Palinurus
The Living Force
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Examples of continuous Israeli harassment/murder of Palestinians
- Thread starter Palinurus
- Start date
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Three people got wounded during a shooting that occurred in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, July 14.
Three People Wounded During Shooting in Jerusalem's Old City
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707141055533890-jerusalem-shooting-victims/
The attack took place at the Lions' Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem which is visited by many tourists, the Galei Zahal radio reported, citing police.
According to the radio, two of those injured are in critical condition.
Israeli Police Detain Jerusalem Grand Mufti in Wake of Temple Mount Attack
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707141055549631-israel-temple-mount/
Grand Mufti's predecessor, Ekrima Sabri, was also detained following the attack, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.
Earlier in the day, two policemen died, and a third was wounded after three armed assailants opened fire at the Temple Mount complex.
Following the attack, the complex was cleared of visitors and closed off to carry out searches at the site, according to the newspaper.
The last time the Temple Mount complex was closed off was after the 2014 assassination attempt on Yehudah Glick, an incumbent member of the Knesset, according to the Haaretz newspaper. The cancellation of Friday prayers has not been done since 2000, the newspaper added.
Three people got wounded during a shooting that occurred in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, July 14.
Three People Wounded During Shooting in Jerusalem's Old City
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707141055533890-jerusalem-shooting-victims/
The attack took place at the Lions' Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem which is visited by many tourists, the Galei Zahal radio reported, citing police.
According to the radio, two of those injured are in critical condition.
Israeli Police Detain Jerusalem Grand Mufti in Wake of Temple Mount Attack
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707141055549631-israel-temple-mount/
Grand Mufti's predecessor, Ekrima Sabri, was also detained following the attack, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.
Earlier in the day, two policemen died, and a third was wounded after three armed assailants opened fire at the Temple Mount complex.
Following the attack, the complex was cleared of visitors and closed off to carry out searches at the site, according to the newspaper.
The last time the Temple Mount complex was closed off was after the 2014 assassination attempt on Yehudah Glick, an incumbent member of the Knesset, according to the Haaretz newspaper. The cancellation of Friday prayers has not been done since 2000, the newspaper added.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Words - fail me???
New Israeli tourist attraction: "Shoot Palestinians" simulation in illegal settlement
https://www.sott.net/article/356463-New-Israeli-tourist-attraction-Shoot-Palestinians-simulation-in-illegal-settlement
Words - fail me???
New Israeli tourist attraction: "Shoot Palestinians" simulation in illegal settlement
https://www.sott.net/article/356463-New-Israeli-tourist-attraction-Shoot-Palestinians-simulation-in-illegal-settlement
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Same here.
The people who created that programme are beyond sick, and they even allow children to attend...
Dutch PM has complained to Netanyahu about this last week, and Netanyahu said he will look into it and come back to it later. But I'm not holding my breath that NL will get the solar panels back.
angelburst29 said:
Same here.
The people who created that programme are beyond sick, and they even allow children to attend... Palinurus said:
Dutch PM has complained to Netanyahu about this last week, and Netanyahu said he will look into it and come back to it later. But I'm not holding my breath that NL will get the solar panels back.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
A United Nations expert panel said in its annual evaluation that Israel continues the illegal practice of settlement expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, while accusing Tel Aviv of excessive use of force and collective punishment against Palestinians.
UN Panel Blasts Israel over Abuses, Settlement Expansion in Occupied Palestinian Territories
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427001568
After gathering testimonies from civil society organizations, UN representatives and Palestinian officials, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories noted a number of violations against the Palestinians over the last year, including the detention of minors by the Israel Defense Force (IDF), RT reported.
“The Committee heard troubling testimony regarding the arrest and detention of children, including cases of reported ill-treatment and lack of adequate protection,” the Committee said after its fact-finding visit to Amman, Jordan.
The Committee also heard testimonies of “excessive use of force” by Israeli forces and the "lack of accountability" by Tel Aviv which "further exacerbated the cycle of violence."
The UN experts recorded testimonies of continued administrative detention and “difficult conditions” of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
While the full report of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians will only be published in November, the experts highlighted the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories which are illegal under international law.
“Organizations told the Committee that Israeli settlement expansion had continued in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as the Syrian Golan, with a notably high level of new construction announced this year, in violation of international humanitarian law,” the fact finding team said.
Israel Seals off West Bank Town of Azzun, Declares Town as ‘Closed Military Area’
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427001158
Witnesses said that Israeli forces sealed off all roads that connect the town to neighboring areas and set up checkpoints banning any one from going in or out of the town, WAFA reported. Army patrols paraded in the town streets, checking identity cards of people and stopping cars, and raided and ransacked several homes, added the witnesses.
WAFA correspondent said clashes broke out between town residents and Israeli forces who fired stun grenades at the protesters and homes causing a number of suffocation cases.
The move comes as the Israeli forces fired rubber bullets to disperse protesting Palestinians outside the Temple Mount or al-Ḥaram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) as referred to by Muslims, in Jerusalem, injuring three people, including Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti.
Tensions surrounding the site, holy to both Muslims and Jews, remain high after Israel installed metal detectors and addition CCTV cameras following Friday’s attack.
Dozens of Palestinians, who gathered outside the compound for the evening prayer Monday hurled stones and other projectiles at Israeli guards.
The clashes eventually erupted between the police and the worshipers at the Lions Gate leading to the compound.
Israeli Security Arrests Gaza-Based UN Official En Route to Jerusalem
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427000989
According to local NGO the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Hamdan Muhammad Hassan Timraz, the assistant regional director for UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) in the Gaza Strip, was detained on July 12 at Israel’s Erez crossing, the only crossing Palestinians in Gaza can use to travel to Israel or the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, Maan reported.
Timraz, 61, had obtained a permit to travel to Jerusalem to meet with the general manager of UNDSS’ Jerusalem office, according to Al-Mezan’s statement, which highlighted that Timraz regularly traveled outside of Gaza for work.
Timraz’s wife Niemeh Salih Timraz, 54, told the NGO that the family lost contact with him after he arrived at Erez crossing. It wasn’t until Thursday that Israeli security services telephoned Timraz’s 24-year-old son Abd al-Hadi and notified him that his father was under arrest.
An local security source confirmed the arrest to an Israeli journalist, who said the news was under gag order in Israel. Ma’an has reached out to UNDSS for comment, which has not commented publicly on the case.
The arrest came after Israel has accused a number of NGO workers based in the Gaza Strip of being affiliated to or aiding Hamas, Gaza’s de facto leading party, in the past year, including employees of UNRWA, UNDP, World Vision, and Save the Children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also notably called for UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, to be dismantled.
Israeli Troops Attack Palestinian Sit-In outside Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427001847
The Israeli troops on Tuesday clashed with the sit-inners outside the Lions Gate, a main entrance to the compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, for the third consecutive day after Tel Aviv implemented new measures that ban worshipers from performing their prayers freely in the mosque, Quds News reported.
Israeli forces on Sunday reopened the compound, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, two days after they closed it following a deadly shooting in the area.
Muslims, however, refused to enter the site in protest at the newly-imposed security measures, including the installation of metal detectors and cameras. Dozens of worshipers held prayers outside the compound.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday condemned the Israeli measures, warning against their repercussions.
While Palestinians cannot enter the mosque freely, about 155 Israeli settlers, guarded by Israeli forces, stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Tuesday.
Israeli Forces Detain 13 Palestinians, Seize Weapons in West Bank Raids
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001060
The sources in Nabi Salih region also said that a violent detention raid there sparked clashes in which at least two locals were physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers Ma'an reported.
Israeli forces stormed the village of Nabi Salih in Central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah and raided a number of houses, including the home of Mahmoud al-Tamimi who was assaulted by Israeli forces and hospitalized for his injuries, according to local sources.
Naji al-Tamimi also reported that Israeli soldiers assaulted members of his family after they broke into his house and detained his 21-year-old son Anan.
Israeli soldiers also raided the house of Salih Ayoub in the village and detained his 26-year-old son Omar.
The aggressive raid sparked clashes in the village, during which Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at local youth and toward houses, locals said.
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the two detentions in Nabi Salih and told Ma’an they were looking into reports of the clashes.
Israeli Forces Injure Scores of Worshipers as Unrest Continues at Al-Aqsa
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001356
Jerusalemite Palestinians have continued to protest against new metal detectors at the gates of the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, that were installed Sunday after the holy site was placed under rare closure for more than two days, after a shoot-out left three assailants and two Israeli officers, all Palestinian citizens of Israel dead in and around the compound, Ma'an reported.
Clashes between Israeli forces have been ongoing since the new security measures were imposed, which have been widely denounced by Palestinians as a violation of freedom of worship.
Dozens of Palestinians were injured Monday night during the Isha prayers, and dozens more were injured on Tuesday night after Israeli forces attack thousands of worshipers, including women, elderly, and children in and around the Old City.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 70 people were injured at the Lions Gate entrance to the compound, including at least 14 protesting worshipers who were hospitalized, three of them for serious injuries.
At least 20 more were treated at the scene for minor injuries resulting from severe tear gas inhalation or being beaten and bruised by Israeli police.
The Red Crescent said Israeli forces fired a sound bomb directly at one of its ambulances and physically assaulted on medic who was attempting to provide treatment to protesting worshipers.
A number of reporters and journalists were also assaulted and injured by Israeli police.
One of the wounded was Sheikh Akrama Sabri, head of High Islamic Committee, who sustained severe bruises on his back after being shot by Israeli police with a rubber-coated steel bullet and beaten with batons.
The Red Crescent said later Wednesday morning he was undergoing surgery at Makassed hospital.
Jewish Fanatics Roam Al-Aqsa as Muslims Refuse to Enter It through Metal Detectors
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001387
Officials and personnel of the Islamic Waqf department, including its director Azzam Khatib, continued their sit-in at the Majlis Gate outside the holy compound in protest against the Israeli metal detectors, WAFA reported.
This came only hours after dozens of Palestinians were injured when Israeli police attacked Palestinian worshippers who were holding the night prayer at Lions’ Gate outside Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Higher Islamic Council, has called on Muslims to gather at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday in a strong show of support for it against the new Israeli measures that are threatening the decades-old Status Quo at the mosque.
Israel Seizes Palestinians' Water Pumps, Tanks in Jordan Valley
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001395
WAFA reported that staff from Israeli civil administration, the Israeli military government’s arm in the occupied territories, and soldiers raided the area of Nabia al-Himma and seized water pumps and containers of Palestinians. Israeli forces also destroyed a water pipe in the area of Um al-Jamal, also in the Northern Jordan Valley.
Palestinians in the Jordan Valley said that Israel is trying to make life impossible for them on their land as a way to get them to leave the area for the benefit of illegal Jewish settlement construction.
Israeli Army Accidentally Admits to Existence of Secret Airbase
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428000932
The incident highlights the secrecy at the core of Israel's military strategy, Sputnik reported.
Officially, the Israel Air Force operates 10 major airbases under the ultimate leadership of Commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, notable examples include Ramat David in the North, and the Uvda airbase near Eilat.
However, military documents released in early July via the IDF's official website in accordance with Israel's Freedom of Information Law acknowledged the existence of another for the very first time.
The document describes the structure of the air force corps and its divisions, listing the names of all the bases and their respective commanders' names.
The mysterious eleventh base, commanded by a "Colonel Binyamin", is called Sdot Ha'ela. The IAF's official website map of all the force's airbases doesn't acknowledge the existence of the base, let alone where it is located.
In a sense, that Israel, a regional power in military terms, a major arms exporter and one of the world's key military innovation hubs, should maintain a covert airbase isn't so surprising. All the world's major military spenders have a panoply of army installations on their own soil and elsewhere, some top secret, some not so secret.
However, Israel's military is perhaps more shrouded in secrecy than that of any other country.
Ironically, Israel's biggest military secret is perhaps the world's worst kept since the 1970s, if not before, Israel has informally possessed a nuclear deterrent.
While its existence isn't remotely doubtful and, bizarrely, ongoing debates over whether to publicly acknowledge its existence are openly conducted in mainstream Israeli discourse, the country has a policy of failing to confirm, and even occasionally denying, it maintains nuclear weapons.
The German-made INS Rahav, the fifth Israeli Navy submarine, arrives at the military port of Haifa on January 12, 2016. In September 2015, Israel received delivery of the fourth Dolphin 2 class submarines from Germany. A third of the cost was funded by Germany as part of its military aid to Israel. The submarines, the most sophisticated in Israel's fleet, can be equipped with missiles armed with nuclear warheads.
Israel's failure to acknowledge its possession of nuclear weapons stems from their illegality — and indeed the legal obligations many of the country's key allies have to respond to illegally-held nuclear arsenals via diplomatic, political and even military means, that stem from various nuclear treaties.
What is known is Israel started research into nuclear weapons in the late 1940s. At the time, many analysts expected the wide proliferation of nuclear weapons technology across the world, and as a state under effective siege a nuclear deterrent was viewed as a potentially permanent lifeline. The development was assisted by France, the UK and US.
Israel probably constructed its first nuclear device in 1966, with an arsenal of usable weapons available a few years later. The first delivery systems were fighter-bombers, supplemented before long by ballistic missiles.
Information on the program was leaked to the world's media by Mordechai Vanunu, who worked on the project.
Vanunu suffered greatly for his whistleblowing after selling his story to mainstream publications, he was lured to Rome by Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov in a honey trap operation, overpowered and drugged by three waiting Mossad agents, before being dispatched to Israel.
There, he was convicted in a secret trial of treason and espionage, and sentenced to eighteen years of imprisonment.
Vanunu served most of his sentence in solitary confinement, and was released April 2004. He remains subject to a number of prohibitions, including not contacting foreigners, owning a mobile phone or ever leaving Israel. He has been imprisoned on several occasions subsequent for breaching these conditions.
Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, center, sits between two prison guards as he waits in a courtroom before a hearing in Jerusalem in 2009.
However, information has also flowed from more contemporary sources.
The 2017 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report on trends in nuclear warfare estimates Tel Aviv has access to around 80 warheads, of which around 30 are gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft, and 50 weapons are made for delivery by Jericho II medium-range ballistic missiles, believed to be located along with mobile launchers in caves at a military base east of Jerusalem.
Moreover, Germany is known to have supplied a sextet of Dolphin class diesel-electric submarines to Israel in 2016, which can be equipped with nuclear missiles.
A United Nations expert panel said in its annual evaluation that Israel continues the illegal practice of settlement expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, while accusing Tel Aviv of excessive use of force and collective punishment against Palestinians.
UN Panel Blasts Israel over Abuses, Settlement Expansion in Occupied Palestinian Territories
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427001568
After gathering testimonies from civil society organizations, UN representatives and Palestinian officials, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories noted a number of violations against the Palestinians over the last year, including the detention of minors by the Israel Defense Force (IDF), RT reported.
“The Committee heard troubling testimony regarding the arrest and detention of children, including cases of reported ill-treatment and lack of adequate protection,” the Committee said after its fact-finding visit to Amman, Jordan.
The Committee also heard testimonies of “excessive use of force” by Israeli forces and the "lack of accountability" by Tel Aviv which "further exacerbated the cycle of violence."
The UN experts recorded testimonies of continued administrative detention and “difficult conditions” of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
While the full report of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians will only be published in November, the experts highlighted the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories which are illegal under international law.
“Organizations told the Committee that Israeli settlement expansion had continued in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as the Syrian Golan, with a notably high level of new construction announced this year, in violation of international humanitarian law,” the fact finding team said.
Israel Seals off West Bank Town of Azzun, Declares Town as ‘Closed Military Area’
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427001158
Witnesses said that Israeli forces sealed off all roads that connect the town to neighboring areas and set up checkpoints banning any one from going in or out of the town, WAFA reported. Army patrols paraded in the town streets, checking identity cards of people and stopping cars, and raided and ransacked several homes, added the witnesses.
WAFA correspondent said clashes broke out between town residents and Israeli forces who fired stun grenades at the protesters and homes causing a number of suffocation cases.
The move comes as the Israeli forces fired rubber bullets to disperse protesting Palestinians outside the Temple Mount or al-Ḥaram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) as referred to by Muslims, in Jerusalem, injuring three people, including Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti.
Tensions surrounding the site, holy to both Muslims and Jews, remain high after Israel installed metal detectors and addition CCTV cameras following Friday’s attack.
Dozens of Palestinians, who gathered outside the compound for the evening prayer Monday hurled stones and other projectiles at Israeli guards.
The clashes eventually erupted between the police and the worshipers at the Lions Gate leading to the compound.
Israeli Security Arrests Gaza-Based UN Official En Route to Jerusalem
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427000989
According to local NGO the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Hamdan Muhammad Hassan Timraz, the assistant regional director for UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) in the Gaza Strip, was detained on July 12 at Israel’s Erez crossing, the only crossing Palestinians in Gaza can use to travel to Israel or the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, Maan reported.
Timraz, 61, had obtained a permit to travel to Jerusalem to meet with the general manager of UNDSS’ Jerusalem office, according to Al-Mezan’s statement, which highlighted that Timraz regularly traveled outside of Gaza for work.
Timraz’s wife Niemeh Salih Timraz, 54, told the NGO that the family lost contact with him after he arrived at Erez crossing. It wasn’t until Thursday that Israeli security services telephoned Timraz’s 24-year-old son Abd al-Hadi and notified him that his father was under arrest.
An local security source confirmed the arrest to an Israeli journalist, who said the news was under gag order in Israel. Ma’an has reached out to UNDSS for comment, which has not commented publicly on the case.
The arrest came after Israel has accused a number of NGO workers based in the Gaza Strip of being affiliated to or aiding Hamas, Gaza’s de facto leading party, in the past year, including employees of UNRWA, UNDP, World Vision, and Save the Children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also notably called for UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, to be dismantled.
Israeli Troops Attack Palestinian Sit-In outside Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960427001847
The Israeli troops on Tuesday clashed with the sit-inners outside the Lions Gate, a main entrance to the compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, for the third consecutive day after Tel Aviv implemented new measures that ban worshipers from performing their prayers freely in the mosque, Quds News reported.
Israeli forces on Sunday reopened the compound, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, two days after they closed it following a deadly shooting in the area.
Muslims, however, refused to enter the site in protest at the newly-imposed security measures, including the installation of metal detectors and cameras. Dozens of worshipers held prayers outside the compound.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday condemned the Israeli measures, warning against their repercussions.
While Palestinians cannot enter the mosque freely, about 155 Israeli settlers, guarded by Israeli forces, stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Tuesday.
Israeli Forces Detain 13 Palestinians, Seize Weapons in West Bank Raids
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001060
The sources in Nabi Salih region also said that a violent detention raid there sparked clashes in which at least two locals were physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers Ma'an reported.
Israeli forces stormed the village of Nabi Salih in Central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah and raided a number of houses, including the home of Mahmoud al-Tamimi who was assaulted by Israeli forces and hospitalized for his injuries, according to local sources.
Naji al-Tamimi also reported that Israeli soldiers assaulted members of his family after they broke into his house and detained his 21-year-old son Anan.
Israeli soldiers also raided the house of Salih Ayoub in the village and detained his 26-year-old son Omar.
The aggressive raid sparked clashes in the village, during which Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at local youth and toward houses, locals said.
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the two detentions in Nabi Salih and told Ma’an they were looking into reports of the clashes.
Israeli Forces Injure Scores of Worshipers as Unrest Continues at Al-Aqsa
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001356
Jerusalemite Palestinians have continued to protest against new metal detectors at the gates of the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, that were installed Sunday after the holy site was placed under rare closure for more than two days, after a shoot-out left three assailants and two Israeli officers, all Palestinian citizens of Israel dead in and around the compound, Ma'an reported.
Clashes between Israeli forces have been ongoing since the new security measures were imposed, which have been widely denounced by Palestinians as a violation of freedom of worship.
Dozens of Palestinians were injured Monday night during the Isha prayers, and dozens more were injured on Tuesday night after Israeli forces attack thousands of worshipers, including women, elderly, and children in and around the Old City.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 70 people were injured at the Lions Gate entrance to the compound, including at least 14 protesting worshipers who were hospitalized, three of them for serious injuries.
At least 20 more were treated at the scene for minor injuries resulting from severe tear gas inhalation or being beaten and bruised by Israeli police.
The Red Crescent said Israeli forces fired a sound bomb directly at one of its ambulances and physically assaulted on medic who was attempting to provide treatment to protesting worshipers.
A number of reporters and journalists were also assaulted and injured by Israeli police.
One of the wounded was Sheikh Akrama Sabri, head of High Islamic Committee, who sustained severe bruises on his back after being shot by Israeli police with a rubber-coated steel bullet and beaten with batons.
The Red Crescent said later Wednesday morning he was undergoing surgery at Makassed hospital.
Jewish Fanatics Roam Al-Aqsa as Muslims Refuse to Enter It through Metal Detectors
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001387
Officials and personnel of the Islamic Waqf department, including its director Azzam Khatib, continued their sit-in at the Majlis Gate outside the holy compound in protest against the Israeli metal detectors, WAFA reported.
This came only hours after dozens of Palestinians were injured when Israeli police attacked Palestinian worshippers who were holding the night prayer at Lions’ Gate outside Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Higher Islamic Council, has called on Muslims to gather at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday in a strong show of support for it against the new Israeli measures that are threatening the decades-old Status Quo at the mosque.
Israel Seizes Palestinians' Water Pumps, Tanks in Jordan Valley
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428001395
WAFA reported that staff from Israeli civil administration, the Israeli military government’s arm in the occupied territories, and soldiers raided the area of Nabia al-Himma and seized water pumps and containers of Palestinians. Israeli forces also destroyed a water pipe in the area of Um al-Jamal, also in the Northern Jordan Valley.
Palestinians in the Jordan Valley said that Israel is trying to make life impossible for them on their land as a way to get them to leave the area for the benefit of illegal Jewish settlement construction.
Israeli Army Accidentally Admits to Existence of Secret Airbase
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960428000932
The incident highlights the secrecy at the core of Israel's military strategy, Sputnik reported.
Officially, the Israel Air Force operates 10 major airbases under the ultimate leadership of Commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, notable examples include Ramat David in the North, and the Uvda airbase near Eilat.
However, military documents released in early July via the IDF's official website in accordance with Israel's Freedom of Information Law acknowledged the existence of another for the very first time.
The document describes the structure of the air force corps and its divisions, listing the names of all the bases and their respective commanders' names.
The mysterious eleventh base, commanded by a "Colonel Binyamin", is called Sdot Ha'ela. The IAF's official website map of all the force's airbases doesn't acknowledge the existence of the base, let alone where it is located.
In a sense, that Israel, a regional power in military terms, a major arms exporter and one of the world's key military innovation hubs, should maintain a covert airbase isn't so surprising. All the world's major military spenders have a panoply of army installations on their own soil and elsewhere, some top secret, some not so secret.
However, Israel's military is perhaps more shrouded in secrecy than that of any other country.
Ironically, Israel's biggest military secret is perhaps the world's worst kept since the 1970s, if not before, Israel has informally possessed a nuclear deterrent.
While its existence isn't remotely doubtful and, bizarrely, ongoing debates over whether to publicly acknowledge its existence are openly conducted in mainstream Israeli discourse, the country has a policy of failing to confirm, and even occasionally denying, it maintains nuclear weapons.
The German-made INS Rahav, the fifth Israeli Navy submarine, arrives at the military port of Haifa on January 12, 2016. In September 2015, Israel received delivery of the fourth Dolphin 2 class submarines from Germany. A third of the cost was funded by Germany as part of its military aid to Israel. The submarines, the most sophisticated in Israel's fleet, can be equipped with missiles armed with nuclear warheads.
Israel's failure to acknowledge its possession of nuclear weapons stems from their illegality — and indeed the legal obligations many of the country's key allies have to respond to illegally-held nuclear arsenals via diplomatic, political and even military means, that stem from various nuclear treaties.
What is known is Israel started research into nuclear weapons in the late 1940s. At the time, many analysts expected the wide proliferation of nuclear weapons technology across the world, and as a state under effective siege a nuclear deterrent was viewed as a potentially permanent lifeline. The development was assisted by France, the UK and US.
Israel probably constructed its first nuclear device in 1966, with an arsenal of usable weapons available a few years later. The first delivery systems were fighter-bombers, supplemented before long by ballistic missiles.
Information on the program was leaked to the world's media by Mordechai Vanunu, who worked on the project.
Vanunu suffered greatly for his whistleblowing after selling his story to mainstream publications, he was lured to Rome by Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov in a honey trap operation, overpowered and drugged by three waiting Mossad agents, before being dispatched to Israel.
There, he was convicted in a secret trial of treason and espionage, and sentenced to eighteen years of imprisonment.
Vanunu served most of his sentence in solitary confinement, and was released April 2004. He remains subject to a number of prohibitions, including not contacting foreigners, owning a mobile phone or ever leaving Israel. He has been imprisoned on several occasions subsequent for breaching these conditions.
Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, center, sits between two prison guards as he waits in a courtroom before a hearing in Jerusalem in 2009.
However, information has also flowed from more contemporary sources.
The 2017 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report on trends in nuclear warfare estimates Tel Aviv has access to around 80 warheads, of which around 30 are gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft, and 50 weapons are made for delivery by Jericho II medium-range ballistic missiles, believed to be located along with mobile launchers in caves at a military base east of Jerusalem.
Moreover, Germany is known to have supplied a sextet of Dolphin class diesel-electric submarines to Israel in 2016, which can be equipped with nuclear missiles.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Palestinian lawyers and civil society groups urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to speed up inquiries and open a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza, occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestinians Urge ICC to Speed up Israel ‘War Crimes’ Probe
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000408
"Since two years Palestine is under preliminary examination," said lawyer Gilles Devers, adding "in Gaza, we think two years is too long", Jordan Times reported.
The Palestinian Authority has formally asked the ICC to investigate Israel, which is not a party to the Rome Statute that governs the court, for alleged war crimes.
It has presented the court with a dossier alleging abuses during the 2014 summer Gaza war, and for the Israeli occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories.
In January 2015, the tribunal opened a preliminary examination into alleged abuses by all sides in the conflict. And an ICC delegation visited Israel and the West Bank in late 2016.
But Palestinian activists told reporters Wednesday the investigation has stalled, calling for both the ICC and the Palestinian Authority to speed up efforts.
Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza Demonstrate in Support of Al-Aqsa
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000625
The protest rallies were held as tensions have continued to rise in occupied East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities implemented security measures at gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Ma'an reported.
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces broke out in Ramallah, where three Palestinians were injured with live ammunition, and Bethlehem, where a Palestinian and international activist were detained by Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, clashes and civil disobedience campaigns have been ongoing in and around the Old City of Jerusalem, with Palestinians continuing to protest since Israeli authorities installed metal detectors at the gates of Al-Aqsa on Sunday in response to a deadly shoot-out at the compound two days prior.
Palestinian Official Warns of Unpredictable Consequences If Metal Detectors Not Removed
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000691
Minister of Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, Adnan Husseini, said that thousands of Muslims are expected to come to the mosque on Friday for the Friday prayer and if the metal detectors are still in place, no one will enter the compound and prayer will be held on the roads and alleys leading to the mosque, WAFA reported.
He warned in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio that the situation could get out of hand and no one will then be able to predict what could happen.
Israel installed the metal detectors on Sunday and would not allow anyone to enter the compound without being inspected first.
Al-Aqsa Imam Warns of 'Explosion' Hours after Being Shot with Rubber Bullet
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000759
Speaking after being released from hospital, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri said the continued lockdown of the site by Israeli police would lead to more violence, and only the removal of security checkpoints and the reopening of gates could end the dispute, Middle East Eye reported.
If Israel wants peace they have to immediately remove the metal doors and other security obstacles.
Israel Military to Enhance Control in Jerusalem Due to Possible Unrest on Friday
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707211055738632-israel-jerusalem-unrest-control/
Israeli military expects Friday will become a culmination day for protests of local Palestinian communities against metal detectors installed at the entrances to the Temple Mount, which is the third holiest site in Islam.
Following the assessment of the situation carried out by the General Staff today, a decision was taken to use five battalions as an emergency reserve on the eve of Friday," he press service said.
A former Israeli army officer told Sputnik that a battalion consists of about 600 people.
According to the press service, the reserve battalions have been in a state of high operational readiness, however, the decision to use them may be changed after the next assessment scheduled for Friday.
Israeli Health Officials Move to Ban Smoking in Public Places
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707211055742776-israel-moves-to-ban-smoking/
To address the public health effects caused by smoking, the Parliament’s Drug Abuse Prevention and Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committees are also supporting legislation that will allow lawsuits totalling NIS 40 billion against tobacco companies operating in the country.
Ya’acov Litzman, Israel’s health minister, told a Wednesday committee session that the ministry intends to get tough on anti-smoking legislation, possibly in response to past criticism of taking it easy on tobacco companies.
The new legislation will include banning smoking in parts of hospitals, sports facilities, retirement homes, kindergartens, parking lots, playgrounds, zoos, restaurants and other public places, according to the Jerusalem Post.
However, smoking will be allowed in closed off areas at psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals and psychiatric wards.
An annual report released in May showed a 13-percent increase in smoking rates in Israel in one year.
There is an inexplicable and unreasonable increase in smoking in 2016 data compared to 2015," Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov said. "We prefer to carry out analytical completions of the data. Everything will be done with transparency."
Despite the move, former Health Minister and Knesset member Yael German blasted Health Minister Litzman, saying, "You have not done anything about smoking for two years. You have resisted all the anti-smoking bills I have raised. Why do you allow the sale of iQOS [a heat-not-burn tobacco product]? You should do as in the US, where the Food and Drug Administration banned the marketing of the product at least until it proves to be harmless."
Roughly 8,000 Israelis die each year from smoking-related causes, though the country has one of the world’s highest life expectancy, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Palestinian lawyers and civil society groups urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to speed up inquiries and open a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza, occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestinians Urge ICC to Speed up Israel ‘War Crimes’ Probe
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000408
"Since two years Palestine is under preliminary examination," said lawyer Gilles Devers, adding "in Gaza, we think two years is too long", Jordan Times reported.
The Palestinian Authority has formally asked the ICC to investigate Israel, which is not a party to the Rome Statute that governs the court, for alleged war crimes.
It has presented the court with a dossier alleging abuses during the 2014 summer Gaza war, and for the Israeli occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories.
In January 2015, the tribunal opened a preliminary examination into alleged abuses by all sides in the conflict. And an ICC delegation visited Israel and the West Bank in late 2016.
But Palestinian activists told reporters Wednesday the investigation has stalled, calling for both the ICC and the Palestinian Authority to speed up efforts.
Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza Demonstrate in Support of Al-Aqsa
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000625
The protest rallies were held as tensions have continued to rise in occupied East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities implemented security measures at gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Ma'an reported.
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces broke out in Ramallah, where three Palestinians were injured with live ammunition, and Bethlehem, where a Palestinian and international activist were detained by Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, clashes and civil disobedience campaigns have been ongoing in and around the Old City of Jerusalem, with Palestinians continuing to protest since Israeli authorities installed metal detectors at the gates of Al-Aqsa on Sunday in response to a deadly shoot-out at the compound two days prior.
Palestinian Official Warns of Unpredictable Consequences If Metal Detectors Not Removed
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000691
Minister of Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, Adnan Husseini, said that thousands of Muslims are expected to come to the mosque on Friday for the Friday prayer and if the metal detectors are still in place, no one will enter the compound and prayer will be held on the roads and alleys leading to the mosque, WAFA reported.
He warned in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio that the situation could get out of hand and no one will then be able to predict what could happen.
Israel installed the metal detectors on Sunday and would not allow anyone to enter the compound without being inspected first.
Al-Aqsa Imam Warns of 'Explosion' Hours after Being Shot with Rubber Bullet
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960429000759
Speaking after being released from hospital, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri said the continued lockdown of the site by Israeli police would lead to more violence, and only the removal of security checkpoints and the reopening of gates could end the dispute, Middle East Eye reported.
If Israel wants peace they have to immediately remove the metal doors and other security obstacles.
Israel Military to Enhance Control in Jerusalem Due to Possible Unrest on Friday
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707211055738632-israel-jerusalem-unrest-control/
Israeli military expects Friday will become a culmination day for protests of local Palestinian communities against metal detectors installed at the entrances to the Temple Mount, which is the third holiest site in Islam.
Following the assessment of the situation carried out by the General Staff today, a decision was taken to use five battalions as an emergency reserve on the eve of Friday," he press service said.
A former Israeli army officer told Sputnik that a battalion consists of about 600 people.
According to the press service, the reserve battalions have been in a state of high operational readiness, however, the decision to use them may be changed after the next assessment scheduled for Friday.
Israeli Health Officials Move to Ban Smoking in Public Places
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707211055742776-israel-moves-to-ban-smoking/
To address the public health effects caused by smoking, the Parliament’s Drug Abuse Prevention and Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committees are also supporting legislation that will allow lawsuits totalling NIS 40 billion against tobacco companies operating in the country.
Ya’acov Litzman, Israel’s health minister, told a Wednesday committee session that the ministry intends to get tough on anti-smoking legislation, possibly in response to past criticism of taking it easy on tobacco companies.
The new legislation will include banning smoking in parts of hospitals, sports facilities, retirement homes, kindergartens, parking lots, playgrounds, zoos, restaurants and other public places, according to the Jerusalem Post.
However, smoking will be allowed in closed off areas at psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals and psychiatric wards.
An annual report released in May showed a 13-percent increase in smoking rates in Israel in one year.
There is an inexplicable and unreasonable increase in smoking in 2016 data compared to 2015," Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov said. "We prefer to carry out analytical completions of the data. Everything will be done with transparency."
Despite the move, former Health Minister and Knesset member Yael German blasted Health Minister Litzman, saying, "You have not done anything about smoking for two years. You have resisted all the anti-smoking bills I have raised. Why do you allow the sale of iQOS [a heat-not-burn tobacco product]? You should do as in the US, where the Food and Drug Administration banned the marketing of the product at least until it proves to be harmless."
Roughly 8,000 Israelis die each year from smoking-related causes, though the country has one of the world’s highest life expectancy, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Israeli police announced on Friday that Muslim men under the age of 50 will not be allowed at al-Aqsa compound.
Israel Bars Men under 50 from Prayers in Old City, Attacks Aqsa Worshipers on 'Day of Rage'
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960430000675
Israeli police said Friday they had barred male Muslims under the age of 50 from entering Jerusalem's Old City and Temple Mount for Friday prayers due to the threat of mass protests, Al-Jazeera reported.
At least 3,000 Israeli police and border police units had been deployed to the area, according to a police spokesman.
Israeli troops also clashed with Palestinian worshipers who are marking a "Day of Rage" to protest Tel Aviv's virtual siege of the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.
At least four Palestinians were injured on Friday as Israeli forces fired rubber bullets at worshipers near a church in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli Forces Detain 10 Palestinians Including Fatah Officials from Jerusalem
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960430000385
Israeli police detained former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and member of Fatah Revolutionary Council after storming his home in the city, WAFA reported.
Police also detained Fatah movement’s Jerusalem Secretary-General Adnan Ghaith and his brother, Hani, after storming their homes in Silwan.
Other detained Fatah officials and activists included head of the Jerusalem Committee for Families of Prisoners Amjad Abu Asab, Musa al-Abbasi, Ahed al-Risheq, Abu Ali Ajaj, Zuheir al-Za'anin and Nasser al-Hidmi.
Another Palestinian was handcuffed and detained from the vicinity of the Lions’ Gate (Bab al-Asbat), which leads to Jerusalem’s Old City.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces conducted a raid into Hindaza area, East of Bethlehem, where they detained a 60-year-old Palestinian man.
These large-scale detention raids came amidst rising tensions after Israel installed metal detectors at two of the gates leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following a deadly attack.
Islamic Waqf (Endowment) in charge of running the mosque compound called on Palestinians in East Jerusalem to close all mosques and head towards Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers to express their rejection of entering the holy site through metal detectors.
Palestinian and Muslim leaders have rejected the new measures as a violation of the longstanding status quo and vowed not to enter the mosque until they are removed.
Following an agreement between Israel and the Muslim Waqf after occupying Jerusalem in 1967, only Muslims are allowed to pray in the mosque compound while Jewish prayer is allowed at the Western Wall next door.
However, Jewish groups who have previously called for the destruction of the mosque and the construction of a Jewish temple on the spot are allowed to freely roam the site under heavy police escort.
Combined with proposal for a Knesset vote to divide the site between Muslims and Jews, the visits have outraged the Palestinian public, which views encroachments on the holy site as symptomatic of the wider denial of their rights to historic Palestine as well as discrimination in housing, employment and social services by Israeli authorities.
Thousands of extra IDF troops put on call in West Bank amid Temple Mount tensions
https://www.rt.com/news/396983-idf-troops-temple-mount/
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that it would be putting five extra battalions on call in the West Bank, adding that they could be deployed if backup is needed, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The army fears that clashes could erupt on Friday, as Muslims make their way to the Temple Mount for prayers. Jerusalem police will also be reinforced by thousands of special police forces, according to Haaretz.
It comes after the mufti of Jerusalem and the heads of the Waqf called on all imams in the city and surrounding areas not to hold Friday prayers in their mosque, but to come to the holy site – known as Ḥaram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims – instead.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Islamic Jihad group, Hamas, and the Umm al-Fahm Popular Committee, a local community organization, echoed those calls on Thursday.
As many as tens of thousands of worshipers could embark on the site as a result of the appeal, Haaretz reported.
Some have already arrived to the Old City from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli cities, a Palestinian activist told Haaretz. They plan on spending the night in the area, concerned that police may block access to the city on Friday.
Turkish PM Slams Israeli Restrictions on Muslims' Access to Al-Aqsa Mosque
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707211055762729-turkey-pm-criticism-israel/
The Israeli authorities decided to install metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount, where the mosques of Al-Aqsa and Qubbat al-Sakhra located, and mount video cameras to monitor what is happening on the territory after a deadly accident that occurred last week. On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation with Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin and urged Tel Aviv not to restrict the Muslims' access to the mosques on the Temple Mount.
"Their implementation is wrong. Taking such radical measures over a terror threat, blocking or restricting Muslims' access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, will not contribute to solving any problems," Yildirim was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.
According to Yildirim, such measures would only damage "tolerance" between different religious groups.
Palestinian Leader Calls on US to Intervene in Situation Around Temple Mount
https://sputniknews.com/world/201707211055754845-abbas-temple-mount-us/
According to Wafa news agency, Abbas discussed the situation with US President Donald Trump’s top adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, urging Washington to intervene in the situation immediately and to compel Israel to remove the metal detectors.
Abbas stressed that the situation was "extremely dangerous and might spiral out of control," the media outlet added.
The Palestinian leader is expected to hold an urgent meeting with his government to discuss the issue and decide on the appropriate response to Israel’s actions.
Israeli police announced on Friday that Muslim men under the age of 50 will not be allowed at al-Aqsa compound.
Israel Bars Men under 50 from Prayers in Old City, Attacks Aqsa Worshipers on 'Day of Rage'
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960430000675
Israeli police said Friday they had barred male Muslims under the age of 50 from entering Jerusalem's Old City and Temple Mount for Friday prayers due to the threat of mass protests, Al-Jazeera reported.
At least 3,000 Israeli police and border police units had been deployed to the area, according to a police spokesman.
Israeli troops also clashed with Palestinian worshipers who are marking a "Day of Rage" to protest Tel Aviv's virtual siege of the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.
At least four Palestinians were injured on Friday as Israeli forces fired rubber bullets at worshipers near a church in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli Forces Detain 10 Palestinians Including Fatah Officials from Jerusalem
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960430000385
Israeli police detained former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and member of Fatah Revolutionary Council after storming his home in the city, WAFA reported.
Police also detained Fatah movement’s Jerusalem Secretary-General Adnan Ghaith and his brother, Hani, after storming their homes in Silwan.
Other detained Fatah officials and activists included head of the Jerusalem Committee for Families of Prisoners Amjad Abu Asab, Musa al-Abbasi, Ahed al-Risheq, Abu Ali Ajaj, Zuheir al-Za'anin and Nasser al-Hidmi.
Another Palestinian was handcuffed and detained from the vicinity of the Lions’ Gate (Bab al-Asbat), which leads to Jerusalem’s Old City.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces conducted a raid into Hindaza area, East of Bethlehem, where they detained a 60-year-old Palestinian man.
These large-scale detention raids came amidst rising tensions after Israel installed metal detectors at two of the gates leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following a deadly attack.
Islamic Waqf (Endowment) in charge of running the mosque compound called on Palestinians in East Jerusalem to close all mosques and head towards Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers to express their rejection of entering the holy site through metal detectors.
Palestinian and Muslim leaders have rejected the new measures as a violation of the longstanding status quo and vowed not to enter the mosque until they are removed.
Following an agreement between Israel and the Muslim Waqf after occupying Jerusalem in 1967, only Muslims are allowed to pray in the mosque compound while Jewish prayer is allowed at the Western Wall next door.
However, Jewish groups who have previously called for the destruction of the mosque and the construction of a Jewish temple on the spot are allowed to freely roam the site under heavy police escort.
Combined with proposal for a Knesset vote to divide the site between Muslims and Jews, the visits have outraged the Palestinian public, which views encroachments on the holy site as symptomatic of the wider denial of their rights to historic Palestine as well as discrimination in housing, employment and social services by Israeli authorities.
Thousands of extra IDF troops put on call in West Bank amid Temple Mount tensions
https://www.rt.com/news/396983-idf-troops-temple-mount/
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that it would be putting five extra battalions on call in the West Bank, adding that they could be deployed if backup is needed, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The army fears that clashes could erupt on Friday, as Muslims make their way to the Temple Mount for prayers. Jerusalem police will also be reinforced by thousands of special police forces, according to Haaretz.
It comes after the mufti of Jerusalem and the heads of the Waqf called on all imams in the city and surrounding areas not to hold Friday prayers in their mosque, but to come to the holy site – known as Ḥaram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims – instead.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Islamic Jihad group, Hamas, and the Umm al-Fahm Popular Committee, a local community organization, echoed those calls on Thursday.
As many as tens of thousands of worshipers could embark on the site as a result of the appeal, Haaretz reported.
Some have already arrived to the Old City from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli cities, a Palestinian activist told Haaretz. They plan on spending the night in the area, concerned that police may block access to the city on Friday.
Turkish PM Slams Israeli Restrictions on Muslims' Access to Al-Aqsa Mosque
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707211055762729-turkey-pm-criticism-israel/
The Israeli authorities decided to install metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount, where the mosques of Al-Aqsa and Qubbat al-Sakhra located, and mount video cameras to monitor what is happening on the territory after a deadly accident that occurred last week. On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation with Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin and urged Tel Aviv not to restrict the Muslims' access to the mosques on the Temple Mount.
"Their implementation is wrong. Taking such radical measures over a terror threat, blocking or restricting Muslims' access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, will not contribute to solving any problems," Yildirim was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.
According to Yildirim, such measures would only damage "tolerance" between different religious groups.
Palestinian Leader Calls on US to Intervene in Situation Around Temple Mount
https://sputniknews.com/world/201707211055754845-abbas-temple-mount-us/
According to Wafa news agency, Abbas discussed the situation with US President Donald Trump’s top adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, urging Washington to intervene in the situation immediately and to compel Israel to remove the metal detectors.
Abbas stressed that the situation was "extremely dangerous and might spiral out of control," the media outlet added.
The Palestinian leader is expected to hold an urgent meeting with his government to discuss the issue and decide on the appropriate response to Israel’s actions.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
President of the Palestine Authority Mahmoud Abbas has called for a fight to “take control of Al-Aqsa” and to conquer a “racist Israeli plot.”
‘Campaign for Jerusalem Has Begun’: Fatah Vows to Win Control of Al-Aqsa Mosque
https://sputniknews.com/military/201707231055795536-fatah-vows-win-alaqsa-mosque/
Abbas spoke July 21 at a meeting of Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah, announcing that all contact with Israel would be frozen.
According to a statement from the Palestinian Authority's ruling party Fatah, the "campaign for Jerusalem has effectively begun, and will not stop until a Palestinian victory and the release of the holy sites from Israeli occupation," cited by the Times of Israel.
In a Saturday statement, Fatah spoke glowingly of Palestinians who protested in Jerusalem on Friday. The protests turned violent, according to the Jerusalem Post, with three protesters killed by Israeli law enforcement and some 200 wounded.
The recent protests revolve around the introduction of metal detectors by Israel at the entrances to the sacred Temple Mount compound.
Fatah commended the protesters' actions "against the enemy," as well as "acts for the protection of Al-Aqsa and their struggle against the Israeli plans, while sacrificing souls and blood," according to the Israeli news outlet.
Fatah also called for a three-day mourning period for the dead, as well as a general strike.
After Israel installed metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount, Fatah described the move as a "racist" plot to "take over Al-Aqsa." The Palestinian ruling party claimed that only a complete removal of all detectors would be acceptable.
Abbas announced on Friday that he would freeze all contact with Israel until Jerusalem "commits to canceling all the measures against our Palestinian people in general and Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque in particular," cited by Haaretz.
Abbas added that the metal detectors are "falsely presented as a security measure to take control over Al-Aqsa mosque."
"The steps taken by Israel are leading to a religious confrontation and an evasion from a diplomatic process," he said, according to Haaretz.
The Palestinian president asserted that he has been in communication with heads of state from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, seeking their intervention in the Temple Mount conflict.
After two Israeli police officers were killed in a terrorist action at the Temple Mount on July 14, Israel closed the sacred space for two days and installed metal detectors at the compound's entrances.
Middle East Quartet Concerned By Escalation in Jerusalem – Statement
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707231055795226-middle-east-quarter-jerusalem-violence/
"The envoys of the Middle East Quartet from the Russian Federation, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations are deeply concerned by the escalating tensions and violent clashes taking place in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. They strongly condemn acts of terror, express their regret for all loss of innocent life caused by the violence, and hope for a speedy recovery to the wounded," the statement, released late on Saturday, said.
"Noting the particular sensitivities surrounding the holy sites in Jerusalem, and the need to ensure security, the Quartet envoys call on all to demonstrate maximum restraint, refrain from provocative actions and work towards de-escalating the situation," the statement of the Quartet added, stressing that violence "deepens mistrust and is fundamentally incompatible with achieving a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
RT Correspondent Hit By Israeli Soldier During Broadcast of Clashes in Jerusalem (Video)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707221055794336-rt-correspondent-hit-jerusalem/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXlV75z9idE (1:51 min.)
According to the broadcaster, the Saturday’s protest broke out as hundreds of Palestinians performed the evening prayers outside the al-Aqsa Mosque, protesting against Israel's decision to impose new security measures restricting access for Muslim prayers.
Houthi leader vows to support Hezbollah, Palestine against Israel
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-leader-vows-support-hezbollah-palestine-israel/
The Houthi leader commended Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, for his continued support of the Yemeni people and offered to support his Lebanese organization in future wars.
“Your bet on the Yemenis is proper. ‘Israel’ must beware of the Yemeni participation in any of its military confrontations with Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance,” the Houthi leader stated, as quoted by Al-Manar.
Hezbollah’s leader has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Saudi-led campaign against the Yemeni people, prompting many countries in the so-called “Arab Coalition” to target Hezbollah supporters within their own borders.
President of the Palestine Authority Mahmoud Abbas has called for a fight to “take control of Al-Aqsa” and to conquer a “racist Israeli plot.”
‘Campaign for Jerusalem Has Begun’: Fatah Vows to Win Control of Al-Aqsa Mosque
https://sputniknews.com/military/201707231055795536-fatah-vows-win-alaqsa-mosque/
Abbas spoke July 21 at a meeting of Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah, announcing that all contact with Israel would be frozen.
According to a statement from the Palestinian Authority's ruling party Fatah, the "campaign for Jerusalem has effectively begun, and will not stop until a Palestinian victory and the release of the holy sites from Israeli occupation," cited by the Times of Israel.
In a Saturday statement, Fatah spoke glowingly of Palestinians who protested in Jerusalem on Friday. The protests turned violent, according to the Jerusalem Post, with three protesters killed by Israeli law enforcement and some 200 wounded.
The recent protests revolve around the introduction of metal detectors by Israel at the entrances to the sacred Temple Mount compound.
Fatah commended the protesters' actions "against the enemy," as well as "acts for the protection of Al-Aqsa and their struggle against the Israeli plans, while sacrificing souls and blood," according to the Israeli news outlet.
Fatah also called for a three-day mourning period for the dead, as well as a general strike.
After Israel installed metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount, Fatah described the move as a "racist" plot to "take over Al-Aqsa." The Palestinian ruling party claimed that only a complete removal of all detectors would be acceptable.
Abbas announced on Friday that he would freeze all contact with Israel until Jerusalem "commits to canceling all the measures against our Palestinian people in general and Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque in particular," cited by Haaretz.
Abbas added that the metal detectors are "falsely presented as a security measure to take control over Al-Aqsa mosque."
"The steps taken by Israel are leading to a religious confrontation and an evasion from a diplomatic process," he said, according to Haaretz.
The Palestinian president asserted that he has been in communication with heads of state from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, seeking their intervention in the Temple Mount conflict.
After two Israeli police officers were killed in a terrorist action at the Temple Mount on July 14, Israel closed the sacred space for two days and installed metal detectors at the compound's entrances.
Middle East Quartet Concerned By Escalation in Jerusalem – Statement
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707231055795226-middle-east-quarter-jerusalem-violence/
"The envoys of the Middle East Quartet from the Russian Federation, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations are deeply concerned by the escalating tensions and violent clashes taking place in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. They strongly condemn acts of terror, express their regret for all loss of innocent life caused by the violence, and hope for a speedy recovery to the wounded," the statement, released late on Saturday, said.
"Noting the particular sensitivities surrounding the holy sites in Jerusalem, and the need to ensure security, the Quartet envoys call on all to demonstrate maximum restraint, refrain from provocative actions and work towards de-escalating the situation," the statement of the Quartet added, stressing that violence "deepens mistrust and is fundamentally incompatible with achieving a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
RT Correspondent Hit By Israeli Soldier During Broadcast of Clashes in Jerusalem (Video)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707221055794336-rt-correspondent-hit-jerusalem/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXlV75z9idE (1:51 min.)
According to the broadcaster, the Saturday’s protest broke out as hundreds of Palestinians performed the evening prayers outside the al-Aqsa Mosque, protesting against Israel's decision to impose new security measures restricting access for Muslim prayers.
Houthi leader vows to support Hezbollah, Palestine against Israel
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-leader-vows-support-hezbollah-palestine-israel/
The Houthi leader commended Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, for his continued support of the Yemeni people and offered to support his Lebanese organization in future wars.
“Your bet on the Yemenis is proper. ‘Israel’ must beware of the Yemeni participation in any of its military confrontations with Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance,” the Houthi leader stated, as quoted by Al-Manar.
Hezbollah’s leader has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Saudi-led campaign against the Yemeni people, prompting many countries in the so-called “Arab Coalition” to target Hezbollah supporters within their own borders.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Tzipi Livni, former Israeli Foreign Minister, has said she fears the country is on the verge of a religious battle with the Muslim world. Her comments follow days of violent clashes after security forces imposed controversial security measures at a disputed shrine in Jerusalem.
Former FM Tzipi Livni: Israel 'Step Away' From War With Muslim World
https://sputniknews.com/military/201707241055819071-israel-livni-muslim-war/
Speaking to local media, Livni said Israel was "a step away" from turning its conflict against the Palestinians into a "pan-Muslim event" against the state of Israel. As a result, she believes Benjamin Netanyahu's government must be assertive and prevent such a scenario from arising.
Israel Forced to Lift Siege on Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503001358
Israeli prime minister's office issued an announcement saying Tel Aviv will remove controversial metal detectors from entrances to the al-Aqsa mosque Muslim's third holiest site, Al Waght reported.
Tensions that have claimed lives of seven began to soar after the Tel Aviv imposition of restrictive measures on the entry of worshipers into the Mosque. The restrictive measures have seen the regime in Israel install metal detectors at entry points of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of the occupied al-Quds Jerusalem.
The brief statement said the Israeli security cabinet, which met on Monday evening, had “accepted the recommendation of all of the security bodies to incorporate security measures based on advanced technologies and other measures instead of metal detectors in order to ensure the security of visitors and worshippers in the Old City and on the Temple Mount".
Palestinians, however, have said that the removal of the detectors does not fulfill all of their demands, stressing that they will carry on with their protest until all restrictions are removed from the holy site.
Israeli cabinet's statement added that under the plan Israeli police would “reinforce” their presence around the holy site. But it did not say when the metal detectors would be removed or what would replace them. Israeli media earlier reported that high-resolution cameras capable of detecting hidden objects would be the alternative.
The statement said Israel would boost forces in the area until the plan is implemented, suggesting it could take as long as six months.
The announcement followed a warning from the UN’s Middle East envoy about the dangers of allowing the crisis over the religious site to continue until prayers on Friday without a solution.
Muslims believe that Tel Aviv regime is trying to expand its control at the site by installing the metal detectors under the guise of security.
Israel Removes Some Metal Detectors, Cameras in Jerusalem After Unrest
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707251055866409-israel-removes-metal-detectors/
Overnight, five metal detector frames and surveillance cameras were removed from the Lions' Gate, the eastern entrance to the Old City. The metal ramp remains in place to regulate the flow of prayers, and the area is under police control.
The decision to remove the metal detectors was taken by the Israeli Political-Security Cabinet, who decided to use smart inspection technologies in the future.
Clashes Erupt between Israeli Forces, Palestinians in Sair, Al-Khader
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503001667
Locals in Sair said that Israeli forces stormed the al-Duwwara area of the town, prompting young men to throw stones at them. Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the Palestinians, Ma'an reported.
In al-Khader, Israeli forces stormed the cemetery and Martyr Street in the old town, located close to Israeli settler bypass road Route 60 that connects Hebron to Jerusalem.
According to locals, Israeli forces showered the area in tear gas and stun grenades. Young Palestinian men threw stones at the Israeli military jeeps.
No casualties were reported in the clashes, which continued until around midnight.
An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into reports.
Palestinian Shot in Head by Israeli Forces during Clashes in Hizma
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503000960
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement that the Palestinian male, whose identity remained unknown, was transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was undergoing surgery and reported to be in critical condition, Ma'an reported.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured over the past week during clashes and demonstrations against new Israeli security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Over 900 Palestinians Wounded in Al-Aqsa Clashes
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960502001676
Palestinian hospitals are facing a large influx of patients as clashes sparked by new security measures at the highly sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound continue, New Arab reported.
More than two dozen Palestinians were wounded in fresh clashes on Sunday night, 21 people were injured at Bab Al-Asbat (Lion's Gate), outside al-Aqsa, 15 of them shot with rubber-coated bullets, reported the Palestinian Red Crescent.
There were also clashes at the Qalandiya checkpoint, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, where ten people were injured.
Three people were shot by rubber bullets, six suffered from tear gas inhalation, and one person from a fall, the Red Crescent said.
International human rights groups have long condemned Israel's use of such bullets.
Palestinian Red Crescent also said it treated 15 people who were injured by tear gas inhalation in Abu Dis.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold a closed-door meeting on Monday, while the Arab League said Israel was "playing with fire".
Christian Prays Alongside Muslims in Jerusalem to Diffuse Tensions over Holy Sites
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503000910
Footage of Palestinian Nidal Aboud was captured by CNN during Friday prayers in a neighborhood just outside the walls of the contested Old City. In the clip, Mr Aboud stands quietly reading from his Bible while Muslim men around him kneel to pray, Independent reported.
The young man said he had never attended Muslim prayers before, but was moved to do so new wave of violence over the site known as Temple Mount in Judaism and the Noble Sanctuary in Islam.
Israel Embassy, Consulate in Turkey Closed amid Rising Tensions over Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960502001728
The Israeli Foreign Ministry ordered the closure of its embassy in Anakara and consulate in Istanbul as as a "precautionary" measure, a political source said, Al Araby reported.
However, Israel has not yet released an official statement on the development.
The move comes after an Israeli embassy guard shot dead a teenage Jordanian who allegedly attacked him with a screwdriver at the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday night, while a second Jordanian doctor was killed "accidentally".
Local media have said Jordan has demanded to conduct an investigation and has prevented Israeli embassy staff from leaving the premises.
Turkish President Erdogan on Saturday denounced the "excessive" use of force by Israeli security forces in the deadly Jerusalem and West Bank clashes.
"I condemn Israel's insistence on its position despite all warnings... and the excessive use of force by Israeli forces against our brothers gathered for Friday prayers," he said in a statement.
Turkey made peace with Israel in June last year after bilateral ties deteriorated over the 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that killed 10 Turkish activists.
Tzipi Livni, former Israeli Foreign Minister, has said she fears the country is on the verge of a religious battle with the Muslim world. Her comments follow days of violent clashes after security forces imposed controversial security measures at a disputed shrine in Jerusalem.
Former FM Tzipi Livni: Israel 'Step Away' From War With Muslim World
https://sputniknews.com/military/201707241055819071-israel-livni-muslim-war/
Speaking to local media, Livni said Israel was "a step away" from turning its conflict against the Palestinians into a "pan-Muslim event" against the state of Israel. As a result, she believes Benjamin Netanyahu's government must be assertive and prevent such a scenario from arising.
Israel Forced to Lift Siege on Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503001358
Israeli prime minister's office issued an announcement saying Tel Aviv will remove controversial metal detectors from entrances to the al-Aqsa mosque Muslim's third holiest site, Al Waght reported.
Tensions that have claimed lives of seven began to soar after the Tel Aviv imposition of restrictive measures on the entry of worshipers into the Mosque. The restrictive measures have seen the regime in Israel install metal detectors at entry points of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of the occupied al-Quds Jerusalem.
The brief statement said the Israeli security cabinet, which met on Monday evening, had “accepted the recommendation of all of the security bodies to incorporate security measures based on advanced technologies and other measures instead of metal detectors in order to ensure the security of visitors and worshippers in the Old City and on the Temple Mount".
Palestinians, however, have said that the removal of the detectors does not fulfill all of their demands, stressing that they will carry on with their protest until all restrictions are removed from the holy site.
Israeli cabinet's statement added that under the plan Israeli police would “reinforce” their presence around the holy site. But it did not say when the metal detectors would be removed or what would replace them. Israeli media earlier reported that high-resolution cameras capable of detecting hidden objects would be the alternative.
The statement said Israel would boost forces in the area until the plan is implemented, suggesting it could take as long as six months.
The announcement followed a warning from the UN’s Middle East envoy about the dangers of allowing the crisis over the religious site to continue until prayers on Friday without a solution.
Muslims believe that Tel Aviv regime is trying to expand its control at the site by installing the metal detectors under the guise of security.
Israel Removes Some Metal Detectors, Cameras in Jerusalem After Unrest
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201707251055866409-israel-removes-metal-detectors/
Overnight, five metal detector frames and surveillance cameras were removed from the Lions' Gate, the eastern entrance to the Old City. The metal ramp remains in place to regulate the flow of prayers, and the area is under police control.
The decision to remove the metal detectors was taken by the Israeli Political-Security Cabinet, who decided to use smart inspection technologies in the future.
Clashes Erupt between Israeli Forces, Palestinians in Sair, Al-Khader
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503001667
Locals in Sair said that Israeli forces stormed the al-Duwwara area of the town, prompting young men to throw stones at them. Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the Palestinians, Ma'an reported.
In al-Khader, Israeli forces stormed the cemetery and Martyr Street in the old town, located close to Israeli settler bypass road Route 60 that connects Hebron to Jerusalem.
According to locals, Israeli forces showered the area in tear gas and stun grenades. Young Palestinian men threw stones at the Israeli military jeeps.
No casualties were reported in the clashes, which continued until around midnight.
An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into reports.
Palestinian Shot in Head by Israeli Forces during Clashes in Hizma
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503000960
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement that the Palestinian male, whose identity remained unknown, was transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was undergoing surgery and reported to be in critical condition, Ma'an reported.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured over the past week during clashes and demonstrations against new Israeli security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Over 900 Palestinians Wounded in Al-Aqsa Clashes
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960502001676
Palestinian hospitals are facing a large influx of patients as clashes sparked by new security measures at the highly sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound continue, New Arab reported.
More than two dozen Palestinians were wounded in fresh clashes on Sunday night, 21 people were injured at Bab Al-Asbat (Lion's Gate), outside al-Aqsa, 15 of them shot with rubber-coated bullets, reported the Palestinian Red Crescent.
There were also clashes at the Qalandiya checkpoint, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, where ten people were injured.
Three people were shot by rubber bullets, six suffered from tear gas inhalation, and one person from a fall, the Red Crescent said.
International human rights groups have long condemned Israel's use of such bullets.
Palestinian Red Crescent also said it treated 15 people who were injured by tear gas inhalation in Abu Dis.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold a closed-door meeting on Monday, while the Arab League said Israel was "playing with fire".
Christian Prays Alongside Muslims in Jerusalem to Diffuse Tensions over Holy Sites
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960503000910
Footage of Palestinian Nidal Aboud was captured by CNN during Friday prayers in a neighborhood just outside the walls of the contested Old City. In the clip, Mr Aboud stands quietly reading from his Bible while Muslim men around him kneel to pray, Independent reported.
The young man said he had never attended Muslim prayers before, but was moved to do so new wave of violence over the site known as Temple Mount in Judaism and the Noble Sanctuary in Islam.
Israel Embassy, Consulate in Turkey Closed amid Rising Tensions over Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960502001728
The Israeli Foreign Ministry ordered the closure of its embassy in Anakara and consulate in Istanbul as as a "precautionary" measure, a political source said, Al Araby reported.
However, Israel has not yet released an official statement on the development.
The move comes after an Israeli embassy guard shot dead a teenage Jordanian who allegedly attacked him with a screwdriver at the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday night, while a second Jordanian doctor was killed "accidentally".
Local media have said Jordan has demanded to conduct an investigation and has prevented Israeli embassy staff from leaving the premises.
Turkish President Erdogan on Saturday denounced the "excessive" use of force by Israeli security forces in the deadly Jerusalem and West Bank clashes.
"I condemn Israel's insistence on its position despite all warnings... and the excessive use of force by Israeli forces against our brothers gathered for Friday prayers," he said in a statement.
Turkey made peace with Israel in June last year after bilateral ties deteriorated over the 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that killed 10 Turkish activists.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Since the gun battle at the al-Aqsa compound on 14 July that ended in the deaths of three Palestinian citizens of Israel and two Israeli police, Israeli media have largely focused on outrage that anyone would carry out an attack at a holy site, while praising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s collective punishment against the Palestinian population.
These are the Israeli leaders who want to destroy al-Aqsa 24 July 2017
https://electronicintifada.net/content/these-are-israeli-leaders-who-want-destroy-al-aqsa/21166
“They are the strife mongers,” Yedioth Ahronot columnist Ben-Dror Yemini wrote. “They are harming the justified struggle for equality. They are spreading lies and nurturing incitement. For our sake, for their sake, Israel’s Arabs should also get rid of this nuisance.”
“Netanyahu and [PA leader Mahmoud] Abbas both acted responsibly to prevent a holy war; but the Arab world’s condemnation of Israel is a reason for concern,” read the subheading of an analysis by Haaretz’s Barak Ravid.
Missing from commentaries across the board has been any acknowledgment of the role played by fanatical settlers intent on wresting control of the al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem and eventually destroying it as part of an apocalyptic vision.
The compound, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, includes the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is one of the holiest shrines for Muslims all over the world, as well as a touchstone of Palestinian identity.
Game changer” - Israelis who seek to take over al-Aqsa see the 14 July attack and subsequent violence as an opportunity to advance this agenda. Immediately after the incident, the Temple movement’s official body released a statement calling to expel Palestinians from the compound: “We must liberate the Temple Mount from the murderous Islam and return it to the people of Israel.”
“Looking forward to building the Temple this year and hope that you will soon see the face of our righteous Messiah,” Baruch Marzel one of the most extreme leaders among Israel’s West Bank settlers, wrote last week in an open letter to the mufti of Jerusalem – the top Muslim official in the city.
Bezalel Smotrich, a Jewish Home party lawmaker, does not want to wait that long. “I would set up a synagogue on the Temple Mount today, this morning,” he said on Monday.
Under Israeli military protection, these settlers and extremists tour the grounds on a daily basis, hoping to provoke violent reactions from Palestinian worshippers by shouting and singing nationalistic anthems.
This then provides occupation forces with the necessary pretext to enact harsh measures, with the eventual goal of cleansing non-Jews and replacing the Muslim holy sites there with a Jewish temple, thus triggering a civilizational clash with Islam.
Yehuda Glick, a longtime leader of the Temple movement, now a Likud Party lawmaker, last week welcomed Israel’s ban on Muslims entering the al-Aqsa compound in the days following the shootings.
“This is an enormous game changer,” he said. “Everything is part of the redemption process but the things that happen on the Temple Mount are especially so.”
“Radical Muslims who desecrate with blood the holiness of the Temple Mount, the holiest place to the Jewish people, have no right to be there,” Glick and the Jewish Home party’s Shuli Moalem-Refaeli said.
Last week, Glick held a Temple movement emergency session in the Knesset building, Israel’s parliament. Attendees included genocide advocate Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and Bentzi Gopstein, leader of the anti-miscegenation youth movement Lehava.
Genocidal ideology - Yisrael Ariel, the chief rabbi of the Temple movement, articulated an apocalyptic end times scenario in 2015.
“[God] is the one who commanded us to go from city to city conquering them, and to impose the seven laws [of the Sons of Noah] throughout the world,” Ariel said.
Ariel added that if Muslims and Christians “raise the flag of [surrender] and say, ‘From now on, there is no more Christianity and no more Islam,’ and the mosques and Christian spires come down,” then they would be allowed to live. “If not,” he warned, “you kill all of their males by sword. You leave only the women.”
“We will conquer Iraq, Turkey [and] we will get to Iran too,” Ariel proclaimed.
Ariel is the founder and head of the Temple Institute, the government-funded group that has published detailed blueprints and a computer animation of what the Temple, to be built over the ruins of al-Aqsa, will look like.
The Temple Institute has received funding from Israel’s education ministry to develop a curriculum to instill “longing for the Temple” in children as young as those attending kindergarten. In 2013, Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, presented Ariel with an award for his organization’s work.
This genocidal ideology is rooted in religious Zionism and its political wing is represented by the Jewish Home party.
In 2012, Zevulun Orlev, one of the party’s lawmakers in the Knesset, called for the construction of a temple at the compound, saying that removing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque would mean that the “billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.”
This messianic extremism has taken hold in the Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well.
In 2014, Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, then deputy speaker of the Knesset, explained the fanatical worldview. “We are in the major front of the fight for the free world against the evil forces of the most extreme Islam,” Feiglin asserted. “Behind the violence, there is a spiritual battle, and the core of that battle is that place – the Temple Mount.”
Pretext of “religious freedom” - Many other Israeli politicians are following the Temple movement’s lead.
A Likud Party website has launched a petition to “raise the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount.” “The Temple Mount is not in our hands,” the petition declares. “We must change this absurdity.”
Transport minister Yisrael Katz has vowed that Israel “will not cede sovereignty” over al-Aqsa. “We need to close the Temple Mount to Muslims for an extended period of time,” Jewish Home lawmaker Moti Yogev said.
Incitement from Israeli officials has become commonplace in recent years. Dozens of Knesset members have given verbal, and even material, support to the Temple movement.
While their statements occasionally elicit a headline, they are rarely taken into consideration in analysis of the explosive situation at the al-Aqsa compound.
This incitement is often couched in calls for Israel to unilaterally change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, citing a lack of religious freedom at the occupied holy site.
But Israel’s official chief rabbis have long formally prohibited prayer by Jews at the compound for theological reasons – out of concern that Jews could inadvertently desecrate places that must remain ritually pure.
In keeping with this tradition, leaders in Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community blame those who insist on going to the al-Aqsa compound for the resulting bloodshed. The prohibition on visiting the Temple Mount is firmly upheld by leading Orthodox rabbis.
“Those who visit the Temple Mount are turning the Israeli-Arab conflict into a religious conflict,” the Eidah Chareidis, a major anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish organization in Jerusalem, has warned.
The true story” - However, as Feiglin revealed at a Knesset session in 2013, the call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the compound is a pretext for an Israeli seizure of the site.
“Let’s be truthful. The struggle here in not about prayer,” Feiglin admitted. “Arabs don’t mind that Jews pray to God. Why should they care? We all believe in God. The struggle is about sovereignty. That’s the true story here. The story is about one thing only: sovereignty.”
To make the job of journalists covering events at the al-Aqsa compound easier, I have compiled below this article a list of current and former Knesset members and ministers who have supported the Temple movement’s apocalyptic goals in varying degrees.
Some of the Israeli politicians identify with the movement themselves, while others understand it is politically expedient to make public statements in support of Israeli sovereignty at al-Aqsa.
Likud lawmaker Avi Dichter, for example, is a former head of Israel’s Shin Bet secret police. Dichter appeared in the 2012 documentary The Gatekeepers, which marketed him and five other former Shin Bet chiefs as tough but pragmatic security types who have become “doves.”
But last week, Dichter posted on Facebook a photo of himself in front of the Dome of the Rock with text reading, “Open the Temple Mount for Jews.”
Provocation and bloodshed - Given the level of incitement regarding the most sensitive site in the country – on top of the climate of desperation created by Israel’s deadly siege of Gaza, expanding colonies in the occupied West Bank including Jerusalem and the erosion of rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel – attacks like the one on 14 July should come as no surprise to informed observers.
As Dichter said in 2013 when he was public security minister – before embracing the Temple movement’s agenda – Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, “will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed.”
That may be precisely what many Israelis hope for. Following a stabbing attack by a Palestinian on Friday that left three Israelis in the illegal settlement of Halamish dead, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior Likud minister and close ally of Netanyahu, threatened Palestinians with a “third Nakba” – a reference to Israel’s mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967.
Another former public security minister, Hanegbi promised back in 2003 that Jews “soon, very soon” would be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Israeli leaders and politicians who support the Temple movement
Eli Ben-Dahan - Deputy defense minister Eli Ben-Dahan of Jewish Home personally donated $12,000 to the Temple Institute, which spearheads efforts to replace the Muslim holy sites with a Jewish temple. “We have to call upon the government and Knesset to permit Jewish prayer, to make Jewish prayer something normal and permitted,” Ben-Dahan told a conference in the Knesset last November. Ben-Dahan has previously described Palestinians as “beasts” who “aren’t human.”
Tzipi Hotovely - In a recent speech to supporters of the Temple movement, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely of Likud called on Jews to go to the al-Aqsa compound.
In 2015, Hotovely made headlines when she said her dream was to see an Israeli flag over the Temple Mount and insisted Jews be able to pray there.
Zeev Elkin - Jerusalem affairs minister Zeev Elkin of Likud has said that a full takeover of the compound should be Israel’s national goal. “It is important to remove it [the Temple Mount] from the purview of the wild-eyed religious,” Elkin stated. “We must explain to broad swathes of the people that without this place, our national liberty is incomplete.”
Oren Hazan - Likud lawmaker Oren Hazan told the “Students for the Temple Mount” group that he would build the temple if he became prime minister. When asked by this reporter how he would carry out the demolitions, he responded, “It would not be responsible at this point in time to tell you how we would do it, but I will say it clear and loud: when I have the opportunity to do it, I will.”
Yuli Edelstein - Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein of Likud said in 2012, “My job is to deal with the daily process, connecting and building the people of Israel, which leads to the Temple.”
Miri Regev - Culture minister Miri Regev of Likud proposed a bill to implement something similar at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound to what Israel has imposed in Hebron. Following the 1994 massacre by an American Jewish settler of 29 Palestinian worshippers at Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque – another site sacred to Muslims and Jews – Israeli forces partitioned the mosque and turned the Old City into a ghost town. Regev again called for a new arrangement immediately following the 14 July attack.
Ayelet Shaked - Justice minister Ayelet Shaked of Jewish Home, who published a genocidal call to kill Palestinian mothers just before the 2014 offensive on Gaza, has also called for unilaterally changing the status quo to allow Jews to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Uri Ariel - Agriculture minister Uri Ariel of Jewish Home is a leading figure in the Temple movement and has repeatedly called for the construction of a Jewish temple.
“We’ve built many little, little temples,” Ariel has said, “but we need to build a real temple on the Temple Mount.”
Gilad Erdan - Public security minister Gilad Erdan of Likud has also lent his support to this effort. “In my opinion, our right to the Temple Mount is unshakeable,” Erdan said at the Seekers of Zion conference in the Knesset in November. Erdan is also in charge of Israel’s effort to fight the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Danny Danon - Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, former deputy defense minister Danny Danon of Likud, has called to allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yitzhak Aharonovitch - A former public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch of the Yisrael Beitenu party also came out in support in 2014. “It is important to open the [Temple Mount] to Jews, tens of thousands of worshippers come here,” he said.
Yehiel Hilik Bar - Deputy Knesset speaker and a former secretary-general of the nominally leftist Labor Party Yehiel Hilik Bar initially co-sponsored a bill with Miri Regev altering the status quo at al-Aqsa, however he pulled his backing after receiving criticism. Bar said that he and the Labor party “are part of the Zionist center-left that sees our holy sites as the basis of our existence and the essence of our history.” David Tzur, a former lawmaker for the ostensibly “dovish” Hatnua party, led by Tzipi Livni, has also called for Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa compound.
Michael Ben-Ari - Among those who have led Israeli incursions into the compound is former lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari, a leading inciter against Africans and Palestinians who once destroyed a copy of the New Testament on video.
Build Temple “as soon as possible”
Other lawmakers who have demanded that Jews be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound include former Knesset member Zvulun Kalfa of Jewish Home and Likud’s Ofir Akunis, who serves as science minister.
Smotrich, Shuli Muallem-Refaeli and Nissan Slomiansky of Jewish Home, and Miki Zohar, Avraham Neguise and Hazan of Likud signed a bill supporting Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yinon Magal of Jewish Home told the Knesset that Jews must be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound and that a temple must be built as soon as possible.
Tourism minister Yariv Levin of Likud said, “It seems to me that when Jews for so many years sat in exile and prayed for a return to Zion, they did not mean Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem. They did not dream of returning to the Knesset building and the Prime Minister’s office, but to someplace else – to the Temple Mount.”
Minister for social equality Gila Gamliel of Likud has said, “the Temple is the ID card of the people of Israel.”
Lawmaker Arieh Eldad has gone up to al-Aqsa in demonstration of Israeli control.
A host of other lawmakers, including Amir Ohana and Anat Berko of Likud, have participated in conferences in support of the Temple Movement.
Since the gun battle at the al-Aqsa compound on 14 July that ended in the deaths of three Palestinian citizens of Israel and two Israeli police, Israeli media have largely focused on outrage that anyone would carry out an attack at a holy site, while praising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s collective punishment against the Palestinian population.
These are the Israeli leaders who want to destroy al-Aqsa 24 July 2017
https://electronicintifada.net/content/these-are-israeli-leaders-who-want-destroy-al-aqsa/21166
“They are the strife mongers,” Yedioth Ahronot columnist Ben-Dror Yemini wrote. “They are harming the justified struggle for equality. They are spreading lies and nurturing incitement. For our sake, for their sake, Israel’s Arabs should also get rid of this nuisance.”
“Netanyahu and [PA leader Mahmoud] Abbas both acted responsibly to prevent a holy war; but the Arab world’s condemnation of Israel is a reason for concern,” read the subheading of an analysis by Haaretz’s Barak Ravid.
Missing from commentaries across the board has been any acknowledgment of the role played by fanatical settlers intent on wresting control of the al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem and eventually destroying it as part of an apocalyptic vision.
The compound, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, includes the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is one of the holiest shrines for Muslims all over the world, as well as a touchstone of Palestinian identity.
Game changer” - Israelis who seek to take over al-Aqsa see the 14 July attack and subsequent violence as an opportunity to advance this agenda. Immediately after the incident, the Temple movement’s official body released a statement calling to expel Palestinians from the compound: “We must liberate the Temple Mount from the murderous Islam and return it to the people of Israel.”
“Looking forward to building the Temple this year and hope that you will soon see the face of our righteous Messiah,” Baruch Marzel one of the most extreme leaders among Israel’s West Bank settlers, wrote last week in an open letter to the mufti of Jerusalem – the top Muslim official in the city.
Bezalel Smotrich, a Jewish Home party lawmaker, does not want to wait that long. “I would set up a synagogue on the Temple Mount today, this morning,” he said on Monday.
Under Israeli military protection, these settlers and extremists tour the grounds on a daily basis, hoping to provoke violent reactions from Palestinian worshippers by shouting and singing nationalistic anthems.
This then provides occupation forces with the necessary pretext to enact harsh measures, with the eventual goal of cleansing non-Jews and replacing the Muslim holy sites there with a Jewish temple, thus triggering a civilizational clash with Islam.
Yehuda Glick, a longtime leader of the Temple movement, now a Likud Party lawmaker, last week welcomed Israel’s ban on Muslims entering the al-Aqsa compound in the days following the shootings.
“This is an enormous game changer,” he said. “Everything is part of the redemption process but the things that happen on the Temple Mount are especially so.”
“Radical Muslims who desecrate with blood the holiness of the Temple Mount, the holiest place to the Jewish people, have no right to be there,” Glick and the Jewish Home party’s Shuli Moalem-Refaeli said.
Last week, Glick held a Temple movement emergency session in the Knesset building, Israel’s parliament. Attendees included genocide advocate Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and Bentzi Gopstein, leader of the anti-miscegenation youth movement Lehava.
Genocidal ideology - Yisrael Ariel, the chief rabbi of the Temple movement, articulated an apocalyptic end times scenario in 2015.
“[God] is the one who commanded us to go from city to city conquering them, and to impose the seven laws [of the Sons of Noah] throughout the world,” Ariel said.
Ariel added that if Muslims and Christians “raise the flag of [surrender] and say, ‘From now on, there is no more Christianity and no more Islam,’ and the mosques and Christian spires come down,” then they would be allowed to live. “If not,” he warned, “you kill all of their males by sword. You leave only the women.”
“We will conquer Iraq, Turkey [and] we will get to Iran too,” Ariel proclaimed.
Ariel is the founder and head of the Temple Institute, the government-funded group that has published detailed blueprints and a computer animation of what the Temple, to be built over the ruins of al-Aqsa, will look like.
The Temple Institute has received funding from Israel’s education ministry to develop a curriculum to instill “longing for the Temple” in children as young as those attending kindergarten. In 2013, Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, presented Ariel with an award for his organization’s work.
This genocidal ideology is rooted in religious Zionism and its political wing is represented by the Jewish Home party.
In 2012, Zevulun Orlev, one of the party’s lawmakers in the Knesset, called for the construction of a temple at the compound, saying that removing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque would mean that the “billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.”
This messianic extremism has taken hold in the Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well.
In 2014, Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, then deputy speaker of the Knesset, explained the fanatical worldview. “We are in the major front of the fight for the free world against the evil forces of the most extreme Islam,” Feiglin asserted. “Behind the violence, there is a spiritual battle, and the core of that battle is that place – the Temple Mount.”
Pretext of “religious freedom” - Many other Israeli politicians are following the Temple movement’s lead.
A Likud Party website has launched a petition to “raise the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount.” “The Temple Mount is not in our hands,” the petition declares. “We must change this absurdity.”
Transport minister Yisrael Katz has vowed that Israel “will not cede sovereignty” over al-Aqsa. “We need to close the Temple Mount to Muslims for an extended period of time,” Jewish Home lawmaker Moti Yogev said.
Incitement from Israeli officials has become commonplace in recent years. Dozens of Knesset members have given verbal, and even material, support to the Temple movement.
While their statements occasionally elicit a headline, they are rarely taken into consideration in analysis of the explosive situation at the al-Aqsa compound.
This incitement is often couched in calls for Israel to unilaterally change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, citing a lack of religious freedom at the occupied holy site.
But Israel’s official chief rabbis have long formally prohibited prayer by Jews at the compound for theological reasons – out of concern that Jews could inadvertently desecrate places that must remain ritually pure.
In keeping with this tradition, leaders in Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community blame those who insist on going to the al-Aqsa compound for the resulting bloodshed. The prohibition on visiting the Temple Mount is firmly upheld by leading Orthodox rabbis.
“Those who visit the Temple Mount are turning the Israeli-Arab conflict into a religious conflict,” the Eidah Chareidis, a major anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish organization in Jerusalem, has warned.
The true story” - However, as Feiglin revealed at a Knesset session in 2013, the call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the compound is a pretext for an Israeli seizure of the site.
“Let’s be truthful. The struggle here in not about prayer,” Feiglin admitted. “Arabs don’t mind that Jews pray to God. Why should they care? We all believe in God. The struggle is about sovereignty. That’s the true story here. The story is about one thing only: sovereignty.”
To make the job of journalists covering events at the al-Aqsa compound easier, I have compiled below this article a list of current and former Knesset members and ministers who have supported the Temple movement’s apocalyptic goals in varying degrees.
Some of the Israeli politicians identify with the movement themselves, while others understand it is politically expedient to make public statements in support of Israeli sovereignty at al-Aqsa.
Likud lawmaker Avi Dichter, for example, is a former head of Israel’s Shin Bet secret police. Dichter appeared in the 2012 documentary The Gatekeepers, which marketed him and five other former Shin Bet chiefs as tough but pragmatic security types who have become “doves.”
But last week, Dichter posted on Facebook a photo of himself in front of the Dome of the Rock with text reading, “Open the Temple Mount for Jews.”
Provocation and bloodshed - Given the level of incitement regarding the most sensitive site in the country – on top of the climate of desperation created by Israel’s deadly siege of Gaza, expanding colonies in the occupied West Bank including Jerusalem and the erosion of rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel – attacks like the one on 14 July should come as no surprise to informed observers.
As Dichter said in 2013 when he was public security minister – before embracing the Temple movement’s agenda – Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, “will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed.”
That may be precisely what many Israelis hope for. Following a stabbing attack by a Palestinian on Friday that left three Israelis in the illegal settlement of Halamish dead, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior Likud minister and close ally of Netanyahu, threatened Palestinians with a “third Nakba” – a reference to Israel’s mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967.
Another former public security minister, Hanegbi promised back in 2003 that Jews “soon, very soon” would be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Israeli leaders and politicians who support the Temple movement
Eli Ben-Dahan - Deputy defense minister Eli Ben-Dahan of Jewish Home personally donated $12,000 to the Temple Institute, which spearheads efforts to replace the Muslim holy sites with a Jewish temple. “We have to call upon the government and Knesset to permit Jewish prayer, to make Jewish prayer something normal and permitted,” Ben-Dahan told a conference in the Knesset last November. Ben-Dahan has previously described Palestinians as “beasts” who “aren’t human.”
Tzipi Hotovely - In a recent speech to supporters of the Temple movement, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely of Likud called on Jews to go to the al-Aqsa compound.
In 2015, Hotovely made headlines when she said her dream was to see an Israeli flag over the Temple Mount and insisted Jews be able to pray there.
Zeev Elkin - Jerusalem affairs minister Zeev Elkin of Likud has said that a full takeover of the compound should be Israel’s national goal. “It is important to remove it [the Temple Mount] from the purview of the wild-eyed religious,” Elkin stated. “We must explain to broad swathes of the people that without this place, our national liberty is incomplete.”
Oren Hazan - Likud lawmaker Oren Hazan told the “Students for the Temple Mount” group that he would build the temple if he became prime minister. When asked by this reporter how he would carry out the demolitions, he responded, “It would not be responsible at this point in time to tell you how we would do it, but I will say it clear and loud: when I have the opportunity to do it, I will.”
Yuli Edelstein - Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein of Likud said in 2012, “My job is to deal with the daily process, connecting and building the people of Israel, which leads to the Temple.”
Miri Regev - Culture minister Miri Regev of Likud proposed a bill to implement something similar at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound to what Israel has imposed in Hebron. Following the 1994 massacre by an American Jewish settler of 29 Palestinian worshippers at Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque – another site sacred to Muslims and Jews – Israeli forces partitioned the mosque and turned the Old City into a ghost town. Regev again called for a new arrangement immediately following the 14 July attack.
Ayelet Shaked - Justice minister Ayelet Shaked of Jewish Home, who published a genocidal call to kill Palestinian mothers just before the 2014 offensive on Gaza, has also called for unilaterally changing the status quo to allow Jews to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Uri Ariel - Agriculture minister Uri Ariel of Jewish Home is a leading figure in the Temple movement and has repeatedly called for the construction of a Jewish temple.
“We’ve built many little, little temples,” Ariel has said, “but we need to build a real temple on the Temple Mount.”
Gilad Erdan - Public security minister Gilad Erdan of Likud has also lent his support to this effort. “In my opinion, our right to the Temple Mount is unshakeable,” Erdan said at the Seekers of Zion conference in the Knesset in November. Erdan is also in charge of Israel’s effort to fight the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Danny Danon - Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, former deputy defense minister Danny Danon of Likud, has called to allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yitzhak Aharonovitch - A former public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch of the Yisrael Beitenu party also came out in support in 2014. “It is important to open the [Temple Mount] to Jews, tens of thousands of worshippers come here,” he said.
Yehiel Hilik Bar - Deputy Knesset speaker and a former secretary-general of the nominally leftist Labor Party Yehiel Hilik Bar initially co-sponsored a bill with Miri Regev altering the status quo at al-Aqsa, however he pulled his backing after receiving criticism. Bar said that he and the Labor party “are part of the Zionist center-left that sees our holy sites as the basis of our existence and the essence of our history.” David Tzur, a former lawmaker for the ostensibly “dovish” Hatnua party, led by Tzipi Livni, has also called for Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa compound.
Michael Ben-Ari - Among those who have led Israeli incursions into the compound is former lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari, a leading inciter against Africans and Palestinians who once destroyed a copy of the New Testament on video.
Build Temple “as soon as possible”
Other lawmakers who have demanded that Jews be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound include former Knesset member Zvulun Kalfa of Jewish Home and Likud’s Ofir Akunis, who serves as science minister.
Smotrich, Shuli Muallem-Refaeli and Nissan Slomiansky of Jewish Home, and Miki Zohar, Avraham Neguise and Hazan of Likud signed a bill supporting Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yinon Magal of Jewish Home told the Knesset that Jews must be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound and that a temple must be built as soon as possible.
Tourism minister Yariv Levin of Likud said, “It seems to me that when Jews for so many years sat in exile and prayed for a return to Zion, they did not mean Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem. They did not dream of returning to the Knesset building and the Prime Minister’s office, but to someplace else – to the Temple Mount.”
Minister for social equality Gila Gamliel of Likud has said, “the Temple is the ID card of the people of Israel.”
Lawmaker Arieh Eldad has gone up to al-Aqsa in demonstration of Israeli control.
A host of other lawmakers, including Amir Ohana and Anat Berko of Likud, have participated in conferences in support of the Temple Movement.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
There seems to be a concerted effort by Netanyahu and a close ally, Saudi Arabia to subvert and take control over established Holy religious sites, with
Netanyahu’s focus on al-Aqsa and the Saudi's on the Muslim hajj pilgrimage?
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called what he said was Qatar’s demand for an internationalization of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar said it never made such a call.
Saudi Arabia says that calls for internationalization of holy sites ‘a declaration of war’
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-turkey-idUSKBN1AF0RB
“Qatar’s demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom,” Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya’s website.
“We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites,” he said.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call.
“We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing,” Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV.
Qatar did accuse the Saudis of politicizing hajj and addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend hajj this year.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.
On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands.
There seems to be a concerted effort by Netanyahu and a close ally, Saudi Arabia to subvert and take control over established Holy religious sites, with
Netanyahu’s focus on al-Aqsa and the Saudi's on the Muslim hajj pilgrimage?
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called what he said was Qatar’s demand for an internationalization of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar said it never made such a call.
Saudi Arabia says that calls for internationalization of holy sites ‘a declaration of war’
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-turkey-idUSKBN1AF0RB
“Qatar’s demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom,” Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya’s website.
“We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites,” he said.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call.
“We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing,” Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV.
Qatar did accuse the Saudis of politicizing hajj and addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend hajj this year.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.
On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Israel has reportedly stolen a large number of confidential documents belonging to Jerusalem al-Quds Islamic Waqf (Endowment) organization, which is trusted with controlling and managing the Islamic edifices on and around the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound.
Israel Steals Sensitive Al-Aqsa Documents
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960509001653
Hassan Khater, the head of al-Quds International Center, said on Monday that the appropriation had taken place over three days that followed a reported shootout on July 14 near the site, which left two Israeli soldiers and three Palestinians dead. Israel fully closed off the compound after the alleged incident, presstv reported.
The documents comprise title deeds proving the body’s ownership of a large number of immovable properties, as well as secret files bearing information on the mosque and religious courthouses, he said.
Khater said the papers feature data on around 90 percent of the properties lying in Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City, where the compound is located, which could enable Tel Aviv to confiscate the properties upon misuse.
The closure of the compound drew sweeping international condemnation, forcing Tel Aviv to reopen the site. The regime, however, set up metal detectors at the entrances, prompting Palestinians to pray outside in protest. Israel finally lifted the detectors, but installed more cameras in the place.
During the recent crackdown, Israeli forces evicted the Endowment’s staffers, which the body had stationed there to conduct administrative duties.
Jewish settlers are regularly escorted by troops into the third holiest site in Islam, which is highly provocative to the Palestinians.
According to latest figures, 15 Palestinians have been killed and about 1,400 others injured in the clashes that have ensued Tel Aviv’s introduction of the restrictions.
Palestinians Form Committees to Assess Damage Caused by Israel at Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960509001621
Husseini told Voice of Palestine radio that these committees are composed of staff from the Islamic Museum, the Manuscripts Department, the Reconstruction Committee, the libraries and the Sharia Court in order to give an initial report on what happened inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and its facilities during the two-week Israeli siege, WAFA reported.
The minister added that the next stage requires specialized experts to know if the occupation forces put cameras or listening devices in the mosque.
Husseini said that if the final report shows that the occupation authorities have made any changes in the mosque or the theft of any of its belongings, then work will first focus on returning these documents and then on pursing Israel in international courts on ground of stealing and damaging important historical documents and property in order to punish Israel for its crime.
The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) is also expected to hold an extraordinary meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday at the level of foreign ministers in coordination with the State of Palestine to discuss the recent Israeli escalation in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Permanent Ambassador of Palestine to the OIC Maher Karaki told Voice of Palestine radio that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Malki will head the delegation of Palestine at this meeting, which will call on the OIC member states and the international community to act immediately to put pressure on Israel and compel it to implement international law and not to repeat its recent actions at Al-Aqsa.
Israel has reportedly stolen a large number of confidential documents belonging to Jerusalem al-Quds Islamic Waqf (Endowment) organization, which is trusted with controlling and managing the Islamic edifices on and around the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound.
Israel Steals Sensitive Al-Aqsa Documents
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960509001653
Hassan Khater, the head of al-Quds International Center, said on Monday that the appropriation had taken place over three days that followed a reported shootout on July 14 near the site, which left two Israeli soldiers and three Palestinians dead. Israel fully closed off the compound after the alleged incident, presstv reported.
The documents comprise title deeds proving the body’s ownership of a large number of immovable properties, as well as secret files bearing information on the mosque and religious courthouses, he said.
Khater said the papers feature data on around 90 percent of the properties lying in Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City, where the compound is located, which could enable Tel Aviv to confiscate the properties upon misuse.
The closure of the compound drew sweeping international condemnation, forcing Tel Aviv to reopen the site. The regime, however, set up metal detectors at the entrances, prompting Palestinians to pray outside in protest. Israel finally lifted the detectors, but installed more cameras in the place.
During the recent crackdown, Israeli forces evicted the Endowment’s staffers, which the body had stationed there to conduct administrative duties.
Jewish settlers are regularly escorted by troops into the third holiest site in Islam, which is highly provocative to the Palestinians.
According to latest figures, 15 Palestinians have been killed and about 1,400 others injured in the clashes that have ensued Tel Aviv’s introduction of the restrictions.
Palestinians Form Committees to Assess Damage Caused by Israel at Al-Aqsa Mosque
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960509001621
Husseini told Voice of Palestine radio that these committees are composed of staff from the Islamic Museum, the Manuscripts Department, the Reconstruction Committee, the libraries and the Sharia Court in order to give an initial report on what happened inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and its facilities during the two-week Israeli siege, WAFA reported.
The minister added that the next stage requires specialized experts to know if the occupation forces put cameras or listening devices in the mosque.
Husseini said that if the final report shows that the occupation authorities have made any changes in the mosque or the theft of any of its belongings, then work will first focus on returning these documents and then on pursing Israel in international courts on ground of stealing and damaging important historical documents and property in order to punish Israel for its crime.
The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) is also expected to hold an extraordinary meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday at the level of foreign ministers in coordination with the State of Palestine to discuss the recent Israeli escalation in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Permanent Ambassador of Palestine to the OIC Maher Karaki told Voice of Palestine radio that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Malki will head the delegation of Palestine at this meeting, which will call on the OIC member states and the international community to act immediately to put pressure on Israel and compel it to implement international law and not to repeat its recent actions at Al-Aqsa.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
Hundreds of far-right religious Israelis entered the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday amid the tense situation in the highly-contested mosque.
Hundreds of Israelis Escorted by Military Forces Enter Al-Aqsa Compound
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960510001392
The Israelis entered the al-Aqsa mosque premises on the occasion of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av, Ma'an reported.
Islamic Endowment (Waqf) spokesman Firas al-Dibs said that 870 Israeli Jews had entered the compound in large groups under heavy military protection between 7 and 11 am, adding that several Israelis had performed religious rites in the compound.
While Jewish visitation is permitted to the compound, non-Muslim worship is prohibited according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government after Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.
During the process, six visitors were evacuated from the compound for violating regulations on Tuesday morning, adding that three Israeli Jews and a Palestinian Muslim were also detained after a heated argument between them turned into a physical fight outside of Al-Aqsa's Chain Gate.
Al-Samri added that police units were deployed across the Old City, adding that the streets of the Old City would be closed off for all private vehicles, except for residents of the area, starting at 5 p.m. in preparation for the arrival of worshipers at the Western Wall after a day of fasting.
Palestinian activists in Jerusalem called on Jerusalemites to protest Tuesday afternoon’s "provocative" march official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Despite the agreement with Jordan, which is the custodian of Al-Aqsa, Israeli authorities regularly allow Jewish visitors to enter the site, often under armed guard. Such visits are typically made by right-wingers attempting to unsettle the status quo at the site, and coincide with restrictions on Palestinian access, including bans on entrance and detentions.
According to extremist Israeli organization Yeraeh, which pushes for the destruction of Al-Aqsa in order to build a Third Temple in its place, at least 17,000 Jews have visited the compound since October, marking a 15 percent increase over the previous year.
This comes in the wake of a 13-day long campaign by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank to denounce security measures installed at the Al-Aqsa compound following a deadly shooting attack on July 14, Ma'an reported.
The measures sparked widespread protests, as Palestinians said the Israeli move was the latest example of Israeli authorities using Israeli-Palestinian violence as a means of furthering control over important sites in the occupied Palestinian territory and normalizing repressive measures against Palestinians.
Six Palestinians were killed by Israelis when demonstrations were violently repressed, before Israeli forces backtracked and removed the surveillance cameras and metal detectors put up at the entrance of the compound.
Israeli Police Demolish Bedouin Naqab Village for 116th Time
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960510001728
Witnesses said staff from the so-called Israel Land Authority accompanied by Israeli police and bulldozers broke into the village and demolished the homes, mainly made of tin, which residents build every time their village is demolished, WAFA reported.
The first demolition of al-Araqib took place in late June 2010. Al-Araqib is one of 35 Bedouin villages considered “unrecognized” by the Israeli government.
Demolitions targeting Palestinians with Israeli citizenship sharply increased in 2017. An Israeli police raid to evacuate the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran turned deadly in January, and sparked widespread protests of the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel.
Right groups say that the demolition of unrecognized Bedouin villages is a central Israeli policy aimed at removing the indigenous Palestinian population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned townships to make room for the expansion of Jewish Israeli communities.
The classification of their villages as “unrecognized” prevents Bedouins from developing or expanding their communities, while Israeli authorities have also refused to connect unrecognized Bedouin villages to the national water and electricity grids, and have excluded the communities from access to health and educational services.
Hundreds of far-right religious Israelis entered the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday amid the tense situation in the highly-contested mosque.
Hundreds of Israelis Escorted by Military Forces Enter Al-Aqsa Compound
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960510001392
The Israelis entered the al-Aqsa mosque premises on the occasion of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av, Ma'an reported.
Islamic Endowment (Waqf) spokesman Firas al-Dibs said that 870 Israeli Jews had entered the compound in large groups under heavy military protection between 7 and 11 am, adding that several Israelis had performed religious rites in the compound.
While Jewish visitation is permitted to the compound, non-Muslim worship is prohibited according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government after Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.
During the process, six visitors were evacuated from the compound for violating regulations on Tuesday morning, adding that three Israeli Jews and a Palestinian Muslim were also detained after a heated argument between them turned into a physical fight outside of Al-Aqsa's Chain Gate.
Al-Samri added that police units were deployed across the Old City, adding that the streets of the Old City would be closed off for all private vehicles, except for residents of the area, starting at 5 p.m. in preparation for the arrival of worshipers at the Western Wall after a day of fasting.
Palestinian activists in Jerusalem called on Jerusalemites to protest Tuesday afternoon’s "provocative" march official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Despite the agreement with Jordan, which is the custodian of Al-Aqsa, Israeli authorities regularly allow Jewish visitors to enter the site, often under armed guard. Such visits are typically made by right-wingers attempting to unsettle the status quo at the site, and coincide with restrictions on Palestinian access, including bans on entrance and detentions.
According to extremist Israeli organization Yeraeh, which pushes for the destruction of Al-Aqsa in order to build a Third Temple in its place, at least 17,000 Jews have visited the compound since October, marking a 15 percent increase over the previous year.
This comes in the wake of a 13-day long campaign by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank to denounce security measures installed at the Al-Aqsa compound following a deadly shooting attack on July 14, Ma'an reported.
The measures sparked widespread protests, as Palestinians said the Israeli move was the latest example of Israeli authorities using Israeli-Palestinian violence as a means of furthering control over important sites in the occupied Palestinian territory and normalizing repressive measures against Palestinians.
Six Palestinians were killed by Israelis when demonstrations were violently repressed, before Israeli forces backtracked and removed the surveillance cameras and metal detectors put up at the entrance of the compound.
Israeli Police Demolish Bedouin Naqab Village for 116th Time
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960510001728
Witnesses said staff from the so-called Israel Land Authority accompanied by Israeli police and bulldozers broke into the village and demolished the homes, mainly made of tin, which residents build every time their village is demolished, WAFA reported.
The first demolition of al-Araqib took place in late June 2010. Al-Araqib is one of 35 Bedouin villages considered “unrecognized” by the Israeli government.
Demolitions targeting Palestinians with Israeli citizenship sharply increased in 2017. An Israeli police raid to evacuate the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran turned deadly in January, and sparked widespread protests of the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel.
Right groups say that the demolition of unrecognized Bedouin villages is a central Israeli policy aimed at removing the indigenous Palestinian population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned townships to make room for the expansion of Jewish Israeli communities.
The classification of their villages as “unrecognized” prevents Bedouins from developing or expanding their communities, while Israeli authorities have also refused to connect unrecognized Bedouin villages to the national water and electricity grids, and have excluded the communities from access to health and educational services.
angelburst29
The Living Force
Re: Just one tiny example of continuous Israeli harassment vs Palestinians
‘The grandson of South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician, Nelson Mandela, called on South Africa’s government to expel the Israeli ambassador to Pretoria and sever all diplomatic and business relations with Tel Aviv.
Mandela’s Grandson Urges Israeli Envoy’s Expulsion from South Africa, Cutting off of All Ties
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517000727
Mandla Mandela, who is a member of parliament for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), urged ANC caucus in legislature to pressure the government to send Arthur Lenk out of the country, and recall South Africa’s Ambassador to Israel Sisa Ngombane, and cut all ties, Anadolu reported.
“History calls upon us to take similar measures to those taken by freedom, justice and peace loving communities that supported the global anti-apartheid movement against the brutal and illegitimate South African regime,” he said.
Mandela also praised the decision made by a group of ANC lawmakers to turn down an Israeli delegation’s request to meet.’
Israel to Demolish Palestinians' School, Commercial Structures Northeast of Ramallah
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517001390
Silwad mayor, Abdel-Rahman Saleh, told WAFA that Israeli army forces stormed the town and handed demolition notices for al-Salam school built 10-years ago, an iron factory that has been in existence for 20 years and a commercial structure located at the southern entrance of the town.
He said the Israeli forces also left a notice for the demolition of a house owned by Palestinian expatriate Saleh Najjar.
Another homeowner identified as Malik Hamid was previously notified of the decision to demolish his house, said the mayor. No reason was given for the demolitions.
Israeli Soldiers Force Palestine TV Crew to Delete Tapped Material
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517001025
Zawatiya said the Israeli forces detained him for one hour at a checkpoint in the town of Barta’a, Southwest of Jenin in the Northern West Bank while he was filming a story about a delegation from the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Labor, WAFA reported.
The Cameraaman was with Palestine TV reporter Mohammad Badarnah filming the delegation who were distributing pamphlets to Palestinian workers as they were heading to work in Israel regarding their labor rights.
He said the soldiers pointed their guns at him as they forced him into the checkpoint where he was strip searched while the Israeli soldiers cursing him.
They also forced him to delete everything he filmed before they released him and seized his camera.
Israeli Army Detains 13 Palestinians, Seizes Two Vehicles in West Bank
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517001065
Israeli forces detained nine Palestinians after storming and ransacking their family homes during multiple overnight raids across Jenin district in the Northern West Bank, WAFA reported.
Elsewhere in the Northern West Bank, forces conducted raids into Nablus city, where they detained a Palestinian from Ras al-Ein neighborhood.
They also conducted a similar raid into Huwara town, south of Nablus, where they detained a former Palestinian prisoner and seized his truck.
Another Palestinian was detained from Qalqiliya district in the northern West Bank.
Meanwhile in Hebron district, forces seized a Palestinian-registered vehicle after storming a Palestinian home in al-Dhahiriya, South of Hebron.
Israeli Pilot Killed in Military Helicopter Crash
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517000642
The military helicopter crashed at an Israeli Air Force (IAF) base in Southern Israel and Major David Zohar died and a second officer is critically injured, Deccan Chronicle reported.
A technical investigation was launched into the incident and ordered all combat helicopters be grounded pending the outcome of the probe.
According to media reports, the Apaches were previously grounded after a large crack was discovered in the rotor blade of one. They began flying again last month.
The media reports said that the crash occurred at the end of a training flight which was part of a program to gradually return the Apaches to service. The pilot reported a malfunction before losing control.
Palestinian Officials Urge US to Clarify Stance on Future State
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517000570
The Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General, Saeb Erekat, made the call in a statement issued following a visit by Jordan’s King Abdullah II to the West Bank city of Ramallah, presstv reported.
In Ramallah, the Jordanian king sat down with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting came days after tensions at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem.
Abdullah’s visit carried “a message of support and succor for President Abbas and the Palestinian people,” Erekat’s statement read. Jordan is one of only two Arab countries that have open diplomatic relations with Israel, the other one being Egypt.
Abdullah and Abbas agreed that Washington must clearly admit that the diplomatic process between Israelis and Palestinians was meant to create a Palestinian state on the basis of a two-state solution, the statement added.
The statement by Erekat also urged the US to agree that the negotiations aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict require a complete freeze in Tel Aviv’s settlement construction in the occupied territories.
The Trump administration has been by and large vague about the potential establishment of a Palestinian state. Earlier this year, Washington suggested that it would no longer insist on the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which envisages the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israeli Likud Party to Hold Rally in Support of Prime Minister on Wednesday
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201708081056268393-israel-likud-prime-minister-rally/
The rally is expected to take place soon after the decision of Ari Harow, a former chief of staff in Netanyahu's government, become a state's witness in corruption cases against the head of the government.
It is especially important now, when developments keep happening, to boost morale in the Likud and demonstrate that we are united behind the prime minister," Bitan said as quoted by The Jerusalem Post, adding that only the party members would participate in the rally.
The lawmaker, who is also the chairman of the ruling coalition, said that every minister and lawmaker from the party, who would be in the country would attend the event.
Israeli authorities are currently investigating several corruption cases against Netanyahu. Within the framework of the first one, Netanyahu is allegedly involved in an improper acceptance of expensive gifts from businesspeople in return for favors. The second case is related to the negotiations of the Israeli prime minister with the Yedioth Ahronoth daily publisher Arnon Mozes, who reportedly offered a favorable coverage in exchange for reducing circulation of rival newspaper Israel Hayom.
Netanyahu said that the inquiry against him and the corresponding media campaign are unsubstantiated and aim to belittle the achievements of his government.
‘The grandson of South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician, Nelson Mandela, called on South Africa’s government to expel the Israeli ambassador to Pretoria and sever all diplomatic and business relations with Tel Aviv.
Mandela’s Grandson Urges Israeli Envoy’s Expulsion from South Africa, Cutting off of All Ties
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517000727
Mandla Mandela, who is a member of parliament for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), urged ANC caucus in legislature to pressure the government to send Arthur Lenk out of the country, and recall South Africa’s Ambassador to Israel Sisa Ngombane, and cut all ties, Anadolu reported.
“History calls upon us to take similar measures to those taken by freedom, justice and peace loving communities that supported the global anti-apartheid movement against the brutal and illegitimate South African regime,” he said.
Mandela also praised the decision made by a group of ANC lawmakers to turn down an Israeli delegation’s request to meet.’
Israel to Demolish Palestinians' School, Commercial Structures Northeast of Ramallah
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517001390
Silwad mayor, Abdel-Rahman Saleh, told WAFA that Israeli army forces stormed the town and handed demolition notices for al-Salam school built 10-years ago, an iron factory that has been in existence for 20 years and a commercial structure located at the southern entrance of the town.
He said the Israeli forces also left a notice for the demolition of a house owned by Palestinian expatriate Saleh Najjar.
Another homeowner identified as Malik Hamid was previously notified of the decision to demolish his house, said the mayor. No reason was given for the demolitions.
Israeli Soldiers Force Palestine TV Crew to Delete Tapped Material
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517001025
Zawatiya said the Israeli forces detained him for one hour at a checkpoint in the town of Barta’a, Southwest of Jenin in the Northern West Bank while he was filming a story about a delegation from the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Labor, WAFA reported.
The Cameraaman was with Palestine TV reporter Mohammad Badarnah filming the delegation who were distributing pamphlets to Palestinian workers as they were heading to work in Israel regarding their labor rights.
He said the soldiers pointed their guns at him as they forced him into the checkpoint where he was strip searched while the Israeli soldiers cursing him.
They also forced him to delete everything he filmed before they released him and seized his camera.
Israeli Army Detains 13 Palestinians, Seizes Two Vehicles in West Bank
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517001065
Israeli forces detained nine Palestinians after storming and ransacking their family homes during multiple overnight raids across Jenin district in the Northern West Bank, WAFA reported.
Elsewhere in the Northern West Bank, forces conducted raids into Nablus city, where they detained a Palestinian from Ras al-Ein neighborhood.
They also conducted a similar raid into Huwara town, south of Nablus, where they detained a former Palestinian prisoner and seized his truck.
Another Palestinian was detained from Qalqiliya district in the northern West Bank.
Meanwhile in Hebron district, forces seized a Palestinian-registered vehicle after storming a Palestinian home in al-Dhahiriya, South of Hebron.
Israeli Pilot Killed in Military Helicopter Crash
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517000642
The military helicopter crashed at an Israeli Air Force (IAF) base in Southern Israel and Major David Zohar died and a second officer is critically injured, Deccan Chronicle reported.
A technical investigation was launched into the incident and ordered all combat helicopters be grounded pending the outcome of the probe.
According to media reports, the Apaches were previously grounded after a large crack was discovered in the rotor blade of one. They began flying again last month.
The media reports said that the crash occurred at the end of a training flight which was part of a program to gradually return the Apaches to service. The pilot reported a malfunction before losing control.
Palestinian Officials Urge US to Clarify Stance on Future State
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960517000570
The Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General, Saeb Erekat, made the call in a statement issued following a visit by Jordan’s King Abdullah II to the West Bank city of Ramallah, presstv reported.
In Ramallah, the Jordanian king sat down with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting came days after tensions at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem.
Abdullah’s visit carried “a message of support and succor for President Abbas and the Palestinian people,” Erekat’s statement read. Jordan is one of only two Arab countries that have open diplomatic relations with Israel, the other one being Egypt.
Abdullah and Abbas agreed that Washington must clearly admit that the diplomatic process between Israelis and Palestinians was meant to create a Palestinian state on the basis of a two-state solution, the statement added.
The statement by Erekat also urged the US to agree that the negotiations aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict require a complete freeze in Tel Aviv’s settlement construction in the occupied territories.
The Trump administration has been by and large vague about the potential establishment of a Palestinian state. Earlier this year, Washington suggested that it would no longer insist on the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which envisages the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israeli Likud Party to Hold Rally in Support of Prime Minister on Wednesday
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201708081056268393-israel-likud-prime-minister-rally/
The rally is expected to take place soon after the decision of Ari Harow, a former chief of staff in Netanyahu's government, become a state's witness in corruption cases against the head of the government.
It is especially important now, when developments keep happening, to boost morale in the Likud and demonstrate that we are united behind the prime minister," Bitan said as quoted by The Jerusalem Post, adding that only the party members would participate in the rally.
The lawmaker, who is also the chairman of the ruling coalition, said that every minister and lawmaker from the party, who would be in the country would attend the event.
Israeli authorities are currently investigating several corruption cases against Netanyahu. Within the framework of the first one, Netanyahu is allegedly involved in an improper acceptance of expensive gifts from businesspeople in return for favors. The second case is related to the negotiations of the Israeli prime minister with the Yedioth Ahronoth daily publisher Arnon Mozes, who reportedly offered a favorable coverage in exchange for reducing circulation of rival newspaper Israel Hayom.
Netanyahu said that the inquiry against him and the corresponding media campaign are unsubstantiated and aim to belittle the achievements of his government.