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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for June 9th to 14th 2012
Israeli military threatens to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes in the West Bank meanwhile the rival Palestinian parties delayed announcing the consensus government, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Nonviolence Report:
Let’s begin our weekly report with the nonviolent activities in the West Bank. Three injured, among them a journalist this Friday as Israeli soldiers attacked anti wall protests in some West Bank villages. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura with the details.
At the village of al Nabi Saleh in central West Bank two international and a journalist were injured and many were treated by the effects of tear gas inhalation on Friday when Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest at the village.
Villagers and their international and Israeli supporters marched until the entrance of the village before Israeli soldiers sprayed them with chemical water; later troops invaded the village and fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets into residents’ homes. Many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Meanwhile in Bil’in and Nil’in villagers’ also central West Bank, anti wall protesters were met by tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets by Israeli troops. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
In southern West Bank this Friday, Al Ma’sara villagers organized their weekly anti wall protest. Soldiers forced people back into the village. No injuries were reported.
For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.
The Political Report
Efforts are underway to bring both Palestinians and Israelis back to negotiations table. Meanwhile, an announcement of a consensus Palestinian government has been put off till the end of this month. IMEMC Rami Al Meghari has more.
Top Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Eriqat said that deputy-Israeli Prime Minister, Shaol Mofaz, suggested this week a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in an attempt to resume stalled peace talks between the two sides.
Yet, Eriqat did not voice out the PA’s compliance with that request, saying that a meeting could be held in few days, few weeks or in the future.
Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had suggested that Israel should first release a batch of Palestinian prisoners including seriously ill ones and those on hunger strike, as a perquisite for resuming the peace talks.
From his part, senior Palestinian politician, Nabil Sha’ath, does not foresee a breakthrough soon , given what he believes ‘ Israel’s inability to decide on the fate of illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, mainly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
At the internal Palestinian level, the ruling Hamas party in Gaza set June14, every year as the Palestinian Police Day. The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, viewed the decision as further deepening the state of split between Fatah and Hamas.
The Hama’s announcement came during a graduation ceremony of a dozens of police men in Gaza city. Hamas’s interior minister, Fathi Hammad told the new graduates that Gaza will not bear with seculars and that only Islamists will sustain in Gaza.
June14 was the date in which the Islamist Hamas took over Gaza and ousted the secular Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Since June14, 2007, both parties have been at loggerheads until Egyptian brokers mediated a unity deal in May2011.
In February2012, Qatar secured the parties’ agreement to implement that deal. Up to this moment, both Fatah and Hamas have not concluded a consensus government, ahead of legislative and presidential elections within a period of six months.
This week, sources within Fatah and Hamas confirmed such a government will be concluded by the end of June, 2012.
Some commentators believe that Hamas has preferred to wait until after the second round of Egyptian elections due Saturday, June17, 2012, in which Mohammad Mursi of the Islamic Brotherhood, Egyptian twin of Hamas, is competing with Ahmad Shafiq, former member of the deposed regime of Husni Mubarak.
For IMEMC News, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza
The West Bank & Gaza Report
Israeli military detains dozens of Palestinians this week and hand demolition threats to Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, the details and more with IMEMC’s Sean Mohan
On Monday 11th June in the East of Khan Younis Israeli forces attacked the homes of Palestinians. Eyewitness’s reported Israeli forces situated at the border opening fire on house’s and lands north of the towns of Esan and Kharaza. No injuries were reported
Also on Monday two Palestinian children have been kidnapped by the Israeli military, in a pre-dawn raid in Monday, from the town of Beit Ommar in the Hebron district in the West Bank. The Palestinian Solidarity Project, based in Beit Ommar name the two children as 15-year-old Malik Jawad Zakik and Hamouda Jamal Abu Hashim, 13.One of the children, Abu Hashim, has subsequently been released, but Zakik remains in detention.
In a separate but recent case of Bassem at-Tamimi, some of the charges had to be thrown out, as it transpired that evidence against Tamimi had been coerced from a detained child.
On Tuesday the 12th of June Israeli soldiers invaded at dawn, several areas in the West Bank, broke into and searched dozens of homes, and kidnapped twelve residents. The army also informed two residents it intends to demolish their homes.
The invasions targeted villages and towns in the West Bank districts of Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarem and Hebron. Soldiers handed Bassam and Husam Salim Suleiman, military issued orders informing them that the army intends to demolish their homes under the pretext that they are located near the illegal Annexation Wall separating the residents from their lands.
On Wednesday the 13th of June the so-called “Civil Administration” that runs under the Israeli Military in the occupied West Bank, handed military orders on Tuesday for the destruction of 52 structures and tents in the Palestinian village of Susia, south of the Hebron hills, in the southern part of the West Bank. The lands in question are located in the occupied West Bank, therefore, under international law are considered to be part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Five activists and one journalist have been arrested on Wednesday at a women’s movement walk in the West Bank city of Hebron. The action was taken on a walk through Hebron’s Shuhada Street, which the Israeli military bars from access to the Palestinian population. The majority were female activists dressed in traditional Palestinian dress, the thoub. Reports said that Israeli settlers confronted the action and stated that one settler attempted to assault participants, and that the Israeli military prevented journalists from documenting the event.
Also on Wednesday Palestinian medical sources reported that one resident was killed on Wednesday evening when a barrel fell on him as he was working in a siege-busting border tunnel, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Medical and Emergency Services in Gaza, reported that Ghassan Ramadan Radwan, 40, was killed, while resident Kamal Mohammad Abu Reeda, 45, was injured.
It was reported on Thursday 14th June that the Israeli Navy attacked Oliva Boat, which monitors the situation off the Gaza coast, and held a fishing boat in Rafah waters in the southern Gaza Strip with 2 fishermen on board. The navy released the international boat after attacking its crew with water hoses in an attempt to sink it. They also released the 2 fishermen after several hours of detention at the Ashdod Harbor inside Israel, but confiscated their fishing boat.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 07:20 on Wednesday, 13 June 2012, the Oliva Boat sailed from Gaza Harbor towards the west.
The crew on board the boat comprised of: Rosa Schiano, an Italian citizen; Rugaya Ezzedien, a British journalist; and Captain Salah Ammar. At approximately 08:00, the boat came within a few hundred meters of the floats placed by the Israeli Navy in Gazan waters to restrict the area of fishing for Palestinian fishermen, which cannot exceed 3 nautical miles from the seashore.
On Friday 15th June Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Friday at dawn, several Palestinians in the central West Bank district of Ramallah. Some of the kidnapped residents are former political prisoners who were previously kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel.
The Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies and Human Rights, identified some of the kidnapped residents as Khaled Abu al-Baha’ (a former political prisoner), his brother Morad who works at the Palestinian Legislative Council office in Ramallah, in addition to the Imam of the Betunia mosque who was kidnapped and violently attacked after the army surrounded the mosque.
Also on Friday Several charitable non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip issued a statement warning the residents that drinking water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption, and adding that the water in the coastal region cannot be consumed by human beings due to the fact that it is contaminated with chemical manure and waste-water. The Save the Children Foundation in the Gaza Strip and the Medical Aid Foundation reported that the number of children who got sick and are being treated for various health complication, including diarrhea, has doubled in the last five years.
They added that the sewage system in the coastal regions does not function due to the fact that it was repeatedly bombarded by Israel, an issue that led to polluting the water in the entire Gaza Strip.
Israel is claiming that is “eased the siege” on the Gaza Strip, by allowing the entry of certain goods and products, including products urgently needed for the reconstruction of the coastal region.
And finally on Friday the Israeli Navy kidnapped, late on Thursday evening, three Palestinian fishermen, while in Palestinian territorial waters, close to the Gaza shore, the Palestinian Fishermen Syndicate reported. The Syndicate said that an Israeli Navy chased the fishermen’s boat and fired several rounds of live ammunition before boarding it, and kidnapping the fishermen.
The three were taken to an unknown destination, while the boat was towed and confiscated.
This has been Sean Mohan for IMEMC news
That was just some of the news from This Week in Palestine, 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 Husam Qassis and me George Rishmawi.
