Palestinian/ Israeli update 8/04 /2016..Israel approves bill to jail Palestinian minors
US, Israel narrow differences on military aid package
Israel approves bill to jail Palestinian minors
Israel legalizes imprisonment of ‘child terrorists’ as young as 12 — RT News
Israeli lawmakers have legalized the imprisonment of Palestinian minors as young as 12 in case they are accused of grave crimes such as acts of terrorism against the state of Israel. The so-called Youth Bill has already faced criticism at home and abroad.
In a ruling which saw 32 voting in favor, 16 against, and one abstention vote, the Youth Bill, which will “allow the authorities to imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter even if he or she is under the age of 14, passed its second and third readings,” the Knesset said in a statement.
Violence between Palestinian youths and the Israeli police, soldiers, as well as civilians has skyrocketed in the last 10 months. Ongoing scuffles that erupted last October, have since resulted in the deaths of at least 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.
…………………The new legislation has already been criticized at home.
“Rather than sending them to prison, Israel would be better off sending them to school where they could grow up in dignity and freedom, not under occupation,” said Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem. “Imprisoning such young minors denies them the chance of a better future.”
Hunger striker Bilal Kayed refuses to see doctors
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/hunger-striker-bilal-kayed-refuses-see-doctors
Bilal Kayed has now been on [hunger strike] for 50 days.
In mid-June, he was supposed to return to his home in the West Bank village of Asira al-Shamaliya after serving nearly 15 years in an Israeli prison.
But when Israeli authorities reneged and placed him under administrative detention instead, he began refusing food.
His protest has drawn strong support: around 100 Palestinian prisoners have joined a hunger strike in solidarity with him.
Among those who have begun refusing food are Ahmad Saadat, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who is currently serving a 30-year sentence.
The Palestinian circus performer Mohammed Abu Sakha, placed under under administrative detention last December, and jailed activist Hassan Karajah are also on hunger strike.
This week, Kayed issued a letter from his hospital bed addressed to the Palestinian people.
Kayed writes that he has begun refusing all medical examinations.
read more here……………….https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/hunger-striker-bilal-kayed-refuses-see-doctors
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian houses in West Bank
The day when the Apartheid Israel was created
US Activists Handcuffed, Threatened and Deported by Israel
Five US citizens were denied entry to Israel after 18 hours of being detained and interrogated by Israeli border police regarding their backgrounds, political tendencies and personal relationships, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation said.
The incident, which occurred July 17 but was not publicly revealed until this week, is the latest case of US citizens being profiled and denied entry to Israel based on the color of their skin and their background in pro-Palestine activism, Telesur reported.
“After repeatedly asking why I was being yelled at, handcuffed, and threatened with force, I was never given any explanation for the treatment I received,” a 26-year old US citizen of South Asian descent, who asked not to be named, said in a press release.
“In fact, I was told that they did not owe me an explanation, and that any rights I had as a US citizen were invalid under Israeli law. The only thing made clear during the 18-hour ordeal was that their dehumanization of me was based on a ‘hunch’ rooted in nothing more than my name and ethnic background.”
The young US activists were attempting to enter Israel and go to Palestine to observe the conflict on the ground and gain a better understanding of the conditions Palestinians live under amid the Israeli occupation.
“One of the delegates, Bina Ahmad, a New York City public defender and former vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, was denied entry to the country and given no reason why, then transferred to a filthy cell without knowing how long she would be held,” the statement added.
Commenting on the incident, Ahmad said she was “outraged” at what Israel did to her and her colleagues, noting such actions were unlawful.
“The deportation of a majority Muslim and people of color group is an example of how Israel engages in Islamophobia and racism, and silences debate by preventing the world from hearing the testimony of those who bear witness to the plight of Palestinians,” she said in the press release.
Describing their experience at the Israeli airport as “terrifying,” the statement added that female delegates who were detained were “asked irrelevant and intrusive questions about their personal relationships, and were held for as long as 18 hours.”
After long hours in filthy cells and interrogations for merely attempting to enter a country with which the United States has a visa waiver program, all five delegates were put on flights back to the US Some were also slapped with travel bans that bar them from entering Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories for the next 10 years.
The delegates’ own government was also of no help, as calls to the US Consulate’s Citizen Services resulted in no assistance. “Some officials made comments indicating they had no power over the treatment of US citizens held at the airport despite visa agreements between Israel and the United States,” the statement said.
The repeated abuse of US citizens of Palestinian or Middle Eastern origins has prompted the US State Department to issue a travel warning for Israel that reads: “Some US citizens of Arab or Muslim heritage not on the Palestinian Population Registry or otherwise prohibited from entering Israel have experienced significant difficulties and unequal and hostile treatment at Israel’s borders and checkpoints.”
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2016/08/palestinian-israeli-update-804.html
