Israel transfers ’shooting’ officer
8/8/08
The Israeli army has removed an officer from his post over allegations he ordered a soldier to fire a rubber-coated bullet into the foot of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian. A military spokeswoman said a decision on legal proceedings against Lieutenant-Colonel Omri Borberg is expected soon. Borberg, a regimental commander, was suspended last month pending a military investigation. He could still face prosecution, but B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said on Wednesday that a deal in which he could face the minor charge of inappropriate behaviour was “disgraceful”.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/08/ 200886211046337442.html
Israel okays new West Bank settlement construction
8/8/08
Israel on Thursday approved construction of 400 new homes in a Jewish neighbourhood in annexed east Jerusalem and invited bids for construction of another 416 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. The interior ministry announced that a committee had approved a plan first unveiled in March to build 400 housing units in the Jewish neighbourhood of Neve Yaakov, in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem. Israeli authorities also called for bids for the construction of 286 homes in Beitar Ilit, a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, just south of Jerusalem. They also called for bids for construction of 130 homes in Har Homa, a Jewish district in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed in 1967, a move that has not been recognised by the international community.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9899
The land of unchecked settler harassment
Avi Issacharoff; 8/8/08
The carcass of a butchered donkey is still lying in the olive grove of the Sufan family. Every single week since mid-June, the family, whose home is on the southern edge of the village of Burin, near Nablus, has suffered harassment by settlers living in outposts near the settlement of Yitzhar. The mother, Hinan (Umm Ayman), says she has filed an endless number of complaints with the police, “but everything is kalam fadi (empty talk). They do nothing, and they do not even compensate us.” On June 16, Musa’ab, the son, took the sheep herd out with his neighbor Munir and his brother Bashir in the hills surrounding the family home. “At some point,” Munir recalls, “we saw a car heading our way from the direction of Yitzhar. Two settlers stepped out of the car, and the vehicle continued on its way, went around a bend and disappeared. But then we saw that eight more settlers were walking toward us, and some had knives in their hands.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009375.html