Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for April 29, to May 05, 2017.
Ex-Palestinian political detainee dies this week due to hunger strike as more political detainees join the protest, in the meantime US President Trump promise this week to push the stalled peace process forward. 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. A dozen civilians including a journalist, were injured, many others were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation on Friday, as Israeli troops attacked anti wall and settlements protests organized in West Bank villages. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali has more:
On Friday protests were in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian political detainee held by the Israeli army. On April 17th, more than 1500 Palestinian political detainee went on hunger strike protesting ill-treatment by their Israeli captives.
anti-wall and settlements protests were organized in the central West Bank villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and al Nabi Saleh. In addition to the village of Kufer Qadum in northern West Bank. Israeli soldiers used live rounds, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets against the unarmed protesters.
Israeli soldiers shot and injured, eight Palestinians, including five with live fire, and caused scores to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation, in Nabi Saleh village.
In Bil’in and Ni’lin, protesters managed to reach the Israeli wall. Israeli troops fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers as soon as they reached the Israeli wall separating local farmers from their lands. One Israeli activist was detained by troops as they attacked the protesters in Ni’lin village.
Also on Friday two young men and a journalist were hit with rubber-coated steel bullets meanwhile, scores others were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly protest organized in Kufer Kadum village. Troops also fired tear gas into residents’ homes after invading the village.
For IMEMC News this is Majd Batjali
The Political Report
While more than 1500 prisoners are still on hunger-strike for the nineteenth day, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas makes a visit this week to the White House and praises US President Trump. IMEMC’s George Rishmawi with the details:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with the US President Donald Trump in the white house for the first time since Trump assumed office last January. Abbas praised Trump for his remarks in which he said that his administration is determined to reach a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Trump said in a press conference with Abbas that his administration is working hard to achieve peace.
< President Trump clip>
In the meantime, Ali Abu Nehme, Palestinian writer and co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, said in an interview with The Real News online media, that he is not expecting much of this meeting, and said that this is a repeated scenario of the time when President Barrack Obama started his term as President.
< Ali Abu Nehme clip>
On her part, Diana Buttu, former advisor for the Palestinian Liberation Organiztion (the PLO) told the China Global Television Network that she has very low expectations of this meeting.
< Diana Buttu clip>
In the meantime, nearly 1500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continued their hunger strike for 19 days in a row. The Palestinian political prisoners started this hunger strike on the 17th of April and iare demanding the Israeli authorities to enhance the living conditions of the prisoners and to provide better medical care and an end to Israel’s practice of detaining Palestinians without charge or trial in so-called administrative detentions; and stopping the use of solitary confinement, in addition to many other demands.
As of the time of preparing this report, there are no signs of Israel’s tendency to negotiate with the prisoners despite the fact that several of them have already started suffering health deterioration.
Shortly after the strike started, Israeli Minister of Defense, Avigdore Liberman urged the Israeli government to follow the lead of former British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher by refusing to negotiate with the hunger-striking prisoners.
While the lives of hundreds of these prisoners are on the line, the Israeli Prison Service Authority has taken punitive measures against the striking prisoners including the denial of family visits; denial of recreational time; denial of access to the prisons’ shop, prohibition from participating in group prayers on Fridays and seizure of salt during the first days of the strike.
For IMEMC News, this is George Rishmawi.
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week, a former political detainee dies of health complications during solidarity hunger strike meanwhile in Gaza army tanks and navy attack fishermen and farmers. IMEMC’s Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura reports:
Mazin al-Maghraby, 45, former Palestinian political prisoner who joined the supporters of hunger-striking detainees at a solidarity tent in Ramallah city died on Tuesday of a heart attack. He was released from army detention five months ago. While in Israeli army detention, al-Maghraby, was subjected to medical neglect, leading to a severe deterioration of his health, including kidney failure.
protest tents such as the one where al-Maghraby suffered a heart attack was established all over the West Bank bank to maintain a constant presence in solidarity with the hundreds of hunger striking Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel. There are more than 1500 Palestinians currently on hunger strike, and the number is increasing daily.
Also this week, clashes with Israeli troops and local youth erupted all over the West Bank as soldiers attacked solidarity marches with the hunger-striking detainees. Earlier on Sunday night, Israeli soldiers invaded Sebastia town, northwest of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, and fired many gas bombs and concussion grenades at a solidarity tent, in support of the hunger striking detainees, causing it to burn.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers shot and seriously injured, Thursday, a young Palestinian man allegedly after attempting to stab Israeli soldiers, near the Ibrahimi Mosque, in Hebron city, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank. The soldiers claimed that the young man, in his twenties, is from Hebron city, and that the soldiers reportedly found a “toy gun and a grenade” in a bag he carried.
Moreover, Palestinian medical sources have reported, Monday, that a child suffered moderate wounds, after an Israeli colonialist settler’s rammed him with his car, and fled the scene. The sources sated that Morad Razem, 4, was walking near Qfeisha building, in the center of Hebron city, when the Israeli car struck him, and fled the scene.
Also this week, a 19-year old Israeli settler was apparently mistaken for a Palestinian and immediately shot to death by Israeli soldiers at the Hizme checkpoint near Jerusalem. According to a statement by the Israeli police, “A Jewish man was killed by Israeli border officers at the Hizme checkpoint north of Jerusalem after he tried to stab an Israeli soldier.” The killed Israeli settler from Pisgat Ze’ev, a colonial settlement constructed illegally on Palestinian land in the West Bank.
During the week, Israeli forces conducted at least 67 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Jerusalem. During these invasions, troops detained 85 Palestinian civilians, including 27 children.
In Gaza this week, Several Israeli navy ships attacked, on Monday morning, Palestinian fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters, northwest of Gaza city, and abducted two fishermen. The attack forced the fishermen back to shore, in fear of further Israeli violence against them, and their boats.
Also on Monday, several Israeli military vehicles, including four armored bulldozers, invaded Palestinian agricultural lands in the al-Qarara town, south of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, and uprooted large areas, while army drones hovered overhead.
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 April 29, to May 05, 2017. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www-dot-imemc-dot-org, This week’s report has been brought to you by Sa’ed Naji and me Ghassan Bannoura.
