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

 

ICC Reconsiders Decision on Israeli Attack on Mavi Marmara, BDS Calls for Boycotting AnyVision, for Serving the Israeli Apartheid Regime

September 4, 2019 

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 85 years (during the reign of David, Solomon, and Solomon's son).

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

By the Time Jesus started his mission, the three population groups of Canaanites, Palestinians, and Israelites were melted together in religion and language. Most of them became Christians when Constantine converted in 313 AD. Then, most of them became Muslims in the 7th and 8th centuries 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.

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/, https://imemc.org/, https://paltoday.ps/ar/

 

Mavimarmara, the Turkish peace vessel which was attacked by Israeli occupation forces, in its way to Gaza, on May 31, 2010	A Palestinian paramedic who was injured inside Gaza by fire from Israeli occupation soldiers from across the border, August 30, 2019

 

ICC Prosecutor to Reconsider Decision on Mavi Marmara

September 3, 2019 1:24 PM IMEMC News & Agencies

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided, on Monday, that the ICC prosecutor must reconsider a decision to start an investigation, or not, on the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident.

“[The] Appeals Chamber nevertheless maintained that ‘ultimate decision’ as to whether or not to initiate an investigation is that of the Prosecutor,” the ICC said on its Twitter account.

The prosecutor must reconsider the decision by December 2, it added.

The case began in 2013, when the Indian Ocean Arab nation of Comoros, whose flag the Mavi Marmara sailed under, asked an ICC prosecutor to investigate the deadly raid.

The ICC prosecutor previously decided not to investigate the attack.

One of the  attorneys for the vessel, Gulden Sonmez, told Anadolu Agency that they were happy with the Appeals Chamber’s decision.

“We hope that the Israeli criminals will be brought before justice at this court,” she said.

“All the victims and families of the martyrs await decision of the prosecutor to start an investigation,” Sonmez stressed.

Six civilian ships in a Turkish aid flotilla were attacked by Israeli occupation forces in international waters on May 31, 2010 as they tried to break Israel’s crippling siege of the Gaza Strip, Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency further reports.

Eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin were killed in the incident, and 30 others were injured, including one who succumbed to his injuries nearly four years after the incident.

*Contribution and writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet in Ankara

Israeli Occupation Army Abducts Twenty-Four Palestinians In West Bank

September 3, 2019 11:51 AM IMEMC News

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, on Tuesday at dawn, at least twenty-four Palestinians, including children and political prisoners, from their homes, in several parts of the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli occupation soldiers conducted extensive invasions and violent searches of homes across the occupied West Bank, and interrogated many Palestinians while inspecting their ID cards.

Furthermore, the Israeli occupation soldiers installed many roadblocks across the West Bank, before stopping and searching cars, and interrogated dozens of Palestinians while inspecting their ID cards.

Among the invaded homes are the property of a political prisoner, identified as Karmel Barghouthi, from Kobar village, north of Ramallah, and the homes of two former political prisoners, Nafeth Shawamra and Mohammad Abu Arqoub, from Doura town, south of Hebron.

The soldiers also caused excessive damage to many invaded homes, especially in Hebron city, in southern West Bank, and Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, where the soldiers smashed doors and furniture during the violent searches.

Nine of the abducted residents, including former political prisoners, in addition to a father and his son, are from Hebron governorate, in southern West Bank. The soldiers caused damage to many homes, including those owned by two political prisoners, identified as Nafeth Shawamra and Mohammad Abu Arqoub, from Doura town, south of Hebron.

Illegal Israeli Settlers Bulldoze Palestinian-Owned Land in Bethlehem District

September 3, 2019 1:43 PM IMEMC News & Agencies

A hoard of illegal armed Jewish settlers, on Monday, appropriated and bulldozed a Palestinian-owned tract of agricultural land in Beit Jala town, west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Local official Hasan Berijiya said that bulldozers, escorted by a group of settlers carrying weapons, stormed the agricultural area of al-Makhrour and embarked on razing four dunams of land belonging to a local resident named Saba Iskandar.

Berijiya added that the settlers threatened to place mobile homes on this piece of land, noting that the seized land is located near the Palestinian restaurant and the house that had been demolished about a week ago, by the occupation authority.

Israeli Occupation Forces Abduct 28 Palestinians Early Monday Morning

September 2, 2019 5:35 PM IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli Occupation Forces detained, early Monday morning, 28 Palestinians from their homes, after soldiers invaded their homes in the occupied West Bank, reported the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

The PPS said the Israeli occupation soldiers detained 7 men from the Hebron district, including Thayer Halahleh who spent several years in Israeli prisons, most of them in administrative detention without charge or trial, going on hunger strike for 78 days in 2012, securing his release, according to WAFA.

The Israeli occupation soldiers also detained 6 Palestinians from the Jenin district and 2 from the Qalqilia area, in the northern occupied West Bank. 3 men were abducted from the Bethlehem district, in the southern West Bank and 1 from Sinjil village near Ramallah.

In addition, Israeli forces detained 8 young Palestinians from al-‘Isawiya neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, and 1 from Abu Dis town, east of Jerusalem.

Source : WAFA Edited for IMEMC : Ali Salam

Young Man Dies From Serious Wounds Suffered Friday In Southern Gaza

August 31, 2019 8:48 PM IMEMC News

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has reported, Saturday, that a young man who was shot and seriously injured by Israeli army fire during the Great Return March processions, Friday, has died from his wounds.

The Health Ministry stated that Badereddin Nabil Mousa, 25, was shot with a live Israeli army round, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The young man was shot by an Israeli occupation army sharpshooter stationed at a sniper post across the perimeter fence, and was rushed to the Gaza European Hospital, where he died from his serious wounds.

He was one of 94 Palestinians, including 25 children, one woman, two journalist and two paramedics who were shot by Israeli army fire on Friday, in several parts of the Gaza Strip during the processions along the eastern parts of the Gaza Strip.

BDS Calls for Boycott on AnyVision, Israel’s “Field-tested” Facial Recognition Surveillance Company

August 31, 2019 4:45 AM IMEMC News & Agencies

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is calling for the boycott of AnyVision, Israel’s facial recognition technology firm, due to its irrefutable complicity in Israel’s occupation and repression of Palestinians. 

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls for boycotting AnyVision, Israel’s facial recognition technology firm, due to its irrefutable complicity in Israel’s occupation and repression of Palestinians.

AnyVision profits from Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights and exports its repressive surveillance technology globally.

With offices in Tel Aviv, New York, Mexico, London, Belfast and Singapore, the company was founded in 2015 and has quickly gained investments, contracts and joint ventures with the Israeli military, governments and companies internationally.

Human Rights Watch has called on Microsoft to review its investments in AnyVision given the “human rights risk associated with the investment in a company that’s providing [facial recognition] technology to an occupying power.” AnyVision violates Microsoft’s own principles on facial recognition because they provide technology used for unlawful surveillance.

HPE, which supplies servers to Israel’s population control registry, a pillar of its apartheid system, uses AnyVision facial recognition technology in its servers.

Spanish telecommunications transnational Telefónica and G4S also use AnyVision’s technology. The city of Nice, France, surveils citizens with AnyVision and entry to the London stadium was surveilled by AnyVision last summer.

Enabling the occupation

AnyVision plays a direct role in Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, which includes Israel’s illegal wall and military checkpoints. According to the Israeli army, AnyVision is part of a “program to upgrade” military checkpoints in the West Bank through adding technology for new “identification and inspection stations”. Anyvision also maintains cameras for the Israeli military deep inside the West Bank to spy on  Palestinians and enable the Israeli military’s illegal targeting of civilians.

AnyVision promotes itself as a company of “AI Designers & Security Veterans” with  over 20 years of “field experience”. AnyVision president, Amir Kain, is former head of the security department at Israel’s Ministry of Defense. One of its advisers, Tamir Pardo, is former head of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.

The Israeli occupation government so-called “defense” ministry is responsible for carrying out repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including massacres in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. The Mossad is a criminal agency that directly enables violations of international law and Palestinian human rights through illegal covert operations and extra-judicial killings.

The Israeli government systematically supports private companies in exporting its repressive technology and tactics for profit. The profits made from this dirty business serve to offset Israel’s military spending and other costs of its apartheid regime.

Exporting repression

Civil rights organizations and academics in the U.S. have raised alarm over the use of facial recognition. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has warned that this technology has “enormous civil liberties implications”, and legal scholar Woodrow Hartzog described it as “the most uniquely dangerous surveillance mechanism ever invented”.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) appeals to people of conscience to boycott and divest from AnyVision until it ends its violations of human rights worldwide. In particular, we call for pressure on Microsoft to drop its shameful relationship with and investment in AnyVision as they violate Microsoft’s own principles on facial recognition.

The BDS movement has also called for a boycott of HP companies due to their deep complicity in Palestinian human rights violations. Their complicity is now deeper given their collaboration with AnyVision.

We call on academic institutions and conscientious academics to refrain from collaborating with AnyVision in order not to provide scholarly legitimacy to grave violations of international law.

PCHR: “On 72nd Great March of Return: 94 Civilians Injured, including 25 Children, a Woman, 2 Journalists and 2 Paramedics by Israeli occupation forces”

August 30, 2019 11:51 PM PCHR Beit Hanoun,

On 72nd Great March of Return, 94 civilians injured as a result of the Israeli military’s continued use of excessive force against peaceful protests along the Gaza Strip’s eastern border; 25 children, a woman, 2 journalists and 2 paramedics were among those injured this Friday, 30 August 2019.

Despite the decrease in the number of injuries among this week’s protestors, in comparison to last Friday, Israeli forces continued to exercise excessive force against Palestinians with the use of live ammunition and targeting the upper part of protestors’ bodies as PCHR recorded 46 injuries with live bullets this week, one deemed extremely critical.

The Supreme National Authority of Great March of Return and Breaking called for today’s protests under the slogan “In Commemoration of Our Martyrs,” as Palestinians commemorated the 5th anniversary of the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The protests lasted from 15:00 to 19:00 and involved activities such as speeches by political leaders and theatrical performances. Dozens of civilians protested at varied distances from the border fence across the Gaza Strip.

The protestors threw stones and firecrackers at Israeli forces, well-shielded hundreds of meters away; the latter responded with excessive force.

To this date, PCHR documented 208 killings by Israel since the outbreak of the protests on 30 March 2018, including 44 children, 2 women, 9 persons with disabilities, 4 paramedics and 2 journalists.

Additionally, 13,728 were wounded, including 2,886 children, 420 women, 231 paramedics and 212 journalists, noting that many had sustained multiple wounds on multiple occasions.

The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:

Northern Gaza Strip: hundreds participated in Abu Safiyah area protests, northeast of Jabalia. Speeches, theatrical performances and other segments were performed at the protest central encampment.

Hundreds of protestors approached the border fence and threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, 30 civilians were injured, including 12 children and a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) photojournalist: 21 shot with live bullets and their shrapnel; 4 with tear gas canisters; and 5 with rubber bullets. The wounded photojournalist, Ibrahim Nasser Hussain Abu-Marsa (26), was shot in the back with a rubber bullet.

Gaza City: Hundreds of protestors took part in eastern Malakah area. Speeches, theatrical performances and other segments were performed at the protest central encampment. Dozens of protestors approached the fence at a 100 meters distance and threw stones with slingshots at Israeli soldiers.

The soldiers fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the protestors. As a result, 7 were injured, including 4 children, a woman and a photojournalist: 3 with live bullets, 3 with rubber bullets and 1 with a tear gas canister.

The wounded woman is Aya Jamal al-Hammami (27), sustained two rubber bullets to he waist and head; photojournalist Ali Hassan Jadallah (29), sustained a rubber bullet to the head. Mr. Jadallah works for Anadolu News Agency.

Central Gaza: Hundreds of civilians, including women, children and families, took part in the eastern Bureij refugee camp protests; hundreds, including women and children, gathered adjacent to the border fence at a range varying between 2 – 70 meters.

The Israeli soldiers, reinforced with 9 military SUVs, launched a drone to photograph protestors who had thrown rocks and sound bombs at the military SUVs and shot them with live and rubber bullets in addition to teargas canisters. As a result, 10 civilians, including 2 children, were wounded: 7 with live bullets, 1 shot with rubber bullets and 2 directly hit with tear gas canisters. Before protests were concluded, Israeli forces arrested 3 young men after crossing the border at approximately 19:00. PCHR is working to obtain their names.

Khan Younis: hundreds participated in Khuza’ah protests. Tens approached the border fence and attempted to throw stones, and firecrackers and raised Palestinian flags in addition to chanting national songs. Israeli forces fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at protesters, wounding 20 civilians, including 10 children: 5 with live bullet and their shrapnel; 10 with rubber bullets; and 5 with tear gas canisters.

Also, paramedics were heavily targeted with tear gas canisters while vacating one of the wounded resulting in severe suffocation among them. Bader Nabil Suliman Abu-Mousa (24) was critically wounded with a live bullet to the head while present 70 meters away from the border.

Rafah: hundreds participated in the eastern Shokah protests, where folklore shows, and speeches were held. Palestinian Minitry of Health honored Izz-al-Deen Samsoum (12) for volunteering with the medical crews during last week’s protest, and photojournalist Hidra al-Sharif who captured Samsoum in action.

Dozens approached the border fence and threw stones at the shielded Israeli soldiers, who responded with live and rubber bullets and teargas canisters against the protestors.

As a result, 27 civilians were injured, including 7 children and a PRCS paramedic. It was documented that 10 were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel, 14 were hit with rubber bullets and 3 were directly hit with tear gas canisters. The wounded paramedic was identified as: Ashraf Shafiq Hussain al-Khatib (41), shot in the back with a rubber bullet. 

Comprehensive Report by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)

Hundreds Take Part in Direct Action against UK Arms Trade with the Israeli Apartheid Regime

September 3, 2019 1:11 PM IMEMC News & Agencies

photo: Day of protest taking place outside Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) in London on 2nd September, where arms companies will market weapons used unlawfully against Palestinian civilians.

The UK Department for International Trade has officially invited the government of Israel to DSEI, despite a UN report earlier in the year stating that Israel’s repression of unarmed Palestinian protestors may have constituted “war crimes or crimes against humanity”.

Organizers Palestine Solidarity Campaign and War On Want are seeking to highlight Israel’s systematic violations of human rights and international law and call on the UK Government to implement a 2-way arms embargo with Israel.

Hundreds of human rights activists are currently protesting the UK’s trade in arms with Israel outside Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI), the world’s largest arms fair, held at ExCel London every two years.

Under the banner “Stop Arming Israel”, a day of creative action and protest organised by campaigning groups Palestine Solidarity Campaign and War on Want is taking place outside the fair throughout Monday 2nd September. Protesters have blocked roads in order to stop trucks carrying weapons from getting inside the fair.

Organisers of the event claim that DSEI is a site where violations of international law and human rights are flaunted by companies, including Israel’s Elbit Systems, who market their weapons as ‘battle-tested’, meaning that they have been tried and tested in attacks on Palestinian civilians.

They are also voicing opposition to the UK Government’s role in co-hosting the event. Israel has appeared for the first time on the Department of International Trade’s list of official invitees for DSEI, only months after the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Gaza protests found evidence indicating that Israeli forces fired on unarmed Palestinian protestors unlawfully, using force that may have constituted war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Ryvka Barnard, Senior Campaigns Officer (Militarism and Security) at War on Want, said: “The DSEI arms fair brings together the most destructive elements of the global arms trade, responsible for countless deaths and immeasurable destruction around the world.

Companies displaying their wares include the likes of Israel’s Elbit Systems, which has produced internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorous and artillery systems that can be used for cluster munitions. Elbit and other countries boast that their weapons are battle-tested, meaning that they fine-tune their products by testing in live combat situations. The people of London don’t want our city to be used as a marketplace for companies turning crimes against humanity into profit.”

Huda Ammori, Campaigns Officer at Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “The UK Government can talk all it wants about respecting human rights, but its deadly arms trade with Israel reveals the truth. The UK Government is showing a total disregard for Palestinian lives, and is fully complicit in the atrocities committed against them by the Israeli state. We need a 2-way arms embargo now, and we need all other complicit companies and institutions – from HSBC to UK universities – to cut ties with the Israeli arms trade too and to stand on the side of human rights. That’s why we’re taking action at the DSEI arms fair.”

Activities throughout the day include street theatre, political discussions, banner-making and dabke dancing (Arab folkloric dance). The day’s events will lead into a street party this evening featuring a performance by award-winning poet Sabrina Mahfouz and a DJ set from Ben Smoke.

The ‘Stop Arming Israel’ protests begin a week-long set of protests against the DSEI arms fair, with a different theme each day, highlighting the diverse communities opposing the hosting of DSEI in London, PNN reports. 

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