Al Jazeera: Beyond Israel's Manhunt

Dear friends,

one week ago I published a post which illustrated the extent of Israel's illegal collective  punishment of Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank since 3 Israeli settlers went missing. Israel had murdered 4 Palestinians during the first 10 days of their crack down.  The number of Palestinians now killed by Israel has now reached 8 people.  To read my earlier post, with all the facts and figures, you can do so by clicking here.

Today, Al Jazeera has published photo slides, which including one which updates the figures on Israel's illegal collective punishment of Palestinians (see below)  You can checkout all the Al Jazeera photo slides by clicking here.

In solidarity,

Kim

Dear friends, 
please find below my latest article published by Electronic Intifada about the spurious legal case against Australian academic, Professor Jake Lynch, due to his support for the Palestinian initiated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

In solidarity,
Kim

***

Major setback for Israel-backed group’s efforts to criminalize BDS in Australia

Kim Bullimore

The Electronic Intifada  26 June 2014

The legal complaint made against a Sydney professor is an attempt to criminalize support of the boycott movement in Australia.(Ryan Rodrick Beiler / ActiveStills)
 

A court case brought against a Sydney university professor over his support for the Palestinian call for the boycott of Israel has suffered a huge setback after four of the original five complainants signaled their intention to withdraw.
The case against Jake Lynch was originally launched in the Australian Federal Courts in October 2013 by a group of right-wing Israeli lawyers called Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center.

The case was supported by four other applicants, including Andrew Hamilton, the Australian-born Israeli lawyer who is also acting on behalf of Shurat HaDin.
But a judge has cited a lack of evidence in the group’s claims against the professor.

Targeted

Shurat HaDin and its fellow complainants brought the case against Lynch, the director of the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, due to his support of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.

He was previously targeted by Shurat HaDin, along with his colleague Professor Stuart Rees, in the group’s claim against the two academics and the BDS campaign with the Australian Human Rights Commission in July 2013.

In both instances, Lynch was accused of breaching the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act, which deems it unlawful to discriminate against a person “based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin.”

On 19 June it was suggested that the four applicants could withdraw from upcoming legal proceedings. That came after Australian Federal Court Magistrate Alan Robertson struck out, on 24 April, significant sections of their original claim. Justice Robertson said they hadn’t established any facts pertinent to the case.

At the time, Justice Robertson said the applicants had failed to include any clear facts linking Professor Lynch’s support for BDS with any specific acts of racial discrimination.
During the case, Shurat HaDin’s lawyer Andrew Hamilton said he didn’t have to argue high quality factual pleadings to prove breach of the act. Instead, he could just argue the “substantive case.” In response, Justice Robertson told Hamilton: “You’ll have to do a lot of work to persuade me of the correctness of that proposition,” The Australian reported.
At the 24 April proceedings, Robertson also capped payment of costs for either side in the event of a legal victory at 300,000 Australian dollars ($280,128). Shurat HaDin has since also been ordered post a 100,000-dollar ($93,426) bond for costs in the event they lose the case.

Significant

Lynch told The Electronic Intifada that the April ruling was “significant,” explaining that the judge struck out eleven sections of Shurat HaDin’s statement of claim. This was important because those sections purported to be a factual account of Lynch’s supposed breach of racial discrimination law.

Lynch added that the signaled withdrawal of four of the applicants and the narrowing of the complaint against him “may spell the end of their attempt to have political activism in response to the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions effectively declared illegal.”

However, the case has already cost tens of thousands of dollars, Lynch says, and supporters have set up a website to raise awareness and funds.

Shurat HaDin’s case against Lynch has centered around his refusal to sign a fellowship application for Israeli academic Dan Avnon from the Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem. In December 2012, Avnon approached Lynch for assistance with an application for a Sir Zelman Cowen fellowship, which pays for academics from Hebrew University to come to Sydney University, and vice versa.

At the time, Lynch declined to assist Avnon, citing his opposition to the fellowship agreement between the two academic institutions. Lynch explained to The Electronic Intifada that he exercised his “right not to participate in, or cooperate with a scheme to which I object in principle.”
The Palestinian boycott movement opposes institutional relations with the Israeli academic establishment. Many Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the arms trade, military occupation and oppression of Palestinians.

In their original thirty-page claim, Shurat HaDin and its fellow claimants argue that Lynch’s refusal to sign the application had the impact of “impairing the recognition, enjoyment and exercise of Professor Dan Avnon’s rights to education; freedom of association; freedom of expression; academic freedom, and work.”

In addition, they argue that Lynch had endorsed, repeated and participated in the BDS call and had encouraged others to also do so, while also training people to participate in retail boycott protests.

The claim also argues that Lynch’s actions had impaired the right and enjoyment of the applicants to free and equal participation in cultural activities, including depriving the applicants and their wives of the opportunity to attend performances of international entertainers in Israel — citing artists such as Snoop Dogg and Elvis Costello.

Both performers are among a growing number of musicians and artists, including Gil Scott Heron, Carlos Santana, Faithless and Cat Power, who have refused to perform in Israel or who have canceled scheduled performances following calls to abide by the Palestinian academic and cultural boycott campaign.

However, with the abandonment of much of its initial statement of claims, Shurat HaDin has now sought to focus on the claim that Lynch refused Avnon employment solely on the basis of his nationality. Lynch has rejected this, saying that the reason he declined support was not because Avnon was Israeli or Jewish, but because of the Hebrew University’s institutional complicity in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people.

“Revoke this scheme”

Hebrew University, Lynch explained to The Electronic Intifada: “runs training courses for the military; its Mount Scopus campus is partly built on land seized from its rightful Palestinian owners, and the chairman of its board of governors is Michael Federmann, who is also chairman of Elbit Systems, one of Israel’s biggest arms dealers.”

Lynch added that in 2009, three years before Avnon had approached him for assistance, he had previously written to the vice chancellor of Sydney University “asking him to revoke this scheme and the one involving the Technion University, Haifa (which operates in a similar way).” The vice chancellor, however, declined to do so.

Lynch said he “was in no position to offer employment to Prof. Avnon, or to withhold it, since I was not acting as an agent of the University of Sydney.” Lynch noted he had informed Avnon, when declining to support his fellowship application, that he was not acting on behalf of the university.
Throughout the legal proceedings, Lynch’s lawyers have repeatedly argued that the case is politically motivated and part of the broader offensive by the Israeli state against the BDS campaign. They have noted that Avnon hasn’t been disadvantaged or racially discriminated against by Lynch declining to support his application, given that the academic had successfully taken up the fellowship at Sydney University in March 2014.

Political case

Despite the complaint centring around Avnon, he was not approached by the legal group to participate in the case, to act as a witness or to even submit an affidavit in support, The Australian reported.

Shurat HaDin made it clear they were not seeking any financial penalties against Lynch should they win the case. Instead, they would demand that Lynch publicly renounce the BDS campaign and apologize for supporting it.

In the wake of their crumbling case against Lynch, Shurat HaDin’s founder, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, has lashed out at the Australian Zionist community, accusing them of failing to “stand up for Jewish rights.”

In response, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz, at least one senior member of the Zionist leadership in Australia deemed Shurat HaDin’s narrowing of its claim as proof that the case has backfired. The anonymous Zionist leader deemed Shurat HaDin’s actions as “pathetic,” saying it now “leaves us to pick up the pieces.”

Shurat HaDin’s case against Lynch was opposed from the beginning by the key Zionist lobby groups in Australia.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which opposes BDS and smears it as “anti-Semitic,” issued a statement in October 2013 distancing itself from the legal case. At the time, the council’s executive director, Peter Wertheim, noted that Shurat HaDin’s campaign against Jake Lynch was being pursued “merely as a political tactic.”

The use of SLAPP suits (strategic lawsuits against public participation) to try and tie BDS supporters up in court, to financially incapacitate them or to win public relations victories has become a popular tactic with supporters of Israel who try to stop boycott campaigns.

However, “lawfare” proponents around the world have had little success with such suits. Prior to launching its case against Lynch, Shurat HaDin threatened legal proceedings against World Vision Australia and AusAID (the Australian government’s developmental aid organization) over their support for programs run by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Gaza, claiming that it violated Australian and US counterterrorism legislation.

Both organizations temporarily suspended support for the programs while investigating Shurat HaDin’s claim. But AusAID soon resumed support for the program, as did World Vision Australia.

Both groups found there was no merit whatsoever to Shurat HaDin’s claims, according to Tim McCormack, a professor of law at Melbourne University and advisor to World Vision, in an article published on the Zionist blog Galus Australis.
While Shurat HaDin claims to be a “fully independent nonprofit organization, unaffiliated with any political party or governmental body,” a US embassy cable leaked by Chelsea Manning reveals that it had acted as a proxy for the Israeli government spy agency Mossad.

In October 2013, UK transparency monitor SpinWatch noted that Shurat HaDin founder Nitsana Darshan-Leitner had “privately admitted to taking direction from the Israeli government over which cases to pursue and relying on Israeli intelligence contracts for witnesses and evidence.”

In the wake of Shurat HaDin’s case against Jake Lynch, more than 4,200 Australian and international human rights advocates, including academics, from more than sixty countries have signed a pledge and petition supporting both BDS and Lynch.

Lynch told The Electronic Intifada that the support has been “vital in fighting the court case and opposing the despicable attack on political freedom in Australia.”

Kim Bullimore has lived and worked in the West Bank and is a co-convenor of the Melbourne Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and a co-organizer of the first national Australian BDS conference in Melbourne in 2010. Bullimore has a blog at http://livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com.au and tweets at @rafiqa65.

Dear friends,
I am a little late in posting this up, having intended to post it up a few days ago.  Please find below the statement issued by Birzeit Univeristy near Ramallah condemning the Israeli Occupation Force raids on the university.

In the past two weeks, Israel has carried out sweeping attacks on Palestinian educational facilities and the right of Palestinians to education as part of their illegal collective punishment against the entire Palestinian population in the Occupied West Bank after the disappearance of 3 Israeli settlers.  

Israel's military has repeatedly raided Palestinian universities, including Birzeit University near Ramallah and the Arab American University in Jenin. In Bethlehem, Israeli Occupation Forces used the main plaza of Ahliya University as a holding ground for blindfoled Palestinian who had been arrested during raids on Dheisha refugee camp, while at Al Quds University, Occupation Forces open fire with teargas and raided the offices. 

While the University Presidents of many American universities were outspoken against the adoption of support for the Palestinian BDS campaign by the American Studies Association, they have been silent about Israel's attacks on the right of Palestinian students to education.   I have included below the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott Israel (USACBI) statement also condemning the Israeli military attacks.

in solidarity, Kim

 **

Birzeit University Condemns Storming of its Campus by Israeli Occupation Forces

 

In continuation of its barbaric aggression on our people and national institutions, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Birzeit University’s campus in the early morning hours of Thursday 19 June 2014 in direct violation of the sanctity of our university and a blatant attack on the right to education and the freedom of education guaranteed by international conventions and law.

Birzeit University views this attack as very dangerous and a barbaric intrusion. We deplore the conversion of its academic facilities to military barracks, as well as the confiscation of its student property, in addition to wiping out the eastern and western gates, searching parts of the Faculty of Science building and attempting to force open administrative offices.

The University calls on the international community and human rights organizations to condemn this belligerence and put an end to Israel’s defiance of the fundamental rights of our people and its violation of the sanctity of our universities.

Birzeit University confirms that these attacks will not deter our commitment to higher education, and the pivotal role we have played since its establishment.

Birzeit University will remain a university for all Palestinians, with their diverse ideas and various political schools of thought. Our students will continue to be distinguished intellectuals and leaders in their communities. The provocative measures taken by the Israeli occupation will only lead to a greater conviction and commitment of the university community, academics, staff and students, to the values of freedom, justice and democracy.

***

USACBI condemns Israeli attacks on Palestinian universities

The United States Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) condemns the recent Israeli closures of three Palestinian institutions of higher education, Al Quds University (Jerusalem), the Arab American University (Jenin), and Birzeit University.  The Israeli military physically invaded each institution, but besides these direct acts of aggression, the recent attacks of the Israeli Army throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Operation Brother’s Keeper have affected all Palestinian universities, as both the rights and ability of residents of the Occupied Territories to travel freely have been further restricted.  These recent acts of illegal collective punishment are but one manifestation of the brutality and suffocating nature of the Israeli occupation and control of the West Bank and Gaza.

At Al Quds University, Israeli forces injured students with tear gas and broke into the offices of various faculty members, confiscating documents and computers.  At the Arab American University, Israeli soldiers raided the headquarters of the school in addition to the student union, absconding with papers and files from the dean’s office and elsewhere.

Similar incidents occurred at Birzeit University, which released a statement decrying Israel’s “barbaric aggression” and deeming the invasion a “direct violation of the sanctity of our university.”

All three universities suffered property damage and were dispossessed of documents and computer equipment.  Furthermore, Israeli soldiers used the Palestinian Ahliya University, near Bethlehem, as a makeshift prison for people they detained during a raid on the nearby Dheisha Refugee Camp.  In addition to the fact that the Israeli army had no right to enter the universities, the far-reaching nature of the disruptions and searches reveals that Israel’s motive was not merely looking for missing teenagers, but gathering information about the academic activities at the university and disrupting academic life.

This is the sort of assault on Palestinian education that led the American Studies Association (and other scholarly groups, including the Association for Asian American Studies, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, and the Association for Humanist Sociology) to endorse the academic boycott of Israel.  In response to the ASA resolution—which among other things seeks to support Palestinian universities facing militarized violence and repression by the Israeli state and to guarantee academic freedom and basic human rights for Palestinian faculty and students—dozens of American university presidents as well as the AAUP released statements decrying what they wrongly felt to be the boycott’s restriction of academic freedom. 

At that time, supporters of the resolution wondered why these same presidents were silent on the already-existing and well-documented abridgements of the academic freedoms of Palestinians and those scholars who support Palestinian rights in the United States.  Perhaps they were unaware of such denials of academic freedom?  These recent events, covered by the global media, make such ignorance of the facts difficult to maintain.

Thus USACBI calls on those same university presidents to reaffirm their commitment to the sanctity of academic freedom by publicly condemning the Israeli military assault on Palestinian campuses, which resulted in closures, theft of private documents, physical injury, and intimidation of faculty and students.

USACBI likewise calls on the Association of American University Professors (AAUP) to censure Israel with the same vigor with which it opposes any sanction on Israel in the name of protecting academic freedom.

Finally, USACBI calls with renewed urgency on American academics to endorse the academic boycott of Israel. Until the apartheid system in Israel/Palestine is dismantled, Palestinian academic life, one of the main means of achieving liberation, democracy, economic development, and cultural vibrancy, will remain vulnerable to Israeli incursion and control.

In continuation of its barbaric aggression on our people and national institutions, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Birzeit University’s campus in the early morning hours of Thursday 19 June 2014 in direct violation of the sanctity of our university and a blatant attack on the right to education and the freedom of education guaranteed by international conventions and law.
Birzeit University views this attack as very dangerous and a barbaric intrusion. We deplore the conversion of its academic facilities to military barracks, as well as the confiscation of its student property, in addition to wiping out the eastern and western gates, searching parts of the Faculty of Science building and attempting to force open administrative offices.
The University calls on the international community and human rights organizations to condemn this belligerence and put an end to Israel’s defiance of the fundamental rights of our people and its violation of the sanctity of our universities.
Birzeit University confirms that these attacks will not deter our commitment to higher education, and the pivotal role we have played since its establishment.
Birzeit University will remain a university for all Palestinians, with their diverse ideas and various political schools of thought. Our students will continue to be distinguished intellectuals and leaders in their communities. The provocative measures taken by the Israeli occupation will only lead to a greater conviction and commitment of the university community, academics, staff and students, to the values of freedom, justice and democracy.
- See more at: http://www.birzeit.edu/news/birzeit-university-condemns-storming-its-campus-israeli-occupation-forces#sthash.EbJ1JHYf.dpuf

Senator Nick Xenophon's speech to the Australian Senate on Palestine: Abbott government spin on Palestine is "factually untrue, legally ignorant and most unhelpful"

Dear friends,
rarely do I applaud politicians, but Independent South Australian Senator, Nick Xenophon's speech to the Australian Senate yesterday (25 June 2014) on Palestine challenging the Australian Abbott government - including the  claims by the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the Attorney General George Brandis and the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, that East Jerusalem is not occupied and the Israel's settlements are not illegal should on the whole be applauded. 

While I disagree with one or two things in his speech, on the whole it was a very strong one.

Xenophon has recently returned from visiting Palestine and Israel and had already challenged Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's claims that Israel's colonies in the Occupied West Bank were not illegal under international law. 

I have included below the video of his speech and an article by the editor of New Matilda, Chris Graham on the speech which gives the political back ground too it.  I have also included John Lyon's report on Xenophon's May visit to Palestine, in particular Occupied Hebron.

in solidarity, Kim

***
Senator Nick Xenophon's speech to the Australian Senate on Palestine, 25 June 2014

Xenophon Smashes Brandis-Abbott Spin On Occupied Palestine

By Chris Graham: New Matilda: 26 June 2014

Brandis digs himself a hole on Israel, so Abbott hands him a shovel. Chris Graham reports on the ensuing stunning rebuke by Nick Xenophon.

Independent federal Senator Nick Xenophon has delivered a comprehensive – and at times stunning – dismantling of the Abbott Government’s apparent decision to no longer refer to areas of Palestine as “occupied” by Israel, describing the Commonwealth’s actions as “factually untrue, legally ignorant and most unhelpful”.

Senator Xenophon, an independent from South Australia, delivered the speech to the federal Senate yesterday evening. It followed Attorney General George Brandis ‘freestyling’ during a Senate Estimates hearing on June 5 over disputed territories in the Middle East.

Brandis’ latest brain snap was sparked by a late night question from Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, to the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese: "Why did the Australian ambassador to Israel attend a meeting in occupied East Jerusalem with the Israeli minister for housing and construction, the same minister who is forecasting a 50 per cent increase in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories in the next five years?"

Varghese never got to answer. Brandis interrupted him and decided, on the fly, to single-handedly rewrite Australian Government policy on Israel-Palestine.

“The Australian government does not refer to East Jerusalem by the descriptor 'occupied East Jerusalem'. We speak of East Jerusalem,” Brandis replied.

The following morning, Brandis poured fuel on a growing fire by reading from a written statement: “The description of East Jerusalem as 'occupied …' is freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott tried to dig his party out of the hole, referring Brandis’ comments as a "terminological clarification", but in the process introducing the phrase “disputed territories".

The ‘policy on the fly’ approach to Middle East relations, not surprisingly, sparked widespread outrage, with Arab threats of sanctions worth $2 billion against Australia’s live cattle trade, and more internal party rumblings at yet another stuff up from senior Liberals.

Yesterday evening, Xenophon set the record straight with a point-by-point decimation of Abbott’s and Brandis’ and claims, which he described as “false and actually most unhelpful to the process of achieving a lasting peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict”.

“According to the 1949 Geneva conventions and the 1907 Hague regulations, territory is considered occupied when it comes under the actual authority of the invading military.
“There are certain objective tests.

“One - has the occupying power substituted its own authority for that of the occupied authorities? Yes. It is a matter of fact that Israel's authority prevails in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

“Two - Have the enemy forces been defeated, regardless of whether sporadic local resistance continues? Yes. It is a matter of fact that Israel defeated its military adversaries in the June 1967 war.

“Three - Does the occupying power have a sufficient force present to make its authority felt? Yes. It is a fact that Israel has sufficient force to make its authority felt.

“Four - Has an administration been established over the territory? Yes. It is a fact — a poignant fact — that even the Palestinian leaders who wish to enter or leave the occupied Palestinian territories cannot do so without permission from Israel. Even the Palestinian president cannot go to the United Nations in New York, or indeed to anywhere else in the world, without permission from Israel.

“Five - Has the occupying power issued and enforced directions to the civilian population? Yes. It is a fact that Israel has issued and enforced such directions.

“Indeed, Israel's highest court — the High Court of Justice — stated in paragraph 23 of its verdict in the case of Beit Sourik Village Council v The Government of Israel on 30 June 2004 that ‘Israel holds the area in belligerent occupation’.

“I concede that here the word 'occupied' is 'freighted with implications', but to say they are pejorative is factually untrue and legally ignorant.”

Senator Xenophon also pointed to a landmark opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice in 2004 around the illegal establishment of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and the construction of a wall by Israel to separate it from parts of Palestine, and to regulate the movements of Palestinians.

That judgment repeatedly refers to ‘occupied’ territory in East Jerusalem.

“Australia is quite happy to accept the wisdom of the International Court of Justice when it comes to whales,” Xenophon said, “but not, it seems, the Palestinians.”

“We already know, thanks to the so-called Palestine Papers — which are the biggest leak of secret documents in the history of the Middle East conflict — that a solution is already available.

“The Palestinian negotiating team in 2008 offered a formula where Israel would annex 1.9 per cent of the West Bank in the context of a land swap, allowing Israel to retain within its borders 63 per cent of the illegal settler population.

“We also know, according to the same leaks, that Israel's negotiating team turned down this offer.

“Australia, by adopting these rejectionist statements, has given comfort to the extremists and has weakened the position of the moderate and reasonable Israelis and Palestinians.

“We should instead encourage our great friend Israel to accept the generous offer made in 2008 so that we can have a real, lasting and durable peace in the Middle East.

“The statement made by the Australian government on 5 June this year is not only wrong; it is factually untrue, legally ignorant and most unhelpful.”

For his part, Brandis reportedly blamed the ‘misunderstanding’ on "journalist-led confusion of an innocuous statement"
*********

Hebron ‘heartbreaking’ for Xenophon 

John Lyons Middle East Correspondent: Jerusalem: The Australian May 10, 2014

Senator Xenophon visits a demolished Palestinian house in Hebron. Picture: Sylvie Le Clezio Source: News Corp Australia

IN an empty street in Hebron, deep in the Palestinian territories, independent senator Nick Xenophon is trying to have two conversations at once. 

A Palestinian woman in a caged balcony is explaining her plight while an Israeli settler carrying a handgun wants his say.

Both want the ear of the South Australian senator on his first visit to the region. “This is madness,” he said later. In Hebron, 800 settlers live surrounded by 180,000 Palestinians.

“I would urge any Australian politician who comes here to go to Hebron, walk the streets, run the gauntlet of checkpoints and speak to both sides,” he told The Weekend Australian.
As he walked the ghost-town streets of Hebron, the Palestinian woman, Zleikha Muhtaseb, called from the cage she has built to prevent settlers breaking her windows. “Where in the world do you need to put a cage around your house?” she shouted.

She came downstairs to shake Senator Xenophon’s hand through a security grill — the ­Israeli army has welded shut her front door so she can open only the back door, and the army does not allow her to walk on the street in front of her house.

But US-born settler David Wilder, carrying a Glock, says Palestinians are not allowed on to that street for security reasons — that recently an Israeli was shot dead nearby.
Senator Xenophon said later: “What I saw in Hebron was heartbreaking — the division, the segregation, the palpable fear in the community.”

He questioned whether having a civilian law for Israelis and military law for Palestinians could last. “It seems unsustainable that you have two different legal systems for people living in the same community,” he said.

In Jerusalem, he met the Likud party’s Yariv Levin, who said Israel was committed to peace. He met Breaking the Silence — almost 1000 current and former Israeli soldiers trying to reform how the army relates to Palestinians — and human rights group B’Tselem.

Senator Xenophon said: “There is some hope through Israeli groups like Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem, who show the views of the Israeli government do not necessarily represent the views of all Israelis.”

He was briefed by Australian barrister Gerard Horton from Military Court Watch about a Unicef report that found ill treatment of Palestinian children appeared to be “widespread, systematic and institutionalised”. Mr Horton said MCW had found that since the report there had been some improvements but 90 per cent of detained children were still tied and 55 per cent reported physical abuse.

Before leaving, Senator Xenophon had a message for any Australian politician who argued Israel’s settlements were not ­illegal. “I would urge Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to have a good look at the International Court of Justice’s statement on Israeli settlements,” he said.

“The ICJ statement is crystal clear — all settlements are illegal under international law.”

4 Palestinians murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces: Israel's illegal collective punishment of Palestinians in photos and numbers

Dear friends,
as you will be aware, Israel's occupation forces are currently carrying out a major military operation against the entire Palestinian population in the Occupied West Bank in the wake of the kidnapping of 3 Israeli settlers on June 12, 2014.  Israeli Occupation Forces have been engaged in illegal collective punishment of the Palestinian population for the last week. Such action is a war crime under the Geneva Convention, which Israel is a signatory too. 

The Israeli government and mainstream media in both Israel and internationally have attempted to portray the collective punishment against Palestinians as "restrained", however, figures complied by Israeli activist and writer Mairav Zonszein shows that this is not the case.  I have included her figures below.

Numerous writers and commentators have noted that Netanayahu has attempted to blame Hamas for the kidnapping of the 3 settlers, despite having absolutely no proof of Hamas involved.  The primary aim is to try and weaken Hamas and to undermine the nearly formed Palestinian technocratic "unity government".  It has also been noted the current operation against Hamas and Palestinians was planned BEFORE the settlers were kidnapped.  

According to the Israeli Hebrew newspaper, Hadrei Hadarim, an Israeli military officer stated that the operation had been pre-planned and had little to do with the kidnapping.  According to the newspaper, the officer said the Israeli military is intentionally trying to agitate the population in order to provoke stone throwers, which will allow Israeli snipers to kill them. “There was a group of snipers on the roof – an entire unit that moves on the outskirts of Jenin in order to make noise and raise tensions,” he said. “This was actually the true goal: to provoke them into causing disorder, and then put down those causing the disorder.”

In the 10 days since Israel began its illegal collective punishment of the Palestinian population of the Occupied West Bank, four Palestinians have been murdered by the Israeli military.   Ahmad Sabarin from al-Jalazon refugee camp was killed on 17 June, when Israel invade houses in the camp.Mustafa Aslan (21 years) was killed by the IOF when they invaded Qalanda Refugee camp (near Ramallah) on 20 June.  On the same day, 14 year old Mahmoud Jihad Muhammad Dudeen was killed by live ammunition fired by the IOF in Dura in Occupied Hebron.  Today (22 June) Ahmad Abu Shinno, age 35, was shot dead by Israeli Occupation Forces as he was on his way to pray at the Omar Mukhtar Mosque in Occupied Nablus. He was shot in the chest 3 times & left to bleed 4 an hour as ambulance prevented from reaching him.

Two other Palestinians have also died, including Jamil Ali Abed Jabir, an elderly man from the village of Haris in Salfit, who had a heart attack when he attempted to stop the IOF invading his home and then prevent his family from taking him to hospital for treatment. The second death Sakher Dorgham Zaamel Abu al-Hasan, 17 years old, who died when he stepped on a land mine while herding his sheep in the Jordan Valley.

Currently, 5,700 Palestinian political prisoners are now being held in Israeli jails, including 241 minors. 261 Palestinians are being held indefinitely without charge or trial. 125 of those have been on hunger strike for about 60 days in protest against their detainment.

Israeli Occupation Forces have also raided Birzeit University near Ramallah and Arab American University in Jenin. In addition, the IOF have used the main plaza of Ahliya University near Bethlehem was used as a holding ground for blindfolded Palestinian men being detained in nearby Duheisha camp.

Israel continues doing what it does best: pillaging, raiding, detaining, and killing. And the US continues funding Israel, to the tune of $3 billion a year.

Please consider how you can raise awareness and stand in solidarity the Palestinian people in opposition to the illegal collective punishment and war crimes being carried out against them in the name of "security" and searching for the missing Israeli settlers.  

The mainstream media and Western governments have remained silent about Israel's brutal campaign over the last 10 days against the entire Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank, so please raise your voices where you can: by writing letters to your local media and politicians opposing Israel's actions, by sharing information about Israel's collective punishment and war crimes against the Palestinian people on social media, by moving motions in your church, community and unions demanding an end to Israel's illegal activities and breach of international law.  

Please promote and support the Palestinian  Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, a  non-violent campaign started by Palestinian civil society in 2005.

I have included below a small selection of photos which have been taken by Palestinian, Israeli and International activists documenting Israel's illegal collective punishment and murder of Palestinians.

In solidarity,
Kim

**
Israel's military operation in numbers 
from Mairav Zonszein's +972 Magazine article, which can be found by clicking here.

Since the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers from a hitchhiking stop in the West Bank on June 12, 2014, the Israel Occupation Forces has been operating all over the Palestinian territories, in Areas A, B and C. The following list attempts to provide some basic statistics on the toll it has been exacting. While Israeli media is portraying the operation as highly restrained, these numbers show the deep effect it has on the Palestinian population as of June 20, 2014.
 *Some numbers provided are estimates due to the difficulty in confirming exact numbers.

Figures as of 20, June 2014

• Number of kidnapped Israeli teenagers: 3

• Number of days since operation began: 7

• Number of Palestinians arrested: 388

• Of them, number associated with Hamas: 240

• Of them, the number released in 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange: 55

• Number of indictments filed against them thus far: 0

• Number of Palestinians killed: 2  (as of 22 June, the figure is now 4 Palestinians killed by direct military action)

• Number of Palestinians wounded: Dozens

• In critical condition: 1

• Number of Israeli soldiers wounded: 1

• Number of troops deployed to Hebron: At least 2,000

• Number of residents of the city of Hebron under total lockdown:  200,000

• Number of Israeli settlers living in Hebron: 800

• Number of houses raided throughout West Bank: Thousands

• Number of Palestinian houses & institutions raided: 1,150

•  Number of Israeli air strikes on Gaza: At least 15

• Number of rockets fired from Gaza: 16

• Number of Israelis wounded: 0

• Number of Palestinians wounded: At least 7

•  Structures damaged: 1

Sources: IDF Spokesperson, Palestinian Prisoners Club, Haaretz, Walla, Ma’an News Agency, Associated Press, New York Times, International Middle East Media Center

***
Israel's illegal collective punishment of Palestinians in photos

Birzeit University Condemns Storming of its Campus by Israeli Occupation Forces

 1217  132  7 Google +1

Thursday

June 19, 2014

Text Resize A A A

• Print
• e-Mail

Israeli occupation forces stormed Birzeit University’s campus in the early morning hours.

Photo by: 

Samer Nazzal and Issam Rimawi

1234

In continuation of its barbaric aggression on our people and national institutions, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Birzeit University’s campus in the early morning hours of Thursday 19 June 2014 in direct violation of the sanctity of our university and a blatant attack on the right to education and the freedom of education guaranteed by international conventions and law.
Birzeit University views this attack as very dangerous and a barbaric intrusion. We deplore the conversion of its academic facilities to military barracks, as well as the confiscation of its student property, in addition to wiping out the eastern and western gates, searching parts of the Faculty of Science building and attempting to force open administrative offices.
The University calls on the international community and human rights organizations to condemn this belligerence and put an end to Israel’s defiance of the fundamental rights of our people and its violation of the sanctity of our universities.
Birzeit University confirms that these attacks will not deter our commitment to higher education, and the pivotal role we have played since its establishment.
Birzeit University will remain a university for all Palestinians, with their diverse ideas and various political schools of thought. Our students will continue to be distinguished intellectuals and leaders in their communities. The provocative measures taken by the Israeli occupation will only lead to a greater conviction and commitment of the university community, academics, staff and students, to the values of freedom, justice and democracy.

- See more at: http://www.birzeit.edu/news/birzeit-university-condemns-storming-its-campus-israeli-occupation-forces#sthash.s8jAyA6m.dpuf

Israeli Occupation Forces invade Hebron. Photo via Lisa Guilani

Israeli soldiers during the fifth day of the operation, Hebron, June 17, 2014. (Mustafa Bader/Activestills.org)

 Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian youth during clashes in Hebron. The city is under full closure, June 16, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

 Israeli soldiers detain Palestinian men at the Gush Etzion junction, a settlement near Bethlehem, June 16, 2014. Over 150 Palestinians were arrested over the last several nights and a tight closure was imposed on the city of Hebron. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

A Palestinian youth sits blindfolded at a checkpoint after being arrested by Israeli soldiers during clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron, June 16, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

 

 Palestinian boy arrested by Israeli Occupation troops in Hebron. Photo by Felesteen.

 

 Israeli Occupation Force invade and destroy Palestinian House in Occupied Hebron. Photo: International Women's Peace Service

 Israeli Occupation Forces invade Palestinian house, Occupied West Bank on 21 June.

Israeli Occupation Forces invade Palestinian house, Occupied West Bank on 21 June. Photo: Maan News.

 

 Mustafa Aslan (21 years) died of injuries he sustained after being shot on 20 June by Israeli Occupatin Forces in Qalanda Refugee camp near Ramallah. Photo via:
Hamde Abu Hamde Abu

  

 Father ofr Mahmoud Jihad Muhammad Dudeen says good bye to his 14 year old son killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Dura, Occupied Hebron on 20th June.

 Mahmoud Jihad Muhammad Dudeen, age 14, killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli Occupation Forces on 20th June in Dura, Occupied Hebron.

 Family of  Mahmoud Jihad Muhammad Dudeen, 14, who was killed by Israeli Occupation Forces

Photo documentation of injuries inflicted on Sami Al ramal from Salfit by Israeli Occupation Forces who assaulted him sand threw him on the edge of the road. Photo via:  Hamde Abu Hamde Abu

 Palestinian youth resist Israeli military invasion of Ramallah - Al Manara. 5am, 22 June. Photo by Raya Ziada.

Palestiniain youth resist Israeli military invasion of Ramallah in Rukab Street, one of the city's main streets.  5am, 22 June. Photo by Linah Alssafin. 

Body of Ahmad Abu Shinno,  age 35, shot dead by Israeli Occupation forces as he was on his way to pray at the Omar Mukhtar Mosque in Nablus on 22 June. He was shot in the chest 3 times & left to bleed 4 an hour as ambulance prevented from reaching him.

 Ahmad Abu Shinno age 35 shot dead by Israeli Occupation forces as he was on his way to pray at the Omar Mukhtar Mosque in Nablus on 22 June.  He was shot in the chest 3 times & left to bleed 4 an hour as ambulance prevented from reaching him. Photo by Hamde Abu Hamde Abu