a lot has happened since mid-june

i’ve been low on energy, so its been a while since i last posted. i send out a few more emails to personal email list of mine (since that’s kinda easier to do), but turns out almost no one got them – they didn’t even end up in people’s spam (interesting that one).

an overwhelming lot  happened in the meantime (the cases and links below are only selective examples of more such incidents):

• arbitrary murder (at least 14 palestinians were murdered directly by zionist soldiers or settler colonists since june 19, including four minors), severe beatings, harassment (night raids, lengthy searches, temporary detention, etc.) and humiliation of palestinians by zionist soldiers (at times apparently just because they can’t think of something else to do with their time);
• deals agreed to with prisoners who had been on hunger strike have again and again been broken;
• current prisoners on extended hunger strike ayman sharawna and samer al-issawi, hassan safadi and samer al-barq were/are being denied rights, severely ill-treated and  physically assaulted;
• former long-term hunger strikers bilal thiab (deal reached after 77/78 days on hunger strike) and mohammad al sarsak (deal reached after 92 days of hunger strike) finally released and akram rikhawi agreed to end his hunger strike after 102 days following an agreement that promises to see him released in january 2013 ;
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  the twins loai (l.) and odai (r.) during a night out with friends the weekend after loai’s release from military prison

  closer to home, loai tamimi – who had been arrested in a violent night raid of his home on february 6; who, only two months earlier, ran to a body lying on the ground amid a growing pool of blood in his village nabi saleh last december only to see that it was his eldest brother mustafa as he was already being carried into a car in an attempt to get him to hospital in spite of the closure of the village; whose twin brother odai only learned of mustafa’s murder while in military prison and who was released the day of his brother’s funeral AFTER the funeral – was finally released last wednesday and able to spend the holidays with his family and friends;

• countless attacks by settler colonists on palestinian civilians – such as a molotov cocktail attack by a settler colonist on a palestinian car near bethlehem (very close to where i live) last week that left the ghayatha family from nahalin, including their four year old daughter iman and their six year old son mohammad, their uncle hassan (27) and their driver bassem with severe burns and in hospital – as of thursday, bassem was still in intensive care in critical condition;

or the near-fatal assault by an aggressive mob of zionists who reportedly attempted to beat three palestinian youths to death in one of jerusalem’s main squares on 17.8.2012 while hundreds of onlookers did nothing to stop them – one of the youth was beaten so badly that he had to be  revived in hospital and was being treated in intensive care (pic from 972mag);

or the intentional torching of mosques, palestinian homes and sheds; assaults on civilians using stones, arms, gas, etc.; regular burning or cutting down of crops and trees; killing of animals, etc. (see here for more examples);

• increasing attacks by zionist fascists on asylum seekers, refugees and “black” foreigners, including rampages of huge mobs chasing individuals;

• many more arrests without charges or trial, including of children under the age of 14, and more reports of torture and abuse in prison, including of children (according to “defence for children international”, 221 palestinian children were in israeli prisons in june)

• the usual denial of right to movement and travel, including right to access adequate hospitals or educational facilities;

• preparation and approval of yet more racist laws (such as the laws would prevent palestinians without israeli citizenship and migrant workers from submitting cases;

• more demolition of homes and housing structures and displacement of families or entire communities;

• more abuse, harassment, humiliation and even killing at the almost 100 permanent checkpoints and the increasing number of spontaneous “flying” checkpoints that dot the 5600 sq km that is the west bank – an area that is less than a fifth the size of belgium;

• invasions and closures of villages, expansion the colonies as yet another act of war crime, blackmailing patients with deadly illnesses to spy on their communities if they hope to receive permission to get treatment in the much better equipped israeli hospitals (that are not stripped by the crippling siege of gaza), etc. etc. etc.

i’m going to skip all this and get to stuff happening now