The Single State Solution is already here

Now of all times, out of the fire and despair, we must start talking about the last way out: one Israeli state with equal rights for both Jews and Arabs.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.680882

by Gideon Levy     17 October 2015     Haaretz

Border police check Palestinian's IDAP

Here is irrefutable proof that the one-state solution should not even be considered: the bloodshed, hatred and fear currently washing over the country. Advocates of the two-state solution and, especially, those who seek no solution, those Israelis who saw the one-state solution as treason and heresy, are now proclaiming victory. “There, that’s what the binational state will look like,” they are saying. “It will be a bloody, endless civil war.”

The same intimidatory arguments that were used for years against the two-state solution (the “Auschwitz borders”) are now being enlisted against the one-state solution. Now, as then, everything is judged according to the contours of the current, depressing reality, and it doesn’t occur to anyone that another reality is possible.

The nationalists say, “An agreement will never be possible with those bloodthirsty people.” The center-left says, “There’s no way to live together.” The common denominator is racism, and the assumption that the hatred will last forever. To this we must add the arguments over the Jewish state’s sanctity and the end of the Zionist project. In short, one state means the end of the world.

And now to the facts. One state already exists here, and has done so for 48 years. The Green Line faded long ago; the settlements are in Israel, and Israel is also the settlers’ land. The fate of the two million Palestinians who live in the West Bank is decided by the government in Jerusalem and the defense establishment in Tel Aviv, not by Ramallah. Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, is their ruler far more than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is. They are clearly part of the binational state and have been its subjects, forcibly, for some three generations. This state has three regimes: democracy for the Jews; discrimination for the Israeli Arabs; and apartheid for the Palestinians. But everyone lives in one inseparable state.

The binational state that was born in 1967 is not democratic. In fact, it’s one of the worst states in the world, because of the military dictatorship it upholds in part of its territory – one of the most brutal, totalitarian regimes in existence today. It is also one of the most racist states, since it determines its residents’ rights based solely on their nationality. This is the one state that is washed in blood right now, and will continue to be washed in blood as long as it remains in its malicious, nondemocratic format.

Those who say the current bloodbath is proof that Arabs and Jews can’t live together base this on the current state of injustice. And they’re right. If Israel continues to be a state of iniquity, Jews and Arabs will never be able to live together in peace. But the growing few advocating the one-state solution are not thinking of this state – quite the opposite. They wish to undermine it and establish a different, more just and egalitarian regime. When that is established, the hatred and despair will most likely be forgotten.

One may not want to believe this, of course, but one must not deceive. You cannot deny the possibility of life together with arguments based on the existing conditions. Blood is being spilt because of the injustice, and stems from it. How can you rule out in advance the possibility that in a democratic, egalitarian state, different relations will be formed? There are quite a few historic precedents of hatred and horror that dissipated when the injustice dissipated.

We could go back to the two-state solution, of course. Not a bad idea, perhaps, but one that has been missed. Those who wanted a Jewish state should have implemented it while it was still possible. Those who set it on fire, deliberately or by doing nothing, must now look directly and honestly at the new reality: 600,000 settlers will not be evacuated. Without evacuation, there will not be two states. And without two states, only the one-state solution remains.

Now, of all times, out of the fire and despair, we must start talking about the last way out: equal rights for all. For Jews and Arabs. One state is already here, and has been for a long time. All it needs is to be just and do the right thing. Who’s against it? Why? And, most important, what’s the alternative?

Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent

My comment published after the article:

 The only sensible solution

Gideon, thanks for your clarity and wisdom. The one-state is already here -and the only logical and sensible solution to end the bloodshed is for equal civil, social , political and economic rights for all. Both states, the Israeli and Palestinian exist one within another. Separation brings only more bloodshed and hatred. Sanctity of life is a key tenet of both Judaism and Islam, and should be the ultimate reason for creating what will then be a real democracy with peace and justice in the Middle East -an exemplary and life enhancing solution to both peoples. Ed. 

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Even Gandhi Would Understand the Palestinians' Violence
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.679268
The injustice can go on for many more years. Why? Because Israel is stronger than ever and the West is letting it run wild.

Gideon Levy       Oct 09, 2015   Haaretz
  
An Israeli police officer fires tear gas during clashes with Palestinian stone-throwers in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Isawiyah, October 4, 2015. Reuters

Through the haze of self-righteousness, media propaganda, incitement, distraction, brainwashing and victimhood of the past few days, the simple question returns in full force: Who’s right?

There are no justified arguments left in Israel’s arsenal, the kind a decent person could accept. Even Mahatma Gandhi would understand the reasons for this outburst of Palestinian violence. Even those who recoil from violence, who see it as immoral and useless, can’t help but understand how it breaks out periodically. The question is why it doesn’t break out more often.

From the question of who started it to the question of who’s to blame, the finger is rightfully pointed at Israel, at Israel alone. It’s not that the Palestinians are blameless, but the main blame lies on Israel’s shoulders. As long as Israel doesn’t shake off this blame, it has no basis for making even a scrap of a demand from the Palestinians. Everything else is false propaganda.

As veteran Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi wrote recently, the Palestinians are the only people on earth required to guarantee the security of the occupier, while Israel is the only country that demands protection from its victims. And how can we respond?

As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked in a Haaretz interview, “How do you expect the Palestinian street to react after the burning of the teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the torching of the Dawabsheh home, the settlers’ aggression and the damage to property under the eyes of the soldiers?” And what are we to answer?

To the 100 years of dispossession and 50 years of oppression we can add the past few years, marked by intolerable Israeli arrogance that’s exploding once again in our faces.

These were the years Israel thought it could do anything and pay no price. It thought the defense minister could boast he knew the identity of the Dawabsheh murderers and not arrest them, and the Palestinians would restrain themselves. It thought that nearly every week a boy or teenager could be killed by soldiers, and the Palestinians would stay quiet.

It thought military and political leaders could back the crimes and no one would be prosecuted. It thought houses could be demolished and shepherds expelled, and the Palestinians would accept it all humbly. It thought settler thugs could damage, burn and act as if Palestinian property were theirs, and the Palestinians would bow their heads.

It thought that Israeli soldiers could burst into Palestinian homes every night and terrorize, humiliate and arrest people. That hundreds could be arrested without trial. That the Shin Bet security service could resume torturing suspects with methods handed down by Satan.

It thought that hunger strikers and freed prisoners could be rearrested, often for no reason. That Israel could destroy Gaza once every two to three years and Gaza would surrender and the West Bank remain calm. That Israeli public opinion would applaud all this, with cheers at best and demands for more Palestinian blood at worst, with a thirst that’s hard to understand. And the Palestinians would forgive.

This could go on for many more years. Why? Because Israel is stronger than  ever and the West is indifferent and letting it run wild as it never has. The Palestinians, meanwhile, are weak, divided, isolated and bleeding as they haven’t been since the Nakba.

So this could continue because Israel can — and the people want it to. No one will try to stop it other than international public opinion, which Israel dismisses as Jew-hatred.

And we haven’t said a word about the occupation itself and the inability to end it. We’re tired. We haven’t said a word about the injustice of 1948, which should have ended then and not resumed with even more force in 1967 and continued with no end in sight. We haven’t spoken about international law, natural justice and human morality, which can’t accept any of this in any way.

When young people kill settlers, throw firebombs at soldiers or hurl rocks at Israelis, this is the background. You need a great deal of obtuseness, ignorance, nationalism and arrogance – or all the above – to ignore this.

Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.679268
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Every Palestinian Understands the Despair That Drives a Person to Stab Israelis
Those who choose to launch knife attacks are concentrating on those seen as the most brutal symbols of the occupation: soldiers, police and settlers.

Amira Hass     Oct 19, 2015      Haaretz

A Palestinian youth raises a knife during clashes with Israeli security forces (unseen) in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on October 18, 2015.AFP

This column was written shortly before a visit to Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa, with an anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned there. He and his colleagues were considered “terrorists” in the eyes of the white government. This generic word, which repressive regimes use freely, is part of the dehumanization of opponents and the criminalization of the resistance.

“Terrorist” is probably the most common word in the Israeli media these days. No wonder, when in the last two weeks five Jews were murdered in knife attacks, 16 Palestinians suspected of stabbings were killed by soldiers, police officers, citizens holding a gun license or settlers. Fear has fallen on the streets and the green light to execute every stabbing suspect, even if he poses no threat to life, has so far failed to deter other Palestinians from taking up knives.

“Terrorist” saves words when writing and editing. “Suspected of stabbing a soldier”; “Palestinian boy who Border Police officers claimed tried to stab them”; or “The 13-year-old Palestinian boy who was seen stabbing a Jewish child is from refugee camp X” – such phrasing just complicates the sentence, especially when reporting on a number of stabbing attacks in one day.

The short time and space demand a simplified language, and the simplification and shorthand language adapt themselves to the general hysteria. The police, IDF spokesman or any other official body supply ready-made statements, filled with words such as “terrorist” and “neutralize.” The copying, or near-copying, of them saves time and hassle. That is why the descriptions are so similar in all the different media reports.

Unifying the terminology makes it possible to ignore the fact that many of the assailants are from East Jerusalem; that some of those stabbed are in uniform and armed; and that others were stabbed in settlements (including neighborhoods in East Jerusalem). Without receiving political orders from above, those deciding to launch knife attacks (and be killed) have focused on the most brutal symbols of the occupation: the army, police and settlers. The “neutralizers” are acclaimed, as long as the attacker is Palestinian and the victims are Jewish. Eden Nata-Zada murdered four Palestinian Israelis in 2005. He was “neutralized,” and his “neutralizers” were put on trial and their acts described as a “lynching.” They, of course, were not Jews.

True, Nata-Zada was also characterized as a “terrorist” in many newspaper reports. In comparison, when a 17-year-old from Dimona recently stabbed two Bedouin who are Israeli citizens and two Palestinian workers from the West Bank in a revenge attack, most media outlets (except for Haaretz) sufficed with noting his age and the fact that his past and psychiatric condition were known to the police. It goes without saying that the security forces subdued him without injuring or killing him.

In any case, defining a few Jews as “terrorists” does not change the original function of the generic term: To erase from the sight of Israelis any political, sociological and historic context for the Palestinians’ decision to kill Jews. This is dehumanization whose logic goes as follows: those attacking Jews are terrorists. The attackers are Palestinians. The Palestinians are terrorists, the murderousness is ingrained in them – and that is the source of our problem. Not the foreign control, not the settlements, not the police abuse of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents.

The word “terrorist” also exempts journalists in advance of the obligation to check the accuracy of the police or military statements after an attempted attack, or to examine the real meaning of “neutralize” and how it was done.

Palestinian media outlets, following Facebook posts, did not show the full picture of the stabbings, and presented the results as the murder of Palestinians for simply being Palestinian. They also contributed to the hysteria – the Palestinian one. The official Palestinian Wafa news agency website did not note the circumstances in which each of the 37 people (as of Saturday) were killed. Nine students from Gaza were killed by IDF soldiers during an unarmed demonstration at the border fence. Mother Noor Hassan and her baby daughter Rahaf were killed after an Israeli airstrike near Gaza City. But 26 of the Palestinians were all from one group: protesters and suspected knife assailants. There was no way of knowing who was who.

Every Palestinian understands the despair that drives a person to stab Israelis. Many also justify the act, when there is no doubt it was done. But the missing reports in the Palestinian media and the amalgamation of names in the official list of those killed also shows the confusion and fear of a wave of copycat suicide attacks.

Amira Hass
Haaretz Correspondent
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.681130
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Why 'Occupation-denial' Impedes Israel’s War on Terror
By ignoring the disenfranchisement of the Palestinians, Netanyahu escapes the need to explain why he's done nothing to dilute its poison.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/.premium-1.680466

Chemi Shalev    14  Oct , 2015     Haaretz

PM Netanyahu with Defence Minister, Ya'alon IDF chief Eisenkot and Public Security Minister Erdan. October 8, 2015.Reuters

First, let’s take a sample survey. In Prime Minister Netanyahu’s two recent addresses to the Knesset about the latest wave of terror and violence that has engulfed Israel, he uttered the word “incitement” in one way or another 14 times. The word “occupation” or any of its synonyms wasn’t mentioned even once.

The same is true of statements made in recent days by other Israeli politicians, as well as communiqués issued by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the World Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee. They all condemn Mahmoud Abbas. They all cite Palestinian incitement as a major cause of violence. None of them mention 48 years of direct Israeli control over the Palestinian people, in the West Bank and, yes, in East Jerusalem as well.

But it’s not just the politicians and American Jewish activists, though they are the ones setting the tone. Ordinary Israelis and their supporters abroad have also learned to expunge the occupation, not only from their words but from their thoughts as well. Once you do that, Palestinian teens wantonly hurling themselves at unsuspecting civilians, knowing that they will face certain injury or death, turn into manifestations of unadulterated psychotic evil. Once you eliminate occupation from the equation, the world’s seemingly “balanced” attitude towards the violence, and the international media’s insistence on describing not only Israeli but Palestinian “victims” as well, can indeed seem biased, outrageous and even anti-Semitic.

The prevailing Israeli motto, to paraphrase the immortal “The Germans” episode of Fawlty Towers is “Don’t mention the occupation”. If you utter the explicit word, it seems, you stand accused of justifying the terrorists and if you don’t, you’re not culpable in any way. That’s very convenient, of course, if you happen to be a prime minister who’s been in power for the past six years: ignoring the occupation allows Netanyahu to dodge questions about why you’ve done virtually nothing to get rid of it. As long as the prime minister turns a blind eye to the occupation and convinces others to do the same, he doesn’t have to explain why it keeps blowing up in everyone’s face.

So the stabbings and the shootings are a product of Palestinian “lies” about the Temple Mount; the result of the Palestinian Authority’s outrageous agitation; the consequence of inflammatory textbooks and rabble-rousing religious leaders; the manifestation of a culture of hate and terror that is spreading throughout the Middle East; another chapter in the long saga of Muslim rejection of Jews in Palestine that’s been there since time immemorial. All valid points, perhaps, but all pale in the shadow of occupation.

There are many reasons that compel politicians and ordinary Israelis to ignore the mammoth in the room. Some in the religious right don’t even recognize the existence of occupation because “how can one occupy one’s own homeland”. Others have convinced themselves that Palestinians in the West Bank, and even more so in East Jerusalem, should thank their lucky stars that they are living under a “benign” and “enlightened” Israeli occupation rather than in strife-ravaged Syria, Lebanon or Libya. Then there are those who have bought the line that after the disengagement from Gaza and the withdrawal from major cities in the West Bank, the occupation has effectively ceased to exist. And many have been lulled by the increasingly effective isolation of Gaza and the West Bank “beyond the mountains of darkness” and have simply put the occupation out of their minds.

But even Israelis who are full cognizant that the IDF, Shin Bet and the Civil Administration continue to manage even the minutest details of daily life for the Palestinians, nonetheless resist acknowledging the social, economic and human toll of the occupation and the blind hatred that it foments. The Israeli public frowns upon any display of empathy towards the Palestinians and even left wing politicians are cowed. They are careful to disavow any identification with Palestinian suffering and plight, insisting that their demand for diplomacy is only aimed at strengthening Israel’s security. They may mention the occupation, but only as a burden that Israelis need to shed.

At its extreme, the refusal to countenance a link between the occupation and the violence that it breeds, despite overwhelming empirical and historical evidence to the contrary, in Israel and around the world, is a form of what is sometimes termed “denialism”. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a denialist is “”A person who does not acknowledge the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence” while denialism has been defined as “the employment of rhetorical arguments to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none”.  In the past few decades, the most prominent contemporary examples have been the denial of evolution, of climate change, of the Holocaust, of the link between HIV and AIDS, between smoking and lung cancer.
Recognizing the occupation does not justify terror, but ignoring it completely is to ensure that it will persist for a long time to come. As Pascal Diethelm and Martin McKee wrote in a 2009 article on denialism “The consequences of policies based on views such as these can be fatal.”

Chemi Shalev
Haaretz Correspondent
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/.premium-1.680466

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A new report summarizing Israel’s Arbitrary Killings and its System of Structural Violence was released by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor at a press conference in Geneva on Friday. The release included the following video, “Caught on Camera: Israel’s extrajudicial killings,” illustrating the killings of Palestinian civilians involved in political protests during the last two weeks.
 
More, including video:
 
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/extrajudicial-killings-palestinians

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200 Israeli settlers attack Palestinian village with firebombs
OCT. 18, 2015 10:34 A.M.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768322


A Palestinian stands next to a graffiti reading in Hebrew "Revenge" as he looks at the damage after a house
was set on fire by suspected Jewish settlers in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31, 2015 (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

HEBRON (Ma’an) -- More than 200 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Wad al-Haseen and Wad al-Nasara near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba overnight in the eastern Hebron district of the occupied southern West Bank, locals and medics said.
During the attack, Israeli settlers threw stones and firebombs at Palestinian homes and injured at least three people, two of which were minors, while Israeli forces later shot and injured one Palestinian with live fire.

An Israeli army spokesperson said she did not have reports of any injuries with live fire.

The spokesperson said clashes between Palestinians and Israelis broke out in the area, after which Israeli forces "arrived at the scene anddispersedthe clashes using riot dispersal means."
Kayed Daana, one of the residents whose home was attacked told Ma’an that dozens of Israeli settlers attacked her neighborhood and injured at least three of her neighbors who have been identified as 40-year-old Imad and two minors, Abdullah, 13, and Muhammad, 17.

Muhammad's injuries were the most serious of the three, as he was hit in the chest with one of the fire bombs, medics said.
Daana told Ma'an that she would like to urge the International Red Cross and others in the international community intervene against Israeli violations and attacks on Palestinians.
Bassam al-Jabri, one of the residents, said he saw the attacking Israeli settlers cutting the blockade fence that separates the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arab from nearby Palestinian homes, while under the protection of the Israeli troops before they attacked his neighborhood with fire bombs.

Al-Jabri said his house was one of those set ablaze, but that he and his neighbors were able to put the fire out before the fire was able to damage his whole home.
During the attacks, Palestinian villagers fled to their local mosques and used the mosque amplifier to call for help from neighboring Palestinian villages and communities, who responded to their calls.
Israeli forces then got involved, shooting tear gas at Palestinians who showed up to help.

Community member Farid al-Razim, told Ma’an that villagers in his area were attacked by Israeli settlers with firebombs, while Israeli forces were shooting tear gas, and that one of the Palestinians from a neighboring village who had come to help was shot and injured with live fire.

While relations between Palestinian residents and Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are normally tense, thesituation has been significantly deteriorating since settlers’ caught fire a home belonging to the Duwabsha family in Nablus on July 31.

An 18-month-old toddler was burned alive during the attack, while his mother and father succumbed to their burn wounds while being treated at separate hospitals. The family's four-year-old son is the only remaining survivor of the attack.

On Oct. 1, suspected Palestinians shot and killed Eitam and Naama Henkin, two settlers who were driving between the illegal settlements of Itamar and Elon More in an area near Huwwara in Nablus.
Their four children, aged between four months and nine years, were found unharmed in the back of the car.
It is speculated that the shootings were a revenge attack on Israeli settlers, following months of increased restrictions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and calls from right-wing Jewish groups, urging their supporters to visit the compound, which is venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Following the shooting, hundreds of Israeli settlers rioted across the occupied West Bank, with multiple attacks reported on Palestinian homes and vehicles.
Palestinian towns and villages in the Nablus area are surrounded by Israeli settlements and outposts, many of which are protected by the Israeli military and have gained notoriety for being comprised of the most extremist settlers.
The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and violent acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents.
Palestinians are therefore left to fend for themselves as few options for their personal security remain.
While Israeli forces will detain a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank for possessing a knife or gun, Israelis living in the same area are legally able to carry such weapons.
Rights groups have criticized Israel for implementing different legal systems for Palestinians and Israeli settlers living in the same area.
Such practices, they say, protect the expansion of settlements while systematically removing the ability for Palestinians to move freely throughout the occupied territory.
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Settlers forcibly evict Palestinian families from Silwan homes
OCT. 19, 2015 1:10 P.M. 

Israeli flags fly above a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/palestinian-jerusalem-settlement

(combination of two article from Maan News and Mondoweiss)

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- At least nine Palestinians were left homeless on Monday after settlers escorted by Israeli security personnel forcibly evicted them from their homes in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
The Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center said a large group of Israeli border police and officers escorted staff from the far-right Israeli Ateret Cohanim organization to the Batn al-Hawa area of the neighborhood.

Israeli forces then surrounded two Palestinian houses belonging to the Abu Nab family before ransacking the property and evicting the families.

Helicopters were seen in the area, together with Israeli police dogs, during the eviction.
Israeli forces assaulted Abdullah Abu Nab with pepper spray during the eviction, which left four members of his family homeless. Five members of Sabri Abu Nab's family were also displaced by the eviction.

Zuheri al-Rajabi, a local Batn al-Hawa committee member, told Ma'an that Ateret Cohanim -- a group which works for a Jewish majority in the Old City and surrounding Palestinian neighborhoods -- claimed the Abu Nab properties were owned by the organization pre-1948.

The properties used to house a Jewish synagogue, it claimed, with the group consolidating legal action in 2002 to restore the building after arguing that the Abu Nab family had implemented illegal construction work on the homes.

The construction changes nullified the family's status as a protected leaseholder, the group said.
Israeli courts have issued several eviction orders against the families.

The Wadi Hilweh group says the eviction of the Abu Nab family is part of a larger plan to take over 5,200 square meters of land in the Batn al-Hawa area, which Ateret Cohanim claims belong the Jewish Yemenite families.

The area house 80 Palestinian families in over 30 apartments.
This morning (Monday) a large body of Israeli police evicted a Palestinian family (Abu Nab) from their home in Silwan and handed the house over to settlers from the extreme right-wing movement “Ateret Cohanim”. Palestinian inhabitants of the neighbourhood were put under strict curfew, shut in their homes with no coming in or out under any circumstances.

Such a case of forceful displacement of a Palestinian family and handing over the home to Jewish settlers has not taken place in East Jerusalem since the last Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah in 2009.

There is no way to explain the decision by the Israeli government to evict the house now of all times, but a decision by Israeli government to escalate the situation in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s statements about preserving the Status-Quo and attempting to de-escalate the situation can not be reconciled with this act of aggression.

Abu Nab’s family has been fighting to stay in their home since 2002, when the settler organisation, Ateret Cohanim, filed a lawsuit alleging that the land where Abu Nab’s property sits had been registered as hekdesh, or Jewish religious property, since 1881. A 2015 ruling from Israel’s Supreme Court gave Abu Nab’s family – comprised of 16 people living in two separate homes – until August 11 2015 to leave, and this was followed by an eviction order according to which the eviction is now being carried out. According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, the case is part of a larger scheme by Jewish settlers to seize 5,200 square metres in the area of Silwan’s Batan al-Hawa neighbourhood, where an estimated 80 Palestinian families live in more than 30 buildings.
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Five Palestinians killed on Saturday; 44 Palestinians killed this month, including 11 children
IMEMC/Agencies 18 Oct — Names of all 44 dead after text  Three Palestinians were killed in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, another youth was killed in Jerusalem, and a fifth was killed at Qalandia checkpoint by Israeli live gunfire on Saturday. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, these five casualties bring the total number of Palestinians killed in October to 44. Moreover, the ministry reported that 1300 Palestinians have been injured since October 1st during ongoing clashes in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, including 550 that were hit by Israeli live gunfire. In addition, since the beginning of October, more than 650 Palestinians have been abducted and imprisoned by the Israeli army, according to political prisoners rights groups. An earlier report by the Ministry of Health showed that since the start of October, 5000 residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation fired by Israeli troops targeting Palestinian protesters.
http://www.imemc.org/article/73435

Clashes erupt across West Bank for 17th day
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Oct — Israeli forces suppressed marches across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as clashes continued for the 17th consecutive day. In Hebron, Israeli forces suppressed a march held by Palestinian students from Hebron’s Polytechnic University near the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Hijai in the southern occupied West Bank, locals said. Israeli forces shot tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters, who responded by launching stones at Israeli forces. One of the students suffered from severe tear gas inhalation and was transferred to a local hospital, the Red Crescent said. In Tulkarem, Israeli forces shot tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian students from al-Khadouri University in the northern occupied West Bank, after clashes broke out during an anti-occupation protest at the university. In Bethlehem Israeli forces hit a 15-year-old Palestinian in the head with a tear gas grenade in Dar Salah village in east Bethlehem during clashes in the area. Medical sources said that the teen sustained a moderate injury and was transferred to a hospital for treatment. The teen sustained the injury after the students of Dar Salah school participated in a march protesting the Israeli violation against the Palestinians and al-Aqsa mosque.
Nearly 40 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the month, half of which were shot and killed during protests, while Palestinians have been responsible for the death of seven Israeli during the same time period. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the second week of October saw the highest number of Palestinian deaths and injuries in the West Bank and Israel recorded in a single week since 2005.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768331

Fighters exchange fire with Israeli soldiers invading Silwad
IMEMC/Agencies 17 Oct — Three Palestinian resistance fighters exchanged fire, on Friday evening, with dozens of Israeli soldiers invading Silwad town, east of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Eyewitnesses said the three fighters exchanged fire with the invading army forces for nearly 30 minutes, while dozens of additional soldiers poured into town following the clashes. The army also brought a military ambulance into the town, during the clashes, and prevented journalists from entering Silwad after completely sealing it. The soldiers also surrounded a family from the town, while picking their olive orchard, and opened fire towards them. The family was allowed to leave several hours later. Many Palestinians also suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation during clashes between local youths and the soldiers. The youths hurled stones and empty bottles on the invading soldiers, while the army fired rounds of live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs and concussion grenades. In addition, soldiers invaded several homes, searched them and occupied their rooftops. The army also placed sand hills on the main road leading to Palestinian villages northeast of Ramallah. The villages are Silwad, al-Mazra‘a ash-Sharqiyya, Deir Jarir, Deir Debwan, Kafr Malik, at-Taybeh, and all nearby Bedouin communities. Also Friday, soldiers kidnapped three Palestinians in Silwad, assaulted one of them causing various injuries, and prevented Palestinian medics from reaching him.
http://www.imemc.org/article/73431

Residents of Silwad remove Israeli roadblocks at village entrance
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 18 Oct — Palestinian residents of Silwad in northwest Ramallah on Sunday removed roadblocks set up by Israeli forces two days earlier to seal the village entrance.Locals told Ma‘an that village residents used bulldozers to remove the cement blocks.They were reportedly put in place on Friday — sealing the main route to the village — following nearby clashes between Israeli forces and local youths.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768333

Israel building wall to separate East Jerusalem district, settlement
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 18 Oct — Israeli forces on Sunday began installing a large concrete wall in occupied East Jerusalem to separate the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir from the illegal Israeli settlement of Armon Hanatziv. Witnesses told Ma‘an that Israeli forces helped unload huge concrete blocks in the neighborhood, including the notorious T-shaped blocks used in Israel’s illegal separation wall that surrounds and cuts through the occupied West Bank. Most of the concrete blocks are two meters high, witnesses [said], and were set up in streets near the illegal Israeli settlement of Armon Hanatziv, also known as East Talpiot. Residents of Jabal al-Mukabbir told Ma‘an that four days earlier, on Wednesday, Israeli forces closed all routes to the neighborhood with cement blocks and set up a checkpoint at the main entrance. Nearly all Palestinian neighborhoods across occupied East Jerusalem have seen severe movement restrictions imposed by Israel’s security cabinet following a series of attacks on Israelis. Late on Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet announced that Israeli police would be entitled to “impose a closure on, or to surround, centers of friction and incitement in Jerusalem, in accordance with security considerations.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768335

- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/palestinian-jerusalem-settlement?

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