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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for September 13th, to the 19th, 2014.
This week, while Palestinians are getting ready to resume indirect talks with Israel, two Palestinians killed in Gaza when an Israeli weapon exploded near them. These stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. On Friday at least a dozen civilians were injured and many others were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attack anti wall and settlement protests organized at a number of west Bank villages. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali reports:
On Friday, protests were organized at the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and Al Nabi Saleh in central West Bank. Another protest were organized in southern West Bank village of Al Ma’ssara near Bethlehem.
In Al Nabi saleh, Israeli soldiers attacked anti wall and settlements protesters before even leaving the village. A number of protesters were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets fired by Israeli troops. Meanwhile many other civilians were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when soldiers invaded the village and fired tear gas at residents’ homes.
Elsewhere residents and their supporters in the nearby Bil’in, and Ni’lin villages reached the Israeli wall built on lands taken from local famers before soldiers stationed their showered them with tear gas and chemical water that generate bad smell.
Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. In Bilin one villager was hit with a rubber-coated steel bullet and two international supporters were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, at al Ma’ssara village on Friday, Israeli troops stopped the villagers and their supporters at the village entrance then forced them back using rifle-buts and batons. No injuries were reported.
For IMEMC News this is Majd Batjali.
The Political Report
While Palestinians are getting ready to resume indirect talks with Israel, the Israeli Supreme Court makes a ruling, which some Israelis describe as racist, IMEMC’s George Rishmawi has more:
Palestinian media sources reported this week that indirect post-ceasefire talks with Israel would resume, with Egyptian mediation in Cairo, before the 24 of September.
Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy chair of Hamas’ political bureau said that although the exact date for the resumption the talks has not been set yet; it will definitely be before the 24th.
The Hamas official said the United Nations, in coordination with Tel Aviv and the Palestinian unity Government, would handle the reconstruction of Gaza, and that there will be observers and a schedule for the entry of construction materials.
The United Nations, announced this week that the Israelis and the Palestinians have reached an understanding on the reconstruction of the damage caused by latest war on the Gaza Strip.
Abu Marzouk further said the Hamas movement has no objection or reservations on any mechanism, set by the United Nations, to ensure the entry of the urgently needed construction materials.
In other news, the Israeli high court upheld the “Admissions Committees Law,” which allows rural towns in the Negev and Galilee to reject the residency of Palestinian citizens of Israel and other marginalized groups in their villages on the basis that they are “unsuitable” for Jewish communities.
Such ruling was strongly condemned by Israeli civil and human rights organizations and described it as “legalizing the practice of segregation”
Israeli Member of Knesset Dov Khenin of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), has strongly denounced the Supreme Court’s ruling, and said in a press release that this ruling is part of Israel’s efforts to marginalize the Arabs, and falls under direct racism against them, and other minorities.
He said, “This ruling legalizes racism against the Arabs,” and he added “The Judges legalized preventing the Arabs from inhabiting lands where Israeli cities and communities have been built on lands confiscated from the Arabs themselves.”
Khenin further said this ruling grants a Green Light for deepening discrimination and social injustice against the Arabs in the country, and legalizes racist practices, especially amidst the dangerously increasing levels of hatred and racism to Arabs during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
In 2011, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, filed a petition against the law on behalf of several human and civic rights organizations in Israel, arguing that the law violated Israel’s prohibition against discrimination, however, it is apparent that their efforts went in vein.
Such rulings and several others pose many questions about the claimed Democracy of Israel which is often presented as the “only democracy in the Middle East”.
For IMEMC News, this is George Rishmawi
The West Bank and Gaza Report
In Gaza this week, two civilians killed when an Israeli weapon exploded near them, meanwhile in the West Bank Israeli settlers attack Palestinians and Israeli soldiers search home and kidnap civilians. IMEMC’s Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura with the details:
Two Palestinians have been killed and three injured, on Friday, when an unexploded Israeli weapon detonated in the al-Shuja’eyya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City. Witness reported a huge explosion that was heard in Shuja’eyya and that ambulances immediately rushed to the area. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that two Palestinians were killed in the explosion.
Also on Friday, Several Israeli military vehicles carried out a limited invasion into al-Qarara town, east of Khan Younis district, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Local sources said that a number of vehicles, and four army bulldozers stationed at the Kissufim military base, near the Gaza border fence, advanced around 100 meters into Palestinian agricultural lands.
On Wednesday of this week, Israeli naval forces opened fire off the coast of northern Gaza, late Wednesday, injuring a Palestinian fisherman, according to local reports. Yousef Zayif, age 70, was hit by live fire while waiting for his sons on the shore of a beach near al-Sudaniya. Medics described his injuries as ‘moderate’.
This week, Global Research, Canadian-based Think Tank, announced in a report that 26 Post-ceasefire Violations were committed by Israel’s army. On August 26 a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza was mediated by Egypt, bringing a fragile end to a war which killed some 2150 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and some 60 Israeli soldiers.
According to Global Research, among the violations Israeli committed was Israeli navy broken the ceasefire by firing at fishermen on four separate occasions, not lifted the illegal blockade imposed on Gaza, Seized $56 million of PA tax revenue, and killed a civilian in the West Bank. In the meantime since the ceasefire, Palestinian armed groups has not fired a single rocket, attacked an Israeli target, or done anything to break the terms of the ceasefire, Global Research reported.
In the West Bank this week, the Israeli army conducted at least 60 invasions into Palestinian communities into Palestinian communities. During these invasions Israeli soldiers kidnapped at least 56 Palestinians, including 16 children. 19 of these civilians were taken from Jerusalem.
Moreover a number of fanatic settlers, from the Mabo Dotan illegal settlement, attacked on Wednesday night with stones and empty bottles Palestinian cars driving on the main Jenin-Tulkarem road. Damage was reported but no injuries.
Also on Wednesday Israeli settlers bulldozed agricultural lands belonging to residents from Deir Estia and Hares villages, north of the Central West Bank city of Salfit.
For IMEMC News this is Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for September 13th, to the 19th 2014 from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This week’s report has been brought to you by Samer Jaber, and me Ghassan Bannoura.
