HRW vows to continue documenting Israeli abuses despite deportation of its director

Human Rights Watch (HRW) vowed today to keep on documenting Israeli abuses of the Palestinians despite the deportation of its Palestine director Omar Shakir, according to an HRW statement, saying the deportation “reflects the [Israeli] authorities’ intensifying assault on human rights.”


Shakir will depart Israel later tonight after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the government’s deportation order on November 5 and gave him until November 25 to leave.

HRW said Shakir will continue to monitor human rights abuses in the occupied territories from another HRW office in the region.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the deportation of Shakir “will not succeed in hiding [Israel’s] human rights abuses.”

He said that this decision “shows why the international community must reboot its approach to Israel’s deteriorating human rights record. A government that expels a leading human rights investigator is not likely to stop its systematic oppression of Palestinians under occupation without much greater international pressure.”

Israel revoked the work visa of Shakir, a United States citizen, in May 2018 on the asserted grounds that his advocacy violated a 2017 law that bars entry to people who advocate a boycott of Israel or its settlements in the occupied West Bank. A district court in April, and then the Israeli Supreme Court, found that this position constitutes grounds for deportation under an expansive reading of the 2017 law.

“Neither Human Rights Watch nor Shakir as its representative has ever called for a boycott of Israel. Human Rights Watch has urged businesses to stop operating in illegal settlements as part of their global duty to avoid complicity in human rights abuses – just as it calls on businesses to comply with this duty in many other countries,” said HRW in its statement.

Recently, Israeli authorities have sought to undermine the work of human rights activists, including denying entry to a number of other international rights defenders, maligning Israeli rights advocates, imposing burdensome financial reporting requirements on them, and raiding the offices of and arresting Palestinian rights defenders. In October, Israeli authorities prevented an Amnesty International staff member from traveling out of the occupied West Bank for undisclosed “security reasons.”

This is the first time the government has used the 2017 law to try to deport someone who is lawfully inside Israel and the first time it has ordered a Human Rights Watch staff member to leave in the organization’s 30 years of working in the country, said HRW.

“Today, Israel deports Shakir because Human Rights Watch urges businesses to shun illegal settlements,” said Roth. “Who’s next – someone who calls for the International Criminal Court to examine possible crimes in Israel and Palestine or correctly calls the West Bank 'occupied’ rather than 'disputed’?”

Hamas spokesperson condemns the Israeli deportation of the director of (HRW)

In a statement released on Monday, Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesperson, strongly condemned Israeli planned deportation of Human Right Watch (HRW) director in Palestine, Omar Shakir, and said it is an attempt by Israel to conceal its crimes.


Shakir was ruled to leave the country on Monday after the Israeli High Court denied him a stay pending a hearing by a panel of seven judges after a panel of three High Court judges upheld in early November an April Jerusalem District Court ruling in favor of his deportation at the request of the Israeli Interior Minister due to his alleged support for boycott of Israel activity.

Indeed, the Israeli occupation is unable to see its crimes and violations being documented by such organisations, Barhoum added.

He insisted that this Israeli demeanor aims to block reality and hide its daily violations, including killing and targeting Palestinians, in order to evade accountability.

The Israeli practices should prompt the international community to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and hold the Israeli occupation accountable for the crimes committed against Palestinians.

Israeli forces kidnap 23 Palestinians in West Bank raids

Three children among 23 Palestinians Israel detained in Jerusalem, West Bank raids

Israeli occupation forces detained on Monday 23 Palestinians, including three children, from occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank, said the Palestine Prisoner Society (PPS).


It said Israeli police raided the Occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiyeh in the dead of the night, breaking into homes and detaining at least 10 Palestinians, including a child.

Over the last several months, Issawiyeh, a Palestinian village of some 20,000 people, has been facing a rise in police harassment and raids that have disrupted daily life in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, PPS said that three Palestinians, including a 17-year-old teenager, were detained from the southern West Bank district of Hebron.

In Bethlehem district, soldiers detained three Palestinians, including two in an Israeli military raid at al-Azzeh refugee camp, north of Bethlehem city, one of them a 14-year-old boy.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli military raided Anabta town, east of Tulkarm city, where soldiers detained a Palestinian, as reported in the PPS statement.

PPS added that a similar Israeli military raid was conducted in Attil town, northeast of Tulkarm, resulting in the detention of another man.

In Ramallah district, Israeli forces rounded up two Palestinians after ransacking their home in Kobar town, north of the city.

During ensuing confrontations, soldiers opened fire at local youngsters who protested the raid. No injuries were reported though.

In addition, PPS confirmed that a 13-year-old Palestinian was detained from Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, southwest of Jericho.

Two other Palestinians were rounded up at Tammun town, south of Tubas city in the northern Jordan Valley.

Israeli forces raids cells, assaults prisoners in Nafha jail

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Sunday stormed cells in Nafha prison and assaulted many prisoners.


According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, forces from the Metzada and Dora broke into and ransacked two cells in section 13 of the jail and wreaked havoc on prisoners’ belongings.

The forces physically assaulted the prisoners in those cells and transferred prisoner Adnan al-Shalabi to solitary confinement.

Later, the Nafha jail administration decided to close all cells and sections at the pretext of containing possible angry reactions from other inmates following the raid.

Soldiers attack students on their way to school in Hebron

Dozens of Palestinian students and residents of the old town of Hebron sustained suffocation on Monday after Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters at them while on their way to school and at homes in the Israeli-controlled section of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to local sources.


They said the soldiers fired teargas canisters at schools, including a kindergarten, and homes located near a military checkpoint causing dozens of suffocation cases and panic among the children and their families.

Tension has been high in the occupied city in the last few days after tens of thousands of fanatic settlers stormed the city and some attacked families in their homes and shops in the occupied section.


A child was also injured in the head from stones thrown by settlers who seem to have been emboldened in their attacks and taking over of Palestinian homes and land following the US declaration that settlements are not inconsistent with international law.

Palestinian youth injured in IOF shooting near Hebron

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Sunday afternoon shot and wounded a Palestinian youth in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron City.


Activist Mohammed Awad said that IOF soldiers stationed near the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur opened fire at the Palestinian youth Abdullah Abu Maria, 21, injuring him in the thigh.


Awad said that Abu Maria was later taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Israeli forces shoot, injure youth near Hebron

A Palestinian was shot and injured Sunday evening by Israeli forces’ live fire in the town of Beit Ummar, in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, said a local activist.

Mohammed Awad, a media activist, said Israeli forces stationed near the Israeli settlement of Karmi Tzur, built illegally on Palestinian land to the south of Hebron, opened fire at Abdallah Abu Mariya, 21, shooting him in the thigh. Forces used a gun suppressor in the shooting.

He was transferred to hospital for medical treatment.

Israeli forces attack students with teargas in Hebron

Dozens of Palestinians students and citizens sustained suffocation today after Israeli forces fired gas canisters near a complex of schools in the south neighborhood of Hebron, south of the West Bank, according to local sources.


It said that dozens suffered from suffocation due to inhaling toxic gas fired at them by the Israeli soldiers.

Schools in the south neighborhood of Hebron are frequently targeted by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

The teargas attack was unjustified and caused many students and citizens in the area to suffer from inhaling fumes. 

Stone-throwing settlers injure toddler in the head

A Palestinian toddler sustained a moderate injury in the head when hardcore Jewish settlers, under Israeli occupation army protection, attacked Palestinians’ homes with stones in the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in Hebron, south of the West Bank, local sources said.


Hundreds of settlers protected by army forced their way into the Old City of Hebron, attacking Palestinian civilians and storekeepers, shouting profanities at them and throwing stones at homes.

1.5-year-old Mohammad Hasan Tanina was hit by the rampaging settlers with a rock in his head while inside his family home. He sustained a moderate injury, and was rushed to hospital for medical treatment.

Tension has been high in the city since yesterday as extremist settlers attacked homes of Palestinian families in the occupied section of the city, injuring several people.

Harassment of Palestinians in that area is a daily occurrence, particularly following the departure of the international monitoring team, the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), earlier in February after Israel refused to extend the team's mandate.

Israel bans 10 West Bank Palestinians from travel

Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) last week prevented 10 Palestinian citizens from travelling through Al-Karama crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.


According to a statement by the Palestinian police, over 35,000 passengers managed to pass through Al-Karama crossing in both directions last week.

Meanwhile, 10 Palestinians were banned from travel over "security" pretexts.

Footage documents Israeli soldiers arresting 13-year-old boy in Hebron

A video footage recently released by Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, showed Israeli soldiers detaining a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and, while blindfolded, walking him through the streets.

On November 3 at about 11:30 am local time, soldiers detained Abed al-Razeq Idris, 13, put him in a jeep, blindfolded him and drove him around. They then took him to another neighborhood about one kilometer from his home where they took him out of the jeep and walked him, blindfolded, through the streets.

When his father arrived, B’Tselem said, the soldiers refused to turn the boy over. Instead, they drove him to a military post and then to the police station in the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba. Abed al-Razeq was asked about stone-throwers and sent home alone at about 2:00 pm.

“This case is no aberration,” says the group. “It is part of the routine violence imposed on Palestinians in Hebron by Israeli security forces and settlers, including physical attacks, threats, verbal abuse, soldiers’ incursions into homes (usually at night) – and the false arrest of minors and adults.”

It added, “Israel cites security to justify this conduct and the segregation it imposes on the city. Yet as this case proves, these claims are baseless and serve merely to bolster a policy of driving Palestinians to leave Hebron by making daily life unbearable.”

Israeli forces injure dozens, detain two in Jerusalem

Dozens of Palestinian citizens were injured while two others were arrested when Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked Palestinian homes in Al-Isawiya town in Occupied Jerusalem on Friday night.


Local sources said that the IOF stormed Obeid neighborhood in Al-Isawiya and heavily fired tear gas bombs at Palestinian homes. Dozens of citizens suffered breathing difficulties as a result of inhaling tear gas.

The same sources reported that two Palestinian youths were kidnapped by the IOF soldiers before the latter withdrew from the town.

The detainees were identified as Alaa Obeid and Mahmoud al-Rajabi.

After two months of hunger strike, two prisoners reported in a feeble health condition

Two months of hunger strike by two Palestinian prisoners in Israel has left them in poor health condition, today said the Palestinian Prisoners Commission.


Hassan Abed Rabbo, spokesman for the commission, said that Ahmad Zahran, 42, from Deir Abu Mishal near Ramallah, has been on hunger strike for 63 days, and Musab Hindi, 29, from Tel village in the north of the West Bank, for 61 days in protest against their administrative detention without charge or trial.


He said both prisoners feel very weak and exhaustion and refuse to take any supplements or undergo physical examination.

Abed Rabbo warned that the two may be in danger of losing their life after more than 60 days of hunger strike and due to lack of salt and fluids in their body.

Committee to Protect Journalists calls for investigating Israeli injury of Amarneh

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today condemned Israeli security forces' injuring of Palestinian photographer Moath Amarneh and called on Israeli authorities to immediately open an investigation into the incident and hold those responsible into account.


Amarneh, a photographer for the London-based news agency Sanad and for the West Bank-based media production company GMedia, was hit in the left eye on November 15 by a metallic bullet fired by an Israeli soldier while covering a protest in the southern West Bank village of Surif against Israel's plan to seize Palestinian land for the construction of the apartheid wall.

His injury is considered serious and he had already undergone two operations and is at risk of permanently losing sight in his left eye.

"Israeli security forces have repeatedly shown utter disregard for the lives and safety of journalists, as seen by the severe injury suffered by Palestinian photographer Moath Amarneh," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado. "We call on Israeli authorities to immediately open an investigation into the incident and hold the soldiers responsible to account."

Israeli security forces fired tear gas into a group of journalists who were staging a protest over Amarneh's injuries, and briefly detained two demonstrators.

Dozens of Palestinian journalists have been injured and at least two, Ahmed Abu Hussein and Yaser Murtaja, have been killed covering protests in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Gaza border protests in March 2018, according to CPJ research.

Gaza Under Attack, Youth from Palestine Team wants your support

Gaza Under Attack,

We, Youth From Palestine, need your help and support our journalism.

Gaza is now under Israeli attack and we are gathering together these moments to cover the latest news happened in Gaza Strip.

So please, support us on our PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/palbahaa

Our crew members are Bahaa Shammala, Banan Khaled, Mohammad Shammala and Mohammad Ayash.

Killing the smile, Israel kills children

It's a question in my mind!

What did this little girl do to be slaughtered in this horrible way?

Like it's crimes precedent, Israel killed 18-month-old the child Sabba. Ended her life and kill her smile. It's not enough for Israel they also killed her pregnant mother and her unborn son.

Sabba and her mother with her unborn son were safe in their home while an Israeli warplane attacked their home without any warning to record a new crime in its criminal history. 

Israel must be prosecuted in International Criminal Court for this horrible crime.

The escalation is still ongoing, and the world is still silent. No one knows will he survive the Israeli crimes?!

Four Killed, Including Child And Her Pregnant Mother

Gaza Under Attack,

Four Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Israeli strikes in Gaza Strip, including 14-Month-Old Baby-girl And her pregnant mother and her fetus Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Said.

Seba Abu Arar, 18 months old,
A little innocent kid from #Gaza, was murdered after israeli warplanes attacked their family home with missiles today and her pregnant mom seriously injured..#GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/5vA0mMsbFr

— Days of Palestine (@DaysofPalestine) May 4, 2019

According to the spokesman of the Ministry Of Health Ashraf Al-Qidra, 18 other Palestinians were wounded, including a sister of the martyr baby-girl, who was identified as Saba Abu-Arar and her fetus brother who was identified as Abdullah.

Her Mother and her fetus, Al-Qidra Said, died of serious injuries sustained and her little sister sustained moderate injuries and she is receiving treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital.

The babies and their mother were attacked in a strike targeted their home in the south of Al-Zaytoun Neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.

Early Today, the Ministry said that Emad Nasir, 21, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the northern Gaza City Of Beit Lahiya.

On Friday, Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians and wounded more than 150 others.

Israeli Cabinet Announced That It Would Continue Its Operation In Gaza, Stressing It Would Increase Its Attacks Against The Most Densely Populated Place On Earth.

Seba Abu Arar, 14 months.
Killed by Israeli warplanes.

May 4, 2019. #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/c3i7C6yXGZ

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) May 4, 2019

Attack by the Israeli warplanes north of Gaza

Gaza,

Israeli occupation warplanes bombed several targets of the Palestinian resistance in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, without causing casualties.


"Fighter jets attacked a number of targets in a Hamas military compound in the northern Gaza Strip," the Israeli army said in a tweet posted on its Twitter account.

He claimed that the raids came in response to "the launch of balloons," toward the Israeli towns surrounding the sector, yesterday.

Israeli media reported yesterday that "burning" balloons were fired from the Gaza Strip and caused fires in Israeli fields adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

Witnesses confirmed that Israeli warplanes, launched several raids, on the site of one of the Palestinian factions, without declaring casualties.

Israeli forces detain 17 Palestinians from the West Bank

Ramallah,

The Israeli occupation forces detained 17 Palestinians in various parts of the West Bank, the occupation army spokesman said Thursday.

Local Palestinian radio reported that the Israeli occupation forces stormed several areas in Ramallah governorate, arrested citizens and confiscated a vehicle.

They added that a large military force stormed the neighborhood of Ain Mesbah in Ramallah after midnight, where dozens of youths confronted it and threw stones.

According to local sources that confrontations broke out in the neighborhood, accompanied by the firing of tear gas and bullets at the youths. 

IOF arrested the youth Mohammed 'Awad from Ramallah.

The Israeli occupation forces stormed the village of Kupper in the northwest of the city and confiscated the vehicle of the prisoner Moatasem Barghouthi after raiding his house.

Israeli occupation forces also raided Safa village, southwest of Ramallah, and arrested Mahdi Mahdi Sa'id Karajeh.

Israeli occupation forces stormed the village of Shaqba in the west and raided and searched the house of the ex-detainee Ibraheem Al-Masri and re-arrested him.

The source added that IOF also arrested five youths during raids in Nablus.

In addition to raiding several houses in the Beit Furik village, east of Nablus. They detained Ziad 'Abdul Rahim Hanani, Atef Hanani, and Lu'ai' Imad 'Abdul Qader al-Hajj Muhammad.

"Stop Arming Colonialism", the 15th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week

Under the theme "Stop Arming Colonialism", the 15th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week of actions will take place all around the world between March 18th and April 8th, 2019.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people and build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

It now takes place in over 200 cities across the world, where events such as film, lectures, direct action, screenings, cultural performances, postering, among more help in grassroots organizing for effective solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Due to its arms sales and the military support it receives from governments across the world, Israel is able to maintain its illegal occupation and apartheid regime over Palestinians partly.

The United States alone is the single largest supplier of arms and military aid to Israel, followed by European states. These directly sustain Israel's oppression and human rights violations.

Israel is the supplier of weapons to genocidal regimes in Rwanda, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Presently, Israel is a major arms exporter to right-wing, authoritarian regimes from Brazil to India, the Philippines and beyond. These weapons are promoted as ‘field-tested’, which means they have been used to kill or injure Palestinians. In fact, Israel is already promoting the technology it has used to repress the Great March of Return in Gaza calling for the right of refugees to return home and an end to the siege. These arms deals finance Israel’s apartheid regime and its illegal occupation while simultaneously deepening militarization and persecution of people’s movements and oppressed communities in countries where they are bought.

The Palestinian-led BDS movement has reiterated the demand for a military embargo on Israel in the light of Israel’s violent repression of the Great March of Return. International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have also responded to the Israeli massacre in Gaza with this demand. The UK Labour Party, in its conference in September 2018, passed a motion condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and called for a freeze of arms sales to Israel.

Ending arms trade, military aid and cooperation with Israel will undercut financial and military support for its regime of apartheid, settler-colonialism and illegal occupation. It will also end the flow of Israeli weapons and security technology and techniques to governments that suppress the resistance of their own citizens, people’s movements and communities against policies that deprive them of fundamental rights, including the right to the natural resources of their country.

A military embargo on Israel is a measure for freedom and justice of Palestinians and oppressed peoples in many parts of the world. It can successfully be achieved with massive grassroots efforts, similar to the sustained global mobilization that eventually compelled the United Nations to impose a binding international military embargo against South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Israeli Apartheid Week 2019 will be an important platform for building the campaign for a military embargo on Israel. We invite progressive groups to organize events on their campuses and in their cities to popularize and build momentum in this direction.