Day: 16 February 2023

Ever since Israeli Jewish supremacist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, became officially a part of the new Israeli far-right government, he made it a mission as holy as a promise to impose new sanctions on Palestinians to make their lives even more miserable than it already is due to the Israeli occupation.

Ben-Gvir was sworn in as Israeli Minister of National Security at the end of 2022, becoming a key member of Israel’s most racist, far-right government coalition ever led by long-running Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The new racist minister is known for publicly advocating for dividing the holy site of al-Aqsa Mosque – 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.

On January 3rd, only a few days after Ben-Gvir took his new position, as a first provocative move, he stormed the compounds of the holy mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem under heavy protection from the Israeli forces.

Moreover, Ben-Gvir’s malice has gone far, negatively affecting and dangerously impacting the living conditions of the Palestinian freedom fighters incarcerated in Israel for their resistance of the occupation, whom he calls “terrorists”.

One of Ben-Gvir’s publicly stated goals is to make sure that “murderers of Jews don’t get better conditions,” referring to the 4500 Palestinian freedom fighters serving time in Israeli jails for their resistance of the occupation.

To begin with, he announced that he is planning to cancel regulations that allow any lawmaker to meet with the imprisoned Palestinian freedom fighters.

In a statement, Ben-Gvir said he had informed the Speaker of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Amir Ohana, that he intends to return to an older protocol, according to which only one lawmaker from each faction will be allowed to visit the Palestinian prisoners, provided that visits be held under strict supervision.

Earlier to the announcement, Ben Gvir visited the recently renovated high-security Nafha Prison to review the imprisonment conditions of the Palestinian political prisoners and to ensure these conditions never improve.

To begin with, Israeli media said that he “went crazy” after learning that prisoners run their own bakeries inside Israeli prisons to make their own bread and ordered the immediate closure of all Palestinian prisoners-run bakeries in jails in Israel.

“Prisoners cannot get such a privilege. How can they get fresh bread every day?” Ben-Gvir was quoted.

The controversial move was reported to be aimed at denying “benefits to terrorists”, according to an official statement issued by his office. The statement said that such benefits were denied to regular prisoners in Israel and thus Palestinian prisoners should be no different.

Last but not least, Ben-Gvir’s dedication to increase the pressure on Palestinian prisoners has taken him to order the reduction of shower time the prisoners are allowed to have.

According to several Israeli media reports, the racist minister ordered that the prisoners shall only be allowed four minutes to shower and that running hot water for showers shall only be allowed one hour a day.

A few days ago, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued an order imposing financial penalties on 87 Palestinian prisoners from occupied Jerusalem, under the pretext of receiving money from the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Ministerial Committee also ordered at the time offsetting the welfare payments made by the Palestinian government to the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of those killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2022.

Ben-Gvir’s hateful measures have caused the prisoners to revolt and plan a hunger strike to preserve what they have achieved through years of battles against the Israeli Prison Services (IPS).

The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a joint statement that Palestinian prisoners in Nafha Prison declared mutiny against the new repressive measures by disrupting the so-called security checks as well as the requirement to wear the brown uniforms given to them by the IPS.

The prisoners are also planning to go on an open-ended hunger strike set to start the first day of Ramadan, which will start around March 24, in protest against Ben-Gvir’s extreme measures against them.

Additionally, the prisoners began to return their breakfast in response to the arbitrary measures taken by the prison administrations against the female and male freedom fighters in the Naqab, Ofer, and Megiddo prisons.

A state of tension appeared to have prevailed in all the prisons after female prisoners in Damon prison were attacked by the guards, spraying them with tear and pepper gas, abused prisoners in several prisons, and continued to isolate some of them.

The rise in tension in the prisons was caused by raids by the repression units against several departments in Ofer, Naqab, Megiddo, and Damon prisons, assaulting prisoners, isolating dozens, and confiscating their belongings.

Israeli security officials have actually warned that Ben Gvir’s tactics against the Palestinian freedom fighters are going to start serious trouble, not only in the prisons but also in the entire occupied territories, where for them the prisoners are a red line.

Source: Palestine News and Information and Agency

For Hosni Abdo, 62, from the town of Beit Imrin, west of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, visiting his friend in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, last Tuesday had almost cost him his life.

“After visiting my friend in Burqa and I was heading back home, a group of five settlers attacked me and started to beat me before I could even utter a word,” Abdo told WAFA.

“The settlers sprayed pepper gas on my face and when I started screaming hysterically, they fled but not before slashing the four wheels of my vehicle and injuring my leg as a result of hitting me with sticks.”

The attack on Abdo is not an isolated incident. It is one of many daily attacks by settlers from the evacuated settlement of Homesh targeting Palestinians living in that area and their properties.

Palestinian taxi drivers who travel the road Abdo used, the Nablus-Jenin road, regularly talk to each other to check on the situation on the road in fear of a sudden attack by the Homesh settlers.

Yasser Rawajbeh, one of the drivers who was also attacked by settlers, told WAFA that drivers of public transportation and many citizens who use the same road daily are in constant contact with each other, and in the event of any settler attack on that road, they change their route and take a much longer detour.

“Yesterday, the settlers attacked vehicles on the same road, so I had to go back and take another road because a number of vehicles had been damaged by the stones thrown at them,” said Rawajbeh.

“They are most likely armed, and therefore we can expect them to shoot at us at any moment. So we must always be careful, especially since we take this road all the time driving people back and forth between the villages, towns and cities,” he said.

Yesterday, dozens of settlers attacked two schools and a number of houses in Burqa, and then they headed to the Nablus-Jenin road and attacked vehicles there. Even though the Israeli army, deployed in large numbers in the West Bank, knows what they do, the army would intervene only to protect the settlers and attack the Palestinians who try to defend themselves and confront the settlers.

Ziyad Abu Omar, head of Burqa village council, said settlers regularly attack village residents and their property, the latest of which was yesterday when dozens of settlers attacked two schools in the village and a number of homes, describing it as the most violent attack in a while.

The official in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, told WAFA that dozens of settlers attacked two schools and houses in the village, and threw stones at them, smashing the windows of more than 15 houses and that the army did nothing to stop them or arrest any of them.

Just today, settlers attacked the Burqa school and when students and residents confronted them, the soldiers attacked the residents firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them to protect the settlers.

Daghlas said that the residents of the villages of Burqa, Silat al-Dahr, Bazariya, and the neighboring villages are subjected almost daily to attacks by Homesh settlers, in addition to attacks on the Nablus-Jenin road.

There are now, according to Daghlas, about 40 to 50 settlers staying in the settlement in a large metal structure and tents. They are the ones most likely carrying out these attacks that turn the lives of thousands upside down, disrupt their security, and threaten their safety.

Although there are four Israeli Supreme Court decisions stating that the lands belong to the people of Burqa, Douglas fears the re-establishment of the settlement over a large area of Burqa lands and the nearby Silat al-Harithiya village.

The settlers established Homesh settlement in 1982 on the lands of Burqa village, and in 2005, the Israeli occupation authorities dismantled it as part of the unilateral withdrawal plan, which included four settlements in the northern West Bank.

It is noteworthy that the law prohibits Israelis from entering the land on which Homesh was built after the Israeli Supreme Court recognized that the land belongs to Palestinians from Burqa. But the settlers returned to that land repeatedly, erected tents on it, and held events and parties.

Despite the passage of about 18 years since its evacuation, the owners of the lands were unable to return to them or benefit from them. Rather, Homesh turned into a hotbed of terror for settlers who returned to it and used it as a launching point for their attacks against farmers and residents of Burqa, in addition to attacking vehicles on the Nablus–Jenin road.

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, recently approved, in an initial reading, a bill to cancel the withdrawal from the northern West Bank, which would allow settlers to return to the four settlements evacuated by the Israeli government in 2005 and include the former settlements of Ghanim, Kadim, Homesh, and Sanur.

Source: Palestine News and Information and Agency

The Israeli occupation forces today raided homes in occupied East Jerusalem of several Palestinian former or current prisoners in Israel and seized large sums of money and private good, including jewelry while ransacking the homes.

WAFA correspondent said the Israeli forces broke into homes in Ras al-Amoud and Beit Hanina neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem, taking away money and jewelry, as well as other goods, including cars owned by any member of the family or seizing bank accounts for the parents of the prisoner claiming the prisoners were receiving allowance money from the Palestinian Authority during their imprisonment.

The far-right Israeli government decided to seize the money from all Palestinian prisoners as a punishment for receiving allowances from the Palestinian government.

At least 80 former or current Palestinian prisoners from Jerusalem or inside Israel who served time in Israeli jails for their resistance of the occupation are going to be part of this vicious Israeli government campaign.

The Israeli parliament also approved yesterday a law that would strip Palestinian prisoners from occupied East Jerusalem or inside Israel of their residency rights in the occupied city or citizenship in Israel and expel them and their families to territories outside Israel or Jerusalem.

Source: Palestine News and Information and Agency

The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem today informed six Palestinian homeowners in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyya of its intention to demolish their buildings under the pretext they were built without a permit.

Activist Mohammad Abu al-Humus said Israeli forces broke into the neighborhood and posted the demolition orders on the buildings, some of them built 25 years ago.

The Israeli occupation authorities started a campaign against Palestinian residents in the occupied section of the city including home demolition, confiscation of funds for prisoners and their families, arrests, raids at their homes, and lately a decision to strip them of their rights to live in their city if they were involved in the Palestinian resistance movement.

Source: Palestine News and Information and Agency