of the Al Aqsa Foundation went to the graveyard and documented the Israeli violation.
Several month ago, the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem, rejected an appeal filed by the foundation against the destruction of the graves.
In August of last year, Israel bulldozed nearly 300 graves after the foundation renovated nearly 1000 graves that were repeated attacked by extremist settlers.
Basra Provincial Council prevents US Forces from entering Basra
Al-Sumaria TV | June 23, 2011
Basra provincial council voted on a decision to prevent US Forces from entering the province, Al Sadr Front’s Ahrar Bloc said on Wednesday.
Basra provincial council called to withdraw US Forces from Basra International Airport and affirmed that the council’s decision stipulates compensating damaged citizens from US military operations.
“26 out of 35 members at Basra provincial council voted during its ordinary session held on Wednesday night on a draft resolution brought forth by Al Ahrar Bloc preventing US Forces from entering Basra City”, head of Al Ahrar Bloc in Basra Mazen Al Mazeni told Alsumarianews.
The draft resolution calls as well for the full withdrawal of US Forces from Basra International Airport, Al Mazeni added.
“The resolution includes a paragraph that stipulates compensations for damaged citizens from US military operations in Basra, head of the Information and Relations Department at Basra Provincial Council Hashem Luaibi told Alsumarianews.
“The Council has issued its decision based on the entitlements granted by the provincial council law number 21 for the year 2008”, he added.
US Forces in Basra Province, 590 kilometers southern Baghdad, are stationed mostly at the military wing of Basra International Airport, 14 kilometers northwestern Basra. Basra International Airport is divided into two wings, one civilian and another military. The civilian wing is under full control of US authorities while US Forces are stationed at a military base in the airport’s military wing. US and British Embassies are based at the airport as well. Before 2008, Basra airport’s military wing used to come under missile attacks. It was targeted this month several times.
Palestinian Refugees: The Right to Remain, the Right to Return
By Samah Sabawi | Palestine Chronicle | June 24, 2011
I was 12 years old when for the first time in my life I became a citizen of a country – Australia. Before that, I was a stateless Palestinian refugee. There were two laments my parents always repeated whenever they spoke of their place of origin Palestine: if only we could have stayed and if only we could return.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2009 there were more than 10 million refugees around the world in need of assistance. This number does not include the7 million Palestinian refugees, who make up the world’s largest refugee population and whose question is the longest standing at the UN.
The plight of Palestinian refugees began 63 years ago when they were forced out of their homes or fled in fear as the Israeli state established itself on the ruins of their villages and their towns and it has not ended. The fact their issue still stands today, unresolved, is a poignant reminder that states and governments will continue to fail the weak and disenfranchised for the sake of political gains and posturing.
Refugees are by definition powerless, in many cases they are either stateless or have lost the protection of their nation state. They depend on international bodies to rescue them. There are two norms which guide the way the international community deals with refugee issues under the UNHCR, the first is to provide protection and assistance to refugees, and the second is to not return individuals to their own countries against their will or if they are at risk of persecution. However, various human rights conventions have over the years created additional norms that work as guidelines to resolve refugee issues by providing preventative measures to make it possible for people to remain on their land and rather than focusing on resettlement alone, safeguarding the rights of refugees to return to their homes if they choose to.
The concept of ‘preventive protection’ is especially important in the case of Palestinian refugees. The right of individuals and communities to remain in their own country is a principle which rejects the expulsion of ethnic communities or what is now known as ‘ethnic cleansing.’ The U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities has affirmed “the right of persons to remain in peace in their own homes, on their own lands and in their own countries”. The Turku/Abo Declaration on Minimum Humanitarian Standards also provides in Article 7: 1 “All persons have right to remain in peace in their homes and their places of residence.”
Also Article 7 states : “No person shall be compelled to leave their own country”.
Some in Israel may argue that because Palestinian refugees are not citizens of the state, they have no right to refer to the land from which they come from as ‘their country’. This claim is refuted by a litany of legal and human rights experts, most important of all, it is refuted by the UNHCR which defines the Palestinian population as the indigenous people of the land.
Palestinians who live under Israeli occupation face severe measures aimed to uproot them. One example is the practice of revoking residency rights: Hamoked, an Israeli NGO filed a freedom of information request from the Israeli government and found that over 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994. They wrote in a statement “The mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law.”
Another example of an Israeli policy that is at the heart of the creation of the Palestinian refugee crisis is that of house demolition. An Israeli human rights group called the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) estimates at least 24,813 homes were demolished in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza since 1967, and that according to UN figures, during the 2009 Gaza bombing, more than 4,247 Palestinian homes were destroyed.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reports that Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and other buildings reached a record high in March of this year. According to UNRWA, 76 buildings were demolished leading to the displacement of 158 people, including 64 children. UNRWA put the total number of displaced persons in the last six months alone to 333, including 175 children. UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness described the policy as “discrimination against one ethnic group”. These actions are illegal under article 53 of the 4th Geneva Convention and have been roundly criticized by the UN and other international groups, as well as by human rights organisations.
There are various other policies that drive Palestinians out of their homes, especially in Jerusalem where Palestinian neighborhoods are targeted for evictions to make way for Jewish settlers to move in. Once exiled, Palestinians are denied the right to ever return. This is also illegal under international humanitarian law.
The right to return voluntarily and in safety to one’s country of origin or nationality is a right enshrined in the rules of traditional international law and also in Human rights law. The U.N. Security Council has affirmed “the right of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes”. The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities has affirmed “the right of refugees and displaced persons to return, in safety and dignity, to their country of origin and or within it, to their place of origin or choice”.
This right is a pillar of international humanitarian law simply because it acknowledges that human beings form attachments to their native land. This is not a case that is unique to Palestinian refugees; it is one shared by indigenous people everywhere. Attachment to the land of one’s origin is a natural human condition and is precisely why these sentiments and emotional ties are protected.
The Palestinian refugee population will continue to grow because we in the international community have failed to find informed appropriate responses to their cries for help. We must intensify our efforts to prevent the increase of the number of Palestinian refugees that Israel uproots from the land and to help the indigenous people maintain their right to remain on the land. We also need to pressure Israel to make a repatriation offer to all the Palestinian refugees and to allow them to practice the right to return to their homes should they so choose. Failing to do so will set a negative precedent and can have an adverse consequence for the millions of other refugees.
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Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian Australian writer, author of Journey to Peace in Palestine and public advocate of Australians for Palestine. She is a policy advisor for Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. She took part in Refugee Week’s Hebron-Leichhardt Festival of Friendship in Sydney.



