December 2021
Bennett blesses street executions of Palestinians Maureen Clare Murphy EI 05/12/21
Naftali Bennett praised the execution of a Palestinian who was lying on the ground by paramilitary police near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on Saturday.
The Israeli prime minister gave the officers his “full backing.”. . . After a streak of street executions of suspected Palestinian attackers in late 2015, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem blamed Netanyahu for “the transformation of police officers, and even of armed civilians, into judges and executioners.”
The shooting death of Muhammad Salima, 25, as he lay on the ground and posed no immediate danger generated unusual controversy over the execution of a Palestinian after eyewitness video circulated online on Saturday. That 23-second video, recorded from a bystander’s vehicle, shows two Israeli Border Police officers firing at Salima from a distance as he lay on the ground and posed no threat to anyone’s life.
War crimes immunity for Israel’s Benny Gantz Adri Nieuwhof EI 07/12/21
Dutch judges ruled on Tuesday that two top Israeli military commanders cannot be sued for killing a Palestinian family in the Gaza Strip.The appeals court in The Hague decided that the commanders enjoy “functional immunity” because they were acting on behalf of the Israeli state. The decision is a slap in the face for Ismail Ziada and all Palestinians who once again find their path to justice obstructed.
Speaking to supporters outside the courthouse, Ziada called the decision “shameful” and “cowardly.” Today is not easy for me because in Gaza we are subjected to military slaughter and in The Hague we are subjected to a legal slaughter,” Ziada added.
“It is just because of Israel. Nothing else. It is not about justice,” Ziada said of the ruling.
Israel kills people with disabilities Maureen Clare Murphy EI 03/12/2021
To mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Israeli military tweeted a photo of its communications tower in Tel Aviv lit in purple on Friday. The military claimed that the gesture was “in honor of people with disabilities in Israel and around the world.” Twitter users quickly seized on the irony and hypocrisy by highlighting Israel’s myriad crimes against Palestinians with disabilities.
Monastery restored by unemployed young Palestinians Mervat Ouf al Monitor 08/12/21
“I am a Bedouin girl, and my society believes it is unacceptable to work in a mixed place and handling hammers and stones is just for men,” she said.
After she graduated from university, Sawarka landed a job as a tourist guide at St. Hilarion Monastery, also known as Tell Umm al-Amr. She also worked in restoration and helped restore the monastery’s mosaic floors and reinforce its walls, as part of a project run by Premiere Urgence Internationale, a French nonprofit organization overseeing the restoration of the site with the support of the British Council.
Israel & the EU science funding program Danny Zaken al Monitor 08/12/21
Joining the European program is also important diplomatically. It will rehabilitate and deepen Israel’s relations with the EU, a priority set by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid when he took office. While the program will not provide grants to Israeli groups in West Bank settlements, politicians on the right including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are enthusiastic supporters of Israel joining Horizon Europe
Israeli security guard kills Palestinian teen Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 07/12/21
“Israeli forces routinely unlawfully kill Palestinian children with impunity, using excessive force and unjustified intentional lethal force,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP said in a statement. “If a child is suspected of committing a criminal act, they should be apprehended in accordance with international standards and afforded due process of law.”
According to DCIP, Mousa is the 17th Palestinian minor to be killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year. In Mousa’s case, however, the teen was killed by a private security guard, not an Israeli soldier or police officer. According to the Israeli research center Who Profits, at least 14 checkpoints in the West Bank, dozens of checkpoints in occupied East Jerusalem, and countless more settlement security posts are manned by private security firms.
High civilian cost of Israel’s bombing Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 16/12/21
Airwars, a UK-based nonprofit that tracks and documents civilian harm in conflict zones, released a new report and interactive map documenting the effects that Israel’s offensive had on civilian life in Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth.
The 11-day offensive on Gaza claimed 259 Palestinian lives, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Of those casualties, Airwars estimated that between 151 and 192 were “non-combatant” civilians.
Fake cheer at Christmas Fedaa al- Qedra EI 17/12/2021
The Israeli announcement – similar to ones made in previous years – is far from altruistic.
Because a limit is placed on the number of people who may travel to Bethlehem, such announcements have the effect that family members either spend Christmas apart from each other or that trips to Bethlehem do not go ahead.
“It is unusual for a whole family to get approval [for traveling to Bethlehem],” said Kamel Ayyad, a spokesperson for the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza. “Sometimes, the Israeli authorities will only grant approval to one or two members of a family. That means the family is forced to cancel their travel plans.”
High tech wall imprisons Gazans Mai Abu Hasaneen al Monitor 20/12/21
Some 2.11 million people living in Gaza are feeling more and more trapped with Israel’s inauguration on Dec. 6 of the upgraded security wall on the Gaza border after three and a half years of work. . . . .The galvanized steel wall weighs about 20,000 tons and has a height of about 6 meters. It stretches both above and under the ground over 65 kilometers along the border from the new sea barrier near Zikim beach in the north to Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.
$5 million offer by settlers for Sheikh Jarrah home Amany Mahmoud alMonitor 21/12/2021
Skafi told Al-Monitor that a group of settlers offered him $5 million to buy the house, but he turned down this offer, because his family, like the other families in the neighborhood, are fighting a battle of steadfastness and a challenge in the face of Israel’s plans.
He noted that the settlers attack the family’s children and women daily, on the way out of the house and to school, by pepper-spraying them, verbally abusing them, throwing stones at the house and making annoying noises at night.
Arab Knesset member says Israel ‘born Jewish’ Afif Abu Much al Monitor 22/12/21
“Israel was born as a Jewish state. And that was the decision of the Jewish people, to establish a Jewish state,” said Knesset member Mansour Abbas, head of the Israeli Islamist party Ra’am, in a statement that stunned listeners at a Dec. 21 conference hosted by the financial newspaper Globes. “That’s how the state was born, and so it will remain. The question is not about the state’s identity, but about the status of its Arab citizens.” Asked whether he was aware of the significance of his comments, Abbas responded, “We should be waging a struggle for the status of Arab society as a collective inside the State of Israel as it was born.”
Israel codifies shoot-to-kill policy against Palestinians Maureen Clare Murphy EI 22/12/21
An increase of field executions of Palestinians is all but guaranteed after Israel recently revised its open-fire policies. Troops in the West Bank are now permitted to shoot at Palestinians who throw rocks or Molotov cocktails at civilian cars, even when they don’t pose an immediate threat, media reported this week. A military spokesperson said that the new policy, the text of which remains classified, had been in effect for around the past month.
The new open-fire policy blatantly violates international law, as does Israel’s routine practice of using lethal force against Palestinians who do not pose an immediate threat.
“Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present,” as Defense for Children International-Palestine states. The revised open-fire policy seems to be a codification of longstanding Israeli practice.
Gaza – Medical care denied Ahmed al-Sammak EI 23/12/21
Fahid Afana spent months waiting for a message on his mobile phone.
The message he wanted was a simple one: that he would be allowed to leave Gaza to receive treatment for lymphoma in Israel. Afana, 31, had an appointment with Rambam hospital in Haifa scheduled for 23 August this year. Yet it was not until December that he was permitted to leave Gaza for Haifa – a city in Israel – over a three-day period.
Patients often have to overcome major bureaucratic obstacles so that they can travel for care unavailable within Gaza’s health care system. First, Afana had to submit his application for a travel permit via the Palestinian Authority. The PA then forwards all such bids to the Israeli military occupation. After carrying out the required paperwork, Afana was informed that Israel was doing a “security” check on him. . .
Golan settlement population to double Rina Bassist alMonitor 27/12/21
Posting on social media networks after the meeting, Bennett noted, “You, Israelis who are looking for a place to build your home — the Golan Heights are waiting for you; come to the Golan.”
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