Dear friends,
 I live in Susiya, a small Palestinian community in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank and have worked at B’Tselem for five years, as coordinator of the camera distribution project in my area. In my work, I have frequently documented the Israeli military's destruction of homes, livestock pens and water cisterns and heard the cries of children, women and old people during these demolitions.Now the specter of demolition hangs over my own family, my own children, and I feel a terrible sadness. My family has been expelled three times from its home, once before my birth and twice during my childhood. Since 2001, after the Israeli High Court allowed us to return to the village and our homes remained standing, we dared to hope that perhaps this was the end of it. These latest demolition orders have driven my father to profound grief and despair. My son Ahmad, who is five, and his brother Lith, who is three, have never experienced demolition. I hope very much that we can prevent them from experiencing it now. To read my Op-ed on +972 blog click here. For background information, click here.
Nasser a-Nawaj’ah, B'Tselem Field Researcher | | Levy Committee Report: Where are the Palestinians? | On 9 July 2012, the media published the recommendations of a government-appointed committee on "steps to be taken to regularize construction" in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Given that the Levy Committee was founded explicitly to find ways of legalizing illegal acts, it is not surprising that its conclusions appear tailored to the settlement agenda. The report's conclusions have no basis in international law and almost completely ignore the people most hurt by the establishment of settlements, the two and a half million Palestinians of the West Bank. | | READ MORE >> | | Border Police in Hebron abused a schoolboy, ‘Abd a-Rahman Burqan, twice in one month |  On 29 June 2012, a B’Tselem volunteer documented an assault on a 9-year-old boy, ’Abd a-Rahman Burqan, by Border Police officers in Hebron. B’Tselem also took testimony about an attack on ‘Abd a-Rahman on 3 June 2012, which was not documented on video. In the first incident, a Border Police officer allegedly chased ‘Abd a-Rahman and, after catching him, stepped on his hand and kicked him, then released him. B’Tselem contacted the Military Investigations Unit (MIU) on 1 July 2012 about that incident. A few hours later, B’Tselem received video documentation of the second incident. After the media publicized the video, the MIU notified B’Tselem that it would begin investigating both incidents.
| | READ MORE >> | | Suspicion of abuse: Soldiers detained a 13-year-old boy and abandoned him at night, handcuffed |  Testimony taken by B’Tselem indicates that during April 2012, soldiers arrested Muhammad a-Zir, age 13. According to the testimonies, the soldiers beat the boy during his first detention, during which he was interrogated without his parents present in contravention of the law regarding detention of youths. Following both subsequent detentions, the soldiers left him at night with his hands cuffed, somewhere unknown to him, and far away from his home. B’Tselem contacted the Military Police Investigations Unit (MPIU) demanding that it open an investigation into these incidents.
| | READ MORE >> | | Ulpana evacuation: Bibi's shell game in the West Bank |  In a piece in Foreign Policy, B'Tselem's Executive Director puts the evacuation of the 5 buildings in the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El settlement in their broader context. In fact, writes Jessica Montell, the Ulpana evacuation only further expands and entrenches settlements at the expense of Palestinians' rights and welfare. B'Tselem also provides background information on the Ulpana case.
| | READ MORE >> | | Following B’Tselem’s documentation: Israeli army will stop using dogs to disperse demonstrations |  On 15 June 2012, the Haaretz newspaper reported that, following a demonstrator’s injury in Kafr Qadum after an Israeli soldier set a dog on him, the army had decided to stop using dogs to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank. The Kafr Qadum incident was documented by a B’Tselem volunteer, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel contacted the Judea and Samaria Division Command demanding that soldiers be reminded that they are forbidden to use dogs to attack civilians in general and demonstrators in particular.
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