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

20 July 2017 {Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG): http://www.nad.ps/ NB:The period covered by this newsletter is taken from the PMG's 24-hour sitrep ending 8am the day after the above date.}

We shall always do our best to verify the accuracy of all items in these IOP newsletters/reports wherever possible [e.g. we often suspect that names of people and places that we see in the PMG sitreps could be typos but as we do not speak Arabic, we have no alternative but to copy and paste these names from the PMG sitreps] – but please forgive us for any errors or omissions (not of our own making) that may occur! L & M.

Israeli Army attack

in West Bank – 1 dead –

2 critically wounded

Israeli Navy opens fire on

Palestinian fishing boats

Israeli soldiers beat up and

hospitalise Palestinian woman

Night peace disruption and/or

home invasions in 3 villages

2 attacks (1 Israeli ceasefire

violation)

7 raids including home

invasions

1 beaten – 1 dead –

39 wounded/injured

Economic sabotage

18 taken prisoner – 1 detained

Home invasions: 23:30, Azun - 02:05, Teqoa - dawn, Jabal Hindazah.

Peace disruption raids: 23:45-02:20, al-Jaroushiya - 08:15-10:50, Sabastya - 19:00, Talluza - 11:25, Rafat.

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Ceasefire violation – Israeli Navy attack – economic sabotage: Northern Gaza – 08:00, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off al-Sudaniya.

Israeli Army attack – 1 dead – 2 wounded: Bethlehem – 12:25, Israeli troops in Teqoa opened fire on and killed a resident, Mohammad Hussein Ahmad Tanouh (26), and wounded two other people: Ziyad Mohammad Ali Al-Sha'er and Mohammad Nael Khalil Hamaydah.

Israeli Army mosque violation: Jerusalem – 08:00, settler militants, escorted by Israeli troops, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and molested worshippers.

Israeli Army stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Jerusalem – 20:20, Abu Dis: stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Jerusalem – 21:00, Ras Kabsah, Abu Dis: rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Jerusalem – 21:00, stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army – 36 wounded (2 critically) – rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Jerusalem – 21:30, Al-Abbasat Gate, Al-Aqsa: rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas – 36 people wounded, two critically.

Israeli Army rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Jerusalem – 23:00, al-Eisawiya: rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Bethlehem – 16:00, Teqoa: stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Bethlehem – 19:00, Teqoa: rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas. Two wounded.

Israeli Army stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Bethlehem – 19:15, Khirbeit al-Deir, Teqoa: stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army – woman beaten and hospitalised: Hebron – 11:05, Israeli soldiers in Yatta beat up and hospitalised a woman, Balqis Tarad Othman Zein.

[NB: Times indicated in Bold Type contribute to the sleep deprivation suffered by Palestinian children]

SEE ALSO: Life under Israeli Military Occupation

(after Behind the Wall, below)

News updates:

Senior Israeli Minister threatens Palestinians with new Nakba and ethnic cleansing. A senior minister in the Israeli Government, close to Prime Minister Netanyahu, warned the Palestinian people over the weekend of mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing if they don’t give in to Israeli oppression. The Regional Co-operation Minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, made the threat in a statement posted to Facebook on Saturday. “Remember 1948” and “remember 1967,” he wrote. “This is how a ‘Nakba’ begins.” Nakba is the Palestinian name for their suffering in the Israeli war of 1948 that ended in the establishment of the unilaterally self-declared state of Israel. Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces, creating the huge and tragic refugee crisis that continues to this day. Israel still refuses to allow the UN-recognised right of return for Palestinian refugees. Indeed, the tragedy was followed by yet more ethnic cleansing in Israel's war for territorial expansion in 1967, known as the 'Six-Day War'. Another 300,000 or so Palestinians were forced to flee during the invasions, about half of whom were already refugees from 1948. Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, writing in LobeLog, the daily commentary on US foreign policy that has received an award from the American Academy of Diplomacy, reminds us that Israel regularly accuses the Palestinians of incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis. “Yet” he notes “nobody in the Israeli government has condemned Hanegbi’s warning of ethnic cleansing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not fired him, demanded he retract the threat to carry out a war crime, nor has any Israeli official made public any indication that such statements are unacceptable.” Even peaceful prayer is unacceptable to the Israeli invader as this video illustrates.

Ominous plan for Gaza. By Jonathan Cook.

Open Letter To Rabbi Pilichowski: Shedding Masks On The Palestinian/Israeli Path To Peace http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/07/24/open-letter-to-rabbi-pilichowski-shedding-masks-on-the-palestinianisraeli-path-to-peace/

Video: Israeli Army of Occupation in violent suppression of prayer and peaceful protest. https://palsolidarity.org/2017/07/israeli-forces-attack-peaceful-demonstration-in-bethlehem/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Digest

Palestinian farmers protest against Israeli Occupation agricultural sabotage. 19 July 2017 | Around 150 farmers in Deir al-Ghusun held a protest on Sunday [16 July] against the Occupation's crushing restrictions on access to their land. Israel's apartheid wall runs near the town, forcing farmers to require Israeli Army permission even to get onto their nearby farmland. All access has been denied now for three months. One farmer at the demonstration used to have 14 access permits for himself and his workers but now has only one. He is forced to work the land by himself, a difficult task for a man who is elderly. While members of the press interviewed the farmers, Israeli activists held signs on behalf of the farmers reading ‘Agriculture is our livelihood, we want our permits back!’ The effect of the wall on the local economy has been devastating. Where it used to take two minutes for a farmer to reach his land, it now takes thirty – if he manages to acquire a permit at all. One farmer's olive trees are only 40 metres from his home but it takes him four hours to reach them. While agriculture permits are supposed to be free, farmers are forced to pay what the Israeli Occupation calls 'administrative costs'. Large areas of farmland are now barren as a result of the time, money and permission required to reach them. Across the West Bank, in areas of land adjacent to illegal settlements, Israel refuses altogether to grant permits citing 'security issues', which are a mask for making the land available to settlers. The situation in Deir al-Ghusun is repeated in towns and villages throughout the West Bank, adversely affecting thousands of farmers. Israel's annexation Wall stands on land two-kilometres-deep within Palestinian territory.

Jordanians protest against Israel at funeral of shot teenager. Suleiman Al-Khalidi | 26 July | Several thousand Jordanians urged their government on Tuesday to close the Israeli Embassy in Amman and scrap an unpopular peace treaty during the funeral of a young Jordanian shot dead by an Israeli security guard in the embassy. Dozens of demonstrators chanted “No to an Israeli Embassy or ambassador on Jordanian land!”, and called for a jihad – or holy war – as they carried the coffin of Mohammad Jawawdah (16) to his burial place in a cemetery in the capital. Jordanian police said on Monday that Jawawdah, who worked in a furniture firm, had got into a brawl with the Israeli security guard after entering the fortress-like compound of the embassy on Sunday to deliver an order. They said the Israeli security guard had fired on Jawawdah after the young man attacked him, but did not confirm Israel's account that he had used a screwdriver to stab the guard in what Israeli officials described as a “terrorist attack”. Israel said the security officer had acted in self-defence when he shot Jawawdah, while his father said the young teenager had no militant links. The staff of Israel's Embassy in Jordan, including the security guard involved in the shooting incident, returned to Israel from Amman on Monday. Responding to public anger that the security guard was able to leave Jordan, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the Israeli had been protected by diplomatic immunity, but he vowed to “get justice” for the victims of what he called a “criminal attack” “The government had insisted that the person who committed the crime should not leave”, Safadi said, adding that the Israeli security guard left the country only after the authorities got his testimony to pursue a legal case against him. “The government acted in a way to ensure the rights of Jordanian citizens,” he said, denying any secret deal that allowed his departure. The father of Mohammad Jawawdah spoke at his funeral in Amman, Jordan on 25 July 2017. The main political opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, blasted the authorities for handing over the security guard in what it said was an affront to national sovereignty. “The Jordanian people were shocked by the death of two Jordanians in cold blood and instead of the government doing its duty toward its citizens, we were appalled by its protection of the killer and returning him without punishment,” the mainstream Islamist group said in a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner for helping to bring the embassy staff home, as well as Jordan's King Abdullah “for our close co-operation”. Israeli media showed a smiling Netanyahu embracing the security guard after meeting him on Tuesday. Netanyahu said his government had a “commitment to get you out, that was never a question”, adding: “You represent the state of Israel and Israel doesn't forget that for a moment”. Jordan's peace accord with Israel, the second to be concluded with Israel by an Arab country after Egypt, is unpopular with many Jordanians, many of whom are of Palestinian origin. Israeli-Jordanian tensions have escalated since Israel installed metal detectors at entry points to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City after two police guards were shot dead by gunmen there on 14 July. The kingdom has seen an outpouring of public anger against Israel in recent days over the Al-Aqsa situation, with thousands of Jordanians demonstrating last Friday against Israel in protests in Amman and in cities and refugee camps across Jordan. Israel removed the metal detectors on Tuesday in favour of CCTV cameras, hoping to calm days of bloodshed, but Palestinians said the modified security measures were still unacceptable. More: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-jordan-israel-funeral-idUSKBN1AA1Q1

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

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

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

Julie Webb Pullman – Today in Gaza

http://gaza.scoop.ps/

http://todayingaza.wordpress.com/

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

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).Visit Rich's website to view photos, many of which can be 'clicked on' to reveal information about them along with other tabs to Rich's biography, Contact etc. www.richwiles.com

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

Life under Israeli Military Occupation

Every area of Israeli-Occupied Palestinian territory experiences arbitrary restrictions of movement imposed by the Israeli Army. The lack of freedom of movement is the frustrating and humiliating background to daily life for the Palestinian people, whose suffering includes a variety of human rights abuses, from night home invasions to wanton acts of agricultural and economic sabotage. The Israeli Occupation Army enforces a permit system for the benefit of settlers that determines where Palestinians may live in their own land.

Water

A major aquifer under the West Bank is controlled by Israel and from it the occupying power illegally plunders two-thirds of the precious water. Across the Occupied West Bank, Israel's illegal settlements have completely free access to water. Settler homes enjoy full swimming pools and well-watered gardens, while Palestinian access to their own water is severely restricted. Israel compounds this crime in two ways: The Zionist state forces Palestinians to pay the Israeli government public water supply company Mekorot for what little water they are allowed and, at the same time, Israel forbids Palestinians to sink wells or even build water storage facilities. Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are restricted to about 70 litres a day per person – well below the 100 litres per capita daily recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) – whereas Israeli daily per capita consumption, at about 300 litres, is about four times as much. In some rural communities Palestinians survive on far less than even the average 70 litres, in some cases barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for emergency situations response.

In addition, reports by both the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme show that the water crisis in Gaza is likely to be critical and irreversible by 2020. The reports show that Gaza is almost completely dependent on a coastal aquifer that has now become filled with undrinkable sea water. Both international bodies express concern that Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip means severe limitations on people's access to essential water supplies.

One example of the water discrimination faced by Palestinians is the plight of Furush Beit Dajan villagers in the Jordan Valley. A visit by a delegation that included two British MPs in January 2015, co-ordinated by EWASH member Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), heard how the Israeli occupation was choking the community’s access to water. Israeli settlements surrounding the village faced no restrictions on access to water resources while Palestinians are only allowed to extract water from wells down to a depth of 80m. Palestinian farmers are unable to obtain the quantity or quality of water necessary to effectively irrigate their crops. Following the Occupation of the West Bank in 1967 the Israeli Army seized all the agricultural land in the area and Palestinian farmers are forced into renting their own land back from the Israelis.

Restrictions of movement

Israel places checkpoints at the entrances to towns and villages to prevent people from entering or leaving. Interference with people attempting to move around towns and villages consists of blocking roads with concrete blocks, barbed-wire and/or earth mounds. People attempting to transport farm produce and other goods find obstacles placed on the roads by the Israeli Army. Trucks have to be unloaded by hand and similarly re-loaded onto vehicles brought from beyond the obstructions. Road closures are used to isolate areas wherever the Israeli Army considers the presence of Palestinians to be ‘illegal’. When the Israeli Army declares a curfew, anyone appearing in the street or at a window is liable to be shot dead. There are instances of Palestinian mothers giving birth at checkpoints, having been denied ready access to hospital. In some cases mothers have died as a result of Israeli Army indifference. *Restrictions of movement comprise: Closures of checkpoints - Flying checkpoints - Closures (per district) - Closures of main roads - Closures of crossings.

Agricultural and economic sabotage

Both the Israeli Army and illegal (according to international law) settlers terrorise Palestinian farmers, often preventing them from working their land, as well as frequently uprooting or setting fire to Palestinian olive trees and bulldozing their crops. The United Nations (UN Security Council Resolution 465) has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The International Court of Justice (see also summary) says these settlements are illegal and no foreign governments support Israel's settlements. The aim of the settlements is both to take land and resources from the local people and to bring pressure to bear on them to leave. On 21 January 2015, the newspaper Falesteen reported that the Israeli Occupation settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron had demanded the equivalent of US$22,359 in property 'taxes' from a Palestinian farmer, Al-Ja'bari, for his nearby house and farmland.

The Gaza fishing industry

The Gaza fishing industry is being crippled by the enforcement of a draconian fishing limit. The Israel Navy forces Palestinian fishing boats to remain within a three-nautical-mile, over-fished zone, sometimes at the cost to crews of life, limb and property. Gaza City's ruined international airport is permanently closed. Palestinians needing to enter or leave Palestine can do so only with Israeli permission. In addition to Israel's occasional massive bombing raids, Gaza residents are forced to live with the constant fear of overflying drones and the traumatising effects of sonic booms created by Israeli war planes. The effects on the children of Gaza are particularly distressing.

House demolitions and evictions

The Israeli Army routinely destroys Palestinian houses built without Israel's permission. Since the beginning of 2015, the Israeli Occupation has demolished 77 homes, livestock shelters, farm buildings and other structures in Area C of the West Bank, resulting in 110 people, around half of them children, losing their homes at the height of the winter, according to a report compiled by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA also reported that between 19 and 26 January, Israel had already demolished 41 structures, far higher than the weekly average in 2014 of nine demolitions per week. In that seven-day period, the Israeli occupation delivered 45 'halt to construction' orders and two demolition orders. In 2014, Israel demolished the homes of 969 Palestinians – a total of 493 homes and ancillary structures in Area C of the West Bank which, under the Oslo Accords, is under exclusive Israeli control. In East Jerusalem seven Palestinian buildings were demolished, including two on 29 January in the Jabal Mukkaber neighbourhood. Buildings were also torn down in Issawiya, Shuafat and Ras al-Amud. In East Jerusalem, 208 Palestinians were displaced in 2014 after Israel demolished 97 buildings. In 2014, according to OCHA figures, the Israeli occupation destroyed 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and East Jerusalem, displacing 1177 people. The 41 structures destroyed by Israel between 19 and 26 January, according to OCHA, were in Bedouin and other pastoral communities in Hebron, Jericho, Ramallah and Beit Iksa, north-west of Jerusalem. The destruction included buildings that had been donated by European humanitarian organisations. Construction stop orders were issued for a park funded by donor nations in the Yatta area and buildings in the Ramallah area and near Tubas, in the northern Jordan Valley.

On 23 January 2015, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator, James W. Rawley, expressed his concern over the recent spate of Israeli Army demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "In the past three days, 77 Palestinians, over half of them children, have been made homeless," said Mr. Rawley.

"Some of the demolished structures were provided by the international community to support vulnerable families. Demolitions that result in forced evictions and displacement run counter to Israel's obligations under international law and create unnecessary suffering and tension. They must stop immediately," he said.

Discrimination

Israel's planning policies very much limit the ability of Palestinians to build in East Jerusalem, discriminating against them compared to Jews. In Area C – the majority of the West Bank – except in certain exceptional cases, Israel does not allow Palestinians construction levels to match natural population growth, and prevents hundreds of communities with some 300,000 Palestinian residents to connect to essential infrastructure and services (according to OCHA figures). Under this Israeli-imposed regime, Palestinians living in overcrowded housing and appalling conditions, are faced with the choice, either to move out to the Palestinian enclaves in Areas A and B or build homes without Israeli permits and face the consequences.

Home invasions and abductions of children and other youngsters

Israeli troops frequently invade Palestinian homes (often at dead of night) and abductions of Palestinian minors are commonplace. Israeli soldiers often vandalise the interiors of Palestinian homes being raided and frequently terrorise children and other minors with threats. Youngsters abducted by Israeli soldiers are often blindfolded and their wrists tied behind their backs. Many children are illegally taken to prison in Israel, where more terror is practised against them, such as solitary confinement and shackling in painful positions for long periods. The majority of these children are detained inside Israel in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

This inhumane treatment of children prompted an Investigation and Report by UNICEF in February 2013. The report found that each year approximately 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17, mainly boys, are arrested, interrogated and held captive by Israeli army, police and security agents. The majority are charged with throwing stones, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment, or 20 years if thrown at a moving vehicle (six months maximum for a juvenile, 12-13 years). The usual process, as described in the UNICEF Report, is for the child to be aggressively awakened in the middle of the night by armed soldiers, and forcibly brought to an interrogation centre, tied and blindfolded, sleep-deprived and brought to a state of extreme fear. The transfer can take up to an entire day. Interrogation takes place in a police station (without a lawyer or family member present) using a mix of intimidation and threats. Child prisoners have been threatened with death, physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault, against themselves or a family member. Most children confess at the end of such interrogation. Some children have been held in solitary confinement, for a period ranging from two days up to one month before the court hearing. Children are generally brought before a military court in leg chains and shackles, wearing prison uniform. Most see their lawyers for the first time when they are brought to the court. UNICEF found that the practices described are in violation of international law.

Israel’s toxic hazard weapon

Israel has devised yet another technique designed to to drive Palestinians from their land and weaken their resolve to resist. It is a direct assault on their health that carries the menace of further agricultural and economic sabotage. For instance, activity at Israel's Barkan industrial complex generates growing quantities of polluting waste-water from the production of plastics, lead and other commodities that endanger human health. Pollution from Barkan flows into the streams that run through valleys where there are Palestinian farms as well as towns. Israeli Occupation settlements discharge their untreated waste to add to the pollution. This poisons Palestinian land, crops, farm animals and essential, if meagre, water supplies. Settlers – with Israeli Army assistance – release wild pigs, that reproduce rapidly, into Palestinian areas, spoiling agriculture and damaging olive trees, fencing and small buildings. The pigs cannot be controlled because Israel will not allow the people to own or use firearms, or even knives, to kill the pigs. Poison cannot be used because of the danger to Palestinian farm animals.

'Rubber bullets'

The unqualified term 'rubber bullets' is misleading because it implies that ammunition is made solely of rubber. In fact there are two types of such bullets, both of which are made of steel with a minimal coating (1mm to 2mm) of either rubber or plastic. The medical journal The Lancet has published the results of medical examinations of victims wounded by rubber-coated steel bullets, coming to the conclusion that when firing this type of ammunition it is “impossible to avoid severe injuries to vulnerable body regions such as the head, neck and upper torso, leading to substantial mortality, morbidity and disability.”

Tear gas – Israel's daily violations of the CWC

Israel has signed, but refuses to ratify, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Tear gas riot control agents, including tear gas and pepper-spray, are banned in international warfare under both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and Article 1 of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. The CWC defines chemical weapons as “munitions and devices that are designed to cause death or other harm through toxic chemicals” that lead to “death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals.” According to the CWC, “riot control agents” are any chemicals, not specifically named in their list of prohibited chemicals, that can cause humans to suffer rapid “sensory irritation or disabling physical effects which disappear within a short time following termination of exposure.” Belligerent military occupation by a foreign power is an act of war and when the Israeli Army fires tear gas grenades at Palestinian villagers in their homes or at protesters it is violating the CWC; the more so when standard weapons of war, such as live fire, accompany the use of tear gas. Persons blinded by tear gas cannot avoid live fire, rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades or military vehicles and bulldozers. But that is the reality for Palestinians living under Israeli military Occupation.

Israeli Army military exercises force Palestinians out of their homes

An example of this practice is contained in an International Women's Peace Service (IWPS) report on the Israeli Army's terrorising of a Bedouin community in the Jordan Valley. The report tells of a continual programme of Israeli military training in the village of ‘Atuf that traumatises the population. Every week 22 families, amounting to 172 individuals, are displaced from their homes from 4am to 5pm by Israeli military live-fire exercises. Since 1967 Israeli troops have been forcing the Bedouin people to leave their houses each week. Whole families and their livestock are displaced to outlying fields to the sound of gunfire and explosions. The entire area is designated “Area C” and there is a 'closed military zone' where nothing is allowed to be built or improved. A whole valley of fertile farmland lies uncultivated while the nearby Occupation settlement of Beqa constantly expands. In both ‘Atuf and Tamun countless houses have been demolished by the Israeli Army and many more are under demolition orders. Since 1970, 14 people have been killed and 30 have lost limbs due to exploding abandoned Israeli Army ordnance. The explosives can be as small as a pen, easily mistaken by children as harmless. The continual sound of explosions and gunfire results in many cases of psychological trauma, especially to children, and the only school in the district is within earshot of the weekly Israeli military exercises.

Ethnic discrimination

In addition to all of the above, Palestinians citizens of Israel as well as those living under occupation have to contend with more than 50 discriminatory Israeli laws. These affect all areas of life, including rights to political participation, access to land, education, state budget resources and criminal procedures. Some of the laws also violate the rights of refugees.

Israeli Army violence

The Israeli Occupation Army enforces many of the above restrictions with the threat, or actual use, of military action as well as personal physical assault. Thus, daily life for Palestinians is conducted in an all-pervasive atmosphere of violence and fear.

The Prawer Plan

The Israeli Knesset approved a plan which has since been suspended for the mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab (Negev) Desert in the south of Israel. If fully implemented, the Prawer Plan would have resulted in the destruction of 35 'unrecognised' Arab Bedouin villages with the forced displacement and dispossession of up to 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel.

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

Leslie Bravery www.palestine.org.nz

PHRC | Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand

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

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