By Daoud Kuttab

Closed-circuit cameras have always been part of Israel’s high-tech approach to security, but in recent months, the presence of cameras and Palestinians’ use of cell phones have come back to haunt the Israeli security establishment.

A security camera perched on top of the store owned by Hussein Abu Khdeir provided key evidence in the kidnapping and murder of his son Mohammed, showing the Israelis involved and the car in which they abducted him. It was a cell phone camera that captured Israeli policemen beating Mohammed’s subdued 15-year-old Palestinian-American cousin, Tariq, who was visiting Jerusalem, on vacation from Tampa, Florida.

A month ago, Israeli officials and spokesmen were caught off guard on May 15, when a security camera atop a carpentry shop captured Israeli soldiers’ unprovoked shooting of two Palestinian school boys in the Beitunia area. Israeli officials, believing that there were no cameras at the site, claimed that the soldiers had not used live bullets and that those shot with rubber bullets had been throwing stones at soldiers. Autopsies and the security camera exposed their attempts to falsify reality. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Rev. Atallah Issawi, pastor of a Protestant church in the West Bank village of Aboud, and his wife, Hilda, were driving home the night of July 5 after attending a wedding in Ramallah. Issawi’s church, along with an excellent private school in their predominantly Christian village, had been established by missionaries from the US-based Church of God in the 1960s. Traveling with the Issawis was another couple, Rev. Musa Allawi and his wife, Palestinian citizens of Israel from Ramleh.

The four passed an Israeli army checkpoint, where they were told to be careful because a group of angry settlers was roaming around. After continuing on their way, they fell into a trap and were ambushed by stone-throwing settlers.

Issawi told Al-Monitor that he felt that he was about to be killed. The Palestinians managed to speed away, despite a broken windshield and other damage to the car. All the passengers escaped injury and worse. The settlers followed them but quit the chase when the Palestinians found refuge in the nearby village of Deir Abu Mishaal. Palestinian residents there protected and comforted the travelers while they waited a few hours for the Israeli army to decide to respond to the settlers’ hooliganism and order them off the roads.

Such settler attacks are occurring alongside officially sanctioned Israeli army roundups of Palestinians, including parliamentarians. The total number of prisoners has reached nearly 700 according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club. Arrests have continued after the discovery of the bodies of the three missing Israelis that resulted in the latest round of detentions. Continue Reading »