Human rights abuses in the Jordan Valley in Features
International Solidarity Movement | January 1, 2024
The following article is a snapshot of how life is under occupation and brutal settler colonialism for the Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley. These incidents are just some that took place on one day (Friday 29th December).
Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) soldiers, along with officials from the Mekorot Water Control Company (Israel’s national water company), stormed the village of Bardala and closed the water holes used by the farmers of the village to irrigate crops, as part of a policy of water deprivation. The policy of racial discrimination and apartheid in the right to water constitutes an existential threat to the Jordan Valley communities.
The IOF and the Jordan Valley Regional Settlements Council closed the only entrance to the pastures to the east of Ain al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley. The iron gate placed across the entrance and guarded by IOF soldiers prevents shepherds and their livestock from entering any of their lands and pastures east of Route 60. With this gate, gangs of illegal settlers now have full control over a vast area of more than 55,000 dunums of land (approximately 14,000 acres) located between Road 60 and Road 90. The loss of grazing land and the confinement of livestock in population centres constitute a disaster for farming communities in these areas and are driving factors in their forced displacement.
Citizen Abu Mahdi Daraghmeh from Ain al-Hilweh reported that he is using legal channels to launch an appeal in order to protect him from the herding activities of illegal settlers, as settlers stole 80 cows from his children the day prior. Denial from the settlers along with the complete inability of the Occupation Authority’s Civil Administration to address the problem have left him with no other option. Herding is a strategy increasingly used by illegal settlers to steal land across the West Bank.
House demolitions, a powerful tool for forced displacement and ethnic cleansing used by Israel, are continuing apace in the Jordan Valley. On 26th December at around 9am, Civil Administration personnel came with IOF soldiers and two bulldozers to the village of Furush Beit Dajan. The forces demolished five homes of five families numbering twenty five people, eight of them children. Three of the homes demolished were built before 1967. The forces also demolished three seasonal homes of three families, numbering twenty people, including seven children. A concrete wall around one of the houses as well as a pool used to irrigate crops were also demolished.
The Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign is one of the main solidarity organisations active in the Jordan Valley, with which ISM has worked in partnership over the years. It is a network of Palestinian grassroots community groups from throughout the Jordan Valley and stands side by side with Jordan Valley residents in resisting the ethnic cleansing of their communities through direct solidarity.
Photos credit: Jordan Valley Solidarity
As 2024 dawns, Palestinian detainee Abdul-Rahman al-Bahsh assassinated in Zionist jails
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network | January 1, 2024
As the new year dawns on 2024, amid the ongoing Zionist genocide in occupied Palestine — and the heroic resistance confronting the occupation war machine — the Israeli occupation forces are continuing their war on the Palestinian detainees and the prisoners’ movement. On 1 January 2024, 23-year-old Palestinian detainee, Abdul-Rahman Bassem Al-Bahsh was assassinated by occupation forces inside the colonial Zionist Megiddo prison.
The 23-year-old Palestinian struggler had been detained since 31 May 2022, and sentenced by a Zionist military court to 35 months in occupation prisons, making him the first martyr of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in 2024. He is the seventh Palestinian martyr inside the occupation prisons since 7 October 2023 and the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood. We note that this is not the complete number of Palestinian detainees who have been killed by Israeli occupation forces since 7 October; in addition to the numerous reports of horrific torture, mutilation and inhuman treatment against Palestinian detainees from Gaza, a number of Palestinian civilians kidnapped from Gaza by occupation soldiers were reported to be killed where they were held in a camp near Bir al-Saba. Their names and identities have not yet been disclosed.
This also comes amid the ongoing reports of torture and abuse within the Zionist prison system, with multiple testimonies by Palestinian prisoners, their lawyers, and especially the Palestinian women and children detainees liberated by the Palestinian resistance during the prisoner exchanges of November 2023. One of the child detainees released in November was an eyewitness to the murder of Thaer Abu Assab and spoke about the assassination immediately upon his release; reports now indicate that at least 19 occupation prison guards participated in the assassination.
The Palestinian prisoners assassinated inside Zionist jails since 7 October are:
- Omar Daraghmeh of Tubas
- Arafat Hamdan of Ramallah
- Majid Zaqoul of Gaza
- Palestinian detainee from Gaza (identity still not known)
- Abdel-Rahman Mar’i of Salfit
- Thaer Abu Assab of Qalqilya
- Abdul-Rahman al-Bahsh of Nablus
Mar’i, Daraghmeh and al-Bahsh were all assassinated inside the colonial Megiddo prison; with the assassination of al-Bahsh, the number of martyrs of the prisoners’ movement rises to 244 since the 1967 occupation. (There are greater, yet not entirely known, numbers of Palestinians detained since the beginning of the Zionist occupation in 1948, not to mention the British colonial regime that sponsored the Zionist colonization of Palestine.)
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society emphasized the responsibility of the Zionist regime and of the Western imperialist powers who continue to support it, arm it and provide it with impunity for its ongoing genocide: “In light of the intensity of the crimes that the occupation continues to commit against imprisoned detainees, we hold that all international powers that continue to support the occupation in its ongoing genocide against our people in Gaza and the continuing aggression against our people everywhere, including our prisoners in occupation jails, hold full responsibility for these crimes alongside the criminal occupation.”
The number of Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails has risen to over 7,000 since 7 October, including over 2,000 jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. The prisoners are subjected to collective punishment, including the confiscation of all electrical devices, including heating plates, televisions and radios (denying them access to news of the assault and the resistance); cutting electicity to the sections throughout the day; denial of access to the courtyard; destruction of sports equipment; cutting off of all hot water; closure of the kitchen; constant room searches and raids; overcrowding of the prison rooms; and the continued escalation of administrative detention orders. Mass food poisoning has broken out in Ofer prison, and multiple released detainees reported being served uncooked or spoiled food, while their own access to the kitchen was barred. Palestinian prisoners whose sentences have ended are being ordered jailed without charge or trial rather than released.
It is important to note that the war on Palestinian prisoners did not begin on 7 October but rather has continued; prior to 7 October, the notorious fascist Itamar Ben Gvir was placed in charge of the Zionist prisons, banning family visits, ordering ongoing raids and assaults against the prisoners, and cutting food and water alongside the massive escalation in the use of administrative detention (a policy initially introduced to Palestine by the British colonial regime and then taken up by its Zionist successor).
This ongoing policy of extreme torture, abuse and isolation aims to target the Palestinian prisoners’ movement as a whole, to undermine the prisoners’ unity and steadfastness in confronting the occupation. It particularly comes as the Palestinian resistance has captured prisoners of war in order to seek a prisoner exchange to liberate the Palestinian prisoners jailed by the occupation and its imperialist allies and backers. These assassinations also shine a spotlight on the immense disparity in the treatment of Palestinian prisoners by the Zionist regime in comparison to the way in which Zionist detainees captured by the Palestinian resistance in order to secure a prisoner exchange have been treated, as witnessed before the world in the November exchanges of women and children detainees.
Israel targets UNRWA to expel it from Gaza, change territory’s demographics: Palestinian Foreign Ministry
Press TV – December 31, 2023
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says Israel has been targeting the UN agency for Palestinian refugees across the Gaza Strip to force it to leave the territory and change Gaza’s demographic characteristics.
The ministry made the remarks in a statement on Saturday concerning the Israeli regime’s attacks on employees and facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to the ministry, since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza on October 7, the regime has killed hundreds of the agency’s employees, destroyed its centers and schools, and obstructed its work and ability to perform its tasks, especially in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
It added that the regime’s assaults on the UN agency are also in line with Israel’s plans to forcefully displace the people of Gaza and change demographic characteristics of the coastal territory.
“Such Israeli plans directly target the Palestinian issue and the rights of our people, most notably the right of return [to their homeland], and are an integral part of an official Israeli policy aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue,” the ministry noted.
It added that apart from the official goals declared for the regime’s war on Gaza by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is using genocide of Palestinian civilians as a means to achieve other strategic goals, which are gradually unfolding with each passing day.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has so far killed at least 21,672 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 56,000 others.
The regime has also cut off the flow of basic supplies such as water, electricity, medicines, and fuel, to one of the world’s most densely-populated territories that houses over two million Palestinians.
Amid ongoing genocide in Gaza, systematic Israeli theft occurring in Palestinian civilian homes
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor | December 29, 2023
The Israeli army has unleashed its soldiers in the Gaza Strip to not only kill, but to engage in immoral activities such as property theft and looting during raids on Palestinian civilian homes, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued Friday.
Euro-Med Monitor reported on a number of cases that show Israeli soldiers participating in and witnessing the deliberate theft of the assets and money of Palestinian civilians, including laptop computers, gold, and large quantities of cash. Israel’s army has been conducting ground military operations in the Gaza Strip since October, the rights group said. These operations have included raiding homes, storming residential areas, and conducting arbitrary arrest campaigns against civilians.
According to testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor, the Israeli army’s crimes extend beyond arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and field executions. They also involve the intentional destruction of property, the theft of personal belongings, and the looting and burning of homes—all part of a systematic strategy that is evidently based on collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Based on the testimonies it has been documenting, the Euro-Med Monitor team stated that its preliminary estimates suggest that the Israeli army may have looted valuable possessions worth tens of millions of dollars, in addition to stealing personal belongings from Palestinian civilians.
Palestinian Thabet Salim, 40, told Euro-Med Monitor’s team that he and his two sons were taken into custody by the Israeli army from their house in the Zaytoun neighbourhood, in the south of Gaza City, and that members of the army had pilfered all of the gold and cash that was on hand. Salim said that he had been released alone two days ago, while his sons’ fate remains unknown.
“The amount of money the soldiers took from my house is worth more than 10,000 US dollars,” Salim declared, “plus nearly the same amount of gold from my wife, and the wife of my eldest son.”
A woman named Umm Muhammad Gharbiyya, who lives in the Al-Shuja’iya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that the Israeli forces forcibly took her gold jewellery after violently breaking into her family’s house earlier this month. Her husband and oldest son were also arrested during the raid.
Hussein Al-Tanani, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City, said that they were surprised to find their house had been raided by the Israeli army following their escape to a nearby United Nations school in order to seek shelter from Israeli attacks. A computer and large amounts of cash had been stolen, while a big mess was left inside the house.
The testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor teams confirm reports by the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate’s so-called “intelligence collection and technical spoils” unit that were published by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on 15 December. The reports say that the Israeli army “seized” sums of money exceeding five million Israeli shekels (about $1,351,350 USD).
Euro-Med Monitor reported that the aforementioned amount of money is likely only a small portion of the unreported thefts carried out by Israeli forces. At the same time, footage swept social media (its date as well as the precise context of the incident could not be verified by the time of this publication) showing three Israeli soldiers personally selling gold jewellery in a West Bank store after stealing it from a house in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s soldiers themselves have published videos on social media platforms documenting their deliberate sabotage of civilian homes in the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Monitor pointed out, or their spraying of racist Zionist slogans on walls, in addition to bragging about seizing Palestinians’ money and valuable possessions.
Alia Al-Najjar, 34, affirmed in press statements that she recognised some of her own gold jewellery, which she had previously kept with her mother’s belongings, in one of the videos published by Israeli soldiers. Among the items Al-Najjar saw in the video was a bracelet she had purchased with her first teaching salary, which was a unique 24-carat gold leaf-shaped piece.
She said that in the video clip, an Israeli soldier displays her bracelet inside Al-Najjar’s mother’s cloth purse, which also holds other gold pieces and cherished items. She made a comment on the video, calling the soldiers “thieves” before the poster removed the video.
Another Israeli soldier appears in a video clip showing off a silver necklace that says “Made in Gaza” and promising to give it to his girlfriend, while additional footage shows a different soldier carrying a guitar and singing above the debris of demolished homes in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for a comprehensive and impartial international investigation to be launched into the grave Israeli violations against the residents of the Gaza Strip and their property, and for the international community to take urgent measures to ensure that Israel is held legally accountable.
Israel sued for ‘genocide’ in The Hague
RT | December 29, 2023
South Africa has filed an appeal before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, alleging that Israeli actions in Gaza amount to “genocide” and asking for “provisional measures” to stop it, the top UN court announced on Friday.
The application claims “acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” the ICJ said in a statement.
Israel’s conduct towards the Palestinians in Gaza “is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” the government in Pretoria said. They also accused Israel of having “failed to prevent genocide” and “failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide” since October 7.
“Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
South Africa also asked the ICJ to “indicate provisional measures” in order to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm” to Palestinians under the Genocide Convention. The ICJ also published the 84-page document that lists these measures in detail, first of which is for Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.”
Pretoria also demands of West Jerusalem to stop any and all attacks on Palestinians, and to revoke any orders whose goal is “the expulsion and forced displacement from their homes” or deprivation of access to food, water, fuel, shelter, medical supplies and other humanitarian needs.
Anyone who engages in “direct and public incitement” to genocide or conspiracy to commit it must be brought to justice, the appeal insists. South Africa demanded Israel submit a report on complying with all these demands within one week.
Under the ICJ’s rules, South Africa’s application has priority over all other cases, because of the request for provisional measures.
South Africa has previously sought to charge Israel with war crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC). West Jerusalem is not a signatory party to the ICC, but the court – also based in The Hague – has previously declared it had jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.
On the other hand, both South Africa and Israel are signatories of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was first adopted in 1948, in response to the Nazi mass murder of Jews during WWII.
UN convoy attacked by Israel on designated ‘humanitarian route’
The Cradle | December 29, 2023
The Director of the UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, Thomas White, announced on 29 December that the Israeli army had targeted one of the organization’s aid convoys as it was returning from north Gaza on a route designated by Tel Aviv itself.
“Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from Northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army,” White said via social media.
“Our international convoy leader and his team were not injured, but one vehicle sustained damage – aid workers should never be a target,” he added.
Israel has shown blatant disregard for humanitarian aid workers during its campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing which began on 7 October.
As of 28 December, 142 UNRWA employees have been killed as a result of the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to the organization’s 57th situation report on the besieged enclave. According to the report, 125 UNRWA installations have also been damaged.
“At least 308 internally displaced peoples (IDPs) sheltering in UNRWA premises have been killed and 1,095 injured since 7 October,” the situation report adds.
It is worth noting that a large majority of the over 30,000 employed by UNRWA are Palestinians.
This is not the first time Palestinians and aid workers have been targeted on humanitarian routes designated specifically by Israel.
Upon resuming the assault after the seven-day truce that ended at the very start of this month, Israel published a map of so-called ‘safe zones’ for Gazans to flee to, ignoring the fact that the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza do not have electricity or internet to access the map. Many Gazans reported airstrikes on a number of the zones designated by Israel.
“The so-called safe zones … are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” a UNICEF spokesman told Al-Jazeera on 5 December.
Gazans are suffering due to a severe lack of humanitarian aid, which since the start of the war has trickled into Gaza at a pace nowhere near fast enough to address the dire situation.
Israel continues to bombard the civilian population indiscriminately, while actively pursuing plans for forced displacement.
Tel Aviv recently issued more evacuation orders for Gazans in Khan Yunis to evacuate further south, as tens of thousands of displaced Gazans are already stranded in the southern border city of Rafah.
“People forced to move once again. More people in less space. Rafah in the south is now bursting at the seams. No respite. Time for a humanitarian ceasefire,” Thomas White wrote on social media on 26 December.
Al-Qassam Brigades: We destroyed 825 Israeli military vehicles
Palestine Information Center – December 28, 2023
GAZA – Spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida said in a new audio recording that the Battle of Aqsa Flood paved the way for the collapse of the “occupation entity”, reflecting on the struggles and aspirations of the Palestinian people after 83 days of battle.
“We have been fighting for decades, leading up to the Aqsa Flood Battle, for the sake of our people.”
“We dealt the Israeli occupation the blow of the century and told the world that we are a people demanding rights and freedom.”
He further pointed out that the Palestinian resistance remains steadfast, fighting in every corner of Gaza.
“We continue to fight because we know our rights are being taken away.”
“Since the start of the war on October 7, our fighters of Al-Qassam Brigades have destroyed 825 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers, and bulldozers, among other vehicles,” he said.
Abu Obeida also stated that “the Israeli aggression will break soon, and our people will rise with their heads held high.”
“The Battle of al-Aqsa Flood has put Israel on the path to extinction.”
On the other hand, Abu Obeida stressed that there will be no prisoner exchanges without a full ceasefire.
“Our priority is to stop the Israeli aggression against our people, and no priority comes before that.”
“There are no deals that we can accept before the aggression against our people stops completely.”
Denouncing the international community’s silence towards Israeli crimes, Abu Obeida said that “the world is divided between being unjust criminals or helpless spectators.”
UN pushes back against Biden transgender proposal
RT | December 29, 2023
Rule changes to sexual discrimination legislation proposed by the US government designed to prevent the banning of transgender athletes in schools and colleges would violate the rights of biological women, a United Nations (UN) expert, Reem Alsalem, warned on Wednesday.
Under the landmark ‘Title IX’ legislation passed by the US Congress in 1972, it was ruled that sexual discrimination against women in education must be eradicated. It also stated that women should have the same educational rights and opportunities as their male counterparts.
In April, the US Department of Education proposed modifying the legislation so that no school or college that receives federal funding can impose broad rules that categorically ban transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identity. Instead, it said such issues should be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The proposed amendment would also lead to the removal of separate facilities for men and women, including bathrooms and changing rooms, in some instances.
But on Wednesday, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, argued that the proposed changes to Title IX would have a negative impact on biological women.
“The proposed Title IX rule changes would have detrimental effects on the participation of biological women and girls in sports,” Alsalem said in a news release. It would, she added, deny women “the opportunity to compete fairly, resulting in the loss of athletic and scholarship opportunities.”
Furthermore, Alsalem argued that an altered Title IX would “lead to the loss of privacy” for female athletes and cause “heightened exposure to sexual harassment and voyeurism.”
“If the proposed changes are adopted, they would contravene the United States’ international human rights obligations and commitments concerning the prevention of all forms of violence and discrimination against women on the basis of sex,” she added.
The participation of transgender athletes in female sporting categories has become a hot-button topic over the past several years. Perhaps most notorious is the case of the American collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas, who, in 2022, became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. Before transitioning, Thomas had previously ranked 462 in the male category.
However, despite media attention on Thomas’ eligibility to compete against biologically-born women, the athlete’s right to compete was backed in an open letter by 300 current and former collegiate swimmers.
In the letter, they issued “support for Lia Thomas, and all transgender college athletes, who deserve to be able to compete in safe and welcoming athletic environments.”
A final decision on the possible changes is expected in 2024.




