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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1

Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization MalaysiaMalaysiaM

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Netanyahu to launch media offensive against ICC

Dr M launches campaign to rebuild Gaza

P4

P16

FEATURED STORY

Articles & Analyses

Read in This Issue

In light of the suspicious silence, crimes against humanity are being

committed in the Negev

P12

Obama Won’t Meet With Israel’s Netanyahu During U.S. Visit

Father Finds Five-Month-Old Son Frozen to Death in Gaza

Palestinian youths clash with Israeli troops around Jerusalem

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P15

P13

Israel ignoring deaths of Thai workers on farms, Human Rights

P10 Israel Insider

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

CONTENTS

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

Israel Insider

Articles & Analyses

News of Palestine

FEATURED STORY

Dr M launches campaign to rebuild Gaza 4

UN criticises Israel for razing Palestinian home 5

At least 13 stabbed in Tel Aviv bus attack 6

Settler runs over 5-year-old Palestinian near Tulkarem 7

Japan pledges $100m to rebuild Gaza 8

Despite limitations, Gaza-based IT company has Google-sized aspirations 9

Netanyahu to launch media offensive against ICC 10

Father Finds Five-Month-Old Son Frozen to Death in Gaza 11

Obama Won’t Meet With Israel’s

Netanyahu During U.S. Visit 12

Israel ignoring deaths of Thai workers on farms, Human Rights Watch says 13

Israel issues stop-work order for park in West Bank, seeks to demolish it 14

Palestinian youths clash with Israeli troops around Jerusalem 15

In light of the suspicious silence, crimes against humanity are being 16

committed in the Negev

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Featured Story

Dr M launches campaign to rebuild Gaza

The outpouring of sadness by Western countries following the attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo which left 12 peo-ple dead appears to be insincere when they have not mourned the thousands who have died in Gaza, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

Although he expressed sympathy with the people who had died in Paris and fully condemned the killings as an act of terrorism, Dr Mahathir said Western countries seemed to “forget” about those who had been killed in Palestine.

“Those victims in Gaza were

killed for no reasons and their houses and towns were bombed, killing thousands.

“Some were babies and children while those who were injured were mostly old. When thousands are killed, nobody in the western world mourns or cries for them,” he said Saturday in his keynote address at the launch of the $US1 billion campaign to rebuild Gaza.

The donation will be channelled to efforts to rebuild Gaza’s infrastruc-ture.

Dr Mahathir said Muslim countries should come up with a proper strat-egy to end suffering and continue with the rebuilding of Gaza.

“We hope to collect the donations and help our brothers and sisters in Gaza.

“We must continue to build friendship to help our cause and change their mindset. We are glad that some European countries have recog-nised Palestine as an independent state,” he said.

January 24, 2015 Source: The Star

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

The United Nations has accused Israel of illegally demolishing the homes of 77 Palestinians, mostly children, this week in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.“In the past three days, 77 Pales-tinians, over half of them children, have been made homeless,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement issued on Friday evening.“Some of the demolished struc-tures were provided by the inter-national community to support vulnerable families. Demolitions that result in forced evictions and displacement run counter to Isra-el’s obligations under internation-al law and create unnecessary suffering and tension. They must stop immediately,” said OCHA.The demolitions took place in East

News of Palestine

UN criticises Israel for razing Palestinian home

Jerusalem and the districts of Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron.OCHA said that during 2014 Israel carried out a record number of demolitions in East Jerusalem and a zone of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control known as Area C.“In 2014, according to OCHA figures, the Israeli authorities de-stroyed 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and East Jerusalem, displacing 1,177 people - the highest level of dis-placement in the West Bank since OCHA began systematically monitoring the issue in 2008.”Israel says such demolitions are carried out because the struc-tures have been built without the required construction permits. But Palestinians and rights groups say such authorisation is rou-tinely denied, forcing unlicensed building.“The planning policies applied by Israel in Area C and East Je-rusalem discriminate against Palestinians, making it extremely difficult for them to obtain building permits,” said OCHA.“As a result, many Palestinians build without permits to meet their housing needs and risk having their structures demolished. Palestinians must have the opportunity to participate in a fair and equitable planning system that ensures their needs are met,” it said.

24 Jan 2015 Source: Agencies

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

A Palestinian man on a bus in central Tel Aviv stabbed at least 13 people, wounding some of them seriously, before he was chased down, shot and arrested, Israeli police said Wednesday, describing the assault as a “ter-ror attack.”

The assault was the latest in a spate of attacks in which Pales-tinians have used knives, acid and vehicles as weapons in re-cent months, leaving dead and injured.

Police identified the assailant as a 23-year-old Palestinian from Tulkarem in the West Bank and said he had entered Israel ille-gally.

The assailant, who tried to es-cape the scene on Wednesday, was shot by police and wounded in the leg before being appre-hended, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

The attack occurred during the morning rush hour on Wednes-day, after the assailant boarded the bus on Begin Road, a major thoroughfare in Tel Aviv.

The assailant began stabbing people, including the driver, then managed to get out of the bus and started to flee.

Officers from a prison service who happened to be nearby and saw the bus swerving out of con-trol and a man running away, gave chase, shot the man in the leg, and subsequently arrested

At least 13 stabbed in Tel Aviv bus attack

him.

“We believe it was a terror attack,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. He said four people were seriously hurt and another five sustained lighter wounds. The stabber was in custody and the police are questioning him, he said.

The stabbing is the latest in a type of “lone-wolf” attacks that have plagued Israel in recent months. About a dozen people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, including five people killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue. In November, an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death near the Haganah train station in Tel Aviv. The suspect, a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Nablus, was arrested.

Hamas did not claim responsibility but praised Wednesday’s attack as “brave and heroic” in a tweet by Izzat Risheq, a Hamas leader residing in Qatar.

The stabbing is a “natural response to the occupation and its ter-rorist crimes against our people,” Risheq said.

Israeli officials say the attacks are incited by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.

Tension between Israelis and Palestinians have been on the rise since the war in Gaza ended in August, 2014, with more than 2,200 Palestinians killed, mostly civilians, and more than 70 Israelis killed, nearly all of them soldiers.

21 Jan 2015

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

A settler car ran over a five-year-old Palestinian child near Tulka-rem on Friday, medics said.

Yamen Nabil Mahmoud, five, from Shufa village was hit by the vehicle on a bypass road south of the West Bank city.

The child was taken to a local hospital for treatment, where he is said to be in a moderate condition.

The circumstances behind the incident are unclear.

In December, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy was injured after an Israeli settler ran him over on the main road of the Palestinian vil-lage of Tuqu south east of Bethlehem.

Months earlier, a settler ran over two Palestinian children as they walked near near Ramallah, killing five-year-old Einas Khalil.

24 Jan 2015 Source: Ma’an

Settler runs over 5-year-old Palestinian near Tulkarem

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Japan pledges $100m to rebuild Gaza

During a visit to the region, Japa-nese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged $100 million for the re-construction of the Gaza Strip.

In a joint press conference with the Palestinians Authority Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas, Abe an-nounced the Japanese pledge to help reconstruct the Gaza Strip, which was destroyed during a 51-day Israeli war last summer.

The Israeli war left more than 2,260 Palestinians dead and around 11,000 others wounded. It also caused the partial or com-plete destruction of more than 100,000 houses.

Abe said: “We are concerned about the deteriorating situation between the two sides since the last year. I exchanged views with

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas and found they are real friends.”

Abbas thanked Japan for its role in enhancing peace opportuni-ties in the Middle East. “Pales-tinians will never forget Japan’s support for Palestine, which started when it aided Palestinian refugees and continued after the Oslo Accords,” he said.

The Palestinian president said he had updated the Japanese premier on the latest political developments and the plan by Arab foreign ministers to garner political support for a new UN draft resolution calling for the establishment of an indepen-dent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

In addition, Abbas reiterated that there is no choice but to resolve the conflict through peaceful means and negotiations based on the Arab Peace Initiative and the UN resolutions.

“We tell our neighbours [Israelis] that our hands are extended for peace and they have to choose between peace or settlement ex-pansion,” he said. “Peace cannot be achieved by collective pun-ishment, apartheid measures or the detention of thousands of Palestinians.”

Abe said that he hoped Pales-tine and Israel would be able to live in peace and that his country would continue to support peace based on a two-state solution.

21 Jan 2015 Source: MEMO

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Despite limitations, Gaza-based IT company has Google-sized aspirations

His company may not rival Google or German software maker SAP yet, but Gaza-based IT entrepreneur Saady Lozon has plans to change that.In nine years, Lozon and his part-ner Ahmed Abu Shaban have trans-formed their firm, Unit One, from a tiny outfit in a single room in the blockaded Gaza Strip into a suc-cessful business with clients in Eu-rope, the United States and the Arab world.They can’t leave Gaza easily, but they can develop applications for Web and mobile devices online and provide international clients with da-ta-management services, competing with firms in India and elsewhere.“We have managed to knock a hole in the wall of the blockade,” Lozon, 33, said of the company, which will soon expand to more than 60 em-ployees from 13, the majority wom-en. “We deliver in time, just as the client wishes.”Lozon and Abu Shaban came up with the idea after graduating with degrees in computer science. Lozon worked briefly as an IT contractor for the United Nations and quickly realised he would rather run a com-pany of his own.They won their first client after mak-ing a pitch via Skype and offering a free trial. They borrowed money from friends to buy computers and slowly expanded. The firm now occupies two apartments on the 5th floor of a building in a smart district of Gaza overlooking the Mediterranean.At the offices, dozens of women, most wearing headscarves, are busy at work, one group entering data on global trademarks for a company in

the Netherlands.Gaza’s GoogleInitially Unit One was focused on software development and building apps for iPhone and Android, but now there is a larger unit handling data processing.Along the way there have been serious hurdles, including the war between Hamas and Israel last July and August which caused staffing and power disruptions, and the fact banks in Gaza cannot easily receive transfers from abroad.“It was difficult at the beginning,” said Lozon. “In 2006, when the blockade started, we had to open an account in the West Bank,” he said, referring to the other Palestinian territory, which is not subject to the same restrictions.Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group Hamas won power in 2006. Both Egypt and Israel continue to impose tight controls on the movement of goods and people in and out of the enclave, where 1.8 million people live.Lozon said the Gaza war had been particularly problematic in an industry where success depends on quick delivery.“We are trying to regain trust,” he said. “We are telling everyone that Gaza can do the job regardless of the obstacles.”Asked about finances, Lozon declines to go into detail, but says the company is profitable and expanding. When he advertised for 10 new jobs, he got 400 applications.“We are working to be like Google,” he said with confidence. “I hope to make Unit One like Google for the people of Gaza, not only for business but also for entertainment.” — Reuters

21 Jan 2015 Source: Reuters

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to launch a media offensive against the Interna-tional Criminal Court (ICC) and its Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

Quoting sources at the premier’s office, Haaretz newspaper reported Monday that Netanyahu had taken the decision after Bensouda had announced that the court would begin a preliminary investigation of the “situation in Palestine” after the Palestinian government had accused Israel of committing war crimes against the Palestinian people.

The decision, the daily said, came despite a recommendation from the Foreign Ministry not to attack the ICC or Bensouda directly.

Bensouda said that her examination would be conducted “in full independence and impartiality.”

The Palestinian government acceded to the Rome Statute on January 2 and the Hague-based court ac-cepted its jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in “occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, since June 13, 2014.”

The U.S. Department of State on Friday expressed opposition to the the ICC prosecutor’s decision.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had criticized the ICC decision, describing it as “hypocritical.”

19 Jan 2015

Netanyahu to launch media offensive against ICC

Israeli Insider

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

A grieving father has recount-ed to NBC News how his five-month-old son froze to death after the family’s Gaza home was bombed by Israel. Sami Abu Khesi is among the Palestinians who have yet to rebuild in the wake of last summer’s conflict which left more than 2,100 peo-ple dead.

His son, Wadie, was born in Ga-za’s Nasser Hospital as fighting raged between Hamas militants and Israeli forces on August 15. After the cease-fire, Wadie was brought home. But amid the worst winter weather in years, Wadie was found dead on Janu-ary 15. “His mother was nudging but there was no life,” Khesi said in what remains of his home in

Father Finds Five-Month-Old Son Frozen to Death in Gaza

Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighbor-hood, some walls nothing more than scrap metal and nylon sheets. “So I looked at the boy and he was frozen. She woke me up and I found that he was frozen.”

The Gaza Ministry of Health has not issued an official cause of death, but the family believes it was hypothermia. Relatives say he had previously been in good health. The ministry has con-firmed four children have died as a result of hypothermia this winter.

According to the United Nations, more than 18,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged by the summer conflict in dense-ly populated 139-mile-square

Gaza. More than 100,000 peo-ple were left homeless, the U.N. said, and countless more con-tinue to live without heating or running water. This year’s harsh winter has forced many to sur-vive by building campfires inside the exposed shells that once were their homes.

“We have never seen a win-ter like this,” said Khesi, whose two other daughters, Jannat and Suna, remain bundled up in heavy clothes even when inside. “It has been cold in the past, but at least we could put them in homes to protect them. Now, there is nothing to put them in. All we have is nylon.”

20 Jan 2015 Source: NBC

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

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Obama Won’t Meet With Israel’s Netanyahu During U.S. Visit

Citing the need to remain neutral in the upcoming Israeli elections, the White House said President Barack Obama won’t meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits in March.

“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candi-dates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the ap-pearance of influencing a demo-cratic election in a foreign coun-try,” said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

Israeli elections are scheduled for March 17.Mr. Netanyahu will

address Congress on March 3.

The White House noted that Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu are in frequent contact.

Mr. Netanyahu will be in the U.S. in early March to address a confer-ence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He has also been invited to address a joint ses-sion of Congress, where he is ex-pected to discuss joint U.S.-Israeli efforts to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The White House and many in Congress are at odds over a new push by some lawmakers for new sanctions against Iran. Mr. Netan-yahu favors tougher sanctions, something White House officials

have said would be a bad idea because it would upend talks with Iran over its nuclear program.

In its statement, the White House reiterated its opposition to addi-tional sanctions. “The president has been clear about his opposi-tion to Congress passing new leg-islation on Iran that could under-mine our negotiations and divide the international community,” Ms. Meehan said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, called the invitation a “departure” from the typical protocol.

22 Jan 2015 Source: WSJ

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Israel ignoring deaths of Thai workers on farms, Human Rights Watch says

After toiling in the sun on an Is-raeli farm for 17 hours, Praiwan Seesukha, a 37-year-old Thai mi-grant worker, went to sleep next to other exhausted labourers in a crowded shed. He did not wake up.

Israeli authorities failed to investi-gate Praiwan’s death and specu-lation is mounting among rights groups that poor working condi-tions on Israel’s farms could be behind the death of migrant work-ers like him.

About 25,000 Thai nationals work in Israel, mostly farming vegeta-bles, fruit and seeds, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) re-port published on Wednesday.

An estimated 122 Thai migrant farm workers have died in the country since 2008, including 43 from a heart condition known as sudden nocturnal death syndrome,according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The cause of death of 22 migrants is unknown because, as in Praiwan’s case, the authorities failed to investigate.

The report, based on interviews with 173 Thai workers in farms across Israel and produced in partnership with Israeli rights watchdog Kav LaOved – Worker’s Hotline, calls on the Israeli gov-ernment to enforce its own labour laws, which set a minimum wage and limit the amount of hours a person can work.

“The success of Israel’s agricultur-al industry depends to a large ex-tent on the labour of Thai migrant workers, but Israel is doing far too little to uphold their rights and pro-tect them from exploitation,” said

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and north Africa director at HRW.

Israel exported $0.9bn of agricul-tural goods to the EU in 2012 (pdf), according to the government’s sta-tistics office.

Whitson said: “Israeli authorities need to be much more active in en-forcing the law on working hours and conditions, and in clamping down on employers who abuse workers’ rights.”

Israel restricted the number of Pales-tinians who could work in the coun-try in 1993, which left an employ-ment hole for private companies. In response, an agreement between Israel and Thailand was signed in 2012, paving the way for a stream of migrant workers from south-east Asia to travel to Israel. The workers hoped to send money to their fami-lies back home.

The migrants, who mostly come from Thaliand’s north-western prov-inces, are paid “significantly” below Israel’s minimum wage and work up to 17 hours every day, according to the report.

Labourers told HRW that they “felt like dead meat” after milking cows and harvesting avocados from 4:30am to 7pm. They said their em-ployers treated them “like slaves”,

using binoculars to spy on them while they were working.

“Workers at several farms com-plained of headaches, respiratory problems and other maladies, in-cluding burning sensations in their eyes that they attributed to spray-ing pesticides without adequate protection,” the report said, adding that many of the migrants struggle to access medical care or change employers.

Thai workers are promised the op-portunity to change employers in Is-rael if they encounter any problems. One Thai migrant worker told HRW that he tried to change employers because hot weather and dust were giving him respiratory problems. More than a year later, his request still had not been answered.

Israel’s population, immigration and border authority and its economy ministry are responsible for enforc-ing labour rights in the country’s agricultural sector. Both declined to comment on HRW’s report, the or-ganisation said.

• This article was corrected on 21 January 2015 to clarify that Israel has not banned Palestinians from working in the country, but has re-stricted the number it allows to be employed.

21 Jan 2015 Source: The Guardian

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Israel issues stop-work order for park in West Bank, seeks to demolish it

Israeli authorities have issued an order to stop the construction of a park in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin as a prelude to demolishing it.

Israeli forces entered Barta’a village, southwest of Jenin, on Monday and handed a demolition order for an amusement park, which is currently under construction, to the locals.

Palestinian sources said the order was the third warrant issued by the Israeli military against the construc-tion of the park.

The village and its public facilities are subject to frequent Israeli violations, including the destruction of houses and property.

This is while according to international law, the destruction of private or public property in occupied territo-ries is prohibited.

The Israeli regime destroyed at least 359 Palestinian structures in the West Bank throughout 2014, accord-ing to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

Source: PRESS TV

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Palestinian youths clash with Israeli troops around Jerusalem

Clashes broke out Friday afternoon between Israeli forces and young Palestinian men in the East Jerusa-lem neighborhoods of Wadi al-Juz and al-Tur as well as the towns of Abu Dis and al-Ezariya in Jerusalem district, a local spokesman said.

Hani Halabiya, a spokesman of resistance committees in Jerusalem district, told Ma’an that fierce clashes broke out in Abu Dis and al-Ezariya during which Israeli troops shortly detained five Palestinian youths.

They were held in a police station in the Israeli settlement of Maale Addumim and in a military base known as al-Jabal (the mountain) for several hours before they were released.

Rami Illariyya, a freelance journalist who was among the detainees, said more than 10 Israeli soldiers as-saulted him and the other detainees.

“They stopped me while I was doing my job in al-Ezariyya beating me and kicking me violently, then they assaulted me again while I was held at Maale Addumim police station,” he explained.

Clashes were also reported in al-Tur neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.

Witnesses said Israeli troops showered houses in the area with tear gas which reached al-Maqasid hospi-tal. The soldiers detained a young man near the hospital beating him violently. Fifteen more youths were forced to squat in the middle of the street at a junction about 100 meters from the hospital.

In Wadi al-Juz neighborhood, Israeli special forces broke in firing tear gas and stun grenades in the narrow alleys. No detentions or assaults were reported there.

24 Jan 2015 Source: Ma’an

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In light of the suspicious silence, crimes against humanity are being committed in the Negev

Hani Habeeb

About a year ago, on 13 Decem-ber 2013, the Israeli Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the cancellation of the “Prawer Plan” after the plan pro-voked the Arab population in Is-rael, especially the Bedouins in the Negev.

This is due to the fact that the plan aimed to seize 800 acres of land from the Bedouins. Demonstra-tions took place in the areas with a high Arab population and a num-ber of MK’s stood against this plan for various reasons and motives. In addition to this, a poll conducted by an Israeli research institute indicat-ed that 47 per cent of Israeli Jews believe that the land that will be seized from the indigenous people actually belongs to the Bedouins of the Negev. All this led to the can-cellation of this plan, despite the fact that the Knesset approved this law on 24 June 2013.

This occurred about a year ago, but today, this plan is indirectly coming back to light. It has become clearer that the cancellation of the Prawer Plan was tactical and procedural and that it has been indirectly im-plemented in different ways. This occurred when the Israeli authori-ties established the “Authority for

Articles & Analyses

the Regulation of Bedouin Settle-ment in the Negev” in order to settle the Bedouin population in the Negev region, and it is evident from the name of this authority that the Israeli authorities consider the Negev Bedouins as settlers on the Israeli state’s territory, not the own-ers of the land.

This new authority drew a plan which it began implementing a week ago. The focus of such plans is to uproot Palestinian Bedouins from their homes and land in “un-recognised” villages while plan-ning to build Jewish cities on the confiscated land, which, according to this authority, is in the context of responding to the needs of the Bedouin population and the chang-es that the Bedouin community is experiencing, as well as preserv-

ing open spaces and nature (refer-ring to land for grazing, the field in which the majority of Bedouin citi-zens work). The plan also claims to expand existing towns, and, if needed, establish new towns in the form of settlements. All of this is within the framework of previous plans relating to this project (i.e. the uprooting Prawer Plan).

On the evening of 20 January, the uprising of the Arab masses in Israel was an indication that the Jewish state began uprooting the Negev residents and confiscating their land. The various cities, villag-es and towns along the coast and north of Palestine all chanted “you will only pass on the Palestinians’ dead bodies” and took measure to denounce the occupation’s crimes. This led to the death of Sami Al-

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Ja’ar and Sami Al-Zayadna in the past two days, as well as the injury of dozens during the funeral of the first martyr. The Higher Guidance Committee of Arab Residents in the Negev and the National Com-mittee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel all called for a comprehensive boycott, ex-cept on schools, so that their first lesson is on the revived Israeli plan that aims to uproot the Negev Ar-abs and confiscate their land and property.

However, while the comprehen-sive and large-scale settlement process being carried out by the successive Israeli governments in the occupied West Bank, includ-ing the Palestinian capital, Jeru-salem, has become an issue that concerns local, regional and inter-national public opinion, and has become part of the settlement and agreement talks, the issue of the systematic uprooting occurring in the Negev in the context of a clear criminal plan remains restricted to local measures and actions alone. This may be due to the fact that the Israeli measures in the West Bank are being carried out in the context of a settlement process in the “occupied territories”, accord-ing to international standards and resolutions, which give this issue dimensions that go beyond the of-ficial and popular public opinion, while the Negev remains classified as Israeli territory. However, the is-sue of borders should not overrule the right to life, shelter and owner-

ship, not to mention the freedom of opinion and expression. These concepts are not subject to any borders; rather, they oblige the authorities to provide all of these rights.

One of the most important tasks for the parties, forces and Arab monitoring committees in Israel, in addition to popular movements, is to find a mechanism whereby they can access international platforms and take advantage of the access to international public opinion, as well as of the fact that Israel has been exposed to the world on all levels. They must use this opportu-nity to act as the voice of the Negev Arabs who are suffering, like their Arab brothers all across Israel, from racist plans that aim to uproot them from their land. This will allow for the recognition of all the Arab villages in the Negev and the provi-sion of all humanitarian services to the citizens who still suffer from a lack of recognition of their villages and areas of residence and who are being prosecuted by police of-ficers and security forces.

It is time to put the Negev on the political map in terms of official and popular action. We must do everything necessary in order for this issue to be considered a crime against humanity openly commit-ted by Israel in the context of racist laws that are clearly stated, taking advantage of the silence of every-one outside the occupied Palestin-ian territories.

It is time to put the Negev on the political map in terms of official

and popular action

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Issue No : 119 26th January , 2015

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