Palestinian/ Israeli update 10/29/2016..Israeli soldiers throw stones at Palestinian children

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-soldiers-throw-stones-palestinian-children

Ali Abunimah

This video shows Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank throwing stones at Palestinian schoolchildren in the village of al-Tuwani on 27 October. According to the video’s captions, the Israeli soldiers are supposed to protect the children from attacks by Israeli settlers in the area. But instead, as the video shows, the soldiers lob stones towards the children, including with a slingshot. The soldiers also failed to come to the designated point to meet the children, according to the video, and “checked one child’s bag and stopped another one without a clear reason.” Al-Tuwani is a village in the South Hebron Hills area of the occupied West Bank, where thousands of Palestinians living in dozens of small communities are resisting expulsion or the loss of their land from encroaching Israeli settlements.

Settlers from the nearby colony of Havat Maon habitually attack Palestinians. In one such incident last November, masked, rock-throwing Israelis injured a 6-year-old Palestinian girl in the head. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has regularly documented settler attacks, including a days-long rampage in Hebron a year ago while Israeli forces looked on and did nothing.

Palestinian Bedouins defy Israel’s bulldozers

https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-bedouins-defy-israels-bulldozers/18351

The area around Bir Hadaj provides a stark illustration of how Israel runs an apartheid system.

Located in the Naqab (Negev in Hebrew) region of present-day Israel, Bir Hadaj hosts an agricultural community of around 7,000 Palestinian Bedouins. They are crammed into 6,500 dunams (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters).

By contrast, approximately 1,000 Jews live in the neighboring kibbutz of Revivim. It covers an area of 30,000 dunams, one-sixth of which is reserved for olive trees. Unlike the residents of Revivim, the Bedouins of Bir Hadaj have been repeatedly attacked by the Israeli authorities.

On 9 October, Israel sent its feared bulldozers into the village, accompanied by a large contingent from the state’s militarized police force.

Seven homes in which members of the Abu Mreihil family lived were demolished, along with three homes that were under construction. At least 36 people, including a week-old baby, were deprived of shelter. Salameh Abu Mreihil, the mother of the baby, said that she will never forget how she became homeless so soon after giving birth. “This is the fate of our people here,” she said. “They have to suffer from the moment they are born.” Her family is now living in a tent. “We don’t know where to go now,” she said. “Some people say we will rebuild the home, but then they [the authorities] will destroy it again.”

These fears were proven right. Over the last week, Bir Hadaj residents mobilized to help the Abu Mreihil family rebuild. They set up structures on the ruins of their demolished homes. However, Israeli police again raided the village on 26 October. They distributed demolition orders against the newly rebuilt homes. Ayesh Abu Atta, a member of the Bir Hadaj Local Committee, told The Electronic Intifada that fierce confrontations broke out between the police and local youth, who had gathered to protest the demolition orders.

read more here…..https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-bedouins-defy-israels-bulldozers/18351

UN envoy raps Israel for denying Palestinian development

EU recognizes right to boycott Israel

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-recognizes-right-boycott-israel

The European Union recognizes the right of its citizens to boycott Israel, its top foreign policy official has said. “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 [boycott, divestment and sanctions] actions carried out on this territory,” Federica Mogherini told the European Parliament in answer to a written question in late September. Mogherini noted that the European Court of Human Rights has affirmed that freedom of expression applies to ideas “that offend, shock or disturb the state or any sector of the population.” She also reaffirmed that the 28-member bloc “rejects the BDS campaign’s attempts to isolate Israel and is opposed to any boycott of Israel.” “We welcome the EU’s belated defense of the right of European and other citizens to stand in solidarity with Palestinian rights, including through BDS tactics,” Riya Hassan, Europe campaigns officer for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said in reaction to Mogherini’s statement….more here….https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-recognizes-right-boycott-israel

Protesters storm Israel event at UK campus