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Hamas: We have the right to retaliate against Israel’s incursions and crimes

Palestine Information Center – 27/03/2010

GAZA — Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan stated Friday that the Palestinian resistance has the right to respond to Israel’s incursions into the Gaza Strip, and its daily violations and crimes against the Palestinian people and their holy sites.

In a press statement to the Palestinian information center (PIC), Radwan stressed that the operation of Khan Younis confirmed that the resistance is still alive and the Gaza Strip is not easy to invade.

He warned that the Israeli occupation has to think a thousand times before making foolish steps against the Islamic holy shrines in Palestine, adding the Palestinian resistance is able to retaliate to Israel’s crimes in the manner it deems appropriate.

For his part, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that the commando operation of Khan Younis proved his Movement’s adherence to the resistance option and its keenness on the protection of the Palestinian people.

In the same context, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) admitted that two of their troops were killed and five others were wounded during an incursion into the eastern area of Khan Younis.

The IOF spokesman said on Friday that a deputy commander in the Golani brigade and another officer of low rank were killed and five other soldiers were injured, one of them in a serious condition, when a big explosive device was detonated near Kissufim crossing, east of Khan Younis.

The spokesman acknowledged that the soldiers were killed and wounded after they carried out an incursion east of Khan Younis.

For his part, commander of the IOF in the southern region Yoav Galant said few hours after the Khan Younis operation that one of the officers was killed when one of the Palestinians (resistance fighters) shot at a grenade in his flack jacket, while the other one was killed during the clashes.

Galant’s remarks authenticated the communiqué issued by Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, that its sniper unit was responsible for killing two Israeli officers on Friday evening.

Al-Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida told a news conference on Friday that the attack unit of the Brigades supported by the sniper unit attacked an Israeli military force that attempted to infiltrate into Khan Younis.

March 27, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

61 Killed as Pakistan Bombs Schools, Mosque

Many Civilians Reported Slain in Attack on Pacifist Seminary

By Jason Ditz | March 25, 2010

Pakistani warplanes attacked a number of sites in the Orakzai Agency today, including a mosque, a school, and a religious seminary, killing 61. Security officials initially labeled all 61 “suspected militants,” though locals later conceded that a great many of them were actually innocent civilians.

The bulk of the casualties came when planes bombed Tableeghi Markaz, a seminary belonging to the pacifist missionary group Tableeghi Jamaat (Society for Spreading Faith). Pakistani officials say they had reports that Taliban commanders may have been at or near the seminary at the time of the attack, though they have yet to confirm if anyone other than the scores of civilians inside were actually killed.

Some 48 people were killed in the Markaz, and dozens wounded. The number may yet rise further as the seminary was said to be packed at the time of the attack. The two other strikes hit a mosque and a school which officials also believed were “Taliban hideouts,” killing 13 others.

Pakistan has vowed an offensive against Orakzai for weeks after its invasion of neighboring South Waziristan failed to net any Taliban leaders and officials speculated they had all moved to Orakzai. So far they have not killed or captured any major leaders in Orakzai, either, though as today’s bombings demonstrate the offensive is certainly causing havoc for the residents of the region.

March 26, 2010 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Israeli fire injures Palestinian worker in southern Gaza

Ma’an –25/03/2010

Gaza – A Palestinian worker was critically injured on Thursday morning as the Israeli forces at the closed Sufa crossing opened fire on a group of men collecting rubble for the re-manufacturing of construction materials, medics said.

Director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, Muawiya Hassanein, identified the injured man as Naji Abu Rayda, 32, noting he was shot in the back and transferred to the European Hospital.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was unfamiliar any such incident in the area of the Sufa crossing.

Israeli news sources reported a similar incident near the Rafah crossing, southwest of Sufa. The spokesman said he had no knowledge of an incident matching either description.

According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Rayda was injured in the right thigh when he and several other workers were approximately 500 meters from the border fence.

Earlier in the week, Al Mezan reported Israeli soldiers near the Erez crossing opened fired on men “collecting rubble to sell to brick factories, which recycles it into bricks.” The men were reportedly 100 meters away from the border.

“This is the only source of bricks for construction that is available in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from an acute shortage of construction materials due the Israeli siege,” the report said.

Two days earlier, Israeli forces reportedly arrested 20 Palestinian workers who were collecting the rubble from destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip. The report said four of those detained were children. Eight were released the next day after interrogations, the report said.

March 25, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Targeting Palestinian Mothers

21/03/2010 — Reham Alhelsi

Targeting the weakest and the most vulnerable is neither new nor surprising when it comes from an entity that stands on the ruins of Palestinian villages and is swimming in the blood of its Palestinian victims. It is the mentality of Zionists who in cold-blood aim to kill Palestinian children, who write on their helmets: Born to Kill and who wear T-Shirts with images of dead Palestinian babies and guns aimed at Palestinian babies. It is an entity that is proud of slogans showing images such as that of a pregnant Palestinian woman with a target sign on her belly and the inscription: 1 shot, 2 kills.

During the Nakba, the Zionist usurpers committed countless massacres. Often it was the women and the children who were first targeted and brutally murdered as a warning and to frighten others and force them to leave. Accounts of the Deir Yassin massacre (9-10.4.1948) mention that among the 254 Palestinians victims were 25 pregnant women who were bayoneted in the abdomen while still alive. Another 52 children were maimed in front of their mothers before having their heads cut off by the Zionist terrorists. After the village of Beit Darras had been surrounded by Zionist terror groups and further Zionist mobilization was on the way to occupy the village, the Zionist terror groups called on the Palestinian residents to leave the village safely from the south side. The villagers decided that it was safer for the women and children to leave, since it was the village the Zionists wanted. Upon leaving the village, all the women and children were massacred by the Zionist terrorists. During the Khisas massacre (18.12.1947) the 12 victims killed by the Zionist terrorists were all women and children. Other massacres such as Sa’sa’, Balad Il-Sheikh, Abu Shusha, Beit Daras, Tantoura, Dawaymeh and many others show the same pattern of killing unarmed pregnant women, mothers and their children. Targeting mothers and children continued after the Nakba. During the Kufr Qasem massacre (29.10.1956) whole families were massacred, and women were butchered with their children. In Qibya (14-15.10.1953), after the Zionist terrorist militia ordered the residents to remain in their homes, it blew up these homes, killing entire families. On 07.02.1951, Zionist terrorists killed 10 unarmed residents of Sharafat, including 3 women and 5 children. Similar patterns follow in the massacres of Azazmeh, Beit Jala, Qalqilia, Gaza and others more.
During the first Intifada several mothers were shot dead by the IOF. Also pregnant women were targeted and a number were killed mainly by the poisonous gas used by the IOF against unarmed Palestinians:

1. Wujdan Hafith Rajab Faris (35 years old) from Khan Younis, Gaza, suffocated by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 10.1.1988, she was pregnant in 7th month.

2. Amira Ahmad Omar Abu Askar (35 years old) from Jabalia, Gaza. On suffocated by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 11.1.1988, she was pregnant.

3. Nabila Ali Al-Yaziji  (35 years old) from Ash-Sheikh Ridawn, Gaza, suffocated by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 26.3.1988, she was pregnant.

4. Dawlat Daoud Al-Masri (18 years old) from Jabalia, Gaza, suffocated by gas fired by Israeli soldiers on 27.9.1988, she was pregnant in 6th month.

5. Aziza Salim Jabir (27 years old) from Hebron, was shot dead by a Zionist settler on 06.08.1990, she was pregnant.

Another Zionist method of murdering Palestinian mothers is the network of over 630 Israeli military checkpoints/roadblocks in the West Bank, aka the “traps of death”. Patients in need of urgent treatment and medics rushing to save lives are often delayed at Israeli military checkpoints, constituting another war crime added to the ever-growing list of war crimes committed by the Zionist entity. Alone between 2000 and 2005 137 Palestinian patients, including 37 women, died at checkpoints because Israeli soldiers either prevented ambulances from passing and reaching the patients or prevented them from transporting patients to hospitals beyond the checkpoints. In many incidents, Palestinian mothers, including the elderly, the sick and the pregnant, were stopped and humiliated at checkpoints. Pregnant women are delayed at checkpoints and often prevented from reaching hospitals, causing many to give birth at these checkpoints. The deliberate delays at checkpoints have resulted in several premature births, stillborns and even the death of some of the mothers as Israeli Soldiers ignore the cries of suffering women and demand they get a special permit. Because of these checkpoints, Palestinian mothers are forced to deliver on the road or inside cars at the checkpoint. Many have to travel up to 4 hours and longer to reach a medical centre. One example is baby Zaid who died only moments after his birth when the Israeli soldiers refused to let his mother Nahil Abu Raja (21 years old) from Qasra, south of Nablus, to pass the Huwwara checkpoint and go to Nablus hospital. The medics who reached the checkpoint one hour after Nahil gave birth could only declare the baby dead. Around 6 pregnant women were also beaten or shot at by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. Many mothers are forced to give birth at home, despite fear of complications because they fear they will be stopped at checkpoints and won’t make it in time to the hospital. In Azzun Atma near Qalqilya pregnant women are even forced to take up residence outside the village until they deliver out of fear that they might not be able to get the necessary medical treatment. The village, encircled by the apartheid wall, is separated by a gate from the rest of the West Bank. This gate is not manned at night, making the village a prison to its residents. According to a B’Tselem report, alone during 2006 some 20 out of 30 pregnant women from Azzun Atma were forced to relocate outside of the village because of their pregnancy.

Since then beginning of Al-Aqsa intifada in 2000 and till 2006 at least 69 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints in front of Israeli soldiers. This led to 35 miscarriages and the death of five mothers:

1. Rana Adel Abdel-Rahim Al-Jayyousi (17 years old) from Qour, Tulkarim: went into labor on 09.03.2002 and because of the closure of roads she was forced to give birth at home. Her baby was stillborn and when her condition deteriorated her family tried transporting her to hospital in Qlaqilia. They were stopped at an Israeli checkpoint for half an hour and when the ambulance arrived, Rana was already dead.

2. Aisha Abdel-Kairm Nassar (28 years old) from Al-Janyeh, Ramallah: on 23.1.2001 was in a critical condition after giving birth, but was stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and delayed for 45 minutes. She died before reaching the hospital.

3. Rihab Nofal (30 years old) from Husam, Bethlehem: she went into labor on 18.10.2001 but Israeli soldiers stopped her at a checkpoint and prevented her from reaching the nearest hospital. She died.

4. Umayyah Hamad-Allah Imran (25 years old) from Azzoun, Qalqilia: on 24.09.01 she suffered from heavy internal bleeding after she had given birth, but was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and her transport to the hospital was delayed. She left to hospital at 3 pm and reached it at 8 pm although the hospital lies only 20 km away. When she finally got there, Umayyah was dead.

5. Laila Husam Baheiri (18 years old) from Qalqilia: went into labor on 31.07.2002 but was prevented by Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint from reaching hospital which led to her death.

© http://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/

March 25, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Destroying educational institutions or using them for military purposes is a war crime

“The Education system in Iraq, prior to 1991, was one of the best in the region; with over 100% Gross Enrolment Rate for primary schooling and high levels of literacy, both of men and women. The Higher Education, especially the scientific and technological institutions, were of an international standard, staffed by high quality personnel”. (UNESCO Fact Sheet, March 28, 2003)[1].

Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal executive committee, 23 March 2010

As a result of ongoing U.S. occupation, today Iraq is more illiterate than it was five or twenty-five years ago, because the U.S. Administration and U.S. forces occupying Iraq began to root [out] and destroy every aspect of Iraq’s education [infrastructure].

The Iraqi educational system was the target of U.S. military action, because education is the backbone of any society. Without an efficient education system, no society can function, writes Ghali Hassan in May 2005.[2]

Facts have proven him right. This is also one of the conclusions of the book Cultural Cleansing in Iraq.[3]

Random facts

A recent UNESCO report “Education Under Attack 2010 – Iraq”, dated 10 February 2010, concludes that “Although overall security in Iraq had improved, the situation faced by schools, students, teachers and academics remained dangerous.”[4] The destruction of Iraq’s education is ongoing. Aswat Al Iraq reported on 4 January 2010 that “the 2010 federal budget offers the country’s education and higher education only 10 percent of the funding they need.”

Let’s present a few random facts that give an idea of the scale of the destruction of Iraq’s education sector under occupation.

The director[5] of the United Nations University International Leadership Institute published a report[6] on 27 April 2005 detailing that since the start of the war of 2003 some 84% of Iraq’s higher education institutions have been burnt, looted or destroyed[7].

Like most higher education institutions across Iraq, Baghdad University escaped almost unscathed from the bombing. In the subsequent looting and burning, 20 of the capital’s colleges were destroyed. No institution escaped: the faculty of education in Waziriyya was raided daily for two weeks; the veterinary college in Abu Ghraib lost all its equipment; two buildings in the faculty of fine arts stand smoke-blackened against the skyline. In every college, in every classroom, you could write “education” in the dust on the tables. [8]

Ongoing violence has destroyed school buildings and around a quarter of all Iraq’s primary schools need major rehabilitation. Since March 2003, more than 700 primary schools have been bombed, 200 have been burnt and over 3,000 looted.[9]

Between March 2003 and October 2008, 31,598 violent attacks against educational institutions were reported in Iraq, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE)[10]

Since 2007 bombings at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad have killed or maimed more than 335 students and staff members, according to a 19 Oct 2009 NYT article, and a 12-foot-high blast wall has been built around the campus.[11]

Education under Attack (2007) reported that 296 people serving as education staff were killed in 2005; and 180 teachers were killed between February and November 2006.[12]

These are just a few examples to highlight the level of cultural genocide in Iraq. The list is endless, the real number of casualties much higher. More information can be found in the book Cultural Cleansing in Iraq and in the BRussells Tribunal archives on Iraqi education under occupation, perhaps the most comprehensive database on the Internet about the assassination of Iraqi academics and the destruction of Iraq’s education.[13] Our campaign to protect Iraqi academics[14] is still ongoing, because the tragedy continues. The UNESCO report “Education Under Attack 2010 – Iraq” is very clear: “Attacks on education targets continued throughout 2007 and 2008 at a lower rate – but one that would cause serious concern in any other country.” Why didn’t it cause serious concern? Is it because it’s US design?

The petition we issued, containing also a call for action, is still valid today and can still be signed: http://www.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition.html. An excerpt:

1. We appeal to organisations which work to enforce or defend international humanitarian law to put these crimes on the agenda.

2. We request that an independent international investigation be launched immediately to probe these extrajudicial killings.  This investigation should also examine the issue of responsibility to clearly identify who is accountable for this state of affairs. We appeal to the special rapporteur on summary executions at UNHCHR in Geneva.

We urge that educators mobilise colleagues and concerned citizens to take up the cause of the salvation of Iraq’s intellectual wealth, by organising seminars, teach-ins and forums on the plight of Iraq’s academics.

Occupying schools

When writing “Killing the Intellectual Class” for the book Cultural Cleansing in Iraq, I added a short story about occupation of schools by the MNF-I.

“it certainly is our policy to not establish military headquarters or other operations in protected areas under the Geneva Convention,” said Lt. Col. Gary Keck, a spokesman for the Department of Defense in Washington, when a journalist asked why the US army occupied a girls’ and boys’ school of a town in northern Iraq.[15]

At a UN press briefings in Amman on 30 April 2003, the question was asked:” Do you know of any other schools that are still occupied & would you ask them of making a point to stay away from the schools, so they can be rehabilitated?”

Answer: S. Ingram: I am not aware of any other places that this situation holds. I remember the incident you referred to, there was a school in the north & some contacts were necessary to persuade the US troops there to leave the premises, which they subsequently did. I am not aware of any other places where schools are being occupied.[16]

“I’m not aware”. A pack of lies. Because occupying schools is exactly what the US Army did (and still does) on a regular basis. I heard and read numerous eyewitness accounts about Iraqi protests after US Forces occupied schools and educational institutions.

The origins of armed resistance in Fallujah f.i. can be traced almost precisely to April 28, 2003, when U.S. troops, who had arrived in the city five days earlier, massacred 17 apparently unarmed protesters. The April 28 protest had demanded an end to Fallujah’s occupation and, more specifically, that U.S. troops vacate the al Qaid primary school, where classes had been scheduled to resume on April 29.[17]

And it continued. On the 29th of February 2008, the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMSI) published a press release condemning the American occupation forces for the seizure of an Islamic Secondary School in Baghdad. [18]

On the 1st of May 2008, the Iraqi News Agency “Voices of Iraq”, reported that: “The U.S. military withdrew from a building of the education department in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, which they used it as a barrack last month.”[19]

This was basically all the hard information I had found about the occupation of educational institutions by the occupation forces and I thought the evidence was a little thin to make a decent case, so I decided not to use it for the book.

But now I read in the UNESCO report 2010:

“MNF-I, the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police units occupied more than 70 school buildings for military purposes in the Diyala governorate alone.”[20]

This is only in one province. There’s no information at my disposal about the other regions, but we can almost certainly conclude that occupying schools by occupation forces was/is a general phenomenon throughout Iraq. Where else would you station a one million strong army and security forces?

On the 11th of April 2003, a number of Iraqi scientists and university professors sent an SOS e-mail complaining American occupation forces were threatening their lives.[21]

The appeal message said that looting and robberies were being taken place under the watchful eye of the occupation soldiers.

The occupation soldiers, the e-mail added, were transporting mobs to the scientific institutions, such as Mosul University and different educational institutions, to destroy scientific research centres and confiscate all papers and documents to nip in the bud any Iraqi scientific renaissance.[22]

John Agresto, in charge of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in 2003-2004, initially believed that the looting of Iraq’s universities was a positive act in that it would allow such institutions to begin again with a clean slate, with the newest equipment as well as a brand new curriculum.[23]

The Hague IV Conventions[24] on Laws and Customs of War on Land, 1917, make explicit, in Article 56, that educational institutions are to be regarded as private property, and thus must not be pillaged or destroyed, that occupying forces in war are bound to protect such property and that proceedings should follow their intentional damage, seizure or destruction. Article 55 reinforces this duty relative to all public buildings and capital. Further, an occupying power is obliged, according to Articles 43 and 46, to protect life and take all steps in its power to re-establish and ensure “public order and safety”.

In addition, The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict[25] (ratified by the Republic of Iraq in 1967) creates a clear obligation to protect museums, libraries and archives, and other sites of cultural property. Paragraph 1 of Article 4 notes: “The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect cultural property situated within their own territory as well as within the territory of other High Contracting Parties by refraining from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes which are likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the event of armed conflict; and by refraining from any act of hostility, directed against such property.”

Using schools and universities for military purposes, destroying educational institutions and assisting in looting, criminal neglect when educational staff is being harassed and assassinated, dismantling the Iraqi education system and active involvement in training, funding and arming murderous militia’s….

War crime upon war crime upon war crime. When will there be justice for Iraq? When will there be a serious investigation into these crimes by official International Human Rights Bodies? And who will charge the successive Anglo-American Administrations for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity?

[1] http://portal.unesco.org/es/ev.php-URL_ID=11216&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

[2] http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/HAS505B.html

[3] http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745328126&CID=BRUSSELLS

[4] http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b7aa9df5.html

[5] http://www.la.unu.edu/about_staff_reddy.asp

[6] http://www.unu.edu/news/ili/Iraq.doc

[7] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Academicspetition.htm

[8] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/academicsArticles.htm#weed-out

[9] http://www.islamic-relief.com/ecamp/orphans-iraq/education-iraq.htm

[10] http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b7aa9df5.html

[11] http://www.ohio.edu/outlook/2009-10/March/Iraq-professor-409.cfm

[12] http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b7aa9df5.html

[13] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/AcademicsResources.htm

[14] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm

[15] http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0404/p07s01-woiq.html

[16] http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/iraq/infocusnews.asp?NewsID=509&sID=9

[17] http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2183.cfm and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/mar/17/iraq.rorymccarthy

[18] http://heyetnet.org/en/content/view/2670/33/

[19] http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php?refid=DH-S-01-05-2008&article=30525

[20] http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b7aa9df5.html

[21] http://www.islamonline.net/english/news/2003-04/12/article02.shtml

[22] Dirk Adriaensens in “Cultural Cleansing in Iraq” p 119, http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745328126&

[23] Nabil al-Tikriti in “Cultural Cleansing in Iraq” p 98, http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745328126&

[24] http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague04.htm

[25] http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13637&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

March 24, 2010 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Assassinating Hamas won’t work

Israel’s policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders is misguided – it should be talking to them instead

Arik Diamant and David Zonsheine | guardian.co.uk | 22 March 2010

As the dust settles on the publicity storm triggered by the Dubai assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a deep feeling of disappointment has descended on the Israeli-Palestinian peace camp. What started as an important public discourse with a potential for real change eventually missed the essential point of the affair.

The international debate over the assassination of Hamas member al-Mabhouh, allegedly carried out by the Mossad, concentrated more on the illegal use of foreign passports than on the illegal taking of a human life. Most critics of the operation seem to ignore the fact that sending trained assassins to a foreign country to strangle a man in his bed is not just a diplomatic incident or a violation of international law, it’s cold-blooded murder. Has the world become accustomed to Israel’s violations of human rights to the point of acceptance?

Extrajudicial killing of unwanted rivals is a “tool” frequently used by Israel, both in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and abroad. Strangled in their beds, bombed from the air, ambushed in their cars or shot down by snipers, hundreds of “unwanted” Palestinians have died at the hands of the IDF and the secret service, leaving a long trail of blood and grief. Beyond the targets themselves, hundreds of innocent bystanders have died in these operations. The typical profile of the assassination target varies from active terrorist to political leader. The typical profile of the innocent bystander is not an issue for the Israeli security services.

Israel, which frequently accuses its enemies of leading a culture of killing, is a dedicated follower of this fashion. Security officials would have us believe that these killings have actually saved the lives of hundreds of Israelis by preventing terrorist attacks. This argument ignores the aftershock of vengeance that inevitably follows each of these operations, costing many more lives. A critical analysis of this policy shows that in the long run these operations have contributed nothing at all to Israel’s security.

The broader picture is that 42 years of living under Israeli occupation has created no shortage of Palestinian men and women willing to kill and die for their people’s independence. For every fighter killed two are born. Strategically speaking, these assassinations are futile at best.

Beyond the tactical and strategic side of this practice lies a darker reality. By killing their leaders, Israel is sending a clear message of rejection and contempt to the Palestinians. Israel is saying, and has been saying for decades: we do not negotiate. Israel’s assassination policy should be understood as a complement to its politics; its refusal to arrive at a compromise with its neighbours is the real story behind the extrajudicial killings.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who allegedly authorised the Dubai assassination, was also responsible for another Mossad fiasco. In 1997 he ordered the assassination of the Hamas operative Khaled Mashaal in Jordan. The operation failed. Today Mashaal is head of the Hamas politburo and, according to some, a pragmatist. There’s a lesson to be learned from this: yesterday’s terrorist may be tomorrow’s political partner.

Perhaps the most effective way to deal with Hamas is to bargain with its leaders rather than to assassinate them. If the barbaric culture of killing is abandoned and replaced with a truthful attempt to reach an agreement with our neighbours, perhaps today’s threats can become tomorrow’s hopes.

March 22, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Nablus: Four dead in 24 hours

Ma’an – March 21, 2010

Bethlehem – Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians near Nablus in the northern West Bank on Sunday.

Palestinian security sources identified the victims as 19-year-old farmers Muhammad Faysal and Salah Muhammad Qawariq.

Both were from the Awarta village, southeast of Nablus, and were en route to farmland carrying agricultural tools and herbicide, the same sources said.

Israel’s army said the two attempted to stab a soldier who was on a “routine patrol” near the Awarta military checkpoint. “In response, forces opened fire and identified a direct hit,” an army spokeswoman told Ma’an.

Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces declared the area a “closed military zone” and deployed in neighboring Palestinian villages. Soldiers closed the main entrance to the village of Madama, south of Nablus, they said.

Red Crescent officials told Ma’an that the army informed them that two Palestinians were killed near the illegal Itamar settlement southeast of Nablus, asking them to come and evacuate the victims.

They were the third and fourth killed in 24 hours in the northern West Bank. A teenager died early Sunday from injuries sustained at a protest a day earlier, when another boy was shot dead. Useid Qadus, 16, was shot in the head by Israeli forces, medics said, and Muhammad Qadus, also 16, died of a wound to the chest shortly after the a protest in Iraq Burin, another village south of Nablus.

The Israeli military said its forces opened fire with riot-control means to disperse a violent riot, denying allegations its soldiers used live ammunition against the two teenagers.

Medical officials and human rights advocates have disputed the army’s version of events, pointing to photographic evidence and an X-ray they say proves the army used live fire.

In this photo released by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, an
X-ray of Useid Qadus`s head, taken by the Israeli human rights group
B`Tselem`s Nablus field worker, appears to show a live bullet lodged in his
skull, 20 March 2010. [MaanImages/Salma Ad-Deb`i, HO]

March 21, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

ISM volunteer shot, hospitalized; ISM co-founder arrested

International Solidarity Movement |19 March 2010

X-ray image of the large rubber bullet lodged into Ellen Stark's arm when she was shot by an Israeli military barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets. The soldiers shot at her as she stood, un-armed, not engaged in the demonstration, from just three meters away. 19 March 2010, An Nabi Saleh

X-ray image of the large rubber bullet lodged into Ellen Stark’s arm when she was shot by an Israeli military barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets. The soldiers shot at her as she stood, un-armed, not engaged in the demonstration, from just three meters away. 19 March 2010, An Nabi Saleh


Friday’s demonstration in An Nabi Saleh saw an increase in violence and collective punishment from the Israeli military, as twenty-five demonstrators were injured, windows of cars and homes were intentionally shattered, and three were arrested. ISM volunteer Ellen Stark was shot at point blank range (4 meters) with a rubber bullet as she stood with medics, Popular Committee members and other internationals. ISM co-founder Huwaida Arraf was arrested while negotiating with the IOF to allow Ellen through the military line to get to the hospital. According to Ellen, “we were standing on Palestinian land, in support of the village who’s land has been confiscated but we weren’t even demonstrating yet. We were standing with medics who were also shot with tear gas.”

Ellen had to undergo surgery to remove the bullet, which was lodged between her ulna and radius of her right arm. Her wrist is broken as a result of the bullet impact. As of 12:00 pm Saturday, Palestine time, Huwaida has yet to be located in the Israeli prison system.

Over an hour before the demonstration began, soldiers took position on a hilltop near the house of an An Nabi Saleh Popular Committee member signaling to activists that the peaceful march would likely be cut short yet again by soldiers using crowd dispersal tactics such as tear gas and sound grenades. The demonstration was able to take it’s usual course, as IOF soldiers blocked the path of the activists, and began to surround them from multiple sides. Only ten minutes into the demonstration, the army began firing tear gas and rubber bullets at a small group of international, Israeli, and Palestinian activists only four meters away, injuring International Solidarity Movement volunteer, Ellen Stark. Omar Saleh Tamimi, Amjad Abed Alkhafeez Tamimi and International Solidarity Movement co-founder Huwaida Arraf were arrested as they asked Israeli military personnel to stop firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at Stark as she was helped to safety.

Israeli forces then entered the center of the village where they continued firing tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets for several hours. Over twenty five were injured, including an 84-year old woman who suffered from tear gas inhalation after tear gas canisters were fired into her house, and three others who were shot with rubber bullets, including an Israeli activist; four remain hospitalized.

Later in the demonstration, soldiers began shooting rubber bullets through the windows of houses, shops, and cars, shattering homes and livelihoods, as they used collective punishment to attempt to suppress these weekly demonstrations.

These incidents come as the Israeli government intensifies repression of the unarmed, popular resistance to the occupation of the West Bank, illegal land confiscation by settlements such as Halamish, and construction of the illegal apartheid wall. Two weeks ago in An Nabi Saleh, 14-year-old Ehab Fadel Beir Ghouthi’s skull was fractured as a rubber bullet shot by the Israeli military, leaving him in a coma for several days. He remains in a hospital in Ramallah where he is recovering; his condition is stable and improving.

Today and every Friday since January, around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which boarders land confiscated by Jewish settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

The Halamish Settlement has confiscated nearly half of An Nabi Saleh’s orchard and farmland since it was founded in 1977. According to village residents the settlement confiscates more land each year without consent or compensation of the landowners.

March 20, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Israel wants 1,500 shekels for 15-year-old boy

Ma’an – 20/03/2010
Israeli forces arrest a Palestinian boy after he attempted to cross the Al-Ram checkpoint on the northern edge of Jerusalem en route to prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on 18 October 2006. [MaanImages/Moamar Awad]

Hebron – Israeli authorities have asked the family of a detained 15-year-old boy to pay 1,500 Israeli shekels (about 400 US dollars) to release the minor, a prisoners solidarity group reported on Saturday.

The boy, Ratib Abu Meizar, was detained on Friday evening in the Zahid neighborhood of central of Hebron in the southern West Bank. He was taken to a detention center housed in the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Amjad Najjar, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Society in Hebron, told Ma’an that Abu Meizar’s detention “is a continuation of Israel’s policy of blackmailing the families of detained Palestinian children, a policy which has become official.”

Najjar urged international children’s rights groups to exert pressure on the government of Switzerland and other signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention to encourage Israel to abide by its responsibilities. Israel is also a signatory to the convention, which extends protection to children in conflict zones.

A spokesman for Israeli police in the West Bank did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

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March 20, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Dozens of Students Injured After Israeli Police Storm Negev Secondary School

By Salman Abu Obeid | Middle East Monitor | March 18, 2010

Eyewitness accounts given to our correspondent in the Negev confirm that on Wednesday morning, the playground of the Secondary Peace School in the town of Hurra in the Negev was turned into a bona fide battlefield after a vast police force invaded the school yard and threw stun grenades and tear gas, injuring dozens of students and teachers.

According to the eyewitnesses, the clashes broke out when police attempted to arrest individuals from the school shop. One of the teachers at the school told Palestinians 48: “Initially there were students who were arguing with police in the school yard, the situation then developed into clashes when the police raided the campus and threw stun grenades and tear gas canisters. Many students were injured, there was widespread fear and panic and many have had to be transferred to Soroka Hospital to receive treatment. All students were later evacuated from the school campus”.

Our correspondent was informed that at least four female students were taken to hospital while many other students preferred not to seek treatment for fear of arrest and prosecution. The same source told Palestinians 48 that a teacher was also arrested and that students were able to film events and document what happened moment by moment.

March 19, 2010 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Boys disappearing from Hebron Old City

By Paulette Schroeder | March 18, 2010

I am most concerned these recent weeks in Hebron. Young teens and even smaller children are disappearing from our neighbourhood in the Old City of Hebron. It’s not by kidnapping. It’s not by trafficking. It’s not an unknown person with a criminal record perpetrating the crimes. Rather, the Israeli military is again pressing its boots down harder on the heads of the Palestinian people. If restrictions on travel and commerce, land confiscations, home invasions, and forced business closures have not succeeded in convincing Palestinian families to leave their land, then MAYBE taking their children will.

Our Palestinian neighbor sent her 15 year old son to buy bread. Fifteen minutes later, Israeli soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed him, accusing him of throwing stones. The boy insisted he did not throw stone/s at the soldiers. Nevertheless, he is now spending time in the Israeli prison system. Having spent the first 17 days in Ofir Prison among men who may/ may not have committed serious crimes, he continues to insist on his innocence. He will spend four or five months in another Israeli prison until his court case is completed. All for the “crime” of supposedly throwing a stone at soldiers!

Mohammed, and Eissa too, were walking with the 15 year old. Mohammed is 14 and Eissa is 19. The Israeli authorities held Mohammed in Ofir Prison until a donor contributed 2000 shekels. (This amounts to $500 approximately.) Eissa is also serving time in Ofir. Both these boys insist they did not throw a stone.

Near our CPT apartment soldiers accused a 12 year old boy of throwing stones. He too spent one week in Ofir prison.

Soldiers recently blindfolded and handcuffed an eight year old boy for stone throwing. They forced him to spend eight hours with a dog behind a military gate.

A 14 year old neighbor boy was helping his dad in his store, cutting cardboard boxes filled with wares. The soldiers saw him with a knife, blindfolded him, whisked him away behind the military gate, holding him for two hours while the father pleaded at the gate.

A 15 year old boy in the neighbourhood ran an errand for his father. The soldiers saw him running, grabbed him, and likewise detained him behind the military gate for 2 hrs. as his father also insisted his son did no wrong.

Besides the issue of the boys’ ages, and the severity of the sentences imposed, there is also the persistent need of the parents to travel two hours to the prison, their consequent loss of work, and their travel expenses involved. (Approximately $15 each trip) Sometimes before a child’s case is settled, the parents must travel four or five times to the courtroom.

I have only begun to enumerate the stories of children recently taken from our midst. Though the people’s patience has been great and their will to resist persists; yet anyone who witnesses these actions firsthand will call them insanity, dehumanization, oppression, collective profiling. From my point of view, this problem in Hebron and throughout the West Bank is a matter of conscience, an embarrassment to humanity, and a horrid usage of tax dollars. It is urgent that the international community pressure the state of Israel and each one’s own government to put a stop to this madness.

Paulette is with Christian Peacemaker Teams – an ecumenical initiative to support violence reduction efforts around the world. To learn more about CPT’s peacemaking work, see: http://www.cpt.org

March 19, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Israeli Military Investigator Admits Failures in Military Investigation of Rachel Corrie’s Killing

Rachel Corrie Foundation | March 18, 2010

March 17, 2010 the Haifa District Court saw a fourth day of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel Corrie, an American human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003 by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer. She had been nonviolently demonstrating against Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct action methods and principles.

An Israeli military police investigator, who was part of the team that investigated Rachel’s killing, testified today. In his testimony he stated that:

* He never inspected the site where the killing occurred; nor did he ever sit inside the D9 bulldozer to see for himself the view the driver had and what the field of vision was.

* He admitted that the Israeli military’s D9 bulldozer regulations state that the D9s should not be operated with civilians in close proximity. He failed to question the bulldozer driver about these regulations or make them part of the military police investigation file.

* He received a court order authorizing Rachel’s autopsy under the condition that an official from the U.S. Embassy be present, and at the time informed the court that the condition would be upheld. Subsequently, he made no effort to ensure that this condition was upheld, nor does he know if anyone else did, stating he did not consider the follow-up his responsibility. He also failed to forward the final autopsy report to the court, even though this was required, stating that his commander did not require him to do so and that he simply “did not pay attention” to the court order. Dr. Hiss ultimately performed the autopsy without an American Embassy official present.

* To his knowledge, no ISM member was arrested the afternoon of March 16 for interfering with Israeli military activities.

American eyewitness Gregory Schnabel, the fourth and last eye-witness called to testify, also testified today, providing his account of the killing of Ms. Corrie. Gregory testified that he saw Rachel climb to the top of the pile of dirt being pushed by the bulldozer and that she was visible to the driver. He also testified that a bulldozer had come close to himself and another ISM member that afternoon, stopping just short of hitting them, which led him to believe that the demonstrators were visible to the driver.

The trial will resume on Sunday, March 21, 2010, at 9 a.m. at the district court in Haifa.

Trial updates can be found at the link below:

Link: http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/trial

March 18, 2010 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

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