Number of Palestinians killed rises year on year as firearms stolen from Israeli military proliferate on streets There has been a break in the rain, and the sun is shining on the orange groves of Bir al-Maksur, a quiet Bedouin village near Nazareth in Israel’s north Three-year-old Ammar would have loved splashing in the winter puddles outside the Hujarat family’s home the little boy was shot and killed in a playground by a stray bullet fired during a car chase and the grieving family is trying to make sense of the way his life ended “The police don’t care what happens to Palestinians so [the gangs] know they can kill children while they are playing and nothing will happen The gang violence means people in Israel’s 2-million-strong Arab minority are far more likely to be killed by fellow Arabs than Palestinians in the West Bank are by Israeli security forces. The prevailing assumption in the police to date, as one senior Israeli official put it has amounted to: “As long as they are killing each other Abir Hatib holds a picture of her son Mohammad Hatib who was killed when a masked man broke into the house and opened fire Photograph: Quique KierszenbaumAbout 20% of Israel’s population of 9 million people identifies as Arab encompassing Bedouin and Druze as well as Muslim and Christian Palestinians they are granted the same civil and political rights as Jewish citizens; in practice these communities face severe institutionalised discrimination In Arab and mixed-ethnicity neighbourhoods across the country the gun violence crisis is a grim illustration of the issues facing minorities living in the Jewish state Organised crime networks are deeply embedded in Arab society who turn to mob bosses for loans when Israeli banks refuse their applications Corruption and extortion in local politics is rife The community distrusts and fears the police leading Palestinian citizens of Israel to turn to traditional methods to solve disputes such as the sulha a conflict resolution mechanism – in this context usually between rival clans or families But with young Arab men the worst hit by the unemployment crisis caused by Covid-19 the streets are now full of well-armed foot soldiers willing to carry out hits for their bosses or The result is tearing at the social fabric that sustains these marginalised communities the Guardian met more than a dozen people in the central city of Lod and towns around Israel’s “Arab triangle” who have lost innocent loved ones to gun crime was killed by crossfire in August 2020 as she stood at the kitchen sink in the family’s second-floor apartment She was found after the couple’s two-year-old tried to get her to wake up I can’t even go back into the apartment now,” he said Other killings are calculated acts of brutality Chitam al-Wahwah’s youngest son Anas – an 18-year-old star student and volunteer with the ambulance service – was shot and killed in his car while she sat in the passenger seat in what was apparently retribution for the wrongdoings of a distant member of the family And sometimes feuds escalate thanks to the widespread availability of guns neighbours Abier Hatib and Zahya Nasra lost their teenage sons after members of a rival clan opened fire on a group of young men hanging out one weekend last March Killings of women by their partners and other male family members are also on the rise “What is happening now is the reality of what happens when schools opportunities for a whole people are withheld the police cracked down on the Jewish mafia Israel has the best security infrastructure in the world but the police can’t catch some Arab teenagers with guns It shows exactly how much we are valued as citizens.” Only about a quarter of Arab murder cases were solved last year compared with about 70% of murders of Jewish citizens – a disparity Israel police said in an emailed statement reflects that homicide investigations are “fraught with challenges” including “lack of cooperation on the part of citizens” Muhamad Abu Muammar holds a picture of his wife Sharifa Abu Muammar who was killed by a stray bullet while preparing a bottle of milk for her baby in her kitchen Photograph: Quique KierszenbaumAll of the families the Guardian met said their offers to help with investigations or entreaties for information on the progress in solving their cases had gone ignored who agreed to testify against his wife’s killers but nothing in the way of help from police except a roadblock at one end of his street Israel’s new coalition government – which for the first time includes an Arab party – has made combating crime in the Arab community a central promise to the public budgeting 1bn shekels (£230m) for more police stations in Arab towns and a special unit dedicated to Arab community affairs the Israeli cabinet minister for public security acknowledged it would take time for people to “really be convinced there is a change” “In the last six months there has been a 30% jump in the number of people arrested and brought to trial,” he said “Things were never done before with the intensity we are doing it today.” For victims who are organising and supporting each other through Mothers For Life the umbrella group bringing Arab women’s voices to the forefront of politics for the first time relatives and strangers from far and wide who had come to pay their respects is the only thing keeping me strong right now,” said Aisha I never expected this would happen to us … I hope this anger will do something This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page By 2020-05-01T08:30:00+01:00 ISRAEL: Government-owned project management company Trans Israel Ltd has launched the prequalification process for the planned Haifa – Nazareth tram-train route seeking international consortia and local companies to tender for a US$838m PPP concession to design Intended to link the Greater Haifa metropolitan area with the Nazareth & Galilee Panorama the route will start from Haifa’s Merkazit HaMifratz station It will serve the business district in Kiryat Ata and the towns of Shfar’am the largest Arab city in Israel and a popular tourist destination Trans Israel General Manager Dan Schoenbach says the project will create ‘an efficient large scale public transport network’ for northern Israel The line is expected to carry more than 100 000 passengers per day The tram-train vehicles are expected to operate in light rail mode through Nazareth and Nazareth Illit and at up to 100 km/h on the inter-urban railway section to Haifa There would be up to four services each way per hour at peak times A joint venture of Spanish company Ineco and Israel’s Yenon Research & Design was awarded a US$90m contract in March 2019 for initial planning and design work the project is still at the preliminary design stage and it has not yet been decided what electrification voltage would be used He estimates that between 30 and 40 LRVs will be required Total cost of the scheme is estimated at US$1·96bn The project is being procured in two stages Infra 1 covers land clearance and utility relocation together with construction of the civil works including bridges and road diversions Infra 2 covers the PPP concession to finance including the supply of railway systems and rolling stock Prequalification has been started three months ahead of the original schedule as the Ministry of Transport & Road Safety is keen accelerate work as part of the policy to revitalise the economy following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic with tenders for the concession due to be called in the fourth quarter of 2021; the line is expected to open in 2027 Bidders seeking to prequalify for the concession are expected to demonstrate their experience managing infrastructure projects design and installation of railway systems manufacturing and supply of rolling stock and the operation and maintenance of light rail or metro projects ISRAEL: The €1bn PPP contract to design operate and maintain the 41 km Nofit Light Rail inter-urban line between Haifa and Nazareth has been signed by the HN - Light Rail Line Ltd consortium and project promoter Trans Israel ISRAEL: The Ministry of Transport & Road Safety and project promoter Trans Israel have selected the Group Three consortium of Alstom Electra and Minrav for a PPP contract to finance design and construct the railway systems and rolling stock for the Nofit Light Rail line and .. ISRAEL: Four consortia have been invited to submit best and final offers for the concession to build and operate the Nofit interurban light rail line between Haifa and Nazareth They are: Shapir (Israel) and CAF (Spain); Alstom (France) Electra and Minrav (Israel); Comsa (Spain) Site powered by Webvision Cloud The little piece of land that the Khawaled family lives in is located east to Yagor-Somech road on one side and just down from the “Israel Trail” on the other Many travelers knew the family’s hospitality when they literally passed through their back yard traveling that trail on a Saturday morning then-Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri recognized it as a permanent village and it was slowly connected to electricity and sewage infrastructure Later the district of Zvulun granted it permission to expand up to 240 dunams–a very small amount of land for the growing village–that had already reached 400 people This regional plan does not leave a single inch of land left for development in the next 20 years as well as his sister’s and his son’s houses despite the fact that they are located only a few hundred meters from the current village’s border they don’t have sewage infrastructure and in 2007 they received demolition warrants They told the court that their houses have been standing before 1945 but put a restriction on any further development on the their land that same verdict included a small paragraph which said that if the house were to be included in public territory the Israel Land Administration presented a plan to turn the area into a national park the court ruled in favor of demolition within two years In the last two weeks the family has received daily visits by different police officers who have announced orally that the family has a week to leave the area and move to the recognized lands of the village of Khawaled presented by the Israel Land Administration itself the lands are privately owned by the Khawaled family It seems that the Israeli administration has decided to give the northern Bedouin community a hard time too after abusing the Bedouins in the South for decades houses in the Bedouin village of Zbidat were demolished all the young men of the village were called in to the police for investigation they found that their houses were demolished in their absence the authorities came to demolish a house in the village of Bir El-Maksur Almost all the young Bedouins of Bir El-Maksur serve the IDF On the house about to be demolished was an Israeli flag–soon to be brought down in the riot that broke out there is a Palestinian flag on the top of the new house that was rebuilt What’s the big plan of the Israeli goverment there was another discussion in a Haifa court in the case of the Khawaled family The family asked the court to delay the demolition warrants The judge answered that there is no basis for holding back and asked the district representative why the warrants were not carried out already After a long discussion–throughout which the family was supported by activists from Tarabut Movement–the judge decided to give a three-week delay This might enable the family to achieve the warrant’s dismissal to which the main key lies in the hands of the head of Zvulun Council If he asks the Minister of Interior for an expansion of Khawaled village borders It is quite clear that in 20 years time the village will expand and reach the family’s land Why destroy the life of a family who just asks to hold on to what is rightfully theirs Activestills is a collective of Israeli united by a conviction that photography is a vehicle for political and social change We believe in the power of images to shape public attitudes and to raise awareness on issues that are generally absent from public discourse We view ourselves as part of the struggle against all forms of oppression and violations of the basic right to freedom Our images are frequently published by many leading human rights as well as by alternative and leading news media like Activestills on Facebook or visit our Flickr photostream Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7 Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives Can we count on your support +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.