Israeli forces demolish walls in home of slain Palestinian attacker
Israeli forces demolish the home of Ihab Maswada in Hebron on March 31, 2016. (Photo: Israeli army)
HEBRON – Israeli forces late Wednesday demolished part of the home belonging to the family of a Palestinian who was shot dead after stabbing an Israeli settler in December.Ma’an – March 31, 2016
Locals said that Israeli forces closed all the entrances of the Jabal al-Sharif area in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, and deployed heavily around the home of Ihab Fathi Maswada, as well as the house of Abd al-Rahman Yusri Maswada.
Ihab Maswada was killed on Dec. 7 after carrying out a stabbing attack against a settler near the Abu al-Rish checkpoint in southern Hebron. The Israeli settler succumbed to his wounds weeks later.
Maswada’s cousin, Abd al-Rahman, was killed on site on Dec. 9 after stabbing two Israelis on al-Shuhada Street.
Ihab Maswada’s brother said Israeli soldiers only gave the family ten minutes to evacuate the house, forcing them to go on the house’s second floor while they demolished the internal walls of the home.
Maswada’s mother said that Israeli soldiers then “fired a stun grenade inside the house and left the house laughing.”
Israeli authorities first issued a demolition order for Maswada’s home in early February, but had already threatened to destroy the house days after his death. His father said the demolition order was issued three days ago and that soldiers told them the demolition would be carried out in a week.
“We were surprised when they showed up after midnight,” he said.
Punitive home demolitions were expedited at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in mid-October, and many have been carried out since.
The move came despite past recommendations by an Israeli military committee that the practice does not deter attacks.While families who receive demolition orders are given the opportunity to appeal the measures, Israel’s High Court of Justice typically rejects such appeals, according to Israeli watchdog Hamoked.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem condemned the practice in October as “court sanctioned revenge,” carried out on family members who have not committed crimes, amounting to collective punishment.
Israeli forces demolish the home of Ihab Maswada on March 31, 2016 in Hebron. (Photo: Israeli army)
Washington and Vermont have joined Seattle, San Francisco, and New
York's ban on employee travel to North Carolina because of its anti-LGBT
bill.
President Obama announced Wednesday that he will commute the prison
sentences of 61 inmates currently serving time for drug-related crimes. A
third of the inmates were serving life sentences, White House counsel
Neil Eggleston said. Most of the inmates were nonviolent offenders—many
of whom possessed cocaine, some with firearms violations—and will be
released by the end of July. With the new move, Obama will have commuted
the sentences of 248 inmates during his presidency, more than the past
six presidents combined.
During a CNN town-hall forum 
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and several House members asked the U.S. State
Department last month to look into claims that Israel’s security forces
have committed human-rights violations. The 
Now that the FBI says it has hacked into an iPhone used by one of the
San Bernardino shooters, Apple wants the Bureau to reveal how it did it.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the tech giant’s attorneys are
researching legal tactics to compel the government to hand over details
of its hack—information the company deems important for understanding
flaws in their product and for protecting consumer privacy. It remains
unclear whether the FBI’s hack would work on other iPhones, and a Times
law-enforcement source said its applications are limited.
In the weeks before the city of Flint began getting its water from the
Flint River in April 2014, Michigan officials were offered—and passed
on—a corrosion-control plan, according to an AP report. “You don’t need
to monitor phosphate because you’re not required to add it,” Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality representative Mike Prysby is said
to have told Mike Glasgow, the city plant’s lab supervisor at the time.
Phosphate normally would have been added to prevent corrosion in lead
pipes. Glasgow said he was surprised by those instructions, as treating
drinking water with anti-corrosive chemicals is standard practice. In an
interview with the AP, Glasgow said he later realized that exchange was
a fateful moment. “I did have some concerns and misgivings at
first,” he later said. “But unfortunately, now that I look back, I
relied on engineers and the state regulators to kind of direct the
decision. I looked at them as having more knowledge than myself.”
Lee-Anne Walters, who has helped bring official attention to the high
lead levels after they were discovered at her own home, told reporters
that hearing about those instructions made her “nauseous.” She added,
“That one meeting was the difference between this city being poisoned
and not being poisoned.”
John Bel Edwards says he will soon repeal Bobby Jindal's Marriage and Conscience Order, which allows for antigay discrimination.
Roy Cooper issued a scathing critique of North Carolina’s transphobic
law in announcing that his office will not defend House Bill 2 in
court.
The
wife of imprisoned Mohammed Abu Fannouneh and the mother of Palestinian
youth Mahmoud Abu Fannouneh, killed ten days before by Israeli
occupation soldiers, was prevented from visiting her husband on Monday,
28 March, as her visit permit was ripped up by occupation soldiers at a
checkpoint.
c2
