Write to Internat'l Criminal Court About Israeli War Crimes

Tweet

(date)

Mr. Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
PO BOX 19519
2500 CM, The Hague, Netherlands

Mr. Prosecutor,

Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, will remain in History as one of the worst atrocities of the modern world. This defenceless and unprotected people denied any possibility of escape was a victim of the fury of an ultra-powerful army and everything points to the certainty that this army deliberately attacked civilians.

Who would understand if this crime remained unpunished? An unpunished Israel would permit the return of barbarism. Our gazes naturally turn toward international justice embodied by the ICC.

On behalf of human rights and in loving memory of those who died for the only reason that they were Palestinians, I ask you to launch an investigation to defend both the memory of the victims and Law, which is the sign of civilization.

Violence has had too often the last word in that region of the world. But peace must only rest on the respect of people�s rights.

Warm greetings from a citizen of the world,

(signature)

Viva Palestina! Convoy Route to Gaza

Tweet http://www.vivapalestina.org/route.htm

British Aid to Gaza Convoy in Morroco!

Tweet You can go here and sign up for email updates on the aid convoy: http://www.vivapalestina.org/

19:00 GMT
Wednesday 18th February
The convoy has now arrived in Rabat. A very emotional arrival saw cheers and tears. The Moroccan Government have extended their hospitality and provided accommodation for all those on the convoy. Earlier, George Galloway text says "Just driven at 40mph through the streets of Tangier. Crowds of people lined the route cheering, giving victory signs and waving. Amazing!"

George [Galloway] texts again from Rabat to say "People have been donating money in the street; please join them. Cliick 'donations' on the website."

Iraqi Shoe-thrower Goes on Trial on Thursday

Tweet Link here: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=51913

17 February 2009

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi journalist who won global attention when he hurled his shoes at former US president George W. Bush goes on trial on Thursday charged with assaulting a foreign leader.

Muntazer al-Zaidi faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, but his legal team will ask for the charge to be thrown out and for the reporter to be freed.

"He should be released because he was only expressing himself and protesting against the occupation," Zaidi's lawyer Dhiya al-Saadi told AFP on Tuesday.

Bush, who ordered the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, was on a farewell visit to the country when Zaidi threw his shoes during a Baghdad press conference on December 14.

Zaidi, 30, who works for the Al-Baghdadia television channel, also insulted Bush, shouting: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog," in an action that was hailed across the Arab world.

Bush managed to duck, and after the shoes whizzed past his head joked with reporters that they were a "size 10".

A 25-strong defence team has been preparing the defence of Zaidi, whose gesture is considered a grave insult in the Arab and Muslim world.

If they fail to get the charges dropped they will argue that the journalist did not try to kill Bush and was entitled to make a protest about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"We will present our demands on the day of the trial," Saadi said. "The journalist only wanted to express his opinion," insisting that the law under which Zaidi is charged is not applicable to his case.

The charge of assaulting a foreign leader carries a prison term of between five to 15 years, but Saadi said the reporter should be freed because the shoes did not constitute a "lethal weapon" and could not have killed Bush.

Judicial authorities had the option of dismissing the charge, or have altered it to a lesser one of "attempted aggression" which carries a prison term of one to five years.

The case will be heard at the Central Criminal Court, which is responsible for terrorism cases and is located in the Green Zone, the heavily-protected area of Baghdad where the government and some Western embassies are located.

A judge in December rejected allegations by the journalist's family that he had been tortured in custody, charges that were levelled after his brother was allowed to visit him in prison.

The incident inspired a British student, Alex Tew, to create a "Sock and Awe" (www.sockandawe.com) shoe-throwing website which says it has so far had more than 86 million hits in the face of ex-president Bush on the Internet.

Other journalists at Al-Baghdadia, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Zaidi, who was abducted by insurgents during the sectarian strife that engulfed Iraq in the wake of the US invasion, should not be punished.

"He did not want to say goodbye to Bush in a traditional way, so he said farewell in his own way," said one of the reporter's colleagues.

"I feel that what he did was a national gesture to lift the sorrow of children and widows."

Another Al-Baghdadia journalist added: "Muntazer al-Zaidi is a quiet, respectful and educated person and a professional in every sense of the word. He does not deserve to be sentenced and should not be put on trial."

"A People Abandoned" -- Yes, But Not by Me & Others

Tweet

Palestinian children walk over the rubble of destroyed houses in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. (Maan Images)

Link to original (via Uruknet.info): http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51911&s2=18

Serge Halimi, Le Monde Diplomatique

Feb 17, 2009

By 14 January Israeli troops had killed more than a thousand Palestinians confined to a narrow strip of land and subjected to land, sea and air bombardment by one of the most formidable armies in the world. A Palestinian school converted into a United Nations refuge had been bombed (1), a resolution – issued by the only organisation that really represents the "international community" people are so fond of talking about – had called in vain for a halt to the military operations in Gaza. So, on 14 January, the European Union showed just how firmly it was prepared to react to this mixed display of violence and arrogance. It decided to suspend the process of rapprochement with Israel! But to lessen the impact of what might, even so, have been seen as gentle reproach to Tel Aviv, it explained that this was a "technical"measure, not a "political"one. And that the decision was taken by "both parties".

Israel is free to do as it likes. Its army had already destroyed most of the Palestinian infrastructure funded by the EU and there had been little or no reaction, no legal action, no call for reparations (2). It then imposed a blockade on people already living in poverty, with no water, food or medical supplies. Still no response, only endless admonitions and a general refusal to become involved in the argument, on the pretext that violence of the strong is not always accompanied by submission of the weak. So why should Israel suppose that it cannot continue to act with impunity?

Twenty years ago, the Jewish state took the precaution of encouraging the rise of Hamas against the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Hamas was a dream adversary, with a medieval charter, doubtful military potential and no inclination to "communicate" with western public opinion. Having no "partner for peace"is a perfect excuse to bomb and colonise ad lib. But even now, there are still newspaper editors in Europe complaining that Israel one day lose the moral high ground" (3).

The United States too has nothing against the Tel Aviv government’s plans. On 9 January, the House of Representatives passed a resolution recognising Israel’s "right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza". A few hours earlier the Senate had "reaffirmed the United States’ strong support for Israel in its battle with Hamas". Perhaps with the idea of striking some sort of "balance", the House of Representatives resolution also expresses to innocent Israeli and Palestinian victims and their families". That resolution was adopted by 390 votes to five. The Senate resolution was adopted unanimously. The US executive also held firm: a few hours after announcing a unilateral ceasefire, Ehud Olmert rang the US president to thank him for his support. Support also includes non-refundable aid amounting to $3 billion a year, which no-one including Obama has thought of questioning.

With this sort of backing, the main Israeli parties’ aim seems to be clear: to destroy any prospect of achieving the internationally recognised aim of establishing a genuine Palestinian state. The West Bank will continue to be an amorphous collection of homelands, criss-crossed with walls and roadblocks, dotted with settlements, and drip-fed by the European Union. And Gaza will be bombed whenever its neighbour has a mind to unleash a disproportionate "response" to rocket or other attacks. In fact, after 60 years of defeat, humiliation, exile, violation of signed agreements, colonisation and internecine feuding, after governments all over the world have abandoned them to their fate and allowed international law, including international humanitarian law, to be ridden over roughshod, it is nothing short of a miracle that the Palestinians are still determined to assert their national identity in real terms.

If they succeed, it will not be thanks to the Europeans, or to the Americans or to most Arab states. In Gaza, these powers have all conspired once again in the interminable spoliation of a nation.

Homeowners' Rallying Cry: Produce the Note

Tweet

Go! Banks who have sold these mortgages, making profits every time, can't find the paperwork. Then they can't have the house!!

Portion below; whole thing here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_produce_the_note.html

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. -- Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.

And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.

Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.

During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed.

Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage.

"I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left."

In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it is; some judges are more sympathetic than others.

More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure.

Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy.

"We knew early on that the only relief that would ever come to people would be to the people who were in their houses," Hoyer said. "Nobody was going to fashion any relief for people who have already lost their houses. So your only hope was to hang on any way you could."

Tom Deutsch, deputy executive director of the American Securitization Forum, a group that represents banks, law firms and investors, dismissed the strategy as merely a stalling tactic, saying homeowners are "making lawyers jump through procedural hoops to delay what's likely to be inevitable."

Deutsch said the original note is almost always electronically retained and can eventually be found.

Judges are often willing to accept electronic documentation. And lenders are sometimes allowed to produce other paperwork to establish they are the holder of a loan. Still, assembling such documents to a judge's satisfaction takes time, which to homeowners is the point.

Lovelace filed her produce-the-note demand last fall after the bank acknowledged that her original mortgage document had been lost or destroyed. Since then, there has been no activity on the foreclosure - no letters from the lender, no court filings.

The law firm handling the foreclosure for the lender refused to comment.

Israel Intends to Use the Unlawful Combatant Law Against Gaza POWs

Tweet Link to original: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51848&s2=16

Feb 16, 2009

GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA ministry of prisoners' affairs in Gaza said on Monday that Israel intends to use the law of "unlawful combatant" against more than 200 civilians kidnapped during its war on the Gaza Strip whose fate and whereabouts are still unknown and concealed by the IOA.

In a statement received by the PIC, Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the director of the information office in the ministry, explained that Israel devised the law of unlawful combatant to legalize the abduction of civilians endlessly and without any trial.

Ashqar added that according to this arbitrary law, the prisoners are denied the right of defending themselves or knowing the charges filed against them. Moreoever, the IOA does not level any indictment against them at the pretext that there are secret files, he pointed out.

The Palestinian official revealed that before the war, the IOA had founded a special judicial body assigned only to level indictments against those prisoners kidnapped during wars on Gaza or south Lebanon in the framework of the unlawful combatant law.

The official noted that the Israeli military courts classified several months ago four Palestinian prisoners as unlawful combatants, namely, Riyadh Ayad, Khaled Sa'eed, Farid Abu Thuraya, and Nasr Ayad.

Ashqar appealed to international human rights organizations, especially the Red Cross, to shoulder their humanitarian responsibilities and work on knowing the fate of those civilians kidnapped during the Israeli war on Gaza and getting them released.

In another context, the Palestinian international campaign to lift the siege warned of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, pointing out that the Palestinians there suffer from the repercussions of the Israeli aggression and the unjust siege.

The campaign added that Israel still blocks the entry of many vital needs to Gaza such as fuel, cooking gas and construction materials.

The campaign condemned the Israeli siege as a sort of aggression on the Gaza people and a flagrant violation of all international conventions and treaties of human rights.

In a new development, another Palestinian patient called Hasan Halayqa was declared dead on Monday. The patient suffered a heart disease and failed to travel for medical treatment outside the Strip as a result of the Israeli siege.

His death raised the toll of the siege victims to 275 patients and the number is likely to rise especially since many patients in intensive care units are in very serious health status and their travel for medical treatment cannot be delayed.

For his part, Hammam Nasman, the director of public relations in the health ministry, appealed to the international community to intervene to pressure Israel to open the crossings, allow in medicines and medical supplies and facilitate the travel of Gaza patients to receive treatment aboard.

Gaza Television Ad -- Action Required

Tweet

Please go to http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1826 to act for Gaza.

Obama's Caterpillar Visit a Thumb in the Eye for Human Rights Activists -- Stephen Zunes

Tweet
Portion below; whole thing (via Uruknet.info)here: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51860&s2=17

In December 2001, as violent Palestinian protests against the then 34-year Israeli occupation increased -- along with Israeli repression -- the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for the placement of unarmed human rights monitors in the occupied territories. In response, a number of pacifist groups from the United States and Europe began to send their own representatives to play the role of human rights monitors, even to the point of physically placing their bodies between the antagonists.

Among these volunteers was Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Of particular concern for her and her colleagues was the use of Caterpillar bulldozers destroying Palestinian homes and orchards.

On March 16, in the Rafah refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces were preparing to destroy a series of homes, including that of a Palestinian pharmacist and his family. Rachel was among a group of international observers who stood in front of the bulldozer as a form of nonviolent resistance against this illegal act by Israeli occupation forces. According to both Palestinian and American eyewitnesses, Rachel was standing in plain site of the bulldozer's driver. She was wearing a bright fluorescent orange jacket and had engaged the driver in conversation to try to convince him not to destroy the house. Nevertheless, after an initial pause, the Caterpillar bulldozer surged forward despite cries from Rachel's colleagues, trapping her feet under the dirt so she could not get out of the way before being run over. The Caterpillar bulldozer then backed up, running Rachel over a second time, mortally wounding her. She died in a nearby hospital a short time later.

Efforts by Rachel’s parents to sue Caterpillar were thrown out by a federal appeals court, where a panel of three judges argued that their suit could not have gone to trial "without implicitly questioning, and even condemning, United States foreign policy towards Israel."

The Israeli government claimed that it was an accident. Not only did the Bush administration accepted this interpretation and refused to call for an independent investigation, Rachel’s home state senators -- Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell – backed the Bush administration in denying that she was murdered, and refused to call for Congressional hearings. Soon thereafter, both threw their support behind an additional $1 billion in military aid to Israel.

Four months earlier, the United States had vetoed a UN Security Council resolution criticizing Israel for the murder of three United Nations workers in two separate incidents in the occupied territories in December, 2002. Among those killed was British relief worker Iain Hook, who was assisting in the reconstruction of Palestinian homes destroyed during an Israeli military offensive the previous spring, also using Caterpillar bulldozers. This veto undoubtedly gave the Israelis the confidence that they could literally get away with murder, even if it involved a foreign national.

Now, in making his highly-public appearance at the Caterpillar headquarters, President Obama, taking after President Bush, appears to have also decided to come to the defense of these kinds of war crimes in the face of international criticism.

Israel Launches Covert War Against Iran -- With U.S. Help

Tweet

Portion below; whole thing (via Citizens for Legitimate Gov't) here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4640052/Israel-launches-covert-war-against-Iran.html

Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear programme, US intelligence sources have revealed.

It is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime's illicit weapons project, the experts say.

The most dramatic element of the "decapitation" programme is the planned assassination of top figures involved in Iran's atomic operations.

Despite fears in Israel and the US that Iran is approaching the point of no return in its ability to build atom bomb, Israeli officials are aware of the change in mood in Washington since President Barack Obama took office.

They privately acknowledge the new US administration is unlikely to sanction an air attack on Iran's nuclear installations and Mr Obama's offer to extend a hand of peace to Tehran puts any direct military action beyond reach for now.

The aim is to slow down or interrupt Iran's research programme, without the gamble of a direct confrontation that could lead to a wider war.

A former CIA officer on Iran told The Daily Telegraph: "Disruption is designed to slow progress on the programme, done in such a way that they don't realise what's happening. You are never going to stop it.

"The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach. We certainly don't want the current Iranian government to have those weapons. It's a good policy, short of taking them out militarily, which probably carries unacceptable risks."

Reva Bhalla, a senior analyst with Stratfor, the US private intelligence company with strong government security connections, said the strategy was to take out key people.

"With co-operation from the United States, Israeli covert operations have focused both on eliminating key human assets involved in the nuclear programme and in sabotaging the Iranian nuclear supply chain," she said.

"As US-Israeli relations are bound to come under strain over the Obama administration's outreach to Iran, and as the political atmosphere grows in complexity, an intensification of Israeli covert activity against Iran is likely to result."

Mossad was rumoured to be behind the death of Ardeshire Hassanpour, a top nuclear scientist at Iran's Isfahan uranium plant, who died in mysterious circumstances from reported "gas poisoning" in 2007.

Other recent deaths of important figures in the procurement and enrichment process in Iran and Europe have been the result of Israeli "hits", intended to deprive Tehran of key technical skills at the head of the programme, according to Western intelligence analysts.

"Israel has shown no hesitation in assassinating weapons scientists for hostile regimes in the past," said a European intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. They did it with Iraq and they will do it with Iran when they can."

Palestinians Backed by ISM Defend Home from IDF!

Tweet

Read whole story and see more video here: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51826&s2=16

U. Rochester Agrees to Demands on Palestine -- Ron Jacobs

Tweet

Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs02132009.html

On Friday, February 6, the University of Rochester-SDS (UR-SDS) organized an occupation of Goergen Hall at the University of Rochester for peace and solidarity with the Palestinians. The action was partially inspired by the wave of occupations across the UK in support of Palestine the past few weeks. UR-SDS made a list of demands of the administration (including divestment from weapons manufacturers, educational and humanitarian aid to Gaza, and scholarships for Palestinian students). In a related event, on Thursday, February 12, 2008 Hampshire College of Amherst, MA. became the first US school to divest from corporations profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Back at the University of Rochester representatives of the occupying students and the university administration signed a Joint Statement of Understanding.

The approximate wording of the statement is:

1. University of Rochester will commit to provide any surplus goods or supplies that could assist the devastated University of Gaza.

2. University of Rochester will commit resources and information to assist fundraising for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

3. University of Rochester will commit to reach out to Palestinian students in order to provide them scholarships to the University of Rochester

4. University of Rochester will commit to organize open forum to discuss why the University invests in weapons manufactures and discuss the process of the University moving toward a more socially responsible, transparent, and democratically controlled investment policy.

I got in touch with three of the organizers/participants via email and recorded the following online exchange.

* * * * * * *

Kyle: (LIke Ryan and Adriano said) SDS at UR organized an occupation of Goergen Atrium and Auditorium on campus in solidarity with Gaza. Beforehand, they had presented the administration with an official letter demanding that UR divest from corporations that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestine, and to provide direct aid to the people of Gaza. This wasn't an occupation like the illegal sit-down strikes of 1930's because the campus administration allowed SDS to reserve the building in the interest of "peaceful dialogue". They also provided the Dean of Student Affairs for negotiation of the demands.

As the day went on, the Dean informed the organizers that UR students would be punished if not out of the building by midnight. So we decided to call for as many campus and community members to mobilize around that time as possible to put as much pressure on the Dean as possible to deliver on our demands.

The Dean agreed to negotiate at 10pm and we had maybe 75 people in the building for support. Through the negotiations, the Dean agreed to the following plan of action: that the administration organize a public forum with UR investors, SDS and the community on the university's investment policy and its investment in Israel; that UR commit resources and provide any needed information for a campus-wide fund drive for Palestine; that UR work to assess needs in Gaza and donate surplus supplies to universities, such as computers and books; and that UR commit to reaching out to Palestinians with international student scholarships.

Feb 6th was a day of education, debate and mobilization. It was a concrete show of solidarity with the people of Gaza and protest against Israel's occupation. It was a concrete demonstration of real democratic decision-making and flexibility.

Response to A Quick Biography of Barack Obama by Jeff Lewis, by Jack Gain

Tweet

don't agonize! organize! -- al-falasteenyia

Tweet Link to original (entirety below): http://alfalasteenyia.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-agonize-organize.html

ive been asked repeatedly by those around me to comment on the israeli elections. i really dont see the point. israeli administrations change, but their policies vis a vis the palestinians are virtually consistent.

on a side note, it seems that many have moved on from the whole gaza thing. i want to take a moment here to talk about this. first let me say that for all the cyncism i exude on this blog, i really want to thank everyone that has stood by the palestinian people, demanding freedom justice. i oftentimes hate on a lot of people (arabs, muslims, my fellow americans, despotic regimes, hopeless US adminstrations) but i know there are a lot of people doing good work out there. but we need more. yes, gaza was a massacre. the images of it are still in ingrained in me somewhere. i try to reconcile them- but i can't. photos of burned babies, disfigured bodies- stories like that of the samouni family etc etc. and every time i think about how i cannot recover from this madness, i remember the people of gaza, and how they are the ones really who will never be the same. for them i determined to continue my activism and remain optimistic in spite of everything.

but its not just about gaza. gaza is just the tip of the iceberg. ethnic cleansing can occur in one of two ways, you see. one is more brutal, fast, and shocking. the other slow and methodical. both forms are violent. gaza was (and is) prime example of the former. the latter is what we see in the west bank and within israel proper. the point i want to make here (and i've said this before) is that this is not over. I quote Azmi Bishara here:

The war on Gaza has not ended. It continues using the means described above: border crossings, the blockade, the Quartet's conditions, the alliance with moderates and the emphasis on the role for Palestinian and moderate Arab security forces. Popular forces and their leadership must realise that it is too early to call off the protest movement calling for a freeze to relations with Israel and security coordination with Israel, and insisting on the opening of crossings, the lifting of the blockade and the prosecution of war criminals. The protest movement must be sustained, rather than starting and stopping in time with the horrors that appear on the television screen. The powers that are alienated from their people will not benefit much from Obama's support, since he will not be firmer in his defence of them than his predecessor. Ultimately, it is those who hold on to their land and resist who will prevail, on the condition that they assess the current situation well, plan accordingly and forge the alliances needed to face the forthcoming challenges.

i was at an event one evening about gaza where a girl broke down crying. i tried to comfort her, and she proceeded to tell me that she couldnt take anymore, that she was frustrated, etc etc. "my whole winter break was consumed by this," she said. as she stood there crying, i told her "look, its good that you're crying. but we need to take this frustration of yours and turn it into action." this is what i would encourage everyone (including myself) to do. sure we can cry for the palestinians, but you know, they don't need our tears. they've got their own. so cry all you want, but make sure your tears feed your activism. don't stop. look around you- look at how the bds movement is picking up. this is just the beginning. i'm so proud of the students over at hampshire college and rochester. i hope the rest of us can do that too.

i returned home that night to the news of how israel had allowed flowers to be exported from gaza. i was really struck by that. after weeks of bombardment, the palestinians of gaza rose up out of the ashes and offered the world flowers for valentine's. in the meantime, israel has closed off gaza from the world and palestinians continue to suffer from a deadly blockade.

indeed, there remains a lot to be done.

Weapons Programs Re-branded as Jobs Programs

Tweet http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3311&updaterx=2009-02-15+15%3A45%3A44

We better get going on counter-recruitment!

Gaza-Bound Aid Van Set for Mammoth Journey - 15 Feb 09

Tweet

Gaza...Nobody Hears

Tweet http://fourthreichisrael.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/suffer-the-little-children/

War on Gaza -- Difficult to Watch the Truth

Tweet

IDF killed youth in Hebron

Tweet Link to original (via Angry Arab Newservice) here: http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3671354,00.html

Efrat Weiss A 14-year old Palestinian was killed Friday afternoon in Hebron in what was apparently a clash between stone-throwers and IDF soldiers.

The IDF stated that dozens of Palestinians arrived at a checkpoint near the Jewish settlement in the city and began to throw massive amounts of stones at the forces stationed there.

The statement said IDF troops responded by firing at the lower body of a major rioter, who was apparently inciting the rest of the Palestinians to violence.

Later the Civil Administration reported that the boy who had been injured from the fire had died. The IDF is still investigating the report.

Palestinian sources said the youth's name was Izz a-Din Jamal, and that his body was found lying near the Cave of the Patriarchs with a gun wound in the chest. The body was transferred to a Hebron hospital.

The IDF stated that incidents of stone-throwing at security forces had drastically increased recently in the area of the West Bank city.

Palestinian sources said the IDF has begun using silencers on their weapons when firing at youths, which they say generally occurs during protests and clashes with security forces after Friday prayer services.

The sources say this was being done as a cover-up. "No one hears the fire, but when you get to the area you see two or three injured people," one Palestinian said. He said the silencers were a new and dangerous tool employed by the IDF, and claimed their use is proof that the army is shooting to kill rather than to disperse protests.

Israel's Rationale for Murder: No One Is Innocent

Tweet

As Israeli journalist Amira Hass wrote in January, "Gaza is not a military power that attacked its tiny, peace-loving neighbor, Israel. Gaza is a territory that Israel occupied in 1967, along with the West Bank. Its residents are part of the Palestinian people, which lost its land and its homeland in 1948."

Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51758&s2=14

Feb 13, 2009

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." -- Israeli Army Chief of Staff Raphael Eitan, 1983

"Before [the Palestinians'] very eyes we are possessing the land and the villages where they, and their ancestors, have lived. . . We are the generation of colonizers, and without the steel helmet and the gun barrel we cannot plant a tree and build a home." -- Famous Israeli Army Commander Moshe Dayan

Israel's official excuses for extinguishing over 1,300 Palestinian lives -- half of them civilian and one-third of them children -- are oft repeated by its apologists: Hamas' rocket fire made the invasion unavoidable, and its tactics made civilian casualties inevitable.

Do these positions dovetail with -- or decapitate -- history? Are they logical? Are they moral? Or are they smokescreens, designed to disguise troublesome facts about both Israel's strategy and its very origins?

The Reality behind the Rockets

Israel's first argument about Hamas' rockets fails on several levels.

It neatly -- and falsely -- posits Hamas as the attacker and Israel as the defender. The only problem with this pleasant fiction is that Israel has been expelling, occupying, and imprisoning Palestinians long before Hamas even came into existence.

As Israeli journalist Amira Hass wrote in January, "Gaza is not a military power that attacked its tiny, peace-loving neighbor, Israel. Gaza is a territory that Israel occupied in 1967, along with the West Bank. Its residents are part of the Palestinian people, which lost its land and its homeland in 1948."

But how did it "lose" its homeland? After unearthing their country's declassified archives, honest Israeli scholars have pointed to an Israeli campaign of rape, murder, and ethnic cleansing that entered full swing in 1947. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said to a colleague shortly after Israel's expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians, "They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?"

Why indeed? For one country to rain down rockets on another is an unprovoked crime. But for a people without a country to fire rockets on those who forcibly took their country -- and who then corralled them into camps, have isolated them from the world, and regularly slaughter them with weapons far deadlier than unguided projectiles -- is a rather different matter.

Just as we would not begin a 10-minute tape of a batterer abusing his wife at the nine-minute mark where she may have struck back, we cannot skip through decades of Israeli ethnic cleansing, occupation, and bombardment and finger Hamas rocket fire as the starting point.

Quite apart from historical considerations, the invasion cannot be justified by rocket fire because scarcely any rockets were being fired before Israel's own escalation. According to the Israeli military, in the ceasefire months of July, August, September, and October, the numbers of rockets fired from Gaza were one, eight, one, and two, respectively. Even those few rockets were likely fired by smaller militant groups not under Hamas' control. In short, Hamas abided by the truce -- a fact Israel recognized during those months. On November 5th, Israel itself broke the truce by launching a military operation that killed six Hamas gunmen.

On the moral level, too, the terror Israel unleashed on the Palestinian population is indefensible. A total of 23 Israelis were killed by Palestinian rockets from November 2001 to June 2008, according to a pro-Israel website. During the Gaza "war," a total of three Israeli civilians were killed by rockets. If Israel's recent rapid-fire slaughter of 600 civilians is "justified" by rockets that caused the death of a small number of Israeli civilians, then -- applying Israel's own logic -- is Hamas not now more "justified" in continuing to launch those rockets than ever before?

How can the Israeli establishment claim the moral high ground if it borrows from the Hamas formula but ups its application of the deadly dosage one hundredfold?