Category: News

The Israeli occupation forces today set up mobile homes on a 3-dunum area to the east of the occupied southern West Bank city of Hebron in what Palestinians fear is a prelude to building an illegal settlement outpost, reported WAFA correspondent.

He said the homes were set up on a piece of land owned by local resident Mahmoud Jaber, noting that the land is located near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba.

He said the forces fenced off the land in what residents fear it may be a step to establish a new Israeli settlement outpost.

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

A Palestinian resident of occupied East Jerusalem proceeded last night to demolish his own house in Silwan neighborhood under pressure from the Israeli West Jerusalem municipality, which said the house was built without a permit and therefore should be demolished, reported WAFA correspondent.

Mohammad Nassar al-Husseini proceeded to tear down his house at Wadi Qaddum quarter in Silwan to avoid paying exorbitant costs that could exceed $60,000 if the Jerusalem municipality carries out the demolition on its own.

Using the pretext of building without a permit, which is rarely granted to Palestinians in the occupied city, the Israeli municipality has condemned hundreds of Palestinian-owned houses as part of a policy aimed to restrict Palestinian expansion and number in occupied Jerusalem.

At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem for Jews with a goal to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city.

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

The Israeli occupation authorities appropriated Palestinian land in the occupied northern Jordan Valley under the pretext of turning it into a nature reserve, today said a Palestinian official source.

Ayed Murrar, an official with the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, confirmed the appropriation of Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley even though the details of the area and location were not clear yet.

He said Israel claims the appropriation is intended to turn that land into a nature reserve.

The Israeli military government appropriated in October of last year 11,000 dunums of Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley under the same pretext of turning it into a nature reserve.

Palestinians believe the nature reserve pretext is used to justify the illegal appropriation of occupied land, which eventually is turned into a settlement.

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

Weather today in Palestine is mostly clear and relatively hot to hot in most districts and very hot in the Jordan Valley in daytime, with a slight drop in temperature, which remains 3 C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Weather tonight is moderate in the mountains and relatively hot in other districts. Winds are light to moderate, westerly to northwesterly, and sea waves are low to medium.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 31 C and a low of 22 C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 30 C and a low of 21 C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 41 C and a low of 27 C, while it is expected to reach a high of 31 C and a low of 24 C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

No change in weather conditions is expected tomorrow, Wednesday.

However, an increase in temperature is expected on Thursday, which approaches 5 C above the seasonal average.

Another increase in temperature is expected on Friday becoming 6 C, said the PMD, which warned 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: Palestinian New & Info Agency

Israeli occupation forces ordered today the demolition of agricultural and residential structures in the village of Azun Atme in the occupied West Bank district of Qalqilia, according to local sources.

An Israeli military force broke into the village and handed a notification for the demolition of two agricultural shacks belonging to two Palestinian citizens.

The Israeli military also ordered a halt on the ongoing construction of a house in the village, which belongs to a local Palestinian citizen who was identified as Mohammad Ismail Younes.

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Six Day War. It justifies the demolition of Palestinian homes by saying that they lack building permits, despite the fact that Israel very rarely issues such permits to Palestinians.

Meantime, Israel approves the construction of thousands of residential units within illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

The Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba-Abdalmajid, has welcomed the report of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on Displacement and Demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territory.

A recommendation made by the Committee in the report include “that Ireland, following on from its recent recognition that de facto annexation has taken place in the occupied Palestinian territory, now takes steps towards realising its responsibility to not render aid or assistance to Israel which would facilitate the maintenance of an internationally wrongful act of annexation.”

Dr Wahba-Abdalmajid commended the committee on their work on the report, which included testimony from her and from experts and civil society groups working on the issues raised.

The report called for an end to further evictions, transfer of settlers, semolitions, land appropriations, and pillage of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory and was stark in its conclusion: “Israeli land policy is racially based. Israel aggressively seeks to maximise the amount of land under Jewish-Israeli control.

The report added, “Palestinian rights, whether private or collective to land are neither protected nor respected by Israel. Israeli land policy has and is deliberately the pursuing goal of driving Palestinians from their lands. Israel implements these policies and practices to attain the enduring political goals of the assertion of sovereignty over East Jerusalem, the West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley.”

“Israel’s land policy is an integral and essential part of the Apartheid system it operates throughout the entirety of Israel and the OPT.”

Regarding the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, the report found “the pattern of evictions, demolition orders and displacements are not random but appear to be strategically focused on altering the demography of East Jerusalem by targeting areas such as Sheikh Jarrah.”

The report also recommended that in addition to issuing statements of condemnation on actions taken by the Israeli authorities, Ireland should “agree a graduated set of proposals and concrete measures domestically, including diplomatic and economic and in conjunction with international organisations and bodies, to apply where further violations and breaches of international law occur in respect of demolitions, evictions, displacements, settlement expansion and de facto annexation.”

Ambassador Wahba-Abdalmajid saidI, “reland’s public representatives have once again set the bar for upholding international law and have demonstrated their strong commitment to human rights. Ireland is a leader in championing the rights of Palestinians and has indicated that Palestine will be a priority for them in their work on the UN Security Council.

“The recommendations in the report are to be applauded. The only way to end the injustice being perpetrated against Palestinians is to uphold international law and activate the existing framework for accountability. The impunity for the occupier and the occupation must end so that Palestinians can live in peace.”

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

US philosopher and academic Dr. Cornel West has resigned from Harvard University’s Divinity School, citing the institution’s anti-Palestinian prejudices as one of his reasons for doing so.

In a resignation letter dated June 30 and published on Twitter late yesterday, West said he faced discrimination during the time he worked at the university, including being given a lower salary than when he was first given a tenured position at Harvard, and also being rejected for tenure.

West said that “to witness a faculty enthusiastically support a candidate for tenure then timidly defer to a rejection based on the Harvard administration’s hostility to the Palestinian cause was disgusting”.

“This kind of narcissistic academic professionalism, cowardly deference to the anti-Palestinian prejudices of the Harvard administration, and indifference to my mother’s death constitute an intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths.”

West, 68, graduated from Harvard and earned a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University, and he has taught at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Union Theological Seminary over the years.

This is his second departure from Harvard; in 2002 he left the school after a public dispute with Harvard’s then-President Lawrence Summers, but rejoined the faculty in 2017.

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

Palestinians today held a sit-in in the West Bank city of al-Bireh demanding the release of a 60-year-old health official held by Israel.

Palestinians organized a sit-in in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) premises in the city in protest of the ongoing detention by Israeli occupation authorities of the General Manager of the Health Work Committees (HWC), Shatha Odeh.

Odeh was detained in a predawn Israeli military raid in the Ramallah city neighborhood of Ein Misbah on Wednesday, July 7. Her vehicle was seized during the raid.

Weeks earlier, the occupation forces ransacked HWC office, confiscated its properties and documents, and forcibly shut the premises for six months. The closure was widely condemned, including by Amnesty International, which highlighted the “catastrophic consequences for the health needs of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).”

However, and in defiance of the Israeli military decision to close HWC for six months despite its location in an area under full Palestinian control, Palestinian health officials, workers, and activists broke the Israeli seal and reopened the office on June 17.

Odeh’s daughter, Sireen Abu Fanouneh, who participated in the sit-in, said that her mother suffers from health problems and is denied medication, clothes, and a lawyer’s visit while in detention.

Odeh is transferred from Hasharon Prison to the Israeli notorious detention facility of Ofer, west of Ramallah, for interrogation on a daily basis, which further exacerbates her health condition, Abu Fanouneh added, while noting that her mother is detained for her role in HWC, one of the most important Palestinian non-profit health care providers to the most vulnerable communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, the head of HWC board, Ali Hassouneh, slammed Odeh’s detention as purely politically motivated and part of an organized criminalization campaign against the Palestinian society in general, and the Palestinian civil society in particular.

Hassouneh was joined by a chorus of other people who values Odeh’s role as a well respected civil society leader at the forefront of the struggle for health and social justice both locally and internationally, particularly that she serves as the chairperson of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) and a member of the Global Steering Council of the People’s Health Movement.

Source: Palestinian New & Info Agency

قررت سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، اليوم الإثنين، توسيع مساحة الصيد في بحر غزة من 9 أميال بحرية إلى 12 ميلا، مع السماح بإدخال مواد طبية خاصة بالصيد.

وقال المتحدث باسم جيش الاحتلال في تصريح مكتوب، أنه سيسمح باستيراد مواد طبية، ومواد خاصة بالصيد، ومواد خام للصناعة والنسيج، عبر معبر كرم أبو سالم، كما سيتم نقل المنتجات الزراعية والأنسجة من قطاع غزة إلى الأراضي المحتلة عام 1948.

من جهته، أكد نقيب الصيادين الفلسطينيين نزار عيّاش في حديثه إلى “قدس برس”، أنه تم إبلاغم من قبل الجهات المختصة بأنه سيتم عند الساعة التاسعة من صباح اليوم، توسيع مساحة الصيد في بحر غزة، والسماح للصيادين بالإبحار في مساحة 12 ميلا بحريا، بعد أن كان 9 اميال بحرية فقط.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency

هاجم مستوطنون، اليوم الإثنين، منزلا في قرية بورين (جنوب نابلس)، في حين اقتحم عشرات المستوطنين موقع ترسلة الأثري في بلدة جبع (جنوب جنين).

وذكرت مصادر محلية، أن اكثر من خمسين مستوطنا حاولوا اقتحام المنزل الذي يعود للمرحومة “أم أيمن صوفان”، الملقبة بحارسة الجبل.

واتجه أهالي القرية نحو المنزل، وقاموا بطرد المستوطنين، ومنعوهم من اقتحامه.

يذكر بأن منزل “أم أيمن صوفان”، أحد منازل قرية بورين، ويقع وسط جبل سلمان.

وفي جنين، اقتحم عشرات المستوطنين، فجر اليوم، موقع “ترسلة” قرب بلدة جبع.

وذكرت مصادر أمنية، أن عشرات المستوطنين المدججين بالهراوات اقتحموا الموقع بحماية حماية جيش الاحتلال، وأدوا طقوسا تلمودية قبل أن يغادروا المنطقة، مرددين هتافات عنصرية معادية للعرب والمسلمين.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency

اقتحم عشرات المستوطنين، اليوم الإثنين، المسجد الأقصى المبارك، وسط حراسة مشددة من قوات الاحتلال الاحتلال الإسرائيلي.

وأدى المستوطنون طقوسا تلمودية في المنطقة الشرقية من ساحات المسجد الأقصى.

وذكرت مصادر مقدسية، بأن عددا من المستوطنين اقتحموا المسجد من جهة باب المغاربة، ونفذوا جولات استفزازية في باحاته، وأدوا طقوسا تلمودية في المنطقة الشرقية، إلى أن غادروه من باب السلسلة.

وشارك في الاقتحام، عدد من جنود جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، ومتطرفون.

ويتعرض المسجد الأقصى لاقتحامات يومية، عدا يومي الجمعة والسبت، من قبل متطرفين يهود، وسط حراسة شرطة الاحتلال، وبتنسيق مع سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلية، ويشارك في الاقتحمات جهات رسمية إسرائيلية، ووزراء في حكومات الاحتلال، ونواب في “الكنيست” الإسرائيلي.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency

أقرت لجنة متابعة العمل الحكومي بغزة، اليوم الإثنين، سلسلة تنقلات وتكليفات اعتيادية، شملت عدة مواقع قيادية بالمؤسسات الحكومية.

وأوضحت اللجنة في تصريح مكتوب، أن هذه التنقلات تمثلت تكليف سمير مطير وكيلاً لوزارة الحكم المحلي، وأيمن اليازوري وكيلاً لوزارة الزراعة، وإبراهيم القدرة وكيلاً مساعداً للتعليم العالي في وزارة التربية والتعليم، وكنعان عبيد رئيساً لسلطة الطاقة والموارد الطبيعية، وعماد الباز رئيساً لسلطة الأراضي، وحسن الصيفي رئيساً لديوان المظالم، وتكليف يوسف إبراهيم برئاسة سلطة المياه والبيئة.

يشار إلى أنه قبل شهر تم تغيير رئيس اللجنة محمد عوض، واستبداله بعصام الدعاليس.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency