Jerusalem expulsions target activists and community leaders

in Electronic Intifada

Whenever Palestinians stand up for their rights in Jerusalem, it is a safe bet that Samer Abu Eisheh will be there. It is hard to imagine a protest near the Damascus Gate — an entrance to the Old City — without his bellowing voice.

It is the 28-year-old’s relentless activism that could sunder him from his home, however. After nearly three months under house arrest, the TV producer and community leader was handed a five-month expulsion order from Jerusalem this week. It was issued by an Israeli district commander.

Fallan las zanahorias e Israel saca el garrote una vez más

ORIGINAL
translated here

Fuerzas de Ocupación israelíes montan guardia frente a un palestino que realiza las tradicionales oraciones del viernes en una calle fuera de la Ciudad Vieja de Jerusalén Este.

“Han matado la ciudad”, comentó una vendedora palestina de la calle en una casi vacía Puerta de Damasco. El lugar que una vez crepitaba con la energía y la gente,ahora está desprovisto de vida. En lugar de escuchar a los vendedores ambulantes gritando para vender sus productos y ver a los niños y adultos subir y bajar las escaleras de la Puerta de Damasco, lo único que se oye es el ruido de unos pocos autobuses en las noches.

Why won’t Israel return the body of a 14-year-old girl?

in Electronic Intifada

It is hard to believe that Hadil Awwad’sroom has been abandoned for more than two weeks. It is clean, tidy and smells beautiful.

Teddy bears of many colors are scattered on the two sides of her bed. Hadil received them as a gift from one of her brothers when he returned from China. Even as she turned 14 she continued to keep those teddy bears in her room.

Her new jacket that she had bought recently and only wore once is hanging in the wardrobe.

She will never have a chance to wear it again.

Israel’s revenge demolitions only stiffen Palestinian resolve

in Electronic Intifada

When residents of Shuafat woke on 2 December to free-flowing traffic at the checkpoint where Israeli forces control movement to and from this overcrowded refugee camp, many were unnerved.

“We immediately knew that this was not a charitable gesture and that there was an ulterior motive,” Abdullah Alqam, a veteran local activist, told The Electronic Intifada.

And sure enough: that day hundreds of Israeli troops entered the Jerusalem-area camp. Hours later, the home of Ibrahim al-Akkari had been destroyed in accordance with a demolition order handed down by an Israeli court more than a year earlier.

As Carrots Fail, Israel Pulls Out the Stick Once Again

in teleSUR

The latest Palestinian uprising has exposed the heavy-handed brutality of Israeli occupation.

“They have killed the city,” remarked one Palestinian street vendor in a nearly empty Damascus Gate. The place that once crackled with energy and people is now bereft of life. Instead of hearing street vendors call for the sale of their goods and seeing children and adults climbing up and down the Damascus Gate stairs, all you can hear is the noise of a few buses in the evenings.

“People are just afraid. The executions, the traffic tickets and fines that we get for nothing, the random arrests … we don’t feel safe in Jerusalem in the evening,” said a bus driver, who was forced to pay US$300 in traffic fines in the last week alone. He believes the Israeli police are using traffic tickets and fines to frame Palestinians and make their lives even more unbearable.

Rebel against torture killed by Israel

in Electronic Intifada

Lafi Awad was not yet 10 when he began taking part in protests.

The protests erupted in 2004 as it became plain that the wall Israel was building in the West Bank would divide his home village of Budrus. His family were among the Palestinians whose olive trees were earmarked for destruction as Israel confiscated much of the village’s land.

Lafi belonged to a generation that was politicized by Israel’s wall. He felt an urgent need to take action against the dispossession it was causing.

He resisted the Israeli occupation by throwing stones. His determination to keep resisting cost him his life.

أجساد ذائبة: شهداء فلسطينيّون يغتالهم الاحتلال مرّتين

«كيف يريدون أن أصدّق نبأ استشهاده وأنا لم أرَ جثمانه بأم عينيّ ولم يتسنَّ لي تشييعه ودفنه وقراءة الفاتحة على قبره؟».

لم تتوقف رؤوفة خطّاب عن ترديد هذا التساؤل طوال ستة وثلاثين عامًا مرّت على استشهاد ابنها الفدائي عبد الرحمن خطاب أثناء اشتباك مسلّح مع جنود الاحتلال الإسرائيلي قرب مدينة بيسان المحتلة في 15 نيسان/أبريل 1979.

تنتظر السيدة السبعينية الإفراج عن جثمان ابنها المحتجز في «مقابر الأرقام» قبيل كل صفقة تبادل بين المقاومة والاحتلال وتتهيّأ لاستقباله كأنّه ما يزال على قيد الحياة. ذلك ليس لأنها لم تتقبّل استشهاده وهو لم يكمل العشرين من عمره بعد، فابنها كان مقاومًا في صفوف منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية والإعلان عن استشهاده كان ليفاجئها أقل من عودته إلى البيت حيًّا منذ التحاقه بركب الفدائيين. ولكن لأن الموت هو النهاية (الدنيوية على الأقل)، فهي لا تطالب بأكثر من دليل ملموس على هذه النهاية ورفاتٍ تحتضنها وتواريها الثرى وخاتمةٍ تليق بمن قدّم حياته دفاعًا عن كرامة شعبه وتحرير أرضه.