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You are here: Home / Archives for Israel

Israel releases 12-year-old Palestinian girl from jail

April 25, 2016 by Nasheman

Family welcomes the release of D al-Wawi, who was arrested in February on charges of attempted manslaughter.

D's parents said their daughter was 'paying a heavy price for something that did not happen' [Mary Pelletier/Al Jazeera]

D’s parents said their daughter was ‘paying a heavy price for something that did not happen’ [Mary Pelletier/Al Jazeera]

by Rania Zabaneh, Dalia Hatuqa, Al Jazeera

Halhul, occupied West Bank –   At the Jbara checkpoint near Tulkarem, the al-Wawi family and human rights groups’ representatives waited patiently. The 12-year-old finally emerged, after having spent 2.5 months in a prison, making her the youngest Palestinian female detainee. As her relatives embraced her, the girl, clad in a pink shirt, fought back tears and said nothing.

D* was arrested on February 9 near the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur, just north of her hometown of Halhul. Now, out on early parole, D served more than half of her sentence of 4.5 months in an Israeli prison for attempted voluntary manslaughter and illegal possession of a knife.

The family had appealed her detention, citing international legal norms, and Israeli law, which prohibits the imprisonment of children younger than 14 for the country’s citizens.

D is the first child in her family, which includes six girls and three boys, to see the insides of a prison cell. Her father, 54-year-old Ismael al-Wawi, had been working in Israel for more than 25 years before Israeli authorities revoked his permit on the day she was arrested.

According to Israeli military court documents, D approached the settlement with a knife hidden under her school uniform. The documents cited footage that showed the girl lying on the ground after she was told to give up the knife.

This was not the child her family knew. A lively girl, D spent a lot of her time playing outside with her cousins – something that left their relatives wondering how she would cope in a prison cell.

“Even inside the courtroom, she was playing,” said Sabha al-Wawi, D’s mother. “She’d move her shackled feet or her hands around to play with the handcuffs. Even the judge told her to stop.”

Her mother recalled an incident that left her questioning the Israeli authorities’ version of events.

“One day, I overheard the girls talking about the spate of knife attacks. D and her eldest sister both said to each other, ‘If anyone tells you I’ve done something like this, please don’t believe them. I would never attack anyone,'” Sabha said.

The day D was arrested, her mother feared she was either injured or killed – the fate of many Palestinians who have either carried out attacks or were accused of being assailants in a spate of unrest that began in October 2015. Since then, 207 Palestinians and 33 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed.

On March 28, more than a month after the incident, D was finally allowed to see her mother, but they were banned from any physical contact. Before she was detained, D had been asking about the fate of the children of Palestinian journalist Mohammad al-Qeeq, who at the time was on a months-long hunger strike, if he were to die.

“She kept wondering – who will take care of his children?” Sabha recalled. “Who will take them out on excursions, who will buy them gifts on Eid, who will feed them?”

Even as the family welcomed D’s release, they were still reeling from the loss of Ismael’s job, their only source of income. D’s parents also have to pay a $2,000 court-ordered fine.

“I’m unemployed now and taking out loans to cultivate a plot of land that we have,” Ismael said. “It will be a while before the land yields any produce. So in the meantime, I have reached out to several institutions to help financially.”

There are 7,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons, according to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Prisoners Affairs Commission. The figures include 70 women, 750 in administrative detention, 700 sick detainees, and 30 who have been imprisoned for more than 20 years.

The figures also include 440 Palestinian children, who are held in Israeli detention for “security” offences, according to Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI), a Ramallah-based rights group. This is the highest tally since the Israel Prison Service started providing figures in 2008, the group said. More than 100 of these children are between 12 and 15, while 12 are girls and seven are in administrative detention.

A majority of children endure physical violence in the Israeli military detention system, according to a recent report by DCI called No Way to Treat a Child. The “widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children” includes detaining them in the middle of the night, often without notifying the parents of the reasons for the arrest.

“International law is clear: Children should only be detained as a last resort, for the shortest appropriate period of time, and under absolutely no circumstances should they be subjected to torture or ill-treatment,” said Khaled Quzmar, the group’s general director. “Why then, year after year, do we see Palestinian children experiencing widespread, systematic, and institutionalised ill-treatment at the hands of Israeli forces?”

Israeli authorities said D confessed to planning a stabbing attack, but DCI found that “many children maintain their innocence, but plead guilty as it is the fastest way to get out of the system. Most receive plea deals of less than 12 months. Trials, on the other hand, can last a year, possibly longer. Bail is rarely granted and most children remain behind bars as they await trial”.

The group also said that interrogators often use “position abuse, threats and isolation to coerce confessions”, documenting 66 cases in which children were held in solitary confinement.

Sabha says the family believes D has “suffered a grave injustice”.

“She’s too young to hurt anybody. She’s not even physically capable of attacking anyone. She did not pose a threat,” Sabha said. “She is paying a heavy price for something that did not happen.”

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Israel, Palestine

Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned homes in West Bank

March 5, 2016 by Nasheman

UN report says a total of 41 structures including a school were destroyed south of Nablus displacing 36 Palestinians.

Since the beginning of 2016, Israel has demolished, on average, 29 Palestinian-owned buildings a week, according to the UN [EPA]

Since the beginning of 2016, Israel has demolished, on average, 29 Palestinian-owned buildings a week, according to the UN [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Israeli forces have demolished dozens of structures, including a school, in the northern West Bank this week, leaving 10 families homeless, according to a new United Nations report.

In as statement issued on Friday, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance and Development Aid said the demolitions took place on Wednesday in the village of Khirbet Tana, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

In total, 41 buildings were destroyed, displacing 36 Palestinians, including 11 children, the UN said.

“These are some of the highest levels of demolition and displacement recorded in a similar timeframe since 2009,” the statement said.

Khirbet Tana is home to approximately 250 people who rely on herding and agriculture for their livelihood, according to the report.

Because the residents need grazing land for their livestock, most have “little choice” but to stay in the area.

“Due to the community’s location within an area declared as a ‘firing zone’ for training purposes, residents are denied building permits and have experienced repeated waves of demolitions, the last one taking place on February 9,” the report said.

Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said that last month the number of such demolitions had tripled on average since the start of the year.

“Since the beginning of 2016, Israel has demolished, on average, 29 Palestinian-owned structures per week, three times the weekly average for 2015,” he said.

‘Firing zones’

Last week, the European Union hit out at Israeli authorities after they demolished a school funded by the French government.

COGAT, the defence ministry body responsible for coordinating Israeli government activity in the Palestinian territories, put the number of buildings at 20.

In the West Bank, an estimated 18 percent of the area has been declared by the Israeli authorities as “firing zones”, and 38 Palestinian communities are located within these areas.

Because the Israeli Civil Administration prohibits building in these areas, wide-scale demolitions frequently take place.

The Israeli military is also frequently accused of carrying out punitive demolitions against the family homes of individuals suspected of attacks against Israelis.

While the Israeli military stopped punitive demolition orders in 2005, following reports by an Israeli military committee that the practice did not deter attacks, the practice was resumed in July 2014.

Throughout occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, some 90,000 Palestinians are facing potential displacement, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Israel, Palestine, West Bank

Israeli army kills Palestinian in Qalandiya incursion

March 1, 2016 by Nasheman

At least ten Palestinians injured by live fire in clashes with Israeli army in occupied West Bank refugee camp.

Clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces broke out after soldiers entered the Qalandiya camp [File: Majdi Mohammed/AP]

Clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces broke out after soldiers entered the Qalandiya camp [File: Majdi Mohammed/AP]

by Al Jazeera

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian and injured several more by live ammunition during an incursion into a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Eyad Omar Sajadiya, 22, was shot dead, while at least ten others were injured by live fire during Tuesday morning’s clashes with Israeli troops in the Qalandiya refugee camp, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The armed clashes broke out after an army jeep entered the camp – situated between occupied East Jerusalem and the central West Bank city of Ramallah – by mistake, an Israeli police spokesperson told the AFP news agency.

Palestinian protests against Israel’s occupation have increased and tensions have soared in the occupied territories and Israel since October, as anger gave way to violence.

A wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October has killed 178 Palestinians as well as 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean, according to an AFP toll.

Arrests

Before dawn on Monday morning, Israeli forces carried out raids in cities and towns across the West Bank, arresting at least 27 Palestinians.

Later in the day, Israeli troops arrested two Palestinians who allegedly carried out shooting attacks in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, a focal point during the recent unrest.

In a statement, the Israeli army said the two men – Nazar Badi, 23, and Akram Badi, 23 – both confessed to carrying out at least five shooting attacks targeting Israeli settlers in Hebron’s Old City between November and January, according to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.

Hebron is divided into three spheres of control – including full Palestinian Authority administration, joint administration between Israeli military forces and PA police, and full Israeli control.

Amid the 37,000 Palestinians that live there, thousands of soldiers are stationed in the “H2 area” of the city – under full Israeli military control – to protect the 600-strong Jewish settler population.

Dozens of Israeli military checkpoints severely restrict Palestinian movement into, out of and within Hebron.

Upwards of half-a-million Israelis live in more than 150 Jewish-only settlements across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Israel, Palestine

Israel demolishes homes in East Jerusalem

January 27, 2016 by Nasheman

A Palestinian family stands next to their possessions as they watch their home being demolished. (AFP/File)

A Palestinian family stands next to their possessions as they watch their home being demolished. (AFP/File)

by Ma’an News Agency

Israeli forces on Wednesday tore down two buildings in occupied East Jerusalem, claiming one had been built without permits, while the other stood in the way of a new route connecting Israeli settlements.

Locals said that Israeli forces stormed and closed off an area in the Jabal al-Mukabbri neighborhood early Wednesday before bulldozers moved in and demolished a building under construction along with its surrounding wall.

The building’s owner, Ibrahim Ali Surri, told Ma’an that the building measured 60 square meters and he had been intending to move into it in coming weeks.

He said that Jerusalem’s municipal authorities ordered him to halt construction a month ago and he had been trying to obtain the necessary permits since then.

He said Wednesday’s demolition took place “without prior notice.”

Separately, Israeli forces also demolished a home in Shufat neighborhood, reportedly to clear way for a road — Route 21 — which will run through Shufat to connect the illegal Israeli settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Ramat Shlom and Neve Yaakov.

The plans are expected to divide the neighborhood in two and will require the confiscation of hundreds of dunams of land.

The home’s owner, Kifaya al-Rashq, told Ma’an the the home was built 15 years ago and houses 19 family members.

He said that Israeli forces stormed the home and forced his family to evacuate, despite the cold weather, before they proceeded with the demolition.

Some 579 homes have been destroyed in East Jerusalem over the last twelve years, leaving 2,133 Palestinians homeless in total, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Israeli government policies make it nearly impossible for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to obtain building permits, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Israel, Palestine

US sued over donations for illegal Israeli settlements

December 31, 2015 by Nasheman

Lawsuit targets US Treasury Department for allowing billions in tax-exempt donations to support Israel’s landgrabs.

israel

by Ali Younes, Al Jazeera

A lawsuit has been filed in a US court seeking to stop non-profit groups from sending billions of dollars worth of tax-exempt donations to support illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli army.

A group of American citizens filed the suit on December 21 against the US Department of Treasury, claiming about 150 non-profits have sent an estimated $280bn to Israel over the past two decades.

The lawsuit claims the donations were “pass-throughs” and “funnels” to support the Israeli army and the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In the US Internal Revenue Code, these organisations are identified as “501(c)(3)”, and donors are given tax-exempt status and allowed to claim a tax deduction on their gift.

Sheldon Adelson, an American casino magnate, and several other wealthy pro-Israeli businessmen were named in the lawsuit as donors but not as defendants.

The Treasury Department declined to comment on the suit, stating in an email to Al Jazeera: “We don’t comment on pending litigation.”

Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist who  put her name on the 73-page lawsuit, said it is about seeking justice for the Palestinian people.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2660443-Abdel-Aziz-v-Treasury-15-2186-Dec-16-2015-2-1.html#pages/p1

“I want those organisations that aided Israel to be forced to pay restitutions for victims impacted by their actions,” Abulhawa said.

The lawsuit claims non-profit groups directly contributed to violations of US law and international law, subverted US foreign policy, and contributed to countless crimes and human rights abuses targeting Palestinians.

“For 30 years at least, the US taxpayer has been funding and/or subsidising criminal activities overseas, ie murder, arson, malicious property destruction, assault and battery and ethnic cleansing and international terrorist acts,” it said.

The attorney for the plaintiffs, Martin F McMahon, said the US Department of Treasury should not just end the tax exemption, but should also recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes.

“The lawsuit seeks to hold accountable the tax-exempt entities by revoking their nonprofit status,” McMahon told Al Jazeera.

The lawsuit said: “These charities’ agenda is to rid the West Bank and EJ [East Jerusalem] of all non-Jews, consistent with perceived biblical imperatives. They have been very successful in that endeavour, as detailed herein, primarily because of the Treasury’s abject and long-standing failure to monitor and prevent their criminal activities for at least the last 30 years.”

McMahon said his law firm was working pro bono and is looking for other plaintiffs to join the lawsuit.

The lawsuit names groups including the Falic Family Foundation, FIDF (Friends of the Israeli Defence Force), American Friends of Ariel, Gush Etzion Foundation, American Friends of Har Homa, and Hebron Fund.

The Treasury Department has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit.

“This [Obama] administration, like every administration before it since 1967, views settlement activity as illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace,” the US State Department told Al Jazeera in an email.

“The United States has never defended or supported settlements and activity associated with them and, by extension, does not pursue policies that would legitimise them.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Israel, Palestine, USA

Israeli settlers, forces storm Al-Aqsa mosque

December 2, 2015 by Nasheman

Palestinian men walk past the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on October 23, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

Palestinian men walk past the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on October 23, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

by Press TV

Israeli settlers, protected by Israeli forces, have once again stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

According to reports on Wednesday, the settlers entered the holy site while escorted by a group of Israeli troops.

The development came after a large number of Israeli military forces arrested at least 23 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during their overnight raid on a refugee camp.

The Palestinians were detained when more than 1,500 Israeli forces, backed by a helicopter and several snipers, stormed the Shu’afat refugee camp in northeast of the occupied city of al-Quds (Jerusalem), reports said on Wednesday.

According to the reports, Israeli forces blocked entries to the refugee camp, fired tear gas at Palestinians and set off stun grenades. Local residents told the al-Aqsa TV that Israeli forces also prevented ambulances from entering the camp.

The Israeli soldiers were deployed in the refugee camp ahead of the planned demolition of a home of a Palestinian who allegedly carried out an attack against Israeli forces last year.

The home set to be demolished was the residence of Ibrahim al-Akari who, Israel alleges, carried out a car-ramming attack on November 5, 2014, which killed two people, including a border police officer. He was shot dead in the incident.

The reports come as tensions continue between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The wave of unrest, which was triggered by Israel’s imposition in August of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, has left over 100 Palestinians killed. Almost 20 Israelis have also lost their lives in the clashes.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly behind bars in 17 Israeli prisons and detention centers, many of them without charge or trial.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Al Aqsa, Al Aqsa Mosque, Israel, Palestine

Israeli forces kill three Palestinians including a baby

October 31, 2015 by Nasheman

Eight-month-old child suffocates from tear gas inhalation, bringing death toll of Palestinians to 69 in one month.

Palestinians decry Israel's heightened security measures which have led to several killings [Al Jazeera/Ezz Zanoun]

Palestinians decry Israel’s heightened security measures which have led to several killings [Al Jazeera/Ezz Zanoun]

by Al Jazeera

Three Palestinians – including an eight-month-old baby – have died from Israeli fire and another is critically wounded, while many others were injured in West Bank and Gaza protests.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed on Friday the death of Ramadan Mohammed Faisal Thawabta, the baby who suffocated from tear gas inhalation in a village near Bethlehem.

He died in Beit Fajjar in clashes as the Israeli army sprayed tear gas at Palestinians.

The ministry also confirmed the first incident, citing the death of Qasem Sabaana, 20, and the injury of a 17-year-old, as yet unnamed, at a checkpoint south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

An Al Jazeera journalist who witnessed the incident said police fired at least seven shots at the Palestinian now fighting for his life in hospital.

Israeli police claimed that the two Palestinians had approached the checkpoint on a motorbike carrying knives.

Also in Jerusalem on Friday, another Palestinian succumbed to wounds inflicted earlier in the morning.

Train security officers shot the alleged attacker on the light rail in occupied East Jerusalem with live ammunition after he allegedly attacked an Israeli settler, the police said.

Israeli forces regularly fire live ammunition at protesters who gather to demonstrate against the Israeli occupation [Ezz Zanoun/Al Jazeera]

Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 69 Palestinians – including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers – across Israel, the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Nine Israelis have died in stabbing or shooting incidents in the same period.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker in Jerusalem said the city is heavily policed and Palestinians are monitored closely.

“Israeli security forces have clamped down on occupied East Jerusalem; it’s completely surrounded. People have to walk one by one, Palestinians often have to lift their shirts to show they are not carrying a weapon,” she said.

Clashes erupt

Outrage over the killings sparked Palestinian-led protests outside the Israeli settlement of Beit El, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

Around 500 Palestinians protested and clashed with Israeli forces, according to witnesses.

Israeli troops shot at least one protester in the chest with live ammunition, said Mohannad Darabee, a photographer at the clashes.

At least 69 Palestinians have been killed in the month of October as Israeli-Palestinian tensions rise [Ezz Zanoun/Al Jazeera]

“Medics told us he is in critical condition,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that an Israeli Jeep ran over another protester.

Orient Radio, a local media outlet, captured the soldiers running the protester over on video.

“When medics tried to help him and journalists approached the area, the soldiers attacked all of them with pepper spray and [tear] gas. Then they arrested the man [who was run over].

“People are angry about the martyr killed in Nablus. They [Israeli forces] are firing a lot of live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets – they are shooting indiscriminately,” Darabee said.

Human rights groups have warned of a risk of vigilantism as many citizens have carried out attacks on Palestinians [Ezz Zanoun/Al Jazeera]

Ezz Zanoun, a Gaza-based photographer, said that clashes are also taking place in areas across Gaza’s border with Israel.

“Two journalists have been hit with rubber-coated steel bullets” near the Nahal Oz Israeli military outpost, he told Al Jazeera, referring to an area near eastern Gaza City.

At least 2,000 people participated in the demonstrations, Zanoun added.

“The Israelis are using rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas,” he said. “Participation in the protests here in Gaza is growing.”

Israeli soldiers cursed at the protesters in Hebrew and Arabic, and waved an Israeli flag at them, witnesses said.

“The soldiers did not wait long to open fire,” said Zanoun. “The feeling among Palestinians is that this has become something routine for them, to fire quickly.”

‘Unlawful measures’

Tension has surged amid resentment over Israeli settlements and the incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site for Muslims.

Rights groups have slammed Israel for its harsh measures as it continues to crack down on Palestinians.

This week, Amnesty International warned Israeli forces to end its “pattern of unlawful killings”.

“In some cases, Israeli forces appear to have ripped up the rulebook and resorted to extreme and unlawful measures,” the group said.

“They seem increasingly prone to using lethal force against anyone they perceive as posing a threat, without ensuring that the threat is real.”

Demonstrations are being led by young Palestinians who are growing increasingly anxious over lethal force being used as collective punishment [Ezz Zanoun/Al Jazeera]

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Israel, Palestine

Israeli rightists push for takeover of Al-Aqsa compound

October 29, 2015 by Nasheman

Right-wing Jewish organisations are advocating for an increased Israeli presence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Protests across occupied Palestinian territories have been triggered by increased Israeli incursions Al-Aqsa Mosque compound [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Protests across occupied Palestinian territories have been triggered by increased Israeli incursions Al-Aqsa Mosque compound [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

by Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera

Right-wing political leaders and groups have called for Israel to exercise control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as the Israeli government takes harsh measures to quell ongoing Palestinian unrest.

Returning to the Mount, a hardline right-wing Zionist organisation, announced this week that it would pay 2,000 shekels ($516) to Jewish-Israelis detained while praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site for Muslims.

Jewish groups refer to the site as the Temple Mount and their increased incursions into the mosque compound have triggered Palestinian protests across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Although formally banned from praying there, Israeli activists enjoy police escort when they venture into the compound.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 on Tuesday, Raphael Morris, head of Returning to the Mount, accused the Israeli government of imposing “ruthless restrictions” on Jewish Israelis.

“We are not prepared [to let] the situation deteriorate.”

“We must act not only to end the slide, but moreover for the addition of rights for Jews on the mount, the first of which is prayer,” Morris said, as reported by the Times of Israel website.

The group’s Facebook is full of posts calling for Israel to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and raise a Jewish temple in its place.

These fever-pitch calls come at a time when Palestinian protests against Israel’s ongoing occupation and harsh policies are growing in frequency in Palestinian communities in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza.

Triggered by Israeli incursions into the mosque last month, protests have met Israeli force, including the use of live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and stun grenades.

Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 66 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers.

More than 1,000 Palestinians, among them children, have been arrested this month, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

During that same period, nine Israelis were killed by Palestinians in stabbing or shooting attacks.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely – a member of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist Likud party – referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as “the centre of Israeli sovereignty, the capital of Israel”.

“It is my dream to see the Israeli flag flying” over Al-Aqsa, she told Knesset TV, the Israeli parliament’s television channel in an interview.

In response, Netanyahu’s office later that night put out a statement saying that “non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa compound]” but are not permitted to pray there.

Biblical claims

Hotovely was criticised back in May when she cited religious texts as justification for Israeli settlement expansion. Citing medieval Jewish scholar Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yitzhaki, she said that “the creator of the world” took the land from Palestinians “and gave it to us”.

More than 530,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements – considered illegal by international law – across the West Bank, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Last month, the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement, a hardline Israeli organisation that advocates removing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, organised a march as tensions soared.

The group published a statement calling on Jews to protect the Temple Mount, which is “in the hands of Israel’s enemies”.

“We will stop the Islamisation of the Temple Mount and the construction of more mosques,” it read, adding that Israeli police forces will provide the marchers with protection.

According to Al-Shabaka Policy Network, a Palestinian research group, Israeli leaders intentionally attempt to portray the ongoing unrest as a religious conflict in order to justify using force against anti-occupation protests and to deflect criticism of harsh policies.

“Israel’s framing of the conflict along religious lines is an attempt to decontextualise the clashes that have been happening between Palestinians and Israeli settlers,” Nur Arafeh, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, told Al Jazeera.

Arafeh said that Palestinian “resistance to a settler-colonial and apartheid” are time and again “distortedly linked to religious fervor”.

“While Netanyahu claims that he has no intention to change the status quo, Israeli settlers have strong and deepening ties with Israeli authorities that have been providing them with financial, political, and legal assistance and coverage.”

Several senior officials of the Israeli government and high-ranking members of Netanyahu’s Likud party are committed supporters of Temple Mount movements and have attempted to advance their program in the Knesset, according to a December 2014 report by the Jerusalem based group Ir Amim.

The report found that Netanyahu has “refrained from confronting them publicly or from commenting on the destructive impact of their actions”.

Between May 2013 and October 2014, the Knesset Interior Committee held 14 discussions about Jewish access to the mosque compound, as compared to four meetings in the decade prior.

Ir Amim describes these discussions “as a central stage for backing extreme right Temple movement activists” and “a platform for right-wing Knesset members to level criticism at authorities responsible for security” at the holy site.

Some 27 right-wing Jewish movements advocate for an expansion of Israel’s presence at the compound, according to the United Temple Mount Movement, an umbrella group that represents the organisations.

While many only publicly focus on increasing Jewish prayer at the site, they all maintain the messianic view that the mosque will be replaced with a Jewish temple, according to another Ir Amim report published in October 2014.

‘Intense incitement’

In recent months, however, security forces have imposed tighter entry restrictions to the Al-Aqsa area on Palestinians, often placing arbitrary age restrictions on male worshippers.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu banned all Knesset members from visiting the holy site, including Palestinian legislators in the Israeli parliament.

While Netanyahu has been mostly quiet about right-wing Jewish groups pushing for an Israeli takeover of the holy site, he has lashed out at Palestinian legislators who defy his order.

Most recently, Bassel Ghattas, a legislator in the Knesset and member of the Balad political party, defied the ban and visited the mosque to show solidarity with worshippers on Wednesday.

Emphasising that Ghattas is a Christian, Netanyahu accused him of attempting to “provoke” an escalation and “inflame the situation”.

Yousef Jabareen, a Knesset member from the Arab-majority Joint List electoral coalition, said that Netanyahu and his political allies “are the ones who have been inciting”.

“We have been witnessing intense incitement by Netanyahu and his allies against Palestinian Knesset members,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The idea is to delegitimise our role in Israeli politics,” he said. “I believe that this incitement serves Netanyahu to go ahead with his discriminatory policies” against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Al Aqsa, Al Aqsa Mosque, Israel, Palestine

Jordan to pursue legal actions for Muslim control over Al-Aqsa

October 23, 2015 by Nasheman

Jordan's foreign minister said Jordan is examining legal options for dealing with Israeli violations in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. (AFP/File)

Jordan’s foreign minister said Jordan is examining legal options for dealing with Israeli violations in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. (AFP/File)

by The Jordan Times

Jordan has carefully examined the legal option for dealing with Israeli violations and will forge ahead with it to protect al-Haram al-Sharif/al-Aqsa Mosque, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Thursday.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, Judeh said the past two months saw another extremely dangerous escalation in attacks by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank.

There have been acts of aggression and attacks against al-Haram al-Sharif/al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation forces or under their protection, he noted, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported from New York.

The minister said all measures by the Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem are in violation of the UN Security Council’s decisions stipulating that East Jerusalem, in its entirety, including al-Haram al-Sharif/al-Aqsa Mosque are within the territories that have fallen under the Israeli military occupation in 1967. 

Judeh added that these Israeli acts of aggression have exacerbated the situation in the region, in a way that could lead to a religious war that will be beyond control; especially since al-Haram al-Sharif is a place for Muslim worshippers, exclusively. 

This is not to mention the devastating impact of these acts of aggression on chances to resume negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis, he added. 

Judeh reaffirmed Jordan’s position in support of the two-state solution, ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. 

He also reiterated calls to resolve all key issues — such as Jerusalem, refugees, security, borders and water — in a manner that safeguards Jordan’s higher interests. 

Judeh warned that the Israeli violations have sparked tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories that could lead to a volatile situation that could explode beyond the control of any party and extend beyond the Palestinian territories, threatening international peace and security. 

He stressed Jordan’s constant position in denouncing the targeting of civilians, regardless of the motives or reasons for it.

The deputy premier said Israel should free itself of the shackles of internal coalition tactics and pretexts, which can no longer be taken for granted.

The Israeli acts contradict Tel Aviv’s commitments, in accordance with Article 9 of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, and are not in line with Israeli’s legal obligations, as the occupying power, in accordance with international law, he stressed. 

Judeh urged the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard to record these attacks and prevent their recurrence, after the historic status quo is restored and not the status quo that Israel creates every day at Islamic and Christian sites. 

He highlighted Jordan’s efforts to safeguard Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem, which are under Hashemite custodianship.

Refugee crisis and anti-extremism

The impact of the crisis in Syria has extended beyond its borders and neighbours into the international community, Judeh said, citing the increasing influx of refugees. 

Criminal and gangs are controlling large swathes of Syria, he added, threatening its people.

A comprehensive political solution, on the basis of the Geneva I conference, is the sole solution for the crisis, the minister stressed. 

Judeh reaffirmed Jordan’s support for anti-extremism operations in Iraq, stressing the importance of unified efforts and coordination to combat extremism in the entire region.

With regards to the conditions in Yemen, he said Jordan is part of the Arab coalition that is working to restore the legitimate authority in the unrest-ridden state, in the response to the call made by its legitimate government.

Judeh also stressed Jordan’s support for the efforts exerted in Libya to restore stability, urging the different Libyan parties to sign the recently reached UN-brokered peace agreement to safeguard their country. 

This story has been edited from the source material.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Al Aqsa, Al Aqsa Mosque, Israel, Jordan, Palestine

Israeli raid prompts violence in West Bank’s Jenin

October 20, 2015 by Nasheman

Injuries reported in shootout after Israeli forces detain Hamas operative in Jenin’s al-Hadaf district.

Israeli troops withdrew from the camp after demolishing Majdi Abu al-Heija's home [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters]

Israeli troops withdrew from the camp after demolishing Majdi Abu al-Heija’s home [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Dozens of people have been wounded in a shootout between Israeli forces and Islamic Jihad members in the city of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank.

The fighting broke out overnight Monday after about 40 Israeli army vehicles turned up outside the house of the group’s senior commander, Bassam al-Saeedi, in the al-Hadaf neighbourhood of the Jenin refugee camp, sources told Al Jazeera.

A Palestinian security official said that a local leader of Hamas, Majdi Abu al-Heija, his son, and his brother were arrested in the raid.

Israeli soldiers surrounded their home and came under fire from Palestinians protecting the two men. Several Palestinians were wounded and taken to hospital, he said.

Israeli forces then used bulldozers to demolish parts of the home, the source told Al Jazeera.

Soldiers also tried to arrest Islamic Jihad member al-Saeedi but could not find him, he said. He spoke anonymously as he is not allowed to brief the media.

Israeli troops withdrew from the camp after demolishing al-Heija’s home.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that they have dealt with 12 injures, most due to the effects of tear gas.

Peter Lerner, the Israeli army spokesman, confirmed an “exchange of fire”   but did not elaborate further.

Confirmed: Exchange of fire in #Jenin this evening during arrest of Palestinian terror suspects. Incident is ongoing, I’ll update ASAP.

— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) August 31, 2015

A statement by the Israeli military released later said there had been an “activity to arrest a senior Hamas operative in Jenin.”

“A violent riot of hundreds of Palestinians erupted in the area. The crowd hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the forces. A border police officer was moderately injured,” the statement read.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Israel, Majdi Abu al-Heija, Palestine

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