Today’s Top Stories
1. The Palestinian Authority arrested the mayor of a West Bank village along with 13 municipal employees suspected of being involved in on-going water theft. Officials from Sa’ir blamed residents for the diversion while also accusing the PA of lowering water pressure.
2. When you have tensions aplenty within Palestinian domestic politics, is it time to call it an intrafada? Thousands of Palestinians demonstrating against the PA turned out for the Nablus funeral of Ahmed Halawa, who died in a Palestinian prison. But here’s why Halawa’s halo’s on hold:
Halawa, a former leader of Fatah’s Aksa Martyrs Brigade and captain in the Palestinian Police, was suspected of being the mastermind behind the killing of two Palestinian Authority security personnel on August 18. After initiating a security operation in Nablus, PA forces arrested Halawa and brought him to the city’s Jneid Prison, where security personnel allegedly beat him to death provoking popular condemnations.
The participants continually attacked PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Nablus Gov. Akram Rjoub and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, calling for them to be held accountable.
More on the funeral at Maan News.
Nablus: Palestinians throw stones at PA policemen after funeral of Ahmed Halawah, beaten to death by PA policemen. pic.twitter.com/Gz03YF14dO
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) August 28, 2016
3. Why are the United Nations and European Union actively helping the Palestinians build a “war crimes” case against Israel in the International Criminal Court? According to the Jerusalem Post:
The plan’s budget includes $100,000 to document crimes against women “by the Israeli occupation,” to be “submitted to the ICC.” Another $150,000 would be spent on “preparing files of complaint” and $129,000 for “developing a monitoring mechanism.”
The plan also called for $202,500 to be set aside to build international coalitions against the “Israeli occupation” for “its noncompliance with international law.”
4. Washington Post Publishes False Claim on Israeli Government Policy: Jerusalem isn’t formally seeking to annex West Bank’s Area C.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Israeli Arab Hilal Masharqeh succumbed to his wounds after being stabbed while trying to break up a fight between Jewish youths and his family members in Hadera. Police are investigating.
• With PA municipal elections in less than two months, the Times of Israel visited Hebron to take the pulse of the race between Fatah and Hamas, and what it means for Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli media reports say that leading Fatah officials fearing utter defeat are begging Mahmoud Abbas to cancel the vote.
• Worth watching: CBC reporter Irris Makler takes a literally lights-out perilous ride through the West Bank with Palestinian laborers sneaking into Israel for work.
• Professor Ilan Pappe opened up a can of worms by admitting that the BDS movement wasn’t initiated by grassroots Palestinians, but rather by the radical left. Pappe, of the University of Exeter, is himself a member of the radical left. David Collier, who brought this video to attention, explains why Pappe’s comments are damaging for BDS.
Many people have long surmised that external activists told several groups of Palestinians what they needed. Then civil groups, some only made up of a couple of members, effectively sided with Hamas. They signed on the dotted line and BDS was born. The tail effectively wagging the dog. Whilst this has long been assumed, the evidence did not exist. Now it does . . .
Pappe the activist, who at every single opportunity promotes BDS by suggesting that BDS began as a call from within civil society, now claims that is not true. He also acknowledges that for ‘historical records’, it is important that people believe differently.
This conflict exists because if you remove the ethical underpinning of that boycott, the entire movement collapses. How can a humanitarian organisation side with a boycott that is put together by a few radical extremists and actually hurts the weaker members of civil society?
• Six-year-old Ahmed Dawabsha, who spent a year in a hospital after Jewish terrorists burnt down his family home in the West Bank village of Duma, was taken by his grandfather for a solidarity visit to the demolished home of a Hamas terrorist.
In a November shooting attack, Abed al-Basset al-Haroub, opened fire on people in Gush Etzyon in November, killing 18-year-old American student Ezra Schwartz, Yaakov Don, and Shadi Arafa, an Arab resident of Hebron. Haroub was killed by responding soldiers.
Around the World
• Iranian media reports that long-range missile batteries were deployed to protect a nuclear facility at Fordo. More at AFP.
• A German TV documentary demonizing Israel’s water policies unleashed a storm of criticism as politicians take public station ARD to task.
• Authorities in Northern Ireland are investigating after vandals smashed 13 gravestones in Belfast‘s Jewish cemetery.
• Meanwhile, in Poland . . .
A group of soccer hooligans in Poland torched effigies representing Jews and displayed banners calling for Jews to be burned in a shocking display during a match last Friday, according to local media reports and a global anti-Semitism watchdog.
• The Middle East Prepares for US Elections
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Alon Ben-David: Hamas: In midst of power struggle, or wary of war with Israel?
– Dr. Reuven Berko: A Palestinian power puzzle
– Dr. Norman Bailey: The Turks are back
Featured image: CC BY Nick Page with additions by HonestReporting;
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