Category: Technology

Israeli settlers fenced off Palestinian pastures, east of the village of al-Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley, local sources said.

They said that settlers fenced off the land, whose area was not exactly determined and located near the illegal settlement of Shadmot Mehola, in preparation for seizing it.

Over the years, Israeli settlers have seized thousands of dunums of pastures and farming lands in several areas in the northern Jordan Valley and set up outposts on top of mountains in the area.

Since the beginning of 2022, al-Farisiya area has been subjected to several violations by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their properties, in addition to the soldiers seizing tractors and pursuing farmers working on their lands.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

A number of students today suffocated from Israeli army tear gas in al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, according to local sources.

They said that a number of students enrolled in a local secondary school suffocated from tear gas inhalation after Israeli soldiers forcefully dispersed a rally in the southern West Bank refugee camp.

The rally was called for in protest of the killing of five Palestinians in less than 24 hours across the West Bank on Tuesday.

One of the five Palestinians, a resident of Beitunia city, succumbed to his wounds sustained after being shot by Israeli soldiers at the northern entrance to al-Bireh following a car chase.

The other four slain Palestinians were identified as Raed Na‘ssan, fatally shot by Israeli army live gunfire in al-Mughayyir village, east of the city of Ramallah, Jawad and Thafer Rimawi, 22 and 21, who were killed in an overnight raid into Kafr Ein village, northwest of Ramallah, in addition to Mufeed Ikhlil, 44, who died of Israeli military bullet wounds to the head during a predawn raid in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

BRUSSELS– The European Union has strongly deplored Israel’s demolition of the donor-funded Sfai school in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank province of Hebron, saying the demolition violates children’s right to education.

“The EU recalls that demolitions are illegal under international law, and children’s right to education must be respected,” said Peter Stano, a spokesman for the bloc.

He said the “unacceptable development comes while 1.200 Palestinians in Masafer Yatta remain at risk of forced transfer following the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision in May, and against the backdrop of an increasingly coercive and intimidating environment for the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta, including the movement restrictions imposed on them, teachers and humanitarian responders.”

The EU calls on the Israeli occupation authorities to halt all demolitions and evictions, “which will only increase the suffering of the Palestinian population and further escalate an already tense environment.”

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

JENIN– Israeli forces today detained three Palestinians from the northern West Bank district of Jenin, according to local sources.

They said that the gun-toting soldiers showed up at a house in Ya‘bad town, west of the city of Jenin, went inside, conducted a thorough search and eventually rounded up a Palestinian.

They also detained two others, including a former prisoner, from Bir al-Basha and Fahma villages, south and southwest of the city, and ransacked the houses of their families, turning them upside down.

Meanwhile, confrontations erupted Tuesday evening with Israeli troops at the entrances of Silwad and al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya towns, northeast of Ramallah.

The soldiers fired volleys of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at local youths, but no injuries were reported.

They barged their way into Sinjil town, north of the city, stormed a gas station, stopped Palestinian vehicles and inspected passengers’ identity cards.

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 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 190 children and 30 female prisoners.

This number includes approximately 800 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 and Information Agency

TULKARM– Israeli forces today stormed the campus of the Palestine Technical University (Kadoori), west of Tulkarm city, according to WAFA correspondent.

She said that a convoy of army vehicles barged their way into the university campus from the western direction, deploying at the main entrance, sparking confrontations.

The soldiers opened volleys of gunfire and tear gas canisters at students who attempted to block their entry. No casualties were reported.

By the time the raid was over, the soldiers had confiscated the recordings of the surveillance cameras of the university.

Attacks on education by Israeli military forces and Israeli settlers in the Palestine constitute grave violations of right to education and development. These attacks are particularly prevalent in the most vulnerable areas of the West Bank – Area C, H2 and Jerusalem.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency

RAMALLAH– The Education Ministry today decried the Israeli occupation authorities’ decision upholding the demolition of a West Bank school.

The Ministry condemned in a press statement the Israeli occupation court’s ruling upholding the demolition of Ein Samia school, northeast of Ramallah, as an unfair decision, which constitutes a threat to the Palestinian children’s right to education in safe and stable environments, in flagrant violation of the relevant conventions, laws and international norms.

It added that there has been a notable upsurge of Israeli violations against the Palestinian education sector, particularly in Area C, which requires international human rights organizations and institutions defending children to confront Israeli violations, including the imminent demolition of the Ein Samia school, and initiate the relevant legal proceedings.

The Israeli occupation central court dismissed the petition submitted by the attorney of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC) to postpone the demolition of the school to the end of 2022.

According to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (BTSELEM), The Ein Samia community, which lies east of the village of Kafr Malik in Ramallah district, is home to 28 families, numbering a total of about 200 people. Since the community was established in 1977, its residents have been living under the threat of expulsion and suffering violence by settlers and Israeli forces. Since settlers established the outpost of Micha’s Farm about three years ago, the violence has increased, affecting not only the community but also the residents of al-Mughayir, Kafr Malik, and other area communities.

There are about 40 school-age children in Ein Samia. Until 2013, children from the community had to walk several kilometers a day to school in Kafr Malik. That year, the Ministry of Education started funding a school bus. In 2020, the ministry approved the establishment of a new school within the area of the community, funded by the European Union, at the residents’ request.

The construction work was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and only began on 15 January 2022. Prefabricated structures made of galvanized sheet metal were placed on a 500-square-meter concrete surface, forming four classrooms and two bathrooms. The Badayat ‘Ein Samia Co-Ed Elementary School opened in last January. Once the construction began, the so-called Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank, verbally notified the residents of its intention to immediately demolish the school.

The residents appealed to Israel’s High Court to prevent the demolition, but their request was denied. On 28 April 2022, the ICA delivered a stop work and demolition order for the school. The residents appealed the order to the district court, but their petition was rejected on 10 August 2022. On 14 August 2022, another petition was filed against the authorities’ refusal to freeze the demolition order until a decision was made on a building plan the residents had submitted earlier.

“Demolishing educational facilities is one of the means Israel uses to try and drive Palestinian communities out of their homes, so it can concentrate the residents in enclaves and use the territory for its own needs. The school at ‘Ein Samia is one of 44 schools in the West Bank currently under threat of demolition, according to UN figures, eight of which are located in East Jerusalem. About 4,800 students attend these schools,” BETSELEM concluded.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

The parents of the students of al-Iman (Faith) School in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina today protested against the attempts to impose the distorted Israeli curricula.

Raed Bashir, a member of the Students’ Parents Committee, said that the inspection of the bags of the students by the staff of the Israeli Ministry of Education (MoE) was “illegal” and “inhumane”, pointing that the school would take legal proceedings against the Ministry’s measures.

He stressed that the students’ parents reject the use of repressive measures by Israeli MoE against the students and the school administration.

On Wednesday, Israeli MoE staff inspected the bags of the students of al-Iman School and al-Ibrahimia School in the neighborhood, looking for Palestinian curricula.

The administrations of both schools slammed the inspection as an integral part of the wider measures taken by MoE to impose the Israeli curriculum and falsify the historical narrative.

Meanwhile, Spokesperson for the Palestinian MoE Sadeq al-Khdour decried the inspection of the students’ bags and storming their school campus as a step in violation of all international laws and charters guaranteeing the right to education.

He added that the Palestinina MoE was preparing a file with regards to all Israeli violations against education institutions in the occupied territories to be submitted to relevant United Nations organizations as he called the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to set up offices in locations where education are highly vulnerable to Israeli occupation violations.

At the end of July 2022, the Israeli Ministry of Education approved the revocation of permanent licenses for Palestinian schools in occupied Jerusalem because of what it purportedly described as “incitement against the state and the army in textbooks.”

Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton threatened to revoke the license of every educational institution that contains its curricula in incitement to “the State of Israel and its symbols.”

This came after a series of inspections of these schools carried out by the Control and Enforcement Department of the Israeli Ministry, which amounted to selecting books from students’ bags inside the classroom and summoning school principals to a listening committee.

The Ministry ended up revoking the permanent operating licenses of six schools and replacing it with a temporary one for a year, during which the school worked to remove some of the content as a condition for returning the license.

The schools affected are the Abrahamic College in the al-Sawana neighborhood, founded in 1931, and the Faith Schools, with its five branches throughout occupied al-Quds, founded in 1984.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Scores of schoolgirls suffocated today as Israeli occupation soldiers fired teargas canisters in the vicinity of two schools in the village of Kharbatha Bani Harith, in the occupied West Bank province of Ramallah, according to local sources.

Abdeljabbar Injas, the mayor of the village, told WAFA that an Israeli army force raided the village and fired teargas in the vicinity of two schools, causing several students to suffocate from gas inhalation.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency