Meanwhile, back in the Gaza Ghetto...
Remember odious Sharon government adviser Dov Weisglass telling the world at the time of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 that, because Hamas won the subsequent 2006 Palestinian elections, Israel had decided to "put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger"?
Well, quite apart from blockading the people of the Gaza Ghetto, periodically bombing and shelling them, and gunning them down every Friday at border demonstrations, Israel has other, more insidious, ways of killing them off. For example:
Hospital centered surveillance of births in Gaza, Palestine, 2011-2017 and heavy metal contamination of the mothers reveals long-term impact of wars, from Reproductive Toxicology, Vol.86)
Highlights
*Surveillance of births over 6 years, 2011-2017, in an area ridden by two intervening military attacks and under blockade and assessment of heavy metals contamination.
*Environmental resilience of heavy metals toxicants and teratogens, introduced by by war-remnants determines chronic intake and high load in women hair in 2016.
*Hot spots of contamination and negative birth outcomes in women resident near unmanaged waste sites, and of low birth weight at term with poor nutrition, consequences of the economic blockade.
Abstract
Prevalence of preterm, low birth weight and birth defects increased significantly since 2011 in Gaza, Palestine. No change in known co-factors of reproductive health justified this rise. Two military attacks in 2012 and 2014 introduced novel risk factors for outcomes at birth: contamination by teratogenic and carcinogenic heavy metals weapon-remnants, ongoing impoverishment, and impaired rehabilitation of waste management. It was previously shown that mothers exposed to military attacks had higher metal load than those unexposed and mother's heavy metals trans-pass placenta. We investigated association in time of heavy metal contamination and reproductive health using hospital-based surveillance (2011-2016-2018) of births, accompanied by assessment in 2016 of metal load in mother and newborn hair. Mother's housing proximal to unmanaged waste predicted preterm birth and birth defects, and these women had highest load of heavy metals. Poor diet predicted low birth weight. Circumstances prevent investigation of heavy metals molecular impact(s) during fetal development. (sciencedirect.com)
Showing posts with label Israeli terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israeli terrorism. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Sunday, April 28, 2019
56th Black Friday
Words fail:
"On the 56th Friday of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces wound 110 civilians, including 37 children, 3 women, 4 paramedics and a journalist." (mondoweiss.net, 27/4/19)
"On the 56th Friday of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces wound 110 civilians, including 37 children, 3 women, 4 paramedics and a journalist." (mondoweiss.net, 27/4/19)
Friday, March 8, 2019
Zionist Propaganda Fatigue
Yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald excelled itself, devoting half a page to Zionist propaganda.
"Spacecraft snaps epic selfie," reads the headline.
That was followed by this nauseous Zionist trumpeting:
"Organisers of a privately funded Israeli space mission released a striking photo on Tuesday, London time. It shows the spacecraft Beresheet, Hebrew for Genesis, orbiting some 37,500 kilometres away, with the entire Earth (including Australia) visible. A plaque includes the Hebrew inscription 'The People Of Israel Live'. It's scheduled to land on the moon on April 11."
And the "epic selfie" of the headline turns out to be a sticker (?), partly obscuring a distant planet Earth. It contains an Israeli flag and the words SMALL COUNTRY, BIG DREAMS - yes, in bold upper case letters.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's Australian, we find the screaming headline Israelis shoot Palestinians dead after car-ram attack.
When you read the report, however, the "car-ram attack" begins to look more like a road accident.
What appears to have happened is this:
1) Israeli troops were leaving a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank after a routine terrorising of its inhabitants.
2) Their vehicle broke down near a bend in the road.
3) Three young Palestinian men in a small car, travelling in the opposite direction, rounded the bend and accidentally collided with the stationary Israeli vehicle, injuring 2 soldiers in the process.
4) Trigger-happy troops opened fire, killing two of the Palestinians and wounding a third.
5) The wounded survivor was forced to confess that he and his friends had intended to ram the troops and also that they had been driving around, "hurling firebombs."
6) Conveniently, the troops allegedly "found additional firebombs" in the Palestinians' car.
In short, the Israeli troops murdered two Palestinian civilians, spun their crime as a response to a terrorist attack, tortured a wounded Palestinian to extract a confession, and planted 'evidence' at the scene of the crime.
Mahmoud Habbash, "a Palestinian supreme [court] judge and adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas," quoted in the AFP report, makes the bleeding obvious point: "It is inconceivable that three young men carry out an operation to run over the occupation soldiers in a car. One driver would be enough."
As it happens, we've seen this scenario before - in the Israeli film Foxtrot (2018), where troops manning a checkpoint shoot up a Palestinian car, killing those inside, and bury the vehicle with the bodies still inside as a cover-up.
Electronic Intifada's Maureen Clare Murphy provides the following context in her report of the incident:
"The Israeli newspaper Haaretz also noted: 'Veteran security figures who have been keeping watch on the West Bank for years can't recall a case of using a car to deliberately ram into people when there was more than one person inside the vehicle.' The paper added: 'Car ramming attacks generally involve one person, who may have acted on momentary impulse.' Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinian vehicles in which more than one person was traveling in what Israel said were alleged attacks over the past few years, killing a brother in a car with his sister and a teenager travelling with his fiancee. Last year, Israeli forces and armed civilians killed 15 Palestinian assailants or alleged assailants in the West Bank." (Two Palestinians killed in alleged attack, 4/3/19)
But those details would be a bridge too far for Murdoch's Australian.
"Spacecraft snaps epic selfie," reads the headline.
That was followed by this nauseous Zionist trumpeting:
"Organisers of a privately funded Israeli space mission released a striking photo on Tuesday, London time. It shows the spacecraft Beresheet, Hebrew for Genesis, orbiting some 37,500 kilometres away, with the entire Earth (including Australia) visible. A plaque includes the Hebrew inscription 'The People Of Israel Live'. It's scheduled to land on the moon on April 11."
And the "epic selfie" of the headline turns out to be a sticker (?), partly obscuring a distant planet Earth. It contains an Israeli flag and the words SMALL COUNTRY, BIG DREAMS - yes, in bold upper case letters.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's Australian, we find the screaming headline Israelis shoot Palestinians dead after car-ram attack.
When you read the report, however, the "car-ram attack" begins to look more like a road accident.
What appears to have happened is this:
1) Israeli troops were leaving a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank after a routine terrorising of its inhabitants.
2) Their vehicle broke down near a bend in the road.
3) Three young Palestinian men in a small car, travelling in the opposite direction, rounded the bend and accidentally collided with the stationary Israeli vehicle, injuring 2 soldiers in the process.
4) Trigger-happy troops opened fire, killing two of the Palestinians and wounding a third.
5) The wounded survivor was forced to confess that he and his friends had intended to ram the troops and also that they had been driving around, "hurling firebombs."
6) Conveniently, the troops allegedly "found additional firebombs" in the Palestinians' car.
In short, the Israeli troops murdered two Palestinian civilians, spun their crime as a response to a terrorist attack, tortured a wounded Palestinian to extract a confession, and planted 'evidence' at the scene of the crime.
Mahmoud Habbash, "a Palestinian supreme [court] judge and adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas," quoted in the AFP report, makes the bleeding obvious point: "It is inconceivable that three young men carry out an operation to run over the occupation soldiers in a car. One driver would be enough."
As it happens, we've seen this scenario before - in the Israeli film Foxtrot (2018), where troops manning a checkpoint shoot up a Palestinian car, killing those inside, and bury the vehicle with the bodies still inside as a cover-up.
Electronic Intifada's Maureen Clare Murphy provides the following context in her report of the incident:
"The Israeli newspaper Haaretz also noted: 'Veteran security figures who have been keeping watch on the West Bank for years can't recall a case of using a car to deliberately ram into people when there was more than one person inside the vehicle.' The paper added: 'Car ramming attacks generally involve one person, who may have acted on momentary impulse.' Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinian vehicles in which more than one person was traveling in what Israel said were alleged attacks over the past few years, killing a brother in a car with his sister and a teenager travelling with his fiancee. Last year, Israeli forces and armed civilians killed 15 Palestinian assailants or alleged assailants in the West Bank." (Two Palestinians killed in alleged attack, 4/3/19)
But those details would be a bridge too far for Murdoch's Australian.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
'A Call for Help from a Population in Despair'
When you hear Australia's shambolic Christian Zionist prime minister Scott Morrison prating that "[t]he UN General Assembly is now the place where Israel is bullied and where anti-Semitism is cloaked in the language of human rights... This year the Human Rights Council passed 6 motions condemning Israel compared to a total of 14 across the rest of the world" (70th Anniversary of Australia's formal diplomatic relationship with the State of Israel, aph.gov.au, 19/2/19), consider it a salutary reminder of just how vital and necessary is the work of the UNGA in general, and the HRC in particular, in documenting and calling out the serial crimes of the apartheid state. Crimes such as those outlined in this press release from The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Gaza protests, for example:
"The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory today presented its findings. The report focuses on the demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, referred to as the 'Great March of Return and the Breaking of the Siege'.
"The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel,' said the Chair of the Commission, Santiago Canton of Argentina.
"The Commission was mandated by the Human Rights Council in May 2018 to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in the context of the large-scale protests that began in Gaza on 30 March 2018. The Commission comprises Santiago Canton of Argentina (Chair), Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and Betty Murungi of Kenya.
"More than 6,000 unarmed demonstrators were shot by military snipers, week after week at the protest sites by the separation fence.
"The Commission investigated every killing at the designated demonstration sites by the Gaza separation fence on official protest days. The investigation covered the period from the start of the protests until 31 December 2018. 189 Palestinians were killed during the demonstrations inside this period. The Commission found that Israeli Security Forces killed 183 of these protesters with live ammunition. Thirty-five of these fatalities were children, while three were clearly marked paramedics, and two were clearly marked journalists.
"According to the the Commission's data analysis, the Israeli Security Forces injured 6,106 with live ammunition at the protest sites during the period. Another 3,098 Palestinians were injured by bullet fragmentation, rubber-coated metal bullets or by hits from tear gas canisters. Four Israeli soldiers were injured at the demonstrations. One Israeli soldier was killed on a protest day but outside the protest sites.
"'There can be no justification for killing and injuring journalists, medics, and persons who pose no imminent threat of death or serious injury to those around them. Particularly alarming is the targeting of children and persons with disabilities,' said Sarah Hossain. 'Many young persons' lives have been altered forever. 122 people have had a limb amputated since 30 March last year. Twenty of these amputees are children.'
"The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities knowing they were clearly recognizable as such.
"Unless undertaken lawfully in self-defence, intentionally shooting a civilian not directly participating in hostilities is a war crime. The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that individual members of the Israeli Security Forces, in the course of their response to the demonstrations, killed and injured civilians who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat. These serious human rights and humanitarian law violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
"The Commission took note of the Israeli claim that the protests by the separation fence masked 'terror activities' by Palestinian armed groups. The Commission found however that the demonstrations were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims. Despite some acts of significant violence, the Commission found that the demonstrations did not constitute combat or military campaigns.
"The applicable legal framework was thus based in international human rights law. This assessment did not change even though the Commission's investigation revealed that some demonstrators were members of organized armed groups. Others were members of political parties. International human rights law prohibits the use of force based solely on a person's actual or alleged affiliation to any group, rather than their conduct.
"The Commission found that some members of the Higher National Committee organising the protests, which includes Hamas representatives, encouraged or defended demonstators' use of indiscriminate incendiary kites and balloons, causing fear among civilians and significant damage to property in southern Israel. The Commission concluded that Hamas, as the de facto authority in Gaza, failed to prevent these acts.
"The Commission conducted 325 interviews with victims, witnesses and sources, and gathered more than 8,000 documents. An integral part of the investigation was comprehensive analysis of social media, and of vast amounts of audio-visual material showing incidents, including drone footage.
"The Commission was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to focus on accountability and identify those responsible for violations and alleged international crimes.
"'The Commission will place the relevant information in a confidential file to be handed over to the High Commissioner of Human Rights, to provide access to this information to national and international justice mechanisms. The International Criminal Court is already concerned with this situation,' said Betty Murungi. [...]
"'The onus is now on Israel to investigate every protest-related killing and injury, promptly, impartially and independently in accordance with international standards, to determine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed, with a view to holding accountable those found responsible,' said Santiago Canton... 'The Commission finds that these protests were a call for help from a population in despair', Santiago Canton reminded. 'Not only Israel but also the de facto authorities led by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have responsibilities towards them. The Commission calls on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, and on all three duty bearers to comply with their responsibilities and improve the living situation in Gaza.'
"The Israeli authorities did not respond to repeated requests by the Commission for information and access to Israel and to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"A fuller report, containing detailed factual and contextual information and legal analysis will be published and presented to the Human Rights Council on 18 March 2019 in Geneva." (No justification for Israel to shoot protesters with live ammunition, 28/2/19)
"The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory today presented its findings. The report focuses on the demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, referred to as the 'Great March of Return and the Breaking of the Siege'.
"The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel,' said the Chair of the Commission, Santiago Canton of Argentina.
"The Commission was mandated by the Human Rights Council in May 2018 to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in the context of the large-scale protests that began in Gaza on 30 March 2018. The Commission comprises Santiago Canton of Argentina (Chair), Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and Betty Murungi of Kenya.
"More than 6,000 unarmed demonstrators were shot by military snipers, week after week at the protest sites by the separation fence.
"The Commission investigated every killing at the designated demonstration sites by the Gaza separation fence on official protest days. The investigation covered the period from the start of the protests until 31 December 2018. 189 Palestinians were killed during the demonstrations inside this period. The Commission found that Israeli Security Forces killed 183 of these protesters with live ammunition. Thirty-five of these fatalities were children, while three were clearly marked paramedics, and two were clearly marked journalists.
"According to the the Commission's data analysis, the Israeli Security Forces injured 6,106 with live ammunition at the protest sites during the period. Another 3,098 Palestinians were injured by bullet fragmentation, rubber-coated metal bullets or by hits from tear gas canisters. Four Israeli soldiers were injured at the demonstrations. One Israeli soldier was killed on a protest day but outside the protest sites.
"'There can be no justification for killing and injuring journalists, medics, and persons who pose no imminent threat of death or serious injury to those around them. Particularly alarming is the targeting of children and persons with disabilities,' said Sarah Hossain. 'Many young persons' lives have been altered forever. 122 people have had a limb amputated since 30 March last year. Twenty of these amputees are children.'
"The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities knowing they were clearly recognizable as such.
"Unless undertaken lawfully in self-defence, intentionally shooting a civilian not directly participating in hostilities is a war crime. The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that individual members of the Israeli Security Forces, in the course of their response to the demonstrations, killed and injured civilians who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat. These serious human rights and humanitarian law violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
"The Commission took note of the Israeli claim that the protests by the separation fence masked 'terror activities' by Palestinian armed groups. The Commission found however that the demonstrations were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims. Despite some acts of significant violence, the Commission found that the demonstrations did not constitute combat or military campaigns.
"The applicable legal framework was thus based in international human rights law. This assessment did not change even though the Commission's investigation revealed that some demonstrators were members of organized armed groups. Others were members of political parties. International human rights law prohibits the use of force based solely on a person's actual or alleged affiliation to any group, rather than their conduct.
"The Commission found that some members of the Higher National Committee organising the protests, which includes Hamas representatives, encouraged or defended demonstators' use of indiscriminate incendiary kites and balloons, causing fear among civilians and significant damage to property in southern Israel. The Commission concluded that Hamas, as the de facto authority in Gaza, failed to prevent these acts.
"The Commission conducted 325 interviews with victims, witnesses and sources, and gathered more than 8,000 documents. An integral part of the investigation was comprehensive analysis of social media, and of vast amounts of audio-visual material showing incidents, including drone footage.
"The Commission was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to focus on accountability and identify those responsible for violations and alleged international crimes.
"'The Commission will place the relevant information in a confidential file to be handed over to the High Commissioner of Human Rights, to provide access to this information to national and international justice mechanisms. The International Criminal Court is already concerned with this situation,' said Betty Murungi. [...]
"'The onus is now on Israel to investigate every protest-related killing and injury, promptly, impartially and independently in accordance with international standards, to determine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed, with a view to holding accountable those found responsible,' said Santiago Canton... 'The Commission finds that these protests were a call for help from a population in despair', Santiago Canton reminded. 'Not only Israel but also the de facto authorities led by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have responsibilities towards them. The Commission calls on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, and on all three duty bearers to comply with their responsibilities and improve the living situation in Gaza.'
"The Israeli authorities did not respond to repeated requests by the Commission for information and access to Israel and to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"A fuller report, containing detailed factual and contextual information and legal analysis will be published and presented to the Human Rights Council on 18 March 2019 in Geneva." (No justification for Israel to shoot protesters with live ammunition, 28/2/19)
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Who Invented the 'Terror Tunnel'?
Why, Hamas and Hezbollah, of course! Everyone knows that. Especially the Murdoch press:
"The Israeli military launched an operation yesterday to 'expose and thwart' tunnels built by Hezbollah that it said stretched from Lebanon into northern Israel... 'We see Hezbollah's activities as a flagrant and blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty,' said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. 'This activity is another example of the negative effects of Iranian entrenchment in the region'." (Israeli troops unleash on Hezbollah tunnels, AP, The Australian, 5/12/18)
The world's most innocent bystander could never, in a million years, dream up such a fiendish thing as the dreaded 'terror tunnel'!
Oh, wait:
"An explosion was heard* by the Coldstream [Guards] in [their] Citrus House [headquarters] emanating from a building across the road, opposite the gate. The dead body of a man was found near the entrance of a tunnel which began in the basement of the building and led in the direction of Citrus House... The Coldstream Regimental History states: 'The IZL [Irgun Zvai Leumi] had decided to blow up Citrus House'... Terrorist tunneling had been discounted by those who thought they knew, because the predominant sandy nature of the earth was considered a barrier to any such operation." (A Captain's Mandate: Palestine 1946-1948, Philip Brutton, 1996, p 99)
[*12/6/47]
"The Israeli military launched an operation yesterday to 'expose and thwart' tunnels built by Hezbollah that it said stretched from Lebanon into northern Israel... 'We see Hezbollah's activities as a flagrant and blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty,' said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. 'This activity is another example of the negative effects of Iranian entrenchment in the region'." (Israeli troops unleash on Hezbollah tunnels, AP, The Australian, 5/12/18)
The world's most innocent bystander could never, in a million years, dream up such a fiendish thing as the dreaded 'terror tunnel'!
Oh, wait:
"An explosion was heard* by the Coldstream [Guards] in [their] Citrus House [headquarters] emanating from a building across the road, opposite the gate. The dead body of a man was found near the entrance of a tunnel which began in the basement of the building and led in the direction of Citrus House... The Coldstream Regimental History states: 'The IZL [Irgun Zvai Leumi] had decided to blow up Citrus House'... Terrorist tunneling had been discounted by those who thought they knew, because the predominant sandy nature of the earth was considered a barrier to any such operation." (A Captain's Mandate: Palestine 1946-1948, Philip Brutton, 1996, p 99)
[*12/6/47]
Friday, June 29, 2018
Another Zionist Attack on Australian Aid to Palestinians
You'll recall the case of World Vision's Gaza director Mohammed El-Halabi, seized by the Israelis in 2016 and falsely accused of diverting Australian aid money to Hamas, despite neither the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade nor World Vision Australia finding any evidence for the accusation. (See my 23/3/17 post The Halabi Affair.) (And incidentally, here it is, June 2018, and, search as I may on the Internet, I can find no reference to what has happened to El-Halabi.)
Now, another Australian aid organisation, the ACTU's Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, has come under attack by the usual suspects for the heinous crime of helping dispossessed and colonised Palestinians.
'Venomous' doesn't begin to describe Murdoch's Daily Telegraph. "TERROR EXCLUSIVE" shrieked its front page yesterday, "Audit into jihadi links to Aussie aid - GAZA DRIP." (That final shriek, btw, gets my nomination for any 'Lamest MSM Pun of the Year' competition currently in contemplation.)
That was followed by this opener from "national political editor," Sharri Markson:
"An urgent investigation is under way after revelations millions of taxpayer dollars are being funnelled to a Palestinian aid organisation in the Middle East that employed a leader of a terrorist group. The Daily Telegraph can today reveal the money web that sees cash move from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade through a Sydney-based charity to a Palestinian aid organisation which employed the leader of a vicious jihadi group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP has masterminded plane hijackings and suicide bombings, and is on the official terror lists of the US, the European Union and Canada. In total, $21 million of DFAT funding has been given to a charity set up by the unions, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, which has funnelled millions through to the Ma'an Development Centre - whose project co-ordinator in Gaza was the recently killed PFLP leader Ahmed Abdullah Al Adine. He was hailed a martyr at his funeral, which was guarded by at least a dozen PFLP terrorists. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop last night said a 'full audit of funding' to Union Aid Abroad had been ordered."
Describing the Marxist PFLP* as "a vicious jihadi group" is just the kind of cheap propaganda you'd expect from Markson, once described by former Labor politician, now Murdoch columnist for The Australian, Graham Richardson (in a model of understatement) as someone who can be "irritating and sometimes go too far."
Two things should always be kept in mind whenever Israelis, or their fifth columnists in places like Australia, start banging on about 'Palestinian terrorism'.
The first is that the Palestinians, like all occupied people, have the legal right, in the words of UNGA resolution 37/43 of 1982, to resist occupying forces "by all available means, including armed struggle."
The second is that for Zionists to bleat about 'Palestinian terrorism' is the very height of hypocrisy. Not only did they use terror in their ruthless, armed takeover of British Mandate Palestine, but they have continued using it on a daily basis against defenceless Palestinians and others ever since.
The Israelis have, of course, long been gunning for both APHEDA and World Vision Australia, as this propaganda piece from Jason Edelstein of NGO Monitor, published in Murdoch's Australian in 2012, indicates:
"In a new report, Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Centre) presents 'conclusive evidence' that a Gaza-based organisation supported by two Australian groups is linked to the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine terror group. The report explains that the Australian Agency for International Development and World Vision Australia are 'providing financial aid and other forms of material support to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, an agency of the proscribed terror organisation the PFLP... As NGO Monitor has shown, APHEDA... engages in activities that fuel the conflict and do not promote humanitarian objectives. APHEDA campaigns for a one-sided and immoral arms embargo that would impair Israeli defence against terror attacks, uses demonising 'apartheid' language, endorses the so-called Palestinian 'right of return' and partners with organisations promoting BDS and 'lawfare' tactics. Its Middle East tours have served as the basis for promoting BDS campaigns in Australia." (No peace in hidden agenda of aid agencies, 30/3/12)
[*For George Habash and the PFLP see my 6/5/18 post Gideon Levy: 'Habash Was Right'.]
Now, another Australian aid organisation, the ACTU's Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, has come under attack by the usual suspects for the heinous crime of helping dispossessed and colonised Palestinians.
'Venomous' doesn't begin to describe Murdoch's Daily Telegraph. "TERROR EXCLUSIVE" shrieked its front page yesterday, "Audit into jihadi links to Aussie aid - GAZA DRIP." (That final shriek, btw, gets my nomination for any 'Lamest MSM Pun of the Year' competition currently in contemplation.)
That was followed by this opener from "national political editor," Sharri Markson:
"An urgent investigation is under way after revelations millions of taxpayer dollars are being funnelled to a Palestinian aid organisation in the Middle East that employed a leader of a terrorist group. The Daily Telegraph can today reveal the money web that sees cash move from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade through a Sydney-based charity to a Palestinian aid organisation which employed the leader of a vicious jihadi group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP has masterminded plane hijackings and suicide bombings, and is on the official terror lists of the US, the European Union and Canada. In total, $21 million of DFAT funding has been given to a charity set up by the unions, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, which has funnelled millions through to the Ma'an Development Centre - whose project co-ordinator in Gaza was the recently killed PFLP leader Ahmed Abdullah Al Adine. He was hailed a martyr at his funeral, which was guarded by at least a dozen PFLP terrorists. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop last night said a 'full audit of funding' to Union Aid Abroad had been ordered."
Describing the Marxist PFLP* as "a vicious jihadi group" is just the kind of cheap propaganda you'd expect from Markson, once described by former Labor politician, now Murdoch columnist for The Australian, Graham Richardson (in a model of understatement) as someone who can be "irritating and sometimes go too far."
Two things should always be kept in mind whenever Israelis, or their fifth columnists in places like Australia, start banging on about 'Palestinian terrorism'.
The first is that the Palestinians, like all occupied people, have the legal right, in the words of UNGA resolution 37/43 of 1982, to resist occupying forces "by all available means, including armed struggle."
The second is that for Zionists to bleat about 'Palestinian terrorism' is the very height of hypocrisy. Not only did they use terror in their ruthless, armed takeover of British Mandate Palestine, but they have continued using it on a daily basis against defenceless Palestinians and others ever since.
The Israelis have, of course, long been gunning for both APHEDA and World Vision Australia, as this propaganda piece from Jason Edelstein of NGO Monitor, published in Murdoch's Australian in 2012, indicates:
"In a new report, Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Centre) presents 'conclusive evidence' that a Gaza-based organisation supported by two Australian groups is linked to the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine terror group. The report explains that the Australian Agency for International Development and World Vision Australia are 'providing financial aid and other forms of material support to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, an agency of the proscribed terror organisation the PFLP... As NGO Monitor has shown, APHEDA... engages in activities that fuel the conflict and do not promote humanitarian objectives. APHEDA campaigns for a one-sided and immoral arms embargo that would impair Israeli defence against terror attacks, uses demonising 'apartheid' language, endorses the so-called Palestinian 'right of return' and partners with organisations promoting BDS and 'lawfare' tactics. Its Middle East tours have served as the basis for promoting BDS campaigns in Australia." (No peace in hidden agenda of aid agencies, 30/3/12)
[*For George Habash and the PFLP see my 6/5/18 post Gideon Levy: 'Habash Was Right'.]
Monday, June 4, 2018
Shoot the Medics & Bomb the Hospitals
Unfortunately, Israel's murder of Gaza nurse Razan an-Najjar is not a first. In fact, since the Gaza protests began on March 30, it has been open season for Israeli snipers on Palestinian medics:
"While Israel has drawn criticism over its 'excessive' and 'disproportionate' use of force that has killed at least 114 unarmed Palestinian protesters and wounded more than 13,000 since March 30, many have also drawn attention to the Israeli army's targeting of medical personnel. During mass demonstrations on May 14, 17 medical personnel were injured by Israeli live ammunition, and one paramedic [Musa Abuhassanin] was killed, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Seven ambulances were damaged that day... Since the start of the Great March of Return movement on March 30, 238 health personnel and 38 ambulances have been affected, according to the World Health Organization. According to a new report by Safeguarding Health in Conflict, a coalition of NGOs, among the countries experiencing the highest number of attacks on healthcare, the occupied Palestinian territories is second only to Syria." (Palestinian medics struggle to provide healthcare amid attacks, Mersiha Gadzo, aljazeera.com, 29/5/18)
This, of course, should surprise no one familiar with modern Palestinian history. Targeting Palestinian (and other) health workers, patients, and facilities has always been a Zionist specialty. Take Israel's bloody siege of West Beirut in July 1982, for example:
"In West Beirut an orphanage, a home for the disabled and a mental home were all bombed. The children's hospital at the Sabra camp was hit and patients were killed; the Gaza hospital at the Bourj al Barajneh camp was bombed, and so were the 'Akka Palestinian hospital, the American hospital near the American University of Beirut and a hospital in the foothills of Aley. In one day seventeen hospitals were hit. The scenes inside these hospitals - further scenes from Goya or the Inferno - were complete pandemonium as the bodies of the dead and wounded were brought in. Administrators and doctors protested that their hospitals were clearly marked with Red Cross or Red Crescent signs. According to the Lebanese Red Cross, the Israelis also attacked its ambulances, cars, and volunteers, preventing them from evacuating the wounded and bringing food and medical supplies." (The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands, Jeremy Salt, 2008, pp 257-58)
"While Israel has drawn criticism over its 'excessive' and 'disproportionate' use of force that has killed at least 114 unarmed Palestinian protesters and wounded more than 13,000 since March 30, many have also drawn attention to the Israeli army's targeting of medical personnel. During mass demonstrations on May 14, 17 medical personnel were injured by Israeli live ammunition, and one paramedic [Musa Abuhassanin] was killed, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Seven ambulances were damaged that day... Since the start of the Great March of Return movement on March 30, 238 health personnel and 38 ambulances have been affected, according to the World Health Organization. According to a new report by Safeguarding Health in Conflict, a coalition of NGOs, among the countries experiencing the highest number of attacks on healthcare, the occupied Palestinian territories is second only to Syria." (Palestinian medics struggle to provide healthcare amid attacks, Mersiha Gadzo, aljazeera.com, 29/5/18)
This, of course, should surprise no one familiar with modern Palestinian history. Targeting Palestinian (and other) health workers, patients, and facilities has always been a Zionist specialty. Take Israel's bloody siege of West Beirut in July 1982, for example:
"In West Beirut an orphanage, a home for the disabled and a mental home were all bombed. The children's hospital at the Sabra camp was hit and patients were killed; the Gaza hospital at the Bourj al Barajneh camp was bombed, and so were the 'Akka Palestinian hospital, the American hospital near the American University of Beirut and a hospital in the foothills of Aley. In one day seventeen hospitals were hit. The scenes inside these hospitals - further scenes from Goya or the Inferno - were complete pandemonium as the bodies of the dead and wounded were brought in. Administrators and doctors protested that their hospitals were clearly marked with Red Cross or Red Crescent signs. According to the Lebanese Red Cross, the Israelis also attacked its ambulances, cars, and volunteers, preventing them from evacuating the wounded and bringing food and medical supplies." (The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands, Jeremy Salt, 2008, pp 257-58)
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
This is a Revelation?
"As a reporter in Israel, I have interviewed hundreds of people in its intelligence and defense establishments and studied thousands of classified documents that revealed a hidden history, surprising even in the context of Israel's already fierce reputation. Many of the people I spoke to, in explaining why they did what they did, would simply cite the Babylonian Talmud: 'If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.' In my reporting, I found that since World War II, Israel has used assassination and targeted-killing more than any other country in the West, in many cases endangering the lives of civilians." (How Arafat eluded Israel's assassination machine, Ronen Bergman, nytimes.com, 23/1/18)
Monday, December 18, 2017
The Martyrdom of Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh 2
The Israel military first took his legs, then his life by Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 17/12/17
"The Israeli army sharpshooter couldn't target the lower part of his victim's body - Ibrahim Abu Thuraya didn't have one. The 29-year-old, who worked washing cars and who lived in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, lost both legs from the hips down in an Israeli airstrike during Operation Cast Lead in 2008. He used a wheel chair to get around. On Friday the army finished the job: a sharpshooter aimed at his head and shot him dead.
"The images are horrific. Abu Thuraya in his wheelchair, pushed by friends, calling for protests against the US declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital; Abu Thuraya on the ground, crawling toward the fence behind which the Gaza Strip is imprisoned; Abu Thuraya waving a Palestinian flag; Abu Thuraya holding up both arms in the victory sign; Abu Thuraya carried by his friends, bleeding to death: Abu Thuraya's corpse laid out on a stretcher: The End.
"The army sharpshooter couldn't aim at the lower part of his victim's body on Friday so he shot him in the head and killed him. It can be assumed that the soldier realized that he was shooting at a person in a wheelchair, unless he was shooting indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters.
"Abu Thuraya posed no danger to anyone: how much of a danger could a double amputee in a wheelchair, imprisoned behind a fence, constitute? How much evil and insensitivity does it take in order to shoot a handicapped person in a wheelchair? Abu Thuraya was not the first, nor will he be the last, Palestinian with disabilities to be killed by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces - the most moral soldiers in the world, or not.
"The killing of the young disabled man passed almost without notice in Israel. He was one of three demonstrators killed Friday, just another humdrum day. One can easily imagine what would happen if Palestinians had killed an Israeli who used a wheelchair. What a furor would have erupted, with endless ink spilled on their cruelty and barbarism. How many arrests would have resulted, how much blood would have flowed in retaliation. But when soldiers behave barbarically, Israel is silent and shows no interest. No shock, no shame, no pity. An apology or expression of regret or remorse is the stuff of fantasy. The idea of holding those responsible for this criminal killing accountable is also delusional. Abu Thuraya was a dead man once he dared take part in his people's protest and his killing is of no interest to anyone, since he was a Palestinian.
"The Gaza Strip has been closed to Israeli journalists for 11 years, so one can only imagine the life of the car-washer from Shati before his death - how he recovered from his injuries in the absence of decent rehabilitation services in the besieged Strip, with no chance of obtaining prosthetic legs; how he rumbled along in an old wheelchair, not an electric one, in the sandy alleys of his camp; how he continued washing cars despite his disability, since there are no other choices in Shati, including for people with disabilities; and how he continued struggling with his friends, despite his disability.
"No Israeli could imagine life in that cage, the biggest in the world, the one called the Gaza Strip. It is part of a never-ending mass experiment on human beings.
"One should see the desperate young people who approached the fence in Friday's demonstration, armed with stones that couldn't reach anywhere, throwing them through the cracks in the bars behind which they are trapped. These young people have no hope in their lives even when they have two legs to walk on. Abu Thuraya had even less hope. There is something pathetic yet dignified in the photo of him raising the Palestinian flag, given his dual confinement - in his wheelchair and in his besieged country. The story of Abu Thuraya is an accurate reflection of the circumstances of his people. Shortly after he was photographed, his tormented life came to an end. When people cry out every week: 'Netanyahu to Maasiyahu [prison]' someone should finally also start talking about The Hague."
"The Israeli army sharpshooter couldn't target the lower part of his victim's body - Ibrahim Abu Thuraya didn't have one. The 29-year-old, who worked washing cars and who lived in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, lost both legs from the hips down in an Israeli airstrike during Operation Cast Lead in 2008. He used a wheel chair to get around. On Friday the army finished the job: a sharpshooter aimed at his head and shot him dead.
"The images are horrific. Abu Thuraya in his wheelchair, pushed by friends, calling for protests against the US declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital; Abu Thuraya on the ground, crawling toward the fence behind which the Gaza Strip is imprisoned; Abu Thuraya waving a Palestinian flag; Abu Thuraya holding up both arms in the victory sign; Abu Thuraya carried by his friends, bleeding to death: Abu Thuraya's corpse laid out on a stretcher: The End.
"The army sharpshooter couldn't aim at the lower part of his victim's body on Friday so he shot him in the head and killed him. It can be assumed that the soldier realized that he was shooting at a person in a wheelchair, unless he was shooting indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters.
"Abu Thuraya posed no danger to anyone: how much of a danger could a double amputee in a wheelchair, imprisoned behind a fence, constitute? How much evil and insensitivity does it take in order to shoot a handicapped person in a wheelchair? Abu Thuraya was not the first, nor will he be the last, Palestinian with disabilities to be killed by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces - the most moral soldiers in the world, or not.
"The killing of the young disabled man passed almost without notice in Israel. He was one of three demonstrators killed Friday, just another humdrum day. One can easily imagine what would happen if Palestinians had killed an Israeli who used a wheelchair. What a furor would have erupted, with endless ink spilled on their cruelty and barbarism. How many arrests would have resulted, how much blood would have flowed in retaliation. But when soldiers behave barbarically, Israel is silent and shows no interest. No shock, no shame, no pity. An apology or expression of regret or remorse is the stuff of fantasy. The idea of holding those responsible for this criminal killing accountable is also delusional. Abu Thuraya was a dead man once he dared take part in his people's protest and his killing is of no interest to anyone, since he was a Palestinian.
"The Gaza Strip has been closed to Israeli journalists for 11 years, so one can only imagine the life of the car-washer from Shati before his death - how he recovered from his injuries in the absence of decent rehabilitation services in the besieged Strip, with no chance of obtaining prosthetic legs; how he rumbled along in an old wheelchair, not an electric one, in the sandy alleys of his camp; how he continued washing cars despite his disability, since there are no other choices in Shati, including for people with disabilities; and how he continued struggling with his friends, despite his disability.
"No Israeli could imagine life in that cage, the biggest in the world, the one called the Gaza Strip. It is part of a never-ending mass experiment on human beings.
"One should see the desperate young people who approached the fence in Friday's demonstration, armed with stones that couldn't reach anywhere, throwing them through the cracks in the bars behind which they are trapped. These young people have no hope in their lives even when they have two legs to walk on. Abu Thuraya had even less hope. There is something pathetic yet dignified in the photo of him raising the Palestinian flag, given his dual confinement - in his wheelchair and in his besieged country. The story of Abu Thuraya is an accurate reflection of the circumstances of his people. Shortly after he was photographed, his tormented life came to an end. When people cry out every week: 'Netanyahu to Maasiyahu [prison]' someone should finally also start talking about The Hague."
Sunday, December 17, 2017
The Martyrdom of Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh
Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh's dream was to break out of the Gaza Ghetto and walk free on the occupied Palestinian land which beckoned to him from the other side of the wire. So his Israeli prison guards hacked off his legs. Undaunted, he continued to defy them - on his stumps.
As long as he had a hand which could pick up a stone, and an arm to fling it at the enemy with, his resistance against those who would keep this lion in his cage would continue. However, since any act of resistance, no matter how small, was utterly intolerable to his jailers, they shot him in the head:
"The narrow streets of the 70 acres of Gaza City's densely crowded Beach refugee camp were never so quiet as today. The poor camp on the western side of the city is famous for starting life early every day, with the fuss of street vendors, donkey cart drivers and the vegetable market, which is filled with customers by 6:30 am.
"All of these faded away this morning, one day after Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, 29, was shot dead during skirmishes with the Israeli army east if the city.
"In front of his old family home, Abu Thurayeh's friends began to set up a condolence tent for his relatives and neighbours. His 27-year-old cousin, Mahmoud Abu Thurayeh, was delivering the chairs shortly before mourners arrived. 'Ibrahim has always been the first to offer help to set up such tents for the martyrs of the camp,' Mahmoud said. 'But today it seems he will not, forever.'
"Ibrahim had lost his legs in an Israeli attack on Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. He was injured in 2008 by an Israeli helicopter that targeted him after he took down an Israeli flag along the border and raised a Palestinian one.
"Since that time, he has been active in the clashes - until he was killed with a bullet above his eye fired by an Israeli soldier.
"About 150 Palestinians were injured and four were killed near the border fence in Gaza on a day of clashes that erupted also in the West Bank in protest of the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
"In a video clip two days before his death, Ibrahim said he had come to participate in the clashes at Nahal Oz (east of Gaza) because he wanted to cross the occupied land on the other side of the barbed wire border just once in his life. But his dream ended with the fatal shot.
"'The Israeli army is cowardly and does not appear to fight except behind the concrete cubes,' he added in the video. 'We only have small stones that reach only 50 meters, and every day I come, crawling on my hands. I am here to deliver a message to those soldiers: 'This is our land and we will not give up. The United States should withdraw its declaration over Jerusalem'." (Ibrahim 'the half-bodied', an icon of Gaza skirmishes, loses his other half for Jerusalem, Ahmad Kabariti, mondoweiss.net, 16/12/17)
As long as he had a hand which could pick up a stone, and an arm to fling it at the enemy with, his resistance against those who would keep this lion in his cage would continue. However, since any act of resistance, no matter how small, was utterly intolerable to his jailers, they shot him in the head:
"The narrow streets of the 70 acres of Gaza City's densely crowded Beach refugee camp were never so quiet as today. The poor camp on the western side of the city is famous for starting life early every day, with the fuss of street vendors, donkey cart drivers and the vegetable market, which is filled with customers by 6:30 am.
"All of these faded away this morning, one day after Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, 29, was shot dead during skirmishes with the Israeli army east if the city.
"In front of his old family home, Abu Thurayeh's friends began to set up a condolence tent for his relatives and neighbours. His 27-year-old cousin, Mahmoud Abu Thurayeh, was delivering the chairs shortly before mourners arrived. 'Ibrahim has always been the first to offer help to set up such tents for the martyrs of the camp,' Mahmoud said. 'But today it seems he will not, forever.'
"Ibrahim had lost his legs in an Israeli attack on Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. He was injured in 2008 by an Israeli helicopter that targeted him after he took down an Israeli flag along the border and raised a Palestinian one.
"Since that time, he has been active in the clashes - until he was killed with a bullet above his eye fired by an Israeli soldier.
"About 150 Palestinians were injured and four were killed near the border fence in Gaza on a day of clashes that erupted also in the West Bank in protest of the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
"In a video clip two days before his death, Ibrahim said he had come to participate in the clashes at Nahal Oz (east of Gaza) because he wanted to cross the occupied land on the other side of the barbed wire border just once in his life. But his dream ended with the fatal shot.
"'The Israeli army is cowardly and does not appear to fight except behind the concrete cubes,' he added in the video. 'We only have small stones that reach only 50 meters, and every day I come, crawling on my hands. I am here to deliver a message to those soldiers: 'This is our land and we will not give up. The United States should withdraw its declaration over Jerusalem'." (Ibrahim 'the half-bodied', an icon of Gaza skirmishes, loses his other half for Jerusalem, Ahmad Kabariti, mondoweiss.net, 16/12/17)
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
You Can Run, But You Can't Hide 4
No reply from Uri. A renewed note from Salman to Uri, 27/1/17:
Dear Uri,
Reading your weekly article has become a ritual for me. It is full of knowledge and appreciation of facts and understanding of the lessons of history. In all matters and about all countries. Except Palestine.
You did not respond to my last letter. Perhaps you thought it too strong and harsh. But it was true. Sometimes truth cannot be answered.
You did not read my book or did not wish to comment. That is not a problem.
Europeans of Jewish faith gave Europe a lot of culture, philosophy, science and ideals of liberation. That was not because they read the Torah daily, but because they were the product of European 'civilisation'. Einstein, Lenin, and Marx did that, and the world should be grateful to them as decent human beings.
Those Europeans, Ashkenazim, aka Israelis, when they descended on Palestine, acted against every humanitarian principle they espoused when they were in Europe. They smashed children's brains out (Dawayima), bayoneted pregnant women's stomachs (Dayr Yassin), burnt old men alive (Lajjun), shot farmers in ditches they were forced to dig as graves (Tantoura), threw them in a well (Sa'sa and Ayn Zeitoun), set a village ablaze and threw hand grenades at people inside their homes (Bureir).
Above all, they depopulated 600 Palestinian localities, the worst event in Palestine's 5000-year history.
They were terrorists of the worst kind. Those who should have known better did these awful things.
You belonged to the Irgun, the 'worst' terrorist group, if grading can be made.
I know that you have spent years calling for 'peace'. But your peace means that the killer should be forgiven, the thief should get away with the stolen goods, and those expelled from their homes should be thrown a few pieces of silver to shut up.
No remorse, no repentance, no justice, no remedy. Just empty words.
How could those settlers live with this double life, liberty in Europe and crime in Palestine?
The answer is schizophrenia. The European Jews, aka Israelis, live in a bubble of denial. A fake world. They shut the world of crime out of their minds and the minds of the adoring West. And preach peace, democracy, science and art instead.
No Nakba. Perish the thought. No word 'Palestinian'. No flag. Oh yes. There are no refugees. Just Arabs who drifted from Arabia Deserta into the land of milk and honey, created by European settlers who came to this empty desert land and made it a paradise.
They are cowards. I say this again.
Some years ago, my nephew, now a professor in Berlin, visited my birthplace, al- Ma'in, with his uncle, showing him the places he knew. My nephew told me this story. While they were walking around, an older settler with a little girl came by in a car and asked: 'Where are you from?' The uncle said: 'From here', and pointed to the land. The settler said: 'Then you are Abu Sitta?'
His teenage daughter, or granddaughter, was curious, leaned over, looked at them, and asked her grandfather: 'Who are they?'
He pushed her away and drove off fast. The little girl must have discovered the fraud in the old man's tale. He did not have the courage to explain. He hid in his bubble.
How long will this last? The bubble will burst one day.
Will the European Jews ever mend their ways? Was their preaching in the Age of the Enlightenment just a big hoax?
Time will tell. At a price.
Salman
No reply from Uri again. From Salman to Uri, 18/2/17:
Dear Uri,
I realise you do not want to reply to my letters. They are either too painful or cannot be rebutted. Certainly, they are not irrelevant.
I keep writing to you since we met in Paris over a decade ago because I think you have unique characteristics.
You have been a terrorist. You witnessed the Nakba, so you cannot deny it. You tried to forge peace with Palestinians, but only on Zionist terms. You have a grasp of all the facts, so you cannot claim that you did not know.
So why are you still in a denial bubble?
So it, loud and clear: the Nakba was the near-complete ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Israel is a colonial project, and its umbilical cord is the colonial powers. God-given, or empty, uninhabited, Palestine is hogwash.
Say it. Say it as a last minute CONFESSION. It purifies the soul, and perfumes the memory.
I am waiting. Because I have hope in human redemption.
Salman
From Uri to Salman, 18/2/17:
Alas, the story is much more complicated.
All the best,
Uri
Dear Uri,
Reading your weekly article has become a ritual for me. It is full of knowledge and appreciation of facts and understanding of the lessons of history. In all matters and about all countries. Except Palestine.
You did not respond to my last letter. Perhaps you thought it too strong and harsh. But it was true. Sometimes truth cannot be answered.
You did not read my book or did not wish to comment. That is not a problem.
Europeans of Jewish faith gave Europe a lot of culture, philosophy, science and ideals of liberation. That was not because they read the Torah daily, but because they were the product of European 'civilisation'. Einstein, Lenin, and Marx did that, and the world should be grateful to them as decent human beings.
Those Europeans, Ashkenazim, aka Israelis, when they descended on Palestine, acted against every humanitarian principle they espoused when they were in Europe. They smashed children's brains out (Dawayima), bayoneted pregnant women's stomachs (Dayr Yassin), burnt old men alive (Lajjun), shot farmers in ditches they were forced to dig as graves (Tantoura), threw them in a well (Sa'sa and Ayn Zeitoun), set a village ablaze and threw hand grenades at people inside their homes (Bureir).
Above all, they depopulated 600 Palestinian localities, the worst event in Palestine's 5000-year history.
They were terrorists of the worst kind. Those who should have known better did these awful things.
You belonged to the Irgun, the 'worst' terrorist group, if grading can be made.
I know that you have spent years calling for 'peace'. But your peace means that the killer should be forgiven, the thief should get away with the stolen goods, and those expelled from their homes should be thrown a few pieces of silver to shut up.
No remorse, no repentance, no justice, no remedy. Just empty words.
How could those settlers live with this double life, liberty in Europe and crime in Palestine?
The answer is schizophrenia. The European Jews, aka Israelis, live in a bubble of denial. A fake world. They shut the world of crime out of their minds and the minds of the adoring West. And preach peace, democracy, science and art instead.
No Nakba. Perish the thought. No word 'Palestinian'. No flag. Oh yes. There are no refugees. Just Arabs who drifted from Arabia Deserta into the land of milk and honey, created by European settlers who came to this empty desert land and made it a paradise.
They are cowards. I say this again.
Some years ago, my nephew, now a professor in Berlin, visited my birthplace, al- Ma'in, with his uncle, showing him the places he knew. My nephew told me this story. While they were walking around, an older settler with a little girl came by in a car and asked: 'Where are you from?' The uncle said: 'From here', and pointed to the land. The settler said: 'Then you are Abu Sitta?'
His teenage daughter, or granddaughter, was curious, leaned over, looked at them, and asked her grandfather: 'Who are they?'
He pushed her away and drove off fast. The little girl must have discovered the fraud in the old man's tale. He did not have the courage to explain. He hid in his bubble.
How long will this last? The bubble will burst one day.
Will the European Jews ever mend their ways? Was their preaching in the Age of the Enlightenment just a big hoax?
Time will tell. At a price.
Salman
No reply from Uri again. From Salman to Uri, 18/2/17:
Dear Uri,
I realise you do not want to reply to my letters. They are either too painful or cannot be rebutted. Certainly, they are not irrelevant.
I keep writing to you since we met in Paris over a decade ago because I think you have unique characteristics.
You have been a terrorist. You witnessed the Nakba, so you cannot deny it. You tried to forge peace with Palestinians, but only on Zionist terms. You have a grasp of all the facts, so you cannot claim that you did not know.
So why are you still in a denial bubble?
So it, loud and clear: the Nakba was the near-complete ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Israel is a colonial project, and its umbilical cord is the colonial powers. God-given, or empty, uninhabited, Palestine is hogwash.
Say it. Say it as a last minute CONFESSION. It purifies the soul, and perfumes the memory.
I am waiting. Because I have hope in human redemption.
Salman
From Uri to Salman, 18/2/17:
Alas, the story is much more complicated.
All the best,
Uri
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Elor Azaria: Gun Zionism in Action
Despite the efforts of Zionist propagandists to con the gullible into believing that Israel is all about inclusion, pluralism, democracy, sweetness and light, the fact of the matter is that almost from its inception the Zionist movement set out, in the words of one of its founding fathers, Chaim Weizmann, to establish in Palestine a state that was "as Jewish as England was English."
The problem was that, at the time (1919), Palestine was 90% Arab. For the Zionists to achieve their goal of a 'Jewish' state, therefore, the Arab inhabitants would have to go. As the rate of Jewish immigration into Palestine was insufficient to outstrip the natural increase of the Arab population, the only option for the Zionists was to reach for the gun and drive the Arab majority out, a solution duly implemented in 1948. What British historian David Hirst refers to as 'gun Zionism' was therefore integral to the success of the Zionist project. And, as long as Palestinian Arabs are still to be found in Palestine, desperately clinging on to this or that remnant of their historic homeland, gun Zionists will have work to do.
Which is why the current case of Israeli soldier/death squad thug Elor Azaria is nothing new. As Israeli activist and author, Neve Gordon explains:
"It is no coincidence that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who was then followed by a slew of ministers and Knesset members - has called for a presidential pardon for Israeli soldier Elor Azaria. Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed Yusri al-Sharif as he lay wounded on the ground. This striking mobilisation to exonerate Azaria, which cuts across party lines and includes MKs from Labor, should actually come as no surprise, since the desired pardon is not really about absolving one lone murderer, but rather an effort to vindicate Israel's 50-year occupation. Consciously or unconsciously, each and every government official calling for such absolution understands that Azaria is in no way an aberration of Israel's colonial project, but rather a clear symptom of its very structure.
"The bystanders are testimony to the structure's effect. The video released by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem first depicts al-Sharif lying on the ground, wounded, as scores of soldiers and settlers stand near his body chatting, talking on the phone and taking pictures. Several medics are at the scene, but they, too, are oblivious to the injured Palestinian. Indeed, one of these medics is the killer. Following the execution, not one of the bystanders appears surprised; no one grabs Azaria and pushes him away from the scene, no one runs to al-Sharif to see if he can be resuscitated; rather, the bystanders simply continue to chat. The laid-back everydayness of those standing just metres away from an execution can certainly be understood as a manifestation of what Hannah Arendt has called 'the banality of evil'. Yet, it also profoundly captures something crucial about the structure of Israel's colonial project.
"Azaria is a soldier in the Kfir Brigade. This brigade, as John Brown recently exposed [972mag.com], has been responsible for killing many Palestinians, among them Mustafa Tamimi who was shot in the head with a long-range tear gas canister during a weekly demonstration in his village, Nabi Salah. The soldier who killed Tamimi in 2011 was sitting in a military jeep 5 metres from Tamimi when he aimed and fired his gun. Two months ago, four other soldiers from the same brigade were indicted for electrocuting a Palestinian; evidence emerged that they had taken pictures of him as he begged for his life. Two other soldiers were charged with beating Palestinian children, sticking an electric heat blower in the face of one of them. John Brown cites yet another confession made by a soldier from the same brigade: 'We would go on a patrol, and if we even saw a child looking at us in a not nice way - he would receive a slap on the spot. On one of these patrols, some threw stones at us. We caught one of the children who we knew saw the stone-thrower. We beat him so bad until he was willing to identify the thrower. We then took [the 14-year-old stone thrower] from his bed outside. We pointed to some holes in the ground while we stuck the barrels of our rifles in his mouth and said to him: 'Do you want to die here? Just choose a place where you want to be buried'.'
"Azaria, in other words, is not a rotten apple. Rather, his actions must be understood as part and parcel of the larger structure that constitutes and shapes Israel's colonial project. Azaria was merely unlucky because he was caught executing a Palestinian on video. Indeed, large parts of the Israeli public realise this and therefore do not perceive Azaria as an outlier, which helps explain the widespread report he has garnered. Thus, it would be a grave mistake to conclude, as the Israeli press has done, that the politicians are simply pandering to the mob. Netanyahu recognises that Azaria is a cog in the machine, as does Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and it is for this reason that they are calling upon the president to pardon him. They also know that if Azaria is handed down a 20-year sentence, the structure that produces the likes of Azaria and the everyday taken-for-granted violence needed to sustain Israel's colonial endeavour could well be challenged from within.
"However, it is also crucial not to lose sight of what they are consciously supporting. For Azaria and those who were standing by him on the Hebron streets, as well as for all of his fans - citizens and politicians alike - Palestinians like Yusri al-Sharif are never victims or fully human beings; they are prey. Thus, they can not only be legitimately hunted, but killing them is never a crime, and more often than not, it is not even considered a misdemeanor." (Azaria exposed the reality of Israel's colonial project, al-jazeera.com, 5/1/17)
I would go even further. Not only is killing Palestinians not a crime in Israel; it is what Zionism, properly, gun Zionism, is all about. For gun Zionists, Azaria is a patriot.
The problem was that, at the time (1919), Palestine was 90% Arab. For the Zionists to achieve their goal of a 'Jewish' state, therefore, the Arab inhabitants would have to go. As the rate of Jewish immigration into Palestine was insufficient to outstrip the natural increase of the Arab population, the only option for the Zionists was to reach for the gun and drive the Arab majority out, a solution duly implemented in 1948. What British historian David Hirst refers to as 'gun Zionism' was therefore integral to the success of the Zionist project. And, as long as Palestinian Arabs are still to be found in Palestine, desperately clinging on to this or that remnant of their historic homeland, gun Zionists will have work to do.
Which is why the current case of Israeli soldier/death squad thug Elor Azaria is nothing new. As Israeli activist and author, Neve Gordon explains:
"It is no coincidence that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who was then followed by a slew of ministers and Knesset members - has called for a presidential pardon for Israeli soldier Elor Azaria. Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed Yusri al-Sharif as he lay wounded on the ground. This striking mobilisation to exonerate Azaria, which cuts across party lines and includes MKs from Labor, should actually come as no surprise, since the desired pardon is not really about absolving one lone murderer, but rather an effort to vindicate Israel's 50-year occupation. Consciously or unconsciously, each and every government official calling for such absolution understands that Azaria is in no way an aberration of Israel's colonial project, but rather a clear symptom of its very structure.
"The bystanders are testimony to the structure's effect. The video released by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem first depicts al-Sharif lying on the ground, wounded, as scores of soldiers and settlers stand near his body chatting, talking on the phone and taking pictures. Several medics are at the scene, but they, too, are oblivious to the injured Palestinian. Indeed, one of these medics is the killer. Following the execution, not one of the bystanders appears surprised; no one grabs Azaria and pushes him away from the scene, no one runs to al-Sharif to see if he can be resuscitated; rather, the bystanders simply continue to chat. The laid-back everydayness of those standing just metres away from an execution can certainly be understood as a manifestation of what Hannah Arendt has called 'the banality of evil'. Yet, it also profoundly captures something crucial about the structure of Israel's colonial project.
"Azaria is a soldier in the Kfir Brigade. This brigade, as John Brown recently exposed [972mag.com], has been responsible for killing many Palestinians, among them Mustafa Tamimi who was shot in the head with a long-range tear gas canister during a weekly demonstration in his village, Nabi Salah. The soldier who killed Tamimi in 2011 was sitting in a military jeep 5 metres from Tamimi when he aimed and fired his gun. Two months ago, four other soldiers from the same brigade were indicted for electrocuting a Palestinian; evidence emerged that they had taken pictures of him as he begged for his life. Two other soldiers were charged with beating Palestinian children, sticking an electric heat blower in the face of one of them. John Brown cites yet another confession made by a soldier from the same brigade: 'We would go on a patrol, and if we even saw a child looking at us in a not nice way - he would receive a slap on the spot. On one of these patrols, some threw stones at us. We caught one of the children who we knew saw the stone-thrower. We beat him so bad until he was willing to identify the thrower. We then took [the 14-year-old stone thrower] from his bed outside. We pointed to some holes in the ground while we stuck the barrels of our rifles in his mouth and said to him: 'Do you want to die here? Just choose a place where you want to be buried'.'
"Azaria, in other words, is not a rotten apple. Rather, his actions must be understood as part and parcel of the larger structure that constitutes and shapes Israel's colonial project. Azaria was merely unlucky because he was caught executing a Palestinian on video. Indeed, large parts of the Israeli public realise this and therefore do not perceive Azaria as an outlier, which helps explain the widespread report he has garnered. Thus, it would be a grave mistake to conclude, as the Israeli press has done, that the politicians are simply pandering to the mob. Netanyahu recognises that Azaria is a cog in the machine, as does Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and it is for this reason that they are calling upon the president to pardon him. They also know that if Azaria is handed down a 20-year sentence, the structure that produces the likes of Azaria and the everyday taken-for-granted violence needed to sustain Israel's colonial endeavour could well be challenged from within.
"However, it is also crucial not to lose sight of what they are consciously supporting. For Azaria and those who were standing by him on the Hebron streets, as well as for all of his fans - citizens and politicians alike - Palestinians like Yusri al-Sharif are never victims or fully human beings; they are prey. Thus, they can not only be legitimately hunted, but killing them is never a crime, and more often than not, it is not even considered a misdemeanor." (Azaria exposed the reality of Israel's colonial project, al-jazeera.com, 5/1/17)
I would go even further. Not only is killing Palestinians not a crime in Israel; it is what Zionism, properly, gun Zionism, is all about. For gun Zionists, Azaria is a patriot.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
JSIL/ISIL: Nothing New Under the Sun
Barbara Board (1916-86) was a British freelance journalist who reported on developments in British Mandate Palestine during the 1930s and 40s for British and Canadian papers. Here she describes the social makeup of that notorious Zionist terrorist outfit, the Stern Gang* - a sort of Jewish State in the Levant (JSIL) if you will:
"From what sections of the Jewish community in Palestine were the gangsters drawn? Under what guise did they masquerade as a cover to their other activities. My Hadera informants gave me varied answers. Many of the gangsters, they told me, had come from the [Zionist] colonies themselves. They were potential criminal types who had avoided joining the armed forces in 1940 and had managed to resist Zionist pressure to enrol at the recruiting centres set up in the following months. These youths, ironically enough already trained in self-defence, found it an easy matter to work out operations for attack. They formed themselves into self-contained gangs. Then, not as individual members but as units, they allied themselves with Stern. Not all the gangsters however were ex-colonists. A large proportion came from the ranks of the unemployed - pitiful groups of derelict young Jews who between the beginning of the war and the opening of War Department installations in Palestine roamed the streets of Tel Aviv and Haifa, penniless and starving. They had provided ripe material for militant propagandists. Yet other members of the gangs, neither colonists nor unemployed, believed in terrorism as their national creed. They were fascists culled from various sections of the Jewish community - sons of wealthy families, clerks, shop assistants, waiters, factory hands, labourers." (Reporting from Palestine: 1943-1944, 2008, p 34)
I was reminded of Board's description by the words of Australia's national counter-terrorism co-ordinator, Greg Moriarty, writing on the subject of so-called 'lone wolf' terrorism, linked to (or inspired by, however tenuously in same cases) today's Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL):
"For some, the attraction is ideological and absolute. They believe in a narrow and extreme interpretation of Islam where there can be no compromise with the West or with other Muslims who do not accept the righteousness of ISIL's cause and submit to its will. But we also face another challenge from those who are not necessarily deeply committed to and engaged with the Islamist ideology but are nonetheless, due to a range of reasons, including mental health issues, susceptible to being motivated and lured rapidly down a dangerous path by the terrorist narrative. For some of these people, the warped views which ISIL propagates can, to their own distorted way of thinking, justify their anger at society and give meaning to their existence." (Security threat review, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/7/16)
[*For an account of the Stern Gang's terror campaign in Britain see my 6/7/12 post Anyone Remember the Stern Gang's London Offensive?]
"From what sections of the Jewish community in Palestine were the gangsters drawn? Under what guise did they masquerade as a cover to their other activities. My Hadera informants gave me varied answers. Many of the gangsters, they told me, had come from the [Zionist] colonies themselves. They were potential criminal types who had avoided joining the armed forces in 1940 and had managed to resist Zionist pressure to enrol at the recruiting centres set up in the following months. These youths, ironically enough already trained in self-defence, found it an easy matter to work out operations for attack. They formed themselves into self-contained gangs. Then, not as individual members but as units, they allied themselves with Stern. Not all the gangsters however were ex-colonists. A large proportion came from the ranks of the unemployed - pitiful groups of derelict young Jews who between the beginning of the war and the opening of War Department installations in Palestine roamed the streets of Tel Aviv and Haifa, penniless and starving. They had provided ripe material for militant propagandists. Yet other members of the gangs, neither colonists nor unemployed, believed in terrorism as their national creed. They were fascists culled from various sections of the Jewish community - sons of wealthy families, clerks, shop assistants, waiters, factory hands, labourers." (Reporting from Palestine: 1943-1944, 2008, p 34)
I was reminded of Board's description by the words of Australia's national counter-terrorism co-ordinator, Greg Moriarty, writing on the subject of so-called 'lone wolf' terrorism, linked to (or inspired by, however tenuously in same cases) today's Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL):
"For some, the attraction is ideological and absolute. They believe in a narrow and extreme interpretation of Islam where there can be no compromise with the West or with other Muslims who do not accept the righteousness of ISIL's cause and submit to its will. But we also face another challenge from those who are not necessarily deeply committed to and engaged with the Islamist ideology but are nonetheless, due to a range of reasons, including mental health issues, susceptible to being motivated and lured rapidly down a dangerous path by the terrorist narrative. For some of these people, the warped views which ISIL propagates can, to their own distorted way of thinking, justify their anger at society and give meaning to their existence." (Security threat review, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/7/16)
[*For an account of the Stern Gang's terror campaign in Britain see my 6/7/12 post Anyone Remember the Stern Gang's London Offensive?]
Friday, January 8, 2016
Just Another Day in Occupied Palestine
I was driving from Nablus to Ramallah. Light rain was falling as I approached the Israeli checkpoint at Huwwara. Another car was in front of me, moving slowly, trying to keep its distance from an Israeli military vehicle about 50m ahead. No sense in provoking them. On the grassy verge beside the road a young boy was walking in the same direction as the cars. The Israeli military vehicle braked suddenly, an order barking from it. The boy put his hands up. The car in front of me began to drive around the Israeli vehicle. I followed suit. I could see the boy with his hands up as I passed. I looked for the boy in my rear view mirror. He was on the ground. It happened so fast. One minute he's standing there with his arms up. The next he's on the ground, dead. I stopped the car, as did the driver in front of me. We had both just witnessed an execution. Not long after, Israeli state media announced that their military had killed 15-year-old Abdullah Hussein Nasasra from Beit Furik near Nablus. The military said that he had 'charged the armed forces while armed with a knife.' I saw no knife. Nor did I see him charge them. They had guns trained on him. Why would he try to attack them with a knife? (Adapted by MERC from Checkpoint violence: blood and occupation, Vijay Prashad, counterpunch.org, 29/12/15)
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Natural Born Zionists 4
"Four months after settlers threw firebombs into the Dawabshe home as the family slept, the residents of Duma are struggling to face their loss. Rihab's brother Hassan, 31, unlocks the front door of the house that sits on the edge of town. An old olive tree still grows outside, untouched by the flames. The prognosis for 5-year-old Ahmad, who has burns to 60% of his body, is harrowing. 'The doctors tell us there will be skin grafts, plastic surgery and physiotherapy for at least the next 10 years,' Hassan says. The little boy has not been told that he is the sole survivor of the fire. 'Ahmad is the only thing keeping the family from falling apart,' Hassan says. 'We are afraid that the small progress he has made will be destroyed by the news.' Hassan's brother-in-law Nasser, a 42-year-old teacher, says the attack was one of many attempts to force Palestinians from their land. 'It has only made us more determined to seek our freedom and independence,' he says. 'The Netanyahu government supports these settlement groups all the way up to the most senior members of the cabinet,' he says. 'They are the ones who encourage terrorism against our people.'
"On December 3, the Shin Bet announced they had arrested 'several Israelis' in connection with the Duma attack. Fairfax Media contacted the Ministry of Defence and the office of the Defence Minister with a set of questions regarding the administrative detention of Evyatar Slonim and the investigation into the attack on the Dawabshe family. We did not receive a response by the time of publication."
"On December 3, the Shin Bet announced they had arrested 'several Israelis' in connection with the Duma attack. Fairfax Media contacted the Ministry of Defence and the office of the Defence Minister with a set of questions regarding the administrative detention of Evyatar Slonim and the investigation into the attack on the Dawabshe family. We did not receive a response by the time of publication."
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Natural Born Zionists 3
"Evyatar Slonim was born in Israel and went to schools in the northern part of the occupied West Bank which Jewish residents call Samaria or the Shomron - home to 29 illegally-built Israeli settlements. According to the family member, '[Evyatar] has pursued higher Torah learning which is very common for religious young men in Israel. In addition, he studies equine therapy (horse riding therapy), in which he has a diploma. He completed his qualifications with the highest accolades from his teachers.'
"Slonim's parents see their son once a fortnight for 30 minutes, speaking to him through a perspex barrier via telephones inside Eshel Prison. 'Regardless of how long they hold him under these horrendous conditions and how much pressure they place him under it will be of no benefit in solving the crime of Duma or any other crime that they try to associate with him as Evyatar is innocent,' the family member says. 'We are absolutely horrified that in a democratic country [Evyatar] has been imprisoned without a trial.' When I asked how Slonim came to be under surveillance by the Shin Bet, his family member replied: 'We wonder the same ourselves. I am concerned that something sinister could be going on and we may be looking at some sort of Agent X situation,' the family member said, referring to the case of another dual Australian-Israeli citizen, Ben Zygier. Zygier, also known as Prisoner X, killed himself while in solitary confinement in Israel in 2010. He was believed to have been an operative for Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad.
"Shlomo Fischer of the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute is an expert on radical Jewish extremism. He says violence like that committed against the Dawabshe family stems from the perpetrators' belief that they are acting on the 'voice of God.' Their goals are to 'create chaos and undermine the ability of the government to rule and set up a revolutionary redemptive state. They want to replace the current State of Israel with something else - their main animosity, just like al-Qaeda directing their animosity to the non-jihadist Muslim regimes, is against the government of Israel. They are very aware of the fact that they will be treated with kid gloves because they are Jewish - that has been the precedent until now.'
"As Ettinger wrote on his blog: 'The closer we bring the conflict the better it will be for the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Everyone will find many ways to wake people up and act and explain why the land should be left exclusively for Jews.' The concept of redemption in Judaism - the liberation of Jews from exile for the end of days - is central to the beliefs of the Hilltop Youth, says Hagit Ofran, the director of the Israeli NGO Peace Now's Settlement Watch project. The national-religious right in Israel sees the state's existence as an integral part of redemption, but to the Hilltop Youth the Sharon government's 2005 'disengagement' from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank - involving the removal of thousands of settlers - was a huge blow. 'When the disengagement happened, it was as if the state turned its back on the redemption process,' Ofran says. 'Some or most of the settlers said 'OK, we need to work harder on the State of Israel... to continue the fight.' [But] the Hilltop Youth said... 'the redemption will happen even if the State of Israel is not here'.'
"This violent group numbers only in the hundreds, no more than 1,000, says Ofran, but they account for much of the violence perpetrated against Palestinians in the West Bank. 'The settlements are based on discrimination - the fact that you raise children in a place where you as an Israeli Jew have rights and Palestinians do not have rights and are instead living under military law, this raises people to believe they are more than the others'."
Next post: Part 4
"Slonim's parents see their son once a fortnight for 30 minutes, speaking to him through a perspex barrier via telephones inside Eshel Prison. 'Regardless of how long they hold him under these horrendous conditions and how much pressure they place him under it will be of no benefit in solving the crime of Duma or any other crime that they try to associate with him as Evyatar is innocent,' the family member says. 'We are absolutely horrified that in a democratic country [Evyatar] has been imprisoned without a trial.' When I asked how Slonim came to be under surveillance by the Shin Bet, his family member replied: 'We wonder the same ourselves. I am concerned that something sinister could be going on and we may be looking at some sort of Agent X situation,' the family member said, referring to the case of another dual Australian-Israeli citizen, Ben Zygier. Zygier, also known as Prisoner X, killed himself while in solitary confinement in Israel in 2010. He was believed to have been an operative for Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad.
"Shlomo Fischer of the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute is an expert on radical Jewish extremism. He says violence like that committed against the Dawabshe family stems from the perpetrators' belief that they are acting on the 'voice of God.' Their goals are to 'create chaos and undermine the ability of the government to rule and set up a revolutionary redemptive state. They want to replace the current State of Israel with something else - their main animosity, just like al-Qaeda directing their animosity to the non-jihadist Muslim regimes, is against the government of Israel. They are very aware of the fact that they will be treated with kid gloves because they are Jewish - that has been the precedent until now.'
"As Ettinger wrote on his blog: 'The closer we bring the conflict the better it will be for the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Everyone will find many ways to wake people up and act and explain why the land should be left exclusively for Jews.' The concept of redemption in Judaism - the liberation of Jews from exile for the end of days - is central to the beliefs of the Hilltop Youth, says Hagit Ofran, the director of the Israeli NGO Peace Now's Settlement Watch project. The national-religious right in Israel sees the state's existence as an integral part of redemption, but to the Hilltop Youth the Sharon government's 2005 'disengagement' from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank - involving the removal of thousands of settlers - was a huge blow. 'When the disengagement happened, it was as if the state turned its back on the redemption process,' Ofran says. 'Some or most of the settlers said 'OK, we need to work harder on the State of Israel... to continue the fight.' [But] the Hilltop Youth said... 'the redemption will happen even if the State of Israel is not here'.'
"This violent group numbers only in the hundreds, no more than 1,000, says Ofran, but they account for much of the violence perpetrated against Palestinians in the West Bank. 'The settlements are based on discrimination - the fact that you raise children in a place where you as an Israeli Jew have rights and Palestinians do not have rights and are instead living under military law, this raises people to believe they are more than the others'."
Next post: Part 4
Natural Born Zionists 2
"Slonim has been under the gaze of the Shin Bet since at least 2010, court documents indicate. He was arrested on December 30, 2010, at the entrance to the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and found in possession of a knife, tools for housebreaking and a spray can. He had this equipment, police told the court, 'for the purpose of committing a crime or causing a disturbance against Palestinians.' In March 2011 he was arrested again, this time for throwing stones. Court documents indicate he was held for interrogation for 8 days. On another occasion he was accused of attacking a police officer. By March 2015, after months of suspicion over his involvement in the Khirbet Abu Falah attack, he was given an 'administrative ban' by the District Court prohibiting him from entering Jerusalem or the West Bank, his lawyer says.
"When he was arrested in early August, Slonim's parents told Israeli media their son was with them on a family holiday in the north of the country at the time of the Duma attack. For the last four months the criminal lawyer Aharon Rose has represented Slonim, his fees paid not by the young man's parents but by the right-wing legal centre Honenu, which assists settlers and soldiers who fall foul of the law. 'In August 2015... after the burning of the house in Duma in which 3 people from the same family died, the intelligence agencies decided to take the gloves off,' Rose says in his office in Tel Aviv. He is referring to the extraordinary decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet to approve the use of administrative detention - imprisonment without charge - for Israeli citizens. Israel already holds hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention, despite trenchant criticism from local and international rights groups. Slonim is now 4 months into a 6-month stint in prison. Under administrative detention inmates are not charged, nor are they or their lawyers given an opportunity to respond to the allegations against them. In September, Yaalon said security services knew who had carried out the attack on the Dawabshe family but could not charge them due to a lack of evidence and fear of compromising intelligence sources.
"Both Rose and Slonim's parents, Gila and Zeev Slonim, have spoken out repeatedly against the use of administrative detention. 'Evyatar was not involved in any violent incident whatsoever, not at all and not specifically in Duma,' Rose says. Slonim breached the travel ban imposed on him once, Rose admits, to take part in a wedding at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. 'Security at the court say they knew what he was doing every second of every day... so they must also know he did not participate in any violence at that time,' Rose adds. Slonim has received a visit from Australian consular officials while in prison, Rose confirms. The Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade would not comment on Slonim's case, nor would the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv. Fairfax Media made contact with his parents, who moved to Israel from Melbourne in 1989 and now live in the settlement of Tzofim. We were directed to a family spokesman who explained that the gag order placed on the case prevented the Slonims from commenting. Instead, a family member who did not want to be identified answered emailed questions via the spokesman."
Next post: Part 3
"When he was arrested in early August, Slonim's parents told Israeli media their son was with them on a family holiday in the north of the country at the time of the Duma attack. For the last four months the criminal lawyer Aharon Rose has represented Slonim, his fees paid not by the young man's parents but by the right-wing legal centre Honenu, which assists settlers and soldiers who fall foul of the law. 'In August 2015... after the burning of the house in Duma in which 3 people from the same family died, the intelligence agencies decided to take the gloves off,' Rose says in his office in Tel Aviv. He is referring to the extraordinary decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet to approve the use of administrative detention - imprisonment without charge - for Israeli citizens. Israel already holds hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention, despite trenchant criticism from local and international rights groups. Slonim is now 4 months into a 6-month stint in prison. Under administrative detention inmates are not charged, nor are they or their lawyers given an opportunity to respond to the allegations against them. In September, Yaalon said security services knew who had carried out the attack on the Dawabshe family but could not charge them due to a lack of evidence and fear of compromising intelligence sources.
"Both Rose and Slonim's parents, Gila and Zeev Slonim, have spoken out repeatedly against the use of administrative detention. 'Evyatar was not involved in any violent incident whatsoever, not at all and not specifically in Duma,' Rose says. Slonim breached the travel ban imposed on him once, Rose admits, to take part in a wedding at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. 'Security at the court say they knew what he was doing every second of every day... so they must also know he did not participate in any violence at that time,' Rose adds. Slonim has received a visit from Australian consular officials while in prison, Rose confirms. The Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade would not comment on Slonim's case, nor would the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv. Fairfax Media made contact with his parents, who moved to Israel from Melbourne in 1989 and now live in the settlement of Tzofim. We were directed to a family spokesman who explained that the gag order placed on the case prevented the Slonims from commenting. Instead, a family member who did not want to be identified answered emailed questions via the spokesman."
Next post: Part 3
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Natural Born Zionists 1
Kingdom come is a first-class expose of Israel's coddled and deadly settler spawn by Fairfax's Middle East correspondent Ruth Pollard. I'm serialising it here. The Australian connection is most interesting:
"The small house of Saad and Riham Dawabshe still smells of the fire that took their lives and that of their 18-month-old son, Ali. The floor is a jumble of clothes, melted furniture and cracked glass, the walls blackened by the ferocious flames that two fire trucks struggled to extinguish. To hear witnesses retell the story of the firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31 is heart-stopping. Saad, 32, was already dying in front of his house by the time his brother Nasser reached him. Saad's wife Riham, 27, was lying nearby, clutching a blanket she believed held Ali. Two masked Israeli settlers stood over their bodies, determined, Nasser Dawabshe says, to see them die. Another son, five-year-old Ahmad, was trapped behind the lounge room door, his screams rising above the inferno. A neighbour managed to get him out. Ali could not be saved. 'The more we threw water on the flames the more they burned,' Nasser says.
"Days later, three young Jewish men were arrested. They are, Israeli security services allege, involved in a violent underground movement that aims to create a Jewish kingdom. Known as 'The Revolt', their plan entails attacking Palestinians to draw the Israel Defence Forces into a cycle of violence. One of these young men is Evyatar Slonim, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen. The 23-year-old now sits in a small cell in a high-security wing of Eshel Prison in the city of Beersheba. Accused by Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon of 'involvement in activity by an extremist Jewish group', Slonim was already the subject of a year-long 'administrative ban' prohibiting him from entering the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem when he was arrested. Meir Ettinger and Mordechai Meyer, who were arrested at the same time, are also in administrative detention.
"Slonim is a relative of controversial former Knesset member Rabbi Moshe Feiglin, who recently visited Australia to address synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne. Ettinger is the grandson of Meir Kahane, a militant American-Israeli rabbi and former Knesset member whose Kach movement was outlawed in Israel in the 1980s. Kahane was assassinated in 1990 but remains a hugely influential figure on Israel's far right. While authorities have not directly tied the arrest of Slonim, Ettinger and Meyer to the attack in Duma, Yaalon made it clear that the government believes there is a link. In an interview with Israel's Channel 10, the defence minister said: 'We wouldn't conduct these administrative arrests if there wasn't any connection to the arson.' Slonim was previously arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a home in the Palestinian town of Khirbet Abu Falah in November 2014. Ettinger is believed to have been involved in the torching of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee on June 17, while Meyer is suspected of an arson attack on Jerusalem's Abbey of the Dormition in May 2014. Through their lawyers, all three deny any involvement in the attacks. The investigation into the Dawabshe murders remains under a gag order in Israel.
"Slonim has been involved in attacks against Palestinians for years, according to court documents seen by Fairfax Media. He is believed to have been part of the extremist group known as the Hilltop Youth, from which security sources believe The Revolt was formed. The Hilltop Youth refuse to acknowledge the authority of the state, the military or their parents. They feel betrayed by the mainstream settler movement which is working in contravention of international law and with the full support of Israel's government - to establish a permanent Jewish presence throughout the occupied West Bank. And in recent years they have been, according to Israeli security sources, the main perpetrators in the so-called 'price tag' attacks against churches, Palestinian civilians and even Israeli military personnel. The 'price tag' is graffiti left at the scene as a message that there is a price to be paid for actions against the settler movement, such as carrying out court-ordered demolitions of settler outposts. At the Dawabshe house, the graffiti in Hebrew reads 'Revenge' and 'long live the Messiah.' A Star of David and a crown are drawn above the phrases.
"The Dawabshe family say they have no idea why they were targeted. But a manual saved on a thumb-drive found on one of Slonim's co-accused by the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, provides some insight into the plans of The Revolt. In their creation of a Jewish kingdom, all non-Jews would be expelled and a third temple would be built on the Temple Mount, where al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand today, forming Islam's third holiest site. 'The starting point of The Revolt is that the State of Israel has no right to exist, and therefore we are not bound by the rules of the game,' the thumb-drive manifesto reads. It goes on in chilling detail to provide a how-to guide for firebombing Palestinian homes or mosques. 'We prefer to use firebombs with our friends so provide yourself with: a molotov cocktail, preferably a litre-and-a-half, lighter, gloves, masks, metal bar/hammer, bag to carry all those,' the manual reads. 'Come to the village and there look for a home with an open door or open window without bars... Simply breaking a glass door or window... turn on [ignite] the fire bomb and throw it in. In order not leave the possibility of escape, burning tyres can be placed at the entrance of the house.'"
Next post: Part 2
"The small house of Saad and Riham Dawabshe still smells of the fire that took their lives and that of their 18-month-old son, Ali. The floor is a jumble of clothes, melted furniture and cracked glass, the walls blackened by the ferocious flames that two fire trucks struggled to extinguish. To hear witnesses retell the story of the firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31 is heart-stopping. Saad, 32, was already dying in front of his house by the time his brother Nasser reached him. Saad's wife Riham, 27, was lying nearby, clutching a blanket she believed held Ali. Two masked Israeli settlers stood over their bodies, determined, Nasser Dawabshe says, to see them die. Another son, five-year-old Ahmad, was trapped behind the lounge room door, his screams rising above the inferno. A neighbour managed to get him out. Ali could not be saved. 'The more we threw water on the flames the more they burned,' Nasser says.
"Days later, three young Jewish men were arrested. They are, Israeli security services allege, involved in a violent underground movement that aims to create a Jewish kingdom. Known as 'The Revolt', their plan entails attacking Palestinians to draw the Israel Defence Forces into a cycle of violence. One of these young men is Evyatar Slonim, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen. The 23-year-old now sits in a small cell in a high-security wing of Eshel Prison in the city of Beersheba. Accused by Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon of 'involvement in activity by an extremist Jewish group', Slonim was already the subject of a year-long 'administrative ban' prohibiting him from entering the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem when he was arrested. Meir Ettinger and Mordechai Meyer, who were arrested at the same time, are also in administrative detention.
"Slonim is a relative of controversial former Knesset member Rabbi Moshe Feiglin, who recently visited Australia to address synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne. Ettinger is the grandson of Meir Kahane, a militant American-Israeli rabbi and former Knesset member whose Kach movement was outlawed in Israel in the 1980s. Kahane was assassinated in 1990 but remains a hugely influential figure on Israel's far right. While authorities have not directly tied the arrest of Slonim, Ettinger and Meyer to the attack in Duma, Yaalon made it clear that the government believes there is a link. In an interview with Israel's Channel 10, the defence minister said: 'We wouldn't conduct these administrative arrests if there wasn't any connection to the arson.' Slonim was previously arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a home in the Palestinian town of Khirbet Abu Falah in November 2014. Ettinger is believed to have been involved in the torching of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee on June 17, while Meyer is suspected of an arson attack on Jerusalem's Abbey of the Dormition in May 2014. Through their lawyers, all three deny any involvement in the attacks. The investigation into the Dawabshe murders remains under a gag order in Israel.
"Slonim has been involved in attacks against Palestinians for years, according to court documents seen by Fairfax Media. He is believed to have been part of the extremist group known as the Hilltop Youth, from which security sources believe The Revolt was formed. The Hilltop Youth refuse to acknowledge the authority of the state, the military or their parents. They feel betrayed by the mainstream settler movement which is working in contravention of international law and with the full support of Israel's government - to establish a permanent Jewish presence throughout the occupied West Bank. And in recent years they have been, according to Israeli security sources, the main perpetrators in the so-called 'price tag' attacks against churches, Palestinian civilians and even Israeli military personnel. The 'price tag' is graffiti left at the scene as a message that there is a price to be paid for actions against the settler movement, such as carrying out court-ordered demolitions of settler outposts. At the Dawabshe house, the graffiti in Hebrew reads 'Revenge' and 'long live the Messiah.' A Star of David and a crown are drawn above the phrases.
"The Dawabshe family say they have no idea why they were targeted. But a manual saved on a thumb-drive found on one of Slonim's co-accused by the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, provides some insight into the plans of The Revolt. In their creation of a Jewish kingdom, all non-Jews would be expelled and a third temple would be built on the Temple Mount, where al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand today, forming Islam's third holiest site. 'The starting point of The Revolt is that the State of Israel has no right to exist, and therefore we are not bound by the rules of the game,' the thumb-drive manifesto reads. It goes on in chilling detail to provide a how-to guide for firebombing Palestinian homes or mosques. 'We prefer to use firebombs with our friends so provide yourself with: a molotov cocktail, preferably a litre-and-a-half, lighter, gloves, masks, metal bar/hammer, bag to carry all those,' the manual reads. 'Come to the village and there look for a home with an open door or open window without bars... Simply breaking a glass door or window... turn on [ignite] the fire bomb and throw it in. In order not leave the possibility of escape, burning tyres can be placed at the entrance of the house.'"
Next post: Part 2
Monday, December 21, 2015
The Mendes Zionist
In a recent column on 'radicalisation', Phillip Adams ventured the following quite unremarkable observation:
"More recently, countless young Australian Jews have headed to Israel and joined the IDF to fight Palestinians. Seems our increasingly worried, watchful spooks have no probs with this. The process of 'radicalisation', of signing up for distant conflicts, may involve religious and/or ideological fervour for Zionists and ISIS recruits." (Easy targets, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 28/11/15)
And yet, as predictably as the sun rising in the east, it provoked some of our good friends, such as Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Danny Lamm of the Zionist Federation of Australia, to rap the old codger severely across the knuckles in the pages of the Australian.
But my all-time fave Zionist rapid/rabid response was that of good old Philip Mendes of Kew, Vic:
"So, Phillip Adams seriously compares all Australian Jews who go on aliyah and join the Israeli army with Australians who join ISIS. Yes, Phillip - all those young men and women who spent years at left-wing Zionist youth groups learning about socialism, secularism and the brotherhood of man are identical to nutty, brainwashed religious extremists going off to slaughter and rape men, women and children." (The Weekend Australian, 19/12/15)
Interesting how the Mendes' faction of Ziozombie manages to combine in one and the same psyche "the brotherhood of man" with the notion that, although he/she was born and bred in Kew, Palestine belongs to him/her, and woe betide any Palestinian who gets in the fucking way, mate.
"More recently, countless young Australian Jews have headed to Israel and joined the IDF to fight Palestinians. Seems our increasingly worried, watchful spooks have no probs with this. The process of 'radicalisation', of signing up for distant conflicts, may involve religious and/or ideological fervour for Zionists and ISIS recruits." (Easy targets, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 28/11/15)
And yet, as predictably as the sun rising in the east, it provoked some of our good friends, such as Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Danny Lamm of the Zionist Federation of Australia, to rap the old codger severely across the knuckles in the pages of the Australian.
But my all-time fave Zionist rapid/rabid response was that of good old Philip Mendes of Kew, Vic:
"So, Phillip Adams seriously compares all Australian Jews who go on aliyah and join the Israeli army with Australians who join ISIS. Yes, Phillip - all those young men and women who spent years at left-wing Zionist youth groups learning about socialism, secularism and the brotherhood of man are identical to nutty, brainwashed religious extremists going off to slaughter and rape men, women and children." (The Weekend Australian, 19/12/15)
Interesting how the Mendes' faction of Ziozombie manages to combine in one and the same psyche "the brotherhood of man" with the notion that, although he/she was born and bred in Kew, Palestine belongs to him/her, and woe betide any Palestinian who gets in the fucking way, mate.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Being Benjamin Netanyahu
Ever wonder what it must be like being Benjamin Netanyahu?
In public, you'd strut and swagger, glare and glower, and threaten the natives with more and more stick whenever they raised their heads:
"We won't accept that in our Jewish capital, or anywhere else in Israel, that people will throw stones at cars. Stones & firebombs are deadly weapons; they kill and have killed. Therefore, in recent days we have changed the open-fire orders for police in Jerusalem. Already over the weekend they used the new measures under the new orders and immediately hit those throwing stones and firebombs. We will continue to add forces in order to strike at rioters under a simple principle that we will begin to implement around and within Israel's borders: whoever tries to attack us, we will hurt him." (Netanyahu tweet, 20/9/15)
But at home, you'd keep your mouth shut and your head down if you knew what was good for you:
"Etti Haim, a former cook, said that the prime minister's wife hit her, and on one occasion refused to call an ambulance for an employee who had fainted. She said that Mrs Netanyahu had once thrown a tantrum because a member of staff had once unfurled a sun awning on the patio - on Benjamin Netanyahu's orders - showering the table, which had been set for dinner, with dust. 'We stood there terrified. She jerked the cloth off the table so that all the dishes, salads and pickles landed on the floor,' said Ms Haim, who was subpoenaed to testify. 'Then she said, 'You have 5 minutes to reset this table'.' Mr Netanyahu sat silently throughout the episode, trying not to make eye contact with the employee he had asked to lower the awning, Ms Haim said." (Benjamin Netanyahu's wife 'abused staff in drunken rages', Gregg Carlstrom, The Times/The Australian, 24/9/15)
In public, you'd strut and swagger, glare and glower, and threaten the natives with more and more stick whenever they raised their heads:
"We won't accept that in our Jewish capital, or anywhere else in Israel, that people will throw stones at cars. Stones & firebombs are deadly weapons; they kill and have killed. Therefore, in recent days we have changed the open-fire orders for police in Jerusalem. Already over the weekend they used the new measures under the new orders and immediately hit those throwing stones and firebombs. We will continue to add forces in order to strike at rioters under a simple principle that we will begin to implement around and within Israel's borders: whoever tries to attack us, we will hurt him." (Netanyahu tweet, 20/9/15)
But at home, you'd keep your mouth shut and your head down if you knew what was good for you:
"Etti Haim, a former cook, said that the prime minister's wife hit her, and on one occasion refused to call an ambulance for an employee who had fainted. She said that Mrs Netanyahu had once thrown a tantrum because a member of staff had once unfurled a sun awning on the patio - on Benjamin Netanyahu's orders - showering the table, which had been set for dinner, with dust. 'We stood there terrified. She jerked the cloth off the table so that all the dishes, salads and pickles landed on the floor,' said Ms Haim, who was subpoenaed to testify. 'Then she said, 'You have 5 minutes to reset this table'.' Mr Netanyahu sat silently throughout the episode, trying not to make eye contact with the employee he had asked to lower the awning, Ms Haim said." (Benjamin Netanyahu's wife 'abused staff in drunken rages', Gregg Carlstrom, The Times/The Australian, 24/9/15)
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