Day: 6 January 2022

A technical error in Israel’s state archive website has revealed that David Ben-Gurion, who would become the first prime minister of the Israeli occupation, said in 1948 that some Palestinian villages must be wiped out because they “constitute a great danger”, Israeli daily Haaretz has reported.

The comments by Ben-Gurion were made during a government meeting discussing the war that led to the creation of Israel, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Ben-Gurion’s statements were posted on the State Archive website as part of a document detailing meeting minutes from July 1948.

Parts of the document were censored using a digital blackout, however a technical error allowed the blackout to be removed with a click – revealing the censored segments, Haaretz reported.

The censored version showed Ben-Gurion saying “I am against the wholesale demolition of villages,” but once the blackout was removed he appears to have added: “But there are places that constituted a great danger and constitute a great danger, and we must wipe them out. But this must be done responsibly, with consideration before the act.”

In an earlier section of the meeting’s minutes, then agriculture minister Aharon Zisling is quoted as saying he “can forgive instances of rape” committed by Jews against Palestinian women.

“Let us say that instances of rape occurred in Ramle. I can forgive instances of rape, but I will not forgive other acts,” Zisling said, according to the document.

The Israeli State Archive said the document was meant to be published without censorship but a technical error led to the appearance of the blackouts, according to Haaretz.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Israeli settlers today attacked a Palestinian-owned car repair workshop at the entrance to the village of Bazariya in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official in charge of monitoring the settlement file in Nablus province, told WAFA that a group of settlers attacked the workshop and attempted to vandalize equipment there, but were forced back by local Palestinian residents.

Over the last three weeks, Israeli settlers protected by soldiers intensified their attacks on homes and shops of Palestinian citizens at the outskirts of the villages of Burqa, Sebastia and Bazariya in the province of Nablus.

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

There are over 500,000 Israeli settlers living in Jewish-only colonial settlements across the West Bank in violation of international law.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) said it was shocked and saddened by the decision of the Dutch government to end its funding for the Palestinian agricultural non-governmental organizations, stressing that with this fateful decision, the Dutch government is not just abandoning UAWC, but Palestinian civil society at large.

UAWC said in a statement responding to a decision by the Dutch government to suspend its funding that this is the first time a government ends its funding for Palestinian civil society based on “political conditionality.”

“By doing so, the Netherlands tarnishes its reputation as a reliable donor and its status of a value-based country that hosts and promotes international law,” it said.

“The Dutch Foreign Ministry announced its decision [yesterday] following a funding suspension that lasted 18 months and that caused serious harm to our organization, projects and beneficiaries. It has also subjected UAWC to an external investigation, which has burdened our organization throughout 2021,” said UAWC.

“From the onset, this investigation was politically motivated and responded to pressure of the Israeli government and malign organizations affiliated with it. Whereas the investigation was triggered by one incident, i.e. the arrest of two former employees of UAWC suspected by Israeli authorities of involvement in an attack, the Dutch government resorted to a broad and general research question to identify any ‘possible links between UAWC and the PFLP’,” it added.

“Due to our strategic work to protect Palestinian land threatened by Israeli annexation, UAWC has been a target for many years of Israeli smear campaigns trying to associate our organization with the PFLP.

While we felt concerned the Dutch investigation may feed such campaigns, we decided without delay to cooperate with it, based on our trust in the Dutch government, which has been a leading donor of UAWC since 2013,” said UAWC.

It explained: As confirmed by the Dutch government in its letter to the Dutch parliament, this investigation, conducted by Proximities Risk Consultancy, has: found no financial flows between UAWC and the PFLP; found no indications of organizational unity between UAWC and the PFLP; found no indications that the PFLP directs UAWC; found no links between UAWC and the armed wing of the PFLP; and found no indications that board and staff members have used their position at UAWC for terrorist purposes.

In addition, the Dutch Foreign Ministry determined that Proximities’ research provides no basis to conclude that UAWC has any organizational links with the PFLP.

“All of these findings reflect UAWC’s status and existence as an independent organization, which has no political or religious affiliation with any party or political organization,” it said.

“It is shocking and deeply troubling that the Dutch government nevertheless decided to end its funding for UAWC,” it stressed.

It expressed concern that the Israeli government will seize the decision to further escalate its all-out attack on Palestinian civil society, following its designation last October of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations.

“More specifically, the decision legitimizes and encourages the Israeli tactic of attacking Palestinian NGOs through alleged political affiliations of their board and staff members. All of this is diverting international attention from Israel’s theft and confiscation of more Palestinian land and its brutal suppression of the Palestinian people living under military occupation,” it said, adding, “We will consider legal steps to challenge today’s harmful and unfair decision by the Dutch government, which lacks valid grounds.”

UAWC said that at this critical hour, “we call on other donors to maintain and increase their support for UAWC and all Palestinian civil society organizations. Don’t abandon us.”

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

President Mahmoud Abbas declared today that a day of mourning will be observed on Friday across Palestine in honor of seven Palestinian workers who died in a tragic car accident near the village of Fasayil, north of Jericho, on Thursday afternoon.

The President also ordered that flags be flown at half-mast in mourning of the seven workers. He also ordered absentee funeral prayer to be held in all of the mosques of the country in honor of the seven deceased workers following the weekly Friday prayer tomorrow.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has also mourned the seven workers.

Earlier today, Palestinian police said seven workers from the village of Aqraba in the West Bank province of Nablus died when their vehicle crashed into a lorry at Route 90 in the province of Jericho.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

After two Palestinians were run over today by Israeli settlers on West Bank roads in two separate incidents in which one was killed and the other wounded, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry warned against the rise in incidents involving Israeli settlers running over Palestinians, which it feared were premeditated while condemning Israeli police indifference.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that if the incidents were reversed, that is a Palestinians ran over an Israeli, soldiers or settlers in the area would have assumed that the incident was intentional and would have opened fire at the car involved before even checking the facts with an intention to kill those in it.

“This situation confirms not only the racism of the occupying state in dealing with the Palestinians but also the absolute disregard for their lives as if they have no value,” it said.

“We consider the incidents of running over Palestinians, which have become a phenomenon that is repeated without any attention or follow-up by the occupation police or its various organs, crimes, whether intentional and deliberate or by negligence and indifference shown by the occupying police, even if they are ordinary traffic accidents involving a Palestinian,” the ministry concluded its statement.

Earlier today, a settler ran over and killed Mustafa Falaneh, 25, from the village of Safa, west of Ramallah, and a father of an 18-month old baby girl, as he was trying to cross a street near his village.

Later, another settler ran over and wounded Shafiqa Bisharat, 48, from a Nablus-area village, who was admitted to hospital for treatment. Witnesses said the settler had attempted to run over sheep in the area and was harassing Palestinians on the road before hitting Bisharat.

No one was arrested in either incident.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Following the demand of the six Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations that Israel designated as “terrorist organizations”, the Military Attorney responded this week that it would allow the groups to review only the unclassified information that underlies the bases of the designations, today said a press release by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which represents the six organizations.

The military stated in its response that “the core of the declarations is based on classified, cross-checked and reliable intelligence information that cannot be disclosed” as it may harm national security. According to the Military Attorney, these confidential materials indicate that the organizations “are in fact an arm of a terrorist organization.” This response indicates that the organizations will not be provided with the evidence directed against them, and thus, they are afforded no due process rights, said Adalah. This response also reinforces the organizations’ argument that the Israeli authorities have no evidence linking them with illegal acts and that this move amounts to the political persecution of human rights defenders.

On 16 December 2021, the organizations’ legal team sent a letter to the military demanding the disclosure of all the evidence that forms the basis for the designations. In its response, the Military Attorney’s office added that the military commander had extended the deadline for submitting an appeal against declaring them “unlawful associations” until 18 January 2022.

In response, Adalah stated: “The Israeli security apparatus has declared in its response, that the process, by which it outlaws human rights and civil society organizations, is entirely based on secret material, and thus, these groups do not have any possibility to defend themselves. There is no stronger evidence that this persecution contradicts all basic principles of due process and fairness, and is carried out by means that characterize repressive authoritarian regimes.”

On 19 October 2021, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz designated six leading Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as “terrorist organizations” under Israel’s domestic Counter-Terrorism (Anti-Terror) Law (2016). The six groups are: Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC). The Israeli military commander also outlawed all six groups under the 1945 Emergency (Defense) Regulations, declaring them “unlawful associations”.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces today seized a Palestinian-owned excavator while it was working on land reclamation to the south of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to a local resident.

Nabil Sharha, a landowner, told WAFA that the Israeli forces seized the excavator he was using to reclaim his land to the south of the village of Dura, near a quarry that they previously had seized.

He noted that his land, which is about 70 dunums in area, is located in Area C, which is under full Israeli military rule, adding that the Israeli authorities have been trying to seize more Palestinian-owned lands to expand the quarry they have seized.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, arrived at Bethlehem’s Manger Square this afternoon, coming from the patriarchate headquarters in Jerusalem’s Old City, to lead the Christmas midnight mass for the orthodox church, which coincides tonight according to the Julian calendar.

Palestinian officials received the Patriarch upon his arrival in Bethlehem where scouts playing the drums and bagpipes marched at the Square to celebrate Christmas.

Earlier, several heads of orthodox churches also arrived in Bethlehem for the midnight mass at the Church of Nativity, where Jesus Christ was born.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Israeli forces today detained 23 Palestinians during wide-scale raiding operations in several areas in the occupied West Bank.

The forces detained 11 people from Ramallah, six from Nablus, including a 70-year-old man, five from Hebron, one from Tubas, and another from Tulkarm.

Israeli police also detained two women from Jerusalem.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

The Palestine News and Information Agency (Wafa) today officially relaunched the Hebrew version of its main website.

The Hebrew newscast, directed to the Israeli public, will include news about daily events in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, as well as various other topics, analytical articles, and features.

It will convey the strategic vision and daily positions of the Palestinian political system.

The website aims to influence Israeli public opinion directly through objective reporting of events without an Israeli censorship.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

An Israeli settler today ran over and killed a Palestinian as he was on his way to work, according to witnesses.

The slain Palestinian was identified to be Mustafa Falaneh, 25, from the village of Safa, to the west of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to a relative, Falaneh was crossing the street when he was run over by an Israeli settler, killing him.

Falaneh was a father of a one-and-a-half year-old girl.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency