An Eye on Palestine – June 26, 2015
The YMCA-YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative issues this bi-weekly newsletter to keep you updated on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories related to the Israeli occupation.
The YMCA-YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative issues this bi-weekly newsletter to keep you updated on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories related to the Israeli occupation.
UN report on Gaza war includes stories of civilian executions, attacks on ambulances and targeting of humanitarian facilities Israel/Palestine
The 51-day summer war between Hamas and Israel was not only “heartbreaking,” but rampant with “possible war crimes” according to a much anticipated United Nations report published Monday.
Investigators conducted nearly 300 interviews over the past year. All took place outside of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, as Israel denied entry to the researchers. Witnesses and victims – both Israeli and Palestinian – gave testimonies about the targeting of civilians, medical facilities and United Nations shelters, along with the existence of human shields (and the lack thereof), collective punishment, and the proportionality of the attacks.
‘No other choice’: For Palestinians, full-scale BDS remains a wish
Walking in the center of Ramallah, it is impossible to miss the message. At almost every lamp post, posters set up by the Palestinian political movement Al-Mubadara, or Palestinian National Initiative, are crying out: “Boycott Israeli goods” and “Don’t pay the price of bullets that kill our children.”
Next to one such poster at the Clock Square is Aziz Halaweh’s Zabaneh Stores. Halaweh recalls how some time ago a group of activists toured the shops in Ramallah trying to convince the owners not to sell Israeli products. For him, the visit caused no problems.
“We have a policy since the 1970s to sell either Palestinian or foreign products whenever we can,” he says.
Last summer’s Gaza war, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, prompted Halaweh to empty the shelves of the last Israeli goods, such as milk. Yet some Israeli products remain irreplaceable..
US Congress members demand end to Israel’s “cruel” abuses of Palestinian children
In rare defiance of the stifling pro-Israel consensus in the US capital, members of Congress are calling on the Obama administration to push Israel to end its systematic abuses of Palestinian children.
Congresswoman Betty McCollum released a letter on Tuesday co-signed by 18 other members of the House of Representatives urging Secretary of State John Kerry to “prioritize the human rights of Palestinian children living in the Occupied West Bank in the bilateral relationship with the Government of Israel.”
“Indefensible”
A press release from the Minnesota Democrat’s office says the letter “specifically addresses Israel’s ongoing military detention of Palestinian children in which they are arrested, interrogated, held incommunicado, and frequently physically abused.