Protests around the world respond to assault on Palestine
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Protests are being organized in cities around the world to respond to the ongoing assault on Palestine and the Palestinian people, including the murders of Palestinians (including 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, murdered brutally by Israeli settlers), the bombing of Gaza, the mass arrests of over 600, and the raids, attacks, tear-gassing, invasions and closure that Palestinians are being subjected to. If a rally you know of is not listed, please email samidoun@samidoun.ca to have it posted!
Updated August 7th
Click Here for Latest Update
Fort Wayne, IN, US
Thursday, August 7
5:30 PM
Allen County Courthouse
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/823285487689263
Ann Arbor, MI, US
Thursday, August 7
7:00 PM
City Hall Council Chamber
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Friday, August 8
4:30 PM
Huron Church and College
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1450666935220518/
Liege, Belgium
Friday, August 8
5:00 PM
Place du Marche
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/279130732290848/
Toulouse, France
Friday, August 8
6:00 PM
Place du Capitole
More info: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1651587495067080&set=gm.681860725222422&type=1
Brussels, Belgium
Friday, August 8
12:30 PM
Israeli Embassy
Charleroi, Belgium
Friday, August 8
6:00 PM
Hotel de Ville, place Charles II
San Francisco, CA, US
Friday, August 8
5:15 PM
Montgomery and Market St
All Women and Trans Folks Welcome
Dublin, Ireland
Friday, August 8
6:00 PM
Dolphin’s Barn Bridge
Atlanta, Georgia
Friday, August 8
6:00 PM
1100 Spring Street -Israeli Consulate
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/254345961427431/
Adelaide, Australia
Friday, August 8
5:00 PM
Adelaide Parliament
Grand Rapids, MI, US
Friday, August 8
4:00 PM
Federal Courthouse
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/493862610749604/
London, UK
Friday, August 8
3:00 PM
G4S Headquarters
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/749192728471429/
Wilmington, DE, US
Friday, August 8
3:30 PM
Senator Coons’ Office, 1105 N Market
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1519275064971962/
New York, NY, US
Friday, August 8
12:00 PM
42nd St & 2nd Avenue
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/556829777762222/
Amiens, France
Saturday, August 9
Bordeaux, France
Saturday, August 9
3:00 PM
La Victoire
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1441012499519868/
New York, NY, US
Saturday, August 9
1:00 PM
Columbus Circle
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/744268822285936/
Seattle, WA, US
Saturday, August 9
12:00 PM
Westlake Center
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/665212870225672/
London, UK
Saturday, August 9
More info: http://stopwar.org.uk/events/august-9-national-demonstration-for-gaza-no-excuses-be-there#.U9x8sPmSxqX
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
Yonge-Dundas Square
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/835465126471293/
Albany, NY, US
Saturday, August 9
1:00 PM
NY State Capital Building
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/617078228390029/
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, August 9
1:00 PM
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/746332655428881/
Cape Town, South Africa
Saturday, August 9
11:00 AM
Keizersgracht to the Parliament
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/262165200657949/
Edinburgh, Scotland
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
The Mound
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1440297699590901/
Washington, DC
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
White House
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1461155427474072/
Dublin, Ireland
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
The Spire
London, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, August 9
7:00 PM
Victoria Park
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/759801407403864/
Lyon, France
Saturday, August 9
3:00 PM
Place des terreaux
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/310113679166393/
Vancouver, Canada, unceded Coast Salish Territories
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
Broadway and Commercial
Ottawa, Ontario
Saturday, August 9
1:00 PM
Gather at the Human Rights Monument (Elgin and Lisgar) for a rally and march
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/334075753433247/
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
Saturday, August 9
12:00 PM
Diana Krall Plaza
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/347620755389398
Bergen, Norway
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
Festplassen
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/693715900700338/
New Delhi, India
Saturday, August 9
2:00 PM
Israeli Embassy
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/278657995653273/
Melbourne, Australia
Saturday, August 9
1:00 PM
State Library
Sydney, Australia
Saturday, August 9
1:00 PM
Sydney Town Hall
Brisbane, Australia
Saturday, August 9
11:00 AM
King George Square
Perth, Australia
Saturday, August 9
11:00 AM
Murray Street Mall
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Saturday, August 9
TBA
More info: https://www.facebook.com/psnedmonton
Richmond, VA, US
Saturday, August 9
12:00 PM
West Broad and Belvidere
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/251423911733048/
Victoria, BC, Canada
Sunday, August 9
12:00 PM
BC Legislature
More info: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152169306840938&set=gm.558408540929917&type=1&relevant_count=1
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Saturday, August 9
2:30 PM
Manitoba Legislative Building
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/755322694509356/
Paris, France
Saturday, August 9
3:00 PM
Denfert-Rochereau
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/255815984614125/
Annecy, France
Saturday, August 9
3:00 PM
Prefecture d’Annecy
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/489117987891714/
Berlin, Germany
Saturday August 9
3:00 PM
Axel Springer Haus
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/789194934466038
Utrecht, Netherlands
Sunday, August 10
2:00 PM
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1438437706436760/
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, August 10
4:00 -8:00 PM
Celebration Square
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1480697442177557/
Chicago, IL, US
Sunday, August 10
3:00 PM
Michigan and Congress
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/272726909597065/
Montreal, Quebec
Sunday, August 10
12:00 PM
Place Emilie-Gamelin
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/538906192875894/
Los Angeles, CA, US
Sunday, August 10
1:00 PM
Federal Building, 1100 Wilshire
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1482387852007381/
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, August 10
2:30 PM
Israeli Consulate
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/335278933294901/
Chesapeake, VA, US
Sunday, August 10
2:00 PM
Greenbrier and Volvo Parkways
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/269496266573029/
New York, NY, US
Sunday, August 10
3:00 PM
Barclay Center
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/553918528067591/
Reading, UK
Sunday, August 10
2:00 PM
Broad St Mall
Chico, CA, US
Sunday, August 10
7:30 PM
Chico City Plaza
More info: chicopalestineaction@gmail.com
Brussels, Belgium
Sunday, August 10
2:00 PM
Gare du Nord
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/594013084048788/
Canberra, Australia
Sunday, August 10
1:00 PM
Israeli Embassy
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Monday, August 11
6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Verdi Banquet Hall, 3550 Derry Rd
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1527960680759082/
Cartagena, Spain
Monday, August 11
8:30 PM
Plaza De Espana
Belfast, Ireland
Monday, August 11
6:30 PM
Asda, West Belfast
Boston, MA, US
Monday, August 11
5:30 PM
Boston City Hall Plaza
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/812176275483913/
Honolulu, Hawai’i
Wednesday, August 13
Time TBA
John F Kennedy Theatre UH Manoa
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/905240319490522/
Phoenix, AZ, US
Thursday, August 14
7:00 PM
Chandler City Hall
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/341067046040908/
Oakland, CA, US
Saturday, August 16
5:00 AM
West Oakland BART (Block the Boat)
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1447374682195857/
Sunderland, UK
Saturday, August 16
2:30 PM
High Street West (outside Marks & Spencer)
Tipperary, Ireland
Saturday, August 16
2:00 PM
Market Square
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/270012553206031/
Hamtramck, MI, US
Saturday, August 16
12:00 PM
Caniff St and Joseph Campau
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/457504094391468/
New Zealand
Saturday, August 16
National Day of Action
Cities/Times TBA
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/495318450613242/
Auckland, New Zealand
Saturday, August 16
2:00 PM
Aotea Square
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/495318450613242/
Hamilton, New Zealand
Saturday, August 16
1:00 PM
Garden Place
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/495318450613242/
Christchurch, New Zealand
Saturday, August 16
2:30 PM
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/273837992801892/
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, August 17
1:00 PM
MAECD, 125 Sussex Drive
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/313783498789402/
Brussels, Belgium
Sunday, August 17
2:00 PM
North Station – Gare du Nord
Manchester, UK
Sunday, August 17
5:00 PM
Piccadilly Square
Utrecht, Netherlands
Sunday, August 17
3:00 PM
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/513126548787621/
Southampton, UK
Saturday, August 23
3:30 PM
Peace Fountain
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1452880238327546/
Caught on camera: Israeli police beating 15yo cousin of murdered Palestinian teen
RT | July 5, 2014
A shocking video, showing Israeli police officers savagely beating 15-year-old Palestinian-American Tarek Abu Khdeir – cousin of Mohammad Abu Khdeir who was burnt alive in East Jerusalem – has prompted outrage in the Palestinian community.
The video shows two officers striking the detainee, who was handcuffed and lying on the floor. One of the officers seems to be sitting on the Palestinian, while his colleague is kicking and punching him. The youth is eventually dragged away by the police.
The video of Tarek’s beating has surfaced as the funeral was held Friday for his cousin, Mohammad Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped in the same area and burned alive.
The beating, shot from two different angles by people filming from their windows, took place on Thursday evening in Shuafat, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
One of the videos was broadcast on the Palestine Today television channel.
The second video posted on Facebook by Quds News Network shows the same incident.
Tariq has since been arrested and held without charge, according to his family and the rights group Addameer, as reports the Ma’an News Agency.
According to a police spokesman, the incident featured in the video occurred while six “masked rioters” were being arrested. Three of them were alleged to have been carrying knives.
“They resisted arrest and attacked the soldiers,” the spokesman said, adding that Molotov cocktails were hurled toward the police, an attack he described as “nearly fatal.”
Nevertheless, he said that the incident is being investigated. According to the spokesman, some 15 soldiers and police officers were wounded in the riots in East Jerusalem on Thursday.
Tensions rose after Mohammad Abu Khdeir’s body was found on Wednesday.
Since then, dozens were injured by rubber bullets, including six journalists, and three people suffered fractures after being assaulted by Israeli police officers, Ma’an reported.
According to the Palestinian Red Cross, 232 people have been injured in these clashes, six of them by live bullets, AFP reports.
Mohammad Abu Khdeir’s body was found on Wednesday in a West Jerusalem forest. A preliminary autopsy report shows that he was burned alive by his kidnappers, a senior Palestinian official said on Friday evening. Unrest has continued in East Jerusalem after the funeral.
Palestinians accuse right-wing Israelis of kidnapping and killing Abu Khdeir. The murder is thought to be a revenge attack in response to the killing of three Israeli teens, who were buried the day before.
Israeli police say the circumstances behind Mohammad Abu Khdeir’s killing remain unclear.
See also:
Kidnapped and slain Arab teen was burned alive – autopsy results
Autopsy shows Palestinian youth burnt alive
By Chris Carlson | International Middle East Media Center | July 5, 2014
Initial autopsy reports reveal that 16-year-old Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, was still breathing when he was burnt after being assaulted by his Israeli kidnappers.
General Palestinian Prosecutor, Mohammad Abul-Ghani al-Oweiwy, attended the West Bank autopsy after body was handed over to a medical team.
Forensic studies found chars in the lungs, indicating that Muhammad was still breathing while he was being burned, according to WAFA. 90% of the child’s body was burned, varying from 1st to 4th degree in severity.
The child was also beaten on the head, as signs of beating and concussion were clear.
The Palestinian Forensic Center has taken samples and tissues from the body, to be submitted for further analysis before a final detailed report can be revealed, according to Arabs48.
16-year-old Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir was abducted from outside his home, in the Shu’fat district of occupied East Jerusalem, by a group of Israelis who forced him into a car and sped off.
The teen’s burned body was found hours later in a vacant lot in another part of the city, sparking protests in his home neighborhood which are ongoing at the time of this report.
Over 200 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli army fire in ongoing clashes with Israeli soldiers, in different parts of occupied Jerusalem and nearby towns, following the abduction.
His funeral was held Friday, amidst further clashes with Israeli forces.
Understanding Israel’s Actions
By MAHMOUD ABU RAHMA | CounterPunch | July 4, 2014
It is essential that US citizens understand that this conflict should not continue to be viewed as a symmetrical one anymore. When they do not hear about it, there are vicious violations of international law against Palestinians every day; including closures/blockades, settlement activities (population transfer on account of our land and natural resources), displacement, killings, detention and torture.
We were all occupied by the developments in the past few days, and shocked to find out about killings. The Israeli government kept from us all that the three settler teenagers were killed from the first day because they wanted to carry out a large military operation in the occupied Palestinian territory. This operation saw hundreds of Palestinians arrested, tortured, killed and injured. Dozens of attacks were also directed at the besieged Gaza Strip. Incitement to violence and hatred went very high.
Since 12 June 2014, the day the teenage settlers went missing, Israel declared that its operation had two aims: find them and put pressure on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to abandon a recent unity agreement and return to full separation between Gaza and the West Bank. Now we know that the Israeli government knew they were killed from the first day; however, the operation to destroy Palestinian unity and reinstate separation is ongoing. Separation and isolation, if successful, will allow Israel to annex large areas in the West Bank and divide Palestinians to keep them under control by military force; as opposed to a peace agreement that would end the occupation of the territory captured by Israel in 1967. This is a typical case of using violence to achieve political; not security, gains. In doing so, Israel has violated the human rights of Palestinian civilians in many ways, and has created an environment that allowed for kidnapping, murdering, and running over of Palestinian children by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Americans need to understand this situation. This conflict has not started on 12 June this year, but decades ago. The occupation of oPt [occupied Palestinian territories] in the manner Israel is doing it has been, and will continue to be, the reason behind such tragedies. They should expect to hear about more serious violations of human rights and international law, and they will hear all the security justifications for them. I hope they understand that buying such justifications will only help such violations to continue as Israel pursues fragmenting and destroying the Palestinian people for political reasons.
Mahmoud AbuRahma is communications and international relations director for the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza.
Israeli Police Beat 15-year-old Palestinian-American Cousin of Teen Murdered on Wednesday
IMEMC | July 4, 2014
A Palestinian teenager identified by local sources as the cousin of the 16-year-old who was murdered on Wednesday was beaten and abducted by Israeli police on Thursday, and was refused medical treatment for his broken nose and other injuries while in custody.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported that over 170 Palestinians have been injured since Monday, when the bodies of three Israeli teenagers who had gone missing two weeks earlier were found.
15-year old Tariq was allegedly participating in one of several protests that took place in Shu’fat and nearby areas after Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, was abducted by Israelis, according to eyewitnesses, and later found burned to death on Wednesday.
Hundreds of Palestinians took part in the protests, which were met with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and concussion grenades. At least three incidents have been reported of Israeli police and military using live ammunition against the demonstrators. Of the 170 injured since Monday, at least six are journalists.
Since his death Wednesday, the family of Muhammed Abu Khdeir has faced interrogations, DNA tests and a misinformation campaign started by the Israeli police to claim, based on no evidence, that the boy was killed in a family dispute — in addition to the Israeli police refusing to look at surveillance video showing the assailants, which would normally be a major part of an investigation.
The attack on the 15-year-old appears to be the latest affront to a family that is mourning the brutal death of a child. Tariq is a Palestinian-American who was staying with family in Jerusalem when he was beaten and abducted by Israeli police. The full extent of his injuries are still unknown.
Israeli forces attack mosque in village near Salfit, detaining and beating a child
Photo by a villager from Qarawat Bani Hassan
International Solidarity Movement | July 3, 2014
Qarawat Bani Hassan, Occupied Palestine – At 9 o’clock in the evening of July 2nd, Israeli forces invaded the small Palestinian village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, approximately 10 km northwest of Salfit in the northern half of the West Bank.
They approached the mosque in the center of town and fired tear gas and stun grenades inside. One witness described the scene as follows:
“There were maybe 500 people inside the mosque – many old men, women and children. The tear gas was horrible. It was difficult to breathe. The sound bombs were terrifying, and the children were so afraid.”
The motives of the soldiers remain mystifying, since the streets surrounding the mosque had been empty before the attack. “They just come here to make problems,” suggested one witness.
The occupants of the mosque escaped the tear gas, and clashes ensued on the nearby streets. Qasaam Mareh, a fourteen year old boy, was detained by the soldiers. According to witnesses, they interrogated and beat him, before they took him away in a jeep. Qasaam was held for approximately eighteen hours before finally being released the next day.
Drone memo should reverse Gitmo convictions, attorneys claim
RT | July 3, 2014
Attorneys for a Canadian man who spent a decade detained by the United States military at Guantanamo Bay say details in the Obama administration’s recently released “drone memo” exonerates their client of war crimes.
Omar Khadr was only 15 years old when he was captured by American forces in Afghanistan in 2002 and taken to the Bagram Air Base, then Guantanamo, where he later pleaded guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war — according to military prosecutors, Khadr tossed a grenade that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer.
After being transferred to Canadian custody in 2012, Khadr said he pleaded guilty to war crimes because he was “left with a hopeless choice” of either accepting the charges or risk facing “continued abuse and torture” at the hands of his Gitmo jailers.
But in a recent court filing [PDF], lawyers for Khadr, now 27, say a just-published US Department of Justice memorandum contains information that directly challenges the American government’s case against their client.
Khadr’s attorneys wrote this week that the secret “drone memo” released by the White House last month — the DOJ document that the government relied on to justify the 2010 drone strike in Yemen that killed American citizen and suspected AL-Qaeda member Anwar Al-Awlaki — suggests prosecutors had no place to charge the Canadian teenager with murder in violation of the laws of war after he allegedly killed an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan.
The DOJ memo itself was a penned by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel in response to the question of whether Central Intelligence Agency officers — who are not members of the US military — can be blamed for war crimes by launching drone strikes. The memo was written in July 2010, and justified the strike that later that year killed Al-Awlaki.
According to a footnote within the memo, released June 24 of this year due to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, “lethal activities conducted in accordance with the laws of war, and undertaken in the course of lawfully authorized hostilities, do not violate the laws of war by virtue of the fact that they are carried out in part by government actors who are not entitled to the combatant’s privilege.”
“That completely blows away one of the major prongs of the government’s theory in all these Guantanamo cases,” Sam Morison, Khadr’s Pentagon-based lawyer, told The Canadian Press during an interview on Wednesday this week.
Although Khadr was charged with violating the “US common law of war” that dates back centuries, his attorneys say the memo concerning CIA drone strikes suggest such legislation simply doesn’t exist.
“The whole purpose…was to evaluate whether the CIA agents were violating the law,” Morison said. “The only reasonable interpretation of that analysis is that there is no such thing (as the common law of war).”
On Monday this week, Morrison and the rest of Khadr’s legal counsel, filed a motion in Guantanamo’s appeals court asking that the conviction against their client be vacated.
“The Americans made up serious charges that they knew were false,” Dennis Edney, a Canadian based lawyer for Khadr, told the Toronto Star this week. “It’s a complete violation of everything we understand about justice.”
Should Khadr’s attorneys succeed, then a number of cases pertaining to current or former Guantanamo detainees accused of war crimes could be called into question. According to Human Rights Watch, however, only six of the 149 detainees at Gitmo face any formal charges — fewer than the number of prisoners who have died while held there in military custody.
Israeli Air Force Carries Out 34 Air Strikes Against Gaza Amidst Threats of ‘Vengeance’
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News | July 1, 2014
The Israeli Air Force carried out, on Tuesday before dawn, at least 34 air strikes targeting different areas of the Gaza Strip, causing excessive property damage, and at least four injuries.
The WAFA news agency has reported that Israeli F-16 fighter jets fired missiles into different areas of the Gaza Strip, mainly in agricultural and open areas, in addition to several homes and civilian property.
WAFA reported that the army bombarded Gaza, Rafah, Khan Younis, the Central District and the Northern District of the besieged coastal region, adding that Israeli navy ships also participated in the attacks.
Local sources said dozens of Israeli drones remained in the Gaza skies all night, while Israeli helicopters also continue to fly over the Gaza Strip, firing rounds of live ammunition.
Medical sources said Israeli missiles struck agricultural greenhouses seriously wounding four Palestinians, in Khan Younis and Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The four, who worked as guards at the greenhouses, have been moved to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis facing life-threatening conditions.
Israeli officials confirmed the strikes against Gaza, and said that resistance groups also fired shells into Israeli areas across the border.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Hamas would pay the price for the death of the three Israeli settlers, who were found dead, Monday, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, after eighteen days of searches and invasions by the Israeli army.
On his Twitter account, the Israeli Prime Minister posted, “Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created. Neither has vengeance for the blood of 3 pure youths who were on their way home to their parents who will not see them anymore. Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay.”
The Israeli army has killed five Palestinians since the settlers went missing 18 days ago, and dozens have been injured by Israeli army fire. In addition, close to 300 Palestinians have been kidnapped and imprisoned in the 18-day period. Since the bodies were discovered Monday, Israeli attacks, invasions and threats have increased significantly, so these numbers have likely increased in the last 24 hours.
Despite the threats and calls for vengeance, the Israeli government has released no information linking Hamas or any Palestinian groups or individuals to the deaths of the three settlers.
Israeli forces blow up homes of Palestinian suspects’ families
Ma’an – 01/07/2014
HEBRON – Israeli forces in Hebron late Monday blew up the homes of two Palestinians Israel says are prime suspects in the kidnapping and killing of three teens who were found dead earlier that evening, witnesses said.
The two houses, which are both located in the same neighborhood in northwest Hebron, belong to the families of Marwan al-Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Eisha, 33.
After Israeli forces in Halhul north of Hebron found three bodies presumed to be those of three Israeli teens who went missing on June 12, soldiers surrounded the houses, forcibly removed the families, and declared the area a closed military zone, locals said.
Witnesses said the homes were then blown up by explosives.
Locals had told Ma’an earlier that soldiers were preparing to demolish the homes.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that the homes “were not demolished,” but said Israeli forces searched the houses late Monday.
Military sources told Ma’an that soldiers used explosives to break down the doors of the houses, and that a fire caused by the one of the explosions “got a little out of control.”
Video footage, not independently verified by Ma’an, emerged showing an explosion in the Abu Eisha home as Israeli forces were stationed nearby.
Meanwhile, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces, hurling empty bottles and stones at soldiers, who fired tear gas and stun grenades, locals said.
Entrances to Halhul and Hebron were shut down, witnesses added.
Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians in the West Bank military operation that followed the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers from the Gush Etzion settlement on June 12.
The Israeli army said on Thursday that it was still searching for Abu Eisha and al-Qawasmeh.
Abu Eisha’s family has denied the allegations.
Palestinian-American activist held without charges in Jordan
Amer Jubran Defense Campaign | June 29, 2014
We received word this weekend that Amer Jubran was finally granted a visit by family at the General Intelligence Directorate detention facility near Amman, Jordan this past Friday–seven weeks after he was arrested. He appeared to be in good health and his spirit remains strong.
While this news comes as a relief, we are gravely concerned that Amer continues to be detained without charges, in violation both of Jordanian law and of international standards of human rights.
Amer’s detention is a political silencing. It is taking place in the context of new “anti-terrorism” legislation passed in Jordan on June 1, 2014 that criminalizes new categories of speech. According to the human rights organization Alkarama:
“Criticizing or caricaturing a foreign leader, or more generally a policy of a third country, also falls under the definition of terrorism. Thus, any person that has ‘disturbed relations with a foreign country’ can be prosecuted. … More importantly, if an act is qualified as an act of terrorism, authorities can then bring perpetrators of the real or supposed violations, before the State Security Court, an extraordinary jurisdiction. This court lacks independence as it is directly linked to the executive branch, and its members, including one military, are appointed by the Prime Minister.”
Such legislation is designed to protect the interests of US and Israeli political domination, and not the interests of the people of Jordan and the surrounding Arab region.
The Case of Amer Jubran
Amer is a Palestinian political activist who opposed the warmaking policies of the United States and Israel during his 18 year residence in the United States. Shortly after September 2001 he was harassed by US authorities, detained, and finally pushed out of the country. He returned to Jordan, his first country of exile, in 2004. This latest arrest is a continuation of the political repression Amer experienced in the United States.
We do not know if Israel or the US ordered Amer’s arrest, but it is clear that his detention is aimed at silencing a strong voice of dissent against their policies.
We call on all supporters to remain committed to the campaign to win Amer’s freedom. We will be sending out more information soon about next steps.
Israeli forces invade Awarta, ransacking teacher’s home
International Solidarity Movement | June 28, 2014
Awarta, Occupied Palestine – During the early morning hours of June 26, the Israeli army invaded the village of Awarta, 8 km south of Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank. According to witnesses, between 150 and 200 soldiers entered Awarta just after midnight and raided approximately 300 houses before leaving several hours later.
Some residents mentioned that the soldiers knocked on their doors and asked for identification, however this was not the case for Mahmud Awad, a local schoolteacher, and his family.
At midnight approximately 15 soldiers entered Awad’s home and demanded that Awad show them the location of his guns. Were he not to obey, he could be confident that the house would be destroyed. Awad replied that Israeli soldiers had already been to his house many times and had never found anything. He had no guns, he assured them.
The soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed Awad’s 20-year-old son and took him outside for an interrogation that lasted three hours. They herded the rest of the family, which included an eight-month old baby and several other children, into the living room. Again they asked Awad about his guns.
“Watch what we will do if you don’t give them to us!” An Israeli soldier yelled.
The children listened in terror as the soldiers proceeded to ransack the house. They ripped apart sofas and chairs, threw the contents of shelves on the floor, knocked over electrical appliances, destroyed two computers, and slashed the family’s water tank on the roof. Awad begged the soldiers to allow the baby a drink, but this request was denied.
Sometime during the night, Awad’s 13-year-old son was taken outside the living room and interrogated for half an hour. A soldier held his rifle to the boy’s face and demanded the location of the guns. He held a piece of cloth (chloroform, a family member assumed) to the boy’s mouth until he became dizzy.
The soldiers finished searching the house, having found no weapons. They released both of Awad’s sons and left the house at approximately 4 a.m.
Israel has killed 104 Palestinian prisoners in last two decades
MEMO | June 28, 2014
Prisoner support and human rights organisation, Addameer, has said that the Israeli occupation has killed 104 Palestinian prisoners since 1991, when it joined the UN convention against torture.
The organisation said that 54 of them died after being arrested, 27 died because of poor medical treatment and 23 were tortured to death. The last was Arafat Jaradat, who died in February 2013 under torture after a week of his arrest.
Addameer also said that it documented eight extra judicial killings against Palestinians while Israeli occupation forces were combing Palestinian villages and refugee camps in 2013. It also said that five were killed in the on-going campaign, which started on 12 June to find three missing settlers.
In addition, it said that the prisoners are exposed to different kinds of physical and psychological torture, including sexual violence, solitary confinement, ban of sleeping and food for long periods and preventing them meeting with lawyers for 60 days.
Israeli occupation authorities, Addameer said, are violating the fourth Geneva Convention as they are practicing “collective vengeful” punishment against Palestinian civilians under the pretext of searching for the three missing settlers.
Regarding violations of the right for prisoners to go on hunger strike, the organisation said that the Israeli ratification of the force-feeding bill violates international law and international humanitarian law. It also said that Israeli administrative detention is a violation of article 78 of the Geneva Convention.
The organisation said that Israel had ignored the demands to release 130 administrative prisoners, who went on hunger strike for 63 consecutive days. “It has even increased the numbers to 340 as it is carrying out a search mission for the settlers,” the organisation said.
“This is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and mounts to a war crime and war against humanity as it is used widely and systematically,” it said. “It is a kind of torture.”
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From the Archives
Alarmist climate science as a textbook example of groupthink
By Paul MacRae | May 1, 2012
A while ago, I received an email from a friend who asked:
How can many, many respected, competitive, independent science folks be so wrong about [global warming] (if your [skeptical] premise is correct). I don’t think it could be a conspiracy, or incompetence. … Has there ever been another case when so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?
The answer to the second part of my friend’s question—“Has there ever been another case where so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?”—is easy. Yes, there are many such cases, both within and outside climate science. In fact, the graveyard of science is littered with the bones of theories that were once thought “certain” (e.g., that the continents can’t “drift,” that Newton’s laws were immutable, and hundreds if not thousands of others).
Science progresses by the overturning of theories once thought “certain.” … continue
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