Weekly Report
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
03/08/2012

Israeli forces kill a Palestinian and injure over 60 others throughout the West Bank. Also in the West Bank, settlers injure three Palestinians and damage 90 olive trees and saplings. Significant decline in demolitions. Another community in south Hebron at risk of forced displacement. Update on access to East Jerusalem, and new closures installed in Hebron. In Gaza, Israeli forces injure one farmer. A steady improvement in power production continues. Local authorities demolish around 200 residences to reclaim state land.

Full Report here

PRESS RELEASE
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Ref: 85/2012
02/08/2012

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the decision of the European Union (EU) to offer strengthened trade and diplomatic relations to Israel at the EU-Israel Association Council meeting on Tuesday 24 July 2012.

The Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy, Mr Štefan Füle, issued a statement following the meeting, which indicated the European Commission’s desire to develop its cooperation with Israel in a number of areas. Commissioner Füle stated that the meeting had involved some discussion of developments in the area of human rights and democratic freedoms in Israel. However, the statement made no mention of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) or of Israel’s policies and actions in the region. Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre
01/08/2012

GAZA, (PIC)– Minister of Jerusalem, prisoners, and refugees’ affairs Dr. Attalla Abu Subbah has denounced the Israeli occupation authority’s latest measures in occupied Jerusalem city.

He mentioned in particular the latest decisions of establishing a settlement neighborhood in Arab al-Sawahreh area of southern Jerusalem, and declaring Al-Aqsa mosque courtyards as gardens and public parks for Jews.

Read more »

Blog
Richard Falk
27/07/2012

Dani Dayan’s article, “Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay,” was published by the NY Times on July 26, 2012. Dayan is the chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities, and has been long known as a leading spokesperson of the settler movement. An obvious response to such a settler screed might be to dismiss it out of hand as an extremist expression of Israeli views, which it certainly is, but it would seem a mistake to do this before taking some account of its content and timing. The moral and legal premises that underlie Dayan’s insistence that the settlers will never leave the West Bank are without substance, but the political arguments he puts forward are so strong as to be virtually irrefutable. It may also be helpful to speculate that Dayan might have been encouraged from the Netanyahu side, known for being as friendly to settler dreams as any Israeli leadership ever, to drop this bombshell into the midst of the American electoral maelstrom as kind of trial balloon. Read more »

Al-Akhbar English
15/07/2012

On Sunday reports in the Israeli media said the country was weighing measures to sanction a United Nations agency that works to alleviate the oppression of the Palestinians.

Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel wants to “reassess” the role of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in particular in response to the agency’s promotion of construction in the West Bank. Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre
15/07/2012

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli government has endorsed the construction of 20,000 new housing units in the vicinity of occupied Jerusalem, Jad Isaac, a settlement expert and director of Areej institute for applied sciences, said.

Read more »

Center for Political and Development Studies (CPDS)
15/07/2012

After 96 days of hunger strike, Sarsak declares victory

Father of eight on 95 day of hunger strike

1948 Palestinians refuse enlistment in army

Mahmoud Sarsak greeted by supporters on his arrival in Gaza

Palestinian Information Centre
14/07/2012

CAIRO, (PIC)– The Arab League strongly denounced the Israeli government for legitimizing its settlements that were built on Palestinian lands in the West Bank, describing such a step as legally invalid.

In a press release, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League for Palestine affairs Mohamed Sabih condemned Israel as a “rogue state” using its judiciary to serve its expansionist and aggressive goals. Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre
13/07/2012

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– A group of extremist Jewish settlers infiltrated into Susiya town south of Al-Khalil city and wrote racist slurs on the walls of Palestinian homes.

Racist and Fascist Settler Graffiti

Palestinian Information Centre
13/07/2012

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) — Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and heritage said that the Israeli occupation launched new construction projects in the south-western side of al-Buraq Square. The Foundation said in a report on Thursday that the occupation was planning to build about 20 units of public toilets for the visitors of al-Buraq Wall – which the occupation, falsely and slanderously, calls the Wailing Wall.
Read more »

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
13/07/2012

An Israeli settler attack on the village of Yanoun (Nablus), in the West Bank, highlights the risk of displacement affecting Palestinian communities that suffer from systematic settler violence. In the Gaza Strip, five Palestinian children were injured by unexploded ordnance (UXO); since the beginning of 2012 one child has been killed and 26 others, including 17 children, have been injured by incidents related to UXO. Full Report here.

ends

Palestinian Information Centre
12/07/2012

The UN and NGOs confirmed that Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, due to friction between both sides and the Israeli settlers’ desire to intimidate or take revenge.

Jewish settler teaching child to shoot

“Last year, the number of settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties and property damage increased by more than a third; since 2009 it increased by nearly 150%,” revealed by a joint statement signed by the UN High Commissioner for Human rights, the UN children fund UNICEF, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, Israeli NGOs Yesh Din and B’Tselem and Palestinian NGO Al-Haq. Read more »

By Khalid Amayreh
11-07-2012,10:19

A special committee appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to look into the “legality” of Jewish colonies in the West Bank has concluded that Israel has a legal right to grab Palestinian land, irrespective of the rule of international law and any other considerations.
Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre
11/07/2012

GAZA,(PIC)– The Palestinian government in Gaza has condemned the continued escalation of human rights violations in West Bank especially after agreement on the Palestinian national reconciliation.
Read more »

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
11/07/2012

On 9 July 2012, the media published the recommendations of the Levy Committee established to examine “steps to be taken to regularize construction” in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and to recommend “an appropriate process to clarify land issues in the area.” The Committee, composed of retired High Court Justice Edmund Levy, retired Tel Aviv District Court Judge Tehiya Shapira and former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Attorney Alan Baker, was appointed in February 2012 and submitted its conclusions to the prime minister four months later.

Palestinian-Bedouin children near the Adummim settlement bloc. Photo: activestills.org

Palestinian Information Centre
11/07/2012

GAZA, (PIC)– Hackers calling themselves as “Pirates of Gaza, the winds of victory” said they managed to penetrate into the website of the Israeli Knesset on Thursday. The Hebrew media reported that the hackers defaced the website with a statement reading that they possess many secrets about Israeli leaders. Read more »

by Julie Webb-Pullman
08/07/2012

In a joint motion for a Resolution, The European Parliament last week reiterated that all Israeli settlements remain illegal under international law, condemned Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, demanded an end to the Israeli practice of Administrative Detention of Palestinians, and reiterated their calls for “the immediate, sustained and unconditional lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip…” Read more »

by Marshall Pinkerton – International Solidarity Movement

08/07/2012

On Saturday 7 July, 2012, the village of Yanoun, located 12km southeast of Nablus, was attacked by illegal settlers from the illegal Itamar settlement. Five Palestinians were injured in the attack and large sections of agricultural land were set ablaze.

Soldiers blocking the road to Yanoun (ISM photo)

Palestinian Information Centre
07/07/2012

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The UN’s top human rights body has appointed three independent experts to conduct a fact-finding mission on how Israel’s West Bank settlements affect the Palestinians.

The president of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Uruguay Ambassador Laura Dupuy-Lasserre, named on Friday evening three delegates to the panel who are French judge Christine Chanet, as the panel’s leader, the Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir, and Botswana judge Unity Dow, as members.
Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre
05/07/2012

GAZA,(PIC)– The Palestinian government in Gaza called for the formation of an independent Arab Commission to investigate the death of President Yasser Arafat and to prosecute those responsible for his death after a Swiss Institute found “surprisingly” high levels of polonium-210 in the iconic leader’s clothing following an examination for an Al Jazeera documentary that was aired Tuesday. Read more »