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 6 for September 2017}

Israel’s Jewish-only

right of return

displaces Palestinians

UK Parliamentarians

meet Palestinians living under

foreign military occupation

Israel seizes money

allocated for rebuilding

of Palestinian home

Settler militants uproot

Palestinian olive trees

More Israeli agricultural

sabotage in Gaza

Resistance –

'Challenge 5 School' rebuilt

after Israeli demolition

Plunder: Israel seizes

Palestinian farmer's machinery

UK Court drops charges

on 3 Elbit protesters

Jordan demands Israel

keeps its hands off

Al Aqsa Mosque

Israeli envoy will preside

when Netanyahu delivers

speech to UN General Assembly

Trump administration

backs bill to halt

aid to Palestinians

Palestinian landowners

push to halt Occupation

settlement building

Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters:

BDS one of the “most admirable”

displays of Resistance in the world

Recent news updates:

Israel’s Jewish-only right of return displaces Palestinians for second time (video). http://imemc.org/article/israels-jewish-only-right-of-return-displaces-palestinians-for-2nd-time-video/

UNCTAD document: Assistance to the Palestinian People: Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (pdf). Fifty years have passed since Israel Occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; five decades of de-development, suppressed human potential and denial of the right to development, with an economy incapable of employing one-third of its workforce and featuring extremely high unemployment among women and youth. In 2016, the Occupied Palestinian Territory witnessed deteriorating humanitarian conditions, decreasing donor support and the continuation of the restrictive measures imposed under the Occupation. Israel accelerated settlement expansion in violation of Security Council resolution 2334. The international community should assume its responsibility to support the Palestinian people to withstand the adversities of prolonged Occupation. UNCTAD successfully delivered technical co-operation, training and advisory services to the Palestinian people, and completed a project on developing Palestinian trade facilitation capacity. Additional resources are required for UNCTAD to assess and report on the economic costs of the Israeli Occupation, as requested in General Assembly resolutions 69/20, 70/12 and 71/20, and to upgrade Palestinian capacities for public financial management. See .pdf: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/tdb64d4_embargoed_en.pdf

UK Parliamentarians meet Palestinians living under foreign military occupation. Last week, a delegation of UK Parliamentarians travelled to the West Bank with MAP and partner Caabu. Alistair Carmichael MP (LD), Baroness Tessa Blackstone (L) and Tracy Brabin MP (L) met with Palestinians living under Occupation and as refugees to learn about the issues they face, including barriers to their right to health. Read more about the trip from Neil Sammonds, MAP's Director of Advocacy and Campaigns, who travelled with the group. Read more

Israel seizes money allocated to rebuild Palestinian home. 14 September 2017 | the Israeli Occupation extorted 48,000 shekels ($13,500) allocated to fund the re-construction of a home demolished by Israel because a family member is being held in an Israeli prison. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170914-israel-seizes-money-meant-to-rebuild-palestinian-home/

Yitzhar settler militants uproot Palestinian olive trees.

New release from OCHA: Gaza Strip map. OCHA oPt is pleased to share with you a newly-released static map of the Gaza Strip, which features essential information, GIS layers, visuals and graphs that highlight among others:

• Population figures disaggregated by age and with breakdown per governorate/city, as well as number of registered refugees with UNRWA;

• Unemployment rates;

• Built-up areas within each governorate, including cities and refugee camps;

• Physical closures, including the perimeter fence, and restricted areas on land;

• Access restrictions at sea; and

• Key facts on energy, water and sanitation.

Printed copies (A0 and A3 size) are available from our office in East Jerusalem.

Plus:

• West Bank Access Map: available online, at the link below, or in hard copy from our office.

• Interactive map of the Occupied Palestinian territory: The interactive map visualises large amounts of data. http://mailchi.mp/un/test-list?e=47f1bb36d5

More Israeli agricultural sabotage in Gaza.

Resistance – 'Challenge 5 School' inaugurated in Jubbet al-Dhib, rebuilt after Israeli demolition. 10 September 2017 | Israel’s targeting of the school came after after Israeli authorities also confiscated solar panels that powered a school in the Bedouin village of Abu Nuwar and demolished a kindergarten in the Bedouin community of Jabal al-Baba leading up to the beginning of the new school year. https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779043      https://israelpalestinenews.org/palestinians-rebuild-demolished-school-east-bethlehem/

Plunder: Israel seizes Palestinian farmer's machinery.

UN monthly report.

UN weekly report.

UK Court drops charges on 3 Elbit protesters

Jordan demands Israel keep its hands off Al Aqsa Mosque. No Israeli court has jurisdiction over Jerusalem’s holy sites. http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/jordan-demands-israel-keep-hands-al-aqsa-mosque

World Bank recommendations for helping the Palestinian economy. Removing Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement in so-called Area C in the Occupied West Bank — where Israel maintains civil and security control — could boost the size of the West Bank economy by one-third in eight years, the World Bank said. http://worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/World-Bank-calls-for-steps-to-bolster-Palestinian-economy-504975

Israeli envoy will preside when Netanyahu delivers speech to UN General Assembly. Danny Danon takes up post as vice president of the global body's main policy-making and deliberation forum. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-envoy-to-preside-over-un-general-assembly-as-netanyahu-delivers-speech/

Trump Administration backs bill to halt aid to Palestinians.

Palestinian landowners push to halt Occupation settlement building. Palestinian landowners are following up with their efforts to stop the construction of the illegal Amichai Occupation settlement. A Palestinian family owned around 800 hectares of land in the Palestinian village of Jalud, south of Nablus. The family has planted barley, chickpeas and sesame on it for generations. But over the last couple of decades, more than 90% of their land has been stolen by Israel. Now, they struggle to gain access to the little land that remains to them, due to the illegal Israeli settlements and outposts that dot the area. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/09/palestinian-landowners-push-halt-settlement-building-170914062357283.html

Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters: BDS is one of the “most admirable” displays of Resistance in the world. Today we spend the hour with the world-famous British musician Roger Waters, founding member of the iconic rock band, Pink Floyd. In recent years, he has become one of the most prominent musicians supporting BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. Waters is scheduled to play Friday and Saturday in Long Island, despite attempts by Nassau County officials to shut down the concerts, citing a local anti-BDS bill. Despite this, Roger Waters has continued to speak out. Last week, he wrote a piece in The New York Times entitled 'Congress Shouldn’t Silence Human Rights Advocates'. In the Op-ed, he criticised a bill being considered in the Senate to silence supporters of BDS. Roger Waters joined us in the studio on Wednesday. Roger Waters: “Well, the first thing that leaps out of that statement is the notion that I might be in some way anti-Semitic or against Jewish people or against the Jewish religion or against anything that has Jewishness attached to it, because I’m not. I’m clearly not. You know, they comb through my past, and they find it very difficult to substantiate that accusation. But they use that accusation, as they do with anybody who supports BDS or anybody who criticises Israeli foreign policy or the Occupation. That is their standard go-to response, is to call you an anti-Semite, to start calling you names, and, hopefully, to discredit you”. Watch: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/9/14/pink_floyd_founder_roger_waters_bds

Israel's High Court overturns recall of Hamas legislators’ Jerusalem residency after 11 years. I had to rub my eyes: Israel's Supreme Court has agreed that the decision to revoke the Israel residency of 4 East Jerusalem residents is wrong. Because 'in its 6-3 ruling on Wednesday, the court said the minister had no authority to revoke their residency on such grounds. Nevertheless, it deferred implementation of its decision by six months to give the Knesset time to pass legislation that would allow the four to indeed be stripped of their residency.' So the Court agrees that the original decision was unlawful; however, instead of quashing it with immediate effect, it delays its ruling so that the unlawful act can persist for 6 months by which time retrospective legislation can be put in place. And this is a state based on the rule of law! — Tony Greenstein. See report: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.812237

The Forgotten Refugees

By Dr Swee Chai Ang | 14 September 2017

https://israelpalestinenews.org/35th-anniversary-sabra-shatila-forgotten-refugees/

This September will be the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Sabra-Shatilla Massacre in West Beirut. Three thousand unarmed refugees were massacred from 15-18 September 1982. I was then a young orthopaedic trainee who had resigned from St Thomas' Hospital to join the Christian Aid Lebanon medical team to help those wounded by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. That invasion, named Peace for Galilee, launched on 6 June 1982 mercilessly bombarded Lebanon by air, sea and land. Beirut city was held siege. Water, food, electricity and medicines were blockaded. This resulted in untold deaths and wounded, with 100,000 made acutely homeless.

I was seconded to the Palestine Red Crescent Society to take charge of the orthopaedic department in Gaza Hospital in Sabra-Shatilla Palestinian refugee camp, West Beirut. I met Palestinian refugees in their bombed-out homes and learnt how they became refugees in one of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Till then I never knew Palestinians existed. They recalled they were driven out of their homes in Palestine in 1948, often fleeing massacres and at gun-point. They fled with whatever possessions they could carry and found themselves in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The United Nations put them in tents while the world promised they would return home soon. That expectation never materialised. Since then the 750,000 refugees, comprising half of the population of Palestine in 1948, continued to live in refugee camps in the neighbouring countries. This year is the 69th year of their living as refugees. The initial 750,000 has since grown to 5 million. Palestine was erased from the map of the world and is now called Israel.

Soon after my arrival, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) evacuated. It was the price demanded by Israel to stop further relentless bombardment of Lebanon and to lift the ten-week military blockade. Fourteen thousand able-bodied men and women from the PLO evacuated with the guarantee by Western powers that their families left behind would be protected by a multinational peace-keeping force. Those leaving were fighters, civil servants, doctors, nurses, lecturers, unionists, journalists, engineers and technicians. The PLO was the Palestinians’ government in exile, and the largest employer. Through evacuation, fourteen thousand Palestinian families lost their breadwinner, often the father or the eldest brother, in addition to those killed by the bombs.

That ceasefire lasted only three weeks. The multinational peace-keeping force, entrusted by the ceasefire agreement to protect the civilians left behind, abruptly withdrew. On 15 September several hundred Israeli tanks drove into West Beirut. Some of them ringed and sealed Sabra-Shatilla to prevent the inhabitants from fleeing. The Israelis sent their allies; a group of Christian militiamen trained and armed by them, into the camp. When the tanks withdrew from the perimeter of the camp on the 18 September, they left behind 3,000 dead civilians. Another seventeen thousand were abducted and disappeared.

Our hospital team, who had worked non-stop for 72 hours, was ordered to leave our patients at machine-gun point, and marched out of the camp. As I emerged from the basement operating theatre, I learnt the painful truth. While we were struggling to save a few dozen lives, people were butchered by the thousands. Some of the bodies were already rotting in the hot Beirut sun. The images of the massacre were deeply seared into my memory. They included dead and mutilated bodies lining the camp alleys. Only a few days before they were human beings full of hope and life, rebuilding their homes, talking to me, trusting that they would be left in peace to raise their young ones after the evacuation of the PLO. These were people who welcomed me into their broken homes. They served me Arabic coffee and whatever food they found, simple fare but given with warmth and generosity. They shared with me their broken lives. They showed me faded photographs of their homes and families in Palestine before 1948 and the large house keys they still kept with them. The women shared with me their beautiful embroidery, each with motifs of the villages they left behind. Many of these villages were destroyed after they left.

Some became patients we failed to save. Others died on arrival. They left behind orphans and widows. A wounded mother begged us take down the hospital’s last unit of blood from her to give to her child. She died shortly afterwards. Children witnessed their mothers and sisters being raped and killed. The terrified faces of families rounded up by gunmen while awaiting death; the desperate young mother who tried to give me her baby to take to safety; the stench of decaying bodies as mass graves continued to be uncovered will never leave me. The piercing cries of women who discovered the remains of their loved ones from bits of clothes, refugee identity cards, as more bodies were found continue to haunt me.

The people of Sabra Shatilla returned to live in those very homes where their families and neighbours were massacred. They are a courageous people and there was nowhere else to go to. Since then, other refugee camps were also blockaded and attacked and people killed. Today, Palestinian refugees are denied work permits in 30 professions and 40 artisan trades outside their camps. They have no passports. They are prohibited from owning and inheriting properties. Denied the right of return to their homes in Palestine, they are not only born refugees, they will also die refugees and so will their children.

But for me, painful questions need to be answered. Not why they died, but why were they massacred as refugees? After 69 years, has the world forgotten? How can we allow a situation where a person’s only claim to humanity is a refugee identity card? These questions have haunted me since I met them. They have yet to receive an answer.

~~~~~~~

Dr Swee Chai Ang, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

Founder Medical Aid for Palestinians

Author: From Beirut to Jerusalem, Dr Ang Swee Chai, The Other Press

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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

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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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