Palestine

January 2, 2011December 11, 2020

This Year, The Illegal, Malicious Israeli Occupation Must End

To those who dwell in Palestine and Israel who oppose injustice and are working in solidarity to end Israel’s cruelty, salutations, and greetings to the people of the world who support their struggle. The appalling death yesterday of Jawaher Abu Rahmah from inhalation of tear gas fired by the Israeli Occupation Forces at a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in protesting the apartheid wall and Israeli land theft is an unwelcome beginning to the year.

The Israeli IOF spokesman attempted to muddy the waters and smear Palestinians by suggesting they created a false story about Jawaher’s death.

An Israeli military statement issued Saturday evening said Palestinians initially reported that Abu Rahmah was released from hospital Friday and died at home. “Subsequently the Palestinians changed their version of events, claiming that she died in the hospital,” the statement continued.

A military spokesman did not immediately know who the Palestinians quoted in the statement were, but said he would look into it.

Bil’in popular committee spokesman Jonathan Pollak said the statement was a “shameless lie aimed at distorting reality.”

Abu Rahmah arrived at the hospital unconscious and doctors were unable to revive her, Pollak said. She did not die because of a lack of medical treatment, but because Israeli forces used a lethal tear gas banned in several European countries, he added.

More IOF lies have bubbled up through the zionist swamp. Jewish Voices for Peace @jvplive tweeted at the time from the protest : “One eye injury and jawaher – sister of bassem who was killed last year at a demo -was taken to the hospital for gas inhalation.”

Journalist Lisa Goldman, who was also present at the protest, has translated Jonathan Pollak’s collection of witness statements.

Ali Abunimah @avinunu also notes on twitter: In report on Jawahir Abu Rahmah BBC World Service just lied that Israel’s wall is “built around the West Bank” (it’s built through it) #

Jawaher’s funeral:

Hundreds of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv also to protest Jawaher’s murder. Lisa Goldman, who was also present at the Bil’in protest, reports:

The demonstration to protest Jawaher’s death by tear gas asphyxiation was announced mid-morning on Saturday, via Facebook and Twitter. Despite the short notice, it attracted at least 200 people. The crowd was sufficiently large to block traffic across from the Ministry of Defense (Kirya) on Kaplan Street, a main traffic artery that connects to the Ayalon Highway.

Waving poster-size mourning posters emblazoned with photos of Jawaher Abu Rahmeh and carrying placards with slogans in Hebrew and English, demonstrators chanted in Hebrew: “Citizens, awake! Fascism is already here!” “Barak! Barak! Minister of Defense! How many demonstrators have you killed today?!” ; in English: “Apartheid! Fight back!”; and in Arabic: “Min Ghaza el Bil’in, hurra hurra Falasteen!” (from Gaza to Bil’in, freedom, freedom for Palestine).

Haaretz notes that former MK Musi Raz is “reportedly arrested and beaten by Israeli police” at the Tel Aviv protest against Jawaher’s murder.

According to Joseph Dana, another participant in the Bil’in protest, there’s a new form of BDS arisen in Israel.

Israeli activists protesting the killing of Bil’in’s Jawaher Abu Rahmah ‘returned’ spent tear gas canisters to the residence of the American ambassador to Israel late Saturday evening.
…
The tear gas used by the Israeli forces in Bil’in is manufactured by Combined Systems Inc.; a United States company based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. This is the first protest where empty tear gas canisters have been returned to an ambassador’s home.

Approximately twenty five Israeli protesters gathered in front of the residence of American ambassador to Israel, James B. Cunningham around 1am local time. The protesters ‘returned’ loads of spent tear gas canisters collected in the West Bank village of Bil’in in protest of the murder of Bil’in’s Jawaher Abu Rahmah. The demonstrators also made noise throughout the Ambassador’s neighborhood informing residents of how American military aid to Israel is being used to kill unarmed and nonviolent demonstrators in the West Bank. They chanted, “one, two, three, four stop the occupation stop the war. Five, six, seven, eight end the funding (US) end the hate.”

Meanwhile, as Israel bombs and terrorises them, the besieged people of Gaza await the arrival of the Asia to Gaza convoy.

Egypt yesterday gave permission for the Asia to Gaza Caravan — or Asia1 — to pass through Egypt to Gaza, according to Khaled Abdel Megid, a member of the Palestinian National Congress.

He said the Egyptian embassy in Damascus informed the convoy of the permit that allows only 120 activists entry to Egypt and then Gaza. It denied entry to 46 activists from Iran and Jordan.

Egypt will not allow 10 generators donated by the Iranians to enter to the besieged Gaza Strip. This will decrease the size of the humanitarian aid convoy to below 300 tons, which will be limited to food and medical aid in addition to toys, according to Abdel-Meguid.

The Asia to Gaza Caravan consists of approximately 160 people from more than 15 countries, including Iran, India, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Kuwait. It was scheduled to reach Gaza by 27 December, in time for the second anniversary of Israel’s 22-day war on the Strip that started on 28 December 2008.

Approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 5,000 injured or maimed in the three-week war. Half of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed and remains unrepaired as a result of Israel’s siege, which includes a ban on the entry of building materials into the Strip.

The time has come for justice, an end to the lies and crimes of those who consider themselves privileged and above others, who maintain their privilege by stepping on and stealing from those whom they oppress. Justice is for all, equal rights are for all. Please boycott, sanction and divest from apartheid Israel until the Occupation is ended and Palestinians have attained their just rights.

Happy new year to everyone! I am blessed with the best online friends one could imagine, sources of joy, knowledge and companionship largely absent from the elitist, white-privileged area of Queensland, Australia in which I live. Thank you 🙂

UPDATE January 7

From Mondoweiss:

It may be a nonlethal weapon, but tear gas can have serious effects. A 2003 article published by four Israeli army doctors in Archives of Toxicology noted that CS gas — the type used by the IDF at these protests — causes tearing and burning for about 15 to 30 minutes, and this is lessened if people are moved into fresh air. The army has insisted on the safety of CS beyond these immediate effects. But the Israeli army doctors’ article noted, “At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths from lacrimating [tearing] agents have been reported.”

A 2009 article in the British Medical Journal came to similar conclusions, noting that tear gas is “not a gas at all, but a toxic chemical irritant.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Bilin protestor’s mother ‘not seeking revenge’
Gazan youth issue manifesto to vent their anger with all sides in the conflict
Demonstrators ‘return’ tear gas canisters to US ambassador home over the killing of a Bil’in protester
The teargas grenades that killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah were most likely ‘made in the USA’
Hundreds rally in Tel Aviv to protest Bil’in woman’s death
Police clash with leftists at Tel Aviv demonstration of Bil’in protester’s death
Gazans face cooking gas shortage
WikiLeaks cable: UN Goldstone resolution: NZ is watching Europe
Army investigating death of Bil’in protester
Protesters Breached the Wall in Bil’in
The first martyr of 2011 and where we go from here
Abbas: Latest Palestinian death another Israeli crime against our helpless nation
Israeli Forces Kill Female Protester in Bil’in
IMAGES: funeral of Bil’in protester Jawaher abu Rahmah
The death of Jawaher Abu-Rahma is a direct result of occupation and the inhumane violence and brutality against the nonviolent demonstrators in Bilin
Settlers set fire to home as seven Palestinians sleep inside
Sister of Bilin victim dies in anti-fence protest
How many israeli police officers does it take to guard a locked door? Four…
Report: U.S. in secret talks with Syria over peace accord with Israel
Use this site to know which Israeli products to boycott 🙂
What options exist for Netanyahu next time on the high seas?
An open letter from Gaza to Thomas Quasthoff: Do not Forget the Gaza Concentration Camp and “Tell It like It Is!”
NY Times Isabel Kershner Wasn’t At Bil’in Demo–But Still Wrongly Reports On It
More Israeli lies : Israel says direct negotiations best path to peace
Boston says: Break the Siege of Gaza!
Holocaust survivors warn of stirrings of neo-fascism
Israeli forces arrest 2 children in Jerusalem
WikiLeaks: Israel has only 12-minute warning if Iran attacks
Netanyahu Wants Nonstop Talks With Palestinians

Wikileaks Links

The Anti-Empire Report Wikileaks, the United States, Sweden, and Devil’s Island
Coming to terms with the information age : Mark Pesce
On the double-o licence of the powerful
Announcing ScienceLeaks
Invasion of privacy in Paraguay : US Collects DNA And Data On Foreign Presidential Candidates
US government knew about human experiments : Pfizer tested drugs on children
Tortured Until Proven Guilty: Bradley Manning and the Case Against Solitary Confinement
My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website
WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
Wikileaks: Israel preparing for ‘large scale war’

Other Links

Egypt church bombing: Why some point to Al Qaeda-linked group
Who is Behind The Alexandria Explosion !!?
Fahem Boukadous and Tunisia’s War on Press Freedoms
US at War Since 1950: A New Year’s Meditation

December 30, 2010December 11, 2020

Israeli Courts Used As Instruments of Political Coercion

Two recent ‘show trials’ provide clear evidence that the course of justice is being perverted in Israel, with coercion applied purposefully to intimidate those who challenge zionist brutality, land theft and ethnic cleansing.

High profile Jewish activist, Jonathan Pollak, attended court two days ago. Bearing witness in court were a throng of journalists and supporters. Joseph Dana provides an excellent account of Jonathan’s trial.

Tel Aviv Magistrates court judge Yitzhak Yitzhak convicted Israeli leftist Jonathan Pollak of illegal assembly for his participation in a January 2008 Critical Mass ride against the siege on Gaza and then sentenced him to three months imprisonment that will begin on January 11th, 2011. Pollak was the only one detained at the said protest, and was accused of doing nothing other than riding his bicycle in the same manner as the rest of the protesters.
…

During the trial, an Israeli supporter of Pollak was violently removed from the courthouse for wearing a shirt that said “there is no pride in occupation.” After the verdict was handed down, supporters began chanting in the courtroom against Israeli fascism and the occupation. They were forcibly removed one by one from the courthouse and subsequently held a demonstration on the sidewalk.

Despite evidence of Israeli wrongdoing in the course of the Gaza war, the only Israeli sentenced to jail so far is a leftist who choose to ride his bike through Tel Aviv in non-violent protest. The state of Israel sent a clear message with this verdict: that it will not tolerate dissent from the left. In fact, the state persecutor asked for a severe sentence in order to ‘make an example out of Pollak and those who engage in similar anti-occupation work.” Pollak said that he will continue to work with Palestinians against the occupation and repeatedly cited the much harsher verdicts given to Palestinians involved in non-violent protests. The only remorse that he showed was that he did not do enough to express dissent about the siege of Gaza. If peacefully riding a bike against violent aggression is a crime, Pollak said that we will happily go to jail.

Less well-known, and unreported in the western media, was the trial yesterday of Nuri al-Uqbi, a 68 year old Bedouin father of 8 children. Like Jonathan Pollak, Nuri was arbitrarily charged with a petty offence. Nuri’s punishment was increased by the magistrate to ‘seven months in prison for “running a business without a license”‘ to send a deliberate, vicious political message to other Bedouins who might have the temerity to oppose their dispossession. Five years ago, Nuri commenced a legal challenge against the state to regain his family’s lands in the Negev.

al-Uqbi’s expert, Oren Yiftachel, of Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, has countered that there was a well-established system of Bedouin land ownership and crop cultivation in the Negev long before Israel’s creation.

He says Bedouin deeds — though never formally recorded — were recognized by the Ottomans, the British and even early Zionist organizations such as the JNF, which bought land from the Bedouin.

A 1921 document from the public records office in London unearthed by Yiftachel shows that Winston Churchill, the colonies minister, signed an agreement with Bedouin in the Beersheva area that exempted them from registering their lands and set up a special tribal court to settle land disputes.

Al-Uqbi has kept a large store of documents passed on to him, showing that his father cultivated crops on the land and paid regular tithes on the profits to the Ottoman and British authorities.

He also has a copy of the treaty signed in 1948 between 16 Bedouin tribes, including the Uqbi, and the new Israeli army, pledging loyalty in return for a guarantee that they could continue living on their lands.

Clearly, the magistrate’s intimidatory message to Nuri and the outrageously harsh sentence relays the racist, predatory concerns of the zionist state. Will Nuri’s sentence be used against him by the state in his pending land rights case?

The Negev, constituting nearly two-thirds of Israel’s territory, has been almost entirely nationalized by the state, with the land held in trust for world Jewry. But the Bedouin have outstanding legal claims on nearly 80,000 hectares of ancestral property.

In recent months, the Israeli government has ramped up demolitions of Bedouin homes in the Negev to clear the way for more Jewish colonialists and Jewish National Fund pine forests. The village of al-Araqib was bulldozed for the eighth time since July last week, along with homes of 20 people in al Sadier village. Bedouins say Israel is demolishing homes “on a daily basis”.

Below is a google translation of the original Hebrew piece relating Nuri’s trial, pending a better version.

The judge wrote in the verdict: “worsened with the Okbi to deliver a message for the Negev Bedouin
by Noa Levy on Tuesday, 28 December 2010 at 21:28

Nuri al Okbi, rights activist Negev Bedouin Arab residents

Sentenced to seven months in prison for “running a business without a license”

The judge wrote in the verdict: “worsened with the Okbi to deliver a message for the Negev Bedouin”

Nuri al Okbi, chairman of the Association to protect the rights of the Bedouins who is also active in defense of rights and Arab residents of Lod many of them Bedouin origin, was sentenced today to seven months in prison for possession of a business without a license. Judge Zachary Yemini Ramle Magistrate’s Court verdict explicitly wrote that he had decided to aggravate the sentence – Okbi for being active in the Bedouin rights, and that the sentence is intended to “send a message Bedouin diaspora.”

After which the – Okbi guilty guilty several weeks ago the court referred him to community service, and – Okbi already expressed willingness in this work for the public good in a soup kitchen in Ramla was interested to receive it. But surprisingly, the judge decided to worsen and cut him seven months in prison instead of six which can be converted to community service.

Attorney Avi Dubin, lawyer of the Okbi, asked the court to delay the execution to allow the filing of an appeal, but the judge conditioned the implementation delay immediate deposit of thirty thousand dollars the court fund, a sum that is in his hands – and he was taken immediately imprisonment. In addition to imprisonment imposed on the court Nuri al – Okbi fine of forty thousand shekels or four hundred days in prison for them.

Business without a license is accused managed to – Okbi is a garage that opened in 1964 to Okbi Hasmonean 11th Street in Lod, when passed, like many other Bedouins from the Negev, to live in it. Over the years, changed the policy of the Municipality of Lod, which some in the garage and gave license to – Okbi other years denied him. “I feel discrimination and intimidation taken against me for political reasons, to keep me open my mouth and fight against the policy of the municipality – for example the destruction of seven homes of Arab residents about a week ago. I received a certificate from the Police, Fire Department, the Ministry of Interior Ministry of the Environment workshop working properly, but City Hall deprived me of the license while the people around me got business licenses started many years after my garage. I am convinced that if I was ready to walk the line dictated by the Town Hall, I had no problem obtaining a license. My garage is not their real problem, but a public activity.

UPDATE

Nuri al-Oqbi was hospitalised with his heart condition shortly after the trial – he collapsed after sentencing.

Following the harsh verdict, al-Okbi – who is 68 years old and suffers from a heart condition – felt bad and was hospitalized at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where he is hospitalized under police supervision and his hands and feet handcuffed to the bed. The police also prevented al-Okbi’s son, who came to the hospital, from talking to him.

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Two years after Operation Cast Lead, Gaza remains imprisoned
How much racism can a “democracy” take?
Israel blocks essential medical supplies for Gaza hospitals
China imports Israel’s methods of propaganda and repression
Israeli politician urges “a shot in the head” for Bedouins
Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel
Cablegate – Mastercard numbers used by the Mossad Dubai killers 10ABUDHABI103
Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious
TIBI: The tragedy of a two-state solution
Christian extremists assist Israel in displacing Negev Bedouin
Gaza farmers pack strawberries and hope for export
Conspiracy Theories Linking Israel to WikiLeaks Circulate on the Internet
Israeli army: leave Khirbet Tana or else
Shelling Reported in Gaza City
Students for Justice in Palestine condemns US government witch hunt
Israeli leaders, soldiers fear arrest over Gaza War Crimes
Culture Group Rebuffs Bid To Condemn Boycotts
Barrier separates Palestinian farmers from their land
Detained journalist questions right to freedom of speech for Palestinians
CNN reports on racist letters emanating from ultra-orthodox rabbis or their wives in Israel.

Other Links

How thick is your grey matter? The grey matter was found to be thicker in people who described themselves as liberal or Left-wing and thinner in those who said they were conservative or Right-wing.
The Australian : A “serious” newspaper debases itself
Backing extremists is fine if you work for CNN

December 27, 2010December 11, 2020

Two Years Later, Israeli Cast Lead War Criminals Elude Justice

Accompanying an alarming metastasis of racism within Israel, baleful, triumphalist zionist rhetoric directed at the defenceless people of the Gaza gulag is building ominously once more.

The scenario for the next round is unfolding in front of our eyes and it resembles depressingly the same deterioration that preceded the massacre of Gaza two years ago: daily bombardment on the Strip and a policy that tries to provoke Hamas so that more expanded assaults would be justified. As one general explained, there is now a need to take into account the damaging effect of the Goldstone report: namely the next major attack should look more plausible than the 2009 one (but this concern may not be that crucial to this particular government; nor would it serve as an obstacle).

Today, on the anniversary of the commencement of Israel’s attack of the people of Gaza, many of us reflect on the events of two years ago in mourning and regret that its criminal progenitors have eluded justice, courtesy of the largesse and impunity lent by Israel’s blinkered, biased imperial benefactor, the US and its bevy of colonialist toadies, including Australia.

Then acting Australian PM Julia Gillard disgracefully cheerled the Israeli massacre:

Israel’s attack upon Gaza was met with a curious indifference by most of the so-called leaders of Western nations. As acting Prime Minister of Australia at the time, the ill-informed Julia Gillard refused to criticise, let alone condemn the actions of Israel. Supposedly speaking on behalf of the Australian people, she said: “Australia recognises the right of Israel to defend itself.” That comment was made on the third of January 2009, by which time it was widely known that 430 Gazans had already been killed and 2,300 wounded in 750 individual strikes carried out by air and by sea over the previous five days.

The Cast Lead massacre was committed with malice aforethought on an imprisoned Gaza population of 1.5 million people, 55% of whom were under the age of 18 years. Israel broke its truce with Hamas on November 5th, 2008 although there had been no actual Hamas rockets during the ceasefire. Nor had Israel cooperated with the spirit if not actual terms of the truce by easing its illegal blockade. Israel automagically, conveniently blames Hamas for any rockets fired from the oppressed Gazan sliver of land. In revenge, Israel inflicts ongoing indiscriminate collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza, whom it has now incarcerated for 1,293 days.

Yet the truce was working, as during the final couple of months, there were practically no rockets fired from Gaza at all. After breaking the truce ,.Israel refused to renew it, even though Hamas expressed its willingness to renegotiate provided the siege was eased. Israel attacked on the 27th December, 2008. During the 22 infamous days of Operation Cast Lead, Israel killed 1417 Palestinian people, 352 of whom were children.

Flaunting the Geneva Conventions, Israel fiendishly, illegally targeted and destroyed ambulances, hospitals, schools, universities, the sole electric power and sewerage plants, chicken farms, dairy farms, crops, trees, police stations, homes and whole villages. Israel made around 50,000 Gazans homeless during winter, then for 18 months after the end of its 22 day attack, malevolently disallowed materials for rebuilding to enter Gaza. Two years later:

Israel has so far only approved the import of materials for 25 UNRWA[2] construction projects for schools and clinics, a mere seven per cent of UNRWA’s entire reconstruction plan for Gaza. Even for these approved projects, only a small fraction of the required construction materials have actually been permitted to enter Gaza so far.

More generally, says the report, the UN has estimated that Gaza needs 670,000 truckloads of construction materials for housing alone in Gaza. An average of only 715 truckloads of construction materials have entered the Gaza Strip per month since the ‘easing’ announcement, says the report. At this rate, it would take many decades to build the needed homes. And because UNRWA has been unable to get construction materials to build new schools, 40,000 eligible children could not be enrolled at UN schools at the start of the new academic year.

“Only a fraction of the aid needed has made it to the civilians trapped in Gaza by the blockade”, said Jeremy Hobbs, Director of Oxfam International. “Israel’s failure to live up to its commitments and the lack of international action to lift the blockade are depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to clean water, electricity, jobs and a peaceful future.”

Altogether in the Occupied Territories, between 29th September, 2000 and 30th November, 2010, around 1313 Palestinian children have been slaughtered by Israeli security forces, according to B’TSelem.

According to an Al Mezan report from December 2010, over 21,000 people remain displaced two years after the end of Operation Cast Lead. Israel has committed more grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 147) as

careful documentation indicates that the IOF destroyed at least 1,723 shelters after the end of hostilities when they had come under Israel’s effective control. These shelters could not be deemed military objectives. Nor were they near any other legitimate military targets. Their destruction was therefore illegal, violating fundamental international humanitarian law principles, and amounting to war crimes.

Thanks to rejection by the credulous zionist sycophants in the US congress of the painstaking research within the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report into Cast Lead war crimes, Israeli war criminals responsible for the planning and execution of the heinous Cast Lead massacre still walk free, with no justice attained for, nor compensation paid to Israel’s civilian victims.

‘Despite its listing count after count of international law contraventions, Israeli “war crimes” and “possible crimes against humanity,” the European Union, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and all major Human Rights Organizations have called for an end to the illegal, medieval siege, it carries on unabated. On 11th November 2010 UNRWA head John Ging said, “There’s been no material change for the people on the ground here in terms of their status, the aid dependency, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction, no economy…The easing, as it was described, has been nothing more than a political easing of the pressure on Israel and Egypt.’

Though the resistance of Palestinians who endure it is unflinching, and international boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israeli apartheid and occupation are flourishing, Israel’s pitiless, illegal siege remains.

Israel’s harvest from its vindictive, cruel folly is bitter – as Nelson Mandela said, “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he’s locked behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their freedom. How much hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness imprisons Israel?

Palestinians deserve long overdue justice to be brought to their oppressors, for the hideous illegal siege to be lifted completely and for Israel’s aggression and expansionism to end. Join the #Gaza2 Campaign on twitter and post on your blog to remind the people of Palestine that neither they nor the calamities and evils inflicted on them during Operation Cast Lead by Israel and its collaborators are forgotten.

Palestine / Israel Links

The toxic downfall of the Jewish dream of a safe homeland
An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Israel’s image campaign a facade
Israeli foreign minister: Peace deal ‘impossible,’ ‘forbidden’
Dennis Ross Bats For Netanyahu
Hillary’s Envoy : Not Everyone is Cheering
New Mossad Chief Makes Nice to Brits
In Pictures: the slaughter of Gazan children – Victims of the Israeli occupation forces in the tenth day of their attacks on Gaza Strip – January 5, 2009
The drums of war are heard again in Israel
Davuto?lu blames Israel for failure to mend ties
And What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Gaza? Operation Cast Lead and the Dismembering of a People
Sorry, ‘Mother Jones’ but you’re piping the Israeli narrative of Gaza ‘war’
How long will American Jews deny this crushing reality?
Rabbi threatens civil war if settlements are evacuated
IDF warns troops: Facebook can bring terrorists to you
Jewish activist faces jail for West Bank resistance
Nomads No More: Israel evicts Indigenous Bedouins for more sterile racist settlements
Groundbreaking report details Israel’s inhumane conditions for isolated prisoners
UK considers recognizing PA diplomats
Palestinian group launches ‘Gaza Holocaust’ website
Another Gaza war?
Vigil outside the Israeli embassy in London to mark the second anniversary of the start of Operation Cast Lead
“To shoot an elephant” is an eye witness account from The Gaza Strip. December 27th, 2008, Operation Cast Lead. 21 days shooting elephants. Urgent, insomniac, dirty, shuddering images from the only foreigners who decided and managed to stay embedded inside Gaza strip ambulances, with Palestinian civilians.
The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justice
Suheir Hammad: 2. Rafah
Stuttgart Declaration
An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Operation Cast Lead 2 Years On
Leftist Yonatan Pollak sentenced to 3 months in jail
Shin Bet puts Israeli ‘anarchists’ in crosshairs
Israeli activist sentenced to 3 months in prison for protesting Gaza war

Wikileaks Links

WikiLeaks founder baffled by sex assault claims
THE WIKILEAKS NEWS & VIEWS BLOG, Special Holiday Weekend Edition!
Saving Private Manning
Beyond WikiLeaks: The Privatization of War
Austria and the WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables
WikiLeaks tells why drug king is still free
Wikileaks: State Department Lied, Denying Dubai Asked for Assistance in Tracking Mossad Assassins
Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents.
EX-CIA SPOOK CALLS FOR “COVERT ACTION” VS. ASSANGE
WikiLeaks may spawn new sedition act

Other Links

Afghanistan denounces deadly NATO-led raid
America in Decline: Why Germans Think We’re Insane
Can Gillard Last?

December 26, 2010December 11, 2020

Zionist Exceptionalism For Extrajudicial Executions

The new Mossad chief will apologise to the UK for the use of its passports in its Dubai extrajudicial assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January 2010.

David Milliband, then foreign secretary, told MPs that Israel had shown a “profound disregard” for British sovereignty, adding: “The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury.”

Will Pardo’s magnanimity extend to Australia, Ireland, France and Germany, whose passports were also abused by Mossad?

The duplicitous use of foreign passports is not the primary crime committed by Israel. Extrajudicial executions are outlawed by the Second Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) that states:

“No sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.” (Second Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) Art 6.2)

Zionist exceptionalism is enabled and paralleled by that of its indulgent sponsor, the US, with its disgraceful preemptive strike policy and legal permissiveness for extrajudicial assassinations even of its own citizens.

In December 2006, Israel’s High Court of Justice outrageously declared the legality of the extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists suspected of being “unlawful combatants.”

The taking of life based on suspicions against a person, represents a gross violation of fundamental principles of law and morality. It is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, and further, is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court. These legal-moral principles are applicable to every country, organization and person, whether or not they are an official party to these instruments.

In this ruling, the Israeli High Court indiscriminately adopts the Israeli government’s practice that strips “unlawful combatants” of their legal and human rights. International law does not recognize a category of “unlawful combatants” who do not enjoy either the rights of combatants in the battlefield or those of protected civilians. The Court did not question the prevailing modus operandi of Israel’s security forces, which declares that all Palestinian civilians are “unlawful combatants” a posteriori, after an execution has been made, again without any legal review or oversight.
…

The Fourth Geneva Convention relates to the protection of civilian population in time of war. Article 146 of the Convention obligates the High Contracting Parties to enact effective penal sanctions for persons who have committed, or ordered to be committed, “grave breaches” of the Convention. Article 147 defines “grave breaches” to include “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment.”

As Israeli scholar Tanya Reinhart says: “Under military rule, Israel has become a leading force in the destruction of the very protections that humankind has established, out of World War Two, for its own preservation, protections that we too may need one day, as history has already shown us”.

For how long will the world turn a blind eye to Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity which overshadow mere passport abuse, and that include ongoing brazen slaughter of civilians, ethnic cleansing in the Occupied Territories and within Israel itself?

Palestine / Israel Links

SEATTLE, USA: King County executive prevents “Israeli War Crimes” bus ads from appearing
King Co. rejects Israeli-Gaza bus ad
GISHA REPORT: “Reconstructing the Closure” Dec10 [.pdf]
Israeli demolitions traumatic for Palestinian children, says UN official
Inflaming racist rhetoric
Israelis kill Gazan shepherd, wound three – medics
UN envoys criticise Israel home demolitions
1932 is already here
Fuel for racism
US should recognize Palestine – John Quigley
Israeli racial purity
Turkey set on improving Israel ties, but insists on apology for Gaza flotilla raid
Anger after Nazareth suburb bans Christmas tree
The Palestinian ‘legitimacy war’
Jeffrey Goldberg’s Anti-Boycott Bluster & Blunder
Israeli Foreign Ministry Plans New Hasbara Effort Against Palestinians

STL-PSC Flash Mob: Boycott Israeli Apartheid in Palestine! (YouTube Censors the Video)
The Holy Land is on a tourism high
Jerusalem & Babylon / Demons on the streets of Israel
No legitimate Palestinian leader can negotiate with Israel while it continues to colonize Palestinian land.
Lieberman’s Great Big Palestinian Land Heist Plan
Christmas and New Year’s Eve: More Homeless Palestinian children
Senior Labor minister: Without peace talks, even U.S. may soon recognize Palestinian state
World may recognise Palestine soon: Israel minister
Delegitimizing Israel: the dictionary
Israel mobilizing forces in Silwan for possible eviction of non-violent leader
French activists arrested at West Bank protest
Gaza doctor takes Israel to court
The Gaza Strip is a castle that will defend Palestinian rights and resist occupation
Deputy FM: ‘The state of Facebook’ is more real than Palestine
Israeli diplomat ambushed by NY Times staff
Max Ajl returns to Gaza and locates Palestinian freedom – ‘it’s under an Israeli-American jackboot’
‘Asylum seekers trying to reach Israel are being trapped and tortured in Sinai’
Steve Rosen’s Plaint against AIPAC
Texas Tea Party : anti-Semitic and pro-Zionist
Lieberman: Israel’s governing coalition unable to agree on peace deal with Palestinians
In Israel, parenthood is perceived of as a national mission
Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia: 26th of December 2010 : Flashmob/freeze scene
Gaza aid ship returns to Turkey
Gaza: Two years after the horror of Operation Cast Lead

Wikileaks Links

Banks and Wikileaks
Bank of America wonders about WikiLeaks’ planned ‘megaleak’
WikiLeaks given $1.3m in 2010, and Julian Assange pays himself two thirds of the salary budget
DEA reach goes global, beyond drugs: report
20 things we learned in 2010
We’re no pawns: Assange accusers
WikiLeaks: Kiwi mosque spied on by US

Other Links

Murphy: ‘The FBI raids and subpoenas . . . [are] best understood as backlash aimed at silencing our successful movement’

December 24, 2010December 11, 2020

Israel as Multiphobic Grinch

Merry Christmas from Israeli-occupied Bethlehem via London.

Meanwhile, at the supposed place of Jesus’s birth, the racist Upper Nazareth mayor grinch has banned Christmas trees.

The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative.

Predominantly Jewish Nazareth Illit, or Upper Nazareth, is adjacent to Nazareth, where Jesus is said to have spent much of his life. It has a sizable Arab Christian minority, as does mostly Muslim Nazareth itself.

‘The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative,’ Mayor Shimon Gapso told AFP.

‘Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen – not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,’ he said of the northern Israeli town.

Here, a new, nasty form of Israeli dendrophobia (phobia of trees) is displayed. Usually, zionists are renowned for burning or chopping rampages of Palestinian olive trees, actions designed to make life less bearable for Palestinians in their own land, to encourage them to vacate so more zionist land thieves can usurp their place.

Elsewhere in the Occupied Territories, brazen atrocities and theft committed by racist dysfunctional Israel have continued unabated. The phobias revealed by Israel’s lunatic fascist acts below include pediaphobia (phobia of children), ovinaphobia (phobia of sheep), oikophobia (phobia of houses), lactaphobia (phobia of milk), alektorophobia (phobia of chickens) and an over-arching xenophobia (fear of outsiders). I am not aware of formal names for the fear of equality nor the fear of human rights, but these phobias can also be added to the list of Israel’s pathologies.

From the Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16 – 22 December. 2010):

– 5 activists of the Palestinian resistance were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

– Another 4 activists were wounded by Israeli air strikes.

– IOF continued to fire at Palestinian workers, farmers and fishermen in border areas in the Gaza Strip.

– Two Palestinian workers, including a child, and one shepherd were wounded.

– Israeli warplanes attacked a number of targets in the Gaza Strip.

– A factory of dairy products was destroyed in the southern Gaza Strip.

– A house and a grocery were destroyed and another two houses were damaged in Rafah.

– A bird farm was damaged and 1,800 chickens were killed.

– Two sites of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) were destroyed.

– IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.

– 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded.

– IOF arrested 5 human rights defenders.

– IOF conducted 34 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

– IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children.

– Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

– Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem.

– IOF demolished a houses and forced two Palestinian civilians to demolish their houses in Jerusalem.

– IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

– Israeli settlers attacked two children in Jenin and burnt sheep in Nablus.

– IOF demolished a house in Bethlehem and 4 stores in Hebron.

– IOF confiscated 50 donums[1] of land in Beit Eksa village near Jerusalem.

Palestine / Israel Links

‘Israel approves 13,000 settlement units’
‘The Palestine Cables’: Gaza is a burning issue from Egypt to Latin America to Pakistan, to John Kerry being ’shocked by what I saw’
Israeli officer claims Goldstone report will not restrict IDF in future war
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16 – 22 December. 2010)
Soldier assaults B’Tselem worker on latter’s land
Postscript on the new McCarthyism
U.S. criticizes PA bid to take settlement construction to UN
Blast from the Past Evergreen – A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
Austrian Jews chide Likud MK for meeting far-right leader
Right-wing Israelis rally to kick Arabs out of Bat Yam
The tyranny of the Israeli majority
Australian BDS Movement Begins to Emerge
Major success for the anti-settlements campaign: Multilock to close West Bank factory
Settlement expansion in Palestine rises by 65 per cent
Netanyahu Accuses the Palestinians Of Obstructing Peace
UN envoys criticize Israel home demolitions
Wikileaks Cable Shows US Involvement in Swedish Anti-Piracy Efforts
Israeli airstrikes target Rafah
Abulhawa: Delegitimization? We are merely drawing back the curtain on child arrests and confiscation of water
Only a strong political center will halt Israel’s racist frenzy (not enough, zionism is doomed and in its final horrific flailing incarnation
Left-wing students fight university ban of ‘libelous’ flyer featuring Lieberman
The Bluster of a Zionist Thug
Hamas threatens Israel with retaliation
Christians in Palestine
Invisible Bethlehem

Wikilinks

Assange says ‘high chance’ he would be killed in US jail
US Army launches WikiLeaks probe
Julian Assange: my fate will rest in Cameron’s hands if US charges me
Supposed wikileak yet to be published: US memo: Israel bombed Syrian reactor
Cuba puts ‘imperialist’ US Wikileaks online
Norway’s top diplomat finds WikiLeaks “fascinating”
Norwegian Paper Obtains WikiLeaks Cable Haul
The Case of Julian Assange
WikiLeaks to ‘prove’ Mossad behind Dubai murder
What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010
Anthropology, Secrecy, and Wikileaks
WikiLeaks Reveals the Crimes of the Congressional-Big Agra Complex
We’re no pawns: Assange accusers
Bickering warriors in coalition of unwilling : Mistrust, indecision and hostility undermined Australia’s alliance with the Dutch and Americans in what was supposed to be a united front

Other Links

FBI: Don’t Spy on Us Say Minneapolis Activists
Obama administration preparing executive order to authorize indefinite detentions
Pentagon’s Christmas Present: Largest Military Budget Since World War II
Supporters Demand Justice for Aafia Siddiqui
The United States and Africa Security Cooperation and the Africa Command (AFRICOM)
Australia rejects Israeli ordered Media censorship on Al-Manar