Saturday 27 April 2019

WASHINGTON NOT HAPPY ABOUT NEW CHINA FOCUS ON CENTRAL AMERICA



25.04.2019
As it becomes clear that the Trump Administration support, so far unsuccessful, for regime change in Venezuela is also very much about targeting the huge financial presence of China with the Maduro regime, recent news of a major Chinese oil success in Cuban waters will clearly deepen the geopolitical tensions. And it involves not only Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil .
China’s major state-owned oil company, CNPC, through its subsidiary, Great Wall Drilling, has begun exploring for oil off Cuba’s coast in a joint venture with state-owned oil firm Cuba Petroleum Company (CUPET), according to an April 16 report in the China state news agency, Xinhua. Great Wall has been engaged in oil exploration in Cuba since 2005, but this is the most promising result to date. Advanced drilling technology from CNPC has opened the prospect of major oil off Cuba for the first time.
The news comes as Washington sanctions target Venezuela oil earnings and also its agreements to supply Cuba with low cost oil. While the Maduro government continues to insist it will deliver oil to Cuba despite sanctions, clearly the security of supply is becoming riskier and supply less.
On April 21 US National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that Washington will use a heretofore unused sanction law that allows legal action in US courts to sue foreigners using property seized by the communist regime. While it’s not clear how hard that will hit Cuba, it will clearly chill foreign companies looking to invest in Cuba.
Cuba is well-known to have provided large-scale military assistance as well as thousands of Cuban doctors and medical personnel to support the Maduro presidency in Venezuela. What is less well-known and perhaps an unspoken motive behind the Bolton declaration is the presence of China in both countries.
China presence in Cuba
Details of Chinese loans to the Cuban economy are classified state secret and not disclosed. Clearly though, Beijing has quietly been increasing its presence in the Caribbean island, a country which during the Cold War Fidel Castro era had become a close ally of the Soviets, putting them then at odds with China. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite several attempts by Russian companies such as Norilsk Nickel to gain a presence in Cuba again, financial restraints have hindered any strong new Russian presence.
China appears to have no such problems, and has been investing in a number of key areas in Cuba’s liberalizing economy. Since Cuba trade liberalizations over the past two years, China has sold Yutong buses, Sinotruk trucks, YTO tractors, Geely cars, Haier domestic appliances to Cuba along with 100 railroad locomotives.
Huawei is building internet hotspots on the island and discussions are underway, though with no result to date, for $600 million Chinese investment in a China-Cuban joint venture at the Las Camariocas Cuban nickel processing plant that was left unfinished by the Soviets. Cuba has the world’s third-largest nickel reserves. In 2017 Haier opened a Cuban computer assembly plant with an annual capacity of 120,000 laptops and tablets and a ship container terminal Santiago de Cuba, financed by a $120 million Chinese development loan.
Currently Beijing is Cuba’s largest trading partner and Havana’s largest creditor, with Cuba importing major supplies of Chinese rice, along with thousands of China tourists, a business that brings Cuba an estimated $2 billion annually. Sugar and nickel are the two major Cuban products sent to China amid a trade imbalance in China’s favor.
If China now develops major offshore oil resources in Cuba, their presence will significantly increase and the decline of Venezuelan oil to Cuba as a kind of barter payment for the military and medical and other support, will be eased. Until now Russia’s Rosneft has filled the oil import gap for Cuba.
A Chinese Caribbean?
China is well-established as the major foreign creditor as well to Venezuela with some estimates putting their debt as high as $61 billion. Venezuelan oil is clearly at the heart of the relationship, but there are indications Chinese companies also are looking to exploit untapped gold and coltan resources there. Since the Washington declarations in support of Guaido, China has been unusually outspoken in defense of Maduro, unusual for a state that claims never to involve in local politics.
With details of the extent of Chinese investments in Venezuela not fully clear, China has also made a major presence in neighboring Guyana, since 2018 officially welcoming the small former British colony to join the Belt, Road Initiative, sometimes called China’s New Economic Silk Road. That is indeed far away from an original Beijing infrastructure project, first unveiled by Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan in 2013 that proposed to link all Eurasia from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic in a dual network of deep-water container ports and high-speed railways. As it unfolds, the China BRI clearly is developing global perspective, and this is clearly beginning to unsettle some in Washington.
In Guyana Chinese companies and Chinese money are presently building a highway link from Manaus in Northern Brazil through Guyana, giving Brazil far more efficient access to the Panama Canal, cutting thousands of miles off the shipping route. Talks are reportedly also underway for China to build a deep-water port in Guyana’s northern coast to link to China’s highway to the Brazil Amazon region bordering Venezuela, with its vast untapped mineral riches. People in Guyana say the road-port will benefit China far more than Guyana. In any case, it would enable efficient ship transport from the Amazon through the Panama Canal to China.
And Panama…
If we add to the quiet but growing Chinese economic presence in Cuba, Venezuela and Guyana, the recent actions of Beijing in the strategic Panama Canal it begins to explain part of Washington’s growing alarm over developments in Venezuela and Cuba.
In 2016 China’s Landbridge Group bought Panama’s Margarita Island Port in the Colón Free Trade Zone, the largest port, on the canal’s Atlantic side, giving the Chinese company intimate access to one of the most important goods distribution centers in the world. They have made major expansion since using by state-owned China Communication Construction Corp., today the world’s largest infrastructure and engineering company.
Already in 1997 China’s Hutchinson Whampoa took control of the American-constructed ports of Balboa and Cristobal in a 50-year contract. Today Hutchison Whampoa is owned by Cheung Kong Holdings of the family of Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing.
In 2017, Panama delivered a shock to Taiwan, and to Washington, and withdrew its earlier recognition of Taiwan in favor of Beijing. In early April, this year Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela was in China to discuss formally joining the China BRI. In December, 2018 China’s Xi Jinping paid an official visit to Panama as well. Beijing has put Panama high on its priority list. Chinese goods are the second in volume to those of the USA going through the canal.
In addition to Chinese ownership of vital Panama container ports such as Margarita Island Port, China is proposing to build a $4.1 billion 243-mile high-speed rail line from Panama City to its border with Costa Rica —under the rubric of the Belt and Road.
As these relationships develop, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he is considering joining Belt and Road.
In this strategic setting, it becomes clearer why Washington is beginning to react more strongly in its backyard, Central America, by invoking the 19th Century Monroe Doctrine, a de facto empty shell of rhetoric. What is desperately lacking is a series of positive economic initiatives from Washington to provide the means to help those countries develop critical infrastructure across Central and South America, a stark departure from earlier Gunboat Diplomacy. Were that to begin, the climate in the region could become much more friendly to cooperation with Washington.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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Shebaa Farms are Lebanese … to Be Certainly Liberated by Resistance



April 26, 2019
Despite the statements made to question the real identity of Shebaa Farms, clear documents prove that they are Lebanese, Al-Manar TV report stressed.
The report showed a group of Lebanese people holding documents which prove that they own properties and lands in the farms which had been controlled by the Lebanese government before it was occupied by the Israeli enemy in 1967, the report added.
The Lebanese historian Dr. Issam Khalifa said that a French report published in 1937 confirmed that Shebaa Farms are Lebanese, adding that in 1946, Lebanon and Syria authenticated the identity of the area.
Khalifa also pointed out that even Israeli politicians acknowledged that Shebaa Farms are Lebanese, noting that one of his recent books also contribute to this evident fact.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has always reiterated that Shebaa Farms are Lebanese will certainly be liberated by the resistance.
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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

هل تورّط إسرائيل وأميركا اليونيفيل في الجنوب؟



 فراس الشوفي

 الجمعة 26 نيسان 2019

هل تورّط إسرائيل وأميركا اليونيفيل في الجنوب؟
لخطة الجديدة تتضمن الدخول إلى مناطق جمعية أخضر بلا حدود (هيثم الموسوي)

على مدى السنوات الماضية، صمدت اليونيفيل في وجه الضغوط الأميركية والإسرائيلية ورفضت أن تتحول إلى حرس حدود لإسرائيل. فهل تتغير هذه المعطيات مع ازدياد الضغوط على القوات الدولية ومحاولات أميركا وإسرائيل استخدامها في التضييق على حزب الله؟

لا تخرج المحاولات الأميركية والضغط الإسرائيلي على قوات الطوارئ الدولية العاملة في جنوب لبنان «اليونيفيل» لتعديل مهام هذه القوات خدمةً للمصلحة الإسرائيلية، عن سياق التصعيد الذي يكبر في الإقليم ضد محور المقاومة من إيران إلى سوريا إلى المقاومة اللبنانية.

وتزداد في الآونة الأخيرة الضغوط الآتية من نيويورك على قوات الطوارئ الدولية للقيام بإجراءات جديدة تهدّد الاستقرار القائم منذ 13 عاماً في الجنوب اللبناني. مصادر «أهلية» متابعة ليوميات الأوضاع الأمنية والعسكرية في الجنوب، تصف المرحلة الحالية بـ«مرحلة تجميع أوراق أميركية – إسرائيلية بهدف إدانة لبنان في مجلس الأمن الدولي، قبل التقرير الدوري للأمين العام للأمم المتحدة أنطونيو غوتيريش في تموز المقبل (تنتهي كتابة التقرير في أيار أو حزيران) وقبل قرار التجديد للقوات في آب المقبل».

وبالتوازي، تكشف مصادر معنيّة بتنفيذ هذه الإجراءات لـ«الأخبار»، أن «تعليمات وصلت من نيويورك إلى اليونيفيل في الأسابيع الماضية، تطلب من القوات العاملة في الجنوب إضافة مسارب جديدة لدورياتها والدخول إلى مناطق لم تكن تدخل إليها سابقاً جنوب الليطاني، بذريعة التطبيق الكامل للقرار 1701، وكأن القرار لم يكن مطبّقاً في السابق وتشوبه الخروقات من الجانب اللبناني»، مضيفاً أن «كل ما يهم الأميركي هو إبعاد حزب الله عن الحدود».

ويشرح مصدر محلّي كيف أن عمليّة التجديد للقوات الدولية كانت تتم بسلاسة في السنوات الماضية، حتى أتى آب عام 2017، حين نجح الاميركيون والإسرائيليون في إدخال مصطلح عمليات «التفتيش» أو «التحقّق» (inspections) على مهام هذه القوات في المادة 15 من نص القرار الدولي 2373. ويضيف أن الأميركيين والإسرائيليين يدركون صعوبة موافقة الدول الأوروبية، تحديداً ألمانيا وفرنسا، فضلاً عن الموقف الروسي، على أي تغيير جذري في مهمة اليونيفيل، وتحويلها من قوات حفظ سلام إلى قوات مواجهة مع المقاومة اللبنانية. ولأجل ذلك، «يحاولون الاستفادة من وجودها عبر دفعها إلى تعقّب نشاط حزب الله جنوب الليطاني والضغط عليه بطرق ذكية». وفي سياق الأمثلة، يذكر المصدر كيف أن «إسرائيل طلبت من القوات الماليزية، قبل فترة، تصوير بعض الأماكن والأهداف، إلّا أن تلك القوات أبلغت قيادة اليونيفيل رفضها للطلب الإسرائيلي»، مع التذكير بما حصل مع القوات السلوفينية العام الماضي في مجدل زون (نيسان 2018). ويفنّد المصدر آلية العمل الإسرائيلية مع القوات الدولية: «في الحالة الأولى يطلب الإسرائيلي مباشرةً من إحدى الكتائب الدولية عبر علاقات وخطوط اتصال معيّنة مع ضباط أو عناصر في هذه القوات، التحقق من أهداف وتصويرها أو متابعتها والتجسس عليها، وهنا تكون الأهداف مهمة بالنسبة إلى العدو. حتى إن بعض الكتائب تنظّم نشاطات للأهالي في القرى وتستغل انتشارها الأمني لتصوير أهداف مطلوبة إسرائيلياً. وفي الحالة الثانية، يرفع العدو رسائل رسمية إلى قيادة اليونيفيل يطالب فيها بالتحقق من أهداف أو بقاع معينة، وتلك الأهداف عادة ما تكون غير ذات أهمية، والتركيز عليها بشكل رسمي يأتي من باب تسجيل النقاط على لبنان في الجانب الدبلوماسي».

إسرائيل طلبت من القوات الماليزية قبل فترة تصوير بعض الأماكن والأهداف

ويكشف المصدر أن نيويورك طلبت من قيادة الطوارئ الدولية إضافة 10 دوريات جديدة في القطاع الشرقي، و5 دوريات في القطاع الغربي للقوات الإيطالية، غالبيتها تهدف إلى «مراقبة مناطق محميات منظمة أخضر بلا حدود البيئية»، بذريعة أن حزب الله «يوجد في هذه المناطق ويخزّن الصواريخ والأسلحة». ويضيف أن «بعض هذه البقع التي تستهدفها الدوريات المستحدثة تطال مناطق تحدّث عنها قائد المنطقة الشمالية في جيش الاحتلال الجنرال يوئيل ستريك خلال اجتماعه مع قائد القوات الدولية الجنرال الإيطالي ستيفانو ديل كول، وحينها أكّد ديل كول أن القوات الدولية لا يمكنها الدخول إلى الأملاك الخاصة من دون إذن قضائي لبناني».

مصدر ثان يؤكّد أن القوات الدولية وضعت الجيش اللبناني في أجواء نيتها تسيير عشر دوريات جديدة، خمسة في القطاع الشرقي وخمسة في القطاع الغربي. ويسأل المصدر عن السبب الذي يدفع القوات الدولية إلى الإبقاء على عدد الدوريات المرتفع مع انتهاء ما سمّاه العدو عمليّة «الدرع الشمالي» والادعاءات الإسرائيلية بشأن وجود أنفاق لحزب الله، إذ إن «عدد الدوريات اليومية على الحدود ارتفع من 12 – 14 دورية قبل العملية (الدرع الشمالي)، بسبب التوتر، إلى 18 – 22، ولا يزال الأمر على حاله من دون مبرّر، مع عودة الهدوء الكامل إلى الجنوب».

ولا يتوقّع المصدر «المحلّي» ارتفاعاً ملحوظاً في عدد الدوريات، طالما أن «نشاط اليونيفيل كبير في المنطقة»، لكنّه يؤكّد أن «الإجراءات الجديدة تعتمد على حيلة واسعة». بالنسبة إليه، ديل كول مختلف عن غيره من القادة لجهة معرفته بالواقع على الأرض عن كثب، لخدمته في القطاع الشرقي سابقاً، حيث إن «القادة الآخرين كانوا يأتون بسقوف مرتفعة محاولين فرض المصلحة الإسرائيلية على أهل الجنوب، إلا أن ديل كول يعمل بالعكس، وهو يحاول بناء الواقع شيئاً فشيئاً». ويشير إلى أن «القائد الإيطالي كان أداؤه مهنيّاً في ملفّ الأنفاق، لكن لا يمكن توقّع كم سيصمد أمام الضغوط الأميركية والإسرائيلية».

طلبت نيويورك من اليونيفيل إضافة عشر دوريات جديدة في القطاعين الشرقي والغربي

ويسأل المصدر عن السبب الذي يدفع القوات الاستونية إلى إدخال معدات للبحث الزلزالي إلى القطاع الغربي منتصف شباط الماضي من دون إبلاغ الجيش اللبناني بهذه الخطوات، مؤكّداً أنه حين تمت مراجعة هذه القوات، تذرّعت باتفاقية «SOFA» (اتفاقية دولية لتنظيم عمل القوات الأجنبية على أراضي الغير). ويذكر أن طوافات القوات الدولية، أثناء نقلها للأفراد والبريد من نقطة إلى نقطة في الجنوب، «باتت تحمل مع طاقم المروحية مصوّراً مجهّزاً بمعدات حديثة لتصوير الأهداف من الجو»! يؤكّد أن هناك خروقات جويّة تحصل من قبل القوات الدولية لاتفاقية التحليق في الجنوب (LOU). مثلاً، يُمنع على القوات الدولية أن تحلّق فوق مدينة صور ومخيمي الرشيدية والبص، إلا أنه «رصدت خروقات من قبل القوات الدولية للاتفاقية والتحليق فوق مدينة صور وفوق المخيمات الفلسطينية». كذلك الأمر بالنسبة إلى الارتفاعات المسموح بها، إذ «يُمنع على طائرات اليونيفيل التحليق دون 500 متر فوق المناطق المأهولة وتحت 300 فوق التجمعات البشرية، ونراهم أحياناً يحلّقون تحت 150 متراً».

مسألة أخرى يلفت إليها المصدر الثاني، هي الزيارات العسكرية الأميركية المتكرّرة إلى الجنوب وتفحّص الخط الأزرق والتنقّل داخل قطعات الجيش اللبناني والقوات الدولية. ويشير إلى أن «الملحق العسكري الأميركي زار قيادة قوات الطوارئ الدولية نهاية شهر آذار الماضي، والتقى بعدد من الضباط في القاعدة، وأسمعهم كلاماً عن ضرورة القيام بإجراءات جديدة لتقييد حركة حزب الله، وإلا فإن الولايات المتحدة الأميركية، المموّل الأكبر لهذه القوات، ستعمل على تقليص ميزانيتها»!

مناطق خارج السيادة اللبنانية

تقع المنطقة التي تجتمع فيها اللجنة الثلاثية (الجيش اللبناني – القوات الدولية – جيش العدو) قرب رأس الناقورة، داخل الخط الأرزق، وهي أراض لبنانية 100%، وتمتد على طول حوالى 140 متراً نحو العمق اللبناني انطلاقاً من «الحدود الدولية» وآخر موقع إسرائيلي، وتعرف باسم A 31-1. ومع ذلك، يتمّ التعامل مع هذه البقعة من الأرض اللبنانية كأنها «منطقة لا أحد» أو «NO MAN’S LAND»، فيضطر الضباط اللبنانيون عند الدخول إليها إلى ترك أسلحتهم في عهدة القوات الدولية، ولا يستطيع الجيش اللبناني حسم الوجهة النهائية لأي داخل إلى منطقة رأس الناقورة ولا حريّة الوصول إلى النقطة B1. حتى إن استخبارات الجيش اللبناني حاولت في الأشهر الماضية إقامة نقطة تفتيش على مدخل نفق سكّة الحديد القديمة في تلك المنطقة، إلّا أن هذا الإجراء لاقى اعتراضاً إسرائيلياً واسعاً، وانساقت اليونيفيل خلف الرفض الإسرائيلي. ويقول مصدر معنيّ إن هدف منع الجيش من التمركز في هذه المنطقة، هو الأهمية الجغرافية لمنطقة رأس الناقورة بالنسبة إلى الجبهة الشمالية للعدو على الساحل، إذ إن هذه المنطقة تسمح لأي قوة عسكرية بالإشراف على كامل الساحل الفلسطيني من الناقورة إلى حيفا، بعمق لا يقلّ عن عشرة كيلومترات نحو الداخل الفلسطيني. وسبق لقائد المنطقة الشمالية في جيش الاحتلال، الجنرال يوئيل ستريك، أن «تحدّث بالأمر مع (قائد اليونيفيل الجنرال ستيفانو) ديل كول، لا سيّما لجهة منع وصول أحد إلى الخليج (الناقورة) لما يكتنفه من مغاور». وكما منطقة راس الناقورة، تبدو مواقع القوات الدولية المتاخمة لموقعي العباد وراميا، نقاط خارج السيادة اللبنانية، حيث يغيب أي فاصل حدودي بين مواقع العدو ومواقع القوات الدولية، ما يشكّل خرقاً للسيادة اللبنانية التي تستوجب أن تخضع كل المنافذ الحدودية لسلطة الدولة اللبنانية.

«حظر المدنيين» جنوب الليطاني!
يحار العدو في كيفية تكبيل حركة رجال المقاومة على الحدود الجنوبية وفي كامل منطقة جنوب الليطاني، في استراتيجية عسكرية ــ أمنية هدفها وضع العراقيل أمام المعاينة اليومية من قبل عناصر المقاومة لإجراءات العدو الحدودية. ولأنه يصعب تمييز رجال المقاومة عن المدنيين لكونهم جزءاً لا يتجزّأ من البيئة الجنوبية، يسعى العدو إلى إبعاد أي مدني عن الحدود، مزارعاً كان أو صياداً. اعتاد العدو على رفع الشكاوى إلى القوات الدولية حيال وجود «مسلحين»، ما يدفع القوات الدولية إلى التحقق من هؤلاء، ليتبيّن لاحقاً أنهم يحملون بنادق صيد. ويذكر تقرير الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة حالات حمل أسلحة الصيد من ضمن الخروقات اللبنانية، ثم يساويها من حيث لا يدري ربّما، بالخروقات الجوية الإسرائيلية والانتهاكات الدائمة المتواصلة للسيادة اللبنانية. وحفل التقرير الماضي بذكر 225 حالة حمل سلاح، بينها حالة واحدة لحمل سلاح حربي! لكن الغريب، هو قرار الدولة اللبنانية بمنع الصيد جنوب الليطاني ومطاردة الصيادين من دون مبرّر، حتى في موسم الصيد القانوني، وقبل قرار وزيرة الداخلية الجديدة ريا الحسن منع الصيد على الأراضي اللبنانية.
ولا يقف قرار «حظر المدنيين» غير المعلن عن الحدود، عند حدود الصيادين، بل إن قراراً صدر مؤخّراً
مُنع بموجبه عناصر استخبارات الجيش من القيام بالدوريات على الحدود بسياراتهم وملابسهم المدنية، وبات الوجود قرب الحدود محصوراً بوجود العسكريين بلباس الجيش وقوات الطوارئ الدولية!

من ملف : هل تورّط إسرائيل وأميركا اليونيفيل؟

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Syrians in Northwest Deir Ezzor’s Countryside Protest against the SDF



Protests against US-sponsored SDF northwest of Deir Ezzor احتجاجات ضد قسد شمال غرب دير الزور

Seems that the land started shaking under the Kurds in the areas they received from ISIS north and northwest of Deir Ezzor, the Syrians are refusing the crimes committed by the separatists as if nothing has changed for them between living under ISIS and living under the SDF.
Kurdish separatist militia known as SDF were faced with fierce protests by the local Syrians in the villages of Miheimdeh, al-Hossan, Sfeira Tahtani, Sfeira Fokani, Wusseiah, Muweileh, Hassin, and Ghariebeh, in the northwest countryside of Deir Ezzor province.
The locals protested the continuous status of insecurity in their regions and the practices and provocations of the SDF militias, the sharp increase in crimes like kidnapping and murder, and the stealing of the oil by the SDF militia and the companies working with them.
Syrians in areas under the control of the new ISIS, the US-sponsored SDF, refuse to be recruited in the ranks of the SDF or its affiliates to fight their citizens in the Syrian Arab Army and to betray their country, they who had to endure the long years of ISIS’s horrific brutality are not going to accept another US militia to control them and the Kurds will end up paying a hefty price for their betrayals, rejecting to listen to all who have warned them until now depending on the US promises.
The protesters have managed to block the main roads in those areas, burned tires, and blocked the traffic on the main Deir Ezzor – Raqqa road north of the Euphrates. The locals also evicted SDF militias and their commanders who came for negotiations with them.
This video was shared on social media showing the protesters burning tires, blocking the roads and throwing out the US-sponsored SDF militias and commanders.


The US forces operating illegally in northeast Syria carried out a flag handover between ISIS and the SDF similar to the previous handover between Nusra Front and the ISIS which continued the siege over Deir Ezzor. SDF was hailed as heroes in the Pentagon mouthpieces like CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Reuters, BBC, Fox News and others for their ability to ‘defeat ISIS’ when no real battles took place between the two sides, while on the other side of the Euphrates from the southwest of the river towards the river’s banks the Syrian Arab Army and its allies were fighting fierce battles with the US-sponsored ISIS terrorists village after village and the US interfered with its ISIS protecting air forces several times bombing the SAA advancing troops.
Until now the US and its separatist Kurds are trying to divide large parts of Syria from the central government, similar to what they did in Iraq, and keep its control over the oil and gas-rich fields areas and where Syria’s main crops are grown in order to pressure Damascus into surrendering. Topped up with the most severe sanctions and blockade by the US and its European lackeys and its regional Gulfies and Turkish agents, exceptional pressure is exerted over the Syrians with results opposite to what the US was planning.

Swamp Drunk Trump - Was elected to drain the swamp and instead became swamp drunk
Swamp Drunk Trump – Was elected to drain the swamp,
instead became swamp drunk Trump.
Donald Trump who was elected to stop his country’s interventionist wars abroad and ‘Drain the Swamp’ became ‘Swamp Drunk’ himself and is furthering the Pentagon and the deep state in his country more than all his predecessors combined, especially taking the fight to new levels that the ordinary US citizen will soon feel the pain much sooner than expected no thanks, or maybe thanks, to the Regime of War Trump put in control of him at the White House.

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محور المقاومة غير قلق… وواثق من قوته



أبريل 25, 2019

ناصر قنديل

– من جهة تبدو المنطقة مليئة بإشارات التصعيد، خصوصاً بعد القرارات الأميركية المتلاحقة منذ إلغاء التفاهم النووي مع إيران من طرف واحد، ومن بعده إعلان الاعتراف بالقدس عاصمة لكيان الاحتلال، ثم بدء العقوبات على إيران. فالاعتراف بضم كيان الاحتلال للجولان السوري، ومن بعده تصعيد العقوبات على إيران بإلغاء الاستثناءات، وفي قلب السياق نفسه الهجمة المتصاعدة على حزب الله سياسياً ومالياً وأمنياً، والحصار الاقتصادي على سورية، وعودة الغارات الإسرائيلية المتقطعة على مواقع داخل سورية تُحسب لمحور المقاومة. ومن جهة مقابلة لا يبدو محور المقاومة قلقاً، ويقرأ قادته التطورات والأحداث بمعايير مختلفة عن تلك التي تسود الصالونات السياسية، ومقالات المحللين وإطلالات بعضهم المتلفزة، بمن فيهم المحسوبون على ثقافة المقاومة.

– قياديون بارزون في محور المقاومة يردون على الأسئلة التي تطال عدم الرد على الغارات الإسرائيلية، بأسئلة عن سبب عدم قيام «إسرائيل» باستهداف أي موقع للجيش السوري منذ سقوط الطائرة الروسية، ويعتبرون فرض هذا التطور نجاحاً بوضع قواعد اشتباك جديدة، تحيّد الاستقرار في سورية كهدف أراد الأميركيون والإسرائيليون وضعه في كفة موازية لقبول الشروط التي عرضتها واشنطن وتل أبيب بخروج أي وجود لإيران وقوى المقاومة من سورية. وهو وجود زادت مبرراته والقناعة بأهميته كضرورة، مع الإعلان الأميركي عن الاعتراف بضم الجولان لكيان الاحتلال، وصارت المعادلة قائمة على أن إيران وقوى المقاومة باقون في سورية بطلب دولتها، لكنهم مستعدّون أن يتحملوا تبعات هذا البقاء بوجه اي استهداف دون توريط سورية في المواجهة، وأنه في حال أي استهداف لسورية فالأمر سيكون مختلفاً، فيتعاضد الجميع بمن فيهم روسيا لفعل ما ينبغي. وهذا بات معلوماً لدى قادة كيان الاحتلال، وهو موضوع تقيّد بمضمونه حتى الآن.

– الدخول في تحدٍّ معنوي اعتباري لا يعني محور المقاومة كثيراً، خصوصاً أنه واحد من أهداف العمليات التذكيرية الإسرائيلية التي تريد القول إن قادة تل أبيب لم يتخلّوا عن رفض وجود إيران وقوى المقاومة، لكنها لا تغير شيئاً في موازين القوى والردع، والأولوية التي يراها المحور في سورية هي مساعدة الدولة السورية على استعادة الأراضي السورية المتبقية خارج نطاق سلطة الدولة وجيشها، خصوصاً أن الدور التعطيلي الذي كان منوطاً بالغارات الإسرائيلية قد تم احتواؤه، وتمّت السيطرة عليه بهدوء وثبات، وبالتنسيق والتعاون بين الدولة السورية وروسيا وإيران وقوى المقاومة، وفي حسابات المحور أن ما تبقى من ولاية الرئيس الأميركي دونالد ترامب ومع إعادة انتخاب بنيامين نتنياهو، المعادلات القائمة ستبقى قائمة، كما ظهّرتها صواريخ تل أبيب، فلن نشهد تسويات نوعيّة ولا حروباً كبرى.

– يقدّم قادة المحور أمثلة على الوضع القائم، فيقولون إن التصعيد على إيران، تقابله قدرة إيرانية على مواصلة بيع النفط والغاز، أكثر مما كانت تبيع إيران قبل عشر سنوات بمرّة ونصف، وإن كان من بلدان يجب ترقب مفعول العقوبات الأميركية في جذبها، لأن لها تأثيرات حقيقية ولأن واشنطن تملك حضوراً ونفوذاً فيها، فهي تركيا والعراق وباكستان، لأنها دول جوار مؤثرة ولأنها سوق رئيسية للنفط والغاز الإيرانيين، إضافة للهند والصين، وفي تركيا والعراق وباكستان حضور أميركي عسكري واستخباري، وهي أول دول أعلنت عدم الالتزام بالعقوبات المتجددة دون استثناءات. فإن كان الأمر منسقاً مع واشنطن فهو دليل على ان العقوبات ظاهرة صوتية، وإن لم يكن منسقاً فهو تمرد الأقربين والأفعل والأهم، وتلك علامة على أن أميركا كلها صارت ظاهرة حبريّة، يوقع رئيسها بالخط العريض ولا أحد يقيم حساباً لتوقيعه.

ينصرف قادة محور المقاومة لتعزيز قدرات الردع، وقضم وهضم المزيد من الإنجازات، وتعزيز قوة سورية والسير بدفع العملية السياسيّة التي زالت الكثير من التحفظات الأميركية المنقولة بواسطة المبعوث الأممي، على الشروط السورية بخصوصها، فما عاد الموقف الأممي على ما كان، ولا عاد الموقف الأوروبيّ، من عودة النازحين وشروط الحل السياسي، على ما كان. وهذا يعني إما تنسيق أوروبي أممي مع واشنطن، وبالتالي لا جدية للتهديدات والتصعيد، أو أنه تمرّد وشقّ لعصا الطاعة، وهذا أخطر، لأنه مؤشر على سقوط المهابة الأميركية.

بهدوء ستمضي المدّة الباقية من ولاية الرئيس ترامب دون مواجهات كبرى وتسويات كبرى، لكن بضجيج عالٍ، ومحور المقاومة لن يقابل الضجيج بالضجيج، ولا الحبر بالحبر، بل سيواصل البناء وتمتين التحالفات، وأهمها التحالف مع روسيا والصين وتشجيع تركيا وباكستان على المزيد من الاقتراب، والاستثمار على نتائج صمود اليمن، وتطوّر الموقف العراقي، وفي نهاية العام المقبل لكل حادث حديث، ويخلق الله ما لا تعلمون، بقي ترامب في البيت الأبيض أم لم يبق!

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israeli rabbi: Notre Dame fire divine retribution? Church-burning can be ok



Source

Israeli rabbi: Notre Dame fire divine retribution? Church-burning can be ok
Debris inside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 16, 2019, a day after a fire that devastated the iconic building. (Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool/AFP)
A prominent Israeli rabbi suggests that the Notre Dame Cathedral fire may have been divine retribution, indicates that the burning of churches in Israel may be problematic only in that they may be rebuilt.
by Kathryn Shihadah
Times of Israel reported in Radical rabbi says Notre Dame fire retribution for 13th-century Talmud burning that a prominent extremist rabbi believes the Notre Dame Cathedral fire may have been “divine retribution for the mass-burning of Talmud volumes by French Catholic priests” in 1242.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the rabbi of the illegal Beit El settlement, instructs Jews that they need not feel saddened by the fire that devastated the 12th century cathedral, priceless artifacts, and works of art.

Ancient animosity

Aviner said: “Christians must be punished.”
[Christianity] is our number one enemy throughout history. [They] tried to convert us by arguments and by force, carried out an inquisition against us, burned the Talmud, expulsions, pogroms. Western anti-Semitism draws from Christianity’s hatred of the ‘murderers of God.’ It also had a role in the Holocaust.
The first great Talmud burning happened in Paris, right there at the Notre Dame Cathedral square. It was the result of the Paris trial in which Jewish sages were forced to debate Christian sages, and the result was the burning of the Talmud. Volumes of Talmud were brought in 20 carts and burned there, 1,200 Talmud volumes. So [the fire demonstrates] ‘there is justice and there is a Judge.
The 1240 Disputation of Paris, in which rabbis were forced to defend accusations that the Talmud was anti-Christian, was remembered by medieval Jews as a traumatic event. The public “trial” culminated in the burning of some 1,200 volumes of Talmud and other Jewish holy texts in Paris in 1242.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports that the burning of Talmuds had been triggered by a Jewish man named Nicholas Donin who had converted to Christianity. Donin traveled to Rome and presented the pope with a list of complaints about the Talmud. Among them the fact that a number of its passages “blasphemed Jesus and Mary, and attacked non-Jews.” During the French disputation about the Talmud, it was Donin who argued against it,* ultimately resulting in the pope’s decree that the books be “burned at the stake.”

Modern directive

In an online discussion as the Notre Dame Cathedral burned, Avner was unwilling to take a definite stand on the “divine retribution” theory. He conceded that “we do not know the secrets of God”; yet he dismissed the possibility that several recent fires in Israel could be punishment.
Aviner does not encourage the burning of churches in general – “for the time being.” However, he hesitated to condemn the practice inside Israel, stating that the  “issue is more complicated” in the Jewish State. When a church is destroyed, it will likely be rebuilt, and building a church in Israel “is a greater transgression than leaving one intact.”
Mondoweiss reports that, far from being a fringe figure, Aviner is “considered to be one most important rabbis of the religious nationalist sector. He is a prolific writer, having published more than 200 books.”
It points out that Aviner does not merely state his own opinion about church-burning, but quotes two sources (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher and the Satmar Rabbi), a fact which “says volumes about the discourse among his followers and students.”
Mondoweiss notes: “Several churches have been burnt in Israel in the last few years, and the police have been spectacularly useless in capturing the arsonists. In several cases, the arson was accompanied by slogans familiar from ‘price tag’ attacks in the West Bank (mostly along the lines of Jewish vengeance).”
The targeting of homes, vehicles, and Palestinian individuals have also been a daily occurrence.

*Editor’s note:
A number of authors have discussed anti-Christian passages in the Talmud. Peter Schäfer’s book Jesus in the Talmud, published by Princeton University Press, notes that the Talmud referred to Jesus as a bastard and his mother Mary as an adulteress; he is depicted as “sitting forever in boiling excrement.”
Israeli author Israel Shahak’s informative book, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, also addresses this, as well as other aspects of the Talmud, stating:
According to the Talmud, Jesus was executed by a proper rabbinical court for idolatry, inciting other Jews to idolatry, and contempt of rabbinical authority. All classical Jewish sources which mention his execution are quite happy to take responsibility for it; in the talmudic account the Romans are not even mentioned.
Shahak reports in another book on the subject that a 1996 Ha’aretz article stated the following (bracketed phrases inserted by Shahak]:
A check of main facts of the [Jewish] historiography of the last 1500 years shows that the picture is different from the one previously shown to us. It includes massacres of Christians [by Jews]; mock repetitions of the crucifixion of Jesus that usually took place on Purim; cruel murders within the family; liquidation of informers, often done for religious reasons by secret rabbinical courts, which issued a sentence of “pursuer” and appointed secret executioners; assassinations of adulterous women in synagogues and/or the cutting of their [the women’s] noses by command of the rabbis. Rosen included in his long article many well-documented cases of massacres of Christians and mock repetitions of the crucifixion of Jesus on Purim, most of which occurred either in the late ancient period or in the Middle Ages. (Some isolated cases occurred in sixteenth-century Poland.)
Shahak added: “Rosen included in his long article many well-documented cases of massacres of Christians and mock repetitions of the crucifixion of Jesus on Purim, most of which occurred either in the late ancient period or in the Middle Ages.”

Kathryn Shihadah is staff writer for If Americans Knew. She blogs at Palestine Home

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Weekly report on israel’s terrorism on Palestinians (18 April – 24 April 2019)


Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes, in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), for the week of 18 – 24 April, 2019.
Israeli forces continued to use excessive force against peaceful protestors in the Gaza Strip. 92 Palestinian civilians, including 22 children, 5 women, 5 journalists, and 5 paramedics, were wounded. Two of them sustained serious wounds. Four Palestinian civilians, including two journalists, were wounded in the weekly Kafr Qaddoum peaceful protest, north of the West Bank.
Shooting:

  • In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli forces continued to use lethal force against the participants in the peaceful protests organized along the Gaza Strip borders, which witnessed the peaceful protests for the 55th week along the eastern and northern border area of the Gaza Strip. They also continued to use force as well during the incursions into the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces wounded 92 Palestinian civilians, including 22 children, 5 women, 5 journalists, and 5 paramedics. The injury of two of them was reported serious. In the West Bank, Israeli forces wounded 4 Palestinian civilians, including two journalists, in the weekly Kafer Qaddoum peaceful protest.

Injuries in the Gaza Strip from 18 to 24 April 2019 According to the Governorate

GovernorateInjuries
TotalChildrenWomenJournalistsParamedicsCritical Injuries
Northern Gaza Strip921000
Gaza City3261100
Central Gaza Strip1541122
Khan Yunis1942130
Rafah1760200
Total92225552


  • As part of targeting the Palestinian fishermen in the sea, the Israeli forces continued to escalate their attacks against the Palestinian fishermen, indicating the on-going Israeli policy to target their livelihoods. During the reporting period, PCHR documented two incidents were as follows: 2 incidents off Rafah Shore and 1 off Khan Younis Shore.


  • As part of targeting the border areas, Israeli forces stationed along the border fence with Israel, east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, opened fire at agriculture lands, east of Khuza’a, and no injuries nor damage to property were reported. The Israeli shooting at the abovementioned agriculture lands recurred on 21 and 22 April 2019, and no injuries nor damage to property were reported.

  • On 21 April 2019, Israeli forces stationed along the border fence with Israel, east of al-Shawka village, east of Rafah, fired live bullets and tear gas canisters at civilians, who were collecting gravels near Sofa Site, and no injuries were reported. The Israeli shooting at the abovementioned area recurred on 22 and 24 April 2019, and no injuries were reported.

  • During the reporting period, Israeli forces wounded 4 Palestinian civilians, including 2 journalists, in the weekly Kafer Qaddoum peaceful protest in northern West Bank.

  • Collective Punishment Policy

  • As part of the collective punishment policy adopted by the Israeli forces against the families of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli soldiers and/or settlers, on 19 April 2019, Israeli forces demolished two residential apartments belonging to the family of ‘Arafat Irfa’iyah in Dahiyat al-Balad area in southern area of Hebron. Each apartment was built on an area of 150 square meters; the first apartment sheltered his parents and two brothers while the second one was uninhabited. It should be noted that ‘Arafat was arrested by the Israeli forces on 09 February 2019, accusing him of killing an Israeli settler found on 07 February 2019 in forests near Jerusalem.

  • In the same context, on 24 April 2019, the Israeli forces blew up a house belonging to the family Omar Abu Laila in al-Zawiyah village, west of Salfit. It should be noted that the above-mentioned building was comprised of 2 floors; each had 4 apartments, sheltering 4 families comprised of 18 individuals, including 10 children and 2 elderly women. Each apartment was built on an area of 130 square meters. As a result of blowing up the apartment, the other 3 apartments in the building fully sustained material damage to their contents. In addition, the nearby houses sustained material damage as their windows glass broke down. It should be noted that the Israeli forces accused  Omar Abu Laila of carrying out stabbing and shooting attacks at the intersection of Ariel” settlement on 17 March 2019, in which a settler and a soldier were killed. On 19 March 2019, the Israeli forces killed Omar Abu Liala in an armed clash in Abuwin village, north of Ramallah, and his body is so far in the Israeli custody.


Incursions:

During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 59 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and 3 other incursions into Jerusalem and its suburbs. During those incursions, Israeli forces arrested at least 44 Palestinians, including 8 children and a woman, from the West Bank, while 8 other civilians, including 5 children, were arrested from Jerusalem and its suburbs.


Israeli Forces continued their settlement activities, and the settlers continued their attacks against Palestinian civilians and their property

  • As part of the Israeli house demolitions and notices, on 18 April 2019, Israeli forces moved into Sosiyia village, south of Yatta, south of Hebron. The Israeli Civil Administration staff dismantled a 30-sqaure-meter residential tent built of metal poles and sheds. The tent belongs to Hussain Radi Hussain Nawaj’ah (40). The Israeli forces leveled the area and then confiscated the tent. The Israeli authorities claimed that there was a decision issued by the Israeli Supreme Court to freeze the construction works in al-Sosiyia village and any new building will be demolished or confiscated without a prior notice. It should be noted that the Israeli forces dismantled a residential tent and demolished a barn belonging to Hussain Radi Hussain Nawaj’ah on 16 April 2019. The tent was later confiscated.
Use of Force against Demonstrations in Protest against the U.S. President’s Decision to Recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel:

Israeli forces continued its excessive use of lethal force against peaceful demonstration organized by Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and it was named as “The Great March of Return and Breaking Siege.” The demonstration was in protest against the U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration to move the U.S. Embassy to it. According to PCHR fieldworkers’ observations, the border area witnessed large participation by Palestinian civilians as the Israeli forces continued to use upon highest military and political echelons excessive force against the peaceful demonstrators, though the demonstration were fully peaceful. The demonstration was as follows during the reporting period:


Gaza Strip:

During the 55th week of the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, Israeli forces wounded 92, including 22 children, four women, five journalists, and five paramedics. Two of them sustained serious wounds. The incidents were as follows:

  • Northern Gaza Strip: The Israeli shooting at Palestinian demonstrators resulted in the injury of 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children and a woman. Three of them were hit with live bullets and shrapnel, three with a rubber bullet and three were directly hit with tear gas canisters.

  • Gaza City: the Israeli shooting at Palestinian demonstrators resulted in the injury of 32 Palestinian civilians, including six children and a journalist. Sixteen of them were hit with live bullets and shrapnel, six were hit with rubber bullets and ten were directly hit with tear gas canister.


  • Central Gaza Strip: The Israeli shooting at Palestinian demonstrators, which continued from 15:00 until 19:00, resulted in the injury of 15 Palestinian civilians, including four children, a woman, a journalist, and two paramedics. Two of them were transferred to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza as their wounds were classified as serious. Six of them were hit with live bullets and shrapnel and nine were directly hit with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. The wounded journalist was identified as Mohammad Baker Mahmoud al-Looh (31), from Nuseirat, who works at al-Watan Radio and was hit with a tear gas canister to the left knee. The wounded paramedics were identified as Mohammad Subhi Hassam al-‘Omari (54), from Deir al-Balah, who was directly hit with a tear gas canister to the left leg, and Ahmad Ibrahim Jameel Weshah (25), a volunteer paramedic, who was directly hit with rubber bullet to the head. Both of them work at Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

  • Khan Younis: The Israeli shooting at the demonstrators, which continued from 16:00 until 19:00, resulted in the injury of 19 demonstrators, including four children, two woman, a journalist, and three paramedics. Six of them were hit with live bullets and shrapnel, one with rubber bullets and 12 were directly hit with tear gas canisters. The wounded paramedics were identified as Daila Bassam Ahmad Abu Rida (20), who is a member of Rowad el-Salam Medical Team and was hit with a tear gas canister to the right leg; Mohammad Subhi Abu Ta’ima (24), who is a member of Watan Medical Team and was directly hit with a tear gas canister to the right leg; and Ahmad Saleh Ahmad al-Naqa (32), who works as a paramedic and a media officer at Civil Defense and was directly hit with a tear gas canister to the neck. The wounded journalist was identified as Yusuf Mohammad Qassem Mass’oud (27), who works as a freelance photojournalist and was hit with a shrapnel to the left thigh.

  • Rafah: The Israeli shooting at the demonstrators, which continued from 16:00 until 18:30, resulted in the injury of 17 demonstrators, including six children and two journalists. Five of them were hit with live bullets and shrapnel and 12 were directly hit with tear gas canisters. The wounded journalists were identified as ‘Abdul Raheem Mohammad Deen al-Khateeb (42), who was hit with a tear gas canister to the left thigh, and Mo’ath Fathy Yusuf al-Hams (23), who was hit with a tear gas canister to the left leg. Both of them work as freelance journalists.

West Bank:

  • At approximately 13:00, on Friday, 05 April 2019, on Friday afternoon, Palestinian peaceful demonstrators started from the center of Kufor Qadoum village, northeast of Qalqiliyah, the eastern entrance to the village, which has been closed for 15 years in favor of “Kedumim” settlement established on the village’s lands. The demonstrators chanted national slogans demanding end of occupation and condemning the Israeli forces’ crimes against Palestinian protestors along the eastern border of the Gaza Strip within “The Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege” activities. The demonstrators threw stones at Israeli forces stationed behind sand berms. The Israeli forces immediately fired rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, four civilians, including two journalists, were wounded. The wounded journalists were identified as:
1- Nedal Shafeek Taher Eshtiah (50), who works as a photojournalist at Xinhua News Agency, was hit with a rubber bullet to the right leg.
2-Ayman Ameen al-Nobany (32), who works as a photojournalist at Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA), was hit with a rubber bullet to the thigh.
  • Efforts to Create A Jewish majority


Israeli forces escalated their attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property. They have also continued their raids on al-Aqsa Mosque and denied the Palestinians access to it:

Arrests and Incursions:

  • At approximately 04:00 on Thursday, 18 April 2019, Israeli forces moved into Silwan village, south of occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched houses, from which they arrested five civilians, including three children, and then took them to Salah al-Deen Police Station in the center of the village. The arrested civilians were identified as Mohamed Sameeh ‘Oliyan (13), Mo’tasem Mohamed Abu Nab (17), Ziyad Khalil al-Rajbi (19), Anas al-Khatib (19), and Mohamed al-Khatib (14).

  • At approximately 01:00 on Monday, 22 April 2019, Israeli forces moved into Ras Shehada neighborhood in Sho’fat refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched houses, from which they arrested Malek Naser Hoshieh (15) and Saleh Mohamed al-Sharqawi (14).

  • At approximately 03:00 on Monday, Israeli forces moved into al-Tour neighborhood, east of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched a house belonging to Mostafa Jameel al-Hashlamoun (22) and then handed him a notice to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Service in al-Maskobiyia investigation center, west of Jerusalem, on 30 April 2019.

  • At approximately 14:00 on Tuesday, 23 April 2019, Israeli police stationed at al-Majles Gate, one of al-Aqsa Mosque gates, in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, arrested the director of the Islamic museum of the mosque, ‘Arafat ‘Amri (54), after detaining his ID card. He was then taken to “ Beit al-‘Aho” investigation center in the Old City.


Settlement activities and attacks by settlers against Palestinian civilians and property


Israeli forces’ attacks:

  • At approximately 09:00 on Thursday, 18 April 2019, Israeli forces backed by military vehicles and accompanied with a bulldozer and a vehicle of the Israeli Civil Administration moved into Sosiyia village, south of Yatta, south of Hebron. The Israeli Civil Administration staff dismantled a 30-sqaure-meter residential tent built of metal poles and sheds. The tent belongs to Hussain Radi Hussain Nawaj’ah (40). The Israeli forces leveled the area and then confiscated the tent. The Israeli authorities claimed that there was a decision issued by the Israeli Supreme Court to freeze the construction works in al-Sosiyia village and any new building will be demolished or confiscated without a prior notice. It should be noted that the Israeli forces dismantled a residential tent and demolished a barn belonging to Hussain Radi Hussain Nawaj’ah on 16 April 2019. The tent was later confiscated.

  • Recommendations to the International Community

PCHR warns of the escalating settlement construction in the West Bank, the attempts to legitimize settlement outposts established on Palestinian lands in the West Bank and the continued summary executions of Palestinian civilians under the pretext that they pose a security threat to the Israeli forces. PCHR reminds the international community that thousands of Palestinian civilians have been rendered homeless and lived in caravans under tragic circumstances due to the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that has been under a tight closure for almost 11 years. PCHR welcomes the UN Security Council’s Resolution No. 2334, which states that settlements are a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions and calls upon Israel to stop them and not to recognize any demographic change in the oPt since 1967.  PCHR hopes this resolution will pave the way for eliminating the settlement crime and bring to justice those responsible for it. PCHR further reiterates that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are still under Israeli occupation in spite of Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan of 2005.  PCHR emphasizes that there is international recognition of Israel’s obligation to respect international human rights instruments and international humanitarian law.  Israel is bound to apply international human rights law and the law of war, sometimes reciprocally and other times in parallel, in a way that achieves the best protection for civilians and remedy for the victims.
  1. PCHR calls upon the international community to respect the Security Council’s Resolution No. 2334 and to ensure that Israel respects it as well, in particular point 5 which obliges Israel not to deal with settlements as if they were part of Israel.
  2. PCHR calls upon the ICC this year to open an investigation into Israeli crimes committed in the oPt, particularly the settlement crimes and the 2014 offensive on the Gaza Strip.
  3. PCHR Calls upon the European Union (EU) and all international bodies to boycott settlements and ban working and investing in them in application of their obligations according to international human rights law and international humanitarian law considering settlements as a war crime.
  4. PCHR calls upon the international community to use all available means to allow the Palestinian people to enjoy their right to self-determination through the establishment of the Palestinian State, which was recognized by the UN General Assembly with a vast majority, using all international legal mechanisms, including sanctions to end the occupation of the State of Palestine.
  5. PCHR calls upon the international community and United Nations to take all necessary measures to stop Israeli policies aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem and at voiding Palestine from its original inhabitants through deportations and house demolitions as a collective punishment, which violates international humanitarian law, amounting to a crime against humanity.
  6. PCHR calls upon the international community to condemn summary executions carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinians and to pressurize Israel to stop them.
  7. PCHR calls upon the States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC to work hard to hold Israeli war criminals accountable.
  8. PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfill their obligations under article (1) of the Convention to ensure respect for the Conventions under all circumstances, and under articles (146) and (147) to search for and prosecute those responsible for committing grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions to ensure justice and remedy for Palestinian victims, especially in light of the almost complete denial of justice for them before the Israeli judiciary.
  9. PCHR calls upon the international community to speed up the reconstruction process necessary because of the destruction inflicted by the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
  10. PCHR calls for a prompt intervention to compel the Israeli authorities to lift the closure that obstructs the freedom of movement of goods and 1.8 million civilians that experience unprecedented economic, social, political and cultural hardships due to collective punishment policies and retaliatory action against civilians.
  11. PCHR calls upon the European Union to apply human rights standards embedded in the EU-Israel Association Agreement and to respect its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights when dealing with Israel.
  12. PCHR calls upon the international community, especially states that import Israeli weapons and military services, to meet their moral and legal responsibility not to allow Israel to use the offensive in Gaza to test new weapons and not accept training services based on the field experience in Gaza in order to avoid turning Palestinian civilians in Gaza into testing objects for Israeli weapons and military tactics.
  13. PCHR calls upon the parties to international human rights instruments, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to pressurize Israel to comply with its provisions in the oPt and to compel it to incorporate the human rights situation in the oPt in its reports submitted to the relevant committees.
  14. PCHR calls upon the EU and international human rights bodies to pressurize the Israeli forces to stop their attacks against Palestinian fishermen and farmers, mainly in the border area.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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