Jerusalem faces largest surge in arrests since 2nd Intifada
By Charlie Hoyle
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian communities in Jerusalem are experiencing the largest upsurge in detentions since the Second Intifada, with a marked increase in Israeli police brutality and the collective punishment of entire neighborhoods, local organizations say.
The mass detentions began following widespread demonstrations in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat after the murder of teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir on July 2.
Since then, over 770 Palestinians have been detained in East Jerusalem, according to Addameer prisoner rights group.
The arrests in Jerusalem took place parallel to a wide-reaching detention campaign in the West Bank, which saw between 800-1,000 Palestinians detained following the kidnapping of three Israeli youths on June 12.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=723567
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Analysis by Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON, Aug 12 2014 (IPS) - United Nations officials and human rights organisations have characterised Israeli attacks on civilian targets during the IDF war on Gaza as violations of the laws of war.
A Palestinian man salvages items from the rubble of his home destroyed by Israeli strikes on a building in northern Gaza Strip. Aug 7, 2014. Credit: UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan
During the war, Israeli bombardment leveled whole urban neighbourhoods, leaving more than 10,000 houses destroyed and 30,000 damaged and killing 1,300 civilians, according to U.N. data. Israeli forces also struck six schools providing shelter to refugees under U.N. protection, killing at least 47 refugees and wounding more than 340.
The administration’s public stance in daily briefings in the early days of the war suggested little or no concern about Israeli violations of the laws of war.
But the Barack Obama administration’s public posture during the war signaled to Israel that it would not be held accountable for such violations.
A review of the transcripts of daily press briefings by the State Department during the Israeli attack shows that the Obama administration refused to condemn Israeli attacks on civilian targets in the first three weeks of the war.
U.S. officials were well aware of Israel’s history of rejecting any distinction between military and civilian targets in previous wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
in full: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/u-s-avoided-threat-to-act-on-israels-civilian-targeting/
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A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to throw a stone at Israeli troops during clashes at a protest against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem August 8, 2014. Ammar Awad/Reuters
By Bethan Staton
Filed: 8/27/14 at 5:39 AM | Updated: 8/27/14 at 5:42 AM
It is a Saturday morning, and Mahmoud Subuh, at his desk in the Balata Refugee camp, is tired. For more than a month now the 48-year-old has been watching Gaza, where much of his family live, with dread. Like most in the West Bank he’s horrified by the mounting death toll, and anxious as the situation around him simmers.
Despairing at decades of Israeli occupation and dissatisfied with years of fruitless peace talks, the people of the West Bank – the occupied Palestinian territory at Israel’s east – are making their anger known.
Last month 10,000 people marched against the Gaza war, clashes are now taking place daily, and a full boycott of Israel is gathering heady momentum. For the first time in years, the word Intifada – uprising – is now being uttered here in all seriousness.
At times like these, Subuh says, people look to places like Balata for an answering spark. The camp, he explains, is “a very special place”, the “barometer of the rest of Palestine”. Situated in the West Bank’s north, it was created for some of the 750,000 Palestinians expelled in the Nakba, or catastrophe, that accompanied the 1948 creation of Israel.
Now, the single square kilometre of stacked concrete is home to more than 29,000 people: it was a major driver of the Intifada, or uprisings, which started in 1987 and 2000, and it’s where many militant and political groups were born. But today, the explosion that many anticipated in Balata is yet to come.
“Things were different this time,” Subuh, who runs a psychosocial centre at the camp, continues. “The reaction to Gaza wasn’t what people expected.” Over the past few weeks there have been regular protests, charity collections and an increased commitment to armed struggle, but sustained, organised, large-scale action is – so far – yet to happen.
http://www.newsweek.com/west-bank-refugees-fear-cost-third-intifada-266904
27 August 2014
[File photo] 'Dozens of Israeli troops stormed the Buren School in southern Nablus and tried to arrest certain students, claiming they had hurled rocks at Jewish settlers' cars in the area,' Ghassan al-Naggar, a member of the Solidarity Movement for Free Palestine, an NGO, told Anadolu Agency.
Israeli forces on Wednesday stormed a secondary school in the West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian activist has reported.
"Dozens of Israeli troops stormed the Buren School in southern Nablus and tried to arrest certain students, claiming they had hurled rocks at Jewish settlers' cars in the area," Ghassan al-Naggar, a member of the Solidarity Movement for Free Palestine, an NGO, told Anadolu Agency.
Israeli forces fired teargas and stun grenades into the schoolyard, calling on teachers to evacuate the building, al-Naggar said.
Israeli troops withdrew after students' parents gathered outside the school, according to al-Nagar.
Following their withdrawal, he added, Israeli forces had set up barricades around the locality.
No casualties or injuries were reported as a result of the fray.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, were not available for comment.
Tension remains high in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces continue to clash with Palestinians protesting in solidarity with their counterparts in the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
The coastal strip has reeled under a weeks-long Israeli military onslaught that appeared to end Tuesday with the signing of an Egypt-brokered cease-fire deal.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/13764-israeli-forces-storm-palestinian-school-in-west-bank
Palestinians in Jerusalem complain of police persecution and threats of violence, as Gaza war escalated tensions.
Patrick Strickland Last updated: 28 Aug 2014
Jerusalem - After local media reports broke that Israeli settlers had attempted to kidnap a Palestinian childin the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina last Wednesday, Mirna Ansari’s parents, lifetime residents of the Old City, sat down their five children for a family meeting.
"My mom doesn’t usually follow politics," Ansari, 23, a recent university graduate and administrative assistant at a local development agency, told Al Jazeera. "But she is really scared about my 13-year-old brother walking to school alone right now. I’ve never seen her that worried before. It used to be normal for us to go to school by foot."
Last month, Palestinian teenager Mohammad Abu Khdair was kidnapped by Israeli settlers in the Shuafat area of the city and his body was later found in a nearby forest, burned alive. Only a few days later, Israel launched its ongoing military offensive against the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 2,100 Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/palestinians-jerusalem-attacks-israel-gaza-20148258042106687.html
