Israel: Knesset votes down death penalty for terrorists

The Jerusalem Post
Only Yisrael Beytenu MKs voted in favor of a bill in favor of a bill that would make it easier to sentence terrorists to death on Wednesday.

The bill by MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) would change the current law allowing death penalty only in a case of judicial consensus, which was only used against Adolf Eichmann, to one allowing a majority of presiding judges to sentence a terrorist to death.

On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted, at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's prodding, against the proposal and to form a committee that will examine, over the next three months, the possibility of changing the law pertaining to the death penalty.

In the plenum Wednesday, Gal listed the names of the many right-wing ministers and MKs who professed to support the bill before the prime minister came out against it, and called on them to vote according to their conscience and not narrow political interests.

"You are being tested," he said to them. "Give the courts credit that they will know when to use the law, but give them tools. You would rather give a prize to terrorists than Yisrael Beytenu."

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked responded that she supports the death penalty and even proposed a bill to implement it in the last Knesset, but the government's position is to oppose Gal's bill and allow the new committee to make recommendations.

Gal gathered the 20 signatures necessary to hold a roll-call vote, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Minister Without Portfolio Ofir Akunis, both of whom said they support death penalty for terrorists, were absent. Other MKs and ministers who openly backed the bill voted against it.

A Bayit Yehudi source said Bennett skipped the vote intentionally, because he did not want to vote against the death penalty, but Shaked could not get away with absenting herself because she is the chairwoman of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.

African migrants protest against Israel's new open-ended detention law

The Guardian

Demonstrations in Tel Aviv prompt rare and strongly worded condemnation of policy by UN high commissioner for refugees

Thousands of African migrants protest in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv.
Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters

Thousands of African migrants, many holding banners demanding freedom for compatriots jailed by Israel, have staged a protest in Tel Aviv against Israel's new open-ended detention law that allows migrants to be sent to a desert prison.

The protests prompted a rare and strongly worded statement from the UN refugee agency, saying Israel's incarceration of migrants, including family breadwinners, caused "hardship and suffering" and was not in line with a 1951 world treaty on the treatment of refugees.

Human rights groups say more than 300 people have been arrested since the law, which allows authorities to detain migrants without valid visas indefinitely, was passed by Israel's parliament three weeks ago.

Dozens more have been summoned for detention, among them men with wives and children, according to rights activists and the United Nationshigh commissioner for refugees (UNHCR).

About 60,000 migrants, largely from Eritrea and Sudan, have crossed into Israel across a once-porous border with Egypt since 2006, Israeli authorities said.

Many live in poor areas of Tel Aviv and say they want asylum and safe haven. Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, has said he views the presence of many of the Africans as a threat to Israel's Jewish social fabric.

An Israeli border fence has cut off the African influx from Egypt since 2012, but migrants who have already crossed can be sent to what the government describes as an open prison in Israel's southern desert.

The new facility, which was the focal point of the protests by 10,000 in Tel Aviv, is similar to a halfway house. Detainees can leave during the day but must report back by nightfall.

Migrants can be held there without a time limit pending voluntary repatriation, implementation of deportation orders or resolution of their asylum requests.

In a written statement, Walpurga Englbrecht, the UNHCR representative in Israel, said she was "particularly disquieted" about the newest Israeli facility that "would appear to operate as a detention centre from where there is no release. This means in effect indefinite detention".

She urged Israel to look for new solutions, saying that warehousing refugees was not "in line with the 1951 refugee convention".

Englbrecht also criticised Israel's labelling of many migrants as "infiltrators," saying most were refugees or deserved international protection.

"Placing asylum seekers in duress that may force them to opt to return without having examined their asylum claims could amount to a violation" of the refugee convention, she said.

Hotline for Migrant Workers, an organisation supporting the Africans, accuses Israel of pressuring hundreds in its jails to accept payouts and leave. More than a dozen agreed to leave for Eritrea earlier this year in order to win release from jail.

Israel/OPT: Gaza power crisis has compounded blockade’s assault on human dignity

Amnesty International
Israel must immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip, including by allowing the delivery of fuel and other essential supplies into the territory without restrictions, said Amnesty International today.

For the last month, all of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents have been living without power for most of the time and in the shadow of a public health catastrophe, after their sole power plant was forced to shut down, causing the failure of several sewerage and water plants.

“This latest harsh setback has exacerbated the assault on the dignity of Palestinians in Gaza and the massive denial of rights they have experienced for more than six years because of Israel’s blockade, together with restrictions imposed by Egypt,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

“The blockade has collectively punished Gaza’s population in violation of international law. The power plant shutdown has further affected all aspects of daily life, and the Israeli authorities must lift the blockade immediately, starting by allowing urgently needed fuel supplies into the Strip and working with all relevant parties to avert a prolonged humanitarian crisis this winter.”

The power plant, which until recently supplied 30 per cent of the Gaza Strip’s electricity, ran out of diesel fuel on 1 November. The resulting shutdown has exacerbated an ongoing water and sanitation crisis and has left Gaza residents without power for 16 hours a day.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, all 291 water and wastewater facilities in the Gaza Strip are now relying on standby generators, which are also affected by the fuel shortages. On 13 November a large sewage pumping station failed in al-Zaytoun, south of Gaza City, allowing more than 35,000 cubic metres of raw sewage to spew into the streets.

Local authorities have struggled to clean up the spill, leaving some 3,000 residents wading through sewage. The clean-up finally began on 29 November, according to local residents, following efforts by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other agencies, and an emergency donation from Turkey to pay for fuel for critical sewage stations.

“The reason for the flood of sewage was the blockade,” a resident of al-Zaytoun told Amnesty International. “The question is, why is the blockade being allowed to continue? What is our crime? There is no justification for this situation. We just want to live like any other people in the world.”

Ten other sewage pumping stations in the Gaza Strip have been forced to divert sewage to open channels, lagoons, or the sea during the last month, and other stations are close to overflowing.

Before the current crisis, some 90 million litres of raw or partially treated sewage were being dumped into the sea off Gaza every day. Since the power plant shutdown, more raw sewage is being dumped into the sea. For years, more than 90 per cent of the water extracted from the Gaza aquifer has been polluted and unfit for human consumption due to the infiltration of sewage and seawater and prolonged over-extraction because of Israel’s disproportionate use of water resources.

Water supply to households across the Strip, which was already rationed, has also been reduced since the power plant shutdown. Some 65 per cent of Gaza’s population only receive water once every three or four days.

“For each day that the Gaza power plant does not receive fuel, the risk of a massive public health crisis increases. Access to adequate sanitation and drinking water are fundamental human rights. The power plant shutdown should never have been allowed to happen,” said Philip Luther.

Hospitals and other health facilities throughout the Gaza Strip have been relying on their own generators during the lengthy power outages. But the generators are also affected by fuel shortages, jeopardizing essential services like kidney dialysis, operating theatres, blood banks, intensive care units, neo-natal care, and laboratories, putting patients’ lives at risk.

Businesses, construction, and much agricultural work have also ground to a halt amid the power cuts and shortages of fuel and building materials. This has further reduced the incomes of many households who already had trouble meeting their basic needs.

Bakeries have reduced production and people are forced to queue to buy bread. Transportation throughout the Strip has been curtailed; carts pulled by donkeys are now being used to collect solid waste. The Strip’s schools and universities have also been affected.

Since June 2007, when the Israeli blockade was tightened, Gaza’s energy, water, and sanitation infrastructure has been inadequate to fulfil the basic rights of its inhabitants. They were already poor due to prior Israeli restrictions and decades of neglect.

Before the power plant shut down, Gaza already suffered from a chronic electricity shortage and routine power outages. Since 1 November, the electricity currently supplied to the Strip – which is purchased from Israel and Egypt – covers less than 40 per cent of the population’s needs.

A main factor triggering the shutdown was the Egyptian military’s campaign to destroy tunnels between Gaza and Sinai – more than 90 per cent have been removed since June 2013. Since early 2011, the power plant was run on Egyptian diesel brought in through some of those tunnels – the amount dropped from about 1 million litres per day in June 2013 to around 20,000 litres per week in November.

Amnesty International is calling on the Egyptian authorities to facilitate construction of new power lines to increase the electricity supply to the southern Gaza Strip and work with Palestinian and Israeli authorities to find a sustainable solution to the fuel crisis.

Background

On 28 June 2006, Israeli aircraft fired eight missiles into the Gaza power plant, destroying all its transformers. Israeli restrictions on imports of construction materials, spare parts, and fuel impeded reconstruction. These restrictions were tightened after Israel imposed a complete air, land and sea blockade on Gaza in June 2007, when Hamas established a de facto administration in the Strip.

As the occupying power, Israel has the primary responsibility for addressing the current crisis by immediately increasing fuel supplies to Gaza. It must also address the long-term crisis by completely lifting the blockade, including by allowing fuel into Gaza without restrictions, allowing construction materials and equipment necessary for repairing and maintaining vital infrastructure, and increasing electricity supplies to Gaza by facilitating the construction of new power lines.

Continuing disputes between the Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority over payment and taxes are also a factor in the current crisis. Both authorities must co-operate so that the power plant again receives a steady supply of fuel and can resume operations.

According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only about a quarter of the water and sanitation projects in Gaza included in the 2013 Consolidated Appeals Process have been funded.

Ethiopia's Falash Mura repatriated to Israel

BBC Africa
About 450 Ethiopians of Jewish descent have been repatriated to Israel, concluding an Israeli government-backed scheme to relocate the community.

Their migration was "historic", Israel's Minister of Absorption Sofa Landver is quoted as saying.Many members of the Falash Mura community lived in poor conditions in northern Ethiopia.
The Falash Mura's ancestors converted to Christianity under pressure in the 19th Century.
They have been waging a decades-long campaign to be allowed to settle in Israel.

'Welcomed'Their campaign has been plagued by controversy, as some Israelis questioned their Jewish links while others accused the government of not doing enough to help them.
Continue reading the main story
“Start QuoteI am proud to take part in this historic event”Sofa LandverGovernment minister

In 2010, the Israeli government agreed to resume its repatriation programme, dubbed Operation Dove's Wings, after it was halted two years earlier.

The 450 migrants had been living in transit camps in Gondar city in northern Ethiopia, as they waited to go to Israel.

They were the last of some 8,000 Ethiopians who qualified for repatriation under the scheme.

The group flew into Israel's Ben Gurion airport in two chartered flights, with their relatives on hand to welcome them.

"Three years after I advised the prime minister of Israel to bring Operation Dove's Wings to an end, to close the compound in Gondar and to complete the journey of organised aliyah [migration] from Ethiopia, I am proud to take part in this historic event," Ms Landver said, the Jewish Press reports.

Some 12,000 members of the Falash Mura community in Ethiopia have not been granted permission to move to Israel, the Times of Israel newspaper reports.

About 90,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel since it was founded in 1948.

They make up one of the poorest sections of Israeli society.

Israel to free Palestinian prisoners over Kerry talks

BBC News

Israel says it will release a number of Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement made with US Secretary of State John Kerry to resume peace talks.

More than 4,000 Palestinians are
thought to be held in Israeli jails

Yuval Steinitz, minister responsible for international relations, said it would involve "heavyweight prisoners in jail for decades".

Mr Kerry announced on Friday that initial talks would be held in Washington "in the next week or so".

The Israeli minister's remarks are the first details of the deal.

Mr Kerry had declined to tell reporters in Amman what the two sides had agreed to, saying that the "best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private".

The agreement came at the end of four days of frenetic shuttle diplomacy, on Mr Kerry's sixth visit to the region in the past few months.

Mr Steinitz told Israeli public radio that the deal adhered to the principles set out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for kick-starting the talks.

The release of prisoners would take place in stages, he said.

While the number of detainees to be freed is unclear, one Palestinian official said discussions had earlier focused on the release of 350 prisoners over a period of months, including around 100 men held since before 1993, when Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo peace accords.

According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 4,817 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails.

For their part, the Palestinians had committed themselves to "serious negotiations" for a minimum of nine months, said Mr Steinitz, who is a member of the prime minister's Likud party.

But he made clear that Israel had not accepted Palestinian pre-conditions, including a halt to settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"There is no chance that we will agree to enter any negotiations that begin with defining territorial borders or concessions by Israel, nor a construction freeze."

Israel and the Palestinians last held direct talks in 2010, which were halted over the issue of settlement-building.

Settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Announcing the agreed resumption of talks, Mr Kerry warned that while it was significant, it was still "in the process of being formalised" and the issues that needed to be tackled were "complicated".

One of the major sticking points for the two sides is the issue of territorial borders.

Palestinian officials say a core demand is that Israel recognises pre-1967 ceasefire lines but right-wing members of Mr Netanyahu's coalition had refused to accept talks based on the issue.

Mr Kerry praised the Arab League's decision to back the plan and said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni would be travelling to Washington to hold the "initial talks".

Israeli commentators point out that while Mr Erekat has been in discussions with the Israeli PM, the Washington talks will not yet involve Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A spokesman for Mr Abbas said "progress has made it possible to agree on the principles that allow for the negotiations to resume".

The Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, Russia, the EU and UN, welcomed the "huge achievement" made by Mr Kerry and his team.

Ms Livni responded optimistically to Friday's developments on her Facebook page, saying "four years of diplomatic stagnation" were about to end, after "months of scepticism and cynicism".

She promised to protect Israel's "national and security interests", saying that she was convinced the talks were "the right thing" for Israel's future.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has rejected the announcement of a return to talks. "Mahmoud Abbas does not have the legitimacy to negotiate on fateful issues on behalf of the Palestinian people," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Israel - More than 60 Israeli laws discriminate against Palestinians

Middle East Monitor

The laws cover areas such as education,
 the national budget, public services,
civil rights and even prisons and prisoners

The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) has revealed that the Israeli authorities have drafted more than 60 laws which discriminate against their Palestinian citizens. The laws cover areas such as education, the national budget, public services, civil rights and even prisons and prisoners.

"Some of these laws also violate the rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories and Palestinian refugees," said the Adala website.
To mark the International Day against Racism and the swearing in of the new Israeli government on Friday, Adala said that it is going to launch a computerised database of all discriminatory laws in Israel. As well as analytical studies and petitions filed to the Israeli Supreme Court against such laws, the database is going to include briefs in Arabic, Hebrew and English. Draft bills waiting to be proposed in the Knesset will also be included.