Life under occupation
|
| Title | | Description | Date |
| ‘HUMILIATION AND ABSURDITY’ : THE ISRAELI WOMEN BEARING WITNESS TO THE OCCUPATION | | Ben Winsor - J Street - J Street is committed to a shared vision of
freedom, safety and equality for every Israeli and every Palestinian
and works to secure Israel’s long-term future as a truly democratic
homeland for the Jewish people.//A Palestinian man is denied access
to a field he has owned and plowed for decades. A bride-to-be is
refused passage to a visa appointment to travel to her wedding in
America. Palestinians are handcuffed and left to wait hours in the
heat so soldiers can run checks which only take minutes. An Israeli
soldier bursts out laughing after he destroys a gift given to an
older Palestinian man by letting it fall off the end of an x-ray
conveyor belt.
These are among the thousands of humiliations meticulously documented
by MachsomWatch: Women Against the Occupation and for Human Rights —
also known as Checkpoint Watch — an Israeli organization dedicated to
observing, addressing and reporting on the indignities inflicted upon
Palestinians not just at checkpoints but, throughout the occupied
West Bank. (rh) | 31/1/2021 |
| ... |
| El-Halabi`s outcry for justice | | Alon Ben-Meir - Mohammed El Halabi, an aid worker from Gaza, has
been in prison for four years while he awaits his trial; this is
nothing short of cruel absurdity. He has been forced before the
court over 150 times, many of those appearances secret, the latest
on January 14, and he and his family still have no word of when his
case will begin. Israel’s case against El Halabi — who is accused
of diverting humanitarian funds to Hamas — has been widely condemned
as flimsy at best. The amount of funds El Halabi allegedly diverted
from his employer, the charity World Vision, is more than the
organization’s entire annual operating budget; furthermore, World
Vision as well as independent auditors found no financial
irregularities. In addition, the Israeli government has refused to
provide any further information or evidence regarding its claims.
This case has not only led to a man’s indefinite imprisonment, but
the suspension of significant humanitarian aid to Gaza, which will
further impact adversely on the living conditions in the territory. [ak] | 21/1/2021 |
| ... |
| Supreme Court temporarily halts demolition of a Palestinian family home | | i24NEWS - The Supreme Court in Jerusalem issued an order temporarily halting
demolition of the Kabha Family home. Demolition of the house`s two
upper floors had been was ordered by General Tamir Yadai of the IDF
Central Command, after Muhammad Kabha was detained and under
interrogation confessed to killing an Israeli settler woman in
December; he said that that he did it in retaliation for a
Palestinian detainee dying of cancer in the Israeli prison and being
denied release even when his situation was grave. Muhammad Kabha had
not yet been prosecuted or convicted, but his confession is deemed
enough to order demolition of his family`s home, even though family
members had no part in his alleged act. The demolition order was due
to come into force on 8.00 PM, January 21. An appeal lodged by Adv.
Nadia Daka of Hamoked (Center For Individual Rights) led to the
Supreme Court issuing a temporary order to halt the demolition
pending further deliberations - though at the end of these, the
court might finally authorize the demolition being carried out. [ak] | 21/1/2021 |
| ... |
| Army Orders Demolition Of School, Under-Construction Mosque, Near Hebron | | IMEMC News - "Israeli soldiers invaded, Sunday, Masafer Yatta area, south of the
southern West Bank city of Hebron, and handed orders for the demolition of a
school and an under-construction mosque, in the Um ad-Daraj Bedouin
community" [ry] | 18/1/2021 |
| ... |
| The Jewish supremacist state (A comment on B’Tselem’s ‘apartheid regime’ designation for Israel) | | NORMAN G. FINKELSTEIN - Mondoweiss - During the past two decades,
many respected individuals and organizations designated the regime
Israel has established in the occupied Palestinian territory—the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza—as a form of apartheid. A
small subset of these individuals and organizations designated the
regime Israel presided over in the whole of “historic Palestine”—
i.e., from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—as apartheid.
This writer for a long time hesitated to go beyond the broad
consensus that designated the oPt an apartheid regime while leaving
open the proper legal description of the regime inside the Green
Line. However, while researching a lengthy legal appendix to “Gaza:
An Inquest into Its Martyrdom,” this writer was persuaded that the
entire area from the “river to the sea” should be denoted an
apartheid regime. The basis of this conclusion was simple and
straightforward: A) the defining feature of an occupation under
international law is that it is temporary; if it is not temporary,
then it constitutes an illegal annexation; B) after more than a half-
century of Israeli “occupation,” and after repeated declarations by
the Israeli government that it didn’t intend to withdraw from the oPt
in conformity with international law, the only reasonable inference
was that the oPt had been de facto annexed, regardless of the formal
legal label Israel attached to them; C) Israel “from the river to the
sea” thus constituted a single entity; if the presiding regime
disenfranchised or severely qualified the citizenship rights of its
non-Jewish population, then it constituted an apartheid regime. The
respected Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, has now
officially reached this conclusion: “[T]he entire area between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organized under a single
principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group—Jews—
over another—Palestinians”; “A regime that uses laws, practices and
organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another
is an apartheid regime.” The B’Tselem position paper focuses on four
aspects of Israeli apartheid. Two aspects—Jewish-only immigration and
Jewish-only land development—operate in the whole of this Jewish
supremacist state, and two aspects—blockages to freedom of movement
and to political participation—are qualitatively more pronounced in
the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. It is this
writer’s opinion, however, that, repellent as are these features of
the Israeli regime, the aspect that most manifests its Jewish
supremacist character is the worthlessness it attaches to Palestinian
life. As B’Tselem and other major human rights organizations have
documented on literally a daily basis, Palestinians are routinely
murdered with impunity by private Israeli citizens, civil police, and
military personnel. These murders evoke no interest, let alone
protest, from the Israeli-Jewish public. (rh) | 17/1/2021 |
| ... |
| Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (07 – 13 January 2021) | | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - IOF excessive use of force in
the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem: 14 Palestinians
wounded, including a person with disability / 13 IOF shootings
reported at Palestinians and agricultural lands, and 5 times at
fishing boats eastern and western Gaza Strip / In 139 IOF incursions
into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem: 127 civilians
arrested, including 7 children / Limited incursion into eastern Khan
Younis; pamphlets left demanding farmers harvest their crops
4 tractors confiscated, lands razed, and greenhouse dismantled; one
house was served a demolition notice in the West Bank / Occupied
East Jerusalem: one house self-demolished; and a land vacated for
the establishment of a settlement project received evacuation order;
6 walls, a water well and a barracks demolished / Settler-attacks in
the West Bank: 5 Palestinian civilians wounded; 340 seedlings
uprooted; civilians’ vehicles assaulted / IOF established 75
temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank and arrested 12
Palestinian civilians on said checkpoints. [ak]
| 14/1/2021 |
|
| Israel’s vaccine success can’t hide a deeper divide | | Ishaan Tharoor - Washington Post - Israel is the site of what seems
to be a remarkable vaccination success story. It leads the world in
per capita vaccinations, with more than a million and a half
Israelis already having received the shot. Authorities estimate
officials can administer the vaccine to some 2 million Israelis
before the end of the month and hope to have the bulk of the
population vaccinated by the end of March, if not earlier. Still,
around a third of the 14 million people living between the Jordan
River and the Mediterranean Sea are not included in this vaccination
campaign. Israel has distributed vaccines to Jewish settlers in the
West Bank, but not to Palestinians there or in the crammed,
impoverished Gaza Strip. Israeli officials contend that these
Palestinians don’t fall under their jurisdiction under the terms of
the Oslo accords and that it is the job of the Palestinian Authority
to procure and distribute vaccines in the occupied territories. “I
don’t think that there’s anyone in this country, whatever his or her
views might be, that can imagine that I would be taking a vaccine
from the Israeli citizen, and, with all the goodwill, give it to our
neighbors,” Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told Britain’s
Sky News over the weekend. “There could hardly be a better
illustration of how Israeli lives are valued above Palestinian
ones,” said Saleh Higazi, deputy regional director for the Middle
East and North Africa at Amnesty International. [ak]
| 14/1/2021 |
| ... |
| Prominent Palestinian activist found guilty of obstructing security forces, | | AP and Israel Hayom staff - Issa Amro has been detained multiple times, often after confrontations with settlers. Ahead of hearing, Amnesty International says Amro faces "politically motivated charges for his peaceful activism against Israel`s military occupation and illegal settlements." [bz] | 7/1/2021 |
| ... |
| Articles Archive |
| Current Articles |
| 7/2021 |
| 6/2021 |
| 5/2021 |
| 4/2021 |
| 3/2021 |
| 2/2021 |
| 1/2021 |
| 12/2020 |
| 11/2020 |
| 10/2020 |
| 9/2020 |
| 8/2020 |
| 7/2020 |
| 6/2020 |
| 5/2020 |
| 4/2020 |
| 3/2020 |
| 2/2020 |
| 1/2020 |
| 12/2019 |
| 11/2019 |
| 10/2019 |
| 9/2019 |
| 8/2019 |
| 7/2019 |
| 6/2019 |
| 5/2019 |
| 4/2019 |
| 3/2019 |
| 2/2019 |
| 1/2019 |
| 12/2018 |
| 11/2018 |
| 10/2018 |
| 9/2018 |
| 8/2018 |
| 7/2018 |
| 6/2018 |
| 5/2018 |
| 4/2018 |
| 3/2018 |
| 2/2018 |
| 1/2018 |
| 12/2017 |
| 11/2017 |
| 10/2017 |
| 9/2017 |
| 8/2017 |
| 7/2017 |
| 6/2017 |
| 5/2017 |
| 4/2017 |
| 3/2017 |
| 2/2017 |
| 1/2017 |
| 12/2016 |
| 11/2016 |
| 10/2016 |
| 9/2016 |
| 8/2016 |
| 7/2016 |
| 6/2016 |
| 5/2016 |
| 4/2016 |
| 3/2016 |
| 2/2016 |
| 1/2016 |
| 12/2015 |
| 11/2015 |
| 10/2015 |
| 9/2015 |
| 8/2015 |
| 7/2015 |
| 6/2015 |
| 5/2015 |
| 4/2015 |
| 3/2015 |
| 2/2015 |
| 1/2015 |
| 12/2014 |
| 11/2014 |
| 10/2014 |
| 9/2014 |
| 8/2014 |
| 7/2014 |
| 6/2014 |
| 5/2014 |
| 4/2014 |
| 3/2014 |
| 2/2014 |
| 1/2014 |
| 12/2013 |
| 11/2013 |
| 10/2013 |
| 9/2013 |
| 8/2013 |
| 7/2013 |
| 6/2013 |
| 5/2013 |
| 4/2013 |
| 3/2013 |
| 2/2013 |
| 1/2013 |
| 12/2012 |
| 11/2012 |
| 10/2012 |
| 9/2012 |
| 8/2012 |
| 7/2012 |
| 6/2012 |
| 5/2012 |
| 4/2012 |
| 3/2012 |
| 2/2012 |
| 1/2012 |
| 12/2011 |
| 11/2011 |
| 10/2011 |
| 9/2011 |
| 8/2011 |
| 7/2011 |
| 6/2011 |
| 5/2011 |
| 4/2011 |
| 3/2011 |
| 2/2011 |
| 1/2011 |
| 12/2010 |
| 11/2010 |
| 10/2010 |
| 9/2010 |
| 8/2010 |
| 7/2010 |
| 6/2010 |
| 5/2010 |
| 4/2010 |
| 3/2010 |
| 2/2010 |
| 1/2010 |
| 12/2009 |
| 11/2009 |
| 10/2009 |
| 9/2009 |
| 8/2009 |
| 7/2009 |
| 6/2009 |
| 5/2009 |
| 4/2009 |
| 3/2009 |
| 2/2009 |
| 1/2009 |
| 12/2008 |
| 11/2008 |
| 10/2008 |
| 9/2008 |
| 8/2008 |
| 7/2008 |
| 6/2008 |
| 5/2008 |
| 4/2008 |
| 3/2008 |
| 2/2008 |
| 1/2008 |
| 12/2007 |
| 11/2007 |
| 10/2007 |
| 9/2007 |
| 8/2007 |
| 7/2007 |
| 6/2007 |
| 5/2007 |
| 4/2007 |
| 3/2007 |
| 2/2007 |
| 1/2007 |
| 12/2006 |
| 11/2006 |
| 10/2006 |
| 9/2006 |
| 8/2006 |
| 7/2006 |
| 6/2006 |
| 5/2006 |
| 4/2006 |
| 3/2006 |
| 2/2006 |
| 1/2006 |
| 12/2005 |
| 11/2005 |
| 10/2005 |
| 9/2005 |
| 8/2005 |
| 7/2005 |
| 6/2005 |
| 5/2005 |
| 4/2005 |
| 3/2005 |
| 2/2005 |
| 1/2005 |
| 12/2004 |
| 11/2004 |
| 10/2004 |
Home page back |
