Dear Friend,

I hope to send within the next week £1,000 to the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin. The Brighton Trust have pledged that we will help keep them open and I ask that if you can afford it that you make a donation, large or small to our appeal here

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-keep-open-jenin039s-al-tawfawk-centre

As people may know Israeli troops raided the Centre last May, during the attack on Gaza, and smashed it up, gouging holes in the doors, destroying the water supply and electricity boxes and even ripping up children’s books.

See my article in Al Jazeera

The attack on the Centre did not take place in a political vacuum.  Political violence by the settlers – burning of crops, attacks on Palestinian farmers and even Israeli Jewish peace activists accompanying them is becoming the norm.  As the settlers grow in number the reign of terror is increasing.

We Will All Die. But Why Like That?

You may have heard of the murder of 80 year old Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad who was bound, beaten and tossed to the ground and left with a gag over his mouth in freezing weather.. An autopsy found that the brutality he suffered resulted in a fatal heart attack. Unknown to the savages who killed him, Omar had dual American-Palestine nationality and this has, apparently, resulted in the dismissal of the soldiers, but no charges have been made.

If this was an Israeli who had died then the air would be thick with charges of ‘terrorism’. Those responsible would have been handed life sentences. But as it was only a Palestinian who was murdered, dismissal from the army is considered punishment enough (and who knows, when the media spotlight is elsewhere they will probably be quietly readmitted).

For Over a Year, Israel Has Jailed a Palestinian Teen With a Rare Disease. There's No Trial in Sight

What you probably haven’t heard of is the arrest, under administrative detention, i.e. prison without trial, of Amal Nakhleh, a 17 year old boy. Despite two Israeli military judges ordering his release (in itself unusual) he has been kept in gaol. In this article from Gideon Levy, of which I cite the first paragraph Levy asks

‘What do the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces have against a teenager in high school, whose father says he doesn’t know the difference between ideology and biology, who suffers from a rare autoimmune disease and who in 2020 underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his chest? Why do they imprison him repeatedly, without trial, without an indictment, without any consideration for his age or his health?’

Because the issue was raised by the Americans, who are getting more and more of these reports, their Police/Security Minister Omar Bar Lev, an Israeli Labor Party member, met with US State Department officials to try and allay their concerns.

Bar Lev merely tweeted that the two discussed “settler violence and how to reduce tensions in the area and strengthen the Palestinian Authority.”

But that in itself was enough to draw the ire of Prime Minister Bennett, who was quoted in The Times of Israel thus:

‘Omer Barlev, who is responsible for police, drew rebukes from pro-settlement ministers and right-wing opposition lawmakers after saying he had discussed rising violence by West Bank settlers against Palestinians with a senior American diplomat.

“Settlers in Judea and Samaria have suffered violence and terror, daily, for decades,” Bennett tweeted, referring to the West Bank. “They are the defensive bulwark for all of us, and we must strengthen and support them, in words and actions.”

The openly and proud racist Ayelet Shaked, the Interior Minister said Bar Lev was “confused.” Shaked declared:

“The settlers are the salt of the earth,” she wrote on Twitter. “The violence that one needs to be shocked by is the dozens of cases of the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails at Jews that occur every day, just because they are Jews, and all this with the encouragement and support of the Palestinian Authority.'

In Arutz Sheva, the settler news agency, they were even more truculent.

Minister under fire for talking about 'settler violence'

There is only one conclusion to be drawn which is that settler violence against the Palestinians is condoned because the purpose and logic of Israeli policy is not simply settlement but the transfer of the Palestinians over the Jordan.

Why do I mention this?  Because Israel is engaged in an attack against Palestinian civil society of which the Al Tafawk Centre is but a part.

Last November Israel banned 6 Palestinian human rights groups as ‘terrorist’ organisations. Literally support for human rights in the Occupied Territories is the equivalent of ‘terrorism’ in the eyes of the Israeli state.

That is why I am appealing to you to help me raise the £1,000 necessary in order to ensure that the only organisation catering to the children of the Jenin refugee camp, which is constantly raided by the Israeli military is kept open.