15 feb 2017
On the eve of the first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House late Tuesday appeared to “back away from the two-state solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
U.S. President Donald Trump supports the goal of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, even if it does not involve the two-state solution, a senior White House official said on Tuesday.
Speaking a day before Trump and Netanyahu’s meeting, the official said peace was the ultimate goal.
"Whether that comes in the form of a two–state solution if that's what the parties want, or something else," the official said, adding that Trump would not try to "dictate" a solution.
Analysts say that failure by a U.S. president to explicitly back a two-state solution would upend decades of U.S. policy embraced by Republican and Democratic administrations as it has long been the bedrock U.S. position for resolving the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has been at the core of international peace efforts.
U.S. President Donald Trump supports the goal of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, even if it does not involve the two-state solution, a senior White House official said on Tuesday.
Speaking a day before Trump and Netanyahu’s meeting, the official said peace was the ultimate goal.
"Whether that comes in the form of a two–state solution if that's what the parties want, or something else," the official said, adding that Trump would not try to "dictate" a solution.
Analysts say that failure by a U.S. president to explicitly back a two-state solution would upend decades of U.S. policy embraced by Republican and Democratic administrations as it has long been the bedrock U.S. position for resolving the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has been at the core of international peace efforts.
The Israeli interior minister has issued renewed orders banning Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in the 1984 occupied lands, from traveling abroad and entering the Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem for five additional months.
According to Daily 48 website, Israeli police officers came on Tuesday evening to the house of Sheikh Ra’ed Salah in Umm al-Fahm city and handed him written orders in this regard signed by Israeli interior minister Aryeh Deri.
The ban on his entry to Jerusalem was renewed until July 11, 2017 in accordance with the British mandate emergency law, while his travel ban was extended until July 15, 2017 at the pretext of the authority vested in the interior minister.
Deri had signed a ban preventing the travel of Sheikh Salah for one month ahead of his release from an Israeli jail on January 17, 2017, claiming that his exit from Israel could endanger Israel's security.
Salah was imprisoned for the second consecutive time on allegations of incitement during a sermon he delivered in 2007 in Wadi Joz neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem after the Israeli authorities demolished a ramp leading to the Maghariba Gate of the Aqsa Mosque.
According to Daily 48 website, Israeli police officers came on Tuesday evening to the house of Sheikh Ra’ed Salah in Umm al-Fahm city and handed him written orders in this regard signed by Israeli interior minister Aryeh Deri.
The ban on his entry to Jerusalem was renewed until July 11, 2017 in accordance with the British mandate emergency law, while his travel ban was extended until July 15, 2017 at the pretext of the authority vested in the interior minister.
Deri had signed a ban preventing the travel of Sheikh Salah for one month ahead of his release from an Israeli jail on January 17, 2017, claiming that his exit from Israel could endanger Israel's security.
Salah was imprisoned for the second consecutive time on allegations of incitement during a sermon he delivered in 2007 in Wadi Joz neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem after the Israeli authorities demolished a ramp leading to the Maghariba Gate of the Aqsa Mosque.
14 feb 2017
Israel’s attorney general Avichai Mandelblit has agreed to give the pro-settler Elad group a foothold at the archaeological park next to the Western Wall of the Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem.
Mandelblit took this decision during a meeting he held last week with government officials, according to informed sources.
The sources said Mandelblit affirmed he would offer Elad a foothold at the site, but that it would not manage the park exclusively.
The government-affiliated Jewish Quarter Development Company received control over the park two years ago. This company then signed a deal with Elad, the settler group that runs the so-called City of David park and promotes Jewish settlement in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, to be responsible for the archaeological park.
The previous attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, revoked the deal, saying that a private organization should not manage a place located in an area that has political and security sensitivities.
Mandelblit took this decision during a meeting he held last week with government officials, according to informed sources.
The sources said Mandelblit affirmed he would offer Elad a foothold at the site, but that it would not manage the park exclusively.
The government-affiliated Jewish Quarter Development Company received control over the park two years ago. This company then signed a deal with Elad, the settler group that runs the so-called City of David park and promotes Jewish settlement in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, to be responsible for the archaeological park.
The previous attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, revoked the deal, saying that a private organization should not manage a place located in an area that has political and security sensitivities.
12 feb 2017
Israeli ministers have made a renewed attempt to ban the Muslim call to prayer being broadcast through mosque loudspeakers, Israeli media reported Sunday.
The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation has approved a draft of the bill which will go to a preliminary vote in the Knesset, according to the Israeli Channel 7.
After the law earlier met opposition from Ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers over concerns about how it might also affect Jewish religious practices, the revised draft makes the ban applicable from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
It further allows the Israeli police to summon muezzins and imams to questioning and to subject them to criminal proceedings and financial penalties.
The bid was expected to be discussed last Sunday. But the move was delayed for unidentified reasons.
Palestinians have rejected the law on account that it deprives Muslims of their right to freedom of religion.
The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation has approved a draft of the bill which will go to a preliminary vote in the Knesset, according to the Israeli Channel 7.
After the law earlier met opposition from Ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers over concerns about how it might also affect Jewish religious practices, the revised draft makes the ban applicable from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
It further allows the Israeli police to summon muezzins and imams to questioning and to subject them to criminal proceedings and financial penalties.
The bid was expected to be discussed last Sunday. But the move was delayed for unidentified reasons.
Palestinians have rejected the law on account that it deprives Muslims of their right to freedom of religion.
10 feb 2017
The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) have prevented UNRWA’s Muslim staff members and worshipers from the blockaded Gaza Strip from gaining access to the holy al-Aqsa Mosque for the tenth week running.
Media chief at the Civil Affairs Commission, Mohamed al-Mukadma, said the IOA banned Gazans and UNRWA staff members from performing their prayers at the holy al-Aqsa Mosque—the third holiest site in Islam.
Such bans have been frequently issued on claims that Gazans exceed the time-span allotted for them to visit Occupied Jerusalem and pray at al-Aqsa Mosque then return to the Strip on the same day.
Media chief at the Civil Affairs Commission, Mohamed al-Mukadma, said the IOA banned Gazans and UNRWA staff members from performing their prayers at the holy al-Aqsa Mosque—the third holiest site in Islam.
Such bans have been frequently issued on claims that Gazans exceed the time-span allotted for them to visit Occupied Jerusalem and pray at al-Aqsa Mosque then return to the Strip on the same day.
9 feb 2017
Dozens of Palestinians marched Wednesday evening in the funeral of the elderly man Suleiman Hammad, 81, who was earlier hit and killed by a settler’s speedy car near Khader town in Bethlehem.
According to the PIC reporter, the funeral set off from Beit Jala hospital towards the martyr’s house where his family bid him last farewell.
His body was then moved to the local mosque to be then buried in Shuhada cemetery.
Hammad was killed on Wednesday afternoon after an Israeli settler in a speeding car ran over him while he was crossing the street in Khader village.
This incident is not the first of its kind since many Palestinian citizens were subjected to run over attacks by Israeli settlers while crossing the main roads that link Palestinian cities. The settlers usually speed up while moving on Palestinian lands to reach settlements illegally built on those lands.
According to the PIC reporter, the funeral set off from Beit Jala hospital towards the martyr’s house where his family bid him last farewell.
His body was then moved to the local mosque to be then buried in Shuhada cemetery.
Hammad was killed on Wednesday afternoon after an Israeli settler in a speeding car ran over him while he was crossing the street in Khader village.
This incident is not the first of its kind since many Palestinian citizens were subjected to run over attacks by Israeli settlers while crossing the main roads that link Palestinian cities. The settlers usually speed up while moving on Palestinian lands to reach settlements illegally built on those lands.
8 feb 2017
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at daybreak Wednesday stormed Nablus’s western outskirts and cordoned off Hawara and Beit Furik towns.
Speaking with PIC, eye-witnesses said Israeli army patrols rolled into Nablus via its western entrance.
Military troops have been spotted on the main access road to Tel town.
At the same time, the occupation forces intensified presence across Hawara town, to the south of Nablus, on claims that Molotov cocktails were thrown at settlers’ cars.
Other IOF troops have also been deployed on the thoroughfare to Nablus’s southern town of Beit Furik.
Overnight, hundreds of Palestinian civilians had been detained by the IOF at a military checkpoint pitched in Beit Furik and denied access to their homes for hours.
Speaking with PIC, eye-witnesses said Israeli army patrols rolled into Nablus via its western entrance.
Military troops have been spotted on the main access road to Tel town.
At the same time, the occupation forces intensified presence across Hawara town, to the south of Nablus, on claims that Molotov cocktails were thrown at settlers’ cars.
Other IOF troops have also been deployed on the thoroughfare to Nablus’s southern town of Beit Furik.
Overnight, hundreds of Palestinian civilians had been detained by the IOF at a military checkpoint pitched in Beit Furik and denied access to their homes for hours.
7 feb 2017
The Israeli occupation army has been closing for several days all main entrances to Palestinian towns and villages in the western countryside of Bethlehem province in the occupied West Bank.
Local sources said that there are military barriers and checkpoints in different areas of the western countryside of Bethlehem, where Israeli soldiers have been embarking for days on searching citizens, their vehicles and brutalizing them.
About 25,000 people in the towns of Husan, Nahalin, Wadi Fukin and Battir, west of Bethlehem, have been living under tight siege for nearly nine days, according to local official Hasan Hamamreh.
The local residents are forced to use a road near the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit and thus exposed to assaults and harassment by extremist settlers, Hamamreh said.
The Israeli army claimed it took these measures after Jewish settlers’ cars had been exposed lately to several stone-throwing attacks on roads near those towns and villages.
Local sources said that there are military barriers and checkpoints in different areas of the western countryside of Bethlehem, where Israeli soldiers have been embarking for days on searching citizens, their vehicles and brutalizing them.
About 25,000 people in the towns of Husan, Nahalin, Wadi Fukin and Battir, west of Bethlehem, have been living under tight siege for nearly nine days, according to local official Hasan Hamamreh.
The local residents are forced to use a road near the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit and thus exposed to assaults and harassment by extremist settlers, Hamamreh said.
The Israeli army claimed it took these measures after Jewish settlers’ cars had been exposed lately to several stone-throwing attacks on roads near those towns and villages.
The Israeli Knesset on Monday passed a law legalizing the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land.
Critics warned that the move would mark the first step toward the annexation of parts of the West Bank, while paving the way for possible future prosecution of Israel for war crimes.
In a late-evening vote, MPs ignored warnings from opposition lawmakers and the UN and passed second and third readings of the Regularization Bill, which will legalize illegal settler outposts scattered around the occupied West Bank.
The so-called Regulation Bill went before lawmakers at the Knesset and received 60 votes in favor opposed to just 52 against in its third reading.
International law views all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal for they are built on private land on which Palestinians have claims.
In the run-up to the law’s passage, Palestinian and Israeli critics described it as a land grab and said it would be viewed as a step toward the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Earlier on Monday, Nicky Mladenov, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, warned that the law would “have far-reaching legal consequences for Israel and greatly diminish the prospects for Arab-Israeli peace”.
The vote comes at a pivotal time for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the calculus for which has changed since the swearing in last month of Donald Trump, who has promised to be the most pro-Israel US president ever and named supporters of the settlements as his Israel advisers.
In the debate leading up to the vote, Isaac Herzog, the center-left opposition leader, warned that the law could open the way for prosecutions of Israel for war crimes at the International Criminal Court.
“The train leaves from here [and] will only stop at The Hague,” Herzog said in remarks quoted by the Israeli paper Haaretz before the vote. “Its cars will carry international indictments against Israeli and Jewish soldiers and officers. This indictment will be signed by the prime minister of Israel.”
Herzog also said the legislation amounted to “de facto annexation”.
Avichai Mandelblit, Israel’s attorney-general, warned Netanyahu before the vote that he deemed the bill to be unconstitutional and was not prepared to defend it if it was challenged before Israel’s Supreme Court.
The UN in December passed a resolution condemning settlements and demanding that Israel halt illegal settlement activity immediately.
Critics warned that the move would mark the first step toward the annexation of parts of the West Bank, while paving the way for possible future prosecution of Israel for war crimes.
In a late-evening vote, MPs ignored warnings from opposition lawmakers and the UN and passed second and third readings of the Regularization Bill, which will legalize illegal settler outposts scattered around the occupied West Bank.
The so-called Regulation Bill went before lawmakers at the Knesset and received 60 votes in favor opposed to just 52 against in its third reading.
International law views all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal for they are built on private land on which Palestinians have claims.
In the run-up to the law’s passage, Palestinian and Israeli critics described it as a land grab and said it would be viewed as a step toward the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Earlier on Monday, Nicky Mladenov, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, warned that the law would “have far-reaching legal consequences for Israel and greatly diminish the prospects for Arab-Israeli peace”.
The vote comes at a pivotal time for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the calculus for which has changed since the swearing in last month of Donald Trump, who has promised to be the most pro-Israel US president ever and named supporters of the settlements as his Israel advisers.
In the debate leading up to the vote, Isaac Herzog, the center-left opposition leader, warned that the law could open the way for prosecutions of Israel for war crimes at the International Criminal Court.
“The train leaves from here [and] will only stop at The Hague,” Herzog said in remarks quoted by the Israeli paper Haaretz before the vote. “Its cars will carry international indictments against Israeli and Jewish soldiers and officers. This indictment will be signed by the prime minister of Israel.”
Herzog also said the legislation amounted to “de facto annexation”.
Avichai Mandelblit, Israel’s attorney-general, warned Netanyahu before the vote that he deemed the bill to be unconstitutional and was not prepared to defend it if it was challenged before Israel’s Supreme Court.
The UN in December passed a resolution condemning settlements and demanding that Israel halt illegal settlement activity immediately.
6 feb 2017
A Palestinian youth killed by Israeli forces in December did not represent a threat when he was shot dead by an Israeli army sniper, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a report published on Sunday.
Ahmad al-Kharroubi, 19, was shot by Israeli with live ammunition during clashes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab on Dec. 22, as Israeli forces were carrying out a raid to partially demolish the house of Palestinian Misbah Abu Sbeih, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in October after carrying out a deadly shooting attack.
Al-Kharroubi was shot by a sniper in the neck, succumbing to his injuries shortly before arriving to the hospital.
According to Ma’an documentation, the youth was one of 112 Palestinians to have been killed in 2016 in Israeli-Palestinian violence, 23 of whom were killed in clashes or army raids. Fifteen Israelis were killed during the same time period.
At the time, an Israeli army spokesperson told Ma'an that Israeli forces had shot and killed al-Kharroubi after he threw improvised explosive devices at soldiers.
However, testimonies collected by B’Tselem stated that “no incendiary device was thrown at the security forces from the area where al-Kharroubi and the other youths were positioned.”
The organization reported that a group of Palestinian youths, including al-Kharroubi, were hiding in between two buildings behind a low wall nearly 100 meters away from Israeli jeeps forming a roadblock between them and the bulk of the clashes that night.
“There were hardly any clashes on our side of the roadblock,” D.D., one of the Palestinians who witnessed the scene, told B’Tselem. “From the south, on the other side of the jeeps we heard the sounds of stun grenades and live gunfire, but we couldn’t see the clashes.
“Fifteen minutes after we arrived, a sniper fired a live bullet that hit Ahmad, but no one could see him or work out where the sniper was -- on a roof or on the ground,” D.D. added. “One of the guys approached Ahmad and another shot was fired toward him, but it didn’t hit anyone. The guys who were close to Ahmad lifted him up and moved him to the sidewalk.”
B’Tselem stated that the youths' position between 80 and 100 meters away from Israeli soldiers meant that "they could not pose any danger.”
“At the time al-Kharroubi was shot in the neck and killed, and at the time the snipers fired toward the other youths attempting to remove al-Kharroubi, the youths were not posing a threat to anyone,” B'Tselem wrote. “Firing at the torso of a person hiding behind a wall, even if he were throwing stones at the security forces, is unjustified and illegal.”
B’Tselem emphasized that al-Kharroubi's “pointless death” occurred during a raid to carry out a punitive demolition, calling both “illegal” and “immoral.”
B’Tselem ceased referring cases to Israeli military law enforcement in May, deeming the effort “ineffective” or likely to be used to whitewash the army’s crimes.
“The obligation to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for such incidents remains on the shoulders of the military system, but as long as the (Military Advocate General) Corps persists in it systemic whitewashing, nothing will deter security force personnel from continuing to shoot and kill Palestinians who do not present a danger,” the group stated.
Ahmad al-Kharroubi, 19, was shot by Israeli with live ammunition during clashes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab on Dec. 22, as Israeli forces were carrying out a raid to partially demolish the house of Palestinian Misbah Abu Sbeih, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in October after carrying out a deadly shooting attack.
Al-Kharroubi was shot by a sniper in the neck, succumbing to his injuries shortly before arriving to the hospital.
According to Ma’an documentation, the youth was one of 112 Palestinians to have been killed in 2016 in Israeli-Palestinian violence, 23 of whom were killed in clashes or army raids. Fifteen Israelis were killed during the same time period.
At the time, an Israeli army spokesperson told Ma'an that Israeli forces had shot and killed al-Kharroubi after he threw improvised explosive devices at soldiers.
However, testimonies collected by B’Tselem stated that “no incendiary device was thrown at the security forces from the area where al-Kharroubi and the other youths were positioned.”
The organization reported that a group of Palestinian youths, including al-Kharroubi, were hiding in between two buildings behind a low wall nearly 100 meters away from Israeli jeeps forming a roadblock between them and the bulk of the clashes that night.
“There were hardly any clashes on our side of the roadblock,” D.D., one of the Palestinians who witnessed the scene, told B’Tselem. “From the south, on the other side of the jeeps we heard the sounds of stun grenades and live gunfire, but we couldn’t see the clashes.
“Fifteen minutes after we arrived, a sniper fired a live bullet that hit Ahmad, but no one could see him or work out where the sniper was -- on a roof or on the ground,” D.D. added. “One of the guys approached Ahmad and another shot was fired toward him, but it didn’t hit anyone. The guys who were close to Ahmad lifted him up and moved him to the sidewalk.”
B’Tselem stated that the youths' position between 80 and 100 meters away from Israeli soldiers meant that "they could not pose any danger.”
“At the time al-Kharroubi was shot in the neck and killed, and at the time the snipers fired toward the other youths attempting to remove al-Kharroubi, the youths were not posing a threat to anyone,” B'Tselem wrote. “Firing at the torso of a person hiding behind a wall, even if he were throwing stones at the security forces, is unjustified and illegal.”
B’Tselem emphasized that al-Kharroubi's “pointless death” occurred during a raid to carry out a punitive demolition, calling both “illegal” and “immoral.”
B’Tselem ceased referring cases to Israeli military law enforcement in May, deeming the effort “ineffective” or likely to be used to whitewash the army’s crimes.
“The obligation to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for such incidents remains on the shoulders of the military system, but as long as the (Military Advocate General) Corps persists in it systemic whitewashing, nothing will deter security force personnel from continuing to shoot and kill Palestinians who do not present a danger,” the group stated.
