| IOP – 31 December 2012 |
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| Thursday, 03 January 2013 | |
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While the Occupation is business as usual for Israel, there should be no business with Israel In Occupied Palestine Zionism in practice Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property (Compiled by Leslie Bravery, Palestine Human Rights Campaign POB 56150, Dominion Rd, Auckland, New Zealand www.palestine.org.nz) Dear Friends: As of today, in the interests of clarity, we are reforming our date system for the IOP, which has been conforming with the dates used by the NAD daily situation reports. The NAD dates for each day end at 8am the same day. Clearly, most of that day (8am to midnight) is not included in their reports! Today's IOP, therefore, includes two reports to cover 31 December 2012. The first ends at 8am on 31 December 2012 and the second ends at 8am on 1 January 2013. After today the IOP newsletters for any particular day will cover the period from 8am that day until 8am the following day.- L & M. 8am 31 December 2012 - 8am 01 January 2013 [Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG).] Israeli Navy enforces 3-nautical-mile Gaza fishing limit Israeli forces invade Rafah farmland and bulldoze crops Israeli Army destroys home in East Jerusalem Israeli troops set up military posts in Hebron homes Dawn home invasion: Israeli soldiers abduct 15-year-old boy Schoolchildren on field trip overcome by Israeli Army tear gas Israeli Army destroys West Bank village farm building Home invasions: families held outside in freezing night air Occupation settler violence obstructs West Bank farmers Settler mob assaults Palestinian schoolteachers Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp and 23 towns and villages 60 raids including home invasions – 3 beaten – 3 injured 5 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage 24 taken prisoner – 27 detained – 112 restrictions of movement December 31 (8am 30 December 2012 to 8 am 1 January 2013) Home invasions & occupations: 10:40, Burin - 09:20, Deir Samit - 18:40, Hebron - 01:40, the al-Urub refugee camp - dawn, Beit Ummar. al-Issawiya - 04:50, Rumana - 01:10-03:00, Beita - 22:30-02:20, Jericho - 23:00, Hebron. Peace disruption raids: 23:55, Qusara - 01:25, Beit Ummar - 01:25, the al-Urub refugee camp - 06:30, Bir Zeit - 12:45, Ya’bad - 19:05, al-Zababdeh - 23:20, Sanur - 00:25, Bir Al-Jamal - 09:30, Bardala - 12:00, Tayasir - midnight, Tulkarem - 02:50, Anabta - 22:40, Azzun - 12:30, Bazarya - 13:25, Burqa - 13:25, Sabastiya - 16:20, Orif - 23:55-03:00, Orif - 21:45, Beit Furiq - 14:45, Salfit - 17:30, Iskaka - 02:10, al-Zawiya - 11:10, al-Oja - 02:35, Beit Fajjar - 09:00, Nuba - 00:50, al-Thahiria - 02:20, Halhul - dawn, Sa’ir. 11:30, Biddu - 21:00, Abu Dis - 03:25, al-Mazra’a al-Gharbiya - 09:20, al-Yamun - 05:50, al-Yamun - 11:25, al-Sila al-Harthiya - 11:30, al-Arqa - 14:05, al-Mansoura - 14:05, Anza - 20:45, Ya’bad - 20:45, Araba - 23:20, Anza - 01:05, Ya’bad - 02:00, Sarisiya - 16:00, Anabta - 01:50, Tulkarem - 10:15, Immatin - 12:35, al-Nabi Elisa - 14:45, Tel - 15:25, Bazarya - 23:20, Bazarya - 11:20, Fasayil. December 31 (1) Palestinian attacks: none Israeli attack: Rafah – morning, Israeli forces invaded an area near the Sufa crossing and bulldozed crops. House demolition: Jerusalem – 06:00, the Israeli Army destroyed a house in the Jabal Mukabbir neighbourhood and took prisoner the owner for protesting. Home invasions and occupation: Hebron – 18:40, the Israeli Army occupied the roofs of two Old City homes for use as sniper posts. Home invasions – abduction: Hebron – dawn, Israeli soldiers raided the Khilat Al-Ein area in west Beit Ummar, searched three homes and abducted a 15-year-old boy: Muhanad Awad. Raid: Jenin – 12:45, Israeli forces raided Ya’bad and took prisoner an unidentified child. Raid: Jenin – evening, Israeli soldiers raided Zubaba village and interrogated three youngsters, Mohammad Jaradat (15), Allam Maqalda (16) and Ahmad Amarna (16).</li> Raid – agricultural sabotage: Tubas – 09:30, the Israeli Army raided Bardala village and destroyed a farm building. Israeli Army tear gas assault: Ramallah – 10:35, Israeli troops at the Ofer military base fired tear gas grenades at nearby children. Israeli Army tear gas assault – child tear gas casualties: Ramallah – 12:00, several children were overcome by tear gas when Israeli soldiers fired tear gas grenades at them as they took part in a school field trip near al-Mughayer village. Israeli Army tear gas assault: Ramallah – 15:30, Israeli troops fired tear gas grenades at Al-Nabi Saleh villagers. Israeli Army stun and tear gas assault: Jenin – 10:50, the Israeli Army positioned fired stun and tear gas grenades at children near Al-Arqa village. Israeli Army tear gas assault: Hebron – 21:10, Israeli forces fired tear gas grenades at residents near the entrance to the Al-Urub refugee camp. Abduction: Jerusalem – evening, Israeli soldiers in Silwan took prisoner a 17-year-old youth, Ammar Zidani. Abduction: Jenin – Israeli soldiers took prisoner a 17-year-old youth, Ahmad Abu Baker. Occupation settler violence – Israeli Army complicity – injury: Jerusalem – 17:00, Israeli settler militants, supported by Israeli troops, beat up and injured a man, Ibrahim Abu Snieneh, in the Old City Wadi Al-Joz area. Occupation settler vandalism: Nablus – 21:45, Israeli settlers stoned passing vehicles on the main road between Nablus and Ramallah. Occupation settler home invasion – agricultural sabotage – Israeli Army complicity: Nablus – 23:55, an Israeli settler mob in the company of Israeli troops raided Qusara, invaded the home of a villager, Abdel Majid Hassan, and uprooted 200 olive trees. Occupation settler home invasion – arson attack – racism – Israeli Army complicity: Hebron – 01:25, Israeli settler fanatics raided Beit Ummar and the al-Urub refugee camp, set fire to a tractor, the property of a farmer, Suheil Baraghieth, and spray-painted racist insults on the walls outside his home. Occupation settlement activity: Jerusalem – the Israeli Occupation advertised for tenders for the construction of an additional 17 settlements units at the Mi’lot David settlement. The total settlement units to be constructed there now total 104. An increase in proposed settlement units in the Malee Ietim settlement brings the number to 116. All the additional units are to rebuilt on yet more land occupied by Israel in 1967. Violations: Jerusalem – 10:00, Israeli settlers, escorted by the Israeli Army, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, molested worshippers and performed Talmudic rituals. The Israeli Army took prisoner a mosque security guard. Economic sabotage: Gaza – the Israeli Navy continues to enforce its unilaterally-imposed three-nautical-mile fishing zone in violation of the slightly less extreme six-nautical-mile fishing zone that fishermen were led to expect following the latest ceasefire agreement. December 31 (2) Palestinian attacks: none Home invasions and occupation: Hebron – 23:00, the Israeli Army raided Hebron, invaded several homes and held families outside their homes in the freezing cold. Israeli Army tear gas assault: Ramallah – 09:45, the Israeli Army fired tear gas grenades at children in Beitunya. Israeli Army tear gas assault: Ramallah – 14:10, Israeli troops positioned near Al-Nabi Saleh village fired tear gas grenades at residents. Occupation settler violence – agricultural sabotage: Salfit – 09:00, Israeli settler militants assaulted Yasuf village farmers and stopped them farming. Occupation settler agricultural sabotage: Salfit – 14:10, Zionist militants invaded Kafr al-Dik farmland. Occupation settler vandalism: Salfit – 20:20, an Israeli settler mob stoned passing vehicles at the entrance to Yasuf village. Occupation settler violence: Bethlehem – 18:10, an Israeli settler mob invaded the Dudein area near the Fuwar road junction and assaulted several schoolteachers. Raid – stun grenades: Jenin – 09:20 and again at 05:50, Occupation troops, firing stun grenades, raided al-Yamun. Raid – stun grenades: Tulkarem – 16:00, Occupation troops, firing stun grenades, raided Anabta. Raid: Jericho – 11:20, Israeli troops raided Fasayil village and photographed a school and several homes. Economic sabotage: Gaza – the Israeli Navy continues to enforce its unilaterally-imposed three-nautical-mile fishing zone in violation of the slightly less extreme six-nautical-mile fishing zone that fishermen were led to expect following the latest ceasefire agreement. Recent news updates: Fayyad signs deal for refugee camps to pay electricity costs as Israel's seizure of Palestinian tax revenues bites deeper. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552252 Refugees protest against UNRWA cutbacks. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552274 Israeli Occupation forces' terrorising of children and residents in the village of Issawiya denounced. http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/calls-to-halt-the-escalating-israeli-attacks-on-issawiya/ 278 Palestinians were killed during 2012. http://taghribnews.com/vdcdsn0fnyt0ff6.em2y.html Today in Palestine for 27 December 2012. A compilation of reports and commentaries on events in the OPT. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi/message/3630 Dozens of tear gas casualties in Bil'in Weekly March - Palestine News Network. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/politics/3479-dozens-of-cases-of-suffocation-in-bilin-weekly-march Palestine Solidarity Project still needs your support to meet our financial needs in 2013. If you have met founder Mousa Abu Maria this year, volunteered with us in Palestine, or distributed our important reports on child prisoners, the hunger strikes and other activities in Palestine and worldwide, please consider making a contribution today: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2012/12/25/help-keep-psp-organizing-in-2013/ Happy New Year to all our friends and supporters. Next year in a free Palestine! Bekah Wolf and Mousa Abu Maria Co-founders, PSP Free Palestine! Visit the website for more information and updated articles from the ground in Palestine: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org Olive trees are an essential part of Palestinian life. The olive oil industry supports the livelihoods of approximately 80,000 Palestinian families. Thus, keeping Palestinians away from their olive groves and destroying olive trees is routine Israeli policy. According to the United Nations, 42% of applications for permits in 2011 to access olive groves behind the apartheid wall were rejected. Since 1967 it is estimated that Israel has uprooted 1.2 million olive trees, including 7500 vandalised in 2012 by settlers in the West Bank. Our goal for this year is to plant 2000 olive trees, and we have already planted 1593. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remember the Jewish Labour Bund? The Bund was a Jewish socialist, revolutionary party in Eastern Europe dedicated to class struggle. It is all but forgotten in modern day Israel, but a few members are still around to tell the story. By Alon Aviram A piano played and a middle-aged woman stood in the middle of the room singing classical Yiddish songs to an attentive, seated audience of 30 or so old men and women. Every so often the music was interrupted by a hoarse laugh or some remark blurted out in Yiddish by a member of the audience. Heavy red velvet curtains blocked out the now largely gentrified old Tel Aviv neighbourhood of Nahalat Binyamin. At a social gathering every fortnight, members of this Yiddish community centre escape the realities of 21st century Israeli life and return to a largely bygone Yiddish-speaking era. As the music finished and old friends said their goodbyes, journalist Yitzhak Luden, 90, one of the last surviving members of the Jewish Labour Bund in Israel, led me down a stairwell to a Yiddish library. “The others are here for just cultural and social reasons, they’re all too young to have been members of the Bund,” shrugged Yitzhak. As he pulled out tattered leather-bound books, he began to tell his story, and that of the Jewish Labour Bund. “One hundred and fifteen years ago, the Zionists held their first congress in a casino in Basel. The Bundists on the other hand, had their first meeting in the attic of a farm near Vilnius a month before. The Zionists were bourgeois from the start!” said Yitzhak. The Bund was a Jewish socialist, revolutionary party, dedicated to class struggle and with an internationalist agenda. It played a significant role in the Russian revolutionary period. Similarly to Zionism, it was born in the wake of widespread anti-Semitism and pogroms across Europe. While the Zionist movement turned to emigration and the founding of a Jewish nation-state as a solution, Bundism argued that a Jewish state was a form of escapism which would only replicate existing class inequalities. Yitzhak reconciled his position as an anti-Zionist living in Israel. “I came to Israel in 1948 not as a Zionist, but as someone fleeing war-torn Europe. Poland denied Bundists the right to organise, and the few Bundists who came made clear our political position in support of Palestinians, and for a one state solution.” The Bund in 1929 for example, defended the Palestinian riots as an anti-colonial uprising, rather than as anti-Semitic, as had been depicted by Zionists. Even before the establishment of the Bund, a Yiddish article printed in Russia in 1887 wrote that those who think that “once the Jews have their own country they will be able freely to develop social ideas and co-operate with other peoples forget that the origin of nations is betrayal, robbery and murder”. The Bund would later echo this political position as an anti-Zionist organisation with deep roots in the Jewish working class and intelligentsia across Eastern Europe. “The religious Jews had traditionally organised Jewish communities. The Bund came out against both this and Zionism. It began to organise worker co-operatives and the social lives of many Jews. I was at first a member of the Bundist youth organisation, SKIF. And some of my friends from SKIF who stayed in Warsaw later fought in the Ghetto resistance,” said Yitzhak. The Bund repeatedly mobilised self-defence militias which managed to successfully thwart a number of pogroms, orchestrated general strikes, built a network of cultural organisations, and later became a considerable electoral force in Poland. As it turned to electoral politics in its later years, it obtained 40 percent of the Jewish vote in council elections across large cities in Poland in 1938. “That same year in Warsaw, the Bund took 17 out of 20 council seats won by Jewish parties in the Municipal elections” Yitzhak said proudly. Decades earlier, Vladimir Medem, a Russian Jew, became one of the Bund’s most prominent theorists. He rejected the Zionist aspiration of establishing a Jewish nation-state. Medem did not however dismiss the value of national autonomy, but sought a version which was not territorially defined. Instead, the Bund called for the creation of a ‘state of nationalities’ rather than a nation-state. The Jewish Labour Bund’s vision of national cultural autonomy was an early form of radical multiculturalism. It opposed both those who argued in favour of forced assimilation and those who called for nationalist separation. It envisaged a socialist society that would allow communities to freely conduct their own cultural affairs while ensuring that they remained connected economically and politically in one territory. Although the political conclusions outlined by the Bund were informed by life in late 19th and early 20th century-Russia, their commitment to essentially a one state model, of bi- or multi-nationalism shares similarities with certain debates regarding the future of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories today. Despite the Bund’s influential role in early 20th century Eastern European Jewish life, it seems that they are solely remembered by specialist historians or nostalgic left-wingers. “No one imagined that the Nazis would do what they did”, said Yitzhak as he spoke of the Holocaust. As a result of the Bund’s insistence that Jews should stay and fight for socialism rather than emigrate, many were murdered by the Nazis, and to a lesser extent also by the Stalinists. Decades later, it appears that Zionism, the prevailing dominant ideology among Jewry, has played a part in forgetting, or at least in not remembering, the narrative of its pre-World War II rival. Yitzhak, himself the survivor of a Russian gulag, said “we see this all around us. Before my wife met me, she had never heard of the Bund.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jewish People's Liberation Organisation (J-PLO) against Zionism and anti-semitism This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it dr. abraham Weizfeld http:/www.justin.tv/eibieman/videos/ YouTube: eibieman Jews and Arabs are United - Israel's Wrongs Will be Righted ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Economics of Occupied East Jerusalem Economic situation in east Jerusalem is the worst ever The Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights said the economic situation in the occupied eastern part of Jerusalem has been the worst ever since its occupation. In a press interview with Ziyad Hamouri, the Director of the Palestinian information centre (PIC), Hamouri stated that this situation was not a coincidence, but planned by the Israeli occupation which started impoverishing the holy city with movement restrictions, barriers and then walls. Hamouri affirmed that the Israeli economic blockade on east Jerusalem weakened purchasing power in the city greatly and affected the Palestinian tourism sector. He warned that the goal of the economic pressure imposed by Israel on the city is ethnic cleansing. The human rights activist pointed to Israeli reports that show the poverty line in east Jerusalem is estimated at 80 per cent. This means, he says, that Israel's demographic strategy is to decrease the Arab population to less than 12 per cent. In addition to that, he said, there are more than 20,000 demolition orders against Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority’s pledges concerning economic prosperity and foreign investments have always been empty. The director of Jerusalemite centre also noted that two years ago there were more than 250 permanent shop closures enforced by the Israeli Occupation in the Old City of Jerusalem and that many more have been closed since then with daily fines and raids directed by the IOA against shopkeepers to force them to close down and leave the city. The situation is now so bad that shop proprietors in East Jerusalem see no future there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Further news sources Ali Kazak's newsletter Today in Palestine contains many news summaries that include both armed and non-violent methods of resistance to the Occupation. The newsletter also contains much other useful reporting. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it For more news see: Today in Palestine! groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Behind the Wall Rich Wiles is a photographic artist who has been living and working in Palestine for some years. His photographic work has been shown around Europe, the US, Australia and in Palestine itself. Since 2006 he has been writing from Occupied Palestine under the title Behind the Wall. Much of this work is based in and around the refugee camps in Palestine, highlighting daily life and memories of refugees who still live in forced exile for over 60 years since Al Nakba (The Catastrophe). www.richwiles.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit http://www.sapienspromise.org/ for further news. See this In Occupied Palestine newsletter at: the PHRC website: www.palestine.org.nz - and you can check out previous editions by clicking on In Occupied Palestine listed under Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stop the Violence Coalition Stop the Violence is a coalition aimed at fighting against Israeli violence and crimes all over the world. The purpose of the coalition is to co-ordinate the efforts of groups and individuals working to protest against the historic and continuing oppression of Palestinian people by the Israeli regime. Our coalition is an independent and non-profit organisation, based in Europe, which was formed as part of a global movement against Israeli apartheid. We can also provide the latest news, articles, photos, events and petitions. Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have friends who would also like to receive these newsletters, please ask them to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand (PHRC) Declaration We believe that a just peace in Palestine/Israel depends upon the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and the dismantling of the Zionist structure of the state of Israel, recognising that the further partitioning of Palestine in order to create the so-called two-state solution would lead only to further injustice and suffering. We advocate the primacy of international law, the acceptance of which by the Israeli regime must be the basis for the ending of Israeli military occupation and all forms of ethnic discrimination. We work to raise awareness of the international community's responsibility for upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the urgent need for the state of Israel to be called to account for its gross abuses of Palestinian human rights. We call for the establishment of a unitary, secular and democratic state in Palestine/Israel, with full and equal citizenship rights for Palestinians, Israeli Jews and all other ethnic communities. The Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand (PHRC) works to raise public awareness of the Palestinian people's struggle to resist Israeli military occupation and Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. PHRC seeks to bring pressure on the New Zealand Government to join the majority of the international community in requiring Israel to:
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