country:palestinian authority

  • Palestinian officials criticize Abbas for delaying UN resolution against settlements- Haaretz.Com
    http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page///.premium-1.716196

    The resolution has been postponed so as not to sabotage the French initiative for an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, but not all PA officials think it smart to rely solely on the French initiative.
    By Jack Khoury | Apr. 25, 2016 |

    Senior Palestinian officials, including some from Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, are criticizing the Palestinian Authority president’s decision to postpone consideration of a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction.

    For the past several weeks, the Palestinians have been telling both Western diplomats and the media that they intend to demand a vote on the resolution, a move approved by both Fatah’s Central Committee and the PLO Executive Committee. Early this month Haaretz reported that the PA had distributed its proposed resolution to several UN Security Council members.

    But last week, Haaretz reported that the PA was leaning toward freezing the resolution, due to both pressure from France and a lack of enthusiasm among other Security Council members. France argued that the resolution would undermine its efforts to convene an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this summer.

    PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki confirmed the Haaretz report in New York this weekend, just a day after his office in Ramallah denied it.

    A senior Palestinian official told Haaretz that the Security Council resolution is important, but this is the wrong moment for two reasons. The first is that the French drive for an international conference is beginning to gain backing from other countries, especially in Europe, and the PA has always supported any move to internationalize the conflict.

    The second is that the PA is awaiting a report on construction in the settlements that the Middle East Quartet is slated to publish early next month. The Quartet consists of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.

    “We haven’t yet received the report, but we know there’s already a first draft, and the report is expected to attack construction in the settlements,” the official said. “From our standpoint, even if the report finds faults with our performance, it will be a basis for the conference that the French are promoting, and then even the U.S., which is part of the Quartet, won’t be able to oppose the [Security Council] move and the convening of the conference.”

    But a senior Fatah official termed the decision to postpone the resolution a mistake, saying there’s no contradiction between the resolution and the international conference.

    “If we capitulate to pressure now,” he said, “then perhaps in the future, we’ll be pressured to postpone the conference or cancel it, and then only Israel and the U.S. will gain more and more time.”

    A senior PA official countered that the main goal right now is to ensure the success of the French move, since it is the first serious attempt since the 1993 Oslo Accords to end America’s almost exclusive custody over the talks and transfer it to other countries, mainly European.

    But Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, said this was a mistake.

    “It’s impossible to rely solely on the French initiative, since to this day we don’t know what it’s based on, and on the other hand, we know very well that Israel and the U.S. won’t lend a hand to implementing such an important move, and Israel will continue building in the settlements and expropriating large parts of the West Bank as if there were no global public opinion,” he said. “Therefore, if there’s a trend we should support in practice, it’s increasing anti-Israel boycott activity and intensifying the popular struggle.”

  • Israel releases 12-year-old Palestinian suspected of attemtpted manslaughter
    April 24, 2016
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771271

    HEBRON (Ma’an) — The Israeli authorities on Sunday released 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi after she spent two-and-a-half months in Israeli prison for attempted manslaughter at an illegal Israeli settlement.

    Believed to have been the youngest female Palestinian prisoner held by Israel, al-Wawi’s parent filed requests for her release and Israel agreed to release the child two months early, alongside an 8,000 shekel ($2,100) plea deal payment.

    She was released at the Israeli military checkpoint Jubara in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarem, welcomed by the governor of Tulkarem Issam Abu Bakr and head of the Palestinian Authority’s Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe, among others.

    “The detention of children is a crime against humanity,” the governor said, adding that the Israeli occupation “violates children’s’ dignity and their right to live.”

    Issa Qaraqe also addressed those welcoming al-Wawi saying that Israel “practices the ugliest means of suppression and torture against Palestinian children.”(...)

    #Palestine #enfants_prisonniers

  • Corrupt Palestinian Officials Too Comfortable to Resist the Israeli Occupation -
    Palestinians don’t need the Panama Papers to expose what they see as corruption in the ranks of their leaders — there is visible concrete evidence of it everywhere.
    Amira Hass Apr 10, 2016 9:25 PM
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.713733

    The Palestinians are the last to be surprised over the recent Panama Papers revelations that indicate a connection between money and power among their leadership or, what in popular parlance, falls under the broad heading of “corruption.” There is nearly no daily conversation where allegations of corruption are not expressed, whether referring explicitly to individuals by name (cabinet ministers, senior members of the ruling Fatah party or NGO directors) or their institutions.

    In conversations with Palestinians, they speak of a broad range of corruption that they believe is present at top levels of society: Outright theft of public funds, receiving of bribes and other favors in return for services, hugely inflated salaries and favors paid to senior NGO officials and high-level political interference in the replacement of senior civil servants.

    Then there are the allegations of partnership interests of senior figures from the ruling party and government ministries in private businesses, the provision of public land to senior officials and the payment of huge sums from the political organization level for construction of homes, for medical care or to attend conferences abroad. There are allegations of relatives being appointed to government ministries (and one of the most common allegations is that every minister fills his ministry with locals from his own home region). People speak of officials drawing two salaries at the same time (for example, a senior official in a political organization, a former legislator). And this is just a partial list of allegations that render almost every senior figure or public official into a corrupt suspect, who is therefore untrustworthy.

    The animosity raging between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan also includes regular mutual recriminations of corruption. Last year a court in Ramallah dropped an indictment filed by the Palestinian prosecution against Dahlan over major embezzlement charges and ruled that the stripping of the immunity from prosecution that Dahlan had enjoyed as a legislator was not carried out according to the law.

    Dahlan’s associates regularly mention Abbas’ sons’ global business interests. They probably would have welcomed the Haaretz Panama Papers reporting by Uri Blau and Daniel Dolev regarding Abbas’ son Tareq and his hefty interests in a private company with links to the Palestinian Authority, but they would certainly not have been surprised.


    Tareq Abbas, son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, at his home in Ramallah, 2014.Rina Castelnuovo / NYT

    In a shtetl-like society, which the Palestinian one is, namely small and with extended families whose members are at almost every rung of the social ladder, everyone is exposed to some kind of incriminating morsel of information, in his own view, about senior people or what would fit the popular definition of corruption.

    And in contrast to the sparsity of written documents that may be exposed to bolster the allegations, there is other visible, concrete evidence of what is perceived as corruption: the ornate large private home or second home purchased by someone who is not known to hail from a wealthy family (meaning where the source of wealth is no longer questioned); the snazzy new car; the time spent at fancy clubs; and the use of official vehicles for personal purposes.

    The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research regularly asks if people think there is corruption at the institutions of the Palestinian Authority. In the most recent poll, published at the beginning of the month, 79 percent answered that there is, and this response has been more or less constant for years.

    In the interest of fair disclosure, in this writer’s opinion, the occupation (including the allocation of land on both sides of the Green Line to Jews alone) is the mother of all corruption, but that should not let the Palestinians off the hook easily. On the contrary, as part of a people fighting a despotic and fraudulent foreign occupation, the Palestinian leadership (the Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah and Hamas as well) is more highly obligated than anyone else to act with integrity. And they are failing the test.

    Under circumstances of occupation, it is natural the definition of corruption would be wide. When the newly-minted head of Israel’s Civil Administration in the territories, Munir Amar, was killed in a plane crash, several senior Fatah and Palestinian Authority officials, including political associates of Abbas, went to pay a condolence call. The Civil Administration is not a neutral Israeli entity. It should be remembered that it is the operational arm of a policy of land theft, water theft, home demolition, settlement, etc. Are their narrow personal interests (currying the favor of the overlords who issue the travel permits) the reason for the typical disregard that they have demonstrated towards their own people?

    The senior Palestinian Authority officials continue to securely remain in their posts, not as representatives of the people but rather under the auspices of international support for continued negotiations with Israel in advance of the “establishment of a Palestinian state.” That means continued support for a lie: the status quo of Israeli domination, accelerated colonization, a stable security situation that is undermined from time to time and pockets of Palestinian self-rule.

    In these pockets, one finds many senior officials and those linked to them who owe their personal and family wellbeing to that same status quo. In other words, they are incapable of turning the tables and imagining and developing a new and inclusive form of struggle (that does not necessarily require arms) against Israeli domination since that is liable to harm their economic status and that of those around them. And this is corruption.

    #Palestine #corruption

    • Un fils du président palestinien cité dans l’affaire des « Panama Papers »
      RFI | Nicolas Ropert | Publié le 08-04-2016
      http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20160408-fils-president-palestinien-cite-affaire-panama-papers

      Selon des informations du journal israélien Haaretz, Tarek Abbas disposerait d’un capital d’un million de dollars géré par le désormais fameux cabinet d’avocat panaméen Mossack Fonseca. Une somme qui provient, selon le quotidien, d’une société liée à l’Autorité palestinienne que dirige depuis 2005 Mahmoud Abbas. Une affaire qui ravive les accusations de corruption qui entourent régulièrement l’Autorité palestinienne.

  • Hamas slams detention of 3 Palestinians by PA as ’collaboration’ with Israel
    April 10, 2016 2:04 P.M. (Updated : April 10, 2016 3:22 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771069

    RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinian security forces found and detained three Palestinians on Saturday who had been reported missing, in a move slammed by the Hamas movement as collaboration between PA and Israeli authorities to thwart a planned attack inside Israel.

    The Hamas movement responded to the incident, accusing the Palestinian security services of “cooperation with the Israeli occupation” in the detention of three “resistance fighters.”

    Sources from the Palestinian general intelligence said an intelligence officer noticed three Palestinians walking Saturday in a mountainous area known locally as Ein al-Leimoon in the village of Mazari al-Nubani near Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.

    The officer reportedly thought the Palestinians were Israeli settlers, according to the sources, and notified his office who sent a joint force of Palestinian intelligence officers and police officers from the Arura police station.

    The Palestinians identified themselves to the forces as 33-year-old Basil Mahmoud al-Aaraj from al-Walaja village near Bethlehem, 23-year-old Muhammad Abdullah Harb from Jenin, and 19-year-old Haytham al-Sayyaj from Hebron.

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    L’AP arrête les 3 jeunes disparus et déjoue “une attaque à grande échelle” contre les Israéliens

    Le trio a été retrouvé au nord de Ramallah avec des grenades et des armes semi-automatiques ; des sources sécuritaires palestiniennes affirment qu’ils sont membres du Hamas

    Avi Issacharoff 10 avril 2016, 12:41
    http://fr.timesofisrael.com/lap-arrete-les-3-jeunes-disparus-et-dejoue-une-attaque-a-grande-ec

    • Five Palestinians Detained and Tortured by the Palestinian Security Forces
      11 April 2016
      http://www.addameer.org/news/five-palestinians-detained-and-tortured-palestinian-security-forces

      Ramallah - The Magistrate’s Court of the Palestinian Authority extended the detention of five young Palestinians for further interrogation. These extensions apply to the following detainees: Basil Al-Araj (33 years old), Mohammed Harb (23 years old), Haytham Siyaj (19 years old), Mohammed Al-Salamen (19 years old) and Ali Dar al Sheikh (22 years old). Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association’s attorney confirmed that the detainees were subjected to different forms of ill-treatment, including sitting in stress positions (Shabah), sleep deprivation, continued interrogation, beating all over the body, insults and denial of using bathroom – which they reported to an attorney during the court hearing. Since the arrest of the five young men, they have been denied access to attorney visits, despite having previous confirmation to the attorney that he would be able to enter. The Palestinian police forces have arrested three of them (Basil Al-Araj, Mohammed Harb and Haytham Siyaj) on Saturday night, near Ramallah, after which they were taken to Intelligence Unit in Ramallah. The other two young men were arrested a week before.

  • Israel restores electricity to West Bank after power cuts - The Washington Post
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-restores-electricity-to-west-bank-after-power-cuts/2016/04/06/5a3453fe-fc1d-11e5-813a-90ab563f0dde_story.html

    Israel’s state electricity corporation says it has restored power to Palestinian cities in the West Bank after a two-day reduction due to outstanding debt.

    The Israel Electricity Corp. said Wednesday it reached a stop-gap agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which will repay about $500,000 in debt. The company says the Palestinians owe it nearly $460 million.

    Israel halved electricity to Bethlehem on Monday.

    Company Chairman Yiftach Ron Tal says the Palestinian government must find a solution to the remaining debt within the coming days to prevent additional cuts.

  • US Congress blocks $159 million in aid to PA
    March 20, 2016 6:17 P.M. (Updated : March 20, 2016 6:22 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770770

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Members of the United States Congress are delaying a payment of $159 million in aid allocated for the Palestinian Authority in effort to pressure the PA to relaunch negotiations with Israel, the PLO ambassador to Washington said Saturday.

    Maen Erekat confirmed earlier reports that US Congress was blocking the payment, which came at the request of House Republican Kay Granger, the Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, under the pretext that the PA supports “terrorism.”

    The Obama administration allocated $440 million in aid to Palestinians for 2015, including $131 million for economic and development projects by USAID and $70 million for PA agencies and security agencies, while $80 million in aid was deducted following Israeli criticism of “incitement” by the PA last October.

    Erekat added that some “pro-Israel” congress members are continuing to pressure the PA to relaunch diplomatic negotiations with Israel, and prevent Palestinians from joining international organizations and conventions.

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    L’aide américaine aux Palestiniens bloquée
    Par Marc Henry Mis à jour le 03/10/2011
    http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2011/10/02/01003-20111002ARTFIG00229-l-aide-americaine-aux-palestiniens-bloquee.php

    Une partie du Congrès américain semble décidée à faire payer cher aux Palestiniens leur campagne pour l’adhésion de leur État à l’ONU. À titre d’avertissement, les élus américains ont bloqué le versement d’une tranche de 200 millions de dollars d’aide destinée à l’Autorité palestinienne. Le pactole correspond à un tiers de l’aide annuelle versée par les États-Unis. Cette sanction a été prise contre l’avis de Barack Obama par des membres du Congrès surtout républicains à l’approche de l’élection présidentielle de l’an prochain.

  • Israel cancels weekly visit from Gaza to Al-Aqsa
    March 16, 2016 10:56 P.M. (Updated : March 18, 2016 10:41 A.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770732

    GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Israeli authorities on Wednesday cancelled a weekly visit allowing elderly Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to travel to occupied East Jerusalem for Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Palestinian liaison officials.

    Sources at the Palestinian liaison office said that Israel had called off the agreement, which previously allowed 200 Gazans above the age of 60 to worship at the holy site as part of a ceasefire agreement that ended the 2014 Gaza war.

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    850 Gaza Christians receive permits to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem
    March 19, 2016 7:50 P.M. (Updated : March 19, 2016 9:24 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770761

    GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hundreds of Christian Palestinians from the Gaza Strip will travel to celebrate Easter in Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem after the Israeli authorities agreed to grant them permits, a Palestinian Authority official said Saturday.

    Muhammad al-Maqadma, a public information officer for the Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs, told Ma’an that Israel had granted around 850 permits to Gaza Christians of different ages to travel to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

    Al-Maqadma said the permits were the result of “dedicated efforts” by Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh in order to enable hundreds of Christians to celebrate the holidays within a span of 45 days.

    This is the first time such a large number of Christians from Gaza received permits to travel to the West Bank and Jerusalem, al-Maqadma added.

  • Israel stops Indonesia’s foreign minister from meeting with PA: Report | Middle East Eye | Sunday 13 March 2016
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-stops-indonesias-foreign-minister-meeting-pa-report-85254246

    Israeli authorities reportedly stopped Indonesia’s foreign minister from entering Ramallah to visit the Palestinian authority, local media has reported.

    The Israeli decision to prevent Retno Marsudi’s entry to Ramallah was sparked when she refused to meet with Israeli government officials in Jerusalem, Haaretz reported.

    Marsudi was reportedly travelling to Ramallah to dedicate an honorary Indonesian consulate to the PA and to meet Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and President Mahmoud Abbas.

    There are no diplomatic ties between Indonesia and Israel, but Haartez reported that, in recent days, there has been contact between the two countries as Israeli officials insisted that if Marsudi visited Ramallah, she would also need to meet with Israeli politicians in Jerusalem.

  • PA leaders meet with Israel, threaten to end security coordination
    March 3, 2016 12:21 P.M. (Updated: March 3, 2016 12:27 P.M.)
    https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770538

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A delegation from the Palestinian Authority (PA) officially warned Israeli authorities several days ago that the Palestinian government would end its security coordination with Israel if the state did not “commit to past agreements,” a member of the PLO executive committee told Ma’an.

    Wassel Abu Youssef said the head of PA Intelligence Majed Faraj, as well as the Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh and head of PA preventive security Ziyad Hab al-Reeh, met with an Israeli security delegation to deliver the warning.

    The PA delegation informed their Israeli counterparts that the PLO Central Council came to an official decision to work towards ending security coordination with Israel if the “current situation” were to continue, Abu Youssef said.

    Abu Youssef stressed that Palestinian leadership does not fear the consequences of ending security coordination, as Israel is already “carrying out an open war against Palestinians.”

    He added that the decision to end security coordination has the support of other Arab countries.

    Abu Youssef said PA leaderships expects to be contacted by Israeli authorities trying to challenge the Palestinian government and to pressure the PA to reconsider its stance.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made the same announcement during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Oct. 30.

    While many understood the president’s speech to be groundbreaking, no clear changes have been made in regards to security cooperation between the PA and Israel in occupied Palestinian territory.

    #retenez-moi_ou

  • Palestinian Authority Treats Its Own People as the Enemy
    Israeli policy dictates the impoverishment and unemployment in the West Bank, but coping with it falls on the shoulders of the PA, the buffer between the principal culprit and the people.

    Amira Hass Feb 24, 2016 1

    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.705076

    “Where are you; don’t you know what’s going on?”
    “I’m busy with demolitions.”
    “Forget the demolitions; checkpoints are surrounding every town.”
    “You mean the army still thinks that’s a deterrent?”
    “Forget the Jews; all the Palestinian Authority security services set up checkpoints this morning at the exits from the cities and the entrance to Ramallah/El Bireh, to prevent the teachers from attending a demonstration against the failure to honor wage agreements signed with them back in 2013. What have we come to? What have we come to?”
    Yesterday, the PA security services set up rings of checkpoints in the Area A enclaves, where Israel allows the Palestinian police to carry weapons. They removed teachers from buses and threatened to confiscate their identity cards. The buses hired to transport the teachers were told to go back home. Taxi drivers were told they would lose their licenses if they drove demonstrators.

  • ’Call Me a Terrorist, but I’m No Different From Israeli Troops Defending Their Homeland’ - Israel News - Haaretz
    Some thoughts on the true source of incitement against and hatred of Israelis from a Palestinian who spent 23 years in jail for killing one.
    Gideon Levy and Alex Levac Feb 19, 2016 1:10 PM
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.704179

    Najah Mohammed Muqbel, a Fatah activist who served 23 years in prison for the murder of an Israeli, Yaakov Shalom. Alex Levac

    As we make our way down a narrow, dark alley barely wide enough to walk through, on the way to the house of mourning, Najah Mohammed Muqbel bends over to pick up a few spent cartridges. “You see, this is the material that incites our children,” he says.

    In 1990, Muqbel was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Yaakov Shalom in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Karem. Released after 23 years, he is now a key activist in Fatah, talking on the movement’s behalf in West Bank schools.

    “We do not want to die and we do not send our children to die,” he says, before we enter the small, cramped home of Omar Madi, a teenager who was killed last week by Israeli soldiers in the Al-Arroub refugee camp. “No father wants his child to die. But sometimes our children make decisions that are bigger than their age.”

    Al-Arroub, on the main road between Bethlehem and Hebron, is one of the most squalid of refugee camps, and one of the most militant. We are also joined accompanied by Thomas Huelse, an Israeli automotive engineer of German origin who has “adopted” a family living in the camp. The mother of the family is from Deir al-Assad, in the Galilee; the father is from Al-Arroub. Their house overlooks the cemetery, where Omar, the young shahid (martyr for the cause), was killed. Omar’s home is situated at the other end of the camp, next to the approach road that the Israel Defense Forces has sealed off with large concrete blocks, not far from the army guard tower that dominates the landscape.

    The bereaved parents, Naama and Yusuf Madi, and their 10 remaining children huddle in the house. Anguish is etched on the face of the father, a hardscrabble laborer of 52, employed by the Bethlehem Municipality.

    The event occurred last Wednesday, February 10. A few youths threw stones at soldiers who, as usual, had infiltrated deep into the camp. One bullet struck Omar. He wasn’t yet 16; he died 10 days before his birthday, his mother tells us. The last time she saw him was on the roof of their house, when he asked her to wash his sports shoes, which were muddy. She told him she’d wash them with the rainwater collected in the tank on the roof, and that he should clean up afterward. Omar then went to pray in the mosque. And afterward “the story ended,” in Naama’s words.

    Omar Madi’s parents.Alex Levac

    Shots were heard in the camp. Her heart told her it was her son, and at Al-Mizan Hospital in Hebron a short time later she saw his body. The bullet had entered Omar by way of his right hip and exited through the left one; he was declared dead shortly afterward by the hospital staff.

    Many young people in the camp are wearing black T-shirts with Omar’s photo emblazoned on them.

    “They [the soldiers] murdered him in cold blood,” one of the teen’s brothers says. “They have no pity for the old or for the young,” their mother adds. “What reason do the soldiers have to walk around the camp every day,” the dead boy’s father asks, and then answers himself: “They come so the children will throw stones at them and then they can kill them.”

    This is now a house of rage. It’s not hard to guess what will take root here. On the day after the killing, when the family had just begun to mourn, soldiers arrived at the house to arrest one of the other children, claiming he had thrown stones. The family resisted and the soldiers left.

    “It is our right to throw stones at soldiers and we will insist on it,” one of the brothers says.

    The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit stated this week, in reply to a query from Haaretz: “This incident is being investigated by the Military Police. Upon completion of the investigation, the findings will be conveyed to the military advocate general for examination.”

    “No child here can differentiate between Israeli, Jew, Zionist, soldier or civilian. For our children, every Israeli is a Jew and every Jew is a soldier and every soldier is hostile,” Muqbel tells us in his excellent Hebrew, acquired during almost a quarter-century in prison.

    “I was ‘born’ on Oct. 30, 2013. I am a boy with a mustache, I am 2 years old,” he says, referring to the date of his release from prison, as part of Israel’s goodwill gestures to the Palestinians during negotiations led by Secretary of State John Kerry.

    A native of the camp, Muqbel now wears a tie and has a Jeep at his disposal thanks to his work for Fatah. He described his approach to the present situation at length, and it’s worth listening to.

    “We used to think that the killing of children was a ‘mistake.’ Now,” he explained, “we believe that there is an IDF policy to kill children, to execute our children. After all, a child’s body shows that he is a child. The soldier knows he is a child. If you think that this is a message that will help you, you are wrong. These children are a new generation of hatred. Not incitement, not Abu Mazen [i.e., Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas], not Hamas – the true source of incitement is the behavior of the Israeli soldier and whoever gives him his orders.

    “Once,” Muqbel continued, “your way of thinking was that our old people would die and the young ones would forget. I am telling you in all seriousness: We, the old ones, will die, but the next generation believes [in the cause] more than we do. It’s a generation that does not listen to any leader. Believe me or don’t believe me: The parents have no hand in the matter. The real lesson the child learns is this refugee camp. Did you see the entrance to Al-Arroub? It’s open for one hour and closed for two. And what are the soldiers doing inside the camp? Would you stop a child from throwing stones at them? It is you who are making them throw stones and afterward be killed.

    “What did the person who jumped from the 80th floor of the Twin Towers think to himself? What pushed him to jump and die? The hope that maybe he would live, despite everything. If you understand that, you will not ask what makes the children try to assassinate Israelis. Our weapons are dirty, because we don’t have smart ones. A stone, a knife ... If we had smart weapons like you, we would aim them at your army bases. It’s not easy for a person to kill or murder a human being. I know, it supposedly happens only in the jungle, between animals.

    “Maybe you were a soldier in the past. Maybe you killed. Why don’t you see me as a soldier, in exactly the same way you see your soldier as a hero who is guarding the homeland? Look at me. Say ‘terrorist,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘criminal’ – it’s of no interest to me. We are the soldiers of our people. When I got married, I was asked what I would say to the mother of the person I had killed, with me celebrating and him underground. I allowed myself to say that there is no difference between a bereaved Palestinian mother and a bereaved Israeli mother, and it is their right to be angry. But every war has a price and it is paid by the ordinary people. Not by the leaders. Pain has no answer and pain has no price. I paid 23 years of my life. How can you put a value on that?

    “The feeling that allows me to accept myself is that I did something for my people. But what will you say to the mother of one of our children who was killed? Why do you always ask us about our killing? I am the one who killed Yaakov Shalom. By my act, I cried out that I exist. I was 24, and that was my response to Ami Popper, who murdered seven Palestinian workers. I knew it would not bring about the liberation of the homeland, but I believed that I had to take action. To make the Israelis and the world look at me. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe we didn’t gain anything. I’ve seen children who were killed for hoisting a [Palestinian] flag. Today those flags are sold in stores and their importer is an Israeli, a Zionist, maybe even a demobilized soldier. You have to understand, there’s no going back.

    “Even though we are now weak, our strength lies in our weakness, and your strength in your Dimona [i.e., nuclear] project. But we will come back to life. We know that the way is long and the war will continue. But neither a fence nor a tank nor a plane, neither the Arrow nor Iron Dome will be able to withstand the will of a people to live with dignity. I give talks as a volunteer in schools and I teach our children love of the homeland and how it can be realized. I teach them that an uprising is not only with weapons, it is also with the pen, with a poem, with music, with a play – a weapon is the last thing.

    “The only resource the Palestinians have is people. We have no other resources. Accordingly, we have to forge a people who will have values, who will know how to love the homeland and preserve it, who will understand that weapons are only a small part of this. This morning, on the way to taking my daughter to my mother, I saw cartridges all over the road. That is the instrument of incitement, and it is everywhere. Your children are not familiar with this. All you have is the pepper spray that mothers carry in their purses, and the knives that young people take to clubs.

    “Netanyahu wants to put cardboard over the eyes of Israelis, so you will see reality only through the holes he makes in it. In war there are victims, but what is happening now is executions. There is a famous photograph from the second intifada of an Israeli soldier confronting a child with a stone and not shooting him. There was a time when you took pride in that picture.”

    #Palestine

  • Young Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces in Bethlehem-area clashes
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770363

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A young Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces during clashes in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Fajjar on Friday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

    The Palestinian Authority ministry said Khaled Yousif Taqatqa , 21, was shot in clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian protesters in the village south of Bethlehem, and died as a result of his injuries at the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

    Taqatqa is the third Palestinian killed by Israeli security forces on Friday.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent was informed that Taqatqa had been injured, but was prevented by Israeli forces from reaching him on the scene, Red Crescent spokesperson Errab Foqoha told Ma’an.

    An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into the report.

    Many villages in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem participate in weekly Friday protests. Israeli forces have received criticism for excessive use force as well as lethal methods of crowd control that often result in death or injury of protesters during these demonstrations.

    At least 11 Palestinians were reported injured by live bullets and rubber-coated steel bullets in protests in the West Bank and Gaza on Friday.

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • Army Terror Against the Palestinians That Journalists Only Yawn at - Haaretz -
    Amira Hass Feb 17, 2016
    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.703805

    “We’re not allowed to talk to you,” the soldiers said Monday, offering instead a piece of paper written in Hebrew with an appeal in the name of the “Military Commander, Binyamin Sector.” On Sunday evening they invaded the home of a family in the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, southwest of Ramallah. They ordered the family to take their living-room furniture out of the room, placed a bright yellow chemical toilet in the yard, and hung two Israeli flags on the roof.

    Eleven people live in that well-kept house on a hill in the southern part of the village. Five or six soldiers have ensconced themselves in the living room and occasionally go up to the roof or into the garden. The women say that even though the soldiers put a portable toilet in the yard, they urinate off the balcony.

    Turning a Palestinian residence into a military position is a yawn for journalists. A yawn represented by the failure to report; by the lack of public interest. Children’s fear of rifles, the disruption of family life and violent invasive acts have become a natural norm in a state where settlers’ needs define everything.

    “Dear residents, recently a number of attempts by young people to attack Israeli citizens in your area have occurred,” states the piece of paper the soldiers handed out. “In response, military forces have been forced to act in the village to prevent the continuation of danger to the citizens’ security.

    “The military activity of the military forces in the village is intended to reduce the number of violent incidents against Israeli citizens traveling on roads and living in the area, to protect the security of the region, not to disrupt your routine.”

    Routine: Military jeeps keep entering the village when the drivers feel like it. Tear gas and stun grenades. Military positions all around. Wide Route 443, built on the land of the village and other villages in the Ramallah district, but forbidden for Palestinians to travel on. The road and its branches, which connect the coastal region to Jerusalem and the settlements (Givat Ze’ev, Ramot, and others), sketch a wide strip inside the West Bank that has in effect been emptied of Palestinians save for laborers who work in the settlements. This is how the natural continuum between Ramallah and its suburbs, and the villages north and south of the road, is broken.

    Routine: 36 percent of the village’s 5,650 dunams are in Area B (where Israel permits the Palestinian Authority to plan and build), and the rest – 3,575 dunams – is in Area C, under exclusive Israeli civilian and military control. For the common soldier, C is the State of Israel, and this is apparent in Beit Ur al-Tahta, a synonym for the ban on Palestinian construction, the ban on paving and improving agricultural roads, or the ban on refusal to expand master plans.

    Even this onerous routine was disrupted last Thursday. A combined force of the army and Civil Administration equipped with a bulldozer managed to enforce the Area C laws within two hours. In a farmed wadi south of the village they destroyed an ancient cistern rehabilitated by the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry, as well as a planted plot and a stone fence.

    On a hill planted with olive trees in the northern part of the village, they destroyed a small, old concrete structure that was used for storing tools, and at the entrance to the village they confiscated a prefab room that a car-parts firm used as an office and poured sand on five junked cars. They confiscated a parked backhoe and a backhoe blade they found on the hill above, and for dessert they destroyed an iron gate and rummaged through an empty plot on the side of the road.

    “We believe that you too want to live in peace and without any military activity in the village and in your homes,” the military commander concludes on that piece of paper. “Therefore, remove those who carry out terrorist acts and violence. In a joint action that will prevent terrorist activities, we will reach peace in the region.”

    But in the dictionary of the residents (and mine), destruction of cisterns, theft of land and livelihood, and invasions of homes are acts of terror.

    Amira Hass

  • While Brazil rejects Israeli envoy, it inaugurates Palestinian embassy - Israel News - Jerusalem Post

    http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/While-Brazil-rejects-Israeli-envoy-it-inaugurates-Palestinian-embassy-443960

    Voilà, c’est facile à comprendre : les Israéliens sont super jaloux, c’est tout.

    http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=329120

    RIO DE JANEIRO — A new building housing the first Palestinian Authority embassy in the Western Hemisphere was inaugurated in Brasilia.

    The PA’s envoy to Brazil, Ibrahim Alzeben, led Wednesday’s event, which was attended by leftwing Brazilian government officials, representatives of Arab countries and members of the local Arab community.

  • Palestinian shot dead, 3 Israeli soldiers injured in shooting attack
    Jan. 31, 2016
    https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770056

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian was shot dead after shooting and injuring three Israeli soldiers at an Israeli military checkpoint around the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah, witnesses told Ma’an.

    Witnesses said a Palestinian vehicle approached the Israeli checkpoint and stopped for inspection. When an Israeli soldier approached the driver’s window, the driver opened fire, immediately shooting the soldier.

    The driver then shot another two Israeli soldiers, one of which witnesses believed was hit in his flak jacket.

    Israeli forces then opened fire, shooting the Palestinian driver dead.

    Of the three injured, two are in severe condition, while one was mildly injured, a spokesperson with Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, said.

    The Palestinian driver was latter identified as Amjad Jaser Sukkar , 34 and a Palestinian Authority staff sergeant from Nablus. Hours after the shooting, his body was returned to PA forces and is expected to be buried later that day.

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • Infographic: 7 ways the Palestinian Authority helps Israeli occupation | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/infographic-7-ways-palestinian-authority-helps-israeli-occupatio

    Authority helps Israeli occupation

    Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 26 January 2016

    The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority works closely with the Israeli occupation.

    Earlier this month, for instance, Israeli officials praised the PA for “cracking down” on opposition and resistance to Israel’s occupation in the West Bank.

    The PA’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has previously called this so-called security coordination a “sacred” duty.

    But there’s near unanimity among Palestinian political factions that this collaboration with the occupation must stop.

    The PA’s intelligence chief Majid Faraj boasted to Defense News recently that his forces had arrested 100 Palestinians in recent months and were working closely with Israeli occupation forces to prevent the unpopular PA from collapsing.

    “We, together with our counterparts in the Israeli security establishment, with the Americans and others, are all trying to prevent that collapse,” Faraj said.

    Faraj added that his goal was to protect Israel from the Islamic State group.

    “They’re already in Iraq, Syria, Sinai, Lebanon and Jordan, but Ramallah, Amman and Tel Aviv must remain immune from them,” the PA general said.
    Keeping yourself occupied

  • Aide to Chief Palestinian Negotiator Erekat Arrested for ’Spying for Israel’ - Israel News - Haaretz
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.697799

    Un collabo plus collabo que les autres

    According to reports in the Palestinian press, the individual has worked for the administration for the past 20 years, since the time it was headed by current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

  • The 2012 Local Elections in the West Bank: a Display of Discreet Authoritarianism? - Noria
    http://www.noria-research.com/local-elections-in-the-west-bank-adisplay-of-discreet-authoritarism

    Criticisms of the authoritarian drift or power confiscation engaged in by Mahmoud Abbas and his entourage arise from the very heart of the Palestinian state apparatus1. Yet, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) continues to display all the indicators of a certain democratic vitality: political pluralism, more or less regular elections (whilst the country is under occupation), glowing reports by the international institutions in charge of supporting the PNA. Palestinians were last called to vote in 2012 for local elections in the West Bank during which Palestine’s donors and observers crowded the polling stations and hailed the Palestinian Authority for the “democratic performance” of its election process. Nonetheless, a study that breaks free from the usual constraints of electoral observation2 allows us to expose some of the fundamental elements observed outside of polling stations: changes in electoral law, pressures inside the presidential party, mobilisation of state resources – including security resources – in order to sway a victory for the clan in power.

  • A Flagship of Israeli Journalism Joins the Ranks of False Propaganda -
    The investigative TV program ‘Uvda’ should be ashamed of the report it aired which depicted human rights activists as dangerous, while ignoring the occupation.

    Gideon Levy Haaretz - Jan 10, 2016 1
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.696456
    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.696456

    Channel 2’s investigative television program “Uvda” (“Fact”) broadcast its 600th show last week, paying homage to itself by reminding us of a few of its greatest moments.
    But the 600th show itself is something it will want to erase from its memory, something it will be embarrassed about some day.
    It marked the passage from intentionally avoiding dealing with the issue of the occupation, which could anger the viewers and reduce ratings, to actively contributing to propaganda and incitement. The fig leaf withered away in the 600th program. As did the loss of any semblance of fairness and professionalism.
    In a report on left-wing groups which operate in the West Bank, Uvda aired secretly recorded footage of Israeli activist Ezra Nawi saying that he had exposed Palestinian land brokers who sold West Bank land to Jews, and turned them over to the Palestinian Authority.The right wing and the settlers celebrated the event of course. Another outpost has fallen into their hands. They have already compared the left-wing activist Nawi to the Duma murderers, no less. The rightists and settlers, known for their deep concern about the lives of Palestinians, were shocked by Nawi’s statements. But the right is not the story. The story is how a lethal virus has penetrated what is almost the last outpost of real journalism.
    How has a McCarthyist right-wing organization, whose motives are clear (and despicable) and whose sources are unknown, succeeded with such ease in enticing such respected journalists as Ilana Dayan and Omri Assenheim? How has this flagship joined the ranks of the false propaganda which masquerades as journalism?
    That is how to conduct delegitimization. That is how it is done to liberal organizations in the darkest of regimes, and now here too, and on Uvda – no less.
    Presenting the human rights organizations as dangerous groups, and penetrating them, is compared to penetrating ISIS. The McCarthyists are glorified, depicted as heroes of Israel who excelled in battles in Gaza. All these are well-known ploys. And against this background, all that is left is to record Nawi boasting, to catch him uttering the taboo words, to present him as a “senior” activist, to ignore the entire context — the crimes of the occupation and the expulsion form the Southern Hebron Hills, which you never heard about on Uvda. Just ignore the holy work done by left-wing activists in this battered region, spice it with a few lies such as “execution” by the Palestinian Authority, add a few generalizations, suspicions and slander – and the dish is ready.
    There is an “investigation.” Ofir Akunis and Miri Regev are already calling for a trial. In normal times such actions should trouble every advocate of journalism. When the witch hunt is at its height, those who support democracy should lose sleep. Why did Uvda do this? Because there is no show better at adapting itself to the spirit of the times — its secret of survival for over 22 years. And when the times are dark, Uvda too is in the darkness. How characteristic and self-righteous are the confessions of the talented Assenheim on the show’s Facebook page: On the day of the broadcast he wrote: “I am considered a leftist. Israeli patriot, maybe more than ever, but a leftist.”
    That is how it is when the ground is burning under your feet, and you somehow need to save your lost honor. A “leftist” who does not see what the settlers are plotting every day there, in the place where he “revealed” Nawi’s “crimes,” where activists and soldiers need to accompany children to school out of fear of violence.
    The women activists of Machsom Watch offer humanitarian aid to those driven from the Jordan Valley; B’Tselem reports the truth about every killing in the West Bank, and documents for Israelis what is being done in their name; Physicians for Human Rights delivers medical care every week to those who have none; and Anarchists Against the Wall participates every week with unbelievable dedication in righteous protests.
    They are the last moral lighthouse of Israel. They are the insignificant minority that preserves the remnants of Israel’s honor in the world. The right has declared despicable war against them. Now Uvda has joined them. The curtain falls.

  • Israeli officials fear a looming disaster: the collapse of the Palestinian Authority - Vox

    http://www.vox.com/2016/1/4/10690270/collapse-palestinian-authority?can_id=c04bd6c1866a7591ea05420e1dd77aec&source=e

    Israeli security officials and political leaders are increasingly worried that the Palestinian Authority — which along with Israeli security forces is responsible for governance and security in the West Bank — is on the verge of collapse, and that when it does collapse, law and order in the West Bank will erode, bringing disaster for Palestinians there and potentially opening the territory to a takeover by Hamas or other extremists.

    #israel #autorité_palestinienne #palestine

  • Why Abbas should rethink Palestinian support for Islamic coalition - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/12/palestine-join-saudi-arabia-coalition.html

    Khreisheh charged that Palestinian participation in the Saudi-led Islamic coalition against terrorism, in the absence of a Palestinian army, is designed to divert attention from Israeli attacks taking place in Palestine. It is also designed to integrate Israel into the region by distracting from Israel as the real enemy of Arabs and finding new enemies such as Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, according to Khreisheh.

    Al-Monitor contacted some Palestinian military commanders affiliated with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, but they refused to comment on the matter. Al-Monitor could not reach any official at the Palestinian presidential bureau or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain additional information and details.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/12/palestine-join-saudi-arabia-coalition.html#ixzz3voGTeBOK

  • Don’t Shoot Down Breaking the Silence, It’s Just the Messenger - Israel News - Haaretz -
    Amos Harel Dec 19, 2015
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.692603

    Breaking the Silence was founded in the spring of 2004. Four freshly released soldiers from the Nahal Brigade, who served long tours in Hebron during the height of the second intifada, organized an exhibition that documented their experiences, which was displayed at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Although some people were outraged by the exhibition, the discussion about the soldiers’ claims was conducted far more calmly than it is today – despite the fact that, back then, suicide bombers were still blowing themselves up on buses in Israeli cities.

    The current Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, was the commander of all IDF forces in the West Bank at the time, and he raised a concern: Why did the founders of the organization not oppose the army actions while they were serving, or at least report on them in real time? His argument was unconvincing. In most cases, a corporal will have a hard time going before the company or battalion commander in real time and saying, “That’s not allowed.” They are not equals. Few soldiers – particularly during regular service – have the ability to make such complaints, especially at a time when military casualties are high and the atmosphere is charged.

    As the years went on, the IDF made two other, more substantial claims. The first regarded the difficulty in translating the soldiers’ testimonies into legal or disciplinary proceedings. Breaking the Silence has always maintained the testifiers’ anonymity, in order to protect them. And during cases where the military prosecutor was interested in investigating, such probes generally ended without results. IDF officials got the impression that publishing the testimonies was more important to Breaking the Silence than any legal proceedings. The IDF’s second claim pertains to the organization’s activities abroad. One can assume that this activity is mostly done for fundraising purposes, but holding exhibitions abroad and making claims about Israeli war crimes certainly offended many.

    This week, there was a new low point in the public campaign against the organization. This combined two trends, only one of which was open and obvious. The first is the direct attack on Breaking the Silence by the right, comprised mostly of McCarthyesque attempts to silence it. These attacks have a sanctimonious air to them. In the eyes of the attackers, the international community is ganging up on Israel, and Breaking the Silence is the source of all our troubles – everything would be fine if it weren’t for this group of despicable liars slandering Israel’s reputation.

    It is hard to shake the suspicion that the attacks against Breaking the Silence aren’t the act of an extensive network operating with at least a degree of coordination. What began as some accusations on Channel 20 continued with a venomous video published by the Im Tirtzu movement, which was immediately followed by demands from the My Israel group (founded by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked) to prohibit Breaking the Silence representatives from visiting schools. Somehow, Education Minister Bennett succumbed to their demands within a day. In the background, there was also a blatant attack on President Reuven Rivlin. At first, they tried to link him to Breaking the Silence. That failed, because the president made sure to defend the IDF’s moral standing at the HaaretzQ conference in New York. And then the “flag affair” happened, involving Rivlin, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and the Israeli flag.

    As usual, Im Tirtzu delivered the most extreme elements of the assault. Its ubiquitous video showed the word “Shtulim” – Hebrew for implanted, or mole – above pictures of four left-wing activists who looked like they’d been plucked from a “Wanted” list. The video didn’t leave much room for the imagination: “Shtulim” is another way of saying “traitors.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02u_J2C-Lso


    Im Tirtzu accuses leftist activists of being foreign agents. YouTube/Im Tirtzu

    When one of the four featured activists, Dr. Ishai Menuchin – executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel – says he felt as if the spilling of his blood was being permitted, you can understand why he reached that conclusion. (By the way, Menuchin did reserve duty until an advanced age – in the Givati Brigade, of all places.) The claims that these four organizations are “collaborating with the enemy” have been rejected by the two previous military advocate generals, Avichai Mendelblit and Danny Efroni. Indeed, the two told Haaretz that they are often assisted by these human rights organizations.

    The mainstream media has provided the complementary side of the trend by airing Im Tirtzu’s videos. As journalists, they cluck their tongues and mock the style of the videos, but reap higher ratings. This approach works well in conjunction with media coverage of the current terror outbreak, which is treated relatively superficially and is often an attempt to tackle these issues without providing any broader context. Here, the goal is not to damage the left-wing organizations, but rather marketing a slant on the current reality for Israelis – as if we have the exclusive capability to both maintain the occupation indefinitely and remain the most moral army in the world. But the truth is, it’s impossible to do both. Also, there’s no empirical proof that the IDF is the most moral army in the world (a cliché Rivlin himself employed earlier this week).

    In many cases, the IDF makes an effort – and sometimes a tremendous effort. But it is still a giant war machine. When it is forced to act to defend Israeli civilians and advance into crowded, urban Palestinian territory – as it did last year in Gaza – it causes lots of casualties, which will include innocent civilians. And its control of the occupied territories involves, by its very nature, many unjust acts: limiting movement, entering civilians’ homes, making arrests and humiliating people.

    It is a reality that every combat solider in the West Bank, regular or reservist, rightist or leftist, is aware of. I can attest to it myself: For more than 10 years I was called up to serve in the West Bank many times, as a junior commander in a reserve infantry battalion – before and during the second intifada. I didn’t witness anything I considered to be a war crime. And more than once, I saw commanders going to great lengths to maintain human dignity while carrying out complex missions, which they saw as essential for security. Even so, many aspects of our operations seemed to me, and to many others, to fall into some kind of gray area, morally speaking. In my battalion, there were also cases of inhuman treatment and abuse of Palestinian civilians.

    Those who believe, like I do, that much of the blame for the lack of a peace agreement in recent years stems from Palestinian unwillingness to compromise; and those who think, like I do, that at the moment there is no horizon for an arrangement that guarantees safety for Israelis in exchange for most of the West Bank, because of the possibility that the arrangement would collapse and the vacuum be filled by Hamas or even ISIS, must admit: There is no such thing as a rose-tinted occupation.

    Breaking the Silence offers an unpleasant voice to many Israeli ears, but it speaks a lot of truth. I’ve interviewed many of its testifiers over the years. What they told me wasn’t the stuff of fantasy but rather, descriptions from below – from the perspective of the corporal or lieutenant, voices that are important and should be heard, even if they don’t present the whole picture. There is a price that comes with maintaining this abnormal situation for 48 years. Covering your ears or blaming the messenger won’t achieve anything.

    The interesting thing is that when you meet high-ranking IDF officers, you don’t hear about illusions or clichés. The senior officers don’t like Breaking the Silence, but they also don’t attack it with righteous indignation (although it’s possible that sentiments for the organization are harsher among lower ranks). In recent months, I’ve been privy to closed talks with most of the chain of command in the West Bank: The chief of staff, head of Central Command, IDF commander in the West Bank, and nine brigade chiefs. As I’ve written here numerous times recently, these officers speak in similar tones. They don’t get worked up, they aren’t trying to get their subordinates to kill Palestinians when there is no essential security need, and they aren’t looking for traitors in every corner.

    Last Tuesday, when Im Tirtzu’s despicable campaign was launched, I had a prescheduled meeting with the commander of a regular infantry brigade. In a few weeks, some of his soldiers will be stationed in the West Bank. Last year, he fought with them in Gaza. What troubles him now, he says, is how to sufficiently prepare his soldiers for their task, to ensure that they’ll protect themselves and Israeli civilians from the knife attacks, but also to ensure that they won’t recklessly shoot innocent people, or kill someone lying on the ground after the threat has been nullified.

    The picture painted by the brigade commander is entirely different to the one painted by Channel 20 (which posted on Facebook this week that “the presidency has lost its shame” following Rivlin’s appearance in New York). But it is also much more complex than the daily dose of drama being supplied by the mainstream media.

    Another victory for Ya’alon

    Last Sunday, the cabinet approved the appointment of Nir Ben Moshe as director of security for the defense establishment. The appointment was another bureaucratic victory for Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, part of a series of such appointments over the past year. The pattern remains the same: Ya’alon consults with Eisenkot; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reservations, delays the process or even opposes outright; Ya’alon insists, but takes care not to let the rift become public; and in the end Ya’alon gets what he wants.

    Ya’alon isn’t generally considered a sophisticated bureaucrat. His political power is also rather limited. He has almost no sources of power within the Likud Central Committee. The fact that he remains in his position, despite the close coordination with Netanyahu and the joint positions they held during the war in Gaza last year and during the current strife in the West Bank, seems to hinge only upon Netanyahu’s complex political considerations. Still, through great patience it seems the defense minister ultimately gets what he desires.

    Ben Moshe’s appointment was first approved by a committee within the Defense Ministry last month. Ya’alon asked that the appointment be immediately submitted to the cabinet for approval, but Netanyahu postponed the decision for weeks before ultimately accepting it. This is partly because of the prime minister’s tendency to procrastinate, which also played a part in the late appointment of Yossi Cohen as the next Mossad chief. But in many cases, there are other considerations behind such hesitations, with the appointment of the current IDF chief of staff a prime example: Ya’alon formulated his position on Eisenkot months before the decision was announced. Eisenkot’s appointment was brought before Netanyahu numerous times, but the prime minister constantly examined other candidates and postponed the decision until last December – only two and a half months before Benny Gantz’s term was set to end.

    Even the appointment of the new military advocate general, Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek, which had been agreed by Ya’alon and Eisenkot, was delayed for months by Netanyahu’s reservations – which, formally speaking, should not be part of the process. Here, it seems the stalling was due to claims from settlers about Afek’s “left-leaning” tendencies, not to mention the incriminating fact that Afek’s cousin is Michal Herzog – the wife of opposition leader Isaac Herzog.

    Over the next month, numerous other appointments to the IDF’s General Staff are expected, but Eisenkot will call the shots and Ya’alon needs to approve his nominations. The chief of staff is expected to appoint a new naval commander; a new ground forces commander; new head of the technology and logistics directorate; new head of the communications directorate; and new military attaché to Washington. In most cases, generals will make way for younger brigadier generals. Eisenkot will likely want to see a more seasoned general assume command of the ground forces, though, and could give it to a current general as a second position under that rank. However, this creates another problem – any general given this job would see it as being denied a regional command post, which is considered an essential stop for any budding chief of staff.

    #Breaking_the_Silence #Briser_le_silence

  • Israeli forces killing “in cold blood,” Palestinian families say | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-forces-killing-cold-blood-palestinian-families-say
    https://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/original_800w/public/2015-12/031215_mut_00_2.jpg?itok=7IpwDjBT&timestamp=1449806260

    Israeli forces shot a Palestinian man and, after he was dead, fired at his head at point-blank range, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

    Mazen Oraibi, a Palestinian Authority intelligence officer from the Jerusalem-area village of Abu Dis, had stepped out of his car at an Israeli checkpoint last Thursday when soldiers opened fire and killed him on the spot.

    A Palestinian bystander, Khalid Yaqub Abu Jibna, was shot by live fire and taken to hospital in critical condition.

    A soldier was lightly injured during the incident, the Israeli paper Haaretz reported.

    Oraibi’s brother told Haaretz of the married father of four: “It is hard to believe that a man like him would perpetrate a terrorist attack, and we don’t really understand what happened there in the checkpoint, and how he was shot and killed, without anyone Israeli or Palestinian notifying us. We have yet to receive his body.”

    Israel continues to withhold and delay transfer of the bodies of Palestinians its forces have killed during alleged attacks.

    Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI) stated on Wednesday that Israel was withholding the bodies of 12 children, making independent investigation of the circumstances of their deaths nearly impossible.

    The rights group documented one case in which Palestinian youths hid the body of a boy shot dead by Israeli soldiers near a checkpoint, so that the teenager could be properly buried.

  • Kerry at Saban Forum: Current Trends Are Leading to a One-state Reality - Haaretz - Barak Ravid Dec 05, 2015
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.690205

    Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the Saban Forum in Washington D.C., December 5, 2015.Courtesy of Saban Forum

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at the Saban Forum in Washington D.C. Saturday, warned that current trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are leading to a one-state reality. Kerry also said that if the situation continues, it is unclear how long the Palestinian Authority can survive.

    “If there is a risk the Palestinian Authority might collapse and Israel wants it to survive, shouldn’t Israel do more to help sustain it?” Kerry said.

    “Without the Palestinian Authority, Israel will be responsible for civil administration of the West Bank - it costs billions,” Kerry said. “Without the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, the IDF would be forced to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to the West Bank indefinitely.”

    Kerry said that the distrust between the two sides has never been more profound. “President Abbas feels great despair - more than I have ever heard him,” he added.

    “I believe that many people in the security establishment in Israel want to see steps for strengthening the Palestinian Authority,” the secretary of state said.

    Kerry added that the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict mustn’t become a “slogan,” but warned that “current trends are leading for a one-state reality.”

    “We have to be honest about what a one-state solution looks like,” Kerry said, warning that in such a case Israel couldn’t maintain its character as Jewish and democratic, asking rhetorically what the international reaction would be to such a scenario, and saying that true peace with its neighbors will not be possible under such conditions.

    “The one-state solution is no solution at all for a Jewish, democratic Israel living in peace,” he warned.

    Kerry criticized Israeli settlement construction, saying that it raises questions about Israel’s long term intentions. Kerry noted that Palestinians didn’t receive any construction permits in Area C in 2015. He also noted that several Israeli cabinet ministers declared their opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

    Saying that peace is the best way to achieve security, Kerry stated that first of all, the violence must stop. “There’s no justification for violence against civilians. Israel has the right and the obligation to defend itself.”

    “We need people to act in restraint. The Palestinian leadership should stop the incitement and condemn terror attacks,” he said.

    On Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the Forum and said that he opposed the one-state solution, stating that Israel did not want to govern the Palestinians. “We are happy they already have their political independence,” he said, adding that Israel wants to strengthen Palestinian competence to govern themselves.

    Earlier on Saturday, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid addressed the Forum, saying that solving the conflict “is not the number one priority of Israel - it is the only priority.” Saying that Israel must move toward solving the conflict as soon as possible, Lapid said: “We have been waiting for 40 years for the right timing to have peace with the Palestinians. Enough is enough - we need to do it.”

    Regarding the fight against Islamic State, Kerry seemed to be rebutting statements made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon the day before about a lack in U.S. leadership, and laid out U.S. actions and policy against ISIS and in Syria.

    “We want a transition to a unified non-sectarian Syria,” Kerry said, adding that the U.S. isn’t naïve about the diplomatic effort in Syria. “It’s difficult,” he admitted. However, he added that the Vienna talks were “the most promising diplomatic effort regarding Syria in the last years.”

    Regarding the nuclear deal with Iran, Kerry addressed Israel directly, saying that he knows Israel still has concerns, but that the U.S. is “convinced that we will know what Iran is doing.”

    “Under the nuclear deal all of Iran’s pathways to a bomb are blocked,” he said, adding that it was the deal was the right thing to do, “regardless of whether they will change their behavior or not.”

    On Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the Forum and said that he opposed the one-state solution, stating that Israel did not want to govern the Palestinians. “We are happy they already have their political independence,” he said, adding that Israel wants to strengthen Palestinian competence to govern themselves.

  • 2 Palestinians shot dead near Ramallah after alleged attacks
    Dec. 4, 2015 2:07 P.M. (Updated: Dec. 4, 2015 7:28 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769166

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Two Palestinians were shot dead near Ramallah on Friday after separate alleged attacks targeting Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army and Palestinian officials said.

    A Palestinian was shot and killed near the illegal Ofra settlement north of Ramallah after ramming his car into a group of Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli army.

    The army confirmed that two soldiers were injured in the incident. Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom said that paramedics treated two Israelis around 20 years of age who sustained minor injuries.

    The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the Palestinian as Anas Bassam Hammad .

    An hour earlier, a Palestinian man was shot and killed after stabbing an Israeli soldier near the Ramallah-area village of Abud, Palestinian officials said.

    The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health confirmed that a Palestinian man had been shot dead by Israeli military forces near the village, which is located adjacent to the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish.

    The man was identified as Abed al-Rahman al-Barghouthi , 27. He died from gunshot wounds to the neck and arm, the ministry added.

    #Palestine_assassinée