Israeli forces shoot Israeli and Palestinian demonstrator with live ammunition in the West Bank village of Ni’lin.
Palestinian residents, alongside Israeli and international supporters, have been demonstrating today since 12:30pm.
On 14 August 2009, Hamdi al-Ta’mari (UA 1/09) was issued with his fourth administrative detention order by the Israeli military commander in the West Bank. This latest order was issued for a duration of four months. The order was reviewed by an Israeli military court on 20 August 2009, which confirmed the order.
On the same day, Hamdi turned 17.
Report 27 August – 2 September 2009: Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Photo: Palestinian fishing boat after being fired on by Israeli gunboats near Gaza.
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period, 27 August – 2 September 2009
During the reporting period, IOF killed two Palestinian civilians, including a child, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Two members of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) were also killed in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas accused IOF of killing them.
The body of a Palestinian, who had been missing since last week, was also found near the Egyptian border, south of Rafah. Additionally, 4 Palestinian civilians, including two medical personnel and a child, and a resistance activist were wounded by IOF.
Around 3:30 am, the Israeli occupation forces invaded Bil’in once again arresting 2 Palestinians.
Two houses were raided simultaneously by at least 40 soldiers. In the first house, Ashraf Mohammad Jamal Tofik Al-Khatib (age 29) was arrested. In the second house, they arrested Hamru Hisham Bornat (age 24).
The cameraman, Haitham Al-Khatib, who was filming in his own house, one victim being his brother, was repeatedly forcibly moved and hit, and threatened with arrest unless he stopped filming. They declared his house a “closed military zone” but did not produce any military order. 3 Jeeps and 2 Humvee jeeps were used for the operation.
BILIN, West Bank — Every Friday for the past four and a half years, several hundred demonstrators — Palestinian villagers, foreign volunteers and Israeli activists — have walked in unison to the Israeli barrier separating this tiny village from the burgeoning settlement of Modiin Illit, part of which is built on the village’s land. One hundred feet away, Israeli soldiers watch and wait.
The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes the entire area stink.
It is one of the longest-running and best organized protest operations in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has turned this once anonymous farming village into a symbol of Palestinian civil disobedience, a model that many supporters of the Palestinian cause would like to see spread and prosper.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, and wounded 9 others in the Gaza Strip. Another Palestinian is also missing. In the West Bank, one Palestinian civilian was wounded.
On 24 August 2009, Israeli troops positioned to the northwest of Beit Lahia town in the northern Gaza Strip (along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel) fired at two Palestinian civilians, including a child, who got close to the border. The child was instantly killed by two bullets to the chest, and the other civilian was seriously wounded.
The two civilians were working in a farm in Beit Lahia town, approximately 350 meters away from the border fence. They attempted to get close to the border to find metal wires to sell them. They were unarmed.
Photo: Zoriah (c). Hezbollah logo painted on bullet pocked wall in Beirut, Lebanon.
CAIRO — Twenty-two men, dressed in white and crowded into a cage in a Cairo court, denied charges on Sunday of plotting attacks in Egypt for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, with some alleging torture by police.
As the trial began, the alleged members of the cell pleaded not guilty to charges of “conspiracy to murder, spying for a foreign organisation with intent of conducting terrorist attacks and weapons possession.”
Bil’in, situé à l’ouest de Ramallah, est un village typique de la Méditerranée orientale à bien des points de vue: des maisons blanches disposées le long de rues qui épousent les méandres et contours naturels des collines; des vergers, des jardins, des pâturages; l’attitude accueillante et généreuse des habitants; beaucoup d’enfants espiègles et sages. Cependant, ceux de Bil’in vivent dans les mêmes conditions déplorables que tant d’autres en Cisjordanie: une colonie israélienne a été construite illégalement sur leurs terres, et la clotûre dite “de sécurité” dévore d’autres hectares pour les séparer de ce qui leur appartient. Personne n’a le droit de circuler librement: ni vers la ville la plus proche, ni vers la plage, ni vers leur capitale, Jérusalem.
Although this was likely unintentional, Terrine Friday’s article “Students misinformed …” (24 August 2009) speaks strongly in favour of the Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) program and of the CURE project proposed by the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon.
Tadamon’s CURE project submission proposed that a student investigate institutional ties between Montreal universities and Israeli corporations, government agencies and other organizations that support the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.
Not surprisingly, many Israelis — even peaceniks — aren’t signing on. A global boycott can’t help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one’s own nation.
