Canadian doctor shot by Israeli sniper asks Trudeau to fund Gaza hospital project

MICHELLE ZILIO- JUNE 19, 2018

A Canadian-Palestinian doctor, who was recently shot on the Israeli-Gaza border, met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tuesday and asked for $15-million in government funding to support the installation of solar panels on hospitals in Gaza.

Tarek Loubani met Mr. Trudeau on Parliament Hill, where he talked about his ordeal and the ongoing health crisis faced by Palestinians living in Gaza. Dr. Loubani, a 37-year-old emergency physician from London, Ont., made headlines last month when he was shot by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border while providing medical care for Palestinians injured during demonstrations against the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

Speaking to reporters following his meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr. Loubani said he asked Mr. Trudeau for Canadian foreign-aid funding to support the installation of solar panels on hospitals in Gaza, which he estimates would cost about $15-million. Hospitals in Gaza operate on only four hours of electricity per day and backup generators tend to fail, Dr. Loubani said, often forcing emergency-room doctors and nurses to work in darkness.

“That will provide care and electricity for all the intensive-care units, all the operating rooms and all the dialysis machines in the hospitals in Gaza, as well as solar power for primary health clinics,” said Dr. Loubani, who is also an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario’s medical school.

“I am very grateful for the interest and the attention that all members of the government, opposition and other parties have taken in what is fundamentally a humanitarian project, that is not political.”

He also met with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and MPs from all the major federal parties during his visit to Ottawa. 

Dr. Loubani expressed gratitude to Mr. Trudeau for his statement deploring the shooting and his calls for an independent investigation into Israel’s use of live ammunition against civilians.

”That statement saved lives. That statement changed what happened and, in fact, the next week after that statement during the protests, no live ammunition was used on protesters,” he said.

Dr. Loubani, who has served as an emergency field doctor in Tanzania and conflict zones such as Iraq and southern Lebanon, said he was wearing a green surgeon’s outfit and standing with several orange-vested paramedics about 25 metres from the protests at the border when he was shot on May 14.

He was helped by Palestinian paramedics on the scene, including 36-year old Musa Abuhassanin. About an hour later, Mr. Abuhassanin was shot and killed by a sniper while providing medical help to protesters north of where Dr. Loubani was shot.

More than 2,700 Palestinians suffered injuries and 60 people were killed by Israeli gunfire that day – the bloodiest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 2014 Gaza war. Hamas, the Islamist terror group that controls Gaza, admitted that 50 of the 60 Palestinians killed were members of their militant group.

Dr. Loubani has said he will “fully co-operate” with an Israeli military investigation into the shooting, although he has expressed doubts about the impartiality of Israel‘s military investigating actions taken by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). He said he could not comment further on the investigation Tuesday, as it is ongoing.

“I’m not losing sleep over this investigation. I’m really interested in making sure that the problems I saw that caused the desperation that drove these protests get better so that the lives of people in Gaza and the Palestinians in general are improved through the good work of humanitarians everywhere, the government of Canada and Canadians.”

Ms. Freeland said last month that Canada is talking to other partners about setting up a neutral inquiry to shed light on Israel’s use of live ammunition against Palestinian protesters, as well as the shooting of Dr. Loubani. Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Nimrod Barkan, said his country will not co-operate with an international inquiry and said Israel has a right to defend its borders.

With files from Reuters

Turkey's economic crisis: Is it down to 'foreign agents' or mismanagement?

With elections looming, Turkey's political rivals battle over who to blame for the country's economic troubles

Turkey's economic successes and failures are under scrutiny ahead of elections (Reuters)

Kaamil Ahmed

Wednesday 20 June 2018

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Heard before they are seen, tucked away in a cluster of alleyways on the fringes of the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul’s famed money traders sit in huddles, juggling phones and jostling for attention.

The droning racket they conjure as they out-shout each other to announce the latest dollar exchange rate intrudes on the general sleepiness of their surroundings, brought on by economic anxiety, absent tourists and Ramadan-induced grogginess.

The news delivered by the “pushcart stock market”, as the marketplace is known, has taken on more significance in recent months as the country battles the historic lows the Turkish lira has been hitting because of deepening economic trouble.

Economic success has bolstered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) through 16 years of undisturbed electoral success. But ahead of momentous presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 June, that record is being undermined by surging inflation and interest rate hikes aimed at containing the currency's instability.

While the opposition blames the current symptoms on the shortfalls of an economic programme that sacrificed industry and trade for an internal construction boom, the government has insisted the source lies elsewhere - with “foreign agents”. One of the election’s key battles may be over which telling of Turkey’s economic story resonates most with an electorate adapting to new hardships.

Turkey's currency reached its lowest ever point in 2018

"It’s chaos. When it's changing this fast, it's easy to lose money. With one customer I can make a profit and with the next I lose money," said Abdulrahman, a money trader in his forties who reluctantly pried himself from his phone but did not want to be fully named.

Despite his business, as a middleman between customers and difference exchange bureaus, relying on the currency rates, he saw no fault in the government’s economic strategy.

“This is a scheme to undermine Turkey’s success and influence the election results,” the trader, who had spent his whole working life in the market, told Middle East Eye. “They are doing what they did to Iran and Russia.”

Though he would not name which countries he believed behind the alleged scheme against Turkey, Abdulrahman was convinced an external power with billions of dollars in Turkish markets had maliciously withdrawn them to hurt the currency.

“World leaders talk very differently [to the past]. In the old times they were serious, they were thinking twice before talking about something. Now in other parts of the world, someone makes a stupid statement, says something really reckless and it affects this market,” he said.

He and other Erdogan and AKP supporters believe in a narrative of unprecedented economic development in Turkey; bridges and tunnels connecting Europe and Asia in Istanbul, the modernisation of neglected neighbourhoods and airports that link disparate cities in a country of unwieldy size and terrain.

Crammed into alleyways, Turkish money traders shout the latest currency fluctuations (MEE/Kaamil Ahmed)

But that focus on construction and the reliance on investment and loans is exactly where some of Erdogan’s opponents see flaws.

“It was just a temporary heaven and now he can take us to an economic hell,” opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Aykut Erdogdu, a former civil servant in Turkey’s treasury, told MEE.  

Erdogdu said the AKP economic programme was fragile, increasing Turkey’s debt, privatising national industries and failing to distribute income fairly.

While gleaming shopping malls and new developments have sprouted as apparent markers of prosperity in parts of Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey has consistently remained one of the most unequal of the 37 high-income countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Learning to sacrifice

Amid the stalls selling discounted fresh produce from around Turkey that form the vast weekly food market in Istanbul’s conservative, working-class Fatih neighbourhood, many have learned to leave items out of their baskets - meat for many, carrots for some and even the cheeses and olives essential to traditional Turkish breakfasts.

Other than food, we cannot buy anything

- AKP supporter

Pushing further into the market, one woman makes it known that without work she cannot afford the produce. She points to the narrow passages between the stalls, where she scavenges items that have fallen to the floor.

“If I used to buy two kilograms, I now buy one... other than food, we cannot buy anything. I cannot sacrifice from my social life because I do not have one,” said another shopper, who did not want to be named. Like others in the market, she believed the prices were being pushed up by interfering “foreign agents".

“We should ask why they don’t want this government in power,” she said.

Even more middle-class shoppers in the more specialist markets of nearby Eminonu are being squeezed, though they directly blame the government.

"We have to be so careful when we go shopping because we don't know what's going to happen next. That's why if you buy something, you carefully consume it to make it last longer. We didn't used to think like this because food was relatively easy,” said a 48-year-old architect from a suburb in Anatolian Istanbul, visiting the historical district for shopping.

It is precisely because of the economy that she feels the government needs to change, accusing it of not making enough of Turkey’s own resources.

“Turkey has resources, mines and even some petrol but we don't process them, we just give them to foreigners and they do the process and we buy them back,” she said. “We don't have agriculture, we don't have industry, for the past 16 years our money just goes into concrete - this construction madness, not production or manufacturing.”

The government has sought to remedy some of the problems ahead of the election. Concerns about manufacturing were met with Erdogan’s promise to build five new industrial zones that would provide 100,000 jobs across the country. What was considered a complicated monetary policy was simplified to encourage investment and control the currency.

Inflation in Turkey has surged over the past year, pushing up prices for shoppers

Government supporters can also point to some promising signs in the economy. Unemployment reportedly dropped 1.6 percent over the past year, while economic growth was a strong 7.4 percent.

“Erdogan knows too well that it is indeed 'the economy stupid' that will play a major role in voter sentiments come the elections on June 24,” wrote business journalist Mushtaq Parker in the pro-AKP Daily Sabah newspaper, referring to former US president Bill Clinton's famous phrase.

“Erdogan is seen as a populist president whose main constituency of supporters are conservative hard-working people and professionals. Competence in economic management has become the mainstay of democratic politics in recent decades.”

Souring international relations

While Erdogan has himself promoted the idea that foreign powers meddling in Turkish politics have sowed division within the country, his opponents accuse the president of sabotaging international relationships he relies on for an economic programme that relies on investment.

Erdogdu said Erdogan’s fights with Germany and other EU countries do not help and investors have also been spooked by mass arrests of alleged supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed for a 2016 coup attempt.

“They are afraid he will seize the assets of businessmen because of FETO allegations,” he said.

He also accused Erdogan of selling off Turkey’s industries to foreign companies, stripping the state of its assets for the appearance of economic prosperity while Turkey’s foreign debt reached an all-time high of $453 billion in late 2017.

“On one side he’s fighting Western countries, on the other side he’s begging from the Western countries,” he said.

IMF has tiny conscience — UN

UN poverty expert calling for urgent change

( Jun 19, 2018

June 19, 2018, Geneva, Sri Lanka Guardian) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a “tiny conscience” and must do more to protect low-income and vulnerable individuals from bearing the brunt of austerity policies, says a report by Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

“Taking action to help those who are least well-off financially has so far been little more than an afterthought in the work of the IMF around the world. But if it is to respond effectively in the years ahead to the challenges of a world in which both globalisation and liberal democracy continue to come under attack, the IMF will need a different mindset,” said Alston.

“The IMF is the single most influential actor on the international stage, not only in relation to fiscal and monetary policy, but also in terms of social protection. However, despite impressive rhetoric from its Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, its practice has lagged far behind what it has preached,” the UN expert added.

“The Fund needs to move beyond its obsession with the ‘targeting’ of social protection benefits to the poorest of the poor. There is increasing evidence that targeting often fails to reach the poorest, and that benefits often end up being given to those who are relatively well-off.

“Making social protection only about those who are most vulnerable also erodes political support from the middle classes and the rich for the welfare systems,” said the UN expert, presenting the report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“To date, the IMF has been an organisation with a large brain, an unhealthy ego, and a tiny conscience. If it takes social protection seriously, rather than making a tokenistic commitment to minimal safety nets, it can show the world that it has actually learned from its past mistakes.

“The Fund is currently developing a strategic framework for its engagement on social expenditure, and Christine Lagarde has nudged the organisation in a more progressive direction in relation to issues such as economic inequality and gender equality.

“However, if the IMF is genuine about change, it also needs to embrace internal diversity to ensure that different perspectives and assumptions influence its thinking. The average IMF staff member is a trained economist, male, from the West, who studied at elite universities in either the United States or the United Kingdom. The Fund cannot be expected to change without changing the diversity of its staff.

“Beyond internal diversity, the IMF has a dismal record in terms of consulting with civil society organisations in the countries in which it works, as well as with other international organisations with relevant expertise, such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the UN children’s fund (UNICEF).

“Taking external voices into account makes it less likely that the advice the IMF gives to governments ends up undermining democratic decision-making in the countries in which it works, a problem that has plagued the institution throughout its history.

“The IMF, as led by Ms. Lagarde, is on the right track, but it will be a mammoth task to change the direction of this ‘oil tanker’ of an institution and ensure that the benefits of globalisation no longer accrue overwhelmingly to the wealthy, and that its downsides are not suffered entirely by low-income earners and the vulnerable,” Alston said.

DSK group fraud case: Bank of Maharashtra’s top officials held

The Pune police told a local court that these officials had sanctioned the loan to the DSK group company without the approval of other banks, which were part of a consortium.

The police were probing the role of these bank officials for allegedly sanctioning loans to the builder without following due diligence. (File)

By: Express News Service -June 21, 2018

THE ECONOMIC Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune city police on Wednesday arrested top officials of the Bank of Maharashtra, including its CEO and managing director Ravindra Prabhakar Marathe, in connection with the Rs 2,043-crore fraud case against Pune-based DSK group accused of cheating thousands of its depositors.

Along with Marathe, police also picked up bank’s executive director Rajendra Kumar Vedprakash Gupta, former CEO and MD Sushil Muhnot and zonal manager Nityanand Sadashiv Deshpande on charges of conspiring with the key accused to illegally sanction a loan of Rs 100 crore for a real estate project of a DSK group company.

Police have claimed that the accused bank officials had violated norms and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines while sanctioning the loan.

Two officials of the D S Kulkarni Developers Limited (DSKDL), chartered accountant Sunil Madhukar Ghatpande and chief engineer and vice-president Rajiv Dullabh Das Nevaskar, were also arrested. While Muhnot was arrested from Ahmedabad, Deshpande was taken into custody from Jaipur. Both were being brought to Pune.

The other four were arrested from Pune and produced before the Shivajinagar special court, which remanded them to police custody till June 27.

In a statement, the Bank of Maharashtra, however, maintained that the loans were sanctioned to the firm “as per the bank’s lending norms”.

“The bank’s total outstanding exposure to M/S D S Kulkarni Developers Limited is to the tune of Rs 94.52 crore, which is fully secured by primary and collateral securities. Recovery process like SARFAESI action has already been initiated by the bank and some of the properties are due for auction. Bank has also declared M/S DSK Developers Limited and its promoters as wilful defaulters,” the statement said.

The promoters of the DSK group, D S Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti, are already in police custody. So are five other office-bearers of the group. Kulkarni’s son, Shirish Kulkarni, and some other family members are also accused in the case.

While seeking custody of the bank officials, the Pune police told a local court that these officials had sanctioned the loan to the DSK group company without the approval of other banks, which were part of a consortium. The consortium included the State Bank of India, United Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank and IDBI Bank. Also, the loan amount was supposed to be disbursed in instalments according to the progress in construction. But these precautions were not observed by the bank officials who made changes in the original resolution and illegally passed a new resolution to facilitate the loan of Rs 50 crore, the police claimed.

It added that the arrested bank officials did not check whether the loan amount of Rs 50 crore was being utilised for the purpose for which it was sanctioned. Police have claimed that the loan amount was diverted by the key accused for other purposes.

Further, the police told the court that the bank officials did not act to cancel the loan even after knowing that the DSKDL was not doing well, that in 2016-17, 259 of the total 514 workers in the company had resigned, and that the company had not been paying salaries to its employees since January 2016. It submitted that custodial interrogation of the bank officials was needed to probe their motive behind ignoring precautions.

Regarding the role of the others arrested, the police said Nevaskar, the vice-president of DSKDL, was allegedly involved in purchase of 250 acres for the real estate project in Fursungi. The land was initially purchased in the name of DSK’s relatives and then crores were transferred to the bank accounts of these relatives in 2007-08. It was shown that same land was purchased from them at huge prices. Police said that the income tax department had initiated a probe in this matter and it was suspected the land deals were part of a pre-planned conspiracy to evade short term gains tax. Land deal agreements and other documents were still to be recovered from Nevaskar, it added.

On May 17, a Special Investigation team had filed a 36,875 pages-long chargesheet against builder D S Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti. Police have said that since 2010, the couple had “lured” people into investing money in the schemes of their company by offering attractive returns. Later, these deposits were allegedly diverted into the accounts of family members of Kulkarni and further routed into accounts his own accounts and those of Hemanti and son Shirish.

According to the police, the fraud was worth Rs 2043.18 crore, which included Rs 1083.7 crore taken as deposits and loans from depositors, Rs 711.36 crore in loan from banks and financial institutions, Rs 111.35 crore in debentures and Rs 136.77 crores in misappropriations done in land deal at Fursungi.

It added that besides their public listed company DSKDL, Kulkarni and his wife formed eight more partnership firms — D S Kulkarni & Company, D S Kulkarni & Associates, D S Kulkarni & Aso., D S Kulkarni Enterprises, D S Kulkarni & brothers, D S Kulkarni & sons, DSK & Sons and DSK Constructions.

“Our probe found that employees, address and contact numbers of DSKDL and the eight partnership firms are the same. The income source or business done by the eight partnership firms was nothing. Partnership firms were formed only for collecting the deposits from depositors,” said DCP Sudhir Hiremath. So far, the investigations have revealed that about 45,000 depositors, including senior citizens and women, have been cheated in the scam, he added.

The matter came to light when investigations began following a complaint lodged by a depositor, Jitendra Narayan Mulekar (65) of Kothrud, at the Shivajinagar police station in October last year.

Former employee sued by Tesla says he was a whistleblower, alarmed by company practices and Elon Musk

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

 

By Drew HarwellJune 20 at 9:33 PM

Tesla sued a former employee Wednesday, accusing the man of hacking the automaker's computer systems and stealing company secrets, shedding light on what chief Elon Musk had suggested was the work of a secretive internal saboteur.

But the employee, Martin Tripp, told The Washington Post that he did not tamper with internal systems and is instead a whistleblower who spoke out after seeing "some really scary things" inside the company, including dangerously punctured batteries installed in cars.

Tesla attorneys wrote in their lawsuit that Tripp, a former technician at the company's Gigafactory battery plant in Nevada, wrote software to aid in an elaborate theft of confidential photos and video of Tesla's manufacturing systems. The firm's attorneys said Tripp worked at Tesla from October to last week, when company investigators confronted him with evidence.

Tripp, attorneys wrote, also gave journalists false information about the company, including claims that defective batteries had been used in Tesla's Model 3 sedans. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Speaking Wednesday night to The Post, Tripp confirmed that he provided information to Business Insider for a story the news website did earlier this month about the company's raw-material waste.

But Tripp, 40, said he did so because he was alarmed by what he learned while an employee, including what he claimed were hundreds of Model 3s that had punctured batteries. Tesla representatives have said they would not ship cars that have safety concerns.

Tripp said he did not hack into Tesla computers, saying, "I don't have the patience for coding." He also said he was not, as Tesla lawyers claimed, disgruntled about not getting a promotion. "That's their generic excuse," he said. "I could literally care less."

Tripp said he is seeking an attorney and official protections as a whistleblower.

Tesla on Wednesday night refuted Tripp's claims to being a whistleblower and said he has made false and exaggerated claims to try and hurt the company. Tesla said it never used punctured batteries in any Model 3 vehicles and that he was wrong about Musk's Model 3 production numbers and raw-material waste.

The lawsuit adds a new layer of intrigue to a Silicon Valley giant already consumed with production pressures and internal suspicions from Musk about a corporate conspiracy. The company, which last week said it would slash 9 percent of its workforce, is speeding closer to a critical deadline to prove it can hit a long-delayed goal: building 5,000 Model 3s a week.

[As Tesla races to meet Model 3 deadline, factory pressures and suspicions grow]

In a company-wide email Sunday, Musk said an employee accused of sabotage had complained about not getting promoted and added "there may be considerably more to this situation than meets the eye." Musk called on workers to "be extremely vigilant" and said, "There are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die."

Asked if Tripp was the employee Musk had suggested was behind the sabotage, 

Musk tweeted Wednesday, "There is more, but the actions of a few bad apples will not stop Tesla from reaching its goals. With 40,000 people, the worst 1 in 1000 will have issues. That’s still ~40 people."

The lawsuit highlights a widespread paranoia over information theft in the fiercely competitive industries of advanced manufacturing and self-driving cars. In February, Uber paid $245 million to settle a legal battle over the alleged theft of trade secrets with Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google's parent company Alphabet.

Tesla lawyers have asked for a court order to inspect Tripp's computers, emails, online messages and phone calls.

Tripp, the Tesla lawyers said, had been "disruptive and combative" with colleagues and had grown disgruntled after being assigned to a new role. The company is seeking an untold amount in damages to be decided in trial.

Because of Tripp's conduct, lawyers said, Tesla had suffered "cruel and unjust hardship" and "lost business, lost profits and damage to its goodwill."

Tripp said he was interrogated at work last week and fired over the phone Tuesday by a human-resources representative. He said he learned of the lawsuit for the first time Wednesday.

Emails provided to The Post appear to reveal a testy exchange between the two men Wednesday morning, with Musk saying, "You’re a horrible human being," and Tripp responding, "Putting cars on the road with safety issues is being a horrible human being!"

Tripp said he left his previous job with a medical-device company and moved his family to Nevada to work for Tesla, believing it was "a golden opportunity. I looked up to Elon, I looked up to Tesla. I was always drooling about the Teslas and wanting to buy one. And I was living the mission: to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."

But he said he grew disillusioned after seeing the company's waste, unsustainable practices and "seeing how Elon was lying to investors about how many cars they were making." He added, "I wanted to leave the world better for my son. And I felt I was doing everything but that."

He said he did not share the information to hurt Tesla but to shine a light on potential dangers. He said he now believes Musk is a "narcissist" who "only cares about himself."

Alice Crites contributed to this report.

Teen loses eyesight due to Israeli prison neglect

Tamara Nassar-19 June 2018

Palestinian teenager Hassan Abdulkhaleq Mizher Tamimi lost his eyesight after he was subjected to life-threatening medical neglect by Israeli prison authorities.

Tamimi, 18, has a serious medical condition in his liver and kidneys, which makes him unable to absorb protein. He requires a strict vegetarian diet, medicines and periodic tests at the hospital.

Israeli authorities provided him with none of that since his arrest more than two months ago, and his medical condition deteriorated sharply until he slipped into a coma. It was only then that he was finally transferred from the Ofer prison clinic to Shaare Zedek medical center on 28 May.

Pictures of Tamimi circulated on social media after he awoke from his coma:

شبكة قدس | الأسرى@asranews

سلطات الاحتلال تفرج عن الأسير حسان التميمي (18 عاما)، من قرية دير نظام شمال غرب رام الله ، بعد فقدانه البصر .

8:05 AM - Jun 17, 2018

• 6
• See شبكة قدس | الأسرى's other Tweets

When he awoke from his coma, Tamimi had lost virtually all his vision, according to Al Ghad TV.

Tamimi told Al Ghad TV about his mistreatment following his arrest, including being beaten, tightly shackled and denied food for a full day.

“Still feels like he’s in prison”

Shaare Zedek hospital released Tamimi on Sunday and he was transferred to a medical center in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah to continue his treatment. Israeli authorities had ignored numerous earlier requests from his family to transfer him.

Tamimi’s mother Ibtisam told Al Ghad TV that Israeli authorities had also ignored her pleas to take her son’s illness seriously after his arrest.

ظلام سجون الاحتلال تفقد الطفل الفلسطيني حسان التميمي بصره pic.twitter.com/yaZTCo5dEl

— قناة الغد (@AlGhadTV) 18 June 2018

Even though Tamimi was temporarily released after he lost his vision, his next military court hearing will still be held in the next few weeks.

If Tamimi’s medical condition improves, the Israeli military may return him to prison, his father Abdulkhaleq told Al Ghad TV.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hassan Tamimi’s mother said that her son “still feels like he’s in prison” and that he is constantly anxious and “very scared.”

حسان التميمي.. اعتقل وهو يعاني من مرض نادر في الدم ويتلقى علاجا خاصا لكن سلطات الاحتلال لم تسمح له بتناول دوائه بشكل منتظم، ما أدى إلى تدهور خطير في حالته الصحيه pic.twitter.com/4e6tXbFJKm

— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) 1 June 2018

Tamimi, from the village of Deir Nitham in the occupied West Bank, was arrested on 7 April for allegedly throwing stones, approximately one month after he turned 18.

He is part of the extended Tamimi family that is the frequent target of collective punishment, imprisonment and harassment by Israeli occupation forces.

One of its most well-known members, teenager Ahed Tamimi from the village of Nabi Saleh, is currently in Israeli military custody for shoving and slapping a heavily armed occupation soldier.

Extending detention without charge or trial

Meanwhile, the Israeli military reportedly extended the detention of Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar on 14 June.

Mustafa Barghouti, also a legislator, denied the reports, stating that Jarrar’s administrative detention hasn’t yet been extended for a third time.

The conflicting reports about whether Jarrar’s detention has been renewed highlight the arbitrary nature of administrative detention. Jarrar has been held without charge or trial since July 2017.

She is one of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel in administrative detention which can be renewed indefinitely.

“As an administrative detainee, she has not been made privy to the information used to deny her of her freedom, and thus has not had a genuine chance to refute claims made against her,” stated Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, renewing their call on Israel to release Jarrar.

No books

Jarrar’s daughter, Suha Jarrar, stated that Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, has banned her mother from receiving books in prison.

“Today, as I registered for visitation at HaSharon prison and attempted to admit two novels that mom had asked for, I was informed that the Israeli intelligence forces made a decision to ban mom from receiving any books while detained,” Suha wrote.

When Suha asked the Israeli jailer why, she was told it was the contents of the books she brought last time, which were studies published by Madar – the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies. Madar’s are “amongst the few books of political content that are regularly allowed inside Israeli prisons,” according to Suha.

“When I asked the officer whether this was a punitive measure, she affirmed that it was,” Suha wrote.

Suha noted that this wasn’t the first time Israeli authorities refused the entry of books, but it was the first time it was done as a punitive measure.

According to Suha, when she challenged the decision, the Israeli jailer admitted, “yes, it’s illegal.”

Israeli PM's wife charged with fraud for $100K worth of takeaway orders

Justice Ministry says Sara Netanyahu is suspected of misusing official funds for gourmet restaurant meals ordered to family's official residence

A spokesman said Sara Netanyahu has an undeserved reputation for imperiousness (AFP)

Thursday 21 June 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife, Sara, was charged on Thursday with fraud and breach of trust over alleged misuse of state funds, the Justice Ministry said.

Suspicions included the misuse of nearly $100,000 in official funds for meals supplied by gourmet restaurants to the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, the ministry said in statement.

A draft of Netanyahu's indictment claims that she told staff at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem to order meals that totalled around $96,000 between 2010 and 2013, according to a report in Israeli daily Haaretz - averaging around $24,000 a year in take-out meals.

In comparison, 2014 data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that Israeli households spend on average $7,600 a year on food.

Her instructions, according to the indictment, violated rules which bar those living at the residence from ordering meals when a cook was on staff.

According to the indictment, the meals ordered included everything from sushi to Italian to Moroccan dishes.

Meals also came from Cavalier, described by reviewers on Trip Advisor as "the only notable" French restaurant in Jerusalem before it closed last year, and from the Sheraton Plaza restaurant, then led by chef Shalom Kadosh.

Kadosh was the first Israeli to join the prestigious "Club des Chefs des Chefs" list of those who cook for monarchs and heads of state.

Investigators have evidence that shows that Sara Netanyahu sought to conceal the employment of a cook at their home and knew that ordering the meals violated rules, Haaretz reported.

Ezra Saidoff, the former deputy director general of the prime minister's office, was also charged in the same case on Thursday.

READ MORE ►

The five corruption cases hanging over the Israeli prime minister

During negotiations with Netanyahu last month, prosecutors reportedly offered to close the case if she paid back the cost of the meals and admitted to the charges, but she turned down the offer.

The prime minister, who himself is embroiled in a series of corruption investigations, has called the allegations against his wife absurd and unfounded.

Sara Netanyahu, 59, has inspired a multitude of headlines in the past over what family spokesmen call an undeserved reputation for imperiousness.

This isn't the first time the Netanyahus have been at the centre of gastronomic controversy.

In 2013, revelations that Netanyahu's household had budgeted over $2,000 annually on ice cream caused a media storm in Israel.