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, Auckland, New Zealand www.palestine.org.nz) [If you have difficulty with the display of this report, it may be better viewed on our website]

NB: We shall always do our utmost to verify the accuracy of all items in these IOP newsletters/reports wherever possible – but please forgive us for any errors or omissions (not of our own making) that may occur! L & M.

IOP Report {Number 1 for June 2017}

Video: Palestinian shepherd

attacked by settler gang

UN report: Occupation

main cause of

humanitarian need

Report on conditions

in Gaza Strip in 2016

Children's Day report: 3,000

Palestinian minors killed

by Israel since 2000

Palestinian olive oil

wins silver medal

Call on UN to intervene

against latest Israeli plan

to 'Judaize' East Jerusalem

Israel moves forward

a plan for new illegal

West Bank settlement

Pro-Palestine group

drives mobile billboard

in Boston city streets

The past 50 Years of

Israeli Occupation

– And the Next

30 years of reporting on

the Israeli Occupation

Recent news updates:

Video: Palestinian shepherd attacked by gang from the illegal Yitzhar settlement. 27 May 2017 | Masked stone-throwing Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian shepherd, Mamoun Amin Nassar, in the village of Madama, marking the latest in a string of violent attacks by Zionist colonists. Occupation forces present at the scene during the attack made no arrests. The assault was captured on video by Yesh Din fieldworker, Munir Kados. Rabbis For Human Rights (RHR) field co-ordinator, Zakariya Sada, commented: “We are stunned that while masked assailants attacked a Palestinian civilian and subsequently ran off in the direction of Yitzhar, the army officer found it more compelling to threaten and stop human rights activist, Zakariya Sada.” A soldier made threatening motions with his gun towards the injured man, forcing him out of his vehicle and seizing his keys. After the arrival of a more senior officer, the soldier return Zakariya’s keys to him, throwing them contemptuously on the ground. Palestinian communities living near the Yitzhar settlement have been subjected to a wave of violent attacks in recent weeks. According to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers have stood by, taking no action while settler militants stoned Palestinians. In some cases, Israeli soldiers shot and wounded Palestinians who tried to defend themselves. A 72-year-old woman was among the many injured in these attacks. While the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living, in violation of international law, in Jewish-only settlements across the Occupied West Bank are permitted to carry guns, Palestinians face up to ten years in prison, just for throwing stones when intent to harm can be proven. Palestinians face up to 20 years in prison when a court can be convinced that there was intent to harm. Last week, an Israeli settler shot a 23-year-old Palestinian man and injured a Palestinian journalist. While the Israeli is not being investigated as a criminal suspect, Israeli police did arrest three Palestinians for allegedly throwing stones leading up to the killing. They also arrested a Palestinian ambulance driver for trying to treat injured protesters. https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777357

UN Report, 31 May 2017: Occupation is the main cause of humanitarian needs in the Occupied Palestinian territory. As the fiftieth anniversary of Israeli Occupation approaches, OCHA’s 2016 Annual Report for the Occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), released today, underscores that Occupation policies and practices remain the key cause of humanitarian needs in the oPt. “OCHA’s Annual Report explains why there is a humanitarian programme in the oPt,” said David Carden, Head of OCHA in the oPt. “At its heart, the crisis in the oPt is one of a lack of protection for Palestinian civilians – from violence, from displacement, from restrictions on access to services and livelihoods, and from other rights violations – with a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, children in particular. While the trends vary from one year to the next, the pervasive lack of protection and accountability for violations of international law remains.” Forced displacement of Palestinians also continued. More than 9,000 families (47,200 people) remained displaced at the end of 2016. In the West Bank, more Palestinians were displaced in 2016 (1,601, including 759 children) due to demolition of their homes by the Israeli authorities than in any year since OCHA began recording the phenomenon in 2009. The vast majority of the 1,094 affected structures were targeted on the grounds that they lacked a building permit, which is nearly impossible to obtain from the Israeli authorities. Twenty-nine (29) structures were demolished or sealed on punitive grounds, targeting the family homes of perpetrators of attacks against Israelis, citing the need to deter future attacks. Thousands of others in Area C and East Jerusalem were at risk of displacement and/or forcible transfer, due to a coercive environment generated by Israeli policies and practices, which create pressure on residents to leave their communities. Restrictions on Palestinian movement and access to basic services and humanitarian assistance also continued throughout the oPt, despite some easing of measures. In the West Bank, as of December 2016, OCHA had recorded 572 movement obstacles overall, and an additional 110 obstacles deployed within the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron city (H2). Palestinian access to land behind the Barrier continued to be channelled through 84 gates, 65 of which opened only during the olive harvest. In 2016, humanitarian organisations continued to face a range of obstacles to the delivery of aid. Read full report: https://www.ochaopt.org/content/un-report-occupation-main-cause-humanitarian-needs-occupied-palestinian-territory

A Report on Humanitarian Conditions of the Gaza Strip in 2016. 30 May 2017 | The Gazze Destek Association published a report on the humanitarian conditions of the Gaza Strip in 2016. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170530-the-humanitarian-situation-of-the-gaza-strip-in-2016/

Children's Day report: 3,000 Palestinian minors killed by Israel since 2000. On the occasion of the International Day for Protection of Children on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) denounced the continuous harm done by Israel to Palestinian children since the Second Intifada. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Information, Israeli forces killed 3,000 Palestinian minors between 2000, when the Second Intifada began, and April 2017. During the same time period, the Ministry estimated that another 13,000 children had been wounded or injured by Israeli forces. According to Ma’an documentation, 72 Palestinian minors have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of a wave of unrest across the occupied Palestinian territory in October 2015, with the youngest victim being an eight-month old baby tear gas casualty. The Ministry of Information added that some 12,000 Palestinian children were taken prisoner by Israel in the span of 17 years, adding that the overwhelming majority of them were beaten or tortured while in Israeli custody, handcuffed, blindfolded and forced to confess to charges in the absence of a lawyer or guardian. According to Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer, 6,300 Palestinians, 300 of whom were minors, were imprisoned by Israel as of April. Earlier this year, the group denounced the fact that hundreds of Palestinian children held in Israeli custody “are tortured, ill-treated, placed in solitary confinement and coerced into signing a confession in Hebrew, a language which most Palestinian children do not understand.” The Ma’an Development Centre reports the poor conditions in Palestinian schools, particularly in rural areas of the Occupied West Bank, where severe shortages of supplies and funding, as well as the long distances children need to travel to attend class, push many to drop out. The Ministry of Information, meanwhile, mentioned the case of Palestinian children in Occupied East Jerusalem, 85% of whom live under the poverty line. Palestinian schools have also been the target of Israeli Army raids and demolitions.   https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777421

Palestinian olive oil wins silver medal. A Palestinian olive oil company, Mount of Green Olive, has won a silver medal at the well-known international olive oil contest Domina, the Safa news agency reported yesterday. Italy won first place in the category of Green O’Live Premium Extra Virgin, with Palestine coming in second and Spain receiving a bronze. The Palestinian company won several local contests before it qualified to take part in the international contest. Commenting on winning the silver medal, the Mount of Green Olive company said that this is “pride and honour” for the Palestinians and the “distinctive” Palestinian oil.

PA calls on UN to intervene against latest Israeli plans to 'Judaize' East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the United Nation Security Council on Monday to uphold its responsibilities vis-a-vis international law and protect Occupied East Jerusalem from the latest Israeli attempts to “Judaize” the city. The statement came a day after the Israeli security cabinet held a controversial meeting in tunnels located underneath the Old City of East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move that was never recognised by the international community. During the meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu notably unveiled a 200 million-shekel ($56 million) plan to build a 1,400-metre-long cable car linking western Jerusalem to the Western Wall in the Old City by 2021, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported on Monday. Such a project, which Netanyahu said would fall under the purview of the Israeli Tourism Ministry, would in effect limit tourists’ exposure to Palestinian-majority areas of East Jerusalem, and further use the industry as what critics have called a “tool” to enforce the perception of Jerusalem as a Jewish city. Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the cabinet had also approved a plan to financially induce Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem to switch to the Israeli school curriculum during the same meeting. The cable car project and proposed expansion of a contested tunnel network in East Jerusalem threatens the structural integrity of Palestinian homes, as do plans to expand illegal settlement construction in the city. According to the Ministry, such projects threaten the Arab and Islamic heritage of the city, while marginalising Palestinian Jerusalemites. A growing number of Palestinian activists have criticised the two-state solution as unsustainable and unlikely to bring durable peace. They propose instead a binational state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777382

Israel moves forward a plan for new illegal West Bank settlement. Israeli news media reported on Sunday, the advancement of plans for the first settlement to officially be created by the Israeli government in decades as compensation for residents of the illegal settlement outpost of Amona. According to Ynet, the settlement, which will be located in the centre of the Occupied West Bank, referred to as both Amichai and Emek Shilo, still requires the approval of the military central command before construction can proceed. There are some 196 government-recognised Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory, all considered illegal under international law. While Israeli outposts are considered illegal even under Israeli domestic law, earlier this year, Israel passed the outpost Regularisation law, which would pave the way for the retroactive 'legalisation' of dozens of Israeli settler outposts. Palestine Liberation Organisation Executive Committee member, Hanan Ashrawi, slammed the Israeli plan for the new settlement in March, saying that it “once again proves that Israel is more committed to appeasing its illegal settler population than to abiding by the requirements for stability and a just peace.” Peace Now, meanwhile, accused the Israeli government in April of attempting to “fool the international community” by developing a policy of restraint around Israeli settlement construction in name only, while actually contributing to the unfettered expansion of illegal settlements, which has been consistently condemned and deemed illegal by the international community. Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law, with recent announcements of settlement expansion provoking condemnation from the international community. Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, argued in a report in December that settlers acted as “envoys” of Israel in pushing land grabs in the Occupied Palestinian territory, allowing the government to officially detach themselves from the settlers’ violent and illegal actions, while avoiding or blocking any legal penalties that could be imposed on the settlers, except in the most extreme of cases. “The state helps settlers operate as a mechanism for dispossession in Palestinian space – settlers serving as a means, purportedly not under state control, and settlers also use serious violence against Palestinian residents,” the group explained. https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777370

Banned from Boston transit stations, pro-Palestine group drives mobile billboard in city streets. Palestine Advocacy Project (PalAd), a Cambridge-based non-profit organisation supporting Palestinian human rights, has unveiled a high-profile, over-sized mobile billboard trailer to publicise the 50th anniversary of Israel’s military Occupation of the Palestinian territories. PalAd received widespread attention in Boston following ad. campaigns it ran on Massachusetts Bay Transportion Authority (MBTA) trains and stations protesting against US military aid to Israel beginning in 2014. The MBTA, bowing to pressure by pro-Israel groups, responded with censorship, banning the organisation’s ads that year. The ACLU stepped in and convinced the MBTA to reinstate PalAd’s advertisements, but finally, in November 2015, the MBTA once again bowed to pro-Israel groups, removing the ads and prohibiting all ads concerning “economic, political, moral, religious, or social issues.” PalAd, with direct assistance from the ACLU, is currently working to resume MBTA advertising. In response to the MBTA’s actions, PalAd developed the new billboard trailer, featuring enormous photographs of imprisoned Palestinian children and the simple message: “Stolen Generations: After 50 years of occupation, Palestinians should be free.” The billboard will highlight the 5 June 2017, 50-year anniversary of Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, along with the ongoing siege/blockade of Gaza. During that half century, the United States has helped bankroll the Occupation with over $230billion in military aid, enabling Israel to engage in wholesale Palestinian home demolitions, indefinite detentions of Palestinian civilians, and systematic land expropriation. For more statistics visit Pal Ad’s Fifty Years of Israeli Military Occupation.  Palestinian billboard trailer

The Past 50 Years of Israeli Occupation. And the Next. Nathan Thrall – The Six-Day War at 50. https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-six-day-war-at-50

What I've seen in 30 years of reporting on the Israeli Occupation. The Occupation has its own language: An Arab is a 'terrorist,' detention without trial is 'administrative,' the Occupying power is forever the victim and writing about its crimes is treason. – By Gideon Levy and Alex Levac | 1 June 2017. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/six-day-war-50-years/.premium-1.793196

                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Palestine Yearbook 2015

The genocide the world ignores

by Diana Lodge

Everyone should have a copy

of this invaluable resource!

To order the book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Palestine+Yearbook+2015

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let us know if you no longer wish to receive these emails. Please, if you have friends or family who would like to receive them ask them to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it