12 mar 2018
The Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA) issued administration detention orders against 25 Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of March, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said on Monday.
The detention orders, without charge or trial, were issued against 25 detainees. 11 of them were arrested for the first time or were recently re-arrested.
The period of the detention varied between three to six months.
Administrative detention is the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial and on the basis of secret evidence for up to six month periods, indefinitely renewable by Israeli military courts.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy which violates international law.
The detention orders, without charge or trial, were issued against 25 detainees. 11 of them were arrested for the first time or were recently re-arrested.
The period of the detention varied between three to six months.
Administrative detention is the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial and on the basis of secret evidence for up to six month periods, indefinitely renewable by Israeli military courts.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy which violates international law.
Israeli Haaretz newspaper said that an Israeli occupation police detective has been charged with beating a Palestinian minor to force him to confess throwing stones at cars driven by Israeli settlers.
Despite the seriousness of the offense, the so called Israeli Justice Ministry’s department for the investigation of police officers charged the detective with a lesser assault crime.
The incident came to light when a voice recording of an interview-under-duress was found in the police case files given to the suspect’s lawyer. In the recording, detective Yehuda Gigi is heard beating the Palestinian Mohammed Shuqair, who was only 17 years old. The recording was presumably accidental, according to Haaretz.
The lawyers of the boy and a cousin who was arrested with him raised the matter of the assault after listening to the recording, resulting in the complaint to the ministry’s unit for investigations of police.
Despite the gravity of Gigi’s actions, he was charged only with simple assault, which carried a maximum punishment of two years in prison. The detective could have been charged with a number of more serious offenses, including aggravated assault, that could result in prison terms of three or four years. Gigi was not suspended from active duty, either.
According to the charge sheet filed in Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court in January, Mohammed Shuqair of Salfit, was arrested in November 2016 along with his cousin on suspicion of throwing stones.
Despite the seriousness of the offense, the so called Israeli Justice Ministry’s department for the investigation of police officers charged the detective with a lesser assault crime.
The incident came to light when a voice recording of an interview-under-duress was found in the police case files given to the suspect’s lawyer. In the recording, detective Yehuda Gigi is heard beating the Palestinian Mohammed Shuqair, who was only 17 years old. The recording was presumably accidental, according to Haaretz.
The lawyers of the boy and a cousin who was arrested with him raised the matter of the assault after listening to the recording, resulting in the complaint to the ministry’s unit for investigations of police.
Despite the gravity of Gigi’s actions, he was charged only with simple assault, which carried a maximum punishment of two years in prison. The detective could have been charged with a number of more serious offenses, including aggravated assault, that could result in prison terms of three or four years. Gigi was not suspended from active duty, either.
According to the charge sheet filed in Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court in January, Mohammed Shuqair of Salfit, was arrested in November 2016 along with his cousin on suspicion of throwing stones.
10 mar 2018
Umm al Fahm, one of the largest Palestinian cities in Israel’s 1948 borders, continues to lack street names and house numbers.Of the 301 street names selected by the Umm al-Fahm municipality, the Israeli Interior Ministry has stalled the approval of 60.
All of the street names that have not been approved, Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel reports, bear the names of Palestinian leaders, such as Mahmoud Darwish, Yasser Arafat, and Umm al-Fahm’s former mayors.
Attorney for Adalah Sawsan Zaher emphasizes that under Israeli law, the Interior Minister has no authority to prevent a municipality from naming streets as it wishes. Israeli municipalities are required by law only to notify the Ministry of new street names.
Member of Knesset Yousef Jabareen (Joint List), who is also a resident of the city, explains:
The right to a residential address is a citizen’s basic right and it is inconceivable that in the 21st century in a city of 60,000 residents such as Umm al-Fahm, there are no street names or house numbers. The naming of streets is not strictly a technical matter, but rather allows the commemoration of cultural identity and national narrative. The Interior Ministry’s red tape is part of the ongoing denial of our unique identity as a national homeland minority.
Adalah and Jabareen sent a letter to Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding the approval of the list of street names submitted by Umm al-Fahm.
Umm al-Fahem, with a population of 60,0000, is one of the largest Palestinian cities within Israel’s 1948 borders.
All of the street names that have not been approved, Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel reports, bear the names of Palestinian leaders, such as Mahmoud Darwish, Yasser Arafat, and Umm al-Fahm’s former mayors.
Attorney for Adalah Sawsan Zaher emphasizes that under Israeli law, the Interior Minister has no authority to prevent a municipality from naming streets as it wishes. Israeli municipalities are required by law only to notify the Ministry of new street names.
Member of Knesset Yousef Jabareen (Joint List), who is also a resident of the city, explains:
The right to a residential address is a citizen’s basic right and it is inconceivable that in the 21st century in a city of 60,000 residents such as Umm al-Fahm, there are no street names or house numbers. The naming of streets is not strictly a technical matter, but rather allows the commemoration of cultural identity and national narrative. The Interior Ministry’s red tape is part of the ongoing denial of our unique identity as a national homeland minority.
Adalah and Jabareen sent a letter to Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding the approval of the list of street names submitted by Umm al-Fahm.
Umm al-Fahem, with a population of 60,0000, is one of the largest Palestinian cities within Israel’s 1948 borders.
6 mar 2018
by Jonathan Cook
It is has been a very bad week for those claiming Israel has the most moral army in the world. Here’s a small sample of abuses of Palestinians in recent days in which the Israeli army was caught lying.
A child horrifically injured by soldiers was arrested and terrified into signing a false confession that he was hurt in a bicycle accident. A man who, it was claimed, had died of tear-gas inhalation was actually shot at point-blank range, then savagely beaten by a mob of soldiers and left to die. And soldiers threw a tear gas canister at a Palestinian couple, baby in arms, as they fled for safety during a military invasion of their village.
In the early 2000s, at the dawn of the social media revolution, Israelis used to dismiss filmed evidence of brutality by their soldiers as fakery. It was what they called “Pallywood” – a conflation of Palestinian and Hollywood.
In truth, however, it was the Israeli military, not the Palestinians, that needed to manufacture a more convenient version of reality.
Last week, it emerged, Israeli officials had conceded to a military court that the army had beaten and locked up a group of Palestinian reporters as part of an explicit policy of stopping journalists from covering abuses by its soldiers.
Israel’s deceptions have a long history. Back in the 1970s, a young Juliano Meir-Khamis, later to become one of Israel’s most celebrated actors, was assigned the job of carrying a weapons bag on operations in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. When Palestinian women or children were killed, he placed a weapon next to the body.
In one incident, when soldiers playing around with a shoulder-launcher fired a missile at a donkey, and the 12-year-old girl riding it, Meir-Khamis was ordered to put explosives on their remains.
That occurred before the Palestinians’ first mass uprising against the occupation erupted in the late 1980s. Then, the defence minister Yitzhak Rabin – later given a Hollywood-style makeover himself as a peacemaker – urged troops to “break the bones” of Palestinians to stop their liberation struggle.
The desperate, and sometimes self-sabotaging, lengths Israel takes to try to salvage its image were underscored last week when 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi was grabbed from his bed in a night raid.
Back in December he was shot in the face by soldiers during an invasion of his village of Nabi Saleh. Doctors saved his life, but he was left with a misshapen head and a section of skull missing.
Mohammed’s suffering made headlines because he was a bit-player in a larger drama. Shortly after he was shot, a video recorded his cousin, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi, slapping a soldier nearby after he entered her home.
Ahed, who is in jail awaiting trial, was already a Palestinian resistance icon. Now she has become a symbol too of Israel’s victimization of children.
So, Israel began work on recrafting the narrative: of Ahed as a terrorist and provocateur.
It emerged that a government minister, Michael Oren, had even set up a secret committee to try to prove that Ahed and her family were really paid actors, not Palestinians, there to “make Israel look bad”. The Pallywood delusion had gone into overdrive.
Last week events took a new turn as Mohammed and other relatives were seized, even though he is still gravely ill. Dragged off to an interrogation cell, he was denied access to a lawyer or parent.
Shortly afterwards, Israel produced a signed confession stating that Mohammed’s horrific injuries were not Israel’s responsibility but wounds inflicted in a bicycle crash.
Yoav Mordechai, the occupation’s top official, trumpeted proof of a Palestinian “culture of lies and incitement”. Mohammed’s injuries were “fake news”, the Israeli media dutifully reported.
Deprived of a justification for slapping an occupation soldier, Ahed can now be locked away by military judges. Except that witnesses, phone records and hospital documentation, including brain scans, all prove that Mohammed was shot.
This was simply another of Israellywood’s endless productions to automatically confer guilt on Palestinians. The hundreds of children on Israel’s incarceration production line each year have to sign confessions – or plea bargains – to win jail-sentence reductions from courts with near-100% conviction rates.
It is more Franz Kafka than Hollywood.
A second army narrative unraveled last week. CCTV showed Yasin Saradih, 35, being shot at point-blank range during an invasion of Jericho, then savagely beaten by soldiers as he lay wounded, and left to bleed to death.
It was an unexceptional incident. A report by Amnesty International last month noted that many of the dozens of Palestinians killed in 2017 appeared to be victims of extra-judicial executions.
Before footage of Saradih’s killing surfaced, the army issued a series of false statements, including that he died from tear-gas inhalation, received first-aid treatment and was armed with a knife. The video disproves all of that.
Over the past two years, dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, have been shot in similarly suspicious circumstances. Invariably the army concludes that they were killed while attacking soldiers with a knife – Israel even named this period of unrest a “knife intifada”.
Are soldiers today carrying a “knife bag”, just as Meir-Khamis once carried a weapons bag?
A half-century of occupation has not only corrupted generations of teenage Israeli soldiers who have been allowed to lord it over Palestinians. It has also needed an industry of lies and self-deceptions to make sure the consciences of Israelis are never clouded by a moment of doubt – that maybe their army is not so moral after all.
- Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His article is published in Palestine Chronicle.
It is has been a very bad week for those claiming Israel has the most moral army in the world. Here’s a small sample of abuses of Palestinians in recent days in which the Israeli army was caught lying.
A child horrifically injured by soldiers was arrested and terrified into signing a false confession that he was hurt in a bicycle accident. A man who, it was claimed, had died of tear-gas inhalation was actually shot at point-blank range, then savagely beaten by a mob of soldiers and left to die. And soldiers threw a tear gas canister at a Palestinian couple, baby in arms, as they fled for safety during a military invasion of their village.
In the early 2000s, at the dawn of the social media revolution, Israelis used to dismiss filmed evidence of brutality by their soldiers as fakery. It was what they called “Pallywood” – a conflation of Palestinian and Hollywood.
In truth, however, it was the Israeli military, not the Palestinians, that needed to manufacture a more convenient version of reality.
Last week, it emerged, Israeli officials had conceded to a military court that the army had beaten and locked up a group of Palestinian reporters as part of an explicit policy of stopping journalists from covering abuses by its soldiers.
Israel’s deceptions have a long history. Back in the 1970s, a young Juliano Meir-Khamis, later to become one of Israel’s most celebrated actors, was assigned the job of carrying a weapons bag on operations in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. When Palestinian women or children were killed, he placed a weapon next to the body.
In one incident, when soldiers playing around with a shoulder-launcher fired a missile at a donkey, and the 12-year-old girl riding it, Meir-Khamis was ordered to put explosives on their remains.
That occurred before the Palestinians’ first mass uprising against the occupation erupted in the late 1980s. Then, the defence minister Yitzhak Rabin – later given a Hollywood-style makeover himself as a peacemaker – urged troops to “break the bones” of Palestinians to stop their liberation struggle.
The desperate, and sometimes self-sabotaging, lengths Israel takes to try to salvage its image were underscored last week when 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi was grabbed from his bed in a night raid.
Back in December he was shot in the face by soldiers during an invasion of his village of Nabi Saleh. Doctors saved his life, but he was left with a misshapen head and a section of skull missing.
Mohammed’s suffering made headlines because he was a bit-player in a larger drama. Shortly after he was shot, a video recorded his cousin, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi, slapping a soldier nearby after he entered her home.
Ahed, who is in jail awaiting trial, was already a Palestinian resistance icon. Now she has become a symbol too of Israel’s victimization of children.
So, Israel began work on recrafting the narrative: of Ahed as a terrorist and provocateur.
It emerged that a government minister, Michael Oren, had even set up a secret committee to try to prove that Ahed and her family were really paid actors, not Palestinians, there to “make Israel look bad”. The Pallywood delusion had gone into overdrive.
Last week events took a new turn as Mohammed and other relatives were seized, even though he is still gravely ill. Dragged off to an interrogation cell, he was denied access to a lawyer or parent.
Shortly afterwards, Israel produced a signed confession stating that Mohammed’s horrific injuries were not Israel’s responsibility but wounds inflicted in a bicycle crash.
Yoav Mordechai, the occupation’s top official, trumpeted proof of a Palestinian “culture of lies and incitement”. Mohammed’s injuries were “fake news”, the Israeli media dutifully reported.
Deprived of a justification for slapping an occupation soldier, Ahed can now be locked away by military judges. Except that witnesses, phone records and hospital documentation, including brain scans, all prove that Mohammed was shot.
This was simply another of Israellywood’s endless productions to automatically confer guilt on Palestinians. The hundreds of children on Israel’s incarceration production line each year have to sign confessions – or plea bargains – to win jail-sentence reductions from courts with near-100% conviction rates.
It is more Franz Kafka than Hollywood.
A second army narrative unraveled last week. CCTV showed Yasin Saradih, 35, being shot at point-blank range during an invasion of Jericho, then savagely beaten by soldiers as he lay wounded, and left to bleed to death.
It was an unexceptional incident. A report by Amnesty International last month noted that many of the dozens of Palestinians killed in 2017 appeared to be victims of extra-judicial executions.
Before footage of Saradih’s killing surfaced, the army issued a series of false statements, including that he died from tear-gas inhalation, received first-aid treatment and was armed with a knife. The video disproves all of that.
Over the past two years, dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, have been shot in similarly suspicious circumstances. Invariably the army concludes that they were killed while attacking soldiers with a knife – Israel even named this period of unrest a “knife intifada”.
Are soldiers today carrying a “knife bag”, just as Meir-Khamis once carried a weapons bag?
A half-century of occupation has not only corrupted generations of teenage Israeli soldiers who have been allowed to lord it over Palestinians. It has also needed an industry of lies and self-deceptions to make sure the consciences of Israelis are never clouded by a moment of doubt – that maybe their army is not so moral after all.
- Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His article is published in Palestine Chronicle.
The Israeli Knesset, on Monday, approved the first reading for a bill to cut tax funding to the Palestinian Authority, by the amount it pays out monthly to the Palestinian detainees and families of the slain.
According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, the 2017 payments to these families exceeded $347 million.
The first reading was passed in the Knesset by 52 votes in favor, and 10 against, according to the PNN.
Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman said that the money will go to Israeli “victims of terror” instead of the families.
A Palestinian detainee serving 3-5 years gets around $580 monthly, roughly the amount made by the average Palestinian. That figure can more than triple for a 20-30 year sentence, and can include additional payments for Palestinians who are married, have children, are residents of Jerusalem, or are Israeli citizens.
According to Addameer organization, there are currently 6,119 Palestinian political detainees in Israeli jails, 450 or them administrative detainees. 526 Prisoners are serving life sentences.
According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, the 2017 payments to these families exceeded $347 million.
The first reading was passed in the Knesset by 52 votes in favor, and 10 against, according to the PNN.
Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman said that the money will go to Israeli “victims of terror” instead of the families.
A Palestinian detainee serving 3-5 years gets around $580 monthly, roughly the amount made by the average Palestinian. That figure can more than triple for a 20-30 year sentence, and can include additional payments for Palestinians who are married, have children, are residents of Jerusalem, or are Israeli citizens.
According to Addameer organization, there are currently 6,119 Palestinian political detainees in Israeli jails, 450 or them administrative detainees. 526 Prisoners are serving life sentences.
4 mar 2018
Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli jails continue to boycott Israeli courts for the 18th day in a row as a protest step against their detention conditions.
The detainees on 15th February started an open-ended boycott of Israeli military courts in protest at their detention without charge or trial.
They called in a statement for bringing their cases to the International Criminal Court and making every possible effort at all levels to put an end to the injustice they are exposed to.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society said that there are currently 450 administrative detainees in Israeli lock-ups, some of whom have had their detention renewed several times and some others have been incarcerated for 14 straight years without charge or trial.
The Israeli occupation authorities issued 1248 administrative detention orders in 2015, 1742 in 2016 and 1060 in 2017, according to the Society's data.
The detainees on 15th February started an open-ended boycott of Israeli military courts in protest at their detention without charge or trial.
They called in a statement for bringing their cases to the International Criminal Court and making every possible effort at all levels to put an end to the injustice they are exposed to.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society said that there are currently 450 administrative detainees in Israeli lock-ups, some of whom have had their detention renewed several times and some others have been incarcerated for 14 straight years without charge or trial.
The Israeli occupation authorities issued 1248 administrative detention orders in 2015, 1742 in 2016 and 1060 in 2017, according to the Society's data.
3 mar 2018
Preschool children in the Naqab Bedouin village of Al-Sira prepare to board a school bus during the brief period between March and June 2017 when the Education Ministry provided school transportation.
Israeli authorities have twice violated a court decision to provide school buses for 3- and 4-year-old Bedouin preschool children from villages in the desert south.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a motion for contempt of court yesterday, 28 February 2018, against Israeli authorities for twice violating court decisions to provide school buses for Bedouin preschool children from villages in the southern Naqab (Negev) desert region.
The motion, filed in Be’er Sheva District Court on behalf of parents from the unrecognized Bedouin villages of Al-Jaraf and Umm Namila, is against the Israeli Education Ministry and Al-Qasoum Regional Council.
During the past year, the Education Ministry and Al-Qasoum Regional Council have twice promised the court in two separate legal proceedings that they would act to provide transportation for 3- and 4-year-old preschool children from unrecognized villages in the Naqab desert. This commitment was approved by a court’s decision but Israeli authorities have violated the decision on two separate occasions and preschool-age children still have no way to get to school.
The second court decision was approved on 10 January 2018, during a hearing which was held at the Be’er Sheva Administrative Court on a petition filed by Adalah in which it demanded that the Education Ministry and regional councils fulfill their obligation to arrange a system of transportation for Bedouin children.
Following the hearing, a notice was submitted to the court on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the regional councils stating that transportation services would immediately be provided for children from Al-Sira and Al-Jaraf, and concurrently for other affected children.
However, authorities never followed through on this commitment.
Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher wrote in her motion that the authorities are in contempt of court due to their failure to abide by the two court decisions:
“Failure to abide by the court decisions amounts to a lack of good faith on the part of the Education Ministry and Al-Qasoum Regional Council. Indeed, [our] petitions were withdrawn in the wake of [authorities’] commitments that were subsequently validated by the court. The petitioners anticipated – and with reason – that the authorities would abide by their commitments.”
Attorney Zaher stressed that the authorities’ violation of the court decisions constitute a serious, ongoing violation of the most basic rights of the children and their parents:
“Due to the conduct of the respondents, the petitioners have been forced time and again to appeal to the legal system in order to obtain basic services – services which no one is disputing their right to receive, and which they have been repeatedly promised would be provided.”
Israeli authorities have twice violated a court decision to provide school buses for 3- and 4-year-old Bedouin preschool children from villages in the desert south.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a motion for contempt of court yesterday, 28 February 2018, against Israeli authorities for twice violating court decisions to provide school buses for Bedouin preschool children from villages in the southern Naqab (Negev) desert region.
The motion, filed in Be’er Sheva District Court on behalf of parents from the unrecognized Bedouin villages of Al-Jaraf and Umm Namila, is against the Israeli Education Ministry and Al-Qasoum Regional Council.
During the past year, the Education Ministry and Al-Qasoum Regional Council have twice promised the court in two separate legal proceedings that they would act to provide transportation for 3- and 4-year-old preschool children from unrecognized villages in the Naqab desert. This commitment was approved by a court’s decision but Israeli authorities have violated the decision on two separate occasions and preschool-age children still have no way to get to school.
The second court decision was approved on 10 January 2018, during a hearing which was held at the Be’er Sheva Administrative Court on a petition filed by Adalah in which it demanded that the Education Ministry and regional councils fulfill their obligation to arrange a system of transportation for Bedouin children.
Following the hearing, a notice was submitted to the court on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the regional councils stating that transportation services would immediately be provided for children from Al-Sira and Al-Jaraf, and concurrently for other affected children.
However, authorities never followed through on this commitment.
Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher wrote in her motion that the authorities are in contempt of court due to their failure to abide by the two court decisions:
“Failure to abide by the court decisions amounts to a lack of good faith on the part of the Education Ministry and Al-Qasoum Regional Council. Indeed, [our] petitions were withdrawn in the wake of [authorities’] commitments that were subsequently validated by the court. The petitioners anticipated – and with reason – that the authorities would abide by their commitments.”
Attorney Zaher stressed that the authorities’ violation of the court decisions constitute a serious, ongoing violation of the most basic rights of the children and their parents:
“Due to the conduct of the respondents, the petitioners have been forced time and again to appeal to the legal system in order to obtain basic services – services which no one is disputing their right to receive, and which they have been repeatedly promised would be provided.”
Israel’s judiciary system reportedly did not, and still does not, act in isolation from Israeli political considerations in many stations related to Palestinian lives and the ongoing conflict on the ground, between settlers, the government of Israel and Palestinian citizens.
The judicial system usually intervenes under the direction of the political and security levels to legitimize, here and elsewhere, the confiscation of Palestinian land and its transfer for settlement purposes. Within this context, there is an attempt to politicize the Israeli judiciary to work smoothly, to settle and legitimize more settlement outposts set up by the Israeli government, in the West Bank.
In an interview with Israel’s Ch. 7, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked revealed Israeli efforts, in the field of law and order, to settle and legitimize settlement outposts in the West Bank.
The Committee for the Appointment of Judges in Israel, headed by Shaked, has now approved the appointment of Bahia Zandberg as a judge In the Central Court of Jerusalem, after serving as chairwoman of the Committee on the Bleaching of Settlements, and who is a close ally of Shaked (Jewish Home Party). Zandberg led two legal campaigns supporting the settlers, which were contrary to the instructions of the Ministry of Justice and the legal adviser to the government, and their positions, and was then appointed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Through his appointment, Shaked seeks to consolidate the settlement policy and prevent the evacuation of settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including those that are built on private Palestinian land, and not only the so-called “state lands.”
With the transfer of powers to the central court, Zandberg will have the greatest influence on decisions about settlements and outposts, which would increase settlement construction even if the government or the political echelon opposed it. The appointment of Alex Shtain and Ofer Grosskov as judges in the Supreme Court was seen as a victory for Shaked, who supported a number of nominations in various courts. Shaked appointed Esther Hayout as the head of the Supreme Court, under whom judges would not object to the appointment of the judge in the Jerusalem District Court, Yigal Marzel, as head of the court. In her comments on the appointments, Shaked said, “This is the one of the happiest days in the Israeli judiciary.”
PNN further reports that the Israeli government has begun the building of units in the new settlement of Amihai, located near the settlement of Shilo, between Nablus and Ramallah cities. Ameihai settlement is supposed to house 40 families evacuated by Israeli authorities in February of 2017, from the “Amona” settlement near the Ramallah governorate, which was built on private Palestinian land.
The Israeli “Kelvin” company, for excavation works, has put up mobile homes in the new “Amihai” settlement, on the lands of Jaloud village, in Nablus, in basin 16 (also known as Jabal Abu Rokhm), where extremist settlers asked the government to recognize the settlement, following Israeli occupation forces’ evacuation of the Amona outpost.
The new settlement seized agricultural land comprising more than 205 dunams on September 11th, under the pretext of appropriating “State land”. Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said, earlier, that all obstacles of construction in settlements have been removed, as a budget of more than NIS 40,000,000 was allocated for that. Reports said the Israeli Ministry of Finance would transfer NIS 55,000,000 to the Interior Ministry, to be transferred to the Regional council in the occupied West Bank.
Moreover, Deri gave the green light to Israeli Planning and Construction institutions for the construction of a new settlement near the Qalqilia city, to accommodate more than 20,000 settlers through the four merging settlements of Sh’ari Tekva, Itis Efrim and Elkana within one regional settlement council. “Oranit” will be added, in 2023, to be the large city for settlers.
On the other hand, PM Netanyahu has allocated NIS 60,000,000 to build homes for settlers, who will be evacuated from the “Netiv Haqvot” outpost, to the south of Bethlehem. The Israeli government will evacuate settlers from 15 buildings, from the outposts. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Shaked visited the outpost and met with the settlers, assuring them that they will work with the government to postpone the evacuation process. In Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Municipality approved a plan to build 3,000 settlement units outside the Green Line, in occupied Jerusalem, on 280 dunams, naming it the “Olive Grove” neighborhood.
In serious statements during a closed-door meeting with the heads of Jewish organizations in North Africa, the US Ambassador to Tel Aviv, David Friedman, explained that the issue of evacuating settlers worries the Israeli government, adding that the military’s leadership is more oriented towards religious Zionism, and that its officers are committed to this land as the land given to them by the God, believing that the eviction could lead to civil war.
The judicial system usually intervenes under the direction of the political and security levels to legitimize, here and elsewhere, the confiscation of Palestinian land and its transfer for settlement purposes. Within this context, there is an attempt to politicize the Israeli judiciary to work smoothly, to settle and legitimize more settlement outposts set up by the Israeli government, in the West Bank.
In an interview with Israel’s Ch. 7, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked revealed Israeli efforts, in the field of law and order, to settle and legitimize settlement outposts in the West Bank.
The Committee for the Appointment of Judges in Israel, headed by Shaked, has now approved the appointment of Bahia Zandberg as a judge In the Central Court of Jerusalem, after serving as chairwoman of the Committee on the Bleaching of Settlements, and who is a close ally of Shaked (Jewish Home Party). Zandberg led two legal campaigns supporting the settlers, which were contrary to the instructions of the Ministry of Justice and the legal adviser to the government, and their positions, and was then appointed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Through his appointment, Shaked seeks to consolidate the settlement policy and prevent the evacuation of settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including those that are built on private Palestinian land, and not only the so-called “state lands.”
With the transfer of powers to the central court, Zandberg will have the greatest influence on decisions about settlements and outposts, which would increase settlement construction even if the government or the political echelon opposed it. The appointment of Alex Shtain and Ofer Grosskov as judges in the Supreme Court was seen as a victory for Shaked, who supported a number of nominations in various courts. Shaked appointed Esther Hayout as the head of the Supreme Court, under whom judges would not object to the appointment of the judge in the Jerusalem District Court, Yigal Marzel, as head of the court. In her comments on the appointments, Shaked said, “This is the one of the happiest days in the Israeli judiciary.”
PNN further reports that the Israeli government has begun the building of units in the new settlement of Amihai, located near the settlement of Shilo, between Nablus and Ramallah cities. Ameihai settlement is supposed to house 40 families evacuated by Israeli authorities in February of 2017, from the “Amona” settlement near the Ramallah governorate, which was built on private Palestinian land.
The Israeli “Kelvin” company, for excavation works, has put up mobile homes in the new “Amihai” settlement, on the lands of Jaloud village, in Nablus, in basin 16 (also known as Jabal Abu Rokhm), where extremist settlers asked the government to recognize the settlement, following Israeli occupation forces’ evacuation of the Amona outpost.
The new settlement seized agricultural land comprising more than 205 dunams on September 11th, under the pretext of appropriating “State land”. Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said, earlier, that all obstacles of construction in settlements have been removed, as a budget of more than NIS 40,000,000 was allocated for that. Reports said the Israeli Ministry of Finance would transfer NIS 55,000,000 to the Interior Ministry, to be transferred to the Regional council in the occupied West Bank.
Moreover, Deri gave the green light to Israeli Planning and Construction institutions for the construction of a new settlement near the Qalqilia city, to accommodate more than 20,000 settlers through the four merging settlements of Sh’ari Tekva, Itis Efrim and Elkana within one regional settlement council. “Oranit” will be added, in 2023, to be the large city for settlers.
On the other hand, PM Netanyahu has allocated NIS 60,000,000 to build homes for settlers, who will be evacuated from the “Netiv Haqvot” outpost, to the south of Bethlehem. The Israeli government will evacuate settlers from 15 buildings, from the outposts. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Shaked visited the outpost and met with the settlers, assuring them that they will work with the government to postpone the evacuation process. In Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Municipality approved a plan to build 3,000 settlement units outside the Green Line, in occupied Jerusalem, on 280 dunams, naming it the “Olive Grove” neighborhood.
In serious statements during a closed-door meeting with the heads of Jewish organizations in North Africa, the US Ambassador to Tel Aviv, David Friedman, explained that the issue of evacuating settlers worries the Israeli government, adding that the military’s leadership is more oriented towards religious Zionism, and that its officers are committed to this land as the land given to them by the God, believing that the eviction could lead to civil war.
1 mar 2018
Palestinian detainees, held under arbitrary Administrative Detention orders in Ofer and Majeddo Israeli detention camps, are still boycotting Israeli military courts, for the fourteenth consecutive day, demanding basic rights.
The detainees are protesting the sharp increase of Administrative Detention orders, holing them captive without charges or trial, in addition to constant violations against them.
They are also calling on the International Community to intervene, and present the Israeli violations to the International Criminal Court.
In a statement, the detainees declared that boycotting Israel’s military courts is the first step in their protest, which will likely escalate, and added that they started boycotting the military courts on February 15th.
Israel holds Administrative Detainees captive for months, and years in many cases, without filing charges against them, under the pretext of having “secret files against them,” files that even their defense lawyers do not have access to.
It is worth monitoring that Israel issued 1248 Administrative Detention orders in the year 2015, 1742 in 2016, and 1060 in 2017.
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In administrative detention, a person is held without trial without having committed an offense, on the grounds that he or she plans to break the law in the future.
As this measure is supposed to be preventive, it has no time limit. The person is detained without legal proceedings, by order of the regional military commander, based on classified evidence that is not revealed to them.
Read More About Administrative Detention – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem)
This leaves the detainees helpless – facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, not knowing when they will be released, and without being charged, tried or convicted.
The detainees are protesting the sharp increase of Administrative Detention orders, holing them captive without charges or trial, in addition to constant violations against them.
They are also calling on the International Community to intervene, and present the Israeli violations to the International Criminal Court.
In a statement, the detainees declared that boycotting Israel’s military courts is the first step in their protest, which will likely escalate, and added that they started boycotting the military courts on February 15th.
Israel holds Administrative Detainees captive for months, and years in many cases, without filing charges against them, under the pretext of having “secret files against them,” files that even their defense lawyers do not have access to.
It is worth monitoring that Israel issued 1248 Administrative Detention orders in the year 2015, 1742 in 2016, and 1060 in 2017.
———————--
In administrative detention, a person is held without trial without having committed an offense, on the grounds that he or she plans to break the law in the future.
As this measure is supposed to be preventive, it has no time limit. The person is detained without legal proceedings, by order of the regional military commander, based on classified evidence that is not revealed to them.
Read More About Administrative Detention – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem)
This leaves the detainees helpless – facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, not knowing when they will be released, and without being charged, tried or convicted.
