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)

26 September 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.

Israeli forces open fire on vehicle in West Bank village

Israeli troops terrorise 4 minors aged 13 to 16

Many tear gas casualties

Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp

and 5 towns and villages

1 attack – 12 raids including home invasions – 1 injured

Economic sabotage

6 taken prisoner – 11 detained – 111 restrictions of movement

Home invasions & occupations: 02:00-03:10, Tammun - 17:35, the al-Aida refugee camp - 00:45-05:15, Taquo - 02:30, al-Shuwarat - 06:40, Hebron.

Peace disruption raids: 16:20, Beitunya - 04:00, Azun - 17:30, Beit Dajan - 22:45, al-Bithan - 01:00-02:20, the Aqbat Jabir refugee camp - 17:00, Beit Sahur - 13:45, Yatta.

Palestinian missile attacks: None.

Israeli attack: Ramallah – 00:10, Israeli forces positioned near the entrance to al-Nabi Saleh opened fire on a passing vehicle.

Economic sabotage: Gaza — the Israeli Navy continues to enforce a six-nautical-mile fishing limit.

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

Israeli Army rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades: Jerusalem – 18:00, Israeli forces positioned near al-Ram opened fire with fired rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades.

Israeli Army – youth wounded – rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades: Jerusalem – 19:45, a 16-year-old youth, Yusef Abu Shihadeh, was wounded when Israeli troops in Abu Dis opened fire with fired rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades.

Israeli Army – children terrorised – rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades: Ramallah – 14:50, Israeli forces in Silwad, firing rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades, seized and held captive for about five hours, two minors: Raed Khalayleh (13) and Mahmoud Hamad (15).

Israeli Army – youngster terrorised: Nablus – 18:05, Israeli soldiers seized and held captive for a time a 16-year-old youth, Wahib Qaddus.

Israeli Army stun and tear gas grenades: Bethlehem – 15:55, the Israeli Army fired stun and tear gas grenades at al-Aida refugee camp residents.

Israeli Army stun and tear gas grenades: Bethlehem – 17:30, Israeli forces in north-east Bethlehem fired stun and tear gas grenades at local children.

Israeli Army mosque violation: Hebron – 08:00, Israeli forces closed the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers.

Israeli Army child terrorised: Hebron – 14:45, Israeli soldiers seized and held captive for a time a 14-year-old boy, Mohammad Al-Natsheh.

Israeli Army stun and tear gas grenades: Hebron – 15:30, the Israeli Army fired stun and tear gas grenades at at people in the al-Shalashel Road.

Israeli Army stun and tear gas grenades: Hebron – 18:35, Khursa village: stun and tear gas grenades.

Non-violent resistance – tear gas casualties: Ramallah – 13:40, several people were overcome by Israeli tear gas at a demonstration in Bil’in. Two international peace activists were detained.

Non-violent resistance – tear gas casualties: Ramallah – 13:40, Ni’lin: anti-annexation Wall protest - tear gas casualties.

Non-violent resistance – tear gas casualties: Ramallah – 13:40, al-Nabi Saleh village - tear gas casualties.

Non-violent resistance – tear gas casualties: Qalqiliya – 11:45, Kafr Qaddum - tear gas casualties.

Non-violent resistance – stun and tear gas grenades – tear gas casualties: Bethlehem – 13:15, al-Ma’sara village: stun and tear gas grenades - tear gas casualties.

Non-violent resistance – stun and tear gas grenades – tear gas casualties: Bethlehem – 13:50, Wadi Fuqin village: stun and tear gas grenades - tear gas casualties.

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

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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