During the search for three Israel teens kidnapped near Hebron, the IDF shot and killed nine Palestinians, razed homes, performed intrusive searches and jailed over 400 Palestinians. Some bloggers saw the IDF action as one of vengeance towards Hamas for its proposed union with the Palestinian Authority of Abbas. Netanyahu and his ministers did all possible to undermine and sabotage Kerry’s effort in peace talks. President Obama refused to sanction Israel for its intransigence. The terror of the state of Israel continues.
Peace Talks and Zionist Optimism … Gush Etzion and Palestinian Land – April 14, 2014
(Haaretz) – With the stroke of a pen, Israel seized control of 984 dunams of territory in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, as Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon declared the area “state land.” The terrain would be more aptly defined as contested territory, since it surrounds private Palestinian lands, which will now become enclaves that are inaccessible to the owners.
The area also includes the illegal outpost Netiv Ha’avot, home to Ze’ev Hever, secretary of Amana, an organization that primarily builds illegal outposts in the West Bank. It’s likely that this outpost will be “laundered” as well, and along with the settlements Neve Daniel, Elazar and Alon Shvut, Netiv Ha’avot will see significant expansion.
Ya’alon’s outstretched arm did not stop in Gush Etzion. On the eve of Passover, he allowed Hebron settlers to inhabit the so-called “House of Contention,” in the wake of the High Court of Justice’s rejection of the petition by the home’s former owners and ruling that the sale of the building to a Jewish investor was legal.
In the Deaths of 3 Israeli Teens, Likud Policies are also Implicated
(Informed Comment) – If the Likud really wants an end to such incidents, then it should negotiate in good faith to bring about the kind of Palestinian state that could actually police Palestinian lives. Instead, Mr. Netanyahu, despite public denials, wants to make a Palestinian state forever impossible, because he sees it as a danger to his brand of Iron Wall Zionism, which is aggressive and expansionist and Jewish-supremacist. Netanyahu did everything he could to torpedo Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process. One side-effect of statelessness is lawlessness. Netanyahu is actively choosing it.
Likewise, the Likud Party (and its coalition partners, some more barracuda-like than even the Likud itself) is dedicated to a vast project of stealing Palestinian land and resources on the West Bank. They are building beehives of colonies, which are solely Jewish and racist in character, excluding the native Palestinians from dwellings built on their own territory. The intended end game here of people like Avigdor Lieberman is likely that once a majority of the population in the West Bank is Israeli, an incident like the one that just took place will be used as a pretext to simply chase all the Palestinians out to Jordan or Egypt and then lock them out of their own country- i.e. a repeat of what was done in 1948.
It should be fairly obvious that if you take adolescents into the middle of the Palestinian West Bank and steal Palestinian land and build houses on it and shoot at Palestinians trying to harvest their crops nearby and bulldoze down their homes or dig tube wells so deep as to cause the Palestinian wells to run dry- if you engage in this settler-colonial enterprise, then you are exposing those adolescents you drag with you into it to danger.
… their bodies were found near the town of Halhul, just north of Hebron.
UPDATE: A 911 call was made by one of the teens but the border military did not react, assuming the call was a prank. Today the audio tape was released and the evidence indicates the teens were shot within minutes of their call, as gunshots rang out on the tape.
The three victims were hastily buried under rocks near the spot they were last seen hitchhiking, within a 10 minutes drive. It became clear Israel has meant there should be collective punishment for these murders. A Dutch female journalist attempted to balance a discussion about the Palestinian deaths, she was heckled and accused of being an anti-semitic.
Helpless against the might of the state: Rabbi Ascherman replies to a friend of Carmel
March 14, 2014 – The Bedouin village of Umm el-Kheir is just a stone’s throw away from the Carmel settlement in the South Hebron Hills. Its residents live in huts and tents in abject poverty, without water hook-ups or electricity, while the residents of Carmel enjoy an existence resembling life in the suburbs of any Western country.
For a number of years, the shepherds of Umm el-Kheir have struggled against the settlers of Carmel who claim that part of Umm el-Kheir sits on the Jewish settlement. Recently, tensions came to the surface again as settlers planted trees on a ridge- a tactic used in the past to “claim” their land. The trees were uprooted and as a result, the village shepherds were collectively punished by blocked access to their pastures. Additionally, Carmel settlers physically attempted to prevent the flocks from passing.
RHR has advocated for the rights of Bedouin at Umm el Kheir for years; recently, Rabbi Ascherman received an email from a friend of the Carmel settlement inquiring into the uprooting of the trees planted by the settlers on Tu B’Shevat. Their correspondence appears below …
Reply in letter dated January 31, 2014:
“You must, however, forgive me for the blunt way in which I am going to write. As much as I oppose the uprooting of trees, I am aware of a full and long history of events in which the residents of Carmel and their supporters have abused the residents of Umm el-Kheir, who are helpless against the might of the State, including last Friday (January 17 2014).
I must say clearly and unequivocally that Carmel uses trees as soldiers against Umm el-Kheir. The residents of Carmel filed a development plan for the settlement according to which the ridge where the trees were planted is designated to become a site for massive building. Not one of these trees was intended to grow to maturity so that it could provide shade or yield fruit. They are there only to prevent the residents of Umm el-Kheir from accessing the area until the bulldozers arrive to level the hill so that Carmel can build a new neighborhood.
I believe that it is wrong to plant seedlings there, and all the more so when there is still a legal dispute in court about the ownership of this ridge.”
West Bank settlement is outdoing its neighboring Bedouin village
(Haaretz) Nov. 11, 2011 – Dozens of people in Umm al-Khayr live in grinding poverty, next to a few hundred people to whom Israel has generously supplied, in the heart of the desert, the amenities for leading a comfortable modern life.
“Do you live here?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied. “And what’s it like, do you feel good here?” Another stupid question. She gave me a quizzical look and said nothing. “Where do you go to school?” I asked her, trying to find a thread that would connect us across the garden and yard between us. “In Susya,” she said – the neighboring settlement. Her reply reminded me where I was and snapped me out of the vacant state of mind I had fallen into after the electric gate of the settlement of Carmel, the little girl’s home, let me in a little while before. “Shalom,” I said, then went back to the car and hightailed it out of there, first along the access road leading from the house, then onto the street and out of the settlement.
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Bedouin residents near the settlement of Carmel. (Photo: Ilana Hammerman)I didn’t know anyone yet in Carmel, a gated community south of Hebron in the West Bank. I had entered alone, and after driving once and then twice through its three streets, or maybe four or five, I lapsed into a kind of reverie brought on by my increasingly surrealistic surroundings. No living creature – neither man, woman, nor child, neither dog nor even a stray cat – could be seen on the clean, tidy streets and tiled sidewalks that curve into convenient parking bays. The garbage bins, too, stand implacably in their appointed places, and on both sides are handsome homes with red-tile roofs, most of them nestling amid lush green lawns, trees and bushes.
The streets end at a no-man’s-land that circles the settlement, demarcated by a barbed-wire fence. On the other, eastern side of one section of the fence, and almost abutting it, are large tents, tin shacks, lean-tos and makeshift goat pens. Between them, walking or running, were boys, girls, women and teenagers. They are from the Hadaleen Bedouin tribe, next to whose meager dwellings Carmel was established some 30 years ago.
Israel mourns the loss of three bright teens, students at a Yeshiva school whose lives were cut short. When will violence stop and will the Israëli cabinet members have the courage to meet PA president Abbas for peace talks. As Haaretz wrote today:
- “There are a lot of loose ends, but one thing is clear: When Israel refuses to
pay the price of peace, it can’t avoid paying the price of no peace.”
Continued below the fold …
Israeli security forces kill three armed Palestinians suspected of planning terror attack
KFAR YATTA, Southern Hebron Hills (Haaretz) Nov. 26, 2013 – Israeli security forces killed three ‘armed’ Palestinians suspected of planning a terrorist attack against Israel in the coming days. The three were killed in a joint raid by troops from the special police unit and the Shin Bet in the South Hebron Hills village of Kafr Yatta.
The suspects were members of a Salafist group operating in the Hebron area, the Shin Bet said in a statement, adding that pistols and explosive devices were found in their vehicle during the raid.
A senior Israeli officer said that a manhunt had been out after this particular group for the last week. He said the Israeli forces had opened fired in the direction of a vehicle carrying two of the passengers during the raid, and that an exchange of fire subsequently erupted. “This is a local organization of a cell with an extreme religious orientation,” said the officer.
“The rise in popularity of the Salafis in the West Bank is apparently the result of disappointment with the PA and the difficulties that Hamas, which is being pressured by both the PA and Israel, is having in presenting a viable, stable alternative.
Last year, saw a rise in their organized operations, most of which are not political and do not involve terror activity. Still, there have recently been large assemblies of Salafist groups at several locations in the West Bank, including in the Hebron area. Suddenly, from nowhere, you hear that 30,000 people are attending a gathering at the stadium in the South Hebron Hills.”
Witnesses told Haaretz that large forces surrounded several houses in the eastern edge of the village and declared the area a closed military site, preventing the residents from leaving their homes for hours on end, and that many youths clashed with the soldiers, hurling stones at them, and being repelled by gas grenades and rubber bullets.
Yatta residents identified the dead as Moussa Pansha, 22, Mohammed Nairuh, 23, and Mahmoud Anjar, also in his twenties, adding that all three were members of the Salafist movement of the village. There were contradictory reports as to whether the three were killed after exchanges of fire or were ambushed by an Israeli unit.
Palestinian city Halhul is built atop Mount Nabi Yunis, the highest peak in the West Bank at 1,030 meters above sea level. The city has a land area of 37,335 dunams, lies 5 km north of Hebron in Area A of the Palestinian Authority, under its jurisdiction. During the Second Intifada, Israel confiscated some 1,500 dunams of land from the Halhul municipality.
○ March 1979, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) enforced a curfew in Halhul lasting sixteen days [Source UN Report Nov. 1979] . Two youths, one a young girl, were shot and killed by Jewish settlers while protesting during the curfew.
○ 30 September 2000, 21 year-old Halhul resident, Muhammad Yunes Mahmoud ‘Ayash a-Z’amreh, was injured by Israeli forces while in Beit Ummar and died of his wounds four days later on 03 October 2000.
○ 22 October 2000, 25 year-old Halhul resident Na’el ‘Ali Zama’arah was shot dead by Israeli security forces during a clash that took place after a funeral service.
○ 12 February 2002, Israeli combat helicopters shelled the house of Lieutenant Ahmed ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Zama’ra in Halhul. The IDF operation also destroyed a police station, several houses, and a machine shop suspected of manufacturing weapons for Palestinian militants. A 22 year old Palestinian from Gaza, Tareq al-Hindawi, was shot dead during the operation.
○ 11 February 2002, a Palestinian Security Guards member was killed, and two other Palestinians wounded, during an IDF operation that penetrated into Halhul to arrest Islamic Jihad leader Jneid Murad, together with Khaled Zabarah, suspected of involvement in smuggling and shooting incidents.
○ 14 May 2002, a special Israeli unit entered Halhul and beseiged the Palestinian General Intelligence Service offices, shooting dead two security officers on their wanted list, Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Abu al-Khiran and Lieutenant Ahmed ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Zama’ra, as they attempted to escape. An IDF spokesman said the two were wanted for attacks on Israelis in the Hebron area, and had been shot for refusing to halt. According to Palestinian sources, both had been targeted by previous Israeli attempts to kill them, one involving a missile attack on their office. The IDF also arrested Jamal Hasan Abu Ra’sbeh, a member of Force 17, and Yasser Arafat’s personal guard.
○ August 2003, Israeli police uncovered a large workhouse for fabricating forged drivers license and Israeli ID cards.
○ June 2005, according to a Tel Aviv University report, a four man Jewish terrorist cell (who allegedly killed over 10 Palestinians) lead by a former Jewish Defense League senior member, had burnt down the mayor of Halhul’s house. No one was injured in that incident.
○ 24 March 2007, Israeli authorities demolished a house built without an Israeli permit. The case was fought in an appeal, reaching the Israeli Supreme Court, which confirmed the verdict. Demonstrations ensued.
○ 22 June 2007, Halhul resident Shadi Rajeh ‘Abdallah al-Mtur was shot dead while walking to a grocery store contiguous to an Israeli checkpoint, after failing to obey an order to stop. He did not have an ID card.
○ 6 October 2011, two men from Halhul were arrested on charges of having murdered Asher and Yonatan Palmer as a result of a stone-throwing incident near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba on 23 September 2011.
○ December 2011, the UNDP decided to assist in establishing a mental health center in Halhul.
○ 20 November 2012, a Halhul resident, Hamdi Muhammad Jawad Musa al-Fallah, was shot by IDF soldiers after aiming a laser pen at them during a clash between the soldiers and local Palestinians near the Halhul-Hebron bridge on Route 35.
