Families Of Former Detainees Still Prevented From Visiting Them In Exile
Palestine Information Center – November 13, 2011
WEST BANK — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) still bars dozens of Palestinian families from leaving the West Bank to meet their exiled relatives who were released as part of the swap deal with Hamas Movement, according to UFree, the European network to support the rights of Palestinian Prisoners.
Many Palestinian prisoners were exiled to the Gaza Strip, Syria, Turkey and Qatar following a recent swap deal between Hamas and Israel; the latter, however, refuses to allow families of these ex-detainees to travel to where they are.
UFree said that dozens of West Bank families, mostly women and children, were denied travel to meet their freed fathers and husbands and prevented from crossing King Hussein and Karama bridges for alleged security reasons.
UFree condemned the IOA for making flimsy security excuses to prevent families from traveling to meet their relatives.
What kind of security danger could a 14-year old girl like Sarah Kafisha cause if she visited her own father whom she knows only from pictures? UFree questioned.
“We must challenge Israeli mindset,” says rugby star turned blockade buster
By David Cronin – The Electronic Intifada – 11/11/2011
Trevor Hogan, best-known as an international rugby player, was one of 14 Irish people detained by Israel over the past week after they tried to break the illegal siege of Gaza.
In a telephone interview this morning, Hogan recalled how the MV Saoirse (called after the Gaelic word for freedom) and the Canadian-flagged Tahrir were approaching the waters off Gaza last Friday (4 November) afternoon when they were intercepted by the Israeli navy.
“They were circling us for ages, with their rifles trained on us,” he told me. “It was surreal looking out our window at these guns.”
Still in international waters, the two boats were surrounded by numerous Israeli vessels. Hogan estimates there were 15 or 16 vessels in total, including several full-sized warships. Eventually, the MV Saoirse was attacked by water cannons.
“The water cannons destroyed the electricity,” said Hogan. “They flooded the engine room. We had to use emergency power. The boat could have sunk if it went on much longer.”
Balaclava-clad Israeli commandos then boarded the Saoirse. “We just stayed sitting down peacefully,” he added. “They wanted to search us on deck but we refused. We all acquitted ourselves well. One sudden move and they were sure to fire. My heart was pumping looking at this.”
Hogan expected to be beaten when the Israelis brought their captives to the port of Ashdod. But the arrival of an Irish diplomat at the port “calmed things down.”
Women “stressed and traumatized”
Hogan said that the Israelis kept him and the others awake on their first night in Givon Prison. But the treatment was even worse for the two women, Zoe Lawlor and Mags O’Brien, on the boat, who were detained separately from the 12 men.
“There was solidarity among us [the men],” he said. “We were all together. We managed to meet them [the two women] for 20 minutes each time the consular was there. You could see that the girls were stressed and traumatized. They were under serious pressure.”
Yesterday morning, seven of the 14 were scheduled to be flown from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to London. Yet they were prevented from boarding a British Airways flight by the Israeli authorities and placed into cells in the airport.
“Givon was tough enough,” Hogan said. “Ben Gurion was a lot worse. We thought we were going home and then we were banged up in cells. It was more decrepit. There was no information and no free association. We were held apart.”
Israel has blamed British Airways for the episode at Ben Gurion, alleging that the carrier would not take the seven campaigners. “Maybe there was an element of the airline being at fault,” Hogan explained. “But there was more to it than that. It was part of a pattern. They wanted lessons to be learnt and that’s why they made life as difficult as they could for us. We didn’t sign anything saying we were criminals, [even though] there were threats made that we would be kept [in prison] indefinitely.”
Five of the Irish, including Hogan, were put on a later flight and arrived in Dublin late last night. Two others, Fintan Lane and Zoe Lawlor, were stopped from taking that later flight and were instead made to travel via Istanbul. They and the seven remaining prisoners are expected to land in Dublin today.
Effective tactic
Hogan retired from professional rugby earlier this year because of persistent knee injuries. His efforts to reach Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla II during the summer and now with the smaller Freedom Waves initiative have been supported by a number of Irish sports personalities.
He is adamant that the attempts to penetrate the Gaza blockade have been worthwhile. “We don’t want to make out that we are the victims or martyrs,” he said. “We were in Givon Prison. But Gaza is the world’s largest prison. Whatever we have gone through, the Palestinians have to go through 10 times worse.
“It was very interesting to notice the attitude of the Israelis towards us. They couldn’t comprehend why we were doing this. What we were doing challenges their mindset and that is why it is such an effective tactic. They treat the Palestinians as if they are subhuman. They don’t think Palestinians deserve to live in a normal society, to be able to import and export and fish and farm. It’s great to be able to meet that mindset head on.”
Nabi Saleh Protest Organizer Shot in Face at Weekly Protest
By Circarre Parrhesia | IMEMC | November 11, 2011
In the village of an-Nabi Salah, in the district of Ramallah, an organizer of the weekly non-violent protest, Abu Hussam Tamimi, was shot in the face by the Israeli military, at a distance of approximately 20 meters, according the the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, on Friday.
Tamimi was shot in the face with a rubber coated steel bullet, contravening international law regarding the use of so-called crowd dispersal tactics, that state that projectiles should be fired towards the legs.
Local activists stated via Twitter that Tamimi lost a great deal of blood while waiting to be evacuated to hospital by the Red Crescent ambulance services.
The Popular Committee further stated that Tamimi has suffered a fracture.
Also, in an-Nabi Saleh an 11 year old boy, name not known, was shot in the torso with a rubber coated steel bullet, possibly fracturing the boy’s ribs.
In total more than ten injuries wee reported in Nabi Saleh, as was the use of live ammunition. None of those injuries reported were due to the use of live munitions.
Furthermore, local journalist and volunteer for the Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, Bilal Tamimi, was arrested whilst filming this week’s protest.
Likud MK Danon: Destroy Gaza neighborhoods for every rocket fired
By Alex Kane | Mondoweiss | November 10, 2011
Ami Kaufman of +972 Magazine highlights this disgusting message from Danny Danon, a Likud Party member of the Israeli Knesset:
I am currently in Ashkelon to witness the security problem facing the city specifically in neighborhoods with new Olim and have come to two main conclusions. Firstly, we must do everything we can to ensure the safety of all residents with an emphasis on areas with new immigrants who greatly lack protection, and more importantly, to deal with Hamas leaders in Gaza, and for every missile that falls in our southern towns, we retaliate by deleting a neighborhood in Gaza
It is disturbing to hear such a blunt call for collective punishment and the wholesale destruction of civilian life in Gaza from a politician with power in Israel. Unfortunately, it is no surprise–a similar mentality was behind Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead.
Danon’s call echoes what former combatants in the Israeli army told the UK-based Channel 4 early this year:
24-year-old tank commander Ohad remembers being told the night before the operation that the entry into Gaza was to be “disproportionate”. Once into Gaza, he says his orders were unambiguous:
“The order was very clear that if a car came within 200 metres of me I could simply shoot at it. Shoot a shell at it.”
Some of the most disputed claims about the operation centre around firing at family homes and mosques.
Ohad also says: “We needed to cleanse the neighbourhoods, the buildings, the area. It sounds really terrible to say “cleanse”, but those were the orders….I don’t want to make a mistake with the words.”
Danon is only vocalizing what has long been the Israeli establishment’s mentality towards the people of Gaza.
Alex Kane is a freelance journalist and blogger based in New York. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
ISRAELIS PREVENT IRISH ACTIVISTS FROM BOARDING FLIGHT HOME
Free Gaza Movement | 10 November 2011
The seven Irish human rights activists due home in Ireland this afternoon at 2:25 pm were at the last minute prevented from boarding their flight out of Ben Gurion airport by Israeli armed guards. They had been taken last night to a holding cell and were ready to board their 7:40 am flight to London this morning when at the last minute they were prevented from doing so by Israeli security forces and returned to Givon prison. All seven are now being detained indefinitely, with no further news available from Israeli authorities or the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs about when they will be released.
An Irish Ship to Gaza shore team coordinator spoke briefly on the phone with Fintan Lane before communication was abruptly cut off. Lane said: “This is a deliberate and calculated attempt by the Israelis to break our spirit. It won’t succeed.”
Lane also reported that the seven had been subject to “continuous harassment and repeated, humiliating body searches” and were shackled and “denied sleep”.
Gay Lawlor, Zoe Lawlor’s brother, spoke briefly with Zoe, who described what was happening as “sheer malice” on the part of the Israelis.
The families of the detainees are phoning member of the Irish Ship to Gaza shore team this morning in great distress.
Laurence Davis, Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson, commented: “We are outraged by this latest attempt by the Israeli authorities to break the morale of the human rights activists, their families and their supporters, all of whom had been looking forward to the homecoming this afternoon in Dublin. This is yet another example of the cruelty and arrogance that the Palestinians face every day.”
Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson Claudia Saba added: “It is particularly distressing for the families to learn that their loved ones won’t be coming home as they had expected, and distressing that they have no update as to what exactly is happening or when they will be finally freed.”
For more information, contact:
Laurence Davis 086 360 5053 (Outside of Ireland, add +353 and drop the 0)
Claudia Saba 086 393 8821
Kidnapped Canadians face two months of captivity, Harper fails to object
Canadian Boat To Gaza – Press Release – November 10, 2011
On Tuesday, Freedom Waves to Gaza activists detained in Israel – including Canadians David Heap and Ehab Lotayef – came before a judge and were told they could be held in prison for 2 months without charges or trial.
To avoid this, the judge told them, they must sign a statement that they entered Israel ‘voluntarily’ and ‘illegally’ despite being violently kidnapped from international waters and taken to Israel against their will while trying to reach Gaza.
While a handful of Freedom Waves to Gaza participants have been deported – including Canadian Karen DeVito – 18 activists and journalists have now been in Israeli prison for 5 days with no end in sight. DeVito is available for interviews.
The Israeli military forcibly commandeered the boats Tahrir and MV Saoirse that journalists and activists were travelling on as part of the Freedom Waves initiative and brought them to Ashdod port in Israel.
American journalist Jihan Hafiz was on the Canadian boat Tahrir, and was among those detained by Israel despite her press credentials. Israeli authorities ordered her and others not to talk about “anything negative or political” during their brief phone calls to home from Israeli detention.
This censorship explains why some details are only just coming out now. She reported Tuesday about her experience during the Israeli takeover of the Irish and Canadian boats:
“There were three warships […] four Zodiacs, four water cannon boats, as well as four regular gunboats. All of the commandos on all of these boats were heavily armed. It looked like they were taking on an army of a foreign country.”
She added: “Two water cannons started to pour lots of water into the Irish boat, which flooded it, blew their sockets, and cut off all the electricity. And so, at that point, the Irish delegates I spoke to said they told the Israeli army, ‘We’re taking on water. We’re sinking. We’re going to go down at sea if you continue with the water.’”
Hafiz went on to describe the violent takeover during which guns were pointed at the heads of the boats’ passengers, how they were roughed up, mistreated, strip-searched, and filmed naked. She also tells of how the journalists’ equipment was confiscated, in a bid to silence any reporting that might contradict the sanitized Israeli account of what happened during the hijacking of the Tahrir and the MV Saoirse.
“Our friends have been assaulted, tasered, beaten, kidnapped, robbed, and imprisoned. Now Israel is threatening to illegally detain them for two months. What is it going to take for the Canadian government to actually do something about another country kidnapping Canadian citizens and refusing to let them go?” demands Wendy Goldsmith, an organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza.
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, by the inaction of Baird and Harper,” said Canadian Boat to Gaza organizer Dylan Penner. “In its failure to speak out against Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Canadian Government is condoning Israel’s disregard for the human rights of the citizens of Gaza and giving it impunity for its refusal to comply with its international obligations. It is this silence that compels citizens of good conscience, like David and Ehab, to act where our Government has so consistently failed to do so.”
Organizers of the Canadian Boat to Gaza are demanding Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird step down for failing to do his job to stand up for the interests of Canadians.
For updates, stay tuned to:
Twitter (@CanadaBoatGaza and #freedomwaves),
Facebook.com/CanadaBoatGaza, http://www.tahrir.ca , http://www.ustogaza.org ,
http://www.freegazaoz.org , and http://www.irishshiptogaza.org .
For more information:
English inquiries:
Wendy Goldsmith, Canadian Boat to Gaza, 519-619-6766
Dylan Penner, Canadian Boat to Gaza, 613-859-6996
French inquiries:
Denis Kosseim, Canadian Boat to Gaza, 514-923-5594
How Ireland helps Israel’s war industry
By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | November 10, 2011
Mainly due to our long experience of colonisation, many Irish have been staunch supporters of the dispossessed and oppressed Palestinians. In 2009, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, singled out Ireland as one of the few Western nations to vote for the UN resolution supporting the Goldstone Report detailing Israeli war crimes in Gaza. In June this year, the Irish Ship to Gaza (ISG) campaign claimed that their vessel, the Saoirse (Freedom), was sabotaged by Israel while berthed in the Turkish port of Gocek. And only last Friday, Israeli commandos boarded the Saoirse in international waters off Gaza and detained an Irish Member of the European Parliament on board.
Sadly, some of Ireland’s most prominent institutions appear to be less principled. David Cronin, the author of Europe’s Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation, has written an important piece in Politico.ie detailing the complicity of one of Ireland’s EU Commissioners, many Irish universities, and Ireland’s “newspaper of record” with Israel’s war industry:
Ensconced in Brussels, the only controversy Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has been embroiled in over the past few years related to her bloated income. While she has displayed remarkable chutzpah in seeking to draw down both a European commissioner’s salary and Oireachtas and ministerial pensions, her personal greed is of little consequence compared to her abetting of Israel’s crimes against humanity.
Israel is the most active non-European participant in the EU’s multi-annual scientific research programme, which Geoghegan-Quinn administers. According to the European Commission’s own data, Israel is currently involved in 800 EU-financed research activities with a total value of €4.3 billion. What the Commission is less eager to spell out is that the beneficiaries of this largesse include weapons manufacturers and technology firms that supply Israel with the tools of repression and occupation.
The Irish Times regularly publishes columns on the EU’s research activities by Conor O’Carroll from the Irish Universities Association. Because the seven universities O’Carroll represents receive funding from the EU’s science programme, he has a direct interest in presenting that programme in a positive light. Although the Irish Times is nominally committed to informed debate, its editors have told me on several occasions that they would not have space on their pages for an article explaining how Irish academics cooperate with Israel’s war industry.
Trinity College Dublin, for example, is taking part in a €14.5 million EU-financed project called Total Airport Security System (TASS), under which new surveillance equipment will be installed in Heathrow Airport ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in London. Among the other participants in the TASS consortium are Elbit, a company that has helped install surveillance equipment in the apartheid wall that Israel is building in the West Bank. Elbit was also one of two makers of the pilotless drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs) with which Israel attacked Gaza in 2008 and 2009.
When ruling that the West Bank wall was illegal, the International Court of Justice stated in 2004 that public authorities throughout the world had an obligation not to render any aid or assistance to its construction. Norway – a country outside the EU – has taken that verdict sufficiently seriously to order that its state-owned pension scheme divest from Elbit. Yet Geoghegan-Quinn and her officials continue to subsidise that same company.
The University of Limerick is involved in a €70 million project called Maaximus for developing “more affordable” aircraft than those currently in use. Other participants in this project include Israel Aerospace Industries, another firm that has worked on the West Bank wall and provided warplanes used to kill civilians in Gaza.
University College Cork, meanwhile, is trying to give credence to the Israeli myth that it is saving the world from terrorist attacks. UCC is the official coordinator of an EU-funded project called CommonSense, which is focused on developing sensors for detecting bombs containing radioactive materials. This project also involves the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Israeli Institute for Technology in Haifa. Better known as the Technion, that institute has been responsible for such innovations as a remote-controlled bulldozer, explicitly intended for use in demolishing Palestinian homes.
Irish Government criticized as Israel illegally detains 14 Irish citizens
By Ruaidhrí Ó Conghaile | Dord Fian | November 9, 2011
The Irish Government are tonight coming under heavy criticism for their inexplicable lack of action in relation to the 14 Irish citizens currently being detained by Israeli authorities. They are being held at the Givon Detention Centre near the port of Ashdod.
The 14 man crew of the Irish vessel the MV Saoirse were taken into Israeli custody on Friday last when their ship was illegally boarded in international waters by Israeli forces.
The ship was en route to Gaza as part of the ‘Freedom Waves’ flotilla, alongside Canadian ship the ‘Tahrir’. This was a humanitarian mission carrying medical aid and supplies, and aimed to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
A number of Irish political figures, including a current Member of the European Parliament, are among those being detained.
The decision by the Israeli authorities to board the vessel in international waters contravenes international law, and amounts to piracy. The subsequent decision to detain the crew of MV Saoirse therefore, can only by described as state sponsored kidnap.
In a three minute phone call from Givon prison in Israel, MEP Paul Murphy described the treatment of the detainees by the Israeli authorities:
“Our boat was almost sunk by the manner in which it was approached and boarded by the Israeli navy. People were shackled and deprived of all personal belongings.
“In Givon prison the authorities tried to disorientate us through sleep deprivation and the removal of our watches and the prison clock recording the wrong time. We have been given no time frame as to how long we will be kept here before the deportation trial.”
Co-ordinator Dr. Fintan Lane who is also among those detained, described the Israeli raid as “dangerous to human life.”
“I was hosed down the stairs of the boat” Dr Lane said. “Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boats were corralled to such an extent that the two boats, the Saoirse and the Tahrir, collided with each other and were damaged, with most of the damage happening to the MV Saoirse. The boats nearly sank.”
The Irish activists have so far refused to sign deportation papers which state that they came to Israel voluntarily and entered the country illegally. This is clearly quite absurd, since Israeli naval ships violently seized the MV Saoirse and the Tahrir, and forcibly transported the vessels and all crew on board to Ashdod.
Back home, the Irish Government have remained coy on the matter, and attempts by opposition TD’s to have the issue openly debated in the Dáil have so far failed.
Tonight Deputy Richard Boyd-Barrett described the lack of action by the government as “nothing short of disgraceful”.
Mr Boyd-Barrett said: “We are calling on the Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore and the Government to speak out and condemn what Israel has done; and to demand the immediate release of Irish citizens and to demand an explanation from the Israeli authorities as to why they kidnapped, illegally on international waters, 14 Irish citizens.”
This sentiment is echoed amongst the Irish general public, where there is a growing feeling that Israeli defiance of international law has become habitual, and worryingly appears to be without any consequence whatsoever.
In May of last year, the world was stunned when Israeli commandos murdered 9 Turkish humanitarian activists and wounded many more during the raid on the first ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’. This incident also occurred in international waters and involved a number of Irish citizens.
The following June Ireland ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat from the country’s embassy in Dublin. This move was in protest of Israel’s forgery of Irish passports, eight of which were used in the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai.
This latest incident, the latest of eleven international attempts to break the blockade of Gaza via the sea, is sure to further damage relations between Ireland and the Israeli regime, if only for the time being in the continued disintegration of the Irish public’s regard for Israel.
Some reports are suggesting that up to half of the 14 Irish detainees may be released on Thursday November 10th. There is however no word as of yet to suggest when the remainder of those who have been detained may be released.
Father of 5 run over and killed by settler
By Thom Andrews | 9 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
This afternoon, 45 year old Abdullah Mutaled Al-Mashni, father of 5, was run over and killed by an illegal settler.
Whilst returning from collecting his olives, Abdullah was last seen riding his donkey back towards his village of Deir Istia – 7km northwest of Salfit.
Soon after the killing, Israeli Occupation Forces arrived to shield the scene from photographers and journalists gathered to report on the crime.
It is believed the settler was a resident in the nearby illegal colony of Revava – established on occupied Palestinian land in 1991.
This attack comes just as a relatively peaceful olive harvest draws to an end. Tomorrow there will be a funeral for the martyr in Deir Istia.
Remembrance in Beit Hanoun
9 November 2011 | by Nathan Stuckey | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
It is Tuesday, the third day of Eid, the Eid of the Sacrifice. We, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement, have gathered near the bombed remains of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College like we do every Tuesday in preparation for our march into the no go zone. This Tuesday is different though, we are not gathered on the road that leads into the no go zone, but behind the bombed buildings of the College. Like much of Palestine, history is densely packed, every place has a story, today, we would learn the story of this small area. Today marks the five year anniversary of the Beit Hanoun massacre. Before us, lie the graves of its victims.
On November 8, 2006 at six in the morning the Israeli army began shelling Beit Hanoun. The shells landed on the houses of the A’athamnah and the Kafarnah families. Not just one shell, the shelling continued for fifteen minutes. Round after round fell on their houses. Nineteen people were killed, nine children, four women and six men. The youngest was only a baby of a couple of months, the oldest a 73 year old woman. Forty more people were injured. They were all civilians, not even the Israeli army bothers to claim that they were armed; they were sleeping in their beds.
The graves are just off the road, just behind the Agricultural College. They are large; each of them contains several bodies, large gray slabs of concrete with names and prayers inscribed on them. Abu Issa, from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative speaks; he prays for the dead and asks us to remember the past. This massacre is barely the past though; it is almost the present, even if forgotten in so much of the world. His words end, as they must, on the present, “we did not ask for the occupation, we have always lived here, it came to us, but we cannot accept it, we must continue the struggle until the occupation ends.” We hang a wreath next to the first grave.
We walk slowly down the row of graves; Abu Issa reads us the names of the dead. We reach the grave of Maisa, age six. I cannot help but look away, for I have my own Maisa, who was also six in 2006. She isn’t my daughter, she is my English student. He name is Maisa Samouni. Twenty nine members of her extended family were murdered in much the same way by the Israeli army, herded into a house by soldiers, and then the house was shelled by the IDF. I wonder what this Miaisa would look like today, would she be as smart and kind and beautiful as my Maisa? As we reach the end of the graves we come to the graves that have been destroyed, destroyed by Israeli bulldozers in subsequent invasions of Gaza.
We turn away from the graves and look toward the border. At the concrete towers which line it, full of snipers and computer controlled guns which kill at will. Abu Issa begins to tell us about the area that we see in front of us. It was here that the men of Beit Hanoun were imprisoned during the first week of November 2006. Israeli forces had invaded Beit Hanoun; all males between the ages of 14 and 60 were rounded up and brought here. For six days the slept in the open, in the cold, while the Israeli army took them for questioning. Fifty three people were killed and over 200 injured during the invasion. The day after Israeli forces withdrew; they fired the shells which would kill nineteen more, including Maisa.
After the memorial service we piled into the van and went to the east of Beit Hanoun to visit the Al Jareema family. The Al Jareema’s are Bedouin family that lives right next to the no go zone. They have not always lived there, they used to live in 1948, but they were expelled by the Zionists during the Nakba, them and 750,000 other Palestinians. They settled in Gaza. They lived right next to the border, their houses used to be 50 meters from the border. Then, the Israeli’s decided to impose the buffer zone on Gaza, the family received a notice that they must move. There was no appeal. Israeli bulldozers came and destroyed their houses. They destroyed the pens for the animals. They destroyed the groves of trees that used to thrive in the no go zone.
Now, the family lives in a collection of tents and shacks about 500 meters from the border. As you look toward the border you see a particularly large gray tower, it is from this tower that the Israeli army shoots at them. They have nowhere to go, so they stay living here, surviving as best they can on the land that Israel has not seized. We bring them sweets to celebrate Eid, they serve us tea and freshly made bread. They ask us to stay for lunch, but we must go, there is a wedding going on in Beit Hanoun. Life continues. I pray that the children of the new couple grow up in a more just world, in a free Palestine. This is what we struggle for.
Settlers torch cars in Beit Ummar
Ma’an – 09/11/2011
HEBRON — Israeli settlers torched three cars Wednesday at dawn in the village of Beit Ummar in the northern West Bank, locals said.
Popular committee spokesman Muhammad Ayyad Awad said settlers from Kfar Etzion settlement torched the cars of Habes Husein Baragheeth, Suheil Muhammad Hussein Baragheeth and his brother Yousef.
He added that the Jewish extremists sprayed racist graffiti in the area.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP the words “price tag” were sprayed on the wall, and said “police launched an investigation and were looking for suspects.”
Hardline Jewish settlers have adopted what they call a “price tag” policy under which they have attacked Palestinians and their property in response to Israeli government measures against settlements.
Overnight, Israeli forces detained at least three Palestinians in the West Bank.
Palestinian security sources said a large Israeli force accompanied by a helicopter raided Qabatiya village in Jenin for over four hours, searching homes and neighborhoods.
Security officials added that Israeli forces detained Anas Atta Camil, 27, and Ahmad Hisham Camil, 26, who is a university student and was released from an Israeli prison two months ago.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said two “wanted Palestinian suspects” were arrested south of Jenin and another man was detained in Hebron. They were taken for questioning by security forces, she added.
Meanwhile in Salfit on Wednesday, Israeli forces stopped farmers from reaching their lands to pick their olives near Revava settlement west of Deir Istiya, the local mayor said.
Nathmi Salman, the mayor of Deir Istiya, told Ma’an that Israeli soldiers prevented Khaled Abdul Latif and Mufeed Abdullah from working on their land claiming they did not have permission.
Salman added that residents were complaining that their lands had been soaked with sewage from the settlement and that they couldn’t harvest their olives.
He called on international bodies to intervene to stop the sewage and demanded that Israeli authorities reined in the settlers. He warned of a humanitarian and environmental disaster if the settlers weren’t stopped.
Israel Carries Out Two Airstrikes Targeting Gaza
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | November 09, 2011
The Israeli Air Force carried out, at dawn on Wednesday, two airstrikes targeting Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip; damage was reported, no injuries.
Local sources reported that the Air force fired a missile at a greenhouse, northwest of Khan Younis, followed by another missile into the same area a few minutes after the initial attack. The two attacks came only hours after Israeli tanks fired several shells into Al Waha area, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip leading to damages.
On Tuesday at night, the army fired artillery shells into As-Sudaniyya area, northwest of the Gaza strip.
Eyewitnesses reported that a number of residents suffered minor injuries, as initial reports revealed that Gaza hospitals did not receive any casualties following the attack.
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Anti-science
The infinite list
The Naked Emperor’s Newsletter | October 12, 2022
Almost three years ago science entered a new dark age.
Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, seems to agree. He has been compiling a list of the examples of anti-science we have unfortunately become used to.
I have listed his thoughts so far but the list is continually expanding... continue
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