Month: August 2022

NEW YORK, There was no justification for Israeli exceptionalism in the Middle East region, Palestine underscored at the tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in New York.

In his address before the Tenth NPT Review Conference, Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, reiterated that the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons has always been illegal — as their very essence violates the fundamental principles of humanity and distinction — and there is no rational justification for the privileged status granted de facto to nuclear weapons over other weapons of mass destruction.

Mansour, associating himself with the Arab Group and Non-Aligned Movement, underscored therefore that “As there can be no justification for the exceptional status granted to nuclear weapons, there can be no justification for Israeli exceptionalism in our region, whereby it would be the only one entitled to hold nuclear weapons.”

“Our region should be free of nuclear weapons, full stop. This dangerous precedent continues to loom over the future of our region,” he added.

He renewed Palestine’s call that the NPT Review Conference should implement the 1995 resolution on establishing a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

He warned that “the only alternative to the pursuit of effective nuclear disarmament in our region is a dangerous arms race and potential nuclear proliferation” while calling on the co-sponors of the 1995 resolution to uphold their obligations.

“This is indispensable for regional and international peace and security and for the credibility of their calls for nuclear non-proliferation in our region,” he added.

He added that the only effective remedy against the threat nuclear weapons pose to all of humanity is “ridding the world of these weapons”.

He concluded by emphasizing that a “nuclear sword” is inching closer to our necks, and that “…if we don’t put an end to nuclear weapons, they very might well put an end to humanity.”

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency

JERUSALEM, Israeli forces today demolished a sheep pen in Qalandiya village, northwest of Jerusalem, according to local sources.

They said that an army force escorted a bulldozer to the village, where the heavy machinery tore down the Palestinian-owned pen purportedly for being built without a license.

Israeli refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel much more easily gives over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in colonial settlements in the occupied territories building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.

Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency

WASHINGTON, A new Brookings poll found that the large majority of Americans, including Republicans, are opposed to laws criminalizing the boycott of Israel.

The polls add a new dimension to what is already seen as a gap between “Democratic Party constituents, on the one hand, and the positions of elected congressional Democrats and the Biden administration, on the other, regarding U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

According to the surveys, conducted in May and in June by the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll, 33 percent of Democratic voters support BDS while 10 percent oppose it; the majority, 37 percent, said they did not know, while another 20 percent said they neither supported nor opposed it.

“One of the most controversial issues in American political discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian issue has been the question of boycotts of Israel, especially the boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement. We sought to probe attitudes on this issue,” Shibley Telhami, director of the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll, wrote for the Brookings Institute on Tuesday.

The opposition against the BDS movement continues to be strong in the Republican voter base, with 50 percent of respondents saying they are against it.

However, when asked whether they supported laws criminalizing the boycott against Israel, 68 percent of all respondents including a slight majority of Republicans said that they were against such laws.

The data point reflects a major disconnect between voters and lawmakers, who across the country in dozens of states have worked to pass laws that criminalize any boycott against Israel.

The polls – one conducted in May and another in June – also showed that Democratic voters view the Biden administration’s positions to be favouring Israel.

While a majority of Democrats, 57 percent, said they do not know what the position of the Biden administration is, 26 percent said they viewed it as leaning more towards Israel versus three percent who said it leaned toward Palestinians.

“Most Democrats who expressed an opinion said that the administration’s positions leaned toward Israel more than their own,” Telhami said.

The gap was even starker between voters and lawmakers.

Among Republicans, 26 percent of respondents said their representatives leaned more towards Israel than themselves, versus only 15 percent who said their lawmakers leaned more towards Palestinians.

Within the Democrats, 33 percent said their representatives were leaning toward Israel more than they were, while just three percent said lawmakers were leaning more towards Palestinians.

“The gap between the Biden administration and the Democratic public on Israel/Palestine remains wide – and the public perceives it,” Telhami said.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency

RAMALLAH, Weather today is hot to very hot in daytime and moderate in the mountains and relatively hot in other districts in daytime with steady temperature which remains 4°C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Light to moderate westerly to northwesterly wind blows. Sea waves are low.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 34°C and a low of 23°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 33°C and a low of 22°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 42°C and a low of 28°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 33°C and a low of 25°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Friday’s temperature is set to slightly drop by 1°C, causing a slight relief in the heat stress.

An additional slight drop of temperature is expected on Saturday, approaching 2°C above the seasonal average and causing the heat stress to further relieves.

Sunday’s temperature is set to further drop, becoming slightly unseasonably low and paving the way to partly cloudy to clear and mainly hot conditions in daytime and moderate conditions in the night, particularly in the mountains.

PMD warns people against being exposed to the sun for long period, especially from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and setting fire to dry grassy areas.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency

RAMALLAH, Israeli forces Thursday overnight detained 20 Palestinians, including an injured teen, in multiple West Bank raids, according to local and security sources.

They said that Israeli forces showed up at a house in Silat al-Harithiya town, west of Jenin, muscled inside, conducted a thorough search, rounded up a young man and seized his vehicle.

In Tulkarm district, Israeli troops rounded up three others, including a 17-year-old teen after breaking into and ransacking his parents’ house in Nur Shmas refugee camp, east of the northern West Bank city.

The sources confirmed that the teen sustained gunshot wound in the thigh caused by live ammunition by Israeli soldiers while standing in front of the house during a raid a month ago. He is still recuperating from his wounds.

Meanwhile, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Nablus city, where the soldiers detained two men and searched their houses, turning them upside down.

In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, resulting in the detention of another.

The soldiers conducted a similar raid in the Bethlehem city neighborhoods of Wadi Shaheen and al-Karkafeh, leading to the detention of two others.

In Hebron district, the soldiers barged their way into Halhul town, north of the city, and detained three others, including two brothers.

They also arrested eight members of the Ajlouni family after ransacking their houses in the city.

They also forcibly entered several houses in At-Tuwani, one of the localities making up Masafer Yatta, including the house of the head of the locality council, Mohammad Rib‘i, and tempered with the contents.

On Wednesday evening, undercover Israeli forces, known as Musta’ribeen or Mista’arvim in Hebrew, sneaked their way into Dheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, and abducted two men in the vicinity of the camp entrance.

This came as soldiers at Allenby border crossing, also known as King Hussein or al-Karameh crossing, rounded up a Palestinian on his way to Jordan. The detainee was identified as a resident of Jenin city.

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.

According to the latest figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are currently 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 180 children and 30 women.

This number includes approximately 650 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Mass arrest of Palestinians is nothing new. According to a 2017 report by Addameer, over the past 50 years, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel, this figure is now believed to be closer to 1 million. This means that about 40% of Palestinian men and boys living under military occupation have been deprived of their freedom. Almost every Palestinian family has suffered the imprisonment of a loved one.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency