Slippery Slope

The internal Security Service (Shin Bet) has summoned Dr. Kobi Snitz, a mathematician from the Weizmann Institute of Science, for interrogation, and demanded that he not participate in demonstrations against the separation wall.  In his interrogation Dr. Snitz was told that the ISS is investigating cases of “deligitimization” of Israel. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

According to female leftist activists, their male associates in radical left organizations are too forgiving towards cases of sexual harassment during joint demonstrations with Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem for the sake of the struggle against the occupation. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew - Haaretz)

Five months after photo journalist Mati Milstein filed a complaint about soldiers firing tear gas directly at journalists during a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh, Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, IDF spokesperson to the international press, has issued a response to the complaint.  According to Leibovich, “journalists who enter areas in which there is consistent violent and illegal disorder such as at Nabi Saleh – the responsibility is theirs, as is accepted in other areas of conflict around the world.”  Leibovich further claimed that there was no news value to the coverage of the Nabi Saleh demonstrations.

(Hebrew)

50 left-wing activists and Palestinians from the village Beit Omar protested at noon against the expropriation and fencing off of village grounds. Settlers from Karmei Tzur confronted the protesters, and the two groups threw stones at each other. Settlers threw stones at a Palestinian journalist, who was lightly wounded. Soldiers used riot control weapons against the Palestinians.

(Hebrew)

Israeli defense officials gave a list of 300 names of pro Palestinian activists to foreign airlines, so that they will not allow them to board on flights to Israel over the weekend. This is an attempt to halt the planned demonstrations at Ben Gurion Airport against the siege on Gaza.

(Hebrew )

A weekly report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reveals that security forces had injured 204 Palestinians in the West Bank this week, including at least 60 children, most of them at demonstrations in memory of the Nakba Day on May 15. Four security forces men were injured as well. The clashes included mainly stone throwing by protesters, and firing live ammunition, metal bullets with rubber covering, and tear gas by Israeli troops. Most of the clashes took place in East Jerusalem, especially in the Old City and near the Qalandiya and Shuafat barriers. Also, Palestinians were injured during the weekly demonstrations against the separation fence in Bil’in and Na’alin, and against the expansion of the Halamish settlement within the village of Nabi Saleh. In Gaza, soldiers killed a 16-year-old retarded boy. During a Palestinian demonstration in Beit Lahiya, near the Erez border crossing, Israeli forces opened fire with live ammunition on unarmed demonstrators, injuring 103 people, including 33 boys. In addition, several tank shells were fired within 300 meters of the demonstrators, to stop the parade.

(Hebrew)

An initial investigation by the Northern Command after the Nakba Day Events at the borders with Syria and Lebanon this week, indicates that there were problems with the deployment of forces of the Command prior to the events, and that the Command was slow to divert the troops when the demonstrators approached the fence.

(Hebrew)

According to the Monthly Humanitarian Monitor, by the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of Palestinian minors arrested by the Israeli Security Forces has increased. The report claims that this trend is especially noticeable in villages where demonstrations against the Separation Wall have been taken place.