Day: 30 March 2022

The World Council of Churches Tuesday expressed solidarity with the heads of Jerusalem churches as Israeli settlers took over a high-profile hotel in the Old City of Jerusalem.

World Council of Churches acting general secretary, Ioan Sauca, expressed the international ecumenical movement’s firm solidarity with Patriarch Theophilos III and the other local church leaders in preserving the Christian presence in Jerusalem following the takeover of the Little Petra Hotel, located near Jaffa Gate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, which belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

On Sunday evening, members of the Ateret Cohanim radical settler group broke into the hotel as well as into a local money-changing shop belonging to the Patriarchate and rented by a Palestinian Jerusalemite at the hotel’s entrance. There, with the aid of local police, they unceremoniously evicted the family who rents and operates the hotel, without presenting any “eviction” documents, noting that the tenant status of the property is still in the midst of legal negotiations.

“This action by Ateret Cohanim is yet another example of the threat by radical elements to the Christian presence in Jerusalem and the Holy Land of which local church leaders have warned”, Sauca observed.

Sauca recalled official Israeli assurances to “stand strong against any forms of racism, discrimination, or extremism” and to “reject any assault or threat on religious communities, leaders, or houses of worship”.

“As we approach Easter, Ramadan and Pessach—a confluence of sacred celebrations in 2022—may a spirit of justice and dignity pervade the Holy City and those who live, work, and pray there,” said Sauca.

He called for protection of Palestinian victims of settler attacks and forced displacements, the removal of settlers from the church property and holding them accountable for their criminal act.

“As we approach Easter, Ramadan and Pessach—a confluence of sacred celebrations in 2022—may a spirit of justice and dignity pervade the Holy City and those who live, work, and pray there,” said Sauca. “We call on local authorities to stand up for the protection of people who deserve to live in peace.” The WCC, he said “calls for an end to impunity in Israel for such violations, for the police authorities to remove the illegal occupants from the Little Petra Hotel, and for them to be held accountable for the criminal offences they have committed.” He affirmed the “WCC’s solidarity with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and with all the churches of the Holy Land in their resistance against such threats, attacks and illegal actions.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III decried Israeli settler takeover of a high-profile Christian hotel in Jerusalem as a threat to Christian existence.

“The seizure of the Little Petra Hotel by the radical extremist group Ateret Cohanim is a threat to the continued existence of a Christian Quarter in Jerusalem, and ultimately to peaceful coexistence of the communities of this city,” the Patriarch said in a press statement.

“The Heads of Churches have repeatedly warned of the illegitimate actions of extremists, who have followed a pattern of intimidation, violence, and lawless action to drive Christians and Muslims from the city that we share.”

He pointed that despite official assurances that “there would be no changes to the facts on the ground in the Christian Quarter” while negotiations with the Israeli occupation authorities were underway to“settle the status of these Christian heritage properties that sit on the Christian pilgrim route”, the settler radical group violated the assurances.

Following their takeover of the church property, Theophilos III warned of this “criminal act” and its larger ramifications on the “whole character” of Jerusalem.

“In occupying the Greek Orthodox Church’s property, the Little Petra Hotel, Ateret Cohanim has committed criminal acts of break-in and trespass. They act as if they are above the law, with no fear of consequences.”

“This issue is not about the individual properties, but about the whole character of Jerusalem, including the Christian Quarter. The Little Petra Hotel stands on the pilgrim route for the millions of Christians who visit Jerusalem each year. It is our heritage, and speaks of our very existence in this place.”

He further warned that the settler group was “hijacking” Jerusalem using coercive and violent means, which will undermine stability.

“Israeli radical extremist groups like Ateret Cohanim are already targeting and hijacking our beloved old city of Jerusalem and imposing their illegitimate and dangerous agenda on all sides. We refuse this and we say: this will lead to instability and tension at the time when all are trying to de-escalate and build trust, to build towards justice and peace. Acts of coercion and violence cannot lead to peace.”

He demanded that “this criminal group immediately cease their trespass and get out of our heritage property” and that “they halt their criminal activities on the Christian pilgrim route and in our beloved Old City.”

The Greek Orthodox hierarch made this statement as heads of Jerusalem churches, diplomatic corps from than a dozen countries and other officials joined him and the entire Greek Orthodox brotherhood in rallying against the settler takeover of the Little Petra Hotel. Among the host of officials was Secretary-General of the Islamic-Christian Committee in Support of Jerusalem and the Holy Sites, Hatem Abdel-Qader.

On Sunday evening, members of the Ateret Cohanim radical settler group broke into the hotel, located near Jaffa Gate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, as well as into a local money-changing shop belonging to the Patriarchate and rented by a Palestinian Jerusalemite at the hotel’s entrance. There, with the aid of local police, they unceremoniously evicted the family who rents and operates the hotel, without presenting any “eviction” documents, noting that the tenant status of the property is still in the midst of legal negotiations.

Palestinians have long maintained that the settler takeover of the strategically-located hotel along with the forced “evictions” of Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan is politically-motivated and comes as part of Israel’s efforts to ethnically cleanse Jerusalemite Palestinians.

Since the occupation of Jerusalem by Israel in June 1967, Israeli settlers colonial organizations, including Elad and Ateret Cohanim, have claimed ownership of Palestinian property in Jerusalem. Backed by the Israeli state, judiciary and security services, these organizations have been working on wresting control of Palestinian property and convert it into colonial outposts as part of the efforts to ensure a Jewish majority in the city, as well as on managing archaeological sites in Silwan and overseeing their excavation. This scheme involves building new colonial tourist sites, such as the “City of David”, to bolster their propaganda.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A second Palestinian professor has made it to MIT Technology Review Arabia’s first edition of “30 Leading Arab Experts in AI” list for 2022.

Nizar Habash, a computer science professor at New York University Abu Dhabi and the director of the Computational Approaches to Modeling Language (CAMeL) Lab, was included in MIT Technology Review Arabia recently-released “30 Leading Arab Experts in AI” list for 2022.

Habash’s area of research is artificial intelligence, specifically natural language processing and computational linguistics. He primarily works on Arabic and Arabic dialect language processing (in terms of orthography, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicons and corpora), machine translation and dialogue systems.

He joins Mustafa Jarrar, a computer science professor teaching at Birzeit University, who also made it to the list.

The 30 Arab AI experts inscribed on the list are renowned for being leading experts in the field of AI through their public, private, or academic sector positions in various regional and global organizations and institutions. The winners are credited for playing a key role in increasing the adoption of AI technologies, creating AI start-ups, or driving research in the field. Their contributions cover various disciplines including natural language processing, robotics, artificial vision, machine learning, internet of things, big data, chat-bots, and more.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli forces Tuesday night blocked major checkpoints in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarm, according to witnesses.

They confirmed that the Israeli soldiers closed the permanently-staffed Shufa checkpoint, which was installed in 2016 between the villages of ‘Izbat Shufah and Shufah on Route 5615 that runs from southern Tulkarm to Nablus.

The soldiers also sealed off the permanently-staffed al-Kafriyat checkpoint, also known as Jubara checkpoint, south of the district, which is located on the section of Israel’s apartheid and segregation wall and closed to Palestinians with the exception of farmers with entry permits to the seam zone.

Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.

Closures besides to other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 54-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

MIT Technology Review Arabia has listed a Palestinian computer science professor in its first edition of “30 Leading Arab Experts in AI” list for 2022.

MIT Technology Review Arabia included Mustafa Jarrar, a computer science professor teaching at Birzeit University, in its recently-released “30 Leading Arab Experts in AI” list for 2022.

Jarrar, who serves as the director of Birzeit University’s Ph.D. Program Computer Science, joins 29 Arabs renowned for being leading experts in the field of AI through their public, private, or academic sector positions in various regional and global organizations and institutions. The winners are credited for playing a key role in increasing the adoption of AI technologies, creating AI start-ups, or driving research in the field. Their contributions cover various disciplines including natural language processing, robotics, artificial vision, machine learning, internet of things, big data, chat-bots, and more.

Jarrar was a Fulbright visiting professor at the University at Buffalo in the USA (2016-2017), a Marie Curie fellow at the University of Cyprus (2007-2009), and a senior research scientist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1999-2007), where he completed his Masters (2000) and PhD (early 2005). He has won several prestigious awards including, among others, the Shoman Arab Researchers Award in Technology, Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for Arabic Language, and Google Faculty Research Award.

He has published over 75 articles and refereed reports in the areas of Ontology Engineering, Lexical Semantics, Natural Language processing, Semantic Web, and Databases. He chaired 23 international workshops, a PC member of over 100 journals/conferences, a coordinator/manager of 25 large EU project, a full member of the IFIP2.6 on Database Semantics, the IFIP2.12 on Web Semantics, and the UN ESCWA Technology Centre Board of Governors, among others.

He is also the founder of both Sina Institute for Knowledge Engineering and Language Technologies, and the Palestinian e-Government Academy. He also served voluntarily as an advisor at the Palestinian ministry of Telecom & IT for e-government topics, where he developed and chaired the Palestinian e-Government Interoperability Framework (called Zinnar).

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A Palestinian man Tuesday evening sustained injuries in a settler attack near Burqa village, north of Nablus, according to medical sources.

Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Emergency and Ambulance Department said that the 41-year-old man was rushed by an Israeli ambulance to PRC medics and subsequently received treatment after he was brutally attacked by settlers near the colonial settlement of Shavei Shomron, near the village.

Jibril added that the casualty, a resident of Sebastia town, sustained hand fractures.

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

Settler violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

On the occasion of the Forty- Sixth annual commemoration of Land Day, Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), highlighted the Land Day in statistical figures, as follows in a reported released today.

The Palestinian people remember the Annual Commemoration of Land Day. It is the day in which the Israeli occupation laid hand over and confiscated 21 thousand dunums of land in Al-Jalil, Al-Muthalath and Al-Naqab on the 30th of March 1976. On this day, the Israeli occupation confiscated the land and responded violently to the protestations, killing six young Palestinian demonstrators. Accordingly, this day has become a commemoration to embody the belonging of the Palestinian people to their homeland, and to commemorate those young martyrs.

The estimated number of the Palestinians by the end of 2021 was about 13.8 million; about 5.3 million live in the State of Palestine and about 1.6 million Palestinians live in the 1948 territories. In addition, about 6.2 million Palestinians live in the Arab countries, whereas almost 738 thousand Palestinians live in foreign countries. The Israeli occupation is exploiting more than 85% of the total area of the lands of the historical Palestine. It is also worth mentioning that Jews in the era of the British Mandate exploited only 1,682 Km2, a percentage of 6.2% of the lands of the historical Palestine.

The Israeli occupation used the land classification according to the Oslo Accords (A, B and C) to tighten their control over the Palestinian land, especially in areas classified as (C) which are under the full control of the Israeli occupation in terms of security, planning and construction, where 76% of the total area classified as (C) is directly exploited by the Israeli occupation; settlements regional councils are controlling 63% of it. While the area of authority regions in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank (Including closed regions allocated for expanding those settlements) is about 542 km2 as it is by the end of 2021; representing about 10% of the total area of the West Bank. Whereas the confiscated areas for the purposes of military bases and military training locations represent about 18% of the West Bank area, in addition to the Annexation and Expansion Wall that has isolated more than 10% of the area of the West Bank. Consequently, more than 219 Palestinian localities were badly affected by the establishment of the Annexation and Expansion Wall. In addition, and since 1967, the Israeli occupation authorities have confiscated about 353 thousand dunums of Palestinian lands and classified them as natural reserves in preparation for their seizure.

By the end of 2020, there were 471 Israeli occupation sites and military bases in the West Bank, including 151 settlements and 26 inhabited outposts that considered as neighborhoods following established settlements, in addition to 150 settlement outposts, and 144 classified as other sites (industrial, tourists, service areas and Israeli army bases). As for the number of settlers in the West Bank, it reached 712,815 settlers by the end of 2020, at a growth rate of almost 3.6%. Attracting Jews from abroad represents more than the third of net population growth rate in Israel. Thus, data shows that around 47% of settlers live in Jerusalem governorate, where their number reached about 332,294 settlers; out of which 246,909 settlers live in East Jerusalem (J1) “includes those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by Israeli occupation in 1967”. In regards to demographics, the proportion of settlers to Palestinian population in the West Bank is about 23 settlers per 100 Palestinians, and it was the highest in Jerusalem Governorate, where there were 71 settlers per 100 Palestinians. Accordingly, 2021 witnessed a significant increase in the pace of construction and expansion of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where the Israeli occupation approved the construction of more than 12,000 new settlement housing units including 9,000 settlement housing units on the lands of Qalandia Airport in Jerusalem Governorate. In addition, plans were approved to construct thousands of settlement housing units in the West Bank and Jerusalem Governorate.

In 2021, settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation army, carried out about 1,621 attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property, an increase of 49% in 2020, and the attacks varied from uprooting, destroying and burning of 19,000 trees, carrying out 33 run-over attacks, 76 shootings, and 30 leveling operations of citizens’ lands, in addition to burning, destroying and damaging cars and vehicles of 450 Palestinian citizens.

Since the beginning of 2021, settlers have established ten new outposts for the seizure and control of Palestinian lands, including Jabal Sabih, which is located southeast of Nablus city. The area of the mountain (Jabal Sabih) is about 840 dunums, where the Israeli settlers seized so far 20 dunums of it, and they have built an outpost that includes a number of settlement units that are rapidly increasing in recent days, while the Israeli occupation authorities have initiated measures to legitimize the outpost to turn it into an Israeli Settlement. The Israeli settlers also exploit about 120 thousand dunums of Palestinian lands for agriculture.

As part of the policy of deportation and replacement, the Israeli occupation authorities are taking accelerated judaizing measures to Jerusalem in order to obliterate the Islamic landmarks and displace Palestinians from the city of Jerusalem, to replace them with Israelis from all over the world. During 2021, the Israeli occupation authorities approved the construction of more than 12 thousand settlement units, most of them in Jerusalem, at a time that the Israeli occupation authorities demolished more than 300 buildings and issued demolition orders for more than 200 Palestinian buildings. In addition to approving a project to seizure 2,050 Palestinian real-estates over an area estimated of 2,500 dunums during the year 2021. At the same time, in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan in East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities strengthened the Israeli occupation attempts to seizure Palestinian houses and expel its long-time residents. They did so under a discriminatory law, upheld by Israeli courts, that allows these Israeli settler groups to pursue claims to land they claim Jews owned pre-1948 in East Jerusalem. While Israeli law prohibits Palestinians, including residents of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods who are due to be displaced, from reclaiming property they owned in the occupied territories in 1948.

Israeli occupation authorities demolished 1,058 buildings in Palestine (353 residential buildings and 705 establishments), in which 93 of them were self-demolition located mostly in Jerusalem governorate with 88 self-demolition that constituting 29% of total demolishing (128 residential buildings and 176 establishments). Tubas & Northern Valleys governorate followed by with 20%, then Hebron governorate with 15%, while the rest of the percentages were distributed among the other governorates of the West Bank.

Israeli occupation authorities during the year 2021, issued 875 orders associated with demolishing, construction and land reclamation halt in the West Bank and Jerusalem, of which 22% in Nablus Governorate, 15% in Tubas & Northern Valley Governorate, and 14% in Jerusalem Governorate, in addition to the destruction of many infrastructure sites that serve the Palestinians, including roads, Water and sanitation networks.

The number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs killed since the Nakba in 1948 and until this day (inside and outside Palestine) reached about 100 thousand martyrs. Moreover, the number of martyrs killed in Al-Aqsa Intifada, between September 29th, 2000 and December 31st, 2021, was 11,310. It is said that the bloodiest year was 2014 with 2,240 Palestinian martyrs, 2,181 of them were from Gaza Strip during the war on Gaza. During 2021, the number of Palestinian martyrs reached 341, 87 of whom were children and 48 women. While the number of wounded Palestinians reached about 12,500 in 2021. By the end of February 2022, there were 4,400 Palestinian detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons, 160 of them are children and 33 women. The number of detention cases amounted to be about 8,000 cases during 2021, including 1,300 children and 184 women. While the number of administrative detention orders against Palestinian citizens who were not charged with any indictment amounted to 1,595.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli settlers Wednesday uprooted 170 olive trees in the village of al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, to the south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors Israel’s illegal colonialist activities in the northern West Bank, said that extremist settlers uprooted about 170 olive trees in lands in the area of al-Rahwat, owned by two local residents.

He added that the settlers last night escalated their violations against Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Daghlas said that the settlers set up a Palestinian-owned vehicle on fire in the village of ’Asira al-Qibliya, warning of escalating the attacks as well as targeting mosques and other structures in the next few days.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli forces Wednesday overnight detained 26 Palestinians in multiple raids across the West Bank, according to local and security sources.

They said that Israeli forces rounded up five Palestinians from the central West Bank district of Ramallah and al-Bireh.

One of the five detainees was identified as a resident of Beit Rima town, northwest of Ramallah, another as a formerly-detained university student from the city neighborhood of Ein Misbah, and three others as residents of Abu Mashaal village, northwest of the city.

In the northern West Bank, the military vehicles stormed Ya‘bad town, west of Jenin, where the soldiers detained five others, including a former prisoner.

They conducted a similar raid in Bir al-Basha village, southwest of the city, and re-arrested a former prisoner.

Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, heavily-armed soldiers barged their way into Kafr Qaddum town, east of Qalqiliya city, and detained four teens.

They detained another along with his nephew from Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, and ransacked the houses of their families, turning them upside down.

In Jerusalem, police showed up at a house in al-Issawiya neighborhood, forcibly entered it, conducted a thorough search and ultimately detained another.

In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in al-‘Ibayyat village, east of Bethlehem, resulting in the detention of four others, including two brothers.

Gun-toting soldiers forcibly entered a house in Husan village, west of the city, muscled inside and ultimately detained another.

Meanwhile, three residents of Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, were detained after being stopped at Huwara military checkpoint, south of Nablus.

Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.

These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.

Under Israeli military law army commanders have full executive, legislative and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)