Slippery Slope

Two Palestinians were injured yesterday by live ammunition of IDF soldiers in a demonstration against the expansion of a settlement on the land of the Palestinian villages Nia’lin and Dir Kadis in the West Bank. The first, 24 years old, was injured in his hip and shoulder. The other, 22 years old, got wounded in his thigh. Mohammed Amira, a member of the Popular Committee of Nia’lin, was beaten by soldiers and arrested for incitement.

(Hebrew )

Settlers from Shilo have plowed a star of David and the words “Shilo lands” on a “contested” plot of land between the settlement and a neighboring Arab village.

(Hebrew)

More than 200 olive tree plants that were planted by Palestinians from the village of Kusra, near the Esh Hakodesh outpost, were uprooted.

(Hebrew)

The Finance Committee called upon the government to halt cooperation of Israeli companies with the Palestinian boycott on Israeli products in the Occupied West Bank, Occupied East Jerusalem, and the Occupied Golan Heights. Committee Chair MK Carmel Shama-Hacohen said that “before the companies’ cranes start building Rawabi, the cranes of the finance committee will make this move into a losing one.”

(Hebrew)

A Palestinian who lives in the village of Dura Al Qara in the Occupied West Bank appealed to the Supreme Court demanding the enforcement of demolition orders issued for structures built on his land. Five large permanent structures are currently being built on land owned by Palestinian individuals. These lands were seized in the nineteen seventies by the Israeli army, for temporary military use. The appellant has recently noticed ground-breaking work being done to prepare for the construction of civilian structures on the seized lands, probably for residential use by the Beth El settlement.

(Hebrew)

Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, currently ending his term as Head of the Civil Administration, signed an order which appropriates fifty dunams from the village Beit Iksa, in the Occupied West Bank, in favor of the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem railroad. (Hebrew)

Extensive illegal construction has been going on in the settlements since the end of the construction freeze, in late September. The construction is led by Amana, the settlement arm of the Yesha Council. The construction is being done without construction permits, entirely in the open. Despite this fact, the Civil Administration has taken no action. (Hebrew)

Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories in the West Bank are required to fill request forms in Hebrew only. In an official letter sent some ten days ago from the headquarters of the new Chief of the Civil Administration  – which, despite its name, is operated by the IDF – Brigadier General Motti Almoz, the Administration wrote that “in order for a request to be dealt with, it must be written in the Hebrew language”. (Hebrew)

Israeli army forces deployed against demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Salah use limited-range gas cannisters, which have been banned by Chief of Central Command Avi Mizrahi after they led to loss of life. (Hebrew)

Senior figures in Israel and the United States have announced that negotiations to achieve an additional construction freeze in the Occupied West Bank have come to a dead end. A senior American diplomatic figure is quoted as saying that “we have come to the conclusion that this is not the right time for renewing direct negotiations by means of renewing the construction freeze.”  (Hebrew)