Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

Netanyahu's Party Votes Unanimously to Annex West Bank, Violation of Palestinian Human Rights Continues

January 2, 2018 

Editor's Note:

The following news stories are just examples of the Israeli occupation government violations of Palestinian human rights, on daily basis.

More detailed news stories can be found at the following sources: https://english.palinfo.com/, http://imemc.org/, https://paltoday.ps/ar/

 

Israeli Army Fires Missiles Into Southern Gaza, January 2, 2018	Israeli occupation soldiers in Hebron, January 2, 2018

Editor's Note:

While brutal force has been used to create Zionist Israel and sustain it thus far, Zionist claims to Palestine are false. Actually, from the five thousand years of known written history, there has been a continuous Palestinian-Canaanite presence in the Holy Land. Despite the Zionist false claims, the ancient Israelites ruled part of the land for only 80 years (during the reign of David, Solomon, and Solomon's sons).

 After that, the Egyptians conquered Palestine-Canaan in 925 BC, followed by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Roman, before the Arab Muslim rule, starting from 636 AD.

So, Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews are the ones who have the right to claim descent from ancient Israelites, Palestinians, and Canaanites, not Zionists from other continents.

***

Netanyahu’s Party Leadership Votes Unanimously to Annex West Bank

January 1, 2018 10:29 AM IMEMC News & Agencies

The ruling Israeli Likud party leadership met Sunday and voted unanimously in favor of a resolution that effectively annexes the illegal Israeli colonial settlements constructed on illegally-seized Palestinian land in violation of international law.

During the discussion before the vote, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the Likud Central Committee, “The time has come to express our Biblical right to the land”. Erdan then referenced the U.S. President’s December 6th declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying that the Israeli government should take advantage of this opportunity to seize permanent control of the land.

This marks a unilateral action by the state of Israel, backed by the United States, to take over the Palestinian territories through the use of military force and expand Israel’s (never declared) borders while pushing out, killing, and denying the presence of the indigenous Palestinian population.

As Juan Cole pointed out in 2010 in his synopsis of the history of the city of Jerusalem, “The Assyrians conquered Jerusalem in 722. The Babylonians took it in 597 and ruled it until they were themselves conquered in 539 BCE by the Achaemenids of ancient Iran, who ruled Jerusalem until Alexander the Great took the Levant in the 330s BCE. Alexander’s descendants, the Ptolemies ruled Jerusalem until 198 when Alexander’s other descendants, the Seleucids, took the city. With the Maccabean Revolt in 168 BCE, the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom did rule Jerusalem until 37 BCE, though Antigonus II Mattathias, the last Hasmonean, only took over Jerusalem with the help of the Parthian dynasty in 40 BCE. Herod ruled 37 BCE until the Romans conquered what they called Palestine in 6 CE (CE= ‘Common Era’ or what Christians call AD). The Romans and then the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium ruled Jerusalem from 6 CE until 614 CE when the Iranian Sasanian Empire Conquered it, ruling until 629 CE when the Byzantines took it back.

“The Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 638 and ruled it until 1099 when the Crusaders conquered it. The Crusaders killed or expelled Jews and Muslims from the city. The Muslims under Salahuddin took it back in 1187 CE and allowed Jews to return, and Muslims ruled it until the end of World War I, or altogether for about 1192 years.”

As the late Edward Said noted in 2011, “The Zionist claim to the land is one claim among many others. Certainly the Arabs have a much greater claim because they have a longer history of inhabitance, of actual residence in Palestine than the Jews did…..If you look at history, you’ll see that the actual Israelite inhabitance in Palestine, in the Old Testament, amounted to about 200 to 250 years. But there were Mallebites, there were Jebusites, there were Canaanites, there were Philistines, there were many other people in Palestine at the time and before and after. And to isolate one of the claims and say that’s THE claim, that is the real owner of the land — that’s fundamentalism…Because the only way you can back it up is to say ‘God gave it to us’. Yes, but Christians say that God gave it to them, Muslims say that God gave it to them – it’s not a rational argument. So I think that the people who have a history of residence in Palestine, including the Jews and, of course, the Arabs, have a claim. But I don’t think that any claim, whether it’s given by god or the emperor, nobody has the claim that overrides all the others’ and entitles that person with that so-called claim to drive people out.”

Israel Occupation Soldiers Abduct 22 Palestinians In The West Bank

January 3, 2018 9:44 AM IMEMC News

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli occupation soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank, and conducted violent searches while interrogating scores of Palestinians, and abducted twenty-two.

Dozens of soldiers also invaded the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and conducted military drills, while invading homes and interrogating the inhabitants.

In addition, the soldiers invaded Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem, confiscated eight cars, and posted warnings leaflets, threatening further invasions should protests continue.

The Israeli occupation army also claimed to locate homemade weapons, in Kafr Ni’ma village, northwest of Ramallah, in central West Bank.

Furthermore, the soldiers invaded dozens of homes in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, abducted one Palestinian, and searched many homes looking for what the army called “illegal possessions.”

Gaza Health Services to Collapse Due to the Israeli Siege

January 3, 2018 7:04 AM IMEMC News & Agencies

After 11 years of strict Israeli occupation government military siege on the Gaza Strip and the intentional procrastination of Palestinian Authority (PA), to take up its responsibilities in Gaza, healthcare services will reportedly collapse in days.

Shelves of the Palestinians Ministry of Health, in Gaza, are almost empty, as hundreds of medicines ran out months ago.

“The Israeli occupation put strict conditions on the passage of medicines, the medical equipment and medical disposals,” spokesman for the Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra said, in a statement, according to Days of Palestine.

He also said that the basic medical materials needed for urgent and necessary surgeries and initial lab tests had run out from the besieged enclave.

Al-Qidra called for the PA branch of the Ministry of Health, in Ramallah, to send medicines, equipment and spare parts, as well as to transfer administration fees.

Meanwhile, he called for the international community to put pressure on the Israeli occupation to facilitate the entry of at least the urgent material and medical equipment and medicines.

Israeli Occupation Soldiers Shot One Palestinian In Southern Gaza

January 2, 2018 2:29 PM IMEMC News

Israeli occupation soldiers injured, on Tuesday afternoon, a young Palestinian man, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Palestinian Health Ministry In Gaza, said the soldiers shot the man with a live round in his leg, causing a moderate injury, before he was rushed to a hospital, in Khan Younis.

The Palestinian was shot after the army fired many live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and gas bombs, at many Palestinians, protesting on their lands, near the border fence.

Many Palestinians suffered the effects of teargas inhalation, and received the needed treatment by local medics.

Israeli Occupation Army Fires Missiles Into Southern Gaza

January 2, 2018 7:07 AM IMEMC News

The Israeli occupation government air force fired, on Tuesday at dawn, three missiles into a site, run by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, northwest of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, causing property damage.

Palestinian sources said the missiles caused property damage to the site, and nearby structures, but did not lead to any casualties.

The Israeli army said it was ” to a homemade shell,” reportedly fired from Khan Younis, and landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council of Settlements.

The army held Hamas responsible for the shell, and for any escalation in the region.

Israeli Occupation Soldiers Assault And Abduct A Palestinian Teen Near Hebron

January 2, 2018 2:26 AM IMEMC News

Israeli occupation soldiers abducted, on Monday evening, a Palestinian teen at Beit ‘Einoun Junction, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

Media sources in Hebron said the abducted teen has been identified as Mohammad Sharif Mashni, 18, from Shiokh village.

They added that the soldiers stopped and searched Mashni, and repeatedly beat him up, allegedly after finding a “sharp object in his picket.”

Mashni was cuffed and blindfolded, before he was moved to a nearby police station for interrogation.

Israeli Occupation Soldiers Bulldoze Palestinian Lands In Southern Gaza

January 1, 2018 10:49 AM IMEMC News

On Monday morning, Israeli occupation soldiers, accompanied by armored bulldozers, invaded Palestinian lands, east of the al-Qarara town, north of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and bulldozed lands close to the border fence.

Media sources said the soldiers came from Kissufim military base, across the border fence, and carried out a limited invasion into Palestinian lands, before uprooting them.

The soldiers used smoke bombs during the invasion, while military drones hovered over the area.

Palestinian Injured by Shrapnel in Nablus, Illegal Isreli Settlers Erect Tents

January 3, 2018 7:32 AM IMEMC News & Agencies

A Palestinian was injured by bullet shrapnel on Tuesday, during clashes which broke out with Israeli occupation soldiers in Salem village, to the east of Nablus, said medical sources.

Ahmad Jibrel, head of the ambulance and emergency department of the Red Crescent in Nablus, told WAFA that paramedic crews dealt with a shrapnel injury during clashes that erupted in Salem village, with Israeli forces.

Forces reportedly opened fire and used tear gas canisters against the village residents, causing several suffocation cases among them.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Israeli settlers set up tents on Palestinian-owned land in district.

Ma’an further reports that settlers from the illegal Elon Moreh settlement set up tents in the Ras al-Ein area, east of the Deir al-Hatab village, and fenced off the area.

According to the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), Deir al-Hatab was divided into Area B and Area C after the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel signed the Oslo II Interim Agreement in 1995.

Approximately 4,783 dunams — 42 percent of the village’s total area — were classified as Area B, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) controls civil matters and Israel retains control over “security.”

The rest of the 58 percent of the village’s area — approximately 6,681 dunams — was classified as Area C, where Israel retains full control over security and civil administration, making Palestinian building and land management “illegal” unless approved by the Israeli Civil Administration.

The majority of Deir al-Hatab’s population resides in Area B, while most of the land lying within Area C is agricultural land or has been confiscated for Israeli settlements.

Israel has confiscated 659 dunams from the village for the establishment of the Elon Moreh settlement, which sits on the north-eastern side of the village, according to a 2014 report by ARIJ.

Since the establishment of the settlement in 1979, which at the time of the report had 1,595 residents, Palestinian residents and farmers of Deir al-Hatab have been subjected to various settler attacks, in addition to the settlers having also stolen crops, damaged trees and attacked animals, homes and other private property.

According to ARIJ, settlers from Elon Moreh have cut off the village’s electricity supply by destroying the electricity infrastructure, and in 2009, settlers constructed a barbed wire fence around a water spring which served as one of the most important water sources in the village, despite an Israeli court ruling that stated the right of the Deir al-Hatab residents to the spring.

In addition to the hundreds of dunams of Deir al-Hatab’s land confiscated for Elon Moreh’s use, Israeli authorities have also confiscated 50 dunams of the village’s land for an Israeli “industrial zone,” 12 dunams for the establishment of an Israeli military base, and more unspecified amounts of land for the establishment of checkpoints around the village, and the settler bypass Road 555, which links Elon Moreh with the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus and the Itamar settlement.

Land from the village was also seized by Israeli settlers who used the land to establish two illegal settlement outposts to the east of the village on the hills that surround Elon Moreh.

The aim of these outposts — which stand in contravention with both Israeli and international law — according to ARIJ, was to extend the Elon Moreh settlement “and in turn, control more Palestinian land.”

As seen in the case of Deir al-Hatab, Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, although the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory are more easily given building permits and allowed to expand their homes and properties.

Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C — the more than 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control — are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally. 

***

Share the link of this article with your facebook friends