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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday September 12, 2011
Settlers burn a Palestinian protest tent in Jerusalem, and tension arouses on Egypt-Israel borders, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli settlers who forcefully occupied part of the house of Rifka Al-Kurd in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, burned the protest tent setup in the backyard of the house.
The lady reported that her son noticed some noise near the house after midnight and confirmed that the settlers set the tent on fire. Neighboring youth managed to put the fire out, but all the contents of the tent where charred.
In related news, Israeli settlers defaced the home of an Israeli left-wing activist with graffiti proclaiming “death to the traitors” and “price tag Migron” on Monday, Israeli sources reported.
The activist, who refused to publish her name told Israeli media that she believes this is an act to make her and other left-wing activists scared.
Settlers have stepped up retaliatory attacks after the government removed three settler structures form Migron unauthorized outpost near Ramallah, last week. Palestinians have been the main victims of these acts, and apparently, left-wing Israelis are joining them.
In the meantime, the Israeli Human Rights’ organizastion B’Tselem said the Israeli military denies Palestinians the right to protest in the West Bank.
A report published by the group on Monday, titled ‘Show of Force’ says that Israel does not recognize the ‘basic right’ of Palestinians to protest and responds to demonstrations with an ‘excessive use of crowd control weapons.’
The report adds that the Israeli military violates its own law and regulations by firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters, and in most cases the army treats protests as disturbances and disperses nonviolent processions with the use of military force.
In the past five years, nonviolent processions have been the dominant form of protests against all Israeli military operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip including the construction of the wall and expanding settlements.
A number of live rounds were fired on Sunday into Eilat area, close to the site where eight Israelis were killed in August, Israeli sources reported Monday. The source added that the shots came from Egyptian border side targeting Israeli soldiers, however no injuries were reported.
Israel has beefed up military presence following August’s attack on the borders between Israel and Egypt.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Dr. Sa’eb Ereikat, denied reports that the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is planning to step back from applying for full membership in the UN. Ereikat, who is a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), affirmed that Abbas is to fully implement the decision of the PLO and will carry the Palestinian request to the UN General Assembly and to the Secretary General, who in turn will take the case to the UN security council.
That was some of the news from Palestine Today, for more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This report has been brought to you by Hussam Qassis and me, George Rishmawi.
