Ethic Cleansing / Land Theft & Destruction / Apartheid / Refugees

Netanyahu: Israel will continue to build Jerusalem and keep it united
Marking Jerusalem Day, PM says 'Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart'; thousands of religious-Zionist youths march through the city and Arab neighborhoods.


Fayyad: Water crisis due to Israel's control of resources 
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israel's control of Palestinian water resources in the West Bank is responsible for the water crisis, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Monday. Opening a conference on water and the prospects for agricultural development in Palestine, Fayyed said strategic vision and a long-term plan were needed to resolve the crisis.


Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem sells Real Estate to Zionists 
The Hebrew newspaper "Maariv" has revealed, on Monday, a new scandal about selling real estate in Jerusalem to the occupation by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.


The occupation escalates its siege on Jerusalem 
The occupation authorities have imposed strict military measures since Sunday morning, around the city of Jerusalem.

 

Jerusalem expansion reaches point of no return

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Named for the crash site of an airforce plane shot down during the Six Day War in 1967, Givat HaMatos may yet prove the place where Palestinian hopes of a creating a capital in Jerusalem also plunge to earth. 'Airplane Hill' lies on the southern fringes of Jerusalem's city limits -- rock-strewn land dotted with shabby, prefabricated bungalows and the occasional pine tree.

Jerusalem Day in the Old City: The Conflict Marches On, Karl Vick
Sunday was Jerusalem Day in Israel, a holiday once again observed by thousands of young Jews who chanted as they marched through Arab neighborhoods conquered in the 1967 Six Day War. The tension is always highest in the narrow passages of the largely Palestinian Old City.


The IOF suppress counter-demonstration held in Jerusalem 
The occupation forces suppressed hundreds of Jerusalemites who demonstrated in response to the Zionist settlers’ marches on the anniversary of what they call "Jerusalem Day", on Sunday night.

Nahr al-Bared: Five Years Later

Nahr al-Bared was the first official Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It was then completely destroyed by the Lebanese army during clashes with Fatah al-Islam in 2007. Although the government designated the newly built camp as a military zone, residents insist that their return is a symbolic step towards return to Palestine.

The Meaning of the Nakba, Naseer Aruri 
During the middle of May, Zionists celebrate an event that they call the War of Independence. The same occasion is observed by Palestinians, who call it al-Nakba, meaning the catastrophe, which began with the internal displacement of some 200,000 Palestinians, reaching 800,000 or two-thirds of the population by the armistice of 1949, plus the organized destruction of some 600 Palestinian villages.

Detainees and Other Prisoner News

Palestinians arrest 10 Islamic Jihad members 
Palestinian security forces arrested 10 members of the Islamic Jihad in the Jenin refugee camp on Monday, a local leader of the radical movement said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Islamic Jihad holds PA security responsible for assaults on its cadres 
The Islamic Jihad said that the PA security men broke into houses of a number of the Islamic Jihad leaders and cadres, on Monday, in the Jenin refugee camp in Burkin town.


IOF soldiers nab ten Palestinians including three children in Jerusalem and Al Khalil
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up ten Palestinians in Al-Khalil and Jerusalem over the past 24 hours including three children.

Three Children Arrested in Beit Ommar

In the past twenty-four hours, three male Palestinian children have been arrested in separate raids by Israeli soldiers in Beit Ommar. Jowad Muhammad Jameel Za’aqiq (15 years old) was arrested at around 5pm on Monday, 21 May, 2012. He was helping his father tend to his family land when the arrest took place. His father asked the soldiers present why his son was being taken. He was informed that Jowad (his son) had been seen throwing stones. Muhannad Mershad Awad (12 years old) and Alaa Yousef Mohammad Abu Maria (14 years old) were both arrested from their respective family homes in night raids at around 2am on Tuesday, 22 May, 2012. The reason for their arrests is unknown. Night raids are an almost daily occurrence in Beit Ommar. Night raids typically target Palestinian minors, activists and organizers involved in popular resistance initiatives against the Israeli occupation. Israeli soldiers often fail to explain why the ‘suspect’ is being arrested. The 

IOF soldiers detain child, summons liberated prisoner
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a 15-year-old child in Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil, on Monday evening, local sources said.

Israeli police arrest six Jerusalemites
Israeli border police arrested six Jerusalemite youths in confrontations in Tur suburb in occupied Jerusalem on Monday after they tried to prevent the policemen from kidnapping a child.

 

Student activist Khaled Abu Qash kidnapped by undercover Israeli forces

Khaled Abu Qash, a student activist at Bir Zeit University, was seized by undercover occupation forces from his home in the town of Abu Qash, Ramallah district on Friday, May 18, 2012. Abu Qash is the secretary of the Progressive Student Action Front at Bir Zeit University and was active in events at Bir Zeit and mass demonstrations in Ramallah in solidarity with the prisoners over the past month. This arrest has come among a number of arrests that have taken place against youth and student activists in recent weeks, and Palestinian activists have noted that these arrests have specifically targeted students and youth who engaged in and led many of the protests and solidarity events supporting the 28-day hunger strike of over 2500 Palestinian prisoners.

 

Reporters Without Borders Condemn Arrest of Journalist

PARIS, May 22, 2012 (WAFA) - Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned on Monday the arrest by Israeli troops of Baha Mousa, director of the Palestinian Prisoner Channel, which broadcast from the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The troops raided the station on May 17, arrested Mousa and seized broadcasting equipment, computers, video cameras and documents. “Such abuses aimed at stifling the Palestinian media must cease,” the press freedom organization said in a statement.

 

Lawyer: Gaza engineer still in isolation despite deal

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A Gaza engineer kidnapped by Israel in the Ukraine last year is the last remaining prisoner held in solitary confinement, after the hunger-strike deal sought to end the practice, his lawyer said Tuesday. Dirar Abu Sisi is still being held in an isolation cell in Ashkelon prison, while all others have been returned to normal wards, lawyer Karim Karim Ajwah said, noting his case was "kept secret in an unusual way."

VIDEO: "We are All Palestinian Prisoners" Exclusive Interview with Artist Hafez Omar
Hafez Omar, the young Tulkarm-based artist and activist, is the man behind many of the images we have come to associate with online Palestinian and Arab revolutionary campaigns--from the hunger striker Khader Adnan's stencil with a lock for a mouth to the late Egyptian Azharite Sheikh Emad Effat killed by the military police in Cairo in December. His most recent design, that of a faceless, blindfolded Palestinian prisoner became a Facebook sensation as thousands adopted it and other variations of the image to raise awareness about the countless prisoners observing a hunger strike in Israeli jails in protest of harsh conditions and inhumane detention procedures. Within 24-hours of posting the image on his Facebook page Hitan, Omar's design became a meme across the globe, prompting variations from Egypt and Syria to Ireland and the United States.