Israel hospitalizes hunger striker

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israel on Tuesday hospitalized a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike, his lawyer said.

Ayman Abu Daoud was transferred from Ramle prison clinic to the Haemek Medical Center in Afula, said Jawad Boulos, a lawyer for the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Abu Daoud has been on hunger strike since April 14.

The 32-year-old was released in Oct. 2011 in Israel’s prisoner swap with Hamas, but rearrested four months later and accused of violating his release terms by distributing financial allocations to persons affiliated with a political party, according to the prisoner rights group Addameer.

Military prosecutors are trying to reinstate the 28 years remaining on his previous sentence.

Abu Daoud, a father of two, denies the charge and has announced he will continue his hunger strike until he is released.

(Source / 21.05.2013)

Israel army warns Syria of Golan unrest ‘consequences’

Israel’s Lieutenant General Benny Gantz attends a ceremony at the Rabin Military Base in Tel Aviv.

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The head of Israel’s armed forces warned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday of “consequences” if fire continues from Syrian territory against Israeli troops in the occupied Golan Heights.

“If he disturbs the Golan Heights, he will have to bear the consequences,” Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said in an address at Haifa University and broadcast on Israeli television.

“We cannot and shall not allow the Golan Heights to become a comfort zone for Assad,” he said.

He spoke hours after Israeli troops and Syrian forces exchanged fire across the sensitive ceasefire line on the Golan Heights, but Israel denied Syrian claims one of its vehicles had been destroyed.

The Syrian army “fired on an Israeli patrol, which we confirmed six hours ago, but did not destroy a vehicle or kill anyone,” Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adraee wrote on Twitter.

Syria claimed to have destroyed an Israeli military vehicle it said had crossed the ceasefire line during the incident.

Israel earlier said it had responded to fire from inside Syria that hit a military patrol in the Golan Heights overnight, damaging a military vehicle.

Gantz said that at no point did the vehicle enter Syrian-controlled territory and suggested that Syria was fabricating a story with an obsolete Israeli vehicle left behind in Lebanon during Israel’s 2006 war there against Syrian ally Hezbollah.

“It’s a totally absurd story about an old 2002 model jeep,” he said.

The Golan Heights have been tense since the beginning of the conflict in Syria more than two years ago.

However, there have been only minor flare-ups in the area to date, with Syrian shells crashing in the occupied Golan and Israel firing in retaliation.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday that Israel did not want to get sucked into Syria’s war, but that fire at Israeli targets from across the border would not be tolerated.

“Our policy is clear: we will not intervene in the Syrian civil war, but concerning the situation in the Golan Heights, we will not permit gunfire against our territory,” he said in a statement.

Israel, which is technically at war with Syria, seized 1,200 square kilometers of the Golan from its Arab neighbor in the 1967 Six-Day War.

It later annexed the territory, in a move never recognized by the international community.

(Source / 21.05.2013)

Israeli forces shoot teen near Ramallah

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Tuesday shot and injured a Palestinian teenager in Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, witnesses and the Israeli army said.

Witnesses told Ma’an that Atta Sabah, 13, was walking with school friends when Israeli forces opened fire at the group and hit him in the back.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian trying to hurl a firebomb at Israeli forces during a riot in the area.

She said the Palestinian failed to respond to warning shots and that soldiers fired “towards his lower extremities.”

Sabah is undergoing surgery at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.

(Source / 21.05.2013)

Israel cancels UNESCO delegation’s visit to hide its crimes

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Jerusalemite researcher Jamal Amr stated that canceling UNESCO delegation’s visit to Jerusalem by the occupation authorities aims to hide the Israeli violations.

The UNESCO delegation came under Israeli conditions after international guarantees to Israel not to prosecute its violations, he stated.

He told Quds press that the occupation rejects any international investigation of its crimes. The occupation tries to hide its violations against Arab and Islamic monuments in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalemite researcher denied the alleged victory over Israeli authorities by accepting the committee’s visit to Jerusalem. Israel managed to escape from international condemnation by canceling the 5 draft resolutions against its practices in Jerusalem.

The occupation asked not to include the Mughrabi Gate or al-Aqsa mosque within the delegation’s visit in order to hide its excavation and violations.

Hebrew media sources reported that Israel decided on Monday to cancel a planned visit by UNESCO delegation to the occupied Jerusalem.

(Facebook / 21.05.2013)

Walking tours highlight West Bank’s shrinking landscape

The view from the al-Qatrawani shrine, along the Sufi Trail in the West Bank village of Atara.

DEIR GHASSANEH, occupied West Bank (IPS) – A reddish-brown dome sits atop an ancient stone house, used hundreds of years ago for prayer. It peeks out from the surrounding trees as the rolling green valleys and hills of the central West Bank stretch out into the distance.

This shrine, known as the al-Khawass shrine, sits 540 meters above sea level in the Palestinian village of Deir Ghassaneh. It is one of several stops along the Sufi trail, which begins in the valley below and takes visitors and locals alike back in time to when Sufism, a mystical form of Islam, was widespread in the area.

“I want foreigners to know Palestinian culture, our culture. And I want Palestinians to take [steadfastness] from it. This is your home. Be proud of the land, of the homeland,” explained Rafat Jamil, director of tours and a guide at the Rozana Association.

Based in the West Bank town of Birzeit, near Ramallah, Rozana works to restore and refurbish historical Palestinian buildings and strengthen Palestinian cultural heritage. The organization also established three Sufi trails in the central and northern West Bank.

“Struggle over history”

Participants on the one-day hikes along these trails see half a dozen shrines along the way and take in the distinct landscape of the area. Markers painted every 30 to 40 meters in the colors of the Palestinian flag — red, green, white — tell hikers they are on the right path.

The West Bank has approximately 600 Sufi shrines, including some that date back more than 800 years, according to Jamil. Many were built during periods of Mamluk and Ottoman rule over historic Palestine.

“There is a struggle over history. For the Israelis, nothing is Palestinian, just Jewish and Israeli. The idea is to get people to talk about the history of Palestine, and want to see shrines or old homes from the Roman and Byzantine and Ottoman periods,” Jamil said.

“Israelis say that all the culture here is theirs. But when people come, they see something else.”

Alternative tourism in Palestine is not a new phenomenon. Dozens of organizations lead tours in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including political day trips, homestays with Palestinian families, olive harvesting and arts and cultural heritage festivals.

But the gradual expansion and development of walking paths in the West Bank is something that Palestinians hope will draw both tourism and international support.

“Real understanding”

“We want to bring tourism to areas that never had tourism and bring a good economic impact to the community,” explained Michel Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Siraj Center, a non-profit tour operator based in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem.

If people spend more time in the West Bank, “they will leave with a real understanding of the Palestinian cause and become advocates for justice in their countries,” Awad added.

The Siraj Center organizes walking, biking and political tours for international visitors throughout the West Bank. These include the Nativity Trail — a path winding from Nazarethto Bethlehem thought to follow in the footsteps of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary — or the Abraham Paths, spanning approximately 170 kilometers from Nablus to Hebron.

Awad said that Israeli tour operators handle most religious pilgrimage tours — a booming business in historic Palestine — even if these tours go to sites in the occupied West Bank. Tourists often visit holy sites in Bethlehem, only to return at night to Israeli-run hotels inJerusalem, for example.

“Totally different”

As a result, community-based tourism is an alternative to these religious tours and plays to Palestinians’ strengths. Israelis can’t compete because these hikes encompass much more than just a walking tour, Awad said. “It’s meeting the community and meeting families. It’s totally different.”

Palestinian village and town councils provide input and direction for the Siraj Center’s walking tours, and families regularly host participants for lunch or overnight stays. Families that cook lunch for participants during weekly walking excursions, for instance, receive 40 Israeli shekels ($11) per person they host.

“Our aim is to create a new experiential tourism in Palestine that allows travelers to experience Palestinian hospitality and encounter the many landscapes. We want to create a new type of tourism that is in touch with local communities and brings benefits to the rural areas directly,” Awad said.

From January to June 2012, approximately 3.5 million visits were made to tourist sites in the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem), according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and most visits took place in the Bethlehem governorate (“Around 3.5 million visits to tourist sites in Palestinian territory in January-August 2012,” 27 September 2012 [PDF]).

“Breath of fresh air”

But hiking in Palestine does more than just generate tourism.

“We love the landscape: the stones, the trees, everything. It is a breath of fresh air, literally,” said Bassam al-Mohor, a photographer and member of Shat-ha hiking collective, based in Ramallah.

Each Friday, Shat-ha organizes hikes in different areas of the West Bank, and occasionally to places inside present-day Israel, Jordan, or abroad. The hikes are not difficult, free of charge and generally last from the early morning to early afternoon.

The group tends to target local Palestinians, although international visitors are welcome, as it aims to connect Palestinian city-dwellers with their counterparts in rural villages and towns, strengthening the bonds between people and their homeland.

“The landscape in the West Bank is shrinking, vanishing, dying slowly. It’s mainly because of the occupation. If we come close to settlements, we risk being attacked. It’s really sad to see tracks that we’ve been walking nicely suddenly off limits for us,” al-Mohor explained.

“But when you walk and see old stone houses or terraces or old towns, as a traveler, what first attracts you is that heritage. We never knew that nature could be like this. You can lose yourself in this.”

(Source / 21.05.2013)

Israeli Police Officer Rapes Two Palestinian Boys ~ by @KawtherSalam

Defence for Children International Palestine - The boys live in fear with their attacker still on the loose.

Ramallah, 18 May 2013—Defence for Children International Palestine is deeply disturbed by the sexual abuse of two Palestinian children by an armed Israeli assailant dressed in a police uniform late April in the Jordan Valley.

The perpetrator, driving a white car with yellow Israeli license plates, approached the two boys, both 14, while they grazed their goats in a field, north of the West Bank city of Jericho, according to their sworn testimonies. With his firearm visible, they said, he ordered them to strip from the waist down and sexually assaulted them one at a time. The boys described the assailant as average height and build, black hair, in his 30s, with a mole on his left cheek. Their grandfather said the Palestinian Liaison Office submitted a complaint to the Israeli Police Internal Investigations Department.

“It’s been three weeks since these kids were sexually assaulted, and they live in fear with their attacker still on the loose,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCI-Palestine. “We urge Israeli authorities to carry out a swift investigation and apprehend the suspect before he attacks again.”

Israeli investigators met with the children and obtained their statements. The boys said they can identify their attacker in a lineup. They spotted him again a few days after he assaulted them in the same area, driving toward them with two other passengers. They immediately left their herd of goats unattended and hid until he drove away.

This is the first case DCI-Palestine has documented in which Palestinian children were sexually assaulted by an Israeli perpetrator in police uniform outside of arrest and interrogation. Since 2009, there have been at least 20 cases of children alleging sexual abuse and threats by Israeli interrogators.

In February, DCI-Palestine submitted a complaint to the Israeli Police Internal Investigations Department to investigate allegations of ill treatment during the separate interrogations of two Palestinian teenage boys at Ariel police station, including verbal abuse of a sexual nature against one of them. Those responsible have yet to be held accountable or brought to justice.

One of the victims accessing the water tank used for their goats in the area of the assault

(Source / 21.05.2013)

Israeli forces issue demolition orders to Bedouins in Yatta

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces issued demolition orders to seven Bedouin families in south Hebron on Monday, locals said.

Israeli military vehicles raided an area east of Yatta and issued the orders to Bedouin families from the al-Hathalin tribe, witnesses told Ma’an.

Salim Eid al-Hathalin, Muatasim Suleiman al-Hathalin, Halima Salim al-Hathalin, Khalil Shuib al-Hathalin, Ali Muhammad al-Hathalin, Salim Muhammad al-Hathalin and Eidah al-Hathalin all received demolition orders for several semi-permanent structures.

(Source / 20.05.2013)

Israel to demolish car dealership in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) – Israeli bulldozers demolished a car dealership in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem and an apartment in Shufat refugee camp allegedly built without a permit, residents said.

The owner of the car dealership, Muhamad al-Julani, said he was shocked when he received a call from the Israeli side informing him that he had to remove 65 cars from the site ahead of the demolition.

Israeli troops surrounded the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood at 5:30 a.m. accompanied with dogs and bulldozers preparing to demolish the dealership, a Ma’an correspondent observed.

He added that the owner was removing cars from the site.

Julani told Ma’an that he tried to get a permit for three years. His case is pending in the court and he is “totally shocked” by the decision to demolish the site without informing him officially.

Meanwhile bulldozers in Shufat demolished an apartment that was allegedly built without a permit.

(Source / 20.05.2013)

Israeli court postpones East Jerusalem eviction decision

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli court on Monday postponed a decision regarding the eviction of 10 people from their home in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem.

Muhammad Ayoub Shamasnah, the son of the home-owner, told Ma’an that the court did not make a final decision about the eviction and has postponed the case until further discussions.

The court suggested during the hearing that the family could remain in the property until the elderly parents die, but settlers who are targeting the property once the family is evicted refused the proposal, he added.

“We don’t count on the Israeli judiciary because over the years it has sided with settlers. Thus, we are worried about the eviction,” Shamasnah said.

The property is home to Muhammad Shamasnah, 82, his wife, their son Muhammad Ayoub and his wife and children, totaling 10 people.

In 2011, the Custodian for Absentee Property started legal proceedings to evict the 10-member Shamasnah family, claiming their rental contract expired in 2008.

The family provided evidence of rental payments dating back to 1972, but an Israeli magistrates court rejected an appeal by the family because they did not submit documents prior to 1968, and ordered their eviction on March 1.

Their lawyer has appealed to the Supreme Court, which has temporarily stayed the eviction and the family is now waiting for a final decision.

(Source / 20.05.2013)

PA minister denies phone smuggling claims in Israeli jails

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority minister for prisoners on Monday denied Israeli media reports alleging that the ministry is involved in illegally providing detainees with mobile phones.

A report published Monday by Israeli daily Haaretz said that it was discovered recently, during a trial in an Israeli military court, that Palestinian prisoners had obtained mobile phones to contact their families and speak with detainees in other jails.

The case started a year earlier, according to Haaretz, after phone store owner Nadir Salah was arrested in al-Khader village near Bethlehem, and said that he had bought phone lines from Cellcom and sold them after registering them in his name.

He sold the lines to a third party and paid the bill each month, but in 2008 noticed that the bills on three of the lines were noticeably high and decided to close the lines.

Shortly afterwards, he began receiving calls from Palestinian prisoners asking him to reopen the lines, and decided to capitalize on the arrangement.

He said he met with PA prisoners minister Issa Qaraqe and the pair organized a contract which involved Salah selling access to 50 phone lines to the PA Ministry of Prisoners for 1,850 shekels ($500) per month, of which Salah kept 25 percent.

Salah said that as phones were confiscated by Israeli prison services, the PA would ask him for more lines, which he provided.

Issa Qaraqe said the claims were hypothetical and false.

“It is part of Israeli incitement against Palestinian prisoners. The claims are baseless,” he told Ma’an.

(Source / 20.05.2013)