Israeli Military Action in the West Bank | The American Task Force on Palestine

Sly maneuver
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) April 12, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli Army’s plan to deport tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank is both inhuman and illegal. It is also highly provocative and could reignite the intifada. This, of course, would suit the Netanyahu government very well, since once more, even the indirect peace talks with the Palestinians would be back on hold and Israel could protest yet again that its security was threatened by “terrorist violence.”

Israel ends probe into Palestinian protester death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's military says it will not file any charges in the death of a Palestinian protester last year. Thirty-one-year-old Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed when a tear gas canister fired by troops hit him in the chest during a protest last April against Israel's West Bank separation barrier. The army claimed Abu Rahmeh was in a group of people throwing rocks at troops. But video footage showed the protesters shouting at soldiers, not throwing anything. The Israeli military said Thursday it closed the investigation after determining the canister was not intentionally aimed at Abu Rahmeh.

Rachel Corrie's family takes case to court in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The American parents sit stoically in a sky-lit courtroom, listening to testimony about how an Israeli military bulldozer crushed their daughter to death seven years ago. They hear about the dangerous game of chicken played for several hours that winter afternoon in 2003, between bulldozers and international activists trying to protect Palestinian homes, before Rachel Corrie disappeared under a creeping mound of dirt.

Palestinian security forces walk a careful line
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 26, 2010 - 12:00am

As the highest-ranking commander of nearly 8,000 Palestinian security troops, Maj. Gen. Diab Ali is accustomed to being top gun. But the salutes often stop when he leaves the military base and travels through the West Bank. Experience has taught the general to leave his gun behind and trade the uniform for civilian clothes, lest some young Israeli checkpoint guard decide to hold him for questioning or block his way. "It avoids problems," said Ali, commander of the National Security Forces of the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Army World's Most Moral?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Many Israelis like to believe, and the cliché is repeated regularly in Israel, that their army is the "most moral army in the world." However, following the Gaza war which left 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, some Israelis have begun to question this. Furthermore, the fatal shooting of four Palestinian teenagers in the course of 24 hours over the weekend, in highly questionable circumstances, has forced the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to investigate the incident amidst contradictory statements issued by the soldiers involved.

'Pitchfork remained on ground during purported attack'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Was a pitchfork attack thwarted? Many serious question marks are brought up by the IDF's initial investigation into the functioning of the soldiers involved in Sunday's incident next to Awatra in which two Palestinians carrying a pitchfork were killed by IDF soldiers. At the end of the debriefings on the incident and on the incident that took place on Saturday in which two other Palestinians were killed during a protest near Nablus, investigation material will be passed on to the military prosecutor, where it will be decided whether the military police will launch an investigation.

MESS Report / Can anything douse the flames of West Bank unrest?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - (Opinion) March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

The recent deterioration of calm in the West Bank, which involved two unpleasant incidents that occurred in less than 24 hours, are continuing to raise the heat of the West Bank barometer. Advertisement A week after the failed Palestinian attempt to ignite riots in Jerusalem and the West Bank over the building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood Ramat Shlomo, Israel is now fanning the flames with the deaths of four unarmed Palestinians at the hands of Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

IDF declares West Bank protest villages a 'closed military area'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The army has declared the West Bank villages of Bil'in and Ni'lin a 'closed military area' until August 17, it emerged Monday. In arresting a demonstrator on Friday, police cited a military edict closing off the two villages, where weekly protests against the barrier Israel is erecting around the West Bank have often turned violent. Bil'in residents told Haaretz that late on Friday night dozens of soldiers, some of them masked, deployed throughout the village to post notices of the order, signed on February 17 by the chief of army Central Command, Gen. Avi Mizrahi.

Settlers' call sends Palestinian shepherd to IDF beating
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The response from the Israel Defense Forces spokesman came surprisingly quickly; a mere two or three hours after the query had been sent by Haaretz, the spokesman replied orally, and then in writing, that "following the reporter's question and after receiving most of the facts, the chief [military] prosecutor, Col. Jana Modzagbrishvili has instructed the military police to look into the matter." The matter, according to most of the facts, was that soldiers had beaten a civilian, who was bound and blindfolded, for several hours on January 7.

Israel extends West Bank closure for three days
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli security forces extended the general closure on the West Bank for three days to Tuesday midnight, an Israeli army statement said on Saturday. The lookdown, which had been expected to be lifted on Saturday midnight, was extended in view of the unrest in the area, according to the statement.

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