Israel threatens to demolish ‘illegal’ Bedouin school

20.11.2009, 15:02

For the first time in the century-old history of the Israeli kibbutz, a Bedouin has been accepted as a member of one.

14.03, 21:35

Hundreds of Palestinians will be left without electricity should Israel’s order for the demolition of 8 solar panels in the West Bank go ahead, in what many say is an attempt to drive Palestinians out of the Israeli-controlled part of the territory.

Palestinian statehood 20.03, 17:08

Israeli settlers have taken over dozens of natural water springs in the West Bank, limiting or barring Palestinians from access to much-needed fresh water, according to the UN report. Israelis deny that the access has been banned.

20.08, 14:06

Israel spends money on settlements in the West Bank that it could use for housing for the poor, Talia Sasson said in an interview with RT. The Israeli attorney authored a 2005 report that documented the illegality of Israel’s West Bank settlements.

10.08, 19:01

The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the demolition of eight Palestinian villages on the West Bank. The Israeli Defense Ministry says it needs this land for military exercises and will displace some 1,500 Palestinians.

02.08, 00:57

Israeli authorities are set to approve a grant program for building hotels in occupied West Bank territories. This is despite repeated UN warnings that Jewish settlements there are illegal under international law.

Published: 03 September, 2012, 15:22

A Palestinian school girl walks outside her classroom at a Bedouin camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank near Jericho.(AFP Photo / Abbas Momani)

TAGS: Scandal, Politics, Human rights, History, Immigration, Israel, Education

Israel has threatened to demolish a Bedouin encampment in the West Bank that contains a school, claiming that the community was built without appropriate permits and was hindering the development of new Israeli settlements.

­The Khan Al-Ahmar elementary school was built in 2009 with the help of local and international humanitarian groups. The clay-and-tires structure employed 11 teachers, and instructed students belonging to some five neighboring Jahalin Bedouin tribes. Israeli authorities have issued a demolition order, claiming that the encampment containing the school was built illegally.

Demolishing the school would force the children to trek across the desert to Jericho for class, the closest place where education facilities are located. The Israeli military claimed that they will not destroy the school or the encampment until an alternate learning institution for the students is located.

According to UN reports, Tel Aviv has ordered the demolition of around 3,000 structures, including homes, cisterns, solar-power generators and 18 schools, including the Khan al-Ahmar Mixed Elementary School. Only 360 such demolitions have been carried out so far.  

Israeli authorities believe that moving the indigenous population to planned communities will lift them out of poverty. Bedouin communities argue that their culture and its centuries-old traditions are being jeopardized by Jewish expansion.

The children of the Jahalin tribe previously attended school in Jericho, about 20 kilometers away, but school bus service was often unreliable. Locals now say that they may have no other choice: "We'll go to school until it's demolished," the Washington Post cited 10-year-old Islam Hussein as saying,

Khan al-Ahmar is one of 20 Bedouin communities that are scheduled for relocation. Bedouin families have lived there since 1951, when refugees fled the Negev region during Israel’s war for independence. The West Bank is currently home to 300,000 Israeli settlers,

In September 2011, the Israeli government approved the ‘Prawer Plan,’ which called for the mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab desert. At the beginning of 2012, Tel Aviv announced a plan to establish ten new settlements along the disputed Green Line.

More than 70,000 Bedouins in 35 villages live in territory clamed by Israel. The settlements are considered to be ‘unrecognized’ by the Israelis, and the inhabitants are often referred to as ‘trespassers on state land.’

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad talks to school children during a visit to a school at a Bedouin camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank near Jericho.(AFP Photo / Abbas Momani)

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Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad talks to school children during a visit to a school at a Bedouin camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank near Jericho.(AFP Photo / Abbas Momani) Today: 15:00

The crew of the International Space Station was forced to ration electricity after three solar panels malfunctioned last week. The astronauts were forced to deactivate some scientific equipment, and are preparing for a spacewalk to make repairs.

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Anonymous threatens violent Mexican drug ring

03.11, 21:02

Anonymous moved from targeting Wall Street, corrupt governments and corporate sites last month. The latest attack from the hacking collective rather was directed at an unaware group that navigated the web for child porn assumingly undetected.

25.10, 22:29

An attack on Fox News from the hacker group Anonymous has been a longtime coming. Now the collective says that an infiltration on the website for the Fair and Balanced news network will occur next month with Operation Fox Hunt slated for November 5.

Occupy Wall Street 16.08, 19:39

As many as 100 protestors in San Francisco, California successfully closed down four subway stations in the city’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system yesterday, signaling the latest bout in a battle between activists and the San Fran transit cops.

26.07, 20:13

If your position at Homeland Security requires you to keep cyber attacks at a minimum, you might not have been doing your job justice as of late.

18.10, 20:42

In the days before President Obama approved American-led airstrikes in Libya without congressional go-ahead, the White House considered using cyberwarfare to attempt to crush the army of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Libyan conflict Osama Bin Laden killed 28.10, 20:53

With wounded veteran Scott Olsen unable to speak following an assault from police during a raid on Occupy Oakland earlier this week, thousands of Americans across the country are lending their voice to the movement to do the talking for the hero.

Occupy Wall Street

Published: 04 November, 2011, 00:57

Mexican army soldiers stand guard around a car where a forensic team works on recovering corpses of alleged members of a drug cartel in Veracruz, on October 30, 2011 (AFP Photo / Lucas Castro)

TAGS: Crime, Health, Scandal, Drugs, Internet, Information Technology, Corruption, USA, Culture, War, North America

Hackers with the online collective Anonymous say that they will press on with a war against their latest target despite threats of certain death. Anonymous says they are about to battle it out with the notorious Mexican drug cartel the Zetas.

­Citing an abduction of a fellow hacker as the motivation for their upcoming assault, Anonymous members say that they will release thousands of names connected with the Zetas drug cartel if their comrade is not released by Saturday, November 5. According to Anonymous hackers, they’ve illegally obtained around 25,000 emails from the Mexican government which they will leak online to out people affiliated with the Zetas through a mission they are calling OpCartel. They say that the roster they’ve managed to put together by combing through the governmental emails identify at least 75 individuals affiliated with the Zetas.

Anonymous officials say police officers and other authorities are all connected to the violent drug ring. Given the notoriety of the Zetas and the seriousness of the ordeal, leading hackers with the collective say that only veteran “Anons” should participate in the online onslaught.

Unofficial Anonymous spokesperson Barret Brown of Texas has posted a video to YouTube in which he warns rookie hackers to sit out this sting, but despite acknowledging the possibilities of an attack on the Zetas, he says he isn’t scared.

"I mean, it's a drug cartel, they're violent people," says Brown. "But they're not going to come streaming up the street in downtown Dallas and kill me."

Others say that that might exactly be the case.

Stratfor, an internationally renowned security company, tells The Guardian that the Zetas have already hired experts in an attempt to hunt down the Anonymous users responsible for the rally. According to Stratfor, this could mean “abduction, injury and death" for any hackers that are caught.

Earlier this week disemboweled bodies were founding hanging from a bridge near the border city of Nuevo Laredo, where the corpses were accompanied with signage warning social network users to keep "funny things" off the Internet. Both of the deceased were young bloggers who wrote about the drug ring.

Earlier this week, however, Brown warned the Zetas via his Twitter account that he was serious himself. “Give us back our Anonymous participant or many of you die within a week,” he tweeted.

Another Twitter user aligned with Anonymous using the handle @Sm0k34n0n also called participating in the leak as a risky maneuver and warned new members to not partake. He added, however, that trying to stop the movement from happening would mean equivocate to pledging allegiance to the Zetas.

Brown adds that this attack won’t necessarily take down the Zetas, but it will pose a problem for the drug lords. He did say, however, that it could open the door for further Anonymous assaults in the future.

"Fundamentally, there's no way to stop the Zetas or any other cartel other than legalizing drugs, which is something that's more of a long-term ambitious effort that Anonymous could potentially pursue,” Brown says in his YouTube video.

In the meantime, however, Anonymous officials have confirmed that they do plan to go ahead with their attack on the Zetas, regardless of whether some hackers say it isn’t the best move for the collective to make. Many Anons have already retreated and given up on the cause and no hackers have yet to provide concrete proof that they have in fact obtained the 25,000 emails they say they have in their possession.

"Are we afraid? Clearly so. Do we fear for our lives? Obviously. Notwithstanding that, we think it is time to say 'enough,'" reads a statement posted by the group on the Anonymous IberoAmerica website. "We will go ahead with the operation, because people have asked us to."

Brown has appeared on YouTube unmasked speaking to the Zetas and Anons and shows no sign of backing down, even with his identity out in the open for a Zetas-ordered hit. When asked why he showed his face, Brown responded "because I was asked to do so by several Mexicans who are risking their lives for this, too."

03.11, 22:57

As unemployment remains stagnant, it’s easy to see that impoverished Americans are growing in numbers. A recent analysis of census data offers an even sadder insight, as a report reveals that 1-in-15 Americans live below half of the poverty line.

Today: 03:53

A new IAEA report is expected to show that the country of Iran is investing in nuclear activity and it has America and its allies running scared. Is it a legitimate threat or is the US fishing for reasons to invade?

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