Daily Archives: 6 June 2012

IDF closes Palestinian school to make way for West Bank training zone

open quoteA Palestinian elementary school was shut down last week after Israel’s Civil Administration confiscated the vehicle used to transport teachers to it.

Teachers initially tried coming to the school, located in the Jinba cave village in the southern Hebron hills, by donkey, but this proved disruptive since they were often late.

On Sunday, the administration also confiscated the car of a veterinarian employed by the Palestinian Authority when he came to the village to vaccinate sheep. The vehicles were seized as part of a stepped-up enforcement campaign in Area C, the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control.

The Civil Administration also issued a demolition order against the school, though residents have no access to any other school: The nearest is in Yatta, 20 kilometers away.

In addition, it ordered an access road, tents, mud huts, sheepfolds and solar energy facilities razed, reinstating demolition orders frozen by agreement with the state prosecution in 2007.

In 1999, the area was declared a live-fire exercise zone by the Israel Defense Forces, meaning people aren’t allowed to live there. close quote (Read more)

Cave-dwelling Palestinian farmers facing eviction from homes

open quoteA unique way of life in the West Bank is under threat after Israel renewed a legal bid to evict more than 1,600 cave-dwelling Palestinian farmers from their land in the desert hills near the Biblical city of Hebron.

srael’s defence ministry is expected to seek court approval this week to destroy up to 12 traditional “fellaheen” communities situated in an area designated as a training zone for the occupying Israeli army.

The issue has threatened to heighten tensions with the Palestinian leadership, which has refused to resume peace talks with Israel as long as it continues to build settlements on land it occupied in the Six Day War of 1967.

It has also set the Jewish state on a collision course with European powers, particularly the British government which funded the construction of cisterns and sanitation facilities for the cave-dwelling communities, home to some of the poorest Palestinians in the West Bank. close quote (Read more)

‘Big brother’ lamp posts can hear, see and bark ‘Obey!’ at you

open quoteAmerica welcomes a new brand of smart street lightning systems: energy-efficient, long-lasting, complete with LED screens to show ads. They can also spy on citizens in a way George Orwell would not have imagined in his worst nightmare.

­With a price tag of $3,000+ apiece, according to an ABC report, the street lights are now being rolled out in Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh, and may soon mushroom all across the country.

Part of the Intellistreets systems made by the company Illuminating Concepts, they have a number of “homeland security applications” attached.

Each has a microprocessor “essentially similar to an iPhone,” capable of wireless communication. Each can capture images and count people for the police through a digital camera, record conversations of passers-by and even give voice commands thanks to a built-in speaker.

Ron Harwood, president and founder of Illuminating Concepts, says he eyed the creation of such a system after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster. He is “working with Homeland Security” to deliver his dream of making people “more informed and safer.”close quote (Read more)