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A New Israeli Incursion into Jenin

By Diana Khwaelid | International Solidarity Movement | October 15, 2024

A new wave of destruction has hit Jenin, as the infrastructure of the city and the camp was once again ravaged, and two Palestinians were killed during an Israeli operation that lasted 8 continuous hours.

On Monday morning, October 14th, Israeli occupying forces stormed the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Palestinians discovered the presence of Israeli special forces inside the Jenin camp.

Just a few hours after the start of the day and normal life in Jenin, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city and camp in broad daylight. Palestinians hurriedly closed their shops, and soon, the city and camp became ghost towns, as seen in previous Israeli military incursions.

Israeli forces surrounded a Palestinian house in the Al-Aloub neighborhood inside the camp while also positioning themselves in more than five other neighborhoods.

New Destruction

Using a bulldozer, Israeli forces caused further damage to the watermelon roundabout, one of the main intersections in Jenin, connecting the city to the camp. The roundabout had been destroyed in a previous attack.

A secondary road leading to Jenin State Hospital was also destroyed, and a three-story house, besieged at the start of the incursion, was bombed. Other areas and neighborhoods in Jenin also suffered extensive damage.

Scenes of destruction are familiar to Palestinians, particularly in Jenin and the camp, which endured significant destruction during a previous military operation that lasted ten days.

Incursion and Arrests

As Israeli forces continued to storm Jenin and the camp, they also invaded the nearby village of Jaba, arresting at least nine Palestinians.

“The city of Jenin and the camp also witnessed the arrests of other young people” stated Palestinian news sources.

Obstruction of Medical Staff

Eyewitnesses from the Red Crescent medical team reported that Israeli forces obstructed their movements and work, both in Jenin and within the camp, during the incursion. An ambulance was prevented from reaching an injured Palestinian person from the town of Qabatiya, who later died after being left to bleed for hours.

A Palestinian paramedic, on duty during the incursion, was arrested, detained for hours, and then later released.

The martyr from Qabatiya, identified as Mahmoud Abu al-Rub, was a former prisoner who had been released five months ago, after spending four years in Israeli prison. He was killed by multiple gunshots from Israeli forces in the Al-Sibat neighborhood of Jenin.

Medical sources reported that 17-year-old student Rayan Ibrahim al-Sayed was also killed after being wounded by Israeli forces during the incursion. Another young man, Salah Jabarin, succumbed to wounds sustained about a month ago, joining his father, who had been martyred on the same day Salah was injured.

Jenin’s mosques mourned the three martyrs, and funeral ceremonies were held for each of them. Friends and family bade their final farewells in deep grief and sorrow.

According to the Shirin Abu Akleh Observatory, the number of Palestinian martyrs this year has risen to 20,316. Since October 7, the number of martyrs in the West Bank has reached 724. In Jenin alone, 198 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza and the near-daily military operations in the West Bank.

October 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel considers plan to starve Gaza’s civilians to death

Press TV – October 13, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.

Under the proposed plan, seen by the Associated Press, civilians who remain in northern Gaza would be classified as combatants, allowing Israeli troops to kill them. They would be denied access to food, water, medicine, and fuel.

The plan proposed to Netanyahu by a group of retired generals, calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration, splitting the Gaza Strip in two.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu told a closed parliamentary committee session that he was considering the plan.

Israeli authorities with knowledge of the matter said parts of the plan are already being implemented.

The plan gave Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, before declaring it a closed military zone.

Israel has issued many evacuation orders for the north throughout the yearlong campaign of death and destruction, the most recent of which was Sunday.

Israeli forces widened their brutal military offensive on north Gaza early on Sunday, after killing 300 people over nine days in a ramped-up ground offensive targeting the Jabalia refugee camp.

Israeli tanks made their way to the north edge of Gaza City, while airstrikes from above continued.

Residents say they have been isolated from the rest of Gaza, with Israeli forces not allowing anyone to enter or exit the north.

No trucks of food, water, or medicine have entered the north since Sept. 30, according to the UN.

So far, very few Palestinians have heeded the latest evacuation order. Much fear there’s nowhere safe to go and that they will never be allowed back. Israel has prevented those who fled earlier in the war from returning.

“All Gazans are afraid of the plan,” said Jomana Elkhalili, a 26-year-old Palestinian aid worker for Oxfam living in Gaza City with her family.

“Still, they will not flee. They will not make the mistake again … We know the place there is not safe,” she said. “That’s why people in the north say it’s better to die than to leave.”

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on X Thursday that only about 100 Palestinians have fled the north since Sunday.

“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” the UN official said “With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading.”

Human rights groups say the plan would likely starve civilians and that it flies in the face of international law, which prohibits using food as a weapon and forcible transfers.

The fact that Israel is intentionally limiting food to Gaza is central to the genocide case brought against it at the International Court of Justice.

Israeli authorities say that if the strategy is successful in northern Gaza it could then be replicated in other areas, including tent camps further to the south sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

When asked about the plan Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US, Israel’s main benefactor, was going to “make absolutely clear that it’s not just the United States that opposes any occupation of Gaza, any reduction in the size of Gaza, but it is the virtually unanimous opinion of the international community.”

The Israeli military presses ahead with its relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip now more than one year into the genocidal war.

The Israeli aggression on Gaza began in October last year, claiming the lives of more than 42,000 so far. Over 98,000 d others have also been injured since then.

October 13, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

66-yr-old Palestinian beaten, killed by Israeli occupation forces

MEMO | October 7, 2024

Sixty-six-year-old Palestinian activist, Ziad Abu Ehlayyel, was killed after being brutally beaten by Israeli occupation forces during a raid on his home in the occupied West Bank town of Dura, south-west of Hebron.

According to security sources, Israeli forces stormed Abu Ehlayyel’s home this morning and violently assaulted him until he lost consciousness. Despite being rushed to Dura Hospital, medical staff were unable to save him and he was pronounced dead due to the extent of his injuries.

Abu Ehlayyel was a respected community figure who had been subjected to multiple assaults by Israeli occupation forces during past raids into the town.

Quds News Network shared an archival video showing Abu Ehlayyel confronting Israeli soldiers, pleading with them to stop firing at Palestinian children. In the footage, he can be heard saying: “We don’t want you to shoot anyone, we don’t want you to kill anyone; this is a nonviolent procession, why do you keep shooting at them? Why don’t you stop your settlers from attacking us?”

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since 7 October last year.

Today marks one year since the Israeli offensive began, leaving over 97,300 wounded and more than 10,000 people still missing, presumed dead under the rubble.

In the occupied West Bank, the violence has also escalated. Since 7 October 2023, at least 742 Palestinians have been killed, more than 6,200 injured and over 11,100 others detained in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian figures.

The Israeli escalation follows a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice last July that declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

October 7, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

UN Report Reveals Nobody Held Accountable for Crimes Against Russian PoWs in Ukraine

Sputnik – 01.10.2024

GENEVA – A recent periodic report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed that no one has been held accountable for crimes committed against Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine.

Earlier this year, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, released a report indicating that Ukrainian soldiers committed war crimes by executing and torturing Russian prisoners of war. The UN mission documented 25 instances of reprisals against these prisoners by Ukrainian troops.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported that as of 16 August 2024, five pre-trial investigations were carried out into possible ill-treatment, as well as wilful killings of Russian prisoners of war, under articles 434 and 438 (“violations of rules and customs of war”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, no person received a notification of suspicion in relation to these investigations,” the report read.

More than half of the 205 Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine interviewed by the UN since March 2023 said they had been tortured and ill-treated, the report read, adding that 10 of them “reported being subjected to sexual violence, including inflicting violence to genitals and threats of rape.”

“The vast majority of incidents of torture or ill-treatment of Russian POWs (reported by 87 interviewees) occurred in unofficial or transit locations including garages, basements or private houses. OHCHR identified several such places. They were typically used by frontline units of the Ukrainian armed forces or by security forces and were located in Donetsk, Kharkov, Kherson, Kiev, Lugansk and Zaporozhye regions. Russian POWs were held in these places after evacuation from the battlefield and before entering official facilities,” the report read.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | | Leave a comment

Maria Butina on her politicized incarceration in the US & horrific conditions in US prisons

EvaKareneBartlettJournalism | September 11, 2024

Maria Butina, a Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee member, was a student of foreign affairs at the School of International Services (Washington, D.C.) in 2018 when she was convicted as acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and was imprisoned for 18 months—including 4 torturous months in solitary confinement.

In this conversation, Maria describes her incarceration and the harsh, inhumane and filthy conditions she experienced in various US prisons. She was subjected to psychological torture via sleep deprivation and prolonged isolation.

She now advocates for people facing political persecution.

“Now I help people who want to come to Russia, looking for asylum here, they fear their own state.”

Excerpts from her memoir, Prison diary, can be read here: https://www.rt.com/russia/507910-maria-butina-prison-book-journal/

Regarding my reference to the likewise horrible conditions journalist and editor Kirill Vyshinsky endured, imprisoned without trial for nearly 1.5 years in Ukraine, see my 2019 interview with Kirill. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/accused-of-treason-and-imprisoned-without-trial-journalist-kirill-vyshinsky-recounts-his-harrowing-time-in-a-ukrainian-prison/

September 12, 2024 Posted by | Russophobia, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Video | , | Leave a comment

Walaa Tanja ordered to 6 more months of arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network | September 11, 2024

Walaa Khaled Tanja grew up in Balata refugee camp (Nablus), in a family with a strong history of resistance for Palestinian liberation. At the age of 15, she received her mother, Latifa Abu Dara, on Al-Quds Street near the Huwarra checkpoint, when she was released as part of the Wafaa Al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011.

Her mother was later martyred due to cancer and her brother has also been repeatedly pursued, imprisoned and wounded by occupation soldiers.

Walaa was arrested on August 20th 2022, with Tahrir Abu Sariya and Maryam Arafat, and accused of attempting to carry out an armed operation in retaliation for the murder of Ibrahim Al Nabulsi. The occupation claimed that they opened fire on soldiers at the “Kedumim” illegal colonial settlement near the occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus and Qalqilya.

Walaa was released on November 24th 2023, as part of the first batch of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, in which 13 Israeli women and children were exchanged for 39 Palestinian women and children who were held hostage by the occupation.

This interrupted Walaa’s original 7-year sentence and she was welcomed home by her family. However, due to the heavy repression by the occupation, no big celebration was possible.

After her release, Walaa expressed her feelings about her liberation thanks to the Resistance in Gaza.

On March 12th 2024, while she was arriving to Tulkarem from Nablus together with her 16-year-old cousin, occupation special forces attacked the car with their guns pointed at them, and seized Walaa once again. She was taken to a military camp, then to Hasharon crossing and then to Damon prison.

Her abduction clearly broke the prisoner exchange agreement, which has now been done several times by the occupation.

Walaa was ordered to six months in “administrative detention” — arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable. On 11 September 2024, her detention was extended for another six months. We urge immediate liberation for Walaa Khaled Tanja, together with the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Follow the Dismantle Damon campaign for more updates on Palestinian women prisoners.

September 11, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Ex-Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar facing ‘slow’ death in Israeli jail: Rights group

Press TV – September 1, 2024

An international rights group has raised concern about Khalida Jarrar’s health, warning the 61-year-old female Palestinian detainee is facing “slow and deliberate killing” at the hands of Israeli prison officials.

Jarrar, a scholar, feminist, leftist and former lawmaker, has been in arbitrary incarceration under the Israeli regime’s illegal administrative detention since last year.

She is kept in solitary confinement in Neve Terzia prison where she was moved to from Damon Prison last month.

Despite requiring five different medications for her heart and health ailment related to blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol, she is denied food and medication on time, while locked up in an airless solitary cell measuring 1.5 x 2.5 meters, a concrete bed and open toilet with no curtains, lacking water.

To breathe, reportedly, Jarrar is forced to lie on the floor to draw some oxygen from the crack under the cell’s door.

According to Palestinian human rights advocate, B’tselem, 60 detained Palestinians have died in Israeli jails since the regime forces launched a genocidal war on Palestinian people in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

EuroMed Human Rights Monitor has detailed the conditions of Jarrar’s arbitrary detention and cruel solitary confinement, calling on the international community to demand for her immediate release and an end to arbitrary detention of Palestinians.

“Compel Israel to stop the slow and deliberate killing of Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar,” the rights group said in a report published on Thursday.

It also called on the Working Group on illegal arbitrary detention of Palestinians and the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Al-Salem, to take effective and immediate action in this regard.

EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, in an urgent letter, wrote a detailed report about the conditions of Jarrar’s arbitrary detention and cruel solitary confinement in the Israeli prison intended for female criminals to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls.

The report includes a complaint received by EuroMed Monitor from Jarrar’s husband, Ghassan Jarrar, on his wife’s dire condition in prison.

Jarrar’s husband told the rights group her wife remains in isolation for unknown reasons.

He said there was also no legal basis for her to be moved from the prison where she was being held before to Neve Terzia, a prison meant for female offenders.

Additionally, Israeli authorities did not notify him she was being moved to the Neve Terzia prison.

He noted the most serious problems facing Jarrar in prison as: lack of oxygen in the cell; not being allowed to go outside for “recreation”; the water to the toilet is cut off; the temperature is abnormally high; and that the purposeful delay of food and medicine are all “conditions of killing, not isolation”.

“Do they want to kill Khalida this way?” Jarrar questioned. Despite her critical health condition, no one answers her calls when she urgently needs anything, with “four hours [going] by before anyone answers”.

He summarized her suffering in this letter sent by his wife to her lawyer.

“I die every day. The cell looks like a tiny, airtight box. The cell is equipped with a toilet and a small window above it, which was closed a day after I was moved to it. They did not leave me any space to breathe. Even the so-called porthole in the cell door was closed. I spend most of my time sitting next to a tiny opening that allows me to breathe. I wait for the hours to pass while I suffocate in my cell in hopes of finding oxygen molecules to breathe and survive,” she wrote.

“The high temperatures make my isolation even more tragic. Put simply, I am inside a very hot oven. The heat has made it impossible for me to sleep. Not only did they put me in this situation alone, but they also purposefully turned off the water in the cell. It [initially] took them at least four hours to bring me a bottle of water. After eight days of confinement, I was allowed to leave the cell once, to go to the prison yard. Additionally, they purposely postpone the awful dinner for hours,” she added.

Khalida Jarrar was arrested on December 26, 2023 from her home in Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank.

Initially, she was kept in Damon Prison with other female inmates without being charged or given a chance to defend herself, until she was recently moved to solitary confinement.

Before her 2023 arrest, Khalid Jarrar had been an ex-prisoner who served five years in Israeli jails. She is a human rights and feminist activist and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Nearly nine-thousand Palestinian detainees are currently suffering physically and mentally from the regime’s illegal arbitrary arrests, harsh and degrading detention conditions, torture, and punitive and retaliatory measures, including starvation and solitary confinement—which are all unlawful practices violating human rights which have intensified since the start of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

Some 260 Palestinian detainees have been killed in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since 1967.

This figure does not include the dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip who have been killed since last October. The exact numbers and identities of most of these individuals remain unknown.

September 1, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Over 40 Palestinians released from Israel prisons with signs of torture, skin diseases

23 Palestinians detained by Israel are taken to the Nasser Hospital for medical treatment after release at Karm Abu Salem border crossing in Gaza on August 20, 2024. [Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | August 23, 2024

Israeli occupation authorities released over 40 Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank, including several administrative detainees who had been held without charge or trial.

The prisoners were released at the Thaheriyya military roadblock south of occupied Hebron, outside Ofer Prison and near the Salem military base. According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), some of those released, particularly from Naqab Prison in the Negev, are suffering from skin diseases.

Initial images of the released detainees highlight the severe mistreatment they suffered, including systematic starvation and food deprivation. Many were immediately transferred to hospitals for medical care.

Last night’s release follows the release of around 25 Palestinian detainees from Gaza earlier this week. They were immediately transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis for medical treatment after enduring months of captivity in “inhumane” conditions, according to the New Arab.

One video showed the detainees arriving at the Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, dressed in tattered clothes, looking gaunt and pale, with bandages around their heads. Among them was Walid Ibrahim Habib, who had serious injuries to his arms and legs.

The Israeli military has denied allegations of “systematic abuse”, claiming that any abuse of detainees is strictly prohibited and thoroughly investigated. However, the sheer number of consistent accounts from former detainees, coupled with the testimony of Israeli personnel at the site, suggests a disturbing pattern of mistreatment and torture.

Moreover, despite these recent releases, Israel continues its daily raids across various cities and towns in the occupied West Bank to arrest more Palestinians.

A joint statement from the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the PPS estimates that more than 10,100 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli occupation army in the West Bank since 7 October 2023.

At least 635 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Ministry of Health.

In a landmark advisory opinion on 19 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and for reparations to be paid to Palestinians.

August 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel systematically detaining and torturing Palestinian children in the Gaza, rights group finds

Brothers Abdulmumin, 16, and Ali D. were detained and tortured by Israeli forces in Gaza City in December 2023. [Photo: Courtesy of the family/DCI Palestine]
MEMO | August 22, 2024

Israeli forces are systematically detaining and torturing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, including using some as human shields, Defence for Children International – Palestine said in a report released yesterday.

DCIP investigated events during an Israeli military incursion into the Al-Tuffah area of Gaza City on 27 December 2023, when occupation forces detained at least eight Palestinian children and used several as human shields, according to documentation collected by the rights group. Israeli forces detained around 50 Palestinians, including brothers 13-year-old Abdullah H. and 11-year-old Abdulrahman H. as well as 12-year-old Karim S. Israeli soldiers forced them to take off their clothes and bound their hands before forcing them to walk in front of Israeli tanks.

“They insulted us, slapped me on my face, and kicked me in my stomach and waist. I almost died from the beating.”

Karim told DCIP. “Then they made us walk in front of bulldozers and tanks in the streets so that the resistance wouldn’t target them.”

“They released dogs on us to scare me, beat me on the head, and stripped me of my clothes,” Abdulrahman told DCIP. “Anyone who asked for water or needed to use the bathroom was beaten with rifles.”

Since 2000, DCIP has recorded at least 31 cases in which Palestinian children were used by Israeli occupation forces as human shields.

During the same incursion into Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, Israeli forces detained at least five other Palestinian children, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

“They treated us like animals, not humans. When they entered our house, the soldiers were shouting and firing bullets everywhere. They took me from the house and ordered me to undress, then they tied me up and blindfolded me,” 16-year-old Mohammad S. told DCIP.

“I was kicked in the face, and the marks are still visible.”

During the incursion, after Israeli forces bulldozed the door of his home, a small Israeli drone entered Mohammad’s house and began firing live ammunition. Mohammad was detained by Israeli soldiers. His family was ordered to go to southern Gaza via Al-Rashid Street, and lost contact with the child after the forced separation until a neighbour told them that Mohammad was released and displaced at the Cairo School in Gaza City.

In addition to attacking the children, occupation soldiers hit the children’s mothers with rifles in front of them, unleashed dogs to bite detainees, and insulted them with vile words and threatened them with rape. “I heard them tell one of the detainees that they would do things to his wife, mentioning her by name,” 13-year-old Ibrahim S. said.

Israeli forces have detained an unknown number of Palestinians, including children, to Israeli military bases and detention centres in Israel since October 2023. The children’s names, exact locations, whereabouts and conditions are also unknown, indicating these are enforced disappearances, which is a “serious breach of international law”.

DCIP explained that Palestinians being detained are held under Israel’s 2002 Unlawful Combatants Law. “This Israeli civil law permits the state to detain as claimed ‘enemy fighters’ for extended periods of time without following the standard legal procedures, and to hold them without granting them the status of prisoners of war,” it explained.

August 22, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Majority of Jewish Israelis oppose prosecution of soldiers for raping Palestinian detainees: Poll

The Cradle | August 19, 2024

A new poll conducted by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University has revealed Israeli Jews’ opinions regarding whether Israeli soldiers should be prosecuted for raping Palestinian detainees and whether Israel should launch a wide-scale war against Hezbollah and Iran.

The poll asked a question regarding the five soldiers recently accused of torturing and sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman camp.

The poll stated, “If it is found that there is a basis for suspicion against the five suspects, how should they be treated?”

A large majority of Israeli Jews, 65 percent, responded, “They should be disciplined at the command level only.”

In contrast, only 21 percent said they should be prosecuted. The remaining 14 percent said, “I don’t know.”

The poll also asked, “Do you think Israel should or should not obey international law and maintain moral values in war?”

In response, 47 percent of Israeli Jews said the army “Doesn’t have to obey.” Only 42.5 percent said it “Must obey.” The remaining 10.5 percent said, “I don’t know.”

The poll also asked, “What do you think Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s attacks should be?”

In response, 52 percent of Israeli Jews said, “Israel must initiate broad military activity even at the cost of regional war.”

This included the 27 percent who said the regional war should also include “the occupation and certain control of the territories of southern Lebanon.”

In contrast, 17 percent of Israel Jews responded that “Israel should respond locally to all attacks and avoid an escalation and deterioration into a wide-scale war as much as possible.”

A further 26 percent of Israeli Jews said, “Israel should initiate military activity limited to harming Hezbollah.”

The poll further asked, “Under the current circumstances, is it advisable for Israel to take direct military action against Iran?”

In response, 52 percent of Jewish Israelis answered positively with “yes” or “I think so.”

In contrast, 37.5 percent said “no” or “I don’t think so.” The remaining 17.5 percent said they didn’t know.

In another question, the poll asked, “What worries you more, security threats to Israel from outside, or socio-religious tensions within Israel?”

In response, 39 percent said security threats to Israel from outside worry them more. Some 51 percent said socio-religious tensions within Israel are more worrying.

August 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian detainee reveals that Israeli occupation forces used him as a human shield for 40 days

Palestinian Information Center – August 15, 2024

RAMALLAH – The testimony of a Palestinian detainee revealed that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) used him and another prisoner as human shields for 40 days in Gaza.

The Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement on Thursday that the IOF forced the Palestinian detainee to wear a military uniform, placed a camera on him, and accompanied him with a drone.

The Authority and the Society confirmed that if the prisoner refused to be used as a human shield, he would be subjected to brutal beatings, deprived of food and basic needs, in addition to being shot and prevented from receiving medical treatment.

The joint statement presented the testimony of the 21-year-old Gaza youth “M.D.,” who was used by the IOF as a human shield for more than 40 days, along with another detainee who was with him.

The same source said that the Palestinian young man, who was working at the Kerm Abu Salem crossing, was subjected to acts of torture, deliberate humiliation and assault, starvation, terrorism and threats, after he and a group of citizens were arrested by the IOF soldiers last June and detained between the Palestinian-Egyptian borders and Rafah.

According to the testimony of the Gaza youth, the IOF used him as a human shield on a daily basis, through several methods, such as placing him at the front of IOF military vehicles, with his hands and feet tied, and forcing him to wear the Israeli military uniform and attaching a camera to his body.

According to the horrifying testimony of the young man, if he refused to go along with the IOF orders, he was subjected to beatings, and added that a drone was used to guide him during his movements. During his detention, the young man confirmed that the IOF soldiers did not provide him with enough food, deprived him of using the bathroom or taking a shower, and this continued throughout his detention period, until he was shot in the chest on the 6th of August, and he remained without treatment for about half an hour.

The Palestinian young man found himself the next day in the Israeli Soroka hospital, where he stayed for 3 days, until he was released on the 9th of August through the Kerm Abu Salem crossing, and he was then transported by ambulance to the Nasser Medical Hospital. The tests showed that the injury caused him a fracture in his chest and another injury in his lung, and he still needs urgent treatment.

For their part, the two bodies concerned with the affairs of Palestinian prisoners considered that the young man from Gaza was exposed to a complex and horrific war crime, starting from his arrest and using him as a human shield throughout this period, and torturing and humiliating him, and then injuring him, and releasing him from the hospital without completing his treatment.

The two bodies once again called on the international human rights institutions to regain their necessary and required role in the face of the ongoing genocide war and the systematic crimes committed by Israel against prisoners and detainees, and to assume their necessary responsibilities, and stressed the need to overcome the horrific state of impotence that surrounds their role, and to go beyond this role that is limited only to monitoring crimes and violations and issuing positions and statements, to a level that leads to holding Israel and its supporters accountable.

International humanitarian law and the 1949 Geneva Convention prohibit armies from using civilians as human shields, and the International Criminal Court considers this a war crime.

Israel has been continuously waging its devastating war on the Gaza Strip for more than 10 months, which has so far resulted in more than 40,000 martyrs and more than 92,000 injuries, mostly women and children, in addition to massive destruction of vital facilities, residential buildings, and an exacerbating famine in the besieged Strip.

Israel continues its war despite two resolutions from the UN Security Council to stop it immediately, and orders from the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of Rafah and take measures to prevent genocide and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

August 15, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the Problem of Torture

By Andrew P. Napolitano | Ron Paul Institute | August 8, 2024

In the months following the attacks of 9/11, the government laid the blame for orchestrating them on Osama bin Ladin. Then, after it murdered bin Ladin, the government decided that the true mastermind was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

By the time of bin Ladin’s death, Mohammed had already been tortured by CIA agents for three years at various black sites and charged with conspiracy to commit mass murder, to be tried before an American military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mohammed and four other alleged conspirators have been awaiting trial since their arrivals at Gitmo in 2006. Since then, numerous government military and civilian prosecutors, as well as numerous military judges, have rotated into and out of the case. Two weeks ago, the government and the defendants agreed to a guilty plea in return for life in prison at Gitmo. Then, last week, the Department of Defense abruptly changed its mind and rescinded its approval of the guilty pleas.

Here is the backstory.

The concept of military tribunals for the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks was born in the administration of President George W. Bush, who argued that the attacks, though conducted by civilians on civilians, were of military magnitude and thus warranted a military response. Throughout the entire 22-year existence of the U.S. military prison at Gitmo, no one has been tried for causing or carrying out the crimes of 9/11. The government tried only one person for crimes related to 9/11. That was Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in federal court in Virginia to conspiracy for being the 20th hijacker and then was tried in a penalty phase trial where the jury chose life in prison.

Bush’s rationale not only brought us the fruitless and destructive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; it also brought a host of legal problems unforeseen by Bush and his revenge-over-justice colleagues. The first legal issue was conspiracy. Since Mohammed did not carry out the attacks, he could only be charged with planning them. But conspiracy is not a war crime, and thus no military tribunal could hear the case. So Congress came up with a historic first — a military tribunal that would try civilian crimes.

The next issue was where to try Mohammed and his colleagues. President Barack Obama wanted to close Gitmo, which costs $540 million annually, and try Mohammed and the others in federal courts. This would have been consistent with federal law and the U.S. Constitution. But Republicans in Congress viewed Mohammed as too dangerous to bring onto U.S. soil, and so Congress enacted legislation that prohibits the removal of Mohammed and the others to the U.S. for any purpose.

The prohibition on removal means that any life terms would need to be spent at Gitmo. It also means that there would be a legal obstacle to the execution of a death sentence, as Gitmo is not equipped to execute anyone.

Most troubling, however, is the government’s problem of how to address the issue of torture. Bush believed that military men on military juries would neither cringe at torture nor hesitate to impose a death sentence. Yet, when defendants at Gitmo, in non-9/11-related cases, described the torture that CIA agents and military officials had inflicted upon them, military jurors were repulsed at what they heard and recommended clemency even for those who caused deaths.

These events — filing legally baseless charges, prohibiting the removal of civilian defendants to civilian courts, and fear of the likely reaction of military jurors to testimony about torture — caused the prosecution team to rethink the entire idea of putting Mohammed on trial, and thus in March 2022, the government initiated secret plea-bargaining negotiations with defense counsel.

In large measure, government prosecutors — now the fourth team since 2006 — recognized that Bush’s torturers had so brutalized the defendants that their so-called voluntary confessions would likely be tossed by the trial judge or rejected by a jury. Moreover, there are serious ethical issues when lawyers defend torture — so serious that it could jeopardize their careers.

Why would the government agree to such a plea bargain for the persons it claims are the monsters who murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11 and triggered all the horrors that followed those murders? What does the government fear?

What does it always fear? THE TRUTH.

Since the trial judge — the fourth judge on the case — had already accepted the guilty pleas before the DoD changed its mind, it is unclear if he will enforce them.

If he does not, one day there will be a trial. At trial, the defendants will be permitted to bring the government’s imperialistic wars, its tortures and its foreknowledge of 9/11 into the courtroom. The government knows that much of its behavior — from the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of a popularly elected prime minister of Iran in the early 1950s to the untruthful excuses for toppling Saddam Hussein — will show American foreign policy at its imperialistic and violent worst.

And the hours and weeks and months and years of repeated torture — all of it criminal — will undermine the case against Mohammed and the others.

This is what happens when the fabric of our legal system is interfered with for authoritarian reasons. The tragedy of 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch. What did the CIA know before 9/11? Bush compounded his ignorance and failures with boasts of bravado and torture — all of which have come back to haunt his current successor in the White House.

Defense and Justice Department lawyers have recognized that they cannot try this case without material damage to the scheme of American empire, built on death, lies and torture, without revealing the names and methods of the folks who did these horrible deeds and the lies of the presidents who authorized them — and without the truth coming out at last.

What good has come from Bush’s torturers? None.

To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit https://JudgeNap.com.

COPYRIGHT 2024 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO

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August 8, 2024 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment