Day: 6 June 2021

The Ministry of Information condemned last night the Israeli occupation forces’ arrest of Palestinian journalist Givara Al-Budeiri while documenting Israeli violations in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied Jerusalem.

In a press release, the Ministry denounced the violent behaviour of the Israeli police towards Al-Budeiri during her coverage of Israeli police attacks on nonviolent protesters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

Al-Budeiri was covering the demonstrations of solidarity with the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood on the 54th anniversary of the Naksa, when Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and Sinai.

The Ministry of Information reiterated its call upon the UN Security Council to implement its resolution 2222 and the relevant UN frameworks on the protection of journalists, and the need to hold perpetrators to account.

Al-Budeiri was detained for several hours yesterday in an Israeli police station on Salah El-Din Street in Jerusalem after being handcuffed and violently pushed.

Four days ago, the Israeli police released two Palestinian journalists from Jerusalem, Wahbi Makkiya and Zina Halawani. Their conditional release required serving house arrest for five days, deportation from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood for a month and paying a fine of about 600 dollars.

Journalists Zeina Al-Halawani and her colleague Wahbi Makkiya were detained on May 28 while covering the events of Sheikh Jarrah. During their arrest, they were beaten and left to suffer from various bruises.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The overall industrial production index (IPI) in Palestine reached 102.40 points during April 2021 with a decrease of 0.52 percent compared to March 2021, today said the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

IPI for April 2021 decreased due to the decline in the activities of Mining and Quarrying by 20.48 percent, which had a share of 2.89 percent of the total industry, as well as the decline in the activities of Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply by 1.17 percent. These activities had a share of 7.38 percent of the total industry.

Meanwhile, the activities of Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation increased by 0.52 percent, and had a share of 1.84 percent of the total industry.

The manufacturing activities increased by 0.15 percent, and had a share of 87.89 percent of the total industry.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Jordanian prisoner in Israeli jails, Abdullah Noah Abu Jaber, 44, is scheduled to be released today after serving 20 years in Israeli detention, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) has said.

Abu Jaber, who is from al-Baqaa Camp, lost his mother, father and sister while he was imprisoned. Notably, his family was only allowed to see him twice during the two decades. He’s the longest-serving Jordanian prisoner in Israeli prions.

Abu Jaber undertook several hunger strikes during his imprisonment, the most prominent of which was a 70-day hunger strike which began in late 2015 and ended in early 2016.

Abu Jaber is one of 22 Jordanian prisoners detained by the Israeli occupation authorities for their activism in the resistance of the Israeli occupation.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh is scheduled to arrive in Doha, Qatar, today to discuss a number of political files and issues of mutual interest with Qatari officials, including the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Shtayyeh and accompanying Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki are expected to hold meetings with Qatari officials to discuss the ramifications of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, including resumption of international and Qatari aid to Palestine.

The Prime Minister will discuss with the Qatari officials the promotion of trade between Qatar and Palestine, and the creation of job opportunities for Palestinians in Qatar.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli occupation forces today detained Palestinian activist Muna al-Kurd, the leader of the #SaveSheikhJarrah campaign that has mobilized local and international action against Israel’s plan to displace dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Nabil al-Kurd, Muna’s father, told reporters that an Israeli police force savagely raided their home in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, detained his daughter and handed a notice ordering her brother, Mohammad, who was not at the home at the time of the raid, to turn himself in to the police.

He said Muna was taken to an Israeli police station in Salaheddine Street in the occupied capital.

Three months ago, Muna launched an online campaign under the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah to highlight the plight of the homeowners threatened with displacement. In a recent interview, she explained resiliently that “if their families are evicted, the rest of Jerusalem will be taken too”.

Muna and her brother, Mohammad, whose family has been living under the threat of displacement from their house in the Karm al-Jaouni quarter in Sheikh Jarrah, have been keeping the world well-informed about the situation there.

The al-Kurd family is one of four families who were initially set to be expelled at the beginning of May. Half of their home was seized by a group of Israeli settlers in 2009.

On May 2, the Israeli district court ruled that the four households must be evicted or reach a compromise with settler organisations by paying rent and recognising them as landlords. The families resolutely refused in a sign of renewed resistance.

Following Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, settler groups launched legal battles to take over the area, claiming the land of Sheikh Jarrah belonged to Jews prior to the 1948 war in Palestine, despite the fact that Palestinian families in the neighbourhood have been there for generations.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A Palestinian was critically injured during clashes with Israeli forces in the village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah, according to local activist Bassim al-Tamimi.

He told WAFA clashes broke out with Israeli forces at the entrance to the Nabi Saleh, critically injuring a 30-year-old man and causing many others to suffocate due to tear gas suffocation.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Azzam al-Ahmad, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PL), said today that should Israel go ahead with the so-called Flag March in occupied Jerusalem, the situation in the occupied capital and in the rest of Palestine could explode once again.

‘’The occupation government is seeking to complicate matters and blow up the situation in the face of the continuing international efforts to calm the situation in the Palestinian land,’’ al-Ahmad told official Voice of Palestine radio.

He pointed out that there are positive positions from the international community regarding the Palestinian issue, including the need to preserve the two-state solution, as well as calls by the US Congress demanding an end to US military aid to Israel.

Meantime, Al-Ahmad said President Mahmoud Abbas decided to call on the PLO Executive Committee to convene tomorrow to discuss the latest political developments.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Fadi Hidmi said stressed that the escalated Israeli violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem requires an urgent and immediate intervention by the international community.

He said that putting a stop to Israel’s escalations in occupied Jerusalem is a test for the seriousness of the international community, stressing that the Israeli violations during the past weeks indicate that Israel, the occupying power, has begun to disregard all international efforts made over the past weeks to achieve calm.

He called on the international community to take immediate actions to remove all restrictions placed by Israeli occupation police in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, ensure the cancellation of all ethnic cleansing decisions in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods, and ensure the release of all Palestinian detainees.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Several Palestinians, including a journalist, were injured as Israeli police attacked a press conference held by Jerusalemite activists and residents in front of the Israeli police station at Salah al-Dein Street in the occupied East Jerusalem, where two Palestinian activists are being held and interrogated.

Israeli police today detained Palestinian activists Muna al-Kurd and her twin brother Mohammed, who have become the face of a campaign against the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Sheik Jarrah neighborhood for the benefit of settlers.

Israeli police attacked the press conference participants and journalists with stun grenades, tear gas canisters, and rubber-coated steel bullets, injuring a number of people, including a journalist, and causing many to suffocate due to tear gas inhalation.

Al-Jazeera correspondent Najwan Samri was taken to hospital after being injured while covering the events.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency