OCHA Report: “370 Injured During Nakba Commemoration”
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News | May 19, 2012
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently issued its weekly report on Israeli violations in the occupied territory for the period between 9- 15 of May, revealing that Israeli soldiers shot at least 370 Palestinians during the Nakba commemoration, and continued their violations in the West bank and the Gaza Strip.
The report indicated that the number of Palestinians injured by Israeli fire since the beginning of this year has reached 1,339, adding that the rate of injuries is 69 a week, comparing to 28 a week last year.
Most of the injuries took place when the soldiers attacked Nakba protests on May 15, especially the protests that were held near the Qalandia terminal, north of Jerusalem, and the Ofer prison terminal near Ramallah.
OCHA further stated that Israel demolished seven Palestinian buildings under the claim that they were built without construction permits.
It said that 27 Palestinians were also injured during a weekly protest against Israeli restrictions preventing Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands near the Qadumim settlement, built on lands that belong to residents of Qalqilia, in the northern part of the West Bank.
OCHA also said that Israeli settlers carried out several attacks against the residents and their lands, leading to several injuries while Israeli settlers cut more than 430 trees, including at least 280 olive trees near Nablus, Salfit and Bethlehem.
The Office said that Israeli settlers cut at least 3,070 trees since the beginning of 2012 (most of them are olive trees), and injured 50 residents.
As for the destruction of property, OCHA stated that, during the reported period, Israel demolished seven Palestinian-owned livelihood structures affecting 40 Palestinians. The buildings are in Burqa in the Nablus district, Al-Jalama near Jenin, and Husan near Bethlehem, in addition to the destruction of a water cistern and the foundations of a house under construction in Beit Hanina neighborhood in East Jerusalem; Israel also issued demolition orders against Palestinian houses in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to OCHA, Israel demolished 285 Palestinian buildings displacing 477 Palestinians, which is a %25 increase comparing structures demolished in 2011.
Israeli soldiers also shot and wounded more than eight Palestinians near the border with Israel, in the Gaza Strip during the reported week. The residents were treated for the effects to teargas inhalation when the soldiers targeted them for “approaching the security fence”; the residents were working in their own lands.
OCHA said that 29 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip and 155 were injured since the beginning of this year.
The Israeli Navy also continued its restrictions and attacks against Palestinian fishermen, as Israel continued to limit the fishing area allotted to Gaza fishermen for only three nautical miles. During the period of this weekly report, the Navy detained fishermen and confiscated their boats; the fishermen were released but the fishing boats remained with Israel.
Fuel shortages and power outages in Gaza continued to hinder the lives of 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza, while the Gaza Power Plant is only producing 25 megawatts of the needed 80 megawatts.
Fuel smuggling into Gaza via siege-busting tunnels this week was less that %15 of the 800,000 – one million liters of diesel and benzene that used to enter Gaza regularly each day prior the onset of fuel crisis in 2011.
The Palestinian Fishermen Syndicate said that the number of fishing trips conducted in recent months witnessed a sharp decrease (less than four trips a month for each fishing boat) compared to 15 trips a month.
It is worth mentioning that more than 65,000 Palestinians depend on fishing as their only source of livelihood in the Gaza Strip but are suffering due to increased Israeli restrictions. In April, Gaza fishermen fished 99.6 Tons.
Please follow the link for the comprehensive report issued by OCHA in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Related articles
- Jewish settlers stealing Palestinian water springs: UN (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- 7 casualties in Israeli artillery shelling east of Gaza (alethonews.wordpress.com)
US: The Shameful Index of Prison Rape
Action on PREA Can End the Violence
By Amy Fettig & Jennifer Wedekind, ACLU National Prison Project | May 17, 2012
Today the Department of Justice released the long-awaited Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations, representing the first time that the federal government has issued national standards to help end sexual abuse in correctional facilities. The regulations are two years late and a lot of harm has been done in their absence, but now that they’ve finally been released they can help us protect important constitutional and human rights and ensure safe and fair correctional facilities that assist prisoners in rehabilitation rather than needlessly brutalizing them. The ACLU supports the Department’s efforts to protect and prevent sexual abuse in places of detention, although we regret that immigration facilities are not yet included in these standards.
Sadly, the problem of prison rape is just as pressing now as it was when Congress passed PREA in 2003. Below is the shameful index of prison rape in prisons, jails and youth detention centers across the country. These numbers reflect a national tragedy. But PREA gives us the critical tools to stop rape in our corrections facilities. Now, federal, state and local governments and the public must take strong and continued action to ensure that the promise of PREA becomes a safe and secure reality.
Number of people imprisoned in the United States: 2.3 million
Number of victims of rape or sexual abuse in U.S. prison, jails and juvenile detention facilities in the past year according to the Justice Department: 216,600 (the DOJ admitted it was likely “underestimating the extent of the problem”)
Number of victims of rape or sexual abuse in U.S. prison, jails and juvenile detention facilities since the initial PREA legislation as signed into law (Sept. 4, 2003): 1,884,909
Number of days past the Department of Justice’s deadline (June 23, 2010) for establishing the final standards: 717
Number of victims of rape or sexual abuse in U.S. prison, jails and juvenile detention facilities since the Department of Justice missed its deadline to establish regulations: 411,332
Percentage of youth in state juvenile facilities and large non-state facilities who experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization in the past 12 months: 12%
Percentage of youth sexually victimized by a corrections staff member: 10.3%
Percentage of former state prisoners reporting one or more incidents of sexual victimization while in jail, prison or post-release community treatment facilities: 9.6%
Percentage of male former state prisoners who identified as homosexual or gay who reported being sexually victimized by another inmate: 39%
Percentage of male bisexual former state prisoners who reported being sexually victimized by another inmate: 34%
Percentage of transgender prisoners reporting being sexually assaulted in prison or jail according to a national survey: 15%
Percentage of black transgender prisoners reporting being sexually assaulted in prison or jail according to a national survey: 34%
Percentage of former state prisoners who experience retaliation in the form of disciplinary charges after reporting sexual victimization by a staff member: 46.3%
Percentage of former state prisoners who reported no facility response at all, after reporting sexual victimization by another prisoner: 37%
Number of states which allow cross-gender pat downs: 30
Number of reported incidents of sexual abuse in immigration detention facilities since 2007: 185
Number of organizations which urged President Obama to instruct the Department of Justice to extend PREA coverage to immigration detention facilities: 38
Number of members of the National Sheriff’s Association, which called on the Department of Justice to extend its PREA regulations to Department of Homeland Security detention centers: 18,000
Related articles
7 casualties in Israeli artillery shelling east of Gaza
Palestine Information Center – 17/05/2012
GAZA — Seven Palestinian citizens were wounded to the east of Gaza city on Thursday in Israeli artillery shelling of the area, medical sources reported.
Adham Abu Salmiya, the spokesman for emergency and ambulance services in Gaza, told the PIC reporter that two of the casualties were in serious condition.
He added that three of the wounded were old men, adding that the casualties were taken to Shifa hospital in moderate condition except the abovementioned two.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired a number of artillery shells at civilian neighborhoods and farmlands east of Shujaia suburb in Gaza city.
IOF soldiers earlier on Thursday raided southern and northern Gaza Strip areas, firing at random and bulldozing land.
Local sources in Khan Younis, south of the Strip, said that eight IOF armored vehicles infiltrated 800 meters into Fakhari area and bulldozed land amidst indiscriminate shooting.
Other IOF units raided northern Beit Lahia town to the north of the Strip while firing at farmers tending to their land.
Abu Salmiya said that no casualties were reported in the northern area despite earlier news of one casualty among the farmers.
~
Ma’an reports:
An Israeli army spokeswoman said forces opened fire toward “several suspects approaching the security fence.”
She said no hit was identified.
An Israeli army spokesman later added that “tank shells were fired towards the terrorists,” near the Karni crossing east of Gaza City.
Related articles
- #GazaUnderAttack | IOF artillery shelling targets Beit Hanun (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)
- New Proof that Gaza’s Still Occupied (thedailybeast.com)
German citizen sues CIA for abduction, torture
Press TV – May 16, 2012
A German citizen, who says was abducted in Macedonia by the CIA and taken to a prison in Afghanistan and tortured, has demanded justice from Europe’s human rights court.
Khaled El-Masri of Lebanese descent says he was brutally tortured and interrogated at a secret CIA-run prison in Afghanistan for more than four months after being kidnapped from Macedonia in 2003, the Associated Press reported.
On Wednesday, Masri took his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
“Mr. El-Masri has spent the last eight years seeking legal redress for the crimes that were committed against him,” said James Goldston, who is the executive director of the Open Justice Initiative, a rights group that campaigns against the US extraordinary rendition practice.
Extraordinary rendition is a practice enabling the US apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one state to another.
He noted, “There is abundant evidence, including data on CIA flights to and from [Macedonia’s capital] Skopje.”
Masri was eventually released after the CIA realized it had mistaken him for another suspect.
He is also suing the Macedonian government for its role in the kidnapping, an accusation that the authorities in Skopje deny.
The court will consider whether Macedonian agents actually kidnapped Masri, and, if they did, whether they knew what would happen to him after they handed him over to US authorities.
Gaza Media Demand Action On Othman Case
By Julie Webb-Pullman and “Amal” | Scoop | May 17, 2012
Members of the Palestinian media today demonstrated in Gaza City to draw attention to violence against journalists, particularly the case of Mohammad Othman, shot by Israeli soldiers while covering the Al Nakba commemoration at the Erez crossing a year ago.
The protestors gathered outside the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, where they held a press conference, then marched to the UNESCO Offices.
Mohammad Othman was targeted by Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint while he was carrying out his professional duties as a journalist. He received severe wounds to his back, and required medical treatment in Turkey. He still suffers the effects of his injuries.
Despite attempts by the journalists union to have the person/s responsible for his injuries held to account, the Israeli authorities have not investigated the matter, or held anyone responsible.
The protestors called on the Palestinian Human Rights Centre and the United Nations to take up the matter, as the deliberate shooting by Israeli forces of a journalist carrying out his professional duties is a crime that must be investigated, and punished.
“Israeli impunity for such crimes against journalists must end,” they said. “Othman was only taking pictures in his professional capacity when he was brutally and deliberately shot.”
Related articles
- #Nakba64 | Israeli forces arrest 20 Palestinians & injure 250 during An-Nakba day (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)
Jewish groups to stage anti-Arab march to Aqsa Mosque
Palestine Information Center – 16/05/2012
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Extremist Jewish groups declared their intention to organize an anti-Arab march next Sunday to the Buraq wall of the Aqsa Mosque and the old city of occupied Jerusalem demanding the demolition of the Mosque and the building of their alleged temple on its ruins.
Statements published in Hebrew newspapers by these groups said tens of thousands of Jewish young men would participate in this march.
During the last marches, the participating Jewish settlers chanted blasphemous slogans against Prophet Mohamed and racist slurs against the Arab Palestinians, and called for demolishing the Aqsa Mosque. Their bizarre dances and songs also contained provocative remarks against the Arabs and Islam.
The settlers also harassed Palestinians during these marches and engaged in confrontations with them.
The march this year, like the earlier one, will go across the old neighborhoods of Jerusalem before heading to the Buraq wall.
Related articles
- Jewish settlers sneak into Aqsa mosque (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)
- Foundation warns of plan to turn Islamic cemetery into Talmudic park (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surrounding area attacked 100 times during 2011 (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- A Zionist plan to build a Jewish museum in Al Buraq courtyard (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)
- Salah criticizes visits of Islamic figures to Jerusalem (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)
- Israel To Demolish Buildings In East Jerusalem To Build “King David” Park (alethonews.wordpress.com)
Hunger strike deal ‘does not end administrative detention’
Ma’an – 16/05/2012
BETHLEHEM – A deal struck early Tuesday to end the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike will not halt administrative detention, prisoners groups said Wednesday.
The document signed by prisoners representatives states that prisoners will halt hunger strikes and “security activity” inside Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli “facilitation” on policies toward solitary confinement, family visits and living conditions.
Prisoners society official Qaddura Fares told Ma’an the document outlines the core issues, while further details will be agreed in talks between prisoners representatives and the Israeli authorities.
The agreement is a “successful victory,” he said, while warning that it is “not clear enough” on the issue of detention without charge.
Prisoners representatives have secured clear commitments that five administrative detainees on long-term hunger strike will be released at the end of their term, while Mahmoud Sirsik is still negotiating the date of his release, Fares said.
Meanwhile, Israel committed not to renew the administrative detention of all 322 Palestinians held without charge if there is no new information that requires their imprisonment, he noted.
However, Fares warned: “Who can check this new information … no one can be sure.”
Under Israel’s administrative detention policy, prisoners can be held without formal charges for renewable periods of six months. Defendants and their lawyers are not given access to the evidence used to imprison them.
Prisoners rights group Addameer said after the hunger strike deal it is “concerned that these provisions of the agreement will not explicitly solve Israel’s lenient and problematic application of administrative detention, which as it stands is in stark violation of international law.”
Related articles
- Hunger-striking detainees sign deal with prison authority (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- Israeli occupation authority renews administrative detention of MP Rejoub for fourth time (alethonews.wordpress.com)
Detainee Sharawne to continue in his hunger strike
Palestine Information Center – 16/05/2012
AL-KHALIL — Detainee Ayman Sharawne has urged the Egyptian government to put an end to the Israeli violations of the Egyptian-brokered prisoners’ exchange deal after he was arrested only three months after his release in that deal.
Human rights sources told the PIC on Wednesday that Sharawne was adamant on persisting in his hunger strike until the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) releases him.
The IOA claims that he was detained anew in light of “secret information”, which was not disclosed in court.
Sharawne attended a hearing into his case on Tuesday in which three judges presided over the court in Ofer to look into the Israeli prosecution’s demand for his re-arrest to serve his remaining sentence.
He had served ten years of his 38-year sentence when he was released in the exchange deal.
The court adjourned ruling into his case for two weeks.
Sharawne started the hunger strike on 17 April along with the other prisoners but did not end it with them after their demands were met.
He said that he would continue in his strike to highlight his case along with other similar cases.
The IOA re-arrested six Palestinians, who were released in the deal in the West Bank, at the pretext they violated conditions of the deal and returned to resistance activity. One of them was Hana Shalabi, who was deported to Gaza after her release from her second detention.
Related articles
- Hunger-striking detainees sign deal with prison authority (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- #PalHunger | Thiab, Halahla, To Be Released (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com)
Israeli occupation authority renews administrative detention of MP Rejoub for fourth time
Palestine Information Center – 15/05/2012
AL-KHALIL — The Israeli occupation authority has renewed the administrative detention of MP Nayef Al-Rejoub for six months for the fourth time running, his son said on Monday.
He said that the Negev prison administration informed his father of the decision despite the fact that his past detention order still ends after 17 days on 1st June.
He said that the early decision was a clear indication that the Israeli prison service was eluding the agreement announced earlier on Monday with the Palestinian prisoners, who have been on hunger strike for four weeks, not to renew administrative detention among other articles.
The IOA had arrested MP Rejoub in 2010 and renewed his administrative detention, without charge, on three previous occasions each time for a period of six months.
A PIC reporter said that the Negev prison administration had renewed the administrative custody of a number of other prisoners.
Related articles
- Detained journalist boycotts Israeli military court (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- Israel: Stop Jailing People Without Charge or Trial (windowintopalestine.blogspot.com)
Canada: An alleged democracy
99pourcentQC | May 7, 2012
Made with publicly available footage from spring 2012, mostly in Montreal.
Israel arrests 800,000 Palestinians since 1948
Petra | May 12, 2012
Gaza – Israel has arrested and imprisoned around 800,000 Palestinians since 1948 including children, according to Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs Abdul Nasser Farwaneh.
He added in a statistical report released today that the Israeli occupation forces adopted the policy of arrest on a daily basis to humiliate Palestinians, noting that Israel used some of them as human shields and executed many of them.
The Director of Palestinian Statistics Department said the period between 1948-1967 was the worst for Palestinian and Arab prisoners as there were random arrests and collective detention.
The Palestinians prisoners had been exposed to severe torture and abuse as they were deprived of minimum rights guaranteed to prisoners of war and conflicts by international conventions.
Hunger-striking detainees sign deal with prison authority
Ma’an – 14/05/2012
BETHLEHEM – Detainees on Monday signed a deal with the Israeli prison authority to end their mass hunger strike, officials told Ma’an.
Prisoner representatives from each of the factions agreed to the deal in Ashkelon jail, prisoners society chief Qaddura Fares said in a statement.
Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet confirmed the deal, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.
Terms
Senior Hamas official Saleh Arouri, who was a member of the negotiations team, said Israel agreed to provide a list of accusations to administrative detainees, or release them at the end of their term.
In comments to the Hamas-affiliated new site Palestine Information Center, he said that under the Egypt-brokered deal Israel agreed to release all detainees from solitary confinement over the next 72 hours.
Israel will also lift a ban on family visits for detainees from the Gaza Strip, and revoke the “Shalit law,” according to the official.
The “Shalit law” restricted prisoners’ access to families and to educational materials as punishment for the five-year captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Shalit was freed in October in a prisoner swap agreement.
All or nothing
Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Ma’an that all prisoners must end the hunger strike within 72 hours, and not later refuse food, for the deal to hold.
Around 2,000 prisoners joined a mass hunger strike launched on April 17 to demand fair prison conditions, according to prisoners groups’ estimates.
Another group of prisoners held in administrative detention launched an earlier strike in protest at their detention without charge, including Bilal Diab, 27, and Thaer Halahla, 33, who have gone for 77 days without food.
Their lawyer Jamil Khatib told Ma’an that Diab and Halahla were informed of the deal earlier Monday. They were told the agreement includes their release at the end of their detention term but both refused to stop their strike unless they were immediately released, Khatib said.
On Monday evening, a relative of Halahla said the long-term hunger-strikers were still deciding on next steps. Prisoners society lawyer Jawad Bulous is heading to the prison hospitals to discuss the deal with hunger-strikers, minister Issa Qaraqe told reporters.
Power of non-violence
PLO official Hanan Ashrawi applauded the deal and said it proved the power of non-violent resistance.
“The Palestinian prisoners in facing the Israeli Prison Authority is a victory not only for them and their families, but also for the millions of Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian territory and in exile,” Ashrawi said in a statement.
“The hunger strikers’ courage is magnificently inspiring, and their selflessness deeply humbling,” the official added.
She also thanked Egyptian mediators, the international community “and people of conscience worldwide” for supporting the strikers.
Related articles
- Mashaal: Israel broke promises under Shalit deal (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- Hunger-striker Bilal Diab writes will to family (windowintopalestine.blogspot.com)
Featured Video
Trump Announces Operation To Escort Ships – Fmr. CIA Analyst Larry Johnson
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Who Runs Our World?
Netanyahu addresses US Congress
By Richard Hugus | January 4, 2019
Our world is run by oligarchs, the holders of vast wealth from monopolies in banking, resource extraction, manufacturing, and technology. Oligarchs have such power that most of the world doesn’t even know of their influence over our lives. Their overall agenda is global power — a world government, run by them — to be achieved through planned steps of social engineering. The oligarchs remain in the background and have heads of state and entire governments acting in their service. Presidents and prime ministers are their puppets. Bureaucrats and politicians are their factotums.
Who are politicians? Politicians are people who work for the powerful while pretending to represent the people who voted for them. This double-dealing involves a lot of lying, so successful politicians must be good at it. It’s not an easy job to make the insane agenda of the powerful seem reasonable. Politicians can’t reveal this agenda because it almost always goes against the interests of their constituents, so they become adept at sophistry, mystification, and the appearance of authority. For example, wars for Israel have been part of the agenda of the powerful for years. Since 2001, wars for Israel have been sold as “the war on terror” and lots of lies had to be made up as to why the war on terror was a real thing. The visible faces promoting the war on terror were neoconservatives in the US, almost all of whom were advocates for Israel, or Zionists. Zionists are not the only members of the oligarchy, but they seem to be its lead actors. ... continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- 1977 Influenza Pandemic Sequence Shows Signs of Laboratory Creation: Journal ‘Cell’
- China issues first prohibition order to safeguard international trade order under rule of law
- Iran rejects Trump’s ‘Project Freedom,’ warns US over Hormuz role
- TRUMP ANNOUNCES OPERATION TO ESCORT SHIPS – Fmr. CIA Analyst Larry Johnson
- A few observations on Iran’s latest proposal to Trump
- ‘I urged that our objective be regime change… so did Netanyahu’ – ex-Trump adviser on Iran
- “STAGED”: Conspiracy Theories Are Everywhere!
- NATO courts screenwriters to embed alliance messaging in film, TV
- Iran replaces UAE ports with Pakistan corridor to break US blockade
- Iran sets one-month deadline for end to US-Israeli war, blockade: Report
- If Americans Knew
- As Palestinians die, Ben-Gvir celebrates birthday with golden noose cake – Daily Update
- Israel’s New Ambassador to the ‘Christian World’ Served as Envoy to Azerbaijan During the Ethnic Cleansing of Christians from Nagorno-Karabakh
- US set to sell $1B “Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System” to Israel – Daily Update
- Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 32 Across S Lebanon, Including Children – Amid “Ceasefire”
- Israel to pour $730m into propaganda arm amid reputational crisis
- Real Cost of Iran War Likely Double the $25 Billion Figure the Pentagon Gave to Congress
- Israel conducts farthest-ever strike in long history of attacks on Gaza humanitarian aid flotillas
- In Gaza, Israel commits 10+ ceasefire violations a day – Daily Update
- US ships 6,500 tons of munitions, equipment to Israel in 24 hours
- A New Library in Gaza Rises From the Ashes of Destruction
- No Tricks Zone
- Another Study Links Warming To Cloud Forcing, Shortwave Radiation, Natural Atmospheric Circulation
- Wind Energy Is Toxic, Hazardous To Human Health, Scientific Review Shows
- Oversupply Of Volatile Solar Energy Leads To Record NEGATIVE Prices!
- New Study: Extreme Heat Records, Heatwaves, Extreme Cold Records Declining Across US Since 1899
- It’s The Cold, Stupid! Cold 20 Times More Lethal Than Heat, Multiple Studies Show
- European Institute For Climate And Energy: “Climate Debate is Seldom About Science”
- New Study: The Climate May Be 5 Times More Sensitive To Solar Forcing Than Commonly Assumed
- EV Industry Reached $70 Billion In Losses In 2024 Due To Delusional Green Ideologies
- Reality Check: Maldives Have Actually Grown In Size Or Remained Stable Over Recent Decades
- Abrupt Climate Change Also Occurred NATURALLY In The Past …25 Times During Last Ice Age
Aletho News 