Day: 14 August 2021

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) and the Palestinian NGO Network submitted on Thursday an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on the arbitrary detention and harassment of health work official Shatha Odeh and demanded her immediate release.

Odeh, 60, serves as the Director of the Health Work Committees (HWC), a leading Palestinian non-governmental organization that promotes health services for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and the chairwoman of PNGO, a coalition of 142 Palestinian civil society organizations. On 7 July, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed her house in Ramallah, deploying gas grenades and forcibly arresting her despite the lack of an arrest warrant or a confiscation order, said the civil society groups in a press statement.

The nature of the charges brought against Odeh primarily revolves around her leadership role in the HWC, deemed “unlawful” by Israeli military orders, they added.

“The arbitrary charges levied against her reflect an increasing brazenness by Israeli occupying authorities in clamping down on and criminalizing Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society organizations that challenge Israel’s entrenched regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid and work towards achieving international justice and accountability for Israel’s human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity,” they said.

Odeh, they added, was subjected to ill-treatment and medical negligence as she suffers from numerous chronic illnesses and is prescribed various medications. The Israel Prison Services (IPS) denied Odeh’s request to access one of her critical medications up until 15 July, after her lawyer presented documentation proving the necessity of this medication.

“The IPS systematic medical negligence violated Ms. Odeh’s right to health and well-being as enumerated in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),” said the organizations.

“The arbitrary detention of Ms. Odeh serves as one of the latest escalation of attacks by IOF against Ms. Odeh herself, the Health Work Committee (HWC), and more broadly, Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders. Israel’s crackdown on Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations continues to intensify, as evidenced by the recent raid on the headquarters of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the delivery of a military order forcing the office to close for six months, the most recent military raid on Defense for Children International-Palestine’s headquarters, and the concurrent raid on the headquarters of the Bisan Center for Research and Development.”

PHROC and PNGO urged the relevant UN Special Procedure mandates to call on Israel, the Occupying Power, to immediately release Odeh and guarantee her right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, to put an end to the systematic and ongoing practice of targeting Palestinian civil society organizations, including HWC, and intimidating Palestinian human rights defenders, including Odeh, contrary to international law and as inhumane acts of apartheid, and to cease all practices and policies intended to intimidate and silence human rights defenders, in violation of their right to freedom of expression, including through arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, institutionalized hate speech and incitement, residency revocation, deportations, and other coercive or punitive measures.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

In the period between 27 July and 9 August, the Israeli occupation authorities demolished, seized or forced people to demolish 57 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 97 people, including 67 children, and affecting the livelihoods of 240 other people, according to the Protection of Civilians report published biweekly by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Of these structures, 17 were seized displacing 27 people, including 19 children, in the Bedouin community of Ibziq in the Jordan Valley. An additional 28 people, including 21 children, were displaced when the Israeli authorities demolished six structures in al Mu’arrajat Centre in Ramallah.

In East Jerusalem, 12 structures were demolished, including five livelihood structures in Dahiyet al Bareed neighborhood.

In addition to the army demolition of Palestinian-owned structures, Israeli settlers vandalized at least 40 Palestinian-owned trees, and five vehicles across the West Bank during the reporting period, said OCHA.

Also during the reporting period, the Israeli army shot and killed four Palestinians, including an 11-year-old boy – two from Beita in the north of the West Bank and two, including the boy, from Beit Ummar in the south of the West Bank – and a fifth Palestinian from Jenin died on August 11 of wounds sustained a week earlier from Israeli army gunfire.

A total of 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, all by live ammunition.

The Israeli occupation forces injured 764 Palestinians across the West Bank during demonstrations where Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas at them. Of the total injured, 586 people were injured during protests against settlements in Beita and 10 in Beit Dajan, both in the Nablus area.

A total of 107 were wounded during the protests at the funeral of the 11-year-old boy killed in Beit Ummar.

Beyond the 764 injured directly by Israeli forces, 95 were injured in Beita either while running away from Israeli forces or in circumstances that could not be verified, said OCHA.

Israeli forces carried out 92 search-and-arrest operations and arrested 115 Palestinians, including 11 children, across the West Bank with 30 of operations taking place in the Jerusalem governorate and 17 in the Hebron governorate.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Hot to very hot conditions are expected today in Palestine with temperature 3°C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are southwesterly to northwesterly, light to moderate, and sea waves are low.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 31°C and a low of 22°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 30°C and a low of 21°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 40°C and a low of 28°C while it is expected to reach a high of 31°C and a low of 25°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

No change in temperature or weather conditions are expected tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday, but a drop in temperature by one degree Celsius is expected on Tuesday, said the PMD, which warned people against exposure to the sun for long period, particularly from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and setting fire to areas with dry grass.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Israeli occupying state is trying to deceive world public opinion when it says that Palestinians will be allowed to build in Area C of the occupied West Bank, today said Ahmad Majdalani, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

He stressed in a statement that Area C, which makes over 60 percent of the area of the West Bank where Israel maintains full military control, is Palestinian territory in the first place and where Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned structures, steals land and controls it through illegal military laws that are in violation of international law.

Israel said last week that it will allow the Palestinians, in a very rare move, to build some 800 housing units in Area C while in return it will build over 2200 units for Israelis in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a deal firmly rejected by the Palestinians who insist that all settlements are illegal and should be removed from the occupied territories.

Majdalani urged the international community not to believe the Israeli hoax regarding Palestinian construction in Area C but rather look at what Israel is doing there from settlement construction and projects in an effort to maintain lasting control over Area C while prohibiting the Palestinian Authority from extending its rule over that area.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

HOME LOCAL 14/August/2021 05:52 PM

Spectators to be allowed back to stadiums at 30% capacity

Spectators to be allowed back to stadiums at 30% capacity

RAMALLAH, Saturday, August 14, 2021 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) announced today that spectators will be allowed back to stadiums with a maximum capacity of 30 percent and under strict health protocols.

PFA said it has agreed with the Ministry of Health to allow the public to attend matches in stadiums, provided that spectators wishing entry there shall present a vaccination certificate against COVID-19 prior to entry.

Masking and social distancing are also to be respected by spectators when attending matches, while only 30 percent of the original capacity of the stadiums will be alloted to spectators, added the PFA.

PFA pointed out that specialized teams will be present at stadiums to follow up the implementation of all the new procedures, and those who fail to obey the health instructions will be asked to leave.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A Palestinian woman sustained injuries today in an attack by hardcore Israeli settlers on her home in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to local sources.

WAFA correspondent said a group of armed Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, and who were escorted by an army force, attacked homes of Palestinian citizens in the neighborhood of Wadi Hasin in Hebron, injuring a woman and causing her bruises across her body. The woman was identified as Jihad Esaafan, 40.

The woman was moved to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

Over 700,000 Israeli settlers live in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A delegation of about twenty Israeli film directors, artists and writers affirmed today their rejection of the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestine, saying the political status quo cannot continue as it is forever.

During a meeting in Ramallah with the PLO Committee for Interaction with the Israeli Society, the delegation affirmed their belief in the existence of a Palestinian partner for peace, adding that they will work hard to publish the outcome of the meeting with the Israeli public opinion, so that the Israelis will know there is a real partner on the side.

The Israeli delegation also affirmed that true and just peace cannot be achieved without recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state on the borders of June 4, 1967.

Mohammad al-Madani, the head of the Committee who received the delegation, called for Israeli intellectuals and artists to have a role in working for a just peace based on the two-state solution, with a fair and agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee issue in accordance with UN Resolution 194.

Motti Lerner, an Israeli playwright who attended the meeting, expressed his rejection of the Israeli occupation, adding, “We listened to words we had not heard before, and we believe that a real Palestinian partner exists. We must work together for peace and an end to the occupation, and I look forward to learning Palestinian culture, literature and creativity.”

Sinai Peter, an Israeli film director, pointed out that Israeli intellectuals will familiarize the Israeli public with the reality of the Israeli occupation which harms the two peoples. He said the Israeli occupation of Palestine must end, and that the Palestinians have the right to live in their independent state.

Other members of the Israeli delegation expressed their desire to learn about Palestinian culture, Palestinian intellectual production, and the reality experienced by the Palestinian people under prolonged Israeli occupation.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Palestine recorded 451 new COVID-19 cases and one death in the last 24 hours, today said Minister of Health Mai Alkaila.

She said in her daily report on the virus in Palestine that 281 new cases were recorded in the Gaza Strip, 107 new cases and one death in the West Bank, and 63 new cases in occupied East Jerusalem.

In addition, 95 corona patients have recovered in the Gaza Strip, 37 in the West Bank and 34 in East Jerusalem, while 37 patients remain hospitalized and 14 are in intensive care, two of them on ventilators.

Alkaila said 519,624 people have been vaccinated against coronavirus in the West Bank and 115,583 in the Gaza Strip.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency