Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Israeli Occupation Soldiers Injure 4 Protesters in Beit Ummar, Illegal Jewish Settlers Seize More Palestinian Lands South of Bethlehem

Four casualties in IOF quelling of March including child, foreign activist

[ 12/05/2012 - 03:03 PM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)--

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) violently suppressed a rally in Beit Ummar village, to the north of Al-Khalil, on Saturday injuring four participants including a child and a foreign activist.

Yousef Abu Maria, the coordinator of the national campaign in the village, said in a press release that the IOF soldiers fired tear gas canisters at the demonstration that tried to reach the village’s confiscated land near Karmi Tzur settlement.

He said that a 14-year-old child was injured along with two citizens and a foreign activist, adding that the injuries were due to the soldiers’ use of batons and rifle butts in attacking the participants.

Abu Maria said that the soldiers arrested Ahmed Abu Hashem, the secretary of the popular committee in the village, while participating in the event that started with visits to relatives of martyrs and prisoners, noting that the rally was also organized in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.

Jerusalemite march in solidarity with the prisoners

[ 12/05/2012 - 02:43 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Thousands of Jerusalemite demonstrators marched after Friday prayers in solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners.

The demonstrators raised prisoners’ photos, chanted national slogans demanding the release of prisoners and condemning the Israeli procedures that aim at Judaizing Jerusalem. They marched to Damascus Gate through the streets of Jerusalem and towards the sit-in tent at the Red Cross headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

They also placed Palestinian flags on the Israeli District Court and the Ministry of Justice in defiance of the Israeli occupation.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem committee against the wall and settlement and the general secretariat of the families of Jerusalem and Palestine, with the participation of the national forces, staged a sit-in at the Damascus Gate after Friday prayers, to mark the 64th anniversary of Nakba.

Ismail Khatib, director of the committee against the wall and settlement, read a statement on the occasion stressing that the Palestinians, who suffered from displacement, deportation and killing, will never give up their national rights, despite the international community’s silence and the continued “Zionist oppression”.

The statement called on the UN to take all necessary measures to ensure the implementation of all decisions concerning the Palestinian issue, and to send an international investigation committee to monitor and follow up the occupation government’s violations of the international law and human rights.

Illegal Jewish settlers seize Palestinian land in Bethlehem

[ 12/05/2012 - 02:31 PM ]

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)--

Illegal Jewish settlers seized Palestinian land in Khader village, south of Bethlehem, on Saturday and started farming it.

Ahmed Salah, the coordinator of the popular committee in the village, said that settlers from Hanania settlement took control over six dunums of Mustafa Ghunaim’s land and ploughed it to impose a de facto situation.

The Israeli occupation forces had closed a number of routes leading to farmlands in Bethlehem making it impossible for farmers to reach them. Owners of those land fear that the step might herald confiscating the land lots.

Undercover troops threw stones at soldiers during nonviolent demos, Commander admits

Saturday May 12, 2012 09:14 by IMEMC Staff - IMEMC & Agencies

The commander of an elite Israeli undercover unit has admitted that soldiers dressed up as Palestinians and threw stones at Israeli soldiers during non-violent demonstrations beginning in 2005, in the village of Bil'in in the central West Bank.

The Palestinians who participated in the non-violent demonstrations had insisted at the time that the stone throwers were undercover forces, but the Israeli media and public were extremely skeptical of this claim. Now, the commander of the controversial 'Masada' undercover unit has admitted that the soldiers did indeed dress up as Palestinians and throw stones at soldiers in order to provoke a confrontation.

Israeli journalist Haggai Matar wrote in +972 magazine Friday, “as the demonstration progressed towards the construction site of the fence, several young men of Arab appearance, unknown to organizers and thought to have come from neighboring villages, started throwing stones, giving the soldiers the queue cue they needed to disperse the demonstration with tear gas and make arrests. According to several witnesses, leaders in the popular struggle approached the young men and asked them to stop throwing stones – at which point the strangers pulled out concealed guns and handcuffs and arrested the people who asked them to stop. It would later be made known that these were combatants in the IPS elite anti-riot unit Metzada (“Masada”), lent to the army to infiltrate demonstrations and make them violent.”

The new admission by the commander of the unit was made in the context of the trial of Israeli Knesset member Mohammed Baraka, who participated in the 2005 protest, and has been charged with assaulting an Israeli officer. Baraka allegedly tried to intervene when the undercover agents pulled out guns and began arresting protest organizers.

In six West Bank towns, thousands rally in support of hunger striking prisoners

Saturday May 12, 2012 09:00 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Four protesters were wounded, and hundreds more suffered the effects of tear gas and chemical water sprayed by Israeli forces on non-violent prisoner solidarity protests in six West Bank villages on Friday.

One Palestinian was injured in the village of Aboud near Ramallah during clashes with stone-throwing youth and Israeli troops who attempted to prevent a nonviolent protest held in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.

Local sources said that Majed Barghouti 18 years old was hit with a rubber bullet in his eye. Barghouti was moved to the hospital for treatment in Ramallah and wound was described as serious.

In the meantime, residents of the nearby village of Nabi Saleh, in addition to international supporters marched in solidarity with the prisoners after the Friday midday prayers. Israeli troops stopped the marchers at the entrance of the village and fired several rounds of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and chemical water. Dozens were treated for the effects of gas inhalation and some of the nearby fields caught fire.

Clashes erupted afterwards between stone throwing youth and Israeli soldiers who blocked all entrances of village and prevented the ambulance from entering the village to treat the wounded.

In the nearby village of Bil'in, Israeli and International peace activists joined the villagers in their weekly anti-wall protest which was dedicated to the Palestinian prisoners.

The march started after the mid-day prayers and was met by Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets and showered the protesters with sewage and chemical water. Several protesters suffered effects of the gas inhalation and the chemical water and were treated by field paramedics.

As a response some of local youth threw balloons with animal feces inside them at the soldiers. The troops responded with more gas, metal bullets and sound bombs which caused fire in the nearby fields.

In Kufur Qaddum, near Nablus, three journalists were wounded when Israeli troops attacked the prisoner-solidarity march in the village with rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters.

The three journalists were identified as a reporter and two cameramen of the Palestinian Satellite Channel.

In the southern part of the West Bank, over one thousand Palestinian, International and Israeli protesters gathered in the village of Al-Walaja to protest against the wall Israel is building of the villages land and to show solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners. Israeli troops attacked the protesters with tear gas causing dozens to choke and were all treated by field paramedics.

Meanwhile in the nearby village of Al-Maasara, several were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli soldiers attempted to stop the nonviolent anti-wall/prisoner solidarity protest organized in the village.

The march started after the mid-day prayers from the mosque and managed to reach the lands close to the settlement of Efrat near Bethlehem, which is built on confiscated Palestinian lands.