4 feb 2014
On Sunday, 02 February 2014, E. M. Z. (18), from Rafah, died after she was admitted to Abu Yusef al-Najjar Hospital as she fell into a coma during a Quran therapy session.
According to the statement of the girl's uncle to a PCHR's fieldworker, E. Z. had been having speech disorders and had been unable to move for 5 months. Her health condition deteriorated gradually until she stopped going to school, when she was a student in the 12th grade. He added that the girl's family took her to a number of doctors for treatment, but there were no signs of progress.
As a result, they resorted to a Sheikh who claimed that he had the ability to treat people with Quran. At approximately 12:00, on 02 February 2014, Sheikh E. 'A. Z. went to the girl's house and started a therapy session that lasted until 17:00, during which he recited Quranic prayers. He also offered the girl salt and an unidentifiable substance dissolved in water. He claimed the mixture was against spells.
The girl refused in the beginning to drink it, but the Sheikh obliged her to do so with the help of her brother. After she drank the mixture gradually, she fainted. She was taken to Abu Yusef al-Najjar Hospital while she was in coma.
The doctors failed to revive her and pronounced her dead 10 minutes later. Her uncle said the General Prosecution ordered referring the girl's corpse to the forensic department to identify the cause of death. On Monday, 03 February 2014, the corpse was examined at the forensic department. Initial examination showed the existence of extra salt in the digestive system. The final forensic report will be issued a week later.
It should be noted that the Palestinian police detained the Sheikh pending case. They discovered that he was detained earlier and pledged before the Criminal Police to not return to Quran therapy.
In view of the above, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR):
1. Calls upon the Attorney General to continue the investigation and publish its results publicly;
2. Demands the Ministry of Health to hold their legal responsibilities according to the Public Health Law 10/2004 and the international standards of the right to health, and take all possible legal measures to protect the civilians' right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;
3. Demands the Ministry of Health to verify the legal measures for the practice of medicine in conformity with the law and to close all clinics or other societies that claim offering physical or mental health services without obtaining the license needed to practice or open a health institution.
According to the statement of the girl's uncle to a PCHR's fieldworker, E. Z. had been having speech disorders and had been unable to move for 5 months. Her health condition deteriorated gradually until she stopped going to school, when she was a student in the 12th grade. He added that the girl's family took her to a number of doctors for treatment, but there were no signs of progress.
As a result, they resorted to a Sheikh who claimed that he had the ability to treat people with Quran. At approximately 12:00, on 02 February 2014, Sheikh E. 'A. Z. went to the girl's house and started a therapy session that lasted until 17:00, during which he recited Quranic prayers. He also offered the girl salt and an unidentifiable substance dissolved in water. He claimed the mixture was against spells.
The girl refused in the beginning to drink it, but the Sheikh obliged her to do so with the help of her brother. After she drank the mixture gradually, she fainted. She was taken to Abu Yusef al-Najjar Hospital while she was in coma.
The doctors failed to revive her and pronounced her dead 10 minutes later. Her uncle said the General Prosecution ordered referring the girl's corpse to the forensic department to identify the cause of death. On Monday, 03 February 2014, the corpse was examined at the forensic department. Initial examination showed the existence of extra salt in the digestive system. The final forensic report will be issued a week later.
It should be noted that the Palestinian police detained the Sheikh pending case. They discovered that he was detained earlier and pledged before the Criminal Police to not return to Quran therapy.
In view of the above, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR):
1. Calls upon the Attorney General to continue the investigation and publish its results publicly;
2. Demands the Ministry of Health to hold their legal responsibilities according to the Public Health Law 10/2004 and the international standards of the right to health, and take all possible legal measures to protect the civilians' right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;
3. Demands the Ministry of Health to verify the legal measures for the practice of medicine in conformity with the law and to close all clinics or other societies that claim offering physical or mental health services without obtaining the license needed to practice or open a health institution.
Palestinian Education Ministry in occupied West Bank has issued a report documenting Israeli violations against the education system in 2013. The report confirmed that Israeli occupation forces killed three Palestinian students and arrested 175 others and 7 teachers last year, in addition to injuring 195 students and teachers.
The report stated that 32 teachers and 50 students were arrested for several hours in Israeli detention centers last year.
Education has been suspended in nine schools in the West Bank due to Israeli daily raids and curfews, preventing 2,045 students from reaching their schools and 173 teachers from reaching their work places.
Classes were also partly suspended in 34 schools due to the Israeli checkpoints erected throughout the West Bank.
According to the report, 98 schools were subjected to frequent Israeli attacks and fire, which led to a state of panic among students.
The report outlined that 1,581 courses were cancelled due to Israeli violations at the expense of more than thirteen thousand students.
The report stated that 32 teachers and 50 students were arrested for several hours in Israeli detention centers last year.
Education has been suspended in nine schools in the West Bank due to Israeli daily raids and curfews, preventing 2,045 students from reaching their schools and 173 teachers from reaching their work places.
Classes were also partly suspended in 34 schools due to the Israeli checkpoints erected throughout the West Bank.
According to the report, 98 schools were subjected to frequent Israeli attacks and fire, which led to a state of panic among students.
The report outlined that 1,581 courses were cancelled due to Israeli violations at the expense of more than thirteen thousand students.
The Israeli military is severely harming livelihoods in a Palestinian village in the West Bank that it plans to turn into an archaeological tourist site. The military should drop the project and lift excessive restrictions that keep residents from building or farming on their land and that limit their freedom of movement.
Decades ago, the Israeli military demolished many buildings in the village, Nabi Samwil, a few kilometers northwest of Jerusalem, without notifying residents in advance or providing them with an explanation, residents said. In 1995, the military declared the area a national park, using that explanation to deny residents the right to build, renovate, conduct business, or plant trees. Since 2007, Israel’s separation barrier has cut the village off from the rest of the West Bank, and the Israeli authorities do not allow most of the residents to travel or work in Israel. Israel announced plans for an archaeological tourist site in the village in June 2013. Israeli authorities have not consulted residents about any of the plans.
“The Israeli military has choked off Nabi Samwil for years, and it is cruel to now make a tourist attraction out of the part of the village the military destroyed,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “The military should be making sure Nabi Samwil residents can return and rebuild, not making their displacement permanent.”
Since December, residents have held weekly protests against turning the archaeological site into a tourist attraction. Plans commissioned by the Israeli military’s Civil Administration division provide for building an access road, parking, buildings, and other structures for visitors to the archaeological site. An Israeli official managing the excavations told residents on December 27 that anyone who participated in the protests “does not get to work” at the site, residents and Israeli rights activists said.
The Israeli military occupied Nabi Samwil, whose name means “Prophet Samuel”, in 1967. Seven families fled then, villagers told Human Rights Watch. The military’s 1967 census says that 66 residents remained. In 1971, villagers said, the military bulldozed about 30 buildings in the center of the village, near the mosque – the area the military is now planning to turn into the tourist site.
As the military prohibited rebuilding the homes or new residential construction after 1971, the remaining villagers moved into houses and structures whose owners had left in 1967, including a structure to house sheep, a few hundred meters east of the mosque. The military demolished some renovated buildings, apparently because they were renovated without military permits, residents said. In 1995, the military designated the “Nabi Samuel National Park” on a 350-hectare tract encompassing the entire village and its surroundings. The national park plan effectively prohibited building new structures or infrastructure.
The Israeli authorities have provided no justification based on military necessity or protection of the residents for preventing people from rebuilding or returning. Under international law, those are the only reasons they can forcibly – if temporarily – transfer inhabitants of an occupied territory from their homes.
The national park plan designated the area around the village mosque – including the remains of homes and other buildings the military had destroyed in 1971– an archaeological site, where the Israeli Parks and Nature Authority, under the auspices of the Israeli military’s archaeology staff office, began excavations in the 1990s.
Emek Shaveh, an Israeli group focused on archaeology, reported in 2013 that, “the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions identify Nabi Samuel as the burial place of the prophet Samuel,” and that the area of the village mosque was originally a Christian holy site dating from the Byzantine period. There is currently a Jewish prayer area in the basement level and a Muslim prayer area at the entrance level of the mosque building. Emek Shaveh submitted an objection to the plan, arguing that it was wrong to turn a destroyed Palestinian village into an archaeological site. The group argued during a military planning hearing in November that plans to build an elevator for tourists on the outside of the mosque building could harm the site.
Because the Israeli military considers the area a park, officials have no plans to improve the village’s infrastructure or to allow new buildings, a planner said at the military planning committee hearing, which Human Rights Watch attended.
The route of the Israeli separation barrier cuts deep into the West Bank, leaving West Bank villages – where around 11,000 Palestinians live – between the barrier and Israeli territory. The military designated this land “seam zone” areas. As with other villages in seam zone areas, the military only allows Palestinians whom it has registered as permanent residents of Nabi Samwil to cross a checkpoint to the rest of the West Bank, and severely restricts the goods they can bring in with them.
In one case, forces at the checkpoint held up a school bus for hours because one student tried to bring a sack of bread into the village without prior permission.
The checkpoint and other Israeli restrictions on residents’ movement, such as road-blocks cutting off access to other villages, make it difficult and time-consuming for the 250 residents of the village to travel to and work in the rest of the West Bank. At the same time, Israel considers most of the villagers Palestinian West Bank residents, and prohibits them from traveling or working in Israel without special military permits.
The military has thwarted residents’ attempts to generate income by setting up small businesses, including their own efforts to attract visitors to the historic site. In September, the military confiscated a carwash that a villager had set up in June, after issuing an order stating that he did not have a building permit. The resident said that he owns the plot of land.
Human Rights Watch spoke to two residents who said that the only jobs available to them in the village were to work for the military’s archaeological staff by excavating their village’s demolished homes. Ten men from Nabi Samwil are employed to excavate the site, they said – four of them born in homes that the military demolished in 1971 and that are now included within the archaeological site.
In separate court cases pending before the Israeli High Court of Justice, the military is seeking judicial approval to forcibly displace residents of the Palestinian villages of Susiya and Khirbet Zanuta, in the southern West Bank, because of archaeological finds at the sites. In a third case, state authorities delegated the operation of an archaeological tourist site, the “City of David” in the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem, to a settler group, Elad, that has evicted Palestinians from their homes. Israeli authorities have also demolished other Palestinian homes and structures in Silwan.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on June 18 that officials from the military’s Archaeological Staff Office, in the Civil Administration division, removed a 200 - 300 year-old stone, inscribed in Arabic, from the wall of the Nabi Samwil mosque in May. The military archaeologists removed the stone without consulting the residents or the Muslim waqf, or endowment, which owns the mosque site. Human Rights Watch observed informational plaques set up by Israeli authorities at the site that refer extensively to the site’s Jewish history and religious significance, but contain only passing reference to its Muslim heritage.
Israel has ratified, and Palestine acceded to, the 1954 United Nations Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which requires an occupying power, as far as possible, to “support the competent national authorities of the occupied country in safeguarding and preserving its cultural property.” Israel does not permit Palestinian authorities to access Nabi Samwil, Susiya, Khirbet Zanuta, or Silwan.
The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits Israel, as the occupying power, from making life so difficult for Palestinians in occupied territories that they are essentially forced to leave their communities. Deliberately violating this prohibition against “forcible transfer” is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and prosecutable as a war crime.
“Israeli authorities not only exclude Palestinians from any role in managing their cultural heritage, but are perverting archaeology into a tool to drive Palestinians out of their communities,” Whitson said. Life in the Seam Zone
Residents estimated that about 50 residents have left Nabi Samwil for other towns in the West Bank since 2010 to escape poverty, poor housing conditions, and restrictions on movement.
Israeli forces control all access from the rest of the West Bank to Nabi Samwil at a checkpoint outside the village. Residents are allowed to carry food and goods for personal consumption and use, but forces at the checkpoint have blocked deliveries of humanitarian aid. In October 2013, for instance, on separate occasions, the forces blocked delivery of water tanks and chickens donated by Norwegian People’s Aid.
A Norwegian newspaper, Dagen, reported that the water tanks were intended to allow villagers to grow and irrigate their own vegetables, reducing their food expenses. The military initially said that the tanks did not qualify as “humanitarian” assistance, but ultimately told Haaretz that it had blocked their entry on the grounds that residents had no permits to set them up in Nabi Samwil, a natural park where “any construction… requires a permit.” The soldiers at the checkpoint eventually allowed residents to bring in the water tanks one at a time over the next several months.
Residents told Human Rights Watch that forces at the checkpoint had also blocked the delivery by Norwegian People’s Aid of about 400 egg-laying chickens, because the number of birds indicated a “commercial” rather than humanitarian use. Residents said the chickens would die if left unattended, so they strapped the chicken cages onto a donkey that walked through hills around the checkpoint to reach the village. Human Rights Watch observed photographs of the donkey carrying the chickens.
Residents described numerous incidences of harassment by forces at the checkpoint; in each case, Israeli rights activists, including with the group Machsom Watch, corroborated the residents’ accounts.
In February, soldiers prohibited a resident driving home with his family from another part of the West Bank from crossing the checkpoint because he had a small canister of cooking gas in the car. After the family returned the canister to another village and returned to the checkpoint, soldiers delayed the car from passing for several hours. An official later told an Israeli human rights activists that cooking gas was a “chemical substance with multiple uses” that required “prior coordination.”
In September, soldiers blocked a school bus for five hours because they said a girl was “trying to smuggle” in a large bag of bread. Officials threatened to press charges against a man escorting the children on the bus who had argued about the delay. On October 15, the soldiers denied entry to a man qualified to ritually slaughter animals for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha due to a “technical error,” but still refused him entry after the computer error was fixed, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
In 2012, forces at the checkpoint detained Eid Barakat, a resident in his 50s, for trying to “smuggle” bags of barley feed for the village’s livestock past the checkpoint, on the basis that they constituted “commercial” goods prohibited in seam zone areas, according to Barakat and an Israeli rights activist.
Israeli forces have entered Nabi Samwil and subjected residents to apparently unnecessary security measures. According to a complaint filed on March 1, 2013, by Machsom Watch, a border police jeep entered the village at 7 p.m. on February 24, and Israeli border police ordered all the children to come out of their houses and stand outside. The children stood outdoors for half an hour, until the border police left the village without having questioned any children or residents.
At 5:30 a.m. on December 25, Israeli forces entered homes in the village without showing search or arrest warrants and detained six teenagers and young men, alleging they had broken into vehicles on an unspecified date. Israeli forces held them at Ofer, a military detention facility nearby in the West Bank, releasing them December 31, on 700 shekels (USD $200) bail each.
The Israeli government argues that its restriction of West Bank Palestinians’ freedom of movement is justified on security grounds. However, the Israeli policies in question restrict the movement of all Palestinians, rather than targeting individuals considered security risks. As the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted in 2007, Israeli policies “targeting a particular national or ethnic group, especially through the wall, checkpoints, restricted roads, and permit system, have… had a highly detrimental impact on the enjoyment of human rights by Palestinians, in particular their rights to freedom of movement, family life, work, education, and health.”
The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits Israel, as the occupying power, from “[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers” of the Palestinian population in the West Bank unless required for their own safety or imperative military reasons. The prohibition of forcible transfer extends to cases in which the military makes life so difficult that people are essentially forced to leave.
The convention does not distinguish residents of a particular locale, such as an area designated by the occupying power as a national park or a “seam zone,” but refers to all protected residents of the occupied territory. Even in cases where an occupying power is permitted to require residents of the occupied territory to leave their homes, it must be temporary and the residents must be allowed to return as soon as possible. Deliberately violating this prohibition is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and prosecutable as a war crime.
Demolitions
S., a resident of Nabi Samwil in her 70s, told Human Rights Watch that the Israeli military demolished her home in the middle of winter in 1971. “Suddenly at 7 a.m., the soldiers came into our home. The officer said he didn’t know anyone was still living there,” she said, but Israeli forces bulldozed her home anyway. “I moved into a sheep pen and built a kitchen,” she said. “A few days later, the Israelis came and destroyed the kitchen.”
She and eight relatives still live in two rooms in the same structure, which the military has prohibited them from renovating, she said. In 2002, she said, the Palestinian Authority gave her some olive trees. “I planted them and built a fence around them on eight dunams [0.8 hectares] of land I inherited from my parents,” she said. “The army destroyed the fence and uprooted the trees.”
The village’s elementary school comprises a 20-square-meter one-room building and a portable classroom donated by the queen of Jordan, where pupils from grades 1 through 4 study. The Israeli military has refused requests to expand the school building, and issued a demolition order against the portable classroom, an outbuilding with the school’s toilet, the swings in the school playground, and the fence separating the school’s play area from a road, because the national park plan prohibits the construction or expansion of public buildings, the school principal told Human Rights Watch.
Israeli military authorities have severely restricted residents’ livelihoods on the basis of claims that they violate the National Parks Law. Under the law, Nabi Samwil residents who own land retain possession, but cannot make physical changes on it without the approval of both the Nature and Parks Authority and the military’s Civil Administration division. However, these authorities have rarely granted such permission, residents told Human Rights Watch. The park plan allows registered owners to expand residential buildings by a maximum of 20 percent. But because many residents moved into vacant homes after the military forcibly displaced them in 1971, most don’t own the homes they live in.
Barakat showed Human Rights Watch an order the military issued to him to uproot 95 fruit trees that he planted in 2011. The order does not contest his claim to own the land, but prohibits its use for agriculture because it is inside the national park. On October 31, 2012, Barakat said, the military demolished a cow pen and two store-rooms he owned. The military also demolished seven other buildings in Nabi Samwil that day, according to records collected by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The following month, the French consulate helped Barakat build a new sheep pen. On March 12, 2013, the military issued a “stop-work order” against the new pen – the administrative step before the military issues demolition orders.
To earn income, Barakat and other residents opened a small carwash in a vacant lot near the entrance to the archaeological site on June 13, 2013. Five days later, the military issued an order stating that they had built the structure illegally, without permits. Barakat said that he owns the land. In early September, Israeli forces destroyed the sun-shade, advertising poster, and bamboo fence the residents had built, and confiscated the industrial vacuum cleaner and water hose at the site.
In December, the Israeli manager of the archaeological excavation site told a resident who opened a stall selling peanuts to visitors that he would not be given work at the site “so long as you have the peanut stall out here,” said residents who overheard the conversation. The man closed his stall and was given work excavating the site.
The Military Plan
In 2013, the military submitted a plan, “Development in Nabi Samwil National Park,” 51/107/03, including the archaeological site. The plan, commissioned by Israel’s National Parks Authority and the military Civil Administration division, allows building on 2,400 square meters, including an access road, walking paths, buildings for tourists, and an elevator. Residents of Nabi Samwil told Human Rights Watch that the military did not consult with them regarding the plan. Some of the remains in the archaeological site “are structures and installations from the destroyed Palestinian village, which were built on top of earlier remains,” notes a report by Emek Shaveh, the Israeli archaeological group that opposed the plans.
Nabi Samwil residents attended the first part of the hearing about the plan in November. It was conducted in Hebrew, which some of them did not understand. When a participant asked for the proceedings to be translated into Arabic, one of Israel’s two official languages, the head of the subcommittee, Mikhael Ben Shabat, said that the rules of procedure did not require the hearing to be translated and that he had not received a request in advance.
The Nabi Samwil residents walked out after the Israeli planner working for the military, Daniel Halimi, stated repeatedly, over their objections, that “this is not a village, it is a park.” He acknowledged in response to questions that his plan did not provide roads, sewage, or electricity infrastructure to residents. “Hopefully the residents will realize they live in a park and not a village,” Halimi said. “The plan we’re working on will help assimilate them to servicing visitors to the [tourist] site.” Ben Shabat added, “There are no residents in a park.”
Nir Shalev, a representative of Bimkom, an Israeli rights group that specializes in planning issues, objected, saying that Israel has a precedent of allowing residential construction inside national parks, including for settlements in the West Bank. The subcommittee, which is considering some objections to the plan, stated that it had no jurisdiction to consider Bimkom’s objections that the plan violated Israel’s obligations under the law of occupation.
Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against a temporary protest tent immediately after residents first set it up during a demonstration in December near the entrance to the archaeological site. Residents have erected the tent each Friday as part of their weekly protest, removing it at the end of each protest.
Decades ago, the Israeli military demolished many buildings in the village, Nabi Samwil, a few kilometers northwest of Jerusalem, without notifying residents in advance or providing them with an explanation, residents said. In 1995, the military declared the area a national park, using that explanation to deny residents the right to build, renovate, conduct business, or plant trees. Since 2007, Israel’s separation barrier has cut the village off from the rest of the West Bank, and the Israeli authorities do not allow most of the residents to travel or work in Israel. Israel announced plans for an archaeological tourist site in the village in June 2013. Israeli authorities have not consulted residents about any of the plans.
“The Israeli military has choked off Nabi Samwil for years, and it is cruel to now make a tourist attraction out of the part of the village the military destroyed,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “The military should be making sure Nabi Samwil residents can return and rebuild, not making their displacement permanent.”
Since December, residents have held weekly protests against turning the archaeological site into a tourist attraction. Plans commissioned by the Israeli military’s Civil Administration division provide for building an access road, parking, buildings, and other structures for visitors to the archaeological site. An Israeli official managing the excavations told residents on December 27 that anyone who participated in the protests “does not get to work” at the site, residents and Israeli rights activists said.
The Israeli military occupied Nabi Samwil, whose name means “Prophet Samuel”, in 1967. Seven families fled then, villagers told Human Rights Watch. The military’s 1967 census says that 66 residents remained. In 1971, villagers said, the military bulldozed about 30 buildings in the center of the village, near the mosque – the area the military is now planning to turn into the tourist site.
As the military prohibited rebuilding the homes or new residential construction after 1971, the remaining villagers moved into houses and structures whose owners had left in 1967, including a structure to house sheep, a few hundred meters east of the mosque. The military demolished some renovated buildings, apparently because they were renovated without military permits, residents said. In 1995, the military designated the “Nabi Samuel National Park” on a 350-hectare tract encompassing the entire village and its surroundings. The national park plan effectively prohibited building new structures or infrastructure.
The Israeli authorities have provided no justification based on military necessity or protection of the residents for preventing people from rebuilding or returning. Under international law, those are the only reasons they can forcibly – if temporarily – transfer inhabitants of an occupied territory from their homes.
The national park plan designated the area around the village mosque – including the remains of homes and other buildings the military had destroyed in 1971– an archaeological site, where the Israeli Parks and Nature Authority, under the auspices of the Israeli military’s archaeology staff office, began excavations in the 1990s.
Emek Shaveh, an Israeli group focused on archaeology, reported in 2013 that, “the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions identify Nabi Samuel as the burial place of the prophet Samuel,” and that the area of the village mosque was originally a Christian holy site dating from the Byzantine period. There is currently a Jewish prayer area in the basement level and a Muslim prayer area at the entrance level of the mosque building. Emek Shaveh submitted an objection to the plan, arguing that it was wrong to turn a destroyed Palestinian village into an archaeological site. The group argued during a military planning hearing in November that plans to build an elevator for tourists on the outside of the mosque building could harm the site.
Because the Israeli military considers the area a park, officials have no plans to improve the village’s infrastructure or to allow new buildings, a planner said at the military planning committee hearing, which Human Rights Watch attended.
The route of the Israeli separation barrier cuts deep into the West Bank, leaving West Bank villages – where around 11,000 Palestinians live – between the barrier and Israeli territory. The military designated this land “seam zone” areas. As with other villages in seam zone areas, the military only allows Palestinians whom it has registered as permanent residents of Nabi Samwil to cross a checkpoint to the rest of the West Bank, and severely restricts the goods they can bring in with them.
In one case, forces at the checkpoint held up a school bus for hours because one student tried to bring a sack of bread into the village without prior permission.
The checkpoint and other Israeli restrictions on residents’ movement, such as road-blocks cutting off access to other villages, make it difficult and time-consuming for the 250 residents of the village to travel to and work in the rest of the West Bank. At the same time, Israel considers most of the villagers Palestinian West Bank residents, and prohibits them from traveling or working in Israel without special military permits.
The military has thwarted residents’ attempts to generate income by setting up small businesses, including their own efforts to attract visitors to the historic site. In September, the military confiscated a carwash that a villager had set up in June, after issuing an order stating that he did not have a building permit. The resident said that he owns the plot of land.
Human Rights Watch spoke to two residents who said that the only jobs available to them in the village were to work for the military’s archaeological staff by excavating their village’s demolished homes. Ten men from Nabi Samwil are employed to excavate the site, they said – four of them born in homes that the military demolished in 1971 and that are now included within the archaeological site.
In separate court cases pending before the Israeli High Court of Justice, the military is seeking judicial approval to forcibly displace residents of the Palestinian villages of Susiya and Khirbet Zanuta, in the southern West Bank, because of archaeological finds at the sites. In a third case, state authorities delegated the operation of an archaeological tourist site, the “City of David” in the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem, to a settler group, Elad, that has evicted Palestinians from their homes. Israeli authorities have also demolished other Palestinian homes and structures in Silwan.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on June 18 that officials from the military’s Archaeological Staff Office, in the Civil Administration division, removed a 200 - 300 year-old stone, inscribed in Arabic, from the wall of the Nabi Samwil mosque in May. The military archaeologists removed the stone without consulting the residents or the Muslim waqf, or endowment, which owns the mosque site. Human Rights Watch observed informational plaques set up by Israeli authorities at the site that refer extensively to the site’s Jewish history and religious significance, but contain only passing reference to its Muslim heritage.
Israel has ratified, and Palestine acceded to, the 1954 United Nations Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which requires an occupying power, as far as possible, to “support the competent national authorities of the occupied country in safeguarding and preserving its cultural property.” Israel does not permit Palestinian authorities to access Nabi Samwil, Susiya, Khirbet Zanuta, or Silwan.
The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits Israel, as the occupying power, from making life so difficult for Palestinians in occupied territories that they are essentially forced to leave their communities. Deliberately violating this prohibition against “forcible transfer” is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and prosecutable as a war crime.
“Israeli authorities not only exclude Palestinians from any role in managing their cultural heritage, but are perverting archaeology into a tool to drive Palestinians out of their communities,” Whitson said. Life in the Seam Zone
Residents estimated that about 50 residents have left Nabi Samwil for other towns in the West Bank since 2010 to escape poverty, poor housing conditions, and restrictions on movement.
Israeli forces control all access from the rest of the West Bank to Nabi Samwil at a checkpoint outside the village. Residents are allowed to carry food and goods for personal consumption and use, but forces at the checkpoint have blocked deliveries of humanitarian aid. In October 2013, for instance, on separate occasions, the forces blocked delivery of water tanks and chickens donated by Norwegian People’s Aid.
A Norwegian newspaper, Dagen, reported that the water tanks were intended to allow villagers to grow and irrigate their own vegetables, reducing their food expenses. The military initially said that the tanks did not qualify as “humanitarian” assistance, but ultimately told Haaretz that it had blocked their entry on the grounds that residents had no permits to set them up in Nabi Samwil, a natural park where “any construction… requires a permit.” The soldiers at the checkpoint eventually allowed residents to bring in the water tanks one at a time over the next several months.
Residents told Human Rights Watch that forces at the checkpoint had also blocked the delivery by Norwegian People’s Aid of about 400 egg-laying chickens, because the number of birds indicated a “commercial” rather than humanitarian use. Residents said the chickens would die if left unattended, so they strapped the chicken cages onto a donkey that walked through hills around the checkpoint to reach the village. Human Rights Watch observed photographs of the donkey carrying the chickens.
Residents described numerous incidences of harassment by forces at the checkpoint; in each case, Israeli rights activists, including with the group Machsom Watch, corroborated the residents’ accounts.
In February, soldiers prohibited a resident driving home with his family from another part of the West Bank from crossing the checkpoint because he had a small canister of cooking gas in the car. After the family returned the canister to another village and returned to the checkpoint, soldiers delayed the car from passing for several hours. An official later told an Israeli human rights activists that cooking gas was a “chemical substance with multiple uses” that required “prior coordination.”
In September, soldiers blocked a school bus for five hours because they said a girl was “trying to smuggle” in a large bag of bread. Officials threatened to press charges against a man escorting the children on the bus who had argued about the delay. On October 15, the soldiers denied entry to a man qualified to ritually slaughter animals for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha due to a “technical error,” but still refused him entry after the computer error was fixed, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
In 2012, forces at the checkpoint detained Eid Barakat, a resident in his 50s, for trying to “smuggle” bags of barley feed for the village’s livestock past the checkpoint, on the basis that they constituted “commercial” goods prohibited in seam zone areas, according to Barakat and an Israeli rights activist.
Israeli forces have entered Nabi Samwil and subjected residents to apparently unnecessary security measures. According to a complaint filed on March 1, 2013, by Machsom Watch, a border police jeep entered the village at 7 p.m. on February 24, and Israeli border police ordered all the children to come out of their houses and stand outside. The children stood outdoors for half an hour, until the border police left the village without having questioned any children or residents.
At 5:30 a.m. on December 25, Israeli forces entered homes in the village without showing search or arrest warrants and detained six teenagers and young men, alleging they had broken into vehicles on an unspecified date. Israeli forces held them at Ofer, a military detention facility nearby in the West Bank, releasing them December 31, on 700 shekels (USD $200) bail each.
The Israeli government argues that its restriction of West Bank Palestinians’ freedom of movement is justified on security grounds. However, the Israeli policies in question restrict the movement of all Palestinians, rather than targeting individuals considered security risks. As the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted in 2007, Israeli policies “targeting a particular national or ethnic group, especially through the wall, checkpoints, restricted roads, and permit system, have… had a highly detrimental impact on the enjoyment of human rights by Palestinians, in particular their rights to freedom of movement, family life, work, education, and health.”
The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits Israel, as the occupying power, from “[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers” of the Palestinian population in the West Bank unless required for their own safety or imperative military reasons. The prohibition of forcible transfer extends to cases in which the military makes life so difficult that people are essentially forced to leave.
The convention does not distinguish residents of a particular locale, such as an area designated by the occupying power as a national park or a “seam zone,” but refers to all protected residents of the occupied territory. Even in cases where an occupying power is permitted to require residents of the occupied territory to leave their homes, it must be temporary and the residents must be allowed to return as soon as possible. Deliberately violating this prohibition is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and prosecutable as a war crime.
Demolitions
S., a resident of Nabi Samwil in her 70s, told Human Rights Watch that the Israeli military demolished her home in the middle of winter in 1971. “Suddenly at 7 a.m., the soldiers came into our home. The officer said he didn’t know anyone was still living there,” she said, but Israeli forces bulldozed her home anyway. “I moved into a sheep pen and built a kitchen,” she said. “A few days later, the Israelis came and destroyed the kitchen.”
She and eight relatives still live in two rooms in the same structure, which the military has prohibited them from renovating, she said. In 2002, she said, the Palestinian Authority gave her some olive trees. “I planted them and built a fence around them on eight dunams [0.8 hectares] of land I inherited from my parents,” she said. “The army destroyed the fence and uprooted the trees.”
The village’s elementary school comprises a 20-square-meter one-room building and a portable classroom donated by the queen of Jordan, where pupils from grades 1 through 4 study. The Israeli military has refused requests to expand the school building, and issued a demolition order against the portable classroom, an outbuilding with the school’s toilet, the swings in the school playground, and the fence separating the school’s play area from a road, because the national park plan prohibits the construction or expansion of public buildings, the school principal told Human Rights Watch.
Israeli military authorities have severely restricted residents’ livelihoods on the basis of claims that they violate the National Parks Law. Under the law, Nabi Samwil residents who own land retain possession, but cannot make physical changes on it without the approval of both the Nature and Parks Authority and the military’s Civil Administration division. However, these authorities have rarely granted such permission, residents told Human Rights Watch. The park plan allows registered owners to expand residential buildings by a maximum of 20 percent. But because many residents moved into vacant homes after the military forcibly displaced them in 1971, most don’t own the homes they live in.
Barakat showed Human Rights Watch an order the military issued to him to uproot 95 fruit trees that he planted in 2011. The order does not contest his claim to own the land, but prohibits its use for agriculture because it is inside the national park. On October 31, 2012, Barakat said, the military demolished a cow pen and two store-rooms he owned. The military also demolished seven other buildings in Nabi Samwil that day, according to records collected by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The following month, the French consulate helped Barakat build a new sheep pen. On March 12, 2013, the military issued a “stop-work order” against the new pen – the administrative step before the military issues demolition orders.
To earn income, Barakat and other residents opened a small carwash in a vacant lot near the entrance to the archaeological site on June 13, 2013. Five days later, the military issued an order stating that they had built the structure illegally, without permits. Barakat said that he owns the land. In early September, Israeli forces destroyed the sun-shade, advertising poster, and bamboo fence the residents had built, and confiscated the industrial vacuum cleaner and water hose at the site.
In December, the Israeli manager of the archaeological excavation site told a resident who opened a stall selling peanuts to visitors that he would not be given work at the site “so long as you have the peanut stall out here,” said residents who overheard the conversation. The man closed his stall and was given work excavating the site.
The Military Plan
In 2013, the military submitted a plan, “Development in Nabi Samwil National Park,” 51/107/03, including the archaeological site. The plan, commissioned by Israel’s National Parks Authority and the military Civil Administration division, allows building on 2,400 square meters, including an access road, walking paths, buildings for tourists, and an elevator. Residents of Nabi Samwil told Human Rights Watch that the military did not consult with them regarding the plan. Some of the remains in the archaeological site “are structures and installations from the destroyed Palestinian village, which were built on top of earlier remains,” notes a report by Emek Shaveh, the Israeli archaeological group that opposed the plans.
Nabi Samwil residents attended the first part of the hearing about the plan in November. It was conducted in Hebrew, which some of them did not understand. When a participant asked for the proceedings to be translated into Arabic, one of Israel’s two official languages, the head of the subcommittee, Mikhael Ben Shabat, said that the rules of procedure did not require the hearing to be translated and that he had not received a request in advance.
The Nabi Samwil residents walked out after the Israeli planner working for the military, Daniel Halimi, stated repeatedly, over their objections, that “this is not a village, it is a park.” He acknowledged in response to questions that his plan did not provide roads, sewage, or electricity infrastructure to residents. “Hopefully the residents will realize they live in a park and not a village,” Halimi said. “The plan we’re working on will help assimilate them to servicing visitors to the [tourist] site.” Ben Shabat added, “There are no residents in a park.”
Nir Shalev, a representative of Bimkom, an Israeli rights group that specializes in planning issues, objected, saying that Israel has a precedent of allowing residential construction inside national parks, including for settlements in the West Bank. The subcommittee, which is considering some objections to the plan, stated that it had no jurisdiction to consider Bimkom’s objections that the plan violated Israel’s obligations under the law of occupation.
Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against a temporary protest tent immediately after residents first set it up during a demonstration in December near the entrance to the archaeological site. Residents have erected the tent each Friday as part of their weekly protest, removing it at the end of each protest.
Human rights statistics showed that 21 Israeli shooting incidents happened to Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip last January. The Palestinian center for human rights stated in a recent report that it had documented more than 24 assaults by the Israel navy against Gazan fishermen last month, including 21 shooting incidents.
In one of these shooting incidents, one boat sustained damage, according to its report.
The Israeli navy also detained three fishermen, including a child, during two separate pursuit incidents off the Gaza coast, and confiscated one boat in addition to fishing gear and equipment.
The center noted that despite Israel's decision to extend the fishing zone from three to six nautical miles, but its naval forces kept harassing and attacking the Gaza fishermen even within a range of three and two nautical miles.
Under the Oslo accords, the fishing range was 20 nautical miles. However, over the years, the Israeli army gradually reduced this range, severely damaging the livelihood of thousands of families and the availability of this basic and inexpensive food in the markets of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
In one of these shooting incidents, one boat sustained damage, according to its report.
The Israeli navy also detained three fishermen, including a child, during two separate pursuit incidents off the Gaza coast, and confiscated one boat in addition to fishing gear and equipment.
The center noted that despite Israel's decision to extend the fishing zone from three to six nautical miles, but its naval forces kept harassing and attacking the Gaza fishermen even within a range of three and two nautical miles.
Under the Oslo accords, the fishing range was 20 nautical miles. However, over the years, the Israeli army gradually reduced this range, severely damaging the livelihood of thousands of families and the availability of this basic and inexpensive food in the markets of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
3 feb 2014
Far-reaching report finds cases of sexual harassment rose to 561 in 2013; number of men who said they were assaulted rises by 5% from 2012
An extensive report that included thousands of IDF soldiers, officers, and NCOs has shown that one of every eight women soldiers reported that they were sexually harassed in 2013.
The report was presented Monday at a conference at the Knesset on the status of women, by the women's affairs advisor to the IDF, Rachel Tevet Wiesel.
The data point, however, to a decrease in the reports of sexual offenses, as one of seven women soldiers had reported such assaults in the previous year. The majority of victims did not file official complaints. Despite the drop, when calculating the general number of reports of sexual misconduct – including male victims – the number of soldiers who endured sexual offenses in 2013 stood at 561, compared to 511 in 2012.
Tevet Wiesel said that the increase does not necessarily indicate a rise in the number of offenses, as it could also be attributed to an increase in awareness to sexual harassment and assaults. The percentage of men soldiers reporting to have been sexually harassed stood at 9% in 2013, a 5% increase from 2012. According to the data, 49% of the victims reported physical harassment and 51% verbal assault. Around 4% of the victims said that they had been raped.
The issue of sexual misconduct in the IDF has drawn heated debates over the past year, mainly following the convictions of two high-ranking officers for assaulting women soldiers. Both officers were sentenced to community service. Chairwoman of the Knesset Committee for the promotion of gender equality, Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie, said she was disconcerted by the military advocacy's mitigated sentences.
Tevet Wiesel stressed that in 2012, the IDF set up a help center that allows soldiers to report misconduct without officers' intervention. Representative of the Judge Advocate General, Sharon Zagagi Pinchas, admitted that the sentences were lenient, but insisted that the two incidents were extraordinary and that appeals were filed in both cases.
An extensive report that included thousands of IDF soldiers, officers, and NCOs has shown that one of every eight women soldiers reported that they were sexually harassed in 2013.
The report was presented Monday at a conference at the Knesset on the status of women, by the women's affairs advisor to the IDF, Rachel Tevet Wiesel.
The data point, however, to a decrease in the reports of sexual offenses, as one of seven women soldiers had reported such assaults in the previous year. The majority of victims did not file official complaints. Despite the drop, when calculating the general number of reports of sexual misconduct – including male victims – the number of soldiers who endured sexual offenses in 2013 stood at 561, compared to 511 in 2012.
Tevet Wiesel said that the increase does not necessarily indicate a rise in the number of offenses, as it could also be attributed to an increase in awareness to sexual harassment and assaults. The percentage of men soldiers reporting to have been sexually harassed stood at 9% in 2013, a 5% increase from 2012. According to the data, 49% of the victims reported physical harassment and 51% verbal assault. Around 4% of the victims said that they had been raped.
The issue of sexual misconduct in the IDF has drawn heated debates over the past year, mainly following the convictions of two high-ranking officers for assaulting women soldiers. Both officers were sentenced to community service. Chairwoman of the Knesset Committee for the promotion of gender equality, Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie, said she was disconcerted by the military advocacy's mitigated sentences.
Tevet Wiesel stressed that in 2012, the IDF set up a help center that allows soldiers to report misconduct without officers' intervention. Representative of the Judge Advocate General, Sharon Zagagi Pinchas, admitted that the sentences were lenient, but insisted that the two incidents were extraordinary and that appeals were filed in both cases.
On 01 February, 2014, the report "Under Fire" was issued by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) was launched in London. The report addresses the Israeli violations in Access Restricted Areas (ARA), in the Gaza Strip.
It highlights the suffering experienced by civilians, farmers and fishermen due to restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement in those areas, the frequent targeting of civilians with live ammunition, house demolitions and restrictions imposed on fishing areas.
The report was launched in London, and lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, participated in the event via Skype.
The report reveals the negative impacts of the imposition of the ARA in land and sea along the border area.
The report highlights the farmers inability to access their lands, totaling 62.6km2, i.e. 35% of the agricultural lands in the Gaza Strip, or 17% of the whole area of the Gaza Strip.
The report also addresses the Israeli denial of the right to fish in 85% of the fishing area according to Oslo Accords.
Statistics and data are provided on the losses in lives and property due to the Israeli practices in that area.
The report also tackles the financial and economic loss that afflicts civilians, farmers and fishermen and which is further exacerbated by the closure.
The report indicates that the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in 2012 did not help in altering the situation in ARA.
The report draws attention to the fact that Israeli forces use live ammunition when targeting civilians in the ARA without taking into consideration the principles of distinction and proportionality, which is considered a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The report emphasizes that Israel does not respect the international standards related to the use of force and, in many instances, directly resort to the use of lethal force.
Finally, the report brings to light that many relief foundations fail to understand the nature of the suffering of the ARA residents.
The relief foundations' main focus is on finding shelter for residents whose houses have been demolished, without paying attention to their real loss (homes and livelihood) or addressing the underlying cause of this; the ARA policy imposed by the Israeli authorities.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations addressed to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community, as follows:
1- Lift the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip as it is considered a collective punishment against Palestinian civilians;
2- Respect international humanitarian law and do not use lethal force against Palestinian civilians;
3- Immediately stop targeting farmers and fishermen in the ARA;
4- Allow the ARA residents to go back to their property immediately and remove all obstacles to achieve that;
5- Cease the ARA imposed on the sea and allow fishing according to the Oslo Accords;
6- Allow exportation and importation from and to the Palestinian territories;
7- Hold Israeli officials to account for violations of international law;
8- Direct international support for the ARA; and
9- Oblige Israel to comply with international law.
The report is available online
It highlights the suffering experienced by civilians, farmers and fishermen due to restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement in those areas, the frequent targeting of civilians with live ammunition, house demolitions and restrictions imposed on fishing areas.
The report was launched in London, and lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, participated in the event via Skype.
The report reveals the negative impacts of the imposition of the ARA in land and sea along the border area.
The report highlights the farmers inability to access their lands, totaling 62.6km2, i.e. 35% of the agricultural lands in the Gaza Strip, or 17% of the whole area of the Gaza Strip.
The report also addresses the Israeli denial of the right to fish in 85% of the fishing area according to Oslo Accords.
Statistics and data are provided on the losses in lives and property due to the Israeli practices in that area.
The report also tackles the financial and economic loss that afflicts civilians, farmers and fishermen and which is further exacerbated by the closure.
The report indicates that the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in 2012 did not help in altering the situation in ARA.
The report draws attention to the fact that Israeli forces use live ammunition when targeting civilians in the ARA without taking into consideration the principles of distinction and proportionality, which is considered a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The report emphasizes that Israel does not respect the international standards related to the use of force and, in many instances, directly resort to the use of lethal force.
Finally, the report brings to light that many relief foundations fail to understand the nature of the suffering of the ARA residents.
The relief foundations' main focus is on finding shelter for residents whose houses have been demolished, without paying attention to their real loss (homes and livelihood) or addressing the underlying cause of this; the ARA policy imposed by the Israeli authorities.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations addressed to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community, as follows:
1- Lift the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip as it is considered a collective punishment against Palestinian civilians;
2- Respect international humanitarian law and do not use lethal force against Palestinian civilians;
3- Immediately stop targeting farmers and fishermen in the ARA;
4- Allow the ARA residents to go back to their property immediately and remove all obstacles to achieve that;
5- Cease the ARA imposed on the sea and allow fishing according to the Oslo Accords;
6- Allow exportation and importation from and to the Palestinian territories;
7- Hold Israeli officials to account for violations of international law;
8- Direct international support for the ARA; and
9- Oblige Israel to comply with international law.
The report is available online
2 feb 2014
The Palestinian prisoner center for studies said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained more than 400 Palestinians last January in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. In a report on Saturday, the center affirmed that 75 children and minors, and eight women were among the detainees, noting that most of the detentions took place in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and only seven were kidnapped from Gaza.
According to its report, the IOF carried out its detentions in the West Bank and Jerusalem during 260 security campaigns in cities, villages, towns and refugee camp. The report did not state whether some of the detainees are still in detention or have been released.
The report noted that a 16-year-old minor from Jerusalem named Obeida Amer went on hunger strike for two days during the reporting month in protest at his transference from Ofek jail to another prison used for adult detainees imprisoned for security issues.
The Israeli prison authority, in turn, carried out 17 raids on rooms and sections in its jails last month, during which prison soldiers suppressed prisoners, wounded three of them and locked up 16 others in solitary confinement.
The number of Palestinian hunger strikers rose to six detainees after two prisoner patients Hosam Amr and Mousa Sufan declared their hunger strike last month to protest their isolation in solitary confinement for five months and to demand appropriate medical care.
The Israeli occupation authority also issued more than 38 administrative detention orders against Palestinians and extended the administrative imprisonment of over 26 others last month.
According to its report, the IOF carried out its detentions in the West Bank and Jerusalem during 260 security campaigns in cities, villages, towns and refugee camp. The report did not state whether some of the detainees are still in detention or have been released.
The report noted that a 16-year-old minor from Jerusalem named Obeida Amer went on hunger strike for two days during the reporting month in protest at his transference from Ofek jail to another prison used for adult detainees imprisoned for security issues.
The Israeli prison authority, in turn, carried out 17 raids on rooms and sections in its jails last month, during which prison soldiers suppressed prisoners, wounded three of them and locked up 16 others in solitary confinement.
The number of Palestinian hunger strikers rose to six detainees after two prisoner patients Hosam Amr and Mousa Sufan declared their hunger strike last month to protest their isolation in solitary confinement for five months and to demand appropriate medical care.
The Israeli occupation authority also issued more than 38 administrative detention orders against Palestinians and extended the administrative imprisonment of over 26 others last month.
Israeli occupation forces committed 16 violations against Palestinian journalists since the beginning of 2014, Government Media Office(GMO) reported. According to the monthly report of the GMO, the Israeli troops arrested four journalists in the West Bank. The journalists are: Mohammed al-Dik, Ahmed Tala’at, Osama al-Shobaki and Labib Jazmawi.
Two cameramen were also arrested: Abdul Hafiz Hashlamoun who works for European News Agency and Ahmed Mezher, works for Wafa agency.
Israeli occupation renewed the administrative detention for the fifth time to journalist Osama Shahine, works as a director in the Palestinian prisoner center, the report said.
They summoned journalist Amar Mona for interrogation, exiled Ata Oweisat after assaulting and beating him, and refused the petition introduced by journalist Mona asking for releasing him.
Seven journalists were injured by the Israeli coated bullets and poisonous gas.
The journalists are: Abdul al-Hakim Abu Riyash, works for Alray Agency, Khald al-Sabagh, worksfor AP, two cameramen Mohammed Yasin and Ayman al-Nubali, both work for Wafa agncy,and journalist Ja’far Ishtiya, works for AFP.
Israeli troops assaulted freelance journalist Solaiman Khadr from Jerusalem and a goup of journalists work for al-Jazazera including Elyas Karam.
Two cameramen were also arrested: Abdul Hafiz Hashlamoun who works for European News Agency and Ahmed Mezher, works for Wafa agency.
Israeli occupation renewed the administrative detention for the fifth time to journalist Osama Shahine, works as a director in the Palestinian prisoner center, the report said.
They summoned journalist Amar Mona for interrogation, exiled Ata Oweisat after assaulting and beating him, and refused the petition introduced by journalist Mona asking for releasing him.
Seven journalists were injured by the Israeli coated bullets and poisonous gas.
The journalists are: Abdul al-Hakim Abu Riyash, works for Alray Agency, Khald al-Sabagh, worksfor AP, two cameramen Mohammed Yasin and Ayman al-Nubali, both work for Wafa agncy,and journalist Ja’far Ishtiya, works for AFP.
Israeli troops assaulted freelance journalist Solaiman Khadr from Jerusalem and a goup of journalists work for al-Jazazera including Elyas Karam.
1 feb 2014
The Ahrar center for prisoner studies and human rights said that Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians and arrested 383 others in January 2014. The center said in its monthly report on Saturday that the six victims fell in Gaza and the West Bank.
It pointed out that five of them were killed in Gaza while the sixth was Mohammed Mubarak from Jalazoun refugee camp, who was killed a few days ago west of Ramallah.
Gaza official: Israel 'killed 6 Palestinians, injured 41' in January
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians and injured 41 in attacks on Gaza in January, a ministry official said Saturday.
Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, said in a statement that "the Israeli occupation intensified airstrikes against unarmed civilians, particularly in the eastern Gaza Strip" in January.
The statement pointed out that a large number of the injured were children.
The health sector in the Strip has been suffering a severe shortage in medicines and medical equipment, al-Qidra added.
Over the past month, tensions have risen in and around Gaza after more than a year of relative calm following Israel's war on the coastal territory in November 2012 which killed over 170 people, mainly civilians, and injured thousands.
Israeli army figures show nine rockets have struck Israeli territory since Jan. 1, and another five were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
None of the rockets caused injuries.
Israeli airstrikes this year on targets in Gaza have injured dozens of people, mainly civilians.
It pointed out that five of them were killed in Gaza while the sixth was Mohammed Mubarak from Jalazoun refugee camp, who was killed a few days ago west of Ramallah.
Gaza official: Israel 'killed 6 Palestinians, injured 41' in January
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians and injured 41 in attacks on Gaza in January, a ministry official said Saturday.
Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, said in a statement that "the Israeli occupation intensified airstrikes against unarmed civilians, particularly in the eastern Gaza Strip" in January.
The statement pointed out that a large number of the injured were children.
The health sector in the Strip has been suffering a severe shortage in medicines and medical equipment, al-Qidra added.
Over the past month, tensions have risen in and around Gaza after more than a year of relative calm following Israel's war on the coastal territory in November 2012 which killed over 170 people, mainly civilians, and injured thousands.
Israeli army figures show nine rockets have struck Israeli territory since Jan. 1, and another five were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
None of the rockets caused injuries.
Israeli airstrikes this year on targets in Gaza have injured dozens of people, mainly civilians.
31 jan 2014
Home demolition in Beit Hanina village
In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 23- 29 January 2014, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that this past week, Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinian civilians and wounded 12 others in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PCHR also documented 5 shooting incidents along the border fence and 2 others at Palestinian fishing boats.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
In the West Bank, on 29 January 2014, Israeli forces wilfully killed a Palestinian labourer from a distance of around 50 meters.
Israeli forces conducted 73 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. At least 42 Palestinians, including 6 children, were abducted.
Israeli forces established dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank. At least 10 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, were abducted at checkpoints in the West Bank.
Israel is continuing to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem. 5 houses were demolished and 24 persons, including 13 children, were made homeless.
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
In the Gaza Strip, in an excessive use of lethal force, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian in the northern Gaza Strip. According to investigations conducted by the PCHR, at approximately 15:40 on Friday, a group of young men gathered in Bouret Abu Samrah north of Beit Lahia near the border with Israel and approached the border to throw stones at the Israeli forces stationed there. Israeli forces then opened fire at them. As a result, Belal Samir Ahmed ‘Aweidah (20) from Beit Lahia was killed immediately by a bullet to the chest. A number of young men carried him on their shoulders and took him on a motorbike to al-Shaimaa’ area.
A civilian car took him from the aforementioned area to Martyr Kamal 'Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, where it was declared that he died soon after he got injured.
His cousin, Akram Sha’aban Ahmed ‘Aweidah (20) said to a PCHR fieldworker that at approximately 15:00 on Friday, 24 January 2014, he got out of his house with Belal and their friend, Nour Mohammed Sa’id Qaza’er (19) on his motorbike for promenade, north of Bouret Abu Samrah, and it took them 15 minutes to reach the area. They stopped 1,000 meters away from the border and then took some photos for themselves in the green areas and on sand dunes. They again went on the motorbike and stopped a few meters away from the aforementioned border to take other photos. The area was very calm, so they sat on a sand dune.
At approximately 15:00, they saw dozens of children and young men approaching the border and throwing stones at the Israeli forces there. Nour then went to the border, and Belal went after him. They were at the forefront of all of them as they could touch the borderline. Belal called Nour to show him something hanging on the fence. When they approached it, they heard the sound of shooting. Everyone then fled, and Nour and Belal managed to get away approximately 100 meters from the fence. Nour reported “Belal started shouting that he was wounded, but everyone thought he was kidding with us. We came back to see him lying on his abdomen, and his face was buried in the sand. We turned him to his back to find blood coming from his chest due to being injured by a bullet to the middle of his chest.”
On 24 January 2014, 5 civilians were wounded when Israeli forces stationed along the border fence, east of Jabalia, opened fire at a group of young men, who were present near the fence in an attempt to throw stones at Israeli soldiers.
In addition, Israeli forces conducted 3 other shooting incidents along the border fence on 25, 26 and 27 January 2014, but no casualties were reported.
Israeli navy forces continued targeting Palestinian fishermen in the sea. Israeli naval forces opened fire twice at Palestinian fishing boats and one fishing boat sustained damage.
The illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since June 2007 has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities impose measures to undermine the freedom of trade, including the basic needs for the Gaza Strip population and the agricultural and industrial products to be exported. For 7 consecutive years, Israel has tightened the land and naval closure to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and other countries around the world.
This resulted in grave violations of the economic, social and cultural rights and a deterioration of living conditions for 1.7 million people. The Israeli authorities have established Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shaloum) as the sole crossing for imports and exports in order to exercise its control over the Gaza Strip’s economy. They also aim at imposing a complete ban on the Gaza Strip’s exports.
Israeli settlement activities:
Israeli forces continued to support settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. Israeli forces uprooted 1,000 olive trees in Qana valley, northwest of Salfit. Settlers levelled lands in the south of Bethlehem.
On 23 January 2014, Israeli forces uprooted in Qana Valley area 1,000 olive trees belonging to the residents of Deiristayah village, north of Salfit. Those trees levelled from Kafet al-‘Amoud in Qana Vallet belong to ‘Abdel Karim Ahmed Hussein; Qasem Naser Mansour; and ‘Abdel qader Ref’at Abu Hajlah.
On 24 January 2014, settlers from “Kermayel” settlement established on al-Hazaline lands in Kherbet Um al-Kheir, east of Yatta, south of Hebron, moved into the lands of the aforementioned family. Settlers insulted and threw stones at farmers from al-Hazaline family. They prevented them from grazing their sheep and denied them access to the water wells in the farmlands adjacent to al-Kherbah.
On 25 January 2014, settlers from “Beit ‘Ein” settlement, west of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, attacked farmers in their lands in Abu al-Rish Valley area. Settlers threw stones at them and insulted them. They threatened settlers in case of returning to their lands. As a result, they fled from the area in fear for themselves and their sons.
On 26 January 2013, around 15 settlers from “Afrat” established on the lands of southern Bethlehem, worked in 700-square-meter agricultural lands belonging to civilians from Rahal Valley village. Settlers dug with hand tools under the protection of the Israeli soldiers and police, who detained journalists who were covering the events in the area.
On 28 January 2014, settlers from the settlements established to the south and west of Kisan village, east of Bethlehem, levelled 70-square-meter agricultural lands belonging to civilians from the village under Israeli forces’ protection.
Israeli attacks on non-violent demonstrations:
Israeli forces used excessive force against peaceful demonstrations organised by Palestinian civilians, international and Israeli human rights defenders in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. 7 Palestinian civilians, including a child and a journalist, were wounded.
Following the Friday Prayer, 24 January 2014, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organised a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in, west of Ramallah, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities. Demonstrators took the streets raising the Palestinian flags and headed to the liberated territories near the annexation wall. Israeli forces had closed all the entrances of the village since the morning in order to prevent Palestinian and international activists and journalists from participating in the demonstration. Demonstrators marched adjacent to the cement wall and tried to cross the fence before Israeli forces that are stationed behind the wall, in the western area, and a large number of soldiers deployed along it, fired live bullets, tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs and skunk water at them and chased them into the olive fields.
As a result, 2 protestors were wounded. Moreover, dozens of demonstrators suffered tear gas inhalation, and others sustained bruises as they were beaten up by Israeli soldiers. A 19-year-old civilian sustained a bullet wound to the left foot; and a 38-year-old civilian sustained a bullet wound to the right hand.
On the same day, dozens of Palestinian civilians organised a peaceful demonstration in the centre of Ni’lin village, west of Ramallah, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities. Demonstrators took the streets and headed to the annexation wall. Israeli forces closed the gates of the wall with barbwires and prevented the demonstrators from crossing to the land behind it before they responded by throwing stones.
As a result, many civilians suffered tear gas inhalation and bruises as they were beaten up by Israeli soldiers.
Around the same time, dozens of Palestinian civilians and Israeli and international human rights defenders organised a peaceful demonstration, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities, in Nabi Saleh village, southwest of Ramallah. Demonstrators took to the streets raising the Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against the occupation and in support of the Palestinian unity resistance, and then they headed to the lands that the settlers are trying to rob by force near “Halamish” settlement. Israeli forces closed all the entrances of the village since the morning to prevent Palestinian and international activists and journalists from participating in the demonstration. When they arrived at the land, demonstrators were met by live bullets, tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs and skunk water and were chased into the village.
As a result, many civilians suffered tear gas inhalation and bruises due to being beaten up by Israeli soldiers.
Following the Friday prayer, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organised a peaceful demonstration in Ma’assara village, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities and in solidarity with al-Yarmouk refugee camp. The demonstration started in front of the Candles Cultural Centre in the centre of the village. Demonstrators moved in the streets raising the Palestinian flag. When they arrived at the area where the annexation wall is established, Israeli forces started firing tear gas canisters in attempt to disperse them and prevented them reaching the annexation wall. Israeli forces detained activist Iyad Ali Zawahra (33) for 2 hours and released him later.
At approximately 12:30 on the same day, Palestinian civilians and international activists organised a peaceful demonstration in the centre of Kufor Qaddoum village, northwest of Qalqilia, and headed towards the eastern entrance of the village, in protest at the continued closure of the entrance with an iron gate, since the beginning of the Aqsa Intifada (2000). Clashes erupted between the demonstrators and Israeli forces that fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters to prevent them from reaching the aforementioned gate. The Popular Committee against Settlements in the village said to a PCHR fieldworker that Israeli forces used for the first time new tear gas, which is distinguished with its speed, the force of collision, size, and the gas density emitted. As a result, 5 civilians, including a child and a journalist, were wounded. A tear gas canister fell on a house belonging to the family of Murad Mahmoud Ishteiwi.
As a result, his 2-month baby girl, Bisan Ishteiwi suffered tear gas inhalation and the curtains were burnt after the canister entered the house and smashed the window. Of those wounded persons was Ja’afar Ishtayyah (45), a cameraman at the French News Agency, as he was hit by a gas canister to the back.
A 44-year-old civilian sustained a bullet injury to the back; a 14-year-old child sustained a bullet injury to the right foot; a 21-year-old was hit by a canister to the abdomen; and a 35-year-old civilian was hit by a canister to the back.
On Friday afternoon, 24 January 2014, dozens of Palestinian young men gathered at the western entrance of Selwad village, northeast of Ramallah on the road between Selwad village and Yabrod village near Street (60) threw stones at the aforementioned street.
As a result, Israeli soldiers stationed in the area fired live ammunition, metal rubber-coated bullets, tear gas canisters and sound bombs at them and chased them to the village. Moreover, some civilians suffered tear gas inhalation.
Recommendations to the international community:
Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHR made several recommendations to the international community. Among these were a recommendation that States that apply the principle of universal jurisdiction not surrender to Israeli pressure to limit universal jurisdiction to perpetuate the impunity enjoyed by suspected Israeli war criminals;
In addition, PCHR calls upon the international community to act in order to stop all Israeli settlement expansion activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements and criminalizing trading with them;
For the full text of the report, click on the link
In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 23- 29 January 2014, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that this past week, Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinian civilians and wounded 12 others in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PCHR also documented 5 shooting incidents along the border fence and 2 others at Palestinian fishing boats.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
In the West Bank, on 29 January 2014, Israeli forces wilfully killed a Palestinian labourer from a distance of around 50 meters.
Israeli forces conducted 73 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. At least 42 Palestinians, including 6 children, were abducted.
Israeli forces established dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank. At least 10 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, were abducted at checkpoints in the West Bank.
Israel is continuing to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem. 5 houses were demolished and 24 persons, including 13 children, were made homeless.
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
In the Gaza Strip, in an excessive use of lethal force, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian in the northern Gaza Strip. According to investigations conducted by the PCHR, at approximately 15:40 on Friday, a group of young men gathered in Bouret Abu Samrah north of Beit Lahia near the border with Israel and approached the border to throw stones at the Israeli forces stationed there. Israeli forces then opened fire at them. As a result, Belal Samir Ahmed ‘Aweidah (20) from Beit Lahia was killed immediately by a bullet to the chest. A number of young men carried him on their shoulders and took him on a motorbike to al-Shaimaa’ area.
A civilian car took him from the aforementioned area to Martyr Kamal 'Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, where it was declared that he died soon after he got injured.
His cousin, Akram Sha’aban Ahmed ‘Aweidah (20) said to a PCHR fieldworker that at approximately 15:00 on Friday, 24 January 2014, he got out of his house with Belal and their friend, Nour Mohammed Sa’id Qaza’er (19) on his motorbike for promenade, north of Bouret Abu Samrah, and it took them 15 minutes to reach the area. They stopped 1,000 meters away from the border and then took some photos for themselves in the green areas and on sand dunes. They again went on the motorbike and stopped a few meters away from the aforementioned border to take other photos. The area was very calm, so they sat on a sand dune.
At approximately 15:00, they saw dozens of children and young men approaching the border and throwing stones at the Israeli forces there. Nour then went to the border, and Belal went after him. They were at the forefront of all of them as they could touch the borderline. Belal called Nour to show him something hanging on the fence. When they approached it, they heard the sound of shooting. Everyone then fled, and Nour and Belal managed to get away approximately 100 meters from the fence. Nour reported “Belal started shouting that he was wounded, but everyone thought he was kidding with us. We came back to see him lying on his abdomen, and his face was buried in the sand. We turned him to his back to find blood coming from his chest due to being injured by a bullet to the middle of his chest.”
On 24 January 2014, 5 civilians were wounded when Israeli forces stationed along the border fence, east of Jabalia, opened fire at a group of young men, who were present near the fence in an attempt to throw stones at Israeli soldiers.
In addition, Israeli forces conducted 3 other shooting incidents along the border fence on 25, 26 and 27 January 2014, but no casualties were reported.
Israeli navy forces continued targeting Palestinian fishermen in the sea. Israeli naval forces opened fire twice at Palestinian fishing boats and one fishing boat sustained damage.
The illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since June 2007 has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities impose measures to undermine the freedom of trade, including the basic needs for the Gaza Strip population and the agricultural and industrial products to be exported. For 7 consecutive years, Israel has tightened the land and naval closure to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and other countries around the world.
This resulted in grave violations of the economic, social and cultural rights and a deterioration of living conditions for 1.7 million people. The Israeli authorities have established Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shaloum) as the sole crossing for imports and exports in order to exercise its control over the Gaza Strip’s economy. They also aim at imposing a complete ban on the Gaza Strip’s exports.
Israeli settlement activities:
Israeli forces continued to support settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. Israeli forces uprooted 1,000 olive trees in Qana valley, northwest of Salfit. Settlers levelled lands in the south of Bethlehem.
On 23 January 2014, Israeli forces uprooted in Qana Valley area 1,000 olive trees belonging to the residents of Deiristayah village, north of Salfit. Those trees levelled from Kafet al-‘Amoud in Qana Vallet belong to ‘Abdel Karim Ahmed Hussein; Qasem Naser Mansour; and ‘Abdel qader Ref’at Abu Hajlah.
On 24 January 2014, settlers from “Kermayel” settlement established on al-Hazaline lands in Kherbet Um al-Kheir, east of Yatta, south of Hebron, moved into the lands of the aforementioned family. Settlers insulted and threw stones at farmers from al-Hazaline family. They prevented them from grazing their sheep and denied them access to the water wells in the farmlands adjacent to al-Kherbah.
On 25 January 2014, settlers from “Beit ‘Ein” settlement, west of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, attacked farmers in their lands in Abu al-Rish Valley area. Settlers threw stones at them and insulted them. They threatened settlers in case of returning to their lands. As a result, they fled from the area in fear for themselves and their sons.
On 26 January 2013, around 15 settlers from “Afrat” established on the lands of southern Bethlehem, worked in 700-square-meter agricultural lands belonging to civilians from Rahal Valley village. Settlers dug with hand tools under the protection of the Israeli soldiers and police, who detained journalists who were covering the events in the area.
On 28 January 2014, settlers from the settlements established to the south and west of Kisan village, east of Bethlehem, levelled 70-square-meter agricultural lands belonging to civilians from the village under Israeli forces’ protection.
Israeli attacks on non-violent demonstrations:
Israeli forces used excessive force against peaceful demonstrations organised by Palestinian civilians, international and Israeli human rights defenders in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. 7 Palestinian civilians, including a child and a journalist, were wounded.
Following the Friday Prayer, 24 January 2014, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organised a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in, west of Ramallah, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities. Demonstrators took the streets raising the Palestinian flags and headed to the liberated territories near the annexation wall. Israeli forces had closed all the entrances of the village since the morning in order to prevent Palestinian and international activists and journalists from participating in the demonstration. Demonstrators marched adjacent to the cement wall and tried to cross the fence before Israeli forces that are stationed behind the wall, in the western area, and a large number of soldiers deployed along it, fired live bullets, tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs and skunk water at them and chased them into the olive fields.
As a result, 2 protestors were wounded. Moreover, dozens of demonstrators suffered tear gas inhalation, and others sustained bruises as they were beaten up by Israeli soldiers. A 19-year-old civilian sustained a bullet wound to the left foot; and a 38-year-old civilian sustained a bullet wound to the right hand.
On the same day, dozens of Palestinian civilians organised a peaceful demonstration in the centre of Ni’lin village, west of Ramallah, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities. Demonstrators took the streets and headed to the annexation wall. Israeli forces closed the gates of the wall with barbwires and prevented the demonstrators from crossing to the land behind it before they responded by throwing stones.
As a result, many civilians suffered tear gas inhalation and bruises as they were beaten up by Israeli soldiers.
Around the same time, dozens of Palestinian civilians and Israeli and international human rights defenders organised a peaceful demonstration, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities, in Nabi Saleh village, southwest of Ramallah. Demonstrators took to the streets raising the Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against the occupation and in support of the Palestinian unity resistance, and then they headed to the lands that the settlers are trying to rob by force near “Halamish” settlement. Israeli forces closed all the entrances of the village since the morning to prevent Palestinian and international activists and journalists from participating in the demonstration. When they arrived at the land, demonstrators were met by live bullets, tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs and skunk water and were chased into the village.
As a result, many civilians suffered tear gas inhalation and bruises due to being beaten up by Israeli soldiers.
Following the Friday prayer, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organised a peaceful demonstration in Ma’assara village, in protest at the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities and in solidarity with al-Yarmouk refugee camp. The demonstration started in front of the Candles Cultural Centre in the centre of the village. Demonstrators moved in the streets raising the Palestinian flag. When they arrived at the area where the annexation wall is established, Israeli forces started firing tear gas canisters in attempt to disperse them and prevented them reaching the annexation wall. Israeli forces detained activist Iyad Ali Zawahra (33) for 2 hours and released him later.
At approximately 12:30 on the same day, Palestinian civilians and international activists organised a peaceful demonstration in the centre of Kufor Qaddoum village, northwest of Qalqilia, and headed towards the eastern entrance of the village, in protest at the continued closure of the entrance with an iron gate, since the beginning of the Aqsa Intifada (2000). Clashes erupted between the demonstrators and Israeli forces that fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters to prevent them from reaching the aforementioned gate. The Popular Committee against Settlements in the village said to a PCHR fieldworker that Israeli forces used for the first time new tear gas, which is distinguished with its speed, the force of collision, size, and the gas density emitted. As a result, 5 civilians, including a child and a journalist, were wounded. A tear gas canister fell on a house belonging to the family of Murad Mahmoud Ishteiwi.
As a result, his 2-month baby girl, Bisan Ishteiwi suffered tear gas inhalation and the curtains were burnt after the canister entered the house and smashed the window. Of those wounded persons was Ja’afar Ishtayyah (45), a cameraman at the French News Agency, as he was hit by a gas canister to the back.
A 44-year-old civilian sustained a bullet injury to the back; a 14-year-old child sustained a bullet injury to the right foot; a 21-year-old was hit by a canister to the abdomen; and a 35-year-old civilian was hit by a canister to the back.
On Friday afternoon, 24 January 2014, dozens of Palestinian young men gathered at the western entrance of Selwad village, northeast of Ramallah on the road between Selwad village and Yabrod village near Street (60) threw stones at the aforementioned street.
As a result, Israeli soldiers stationed in the area fired live ammunition, metal rubber-coated bullets, tear gas canisters and sound bombs at them and chased them to the village. Moreover, some civilians suffered tear gas inhalation.
Recommendations to the international community:
Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHR made several recommendations to the international community. Among these were a recommendation that States that apply the principle of universal jurisdiction not surrender to Israeli pressure to limit universal jurisdiction to perpetuate the impunity enjoyed by suspected Israeli war criminals;
In addition, PCHR calls upon the international community to act in order to stop all Israeli settlement expansion activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements and criminalizing trading with them;
For the full text of the report, click on the link
30 jan 2014
The number of anti-Palestinians attacks by right-wing activists in Israel rose from 18 in 2012 to 25 attacks in 2013, according to the annual Shin Bet security agency report released this week. The report revealed that four people had been injured in 2013 in right-wing attacks, as compared to six such injuries in 2012. No deaths were recorded.
In 2013, 70 Jewish Israelis were indicted for harming Arab residents, whereas only 46 such indictments were recorded in 2012. Last year, 13 administrative restraining orders were also issued to restrict entry to the West Bank.
Shin Bet excluded the " price-tag" offensives from the report , classifying them as incidents rather than attacks.
Amir Peretz , Minister of Environmental Protection called on the Israeli occupation government to counter the offensives of "price tag" groups against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in UK warned of the rise in Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the west Bank.
It has documented 30 attacks against Palestinians since the beginning of this year , it listed in its report the Israeli attacks against Palestinians' properties in the villages near Israeli illegal settlements , painting – printed racists slogans against Palestinians, and other attacks against Palestinians farmers and lands.
In 2013, 70 Jewish Israelis were indicted for harming Arab residents, whereas only 46 such indictments were recorded in 2012. Last year, 13 administrative restraining orders were also issued to restrict entry to the West Bank.
Shin Bet excluded the " price-tag" offensives from the report , classifying them as incidents rather than attacks.
Amir Peretz , Minister of Environmental Protection called on the Israeli occupation government to counter the offensives of "price tag" groups against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in UK warned of the rise in Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the west Bank.
It has documented 30 attacks against Palestinians since the beginning of this year , it listed in its report the Israeli attacks against Palestinians' properties in the villages near Israeli illegal settlements , painting – printed racists slogans against Palestinians, and other attacks against Palestinians farmers and lands.