SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Hamas called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah members and the Palestinian factions to start implementation of reconciliation according to what was agreed upon in Cairo Agreement and the Doha Declaration.

An official source in the movement stressed in a press statement on Saturday the need to accomplish the five reconciliation files (formation of the government - the elections - the Palestine Liberation Organization - the public freedoms - community reconciliation) as a single package, according to what was agreed upon.

The source emphasized the principle of consensus and national partnership among all Palestinian forces and factions, in deciding the mechanisms and dates to achieve the reconciliation files.

For his part; Hamas leader Dr. Salah Bardawil stressed that the announcement made by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to start consultations to form a national unity government, in implementation of Doha Declaration, has not been made after consultations.

Bardawil stressed that his movement will positively discuss any step towards the implementation of the reconciliation in an accurate and balanced manner.

He told PIC on Saturday: "We were surprised by the announcement of Abbas, as we have not been officially informed about it", and stressed that the reconciliation is a strategic objective and its full implementation in a balanced manner is important.

"It is not permissible to take any unilateral decisions without communications and compatibility." Bardawil said.

The Hamas leader asserted that if Abbas wants to contact Hamas in order to develop a roadmap for the implementation of the reconciliation agreement, his movement will discuss this matter in a positive way. "But if Abbas's announcement was only a unilateral step, the movement will not cover such decisions."

Abbas already announced that he had decided to begin consultations to form a government of national consensus.

Meanwhile, the PA's security apparatuses have continued their campaign of political arrests against members and supporters of Hamas movement in the occupied West Bank.

Elements of the Preventive Security Service arrested on Friday in Ramallah the correspondent of Quds Press agency in the city Khaldoun Mazloum, after encircling his family's house in the nearby village of Janiya.

The journalist's wife said that her husband was transferred to the headquarters of the Preventive Security in Beitounia.

Mazloum is a liberated prisoner from the israseli occupation jails and an ex-political detainee in PA's prisons.

The Preventive Security Service has also arrested the liberated captive and former political detainee Tarek Musleh from the town of Bidya in Salfit, and another young man from the city of Tulkarem.

In Nablus, the General Intelligence Service has transferred political prisoner Mohamed Janagrah to Jericho prison, four days after his arrest.

Janagra has been previously arrested more than five times by the PA security apparatuses. He is also a liberated prisoner who served about five years in Israeli jails. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:PIC

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Israeli security forces overnight Thursday demolished two structures that Jewish settlers had erected to create a "wildcat" outpost in the occupied West Bank, a police spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse about 500 Palestinian villagers marching toward another Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank on Friday.

Soldiers and border policemen razed the makeshift structures of the Oz Zion outpost near the central city of Ramallah without incident, Luba Samri told AFP.

The security forces have dismantled structures erected at Oz Zion on several occasions in the past – most recently in March – but settlers have persisted in putting up new ones.

In a violent confrontation in December, more than 200 stone-throwing settlers drove off an attempt by security forces to dismantle structures put up at Oz Zion, wounding five border policemen. They were demolished the following day.

Israel cites Biblical and historical claims to the land, but the United Nations considers the settlements illegal and most world powers say they are an obstacle to peace.

Israel has sanctioned the building of 120 settlements, but around 100 outposts built without the approval of the Israeli government dot the West Bank. Israel deems these settlement outposts to be illegal and often sends security personnel to demolish them.

The outposts usually consist of little more than a few trailers, but some have been granted retrospective approval by the government, which is why settler activists keep putting them up.

On Friday, the Israeli army attacked a Palestinians demonstration in the West Bank with tear gas and rubber bullets. The procession, the largest of its kind for years, followed charges by Palestinians that the Israeli settlers, whose caravans abut village land, had attacked them twice this week.

Men from Deir Jarir, including Christian and Muslim clerics, gathered for Friday prayers on a craggy outcrop between their village and a cluster of half a dozen makeshift settler homes surrounded by Israeli army jeeps and soldiers.

Their march, preceded by a group of stone-throwing youths, was repeatedly pushed back by salvos of Israeli tear gas. Young boys howled from the effects of the tear gas and old men hitched up their robes to flee, holding onion slices to their noses.

Medics treated several men for gas inhalation and rubber bullet wounds.

A few Palestinian villages hold weekly protests against the Israeli army and settlements, usually involving a score of rock-throwing youngsters, and unrest has mounted this year.

But political gatherings are rare around Deir Jarir, and was sparked after villagers say settlers torched around ten of their cars on Monday night, after planting an Israeli flag on a derelict church on Friday and pelting village youth with stones.

"This was a peaceful area. We're gathered today to say we refuse to be attacked and driven off our own land," said Sami Issa, a resident. "We want their army to pull the settlers out."

The Israeli military has said it is investigating the events leading up to the march. Asked about Friday's incidents, an army spokesman said: "Soldiers responded to a group of some 250 stone-throwing youths with riot dispersal means near Ofra."

On Tuesday, settlers vacated several shops they had occupied as homes in the southern West Bank city of Hebron for 12 years, ahead of a Supreme Court deadline for them to leave.

The Israeli army had evicted Palestinian shopkeepers merchants from their premises in Hebron's central market area during a military operation in 2001, after which the settlers moved in.

Following a legal battle between the settlers and Israeli campaign group Peace Now, the Supreme Court ruled the shops – dubbed Beit Ezra by their Jewish occupants – should be vacated by Wednesday.

Around half a million settlers have moved to the West Bank and East Jerusalem since Israel captured the area, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East War. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:al-akhbar

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Hamas movement described the results of the students’ elections in the Najah university in Nablus as a victory for the Islamic bloc after six years of boycott.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said on Wednesday that winning 33 seats against 43 seats for the Fatah-affiliated bloc reflected growing popularity for the Islamic bloc that has been absent from those elections for six years.

He said that the result pointed to the failure of the policy of persecution on the part of both the PA security apparatuses and the Israeli occupation.

“This is a message to all those who bet on the failure of Hamas and those who try to smear its image and to isolate it from the people,” he added.

The spokesman congratulated the Islamic bloc on behalf of Hamas on what he described as a “big victory”. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:PIC

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A decision by the British National Library to loan the original Balfour Declaration to the Israeli regime to be shown in a Tel Aviv museum, has triggered some anger among Arabs, media reports said.

The original copy of the Balfour Declaration has never left British soil for the last 96 years. The declaration, dated 2 November 1917, was a letter from the United Kingdom's foreign secretary, Arthur James Balfour, to Baron Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, promising the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. 
It led to the day of creation of Israeli regime inside the Palestinian lands, which is known to the Palestinians as “Nakba Day”, a day when occupation was launched. 
Advocates for the Palestinian cause describe the Balfour Declaration as the promise of a gift "made by someone who does not own it, to someone who does not deserve it." 
The Arab League, in a statement, condemned the decision to give Israel permission to exhibit the original copy of the Balfour Declaration in Tel Aviv. 
The statement read that the Balfour Declaration set the basis for “a long-term conflict, claimed a lot of lives, and dispossessed the Palestinian people of alienable rights - a people who were brought up on this land from the dawn of history” and established a civilisation on its soil and lived for decades in love and tolerance. Palestinians had control of 98 percent of the territories when the Balfour Declaration was issued. 
"The declaration was opposed at the time by many Jewish figures, including Lord Montagu, the only Jewish member of the Cabinet. Montagu warned of the consequences of the declaration, which was followed by colonial policies and occupation that deprived the Palestinian people of their territories," the Arab League said in the statement posted on its official website. 
The Arab League statement noted that since the day the declaration was issued, Palestinian people were deprived of their right to self-determination and are still paying a heavy price in terms of lost land, people and resources. Israeli regime continues to deny the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state with al-Quds as its capital on the borders of 4 June 1967, a right unanimously acknowledged by resolutions with the force of international law and the Arab Peace Initiative, which Israel has so far rejected. 
“The regime of Israel is also obliged to respect all UN resolutions regarding Palestine, especially UN General Assembly Resolution 194 that called for the return of Palestinian refugees”.

Read here a transcript of the controversial Balfour Declaration:
Foreign Office 
November 2nd, 1917 
Dear Lord Rothschild, 
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. 
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." 
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. 
Yours sincerely, 
Arthur James Balfour

-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Press TV

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The rabbi said the idea of giving non-Jews equal rights in Israel goes against the principles of the Torah and government representatives have no authority to go against the Torah’s teachings.

This is while many researchers believe that the current Torah has been distorted and does not contain the original teachings of the Prophet Moses.
Peretz’s racist ruling has been published in a book titled “Laws of the Mezuzah” published by the Israeli military’s Rabbinate.
The book, which has been recently distributed in Israeli military bases, has been authored by rabbis, Capt. Alexander Rones, Capt. Dov Berkovich and Capt. Hananiah Shafran.
The book advocates installing mezuzahs, which are fixed to doorposts by Jews as a sign of faith, in army bases and says the presence of non-Jews in Israeli army bases cannot be used as a reason for not affixing mezuzahs there.
It also says even if government property is like a cooperative, since the public in general is Jewish, as long as non-Jews have not purchased a part of the assets, they have no right to government property.

-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Islam Times

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Israeli forces have clashed with Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank after thousands attended the funerals for two Palestinian teenagers killed by Israeli forces, as well as a Palestinian activist who died in an Israeli prison.

Thousands of mourners packed into the streets of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on Thursday to lay to rest the body of Maisarah Abu Hamdiah, a cancer-stricken inmate who lost his life in an Israeli jail due to the lack of medical care on Tuesday.

Palestinian officials have said they hold the Israeli regime responsible for the death of the 64-year-old inmate.

Abu Hamdiah’s sister told reporters at the funeral that her brother had been shackled to his bed when dying “even though he could not move his body” and had only been given pain-relief medication despite the cancer diagnosis.

“My brother is a symbol because he worked in the resistance since he was a young man, for about 45 years,” she said.

After the funeral, Palestinian youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers who responded with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.

Similar clashes broke out in northern West Bank where hundreds of people took part in the funerals of Amer Nasser, 17, and Naji Balbisi, 18, from the village of Anabta. The two teenagers were killed at an Israeli checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, acting Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement on Thursday, blaming the Israeli regime for the escalation of violence.

In the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called for a return to armed resistance in response to the recent Israeli aggression.- www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:islamic invitation turkey

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs warned that the truce between the Palestinians in Gaza and the Israelis would collapse if the latter persisted in violating it.

In a press statement on Wednesday, Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed Amr condemned Israel's air raids on Tuesday night on Gaza.

Amr said that Israel's policies would adversely affect Egypt's ongoing efforts to maintain calm in the Gaza Strip.

The minister also slammed Israel's practices against the Palestinian prisoners, which led to the death of a prisoner a few days ago.

He stressed the need for finding international mechanisms ending Israel's systematic violations against the Palestinian prisoners.

For its part, Al-Azhar university in Egypt strongly denounced Israel's latest aerial attacks on Gaza and its ongoing violations against the Palestinian prisoners.

The university appealed in a press release to the international institutions to shoulder their responsibilities and criminalize Israel's persistent violation of its truce agreement with the Palestinians in Gaza.

In this regard, noted Palestinian political analysts stated in separate press statements to the Palestinian information center (PIC) that Israel's air raids on Gaza on Tuesday night were aimed to cover up its violations against the popular uprising in the West Bank.

Head of Al-Mustakbal research center Ibrahim Al-Madhoun said that the Israeli military escalation was not surprising and took place as a result of the tension in the West Bank, which was caused by the death of prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiya.

Madhoun expressed his belief that the new Israeli government would be more criminal towards Gaza, especially since its war minister Moshe Ya'alon has hostile tendencies towards Gaza.

Political analyst Hamza Abu Shanab, in turn, stated that the Israeli occupation tries to repeat what it had done before its last war on Gaza by carrying out preemptive strikes on resistance sites at the pretext of responding to Palestinian rocket attacks.

Abu Shanab added that the Israeli occupation wants to disable the field activities of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza without engaging in direct confrontation with it as it had happened in the last war.

He opined that the occupation also tries to change its rules of engagement and take advantage of the tense situation in the West Bank and the alleged rocket attacks from Gaza to achieve security gains.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:PIC

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Deceased Palestinian prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh had been stricken with cancer for 'years' and was treated with improper medication, official doctors from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan have found.

Israeli doctors did not stop Abu Hamdiyeh's cancer from spreading, although he had been complaining of bodily pains since 2003, Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe said Thursday as he announced the results of an autopsy.

The 64 year old former Fatah member succumbed to oesophageal cancer on Tuesday. More than 6,000 Palestinians, reported to include all factions, poured into the streets of Hebron for his funeral.

Prison authorities disclosed his diagnosis in February, and said they tried to secure his release shortly after.

A statement from the Israeli Prison Service after his death said: "The prisoner was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in February and was under the medical supervision of experts at the hospital. About a week ago, after being diagnosed as terminal, the IPS appealed to the release committee to secure his early release, a process which had been started but not yet concluded."

Lawyers and relatives report that prison doctors ran biopsy tests on him in 2012 but refused to inform him of his disease.

“Instead of providing him with the correct treatment, the doctors gave him flu shots that caused severe pain in his chest, which he could hardly sleep after,” said Abu Hamdiyeh's lawyer al-Alami to Electronic Intifada

His sister Itidal told the online magazine she visited him in January, one month before his official diagnosis, and found that his voice was completely gone.

Angered by Abu Hamdiyeh’s death, the entire Palestinian prisoner population refused their morning meal Wednesday, according to a statement by the IPS, and the Palestinian Authority announced a three-day general strike across the West Bank.

Abu Hamdiyeh is the second Palestinian to die in Israeli custody this year. Arafat Jaradat, 30, died after an interrogation session in February. Palestinian officials said he had been tortured, an allegation Israel denied.

Two Palestinian youths shot dead

Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian youths in Tulkarem, officials said Thursday, heightening tension ahead of Abu Hamdiyeh's funeral.

Palestinian security officials said Amer Nassar, 17, was killed by shots to the head. According to AFP, the body of his 18-year-old cousin, Naji Balbisi, was discovered at the site at dawn on Thursday with wounds to the chest.

However, Palestine’s Ma’an News Agency reports that Israeli forces detained Balbisi’s for several hours, and then at 4 a.m., and handed the body to a Red Crescent ambulance.

Both teenagers were to be buried after midday prayers.

The Israeli army said troops opened fire at rioters who hurled petrol bombs at a military post at Tulkarem late on Wednesday, as violent protests erupted in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority called for a general strike Tuesday after the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh in an Israeli jail.

Following mass protests in the West Bank over the death of Abu Hamdiyeh, Israeli planes had gone into action on Tuesday, targeting what the military described as "two extensive terror sites in the northern Gaza Strip."

Hours after it launched its first air strikes in the Palestinian enclave in four months, the Israeli military said two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck the southern town of Sderot on Wednesday morning, causing no casualties.

Fighters in the Gaza Strip early Thursday fired a mortar shell across the border, the army confirmed, adding that there were no casualties or damage.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued a stern warning, saying: "If calm is disrupted, we will respond forcefully."-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:al-akhbar

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Thousands of Palestinian prisoners refused breakfast Wednesday, according to Israeli Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman, in what is believed to be a renewed mass hunger strike.

At least four riots broke out in Israeli jails after news of a Palestinian prisoner’s death leaked Tuesday, Weizman told AFP. Nearly 4,600 Palestinians – the approximate number of the prisoner population – then turned down a meal, she added.

Israel’s Jerusalem Post said that guards at Ramon responded with tear gas, resulting in three prisoners and six guards being treated for tear gas inhalation.

As punishment for protests over the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, IPS informed 86 Palestinian prisoners Wednesday that they would be moved to different prisons, a detainee center told Palestine’s Ma’an news agency.

Palestinian prisoners from all factions Tuesday announced a three day hunger strike, according to Ma'an. Thousands of prisoners refused food during mass hunger strikes last year, including three still on long-term hunger strikes. Palestinian Samer Issawi is said to be teetering on the brink of death after more than 250 days of hunger strike.

Abu Hamdiyeh died of cancer Tuesday after Israel had allegedly neglected his medical condition. Lawyers and relatives report that prison doctors informed him of his disease six months after running biopsy tests on him, and then failed to provide him with adequate treatment. He was told about his cancer in February, and died less than two months later.

General strike observed

The Palestinian Authority announced a three-day general strike across the West Bank to mourn Abu Hamdiyeh’s death, and denounce Israel’s mistreatment of the cancer patient, which it likened to a “slow death penalty.”

Schools, shops and offices Wednesday were closed in Hebron, Abu Hamdiyeh’s hometown, where protesters clashed with the army for the second day running, an AFP correspondent said.

A full strike was also being observed in the northern West Bank city of Nablus where thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city center for a mass rally, another correspondent said.

A strike was also observed in annexed east Jerusalem ahead of the arrival of Abu Hamdiyeh's body at Abu Dis medical center where it was to undergo a Palestinian autopsy. His funeral will be held on Thursday.

In Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, the strike was being partially observed, other AFP correspondents said.

Meanwhile, 20 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces across the West Bank early Wednesday, according to Ma’an.

According to an Israeli military statement, the 20 Palestinians detained were "taken for security questioning,” Ma’an reported.

Abu Hamdiyeh is the second Palestinian to die in Israeli custody this year. Arafat Jaradat, 30, died after an interrogation session in February. Palestinian officials said he had been tortured, an allegation Israel denied.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:al-akhbar

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Israeli Knesset member Haneen Zoabi says Tel-Aviv will continue to usurp Palestinian lands as Israeli forces attack Palestinian demonstrators on the 37th anniversary of Land Day.

Zoabi, who represents the Balad party in the Knesset (parliament), also stated that Israeli regime “expropriated 86% of the Arab’s land, who now live on 3% of their land.”
“They take what we have, and try to get rid of us and then push us into a small piece of land. Colonialism? - even worse,” she added. 
The Arab member of Knesset went on to say that “Tel Aviv will continue to force out nearly 30,000 Palestinians from their villages in Naqab desert in a bid to usurp 200 acres of their lands." 
The Knesset member made the remarks hours after Israeli forces attacked Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, injuring dozens of protesters. 
Clashes broke out in the village of Jayyus after Israeli troops fired teargas canisters at hundreds of Palestinians who wanted to plant trees in agricultural lands in commemoration of Land Day. Several people were injured in the attack. 
Similar scuffles erupted at Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters. Several protesters were also wounded in the incident. 
March 30 is commemorated every year because of a deadly incident on that day in 1976 in which Israeli troops killed six Palestinians during a protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands. 
Palestinian activists also marched on the Israeli apartheid barrier. A similar rally was held in the town of Sakhnin. 
During the 2012 Land Day protests one person was killed and more than two dozen others were wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators in the northern Gaza Strip. 
On the same day in the West Bank, Israeli forces beat up a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in al-Quds (Jerusalem) and arrested a number of protesters. Israeli police also fired rubber bullets, and teargas, and used stun grenades to disperse the protesters.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Press TV