AFOPA

This week:

•  12 Palestinians, including a 3-year-old boy, attacked and injured on their farms by Israelis from illegal settlements in the South Hebron area of the West Bank, nominally under Palestinian Authority control but in fact controlled by occupying Israeli Defence Force personnel

• UK Labour Party conference at Brighton passes motion condemning Israeli apartheid and calling for sanctions

• Covid-19 spike in Gaza exacerbated by Israeli authorities disrupting vaccine supplies

• Continued violations of al Aqsa mosque precinct.

 The attacks in South Hebron, described by Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem as “extreme violence”, included the stoning of a sleeping child, now in hospital.

 Damage to property included destruction of 10 houses, 16 vehicles, farm equipment, a water tank and solar panels. A water delivery to farmers was confiscated by Israeli soldiers.

 There is video evidence of these attacks, which were observed by Israeli Defence Force personnel who took no action against the aggressors but physically harassed the Palestinian farmers.

 The attacks have been reported by Israeli publications the Times of Israel and Haaretz, and on al Jazeera world news.

 The attacks were also witnessed by a group of Israeli-American students who were in the area to collect evidence of human rights violations. One of them, Shula Gilad from Harvard Law School, shot video of the violence.

 Around 1,000 Palestinian residents in the area are under threat of eviction from their properties. The case is scheduled to come before the Israeli High Court on November 15.

 In the UK, a motion was passed at the Labour Party annual conference recognising the Israeli government’s implementation of an “apartheid regime” in the Palestinian territories and calling on the British government to cease arms deals with Israel.

 It also called on sanctions against products made in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

 Some of the biggest demonstrations against Israeli attacks on Gaza in May this year were in Britain, with up to 200,000 people marching in protest in London.

 In Gaza, Palestinian health authorities are reporting a third wave spike in covid19 delta variant cases, including babies and school-children.

 The Gaza Health Ministry has authorised vaccinations for people 16 years and older and will introduce shots for people 12-16 years old in coming months.

A new ICU has been opened in a hospital in Gaza in an attempt to deal with the high number of new cases.

But efforts to contain the spike have been affected by the uncertainty of vaccine supplies, a situation exacerbated by the forced destruction of 50,000 doses deliberately obstructed by authorities at an Israeli controlled checkpoint into Gaza. Doctors said the vaccines were held up and stored in inappropriate (non-refrigerated) conditions, rendering them unusable.

There have been further reports this week of Israeli gangs, supported by IDF personnel, invading the area around the al Aqsa mosque, one of the most sacred Muslim sites in the world.

Located in Jerusalem’s old city and within close proximity to the Jewish wailing wall and the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Muslim Dome of the Rock atop the mosque is one of the most famous and recognised religious structures internationally.

 Jewish insurgents in the precinct this week have been calling for destruction of the mosque as part of their campaign to expunge all evidence of Palestinian presence in what, until 1948, was Palestine.

 Australian Friends of Palestine Association chair Edie Bransbury says the organisation is appalled by the ongoing apartheid policies and ethnic cleansing attempts by the Israeli government and its right-wing supporters.

 Ms Bransbury also says AFOPA finds it difficult to understand how the sustained human rights violations and violence against Palestinians attract so little attention in Australia.

 "AFOPA calls on political parties in this country to take a stand against Israeli policies and actions targeting Palestinians, who have a legitimate right to exist peacefully on their traditional lands,” she says. “And on the Australian media to report on the shameful acts perpetrated every day against Palestinians, the vast majority of whom seek only to live and work in peace.”

 For further information or comment please call Edie Bransbury on 0402 890 387.