Settler convicted of kidnapping, beating Palestinian teen

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Jerusalem District Court convicted a settler of three counts of assault, battery under aggravated circumstances, kidnapping for the purpose of causing grave bodily injury, and one count of animal abuse in a decision issued on Sunday.

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din represented the victim, a 15-year-old boy from the southern West Bank town of Khursa, who was left by his attackers in a field, bound, naked, and unconscious.

The boy after attack. (Photo courtesy of Yesh Din)

The incident, which tool place on 24 July 2007, was, according to statements by the group, "one of the most severe cases ever handled by Yesh Din."

Lawyers said the boy was kidnapped by two assailants near the Esh Kodesh outpost. The two offenders battered him, and left him naked, wounded, and bound in an open field.

Following a police investigation, one of the suspects was apprehended and indicted. The defendant, Zvi Struk, resident of the settlement of Shilo, was charged with battery under aggravated circumstances and kidnapping for the purpose of causing grave bodily injury – felonies that bear a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment. His trial opened in the Jerusalem District Court on February 2009.

According to the indictment, the offenders battered their victim using the barrel of a rifle, dragged him on the ground, bound his eyes and hands, and took him to an unknown location.

There, he was beaten again, stripped of his clothes, and left in an open field and tied while unconscious. After regaining consciousness, he managed to free himself, and ran to the nearest road where he was picked up by a passing motorist.

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Settlers torch Hebron olive trees

IMEMC - Farmers from Surif, north of Hebron, went to their land on Tuesday to find that many of their trees had been set on fire by settlers. According to the Palestinian Solidarity Project, based in nearby Beit Ummar, about 85 trees were destroyed.

Shaban Atiya Al-Hur and Ahmed Atiya Al-Hur have farmed the Al-Hajahat area of Surif all their lives. This morning both men attended their land to find that settlers from the nearby Bat Ayn settlement had destroyed 85 of their olive and fig trees.

The trees were destroyed by deliberately lit fires and amount to around half the trees in the area. The fires were started at approximately 9:30am and lasted for around half an hour.

Employment and economic opportunities for Palestinian residents of the region are extremely limited and the loss of these trees will have a devastating impact on the families of the affected farmers. Whilst the trees can be replanted, it will take several years before they can again produce to the same extent as the destroyed trees. There is also a real risk that the settlers will destroy any new trees or that the land will be annexed by the Israeli military for settlement expansion.

Destruction of trees and crops is a frequent tactic of the settlers in an attempt to intimidate the local Palestinian population and assist in the annexation of the land by the Israeli military for settlement expansion.

No Israeli police or military attended the scene. 

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Israeli settlers torch olive trees

An Israeli settler from Brakha settlement confronts Palestinian farmers, not seen,
during clashes in Burin village near the West Bank city of Nablus 21 September 2010.
(Maan Images)

NABLUS (AFP) -- Residents of a Nablus village said that Israeli settlers burned about 200 of their olive trees on Sunday and also torched surrounding grazing land.

Settlers denied the allegations.

The alleged attackers were seen heading in the direction of the nearby Elon Moreh settlement after setting fire to the trees on land owned by residents of Salem, village council spokesman Adli Ishtayeh said.

He said that the trees were on ground adjoining the settlement and, for reasons of Israeli security, kept off limits to their owners for most of the time. He said that the Israeli army, which polices the area, had been notified.

A military spokesman said no complaint against the settlers had been made and that troops on the scene were treating the incident "as a fire, not arson" after unseasonably hot and dry weather.

Settler spokesman David Haivri said Palestinian farmers themselves had been burning dead wood.

"After checking with local security and leaders of the town of Elon Moreh, no unusual events were recorded today in the area," he said.

"We are not aware of more then some small-scale smoke resulting from farmers burning branches from their own pruning after the harvest."

Since the start of the olive harvest last month, there have been scores of Palestinian complaints about settlers cutting down trees, stealing olives or preventing farmers from harvesting their crops, rights groups and police say.

A senior Israeli intelligence officer acknowledged that there had been acts of violence and vandalism by Jews in the West Bank, noting in particular recent attacks against mosques there.

"We are not happy about the situation connected with Jewish extremists in the West Bank," he told a group of foreign journalists on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It needs big efforts in order to stop this wave of violence. We know who are these people. Hopefully we will be able to stop this wave of violence," he added.

Syria: Israel not a 'partner for peace'

DAMASCUS (Ma'an) -- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem slammed Israel on Sunday, saying its neighbour was responsible for the lack of progress in peace talks with the Palestinians.

"Israel is not a partner for peace and it is responsible for stalling the peace process," Al-Moallem said during a speech in Damascus.

"The Judaizing of Jerusalem, the building of settlements and the siege on Gaza; these are all indications that the Israeli government lacks the will to achieve peace," he added.

An Israeli occupation soldier points his gun at a Palestinian mother and her daughters.

The minister's statement comes just days after his Israeli counterpart, right-wing Avigdor Lieberman, said Israel could not engage with Syria on peace.

"Only a political hypochondriac could think that Syria, under its current leadership, could be a partner for peace," Lieberman said during a visit to the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day war.

Syria has long called for the return of the strategically placed Golan Heights as a precursor to normalized relations with Israel. Tel Aviv offered to return most of the Golan Heights to Syria in 2000, but Damascus rejected the offer because it excluded the water-rich eastern shore.

Israel and Syria held four indirect rounds of peace talks with Turkish mediation in 2008, but Syria withdrew from the talks in protest at Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip later that year.

Israeli soldiers assault Palestinian Authority security at checkpoint

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli soldiers assaulted four Palestinian Authority security officers at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Saturday, medical officials said.

Soldiers at the Wadi Nar checkpoint beat the men with rifle butts and batons, said Abed Al-Halim Ja'afrah, head of the Red Crescent emergency services. Ja'afrah said Red Crescent ambulances transferred the men from the checkpoint to Beit Jala Hospital for treatment.

The injured were identified as Ahmad Khalil Talbishi, 25, who sustained bruises on his chest and ribs, Mohammad Yousef Abu Ayyash, 23, who was bruised on his back and chest, Nedal Bader Al-Douada, 22, whose legs and back were bruised and Ahmad Mohammad At-Tubasi who also sustained bruises to his legs.

Palestinian security forces said a committee was formed from Palestinian and Israeli coordination offices to investigate the incident.

An Israeli military spokeswoman referred inquiries to the Border Guard, whose office did not respond immediately to phone calls seeking comment.

US bribing Israel with war planes to freeze West Bank construction

RT - The US is desperately trying to revive the stalled Middle East peace talks by enticing Israel to extend its construction moratorium in the occupied Palestinian territories.

­Washington has put 20 stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion on the table, as well as a pledge to fight any international resolutions against Israel. In exchange, it wants Israel to halt construction in the West Bank for three months, with a US promise not to ask to prolong it further.

Palestinians are criticizing the plan, saying the proposed freeze will not apply to East Jerusalem.

The recent round of US-brokered peace talks became stuck three weeks after they began, after Israel reaffirmed its commitment to continue building settlements in Palestinian areas.

Israel and America are blackmailing the world over the Israeli settlement activities on the Palestinian Territory, which have been characterized by the world as illegal, insists Dr. Hassan Abu Libdeh, Palestinian Autonomy Economics Minister and Chairman of the Palestinian campaign against settlements products.

“This three month moratorium is a very serious breach of the neutrality of the American government and very serious breach to the international community,” he said, adding that “Even if they have this moratorium it will not be for the whole Palestinian territory and nobody knows what will happen at the end of the three months."

Russia and the EU have equal stakes in the Middle East peace process and they should not accept being continuously sidelined by Americans and Israelis.

Commenting on the US promise to veto any UN resolutions against Israel, Hassan Abu Libdeh said that “With all of these guarantees, with all these goodies and promises from the American administration why should Israel should come to any terms concerning peace and why should Israel feel that they are obligated to the international community if they cannot be punished or prosecuted, or cannot be held accountable in the House of Nations?”