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About AIC

The Alternative Information Center (AIC) was established in the 1980s to provide deep insight into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Mission & Vision

The MISSION of the (AICP) is to promote the national Palestinian identity and to contribute to the building of a free.

Objectives

To contribute to the articulation and application of effective policies to advance a free and democratic Palestinian society
Articles
27 November 2022

AIC-P Alert To defend and protect the Palestinian children

The Alternative Information Center - Palestine, then, follows with great
concern the arrests taking place throughout the Palestinian territories, and
looks with concern at what human rights organizations and institutions
interested in the issue of detainees document during this year, especially in
recent months, in which arrests against Palestinians intensified, especially
the arrests and abuse of detained children grave violation for children's
rights.
In 2022, it was observed that the frequency of arrests increased in the West
Bank and Jerusalem, and it was noted that it included a large percentage of
children, as well as both male and female sexes. Hardly a night passes
without arrests in various areas of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and these
arrests are accompanied by physical assault on detainees, especially
children. Also, the contents of the homes of the detainees' families are
tampered with and destroyed. The detainees are also transferred in most
cases, especially in the West Bank, to military centers, where they are
subjected to physical beatings, psychological humiliation, intimidation,
deprivation of sleep for long periods, lack of food, and poor and poor
quality, especially during periods of interrogation with the detainees by
investigators from the Israeli security and intelligence services to obtain on
confessions by detainees.
Occupation forces deliberately storm homes after midnight and early dawn
hours. - Not allowing parents to attend the investigation of children's arrest
cases. Not allowing the detainee to consult a lawyer.- Forcing detainees,
especially children, to sign written statements in the Hebrew language that
Palestinian children do not master, without certain knowledge of the content
of the statement.- Blackmail and bargaining with children: the intelligence
and police deceive children by saying that they will release them if they
accept the charges, addressed to them. And in the event that they refuse to
convict themselves, it will arrest their families.- Beating children during 
arrest and during interrogation.- Restraining children with plastic shackles.-
Insults, insults, and contempt.- Threats of death and sexual violence.
A few days ago, the Palestinian Prisoners Society indicated that 750 children
have been arrested since the beginning of this year, and some of them were
arrested while they were injured as a result of shooting by the Israeli forces,
and some of them sustained bruises and wounds due to being beaten after
and during arrest. The Society indicated that among the detainees are three
minor girls who are languishing in "Damon" prison, and they are Nodhout
Hammad (16 years old) from Jerusalem, Zamzam Al-Qawasmeh (17 years
old), and Jannat Zaidat (16 years old) from Hebron.
The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs documented
testimonies of two young men who were beaten and abused during their
arrest by the Israeli occupation forces. The lawyer for the commission, Heba
Masalha, stated that a large force of the occupation intelligence and police
arrested the boy, Muhammad Samer Abu Al-Hawa (16 years), from the town
of Al-Tur, east of occupied Jerusalem, after raiding his house at five in the
morning, searching his house and turning its contents upside down, and then
taking him to detention rooms. "Al-Maskoubiya", which remained inside it
for 19 days. This is just an example of hundreds cases
In the same context, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Education
issued a statement on the 20th of November on the occasion of International
Children's Day. The report included the arrest of 770 child students since the
beginning of the year, 160 of which are still in detention. According to the
report based on documentation and follow-up by the teaching staff, the
detained children were subjected to physical pressure. Physical and
psychological insults and insults by the soldiers the moment after their
arrest. Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association-Addameer reported
last May “The Israeli occupation authorities place children in inhuman
conditions of detention and lack the minimum international guarantee of
children’s rights. The nature of the rooms in which they are held are rooms
that lack proper lighting and ventilation, and this is of course in addition to
the medical negligence practiced by the occupation authorities against the
cubs and the lack of clothes and food. The children were subjected to
beatings, isolation, abuse, and heavy financial fines were imposed on them,
especially the children in O’fer prison, where the fines imposed on them
during the months of March and April amounted to 78,000 Israeli shekels,
and during the month of May, they reached more than 60,000 Israeli
shekels”.
The occupation authorities, by defining the legal age of the child as sixteen
years, which violates the international standard for the age of the child,
which is eighteen years, and by this they are violating the international rules
and conventions on the age of childhood to evade the legal violation in
violating the rights of children "Military Order No. 132, issued in September
24, 1967, which defines a Palestinian “child” as a person under the age of
sixteen, in contradiction with the text of Article No. 1 of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as every human being under
the age of eighteen, and with the Israeli penal code which defines an Israeli
"child" as a person under the age of eighteen.
At a time when cases of arrests of children are escalating in the West Bank
and Jerusalem, the Alternative Information Center - Palestine appeals to the
international community, international bodies and governments in the world
stand up to their duties in protecting children in Palestine, and to put
pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to respect and implement
international conventions on the protection of children. In this context, the
Alternative Information Center - Palestine appeals to these international
organizations to:
-Condemning and denouncing the Israeli detention policy against
children in Palestine
-Call on international organizations, especially those concerned with
children's rights, to put pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to
stop the arrest of children and the violations against them.
-Call on the United Nations to oblige the Israeli occupation authorities
to respect international laws and conventions for the protection of
children and to stop arrests for them.
Articles
21 November 2022

The International Solidarity with Jabal al Baba

It can be said that the international solidarity movement with the Palestinian
people has expanded and increased in recent years. This movement, over time,
turned into an effective force through the organization of delegations and direct
attendance to be present with the Palestinians in their villages and areas,
especially those threatened with confiscation from the occupation or settlers. Or
by organizing events and activities in their countries to pressure their
governments to take more serious stances and intervene with Israel to stop these
violations against the Palestinian people or in helping farmers work on their land
that was threatened by confiscation and the assaults committed by settlers,
especially during the olive harvest season, or by carrying out campaigns and
solidarity activities in their countries, especially in Europe and elsewhere, to
pressure their governments to take positions in support of the Palestinians due to
the continuous violations by the Israeli occupation or/and settlers. The means and
techniques of social communication and the development of communication
technology are also being help to mobilize the solidarity movement at the
international level.
The Palestinians are dealing with interest to these solidarity movements in order
to help them in their steadfastness and face the daily violations of their rights and
are seeing that these movements are an important force in circulating what is
happening in Palestine at the global level in favor of the justice that the Israeli
occupation violates in Palestine.
The methodological starting point of the Solidarity Movement is based on the
justice and humanity of the Palestinian case, and confronting and exposing the
violations committed by the occupation authorities, and their violation of the
international charters, the rules of human rights and international law.
What the Palestinian community is facing in the Jabal al-Baba area, east of the
town of Al-aizaria in the Jerusalem governorate, is one of the issues that
constituted a title for the international solidarity movement, because of the



demolition of homes, the confiscation of lands, and the threat of expulsion and
displacement of 70 families, numbering 450 people, who live in the community.
The Chairperson of the community, Atallah al-Mazara’a, says that “the
international solidarity movement with the community formed a state of hope
among the residents of the community to stop the Israeli violations and stop the
demolition and displacement decisions, and also helped and strength them to
resist and confront.” He adds that “this solidarity movement was through the
presence of foreign delegations to show solidarity with the people at the site And
disseminating what is happening through the media, social media, videos, etc., as
well as organizing activities and events in their countries, explaining what is
happening to decision makers, including members of governments,
parliamentarians, and institutions, and mobilizing public opinion against Israeli
policies of displace the community”.
The field visits of the activists of the solidarity movements and the international
civil society of what is happening in Jabal al-Baba is important, and there is also
importance for the international official level to be informed of this issue by
visiting the site and looking at its circumstances, and listening to what the victims
say and their stories of suffering. In this frame, the Alternative Information Center
- Palestine , NovAct and the Municipality of Al-aizaria organized a field tour two
weeks ago for a number of diplomats in Palestine. The delegation met with the
Chairperson of the community and listened with interest to what happened and is
still happening in Jabal al-Baba.
Solidarity of the International Community with the case of Jabal al-Baba is
important and necessary for what the Israeli decision to demolish the community
and displace its residents means a gross violation of the right of housing, and the
right to enjoy the owners on their land. It is a decision that leads to the
displacement of 450 people in the open without housing, and it is a racist policy
where the decision means displacing the original people in order of building and
expanding settlements and bringing settlers to live in these settlements, which is
a violation of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the occupying
power from bringing its citizens to settle in occupied areas.

Ahmad Jaradat
Articles
19 November 2022

Demolition Homes in Jerusalem: Systematic deportation

Perhaps one of the most important and dangerous methods used by the occupation and Israeli
authorities and the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem in Jerusalem to harass and displace Palestinians is
the policy of demolishing homes and leaving Palestinian families in the open without shelter. Almost a
week does not pass without a house being demolished in this or that Palestinian neighborhood in
Jerusalem.



The demolitions are concentrated in the neighborhoods closest to the outposts and settlements in
Jerusalem, especially the town of Silwan, Jabal Mukaber, Shuafat and Al-Tur. In recent days, the
Jerusalem municipality demolished the Dabash family's home in the village of Sur Baher, south of
Jerusalem. The house has an area of ​​7 square meters, and four people live in it. The demolition was
done by bulldozers, after the police besieged the Qusyan neighborhood where the house is located.
It is true that the Jerusalem municipality gives the Palestinians the right to object to the demolition to
the Israeli courts, but in most cases the courts agree to the demolition decision.
The policy of self-demolition of houses. It seems that it is not enough for the Israeli court to decide to
demolish houses in Jerusalem, but it also requires the owner of the house to demolish it himself instead
of having the municipality demolish it in exchange for the owner paying the demolition fee. It is a harsh
punishment for a person to demolish the house he built. It is a policy described by the homeowners as
aiming to break their morale. Muhammad Jaabis, from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood in Jerusalem,
was forced to demolish his house, in which 7 of the family lived. Jaabis said, "I demolished my house to
avoid a heavy fine of 100,000 shekels in case the municipality demolished it, and despite my sadness
and pain that he resisted the demolition of the house that I built, I cannot pay the fine."
At a time when the Palestinians in Jerusalem are being restricted in building houses and urban
expansion, there is an accelerated settlement expansion in the Palestinian neighborhoods and bringing
in more settlers, which Jerusalemite Researcher Rasim Obeidat confirms to Alternative Information
Center” it is an implementation of the Israeli approaches towards the Israeli aims and plan of an Israeli
majority and a Palestinian minority in Jerusalem”.



The demolition of homes in East Jerusalem, as it is an occupied area in accordance with international
legitimacy and United Nations resolutions, is a violation of these resolutions and the international law
applicable to East Jerusalem, which prohibits the occupation from destroying property
The right to adequate housing is considered one of the basic human rights that have been codified by
declarations, covenants, and various international agreements. It is forbidden to violate this right,
especially if the violation is part of a policy of ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination against a
particular group, or it comes as a collective punishment. House demolitions constitute a clear violation
of international human rights declarations and conventions that guarantee the right of the individual to
adequate housing, especially Article 25/1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11 (1) of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, and Article 5/E/3 of the

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965 guarantees the
right to housing.

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