Israel orders 8 Palestinian villages to be razed for army bases despite evidence that the villages have existed since 1830

RT NEWS
July 23, 2012


Israeli soldiers fire their weapons during a training session near Beqa'ot in the West Bank (Reuters/Handout)

Israel’s Defense Ministry has ordered eight Palestinian villages in the West Bank to be razed, claiming the land is needed for military training. Hundreds of Palestinians are to be displaced despite evidence that the villages have existed since 1830.

The residents of the villages, located in the southern region of Hebron, are accused of “illegal dwelling in a fire zone.” The government said in a memo to the Supreme Court on Sunday that the 1,500-plus residents will be moved to the nearby city of Yatta, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. The Defense Ministry has obtained evidence the Palestinians have permanent homes there...

(click here to read the full article at RT NEWS)

Illegal Israeli settlers shoot Palestinians right in front of 'idle' Israeli troops

File photo shows an armed Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank 

with Israeli soldiers. Photo credit: Press TV 

Jewish settlers shoot Palestinians as Israeli soldiers stand idle
Press TV
May 21, 2012

In the latest scandal involving the Israeli military, soldiers stand by and refuse to intervene as extremist Jewish settlers open fire on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

A video clip released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem shows armed settlers from Yitzhar settlements, near Nablus, attacked the nearby village of Asira al-Qibliya over the weekend and threw rocks at Palestinian homes, sparking clashes in the area.







The footage also shows the settlers, who were armed with two M-16 assault rifles and a pistol, shooting Palestinians in the presence of at least three soldiers. The Israeli soldiers only watched the violence and did nothing to stop the settlers. One soldier is also seen running away from the unrest.

A 24-year-old Palestinian man was injured in the shooting and five others were wounded by settlers who were throwing stones.

B'Tselem has filed a complaint with the police, urging an investigation into the incident, saying that the soldiers "did not adhere to their obligation to protect Palestinians from settler violence."

It has also called for the prosecution of the settlers involved in the violence.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Israeli troops of refusing to protect Palestinians against the Jewish settlers. Former West Bank Division Commander Brigadier General Nitzan Alon has also said that Israeli soldiers have not been working enough to stop settler attacks on Palestinians.

Israeli settlers, mostly armed, regularly attack Palestinian villages and farms and set fire to their mosques, olive groves and other properties in the occupied West Bank in what they believe to be the "price tag" for every outpost or West Bank settlement that is demolished.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under the international law.

HM/JR/AZ



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The Obama Administration obstructing justice in Israeli-occupied Palestine on Human-Rights Commission probe into illegal settlements...`aint that a surprise

U.S. pressing UN Human Rights Commissioner to put off West Bank settlements probe
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials believe the aim of Obama administration pressure is to postpone the probe until at least after the presidential elections in November.

By Barak Ravid
Haaretz
May 2, 2012

The Obama administration is trying to delay the establishment of a panel appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

U.S. Middle East envoy David Hale met in Bern last week with UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and asked her not to advance the matter in the near future.

An Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus. 

Photo credit: AP

According to the text of the decision to establish the panel, it is meant "to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem." However, the UN Human Rights Commissioner has yet to formulate a clear mandate for the panel and has not appointed a chairman or members.

For all the latest updates follow Haaretz on Facebook and Tumblr

Foreign Ministry officials noted that the U.S. wants to postpone the establishment of the panel to the latest possible date, hoping this will lead to the unofficial burial of the matter. However, the assessment is that it will not be possible to prevent the establishment of the panel, so the aim is therefore to delay it until at least after the U.S. presidential elections in November.

On March 30, a week after the decision by the UN Human Rights Council, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon traveled secretly to Washington to meet with his U.S. counterpart Bill Burns. Ayalon asked for help in thwarting the establishment of the panel and even suggested that the U.S. publicly threaten to quit the UN Human Rights Council if the panel is established.

The Americans did not respond to that threat, as they view membership in the UN Human Rights Council as a central issue in the foreign policy of the Obama administration. However, the Americans agreed to pressure the UN Human Rights Commissioner on the date of the establishment of the panel and the mandate that it will receive.

Following the UN Human Rights Council's decision to establish the panel to investigate the settlements, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman decided to halt cooperation with the UN Human Rights Commissioner and her staff and to boycott the proceedings of the UN Human Rights Council.

A Foreign Ministry official told Haaretz that one of the people who tried to change Lieberman's mind from taking that step was none other than Israel's ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva, Roni Leshno-Yaar.

Leshno-Yaar came to Israel several weeks ago for policy consultations, met personally with Lieberman, and tried to convince him to go back on the decision. Leshno-Yaar said that the damage of the decision would outweigh the benefits.

Lieberman listened to Leshno-Yaar, but did not accept his view. Leshno-Yaar returned to Geneva and received written instructions to cut all ties with the UN Human Rights Commissioner and to not appear at UN Human Rights Council discussions. Consequently, much of the work of Israel's envoy to UN institutions in Geneva was frozen in place.

Incidentally, Leshno-Yaar will finish his role in Geneva in a few months and return to Israel to serve at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Jerusalem as the deputy director-general of ties between Israel and the UN.

ICC hypocrisy continues...‘Not a country’: ICC blocks Palestine war crimes probe

RT News
April 4, 2012, 15:25

(AFP Photo / Abbas Momani)

The ICC has refused Palestine’s bid for an investigation into the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza strip on the basis that Palestine is not a recognized state. Human rights groups have strongly criticized the move, while Israel has praised it.

A prosecutor from the International Criminal Court said the investigation would get the go ahead only if the UN or its Security Council recognizes Palestine as a state.

“I need Palestine recognized as a state because I am not the prosecutor of the world; I am the prosecutor of the countries who accept my jurisdiction. I need a country accepting me and then I investigate the crimes,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Al Arabiya on Monday.

Israel welcomed the announcement, the Israeli Foreign Minister saying in a statement that "Israel made it clear in the first place that the ICC has no jurisdiction in this matter."

The Israeli military incursion into Gaza began in winter of 2008, when their forces entered Gaza with the aim of stopping rocket fire into Israel. Palestinian forces continued with their rocket bombardment in return for what they described as Israeli “massacres”.

The war came to an end in January 2009 when Israel declared a ceasefire, Hamas followed suit 12 hours afterwards.

The conflict is estimated to have claimed between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian lives.
Rights groups rounded on the decision, a spokesperson from Amnesty International branding the move as “dangerous” and “inconsistent with the independence of the ICC.”

“It also breaches the Rome Statute, which clearly states that such matters should be considered by the institution’s judges,” said Marek Marczyñski, head of Amnesty International’s International Justice Campaign on Tuesday.

The Rome Statute is the ICC’s founding treaty and allows states not party to the statute to accept the Court’s jurisdiction.

In 2009 the Palestinian Authority officially accepted the purview of the International Court, but the country’s lack of recognition as a state still remains the stumbling block impeding the investigation.

Israel is not subject to the Rome Statute and consequently denies the ICC’s has any jurisdiction in Gaza.

Over 130 governments have supported Palestine’s status as an independent state, but the General Assembly still classifies the Palestine Liberation Organization as an observer state, as opposed to a non-member state.

The nation filed for UN membership last September, but the Security Council has yet to reach a decision as to whether it will welcome Palestine as a member state.

The lack of clarity concerning Palestine’s international status that is making it difficult for it do ask for legal action from institutions such as the ICC, says Jeff Halper, co-founder and executive director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

“The Palestinians exist in a kind of a limbo. Because they’re not a state, they don’t have access to all the instruments of international law, or of the UN system. But at the same time, international law that does apply to the occupied territories is intended to protect them. Especially the 4th Geneva Convention is not enforced by the international community.”

Halper also told RT that this ambiguity is almost a catch-22 for the Palestinians, as they are left relying on the very people they believe oppress them to protect them.

“So on the one hand, they don’t have the instruments to protect themselves, and on the other hand the international community doesn’t accept its responsibility to afford protection for the Palestinians. It’s the hugest problem we have in international law and human rights – the instruments of law exist, the courts exist, the institutions exist. But the ability to implement international law on governments like Israel is completely missing,” Halper said.

The Apartheid Israeli regime threatens to demolish German-funded solar power farm in the West Bank

A Little Power to Some Palestinian People, For Now
By Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
IPS

SHE’B EL-BUTTUM, WEST BANK, Mar 30, 2012 (IPS) - A handful of makeshift homes built from small boulders and plastic tarps and secured with thick ropes sit in the isolated community of She’b El- Buttum in the South Hebron Hills. A few metres away, several rows of solar panels and two wind turbines are affixed to the rocky hilltop, providing electricity to the village’s 150 residents.

The energy project in the South Hebron hills.

Credit: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours/IPS.

"We use the electricity for the milking machine, for the washing machine, the fridge, and for getting light when night falls," says Ismail Al-Jabarin, a 43-year-old She’b El-Buttum resident. "Before getting access to electricity, we lived on a generator that functioned two hours a day only, and had frequent problems. It is much, much better with electricity."

..."If the military forces come and destroy the electricity, our life will turn miserable again," Al-Jabarin tells IPS. "Our life is much more comfortable with electricity. Life without electricity is deplorable and very difficult."

...The systems were installed by Israeli group Community Electricity and Technology Middle East (COMET-ME), and funded in large part by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

...Currently, COMET-ME’s solar panel and wind turbine installations provide electricity to more than 1,500 people in 19 communities throughout the South Mount Hebron area, which counts a total Palestinian population of approximately 8,000.

...Still, should the demolitions go ahead, at least 500 Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills would be left in the dark.

..."Israel goes around the world to help (people) – when there are earthquakes, tsunamis, whatever – but in their own backyard, when they have under-developed communities that they are obliged to protect, they not only don’t do that but they demolish projects made to support the people."

(click here to read the full article)