HEBRON, October 14, 2015 (WAFA) – At least one Palestinian teenager was injured with live bullets while others suffocated by inhaling teargas used by the Israeli army, during clashes in the town of Beit Awwa, west of Hebron, according to medical sources.

The sources said 16-year-old Baraa Shalash was shot by Israeli soldiers with a live bullet in his chest. Others youth suffocated due to excessive use of teargas canisters.

Shalash sustained an injury in his stomach and livers and is currently in a stable condition. Medical sources told WAFA, he is now being prepared for a surgical procedure to remove a bullet, which settled in his spinal column.

Prior to the incident, school students in Beit Awwa took to the streets in the town in protest of the Israeli crimes, before they were quelled by Israeli soldiers who targeted them with rubber-coated steel bullets and teargas in order to disperse them.

Tension has been growing high across the occupied Palestinian Territories, Jerusalem and Israel due to Israel's attempts to enforce a temporal division of al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest place, between Muslims and Jews.

(Source / 14.10.2015)

By Ramzy Baroud

When my book 'Searching Jenin' was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word 'massacre' on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based 'terrorists'.

The interrogative questions were aimed at relocating the narrative from a discussion regarding possible war crimes into a technical dispute over the application of language. For them, the evidence of Israel's violations of human rights mattered little.

This kind of reductionism has often served as the prelude to any discussion concerning the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict: events are depicted and defined using polarizing terminology that pay little heed to facts and contexts, and focus primarily on perceptions and interpretations.

Hence, it should also matter little to those same individuals whether or not Palestinian youth such as Isra' Abed, 28, shot repeatedly on October 9 in Affula – and Fadi Samir, 19, killed by Israeli police a few days earlier, were, in fact, knife-wielding Palestinians who were in a state of self-defense and shot by the police. Even when video evidence emerges countering the official Israeli narrative and revealing, as in most other cases, that the murdered youth posed no threat, the official Israeli narrative will always be accepted as facts, by some. Isra', Fadi, and all the rest are 'terrorists' who endangered the safety of Israeli citizens and, alas, had to be eliminated as a result.

The same logic has been used throughout the last century, when the current so-called Israeli Defense Forces were still operating as armed militias and organized gangs in Palestine, before it was ethnically-cleansed to become Israel. Since then, this logic has applied in every possible context in which Israel has found itself, allegedly: compelled to use force against Palestinian and Arab 'terrorists', potential 'terrorists' along with their 'terror infrastructure.'

It is not at all about the type of weapons that Palestinians use, if any at all. Israeli violence largely pertains to Israel's own perception of its self-tailored reality: that of Israel being a beleaguered country, whose very existence is under constant threat by Palestinians, whether they are resisting by use of arms, or children playing at the beach in Gaza. There has never been a deviation from the norm in the historiography of the official Israeli discourse which explains, justifies or celebrates the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians throughout the years: the Israelis are never at fault, and no context for Palestinian 'violence' is ever required.

Much of our current discussion regarding the protests in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and as of late at the Gaza border is centered on Israeli priorities, not Palestinian rights, which is clearly prejudiced. Once more, Israel is speaking of 'unrest' and 'attacks' originating from the 'territories', as if the priority is guaranteeing the safety of the armed occupiers – soldiers and extremist settlers, alike.

Rationally, it follows that the opposite state of 'unrest', that of 'quiet' and 'lull', are when millions of Palestinians agree to being subdued, humiliated, occupied, besieged and habitually killed or, in some cases, lynched by Israeli Jewish mobs or burned alive, while embracing their miserable fate and carrying on with life as usual.

The return to 'normalcy' is thus achieved; obviously, at the high price of blood and violence, which Israel has a monopoly on, while its actions are rarely questioned, Palestinians can then assume the role of the perpetual victim, and their Israeli masters can continue manning military checkpoints, robbing land and building yet more illegal settlements in violation of international law.

The question, now, ought not to be basic queries about whether some of the murdered Palestinians wielded knives or not, or truly posed a threat to the safety of the soldiers and armed settlers. Rather, it should be centered principally on the very violent act of military occupation and illegal settlements in Palestinian land in the first place.

From this perspective then, wielding a knife is, in fact, an act of self-defense; arguing about the disproportionate, or otherwise, Israeli response to the Palestinian 'violence' is, altogether moot.

Cornering oneself with technical definitions is dehumanizing to the collective Palestinian experience.

"How many Palestinians would have to be killed to make a case for using the term 'massacre'?" was my answer to those who questioned my use of the term. Similarly, how many would have to be killed, how many protests would have to be mobilized and for how long before the current 'unrest', 'upheaval' or 'clashes' between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli army become an 'Intifada'?

And why should it even be called a 'Third Intifada'?

Mazin Qumsiyeh describes what is happening in Palestine as the '14th Intifada'. He should know best, for he authored the outstanding book, Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment. However, I would go even further and suggest that there have been many more intifadas, if one is to use definitions that are relevant to the popular discourse of the Palestinians themselves. Intifadas – shaking off – become such when Palestinian communities mobilize across Palestine, unifying beyond factional and political agendas and carry out a sustained campaign of protests, civil disobedience and other forms of grassroots resistance.

They do so when they have reached a breaking point, the process of which is not declared through press releases or televised conferences, but is unspoken, yet everlasting.

Some, although well-intentioned, argue that Palestinians are not yet ready for a third intifada, as if Palestinian uprisings are a calculated process, carried out after much deliberation and strategic haggling. Nothing can be further from the truth.

An example is the 1936 Intifada against British and Zionist colonialism in Palestine. It was initially organized by Palestinian Arab parties, which were mostly sanctioned by the British Mandate government itself. But when the fellahin, the poor and largely uneducated peasants, began sensing that their leadership was being co-opted – as is the case today – they operated outside the confines of politics, launching and sustaining a rebellion that lasted for three years.

The fellahin then, as has always been the case, carried the brunt of the British and Zionist violence, as they fell in droves. Those unlucky enough to be caught, were tortured and executed: Farhan al-Sadi, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Mohammed Jamjoom, Fuad Hijazi are among the many leaders of that generation.

These scenarios have been in constant replay since, and with each intifada, the price paid in blood seems to be constantly increasing. Yet more intifadas are inevitable, whether they last a week, three or seven years, since the collective injustices experienced by Palestinians remain the common denominator among the successive generations of fellahin and their descendants of refugees.

What is happening today is an Intifada, but it is unnecessary to assign a number to it, since popular mobilization does not always follow a neat rationale required by some of us. Most of those leading the current Intifada were either children, or not even born when the Intifada al-Aqsa started in 2000; they were certainly not living when the Stone Intifada exploded in 1987. In fact, many might be oblivious of the details of the original Intifada of 1936.

This generation grew up oppressed, confined and subjugated, at complete odds with the misleading 'peace process' lexicon that has prolonged a strange paradox between fantasy and reality. They are protesting because they experience daily humiliation and have to endure the unrelenting violence of occupation.

Moreover, they feel a total sense of betrayal by their leadership, which is corrupt and co-opted. So they rebel, and attempt to mobilize and sustain their rebellion for as long as they can, because they have no horizon of hope outside their own action.

Let us not get bogged down by details, self-imposed definitions and numbers. This is a Palestinian Intifada, even if it ends today. What truly matters is how we respond to the pleas of this oppressed generation; will we continue to assign greater importance to the safety of the armed occupier than to the rights of a burdened and oppressed nation?

(Source / 14.10.2015)

The new alliance includes the YPG, various Arab groups including Jaysh al-Thuwwar (Army of Rebels) and the Arab tribal Jaysh al-Sanadeed, and an Assyrian Christian group, according to a statement announcing its establishment.

Richard Jones (right), stands with YPG official (left) near Syria/Turkish border in Ras al Ayn, Syria

A Kurdish militia in northern Syria has joined forces with Arab rebels, and their new alliance has been promised fresh weapon supplies by the United States for an assault on Islamic State forces in Raqqa, a spokesman said on Monday.

The alliance calling itself the Democratic Forces of Syria includes the Kurdish YPG militia and Syrian Arab groups, some of which fought alongside it in a campaign that drove Islamic State from wide areas of northern Syria earlier this year.

The Arab groups in the new alliance are operating under the name "The Syrian Arab Coalition"– a grouping which U.S. officials have said would receive support under a new U.S. strategy aimed at fighting Islamic State in Syria.

A spokesman for some of the Arab rebels said they were told by Washington that new weapons were being sent to help them launch a joint offensive on the city of Raqqa.

"We met the Americans and this has been approved and we have been told these new arms … are on their way," said Abu Muazz, a spokesman for the Raqqa Revolutionaries Front, a grouping of mainly Arab tribal insurgents who are mostly drawn from the Raqqa area.

He said the group constituted a 3,200-strong, well trained fighting force which could begin using the weapons within days of their arrival. It has an additional 600 fighters who are currently wounded, he said.

A major offensive against the ultra-hardline Islamic State fighters could capture Raqqa in less than two months provided the "right weapons and quantities" arrived, Abu Muazz, himself from the jihadist-held city, said without elaborating.

A U.S. military official has told Reuters that the Syrian Arab Coalition would push down towards Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital, while staying east of the Euphrates river.

Keeping the YPG-backed force east of the river could ease Turkish concerns about any further expansion of Kurdish influence in northern Syria. Turkey is worried about the Kurds' growing power in Syria fuelling separatism among its own Kurds.

The United States last week announced a shake-up of its support to Syrian rebels fighting IS, effectively ending its program to train fighters outside Syria and focusing instead on providing weapons to groups whose commanders have been U.S.-vetted.

The YPG has to date proved the most effective partner on the ground for U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State. By deepening ties with groups from Syria's Arab majority, it could deflect concern among some Arabs that it exists solely to fight for the interests of Kurds.

The YPG drove deep into Raqqa province earlier this year, but stopped short of advancing on Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa city, saying it wanted Syrian Arab rebels to lead such an assault.

The new alliance includes the YPG, various Arab groups including Jaysh al-Thuwwar (Army of Rebels) and the Arab tribal Jaysh al-Sanadeed, and an Assyrian Christian group, according to a statement announcing its establishment.

"The sensitive stage our country Syria is going through and rapid developments on the military and political front … require that there be a united national military force for all Syrians, joining Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs and other groups," said the statement, which was sent to Reuters by a YPG spokesman.

"Given that these forces in general are democratic and secular forces that believe to a great degree in diversity, we hope that they will receive support" from the U.S.-led coalition, said Nasir Haj Mansour, an official in the defense ministry of the Kurdish administration in YPG-held territory.

"The current goal in practical terms is to confront Daesh, given that it is the first enemy, but the goal is also to build a democratic Syria in the future," he said by telephone, using an acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

(Source / 14.10.2015)

A Palestinian held in an Israeli prison has died after suffering a stroke, Palestinian officials say.

The head of the Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, said on Wednesday that 30-year-old Fadi al-Darbi was pronounced brain dead at the Soroka hospital in the occupied territories on October 11.

Al-Darbi had suffered a stroke earlier in the day.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, Darbi’s health had deteriorated as a result of medical negligence by the Israeli Prison Service.

The group said Darbi had also been a victim of medical negligence after suffering abdominal bleeding two years earlier, while serving a 16-year prison sentence in the Israeli Ramon prison. He had been nabbed in 2006.

Some 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly behind bars in 17 Israeli prisons and detention centers. More than 400 Palestinians are currently under Administrative Detention, the policy of arrest and detention of individuals without charge or trial.

Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian man during clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on July 26, 2015

Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces over the past months.

Tensions between the Tel Aviv regime and Palestinians have been on the rise over Israel's imposition of sweeping restrictions on entries into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) on August 26 and Israeli settlers' repeated attacks on the mosque. Many Palestinians have been nabbed in the ensuing clashes.

There has also been a rise in deadly shootings by Israeli forces against Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis.

(Source / 14.10.2015)

The Homs Liberation Movement, a Free Syrian Army faction close to al Qaeda, plans to infiltrate the Syrian military to find where the Russians are—and blow them up.

A Free Syrian Army fighter takes position close to a military base, near Azaz, Syria, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012

After more than a week of Russian aerial attacks, Syrian rebels plan to hit back with double agents and suicide bombers.

"First, we will endure the violent aerial bombardment, then move to weaken Russia by all means available, such as recruiting agents in the ranks of the regime to provide us with the movements of the Russians and the regime," Capt. Rashid al-Hourani, from the rebel Homs Liberation Movement, told The Daily Beast by telephone.

The Homs Liberation Movement—a division of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army—seems ready to use tactics associated with ISIS. "We will conduct martyrdom operations carried out by dissident officers," al-Hourani said, using a euphemism for suicide attacks.

Though this may not be all that surprising. The Movement is an Islamist faction known to be a close military ally of the official al Qaeda franchise in Syria known as Jabhat al-Nusra. According to Genevieve Casagrande, an analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War, "The relationship between Nusra and Tahrir Homs with regards to governance was thought of as 'uneasy' when Nusra first started to assert itself (and it's strict version of sharia) in Homs, however, they have likely grown closer as time has gone on and probably are currently participating in joint rebel governance structures together." Al-Nusra has already warned Russia that it will face another Afghanistan in Russia.

Also, the Movement is in a desperate situation. Its bases are in al-Rastan, Talbiseh, and other cities in the rebel enclave between Hama and Homs in western Syria, an area encircled by the Russian-backed Syrian army—and a main target of Russian bombing and cruise-missile attacks that kicked off in late September.

Russia has deployed at least 35 warplanes plus helicopters and hundreds of military advisers to Syria.

The Movement's territory bisects a highway linking Damascus with Latakia, where the Russian military has its Syria headquarters. For the Syrian government to link up with the Russians and secure arguably its most important supply route, it must clear out the rebels north of Homs, including al-Hourani's fighters.

The battle will involve more than planes, tanks and infantry. The media are also a weapon.

The Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies portray all rebels, including the Free Syrian Army, as terrorists. The Movement has a plan to defend itself against potentially demoralizing propaganda. "We will create a unified media outlet to carry news of our victories over both the Russians and the regime to strengthen morale and enthusiasm among the fighters," al-Hourani said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the FSA should join the Russian and Syrian militaries in battling ISIS, but al-Hourani said that Russian airstrikes have only succeeded in unifying Syria's squabbling rebel factions against Moscow and Damascus. In early October, 41 rebel units announced that they would begin targeting Russian forces. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi clerics have called for anti-Russian jihad.

But al-Hourani said he rejected holy war. "We are neither secular nor Islamic," he said. "We represent Syrian society—a tolerant, moderate state."

To be fair, even American-trained "secular" rebels have fought alongside al Qaeda, refused to oppose it, surrendered to it and armed it with American-made weapons. But the Movement says it wants to be an American ally in Syria. "There is no relationship between the Homs Liberation Movement and America," al-Hourani told The Daily Beast, "but we would like there to be one."

Al-Hourani said he hoped the Americans would arm his unit, as it has done for other FSA brigades. The United States had two separate programs to train and equip Syrian rebels—one run by the CIA, which targets Assad regime forces, plus another, less secretive effort that managed to deploy just a handful of fighters, tasked with only fighting ISIS, at a cost of $500 million. The White House canceled the latter program last week, after The Daily Beast showed how U.S.-provided materiel was last seen in the hands of a rebel commander who had gone rogue and denounced the Pentagon program. The White House said it would soon launch a new train-and-equip effort.

But the rebel officer said he wants different weaponry than the United States has provided other rebel brigades. "The weapons provided by the United States are defensive rather than offensive, requiring those who receive them to fight political battles according to implemented procedures," al-Hourani said. "The factions armed by America cannot conduct any operations by themselves."

Left to its own devices, the Homs Liberation Movement won't bother trying to fight like the Americans do, according to Al Hourani. Instead, the rebel group will borrow a page from ISIS—and infiltrate, then suicide-bomb, the Russian-regime coalition.

(Source / 14.10.2015)

The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns Russia’s air force's targeting of medical facilities in many areas across Syria over the past 14 days. The Russian airstrikes caused severe damage to the field hospitals, forcing them to close down.

The Syria Relief and Development (SRD), a nonprofit organization, announced today one of its field hospitals in the town of Huraytan in northern Rural Aleppo was damaged when the Russian air force targeted it with three missiles. The attack also resulted in three civilian injuries, including one child and two adults.

"We are not terrorists; we are doctors. All parties must stop targeting us so that we can continue providing medical services to all Syrians in need," SRD's head Dr. Abdelsalam Daif said.

The organization made it clear through its official website that the medical staff of the hospital treated three injured, and the other deals with the result of more raids that targeted the region’s injuries, and this is the fourth attack was aimed at one of the medical facilities of the organization in recent months.

Yesterday, the Syrian Coalition's Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) said that the Russian warplanes bombed a polio vaccination center in the town of Al-Tamana'a in rural Idlib. The center provides health services for Al-Taman'a and the surrounding villages, with 11,000 children receiving anti-polio vaccination in the 11th round of the vaccination campaign.

The Syrian Coalition states that the Russian invaders did not wait long to disclose their strategy in Syrian which is compatible with the terrorist behavior of the Assad regime. The Russians are systematically targeting the Free Syrian Army, the civilian population, places of worship, and medical facilities.

The Syrian Coalition calls upon the international community and the UN Security Council to condemn the Russian aggression on Syria, to stop it immediately, and bring perpetrators of war crimes and genocide in Syria to justice.

(Source: Syrian Coalition / 14.10.2015)

An Israeli flag flutters as the children of Jewish settlers wait for the bus in Migron, in the occupied West Bank

NABLUS (Ma'an) — Israeli settlers injured four Palestinians and one foreigner with rocks on Wednesday in the village of Burin in the northern Nablus district, a local official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that Israeli settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement threw stones at locals picking olives in the Jabal Suliman area of Burin, injuring four Palestinians and one foreigner.

Abudl-Muhaimen Asaous, 37, as well as a foreign volunteer identified only as David, were both injured with rocks to their heads and taken to Rafidia hospital for medical treatment.Daghlas said that Israeli settlers set fire to dozens of acres of olive fields in the area connecting Burin and Huwwara.Earlier this month in Huwwara, Israeli settlers violently assaulted two Palestinians while they were picking olives in a similar incident and injured them. The two need to be transferred to a hospital for treatment after the attack.

During the incident, settlers set fire to dozens of dunams of agricultural land, a spokesperson from Fatah said at the time.On Oct. 1, suspected Palestinians shot and killed Eitam and Naama Henkin, two settlers who were driving between the illegal settlements of Itamar and Elon More in an area near Huwwara.Their four children, aged between four months and nine years, were found unharmed in the back of the car.

Following the shooting, hundreds of Israeli settlers rioted across the occupied West Bank, with multiple attacks reported on Palestinian homes and vehicles.

While settler attacks in the area are common, attacks on Palestinian civilians in the area have increased following the shootings.

Palestinian towns and villages in the Nablus area are surrounded by Israeli settlements and outposts, many of which are protected by the Israeli military and have gained notoriety for being comprised of the most extremist settlers.

The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and violent acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents.

Palestinians are therefore left to fend for themselves as few options for their personal security remain.

While Israeli forces will detain a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank for possessing a knife or gun, Israelis living in the same area are legally able to carry such weapons.

Rights groups have criticized Israel for implementing different legal systems for Palestinians and Israeli settlers living in the same area.

Such practices, they say, protect the expansion of settlements while systematically removing the ability for Palestinians to move freely throughout the occupied territory.

(Source / 14.10.2015)