19 jan 2017
An Israeli woman employed as a radio host with the Israeli government-run Army Radio was fired from her job Thursday after expressing on Facebook that she could understand the frustration of a Bedouin man who allegedly ran over a police officer who had come to destroy the Bedouin’s village.
Khen Elmaleh wrote on her Facebook page, “I would also run over a police officer if I were being removed from my home in order to make room for a town built for those more powerful than me”.
Her boss, Army Radio Commander Yaron Deckel, contacted her to fire her from her job – then he tweeted that those who support running over police have no place in the radio station.
It is still unclear whether the Bedouin man, Yaqub Musa Abu Qi’an, ran over the officer on purpose, or if he lost control of his vehicle – as local villagers say. After his vehicle hit the officer, he was shot multiple times and killed.
According to the leftist Israeli +972 magazine, “Elmaleh’s post was a sincere attempt at putting oneself in another’s shoes, but beyond that it also sought to draw a connection between the Bedouin struggle to remain on their land, and the decades-long Mizrahi struggle for public housing and against evictions.
Perhaps Elmaleh thought that expressing empathy with those who have lost or are about to lose their homes — to try and imagine what it might feel like to fight a seemingly endless battle against a government that doesn’t exactly want you here — would strike a chord with Israeli Jews. Perhaps Elmaleh believed that there was solidarity to be had among various the various groups living in Israel who are subject, day in and day out, to the brute force of the authorities. But by early morning the politicians and media had already portrayed Abu Qi’an as an ISIS-supporting terrorists. Elmaleh, in effect, had crossed the Rubicon: she expressed support for the ‘enemy.'”
Following her dismissal from her job, Elmaleh received many comments to her Facebook page – many of them critical of her earlier post, and calling her a supporter of murder and terrorism. She responded, “I do not support murder, and I will not let the headlines turn me into a supporter of murder,” Elmaleh continued, adding that today it may have been the Bedouin fighting for their rights, but “tomorrow it could be Mizrahi residents in south Tel Aviv. How easy is it to turn this whole discussion into one over a ‘vehicular attack.’”
Khen Elmaleh wrote on her Facebook page, “I would also run over a police officer if I were being removed from my home in order to make room for a town built for those more powerful than me”.
Her boss, Army Radio Commander Yaron Deckel, contacted her to fire her from her job – then he tweeted that those who support running over police have no place in the radio station.
It is still unclear whether the Bedouin man, Yaqub Musa Abu Qi’an, ran over the officer on purpose, or if he lost control of his vehicle – as local villagers say. After his vehicle hit the officer, he was shot multiple times and killed.
According to the leftist Israeli +972 magazine, “Elmaleh’s post was a sincere attempt at putting oneself in another’s shoes, but beyond that it also sought to draw a connection between the Bedouin struggle to remain on their land, and the decades-long Mizrahi struggle for public housing and against evictions.
Perhaps Elmaleh thought that expressing empathy with those who have lost or are about to lose their homes — to try and imagine what it might feel like to fight a seemingly endless battle against a government that doesn’t exactly want you here — would strike a chord with Israeli Jews. Perhaps Elmaleh believed that there was solidarity to be had among various the various groups living in Israel who are subject, day in and day out, to the brute force of the authorities. But by early morning the politicians and media had already portrayed Abu Qi’an as an ISIS-supporting terrorists. Elmaleh, in effect, had crossed the Rubicon: she expressed support for the ‘enemy.'”
Following her dismissal from her job, Elmaleh received many comments to her Facebook page – many of them critical of her earlier post, and calling her a supporter of murder and terrorism. She responded, “I do not support murder, and I will not let the headlines turn me into a supporter of murder,” Elmaleh continued, adding that today it may have been the Bedouin fighting for their rights, but “tomorrow it could be Mizrahi residents in south Tel Aviv. How easy is it to turn this whole discussion into one over a ‘vehicular attack.’”
18 jan 2017
Erez Levy 34
Police shoot MK Ayman Odeh in the head with sponge-tipped bullet. Conflicting versions emerge of ‘car ramming’ and shooting that left one officer and a village resident dead.
Two people were killed and several others wounded when large numbers of police officers entered the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, in southern Israel, to demolish the village at dawn on Wednesday. Police fired tear gas, sponge-tipped bullets, and there were reports of live
Police shoot MK Ayman Odeh in the head with sponge-tipped bullet. Conflicting versions emerge of ‘car ramming’ and shooting that left one officer and a village resident dead.
Two people were killed and several others wounded when large numbers of police officers entered the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, in southern Israel, to demolish the village at dawn on Wednesday. Police fired tear gas, sponge-tipped bullets, and there were reports of live
Yaqub Musa Abu Qi’an 47
Police officers shot and killed a resident of Umm el-Hiran, Yaqub Musa Abu Qi’an, claiming he drove his vehicle and struck and killed at least one officer. Police also quickly claimed, without offering any evidence, that Abu Qi’an had “connections” to ISIS. The police officer who was killed was named as 34-year-old Erez Levy.
However, local residents and activists at the scene deny the police version of events, saying that Qi’an’s car veered toward the officers only after he was shot and lost control of the vehicle.
Police officers shot and killed a resident of Umm el-Hiran, Yaqub Musa Abu Qi’an, claiming he drove his vehicle and struck and killed at least one officer. Police also quickly claimed, without offering any evidence, that Abu Qi’an had “connections” to ISIS. The police officer who was killed was named as 34-year-old Erez Levy.
However, local residents and activists at the scene deny the police version of events, saying that Qi’an’s car veered toward the officers only after he was shot and lost control of the vehicle.
MK Ayman Odeh
Among those wounded was Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh, who police shot in the head and back with sponge-tipped bullets. Odeh was brought to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva in stable condition at the time of this report. The other casualties were both local residents and security forces.
Hundreds of fully armed police arrived at Umm el-Hiran around 5 a.m., pulling drivers out of vehicles, and attacking and threatening others, according to Israeli activist Kobi Snitz, who was in the village Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Shortly thereafter, shots were heard, Snitz said, adding that he saw a white pickup truck about 30 meters from police. “They started shooting at the car in bursts from all directions,” he said, adding that only after the driver appeared to have been wounded and lost control of his vehicle did it strike the police officers.
Police reportedly sealed the village off and barred any additional journalists from entering by mid-morning.
Snitz said that state authorities had been pressuring residents to sign an agreement to leave voluntarily up until around midnight Tuesday night, but that negotiations broke down.
MK Odeh showed up at Umm el-Hiran early Wednesday morning in order to stand alongside the villagers, who were told by Israeli authorities that the demolition would take place imminently.
By late morning, bulldozers, trucks, and demolition equipment had begun preparing to clear and demolish the village.
Umm al-Hiran is one of dozens of so-called “unrecognized villages” in Israel’s south, in which approximately 100,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel live without electricity, water, and other basic services the state refuses to provide.
Here is a quick summary of this history of Umm al-Hiran: Long before the establishment of the State of Israel, members of the Abu Qi’an family lived in an area called Khirbet Zubaleh.
In 1956, the Israeli military government forcibly moved the Qi’an family to the location where they live today. (Their former land was given to Kibbutz Shoval as agricultural land.)
This forced land “swap” is well documented in state archives, but despite the fact that the Qi’an family was settled in its current location by the state itself, its homes have never been connected to the electricity or water grids.
In 2015 Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the state can change its mind and take back the land it gave to the al-Qi’an family. In place of their current village, Umm el-Hiran, from which they are to be expelled, a new township for religious Jews will be established.
For the past few years, Jewish Hiran’s future residents have been waiting for their new homes at an encampment in the adjacent forest of Yatir.
“The government has no problem with Jewish citizens living on this property – so why should they have a problem with us?” Raed Abu al-Qi’an, a resident and activist from the village, told +972 in 2015. “They allow rural communities to be built for Jews across the Negev – why not us?”
“We have always said, and continue to say, that we have no objections to Jewish families living here or nearby us – but not in place of us. That is racism and injustice,” he added.
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man and Eli Bitan contributed to this report. A version of this article also appears in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
Among those wounded was Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh, who police shot in the head and back with sponge-tipped bullets. Odeh was brought to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva in stable condition at the time of this report. The other casualties were both local residents and security forces.
Hundreds of fully armed police arrived at Umm el-Hiran around 5 a.m., pulling drivers out of vehicles, and attacking and threatening others, according to Israeli activist Kobi Snitz, who was in the village Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Shortly thereafter, shots were heard, Snitz said, adding that he saw a white pickup truck about 30 meters from police. “They started shooting at the car in bursts from all directions,” he said, adding that only after the driver appeared to have been wounded and lost control of his vehicle did it strike the police officers.
Police reportedly sealed the village off and barred any additional journalists from entering by mid-morning.
Snitz said that state authorities had been pressuring residents to sign an agreement to leave voluntarily up until around midnight Tuesday night, but that negotiations broke down.
MK Odeh showed up at Umm el-Hiran early Wednesday morning in order to stand alongside the villagers, who were told by Israeli authorities that the demolition would take place imminently.
By late morning, bulldozers, trucks, and demolition equipment had begun preparing to clear and demolish the village.
Umm al-Hiran is one of dozens of so-called “unrecognized villages” in Israel’s south, in which approximately 100,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel live without electricity, water, and other basic services the state refuses to provide.
Here is a quick summary of this history of Umm al-Hiran: Long before the establishment of the State of Israel, members of the Abu Qi’an family lived in an area called Khirbet Zubaleh.
In 1956, the Israeli military government forcibly moved the Qi’an family to the location where they live today. (Their former land was given to Kibbutz Shoval as agricultural land.)
This forced land “swap” is well documented in state archives, but despite the fact that the Qi’an family was settled in its current location by the state itself, its homes have never been connected to the electricity or water grids.
In 2015 Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the state can change its mind and take back the land it gave to the al-Qi’an family. In place of their current village, Umm el-Hiran, from which they are to be expelled, a new township for religious Jews will be established.
For the past few years, Jewish Hiran’s future residents have been waiting for their new homes at an encampment in the adjacent forest of Yatir.
“The government has no problem with Jewish citizens living on this property – so why should they have a problem with us?” Raed Abu al-Qi’an, a resident and activist from the village, told +972 in 2015. “They allow rural communities to be built for Jews across the Negev – why not us?”
“We have always said, and continue to say, that we have no objections to Jewish families living here or nearby us – but not in place of us. That is racism and injustice,” he added.
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man and Eli Bitan contributed to this report. A version of this article also appears in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
8 jan 2017
2nd Lt. Yael Yakutiel 20
Cadet Shir Hajaj 22
Cadet Shira Tzur 20
Cadet Erez Orbach 20
A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces after driving a truck into a group of uniformed Israeli soldiers, killing four soldiers and injuring at least 13 other people Saturday afternoon, at a bus stop in the illegal Israeli settlement of East Talpiyyot in occupied East Jerusalem.
An Israeli police spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the "terrorist" was shot and killed after carrying out what she called a deliberate attack.
Sources identified the slain driver as 28-year-old Fadi Ahmad Hamdan al-Qunbar from the nearby East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir.
Israel's emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA) said that the slain Israeli soldiers were in their 20s. According to Israeli media, three were women and the fourth was a man.
MDA added that 13 others were wounded -- three severely, one moderately to severely, and nine lightly. They were all evacuated to Israel's Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem. It remained unconfirmed if any civilians were among the injured.
Israeli police said a truck with Israeli license plates veered from its course and rammed into people getting off of a bus -- later revealed to be a group of uniformed Israeli soldiers -- at a promenade in the settlement, which overlooks the Old City of East Jerusalem. A number of people were initially trapped under the truck, and three of the wounded had to be extracted from under the track using a crane.
Israeli police reported imposing heightened security measures in the Jerusalem area, and that investigations were ongoing. Israeli police chief Roni Alsheich told reporters that there was no advance warning for the attack.
Israeli police later announced a gag-order for Israeli media on all further details of the case, including the identities of suspects.
The illegal East Talpiyyot settlement is also known as Armon Hanatziv, and is located just west of Jabal al-Mukabbir.
Since a wave of unrest began in October 2015-- largely marked by small-scale attacks by Palestinians targeting uniformed Israeli soldiers and police with knives or similar weapons -- a number of deliberate car ramming attacks have occurred. However, Israeli authorities' version of events have been challenged in a number of incidents, with officials in some cases later admitting so-called "terror attacks" were actually traffic accidents.
However, Israeli news site Ynet quoted a witness as saying that after the truck rammed into the group of soldiers, Israeli forces fired at the driver who then reversed the truck and ran over the soldiers again. A video later released on Israeli media purported to show the moment the truck rammed into the soldiers.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov condemned the attack, saying it was “reprehensible that some choose to glorify such acts which undermine the possibility of a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis. There is nothing heroic in such actions.
“I urge all to condemn violence and incitement, maintain calm and to do everything they can to avoid further escalation,” Mladenov added.
Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat reacted to the attack, with The Jerusalem Post quoting him as saying that “there is no limit to the cruelty of the terrorists who are willing to use any means possible to murder Jews and to damage the daily life of Israel's capital" -- in reference to the controversial Israeli claim to Jerusalem as its undivided capital.
"Those who incite and fan the flames and those who support terror must pay a heavy price," Barkat added.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a statement that the slain Palestinian attacker was “by all indications a supporter of the Islamic State.”
Meanwhile, the Hamas movement released a statement in Arabic on social media, in which it hailed the "heroic and brave truck attack in Jerusalem which comes as natural reaction to the Israeli occupation's crimes."
The Hamas movement organized two marches in Jabaliya and the al-Shati refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday to celebrate the attack in Jerusalem.
Hamas politburo member Fathi Hammad said that the attack confirmed the continuity of a Palestinian unrest since October 2015, adding that Hamas would support any actions against the Israeli occupation.
Cadet Shir Hajaj 22
Cadet Shira Tzur 20
Cadet Erez Orbach 20
A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces after driving a truck into a group of uniformed Israeli soldiers, killing four soldiers and injuring at least 13 other people Saturday afternoon, at a bus stop in the illegal Israeli settlement of East Talpiyyot in occupied East Jerusalem.
An Israeli police spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the "terrorist" was shot and killed after carrying out what she called a deliberate attack.
Sources identified the slain driver as 28-year-old Fadi Ahmad Hamdan al-Qunbar from the nearby East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir.
Israel's emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA) said that the slain Israeli soldiers were in their 20s. According to Israeli media, three were women and the fourth was a man.
MDA added that 13 others were wounded -- three severely, one moderately to severely, and nine lightly. They were all evacuated to Israel's Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem. It remained unconfirmed if any civilians were among the injured.
Israeli police said a truck with Israeli license plates veered from its course and rammed into people getting off of a bus -- later revealed to be a group of uniformed Israeli soldiers -- at a promenade in the settlement, which overlooks the Old City of East Jerusalem. A number of people were initially trapped under the truck, and three of the wounded had to be extracted from under the track using a crane.
Israeli police reported imposing heightened security measures in the Jerusalem area, and that investigations were ongoing. Israeli police chief Roni Alsheich told reporters that there was no advance warning for the attack.
Israeli police later announced a gag-order for Israeli media on all further details of the case, including the identities of suspects.
The illegal East Talpiyyot settlement is also known as Armon Hanatziv, and is located just west of Jabal al-Mukabbir.
Since a wave of unrest began in October 2015-- largely marked by small-scale attacks by Palestinians targeting uniformed Israeli soldiers and police with knives or similar weapons -- a number of deliberate car ramming attacks have occurred. However, Israeli authorities' version of events have been challenged in a number of incidents, with officials in some cases later admitting so-called "terror attacks" were actually traffic accidents.
However, Israeli news site Ynet quoted a witness as saying that after the truck rammed into the group of soldiers, Israeli forces fired at the driver who then reversed the truck and ran over the soldiers again. A video later released on Israeli media purported to show the moment the truck rammed into the soldiers.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov condemned the attack, saying it was “reprehensible that some choose to glorify such acts which undermine the possibility of a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis. There is nothing heroic in such actions.
“I urge all to condemn violence and incitement, maintain calm and to do everything they can to avoid further escalation,” Mladenov added.
Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat reacted to the attack, with The Jerusalem Post quoting him as saying that “there is no limit to the cruelty of the terrorists who are willing to use any means possible to murder Jews and to damage the daily life of Israel's capital" -- in reference to the controversial Israeli claim to Jerusalem as its undivided capital.
"Those who incite and fan the flames and those who support terror must pay a heavy price," Barkat added.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a statement that the slain Palestinian attacker was “by all indications a supporter of the Islamic State.”
Meanwhile, the Hamas movement released a statement in Arabic on social media, in which it hailed the "heroic and brave truck attack in Jerusalem which comes as natural reaction to the Israeli occupation's crimes."
The Hamas movement organized two marches in Jabaliya and the al-Shati refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday to celebrate the attack in Jerusalem.
Hamas politburo member Fathi Hammad said that the attack confirmed the continuity of a Palestinian unrest since October 2015, adding that Hamas would support any actions against the Israeli occupation.
4 jan 2017
Israeli Army declared that one of its officers died Tuesday of wounds he sustained during Israel’s 2014 aggression on Gaza.
Israeli second channel identified the officer as Maj. Hagai Ben Ari, 33, who was slated to command an elite Paratroopers company.
He was critically wounded on July 21, 2014 by a Palestinian sniper fire and never regained consciousness since then. He died last night after 30 months in a coma.
On July 7, 2014, Israel launched a deadly aggression on Gaza Strip that lasted for 51 days. 2200 Palestinians were killed during the attack while 11,000 others were injured, mostly children and women.
Israeli second channel identified the officer as Maj. Hagai Ben Ari, 33, who was slated to command an elite Paratroopers company.
He was critically wounded on July 21, 2014 by a Palestinian sniper fire and never regained consciousness since then. He died last night after 30 months in a coma.
On July 7, 2014, Israel launched a deadly aggression on Gaza Strip that lasted for 51 days. 2200 Palestinians were killed during the attack while 11,000 others were injured, mostly children and women.
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