Kfar Qassem resists demolitions

The Arab town of Kfar Qassem witnessed riots yesterday night, as locals confronted the demolition of a greenhouse owned by an Arab, Majid Issa. As the Israeli Border Police and their bulldozers invaded the town, a call was issued from the louderspeakers of local mosques for the inhabitants to rally in solidarity with the affected family. Five Israeli policemen were injured in the confrontations. At least 12 persons have been arrested after the riots. The community is now active in mobilizing solidarity with the detainees.

Kfar Qassem is located on the Israeli side of the Apartheid Wall, Tulkarem is located just on the other side. Building permits are rarely given to Arab citizens of Israel, resulting in that a vast majority of newly-built structures lack permits. It is a consistent policy of discrimination against an entire community. A month earlier, Mr. Issa's sister's house had been demolished.

In 1956 Kfar Qassem was the site of a massacre by the Israeli military, see Haaretz and Wikipedia.


Israeli Border Police guarding the demolition


The site of the demolished building

Photo credits: Kfar Qassem website
Newslinks: Kfar Qassem website, JPost, Maan, Haaretz
Blogs: Loke, Esbati, Pastey

Israeli Apartheid "justice": Kill an Arab = 6 months community service

From Ynet (my emphasis):

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Haim Castro, a former Border Guard officer, who was convicted of shooting dead an Israeli Arab in Kfar Qassem six years ago, without there being any immediate threat to his life.

Castro was sentenced to six months community service by a district court. He then appealed to the Supreme Court arguing he did not shoot the man in question, but his appeal was rejected.

Do you really need any further argument that Israel is an Apartheid state? The same state holds thousands of Palestinian in detention, many of them having done no crime at all. Israel uses 'Administrative Detention' to arbitrarily imprison Palestinians without criminal charges. Interestingly, the military can detain a Palestinian in 'Administrative Detention' for six months (and is renewable indefinitely by a military judge under certain conditions), six month being the same period as Haim Castro's penalty for having killed an Arab citizen of Israel.

Blog: Angry Arab
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