Lawyer Shireen Al-‘Eesawy Sentenced To 4 Years, Her Brother To 8
IMEMC News – March 8, 2016
The Israeli Central Court in occupied Jerusalem, sentenced on Monday lawyer Shireen al-Eesawy, to four years imprisonment, and her brother to eight.
Amjad Abu Assab, head of the Jerusalem Detainees Parents Committee, said the lawyer and her brother, were convicted of “communicating with the detainees,” and providing funds to them.”
Shireen was taken prisoner on March 7, 2014, as part of an Israeli arrest campaign targeting many Palestinian lawyers in occupied Jerusalem. Her brother Midhat al-Eesawy was kidnapped in March 13, 2014.
Shireen has been repeatedly kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel and was previously held under house arrests for several months.
Her brother has also been repeatedly imprisoned, spending more than 20 years in detention, in addition to being frequently placed under house arrest.
Shireen is also the sister of Samer al-‘Eesawy, who was kidnapped in June of 2014, just two years after his release under the “Shalit Prisoner Swap Agreement.”
In May of 2015, an Israeli judge reinstated Samer’s 30-year imprisonment term, for what he called “violating the terms of his release.”
Samer also went on hunger strike for nine months, demanding his release. On December 23, 2013, Israel released him, and the Israeli army rearrested him in June of 2014.
It is worth mentioning that al-‘Eesawy’s grandmother was killed by the Israeli army in the First Intifada of 1987 while their parents were repeatedly imprisoned by Israel in the 1970’s. In 1994, the army killed their brother during the uprising that followed the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Every member of the al-Eesawy family has previously been kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel.
Israeli court rules to displace Um al-Hiran Bedouins
Ma’an – March 7, 2016
NEGEV – An Israeli court on Sunday ruled that the Bedouin community of Um al-Hiran in the Negev in southern Israel is illegal, on the grounds that the community settled on state lands, Israeli media reported.
“The state is the owner of the lands in dispute,” Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein as writing. “The residents have acquired no rights to the land but have settled them [without any authorization], which the state cancelled legally.”
Israeli planning authorities intend to build a “new town for Jewish residents in its place,” Haaretz reported.
On Monday, Israeli authorities reportedly entered farm lands used by Um al-Hiran residents with the intentions of destroying crops, but residents were able to prevent forces from beginning the demolition.
Raed Abu al-Qian, a well-known activist in the area, said the move “came to increase pressure on the residents and to make home demolitions easy in the village,” following the Israeli court ruling.
Said al-Khroumi, a member of the Higher Guidance Committee of Arab Residents of Negev, said Israeli forces’ presence at the village was “a heinous and barbarian aggression against the village and its residents.”
He also called for anyone able to travel to Um al-Hiran to visit the village “show solidarity.”
Bedouin member of the Israeli Knesset Talab Abu Arar accused Israeli Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel of creating “a secret government committee” aimed at destroying the crops of Palestinian villages in Israel.
According to Abu Arar, the “secret committee” recommended that Palestinian villages in the Negev be emptied, and residents removed.
“This is a special Israeli form of ethnic cleansing,” Abu Arar continued.
Abu Arar highlighted that Israeli authorities destroyed crops in the villages of Attir, Hurah and Saawah during the past several days.
Residents of Um al-Hiran and nearby villages are among tens of thousands of Bedouins living in the Negev face ongoing displacement.
While a plan to forcibly resettle the area’s Bedouin population — the Prawer Plan — was shelved in 2014, Israel’s Habayit Hayehudi party joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau’s coalition last year on the condition the plan was reinstated.
The Um al-Hiran community — around 700 strong — was never recognized by the Israeli government and residents’ lands were claimed by the state in 2013 in order to make way for the expansion of the Beersheba metropolitan area.
What Is Israel Trying to Hide?
By Barbara Erickson | TimesWarp | March 7, 2016
A delegation of seven lawmakers from the European Parliament arrived in Israel last month to visit Gaza, but one day before they were due to enter the enclave, Israeli authorities refused to give them access. Officials gave no reason for this ban, and The New York Times was equally silent, making no mention of the event in its pages.
This past week a group of six Belgian members of parliament, representing a range of political parties, also traveled to Israel, planning to meet with representatives of non-governmental organizations in Gaza. Israeli authorities blocked their entry to the coastal strip, sparking an outraged reaction from the MPs. Once again, the Times had nothing to say.
Three days later, however, the Times ran a story on page 3, informing us that India has denied visas to a group monitoring religious conflicts. The story, “India Denies Visas to Group Monitoring Religious Freedom,” appears online and in print, and it tells us that the delegates had hoped to assess the state of religious liberties in India and were “deeply disappointed” in the outcome.
This isn’t the only time the newspaper has found such state actions newsworthy. When China refused entry to a delegation from the United Kingdom, for instance, the Times ran a story under the headline “China Says It Will Deny British Parliament Members Entry to Hong Kong.”
And then there was Iran and the matter of inspecting its nuclear facilities, all very much part of the lengthy negotiations that led to an historic agreement and the lifting of sanctions. The concern over inspections took up many column inches in the Times. Would Iran allow access? How much and when?
Meanwhile, the newspaper had nothing to say about Israel’s nuclear weapons program and its refusal to allow entry to inspectors. (See TimesWarp 6-2-15.)
With the India visa story last week, the newspaper reveals once again that such affairs are fit to print—if the offending state is not Israel—and that the Times continues to maintain a double standard. This policy has left its readers ignorant of Israel’s lengthy record of denying entry to monitoring groups and international officials.
Less than two weeks ago, Israeli officials refused to allow Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to visit Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. The request was made too late, the officials said. Kenyatta was on a three-day state visit, the first from a Kenyan president since 1994. No mention was made in the Times.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, also on a three-day visit to Israel in December of 2014, did manage to meet with Abbas, but he was denied entry to Gaza. Adams, who had been instrumental in reaching a peace agreement in Ireland, said the refusal to allow him access ran “contrary to the needs of the peace process.” Israel (and the Times) made no comment.
During and after the attacks on Gaza in the summer of 2014 Israel denied repeated requests from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to enter the enclave and investigate charges of war crimes against both sides. Two months later Israeli officials also denied representatives of the United Nations Human Rights Council the right to enter Gaza for the same purpose.
The Times failed to run stories on either of these occasions, but it was forced to reveal the fact that the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur in the Palestinian territories, Makarim Wibisono, resigned over just this issue, saying that despite repeated requests, Israel denied him entry to the West Bank and Gaza.
The story, however, was relegated to the World Briefing section and the author, Isabel Kershner, took care to give the Israeli pretext for its refusal: that the UN Human Rights Council is “biased” and “hostile” to Israel’s interests.
The Times would rather not take up such stories, it seems. To do so might create doubts in the minds of readers, upsetting the carefully cultivated impression that Israel and Palestine are two equal parties at the negotiating table and on the ground.
Such news would make it uncomfortably clear that Israel is in full charge of the borders and that there is nothing equal about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It also raises the question, which an Irish delegate raised in reacting to the recent ban on EU parliament members travel to Gaza: “What does the Israeli government aim to hide?”
The Times is willing to raise this question—even if by implication—in regards to India or China or Iran, but it has no interest in prompting such doubts when it comes to Israel. Readers, therefore, might want to ask the Times a similar question: In censoring numerous stories of Israeli bans on travel to the occupied territories, just what is the newspaper trying to conceal?
Ethnic cleansing of Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)
International Solidarity Movement | March 6, 2016
Hebron, occupied Palestine – Since the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, the majority of Shuhada Street – once the thriving Palestinian market and main thoroughfare connecting north and south al-Khalil (Hebron) – has been closed to Palestinians. They are completely barred from accessing it, except for a small stretch in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood.
Photos of the same portion of Shuhada street – a thriving market before 1994, now an empty street where no Palestinians are allowed to enter (published by B’Tselem)
This tiny strip that is legally still accessible for Palestinians is restricted by the recently ‘renovated’ Shuhada checkpoint at the beginning of the street and ends where the street begins to border the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah, beyond which Israeli forces assure that no Palestinians exist. Further down Shuhada street, clearly marked with yet another military post barring anyone who might attempt to enter the street, are even more Israeli settlements – all illegal under international law – located directly in the city center of al-Khalil.
The settlements on Shuhada Street are connected via a settler-only road to the much larger settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of al-Khalil; settlers can also reach the illegal Tel Rumeida settlement easily by traversing the tiny stretch of Shuhada Street still open to some Palestinians and the road leading up into Tel Rumeida from Shuhada checkpoint, now encompassed within the closed military zone. While Palestinians are allowed to walk on this part of Shuhada Street, Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are forbidden from driving there. Since Israeli authorities declared the area part of a closed military zone on 1st November 2015, the already barely existent access has been further restricted – Isreali forces only allow entry to Palestinians registered with them residents, while any Israeli settler, regardless of whether they are residents or not, can pass freely and without ever being harassed, stopped, detained, arrested, or threatened by the ever-present military forces.
Map of the city center of al-Khalil including Shuhada Street (the longest street marked in red) by B’Tselem
At the line demarcated by Daboya checkpoint (Checkpoint 55), where the illegal settlements on the street begin and Palestinians are no longer allowed, a steep flight of stairs leads up to Qurtuba school and into the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. These stairs, the only way for Palestinians to continue traveling in the same direction above the street as they are not allowed to continue down Shuhada Street itself, have been closed by the Israeli forces with a metal gate since November 2015.
Stairs with the closed gate leading down to Shuhada Street
Even though this gate is currently not locked, Israeli forces deny any Palestinian, except for the students and teachers of Qurtuba school during school-time, to use these stairs. As a result Palestinian residents of this neighbourhood, once they have passed Shuhada checkpoint – an ordeal that can take several hours – have been denied to reach their homes by walking down Shuhada Street and the stairs leading up to Qurtuba school, forcing them instead to take a much longer detour around. With yet another way denied for Palestinans, navigating the maze of Israeli military-enforced checkpoints, complete bans on travel, roads where Palestinians cannot drive, settler-only roads, closed military zones and new arbitrary closures has become even more arduous.
Israeli forces are thereby also clearly working to minimise the number of Palestinians who will actually use this last portion of Shuhada Street – now a complete dead-end – as they bar Palestinians not only from going farther down the closed street but also declare the stairs, formerly an alternate route, yet another closed zone. This illustrates the Israeli attempts to rid Shuhada Street entirely of Palestinians. Ethnic cleansing in al-Khalil, and all across Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands is not a sudden, headline-grabbing event; it progresses gradually as Palestinians are restricted in certain areas, barred from driving there, prohibited from even being there, forced out to facilitate the expansion of the illegal settlements. Ethnic cleansing happens slowly, by erecting new and ‘fortifying’ existing checkpoints, advancing one more closure at a time.
OCHA condemns Israel for declaring W. Bank areas “firing zone”
Palestinian Information Center – March 5, 2016
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has strongly denounced Israel for declaring 18 percent of the West Bank territory, particularly in Area C, “a shooting zone.”
38 Palestinian communities are located in this area, where the Israeli army continually demolishes homes.
OCHA also warned that the expansion of this Israeli shooting zone would considerably affect the lives of marginalized and disadvantaged groups (Bedouins) in these areas.
The UN organization underlined that international law and humanitarian law prohibit such Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It noted that the Israeli army had demolished, since the start of 2016, 323 Palestinian homes and structures in different areas of the West Bank, most of them in Area C.
Those demolitions led to the displacement of about 440 Palestinians, more than half of them children, and rendered about 17,000 without any means of livelihood.
Copyright © The Palestinian Information Center
More on Israel’s combating BDS
By Miko Peled | American Herald Tribune | March 5, 2016
It is strange to see a newspaper in a country that considers itself a democracy, commit itself to silencing freedom of speech and the call for freedom from oppression. But here we see that Israel’s daily Yediot Aharonot and Ynet are persistent in their attempts to fight BDS. One would think that a newspaper would want to ensure that freedom of speech and opposition to oppression are protected and that members of society can make up their own minds about any given issue. But not this newspaper. Yediot Aharonot is dedicated to fighting BDS and has published a series of reports and articles under the headline “Fighting the Boycott.” They feature interviews with, the “people on the front line in the fight against the boycott movement” as Ynet describes them.
It is worth to take a minute and think about the use of the term “front line.” It is interesting to note that there are people who are considered as being on the “front line,” a term which suggests there is a war going on and certain people are sent to the front, and are in real danger. This terminology is no doubt part of the effort to paint BDS as violent movement. Israel, a society not unlike Sparta, which only understands war, is trying to paint BDS as a threat that it can kill. But even they admit that BDS is a campaign “without knives or missiles.” So who are the people in the “front line?” the answer, at least in part, is in this piece on Ynet.
“De-legitimization of Israel must be fought, and you are on the front lines.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this to attendees, in a letter read aloud at a BDS emergency summit organized by Sheldon Adelson in Las Vegas.” A conference at one of Adleson’s Las Vegas casinos, “Front line” indeed. The same story continues to tell us that “One hundred million Israeli Shekels are planned to be allocated to the Strategic Affairs and Information Minister Gilad Erdan, whose office’s purview includes fighting BDS.” That’s about twenty-five million dollars, “Erdan’s office will also receive ten new positions for employees who will deal solely with the boycott and de-legitimization activities against Israel […] Erdan estimated that the budget can double or triple to NIS 300 million with the help of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations.” Perhaps they can triple their money but to what purpose?
Nowhere in the articles and reports published by Ynet is there any real substantial argument to oppose BDS. Surely, I thought to myself, there must be some content with which Ynet and Adelson and all the others mean to utilize in this fight. If there is any content I couldn’t find it. In a piece in Hebrew, titled, “The Snakes Head – the Academic Boycott,” Tsahi Gavrieli writes that if Israel wants to discover how it ended up in the midst of a debate questioning its own legitimacy, the answer is to be found on US campuses. That would not be the first place I would look. Had I been charged with discovering the reasons behind the emergence and the growth of BDS as a movement and as an idea, I would visit Palestinian refugee camps. I would see the camps in Lebanon and Syria, Jordan and of course all over Palestine. I would look into the conditions in which thousands of Palestinian political prisoners are held by Israel. I would examine what takes place when Israeli jets attack Palestinian targets, I would look at the countless cases where thousands of unarmed Palestinian civilians were killed, maimed and made homeless by Israel. I would look at the Israeli Knesset which regularly spits out new laws that make the oppression and dispossession of Palestinians “legal.” I would look to the total disregard that Israeli society has toward the lives of Palestinians.
The most common question asked by those who want to “combat” BDS, is “Why Israel?” and there are several answers to that. First of all, why not? Then they ask, why not boycott all the other racist and brutal regimes around the world that are even worse than Israel. And the reply is – no reason we can’t do both. In fact, sanctions and boycotts have been used against many regimes and many states. Using BDS, or in other words, imposing boycotts, divesting and imposing sanctions is very common. It was used against Iraq, Iran, it was used against South Africa during apartheid, the Indian resistance under Gandhi used boycott as a tool, and now the US is leading sanctions against Russia and the list goes on.
Besides the obvious facts that point to Israel as a state and as a society that for seven decades continue to commit the crimes of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide, and therefore deserve to be punished, there is one other answer. Palestinian civil society has told the world that this is how to best support the Palestinian cause. They have given the rest of the world a road map for supporting the Palestinian struggle. They have asked the world, and by doing so gave the world a gift, by guiding people of conscience as to how best they can support the people of Palestine in their struggle for freedom. That road map is BDS.
Another piece by Ynet uses the only image Israel understands, the military metaphor: “Those involved in this fight warn that these are critical moments in the war on BDS.” Actually there is no war. There is a legitimate, unarmed struggle to free Palestine from the Spartan regime Israel has imposed upon it. They go on to say that “A worldwide call to arms must be issued, as the battle will be conducted at all levels […] It is the hope that this conference will be the first shot in the war against the BDS movement, a war where there is no other option but to win.” Ynet clearly understands that BDS is posing a serious threat. It also seems to understand that Israel is unprepared and unequipped to deal with this threat, in fact Israel is doing everything to strengthen the struggle and garner more support for BDS. It seems to be the case that violent, racist regimes are also incredibly stupid, and that is quite often their downfall. Blinded by their own racism they are incapable of understanding their shortcomings. There is every reason to expect that Zionism in Palestine will fall for these same reasons.
Miko Peled is an Israeli writer and activist living in the US. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. His father was the late Israeli General Matti Peled. Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore Palestine, its people and their narrative. He has written a book about his journey from the sphere of the privileged Israeli to that of the oppressed Palestinians. His book is titled “The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.” Peled speaks nationally and internationally on the issue of Palestine. Peled supports the creation of a single democratic state in all of Palestine, he is also a firm supporter of BDS.
Israeli authorities demolished 183 Palestinian buildings in February
MEMO | March 4, 2016
The Israeli authorities demolished around 97 homes and 86 facilities in the West Bank in February under the pretext of “illegal construction”, according to a statistical report released Thursday by the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ).
The Palestinian institute also said that demolition orders and orders to stop construction were issued to a further 139 houses and facilities.
An estimated 653 dunums of Palestinian land in various parts of the West Bank is also facing confiscation orders.
Ghassan Doughlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, has said there has been an escalation in the policy of demolishing homes and institutions in 2016.
In an interview with Quds Press, Doughlas stressed that the demolitions aim to displace Palestinians in order to “bring the settlers on the ruins of the Palestinians’ homes”.
“The occupation has used the demolition policy as a way to put pressure on the Palestinians so to empty the region classified as Area C in the West Bank,” adding that the demolitions are part of a policy of “collective punishment”.
Bogus arrest of 12 year old boy in Hebron
International Solidarity Movement | March 3, 2016
Hebron, Occupied Palestine – On the 28th of February around 4:00pm, 12 year old Palestinian boy, Sayed Seder was arrested by 10 heavily armed Israeli soldiers whilst playing football with his friends on the street in front of his family home. The Israeli army claim that he was arrested under allegations he was throwing stones at the guard tower which watches over Al-Shallalah Street and the illegal Israeli settlement that has been built directly behind the street and family home.
Sayed’s father, Abed, went down to confront the soldiers after Sayed’s friends came running up to the family home, explaining to the father what was happening.
When Abed approached the soldiers to ask them what exactly they were arresting his son for, the soldiers responded by informing him that it was because he was seen throwing rocks at the guard tower above. However, the street is lined with a protective type of fencing above the shops roofs that prohibits objects being thrown up or in the most common cases, being thrown down by illegal Israeli settlers who live above. Abed put the argument forward that it would have been pointless for his son to have been throwing stones with this protective barrier in place. Perhaps the logic of this made too much sense and the arresting soldier quickly changed his story and then began to tell Abed his son was being arrested for stealing a settler child’s football whilst pointing to the ball that Sayed and his friends were playing with. Abed informed the soldier that the ball Sayed and his friends were playing with was in fact a ball that he had purchased for Sayed from a shop in Halhoul just recently. The soldier who was evidently lying and knowingly falsely accusing Sayed of the above allegations ignored any more of Abed’s protests and continued to arrest Sayed.
Al-Shallalah street where Sayed was arrested
From this point Sayed was marched to the Shuhada street entrance gate and taken through while his parents and friends were forced to stand back and watch. Sayed was then taken to the local military base on Shuhada street. Upon entering the military base he was reportedly handcuffed and blindfolded. The blindfold remained on for around 30 minutes before being taken off, assuming that it was put on so he could not get a full view of what was happening inside the military compound for security purposes. Sayed alleges that teenage settlers who were allowed into the compound then beat him while the Israeli army simply stood back and did nothing.
Protective fencing installed above Al-Shallalah street and the guard tower
Sayed was later released from custody at around 9pm to Palestinian authorities where he complained of pain in his kidneys. His father arrived shortly after and took Sayed to hospital where doctors examined him. While the doctors could not find physical wounds that would require further attention they did note that Sayed was severely traumatised from the event and was in a state of shock.
Just 3 months ago the Israeli army arrested one of Abed’s other sons who is 10 years old. The reason for the arrest was that he too was suspected of throwing stones at the military. As Abed didn’t believe this and objected he too was arrested with his 10 year old son. They were detained for 6 hours and released without charge.
One significant fact is that Abed’s house backs onto the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Hadasa. Abed used to sell artisans out of the family home but has had to stop because of ongoing harassment both physical and verbal to himself and to his customers from the settlers that occupy the land next to his home. The front of Abed’s house has been covered in barbed wire by the Israeli military and is adorned with bags of dirty hummus, eggs and other foul items thrown down by the illegal settlers. The army has also boarded up the windows of his family home (without his permission) that overlook Beit Hadasa.
Abed’s home and the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Hadasa
The barbed wire at the entrance to Abed’s house with rubbish thrown down by settlers
While harassment from the settlers in Hebron is often considered an unfortunate normality to most Palestinians living under occupation, the army’s continued bogus charges and harassment of Abed and his family give one the impression that the Zionist regime is using a tactical ploy to get Abed and his family out of their home for further settlement expansion.
Official: Israel obstructs Jordan agricultural exports to the OPT
MEMO | March 3, 2016
Israel has been obstructing Jordanian agricultural exports to the Occupied Palestinian Territories under the pretext that Jordanian products do not conform to Israeli specifications, leading to exports completely stopping in 2015 and early 2016, a Jordanian official revealed.
Salah Al-Tarawneh, assistant secretary-general of the Jordanian ministry of agriculture for marketing and information, said in remarks to Quds Press that the Palestinian Authority asked last month to import tomatoes from Jordan but the Israeli side refused to allow their entry under the pretext that they contain viruses.
Al- Tarawneh explained that although the PA has repeatedly asked the Israeli side to increase agricultural trade with Jordan to meet its needs, Israel has continually refused under the pretext that Jordanian products do not conform to Israeli specifications.
According to data from the Jordanian ministry of agriculture, Jordan’s exports of vegetables and fruits to PA controlled areas completely stopped in 2015.
During the same year, Jordan’s agricultural exports to Israel amounted to more than 20,000 tons of vegetables and 5,000 tons of fruit.
Mental health professionals protest decision to hold conference in Jerusalem
MEMO | March 2, 2016
Over 140 psychotherapists, researchers and other mental health professionals have written an open letter to the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) to express dismay at its decision to hold its next international conference in Jerusalem.
In the letter, the group of professionals called for the conference to move locations, explaining that Israel’s policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including house demolitions, movement restrictions and imprisonment without trial, result in “insecurity, despair, helplessness and humiliation”.
“The calamitous impact of Israel’s occupation on the psychological health of the Palestinians is well documented,” read the letter.
The group expressed shock over the organiser’s response to their concerns, which included a promise to assist Palestinian psychotherapy researchers to attend the conference.
“This may ease SPR consciences but it is as nothing weighed against the political message they will be sending by meeting in this beleaguered city,” it added.
Mayor: Israeli forces assault entire family during al-Issawiya raid
Ma’an – February 29, 2016
JERUSALEM – Israeli forces physically assaulted an entire family in the occupied East Jerusalem village of al-Issawiya overnight Sunday after the family resisted during an arrest raid, the head of the village said.
Darwish Darwish said Israeli forces stormed the home of Tareq and Tahreer Darwish with the intention of detaining the couple’s sons Yousef, 18, and Laith, 17.
The two teens, along with their father, resisted the detention, and Israeli forces attacked the three, beating them.
Darwish said the family told him that when Israeli forces began beating the father and two brothers, other members of the family stepped in and tried to stop Israeli forces, who then turned on the rest of the family.
According to the mayor, the mother, Tahreer, 37, her daughter, Batoul, 14, and 2-year-old son Darwish all suffered from bruises and lacerations all over their bodies.
Israeli forces detained the entire family, including the toddler, after the assault. The family was detained while still barefoot and in pajamas, the mayor said.
Darwish added that Israeli forces ransacked the family home, destroying valuables, before taking the family to a police station in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, and then transferring them to the Salah al-Din police station near Damascus Gate.
After four hours of detention, Israeli forces released the mother and her young son, but kept the rest of the family, including the 14-year-old daughter, under detention.
The 17-year-old son Laith is set to appear in Israeli court for a trial on Monday. The charges levied against him are unknown.
While the mayor shares a last name with the family, Darwish is one of the most popular surnames in al-Issawiya village, and the family is not necessarily directly related to the mayor.
Featured Video
Language is a Weapon
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Aaron Siri’s Book: Vaccines, Amen
By Maryanne DemasiMaryanne Demasi | Brownstone Institute | June 15, 2026
For decades, vaccines have been treated as the sacred cow of modern medicine. I was taught that they were the holy grail. To question them was heresy. To raise concerns about safety was to risk professional exile.
Aaron Siri makes it clear in Vaccines, Amen: The Religion of Vaccines that the story we’ve been told about vaccine science rests far more on belief than proof.
“No child should be sacrificed on the altar of the religion of vaccines,” Siri writes, as he turns his focus to America’s overcrowded childhood immunisation schedule.
I assumed little in this book would surprise me. I’ve spent years reporting on drug safety, regulatory capture, and the corruption of science. But Siri showed me how wrong I was.
Siri is not a doctor or a scientist. He is an attorney, and this, he says, is his advantage. In court, rhetoric won’t save you. Evidence does. As he puts it, he doesn’t get to say “trust me” the way many doctors do. “I need to prove claims with real data.”
And he does. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Time for Trump to Tell Benjamin Netanyahu to Go Away!
- Israeli officials: ‘Security zones’ to remain in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza
- Israel Fails to Sabotage Islamabad Accord… At Least for Now
- Araghchi: US Responsible for Implementing MoU with Iran
- US must cut military, intelligence assistance to Israel to protect Iran deal: Ex-Trump official
- The 12 Screenings That Manufacture the Patients They Claim to Find
- Iran deputy FM says MoU with US finalized, to be signed in Geneva on Friday
- With one strike, Netanyahu tries to kill two peace deals
- Iran warns ‘no point’ in deal with US if Israel remains unrestrained
- Ukraine as a laboratory of ‘techno-fascism’
- If Americans Knew
- “Ceasefire” is not in Israel’s vocabulary – Daily Update
- Did Trump just threaten a nuclear attack on Iran? Another merger for Israel-Firster David Ellison –Daily Update
- Israeli Firm Accused of Launching Smear Campaigns During US, European Elections
- As World Cup kicks off, Gaza amputee girls chase football dreams
- Oxfam: More Palestinians killed by Israel across West Bank in last 3 years than previous 17 years combined
- US-Iran ceasefire may be imminent, but will Israel blow it up? – Daily Update
- The Issue of Israel Is Ending Democracy In Michigan
- Israel is stealing homes, livelihoods, and lives in West Bank
- Gaza is not an aberration – Israel planned this genocide decades ago
- Israel is changing the face of Lebanon, mainstream media is normalizing it – 3 articles
- No Tricks Zone
- Climate Alarmists Now Using Natural Phenomena To Support Their Claims
- New Study: Significant CO2 Fluxes From Non-Volcanic Sources Are Largely Neglected In Carbon Budgets
- Women Climate Scientists Being Harassed, Insulted By Skeptics, Claims Berkeley Earth Researcher
- Germany’s Longterm Spring Climate Data Show “No Climate Trend”
- New Study: Solar Photovoltaic, Wind Power Fail To Meet Annual Energy Demands 62% Of The Time
- Germany’s Die Welt: “Too Much Is Too Much” … Green Energies Are Cannabalizing Each Other!
- Germany’s Ecological Holocaust… Once Fairy Tale Forests Getting Cleared For Wind Turbines
- A Grand Solar Minimum Has Arrived…Global Cooling Of At Least 1°C Is Expected By The 2030s, 2040s
- European “Expert Commission” Urges COVID-19-Like Global Climate State Of Energency!
- Real-World Observations Do Not Support The Position That Climate Change Is Human-Caused
Aletho News 