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CNN seems to consider damaged motorcycle more important than injured Palestinian children

By Allison Weir | October 8, 2012

CNN’s choice of a photo for its latest online news story on Israel-Palestine is revealing.

In its report on the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, “Palestinians: Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 1, wound 15,” CNN features one photo. It is a picture of a charred motorcycle.

CNN reports: “Palestinian militants say they have fired 20 mortar rounds from Gaza into Israel in retaliation for airstrikes that killed one person and wounded 15 others.”

Later in the story CNN mentions that some of the “others” were children but gives no additional details. According to reports from other sources, at least five of the injured were children, including one infant.

There are a number of photographs of these children.

Yet, CNN didn’t publish any of them, and instead used a photo of a motorcycle.

Below are some of the photos CNN missed. (Click on each photo to see the source.)

In the last paragraph of its story, CNN reports: “On the Israeli side, there were no injuries and only minor property damage…”

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October 8, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Qatar invites bids to reconstruct Gaza

Ma’an – 02/10/2012

GAZA CITY – The Qatari government on Tuesday invited tenders for four construction projects, in the first stage of a $254 million project to rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Qatar’s ambassador to Gaza Muhammad al-Imadi is heading a committee overseeing the work.

Consultants have been invited to submit designs for a city to be named after Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa al-Thani. The $30-million development will include 1,000 residential units in five-story apartment blocks, schools, stores, clinics, parks and entertainment facilities, the ambassador said in a statement.

Companies were also invited to bid for the repair of three major roads in the enclave. The 35-kilometer coastal highway al-Rashid Street will cost around $50 million to repair, and $18 million has been allocated to reconstruct the 10-kilometer al-Karama Street.

The 28-kilometer Salah Addin Street will be repaired first, at a cost of $60 million, as the plans and designs are ready, al-Imadi said.

In the coming days, consultants will be invited to bid for several agricultural projects, budgeted at $12.5 million.

Housing projects worth $32 million will also be announced this week to house needy families and to re-home those who were evicted for building on public land.

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October 2, 2012 Posted by | Corruption | , , , | 1 Comment

Ex-prisoner explains self-immolation attempt

Ma’an – 21/09/2012
Former prisoner Abeer Odeh (MaanImages/File)

RAMALLAH – A former prisoner who tried to set herself on fire in Ramallah on Thursday says the Palestinian Authority is neglecting released detainees.

Abeer Odeh, 30, tried to self-immolate in Ramallah’s Manara square on Thursday but was stopped by police, a Ma’an correspondent said. She was taken to a nearby police station.

Odeh was released from Israeli detention last year in a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking to Ma’an on Thursday evening, Odeh accused the PA ministries of health and prisoner affairs of failing to assist prisoners struggling with health problems and financial difficulties after their release. She said she tried to set herself on fire to draw attention to the plight of ex-detainees.

Odeh receives a salary from the PA but has had to cover the cost of several surgeries since her release, she said.

She says she was tortured during her nine years in Israeli detention and suffers colon infections, hernias, jaw erosion and spinal problems.

The former prisoner rejected statements made by some Palestinian officials that she was suffering from psychological problems, and considered the claims efforts to discredit her.

She said police in Ramallah mistreated her after her attempt to self-immolate.

Six of Odeh’s brothers have spent time in Israeli jails, and one brother was killed by Israeli forces. Another brother is disabled after he was injured by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli forces arrested Odeh’s mother in August, and she is now subject to movement restrictions by the Israeli military.

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September 21, 2012 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian universities set strike for Wednesday

Ma’an – 11/09/2012

HEBRON – Employees at all Palestinian universities will go on general strike Wednesday protesting the government’s failure to respond to their demands, a joint committee of the employees’ union and the union of students councils said Tuesday.

The committee explained in a statement that both academics and students could understand the ongoing popular protests in the streets. “The occupation is behind all our calamities and problems,” the statement added.

“After the Palestinian government has failed to undertake its basic duties toward the different sectors in the Palestinian society, especially the education sector, despite being given enough chances, you have to listen to the cries of anger and to comply with the popular demands,” the statement said addressing the PA premier.

The statement urged the protestors to keep their movement peaceful and show a sense of responsibility.

On the other hand, schools will operate normally, according to the secretary general of the Palestinian general federation of teachers, Muhammad Suwwan.

September 11, 2012 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli high court rejects south Hebron village petition

Ma’an – 10/08/2012

Villagers in the South Hebron Hills face eviction as Israel pushes plans
to use their land for army training (MaanImages/Eleonora Vio, File)

BETHLEHEM – Israel’s High Court on Thursday rejected a petition against the removal of Palestinian villagers from the southern West Bank by the Israeli army, but stressed further legal challenges were still open.

The ruling allows villagers in the south Hebron hills to remain in their villages until November 1, when an order blocking their displacement will expire.

The court said it was not taking a position on the wider dispute, in which the Israeli government has ordered demolition of eight of the 12 villages in an area the army designates as a military training zone.

Tamar Feldman, a legal director for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel who filed the petition, insisted: “It is the full legal right of all of the residents of these villagers to remain on the land that they have owned for generations and use it for their livelihood.”

“There is no justification, legal or moral, for evacuating and displacing residents from their homes and their lands – whether we are talking about 12 villages or 8,” she said.

Residents of the south Hebron hills have fought a long battle to remain in their homes.

In 1999, over 700 residents were evicted due to “illegal residence in a firing zone” and Israeli forces confiscated property and demolished buildings and wells.

Israel’s High Court issued an interim injunction, and Israeli forces allowed named petitioners to return but not their relatives.

In July, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the court the army plans to demolish Khirbet al-Majaz, Khirbet al-Tabban, Sfai, Khirbet al-Fakheit, Halaweh, Mirkez, Jinba, and Kharoubeh.

The Israeli state says the residents are squatters from the nearby town of Yatta, while lawyers for the villagers say their rural communities pre-date the establishment of the state of Israel.

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August 10, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , | Leave a comment

8 injured as settlers stone bus carrying worshipers

Ma’an – 04/08/2012

Israeli settlers hurl stones toward Palestinians during clashes in the
village of Burin near Nablus (MaanImages/Rami Swidan, File)

NABLUS – Eight Palestinians sustained injuries late Friday when Jewish settlers pelted a bus with stones on the main road between Ramallah and Nablus, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that settlers from Shilo hurled stones at a bus carrying Palestinian worshipers on their way back from al-Aqsa Mosque.

The attack, he said, took place at 1:30 a.m. and eight people including men and women were injured. They were taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, he said.

Daghlas highlighted that Israeli military forces closed the main road between Ramallah and Nablus for more than two hours after the incident to prevent further attacks.

The Israeli military confirmed receiving reports about the incident.

“Once the reports were received, IDF soldiers arrived at the scene and set up temporary checkpoints while searching for suspects,” a spokeswoman told Ma’an.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is systematic in the West Bank.

On Wednesday settlers vandalized Palestinian property in the Ramallah village of Sinjil.

A group of settlers from Givat Ariel outpost wrote “Palestinians should die,” and “Stay away from our lands,” on a wall in the village, Sinjil mayor Ayoub Swaied said.

Settlers also left an improvised explosive device made from chemicals under a car. A box containing ethylene, benzene and sulfur was found underneath a car in the village, Swaied added.

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August 4, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Israeli authorities circle Palestinian land with fence near Qalqiliya

Ma’an | July 28, 2012

QALQILIYA – Israeli authorities have started to install a fence around the southern side of Azzun Atma in Qalaqiliya in the northern West Bank.

A two-meter high spiral fence was installed on about 1,500 meters running from the settlement of Oranit to the crossroads of Kafr Qasim and route 505, according to Abdul-Karim Ayyoub, the secretary of the local council.

“With this fence, Israel is isolating the area known as Beer al-Shilla, the artisan well, and about 800-1000 donums (over 8,000 meters squared) of different groves. Farmers will not be able to access their fields even after they pass the gate on the northern side of the road,” he added.

Hani Amer, who is in charge of the artisan well in al-Shilla said that neither the well nor the groves could be accessed anymore, as the Israelis have not left openings or gates leading to the well or to the dirt roads.

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July 28, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Official: Israeli forces close roads in south Hebron hills

Ma’an – 27/07/2012

HEBRON – Israeli forces have closed several roads in the south Hebron hills, after Israel ordered the demolition of eight villages in the area to use the land for military training, local official said.

Israeli troops closed roads leading to Khirbet al-Majaz, Khirbet al-Tabban, Khirbet al-Fakheit, Halaweh, Mirkez, Jinba and Kharoubeh, a spokesman for Yatta municipality Abed Abu Fannar told Ma’an.

Abu Fannar said Israeli military bulldozers were closing the entrances to all the villages. He added that he was detained by Israeli soldiers while inspecting the area and warned not to return.

Israeli troops have informed residents of the villages that the region is a closed military zone, Abu Fannar said, and military vehicles are deployed throughout the area.

Israel’s High Court of Justice heard Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s plans to demolish the villages on Sunday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Residents of the south Hebron villages will be allowed to access their land for farming on weekends and Jewish holidays, and during two one-month periods each year, when the Israeli army is not training in the area, Haaretz reported.

Israel regards the 1,500 residents of the villages as squatters, although the villages predate the establishment of the state of Israel by over 100 years, Haaretz said.

Previous evacuation orders issued against the villages were frozen by Israel’s High Court of Justice.

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July 27, 2012 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian stabbed, shot in settler attack near Nablus

Ma’an – 07/07/2012

NABLUS – A Palestinian man was shot by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank on Saturday, after which a group of Israeli settlers stabbed him repeatedly, a Palestinian official said.

Jawdat Bani Jabir, 43, was shot in the face and the foot by soldiers in Yanun village, south of Nablus, governorate official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma’an.

A group of Israeli settlers who had descended into the village proceeded to stab him in several places, Daghlas added. Jabir’s condition could not be immediately confirmed.

An Israeli army spokesman said he was looking into the incident.

Daghlas said the settlers had entered Yanun village, and fatally stabbed five cattle. He pointed out that the village depends on agriculture and livestock.

Villagers came out to defend their homes, the official added.

Yanun is surrounded by Israeli settler outposts, illegal under both international and Israeli law.


Yanoun: Settlers and soldiers attack village, injuring 5

8th July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Saturday 7 July, 2012, the village of Yanoun, located 12km southeast of Nablus, was attacked by illegal settlers from the illegal Itamar settlement. Five Palestinians were injured in the attack and large sections of agricultural land were set ablaze.

The attack began at roughly 2pm. The illegal settlers descended on the village and began setting fire to sections of land and firing on sheep while they were grazing. In the course of the attack on Yanoun, 5 residents of Aqraba, (the neighbouring village) were injured to varying degrees. Two men, Ibrahim Hamid Ibrahim, and Adwan Rajih bini Naber were beaten by settlers, and another, Joudat Hamid Ibrahim was stabbed in the shoulder after being beaten as well. When the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrived, they joined in the attacks, injuring two more. Hakimun Ahmed Yusuf Bini Jaber, 42, was shot in the arm with live ammunition by an IOF soldier and Ashraf Adel Hamid Ibrahim, 29, was shot in the back with a tear gas canister when the soldiers attempted to scatter villagers who were aiding the injured.

The villagers who were aiding the injured attempted to carry the injured men to ambulances, but IOF soldiers blocked the roads and refused to let them through. The IOF and illegal settlers also stopped residents from putting out the fires. The first ambulance to leave was reportedly stopped at Huwwara checkpoint en route to a hospital in Nablus. Two of the injured men were taken from the ambulance and held in Israeli custody for an undetermined period of time. The second and third ambulance were not allowed to depart with those wounded for two hours.

After the attacks had stopped, IOF soldiers still held Adwan Rajih Bini Jaber captive, refusing to allow the ambulance carrying him to depart. Illegal settlers stood by heavily armed, protecting the fires that they had set to Palestinian land.

Nearing 6pm, illegal settlers and IOF soldiers once again advanced on the Palestinians, as internationals gathered to show solidarity, ending in the firing of tear gas canisters and live ammunition into the air.

Yanoun and its residents have been subject to terrorism by illegal settlers from Itamar for many years. On October 19, 2002, there was a temporary mass exodus due to the harassment, drawing parallels with the refugees created in 1948. The villagers returned little by little in the weeks following, with the help of peace activists from Ta’ayush & other groups but the village still suffers from violent attacks regardless.

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July 7, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , | 1 Comment

Israeli kills 2 Palestinians near Hebron

Ma’an – 17/06/2012

HEBRON – An Israeli civilian shot and killed two Palestinians on Sunday in the Hebron village of al-Samu, Palestinian medics and Israeli officials said.

Anwar Abed Rabbo, 27, from Yatta, and Naeem al-Najjar, 32, from nearby Idhna, were killed, and a third unidentified man was injured when an Israeli opened fire on them, Palestinian medics said.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Ma’an that a tow truck driver was attacked by two Palestinians in the south Hebron hills.

The driver “drew his weapon and fired a number of shots at the suspects,” he said, in what was thought to have been an attempted robbery.

Al-Najjar was shot in the head and neck and Abed Rabbo in the chest, medics told Ma’an.

The driver was lightly injured and treated in a Beersheva hospital, Rosenfeld said.

Israeli media reported that the truck driver is from southern Israeli city Ashkelon. Medics had earlier said that the Israeli civilian involved in the incident was a settler.

A spokesman for Palestinian security forces, Adnan Dmeiri, said he was aware of the deaths but did not have further details because the shooting took place in an Israeli-run area out of bounds to Palestinian police under interim peace deals.

Head of Yatta municipality Zahran Abu Qbetta told Ma’an that the two men were on their way to work at the time of the shooting.

Israeli forces prevented ambulances from accessing the scene, claiming that it was a closed military zone, Red Crescent official Nasser Kabaja told Ma’an.

Settlers and other Israelis who travel regularly in the occupied West Bank are licensed to carry guns.

Reuters contributed to this report

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June 17, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | 1 Comment

Israeli forces order Hebron village demolished after settler case

Ma’an – 12/06/2012

HEBRON – Israeli forces on Tuesday handed a southern West Bank village demolition orders for each of its 50 buildings, a week after Israeli authorities agreed to halt all construction in the area in response to a petition filed by a settler group.

Susiya village, in the south Hebron hills, has three days to appeal the decision before their village is demolished, resident Nasser Nawaja told Ma’an.

The community’s lawyer Quamar Mishirqi said she will file an objection to Israel’s High Court.

The mass demolition notices come days after an Israeli court heard Susiya’s case to remain in their homes. The village is fighting a petition by the neighboring Jewish-only settlement also called Susiya, and an Israeli group pushing to demolish Palestinian buildings called Regavim.

Last Wednesday, the court decided to implement a total freeze on building in the village, and the state agreed to inform the court of its plans for the village within 90 days, as requested in the Regavim petition.

While Regavim is registered as a non-governmental organization and says it is interested in equal application of the law, a Ma’an report last month showed it is run by residents of Israeli settlements and illegal outposts, with political connections to local government and the Likud and National Union parties.

Further, according to Israeli experts who reviewed the group’s official reports, the NGO is financed by publicly funded local councils of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The United Nations humanitarian affairs office has warned that Susiya, a hamlet of 350 people, including 120 children, is at immediate risk of forced displacement as a result of Regavim’s petition.

Nawaja told Ma’an the demolition orders intend to clear the village of its inhabitants in order to use the land for Israeli settlements. All settlements are illegal under international law.

The village lies in an area called Masafer Yatta, long besieged by settlements and their outpost offshoots, as well as a steady stream of demolition orders.

Residents of the area are a mixture of pre-1948 communities squeezed by their proximity to the ceasefire line with the new Israeli state, agricultural lands farmed by Yatta residents who moved out to live on their fields, and Bedouin encampments set up by those displaced from the Negev desert in the war to establish Israel.

When Israel began building settlements in the area in the early 1980s, villagers say the army started putting pressure on them to move from Masafer Yatta.

In 1999, the entire population was evacuated by the Israeli army. After a battle in Israel’s High Court, residents were granted ‘temporary’ permission to return.

“The court agreed this is our land, but they will not give us permission to build on it,” says Susiya council chief Muhammad Ahmed Nawaja.

International law experts say that under the Fourth Geneva Convention Israel must provide for the needs of the occupied Palestinian population, and are prohibited from demolishing any structure that has a civilian purpose.

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June 12, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

Owner of dairy factory hit by Israel urges world action

Ma’an – 04/06/2012

GAZA CITY – The owner of a dairy factory in the Gaza Strip, which was flattened by an Israeli airstrike before dawn Monday, called for an international committee to prove his business does not store weapons.

The Dalloul dairy factory, in the al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, was destroyed in the third day of airstrikes on the coastal enclave, leaving one person moderately injured.

Israel’s army said it had “targeted a weapon manufacturing facility and a terror tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip,” in response to rocket fire on communities in southern Israel.

Factory owner Abu Haroun Dalloul told Ma’an the bombing was the fourth time his factory has been targeted in recent years. The facility was previously destroyed in Israel’s war on Gaza in January 2009.

He called on Arab and Islamic nations, as well as the European Union, to form a committee to prove his factory does not store weapons.

The business sustained an estimated loss of $300,000 after Sunday’s strike, Dalloul said, noting he had just purchased a new processor at a cost of $80,000.

“We call on the whole world to protect us. My factory makes food and yogurt. Why is it being bombed like this?” he said.

“If it stored or manufactured weapons, it would not have been placed in a residential neighborhood, where most of the houses nearby belong to my relatives,” he continued.

One neighbor, Um Basem al-Shanshiri, said Sunday’s bombing caused panic and terror amongst the sleeping children in the area.

“All our neighbors’ houses were destroyed in the Israeli bombings, we are living in the street now,” she told Ma’an.

Three days of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have injured 13 Palestinians, with two men later dying of their wounds.

Gaza-based rights group Al-Mezan said nine houses were partially damaged, and one house was destroyed in the bombings. A poultry and cattle farm, a water well, a carpentry shop, and a storeroom were also damaged, it said.

The attacks started after a Palestinian gunman shot dead an Israeli soldier on the Gaza border on Friday. The Palestinian was also killed in the clash.

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June 4, 2012 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

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