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Sunday, 12 February 2012
Disgusting police brutality in Ma’ameer, Bahrain. Video was uploaded today, showing a protester being handled like an animal, then beaten by 3 riot police.
#bahrain #ma'ameer #trigger warning #news #protests #conflict
On This Day in 2009: When Palestinian children returned to school for the first day of classes since Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza ended, not all pupils showed up. Some students had to be excused for not attending after being killed by the Israeli army during its three-week bombing campaign of the besieged strip.
Over 300 Palestinian children were killed in ‘Operation Cast Lead’ — between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009 — which took the lives of over 1,400 Palestinians in total.
Signs replaced the once-occupied seats at al-Fakhura School in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza; names of victims written under the word in red: ‘Martyr’, 24 January, 2009.
(Photo: Anja Niedringhaus / AP)
#palestinian #palestine #war #crime #israel #conflict
Israeli soldiers drag away a Palestinian farmer from his own territory after he tried to prevent bulldozers from starting work on his farm land which is due to be levelled in order to build a section of the illegal Israeli separation barrier and expand the nearby Israeli settlement of Atarot, also illegal under international law, December 4, 2011. (Getty Images)
#palestine #isreal #illegal settlements #conflict #this is just disgusting
Evon Loga Gabrieul holds a portrait of her deceased son Ayman Nabil Labib, who was beaten to death by classmates on Oct. 16, at her family home in Mellawi, Egypt.
“It was because he was wearing the cross and refused to take it off, they killed him,” said the mother, Evon. “They dragged him down from his neck and beat him until he died.”
#egypt #mellawi #christian #conflict #:(
Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. This forms approximately 20% of the total Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). As the majority of those detained are male, the number of Palestinians detained forms approximately 40% of the total male Palestinian population in the OPT.
The location of prisons within Israel and the transfer of detainees to locations within the occupying power’s territory are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein” (Article 47). There are only two military detention centers and one military detention camp located within the OPT.
Under Israeli military regulations, a Palestinian can be detained for up to 12 days without the Israeli military informing the detainee of the reason for his/her arrest and without being brought before a judge. Between April and June 2002, this period of time was increased to 18 days by Israeli Military Order 1500. Following or during the 12 days of detention, a detainee is sent to an interrogation center, charged with an offense, given an administrative detention order, or released.
A Palestinian detainee can be interrogated for a total period of 180 days, during which he/she can also be denied lawyer visits for a period of 90 days. During the interrogation period, a detainee is often subjected to some form of torture ranging in extremity, whether physical or psychological. The use of practices that constitute torture during interrogation has been legalized within the Israeli judicial system and permitted in individual cases in which the GSS deems a detainee a threat to state security or a ‘ticking bomb’. In some instances, detainees have died while in custody as a result of torture. Confessions extracted through torture are admissible in Israeli court.The ISA interrogation system includes seven key aspects which harm, to varying degrees, the dignity and bodily integrity of the detainees. This injury is intensified considering the combined exercise of these aspects during the interrogation period which, for the witnesses in the sample, lasted an average of 35 days:
- Isolation from the outside world - prohibition on meetings between detainees and their attorneys;
- The use of the conditions of imprisonment as a means of psychological pressure - holding in solitary confinement and in putrid, stifling cells;
- The use of conditions of imprisonment as a means for weakening the body - preventing physical activity, sleep disturbance, inadequate food supply;
- Shackling in the ” shabah ” position - painful binding of the detainee’s hands and feet to a chair;
- Cursing and humiliation - cursing, strip searches, shouting, spitting etc.;
- Threats and intimidation - including the threat of physical torture, arrest of family members, etc.;
- The use of informants, ” ‘asafir ” to extract information - this method is not harmful, as such, but its efficacy largely depends on the ill-treatment of detainees immediately preceding its implementation.
Under military regulations in force in the OPT, a child over the age of 16 is considered an adult, contrary to the defined age of a child as under 18 in the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a signatory. In practice, Palestinian children may be charged and sentenced in military courts beginning at the age of 12.
- Between the ages of 12-14, children can be sentenced for offences for a period of up to six months – meaning that a child accused of throwing a stone can be sent to prison for six months;
- After the age of 14, Palestinian children are tried as adults, in violation of international law;
- There are no juvenile courts and children are often held and serve their sentences in cells with criminal prisoners and are often not separated from adults, also in violation of international law.
Administrative detention is indefinitely renewable under military regulations. A detainee may be given an administrative detention order for a period of between 1 – 6 months, after which the order may be renewed. Administrative detention is based on secret evidence brought forward during military tribunals, to which neither the detainee nor his/her lawyer have access to. One of the longest Palestinian administrative detainees remained in custody for over 8 years, without ever being charged.
Prison conditions in Israeli military detention camps are inhumane. Detainees are held in overcrowded prison tents that are often threadbare and do not provide for adequate shelter against extreme weather. Prisoners are not provided adequate food rations, neither in quantity nor quality, nor provided with clean clothes or adequate cleaning supplies. Many of the detainees currently being held in military detention camps were injured during their arrests and have not been provided the necessary medical attention, like those who suffer from chronic illnesses.
#palestine #israel #conflict
Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times:
The streets were mostly empty. I stopped to photograph some settlers marking the Jewish holiday of Purim. They were passing around a bottle of wine, toasting the holiday, nothing out of the ordinary. I noticed a Palestinian woman walking along the shut-down stores. A group of settlers were walking in the middle of the street in the opposite direction when one of them took a step towards her. I instinctually raised the camera.
She didn’t scream or stop, she hurried up the street and vanished around the corner. I was left angered and saddened — as if the wine hit me.
#palestine #israel #conflict #ugh
More Middle Eastern news here.
#palestine #israel #conflict #news #middle east #libya #syria
Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of Sgt Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held hostage by Palestinian militants for five years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal had been reached after arduous talks, and that Sgt Shalit would be back with his family “within days”.
Israel is likely to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
Sgt Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006, and repeated attempts to free him have failed.
But Mr Netanyahu said in a national TV address: “We have concluded arduous negotiations with Hamas to release Gilad Shalit. He will be coming home in the next few days.”
‘Window of opportunity’
The militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, said in a statement that there were tens of thousands of people on the streets celebrating the deal.
The group’s leader Khaled Meshaal appeared on TV to hail the swap deal as a victory for the Palestinian people.
He promised to carry on working to free every Palestinian prisoner held in Israeli jails.
The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Jerusalem says Sgt Shalit’s family and the families of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will not believe a deal has been done until their relatives are home.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unnamed official in Mr Netanyahu’s office as saying that “a brief window of opportunity has been opened” that could lead to Gilad Shalit’s release.
The official added: “The window appeared following fears that collapsing Mid-East regimes and the rise of extremist forces would make Gilad Shalit’s return impossible.”
An Israeli source involved in the talks was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that the deal called for 1,000 Palestinians prisoners to be freed in two stages.
The first involves the release of 450 for the soldier, with the remaining 550 to be freed later.
Some of the 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel have been convicted of serious crimes, but others are being held without charge.
Israel’s Channel 2 TV reported that both sides had shown greater flexibility in recent talks.
Indirect talks over 25-year-old Sgt Shalit’s release - being mediated by Egypt and Germany - had focused on prisoner exchanges.
In October 2009, Hamas released a video of the soldier calling on Mr Netanyahu to do everything to free him.
#notice how it says likely #k cool #palestine #israel #conflict
Western powers have expressed dismay at Israeli plans to build 1,100 more homes on a settlement on Jerusalem’s edge.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the move “counter-productive” to peace talks while the EU said the plan should be “reversed”.
The announcement comes days after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for full UN membership for a Palestinian state.
The new houses are to be constructed Israel at Gilo, in East Jerusalem.
Almost 500,000 Jews live in settlements on occupied territory. The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
‘Provocative’
US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked over the issue of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Mrs Clinton said Israel’s move would damage attempts to resume direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
“We have long urged both sides to avoid any kind of action which could undermine trust, including, and perhaps most particularly, in Jerusalem, any action that could be viewed as provocative by either side,” she said.
The European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton told the EU parliament that she heard “with deep regret” that Israeli settlement plans were continuing.
“This plan should be reversed. Settlement activity threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution and runs contrary to the Israeli-stated commitment to resume negotiations.”
She said she would raise the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when she next met him.
“He should stop announcing them and, more importantly, stop building them,” she said, adding that it was wrong to get people to live in a place from which they may have to move from after any negotiated settlement is achieved.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague too urged Israel to revoke its decision.
“Settlement expansion is illegal under international law, corrodes trust and undermines the basic principle of land for peace,” he said in a statement.
‘Nice gift’
The plan for construction in Gilo includes the construction of small housing units, public buildings, a school and an industrial zone, according to the Ynet news website.
“It’s a nice gift for Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year],” Yair Gabay, a member of the Jerusalem planning committee, told Ynet.
The authorities have now approved the building of almost 3,000 homes in Gilo over the past two years.
The chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the decision represented a rejection of a proposal by the Quartet of Mid East negotiators - the US, the EU, Russia and the UN - for new talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, expected to be made officially on Friday.
“With this, Israel is responding to the Quartet’s statement with 1,100 ‘NOs’,” he said.
On Monday, a divided UN Security Council met behind closed doors for its first discussion of last week’s Palestinian application for full state membership of the UN.
The request needs the support of nine of the 15 members of the council, but the US has said it will veto the bid.
‘Discriminatory demolitions’
Israel built the settlement at Gilo on land it captured in 1967. It later annexed the area to the Jerusalem municipality in a move not recognised by the international community.
Israel says it does not consider areas within the Jerusalem municipality to be settlements.
Gilo lies across a narrow valley from the Palestinian village of Beit Jala. It became a target for militants during the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 2000.
Meanwhile, the UN rapporteurs on housing, water, sanitation and food rights said there had been a “dramatic increase” in the demolitions this year.
“The impact and discriminatory nature of these demolitions and evictions is completely unacceptable,” they said in a statement.
“These actions by the Israeli authorities violate human rights and humanitarian law and must end immediately.”
#conflict #israel #palestine #news
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#culture #middle east #palestine #israel #conflict #thanks! #submission
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