OIC chief condemns Israeli crimes against Palestinians

The Palestinian boy, who was run over by an Israeli vehicle after involvement in the stabbing of an Israeli boy, has become the center of heated, high-level name-calling between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders – reflecting the abyss between them after a monthlong spike in deadly violence.

The military’s deployment of six companies to back up thousands of police marks the first implementation of steps approved by Israel’s security Cabinet early Wednesday, which also include stripping attackers of their Jerusalem residency rights and demolishing assailants’ homes.

In this round of violence, Palestinian attacks on Israelis have largely been carried out by individuals with no ties to militant groups.

Palestinian leaders are responsible for inciting teenagers into perpetrating the current wave of violence against Israelis, a leading Palestinian human rights activist has said. A 16-year-old Palestinian boy stabbed two Israelis about 150 yards from the entrance, police said.

Israel has deployed 300 soldiers in Jerusalem and throughout the country to try to stop the most serious eruption of Palestinian street attacks since an uprising a decade ago.

The Obama administration has issued a strong condemnation of Palestinian incitement and assaults against Israelis. “We’re calling on the Palestinian Authority to play a positive role….” During the same period, 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 14 identified by Israel as attackers, and the others in clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli troops. When attackers have been apprehended alive, angry mobs have often kicked or punched them. Palestinian media experts say the vast majority of Palestinians between the ages of 12 and 22 use social media. He lunges at the officers and is shot.

He told The Independent the group of settlers came down a hill from the direction of the Yizhar settlement towards Palestinian farmland near the village of Burin where he and two other British women. “This is the key to peace and stability”, said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official.

But even with the heightened security, more violence hit Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Ziv Stahl, Research Department Director, Yesh Din said: “We are in the midst of the olive harvest season, and Burin is a known friction area, where Yesh Din has documented numerous violent incidents against Palestinian farmers”. “Then the information we had was that he is clinically dead”.

The criticism of Israel’s response, not surprisingly, is loudest in the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu swiftly accused Abbas of “lies and incitement”.

Speaking on Wednesday, the OIC chief said that the Knesset’s green light for the occupation forces to use live ammunition against Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem represents official “endorsement of the criminal operations” and a very public authorisation for the killing and oppression of Palestinians without any due legal or humanitarian process.

“There could have been many ways to arrest those people, but they chose to shoot in order to kill, and this is what happened in many cases”, he said, calling for an worldwide investigation.

The USA has also expressed concerns that Israel may have used excessive force in subduing a few of the attackers – a claim Netanyahu rejected.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Thursday that Israel is using “exactly the kind and amount of legitimate force” that any other government faced with seemingly spontaneous stabbing attacks would use.