issue no 34

Issue No: 34 10th Mar, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 1



Read in this report:

Issawi still on hunger strike despite

serious condition (P.4)

Clashes across the West Bank,

dozens injured (P.5)

Israel cracks down on Palestinian

worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque (P.5)

“Israel” accused of abusing detained

children (P.6)

Hamdan: Talks about reviving peace

process are futile (P.7)

Malaysia gives $6milliom grant to

Gaza (P.9)



Contents

NEWS OF PALESTINE

Issawi still on hunger strike despite serious condition............................................................... 4

Clashes across the West Bank, dozens injured .......................................................................... 5

Israel cracks down on Palestinian worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque ..................................... 5

17 Palestinian refugees killed in Syria last week ....................................................................... 6

“Israel” accused of abusing detained children ........................................................................... 6

Hamdan: Talks about reviving peace process are futile ............................................................ 7

ISRAEL INSIDER

The paved side of the street is for Jews only ............................................................................. 8

MALAYSIA & PALESTINIAN CAUSE

Malaysia gives $6milliom grant to Gaza ................................................................................... 9

ARTICLES & ANALYSES

We are fighting for all Palestinians .......................................................................................... 10



Palestinian prisoners to globalise their issue

Issawi still on hunger strike despite serious condition

09/03/2013

Samer Al-Issawi, who has been on hunger

strike for more than six months, was

transferred from Ramle prison hospital to

Kaplan hospital after his health worsened.

Lawyer Jawad Bulous, the head of the legal

section in the Palestinian prisoner’s society,

quoted Issawi as saying that he was pondering

boycotting the Israeli military court after it

refused all defense requests during the trial of

his colleague Ayman Al-Sharawne, who is

also on hunger strike.

In a related context, the director of the

Prisoners' Study Center (PST) announced that

the Palestinian prisoners are to globalise their

issue as a result of increased Israeli violations

of their rights.

Speaking during a discussion panel held in the

Gaza Strip, Riyad Al-Ashqar said that the

prisoners are looking at strategic steps which

can be taken to support and defend their case.

They are to demand the formation of an

international fact-finding mission to

investigate the death of Arafat Jaradat, the

prisoner who died while in Israeli custody

recently. According to Mr. Al-Ashqar, the

prisoners are also working to bring about an

end to solitary confinement.

Meanwhile, Ahrar Center revealed that Israeli

prisons guards savagely stormed prisons 15

times in February 2013, especially Meggido

and Negev prisons.

Source: Agencies

NEWS OF PALESTINE



Clashes across the West Bank, dozens injured

08/03/2013

Dozens of Palestinians were injured during

clashes across the West Bank on Friday, as

tensions rose due to the Israeli escalations

against the Palestinian prisoners.

Eleven people were injured in the Ramallah

village of Beit Liqya during clashes with

Israeli forces following an arrest raid, locals

said.

Fifteen people suffered light injuries after

inhaling tear gas during clashes in Nablus

following a protest against environmental

damage caused by waste from settlements.

Israeli forces also clashed with protesters in

the Ramallah village of Abud after the funeral

of Mohammad Asfour, who died a day earlier

after being wounded by Israeli forces two

weeks ago.

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in

the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past

two weeks to support the hunger strikers in

Israeli jails and to protest the death of a

Palestinian prisoner who died as a result of

torture.

Source: Ma’an Agency

_______________________________________________________________

Israel cracks down on Palestinian worshipers at the Al-Aqsa

Mosque

08/3/2013

More than 75 casualties have been recorded

among Palestinian worshipers at the Al-Aqsa

Mosque following the Friday Prayers today

with one seriously wounded.

Mohamed al-Gharableh, the head of the

Palestinian Association of Paramedics, said

that the Israeli soldiers kept the wounded

under siege inside the Mosque for a long time.

He also said that the soldiers began shooting

tear gas canisters before the Friday Prayers

ended.

The Palestinian worshipers were prepared to

begin demonstrations after the Prayer in

protest at Israeli attacks on students of the

Sharia schools inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque last

week, where an Israeli soldier kicked a copy of

the Holy Quran with his foot, and attacked a

number of Palestinian girls who had been

reciting the Quran in the Mosque's yards.



In a related context, the Islamic movement in

the Palestinian 1948 occupied territories

organized on Monday a demonstration outside

the US Embassy in the occupied city of Tel

Rabi (Tel Aviv) protesting against the U.S.

President Barack Obama's intended visit to Al-

Aqsa mosque during his upcoming visit to the

region the next few days.

The head of the Islamic Movement inside the

Green Line, Sheikh Raed Salah, said that the

intended visit provides a false legitimacy to

the occupation in Al-Aqsa mosque and

declares war against the Palestinian people and

against the Arab and Islamic nation because

Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque's issue is not

only a Palestinian issue but it is an Arab and

Islamic issue.

Source: Agencies

_______________________________________________________________

17 Palestinian refugees killed in Syria last week

07/03/2013

Activists in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria

said on Thursday that 12 Palestinians were

killed in those camps as a result of shelling

and attack over the past 24 hours.

The workgroup for Palestinians in Syria said

in a statement that ten Palestinians were killed

and 17 others were wounded when shells

slammed into the southeastern areas of

Sabbina refugee camp.

It said that the shells fell on houses and a main

market in the refugee camp on Wednesday.

They said that two others were killed in

separate incidents.

The workgroup recalled that five refugees

were killed in Sabbina camp on Tuesday

bringing the number of those killed to 17

within a couple of days in that camp.

Source: PIC

_______________________________________________________________

“Israel” accused of abusing detained children

06/03/2013

Palestinian children detained by Israeli

authorities face systematic abuse that violates

international law, the United Nations Children

Fund (UNICEF) has said in a report.

UNICEF estimated that 700 Palestinian

children aged between 12 and 17 were arrested

by Israeli security forces every year in the

occupied West Bank.

The world organisation said it had identified

some examples of practices that "amount to

cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment according to the Convention on

the Rights of the Child and the Convention

against Torture".

Ill-treatment of Palestinian minors typically

begins with the arrest itself, often carried out

in the middle of the night by heavily armed

soldiers, and continues all the way through

prosecution and sentencing, according to the

report.



"The pattern of ill-treatment includes ... the

practice of blindfolding children and tying

their hands with plastic ties, physical and

verbal abuse during transfer to an interrogation

site, including the use of painful restraints,"

the report said. Such practice "appears to be

widespread, systematic and institutionalised",

it added.

UNICEF based its findings on more than 400

cases documented since 2009 as well as legal

papers, reports by governmental and non-

governmental groups and interviews with

Palestinian minors and with Israeli and

Palestinian officials and lawyers.

Source: Aljazeera

_______________________________________________________________

Hamdan: Talks about reviving peace process are futile

06/03/2013

Osama Hamdan, foreign relations official in

Hamas movement, said that the talks about

reviving peace process, at the meetings of

Arab foreign ministers that took place on

Wednesday in Cairo, are futile.

Hamdan said in remarks to Quds Press

Agency: "Talking about the peace process

must take a new direction, in light of the Arab

Spring, which will stem from the will of the

Palestinian people and its interests, and from a

strategic evaluation of the results of the peace

process during the last stage."

He emphasized that the negotiations have

reached the stage of the futility, and called for

considering the rights of the Palestinian people

and the best ways to achieve them.

"The negotiations have done nothing to the

Palestinian people over the past two decades,

and Hamas will never be a part of such failure

and nonsense," Hamdan expressed.

When asked whether the attitude regarding

negotiations represents new obstacle to

reconciliation, he said: "the main obstacle to

reconciliation is the U.S. and Israeli pressure."

Source: PIC



The paved side of the street is

for Jews only

08/03/2013

B'Tselem organization stated that the

separation between Israelis and Palestinians

adopted by Israeli authorities in the West Bank

does not involve public transport only, but it

also involves the use of facilities.

The Israeli human rights NGO said in a report

released on Friday that it has published a new

video entitled "How to Build a Fence in

Hebron" that features footage of Border Police

officers stating that one side of a newly

erected fence is for Jews, the other for Arabs.

The organization reported that "The separation

principle is an official policy of the Israeli

military separating Jews and Muslims in the

city of Hebron. The policy is implemented

primarily through severe restrictions on

Palestinian travel and movement in downtown

Hebron, where most Israeli settlement outposts

are located".

It added that the neighborhood of Al-

Salaimeh, which is connected to the Ibrahimi

Mosque, represents one of the roads prohibited

to Palestinian vehicles. In order to transport

supplies through the street, Palestinians were

forced to use a horse-drawn wagon or a hand-

cart, while settlers and Israeli civilians are

permitted to walk and drive cars on the street.

B'Tselem's report noted that on 23 September

2012 Israeli security forces laid out a chain-

link fence, dividing the road lengthwise. On

one side of the fence is a paved road for

settlers and on the other, a narrow pedestrian

passageway for Palestinian residents.

"Since the fence was erected, Israeli security

forces have not allowed Palestinians to walk

on the road. Instead they direct Palestinians to

the narrow passageway, which is unpaved,

rough and ends in a small staircase. The

passage is completely impassible by

wheelchair and is very difficult to navigate

with a baby carriage, pushcart or bicycle,"

B’Tselem added. It has videoed the

construction of the fence and of Border Police

keeping Palestinians from going on the road.

Musa Abu Hashhash and Manal al-Ja’bri,

B’Tselem field researchers, also tried to reach

the wide, paved side of the street. However,

because they are Palestinian, Border

Policemen prevented them from doing so. The

policemen told them explicitly that the paved

side of the street is for Jews only.

Source: PIC

ISRAEL INSIDER



Malaysia gives $6milliom grant to Gaza

05/03/2013

The General Secretary of the Palestinian

Ministerial Council in Gaza, Abdul-Salam

Syam, said on Tuesday that Malaysia had

agreed a $6 million grant for re-construction

projects in Gaza.

According to Seyam, the grant included

reconstruction of the ministerial council’s HQ

in the Gaza Strip which was targeted and

destroyed in the most recent Israeli war on

Gaza last November. A mosque which was

destroyed during the war was included.

Seyam has been to Malaysia to finalise

discussions on terms of the grant which was

signed when the Malaysian prime minister

visited Gaza last month.

The Palestinian official, who carried a

message of gratitude from the Palestinian

Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, to his

Malaysian counterpart, said that a new highly

technical Malaysian school in Gaza is going to

be built. The work on the projects supported

by the Malaysian grant is due to start as soon

as the plans and bids are completed.

An official invitation was also handed to the

former Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr.

Mahathir Mohamed, to visit the Gaza Strip.

"Dr. Mahathir promised to make it as soon as

possible," Seyam said.

Source: MEMO

MALAYSIA & PALESTINIAN CAUSE



We are fighting for all Palestinians

By: Samer Issawi *

My story is no different from that of many

other Palestinian young people who were born

and have lived their whole lives under Israeli

occupation. At 17, I was arrested for the first

time, and jailed for two years. I was arrested

again in my early 20s, at the height of the

second intifada in Ramallah, during an Israeli

invasion of numerous cities in the West Bank -

what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield.

I was sentenced to 30 years in prison on

charges relating to my resistance to the

occupation.

I am not the first member of my family to be

jailed on my people's long march towards

freedom. My grandfather, a founding member

of the PLO, was sentenced to death by the

British Mandate authorities, whose laws are

used by Israel to this day to oppress my

people; he escaped hours before he was due to

be executed. My brother, Fadi, was killed in

1994, aged just 16, by Israeli forces during a

demonstration in the West Bank following the

Ibrahimi mosque massacre in Hebron. Medhat,

another brother, has served 19 years in prison.

My other brothers, Firas, Ra'afat and Shadi

were each imprisoned for five to 11 years. My

sister, Shireen, has been arrested numerous

times and has served a year in prison. My

brother's home has been destroyed. My

mother's water and electricity have been cut

off. My family, along with the people of my

beloved city Jerusalem, are continuously

harassed and attacked, but they continue to

defend Palestinian rights and prisoners.

After almost 10 years in prison, I was released

in the Egypt-sponsored deal between Israel

and Hamas to release the Israeli soldier Gilad

Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

However, on 7 July 2012, I was arrested again

near Hizma, an area within the municipality of

Jerusalem, on charges of violating the terms of

my release (that I should not leave Jerusalem).

Others who were released as part of that deal

were also arrested, some with no declared

reason. Accordingly, I began a hunger strike

on 1 August to protest against my illegal

imprisonment and Israel's violation of the

agreement.

My health has deteriorated greatly, but I will

continue my hunger strike until victory or

martyrdom. This is my last remaining stone to

throw at the tyrants and jailers in the face of

the racist occupation that humiliates our

people.

I draw my strength from all the free people in

the world who want an end to the Israeli

occupation. My weak heartbeat endures thanks

to this solidarity and support; my weak voice

gains its strength from voices that are louder,

and can penetrate the prison walls.

My battle is not just for my own freedom. My

fellow hunger strikers, Ayman, Tarik and

Ja'afar, and I are fighting a battle for all

Palestinians against the Israeli occupation and

its prisons. What I endure is little compared to

the sacrifice of Palestinians in Gaza, where

thousands have died or been injured as a result

of brutal Israeli attacks and an unprecedented

and inhuman siege.

However, more support is needed. Israel could

not continue its oppression without the support

of western governments. These governments,

particularly the British, which has a historic

ARTICLES & ANALYSIS



responsibility for the tragedy of my people,

should impose sanctions on the Israeli regime

until it ends the occupation, recognises

Palestinian rights, and frees all Palestinian

political prisoners.

Do not worry if my heart stops. I am still alive

now and even after death, because Jerusalem

runs through my veins. If I die, it is a victory;

if we are liberated, it is a victory, because

either way I have refused to surrender to the

Israeli occupation, its tyranny and arrogance.

Source: The Guardian

___________________________________

* Samer Issawi is a Palestinian prisoner in the Israeli jails. He’s currently on an open-ended hunger

strike since August 1st 2012. It was recorded as the longest hunger strike ever in history.

issue no 34

Documents

palestinian worshipers

palestinian prisoners

palestinian refugees

issue issawi

hunger strike

samer alissawi

alaqsa mosque

quoted issawi