August 2021
Undercover soldiers kill four youths in Jenin IMEMC 16/08/2021
Media sources in Jenin said the killing of the Palestinians took place when undercover Israeli
soldiers infiltrated into Jenin refugee camp using a civilian car before the soldiers stormed an
under-construction residential building and secretly occupied its rooftop.
They added that many Israeli army jeeps then invaded the refugee camp and
exchanged fire with Palestinian resistance fighters who were unaware of the undercover
soldiers occupying the building and were killed by their gunfire.
Israel undercuts Palestinian agriculture Amany Mahmoud al Monitor 03/08/2021
“When Palestinian citizens go to the markets, they see large quantities of Israeli vegetables and fruits at prices that compete with the local product. In some cases, Israeli products are cheaper than Palestinian ones. Even if the quality is worse, citizens often end up buying the cheap Israeli products.”
Abu Wadi added, “Despite the heavy losses we endure, we as farmers will continue to cultivate our lands so that they are not confiscated and Israel achieves its goals.” He accused Israel of putting more restrictions on Palestinian farmers, as it recently started closing agricultural roads leading to the vineyards in Hebron, in the southern West Bank, which led to the isolation of 5,000 acres of land, most of which are planted with grapes.
Human Rights Watch favours Israel Maureen Clare Murphy EI 04/08/2021
Given the scope of the crimes it has documented, it is baffling why Human Rights Watch would not just call for an arms embargo on Israel. It has done so for other countries including Ethiopia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. In its Gaza report, Human Rights Watch does not call for targeted sanctions on Israel as it has in many of the aforementioned cases. However, the group also recently called for targeted sanctions against Lebanese authorities responsible for the Beirut port explosion last August that killed 218 people. In a new report on the explosion, Lama Fakih, a program director with the rights group, states that “Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, Lebanese officials continue to choose the path of evasion and impunity over truth and justice.” Certainly, the same can be said for Israel, where B’Tselem, a leading human rights group in the country, has called its military’s self-investigation mechanism a “fig leaf” for the occupation.
Palestinian scepticism Ahmad Melhem al Monitor 18/08/21
Palestinians perceive the Israeli decision to allow them to build 1,000 residential units in Area C with skepticism, as they believe it is designed to mislead the public so as to construct new settlement projects in the West Bank. . . . . . Meanwhile, Israel continues to demolish Palestinian facilities and houses in Area C under the pretext that they were constructed without a permit. This is while Israeli authorities often refuse to grant building permits to Palestinians in a bid to impose a fait accompli and push the residents to leave.
Occupied land ‘handed’ to Israel Michael F Brown EI 17/08/2021
(Ed note: the substance of this article was also to be found in BBC reporting of the events) There are lies, damn lies, and statistics … and then there is Shebaa Farms.
Recently, the US State Department and news media both misrepresented Shebaa Farms by indicating it is part of northern Israel. In fact, it is occupied territory. According to the United Nations it is occupied Syrian territory, while according to Lebanon and even to Syria it’s occupied Lebanese territory.
Journalist Anne Applebaum’s support for violence against Palestinian journalists John Mitchell Mondoweiss 18/08/2021
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) recently presented the award-winning historian and journalist, Anne Applebaum, with a fellowship. This prestigious accolade places her among the most honored figures in history for their outstanding contribution to literature. But does Applebaum deserve to be a member of this pantheon?
Manchester University humiliated Stuart Littlewood Redress Information & Analysis 20/08/2021
In an appalling display of cowardice Manchester University caved in to pressure from pro-Israel propagandists and closed an exhibition called “Cloud Studies” at the Whitworth Gallery (which is part of the university). The art show by the research agency Forensic Architecture formed part of the Manchester International Festival and brought together nine investigations into how states and corporations weaponise the air we breathe to suppress civilian protest and maintain and defend border regimes.
Chocolate being used to fund Hamas claim Entsar Abu Jahal al Monitor 24/08/2021
Mouin Rajab, a professor of economic sciences at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, “This Israeli policy is completely unjustified and negatively affects the economic situation in Gaza. It directly affects importers who will now endure huge losses and will cause a large deficit in the markets.” He added, “The turmoil caused by this policy makes importers anxious, as they fear that their other goods will be confiscated in the future.” Rajab explained that this policy is a blow to the import process and Palestinian trade, stressing that it increases the suffering of the Gazan consumer and increases the prices of similar goods due to the scarcity of supplies, in addition to having many other negative economic repercussions.
Snipers attack Gaza children + Qatari cash Tamara Nassar EI 22/08/2021
Israeli occupation forces injured more than 40 Palestinians, including at least 24 children, during protests in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.One of the injured is photojournalist Asem Muhammad Shehade, who was wounded in the face by shrapnel from a live bullet. Another is a 13-year-old boy reportedly in critical condition. Israeli snipers deployed on the Israel-Gaza boundary fired machine guns, live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians who were peacefully gathered near the eastern fence. . . . . This comes as Qatar nears an agreement with the United Nations to transfer cash to families in Gaza impoverished by Israel’s siege and regular military attacks.
13 year old Gazan boy shot dead by sniper Tamara Nassar EI 30/08/2021
The lethal attack on 13-year-old Omar Hasan Abu al-Nil occurred during a protest on 21 August east of Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood, near the boundary fence with Israel. Omar was observing the demonstrations 70 to 100 meters from the fence when an Israeli sniper fired a live round at him, according to a field investigation by Defense for Children International Palestine. . . .Omar was one of 24 children injured by Israeli occupation forces on that day. At least three other children were shot with live ammunition in their lower limbs.
Israel’s war on children in Gaza Justina Poskeviciute Mondoweiss 27/08/21
Almost a quarter of a million children in need of psychosocial support, and 53.5% of children suffering from PTSD. That is how dire the situation was in 2020, at the time this report was published. In other words, this was before May 2021.
This May, any children of Gaza born before 2008 would witness the fourth war in their lifetime. Israeli forces had been storming Al-Aqsa daily, and in response, Hamas issued an ultimatum asking for violence at Al-Aqsa and the neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah to stop. When these conditions weren’t met, they started launching rockets towards Israel.
It was with Hamas’ rockets that the mainstream media picked up the narrative, portraying the conflict as one in which Israel was the victim. But Israel’s ensuing bombings of Gaza destroyed this narrative. Videos of civilian homes being bombed appeared on the news, stories of parents stuck under the rubble, not being able to help their dying children – and vice versa – flooded social media.
Tour group assaulted by Israeli onlookers while visiting depopulated Palestinian village of Lifta Zochrot 30/08/21
Several dozens of Israelis, Palestinians and internationals took part in the tour, including Lifta refugees who fascinated the participants with important stories about the village’s history – memories that are still alive and form a clear statement about the refusal to forget the Nakba and the eternal desire to return home. Upon our arrival at the village spring, we were received with racist and homophobic slurs by about ten men and a woman, and when we refused to leave the place and continued with the tour as planned, the verbal violence became physical. One of the assailants declared that he trains his dog “to bite Arabs”. Another one claimed that we were disturbing him at “his own home” where he has been living for 15 years. The tour proceeded as planned among the remains of the village, but upon our return to the parking lot, we found that several vehicles of the tour participants had been vandalized.
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Israel offers Palestinians their own money back as a ‘loan’, in display of ‘goodwill’ Jonathan Ofir al Monitor 31/08/2021
How does the money go around here? Israel withholds taxes paid by Palestinians – that is, for their government – in order to penalize the Palestinian Authority for providing financial aid to families where a member has either been extrajudicially executed (as often happens with Palestinian suspects) or has been jailed as a “security prisoner”, often without charge, often for mere political protest. Sometimes when Israel penalizes a whole family in collective punishment by demolishing its home etc., in contravention of international law, the Palestinian Authority seeks to alleviate this collective suffering.
And yet, the propaganda of “stipends paid to terrorists”, which the Times of Israel spouts, has become a hallmark of Israel apologia.
Let us look at a Brookings analysis of the Palestinian payments by Shibley Telhami:
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