| IOP - 14 January 2013 |
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| Thursday, 17 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) 14 January 2013 [Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG).] Beit Lahiya resident killed as Israeli Army opens fire on Northern Gaza Israeli troops open fire on West Bank children – abduct boy (15) and beat up his father Israeli troops, firing tear gas grenades, abduct 12-year-old boy 2:50am home invasion: Israeli troops abduct 16-year-old boy Israeli Army demolishes home – bulldozes crops and destroys farm buildings Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 2 refugee camps and 10 towns and villages 2 attacks – 26 raids including home invasions 1 beaten – 1 dead – 1 injured – 2 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage 14 taken prisoner – 9 detained – 104 restrictions of movement Home invasions & occupations: 02:30, the al-Aida refugee camp - 03:45, Bethlehem - 15:10, Yatta. Peace disruption raids: 11:30, Abu Dis - 17:00, Abu Dis - dawn, Bir Zeit - 09:00, Abud - 09:00, Deir Abu Mash’al - 20:30, Abu Sheikdum - 00:45-04:15, Ramallah - 00:45-04:15, al-Bireh - 00:45-04:15, Beitunya - 04:10, the al-Jalazoun refugee camp - 15:10, Azzun - 02:50, al-Yamoun - 11:30, Attil - 22:15, Kafr Zibad - 23:40-06:00, Tulkarem - 01:10, Burqa - 11:00, al-Oja - 00:35, Jericho - 03:40, Beit Fajjar - 10:10, Um al-Khair - 10:10, Huwara - 10:10, east Yatta - 20:15, Hebron. Palestinian attacks: none Israeli attack – death: Northern Gaza – 13:00, Israeli Army positions behind the Green Line opened fire on Beit Lahiya, killing a resident, Mustafa Abu Jarrad. Israeli attack – injury – hospitalisation – abduction: Qalqilya – 14:50, Israeli soldiers opened fire on children in an area between Azzun and Kafr Laqif, abducted a 15-year-old boy, Saleh Sudani, and beat up his father when he attempted to defend his son. The injured father was admitted to hospital. Israeli Army violence - abduction: Ramallah – 09:00, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas grenades at children near the Ofer Prison and abducted one of them: 12-year-old Mustafa Atiya. Israeli Army stun and tear gas grenade assault: Bethlehem – 14:50, Israeli troops at the entrance to the Billa Bin Rabah Mosque fired stun and tear gas grenades at nearby children. Raid – abduction: Jenin – 02:50, Israeli soldiers invaded al-Yamoun village and abducted a 16-year-old boy: Majid Abu Al-Hija. Raid: Tulkarem – 11:30, the Israeli Army raided Attil and 'tested' several wells. Raid – injuries: Tulkarem – 23:40-06:00, the Israeli Army raided the city, injuring several Palestinian police officers. One person was taken prisoner. Raid – house demolition – destruction – agricultural sabotage: Hebron – 10:10, the Israeli Army raided the villages of Um al-Khair, Huwara and east Yatta, destroying a home, a farm building and two livestock shelters as well as bulldozing crops. Economic sabotage: Gaza – the Israeli Navy continues to enforce a six-nautical-mile Gaza fishing limit. Recent news updates: Gaza civilian dies after being shot (the 52nd Israeli violation of the present truce). Mustafa Abu Jarad died in Kamal Edwan Hospital hours after suffering a head wound. In October 2011, Jarad’s family lost the dead man's brother during an Israeli Air raid on Beit Lahiya. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=556042 Israel unlawfully evicts the residents of Babs al-Shams. The violent evictions from homes in the E1 Occupation area took place during a pre-dawn raid. Six Palestinians required medical attention as a result. Please send letter of protest to: HE Ron Proser, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations and to: HE Riyad H Mansour, Ambassador, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine. Please request your mailing lists click Current Urgent Appeal on www.palestinematters.com For Further Information: http://www.popularstruggle.org/category/tags/bab-alshams http://www.palestinematters.com/Unlawful-eviction-of-residents-from-Babs-al-Shams_Appeal_95.aspxIsraeli Occupation Forces (IOF) destroyed Palestinian property to the east of Yatta, south of al-Khalil, on Monday. Eyewitnesses told the PIC that IOF soldiers burst into the Um al-Khair area and bulldozed animal pens and barns, claiming that they were a security threat. Today in Palestine. A compilation of reports and commentaries on events in the OPT on or about 10 January 2013. http://blog.theheadlines.org/theHead/ The Jerusalem Master Plan: Planning into the Conflict. Francesco Chiodelli / this paper investigates Israel's Jerusalem Master Plan. http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org/ViewArticle.aspx?id=421 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How 20 Tents Rocked Israel Palestinians take the fight to their occupiers By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth – 15 January 2013 "Information Clearing House" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33623.htm When the Palestinian leadership won their upgrade to non-member observer status at the United Nations in November, plenty of sceptics on both sides of the divide questioned what practical benefits would accrue to the Palestinians. The doubters have not been silenced yet. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has done little to capitalise on his diplomatic success. There have been vague threats to “isolate” Israel, hesitant talk of “not ruling out” a referral to the International Criminal Court, and a low-key declaration by the Palestinian Authority of the new “state of Palestine”. At a time when Palestinians hoped for a watershed moment in their struggle for national liberation, the Fatah and Hamas leaderships look as mutually self-absorbed as ever. Last week they were again directing their energies into a new round of reconciliation talks, this time in Cairo, rather than keeping the spotlight on Israeli intransigence. So instead, it was left to a group of 250 ordinary Palestinians to show how the idea of a “state of Palestine” might be given practical meaning. On Friday, they set up a tent encampment that they intended to convert into a new Palestinian village called Bab al-Shams, or Gate of the Sun. On Sunday, in a sign of how disturbed Israel is by such acts of popular Palestinian resistance, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had the occupants removed in a dawn raid — despite the fact that his own courts had issued a six-day injunction against the government’s “evacuation” order. Intriguingly, the Palestinian activists not only rejected their own leaders’ softly-softly approach but also chose to mirror the tactics of the hardcore settlers. Despite an obligation to dismantle the outposts, successive Israeli governments have allowed them to flourish. In practice, within days of the first caravans appearing on a West Bank hilltop officials hook up the “outposts” to electricity and water, build them access roads and redirect bus routes to include them. The spread of the settlements and outposts has been leading inexorably to Israel’s de facto annexation of most of the West Bank. In stark contrast, all access to Bab al-Shams was blocked within hours of the tents going up and the next day Netanyahu had the site declared a closed military zone. As soon as the Jewish Sabbath was over, troops massed around the camp. Early on Sunday morning they stormed in. Netanyahu was clearly afraid to allow any delay. Palestinians started using social media over the weekend to plan mass rallies at road-blocks leading to the camp site. However futile the activists’ efforts prove to be on this occasion, the encampment indicates that ordinary Palestinians are better placed to find inventive ways to embarrass Israel than the hidebound Palestinian leadership. Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi extolled the activists for their “highly creative and legitimate non-violent tool” to protect Palestinian land. But the failure of PA officials, including Saeb Erekat, to make it to the site before it was cordoned off by Israel only heightened the impression of a leadership too slow and unimaginative to respond to events. By establishing Bab al-Shams, the activists visibly demonstrated the apartheid nature of Israel’s rule in the occupied territories. Although one brief encampment is unlikely by itself to change the dynamics of the conflict, it does show Palestinians that there are ways they themselves can take the struggle to Israel. Following the Israeli raid, that point was made eloquently by Mohammed Khatib, one of the organisers. “In establishing Bab al-Shams, we declare that we have had enough of demanding our rights from the occupier — from now on we shall seize them ourselves.” That, of course, is also Netanyahu’s great fear. The scenario his officials are reported to be most concerned about is that this kind of popular mode of struggle becomes infectious. If Palestinians see popular non-violent resistance, unlike endless diplomacy, helping to awaken the world to their plight, there may be more Bab al-Shamses — and other surprises for Israel — around the corner. It was precisely such thinking that led Israel’s attorney-general, Yehuda Weinstein, to justify Netanyahu’s violation of the injunction on the grounds that the camp would “bring protests and riots with national and international implications”. What Bab al-Shams shows is that ordinary Palestinians can take the fight for the “state of Palestine” to Israel — and even turn Israel’s own methods against it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BBC Trust upholds complaint over Naqba Day radio report that downplayed expulsion of Palestinians Submitted by Ben White / 15 January 2013 The governing body of the BBC today upheld complaints [PDF] about a radio report on Naqba Day, agreeing that there had been “a lack of clarity as to what Naqba Day commemorates,” and that the language used did not accurately “convey the reality of the departures [of the refugees].” The breach of the BBC’s Accuracy Guidelines was confirmed by the Editorial Standards Committee (ESC), which “act[s] as the final arbiter on editorial appeals” from within the BBC Trust and is the destination for complainants who are not “satisfied with the responses they have received from the BBC’s Management.” The focus of the complaints – the BBC grouped together my complaint plus that of another person – was an introduction to a Radio 4 news report in May 2012 covering Naqba Day rallies in the West Bank. The announcer described Naqba Day as “the anniversary of Israel’s declaration of statehood, which resulted in thousands of Palestinians leaving their homes.” My original complaint pointed out that not only was “thousands” seriously downplaying the scale of the displacement, but that by concealing the coerced nature of the Palestinian exodus – and the fact they were all physically prevented from returning – the wording was “deeply offensive to those who lost everything as a result of ethnic cleansing.” Responding to the consolidated appeal, the ESC noted that “a significant proportion of Palestinians left or were compelled to go prior to Israel’s declaration of statehood” and that “the general consensus today – including within Zionist circles – is that the departure of the majority of Palestinians was not a spontaneous exodus: that for the most part there is little evidence to support the contention that they left of their own free will or at the behest of their Arab leaders.” Thus the “failure of accuracy,” in the words of the BBC’s governing body, was the result of “understating the number of Palestinians who left; failing to note there was a degree of force or coercion in the manner of their departure; and the lack of clarity as to what Naqba Day commemorates.” Earlier finding overruled Importantly, the ESC overruled an earlier decision by the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit (ECU), who had only partly upheld the complaint, saying that to describe Palestinian refugees as simply “leaving” was not appropriate and “failed adequately to convey the reality of the departures.” What Naqba Day commemorates, the BBC Trust’s Committee wrote, is “the fact that hundreds of thousands of people had been forced, or felt obliged, to leave their homes over a long period leading up to, and following, the establishment of the new State.” While the successful appeal is encouraging, responses from BBC management at earlier stages shed light on the problematic approach of the organisation to reporting on Palestine (and other issues). My initial complaint, which did not change in substance to the one upheld by the ESC, was summarily dismissed without explanation in the first instance. On receiving my dissatisfied follow up, BBC Complaints said that editorial staff conceded that “with hindsight they do agree that the use of the word ‘leaving,’ while accurate in one sense, does not properly reflect the nature of events.” But there was no official acknowledgement of inaccuracy. I then continued to the ECU, who upheld the complaint regarding the “misleading impression of [the Naqba’s] scale” given by the word “thousands” – but rejected the accusation that the verb ‘to leave’ was inaccurate. The justification for this was tortuous. The ECU admitted that the original wording could have been “better phrased,” that “a more appropriate choice of words” would have helped listeners’ understanding, and that the verb “displaced” gives “a clearer account of what happened.” They also cited historical research by Benny Morris and referred to “displacement” several times. Yet the ECU still concluded there had been no breach of accuracy guidelines since “leaving their homes” is a “neutral phrase” that “does not, in fact, offer any comment on the reasons for the displacement, but only notes that it happened.” Well, indeed. The decision by the BBC Trust, however, is a welcome correction to the record, and will hopefully influence newsrooms to not shy away from describing Israel’s record of ethnic cleansing and other crimes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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! www.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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