Media Unit /Fella Zeid, Palestinian News, January 13th 2015

• Israel closes charities for alleged Hamas ties
• Spanish FM arrives in Gaza for short visit
• Erekat: France to continue support for Palestine
• Israel Keeps Palestinian Prisoners In Cold Weather As Torture
• Occupation Foreign Affairs Document Warns Global, European Anti-Israel Tsunami
• Netanyahu, Obama re-slam Palestinian ICC bid
• PCHR: Serri’s plan institutionalizes Israeli siege on Gaza

Israel closes charities for alleged Hamas ties
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency on Monday closed two Muslim charities suspected of channeling funds to finance "terror", a police statement said.

It identified the institutions as Muslim Women for Al-Aqsa, in annexed East Jerusalem, and Al-Fajr in the city of Nazareth in northern Israel.

They were suspected of financing "organizations which identify with Hamas" and encouraging activists to confront visitors to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Jews are allowed to enter the compound itself, but are forbidden from praying there.

Ultra-nationalist Jews regularly visit the esplanade under armed guard, causing tension with local Palestinians who view the visits as an attempt to establish Israeli sovereignty over the holy site.

"The charities... are suspected of paying activists who go every day to the Temple Mount and when groups of visitors arrive they use verbal and even physical violence against them, in a manner that threatens the personal safety of the visitors and strikes at religious freedom," the police said.

The statement said police removed computers, documents and bank records from the two offices and detained for questioning an undisclosed number people suspected of "financing terror, money-laundering... and tax offenses."

Spanish FM arrives in Gaza for short visit
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Spain's Foreign Minister José García-Margallo arrived in Gaza on Tuesday for a short visit to the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The Spanish FM entered via the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing and is scheduled to visit areas devastated by Israel's military offensive.

A press conference will be held at the UNRWA-run al-Bahrain school, which is still housing several families who lost their homes during Israeli airstrikes.

He will also visit projects funded by the Spanish government.

Erekat: France to continue support for Palestine
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday praised the French position toward the Palestinian cause, saying France would continue supporting Palestine.

Erekat told the Mawtini radio station that French President Francois Hollande had informed President Mahmoud Abbas that France would support a future Palestinian resolution for statehood at the UN Security Council.

He said that during Abbas' trip to Paris for Sunday's anti-terror march, Abbas delivered a letter to Hollande from Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In the letter, the prisoners spoke of their solidarity with the French people in the wake of last week's attacks. They also condemned the Israeli government's "terrorism" against Palestinians, Erekat said.

He added that French media had covered the Palestinian people's solidarity with France during the anti-terror march.

On Sunday, Abbas traveled to Paris to march with world leaders and hundreds of thousands of people in the wake of deadly attacks in France the previous week.

Palestinians held their own solidarity marches in Ramallah and Gaza City.

Israel Keeps Palestinian Prisoners In Cold Weather As Torture
PNN/ Bethlehem
The Palestinian Prisoner Club said that Israel tortures Palestinian prisoners by putting them in outdoor detention amidst severe cold.

The group has filed an appeal with the Israeli High Court, calling on Israeli officials to provide adequate clothing and blankets for prisoners held in Israeli jails, as many of them are kept in outdoor prisons with no heat, Press TV said.

The appeal, which was rejected by the court, also included reports that Israeli interrogators use the practice as a form of torture.

According to the Palestinian prisoner groups, the move has put many prisoners at the risk of losing their lives or suffering severe frostbite due to cold, sleet and wind.

"The Israeli occupation is using the extremely cold weather to kill the Palestinian prisoners as its interrogators expose them to the cold weather in order to extract confessions," said Issa Qaraqe, the head of the Palestinian committee for prisoners.

Qaraqe further urged international human rights organizations to intervene on behalf of Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli regime.

Israeli authorities reported a similar incident last year when Palestinian children were placed in an outdoor cage during a storm.

Some 7,000 Palestinians, including 16 women and 250 children, are currently being held in Israeli prisons. Israeli forces arrested over two thousand of them last summer amid increasing tensions in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

Palestinian media earlier this month reported that prisoners residing in Israeli jails are suffering from serious health problems, yet they are not receiving proper medical treatment.

Occupation Foreign Affairs Document Warns Global, European Anti-Israel Tsunami
PNN/ Bethlehem
Israeli occupation foreign affairs on Tuesday sent document to all its that warns from a global anti-Israel tsunami, and especially in Europe, Ynet said.

According to Ynet, the document displayed the diplomatic and political Israeli fears for the year of 2015, saying that clues showed many parliaments and governments were willing to recognize Palestinian state.

The document also said that many European countries as well will take punitive measures against Israel and will shift towards more Palestinian dealership.

It said that the European countries will step up the activeness in the area and will take punitive measures against the settlement expansion in addition to halting Euro-Israeli projects in (C) areas, and also warned from the expanding Boycott Israel academic campaigns, especially in Europe.

The document added that the US may not veto any International Palestinian bid for retrieving the Palestinian state and end the Israeli occupation after the elections in March.

The document also added that some counties will halt their investments and arm-trade with Israel.

It finally warned from the "Leftist extremism" in the European governments and parliaments which may break the Euro-Israeli bond.

Netanyahu, Obama re-slam Palestinian ICC bid
WASHINGTON, (PIC)-- U.S. President Barck Obama Monday briefed the Israeli premier on Washington’s positions vis-à-vis the latest Palestinian request to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Barack Obama spoke by phone on Monday with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about ongoing nuclear talks with Iran and about the Palestinian move to join the ICC, the White House said.

"President Obama underscored that the United States does not believe Palestinian accession to the ICC is a constructive way forward," the White House said in a statement, reiterating the U.S. position that the Palestinian Authority is not a sovereign state and does not legally qualify to join the Rome Statute.

"The United States continues to strongly oppose actions by both parties that undermine trust, and encourages both sides to seek ways to deescalate tensions," the statement read.

Earlier, on Friday, the Palestinian delegation to the UN delivered the paperwork to Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Stephen Mathias, asking for membership in the ICC.

The Palestinians moved quickly to join the court after suffering a defeat at the U.N. Security Council, which rejected a resolution that would have set a three-year deadline for the end of the Israeli occupation.

PCHR: Serri’s plan institutionalizes Israeli siege on Gaza
GAZA, (PIC)-- Head of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Raji Sourani stated Monday that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry’s plan for the reconstruction of Gaza institutionalizes Israel’s siege on the Strip.

During his meeting with the German Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office Christoph Strässer, Sourani confirmed that the UN plan for the reconstruction of Gaza in coordination with the Israeli and Palestinian authorities is a new attempt to “institutionalize the siege”.

He warned that the siege has become strategic, saying that Gaza’s reconstruction is an impossible mission in light of the continued blockade.

The Palestinian human rights activist accused the unity government of not bearing its responsibilities towards the besieged Strip.

He also pointed out that the Egyptian authorities’ closure of the Rafah crossing has doubled the suffering of the people of Gaza.

Four months have passed since the end of Israeli summer aggression on Gaza, however nothing has been achieved as far as the reconstruction is concerned, he continued.

He briefed the German delegation about the human rights violations reported in the Strip after the last aggression, pointing to his center’s efforts along with a number of Palestinian human rights centers to prosecute Israeli war criminals and to document human rights violations with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He said that Israel has practiced and is still practicing “the law of the jungle” against the people of Gaza.

Sourani pointed to the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the besieged Strip, stressing the urgent need to provide international protection for the civilians in Gaza during times of war according to international laws and the Fourth Geneva Convention.