Jamal Juma: The next Intifada: A struggle against the Bantustans

The next Intifada: A struggle against the Bantustans

Jamal Juma

Middle East Eye: Friday 9 October 2015
Photo: Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli soldiers during a protest against preventing Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, on 8 October, 2015, near a checkpoint of an Israeli settlement in Beit El, West Bank. (AA)

Young people are the protagonists in this rebellion. With every wave of protests they are building new grassroots structures of resistance _____________________________________________________

The past few days in Palestine have evoked images of the First Intifada. Burning tyres in the streets, youth wrapped in Palestinian scarves throwing stones, and Israeli military confronting them with tear gas, sound grenades and live ammunition. Entire Palestinian villages are under siege. Clashes are spreading like wild fire across Jerusalem and Palestinian areas on both sides of the Green Line.

The root causes for this rebellion are the same as ever: the Israeli regime of occupation, apartheid and colonialism makes Palestinians’ lives unbearable. However, there are fundamental differences between now and then, and the actions of Israel’s new settler militia will determine when, not if, a full scale Intifada will explode.  

The most visible difference between the reality on the ground in the first and second Intifadas is the prominent role of Israeli settlers in the attacks on Palestinians. The settler population has become a well-armed, well-organised and ideologically driven militia. They maraud in Palestinian villages and attack Palestinians in the streets and even in their homes. From last year’s horrific burning alive of young Muhammad Abu Khdeir in Jerusalem to the recent arson attack on the Dawabshah’s home in Dima, murdering the parents and a toddler, settlers have carried out a string of terror attacks on Palestinians. Israel maintains and supports this fanatic militia to carry out the dirtiest parts of Israeli aggression and repression in the West Bank.

Pushing Palestinians into Bantustans

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s initial rhetoric about an “all-out war” including the re-occupation of the major Palestinian residential areas in the West Bank, defined by the Oslo Agreement as Area A, pleased this settler militia and their parties in the government. However, as the Israeli military and intelligence agencies were quick to point out, massive military deployment into Area A is neither in the interest of the settlers nor the rest of Israel’s political establishment. They all have a common aim: expelling as many Palestinians as possible from Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank to the walled-in Bantustans they have created. This is best served by concentrating pressure outside these Bantustans.

Of the additional four military brigades sent to the West Bank, none are in the major Palestinian cities. Contrary to the first Intifada, when the army used extreme violence and constantly patrolled Palestinian cities to maintain their control or the Israeli re-invasion of the West Bank during the second Intifada, which aimed at destroying Palestinian Authority infrastructure, this time Area A is not a target.

Following a similar logic to the massacres of the Palestinian people in Gaza, Israel attacks from the perimeters. The ghettos stay under Palestinian control while Israel makes life unbearable in the remaining 60 percent of the West Bank through the construction of the apartheid wall, home demolitions, immediate threat of destruction of 89 communities, denial of access to water, checkpoints, land confiscation and settler attacks.

Youth lose their fear

These policies impact Palestinian resistance. Palestinians under immediate threat of ethnic cleansing are at the forefront of the protests. Young Palestinians in Jerusalem continue their mission of “shaking off” the oppressive Israeli grip on their economy, schools and homes. Nothing intimidates them; not point-blank killings nor the new law punishing stone throwing with up to 20 years of imprisonment.

If anything, the ever-tightening repression is the reason why Palestinian youth from Jerusalem are most often the ones carrying out the current stabbing attacks. Since the burning of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the Jerusalem Intifada has been ongoing. In the rest of the West Bank, periodic waves of protests have come and gone in an ever rising tide. In the last week, seven youth have been killed and almost 800 Palestinians have been injured. Palestinians inside the Green Line, who face virulent racism and institutional apartheid and ethnic cleansing policies, have organised protests in their cities and towns.

Palestinians residing in Area A in the West Bank, with the exception of the refugee camps, have largely kept away from the mobilisation so far. For many of them, the complete vacuum of political leadership still weighs too heavy to get involved. Neither the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) nor the Palestinian political parties are able to offer any strategic directions in the face of the Israeli rejection of a Palestinian state. They cannot deliver the demands for Palestinian self-determination including the right of return and an end of apartheid for the Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have failed to create structures to defend their people.

Revolt against Israel and PA

The current outbreak of protests is not solely directed at Israel. It is also a manifestation of the frustration of the people who face the brunt of Israeli aggression in the West Bank. Their protests express an overall desire to end ineffective and inept representation.

The PA is aware of this anger. Mahmoud Abbas’ recent speech at the United Nations cautioning that Israeli policies “threaten to undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority and even end its existence” was nothing more than a plea to Israel and its supporters to not completely erode the PA’s ability to exercise control in the Area A Bantustans. The current wave of protests may even serve to underline his point that the PNA is central for Israel’s plan of ethnic cleansing and the Bantustanisation of the West Bank in the short term.

Ultimately, the current power sharing between the Israeli occupation and the PA as guarantor of stability in Area A Bantustans will not last. In order for the PA to maintain a minimum of credibility in front of its people, it must mimic a national movement for liberation by ending security coordination with Israel, stopping economic agreements with Israel, calling for full boycott, divestment, and sanctions to isolate Israel’s colonial apartheid regime, and protect the people. If the PNA does so, Israel will crush it. If it fails to deliver this minimum programme, the Palestinian people will rise up.

The entire political, social and economic context is readying the Palestinian population for this uprising. Supporters of the two-state solution have lost hope in a Palestinian state. The economic situation continues to rapidly deteriorate, even in Area A. Unemployment rises as despair skyrockets. People seek dignity and a future for themselves, they seek freedom and independence for their nation, and they are willing to pay the price. Young people are the protagonists in this rebellion. With every wave of protests they are building new grassroots structures of resistance. 

It is yet to be seen if Israel and the PA are able to control the current upsurge of rebellion. Two days ago, Israeli-Palestinian security agencies agreed to calm the situation, Netanyahu and Abbas made statements calling for an end to confrontations. Yet today, more protests than ever exploded all over the West Bank and inside the Green Line while the settlers are once again out in the streets attacking Palestinians. 

The real question is not whether a third Intifada will come but rather when it will be strong enough to last. The deciding factor is Israel’s settler colonial project. Even in the absence of an effective Palestinian leadership, if the settlers and their state continue to attack the Palestinian people, we will see the emergence of a full Intifada built on grassroots organising sooner rather than later.

- Jamal Juma was born in Jerusalem and attended Birzeit University, where he became politically active. Since the first Intifada, he has focused on grassroots activism.  Since 2002 he is the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and since 2012 the coordinator of the Land Defence Coalition, a network of Palestinian grassroots movements. He has been invited to address numerous civil society and UN conferences, where he has spoken on the issue of Palestine and the Apartheid Wall. His articles and interviews are widely disseminated and translated into several languages.

 

The next Intifada: A struggle against the Bantustans

#Occupation

Jamal Juma

Friday 9 October 2015

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/next-intifada-struggle-against-bantustans-1061996685#sthash.gS60hrnf.ZLjZMeUd.dpuf

REDFLAG: Clashes escalate as Palestinians fight back

Dear friends, 
please find below my latest article published by Red Flag about the current situation on the ground in Palestine. 

I will continue to post updates over the coming days, as the situation is very fluid and violence continues to escalate.

in solidarity, Kim

***

Clashes escalate as Palestinians fight back

12 October 2015 | Kim Bullimore | Red Flag
 
 

Palestinian youth and the Israeli military have clashed repeatedly in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Violence has also spread to Gaza.

Since 3 October, 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Nearly all of those killed have been 20 years old or younger, including five children aged between 11 and 17 years. Up to 1,600 have been injured.

Israeli forces opened fire on unarmed demonstrators near Khan Yunis in Gaza on 9 October, killing seven Palestinians and injuring 145. On the same day, more than 400 were injured in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Another seven Palestinians were killed on 10 October, including two children.

According to the humanitarian organisation Palestinian Red Crescent Society, in the six days between 3 and 9 October, at least 151 Palestinians were injured by live ammunition and 255 by rubber-coated steel bullets. Twenty-one were injured as a result of beatings by Israeli settlers and soldiers, while 741 were affected by tear gas inhalation.

The Red Crescent declared a state of emergency on 4 October, denouncing ongoing attacks on its staff by the Israeli military and Israeli colonists. According to the organisation, “fourteen attacks were carried out against its staff and vehicles by occupation forces and settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the past 72 hours, in a serious escalation of violations against PRCS, its teams and the humanitarian services they render”.

Since the beginning of the month, four Israelis, including two settlers, have been killed. Another 10 Israelis, including police and settlers, were injured in stabbing incidents in the past week.

The increasing violence comes in the wake of continued and deliberate provocation by Israel. Since 13 September, Israeli forces have repeatedly stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, attacking worshippers and causing damage to the holy site.

Known in Arabic as Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and in Hebrew as Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount), the site is considered to be the third holiest place in Islam and the holiest in Judaism.

The primary purpose of the Israeli assaults on the compound has been to facilitate access for Israeli settlers and extremists from the Temple Mount movement, including Israel’s agriculture minister, Uri Ariel. The Temple Mount movement has repeatedly called for the destruction of the Muslim holy site and the construction of a Jewish temple in its place.

After the repeated storming of al-Aqsa, two Israeli settlers were killed in a drive-by shooting near Nablus on 1 October. In response, illegal settlers rampaged throughout the occupied West Bank, carrying out revenge attacks. The Israeli military did little to stop these.

According to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s Negotiations Affairs Department, between 1 and 7 October, Israeli colonists carried out 122 attacks on Palestinians. Now, as settler attacks continue, another two Israelis have been killed in a stabbing attack in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs has announced that more than 650 Palestinians, primarily youth, have been arrested by Israel since the beginning of October. According to the committee, most were detained during clashes with Israeli soldiers or had been arrested in raids.

Those who had been detained reported that they had been held, in some cases, for 16 hours or more – during which time they had been beaten and tortured. Many had also been denied medical attention, despite having serious injuries.

Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters have also broken out inside Israel. Palestinian youth have demonstrated in Nazareth, Afula, Ramle and a number of other cities.

Several thousand took to the streets in Nazareth in solidarity with their brethren in the occupied Palestinian territories, calling for an end to Israel’s occupation and for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Palestinian Health Ministry: “Seven Palestinians Killed on Saturday, 14 in 2 Days, 21 in Past 10 Days"

Dear friends,

apologies, I have not had a lot of access to the computer the last day or two, so have not been able to post a more comprehensive round up of events in Palestine. However, the IMEMC have posted a report from the Palestinian Health Ministry, which I have included below.

in solidarity, Kim 

**

Palestinian Health Ministry: “Seven Palestinians Killed on Saturday, 14 in 2 Days, 21 in Past 10 Days”

Sunday October 11, 2015  by IMEMC News
 

21 Palestinians, including 12 in the West Bank, have been killed since October 1st, and 1100 injured

The Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) has reported that Israeli soldiers shot and killed seven Palestinians, including two children, on Saturday, and that the number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli gunfire in the past two days is 14, while more than 240 have been injured.

Photo By WAFA News

In a press release issued on Saturday evening, the MOH said that seven Palestinians were killed during the day on Saturday in occupied Jerusalem, Shu’fat refugee camp, Hebron and the Gaza Strip, and that two of those killed were children.

On Saturday, the soldiers killed Ishaq Badran, 16, in al-Misrara neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, Mohammad Ali Said Ali, 19, in Bab al-‘Amoud in Jerusalem, Ahmad Jamal Salah, 19, in Shu’fat, and Ibrahim Ahmad Awad, 28, in Beit Ummar.

In the Gaza Strip, Jihad al-‘Obeid, 21, from Deir al-Balah, died of wounds suffered Friday, Marwan Hashem Barbach, 13, and Khalil Omar Othman, 15, were killed in Khan Younis.

The Ministry added that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire since October 1st (ten days) currently stands at 21, including 12 in the West Bank. In the same time period, more than 1100 Palestinians have been injured with live rounds and rubber-coated steel bullets, while hundreds suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.

In addition, the Palestinian Minister of Health Jawad Awwad strongly denounced the Israeli military invasion of the al-Makassed Islamic Hospital and the Augusta Victoria Hospital in occupied Jerusalem.

He said that invasions of hospitals are serious violations of International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and every related international human rights treaty.

Awwad called on various international human rights and legal organization to actively intervene, and stop the escalating Israeli crimes against the Palestinians in the occupied state of Palestine.

The head of Al-Makassed Hospital, Dr. Bassam Abu Libda, said the soldiers frequently invade the hospital, including its X-Ray room, urgent care and patients’ rooms, searching for wounding Palestinians.

Names of slain Palestinians since October 1:

West Bank and Jerusalem:

1. Mohannad Halabi, 19, al-Biereh – Ramallah.
2. Fadi Alloun, 19, Jerusalem.
3. Amjad Hatem al-Jundi, 17, Hebron.
4. Thaer Abu Ghazala, 19, Jerusalem.
5. Abdul-Rahma Obeidallah, 11, Bethlehem.
6. Hotheifa Suleiman, 18, Tulkarem.
7. Wisam Jamal, 20, Jerusalem.
8. Mohammad al-Ja’bari, 19, Hebron.
9. Ahmad Jamal Salah, 20, Jerusalem.
10. Ishaq Badran, 19, Jerusalem.
11. Mohammad Said Ali, 19, Jerusalem.
12. Ibrahim Ahmad Mustafa Awad, 28, Hebron.

Gaza Strip:

13. Shadi Hussam Doula, 20.
14. Ahmad Abdul-Rahman al-Harbawi, 20.
15. Abed al-Wahidi, 20.
16. Mohammad Hisham al-Roqab, 15.
17. Adnan Mousa Abu ‘Oleyyan, 22.
18. Ziad Nabil Sharaf, 20.
19. Jihad al-‘Obeid, 22.
20. Marwan Hisham Barbakh, 13.
21. Khalil Omar Othman, 15.

PETER RODGERS: High time Australia told Israel a few home truths

Dear friends,
on rare occassions the pro-Zionist Murdoch press runs an occassional article or op-ed criticising Israel. This one of them. This article is by a former Australian Ambassador to Israel, Peter Rodgers.

However, no doubt we expect The Australian to also publish, as it always does, a slew of pro-Israel articles from Zionist writers and Zionist organisations to counter anything they publish that may be construed as "anti-Israel"

In solidarity, Kim

**

High time Australia told Israel a few home truths

• Peter Rodgers
• The Australian
• October 09, 2015 

In September 2000, Israel’s opposition leader at the time, Ariel Sharon, visited the Haram al-Sharif in ­Jerusalem, a site of intense religious significance for Muslims and Jews (as the Temple Mount). 

Sharon’s purpose was entirely political — a statement that a Likud government would never cede control of the area to the ­Palestinians. The visit helped ­trigger the second Palestinian uprising. When it ended, about 6000 people lay dead, more than 80 per cent of them Palestinian.

Fast forward to 2015. As Israelis celebrated the Jewish New Year in September, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel led a group of the Likud Young Guard up the Haram al-Sharif, their self-proclaimed goal to “assert Jewish sovereignty” over the area. Palestinians, not surprisingly, reacted with suspicion, hostility and, in some cases, violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a “harsh offensive” in return, demonstrating once more that there is no greater double standard in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict than the issue of violence. Israel uses violence against Palestinians as a matter of course. It expects Palestinian quiescence and acts indignantly when this is not forthcoming.

For years Palestinians were told to eschew violence or forget about a state of their own. Then in the lead-up to the Israeli general election last March, Netanyahu categorically buried any prospect of that. As respected Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote on Monday, “Israel has consistently proven to the Palestinians that quiet will be met only with an intensification of the occupation, settlement expansion, more home demolitions, more mass arrests.”

Citing a horrific firebombing in late July in the West Bank, Levy asked how Palestinians could remain quiet “when the Dawabsheh family is burnt alive in Duma and no one is arrested or brought to trial by Israel, while Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon boasts that Israel knows who perpetrated that shocking crime but, to safeguard its intelligence network, will not arrest them?”

Bereft of any other vision Israel’s only goal appears to be conflict “management”. Prominent Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi wrote recently that this year Israeli forces carried out more than 3000 raids on West Bank cities and villages, killed more than 30 Palestinians and imprisoned another 3500. And in the past 10 years Israeli settlers mounted more than 11,000 attacks on ­Palestinian civilians.

Late last month, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that the Palestinians would no longer abide by the 1993 Oslo Accords. These provided the flimsy scaffold for negotiation of Palestinian statehood. What was remarkable about Abbas’s speech was that it took so many years for him to make it. Oslo’s corpse had long lain in the morgue. All Abbas did was to invite a public viewing.

With depressingly familiar hype, Netanyahu slammed Abbas’s UN speech for its alleged deceit and incitement. He urged Abbas to accept the offer “to hold direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions”. That was a good one coming from a prime minister whose own preconditions include no Palestinian state ever, who plays godfather to the settlement movement, and who has now deemed it reasonable to use live ammunition against rock-throwing Palestinians.

Australia has long been susceptible to the line that the Palestinians are not ready for statehood. The Turnbull government, with seven others (including tiny island states such as the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu), opposed the raising of the Palestinian flag at the UN. The opposition is not much better. The ALP conference last July decided at last to discuss possible recognition of a Palestinian state if there were “no progress in the next round of the peace process”. As if there were a peace process or the faintest prospect of one.

Australian governments have often spoken proudly of their friendship with Israel.

It’s high time that friendship was put in the service of peace by telling Israel a few home truths about the Gordian knot that is ­occupation and violence.

Peter Rodgers is a former Australian ambassador to Israel, a member of the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network, and the author of two books on the Middle East.

AMIRA HASS: Palestinians Are Fighting for Their Lives; Israel Is Fighting for the Occupation

Dear friends, veteran Israeli reporter Amira Hass on the current situation in Palestine. Hass is the only Israeli reporter to live full time in the Occupied West Bank.

in solidarity, Kim

**
Palestinians Are Fighting for Their Lives; Israel Is Fighting for the Occupation

That we notice there’s a war on only when Jews are murdered does not cancel out the fact that Palestinians are being killed all the time, and that all the time we are doing everything in our power to make their lives unbearable.
 
Amira Hass October 07, 2015, Haaretz

Palestinian youth burn tires during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Ramallah, October 4, 2015.

Yes, this is a war, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with his mandate from the people, has ordered its intensification. He does not listen to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ messages of conciliation and acceptance in calmer times, why should he listen to them now?

Netanyahu is intensifying the war mainly in East Jerusalem, with orgies of collective punishment. He thus further reveals Israel’s success in physically disconnecting Jerusalem from most of the Palestinian population, accenting the absence of Palestinian leadership in East Jerusalem and the weakness of the government in Ramallah — which is trying to stop the drift in the rest of the West Bank.

The war did not start last Thursday, it does not start with the Jewish victims and does not end when no Jews are murdered. The Palestinians are fighting for their life, in the full sense of the word. We Israeli Jews are fighting for our privilege as a nation of masters, in the full ugliness of the term.

That we notice there’s a war on only when Jews are murdered does not cancel out the fact that Palestinians are being killed all the time, and that all the time we are doing everything in our power to make their lives unbearable. Most of the time it is a unilateral war, waged by us, to get them to say “yes” to the master, thank you very much for keeping us alive in our reservations. When something in the war’s one-sidedness is disturbed, and Jews are murdered, then we pay attention.

Young Palestinians do not go out to murder Jews because they are Jews, but because we are their occupiers, their torturers, their jailers, the thieves of their land and water, their exilers, the demolishers of their homes, the blockers of their horizon. Young Palestinians, vengeful and desperate, are willing to lose their lives and cause their families great pain because the enemy they face proves every day that its malice has no limits.

Even the language is malicious. Jews are murdered, Palestinians are killed and die. Is that so? The problem doesn’t begin with our not being permitted to write that a soldier or police officer murdered Palestinians, at close range, when his life was not in danger, or by remote control or from a plane or a drone. But it is part of the problem. Our comprehension is captive to a retroactively censored language that distorts reality. In our language, Jews are murdered because they are Jews and Palestinians find their death and their distress, because presumably that’s what they’re looking for.

Our worldview is shaped by the consistent betrayal by Israeli media outlets of their duty to report events, or their lack of the technical and the emotional ability to contain all of the details of the world war that we are conducting in order to preserve our superiority in the land between the river and the sea.

Not even this newspaper has the economic resources to employ 10 reporters and fill 20 pages with reports on all the attacks in times of escalation and all the attacks of the occupation in times of calm, from shooting through building a road that destroys a village to legalizing a settlement outpost and a million more assaults. Every day. The random examples we do manage to report are but a drop in the ocean, and they have no impact on the comprehension of the situation for a large majority of Israelis.

The goal of this unilateral war is to force the Palestinians to give up all their national demands in their homeland. Netanyahu wants escalation because experience so far has proved that the periods of calm after the bleeding return us not to the starting line, but rather to a new low in the Palestinian political system, and adds privileges to the Jews in Greater Israel.

Privileges are the chief factor that distorts our understanding of our reality, blinding us. Because of them, we fail to comprehend that even with weak, “present-absent” leadership, the Palestinian people — scattered in its Indian reservations — will not give up and will continue to find the strength necessary to resist our malicious mastership.

UPDATE NO 2 on the current situation in Occupied Palestine

Dear friends,
as you will be aware, the situation in Palestine continues to escalate. This is the second update, where I have attempted to give a brief update/round up of the current situation in both Occupied East Jerusalem and the Occupied West Bank.  In this update, I have attempted to collate a range of reports from on the ground in Palestine. You can click on the relevant links in the text for the full reports.  As things are currently very fluid, I will post another update as things continue to develop.

In solidarity, Kim

**
UPDATE:@ 4am (Palestine time), 6 Oct 2015
SITUATION IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK, OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM and GAZA

The Palestinian Red Crescent have reported that at least 499 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers across the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the past three day.  According to Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson, Errab Foqoha at least 41 Palestinians had been shot with live rounds, while 143 were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets. Another 297 Palestinians have suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while another 18 were injured when they were physically assaulted.  The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported that their ambulances and medical staff had been repeatedly attacked by Israeli colonists and Israeli military.

 

Israeli soldiers east of the West Bank city of Nablus, on October 3, 2015.

The latest escalation in violence comes in the wake of Israeli Occupation Forces repeated storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque compounded and assaulting Palestinian worshippers, as well as the murder of Dawabsheh family in Duma.  The Dawabsha's house was fire bombed by Israeli colonists, resulting in a 18 month old baby being burnt to death and the parents of the child later dying from burns caused by the fire.   On Thursday (1 October) , two Israeli settlers were killed in the Occupied West Bank, sparking widespread rampages by illegal Israeli colonists, who carried out attacks on Palestinian villages, setting fire to Palestinian fields and stoning Palestinian cars. Israeli settler violence has continued unabated across the Occupied West Bank on Monday. According to Palestinian news agency, WAFA, the Israeli military has done little to prevent attacks by the illegal colonists, with Israeli settlers stoning Palestinian vehicles at Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus and assaulting Palestinian children in Hebron.

Following the stabbing death of two colonists in Occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers and non-Israeli Zionists demonstrated in Zion Square, chanting and calling to 'Let the People of Israel Enter the Gates and Kill Arabs' according to the Israeli press. Amongst the protesters were well known Israeli extremists, who were disciples of anti-Arab racist, Meir Kahane and members of the banned Jewish terror groups, Kach and Kahane Chai which were run by Kahane and his son. According to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, leading the protest were Bentzi Gopstein, a former Kahane disciple who is the head of Lehava, a Zionist anti-Arab hate group which actively campaigns against marriage between Palestinians and Jews, segregation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and have also carried out arson and terrorist attacks against Palestinians. Also present were former Kahane disciples, right-wing extremists and illegal Israeli settlers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel. Haaretz quoted on woman protester as saying: "We have to kill them all, including the Arab Druze in the army".

Israeli settlers calling for the murder of all Palestinians - 3 October in Occupied Jerusalem

On Sunday, Israeli police shot and killed 21 year old Palestinian youth Fadi Alloun from Al-Issawiya neighbourhood in Occupied East Jerusalem after the stabbing of an Israeli settler youth. Israeli authorities claimed Alloun was killed as a result of a stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli teenager, however, they presented no evidence connecting Alloun to the alleged stabbing. Video online show that Alloun was killed after he was chased by Israeli Jews calling for him to be killed.

On Sunday, clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli Occupation Forces continued throughout the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem. In Occupied Bethlehem, Palestinian youth confronted the Israeli military for several hours after the killing of a Palestinian youth in Occupied East Jerusalem.   On Sunday morning (October 4), Israeli Occupation Forces shot and killed 18 year old.Huzeifa Othman Suleiman is Occupied Tulkarem. Thousands of Palestinians attended the youth's funeral on Monday.

On Monday (October 5), Israeli Occupation Force sniper shot 13 year old school boy, Abed al-Rahman Shadi Obeidallah through the heart in Aida refugee camp in Occupied Bethlehem.   He was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead. According to Defence for Children International in Palestine, Abed is the fourth Palestinian child to be killed by Israel's occupation forces with live ammunition.

In the wake of his death, hundreds of Palestinian youth in Occupied Bethlehem marched Israeli checkpoints, while Palestinian youth in Hebron, Ramallah and other Palestinian cities clashed with the Israeli military. 

Palestinian youth in Occupied Bethlehem protest the killing of 13 year old in Aida camp.

Occupied Hebron

In Hebron, at least 9 Palestinians were injured during the clashes, including one critically.  In Ramallah at least 12 Palestinians were injured by rubber coated steel bullets fired by Israel's occupation forces. 

In Palestine 48 (Israel) a general has been called and a "Day of Rage" will take place on Thursday, 8 October. In Nazareth, Palestinian youth confronted Israeli police and military.

In Gaza, the Israeli navy carried out attacks on Palestinian fisherman, kidnapping two fisherman. Israel war planes also bombard Gaza on Monday.

AMIRA HASS: Palestinians report more than 100 wounded after violent clashes erupt in Occupied West Bank

Dear friends,
please find below veteran Israeli journalist, Amira Hass' article on the situation in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem (as of Oct 4, 2015).

In solidarity, Kim 

***

Palestinians Report More Than 100 Wounded After Violent Clashes Erupt in West Bank

Less than a day after deadly attack in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel Defense Forces carry out numerous arrest operations.

Amira Hass, Haaretz, Oct 04, 2015

Palestinian protesters stand amid blazes of fire during clashes in the West Bank village of Burin on October 3, 2015

Violent clashes broke out Sunday morning across the West Bank between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces.

Palestinians report that since the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem's Old City, in which Nehemia Lavie and Aharon Benita were killed and two were wounded, in addition to a separate attack that left a 15-year-old teen wounded, more than 100 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire and teargas in clashes with the army. Palestinians also report attacks by settlers. Demonstrators are protesting the Israel Police ban on non-resident Palestinians from entering the Old City.

The confrontations broke out at the Atara checkpoint north of Bir Zeit, at the Bayt Furik checkpoint, at the Al-Arub refugee camp between Bethlehem and Hebron, the Jalazun refugee camp north of Ramallah, and Jerusalem's Old City and Isawiyya neighborhood. The police have blocked entrance into Isawiyya, the home of Fadi Alon, who was shot to death by the police after moderately wounding a 15-year-old in Jerusalem's Musrara neighborhood.

Palestinians cast doubts on the Israeli report that Alon tried to stab a Jew. Based on a video that was distributed, they report that a group of Jews attacked him and called on the police to shoot him without reason.

Before dawn on Sunday, a large military force broke into the Jenin refugee camp and surrounded the home of Qays a-Sa'adi, a member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It remains unknown whether he was in the home when it was hit by a LAW missile and destroyed.

At least 18 Palestinians were wounded, some seriously, in clashes that erupted between the army and youths. Three were arrested. A special army force entered the Arab hospital and arrested one of the patients, Karm al-Masri, 23, hospital officials told the Ma'an news agency.

The youth was hospitalized two days ago because of a broken hand, according to the hospital. While dragging Masri through the building stairwell toward the outside, the soldiers broke hospital surveillance cameras, the hospital director reported.

Around 2 A.M., army forces entered the village of Surda, north of Ramallah, in which lives the family of the terrorist from Saturday night's Old City attack, 19-year-old Mohannad Hallabi. The troops entered from different directions, accompanied by gunfire. According to the report, Palestinian youths spread out in the village streets late in the evening to protect the Hallabi home.

The soldiers dispersed them with teargas, stun grenades and live fire. According to the report, armed Palestinians also shot at the soldiers, who arrived by foot and in military vehicles. The force entered the home, conducted a search, interrogated the father and confiscated some of the terrorist's effects. The family removed all the home's contents, expecting the army to demolish it, although it had yet to receive a demolition order.

A group of Palestinian youths danced Saturday night next to the house, praising Hallabi and his deed, while his parents stood on the side, shocked and mute.

There were clashes between Palestinian youths and soldiers next to the Jalazun refugee camp, northeast of Surda. Soldiers shot and damaged and Palestinian ambulance, according to a Palestinian report. Two volunteers accompanying the medical crew were wounded.

There were also clashes in the Hebron area. Palestinians reported that a firebomb was thrown at a military jeep in Halhul, and a homemade explosive device was thrown an army position in Bayt Umar. Soldiers fired teargas and sponge bullets at Palestinian demonstrators both there and in other Palestinian communities in the Hebron area.

Three days have passed since the murder of the Henkin couple, and Palestinians in the West Bank know they have to drive cautiously on main arteries. Some reported hearing warnings from Palestinian security representatives. Official Palestinian sources have been reporting attacks and provocations by settlers in villages and in the areas of Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah. Immediately after the Saturday night terror attack in Jerusalem, Israelis attacked Burin, south of Nablus, setting village fields and groves on fire, according to Palestinian reports. The Israelis reportedly descended from the settlements of Yizhar and Bracha.

Palestinian media also reported on Israeli citizens, most likely settlers, attacking and wounding a 65-year-old security guard in Yatta's Sheikh Park. Another group of Israelis damaged the car of a Palestinian doctor at Reef Junction, south of Hebron. Others attacked the Dana family home in Hebron, next to Kiryat Arba, and broke into the A-Salayma neighborhood.

The army on Sunday morning set up temporary checkpoints on roads across the West Bank, causing long delays for Palestinian drivers and passengers. According to a Voice of Palestine report, the road between North Ramallah and Nablus was closed during the morning hours because of gatherings of settlers on the roadside and clashes between Palestinian youths and soldiers.

UPDATE: Situation in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem.

Dear friends,
as you will be aware, the situation in Palestine continues to escalate. I have attempted to give a brief update/round up of the current situation in both Occupied East Jerusalem and the Occupied West Bank.  In this update, I have attempted to collate a range of reports from on the ground in Palestine. You can click on the relevant links in the text for the full reports.  As things are currently very fluid, I will post another update as things continue to develop.

In solidarity, Kim

**
UPDATE:@ 6pm (Palestine time), 4 Oct 2015
SITUATION IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK AND OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM 
In the wake of Israel's continued attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, tensions have continued to soar. In the last few days this has resulted in two Israeli colonists being killed in the West Bank. As Israeli colonists rampaged  through the Occupied West Bank in revenge for the killings, an illegal Israeli settler reportedly shot a 6 year old Palestinian child in the stomach in the village of Izbeit at-Tabib. Palestinian youth clashed with Israeli settlers who attempted to carry out attacks on numerous Palestinian villages. Israeli colonists set fire to fields and attacked Palestinian homes in Burin near Nablus, while Israeli soldiers did nothing to stop them. Israeli settlers also carried out attacks in Occupied Hebron, but were confronted by Palestinian youth. 

VIDEO: +972 MAGAZINE - Settlers hurl burning tires, boulders toward Palestinians in Bur'in, Oct 3, 2015. 
Original video available here

At least 10 Palestinians were also injured with live rounds on Saturday by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have also raided Nablus and Jenin. In Nablus at least 7 Palestinians were shot and injured by the IOF.  According to Palestinian and Israeli media reports, Palestinian resistance forces have exchanged fire with the IOF in Jenin. At least 27 Palestinians were injured by the IOF after they raid Jenin refugee camp.


PHOTO: MAAN NEWS - At least ten Palestinians were wounded by live Israeli fire to the legs or stomach when Israeli forces raided the Nablus area in search for the suspects in the fatal shooting of 2 Israeli settlers. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

The Palestinian Red Crescent on Sunday (4 October) declared a state of emergency across the Occupied West Bank in the wake of violence by Israeli colonist and military, including 14 attacks on the society's ambulances in just three days.  In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent condemned Israeli attacks on their staff, saying that Palestinian ambulances had been attacked while evacuating injured and that medical staff had been beaten by Israeli occupation soldiers.

PHOTO: MAAN NEWS - Palestinian Red Crescent

On Saturday, two Israeli colonists were also killed in Occupied East Jerusalem, along with the man who allegedly attacked them. Israeli Occupation Forces stormed Al Aqsa again in the wake of the attack and it has been reported that hundreds of illegal Israeli settlers also entered the Al Aqsa compound.  Hundreds of Palestinians also gathered to halt reprisal against family home  of young man shot dead after the killing of the Israeli settlers in Occupied East Jerusalem.  

Israel has now also imposed a 48 hour ban on Palestinians entering the Old City in Occupied East Jerusalem. The ban will prevetn Palestinians who do not live inside the Old City from entering it. Only Israelis, tourists, residents of the area and business owners will be allowed to enter.  Palestinian access to Al Aqsa Mosque will once again be restricted, with only men above the age of 50 allowed and women only allowed to enter via one gate.

Clashes between the IOF and Palestinian continued to take place in Occupied East Jerusalem, resulting in at least 10 Palestinians injured.  During the clashes, Israeli Occupation Forces targeted Palestinian journalists with stun grenades and teargas. One Palestinian journalist, Hana Mahamaid was shot in the face with a stun grenade at close range in Issawiya neighbourhood of Occpied East Jerusalem.  Despite her injuries, she returned immediately to work.

VIDEO: Hana Mahamaid injured by Israeli army. Video by al Quds TV.
WARNING: Video may distress some viewers.
Original video available here.

Hana Mahamaid returns to work despite injuries.

Hundreds of Palestinians gather to halt reprisal against family home of young man shot dead after killing two ultra-orthodox Jews in Old City - See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/locals-support-family-jerusalem-stabber-ahead-home-demolition-1702241964#sthash.WPzJXEcA.dpuf

Hundreds of Palestinians gather to halt reprisal against family home of young man shot dead after killing two ultra-orthodox Jews in Old City - See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/locals-support-family-jerusalem-stabber-ahead-home-demolition-1702241964#sthash.WPzJXEcA.dpuf

Al Aqsa Under Attack: Israel continues ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem

Dear friends,
please find below my lastest article published by RedFlag last week.  Israel has carried out repeated attacks on Haram al Sharif /Al Aqsa Mosque Compound over the last couple of weeks.  As I note in the article, it is a myth that there is a religious war taking place in East Jerusalem. Instead, the attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque Compound are simply part of Israel's ongoing settler-colonialism and long held policy of seeking to ethnic cleansing of Occupied East Jerusalem. In the article, I mention two videos relating to the attacks on Al Aqsa Compound. I have included them below.

Since writing this article, Israel has continued to carry out attacks on Haram al Sharif /Al Aqsa Mosque Compound, resulting in an escalation in violence in both Occupied East Jerusalem and the Occupied West Bank.  In the last few days, Israel has shot several children, with one child losing their leg as a result.  In the wake of Israel's repeated attacks on Al Aqsa, two Israeli settlers have also been shot dead in the Occupied West Bank.  Israel is currently carrying out widespread raids and tensions are continuing to grow. I intend to post updates about the situation in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem over the next couple of days.

In solidarity, Kim
***

Al Jazeera: Raw Footage -Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa Mosque
Text accompanying video: Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque for a third straight day, as Israeli forces were seen on the roof of the holy site

 Temple Mount Institute: Priestly Blessing on Temple Mount

Text accompanying video: "On Sunday, September 13, the eve of Rosh HaShana, among the many Jews who ascended the Temple Mount in preparation for the new year, was Israel's Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel. Uri Ariel, a kohen, (descendant of the Temple priests via the lineage of Aharon), has made many trips to the Temple Mount. On Sunday he recorded this New Year's greeting from the Temple Mount"

***

Israel continues ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem

27 September 2015 | Kim Bullimore | RedFlag

Israel launched a three-day assault on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on 13 September, causing widespread destruction and injuries.

Video footage shows Israeli occupation forces firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets inside the mosque, which is also known as Al Qibli. In the week following the attack, clashes between occupation forces and Palestinians escalated.

The international media have uncritically reported Israel’s claim that the assault was carried out in order to thwart Palestinian attacks on Jews. In reality, the storming of the compound coincided with the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and was designed to facilitate access to the site by Israeli settlers and extremists, led by Israel’s agriculture minister, Uri Ariel.

A video published by the Temple Mount Institute shows Ariel standing in front of the Dome of the Rock on the first day of the assault. He is surrounded by Israeli military and police, imparting a “priestly blessing” on the people of Israel as if nothing was amiss.

A member of Naftali Bennet’s Jewish Home party, Ariel is a prominent figure in the Temple Mount movement, which calls for the destruction of the Muslim holy site and the construction of a Jewish temple in its place.

In 2013, Ariel staged a similar visit during Rosh Hashanah, stating “the Temple Mount is ours” and that his aim was to “strengthen the state of Israel’s sovereignty on the site”. In November 2014, speaking to right wing Israeli radio station Kol Berema, he again called for the building a Jewish temple in the Al Aqsa compound. In July this year, more than 150 Israeli police stormed the compound to facilitate the entry of Ariel and 70 other illegal Israeli settlers to the site.

The Al Aqsa Mosque compound, known in Arabic as Haram al Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and in Hebrew as Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount), is considered to be the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism.

But this is not primarily a religious conflict. The violent religious zealotry espoused by Ariel and his fellow extremists is a cover for Israel’s ongoing settler colonialism and its attempts to ethnically cleanse occupied East Jerusalem.

As a briefing paper issued in February by Palestinian policy network al-Shabaka notes, the so-called “religious war” taking place is a myth, one which “ignores the reality of the power imbalance between the coloniser and the colonised” and “fails to address the history and context in which the recent events have unfolded”.

Since seizing control of East Jerusalem (along with the West Bank and Gaza) in 1967, Israel has crafted a range of laws and policies that both increase its geographic control over the territory and disenfranchise and expel Palestinian residents.

According to al-Shabaka, the aim of both the Israeli state and the Temple Mount movement is to “Judaise” occupied East Jerusalem, noting that “Judaisation has been accompanied by ‘de-Palestinianisation’ to eradicate the Palestinian identity in Jerusalem”.

This included the razing of entire Palestinian neighbourhoods in 1967, such as al-Magharabeh and Harat al Sharaf, in order to construct the Western Wall Plaza and housing for Israeli settlers.

Since 2002, with the construction of the apartheid wall, Israel has sought to change the demographic make-up of the territory by cutting East Jerusalem off from Palestinian population centres in the West Bank.

In recent days, the Jerusalem City Council renamed more than 30 streets with names based on the Torah, erasing previously existing Arab names and locations. One Palestinian resident told Israeli news service Walla!, “This is all part of one plan – first, to Judaise al-Aqsa, second, the Arab villages, third, the history and names”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would continue to maintain the “status quo” (which allows Jews to visit the compound but not pray inside it) that has been in place since 1967. But according to a 2013 report, the Israeli state is supporting the Zionist settler and extremist groups that have declared their intention to “change the status quo”.

The report, issued by the Israeli group Ir Amim (City of Nations), noted that “the Jerusalem Municipality and other government ministries directly fund and support various activist organisations driven by the mission to rebuild the temple”.

Netanyahu has now vowed to clamp down on Palestinians who resist attempts by right wing groups to seize control of the compound, and has authorised the use of live fire against protesters.