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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for November 14, to the 20, 2015.
Israeli attacks targeting Palestinians this week left four killed and more than 150 others injured. Meanwhile Israel is angered by comparisons between Islamic State extremism and the Israeli occupation. 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. This week, Israeli troops attacked anti wall and settlement protests organized at a number of west Bank villages on Friday with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets.
Israeli troops attacked the villagers of Kufer Qadum and their international supporters at the village entrance. Later troops stormed the village and fired tear gas at protesters, many civilians were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. Israeli soldiers attacked also the protesters in Al Nabi Saleh village before even leaving the village.
At the nearby villages of Bil’in, and Ni’lin, residents and their supporters reached the Israeli wall. 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.
The Political Report
Wide condemnation of Paris attacks among Palestinians and Israeli anger as parallels drawn between Israel’s aggression against Palestinians and ISIS terror, IMEMC’s George Rishmawi with the details:
Following the Paris attacks this week, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom made a connection between Islamic State extremism and the Israeli occupation, causing a feud between the two governments, that the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned its Swedish envoy on Monday.
In an interview with a Swedish TV channel, following the Paris attack, Wallstrom said she is concerned that Swedish youth will be radicalized to fight for the so called Islamic State group (ISIS), and that the situation reminds her of Palestinians who resort to violence because they see no future for themselves as a result of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Wallstrom later released an official response condemning the Paris attacks, which claimed the lives of at least 129 people and wounded hundreds.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to Wallstrom’s comments by saying that her statements were “hostile” and “appallingly imprudent,” then summoned their Swedish envoy.
Sweden was the first European Union member to recognize Palestinian statehood in October of 2014.
On her part, member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Oraganization Dr. Hana Ashrawi accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamine Netanyahu of exploiting the Paris attacks.
Ashrawi said that Netanyahu is cynically exploiting the pain of the innocent victims of ISIS terrorism in Paris in order to create a misleading linkage and to justify Israeli state attacks against the Palestinian people, while presenting Israel as the victim.
She added that the Israeli military occupation is an ongoing aggression targeting Palestinians viciously and relentlessly while enjoying full impunity.
In other news, United Nations’ Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in occupied Palestine, Robert Riper, contended that Israel’s punitive home demolition policy taken against Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks against Israelis violates international law, and called for the cessation of the policy.
The policy of such punitive demolitions was suspended by the Government of Israel in 2005, after an Israeli military committee deemed it ineffective as a deterrent. Such actions have restarted since mid-2014, with the exception of one case in 2009.
For IMEMC News, this is George Rishmawi
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week Israeli troops shot and killed four Palestinians in the West Bank, bring the death toll to those who have been killed the army since October 1 to 91. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura reports:
On Monday, Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops’ gunfire as Israeli forces invaded, on Monday at dawn, the Qalandia refugee camp, north of occupied Jerusalem. Laith Manasra , 21, was killed when soldiers shot him from close range. He was on the roof of his family home throwing stones at invading Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Abu al-Eish, 28, was killed in armed clashes with Israeli forces that erupted in the camp. At least 37 Palestinians were injured in the army invasion. The army stormed the camp to demolish the family home of Mohammed Abu Shaheen, who was arrested by Israeli forces in June 2015 under the pretext of killing a settler.
On Tuesday of this week, Israeli troops shot and killed Mohamed Saleh, 24, at a military checkpoint, outside the town of Termis’ya near the central west Bank city of Ramallah. The army claimed that Saleh fired at soldiers from his gun before they shot and killed him.
Later in the week, The Palestinians Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that Israeli soldiers shot and killed 26-year old Shadi Arafah from Hebron city in southern West Bank.
On Thursday evening a Palestinian armed man opened fire at a group of settlers then rammed his car in another group near the Gosh Etzion illegal settlement’s block in southern West Bank. Israeli soldiers opened fire at the Palestinian attacker killing Arafah as he was passing from the area to his home during the time of the attack.
Two settlers were killed another nine were injured during the Palestinian attack, Israeli media sources reported. Earlier on Thursday, 22 year old Mohamed Eliyan, from Ramallah city, died of wounds he sustained after being shot by Israeli soldiers during a protest at a military checkpoint outside of Ramallah city.
Palestinians medical sources announced that more than 150 Palestinian civilians were injured in the West Bank, by Israeli gunfire this week. According to the Palestinian ministry of health latest report, 91 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire since October 1st, including 18 children. According to the Palestinian ministry of health, 10.000 Palestinians have been injured in the same period.
Also this week, Israeli forces conducted at least 77 military invasions targeting West Bank and Jerusalem communities. During these invasions, Israeli troops kidnapped at least 111 Palestinian civilians, including 38 children.
In the Gaza strip this week, Israeli Navy boats opened fire on a number of Palestinian fishing boats on Monday in Palestinian territorial waters, in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the besieged coastal region, wounding two fishers. Israeli navy and troops routinely open fire on Palestinian fishermen sailing within the six-nautical-miles zone and farmlands along the border, flagrantly violating the ceasefire deal that was reached in August 2014. The current six-nautical-mile fishing zone falls drastically short of the twenty nautical miles allocated to the fishermen in the 1993 Oslo Accords.
For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for November 14, to the 20, 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 by Maher Qasiess and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
