Issue no 99

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Issue No : 99 9th July , 2014

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

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FEATURED STORY

Special ReportsPCOM holds its 4th annual Iftar with wide

Palestinian participation

110 Palestinian teens and minors arrested overnight in 1984 lands

Israel holds US boy without charge after police nearly beat

him to death

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Hamas holds Israel responsible for the escalation

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24 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza

Israel waged a new military operation

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine

24 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza 4

Hamas holds Israel responsible for the escalation 5

110 Palestinian teens and minors arrested overnight in 1984 lands 6

Israeli police clampdown on protests in Arab towns 7

Former Israeli Defence Minister calls on government to assassinate 8

Hamas leaders

Gaza fuel crisis prevents half of ambulances from working 9

Gaza payroll crisis continues 10

Hamas official denies regional efforts to reach truce with Israel 11

Israel vows revenge on Hamas, threatens to unleash gates of hell 12

Israel Insider

PCOM’s News

Special Report

Netanyahu: Mossad is ‹spearhead of the State of Israel› 13

Israel holds US boy without charge after police nearly beat him to death 16

PCOM holds its 4th annual Iftar with wide Palestinian participation 14

Media reports keep Palestinian struggle on track 15

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News of Palestine

24 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza

Israel waged a new military operation

8/7/2014

24 Palestinians were killed and tens others were wounded in a series of Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip since Sunday night.The PIC reporter said that 8 fighters affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were killed in an Israeli aerial raid on Gaza Strip on Sunday night and at dawn Monday.Other Israeli raids targeted areas in Gaza City, east of Khan Younis, south of the Strip, and northern Beit Lahia, north of the Strip, with no casualties reported.On Tuesday, Israel announced a military operation named “Protective Edge”, its raids rocked dozens of towns and refugee camps in the Strip. 16 Palestinian civilians in-cluding two children were killed while over a hundred others sustained severe wounds throughout the salvos.Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance planes took part in the intensive air raids since Sunday night. Warplanes are still hovering over the besieged enclave, which harbingers more raids.

Source: PIC+Agencies

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Hamas holds Israel responsible for the escalation

8/7/2014

Hamas today blamed the Israeli government for the current escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinians territories and Israel.In a statement, Hamas spokesman Fawzy Barhoom said: “We blame the government of the Israeli oc-cupation for igniting the situation with the Palestinian people as it continues its foolish acts, crimes, violations and dangerous racist policies.”Barhoom added: “Hamas hails the uprising of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusa-lem and occupied Palestine.”He called upon all Palestinians to join the “revolution” and to “strongly” be involved in the clashes with the Israeli occupation in order to “defend their dignity and holy places”.Yesterday evening an Israeli airstrike killed seven Hamas operatives in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. An earlier airstrike yesterday killed two Palestinian citizens in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip.Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue facing angry Palestinians in West Bank cities, Jerusalem and Isra-el, who are protesting following the abduction and burning to death of a Palestinian boy in Jerusalem late last week.The current wave of violence erupted as Israel started a massive military operation against Palestin-ians in the West Bank on June 12, when three Israeli settlers went missing and were later found dead.Israeli forces arrested more than 500 Palestinians, including about 50 prisoners freed in a prisoners swap in 2011. They also broke into hundreds of Palestinian houses and charities and caused much damage.Euro-mid Observer for Human Rights said on Saturday that the Israeli occupation forces confiscated near $3 million from Palestinian houses, companies and charities during the operation.

SOURCE : MEMO

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110 Palestinian teens and minors arrested overnight in 1984 lands

6/7/2014

Some 110 Israeli-Arabs were arrested by Israeli forces during dawn raids and search operation in many Arab towns and villages this morning, media reports said.This brings the number of those arrested over the last three days to 277.The arrests come against the backdrop of the ongoing demonstrations which have been raging for the third day after Israeli settlers kidnapped and burnt Palestinian teen, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, and secu-rity officials beat up and arrested his cousin, as well as the continued assault on the Gaza Strip.The police said those arrested had participated in the demonstrations.Of those arrested 110 were teens and minors caught during the clashes and night raids carried out by Israeli security services.The majority were arrested in the Galilee, along the coast, the Negev and Jerusalem. Officials are ex-pected to request their detentions be prolonged by the courts because the youths are suspected of being in breach of public order.Police sources said 50 suspects, including 30 teens and 20 minors, will appear before magistrates’ courts today, where police will ask for their detention to be extended.Israeli courts continue to consider police requests to extend the detention of Palestinian youth. Those arrested have been charged with disturbing public order and taking part in illegal demonstrations. Some have also been charged with assaulting a police officer. Further arrests are expected.

Source: Ufree network

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Israeli police clampdown on protests in Arab towns

6/7/2014

Clashes broke out in a number of Arab Israeli towns on Satur-day evening in the aftermath of the revenge killing of an Arab boy by Jewish settlers last Wednesday, Arabs 48 website has reported. Protesters voiced their anger at the incitement campaign to kill Arabs, as well as the recent brutal murder of Mohammed Abu Khudair in occupied East Jerusalem.In Nazareth, police used tear gas and stun grenades to dis-perse protesters. At least 3 were reported to have been in-jured in the clashes.In Kafr Qasim, mosques called on citizens to confront a group of Israeli settlers who stormed into the town on Sat-urday, while Tira saw sporadic clashes between protesters and police. In the village of Ain Mahil, meanwhile, police ar-rested four protesters accused of hurling rocks at riot police; two young men were arrested in Nazareth on similar charges. In Kafr Qara, witnesses told Arabs 48 that police withdrew after arresting five males, four of whom are minors.The city of Umm Al-Fahm witnessed renewed confronta-tions with police and special units, after a number of young men gathered to protest. Al-though police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators no injuries have been reported. One young man was arrested at the entrance to the city. Two more were detained by po-lice in Baqa Al-Gharbiyye on

charges of hurling rocks at a police vehicle.Earlier on Saturday, clashes broke out in Nazareth between police and demonstrators at a march against the brutality of the occupa-tion authority’s current campaign against Palestinians. The protest was planned initially to be a static gathering in Sahat al-Ain, but the large turnout led organisers to turn it into a march, which resulted in clashes as police tried to disperse participants.“The high turnout by Nazareth youth represents an angry outcry against Israeli actions and the ruthless practices of settlers,” said Wasel Taha, chairman of the Democratic National Assembly. He added that the reaction of the youth was “a natural response to provocations by settlers”. He denounced the attacks on Arab cities and villages as “heinous crimes”.“As long as provocations continue, the anger will remain and the escalation will mount, because we and the Palestinian people are one,” insisted Taha. “We hold the Israeli government fully respon-sible for what’s happening.”Arab Member of the Knesset Haneen Zoabi, who took part in the Nazareth march, said that Saturday’s wave of anger came “to con-front the bloody incitement campaign directed at our people” as a “direct result of Israeli policies and repressive practices” against the Palestinian people. “We have to stress that we are one nation, and that all of us are struggling for one cause, namely the cause of our occupied Palestine,” she said.

Source : PIC

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Israel’s former Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer called for the Israeli government to imme-diately assassinate Hamas leaders, an Israeli news site has reported.Ben-Eliezer is reported to have said: “The government must immediately return to the assassination policy, and let Hamas leaders understand that there is no security for them day and night and that there is no difference between political and army wing leaders.”He said: “Hamas political leadership incites and inflames the atmosphere [against Israel] and en-courages terrorism.”Ben-Eliezer called on the Israeli government to strengthen Palestinian Authority President Mah-moud Abbas and to pressure him to remove Hamas from government and then work on the resump-tion of the peace process.

Source: AL-RAAY

Former Israeli Defence Minister calls on government to assassinate Hamas leaders

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

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Gaza fuel crisis prevents half of ambulances from working

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that around 50 per cent of its ambulances have stopped working while the ministry initiates a programme to cope with the acute shortage of fuel in the Strip, Alresalah news website reported.The ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told Alresalah that the ministry suffers from an acute shortage of fuel following Israel’s escalating aggression against Gaza.According to the Palestinian Media Agency, Gaza’s Energy and Natural Resources Authority said that the Israeli occupation authorities are limiting “the quantities of fuel shipped via Karem Abu Salem crossing to the Strip, which may result in the power plant not operating.”Al-Qudra pointed out that Gaza’s hospitals normally need an estimated 8,000 litres of fuel per day to operate. However, following the energy authority’s warning that the power generation plant may stop working, the ministry’s need for fuel will likely increase in order to cope with the escalating Israeli aggressions against the enclave.Al-Qudra said that the medical crews in Gaza are in communication with the Palestinian unity government and report all developments faced by the ministry regarding the crisis, stressing that Gaza is experiencing an unprecedented fuel crisis in the hospital sector

Source: Al-raay

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Gaza payroll crisis continues

The crisis of unpaid salaries in the Gaza Strip continues, with leaders of Hamas and the Palestin-ian Authority casting blame on each other amid efforts by other political factions to contain the situation.Up to 50,000 employees of the former Hamas-led authority in Gaza are suffering from dire living conditions due to the two-month delay in paying their salaries, which constitute their main source of income, along with the continued Israeli siege of the coastal enclave.Hamas spokesman Hossam Badran held the unity government responsible for resolving the crisis, saying that it should not discriminate between citizens. This was a reference to the government’s salary payments to West Bank employees.In statements to Al-Ghad newspaper, Badran said that the new government succeeded the two previous governments of Gaza and the West Bank, and should assume responsibility for paying salaries to all employees without delay. He pointed out that the reconciliation agreement obliges the government to bear responsibility for all Palestinian civil servants in the West Bank and Gaza.“The unity government should behave as a national unity government, not a Fatah government,” he said, adding that the payroll crisis is “political, not technical”. He lashed out at the banks’ refusal to receive the transfer of a Qatari grant to pay the salaries, considering it “unethical and unpatriotic”.Palestinian media quoted an official on Friday as saying that the only solution to the crisis is form-ing “a legal committee” that would be tasked to follow-up the issue. He explained that the commit-tee had been scheduled to begin its work prior to the Israeli escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories, but it has been stalled by the unrest.

Source:PIC

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Hamas official denies regional efforts to reach truce with Israel

6/7/2014

Senior Hamas official in Lebanon Osama Hamdan denied on Friday any effort exerted to reach a truce between his movement and Israel regarding the ongoing escalation in the West bank and the Gaza Strip. “Hamas’ message is clear: aggression is being inflicted on the Palestinians and this has to be stopped immediately,” he said. “The siege on Gaza is a part of this aggression.”He refused attempts of the Israeli occupation to impose new conditions on the Palestinian resistance by circumventing deals reached in 2008 and 2012.Hamdan denied reports of regional efforts to bring about a truce between Israel and Hamas. He noted that Egypt has not yet intervened for this purpose because the occupation wants to maintain its pres-sure on the resistance.Several media reports mentioned that Egypt is mediating between Hamas and Israel in order to stop the escalation and reach a truce. Hamdan said that the current aggression against the Palestinians has revealed the “hypocrisy” of many sides, which sees resistance as a form of “terrorism.”“The ongoing aggression has disclosed all attempts to hide Israeli cruelty,” he said. He insisted that security cooperation is “tyranny.”Palestinian fighters in Gaza have fired homemade rockets at Israeli settlements around the Gaza Strip in revenge for the Israeli campaign against Palestinians in the West Bank, which started when three Israeli settlers were kidnapped on 12 June.In response Israel is threatening it will carry out a massive offensive against the Strip in order to deter Palestinian fighters and stop rockets being fired.

Source: MEMO

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Israel vows revenge on Hamas, threatens to unleash gates of hell

7/7/2014

Israel threatened to hit Hamas with a final deathblow in case any other projected rocket attacks were launched on Israeli settlements near the Gaza Strip in response to Israeli raids.According to Israeli sources, the threat was handed over to Hamas by the Egyptian mediator.“This is the final red card ever issued to Hamas… Israel will now have all go-aheads to fire back,” Israeli 0404 website said quoting army sources.“Israel will take aggressive revenge of Hamas,” it added.In a related event, dozens of Israeli extremist settlers rallied in Ashdod so as to urge the Israeli occupa-tion authorities to press ahead with their retaliation threats and drive Arab MK Hanin Zoabi out of the Knesset.The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), for its part, warned the Israeli occupation of any potential repercussions to be generated by its military escalation against the Gaza Strip, slamming PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for his pre-planned participation in an Israeli conference to be held Tuesday.PLC chairmanship said in a press release Sunday: “We have all the reasons to appeal to international courts to take legal action against such Israeli military escalation, which has not only been targeting Palestinian civilians with random kidnaps, torture, and murders but also burned a 16-year-old child alive just a few days ago.”Israelis were contriving a new plan by which Palestinians would remain chained hand and feet, de-fenseless before such terror acts and bloodshed, the statement added.The PLC called on Egypt, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the UN, and other international human rights institutions to immediately step in so as to halt Israeli aggressions against Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.The PLC further spoke against Abbas’s normalization with the Israeli occupation and his apathy re-garding the agony of Palestinians Source: MEMO

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Netanyahu: Mossad is ‹spearhead of the State of Israel›

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his country’s intelligence agency Mossad as “the spearhead of the State of Israel”, Anadolu news agency reported.Netanyahu’s remarks came during a ceremony held yesterday evening at the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the agency’s operational wing.The ceremony was attended by former Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, Defence Min-ister, Moshe Ya’alon and Minister of Intelligence Affairs, Yuval Steinitz.In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office quoted Netanyahu as saying: “You are the spearhead of the State of Israel. The capabilities are big and are changing and developing and seem unattainable. The reality is changing at an amazing pace and the tasks conveyed upon you are increasing. The impor-tance of Mossad’s role increases and I will give you everything that you need in order to perform these duties. We applaud your work and big contribution in enhancing the security of Israel.”Meanwhile, Mossad Director Tamir Pardo praised “the operations carried out by Mossad since its establishment and until today.”Pardo is reported to have that Mossad is committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear military capabilities. This, he explained, is their mission. However this was not the biggest challenge Mossad faced, he explained “the greatest threat is the Palestinian issue”. SOURCE: MEMO

Israel Insider

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PCOM’s News

PCOM holds its 4th annual Iftar with wide Palestinian participation

8/7/2014

The Palestinian Cultural Orga-nization Malaysia (PCOM) held its fourth annual grand Iftar with the Palestinian Commu-nity in Malaysia, Sunday (6th July) with wide Palestinian par-ticipation and official Malaysia presence. The event was held under the auspices of Malaysian Home Minister, Dato’ Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and the spon-sorship of Restu Foundation’s Chairman, Dato’ Abdul Latiff Mirasa. The Iftar was held in Pu-tra World Trade Centre (PWTC) and attended by representatives of several governmental bodies, political parties, NGOs and Me-dia outlets.Over 800 Palestinians from all over Malaysia, including stu-dents, academics and business-men participated in the biggest Palestinian gathering in Malay-sia.In his speech, the Chairman of PCOM, Muslim Imran, has stressed on the importance of having such gatherings for the Palestinians in Malaysia to foster the ties of relation-ship among them, to keep the Palestinian cause alive in their minds and to activate their role towards it. Besides, achieving a cultural exchange between Pal-estinians and Malaysians.In the context of the current developments on the Palestin-ian arena, Muslim said that “the

Israeli occupation is assaulting our brothers in Jerusalem and West Bank and bombarding Gaza, in shadow of an International silence, Arab busyness and Palestinian official disability; which force the Pal-estinians to defend themselves with all possible means”. Muslim has also urged the concerned parties to pursue the campaigns in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails after they have suspended their hunger strike which lasted for 63 consecutive days.“The Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike was ended, however, their sufferings did not end, and I urge all media outlets to spot the light on their plight to convey their message to the free world”, he added.For his part, Dato’ Abdul Latiff Mirasa has expressed his appreciation to the efforts made by PCOM in mobilizing support to the Palestinian cause and in spreading awareness about it in the Malaysian society, besides, offering assistance and support to the Palestinian community members in Malaysia. Dato’ Latiff also urged all Malaysian NGOs and parties to intensify their efforts in supporting the Palestinian cause. The returns of “Al-Quran Mushaf Palestin” project that is accom-plished by Restu will be all channelled to the Palestinian people through several projects that are being planned at the moment”, he added.

Source: PCOM+PIC

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Media reports keep Palestinian struggle on track

7/7/2014

Continuous media reports, especially in Malaysia, on Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is a show of support in liberalising the country of Palestine and its people from tyranny.“The Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) chairman Muslim Abu Umar said such reports would also incite global anger, especially from Muslim countries, to provide assistance to Pal-estine in various forms, either in monetary or material form.“It also provides pressure on Israel to stop their aggression toward Palestinians,” he said when opening the PCOM’s 4th Annual Grand Iftar with the Palestinian community in Malaysia, here Sunday.PCOM Grand Iftar is an annual event that PCOM has been organizing over the past four years with the aim of bringing Palestinian community in Malaysia together with their fellow Malaysian brothers and sisters.Labelling such media reports as a form of jihad, a chivalric struggle, he urged media practitioners not to forsaken the Palestinians and their struggle for freeing their country. Muslim said such reports would also invoke Palestinians to not give up hope and keep on the struggle for generations to come in achieving the goal.Meanwhile, PCOM board of trustees Datuk Abdul Latiff Mirasa said Malaysia, as a peaceful Islamic nation, should unite in supporting Palestinians and against any oppression by Israel.“We have been together with other counterparts in realising to liberate Palestine from the Israel re-gime,” he said adding that the organisation had set up its offices in Palestine to generate international fund raising for the discourse.

Source: BERNAMA

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Special Report

Israel holds US boy without charge after police nearly beat him to death

By: ELECTRONIC INTIFADAH

Fifteen-year-old Palestinian-American Tariq Abukhdeir, cousin of recent lynching vic-tim Muhammed Abu Khudair, was brutally beaten by masked Israeli police on Thursday eve-ning in the Shuafat neighbor-hood of occupied East Jerusa-lem. He has since been arrested and held without charge and de-nied medical treatment, accord-ing to his family and the rights group Addameer.Tariq’s family lives in Tampa, Florida and have been on va-cation in Palestine since early June. They are scheduled to re-turn to the United States on 16

July. Tariq’s next court hearing is scheduled for Sunday, 6 July.As photos of Tariq’s horrific fa-cial bruises surfaced, so did two videos that show masked Israeli officers punching, kicking and dragging a handcuffed Palestin-ian in Shuafat.Salahedeen Khdeir, Tariq’s fa-ther, told The Electronic Intifada by phone from Shuafat that the Palestinian in the video is his son Tariq and that the footage was recorded by neighbors who then released it to a Palestinian media outlet.Salahedeen says Tariq was visit-ing his uncle’s house in an area

devoid of clashes between Is-raeli forces and Palestinians when he and five other youths were attacked in the yard by two masked Israeli police agents.Tariq was roughed up the worst, beaten so badly that he lost con-sciousness. But that didn’t stop the Israeli forces from arresting Tariq and the others without charge and preventing Tariq from receiving medical treat-ment for five hours.“Tariq was arrested at 7:35pm but wasn’t transferred to the hospital until around 1:30am,” said Salahedeen. During those five hours his parents were pre-

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vented from seeing him as well.At the police station, Salahe-deen came face to face with his son’s attackers, who called Tariq “a tough boy” and claimed he tried to attack them.

Kangaroo courtTariq’s parents did not see him again until Friday in an Israeli court where the judge extended his imprisonment another 48 hours as requested by the Israeli police, who argued they still needed to question him.The officers told the judge that Tariq and his cousins were throwing stones, an accusation Tariq and his family vehement-ly deny. When asked if they had any witnesses to the alleged stone-throwing, the officers said no, Salahedeen recounted.When Salahedeen showed the video of Tariq’s beating to the judge, he said, she was ap-palled and asked the officers why they beat a boy who was handcuffed. She also asked why Palestinian youths arrested for throwing stones appear in court with bruises while Israeli Jew-ish youths arrested for throwing stones appear unharmed.The officers responded, “When we tell the Jewish kids to stop throwing stones, they stop and let us lock them up. But the Pal-estinians kids want to fight,” re-counted Salahedeen.“Tariq is scared,” said his father, adding that his son speaks very little Arabic and no Hebrew, making an already nightmarish ordeal even more terrifying for the 15-year-old.Salahedeen begged the judge

to let him stay with Tariq in jail so he so he could check his son’s urine for blood each time he uses the bathroom, as advised by the doctor who treated the boy. This has led his family to fear that he may have internal bleeding. The judge denied Salahedeen’s re-quest, promising that she would personally notify the jail to look after Tariq.

“No protection for Palestinians”When asked if he expects any accountability or justice for the treatment of his son, Salahedeen said, “No way, this is Israel. There is no protection for Pales-tinians from the police or soldiers or army.”Referring to 16-year-old lynching victim Muhammad Abu Khudair, Salahedeen added, “My cousin was kidnapped from outside and got killed after 45 minutes and we gave the police pictures of the kidnappers, the car tags, exactly when and where he was taken and still the police say maybe this is a family problem.”“He’s a good boy, he’s good in school, he loves soccer, loves mu-sic,” Salahedeen said of his son. “This is the first time he went to sleep far away from his home. And where does he end up? In a jail next to the people who hit him almost to death.”Asked whether the State Depart-ment is aware that an American child is being held without charge by Israel, a State Department of-ficial responded, “We are aware of these reports but have no com-ment due to privacy consider-ations.”Salahedeen says he has an ap-pointment on Saturday with the

US consulate, which had not yet responded to a request for com-ment at the time of publication.The Palestinian prisoner rights organization Addameer reports that Tariq is one of eleven Pal-estinians who were beaten and arrested in Shuafat on Thursday, many of whom were minors.“The continued state-sanctioned violence against children is un-lawful and unacceptable,” Ad-dameer stated in an appeal for protests against Tariq’s treat-ment.“Addameer urges immediate ac-tion and calls on the United Na-tions, the International Commit-tee of the Red Cross, the United States consulate and all regional embassies and consulates, hu-man rights organizations and journalists to attend Tarek Abu Khdeir’s hearing on Sunday 6 July to investigate the intensi-fied aggression against Palestin-ian children,” the group added.

US family prayBack in Tampa, Tariq’s family is praying for him.“My whole family is in shock,” 22-year-old Ala Kader, Tariq’s cousin, told The Electronic Inti-fada over the phone from Tampa. Ala grew up with Tariq, who she says is like a little brother to her.As a Palestinian, Ala is used to seeing horrifying images out of the region whenever the conflict heats up.“But to see it happen to your own family members in your hometown from thousands of miles away is devastating,” she said.“It makes your heart go crazy.”

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Issue no 99