Palestine: Zionist troops murder three in Qalandiya refugee camp, including UN employee

Not in the mass disinformation media again. 

On August 26, colonial troops attacked the Qalandiya refugee camp, near Jerusalem, in full force, shooting live fire of illegal ammunition (dum-dum bullets, illegal since more than a century ago!) against the inhabitants who could barely hurl stones in self-defense. 

Three people were killed: Jihad Aslan (20), Younis Jahjouh (22) and Rubeen Abdulrahman Zayid (34, URWA worker). Other 18 people were injured, including five minors, 12 of them required surgery. 

The pretext for the aggression was a search for Yousef al-Khatib, who had been released from prison by the very same colonial authorities just weeks ago. They arrested a relative of al-Khatib by error, beating him badly while zip-cuffed and blindfolded. 

Al-Khatib was eventually arrested and they drove his relative back to the camp to identify him. I could barely recognize him. They had broken his nose and knocked out his teeth, and his hand was broken, he explained later. 

Al-Khatib is currently arrested without charges at the Ofer military prison.

The Zionist forces claimed that they were shot at but this is rejected by the witnesses. Yehya Mteir, relative of one of the deadly victims, said:

There was only one tear gas canister fired at the beginning and one at the end, but other than that, it was all live ammunition and dumdum bullets.

There were so many people in the streets because everyone was on the way to work; usually they come in while we’re asleep. The only means of fighting we had were rocks. We had no guns or Molotov cocktails, none of us.

Even such a tendentious organization as Human Right Watch admits this version of events:

All of the people we interviewed strongly denied that Palestinians shot [live ammunition], or said that they were not aware of it,” Bill Van Esveld, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Electronic Intifada. “If the Israeli military has evidence of this, they should make it public.”

UNRWA in turn explained what happened to their worker A. Zayid:

“We have nine independent eyewitness accounts which all confirm that he was unarmed, he was not involved in violence, not engaged in throwing stones, and yet he was shot with a bullet through the chest, no questions,” UNRWA spokesperson Gunness told The Electronic Intifada.

Similar reports exist regarding other victims: absolutely gratuitous murdering.

Source and more details: Electronic Intifada.

Palestine struggle this week

As per Ilan Against the Wall:

Palestine-Israel, The History wheels turn faster and scream as the blood is not oiling enough the axes*

The turmoil in our region express the melting of the world history as we knew it. It accelerate before it reach its end as the axes of the old order can not hold it any more. The Zionist settler colonialist bridge head of the developed imperial countries in the cradle of human culture at the east of the Mediterranean sea is eroded by the resistance of the indigenous inhabitants which recruit supporters all over the world. The cracks in the neoliberal global capitalism which seemed to reach the ultimate victory just few years ago when the end of history was declared... point to the real end of the history of the egoistic and alienated class society. In the day to day struggle here, it is still hard to discern the cracks in the structure of the system, but you can already smell it in the clouds of tear gas of weekly demos and feel the ground tremor under your feet.

Weekly Non-Violent Protests in #Palestine, August 23, 2013
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.580131042033718.1073741871.251098394936986

"Bil'in, West Bank, Palestine

In the wake of the recent massive wave of arrests of Palestinian activists, it is vital that we continue to resist against the Israeli occupation. Last 17th February had marked the eighth anniversary of the weekly non-violent protests against the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in.

Bil’in has become a symbol of the power of non-violent grassroots movements in building local and international resistance to Occupation [started 10 years ago in the joint camp of Mas'ha**]. After six years of continuous resistance, Bil’in succeeded in regaining a part of its seized land. But the struggle is not over as long as Palestinians have not recovered all their legitimate rights.
The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements will hold the 8th International Conference for Popular Struggle from Wednesday 2nd to Friday 4th October 2013.

We kindly invite you to participate in our conference on grassroots popular resistance.

The aims of the conference are:

To show internationals real life examples of the struggles and suffering of Palestinians;

To extend the popular non-violent struggle;

To strengthen the relationship with the international solidarity movements and to find new ways to support and empower the popular struggle

More details and program will be communicated soon.

Follow us: https://www.facebook.com/PopularStruggle"

Friday

Four injured and a field of olive trees burnt by Israeli Forces’ munitions
Three Palestinians and a foreign journalist were wounded alongside with dozens suffering of severe suffocation after the Israeli forces attacked the weekly march against settlement and the apartheid wall in Bil’in.

The march began after Friday prayers from the center of the village towards the Apartheid wall. We were about dozen Israelis with the anarchists against the wall, about two dozen internationals, and dozens of Bil'iners. Participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for national unity against the occupation and the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli soldiers immediately fired sound bombs, rubber bullets and tear gas at participants when they arrived on the liberated land near the wall. Rubber bullets injured Ashraf al-Khatib (33) in his stomach, Kefah Mansour (32) in his thigh, Mohammed Hamad (22) in his right hand, and a Chinese journalist in his leg. In addition, dozens of peace activists suffocated from inhaling tear gas.
Soldiers opened the gate to chase and assaulted demonstrators in the olive groves. Due to the massive use of tear gas and sound bombs a fire broke out and burnt a large field of olive trees.

The Popular Committee against the Wall and settlements in Bil'in invited all Palestinians and political parties to participate in the march next Friday, the 30th August, in the village in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails.

the photo of Rani in the weekly demonstration in Bil'in ...it will tell the whole story of Bil'in struggle 23.08.2013
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604451819599517

Fires as a result of heavy firing gas in Bil'in weekly demonstration
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604448632933169


Nabi Saleh

As today's demonstration marched to the spring, Israeli Occupation Forces opened fire with teargas, rubber coated steel bullets and skunk. Several people suffocated from teargas and at least one person has been injured from rubber steel bullet in the arm. IOF have also detained and beaten a Palestinian photojournalist.

Israel Puterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWmsrPOZxWg
David Reeb http://youtu.be/UqsS9Oj78o4

Qadum

"Dear friends

Even the mosques aren’t safe from the tear gas bombs

Today it was very strong and hard march nearly 50 soldiers attack kufr Qadum at 11am shooting many tear gas and sound bombs.

Tow were shoot directly by bombs one in his hand caused cut wound and the other in his back.

The most important and dangers case that the soldiers who were on the mountain shot bombs targeted the mosque which we pray before the march causing many suffocated cases between prayers of course you know that a lot of old men and children were in the mosque.

After braying we gathered ourselves again and go for the usual march but the army suppress us and shot nearly 300 hundred tear gas and sound bombs.

The wounded are:

Mashhoor jomaa 42 in his hand

Mohammad shtaiwi 24 in his back"

Report: Israeli army firing tear gas into the mosque during prayer time, before the demonstration
Full report and pictures at"http://palsolidarity.org/2013/08/photo-report-israeli-forces-shoot-teargas-into-mosque-suffocating-hundreds-before-start-of-kafr-qaddum-demonstration
https://www.facebook.com/younes.arar/media_set?set=a.10152147040505760.1073741928.531065759

Yotam https://www.facebook.com/alona.cohen.1238/media_set?set=a.689896394358477.1073741857.100000143680183
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1pBvnjQXQI

---------------------------------------

Don’t say we didn’t know #375

Yet again, the “Judea and Samaria” police have confiscated water tankers belonging to Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region.

On Wednesday, 14th August, 2013 one lorry was confiscated, and on Friday night another one. In total, ten water tankers have been confiscated in recent weeks. In addition, the Civil Administration, IDF and police have demanded that filling water from reservoirs can only take place between 09:00 and 15:00; they have threatened that tankers will be impounded and the filling points closed down. Until now, water operations have been carried out 24 hours a day, to satisfy the demand. The new orders raise concern that tens of thousands of residents will suffer from thirst. Each confiscation entails payment of thousands of shekels in fines, posting of a deposit before trial, as well as payment for removal and storage of the lorry.

At the entrance of Kiryat Arba industrial zone, a tap is operated by settlers selling water to Palestinian carriers at almost three times the normal price. No restrictions there…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Wednesday, 14th August, 2013, government representatives, escorted by police forces, arrived in Bedouin localities in the Negev to demolish homes. In the township of Kseifeh, three homes and a commercial premises were demolished, in Umm Batin a home was destroyed. The following day they demolished two homes in Abu Qrinat, then they went on to demolish El’Araqib once again.


Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il

========================================================

* From my blog at: http://ilanisagainstwalls.blogspot.com
See at the blog previous reports about the joint struggles the Anarchists Against the Wall take part in. See also: http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses.html http://awalls.org

** The Idea of the joint Israeli Palestinian camp was initiated half year before at a workshop on the struggle in our region in the Leiden 2002 conference of the European People Global Action - in which participated 15 Israeli anarchists and radical activists, with activists of the region and supporters.

Basque internationalist arrested in Palestine

Igor Goikolea was arrested by Zionist forces in the town of Ma'Sara (or Al-Masara). In the previous days two other European internationalists (with French and Italian passports) were also arrested in that same town and expelled from the territories under control of the Apartheid regime.

A protest has been called for Monday in his hometown of Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Video of one of the arrests:

Sources: Naiz Info[es], Askapena[eu/es], Borroka Garaia Da![eu].

Fascist USA: forced Zionist "re-education" of anti-apartheid students

The Defamation League continues with its attempts to curb free speech on the Apartheid Regime in Palestine. 

From the Electronic Intifada:

Students who walked out of a speech given by an Israeli soldier at Florida Atlantic University earlier this year are being forced by the administration to attend a chilling “re-education” program designed by an Israel lobby group.

This mandatory “training” program is based on curriculum designed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a lobby organization which has been instrumental in pressuring university administrations to curb Palestine solidarity activism across the US.

As The Electronic Intifada recently reported, the ADL has a lengthy history of spying on Palestine solidarity activists and academics, including Noam Chomsky.

Two of the three Florida Atlantic University (FAU) students being forced to attend this program have also been put on indefinite probation by the administration “for the remainder of our undergraduate careers,” they say in a recent statement.

(...)

As we reported, in April 2012 students at FAU were subjected to administrative pressure and death threats after they engaged in a nonviolent direct action calling attention to the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces. In a creative effort to raise awareness of Israel’s rampant home demolition practices, students posted 200 fake eviction notices on dorm room doors.

(...)

... read the full article at the Electronic Intifada.

Palestine: Ilan's weekly report on resistance and repression

From Ilan Against the Wall:

Just a pure essence of the Israeli settler colonialist rational: State responds to two High Court petitions to stop planned evacuation of eight villages in south Hebron hills (of the occupied west bank). "Israel: Eviction of 1,300 Palestinians necessary to save IDF time, money" see From the Israeli daily http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.539057 The Bedouin struggle refute the claim that within the 1948 borders Israel is a normal state. The joint struggle of the anarchists against the wall with the Palestinian popular grass root comities against the separation fence and colonialist settlers encroachment on their spaces is a constant call out for international action of solidarity - not for "the national liberation of the self determination of statehood" of the Palestinian elite, but for the end of occupation and transfer of the Palestinian People.

"The Anti Praver Coalition is growing bigger and bigger and is led by a new local independent youth movement from the Negev. They Invite all of us to join tomorrow.

Last week we had a big and very good meeting in Jaffa with many activists from many different backgrounds, most of them independent local Jaffaians. We started bringing up ideas for the summer protest - much help is needed, please write me if you want to join for the next meeting.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=512188128851115

For tomorrow buses will leave from Jaffa Gaza Garden , Tel Aviv Arlozerov train station, Jerusalem, Lod, and Kufr Kasem.

1 August is a 'Day of Rage' against the planned uprooting of tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab (Negev). Demonstrations across Palestine, as well as solidarity protests around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGOY3Fs4I1I

Reports of more than 20 arrests already in Wadi Ara demo!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661522913877412

http://bit.ly/5xDJ9n

https://www.facebook.com/yuyume/photos_stream

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153097601600511

Israeli police violently dispersing a demonstration Thursday against the Prawer plan, 'Ar'ara

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152356418781549

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPZH9mCwfeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJF0FR8jbwg

israelpnm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7vYGCNM_rw

01.08.2013 Damascus Gate, Al Quds

https://www.facebook.com/guy.butavia/media_set?set=a.10151786827117138.1073741909.779192137

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Jgz-yblxA

Friday, the 2 arrestees from Naqab demo will be released soon. The court hearing was canceled

Bil'in

Friday 441th demo against the separation fence/wall (2/8/2013). 15 Israelis and a few internationals joined the weekly Palestinian demo in Bil'in against the Israeli Occupation and Apartheid. As we approached the wall, the army responded to the threat of dangerous peaceful demonstrators by surrounding us with clouds of gas. Then, when only the non-threatening shabab stayed at the front, the soldiers just stood back and watched them egg and stone the wall. A few similar rounds ensued, and when the demo finally dispersed, we celebrated the publication of Hamde's new photo book by taking a photo of us holding copies against the background of the wall and soldiers. When a demonstrator approached the wall to give the soldiers a copy of the book, they panicked, climbed down and backed away.

Clashes between demonstrators and the army eggs and gas:

Yasin:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.488171497942128.1073741850.387324478026831

Haitham Al Khatib:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.431276906917010.96751.431256660252368

Nabi Saleh

4 Israelis arrested in the weekly protest in Nabi Saleh

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.213194275379459.58467.184879698210917

David Reeb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl4K7BsP1HY

Qaddum

Younes Arar:

https://www.facebook.com/younes.arar/posts/10152096488550760

Odai Qaddomi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOCS4pZHKJo

Ni'lin

Friday weekly protest against the wall and the occupation - 2.8.2013

israel putermam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hb871fYfWY

Sheikh Jarrah

The residents of Sheikh Jarrah are continuing their protest vigils in the neighborhood every Friday, protesting their violent evictions from their homes, the taking over of the neighborhood by the settlers, and the Judaization of East Jerusalem.

They call upon each and every person who supports their struggle to join them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don’t say we did not know #373

Over a year ago, settlers from Tel Rumeida, in the Old City of Hebron, planted a garden on land next to a military base. That land belongs to their Palestinian neighbor, Hani Abu Haikal, and the garden is currently the subject of a legal case. Abu Haikal has 50 olive trees on his land. On Sunday, 28th July, 2013, settlers torched the olive trees, probably coming from Tel Rumeida to do so. All the trees were damaged by the arson attack, and three were totally burned down. The settlers’ garden was not damaged by the fire at all. The IDF closed off the road to the site, but internationals managed to get there by a back way, to help to put out the fire. This marks the eighth time that the olive grove has been targeted by arson this way, and as a result, a complaint was laid with the police. The police claim that the fire was accidental.

Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il

Palestine: prisoners in hunger strike quit even vitamins

From Uruknet (signed by humanitarian association Adameer):

Hunger Strikes Update: Hunger strikes escalate as prisoners stop taking supplementary vitamins and boycott the Prison Clinic.

  August 3, 2013 Ramallah - Despite the mounting pressure on the hunger strikers and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) attempts to isolate them, Addameer lawyers were able to gain access to two of the twelve prisoners who have reported that all of the hunger strikers detained in Ramleh clinic have stopped taking vitamin supplements and are threatening to boycott water if their demands are not met. They are currently also refusing medical examinations.

This most recent development is in light of the harsh conditions they are subjected to in the prison clinic, including denial of medical treatment, lack of humane treatment and isolation in dirty cells.

It should be emphasized that Addameer and other human rights organizations are consistently being denied access to the hunger striking prisoners, both from denied applications and by indirect means, such as transferring the prisoner to another location on the date of an approved visit. This week, Addameer had five approved visits to hunger strikers but was ultimately only allowed access to Ayman Tbeisheh and Husam Matar. The other prisoners were transferred without notice on the day of Addameer’s visit, thereby denying them their right to legal counsel and further isolating them from the outside world.

Ayman Tbeisheh, who has been on hunger strike for 70 days in protest of his administrative detention, is currently being held in desolate conditions in Ramleh clinic in a ward for infectious diseases. For over five weeks, he has been isolated in a soundproof 2x2 windowless cell with a mattress on the floor. According to Ayman, fellow hunger strikers Adel Hreibat, Mohammad Tbeisheh, Mohammad Rimawi, Husam Matar and Abdul Majeed Khdeirat were also held in similar conditions before their recent transfer. Ayman also confirmed that three of the Jordanian prisoners are held in another ward of the prison clinic, which houses prisoners with mental disorders.

The prisoners are subjected to increased pressure and threats by the IPS to end their hunger strikes. They have reported that they are continuously transferred to different cells, subjected to night inspections, not allowed clothing, sheets, family visits and any contact with others except for a one hour recreation period in the yard. Those who are on hunger strike in protest of administrative detention have been promised verbally that they will not receive a renewal order, but the IPS refuses to document the agreement in writing.

Husam Matar, who has been on hunger strike for 61 days was held briefly with Mohammad Rimawi before his transfer to an unknown location last week. Husam reported that Mohammad’s health is critical and his life is in danger. He is currently taking medicine for a lung infection and fungal infection resulting from his hunger strike as well as suffering from mineral deficiency.

Husam is also being held in appalling conditions; he is in a small, dirty cell filled with sewage water. The conditions are so filthy that he is unable to pray during the holy month of Ramadan. Husam suffers from previous medical issues such as neurological problems, and bone issues, and currently suffers from facial hair loss, bodily pains and dehydration as a result of his hunger strike.

The hunger strikers also confirmed to Addameer that Adel Hreibat is in critical condition, his pancreas and liver are failing and he has a lack of basic minerals in his blood, decreased heart rate, blood sugar and blood pressure. Addameer was denied visitation rights for Adel despite his dangerous and

life-threatening health condition.

Addameer again calls for immediate intervention from the international community including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union, to pressure Israel in the strongest manner possible to save the lives of all twelve hunger strikes.

Palestine: weekly resistance report

From Ilan Against the Wall (slightly edited in format only):

The struggle of the Bedouins within Israel against the mass transfer since the 1948 war expand to the whole of Israel and even to the areas conquered in the 1967. In addition to the regular locations of joint struggle in the 1967 areas: Bil'in, Ni'ilin, Ma'asarah, Nabi Saleh, Qaddum, Sheikh Jarah, and South of Hebron hills the Bedouins struggle drew more and more activists of the anarchists against the wall. The Arakib village struggle expand immensely with the Praver plan as the focus. Preparations for the August one actions are in vigor. Previous Saturday, a big joint demo in Rahat - the biggest town of the Bedouin region tens of thousands already transfered to: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=629028177115694
After the demo many activist traveled to the Al-Arakib village already demolished more than 50 times in the last three years.
The village of Al-Arakib was re-built

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KTxdd7IG_Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3crZgJ5U0AA

Demonstration against the demolition of the village Al-Araqib. for 3 years this village was demolished again and again and was rebuilt. On Saturday we stood in solidarity with the village people.
Following the first 'Day of Rage' against the planned uprooting of tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab (Negev) on July 15, Palestinian activists inside Israel have called a second 'Day of Rage' for August 1. On July 15, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel along with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and regional refugee camps, held numerous demonstrations against the so-called Prawer Plan being advanced by the Israeli government. Protesters marched, blocked roads, and were violently dispersed by security services (including several arrests). This second 'Day of Rage' promises to be even bigger, as Palestinians assert their opposition to a plan condemned just this week by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

Ma'asarah

Friday July 26. Tracking and detention of Palestinian activists // Call for access to water During the weekly protest, on the third Friday of the Holy month of Ramadan, Israeli Forces detained Mahmoud Aladeen (27), member of the Popular Struggle Committee and tracked Mahmoud Zwahre (42), coordinator of the PSC, after questioning him and holding his car for couple hours. As Zwahre was arriving in the village in his car, police border officer immediately recognized him and stopped him for questioning. Zwahre found a way to escape but he was then hunted down for an hour, soldiers entering and searching houses. Aladeen, who was with him in the car, could not get away and was detained for three hours.
The march started after the noon prayer, calling to end the Israeli occupation and its unequal exploitation of West Bank resources, focusing on access to water. For the past two month, there is not a single drop of water reaching Al Ma’asara and other villages of southern West Bank. Despite the high temperature and the particular circumstances of Ramadan, most of Palestinian villages and towns don’t have access to the necessary quantity of water and some are completely deprived.
The Local Council of South Bethlehem area requested Israeli authorities’ explanation about the restrictions on water; they were retorted that the PA is gathering all water resources toward the main cities of Bethlehem, Alhul and Hebron. But from the PA perspective the blame rests on the Israeli authorities who monopolize water for the welfare of illegal settlements.

Bil'in
Today Friday 26.07.2013 - In the demo participated an Italian Parliamentary delegation led by Luisa Morgantini (former vice president of the European parliament). Members of the PSC gave a comprehensive explanation about the Israeli violations in Bil’in for the past eight years; and they explain the strategy of the popular resistance in Palestine.
The march started after Friday prayers from the center of the village toward the Apartheid wall protecting Modiin settlement. The participants: dozen of the AATW initiative, two dozen internationals, and Palestinian villagers raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling to end the occupation, to demolish the Apartheid wall and to free Palestinian political prisoners. As soon as the march reached the area near the wall, Israeli soldiers, protected behind the wall, fired rubber bullets, tear gas and sound grenades at demonstrators.
Two were injured during Bil'in weekly protest. Journalist Haitham al-Khatib (37) was hit by a tear gas canister in his back clearly aimed at him by Israeli soldiers; "in the weekly demonstration against the wall, the Israeli army threw tear gas directly at protesters. I was hit by a tear gas canister while I was taking pictures. One other protester was shot at the leg with a rubber coated steel bullet and lots of people suffered from the inhalation of the gas" and Mahmoud Samara (18) was injured by a rubber bullet in his leg. Both are reported to be well now. In addition, it was few cases of suffocation after inhaling tear gas were reported.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBq0NbZoWTc

NABI SALEH
From early morning, Nabi Saleh was declared by the Israeli military as a “closed military zone“. The weekly protest of Nabi Saleh, headed mainly by women and children, calls to end Israeli occupation, and focused today on the prisoners’ issue. Activists chanted slogans in support for the Palestinians prisoners in Israeli prisons, for the hunger strikers among them Abadallah Barghouti and Muhamed Rimawi.

The group marched from the center of the village and attempted to reach the spring which was confiscated by the nearby settlement of Halamish. But as every Friday, the Israeli Forces attacked the non violent protest with a massive use of tear gas and rubber bullets. No injuries were reported.
Regardless, the Popular Struggle Committees will never stop their struggle against the Israeli occupation.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.597885930255891.1073741855.113817528662736

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.665712480124516.1073741827.218774474818321

David Reeb http://youtu.be/H-YYEAFFf9Y

Ni'lin
26 07 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBq0NbZoWTc

Qaddum
Friday, June 26, 2013, weekly demonstration in the West bank village Qaddum - located east of Qalqiliya, against the permanent road block preventing free access to the regional town Nablus, the occupation and the encroaching settlements. There have been regular demonstrations in Kfer Qaddum since July, 2011, protesting the blocking of the main road east of the village which used to link it to Nablus.
During the demonstration in the village Shabab throws stones at an army bulldozer invading village.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=204140209750238

Yotam Ronen https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=674705719210878

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ePqLr-u6c

Apartheid and genocide against Naqab Bedouins

That Israel is nothing but an Apartheid and Genocidal colonial regime in Palestine is well known, at least to me. But the Zionist hasbara (propaganda) machinery is powerful and well organized and they work hard to hide the facts and spread lies and convenient half-truths. For all these reasons it is important to now and then relearn the hard truths of the Zionist regime. 

In this case it is the so-called Prawler Plan, which intends to remove Bedouins (with status of Israeli citizens, for the record) from their lands and install them in urban slums in order to expand the Jewish control of the Naqab (Negev), which is about 1/3 of Palestine by extension (and therefore more than half what they usually call Israel: the Southern District of this entity has 14,000 km² while the internationally recognized Israel has just 20,000 km²). 

The spearhead of this and other genocidal racist colonization projects is the Jewish National Fund, a Zio-Nazi pseudo-charity dedicated to eradicate Palestinian Natives and plant trees or install Jewish settlements. For a time the JNF was part of the State of Israel, what handicapped its racist genocidal intent, not allowing in theory for racist discrimination. However the JNF is since 2007 again a private entity and therefore allowed under the Apartheid Israeli legislation, which clearly privileges Jews over Natives, to discriminate on grounds of ethnicity or faith. 

The following report by The Real News is a must-watch in order to understand what is going on:

Source: The Real News (via EI).

Egyptian military authorities abusing Palestinians

Snowden is not the only one stranded at some airport: dozens of Palestinian families are stuck in Cairo airport unable to reach Palestine by any means, as are many other thousands since Egypt decided to close the Rafah crossing (again).

From Electronic Intifada:

“We spent about four days in a three-meter-wide and ten-meter-long corridor in Cairo international airport. On Monday, when I left back to Tunisia, there were dozens of stranded people like myself, including two families with children, wanting to cross on their way back to Gaza,” Salama Marouf told The Electronic Intifada by phone.

Marouf is now back to Tunisia, after being deported by Egypt and where he had already spent one week attending a media conference.

He is one of the thousands of people affected by Egypt’s ban on Palestinians entering the country in order to return to Gaza, the only route home for the vast majority of the strip’s residents.

The Rafah crossing on the border between Egypt and Gaza, about a six-hour drive from Cairo’s airport, is the main outlet to the outside world for Gaza’s nearly 1.7 million residents, due to Israel’s ongoing land, sea and air blockade of the territory.

Egypt closed the Rafah crossing after the army’s 3 July ouster of elected president Muhammad Morsi, stranding thousands of Palestinians abroad.

“For me personally, I had the chance to get a visa back to Tunisia with the help of the organizers of the conference,” Marouf said. “Many other travelers with whom I was stranded had difficulties getting back to the countries they had arrived from. We recently learned that the Egyptian authorities’ decision is still valid and there is no way for hundreds of Palestinians to go back to Gaza.”

After closing Rafah, Egypt began to deport Gaza residents as they arrived at Cairo airport, and instructed international airlines to deny boarding to Palestinian Authority passport holders on flights bound for Cairo.

The Egyptian provisional authorities blame Hamas of being behind attacks in Sinai Peninsula, which are in fact the making of Bedouins, who have their own grudges with the central Egyptian administration, which has neglected them for decades:

There have been several attacks on Egyptian army posts by militants in the Sinai peninsula since the army takeover, and Egyptian military officials have repeatedly blamed Palestinians and Hamas, which runs the government in Gaza, of involvement. There as been no credible evidence offered to support these allegations.

Lina Atallah and Mohamad Salama Adam, of the independent Egyptian news site Mada Masr, reported on 9 July that military claims of instability in Sinai, used to justify the closure of Rafah, are exaggerated (“Less than a warzone”).

One Egyptian judge, who welcomed the army takeover, even blamed Hamas for the fuel shortage that had hit Egypt in the days before Morsi’s ouster. The judge claimed, in The New York Times on 10 July, that the Morsi government had withheld fuel supplies from Egyptians in order to ship them to Gaza. This claim, also totally unsubstantiated, echoes pervasive anti-Palestinian messaging and rumor-mongering in Egyptian media.

These arbitrary and pro-Zionist measures are particularly painful as they cause family separation in the Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for the majority of Palestinians.

Palestine: resistance, repression and genocide - weekly report

As every week, Ilan Against the Wall makes a synthesis of the struggles and repression in Palestine (excerpts):

Rass Karkar
Sunday, joint struggle with PSCC. Protesting on the roads of Palestine this morning.

At first we protested by a flying checkpoint the soldiers placed on the way from Deir Kadis to Ramallah. The soldiers shot several tear gas canisters directly at us, hitting in the chest a protester, who was evicted to the hospital, his condition unknown.
Then we went to protest by Nilin checkpoint, where the soldiers eventually dispersed us with stun grenades.

...

Bil'in
Weekly demo 05.07.2013. About 15 with the anarchists against the wall initiative joined few dozens of international activists and Bil'iners. We marched along the wall between the barbed wire fences up to the gate in the wall. There, people removed one wing of the gate of the barbed wire fence, confiscated it, and drag it with a car to the village. The state forces were nearly passive with few tear gas grenade thrown just to keep the pretense of power. After a long while demonstrators got bored and returned to the village.

...

Sunday 07.07.2013 pre down:

Israeli army - about 80 strong unit, entered the village of Bil'in - probably in revenge for the confiscation of the wing of the gate the previous day, and arrested twin brothers Asim Yasin and Mohammed Yasin and took them to unknown area.

...

Nabi Saleh
Israeli Occupation Forces have invaded Nabi Saleh and attacked the regular Friday demonstration against the occupation. IOF are firing teargas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and spraying skunk.  

...

Kufr Qaddoum

...

Friday, Murad Shtaiwi: Dear friends: Nothing new today in kufr qudoom march this Friday, tear gas, sound bombs smoke bombs.

What are new there are very bad comments about Prophet MOHAMMAD and Arabs below the video of today written in English and Hebrew.

...

Um al-Kheir
Two Palestinian women sustained bruises today and three were detained during a peaceful rally against colonial expansion east of Yatta in south Hebron hills. The Israeli terrorist colonists attacked nonviolent protesters kicking them and beating them with rifle butts in Um al-Kheir neighborhood east of Yatta
"I just came back from an arrest in the South Hebron Hills with two Palestinians from Umm al-Kheir and three Israeli Ta'ayush activists. The military decided to arbitrarily arrest a young Palestinian shepherd. It was completely unprovoked, brutal, and under false charges. He was blindfolded and zip-tied with a single zip-tie (against regulations). The military then issued a Closed Military Zone for a different area and arrested the rest of us when we were clearly outside of it. The shepherd's brother was beaten and is now limping on his left leg. In the picture you can see the brave people of Umm al-Kheir coming to protest and resist the military's assault. I was dragged off by four soldiers while sitting next to the woman in black. At the end of the day, we were released and our Palestinian comrades had to submit an outrageous deposit of 1500 NIS (collected entirely by the people of the village). Robbed by law. We all received restraining orders from the area for 15 days. The forbidden area includes a well and a water cistern which is of vital importance for Shepherding. The people of Umm al-Kheir, due to the close vicinity of the settlement Carmel, are considered illegal trespassers on their own land and suffer demolitions, arbitrary arrests, and assaults on a daily basis"

...

The villagers of 'Awarta owned 22,000 dunums of land (one dunum = 1000 sq.m). Israel expropriated some 12,000 dunums, for the benefit of the settlement Itamar (established in 1984).
In early June 2013, 22 farmers from 'Awarta received confiscation orders for some 360 dunums of their land, near Itamar. On 23rd June, 2013 they received more orders, stating that 63.4 dunums were now confiscated.
For years, the farmers have been denied entry to their land near the settlement. They are allowed to enter only two days a year, in order to harvest their olives.

...

On Thursday, 27th June, 2013, government representatives arrived, again, accompanied by police, at the Bedouin village 'Atir (near Yatir forest) and demolished three homes and four tents that had been built following the last demolitions.

UN: Israel tortures children

... and abuses them in many other ways, including systematically using children as human shields, arresting them arbitrarily, etc.

Video by The Real News:

Egypt: Petras analysis of the causes behind Morsi's failure

Borroka Garaia Da! publishes today a Spanish language article by James Petras (veteran international analyst from the USA) in which he synthetically analyzes the causes behind the fall of Morsi in four points (my synthesis):

1. The economy: Morsi adopted a neoliberal plan of removing subsidies without any kind of investment for job generation. He resorted to loans by the FMI, which demanded that suicidal economic strategy. The government was so undecided that it did nothing worth mentioning in this key economic aspect: neither social redistribution, nor investments... nothing. The result: economic deterioriation.
2. Sectarism: Morsi promoted divisionist fundamentalist policies that only satisfied the most fanatic among his supporters. 
3. Authoritarianism: imposing partisan appointments and abusing the presidential power against the other branches of government, disdaining any possible wider consensus.
4. Collaboration with Zionism and other Western Imperialism: maintaining the illegitimate and inhuman blockade against Gaza Strip, supporting the extremists against the Syrian government, totally folding to the demands of the US Empire.

However he mentions that while the core of the opposition is progressive, there are also important elements of supporters of the Old Regime, who want to reverse the democratic process. 

He thinks that Washington is playing many different cars in the Egyptian turmoil: Morsi, the Mubarakists, the center-right liberals, etc.

The military caste in turn is probably just seeking to weaken any civilian government in order to keep their privileges.

Occitania: march in Avignon against Zionist corporation Mehadrin

From Electronic Intifada (emphasis mine):

More than 500 people demonstrated in the French city of Avignon on Saturday as part of a extraordinary mobilization against Mehadrin, the major Israeli agricultural export company that operates inside illegal Israeli settlements and is deeply involved in the ongoing colonization of Palestinian land. 

At least 350 people then marched the 14 kilometers from Avignon to Mehadrin’s French headquarters in the small town of Chateurenard (video here). As they passed over a major bridge near Avignon, the huge crowd chanted: “Sur le pont d’Avignon, on boycotte, on boycotte! Mehadrin, Mehadrin, on boycotte, on boycotte!” — a play on the famous French nursery ryhme about Avignon. 

The march finished with a rally outside Mehadrin’s warehouses where tents bearing the names of Palestinian villages were erected in tribute to Palestinian resistance and an audio recording of a speech by Palestinian Farmers Union executive director Dawood Hamoudeh was played. Dozens of police surrounded Mehadrin’s warehouses to prevent activists from getting too close to them. Activists from more than twelve cities across France joined the mobilization. 

Mehadrin is increasingly under fire as the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement works to expose how it operates farms in illegal Israeli settlements using stolen Palestinian water, exploits Palestinian workers and helps tighten Israel’s grip on occupied land. Mehadrin operates the Jaffa brand of fruit and exports its produce to supermarkets throughout Europe. 

The march was heralded by activists as a successful first step in pressuring major French supermarkets not to stock Mehadrin goods and to create mass public awareness about the importance of boycotting Israeli products. 
The French BDS movement played a leading role in the campaign against Agrexco, a company that used to be Israel’s largest agricultural company before it entered liquidation in 2011.

There is a second part to this article under it, scroll down.

France: political trial against anti-Zionist for calling to boycott Israel

How ironical that anti-discrimination laws are used against those who are fighting against Apartheid and Genocide!

Seven activists faced trial in Alençon, Normandie, after they took part in a propaganda action in a supermarket, calling for boycott to Zionist products. They risk a fine of up to €1000 for "discrimination". Three others suffered a similar ideological persecution in Perpinyá (Northern Catalonia). Hundreds concentrated in their support in both cities.

France seems to be one of the states on Earth where campaigning against Zionism is most actively persecuted:

Dozens of activists have faced criminal charges or investigation and the French police regularly demand the names and addresses of activists that take part in actions organized in support of BDS against Israel. Several activists have already been issued with heavy fines.

The Zionist regime and its necessary associate the Zionist International, so influential within the Western Empire (but also in other powers like Russia or India), is trying to intimidate by means of political persecution the the campaign of disobedience against their imposition of Hebraized neo-Nazi values. They do not seem to understand that repression only strengthens the determination and support for those who are so obviously right. 

Source: Electronic Intifada.

Palestine: military repression at Qaddom escalating

Among the continuous popular multiethnic resistance to the Apartheid Regime in Palestine (Israel) that goes on every week and every day in many different points of the country and for which you can get weekly information, for example at Ilan Against the Wall, but hardly at all in mainstream media, which clearly censor it, it must be emphasized this week the military repression increase in Qaddom. First person report:

Friday confrontations in Qaddom is escalating in recent weeks in a way that is beyond any previous "norm". Rampant military invasion of the village before the demonstration and during it as if possessed. It is the second week of army thugs occupation the village early morning entering long before the demonstration starts and makes havocs. Shoots in all directions into the houses, the mosque and the village center. Then returns to its camps or like today just lurk near by waiting to the demonstration to start just after the service.

In today demo marched more than two hundred fifty Palestinians, five Israelis and a similar number of international supporters. Even before we reached it the entrance from Khaja was already blocked with barricades set by the Shabab as precaution from of attack by the army from this direction as it did a few weeks ago (after its morning "visit" in the village.

The army entered the village and fired from two centers in the front of the village but much deeper than the position of the blocked road and the left side of the hill. They shot a plenty of a strengthed quantity gas - so terrible that a few people suffocated from gas inhalation.

During the demonstration, they arrested two Palestinian television media man. Suddenly, in the middle of the demonstration they began shooting a massive barrage of "rubber bullets" (do not forget these are really steel bullets coated with rubber).

From this "toy" of theirs four Palestinians were wounded: one injured in his finger nearly completely severed it - he was rushed to the hospital to save the finger; another was injured in his arm and stomach; another was wounded in the chest; and another "only" in the leg.

Then the army entered again the center of the village and covered it with a cloud of gas - literally nowhere to escape. It was so intense and without any restraint.

So much so that even though I'm a Jewish female they invited me to find refuge in the mosque...

→ video.


Also Bedouin homes demolitions continue in Al Akrib. Notice that Bedouins are legally "Israeli citizens" but that does not matter at all for the Apartheid Regime.

At Bil'in the regular anti-wall protest was this week more quiet than past ones, as apparently the soldiers were not in the lazy mood, it seems, permitting the protesters even to march through the "no man's land" only shooting some gas canisters when they reached the wall gate itself.

In the Jerusalem checkpoint of Beit Jala, a group of people demanded to be allowed to cross in order to pray in Al Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites of Islam. Soldiers blocked them and a prayer was held at the site of the checkpoint.

In Tel Aviv there were road blockades against privatizations and export of natural gas. A scratching action was held also against the Minister of the Treasury and bankster Ben Dov.

However the low level of interethnic solidarity showed up at Yafa, where a protest against Jewish gentrification of the largely Native city failed to get any support of the so-called J14 movement (a pathetic Judeocentric copycat youth movement). These however did hold a protest in Jerusalem against gas privatization.

Other protests were reported at Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Odai Qaddomi, Sheikh Jarrah, Toura, etc.

Source and more details at Ilan Against the Wall.

Zionism as anti-Semitism (censored by Al Jazeera)

A most interesting article by Joseph Massad (Associated Prof. of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University), titled The Last of the Semites, was published at Al Jazeera and soon taken down in a clear act of censorship. At the time of writing this it was still available at Al Jazeera mobile edition but the original version had vanished even from Google cache. 

Luckily, Jews sans frontieres copy-pasted it in its entirety. I strongly recommend reading it. 

This is maybe the centerpiece:

When Zionism started a decade and a half after Marr's anti-Semitic programme was published, it would espouse all these anti-Jewish ideas, including scientific anti-Semitism as valid. For Zionism, Jews were "Semites", who were descendants of the ancient Hebrews. In his foundational pamphlet Der Judenstaat, Herzl explained that it was Jews, not their Christian enemies, who "cause" anti-Semitism and that "where it does not exist, [anti-Semitism] is carried by Jews in the course of their migrations", indeed that "the unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America"; that Jews were a "nation" that should leave Europe to restore their "nationhood" in Palestine or Argentina; that Jews must emulate European Christians culturally and abandon their living languages and traditions in favour of modern European languages or a restored ancient national language. Herzl preferred that all Jews adopt German, while the East European Zionists wanted Hebrew. Zionists after Herzl even agreed and affirmed that Jews were separate racially from Aryans. As for Yiddish, the living language of most European Jews, all Zionists agreed that it should be abandoned. 
The majority of Jews continued to resist Zionism and understood its precepts as those of anti-Semitism and as a continuation of the Haskalah quest to shed Jewish culture and assimilate Jews into European secular gentile culture, except that Zionism sought the latter not inside Europe but at a geographical remove following the expulsion of Jews from Europe. The Bund, or the General Jewish Labor Union in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia, which was founded in Vilna in early October 1897, a few weeks after the convening of the first Zionist Congress in Basel in late August 1897, would become Zionism's fiercest enemy. The Bund joined the existing anti-Zionist Jewish coalition of Orthodox and Reform rabbis who had combined forces a few months earlier to prevent Herzl from convening the first Zionist Congress in Munich, which forced him to move it to Basel. Jewish anti-Zionism across Europe and in the United States had the support of the majority of Jews who continued to view Zionism as an anti-Jewish movement well into the 1940s. 
Anti-Semitic chain of pro-Zionist enthusiasts
Realising that its plan for the future of European Jews was in line with those of anti-Semites, Herzl strategised early on an alliance with the latter. He declared in Der Judenstaat that:

"The Governments of all countries scourged by anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to obtain [the] sovereignty we want."

He added that "not only poor Jews" would contribute to an immigration fund for European Jews, "but also Christians who wanted to get rid of them". Herzl unapologetically confided in his Diaries that:

"The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies."

Thus when Herzl began to meet in 1903 with infamous anti-Semites like the Russian minister of the interior Vyacheslav von Plehve, who oversaw anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia, it was an alliance that he sought by design. That it would be the anti-Semitic Lord Balfour, who as Prime Minister of Britain in 1905 oversaw his government's Aliens Act, which prevented East European Jews fleeing Russian pogroms from entering Britain in order, as he put it, to save the country from the "undoubted evils" of "an immigration which was largely Jewish", was hardy coincidental. Balfour's infamous Declaration of 1917 to create in Palestine a "national home" for the "Jewish people", was designed, among other things, to curb Jewish support for the Russian Revolution and to stem the tide of further unwanted Jewish immigrants into Britain. 

The Nazis would not be an exception in this anti-Semitic chain of pro-Zionist enthusiasts. Indeed, the Zionists would strike a deal with the Nazis very early in their history. It was in 1933 that the infamous Transfer (Ha'avara) Agreement was signed between the Zionists and the Nazi government to facilitate the transfer of German Jews and their property to Palestine and which broke the international Jewish boycott of Nazi Germany started by American Jews. It was in this spirit that Nazi envoys were dispatched to Palestine to report on the successes of Jewish colonisation of the country. Adolf Eichmann returned from his 1937 trip to Palestine full of fantastic stories about the achievements of the racially-separatist Ashkenazi Kibbutz, one of which he visited on Mount Carmel as a guest of the Zionists. 

Despite the overwhelming opposition of most German Jews, it was the Zionist Federation of Germany that was the only Jewish group that supported the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, as they agreed with the Nazis that Jews and Aryans were separate and separable races. This was not a tactical support but one based on ideological similitude. The Nazis' Final Solution initially meant the expulsion of Germany's Jews to Madagascar. It is this shared goal of expelling Jews from Europe as a separate unassimilable race that created the affinity between Nazis and Zionists all along.

→ full article at Jews sans frontieres.

Nakba infograph

Very informative: at Electronic Intifada.

Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott to the Apartheid & Genocide Regime in Palestine

Possibly the most famous scientist of our time, Stephen Hawking, has finally joined the academic boycott against the Zionist Regime. After consulting with peers from Palestine, he decided to suspend sine die his planned visit to the various territories in which the Apartheid & Genocide Regime has compartmented Palestine. 

Hawking has visited Israel four times in the past. Most recently, in 2006, he delivered public lectures at Israeli and Palestinian universities as the guest of the British embassy in Tel Aviv. At the time, he said he was "looking forward to coming out to Israel and the Palestinian territories and excited about meeting both Israeli and Palestinian scientists".

Since then, his attitude to Israel appears to have hardened. In 2009, Hawking denounced Israel's three-week attack on Gaza, telling Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera that Israel's response to rocket fire from Gaza was "plain out of proportion … The situation is like that of South Africa before 1990 and cannot continue."

Source: Jews sans frontieres (excerp is from The Guardian).