#Kfar Adumim

[documenting-apartheid]

OCTOBER 3 2018 - "Israeli settlers flooded Khan Al-Ahmar with waste water, storming the Palestinian Bedouin village and confronting residents."

"The settlers came from the illegal Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim, located east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. They stormed the village of Khan Al-Ahmar but were confronted by international and local activists, along with residents of the village, the Palestine Chronicle reported. However, the settlers “managed to flood the area with wastewater before activists and residents were able to stop them,” the report added."

"Local Palestinians shared images of the flooding on social media, with the waste water clearly visible against the otherwise arid landscape."

"Khan Al-Ahmar has been slated for demolition this week, after an Israeli court gave the residents of the village until 1 October to evacuate their homes. The demolition is expected imminently, with the delay thought to be due only to Jewish holidays taking place earlier this week."

"Israel’s policies of settling Israeli civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, wantonly destroying property and forcibly transferring Palestinians living under occupation, violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes listed in the statute of the International Criminal Court." - Amnesty International

Amnesty added: “Since 1967, Israel has forcibly evicted and displaced entire communities and demolished more than 50,000 Palestinian homes and structures.”

Situated east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Khan Al-Ahmar is home to Al-Jahhalin Bedouins who are refugees from the Negev desert. They have lived in the area since their displacement by the Israeli army in 1967. Israel has refused to recognise Al-Jahhalin Bedouin communities or grant them building permits, a strategy often used by Israel to term any Bedouin home illegal.

[tieflingkisser]

Residents of Bedouin community east of Jerusalem push back colonists out of community

JERUSALEM, Friday, May 10, 2024 (WAFA) – Residents of the Bir al-Maskoub Bedouin community, east of occupied Jerusalem, have successfully expelled Israeli colonists out of the community after unlawfully occupying it for several days. The colonists had seized the community last Tuesday, forcing its inhabitants to leave after storming it and confiscating tents and agricultural crops. The community, comprising seven families of Bedouins from the Rahhalin tribe, had previously relocated to the western area of Jerusalem. Upon their return, they were shocked to find the colonists occupying their tents and preventing them from entering. The community is surrounded by the colonial settlements of Ma'ale Adumim and Kfar Adumim, and Israel seeks to expand them as part of the controversial E1 settlement project. This project threatens the viability of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state, as it would annex significant portions of Area C, which covers more than 60% of the West Bank's territory.

[garudabluffs]

IDF Soldiers BLOW UP Critical Water Facility In Rafah

Aug 25, 2024 Palestinians are wading through puddles and sewage in search of water. Jordan Uhl, Sharon Reed and Yasmin Khan discuss on The Young Turks.

31 Comments "

BREAKING!!:WHAT DO ARABS DO IN ANCIENT JEWISH CITIES ON JEWISH LAND???!!Here’s a revised list of 100 ancient Jewish cities in Judea and Samaria, along with their English meanings or translations: 1. *Jerusalem* - City of Peace 2. *Hebron* - Friend 3. *Bethlehem* - House of Bread 4. *Jericho* - Fragrant 5. *Bethel* - House of God 6. *Shiloh* - Peaceful, Tranquil 7. *Gibeon* - Great Hill 8. *Samaria* - Watch Mountain 9. *Jaffa* - Beautiful 10. *Tiberias* - Fish 11. *Nablus* (Shechem) - Shoulder 12. *Ramallah* - Height of God 13. *Beersheba* - Well of the Oath 14. *Lachish* - Impenetrable 15. *Ashkelon* - Fortress 16. *Modiin* - Place of the Maccabees 17. *Zif* - Aroma 18. *En Gedi* - Spring of the Kid 19. *Kiryat Yearim* - City of Forest 20. *Ma'ale Adumim* - Red Ascent 21. *Gush Etzion* - Etzion Block 22. *Mitzpeh Jericho* - Lookout of Jericho 23. *Gezer* - Boundary 24. *Hazor* - Fortress 25. *Yavne* - To Build 26. *Capernaum* - Village of Nahum 27. *Taanach* - Place of the Tannins 28. *Caesarea* - Caesarea 29. *Acco* (Acre) - Stronghold 30. *Safed* - Branch 31. *Ashdod* - Stronghold 32. *Ein Kerem* - Spring of the Vineyard 33. *Qumran* - The Place of the Qumran Sect 34. *Arad* - City of the Wild Goat 35. *Gilead* - Hill of Witness 36. *Kfar Etzion* - Village of the Etzion 37. *Shushan* - Lily 38. *Kiryat Sefer* - City of the Book 39. *Bet Shemesh* - House of the Sun 40. *Geva* - Hill 41. *Kfar Saba* - Village of Saba 42. *Ein Gedi* - Spring of the Goat 43. *Giv'at Ze'ev* - Hill of Wolf 44. *Sde Boker* - Field of the Boker 45. *Tirosh* - New Wine 46. *Zichron Yaakov* - Memorial of Jacob 47. *Mevo Modi'im* - Entrance to Modi'im 48. *Shushan* - Lily 49. *Tzora* - Place of the Lion 50. *Shechem* - Shoulder 51. *Peki'in* - Opening 52. *Susiya* - Ruins 53. *Kirjat Arba* - City of Four 54. *Migdol* - Tower 55. *Gibeah* - Hill 56. *Givon* - Great Hill 57. *Kiryat Shmona* - City of Eight 58. *Taanach* - Place of the Tannins 59. *Kfar Chabad* - Village of Chabad 60. *Giv'at Hamivtar* - Hill of the Watchtower 61. *Bar Am* - Son of the People 62. *Hatzor* - Fortress 63. *Shiloh* - Peaceful 64. *Be'er Sheva* - Well of the Oath 65. *Adoraim* - Ruins 66. *Efrat* - Fruitful 67. *En Avdat* - Spring of Avdat 68. *Giv'ah* - Hill 69. *Ma'ale Levona* - White Ascent 70. *Tzfat* - Branch 71. *Bnei Brak* - Sons of the Wheat 72. *Giv'at Shmuel* - Hill of Samuel 73. *Rosh HaAyin* - Head of the Eye 74. *Betar* - Fortress 75. *Yitzhar* - Olive Oil 76. *Nahariya* - Place of the Clouds 77. *Yavne'el* - God Builds 78. *Ariel* - Lion of God 79. *Kfar Maimon* - Village of Maimon 80. *Sde Eliyahu* - Field of Elijah 81. *Sde Moshe* - Field of Moses 82. *Ein Avdat* - Spring of Avdat 83. *Hadera* - Place of the Water 84. *Kiryat Bialik* - Bialik City 85. *Kiryat Yam* - City by the Sea 86. *Ashdod* - Stronghold 87. *Giv'at Shmuel* - Hill of Samuel 88. *Yagur* - Place of the Yagur 89. *Nof Hagalil* - Galilee Heights 90. *Ramat Gan* - Gan Heights 91. *Petah Tikva* - Opening of Hope 92. *Tel Aviv* - Hill of Spring 93. *Ramat Hasharon* - Heights of Sharon 94. *Herzliya* - Herzl's Place 95. *Ra'anana* - To be Resurrected 96. *Giv'atayim* - Hill of the People 97. *Tiberias* - Fish 98. *Capernaum* - Village of Nahum 99. *Kfar Saba* - Village of the Father 100. *Ein Bokek* - Spring of the Bokek Feel free to ask if you need more details about any specific city!Show less

[nataliesnews]

I was lucky enough to get a lift down with a South African woman, Elene Segal. Many drivers are scared to drive down the desert road though I used to go down there when I had a car. She was great and we found two Palestinians who were stuck and the car had to be pushed so she got in as the driver and they managed to get the car off the path and out of our way.

A delegation of activity and Tag-Meir activists held a solidarity meeting in the afternoon at the Bedouin Jahlin tribe of Khan al-Ahmar. Two days ago, the sherif of the nearby moshav  armed with a rifle threatened an 11-year-old boy, Aiz, from Khan al-Ahmar. The child's mother who is pregnant had fallen asleep and the flock of sheep was moving away.  He chased after them and was stopped by this animal from the moshav. As is happening all over israel, the sherifs of the moshaviem and settlements  are more and more making their own rules of where Palestinians can take their herds. He claimed that the boy had gone over the imaginery line. 

We were ashamed. . The video of a Jew armed with a rifle, standing over a helpless 11-year-old boy - is a disgrace to all of us.  I wish I knew how to send the video over the email because one can hear the child crying and see how threatening the fascist is standing over him. Much as Jewish children must have feared the Nazi guards.

The security man forcibly removed Aiz's shoes to prevent him from escaping and also threatened him in Arabic while brandishing an M-16 rifle. He also threatened to shoot him if he moved. His sister and mother came to calm him and get him released but he would not let them near the boy. He was crying and terrified. For those of you on my whatsup I have sent the  linkg.

The local residents told us about the feeling of discrimination and racism in which they live. "Hundreds of meters from us, Jewish children study in a school built with shaded sports fields, our children study in dilapidated buildings with demolition orders without electricity."

The security man called the police. Needless to say they take their orders from him. A witness, a resident of Kfar Adumim active in tyring to help  the  Bedouin , came there in an attempt to solve the problem. Later during our visit he came to apologise to the sisters that he had not been able to do so . To no avail. The police arrested and handcuffed the young women, Nasreen, a 20-year-old shepherd, an education student at Jericho University. Her sister Iman, also an education student, insisted on not leaving her alone and was also arrested. They were held for hours and only released after a lawyer had got them bail for 10000 shekel. Where they got the money from heaven alone knows. These are such poor people.

The father is still recovering from an operation (heart) and could do nothing. 

We have tried to find out why the girls were arrested but there is not answer.

i

We brought the boy  a new football and wished him well. Unfortunately he is evidently traumatised. He will not play football with his friends, go out in the dark or leave his family. 

We spoke to the girls. One can only imagine how this must have been for them. Living in a closed very  conservative society where they are protected and pretty much secluded to be dragged by policemen who are not known for their delicate ways......seperated from their fathers and brothers and dragged into a police station. Imagine if it had been religious girls what a fuss would be made. I of course did not photograph them which is a pity as they are so beautiful and modest in their very traditional clothing.

The people of the tribe told about the reduction of the grazing areas for their flock at the hands of the army, the police and the civil administration.

Reminder: Aiz's "big sin" was helping a female relative lead a herd of goats that, according to the security guard, crossed an imaginary border...The local residents told us about the feeling of discrimination and racism in which they live. "Hundreds of meters from us, Jewish children study in a school built with shaded sports fields, our children study in dilapidated buildings with demolition orders without electricity."

Our delegation included activists who came from all over the country: Jerusalem, Kibbutz Tzalim, Rehovot, Tzuba and the nearby village of Kfar Adumim.

The report in hebrew was written by my friend, Yael Moav, who is a great help to the tribe and we have often gone there to eat with a yong woman who makes a livelihood from it. I must admit that I am always scared as it is very steep and two people have to  help me up. 

על הבוקר סרטוני ודאו מנסרין, רועת צאן צעירה מחאן אל אחמר. כבר שנים שרועות הצאן, הנערות, נשים והילדים, מחאן אל אחמר, סובלות מהתנכלות של איש הביטחון מכפר אדומים. כאשר הן יכולות, לבקשנו הן מצלמות את ההתנכלויות. היום היה אירוע חמור במיוחד. איש הביטחון תפס ילד צעיר בשטחי המרעה ועיכב אותו. נשים והנערות הנסערות עשו הכל כדי שיניח לילד, הממרר בבכי ואחוז בהלה. שפה משותפת אין בין בין. ברוחות שהתלהטו, התפתחה מהומה, חלקה אלימה ואיש הבטחון זימן משטרה. עד תושב כפר אדומים פעיל בידי הגהאלין הגיע לשם בניסיון לפתור את הבעיה. ללא הועיל. השוטרים עזקו את נסרין, רועת צאן בת 20, סטודנטית לחינוך באוניברסיטת יריחו. אחותה אימאן גם היא סטודנטית לחינוך התעקשה לא להשאירה לבד ונעצרה היא גם. נוכחותו של הפעיל שלנו שבא להגן על "הרשות המסוכנות" לא עזרה. נכון לעכשיו שתי נשים צעירות, האמיצות כל כך, במעצר. לא ידעתי לנו מתי ישתחררו. האמא נמצאת בחרדה גדולה, האבא, אבו חמיס, ראש הקהילה שרק השתחרר מניתוח מעקפים אחרי התקף לב קשה, לא במצב לא קל. חשוב לציין חשיבות התקיים רחוקה מגדר הביטחון של כפר אדומים. בברור שעשינו יתכן שהסיבה למעצר היא חוסר נכונות להזדהות, איך יזדהו כשהן דוברות רק ערבית והשוטרים רק עברית? המצב הזה חייב להסתיים, יש לאפשר לרועות הצאן הבדואיות לצאת לרעה בביטחון. למי נפנה? אולי לשר לביטחון פנים?? אז במקום לרגע היום, לנוח מהטיסה, לעכל חוויות ולעשות כבידה וסדר אני רוצה להיות שם החברות שלי. עוד על שיתוף הפוסט . Sent from my iPhone

[eretzyisrael]

Hundreds participated on Tuesday in an unusual funeral at the Kfar Adumim cemetery: A final resting place was arranged for human remains that had been desecrated and scattered near the looted burial tombs of the Hasmonean Palace in Jericho.

The Second Temple-era burial caves on the outskirts of Jericho, which until recently had been the resting place for Jewish residents of the palace, were looted by Arab grave-robbers.

Several days before Passover, “Preserving the Eternal” volunteers hiking near the Hasmonean Palace near Jericho discovered  that a Jewish burial cave from the Second Temple era had been exposed by heavy machinery – used by local Arabs to level the ground for illegal agricultural use.

The cave’s burial niches were severely damaged, and countless human skulls, skeletons, and scattered bones were strewn over the freshly-turned earth. They were told by the local farmers that the sarcophagi (ancient caskets) from which the bones were removed had recently “disappeared.”

The area, which was surveyed several years ago by renowned archaeologist Professor Rachel Hachklili of Haifa University, is the largest Second Temple-era burial ground in Israel.

The compound is comprised of hundreds of graves in a system made up of dozens of burial caves, with unique inscriptions that provide biographical details about the people buried there.

[girlactionfigure]

5:43pm Second-Temple Era Jewish Bones Buried Properly after Desecration by Grave Robbers

Hundreds of people took part in an unusual funeral in Kfar Adumim.

The people being buried were Jews from the Second Temple era. Their resting place had been desecrated by Arab grave robbers.

The location of the desecration is a complex of caves considered to have been the largest Jewish cemetery from the Second Temple period!

Hundreds took part on Tuesday in an unusual funeral in the village of Kfar Adumim, honoring hundreds of bones that had been extracted from a Second Temple era Jewish burial cave near Jericho, which had been desecrated by Arab grave robbers, Regavim reported.

Read More: Here

The Muqata

[yummyummy-404]

Horse1 by grinhauz Performing Arts

[corallorosso]

Palestina, l’angoscia dei bambini di Khan al Ahmar: “Vivono in povertà assoluta e Israele vuole distruggere la loro scuola A fine settembre la Corte suprema israeliana ha dato il via libera alla demolizione del villaggio beduino di Khan al Ahmar, un insediamento che si trova nei territori occupati della Cisgiordania e in cui è stata costruita la “Scuola di gomme” della Ong italiana Vento di Terra. La distruzione del villaggio permetterebbe a Israele di creare un corridoio che unisca l’insediamento ebraico di Maale Adumim, vicino a Gerusalemme, e uno più piccolo situato a nord-est, Kfar Adumim, espandendo ulteriormente gli insediamenti ebraici e dividendo in due i territori della Cisgiordania. Secondo il governo israeliano, il villaggio è stato costruito senza i necessari permessi, ma la comunità internazionale si è schierata contro Israele, affermando che la demolizione di Khan al Ahmar viola il diritto internazionale. La stessa Amnesty International lo ha defintio “un crimine di guerra”. ...La popolazione è stremata, questa situazione in realtà va avanti dal 2009 tra un processo e l’altro. I bambini in particolare vivono una situazione di stress spaventoso, non sanno se l’indomani ci sarà ancora la loro scuola, o se verrà demolita tra una lezione e l’altra. La comunità locale vive tutto ciò come una grandissima ingiustizia, è stremata, ma sente il sostegno della comunità internazionale: ci sono ambasciatori e diplomatici provenienti da tutto il mondo e la loro presenza testimonia che la scuola ha il diritto di continuare a vivere senza se e senza ma. La comunità beduina di Khan al Ahmar è in questo territorio da prima del 1967 e ha tutto diritto a vivere e continuare a vivere qui. La demolizione del villaggio violerebbe il diritto internazionale e in particolare la Quarta convenzione di Ginevra, che vieta tra l’altro la deportazione e la demolizione delle abitazioni o degli edifici pubblici in territori occupati. www.tpi.it/plus

[libertariantaoist]

Israel finally built an access road to the West Bank village of Khan Al Ahmar last week, after half a century of delays. But Israel only allows vehicles like the bulldozers scheduled to sweep away its 200 inhabitants’ homes.

If one community has come to symbolize the demise of the two-state solution, it is Khan Al Ahmar.

It was for that reason that a posse of European diplomats left their air-conditioned offices late last week to trudge through the hot, dusty hills outside Jerusalem and witness the preparations for the village’s destruction. That included the Israeli police beating residents and supporters as they tried to block the advance of heavy machinery.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain submitted a formal protest. Their denunciations echoed those of more than 70 Democratic lawmakers in Washington in May – a rare example of US politicians showing solidarity with Palestinians.

It would be gratifying to believe that Western governments care about the inhabitants of Khan Al Ahmar – or the thousands of other Palestinians who are being incrementally cleansed by Israel from nearby lands but whose plight has drawn far less attention.

After all, the razing of Khan Al Ahmar and the forcible transfer of its population are war crimes.

But in truth, Western politicians are more concerned about propping up the illusion of a peace process that expired many years ago, than the long-running abuse of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. 

Western capitals understand what is at stake. Israel wants Khan Al Ahmar gone so that Jewish settlements can be built in its place, on land it has designated as “E1”.

That would put the final piece in place for Israel to build a substantial bloc of new settler homes to sever the West Bank in two. Those same settlements would also seal off West Bank Palestinians from East Jerusalem, the expected capital of a future Palestinian state, making a mockery of any peace agreement.

The erasure of Khan Al Ahmar has not arrived out of nowhere. Israel has trampled on international law for decades, conducting a form of creeping annexation that has provoked little more than uncomfortable shifting in chairs from Western politicians.

Khan Al Ahmar’s Bedouin inhabitants, from the Jahalin tribe, have been ethnically cleansed twice before by Israel, but these war crimes went unnoticed.

The first time was in the 1950s, a few years after Israel’s creation, when 80 per cent of Palestinians had been driven from their homes to make way for a Jewish state.

Although they should have enjoyed the protection of Israeli citizenship, the Jahalin were forced out of the Negev and into the West Bank, then controlled by Jordan, to make way for new Jewish immigrants.

A generation later in 1967, when they had barely re-established themselves, the Jahalin were again under attack from Israeli soldiers occupying the West Bank. The grazing lands the Jahalin had relocated to with their goats and sheep were seized to build a settlement for Jews only, Kfar Adumim, in violation of the laws of war.

Ever since, the Jahalin have dwelt in a twilight zone of Israeli-defined “illegality”. Like other Palestinians in the 60 per cent of the West Bank under Israeli control, they have been denied building permits, forcing three generations to live in tin shacks and tents.

[Read More] (https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/09/israel-bulldozes-khan-al-ahmar-and-buries-the-two-state-solution/)

[jacobsvoice]

The Wall

In the memorable words of American poet Robert Frost: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Perhaps. But a wall may be necessary for safety and, indeed, for the preservation of life.

The shining example of a necessary wall, although one that has been incessantly castigated by Israel’s critics near and far, is its security barrier. As Palestinian terrorist attacks began to multiply during the 1990s Prime Ministers on both side of the political divide strongly supported it. The initiative came from Yitzhak Rabin following the murder of a teen-age Israeli girl in Jerusalem. As he sharply stated: Israel must “take Gaza out of Tel Aviv.” Following waves of Palestinian terrorist attacks and suicide bombings, his successor Ehud Barak approved funding for a forty-six mile fence. In 2003, under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s leadership, the north-south barrier reached 112 miles, with further extensions to follow.

By now more than four hundred miles long, the barrier runs in part along the 1949 Jordanian-Israeli border but mostly through what is often identified as “Palestinian” land. Its route was largely determined by the location of the most populated Israeli settlements, among them Gush Etzion just south of Jerusalem; Ma’ale Adumim on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho; and Ariel between Tel Aviv and the Jordan River. All settlements, it should be noted for those who care about history, are located within the boundaries of Biblical Judea and Samaria.

In certain locations – determined by the proximity of cities and places where Israelis have been killed by Palestinian snipers – the barrier is a wall not a fence. Regardless, both have been endlessly lacerated by Israel’s critics, among them human rights organizations, the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly. But as anyone who has driven from Jerusalem to Hebron can verify, the wall near Bethlehem that runs parallel to the highway, once the site of frequent terrorist attacks, provides comforting reassurance. Along the way Kever Rachel (Rachel’s tomb) is protected by a surrounding wall along the three sides that define Israel’s boundaries. It is an ugly, but unfortunately necessary, intrusion on that ancient holy site. But it assures protection to multitudes of Israelis who come to pay their respects and to pray.

Undeniably the barrier, especially in the more populated northern part of Israel, is an eyesore. Several decades ago, while walking with a friend who lives in Kfar Saba, I noticed the Palestinian town of Qalqilya on a hilltop overlooking the city. As yet there was no fence or wall to protect Kfar Saba residents from attack. For Haggai, who had served in the Haganah during Israel’s independence war and then lived in a kibbutz near the Gaza border, it was unnecessary. I was not persuaded.

In 2005 the Israeli Supreme Court considered the legality of the fence/wall. In a sharply written opinion, it described the history of violent attacks against Israelis perpetrated by West Bank Palestinian terrorists with easy access to Israeli cities, towns, kibbutzim and settlements. As the Court noted, even Israeli military retaliation for terrorist attacks had proven to be an insufficient deterrent: “the terror did not come to an end. The attacks did not cease. Innocent people paid with both life and limb.”

Before the separation barrier was built more than seventy-five Palestinian suicide bombings had claimed the lives of nearly three hundred Israelis while wounding nearly two thousand. That was more than sufficient justification for a fence or a wall. As it was extended, suicide attacks declined. The Islamic Jihad leader complained that the barrier “limits the ability of the resistance to arrive deep within [Israeli territory] to carry out suicide bombing attacks.” That, of course, was its purpose.

To be sure, Palestinians are inconvenienced and some have lost portions of their land. But Israeli annexation of 9.5% of the West Bank for wall construction is a small price to pay for the protection it provides. As Israelis might say, “something there is that loves a wall.”

Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of twelve books, including Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016, selected for Mosaic by Ruth Wisse and Martin Kramer as a Best Book for 2019

 JNS  (April 19, 2021)

[nataliesnews]

Tag Maier, Nasreen, gays, murders     7/8/2021

I got my third vaccination and have felt no bad effects. Maybe a bit more tired than usual.

This week our group, Tag Maier, went out to wish Ahmed a happy birthday.  Six  years ago he  lost his parents and little brother when settlers threw a Molotov cocktail into their home at night. He was saved and is now being looked after by his grandparents. It was his birthday and we went carrying presents. Varda and I took him eye glasses for swimming. Others bought him this setup for soccer and it took the  lady on the side to show the men how to set it up. We have visited every year since that horrible event.

But this is what his head looks like. Also he has no real ear. The grandfather said that when he is 18 they will have plastic surgery as it really bothers him. One does not want to think what memories he carries.

A happier occasion was when Varda and I went to Khan el Achmar for a party for Nasreen.. Her father gave a party for the village and he said that their hope was that this was to encourage other girls to follow her example. It was unbearably hot   28 degrees at 20.00 at night

Nasreen, the daughter of Eid Abu Khamis, graduated from high school in Jericho and passed her matriculation exam - the second ever in Khan

Celebrate in Khan al-Ahmar tonight!

 She smashed the glass ceiling and enrolled in university teaching and will try to fulfill her dream-to return to the mud school where she studied in Khan al-Ahmar, the first teacher from the community! Id, her father, is trying to get her into the best university on the West Bank. She will not be able to go back and forth and cannot live alone so Id will take a room for her and her mother.

 This is a particularly exciting event in light of the fact that many of the girls and boys in the Jahalin communities do not continue their studies in high school and only individuals of virtue are able to continue to university. Especially the women. Without the elementary school in Khan, it is likely that Nasreen would not have started high school at all.  This is one of the reasons why Id gave this enoromous party. To show other young girls what they could achieve. Unfortunately  we could  not photograph …the women and men celebrated separately and one is not allowed to photograph the women. Little children yes and what I found interested as how, out there in the desert, the city influence is felt.

 What seemed to worry the Israelis of the moshav more than anything else was the mudschool built with tyres. We, the people of the book, are doing everything we can to stop Palestinian children from getting an education.

 This little one I called the black widow,

  This is the food which was prepared

 Nasreen being given a laptop. She came out dancing with her hair uncovered and all the way down to her waist wearing a long cloak and carrying a basket with sweets….without the cloak it could have been a village maid in another country. I wish I could have photographed their dancing. So graceful and such beautiful hand movements.

     “Some Israelis have joined the struggle to prevent the demolition of the Sheikh Jarraqh , including some Jewish settlers who live in the vicinity.

Prof. Dan Turner is a doctor at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital. He is also a resident of the settlement of Kfar Adumim, next to Khan al-Ahmar. A year ago, after reading in the paper that his settlement was involved in efforts to remove the encampment, Turner decided to visit the site.

“I’ve been living in Kfar Adumim for 20 years and I’m embarrassed to say the local Bedouin were totally transparent to me – just people I’d seen driving on the road,” he explained”.

 He has been helping them for years and was also instrumental in having  the young man whom I accompanied to Sha’arei Zedek hospital admitted. My friend told me that when she met him with his kipa on his head he was very much on the right but what he  saw changed him completely. It turned out that Id, the girl’s father, had built his house for him. He only discovered this when he went down to the village. It just shows how transparent the workers were to the moshavnikiem, the workers who had lived in the area for 10s of years after being displaced. That he had no idea that this man was his neighbour. There is much pressure from the international community not to destroy the village. And also not to throw the Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah from their homes.

 I think though that we are fighting a losing battle. I will not see a chance in my life time and nearly every day we read of a Palestinian who has been shot. This is what appeared in Haaretz and is so true. Even when it is obvious as in the case of a young boy who was shot in a car which was backing away from the soldiers, not only did the father lose a child but his work permit for Israel has been cancelled. And this happens always in the case, not only of terrorists, but when the army has shot an innocent Palestinian the family again are punished as they are then considered a danger to Israel because of what has happened to them. The opposite  of the man who shot his parent and then asked for mercy because he was an orphan.

 But it is not only Palestinians who are under attack. And this character whom I call Smokrich and is the leader of one of the religious  parties has come out with this statement about the gay community. When his wife gave birth, she refused to lie in a room with an Arab woman and, if I remember correctly, she did not want to give birth with an Arab doctor in attendance. Interesting to know if they know that without Arab doctors, nurses, pharmacists and cleaners the health system in Israel would probably collapse.  

MK Smotrich blasted for saying gay pride parade touched off virus wave

Health Ministry calls remark a 'dangerous combination of ignorance, populism, frustration and hatred'; Religious Zionism leader insists he was misquoted, video 'edited'

https://www.timesofisrael.com/mk-smotrich-blasted-for-saying-gay-pride-parade-touched-off-virus-wave/

Off to lunch with Gershon and Edna Baskin whom I invited out after a year of getting lifts from them to my Arabic classes.

Natanya

[eretzyisrael]

This is a press release from Regavim that exposes a huge crime by the Palestinian Authority against the remains of the heroes of Chanukah:

The circle that was closed yesterday began last year, when Regavim’s field activities sparked a unique rescue mission: Volunteers for the “Preserving the Eternal” project discovered that the Palestinian Authority had issued permits for agricultural work resulting in the desecration of the ancient burial grounds at the Hasmonean Fortress of Jericho. They found the catacombs plundered, the sarcophagi stolen, and human remains that had been at rest there for over 2,000 years scattered around the site - which was being plowed and steam-rolled.

Regavim alerted the Civil Administration, and a rescue mission to collect the desecrated remains and reinter them at the Jewish cemetery in Kfar Adumim was set in motion.

Yesterday (Monday), in a moving and powerful stone-setting ceremony, the operation came full circle: At the special section of the Kfar Adumim Cemetery set aside for the Kohanim of Jericho by the Binyamin Regional Council, Regavim and ‘Preserving the Eternal’ marked the final resting place of the Hasmonean royal family, and reaffirmed the unbreakable bond between the Jewish People, the Land of Israel, and Jewish history and heritage – the very things for which the Maccabees, members of the Hasmonean royal family buried in the Jericho Fortress, fought over 2 millennia ago.

[thejerusalempost]

2,000 year-old Jewish bones found in Jericho receive burial in Kfar Adumim http://dlvr.it/R57D4m http://dlvr.it/R57D4m

[newstfionline]

Bedouins in the West Bank hold fast to their land—as pressure builds for them to leave

Joshua Mitnick, Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2017

The predawn sky exposes the outlines of the slopes of the Judaean desert. A strip of lamps on a new highway bathes the rocky earth in a ruddy glow, as motorists zip through the lonely expanse toward Jerusalem.

Here amid a chorus of crowing roosters, a cluster of dilapidated shacks on the desert hillside marks a tiny Bedouin encampment known as Khan al Ahmar.

The 160-person outpost, like dozens of other Bedouin hamlets clustered around the roadway, populates a region that descends from the Jerusalem mountains toward the West Bank city of Jericho and the border with Jordan.

It is a rugged, sparse landscape--but one that is at the center of a political tug of war. The region is coveted by Israelis who want to expand Jewish settlements and to solidify control over Jerusalem, as well as Palestinians who see it as part of their own state someday.

The Bedouins, caught in the middle, may soon be forced from this land.

In one home open to the chilly morning air, members of the Abu Dahouk family were wrapped in blankets as they began to stir shortly after 6, rising from mattresses set on large rugs covering the desert floor of rock and dirt.

In a shack that serves as the family kitchen and dining room, 12-year-old Nasrin and 14-year-old Iman, the two youngest in the family of nine, knelt over a fire tended by their mother, Sara. Their father, Eid Abu Dahouk, offered the young girls some spare change before they left for school.

The family’s flock of sheep and goats needed grazing, but for the father, known to most by his nickname, Abu Khamis, the next order of business was meeting with European diplomats.

An affable envoy representing an insular community, Abu Khamis served the diplomats sweet tea and pita bread prepared by his wife. He briefed them on an upsurge in home demolitions by Israeli military authorities.

Foreigners, diplomats and human rights workers are frequent guests here because the encampment--illegal under Israel’s military occupation--sits on such a strategic fault line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Displaced to the West Bank from ancestral lands after Israel gained independence in 1948, the Jahalin tribes settled in the open area outside Jerusalem with their flocks of sheep and goats. Some families live less than a mile from one another while others live two or three miles from the nearest neighbor.

The Bedouin here are registered with the United Nations as Palestinian refugees. But they live apart from Palestinian society, and Abu Khamis complains that the Palestinian government in nearby Ramallah hasn’t made good on promises to provide school transportation for the children.

The Abu Dahouk family lives in a row of partially open shacks made of wood beams, corrugated metal and canvas. One day recently, a wisp of smoke rose from the entry to a soot-blackened kitchen where the family prepared lentil porridge over an open fire. At the end of the row, a lone acacia tree overlooked the cottages of a tiny Israeli settlement, Kfar Adumim, sitting on a ridge about a half mile in the distance.

Foreign-funded solar panels helped power a medium-sized flat-screen television mounted alongside couches in a shack that doubled as sleeping quarters and a common area to host visitors.

Abu Khamis, 50, said the family prefers to stay at Khan al Ahmar despite the pressure to relocate.

“What I really want is to remain where we are now,” he said. “Why not build for us a community or village right here? Why take us somewhere else?”

As the rising morning sun colors the desert a burnt orange, outlines of uniformed school children appear on a nearby hilltop above Abu Khamis’ home. One by one and in pairs, they come skipping down toward a fenced off enclave of single-floor rooms constructed of mud and tires, the Khan al Ahmar elementary school.

Nicknamed “the tire school,” it is a hive of activity and noise in an otherwise sleepy encampment. At recess, shouting students raced in between classrooms and kicked a soccer ball on a playground of artificial grass. Many of the 160 pupils make daily treks through the desert hills of up to two miles from homes in nearby encampments.

Children learn English, math, Arabic and geography in tiny classrooms whose facades are decorated with murals of doves and Palestinian flags.

Before the school was built in 2009, the Bedouin children would have to cross the highway to catch rides to schools in Jerusalem or Jericho. Some of the children died in highway accidents.

“They really love to come here. They really want to study and keep the school clean. They suffered from not having a school,” said Halaime Zahaikah, a science teacher from Jerusalem. “It’s a place where they can play and have fun.”

The school, built with the help of foreign and Israeli human rights activists, has become a symbol of the Bedouin struggle to remain in the hills. So far, it has survived several court petitions sponsored by residents from the Kfar Adumim settlement calling for its demolition.

“An elementary school is different from a home,” said Yehiel Grenimann, an activist from the Israeli group, Rabbis for Human Rights, which helped build the school. “A school represents life and hope” for the community.

The Israeli military’s Civil Administration said it is offering the Bedouin properties in West Bank neighborhoods outside of Jerusalem and Jericho where, the Israeli officials say, they will be able to preserve their customs, own a home, and get hooked up to water and electricity. Most have refused the offer.

At the entrance of Khan al Ahmar, barefoot toddlers with unwashed faces and tattered clothes greeted visitors. Women, many dressed in long dresses and head scarves, shielded their faces from strangers. Not far away from the children, men from Khan al Ahmar and nearby encampments sat on a carpet outside a public meeting shack in a cloud of tobacco smoke, discussing recent demolitions.

They were awaiting the arrival of a shipment from the World Food Program. Soon, two trucks roared up the unpaved road to the encampment loaded with giant sacks of wheat flour, bottles of cooking oil and lentils to supplement the residents’ food supply.

The Bedouin encampments can appear as if discarded amid the wilderness of the Judean desert. Strewn about the hamlets are junked cars, shipping pallets, canvas and sheets of corrugated metal. Sheep and goat pens are built from wood planks and chain-link fencing.

There is, however, a logic behind the location, said Abu Khamis. The Bedouin can persist if they have access to a highway to bring their livestock, milk and yogurt to cities, a nearby water source, and room for their goats to graze, he said.

But over time, the grazing areas have shrunk substantially amid the expansion of nearby settlements, the construction of Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank, and the closing off of land for military training zones.

Abu Khamis said the head count of livestock dropped about 75% in the last 20 years, while the East Jerusalem-based International Peace and Cooperation Center estimated it dropped about 33% during that time. To make up for the lost income, most of the men work outside of the encampments in nearby Jewish settlements or in agriculture plantations in the valley around Jericho. For many years, Abu Khamis drove a bulldozer that helped build Kfar Adumim.

In an encampment about two miles from Khan al Ahmar, Khalil Mohammed Jahalin kneeled over a pot of tea and recalled how he and his family awoke two days before to bulldozers and an Israeli official with a demolition order.

“It hurts that, in a place that’s yours, the place where you live is being destroyed, and they’re making a mess out of it. They don’t want the Bedouin here. And in another 10 or 20 years, you’ll see [settlement] buildings. What kind of a country is this? What kind of a life is this?”

Back at Khan al Ahmar, a gentle winter rain fell on the roof of Abu Khamis’ shacks as the afternoon sun grew weak and the winds picked up. After returning from school, the girls played games, and stared at cartoons on the family TV until they were shooed away by an older brother.

With the help of the children, Abu Khamis’ wife, Sara, prepared a pot of lentils and fresh pita bread for an early dinner. As the family warmed itself by the fire, Abu Khamis said that he hoped his young daughters will continue their education at a university when they get older. Whether the encampment will still be in the same place for the children to return to, he can’t say. Representatives of the Israeli military visit regularly to remind him eventually Israel will force the Jahalin to leave Khan al Ahmar.

He recalled a conversation with an Israeli official, who told him: “Sooner or later you will be evacuated.”

“All Bedouin communities from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea are under a demolition order,” Abu Khamis told the visitors.

Many Palestinians and rights activists worry that evicting the Bedouins to make way for settlement growth would create an Israeli wedge between the northern and southern West Bank, making the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state physically impossible.

Meanwhile, there has been growing pressure within Israel’s coalition government to annex Maale Adumim, a settlement east of Jerusalem with a population of about 38,000, whose enormous boundaries nearly ensconce all of the Jahalin Bedouin.

“There is no way to have a Palestinian state with Israel controlling this area,” Abu Khamis said. “If Israel evacuates the Bedouin community from this area, the boundary of Jerusalem will be extended to the Dead Sea. It will be the end of the last hope for peace.”

[corallorosso]

Palestina, 70 anni di resistenza per non scomparire di ORANEY ALI MOH'D THAHER Da oltre 70 anni il popolo palestinese tutto, sia quello che vive nella Palestina occupata, sia quello che vive fuori la Palestina, sia quello della diaspora, ovunque, vive sulla sua pelle il peso dell’occupazione israeliana che si è fatta sempre più cruenta, spietata e strisciante, forte del sostegno dell’imperialismo degli Usa e del silenzio e l’omertà tifosa di gran parte della comunità internazionale. Nonostante questo il popolo palestinese, sebbene ferito fino nel profondo della sua anima, ha lottato e lotta per affermare la sua esistenza e per strappare i suoi diritti affrontando qualsiasi difficoltà ed ostacolo, forte della sua ragione e della sua causa giusta. Il popolo palestinese ha lottato e lotta per affermare la sua esistenza che i sionisti volevano e vogliano cancellare. Infatti, all’indomani della nascita dello stato di Israele il progetto di pulizia etnica israeliano si è palesato: l’esercito sionista e le sue bande criminali invasero la Palestina terrorizzando i suoi abitanti, bruciando i villaggi e le coltivazioni, uccidendo e massacrando, provocando decine di migliaia di morti e feriti, oltre 800 mila persone sfollate dalle loro case, più di 480 i villaggi palestinesi completamente evacuati e distrutti. Tutto ciò con l’obiettivo di annullare l’esistenza del popolo palestinese. E dal 1948 a oggi la politica di occupazione ha avuto solo ed unicamente questo obiettivo. Dal 2000 al 2017 (secondo DCIP Defence for Children Inernational Palestine) 2.022 bambini palestinesi hanno perso la vita per mano delle forze di occupazione israeliana, in media 25 bambini al mese, tutti in modo atroce come il piccolo Alì Saad Daubasha di appena 18 mesi arso vivo nell’incendio della sua casa appiccato da coloni nel luglio del 2015. Dal 2000 ad oggi oltre 8.500 bambini palestinesi sono stati arrestati con l’accusa più ricorrente del lancio di sassi, quindi processati davanti a tribunali militari ed incarcerati, sottoposti anche a torture e maltrattamenti. Nel solo mese di settembre 35 minori palestinesi sono stati arrestati e alle famiglie sono state imposte multe superiori a 12.600 dollari. Di questi, 14 minori sono stati picchiati durante la detenzione, 20 condannati a pene da 31 giorni a 9 mesi e 2 trattenuti in detenzione amministrativa. La violenza cieca israeliana in 70 anni di occupazione non ho conosciuto tregua e si è manifestata e si manifesta in tutta la Palestina occupata, in Cisgiordania come nella Striscia di Gaza. ...Per la costruzione degli insediamenti israeliani vengono ogni giorno confiscate terre palestinesi, demolite case, sradicati alberi. Infatti, sono migliaia gli alberi di ulivo, molti dei quali secolari, che ogni anno vengono abbattuti soprattutto in prossimità della raccolta, come è accaduto quest’anno a metà ottobre agli abitanti di Turmusayya, un villaggio palestinese tra Ramallah e Nablus, nella parte centrale della Cisgiordania occupata, che dopo aver ricevuto il permesso delle autorità israeliane per andare a raccogliere le olive dei loro alberi, una volta arrivati nei loro campi hanno trovato gli alberi abbattuti e squarciati con i rami carichi di olive lasciati marcire a terra. Senza dimenticare che questo permesso di andare nei loro terreni viene concesso ai palestinesi solo due volte all’anno: due giorni in primavera per coltivare la loro terra e due giorni in autunno per raccogliere le olive. ...Il 5 settembre la Corte suprema israeliana ha autorizzato la demolizione dell’intero villaggio palestinese di Khan Al Ahmar, e, quindi, anche la demolizione della famosa scuola di gomme costruita dalla ong italiana Vento di terra per i bambini di cinque piccole comunità beduine della zona. La distruzione del villaggio palestinese di Khan al Ahmar è stata autorizzata per consentire così ampliamento degli insediamenti illegali di Maale Adumim e Kfar Adumim autorizzando così un crimine di guerra... Nonostante tutto questo, in questi 70 anni di brutale occupazione il popolo palestinese ha sempre lottato e resistito per affermare la sua esistenza e rivendicare i suoi diritti , dal 1987 ad oggi ha conosciuto 3 Intifada con circa 7.000 morti, scioperi e manifestazioni quotidiane e ogni altra possibile forma di protesta dal lancio di pietre contro carri armati e soldati armati fino ai denti, al bruciare copertoni di gomme, al lancio di aquiloni incendiari …. Tutto questo perché in questi 70 anni i sionisti hanno potuto rubare terra e risorse palestinesi , demolire case, sradicare alberi, costruire muri ed insediamenti, uccidere uomini donne vecchi e bambini ma non potuto rubare ed uccidere la dignità del popolo palestinese... LEFT