http://972mag.com/under-cover-of-shabbat-settlers-invade-palestinian-property-in-hebron/114290/

Dozens of settlers in Hebron took over the front yard of the home of well-known local Palestinian nonviolent activist Issa Amro over the weekend. Israeli soldiers remained with the settlers for over 24 hours, guarding them as they slept, prayed, and ate — all the while blocking the entrance to the house.

Amro rents the house from its Palestinian owner, using it as the community center for the “Youth Against Settlements” organization, which teaches local Palestinian youth about nonviolent resistance.

The settlers were eventually forced to leave Saturday evening when police arrived and declared the area a “closed military zone.” The Palestinians — aside from Amro — were forcibly removed from the premises, after which the settlers left on their own accord. The only person who the army is currently letting enter and exit the house is Amro.
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Amro and his landlord filed a complaint with the police over the settler takeover, which blocked the path into the house. The police officers who arrived at the scene told Amro and the landlord that the Israeli army’s Hebron’s brigade commander authorized the settlers to be there, thus leaving the police powerless. Amro said the soldiers threatened to lock him in a bathroom stall again, this time for longer, if he continued to complain.

http://972mag.com/settler-who-attacked-leftist-rabbi-if-i-kill-one-itll-be-over/114233/

The Jewish extremist who allegedly attacked Rabbis for Human Rights head Arik Ascherman last month was indicted two weeks ago, charged with causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife and ammunition. The youth, 17 years old, is suspected of assaulting Ascherman near the settlement of Itamar as the rabbi was assisting Palestinians with their olive harvest.

Israel’s Channel 10 news conducted an interview with the suspect, himself from Itamar, after he was released to house arrest last Friday. His back turned to the camera to protect his identity, he accused human rights activists of being the source of tension his area, saying there needs to be “deterrence.”

“If I kill one of them it’ll be over. But that isn’t legal,” he said. “We need to deter them. They need to be made fearful. They need to receive a blow.”

Even the Channel 10 report, which did not appear to have sought a comment from Rabbi Ascherman, notes that given the severity of the charges against the youth, it is surprising that he was released to house arrest. His comments during the interview do little to assuage concerns over his release.

http://972mag.com/israeli-journalists-slam-netanyahu-over-closure-of-arabic-media-outlets/114221/

The government shut down two Arabic-language outlets last week, leaving nearly 30 journalists jobless. The Union of Israeli Journalists: ‘Shutting down media outlets is nearly unheard of in democratic regimes.’

The Union of Journalists in Israel sent a letter to Prime Minister and Communications Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday, protesting the shutting down of two Arabic-language media outlet last week.

As reported on the media watchdog site The Seventh Eye, police and Shin Bet agents raided and shut down the newsroom of veteran newspaper, Sawt al-Haq wa Al-Hurriya, as well as the news website PLS48, while confiscating computers and other equipment. The raids were conducted due to the fact their publishers belong to a corporation owned by the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which was made illegal last week. Approximately 30 journalists lost their job in one fell swoop.

The letter, which was signed by union chairman Yair Tarchitsky and was approved by the secretariat, stated that “The shutting down of media outlets by security forces is a drastic step that is nearly unheard of in democratic regimes, specifically in Israel. We see this move as a direct threat to both freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Israel — two cornerstones of democracy — which must only be carried out in the most extreme cases.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/22471-israel-meets-with-google-and-youtube-to-discuss-censoring-palestinian-videos

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has met with representatives of YouTube and Google to discuss ways to cooperate in what she calls the fight against “inciting violence and terrorism”.

Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported yesterday that Hotovely agreed to work with Google and YouTube in order to establish a joint working mechanism to monitor and prevent the publication of “inflammatory material” originating in the Palestinian terriroties.

Since the latest escalation of violence between Palestinians and Israeli security services that erupted at the beginning of October, many people have been sharing videos depicting Israeli aggression towards Palestinians to highlight the Palestinian perspective of the conflict. London-based Arab newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed has expressed concerns that the meetings suggest moves towards censoring Palestinian material on the part of the Israeli state.

http://m.btselem.org/firearms/20151123_killing_of_lafi_awad_in_budrus

According to B’Tselem’s investigation, the clashes died down within several hours. Most of the Palestinian demonstrators and most of the security forces left the spot. At approximately 4:30 P.M., a group of ten or Palestinian youths approached the barrier again in an area called al-‘Aq, where soldiers shot and killed 16-year-old Samir ‘Awad in January 2013. Lafy ‘Awad, 20, walked first, at the front of the group. When he was some ten or twenty meters from the barrier, he walked past soldiers lying in ambush. They revealed themselves and grabbed ‘Awad. He tried to free himself from their grip and the soldiers responded violently, kicking him and hitting him with their rifles. According to eyewitnesses, soldiers also fired rubber-coated metal bullets, but it is unclear if any of the bullets struck ‘Awad. The other youths shouted at the soldiers and began throwing stones at them. One soldier retained his grip on ‘Awad while the others turned towards the youths and one fired in the air, apparently to deter them. ‘Awad took advantage of the opportunity and started to flee, but had gone only a few steps when a soldier shot him in the back. ‘Awad collapsed and the soldiers retreated. ‘Awad’s friends carried him away.

http://972mag.com/watch-how-the-far-right-glorifies-killing-of-palestinians/114163/

Benzi Gopstein, the head of Lehava, posted a video on his Facebook page Monday glorifying the killing of Palestinians. Lehava is a popular Jewish supremacist group dedicated to preventing Arab-Jewish relations, which is also accused of regular incitement and racism against Palestinians — both online and on the streets of Jerusalem.

The video itself is CCTV footage of an incident in Jerusalem on Monday in which two Palestinian girls, 14 and 16, stabbed an elderly Palestinian man with scissors (presumably mistaking him for a Jewish Israeli) before they were shot several times, and even after they lay still on the ground. One was killed, the other is in critical condition.

Crappy electronic music was added to the CCTV footage with synthesized lyrics: “She just wants to stab, put a bullet in her head.” Gopstein shared it on Facebook and wrote: “The new video, if you enjoy it share it!”

Using the video to glorify, celebrate and make light of the shooting of two Palestinian teenage girls, even though they attacked an innocent man with scissors, is almost as disturbing as the attack itself.

http://m.jpost.com/#article=6017MzEwQkQ3MUVFOTRGNzQxOUZCNTQ2MzQ4ODUwQUE3Q0E=


NEW YORK – An employer who had intended to give a salaried position to Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard retracted the offer Monday, because the conditions of his parole would have prevented him from doing his job.

Pollard received an offer to become a research analyst in the finance department of a respected investment firm. But his parole conditions require him to wear an electronic ankle bracelet at all times for GPS tracking of his whereabouts and to be subjected to unfettered monitoring and inspection of his computers and those of his employer.

He cannot leave his home in New York City before 7 a.m. or come home after 7 p.m., which makes it difficult to travel to and from work, to attend prayer services, or to accept invitations to dinner on the Sabbath and holidays from friends and relatives.

Speaking at the Louis Brandeis award dinner of the ZOA in New York on Sunday night, Pollard’s attorney, Eliot Lauer, said that due to the conditions, his client is “still not free,” despite leaving prison on Friday after serving 30 years of a life sentence. He asked the Jewish community to continue to struggle for Pollard’s freedom.

http://972mag.com/palestinian-groups-present-war-crimes-evidence-to-the-icc/114152/

Four Palestinian human rights organizations submitted research, testimonies and documentation to International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Monday, which they said contain evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israelis during the 2014 Gaza war.

The four Palestinian human rights organizations, Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, Aldameer and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), said the information they handed over to Bensouda on Monday detailed “illustrative instances” of murder, torture, intentional attacks on civilians and and civilian targets, and extensive destruction that had no military necessity.

“We have provided the Office of the Prosecutor with enough information for it to determine that there is a reasonable basis to believe that senior Israeli military and civilian officials committed crimes against humanity and war crimes during the offensive against Gaza,” Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin said after hand-delivering the materials to Bensouda in The Hague on Monday.

In accordance with the process laid out in the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation into the situation in Palestine on January 16, 2015, 15 days after Palestine joined the court.

http://972mag.com/new-jewish-settlements-planned-on-top-of-bedouin-villages/114104/

The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan for five new Jewish settlements to be built in the Negev (Naqab) in the south of Israel. The plan, which was submitted by Housing Minister Yoav Galant of Kulanu, threatens to displace thousands of Bedouin from their homes.

Two of the settlements are due to be built where Bedouin villages already exist, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). The new town of Daya is to be established on top of the unrecognized village of Katamat, which would displace its 1,500 Bedouin residents. Neve Gurion, meanwhile, is meant to be built on part of the land of the recognized village of Be’er Hadaj, home to 6,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel.

“This decision is a mere continuation of the government’s unequal planning policy, which attempts to move the inhabitants of Bedouin villages to urban or semi-urban settlements or existing townships, which are ranked at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and are already under significant stress,” ACRI wrote in a statement on Sunday.

The government’s announcement comes just weeks after the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Araqib in the Negev was demolished for the 90th time. Israel’s continual razing of Al Araqib began in 2010, and the village has become a symbol of the ethnic discrimination that characterizes the state’s policies in the Negev.

In a mockery of justice, an Israeli border police officer who assaulted 15-year-old Palestinian-American Tariq Abu Khdeir following the kidnapping and torching-murder of his cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, in Occupied East Jerusalem in July 2014, has been sentenced to a mere 45 days of community service. Zip, that’s it.

The anonymous officer, whose identity has been protected by the state, stomped on Abu Khdeir’s back and beat him so relentlessly he lost consciousness. The officer was convicted of assault and battery in Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court and granted a “suspended term of four months in prison“. The judge wrote in the verdict that the state prosecution has not presented a case with similar circumstances that resulted in the defendant “behind bars“.

Here is a statement from the family of Tariq Abu Khdeir:

“To hear that the officer responsible for the inhumane beating of our young son, Tariq, was only sentenced to one-and-a-half months of community service is a shameful slap on the wrist and sends the wrong message that Israel tolerates the violent, extrajudicial beating of children. We continue to demand that justice be served, for the officers that participated in his cruel beating to be held accountable in a transparent manner, and for assurances that such treatment of Palestinian minors by Israeli forces will end.”