| 20 July 2010 |
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| Wednesday, 21 July 2010 | |
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While Occupation and blockade are business as usual for Israel, there should be no business with Israel In Occupied Palestine Zionism in practice Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property 24 hours to 8am 20 July 2010 Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG). Homes and farms under fire – crops bulldozed in 5 Gaza areas Homes and farms under fire near Rafah 12-year-old West Bank boy sentenced to gaol term Dawn: home invasion: Israeli troops abduct 16-year-old boy Israeli troops destroy tents and farm structures in 2 West Bank areas Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 6 refugee camps and 19 towns and villages 7 attacks – 41 raids including home invasions – 2 injured 13 taken prisoner – 14 detained – 86 restrictions of movement Home invasions & occupations: 03:00, the Shu’fat refugee camp - 01:40, the town of Arura - 01:40, the village of Mazare An-Nubani - dawn, the village of Bil’in - 01:30-04:15, the Nur Shams refugee camp - 01:40-03:40, the village of Rafat - 02:00-04:10, Jericho - 02:00-04:10, the Ein As-Sultan refugee camp - 02:00-04:10, the Aqbet Jabr refugee camp. Peace disruption raids: 14:30, the village of Deir As-Sudan - 22:30, the village of Um Safa - 18:25, the town of Ya’bad - 09:35, the village of Ramin - 12:00, the town of Anabta - 10:00, the village of Kafr Laqif - 11:00, the village of Jinsafut - 02:00, the town of Azzun - 12:10, the village of Urif - 17:50, the village of Salem - 02:05, the village of Salem - 21:30, the town of Asira Ash Shamaliya - 02:00, Nablus - 02:00, the Askar refugee camp - 09:50, the town of Deir Istiya - 03:00, the town of Biddya - 04:00-07:00, Salfit - 09:45, the town of Beit Fajjar - 16:30, the village of Artas - 00:30, Bethlehem - 00:30, the city of Beit Sahur - 01:20, the town of Al Khadr - 12:00, the village of Wadi Ash Shajina - 13:00, the village of Khurisa - 16:00, the town of Yatta - 18:00, the village of At-Tabaqa - 01:10, the town of Sa’ir - 01:45, the Al Arrub refugee camp - 02:00, the town of Idhna - 02:55, the town of Tarqumiya - 20:45, the Al Arrub refugee camp - 21:50, the village of Al Fureidis. Palestinian attacks: noneIsraeli attack – agricultural sabotage: Northern Gaza – dawn, Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, covered by reconnaissance aircraft, shot their way onto farms north-west of the town of Beit Lahiya and bulldozed crops. Israeli attack – agricultural sabotage: Gaza – morning, Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, covered by reconnaissance aircraft, shot their way onto farms north-east of the city's Al-Shuja’iya neighbourhood and bulldozed crops. Israeli attack – agricultural sabotage: Khan Yunis – evening, Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, covered by reconnaissance aircraft, raided the farming area of Al Amour and bulldozed crops. Israeli attack – agricultural sabotage: Khan Yunis – evening, Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, covered by reconnaissance aircraft, shot their way onto farms east of the town of Al Qarara and and bulldozed crops. Israeli attack – agricultural sabotage: Rafah – evening, Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, covered by reconnaissance aircraft, raided the farming area to the east of the city and bulldozed crops. Israeli attack – agricultural sabotage: Rafah – morning, Israeli Army positions on the Green Line opened fire on houses and agricultural areas to the east of the city. Israeli attack: Jerusalem – 22:20, two people were wounded when the Israeli Army fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas grenades at people in the Silwan neighbourhood of occupied Jerusalem. Home invasion and abduction: Ramallah – dawn, Israeli soldiers raided the village of Bil’in, searched a house and abducted a 16-year-old boy, Ahmad Abdulfattah Barnat. Home invasions – theft: Salfit – 01:40-03:40, Occupation troops raided the village of Rafat, searched a number of houses, stole a computer from a house and took four people prisoner. Raid – theft – economic sabotage: Ramallah – 14:30, the Israeli Army raided the village of Deir As-Sudan, stormed a quarry and stole a bulldozer and a truck. Child prison sentence: a court at Israel's Ofer military camp sentenced a 12-year-old child from Beit Ummar, Uday Sa’di Fakhri Ikhlil, to a week in prison and a fine equal to US$130. Destruction of property – economic sabotage: Jericho – 11:00, the Israeli Army raided the village of Fasayil and destroyed a shelter for raising sheep. Property destruction – economic sabotage: Tubas – 08:00, in the Al Farsiya area of the northern Jordan Valley, Occupation troops destroyed 22 tents belonging to shepherds and farmers and 30 animal shelters and agricultural shacks. Israeli Army violence: Hebron – 20:45, the Israeli Army fired tear gas grenades at people at the entrance to the Al Arrub refugee camp. Occupation settler violence: Bethlehem – 21:50, a gang of Israeli settlers invaded the village of Al Fureidis. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open Letter of Appeal to the Jewish people From Nobel Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire Dear Friends, I write to ask for your help in gaining the freedom of a good man, a man of peace, and a man of conscience. In the Jewish scriptures there is great emphasis on justice and freedom and it is for such, for one man, that I write to seek your help. He will not be aware that I am writing this Appeal, but I do so in the hope that, with your help, it will produce his freedom, and not (and this I must risk) cause yet more punishment and cruelty to be inflicted upon him. However, I feel when I tell you the story, it will touch your hearts and there will be those amongst you who will be able to help him gain his freedom. In May,2010, this man was returned to prison to serve three months for allegedly breaking his prison release restrictions and speaking to Foreign Media. On Sunday 11 July 2010, he had his first visit in seven weeks. His brother, Meir, was granted a 30 minute visit. There was a glass window between them and they spoke via the phone. He wore a prison uniform. He is held in the hardest prison section there is in the prison. It has the most notorious criminals in the country, well known hard murder cases. All about a dozen are in severe isolation conditions. He is in a cell by himself for 24 hours a day, no window but a small wire covered crack at the top part of one wall. He has about an hour’s walk a day in a very tiny yard. He was simply thrown in a cell by the security agents, the door locked, and left to suffer there all alone. He has not spoken to anyone in all the seven weeks and this visit was (apart from a short visit of his lawyer six weeks ago) the first conversation he had in seven weeks. His food is limited in quality and quantity, and his reading material two books he has with him. Of course his spirits are down as a result of being put in such harsh, inhuman and cruel conditions. His name is Mordechai Vanunu, and he is in an Israeli prison cell. Mordechai is no stranger to prison. In l986 Mordechai Vanunu told the world that Israel had a nuclear weapons programme and he was given 18 years imprisonment for doing so. He is the Israeli nuclear whistle blower and 24 years later continues to be punished for trying to warn the Israelis and protect both Israel and the world from a nuclear weapons disaster. Mordechai Vanunu served the full 18 years of his sentence (eleven years in solitary) and upon release, instead of allowing him to leave Israel, the Israeli Government put severe restrictions upon him, including forbidding him to leave Israel and not to speak to foreign media. It was the allegedly breaking of these restrictions and speaking to foreign media, which resulted in Mordechai being returned to prison for three months. He has six weeks left to serve in these harsh prison conditions, and even upon release from prison will still have to remain in Israel until next April, 2011 when the restrictions will be reviewed and probably renewed yet again, as they have been renewed each year for the past six years. Some people say Vanunu will never be allowed to leave Israel but will die there, if indeed in the meantime his spirit is not broken by his ill treatment and he loses his sanity. The Shabak continues to tell the Israeli Government he is a security risk and must not be released and the Israeli Judiciary and Government obey them and keep him imprisoned. Vanunu is no risk to Israeli National Security. He has no nuclear Secrets. I have asked some Israelis why they think Israel refuses to allow Mordechai Vanunu to leave Israel. Various reasons are given but the most frequent answer is they feel the Israeli Government does not trust its citizens and holding Mordechai Vanunu, forever, if necessary sends out the signal to Israeli Citizens to behave themselves. It seems, if this is so, that the strategy is working. To date only a few courageous Jewish people have raised their voices against such cruelty and injustice perpetrated upon Mordecai, and called for him to be allowed to leave Israel. But I don’t believe Mordechai will never be allowed to leave Israeli and will die in Jerusalem. I have met Mordechai many times since he was released from prison on 2l April 2004. He is a good man, a man of peace, and a true Gandhi spirit. Instead of punishing him, Israel should be proud of Mordechai Vanunu, and I believe that future generations of Israelis will look back and realise that there lived amongst them a great visionary and man of peace, not only for Israel, but for the human family. It was with great joy I nominated him several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, as did many other prominent names during the past 24 years. He richly serves the NPP as he lives and acts in the true spirit of Alfred Nobel, who left his prize for those who would work for peace and disarmament. However, it is with the deepest sadness that I acknowledge that in spite of world campaigns by many, including Amnesty International (and personal letters from myself to President Obama, President Shimon Peres,) Mordechai Vanunu continues 24 years later to be most cruelly imprisoned and punished by Israel. Most political and spiritual leaders, and international bodies, of our time are silent in the face of Israel’s abuse of Vanunu’s basic human right to freedom of speech and liberty, which is in violation of many international laws. However, I have hope that he will be free and I place my hope in those Jewish people who read this story and are moved to right a wrong continuing to be done to Mordechai Vanunu, and they will demand that their Government give him his freedom, and allow him to leave Israel. Shalom, Mairead Maguire Nobel Peace Laureate www.peacepeople.com 14 July 2010 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Behind the Wall Rich Wiles is a photographic artist who has been living and working in Palestine for some years. His photographic work has been shown around Europe, the US, Australia and in Palestine itself. Since 2006 he has been writing from Occupied Palestine under the title Behind the Wall. Much of this work is based in and around the refugee camps in Palestine, highlighting daily life and memories of refugees who still live in forced exile for over 60 years since Al Nakba (The Catastrophe). www.richwiles.com Palestinian Resistance Ali Kazak's newsletter Occupied Palestine: News and Articles This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it contains many news summaries that include both armed and non-violent methods of resistance to the Occupation. The newsletter also contains much other useful reporting. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit http://www.sapienspromise.org/ for further news. See this In Occupied Palestine newsletter at: the PHRC website: www.palestine.org.nz the Scottish PSC's website: www.scottishpsc.org.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Simpol: Restoring Democracy – Enabling Justice Simultaneous Policy (SP) www.simpol.org Global justice movement Since the atrocities of September 11, 2001, the tolerance of state authorities to street protest or to other forms of protest has become extremely low. Since SP would operate through existing political systems it does not depend on any form of protest but only on the continued upholding of citizens' right to vote. Unlike most other NGOs Simpol could not therefore be accused of being undemocratic, in any way disruptive or of refusing to engage in established political processes. However, this is not to suggest that non-violent protest represents an inappropriate form of action. Indeed, protest is surely vital if world problems are to be brought to wider public attention. But the key point is that, since SP does not depend on protest nor on conventional lobbying, it offers the global justice movement an entirely complementary and potentially highly effective means of pursuing its political objectives. www.simpol.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have friends who would also like to receive these newsletters, please ask them to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Leslie Bravery Palestine Human Rights Campaign www.palestine.org.nz PO Box 56150 Dominion Rd Auckland PHRC Declaration We, the Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand believe that a just peace in Palestine/Israel depends upon the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and the dismantling of the Zionist structure of the state of Israel, recognising that the further partitioning of Palestine in order to create the so-called two-state solution would lead only to further injustice and suffering. We advocate the primacy of international law, the acceptance of which by the Israeli regime must be the basis for the ending of Israeli military occupation and all forms of ethnic discrimination. We work to raise awareness of the international community's responsibility for upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the urgent need for the state of Israel to be called to account for its gross abuses of Palestinian human rights. We call for the establishment of a unitary, secular and democratic state in Palestine/Israel, with full and equal citizenship rights for Palestinians, Israeli Jews and all other ethnic communities. The Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand (PHRC) works to raise public awareness of the Palestinian people's struggle to resist Israeli military occupation and Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. PHRC seeks to bring pressure on the New Zealand Government to join the majority of the international community in requiring Israel to:
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