UN International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

While the Occupation is 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

(Compiled by Leslie Bravery, Palestine Human Rights Campaign POB 56150, Dominion Rd, Auckland, New Zealand www.palestine.org.nz)

09 June 2014 [Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG). http://www.nad-plo.org/dailyreports.php] 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.

Armed settler terrorists storm West Bank village

Israeli Navy opens fire on fishing boats off Beit Lahiya

Israeli troops in Jerusalem assault woman and take her prisoner

Israeli Army destroys fruit and veg shops in 2 West Bank areas

Occupation settlers seize Palestinian farmland

Child injured as Zionist fanatics attack handicapped children's bus

Israeli Army seizes 8 Palestinian farm tractors

Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp and 3 towns and villages

3 attacks – 10 raids including home invasions – 1 beaten – 2 injured

6 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage

8 taken prisoner – 8 detained – 102 restrictions of movement

Home invasions & occupations: 04:30, the Jenin refugee camp.

Peace disruption raids: 10:00, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound - 09:20, Beir Nabala - 15:30, al-Issawiya - 12:00, al-Yamoun - 22:35, Ya’bad - 10:05-14:10, Sabastya - 01:00, Kafr al-Dik - 10:25, Beit Kahil - 14:00, Hebron - 21:10-23:50, Hebron.

Palestinian missile attacks: none

Israeli settler armed terrorism: Ramallah – 01:30-03:00, armed settler terrorists stormed Deir Nathim and opened fire on the area.

Israeli Navy attack – economic sabotage: Northern Gaza – 08:00, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off West Beit Lahiya.

Israeli Army attack – incursion – agricultural sabotage: Gaza – dawn, the Israeli Army stormed Gaza farmland and opened fire while bulldozing crops.

Israeli Army – woman assaulted and abducted: Jerusalem – 12:00, Israeli soldiers assaulted a woman, Ayda Al-Sedayi, in the Old City and took her prisoner.

Israeli Army – destruction – economic sabotage: Tubas – evening, the Israeli Army destroyed a greengrocery shop near Bardala village.

Israeli Army – destruction – economic sabotage: Jericho – 18:00, Israeli forces destroyed four greengrocery shops near al-Zubeidat village.

Occupation settler land theft – agricultural sabotage: Nablus – evening, settler militants seized an area of Qaryut village farmland, fenced it off and planted trees.

Occupation settler violence: Nablus – 19:10, settlers from the Yitzar Occupation settlement prevented vehicles from passing along a bypass road.

Occupation settler violence – handicapped child injured – vandalism: Hebron – 08:20, at the entrance to Beit Ummar Israeli settlers attacked a bus carrying handicapped children. One of the children, Yusef Al-Lami, was injured in the settler violence.

Raid – mosque violation: Jerusalem – 10:00, settler militants, escorted by Israeli troops, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and molested worshippers.

Raid – agricultural sabotage: Jenin – 12:00, the Israeli Army raided al-Yamoun and seized eight tractors.

SEE ALSO: Restrictions of Movement notes after Behind the Wall (below)

News updates:

Israeli military and government feuding over extent of militarisation. http://icj.einnews.com/article_detail/208701758/KpebNdcSDV8VyLaK?n=2&code=6CEOIvl6-NKOCprX

US – Take action: get Department of Justice to drop charges against torture victim Rasmea Odeh. Last November, we asked you to write US District Attorney Barbara McQuade calling on her to drop charges against the 67-year-old Palestinian-American Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago. Read more at: http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=IrTOcCzEPXcN%2BXQxYCZu1sdqaaqxiXyg

Palestine FA says official's Brazil trip blocked by Israel. Change

ODS means One Democratic State. Palestine means today's Gaza, West Bank and Israel; in other words, historic Palestine or the territory of the League of Nations' British Mandate Palestine. The citizens of this state would be all present citizens of Israel plus residents of the West Bank and Gaza plus all Palestinian refugees and their descendants. http://odspal.jimdo.com/

Israeli PM's office on settlement withdrawals: “you don’t make concessions for nothing in return.” Times of Israel

Leaving the USS Liberty Crew Behind. By Ray McGovern | Will the USS Liberty survivors ever enjoy the opportunity to know and to tell the real story with all its evil cruelties? Or will silence continue to reign? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38742.htm

USS Liberty - BBC dared to say it. On 8 June 1965, during the Six-Day War, Israel attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty belonging to its closest ally, the USA. Thirty-four American servicemen were killed and over 170 wounded in the two-hour assault by Israeli war-planes and torpedo boats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjOH1XMAwZA&feature=kp

New Israeli President. Reuven "Ruby" Rivlin, a member of Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party, has been elected Israel's president following a vote by members of the Knesset. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/reuvin-rivlin-elected-president-israel

Palestinian homes invaded, civilians rounded up following IOF raids A series of raid-campaigns was launched by Israeli Occupation Forces at dawn on Tuesday in different areas of the West Bank, where scores of Palestinian civilians and homes were attacked. Palestineinfo

Israeli officer promoted despite having ordered the death of a Palestinian civilian. http://www.imemc.org/article/68058

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Calls for International Academic and Cultural Boycott Campaigns/BDS are respected

International Scholars Cancel Their Plenary and Keynote Speeches at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University Conferences after International Academics Call for a Boycott.

Dear Colleagues and Supporters:

Illustrious keynote and plenary speakers initially invited to and/or scheduled for the June 7-9 Oral History Conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and for the June 8-11 Film and Television Studies Colloquium at Tel Aviv University withdrew from or declined their intended roles after they were appealed to by over 700 international colleagues, including many oral historians and film/media scholars. A shift in both conference programmes from a proclaimed internationalism to a more local group of speakers and a narrower range of topics is a clear sign that the academic boycott appeals have been effective.

Indeed, the importance of the interventions against these conferences cannot be overestimated. The number of academics who have endorsed the appeal to boycott these conferences is unprecedented for the academic boycott of Israel campaign and bodes well for future endeavours and the expansion of the overall effort to hold Israeli academic institutions accountable for their complicity in supporting Israel’s regime of occupation and violations of international law. We take this opportunity to thank everyone who signed on and wrote letters urging plenary and keynote speakers to withdraw or decline and then thanked them for having done so.

After a petition that eventually garnered 500 signatures was released, the Hebrew University (HU) conference lost its original international keynote speakers and was compelled to fall back on colleagues at Israeli institutions. An ensuing petition that garnered over 200 signatures coincided with the Tel Aviv University (TAU) colloquium losing both its scheduled plenary and invited keynote speakers.

As a result, the vaunted “internationalism” of these conferences is now belied by their preponderance of participants from Israeli institutions (over 40% at HU, and 54% at TAU). Furthermore, the Nakba was added as a topic to the programme at the Hebrew University conference only after our principled intervention.

At the Hebrew University conference, the original comprehensive focus of the conference now seems to have been scaled back, from Immigration and Transnationalism, Trauma Studies, Holocaust Studies, Human Rights, Conflict Studies, Minorities Studies, Gender Studies, and Culture and Identity, to an emphasis largely on Israel and/or international Jewish experiences, an unusually narrow emphasis for a conference that originally claimed to be “the first international conference in the field of oral history.” By some contrast, and due likely to its similar hermetic composition, the Tel Aviv University colloquium appears intellectually limited despite (and perhaps because of) an apparently sophisticated theme of “Traces of Things to Come.”

Again, we thank you for signing and forwarding these petitions, and as we continue to build this powerful movement we hope to share new victories with you in the near future.

Onward!

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On behalf of the HU and TAU Boycott Campaigns,

Ahmed Abbes, Samia Botmeh, Haim Bresheeth, Terri Ginsberg, Sherna Berger Gluck, Colleen Jancovic, Nur Masalha, Rosemary Sayigh, Lisa Taraki.

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Further news sources

Today in Palestine! www.groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi

PNEWS Vacy Vlazna This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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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). 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

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[1] 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[2] and the United Nations Environment Programme show that the water crisis in Gaza[3] 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.

Checkpoints

Israel places checkpoints at the entrances to towns and villages to prevent people 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.

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[4] (UN Security Council Resolution 465)[5] has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention[6]. The International Court of Justice[7] see also summary[8] says these settlements are illegal and no foreign governments support Israel's settlements. 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. 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.

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 practice 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.

Tear gas – Israel's daily violations of the CWC

Israel has signed but refuses to ratify the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention[9] (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[12]

An example of this practice is contained in an International Women's Peace Service (IWPS) report[10] 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[11]. 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[13]

The Israeli Knesset has approved a plan for the mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab (Negev) Desert in the south of Israel. When fully implemented, the Prawer plan will result 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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[1] http://members.stopthewall.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1338&qid=381088

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank

http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/resources/who_notes/WHO_TN_09_How_much_water_is_needed.pdf

[3] www.unep.org/PDF/dmb/UNEP_Gaza_EA.pdf

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations

[5]http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/3822b5e39951876a85256b6e0058a478/5aa254a1c8f8b1cb852560e50075d7d5

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Court_of_Justice

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement#cite_note-13

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Protocol

[10] http://iwps.info

[11] http://adalah.org/eng/Israeli-Discriminatory-Law-Database

[12] http://www.deliberation.info/what-sort-of-state-drives-people-out-of-their-homes-in-order-to-conduct-live-fire-military-exercises/

[13] http://www.truah.org/issuescampaigns/bedouin/government-response/prawer-plan.html#sthash.XiKpBPqZ.dpuf

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Leslie Bravery www.palestine.org.nz

PHRC | Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand

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