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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for March 14th, to the 20th, 2015.
Right wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu wins the Israeli elections this week and vows not to establish a Palestinian state, meanwhile Israeli forces attacks on Palestinian communities leave at least eight injured civilians this week. 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, Four civilians including a journalist and a child, were injured when Israeli forces attacked nonviolent protests organized in West Bank villages. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali with the details:
Three young men and a Palestinian camera man were injured, and many others were treated for the effect of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest organized by the villagers of Kufer Kadum in northern West Bank.
One more child sustained light wounds when soldiers attacked him and other protesters at the village of al Ma’ssara near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. Troops attack villagers and their international supporters as soon as they reached the entrance of the village and forced them back.
In central West Bank, at the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the gate in the wall that separates local farmers from their lands. Many protesters suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and were treated by field medics at both locations.
At the nearby al Nabi Saleh village, Israeli troops fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers as soon as they reached the village entrance. Moreover Israeli troops fired tear gas at residential areas causing damage to homes. Many residents suffered effects of tear gas inhalation as a result.
For IMEMC News this Majd Batjali.
The Political Report
Palestinians concerned about reelection of radical Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu this week. Meanwhile, United States seems unhappy with the reelection. IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari has more:
This week, incumbent Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, won a new term in office, after Israeli voters opted for Netanyahu’s party. The party got 30 seats in the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset. Meanwhile. A unified Arab parliamentary block in the Keenest got 15 seats.
Israeli media reports say the incumbent premier will be forming a new government coalition in a period of three months, with other small religious hard-liner parties.
The reelection of Netanyahu has caused United States’ concerns over chances of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, after Netanyahu has outright stated he will not allow establishment of a Palestinian state, alongside with Israel , within a two-state solution, envisioned by Washington .
According to American media outlets, US president Barak Obama, congratulated the Israeli prime minister and emphasized on US’s intention to consider some more options in dealing with the stalled peace process. Among those options helping release a UN Security Council resolution that brands Israeli settlements activities on occupied Palestinian lands, illegal.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians including political factions, ordinary people and analysts voiced out concerns over the reelection of Netanyahu.
Palestinians believe that Israeli measures against the Gaza Strip, will remain the same, with more tightening of the current blockade and impeding reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza.Dr. Mahmoud Alajramy is a leading academic and political analyst in Gaza.
Actuality
‘I do not think that the occupation’s state can go in the near future into an all-out aggression against the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. Yet, we will most likely witness a selective aggression by the occupation state, such as assassinating leaders and besieging some regions’
At the internal Palestinian level, all Gaza-based political factions including the rival Hamas and Fatah parties, have called for a national Palestinian unity, in response to Netanyahu’s winning.
For IMEMC News, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week, Israeli forces attack Palestinian fishers and farmers in Gaza and in the West Bank a number of civilians injured by Israeli army gunfire during invasions targeting West Bank communities. IMEMC’s Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura reports:
At the start of the week, Israeli settlers attacked on Tuesday midday two Palestinian youth near the village of Jaba near occupied Jerusalem. According to villagers the two young men were working on their lands when a group of settlers attacked them with empty bottles and batons. The two youth sustained light wounds according to local sources.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian man was injured, Palestinian medical sources have reported, after Israeli soldiers attacked him on a military roadblock, near Beit Sahour, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem. The sources said that resident Mohammad al-Bal’awi, in his thirties, suffered various cuts and bruises, and was moved to the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital, in Bethlehem.
Moreover on Wednesday, Israeli extremists broke into, and occupied, a residential building inhabited by the al-Malhi family, and two lands in Wadi Hilweh, in occupied East Jerusalem. According to local sources, the extremists forged the properties’ deeds; an issue that enabled the Elad settlement group to invade the building and occupy it. The property in question has four apartments.
On Wednesday night, a young man has been shot, and seriously injured by an Israeli army live round, near the al-Jalazonerefugee camp, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian medical sources reported. Ali Mahmoud Safi, 20 years of age, was shot, and seriously injured, by a live round directly to the chest.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers fired dozens of rounds of live ammunition at local youths, during clashes that took place after the army invaded the area. Several residents have also been injured during ensuing clashes, but their wounds have been described as mild.
In Gaza this week, Israeli soldiers, stationed on military towers across the border with the Gaza Strip, fired on Tuesday morning, several rounds of live ammunition on homes and lands, in border areas of the coastal region. The attack did not lead to casualties, but forced the residents to leave their lands, and homes, fearing additional escalation.
In addition, the Israeli army said it arrested two young Palestinian men near the border fence, east of the al-Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza. Eyewitnesses said the two tried to enter Israel to search for work, especially under the dire conditions, destruction and poverty in the besieged Gaza Strip, and were taken prisoners, just as they crossed the border fence.
Israeli navy ships attacked, on Thursday morning, a number of fishing boats in Palestinian waters near Gaza City, and fired rounds of live ammunition at them. The navy also chased the Palestinian fishing boats, forcing them to sail back to shore, in the Sudaniyya area, northwest of Gaza City.
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 March 14th, to the 20th, 2015. 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 George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.
