IOG court sentences Palestinian boy to five months in jail

[ 16/05/2009 - 10:45 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation government (IOG) military court in Ofer prison, west of Ramallah, has sentenced a 15-year-old Palestinian boy to five months in jail in addition to about 1,200 dollars fine.

Father of the child, Rami Salim Zayed, said that the court also passed a five-year suspended sentence against his son.

The father, who is a member of El-Bireh municipal council, said that Rami was held in Hasharon jail ever since his arrest early last February.

IOF soldiers wound 9 Palestinians in peaceful march

[ 16/05/2009 - 08:56 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

Nine Palestinian citizens were wounded on Friday at the hands of Israeli occupation forces while peacefully marching in Bil'in village in the weekly demonstration against the separation wall and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) when Zionist gangs usurped Palestine and forcibly evicted hundreds of thousands of its indigenous people.

Local sources said that the IOF troops fired rubber-coated bullets, sonic bombs and gas canisters at the participants in the march that wounded the nine citizens, who included two brothers, while dozens others were treated for suffocation.

The sources noted that the IOF soldiers' intensified firing of gas canisters started fires in tens of dunums of Palestinian cultivated lands.

The march started after the Friday congregation with the participation of a number of foreign solidarity activists during which the participants hoisted Palestinian flags and carried home made shields to protect them from IOF bullets and gas canisters. The shields were carrying the photo of Basem Abu Rahma, who was killed last month when IOF soldiers fired gas canisters and one of them directly him.

The marchers also carried placards commemorating the Nakba and a five-meter-long key with the number 61 on it to highlight the right of return to their homes and to mark the 61st anniversary of the Nakba.

They marched towards the separation wall and some of them tried to reach their lands behind that wall but the IOF soldiers blocked their attempt.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authority imposed a tight security belt on the West Bank starting Thursday evening that would continue for 48 hours on the occasion of the Nakba anniversary.

Preachers in the West Bank focused in their Friday sermons on the Nakba and the right of return for million of Palestinian refugees, describing it as a sacred, inalienable right.

They championed Palestinian national unity and asked the media to expose the IOA crimes.

Israel kidnapped more than 2,500 Palestinians last year

[ 16/05/2009 - 08:06 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Palestinian center for human rights on Thursday reported that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped more than 2,500 Palestinians last year, most of them from the West Bank.

In its annual report, the center said that the vast majority of these prisoners were arrested during raids on cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip or at military checkpoints.

The report emphasized that until the end of 2008, more than 9,000 were still in Israeli jails including 248 children and 69 women.

It added that more than 900 prisoners are administratively detained in Israeli jails without trials, noting that two prisoners died in 2008 as a result of the medical neglect policy pursued by Israel against Palestinian detainees.

The report pointed out that there are still about 40 Palestinian lawmakers imprisoned by Israel including PLC speaker Aziz Al-Dweik, adding that an Israeli military court sentenced Dweik to three years.

It accused Israel of providing its intelligence officers, who tortured Palestinian prisoners, with immunity, saying that hundreds of complaints about torture cases were neglected or ignored by Israeli courts except in rare situations where judges issued lenient sentences against officers.