Day: 1 January 2023

Scores of Israeli settler fanatics guarded by police today broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, according to local sources.

Witnesses told WAFA that scores of Israeli settlers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate in groups and performed rituals and Talmudic prayers there under the protection of Israeli police officers.

Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have been allowing settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the Six-Day War in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Colonial Israeli settlers installed a caravan today on a Palestinian private-owned land near the village of Al-Jaba’a, to the west of Bethlehem, according to local sources.

Diab Masha’leh, the mayor of the village, said a group of Israeli settlers set up a caravan in the area with the aim of taking over the land in order to expand the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Jab’ot at the expense of Palestinian land.

He said the land where the settlers set up the caravan belongs to the Palestinian family of Al-Tous.

There are over 650,000 colonial Israeli settlers living in Jewish-only settlements across the West Bank in violation of international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention which expressly bans the relocation of the occupying nation’s civilian population to the land of the occupied.

According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Israel has used a complex legal and bureaucratic mechanism to take control of more Palestinian land in the West Bank.

The principal tool used to take control of land is to declare it “state land.” This process began in 1979 and is based on a manipulative implementation of the Ottoman Land Law of 1858. Other methods employed by Israel to take control of land include seizure for military needs, declaration of land as “abandoned assets,” and the expropriation of land for public needs.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, welcomed yesterday UN General Assembly resolution 77/400 deciding to request an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) relating to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

The resolution, in accordance with Article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations, asks the ICJ – pursuant to Article 65 of the Statute of the Court – to render its opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s ongoing violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of discriminatory legislation and measures.

The resolution further asks the Court how Israel’s policies and practices referenced affect the legal status of the occupation and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the UN.

In its report to the General Assembly, presented on 27 October, 2022 the Commission found there are reasonable grounds to conclude that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is now unlawful under international law owing to its permanence and to ongoing actions undertaken by Israel to annex parts of the land de facto and de jure.

The Commission recommended that the General Assembly urgently request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the continued refusal on the part of Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, amounting to de facto annexation, of policies employed to achieve this, and of the refusal on the part of Israel to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and on the obligations of third States and the UN to ensure respect for international law.

The Commission found in its first report that the continued occupation by Israel of Palestinian territory and discrimination against Palestinians were the key root causes of the recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict in the region. The Commission’s second report to the General Assembly, based on its conclusion about the illegality of such an occupation, made the core recommendation for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice.

The Commission said that a definitive clarification of the legal consequences of Israel’s refusal to end the occupation, and what the obligation of third parties to ensure respect for international law are, will be crucial to member States and the UN in considering what further measures should be adopted to ensure full compliance with international law.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said today that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s denial of the existence of the occupation is a blow to the countries that adhere to the Two-State Solution.

The Foreign Ministry said in a press statement that Netanyahu’s position is a blow to the countries that take pride in their adherence to the Two-State Solution and the principles of human rights, and whose double standards provide protection for the Israeli occupation in international forums.

In his response to the United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding an ICJ advisory opinion on the nature of occupation, Netanyahu said “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land nor occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem and no U.N. resolution can distort that historical truth”.

Netanyahu also said in a video message that Israel was not bound by the “despicable decision.”

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces arrested five Palestinians last night during predawn raids in the occupied West Bank provinces of Hebron and Qalqilia, according to witnesses and Palestinian security sources.

In Hebron, south of the west Bank, the Israeli occupation army arrested three Palestinians after raiding and searching their homes in the city and the nearby town of Beit Ummar.

In Qalqilia, north of the territory, two Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces who raided and searched their homes.

Almost on a daily basis, Israeli occupation forces carry out raids into populated Palestinian communities for arrests or searches. The practice, mostly carried out at nighttime, has become a routine under Israeli military regime.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Nearly 7,000 Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Palestinian Territories in 2022, according to a joint report issued today by prisoner advocacy groups.

The joint report, issued by the Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and Wadi Hilweh Information Center, said this percentage of arrests is the highest compared to the previous year, particularly in the West Bank.

According to the report, a total of 6,000 arrests of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces were documented in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, while another 2,000 cases were documented in the 1948-occupied territories.

Meanwhile, a total of 882 Palestinian children and 172 women were arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities during the reporting period, the report says.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

For the second week in a row, extremist Israeli settlers destroyed today the content of a storehouse belonging to a Palestinian farmer in the village of Shufa, to the southeast of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, according to the owner.

Tahseen Hamed, a farmer and the owner of the storehouse, told WAFA he was surprised when he arrived to his land this morning to find that Israeli settlers had destroyed the contents of his storehouse and vandalized the agricultural equipment inside.

He noted that this was the second attack since last week, adding that settlers usually storm the agricultural lands of the village, release their sheep to graze there, prevent farmers from grazing their sheep and force them to leave at gunpoint.

Violence and vandalism by Israeli settlers are almost a daily routine under Israel’s apartheid regime in occupied Palestine.

More than 600,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Israeli Jewish supremacist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced today his intention to storm the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem later this week.

Israeli media reports said Ben-Gvir had requested the Israeli police to coordinate Ben-Gvir’s expected incursions into the Islamic holy site next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ben-Gvir was sworn in as Israeli Minister of National Security last week, becoming a key member of Israel’s most racist, far-right government coalition ever led by long-running Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ben-Gvir is publicly advocating for dividing the holy site – which is the third holiest Muslim place of worship – between Muslims and Jews, a move that is likely to inflame an already tense situation in the Israeli-occupied territories.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency