Naji Maysara Ghneim, 23, died on Wednesday of wounds sustained a few days ago when hit by Israeli army gunfire east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health. Ghneim died at an East Jerusalem hospital where he was transferred following his critical injury. With his death, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since March 30, the start of the border protests, reached 117.
Over 13,000 were injured and more than 300 of them are still in critical condition.
Israeli forces on Wednesday conducted multiple overnight raids across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, detaining a total of 17 Palestinians, most of them from East Jerusalem, said the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS).
Israeli police raided and extensively and violently searched homes in Issawiya and al-Tur neighbourhoods in occupied East Jerusalem and detained 10 Palestinians. In the West Bank, Israeli forces detained two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old minor, during a raid that triggered clashes in Bilin village, west of Ramallah.
Abdullah Abu Rahma, a local anti-wall and settlement activist, said that soldiers opened fire towards youths who protested at the raid and attempted to block the army’s passage. No injuries were reported though. In a subsequent raid into Nilin village, west of Ramallah, soldiers reportedly stormed at least one home, brutally assaulting the family and seizing the sum of $500. The raid triggered clashes, during which soldiers injured a protestor with a rubber bullet.
In the meantime, forces detained two Palestinians after storming their homes in Nablus district.
In the southern West Bank, dozens of soldiers conducted a raid into Yatta town, south of Hebron, where they detained three Palestinians, assaulted another and searched many homes. Soldiers also conducted extensive raids in Hebron city, ransacking many homes amid firing of flares and bombs.
• Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), on Wednesday told a visiting German cultural delegation that a nation cannot flourish under military occupation. Ashrawi met at her Ramallah office with members of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany to the Palestinian Territories.
The meeting, according to a press release by Ashrawi’s office, focused on Palestinian-German relations and issues of mutual interest, including the importance of future cooperation in areas of culture, education, research, and good governance.
‘A nation cannot flourish under military occupation. Educational initiatives and programmes will not succeed unless there are serious and effective measures to end the occupation and to establish the independent and viable Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,’ Ashrawi stressed to the delegation.
She also briefed the delegation on the deteriorating conditions on the ground and the latest political, international and regional developments. The issues raised included the unrelenting campaign by the US to enable the occupation and to provide Israel with continued legal, political and financial cover and Palestinian efforts to seek accountability for Israel and protection for the Palestinian people at the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.
In that view, Ashrawi affirmed the urgent and serious need for multilateral engagement from the European Union and other members of the international community to curb Israel’s persistent breach of international law and destruction of the chances for a just peace.
• The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned an Israeli draft law that seeks to criminalise the recording, photographing and filming of Israeli soldiers on duty. ‘The Israeli legislative proposal must by no means become a law. ‘It constitutes a serious breach of the freedom of the press, as it precisely criminalises the work of journalists,’ said IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger. ‘Censorship should not be enshrined in law, and it is media workers’ duty to inform the public.’
The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PCJ) released a statement last Saturday condemning the proposal of the new bill in the Israeli Knesset that would criminalise the photographing or recording of Israeli soldiers while on duty. The bill was proposed last Thursday with the support of right-wing Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and if passed, those found in violation of the law could face a prison sentence of up to five years.
The PCJ called the proposed bill ‘racist’, saying that it ‘severely attacks the profession of the press and legitimises the criminal practices committed by the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinian people.’ The group said the law would ‘grant legitimacy to the Israeli occupation to commit more crimes,’ and is an attempt by the Israeli government to ‘escape punishment and international justice.’
In the statement, the group called on the United Nations (UN) and other international institutions ‘concerned with the freedom of press work to express their opinion and exert pressure on the occupying entity to comply with its laws in accordance with international laws and conventions, and to protect the freedom of press work and the role of fundamental journalists in uncovering and documenting the truth.’
• Cartoonists across world are being invited to join an art competition marking Quds Day. Iran’s Ahlulbayt News Agency (ABNA) is set to hold the 2nd International Cartoon Festival on International al-Quds Day, calling on all cartoonists across the world to participate in the competition by sending their related works to the event. The event, named ‘Quds; the Eternal Capital of Palestine,’ will be held in cooperation with the Committee For Supporting The Islamic Resistance Of Palestinian People, the Qods News Agency (QODSNA) and the Islamic Art Portal Site.
The deadline for sending works will be 20 June and each cartoonist can send up to four art pieces with regard to the subject. All participants will be awarded a certificate of participation in the festival, while the first, second and third winners will be granted an honorary diploma plus 1,500 euros, 1,250 euros and 1,000, respectively. The rallies are held to mark Quds Day, which falls on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Every year on the last Friday of Ramadan, millions of people across the world take to the streets to mark Quds Day, showing their solidarity with the Palestinians and condemning Israel’s decades-long occupation and atrocities. This year’s Quds Day comes weeks after the US officially opened its new embassy in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds amid a deadly Israeli crackdown on protests in the blockaded Gaza Strip. The decision sparked outrage and deadly protests in Palestine and Muslim nations, which deem Jerusalem al-Quds as the future capital of a Palestinian state.