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West Bank village under siege faces live-ammo, arrests and concussion grenades at nonviolent demo

By Alex Kane | Palestine State of Mind | August 22, 2011

The West Bank village of Beit Ommar has had a tough August, withstanding frequent Israeli military raids that see soldiers shoot tear-gas into residential areas and arrest Palestinian minors. Last Saturday, the month got even tougher for activists resisting illegal Israeli settlements and land confiscation.

The Israeli military repressed the Beit Ommar popular committee’s most recent demonstration on August 20. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired live ammunition and concussion grenades, arrested five people, and broke the arm of a member of the committee before they detained him.

The demonstrators, who protest weekly, were attempting to access Beit Ommar’s land near the settlement of Karmei Tzur and were also expressing solidarity with the people of Gaza, which until last night had been under a sustained air assault by the Israeli Air Force.

The Ma’an News Agency reported on the Beit Ommar protest:

Israeli forces on Saturday used live ammunition to disperse a demonstration against land confiscation in Beit Ummar near Hebron, local officials said.

Popular committee spokesman Younis Arar said soldiers stormed the rally as demonstrators marched toward the illegal Karmi Zur settlement, built on Palestinian-owned land.

Arar said it was the first time Israeli troops used live bullets at the weekly protest in Beit Ummar. He added that forces assaulted several protesters.

Yousef Abu Marya, a popular committee member in Beit Ommar, was “brutally beaten” and had his arm broken by Israeli soldiers, according to the Palestine Solidarity Project, a Beit Ommar-based Palestinian-led direct action group. Last week, while I was reporting from Beit Ommar, Abu Marya told me the Israeli military broke his arm two times before, in May and July of this year.

According to an international activist with the Palestine Solidarity Project, the IDF refused to let Abu Marya see a doctor for at least eight hours.

Beit Ommar’s recent troubles did not begin on Saturday, though. As I reported for +972 Magazine last week, the IDF has raided the village of 16,000 five times during August:

A spate of Israeli army raids at night and arrests of young Palestinians have occurred since the beginning of August, shattering any hope for calm during Ramadan. While Israeli military incursions into Beit Ommar are common, residents and activists say that the number of raids and arrests that have occurred in August is particularly high. There have been five occasions this month in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have invaded the village, three of them that have occurred this past week—and the month is not even half over.

Witnesses to the raids and local activists say that the Israeli army has been shooting tear gas, sound bombs and flares into residential areas—in some cases causing injuries—and have arrested fifteen young Palestinians under the age of eighteen this month. A landmark B’Tselem report recently released highlighted how common the arrest of minors is in the occupied territories…

The Israeli army’s repression in the village has not been limited to night raids, though. For the first time during the month of Ramadan, Beit Ommar residents and Israeli and international activists held a demonstration August 13, protesting land confiscation and the nearby settlement of Karmei Tzur. At the demonstration, IDF soldiers repeatedly pushed back Palestinian residents of Beit Ommar attempting to access their land near the settlement, which was declared a closed military zone. Beit Ommar is surrounded by six settlements, of which Karmei Tzur is one.

When the demonstration was over, one Palestinian, a forty-two year old man named Sakhar Abu Marya, was arrested and taken into a military jeep. Recounting the events later, he said that a hood was placed over his head, and that he was beaten by the soldiers. While he was interrogated, soldiers said that, while they would release him now, they would come to his house later and arrest him. Soldiers also brought out food and soda to mock Abu Marya, who is fasting for Ramadan. He was then dropped off at the gate of the Karmei Tzur settlement, without being charged with anything.

August 22, 2011 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Israeli Army Again Targets Jenin’s Freedom Theatre

Alternative Information Center | 22 August 2011

Jenin – After the Israeli army targets the theatre twice during the last month, arresting three of its members, today at approximately 02:00 in the morning of the 22nd August the Israeli army surrounded The Freedom Theatre and the Nagnaghiya family home.

Jacob Gough, the Acting General Manager at The Freedom Theatre left the office at about 01:45: “As I literally entered my home I got a call from neighbours of the theatre saying the army had surrounded the theatre.”

Jacob then returned to the theatre and as he drove into the courtyard was confronted by armed soldiers who forced him to turn around threatening violence if he didn’t. After a second attempt to get closer to the theatre he was forced to strip at gunpoint before being detained. “They said that they’ll beat me up if I even say a word or move”.

During this, the army were inside the home of Mohammed Naghnaghiye, the security guard at the theatre and brother of Adnan Nagnaghiya. Here they beat Mohammed before taking him away in handcuffs then proceeded to ransack all 3 floors of his family home leaving them in disarray. As the army left the area they fired live ammunition in an attempt to disperse the crowds of youth that had gathered.

These events come after a military court hearing that took place yesterday (21st August) in Jalame prison outside of Jenin. At the court hearing it was established that the three previously taken members of The Freedom Theatre had no connection to the murder of the theatre’s late director Juliano Mer Khamis and must be released within the week.

“This behaviour is mounting to systematical harassment of The Freedom Theatre by The Israeli army, it is scandalous. This proves that the Israeli army and security apparatus is either lost in their investigation or that they have the actual intention of damaging the theatre. It also seems that after the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis The Freedom Theatre is no longer exempted from the kind of oppression the Palestinian society is subjected to in general.” says Jonatan Stanczak, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre.

August 22, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Many injured in Hebron house demolition

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

At 10pm Sunday August 21st the Hasan Ali Darwish Al-Qawasmi house in the Abo Ktelah district was raided and later destroyed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Around eight armoured vehicles surrounded the house and at least 40 soldiers were blocking every entrance. The IOF had arrived at the house at 8 pm. They told family members that it would take 20 minutes but three and a half hours later they remained in occupation of the house. A row of 14 soldiers blocked the main entrance to the house. Female family members stood in front of them and demanded that they be allowed back into their home.

A family member accounted that Israeli soldiers had already arrested their husbands and were also guilty of the imprisonment of seven brothers and the death of two other brothers of one particular woman. This woman arrived at the house with her baby in her arms to defy and stand up to the Israeli soldiers. After a while the army emerged from the house with a blindfolded and handcuffed man who looked as though he had been beaten.

The soldiers took him away in a jeep. The IOF informed the family and other bystanders that a suspected “suspicious object” was in the home that needed to be disposed of, which coincidentally meant exploding a section of the house. Everyone was pushed aside in preparation for the explosion, which took place in the yard of the house. The massive explosion smashed all the windows and damaged a neighbor’s home.

During the raid clashes between Palestinians and the army started, leaving at least 30 injured with the possible rumor that of the injured, one was killed. Details have yet to be confirmed.

The army was shooting a large amount of tear gas directly at protesters and according to witnesses they probably also used rubber coated steel bullets. The IOF fled at around midnight and the protestors went to inspect the damaged house. Once being allowed back into the home the family members found their home torn apart. Sofa chairs had been ripped open, picture frames had been smashed and glass lay everywhere. Their home had been destroyed.

Witnesses said that 10 days ago another member of the Al-Qawasmi family had been arrested. On the night of August 20th IOF arrested 10 other people in this same neighborhood. This frightful scene concluded with an elderly female relative, who had been trapped in the house during the raid, being carried out on a stretcher by Palestinian ambulances. The ambulances also tended to severely injured protestors.

August 22, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Night of Israeli violence: Al Aqsa Mosque barricade, house demolition, gang beating, arrests

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Just after midnight on Monday, August 22 the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) took the opportunity to trap 1500 Palestinian youth inside al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, blow up a house in Hebron (injuring 30 people in the ensuing riots), and arrested a member of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin.

In Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest the Israeli escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip. Starting from the Bab Al `Amoud (Damscus Gate) area and marching toward Salah El Deen Street, the protesters suddenly found themselves under attack by IOF soldiers after the latter claimed that a soldier had been stabbed. IOF soldiers and border police closed off the Bab Al Amoud area and Salah El Deen Street and kidnapped several Palestinian youth who were taken to the Al Maskobiyya interrogation center, west of Jerusalem. They also attacked Palestinian medics and ambulances in the area.

The protesters continued their march into the Old City, prompting hundreds of policemen to break into several homes and cause damage in the area. The protesters ended up inside al-Aqsa mosque, where policemen trapped them inside, closed off the mosque, placed ladders on walls surrounding the mosque, and provoked protesters and those who were simply there to pray and worship during the last ten holy days of Ramadan.

In another incident in Jenin, IOF soldiers surrounded the Freedom Theater at 2 am, closed off the area, and arrested Mohammed Naghnaghiye, the security guard and technician of the theater. On the way out, they fired live ammunition to disperse the crowd of Palestinians who had gathered.

This is the third attack on the Freedom Theater by the IOF this month.

August 22, 2011 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

55 Palestinians injured as Israeli army invades Hebron

By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | August 22, 2011

Palestinian medical sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported that 55 residents were injured following clashes that took place between local residents and Israeli soldiers who invaded the city.

The sources stated that some of the wounded residents were hit by rubber-coated metal bullets fired by the soldiers; others were treated for the effects of teargas inhalation, while the rest were violently attacked and beaten by the soldiers.

Also, soldiers broke into the home of detainee Mahmoud Al Qawasmi of the Hamas movement, in Wadi Abu Kteila area, north west of Hebron, and detonated some of its walls. Al Qawasmi has been imprisoned by Israel for the past seven years.

The soldiers detained dozens of residents and interrogated them in the streets, and broke into several homes that belong to members of Al Qawasmi family, Karama, and Al Joulani.

Sporadic clashes took place in Bab Al Zawiya area, in the center of Hebron, as local residents hurled stones and bottles at the invading military forces. The soldiers fired gas bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets.

Other clashes took place at the Tareq Bin Ziad junction, south of the city, while the army placed more forces in the area and chased the residents; no arrests were reported.

Soldiers also invaded several nearby villages and town, and conducted military searches of homes.

On Sunday at dawn, troops invaded Hebron, broke into and searched dozens of homes, and kidnapped dozens of Hamas members and supporters, including elected legislator Mohammad Abu Jheisha, and a number of Hamas political leaders.

August 22, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Air raids exact heavy toll on Gaza health and sanitation infrastructure

Ma’an – 21/08/2011

GAZA CITY — A physiotherapy clinic, sewerage pump, civil society organizations and government buildings have been damaged in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip since Thursday, witnesses and officials said.

Israeli warplanes have bombarded the coastal enclave for three days in what the military says is a response to a deadly attack in southern Israel on Thursday.

Fourteen Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded in a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.

A specialist physiotherapy clinic in Gaza City funded by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries was amongst the buildings seriously damaged in the assault, witnesses said.

The clinic was the first of its kind in Gaza and run by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.

An electricity generator and four water pumps for the sewerage system in An-Nuseirat refugee camp were destroyed on Friday, causing power cuts in central Gaza.

The offices of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation sustained damages in air raids at dawn on Friday. The Gaza City office was opened to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza residents in the wake of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in December 2008.

The same building was also bombed in July 2010. Officials said the damage would affect the organization ability to provide humanitarian services.

Israeli forces also shelled a library located in a residential area and among government buildings, the Gaza government said.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Justice, civil servants’ bureau and government media office were severely damaged, the ministry said.

In a statement, the justice ministry said Israeli forces deliberately targeted civil institutions in what it described as a war crime.

August 21, 2011 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Israel arrests over 50 Hamas supporters in Al-Khalil

Palestine Information Center – 21/08/2011

AL-KHALIL — Israeli occupation forces arrested Sunday morning more than 50 Hamas supporters in one of the largest raids on the West Bank city of Al-Khalil since 2003.

IOF troops accompanied by more than a hundred military vehicles in addition to undercover forces began raiding the city midnight Sunday and deployed throughout its neighborhoods, local and security sources said.

A number of arrests have also been made in towns outside of the city, as the operation, one of the largest since 2003, continues.

Violent clashes broke out in several areas and civilians have been left injured.

Among those taken into custody was Palestinian MP Mohammed Mutlaq Abu Juheisha.

Also on Sunday morning, Israeli forces arrested Palestinian reporter Oseid Abdul-Majid Amarina, 26, after a violent raid on his home in Dheisha refugee camp east of Bethlehem.

August 21, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Bethlehem Mayor says soldiers ransacked home

Ma’an – 21/08/2011

BETHLEHEM — Israeli forces assaulted and detained a Palestinian man during a raid on the home of the Mufti of Bethlehem overnight Saturday, the sheikh said.

Sheikh Abdul-Majid Ata Amarna said troops raided his home in Duheisha refugee camp shortly before dawn prayers searching for his son Usayd, a journalist for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.

“When the soldiers raided my home, I asked them to wait before entering the different rooms so women could put on their head scarves and change their sleeping clothes, but instead of waiting they started firing inside the house injuring my brother-in-law, 27-year-old Bakr Badarin” the cleric told Ma’an.

He said Badarin was hit by a live bullet to his thigh, but soldiers refused to allow Palestinian Red Crescent medics to treat him and detained the injured man and the sheikh’s son Usayd Amarna.

The family learned later that Badarin was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.

August 21, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Gaza health ministry condemns attack on doctor

Ma’an – 20/08/2011

GAZA CITY — The health ministry in the Gaza Strip on Saturday condemned Israel’s killing of a Palestinian doctor overnight.

Dr Munther Qriqe, 32, a member of Shifa hospital’s intensive care unit, was killed along with two others from the same family when an Israeli drone fired a missile at his car, medics said.

Qriqe was on his way home with his brother Mutaz and his young nephew Islam, the health ministry said, charging that the attack reflected Israel’s “brutal escalation against medical staff.”

“The Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza has increased dramatically,” the ministry said in a statement early Saturday.

“Israel has crossed a red line,” said ministry spokesman Dr Ashraf Alqudra.

The health ministry called for more protection for medical staff.

August 20, 2011 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

13 year old boy old dead and 18 injured in Gaza

19 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Israel’s price tag campaign is not waged only by the settlers in the West Bank; it is also waged against the people of Gaza.  It isn’t exactly clear what the Gaza Strip is paying the price for. In contrast to Israeli propaganda, people are killed in Gaza all the time.  This has been a bloody week.  An 18 year old mentally disabled man was shot to death on Tuesday, another young man was shot in the leg on Tuesday.  Perhaps the price must be paid simply for existing.

Overnight Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza.  Nine people have been murdered in Gaza since yesterday. 13-year-old Mahmoud Abu Samra was one of the killed, he and 18 others were injured in one bombing attack in Gaza.  The Abu Samra family lives near the former intelligence services headquarters in Gaza City.  Their house was destroyed by an Israeli bomb last night at 12:30 A.M.  Their house was completely destroyed, one of their neighbors houses was also destroyed, one more, heavily damaged.  Thirteen people from three families live in these houses.  All of these families are refugees, expelled from their homes in 1948, and now, in a repeat of history, once again their houses are destroyed.  When we arrived family members were picking through the rubble, trying to salvage what could be salvaged.

The Abu Samra house was completely destroyed.  All that is left standing is a bathroom with the door torn off, a sink, and a broken mirror in it.  Mahmoud is dead, the latest causality in the Israeli assault on Gaza.  Neighbors and relatives pick through the remains.  A shattered computer monitor sits on a pile of rubble.  Israel bans the import of concrete into Gaza, so the house will probably live on in another house after the rubble is recycled.  Mahmoud is dead, he was buried today.

Next to the Abu Samra house is the Al Helal Sporting club.  It is one of the few places for young men to hang out in the neighborhood.  When the bomb hit it was packed with young men trying to escape the heat, entertaining themselves playing football and watching TV.  Many of the injured were young people from the neighborhood at the club.

We spoke to Seham Awad, a forty five year old mother of two.  She and her nephew were picking through the rubble.  Thankfully, her son is away at university studying, her daughter is married and no longer lives with her.  Her ex-husband is in an Israeli prison, seven years into a twelve year sentence.  She is unemployed and lives on charity and help from her neighbors.  She is a resourceful woman though, her backyard, maybe 25 square  meters, has been turned into a garden.  It is overhung by a shattered trellis for passion fruit vines.  She grows vegetables on the rest of her land, in old tires that have been turned into planters, on every square meter of land vegetables grow.  Her house is small, only two rooms, now both destroyed.

Her house was also destroyed during Cast Lead, she received no help rebuilding, only some mattresses and household supplies.  She lives without windows; only sheets cover the holes in the walls that would be windows.  Perhaps, this was lucky last night, there was no shattered glass to cut her.  After the attack, she slept in the garden, on mattresses placed in the back corner.  She is undefeated, after her house was destroyed in Cast Lead she rebuilt as best she could, concrete blocks, an asbestos and tin roof, and no windows.  She expected that her house would be destroyed again, she was right.  As she said, “I expect little from life, I planted this tree, now it is big, it provides shade, that is enough.”  When asked what she would do now, where she would go, she said, “I will stay here, I will rebuild again as best I can, where else can I go?”

Her neighbors, the Abbas family was not so lucky.  Their father, Abu Akmed was injured in the bombing.  This family too is picking through the rubble, praying for their father.  Their home, heavily damaged was all that they had.  In the back a horse still lives in a small shed.  Abu Ahmed, like most men in Gaza, had no job–they’re just simple refugees trying to rebuild their lives.  Nine people crammed into a small concrete block house, now, mostly destroyed.  Out their front door you can see the old security headquarters in Gaza, heavily bombed during Cast Lead and now abandoned.

Behind the Abbas family lives Hajjer Abu Duwani.  She is a fifty five year old mother of twelve.  She is a small woman; she looks older than her years.  She doesn’t really have a house, just two tin sheds that she lives in.  A chicken coop takes up one end of her land; on the rest of it she tries to grow vegetables.  She has no job; she depends on the help of her children to live.  Shrapnel from the bombing hit her.  She has an ugly hand sized bruise on her leg, another bruise on her arm, and her head was cut with shrapnel.  She is happy, at least she is alive, Mahmoud, her thirteen year old neighbor is dead, the houses of her other neighbors destroyed.

August 19, 2011 Posted by | Aletho News, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Egypt’s Secret Minister

By THOMAS C. MOUNTAIN | CounterPunch | August 17, 2011

Just exactly what influence Omar “The Secret Minister” Suleiman retains over the military junta that rules Egypt is a question of utmost importance for those who live on the banks of the Nile River. With a resume including 20 years as head of Egyptian Intelligence he is not someone anyone of those who helped bring about the downfall of Mubarak can afford to ignore.

He was the CIA’s go to man when it came to doing the Agencies dirty work in the Middle East as well as being the liaison with Israel and was reported to be in contact with Mossad on an almost daily basis.

Suleiman is infamous for enforcing the blockade of Gaza, saying he wanted the Palestinians there to “be hungry but not starving” in punishment for supporting Hamas. Hungry as in a 40% level of malnutrition related disability rates amongst Gaza’s children.

Mubarak as Egypt’s Godfather was as lacking in charisma as any leader in the Arab world and ruled by brute force alone. Omar Suleiman was his consigliere and enforcer combined, and was reputed to having a hands on approach to how his torturers carried out their interrogations.

While Mubarak and Sons lived a very publicly ostentatious lifestyle and were well known for their corrupt and decadent ways, Suleiman “The Secret Minister” always preferred to remain behind the scenes, at least until those last desperate days of the Mubarak regime and his “appointment” to the new position of Vice President of Egypt. It was he who announced to the world that a military coup had been carried out and that Mubarak was officially “retired”.

Of course, every member of the Egyptian military junta that overthrew Mubarak had arrived on the Supreme Military Council with his appointment stamped “Approved by Suleiman”. While they may hate “The Secret Minister” one could expect that the junta leaders know that if they want to avoid ending their careers standing in a cage in an Egyptian court “they had better hang together or they will all hang separately”.

Suleiman put them where they are and who better to keep matters from really disintegrating? And who better to keep them informed about what the CIA will and will not approve of.

Today the whereabouts of Suleiman the Secret remains just that, a secret. The last time he was allegedly heard from was via a letter to Al-Ahram newspaper in which he disavowed any desire to be elected President of Egypt. No, all he wanted to do was “live a quiet life with his family”.

Trial by military courts, torture and disappearances, all the hallmarks of Suleiman the Secret are still a part of today’s Egypt and those who partied in the streets after the Coup against Mubarak had better be warned. Behind the scene and still pulling the strings, Suleiman the Secret remains a danger whose continued influence will be ignored at the peril of those who rejoiced at Mubarak’s downfall.

Thomas C. Mountain is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006.

August 17, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Subjugation - Torture, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

Israeli police jeep kills Palestinian

Press TV – August 17, 2011

A Palestinian pedestrian has been killed after an Israeli border police vehicle hit him in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) suburb near an Israeli settlement neighborhood. The 38-year-old victim Amin Talab Dabash was hit by an Israeli police jeep in Har Homa in East al-Quds, AFP reported on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Israeli border police, however, claimed that the victim died in a traffic accident.

“Last night in the area of Har Homa, there was an accident when one of our jeeps hit a pedestrian. As a result of the accident, he died,” the Israeli spokesman said.

“He was crossing the road in a dark area, an area without lighting and the jeep hit him,” he added.

The Dabash family accuses Israel’s border police of having intentionally killed him.

At least 1,000 Palestinians attended Dabash’s funeral chanting slogans against the Israeli regime.

August 17, 2011 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

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