Day: 30 November 2022

The Israeli military authorities issued stop-work orders for a house, two structures, and a barn for sheep in the town of Yatta, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to Fouad Imour, a local activist.

He said soldiers broke into the Bedouin area east of Yatta where they handed out stop-work orders for a house, a structure, and a barn for sheep owned by a resident from Umm al-Khair Bedouin community, and another structure for another resident from Umm al-Daraj community.

The soldiers claim the structures were built in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under Israeli military rule and where Palestinians are not permitted to develop in any way.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Speaking at a joint press conference in Ramallah with his Latvian counterpart Egils Levits, President Mahmoud Abbas today called on the European Union and its member states not to deal with any Israeli government that does not recognize the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy and signed agreements, and does not renounce violence and terrorism.

He called on the international community to link its relations with Israel to the extent of its commitment to those principles, to stop all unilateral actions, and to return the withheld Palestinian funds.

President Abbas warned of the seriousness of the international silence regarding the destruction of the two-state solution, persistence in perpetuating racism, taking steps for annexation and settlement construction, as well as the killings and the desecration of Islamic and Christian holy places.

The President thanked his counterpart, the Latvian president, for his country’s support for the two-state solution and peace in the region on the basis of international law, and for Latvia’s support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and for training Palestinians in its universities.

“I want to express my sincere thanks for Latvia’s stances in support of the two-state solution, peacemaking in our region on the basis of international law, and my thanks for the gestures your country offers towards UNRWA, and for training a number of Palestinians in Latvian universities,” said President Abbas, who described the visit as “an important opportunity to strengthen the friendship and cooperation relations between our two countries and peoples in all fields,” while looking forward to more trade exchange and investment between businessmen in the two countries.

President Abbas also took this opportunity to express his appreciation for the European Union and its member states for their political stances and support for development projects in Palestine, calling on the European countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine to do so in order to protect the two-state solution and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

“We are confident that we will soon see the start of dialogue to raise the level of The European-Palestinian Partnership Agreement. We affirm our commitment to building the institutions of our state on the basis of the rule of law, empowering women and youth, creating partnerships with civil society and the private sector, achieving national reconciliation, and going to general elections as soon as we are able to hold them in East Jerusalem, as in previous times,” he said.

President Abbas said the Palestinians do not have a partner for peace in Israel “who believes in the two-state solution based on international legitimacy, signed agreements, and the renunciation of violence and terrorism, which are the principles that we are committed to and work according to. In this context, we call on the European Union and its member states not to deal with any Israeli government that does not recognize these principles and values.”

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, ActionAid International said today that it joins the international and human rights organizations all over the world to mark the international solidarity Day with Palestinian People stressing its commitment towards supporting the inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

On this occasion, ActionAid International said in a statement that it stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and continues its support of Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, freedom, justice, and independence. ActionAid called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its increasing violations of those rights.

ActionAid reminded the Member States of the United Nations that they have a moral and legal obligation to implement the recognition of Palestine as an independent state and end the occupation. “We call on the international community to break the silence about the ongoing suffering and oppression of Palestinians,” it said.

The country director of ActionAid Palestine, Ibrahim Ibraigheth said: “international solidarity is essentially needed due to the continuity of injustices and oppression that are practiced against the Palestinian people by an illegal Israeli occupation. The human rights of Palestinians guaranteed in the international law as rights to life, housing, dignity, freedom, movement, education, and other rights are being denied on daily basis under the silence of the international community.”

The year 2022 has been the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2015. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Israeli occupying forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians so far- 51 of that number are children, the majority shot by Israeli forces or armed settlers in the occupied West Bank. At the same time, in August 2022 Israel launched yet another aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, during which 49 Palestinians, including 17 children, were killed, and another 335 were injured.

This year has also witnessed the continuity of Israeli policies of illegal settlement expansion, home demolitions, systematic forced displacement, movement restriction and land confiscation. These policies steal more Palestinian lands and natural resources, said ActionAid. Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are also denied coping with the impact of the climate crisis by depriving them from enjoying their environmental rights.

Meanwhile, 2.1 million Palestinians live in an open-air prison in Gaza Strip under a blockade that has illegally been imposed for more than 15 years depriving them from basic human rights and causing humanitarian and environmental crises, and a lack of water and electricity. Only 4% of water is fit for human use.

The Palestinians also lost one of their iconic and inspirational journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al-Jazeera correspondent who was killed by the Israeli army in May while she was performing her media duties, and her coffin bearers were beaten by Israeli police. In addition, Israel continues attacking the Palestinian civil and political space by designating six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations including Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women.

These violations committed by Israel pushed leading human rights organizations such as B’tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to consider them as the crimes of apartheid against the Palestinian people.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared in the year 1977 November 29, the day in 1947 the UNGA voted to partition Palestine into an Arab and Jewish states leading to the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, that is still ongoing, as International Day for Solidarity with Palestinian People.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Palestinians clashed today with Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron and in the village of al-Mughayyer, northeast of Ramallah.

WAFA correspondent said that Palestinians pelted the soldiers with stones after they breached the Palestinian-controlled part of the divided city in the Bab al-Zawiyeh area, firing tear gas canisters, sound grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets at people and shops in the area.

There were no reports of injuries.

In the Ramallah-area village of al-Mughayyer, clashes broke out following the funeral of Raed Naasan, who was shot and killed yesterday by Israeli army gunfire, according to the head of the village council Ayman Abu Eliya.

He told WAFA that the soldiers detained two children, 8 and 10 years of age, in an army jeep for several hours using them as human shields.

President Mahmoud Abbas called today the father of Raed Naasan, Ghassan, to express his condolences and support for the bereaved family.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency