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Scottish Friends of Palestine
Briefing Paper
January 2021
A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid Btselem 12/01/2021
More than 14 million people, roughly half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians, live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea under a single rule. The common perception in public, political, legal and media discourse is that two separate regimes operate side by side in this area, separated by the Green Line. One regime, inside the borders of the sovereign State of Israel, is a permanent democracy with a population of about nine million, all Israeli citizens. The other regime, in the territories Israel took over in 1967, whose final status is supposed to be determined in future negotiations, is a temporary military occupation imposed on some five million Palestinian subjects.
UN General Assembly renews seven Resolutions 3/11/2020
The Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with political and decolonisation affairs, voted today with overwhelming majorities in favour of seven resolutions critical of Israel. Agenda items included assistance to Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements in the occupied territories (including east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights) and Israeli practices impacting the human rights of the Palestinian populations. The resolutions lambasted Israel for human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem and repressive measures against Syrians in the Golan Heights.
The seven resolutions have been passed each year for several years, more or less with the same wording. The resolutions are expected to be approved by the UN General Assembly later this month. Interestingly, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan — which recently agreed to normalise ties with Israel — did not shift from their traditional voting patterns and supported all seven resolutions.
Read more: https://journal.un.org/en/documents/2020-11-03
Israel razes village, leaves 41 children homeless Tamara Nassar EI 5/11/2020
While all eyes were on the United States elections this week, Israel carried out the largest demolition in occupied territory in years. Israeli forces arrived in the occupied West Bank community of Khirbet Humsa on Tuesday and demolished 76 structures. This was “more than in any other single demolition in the past decade,” said the interim UN humanitarian coordinator Yvonne Helle.
Destroyed structures include homes, kitchens, bathrooms, animal shelters and solar panels. More than 70 Palestinians were made homeless, including 41 children, totaling 11 families. Three quarters of the community’s population “lost their shelters,” Helle added.
It was “the largest forced displacement incident in over four years.”
Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-razes-village-leaves-41-children-homeless
Ancient Palestinian village struggles to survive settler attacks Taghreed Ali Al Monitor 8/11/2020 On the road between Hebron and East Jerusalem, 5 kilometres from Bethlehem, the ancient village of Shushahla sits on a high mountain hill, defying settlement ambitions and the surrounding settlements of Efrat, Sidi Boaz, Eli Azar and Nefi Daniel.
In a house made of stacked stones and covered with tin ceiling panels, the three-member Palestinian family of Muhannad Salah, 39, lives in the village without any electricity or water supplies, let alone any paved roads.
The village residents abandoned it in the 1970s due to the continuous Israeli restrictions. Shushahla is located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli control and accounts for 61% of the West Bank,
Read more: Families of ancient Palestinian village struggle to survive settler attacks - Al-Monitor:
Israel wants to deport me from my city of birth Salah Hammouri EI 11/11/2020 I am currently at risk of deportation by Israel from my home city, Jerusalem, where I was born to a Palestinian Jerusalemite father and a French mother and have lived all my life. My wife, Elsa Lefort, is a French citizen. She was deported by Israel in 2016 while we were expecting our first child. For four years, I have been separated from my wife and son. Our lives have been completely upended as a result of Israel’s policies and the continued false accusations and defamation intended to discredit my reputation and work as a human rights defender.
The Israeli authorities have recently escalated their assault against me. On 3 September, I was notified that Israel’s interior minister intends to revoke my permanent Jerusalem residency status, claiming that I allegedly “breached loyalty” to the State of Israel.
Israel is throwing the weight of the occupation against me, as it has countless other Palestinians. And not for the first time.
Read more: Israel wants to deport me from my city of birth | The Electronic Intifada
Israeli forces kill PA officer, shoot teacher Tamara Nassar EI 9/11/2020
Read more: Israeli forces kill PA officer, shoot teacher | The Electronic Intifada
UN agency runs out of money to pay salaries 9/11/2020
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees announced Monday it will not be able to pay the salaries of thousands of employees through the end of the year.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) notified its staff of 28,000 that due to budget shortfalls, it has run out of money to pay workers through November and December. Most of those affected are refugees themselves and based in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Read more: UN agency for Palestinian refugees runs out of money to pay salaries - Al-Monitor:
Data On Demolition And Displacement In The West Bank 9/11/2020
Report by The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): The figures below reflect the demolition of Palestinian-owned structures and the resulting displacement of people from their homes across the West Bank since 2009. Together with other policies and practices, the threat of destruction of homes and sources of livelihood contributes to the generation of a coercive environment pressuring people to leave their areas of residence.
Click, tap, or hover over charts to interact with data, or click here for more breakdowns.
Settlers visit Dubai to discuss business ties Al Monitor 11/11/2020
A delegation of Israeli settlers from the West Bank is currently in Dubai to forge business ties with Emiratis. Palestinian officials are angry the United Arab Emirates (UAE) welcomed the group because the West Bank is considered occupied Palestinian territory.
The group included members of the Samaria Regional Council, which represents settlers in the northern West Bank. The delegation met with agriculture, pest control and plastic businesses, with the goal of increasing cooperation on water desalination and agronomy in particular, The Associated Press reported.
Read more: Israeli settlers visit Dubai to discuss business ties - Al-Monitor:
Israel subjects Palestinian children to physical and psychological abuse Anjuman Rahman Middle East Monitor 29/10/2020
Israel is the only country in the world to prosecute children routinely in military courts that lack basic safeguards for a fair trial
"They destroyed the front door, entered my room, covered my face with a bag and took me away," explained Abdullah. "They told my father that I would return the next day." However, he did not return to his family until the following year and was detained six more times.This is not uncommon in occupied Palestine where child prisoners are now a major part of the Palestinian narrative. Hundreds of children, some as young as 12, are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system every year.The most common charge is stone-throwing, which the Israeli military consider to be a "security offence". Those found guilty can get up to 20 years in prison, depending on the child's age. Read more: Israel is subjecting Palestinian children to physical and psychological abuse – Middle East Monitor
Making space for Palestine - Architecture students bring destroyed Palestinian villages back to life Middle East Monitor 27/09/19
Since 2016, graduating Palestinian architecture students have competed for the prestigious “Reconstruction of Destroyed Palestinian Villages” award. As reported in the Middle East Monitor, “the architectural competition, organised by the Palestine Land Society, brings together history, politics and contemporary architecture as young students compete to reconstruct over 500 villages destroyed during the Nakba in order to preserve and restore their heritage and draw a realistic, future blueprint for the return of Palestinian refugees.”
Read more: Architecture students bring destroyed Palestinian villages back to life – Middle East Monitor
Abuse and violence against children in Al-Issawiya, East Jerusalem
Anastasia O’Brien Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights 3rd July 2020
. . . the police randomly close off streets, creating long traffic jams; use loud speakers on patrol cars and police vehicles late at night; intimidate residents by aiming weapons at them; conduct degrading inspections and search cars and bags (including children’s schoolbags); verbally goad residents; order shops to shut down for no apparent reason, without showing a warrant; use dogs to search shops; raid homes and search them without a warrant; and falsely arrest minors (often in the middle of the night), in severe violation of their rights. . .
UK to investigate claims JCB used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes
Areeb Ullah Middle East Eye 12/10/2020 The British government will investigate claims that machinery built by UK construction company JCB was used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).
The UK National Contact Point (NCP), which is part of UK’s Department of International Trade, acknowledged on Monday a complaint against JCB submitted by British legal charity Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR).
Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-israel-palestine-jcb-machinery-home-demolitions
Why is the Palestinian Authority helping the occupation? - an opinion Ahmed Abu Artema EI 25/11/2020
The Palestinian Authority is helping Israel’s military occupation once again.The step was taken, according to senior PA representative Hussein al-Sheikh, after commitments were received from Israel that it will respect previous agreements.
Why has the decision to stop “security cooperation” and other interactions with Israel made six months ago now been overturned? One major factor is that life has become markedly harder for Palestinians. Because of the decision, the PA stopped accepting customs duties and other tax revenues collected by Israel. Those revenues constitute approximately two-thirds of the PA’s budget. Without them, public sector employees cannot be – and have not been – paid.The victory of Joe Biden in the US presidential election is another factor.
Read more Why is the PA helping the occupation again? | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s self-investigation Maureen Clare Murphy EI 26/11/2020
. . . Meanwhile, Israel invented a baseless new paradigm of international law in which it treats the Great March of Return as governed by the laws of warfare, claiming that the civilian mass protests were orchestrated by Hamas, the political and resistance organization governing Gaza’s interior . . . By categorizing the Great March of Return as part of its armed conflict with Hamas, even though demonstrators were unarmed, Israel created a separate legal framework for handling complaints related to the protests. . .
Read more Israel's self-investigation shields its soldiers | The Electronic Intifada
Palestine in Pictures: November 2020 EI 2/12/2020
Israeli occupation forces killed two Palestinians at military checkpoints in the West Bank during November. More than 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip so far in 2020 or died from injuries sustained during previous years. Soldiers shot and killed Bilal Adnan Rawajba, 29, at Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus on 4 November. . . . . .
Photos at Palestine in Pictures: November 2020 | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s Death App David Cronin EI 2/12/2020
Killing a Palestinian will soon be as easy as ordering a pizza. That repugnant message – albeit couched in less explicit terms – was delivered through a recent article published by the website IsraelDefense. It quotes Oren Matzliach, a colonel who is overseeing the use of a new app by the Israeli military. The app would allow a commander to type details about a target on a small electronic device and then troops would open fire on that target swiftly.
Ordering an attack will be “like ordering a book on Amazon or a pizza in a pizzeria using your smartphone,” Matzliach said. The causal way in which the colonel speaks about remote-control slaughter should outrage everyone. The Israeli authorities – or high-ranking figures within them – view every Palestinian as a legitimate target.
Read more App makes killing Palestinians as easy as ordering pizzas | The Electronic Intifada
School discrimination suit as Israel tests nationality law Danny Zaken al-Monitor 2/12/2020 Israel’s 2018 nationality law anchored the Jewish character of the state of Israel. It was first introduced by the Likud and by a few Knesset members of centrist Kadima in 2011, but many legislators were against it, protesting that it discriminated against Israel’s Arab and Druze citizens and also Palestinians. Two years after its adoption, the law continues to evoke bitter debate. In a recent case concerning Arab-Israeli children living in the Jewish-majority town of Carmiel in the Galilee, a judge ruled recently on a petition calling for reimbursing travel to an Arabic-speaking school that the "Jewish character" of Carmiel must be preserved.
Read more: Court throws out school discrimination suit as Israel tests nationality law - Al-Monitor:
Israel kills 6th child in 2020 and then lies Tamara Nassar EI 5/12/2020
What crime did 15-year-old Ali Ayman Saleh Nasser commit to be killed by occupation soldiers? Observing a protest, apparently. Israeli forces fatally shot Nasser in the stomach in the central West Bank village of al Mughayyir on Friday during a protest against Israeli land theft in the area. Nasser was reportedly not participating in demonstrations when he was killed. All he did was watch, according to field investigations by Defense for Children International Palestine.
The child was taken in a private car to the entrance of a nearby village. From there, an ambulance took him to the Palestine Medical Complex in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. He was pronounced dead shortly afterward. Nasser is the sixth Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank to be killed by Israeli forces this year (2020)
Read more: Israel kills child and then lies | The Electronic Intifada
Dehumanising: verdict on military invasions of Palestinian homes
Peter Beaumont The Observer 29/11/2020
Like checkpoints and the separation barrier it is part of the DNA of the occupation. For soldiers like myself it ended when we walked back to the jeep and went back to camp to sleep. But for the Palestinians it is a long term trauma. What it means is that you cannot feel safe in your own home or bed. For me the last memory is of the piercing looks of fear and hatred. . . . . . . . . What comes to my mind is that the process involves the dehumanisation of a whole society. [Its] point is to break their human spirit.
Deprivation of rights within Israel Alya Zoabi Mondoweiss 10/12/2020
Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, which was meant to be a temporary regulation yet has been renewed every year since. This law targets families by preventing Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel who are married to residents of the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip or countries that Israel considers “enemy states,” from living with their spouses inside the borders of the green line. The law casts a collective suspicion over the entire Palestinian Arab population living in Israel and prevents them from exercising their basic human right of freedom to choose a spouse and build a normal family. . . . . . . The Kamnitiz Law (the April 2017 Amendment to the 1965 Planning and Building Law), meanwhile, criminalizes building violations and intensifies enforcement of the law through increased home demolitions, larger fines, and heavier sentences for offenders. However, Israeli government policies show a clear unwillingness to approve master plans for Palestinian Arab localities and distribute building permits, leaving many Palestinian Arab citizens with no option other than to build [without a permit]. Read more Deprivation of human rights: the other pandemic facing Palestinian citizens of Israel – Mondoweiss
Calls for Israel to ‘revise’ eviction orders in Jerusalem MEMO 12/12/2020
On 3 and 23 November, Israeli courts ruled to uphold the evictions of eight Palestinian families in the Batan Al-Hawa neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, affecting 45 people, including small children, according to the statement. It also stated that the Israeli courts ruled to maintain the evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, affecting 32 people, including six children and: "Putting all families at imminent risk of forced transfer."
Normalising with Israel Tamara Nassar EI 15/12/2020
. . . . .Indeed, the deal Trump calls “historic” merely formalizes decades of secret military and intelligence cooperation between Israel and Morocco.
Israel’s foreign intelligence agency Mossad and the Jewish Agency smuggled Moroccan Jews out of their country, some by force, in the early days following Israel’s establishment.
In 1965, Morocco allowed Mossad to bug the rooms of Arab officials meeting in Casablanca, giving Israel a leg-up in the 1967 war, according to a New York Times interview with a former Israeli military official. Also in 1965 Mossad colluded in the kidnapping and killing of left-wing Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka. . . .
Read more: The intimidation and rewards of normalizing with Israel | The Electronic Intifada
Evictions in East Jerusalem Kelly Kunzi EI 24/12/2020
. . . . . the family first started receiving warnings in 2007, Dweik said he was approached multiple times by Barak Weinberg, who presented himself as a member of Ateret Cohanim and is an employee of a sister organization, Midreshet Kedma. Weinberg offered to cover costs for a new kidney for Dweik. He offered hefty compensation for the building, too, if the family vacated without resistance. The family is now being sued for around $185,000, said Dweik, the amount Ateret Cohanim claims they owe in rent for the last seven years.
“They [settlers] have all the abilities and resources to make us weak, financially, and emotionally,” said Dweik.
Two other families, the Shweiki and the Odeh families, residents of two other buildings in Batan al-Hawa, were also issued eviction orders after a separate ruling last month.
The 22 members of the Shweiki and Odeh families, all of whom have lived in the neighborhood since they bought properties in the 1960s, received a notice from the Israeli authorities on 29 November demanding that they vacate within less than five weeks.
Read more: Families face imminent evictions in East Jerusalem | The Electronic Intifada
Protection of Civilians OHCA Report IMEMC 8-21/12/2020
. . . . A total of 73 Palestinians, including 16 children, were injured in multiple clashes with Israeli forces across the West Bank. The bulk of the injuries (57) were recorded in protests against settlement activities in Kufur Qaddoum (Qalqilia), Al Mughayyir and Kafr Malik (Ramallah). Fourteen Palestinians were injured in clashes during search-and-arrest operations in the cities of Tulkarem and Nablus and in Jaba’ village (Jenin). Two Palestinians were injured near Jenin, while trying to cross into Israel through Barrier breaches. Ten of the Palestinians injured during this period were hit by live ammunition, 17 by rubber bullets, and 40 were treated for inhaling tear gas. . .
Read more: https://imemc.org/article/ocha-protection-of-civilians-report-occupied-palestinian-territory/
Slain Palestinian youth – home to be demolished IMEMC 22/12/2020
Israeli soldiers summoned for interrogation Omar Sadeq Kamil, the father of the Palestinian teen who was killed by the army, on Monday evening, in occupied Jerusalem, and informed him of intentions to demolish his home. Read more: https://imemc.org/article/army-summons-father-of-slain-palestinian-informs-him-of-pending-home-demolition/
Red Cross hits a nerve Jonathan Ofir Mondoweiss 29/12/2020
The International Committee of the Red Cross took to social media to point out all the ways the television show "Fauda" portrays Israeli human rights violations. Israeli media outlets, government officials, and assorted apologists were not happy.
Read more: ICRC takedown of ‘Fauda’ hits a nerve – Mondoweiss
Vaccine rollout excludes Palestinians Omar Karni EI 29/12/2020
But the rollout is selective. While Israel has secured 8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, for which its two million-strong Palestinian citizens are eligible, no provision has been made for the roughly 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who live under its military occupation. Israel’s public security minister Amir Ohana, meanwhile, has directed the health ministry not to include so-called security prisoners – all of whom are Palestinian – to be included in the second priority group of inoculations. This contradicts health ministry directives, which have deemed prisoners generally as at high risk of exposure. Security prisoners’ guards will still be vaccinated as part of the second phase of Israel’s rollout.
Read more: Israel’s vaccine rollout excludes Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada
Not even allowed to live in a cave EI 04/01/2021
Israel’s Civil Administration, the bureaucratic arm of its military occupation, ordered the demolition of Ahmad Amarneh’s small home in the village as he was building it. Amarneh then moved to one of the village’s historic caves, “because it does not require an Israeli permit, or so I thought,” he told The Electronic Intifada. In July, Israeli occupation forces ordered Amarneh to leave the cave.
Read more: Video: Not even allowed to live in a cave | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s 2020 demolition spree Tamara Nassar EI 05/01/2021
While people around the world were told to stay home due to the pandemic, Israel made more Palestinians homeless in 2020 than it has in years. Israel demolished and confiscated more than 850 Palestinian structures throughout the year, displacing 1,000 people. More than half of those displaced were children.
Israel targeted almost any kind of structure Palestinians need for sustainable life, including homes, agricultural buildings, infrastructure and water sanitation facilities.
Read more: Israel went on demolition spree in 2020 | The Electronic Intifada
Palestinian paralysed, self-defense claimed Maureen Clare-Murphy EI 08/01/2021 The Israeli military cleared itself of wrongdoing in the shooting and grave injury of a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank last week, claiming soldiers acted in self-defense. The perfunctory investigation closed less than a week later exemplifies the culture of impunity long decried by human rights organizations seeking war crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court. The military claimed that the man who was shot, Harun Abu Aram, was “hit by a stray bullet fired when a Palestinian tried to seize a commander’s weapon,” as the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported.
Read more: Israel claims self-defense after paralyzing Palestinian | The Electronic Intifada
Vaccine Equality? Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 14/01/2021
Israeli authorities are failing to provide essential information on the vaccine in Arabic, to establish vaccine centers in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and to provide sufficient vaccines in Bedouin clinics in the Negev. These failures are “not a coincidence”, rights groups say.
Read more: Israel says vaccine equally available to all citizens. But is that really the case? – Mondoweiss
Israel’s vaccination program is morally indefensible Omar Karmi EI 15/01/2021
Israel’s exclusion of five million people from its COVID-19 vaccine program continues to raise protest. This week, the UN called on Israel to ensure “swift and equitable access” to the vaccine for Palestinians who live under its occupation.Since Israel began its vaccine rollout, Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations have protested that the country is failing in its obligations as an occupying power by not offering the vaccine to the Palestinians of occupied territory.It is a policy, said Amnesty International on 6 January, that exposes Israel’s “institutional discrimination.” Read more: Israel's vaccination program is morally indefensible | The Electronic Intifada
Hugh Humphries
Secretary
Scottish Friends of Palestine 0141 637 8046 info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org
