February 26, 2013

Hundreds of people took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday in the second day of protests following the death of a Palestinian prisoner who PA officials say died as a result of torture.

The PA Minister of Detainee Affairs said Sunday that results from an autopsy of Arafat Jadarat's body indicate that he died after being tortured in Israeli custody, and not from a cardiac arrest, as Israel's Prison Authority had claimed.

Rocket explodes in Israel, first attack from Gaza since truce

A rocket exploded in southern Israel on Tuesday in the first such attack by militants in the Hamas Islamist ruled Gaza Strip since a truce ended a week of cross-border fighting in November, Israeli police said.

The rocket caused some damage to a road near the city of Ashkelon but no injuries, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"An explosion was heard in the Ashkelon region experts searched areas experts and found one rocket that struck, damaging a road but causing no injuries," Rosenfeld said.

Israel closes Gaza border crossings after rocket strike

Israeli authorities closed the Erez and Kerem Shalom border crossings with Gaza on Tuesday, after a rocket was fired from the coastal territory, a Palestinian border official said.

Nazmi Muhanna, head of the crossings committee in Gaza, told Ma'an that Israel closed the borders as a security measure after a rocket landed near Ashkelon.

Humanitarian cases will still be processed, he added.

Iran missile experts set up camp in Gaza to aid Hamas and Islamic Jihad, report says

Representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have set up a presence in the Gaza Strip, senior Palestinian security forces told the Israeli media outlet Walla! News in a report published Tuesday.

These representatives are expert missile builders who moved to the coastal territory to help Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants develop long-range missiles.

Israel security and diplomatic sources have confirmed the Iranian presence, but would not release any more information. This is not the first instance of Iranian emissaries in Gaza, Walla! quoted the sources as saying.

Israel fears prisoner death may spark Palestinian uprising

Masked Palestinian gunmen fired in the air on Monday as thousands marched at the West Bank funeral of a prisoner whose death in an Israeli jail has raised fears in Israel of a new uprising.

Arafat Jaradat's death on Saturday and a hunger strike by four other Palestinian inmates have raised tension in the occupied territory after repeated clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers in recent days.

Amid mounting pressures, some see potential for new Palestinian uprising

Less than a month before President Obama [15] is to visit Jerusalem [16] and Ramallah [17], raising hopes he will help bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the peace table, some see the West Bank [18] heading in a very different dir

Palestinian prisoner buried, as Israel, West Bank leaders try to prevent clashes

A Palestinian prisoner who died in an Israeli jail was given a hero’s burial with military honors in the West Bank on Monday amid signs that Palestinian and Israeli leaders were working to prevent days of street clashes from triggering a wider eruption of unrest.

Minister: Autopsy shows torture killed Jaradat

An autopsy has revealed that Arafat Jaradat died of extreme torture in Israeli custody and did not have a cardiac arrest, the PA Minister of Detainee Affairs said Sunday.

At a news conference in Ramallah, Issa Qaraqe said an autopsy conducted in Israel in the presence of Palestinian officials revealed that 30-year-old Jaradat had six broken bones in his neck, spine, arms and legs.

UN calls for independent inquiry into Palestinian death

The United Nations called Monday for an independent inquiry into the death of a Palestinian in Israeli custody, warning that mounting tensions risk an eruption of violence in the occupied territories.

The Palestinians also demanded an independent investigation in a letter to the UN Security Council, which said that Arafat Jaradat, who died at the weekend, could have been tortured.

UN Middle East peace envoy Robert Serry made the call for an investigation in a statement after talks with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on the Jaradat's death.

Abbas to Palestinian Authority security officials: Don't get drawn into Israeli violence

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [23] reportedly met Monday evening with Palestinian security chiefs in Ramallah and instructed them to enforce calm in the West Bank [24].

Abbas says Israel wants chaos

President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that Israel was seeking chaos as Israeli forces clashed with protesters across the West Bank for the second day.

"The Israelis want chaos ... We will not allow them to drag us into it and to mess with the lives of our children and our youth," Abbas told reporters in his office in Ramallah.

The death of 30-year-old Arafat Jaradat in Israeli custody on Saturday has sparked mass protests across the West Bank and Gaza. An autopsy revealed Jaradat died of extreme torture, Palestinian officials said Sunday.

Palestinian prisoners in Israel end strike over prisoner's death

The Israel [27]i Prison Service (IPS) announced Monday that a majority of the Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel ended their symbolic 24-hour hunger.

Thousands of Palestinian prisoners launched the hunger strike Sunday over the death of an inmate, Arafat [28] Jaradat who died in the northern Meggido prison Saturday.

New Israeli rule orders hunger striking detainees hospitalized after 28 days

The Health Ministry issued a controversial regulation on Monday requiring hospitalization for hunger strikers if the action lasts more than 28 days.

Palestinian security prisoners are currently holding hunger strikes to protest the death of detainee Arafat Jaradat last week at Megiddo Prison.

"Every detainee and prisoner on a hunger strike in the security system and prison system should be hospitalized if the strike lasts more than 28 days, even if he is opposed to medical treatment," states the regulation, which was sent to hospital managers across the country.

Israel bans Palestinian construction near separation barrier for " security reasons"

Israel is banning Palestinians from building on more than 1,000 acres of land under the Palestinian civil control adjacent to the separation barrier, the Ha'aretz daily reported on Monday.

The lands in question are under Palestinian control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians.

According to the Israeli Defense Forces, the ban is derived from "security reasons."

UN peace process envoy to Haaretz: Two-state solution 'on life support'

The two-state solution is in extremely grave condition, the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process warned in an interview with Haaretz last week.

"The two-state solution is now on life support," Robert Serry said. "This is in fact a critical year. Everyone should know that if we do not provide a credible diplomatic horizon for the two-state solution this might lead to very serious results."

Kerry: Obama plans to 'listen', not present peace plan

US President Barack Obama will not bring a peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict next month, but rather intends to listen, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.

Obama's plan to visit has raised speculation of a new US push to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, stalled since 2010 in a dispute over Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

But Kerry, speaking to German students during his first foreign trip as Washington's top diplomat, played down expectations.

Palestinians establish first national disaster loss database with UN help

With support from the United Nations, Palestinian officials today launched [34] the first database designed to provide information on disaster losses that will help develop planning policies and strengthen community resilience.

Peaceful protest to keep pressure on Israeli policy

Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old Palestinian petrol-station attendant and father of two young children, was arrested on February 18 after a protest at an Israeli settlement near Hebron. After he died in jail on Saturday, Israeli officials said with bland effrontery that a heart attack was the probable cause of death.

As Lincoln abolished slavery, Israel must abolish occupation

I've been hearing people say lately, that if they hear one more negative thing about Israel, it will drive them nuts.

I've heard this from people who hate Israel to death, from people who adore Israel all but uncritically, and from the group I belong to, people who love this place and find it maddening in every sense of the term, painful to love, painful to leave, terrifying in prospect, an indelible, at times miraculous shadow sewn to the soul.

My Journey From Palestine to Hollywood

My wife and I had seen that look before -- on the faces of our kids, mostly. After all, like all Palestinian children living in the West Bank, ours have grown accustomed to the humiliation of ID checks and interrogations.

But we had never seen our youngest son, Gibreel, as disappointed as he was on Tuesday, when American immigration officials threatened to deny us entry to the United States and to the 85th Academy Awards for which we had traveled two days to attend.

Wrong Cause

Many injustices plague Palestinian society, few of which can be blamed on the Jewish state, even by the farthest stretches of the imaginations of Israel’s enemies. These are self-inflicted injustices.

In the Gaza Strip, an Islamic quasi-state ruled by the totalitarian regime of Hamas has in the past few weeks arrested or summoned for interrogation at least 16 journalists as part of a campaign aimed at intimidating the local media, as reported by The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh.

An Israeli folly to the fore

Israel and Australia are involved in a spat over the death of a young man held in an Israeli prison. It is a cloak-and-dagger tale. Ben Zygier, who is said to have hanged himself in 2010 after being detained in conditions of great secrecy, held dual citizenship. Media reports in the two countries suggest the former Mossad employee had threatened to reveal details of the way Israeli intelligence agents carry other nations’ passports on overseas operations.

The Israel-Hezbollah Shadow War

Five years ago, when Hezbollah's military commander Imad Mughniyah was assassinated in Damascus, fingers were quickly pointed toward Israel. The group's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah [41], promised to launch an open war on Israel to avenge his slain comrade. Everyone was worried the blood of the most wanted Hezbollah member might ignite a regional conflict.

The BDS movement explained