The Electronic Intifada 3 July 2013
Arab Idol contestant and winner Mohammed Assaf, from Gaza, seen during the finale of the wildly popular pan-Arab singing contest near Beirut, Lebanon on 22 June.
Balkis PressPalestinian refugees continued to suffer from the ongoing violence in Syria during the month of June.
Six Palestinians were killed when mortar shells fired by unknown persons hit a refugee camp outside of Damascus on 21 June and 260 refugees were displaced when a shell hit a school run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, the agency stated (“UNRWA Condemns the Killing…,” 21 June). According to UNRWA, seven of the twelve Palestinian camps in Syria have become “theatres of war,” making them inaccessible to the agency.
UNRWA estimates that more than half of the 530,000 registered Palestine refugees in Syria are believed to be displaced, with 15 percent having fled abroad, “including over 60,000 to overburdened Lebanon, which already hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and over 7,000 to Jordan” (“More than half of Palestinian Refugee Camps …,” 16 June).
Meanwhile, the United Nations stated that a decade of Israeli restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza “has devastated the livelihoods of families in Gaza.”
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: “Recent assessments indicate that 57 percent of people in Gaza do not have money to buy sufficient food and 80 percent of families receive some form of international aid. The economy is effectively kept alive through public expenditure, international aid and the illegal tunnel trade, in which thousands of workers, some of them children, continue to risk their lives every day.”
OCHA added that “Long-term restrictions on access to as much as 35 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land and currently more than two-thirds of its fishing areas have resulted in estimated annual economic losses of over $76 million.”
Palestinians mark Naksa Day with a rally at Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, 5 June. The Naksa, or the “setback,” refers to the capture of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, by Israeli forces in the 1967 War.
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Supporters and residents of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Naqab (Negev) Desert hold a mass solidarity demonstration in Rahat on 28 June against the Prawer Plan, an Israeli government scheme to displace more than 30,000 Bedouins from their native lands; Israel’s parliament voted in favor of its implementation earlier that week.
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Human skeletons in a mass grave were found at a cemetery in the city of Jaffa near Tel Aviv, 2 June. The grave was exposed as workers carried out renovations. Six chambers were revealed, full of skeletons thought to be the remains of Palestinians killed during the 1948 War, when the State of Israel was founded.
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Palestinians attempt to put out fire in an olive grove near the West Bank village of Burin, near Nablus, 3 June. Palestinian witnesses said Jewish settlers from Yitzhar settlement set fire to an olive grove, scorching several acres of trees.
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An Israeli border policeman stands next to the exterior wall of a Palestinian house scrawled with Hebrew graffiti loosely translating to: “We will not remain silent over stone throwing.” The so-called price tag action, in which two Palestinian owned houses were spray painted and at least 20 cars were vandalized, took place in the Palestinian neighborhood Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem.
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A Palestinian car was reportedly vandalized by the Israeli army during a night raid on 26 June in the West Bank village of Kafr Qalil, photographed on 30 June. The Israeli army arrested three Palestinians and seized personal documents and licenses during the raid.
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Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Modi’in Illit chant slogans against Palestinian demonstrators on the other side of the wall during the weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank village of Bilin, 28 June.
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Two Palestinian boys hold a poster with their own photos on it that reads “We are the army. Be careful, we will arrest you if we see you, or come to your home.” The poster was put on village walls and near one of the boys’ houses by Israeli soldiers during an army raid on the village on the night between 31 May and 1 June.
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A Benedictine monk stands by a car vandalized with graffiti and with its tires slashed next to the Dormition Abbey just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, 31 May. Anti-Christian graffiti was spray painted on two cars and near doors to the popular pilgrimage site overnight with Hebrew-language slogans reading, “Christians are monkeys,” “Christians are slaves,” and “Havat Maon,” in reference to a Jewish settler outpost in the West Bank.
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Palestinian worshipers attend Friday prayers at Mohamed al-Fateh mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, 14 June. An Israeli court in Jerusalem ruled in favor of the Israeli government’s plans to demolish a section of the mosque designated for female worshipers. The mosque was expanded in 2009 due to a sharp increase in worshipers after Israeli authorities began preventing Palestinians from accessing al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
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The Old City of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate is illuminated during the Jerusalem Festival of Lights on 8 June. The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage warned that the festival is part of Israel’s plans to Judaize the city at the expense of Palestinian rights.
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Sudanese refugees pose in front of an enlarged photo of Israel’s Saharonim prison, in which 2,000 African refugees are being detained, during the International Refugee Day event in Tel Aviv, 20 June.
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Demonstrators in the center of Jerusalem protest the closure of the Hakawati Children’s Theater Festival in East Jerusalem, 27 June. Israeli authorities prohibited the children’s festival from opening, claiming it was sponsored by the Palestinian Authority, and thus an infringement of the Oslo Accords which “temporarily” bar the PA from funding activities within occupied East Jerusalem.
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Members of the Abu Hadwan family destroy a part of their own home in Jerusalem’s Old City on 16 June. Israel issued demolition orders against the home under the pretext that it was built without a municipality permit, which Israeli occupation authorities rarely grant to Palestinian residents. Many Palestinians end up demolishing their own homes to avoid the high cost of paying for Israeli government bulldozers, or being sent to prison for not being able to pay.
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Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian journalists during the weekly protest at Kufr Qaddum village near the West Bank city of Nablus against the Jewish settlement of Kadumim, 21 June. Israeli forces beat two Palestinian journalists and confiscated their cameras before detaining them, witnesses said.
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Israeli border policemen arrest Nariman Tamimi during the weekly protest against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, 28 June.
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A Palestinian woman inspects the damage to her house after it was stormed by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Nablus, 27 June.
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Families of Palestinian martyrs and the wounded take part a protest at the Gaza City headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization to demand their financial dues, 25 June.
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A wounded Palestinian boy lays on a hospital bed in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, 24 June. A boy was killed and 25 others were wounded when a bus transporting Palestinian political prisoners’ relatives collided with a truck.
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Appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah arrives to attend the swearing-in ceremony at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, 6 June. Hamdallah would resign before the end of the month.
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Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas walks with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani during a welcoming ceremony in Doha on 27 June, days after the latter became head of state following the abdication of his father.
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Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi meets with Gaza-based Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Cairo to discuss Palestinian reconciliation, 17 June.
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The Palestinian government in Gaza issues postage stamps with a picture of Ahmed Jabari on 5 June. Jabari was extrajudicially executed by Israel last November at the outset of an eight-day bombardment campaign on Gaza.
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A Palestinian supporter of Hizb al-Tahrir in Gaza takes part in a rally marking the 92nd anniversary of the fall of the Islamic caliphate, 5 June.
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Palestinians wait in a queue to fill containers with fuel at a petrol station in Gaza City on 17 June. Gaza has suffered a fuel crisis as a result of Israel’s siege and the inability to import commodities.
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Palestinian youths hoping to join the police force undergo a physical examination at a recruitment center in Gaza City on 3 June. One hundred recruits from 14,000 applicants aged between 18 to 25 would be chosen to join the force, Palestinian officials said.
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Khader Adnan works at his bakery in the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya near Jenin, 21 June. Khader Adnan is a former political prisoner who was released on 18 April 2012 after being on hunger strike for 66 days. His action inspired more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners to start their own hunger strike on 17 April 2012.
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A Palestinian designer measures a gown at al-Ashi trade center in Gaza City on 3 June. Al-Ashi has its own line of gowns due to the difficulties and cost of importing items into the Gaza Strip, either through the crossings controlled by Israel, or through smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.
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Employees work at al-Juneidi dairy in the West Bank city of Hebron, 27 June. Al-Juneidi boasts approximately 400 employees from various Palestinian areas.
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Palestinian students attend a graduation ceremony at the Islamic University in Gaza City on 24 June.
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Visitors view a photography exhibition celebrating Palestinian heritage and culture at the Yabous Cultural Center in Jerusalem, 15 June.
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Palestinians take a part in a traditional wedding in the West Bank town of Birzeit, near Ramallah, during the Rozana Cultural Festival, 26 June.
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A Palestinian youth rides his motorcycle on sand dunes during the weekly sporting event in the town of al-Zahra south of Gaza City on 14 June. Palestinian youths use the dunes for riding their motorcycles, horses, cars and bicycles.
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Palestinian children play at a swimming pool on a hot day in Dolphin Park, central Gaza Strip, 21 June.
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