Al-Quds Weekly News
1 September 2015, Issue no 76
Israeli occupation to divide ALMASJEDUL AQSA Israeli authorities have been imposing severe restrictions on Palestinian entry to Al-Aqsa Mosque to initiate schedule for Jewish prayers. The Israeli measures, which echoes concerns expressed by Palestinian worshipers, came as restrictions for Palestinian worshipers to Al-Aqsa Mosque continued for the second consecutive week. Israeli officers inspected all Palestinian men entering the Mosque and denied entry to a number of men below the age of 40, worshipers said. They added that many others were asked to leave their identity cards at Israeli checkpoints outside entry gates. Meanwhile, around 30 rightwing Jews were allowed into the compound through Al-Magharbeh Gate under heavily Israeli police escort. Worshipers said that recently the gate has been designated for use almost entirely by extremist Jewish groups heading to pray in the compound. Ihad Sabri, the headmistress of
Al-Aqsa’s religious school, said that Israeli police officers were continuing to impede the entry of schoolgirls and faculty members to the holy site. “Israeli police temperamentally decide when and how to allow schoolgirls and teachers to their school inside Al-Aqsa Mosque,” she said. Commenting on the restrictions, Israeli Police Spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said: “There are no restrictions as far as I know.” However, he confirmed that “there are a number of specific people that have not been permitted entry after being involved in a number of incidents over the last two weeks.” Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest place on earth for about 2bn Muslims around the world. 31-8-2015
Issue No 76 76// // 1 September , 2015
In This Issue
Soldiers had to kill women released Nabi Saleh’s boy Occupation evicts Palestinians for military drills Israeli soldier fails to arrest Palestinian boy Israeli settlers take over new house in Silwan Israeli occupiation forces arrest 32 Palestinians in West Bank US lawmaker asks military aid to ‘Israel’ be halted Article : Israel launches a culture war , Yvonne Ridley WWW.ALQUDSMALAYSIA.ORG
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29th July, 2013
Soldiers had to kill women released Nabi Saleh’s boy
Days of Palestine, Jerusalem –Israeli minister said on Sunday that the unarmed protesters who released by from Israeli soldier must have been killed. That video of Palestinian women protesters pulling down an Israeli soldier in Nabi Saleh on Friday, when he was beating a boy has shocked the world. Well, it has shocked an Israeli leader too. It is the Israeli Culture Minsiter Miri Regev. On her official Twitter account, Regev said that she was shocked by the incident: “Our soldiers cannot be sent on missions with tied hands.” This post is now updated to include a translation from Tali Shapira, an Israeli activist and writer. “Regev said she wanted to change the army’s policy on the use of live-fire because of the ‘humiliation’ the soldier endured,” Shapira reported. “We need to decide immediately that a soldier that is attacked is permitted to return fire. Period. I call on the minister of security to put an end to the humiliation and change the open fire regulations immediately!” Regev wrote in a Facebook statement, according to Shapira. “Anyone who tries to harm Israeli civilians and soldiers needs to know his blood is in his head,” Regev continued, using a Hebrew expression to convey that the Palestinians, Regev used a Hebrew expression to say that the Palestinians, who released the little boy in cast from the Israeli soldier, are fair game for shooting. fair game for shooting. Days of palestine 30-8-2015 2 |
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Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
Al-Quds Weekly News
Occupation evicts Palestinians for military drills
Israeli forces evicted on Sunday 14 Palestinian families in Jordan Valley in order to carry out military drills. The 14 Palestinian families are exactly located in Al-Ras Al-Ahmar neighbourhood of Khirbet Attuf, the city of Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank. Evicted Palestinians said that the “Israeli occupation” told them that Israeli forces will be carrying out military drills in the area for five days. During the five days of drills, Palestinian residents in the area will be far from their houses for six hours per day. Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley are regularly forced to leave their houses under the pretext of protecting them during Israeli army’s military drills. Earlier this year military drills in Tubas resulted in a fire that swept across some 3,000 to 4,000 dunams (750 to 1,000 acres) of Jordan Valley farmland. The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. The district of Tubas is one of the occupied West Bank’s most important agricultural centres. According to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, more than 15,000 dunams (3,700 acres) of land in Tubas district have been confiscated by the Israeli occupation for military bases with a further 8,000 dunams (2,000 acres) seized for illegal Israeli settlement. Days ofpalestine 30-8-2015 Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
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Issue No : 54
Israeli soldier fails to arrest Palestinian boy
An Israeli soldier failed on Friday to arrest 12-year old Palestinian boy in Al-Nabi Saleh village of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli soldier chased the boy, who was away from an anti-Israeli protest, and called on him, asking him to stop walking. Then, he rushed towards the boy, attempting to arrest him. According to a video and several photos, went viral on the internet, the Israeli soldier, who was masked and holding an automatic gun, put the boy under his hand and asked him to move along towards the gathering of the other troops. However, the boy, who had his hand broken and he appeared in cast, started crying and refused to go with the masked Israeli soldier. A number of the protesters nearby heard him and approached the Israeli soldier and did their best to release him. Later on, the boy was identiďŹ ed as Mohamed Basim al-Tamimi, 12, and the ladies, who pulled him from the hands of the Israeli soldier, were his mother Nariman al-Tamimi, his sister Ahed al-Tamimi and his aunt Manal al-Tamimi. Days of palestine 30-8-2015
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Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
Al-Quds Weekly News
Israeli settlers take over new house in Silwan
Israeli Jewish settlers took over on Thursday morning new Palestinian house in Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan. The house is exactly located in Batn Al-Hawa area of Silwan neighbourhood. The settlers claimed that the house was sold to the far-right Jewish organisation Ateret Cohanim. Wadi Al-Hilwah Information Centre said in a statement that more than 60 settlers stormed Batn Al-Hawa central Silwan at 2:30am and took over the house owned by Jamal Sarhan. Israeli occupation troops escorted the settlers, who brought their belongings with them as they moved into in the house. The settlers then barred the windows and then they raised the Israeli flag on the rooftop of the Palestinian house. According to Wadi Al-Hilwah statement, the house consists of five floors with 12 apartments. The settlers took control of four floors. One Palestinian Jerusalemite tenant refused to evacuate his apartment, and as a result the settlers failed to take over one of the five floors. Earlier this month a lawyer representing Ateret Cohanim issued evacuation notices for three Palestinian buildings owned by the Sarhan family in Batn Al-Hawa, claiming that the land on which the homes are built belong to three Jewish men from Yemen, who lived there before 1948. The five-story house is now the seventh and biggest settler outpost in Batn al-Hawa. The first one was created in 2005 and is known as Beit Yonatan. Attempts to take over the properties are part of a bigger plan by Ateret Cohanim to seize 5,200 square meters (56,000 square feet) in the central quarter of Batn al-Hawa, Wadi Al-Hilwah Centre said. A few days before the evacuation notices for the three buildings were issued, another Palestinian family received an evacuation notice from the same organisation Days of palestine 27-8-2015
Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
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Israeli occupiation forces arrest 32 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli police on Monday banned five Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for up to 90 days. Abdul Rahman Saleh Bukirat, 45, said that police notified him that he is banned from entering the holy site for three months on charges of “incitement” after shouting ‘Allah Akbar,’ or ‘God is Great, in the compound. Abdul-Kareem Haddad, Obada Najeeb, Muhammad Najeeb, and Mahmoud Najeeb were also all banned from the holy site for 20 days, a prisoners’ committee in Jerusalem told Ma’an. Amjad Abu Asab, a spokesperson for the group, said that the four men were assaulted by Israeli forces during their detention at the al-Qishla police station. Source Ma’an News Agency 26/8/2015
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Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
Al-Quds Weekly News
US lawmaker asks military aid to ‘Israel’ be halted US congresswoman has asked State Department to investigate whether killing Palestinians deprive ‘Israel’ of US military aid. In a letter to the State Department officials last week, Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum said the deaths of Nadeem Siam Nawara and Mohamed Mahmoud Odeh in May 2014 demonstrated the “brutal system of occupation that devalues and dehumanises Palestinian children.” The two Palestinian youths, aged 16 and 17, were killed when Israeli troops assaulted a peaceful protest outside the West Bank city of Ramallah during the Nakba Day, an annual commemoration of Palestinian forceful displacement by Zionist in 1948. “It is time for a strong and unequivocal statement of US commitment to the human rights of Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation,” McCollum wrote in the August 18 letter, which was released to the public on Monday. McCollum urged State Department officials to Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
determine whether the killing of the teens was in violation of the Leahy Act. The Leahy Act is a US human rights law that prohibits the State and Defence departments from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity. In a CCTV video posted by the Palestine division of Defence for Children International, a global NGO, appears to show one teen being shot as he walked by a gas station after the protest had subsided. The second Palestinian teen appears to have been shot shortly afterwards. Initially, the Israeli occupation army maintained that only nonlethal dispersal methods were used by troops during the Nakba Day demonstration. An autopsy performed by Palestinian and Israeli pathologists in June, however, found that Nawara was almost certainly killed by live fire, most likely from an Israeli weapon. Following the announcement of autopsy outcomes, an Israeli military investigation into the shooting, carried out following the autopsy, found that an Israeli border policeman had illegally used live ammunition during the protest. memo 25/8/2015
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Al-Quds Weekly News
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29th July, 2013
Israel launches a culture war While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to scupper the historic nuclear deal with Iran, his Culture and Sports Minister, Miri Regev, has opened up a second front by targeting a state-run European opera company. The Tel Aviv minister has become embroiled in a culture war to try to block a landmark concert from taking place in Tehran. Seemingly oblivious to a chorus of calls of “hypocrisy”, Regev is said to be outraged by Argentinian-born Yvonne Ridley conductor Daniel Barenboim’s efforts Daniel Barenboim, a citizen of Israel, will perform in Iran toto take the Berlin State Opera to Iran. gether with the Berlin Philharmonic. Barenboim has taken an anti-Israel stance and he makes sure to slander Israel while The 72-year-old is famed for using using culture as leverage in order to state his political opinions music to break down barriers between against the State of Israel. This is a mistake by German Chanpeople. Along with the late Palestin- cellor Angela Merkel.” ian academic Edward Said, he founded the Seville-based West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999 that brings together young Palestinian, Egyptian, Iranian, Jordanian, Lebanese and Israeli musicians. He conducted them in a concert held in Ramallah in 2005 and has also taken honorary Palestinian citizenship.
She added that Barenboim’s concert in Iran “hurts Israel’s efforts to prevent the nuclear agreement and boosts the de-legitimisation efforts against Israel.” Iran, she continues, is a “state sponsor of terrorism”; and Iranian leaders “have blood on their hands” because of support for Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas. In conclusion she calls on Germany to “do the right thing” and cancel the performance.
Regev has already urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to intervene and cancel discussions about the Tehran performance on the grounds that Barenboim is an outspoken critic of Israeli government policy on Palestine. If anyone is in any doubt about the minister’s fury, a quick look at her Facebook page reveals the extent of her anger. Writing in Hebrew, she says: “The conductor,
The irony of her outburst was not lost on Albie O’Neill, the secretary of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) who took part in a debate at the Edinburgh Festival earlier this week about the pros and cons of cultural boycotts. Of Regev’s latest intervention, he said that he was not in the least surprised and accused the minister of “hypocrisy”, adding: “Countless Palestinian performers and artistes have been arrested without charge, performances prohibited, and theatres attacked with tanks. The Palestine Literary Festival in 2009 was closed down and participants, including Michael Palin, were driven
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out. The 19th Annual Palestinian Children’s Festival in East Jerusalem was prohibited by the Israeli government due to the fact that it received funding from the Palestinian Authority.” O’Neill also pointed out that in 2012 members of the Ramallah Orchestra were denied entry permits by the Israeli occupation authorities to perform in East Jerusalem. In June, Israeli cultural workers signed a petition condemning the government for moves described as “anti-freedom of expression” that would deny funding to artists and theatre companies if they do not toe the government line. “It was the same minister, Miri Regev, who threatened to cut funding to the Jaffa-based Elmina Theatre group because its manager refused to perform in an illegal settlement in the West Bank,” O’Neill pointed out. The treatment of Palestinian artistes by Israel is in stark contrast to the Zionist state’s support for its own performers who are funded to attend international festivals and events on condition that they sign contracts which make clear that they must act as national ambassadors and not criticise Israel. Crucially, they are banned from revealing the conditions of their contracts, although some sample contents came to light in 2008 thanks to
Issue No 76// 1 September , 2015
poet Yitzah Laor. The contract, which was between the Israeli artist or company (‘the service provider’) and the State of Israel, via the foreign ministry’s division for cultural and scientific affairs, made explicit the promotional requirements attached to government funding for foreign tours: “The service provider is aware that the purpose of ordering services from him is to promote the policy interest of the State of Israel via culture and art, including contributing to creating a positive image for Israel.” And yet this relationship has to remain secret: “The service provider will not present himself as an agent, emissary and/or representative of the Ministry.” Back in March 2009, after Israel’s December 2008/January 2009 war against civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, Arye Mekel, the then Israeli foreign ministry’s deputy director general for cultural affairs, declared: “We will send well-known novelists and writers overseas, theatre companies, exhibits. This way you show Israel’s prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war.” Many believe that attempts to rebrand the Zionist state as a country which puts culture first has seen it deploy its own musicians, filmmakers and other cultural professionals to provide a glittering backdrop which masks the
everyday brutalities of Israel’s occupation and dispossession of the Palestinians. Launched in 2005, the cultural boycott of Israel was born out of frustration by Palestinian cultural workers who were sick of being denied access to regional and international festivals. Working alongside the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, international awareness of their plight is increasing. “No amount of whitewashing by Regev will fool anyone,” insists the SPSC’s O’Neill. “While calling for the right of freedom of expression for its own people, her government’s actions perpetuate a brutal apartheid regime that denies the Palestinian people the same freedoms and right to life. Now, following attempts to ban the Berlin State Opera from going to Tehran, it seems that she wants to silence anyone who dares to criticise the Israeli state. The hypocrisy is breath-taking.” A spokesman for the Berlin State Opera, also known as Staatskapelle, confirmed that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has taken on the patronage of the Tehran concert. “He supports Daniel Barenboim’s commitment to make music accessible to people beyond any national, religious or ethnic boundaries.”
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