“. . . damages to the Palestinian economy due to Israeli Occupation . . . reach billions of US dollars every year . . .” (Jakob Rieken)

water_supply
Bedouins purchase water from water trucks in Khirbet A-Duqaiqah in the South Hebron Hills near the Green Line, a village with 300 residents that is not hooked up to water grid. (Photo: Nasser Nawaj’ah, B’Tselem)

❶ Israel breaching Palestine’s right to development, UN human rights expert finds
. . . ❶― (a) Israeli settlers cut down 18 trees on private Palestinian land near Bethlehem

  • Background: “The Role of Development Cooperation in the Conflict Over Palestinian Land.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ EU Foreign Affairs chief affirms the right to Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions against Israel
❸  Israeli court accuses slain Palestinian’s twin brother of social media ‘incitement’
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
ISRAEL  BREACHING  PALESTINE’S  RIGHT  TO  DEVELOPMENT,  UN  HUMAN  RIGHTS  EXPERT  FINDS
Palestine News Network – PNN
Oct. 28, 2016
Palestine’s right to development is being denied by Israel, creating an environment plagued by poverty, “epic” unemployment and economic stagnation, according to a new report from a United Nations human rights expert.
___Michael Lynk – the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 – expresses deep concerns about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in the context of the right to development.     ___He calls on Israel to bring a complete end to almost 50 years of occupation, describing an atmosphere of “despair and hopelessness” among Palestinian citizens.     More . . .  
. . . ❶― (A) ISRAELI  SETTLERS  CUT  DOWN  18  TREES  ON  PRIVATE  PALESTINIAN  LAND  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
Ma’an News Agency     
Oct. 29, 2016
Israeli settlers on Saturday morning cut down 18 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian family in the village of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank.      ___Journalist Hani Fanun, whose family owns the trees, said his family went to harvest olives on their land in the Wadi al-Hariq area of Nahalin, and found that settlers from the nearby illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc had cut down over 18 large olive trees.    ___Fanun told Ma’an that the family’s land is closest to the Bat Ayin settlement — which is part of the cluster of Israeli settlements that make up the Gush Etzion bloc — and was reclaimed by the family after an order by the Israeli Supreme Court proved that it belonged to them.   More . . .      Related . . .     The  olive  harvest  in  West  Bank  in  light  of  Israeli  settlers’  attacks     

  • Rieken, Jakob. “The Role of Development Cooperation in the Conflict Over Palestinian Land.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 19/20.4/1 (2014): 27-34.   Source. 

The Oslo Accords . . . were set up to be a temporary, transitional instrument for a five-year period leading to Palestinian statehood. They established the Palestinian Authority (PA) as an interim self-governance arrangement, which is to this day the counterpart for bilateral development cooperation. The Oslo Accords, however, also divided the occupied West Bank into Areas A, B and C, ostensibly as a transitional instrument until defined borders could be negotiated between the parties . . .  Area C, the remaining 60% of the West Bank, is under complete Israeli control.
___. . . .  Fifteen years after the interim arrangement of the Oslo Accords was to be replaced by a final status agreement, the Israeli grip on Area C is tighter than ever. Area C holds most Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, not coincidentally, holds many of the most valuable natural resources, including agricultural land (particularly the fertile Jordan Valley), key water sources, quarries, Dead Sea minerals, oil and gas, etc. Settlements are often located strategically at access points to natural resources. These settlements have been expanding, Palestinian infrastructure has been destroyed, and more and more Palestinian private land has been marked as Israeli “state land” or as a “closed military zone,” barring Palestinians (but not settlers) from these areas.
___ Part and parcel of the entrenchment of Israeli occupation in Area C has been the occupying power’s relationship with state donor organizations. On the basis of the Oslo Accords, the Israeli Civil Administration (a branch of the military occupation authorities in the West Bank) has succeeded in drawing international donors into a remarkable permitting system in Area C that simulates a legal foundation for its intervention in development projects. If a donor agency is interested in building a sanitary landfill, for example, it has to enter a lengthy permitting process . . . [which demands] that the development projects also benefit the nearby settlements, e.g. settlers demand to be able to funnel their wastewater to a donor-funded Palestinian wastewater treatment plant.      [. . . . ] Life for the Palestinians remaining in Area C (estimated by the United Nations to be around 300,000 people, facing 350,000 Israeli settlers) is becoming increasingly difficult, forcing many families to give up and move to Palestinian towns and cities in Areas A and B. It is very telling that Israel significantly downplays the number of Palestinians living in Area C, estimating them at around 50,000. Each Palestinian’s decision to give up and move to Areas A and B is a victory for the Israeli settler movement, which has no intention of reaching a two-state solution but rather has a vision of a Greater Israel which includes (Area C of) the West Bank. In what appears to be the extension of the Zionist slogan “A land without a people for a people without a land,” settler-ideologues in the Israeli Knesset are calling for the annexation of Area C, maintaining that it is virtually unpopulated by Palestinians.

EU  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  CHIEF  AFFIRMS  THE RIGHT  TO  BOYCOTT,  DIVESTMENT  &  SANCTIONS  AGAINST  ISRAEL  
Palestine News Network – PNN  
Oct. 28, 2016
Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, has condemned attacks on human rights defenders and affirmed the right of European citizens to freedom of expression and association, including through participation in the global Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
___In response to a question on whether the EU commission will commit to defending BDS activists’ right to exercise their democratic freedom of expression, put forward by MEP Martina Anderson, the EU High Representative stated: ___“The EU stands firm in protecting freedom of expression and freedom of association in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is applicable on EU Member States’ territory, including with regard to BDS actions carried out on this territory.”      More . . .

twins
Ali and Muhammad Shuyukhi (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

ISRAELI COURT ACCUSES SLAIN PALESTINIAN’S TWIN BROTHER OF SOCIAL MEDIA ‘INCITEMENT’   
Ma’an News Agency    
Oct. 28, 2016    The public prosecution of Israel’s Jerusalem magistrate court presented on Thursday a list of indictments against the brother of a slain Palestinian youth, accusing him of incitement on social media.
___The prosecution accused 20-year-old Muhammad Shuyukhi of inciting “terrorism” on social media following the killing of his twin brother Ali by Israeli forces during clashes in the occupied East Jerusalem town of Silwan on Oct. 11. . . .
___ The indictment list presented on Thursday said that Muhammad Shuyukhi had published several posts on his Facebook page that included sayings which “incited terrorism,” while other posts of his included support for the Hamas movement and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement.
___The indictment against Shuyukhi coincided with a recent crackdown by the Israeli government on social media “incitement.”    More . . .   

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