Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
الأموال السورية المفقودة في لبنان أو أموال السوريين التي فُقِدَت في مصارف بلاد الأرز لها قصّة واقعية تستحق البحث والتحرّي مثلها مثل قصّة الأموال اللبنانية أو أموال اللبنانيين التي فقِدت أيضاً في المصارف اللبنانية. في هذا التقرير نفتح موضوع أموال السوريين في لبنان مع رئيس منتدى الاقتصاديين العرب في فرنسا سمير العيطة، وهو خبير متابع لهذا الأمر منذ سنوات، سألناه عن الموضوع فأجاب مفصّلاً وشارحاً لماذا تتواجد هذه الأموال السورية ومؤكداً على وجودها.
يقول سمير العيطة في حديثه لـ «البناء»: في ستينيات القرن الماضي حصلت حملة تأميم في سورية فهرَّب أصحاب الأموال في سورية أموالهم إلى بيروت. وفي المرحلة التالية، بقي القطاع الخاصّ السوري، أفراداً وأصحاب أعمال، يستخدمون المصارف اللبنانيّة ويخفون فيها مدّخراتهم وتمويل أشغالهم عن الحكومة السوريّة. يعود ذلك لأسباب مختلفة، منها ارتفاع الضرائب السورية، تلك على الاستيراد والأخرى على الأرباح. هكذا كان التاجر السوري يقلّل قيمة البضاعة المستوردة، فيحوّل جزءاً من ثمن مستورداته من المصرف التجاري والجزء الآخر عبر بيروت. كان هناك أيضاً تعدّد أسعار الصرف في سورية ولم يتغيّر هذا كثيراً مع افتتاح المصارف الخاصّة في سورية بدايةً عام 2004.
يضيف سمير العيطة أنّ الحرب في سورية والعقوبات عليها أدّت إلى مزيدٍ من تحويل أموال السوريين إلى لبنان. فحتّى المصارف الخاصّة السوريّة والتي لم توضع على لائحة العقوبات لم تعد تستطيع تحويل الأموال من الخارج وإليه لتخوّف مفرِط من المصارف الأجنبيّة المراسلة. هكذا أضحى كثيرٌ من تمويل التجارة الخارجيّة السوريّة يمرّ عبر بيروت. من ناحية أخرى، الكثير من الناس عندما وجدوا الأوضاع في سورية تتجه نحو الكارثة باعوا أملاكهم وهرّبوا أموالهم إلى لبنان. وأبقوها هناك لصعوبة فتح حسابات في دول أخرى وبسبب الفوائد العالية التي كانت تدفعها المصارف اللبنانية للمودعين.
ويشير العيطة إلى أنّ الدولة السورية لا تضع أموالها في لبنان خشية من العقوبات الغربيّة.
يستمرّ سمير العيطة في سرد القصة قائلاً: في بداية السبعينيات عندما تمّ تأميم المصارف في سورية، انتقل أصحاب المصارف وأصحاب الخبرات السورية كلّهم إلى لبنان. وأضحت هناك مصارف لبنانيّة أصحابها سوريون وأصبحت حينها 70 بالمئة من الكوادر المصرفية في لبنان من السوريين. ومع الحرب اللبنانية، أصبحت هذه المصارف ذات الأصل السوريّ رائدة، مثل بنك لبنان والمهجر (الأزهري)، وبنك بيمو(عبجي) والسوسيتيه جنرال (الصحناوي)، إلخ…
ويوضّح رئيس منتدى الاقتصاديين العرب في فرنسا أنّه بعد العام 2011 ومع العقوبات الأميركية على سورية زاد وجود رأس المال السوري في المصارف اللبنانية، لأنّ العقوبات استهدفت الجسم الأساس الذي ينظّم عمليات الاستيراد والتصدير، وهو المصرف التجاري السوري، فأصبح التجار السوريون يفتحون الاعتمادات عبر المصارف اللبنانية بدل المصرف التجاري السوري أو المصارف الخاصّة السوريّة. في مرحلة ثانية، بدأت الشركات الأجنبية توقف تعاملها ليس فقط مع المصارف السورية بل أيضاً مع المصانع والشركات الخاصّة السوريّة، حيث لم يعد بالإمكان حتى وضع اسم سورية على بوليصة تأمين شحن. فكان الحلّ أن يذهب السوريون إلى لبنان ويقومون بفتح اعتمادات من المصارف اللبنانية ويذكرون أنّ البضاعة التي فتح لأجلها الاعتماد مستوردة إلى لبنان، ومن ثمّ يقومون بإدخالها إلى سورية. وكانوا يدفعون من أموالهم دولارات من سورية وليست من لبنان، حيث كانوا يدخلون البضاعة إلى سورية يبيعونها ومن ثم يأتون بالدولارات إلى لبنان لفتح الاعتمادات في المصارف اللبنانيّة.
وهناك تفصيل بسيط هنا أنّ المصارف الخليجية الخاصّة التي فتحت فروعاً لها في سورية بعد المصارف اللبنانيّة، بل في 2010 أغلبها، قد سمح لها الأميركيون بتحويل الأموال وفتح الاعتمادات بنسبة معيّنة، مثل بنك قطر الوطني في سورية.
يقول سمير العيطة: كانت دولارات القطاع الخاص السوري تأتي إلى لبنان لهذه الأسباب وتقدّر المبالغ الموجودة بين 20 و40 مليار دولار، كلّها يملكها تجّار وصناعيون سوريون أو أموال أفراد قطاع خاص، وليست أموال «النظام» أو الدولة، لأنّهما لا يثقان بلبنان ويعتبرانه مخترقاً أمنيّاً. وهناك أيضاً أموال خاصّة سورية في تركيا، وهي أموال تجار وصناعيّين وأفراد من الشمال. كما هناك أموال تجّار وأفراد من مناطق «قسد» متواجدة في أربيل في بنوك عراقية وكذلك في ألمانيا. ولكنّ الحجم الأكبر في لبنان. الأمم المتحدة كانت تحوّل أيضاً أموال مساعداتها إلى سورية عبر لبنان.
كثيرون كانوا يعرفون أنّ النظام النقدي والمصرفي في لبنان يتّجه نحو كارثة، وأنّ أموال الودائع بالدولار تتبخّر في المنظومة. ألم تحصل محاولات أيام تسلم الوزير جورج قرم لوزارة المالية لتدارك الأمر؟ ألم يحذّر منه الوزير السابق شربل نحاس منذ زمن؟ ألم يكن الفرنسيون يعلمون بالأمر عندما عقدوا مؤتمر باريس 1 ثمّ باريس 2 ثم باريس 3 وبعد ذلك مؤتمر سيدر؟ كانوا يعلمون أنّ الأموال تُسرَق وتذهب هدراً ولكنّهم دفعوا المزيد من الأموال في الثقب الأسود. وبات هذا واضحاً في أوائل 2019 عندما بدأت بعض البنوك اللبنانيّة بمنح فوائد غير منطقيّة على الدولار. جاء أحدهم حينها إلى أحد هذه البنوك لوضع مبلغ زهيد، فقالت له الموظّفة «إذا أتيت بـ 100 ألف دولار وجمّدتها، نعطيك 15%»، فسألها «ليش رح تفلسوا بكرا وعم تلمّوا الدولارات»!
حول الاتهامات «أنّ سورية سرقت الأموال اللبنانية إبان التواجد العسكري السوري في لبنان» يقول سمير العيطة إنّ هذه مهاترة. لنأخذ مثالاً فترة الحصار التي شهدتها سورية بين الأعوام 1980 و1990. كانت سورية تفتقِد لموادّ كثيرة. لم يكن هناك مثلاً موز أو محارم وكانت هناك أساسيات موجودة في لبنان ومفقودة في سورية. ولو كانت سورية تسرُق لبنان لكنّا وجدنا هذه المواد في سورية حينها. ثمّ يضيف أنّه في فترة لاحقة وبعد اكتشاف النفط في سورية ومجيء شركة شل، عاشت سورية مرحلة رخاء. هنا أصبحت السرقة في الاتجاه المعاكس يعني من سورية إلى لبنان. كانت سرقة المازوت والبنزين المدعوم من سورية باتجاه لبنان. هكذا خرج عبدالله الدردري حين كان نائب رئيس الوزراء للشؤون الاقتصاديّة ليقول إنّ خسارة سورية من تهريب المازوت والبنزين المدعوم إلى لبنان مليار ونصف مليار دولار سنوياً. ورقم خسارة كهذا يعني كميّات ضخمة. ومربح التهريب كان يُقتَسَم بين سوريين ولبنانيين، أحياناً موقفهم ضدّ النظام في سورية. في تلك الحقبة، كان هناك ضبّاط سوريون في لبنان يأخذون عمولات، لكنّهم كانوا يتقاسمونها مع زعماء الحرب اللبنانيين الذين ما زالوا في السلطة في لبنان. هذه المهاترات تعني أنّ الحقّ فقط للبنانيين في سرقة لبنان وللسوريين في سرقة سورية! بينما كان الاثنان يسرقون من البلدين.
ثمّ يقول إنّ التهريب سيبقى طالما هناك فروقات أسعار كبيرة بين البلدين. هناك بالفعل تهريب من لبنان إلى سورية اليوم، ولكن هناك أيضاً تهريب من سورية إلى لبنان. مثلاً لا أحد يتحدّث عن تهريب الإسمنت المدعوم من سورية إلى لبنان. والكلّ يعرف من الذين يحتكرون تجارة الإسمنت في لبنان. وبالمناسبة سعر الإسمنت في لبنان يفوق ثلاثة أضعاف سعره في مصر فلماذا لم يستورد لبنان من مصر وهي عندها إنتاج يفوق حاجتها. ثمّ أنّه عند تهريب أيّ بضاعة من لبنان إلى سورية، يدفع سوريّون ثمنها بالدولار يعني «فريش دولار»، إذ لا يُمكن للبنان أن يفعل شيئاً بالليرات السوريّة. وبالتالي حجم الدولارات التي ذهبت وتذهب من سورية إلى لبنان تفوق كثيراً تلك التي أتت وتأتي من لبنان إلى سورية.
ويختم العيطة حديثه قائلاً إنّ السوريين غرقوا كما اللبنانيين في الأزمة المالية والمصرفيّة اللبنانيّة التي ربّما لم يُعرف قعرها بعد.
Although some of Donald Trump’s advisers still believe in his possible victory and support his attempts to fight, their number is gradually decreasing. Trump himself also is gradually realising the fact that the election results will not be canceled, and he has lost these elections…
The increasing reality of the failure of Trump’s four-year political activity is forcing politicians in many countries who have orientated towards him to look for a way to resolve their current situation, making adjustments to their rhetoric and actions. A certain group, imitating Trump himself, who has repeatedly abandoned former allies in the name of “his own political game”, are rapidly seeking to reorient themselves to the expected new master of the White House, sending flattering congratulations on “victory” instead of the previous criticism for the recent opponent of Trump in the elections.
As the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung emphasised, “Europe collectively breathed a sigh of relief. The warm reaction of Brussels and representatives of the EU member states has once again confirmed: more than the election of Joe Biden, Europe is happy about the impending departure of President Donald Trump.”
And this is not only a typical reaction for Europe!
Almost all commentary states the obvious fact: the time after Trump will not be the same as the time before Trump. And therefore, the shifting of the “weather vane of political change” is very clearly traced not only in the list of those who have already congratulated Joe Biden “on victory” – even before the official announcement of the highly scandalous and controversial recent presidential elections in the United States – but also in the choice of the words themselves to express servility and plebeian devotion.
Thus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden, calling him “a great friend of Israel.” However most recently, Channel 7 of Israeli television published the results of a national poll, according to which 68% of Israelis expressed their devotion to Trump. Moreover, on November 2, according to Reuters, Israel even held a prayer service for the re-election of Donald Trump. And this is not surprising, since Trump suits Tel Aviv much more. Indeed, it was Trump who on December 6, 2017 recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy there. In May 2018, Trump pulled Washington out of the “nuclear pact” with Tehran. On March 25, 2019, Trump officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. On October 15, 2020, Trump held a ceremony to normalize relations between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE in front of the White House in Washington. It was Trump who signed the Justice for Unpaid Survivors Act, which provides for the return of property lost during the Holocaust and other events of the 20th century. He signed a decree on the fight against anti-Semitism on American campuses.
But, in addition to Netanyahu, the leaders of Hamas and the extremist group “Muslim Brotherhood Politics” (banned in Russia – ed.) Sent their congratulations to Biden, calling on the new White House administration to abandon the old Trump policies in the Middle East and “Look towards Palestine.”
According to comments published in recent days by various media outlets, with the arrival of Biden in the White House, one can really expect a significant adjustment to the previous US Middle Eastern policy. In particular, it is believed that Joe Biden will return to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) Agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, while changing some of the terms of the treaty.
In addition to countering Iran, the next US president will certainly face the need to resolve a number of other crises in the Middle East. As The Jerusalem Post believes, this is first of all, the growing extremism of Turkey, the settlement of the Palestinian problem, the issues in Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the great catastrophe in the Sahel and the potential destabilization of Iraq.
According to former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel B. Shapiro, Biden’s undisputed foreign policy initiative related to the Middle East will be the question of creating a Palestinian state. Also, the new head of the White House may cancel the “deal of the century” – the Trump administrations deal to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which was indignantly rejected by the Palestinian authorities and a number of Muslim countries.
A possible adjustment of Trump’s Middle East policy by Biden is already, belligerently expected in Tel Aviv. On November 5, 2020, Israeli Settlement Minister Tsakhi has already voiced threats that the Israeli elite is ready to start a war with the Islamic Republic in response to Washington’s return to the “nuclear pact.”
In Riyadh, Biden’s arrival at the White House is expected with heightened vigilance.
As we are reminded from the November 8, edition of “Al-Arabia”, Biden promised to reconsider relations with Saudi Arabia in connection with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Hence, even a number of Saudi experts do not exclude that Biden “poses a threat to the crown prince, since he will order the CIA to reveal all the details of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and also force the prince to lift the blockade from Qatar, stop arming Riyadh with weapons and ammunition for the war in Yemen and compel him to release the detained activists and members of the royal family.” There is even a belief regarding the possible removal of bin Salman from his posts, in connection with which there are unequivocal hints that in this situation the crown prince has only one “weapon to withstand these dangers – rapprochement with Israel.”
Developing on this idea, the head of the ‘Mossad’, Yossi Cohen, bluntly stated that “normalization of relations with Israel will be a gift from Riyadh to the new US president – regardless of whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden wins,” and that this decision could soften ‘Biden the Democrat’s’ stance on the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Be that as it may (and obviously not without taking into account these points) on the evening of November 8, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his heir Prince Muhammad finally congratulated Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on their election victory.
It will also be difficult time for Turkey starting when the real possibility of a new president of USA comes to power, as they reacted very sharply to the statements of Joe Biden, who, in an interview with The New York Times, spoke negatively about Recep Erdogan, calling him an “autocrat”, criticised his policy towards the Kurds and supported the Turkish opposition. Although Joe Biden did this interview back in December 2019, the video of him appeared only on August 15. Now Ankara is preparing for the imposition of a number of sanctions against it on several issues at once, in particular, for Operation Peace Spring against the Syrian Kurds, since Biden may recognise them as their main ally in Syria. Ankara also takes into account Biden’s recent calls to increase pressure on the Turkish authorities in order to push them to reduce tensions in relations with Athens: “it is necessary to put pressure on Turkey so that it abandons provocative actions in the region against Greece, as well as threats to use force.”
They also recall how recently Joe Biden demanded that Donald Trump put pressure on Turkey to abandon the decision on the Hagia Sophia issue, saying that Ankara “should open this temple to all confessions.”
Hence how the recent resignation of both the head of the Central Bank Murat Uysal, and the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Turkey Berat Albayrak (who was Erdogan’s son-in-law) gave rise to active discussions of the processes that have begun in the highest echelons of power against the background of the expected change of the US presidential administration. After all, the previous head of the Central Bank worked at Halkbank, the investigation around which may enter an active phase under the new administration, and Albayrak may be connected with the “Halkbank case”. Recall that in January 2018, a court in New York found Halkbank Deputy Chairman Hakan Atilla guilty of the fact that he and the bank itself provided intermediary services in the transfer of funds received by the Iranian leadership from the sale of oil and gas.
The Middle East has always been an issue for US presidents, many administrations come to power wanting to “do something” about the region, but the problems and conflicts are not diminishing. Therefore, today many are asking the question: will Biden become the president who is really ready to make this region better and not just another inhabitant of the Oval Office?
Vladimir Odintsov, political observer, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook“.
shootings reported at agricultural lands and once against fishing boats eastern and western Gaza Strip
In 101 IOF incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem: 77 civilians arrested, including 5 children
Annexation and settlement expansion: Israel issues calls for tenders for the construction of 1,365 settlement units
IOF demolished 5 houses and confiscated 6 tractors; several establishments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem served demolition notices
Settler-attacks: settlers steal 20 sheep in Ramallah and assault a child in Hebron
IOF established 80 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank and arrested 16 Palestinian civilians on said checkpoints
Summary
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued to commit crimes and multi-layered violations against Palestinian civilians and their properties, including raids into Palestinian cities that are characterized with excessive use of force, assault, abuse and attacks on civilians. This week, the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Israel Lands Authority issued a call for tenders for construction of 1,257 settlement units in “Givat Hamatos” settlement, which was established on the lands of Beit Safafa village, southern occupied East Jerusalem. These units would connect “Gilo” and “Har Homa” settlements with “Talpiot” settlement.
The construction of these settlement units would seal off Bethlehem from Beit Safafa village and southern occupied East Jerusalem and will entail further restrictions and obstacles on Palestinians’ freedom of movement and access to their lands.
This Israeli bidding was released 4 days after Israel’s approval to construct 108 settlement units in “Ramat Shlomo” settlement, northern occupied East Jerusalem. With these two bids, Israel is resuming construction in two settlements, where expansion efforts were frozen in 2014 due to international pressures. These tenders coincide with escalated IOF demolition and confiscation of Palestinian properties and lands, particularly in Area “C” in the West Bank.
PCHR fears that Israeli intends to accelerate settlement expansion before President-elect Joe Biden assumes US presidency on 20 January 2021, as it is reported that Israel plans to approve the construction of at least 13,000 settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem.
This week, PCHR documented 215 violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law (IHL) by IOF and settlers in the oPt. It should be noted that the limitations due to the corona virus pandemic, has limited PCHR’s fieldworkers mobility and ability to conduct field documentation; therefore, the information contained in this report are only part of the continued IOF violations.
IOF shooting and violation of right to bodily integrity:
Twelve Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, sustained wounds in IOF excessive use of force in the West Bank: 6 were wounded, including one child who lost sight in his eye due to his injury, in an IOF raid into Qalandiya refugee camp in Jerusalem; 3 others sustained wounds in IOF raid into Qaddura refugee camp in Ramallah; and 2 others, including 1 child, in IOF suppression of Kafr Qaddoum’s weekly protest against settlement expansion activities; and a photojournalist was wounded while covering clashed in Hebron.
In the Gaza Strip, 4 IOF shootings were reported at agricultural lands eastern Gaza Strip, and once against fishing boats, western Gaza. Israeli war planes launched an airstrike on a vacant land in eastern Rafah.
IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians: IOF carried out 101 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids of civilian houses and shootings, enticing fear among civilians, and attacking many of them. During this week’s incursions, 77 Palestinians were arrested, including 5 children. In Gaza, IOF conducted a limited incursion into eastern Khan Younis.
Demolitions:
PCHR documented 15 incidents, including:
Bethlehem: house foundations, a retaining wall and concrete floor demolished in Beit Jala; one house and heritage sites razed, as well as a retaining wall and farm road in al-Walaja ; tractor confiscated in Tuqu’; and an agricultural barracks, a house, and a water well demolished in Artas.
Tubas: 5 tractors and excavator confiscated; room and pool demolished; a tin-plated barracks that is used for shelter was dismantled in the northern Jordan valleys.
East Jerusalem: call for tenders for the construction of hundreds of settlement units; 4 commercial barracks demolished and 2 houses self-demolished in Jabel Mukaber
Hebron: settlement road constructed, and 8 demolition notices served in Yatta.
Nablus: an under-construction facility was demolished.
Settler-attacks: PCHR fieldworkers reported and documented two settler-violence incidents: 20 sheep stolen from north-eastern Ramallah; and a child was assaulted in Hebron.
Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:
The Gaza Strip still suffers the worst closure in the history of the Israeli occupation of the oPt as it has entered the 14th consecutive year, without any improvement to the movement of persons and goods, humanitarian conditions and bearing catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life.
Meanwhile, IOF continued to divide the West Bank into separate cantons with key roads blocked by the Israeli occupation since the Second Intifada and with temporary and permanent checkpoints, where civilian movement is restricted, and they are subject to arrest.
Shooting and other violations of the right to life and bodily integrity
At approximately 02:20 on Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF backed my military vehicles moved into Kobar village, north of Ramallah. They stationed in Wadi al-Sheikh area, where the soldiers deployed between the neighborhoods. Some of them raided Mo’atasem Zibar’s (22) house while dozens of Palestinian young men gathered to throw stones at the IOF infantry forces. The soldiers fired sound bombs and teargas canisters randomly at the stone-throwers and between houses. As a result, some stone-throwers suffocated. The clashes continued until 04:30 when IOF withdrew and deliberately collided Najjab al-Barghouthi’s black Ford car that was parked on the roadside, causing damage to the backside of it.
Over the last few days, Kobar has witnessed several house raids and incursions by the IOF that included searches of Zibar family houses and others. Many members of the family were detained and arrested to put pressure on former prisoner Raed Yousif Zibar to surrender himself. It should be noted that Mo’atasem is the former prisoner’s nephew.
At approximately 07:00, IOF attacked an elderly man, Mohammed ‘Abdel Hamid Jaber Sleibi (74), from Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, when he was with his daughters in their land in Wadi Abu al-Rish in western Beit Ummar to harvest olives. As a result, he sustained bruises.
Sleibi said to PCHR fieldworker that:
“I went in the morning with my daughters to my land in Wad Abu al-Rish area in western Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, to harvest olives. As my land is located near Beit Ein settlement that was established in the 1980s, it has always been subject to settlers’ continuous attacks. Around half an hour after arriving, 4 IOF soldiers approached and ordered us to leave. I told them that I would call the Israeli Military Liaison to inform them about my presence in the land. One of the soldiers then came to push me and I fell on the ground. He started beating me with riffles’ butts on my right side. My daughters ran to me and started screaming at the soldiers, who insisted we leave the land. we went back home but I felt pain in my right side. Later, I filed a complaint to the Israeli police about what happened.”
At approximately 13:20, IOF stationed inside the Israel-Gaza border, eastern Khan Younis, opened fire at the agricultural lands and bird hunters in eastern Khuza’a adjacent to the border. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 02:00 on Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF backed by military vehicles moved into Ramallah towards Qaddura Refugee Camp in the city center. IOF stationed at the entrance to the camp and patrolled the streets. A number of Palestinian young men gathered to throw stones at the soldiers, who chased them and started shooting live bullets and firing teargas canisters. As a result, 3 civilians sustained bullet injuries in the lower extremities and were taken by a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance to Palestine Medical Complex in the City. IOF later withdrew from the city, and no arrests were reported.
At approximately 11:00, villagers from Beit Dajan village, northeast of Nablus, and representatives of the National Action Factions in Nablus organized a peaceful protest, which started from the village council heading to the lands under threat of confiscation east of the village. The protesters raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation, settlers, annexation wall and the Deal of Century. When the protestors arrived at the area, they found a large number of Israeli soldiers awaiting them. IOF suppressed the protest and fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the protestors. As a result, many civilians suffocated due to teargas inhalation and received treatment on the spot.
At approximately 12:00, IOF stationed inside the Gaza-Israel border fence, east of al-Bureij, central Gaza Strip, opened fire at the agricultural lands. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 12:30, IOF stationed at the “northern entrance” established on Kafr Qaddum lands, north of Qalqilya, suppressed a protest organized by dozens of Palestinian civilians. IOF chased the young men, who gathered in the area and clashed with them, firing live bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters. As a result, a 17-year-old child was injured with teargas canister in the waist, and another 18-year-old was injured with a teargas canister in the head.
At approximately 13:00, Palestinian young men gathered in Bab al-Zawiyah area in central Hebron and threw stones and empty bottles at the checkpoint, known as Checkpoint 56 and established at the entrance to the closed Shuhadaa’ Street leading to Tel Rumeida area. IOF stepped out of their vehicles and stationed behind cement cubes, firing teargas canisters randomly in the area. They chased the stone-throwers on Wad al-Tofah Street and the area near Mahrouqat Hassounah Court. As a result, a photojournalist, Hazem Jamil Ragheb Bader, was injured with a sound bomb in the right leg and treated on the spot by another journalist, who was present to cover the events. Bader was then taken in his car to al-Ahli Hospital, where it was found that the injury caused a calf muscle tear. The clashes continued until 16:00; no arrests were reported.
At approximately 16:20, Palestinian young men gathered at the northern entrance to al-Bireh. Some of them approached al-Mahkamah Military Checkpoint established near “Beit El” settlement, north of al-Bireh and threw stones at the checkpoint. The soldiers chased the stone-throwers and fired teargas canisters and sound bombs at them. As a result, a number of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation. The clashes continued until 18:00, but no casualties were reported.
At approximately 15:15 on Saturday, 14 November 2020, IOF gunboats stationed off al-Waha area, northwest of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within 3 nautical miles, sporadically opened heavy fire at them, causing fear and panic among them and forcing them to flee. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 05:00 on Sunday, 15 November 2020, IOF warplanes launched 4 missiles at a vacant land near the area where the former Gaza International airport was located, eastern al-Shokah village, east of Rafah. no casualties were reported.
At approximately 12:00, IOF stationed adjacent to the annexation wall established on al-Midya village lands, west of Ramallah, randomly fired teargas canisters and sound bombs at the Palestinian workers, who were trying to enter Israel for work. As a result, 2 civilians suffocated due to teargas inhalation.
At approximately 18:30 on Monday, 16 November 2020, IOF stationed inside the Gaza-Israel border fence, east of al-Maghazi, central Gaza Strip, opened fire at the agricultural lands. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 15:00, an IOF infantry unit moved into al-Thaher area, south of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, where “Karmei Tzur” settlement is established on the Palestinian lands. IOF soldiers deployed in the agricultural lands and when they approached houses, dozens of Palestinian young men gathered and threw stones. The soldiers chased the young men and fired teargas canisters and sound bombs randomly at them. As a result, some of the young men suffocated due to teargas inhalation while IOF arrested Aysar Mohammed Za’aqiq (17) and took him to the IOF camp in the settlement.
At approximately 13:30 on Tuesday, 17 November 2020, large numbers of Israeli forces stormed Kafr ‘Aqab village, north of occupied East Jerusalem. They stationed along Jerusalem – Ramallah Road, adjacent to Qalandiya refugee camp, set military checkpoints, checked civilians’ ID cards, deployed the village neighborhoods, and gave fines to the passersby, who do not wear face masks. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers raided commercial shops and imposed big fines on their owners, alleging that they did not commit with the Israeli government instruction to combat the outbreak of corona virus. In the meantime, young men gathered at the entrance to Qalandiya refugee camp and threw stones, fireworks, and Molotov Cocktails at IOF, causing the injury of one Israeli soldier. An Israeli force immediately stormed the camp and fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the protestors and clashed with civilians for 2 hours. As a result, the window shield of 9 vehicles was smashed. Furthermore, 6 civilians, including a child, were shot with rubber bullets. They were transferred to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. The child was directly shot in his eye with a rubber bullet, and he lost sight as a result of that. Dozens of civilians also suffocated due to tear gas inhalation. The wounded civilians were identified as: Bashar Ahmed Elian Hamad (16), Yusuf Mohammed Taha Abu Latifa, Mohammed Fayez Ya’qoub, Mohammed Sami Mtair, Mahmoud Khalid Hamad, and Jadallah Husam Obeid.
At approximately 08:00 on Wednesday, 18 November 2020, IOF stationed inside the Gaza-Israel border fence, east of Khan Younis, opened fire at the agricultural lands, east of al-Fukhari town, adjacent to the fence. No casualties were reported.
At approximately 10:30, IOF backed by military vehicles stormed Tuba village in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. The soldiers searched civilians’ houses. In the meantime, Ahmed Omer Mohammed Jendiyah (27), a volunteer at the Israeli Information Center for Human Right in the Occupied Territory, arrived at the scene to document the incident. Israeli soldiers attacked him by heavily beating him. They pushed him into the ground and confiscated his camera. Half an hour later, the soldiers returned the camera to Ahmed and ordered him to leave the area.
At approximately 14:00, a number of Palestinian young men gathered in al-Tawil Mountain area, east of al-Birah. They threw stones at the Israeli checkpoint established near “Psagot” settlement, which is established on lands, east of the city. Israeli soldiers chased stone-throwers in the area and fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters. As a result, many civilians suffocated due to tear gas inhalation.
II. Incursions and arrests:
Thursday, 12 November 2020:
At approximately 00:00, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched two houses belonging to Abdullah Bassam Abu Ghannam (21) and Hasan Yasin Hmaidi (19) and arrested them.
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into Qalandiya refugee camp, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched two houses belonging to Ahmed Abdul Aziz Mutair (21) and Anas Shaher al-Khatib (22) and arrested them.
At approximately 01:50, IOF moved into Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Mohammed Samer Mahmoud Jaber (21).
At approximately 02:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Yatta, south of Hebron governorate. They raided and searched Majed Salem Abu Zahra’s (36) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Nablus. North of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Obada Saher Abu Sir (21).
Around the same time, IOF moved into al-Saf street and al-Fawaghera neighborhood in Bethlehem. They raided and searched two houses belonging to Emad Ali al-Harimi (19) and Jebril Khalil Kawazba (25) and arrested them.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Beita village, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Ayoub Riyad Bani Shamasnah (23).
At approximately 18:00, IOF arrested ‘Areen Haitham al-Za’aneen (25), from Wadi al-Juz, while present near al-Asbat Gate area in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City and took him to al-Qishla investigation center. The following evening, IOF released him with a 1-week bn on entry to al-Aqsa Mosque and order to return for investigation after this period. It should be noted that Za’aneen is a paramedic in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and a former prisoner who was released less than a month ago.
At approximately 23:30, IOF moved into al-Sharea al-Jadid area in al-Tur neighborhood, in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Abdul Rahman Eyad al-Hidra’s (24) house and arrested him.
IOF carried out (6) incursions in Sa’ir and Samu in Hebron governorate; Jenin and Beit Dajan, northeast of Nablus; Jayyous, north of Qalqiliya; and Azun, east of Qalqiliya. No arrests were reported.
Friday, 13 November 2020:
At approximately 03:20, IOF moved into Askar refugee camp, northeast of Nablus, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Mohammed Nahed al-Nadi (25).
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into Jayyous village, northeast of Qaqiliya, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Yazeed Jehad Slim (21).
At approximately 11:43, IOF established a temporary military checkpoint on the entrance of Qaryut village, southeast of Nablus, north of the West Bank. They arrested ‘Aqeel Es’eed ‘Afif Moqbel (19), from the abovementioned village, and took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 13:00, IOF detained Mo’ath Abu ‘Arafa (32), after going out of the Aqsa Mosque in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They handed him a summons to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services in al- Qishla police station on the next Sunday.
At approximately 14:00, IOF established a temporary military checkpoint on the main street between Nablus and Qalqilya, north of the West Bank. They arrested Ra’ed Mohammed Qar’an (25), from Qalqilya.
At approximately 16:00, IOF established a temporary military checkpoint on the entrance of Hableh village, south of Qalqilya, south of the West Bank. They arrested Fahmi Khaled ‘Attal (17), from the abovementioned village.
At approximately 19:00, IOF stationed at al-Zaytouna military checkpoint, east of the occupied East Jerusalem, arrested Omar Hasan Nofal, while passing through the checkpoint. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 18:45, IOF established a temporary military checkpoint on the entrance of Bizzariya village, northwest of Nablus. They arrested Waleed Issam Asfour (26), from Nour Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarm. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
IOF carried out (2) incursions in Silwad, east of Ramallah governorate; and Salim village, northeast of Nablus. No arrests were reported.
Saturday, 14 November 2020:
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Beit Fajjar village, south of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Alaa’ Mahmoud Younis Thawabta’s (19) house and arrested him. At approximately 16:00, IOF stormed the house again and arrested his brother, ‘Ammar (15).
At approximately 12:30, IOF arrested one of the Palestinian National Security Forces’ soldiers, Monjed Salama Debis (23), while passing through a temporary military checkpoint established on the entrance of Beit Jala village. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
IOF carried out (5) incursions in Burin, southeast of Nablus; Arraba, southwest of Jenin; al- Dhahiriya, Beit Ummar, and Edhna villages in Hebron governorate. No arrests were reported.
Sunday, 15 November 2020:
At approximately 01:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Hebron, and stationed in Wad al-Hareya area. They raided and searched Anas Hatem Qfaisha’s (29) house and handed him a summons to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services in “Gush Etzion” settlement, south of Bethlehem.
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Hebron’s Old City. They raided and searched Ameer Sa’eed Abu Hadid’s (34) house and arrested him.
At approximately 11:00, IOF established a temporary military checkpoint on the road that connected Nablus with villages located to the southeast of Nablus. They arrested Mahmoud Saleem Yamien (45), from Nablus, and took him to an unknown destination.
IOF carried out (2) incursions in Dura and al-Dhahiriya in Hebron governorate. No arrests were reported.
Monday, 16 November 2020:
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into Wadi Qadum neighborhood in Silwan, southeast the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Obada Nidal Dandis’s (25) house and arrested him. It should be noted that Obada is a former prisoner who spent 50-months in the Israeli prisons and released in 2018.
At approximately 01:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Beit Kahl village, north of Hebron. They raided and searched two houses and arrested Osaid Sabri al-Zuhour (29), and Izz al-Dein Ibrahim Shihada (30).
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into al-‘Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron and stationed near the UNRWA distribution center. They raided and searched two houses and arrested Basem Haitham al-Badawi (17), and Waleed Abdul Latif Jawabra (25).
At approximately 02:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Sa’ir village, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Mousa Shaker Jabarin’s house and arrested his two sons: Wael (32) and Mohammed (28).
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Haitham Nasim Khwais (20), Ameer Maher Abu Jom’a (25), and Fareed Eyad Abu al-Hawa (19).
At approximately 04:30, a group of Mista’arvim (Israeli Special Unit dressed like Palestinians) sneaked into Kobar village, north of Ramallah governorate. They used a white vehicle with a Palestinian registration plate and holding the name of “Brothers Transportation” and stationed at the main roundabout in the center of the village. Meanwhile, 8 Israeli military vehicles stormed to provide protection to the Special Units; they surrounded, raided and searched Mo’taz Mohammed Mahmoud Zibar (26) and Yehya Hussam al-Barghouthi’s (32) houses, and arrested them.
At approximately 06:00, IOF moved into ‘Anata village, northeast the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Mousa Jamal Salama (23), Yousef (21) and his brother Mohammed Mahmoud Hilwa (24).
At approximately 15:00, IOF stationed at the entrance of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, arrested Baha’ Bassam al-‘Allami (18), and Mahmoud Ahmed al-‘Allami (18), while present near the military watchtower, claiming that they were throwing stones at the tower. IOF took them to the detention center of “Gush Etzion” settlement, south of Bethlehem.
At approximately 15:30, IOF stationed at Inab military checkpoint, east of Tulkarm, arrested Samir Raja Ahmed al-Khateeb (31), from al-Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas, north of the West Bank. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 18:00, IOF stationed at al-Container military checkpoint, arrested Mahmoud Hammad Shraiteh (43), from Yatta in Hebron governorate, while passing through the checkpoint. He was taken to an unknown destination.
At approximately 19:00, IOF arrested the deputy mayor of al-Izariya village, Mohammed Hasan Mattar (41), while passing through a military checkpoint on the entrance of the abovementioned village. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
Tuesday, 17 November 2020:
At approximately 02:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Sa’ir, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Khalil Sa’eed al-Faroukh’s (27) house in the center of the village and arrested him.
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Jaba’ village, south of Jenin. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Nayef Khalil Khamamera (38).
Around the same time, IOF moved into Birzeit village, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Ya’ad Abu Ayyash (21), a student at Birzeit University, and Yousef Mousa Hosha (57).
At approximately 02:35, IOF moved into Deir al-Hatab village, northeast of Nablus, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched Mahmoud Abdullah al-Namrouti’s (22) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:45, IOF moved into ‘Askar refugee camp, northeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Mohammed Ashraf Azmi al-‘Ashibi’s (19) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:50, IOF moved into al-Masaken al-Sha’biya neighborhood, northeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Mohammed Omar Hashash’s (21) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into Qaryut village, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Akram Mo’een Johar’s (19) house and arrested him.
At approximately 04:00, IOF moved into al-Karkafa area in the center of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Abdul Rahim Faraj Salhab’s (32) house and arrested him.
At approximately 05:00, IOF moved into al-Issawiya village, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (4) civilians; Majd Marwan Dari (19), Mohammed Emad Dari (19), Wadea’ Tawfiq Abu al-Hums (27), and Mahmoud Omar Ghrayyeb (28).
At approximately 07:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles and bulldozers moved 100-meters to the east of al-Fukhary village, east of Khan Younis. They leveled and combed lands along the border fence then redeployed after hours.
At approximately 08:00, IOF stationed at the Container military checkpoint, north of Bethlehem, arrested Mahmoud Hammad Shraiteh (21), from al-Karmel area in Yatta, south of Hebron governorate, while heading to Ramallah.
At approximately 09:00, IOF stormed and searched one of the stores in Qalandiya refugee camp, north of the occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested Ibrahim (36) and his brother Abdullah al-Mallah (30).
At approximately 15:00, IOF moved into Bab al-Asbat road in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched As’ad Ali ‘Ajaj’s (44) house and arrested him.
Ali Ajaj, the detainee’s father, said that he was surprised to see huge numbers of the Israeli soldiers storming his house without knowing the reason. They searched the house and the ID cards of all the people in the house and then took his son, As’ad, to an investigation center. It should be noted that As’ad ‘Ajaj was banned from entering al-Aqsa Mosque for 6 months, and he was detained several times from inside the mosque.
At approximately 17:30, IOF moved into al-Issawiya village, northeast the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohannad Naser Mahmoud’s (24) house and arrested him.
At approximately 20:30, IOF severely beaten and arrested Naseem Harbi Obaid (23), while present near al-Arba’in Mosque in the center of the Issawiya village, northeast the occupied East Jerusalem. He was taken to an unknown destination.
IOF carried out (4) incursions in Sanur, southeast of Jenin; Yatta and Tarqumiyah villages in Hebron governorate; and al-Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah governorate. No arrests were reported.
Wednesday, 18 November 2020:
At approximately 12:30, IOF moved into Tulkarm, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Yehya Jamal Sowah (20), Rami Samir Abu Samra (35), and Abdullah Khader Rasras (35).
Around the same time, IOF moved into Tulkarm refugee camp, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Adnan Ahmed Khader al-Hosari (53).
Around the same time, IOF moved into al-Dheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem. They raided and searched two houses belonging to Hamada Mohammed Sarahna (17), and the policeman in the Palestinian Police Services, Mahmoud Abdul Karim Hamash (35), and arrested them. It should be noted that Hamash was a former prisoner who spent a year and half under the administrative detention in al-Naqab al-Sahrawi prisons “Ktsi’ot” and released in April 2019.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Tulkarm refugee camp, north of the West Bank. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Mathna Fo’ad Raba’ (24), from Jabal Abu Taqa in Tulkarm.
At approximately 09:00, IOF moved into al-Issawiya village, northeast the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Nasib Mohammed Obaid’s (48) house and arrested his son, Mohammed (20).
At approximately 15:30, IOF stationed at Mavi Dutan military checkpoint, southwest of Jenin, arrested Mahmoud Mohammed Nazzal (22), from Qabatiya, southeast of Jenin. He was taken to an unknown destination.
At approximately 16:00, IOF stationed at Za’tara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, arrested Ala’ Omar Zakarna (21), from Qabatiya, southeast of Jenin. He was taken to an unknown destination.
At approximately 16:30, IOF arrested 2 Palestinians while referring to the Israeli Intelligence Services in “Gush Etzion” settlement, south of Bethlehem after summonsing them. The arrestees are: Ra’ed Khalil al-‘Amour (42) and Maher Nabil Tarawa (29), from Taqu’, east of Bethlehem.
IOF carried out (3) incursions in Sebastiya, northwest of Nablus; Ya’bad, southwest of Jenin; and Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah governorate. No arrests were reported.
III. Settlement Expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem
Demolition and Confiscation of Civilian Property
On Thursday morning, 12 November 2020, Israeli municipality bulldozers demolished a house foundation, a retaining wall, and a concrete floor in Beit Jala, under the pretext of building without a license. Hasan Brijiyah, Head of the Popular Anti-Settlement Committee in Bethlehem, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that a number of Israeli bulldozers stormed Beit Jala amid tight security measures and started demolishing foundations of Nicolas Awad’s under-construction house in Beir Ounah neighborhood. IOF also demolished a retaining wall and a concrete land owned by Monther al-Walaji in al-Jadawel area in the center of Beit Jala.
At approximately 06:00 on the same Thursday, IOF demolished a house and a number of archeological remains and retaining walls. IOF also leveled an agricultural land in Ein al-Juweizah are, northeast of al-Walaja, northwest of Bethlehem, under the pretext of building without licensing.
Khader al-A’raj, Head of al-Walaja Village Council, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that an Israeli force accompanied with a bulldozer stormed Ein neighborhood, northeast of the village, and demolished an under-construction house and retaining wall owned by Mohammed Abu al-Haija under the pretext of building without a license. Al-A’raj clarified that IOF demolished Abu al-Haija house that is built on (120sqm) for the third consecutive time. He added that IOF demolished 2 archeological remains, that were previously restored, owned by Abu al-Tin family. IOF also demolished an agricultural road that lead to Khelat al-Hour area; the road is used by farmers to reach their lands. For years, al-Walaja village is subjected to recurrent attacks by settlers represented in demolishing dozens of houses and handing demolition and halt the work notifications and leveling lands and retaining wall in favor of settlement expansion. It should be noted that Ein al-Weijah area is one of the areas that are mostly targeted with demolition processes under the pretext of non-licensing as the Israeli municipality in occupied Jerusalem considers the land affiliated to it and it prevent construction in it. Therefore, half of the area residences are threatened to be expelled out of their houses.
At approximately 09:00 on Friday13 November 2020, Israeli authorities started paving a settlement road that is A new settlement road that extends from the Bypass Road (60) through civilians’ lands in Ma’in village, and reaches Avigal settlement established on Palestinian confiscated lands, east of Yatta, south of Hebron. The lands are owned to al-Hamamdah family. IOF imposed severe restrictions on civilians, which prevent them from using or reclaiming it under the pretext of illegal construction in Area (C) as work in it requires a previous permit from the Israeli Civil Administration Office that do not allow civilians to use or retrieve their lands.
On Friday evening, 13 November 2020, IOF sized an agricultural tractor and forced its owner to leave his land in Tuqu village, east of Bethlehem at gunpoint.
Tayseer Abu Mefreh, Head of Tuqu Village Council, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that IOF stormed al-Arabiya area, north of the village, and forced Mahmoud Hasan al-Sabbah to leave is land while he was plowing it. IOF confiscated his tractor. Abu Mefreh added that al-Sabbah plows and saws his plant each year and owns the deeds to the land.
At approximately 14:30 on Sunday, 15 November 2020, IOF stormed al-Rawq area, east of Kherbat al-Haidiya in Jordan’s northern valleys, southeast of Tubas, north of the West Bank. They confiscated 4 tractors; three of them belong to Jamal Mohammed Qasem Bani Ouda, while the fourth belongs to Yusuf Husein Asmar Basha, both are from the abovementioned Kherba. IOF confiscated the tractors under the pretext of illegal work in Area (C).
On the same Sunday, the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Land Authority issued a call for tenders for construction of 1,257 settlement units in “Givat Hamatos” settlement, which was established on the lands of Beit Safafa village, southern occupied East Jerusalem. These units would connect “Gilo” and “Har Homa” settlements with “Talpiot” settlement.
The construction of these settlement units would seal off Bethlehem from Beit Safafa village and southern occupied East Jerusalem and will entail further restrictions and obstacles on Palestinians’ freedom of movement and access to their lands.
It should be noted that “Givat Hamatos” settlement is a neighborhood of temporary housing projects, built on an area of 170 dunums and bordered by “Talpiot” settlement from the north and “Gilo” settlement from the south, and Beit Safafa village from the west. “Givat Hamatos” is considered among the last areas of open lands in Jerusalem that fall adjacent to the 1967 border line; it is a rocky land with few demolished buildings and mostly abandoned trailers. Consequently, the Israeli announcement carries greater significance than it shows, it is not merely the creation of new residential units in a settlement as it appears; in fact, it would be the first new Israeli neighborhood to be established on the 1967 border-line in East Jerusalem in the last 20 years.
The Israeli government had previously conducted such a construction in 1997, when “Har Homa” settlement was first established only two days after signing the first Hebron Protocol with Palestinians. Nowadays, “Har Homa” settlement houses more than 50,000 settlers.
This Israeli bidding was released 4 days after Israel’s approval to construct 108 settlement units in “Ramat Shlomo” settlement, northern occupied East Jerusalem. With these two bids, Israel is resuming construction in two settlements, where expansion efforts were frozen in 2014 due to international pressures.
These tenders coincide with escalated IOF demolition and confiscation of Palestinian properties and lands, particularly in Area “C” in the West Bank.
At approximately 07:00 on Monday, 16 November 2020, IOF bulldozers demolished an agricultural barracks, a residential house, and a water well in Khelat al-Nahlah area in Artas village, south of Bethlehem under the pretext of non-licensing.
Hasan Brijiyah, Head of the Popular Anti-Settlement Committee in Bethlehem, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that IOF demolished a house inhabited with 5 individuals and built on an area of (80sqm) owned by Mohammed Romi, who have official document of his property. Brijiyah clarified that the Israeli bulldozers demolished a water well, adjacent to the abovementioned house and then leveled large areas. He added that Israeli authorities notified Romi three times before demolishing his house. Brijiyah mentioned that IOF also demolished an agricultural barrack owned by Mahmoud Shuweiki before their withdrawal from the area.
It should be noted that Khelat al-Nahlah area is a high hill where Israeli settlers established their mobile houses for several years and they are secured by an Israeli military force around the clock. Despite that these lands’ owners filed a judicial complaint at the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem, which issued a decision for settlers to evacuate; the Israeli authorities encourage settlers’ existence and protect them for the importance of the area. IOF seek to empty this area from Palestinians and seize it to expand the boundaries of “Efrat” settlement established in the south of Bethlehem and connect it with “Tuqu’” settlement established on the east side of Bethlehem. It should be noted that Khelat al-Nahla area is located between “Efrat” settlement and “Givat Eitam” settlement outpost established in Khelat al-Qutun nearby area.
Khelat al-Nahla area and Tuqu’ village fall within the Israeli Plan (E2), which is a settlement project aiming at isolating Bethlehem from the southern countryside and from southern West Bank. This isolation can be done by linking “Efrat” settlement with “Tuqu’” settlement by the road of “Givat Eitam” settlement outpost. According to the project, Israeli authorities will seize control of over 1182 dunums as they have already announced building 2500 settlement units in this area to complete isolate Bethlehem from other cities.
At approximately 10:00 on Monday, 16 November 2020, IOF accompanied with Civil and Administration vehicle and a bulldozer stormed al-Dowar area, west of Deir Sharaf village, west of Nablus, north of the West Bank. The bulldozer demolished an under-construction facility built on an area of (350sqm) under the pretext of illegal construction in Area (C). The facility, which is a store’s floor and pillars is owned by Fares Montaser Abdul Jabbar Yaseen, from Asira ash-Shamaliya village, north of Nablus.
At the same time, IOF demolished a number of industrial facilities at the intersection of ‘Anata village, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of building without a license.
Taha al-Refa’i, Head of Anata village, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that a large Israeli force accompanied with bulldozers stormed Anata village’s main street from the eastern side ad closed the intersection in both sides in front of civilians’ vehicles. They demolished 2 commercial barracks owned by Salem and Adeeb al-Qawasmah, 2 other commercial barracks that includes vegetables stall, a barrack, a fence that surrounds 2-dunum land and includes a shop selling spare parts owned by Mohammed Ibrahim Helwah.
On 10 November 2020, Israeli authorities demolished a carwash, a barrack, and a wall in Anata village. The process of demolishing commercial facilities recently is part of IOF’s constant violations against Palestinian civilians and their property in the area. Israeli Construction Supervisory Committee revealed recently that it will issue new tenders within a few weeks for the construction of new settlement units under plan 23185/a. This new settlement project, if implemented, would completely seal off the eastern area of occupied East Jerusalem and would encircle (Anata, At-Tur, Hizma) areas to deny any future expansion possibilities towards the east.
At the same time, Mohammed Qanbar and his son Atiyah implemented the Israeli Municipality’s decision and self-demolished their houses under the pretext of building without licensing. Mohammed stated to PCHR that he and his son had to demolish their houses after the Israeli police arrived at the place several times and ordered them to do that or the municipality staff will implement the demolition decision and will force them to pay the demolition costs estimated at NIS 100,000. Qanbar clarified that he received a demolition notice 3 months ago and his lawyer managed to delay the demolition process until 10 November 2020, during which the lawyer applied to license the house; however, the municipality did not consider the application. Qanbar pointed out that he and his wife and 2 children lived in the house for 7 years in addition to his son’s family, who lived in a nearby house. Both houses were built on an area of 170sqm.
At approximately 10:11, IOF accompanied with Civil Administration vehicle and 2 bulldozers stormed Atouf Palin, east of Tammun village in Jordan’s northern valleys, north of the West Bank. A bulldozer demolished a residential room built of concrete and zingo sheets on an area of (40sqm) owned by Rami Bani Ouda, from Atouf village, under the pretext of illegal construction in Area (C). The same Israeli force stormed Furush Beit Dajan village, adjacent to Jordan’s central valleys. The bulldozer demolished a250-cubic meter water pool owned by Khalousi Abdul Rahim Haj Mohammed, from Furush Beit Dajan village. The pool was built of tin-plates and was funded by the European Union and was present in the land for more than 15 years.
At approximately 13:00, IOF backed by a military vehicle and accompanied with Civil Administration vehicle stormed Masafer area in Yatta, south of Hebron. The Civil Administration officer handed 4 military notices with No. 1797 to demolish facilities within 96 hours under the pretext of illegal construction, and they were as follows:
Affected Person
Facility
Description
Distance
Area
Jamil Mahmoud al-Amour
bathroom
Tin plates and bricks
1sqm
Sarourah
Hatem Mahmoud Makhamrah
Agricultural room
Tin plates and bricks
20sqm
Al-Mofaqera
Rasmi Yusuf Abu Ararm
residence
Tin plates and bricks
50sqm
Al-Rakiz
Service Council
Water supply system
pipes
—-
Safi al-Fuqa
It should be noted that IOF based this demolition on Military Order No. 1797 of 2018, which allows the “building inspector” at the Israeli Civil Administration, to issue a demolition/removal order on any construction that is not completed within 6 months, or has been occupied for less than 30 days after the inspector’s visit. This type of notices deprives Palestinians of their right to defend their houses and facilities, as the High Court of Israel refuses any petitions made to freeze or cancel such notices. Furthermore, demolition notices based on Military Order No. 1797 deprive citizens from applying for licensing their targeted buildings.
At approximately 13:50, IOF stormed Atouf Plain, east of Tammun village, southeast of Tubas in Jjordan’s northern valleys, north of the West bank. IOF confiscated a digger owned by Ayman Rabah Gharib Bani Ouda, from Tammun village. Ayman was paving an agricultural road in favor of the village council. IOF confiscated the digger under the pretext of illegal construction in Area (C).
At approximately 16:00, IOF accompanied with Civil Administration vehicle, a number of staffs, and a bulldozer stormed Kherbat al-Farsiya, east of Tubas in Jordan’s northern valleys, north of the West Bank. The staff dismantled a residential barracks roofed with tin-plates and steel pillars on an area of 40sqm in addition to a bathroom and confiscated them. IOF also confiscated a 2cubic-meter water tank funded by “ACTED” organization. IOF claimed that the demolition of the water tank and barracks owned by Radad Hamed Rezeq Daraghmah, from Kherbat al-Faresiya, under the pretext of illegal construction in Area (C).
The same Israeli force stormed Um al-Jamal village in Joedan’s northern valleys as the staff started to dismantle an arbor built of steel and shader sheets built by activists to protect children and civilians from rains. IOF claimed that the demolition was due to illegal construction in Area (C).
Israeli Settlers’ Attacks
At approximately 20:00 on Friday, 13 November 2020, a group of settlers from “”Sons of Hills” group moved from the Israeli new settlement ourpost established east of At-Tayba village, northeast of Ramallah, and attacked Ka’abna Bedouin Community in the village’s outskirts. The settler sneaked into the livestock barrack and stole about 20 sheep aged between 6 months and 2 years, owned by Farah Ibrahim al-Ka’abna. After that settlers returned to the settlement outpost.
It should be noted that settlers, who called themselves “Sons of Hills” established the settlement outpost in 2019 on Palestinians’ lands, east of al-Tyba village, on an area of 9 dunums. The settlement is about 200 meters far away from “Rimonim” settlement established on the village lands.
At approximately 13:30 on Wednesday, 18 November 2020, a settler from “Ramat Yishai” settlement outpost established on Palestinians’ confiscated lands in Tal al-Ramidiyah neighborhood in the center of Hebron, attacked Haitham Tayseer Abu Aishah (15) and punched him on his face while Haitham was on his way home with his father. When Haitham’s father attempted to move the settler away from his son, an Israeli soldier approached him and punched on his back, so, he fell on the ground. After that, Israeli back-ups arrived at the area as Haitham returned home with his father. Later on, Abu Aishah filed a complaint at the Israeli police.
V. Closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement of persons and goods:
The Gaza Strip still suffers the worst closure in the history of the Israeli occupation of the oPt as it has entered the 14th consecutive year, without any improvement to the movement of persons and goods, humanitarian conditions and bearing catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life.
The West bank:
In addition to permanent checkpoints and closed roads, this week witnessed the establishment of more temporary checkpoints that restrict the goods and individuals 80 temporary checkpoints, where they searched Palestinians’ vehicles, checked their IDs and arrested 16 of them. IOF closed many roads with cement cubes, metal detector gates and sand berms and tightened their measures against
Individuals’ movement at military permanent checkpoints.
Jerusalem:
On Thursday evening, 12 November 2020, established a checkpoint at the Biddu village’s tunnel.
On Monday, 16 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Eizariya village, east of occupied East Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, 18 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Al Jib village, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem.
Bethlehem:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established 4 checkpoints at Tuqu, al-Khader, and Beit Fajjar villages, and near the intersection of al-Nashash area, south of the city.
On Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF established 4 checkpoints the northern and western entrances to Tuqu, Husan, and Tuqu villages, and near the intersection of al-Nashash area, south of the city.
On Saturday, 14 November 2020, IOF established 4 checkpoints at the northern entrance to Marah Rabah villages and near “’Osh Ghurab” area, east of Beit Sahour village, and at Aqabat Hasnah area leading to villages west of Bethlehem.
On Sunday, 15 November 2020, IOF established 4 checkpoints at the northern entrance to Beit Jala, Tuqu, Marah Rabah villages in Aqabat Hasnah area leading to villages west of Bethlehem.
On Monday, 16 November 2020, IOF established 5 checkpoints at the northern and western entrance to Tuqu village, entrance to Maah Rabah village, and Aqabat Hasnah area leading to villages west of Bethlehem.
On Tuesday, 17 November 2020, established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to Tuqu and Husan villages and near al-Nashash area, south of the city.
Ramallah:
On Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF established 2 checkpoints under the bridge of ‘Atara village, north of Ramallah, and at the entrance to Ein Yabrud village, east of Ramallah.
On Wednesday, 18 November 2020, IOF closed the northern entrance to al-Bira, leading to Jalazone refugee camp, and north of Ramallah. The soldiers searched Palestinian civilians’’ vehicles, checked their ID cards, and obstructed the traffic movement. The closure continued for 3 and half hours.
Jericho:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the southern and northern entrances to Jericho.
On Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the southern entrance to Fasayil village, north of Jericho.
On Saturday, 14 November 2020, IOF tightened its military measures at “Al-Hamra” checkpoint, north of Jericho, obstructed the traffic movement for civilians, and checked their ID card and established a checkpoint at the southern entrance to Jericho.
On Sunday, 15 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Jericho.
Nablus:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Nablus – Tubas road, northeast of Nablus.
On Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the entrance to Majdal Bani Fadil village, and al-Bathan road linking between Nablus and Tubas.
On Saturday, 14 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the intersection of Shavei Shomron settlement, west of Nablus.
On Sunday, 15 November 2020, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the entrance to Asira ash-Shamaliya village, and at Einabus village square.
On Monday, 16 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Shavei Shomron settlement (the road linking between Nablus and Jenin).
Jenin:
On Sunday, 15 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Kufeirit village, southwest of Jenin.
Hebron:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established 3 checkpoints at Sa’ir and Idhna villages and al-Aroub refugee camp.
On Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF established 3 checkpoints at: Hebron’s southern entrance, Beit Kahel, and Kharsa villages.
On Saturday, 14 November 2020, IOF established 4 checkpoints at Beit Awwa, al-Hadab, and Surif villages, and al-Aroub refugee camp.
On Monday, 15 November 2020, IOF established 6 checkpoints at the Halhoul northern entrance to (Nabi Yunus), Beit Einun, Beit Ummar villages, Hebron’s southern entrance, Yatta and Idhna village.
On Tuesday, 17 November 2020, IOF established 4 checkpoints at Hebron’s southern entrance (al-Harayeq), ad-Dhahiriya, Beit Ummer, and Bani Na’im villages.
On Wednesday, 18 November 2020, IOF established 3 checkpoints at Halhoul southern entrance, and al-Aroub refugee camp, and ad-Dhahiriya village.
Qalqilya:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Izbat at-Tabib village, east of Qalqilya.
On Friday, 13 November 2020, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to Izbat at-Tabib village, at the eastern entrance to Qalqilya, the entrance to Azzun village, east of Qalqilya. These checkpoints were removed; no arrests were reported.
Tulkarm:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the intersection of “Innab” settlement, east of Tulkarm.
Salfit:
On Thursday, 12 November 2020, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrances to Deir Istiya, north of Salfit.
In early November 2017, nearly 400 of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful people, among them princes, tycoons and ministers, were rounded up and detained in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, in what became the biggest and most contentious purge in the modern kingdom’s history.
The arrests shook the foundations of Saudi society, in an instant turning untouchable establishment figures into targets for arrest. Statuses were discarded, assets seized and business empires upended. A conventional pact between the state and its influential elite was shredded overnight.
Now, leading figures caught up in the detentions have revealed details of what they say took place. The former detainees, many of whom were stripped of fortunes, portray a scene of torture and coercion, and of royal court advisers leading chaotic attempts to understand the investments behind the wealth of the kingdom’s most influential families, then seizing what they could find.
The accounts of what occurred in the Ritz, provided through an intermediary, are from some of the most senior Saudi business figures, who claim to have been beaten and intimidated by security officers, under the supervision of two ministers, both close confidantes of the man who ordered the purge, the crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman.
The disclosures come on the third anniversary of the purge and ahead of the G20 summit in Riyadh this weekend, which the Covid-19 pandemic has turned from a global showpiece into a giant webinar. Prince Mohammad, the de facto ruler, will also from January face a new US president who is likely to eschew the wholesale cover provided by the Trump administration in favor of a more conventional approach that pays some heed to human rights issues.
Advocates of the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia among them Loujain al-Hathloul, remain in prison in Riyadh, despite campaigns for their release. The summit, a theme of which is women’s empowerment, has been flagged as a moment to offer clemency, but officials have remained unmoved.
The Ritz-Carlton detentions often started with a phone call, summoning targets for meetings with Prince Mohammad, or King Salman himself. In another case, two prominent businessmen said they were told to meet in a home and wait for a royal court adviser to join them. Instead, state security officials showed up, ushering them to a five-star prison, where guards and senior aides were waiting.
“On the first night, everyone was blindfolded and nearly everyone was subjected to what Egyptian intelligence calls the ‘night of the beating’”, said a source with intimate knowledge of what took place. “People were asked if they knew why they were there. No one did. Most were beaten, some of them badly. There were people tied to the walls, in stress positions. It went on for hours, and all of those doing the torturing were Saudis.
“It was designed to soften them up. And then the next day, the interrogators arrived.”
The detainees had by then been separated into rooms in the hotel that a year earlier had been the venue for the launch of Prince Mohammad’s ambitious “Vision 2030” plan – an overhaul of Saudi society that was meant to open a rigid country to a world at that point intrigued by the breadth of his promised reforms.
“There is a misconception that they turned up all-knowing with pages of data and information,” a source said, of the interrogators. “They didn’t. They in fact knew very little and were winging it. They were OK on Saudi assets, but they were hopeless on the offshore stuff.”
Some detainees spoke of being threatened with the release of private information, such as extramarital affairs, or business dealings that would not have won approval even under the old system. Next to nothing leaked, but the few details that did emerge gave relevance to the calls Ibrahim Warde, an adjunct professor of international finance at the Fletcher School of Tufts University in the US, had started receiving in mid-2017 from former students asking about prominent Saudis whose careers he had explored in course work. He sensed something big was looming in Riyadh, and he was right.
“Many of those who came out of my classes ended up in the world of financial intelligence,” he said. “I kept getting strange requests from some of them about who was involved in various financial shenanigans. It became clear that they were preparing reports for companies that were acting for Saudis back home.”
The lack of understanding of investment structures surprised some of the men being questioned. “They were guessing peoples’ net worth,” said the source familiar with events inside the Ritz. “It was a shakedown. At one point, they gave people access to their emails and phones and told them to contact their [banking] relationship managers in Geneva and ask for large sums of money. The callers were told there was no equity in the accounts. [The interrogators] thought all the assets were in cash.”
A senior banking source, who refused to be named, said executives across the Swiss banking sector had launched an investigation in the wake of irregular transactions at the time of the crackdowns. “A lot of these transfers appear to have been made under duress. Some were stopped, because the requests were not routine. But some got through.”
Many of those detained told aides they remained puzzled about why they were there. Some had been confidantes of the Saudi monarchy over generations, benefiting from their access to monarchs and princes who had not been shy in cultivating business leaders through access and largesse. All Saudi royals had enjoyed relationships with industrialist dynasties and political patronage had been central to the trade-off. “This is an absolute monarchy, which means that leaders can do what they want,” the source said. “People won favors through long-held customs.
“Often they had no idea what they were looking for. It became straight up blackmail in some cases, because some of the detainees were refusing to sign anything. There was no due process. There is no such thing in the Saudi justice system as a plea bargain, but that was what they were trying to enforce.”
Three years on, Prince Mohammad remains insistent that all those stripped of wealth had been guilty of corruption. Saudi officials say up to $107bn (£80bn) was recovered from 87 people and returned to the Saudi treasury. The detentions garnered broad support across parts of Saudi society, where the crown prince remains popular despite three years of damaging headlines, including the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, carried out in Istanbul by a hit squad linked to Prince Mohammad’s former aide.
The sources who spoke to the Guardian said the figure seized was closer to $28bn and claimed the purge came at the price of breaking trust between the monarchy and the Saudi business community.
“This was about consolidating his rule, plain and simple. It came before the Khashoggi atrocity, and the fact that he got away with it allowed him to do the latter. The same guards involved in the Ritz were involved in the killing. History won’t be kind to MBS on either,” one of the sources said.
Warde said: “Anti-corruption initiatives are usually politically motivated. They are often tools for singling out those who were enriched. They provide selective lists of those who were enriched. This was a clear case of the intersection of money and politics in the Islamic world.”
During the cold war the West called dissenters those Russians in the USSR who voiced their complaints against the system. A definition – ‘dissenter’ – which, processed through the lexical grinding machine of the CIA and associates, was actually stripped of its original meaning to become a weapon of trivial instrumental imperialist propaganda. Said it another way, it was the dissenters who gave the pigs of the animal farm the tools for the pigs’ full spectrum propaganda.
But none can halt the inaudible and noiseless foot of time. And with the fall of the Berlin Wall it has come to pass that Western propaganda itself has created the dissenters. Meaning people who have been persecuted or even tortured, as is the case of Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning. Plus a hefty list of others – uncomfortable men, daring an escape from the Twilight Zone, thus dangerous by definition, and therefore marginalized or branded as traitors, maladapted or plainly mad, for to define true madness what is it but to be nothing else but mad.
However, increasingly, such criminalizing or demonizing measures appear inadequate – notably in the current phase of the ‘great reset’, meaning a global theft of freedom in exchange of a pseudo-security or pseudo-salvation from system-fostered terrors, dangers and apocalyptic ills.
And yet it is not enough. Unlike with dictatorships, Western pseudo-democracies have established a soft and practically invisible censorship consisting of the concentration in a few power groups of all main sources of communication and information, so as to drown any dissenting voice into the bottomless ocean of silence.
It may help that our Zionist “elder brothers in the Abrahamic faith” (that’s how the current Vatican calls them, reversing 1000 years of Catholic theology and practice), own and control 90% or thereabouts of all communication media, printed, Hollywood, academia, radio-TV and Internet.
Still, he who does not submit is jailed, or simply marginalized, rendered irrelevant in the Google archipelago, a wondering atom among the million molecules of deplorables.
Yet the strategy is increasingly proving inadequate, while freedom is hijacked in exchange for a pseudo-security that is fake, proclaimed and accompanied by threats. Nevertheless it is a pseudo-security made inevitable, following the train of provoked and questionable epidemic threats, possibly set up by the very security-providing system. 9/11 may serve as the master key or copy.
Therefore sundry ‘free’ countries have passed or are passing legislation involving punishment for the crime of opinion. This is inevitable for the greater the enforcement of the official ministerial truth, the more likely are desertions of the ministry by the unbelievers. So far, desertions are limited and rendered noiseless by a thousand-eyed censorship. And yet they risk to garnish attention and rip the curtain cloth that shelters fiction from fact.
For example, Germany has pending laws to prevent the questioning of vaccine(s), a remarkable instance of a new medical theology. And with the spirit of rebellion growing at large, so grows the violence of repression, even though the ‘elder-brothers’ owned media waters down the reports to dampen or hide their impact.
Much as, in another continent and settings, the same media all but ignored Trump’s mass rallies, while extolling Biden’s, often attended by eight people and a dog.
Massive censorship is justified on the ground that social media companies are private, therefore entitled to establish what is and isn’t true. What more evidence is needed to demonstrate the ethical and intellectual rotting decline of the West.
Clearly the escalation of threats and repressions is a sign of weakness among the globalist masters. For to establish their own truth they need to cast off the mask of liberty. Though given the flow and development of pandemic-related events even that mask may be redundant.
The legitimation of what is but an influenza wave, branded as a bubonic plague, falsified in the numbers and yet lethal for the cure of other illnesses. The imposed obedience clearly inconsistent, contradictory, ridicule in scope and medieval in appearance, should open the eyes of those who like to use them.
That may not be the case. Hence the path is open for the cashiering of constitutions and the introduction of freedom-killing legislation.
It is questionable whether generations educated to passiveness and in love with the ephemeral, may attempt a defense. They have but a rudimental notion of liberty, mainly associated with the liberty to purchase and consume. It is equally questionable whether their defense may trespass the borders of disillusionment. And even disillusionment is uncertain, as for many belonging to the herd can overcome the fear of being led to slaughter.
Therefore it is not with a large mass of inert followers of the mainstream media from hell that the West can defend its position of some kind of leadership.
In my archive, there is a video snippet where the ‘spokesman’ for a band of Pakistani migrant hooligans in the North of England says, “In 20 years we will take over f—ing England.”
I know I am but one of many living in the Google archipelago, where the godfathers of globalism reign supreme.
It seems we cannot bring light to darkness or call forth the mutinous winds of rebellion. As rhetorical as it may sound, we may as well dispel the illusion of redemption, bury it in the earth and, deeper than did ever plummet sound, drown the book that extols the values and worth of European civilization.
PS. For this article I relied on material provided by an anonymous European writer whom I would gladly cite if only I knew his name.
