Day: 25 August 2021

Israeli forces today razed a large tract of agriculture land in Birin village, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to a local activist.

Head of Birin Village Council, Farid Burqan, told WAFA that Israeli military bulldozers leveled 10 donums of agriculture land planted with 400 grape and olive saplings as well as summer crops.

They also tore down retaining walls and sabotaged barbed wire belonging to Salem al-Rajabi under the flimsy pretext that his plot of land is located in Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the total West Bank area.

Located to the southwest of Bani Na‘im, Birin has a population of 160 and is flanked by Bani Haiver colonial settlement from the east and the settler-only bypass Road No. 60 from the west. Its residents were originally expelled from Naqab in southern Israel and now depend on agriculture and livestock as their main source of livelihood.

According to the Land Research Center, Israel has frequently issued military stop-construction and demolition orders against various residential and agricultural structures and dismantled barns in the locality, citing the lack of rarely-issued construction permits as a pretext.

In December 2017, Israel delivered stop-construction orders to the locality’s sole clinic and building intended to serve as a primary school for the community’s 60 children

In June 2019, as showed in a PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department’s report, Israel seized 4,800 dunams of land from several localities, including Birin, for the expansion of Bani Haiver.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli occupation forces quelled today a rally organized to condemn the opening of a settlers-only road on Palestinian land in the town of Beita to the south of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Forces attacked the rally, which was called for by the faction coordination committee in Nablus, with tear gas canisters, however, no injuries or arrests were reported.

The Israeli information center for human rights in occupied territories, B’Tselem, said: “The roads regime, which is based on separation through discrimination, bears clear similarities to the racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa until 1994.” “An individual’s national origin determines their right to use various roads. This policy is based on a racist premise: that all Palestinians are security risks, and it is therefore justifiable to restrict their movement. Thus the policy indiscriminately harms the entire Palestinian population, in violation of their human rights and of international law,” said B’Tselem.

B’Tselem demanded that the government of Israel immediately end the forbidden roads regime and that it respect the right of Palestinians to freedom of movement on all roads inside the West Bank.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A Palestinian Authority official stated today that the establishment of the Palestinian state does not require the permission of the Israeli occupiers.

Chairman of the Civil Affairs Commission and Fatah Central Committee member Hussein al-Sheikh took it to Twitter to say that “national rights aren’t a gift by the occupation.”

“Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine, regardless of whoever admits it. Occupation & apartheid will not remain. The establishment of the Palestinian state does not require the permission of the occupiers,” he tweeted.

“National rights and the right to self-determination are neither a gift nor a grant by the occupation,” he added.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces bulldozed today agricultural land belonging to Palestinians in the town of Qasra, south of the northern occupied district of Nablus, according to a municipal source.

Member of Qasra Municipality Imad Jamil, told WAFA Israeli forces razed Palestinian-owned agricultural land located near the settlement of Majdolim, built illegally on Qasra village land, and placed barbed wires around it.

He said that the occupation has prevented landowners from accessing and plowing their land since a very long time, warning of the danger of such measures, especially with the approach of the olive picking season.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said the area surrounding the said settlement has been witnessing increased razing operations for the benefit of expanding the said settlement.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, stressed during a meeting with the approved ambassador of Palestine Issam Masalha, at the presidential palace in Bucharest his country’s clear position not to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city of Jerusalem.

The Romanian president further affirmed his country’s principled position in support of the two-state solution based on international legitimacy.

The Palestinian ambassador praised the position of the Romanian president not to transfer his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, conveying president Mahmoud Abbas’s invitation to his Romanian counterpart to visit Palestine.

He stressed Romania’s role in the international arena, and the peace process, calling on Romania to continue to play this role.

They further discussed promoting the bilateral relations between the two countries in various fields.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

President Mahmoud Abbas today cabled Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaqoob congratulating him on assuming his duties as the new prime minister and expressing hope to strengthen joint cooperation between them.

“In the name of the State of Palestine and its people, and on behalf of myself, we send you our heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of assuming your duties as Prime Minister of Malaysia,” said President Abbas in his cable of congratulations.

President Abbas praised the bilateral relations between the two countries, stressing his keenness to continue working with Malaysia to strengthen and advance these relations for the benefit of the two brotherly peoples and countries.

The president further praised Malaysia’s position in support of the Palestinian people in their struggle to gain their legitimate rights to freedom, independence, and self-determination.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

At least three Palestinians suffocated today by tear gas as Israeli forces attacked a peaceful rally held along the southern Gaza borderline to the east of Khan Younis city, in condemnation of the 14-year-old blockade that Israel has imposed on Gaza since 2007, said sources.

WAFA correspondent reported on witnesses as saying Israeli soldiers stationed at watchtowers along the borderline area to the east of the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of tear gas canisters toward the rally, causing at least three people to suffocate. They were treated at the scene.

A Palestinian injured in protests along Gaza’s eastern border succumbed to his wounds early morning today.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

President Mahmoud Abbas today called the family of Palestinian teen Imad Hashash, who was killed at dawn Tuesday by Israeli soldiers during a military raid into Balata refugee camp, east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, to offer his condolences.

The President expressed his heartfelt condolences to the teen’s family, praying that god may grant his family and loved ones forbearance and consolation.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency