Palestine Theater

ICC receives report on Israeli war crimes in Gaza

In ongoing efforts to hold Israel accountable for gross violations of international law, Palestinian legal rights group Badil has published key findings on alleged war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war that the group submitted to the International Criminal Court earlier this month. The report documents in detail the accounts of Palestinian victims of Israel's large-scale military offensive on the besieged enclave and charges high-level Israeli officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the report, "No Safe Place" (PDF), Badil focused in particular on Israel's mass forced displacement of some half-a-million Palestinians at the height of hostilities, around 28% of Gaza's population.

No, Clinton is not to 'right' of Trump on Israel

"Hillary Clinton gets to Donald Trump's right on Israel." That's the dead, dangerously wrong headline in a March 21 Washington Post op-ed by Paul Waldman. The fodder for this falsehood is Clinton's address before AIPAC, where she dissed Trump's recent statement that he would be "neutral" between the Israelis and Palestinians. In utterly predictable verbiage, she said: "Yes, we need steady hands, not a president who says he's neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who knows what on Wednesday, because everything's negotiable." Responds Wladman: "In Trump's defense (yes, I just wrote those words), when this subject comes up he’ll say as loudly as anyone else how 'pro-Israel' he is, but when he used that term he was talking about being an arbiter in negotiations."

Israeli forces demolish school in Bedouin community

Israeli forces on Feb. 21 demolished a Bedouin school for children in the Abu al-Nuwaar community near the town of al-Eizariya in the occupied West Bank, a spokesperson for the al-Jahalin Bedouin community said. Atallah al-Jahalin told Ma'an News Agency that Israeli forces, accompanied by 30 vehicles and a delegation from Israeli's Civil Administration, raided the area and destroyed the sole school in the community. Residents said Israeli forces told them the school was demolished because concrete structures were forbidden in the area. The Israeli forces also reportedly seized the contents of the school. Al-Jahalin added that Israeli forces briefly detained two youths who were protesting the demolition, both of whom were released after the demolition. After the demolition, primary students held a "sit-in" where the school once stood while wearing their uniforms and holding school books in protest.

Palestinian fugitive 'assassinated' in Bulgaria

Escaped Palestinian prisoner Omar al-Nayif was found dead inside the headquarters of the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria on Feb. 26, in what senior Palestinian officials and his family say was an "assassination" carried out by Israel. Nayif, a 52-year-old man from Jenin, had been living in Bulgaria for years, but late last year sought refuge in the Palestinian embassy after Israel demanded his extradition so he could see out a life sentence over the killing of an Israeli settler. Palestinian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Taysir Jaradat told Ma'an News Agency that embassy staff found Nayif lying in the embassy's garden covered in blood. He was rushed to hospital but died en route.

Palestinian journalist on hunger strike

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society on Feb. 10 said Israel was "not showing attention or willingness" to solve the case of Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qiq as he entered day 77 on hunger strike. The society reiterated that the Palestinian prisoner remained in critical condition, slamming Israel for failing to make serious steps in his case and holding Israeli authorities "completely responsible" for al-Qiq's life. Al-Qiq, a 33-year-old and father of two, launched his hunger strike after being detained in November and held in Israeli prison under administrative detention without charge or trial. Over 100 Palestinians marched in solidarity with al-Qiq in front of HaEmek Hospital where the journalist is still being held under Israeli custody. Participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for al-Qiq's release.

Israel to confiscate vast tract of land in Jericho

Israel is set to declare 1,500 dunams (370 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank district of Jericho as "state land," Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced Jan. 20. The plans were revealed earlier in the day by Israeli Army Radio, which said the land was located north of the illegal Israeli settlement of Almog and had been used by settlers over the past 20 years. COGAT confirmed the plans were in their "final stages," and said they were in accordance with a political ratification. Israeli Army Radio reportedly said: "This is a very sensitive issue which will likely garner harsh critique from Europe and the United States, and of course from the Palestinian Authority." The move is the largest declaration of "state land" since August 2014, when Israel claimed 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, sparking international outcry.

Israeli forces demolish more Bedouin dwellings

Israeli forces on Jan. 6 demolished five dwellings housing Palestinian Bedouin families in the Abu Nuwwar community east of Jerusalem—part of the wider E1 corridor—leaving 25 people homeless. Dawood al-Jahalin, a spokesperson for the Abu Nuwwar Bedouin community, told Ma'an News Agency that Israeli military and police vehicles surrounded the area at around 8:30 AM, before bulldozers demolished five dwellings and an agricultural structure. The families were not given any time to remove their belongings before the dwellings—made of steel, wood, and canvas—were torn down, he said. "I showed them a court decision banning demolition, but the officer in charge refused to see it and instead told me he had a demolition order from the Civil Administration," al-Jahalin said.

Israel sprays crop-killing pesticides on Gaza

Israeli planes reportedly sprayed agricultural lands along the Gaza border on Dec. 23 with pesticides that have been killing off crops for the third day in a row, the general manager of the plant protection department at the Gaza-based Ministry of Agriculture told Ma'an News Agency. Wael Thabet said that "several farmers informed the ministry that Israeli planes sprayed their lands with pesticides around the al-Qarrara area in eastern Khan Younis and the Wadi al-Salqa area in east central Gaza which damaged a large number of crops." Saleh al-Najjar, a farmer from al-Qarrara, said he lost some 30 dunums (7.4 acres) of spinach and pea crops due to the spraying. Another farmer, Wael al-Shami, said he lost crops of parsley and beans which were planted near al-Qarrara in eastern Khan Younis.
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