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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Khader Adnan
Israel Supreme Court to hear appeal of Palestinian hunger striker on Tuesday
JERUSALEM (AP) 20 Feb -- Israel's Supreme Court has announced it will
hold an emergency hearing for an incarcerated Palestinian who is waging a
lengthy hunger strike that has put his life in danger. A statement from
the court Monday said the hearing will be held the next day. No
explanation was given. Lawyer Mahmoud Hassan says his client Khader
Adnan, on his 65th day of a hunger strike, will appeal his detention at
the hearing.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-supreme-court-hear-appeal-palestinian-hunger-striker-180009595.html
In brief video clip, hunger striker Khader Adnan speaks out from hospital bed
EI 20 Feb -- from Democracy Now
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/
brief-video-clip-hunger-striker-khader-adnan-speaks-out-hospital-bed
Today I join Khader Adnan's hunger strike - will you? / Aziz Abu Sarah
982mag 20 Feb -- ...Despite initial frustrations of the delayed
attention where rallies on
Adnan’s behalf a few weeks ago had low attendance, it seems Adnan has
become a symbol and leader of the Palestinian resistance movement ...
Adnan has the potential to inspire the masses and breathe life into the
indifferent majority. After all, it was one man called Bouazizi who
inspired thousands in Tunisia and caused a regime change. The struggle
of Adnan according to what he told his lawyer
is not about himself but as he told his lawyer, he wants his hunger
strike to generate an awakening for the Palestinian people and
specifically Palestinian prisoners. He doesn’t consider his hunger
strike a tool to save himself but rather an example to inspire a nation
that has been under military occupation for decades.
http://972mag.com/today-i-join-khader-adnans-hunger-strike-will-you/35842/
Adnan takes aim at Israel and gives Palestinians hope
21 Feb by Joseph Dana -- ...Despite the slow embrace by Palestinian political leaders, activists
have championed Mr Adnan as the Palestinian Bobby Sands, the Irish
republican prisoner who died in a 1981 hunger strike. Details of Mr
Adnan's strike were first disseminated on Twitter, and the topic has
been trending globally in recent weeks as activists have expressed their
frustration that the story has largely been ignored in the mainstream
press. The hunger strike might be Palestinian social media's Tahrir Square.
If Israel and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and Gaza are
not careful, Mr Adnan could end up as Palestine's Mohammad Bouazizi.
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/
adnan-takes-aim-at-israel-and-gives-palestinians-hope#full
Khader Adnan's hunger strike / Charlotte Silver
Counterpunch 17-19 Feb -- A month ago only those who had met him knew Khader
Adnan. Now all of Palestine and people across the world know his name
and his cause. Before December 17, when Khader was arrested for the eighth time from
his home in Jenin, he was one of thousands of Palestinians living in
the Occupied Territories who had entered and re-entered administrative
detention. Administrative detention allows Israel to hold Palestinian prisoners
without charging them, and potentially indefinitely. There is no
specification as to why each person is held and the length of the
detention has no legal limits. In its very essence administrative
detention is dehumanizing; its
effects are to homogenize the Palestinian population and strip each man,
woman and family that encounters it of his or her singularity and
personal identity. Each person who enters administrative detention is
the same as the one who came before, and the one who will follow ... But Khader’s unbearably long hunger strike has stopped
this process, clearing the fog of bureaucracy that turns humans beings
into mechanisms allowing them to disappear into the monochromatic fabric
of administrated tyranny.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/17/khader-adnans-hunger-strike/
Hashtagging Khader Adnan: a global protest on Twitter
Al
Akhbar 20 Feb byJalal Abukhater -- Organizing a trending hashtag for
Khader Adnan is just like organizing a large protest on the corner of
the busiest and most crowded street in a city.... Imagine if Adnan were
an Iranian man on hunger strike in an Iranian
jail. Would we have had to do this massive movement on Twitter to get
the world’s attention? I don’t think so. The silence of the world
community is deafening. The late awakening of the mainstream media is
inexcusable. While the mainstream media has failed to cover Adnan’s
story, Twitter
is at the forefront of the campaign to pressure the Israeli government
to act. Twitter users have taken on the responsibility of filling the
void created by the mainstream media. At this moment, according to Topsy
Twitter statistics, the hashtag #KhaderAdnan has been mentioned about
40,000 times on Twitter. It should be noted that this statistic excludes
other related hashtags which would count in the thousands.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hashtagging-khader-adnan-global-protest-twitter
Randa Adnan: 'I still have hope'
Arrabeh, occupied Palestinian territories (Al Jazeera) 19 Feb --
Randa
Adnan panics every time the phone rings, and these days it never seems
to stop. For now, it is mostly journalists, family, friends and
supporters asking about her husband, Khader, who lies shackled by his
hands and feet to a hospital bed in Israel, while his body wastes away.
Through sixty-four days of a hunger strike, the longest in the
history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Randa Adnan has only been
allowed to visit her husband twice, for a total of an hour, and each
time surrounded by armed guards. She speaks in a rush, a slight
desperation in her otherwise resolute
voice, as if time is running out and she must finish what she has to say
before it is too late. Her two young daughters hang off her, demanding
much of a woman who is dealing with a problem they do not fully
comprehend.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/02/201221984424541461.html
Khader Adnan's wife: I know he will live
JPost 19 Feb -- RAMALLAH – Along with her job preparing food for the family bakery, Randa Adnan,
the wife of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, now has a new
role – that of media spokeswoman ... She finds her new responsibility difficult. “The worst
part of it is the lack of objective news reporting. Sometimes, some [reporters]
use half of what I say and change the meaning of what I say,” she
said.She read in the media that she had asked Al- Azhar University in
Cairo for a fatwa on whether her husband’s strike was acceptable. She denies the
report.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=258504
Randa Adnan, wife of hunger striker, discusses her husband's struggle / Omar Rahman
972mag 19 Feb -- Yesterday I was fortunate enough to sit down for an
interview with
the family of Khader Adnan in their home in the village of Arrabeh,
outside of Jenin. The purpose of the interview was to get a sense of how
the family, particularly his wife and two small daughters, are coping
with what is obviously a tremendously stressful and difficult period.
I found in Randa Khader an extremely strong and articulate woman who
is doing the best she could to support her husband in his time of need
... At the beginning of our interview she spoke with determination and
the instinct for publicity that comes from being thrown in the limelight
and choosing to swim instead of sink. Later, in a more private setting
with my female colleague Abir Kopty, she opened up as a woman and a
human being. Randa told us of her husband the family man, the anxious
and excited
father to be (Randa is five months pregnant), who would wake up every
morning and make her breakfast and freshly squeezed juice. “If you knew
him,” she says, “his life would have become precious to you. He is that
kind of person.”
http://972mag.com/randa-adnan-wife-of-hunger-striker-discusses-her-husbands-struggle/35756/
Knesset member Tibi visits Adnan in Israeli hospital
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 20 Feb -- Palestinian Knesset member Ahmad Tibi on Monday
visited hunger-striking prisoner Khader Adnan in an Israeli hospital,
expressing his support for the detainee's protest against his detention
without charge. "Adnan in a very serious health condition but his spirits are high," Tibi told reporters after the visit
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461841
PCHR calls upon the international community to save the life of the detainee Khader Adnan
IMEMC
19 Feb -- The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is concerned
for the life
of Khader Adnan, a detainee in Israeli jails, who has been on hunger
strike for more than two months. PCHR calls upon the international
community to pressurize Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to release
Adnan, who has been placed under administrative detention without trial
... The internal medicine physician, who checked him five times last
week,
stressed that Adnan’s body has started to release poisons, which in
light of
the severe weakness of his immunity system makes more likely that he
may be subjected to a sudden heart attack. The same physician noted that
abstention from having food for more than 70 days inevitably leads to
death.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63028
Khader Adnan receives message of support from McCreesh family
GazaTV -- The family of Raymond McCreesh, offer our unwavering support
for ‘Khader Adnan’, who is set to enter his 65th day on Hunger Strike in
an Israeli Hospital. Raymond Mc Creesh, an Irish Republican Army
Volunteer from Camlough, South Armagh, died in Long Kesh H-Block on
Hunger Strike on the 21st of May 1981 after 61 days of refusing food in
protest at the Criminalisation Policy of the British Government on Irish
Republican Prisoners. Raymond was 24 years old. We call immediately on
all within positions of power or influence, both here in Ireland, and
around the World, to use that leverage to ensure the immediate release,
and return to full health of Mr. Adnan.
http://gazatvnews.com/2012/02/khader-adnan-receive-message-of-support-from-mccreesh-family/
Khader Adnan and now-normalized Western justice / Glenn Greenwald
Salon 20 Feb -- Each year, the U.S. State Department, as required by law, issues a “Human Rights Report”
which details abuses by other countries. To call it an exercise in
hypocrisy is to understate the case: it is almost impossible to find any
tyrannical power denounced by the State Department which the U.S.
Government (and its closest allies) do not regularly exercise itself.
Indeed, it’s often impossible to imagine how the authors of these
reports can refrain from cackling mischievously over the glaring ironies
of what they are denouncing (my all-time favorite example is discussed
in the update here) ... Of course, the U.S. has its own system of indefinite detention now firmly in place. Both within war zones and outside of them, the Obama administration continues to hold hundreds of prisoners who have never been charged with any crime even as they have remained captive for many years.
Put another way, both the U.S. and its closest client state have
completely normalized exactly the type of arbitrary, due-process-free
imprisonment the U.S. has long condemned as the defining attribute of
despotism.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/20/khader_adnan_and_normalized_western_justice/
Israeli official: Hunger striker is a 'terrorist'
Al Akhbar 20 Feb -- An Israeli official has described 63-day Palestinian hunger striker
Khader Adnan as an "Islamic Jihad terrorist" without producing any
evidence to prove his claim ...Ofir Gendelman, the Israeli Prime Minister's spokesman to the Arab
media, provoked anger by calling Adnan an "Islamic Jihad terrorist" on
Twitter. He also said that Israel should not release Adnan as he would "kill our kids."
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israeli-official-hunger-striker-jihad-terrorist
Some Western MSM pay attention, finally
WATCH Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev being grilled on CNN
Souheil
Hammamet (@hammametsou) tweet: Watch Israeli government spokesman Mark
Regev NOT answering why Israel is holding #KhaderAdnan without charging
him [calls him a 'cold-blooded killer' and a 'terrorist' - CNN's Hala
Gorani not about to let Regev off the hook]
http://bit.ly/xzqTWC
Palestinian Khader Adnan hunger strike in Israel into 10th week
BBC 19 Feb -- Khader Adnan has not eaten since mid-December when he was
arrested by Israeli forces at his West Bank home. Doctors say that after
64 days without food the prisoner is at immediate risk of death. Israel
says he is a security threat. Its high court of justice has scheduled a
petitions hearing regarding the case for Thursday. The group Physicians
for Human Rights said after visiting him in hospital in Israel that he
had lost a third of his body weight and was shackled to his bed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17092051
Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike poses challenge for Israel
Jerusalem (WaPo) 18 Feb -- ...The protracted hunger strike, said to be the longest by a Palestinian prisoner,
has confronted Israeli authorities with a dilemma. If Adnan dies, it
could trigger a response from Islamic Jihad and unrest in the West Bank,
where there have already been demonstrations of support for the
prisoner. Meeting his demand to be freed could set a precedent that
Israeli security officials worry might inspire similar actions by other
jailed Palestinians.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/palestinian-
prisoner-on-hunger-strike-poses-challenge-for-israel/2012/02/18/gIQAma05LR_story.html
Twilight Zone / One man against the state / Gideon Levy
[Haaretz seems to have removed this article - why? - this is from the
web cache] 17 Feb -- ... His hunger strike is arousing considerable
interest abroad.
Solidarity demonstrations have been held in places around the world, as
well as in Tel Aviv - but most Israelis have heard almost nothing about
this. Daily solidarity protests in the West Bank go mostly unreported in
Israel, as does the fact that 14 prisoners and wardens have reportedly
joined his strike. On Monday, the 58th day of Adnan's strike,
we visited his home in Arabeh accompanied by Physicians for Human
Rights's mobile clinic coordinator Saleh Haj Yihyeh. At that moment,
Adnan's wife Randa was updating the tally of days her husband had been
not eating, displayed on a poster in the living room. "My honor is more
important than my food," declares the caption at the bottom of the
poster, which bears the prisoner's image. With his thick beard and round glasses, he looks like a settlement rabbi.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/twilight-zone-one-man-against-the-state-1.413457
Saving Khader Adnan's life is saving our own soul / Richard Falk
Al Jazeera 19 Feb -- The world watches as tragedy unfolds beneath its gaze. Khader Adnan
is entering his 61st day as a hunger striker in an Israeli prison, being held under an administrative detention order without trial, charges, or any indication of the evidence against him. From the outset of his brutal arrest in the middle of the night - in
the presence of his wife and young daughters - he has been subject to
the sort of inhumane and degrading treatment that is totally unlawful
and morally inexcusable. Its only justification is to intimidate, if not
terrify, Palestinians who have lived for 45 years under the yoke of an
oppressive occupation. This occupation continuously whittles away at
Palestinians' rights under international humanitarian law - especially
their right to self-determination, which is encroached upon every time a
new housing unit is added to the colonising settlements that dot the
hilltops surrounding Jerusalem and the West Bank. The case of Khader Adnan is a revealing microcosm of the unbearable
cruelty of prolonged occupation. It draws a contrast in the West between
the dignity of an Israeli prisoner and the steadfast refusal to heed
the abuse of thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails
through court sentence or administrative order.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/2012216105041250560.html
Photo: Maali Adnan, daughter of Khader Adnan
Maali Adnan, 4, holds a picture of her father Khader Adnan, 33, a senior
member of Islamic Jihad jailed in Israel who has been on hunger strike
for 62 days, during a solidarity protest in the northern West Bank
village of Arrabeh, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. Adnan is on a hunger strike
to protest what he says is humiliation that he faces in Israel's
military justice system. He is being held in "administrative detention,"
under which an Israeli military judge can imprison Palestinians for
six-month periods without charge. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/maali-adnan-4-hold/2012/02/18/gIQAzX05LR_photo.html
Latuff cartoon: Anti-colonial heroes: Khader Adnan and Mahatma Gandhi
http://www.qwmagazine.com/2012/02/19/cartoon-anti-colonial-heroes-khader-adnan-mahatma-ghandi
From Rasha A. M. from Saudi Arabia
Khader you are my father, my brother & my future sons. I'm sorry we have let you down.
I'm sorry you have to fight this fight for us. I stand in solidarity with you in your fight to expose Israel's inhumane and vicious treatment of you and all Palestinians
http://khaderadnan.posterous.com/rasha-am-from-saudi-arabia
Song: Khader Adnan, Bobby Sands
Khader Adnan's current hunger strike, presumably to the death, is more
than a little reminiscent of the IRA hunger strikes of 1981. As, no
doubt, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is more than a little
reminiscent of the British occupation of Ireland, most particularly
during the Troubles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoEPftesWyA&feature=youtu.be
Video: Khader Adnan - Mark McGowan the artist taxi driver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZNNxT5sYs
Violence
Haaretz editorial: Israeli officers who left Palestinian to die must pay
19 Feb -- ...Following failed efforts by the Rehovot and Kfar Sava police stations to identify Abu Jariban, police officials made the decision to get rid of
the injured, sick and confused detainee and to take him to the Maccabim
border crossing. Three police officers pushed him into a police vehicle. After it reached the checkpoint, whose commander refused to take the
injured man, he was thrown from the vehicle in the dark of night onto
the shoulder of Route 45, between the Ofer Base and the Atarot border
crossing. He was wearing only hospital pajamas and was still attached to the catheter. His body was discovered two days later. "He was simply
thrown to the dogs," Abu Jariban's brother, Mohammed, said by telephone
from Gaza. The brother, horrifically, related the events in precise
detail ... The evidentiary stage of the trial has not yet begun, but one of the
defendants has since been promoted within the police. A third officer,
who was given a disciplinary trial over the incident, has also been
promoted since then.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/
israeli-officers-who-left-palestinian-to-die-must-pay-1.413415
Jewish settlers burn cars, damage mosque in 1948-occupied lands
NAZARETH (PIC) 20 Feb -- The Hebrew media said Jewish settlers from the "price
tag" gang torched eight Palestinian cars at dawn Sunday in Musmus town,
Wadi Ara area, in the 1948 occupied lands, and sabotaged the only Mosque
there.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Jab‘a school bus accident
Sixth child from bus accident dies of wounds
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 20 Feb – Five-year-old Salah Dweik died
Monday of wounds sustained from the Thursday bus accident south of
Ramallah, according to Voice of Palestine radio. Dweik, from the Anata
area, east of Jerusalem, where the children on the
bus come from, is the sixth child to die from the accident when the bus
overturned after hitting a truck and caught on fire. A teacher was
also killed and the radio said three other teachers still being
hospitalized in Israel are in critical condition.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19051
Twin girls missing in deadly crash found alive
RAMALLAH
(Ma‘an) 18 Feb -- In the chaotic aftermath of a deadly school bus
crash near Ramallah on Thursday, twin girls who were believed dead have
been discovered alive and well a day later in a Jerusalem hospital ...
The parents of Dana and Lana Abdullah Hamdan told Ma‘an on Saturday how
they believed their daughters were among those casualties. They
trawled from hospital to hospital, and when their daughters' names were
not found on any records, the parents believed that two charred
unidentified bodies must have belonged to the twins.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461258
Remarkable reconciliation effort born from tragic West Bank traffic accident
Globe&Mail 20 Feb by Patrick Martin -- A tragic traffic accident last week has led to a remarkable effort at
reconciliation between the families of the victims of the crash and the driver believed to be responsible for the accident ...Just 24 hours after the accident, before any of the victims even had been buried, representatives of the family of the driver and the
families of the victims met to begin discussions of compensation to the
victims’ families. To some it may seem almost crass to be bargaining about finances at a
time like this, but Palestinians explain that the meeting is a matter of
demonstrating immediately that there was no intent to harm on the part
of the driver [who is reported to have lost both legs] and thereby avoid a vendetta being carried out by grieving
relatives. Indeed, the families’ representatives quickly agreed to a hudna
– or truce between the sides – and resolved to meet again after the
funerals of the children and teacher that were conducted Sunday and
Monday.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/
remarkable-reconciliation-effort-borne-from-tragic-west-bank-traffic-accident/article2343879/
Enemies, a hate story / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 19 Feb -- It is impossible to ignore what is happening to us:
Palestinian children die in an accident, and many Israelis are happy
about it - and are no longer even ashamed of it ... It is not difficult
to imagine how such a horrific accident would have
been treated had the children been Jewish: with a lot more blood and
tears. There is no disputing that, as the Talmud says, "Every person is
partial to himself" - and to his own people, we might add. One can also
excuse the ridiculous way the Jerusalem-Ramallah road by Aram, near the
north side of the capital, suddenly became "beyond the Israeli border,"
in the language of reporters - the Green Line springs to life when it
suits us.
But what came next cannot be excused ... Perhaps it is difficult to
measure precisely, but after 25 years of
covering the Israeli occupation, and after innumerable meetings with
ordinary Palestinians, I think I can safely say that the hate and racism
on our side is not matched on the Palestinian side. I repeatedly find
myself astounded by the fact that the majority of the thousands of
Palestinians I have met over the years, all of them victims of the
occupation, speak about their dream of living together in peace(while
the majority of Israelis dream of "the separation")
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/enemies-a-hate-story-1.413424
Land, property theft and destruction
Israel's civil administration promoting legislation to let settlers build dirt roads without planning approval
Haaretz 20 Feb -- If approved, the new policy would substantially expand
the ability of Jewish settlers in the West Bank to take control of
additional land ... Most West Bank settlements are surrounded by
fencing, but lying beyond the fences there is often considerable state-owned land, and the shift
in policy would enable the Civil Administration to keep Palestinians off this land by giving access to security vehicles from the settlements,
in an effort to keep the West Bank’s Arab residents from encroaching on
the land. [!]
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-civil-
administration-promoting-legislation-to-let-settlers-build-dirt-roads-without-planning-approval-1.413539
Report: Settler outposts expand into Area B
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma‘an) 19 Feb -- Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank
have seized several hundred dunams of Palestinian land that lies inside
zones of Palestinian government control under international agreements,
Israeli media reported on Sunday. Most Israeli settlements -- all of which are illegal under international law -- lie in Area C, the 62
percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control since the 1993 Oslo
Accords. But settlers are taking over land designated Area B, which is under Palestinian Authority civil jurisdiction, and Israeli
security control, the report on Israeli daily Haaretz said.
Anti-settlement activist Dror Etkes said aerial photographs show Israeli
outpost Amona has seized hundreds of dunams of Area B territory,
building roads, planting vineyards and taking over a spring on
Palestinian land. Settlers have taken 93 dunams of land from
Palestinian village Yanun, near Nablus, the Itamar settlement prevents
Palestinian access to other large swathes of Area B territory in its
proximity, according to Etkes....
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461439
Official: Israeli military exercise damages Palestinian agriculture
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 19 Feb -- An Israeli military drill in the northern West Bank on
Monday damaged hundreds of dunams of Palestinians crops, a Palestinian
Authority official said. Hundreds of soldiers drove through
planted fields and practiced shooting, destroying the agriculture,
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors northern West Bank settlement activity,
told Ma‘an. He said Israel was trying to destroy Palestinian
livelihoods in the large swathes of the West Bank under its control in
order to push them to leave.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461858
Al-Aqsa
VIDEOS: Jewish settlers and policemen defile Aqsa Mosque, clash with Muslim worshipers
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 19 Feb – A group of Palestinian worshipers holding a
vigil inside the Aqsa Mosque have fended off dozens of fanatic Jewish
settlers who tried on Sunday morning to desecrate the Islamic holy site,
and clashed with their police escorts. The Israeli occupation policemen spread extensively throughout the
Mosque and attempted to secure the settlers’ provocative entry. Three
Israeli armed policemen were injured during the clashes with Palestinian
worshipers.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/02/
jewish-settlers-and-policemen-defile-aqsa-mosque-clash-with-muslim-worshipers/
Worshipers injured, arrested in clashes in Al-Aqsa compound
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 19 Feb – Several worshipers Sunday were
injured and three were arrested during clashes erupted between
Palestinians and Israeli police and Border Guards in al-Haram al-Sharif
compound in the Old City of Jerusalem after Israeli settlers attempted
to storm it, said WAFA correspondent. He said Palestinians gathered in
the compound since dawn following calls
by extremist settlers to storm al-Aqsa Mosque and perform Jewish rituals
in it. Several worshipers and three Israeli soldiers were reported
injured in
scuffles; whereas three Palestinians were arrested under the pretext of
throwing stones at right wing extremist Israelis and preventing them
from entering the mosque. Meanwhile, Israeli police shut down al-Haram
al-Sharif gates, locking worshipers inside, and prevented anyone from
entering the compound
after Palestinians protested the police’s earlier decision to allow only
worshipers over 45 years to enter.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19028
Israeli police allow extremist Jews on al-Aqsa yards
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 20 Feb – Israeli police Monday allowed
several extremist Jews on al-Aqsa Mosque yards in spite of tension in
the area following clashes on Sunday between Palestinians and Israeli
police, according to a Mosque guard ... Calls by Jewish extremists, particularly women groups, were also made to
visit al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday to perform religious rituals, provoking
Palestinian nationalist and religious leaders in Jerusalem to call on
Muslim women to gather in the mosque and confront them.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19039
Nabil Al-Arabi and the Mufti of Jerusalem discuss ways to deal with Israeli attacks on religious shrines
MEMO 20 Feb -- The Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Dr Nabil Al-Arabi,
and the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, yesterday discussed recent developments in Palestine and the action required in the face of continued Israeli attacks on religious shrines ... The meeting was also attended by Ambassador Mohamed Sabih, the Secretary General of the Arab League for Palestine and the Occupied Arab territories.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3439
Settlers call to storm Rachel's Tomb
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 19 Feb – Israeli settlers Sunday sent out mass text messages calling to storm Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque, also known
as Rachel’s Tomb, north of Bethlehem on Thursday, said a local activist. Ahmad Salah, the coordinator of the Anti-Wall and Settlements Committee in al-Khader, a town south of Bethlehem, said he received a text message via an Israeli mobile carrier urging Israeli settlers to gather near
Rachel’s Tomb area and perform religious rituals.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19033
Gaza
Airstrikes 'injure toddler, damage school' in Gaza
[photos] GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Feb -- Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early
Sunday injured a one-year-old boy when his bedroom was hit by a missile, among
five others wounded, and an elementary school sustained severe damage,
locals told Ma‘an ... Um Ilian al-Zaharna told Ma‘an that moments before the missile struck her house, she heard bombing nearby and opened her children's bedroom
window so it wouldn’t shatter over them. “As soon as I returned to bed
an Israeli rocket hit the room next door and I was certain my baby was
killed.” One-year-old Muhammad had been thrown from the room, and her
husband was buried in rubble where he was sleeping, she said. “We are
not associated with any factions. Is Mohammad a threat to Israeli security to be punished while he’s sleeping next to his father?” Um Ilian said..
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461602
IDF factions push for offensive in Gaza
JPost 20 Feb -- Senior officer in Southern Command says ongoing attacks
are cumulatively more than enough to justify immediate action ... Last
month, The Jerusalem Post revealed that the IDF General Staff had ordered the Southern Command to speed up preparations for a possible
large-scale operation in the Strip within the coming months. The debate within the IDF is whether it needs to wait for a
successful attack by Gaza terrorists – be it a rocket attack that causes
casualties or a successful cross border attack – or if the sporadic rocket fire
is enough of a justification to launch an operation today.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=258511
Emergency fuel arrives from Egypt via Gaza tunnels
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 20 Feb 18:46 -- ...The fuel has allowed the power authority to reactivate one of the four
generators at Gaza's sole power plant, the authority said in a
statement. The arrival of 300,000 liters of fuel is expected to
provide Gaza's 1.7 million residents with an additional two hours of
electricity per day. Since the plant shut down last Tuesday, as
deliveries were severely reduced from Egypt, Gaza has had only six hours
of power each day.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461832
Gaza's Hamas PM heads to Egypt over electricity crisis
Daily Star 20 Feb -- GAZA CITY: Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail
Haniya was due in Cairo on Monday to discuss the power crisis gripping the Israeli-blockaded
Palestinian enclave, his government said. The crisis was sparked on
February 14 when Gaza's sole power plant was forced to close down after running out of fuel after a fall in supplies
from Egypt ... Most of Gaza's fuel comes through cross-border tunnels
from Egypt. But the UN humanitarian agency OCHA says the amount has
dropped by half over the past three weeks, reportedly due to increased restrictions on
the movement of fuel by Egyptian police.International aid agency Oxfam
on Saturday warned that the lack of fuel
meant Gaza was facing "a total collapse of essential services," and
said only an end to Israel's blockade of the territory would solve its
electricity shortage.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Feb-20/163972-
gazas-hamas-pm-heads-to-egypt-over-electricity-crisis.ashx
OPT: Gaza's energy crisis close to tipping point
GAZA
CITY (IRIN) 20 Feb -- An energy crisis is currently
hitting the Gaza Strip‘s public services hard and could lead to a severe
humanitarian crisis if a sustainable solution is not found soon. “If
the power plant does not resume its work in the next days, some
hospitals will be left without electricity,” Mahmud Daher,
officer-in-charge of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Gaza, told
IRIN ... “The current crisis is a political problem that started six
years ago. The Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Authority's refusal to provide
the Gaza Strip with funds, and the policy of Egypt which is dealing with
Gaza out of security calculations, have all contributed to the current
situation,” said Hamas government spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94909
UPI: The fuel crisis in Gaza (14 images)
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Features/The-fuel-crisis-in-Gaza/6304
Egypt to supply Gaza with power
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 20 Feb – Egypt agreed Monday to supply the Gaza Strip with 5 megawatt of power starting next week in the first
stage of providing power to the coastal enclave to solve its electricity crisis, according to an official. Chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority Omar Kittaneh told WAFA that Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Energy Hassan Younis informed him
in a telephone call that Egypt has agreed to immediately supply Gaza
with 5 megawatt of power. He said the Egyptian and Palestinian sides “have reached a solution to
the power problem in Gaza through three stages -- short-term, mid-term
and long-term. He said the Egyptian initiative is based on increasing power supply to
Gaza by 40 megawatt through increasing the operational capacity of
Sinai’s power station.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19046
Gaza sit-in, rally back Khader Adnan; general strike set for Tuesday / Joe Catron
20 Feb -- Every Monday morning the families of 445 Gaza Palestinians detained by
Israel occupy the courtyard of Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters to demand that the ICRC fulfill its obligation to
protect the rights of their imprisoned relatives. This week’s gathering was infused with fresh energy and a singular focus as Khader Adnan
neared 66 days on hunger strike against his administrative detention. A government-sponsored rally after the sit-in drew hundreds of
Palestinians and international visitors.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/
gaza-sit-in-rally-back-khader-adnan-general-strike-set-for-tuesday.html
Half the story: What @IDFSpokesperson leaves out about #Gaza / Yousef Munnayer
Permission To Narrate 20 Feb -- If a rocket from Gaza falls in the
middle of the desert, does it make a sound? It does if you are on
Twitter. Regular updates on just about every projectile fired from Gaza
is reported by the Israeli military's official twitter account
@IDFSpokesperson as well as from the accounts of other Israeli military
figures like that of spokesperson @AvitalLeibovich.But what about
projectiles fired by Israel into Gaza? You'd think that since this is
actual Israeli military activity the spokespeople from the Israeli
military would provide this information.
http://blog.thejerusalemfund.org/2012/02/half-story-what-idfspokesperson-leaves.html
PLO rejects UNRWA's reduction of services policy
GAZA (WAFA) 19 Feb -- Zakaria al-Agha, the head of PLO's Department for Refugee Affairs, Sunday in a statement rejected UNRWA’s
policy to cut services provided for Palestinian refugees to close the
organization’s budget deficit. Al-Agha said UNRWA halted payment of complementary-support allowances to
families below the poverty line and halted payment of compensatory financial aid that covers the basic food needs of 108.000 of the poorest refugees in Gaza ... Al-Agha called on the donor countries to uphold their responsibilities and financial obligations towards UNRWA in order to solve its current
financial crisis and close its fiscal deficit.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19032
Detention / Court actions
Cancer patient detained while seeking treatment in Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Feb -- Israeli forces on Sunday detained a man from
Gaza who was seeking medical treatment in Israel. Witnesses
told Ma‘an that Kamal Hikmat al-Taramsi, 23, was detained at Beit
Hanoun checkpoint while reportedly on route to an Israeli hospital for
treatment. Al-Taramsi, from Jabalia refugee camp, suffers from thyroid
cancer.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461637
Witnesses: Israeli undercover agents seize Ramallah man
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Feb -- Israeli undercover forces abducted a man from the
West Bank city of Al-Bireh on Monday, locals told Ma‘an. Two
private cars stopped at the entrance of the Palestinian Red Crescent
association before Israeli agents seized Omar Abu Rwayyis, 23, who works
as a security guard, they said. Abu Rwayyis is also the goalkeeper in
Al-Amaari football club, one of the West Bank's best teams.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461805
Bassem Tamimi to Israeli military judge: I do not recognize the authority of the Israeli occupation
20 Feb by Adam Horowitz -- Yesterday, Nabi Saleh's Bassam Tamimi was finally allowed to address an
Israeli court after being held for 11 months. The Popular Struggle
Coordination Committee sent out the following update: "...After 11 months in an Israeli jail, Bassem Tamimi, a prominent
Palestinian activist from Nabi Saleh, was given a chance to plead his
case before the military court in regards to the allegations against
him, denying them in full while owning up to his and his village's
struggle against the Occupation and the theft of their lands. Tamimi,
who was recognized by the European Union as a human rights defender last
year, said, 'International law gives us the right to peaceful protest,
to demonstrate our refusal of the policies that hurt us, our daily
life and the future of our children'...."
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/bassem-tamimi-
to-israeli-military-judge-i-do-not-recognize-the-authority-of-the-israeli-occupation.html
UFree: Israeli doctors conceal torture incidents in Israeli jails
GENEVA (PIC) 20 Feb -- The Oslo-based European Network to support the
rights of Palestinian Prisoners-UFree said many Israeli doctors covered
up torture incidents that happened to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails. According to a report by UFree based on testimonies from
prisoners, the doctors inside Israeli jails did not report about
injuries and bruises inflicted on prisoners by Israeli interrogators and
instead they wrote false medical reports in order to expose the
detainees to more torture sessions.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Ministry: Israel must free mentally ill detainee
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Feb -- A 35-year-old Palestinian man in Israeli jail is
suffering from schizophrenia and should be released for medical
treatment, the PA ministry of prisoners affairs said on Saturday. Karam
Sulaiman Ahmad Issa, from Balata refugee camp near Nablus, is being
held in Israel's Megiddo prison after he was detained in March 2011. He
was accused of trying to shoot a solider near al-Hamra checkpoint in the
West Bank, but relatives said he was not carrying a weapon and was
instead injured by Israeli forces. Lawyer with the ministry Fadi Abedat said Issa was diagnosed with the
psychiatric disorder in al-Ramla hospital, and an Israeli court was
meant to release him for treatment abroad after it received a report on
his medical condition.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461379
Racism / Discrimination
TA councilman calls for separate buses for 'smelly' foreigners / Mya Guarnieri
972mag 18 Feb -- Last week, Tel Aviv City Councilman Binyamin Babayoff (Shas) sent a letter to Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, Minister of Transportation Israel
Katz, and Dr. Moshe Tiomkin, a Tel Aviv councilman and the head of the
city’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Authority. In an excerpt
published by Mynet (local online Hebrew news affiliated with Ynet), Babayoff wrote that “illegal foreign workers fill the buses…” leaving no
room for Jewish Israeli residents of South Tel Aviv. He added that “foreign workers… give off a bad smell and they might, God forbid, cause all kinds of diseases.”
http://972mag.com/ta-councilman-calls-for-separate-buses-for-smelly-foreigners/35600/
'Death to Christianity' written on Jerusalem church
JERUSALEM
(Reuters/Ma‘an) 20 Feb -- Vandals daubed "Death to Christianity" on a Jerusalem church on Monday in the second such attack in the holy city
this month, police said. The words "Price Tag", a slogan used by
ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers, were also scrawled on the walls of
the Baptist Narkis Street Congregation in a quiet residential
neighborhood in West Jerusalem. "Officers are investigating a
strong possibility of a (Jewish) nationalist motive but no one has been
apprehended yet," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The
graffiti also included profanity about Jesus, and the vandals slashed
the tires of several cars parked in the church compound ... "Death to
Christians" was daubed in Hebrew on the outer walls of the
Monastery of the Cross, an 11th-century holy site, on Feb. 7.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461727
Israeli city's Christian community fights for equal burial rights
Haaretz 19 Feb -- Be'er Sheva, the largest city in Israel's south, does not provide
burial accommodations for its Christian population, Zikaron, a
non-profit representing Christian burial rights in Israel, is claiming. The NGO's struggle against city policy
began after current mayor Rubik Danilovich reversed a 2001 decision by
then mayor Yaakov Terner to allocate land to serve as the future site of a Christian cemetery in the city.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/
israeli-city-s-christian-community-fights-for-equal-burial-rights-1.413421
Filipina teen fights to join Holocaust remembrance trip to Poland
Haaretz 19 Feb -- 16-year-old student warned return to Israel may be barred though she was born in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/
filipina-teen-fights-to-join-holocaust-remembrance-trip-to-poland-1.413411
Israeli panel set to discuss bill banning discrimination against LGBT community
Haaretz 19 Feb -- The bill, submitted by MK Nitzan Horowitz, would add
wording prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual identity to all existing anti-discrimination legislation.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/
israeli-panel-set-to-discuss-bill-banning-discrimination-against-lgbt-community-1.413441
Political developments
Abbas: Future government to uphold PLO agreements
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 18 Feb – President Mahmoud Abbas said
Saturday that the national unity government he intends to form as per
the Doha agreement with Hamas will uphold the PLO obligations and signed
agreements
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19024
Netanyahu's border proposal: Israel to annex settlement blocks but not Jordan Valley
Haaretz 19 Feb by Barak Ravid -- Three weeks after the end of the talks that took place between Israel
and the Palestinians in Amman which took place under the patronage of
the King of Jordan, Israeli officials revealed their version of the
events, laying the blame on the failure of the talks on Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Despite the mutual “blame game,” according to positions presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the topic of borders, it is clear that it is not much different than the positions presented by Tzipi Livni during the Annapolis Conference.
[A detailed description of all five meetings, from an Israeli point of
view]
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/
netanyahu-s-border-proposal-israel-to-annex-settlement-blocs-but-not-jordan-valley-1.413473
PLO cabinet to meet Monday over failed talks
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Feb -- ...Saeb Erekat said the meeting will mull next steps after explanatory
talks with an Israeli envoy last month ended without agreement for
continuing negotiations. The PLO cabinet member added that talks
with international officials to save the life of hunger-striking
prisoner Khader Adnan had not brought any results.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461485
White House: Netanyahu, Obama to meet in Washington on March 5
Haaretz
20 Feb -- Meeting in two weeks will likely center on range of actions
geared at preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability,
whether through sanctions, talks, or military strike.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/
white-house-netanyahu-obama-to-meet-in-washington-on-march-5-1.413816
Other news
Funding stops to silence Canada's Palestine House, says staff
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO (WAFA) 20 Feb – Staff of Palestine
House Cultural and Educational Centre in Mississauga, Ontario accused
the conservative Canadian government of stopping funding it as part of a
campaign to silence groups who speak in support of the Palestinian
people, according to a recent press release ... Palestine House, which has been providing CIC-funded settlement and
language instruction services to Canadian immigrants of all walks of
life for nearly two decades, will no longer provide these services to
newcomer Canadians, it said.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19049 |
| For further information contact Shadi Fadda |
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