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Israel tightens noose around Palestinian prisoners as hunger strike looms

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Palestinian prisoners are not fearful of the travails of a hunger strike as much as they worry about this nail-biting endeavour ending in favor of the Israeli prison administration. Such a development would dampen their resolve and discourage them from engaging in future hunger strikes. In any case, the Israeli occupation preempted their actions by inflicting severe repressive measures.

Palestinians stage a solidarity demonstration for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in front of the International Red Cross office in Ramallah in the West Bank on February 17, 2015. Anadolu Agency/Issam Rimawi

Palestinians stage a solidarity demonstration for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in front of the International Red Cross office in Ramallah in the West Bank on February 17, 2015. Anadolu Agency/Issam Rimawi

by Hani Ibrahim, Mahmoud Issab, Al-Akhbar

Gaza, Ramallah: An open-ended hunger strike is our last resort. That is what everybody who comes out of Israeli prisons, having gone through that experience, says. However, after the long months of neglect that has befallen their cause, and after the leaders of the prisoners’ movement reached an agreement, Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails intend to take escalatory measures starting early next month, from disobedience and refusing prison police decisions, such as searching rooms and sections, to going on an open hunger strike until March 10.

The prisoners announced these steps in the media, so the news could reach the rest of the prisons, and yet, what happened yesterday came as a surprise. The Israeli occupation tried to preempt coordination among the leaders of the prisoners’ movement in order to sabotage any plan leading to a hunger strike, which usually — though not always — succeeds in achieving the prisoners’ demands.

First, Islamic Jihad prisoners at Ramon Prison, then at Nafha Prison, (both in the Negev, southern Palestine), began a disobedience campaign in response to isolating a number of the organization’s prisoners. Fatah prisoners followed suit. Detainees in Ramon Prison said in a phone call that they refused to come out of their sections. Eventually, Hamas prisoners and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine prisoners joined them.

A state of heightened tension prompted the Israelis to choose the stick over the carrot. As a result, a prisoner from Gaza by the name of Hamza Abu Sawawin (detained in 2013 and sentenced to 13 years in jail) attacked an Israeli officer from the Nachshon Unit called Haim Azoulay. Reports conflicted as to whether he tried to strangle him with an iron wire or stabbed him in his face with an iron rod. The prison administration usually deals with these situations in a very serious manner. They closed off the Ramon, Nafha, and Eshel prisons completely and put their forces in other prisons on high alert, preventing families from visiting their loved ones.

Islamic Jihad prisoners at Ramon Prison said they decided to engage in a confrontation similar to the one they had last December, namely, going on a hunger strike for three days this week (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday). Their demands include returning “the leader Zaid Bseisi to prison,” releasing Ali al-Saffouri, Majdi Yassin and Mahmoud Abu al-Rabb from solitary confinement, and refraining from transferring any of the members of the leadership body — which the Israeli authorities do in order to disperse the prisoners and prevent them from coordinating unified steps — except after prior coordination with the organization’s leadership.

Some of the measures that provoked the prisoners include preventing al-Tawil family from visiting their daughter Bushra and her father Jamal in Megiddo Prison, in addition to humiliating the family when they searched them before the visit, forcing them in some cases to strip off their clothes. Later on, it was found that a special Israeli force (Mitsada) with dogs stormed Islamic Jihad prisoners’ rooms after each of them was fined about $180, confiscating electrical devices and kitchen utensils, and transferring 24 prisoners to unknown locations.

The local and regional political conditions are not particularly conducive to the success of this campaign. At the Palestinian level, the West Bank is drowning in the Palestinian Authority’s financial crisis and Gaza is still suffering from the effects of the war. The Arabs are preoccupied with other matters and distracted from the Palestinian issue. Egypt has completely abandoned its role as a mediator. In the meantime, Palestinian prisoners gradually lost the gains they had previously achieved over the course of nearly a year. The harsh winter conditions have added to their ordeal.

According to the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), Qaddoura Fares, the success of the prisoners’ campaign is dependent on the political conditions and the climate. Prisoners avoid going on a hunger strike in the winter because of the adverse impact it could have on their health. Politically, their chances of success are minute as the Israeli election draws nearer and Israeli politicians try to outflank each other on the mistreatment of Palestinians. Never one to hold back, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman proposed a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners. In addition, some observers argue that the difficulty of forming an Israeli government in the next few months will distract from the prisoners’ cause.

The prisoners movement will have to study several scenarios to avoid what happened last year when they engaged in an open-ended hunger strike for weeks but were forced to end it when three Israeli settlers were kidnapped in Hebron, south of the West Bank, and the last war on Gaza broke out. Besides, Palestinian political divisions are reflected in the prisons which house 7,000 Palestinian prisoners including 11 women, 214 children, and hundreds of administrative and sick detainees.

Mosque torched in West Bank

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Graffiti found on mosque’s walls reading “we want the redemption of Zion” and “revenge”.

gaza

by Al Jazeera

A mosque has been torched in the West Bank, with suspects leaving Hebrew graffiti at the site.

Jibreen al-Bakri, governor of the Bethlehem region, says the mosque in the village of Jabaa near Bethlehem was set alight at dawn on Wednesday, damaging the mosque’s walls and carpeted floor.

Israeli TV showed footage of Hebrew graffiti on the walls that read “we want the redemption of Zion” and “revenge” alongside a Jewish Star of David, the AP news agency reported.

The Israeli army said it was investigating.

Jewish vandals have targeted mosques, churches, Palestinian vehicles, dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases in so called “price tag” attacks to protest Israeli government actions against settler activity.

Israel's open dams flood Gaza, hundreds evacuated

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Hundreds of Palestinians were evacuated from their homes Sunday morning after Israeli authorities opened a number of dams near the border, flooding the Gaza Valley in the wake of a recent severe winter storm. Anadolu/Ashraf Amra

Hundreds of Palestinians were evacuated from their homes Sunday morning after Israeli authorities opened a number of dams near the border, flooding the Gaza Valley in the wake of a recent severe winter storm. Anadolu/Ashraf Amra

Hundreds of Palestinians were evacuated from their homes Sunday morning after Israeli authorities opened a number of dams near the border, flooding the Gaza Valley in the wake of a recent severe winter storm.

The Gaza Ministry of Interior said in a statement that civil defense services and teams from the Ministry of Public Works had evacuated more than 80 families from both sides of the Gaza Valley (Wadi Gaza) after their homes flooded as water levels reached more than three meters.

“Opening the levees to the canal has led to the flooding of several Palestinian homes, and we had to quickly evacuate the afflicted citizens,” the statement said.

Gaza has experienced flooding in recent days amid a major storm that saw temperatures drop and frigid rain pour down. The storm displaced dozens and caused hardship for tens of thousands, including many of the approximately 110,000 of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents left homeless by Israel’s assault over summer.

For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea, destroying as many as 80,000 Palestinian homes. According to the UN, some 30,000 Gazans are still living in emergency shelters.

Gaza civil defense services spokesman Mohammed al-Midana warned that further harm could be caused if Israel opens up more dams in the area, noting that water is currently flowing at a high speed from the Israeli border through the valley and into the Mediterranean sea.

Evacuated families have been sent to shelters sponsored by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in al-Bureij refugee camp and in al-Zahra neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Valley is a wetland located in the central Gaza Strip between al-Nuseirat refugee camp and al-Moghraqa. It is called HaBesor in Hebrew, and it flows from two streams — one whose source runs from near Beersheba, and the other from near al-Khalil.

Israeli dams on the river that collect rainwater have dried up the wetlands inside Gaza, and destroyed the only source of surface water in the area.

Lacking any alternative means, locals have continued to use it to dispose of their waste, creating an environmental hazard.

Gaza is also prone to severe flooding, exacerbated by a chronic lack of fuel that limits how much water can be pumped out of flood-stricken areas. The fuel shortages are a result of the eight-year Israeli blockade, which limits the import of fuel for the electric power station in Gaza, as well as other kinds of machinery related to pumping and sewage management that could help Gazans combat the floods. The most recent war has worsened the crisis.

Gaza’s sole power station, which was damaged during the war, is struggling with a severe lack of fuel and is only able to supply the enclave with six hours of power per day.

Gazans are now living by candlelight and wood fire because of electricity shortages, and rely on sandbags to stop their ruined homes from flooding.

This is not the first time Israeli authorities have opened the Gaza Valley dams.

In December 2013, Israeli authorities also opened the dams amid heavy flooding in the Gaza Strip. The resulting floods damaged dozens of homes and forced many families in the area from their homes.

In 2010, the dams were opened as well, forcing 100 families from their homes. At the time, civil defense services said that they had managed to save seven people who had been at risk of drowning.

Following a ceasefire agreement that ended the seven-week summer assault, which left more than 2,160 Gazans dead and over 11,000 injured, Israel said it would reopen Gaza’s border crossings with Israel and allow construction material into Gaza.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to the Gaza Strip in October that the devastation he had seen was “beyond description” and “far worse” than that caused in the previous Israel-Gaza conflict of 2012.

According to the Palestinian Authority, rebuilding Gaza will cost $7.8 billion.

However, Israel had repeatedly blocked the entry of building material, prompting the UN in September to broker another deal. The reconstruction of Gaza has yet to begin.

Israel routinely bars the entry of building materials into the embattled coastal enclave on grounds that Palestinian resistance faction Hamas could use them to build underground tunnels or fortifications.

For years, the Gaza Strip has depended on construction materials smuggled into the territory through a network of tunnels linking it to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

However, a crackdown on the tunnels by the Egyptian army after it overthrew then-President Mohammed Mursi has effectively neutralized hundreds of tunnels, severely affecting Gaza’s construction sector.

(Ma’an, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)

Only 5% of $5.4bn aid pledged to Gaza actually received says Palestinian government official

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Palestinians praying under a mosque in Gaza destroyed in the 51-day Israeli summer offensive. Photo: Anadolu

Palestinians praying under a mosque in Gaza destroyed in the 51-day Israeli summer offensive. Photo: Anadolu

by Tom Porter, IBTimes

Only about 5% of the international aid pledged to help rebuild Gaza after the conflict with Israel last year has actually been received, according to a Palestinian government source.

The source in the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa told humanitarian news service IRIN that while governments worldwide had pledged to contribute $5.4bn (£3.49bn, €4.74bn) to relief efforts, only about $300m had actually been received, reports  Al Jazeera.

Gaza was heavily bombed by Israel during the month long war with Hamas in July last year, with nearly 100,000 homes destroyed and about 2,200 people, most of them Palestinian civilians, killed, according to UN figures.

In a conference in Cairo following the conflict, countries around the world pledged billions towards reconstruction costs and aid.

Among the largest pledges were those from Qatar, which offered $1bn, while Saudi Arabia and the US pledged $500m and $212m respectively.

In January, Egypt and Norway urged countries to honour their pledges.

“No one has said to us that they’re not committed to what they have pledged, but also due to the oil price and other issues in the Gulf, there has been a bit of a lingering,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Boerge Brende told a news conference, reports Reuters.

In late January, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency announced that it had suspended all reconstruction work in Gaza after running out of money, and that tens of thousands of Gazans were living in rubble.

“People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble, children have died of hypothermia,” Robert Turner, the agency’s director for Gaza said.

700 British artists vow to boycott Israel

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A Palestinian woman places an olive tree branch and a Palestinian flag on a piece of land close to the West Bank illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra during a protest against Israel's settlement expansion, on February 9, 2015. AFP/Abbas Momani

A Palestinian woman places an olive tree branch and a Palestinian flag on a piece of land close to the West Bank illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra during a protest against Israel’s settlement expansion, on February 9, 2015. AFP/Abbas Momani

700 British artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel as long as it “continues to deny basic Palestinian rights,” the latest major success for the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS).

“In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights,” the call reads, according to the group Artists for Palestine UK, which organized the pledge.

“We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

The signatories include artists from many fields, including writers, film directors, comedians, musicians, actors, theater directors, architects, and visual artists.

The pledge’s supporters included many British citizens of Jewish heritage as well, including prominent actress Miriam Margolyes.

“My support for the Palestinian cause is fiercer because I am Jewish and I honor the strengths of that religion and the suffering my people have experienced through the years. My visits to Palestine showed me at first hand how the people there are treated by Israeli forces. Their lack of humanity disgusts me — I want no part of it,” she said in a statement.

“I realize we were fed a lie about the foundation of the State of Israel, a lie forged certainly out of desperate need to help the dispossessed millions devastated by the horror of the Nazi regime. But to force people from their homes, from their ancestral lands — that is no answer.”

Former head of the English PEN writers’ union, Gillian Slovo, compared his support to the boycott of Israel to the boycott of South Africa in a statement.

“As a South African I witnessed the way the cultural boycott of South Africa helped apply pressure on the apartheid government and its supporters. This Artists’ Pledge for Palestine has drawn lessons from that boycott to produce an even more nuanced, non-violent way for us to call for change and for justice for all.”

One hundred of the artists who signed the pledge also published a letter in the Guardian newspaper on Friday explaining their decision.

“Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theater companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank — and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel,”‘ the letter noted.

“We invite all those working in the arts in Britain to join us.”

The boycott movement has grown increasingly strong in recent years around the world and particularly in Western Europe and North America, once bastions of support for Israel.

The Palestinian call for Academic and Cultural Boycott, which was launched in 2004 as part of the global BDS campaign, aims to pressure Israel to end its long-standing occupation of the Palestinian territories and history of human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Supporters argue that thus far outside political pressure and domestic left wing organizing has failed to effect change in Israeli policies, but believe a grassroots civil society movement to pressure the country’s authorities could effect meaningful change.

The boycott targets official and institutional collaboration with Israel or Israeli-government funded institutions, but does not sanction individual Israeli artists, a fact noted by some of the signatories of the British boycott letter.

“The choice not to present work in Israel is not an attack on Israeli artists, but rather a recognition that the thing you do may not be appropriate in a situation of ongoing violent conflict, and that to ignore that is to support the idea that everything is under control and life and culture continue as normal, while bombs fall,” choreographer Jonathan Burrows said in a statement.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League said in a report in October that Pro-Palestinian activism has risen significantly on US campuses since Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip in the summer.

Israel’s recent offensive in the Gaza Strip began July 7 and lasted for 51 days; it killed more than 2,310 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

The Jewish civil society organization said that there had been 75 “anti-Israel” events scheduled on US campuses since the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year, which started in late August or early September at most American universities.

During the previous academic year, student groups at US colleges hosted at least 374 anti-Israel events, the report said.

It said nearly 40 percent of those events were held in support of an international campaign to seek boycott against Israel.

Also in October, The Washington Post reported that more than 500 anthropologists have publicly joined an academic boycott of Israel initiated by the American Studies Association, with another 77 joining anonymously.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

Egypt, Norway urge donors to meet pledges for Gaza reconstruction

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A Palestinian girl sleeps on a mat at her destroyed home in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on January 30, 2015. AFP/Mohammed Abed

A Palestinian girl sleeps on a mat at her destroyed home in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on January 30, 2015. AFP/Mohammed Abed

Egypt and Norway urged donors on Thursday, including Gulf states squeezed by low oil prices, to keep promises of providing $5.4 billion in aid for the Palestinians after the devastating Israeli assault Gaza last year.

The two nations, who led a donors’ conference in Cairo in October when the cash was pledged, wrote an open letter to donors and said people in Gaza were suffering with an extremely slow pace of reconstruction.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the two felt it had become necessary to remind donors who had promised to help rebuild Gaza that they “should fulfil their obligations in this regard.”

“No one has said to us that they’re not committed to what they have pledged, but also due to oil price and other issues in the Gulf, there has been a bit of a lingering,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Boerge Brende told a news conference.

The two ministers, after a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Oslo, did not single out any nations for criticism nor say how much of the $5.4 billion pledged had reached the Palestinians.

Last year, among countries pledging aid, Qatar offered $1 billion, and Kuwait and United Arab Emirates promised $200 million each. The United States pledged $212 million, France 40 million euros ($45 million) and Germany 50 million euros.

“We know that there are houses now being built and reconstructed but the pace of this is not at a level where we had foreseen and where we had wished it, so this is very important,” Brende said.

The two ministers said they would follow up with personal contacts with other countries in coming weeks.

“It’s not my role here to have a ‘name and shame’ list, but we do have an overview of this and we will specifically follow up on the countries that have not been able to deliver so far,” Brende said.

For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea, killing 2,310 Gazans, 70 percent of them civilians, and injuring 10,626.

The Israeli offensive ended on August 26 with an Egypt-brokered ceasefire deal.

The assault also left the densely populated enclave in ruins, displacing more than a quarter of Gaza’s population of 1.7 million and leaving 100,000 people, mostly children, homeless.

According to UNRWA, over 96,000 Palestine refugee family homes were damaged or destroyed, including 7,000 homes that were completely lost, during the aggression and the total funding required to address that need is $720 million.

Besides homes, the Israeli strikes targeted 13 public hospitals; 17 private hospitals, including al-Wafa Hospital which was completely destroyed; 23 governmental health centers, four of which were completely destroyed; and four private health centers, including the Khalil al-Wazir Clinic which was completely destroyed.

In January, UNRWA said it has been forced to suspend its cash assistance program for repairs to damaged and destroyed houses in Gaza due to lack of funds.

The suspension of the program, which also covers rental subsidies to the homeless in Gaza, will affect the lives of tens of thousands of people who are in dire need for assistance following the Israeli assault on the besieged enclave.

To date, UNRWA has received only $135 million in pledges, leaving a shortfall of $585 million. While some funds remain available to begin the reconstruction of totally destroyed homes, the agency has exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies, it said.

According to UNRWA’s Director in Gaza, Robert Turner, “none of the $5.4 billion [pledged in Cairo] has reached Gaza. This is distressing and unacceptable.”

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

Palestinians to become ICC member from April 1, UN confirms

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters / Enrique Castro-Mendivil)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters / Enrique Castro-Mendivil)

by RT

Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1, announced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday. The Palestinians will be able to sue Israel for war crimes, a move the Israeli administration has consistently opposed for decades.

The UN treaty website says that due to the court’s procedures “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015.”

Along with the ICC application, the UN chief approved other sets of documents, enabling Palestine to join 16 international agreements, conventions and treaties.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the ICC application documents on the last day of 2014, following the UN Security Council’s resolution on December 30, which rejected Palestine’s official bid for statehood, a document vetoed by the US in support of Israel.

The Palestinian delegation submitted its ICC application on January 2.

Israel’s immediate reaction was negative.

“We will not let Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, AFP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the ruling rightwing Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu (AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

The Israeli administration immediately applied financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority, freezing the transfer of half a billion shekels (over $127 million) in monthly tax revenues it collected on behalf of the Palestinians.

The US joined the financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority on Monday, when the Obama administration announced a review of America’s annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians. As AP pointed out, once the Palestinian Authority apply any case against Israel to the International Criminal Court, US financial help to Palestine will cease immediately under American law.

Joining the ICC will give the Palestinian Authority new and powerful leverage to make Israel more compliant regarding withdrawal from the occupied territories.

International Criminal Court’s building (ICC) in The Hague (AFP Photo / Vincent Jannink)

In anticipation of the ICC bid last week, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour announced the Palestinians will prosecute Israel for crimes committed during the war in Gaza last summer. According to Mansour, Palestinians will also sue Israel for constructing settlements on the occupied Palestinian territory.

In late 2014, the Palestine stepped up its efforts to gain international recognition as a sovereign state. It came following the failure of the latest round of US-brokered peace talks with Israel, which was initiated after the bloody 50-day armed conflict in Gaza that left some 2,120 Palestinians and 68 Israelis dead.

Unlike before, this time around the aspirations of the Palestinians have found much wider international support, as many countries have openly spoken in favor of creating a sovereign Palestinian state.

Jailed schoolgirl becomes Palestinian symbol

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Between 500 and 700 Palestinian children are tried before Israeli military courts every year, says NGO

A poster of 14-year-old Malak al-Khatib (AFP)

A poster of 14-year-old Malak al-Khatib (AFP)

by Middle East Eye

A 14-year-old schoolgirl jailed for trying to attack Israeli soldiers has become a symbol for hundreds of Palestinian children tried in Israeli military courts each year.

The two-month sentence for Malak al-Khatib, who was accused of stone-throwing and possession of a knife, has unleashed a wave of solidarity and support among Palestinians.

“My heart broke when I saw her in court, cuffed and shackled,” her mother Khawla al-Khatib told AFP from her home in the town of Beitin near Ramallah.

“I brought in a coat for her to wear because it was cold, but the judge refused to let her have it,” the distressed 50-year-old said.

Israeli forces arrest about 1,000 children every year in the occupied West Bank, often on charges of stone-throwing, according to rights group Defence for Children International Palestine (DCI Palestine).

But the case of Malak has brought countless media organisations flocking to her family’s door and attracted more public attention than most.

The difference – she is a girl.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club estimates that 200 Palestinian minors are held in Israeli prisons, but only four are girls, and Malak is the youngest.

Amani Sarahna, spokeswoman for the Ramallah-based organisation, said it was the first time in years that four female minors were held in Israeli jails, out of the 6,500 Palestinians incarcerated.

Following Malak’s arrest, the Palestinian leadership sent a letter to the UN denouncing the Israeli practice of “seizing children in the dead of night”, detaining Palestinian children “for extended periods of time” and subjecting them to “psychological and physical torture”.

Palestinian icon

A picture of Malak’s face has been circulating in social media and Palestinian newspapers.

“I don’t know why a state like Israel, with the most powerful weapons at its disposal, is pursuing my 14-year-old daughter,” Malak’s father Ali al-Khatib said.

“They accused her of trying to stab a soldier. Really? A child against an armed and heavily equipped solider, a grown man?” he asked incredulously.

The father-of-eight said his daughter was arrested on her way home from school in Beitin on 31 December.

According to the indictment served at a military court, Malak had “picked up a stone” to throw at cars on Route 60, which is near the village and serves Israeli settlers as well as Palestinians.

The indictment, citing five Israeli officials, said Malak was in possession of a knife which she intended to use to stab security personnel in the case of her arrest.

As well as the jail term she was fined $1,500.

In a report released in February 2013, the UN children’s agency UNICEF criticised Israel for its treatment of arrested Palestinian children, saying their interrogation mixes “intimidation, threats and physical violence, with the clear purpose of forcing the child to confess.”

“Children have been threatened with death, physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault, against themselves or a family member,” the report said.

After three weeks in custody Malak was brought before an Israeli military court and sentenced to prison.

“Every year, between 500 and 700 Palestinian children are tried before Israeli military courts,” said DCI Palestine’s Ayed Abu Qteish.

Qteish said Israeli military law allows the prosecution of children from as young as 12, which UNICEF says is unique to Israel.

Israeli military courts normally refuse bail and rely primarily on the children’s confessions, UNICEF says.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told AFP that Malak was convicted after a plea bargain.

“Rock throwing is an extremely dangerous crime, which has maimed and killed Israeli civilians in the past,” she added.

Malak’s father thinks his daughter’s confession counts for little.

“A 14-year-old girl surrounded by Israeli soldiers will admit to anything,” he said bitterly.

“She would admit to holding a nuclear weapon if she were accused.”

Gaza war ‘unlawful’: Israeli rights group blames IDF for deliberately targeting residential areas

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Palestine

by RT

An Israeli human rights group has accused the IDF of war crimes during last year’s Gaza invasion by launching airstrikes that intentionally targeted residential areas, killing women and children, while claiming that Hamas was hiding behind civilians.

As prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague are conducting a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, the 49-page report by B’Tselem human rights group claims the allegations are true.

‘Black Flag: The legal and moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, summer 2014’ is the first major report on the Israel-Gaza 50-day conflict written by an Israeli rights group.

The report is based on research into 70 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that affected residential buildings, killing 606 Palestinians in their homes, most of them evidently non-combatants: children, women and elderly men. About 70 percent of the victims were either under 18 or over 60 years old.

Like during previous conflicts with the Palestinian military group Hamas, Israeli officials have insisted that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) operated strictly according to international law. Casualties among the civilian population can be explained by the fact that Hamas fighters use their compatriots as human shields, placing “command and control centers” within residential buildings and bringing families to live inside “terrorist infrastructure” facilities, the officials say.

A Palestinian woman walks past buildings destroyed by what police said were Israeli air strikes and shelling in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip August 3, 2014.(Reuters / Finbarr O’Reilly)

“It is true that Hamas and other organizations operating in the Gaza Strip do not abide by international humanitarian law,” the report acknowledged, not questioning the fact that Hamas does use civilian centers to stage rocket attacks on Israeli territory.

Yet the fact that Tel Aviv tends to put blame for all Palestinian civilian deaths on Hamas, makes the IDF totally unaccountable for its activities, with “no restrictions whatsoever on Israeli action…no matter how horrifying the consequences,” the report said.

“This policy is unlawful through and through,” the report says.

The concept of “collateral damage,” however legal it might seem during warfare, has been exploited by the IDF to the extreme, the report claims.

“Even if the leaders of the state and the army believed that implementing this policy would bring about the cessation of firing on Israeli communities, it should not have been implemented because of the expected and horrific consequences,” the report says.

People look at a crater on the ground and damaged buildings, that witnesses said was caused by an Israeli air strike, in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City August 8, 2014.(Reuters / Siegfried Modola)

B’Tselem, which receives donations through the New Israel Fund, is generally associated with the Israeli left and focuses on human rights in Gaza and the West Bank.

The group’s research chief, Yael Stein, insists that the deaths of Palestinian civilians were by no means accidental, as the airstrikes against residential quarters continued all the way through the operation in Gaza.

“You can’t maybe [know] on the first day or the second day. But on the 10th day or the 20th day, when you see how many civilians are getting killed…these attacks shouldn’t have happened,” Stein said.

In December, human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of the unjustified destruction of civilian buildings in Gaza during the conflict, branding it a symbolic form of “collective punishment.”Israel claims the buildings served as Hamas bases.

The report by B’Tselem is the third major human rights inquiry into the conflict in Gaza, after reports by Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

The Monitor, another Israeli NGO, claims that the report by B’Tselem is based only on testimony from residents who personally witnessed the airstrikes and data from the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry, a source not trusted by most Israelis.

“Once again, and regardless of the circumstances and available evidence, B’Tselem has contorted the facts in order to pronounce Israel guilty. Contrary to such claims, Hamas is morally and legally responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza,” Monitor’s legal adviser Anne Herzberg commented on the report.

Israel 'systematically mistreats' Palestinian children in custody

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Muntasser Bakr, an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy who lost four of his relatives when two Israeli missiles slammed into a beach during the 50-day July-August Gaza war, stands outside his house on December 24, 2014 in Gaza City. AFP / Mahmoud Hams

Muntasser Bakr, an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy who lost four of his relatives when two Israeli missiles slammed into a beach during the 50-day July-August Gaza war, stands outside his house on December 24, 2014 in Gaza City. AFP / Mahmoud Hams

Bethlehem: Some 700 Palestinian children per year are arrested and face “ill-treatment” by Israeli forces, according to a new report by a children’s rights group.

In the report, Child Rights International Network said that “during 2014, an average of 197 children were held in military detention every month, 13 per cent of whom are under the age of 16.”

“Arrested children are commonly taken into custody by heavily armed soldiers, blindfolded with their wrists tied behind their backs before being transported to an interrogation centre,” the CRIN report said.

“Children questioned about their experience frequently report verbal and physical abuse during the arrest.”

According to research conducted by Defense for Children International — Palestine cited by the report, some 56 percent of children report having experienced “coercive” interrogation techniques during their time in Israeli custody.

Some 42 percent say they signed documents in Hebrew, despite the fact that most Palestinian children do not speak or understand the language.

Additionally, 22 percent of detained children say they underwent up to 24 hours of solitary confinement, in violation of international standards.

“This detention is a clear violation of children’s rights under several international human rights treaties to which Israel is a party,” the CRIN report said.

“The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture has called for a complete ban on solitary confinement for juveniles, warning that it ‘can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial detention, indefinitely or for prolonged periods, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles.'”

The report said that while it is technically possible to file a complaint about the way a child is treated in Israeli detention, “complaints are almost universally dismissed,” and there are “very few examples of soldiers being punished for ill-treatment.”

14-year-old girl imprisoned for 2 months

The report highlighted a case in which a 14-year-old girl from Ramallah was arrested on Dec. 31 and held for 22 days in Israel before being issued a sentence.

She was charged with throwing stones, blocking the road, and possessing a knife, “sentenced to two months in prison, and fined $1,528 by an Israeli military court.”

Her father believes she was coerced into confessing, saying: “She seemed to be very sick and scared.”

“The plight of this one girl put a face on a system that routinely runs roughshod over children’s rights,” CRIN said. “But behind this story there is a broader issue.”

The report recommended reforms while noting that countless other recommendations by human rights groups regarding the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli custody have gone unheeded by Israeli authorities.

Ultimately, CRIN concluded, children will never be treated well under an Israeli military justice system.

“Regardless of the precise formulation of military rule, it can never protect children in the same way as a developed civilian juvenile justice system which places the best interests of the child at the centre of its work.”

(Ma’an)

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