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Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre www.imemc.org, for Tuesday May 31, 2011
Spanish Consul General in East Jerusalem, Alfonso Manuel Portales, has announced Spain will recognise a Palestinian state before September.
Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Jenin and nearby villages detaining 12 Islamic Jihad forces and closing a charity. The raids, which took place between 3 and 4 am, targeted Islamic Jihad members who Israel accuses of coordinating and financing planned terrorist attacks.
As part of the raid the military took computers and documents from a charitable organisation called “The Muslim Girl”. Israel officials claim the charity, belonging to university lecturer Muna Qi’dan, has links with the Islamic Jihad organisation. Qi dan was also detained during the raid.
A new report by the Israeli Association for Civil Rights claims that tensions are on the rise between Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and Israeli security forces. The report accuses Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem of detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children as well as failing to uphold the security of Palestinian residents.
The report states that around 1,200 Palestinian children were questioned regards throwing stones in the past 18 months. The children are often taken from their bed at night and roughly questioned by Israeli interrogators in the absence of their parents or lawyers, the report claims.
‘The large gap between the number of kids who were questioned and arrested, and the number of charges pressed, reinforces the Arab residents’ feeling that most of these arrests and inquiries are meant to instill fear in the minors, collect information from them and stop them from repeating the acts they are suspected of committing,’ the report read.
‘We have testimonies that show that the police ignore complaints filed by Arabs about harm done to their property, body or safety,’ the report reads. Mass targeting of Palestinian residents is common, according to the research, including the general and excessive use of tear gas against whole neighbourhoods.
The findings of the report echo the story of seven year old Silwan resident Ali Siyam who was recently arrested by Israeli security forces sustaining cuts and bruises in the process and interrogated for hours in the absence of his parents or lawyer. Both his Aunt and Father were hospitalized due to injuries they received from security personnel when trying to intervene.
Three members of the Popular Resistance Committee have been killed in an explosion at a training ground in Rafah, according to Maan News Agency. Four others have been injured.
Israel has denied responsibility for the blast saying they were not in the area at the time. Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the group, identified those killed as Younis Abu An-Naja, Ramzi Abu Harb, and Mahmoud Al-Arqan. Murjahid said he would give updates in the coming hours. The Popular Resistance Committee is one of three groups who seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Thats all for today from the IMEMC. This was the Tuesday 31 of May’s daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by Husam Qassis and me David Steele
