10th Palestinians in Europe Conference to kick off next week

The 10th Palestinians in Europe Conference is due to begin next week as preparations completed. The event is organized by the General Secretariat of the Palestinians in Europe Conference, The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) and the Palestinian Forum in Denmark. It will take place on Saturday, 28th, April 2012 in Denmark, Copenhagen. The conference is titled “Our Spring blossoms our Return”

The event will be held under the auspices of the Tunisian President, Mohammed Monsif al Marzouqi.

According to Majed Alzeer, PRC General Director and Conference President, this year’s conference will reflect on the Arab Spring and its impact on the Palestinian cause. He noted that, Tunisian Presidential Bureau Director, Emad Al Daimi, will deliver a speech on behalf of the President.

As for Adel Abdallah, Chairman of the General Secretariat of the Palestinians in Europe Conference pointed out that the conference will discuss important issues and will attempt to internationalise some of the Palestinian key issues.  He further added that key issues like the Palestinian Refugees in Iraq and Nahir al Bard Refugee camp crisis will be discussed at the event. Gaza Siege and Gaza Refugee camp in Jordan will be on the Agenda too.

Clare Short, former British Minster and MP, as well as Palestinian Parliamentarian and Head of Popular Committee Against the Siege on Gaza, Jamal Al Kohdary, in addition to Palestinian historian, Salman Abu Sitta, Chair of the land foundation, will participate at the event.

Other key speakers include Dr. Muhammad Yasir Amro, Chair of Academy of Palestinian Refugee Studies and also, Basim Kayed, chair of Palestinian Scholars league in Lebanon.

Chair of the Palestinian Forum in Denmark, Ziad Shuhair said t6hat many important workshops and discussion sessions are to take place on the conference such as workshop on “Arab Revolution and the Palestinian Cause” and “Key Palestinian issues – Jerusalem, Refugees, Prisoners and settlements”
Other workshops will highlight on the Palestinian liberation organization and Palestinian unity as well as session on “West and Palestine Cause”. A campaign titled, “European Campaign to Release Palestinian prisoners”

Belal al Fout, Head of Preparatory Committees confirmed most arrangements are completed where thousands of Palestinians from all across Europe and around the world are expected to take part in the conference.

During the previous nine years the conference was held in various European cities like London 2003, Berlin 2004, Vienna 2005, Malmo 2006, Rotterdam 2007, Copenhagen 2008, Milan 2009, Berlin 2010 and Wuppertal, Germany 2011.

(www.prc.org.uk / 29.04.2012)

Yitzhar settlers attack school children in Urif

Urif is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate of the northern occupied West Bank, located thirteen kilometres South of Nablus. The town has a population of just under 3000 inhabitants and is overlooked by the illegal Israeli colony of Yitzhar. Last week on Sunday, April 22, Urif’s boys school was attacked by mask-wearing settlers supported by four Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) soldiers who used tear-gas, sound bombs, and live ammunition against unarmed Palestinian children.

The training of armed, illegal settlers

The settlers were led by the head of security for the Yitzhar colony, a man suspected in the murder of a resident of Urif in 2004, a murder that nobody has yet been charged with. He continues to lead brutal assaults against the civilian population of six Palestinian towns in the lands surrounding Yitzhar: Burin, Huwara, Madma, Assria Al-Kalibya, Ein Nabous, and Urif.
The attack began when the Yitzhar head of security and a number of masked settlers approached the school from an overlooking hill. “The children were sitting their mock exams,” said Arif, a member of the local popular committee, “the settlers used foul language and began throwing stones at the windows of the school.”

The settlers were soon joined by four uniformed IOF soldiers who did nothing to stop the abuse and stones hurled towards the school.

“When the army came they were supposed to stop the settlers coming to the school, in fact the opposite happened, there was chaos,” said Arif. A number of Palestinian youth approached the armed Israeli settlers and soldiers on the hill, using stones to resist the attack. The IOF soldiers then threw tear gas canisters down towards them and the school. One canister landed on the roof where a member of the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, Adil Safadi, was filming the attack.

Following the attack teachers from the school collected sixty tear gas canisters, a number of sound grenades, and at least thirty rounds of live ammunition fired directly over their heads.

In the video of the incident wherein International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers are shown, the screams of the children and the loud report of an assault rifle being fired in fully automatic mode can clearly be heard. At one point an IOF soldier took aim with his M16 directly at a Palestinian youth out of camera shot. The sustained assault lasted for around an hour before the settlers decided to leave with their IOF minders in tow.

Whilst some children hid in their classrooms during the attack under the watchful eye of their teachers, many rushed to their homes and were exposed to large amounts of tear-gas and required medical attention. The children of Urif’s boys school, aged between 13 and 18, have been subjected to this kind of brutality on a regular basis since the founding of the school which sits on the outskirts of the village and is thus vulnerable to these kind of attacks. Many of the older kids that attend the school were in the process of studying for their year final examinations which take place in early May.

“You can’t imagine the loss we have suffered as a result of this settlement,” says Arif,  “we would like to live in peace and prosperity, but that is something we cannot gain. The settlers are very aggressive, there is no word in the dictionary to describe them.”

This is not the first time the settlers, supported by the military, have attacked the school. Roughly one year ago they attempted and failed to burn it down. ISM was shown pictures depicting the charred remains of one classroom that was severely damaged during the attack.

Incursions from Yitzhar into Urif and Surrounding Villages

Arif and members of Urif municipality informed ISM of the following.

The illegal colony of Yitzhar was founded in 1984. It was not until the beginning of 2000 that it began to aggressively expand into the surrounding Palestinian lands. Yitzhar illegally annexed vast swaths of land and barred access to the Palestinian farmers, shepherds, and villagers that have lived and worked the land for countless generations.

The village of Urif is a mere 1500 meters away from the Israeli colony, and since 2000, over 2200 dunams have been stolen by the nearby settlement. In addition, four thousand olive trees cultivated by the village have been uprooted or burnt by settlers in the past four years.

The villagers of Urif have no access to running water, instead they rely on a small number of ancient wells. Two years ago, members of the village were dismayed to find tear gas canisters had been dropped into one of the wells by unknown settlers, poisoning the water supply.

Any attempt to expand infrastructure in the village is also met with settler attacks. ISM volunteers were shown the remains of a house that had been under construction before it was attacked and completely dismantled.

“Late at night they launch attacks on the residents in this area,” said Arif, pointing to the rubble strewn skeleton of the destroyed house. A tractor and a number of cars belonging to residents of the village had also been destroyed in a series of recent arson attacks.

Settlers have shot through the windows of a number of the homes. Graffiti reading ‘revenge’ in Hebrew was scrawled across one residents house. The widespread attacks of agricultural land has lead to a vast “wasteland” between the outskirts of Urif and Yitzhar. Hundreds of goats, sheep, and a few horses have been stolen.

This is not to mention the violence towards the villagers themselves. Arif reports that hundreds of villagers have been injured since 2000, with as many as 40 serious injuries (many of which were gunshot wounds) and one murder.

The combined effects of this systematic assault on Urif residents’ way of life, economy, and civil society is akin to a form of ethnic cleansing. One of the most stark indicators of the impact of the measures taken against the village of Urif by Yitzhar settlement is that unemployment is as high as 40%. Many people simply cannot survive under these conditions and are thus forced to abandon the village of their birth, leaving behind their friends, family, and identity.

Chris Beckett is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

(palsolidarity.org / 29.04.2012)

The World’s Largest Open-Air Gulag

GAZA STILL BLEEDS. 

Have you heard much lately about the 1.5 million Palestinians illegally imprisoned by the Israeli government in the world’s largest open-air Gulag? Their dire living conditions, worsened by a selective Israeli siege limiting the importation of necessities of life – medical items, food, water, building materials, and fuel to list a few – has resulted in an 80 percent unemployment rate and widespread suffering from unlawful punishment, arbitrary arrests, and imprisonment in Israeli jails.The horrific conditions were a result of the Israeli invasion of Gaza in late 2008, ignited by Israel’s breaking of a truce with Gaza on November 4. Fourteen hundred people died, nearly three hundred of them children, and thousands were injured. The terror bombing of the Gazan population smashed into homes, hospitals, schools, ambulances, mosques, subsistence farms, UN facilities, and even the American International School. Israeli bombers destroyed over 30 members of one extended family in their home. That toll alone was three times the amount of Israeli fatalities, which included friendly fire.

The humanitarian crisis in crowded Gaza – about twice the size of the District of Columbia – “is now more dire than ever.” That is the judgment of Norwegian physician and professor of medicine, Dr. Mads Gilbert, who just finished a ten-day speaking tour in the US Dr. Gilbert, returning from a recent visit to Gaza, was one of the only two foreign doctors inside Gaza during the massacre of December 2008 to January 2009.

He says: “During the Israeli attack, I saw the effects of new weapons including drones, phosphorous and also DIME [Dense Inert Metal Explosives], which leave no shrapnel, but I witnessed their capacity to cut a child in two; they also leave radioactive traces.”

Today, anemia and protein deficiency are widespread, reports Dr. Gilbert, especially among little children. UN and other relief supplies are inadequate, and UN humanitarian relief staff is often harassed by Israeli officials. Rebuilding pulverized Gaza is seriously obstructed by Israel blocking the imports of building materials.

Dr. Gilbert comments that he has “worked in other desperate situations in other places and Gaza is unique in a number of respects. It’s a captive population – usually if civilians are being attacked, there’s a safe place they can take refuge and then come back to their homes when the fighting has stopped. That doesn’t exist for the people in Gaza since they are effectively imprisoned by the Israeli siege.”

Writing in the prestigious British medical journal “The Lancet” in early 2009, Dr. Gilbert provided clinical details of the slaughter, including the destruction of ambulances and medical facilities that tend to the dying and the wounded.

He described a “shattered, attacked, and drained health-care system trying to help an overwhelming amount of casualties in a war between clearly unequal powers, where the attacker spares no civilian lives – be it man, woman, or child – not even the much-needed health workers of all professions.”

It is no wonder the Israelis banned all foreign reporters, including those from the US – the very country that provided the weaponry – thereby preventing the world from seeing the carnage as it happened.

The media ban made it possible for George W. Bush and president-elect Barack Obama to get away with describing this aggressive war with the identical phrase “Israel has the right to defend itself.” But apparently, the Palestinians do not have any way to defend themselves against the second-most modern military arsenal in the world; and their pleas about who broke the truce and started the bloodshed are unheeded.

Crude, garage-built Palestinian rockets are no match for modern precision missiles, helicopter gunships, bombers and drones. Fortunately for the Israelis, the rockets failed to reach any population centers 99 percent of the time. It was a mystery even to the Israelis why the unchallenged Israeli air force and ground artillery did not knock out the primitive Gaza launching sites, given its spies, informants and knowledge of every block in Gaza.

Reporters would have dug out these stories were they allowed inside Gaza. Since 2009, the focus of both the Israeli and US government toward Iran has taken Gaza, the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, and the swallowing up of more land in the Palestinian West Bank, off of the news screens in the West.

It is remarkable how successful the Israeli propagandists have been in controlling the news coverage. They have even sidelined prominent retired Israeli security, military and political leaders, who along with civic and peace advocates are seeking a two-state solution, an end to confiscation of Palestinian land and houses, and debunking war talk against Iran, designed for domestic political purposes in Israel and the US

For example, Meir Dagan, director of the Mossad – Israel’s CIA – from 2002 until 2010, called bombing Iran “the stupidest thing I ever heard.” In agreement are many other Israelis in the know. But, as in the US during the months before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, experienced voices of realism and sanity are not heard. Nor are sobering words of candor, as voiced by Israel’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion, who said, of the dispossessed Palestinians years ago, “we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

Isn’t bringing these prominent Israeli truthsayers, peace advocates and military refuseniks to the US Congress for their first-ever public hearing way overdue? At stake is peace or more wars in the Middle East. Also at stake is the possibility of another US “war of choice” against Iran and the likely uncontrollable consequences that such belligerency would provoke. Would members of Congress let the AIPAC lobby block Israelis from coming here to present such testimony?

Or are the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, chaired respectively by Democratic Senator John Kerry and Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, satisfied with following their party lines?

(islamicinsights.com / 29.04.2012)

Verschil in gruweldaden?

Deze week kon u weer lezen over het historisch proces tegen Charles Taylor, voormalig president van Liberia, die schuldig is bevonden aan grove misdaden. In de schrijvende pers kon u lezen over de misdaden, de gruweldaden van deze heer, maar ook van andere ‘kopstukken’ uit de mondiale geschiedenis werd aangegeven wat ze op hun kerfstok hadden.
Natuurlijk weet u ‘alles’ van Adolf Hitler, maar weet u ook dat zijn opvolger Karl Dönitz tijdens de processen van Neurenberg schuldig werd bevonden aan onder meer oorlogsmisdaden?

De laatste jaren zijn Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milosevic en Milan Milutinovic voor het Joegoslavië Tribunaal gebracht;  daarnaast zouden Laurent Gbagbo, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir en Muammar Kaddafi voor het Internationaal Strafhof gebracht worden, echter niet iedereen overleefde het voordat men in Den Haag afgeleverd zou worden.

De vraag is waaraan waren deze mensen schuldig bevonden, zodat ze voor een strafhof of tribunaal gebracht konden worden? Bij elk van hen was de aanklacht oorlogsmisdaden, echter die zijn verder te verfijnen. Wat wordt er algemeen onder deze misdaden verstaan? Bij Taylor was het in ieder geval terrorisme, moord, ontnemen van de menselijke waardigheid, wrede behandeling en plundering. Tevens werden moord,  onmenselijke handelingen en slavernij in de categorie ‘misdaad tegen de menselijkheid’ gebracht. Voor de meeste beruchte personen hierboven genoemd geldt hetzelfde, ze kregen een of meerdere etiketten van oorlogsmisdaden opgeplakt.

Bekijk nu eens naar het lijstje van oorlogsmisdaden; als het lijstje gevolgd wordt, dan kunnen er tegenwoordig ook heel wat moderne leiders (lees dictators) daarvoor in aanmerking komen.  De dictators zullen het waarschijnlijk niet overleven, daar er op een of ander moment de afrekening komt.
In onze moderne wereld zijn er leiders die het land van een ander volk stap voor stap inpikken, mag dat geen ‘plundering’ worden genoemd? Leiders die al jaren een ander volk onder een wrede bezetting hebben, noemt u dat geen ‘onmenselijke handelingen’? Het doodschieten van leiders van een ander volk met drones van een grote afstand, staat in mijn woordenboek nog steeds bekend als ‘moord’.  Het bijna dagelijks beschieten met helikopters, vliegtuigen, boten en drones van een compleet volk roept bij mij maar een woord op, nl. terrorisme.

Echter er is in deze wereld geen westerse leider die het voortouw durft te nemen om de moderne leiders die verdacht worden van gruweldaden, van oorlogsmisdaden voor een tribunaal of het Internationaal Strafhof te krijgen. Sterker nog, het westen verdedigt met hand en tand de zgn. democratie van dit kleine land in het Midden Oosten. Voor Nederland is het zelfs een onderwerp geworden in het partijprogramma van het gevallen kabinet Rutte.

Waar zou dan het verschil zitten? Zou er verschillen zijn in gruweldaden, in oorlogsmisdaden? Of is het toch wat anders? Zou het verschil niet zitten in de gruweldaden die WEL worden uitgevoerd, maar gewoon in het feit dat het westen ze NIET wil zien? In dat geval, is het westen medeverantwoordelijk voor de gruweldaden, de oorlogsmisdaden die deze zgn. democratie in het Midden Oosten begaat en zou daar ook voor terecht moeten staan.

Israel court puts 60-day hold on settlement razings

Boys walk with their bicycles on a pavement in the West Bank Jewish outpost of Bruchin.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israel’s Supreme Court postponed the demolition of an outpost settler neighborhood in the West Bank on Sunday, a ruling that gave the government more time to argue against their destruction and placate pro-settler political partners.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed last year to remove the five buildings on the edge of the Beit El settlement, after a court ruled they were built on private Palestinian land.

But Netanyahu has come under intense pressure from within his own right-wing Likud party and from other pro-settler coalition allies to delay the demolition.

The court said it would freeze the demolition, originally scheduled for May 1, for 60 days and meet again at the end of that period to hear the government’s argument.

“No later than 60 days from today the State Attorney’s office will present an updated declaration and according to what it says, we will decide how to proceed with this petition,” part of the court’s ruling said.

On Friday, the government asked for a three-month delay, citing “operational reasons”, although it did not say what they were.

All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. Israel distinguishes between settlements it has approved and outposts which were never granted official authorization.

Netanyahu’s government is trying to retrospectively grant legal status to some of the sites that settlers erected without the public approval of the Israeli authorities, drawing often strong condemnation from Western allies and Palestinian leaders.

Last week, the government granted legal status to three previously unauthorized Jewish outposts — a move critics said had effectively created the first new official settlements in more than two decades.

Palestinian leaders say such outposts, and 130 formal settlements Israel has built in the territory it captured in a 1967 war, will deny them a viable state they want to establish in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

About 350,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, with a further 200,000 living on annexed land in East Jerusalem.

(www.maannews.net / 29.04.2012)

Ghosts of a Genocide: The Contentious Ethnic Politics of Today’s Bosnia

A mayoral election in Srebrenica, the site of a horrific 1995 massacre, is reopening scars from one of Europe’s worst conflicts since World War Two.

Serbian police officers watch protestors marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian war. Reuters

SREBRENICA, BOSNIA — Six months from now, a municipal election will be held in this isolated mining town, the scene of the largest massacre in Europe since World War Two.

The town’s current mayor, a 33 year-old Bosnian Muslim, says the election will hand Bosnian Serbs control of the town and complete the “ethnic cleansing,” or removal, of all Muslims from eastern Bosnia. Serbs say it is democracy, plain and simple.

Seventeen years ago, Serb forces executed 8,100 Muslim men and boys here in the largest single mass killing of the war in Bosnia. The U.S. and its European allies – who had declared the town a U.N. protected “safe area” – stood by as the Serbs rampaged for days in the summer of 1995.

In local elections since then, a special exemption has been granted that allows Muslims who lived here before the war to vote in Srebrenica – even if they no longer reside here. This year, the country’s High Representative – a foreign overseer with sweeping powers – plans to issue no such exemption. In a visit to the town this week, he called for Serb and Muslim politicians to compromise.

“The challenge in Srebrenica goes far beyond the elections,” said Valentin Inzko, an Austrian diplomat who has pressed local officials to take more responsibility since becoming high representative in 2009. “People want a better life, and the key to that is constructive politics and economic development.”

Under the exemption, Muslims have controlled the municipal government, interned the bodies of 5,137 of the victims in a sprawling memorial here and tried to reverse some of the impact of the killings by slowly moving back. Today Srebrenica’s population, which was 75 percent Muslim before the war, is evenly split between Serbs and Muslims.

And that is where the good news ends. Already a glaring symbol of international fecklessness, the town’s sorry state today sets a new standard for Western half-measures gone astonishingly wrong.

The 17-year effort to move Muslims back to this town began with a whimper. Clinton administration officials, eager to avoid American casualties, made little effort in the late 1990s to arrest the Serb nationalists who carried out the executions. Fears of violent clashes blocked large-scale efforts to return Muslims to Srebrenica.

Frustrated, the roughly 30,000 Muslims who had survived the town’s fall scattered across Bosnia and the world. Roughly 20,000 resettled in Muslim-controlled parts of Bosnia. An additional 15,000 fled abroad; an estimated 7,000 arrived in the United States.

Many of them eventually settled in St. Louis, Missouri, a city with a Bosnian community already 80,000 strong, the largest in the United States. Today, roughly 5,000 refugees from Srebrenica live in St. Louis. The Midwestern American city is home to more Bosnian Muslim survivors of the massacre than Srebrenica itself.

One of the Srebrenica refugees who arrived in the U. S. was Camil Durakovic, the town’s current Muslim mayor. After he survived the fall of Srebrenica at the age of 16, his family resettled in Manchester, New Hampshire. After attending a local high school, he graduated from Notre Dame in 2003 and planned to attend graduate school in the U.S.

A 2005 summer trip to Srebrenica convinced him that his home was here. He started working for the town’s mayor. When the mayor passed away earlier this year, Durakovic, a burly man with a boyish face who wore a pin-striped suit and pink shirt in the town hall today, took over.

In an interview in his office on Thursday, he said returns of Muslim families rose from 2002 to 2005, largely as a result of heavy American and European support. In recent years, though, they have slowed. The economy has not helped. Unemployment is 50 percent in Srebrenica, making it a difficult place to settle for Muslims and Serbs alike. Today, 3,500 Bosnian Muslims live in Srebrenica. Because Serb officials decline to pay their pensions and other government benefits, many Bosnian Muslims maintain their official addresses in Muslim-controlled parts of Bosnia.

As a result, even though half the town’s residents are Serbs and half are Muslims, its registered voters are roughly 60 percent Serb. Unless the high representative or national government grants another exemption allowing Muslims who lived in the town before the war to vote, Serb politicians will likely gain control of the local government this fall. With foreign aid and interest in the town dwindling, Durakovic and other survivors predict that Muslims will flee.

“It will be the finalization of the genocide,” Durakovic told me. “Definitely.”

Radomir Pavlovic, the likely Serb candidate for mayor in the October municipal elections, insisted that Muslims had nothing to fear. But he then echoed the divisive statements of the head of his political party, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik. Initially perceived as a moderate by the West, Dodik has rejected rulings by the International War Crimes Tribunal that genocide occurred in Srebrenica and has systematically thwarted international efforts to unify the country.

Pavlovic, the probable mayoral candidate, expressed views that are widely held among Bosnian Serbs. He said he believed 2,000 – not 8,000 – Muslims died in the executions, blamed “foreign mercenaries” for the killings and expressed sympathy for General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander now on trial in the Hague for carrying out genocide after evading arrest for 16 years.

“Others are more responsible than him and will go unpunished,” Pavlovic told me. “It’s always the pawns that get blamed.”

Denial is nothing new here. After the fall of Srebrenica, Bosnian Serbs insisted that no mass killings had occurred and blocked journalists from investigating them. (Bosnian Serb forces jailed me for 10 days in 1995 after I discovered mass graves near the town while covering the conflict for the Christian Science Monitor.) After the bodies were exhumed, the Bosnian Serbs said too little attention was paid to the Serbs killed by Muslims around Srebrenica. As many as 1,300 Serbs may have died here, as Pavlovic argued, but that number is dwarfed by the 8,100 Muslim dead.

The high representative has until May 9 to grant an exemption for Bosnian Muslim voters here. He should immediately do so. The Dayton Peace Accords mercifully ended the war in 1995, but they created a still-born country with a constitution that makes it easy for corrupt nationalists on all sides to divide the country.

Until desperately needed constitutional reforms are implemented, the Bosnians who lived in Srebrenica before the conflict should be allowed to vote here. Serb nationalists should not gain control of a town that was 75 percent Muslim before the war. Genocide should not be rewarded.

(www.theatlantic.com / 29.04.2012)

Egypt’s parliament halts sessions as military refuses to sack cabinet

Egypt’s People’s Assembly announced it was suspending the work of its lower house after the ruling military council refused to fire the cabinet.

The Islamists-dominated Egyptian parliament suspended the sessions of its lower house on Sunday for a week to protest the ruling military council’s refusal to dissolve the cabinet.

The legislature’s speaker, Saad el-Katatni of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, announced the decision on Sunday after lawmakers spoke in a televised session against the government of Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri and the ruling generals who appointed it late last year.

“There has to be a solution to this crisis…there has to be a solution…and that is why i suggest suspending the parliament’s sessions for a week,” Katatni said.

The move is likely to fuel tensions between the generals and the Brotherhood, which controls just under half the seats in parliament.

El-Ganzouri served as prime minister during the 1990s under longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak, toppled in a popular uprising 14 months ago.

The parliament’s decision came after a night of violence marked with protests outside the defense ministry in the Egyptian capital to call for an end to military rule.

The clashes lasted till dawn, with both sides throwing rocks and petrol bombs and firing buckshot, a member of the security forces said.

Security officials said the clashes broke out when the assailants set upon the protesters. Rocks, fireworks, empty glass bottles and firebombs were used in three hours of street battles. At least 30 were wounded.

Troops and police made no attempt to stop the violence.

Many of the protesters were supporters of an ultraconservative politician angered by his disqualification from running in next month’s presidential election.

The health ministry said 91 people were wounded, most of them lightly.

Protests in Egypt since the popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year have often turned violent, with thugs working for the country’s military leadership frequently blamed.

The electoral commission on April 14 barred 10 candidates, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat al-Shater and the former president’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, from standing in the poll to choose Mubarak’s successor.

Salafist candidate Hazem Abu Ismail’s nomination was rejected because his mother had taken joint US citizenship, but many of his supporters believe he was the victim of a “plot” by the authorities.

The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for May 23 and 24, and the interim military leadership has promised to hand power to an elected civilian president by the end of June.

(english.alarabiya.net / 29.04.2012)

Group: Prisoners refuse Israel’s isolation policy compromise

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Palestinian detainees have refused a compromise offered by Israeli authorities to end their hunger strike, a prisoners group said on Sunday.

A key demand of the mass strike launched two weeks ago, detainees insist that the policy of holding Palestinians in solitary confinement is scrapped.

Israeli prison authorities suggested isolated prisoners be gathered into a special section, and agree not to be involved in political activities outside jail upon release from solitary confinement, al-Ahrar prisoners group said. Prisoners refused the offer, the group said.

Director of al-Ahrar Fouad Khafash said prisoners refuse “half-solutions”, and their demand to end solitary confinement is supported by international law.

The group questioned Israel’s long-term isolation of prisoners, highlighting the cases of Mahmoud Issa, in solitary confinement for 13 years, and Hasan Salameh, who has spent 10 years in isolation.

Around 2,000 prisoners are refusing food in Israeli jails to protest their conditions, prisoners groups estimate.

(www.maannews.net / 29.04.2012)

Issa Qaraqe: Israel prevents the International Commission of Inquiry to reach the prisoners | #PalHunger

Jerusalem (Islam Times) – Minister of “Palestinian Detainees & Ex-Detainees Affairs”, Issa Qaraqe said in an interview with “Al Bayan” that Israel is not allowing the International Commission of Inquiry to be informed of the prisoners’ situation in the Israeli jails, noting that the Palestinian Authority are in constant contact with various international parties to put pressure on Israel to allow the Observer Mission to access the Palestinian territories and inspect the prisoners’ conditions inside Israeli jails who are subjected to harassment and violations of basic human rights and have engaged in a hunger strike since the seventeenth of this month.

Qaraqe pointed out that “the Ministry of Detainees is working on activating the prosecution of the leaders in Israeli prisons for crimes committed against the prisoners, which are classified according to international law as war crimes.”

Urgent intervention
The Minister of detainees sent an urgent letter to UN Secretary-General ‘Ban Ki-moon’ asking him to quickly intervene to stop the prisoners’ suffering given that more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners have been on a hunger strike for a week, and some for 56 days especially Bilal Diab and Hassan Safadi who’s health have deteriorated.

In his letter, Qaraqe asked to form a committee to study the ill-legal violations exercised by the Israeli Government against the prisoners, stressing that an international third party should interfere to advocate for the prisoners and protect them.
Qaraqe told “Al Bayan” that: “the Israeli government is pursuing a revenge policy on the prisoners, and is denying them of the most basic human rights which violate the principles of international and humanitarian law.” He stressed that the prisoners’ demands are very possible and humble regarding the respect of their rights as human beings, such as the right for visits and education, and ending the series of attacks and sanctions imposed on them.

An international conference
Qaraqe added that “the First International Conference on Rights of Palestinian prisoners” held at United Nations Headquarters in the Swiss capital Geneva last month, under the slogan “work for justice”, conducted several important recommendations that should be implemented regarding the release of prisoners from Israeli jails.

He noted that the most important of these recommendations: Sending an international investigation committee to investigate the prisoners’ suffering, prosecuting Israeli leaders for violation of prisoners’ rights, reviewing the international agreements with Israel given that it doesn’t respect international laws and norms, and activating the role of the International Red Cross to follow up and protect the prisoners.

The Hunger Strike
Qaraqe assured that the hunger strike comes within a peaceful framework after all other efforts have failed to achieve their demands, adding that the detainees’ messages confirm that there is no trace of division among them, and that they refuse to be affected by any political bickering. He also pointed out that their success depends on their unity and people’s support.

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 29.04.2012)

Open letter to Dutch government

Dear Dutch government, Mr Rutte, Mr. Rosenthal,

That you have your own goals and opinion, i have to respect that. But when you will keep on looking the other way when the Israeli’s are doing dirty things which are in great contrast of International law, i will not respect your opinion anymore.

But for the times you forget what settlers do under military protection , i give you some links. In the time you are really interested , you can follow this links to more information.

Don’t forget, the Dutch government is responsible for everything what is happening to the people of Palestine.

Jewish settlers storm Bethlehem village under military protection

APRIL 28, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 28/04/2012 - 07:49 AM ] BETHLEHEM, (PIC)– Jewish settlers stormed the Solomon Pools in Khader village, south of Bethlehem, under Israeli military protection, local sources said. They said that around 200 settlers stormed the village and bathed in the three Solomon Pools before performing religious rituals. The settlers routinely visit what they call [...]

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Israel, Settler Violence, Settlers

army, bethlehem, invasion, israel, military, palestine, protection, settler, terror, west bank,zionism

If Extremist Settlers break into an Army Base it’s OK, If a Palestinian tries He will have a funeral

APRIL 28, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Extremist Israeli Settlers Break Into Israeli Military Base Saturday April 28, 2012 03:47 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies Israeli sources reported Friday that a group of extremist Israeli settlers broke into an Israeli military base in the West Bank and wrote graffiti against the army before the soldiers managed to apprehend nine of [...]

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Israel, Settler Violence, Settlers

colonists, hilltop youth, israel, israeli, palestine, settler, Settlers, west bank

Israeli Settlers attack village, block Nablus road

APRIL 26, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Maan News Agency | April 26, 2011 NABLUS (Ma’an) — Settlers in the northern West Bank set up a roadblock and attacked a Nablus village on Thursday, a PA official said. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, said that settlers blocked a main road that links the West Bank town [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Violence, Zionism

colonist, israel, israeli, jewish, palestine, palestinians, Setler Attack, Settlers, west bank

DON’T “GLUE” IF YOU’RE NOT A “JEW”!

APRIL 26, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

April 26, 2012 ~ by occpal Last night in Jaffa, peace activists of Zochrot were besieged for reading names of villages which were ethnic cleansed by Israel in an attempt to commemorate the Nakba of Palestine. They got detained. Like him.  More photos and the video of the event can be seen here Today…. Today [...]

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Israel, israeli, Palestine, palestinians, Racism, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

arabs, arrest, arrested, bounties, bounty, hunt, israel, israeli, kill, manhunt, palestinians, posters,Settlers, zionism

Jewish settlers pelt Palestinian cars near Jenin

APRIL 26, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 26/04/2012 - 09:49 AM ] JENIN, (PIC)– Jewish settlers threw stones on passing Palestinian vehicles along the Jenin-Nablus road on Wednesday night and damaged a number of them, locals said. One of the drivers, Mohammed Naji, told the PIC that settlers, who were gathering near the evacuated Homesh settlement, threw rocks at passing [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers

aggression, cars, israel, israeli, palestine, palestinian, pelt, Settlers, terror, vehicles, west bank,zionism

Mk’s Celebrate Latest E. Jerusalem Settlement By Posing On Evicted Palestinian Family’s Sofa

APRIL 25, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Wednesday April 25, 2012 01:29 by Allison Deger – Mondoweiss – IMEMC Following last week’s eviction of the Palestinian Natsha family from their Beit Hanina home, Israeli Knesset members Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad visited the house now inhabited by some eight settlers. To mark the occasion they posted a picture of themselves lounging on [...]

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Ethnic Cleansing, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

celebrate, families, home, house, israel, MKs, palestine, palestinian, Settlers, sofa, take-over,Zionist

Settlers ‘accost Chilean delegation’ in Hebron. Head of Delegation: “Incident was “worse than they expected.”

APRIL 25, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Maan News Agency | April 25, 2012   HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers accosted on Tuesday members of a Chilean Senate delegation and Hebron governor Kamel Hamid near Ibrahimi mosque, onlookers said. Settlers shouted obscenities at the delegation and told them they were in a “Jewish area” during a tour of the Old City, they [...]

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Settlers, Settler Violence, International

israel, apartheid, israeli, violence, Settlers, international, delegation, chile, diplomats, Settler Violence, chilean, offended, shouted, verbal

Jewish settlers storm Nabi Yusuf’s tomb in Nablus

APRIL 24, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ 24/04/2012 - 09:42 AM ] NABLUS, (PIC)– Dozens of Jewish settlers stormed Yousuf’s tomb to the east of Nablus city at dawn Tuesday under heavy Israeli military protection, local sources said. They said that a big number of Israeli occupation soldiers were deployed in the northern suburbs of the city to provide protection for [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

nabi yusuf, Nablus, Settlers, storm, tomb

Jewish settlers destroy Palestinian olive trees and fence off their lands

APRIL 24, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 23/04/2012 - 09:51 PM ] BETHLEHEM, TULKAREM, (PIC)– On Monday (23/4), Zionist settlers cut down Palestinian-owned olive trees in the area located between Izbet Shufa and Kafa hamlet, south of Tulkarem and fenced off citizens’ lands in Tekoa town. An eyewitnesses told PIC that usurpers from the “Avni Hefetz” settlement which is built [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers

fence, israel, land, olive, palestine, palestinian, Settlers, sraeli, trees, zionism

Settlers attack a school and injure 8 students – Photography

APRIL 23, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

NABLUS, April 23, 2012 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers from Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus, Monday raided the nearby village of Urif and attacked the local school, injuring eight students, according to a local activist. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the north of the West Bank, said a group of settlers attacked the school [...]

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attack, Children, palestinians, Photography, Settler Violence, Settlers

attack, children, israel, palestine, palestinian, school, Settlers, students, Wounded, zionism, Zionist

Israeli zionist settlers wound Eight children

APRIL 23, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Monday April 23, 2012 11:49 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies Palestinian medical sources reported Monday that eight school children were injured when a group of extremist Israeli settlers of the illegal Yitzhar settlement, attacked them in Orif village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Armed Israeli Settlers – wattan.tv The [...]

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Children, Settler Violence, Settlers

children, israel, israeli, settler, violence, Wounded, zionism

Dutch veto against condemnation of settlers’ violations | #Holland #Netherlands #Europe #CorruptPolitics

APRIL 21, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ Palestinian Information Center 21/04/2012 - 04:59 PM ] LONDON, (PIC)– The Arab Organization for Human Rights in London has revealed that the Netherlands had blocked the official issuance of a European report condemning Jewish settlers’ violations against Palestinian civilians. The organization said in a statement on Friday that the Rights Forum founded by the [...]

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Corrupt Politics, Europe, Israel, Report, Settler Violence, Settlers, Violence

blocks, chutzpah, document, Dries van Agt, EU, Europe, european, holland, leaked, Netherlands,published, publishes, report, RightsForum, shame

Report: Vice PM says settler removal to collapse Israeli government

APRIL 21, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Maan News Agency | April 21, 2012 TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israel’s vice prime minister said Saturday that the government could fall apart if it follows through with plans to remove a neighborhood in Beit El settlement, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. “We have said that we must not remove the neighborhood,” Moshe Yaalon was [...]

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Israel, israeli, Settlements, Settler Violence, Settlers

collapse, colonies, government, illegal, israel, israeli, palestine, removal, settlements, west bank,zionism

Israeli settlers assault UN delegation in al-Khalil

APRIL 21, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Emergency Action Call: Over 3000 people on Hunger Strike for Human Rights and against abuse and torture in Israeli Jails 21-04-2012,08:27 | Al Qassam website Al Qassam website – Jewish settlers threw stones and rubbish on a number of foreign law professors, who are participating in a conference about Palestine’s membership in the U.N. which [...]

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Israel, israeli, Palestine, palestinians, Settler Violence, Settlers, UN

colonists, delegation, illegal, israel, israeli, jewish, palestine, Settlers, UN, United Nations

Thousands of Jewish settlers storm Qalqilia village to perform rituals

APRIL 18, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 18/04/2012 - 05:00 PM ] QALQILIA, (PIC)– Thousands of Jewish settlers stormed the village of Kufl Hares, south east of Qalqilia, on Tuesday night and offered Talmudic rituals at a shrine under Israeli occupation forces’ protection. Mamun Buziye, a member of the village’s municipal council, told Quds Press on Wednesday that IOF soldiers [...]

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Palestine, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

incursion, israel, israeli, jewish, Occupied, qalqilia, rituals, Settler Violence, Settlers, thousands,west bank

Soldiers Invade Homes In Hebron, Settlers Attack Young Man

APRIL 18, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Wednesday April 18, 2012 01:08 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies Israeli soldiers invaded several homes in Al-Ja’bary and Khallit Hadour neighborhoods in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday night, while Israeli settlers attacked a youth leading to wounds that required hospitalization. File – Maan Images Local sources reported that dozens [...]

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attack, Israel, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

attack, israel, settler, violence

Jewish settlers chop off 250 olive trees

APRIL 16, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 16/04/2012 - 08:17 PM ] RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Jewish settlers chopped off 250 Palestinian olive trees in the village of Beitello to the west of Ramallah on Monday, local sources said. Fawzi Bazar said that he was stunned at seeing the olive trees cut off when he went to tend his field along with [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Violence, Zionism

chop off, colonists, cut, down, israel, olive trees, palestine, palestinian, Settler Violence, terrorism,trees, west bank

Jewish settlers steal Palestinian sheep heads

APRIL 15, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 15/04/2012 - 10:33 AM ] AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– A group of Jewish settlers from Hagai settlement stole a sheep herd of a Palestinian shepherd from Rehiya village, south of Al-Khalil, on Sunday. Local sources told the PIC reporter that the settlers robbed Yousef Al-Haroush of his flock of 13 sheep heads. Jewish settlers routinely [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

colonists, crop, heads, israel, israeli, palestine, Settlers, sheep, steal, theft, west bank

Light of the Nations’ Jewish settlers assault Palestinian woman

APRIL 14, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ 14/04/2012 - 09:44 AM PIC] AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Jewish settlers attacked a Palestinian woman to the east of Yatta, south of Al-Khalil, on Friday evening using sharp tools, her brother said. Ali Nawaja said that his sister Samiha had survived what he described as a murder attempt, adding that she was taken to hospital where [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

attack, cowards, jewish, palestine, palestinian, pathetic, Settler Violence, Settlers, woman

PRESS RELEASE | Double attack from Havat Ma’on illegal outpost in South Hebron Hills

APRIL 14, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

BREAKING – Exclusive by @972Mag : “Political contract” required to enter Israel? opcol on April 14, 2012 | Operation Dove PRESS RELEASE Double attack from Havat Ma’on illegal outpost in South Hebron Hills Palestinians, internationals and olive trees targets of the israeli settlers April 14th, 2012 At-Tuwani – In the early morning of April 13th [...]

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Israel, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

israel, israeli, palestine, settler, Settler Violence, terrorism, west bank

Jewish settlers assault an old man and his son

APRIL 14, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 14/04/2012 - 04:35 PM ] AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Jewish settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement in Al-Khalil attacked an old man and his son while farming their land in Al-Khalil, the son told the PIC reporter on Saturday. He said that his 63-year-old father Shaker Al-Tamimi was carried to hospital after ten settlers attacked them [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

attack, israel, israeli, palestine, settler, terror, terrorism, west bank, zionism

Settlers ‘destroy olive trees’ in Hebron

APRIL 13, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Maan News Agency | April 13, 2012 HEBRON (Ma’an) — Settlers destroyed dozens of olive trees belonging to Hebron villagers on Friday, a local committee said. Settlers from Maon settlement southeast of Hebron chopped down dozens of trees belonging to Jebril Mousa Khalil, a spokesman for the popular committee against the wall and settlements said. [...]

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Settler Violence

colonists, illegal, olive trees, settler, Settler Violence

Record number of Israelis holiday in West Bank settlement areas

APRIL 13, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Thursday, 12 April 2012 13:05 Connie Hackbarth, Alternative Information Center (AIC) Tens of thousands of Israelis visited West Bank settlement areas during this week’s Passover holiday. Israel’s development of settler tourist attractions and normalization of its occupation are behind these record numbers. Gvaot Olam “farm” near the northern West Bank settlement of Itamar, where Israelis [...]

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Israel, israeli, Occupation, Settler Violence, Settlers

colonist, holiday, illegal, increasing, israel, israeli, jewish, palestine, Settlers, west bank

Three Palestinian farmers wounded in Jewish settlers attack

APRIL 12, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 12/04/2012 - 11:43 AM ] NABLUS, (PIC)– Three Palestinian farmers from Aqraba village, near Nablus, were wounded on Thursday morning after Jewish settlers attacked them. Hamza Dairiya, a member of the committee in defense of Aqraba land, said that a group of settlers attacked the farmers while returning home with sheep heads and [...]

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attack, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

attack, colonists, farmers, palestine, palestinians, Settler Violence, west bank, zionism

Voices from the Occupation: Izat J. – settler/soldier violence/detention

APRIL 11, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

11 April 2012 | Defence for Children International | ISM Name: Izat J. Date of Incident: 10 March 2012 Age: 16 Location: Hebron, occupied West Bank Nature of Incident: Settler/soldier violence/detention On 10 March 2012, a 16-year-old boy from Hebron is attacked by an Israeli border policeman and then detained at Kiryat Arba’s police station [...]

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Children, Israel, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

abuse, child, colonists, DCI Palestine, detention, israel, israeli, military, palestine, palestinian,report, Settlers, torture, violence

Palestinian Believed Kidnapped by Setters Found with Hands Tied

APRIL 11, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Wafa – April 11, 2012 HEBRON, April11, 2012 (WAFA) – A Palestinian from the Hebron area town of Beit Ummar who was declared missing on Tuesday was found alive on Wednesday in a remote area with his hands tied, according to a local activist. Muhammad Salibi, 24, was found with his hands tied and in [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

Palestinian woman seriously injured in settlers’ attack

APRIL 11, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 11/04/2012 - 11:22 AM ] AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– A Palestinian woman was hospitalized with serious injuries in her head after a group of Jewish settlers attacked her near Yatta village, south of Al-Khalil. An eyewitness said that 40-year-old Samiha Nawaja was attacked by a group of masked Jewish settlers from the nearby settlement of [...]

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attack, Settler Violence, Settlers, Violence, Zionism

attack, israel, palestine, Settlers, woman, Wounded, zionism, Zionist

Assailants kidnap, torture Beit Ummar man

APRIL 11, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

Maan News Agency | April 11, 2012 HEBRON (Ma’an) — Unidentified attackers kidnapped and tortured a 22-year-old man on Tuesday evening near Hebron in the southern West Bank, a local official said. Popular committee spokesman Muhammad Awad told Ma’an that Muhammad Sleibi was walking home in Beit Ummar at around 11 p.m. when assailants ambushed [...]

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attack, Settler Violence, Settlers, Zionism

attack, man, palestine, palestinian, settler, violence, west bank

Aqsa guard injured in quarrel with Jewish settlers

APRIL 11, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

[ PIC 11/04/2012 - 09:30 AM ] OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Khaled Abu Nijme, an Aqsa mosque guard, was injured in a squabble with Jewish settlers who were trying to enter the holy site on Wednesday morning. Safa press agency said that the guards confronted a group of 30 settlers who were trying to enter the [...]

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Al Aqsa, Settler Violence, Zionism

al-aqsa, aqsa, attack, extremists, guard, israel, israeli, jewish, mosque, Settlers, Wounded

Hundreds of Settlers Break Into Evicted Settlement in Jenin

APRIL 10, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE 0 COMMENTS

WAFA April 10, 2012 NABLUS, April 10, 2012 (WAFA) – Hundreds of Jewish settlers Tuesday broke into the evicted settlement of Homesh, south of Jenin, to commemorate the Jewish holiday Passover, known as “Pesach,” in response to previous settlers’ calls, according to a local activist. Ghassan Douglas, in charge of settlements file at the Palestinian [...]

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Settler Violence, Settlers

aggression, break, colonists, incursion, invasion, israel, israeli, Jenin, Settlers, violence, zionism

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 29.04.2012)