Free Palestine: Settler Terror and Ethnic Cleansing, April 30, 2019

Palestinian Resistance and Life in Palestine

Palestinians Celebrate Al-Isra Wal Miraj

Tens of thousands of Palestinians observed Al-Isra Wal Miraj Muslim holiday, today, with worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem’s Old City, the site of this holy day, thus the religious significance of Jerusalem and specifically Al-Aqsa Mosque, to millions of Muslims worldwide, as scouts marched through the city streets playing all kinds of musical instruments. Read More

Related Stories:

• Miles of Smiles Convoy Heads Back to Gaza Next Month
• Soldiers Assault Five Hunger Striking Detainees, Deny Them Lawyer Visits
• Israel Refusing To Release Information About Health Condition Of Hunger Striking Detainee
• Bil’in Commemorates Bassem Abu Rahma
• Amputee Football Championships Held In Gaza
• Al-Araqib Refuses to Surrender
• 400 Palestinian Prisoners End Week-Long Hunger Strike
• PCHR: “Hardest Choice for Detainees in the Israeli Prisons: “Hunger Strike Started”
• Dozens Of Detainees Continue Hunger Strike For Second Day
• Lajee Center Opens Rooftop Garden in Aida Camp

Silence or Deportation... Israel’s Message to Human Rights Defenders

The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR): In a new and unprecedented move, an Israeli Court on April 16, 2019, has decided to uphold the revocation of the work permit of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Israel and Palestine Director, Omar Shakir, ordering him to leave the country within 14 days based on allegations that he supported a boycott of Israel. Israel’s Law of the Entry bars entry or the grant of residence or work permit to foreign nationals who allegedly support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Read More

Related Stories:

• Gaza’s Fishing Zone Drastically Reduced
• PA Rejected 660m Shekels of Incomplete Israeli Tax Revenues
• Patients in Need of Specialized Care May Go to Hospitals in Jordan, Egypt
• PCHR Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (18 – 24 April 2019)
• Health Ministry: “Child Killed In Accidental Explosion In Gaza”
• Israel Denies All Gaza Christians Travel Permits to Jerusalem for Easter
• 8th Anniversary of the Death of Vittorio Arrigoni
• Palestinian Loses Eyesight After Hamas Interrogators Tortured Him In Gaza
• Gaza Hospitals Suffer from Lack of Therapeutic Milk
• Zoo Animals Evacuated from Gaza to Jordan
• Palestinian Authority to Pay 50% of Salaries for Second Month
• Human Rights Institution Association Calls for Investigation into Murder of Al-Hamlawi in Palestinian Authority security services prison in Ramallah
• Gaza Fishing Zone Expanded as Part of Ceasefire Agreement
• Gaza Crossings Opened after One-week Closure

IDF Military Attacks, Killings, and Abductions

Israel Using Strange Teargas against Gaza Protesters

Israeli forces have been using the Great Return March and its thousands of protesters as a sort of testing ground for new forms of weaponry and crowd control, say physicians in the Gaza Strip. They talk of explosive bullets and an unknown gas that causes severe convulsions and loss of consciousness, among other symptoms. “We are being used as guinea pigs to test new weapons, as the case in past Israeli wars on Gaza,” says Ashraf al-Qedra, MD, spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry. Read More

Related Stories:

• On 56th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking Siege, Israeli Forces Wound 110 Civilians, including 37 Children, 3 Women, 4 Paramedics, and Journalist
• Army Bombards Several Areas In Gaza
• PCHR: “On 55th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking Siege, Israeli Forces Wound 100 Civilians, including 23 Children, 5 Women, 4 Paramedics, and 4 Journalists”
• Army Injures Six Protesters, Including Two Journalists, Abducts French Peace Activist, In Kufur Qaddoum
• B’Tselem Probe: Israeli Army Erased Footage of Palestinian’s Murder
• Israeli Forces Raid House of Journalist in Hebron
• On 54th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking Siege, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Child and Wound 93 Civilians, including 17 Children, 4 Women, 3 Paramedics, and Journalist
• Army Continues Isolation Of Azzoun Village
• Reoccupation of Gaza ‘Still On the Table’ says Netanyahu
• Soldiers Invade Al-Khalil; Fire Live Ammunition at Protesters
• Israeli Navy Attacks Fishing Boats in Gaza, Army Invades Lands In Khan Younis
• United States and Israel Complete THAAD Missile Defense Exercises
• Israeli Tanks Strike Targets in Gaza following Alleged Rocket Fire

Israeli Army Killed 266 Palestinians In One Year

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has reported that Israeli soldiers killed 266 Palestinians, and injured 30,398 others, since the Great Return March processions started on March 30, 2018, which also marks Palestinian Land Day. Four Palestinians were killed on Land Day in 2019 and 316 were injured, including 86 children and 29 women. Read More

Related Stories:

• Army Abducts Nine Palestinians In Jerusalem
• Palestinian Dies From Serious Wounds Suffered A Week Earlier Near Nablus
• Soldiers Assault Three Children While Abducting Them, And During Interrogation
• Army Injures 27 Palestinians, Including A New Born Baby, In Nablus
• Palestinian Man Dies During Israeli Police Chase
• Israel Continues Holding Palestinian Detainee In Solitary Confinement Since March 2017
• Palestinian Detainee Held for Over Two Years in Isolation
• Israel Imposes Heavy Fines on Child Detainees
• Army Abducts 22 Palestinians In West Bank
• Israeli Soldiers Shoot Two Palestinians Near Ramallah
• Israeli Forces Assault and Detain Teen Missing One Third of His Skull
• PCHR Weekly Report: Israeli Forces Injure 115 Palestinian Civilians, Abduct 54
• Israeli Soldiers Abduct Fourteen Palestinians In West Bank
• Israeli Soldiers Abduct Nineteen Palestinians, Injure Many Others, In West Bank
• Israeli Army Cause Dozens Of Schoolchildren To Suffer Effects Of Teargas Inhalation In Hebron
• On Palestinian Child’s Day; Report Says 250 Children Imprisoned By Israel
• Missing Palestinian Child Found In Israeli Prison
• PCHR Fears that Palestinian Prisoners’ Conditions in Israeli Prisons Would Deteriorate Following Ardan’s Statement
• Palestinian Youth Severely Beaten during Detention
• Israeli Army Abducts Eleven Palestinians, Injures One In West Bank
• Palestinian Detainee Marks 17 Years in Israeli Jails

Colonization and Settlers in the Occupied Territories

Israeli Plans for 250,000 Future Settlers in Golan Heights

The Israeli Ministry of Housing has prepared a plan which calls for the construction of tens of thousands of settlement units to accommodate 250,000 settlers by the year 2048, in the occupied Syrian Golan, and encourages settlers to live there. The details of the plan came one week after US President Donald Trump declared Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which were occupied in 1967 along with the West Bank and Gaza. Read More

Related Stories:

• Israel Converts Historic Mosque into Bar
• Army Demolishes Home Of Slain Palestinian Near Salfit
• Entrances to Nablus-area Village Blocked to Secure Jewish Passover Holiday
• Israeli Police Close Beit Safafa Sports Arena
• Israel Begins Demolition of 500 East Jerusalem Homes
• Palestinian Villages Isolated, Land Confiscated in Jordan Valley
• Two Villages in West Bank Receive Demolition Orders from Israeli Authorities
• Israel Approves Hundreds Of New Units In Beitar Illit Illegal Colony
• Israel Demolishes Bedouin Village for 142nd Time
• Israel Bills A Jerusalemite Palestinian After Demolishing His Home
• Israel to Approve 1,427 New Illegal Settlement Units

Settler Terror, An Integral Part Of Israel’s State-Sponsored Terrorism

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the dangerously escalating Israeli violations and crimes, including the killing of a Palestinian near Nablus by an armed illegal colonist, and said that the “terrorist attacks carried out by the colonists are an integral part of Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine, and its state-sponsored terrorism.” Read More

Related Stories:

• Illegal Israeli Colonists Cut 150 Olive Trees Near Ramallah
• Colonial Settlers Storm Archaeological Site near Jerusalem
• Illegal Colonists Poison Water Well Near Hebron
• Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa for Passover
• Israeli Colonist Runs Over A Palestinian Child Near Bethlehem
• Israeli Agriculture Minister Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound with Settlers
• Illegal Israeli Colonists Injure Two Palestinians Near Ramallah
• Illegal Colonists Bulldoze Palestinian Lands Near Nablus And Jenin
• One Palestinian Killed, Another Wounded, in Attack by Israeli Settler Near Nablus
• Illegal Israeli Colonists Cut 550 Trees, grapevines, Near Ramallah
• Illegal Israeli Colonists Write Racist Graffiti, Cause Damage To Cars In Jerusalem
• Illegal Colonialist Settler Fires At Homes In Hebron

International Developments

Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians Supported by American Administration

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said that the Israeli government continues with ethnic cleansing and Judaization policies in occupied Jerusalem, so violating the International Law, International Humanitarian Law and the International Legitimacy’s resolutions. Within this context, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he doesn’t see Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements as damaging to the Trump’s “Deal of the Century” for the Middle East. PM Netanyahu said he intends to impose Israeli law on all settlements, and hopes to do so with the consent of America. Furthermore, both right-wing and Haredi parties that won the Knesset elections are betting on the support of the administration of US President Donald Trump, for the Israeli annexation policy, which make up about 60% of the West Bank. Read More

Related Stories:

• Gaza Farmers Get €3.7m Support Package from EU and PA
• Federal Judge Blocks Anti-BDS Law In Texas
• Palestinians Call on Iceland’s Eurovision Contestant Hatari to Withdraw
• British Filmmakers Call On UK Cinemas to Boycott Israeli Film Festival
• Coalition Calls for AXA to Divest from Israeli Apartheid at Annual Meeting
• Foreign Ministry Looking into Death of Palestinian Child in Belgium
• AXA IM Divests from Elbit Systems – Involved in Israeli War Crimes
• EU Rejects Israeli Claim to Syrian Golan
• UK Band Release Song Highlighting Israeli Apartheid

Solidarity Actions and Reports

San Franciscans demonstrated for Palestine (March 30)

Commemorating the “Great March of Return” in Gaza, demonstrators condemned Israel’s abuse, with US support, of Palestinians. With large Palestinian flags, banners and signs, a wheeled speaker system shouted demands for: an end to the Gaza blockade; the halting of US aid to Israel; BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel’s occupation); a Palestinian right of return. Photos

Related Stories:

• Commemorating the Nakba: Movement-Building for Collective Liberation (May 8, Berkeley)
• Palestinian Cultural Day (May 3, San José)
• Screening of documentary film 'Seeing Through the Wall' (April 28, San Mateo)
• What is Justice for Palestine Today (April 26, Santa Cruz)

I had the privilege of traveling to Palestine in 2010. In the course of listening to the stories of Palestinians and documenting the issues which they face in the West Bank, I met the good people of the International Middle East Media Center. I asked them what I could do to help as a reporter for the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay), and they said amplify their news reports in the States, which I've been doing ever since.

The International Middle East Media Center was developed in collaboration between Palestinian and International journalists to provide independent media coverage of Israel-Palestine. The IMEMC was founded by the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement Between People in 2003.

Indybay's Palestine feature page includes news on solidarity actions in the US: