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Majority Supremes Uphold Wrongful Conviction and Capital Punishment

By Stephen Lendman | March 6, 2022

In April 2013, Dzhokkar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were framed as patsies for what was called the Boston Marathon bombing.

Local police lethally shot brother Tamerlan near Watertown, MA.

Dzhokhar was arrested, falsely charged, convicted and sentenced to death.

Neither brother was involved with the incident, a state-sponsored false flag.

Like many times before in the US, innocent patsies were wrongfully punished, innocence not enough to save them.

At the time, Dzhokhar’s father, Anzor, said his sons had nothing to do with the bombings.

US “special services went after them because my sons are Muslims, and don’t have anyone in America to protect them.”

“I’m sure about my children, in their purity. I don’t know what happened or who did this… I fear for my son, for his life.”

Neither son was trained or had knowledge of explosives or firearms.

Their mother, Zubeidat, said both sons were set up.

FBI operatives followed them for years.

Her eldest son Tamerlan “was controlled by the FBI, like for three, five years,” she said.

“They knew what (he) was doing.”

“They knew what actions were and what sites on the Internet he was (accessing).”

“They used to come (to our) home.”

“They used to talk to me.”

‘They were telling me that (Tamerlan) was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him.”

“They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites.”

“They were controlling him.”

“They were controlling his every step (and) now they say that this is a terrorist act.”

“Never ever is this true. My sons are innocent.”

Asked if they had secret aspirations and dark secrets, she said:

“That’s impossible. My sons would never keep a secret.”

In July 2020, US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit panel unanimously overturned Dzhokhar’s death sentence, saying:

The trial judge failed to adequately question jurors about their exposure to pretrial publicity about the incident.

Weeks later, Trump regime AG William Barr vowed to “do whatever’s necessary” to appeal the decision and “pursue the death penalty” against Dzhokhar.

In October 2020, the (In)justice Department filed a petition for writ of certiorari, seeking Supreme Court intervention in the case.

On Friday, the Supremes reinstated the death penalty against wrongfully convicted Dzhokhar by a 6 – 3 majority ruling.

He had nothing to do with placing one of two so-called “pressure cooker” bombs near the April 2013 Boston Marathon’s finish line — killing three, injuring around 260 others.

Writing for the Court’s majority, Clarence Thomas falsely said the following:

“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes (sic).”

“The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury (sic).”

“He received one (sic).”

“The judgment of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is reversed.”

Justices Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett allied with Thomas to reverse the First Circuit’s ruling.

Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor dissented.

Dzhokhar is serving a life sentence at Colorado’s ADX Florence prison — the sole federal supermax facility.

According to the DOJ’s National Institute of Corrections, supermax confinement is in “special housing unit(s), maxi-maxi, maximum control facilit(ies), secured housing unit(s), intensive management unit(s), and administrative maximum penitentiar(ies.).”

They’re “highly restrictive, high-custody housing units within a secure facility.”

They “isolate inmates from the general prison population and from each other due to grievous crimes, repetitive assaultive or violent institutional behavior, the threat of escape or actual escape from high-custody facility(s), or inciting or threatening to incite disturbances in a correctional institution.”

In a 1999 report titled, “Supermax Prisons: Overview and General Considerations,” the DOJ said the following:

“Although “concentration, dispersal, and isolation are not new, the development of ‘supermax’ prisons is a relatively recent trend.”

“Prisons always had “prisons within the prison” for their worst inmates (usually called administrative segregation), and most states operate one or more facilities for their most threatening inmates.”

They’re for society’s “worst of the worst.”

Alcatraz was the prototype until closed in 1963.

Prison wardens aware of cruel and unusual punishment in supermax confinement call it a fate “worse than death.”

Prisoners are confined to windowless single cells about 7 by 12 feet for up to 23 hours a day, with a shower and concrete bed.

Inmates have few if any programs.

Little constructive activity is offered.

Few visits are allowed, almost no direct contact ones.

There’s very little human contact overall.

Most inmates are incarcerated for life. For others, sentences are determinate.

Imagine being isolated in less than 100 square feet of windowless space with nearly no human contact for the rest of your life — especially if young, like Dzhokhar, when confined.

A fate worse than death indeed.

A Final Comment

Longterm isolated confinement crushes the mind and spirit, along with taking a horrendous physical toll — over time causing:

severe anxiety

panic attacks

lethargy

insomnia

nightmares

dizziness

irrational anger, at times uncontrollable

confusion

social withdrawal

memory loss

appetite loss

delusions and hallucinations

mutilations

profound despair and hopelessness

suicidal thoughts;

paranoia

For many, a totally dysfunctional state and inability ever to live normally outside of confinement.

Prisoner anecdotes describe the experience:

“People come in with a few problems and leave as sociopaths.

You’re like a “caged animal. I’ve seen people just crack and either scream for hours on end or cry.”

Isolation “creates monsters (who) want revenge on society.”

We “have a sense of hopelessness. Plus my anger (is) a silent rage…I am beginning to really hate people.”

“They…try to break a person down mentally (and) mental abuse leaves no evidence behind (like) physical abuse.”

Others say isolation is like being buried alive in a tomb.

When longterm, it often causes irreversible psychological trauma and harm, a condition no society should inflict on anyone, nor should lawmakers allow it.

Yet thousands in the US are irreversibly harmed this way, including wrongfully convicted victims of injustice like Dzhokkar.

March 6, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, False Flag Terrorism, Subjugation - Torture | , | 3 Comments

Surprise! The Supreme Court Defers to the CIA

By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | March 4, 2022

As longtime readers of my blog know, I have long maintained that it is the national-security branch of the federal government that runs the government, especially when it comes to foreign affairs. The other three branches, while being permitted to have the veneer of running the government, actually operate in support of the national-security branch. 

This is also the thesis set forth in a book that I have long recommended, entitled National Security and Double Government by Michael J. Glennon, professor of law at Tufts University.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in a case involving the CIA provides a perfect example of this phenomenon. 

The case involved a man named Abu Zubaydah, who the CIA accused of being a terrorist as part of its much-vaunted worldwide “war on terrorism.” After taking Zubaydah captive some 20 years ago, the CIA subjected him to brutal torture, including 80 hours of waterboarding, hundreds of hours of live burial, and “rectal rehydration.” It should be pointed out that U.S. officials have never convicted Zubaydah of a crime.

Zubaydah was tortured at CIA “black sites,” such as one that the CIA operated in Poland, one of the former Warsaw Pact countries that was absorbed by NATO. Later, he was transferred to the Pentagon’s and the CIA’s torture and prison center at Guantanamo Bay.

The reason that Zubaydah was tortured was that CIA and Pentagon officials were convinced that he was a high-ranking figure in al Qaeda, which the CIA later concluded was a mistake. Nonetheless, Zubaydah remains incarcerated at Gitmo, where for 20 years the CIA and the Pentagon steadfastly failed to grant him a speedy trial, a right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Zubaydah filed a legal action seeking to take depositions of two private-sector individuals who served as torturers for the CIA. He wanted them to testify under oath as to everything they did to him. 

The CIA objected, arguing that Zubadah’s legal action should be dismissed on two grounds: (1) The depositions of the two torturers would inevitably reveal the fact that the CIA maintained a black site in Poland, which, the CIA maintains, falls within the state-secrets doctrine that the Supreme Court, in another act of extreme deference, awarded the CIA decades ago; and (2) It would breach a promise that the CIA entered into with Poland to keep their joint dark-side activities secret.

Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, deferred to the CIA and dismissed Zubaydah’s lawsuit. The Court held that “national security” dictated that the CIA would be permitted to keep secret the location of its black sites and the details of its dark-side activities, including torture. It’s just tough luck for victims of CIA and Pentagon torture, kidnapping, rendition, indefinite detention, assassination, and other totalitarian-like dark-side activity. 

Needless to say, if a similar legal action were to be brought in Russia, China, or North Korea — all of which also have national-security state forms of government — the judicial ruling would be the same. In every national-security state, most everyone within the government pays extreme deference to the military-intelligence part of the government and gives them free rein to do whatever they want to people. 

March 5, 2022 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , | 3 Comments

The Ugly Face of Trudeau Regime Tyranny in Canada’s Capital

By Stephen Lendman | February 21, 2022

According to local media reports, Trudeau regime storm troopers arrested 191 nonviolent freedom-fighting truckers and supporters through Sunday.

Towing removed 57 vehicles.

The Ottawa police tweeted that operations continue “to remove all vehicles parked” near parliament Hill.

According to interim police chief Steve Bell:

“We will continue to work through the night, through the coming day and/or days until” streets are cleared.

As of Sunday, 103 peaceful protesters, threatening no one, face phony charges, including mischief and obstructing police.

According to Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, (illegally) seized vehicles may be sold instead of returning them to their rightful owners.

Defying the rule of law, Watson falsely claimed the right to “confiscate…vehicles and sell them (sic),” adding:

“I want to see them sold. I don’t want (them) return(ed).”

So-called investigations of police state violence against peaceful protesters assure coverup and denial whitewashing ahead.

Bell signaled what’s coming by claiming that police on horseback didn’t trample anyone.

Two protesters “collided” with horses, he said, falsely blaming the injured for police state violence.

Saying “no one (was) seriously injured (by) police actions. Safety is our priority” ignored trampling, beating, pepper-spraying and other violence against peaceful protesters by Trudeau regime goon squads.

Draconian actions flagrantly breached Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Trudeau regime tyranny abolished it.

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) also tweeted:

“If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges.”

A Freedom Convoy 2022 statement said:

“The use of more force will only be used to punish people, and not preserve or establish order.”

Commenting on Trudeau regime police state tactics, GOP Senator Rand Paul said the following:

“The Emergency edict that Trudeau has done in Canada allows him to do some horrendous things.”

“It allows him to stop travel, allows him to detain people without trial.”

Separately, Paul tweeted:

“Canada became Egypt…ruled by emergency edict that allows prohibition of public assembly, travel, and the commandeering of private companies without your day in court.”

Last week, Canadian Law Professor Ryan Alford condemned Trudeau’s “power grab.”

At a time when no national emergency exists, an invented one alone, Alford stressed that “not a single violent incident” justified Trudeau’s abuse of power.

He “failed to meet the requirements for invoking the Emergencies Act.”

“His doing so is clearly unconstitutional.”

Over the weekend, US Rep. Yvette Herrell said she’ll “introduc(e) legislation (to) temporarily grant asylum to innocent Canadian protesters who are being persecuted by their own government.”

“We cannot be silent as our neighbors to the north are treated so badly.”

At this time, constitutional law in Canada is null and void.

Trudeau regime tyranny replaced it.

A Final Comment

On February 23, US truckers comprising the People’s Convoy will depart from Adelanto Stadium in southern California for Washington, DC.

They’ll be joined by “frontline doctors, lawyers, first-responders, former military servicemen and women, students, retirees, mothers, fathers and children – on this peaceful and law-abiding transcontinental journey toward the east coast.”

Their mission is all about “freedom and unity…restor(ing) accountability…lifting (draconian) mandates and ending a state of emergency when none exists.

Organizations involved in the freedom-fighting mission include:

The Unity Project

The America Project

Advocates for Citizens’ Rights

US Freedom Flyers

The American Foundation for Civil Liberties & Freedom

Faith groups from every spectrum

Independent journalists are accompanying the truckers to report accurately on their peaceful, law-abiding mission.

It’s being assisted by retired military personnel and security experts.

At this time, arrival in Washington is expected on March 5.

ThePeople’sConvoy.org is the official website of the mission for accurate information.

The Truckers’ Declaration states the following:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to restore our once perfect Union, re-establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense of all, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty, do ordain and establish the restoration movement of The People’s Convoy for the United States of America.”

“WE DEMAND THE DECLARATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY CONCERNING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC BE LIFTED IMMEDIATELY AND OUR CHERISHED CONSTITUTION REIGN SUPREME.”

“WE ARE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND WE STAND TOGETHER UNDER THE BANNER OF FREEDOM – FREEDOM IS THE ONE THING THAT UNITES US ALL.”

“LIBERTY FLOWS THROUGH ALL OF OUR VEINS.”

Trudeau regime tyranny suggests what likely awaits the People’s Convoy in Washington on arrival or in the days that follow.

The choice of freedom-loving people everywhere is unambiguous.

Eliminate draconian health and freedom-destroying mandates or they’ll eliminate us.

February 21, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | 4 Comments

Were directed-energy weapons used on Australian civilians?

By Jessica Rose | Unacceptable Jessica | February 17, 2022

What is a directed-energy weapon?

A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include weapons that target personnel, missiles, vehicles, and optical devices.

These weapons are currently being developed/used by the U.S., Russia, China, India, the U.K., Iran and Turkey. The claim is that they are awesome because they are ‘discreet’ since “radiation does not generate sound and is invisible if outside the visible spectrum”. They can also be used in space and are cheap! Yay! Cheap weapons! In the above definition, I don’t see anything about using this vicious dangerous technology on civilians who are peacefully protesting. Funny that. This is what they may look like.

Photo courtesy of Australian Free Independent Press Network

Recently, due to the flame lit inside the global community by amazing Canadian Truckers, a very large crowd gathered at the Canberra Parliament to protest government-imposed mandates.

It appears as though in order to control these rowdy, unpatriotic, flag flying rabble-rousers, DEWs were used by the Australian Federal Police on these very people.

I thought this might be one of those many ‘stories’ that circulate the inter-world that isn’t really rooted in evidence. But then I found video that, to me, is clear evidence of the truth. You may disagree with me, but not telling the truth is lying to me. Avoiding providing an answer to a simple, direct question is lying to me. And this man, AFP Commissioner Kershaw, is clearly not telling the truth by refusing to answer the question posed by the Senator that, in my opinion, he also very clearly knows the answer to. Maybe he is ‘just following orders’.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/b0qQtGdFDKAP/

I am not aware if these types of weapons have ever been used in my proximity so I cannot attest to their effects but there are also some photos circulating the interweb (the people are ok with it) of the effects of the ‘burns’ on some of the people who were there and claim to have been affected by these directed energy weapons. There are many reports from people who were at the protest of strange ‘symptoms’.

Some of the effects of being exposed to DEWs include headaches, earaches and burns to the face. Most Aussies know the dangers of exposure to excessive amounts of U.V. light from the sun and thus wear physical protection such as hats and zinc creams. The person in this photo was wearing a hat. So the burns are not explained, in my opinion, by excessive U.V. exposure alone.

I find this highly disturbing considering that trudo is currently trying really hard to impose tyrannical actions against good, hard-working, law-abiding Canadian citizens from his hidey-hole. Maybe he had to go this route because he used all his money to buy injections instead of his own stash of energy weapons. I don’t know. But rest assured people, our free nations are under assault. This is VERY clear. It seems there are no measures that are off limits to them. They DO NOT care about the people. The civilians. The bread and butter of every single community, city, town, state, province and country.

I find myself constantly asking myself if this could possibly be happening. All of this. It has before, but this is now, after all. But, all you have to do is LOOK at Canada and Australia from 2 year old eyes and compare. No one could have imagined the shit state of things. It’s been so easy to quickly bring down entire nations with fear mongering, lies and government-imposed mandates and sanctions. Injected with improperly-tested gene therapies that have proven not to work and to be effectively dangerous, exposed to government-imposed microwaves for saying ‘I don’t like what you are doing to me and my country’… I mean WHEN DOES IT STOP?

IT STOPS WHEN WE SAY IT DOES. Tell your friends.

February 18, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | , | 2 Comments

Australian state of Victoria demands removal of online police body cam footage

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | January 28, 2022

Rebel News journalist Avi Yemini is having to defend himself after deciding not to remove an online video the police in Australia’s state of Victoria want taken down.

Yemini revealed that he had a letter, signed by a Victoria Police Crime Squad detective sergeant, sent to his home, threatening that unless he complied and deleted the video, he could end up serving two years in prison.

The journalist published photos of the letter, which notified him of committing an “apparent” breach of the Surveillance Devices Act.

The letter asserts that information protected under this act appeared in a video Yemini uploaded to his YouTube channel in September, under the title, “Police bodycam proves the mainstream media is HIDING the truth.”

The police letter further states that knowingly publishing information obtained from police bodycams is an offense, and demands that he immediately remove the video from all public forums, or face charges.

If found guilty, Yemini could be sent to prison for two years maximum, be forced to pay a fine, defined as “240 penalty units maximum” – or both.

But Yemini, who says he has previously been arrested, assaulted, and intimidated by the police for his work, has decided to fight back, as another letter, this one penned by his legal representative, shows. It reads that under a subsection of the act the police refer to as being violated, the footage used in the report was already in the public domain.

“In a free country, that would be the end of it. In fact, in a genuinely free country, I never would have received that threat letter from the police in the first place,” Yemini writes.

But the journalist doesn’t expect this outcome, and is instead ready to engage in a legal battle with the Victoria police, whom he says have “unlimited resources to bully anyone who doesn’t submit to them.”

“We’ve never lost a case yet, and I’ve never removed a story, even when a gangland lawyer tried to sue me. With your help, I promise not to cower in 2022 either,” Yemini concludes.

January 28, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , | 3 Comments

They are making an example of Novak Djokovic. Here’s why.

By Kit Knightly | OffGuardian | January 17, 2022

Tennis star Novak Djokovic is being deported from Australia, after losing his final appeal the WTA’s top-ranked player will not be allowed to defend his Australian Open title.

It was reported this morning that an Australian court had refused Djokovic’s appeal against the cancellation of his visa, and as such he’s being put on a plane and flown out of the country.

To be clear: This is all because he’s not “vaccinated” against Covid19, and vocally speaks out against the practice. The government have clearly and publicly admitted as much…but we’ll get to that.

The rejection of Djokovic’s medical exemption and subsequent deportation has been accompanied by a wave of vitriol in the press the likes of which we have rarely seen.

One Australian sports presenter was “accidentally” recorded calling him a “lying, sneaky arsehole” in a video that was later “leaked” to the press.

The Spectator has one piece which is nothing more than a slew of ad hominem and mockery, against not just Djokovic but all “anti-vaxxers” and “conspiracy theorists”, calling the Serbian a “conspiracy super-spreader”. They have another blaming his “arrogance for his downfall”.

The Daily Mail ran a story headlined: “Welcome to the Wacky World of Novak Djokovic… and meet his equally wacky wife!”, and two more opinion pieces claiming his arrogance has “trashed his reputation” and calling him “a loser”.

The Guardian‘s Australian Political Correspondent Sarah Martin defends the decision and jokingly refers to it as a “no dickheads” immigration policy, attacking Djokovic’s “anti-science god complex” and calling him an “all-round jerk”.

The childish name-calling just doesn’t end. Even his fellow players are sticking the boot in.

Stefanos Tsitsipas attacked Djokovic for attempting to “play by his own rules”, adding “A very small minority chose to follow their own way. It makes the majority look like they are all fools”, which is at least true, but not in the way he means it.

Spanish star Rafael Nadal said Djokovic should just follow the rules like everyone else, perhaps flashing the kind of attitude which allowed a fascist dictator to stay in power in his country for 40 years.

Some players, at least, have come to Djokovic’s defense, including Australia’s own Nick Kyrgios, who has said he is “ashamed” of the way Australia has handled the situation and chastised other players for not showing solidarity with Djokovic.

But why is this happening? Why are they trying to punish such a public figure, and why now?

Well, firstly, I’m not sure it is about punishing Djokovic, and not just because getting to leave Australia is an odd thing to be considered any kind of punishment these days.

Rather, it’s about the performance of punishing him. It’s about making an example of him. Not so much preventing him from playing, as much as denying him a platform.

The Australian government basically admits that in their legal justification for cancelling the visa.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Djokovic had been barred from entry for “breaching the rules…it’s as simple as that.” But he is either mistaken or lying, as he directly contradicts the case presented to the appeal court by the government.

Yes, the visa was first cancelled on a technicality about incorrect information but, a judge overruled that decision, allowing Djokovic to enter the country.

That’s when Immigration Minister Alex Hawke stepped in to personally revoke the visa under section 133 of the Immigration Act 1958.

Under this (worryingly vague) legislation, the Immigration Minister is granted the power to cancel any visa at all, if:

the Minister is satisfied that it would be in the public interest to cancel the visa.

This was the argument put to the appeals court, that the minister can expel anyone, for anything, if he believes it to be in the best interests of the public.

That’s public interest, NOT public health.

Hawke admits in his written statement that Djokovic presents a “negligible risk of Covid19 infection” to those around him. So it’s nothing to do with protecting people from infection or stopping the spread of the virus.

Public statements from officials suggest that they consider any “anti-vaxxer” to be a threat to the public interest by undermining the vaccination programme. Thus they can justify barring entry to Djokovic (or, it should be said, any other “anti-vaxxer”) under the guise of “public interest”.

It’s about control, it almost always is.

In short, the government are scared that Djokovic’s very presence in the country is a threat to their neo-fascist lockdown.

If you look closely at the media messaging, there’s more than a little fear behind the wall of abuse and mockery.

Article after article is at pains to point out that “the majority of normal Australians want the Joker gone”, or some variation on that sentiment. Somewhat desperately selling the line that nobody agrees with, or supports, Djokovic’s position.

A statement which is given the lie by the regular huge protests taking place all across Australia’s major cities (like this one, just this weekend, in Sydney).

The Australian government are worried they’ve turned their country into a powder keg of public resentment, and that the slightest social spark could set it off. Increasing the size of the (already huge) protests against the lockdowns and vaccine mandates, maybe even tipping the country into full-blown chaos.

One of the Spectator articles mentions that Australians have been living in a “police state” for two years, and then vaguely references the subsequent public anger, even whilst attempting to downplay it, misrepresent its cause, and turn it against the unvaccinated.

Australia has fallen. Peace, prosperity and freedom have been sacrificed on the altar of “safety”, and Covid “vaccination” has become a quasi-religious rite in their country, even more so than the rest of the world.

As such, the unvaccinated are slandered, punished, threatened and othered at every turn. Locked down, locked up and locked out.

Can you only imagine what could happen if people found out it was all for nothing? Or that the heaven-sent vaccines aren’t the magical solution to all that ails us?

In this kind of political climate they simply can’t afford to have an “anti-vaxxer” on national television, healthy and athletic and winning championships against a field of vaccinated rivals.

Especially when three vaccinated players have already dropped out with “breathing difficulties”

Before anyone accuses me of a surfeit of cynicism, let’s review the actual words of Alex Hawke from the appeal procedure [our emphasis]:

I consider that Mr Djokovic’s ongoing presence in Australia may lead to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment generated in the Australian community, potentially leading to an increase in civil unrest of the kind previously experienced in Australia

Elsewhere Djokovic is described as a “talisman of a community of anti-vaccine sentiment”.

This kind of brutal treatment of publicly unvaccinated famous faces will likely only intensify. It’s already spreading from country to country, with France announcing Djokovic will not be allowed to defend his French Open title unless he gets vaccinated.

It seems pretty clear that the public shaming of Djokovic is a power-play to secure what they perceive as their own tenuous grip on the narrative, one that could have far-reaching consequences moving forward.

Consider, Djokovic is not barred from entry just for being unvaccinated, but also because he has publicly spoken out against vaccination.

Australia is now not only requiring you be “fully vaccinated” to enter the country, but has barred someone for even expressing anti-vaccine sentiment.

It’s no longer enough to conform by action, you must now conform by speech.

Next is thought, but even they would never try to legislate against that… right?

January 17, 2022 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Subjugation - Torture | , , | 5 Comments

Israel arrests 75 Palestinians from Gaza in 2021

MEMO | January 4, 2022

The Israeli occupation forces have arrested 75 Palestinians in total last year at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Centre for Studies.

The Israeli army bans Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from entering the 300-meter area adjacent to its border with the enclave and shoots or arrests anyone who breaches it.

The Palestinian Prisoners Centre for Studies observed that the number of arrests last year was the same as the year 2020, during which 76 Palestinians were arrested, despite the enclave not being under direct occupation like the occupied West Bank.

Researcher, Riad Al-Ashqar, Director of the Centre, stated that the Israeli occupation forces use the Erez Crossing as a means for collective punishment.

He added that the Israeli forces blackmail Palestinians to work with the occupation by providing information in exchange for allowing them to cross, especially patients and merchants.

Al-Ashqar noted the arrest of 35-year-old Walaa Muhammad Mustafa Al-Rifai, from Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, while accompanying his wife, who is ill with cancer.

They had attempted to reach the Makassed Hospital in occupied Jerusalem, where his wife had previously obtained a medical referral for treatment there and had obtained Israeli permits that allow them to pass through the checkpoint to reach the hospital for treatment.

However, the Israeli forces arrested Walaa and transferred him to Ashkelon Prison for investigation.

Al-Ashqar also expressed concern for Israel’s heavy naval presence, restricting any traffic in and out of the enclave as well as the distance Gaza’s fishermen can travel to fish, severely affecting the livelihoods of some 4,000 fishermen and at least 1,500 more people involved in the fishing industry.

Palestinian fishermen often suffer from multiple Israeli violations, including attempting to sink Palestinian boats in the sea, firing at them, as well as narrowing the fishing area for long periods.

Gaza has been under a strict Israeli siege for 14 years and has been subject to repeated Israeli onslaughts during that period which have led to wide scale damage, high rates of unemployment and poverty.

January 4, 2022 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | 1 Comment

Dutch Police Sick Attack Dogs On Anti-Lockdown Protesters

Is this what a ‘free’ country is supposed to look like?

By Steve Watson | Summit News | January 3, 2022

Shocking video emerged Sunday of police in Holland beating anti-lockdown protesters with batons and sending in dogs to maul the dissenters.

Massive amounts of people turned out to protest hard lockdown restrictions which were put back into place by the Dutch government before Christmas.

Everything except essential stores has been shut down in the country until at least Jan. 14.

The restrictions dictate that gatherings of more than two people are illegal, so the government sent in the riot police.

Watch:

 

January 4, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | , | 4 Comments

The US is building, rather than tearing down GTMO prison facilities

By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos | Responsible Statecraft | January 2, 2022

There seems to be little effort to hide the fact that the Biden Administration does not plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in his first term as he once declared. That pledge is but a whisper on the wind, much like the promises made by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. According to a recent New York Times report by Carol Rosenberg, who has been been covering the infamous GTMO for the 20 years since it opened, the military is building a new, secret courtroom on the premises — which won’t be completed until 2023.

It’s hard to say what is the most disturbing thread in her report, which came out right before the New Year and of course made no waves. (It must be quite difficult to dedicate one’s journalistic career to an issue that most Americans have lost all interest in. The torture and detention of other human beings without charge appeared to go out with the government spying illegally on Americans — no one seems to care) According to Rosenberg, the military is building a second courtroom to handle more than one case simultaneously, as the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks is still going on. That sort of sounds legit considering there are five others at the prison today charged and awaiting trials, too. However, she points out, this new courtroom will have no gallery for visitors, with proceedings broadcast for journalists and observers on closed circuit with a 40 second delay in a remote room so judges can cut off anything “classified” said during trials:

Only people with a secret clearance, such as members of the intelligence community and specially cleared guards and lawyers, will be allowed inside the new chamber.

As a workaround, the court staff is designing a “virtual gallery with multiple camera angles simultaneously displayed,” said Ron Flesvig, a spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions. The public would be escorted there to watch the proceedings, streamed on a 40-second delay.

During recesses in the current courtroom, lawyers and other court participants often engage with reporters and relatives of victims of terror attacks, routine contact that would be lost with the “virtual gallery.” So would the ability for a sketch artist to observe the proceedings live.

“I’ve observed trial proceedings in person at Guantánamo. The chipper ‘secrecy’ imposed by the military is insulting, anti-democratic, and cowardly,” tweeted Michael Bronner, producer of the 2021 film The Mauritanian, which portrays the plight of GTMO detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi (incidentally, the former 14-year prisoner spoke at a special Quincy Institute panel on June 8 on the subject of the facility’s closure). “The entire enterprise makes a mockery out of what the US pretends to stand for,” added Bronner.

Rosenberg said this was the latest in a serious of moves to make the court and the prison itself less transparent to the public:

For example, for 17 years the military routinely took visiting journalists to the detention facilities where most captives are kept, but required them to delete photographs that showed cameras, gates and other security procedures. Then, the military undertook a consolidation that moved Mr. (Khalid Sheikh) Mohammed and other detainees who were held by the C.I.A. from a secret site to the maximum-security portion of those once showcase facilities — and declared the entire detention zone off limits to journalists.

Their empty, formerly C.I.A.-controlled prison is off limits to reporters too. Defense lawyers who are seeking a preservation order on the site describe it as a rapidly deteriorating facility that was clearly unfit for the prisoners and their guards. One military lawyer who visited there recently described carcasses of dead tarantulas in the empty cellblocks.

The other obvious disturbing angle is that despite earlier reports that the Biden Administration was “quietly moving to close the prison,” Rosenberg’s report indicates no such thing. Either they have hit a brick wall with Congress and/or those efforts have been suspended, but as I wrote in October, even those prisoners cleared for release have zero-to-no chance of getting out anytime soon. Currently there are 27 men at the scrubby island base who are not charged with any crime and/or awaiting repatriation (compared to the 10 awaiting trail and two already convicted). The administration and military rules have made it virtually impossible for the men who have been cleared to be placed in another country at this point.

To be fair, Congress has shown no willingness to budge on the issue of trying the charged in federal courts, even though we know they would be just as secure, cost the taxpayer less, and adjudicate faster. However, that does not explain why they are making it less transparent, and why there has been no progress on resolving the abomination of keeping 27 souls locked away indefinitely without charge. The administration points to the elaborate legal process set up by the military tribunal system, but that is not enough. Moral courage is in order here, and it seems this administration has as much as any of its predecessors in this regard. Very little.

January 2, 2022 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Aggression on New Year’s Weekend

By Stephen Lendman | January 2, 2022

Any pretext or none at all unjustifiably justifies Israeli aggression against blockaded/defenseless Gazans.

At its discretion, the apartheid state bombs, shells, invades, and otherwise immiserates long-suffering Strip residents.

Despite Israeli state terror repeating with disturbing regularity, the world community yawns and ignores its worst crimes of war and against humanity against Palestinians for the “crime” of not being Jewish.

NGO Gisha supports enforcement of the rule of law and free movement of Palestinians — especially illegally blockaded Gazans, explaining the following:

Since Israel illegally occupied the West Bank and Gaza with intent to steal and develop Palestinian land for exclusive Jewish use, its ruling regimes instituted “a complex system of rules (and) restrictions” in flagrant breach of international law.

Fundamental rights of Palestinians — especially Gazans — are consistently and repeatedly violated.

Israeli regimes deny them “the right to life, the right to access medical care, the right to education, the right to livelihood, the right to family unity and the right to freedom of religion.”

Gisha’s website explains the following:

For nearly 15 years under illegal Jewish state blockade, Gazans suffer from oppressively “high unemployment, long blackouts, and severe shortages of clean water.”

Their basic rights Gazans are denied — with no world community to help reverse what no one should have to tolerate.

“Electricity is only available for about half the day” — on some days for a few hours alone or none at all.

The vast majority of Gazans have no access to clean water.

“More than 70% of Gaza’s population relies on humanitarian aid to meet basic needs.”

“The vast majority of residents do not meet Israel’s (apartheid) criteria for travel permits.”

They have little or no chance to leave the Strip for employment, education, medical care unavailable to them under blockade,

“or to visit or reunite with family members living in Israel, the West Bank, and abroad.”

Israel blocks free land, sea and air movement to or from the Strip.

It “oversees entry of goods into Gaza… demands to know (what) they’re intended for, (who’ll) receive them, and who paid for them.”

Its ruling regimes decide “what goods produced in Gaza can be sold outside the Strip, how much, when and where.”

They also decide how much electricity the Strip is allowed to have — reducing or cutting it off entirely at its discretion.

They repeatedly close “Gaza’s crossings and den(y) access to its sea space as a means of punishing and pressuring the population.”

At all times, Israel enforces severe restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

It “blocks access to opportunities, prevents economic development, and violates basic human rights.”

B’Tselem said Gazans endure made-in-Israel “humanitarian crisis” conditions at all times.

Its ruling regimes “sentenced” two millions Gazans “to a life of abject poverty and… inhuman conditions.”

They control “critical aspects of life” in the blockaded Strip.

“Isolating Gaza from the rest of the world, including separating it from the West Bank,” is part of a longstanding Israeli policy.

What began in the 1990s has grown more oppressive since that time for invented reasons.

Two million Gazans are virtually held captive in the world’s largest open-air prison.

Over 80% of Gazans need humanitarian aid to survive.

Even with what Israel allows into the Strip, nearly two-thirds of its people are food insecure — unsure where their next meal is coming from.

Gazan infrastructure and public services are bare-bones.

Over 95% of Strip water is contaminated and unpotable.

What’s considered normal in Israel and the West is nonexistent in Gaza.

At its discretion for invented reasons, Israel wages war on Gaza.

Any time for any reason or none at all, it terror-bombs, shells, or otherwise strikes Strip targets — including residential buildings, schools, hospitals, mosques, and shops.

Free-fire policy lets IDF soldiers shoot Gazan children, farmers in their fields, and other Strip residents for target practice.

Blockades are acts of war by other means, Law Professor Francis Boyle explained — “because of the(ir) belligerent use of force…”

Gazans pose no threat to Israel.

Blockading the Strip is solely for political reasons, not security ones.

On most issues, Al Jazeera’s reports resemble US/Western propaganda — fake news over the real thing.

All things related to Israeli state terror against Palestinians is an exception to its standard practice on most other issues.

On New Year’s eve, Qatar-based Al Jazeera (AJ) spoke to Gazans injured and disabled from Israeli aggression last May.

“The assault… killed at least 260 people, including 39 women and 67 children, and wounded more than 1,900, according to the health ministry in Gaza,” AJ reported, adding:

“The bombardment also destroyed 1,800 residential units and partially demolished at least 14,300 other units.”

Since that time, the Netanyahu and Bennett regimes blocked entry of many reconstruction materials on the phony pretext of alleging their dual use, including for military purposes (sic).

Israeli aggression last May blinded 7-year-old Mohammed Shaban.

His new year’s wish is to see his mother’s face, he said.

Badly damaged by Israeli terror-bombing last May, his eyes couldn’t be saved and were surgically removed.

“I can’t stop crying whenever I see him,” his mother said, adding:

“He keeps asking his siblings, ‘Why can I only see black darkness? Why can’t I go to my school?’ ”

“Last night, he told me: ‘Mum, I wish I could see your face.’ ”

Recently enrolled in a school for visually challenged children, his mother, Somayya Shaban, expects no positive change in the new year.

“I believe Gaza’s destiny is to face more torture and suffering,” she said.

She wishes her son ,Mohammed, could see again. “I wish I could give him my eyes,” she stressed.

Countless thousands of other Gazans were killed, injured or disabled from multiple Israeli wars and other attacks on the Strip since 2008.

On New Year’s weekend, Israel terror-bombed and shelled Strip targets again.

Its latest aggression came in response to two rockets allegedly fired from the Strip on New Year’s day.

Reportedly, they fell harmlessly into offshore waters, harming no one, doing no damage.

According to an IDF statement, no sirens were sounded for Israelis to take cover.

The Bennett regime’s Iron Dome air defense system wasn’t activated.

In its yearend annual report, Israel said only five rockets were fired from the Strip, injuring no one.

According to the Times of Israel (TOI) on Sunday:

IDF “warplanes and helicopters hit (multiple) Hamas targets” overnight — over virtually nothing, TOI left unexplained.

“Palestinian media first reported airstrikes in the southern part of the Strip shortly before midnight” on Saturday.

“Hamas media claimed ‘resistance fighters’ launched ‘experimental rockets’ toward the sea.”

Gaza’s health ministry said three Palestinians were wounded from strikes on northern Strip targets.

How many others may have been injured or killed is unclear as of early Sunday morning — or the extent of damage to Strip targets.

Life in blockaded Gaza is harsh by any standard.

Israeli inflicted misery on Strip residents followed Hamas’ sweeping January 2006 electoral triumph to become historic Palestine’s legitimate government.

At the dawn of a new year, the message of weekend terror-bombing and shelling of the Strip shows that dirty Israeli business as usual continues unchanged.

Two million Gazans are victimized by apartheid ruthlessness — with no end of it in prospect.

The same goes for all occupied Palestinians.

Largely ignored by the world community, the highest of Israeli high crimes of war and against humanity continue to go unpunished.

The same reality applies to US-dominated NATO’s war on humanity at home and abroad.

January 2, 2022 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Reflections on Another Year of Covidian Lies and How the Truth Will Ultimately Prevail

By Rob Slane | The Blog Mire | December 31, 2021

As we come to the end of the second year in Covidia, I reflect on just how much the instigators of the entire scam have managed to reshape reality in an amazingly short timeframe, such that what was considered normal 12 months ago is now considered abnormal, and what was considered abnormal 12 months ago is now seen as normal.

For instance, had one predicted 12 months ago that after “vaccinating” the elderly and those considered vulnerable, which was the “route back to freedom”, the Johnson Regime and countless others around the world would:

  1. Proceed to push the injection onto all adults
  2. Move on to getting it into children
  3. Make thousands jobless who do not wish to partake in the experiment
  4. Begin the introduction of Vaccine Passports
  5. Announce that the allegedly 95% effective products wane so quickly they’ll need to be taken every few months
  6. Start talking about the possibility of mandatory jabs
  7. Reintroduce the restrictions that these injections were supposed to do away with

… why such a person would have been called a Conspiracy Nut. Yet a year later the same person is called a Conspiracy Nut for opposing these very things they got called a Conspiracy Nut for predicting, but which are now reality.

There is something horribly ironic, and also deeply chilling about this. For it shows not only how easily manipulated so many people are, but also just how easy it has been for the Covidian Regimes to reshape reality such that millions have come to accept as normal the very things they would have dismissed just months earlier as the product of deranged minds.

The last two years has felt like people are living in parallel universes, so much so that it’s almost tempting to wonder whether Zuckerberg’s hideous Metaverse is already a thing, with millions having unwittingly entered it in early 2020 without noticing.

In the Metaverse, SARS-CoV-2 is a new Black Death that kills indiscriminately no matter what age. In the real world, it is a virus that has a 99.9% Survivability Rate, and there are effective early treatments available to the 0.1% for whom it might potentially be lethal.

In the Metaverse, Lockdowns of healthy people are how we’ve always dealt with outbreaks of transmissible illnesses. In the real world, other than a hastily ended five-day trial in Mexico during the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, the quarantining of the healthy has never been done before the Chinese Communist Party implemented it in early 2020, to be copied all over the world by Governments ignoring their own long existing pandemic preparedness plans.

In the Metaverse, masks are about loving your neighbour because wearing them stops you passing on the virus you don’t have to others. In the real world, masks do not and cannot stop viral transmission, and thus they are a not a health aid, but a political and psychological tool of subjugation and dehumanisation, designed to humiliate and perpetuate fear.

In the Metaverse, a public health crisis caused by a virus has zero medical advice given out to people, but just a relentless barrage of talk about cases, hospitalisations and deaths, with all knowledge of effective early treatments ruthlessly suppressed. In the real world, a public health crisis caused by a virus would see Governments, health officials, and doctors recommending cheap and effective ways of boosting one’s immune system, such as Vitamin C and D, Zinc, Quercetin, sunshine and plenty of exercise and fresh air.

In the Metaverse, people who aren’t ill can spread the illness they don’t have, and so must take a test which cannot diagnose illness and which gives huge numbers of false positives, after which they must stay in their house for a prolonged period to stop the virus they don’t have from spreading. In the real world, if you’re well, you go about your daily life; if you have what are called “symptoms”, you stay home and rest.

In the Metaverse, the injection of billions of lipid nanoparticles containing mRNA, which has never been injected into people before, which tricks the cells into allowing it to enter, which then causes billions of cytotoxins to be produced in cells throughout every organ, and for which the manufacturers have indemnity but no proper safety data, is hailed as a saviour. In the real world, this is the most dangerous, reckless medical experiment ever performed on masses of people without their knowledge of what they are being given, and the long-term consequences could be unimaginably disastrous, as Professor Sucharit Bhakdi explains in this horrifying warning.

In the Metaverse, a product which doesn’t prevent infection, doesn’t provide immunity, and which requires top-ups every three months, is a vaccine, even if it needs the dictionary definition of what a vaccine is to be changed to accommodate it. In the real world, the Groucho Marx rule about ducks applies — if it looks, walks, and quacks like a duck then it probably is a duck. Thus if it doesn’t stop infection, doesn’t provide immunity, and wanes after 10 weeks, then it probably isn’t a vaccine.

In the Metaverse, willfully going along with abnormal, illegitimate and authoritarian rules & behaviours is the way back to normality and freedom. In the real world, willfully going along with abnormal, illegitimate and authoritarian rules & behaviours is about conditioning us to accept abnormality, the end of a law based society, and the long term loss of freedom.

In the Metaverse, bringing in Vaccine Passports for nightclubs and other large venues is about keeping people safe, and of course won’t be extended to other venues. In the real world, Vaccine Passports are a Trojan Horse, firstly to be extended into other venues of much smaller size (as has been the case in many European countries), but ultimately to facilitate the creation of a Digital ID Social Credit Hellhole where your every move and transaction can be tracked, you have credits not money, and freedom as we knew it is a thing of the past.

In the Metaverse, people who refuse to submit to the mass medical experiment only have themselves to blame if they find themselves excluded by law from entering certain venues, doing certain jobs, buying certain goods, and even being able to avail themselves of the basic necessities of life. In the real world, this unscientific, unholy, sinister apartheid system shows that we are edging eerily close to repeating the ugliness and depravity of certain 20th century regimes that we smugly told ourselves we were not capable of repeating, due to our apparent goodness.

It is baffling that people can view what’s going on so differently, but I would point out that all the views in the real world are derived from facts, data, reason, logic and historical examples, whereas all the views in the Metaverse are taken from Government and media propaganda.

One of the exasperating things in dealing with this is that whilst there are an endless potential number of lies that can be told, there is only one truth. And what the Government and media are very skillful at doing is layering lies upon lies upon lies, such that whilst the critical thinkers and data analysts are busy trying to debunk lie number one, lies number two, three, four and following are already being laid on that foundation so that by the time the original lie has been shown to be false, things have moved on and hardly anyone can remember, let alone care about the original claim.

However, the good news is that this is also the Achilles Heel of the Globalist’s narrative. Firstly, the more lies that are told, the harder it is to sustain the story because it can only be kept going by more lies, each of which tends to become increasingly blatant and absurd, such that even those who have been slumbering for two years begin to stir. For instance, if you try to assure the huge numbers of people that have had adverse events from the injection, or who know others that have suffered, that they must get the next one and it’s perfectly safe, clearly you are going to have your work cut out as stark reality highlights the lie in what is being told.

But the other part of this Achilles Heel is this: The Truth will win because The Truth must win. It is The Truth. It cannot not win. Attempting to suppress it is like trying to hold a cork under water. It will always be wanting to get to the surface, and as soon as you tire of holding it and release your grip, that’s what it will do. And so although these lies will continue, and although they will appear to prevail for some time to come, there is coming a time when they will be defeated because The Truth, not lies, is the ultimate reality:

“Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” (Proverbs 12:19)

As we look forward to 2022, although we do not know the details of what is to come, because it is very clear that the goal of the Covidian Regimes is to get everybody injected with their mRNA witches’ brew over and over again by carrot or by stick, by hook or by crook, we can be absolutely sure there will be many more lies, many more difficulties, and much more wickedness. Yet we can also be equally sure that these lies will ultimately be defeated, because he who is The Truth (John 14:6) is guaranteed the victory (Revelation 17:14), and he will suffer their lies only so far, until such time as he destroys their unholy, totalitarian, anti-human agenda. There will be a Reckoning. Just make sure that you are on the right side when it comes.

January 1, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , | 1 Comment

Why is Israel Amending Its Open-Fire Policy: Three Possible Answers

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | December 28, 2021

At the outset, the Israeli military decision to revise its open-fire policies in the occupied West Bank seems puzzling. What would be the logic of giving Israeli soldiers the space to shoot more Palestinians when existing army manuals had already granted them near-total immunity and little legal accountability?

The military’s new rules now allow Israeli soldiers to shoot, even kill, fleeing Palestinian youngsters with live ammunition for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli ‘civilian’ cars. This also applies to situations where the alleged Palestinian ‘attackers’ are not holding rocks at the time of the shooting.

The reference to ‘civilians’ in the revised army manual applies to armed Israeli Jewish settlers who have colonised the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in defiance of international law and Palestinian sovereignty. These settlers, who often operate as paramilitary forces in direct coordination with the Israeli army, endanger the lives of their own families by residing on occupied Palestinian land. Per Israel’s twisted standards, these violent Israelis, who have killed and wounded numerous Palestinians throughout the years, are ‘civilians’ in need of protection from rock-throwing Palestinian ‘assailants.’

In Israel, throwing rocks is a “serious crime” and Palestinians who throw rocks are “criminals”, according to Liron Libman, Israel’s former chief military prosecutor, commenting on the new rules. For Israelis, there is little disagreement on these assertions, even by those who are questioning the legality of the new rules. The point of contention, according to Libman and others, is that “a person who is fleeing does not present a threat,” though, according to Libman himself, “the new policy could potentially be justified,” The Times of Israel reported.

The ‘debate’ on the new open-fire policy in Israeli media, gives one the false impression that something fundamental has changed in the Israeli army’s relationship with occupied Palestinians. This is not the case at all. There are numerous, daily examples in which Palestinians, including children, are shot and killed with impunity, whether throwing rocks or not, going to school or merely protesting the illegal confiscation of their land by the Israeli military or armed settlers.

In the Palestinian village of Beita, in the northern occupied West Bank, eight unarmed Palestinians have been killed since May. This small village has been the scene of regular demonstrations against Jewish settlement expansion and against the illegal settlement outpost of Eviatar, in the Palestinian rural area of Mount Sabih. The victims include Muhammad Ali Khabisa, the 28-year-old father of an eight-month-old child, who was shot dead last September.

Though the new rules have placed much emphasis on the status of the supposed Israeli victims, labelling them ‘civilians’, in practice, the Israeli military has used the exact same standard to shoot, maim and kill Palestinian alleged rock-throwers, even when armed settlers are not present.

A famous case, in 2015, involved the killing of a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager, Mohammad Kosba, at the hands of an Israeli army colonel, Yisrael Shomer. The latter alleged that Kosba had thrown a rock at his car. Subsequently, Shomer chased down the Palestinian teenager and shot him in the back, killing him.

The Israeli officer was “censored” for his conduct, not for killing the boy, but for not stopping “in order to aim properly,” according to The Times of Israel. The Israeli military chief prosecutor at the time concluded that “Shomer’s use of deadly force under the framework of the arrest protocol was justified from the circumstances of the incident.”

Israel’s disregard of international law in its targeting of Palestinians is not a secret. Israeli and international human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the Israeli army’s inhumane and barbaric behaviour in the occupied territories.

In an extensive report as early as 2014, Amnesty International condemned Israel’s “callous disregard for human life by killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, in the occupied West Bank” over the years. AI said that such killings had taken place “with near total impunity.”

“The frequency and persistence of arbitrary and abusive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and police officers – and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators – suggests that it is carried out as a matter of policy,” the Amnesty report read.

Even Israel’s own rights group, B’tselem, concurs. The organisation decried the Israeli army’s “shoot-to-kill policy”, which is also applied to “people who have already been ‘neutralized'”. Indeed, in the case of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, a Palestinian man who was shot point-blank in Al-Khalil (Hebron), by an Israeli military medic, Elor Azaria, in 2016, was not only ‘neutralized’ but also unconscious.

According to B’tselem, Israeli “soldiers and police officers have become judge, jury and executioner”. With this tragic and sinister trajectory in mind, one is left to wonder why the Israeli army would amend its open-fire policy at this particular moment. There are three possible answers:

One, the Israeli government and army are anticipating a surge in Palestinian popular resistance in the coming months, possibly as a result of the massive expansion of illegal settlements and forced evictions in occupied East Jerusalem.

Two, by perfectly aligning the existing open-fire policy with the aggressive shoot-to-kill military practice already in place, Israeli courts would no longer have to contend with any legal repercussions for killing Palestinians, including children, regardless of the circumstances of their murders.

Finally, the revised rules would allow Israel to make a case for itself in response to the open investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC), concerning human rights violations and war crimes in occupied Palestine. Israel’s Attorney General will now argue that no war crimes are taking place in Palestine since the killing of Palestinians is consistent with Israel’s own military conduct and judicial system. Since the ICC is investigating alleged war criminals, not the government itself, Israel hopes that it can spare its own murderers from having to contend with the legal expectations of the Court.

Though the timing of the Israeli military decision to amend its open-fire policy may appear sudden and without much context, the decision is still ominous, nonetheless. When a country’s military decides that shooting a child in the back without any proof that the alleged ‘criminal’ posed any danger whatsoever is a legal act, the international community must take notice.

It is true that Israel operates outside the minimum standards of international and humanitarian laws, but it is the responsibility of the international community to protect Palestinians, whose lives remain precious even if Israel disagrees.

December 28, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

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