10 oct 2017
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has expressed its deep concern over Israel’s decision to ban Palestinian Muslim children from playing in the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards and punish them with imprisonment, describing the measure as “an unjustified interference in the administration of the Islamic holy site and a violation of the international law.”
In a press release published on its website on Monday, the Geneva-based human rights group deplored the Israeli higher court of justice for issuing a verdict on October 4 prohibiting Palestinian children from playing in the courtyards of their Aqsa Mosque and threatening them with detention for several years.
It stressed that the verdict violated the international human rights law that stipulates the right of individuals to freedom of religion and belief, and the need for not interfering in the administration of their holy sites or violating their sanctity.
The Euro-Med also pointed to the resolution that was issued by the UNESCO in October 2016 on Jerusalem, which asserted that the Aqsa Mosque belongs solely to the Muslims and condemned Israel’s changes in and around the Old City as illegitimate.
It called on the UN Security Council to take effective steps against Israel’s attempts to impose its control over the Aqsa Mosque and force it to respect relevant resolutions that confirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the holy site.
In a press release published on its website on Monday, the Geneva-based human rights group deplored the Israeli higher court of justice for issuing a verdict on October 4 prohibiting Palestinian children from playing in the courtyards of their Aqsa Mosque and threatening them with detention for several years.
It stressed that the verdict violated the international human rights law that stipulates the right of individuals to freedom of religion and belief, and the need for not interfering in the administration of their holy sites or violating their sanctity.
The Euro-Med also pointed to the resolution that was issued by the UNESCO in October 2016 on Jerusalem, which asserted that the Aqsa Mosque belongs solely to the Muslims and condemned Israel’s changes in and around the Old City as illegitimate.
It called on the UN Security Council to take effective steps against Israel’s attempts to impose its control over the Aqsa Mosque and force it to respect relevant resolutions that confirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the holy site.
5 oct 2017
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged his support for the so-called “Greater Jerusalem” bill, which is tantamount to the annexation of 19 illegal settlements in the Jerusalem area, including Maaleh Adumim, where between 125,000 and 150,000 Israeli settlers live.
Maale Adumim is the third largest settlement in population size, encompassing a large swath of land deep inside the occupied West Bank’s Jerusalem district. Many Israelis consider it an Israeli suburban city of Jerusalem, despite it being located on occupied Palestinian territory in contravention of international law.
“Maaleh Adumim will always be part of Israel and, in addition, I support the Greater Jerusalem bill,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Netanyahu as saying during a visit to the illegal settlement Tuesday. “I am also weighing placing Maaleh Adumim within the boundaries of Greater Jerusalem within the context of the Greater Jerusalem bill,” he said.
The legislation, Ma’an further reports, was authored by Likud minister Yisrael Katz who is reportedly expected to bring the bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in the upcoming Knesset session. It would place 19 settlements, including those of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Givat Zeev within Israel’s municipal boundaries for Jerusalem.
The Israeli state annexed occupied East Jerusalem in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the bill would allow the settlers to retain their autonomy but afford them voting rights in the city’s mayoral race. It would meanwhile create “independent municipalities” for some 100,000 Palestinian citizens or residents of Israel who live within Israel’s Jerusalem municipality borders, but are located on the other side of Israel’s illegal separation wall.
These neighborhoods, which have been referred to as a “no man’s land,” have not received proper municipal services since the wall’s construction. While most residents hold Jerusalem residency status and continue to pay taxes to the Israeli government, they are left severely neglected by Israeli authorities, as their neighborhoods are now located on the “West Bank side” of the separation barrier.
Residents now must pass through congested Israeli-controlled checkpoints to reach Jerusalem, while these neighborhoods face increasing problems from an absence of sewage infrastructure and other basic services traditionally provided by the Jerusalem municipality, including waste collection services, healthcare, and education assistance.
“We will intensify the momentum to develop Maaleh Adumim. We will build thousands of housing units here. We will add the necessary industrial areas and the expansion necessary to enable the accelerated development of this place. This place will be part of the State of Israel, ” Netanyahu continued in his remarks.
The Israeli premier further stated that he would advance plans for 4,000 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank after the Jewish holidays.
During the visit to Maaleh Adumin, Netanyahu also took the opportunity to address the reactivation of the Palestinian National Consensus Government and ongoing reconciliation talks with rival factions Fateh and Hamas.
“We expect everyone who talks about a peace process to recognize the State of Israel and, of course, to recognize a Jewish state and we are not prepared to accept bogus reconciliations in which the Palestinian side apparently reconciles at the expense of our existence.
“Whoever wants to make such a reconciliation, our understanding is very clear: Recognize the State of Israel, disband the Hamas military arm, sever the connection with Iran, which calls for our destruction, and so on and so forth. Even these very clear things must be clearly stated,” he said.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary General Saeb Erekat said in a statement Wednesday saying that now that Palestinian political reconciliation was underway, it was “time for Israel to abide by international law and to recognize the right of the State of Palestine to exist,” noting that the Palestine National Council has recognized the State of Israel.
“Some in Israel and the United States have called on Hamas to recognize Israel. Instead, Israel and the United States should recognize the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is the way to achieve the ultimate deal with the State of Israel to live side by side the State of Palestine in peace and security,” Erekat said.
Observers have attributed a increase in visits by Netanyahu to illegal settlements since Donald Trump was sworn in as US president in January.
Since Trump took office — and despite requests by the US president to hold back on settlement building — an emboldened Netanyahu government has pushed forward with a steady stream of announcements on settlement building.
In a recent interview with Israeli media, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman — who has been vocal in his support for Israeli settlements and his unflinching support for the Israeli government — referred to Israel’s presence in the West Bank as an “alleged occupation,” and said that settlements are “only occupying 2 percent of the West Bank” and that he considers them part of Israel.
Palestinian officials were quick to condemn Friedman for the remarks as disconnected from reality, with Erekat describing the assertions as “not only false and misleading but contradict international law, United Nations resolutions and also the historical US position.
“Israel is internationally recognized as the occupying power over 100 percent of Palestine, including in and around Occupied East Jerusalem. Such positions undermine ongoing efforts towards achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine on the 1967 border,” he said.
PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi also slammed the US ambassador for his “blatant bias” toward Israel.
“The US Ambassador to Israel has proved once again that he is completely removed from reality. In addition to his long-standing support for Israeli settlements, and after referring to the ‘alleged occupation’ of Palestinian land, he has the audacity to maintain that Israel occupies only 2 percent of the West Bank and that illegal settlements that carve, annex, and steal Palestinian land are part of Israel,” she said.
Ashrawi said Friedman’s positions “are a mirror reflection of the settlers’ ideology in Israel’s right-wing coalition government rather than that of successive Administrations that have claimed to be invested in peace,” affirming that, “The occupation exists. Settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. These facts and realities are not in question.”
The proposed Greater Jerusalem bill also comes as the Israeli government has advanced a plan to forcibly expel the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, under threat of relocation for being located in the contentious “E1 corridor” set up by the Israeli government to link annexed East Jerusalem with Maale Adumim.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem slammed the Israeli government for the plan in a letter to Netanyahu, saying that such a move would constitute a “war crime.”
Maale Adumim is the third largest settlement in population size, encompassing a large swath of land deep inside the occupied West Bank’s Jerusalem district. Many Israelis consider it an Israeli suburban city of Jerusalem, despite it being located on occupied Palestinian territory in contravention of international law.
“Maaleh Adumim will always be part of Israel and, in addition, I support the Greater Jerusalem bill,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Netanyahu as saying during a visit to the illegal settlement Tuesday. “I am also weighing placing Maaleh Adumim within the boundaries of Greater Jerusalem within the context of the Greater Jerusalem bill,” he said.
The legislation, Ma’an further reports, was authored by Likud minister Yisrael Katz who is reportedly expected to bring the bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in the upcoming Knesset session. It would place 19 settlements, including those of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Givat Zeev within Israel’s municipal boundaries for Jerusalem.
The Israeli state annexed occupied East Jerusalem in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the bill would allow the settlers to retain their autonomy but afford them voting rights in the city’s mayoral race. It would meanwhile create “independent municipalities” for some 100,000 Palestinian citizens or residents of Israel who live within Israel’s Jerusalem municipality borders, but are located on the other side of Israel’s illegal separation wall.
These neighborhoods, which have been referred to as a “no man’s land,” have not received proper municipal services since the wall’s construction. While most residents hold Jerusalem residency status and continue to pay taxes to the Israeli government, they are left severely neglected by Israeli authorities, as their neighborhoods are now located on the “West Bank side” of the separation barrier.
Residents now must pass through congested Israeli-controlled checkpoints to reach Jerusalem, while these neighborhoods face increasing problems from an absence of sewage infrastructure and other basic services traditionally provided by the Jerusalem municipality, including waste collection services, healthcare, and education assistance.
“We will intensify the momentum to develop Maaleh Adumim. We will build thousands of housing units here. We will add the necessary industrial areas and the expansion necessary to enable the accelerated development of this place. This place will be part of the State of Israel, ” Netanyahu continued in his remarks.
The Israeli premier further stated that he would advance plans for 4,000 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank after the Jewish holidays.
During the visit to Maaleh Adumin, Netanyahu also took the opportunity to address the reactivation of the Palestinian National Consensus Government and ongoing reconciliation talks with rival factions Fateh and Hamas.
“We expect everyone who talks about a peace process to recognize the State of Israel and, of course, to recognize a Jewish state and we are not prepared to accept bogus reconciliations in which the Palestinian side apparently reconciles at the expense of our existence.
“Whoever wants to make such a reconciliation, our understanding is very clear: Recognize the State of Israel, disband the Hamas military arm, sever the connection with Iran, which calls for our destruction, and so on and so forth. Even these very clear things must be clearly stated,” he said.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary General Saeb Erekat said in a statement Wednesday saying that now that Palestinian political reconciliation was underway, it was “time for Israel to abide by international law and to recognize the right of the State of Palestine to exist,” noting that the Palestine National Council has recognized the State of Israel.
“Some in Israel and the United States have called on Hamas to recognize Israel. Instead, Israel and the United States should recognize the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is the way to achieve the ultimate deal with the State of Israel to live side by side the State of Palestine in peace and security,” Erekat said.
Observers have attributed a increase in visits by Netanyahu to illegal settlements since Donald Trump was sworn in as US president in January.
Since Trump took office — and despite requests by the US president to hold back on settlement building — an emboldened Netanyahu government has pushed forward with a steady stream of announcements on settlement building.
In a recent interview with Israeli media, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman — who has been vocal in his support for Israeli settlements and his unflinching support for the Israeli government — referred to Israel’s presence in the West Bank as an “alleged occupation,” and said that settlements are “only occupying 2 percent of the West Bank” and that he considers them part of Israel.
Palestinian officials were quick to condemn Friedman for the remarks as disconnected from reality, with Erekat describing the assertions as “not only false and misleading but contradict international law, United Nations resolutions and also the historical US position.
“Israel is internationally recognized as the occupying power over 100 percent of Palestine, including in and around Occupied East Jerusalem. Such positions undermine ongoing efforts towards achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine on the 1967 border,” he said.
PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi also slammed the US ambassador for his “blatant bias” toward Israel.
“The US Ambassador to Israel has proved once again that he is completely removed from reality. In addition to his long-standing support for Israeli settlements, and after referring to the ‘alleged occupation’ of Palestinian land, he has the audacity to maintain that Israel occupies only 2 percent of the West Bank and that illegal settlements that carve, annex, and steal Palestinian land are part of Israel,” she said.
Ashrawi said Friedman’s positions “are a mirror reflection of the settlers’ ideology in Israel’s right-wing coalition government rather than that of successive Administrations that have claimed to be invested in peace,” affirming that, “The occupation exists. Settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. These facts and realities are not in question.”
The proposed Greater Jerusalem bill also comes as the Israeli government has advanced a plan to forcibly expel the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, under threat of relocation for being located in the contentious “E1 corridor” set up by the Israeli government to link annexed East Jerusalem with Maale Adumim.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem slammed the Israeli government for the plan in a letter to Netanyahu, saying that such a move would constitute a “war crime.”
Israeli law enforcement agencies are not revealing to detainees which of their social media posts led to the issuance of a warrant for their arrest and their subsequent detention, a press release said on Wednesday.
This practice is being employed disproportionally against Palestinian citizens of Israel and seriously impairs their ability to defend themselves, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, said in the release.
WAFA reports that Adalah sent a letter on September 11 calling on Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Attorney Shai Nitzan to order Israeli police to disclose to suspects and their lawyers during pre-trial detention hearings the content of the social media posts that allegedly constitute a criminal offense, such as incitement and other crimes of expression.
Adalah Attorney Fady Khoury wrote in the letter that this policy severely harms suspects’ rights.
“This problematic practice essentially turns an initial arrest into a full-fledged administrative detention. It is not just that the evidentiary materials collected by police are kept from detainees and their lawyers, but that the [social media] content for which the arrest was carried out is left undefined,” he wrote.
“Just as it would be unthinkable to arrest someone suspected of theft without informing them or their lawyer during the pre-trial detention stage what they are believed to have stolen … and just as one cannot be arrested on suspicion of murder while the identity of the victim is left undisclosed until after an indictment is filed, so it is also in the case of an individual arrested on suspicion of committing a crime of expression involving a publication: there is a duty to inform suspects and their lawyers of the content of the expression, i.e. the ‘publication,’ on which the arrest warrant is based.”
Adalah’s letter included numerous examples of arrests of Palestinian citizens of Israel carried out for alleged crimes of expression, during the course of which the statements that formed the very grounds for the arrests were kept classified. For example, Razi Nabulsi, a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, was arrested on suspicion of “publishing a statement in support of a terrorist organization”, but Israeli police maintained a ban on release of Nabulsi’s statement that formed the basis for his arrest for the entire duration of his seven-day detention.
Attorney Khoury wrote: “The arrest of individuals suspected of incitement, for example – without revealing the statements that form the basis for the arrest – constitutes a serious infringement of suspects’ rights to due process, undermines the purpose of the criminal process, and severely s detainees’ rights to plead their case and defend themselves.”
The vast majority of arrests made in Israel in 2015 and the first half of 2016 for charges related to alleged incitement on social media outlets were of Palestinian citizens.
According to Israeli police statistics, 82 percent of individuals arrested for incitement-related offenses in 2016 were Palestinian citizens, whereas only 18 percent were Jewish Israeli citizens. Statistics for 2015 are similar: 81 percent of those arrested for incitement-related violations were Palestinian citizens and 19 percent were Jewish Israeli. In 2015, 43 people were charged with incitement-related offenses, 40 Palestinian citizens and three Jewish citizens (seven percent).
This practice is being employed disproportionally against Palestinian citizens of Israel and seriously impairs their ability to defend themselves, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, said in the release.
WAFA reports that Adalah sent a letter on September 11 calling on Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Attorney Shai Nitzan to order Israeli police to disclose to suspects and their lawyers during pre-trial detention hearings the content of the social media posts that allegedly constitute a criminal offense, such as incitement and other crimes of expression.
Adalah Attorney Fady Khoury wrote in the letter that this policy severely harms suspects’ rights.
“This problematic practice essentially turns an initial arrest into a full-fledged administrative detention. It is not just that the evidentiary materials collected by police are kept from detainees and their lawyers, but that the [social media] content for which the arrest was carried out is left undefined,” he wrote.
“Just as it would be unthinkable to arrest someone suspected of theft without informing them or their lawyer during the pre-trial detention stage what they are believed to have stolen … and just as one cannot be arrested on suspicion of murder while the identity of the victim is left undisclosed until after an indictment is filed, so it is also in the case of an individual arrested on suspicion of committing a crime of expression involving a publication: there is a duty to inform suspects and their lawyers of the content of the expression, i.e. the ‘publication,’ on which the arrest warrant is based.”
Adalah’s letter included numerous examples of arrests of Palestinian citizens of Israel carried out for alleged crimes of expression, during the course of which the statements that formed the very grounds for the arrests were kept classified. For example, Razi Nabulsi, a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, was arrested on suspicion of “publishing a statement in support of a terrorist organization”, but Israeli police maintained a ban on release of Nabulsi’s statement that formed the basis for his arrest for the entire duration of his seven-day detention.
Attorney Khoury wrote: “The arrest of individuals suspected of incitement, for example – without revealing the statements that form the basis for the arrest – constitutes a serious infringement of suspects’ rights to due process, undermines the purpose of the criminal process, and severely s detainees’ rights to plead their case and defend themselves.”
The vast majority of arrests made in Israel in 2015 and the first half of 2016 for charges related to alleged incitement on social media outlets were of Palestinian citizens.
According to Israeli police statistics, 82 percent of individuals arrested for incitement-related offenses in 2016 were Palestinian citizens, whereas only 18 percent were Jewish Israeli citizens. Statistics for 2015 are similar: 81 percent of those arrested for incitement-related violations were Palestinian citizens and 19 percent were Jewish Israeli. In 2015, 43 people were charged with incitement-related offenses, 40 Palestinian citizens and three Jewish citizens (seven percent).
4 oct 2017
Israeli occupation authorities have prohibiting Muslim children from playing in the courtyards surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque.
A report by the Israeli TV Channel 7 said that orders were issued to police units at Al-Aqsa in occupied Jerusalem not to allow children to play with balls in the courtyards.
It also reported, according to Days of Palestine, that the Israeli Supreme Court issued an order banning Jerusalemite children from playing in Al-Aqsa courtyards.
The order was issued after complaints filed, about a month ago, by settlers who stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and claimed to have seen children playing football around the schools.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, “ball games on Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa Mosque] are prohibited as it violates its sanctity.”
According to the Israeli police, the order is aimed primarily at the areas adjacent to the Islamic schools located in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jewish organisations have demanded that such practices be banned and that those found doing so be prosecuted or at least have their balls confiscated.
They claim that playing football “is a violation of the law regarding holy areas. The maximum punishment for this is seven years of imprisonment.”
They also claimed that such practices are considered “a desecration of a holy site and cause emotional distress” to the Jews storming the mosque.
A report by the Israeli TV Channel 7 said that orders were issued to police units at Al-Aqsa in occupied Jerusalem not to allow children to play with balls in the courtyards.
It also reported, according to Days of Palestine, that the Israeli Supreme Court issued an order banning Jerusalemite children from playing in Al-Aqsa courtyards.
The order was issued after complaints filed, about a month ago, by settlers who stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and claimed to have seen children playing football around the schools.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, “ball games on Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa Mosque] are prohibited as it violates its sanctity.”
According to the Israeli police, the order is aimed primarily at the areas adjacent to the Islamic schools located in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jewish organisations have demanded that such practices be banned and that those found doing so be prosecuted or at least have their balls confiscated.
They claim that playing football “is a violation of the law regarding holy areas. The maximum punishment for this is seven years of imprisonment.”
They also claimed that such practices are considered “a desecration of a holy site and cause emotional distress” to the Jews storming the mosque.
1 oct 2017
Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who murdered a Palestinian in cold blood, just had his already-derisory sentence reduced by the army chief of staff.
Azaria became a hero to many in Israel after the incident last year at an illegal Israeli checkpoint in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank.
Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, both 21, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in March last year. The Israeli government accused them of stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron’s Old City.
Azaria was caught on camera as he calmly and deliberately shot al-Sharif in the head as the youth lay badly wounded and completely subdued on the ground.
During the trial, Azaria was offered support from the highest political levels, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for him to be pardoned altogether.
In February this year Azaria was sentenced to a derisory 18 months in prison.
If Palestinian lives were deemed of any value at all in in Israel, Azaria would have been given life in prison. Instead he was given a slap on the wrist. And now, his sentence has been reduced on military order to 14 months.
After this has been reduced by another six months, as seems likely, for “good behaviour,” Azaria will likely spend no more than eight months in jail. Little illustrates the apartheid nature of Israeli “justice” better than this.
By way of contrast, 21-year-old Ahmad Yasser Baraghithi was in 2014 sentenced to eight years in jail for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem during Palestinian protests against Israeli occupation. That’s eight years, not the token eight months the killer Azaria seems likely to serve.
The fact that Azaria will serve any time in jail at all is only down to the brave Palestinian volunteer who filmed the graphic video of Azaria calmly butchering al-Sharif. Israeli settlers on the scene are heard in the video shouting, “the terrorist is still alive,” and the “the dog is still alive.”
During the trial, the court heard that what Azaria did was very much routine practice by the Israeli army, who murder Palestinians in the West Bank on a routine basis.
“In terrorist incidents I witnessed, I saw with my own eyes that in every instance in which a terrorist attacked, soldiers shot him in the centre of mass until he was neutralized … and [shot] a bullet to the head to ensure that the terrorist could not set off a suicide belt or continue the attack. These soldiers never went to court,” a long-time civilian security chief for Jewish settlers in Hebron, told the court.
The Palestinians who filmed the video and gave it to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem have received death threats for exposing the crime.
Many other Palestinians spend far longer in jail than Azaria, often for “crimes” that amount to nothing more than simply speaking out against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
Palestinian poet and photographer Dareen Tatour spent more than a year and three months in jail and house arrest for the “crime” of writing a poem entitled “Resist, my people, resist them.” The poem called on Palestinians to fight back against Israeli occupation, to “Resist the colonialist’s onslaught” and “Pay no mind to his agents among us.” Israel has a long history of criminalizing such literary expression of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Lina Khattab is a young Palestinian who in 2014 and 2015 spent almost as much time in jail as Azaria seems likely to now. Her “crime” was to dance at a protest against Israeli occupation, which they had deemed an “illegal demonstration.” Pretty much any demonstration Palestinians organize against occupation in the West Bank is deemed “illegal” by Israel, which likes to portray a thin veneer of legality for its sponsors and political allies in the West.
Israel’s “military courts” are sham show trials which have no credibility whatsoever when it comes to Palestinian accused. Judges and prosecutors alike are all Israeli soldiers, and we are supposed to buy the Israeli propaganda which claims that this fix of a system will hold the occupation authorities to account? No.
Israel’s kangaroo courts system has a 99.7 per cent conviction rate – for Palestinians alone. This is yet another cold hard fact which makes Israel’s system in the occupied West Bank a racist one – a systematic apartheid reality, backed to the hilt by the US and the EU.
- Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has been visiting Palestine since 2004 and is originally from south Wales. He writes for the award-winning Palestinian news site The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor.
(Israeli court sentenced Ahmad Sa'ida, 17, to 11 months on charges of incitement on Facebook.)
Azaria became a hero to many in Israel after the incident last year at an illegal Israeli checkpoint in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank.
Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, both 21, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in March last year. The Israeli government accused them of stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron’s Old City.
Azaria was caught on camera as he calmly and deliberately shot al-Sharif in the head as the youth lay badly wounded and completely subdued on the ground.
During the trial, Azaria was offered support from the highest political levels, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for him to be pardoned altogether.
In February this year Azaria was sentenced to a derisory 18 months in prison.
If Palestinian lives were deemed of any value at all in in Israel, Azaria would have been given life in prison. Instead he was given a slap on the wrist. And now, his sentence has been reduced on military order to 14 months.
After this has been reduced by another six months, as seems likely, for “good behaviour,” Azaria will likely spend no more than eight months in jail. Little illustrates the apartheid nature of Israeli “justice” better than this.
By way of contrast, 21-year-old Ahmad Yasser Baraghithi was in 2014 sentenced to eight years in jail for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem during Palestinian protests against Israeli occupation. That’s eight years, not the token eight months the killer Azaria seems likely to serve.
The fact that Azaria will serve any time in jail at all is only down to the brave Palestinian volunteer who filmed the graphic video of Azaria calmly butchering al-Sharif. Israeli settlers on the scene are heard in the video shouting, “the terrorist is still alive,” and the “the dog is still alive.”
During the trial, the court heard that what Azaria did was very much routine practice by the Israeli army, who murder Palestinians in the West Bank on a routine basis.
“In terrorist incidents I witnessed, I saw with my own eyes that in every instance in which a terrorist attacked, soldiers shot him in the centre of mass until he was neutralized … and [shot] a bullet to the head to ensure that the terrorist could not set off a suicide belt or continue the attack. These soldiers never went to court,” a long-time civilian security chief for Jewish settlers in Hebron, told the court.
The Palestinians who filmed the video and gave it to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem have received death threats for exposing the crime.
Many other Palestinians spend far longer in jail than Azaria, often for “crimes” that amount to nothing more than simply speaking out against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
Palestinian poet and photographer Dareen Tatour spent more than a year and three months in jail and house arrest for the “crime” of writing a poem entitled “Resist, my people, resist them.” The poem called on Palestinians to fight back against Israeli occupation, to “Resist the colonialist’s onslaught” and “Pay no mind to his agents among us.” Israel has a long history of criminalizing such literary expression of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Lina Khattab is a young Palestinian who in 2014 and 2015 spent almost as much time in jail as Azaria seems likely to now. Her “crime” was to dance at a protest against Israeli occupation, which they had deemed an “illegal demonstration.” Pretty much any demonstration Palestinians organize against occupation in the West Bank is deemed “illegal” by Israel, which likes to portray a thin veneer of legality for its sponsors and political allies in the West.
Israel’s “military courts” are sham show trials which have no credibility whatsoever when it comes to Palestinian accused. Judges and prosecutors alike are all Israeli soldiers, and we are supposed to buy the Israeli propaganda which claims that this fix of a system will hold the occupation authorities to account? No.
Israel’s kangaroo courts system has a 99.7 per cent conviction rate – for Palestinians alone. This is yet another cold hard fact which makes Israel’s system in the occupied West Bank a racist one – a systematic apartheid reality, backed to the hilt by the US and the EU.
- Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has been visiting Palestine since 2004 and is originally from south Wales. He writes for the award-winning Palestinian news site The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor.
(Israeli court sentenced Ahmad Sa'ida, 17, to 11 months on charges of incitement on Facebook.)
24 sept 2017
Nearly 53 mosques and churches in the occupied Palestinian territories have been vandalized by unknown perpetrators, who are believed to be extremist settlers, since 2009, according to Israeli data.
The latest of these attacks was on Wednesday and it targeted St. Stephanos Church in Beit Jamal Monastery near Beit Shemesh for the third time in five years, Haaretz newspaper reported.
The paper pointed out that many items were broken in the attack including the windows, some furniture, and a statue of the Virgin Mary.
In 2013, a firebomb was thrown at the church and hateful slogans were written on the walls, and in 2016, gravestones were vandalized in the monastery's cemetery. No suspects were arrested in the two incidents and no indictments were filed.
Haaretz said that between 2009 and July 2017, over 53 churches and mosques in the West Bank and the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories were vandalized based on data given by Israel's Ministry of Public Security.
The data show that seven people, whom identities and motives remained unknown, were convicted, while only nine indictments were filed. Around 45 cases were closed, and it is claimed that investigations in the other cases are still ongoing.
The Ministry did not present further details about the perpetrators and whether indictments were filed in each given case. However, it is likely that some extremist Jewish groups are behind these racist attacks.
According to the Hebrew newspaper, nine Christian and Islamic holy sites were vandalized in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, three similar attacks were recorded, but there were four in the first half of 2017.
01/04/16 Lehava Leader Again Calls for Torching Jerusalem Churches
The latest of these attacks was on Wednesday and it targeted St. Stephanos Church in Beit Jamal Monastery near Beit Shemesh for the third time in five years, Haaretz newspaper reported.
The paper pointed out that many items were broken in the attack including the windows, some furniture, and a statue of the Virgin Mary.
In 2013, a firebomb was thrown at the church and hateful slogans were written on the walls, and in 2016, gravestones were vandalized in the monastery's cemetery. No suspects were arrested in the two incidents and no indictments were filed.
Haaretz said that between 2009 and July 2017, over 53 churches and mosques in the West Bank and the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories were vandalized based on data given by Israel's Ministry of Public Security.
The data show that seven people, whom identities and motives remained unknown, were convicted, while only nine indictments were filed. Around 45 cases were closed, and it is claimed that investigations in the other cases are still ongoing.
The Ministry did not present further details about the perpetrators and whether indictments were filed in each given case. However, it is likely that some extremist Jewish groups are behind these racist attacks.
According to the Hebrew newspaper, nine Christian and Islamic holy sites were vandalized in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, three similar attacks were recorded, but there were four in the first half of 2017.
01/04/16 Lehava Leader Again Calls for Torching Jerusalem Churches
23 sept 2017
Lawyer Naela Atiyya from the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories on Saturday filed a lawsuit in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court demanding a re-investigation in the murder of the Palestinian girl Hadeel al-Hashlamon on 22nd September 2015.
Atiyya said on her Facebook page that she relied on the testimonies of a Brazilian witness and a Palestinian citizen named Fawwaz Abu Armileh who both were present when Hashlamon was premeditatedly killed.
She added that although the girl fell to the ground after being shot in the foot, an Israeli soldier shot her several times and left her to bleed for a long time. The soldiers even fired sound bombs at the Palestinian citizens and the Red Crescent crews who rushed to help her.
The lawyer affirmed that the surveillance cameras at the scene refute the soldiers' allegations, noting that a hearing will be held in the Supreme Court to unveil the truth.
Atiyya said on her Facebook page that she relied on the testimonies of a Brazilian witness and a Palestinian citizen named Fawwaz Abu Armileh who both were present when Hashlamon was premeditatedly killed.
She added that although the girl fell to the ground after being shot in the foot, an Israeli soldier shot her several times and left her to bleed for a long time. The soldiers even fired sound bombs at the Palestinian citizens and the Red Crescent crews who rushed to help her.
The lawyer affirmed that the surveillance cameras at the scene refute the soldiers' allegations, noting that a hearing will be held in the Supreme Court to unveil the truth.
