11 feb 2016
Palestinian citizen of Israel and political leader Ayman Odeh heads the Joint List.
A far-right Israeli extremist was reportedly detained after threatening the life of Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Ayman Odeh.
The MK, member of the Joint List party, said the extremist was detained by Israeli police who carried out investigations into comments left by the Israeli on social media.
Odeh said he held Israeli authorities “fully responsible” for violations committed against Palestinians, slamming attempts by the Israeli right to prevent Palestinians from realizing their rights.
An Israeli police spokesperson said they could not confirm or deny any current cases "that involve threats to an Arab MK."
The reported threat on Odeh’s life came days after three MK’s, also from the Joint List, were temporarily suspended from the Knesset on Monday after visiting the families of Palestinians who were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis.
Their suspension was carried out after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu filed complaints against the three with the Knesset Ethics Committee.
The move was met with fury from some on the left and exacerbated longstanding frustration from members of the Joint List party who say they have faced staunch resistance from the Israeli government.
The party was formed during the last round of Israeli elections, composed of four Palestinian parties who united to fight for the rights of Israel’s Palestinian minority which has faced systematic discrimination for decades.
A draft bill was submitted earlier this week that if approved could see MK’s suspended if voted for by three-quarters of the Knesset, a move that the Joint list fears will lead to further racial discrimination against their party.
A far-right Israeli extremist was reportedly detained after threatening the life of Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Ayman Odeh.
The MK, member of the Joint List party, said the extremist was detained by Israeli police who carried out investigations into comments left by the Israeli on social media.
Odeh said he held Israeli authorities “fully responsible” for violations committed against Palestinians, slamming attempts by the Israeli right to prevent Palestinians from realizing their rights.
An Israeli police spokesperson said they could not confirm or deny any current cases "that involve threats to an Arab MK."
The reported threat on Odeh’s life came days after three MK’s, also from the Joint List, were temporarily suspended from the Knesset on Monday after visiting the families of Palestinians who were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis.
Their suspension was carried out after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu filed complaints against the three with the Knesset Ethics Committee.
The move was met with fury from some on the left and exacerbated longstanding frustration from members of the Joint List party who say they have faced staunch resistance from the Israeli government.
The party was formed during the last round of Israeli elections, composed of four Palestinian parties who united to fight for the rights of Israel’s Palestinian minority which has faced systematic discrimination for decades.
A draft bill was submitted earlier this week that if approved could see MK’s suspended if voted for by three-quarters of the Knesset, a move that the Joint list fears will lead to further racial discrimination against their party.
21 jan 2016
Two Israeli teenagers suspected of scrawling hate speech on a historic church in occupied East Jerusalem, earlier this week, have been arrested, according to Israeli police.
A spokesperson said that a 16-year-old Jewish suspect was arrested on Tuesday and another Jewish teen, aged 15, was arrested on Wednesday, following ongoing police investigations.
The two are suspected of writing “Nazi and anti-Christian slogans” on the walls of the Dormition Abbey, al-Samri said.
Wadie Abu Nassar, a senior advisor to the Catholic Church who is considered close to the Vatican, told Ma'an on Saturday that racist vandalism, written in Hebrew, read: "Kill the Christians, the enemy of Israel" and "The revenge is coming very soon," as well as "Send Christians to hell.”
Dormition Abbey -- dating back to the 5th century and thought to be the place where the Virgin Mary died -- has been site to hate crimes in the past.
Jewish extremist Yinon Reuveni was charged earlier this month, along with several minors, for torching the church in a previous attack.
The extremist was charged during the same investigation that charged two Israeli suspects for an arson attack that killed three members of the Palestinian Dawabsha family in the occupied West Bank, last summer.
The investigation gained international attention following the deadly attack, which raised criticism against the Israeli government for granting impunity to Israelis who carry out attacks on Palestinians and their property.
The UN reported in September that complaints lodged against such attacks have a 91 percent chance of being dismissed without effective action, whereas around 95 percent of complaints filed by Israelis against Palestinians proceed to court.
A spokesperson said that a 16-year-old Jewish suspect was arrested on Tuesday and another Jewish teen, aged 15, was arrested on Wednesday, following ongoing police investigations.
The two are suspected of writing “Nazi and anti-Christian slogans” on the walls of the Dormition Abbey, al-Samri said.
Wadie Abu Nassar, a senior advisor to the Catholic Church who is considered close to the Vatican, told Ma'an on Saturday that racist vandalism, written in Hebrew, read: "Kill the Christians, the enemy of Israel" and "The revenge is coming very soon," as well as "Send Christians to hell.”
Dormition Abbey -- dating back to the 5th century and thought to be the place where the Virgin Mary died -- has been site to hate crimes in the past.
Jewish extremist Yinon Reuveni was charged earlier this month, along with several minors, for torching the church in a previous attack.
The extremist was charged during the same investigation that charged two Israeli suspects for an arson attack that killed three members of the Palestinian Dawabsha family in the occupied West Bank, last summer.
The investigation gained international attention following the deadly attack, which raised criticism against the Israeli government for granting impunity to Israelis who carry out attacks on Palestinians and their property.
The UN reported in September that complaints lodged against such attacks have a 91 percent chance of being dismissed without effective action, whereas around 95 percent of complaints filed by Israelis against Palestinians proceed to court.
14 jan 2016
Israeli prosecutors, on Wednesday, called for life sentences with regard to two young Jewish extremists convicted, last year, of burning a Palestinian teen alive, part of an upsurge in violence ahead of the 2014 Gaza war.
Prosecutors, according to World Bulletin/Al Ray, made the request at a sentencing hearing in a Jerusalem court for the two, who were minors at the time of the chilling attack in which they and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him.
Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, is said to have led the attack on Abu Khdeir but his lawyers say he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time.
Ben-David had reportedly undergone psychiatric treatment in the past, in connection with another incident in which he attempted to strangle his own infant daughter.
When appearing for the arraignment, was reported to say at the entrance hall: "I am the messiah."
The court has found that he committed the crime, but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent.
The two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults.
Prosecutors, according to World Bulletin/Al Ray, made the request at a sentencing hearing in a Jerusalem court for the two, who were minors at the time of the chilling attack in which they and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him.
Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, is said to have led the attack on Abu Khdeir but his lawyers say he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time.
Ben-David had reportedly undergone psychiatric treatment in the past, in connection with another incident in which he attempted to strangle his own infant daughter.
When appearing for the arraignment, was reported to say at the entrance hall: "I am the messiah."
The court has found that he committed the crime, but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent.
The two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults.
13 jan 2016
Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem held a hearing for the three Israelis who burned the Palestinian child Mohammad Abu Khdair alive in 2014.
Two minors and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him by burning him alive.
The court has found that Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, have led the attack on Abu Khdeir and that he committed the crime but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent. His lawyers say that he suffers from a mental illness and that he was not responsible for his actions at the time.
The lawyers also claim that the two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults. They cannot be identified by court order.
In an interview with the PIC reporter, both of Abu Khdeir's parents who attended the hearing and demanded sentences of life imprisonment for the three Israeli criminals, condemned those pretenses and claims and described them as mere justification to avoid convicting them with severe sanctions.
The father of Abu Khdair, Hussein, called on Israeli authorities to demolish the houses of the assailants' families as they regularly do with Palestinians convicted of attacks.
The father also said if the court rules that the killer is mentally incompetent, the family will prosecute him in the international courts.
Abu Khdeir was kidnapped from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on July 2, 2014 and beaten, with his burned body found hours later in a forest in the western part of the city. A forensic report showed smoke in his lungs, indicating he was alive when set alight.
The lawyer of the family Muhanad Jebarah said that the court convicted both Israeli minors of planning, kidnapping and burning the Palestinian minor Abu Khdair, and convicted them for attempt of abducting and killing child Mousa Zalloum while walking with his mother in Beit Haneena district in the northern Occupied Jerusalem.
Israel's racist laws mean Jews are treated totally differently in their courts. Even Palestinians under direct Israeli rule qre discriminated against.
Earlier this week, Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court sentenced a Jewish man who stabbed an Arab last April to 21 months in prison. Oz Segal, who was convicted of causing injury under aggravated circumstances and possessing a knife, will also have to pay the victim 12,000 shekels ($3,000) in compensation.
Oz Segal's house will not be demolished because he is a Jew. His family will not be arrested and will not be prevented from travel. Because they are Jews.
Two minors and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him by burning him alive.
The court has found that Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, have led the attack on Abu Khdeir and that he committed the crime but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent. His lawyers say that he suffers from a mental illness and that he was not responsible for his actions at the time.
The lawyers also claim that the two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults. They cannot be identified by court order.
In an interview with the PIC reporter, both of Abu Khdeir's parents who attended the hearing and demanded sentences of life imprisonment for the three Israeli criminals, condemned those pretenses and claims and described them as mere justification to avoid convicting them with severe sanctions.
The father of Abu Khdair, Hussein, called on Israeli authorities to demolish the houses of the assailants' families as they regularly do with Palestinians convicted of attacks.
The father also said if the court rules that the killer is mentally incompetent, the family will prosecute him in the international courts.
Abu Khdeir was kidnapped from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on July 2, 2014 and beaten, with his burned body found hours later in a forest in the western part of the city. A forensic report showed smoke in his lungs, indicating he was alive when set alight.
The lawyer of the family Muhanad Jebarah said that the court convicted both Israeli minors of planning, kidnapping and burning the Palestinian minor Abu Khdair, and convicted them for attempt of abducting and killing child Mousa Zalloum while walking with his mother in Beit Haneena district in the northern Occupied Jerusalem.
Israel's racist laws mean Jews are treated totally differently in their courts. Even Palestinians under direct Israeli rule qre discriminated against.
Earlier this week, Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court sentenced a Jewish man who stabbed an Arab last April to 21 months in prison. Oz Segal, who was convicted of causing injury under aggravated circumstances and possessing a knife, will also have to pay the victim 12,000 shekels ($3,000) in compensation.
Oz Segal's house will not be demolished because he is a Jew. His family will not be arrested and will not be prevented from travel. Because they are Jews.
12 jan 2016
Israel decided to use torture against it’s own, as the internal intelligence service, last year, struggled with the uncovering of a murder case against the Palestinian baby Ali Dawabsha and his parents, Riham and Saad. They were killed on July 31, last year, in their home, in the village of Douma, when Israeli settlers threw a Molotov cocktail into the house.
Excerpts of the fundamentalists’ plan
According to the PNN, the case has evolved from not only a cold-blooded murder, but also the unveiling of a political scandal. Behind the murder of the young family was a network of illegal Jewish settlers with a fundamentalist plan to get Israel to collapse in favor of a new messianic kingdom of Israel where the occupied Palestinian areas are today.
“Initially would all Arabs and non-Jews be warned that they were to leave the country. In the second phase, the plan was immediately to kill all who refuse to leave the country, including women and children.”
Interrogations have, according to Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, led to the unveiling of a Jewish underground network which upholds the sensational goal of evoking a political and violent chaos that was to cause Israel to collapse, and with the right to expel or kill Christians, Muslim and other non-Jewish citizens ("goyim").
Caspit has, in the magazine al-Monitor, described how the underground network would promote its fundamentalist revolt by killing Arabs.
Reportedly, the expectation was to pit the Arab world and the international community against Israel, undermine the authority of the central government and create chaos that would lead to a revolt. Then, during the revolt, the reins of government would be placed in the hands of those believing in the supremacy of the Torah over democracy.
The murder of the Dawabsha family was not the network’s first act of violence. The intelligence service was already on the trail of Jewish fundamentalists who previously had put churches and mosques on fire in the West Bank.
But, according to Israeli press, the murder and the heavy-handed interrogation of the Israelis led to the unveiling of the plan to get Israel to collapse.
The case has attracted attention in Israel. The Jewish underground network that threatened Israel from within has, according to Caspit, been covered by 30-40 activists who have carried out terror against Palestinians.
In addition, another group of about 100 young settlers have supported acts of terrorism and even been part of the fundamentalist network, residents of various illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Israeli commentator, further several hundred, and “perhaps several thousand ‘, have supported the network’s idea to seek that Israel be replaced by a Judaic kingdom.
Controversial use of torture
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein gave, according to the newspaper Ha’aretz and other Israeli newspapers, a green light for the internal security service Shin Bet to make use of torture.
Defense lawyers of the three Jewish Israeli youth who were arrested and charged with the murders, according to forward.com, complained that their clients were blindfolded, deprived of sleep and beaten as part of the interrogation.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, considered the settlers’ chief spokesman of the government, defended the police:
“Those like we, who support the Shin Bet’s actions against Palestinian terrorism to save Jewish lives, cannot resist (these actions, ed.), when applied against Jewish terrorism,” said Bennett, according to the Times of Israel.
The Israeli human rights movement B’Tselem, which often criticizes the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, has also complained in this case:
“People during interrogation must, under no circumstances, be subjected to maltreatment and torture,” said B’Tselem.
According to Caspit, the security services reckon that the incident in Douma was one of the formative causes for the eruption of the Palestinian revolt wave that broke out in October.
“The perception, that Israel hurries to solve Arab acts of ‘terror’ but is not capable of subduing Jewish terror, aroused much agitation among the Palestinians and, also, internal criticism in Israel.”
Related: 05/19/15 Netanyahu: Talmud Will be the Basis of Israeli Law
Excerpts of the fundamentalists’ plan
According to the PNN, the case has evolved from not only a cold-blooded murder, but also the unveiling of a political scandal. Behind the murder of the young family was a network of illegal Jewish settlers with a fundamentalist plan to get Israel to collapse in favor of a new messianic kingdom of Israel where the occupied Palestinian areas are today.
“Initially would all Arabs and non-Jews be warned that they were to leave the country. In the second phase, the plan was immediately to kill all who refuse to leave the country, including women and children.”
Interrogations have, according to Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, led to the unveiling of a Jewish underground network which upholds the sensational goal of evoking a political and violent chaos that was to cause Israel to collapse, and with the right to expel or kill Christians, Muslim and other non-Jewish citizens ("goyim").
Caspit has, in the magazine al-Monitor, described how the underground network would promote its fundamentalist revolt by killing Arabs.
Reportedly, the expectation was to pit the Arab world and the international community against Israel, undermine the authority of the central government and create chaos that would lead to a revolt. Then, during the revolt, the reins of government would be placed in the hands of those believing in the supremacy of the Torah over democracy.
The murder of the Dawabsha family was not the network’s first act of violence. The intelligence service was already on the trail of Jewish fundamentalists who previously had put churches and mosques on fire in the West Bank.
But, according to Israeli press, the murder and the heavy-handed interrogation of the Israelis led to the unveiling of the plan to get Israel to collapse.
The case has attracted attention in Israel. The Jewish underground network that threatened Israel from within has, according to Caspit, been covered by 30-40 activists who have carried out terror against Palestinians.
In addition, another group of about 100 young settlers have supported acts of terrorism and even been part of the fundamentalist network, residents of various illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Israeli commentator, further several hundred, and “perhaps several thousand ‘, have supported the network’s idea to seek that Israel be replaced by a Judaic kingdom.
Controversial use of torture
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein gave, according to the newspaper Ha’aretz and other Israeli newspapers, a green light for the internal security service Shin Bet to make use of torture.
Defense lawyers of the three Jewish Israeli youth who were arrested and charged with the murders, according to forward.com, complained that their clients were blindfolded, deprived of sleep and beaten as part of the interrogation.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, considered the settlers’ chief spokesman of the government, defended the police:
“Those like we, who support the Shin Bet’s actions against Palestinian terrorism to save Jewish lives, cannot resist (these actions, ed.), when applied against Jewish terrorism,” said Bennett, according to the Times of Israel.
The Israeli human rights movement B’Tselem, which often criticizes the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, has also complained in this case:
“People during interrogation must, under no circumstances, be subjected to maltreatment and torture,” said B’Tselem.
According to Caspit, the security services reckon that the incident in Douma was one of the formative causes for the eruption of the Palestinian revolt wave that broke out in October.
“The perception, that Israel hurries to solve Arab acts of ‘terror’ but is not capable of subduing Jewish terror, aroused much agitation among the Palestinians and, also, internal criticism in Israel.”
Related: 05/19/15 Netanyahu: Talmud Will be the Basis of Israeli Law
A conscientious objector to the Israeli occupation force will spend at least 20 days in jail.
Tair Kaminer reported to an Israeli military induction base in Tel Hashomer, on Sunday.
There, the 19-year-old announced her refusal to serve in the Israeli military and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.
A statement by Kaminer reads: “I will not take an active part in the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and in the injustice to the Palestinian people that is perpetrated again and again under this occupation.”
Kaminer told the Refuser Solidarity Network that the hundreds of messages of support she has received give her strength.
Tair Kaminer reported to an Israeli military induction base in Tel Hashomer, on Sunday.
There, the 19-year-old announced her refusal to serve in the Israeli military and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.
A statement by Kaminer reads: “I will not take an active part in the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and in the injustice to the Palestinian people that is perpetrated again and again under this occupation.”
Kaminer told the Refuser Solidarity Network that the hundreds of messages of support she has received give her strength.
3 jan 2016
An Israeli court, on Sunday morning, indicted two Jewish Israeli extremists suspected in the July arson attack on a Palestinian home which killed a baby and his parents — a case that has been unsolved for months and fueled the current rise of tensions.
The arson attack in the West Bank village of Douma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived with third-level injuries.
The firebombing, carried out at night while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis.
AP said, according to the PNN, that the long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main suspect in the attack. A minor was charged as an accessory.
Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.
The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabsha family home and, then, tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. Ben-Uliel’s parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation.
But, critics have said that similar, albeit not deadly, attacks have festered for years with little action by the government. And for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity.
The Israeli security service (Shin Bet) said Sunday that the suspects admitted to carrying out the Douma attack, claiming it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler by Palestinians a month earlier.
It said all the suspects were part of a group of extremists that had carried out a series of attacks over the years in a religiously inspired campaign to undermine the government and sow fear among non-Jews.
Nasser Dawabsha, Saad’s brother, said the indictments were not enough.
“It’s clear the Israeli institutions are not serious,” he said. “It’s clear there was an organization behind this crime, even the media knows that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers.”
Jewish extremists have for years vandalized or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called “price tag” attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favoring the Palestinians.
The extremists are part of a movement known as the “hilltop youth,” a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops — land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet.
The Douma attack was one of the main reasons for the current spark of violence in the occupied West Bank, showing Palestinian frustration by years of unchecked settler violence.
During the past three months, over 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and 22 settlers on the Israeli side.
The arson attack in the West Bank village of Douma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived with third-level injuries.
The firebombing, carried out at night while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis.
AP said, according to the PNN, that the long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main suspect in the attack. A minor was charged as an accessory.
Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.
The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabsha family home and, then, tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. Ben-Uliel’s parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation.
But, critics have said that similar, albeit not deadly, attacks have festered for years with little action by the government. And for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity.
The Israeli security service (Shin Bet) said Sunday that the suspects admitted to carrying out the Douma attack, claiming it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler by Palestinians a month earlier.
It said all the suspects were part of a group of extremists that had carried out a series of attacks over the years in a religiously inspired campaign to undermine the government and sow fear among non-Jews.
Nasser Dawabsha, Saad’s brother, said the indictments were not enough.
“It’s clear the Israeli institutions are not serious,” he said. “It’s clear there was an organization behind this crime, even the media knows that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers.”
Jewish extremists have for years vandalized or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called “price tag” attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favoring the Palestinians.
The extremists are part of a movement known as the “hilltop youth,” a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops — land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet.
The Douma attack was one of the main reasons for the current spark of violence in the occupied West Bank, showing Palestinian frustration by years of unchecked settler violence.
During the past three months, over 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and 22 settlers on the Israeli side.
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