‘America is Not a Racist Country’: How Nikki Haley Became Israel’s Candidate for the White House

February 22, 2023

Nikki Haley with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo: US Embassy Tel Aviv, via Wikimedia Commons)

– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

By Ramzy Baroud

Though it has been argued that the so-called American dream is long dead, Nikki Haley is proof that the dream is still alive. Unfortunately, the ‘dream’ is hers alone.

Until recently, a close confidante of former US President Donald Trump and his pro-Israel circle, Haley wants to be the next United States president. On February 14, she officially declared her candidacy and, starting February next year, she will be officially competing against her former bosses in the Republican primaries. 

It is true that her popularity among Republican Party supporters hovers between 3-4 percent, but Haley still feels that she stands to win, if she plays her cards right. Though a victory in a party that is neither keen on women nor minority politicians, she has enough success stories to give her the needed confidence. 

“Even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America,” Haley said in her campaign launch video. Though such a statement may appear somewhat typical by US politicians on such occasions, Haley’s statement carries hidden, if not troubling, insinuations.  

Haley considers her life a testament to the ahistorical claim that “America is not a racist country”, a chant she led to the cheers of thousands of her supporters at her first campaign rally on February 15 in Charleston, South Carolina.

For Republicans, the Haley profile is critical because it is uncommon. They understand that a Black candidate will not perform well among their constituency or that of the Democratic Party. Still, they desperately need any ‘person of color’ who would appeal to disenchanted minority voters, if that candidate reaffirms the pre-existing beliefs of most Republicans: that America is a great country free of racism and inequality, with many dangerous foreign enemies and that Israel is its most trusted ally. Haley, for years, has enthusiastically played that part. 

“I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. Not Black. Not White. I was different,” she said. This seemingly innocuous statement has served as Haley’s central message in her political career since she left her family’s Exotica International clothing business in 2011 to run for the Governor’s office in South Carolina, and won.

In 2017, Haley’s success story continued. She became the US Ambassador to the UN. This position has historically been far more relevant to Israeli interests rather than the US’, because the UN is one of a few international platforms in which Palestinians and their supporters attempt, though often in vain, to hold Israel accountable for its illegal practices in occupied Palestine. 

For decades, the US has opposed any attempt by Arab and other countries to punish Israel for its military occupation and continued human rights violations in Palestine. The dozens of vetoes used by the US to block any attempt at condemning Israeli colonialism or war crimes at the UN Security Council only tell part of the story.

Within the relatively short span of two years of diplomacy that catered mostly to serve Israel, Haley managed to successfully help in the blocking of US funding of the UN Palestine Refugees Agency (UNRWA). She also engineeredher country’s exit from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) due to its criticism of Israel. 

She is also credited for being part of the decision that led to the US’ abrupt withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and was a crucial member of the Trump team behind the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’, which has ultimately fizzled into empty rhetoric.

Now Haley is hoping to cash in – literally – on her dedication to Israel and to her country’s hawkish foreign policy in the Middle East. One claim that she has repeatedly made to her donors, who consist mostly of pro-Israeli billionaires, is that she has kept all the promises she made to Israel at the 2017 AIPAC conference. Indeed, she has.

Her performance at the lobby group’s annual policy conference ‘thrilled the crowd’, the Times of Israel then reported. In her speech, Haley, intoxicated by the political potential of winning standing ovations from 18,000 AIPAC conference attendees, declared herself a “new sheriff in town”, who will make sure that “the days of Israel-bashing at the UN are over.” 

As far as Israel was concerned, the sheriff delivered, ushering in Israel’s golden age at the UN, and forging lasting friendships between Haley and top Israeli officials and donors. 

Haley became a “source of pride for hawkish supporters of Israel for leading the fight against anti-Israel resolutions,” the Jewish weekly newspaper, the Forward, wrote on February 14.

Notably, a four-second footage in Haley’s campaign launch video was in Israel, specifically near the fence with besieged Gaza. Walking alongside her is the former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. While at the UN, they developed a “unique working relationship – and a lasting friendship”, the Forward reported, citing Danon, currently a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. 

Significantly, the former Israeli ambassador believes that if “Haley was running for president in Israel she would have won easily”. Considering her poor performance among US voters, one must raise the question: why would an American presidential candidate be far more popular among Israelis than Americans?

Haley’s strategy, however, is paying dividends, at least financially. Jacob Kornbluh elaborated on the sources of funding for Haley’s super PAC, Stand for America. Much of the $17 million raised in the last election cycle came from “prominent Jewish donors”. They include Miriam Adelson, wife of late pro-Israeli casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, along with money from Paul Singers, Bernie Marcus and Daniel Loeb, among many others. 

It may seem strange that such funds are invested in a candidate who has, at least for now, little chances of winning the Republican nomination, but the money is not wasted. Tel Aviv is simply rewarding Haley’s many favors, knowing that, regardless of her exact position in government, Haley will always continue to prioritize Israel’s interests in her political agenda, and, if needed, even ahead of her own country’s.

Martyrs and hundreds of injured by occupation forces in Nablus

LATEST POSTS

• IN PHOTOS: General Strike in Occupied Palestine following Israeli Killings in Nablus
• Arab Countries Slam ‘Horrific Crimes’ following Israel’s Massacre in Nablus
• Bernie Sanders Calls for Cutting US Funds to Israel over ‘Racist’ Moves
• Israeli Airstrikes Target Sites in Besieged Gaza (VIDEOS)
• What You Need to Know about the Latest Israeli Massacre in Nablus (VIDEO)
• Lions’ Den Call on Palestinians to Engage in ‘Battle’ against Israeli Forces

Ilan Pappe on the Socio-Political Formations behind Israel’s Neo-Zionist Government

January 6, 2023

A cabinet meeting of the new Israeli government. (Photo: Prime Minister of Israel’s TW Page)

– Ilan Pappé is a professor at the University of Exeter. He was formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa. He is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Modern Middle East, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, and Ten Myths about Israel. Pappé is described as one of Israel’s ‘New Historians’ who, since the release of pertinent British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, have been rewriting the history of Israel’s creation in 1948. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.

By Ilan Pappe

Two months after the election of the new government of Israel, the blurred picture is becoming more transparent, and it seems one can offer some more informed insights about its composition, personalities, and possible future policies and reaction to them.

It would not be an exaggeration to define Benjamin Netanyahu as the least extreme member of this government, which tells you about the personalities and policies of all the others.  

There are three major groups in the government, and I am not referring here to various political parties, but rather to socio-political formations.

Zionization of Ultra-Orthodox Jews

In the first group are the ultra-orthodox Jews, both the European and Arab Jews orthodoxies. What characterizes them is the process of Zionization they underwent since 1948. 

From a marginal role in politics, only for the sake of their communities, they belong now to the captains of this new state. From being moderate and adhering to sacred Jewish precepts that do not allow Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land, they now emulate the Israeli secular right: supporting colonization in the West Bank, the siege on the Gaza Strip, employing racist discourse towards the Palestinians where they are, advocating harsh and aggressive policies and, at the same time, trying to take over the public space and Judaize it, according to their own strict version of Judaism.

The only exception is Neturei Karata, loyal to their long-term anti-Zionism and solidarity with the Palestinians.

National Religious Jews

In the second group are the national religious Jews, mostly living in colonies, on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank, and recently creating “learning centers” of settlers in the midst of mixed Arab-Jews towns in Israel.

They support both the criminal policies of the Israeli army and the actions by settler vigilantes that harass Palestinians, uprooting their orchards, shooting at them, and disputing their way of life. 

Their aim is to give both the army and these vigilantes a freer hand in oppressing the occupied West Bank, with the hope of pressuring more Palestinians to leave. This group is also the backbone of the Israeli secret service command and dominates the cadre of senior officers in the army. 

The two groups mentioned so far share the wish to impose stricter apartheid inside Israel against the 48 Arabs and, at the same time, begin a crusade against the LGBT community while demanding a more strict marginalization of women in the public space.

They also share a messianic vision and they believe they are now in a position to implement it. At the center of this vision is the Judaization of sacred sites that are now “still” Islamic or Christian. The most coveted site is Haram al-Sharif. 

The first precursor was the provocative visit by the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir to the Haram. The next step will come on Passover, with an attempt to fully invade the Haram with Jewish prayers and ministers. Similar actions will be taken in Nablus, Hebron, and Bethlehem. How far they will go is difficult to predict. 

Marginalization of Likud’s Secular Jews

The second group also has representatives in the major party of the government, the Likud. But most of the Likud members are part of a third socio-political group: the secular Jews who are also adhering to traditional Jewish practices. 

They try to distinguish themselves by claiming that economic and political liberalism is still an important pillar in the Likud’s political platform. Netanyahu used to be one of them but now seems to desert them when it comes to dividing the spoils, namely marginalizing them in the government. He needs the others more than his own party, to avoid trial and remain in power.

The Zionist Project

The prominent members of all these groups arrived with pre-prepared legislation initiatives and policies: all of them, without any exception, are meant to allow an extreme right-wing government to dispense of whatever has remained of the charade called the Israeli democracy.

The first initiative already began, sterilizing the judicial system in such a way that it could not, if it ever wished to, defend the rights of minorities in general or that of the Palestinians more specifically.

To be honest, all the previous Israeli governments were informed by this overall disregard for the civil and human rights of Palestinians. This is just a phase of making it more constitutional, more mainstream, and more apparent, without any attempt to hide the aim behind it: to have as much historical Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians in it as possible.

However, if this materializes in the future, it will take Israel further into its neo-Zionist destiny; namely, the truthful fulfillment and maturation of the Zionist project: a ruthless settler colonial project, built on apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupation, colonization and genocidal policies. 

A project that, so far, escaped any significant rebuke from the Western world and one which is tolerated by the rest of the world, even if it is censured and rejected by many in the global civil society. So far, it is only due to Palestinian resistance and resilience that it failed to be triumphant.

End of ‘Fantasy Israel’

This new reality brings to the fore a series of questions, that one has to ask, even if at the moment we cannot answer them. 

Will the Arab and Muslim governments, which only recently joined the immunization of this travesty, realize that it is not too late to change course?

Will new governments of the Left, such as the one elected in Brazil, be able to lead the way for a change of attitude from above that would reflect democratically the one that is demanded from below?

And will Jewish communities be shocked enough to wake up from the “fantasy Israel” dream and realize the danger of present-day Israel, not only to Palestinians but to Jews and Judaism as well?

These are questions that are not easy to answer. What we can stress is, once more, a call for Palestinian unity so as to enhance the struggle against this government and the ideology it represents.  Such unity would become a compass for a powerful global front that is already there, thanks to the BDS movement, and is willing to continue its work of solidarity and enhance it further and wider: galvanizing governments, as well as societies, and bringing back Palestine to the center of global attention.

The three components of the new Israeli government did not always coexist easily; so there is also a possibility of an earlier political collapse since all in all we are talking about a group of incompetent politicians when it comes to running such an intricate economy as the Israeli one. Probably, they will not be able to arrest the high inflation, rise in prices, and swelling unemployment. 

However, even if this is going to happen, there isn’t an alternative fourth socio-political group that can lead Israel. So, a new government would be formed by another combination of the same forces, with the same intent and policies. 

We should treat this as a structural challenge, not a one-off, and prepare for a long struggle, based on even more enhanced international solidarity and tighter Palestinian unity. 

This rogue government, and what it represents, will not be there forever; we should do all we can to shorten the wait for its replacement with a much better alternative not only for the Palestinians but also for the Jews, and everyone else that resides in historical Palestine. 

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine (Weekly Update 17 – 23 November 2022)

 November 24, 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

3 Palestinians, including a civilian and a child, were killed, and 16 others, including 3 children, were wounded, and dozens of others suffocated in IOF attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 21 November 2022, Mahmoud Al-Sa’di (17) was killed and 4 others were wounded by IOF after the latter’s incursion into al-Hadaf neighborhood adjacent to Jenin refugee camp. Details available in PCHR’s press release.

On 22 November 2022, a member of the Palestinian armed groups was killed, and 6 civilians were wounded by IOF fire during the latter’s incursion into Nablus to secure the settlers incursions into Joseph’s Tomb. The next evening, 23 November 2022, Mohammad Hishab Abu Kishk (23) succumbed to a bullet injury in the abdomen in a stone-throwing against IOF on ‘Amman Street.

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into cities and villages and suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 18 November 2022, 3 Palestinians, including a child, were wounded with rubber bullets during IOF’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly peaceful protest, north of Qalqilya. In the evening, a child was injured with a rubber bullet in the arm during clashes with IOF near Checkpoint (300), north of Bethlehem. A child was also wounded with a live bullet in the foot during clashes with IOF at the entrance to Al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron.

On 19 November 2022, A Palestinian was wounded with a live bullet during clashes with IOF after the latter moved into Tulkarm, raided shops, and confiscated surveillance camera recordings.

On 20 November 2022, IOF beat up and kicked two sisters namely Raghad (13) and Dina Mustafa ‘Abyat (14) before detaining them for some time when they were in an agricultural land adjacent to the “Abi HaNahal” settlement established on Kisan village lands, east of Bethlehem.

In the Gaza Strip, 9 IOF shootings were reported on fishing boats off the Gaza shores  to the west, mostly in the northern Gaza Strip, and 2 other shootings were reported on agricultural lands in the eastern Gaza Strip.

”

So far in 2022, IOF attacks killed 169 Palestinians, including 113 civilians: 35 children, 8 women, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 18 of them were assassinated in IOF’s attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Moreover, 5 Palestinian detainees, including a woman, died in the Israeli prisons.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished 3 houses, rendering 3 families of 16, including 3 women and 8 children, homeless, demolished 4 facilities, including a school, and removed a crescent and ceiling of a minaret in an old mosque in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 18 November 2022, IOF confiscated an agricultural tractor and stopped plowing a plot of land in Sha’ab al-Batem area, east of Yatta in Hebron, under the pretext of “closed military zone”.

On 20 November 2022, IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his under-construction house in Ras Al-‘Amoud neighborhood in East Jerusalem upon an Israeli municipal decision, under the pretext of unlicensed construction, noting that the house is a 2-stoery floor built of bricks and pellets.

On 21 November 2022, IOF demolished a 2-storey house with an area of 250 sqms in Duma village, southeast of Nablus under the pretext of unlicensed construction in Area C, rendering 3 families of 16, including 3 women and 8 families, homeless. Also, IOF demolished a 40-sqm poultry farm in the same area. Meanwhile, IOF demolished a 2-story country house of 50 sqms and levelled a 1200-sqm agricultural land, including a 250-cup water container in southern Duma under the pretext of unlicensed construction in Area C. On the same day, IOF demolished a barrack used as a warehouse for agricultural tools in Nabi Elias village, east of Qalqilya under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 22 November 2022, the Israeli municipality crews and the Israeli Antiquities Authority removed the ceiling and crescent of a minaret in the Jerusalem Qal’ah Mosque in Bab Al-Khaleel area, East Jerusalem under the pretext of carrying out restoration works in the area and turning it into a Judaized Museum. On the same day, the occupation forces handed notices to stop construction works in 8 houses in Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, under the pretext of not having a license.

On 23 November 2022, IOF demolished Al-Sumoud and Al-Tahadi School in Khirbet Safa Al-Fawqa, south of Hebron after confiscating students’ desks and seats. The 120-sqm school was built of bricks and tinplate and housed 4 classrooms, 2 administration rooms and a health unit. 22 students studied at this school coming from the mentioned area, noting that the school was established 3 months ago. On 17 November 2022, IOF handed a military order holding number (1797) to demolish the school within 96 hours.

”

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 134 families homeless, a total of 783 persons, including 154 women and 354 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 150 houses and many residential and agricultural tents. IOF also demolished 102 other civilian objects, leveled vacant areas of land, and delivered hundreds of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Settler-attacks

Settlers carried out 10 attacks, causing bruises to Palestinian civilians and damage to homes and vehicles in the West Bank. Details are as follows:

On 17 November 2022, settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles traveling on Street 55 between Nablus and Qalqilya. Also, settlers, protected by IOF, closed the entrance to Al-Tuwana village, south of Hebron, after organizing a march at the village entrance and chanting racist slogans calling for the death and expulsion of Arabs from the village.

On 18 November 2022, a child sustained bruises and fractures after settlers assaulted a house in the ‘Arab al-Maleihat Compound on the main road between Jericho and Ramallah. On the same day, settlers moved into the Qurna area in Yasuf village, east of Salfit, established tents on the Palestinian lands and threw stones at the Palestinian vehicles traveling near the entrance to Kafl Haris village, north of Salfit. In the evening, settlers from “Kiryat Arba” settlement attacked a house and punctured the tires of two vehicles in Al-Mohawel area, east of Hebron.

On 19 November 2022, a Palestinian was injured in the eye after settlers threw stones at him during a march they organized in Tel Rumeida in Hebron, under the pretext of celebrating the “Sarah Shabbat”. During the march, settlers, protected by IOF, attacked a house, removed the barbed-wire fence, forced shops to close on the old and new Al-Shalala Streets, attacked them with stones, assaulted vegetable stalls, broke the glass of a mosque door, and assaulted vehicles. Settlers also threw stones at the Palestinian vehicles traveling in northern Qalqilya.

On 20 November 2022, a child sustained bruises when he fell off his bicycle after settlers chased him and threw stones at him, east of Hebron.

On 21 November 2022, settlers slashed the tires of 4 cars, wrote racist slogans on two houses, and set fire to olive trees in Ramin village, south of Tulkarm.

”

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 247 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

IOF carried out 176 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 49 Palestinians were arrested, including 7 children. In the Gaza Strip, on 17 November 2022, IOF arrested a Palestinian from Deir al-Balah camp when he was on his way back from work via Beit Hanon “Erez” crossing.

”

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 7924 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 4442 Palestinians were arrested, including 439 children and 45 women. IOF also conducted 34 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 99 Palestinians, including 58 fishermen, 32 infiltrators, and 9 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

The Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly-update of the Gaza crossings.

In the West Bank, IOF continue to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 89 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested 2 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

On 17 November 2022, IOF closed with sand berms Al-Zarzour intersection connecting several neighborhoods in Hebron with.

During this week, IOF closed several times the checkpoints and entrances to villages in East Jerusalem and Bethlehem for long hours before reopening them after obstructing the citizens’ movement.

”

So far in 2022, IOF established 4089 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 185 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

Gaza Mourns, Buries 21 Fire Victims in Jabaliya (PHOTOS)

November 18, 2022

Thousands of mourners take part in the funeral of 21 Palestinians in the Jabaliya refugee camp. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Thousands of mourners took part on Friday in the funeral of 21 Palestinians in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Chronicle correspondent in Gaza reported.

At least 21 people, including seven children, died and many others were wounded on Thursday night, after a massive fire engulfed a residential building belonging to the Abu Raya family in Jabaliya.

Mohammed Abu Raya told the Associated Press the extended family had gathered for joint celebrations on the occasion of the birthday of one of the children.

The bodies of the victims were wrapped in Palestinian flags before being buried in the Martyrs’ Graveyard east of the refugee camp.

Preliminary investigations by the Ministry of Interior and National Security said that an amount of benzene was stored in large quantities inside the apartment, which led to the fire outbreak.

Gaza, with a population of 2 million, has been under a hermetic Israeli siege since 2007, when the Palestinian group Hamas won the legislative elections in occupied Palestine. Since then, Israel has carried out numerous bombing campaigns and several major wars, that resulted in the death of thousands of people. 

Moreover, the power supply is provided only for a few hours a day, making the Strip chronically short of electricity. This fact forces many Palestinian families to store fuel inside their own homes as an alternative source of energy.

(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

• 21 People Die, Many Injured, in Massive Fire in Gaza’s Jabaliya Refugee Camp (PHOTOS)

21 People Die, Many Injured, in Massive Fire in Gaza’s Jabaliya Refugee Camp (PHOTOS)

November 17, 2022

At least 21 people, including several children, died and many others were injured on Thursday night, in a juge fire in the Jabaliya refugee camp. (Photo: Gaza’s Civil Defense Department)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

At least 21 people, including several children, died and many others were injured on Thursday night, when a huge fire engulfed a residential building in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Chronicle correspondent in Gaza and other sources reported.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a brief statement that scores of casualties were evacuated from the building and were taken to the Indonesian Public Hospital in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya.

According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, the fire broke out in a residential apartment and spread to the rest of the building, adding that the number of casualties is likely to increase.

Preliminary investigations by the Ministry of Interior and National Security said that an amount of benzene was stored in large quantities inside the apartment, which led to the outbreak of the fire and a large number of victims.

Palestine Chronicle correspondent Mahmoud Ajjour said that journalists were denied access to the scene as Gaza’s Civil Defense workers are desperately trying to recover the bodies and evacuate the injured.

(All Photos: Gaza’s Civil Defense Department)

Donate NOW  Learn More  Watch Video

Israel cut down two thousand olive trees

In response to Ben Gvir’s statements…a mass stand in Hebron in solidarity with the prisoners

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine (Weekly Update 10 – 16 November 2022)

 November 17, 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

A Palestinian girl was killed and six Palestinians, including a child and an international solidarity activist, were wounded, while dozens of others suffocated in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 14 November 2022, IOF killed Fulla Rasmi ‘Abdul al-‘Aziz Masalmah (16) and wounded Anas Suliman Hassounah (26) with a live bullet in his left shoulder and then arrested him. This incident occurred after IOF opened fire at a Hyundai cat with a yellow registration plate driven by Hassounah with the girl sitting next to him in the Schools neighborhood in central Beitunia village, west of Ramallah, where IOF patrolled the area. IOF claimed that the car mentioned above tried to run over Israeli soldiers and the driver did not obey the soldiers’ orders to stop, so they opened fire at the car, wounding the girl in her back with a live bullet that settled in her chest. There was no eyewitness in the area at the time of the incident, as it took place at dawn, but footages published on social medica showed IOF opening fire at the vehicle from behind.

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into cities and villages, or suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 11 November 2022, three Palestinians and an international solidarity activist were shot with rubber-coated metal bullets during IOF’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly protest in northern Qalqilya.

On the same day, dozens of Palestinians suffocated due to teargas inhalation and sustained wounds by stun grenade shrapnel during clashes with IOF near Bab al-Zawiyia area in Hebron.

On 14 November 2022, three Palestinians, including 2 children, sustained fractures and bruises when IOF attacked Palestinians, who were harvesting olive trees in their agricultural land in Dura in Hebron. Also, IOF fired teargas canisters and stun grenades at the Palestinians after the latter uprooted olive seedlings planted by a settler in their land.

On14 November 2022, a 14-year-old child was shot with a bullet in his right leg during clashes with IOF, who established a temporary military checkpoint at the northern entrance to Teqoa village, east of Bethlehem.

In the Gaza Strip, 3 shootings were reported on agricultural lands in the eastern Gaza Strip, and 5 shootings were reported on fishing boats off the western Gaza shore, mostly in northern Gaza Strip.

”

So far in 2022, IOF attacks killed 165 Palestinians, including 111 civilians: 34 children, 8 women, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 17 of them were assassinated. Also, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, were wounded in IOF’s attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Moreover, 5 Palestinian detainees, including a woman, died in the Israeli prisons.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished two agricultural houses, forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his house, and confiscated agricultural equipment and a generator in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 11 November 2022, IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his 70-sqm house sheltering a family of 4 persons, including a woman and 2 children, in Beit Safafa village in occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 13 November 2022, IOF demolished two agricultural dwellings built of tin plates and steel and solar panels, displacing two families of 9 persons, including 2 women and 5 children, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On the same day, Israeli Administration and Organization officers, under IOF’s protection, confiscated tin plates, steel pillars and a generator belonging to a Palestinian, who intended to build a tinplated barrack for his livestock in Yatta city in Hebron. 

”

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 131 families homeless, a total of 767 persons, including 151 women and 343 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 147 houses and many residential and agricultural tents. IOF also demolished 93 other civilian economic objects, leveled vacant areas of land, and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Settler-attacks on Palestinian civilians and their properties:

Israeli settlers conducted 4 attacks on Palestinians’ vehicles in different areas in the West Bank. Details are as follows:

On 14 November 2022, Israeli settlers moved into Haris village in Salfit, north of the West Bank, and burned four vehicles belonging to the villagers.

On 15 November 2022, Israeli settlers attacked and set fire to a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian who was in his way back from ‘Attil village in northern Tulkarm to Nablus.

On the same day, Israeli settlers intercepted a bus for a women’s trip in Hebron and prevented it from moving for few hours, enticing fear among the passengers.

On 16 November 2022, Israeli settlers threw stones at four vehicles near Ramin village, east of Tulkarm, breaking their windows. On the same day, Israeli settlers damaged a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian doctor near Jit village in Qalqilya.

”

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 236 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

IOF carried out 35 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 62 Palestinians were arrested.

”

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 7,748 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 4,393 Palestinians were arrested, including 421 children and 43 women. IOF also conducted 33 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 95 Palestinians, including 58 fishermen, 32 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

Meanwhile, IOF maintain its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly-update in the Gaza crossings.

On 11 November 2022, IOF closed the entrances to Beit Ummar village in Hebron following clashes erupted between IOF and Palestinians, where IOF used live bullets and stun grenades.

”

So far in 2022, IOF established at least 4000 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 183 Palestinians at those checkpoints

PALESTINIANS ARE NATIVE AMERICANS: IT’S TIME TO CORRECT THE LANGUAGE OF HISTORY

NOVEMBER 16TH, 2022

Source

By Ramzy Baroud

At a recent Istanbul conference that brought many Palestinian scholars and activists together to discuss the search for a common narrative on Palestine, a Palestinian member of the audience declared at the end of a brief, but fiery intervention, ‘we are not red Indians’.

The reference was a relatively old one. It was attributed to former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during an interview in his office in Ramallah where he was forcefully confined and surrounded, two years earlier, by the Israeli military that had re-invaded the populous Palestinian city. In the interview, the head of the PLO and president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) said that, despite Israel’s attempt at eradicating the Palestinian people, they remain steadfast. Israel had “failed to wipe us out,” Arafat said, adding, “we are not red Indians.”

Though Arafat’s intention was not to degrade or insult Native American communities, the statement, often taken out of context, hardly reflects the deep solidarity between Palestinians and national liberation struggles, including indigenous struggles around the world. Ironically, Arafat, more than any Palestinian leader, has forged ties with numerous communities in the Global South and in fact all over the world. A generation of activists had linked Arafat to their initial awareness, then involvement in Palestine solidarity movements.

What surprised me is that the comment on Palestinians not being ‘red Indians’ in Istanbul was quoted repeatedly and, occasionally, solicited applause from the audience, which only stopped when the convener of the conference, a well-regarded Palestinian professor, declared frustratingly, “they are neither ‘red’ nor Indian.” Indeed, they are not. Actually, they are the natural allies of the Palestinian people, like numerous indigenous communities, who have actively supported the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

The seemingly simple incident or poor choice of words, however, represents a much greater challenge facing Palestinians as they attempt to reanimate a new discourse on Palestinian liberation that is no longer hostage to the self-serving language of the PA elites in Ramallah.

For several years, a new generation of Palestinians has been fighting on two different fronts: against Israel’s military occupation and apartheid, on the one hand, and PA repression on the other. For this generation to succeed in reclaiming the struggle for justice, they must also reclaim a unifying discourse, not only to reconnect their own fragmented communities throughout historic Palestine, but also re-establish solidarity lines of communication across the globe.

I say ‘re-establish’, because Palestine was a common denominator among many national and indigenous struggles in the Global South. This was not a random outcome. Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, fierce wars of liberation were fought across continents, leading in most cases to the defeat of traditional colonial powers and, in some cases like Cuba, Vietnam and Algeria, to true decolonization. With Palestine being a compounded case of western imperialism and Zionist settler colonialism, the Palestinian cause was embraced by numerous national struggles. It was, and remains, a most raw example of western supported ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid, hypocrisy but also inspiring indigenous resistance.

PLO factions, intellectuals and activists were known and respected worldwide as ambassadors to the Palestinian cause. Three years following his assassination by the Israeli Mossad in a Beirut car bombing, Palestinian novelist Ghassan Kanafani was awarded posthumously the Annual Lotus Prize for Literature by the Union of Asian and African Writers as a delineation of the common struggle between peoples of both continents. Not only has Palestine served as a physical connection between Asia and Africa, it has also served as an intellectual and solidarity connection.

Arab countries, which also fought their own painful but heroic national liberation wars, played a major role in the centrality of Palestine in the political discourses of African and Asian countries. Many non-Arab countries supported collective Arab causes, especially Palestine, at the United Nations, pushed for the isolation of Israel, backed Arab boycotts and even hosted PLO offices and fighters. When Arab governments began changing their political priorities, these nations, sadly but unsurprisingly, followed suit.

The massive geopolitical changes after the Cold War, in favor of the US-led Western camp, profoundly and negatively impacted Palestine’s relations with the Arab and the rest of the world. It also divided the Palestinians, localizing the Palestinian struggle in a process that seemed to be determined mostly by Israel alone. Gaza was placed under a permanent siege, the West Bank was splintered by numerous illegal Jewish settlements and military checkpoints, Jerusalem was swallowed whole and Palestinians in Israel became victims of a police state that defined itself primarily on racial grounds.

Abandoned by the world and their own leadership, oppressed by Israel and bewildered by remarkable events beyond their control, some Palestinians turned against one another. This was the age of factionalism. However, Palestinian factionalism is bigger than Fatah and Hamas, Ramallah and Gaza. Equally dangerous to the self-serving politics are the numerous provisional discourses that it espoused, neither governed by any collective strategy or an inclusive national narrative.

When the PLO was ousted from Lebanon following the Israeli invasion and deadly war, the nature of the Palestinian struggle transformed. Headquartered in Tunisia, the PLO was no longer able to present itself as a leader of a liberation movement in any practical sense. The Oslo Accords of 1993 resulted from this political exile and subsequent marginalization. It also accentuated an existing trend where an actual war of liberation turned into a corporate form of liberation, hunger for funds, false status and, worse, a negotiated surrender.

This much is now familiar and acknowledged by many Palestinians. Less discussed, however, is that nearly forty years of this process left Palestinians with a different political discourse than that which existed for decades prior to Oslo.

Undoubtedly, Palestinians are aware of the need for a new liberated language. This is not an easy task, nor is it a randomly generated process. The indoctrination that resulted from the Oslo culture, the factional language, the provincial political discourse of various Palestinian communities, left Palestinians with limited tools through which to express the priorities of the new era. Unity is not a political document. Neither is international solidarity. It is a process that is shaped by a language which should be spoken collectively, relentlessly and boldly. In this new language, Palestinians are Native Americans, not in their supposed propensity to be ‘wiped out’, but in their pride, resilience and continued quest for equality and justice.

From Balfour to Lions’ Den: A contribution to defining Palestinian Nakba

11 Nov, 2022

Source: Al Mayadeen English

Makram Khoury-Machool 

The Palestinian Nakba began exactly 105 years ago with the release of a letter from then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to the leader of the Zionist movement in what became infamously called the Balfour Declaration.

The project to establish the Zionist entity was and still is based on a long-term joint program between the Zionist movement and some colonial powers, primarily Britain and the US

As someone who grew up and was raised in the city of Yafa after the occupation of eastern Palestine in the 1967 war – known as the Naksa – in the house of his late grandfather and under the auspices of a great educational figure such as my grandmother, known as Madame Khoury, who’s slogan “I’d rather die in my house in Yafa than become a refugee” became a mantra that engraved in our minds the effect of attachment to the land… and as someone who listened and read the successive enthusiastic political articles of his father, the political writer Naim Youssef Machool, about the Nakba, the land, agriculture and steadfastness, as well as the articles, plays, interviews, and lectures of his mother, writer and novelist Antoinette Adeeb El-Khoury, I thought that based on this extensive personal experience, I should support and base my claim, listed below, on journalistic observations from the 80s and 90s in Palestine in particular and on two decades of academic research on the Palestinian issue in Britain in particular, and present a contribution to an expanded project whose main idea I will briefly list below.

We say that it is widely accepted that the Nakba of the Palestinians took place chronologically under the British mandate between the partition plan and Resolution of 29/11/1947 and the 1949 armistice with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, although there was no agreement within the framework of an armistice or the like with the Palestinian people; whether those who were expelled from it or those who remained in their homeland.

Accordingly, the struggle involving the Palestinian people remains open: Zionist domination of Palestine and Palestinian resistance against the occupation.

This article, part of which was presented at the University of Freiburg in Germany in 2011 and the Bandung Conference in 2015 and 2022, argues that although the most catastrophic period of the Palestinian Nakba (lit. catastrophe) reached its peak between 1947 and 1949, the Nakba was neither the beginning nor the end of the Palestinian people’s catastrophe.

This article claims that the Nakba of the Palestinian people began exactly 105 years ago with the release of a letter from then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to the leader of the Rothschild Zionist movement in what became infamously known as the Balfour Declaration issued on 2/11/1917, which followed the occupation of Palestine by Britain that was involved in WWI, especially the occupation of Al-Quds by General Allenby in December 1917.

It also argues that the Nakba includes everything that has happened since then until now, but certainly, this catastrophe reached its peak between 1947 and 1949 – which witnessed the forced expulsion of half of the Palestinian people from their homeland and the destruction of the majority of Palestine’s cultural, commercial, and social structure – and is continuing deliberately according to a plan that has not stopped until achieving liberation and independence.

Apart from emotional slogans, the project to establish the Zionist entity was and still is based on a long-term joint program between the Zionist movement and some colonial powers, primarily Britain and the US. In addition, this article claims and warns that an attempt to implement a new chapter of the Nakba of the Palestinian people is very possible, including the expulsion of additional Palestinians from West and East Palestine because the goal is to seize Palestine as a whole and the Palestinian people are seen as an obstacle that must be eliminated to achieve this goal.

Since the peak of the Nakba between 1947 and 1949, Palestinians, whom I defined as the survivors of the Nakba – meaning those who were able to remain in their homeland and who were intended to be loggers and waterers, as per the Israeli occupation administration, for the ruling Zionist class and its Jewish Arab servants who were brought in from the Arab countries to colonize Palestine – consisted a “security problem” not only in Al-Jaleel, the Triangle Area, and Al-Naqab, but also in the Palestinian coastal cities, such as Akka in the north and Yafa in the south.

When late historian Dr. Constantin Zureik published the book The Meaning of the Nakba in 1948, a few months after the catastrophe and the peak of the Nakba, his description of the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people was accurate – due to what he witnessed personally and through his professional academic tools – being coupled with a resounding catastrophic psychological trauma.

However, examining what has happened to the Palestinian people, during the past 105 years, requires a new definition or at least an updated definition of the Nakba that has prevailed so far. What happened since 1917 onward shows the numerous and ongoing chapters of the Nakba of the Palestinian people since the Balfour Declaration till now, including the decision to partition Palestine in 1947 and the occupation of the second part of Palestine in 1967, the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987, the Oslo Accords and their offshoots between 1993 and 1994 and the second Palestinian Intifada that began in Al-Quds in 2000, as well as the killing of the first official Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, the repeated wars on the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing aggression against the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds, in addition to a set of racist laws against the Palestinian people in western Palestine, specifically the so-called “National Law” of 2018, the continuous killing of the Palestinian people in occupied East Palestine and the arrest of more than a million Palestinian since the Naksa, including women, children and elderly, the expanding settlement that hasn’t stopped and the confiscation of lands, the so-called “Deal of the Century” and Netanyahu and Trump’s annexation scheme, which I called in a previous article the “third armed robbery,” and the economic and “military” occupation siege on the Gaza Strip by air, sea and land, 

On December 16, 2016, exactly on the 99th anniversary of the issuance of the Balfour Letter, we launched the Palestine Initiative 100 to re-engage with the beginning of this catastrophe. We were determined to renew encouragement to open the Balfour file since the beginning of the Palestinian people’s Nakba in 1917 and held a publicity evening in London, the capital of the British Empire that issued the Balfour Letter to the Zionist movement. As part of holding Britain to its historical, legal, and moral responsibilities, we demanded three types of steps: apology, compensation, and correction. We believe that canceling any of these steps would be naive, incomplete, or deceptive.

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine(Weekly Update 27 October-02 November 2022)

03,11. 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

Eleventh Palestinians, including 3 children and 2 paramedics, were wounded, and dozens of others suffocated in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied incursion into the Palestinian cities and villages, or suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 28 October 2022, a 22-year-old Palestinian was hit with a stun grenade during IOF’s incursion into Kafr al-Labad village in Tulkarm. Also, a child was shot with a rubber bullet during clashes with IOF following the latter’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly protest in northern Qalqilya.

On 29 October 2022, a 19-year-old Palestinian was shot with a live bullet in his foot during clashes with IOF in al-Arroub refugee camp in Hebron. Also, a 22-year-old paramedic sustained live bullet shrapnel wound in his shoulder after IOF opened fire at an ambulance belonging to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) near “Givat Havot” settlement outpost in eastern Hebron after an injury was reported in the area to PRCS. It turned out later that a Palestinian was killed after carrying out a shooting that killed an Israeli settler and injured others.

On 30 October 2022, a 17-year-old child  and a 18-year-old young man were shot with rubber bullets after IOF opened fire and fired teargas canisters at Palestinians gathered near the annexation wall, west of Tulkarm. Also, a Palestinian was injured with a live bullet in his thigh during clashes with IOF near military checkpoint (300), north of Bethlehem.

On 31 October 2022, a paramedic (33) sustained live bullet shrapnel wound after a PRCS ambulance driven by him was targeted during clashes and an exchange of fire between members of Palestinian armed groups and IOF following the latter’s incursion into Jenin and its refugee camp. Before their withdrawal, IOF arrested a Palestinian from Jenin refugee camp.

On the same day, a Palestinian was shot with a rubber bullet after IOF opened fire at him during his attempt along with a Palestinian woman to prevent IOF from arresting her daughter at a military checkpoint established at the entrance to the closed al-Shuhada Street in Central Hebron. 

On 01 November 2022, a child was wounded with a live bullet in his foot and other Palestinians suffocated during clashes with IOF at the entrance to al-Arroub refugee camp in Hebron.

On 02 November 2022, a 39-year-old Palestinian was shot with 4 live bullets after IOF opened fire at his vehicle near Muthalath al-Kharsa intersection in Hebron. IOF claimed that he tried to carry out a vehicle-ramming attack.

In the Gaza Strip, 5 shootings were reported on agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip, and 7 shootings were reported on fishing boats off the western Gaza shores, mostly in northern Gaza Strip.

”

So far in 2022, IOF attacks killed 158 Palestinians, including 106 civilians: 32 children, 8 women, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 17 of them were assassinated. Also, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, were wounded in IOF’s attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Moreover, 5 Palestinian detainees, including a woman, died in the Israeli prisons.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished 9 houses, rendering 31 Palestinians, including 8 women and 13 children, homeless. Also, IOF demolished a water well and seized 616 dunums in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 27 October 2022, IOF handed 2 civilians 2 notices to cease construction works in their houses in Al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah, under the pretext of being in area classified as Area (C).

On 28 October 2022, implementing an Israeli municipal order, IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolished his under-construction house in Al-Tur village in occupied East Jerusalem under the pretext of unlicensed construction. It should be noted that the house’s owner lives in a 50-sqaure-meter house along with his parents, wife and three children.

On 29 October 2022, implementing an Israeli municipal order, IOF forced 2 Palestinians to self-demolished their houses on Salah al-Deen Street and in Shu’fat neighborhood under the pretext of unlicensed construction, rendering two families of 12 persons, including 4 children and 3 women, homeless.

On 31 October 2022, IOF demolished an under-construction house comprised of 3 floors, a water well and a 100-meter-long concrete wall in al-Baq’a area in Hebron.

On 31 October 2022, IOF issued a military order to seize about 616 dunums from Qaryut, As-Sawiya and Al-Lubban_ash-Sharqiya villages in Nablus, in order to expand “Eli” settlement, which is established in on lands of these villages.

On 02 November 2022, IOF demolished four houses in Al-Walaja village, northwest of Bethlehem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction, rendering 2 families of 12 persons, including 6 children and 3 women, homeless.

On the same day, IOF demolished an uninhabited house comprised of two floors in Jalbun village in Jenin under the pretext of illegal construction in Area C, rendering a family of 5 persons, including 3 children, homeless.

”

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 127 families homeless, a total of 748 persons, including 146 women and 339 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 139 houses and many residential and agricultural tents. IOF also demolished 93 other civilian economic objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Settler-attacks on Palestinian civilians and their properties:

On 27 October 2022, Israeli settlers threw stones and obstructed the movement of Palestinians’ vehicles near the western entrance to Haris village in Salfit and near the entrance to Kafr Laqif village in Qalqilya, causing material damage to a vehicle.

On 28 October 2022, an Israeli settler prevented Palestinian Kafl Haris village’s farmers from passing through the dirt street located near the electricity room established opposite to “Ariel” settlement in Salfit. Also, Israeli settlers threw stones and obstructed the movement of vehicles passing on the Bypass Road between Bruqin village and Kafr ad-Dik village in Salfit.  

On 29 October 2022, Israeli settlers threw stones and obstructed the movement of Palestinian vehicles near the western entrance to Kafr ad-Dik village, west of Salfit. In the evening, Israeli settlers, from “Kiryat Arba” settlement in Hebron, threw stones and opened fire at Palestinian houses in al-Ras area and in al-Jaber neighborhood, east of the city in addition to breaking windows of several vehicles. This came following a shooting carried out by a Palestinian that led to killing the attacker and an Israeli settler as well as the injury of others in the nearby area. Israeli settlers’ attack recurred in the evening and was followed by IOF’s raid into a house and arrest of one of its residents.

”

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 224 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

IOF carried out 184 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 74 Palestinians were arrested, including 7 children and 4 women.

In the Gaza Strip, on 01 November 2022, Israeli naval forces arrested 4 fishermen while sailing off the Gaza shore and confiscated two fishing boats where the 4 fishermen were on board. (Details are available in this press release)

 

”

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 7523 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 4250 Palestinians were arrested, including 421 children and 43 women. IOF also conducted 33 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 95 Palestinians, including 58 fishermen, 32 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

 

Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly-update in the Gaza crossings.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continue to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 99 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested 9 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

since 11 October 2022, IOF have imposed collective punishment measures on Nablus and its three camps: Balata, Ein Beit al-Maa’ and Askar, and its cities and villages, including closing entrances and checkpoints. These measures affected the daily life of tens of thousands of Palestinians.

On 29 October 2022, IOF closed the entrances leading to Qizoun area in eastern Hebron, where there is a house that IOF intend to demolish as part of the collective punishment policy. Also, IOF closed all the entrances leading to Hebron and connecting with the Bypass Road (60) and prevented Palestinian vehicles from entering or exiting until next day noon.

On the same day, IOF closed Road (60) in Bethlehem to vehicles’ movement and closed the two metal detector gates established at the entrances to Tekoa and Husan villages

On 01 November 2022, the Israeli authorities announced the closure of the Gaza Strip and West Bank’s crossings, except for urgent and exceptional humanitarian cases, upon the approval of the competent authorities under the pretext of the Israeli elections.

”

So far in 2022, IOF established at least 3,866 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 177 Palestinians at those checkpoints

Hamas Spox to Al-Ahed: ‘Israeli’ Elections Won’t Legalize the Occupation, We’ll Face the Enemy’s Governments

November 1 2022

By Al-Ahed News

Hamas Spokesperson Abdul Latif al-Qanou underlined that the Palestinian resistance movement doesn’t count on the ‘Israeli’ elections results, mentioning the internal partition within the Zionist entity.

In an interview with Al-Ahed News, al-Qanou noted that “all ‘Israeli’ parties are hostile to the Palestinian people.”

The Hamas spokesman further added that the ‘Israeli’ elections can’t legalize the occupation, as the Zionist entity with all its social, political, and security components will always be an “occupation” of the Palestinian territories.

Concluding his interview, al-Qanou highlighted the right of the Palestinian people and the resistance against the Zionist occupation with all its resulting extremist governments that practice killing of the Palestinian people.

In the course of starting the electoral process, Zionist officials imposed a general closure on all Palestinian territories on Tuesday in conjunction with the beginning of the voting.

The Zionist occupation army stated that the closure will take into effect on Monday at midnight. The crossings are to be opened and closure lifted before Tuesday midnight after assessing the situation.

In the West Bank, permits held by Palestinian workers to work inside the occupied territories will be frozen, in addition to freezing some crossing and closing numerous streets where Zionist settlements are located.

It’s noteworthy that the ‘Israeli’ elections scheduled for Tuesday are the fifth elections to be held in the Zionist entity over that past four years.

The Evolution of The Palestinian Resistance and Its New Strategy

22 Oct 2022 23:3

Source: Al Mayadeen English

Robert Inlakesh 

The bravery and defiance of Ibrahim Nablusi, immortalized him as a heroic martyr and saw tens of thousands pack the streets of Nablus city, where the resistance fighter was killed, in order to attend his funeral.

There have been at least 11 large-scale Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip, four wars, and hundreds of attacks against the territory, resulting in the untold misery of the Gazan civilian population

The ongoing Palestinian uprising, along with the revival of the armed struggle inside the occupied West Bank, has largely been characterised by its tendencies as a popular movement, namely that there has been a chaotic reaction from the occupier. The past months’ developments have been an indicator of a major shift from the initial stages of the uprising and it’s time to take note.

The Palestinian armed uprising, inside the West Bank, can largely be traced back to the 11-day war that broke out in May, 2021, between the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the Israeli military. Following this, although the armed fighters had been previously active, in September of 2021  when the ‘Jenin Brigades’ were officially formed and the action they began to take shook “Israel” to its core. 2022 has been a more violent year for the West Bank, than the besieged Gaza Strip, with the majority of Palestinians killed by the occupation forces this year being inside the West Bank, with nearly 170 dead so far.

The scenes of armed resistance attacks, which occur multiple times per day at this time, against Israeli forces and settlers, have brought back the tactics and brutality of the Zionist regime never witnessed inside the West Bank since the Second Intifada (2000-2007). Although the initial attacks that came from groups such as the Jenin brigades, the Tulkarem brigades, and the Nablus brigades, seemed to have been loosely organized and worked primarily to inspire later action, along with shaking up the Israeli “security system”, this seems to be no longer the case. What has marked a seismic shift in the conflict between the occupier and the resistance inside the West Bank, has been the introduction of the Areen al-Oussoud, or Lions’ Den group, that declared themselves out of the old city of Nablus on September 2nd. 

The Gaza based resistance movement

Since the armed resistance in the West Bank was either destroyed or disbanded in the early 2000’s by the Israeli military and Palestinian Authority (PA), the armed struggle has been isolated into the hands of the movements operating out of the Gaza Strip. For a long time, there has been a successfully implemented strategy, by the Israelis and Americans, to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, during this time the resistance in Gaza – headed by Hamas primarily – had taken over the path of armed struggle.

There have been at least 11 large-scale Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip, four wars, and hundreds of attacks against the territory, resulting in the untold misery of the Gazan civilian population. Since the imposition of the siege, by not only “Israel” and Egypt but more importantly by the collective Western governments, the strategy has been to pressure the Palestinian people who live inside the territory to overthrow Hamas as their democratically elected government. This strategy, implemented since the 2006 – not 2007 when the siege was tightened significantly and is often framed as having started – the sanctions against Gaza have failed to bring the resistance to its knees and this is owed to the resounding resilience of the Palestinian people.

For most of the history of the Hamas rule of Gaza, it had been “Israel” that had taken most of the initiative to strike first and to be on the offensive. It has been noted by many analysts and historians, that despite the bravery and constant innovations of the resistance, “they had largely proven ineffective at inflicting significant defeats upon the enemy”. The strategic thinking of the resistance began to undergo significant shifts, however, dating back to 2015, but truly showing steadiness from 2017, during the major dispute between Qatar and many of the Gulf States, in addition to other pro-Western reactionary Arab regimes.

In 2018, during the Great March of Return, the armed resistance movements – which had not been constantly fighting each other but had also not participated in a real unified command – decided to form the ‘Joint Operations Room’ of the Palestinian resistance. Although during most of 2018, the Israeli military would routinely attack the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and was constantly on the offensive, this would change by November of that same year.

Israeli agents had infiltrated the Gaza Strip in 2018, plotting to either assassinate or kidnap a commander in the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, named Nur Baraka. The Israeli agents were discovered and fled, one of them was shot dead in the process, whilst Israeli drone strikes were launched against the Gaza Strip. What ensued was a complete embarrassment for the Israeli political establishment, not only was the Israeli raid a complete failure, but the resistance showed a new unified strategy that we had not seen the likes of before. “Israel’s” then-minister of war, Avigdor Liberman, was so embarrassed that he resigned from his position. 300 rockets were fired at “Israel”, whilst the resistance fired anti-tank munitions that killed Israeli soldiers. A video was also released by the Sala al-Din brigades, which showed that at least 5 Israeli soldiers had been killed or mortally wounded in an explosive attack, an event that had happened in February but was covered up by the Israelis. The armed movement had laced Palestinian flagpoles with explosives, waited for Israeli soldiers to pull them down, and then detonated the devices.

Then, in early May 2019, the armed resistance movements in Gaza chose to strategically escalate tensions and open up a limited battle with the Israeli military, around 2 weeks prior to “Tel Aviv’s” hosting of the Eurovision song contest. In November 2019, “Israel” attempted to gain back some of its strategic initiatives, by attempting to isolate and target the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in both Gaza and Syria. Despite assassinating leading figures in the PIJ movement, most prominently Baha Abu Al-Atta, the attack did little to change the course of the armed struggle.

Fast forward to May 2021, when the battle of Saif al-Quds was declared by the Israeli military, the people of Palestine had unified against the ongoing desecration of the Holy Sites in the old city of al-Quds. Saif al-Quds was when the Joint Room came to real prominence and it was clear that all the groups resisting Israel were unified, this provided inspiration to the rest of the Palestinian population in the other occupied Palestinian territories. Until this moment, despite “Israel’s” three-day attack against the PIJ movement, back in August, Tel Aviv has failed to achieve the equation it had before 2018. The Zionist regime went from attacking Gaza at will, constantly launching any strikes it wanted, to being deterred from striking Gaza unless it was willing to commit to an all-out war and now it is the resistance in Gaza that plots to strike first,  of strategic initiative.

Lessons learnt and the evolution of the West Bank struggle

One of the major issues that caused the setback of August this year, which had caught the resistance by surprise, was a fault made in the rhetoric of the Gaza-based resistance. “Israel” exploited this weakness in order to inflict a psychological blow against the resistance as a whole, it was clear that the resistance had not prepared for the scenario that befell them and although they reacted in a very rational way, within their means, the Israelis managed to score a pyrrhic victory on the propaganda front. The problem was, not that the resistance had acted in the wrong manner, but had projected great strength and made threats that weren’t intended on being followed through with, in the way that many had interpreted them.

“Israel’s” attack on Gaza in August may have resulted in political points for Prime Minister Yair Lapid and a distraction from the maritime border dispute with Lebanon if only the regime did not get greedy. Days later, the Israeli military sent in special forces units to assassinate the 19-year-old resistance fighter, Ibrahim Nablusi, yet, his killing served the opposite of its intended purpose. The bravery and defiance of Ibrahim Nablusi, immortalized him as a heroic martyr and saw tens of thousands pack the streets of Nablus city, where the resistance fighter was killed, in order to attend his funeral. As his mother held a pride-filled smile, whilst carrying her son’s body, thousands chanted Ibrahim Nablusi’s name and all over the West Bank young resistance fighters pledged to avenge his martyrdom. Instead of beating down the spirits of the Palestinian people and their belief in the armed struggle, Israel strengthened the resistance.

The mistake in the rhetoric of the Gaza-based resistance has undoubtedly been addressed now also, shown clearly through the statement released last Friday by the Joint Operations Room. This joint statement marks a turning point in the course of the armed struggle, as they not only have shown growth in their strategic rhetoric, but also they were dressed in a very interesting way. It should be noted that the Joint Room, which comprises all the serious armed movements in the Gaza Strip, dressed in military uniform, keffiyeh and did not wear anything to distinguish the resistance faction. This is symbolically powerful, as simultaneously the Lions’ Den group in Nablus is also refraining from identifying themselves with any single political or military party/movement. 

The armed groups that have been formed throughout the West Bank are made up of young people, mostly between the ages of 18 to 25, who come from many different political backgrounds and choose to work together as a unified force. The Lions’ Den group has also received a lot of popular support for its methods, managing to amass demonstrators that will take to the streets of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and beyond in order to support the resistance group. Unlike unity agreements that have been signed on paper in the past, this unity agreement has manifested itself in the physical world between armed resistance factions. It is clear that the resistance in Gaza is always taking notes of the popular will of the Palestinian people, it is adapting to this and is learning from their past mistakes in order to implement a strategy to escalate the armed struggle against the occupier. 

What is happening now with the development of the armed struggle; the unifying efforts of the younger generation and the resistance in Gaza, must be analyzed as part of this new chapter that has been opened in the history of the Palestinian struggle. This movement is becoming ever more unified, it is from the masses and in many ways is driven by the younger generation of Palestinians, it cannot be defeated by small Israeli military operations and soon this will escalate, paving the way to a completely new political landscape inside all of occupied Palestine.

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

البحر الأبيض المتوسط وفرص إضعاف الحصار على لبنان وغزَّة

22:09  الجمعة 14 تشرين الأول 2022

البحر الأبيض المتوسط وفرص إضعاف الحصار على لبنان وغزَّة

عمرو علان 

من المعلوم أن عمليات الإعداد وتطوير القدرات التسليحية للقوى العسكرية لا تكون بطريقة اعتباطية.

رغم دخول الحروب العصرية مرحلة “حروب الجيل الخامس”، بحسب تقديرات البعض، والحديث المتزايد عن دور الذكاء الاصطناعي في حروب المستقبل، بما يوحي أحياناً بأنَّ الحرب باتت مختلفة في الجوهر عن حروب الحقب الماضية، فإنَّ واقع الحال يشير إلى عدم تبدُّل الأهداف الإستراتيجية للنزاعات الدولية كثيراً، فتأمين مصادر الطاقة والسيطرة على ممرات النقل، لا سيما البحرية منها، ما زال يؤدي دوراً حاسماً في صعود القوى الدولية وهبوطها.

لذلك، خلال المرحلة الدولية الراهنة التي يتم فيها رسم معالم نظام عالمي جديد، ويترتب على نتيجة مسار الأحداث فيها صعود حضارات وهبوط أخرى، نجد أنَّ القوى الدولية الكبرى، وتلك الإقليمية الفاعلة، تولي عملية التحكّم في المضائق والممرات المائية الحيوية اهتماماً خاصاً، كمضيقي هرمز وباب المندب، وبحري آزوف والأبيض المتوسط، ولا يبدو أنَّ تبدُّلاً حقيقياً سيطرأ على هذه الأهداف الإستراتيجية للنزاعات الدوليَّة قبل أن تصل الحضارة الإنسانية إلى مستوى “النوع الأول” من الحضارات على “مقياس كارداشيف لتصنيف الحضارات”، وقبل أن تقطع شوطاً معتبراً فيه على أقل تقدير، وذلك لن يتحقق إلا لقرون قادمة.

من هنا، نلحظ أن خيار تطوير القدرات الهجومية العسكرية البحرية التي أولتها دول “محور المقاومة” وحركاته اهتماماً ملموساً في السنوات الأخيرة ضمن تكتيكاتها القتالية بات يعطي مفاعيله في عمليات رسم معادلات الحرب وتحقيق المكاسب الميدانية. 

وقد تجلى ذلك في عدَّة محطات مهمة خلال الأعوام الماضية. مثلاً، كانت قدرات إيران العسكرية البحرية قد شكَّلت إحدى وسائل الردع الفعَّالة التي اعتمدتها في مواجهة الولايات المتحدة الأميركية، لثنيها عن الإقدام على عدوان عسكري عليها، إذ كان باستطاعة إيران في تلك الحالة تعطيل حركة الملاحة عبر مضيق هرمز؛ ذلك الممر المائي الحيوي الذي يمر عبره ما يزيد على 20% من صادرات موارد الطاقة الأحفورية في العالم.

وفي محطة مهمة أخرى، نجد أنَّ التنافس على السيطرة على مضيق “باب المندب” يعد واحداً من الخلفيات الرئيسة للحرب التي تشنها السعودية على اليمن. لذلك، كان من ضمن إستراتيجية صنعاء العسكرية تطوير قدرات بحرية هجومية مؤثرة يمكن الاعتماد عليها في التأثير في حركة الملاحة البحرية في باب المندب والبحر الأحمر.

أما في لبنان، وفي محطة ترسيم الحدود البحرية مع العدو، وسعي الدولة اللبنانية لفرض حقّها في استخراج الغاز الطبيعي من حقول شرقي المتوسط واستثماره، نجد أنَّ قدرات حزب الله البحرية الهجومية كان لها الدور الحاسم في حصول الدولة اللبنانية على مسودة تفاهم حول ترسيم الحدود البحرية مع العدو، وحول حقّه في استخراج موارده الغازية واستثمارها، بصرف النظر عن الجدل القائم حول إذا ما كانت تلك المسودة قد أعطت للبنان كامل حقوقه.

 ما يهم في هذا المقام، بعيداً من النقاش الدائر حول خطوط الترسيم البحرية اللبنانية: الخط 29، والخط 23، وخط “فريدريك هوف”، والخط “الإسرائيلي” رقم 1 البري، بعيداً من هذا النقاش، على أهميته ووجاهته، يبقى واقع الحال أن الكيان الموقّت ما كان ليعطي لبنان أياً من حقوقه لولا تلويح حزب الله بقدراته البحرية العسكرية.

ولولا إمكانات حزب الله البحرية العسكرية تلك، القادرة على استهداف مصادر استخراج الطاقة في شرقي المتوسط، والقادرة على عرقلة حركة نقل الطاقة عبر البحر الأبيض المتوسط أيضاً، ما كان الأميركي في وارد السماح للبنان بالاستفادة من ثرواته من الغاز الطبيعي، بما يتضمَّنه ذلك من ضرب لأساسات سياسة الحصار غير المعلن التي ينتهجها الأميركي ضد لبنان منذ حين.

إذاً، بناءً على الوقائع السالفة الذكر، يمكن أن نخلص إلى أنَّ الجهد الذي صرفته دول وحركات المقاومة على تعزيز قدراتها البحرية العسكرية وحسن توظيف تلك القدرات تكتيكياً في الميدان أثمر نتائج ملموسةً في مصلحتها، وحقّق لها مكاسب ميدانيةً وسياسيةً، ولا سيما في الحالة اللبنانية. وبناءً على هذه الخلاصة، يبرز تساؤلٌ عما إذا كان من الممكن لفصائل المقاومة الفلسطينية الاستفادة من هذه التجارب في فك الحصار المفروض على غزة.

بدايةً، من المعلوم أن عمليات الإعداد وتطوير القدرات التسليحية للقوى العسكرية لا تكون بطريقة اعتباطية، بل تكون استجابةً للإستراتيجيات والتكتيكات العسكرية المرسومة، وضمن الإمكانات المتاحة وظروف الميدان؛ فمن خلال تتبع مسيرة دول “محور المقاومة” وحركاتها نجد أنها عملت منذ البدايات على توظيف سلاح “صواريخ أرض أرض” بطريقة مميزة، بهدف التغلب على معضلة التفوق الجوي الكاسح لمصلحة العدو. وقد كان ذلك ضمن إستراتيجية “الحرب غير المتكافئة” الشاملة التي اعتمدتها قوى المقاومة في مواجهة الأعداء عموماً.

وقد تم تعميم تجربة “صواريخ أرض أرض” بعد نجاحها في جنوب لبنان إبان الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، فصارت إيران بعد ذلك من أكبر القوى الإقليمية من ناحية قدراتها الصاروخية، وباتت فصائل المقاومة الفلسطينية في غزَّة تتمتع بقدرة صاروخية يحسب لها الحساب، إذ استنسخت تكتيكات إطلاق الصواريخ من منصات مخفية وتحت الأرض.

وعقب حرب لبنان في تموز/يوليو 2006، التي اختبر فيها حزب الله بنجاح باهر تكتيكات ميدانية ضد سلاح المدرّعات الإسرائيلي، وذلك باستخدام سلاح “كورنيت” الروسي المضاد للدروع، اتخذ قائد حرس الثورة الإسلامية آنذاك، الشهيد اللواء قاسم سليماني، قراراً بنقل تلك التجربة إلى فصائل المقاومة الفلسطينية في غزة، بالتعاون مع كل من حزب الله والدولة السورية التي زودت القطاع بهذا النوع من السلاح من مخزون الجيش العربي السوري في ذلك الوقت. وقد كان لتكتيك استخدام سلاح “كورنيت” في القطاع دورٌ أساسيٌ في تحديد نتائج حروب غزَّة اللاحقة.

أما راهناً، وفي ظلِّ التوتر الدولي القائم حول الطاقة، وحول الممرات البحرية لنقلها، وارتفاع أهمية أسلحة البحر الهجومية بناءً على ذلك التوتر، ربما بات من المجدي أن تبدأ فصائل المقاومة الفلسطينيّة، وبالتعاون مع أركان “محور المقاومة”، بتسخير الموارد من أجل تعزيز قدرات القطاع البحرية العسكريّة، سواء بالعتاد المطلوب أو بالتقنيات اللازمة لتصنيع العتاد المناسب؛ فإذا كان “محور المقاومة” قد نجح في هذه العملية في اليمن، فلا بد من وجود إمكانية لتكرار الأمر في غزة.

ويدور الحديث هنا بالنسبة إلى غزَّة عن خطة متوسطة المدى أو قصيرة المدى في أفضل الأحوال، بحسب ظروف الميدان، إلا إذا كانت غزَّة قد تسلَّحت بالفعل على هذا الصعيد، مع العلم بأن لا مؤشرات تدل على هذا الأمر.

في كلِّ الأحوال، لا يجوز إهمال أمرين مفصليين عند التفكير في تكتيك استخدام البحر كوسيلة لتخفيف الحصار عن غزة، قياساً على تجربة حزب الله الأخيرة في لبنان. أولاً، لا يجوز بحال تجاهل حقيقة أنَّ حساب “موازين القوى” يختلف إلى حد بعيد من عدة أوجه بين الساحتين اللبنانية والفلسطينية.

لا ينسحب هذا على صعيد قدرة حزب الله التسليحية المتفوقة نوعاً وكماً فحسب، والفروق في طبيعة الميدان التي تتيح للحزب هامشاً أعظم في المناورة، واستفادة الحزب من خطوط إمداد فعالة، لكن أيضاً يجب أن يوضع بالاعتبار، عند حساب “موازين القوى”، حساسية ساحة فلسطين بالنسبة إلى الاحتلال مقارنةً بأي ساحة “معادية” أخرى، فسقف المعادلات التي يمكن إرغام الإسرائيلي على تجرُّعها من دون الدخول في جولة حرب قاسية يعد أعلى من السقف الذي يمكنه قبوله في فلسطين من دون الدخول في حرب يكون من شأنها تبديل التوازنات القائمة بصورة جوهرية.

وبناءً عليه، يمكن القول إنَّ المراهنة على السلاح البحري الهجومي وحده تعد مراهنةً واقعيةً، إذا ما كان الهدف هو تخفيف الحصار، لا إنهاءه بشكل كلِّي عن القطاع، مع أنَّ تخفيف الحصار، الذي يمكن لفصائل المقاومة في غزَّة تحقيقه في هذه الحال، وضمن الظروف الإقليمية والدولية الراهنة، قابلٌ لأن يكون تخفيفاً حقيقياً وذا آثار ملموسة على حياة سكان القطاع.

أما الأمر الثاني، فهو أنه لا يجوز بأي حال أن يتحول تكتيك تطوير السلاح البحري الهجومي في غزَّة إلى بديل من تكتيك المقاومة في تفعيل العمل المقاوم في الضفة، فساحة الضفة لا تزال تحظى بموقع الصدارة من الناحية الإستراتيجية في مشروع التحرير المركزي، ناهيك بأنه ضمن ظروف العدو الموضوعية المستجدة، وضمن تراجع القبضة الأمنية لسلطة “التنسيق الأمني” في رام الله، إضافة إلى الظروف الإقليمية والدولية الراهنة المحيطة، بات من الممكن لساحة الضفة تحقيق إنجاز يفوق بكثير أي إنجاز يمكن لساحة غزَّة تحقيقه على مستوى المشروع الوطني.

ختاماً، يفتح الاشتباك العالمي الدائر بين الدول العظمى آفاقاً جديدةً أمام فصائل المقاومة الفلسطينية، بما يجعل فرص تخفيف مفاعيل الحصار المفروض على غزَّة بصورة ملموسة أكثر واقعيةً، وذلك عبر المناورة على عقدة الطاقة والممرات المائية، لكن يبقى إنهاء الحصار عن غزَّة بصورة كلية أمراً يلزمه تغيير في “موازين القوى” الحاكمة حالياً، والطريق الأقصر لذلك، والأكثر جدوى وطنياً وإستراتيجياً، يمر عبر تصعيد الفعل المقاوم في الضفة، وتحويل المقاومة فيها إلى حال يحاكي مقاومة غزة، وهذا بات أمراً متاحاً ضمن المستجدات الفلسطينية والإقليمية.

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine ( Weekly Update 06 – 12 October 2022)

13.10. 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

5 Palestinian civilians were killed, including 3 children; one of them succumbed to his wounds, while 34 other civilians were wounded, including 3 children, and dozens of others suffocated in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 07 and 08 October 2022, IOF killed 4 Palestinians, including 2 children, and wounded 10 others, including 3 in critical condition; one of them was a child, in 3 separate incidents in the West Bank. Details available in PCHR’s press release.

On 10 October 2022, Mahmoud Mohammad Samoudi (12) succumbed to a live bullet wound in the stomach during IOF’s incursions into Jenin refugee camp on 28 September 2022 when 4 Palestinians were killed, including a civilian, and 28 others were wounded. Details available in PCHR’s press release.

On 12 October 2022, Osama ‘Adawi (17) was killed by IOF fire in Al ‘Aroub refugee camp in Hebron as part of crimes of excessive use of force.

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into cities and villages, or suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 07 October 2022, 13 Palestinians were injured with metal bullets during clashes with IOF after the latter’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly protest in northern Qalqilya.

On 08 October 2022, IOF assaulted a group of Palestinians and arrested one of them while harvesting olives in Silwan village in East Jerusalem. On the same day, a 36-year-old Palestinian was wounded with a live bullet in the left knee after IOF opened fire at a group of workers near the annexation wall, north of Tulkarm, as the latter were trying to enter Israel for work. Also, a child sustained a rubber bullet wound, while others sustained bruises and suffocated.  Moreover, 15 Palestinians were arrested after being beaten during IOF’s suppression of those celebrating Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday, also known as Mawlid An-Nabawi, in Bab Al ‘Amoud yard in East Jerusalem. Moreover, a Palestinian was wounded with a rubber bullet, and 3 others, including a woman, were arrested in clashes with IOF, who moved into Shu’fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem after a shooting attack was carried out at IOF stationed at the camp checkpoint.

On 09 October 2022, 2 Palestinians, including a child, were wounded with rubber bullets during confrontations with IOF, who moved into Sarda village, north of Ramallah.

On 10 October 2022, 2 Palestinians were wounded during IOF’s suppression of protesters against the punitive measures imposed on Shu’fat refugee camp and al-Salam Suburb in East Jerusalem.

On 12 October 2022, IOF assaulted 3 Palestinians, including 2 guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, right before arresting them inside the mosque’s yards and coinciding with the settlers’ raids. On the same day, 2 Palestinians were wounded with live bullets as IOF opened fire at them during clashes that followed settlers’ attacks protected by IOF in Qusra village in Nablus. In addition, a 22-year-old Palestinian was wounded with a rubber-coated bullet in the eye in clashes with IOF near the 300 military checkpoint, north of Bethlehem. Also, a Palestinian was injured and another was arrested during IOF’s widescale and continuous confrontations in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem as part of the protests organized against the closure imposed on Shu’fat refugee camp and ‘Anata village for 5 days. In the evening, a 14-year-old child was wounded with a live bullet in the foot right before he was arrested during clashes with IOF in western Beit Ummar in Hebron.

In the Gaza Strip, 8 IOF shootings were reported on fishing boats off the Gaza shores (Western Gaza), and 3 other shootings were reported on agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip.

”

So far in 2022, IOF attacks killed 133 Palestinians, including 93 civilians: 27 children, 8 women, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 15 of them were assassinated in IOF’s attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in addition to hundreds of injuries, including women and children. Moreover, 4 Palestinian detainees, including a woman, died in the Israeli prisons.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished 2 houses, rendering a family of 8 persons, including 2 women and 4 children, homeless, and an agricultural tent. Details are as follows:

On 08 October 2022, IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his house in the Old City of East Jerusalem under the pretext of unlicensed construction, rendering him and his mother homeless[1].

On 10 October 2022, IOF demolished an agricultural tent, south of Yatta in Hebron.

On 06 October 2022, IOF demolished a 110-sqm home in Dura in Hebron, rendering a family of 6, including 4 children, homeless under the pretext of unlicensed construction. During the demolition, IOF assaulted a Palestinian and his son and arrested one of them but released him later.

”

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 118 families homeless, a total of 699 persons, including 135 women and 317 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 126 houses and many residential tents. IOF also demolished 92 other civilian objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Settler-attacks

With the beginning of the olive harvest season and as it happens every year, the settlers attacked this week farmers and landowners and stole their crops in addition to cutting down the trees. Details are as follows:

On 09 October 2022, Israeli settlers demolished 4 agricultural tents in southern Yatta in Hebron, under IOF protection. On the same day, settlers stationed on the main road leading to Jalazone refugee camp near “Beit El” settlement, north of Al-Bireh, and threw stones at Palestinian vehicles, but no injuries were reported. In the evening, settlers from the settlement outpost established on Jabal Al-Raysan near Ras Karkar village attacked a Palestinian house right before Palestinians confronted the settlers and threw stones at them.

On 10 October 2022, settlers attacked farmers, who were harvesting olives in Khallet Hassan area, west of Salfit.  As a result, some of them sustained injuries.

On 11 October 2022, settlers from “Ma’ale Levona” settlement in eastern Ramallah threw stones at Palestinian homes along the Old Nablus Street in Sinjil village, east of the city, causing damage to the windows of the houses and a car in the area.

On 12 October 2022, settlers from Esh Kodash settlement outpost established on the lands of Qusra town, southeast of Nablus, attacked the eastern outskirts of the village and blocked Qasra-Jalud road with stones.  They set fire to 3 newly built and firmly closed barracks used as small poultry farms. Also, they set fire to a truck while putting poultry in it before Palestinians confronted them with stones amid intense clashes.

”

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 149 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

IOF carried out 203 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 107 Palestinians were arrested, including 9 children and 2 women. In the Gaza Strip, on 12 October 2022, IOF conducted a limited incursion into eastern Al-Bureij refugee camp, east of the Central Gaza Strip

”

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 6897 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 3982 Palestinians were arrested, including 373 children and 36 women. IOF also conducted 33 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 86 Palestinians, including 49 fishermen, 32 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Punitive Measures in Jerusalem

For the fifth day in a row, IOF continue to impose a siege on Shu’fat refugee camp and ‘Anata village in Occupied East Jerusalem, including the closure of entrances and checkpoints and arrest of at least 25 Palestinians, as part of collective punishment measures against tens of thousands of people, allegedly after announcing that the person who conducted Jerusalem attack, where an Israeli female soldier was killed, was from Shu’fat camp. Details available in PCHR’s press release.

Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

The Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly-update in the Gaza crossings.

Israeli authorities announced crossings with the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be closed from Sunday noon, 09 October 2022, to Tuesday midnight, 11 October 2022, for the Jewish Sukkot holiday.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continue to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 114 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested 4 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

”

So far in 2022, IOF established 3527 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 159 Palestinians at those checkpoints

————————————————-

[1]  IOF demolish Palestinian houses upon demolition notices in occupied Jerusalem using their vehicles under the pretext of unlicensed construction or as part of collective punishment policy, provided that the Palestinians either pay the demolition high costs or force them to self-demolish their houses.

Battle of Naalan mountain: one town’s fight against the full might of the Israeli settler project

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022 

The small town of Mazraa Qabaliya in the northern West Bank is fighting the Israeli military and armed settlers to protect a resource that is both revered and essential to their community — Naalan mountain.

JAAFAR LADADWEH, 55 AND YOUSEF ALI LOOKING AT THE SETTLEMENTS ACROSS FROM NAALAN, SEPTEMBER 2022. (PHOTO: MARIAM BARGHOUTI/MONDOWEISS)

Source

By Mariam Barghouti

On October 26, 2018, the small town of Mazraa Qabaliya just 11 km northwest of Ramallah witnessed a brutal assault by Israeli settlers and their military vanguard. 

As Palestinian men gathered for Friday prayers under a cluster of brown and green leadtrees, they were met with teargas from the Israeli military in tandem with an organized attack by armed Israeli settlers. Youth responded by hurling stones back at the settlers and soldiers.

“It was a bloodbath that day,” Jaafar Ladadweh, 55, recalled to Mondoweiss almost four years later on the same Naalan mountaintop where two men were fatally shot.

Two Palestinians from the village were shot — Othman Ahmad Ladadweh, 33, was hit in the thigh and died that Friday evening, while Mohammad Ibrahim Shreiteh, 28, was shot in the head, succumbing to his wounds almost two weeks later, on November 10, 2018. More than a dozen were injured with live bullets while dozens more were injured with teargas and rubber bullets.

THE VIEW FROM NAALAN MOUNTAIN OVERLOOKING ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTH OF THE WEST BANK. (PHOTO: MARIAM BARGHOUTI/MONDOWEISS)

Guardians of the mountain: ‘we must keep the light on’

The confrontations in Naalan would intensify in 2018. Protests were being held in tandem with the Great March of Return in Gaza, where Palestinians marched every Friday in the thousands to protest the Gaza siege and its population of 2 million people. 

Like the Israeli military response to Palestinian unarmed protest in Gaza, the youth and residents of Mazraa were met with lethal force — mostly live ammunition. 

Four years later, the sunset from the top of Naalan mountain is calm and the air is crisp, with a breeze reminiscent of Ramallah’s windy evenings. The contrast of the dying colors of orange, red, yellow, and purple blue with a darker sky and almost yellow full moon commands appreciation. 

Under September’s full harvest moon, a group of 11 men gather on plastic chairs and wooden benches they have set up over the years, to revive the mountain and maintain it.

“We all take turns making sure there is electricity extended and that the lights on this mountain are on at all times, to make sure there is a sign of life here” Ahmad Obeid, 62, says with a smile. 

Eager and passionate about sharing their story of successfully holding on to their homes, Obeid points at one of the flickering lights hanging from a treehouse they had built months ago to encourage visitors to come and help protect the mountain from settler takeover.

“We must keep the light on,” Obeid said, his tone passionate. “We must keep the light on here on the mountain at all times. Once it’s off, know that something is wrong, that there has been an attack,” he said to Mondoweiss. 

POSTER WITH THE IMAGES OF TWO MARTYRS KILLED DURING MILITARY AND SETTLER ATTACKS ON OCTOBER 26, 2018, HANGING IN THE COMMUNITY OFFICE AT THE TOP OF NAALAN MOUNTAIN. MOHAMMAD SHREITEH, 28, ON THE LEFT, AND OTHMAN LADADWEH, 33, ON THE RIGHT. (PHOTO: MARIAM BARGHOUTI/MONDOWEISS)

Abandoned by parties and actors that are supposedly responsible, including the Palestinian Authority (PA), the mountain was nurtured and developed through the power of community initiatives and youth volunteers. 

Through collective conversations, the village of Mazraa Qabaliya organized itself into committees to renovate, preserve, and document the archeological artifacts that sprawl across and inside the mountain. 

“When we pray here, you would find settlers coming to also pray,” Ali Shreiteh, 54, told Mondoweiss. Shreiteh had been documenting the historical significance and archeological richness that is hidden across the mountain top, from Roman wells to centuries-old antiques. 

Over the past four years, organized settler visits and attacks on the site in coordination with Israeli army have intensified. These visits seek to establish a presence on the land, which in turn would create a justification for the annexation and forcible takeover of Palestinian lands by judicial decree. 

Yet, these sinister practices do not occur in isolation. They are embedded in, and enforced through, broader Israeli policies denying Palestinians ability to use their resources and lands for growth and building of healthy and unified communities.

ISRAELI FORCES ARREST AN UNARMED PALESTINIAN DURING CONFRONTATIONS IN 2018. (PHOTO: MOHAMMAD SHREITEH)

Greenlighting ethnic cleansing in Area B

Naalan mountain is located in Mazraa Qabaliya, a town known for its agricultural produce and capacity for sustainable water infrastructure. 

Mazraa Qabaliya and its Naalan mountain are also categorized as “Area B” under the Oslo Accords, which places them under the civic and administrative control of the PA and military control of Israeli army. This power vacuum, combined with the lack of foreign support, has meant that the town residents have had to take it upon themselves to counter the continuous impunity for armed Israeli aggressions and organized settler crimes.

Since the growth of settlement expansion to Areas B in 2017, added to the peak in settler violence in 2018, the townspeople have directed their efforts to ensure that Naalan mountain remains vibrant and accessible to Palestinians. This has largely only been possible through constant confrontation whereby Palestinians must face armed settlers and soldiers with either their voice, their bodies, or the hurling of stones — a crime punishable by up to 10 years under Israeli military regulations.

“They want to take this mountain by any means, even if it is fabricating a historical association with it,” Yousef Ali, 45, told Mondoweiss. 

NAALAN MOUNTAIN, 2018 (PHOTO: MOHAMMAD SHREITEH)

ccording to the Oslo Accords, settlers expanding to Area B are not only in violation of international law, but also Israeli law. The clandestine manner in which Israel takes over lands has been well-documented, but with little repercussions. In 2018, former US president Barack Obama was reportedly “shocked” at the systemic nature of Israeli settlements and their fragmentation of Palestinians from one another. 

This settler expansion has been devastating to Palestinian farmers. Already economically deprived of more than 63% of the most fertile and grazing land as well as agricultural resources in Area C, farmers in Mazraa Qabaliya and the rest of Area B are restricted by Israeli veto power over building and constructing water wells and drilling into reservoirs or springs.  

The wells around the Naalan mountain top could provide the community with the resources that would allow for sustainability and income generation in the face of the economic depression plaguing Palestinian communities.  In fact, the families and communities near Naalan have renovated some old wells, but the energies of the townspeople continue to be occupied mainly with surviving and confronting Israeli efforts to takeover their lands for the purpose of expanding illegal settlements.

In this way, not only are settlements furthering Israeli theft and abuse of natural resources, but are also impeding Palestinian capacities to develop what resources they have.

ISRAELI SETTLERS MARCHING WITH MILITARY PROTECTION ON NAALAN MOUNTAIN. (PHOTO: SHREITEHPHOTO)

In contrast, illegal Israeli settlers are not only provided with Israeli court-ordered military force as protection, but also governmental financial support from the “Settlement Division” of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) to help link agricultural and natural resource networks with a growing physical settler infrastructure..

In June and July of this year, the WZO declared plans to invest additional $ 8.5 million USD in connecting and legitimizing illegal outposts in the West Bank, a policy pushed forward by former Prime Minister, Naftali Bennet. And not only are settlements expanding but they are even creeping towards Area B of the West Bank also in violation of the Oslo Accords.

What this adds up to is that Palestinian communities lack nearly any form of financial, legal, emotional, or logistical support in their efforts to defend their land while Israeli settlers are provided with international impunity, constant and growing economic funding, as well as protection from its military, one of the most advanced in the world. 

Call for solidarity

With what little remains, Palestinian towns and villages are constantly attempting to salvage what they have been able to hold onto in the face of a increasingly emboldened settler population, which maintains a strong hold on military power and international public opinion.

As Palestinian communities attempt to safeguard their communities from settler attacks, they are calling on supporters to join them in ensuring that Palestinian lands remain alive with Palestinian lives. “Just come be with us, build with us, bring nothing but will and joy,” Ladadweh says as the evening fades into darkness, as an LED lightbulb flickers behind him. 

In that moment, words from earlier in the evening seemed to hang in the air and resonate with the 11 men firmly planted at the top of Naalan mountain: “the light must stay on.”

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine ( Weekly Update 08 – 14 September 2022)

15. 09. 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

A child was killed, 8 others were wounded, and dozens of others suffocated in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 08 September 2022, IOF killed Haytham Hani Mubarak (17) from Beitounia, West of Ramallah, with several bullets at the DCO checkpoint near the entrance to Beitin village, east of Ramallah, and kept his body in custody, claiming that Mubarak tried to stab a soldier with a knife, yet there was no eyewitness to the incident.

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force during IOF incursions into cities and villages and suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 08 September 2022, A Palestinian was injured with a rubber bullet in the foot in IOF clashes following their incursion into Qalandia refugee camp in East Jerusalem. Also, a Palestinian was injured with a live bullet when IOF opened fire at Palestinians, who tried to confront settlers’ attacks in Sinjil village in Ramallah.

On the same day, IOF violently attacked Palestine TV journalist, Yousuf Mohammad ‘Aadi (36), when he was on Al-Wad Street in East Jerusalem, causing him bruises, wounds and fractures before arresting and later releasing him on bail the following day. ‘Aadi said to PCHR’s staff that IOF violently assaulted him and dragged him to the ground when he started screaming for help to passersby, who tried to intervene, but the soldiers prevented them and continued hitting him on the head, grabbed his hair and yanking him many times to the ground between the iron bars of a barrier.  Although he fainted, they continued beating him and then tied him up and arrested him.

On 09 September 2022, 4 Palestinians were shot by IOF’s rubber bullets in clashes that followed IOF’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly protest in northern Qalqilya. On the same day, an elderly suffocated due to teargas inhalations and others were sustained brises and suffocated during IOF suppression of a peaceful protest in support of Al-Nabi Samuel village residents, near al-Jib military checkpoint, northwestern East Jerusalem. In addition, 2 Palestinians were wounded and 5 suffocated during IOF suppression of a peaceful protest against land confiscations and settlers’ attacks in Sinjil village in Ramallah.

In the Gaza Strip, 2 IOF shootings were reported on fishing boats off the western Gaza shore, and 2 other shootings were reported on agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip.

”

So far in 2022, IOF attacks killed 120 Palestinians, including 85 civilians: 25 children, 8 women; 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers; and the rest were activists; 15 of them were assassinated. Thirty-two of those killed, including 19 civilians: 8 children and 3 women were in the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. Also, 1,316 Palestinians, including 204 children, 40 women, and 22 journalists, were wounded in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Moreover, 4 Palestinian prisoners, including a woman, died in the Israeli prisons.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF forced 2 Palestinians to self-demolish 2 houses and an animal barn in East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 08 September 2022, IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his under-construction house in Silwan village in East Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Also, they demolished retaining walls in al-Walaja village, west of Bethlehem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 09 September 2022, IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish a barrack he owned and used as an animal barn in Al-Isawiya village in occupied East Jerusalem under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 12 September 2022, IOF forced a widow to self-demolish her house in Silwan village in occupied East Jerusalem under the pretext of unlicensed construction, rendering her and her 3 children homeless.

”

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 113 families homeless, a total of 670 persons, including 130 women and 310 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 118 houses and 41 residential tents. IOF also demolished 90 other civilian economic objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Settler-attacks

On 08 September 2022, an Israeli settler threw stones at a vehicle travelling on Bypass Road (60) near Bani Na’im village, east of Hebron, and broke its windshield. On the same day, 2 Palestinians were injured and sustained bruises while 5 cars were badly damaged  as a result of the settlers’ attacks in Sinjil village in Ramallah

On 13 September 2022, a Palestinian sustained wounds and fractures when Israeli settlers assaulted him in his land near at-Tuwani village close to Havat Ma’oun settlement outpost, south of Hebron. When a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance arrived and tried to evacuate the injured, the settlers intercepted it and damaged its tires. IOF arrested the injured and took him via an Israeli ambulance to Soroka Hospital.  He was then referred for investigation to the police station in Kiryat Aba’ settlement, claiming that he attempted to kill a settler. Later on, IOF backups arrived in the area, opened fire, and fired tear gas canisters at the Palestinians there.  As a result, some of them suffocated.  Also, IOF arrested 10 Palestinians and interrogated them about a settler’s injury in clashes against Palestinians in the area.

”

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 180 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

IOF carried out 210 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 78 Palestinians were arrested, including 5 children and a woman. In the Gaza Strip, IOF carried out 4 limited incursions into eastern Khan Yunis, eastern Gaza Valley village, southeast of Gaza, and Deir Al-Balah in the central governorate.

On 08 September 2022, IOF arrested 2 Palestinians, including a child, while trying to infiltrate via the border fence, east of Rafah, and released them the next day. On 13 September 2022, the Israeli Naval Forces arrested 4 fishermen after intercepting their boat off Gaza Valley shore.

”

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 6,140 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 3,618 Palestinians were arrested, including 339 children and 32 women. IOF also conducted 32 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 84 Palestinians, including 49 fishermen, 30 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

The Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly-update in the Gaza crossings.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continues to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 100 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested 4 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

On 08 September 2022, IOF established a military watchtower near the western entrance to Taqou’ village, east of Bethlehem.

On 11 September 2022, IOF closed the metal detector gate established at the western entrance to Husan village in Bethlehem and later reopened it.

”

So far in 2022, IOF established 3,105 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 146 Palestinians at those checkpoints

‘Our Gas is Our Right’: Palestinians in Gaza Rally for Access to Mediterranean Gas (PHOTOS)

September 14, 2022

Palestinian activists take part in a rally at the Gaza City Port to demand their right to receive gas from maritime fields in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Wafa Aludaini

Palestinian activists took part in a rally at the Gaza City Port on Tuesday to demand their right to receive gas from maritime fields in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and to pressure the Israeli occupation to lift the siege. 

Palestinian groups in Gaza inaugurated a banner at the Gaza Port reading “Our Gas is Our Right”. 

Suhail al-Hindi, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said: “Tens of thousands of families in the Gaza Strip live below the poverty line as the Israeli occupation is still depriving us of our rights.”

Al-Hindi added that Palestinians have a right to their natural resources and gas, as well as to a waterway connecting Gaza to the rest of the world. 

“This land is our land, and this sea is our sea,” al-Hindi stated, warning Israel that “the resistance has the capacity to defend our people and our rights.”

Al-Hindi called on the international community to pressure Israel to put an end to the military occupation and the siege. 

“Your silence in front of injustice committed in Al-Aqsa, in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza will lead to an unavoidable explosion in the region.” 

(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

Donate NOW  Learn More  Watch Video

(The Palestine Chronicle is a registered 501(c)3 organization, thus, all donations are tax deductible.)

Time to end Apartheid Israel’s genocidal oppression of Gaza

 SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

PROTESTOR HOLDS SIGNS SUPPORTING BDS, THE MOVEMENT FOR BOYCOTTS, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL, AT ‘TEL AVIV SUR SEINE’ IN PARIS, AUGUST 13, 2015. (PHOTO: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Source

By Haider Eid

“If only it (Gaza) would just sink into the sea”
– Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 1992

In 2008 Gaza was bombed by Israeli Apache helicopters and American-made F16 fighter planes for 22 days, ultimately causing the deaths of more than 1,400 civilians. Israel, with the impunity it has enjoyed since its establishment, decided to come back into Gaza four times since then and repeat the same crimes by launching areal strikes, killing more than 4000 civilians, including hundreds of children, women, elderly, and injuring thousands. In fact, over the past 15 months alone, apartheid Israel has carried out two extensive military assaults on Gaza, killing hundreds, including more than 80 children, and injuring thousands, destroying vital infrastructure, while maintaining its 15-year illegal siege on the 2.4 million Palestinians here.

Israel’s airstrikes which always damage essential infrastructure and terrify the civilian population are a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people and are war crimes which are forbidden under international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prescribes the manner in which armies must treat civilians during times of conflict. 

But Israel continues to get away with these war crimes and crimes against humanity. The “international community” does not seem seriously interested in the suffering of the native Palestinians. Neither does it even try to show concrete sympathy with those children who get killed in broad day light. After all, they are not Ukrainians, i.e., white.  In fact, while the American president apparently thinks that while “Israel has the right to defend itself,” the same right does not apply to Palestinians. This is in spite of the multi-tiered oppression of Palestinians by Israel, from apartheid to military occupation and colonization, and in spite of the deadly, hermetic siege imposed on Gaza for more than 15 years, so much so that Israel has even been using ‘calorie count’ to limit Gaza food during the blockade. 

This, however, has been Israel’s policy for a long time. In 1992, the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin wished that Gaza “would just sink into the sea.” The Oslo Accords, signed by Rabin, brought more misery into the lives of the 2 million inhabitants of this besieged, impoverished, occupied, small strip of land. The fact that Gazans are not born to Jewish mothers is enough reason to deprive them of their right to live equally with the citizens of the state of Israel. Hence, the Israeli logic goes, like the Black natives of South Africa, they should be isolated in a Bantustan, in accordance with the Oslo terms, without calling it so; and if they show any resistance to this plan, they must get punished severely by transforming the entire strip into an “open-air prison.” 

Both the US and the European Union display ignorance in the face of the brutal reality caused by Israel to Gaza. As a result of Israel’s blockade on most imports and exports and other policies designed to punish Gazans, about 70% of Gaza’s workforce is now unemployed or without pay, according to the United Nations, and about 80% of its residents live in grinding poverty. About 1.2 million of them are now dependent for their day-to-day survival on food handouts from U.N. or international agencies; an increasing number of Palestinian families in Gaza are unable to offer their children more than one meager meal a day, often little more than rice and boiled lentils. Fresh fruit and vegetables are beyond the reach of many families. Meat and chicken are impossibly expensive. And fish is unavailable in its markets because the Israeli navy has curtailed the movements of Gaza ‘s fishermen. No wonder, a report by the UN predicted that by 2020, Gaza would become “unlivable.” 

We are left with one option: people’s power. This remains the only power capable of counteracting the massive power imbalance between the oppressed Palestinians and their Israeli oppressors.

The UN, EU and the international community by and large have remained silent in the face of atrocities committed by Apartheid Israel. The corpses of hundreds of dead children and women have failed to convince them to act. We are, therefore, left with one option; an option that does not wait for the United Nations Security Council, namely, the option of people’s power. This remains the only power capable of counteracting the massive power imbalance between the oppressed Palestinians and their Israeli oppressors.

The horror of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa was challenged with a sustained campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions initiated in 1958 and given new urgency in 1976 Soweto Uprising. This campaign ultimately contributed to the collapse of white rule in 1994 and the establishment of a multi-racial, democratic state.

Similarly, the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions has been gathering momentum since 2005. Gaza, like Soweto and Sharpeville, cannot be ignored: it demands a response from all who believe in a common humanity. Now is the time to boycott the apartheid Israeli state, to divest and to impose sanctions against it until it complies with international law. Like black South Africans, Palestinians deserve freedom, justice and equality.  Time to end Apartheid Israel’s genocidal oppression of Gaza

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine (Weekly Update 01-07 September 2022)

08. 09. 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

Five Palestinians were killed, and 31 others were injured, including 9 children, a woman and a paramedic, while dozens of others suffocated in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.  Also, a Palestinian detainee died due to medical neglect policy.  Details are as follows:

On 01 September 2022, IOF shot dead Yazan Na’iem ‘Afanah (24) after being wounded in his chest during their incursion into Ramallah in the West Bank. (Details available in this press release).

On 02 September 2022, Fadi Mohammed Ghattas (24), from Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, was killed after IOF fired 6 live bullets at him and left him to bleed for 40 minutes at the entrance to Beit ‘Einun Road in northern Hebron.  IOF took the dead body and kept it in custody, claiming that he stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier. Later, IOF summoned Ghattas’s father for interrogation and to identify the corpse.

On 03 September 2022, Palestinian Detainee Mousa Haron Abu Mehamid, from Bethlehem, died at the Israeli hospital “Assaf Harofeh.” ( Details available in this press release).

On 05 September 2022, IOF killed Taher Zakarna (19) after they fired a live bullet at his head during the suppression of protestors after IOF moved into Qabatia village, southeast of Jenin in the West Bank. Before their withdrawal, IOF arrested two Palestinians. (Details available in this press release).

On 06 September 2022, Mohammed Saba’nah was killed, and 17 other Palestinians were injured, including 6 children, a woman and a paramedic, by IOF fire during the latter’s incursion into Jenin, northern West Bank, and demolition of the house of a Palestinian who was killed after carrying out a shooting attack in Israel in April. The house demolition falls under IOF’s collective punishment policy against the families of Palestinians who are allegedly accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli targets. (Details available in this press release).

On 07 September 2022, Yunis Ghassan Tayeh (21) was killed by IOF fire during the latter’s incursion into al-Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas in the West Bank. Before their withdrawal, IOF arrested Yunis’s uncle. (Details available here)

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into cities and villages and suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 02 September 2022, 7 Palestinians, including 2 children, were shot with rubber-coated bullets during clashes that followed IOF’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly protest in northern Qalqilya.  On the same day, several Palestinians sustained wounds after being beaten, and others suffocated due to teargas inhalation, while 4 Palestinians, including a child, were arrested during IOF’s suppression of a peaceful protest organized in solidarity with Nabi Samuel villagers near al-Jeeb military checkpoint in occupied East Jerusalem.

On 06 September 2022, a child was hit with a stun grenade in his head during clashes with IOF at the western entrance to al-‘Arroub refugee camp in Hebron. On the same day, 5 Palestinians sustained wounds after IOF opened fire and fired teargas canisters during their incursion into Jalazone refugee camp, north of al-Bireh city. Before their withdrawal, IOF arrested 4 Palestinians, including 2 siblings.

On 07 September 2022, a Palestinian was shot with a live bullet after IOF opened fire at him, noting he was riding his motorcycle by Salem Palin in Nablus. IOF then arrested him.

In the Gaza Strip, 2 shootings were reported on agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip, and 4 other shootings were reported on fishing boats off the western Gaza Strip shore. On 01 September 2022, a burnt boat was pulled out of Khan Yunis Sea, and it turned out that Israeli gunboats fired several live bullets at the boat. 

”

So far in 2022, IOF attacks killed 116 Palestinians, including 84 civilians: 24 children, 8 women, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settler and the rest were activists; 15 of them were assassinated. Thirty-two of those killed, including 19 civilians: 8 children and 3 women were in the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. Also, 1,308 Palestinians were wounded in IOF’s attacks, including 204 children, 40 women, and 22 journalists, in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Moreover, 4 Palestinian detainees, including a woman, died in the Israeli jails.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished 3 houses, rendering 4 families of 18 persons, including 6 women and 7 children, homeless. Also, IOF demolished 9 civilian economic facilities and razed a plot of land and property in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 02 September 2022, upon an Israeli municipal demolition decision allegedly for unlicensed construction, a Palestinian self-demolished his house in Ras al-‘Amoud neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, rendering his family and his two brothers’ families of 11 persons, including 4 women and 3 children, homeless.  On the same day, upon a similar decision, a Palestinian self-demolished part of his 80-sqaure-meter house in occupied East Jerusalem. The house sheltered a family of 7 persons, including 2 women and 4 children.

On 03 September 2022, IOF’s bulldozers razed 8 dunums in Sinjil village, east of Ramallah. The levelled land is located in an area of 5200 dunums that IOF attempt to seize them, as these dunums are surrounded by 3 Israeli settlements and a military camp.

On 03 September 2022, IOF razed 8 dunums in Sinjil village, eastern Ramallah.  This plot of land is part of 5200 dunums, which IOF try to seize, and is surrounded by 3 settlements and an Israeli camp.

On 06 September 2022, IOF demolished 2 agricultural facilities, sealed off a water well and seized two containers full of construction equipment in Al-Khader village, southwest of Bethlehem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Also, IOF demolished for the second time a 95-meter retaining wall surrounding a plot of land in Jabal Mukaber in occupied East Jerusalem.

On 07 September 2022, IOF demolished a house and 7 civilian economic facilities, including 3 livestock barns, a carwash, tires shop, and 2 stores, in the rented Islamic Endowment property (Waqf) at ‘Anata entrance in East Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

”

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 112 families homeless, a total of 666 persons, including 129 women and 307 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 116 houses and 41 residential tents. IOF also demolished 89 other civilian economic objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Settler-attacks on Palestinian civilians and their properties:

On 02 September 2022, under IOF’s heavy protection, hundreds of Israeli settlers accompanied by the Extremist Israeli Member of Knesset (MK), Itamar Ben Gvir, moved into Nabi Samuel village in occupied East Jerusalem. They roamed its streets raising Israeli flags and attempted to provoke Palestinians. The settlers then gathered at the village’s entrance opposite to a protest organized by the village’s residents.

On 06 September 2022, Israeli settlers, under IOF’s protection, attacked Palestinian houses in Khelet al-Nahlah and Khalayil al-Louz areas opposite to “Efrat” settlement, south of Bethlehem. They attempted to raid the houses by force, beat their residents and threw stones at them. As a result, many residents sustained bruises. Also, IOF attacked the residents, who tried to confront the settlers, and arrested 6 of them. 

”

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 178 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

 IOF carried out 190 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 96 Palestinians were arrested, including 3 children and a female journalist.  In the Gaza Strip, on 07 September 2022, IOF conducted two limited incursions into eastern al-Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip and into eastern Khuza’a in Khan Yunis.

”

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 5,930 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem; during which, 3,540 Palestinians were arrested, including 334 children and 31 women. IOF also conducted 28 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 78 Palestinians, including 45 fishermen, 28 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

IOF maintains an illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly- update on the state of Gaza crossings in July.

On 06 September 2022, Mohammed Yaser al-Leddawi (32), from Rafah, died after IOF obstructed his travel to receive treatment at Patient’s Friends Society Hospital in Nablus and at Al-Mutala’ Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem, after he applied for a travel permit 8 times in a row to receive treatment for lymphoma.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continues to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 104 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested 8 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

On 04 September 2022, IOF closed the metal detector gate established at the main entrance to Nabi Saleh village in Ramallah, and reopened it on 07 September 2022, as part of the collective punishment policy for an alleged shooting at the military watchtower established there.

”

So far in 2022, IOF established at least 3,005 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 142 Palestinians at those checkpoints

Israeli Human Rights Violations in Palestine (Weekly Update 04 – 10 August 2022)

 August 11, 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity

IOF launched a 3-day military widescale offensive on the Gaza Strip that started on 05 August and ended on 07 August 2022 when an Egypt-brokered ceasefire was declared between Israel and Islamic Jihad.  During the offensive, the israeli occupation forces conducted widescale airstrikes and artillery-shelling against residential houses, agricultural lands, military sites, and crowds.  As a result, 25 Palestinians, including 12 civilians: 3 children and 3 women, were killed and 172 others, including 59 children and 33 women, were injured.  Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating other incidents that inflicted casualties and damage to property.  Moreover, the offensive completely and partially destroyed tens of residential housing units that PCHR is still documenting.

The incidents were as follows

On 05 August, IOF launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip and carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling against houses and military sites.  As a result, 10 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, were killed while tens others were injured, including women and children.  Among those killed was Doniana al-‘Amour (22), who was killed after an artillery shell fell on her house in al-Fokhari village, eastern Khan Younis, while her mother and sister were injured.  Also, Alaa’ ‘Abdullah Riyadh Qaddoum (5), and ‘Emad ‘Abdel Rahim Ibrahim Shallah (52) were killed after IOF’s warplanes fired a missile at a group of people gathering on the street near their houses in Wadi al-Shija’aiya neighborhood, eastern Gaza City; also, a member of the Palestinian armed groups, Yousif Salman Mohammed Qaddoum (24) was killed  in the same strike.  Moreover, IOF’s warplanes targeted a residential apartment in Palestine Tower in central Gaza City, assassinating the commander of al-Quds Brigades, Taysir al-Ja’abari and his companion.

Today in the morning, medical sources at al-Quds Hospital declared the death of Layan Mesleh al-Sha’er (10), succumbing to shrapnel wounds in her head.  Also, members of her family were injured; they were coincidentally passing by a military site when IOF struck it in al-Namsawi neighborhood in Khan Younis.

On 06 August 2022, IOF continued its offensive on the Gaza Strip for the second day in a row and heavily struck houses, agricultural lands, and military sites. As a result, 12 Palestinians, including 6 civilians: a woman and a child with his mother, were killed while tens others were injured.  Among those killed was Nour al-Deen Hussein al-Zuwaidi (18), who was killed in an Israeli airstrike near his house, northeastern Beit Hanoun, along with Ibrahim Shehdah Salah Abu Salah (42), who succumbed to his serious injury on 09 August 2022.  Also, 7 Palestinians, including a child and 2 women, were killed while 35 civilians were injured, including 18 children and 12 women, when IOF’s warplanes launched 6 missiles at a 3-storey house in Rafah refugee camp and destroyed it over its residents, without a prior warning, in addition to destroying 7 neighboring houses. IOF declared that they targeted Khaled Sa’id Mansour (47), the Commander of al-Quds Brigades in the southern Gaza Strip, and his body was retrieved from under the rubble along with his 2 companions.  Meanwhile, the rest casualties were merely civilians living in the neighboring houses: Mohammed Eyad Hassounah (14), Ismail Abdul-Hameed Mohammad Salama/Dweik (30), and his mother, Hana’a Ismail Ali Dweik (50), and Alaa’ Saleh Abdul Mohsen Al-Mallahi (30).

Moreover, IOF’s warplanes struck 3 other multistory houses; one of them is uninhabited in Khan Younis and the 2 others in Gaza City, and destroyed them completely, rendering tens of individuals, including children and women, homeless.

On 07 August 2022, 4 Palestinian civilians were killed in central Gaza City, and others sustained various injuries in Israeli airstrikes conducted only few hours before the ceasefire was declared.  Those killed were identified as: Shadi ‘Emad Nemer Kuhail (27) and Khaled Ayman Jamil Yasin (27), who were both killed after IOF launched a missile at a horse cart at al-Samer Intersection in central Gaza City.  Also, ‘Abdel Rahman Jom’ah Khalaf al-Silik (22), from Shuja’iyya neighborhood, was killed when he was coincidentally passing by in a taxi returning from a shoe shop he owns in al-Shati refugee camp. Moreover, a traffic officer namely Ahmed Sabe’a Dawoud (21), from al-Nafaq Street, was critically injured when he was on duty at al-Samir intersection and then referred to al-Shifa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the next morning.

On the same day, IOF’s warplanes launched 2 missiles at a house in al-Tannour neighborhood, Rafah City, and completely destroyed it, rendering a family of 5, homeless.  No casualties were reported.

In the West Bank, Four Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed and 59 others were injured, including 13 children and a woman.  Also, tens others suffocated due to teargas inhalation.  The incidents were as follows:

On 09 August 2022, IOF killed 3 Palestinians, including a child, and wounded 40 others during their incursion into Nablus’s Old City deep inside the Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled areas in the West Bank. They cordoned off and targeted a residential house with a barrage of bullets and missiles. Among those killed were 2 members of Palestinian armed group members while the child was killed near the area. ( Details available in this press release)

In the evening, IOF killed Mo’men Yasin Jaber (16) and critically wounded 7 others, including 3 children, in clashes between Palestinians and the IOF stationed at a military checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Shuhada street in Hebron, southern West Bank. (Details available in this press release)

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into Palestinian cities and villages and suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 06 August 2022, IOF suppressed a peaceful sit-in on Bab al-‘Amoud stairs in central occupied East Jerusalem against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.  IOF attacked and beat up the participants and forcibly emptied the place.  They arrested a Palestinian after beating him.

On 07 August 2022, IOF pushed and beat up worshipers and journalists during the former’s protection of hundreds of settlers, who raided al-Aqsa Mosque yards.  IOF arrested 13 Palestinians, including 4 jouranlists, and assaulted 6 other journalists after breaking their equipment.

On 09 August 2022, 8 Palestinians were wounded with rubber and live bullets in clashes with IOF at the northern entrance to al-Bireh.  On the same day, a 2 Palestinians sustained rubber bullet wounds; one in clashes with IOF near Qalendia and the other in clashes near ‘Anata village.  Also, a Palestinian sustained a rubber bullet  and 3 others were arrested, including a child, in clashes with IOF in al-Tour neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.  A child sustained a live bullet wound in clashes with IOF at Beit Ummar village entrance, northern Hebron.

So far in 2022, according to PCHR’s documentation, IOF attacks killed 102 Palestinians, including 71 civilians: 21 children, 8 women (one was journalist Shireen Abu ‘Aqlah), a person with disability, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 11 of them were assassinated.  Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating incidents that inflicted casualties in the latest offensive on Gaza. Also, 1229 others were wounded in these attacks, including 187 children, 39 women, and 20 journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, 3 Palestinian prisoners, including a woman, died in the Israeli jails.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished 7 dwellings and a residential tent, rendering 8 families of 44 persons, including 16 children and 8 women, homeless. Also, IOF demolished 8 facilities: mostly livestock barns, and levelled lands in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 04 August 2022, IOF levelled an agricultural land, uprooted 20 olive trees, and closed a well in Teqoa village, eastern Bethlehem.

On 07 August 2022, IOF notified to demolish 2 rooms and a water tank in Marj Na’ajah village, western Jericho.

On 08 August 2022, IOF demolished 9 barracks; 5 are residential housing 25 individuals and 4 are used as livestock barns, in ‘Arab al-Ka’abnah Bedouin Community, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 08 August 2022, IOF demolished an 80-sqm dwelling in Bayrouq village, southern Hebron, rendering a family of 7 individuals, including children, homeless.

On 09 August 2022, IOF demolished a commercial warehouse over its content of spare parts in al- ‘Isawiya village in occupied eAst Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 10 August 2022, IOF demolished a commercial facility for wood trade in Husan village, western Bethlehem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.  On the same day, IOF demolished a residential tent and a livestock barn in al-‘Oja village in Jericho, rendering a family of 6, including 4 children, homeless.  Also, IOF confiscated an excavator and a truck while working in eastern Yatta, south of Hebron.  IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his 50-sqm house in Beit Hanina village, in occupied East Jerusalem, rendering a family of 4, including 4 children, homeless.

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 91 families homeless, a total of 541 persons, including 104 women and 255 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 95 houses and 41 residential tents. IOF also demolished 72 other civilian objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Israeli Setters’ Attacks

on 04 August 2022, settlers from ‘Ali Zehav” vacated truckloads of construction waste and stones in a plot of land, western Kafr al-Deek village in Salfit.

On 05 August 2022, settlers damaged a fence surrounding an agricultural land and cut branches of 16 olive trees in al- ‘Oja area in Jericho.

On 06 August 2022, settlers from “Ramat Yishai” settlement outpost established in place of Usamah Bin al-Monqez School in central Hebron’s Old City threw stones at parked Palestinian vehicles under full view and protection of IOF.  As a result, windows of many vehicles were broken.

On 07 August 2022, under IOF’s protection, settlers raided the Archaeological area in Tuwani village in Hebron and performed religious rituals.

On 09 August 2022, settlers from “Yitsahar” settlement established on the southeastern Nablus lands attacked the outskirts of ‘Orif village and threw stones at a house and a vehicle, causing damage to both.

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 166 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

Collective Punishment

Under its collective punishment policy against families of Palestinians accused of conducting attacks against IOF or settlers, on 08 August 2022, IOF demolished 2 family houses of 2 Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails in Jenin in the West Bank.  The first 3-sotrey house built on 600 sqms belongs to the family of Prisoner Subhi ‘Emad Sbeihat and housed a family of 6, including his wife, while the second is a 240-sqm house belongs to the family of prisoner As’ad al-Refa’ie and shelters a family of 7, including 3 children.

So far in 2022, IOF demolished 10 houses and sealed another after destroying its internal contents under IOF’s collective punishment policy. Meanwhile, there are many houses threatened of demolition on the same grounds.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians

 IOF carried out 182 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 122 Palestinians were arrested, including 6 children and a woman.

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 5211 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 3172 Palestinians were arrested, including 303 children and 27 women.  IOF also conducted 24 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 74 Palestinians, including 41 fishermen, 28 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

On 08 August 2022, IOF announced the reopening of the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip to the humanitarian cases; the move is subject to a situational assessment, after they were closed on 02 August 2022.  IOF said that the full opening of the crossings “will be possible later in the day depending on the security situation.”

During IOF’s closure of crossings and offensive on the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation seriously deteriorated, threatening the operation of many vital sectors, particularly heath, electricity, water, sanitation, and public services. (More details available here)

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly update in the Gaza crossings.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continues to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 60 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem arrested 5 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

On 04 August 2022, IOF closed the entrance to al-Mughaiyer village, eastern Ramallah, with cement cubes and prevented civilians from entering or leaving the village.

So far in 2022, IOF established 2626 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 119 Palestinians at those checkpoints

Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Palestine (Weekly Update 04 – 10 August 2022)

11. 08. 2022

Violation of right to life and bodily integrity

IOF launched a 3-day military widescale offensive on the Gaza Strip that started on 05 August and ended on 07 August 2022 when an Egypt-brokered ceasefire was declared between Israel and Islamic Jihad.  During the offensive, the israeli occupation forces conducted widescale airstrikes and artillery-shelling against residential houses, agricultural lands, military sites, and crowds.  As a result, 25 Palestinians, including 12 civilians: 3 children and 3 women, were killed and 172 others, including 59 children and 33 women, were injured.  Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating other incidents that inflicted casualties and damage to property.  Moreover, the offensive completely and partially destroyed tens of residential housing units that PCHR is still documenting.

The incidents were as follows

On 05 August, IOF launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip and carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling against houses and military sites.  As a result, 10 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, were killed while tens others were injured, including women and children.  Among those killed was Doniana al-‘Amour (22), who was killed after an artillery shell fell on her house in al-Fokhari village, eastern Khan Younis, while her mother and sister were injured.  Also, Alaa’ ‘Abdullah Riyadh Qaddoum (5), and ‘Emad ‘Abdel Rahim Ibrahim Shallah (52) were killed after IOF’s warplanes fired a missile at a group of people gathering on the street near their houses in Wadi al-Shija’aiya neighborhood, eastern Gaza City; also, a member of the Palestinian armed groups, Yousif Salman Mohammed Qaddoum (24) was killed  in the same strike.  Moreover, IOF’s warplanes targeted a residential apartment in Palestine Tower in central Gaza City, assassinating the commander of al-Quds Brigades, Taysir al-Ja’abari and his companion.

Today in the morning, medical sources at al-Quds Hospital declared the death of Layan Mesleh al-Sha’er (10), succumbing to shrapnel wounds in her head.  Also, members of her family were injured; they were coincidentally passing by a military site when IOF struck it in al-Namsawi neighborhood in Khan Younis.

On 06 August 2022, IOF continued its offensive on the Gaza Strip for the second day in a row and heavily struck houses, agricultural lands, and military sites. As a result, 12 Palestinians, including 6 civilians: a woman and a child with his mother, were killed while tens others were injured.  Among those killed was Nour al-Deen Hussein al-Zuwaidi (18), who was killed in an Israeli airstrike near his house, northeastern Beit Hanoun, along with Ibrahim Shehdah Salah Abu Salah (42), who succumbed to his serious injury on 09 August 2022.  Also, 7 Palestinians, including a child and 2 women, were killed while 35 civilians were injured, including 18 children and 12 women, when IOF’s warplanes launched 6 missiles at a 3-storey house in Rafah refugee camp and destroyed it over its residents, without a prior warning, in addition to destroying 7 neighboring houses. IOF declared that they targeted Khaled Sa’id Mansour (47), the Commander of al-Quds Brigades in the southern Gaza Strip, and his body was retrieved from under the rubble along with his 2 companions.  Meanwhile, the rest casualties were merely civilians living in the neighboring houses: Mohammed Eyad Hassounah (14), Ismail Abdul-Hameed Mohammad Salama/Dweik (30), and his mother, Hana’a Ismail Ali Dweik (50), and Alaa’ Saleh Abdul Mohsen Al-Mallahi (30).

Moreover, IOF’s warplanes struck 3 other multistory houses; one of them is uninhabited in Khan Younis and the 2 others in Gaza City, and destroyed them completely, rendering tens of individuals, including children and women, homeless.

On 07 August 2022, 4 Palestinian civilians were killed in central Gaza City, and others sustained various injuries in Israeli airstrikes conducted only few hours before the ceasefire was declared.  Those killed were identified as: Shadi ‘Emad Nemer Kuhail (27) and Khaled Ayman Jamil Yasin (27), who were both killed after IOF launched a missile at a horse cart at al-Samer Intersection in central Gaza City.  Also, ‘Abdel Rahman Jom’ah Khalaf al-Silik (22), from Shuja’iyya neighborhood, was killed when he was coincidentally passing by in a taxi returning from a shoe shop he owns in al-Shati refugee camp. Moreover, a traffic officer namely Ahmed Sabe’a Dawoud (21), from al-Nafaq Street, was critically injured when he was on duty at al-Samir intersection and then referred to al-Shifa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the next morning.

On the same day, IOF’s warplanes launched 2 missiles at a house in al-Tannour neighborhood, Rafah City, and completely destroyed it, rendering a family of 5, homeless.  No casualties were reported.

In the West Bank, Four Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed and 59 others were injured, including 13 children and a woman.  Also, tens others suffocated due to teargas inhalation.  The incidents were as follows:

On 09 August 2022, IOF killed 3 Palestinians, including a child, and wounded 40 others during their incursion into Nablus’s Old City deep inside the Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled areas in the West Bank. They cordoned off and targeted a residential house with a barrage of bullets and missiles. Among those killed were 2 members of Palestinian armed group members while the child was killed near the area. ( Details available in this press release)

In the evening, IOF killed Mo’men Yasin Jaber (16) and critically wounded 7 others, including 3 children, in clashes between Palestinians and the IOF stationed at a military checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Shuhada street in Hebron, southern West Bank. (Details available in this press release)

Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into Palestinian cities and villages and suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:

On 06 August 2022, IOF suppressed a peaceful sit-in on Bab al-‘Amoud stairs in central occupied East Jerusalem against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.  IOF attacked and beat up the participants and forcibly emptied the place.  They arrested a Palestinian after beating him.

On 07 August 2022, IOF pushed and beat up worshipers and journalists during the former’s protection of hundreds of settlers, who raided al-Aqsa Mosque yards.  IOF arrested 13 Palestinians, including 4 jouranlists, and assaulted 6 other journalists after breaking their equipment.

On 09 August 2022, 8 Palestinians were wounded with rubber and live bullets in clashes with IOF at the northern entrance to al-Bireh.  On the same day, a 2 Palestinians sustained rubber bullet wounds; one in clashes with IOF near Qalendia and the other in clashes near ‘Anata village.  Also, a Palestinian sustained a rubber bullet  and 3 others were arrested, including a child, in clashes with IOF in al-Tour neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.  A child sustained a live bullet wound in clashes with IOF at Beit Ummar village entrance, northern Hebron.

So far in 2022, according to PCHR’s documentation, IOF attacks killed 102 Palestinians, including 71 civilians: 21 children, 8 women (one was journalist Shireen Abu ‘Aqlah), a person with disability, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 11 of them were assassinated.  Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating incidents that inflicted casualties in the latest offensive on Gaza. Also, 1229 others were wounded in these attacks, including 187 children, 39 women, and 20 journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, 3 Palestinian prisoners, including a woman, died in the Israeli jails.

Land razing, demolitions, and notices

IOF demolished 7 dwellings and a residential tent, rendering 8 families of 44 persons, including 16 children and 8 women, homeless. Also, IOF demolished 8 facilities: mostly livestock barns, and levelled lands in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:

On 04 August 2022, IOF levelled an agricultural land, uprooted 20 olive trees, and closed a well in Teqoa village, eastern Bethlehem.

On 07 August 2022, IOF notified to demolish 2 rooms and a water tank in Marj Na’ajah village, western Jericho.

On 08 August 2022, IOF demolished 9 barracks; 5 are residential housing 25 individuals and 4 are used as livestock barns, in ‘Arab al-Ka’abnah Bedouin Community, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 08 August 2022, IOF demolished an 80-sqm dwelling in Bayrouq village, southern Hebron, rendering a family of 7 individuals, including children, homeless.

On 09 August 2022, IOF demolished a commercial warehouse over its content of spare parts in al- ‘Isawiya village in occupied eAst Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

On 10 August 2022, IOF demolished a commercial facility for wood trade in Husan village, western Bethlehem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.  On the same day, IOF demolished a residential tent and a livestock barn in al-‘Oja village in Jericho, rendering a family of 6, including 4 children, homeless.  Also, IOF confiscated an excavator and a truck while working in eastern Yatta, south of Hebron.  IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his 50-sqm house in Beit Hanina village, in occupied East Jerusalem, rendering a family of 4, including 4 children, homeless.

Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 91 families homeless, a total of 541 persons, including 104 women and 255 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 95 houses and 41 residential tents. IOF also demolished 72 other civilian objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.

Israeli Setters’ Attacks

on 04 August 2022, settlers from ‘Ali Zehav” vacated truckloads of construction waste and stones in a plot of land, western Kafr al-Deek village in Salfit.

On 05 August 2022, settlers damaged a fence surrounding an agricultural land and cut branches of 16 olive trees in al- ‘Oja area in Jericho.

On 06 August 2022, settlers from “Ramat Yishai” settlement outpost established in place of Usamah Bin al-Monqez School in central Hebron’s Old City threw stones at parked Palestinian vehicles under full view and protection of IOF.  As a result, windows of many vehicles were broken.

On 07 August 2022, under IOF’s protection, settlers raided the Archaeological area in Tuwani village in Hebron and performed religious rituals.

On 09 August 2022, settlers from “Yitsahar” settlement established on the southeastern Nablus lands attacked the outskirts of ‘Orif village and threw stones at a house and a vehicle, causing damage to both.

Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 166 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.

Collective Punishment

Under its collective punishment policy against families of Palestinians accused of conducting attacks against IOF or settlers, on 08 August 2022, IOF demolished 2 family houses of 2 Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails in Jenin in the West Bank.  The first 3-sotrey house built on 600 sqms belongs to the family of Prisoner Subhi ‘Emad Sbeihat and housed a family of 6, including his wife, while the second is a 240-sqm house belongs to the family of prisoner As’ad al-Refa’ie and shelters a family of 7, including 3 children.

So far in 2022, IOF demolished 10 houses and sealed another after destroying its internal contents under IOF’s collective punishment policy. Meanwhile, there are many houses threatened of demolition on the same grounds.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians

 IOF carried out 182 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 122 Palestinians were arrested, including 6 children and a woman.

So far in 2022, IOF conducted 5211 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 3172 Palestinians were arrested, including 303 children and 27 women.  IOF also conducted 24 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 74 Palestinians, including 41 fishermen, 28 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.

Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

On 08 August 2022, IOF announced the reopening of the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip to the humanitarian cases; the move is subject to a situational assessment, after they were closed on 02 August 2022.  IOF said that the full opening of the crossings “will be possible later in the day depending on the security situation.”

During IOF’s closure of crossings and offensive on the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation seriously deteriorated, threatening the operation of many vital sectors, particularly heath, electricity, water, sanitation, and public services. (More details available here)

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly update in the Gaza crossings.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continues to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 60 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem arrested 5 Palestinians at those checkpoints.

On 04 August 2022, IOF closed the entrance to al-Mughaiyer village, eastern Ramallah, with cement cubes and prevented civilians from entering or leaving the village.

So far in 2022, IOF established 2626 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 119 Palestinians at those checkpoints