This Week in Palestine Sept. 22-28
by Husam Qassis and George Rishmawi for IMEMC News
HAVANA TIMES — Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, for September 22, to 28th 2012
The Palestinian leadership submits an application of a non-member state to the United Nations, meanwhile, Israeli military abduct around 20 Palestinians in the West Bank, these stories and more, read on.
The Nonviolent Report
Let’s us begin our weekly report with nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. This week a journalist was injured, many treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation and two arrested when Israeli troops attacked anti wall protests in the West Bank.
On Friday protests were organized in Kufer Kadum village, northern West Bank and the central West Bank villages of Bil’in, Nil’in and Nabi Saleh, as well as the village of AL Ma’ssara, southern West Bank.
At the northern West Bank village of Kufer Kadum, Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly anti wall protest with tear gas and arrested two protesters. The two men were farmers from the village, local souirces said. According to villagers Israeli forces surrounded their village since the early hours of firdya morning to try to stop the protest.
In central West Bank, at the villages of Bil’in and Nil’in, protesters along with their international and Israeli supporters reached the Israeli wall before soldiers attacked them with tear gas and sound bombs as well as chemically treated water that produces bad smell.
One journalist from Serbia was lightly wounded by a tear gas bomb. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation in both villages.
In the nearby al Nabi Saleh village Israeli troops fired tear gas and sound bombs at villagers and their international and Israeli supporters at the entrance and did not allow them to reach lands Israeli took from local famers to build a settlement on.
Later troops invaded al Nabi Saleh and fired tear gas at residents homes, many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Also this Friday villagers of Al Ma’sara, southern West Bank, protested the Israeli wall. troops stopped the villagers and their supporters at village entrance and forced them back into the village using rifle-buts and batons. No injuries were reported. .
The West Bank & Gaza Report
This week the Israeli military conducted at least 50 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the west Bank and Gaza. Israeli troops abduct 20 civilians including a child from the west Bank and bulldozed farm lands and fired live rounds at resident’s homes in the Gaza Strip. IMEMC’s
A Palestinian woman was injured on Monday morning when Israeli tanks opened fire at residents homes located near the Israeli borders in central Gaza Strip. Residents told local news that Israeli forces invaded the area on Sunday night and opened fire in the morning as they withdrew from the area. According to doctors the woman, in her 50s, sustained moderate wounds.
Later in the week Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported Wednesday that one resident was killed and two were wounded when a siege-busting tunnel, on the border in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, collapsed on them. The youth was identified as Suleiman Ramadan Al-Masri, 20; the two wounded residents suffered moderate injuries. Last week another tunnel worker was killed in a similar tunnel collapse accident in As-Salaam neighborhood in Rafah.
It is worth mentioning that around 205 Palestinians have been killed in similar tunnel incidents, while hundreds have been injured since 2006. The Palestinians started digging tunnels after Israel enforced its deadly siege on the coastal region. The siege has left Gazan hospitals out of basic and specialized supplies and equipment, an issue that has led to the death of more than 400 patients, including infants and children.
On Thursday The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement that one of its fighters died due to injuries he suffered during training two days ago. The Brigades said that Nimir Sa’id Al-Madhoun, 29, was seriously injured during what it called “a Jihadist mission” several days ago. Al-Madhoun is from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
Also this week a report prepared and published by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) accused the state of Israel of failing to prosecute Israeli soldiers and settlers who commit crimes against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. The report said that there is a serious increase in attacks carried out by settlers and soldiers against the unarmed Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem.
The report also revealed that an Israeli soldier, who was questioned by Israel for killing a Palestinian mother and her daughter, never faced charges until this moment, and said that three Israeli young settlers were placed under house arrest for five days for attacking a Palestinian family with firebombs leading to serious injuries. The Human Rights Council said that “such attacks are frequent, and escalating in many cases, and target Palestinian civilians and their property”.
The Political Report
This week, Palestinians went again to the United Nations demanding a non-member state at the world organization, meanwhile, chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmad Qurai reiterated the Palestinians’ stance that a one-democratic-state solution seems workable amidst failure to reach a two-state-solution, the details and more with IMEMC’s Rami Almeghari
Abbas’ speech in the UN emphasized on the Palestinian people’s need to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on basis of United Nations resolutions, pending for decades now.
Abbas outlined the Palestinian Authority’s struggle for the sake of peace that is based on a two-state solution and blamed Israel for failure of the peace process since the latter has been kicked off for the past two decades.
The president called for international intervention to stop Israel’s settlements building, being a stumbling block in the past of peace between the two sides.
“Actuality ” part of Abbas’s speech in the UN” In Arabic
“The two-state solution constitutes the basis for the Oslo agreement of 1993 signed by Israel and the PLO under the umbrella of United Nations”.
Abbas warned of what he called one more catastrophe for the Palestinian people, in reference to the Palestinian people’s refugee problem of 1948, unless there is a strong intervention for the sake of peace between the two peoples.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, reactions were heard far an wide in response to the Abbas’s speech. While Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas described the remarks as historical, the ruling Hamas party in Gaza, a rival to Fatah, downplayed them.
A Hamas political advisor in Gaza, Yousef Rezqa, maintained that Abbas did not bring something new and that the president’s emphasis on peace as a strategic choice won’t alone help, for it has already proved failure.
Other Palestinian factions welcomed the speech; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, praised Abbas’s talk as a right step towards international recognition of Palestine as a non-member state in the UN.
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine this was the Weekly report for September 22 to 28th 2012 from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org.