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]

21 August 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 Navy opens fire on

Palestinian fishing boats

Israeli Army position

opens fire on Gaza farms

2 Israeli Army incursion

onto Gaza farmland –

crops bulldozed

Israeli Army destroys

Bedouin kindergarten

Night peace disruption

and/or home invasions

in 13 villages

4 attacks (4 Israeli ceasefire

violations)

22 raids including home

invasions

4 acts of agricultural/economic

sabotage

2 taken prisoner

Home invasions: 00:40, Teqoa.

Peace disruption raids: 16:50, Araba - 01:55, Araba - 01:45, Silat al-Thaher - 06:55, Ya'bad - 08:50, Bardala - 18:35, Bardala - 09:00, Attil - 14:55, Quffin - 18:55-00:35, Tulkarem - 22:35-01:30, Anabta - 22:35-01:30, Kafr Labad - 22:35-01:30, Ramin - 03:15, Izbit Tayeh - 08:50-13:35, Kafr Thulth - 00:15-05:40, Qalqiliya - 00:15, Azun - 00:30, Orif - 01:10, Einabus - 10:40-13:30, Khirbeit al-Deir - dawn, Sa'ir - 11:20, Hebron - 23:55, Dura.

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.

Ceasefire violation – Israeli Army attack – agricultural sabotage: Northern Gaza – 09:00, Israeli forces, positioned behind the Green Line, opened fire on farmland north of Beit Lahiya.

Ceasefire violation – Israeli Army incursion – agricultural sabotage: Khan Yunis – 07:30-12:00, Israeli forces invaded farmland to the east of Khuza'a town, opening fire and bulldozing crops.

Ceasefire violation – Israeli Army incursion – agricultural sabotage: Khan Yunis – 12:10-14:30, the Israeli Army made an incursion onto farmland to the east of al-Fukhari, opening fire and bulldozing crops.

Home invasions – stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Bethlehem – 00:40, Israeli forces, firing stun grenades and tear gas, raided Teqoa and searched two homes.

Israeli Army rubber-coated bullets stun grenades and tear gas canisters: Jerusalem – 00:10, al-Tur neighbourhood: rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

Israeli Army destruction of kindergarten: Jerusalem – 07:00, the Israeli Army destroyed a kindergarten belonging to the Bedouin community of Jabal Baba.

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

Occupation settler violence: Hebron – 01:00, militants from the Karmi Itsur Occupation settlement blocked Road 60 between Hebron and Bethlehem, and beat up several people.

[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:

Israel's 'institutionalised terror' leads to arrest of 3800 Palestinians since start of 2017. Israeli Occupation forces have arrested 3,800 Palestinians since the beginning of 2017, Quds Press has reported. Most of those arrested live in the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Details of the arrests were provided by the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Prisoners' and Freed Prisoners' Committee. The Israeli arrests, said the PLO, include “collective punishment measures” against the families of suspects. http://europalforum.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=57937686bafbc030f7aa17537&id=f182174ae4&e=9271108746

Israel's volunteer soldiers. What drives foreign nationals to join the Israeli Army, both as paid soldiers and unpaid volunteers. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2017/08/israel-volunteer-soldiers-170814073507910.html

Barcelona’s chief rabbi has urged Jews to move to Israel after the terror attack. Meir Bar-Hen told his congregation to leave the continent. He told Jewish news agency JTA: “I tell my congregants: Don’t think we’re here for good, and I encourage them to buy property in Israel.” However, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain has said it trusts security forces to keep citizens safe. In a statement on Thursday, it said: “Spanish Jews trust the State Security Corps that work daily to prevent radical fanatics and Islamists from sewing chaos and pain in our cities.”

The Zionist exception to the march for racial justice. By Paul Larudee | 18 August 2017 | The March for Racial Justice is committed to standing for racial justice with allies from across all races, ethnicities, and communities. — Statement of the March for Racial Justice regarding Yom Kippur. The March for Racial Justice correctly acknowledged its oversight in scheduling the march on Yom Kippur. It is an important oversight and an equally important apology, reaffirming the principles of the march. But how serious are the organisers about those principles? Are they truly ready to denounce all racism everywhere? How do they feel about racists participating in the march, supposedly in solidarity, but actually forcing the march to compromise its principles and confer false legitimacy upon some forms of racism? “I am a white Zionist” declared white supremacist Richard Spencer to Dany Kushmaro of Israel’s Channel 2 television station. “As an Israeli citizen, as someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood, and history and the experience of the Jewish people, you should respect someone like me, who has analogous feelings about whites.” Suddenly the emperor has no clothes. The Zionist myth is that it was never intended to harm anyone while, in fact, it intended to rid Palestine of its population, culture and even its name. It was intended to expel the indigenous non-Jews (Palestinians) in order to achieve an overwhelming majority possessing a Jewish pedigree, and then to continue expelling and marginalising the remainder. If this isn’t racism, what is? In Israel, even the right to be there is founded upon being a Jew. The Palestinians who are citizens only because they have been “grandfathered” into the state are required to demonstrate loyalty to the “Jewish” character of the state and can now lose their citizenship. Is the March for Racial Justice going to be consistent in its anti-racism and tell Zionists that they belong on the other side of the barrier with the white supremacists? Or are we going to once again witness the hypocrisy of this “anti-racist” movement that will compromise its anti-racism because it’s really only about certain forms of racism? http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/08/the-zionist-exception-to-the-march-for-racial-justice/

Invitation to Sami Awad workshop – Auckland. Kia ora Friends, An opportunity to be a part of a workshop run by Sam Awad, a Palestinian Christian expert in conflict resolution and peacemaking. Pax Christ Aotearoa are hosting Sami at the Peace Place on Saturday, 2 September for a four-hour workshop beginning at 10.30am and ending 3.30pm (with a lunch break in between, lunch not provided). Spaces are limited (Maximum 30 people for the workshop). Please feel free to share with your networks. — Blessings, Bridget Crisp rsm, Pax Christi Aotearoa NZ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Jewish Voice for Peace. In these painfully divisive and difficult days it feels more necessary than ever to have spiritual spaces where we can be our whole selves: our Jewish selves, our political selves … where we all are welcome as equals and not required to leave any part of ourselves at the door. And so we are proud to offer you our Live Streamed High Holiday Services again this year.

US Trying to prevent UN 'Blacklist' of companies working in Israeli settlements. Caterpillar, Priceline.com, TripAdvisor and Airbnb are said to be among the American companies on the list. http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.808314

Action in Wales to stop arming Israel. If you live in Ceredigion: Please email me, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , if you'd like to join a 'sympathy' demo at Aberporth on the morning of Wednesday, 13 September, the day when the Elbit 5 are up before the Magistrates' Court in Cannock. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Continued Israeli military presence in demolition-threatened Umm al-Kheir. 22 August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Um al-Kheir, Occupied Palestine| Three young Palestinian men were detained by Israeli Occupation forces on Friday, 19 August. The men, residents of the Bedouin community of Um al-Kheir, were held by soldiers for two hours and forced to sit against the fence bordering the neighbouring illegal settlement. … Read more.

Palestinian territory facing

'worsening child

protection crisis'

17 August 2017 | http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778725

Ahead of World Humanitarian Day, marked on 19 August, as the United Nations (UN) prepares a global awareness campaign on the impact of conflict on humanitarian aid workers and the broader civil society, including children and families, the Occupied Palestinian territory is facing a “worsening child protection crisis” brought on by 50 years of Israel's military Occupation, according to Jennifer Moorehead, director of Save the Children – Palestine. She said in a statement that:

“Today, there are more than 2 million Palestinian children who face increasing violations of their rights: displacement and forcible transfer, the demolition and destruction of homes and schools, arbitrary arrest and detention, harassment at checkpoints, and frequent violence and intimidation when they are simply trying to reach school, as well as when they are at school.”

Moorehead highlighted the increasing erosion of children’s “basic right to education” in the Occupied Palestinian territory, noting that there are more than 50 schools in the West Bank that have pending demolition orders or stop-work orders from the Israeli authorities. “Just this week the kindergarten and elementary school in the Bedouin community of Abu Nuwar had their solar panels and batteries removed by the Israeli civil administration, limiting the school's ability to function and denying children their basic rights,” the statement said. According to Save the Children, in 2016 alone, there were “256 education-related violations” documented by UNICEF and Save the Children, affecting the education of 29,230 Palestinian students.

Between January and March 2017, the group documented 24 cases of “direct attacks” against Palestinian schools; many Palestinian students often come under fire from tear gas canisters and stun grenades on their way to school. In 2016, more than 20,000 pupils lost important school time due to obstructions, such as delays at checkpoints or areas declared closed for Israeli military use, as well as the arrest and detention of children in and around schools, Moorehead said. In the case of Gaza, where more than two million Palestinians suffer under a crippling Israeli siege, the humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by an ongoing electricity crisis, that has left Gazans with little more than three to four hours of electricity a day.

“The education sector is facing a crisis of its own,” Moorehead noted, highlighting that 70.4% of UNRWA schools and 62.8% of schools run by the Ministry of Education operate on a double or triple shift system and are struggling to accommodate such a high number of students. Moorehead said that as the start of the new school year is just weeks away, the energy shortages:

“Will have a devastating impact on the ability of schools to operate and provide a safe environment for children to learn.

“Save the Children, along with other agencies and partners, calls upon world leaders to take action to protect children’s inalienable right to safe access to a quality education and to guarantee the special protection afforded to children in areas of conflict.” she said.

“We call upon all duty bearers and world leaders to address the growing child protection risks in the education sector; to support and endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and the related Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military use; and to take concrete and immediate steps towards the demilitarisation of school spaces so that children have safe access to education.”

According to Ma’an documentation, 72 Palestinian minors have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of a wave of increased unrest across the Occupied Palestinian territory in October 2015, with the youngest victim being an eight-month old baby killed by excessive tear gas inhalation during clashes. In a June report, the Palestinian Ministry of Information said that some 12,000 Palestinian children were detained 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. In addition to the violence inflicted by Israeli forces, the Ministry of Information deplored the effect of the decaying economic situation across the Occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip, on Palestinian children, forcing many children to drop out of school and join the labour market.

Quoting a 2013 report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry stated that 4.1% of Palestinians between the ages of 10 and 17 were in the work force, while a more recent report by the Palestinian Ministry of Labour estimated that 102,000 Palestinian minors were working. The Ma’an Development Centre — which is not related to Ma’an news agency — has attributed the significant rate of child labour to 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, who face a 40% drop-out rate in high schools, notably due to an estimated shortage of 1,000 classrooms in the city.

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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/

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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

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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.

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Leslie Bravery www.palestine.org.nz

PHRC | Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand

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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

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