NOVANEWS
- NY state senator puts on Israeli uniform to play soldier on Syrian border
- Follow the money, stupid
- Democracy Now, interviews with Phyllis Bennis, Trita Parsi on Israel’s threat to attack Iran
- Exile and the Prophetic: Israel’s ‘never again’ drones in German uniforms (minus the Nazi insignia)
- Israel bans head of leading Palestinian prisonor support NGO from international travel
- Kahanist message holds strong, now with IDF’s blessing
- Geller’s ‘savage’ bus ad meets strong resistance from the Bay Area
- Sex and the surreality
NY state senator puts on Israeli uniform to play soldier on Syrian border
Aug 15, 2012
Philip Weiss
NY State Senator Storobin (l) with an Israeli general, center, and the senator’s chief of staff (r)
The office of NY state senator David Storobin, a Republican running for reelection, sent out the above photograph today of the senator in the occupied Golan Heights, on the Syrian border.
The photo came with the following release from aide Steven Stites:
Senator David Storobin (R-Brooklyn, on the left) today visited with General Shmulik Olansky (center), a 3-star general in charge of the Golan Heights Armor Division, directly on the Syrian border in a hostile region. The Senator is on an official state visit approved by the Defense Minister of Israel. To the right is the Senator’s Chief of Staff, Paul Gullo.
“Israel shares a border and a region with multiple dangerous countries,” Storobin said. “Thank G-d for the brave men and women in the Israeli armed services that stare down this danger to protect Israel every day.”
If you need a high-res image sent as an attachment, please email me.
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State Senator David Storobin (R-Brooklyn) represents the 27th Senate District, which includes the neighborhoods of Bergen Beach, Brighton Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend, Homecrest, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay.
Follow the money, stupid
Aug 15, 2012
Philip Weiss
When US journalists assert that Romney is playing up the Israel issue to win Jewish votes from Obama, I’ve repeatedly said that they are hiding the more important battle, for cash. James Besser in the Jewish Week agrees with me:
So why are Jewish Republicans spending millions portraying Obama as a threat to the Jewish state?
The reason is money. While Jewish voting isn’t very Israel-focused, Jewish campaign giving is — and especially the mega-giving that is playing a bigger role than ever in Election 2012. Tarring Obama as anti-Israel, while not influencing many Jewish votes, galvanizes the growing base of wealthy pro-Israel givers and provides a platform for their generally hard-line views, one more front in the internal Jewish debate over Israel’s future.
Jewish Republicans aren’t indifferent to the possibility of picking up some extra Jewish votes, especially in critical states like Florida, but few are naive enough to believe there’s a chance of winning over enough to make a real difference in the final vote tally. Jewish votes — a drop in the huge electoral bucket — are much less important than Israel-focused campaign cash.
Democracy Now, interviews with Phyllis Bennis, Trita Parsi on Israel’s threat to attack Iran
Aug 15, 2012
Annie Robbins
Phyllis Bennis and Trita Parsi zeroed in on the impact these latest threats out of Israel to bomb Iranare having on our election season. Or… is it the election season impacting the threats? Oops, can’t make up my mind, you be the judge.
Transcript:
PHYLLIS BENNIS: So when we hear this coming from Israel, particularly right now at this very vulnerable time of an election cycle here in the United States, what we’re hearing is that if there is going to be an Israeli strike, and with the political leadership saying there is, there’s not going to be a military coup in Israel where the military would refuse to carry out such an order. If they are told to do it, they will do it. The choice that the leadership has is, do we wait until after the election, when we might get a president we like better, meaning Mitt Romney, but we might get Barack Obama again, who might be in a stronger position? Imagine the problems facing President Obama today if we heard from the Israelis, “Oh, by the way, our planes are in the air. They are en route to bomb Iran. And we’re expecting your help to send refueling capacity, for instance, in the air. And if you don’t, our pilots might die.” Imagine what that would mean for a president running for re-election here in the United States. So we have a very dangerous moment despite the opposition of the military and the intelligence agencies of all across Israel, all across the United States, everybody disagreeing with this, the vice president, the president of the United States disagreeing with it. And yet, do we want to imagine that we would be certain there be no such attack and no such U.S. involvement at this moment of the election? I think it’s a very, very dangerous—a very, very dangerous moment.
It is true that in the past, when Israel has preventively attacked Arab countries, those being Iraq in 1981 and Lebanon in 2007, on the claim that they might someday be able to build a nuclear bomb, it was after silence. It was not after this kind of public campaign, public ratcheting up of the war rhetoric. This would be a very different scenario. But Bibi Netanyahu is a very different kind of Israeli prime minister in a host of ways, and I don’t think we can depend on those prior approaches to necessarily reflect what’s going on this time.
………
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Trita Parsi, you’re with the National Iranian American Council. Can you comment on what the ambassador said?
TRITA PARSI: Well, I think the ambassador has played a significant role in bringing the debate in this country to a hysterical level in which a lot of facts are just simply thrown out the window. And we’re looking at it from a perspective in which—a frame in which we’re essentially saying we either have to take military action or accept an Iranian nuclear bomb. Those are not the options. That is not the accurate frame. There are plenty of other options. Diplomacy certainly has not been exhausted. In fact, it’s only in its very early phases so far. So, there’s a deliberate attempt there to push it towards a position in which the only options are bomb now or bomb later.
But I think, also go back and talk about why we’re seeing this flurry of threats from the Israeli side at this moment. I would agree with the previous panelist in that this is different from previous cases, and we have to be careful not to necessarily dismiss it. But we also have to keep in mind that there is a value for the Netanyahu government to continue to make these threats and continue to increase the pressure on the Obama administration. If these threats work, as they have had success in the past, it would mean that the United States would move further into pursuing more sanctions on Iran, further away from pursuing a diplomatic compromise, and moving closer into the U.S. itself taking military action. If the Obama administration, on the other hand, resists and pushes back against Netanyahu two or three months before the elections, it would accentuate the differences that exist between Obama and the Romney campaign, which the Netanyahu government, I believe, calculates will benefit Romney in the U.S. elections. And the Obama administration, I think, agrees with that, in the sense that they don’t want to have a public spat with the Israeli government right before elections. The alternative, that the Israelis actually will take military action, would bring very unpredictable repercussions. As it was mentioned earlier on, there’s a lot of opposition to this within the Israeli military. The proposition of just making the threat, however, seems to be a win-win for the Israelis. Regardless of what Obama does, it does bring some benefit to the Netanyahu government. It either increases the likelihood of a Romney victory in the elections, or it pushes the U.S. closer towards the U.S. using the military option.
Exile and the Prophetic: Israel’s ‘never again’ drones in German uniforms (minus the Nazi insignia)
Aug 15, 2012
Marc H. Ellis
This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
My colonial self, our Jewish colonial minds, we have colonized the Palestinians and become victims of our own colonialism. We can’t get out of our own colonial bind. Even in exile. Even the prophetic. Color it colonial – but not only.
Everything is contextual – almost. All speech is limited. All action. Almost. The trick is to give everything you have to give and keep moving. Colonial smlonial – don’t look back, lest the past become your guiding light.
After we have gathered the light there is to gather, we see the limitations that were. As part of the journey. Know it: One day we will look back on the time we were looking back on. However, the past is past – obvious – and the present is present. How are we going to think/speak/act tomorrow?
Cleansing the colonial minds of Jews of Conscience. Leaving behind the Jewish Renewal stuff, the obvious other colonial stuff, focusing on ourselves. It can’t be that only a pack-it-in mentality, a One State vision, is the only (un)colonial option. No way. Don’t let International Law hem you in either.
There’s never only one option. Though it is also true, as I told my Israeli student yesterday, that certain arguments, say the fears that Israelis have, can no longer be argued. The One State option wouldn’t be the end of our colonialism. It’s not that cut and dried. Professing a belief that won’t come into being in our lifetime isn’t the end of our colonial complex. We will have gone on to other things.
Here my argument for Jewish particularity either resonates or doesn’t. Embracing one’s particularity is not a free-floating zone, as in, only if Jews – or Palestinians – are pure then we can embrace them.
Speaking of free-floaters, did you read the Reuters report about Germany wanting to deploy armed drones in its military operations in Afghanistan? “A drone is nothing more than a plane without a pilot,” Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the daily Die Welt. “Planes can be armed so why shouldn’t unmanned aircraft be allowed to be armed as well? I don’t understand that,” he added. The report points to the controversy about Germany’s use of unmanned weapons to bomb cities in Great Britain during World War II.
Here’s the kicker. Germany has been using three leased Israeli Heron drones for surveillance in Afghanistan. Germany is also considering buying U.S. Predator B drones, which carry weapons and also have surveillance systems.
Israel is a military weapons producer and an able competitor in the global arms bazaar that grows each year. Being a competitor on such a large scale is worth money and aids in Israel’s defense. It’s a warning on the foreign policy trail. However you speak about Israel in public make sure you leave it alone on the field of battle.
Yet the fascinating aspect of Germany’s use of Israeli drones is how far the German/Israel (arms) relationship has come. How far we are from the Holocaust years. Germany supplies Israel’s navy with nuclear submarines, Israel supplies Germany with drones. On the air and the sea, Germany and Israel have it all covered.
You see what friends can do for one another? As one famous columnist argued some time ago, democracies are great for everything and should spread around the world as a way of encouraging peace. You’ve never heard of a democracy attacking another democracy, have you? If memory serves his argument extended to something like this: Democracies don’t attack other countries. Perhaps I extended his argument, so one day when I’m not in the (historical) lands of the Third Reich, I’ll check if the extension was his or mine.
Regardless if it was him or me or some kind of remote connection, you can either laugh or cry when you think of Germany and Israel fighting the world on land and sea. But while we yuck it up, think, too, of Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Holocaust museum in Washington, D. C. a few days ago. She with other foreign policy experts gathered there to consider modern threats of genocide and how to prevent them. According to a report in the New York Times, the experts agreed that the risk of mass killings increases in places where resources are scarce and governments are fragile or autocratic. Rwanda and Bosnia were cited. Interestingly, the article mentions the scarcity of food, water and energy – and global warming – as danger zones for atrocity. It doesn’t mention the Congo being discussed – where the problem is indeed the amount of resources that others – including democracies – need to fuel their modern economy.
Clinton referred to the Atrocity Prevention Board, President Obama announced in a speech at the Holocaust museum last year. APB – another acronym – file it under – Useless. But give a hand for the Holocaust museum. It seems to have become a hub for policy speeches on genocide prevention. As Israel’s Star of David helicopter gunships patrol the Palestinian skies and their drones make it on the world global sales horizon. On the drones, should they have emblazoned “Never Again?”
Israeli “Never Again” drones on the prowl. With German democratic ownership rights to do what any decent Western nation does to defeat terrorism. After all, the (Nazi)German purgatory has to end one day, so why all the fuss?
Germany minus the Nazi insignia. They’re ready to rejoin the league of nations. What better way to make their comeback than with Israeli drones, since Israel, more or less, just joined the league of nations, too.
Yes I know, too easy. League of Nations. United Nations. Battling scarcity and atrocity on a genocidal scale. At the Holocaust museum. Best to teach those other violent types a lesson from the air. Drone-wise.
Israel bans head of leading Palestinian prisonor support NGO from international travel
Aug 15, 2012
Kate
Deeming him ‘threat to state security’, Israel bans Addameer founder from travel abroad
EI 10 Aug by Ali Abunimah — In a move that can only be seen as retaliation for the organization’s effectiveness in challenging Israeli abuses, Israel has imposed an international travel ban on Abdullatif Ghaith, the chair and one of the founders of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. Over recent months, as Palestinian prisoners have staged a wave of hunger strikesforcing Israel to make concessions toward their rights, Addameer has played a key role visiting, liaising with and supporting the prisoners and getting information out to the world. Ghaith, 71, is a prominent human rights defender, activist, and is himself a former “administrative detainee” held repeatedly by Israeli occupation forces without charge or trial.
link to electronicintifada.net
Pro-Palestinian activists to attempt ‘flytilla’ to West Bank via Jordan
PNN 14 Aug — Pro-Palestinian activists from the Welcome to Palestine/Bienvenue en Palestine group have said that they are planning to try to enter the West Bank from Jordan next week, after the group’s previous ‘flytillas’ were either prevented from flying by their airlines or blocked from entering Israel at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport in July 2011 and April 2012. The activists, who currently number 104 men, women and children from several European countries and the US, will fly into Amman on the 24th August. They then plan to cross into the West Bank on the 26th August via the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge land border crossing, the group said in a statement on Tuesday 14th August. A spokesperson for the group said that they will be travelling into the West Bank at the invitation of the Governor of Bethlehem, Abed Al-Fatah Hamayel, and will be bringing stationery for Palestinian children who will be starting school again at the start of a new academic year.
Following the turning away of hundreds of activists from Israel during the previous ‘flytillas’ Greg Roman, Deputy Director of the Gloria Centre in Herzliya in Israel, and a former political advisor to the Knesset told Al Jazeera’s ‘Inside Story’, “If they wanted to go to the area which I hope will one day be Palestine…they could have entered through the Rafah crossing in Gaza…or the Allenby Bridge…there were alternatives.” In the statement to PNN, the spokesperson said that they would be using the Jordan land crossing “as recommended” by Israeli officials.
link to english.pnn.ps
Israel’s restrictions prevent Palestinians from praying at al-Aqsa
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 14 Aug — The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) prevented on Tuesday male citizens from the West Bank who are under the age of forty from entering the city of Jerusalem to mark Laylat al-Qadr at the Aqsa mosque. A spokeswoman for the Israeli police said that the police will enhance presence in the holy city and will allow only men over the age of forty to enter the mosque, noting that it will allow children under the age of 12 years and women, of all ages, to enter al-Aqsa Mosque. She added: “Thousands of policemen will be deployed all over the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the alleyways, the crossing points and the roads leading to the town and the Old City.” For his part, Director of the Jerusalem Waqf, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, told French news agency AFP: “We expect that the number of Muslims who will flock to al-Aqsa Mosque tonight will exceed 300 thousand Muslims.”
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Contesting history: a tale of two Tekoas
TUQU‘, Bethlehem (Ma‘an) 13 Aug by Brandon Davis — The Gush Herodion Development Corporation has big plans for Tekoa. Already boasting a pizza parlor, a swimming pool and a horse ranch, this idyllic “Jewish village” of approximately 1,600 will soon add six new buildings with eight “spacious” apartments each, designed by the architect Jacques Gabay. In addition to the modern facilities, Tekoa is home to some of Israel’s most precious archaeological heritage — King Herod’s winter palace and, allegedly, his tomb. The first-century ruins sit on a plateau rising above Tekoa in the north, on the way to the holy city of Jerusalem …
What Gush Herodion does not say is that this “Jewish village” — which takes its name from a town mentioned in the Book of Amos – is more commonly referred to as an illegal Israeli settlement, established in 1977 deep within the West Bank in the Gush Etzion block. According to a 2009 report by Peace Now, more than 10 percent of the settlement is built on privately owned Palestinian land. Neighboring Tuqu‘ — the Arabic version of the same name from the Book of Amos — is less glamorous, and their Jewish neighbors have not made life any easier.
link to www.maannews.net
Ethnic cleansing on the road to an Israeli colony
[with photos] ISM 15 Aug by ‘Marshall Pinkerton’ — For the past four years, Khalid al-Sanih Daraghani and his family have faced regular attacks by Israeli settlers at their home in Khan, 2 kilometers south of the West Bank village al-Luban. When Khalid bought the two homes on the road to the illegal Ma’ale Levona settlement 5 years ago, he imagined restoring them and planting the 20 dunums of land that they sit on. Today, the two houses sit with the insides burned and gutted, without doors or windows, and under constant threat of further attacks. Only Khalid is left to protect them, as he has moved his family to another home for their safety. The move was especially motivated to protest his two eldest sons, who have been unjustly arrested several times, simply for being present on their own property. Five years ago, Khalid purchased the two buildings from his cousin believing that he could restore them and turn the property into a paradise. “I sold everything to buy this property,” says Khalid, “including my family gold.”
link to palsolidarity.org
Committee: Israeli forces uproot land in Bethlehem village
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 13 Aug — Israeli bulldozers uprooted agricultural land in the Bethlehem village ofal-Khader on Monday, a local committee said. Ahmad Salah, spokesman for the local committee against the wall and settlements, told Ma’an that five dunams of private Palestinian land were leveled in al-Absiyya, near the settlement of Elazar. Olive trees and a well belonging to Riziq Muhammad Hussein Salah were also destroyed.
Settlers led by a female leader then stole several uprooted olive trees and took them away in trucks, Salah said. “Her name is Nadia Matar, the founder of the settler group known as Women in Green. This group maintains that all hills in the Etzion area must be under settler control to build religious schools and parks,” he added.
link to www.maannews.net
Occupation allows settlers to use water pond registered as Islamic Waqf
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 13 Aug — The Israeli occupation army allowed Jewish settlers to use a water pond in the area of Tel Rumeida, in the center of al-Khalil province, although it is registered as an Islamic endowment. Youth against Settlement group said in a statement on Sunday that the occupation army issued a decision preventing Palestinians from using the new spring of water in Tel Rumeida during Fridays and Saturdays, while allowing the settlers to daily use it without any restrictions. For his part, the Director of Endowments in al-Khalil, Zaid Al-Jabari asserted in press statements that the new spring of water and water ponds in Tel Rumeida have been registered as Islamic endowments. He also noted that the new spring of water, which has an area of 55 square meters, has been exposed to continuous attacks as the settlers have been trying to control it through construction and expansion processes for a long time.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Video — The Earth Project: Desert Oasis
[5:12 minutes] Tuba, West Bank by Harvey Stein — Activists bring renewable energy to remote Palestinian villages — A project called Community, Energy, and Technology in the Middle East has built solar panels and wind turbines for isolated West Bank settlements, providing electricity to some 2,000 Palestinians. [Supported by the people themselves and by European NGOs. But the villages are now threatened with destruction]
link to www.globalpost.com
Palestinians fear new Israeli moves in West Bank
NPR 14 Aug — Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen for almost two years. But Palestinians say that doesn’t mean events aren’t happening on the ground. Recently, the Israeli military issued orders calling for evacuation and demolition of nearly a dozen Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians see this as evidence of Israeli plans to annex the territory, though Israel denies this.
Palestinian Ismael el-Adrah, 67, is a shrunken man with a snow-white beard and a bright blue shirt, who is unusually dapper for a farmer in the remote Hebron hills. He lives in a collection of tin-roofed shacks, tents and concrete homes with his four wives, 33 children and 150 sheep. Scattered nearby are other villages similar to this one, all of them under threat of evacuation and demolition … Most Jewish settlements in the West Bank are located in Area C, and Israel restricts Palestinian building in these areas. Abdul Aziz Abu Fanar works in the nearby Hebron municipal center of Yatta. He says the Israelis’ actions in Area C indicate strongly that they want to annex it. It’s a suspicion that has only been fueled by recent statements from right-wing leaders in Israel who have come out publicly in support of such a plan. “The idea is to apply Israeli sovereignty and law on the Israeli-controlled areas, so it becomes Israel,” says Naftali Bennett, a former adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an advocate of the settlements.
link to www.npr.org
Israel’s High Court okays construction on site of Muslim graves in Tel Aviv
[with photo of skeleton] Haaretz 13 Aug — High Court of Justice rejects petition against construction of student dorms, despite the fact that the site contains what appear to be Muslim graves from the Ottoman period … Judge Uri Shoham ruled that the construction works at the site did not harm in any serious way, if at all, the right to protect the dignity of the dead, and do not justify halting work on the project … Until 1948, the area on which the project is being built belonged to the Palestinian village of Sheikh Munis. Later, the university was built around the site.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israeli policies for Jerusalem ‘require a firmer Islamic response’
MEMO 14 Aug — King Abdullah of Jordan has said that the challenges facing the city of Jerusalem, including Israel’s attempts to impose a new demographic reality, require an active and firm Islamic stance to meet them. Speaking to the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz while attending the Islamic summit in Makkah, the Jordanian head of state said, “The thing we are concerned about most, in light of the current impasse, is what the city of Jerusalem, the city of peace, is facing and what our people there are facing by way of Israel’s unilateral measures that threaten the identity and features of the city. These measures are attempts to impose a new reality on the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa, in addition to the continuing Judaisation and population displacement operations.” He added that Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied city require a unified Islamic response, one that is more assertive and effective.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com
Despite ban, PLO leaders host Ramadan event in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 14 Aug — PLO leaders hosted a Ramadan event in east Jerusalem late Monday, in the first official Palestinian gathering in the 18 years since Israel imposed a ban on such activities in the holy city. Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO leader, and Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian Authority governor of Jerusalem, hosted the Iftar meal and briefed diplomats on a bid to join the United Nations in the coming months … Ashrawi told reporters that the continued closure of institutions like the Chamber of Commerce and the former headquarters of the Palestinian negotiating team prejudged the fate of Jerusalem, which Israel considers its capital …
US diplomats were not present at the Iftar but every Jerusalem-based representative from Latin America, Asia and Africa who was in town attended, a Palestinian official told Ma‘an. Each European Union member state also sent an envoy with the exception of a few smaller delegations, the official said.
link to www.maannews.net
PM greets ‘protectors of Jewish future’ at airport
Ynet 14 Aug — This summer’s second charter aliyah flight from the US arrived on Tuesday, bringing some 350 new olim to Israel – including 127 young men and women who will be joining the IDF. The special Nefesh B’Nefesh – FIDF flight was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish National Fund and Tzofim Garin Tzabar. The newcomers are among over 4,800 American, Canadian and British Jews making aliyah this year.
link to www.ynetnews.com
State mandates schools to teach Zionist values
Ynet 13 Aug — The Education Ministry has instructed teachers across the country to put an emphasis on Zionism during the upcoming school year. Schools have been mandated to focus on Israel’s national anthem and symbols in order to instill Jewish and democratic values in students.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Violence / Raids / Arrests / Resistance
Nabi Saleh: ‘The resistance is for our kids’ future’
ISM 15 Aug by ‘Markus Fitzgerald’ — On the evening of July 26, social media lit up with messages from residents of the village Nabi Saleh. “Four army jeeps and around 20 soldiers standing at the entrance,” tweeted Manal Tamimi, and later, “for the third day (in a [row]) the army invading the village before eftar.”
Since late 2010, Nabi Saleh has been raided regularly by Israeli forces, and the religious month of Ramadan is no exception. The long awaited eftar meal brings relief to the fasting people. In the little village, only a 15 minute drive northwest of Ramallah, eftar often arrives with uninvited guests. The reasons for these punitive raids must be found in late 2009 when people from Nabi Saleh and nearby villages organized to protest the occupation and the illegal settlements. In July 2008, Inhabitants of the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish, some 700 metres from Nabi Saleh, began using Al-Qaws spring for recreational purposes. For Palestinians in the area, the spring was a vital factor in farming the dry land, as well as for cultural and recreational purposes.
link to palsolidarity.org
Israeli forces arrest 4 in northern West Bank
QALQILIYA (Ma’an) 14 Aug — Israeli forces arrested four Palestinians overnight Monday and early Tuesday, Israel’s army and Palestinian officials said. One person was detained in Burqin, near Jenin, and three in Qalqiliya, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. A Fatah official in Qalqiliya said that military forces raided the city in the early morning hours, detaining Rashid Muhammad Obeid, 18, Alaa Amer, 26, and Moawyeh, 21.
link to www.maannews.net
IOF soldiers round up five Palestinians
NABLUS (PIC) 13 Aug — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up five Palestinian citizens over the past 24 hours in various West Bank areas, local sources said on Monday. Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers arrested four young men at a roadblock installed to the south of Tulkarem on Monday night. They said that IOF patrols searched vehicles passing along Kufriyat road and scrutinized IDs before taking away the four youths who were traveling together in one car.
In Nablus, IOF soldiers stormed the city at dawn Monday and arrested a 30-year-old man after searching his home.
Meanwhile, other IOF units closed on Monday morning the road connecting ten villages to the north west of occupied Jerusalem to Ramallah at security pretexts.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOF soldiers arrest son of Hamas MP
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 14 Aug — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested the son of Hamas MP Basem Al-Z’arir on his way back home from a visit to Jordan on Monday evening. The MP told the PIC reporter that the soldiers detained his eldest son Ahmed, 27, on crossing the bridge between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, adding that his son was on his way back home in Samu village, Al-Khalil province. He said that the family waited for him until a late night hour on Monday but only on Tuesday morning they received a phone call informing them that Ahmed was held in Jalama detention center for interrogation.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOF kidnap another Khalil university student
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 13 Aug — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped at dawn Monday one of Al-Khalil university students named Abdulhadi Musalma after a raid on his house in Dura town. Musalma was one of the Islamic bloc students who participated in the sit-in and the hunger strike inside Al-Khalil university to protest the arbitrary arrests waged against them by the Palestinian Authority security forces. The PA security apparatuses lately pledged in writing to stop its arrest campaign against the students of Al-Khalil university, but later they violated their agreement by detaining a number of them and asking their Israeli counterparts to kidnap them from their homes.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli police arrest two Arab youth in Tel Aviv
PNN — On Tuesday, 14th August, Israeli police arrested last night, two Arab youths in Tel Aviv. The police claimed that two Arab youths broke into a military base belonged to the Israeli Air Force, north of Tel Aviv. No more details regarding this incident were reported.
link to english.pnn.ps
Mayor of Hebron condemns the Israeli violations against the Palestinian children
PNN 14 Aug — The mayor of Hebron, Kamil Hameed, condemned the daily Israeli violations committed by the occupant army and the settlers against the citizens in all towns, villages and camps of refugees in the province of Hebron. In a statement to PNN, Hameed condemned the attack against the child Tareq Abu Rmela, 10 years old, who was wounded by the circular gates and the barbed wire at the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the old town. Moreover, Hameed deplored the inhuman behavior of the occupant soldiers who didn’t provide the first aide for the child
link to english.pnn.ps
PA security summonses Hamas cadres in Al-Khalil and Nablus
WEST BANK (PIC) 14 Aug — The Palestinian Authority security agencies summoned during the last two days a number of Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas Movement in Al-Khalil and Nablus cities. In Al-Khalil, the PA preventive security apparatus summoned for interrogation four Palestinian citizens who had already been detained either in Israeli or PA jails. In Yatta south of Al-Khalil, the preventive security summoned Ma’an Rabaei, 16, and Malek Rabba‘a, 21, the nephews of Hamas lawmaker Khalil Rabaei, in addition to another 17-year-old boy and interrogated them about the people who visit and contact MP Rabaei. All the boys were threatened by PA interrogators that they would be imprisoned if they did not cooperate and inform the preventive apparatus regularly about the relations and contacts of MP Rabaei.
The preventive security also summoned three ex-detainees in Israeli jails from Bani Na‘im village east of Al-Khalil, namely, Ismail Ballut, Yousuf Manasra and Khaled Zaidat.
In another incident, a reliable source told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that interrogators from the PA preventive security lately tortured without mercy Hamas detainees in a jail in Tubas city, north of the West Bank. The source said the detainees were exposed to different methods of torture including hanging them from their hands for long hours and beating them all over their bodies
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Gaza
Frustrated Hamas seeks light at end of Egyptian tunnel
GAZA CITY (Reuters) 13 Aug — Hamas, stunned by Egypt’s closure of its border with Gaza, said on Monday the new Islamist leadership in Cairo was imposing the same pain on the Palestinian enclave as ousted former president, Hosni Mubarak … Hamas believed Mursi would usher in a new period of harmony between Gaza and Cairo, but that has yet to materialize because of strategic considerations involving Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel and related military aid from the United States.
link to www.maannews.net
Egypt expects first Qatar payment this week
Al Akhbar 13 Aug — Qatar should deposit $500 million in Egypt’s central bank within a week, the Egyptian finance minister said, as the country battles to pull its economy out of a tailspin after 18 months of political turmoil. The Gulf emirate said on Saturday it would deposit $2 billion in all. Speaking on Sunday, Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Saeed said officials had also discussed with a Libyan delegation that Tripoli might support Egypt’s depleted finances.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Gaza residents ‘stranded abroad’ as Egypt denies visas
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Aug — A number of Palestinians say they are stranded abroad because Egypt has denied them transit visas to return to Gaza. Palestinians in Lebanon, Turkey, Libya and Kenya have contacted Ma‘an, saying they were refused Egyptian visas … Salim, who is in Istanbul, told Ma‘an the Egyptian consulate said it had been instructed by the Egyptian government to stop issuing visas to Palestinians. Another Palestinian, who asked not to be identified but is also in Istanbul, said an employee of the Egyptian consulate told him he would not be given a visa “because the Palestinians killed Egyptian soldiers in Sinai.”
link to www.maannews.net
Egypt detains 3 Palestinians at Sinai tunnels
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma‘an) 13 Aug — Egyptian security forces on Monday detained three Palestinians as they tried to return to the Gaza Strip via tunnels under the border in northern Sinai, officials said. Security sources in Rafah told Ma‘an the group had entered Egypt via the smuggling tunnel network, and were captured while trying to get back to Gaza. After gunmen killed 16 Egyptian border guards on Sunday, Egypt closed its border with the Gaza Strip and sealed smuggling tunnels that provide a lifeline to the besieged territory.
link to www.maannews.net
Egypt to reopen Rafah crossing for three days
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Aug — Egyptian authorities have decided to open the Rafah crossing for three days from Tuesday, a Gaza official said Monday. Ayoub Abu Shaar, Gaza director of the Rafah crossing, told Ma‘an that Egyptian authorities officially informed the Palestinian side that the border crossing will be re-opened in both directions on Tuesday for three days. Medical patients, students, visa holders and those with other humanitarian reasons will be able to cross. Mahir Abu Sabha, director of crossings in the the Hamas-run government, told Ma‘an on Monday that Egyptian authorities had promised to reopen the Rafah crossing for the Eid al-Fitr holiday expected to take place this weekend.
link to www.maannews.net
Ansar 3 aid convoy heads to Gaza in September
AMMAN (PIC) 14 Aug — The Jordanian Lifeline Committee confirmed that Ansar 3 aid convey will head to Gaza at the end of September accompanied with necessary medical supplies for the people of Gaza. The coordinator of the convoy, Kifah Amayreh, said in a statement on Monday that the convoy collected donations to provide the needed medical supplies according to a list supplied by the health authorities in the Gaza Strip.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Detainees / Deportees / Court actions
Fifth batch of Gaza families allowed to visit their relatives
GAZA (PIC) 13 Aug — Wa‘ed society for detainees and ex-detainees said the fifth batch of Gaza families were able to go on Monday morning to visit their relatives in Ramon jail. Spokesman for the society Abdullah Qendil told the Palestinian information center (PIC) 55 out of 80 Gazans were allowed to visit their relatives after six years of an Israeli ban on visits from Gaza. Qendil said the Israeli regime only allows a small number of families to visit their relatives every time. Until this moment, he said, about 70 Gazan prisoners were allowed to see their families. He added that some families are informed about the visit date a few hours before the buses leave and they are exposed to humiliating search and measures by the Israeli occupation forces before they go to the prison.The spokesman affirmed that the prisoners in Ramon jail meet their relatives in a very tight place provided with thick glass barriers separating them from their families in addition to malfunctioning communication devices to make it hard for them to communicate.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Hunger strikers ill-treated by prison guards
Amnesty International 10 Aug — Administrative detainees Hassan Safadi and Samer al-Barq have been on hunger strike since 21 June and 22 May 2012 respectively. They have reportedly been repeatedly ill-treated by Israeli Prison Service (IPS) guards since 30 July. Their health was assessed by an independent doctor on 2 August and they need long-term specialized medical treatment which cannot be provided by the clinic in Ramleh prison. [They] have told their lawyers and a doctor who examined them that they were repeatedly beaten and verbally abused during searches of their room at the IPS Medical Centre in Ramleh. Samer al-Barq said he was also assaulted during a transfer to and from Ofer prison on 31 July. The two men were held together in a poorly ventilated small room where there is no space for their wheelchairs, which they need to use for reaching the toilet and other daily necessities. Their treatment seems to be deliberate harassment and humiliation by the IPS guards as punishment for their hunger strikes.
link to www.amnesty.org
Deportees urge Fayyad to help secure family visits
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Aug — Palestinians deported to Gaza by Israel in 2002 appealed to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to help secure permits for their families to visit them during Ramadan, a group spokesman told Ma‘an Tuesday. In 2002, Israel deported 26 Palestinians to Gaza after they took shelter in the Nativity Church during Israel’s siege on the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
link to www.maannews.net
Successful pregnancy and birth after insemination using smuggled sperm
MEMO 14 Aug — EXCLUSIVE PICTURES In what is believed to be the first successful artificial insemination of its kind, a Palestinian mother has given birth thanks to sperm smuggled out from her husband in an Israeli prison. New mother Dalal al-Zebn, the wife of prisoner Ammar al-Zebn who has been behind Israeli bars since 1998, gave birth earlier today (Monday). Mother and baby – a boy, Mohaned al-Taher – are both doing well. This is not the first time that prisoners’ relatives have smuggled sperm for the purpose of artificial insemination, but it is the first successful pregnancy and delivery.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com
Sentence of man who abused Palestinian youth exacerbated
Ynet 13 Aug — Zvi Stroke, who was convicted of the abuse of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy will serve 2.5 years in jail, not 18 months, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The court thus accepted the state’s appeal on Stroke’s original sentence, rendered by the Jerusalem District Court.
Stroke was convicted of the 2007 abduction and abuse of a Palestinian boy. According to the case file, Stroke, and another man, abducted the boy, took him to an abandoned field, stripped him naked and beat him severely. Once done, they abandoned him — bound and blindfolded — on the side of the road. He was eventually able to get loose and made his way to a nearby village from where he was rushed to a Nablus hospital.