"Settlers attack Palestinians after outpost evacuations"

From Ma'an

Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian olive groves in the northern West Bank villages of Tell and Madma south of Nablus protesting evacuation of an illegal settlement outpost on Monday.

According to Ghassan Dughlus, a Palestinian Authority official in charge of settlement activity in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces evacuated an illegal outpost near the village of Sinjil on Monday morning. Angered about the evacuation, settlers set fire to Palestinian fields near Yizhar settlement south of Nablus.

Dughlus was also quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying that 10 settlers riding horses and carrying torches set fire to between 1,500 and 2,000 olive trees.

Firefighters were sent to the fields in an attempt to put out the flames. A Palestinian photojournalist also said he was assaulted by settlers when he attempted to cover the incident.

Settlers also threw stones at Palestinian cars and blocked the road near the Huwwara checkpoint on the outskirts of Nablus. Two Palestinian motorists were lightly injured and five cars damaged, according to Dughlus. Israeli soldiers clashed with the settlers, ultimately arresting two, and escorting the others away from the scene. Palestinian cars were also attacked in the city of Hebron.

The settlers’ attacks on Palestinians were a continuation of what they call a “price tag” campaign, in which they respond violently whenever outposts are removed by the Israeli government.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4

F**k Veolia

There are unconfirmed reports that the Galway City council has voted 12 to 2 to adopt a motion against utilizing the illegal-settlement-profiteering company Veolia for its city transport services. Veolia has now lost Stockholm metro (a 3.5 billion Euro contract) and Bordeaux contracts. In short, taking part in the occupation doesn't pay off.

IPSC press statement on the Galway City vote.

Palestinian BDS Committee asks Tehran to go from rhetoric to action

A day following Ahmadinejad's publicized speech in Geneva, the Palestinian Campaign for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) has criticized Iran for business ties with Veolia Environment and Alstrom. The two French companies are active in the occupied West Bank, profiteering from the illegal Israeli settlements there. At the same time the municipality of Tehran is negotation with Veolia regarding local transport systems. Alstrom has an office in Tehran, and has obtained multi-million dollar contracts with Iranian state agencies. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) appealed to Iran to "take the necessary steps to ban Veolia and Alstom and their subsidiaries from any contracts and operations in the country."

Source: Maan
Newslinks on the Geneva conference: 1, 2, 3

Settlers abduct Palestinian shepherd

From Maan;

Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli settlers abducted a Palestinian shepherd south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday evening, Palestinian and Israeli sources reported.

The shepherd was identified as 24-year-old, Mohammad Abdallah Suleiman, a resident of the village of Sumu. The settlers seized Suleiman after he allegedly infiltrated the nearby Israeli settlement of Otni’el.

Officials at the Palestinian Coordination Office, Suleiman was handed over to the Israeli army, and is still under arrest.

Settler terror, 38 Palestinians wounded in attack on Safa village

Copy-pasted from Ma'an;

Hebron – Ma'an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning.

According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas.

One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha'er Aadi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah.

One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them.

Soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said.

Neighboring villages called on for help

Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call.

When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa.

Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured:
31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh,
26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot,
26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh,
35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and
24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil

The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day's events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves.

Revenge attack

On Thursday in Bat Ayin a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe.

The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week's attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls' school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son.

The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident.

West Bank settlers attack Palestinians near Tulkarem

Today, Israeli settlers violently attacked buses transporting family members of Palestinian detainees trying to enter the Hadarim prison near Tulkarem. The attackers shouted slogans such as "death to Arabs and Palestinians". None of the prisoners' family members were, according to news reports, physically hurt, but the entire delegation was barred from visiting their detaineed family members.

Source: Maan News Agency

Votes in settlements, kibbutzim and Bedouin villages

At Haaretz website you can read election results by city and sector. If you read Hebrew, Ynet has an interactive map of the results (with comparisons to 2003 and 2006). The Ynet map is a nightmare if you have a slow internet connection, though. Do note that the Ynet map includes both West Bank and Golan as parts of Israel, borders that are not internationally recognized. On the plus side, you can even see results at submunicipal levels at some places.

*Settlements: According to the Ynet map, 'Judea and Samaria' (i.e. West Bank settlers) have voted in the following fashion: Likud 25%, National Union 20%, United Torah Judaism 14%, Shas 11%, Kadima 8%, Jewish Home 8%, Yisrael Beiteinu 8%, Labour 2%, United Arab List-Ta'al 1%, Green Movement-Meimad 1%. Other parties got less than 1%.

*Kibbutzim: According to Haaretz, Kibbutzim votes have been divided along the following lines: Kadima 31%, Labour 31%, Meretz 18%, Likud 6%, Yisrael Beitenu 3%, Jewish Home 3%, Green Movement-Meimad 2%, National Union 2%, Ale Yarok (Green Left, pro-marijuana party) 1%, Green Party 1%, Shas 1%, Hadash 1%. Other parties received less than 1%.

*Bedouins: According to Haaretz, the Bedouin communities have predominately voted for the United Arab List-Ta'al (80%). Other parties in the Bedouin areas were National Democratic Assembly (Balad) 5%, Hadash 2%, Kadima 2%, Labour 2%, Shas 2%, Likud 1%, Green Party 1%, Yisrael Beitenu 1%, Meretz 1%. Other parties received less than 1%.

Daily terrorism by the IOF in the West Bank

Some headlines from Maan News Agency today, all issued within 20 minutes:

"10:21
05/02/2009
Settlers bulldoze land, erect outpost in Nablus area village

10:05
05/02/2009 High school student seized by Israeli forces at Tulkarem checkpoint

10:03
05/02/2009 Israeli forces detain five in Nablus area

10:01
05/02/2009 Israeli forces seize boy from Bethlehem area village"

Other news links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Fida states that Israeli excarvations are to blame for school's collapse, calls on Israeli authorities to halt excarvations around al-Aqsa mosque

According to a statement issued on Monday by the Palestinian Democratic Union, Fida, the collapse of an UNRWA school is a result of the careless and extensive digging and excavations that Israel is conducting beneath occupied East Jerusalem. The floor of the UNRWA school had collapsed on Sunday, injuring 17 young girls in their classroom. Fida has called upon Israeli authorities to freeze the excarvations underneath the al-Aqsa Mosque. The party also called upon Israeli authorities to cease the expansion of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, arguing that the settlements constructions stood in the way of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Source: Maan News Agency