10 aug 2015
Palestinians: Settler couple aroused our suspicions
Two Jewish settlers and a dog entered the West Bank village of At-Tuwani at a run Monday morning in a way that "aroused the suspicions" of the locals in light of recent attacks on Palestinians perpetrated by extremist Jews, said Palestinian sources.
The Palestinians admitted to throwing rocks at the couple, who told a slightly different story, saying that the locals had threatened to kill them as they were out for a morning run. At-Tuwani is a village visited frequently by Jews, usually without incident.
Two Jewish settlers and a dog entered the West Bank village of At-Tuwani at a run Monday morning in a way that "aroused the suspicions" of the locals in light of recent attacks on Palestinians perpetrated by extremist Jews, said Palestinian sources.
The Palestinians admitted to throwing rocks at the couple, who told a slightly different story, saying that the locals had threatened to kill them as they were out for a morning run. At-Tuwani is a village visited frequently by Jews, usually without incident.
Israeli occupation forces assaulted and injured guards at the Al Aqsa Mosque, Monday morning, at the door of al-Asbat, while detaining one other.
The media coordinator of the Foundation of the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem, Firas al-Debs, told Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency that Israeli forces pepper-sprayed a group of children and beat them when they tried to enter the mosque to participate in summer camp.
Al-Debs added that soldiers beat the guards severely when they tried to protect the children, injuring four of them.
He pointed out that guard forces arrested Moayad Hashem after assaulting him, and took him to an unknown destination.
He said that around 25 settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa in the morning hours, under the protection of Israeli police.
Al-Debs explained that worshipers inside the mosque confronted settler incursions with chanting and expelled them outside of the courtyards.
The media coordinator of the Foundation of the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem, Firas al-Debs, told Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency that Israeli forces pepper-sprayed a group of children and beat them when they tried to enter the mosque to participate in summer camp.
Al-Debs added that soldiers beat the guards severely when they tried to protect the children, injuring four of them.
He pointed out that guard forces arrested Moayad Hashem after assaulting him, and took him to an unknown destination.
He said that around 25 settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa in the morning hours, under the protection of Israeli police.
Al-Debs explained that worshipers inside the mosque confronted settler incursions with chanting and expelled them outside of the courtyards.
Israel has released all suspects detained in raids as part of a probe into the firebombing of a Palestinian home which killed an 18-month-old child and his father, Israeli authorities said Monday.
They did not provide the number of those detained in the raids, early Sunday, in Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, near the Palestinian village of Douma, where the July 31 firebombing occurred.
Outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are notorious for housing young Jewish hardliners, referred to as 'hilltop youth'.
"All those arrested yesterday for interrogation have been released," a spokeswoman for the Shin Bet domestic security agency told AFP, without providing further details.
The raids came as Israel seeks to crack down on Jewish extremists following the firebombing that also critically wounded the toddler's mother and four-year-old brother.
The attack has led to pressure on the government to act against Jewish extremists accused of being behind a series of hate crimes and nationalist attacks, including a stabbing attack at a Gay Pride parade in West Jerusalem, last month, which killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded five people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled the firebombing "terrorism" and pledged to use all legal means to track down the perpetrators.
However, many Palestinians have pointed out that Israeli government policies -- including support for settlement expansion and frequent impunity for settlers -- allowed for the firebombing to take place.
In addition to Sunday's raids, three alleged Jewish extremists have been placed in a controversial form of detention without trial usually used for Palestinians.
Over 85 percent of investigations into settler violence are closed without indictments, Israeli rights group Yesh Din says.
The 100 or so Jewish outposts in the occupied West Bank are not officially recognized by the Israeli government but receive support and assistance from government ministries.
Since occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has built over 125 Jewish-only settlements across the territories with a settler population of over 500,000, in contravention of international law.
They did not provide the number of those detained in the raids, early Sunday, in Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, near the Palestinian village of Douma, where the July 31 firebombing occurred.
Outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are notorious for housing young Jewish hardliners, referred to as 'hilltop youth'.
"All those arrested yesterday for interrogation have been released," a spokeswoman for the Shin Bet domestic security agency told AFP, without providing further details.
The raids came as Israel seeks to crack down on Jewish extremists following the firebombing that also critically wounded the toddler's mother and four-year-old brother.
The attack has led to pressure on the government to act against Jewish extremists accused of being behind a series of hate crimes and nationalist attacks, including a stabbing attack at a Gay Pride parade in West Jerusalem, last month, which killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded five people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled the firebombing "terrorism" and pledged to use all legal means to track down the perpetrators.
However, many Palestinians have pointed out that Israeli government policies -- including support for settlement expansion and frequent impunity for settlers -- allowed for the firebombing to take place.
In addition to Sunday's raids, three alleged Jewish extremists have been placed in a controversial form of detention without trial usually used for Palestinians.
Over 85 percent of investigations into settler violence are closed without indictments, Israeli rights group Yesh Din says.
The 100 or so Jewish outposts in the occupied West Bank are not officially recognized by the Israeli government but receive support and assistance from government ministries.
Since occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has built over 125 Jewish-only settlements across the territories with a settler population of over 500,000, in contravention of international law.
The Custody of the Holy Land asks AG to indict radical right-winger for saying church burning complies with Jewish law.
The Custody of the Holy Land, the Vatican's representative body in Israel, called on Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to indict high-profile Jewish supremacist Bentzi Gopstein on charges of incitement to racism.
In a letter to Weinstein, the Custody's legal adviser cited comments Gopstein made at a panel discussion last week, where he said that burning churches complies with Jewish law.
"I implore you to employ all the legal measures at your disposal," Adv. Farid Jubran wrote on behalf of the Vatican. "Mr Gopstein's incitement puts churches and Christian communities in a clear and present danger."
During a panel discussion at Jerusalem's Netivot Hochma on Wednesday, Gopstein said that "burning idolatry" is a legitimate Jewish practice that was stipulated by Maimonides, the Medieval Jewish sage.
Gopstein is the chairman of Lehava, an organization that seeks to prevent the "assimilation" of Jewish Israelis.
The Custody of the Holy Land, the Vatican's representative body in Israel, called on Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to indict high-profile Jewish supremacist Bentzi Gopstein on charges of incitement to racism.
In a letter to Weinstein, the Custody's legal adviser cited comments Gopstein made at a panel discussion last week, where he said that burning churches complies with Jewish law.
"I implore you to employ all the legal measures at your disposal," Adv. Farid Jubran wrote on behalf of the Vatican. "Mr Gopstein's incitement puts churches and Christian communities in a clear and present danger."
During a panel discussion at Jerusalem's Netivot Hochma on Wednesday, Gopstein said that "burning idolatry" is a legitimate Jewish practice that was stipulated by Maimonides, the Medieval Jewish sage.
Gopstein is the chairman of Lehava, an organization that seeks to prevent the "assimilation" of Jewish Israelis.
Two Palestinian young men at dawn Monday suffered injuries during violent clashes in Nablus city with invading Israeli troops, who were escorting Jewish settlers to the mausoleum of Joseph.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that dozens of settlers escorted by a large number of soldiers invaded the city at the pretext of performing rituals in the mausoleum.
They added that the unwelcome presence of soldiers and settlers in the eastern part of the city, where the tomb is located, provoked the anger of the local young men, who hurled stones at them.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that dozens of settlers escorted by a large number of soldiers invaded the city at the pretext of performing rituals in the mausoleum.
They added that the unwelcome presence of soldiers and settlers in the eastern part of the city, where the tomb is located, provoked the anger of the local young men, who hurled stones at them.
Former Shin Bet official outlines problems with relying on imprisonment without trial as an ongoing solution to Jewish extremism in the West Bank.
Former Shin Bet official Lior Akerman warned Sunday that the recent wave of administrative detentions dealt to Jewish activists suspected of terrorism may herald a significant shift in government policy, but won't solve the legal problem facing authorities in dealing with extremist Jewish groups in the West Bank.
Over the course of the last several days, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has approved administrative detention (jail without trial) for three radical right-wingers: Meir Ettinger, the grandson of the late Jewish supremacist Rabbi Meir Kahane and a high-value target for the Shin Bet, Evyatar Slonim and Mordechai Meyer.
Akerman, a former brigadier-general who served as a division head in the Shin Bet, says that while administrative detention is an efficient policy that helps prevent attacks, it can't be used as tool en masse. "It's a very efficient tool on the Palestinian front," he said.
"Factually, there are few administrative detentions and if you take a small group, dominant and central, and put it behind bars, that dramatically decreases their activities." But according to Akerman, administrative detention is not realistic as a permanent solution. Instead, he said the solution may be a change in legislation to speed up the legal process to bring strong cases against "hilltop youth," the radical fringes of the settler movement.
"The young people who run on the hills and were already involved in attacks against Arabs, torching cars and uprooting orchards and no one called their actions terror, receive motivation to continue," said Akerman. "We must define what it means to be involved in terrorism and not".
"We should have started enforcing the law against these guys - a group of fundamentalist ideological criminals that see no justice," continued Akerman. "They don't recognize the law of the land. If we don't give them a hit on the head it will continue to grow." Akerman explained that legally, the imprisonment of Jews and Arabs are two different realities.
"Every Arab who agrees to join Hamas and goes to a meeting in a mosque can be arrested and investigated for organizing terror - which doesn't exist among the Jewish population. Therefore, these guys are organizing, acting, going out, throwing fire bombs, beating Arabs, publishing incitement on internet blogs in ways you wouldn't believe - and that's not considered terror or a security risk in legal terms."
But the problems don't end there, explained Akerman. "This makes it really difficult for the Shin Bet to arrest them and even if they are arrested, it makes it hard to extend their prison time and makes it hard for the prosecution to present evidence to bring them to trial." Akerman suggested that the act of networking with Jewish extremists be placed under a law against "unlawful association," similar to that in place against Arab terror organizations.
"This demands a very wide process, not by the Shin Bet who knows how to do what it knows to do, but by the attorney general, the prosecutors, the prime minister and the justice minister."
Former Shin Bet official Lior Akerman warned Sunday that the recent wave of administrative detentions dealt to Jewish activists suspected of terrorism may herald a significant shift in government policy, but won't solve the legal problem facing authorities in dealing with extremist Jewish groups in the West Bank.
Over the course of the last several days, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has approved administrative detention (jail without trial) for three radical right-wingers: Meir Ettinger, the grandson of the late Jewish supremacist Rabbi Meir Kahane and a high-value target for the Shin Bet, Evyatar Slonim and Mordechai Meyer.
Akerman, a former brigadier-general who served as a division head in the Shin Bet, says that while administrative detention is an efficient policy that helps prevent attacks, it can't be used as tool en masse. "It's a very efficient tool on the Palestinian front," he said.
"Factually, there are few administrative detentions and if you take a small group, dominant and central, and put it behind bars, that dramatically decreases their activities." But according to Akerman, administrative detention is not realistic as a permanent solution. Instead, he said the solution may be a change in legislation to speed up the legal process to bring strong cases against "hilltop youth," the radical fringes of the settler movement.
"The young people who run on the hills and were already involved in attacks against Arabs, torching cars and uprooting orchards and no one called their actions terror, receive motivation to continue," said Akerman. "We must define what it means to be involved in terrorism and not".
"We should have started enforcing the law against these guys - a group of fundamentalist ideological criminals that see no justice," continued Akerman. "They don't recognize the law of the land. If we don't give them a hit on the head it will continue to grow." Akerman explained that legally, the imprisonment of Jews and Arabs are two different realities.
"Every Arab who agrees to join Hamas and goes to a meeting in a mosque can be arrested and investigated for organizing terror - which doesn't exist among the Jewish population. Therefore, these guys are organizing, acting, going out, throwing fire bombs, beating Arabs, publishing incitement on internet blogs in ways you wouldn't believe - and that's not considered terror or a security risk in legal terms."
But the problems don't end there, explained Akerman. "This makes it really difficult for the Shin Bet to arrest them and even if they are arrested, it makes it hard to extend their prison time and makes it hard for the prosecution to present evidence to bring them to trial." Akerman suggested that the act of networking with Jewish extremists be placed under a law against "unlawful association," similar to that in place against Arab terror organizations.
"This demands a very wide process, not by the Shin Bet who knows how to do what it knows to do, but by the attorney general, the prosecutors, the prime minister and the justice minister."
A state of tension and alert prevailed in the vicinity of the Aqsa Mosque on Sunday morning when Jewish activists of the alleged Temple of Solomon’s groups stormed the holy site carrying Israeli flags.
This followed settlers' incursions into the Muslims’ holy mosque since the early morning hours under the protection of Israeli police and Special Forces.
Q-Press Foundation revealed that Muslim worshipers confronted the incursions by chasing settlers with chants of “Allah the Greatest” and pro-Aqsa slogans.
Tension ran high when a Jewish settler tried to perform Talmudic rituals inside the Aqsa Mosque compound amid provocative practices by other settlers, Q-Press added.
In the vicinity of the Mosque, Jerusalemite deportees out of the Mosque stopped Jewish groups of the alleged Temple of Solomon from trying to raise the Israeli flags over it.
Returning to the Mount and Students for the Temple Mount organizations have recently called for a march of Israeli flags to roam the gates of the Aqsa Mosque in a step aiming at showing the Israeli sovereignty over the Mosque as they said.
One of the workers at the Aqsa pointed out that the Palestinian presence in the Mosque and the state of alert among its guards prevented settlers from achieving their goal as they raised the Israeli flags outside the gates of the Muslims’ holy site.
Israeli police, however, conducted provocative search measures and detained the IDs of women and youths at the various gates of the Aqsa Mosque, local sources said.
This followed settlers' incursions into the Muslims’ holy mosque since the early morning hours under the protection of Israeli police and Special Forces.
Q-Press Foundation revealed that Muslim worshipers confronted the incursions by chasing settlers with chants of “Allah the Greatest” and pro-Aqsa slogans.
Tension ran high when a Jewish settler tried to perform Talmudic rituals inside the Aqsa Mosque compound amid provocative practices by other settlers, Q-Press added.
In the vicinity of the Mosque, Jerusalemite deportees out of the Mosque stopped Jewish groups of the alleged Temple of Solomon from trying to raise the Israeli flags over it.
Returning to the Mount and Students for the Temple Mount organizations have recently called for a march of Israeli flags to roam the gates of the Aqsa Mosque in a step aiming at showing the Israeli sovereignty over the Mosque as they said.
One of the workers at the Aqsa pointed out that the Palestinian presence in the Mosque and the state of alert among its guards prevented settlers from achieving their goal as they raised the Israeli flags outside the gates of the Muslims’ holy site.
Israeli police, however, conducted provocative search measures and detained the IDs of women and youths at the various gates of the Aqsa Mosque, local sources said.
A number of Israeli extremists invaded, Sunday, Palestinian agricultural lands, in Burin village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and set them ablaze.
Eyewitnesses said that attackers fled to nearby illegal colonies, especially after the villagers noticed the fire and rushed to extinguish it.
Palestinian firefighters arrived at the scene, before Israeli soldiers attacked them and the locals, and fired several gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing additional fires in nearby lands.
Settlers torch hundreds of dunums in southern Nablus
Jewish settlers burned hundreds of dunums of pastoral lands in different locations to the south of Nablus city on Sunday evening.
The activist Zakariya al-Siddeh told the PIC reporter that settlers of Arosah settlement set fire to 15 dunums of pastoral lands in a district to the east of Borin town.
Palestinians along with civil defense vehicles hastened to extinguish the fire but settlers hindered the process leading to the spread of fire to the adjacent areas.
Eyewitnesses revealed that the fire spread very quickly and caught hundreds of dunums in the two nearby towns called Iraq Borin and Enabous.
Groups of settlers were deployed over mountains’ tops under protection of Israeli forces and tried to prevent civil defense cars from reaching fire locations.
Meanwhile, clashes erupted between Palestinian citizens and Israeli soldiers who protected settlers and fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the civilians. A number of youths suffered suffocation and received treatment in the field.
Eyewitnesses said that attackers fled to nearby illegal colonies, especially after the villagers noticed the fire and rushed to extinguish it.
Palestinian firefighters arrived at the scene, before Israeli soldiers attacked them and the locals, and fired several gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing additional fires in nearby lands.
Settlers torch hundreds of dunums in southern Nablus
Jewish settlers burned hundreds of dunums of pastoral lands in different locations to the south of Nablus city on Sunday evening.
The activist Zakariya al-Siddeh told the PIC reporter that settlers of Arosah settlement set fire to 15 dunums of pastoral lands in a district to the east of Borin town.
Palestinians along with civil defense vehicles hastened to extinguish the fire but settlers hindered the process leading to the spread of fire to the adjacent areas.
Eyewitnesses revealed that the fire spread very quickly and caught hundreds of dunums in the two nearby towns called Iraq Borin and Enabous.
Groups of settlers were deployed over mountains’ tops under protection of Israeli forces and tried to prevent civil defense cars from reaching fire locations.
Meanwhile, clashes erupted between Palestinian citizens and Israeli soldiers who protected settlers and fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the civilians. A number of youths suffered suffocation and received treatment in the field.
9 aug 2015
Google-owned GPS app lists school as 'The Bilingual School - May Their Names be Erased'; principal files police complaint; Waze change listing, ban user responsible.
A mixed Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem filed a complaint with police on Sunday about a threatening comment posted on a Google-owned navigation app, as Israel experiences a rise in hate crimes by far-right Israelis.
"The Bilingual School - May Their Names be Erased," was added, in Hebrew, to the school's location on the map on Waze, a mobile app, widely used in Israel, which uses driver data to help people avoid traffic jams. Waze deleted the words after they were brought to its attention on Sunday. A source at the company said the entry had been made by a user who had had permission to list destinations on the map but had now been banned.
"I have been in touch with the police and I will file a complaint," said Nadia Kinani, principal of the Hand in Hand school, a rare example of co-existence in Jerusalem which was damaged in an arson attack in November. An Israeli court last month jailed two brothers from a far-right Jewish group for two years for that attack, in which a classroom was torched and "Death to Arabs" daubed on a wall in the yard.
With peace talks with the Palestinians stalled since April 2014, Israel is struggling to contain hate crimes that it fears could spark renewed fighting.
In an attack on July 31, suspected Jewish extremists torched a Palestinian home in Duma, a village in the West Bank, killing an 18-month-old child and his father, who died of his injuries on Saturday.
A mixed Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem filed a complaint with police on Sunday about a threatening comment posted on a Google-owned navigation app, as Israel experiences a rise in hate crimes by far-right Israelis.
"The Bilingual School - May Their Names be Erased," was added, in Hebrew, to the school's location on the map on Waze, a mobile app, widely used in Israel, which uses driver data to help people avoid traffic jams. Waze deleted the words after they were brought to its attention on Sunday. A source at the company said the entry had been made by a user who had had permission to list destinations on the map but had now been banned.
"I have been in touch with the police and I will file a complaint," said Nadia Kinani, principal of the Hand in Hand school, a rare example of co-existence in Jerusalem which was damaged in an arson attack in November. An Israeli court last month jailed two brothers from a far-right Jewish group for two years for that attack, in which a classroom was torched and "Death to Arabs" daubed on a wall in the yard.
With peace talks with the Palestinians stalled since April 2014, Israel is struggling to contain hate crimes that it fears could spark renewed fighting.
In an attack on July 31, suspected Jewish extremists torched a Palestinian home in Duma, a village in the West Bank, killing an 18-month-old child and his father, who died of his injuries on Saturday.
Police arrest Meir Ettinger
Shin Bet Israeli security service, with Israeli police, arrested nine settlers Sunday morning, as part of a crackdown on suspected Jewish terrorists, Haaretz said, according to the PNN.
Two West Bank settlers were arrested at the Adei Ad outpost near Douma village where Sa’ad Dawabsha and his baby son Ali were burned to death by Zionist Jewish extremists. Security forces also searched seven houses.
Haaretz added that forces also raided outpost Baladim in the northern West Bank near and arrested seven people.
Following the arson attack, the Israeli police announced they were unable to identify the Douma arson attacker, and asked for help to find leads to the suspect.
However, the Knesset passed an “anti-terrorism” bill which allows six-months administrative detention of the attackers.
Haaretz said that one of those detained is 18-year-old Mordechai Meyer of Ma’aleh Adumim settlement. Meyer was jailed in Rimonim Prison for six months after an administrative detention order was issued against him. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who issued the order, said that Meyer was suspected of involvement in recent violence and terror attacks as part of a Jewish terror group.
Another detainee is Eviatar Slonim, suspected of belonging to an extremist group that sought to harm Arabs and replace the government in Israel with a Jewish kingdom. Slonim had been previously arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Palestinian home in the South Hebron Hills in November 2014.
Last week, Israeli Channel 10 said that security sources have pointed the finger towards an illegal outpost in the eastern Shilo area in the West bank which, according to the sources, have “a history” of hostility with the Palestinian villages in the area.
While the police arrested far-right activist Meir Ettinger, he has not been named as a suspect in the attack, said i24.
Ettinger, whose grandfather Meir Kahane founded the racist anti-Arab movement Kach, was arrested on Monday “because of his activities in a Jewish extremist organization,” a spokesman for the Shin Bet internal security service told AFP.
The court prolonged the incarceration of Meir Ettinger until at least Sunday, judicial sources said.
Police said Ettinger, who is aged around 20, was suspected of “nationalist crimes” but did not accuse him of direct involvement in last week’s firebombing of a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, in which a toddler was burned to death.
Haaretz additionally reported that Ettinger was linked to last month’s arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The church was damaged and two people injured.
The “anti-Jewish-terrorism” process began after an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man named Yishai Schlissel, stabbed six people at Jerusalem’s annual Gay Pride Parade, on July 30, accompanied by terrifying images of the attack, turning heads towards the growing extremism.
In 2005, Schlissel told police that he was planning “to kill in the name of God” and that “such abomination cannot exist in Israel,” reported the BBC. He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison. During that attack, police said that Schlissel dodged in between marchers, stabbing at random until he was pinned down by the police.
Shin Bet Israeli security service, with Israeli police, arrested nine settlers Sunday morning, as part of a crackdown on suspected Jewish terrorists, Haaretz said, according to the PNN.
Two West Bank settlers were arrested at the Adei Ad outpost near Douma village where Sa’ad Dawabsha and his baby son Ali were burned to death by Zionist Jewish extremists. Security forces also searched seven houses.
Haaretz added that forces also raided outpost Baladim in the northern West Bank near and arrested seven people.
Following the arson attack, the Israeli police announced they were unable to identify the Douma arson attacker, and asked for help to find leads to the suspect.
However, the Knesset passed an “anti-terrorism” bill which allows six-months administrative detention of the attackers.
Haaretz said that one of those detained is 18-year-old Mordechai Meyer of Ma’aleh Adumim settlement. Meyer was jailed in Rimonim Prison for six months after an administrative detention order was issued against him. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who issued the order, said that Meyer was suspected of involvement in recent violence and terror attacks as part of a Jewish terror group.
Another detainee is Eviatar Slonim, suspected of belonging to an extremist group that sought to harm Arabs and replace the government in Israel with a Jewish kingdom. Slonim had been previously arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Palestinian home in the South Hebron Hills in November 2014.
Last week, Israeli Channel 10 said that security sources have pointed the finger towards an illegal outpost in the eastern Shilo area in the West bank which, according to the sources, have “a history” of hostility with the Palestinian villages in the area.
While the police arrested far-right activist Meir Ettinger, he has not been named as a suspect in the attack, said i24.
Ettinger, whose grandfather Meir Kahane founded the racist anti-Arab movement Kach, was arrested on Monday “because of his activities in a Jewish extremist organization,” a spokesman for the Shin Bet internal security service told AFP.
The court prolonged the incarceration of Meir Ettinger until at least Sunday, judicial sources said.
Police said Ettinger, who is aged around 20, was suspected of “nationalist crimes” but did not accuse him of direct involvement in last week’s firebombing of a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, in which a toddler was burned to death.
Haaretz additionally reported that Ettinger was linked to last month’s arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The church was damaged and two people injured.
The “anti-Jewish-terrorism” process began after an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man named Yishai Schlissel, stabbed six people at Jerusalem’s annual Gay Pride Parade, on July 30, accompanied by terrifying images of the attack, turning heads towards the growing extremism.
In 2005, Schlissel told police that he was planning “to kill in the name of God” and that “such abomination cannot exist in Israel,” reported the BBC. He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison. During that attack, police said that Schlissel dodged in between marchers, stabbing at random until he was pinned down by the police.
A lawyer representing a right-wing Israeli Jewish organization, Sunday, issued evacuation notices for three Palestinian homes in the Batn al-Hawa area of Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem.
The lawyer, representing Ateret Cohanim, told the Sarhan family that the land, on which the three houses were built, allegedly belongs to Jewish settlers.
The Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported that the Sarhan family was given 30 days to respond to the claims in court.
Ateret Cohanim, an organization which tries to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem at the expense of Palestinian communities, claims that the land on which the Sarhan family lives belonged to three Jewish men from Yemen who lived there before 1948.
The chief of a local committee representing the Batn al-Hawa area, Zuheir al-Rajabi, said the Sarhan family has been living in the property for more than 80 years. The land and the houses, he said, belong to Ali Sarhan, his son Muhammad and another family member, Muhammad Mahir Sarhan.
Each home measures 80 square meters (861 square feet).
Al-Rajabi highlighted that a few days earlier, another Palestinian family, Abu Nab, received an evacuation notice from the same organization “which has been working on displacing the residents of the area.”
Attempts to aquare meters (56000 square feet) in the central quarter of Batn al-Hawa, the Wadi Hilweh Center told Ma'an News Agency.
The land in question houses around 300 Palestinians (80 families) living in more than 30 buildings, according to the Wadi Hilweh Center.
The center added that it released a report published in May that highlighted Ateret Cohanim's claims that a Jewish community from Yemen have owned six pieces of land in Batn al-Hawa since 1881.
The report claimed that the Israeli High Court confirmed the Jewish settlers from Yemen were the owners of the land in Batn al-Hawa.
In a controversial move, last year, Ateret Cohanim secretly bought and renovated a building in the heart of occupied East Jerusalem near the Damascus and Flowers gate entrances of the Old City. The building was turned into the Ateret Cohanim Jerusalem Torah Learning Centre, where groups of students from pre-army academies around Israel are brought in on learning retreats.
Following the purchase,emails between Ateret Cohanim and its supporters were leaked to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, detailing the organization's plans for the future.
In one of the emails, the group's executive director said the purchase was "the first acquisition of its kind, in the area, which is in the heart of the commercial Arab district of Jerusalem" and said the group's work was "being done quietly under the radar."
The lawyer, representing Ateret Cohanim, told the Sarhan family that the land, on which the three houses were built, allegedly belongs to Jewish settlers.
The Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported that the Sarhan family was given 30 days to respond to the claims in court.
Ateret Cohanim, an organization which tries to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem at the expense of Palestinian communities, claims that the land on which the Sarhan family lives belonged to three Jewish men from Yemen who lived there before 1948.
The chief of a local committee representing the Batn al-Hawa area, Zuheir al-Rajabi, said the Sarhan family has been living in the property for more than 80 years. The land and the houses, he said, belong to Ali Sarhan, his son Muhammad and another family member, Muhammad Mahir Sarhan.
Each home measures 80 square meters (861 square feet).
Al-Rajabi highlighted that a few days earlier, another Palestinian family, Abu Nab, received an evacuation notice from the same organization “which has been working on displacing the residents of the area.”
Attempts to aquare meters (56000 square feet) in the central quarter of Batn al-Hawa, the Wadi Hilweh Center told Ma'an News Agency.
The land in question houses around 300 Palestinians (80 families) living in more than 30 buildings, according to the Wadi Hilweh Center.
The center added that it released a report published in May that highlighted Ateret Cohanim's claims that a Jewish community from Yemen have owned six pieces of land in Batn al-Hawa since 1881.
The report claimed that the Israeli High Court confirmed the Jewish settlers from Yemen were the owners of the land in Batn al-Hawa.
In a controversial move, last year, Ateret Cohanim secretly bought and renovated a building in the heart of occupied East Jerusalem near the Damascus and Flowers gate entrances of the Old City. The building was turned into the Ateret Cohanim Jerusalem Torah Learning Centre, where groups of students from pre-army academies around Israel are brought in on learning retreats.
Following the purchase,emails between Ateret Cohanim and its supporters were leaked to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, detailing the organization's plans for the future.
In one of the emails, the group's executive director said the purchase was "the first acquisition of its kind, in the area, which is in the heart of the commercial Arab district of Jerusalem" and said the group's work was "being done quietly under the radar."
Scores of Palestinian citizens have foiled an Israeli attempt to evacuate and confiscate al-Rajabi family house near the Ibrahimi mosque in the Old City of al-Khalil.
Muhammad al-Zghayer, spokesman of Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), said that more than fifty members of al-Rajabi family along with members and volunteers from different committees have been maintaining vigil at al-Rajabi house and decided not to leave until the evacuation order is cancelled.
Al-Zghayer added that a large force of the Israeli army and settlers attempted to evacuate the house on Saturday night but the protesters forced the Israeli military to postpone the evacuation until tomorrow.
The Israeli forces summoned a number of protesters for interrogation at al-Khalil intelligence headquarters.
Al-Zghayer clarified that the Israeli occupation had issued an evacuation order against al-Rajabi home under the pretext that it was previously sold to Israeli settlers, a claim that al-Rajabi family strongly denied.
Muhammad al-Zghayer, spokesman of Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), said that more than fifty members of al-Rajabi family along with members and volunteers from different committees have been maintaining vigil at al-Rajabi house and decided not to leave until the evacuation order is cancelled.
Al-Zghayer added that a large force of the Israeli army and settlers attempted to evacuate the house on Saturday night but the protesters forced the Israeli military to postpone the evacuation until tomorrow.
The Israeli forces summoned a number of protesters for interrogation at al-Khalil intelligence headquarters.
Al-Zghayer clarified that the Israeli occupation had issued an evacuation order against al-Rajabi home under the pretext that it was previously sold to Israeli settlers, a claim that al-Rajabi family strongly denied.
A Palestinian official report has revealed that a government-sponsored Jewish association called Hanino financially supports Jewish settlers who perpetrated crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The national bureau for defending lands and resisting settlements stated in a report that Hanino association had spent 2.5 million shekels last year to cover the financial needs of jailed settlers and their families as an acknowledgment of the attacks they had carried out against the Palestinians or their property.
It added that the Israeli ministry of finance and the Knesset finance committee financially support Jewish assailants and groups and help them carry out settlement activities and build outposts in the West Bank.
The bureau also affirmed that the Israeli government transferred last year 340 million shekels to Jewish settlements in the West Bank in accordance with an agreement it had signed with the Jewish Home party and related understandings with the Yesha council of the West Bank settlements.
In addition to these funds, the Israeli interior ministry, for its part, allocated last December 62 million shekels for settlement activities in the West Bank, the bureau pointed out.
The national bureau for defending lands and resisting settlements stated in a report that Hanino association had spent 2.5 million shekels last year to cover the financial needs of jailed settlers and their families as an acknowledgment of the attacks they had carried out against the Palestinians or their property.
It added that the Israeli ministry of finance and the Knesset finance committee financially support Jewish assailants and groups and help them carry out settlement activities and build outposts in the West Bank.
The bureau also affirmed that the Israeli government transferred last year 340 million shekels to Jewish settlements in the West Bank in accordance with an agreement it had signed with the Jewish Home party and related understandings with the Yesha council of the West Bank settlements.
In addition to these funds, the Israeli interior ministry, for its part, allocated last December 62 million shekels for settlement activities in the West Bank, the bureau pointed out.
The Hamas Movement has urged the Palestinian people in the West Bank to defend themselves and their property against the Jewish settlers' attacks.
In a press release on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Husam Badran said that Palestinian people in the West Bank have the right to resist the occupation and defend themselves in light of their exposure to escalating Israeli violations and attacks.
"The Jewish settlers and murderers who dare attack the Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank can only be deterred by attacking them first instead of waiting until they reach our homes and areas," Badran stated.
"Our people in the West Bank have no choice but to start an open and all-out confrontation with the occupation without waiting for a decision from anyone or getting permission from any party," he added.
He emphasized that the death of Sa'ad Dawabsheh, the father of the toddler who was burned alive, as a result of his serious burn wounds reflected the size of the crime that had been committed by Jewish settlers against a Palestinian family.
In a press release on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Husam Badran said that Palestinian people in the West Bank have the right to resist the occupation and defend themselves in light of their exposure to escalating Israeli violations and attacks.
"The Jewish settlers and murderers who dare attack the Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank can only be deterred by attacking them first instead of waiting until they reach our homes and areas," Badran stated.
"Our people in the West Bank have no choice but to start an open and all-out confrontation with the occupation without waiting for a decision from anyone or getting permission from any party," he added.
He emphasized that the death of Sa'ad Dawabsheh, the father of the toddler who was burned alive, as a result of his serious burn wounds reflected the size of the crime that had been committed by Jewish settlers against a Palestinian family.