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Israeli driver hits, kills Palestinian as "price tag" attacks intensify

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Israeli Occupation Forces use pressurized water to disperse Palestinians protesting against illegal Israeli settlement plans in Nablus, West Bank on November 21, 2014. Anadolu / Nedal Eshtayah

Israeli Occupation Forces use pressurized water to disperse Palestinians protesting against illegal Israeli settlement plans in Nablus, West Bank on November 21, 2014. Anadolu / Nedal Eshtayah

by Al-Akhbar

An Israeli bus driver ran over two Palestinians in the northern West Bank, killing one and injuring the other, Palestinian security sources said Tuesday, as Israeli forces detain tens in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.

Nour Hassan Naim Salim, 22, was killed and Alaa Kayid Salim, 20, was injured after being ran over by an Israeli settler driving a bus at the al-Jalama checkpoint in Jenin.

Israeli police and ambulances arrived at the scene and the bus driver was arrested.

Similarly on Monday, an Israeli settler ran over and injured a Palestinian teenager in the Romena neighborhood of West Jerusalem, and on Friday Palestinian woman Suzanne al-Kurd, 29, was also run over by an Israeli settler near the annexed East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) monthly report stated that one Palestinian child was killed and six others Palestinians injured, four of them children, after being deliberately hit by Israeli settler vehicles in October.

Besides the hit-and-runs, Israeli settlers have also physically assaulted Palestinians across annexed Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, and in Occupied Palestine.

On Monday, five Israeli settlers assaulted 19-year-old Mahmoud Ubeid near the illegal Israeli settlement of French Hill, a day after a Palestinian taxi driver from Kafr Qasim in central Occupied Palestine said he was attacked by 17 Israelis in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Bnei Brak after two of them claimed he tried to run them over.

Hate crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, referred to as “price tag” attacks, are endemic and Israeli authorities rarely intervene in the violent attacks or prosecute the perpetrators.

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there were at least 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2013.

Unrest has gripped annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on an almost daily basis for the past four months, flaring up after a group of Zionist settlers kidnapped and brutally killed 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir because of his ethnicity.

Israeli authorities have also allowed Zionist settlers to take over homes in Palestinian neighborhoods both in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and announced plans to build thousands of settlements strictly for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem while ignoring Palestinian residents.

Last month, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah slammed Israel for failing to hold Zionist settlers accountable for a recent wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli government has never brought settlers to account for the terrorism and intimidation they commit [against Palestinians],” Hamdallah said.

More than 600,000 Israeli settlers, soaring from 189,000 in 1989, live in settlements across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

Israeli forces injure Palestinians with “sponge rounds”

Meanwhile, a young Palestinian was hospitalized late Tuesday after an Israeli soldier shot him in the head with a sponge bullet in the al-Tur neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, witnesses said.

Medics told Ma’an news agency that the unidentified young man sustained a skull fracture, and was in moderate-to-serious condition.

In a separate incident, Jasir Abu al-Hawa, 55, and his 18-year-old son Ahmed were hit by sponge bullets after Israeli troops fired tear gas and sponge bullets at Palestinian mourners during a funeral in Tur.

According to Majdi al-Abbasi of the Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center, clashes broke out in al-Luzah and the Bir Ayyub areas of the Silwan neighborhood after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sponge bullets at the residents.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) repeatedly use excessive force against peaceful protests in the occupied West Bank and annexed Jerusalem.

Tens of Palestinians, including children, have been wounded in protests or during Israeli incursions in Jerusalem and West Bank so far this month.

Saleh Samer Attiyeh Mahmoud, 11, was shot in the face at close range by Israeli forces firing sponge bullets during an Israeli incursion into al-Eisawiya village, north of East Jerusalem. He was hit directly between the eyes, causing severe bleeding to his nose and the loss of sight in his left eye. The vision in his right eye is also severely damaged.

A day later, 10-year-old Mayar Amran Twafic al-Natsheh was left with a fractured skull after a sponge bullet, fired by Israeli forces near the Shufat refugee camp checkpoint, smashed through her grandfather’s car window and hit her in the face.

Sponge rounds are made from high-density plastic with a foam-rubber head, and are fired from grenade launchers. Israeli police have been using them in Occupied Palestine and annexed East Jerusalem since the use of rubber-coated metal bullets was prohibited there, but protocol explicitly prohibits firing them at the upper body.

Israeli forces also fired live ammunition at protesters.

Two seventeen-year-old boys were shot while throwing stones, one in the thigh and one in both the hand and foot, and 38-year-old Nariman Tamimi was shot in the thigh at close range in front of her children and family in the village of Nabi Saleh.

Moreover, two Palestinians, 17 and 19, were shot, one in the shoulder and waist and another in the lower jaw, during an Israeli incursion into Beitin village northeast of Ramallah.

Israeli forces detain physically disabled Palestinian woman

Israeli forces on Wednesday took a physically disabled Palestinian woman from the al-Tur neighborhood into custody during a court hearing for her daughter, family members told Ma’an.

Nadia al-Mughrabi, 54, was detained while attending a hearing at an Israeli magistrate court in Jerusalem for her daughter Amani, who was arrested for defending her mother during an Israeli raid on their home the day before.

According to Mohammed Mahmoud, a lawyer for the prisoner rights group Addamir, Nadia was accused of assaulting a police officer and was hence taken to the Russian Compound interrogation center in Jerusalem for questioning.

Meanwhile, the IOF arrested 13 Palestinians in overnight West Bank raids, sources told Ma’an Wednesday, a day after they arrested 11, including 10-year-old Rachid Abu Sarah, in overnight raids in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said 13 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank overnight, one south of Nablus, five south of Ramallah, five near Bethlehem, and two south of Hebron.

Moreover, a former Palestinian prisoner in Hebron and two Palestinian women in annexed East Jerusalem were detained during the day Tuesday.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement that Israeli forces in Hebron detained former prisoner Akram al-Fseisi, who served two years without trial under the administrative detention policy and was released from Israeli custody two months ago after a 70-day hunger strike.

In Jerusalem, 20-year-old Amani Abed al-Mughrabi was detained at her al-Tur home while Latifa Abdul Latif was arrested while leaving the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The arrests add to the estimated 6,500 Palestinians, including 300 minors, currently being held in Israeli prisons.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian human rights groups reported that a detained Palestinian child was seriously injured during interrogation on November 19 at an Israeli interrogation center in annexed Jerusalem.

The WAFA News Agency said 16-year-old Khader al-Ajlouni was pushed down a flight of stairs at the police station and suffered serious injuries to his neck, arms and back.

At least 600 Palestinian children have been arrested in annexed Jerusalem alone since last June.

According to a report published Friday by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC), nearly 40 percent of these children have been subjected to sexual abuse during arrest or investigation by the Israeli authorities.

The PPC, an independent Palestinian organization set up in 1993, said the “daily arrest campaigns” inflicted on young Palestinians living in Jerusalem are a “collective punishment against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.”

PPC attorney Mufeed al-Haj said that other violations were reported during the apprehension of children, including but not limited to night and predawn raids on family homes, physical and sexual abuse.

Around 95 percent of detained children were subject to beatings and torture by Israeli security personnel while in detention, while many were forced to make confessions under duress and undergo unfair trials, said Issa Qaraqe, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) committee on detainees.

A report by Defense for Children International (DCI) published in May 2014 revealed that Israel jails 20 percent of Palestinian children it detains in solitary confinement.

DCI said that minors held in solitary confinement spent an average of 10 days in isolation. The longest period of confinement documented in a single case was 29 days in 2012, and 28 days in 2013.

A report by The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, Israeli forces arrested nearly 3,000 Palestinian children from the beginning of 2010 to mid-2014, the majority of them between the ages of 12 and 15 years old.

The report also documented dozens of video recorded testimonies of children arrested during the first months of 2014, pointing out that 75 percent of the detained children are subjected to physical torture and 25 percent faced military trials.

In 2013, the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) reported that Israel was the only country in the world where children were “systematically tried” in military courts and gave evidence of practices it said were “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”

The Israeli cabinet approved early November a new legislation which will be added to the Israeli penal code and would allow the imposition of a prison sentence up to 20 years for those convicted of throwing stones or other objects at Israeli vehicles.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous Balfour Declaration, called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

Israeli settlers step up violent attacks against Palestinians

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A Palestinian is seen during a protest against Israeli raids in al-Ram district in annexed Jerusalem on November 18, 2014. Anadolu / Issam Rimawi

A Palestinian is seen during a protest against Israeli raids in al-Ram district in annexed Jerusalem on November 18, 2014. Anadolu / Issam Rimawi

by Al-Akhbar

An Israeli settler shot and seriously injured a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Beitin village, Ma’an news agency reported, hours after settlers stabbed a Palestinian in north Jerusalem and attacked a Palestinian school in the village of Urif in the occupied West Bank.

Ibrahim Mahmoud, 16, was shot with a live bullet following a settler demonstration on the outskirts of Beitin, east of Ramallah. Medical sources at the Palestine Medical Complex said his injuries were serious but his condition was stable.

Tuesday’s hate crimes against Palestinians came two days after a Palestinian bus driver was found hanged inside his vehicle in Jerusalem.

Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch announced on Tuesday that Israeli authorities are to ease regulations on Israelis carrying weapons for “self-defense,” raising fears that the number of attacks on Palestinians will increase.

“In the coming hours, I will ease restrictions on carrying weapons,” he said in remarks broadcast on public radio, indicating it would apply to any Israeli with a license to carry a gun, such as private security guards and off-duty army officers.

Aharonovitch’s announcement followed news of an attack on a synagogue by two Palestinians that left four Israelis dead in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Soon after the synagogue attack, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian school in the village of Urif in the occupied West Bank, prompting Palestinian villagers to clash with the attackers and stop them from storming the school.

Six Palestinians were injured by “sponge rounds” after the Israeli Occupation Forces interfered.

Sponge-tipped bullets are made from high-density plastic with a foam-rubber head, and are fired from grenade launchers. Even though protocol explicitly prohibits firing them at the upper body, last week an 11-year-old Palestinian was left blind in one eye after being shot in the face with a sponge-tipped bullet.

Palestinian security sources said that several Israeli settlers smashed Palestinian vehicles as they passed the al-Lubban al-Sharqiya road and threw rocks at Palestinians late on Tuesday.

Earlier that day, Fadi Jalal Radwan, 22, was attacked and stabbed three times in the leg and once in the back by four Israelis while walking in the town of Kafr Aqab. The victim was found bleeding in the street and was rushed to Hadassah hospital for treatment. Doctors said he was in a critical condition.

Hate crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, referred to as “price tag” attacks, are systematic and often abetted by Israeli authorities, who rarely intervene in the violent attacks or prosecute the perpetrators.

Unrest has gripped Jerusalem and the West Bank on an almost daily basis for the past four months, flaring up after a group of Zionist settlers kidnapped and killed a young Palestinian because of his ethnicity.

Last month, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah slammed Israel for failing to hold Zionist settlers accountable for a recent wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli government has never brought settlers to account for the terrorism and intimidation they commit [against Palestinians],” Hamdallah said.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) monthly report stated that one Palestinian child was killed and six others Palestinians injured, four of them children, after being deliberately hit by Israeli settler vehicles in October.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were at least 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2013.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous Balfour Declaration, called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

Is there a civil war brewing in Jerusalem and the West Bank?

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Anadolu / Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu

Anadolu / Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu

by Juan Cole

Observers of the evolution of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians have long argued that there are only two likely outcomes of the alternating violence and diplomacy between the two sides that has gone on nearly 70 years now. One is a “two-state solution” wherein Israel accepts a rump Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. That possibility has by now been more or less forestalled because of the massive land theft and colonization drive of Israeli squatters on Palestinian land in the West Bank. (The UN General Assembly partition plan of 1947, whatever one thinks of its legitimacy, awarded the West Bank to Palestine). The other is a “one-state solution” wherein Israel bestows Israeli citizenship on the stateless Palestinians. There is no obvious path to such a decision on the part of what are essentially fascist ruling parties in Israel and it is hard to imagine a scenario in which such a thing happens.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have another ending to the story in mind. And that is the “transfer” of Palestinian-Israelis and of Palestinians in the West Bank to some other country, probably Jordan. This crackpot plan of uprooting and moving 5 million people is also not very likely on the face of it.

But there is one scenario in which “transfer” (i.e. ethnic cleansing) could occur. That would be a repeat of the 1947-48 civil war in British Mandate Palestine, which eventuated in the ethnic cleansing by Jewish militias of 720,000 Palestinians out of a pre-war total of 1.2 million. Jewish terrorist organizations such as the Stern Gang simply mowed down Palestinian villagers with machine guns to scare their neighbors into fleeing their homes, which the nascent Israelis then usurped. After Israel was established, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion simply locked the Palestinians out of their homeland for good, creating a massive refugee problem in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that has never really been resolved to this day (only Jordan gave the Palestinians citizenship, and even there it is sometimes revoked).

Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967 and militarily occupied it, then contravened the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations by flooding Israeli squatters into the territory. It also illegally annexed part of the Palestinian West Bank and awarded it to the Israeli district of Jerusalem, which is roughly 35 percent Palestinian. It also has gradually forced many Palestinians in East Jerusalem to depart, confiscating their property, and is building Jews-only squatter settlements all around Jerusalem with an intent of turning Jerusalem into a Jews-only city.

The Israeli government has now put 600,000 Israeli squatters into the Palestinian West Bank (including Palestinian Jerusalem), among nearly 3 million Palestinians. There is constant Israeli construction of housing on usurped Palestinian land. Squatters dig their wells deeper into aquifers and cause the wells in Palestinian villages to go dry. There is a low-intensity struggle between the incoming squatters and the indigenous Palestinians. Israelis have attacked mosques and villagers. Palestinians have killed Israelis whom they view as land thieves.

These two populations are not separate from one another in the West Bank. Nothing would be easier than for tit-for-tat killings to spiral out of control. Then you’d have a war on the West Bank, which of course the Israelis would win, being very well armed by the US and very well organized.

In the course of this coming civil war in the West Bank, Israeli squatter organizations would seek to repeat the Stern Gang’s achievements in 1947-48 of making the Palestinian population flee its homes for Jordan. Jordan, a country of 6 million, would suddenly be a country of 9 million.

On past experience, no one would do anything about such an ethnic cleansing of the West Bank Palestinians, who would end up penniless and living in tents in the desert. The spokesmen for Western governments would say they regret that it happened and maybe offer some aid money. The Arab publics would be outraged but the governments would do nothing. Some European governments might slap ineffectual sanctions on Israel. Others would praise the Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign.

The fascist parties in Israel would lock the Palestinians out of the West Bank permanently and flood in more settlers. They might even “transfer” the Palestinian-Israelis, stripping them of their citizenship and making Jordan 10 million, half of them in refugee tents in the desert). They would give press conferences where they regretted that the Jordanian government did not treat its new citizens well enough.

The Jordanian state likely could not survive being almost doubled in population overnight overnight, with most of the newcomers hostile to the Hashemite monarchy. There would likely be a republican revolution in Jordan against King Abdullah II. Extremism would flourish and an ISIL- like state in Jordan would not be impossible. The ethnic cleansing would be extremely destabilizing for the Middle East for decades to come and Israel’s security environment would deteriorate drastically. Eventually reprisals with things like small rockets would create such a sense of crisis that gradually Israelis might begin emigrating abroad in fair numbers, a process that could snowball.

The killings at the Jerusalem synagogue yesterday and the spate of Israeli killings of Palestinians in the West Bank are all small harbingers of this coming civil war.

Crowdfunder Indiegogo hosts campaign to destroy al-Aqsa mosque

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A campaign to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock and build a “Third Jewish Temple” in their place is raising funds on Indiegogo.

A campaign to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock and build a “Third Jewish Temple” in their place is raising funds on Indiegogo.

by Sarah Irving, Electronic Intifada

What do a “fashion label” which celebrates the Israeli army with sexist images of scantily clad female soldiers and inflammatory plans to build a “Third Jewish Temple” on the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem have in common?

The answer: support from Indiegogo, the social media fundraising platform which calls itself “the most trusted platform in the crowdfunding industry.”

In the past three months, Indiegogo has permitted two separate campaigns which clearly violate its terms of use to raise money through its website. Between them, the projects of the Temple Institute and fashion label MTKL promote racism, ethnic cleansing, open sexism, misogyny and rampant militarism — but Indiegogo seems determined to look the other way.

At the end of September 2014, the Jerusalem-based Temple Institute, an extremist organization which is part of the wider “Temple Movement,” successfully raised more than $100,000 to complete “architectural plans for the actual construction” of a “Third Temple” on the Haram al-Sharif. The Jerusalem site is home to the al-Aqsa mosque, the third most holy site for Muslims, and the Dome of the Rock, one of the earliest and most significant pieces of Islamic art and architecture in the world.

A better place?

Indiegogo markets itself as a supporter of “independent” initiatives. Using statements like “Indiegogo is a way for people all over the world to join forces to make ideas happen. Since 2008, millions of contributors have empowered hundreds of thousands of inventors, musicians, do-gooders, filmmakers — and other game-changers — to bring big dreams to life,” it plays on the creative, progressive images evoked by the ideas of artists and — as the company puts it — “do-gooders.”

Words like “empowering” litter the site, and staff profiles include promises that “My dream in life is to make the world a better place. Enabling people to raise capital using Indiegogo is my way of fulfilling that dream.”

But recently, these two campaigns on Indiegogo have shown that it is willing to help groups which are very far from “making the world a better place” to raise funds.

Inciting violence in occupied Jerusalem

The Temple Institute was founded in the early 1980s by a former high-ranking member of Meir Kahane’s Kach Party, which was banned for its extremist positions and links to the Jewish Defense League, a violent group regarded as a terrorist organization by even the US and Israeli governments. The institute, however, has since received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the Israeli government.

The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem called the plans illegal, and coalition spokesperson Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, calling on Indiegogo to remove the Temple Institute’s campaign, told the press at the time that:

Numerous UN resolutions affirm that East Jerusalem, including the Old City and its religious sites, are part of the occupied Palestinian territory, where sovereignty belongs to the Palestinian people … this is an illegal campaign as defined by [Indiegogo’s] terms, violating international law and human rights, resulting in the destruction of property, inciting for religious intolerance, hatred and violence.

The Temple Institute bills itself as the “only one organization is paving the way for the rebuilding of the Temple,” and has already, it claims, produced a number of the ceremonial items which would be used for worship in a reconstructed temple.

The Institute’s fundraising page on Indiegogo — which features the video below — specifies the use to which money raised on the site will be put:

The Temple Institute has engaged an architect to map out the modern Third Temple’s construction. Your contribution will go towards completing this ambitious project and the continued research and development which will make the Third Temple a reality. With every detail of the future Temple’s requirements listed in the written and oral law, our architects are not only designers, but Torah scholars who will ensure that everything is built to the highest modern standards, while adhering to the letter of Jewish law.

Sweeping harassment

The Haram al-Sharif has been the site of many attacks by Israeli settlers, the Israeli military and Israeli police against Palestinian worshippers, and Israeli extremists have stepped up their attempts to take over the compound in recent months.

This has led to violence in Jerusalem and has been used by the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem as an excuse for sweeping harassment of Palestinian communities and hundreds arrests, including those of many children. Observers have accused Israeli extremists — similar to those at the Temple Institute — of trying to start a “holy war” in Jerusalem.

Hardly the “better world” which Indiegogo claims to be helping to build.

Misogyny, militarism and crowdfunding

Personally, I would really like this next example of Indiegogo’s support for demeaning, discriminatory projects to be a spoof. It looks like it could be satire, but all current indications seem to be that it is real, and that its revolting combination of sexism and militarism is genuine.

MTKL calls itself a fashion label, but its first product looks set to be a calendar filled with photos of scantily clad female Israeli soldiers. Using language such as “ the chosen amongst the chosen people, real women soldiers of the IDF [Israeli army],” it claims that “MTKL was founded by 2 former soldiers that always dreamt to show the world the beauty of Israel and its people.”

Despite the nauseating misogyny of the calendar, the brand’s Indiegogo page even has the gall to claim that “the initiative also shows a side of Israelis the world rarely sees; attractive, egalitarian and determined to fight for their right to survive.”

But most disturbingly, the women aren’t just depicted half-naked, they are also shown in military “themed” clothing, camouflage makeup and carrying large pieces of automatic weaponry. Even the brand name — MTKL — is a play on the Hebrew word matkal, which means “army command.”

The sinister blend of sexuality, sexism and violence is carried through into the project’s fundraising on Indiegogo. The wording of the funding campaign’s video, transcribed by blogger Richard Silverstein, contains passages which present Israeli culture as a combination of indiscriminate violence and objectification of women, but as somehow embodying emancipation at the same time:

Shenfeld: we are now producing the world’s first Israeli army girl calendar. We recruited a real group of Israeli soldiers as our models, and we tell the stories of their actual military service while sporting the best military-inspired apparel ever designed.

Missulawin: these are not your run-of-the-mill models. These are real soldiers of an army which sees plenty of combat action. Contribute a few dollars to help us publish this calendar as a premium printed product and take a stand with us in the name of freedom, life and having fun.

Narrator: Women who handle guns, lead operations, and fight terror; highly-trained army machines by day, supermodels by night. Because when you only have one shot, it has to be a killer one [sic]. Now, MTKL: over and out.

Ducking the issues

In an emailed response to an enquiry from The Electronic Intifada about its attitude to fundraising for projects which were misogynistic or politically inflammatory, John Eddy of Goldin Solutions, Indiegogo’s media representative, would say only that “Indiegogo requires all campaigns to follow the terms of use.”

These terms of use state that Indiegogo itself “makes no representations about the quality, safety, morality or legality of any Campaign,” effectively attempting to wash its hands of liability for the results of immoral or illegal use of its fundraising platform.

Despite Indiegogo’s tolerance of the MTKL and Third Temple projects, both seem to infringe a number of the “terms of use” by which Eddy claims that users must abide.

For example, “Campaign Owners are not permitted to create a Campaign to raise funds for illegal activities, to cause harm to people or property, or to scam others” and “perks” offered to donors to campaigns must not include “any items promoting hate, discrimination, personal injury, death, damage, or destruction to property.”

Given that MTKL’s perks and other plans include blatantly misogynistic calendars and are intended to promote the image of an army which, less than three months before the campaign was launched, killed 2,100 people and destroyed thousands of homes and public buildings in its attacks on Gaza, it very much seems to violate the supposed bar on associations with “promoting hate, discrimination, personal injury, death, damage, or destruction to property.”

And the plans to build the Third Temple, as well as being illegal in relation to the status of Jerusalem, also by definition entail “damage [and] destruction to property” — in this case, some of the holiest and most artistically significant Islamic sites in the world.

Violating terms of use

In addition, the plans are part of a wider, viciously racist program of ethnic cleansing which is intended to force the Palestinian people from their land and deny them their basic rights.

Indiegogo also states that users should not use campaigns to:

“use the Services to promote violence, degradation, subjugation, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity”

… a list which, again, includes a number of stipulations which the MTKL and Third Temple campaigns blatantly violate.

Since Indiegogo’s terms state clearly that it “reserve[s] the right to refuse use of the Services to anyone and to reject, cancel, interrupt, remove or suspend any Campaign, Contribution, or the Services at any time for any reason without liability,” it remains unclear why both of these campaigns have been allowed to use to site to raise money.

Israel lifts age restriction for al-Aqsa prayers after Amman meetings

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A Palestinian woman in front of the al-Aqsa Mosque during Friday prayer in annexed East Jerusalem on November 07, 2014. Anadolu / Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu

A Palestinian woman in front of the as-Sakhra Mosque (in Al-Aqsa compound) during Friday prayer in annexed East Jerusalem on November 07, 2014. Anadolu / Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu

by Al-Akhbar

Palestinians of all ages will be allowed to perform prayers Friday at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed East Jerusalem for the first time in months, an Israeli police spokesman announced, a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry said “firm commitments” have been made during the Amman meetings to maintain the status quo at the compound.

“No age limit on the Temple Mount, we’re hoping things will be calm and quiet today,” spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP, using the Zionist term for the al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

“Extra police units were deployed in Jerusalem this morning to prevent any incidents in and around the Old City,” he added.

Israeli forces have long restricted Palestinians’ access to the al-Aqsa compound based on age and gender, but in the past months they have further prevented Muslim worshipers from entering the mosque while facilitating the entrance for Zionist extremists.

Rosenfeld linked the decision to lift age restrictions to talks in Jordan on Thursday after which Kerry said steps were agreed between King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lower tensions at the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

“Firm commitments” were made to maintain the status quo at the compound, Kerry said at a press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, asserting that both Israel and Jordan agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the situation” in Jerusalem and “restore confidence.”

“We are not going to lay out each practical step. It is more important they be done in a quiet and effective way,” Kerry stated, adding that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who joined in over the phone, “promised” to encourage resumption of collapsed Palestinian-Israeli talks.

“It is clear to me that they are serious about working on the effort to create de-escalation and to take steps to instil confidence that the status quo will be upheld,” he stated.

The US diplomat also met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday, and they, according to Kerry, “discussed constructive steps, real steps, not rhetoric, that people can take in order to de-escalate the situation.”

Tensions have been running high in the occupied West Bank, annexed East Jerusalem and other regions in Occupied Palestine, where in recent weeks Israeli forces shot and killed six Palestinians.

Israeli authorities have also allowed Zionist settlers to take over homes in Palestinian neighborhoods, have announced plans to build thousands of settlements strictly for Israeli settlers in the city while ignoring Palestinian residents, and have generally looked the other way at rising violence by Zionist settlers against Palestinians across the city.

The anger has been further provoked by the Israeli authorities’ decision to hold a vote on splitting the al-Aqsa compound, Islam’s third holiest site, despite the existence of a Jewish prayer area at the Western Wall immediately next door.

Jordan’s King called for Israel Thursday “to put an end to its unilateral action and repeated attacks against holy sites in Jerusalem, especially those targeting the al-Aqsa mosque compound,” his palace said.

Recent clashes between Israeli Occupation Forces and Palestinians protesting the storming of al-Aqsa by several far-right Israeli members of the Knesset as well as groups of Zionist settlers, prompted Jordan last week to recall its ambassador to Israel “in protest at Israel’s escalation” and move to file a UN complaint.

Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, an agreement with Jordan has maintained that Jewish prayer be allowed at the Western Wall plaza – built on the site of a Palestinian neighborhood of 800 that was destroyed immediately following the conquest – but not inside the al-Aqsa mosque compound itself.

In a letter to the UN Security Council sent on Wednesday, Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour demanded international intervention over Al-Aqsa, warning tensions could “spiral out of control”.

Furthermore, in a move likely to further heighten tensions around al-Aqsa, Israel’s Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said late Wednesday that Israel will “increase the supervision of people entering the [al-Aqsa] compound” by reintroducing metal detectors and facial-recognition technology that were removed from the compound’s entrances in 2000.

In September 2000, a visit to al-Aqsa by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon triggered what later became known as the “Second Intifada,” a popular uprising against Israel’s decades-long occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War. It later annexed the city of Jerusalem in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

(AFP, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar, Reuters)

Israel to confiscate 3,000 acres of Palestinian village land near Jerusalem

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MIDEAST PALESTINIAN BEIT IKSA

Jerusalem/Ma’an: Locals said on Saturday that Israeli authorities delivered orders to the village of Beit Iksa north of Jerusalem indicating the confiscation of 12,852 dunums (3,176 acres) of Palestinian land.

Locals told Ma’an that soldiers deployed at the military checkpoint at the entrance to the village delivered confiscation orders signed by the Israeli military commander in the West Bank, Nitzan Alon, that gave them until Dec. 31, 2017 to remain on their land.

Villagers said that soldiers informed them that an official from the Israeli military liaison would arrive on Monday to specify which lands that would be confiscated, adding that the lands confiscated would be used for “military purposes.”

Israeli officials, however, denied the reports late Sunday.

A spokeswoman of COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit in charge of civil administration in the Palestinian territories, told Ma’an that there were only Israeli military orders to renew a confiscation order for 163 dunams (41 acres) of land in Beit Iksa north of Jerusalem.

“Around 163 dunams were temporarily confiscated in 2004 for military purposes,” the spokeswoman said.

“The new orders mean that the area will be used for military purposes until 2017,” she added.

Although located immediately next to Jerusalem, the village’s lands have been progressively confiscated and the village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli separation wall. Villagers can no longer travel to Jerusalem without permits, and Palestinians not resident in Beit Iksa cannot enter the single Israeli checkpoint that allows access to the village.

Ninety-three percent of the village is under full Israeli military control, and a majority of the total land of the village falls in areas outside of the separation wall, meaning they have been de facto confiscated, including about 1,500 dunums (371 acres) where Jewish-only settlements have been built.

The head of the Beit Iksa village council Saada al-Khatib told Ma’an that according to the order and the maps that soldiers had shown them Saturday, the lands that would be confiscated are between parcels 7 and 8 and include Haraeq al-Arab, Thahr Biddu, Numus, and Khatab areas around the village.

Al-Khatib added that the Israeli authorities claim that the confiscation order has been under way since 2012, and that the new order issued on Saturday only emphasizes the old order.

The order would prevent dozens of farmers from reaching their lands, he said, calling upon Palestinian ministries and national institutions to support the village of Beit Iksa and its neighbors.

He added that the order came after the Israeli municipality announced the approval of 244 housing units to be built in the Ramot settlement, which was previously built on lands confiscated from the settlement.

Al-Khatib warned that the land confiscation orders being issued to many villages were an attempt to carry out the “Judaization” of Beit Iksa after sealing the village shut and surrounding it with a checkpoint and the separation wall, turning it into an 2,500-dunum prison.

Palestinians call for 'Day of Rage' against Israeli aggressions at al-Aqsa

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Palestinians clean up debris inside the al-Aqsa Mosque, on November 5, 2014 following clashes between Israeli Occupation Forces and Palestinians. AFP / Ahmad Gharabli

Palestinians clean up debris inside the al-Aqsa Mosque, on November 5, 2014 following clashes between Israeli Occupation Forces and Palestinians. AFP / Ahmad Gharabli

by Al-Akhbar

Palestinian groups once again called for a “Day of Rage” on Friday in solidarity with Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque, as Israeli authorities announced late Thursday they would prevent Palestinian men under 35 from entering the al-Aqsa compound for Friday prayers.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued separate statements on Thursday calling on Palestinians to take to the streets following Friday prayers “in solidarity with the al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to take to the streets on Friday to “show support to occupied Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The group, in a statement, called for holding “marches of anger” after the weekly Friday prayers near the points where Israeli army troops are stationed in the West Bank.

One of the marches would head to Qalandiya military checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and another would head to the central Hebron neighborhood of Bab al-Zawiya, the release said. A third one would be staged in central Nablus in northern West Bank, it added.

Moreover, a Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammad al-Harrazin, said in a statement that the movement’s agenda focuses on “mobilizing and recruiting” the public in support of Jerusalem.

Al-Harrazin added that a popular revolution is necessary in order to counter the Israeli threats and violations, calling upon Palestinians to organize marches expressing rage and to defend and protect Jerusalem, al-Aqsa and all holy sites.

Late Thursday, Israeli police announced they would prevent Palestinian men under 35 from entering the al-Aqsa compound for Friday prayers, while allowing Zionist settlers into the holy site undisturbed.

Tensions have been running high in occupied East Jerusalem after months of Israeli pressure on the region, including through a massive arrest campaign and a major military offensive on Gaza that left more than 2,100 dead and provoked outrage across Palestine.

They have also been stoked by Israeli authorities’ decision to hold a vote on splitting the al-Aqsa compound despite the existence of a Jewish prayer area at the Western Wall immediately next door.

The unrest mounted further after Israeli authorities sealed access to the al-Aqsa mosque and following the killing of a young Palestinian man suspected of shooting and injuring a far-right Zionist rabbi.

Several far-right Israeli members of the Knesset have also entered the mosque complex in recent days, drawing the ire of Muslim worshippers and official condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries.

Groups of Zionist settlers, too, have forced their way into the site, prompting clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, an agreement with Jordan has maintained that Jewish prayer be allowed at the Western Wall plaza – built on the site of a Palestinian neighborhood of 800 that was destroyed immediately following the conquest – but not inside the al-Aqsa mosque compound itself.

Israeli forces have long restricted Palestinians’ access to the al-Aqsa compound based on age and gender, but have further prevented Muslim worshipers from entering the mosque for more than a month while facilitating the entrance for Zionist extremists.

On Friday, Israeli forces detained three young Palestinians in the occupied East Jerusalem, eyewitnesses said.

“Israeli forces raided the Issawiya village in East Jerusalem and arrested three youths,” an eyewitness told Anadolu Agency.

On Thursday, witnesses said clashes broke out near an Israeli military checkpoint at the main entrance to Shuafat refugee camp where Israeli Occupation Forces attacked Palestinian protesters with tear gas, grenades and sponge rounds.

Clashes also erupted in the al-Tur neighborhood where Israeli forces and undercover agents detained five young Palestinian men., and on the main roads near Anata and al-Ram as well as Hutta square in the Old city.

Israeli forces also closed with concrete blocks the main entrance to the town of Al-Isawiya. Concrete blocks were placed in front of tram stops in East Jerusalem.

Furthermore, seven Palestinians were struck by rubber-coated steel bullets on Thursday afternoon during clashes between Israeli soldiers and students from Birzeit University which took place near Israel’s Ofer detention center west of Ramallah.

Sources at Birzeit University told Ma’an that the Student Union suspended classes in the morning and organized a large rally in the center of campus opposing Israeli attempts to divide the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem into Jewish and Muslim sections.

Following the rally, students left campus in buses and headed to Ofer detention center near the town of Beitunia. Shortly after the rally began, Israeli forces opened fire on the students with tear gas canisters, and the students began hurling stones at the soldiers in response.

The students then ran away and took positions on hilltops around the detention center, before Israeli soldiers started to fire live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets at them, injuring seven.

On Wednesday, as many as 60 Israeli troops stormed the compound through the Al-Magharbeh and Al-Silsila gates and began shooting randomly in the direction of Muslim worshipers, eyewitnesses said.

Israeli troops also fired stun grenades inside the compound’s Al-Qibali Mosque, even entering the house of worship with their shoes until they reached Saladin’s Minbar (Pulpit) for the first time since 1967.

Israeli forces detained over 200 Palestinians in the past two weeks only.

For Muslims, al-Aqsa represents the world’s third holiest site.

In September 2000, a visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque complex by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked what later became known as the “Second Intifada,” a popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.

Israel, Jordan and al-Aqsa

Israel on Thursday promised Jordan that it would not allow Jews to pray at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound as scores of Jewish extremists tried to march to the flashpoint shrine.

With clashes raging in several Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied east Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to reassure him there would be no changes to the decades-old status quo.

“I spoke today to King Abdullah of Jordan and we agreed that we will make every effort to calm the situation,” Netanyahu said.

“I explained to him that we’re keeping the status quo on the Temple Mount and that this includes Jordan’s traditional role there,” he said, using Israel’s name for the compound.

The phone call came 24 hours after fierce clashes between Israeli Occupation Forces and Palestinians protesting the storming of al-Aqsa by Jewish extremists prompted Amman to recall its ambassador to Israel “in protest at Israel’s escalation” and move to file a UN complaint.

Under the current status quo, Jews are permitted to visit the esplanade but not to pray there for fear it would cause friction at one of the most sensitive holy sites in the Middle East.

King Abdullah “recalled that Jordan firmly rejected any measure undermining the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa mosque”, a palace statement said.

Jordan’s status as custodian of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and other Muslim holy sites in annexed east Jerusalem is enshrined in the 1994 peace treaty between the two countries.

Concerns that Israel was set to legislate changes to the status quo have sparked weeks of unrest at the site.

Meanwhile, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek denounced recent Israeli aggressions in occupied East Jerusalem, warning they could jeopardize a “two-state solution” to the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah with Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki, Zaoralek said that certain Israeli policies – like closing the al-Aqsa Mosque compound to worshippers and continued settlement building – contravened international law.

He also asserted his country’s support for the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, saying a two-state solution was the only way to end the decades-long conflict.

Al-Maliki, for his part, said that recent Israeli actions in Jerusalem constituted “a declaration of war.”

Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that Israel’s “barbaric and despicable” attack on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is “unforgivable.”

“With such continuing actions, Israel is preparing the ground for the failure of inter-religious and inter-ethnic dialogue around the world,” he said in a press conference before departing for an official visit to Turkmenistan.

“Israel has already been isolated in the Middle East, but if such actions continue, Israel will also become marginalized at the world level. The occupation of al-Aqsa is not only a concern of Palestinians or Arabs, but of the whole Muslim world.”

Israeli settlers storm Joseph’s tomb

On Thursday, around 150 Zionists gathered near the Old City for a march “to the gates of the Temple Mount.”

“We are proudly marching with high heads to the direction of the Temple Mount. God willing, we’ll get there,” Ariel Groner told AFP, a far-right Zionist and hardline campaigner for “Jewish prayer rights” at the compound.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Zionist settlers under heavy military escort visited Joseph’s Tomb near Balata refugee camp east of Nablus early Thursday morning.

Palestinian security sources told a Ma’an reporter that more than 30 Israeli military vehicles escorted ten settler buses to the site at dawn.

The settlers performed religious rites throughout the early morning hours.

A group of young Palestinian men gathered in the area hurling stones and empty bottles at the Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas canisters and stun grenades.

No casualties were reported.

Israeli settlers frequently visit Joseph’s Tomb under the protection of Israeli forces, who regularly raid local Palestinian villages and fire tear gas into the neighboring Balata refugee camp during these visits.

Though the site lies in an area under Palestinian authority deep in the West Bank, it is fully controlled by Israeli forces.

Palestinians believe that Joseph’s Tomb is the funerary monument to Sheikh Yusef Dweikat, a local religious figure. Others believe that the tomb belongs to the Biblical patriarch Joseph.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

(Al-Akhbar, Ma’an, Anadolu, AFP)

Israel to vote on partitioning Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews

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It is important to note that both Rabbinical and Israeli law currently bans Jews from prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque because of the sanctity of the site for the Jewish religion.

It is important to note that both Rabbinical and Israeli law currently bans Jews from prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque because of the sanctity of the site for the Jewish religion.

An Arab Knesset member has revealed that there will be a vote in the next month on a law drafted by an Israeli committee regarding the partition of Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews.

Arab MK Masoud Ghanayim was quoted on Monday by Palestinian newspaper Felesteen as saying that “the draft law, which has been prepared by the interior parliamentary committee in the Knesset, stipulates that Jews can perform prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

He continued: “This is based on a proposal that gives Muslims and Jews equal rights in their access and use of the holy site. It also specifies certain locations where Jews can perform their prayers.”

It is important to note that both Rabbinical and Israeli law currently bans Jews from prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque because of the sanctity of the site for the Jewish religion. Most Jews who lobby to pray there are illegal settlers with a right wing agenda.

The Old City in Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa is located is internationally recognised as occupied land. The Israeli occupation authorities frequently prevent Muslims from praying there.

According to Ghanayim, the same draft law also bans organising civil protests and demonstrations in Al-Aqsa compound, and sets out punishment for any violations.

Ghanayim said that putting such a law for any vote is a “flagrant aggression on the religious rights of Muslims around the world.” He also called it part of the Judaisation plan for the city of Jerusalem.

Commenting on the basis of this law, Ghanayim said it “is solely based on a legitimacy built on historical and religious myths bolstered with the power of the oppressive occupation.”

He stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque is part of the Islamic and Arabic world and cannot be partitioned at any time or place. He reiterated: “It is part of Arab and Palestinian lands, which is occupied by the Zionists and the [illegal] occupation does not have the right to impose its laws.”

At the same time, he insisted that the Israeli government is behind all the attempts by the extremist right wing settlers to extend Israeli sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque and warned that the Israeli government would pay the price for this aggression on the rights of Arabs and Muslims.

Israeli minister threatens to close Al-Aqsa, forces raid mosque compound

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Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich's words the first such threat to be made by a high-profile Israeli official since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich’s words the first such threat to be made by a high-profile Israeli official since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

– by OnIslam & News Agencies

Jerusalem: Escalating tension in the world’s third holiest site for Muslims, deputy Knesset speaker along with dozens of Jewish settlers have broken into Al-Aqsa mosque compound, as Israeli Public Security Minister threatened to close the holy site to Muslim worshippers.

“The Israeli police allowed [Moshe] Feiglin to storm the mosque’s courtyards under their protection,” Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Jordan-run Organization for Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Affairs, told Anadolu Agency on Monday, October 13.

The attack occurred as Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich threatened on Monday to close the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to Muslim worshippers in the first such threat since 1967.

The serious desecrations of holy site by the Knesset member and settlers followed Monday’s morning clashes between Muslim worshippers and the Israeli police.

Firing teargases and stun grenades against Muslims, the Israeli police tried to forcibly evict Palestinians from the area, leaving at least 10 worshippers with temporary asphyxiation.

“The Israeli police are still besieging an unspecified number of worshippers inside al-Qibali Mosque [inside the compound] amid firing of stun grenades and teargas at the worshippers within,” al-Khatib added as sounds of teargas firing resounded in the background.

While all gates were closed to prevent Palestinian employees and Muslim religious students from entering Al-Aqsa, about 60 Jewish settlers forced their way into the holy site, according to the Palestinian NGO Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage.

“The occupation forces are besieging al-Qibali Mosque and firing a shower of teargas canisters and stun grenades at the worshippers who took refuge in the mosque following the dawn prayers when the Israeli forces stormed the site,” the foundation said in a statement.

“The military intrusion in such an early hour is a dangerous escalation,” the NGO added.

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra’a and Al Mi’raj — the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him).

Jordan has been supervising Al-Aqsa Mosque and other endowments in Al-Quds since 1948.

A 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel recognizes Jordan’s special supervisory role over holy sites in Al-Quds.

Condemnations

Monday’s clashes in the holy site were condemned by UN chief Ban Ki-moon who was “deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem”.

Urging both side to revive the stalled peace talks, Ban said: “The situation can only be resolved as part of a broader political horizon that ends a nearly half century of [Israeli] occupation and leads towards a two-state solution with the state of Palestine coexisting with Israel in peace and security.

“Time is not on the side of peace. We need to act immediately to prevent a deepening of an already unsustainable status quo.”

Last week’s aggressions on Al-Aqsa mosques by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers have sparked anger among World Muslims who condemned the attacks, calling to prosecute the assailants.

The clashes left dozens of Palestinians injured, while several suffered a teargas inhalation.

According to eyewitnesses, dozens of Jewish settlers could make their way through the holy site to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, also known as “Harvest Feast”.

Ban made his remarks during his visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday, October 13, which comes a day after the international donor conference of Gaza that made a pledge of $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza after last summer’s war.

As the UN chief described reconstructing Gaza an “important” step, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged the international community to “pressure” Israel not to hamper the construction process.

“The Gaza reconstruction program will be useless if the crossings are not open,” the Palestinian premier said.

“The Palestinian government will be in charge of the process.”

Israel has launched relentless airstrikes against Gaza on July 8 where more than 2,100 have been killed and thousands injured.

Out of 2,131 Palestinians who died in the latest fighting, 501 were children, said the United Nations. About 70% of the children killed were under 12, according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF.

The large scale of mass destruction in Gaza has left about 5,510 homes completely destroyed and about 31,000 partially damaged, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes that were caught up in the Israeli air strikes.

Prisoner from Jerusalem deprived of seeing newborn son

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An image circulated on Facebook shows Nasser Abed Rabbo holding his first-born son, Amir. Once again behind bars, he has yet to meet his son Ali, born in August.

An image circulated on Facebook shows Nasser Abed Rabbo holding his first-born son, Amir. Once again behind bars, he has yet to meet his son Ali, born in August.

– by Budour Youssef Hassan, The Electronic Intifada

Little Amir was sleeping in his mother’s lap. His first birthday had recently been celebrated and he had started walking. His mother was expecting to give birth to another son within a few weeks. Strong winds blew outside but otherwise it had been a quiet night. But not for long.

In the early hours of that morning on 18 June, Amir’s father, Nasser Abed Rabbo, was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers. Masked and heavily armed, the soldiers broke into his family’s home after they had stormed the Sur Baher area of occupied East Jerusalem.

Abed Rabbo had previously spent 24 years behind Israeli bars; he was sentenced by a civilian court to life in prison after being charged with leading an armed resistance cell. His sentence was later commuted to 38 years and he was eventually released as part of a prisoner exchange deal struck between Israel and Hamas in October 2011.

“At 2:55am we saw dozens of masked soldiers approaching our home. They started knocking at the door with their feet and rifles. Nasser knew they had come here for him so he asked me to hide his phone for fear it would be confiscated,” Abed Rabbo’s wife, Fatima, told The Electronic Intifada.

“They dragged Nasser, who was in his pajamas. Nasser resisted and pushed them away from me. I quickly brought him some clothes and shoes to wear,” she added.

“One soldier told me in Arabic, don’t worry, we are just taking him for interrogation and he will return soon. They then handcuffed and blindfolded him. Nasser’s mother, who lives next to us, started screaming. She is 85 and has become all too familiar with such scenes.”

Nasser Abed Rabbo has still not returned home.

Attorney general’s order

Abed Rabbo was one of seven Jerusalemites released under the 2011 agreement who were re-arrested that same night.

The other six are Ismail Hijazi, Adnan Maragha, Alaa Bazian, Jamal Abu Saleh, Rajab al-Tahan and Ibrahim Mishaal.

At the time of his arrest, Maragha’s wife was due to give birth to their first child within two months; meanwhile, Bazian had previously spent thirty years in Israeli jails, losing his sight completely in 1979.

Yehuda Weinstein, Israel’s attorney general, issued a request to re-incarcerate all seven Jerusalemites on 24 June, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The Israeli authorities used the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank that month as a pretext to round up hundreds of Palestinians. Prisoners who had been released after the 2011 deal were particularly targeted.

Across Jerusalem and the wider West Bank, 51 Palestinians who had been released under that deal were re-arrested on 18 June.

In total, 131 of the 824 prisoners released to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) as part of the deal have been re-arrested, Haaretz reported on 23 June. Israel has accused these Palestinians of violating the terms of their release and most are awaiting trial in military courts; sixty-one of them face completion of their original sentences, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Palestinians released to Jerusalem following the 2011 deal have been prohibited from traveling elsewhere in the occupied West Bank or abroad. They have been ordered to report monthly to the police station based in the Russian Compound area of Jerusalem.

Secret evidence

On 15 July, a committee appointed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to examine alleged violations of the prisoner exchange deal decided that six of the seven Jerusalemites re-arrested in June should complete their previous life sentences. Only Ibrahim Mishaal was released, according to the Samidoun Prisoners Solidarity Support Network.

Based in Haifa, the committee is headed by a former judge and includes representatives of the Israel Prison Service.

“The committee charged them with returning to ‘terrorist activity,’ membership in terrorist organizations and other violations of the terms of the deal,” said Ramzi Kteilat, the prisoners’ attorney.

“The decision was taken based on secret evidence presented by the public prosecution and intelligence services that neither the lawyers nor the prisoners were allowed access to,” he added.

“How can you possibly repudiate their claims if we don’t even know the exact charges against them or the evidence used against them? This decision is in flagrant violation of the prisoners’ right to due process.”

The six are scheduled to appear for a hearing in Nazareth’s District Court on 2 October. Fatima, Nasser Abed Rabbo’s wife, is awaiting that hearing with trepidation.

“We don’t know what to expect and this is perhaps the worst part about it. Their arrest is purely political and our greatest concern is that the decision of the committee will be upheld,” she said.

“Ibrahim Mishaal’s release gave us a glimmer of hope but it was soon extinguished. I expect Nasser’s release at any moment but I also fear the worse. This unpredictability hurts.”

Despite her anguish, Fatima grinned while recalling a conversation she had with Nasser a few weeks before she gave birth to their new son.

“He called me while in prison, with a mobile phone that was smuggled to the prisoners and later confiscated by the prison guards, and asked, how’s Ali doing? I asked him, who’s Ali? He said he would like to call the baby Ali.”

Ali was born on 3 August, a few hours after Fatima returned from a visit to Nasser in Gilboa prison.

“I started feeling pain when I was visiting him,” she said. He told me, I’m sure you’ll give birth today. I laughed and said that I’m not due until 10 August, but he was right.

“I went into labor when I was on my way back from the prison. My brother was with me, but I desperately wanted Nasser to be with us. He couldn’t be there with me; he couldn’t hold his second child. All we could do is send him pictures of the newborn baby through friends who are visiting the prison.”

Taste of freedom

Nasser was twenty years old when he was arrested in February 1988. Since his release, he had been trying to build a new life.

He had married Fatima, his neighbor, soon afterwards. They had “the best possible honeymoon,” she said.

“We went to Haifa, the occupied Golan, Jaffa … Nasser especially loved Jaffa. One of his cellmates who spent 29 years in Israeli occupation jails is from Jaffa and we regularly visited him after his release.

“He [Nasser] loved spending hours at the beach. Now that he has finally tasted freedom after 24 years of imprisonment, he’s suddenly back to being behind bars, not knowing if and when he’ll be out again.”

Fatima does not expect justice from Israel’s courts. But she is determined not to lose hope. She is finding solace in the mutual support from the mothers and wives of the other prisoners.

“We share so much in common,” she said. “Our partners have all spent more than twenty years in jail, they were released together and re-arrested together. We draw strength from each other.”

Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian anarchist and law graduate based in occupied Jerusalem. She can be followed on Twitter: @Budour48.

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