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Poll: 80% of Palestinians call for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resign

MEMO | September 22, 2021

A recent poll found that about 80 per cent of Palestinians want Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, Quds Press reported yesterday.

The poll was conducted by Khalil Shikaki, who runs the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to Shikaki, 1,270 Palestinian adults were interviewed for the survey across the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip between 15-18 September.

“This is the highest number we have seen calling for Abbas’ resignation since Abbas’ election in 2005,” Shikaki told the media.

“If presidential and parliamentary elections were held today,” Shikaki said, “Hamas will win against Fatah if Abbas was Fatah’s choice, but if Fatah nominated Marwan Al Barghouti, it will win.”

A large majority of the Palestinians, the poll found, believe that Hamas deserves to represent the Palestinians, while Fatah, the PA and PA security services have lost people’s confidence.

Meanwhile, most of the Palestinians want Hamas to launch rockets at Israel if it expels Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah and puts restrictions on accessing Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The poll found that the Palestinians have confidence in Hamas’ pledges to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, but they do not believe Fatah and the PA’s promises to do so.

Two-thirds of the Palestinians saw that Hamas fought the last war with Israel in defence of the residents of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

September 22, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , | Leave a comment

‘Israel and the Zionist enterprise were born in sin’, says heir to an iconic Zionist family

Yaakov Sharett [Youtube]

Yaakov Sharett
MEMO | September 20, 2021

In a remarkable political conversion, Yaakov Sharett, the heir to an iconic Zionist family and son of Israel’s second Prime Minister, Moshe Sharett, has turned his back on the founding ideology of the occupation state.

“The State of Israel and the Zionist enterprise were born in sin,” said Sharett in an interview with Haaretz. The 95-year-old spoke at length about his journey from a faithful servant of Zionism in the state of Israel to one of its harshest critics.

Sharett was born in 1927 and is said to belong to a well-connected family from the cream of the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine. His father was Israel’s first foreign minister and one of the country’s leaders who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1948. Sharett also dutifully served Israel as a member of the Shin Bet, the country’s security agency, and helped Soviet Jews flee to Israel.

Ending his days in Tel Aviv as an anti-Zionist, Sharett predicts dark days for the country he spent nearly his entire life serving. “This original sin pursues and will pursue us and hang over us,” said Sharett referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine prior to Israel’s creation in 1948. More than half of the indigenous community were expelled in an attempt to artificially construct a Jewish majority.

Sharett recollected the history of Zionism and its rise within Jewish communities. He argued that the moment Zionism called for the Jews to immigrate to Israel, in order to establish an ethno-nationalist state, a conflict was created. “I see in this whole transformation of the majority [Arab] to a minority and the minority [Jewish] into a majority as immoral,” explained Sharett.

“Have you seen anywhere in the world where the majority would agree to give in to a foreign invader, who says, ‘our forefathers were here,’ and demands to enter the land and take control?” Sharett rhetorically asked. “The conflict was inherent and Zionism denied this, ignored it… as the proportion of Jews to Arabs changed in favor of the Jews, the Arabs realized that they were losing the majority. Who would agree to such a thing?”

Lamenting his continued presence in Israel he said that he sees himself as a “a collaborator” against his will.

I’m a forced collaborator with a criminal country. I’m here, I have nowhere to go. Because of my age, I can’t go anywhere. And that bothers me. Every day. This recognition won’t leave me. The recognition that in the end, Israel is a country occupying and abusing another people.

Sharett also railed against Israel’s turn towards religious fundamentalism and ultra-nationalism. “When I see the prime minister with a kipah on his head, I don’t feel good,” he added. “This is not the Israel I want to see. How did it happen that this new place, that was to have brought innovations, became the blackest place, controlled by the nationalist ultra-Orthodox? How is it that here of all places, there’s reactionism and zealotry, messianism, the desire to expand and control another people?”

September 20, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Israel soldiers break Palestinian physician’s arm

Israeli soldiers broke Nidal Arda’s arm following his detention. (Photo: via Social Media)
MEMO | September 17, 2021

Israeli soldiers assaulted a 46-year-old Palestinian physician from the town of Arraba southwest of Jenin following his detention last week and broke his arm.

According to the Wafa news agency, Nidal Arda found Israeli occupation forces in army jeeps surrounding his home after he returned from the mosque following dawn prayers.

“They were waiting at my house and apparently wanted to ambush me. The jeeps turned their lights on in my direction and then ordered me to come out of the car,” he said.

There were around 40 soldiers accompanied with dogs, he said, who had broken into and raided his house before he got there.

“The soldiers destroyed my house,” he explained. “They broke the doors and windows and ransacked the entire house. They terrorised my family and children, who were separated from their mother and put in another room.”

Nidal was interrogated about the Palestinian escapees from Israel’s Gilboa Prison as two members were from Arraba.

“They threatened me with my son and said they would not allow him to travel to finish his higher education abroad if I do not cooperate with them,” he said.

He was blindfolded and forced into a jeep with other members of the family and neighbourhood and taken away to a military base.

“We were blindfolded and handcuffed,” he said. “One soldier pushed me and I fell to the ground. My right arm hit something and I felt great pain. I knew it was broken since I am a doctor,” he added.

The soldiers then removed his handcuffs and only left him with sedatives to ease the pain, before taking him to a detention centre.

Due to the noticeable pain, he was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors confirmed he had a broken bone and placed it in a cast. He was then forced back to the detention centre and interrogated about the Palestinian escapees.

A military court ordered his release a week later, reported Wafa. The two Palestinians from Arraba who escaped from prison were caught by the Israeli army before his release.

Israel launched its largest-ever manhunt in the bid to recapture the six men, whose escape was a huge embarrassment for the occupation state.

September 17, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

The Escape and Capture of Zakaria Zubeidi

By Israel Shamir | Unz Review | September 16, 2021

Heroes are rare; they are tragic and inspiring at the same time. Such a real-life hero is Zakaria Zubeidi, 45, from Jenin in Palestine. A man of brawn and brain, of sword and harp, he was an al Aqsa Brigade commander as well as the director of the Freedom Theatre. Years ago, the Sunday Times called him ‘one of Israel’s most wanted and implacable enemies’. A cat of nine lives, he survived many Israeli assassination attempts; he had been in and out of jail many times; he got his first Israeli bullet at 13; his film premiere at 14.

A few days ago, he staged an audacious escape from Israel’s high security prison, together with five other convicts. They dug a 20 yard-long tunnel with their spoons, just like the Count of Monte Cristo, and emerged outside the walls, squeezing through a narrow communication channel. This brave, nay impossible feat encouraged the captive Palestinians and gave them a second wind when they were exhausted and desperate. The people in the Holy Land and the large Palestinian diaspora held its collective breath following their escape and prayed for them to reach safety.

It is normal for humans to empathise with fugitives, rather than pursuers. Young readers of Uncle Tom’s Cabin thus followed the plight of Eliza, child in tow, crossing the frozen Ohio River from bondage to freedom, escaping the murderous dogs and slave catchers. Alas, Zakaria never reached the safe shore. In the Dixie of the 1830s, there were courageous and noble white people who harboured the runaway black slaves. Germans and Russians, Poles and Frenchmen provided refuge for the Jews that escaped from the camps. In Israel 2021, not a single Jew offered the fugitives water and food nor helped a Palestinian runaway; everyone who saw them immediately informed police, said the authorities. In a few days, four starved prisoners were hunted down, beaten up and taken back to jail; two are still at large.

I saw on Israeli TV news four shackled prisoners in the court. Zakaria had been badly beaten. His capturers broke his ribs and jaw, while he was already handcuffed. His face was grim and stern like that of a suffering Christ before the crooked court of Synedrion. It was a sad sight, the return of the hero to the dark dungeons of the Jewish state. But then, he was born and brought up under the occupation. His story is the story of the cheated generation that came to the fore after the great betrayal.

In 1993, the State of Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo accords; this agreement certified by handshake on the White House lawn promised Palestinians full independence after five years of transition. The Jews reneged on the deal. While individual Jews can be honest and honourable; as a collective they are extremely untrustworthy. It comes from a Jewish superiority complex, of a refusal to obey the rules established for lesser species; of feeling they can do whatever they find expedient. Fair play is not a Jewish idea at all.

The Palestinians, swindled by Israel, had nobody to turn to; they responded by initiating the Second Intifada, the rising taking place in 2000. It was the pivotal event for Zakaria’s generation; for me, too. I was radicalised by the Intifada, by the dishonesty and cruelty of the Jewish state and by the courage of Palestinian resisters. In 2001, I began writing in English to an international audience; next year, in 2002, I entered the church, parting with Jewry.

The Jews became radicalised, too: The support of US Jewry for the 9/11 narrative and for the War on Terror can’t be understood outside of this context: the Oslo accords, reneging on Oslo, the Intifada and 9/11 are links of one chain. Before 9/11, Jews were condemned for reneging on Oslo and for the bloody suppression of the Intifada. After 9/11 they could smash the Palestinians with all their might. For young men like Zakaria even survival was problematic.

Zakaria deserves a Plutarch to write up his life, but I’ll do what I can, until a Plutarch comes along. Zakaria was born and grew up in the Jenin Refugee Camp, a place where the expelled Palestinians from Haifa’s Carmel were corralled in 1948 by the victorious Jews. His father was an English language teacher; he died rather young, leaving his widow and their eight children to survive.

Zakaria was 11, when the First Intifada began. It was a spontaneous protest, caused by the enclosure of common Palestinian lands and their transfer to Jewish settlers. Jewish lawyers, predominantly ladies of liberal persuasion, applied the English 16th century idea of ‘enclosure of the commons’ and claimed all commonly held lands as belonging to Jews only. In England this policy caused ‘enclosure riots’; as it did in Palestine. In response to Jewish land grabbing, unarmed peasants took the nearest handy stone and threw it at Jewish settlers’ cars. The Jews replied with fire. Hundreds of unarmed Palestinians were shot and killed. The children suffered most.

Instead of being cowed, the camp boys like Zakaria took the danger in their stride. The daredevils would throw stones at invading jeeps like the 13-year old boy, Farris Odeh did. Farris was the Palestinian kid we saw throwing stones at Israeli tanks with the nonchalance of a village boy chasing away a ferocious dog. It was a dangerous game: the famous picture of Farris was taken on October 29, and a week later, on 8th of November, a Jewish sniper murdered him in cold blood. Boys like Zakaria lived dangerously in the camp. The Israeli army treated refugee camps as their hunting ground. They would drive in on their Jeeps and shoot around, terrorising children and grown ups. Chris Hedges, of the New York Times, wrote of their modus operandi in his Gaza Diary, published in Harper’s magazine: “the refugee camp … is still and peaceful. Children play with scrap-paper kites and ragged soccer balls. Suddenly two IDF jeeps with loudspeakers pull up. They immediately taunt the boys with obscenities, luring them up to the fence. Then [a] percussion grenade explodes. The boys, most no more than 10 or 11 years old, scatter, running clumsily across the heavy sand. They descend out of sight behind a sandbank in front of me… The soldiers shoot; the bullets from the M-16s tumble end over end through the children’s slight bodies. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.”

Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Gaza city, Oct. 29, 2000. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

In similar circumstances, 13-year-old Zakaria had been shot by a Jewish soldier. The bullet entered his leg; he spent six months in hospital and went through multiple operations. He remains lame to this very day. The soldier has never been tried or punished for shooting a child, but a Jewish soldier is practically never tried or punished for wounding or murdering a Palestinian child, and there are thousands of murdered children.

As Zakaria recuperated, his mother (who was a great believer in peaceful coexistence with Israeli Jews) invited a new theatre company to do rehearsals at her home. She gave them the upper floor of their house, fed them and helped them. It was a children’s theatre, performed by camp children and for camp children, organized by an unusual person, Arna Mer. This Jewish communist lady “betrayed her people” (as many Jews were prone to say) and married an Arab, an Orthodox Christian Palestinian Arab, also a communist, even a prominent member of Communist Party. They called their son Sputnik, as a sign of their love for the Soviet Union, the beacon of light for such liberation movements. Eventually Sputnik found his name too exotic, and changed it to ‘Juliano Mer’. He became a friend of Zakaria. Together they acted on stage; the company consisted of six or eight children. The theatre was called The Stone Theatre. It was around 1988-89, at the height of the First Intifada, the rising that convinced Israel to seek an accommodation and enter Oslo accords with Palestinian leadership.

Years later, Juliano Mer made a film Arna’s Children, based on their memories and video archive. It turned out that the majority of the young actors were killed by Jews by that time. Zakaria’s mother was also killed by a Jewish sniper, shot through the window, while she was at home. One hour later, the same sniper shot her elder son and killed him. Their house, which had served as a home for the Stone Theatre, was bulldozed together with many other homes in Jenin.

Jenin was the place for a Jewish onslaught on the Palestinians in 2002. Recently the Israeli court banned Jenin, Jenin, a film about these fateful events, but you still can find it on Bitchute. Zakaria was a great fighter; he became the commander of Jenin’s Al Aqsa Brigade. He survived four assassination attempts by the Israelis: in 2004, they murdered five Palestinians, including a 14-year-old child, while targeting a vehicle suspected of carrying Zakaria. On another occasion they killed 9 Palestinians, but Zakaria escaped.

Zakaria became widely known and respected in the West Bank and even in Israel. He was befriended by Yasser Arafat; he supported the election of Mahmud Abbas, Arafat’s successor. An Israeli woman, Tali Fahima, came to Jenin to support Zakaria and serve as his human shield. Israel arrested her in 2004 and she spent three years in prison for ‘aiding a terrorist organization’. After her release, she converted to Islam having become totally disillusioned by the massive Jewish support for the bloody punitive actions against Palestinians. Zakaria, who spoke perfect Hebrew and had many Israeli friends, was also disappointed by the Israeli Jewish Left. None defended him during these terrible years, despite all the efforts of his late mother to build relations with Israelis.

However, the uprising was defeated. And Zakaria continued his struggle by other means, establishing, together with Juliano Mer, his childhood friend, a new and bigger theatre company, the Freedom Theatre of Jenin. It is still around, and even prospers, though Zakaria is now in jail, and Juliano Mer was killed by unknown assassins. In 2007, Zakaria accepted the amnesty offered by Israelis to the Fatah fighters, though by its conditions he couldn’t leave Jenin. He abided by the amnesty conditions, but it didn’t help him: a few years later, Israel rescinded the amnesty. In 2019, Zakaria was caught and sent to jail for life.

He would rot in jail like other prisoners, and every second Palestinian of his generation had been in an Israeli jail for some part of his life. But then, the audacious breakout brought his name back to our awareness. He returned hope into the hearts of the Palestinians and their friends, but alas, for a short time.

It happened exactly twenty years after 9/11, the event that empowered the Jews to smash Palestinian resistance. Nowadays, the Jews can do whatever they want with their captive goyim. People aren’t even allowed to object. At the recent Tokyo Olympic games, an Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine refused to pair with an Israeli sportsman, saying his support for the Palestinian cause made it impossible for him to compete against an Israeli. The International Judo Federation promptly suspended the brave Algerian for ten years.

In the discourse, the Jews possess an unassailable position, and whoever demurs finds himself jobless and castigated as a ‘bigot’. Every time I post an item about Palestine, Facebook’s Zuckerberg bans me for a week. Never was Jewish dominance so complete. Before 9/11, the right wing was traditionally anti-Jewish. Nowadays, the European and American nationalist Right accept the rules of the game. It’s hard to find a ‘fascist’ or ‘white nationalist’ who doesn’t worship Israel. The Jewish ‘left’ in Israel avidly supports the current Israeli Prime Minister Bennett who is as strong a Jewish chauvinist as has ever held this position; and Bennett says openly that Palestinians will never be free.

And we also have lost our freedom. Freedom to roam the land, freedom to have and voice our opinion. Freedom to refuse a dubious ‘medical’ treatment. What 9/11 started, Corona completed. We are all Palestinians now.

However, as I watched the stern Christ-like face of Zakaria Zubeidi in the courtroom, I thought that despite all efforts of the Synedrion, the suffering and crucified Christ came back to life. So will Palestine. So will the World. Resurrection is as inevitable as Death, and it beats Death.

Israel Shamir can be reached at adam@israelshamir.net

September 16, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

Two of the Captured Detainees Report Torture, one Hospitalized

IMEMC | September 16, 2021

Lawyers for two of the Palestinian prisoners who managed to escape Israeli prison on September 6, on Wednesday, confirmed that the escapees have suffered torture at the hands of the Israeli forces, the Associated Press (AP) has revealed.

For the first time, since they were captured, on September 11, lawyers were permitted to interview two of the detainees.

Attorney with the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) Raslan Mahajna, met with political prisoner Mahmoud al-‘Arda, one of the six Palestinians who escaped from Israeli prison, who informed him of the harsh details of interrogation and the systematic denial of basic human needs.

Detainee Mahmoud al-‘Arda

Israeli human rights lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, told AP that his client, Zakariyya Zobeidi, said that security forces handcuffed him, asked him his name, and when he stated “Zakariyya”, they proceeded to brutally assault him, causing him two rib fractures and a fractured jaw.

Feldman added; “They didn’t have any intention to commit any kind of terrorist attack.”

On September 12, one day after his capture, the health condition of Zobeidi, 46, deteriorated, so he was transferred to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for medical treatment, according to Hasan Abed Rabbo, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission.

Detainee Zakariyya Zobeida
~ AP, WAFA

September 16, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

New Poll Finds That 50% of Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel

By Eric Striker | National Justice | September 15, 2021 

Aid to Israel is now a highly polarizing issue, a poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the pro-Zionist Israel Democracy Institute have found.

The survey taken last month found that the US government’s deferential treatment of Israel is completely out of line and unrepresentative of popular opinion.

On the question of whether to restrict US military aid to Israel, 50% of all Americans support ending such support, compared to 45% who oppose it. Among supporters of aid restrictions are 32% of registered Republicans, 62% of Democrats, and 52% of Independents. This is a drastic rise from historical opinion polls for all political persuasions right, left and center.

In respects to the Israel-Palestine conflict itself, only 32% of Americans believe the US government should be getting involved on Israel’s side.

A glaring distinction is made clear when both the US and the Jewish Israeli public were asked about potential solutions to the dispute. Last July, it was found that 56% of Americans and 69% of Israel’s Arab minority support a two state solution, which would allow the West Bank and Gaza to become an independent Palestinian state. Only 34% of Jews in Israel support this view.

Even more telling were the answers on a potential one state solution. A one state solution would incorporate Gaza and the West Bank and transform Israel into an American or European style multi-racial democracy where Arabs in occupied territories would enjoy equal rights to Jews. Even higher numbers of Americans (60%) support this resolution, as well as 56% of Israeli Arabs. Meanwhile, only a paltry 14% of Israeli Jews would even consider such an idea.

The only opinion Israeli Jews responded favorably to was to maintain the status quo (42%) in the conflict, which means the slow and illegal expansion of their regime as they ethnically cleanse and kill Palestinians. This view was only shared by 26% of Americans and 15% of Israeli Arabs.

It is not controversial to say that global Jewry is by far the most vocal and powerful advocate for racial pluralism, mass immigration, and multi-culturalism in the West. Yet, in the Jewish state, the idea of a “rainbow nation” is rejected by a super-majority, who are so inflexible that they do not even want Palestinians to have even the most sensible demand of an independent nation composed of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

As this poll run by the Israel lobby shows, Zionism in the United States is rapidly losing ground among popular opinion. This has yet to make any significant mark on Washington consensus, where both Democrats and Republicans have repeatedly shown that American aid to Israel is unconditional.

September 15, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Number of Jewish Americans moving to illegal settlements increases ‘dramatically’

Notorious American-Israeli settler Justin Yaakov Fauci with Kahanist terrorist-turned-hate-preacher Gordon Yehuda Richter
MEMO | September 13, 2021

The number of Jewish American moving into illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has increased dramatically, according to recent data from Tel-Aviv’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Out of the 2,296 US citizens who migrated to the occupation state last year, 191 moved into illegal settlements. This represents nearly a threefold increase from the previous year when less than three per cent settled in Palestinian territory.

American Jews are also the most likely to settle in occupied territory compared with fellow Jews from other parts of the world. While they accounted for just over ten per cent of all the newcomers arriving in Israel last year, they made up nearly a third of those opting to settle in the West Bank.

This disparity is said to be due to the American Jewish community being more orthodox and tending to hold right-wing supremacist views, such as that all of the territory from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea was granted to Jews by God.

Another reason is that the Jewish organisation subcontracted to handle the logistics of immigration from the US is the private Nefesh b’Nefesh. The group is said to encourage American Jews to settle in the occupied West Bank. About a quarter of the communities highlighted on its website are located in illegal settlements, such as Efrat, Ma’aleh Adumim and Elkana. It makes no mention of the fact that these places are not within Israel.

The ugly reality of the takeover of Palestinian land by settlers arriving from the US grabbed international attention earlier this year when an American-born Israeli, Yaakov Fauci, was captured on video trying to evict the Palestinian El-Kurd family from their home in the Sheik Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

“If I don’t steal it, someone else is going to steal it,” said Fauci in a video that went viral and sparked international condemnation. He was born in Long Island, New York, and was recruited by Nahalat Shimon International, a US-based settler organisation seeking to change the demographics of occupied East Jerusalem.

September 13, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Who are Palestinian escapees from Israel’s Gilboa prison?

By Awad Al-Rujoub | MEMO | September 6, 2021

In the early hours of this morning, six Palestinians escaped from Israel’s Gilboa Prison after they dug a tunnel out of the high-security prison.

Five of the prisoners were members of the Islamic Jihad movement, and one was a former commander of Fatah. They are all from the city of Jenin and were all serving life terms. Israeli media said that three of the escapees had previously attempted to escape from Israeli jails.

But who are they?

Zakaria Zubeidi

Zubeidi, 49, from Jenin refugee camp, was a former commander of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. In 2006, Zubeidi was elected a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. He was detained by Israeli forces in Ramallah on 27 February 2019 and accused of being affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He has not been sentenced to any crime.

 

Munadil Nafaya

Nafaya, from Ya’bad town near Jenin city, was detained by Israeli forces in 2006 before being released in 2015. He was rearrested in 2016 and again in 2020 and accused of membership in Islamic Jihad’s armed wing and involvement in staging attacks against Israeli occupation forces.

Nafaya has not yet received a final sentence.

 

Yaqoub Qadiri

Yaqoub Qadiri, 39, from Bir Al-Basha village northwest of Jenin city, was wanted by Israeli occupation forces since 2000.

Qadiri stood against the occupation’s massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002. On 18 October 2003, he was detained and handed two life sentences.

In 2014, he along with other detainees attempted to escape from Shatta prison but were unsuccessful.

 

Iham Kahamji

Kahmaji, 35, from Kafr Dan village near Jenin city, was wanted by Israeli occupation forces since 2003. He was detained on 4 July 2006 and handed two life terms.

 

Mahmoud  Al-Arida

Mahmoud Al-Arida, 46, from Arraba town southwest of Jenin city, was first detained in 1992 before being released in 1996.

He was detained again in September 1996 and handed a life sentence after being accused of being a member of Islamic Jihad’s military wing and carrying out attacks against Israeli occupation forces.

 

Mohammad Al-Arida

Mohammad Al-Arida, 39, from Arraba town, was arrested on 7 January 2002, before being released in March of the same year.

He was rearrested on 16 May 2002 in Ramallah city and handed three life terms.

September 6, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

‘Blood for Blood’: On Jenin and Israel’s Fear of an Armed Palestinian Rebellion

By Ramzy Baroud | MintPress News | August 26, 2021

The killing of four young Palestinians by Israeli occupation soldiers in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, on August 16, is a consequential event, the repercussions of which are sure to be felt in the coming weeks and months.

The four Palestinians – Saleh Mohammed Ammar, 19, Raed Ziad Abu Seif, 21, Nour Jarrar, 19, and Amjad Hussainiya, 20  – were either newly born or mere toddlers when the Israeli army invaded Jenin in April 2002. The objective, then, based on statements by Israeli officials and army generals, was to teach Jenin a lesson, one they hoped would be understood by other resisting Palestinian areas throughout the occupied West Bank.

In my book, Searching Jenin, published a few months after what is now known as the ‘Massacre of Jenin’ or the ‘Battle of Jenin’, I tried to convey the revolutionary spirit of this place. Although, in some ways, the camp was a representation of the wider Palestinian struggle, in other aspects it was a unique phenomenon, deserving of a thorough analysis and understanding.

By the end of that battle, Israel seemed to have entirely eliminated the armed resistance of Jenin. Hundreds of fighters and civilians were killed and wounded, hundreds more arrested and numerous homes destroyed. Even voices sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle have underestimated Jenin’s ability to resurrect its resistance under seemingly impossible circumstances.

Writing in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on June 10, 2016, Gideon Levy and Alex Levac described the state of affairs in the small camp. “Jenin, always the most militant of the refugee camps, was battered and destroyed, suppressed and bloodied, by Israel. These days its spirit seems to be broken. Every person is dealing with his own fate, his own private struggle for survival,” they wrote. The title of their article was “Jenin, Once the Most Militant of Palestinian Refugee Camps, Waves a White Flag”.

Being suppressed and shattered by an overwhelming force, however, is entirely different from “raising the white flag”. In fact, this truism does not just apply to Jenin but to the entirety of occupied Palestine, where Palestinians, at times, find themselves fighting on multiple fronts: Israeli occupation, armed illegal Jewish settlers, and the co-opted Palestinian Authority.

However, May 2021 changed so much. The Israeli attempt at ethnically cleansing Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the subsequent war on Gaza and the unprecedented uprising of unity, bringing all Palestinians, everywhere, together, lifted Jenin and other Palestinian areas from their state of despondency. The stiff resistance in Gaza, in particular, has had a direct impact on the various fighting groups in the West Bank, which were either disbanded or marginalized.

An unprecedented scene in Ramallah, on May 17, tells the whole story. Tens of fighters, belonging to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with the Fatah movement – the political party that dominates Mahmoud Abbas’ PA – marched on the streets of Ramallah, where the Authority is situated, in a relatively calm environment. The fighters chanted against the Israeli occupation and their ‘collaborators’ before clashing with Israeli soldiers, who were manning the Qalandiya military checkpoint.

This event was quite unusual, for it ushered in the return of a phenomenon that Israel, with the help of its ‘collaborators’, had crushed during the Second Palestinian Intifada –  or uprising – between 2000-2005.

The Israeli military understands that the May war and uprising have triggered an unwelcomed transition in Palestinian society. Long-suppressed, occupied Palestinians are ready to rebel, eager to move on, beyond octogenarian Abbas and his corrupt clique, past the stifling factionalism and self-serving political discourses.  The questions are how, where and when.

This is precisely why Israel is back in Jenin, once more trying to teach the nearly 12,000 refugees there a lesson, one that is also meant for Palestinians throughout the West Bank. Israel believes that if the nascent armed resistance in Jenin is suppressed now, the rest of the West Bank will remain ‘quiet’.

According to Palestinian journalist, Atef Daghlas, the Israeli occupation forces killed ten Palestinians during their frequent nightly raids on Jenin. Eight of the victims have been killed since the end of the Gaza war alone. There are two main reasons behind the increased number of casualties among the Palestinians in the last few months: first, the increased number of Israeli raids – where occupation soldiers, often disguising themselves as Palestinians, enter the camp at night and attempt to capture young Palestinian fighters; second, because of the growing number of youth enlisting in various resistance groups. According to Daghlas, the rifles carried by these youth are purchased by the young men themselves, as opposed to being supplied by a group or a faction.

“Blood for blood, bullet for bullet, fire for fire,” were some of the chants that echoed in the Jenin town and its adjacent refugee camp, when the Palestinian residents carried the bodies of two of the four killed youth, before burying them in the ever-crowded martyrs’ graveyard. The fact that Jenin is, once more, openly championing the armed struggle option is sending alarm bells throughout occupied Palestine. Israel is now worried that an armed Intifada is in the making, and Abbas knows very well that any kind of Intifada would spell doom for his Authority.

It is obvious that what is currently taking place in Jenin is indicative of something much larger. Israel knows this, thus the exaggerated violence against the camp. In fact, two of the bodies of killed Palestinians are yet to be returned to their families for proper burial. Israel often resorts to this tactic as a bargaining chip, and to increase the psychological pressure on Palestinian communities, especially those who dare resist.

It might be relevant to note that the Jenin refugee camp was officially formed in 1953, a few years after the Nakba of 1948, the year when historic Palestine was destroyed and the State of Israel was created. Since then, generation after generation, Jenin’s youth continue fighting and dying for their freedom.

It turns out that Jenin never waved the white flag, after all, and that the battle which began in 2002 – in fact in 1948 – was never truly finished.

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press).

August 31, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

15-year-old Palestinian boy brutally attacked by Israeli settlers

Defence for Children Palestine | August 27, 2021

15-year-old Tareq was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers and survived to share his story.

August 31, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

Dorothy versus Hassan

By Taxi | Plato’s Guns | August 27, 2021

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, thinks she’s smarter than Hassan Nasrallah.

Yet, evidence shows that since Trump appointed her as ambassador to Lebanon back in February 2020, every dastardly trap she has placed before Mr. Nasrallah and his Hezbollah resistance group has failed. 

Proof of this failure is that Hezbollah keeps growing stronger and stronger, untouched by all external or internal forces hellbent on destroying the Lebanese resistance group.  Failed simply because Dorothy is not as smart as she thinks she is.  Most certainly, she is not as intelligent as the nifty leader of Hezbollah.

Having spent some three years working as Deputy Principal Officer at the US Consulate General in Jerusalem immediately prior to her post in Beirut, Dorothy no doubt continues to have a direct hotline to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, if not to his direct cell phone; and no doubt, every morning, her first official word from Beirut is ‘shalom’.

Dorothy does not behave like a diplomat.  Instead, she behaves like an eye-patched leader of a sketchy militia: laying aside all diplomatic decorum and behaviorism and charging forth into every single aspect of Lebanese social, economic and political life, with the blatant intent of widening existing societal fissures in Lebanon, as well as adding new ones: aiming for a sectarian war that would cause the wholesale mass murder of innocents.  One could say that she behaves as the Jews do in DC.  A Puss in Boots, but utterly charmless and physically unattractive.  Puss in Boots with mouth bigger than boots.  So much so that last year, a Lebanese judge banned Lebanese media from interviewing Dorothy for her atrocious and blatant attempts at creating sectarian warfare in Lebanon.  Needless to say, Dorothy the ‘ambassador’ gave the proverbial middle finger to this native judge while hiding behind the skirts of her diplomatic immunity.  She continues to pollute Lebanese media and its political landscape with daily feces propelled out of all her orifices.  Yes, she literally defecates on Lebanon every day, while feigning love and affection for the Lebanese people.  Because the Lebanese resistance group, Hezbollah, defeated Israel twice already on the battlefield, Dorothy’s instruction since taking the ambassadorship has been to starve the Lebanese population as punishment for these victories.  Tel Aviv must love her for her Zionist activism and zeal.  The Mossad must be sending her monthly boxes of Cuban cigars.

And I’ll remind American taxpayers here that their hard-earned taxes are being spent on starving populations in the middle east, when bombing them to smithereens is not feasible.  Starving millions of people who have done absolutely no harm to the American people.  I’ll remind taxpayers that they are paying Dorothy’s wages while she is spreading anti-Americanism with her bolshie, toxic behaviorism overseas.  I’ll remind them that since 2005, no less than $30 billion have been spent on destroying the Lebanon as a means of demoting Hezbollah – all for the benefit of Israel and Israel alone.  And although Lebanon’s society is currently teetering on total collapse due to Dorothy’s malicious and malignant schemes, yet Hezbollah itself appears untouched by this exuberant, negative expenditure.  And I will add here that Lebanon has suffered from corrupt governments for some thirty years, yet all this while, the Lebanese collective enjoyed a decent lifestyle and were never in need.  They became needy when Dorothy came to town.

Perhaps when she lived in Israel, Dorothy got everything she wanted.  But in Lebanon, what Dorothy wants, Dorothy doesn’t get.  Hassan has insured this.  Time and time again, he has outsmarted all her plans to create civil war in Lebanon.  All straight and curve-balls that Dorothy has daily thrown at Hassan have missed and landed either way off mark, or, unfortunately, on innocent, civilian bystanders.

Let us be clear here that the traditional role of an ambassador is to work the trade and Intel files, as well as to assist expats in a variety of bureaucratic and legal matters.  It is never the job of a diplomat to act politically or to make inciteful, political statements concerning the host nation.  Never!  It is abnormal behavior for a diplomat to be an in-your-face politico whose name and incendiary words are headlines in local media on a daily basis.  Yet, Dorothy Shea swans about the Lebanon like a privileged colonialist: doing exactly that and doing it with shameless gusto.

She is proud that she has turbo-charged the destruction of Lebanon.  But she is very angry that the Hezbollah remains untouched.  Livid that Hassan remains leagues ahead of her diabolical plans.  How dare Hassan challenge her, the mighty Queen Sheba herself?!  She Who Must Be Obeyed, must be obeyed or else!

Yet, she is not obeyed by Hassan.  Currently, the genocidal-minded Dorothy is reeling from the latest punch in the teeth that Hassan metaphorically gave her last week, when he defied US sanctions on Lebanon and announced that Iranian fuel ships are now headed to fuel-starved Lebanon: a miserable and existential shortage that Dorothy herself had engineered for the Lebanese people through her incessant, corrupt interference in absolutely all internal Lebanese affairs bar none.  (She has even interfered in local, district elections, personally rejecting and approving candidates!).  Her destructive meddling is compounded by the Caesar Act sanctions that her chowderhead boss, Trump, had imposed on the Lebanon at the behest of Tel Aviv.  Because Israelis dare not kill Lebanese people with their missiles for fear of an equal Hezbollah retaliation, starving the Lebanese people en mass was to be their path to mass murder of said Lebanese; and thus Dorothy has been assigned the task of insuring that all trade and energy doors were closed to the Lebanese, and all paths to a much-needed new government blocked and blocked some more, ad infinitum.  Dorothy has forbidden the Lebanon from trading with any country in the world, and simultaneously forbidden friendly nations from delivering any aid to Lebanon’s starving population.  She has appeared more than happy this past year and a half to just watch the very fabric of Lebanon disintegrate under her  ‘ambassadorship’ – doing absolutely nothing to help the long-suffering, collective Lebanese people whatsoever.  Au contraire, the more Lebanon’s system broke down, the more the people suffered, and the more Dorothy jumped with joy and stirred the sectarian embers further.

It appears that not only are Hezbollah and the Lebanese population as a whole a target for destruction by Dorothy, but so is the Lebanese government itself.  She does not even want a government for the Lebanon to exist.  She wants for Lebanon what Israel wants: wiping Lebanon and its flag right off the map and turning it into many-flagged, sectarian enclaves and warring Bantustans instead.  Simply, everyone and everything Lebanese is her target for destruction.

Of course, Dorothy gets much help from powerful Lebanese persons and political entities who are opposed to Hezbollah.  Fortunately for the Lebanon, these people do not represent the majority of the Lebanese.  Known Lebanese members of Dorothy’s team are handsomely paid in mega dollars to destroy their own country, just so that they can boost their Swiss bank accounts and augment their seats of power by getting rid of the most popular party in the Lebanon: the Hezbollah.  These unsavory, treasonous Lebanese are ideologically aligned with fascism and predatory globalism, and they are also known for being supporters of the Israeli enemy and its religio-colonialist project in the Levant.  Their names and professional titles are known all over the Lebanon, and they are as follows:

  • Riyad Salame is a Maronite Christian who heads the Lebanese Central Bank (Banque Du Liban).  He is the very man who colluded with Dorothy to collapse the local Lebanese currency in order to initiate the ‘starvation plan’ of his own people.  He is also behind the financial pyramid scheme that suddenly, and by his design, collapsed a year ago.  He is also behind the ‘Capital Control’ system that has been imposed on all bank account holders since the collapse of the Lebanese Lira.  This system limits monthly withdrawals of all account holders, be they rich or poor, to a pitiful $400 per month: thus consigning both rich and poor to the same poverty pot.  This system is currently holding hostage all of the people’s earnings and life-savings.  Salame continues to shamelessly collude with the haters of Lebanon, while hiding some twenty billion dollars that suddenly went missing out of the country a year and a half ago.  He claims no knowledge of where this vast amount went.  He has not been held accountable by Lebanese law, nor has he lost his highest banking office in the nation, all because he has Dorothy’s full political protection.
  • Samir Gaegae, is a Maronite Christian who is a convicted war criminal who colluded with Israel during its 18 years of occupation of Lebanon back in the ’80’s and 90’s, causing thus the torture, the disappearance, and the mass murder of tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians. And Ironically, it was Hezbollah’s hands, after the eviction of Israeli forces from Lebanon, who worked for his clemency, thus sparing him an execution.  The ingrate Gaegae is now also best friends with both Saudi Arabia and Israel: tasked by them too to destroy Hezbollah, even at the cost of destroying Lebanon itself.
  • Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rah, who holds the highest seat in the Lebanese Maronite church, is also known for regularly inciting sectarianism during his speeches and sermons.  He became infamous for breaking a Lebanese law that forbids the cooperation or promotion of the Israeli enemy when he illegally visited Israel several years ago with the excuse of “I want to pray in Jerusalem.”  No doubt he dined at Jewish Masonic Lodges there too.  He adamantly refuses to separate ‘church from state’.  He is a regular visitor to the US embassy in Beirut and all his political statements read like memos issued by Tel Aviv.  He supports normalization with Israel that continues to occupy the Lebanese Shebaa Farms.  For a religious Christian leader, he appears to devote his time to spreading the message of the Synagogue of Satan instead of the message of Jesus.
  • NGO’s. The Lebanese population is some 4.6 million natives currently residing in Lebanon, yet Lebanon has over an astounding 10.000 NGO groups, with 92% of them being funded by foreign governments and other dubious Western and oil-Arab institutions.  These shady NGOs are tasked with ‘inflaming’ the masses and creating a Color Revolution in the Lebanon.  They have proved that they can successfully gather the protesting masses with matching banners and baseball hats, but they have failed to achieve their anarchic objective after several attempts.  They are well-paid agents of chaos who swarm the Lebanon like biblical locust: receiving all their instruction from Dorothy’s office at the American embassy in Beirut; and eating all that great, green leaf we call ‘dollars’ right off Dorothy’s hand.

One can clearly discern that the American embassy in Beirut is more of a war theater against the Lebanese themselves, than it is a peaceful salon of diplomacy and trade activity.

Dorothy also enjoys the occasional support from other powerful Lebanese who may not share her ideology, but assist her when called upon because they are beholden to the US via their investment projects in the US, and also via their children and grandchildren who reside and study in the US.  Yes, just like mafias threaten people with harm done to their businesses and families, so does Dorothy threaten her second tier of helpers, thus they always oblige.  Saad Hariri (a Sunni leader), Walid Jumblatt (a Druze leader), and Nabih Berri (a Shia leader) are examples of second-tier helpers of the US embassy in Beirut.

Here I would add that although Dorothy’s Lebanese inner circle leaders are all Christian Maronites, between them, they actually represent the minority of Maronites in Lebanon.  The majority of Maronites belong to the Maronite President Aoun’s party, who are allies and supporters of Hezbollah.  And it appears that the Maronites who are anti Hezbollah are fundamentally Islamophobic, all due to an aftertaste that the brutal, Sunni Ottoman Empire left in their mouths back in 1922, when the Ottoman Empire collapsed and its soldiers finally exited Lebanon after some 500 years of miserable colonization.

Aside from creating the total collapse of the Lebanon, financially, socially and politically, it is germane here to give a summary of what the enemies of Hezbollah and Lebanon itself hoped to achieve with their treachery and sedition:

1-  IMF enslavement of Lebanon’s financial life.

2-  Disarming Hezbollah and the dismantlement of the Lebanese army, to be replaced with UN or NATO troops that answer to Tel Aviv and DC.

3-  Destroying the current governmental system and the insertion of a new, federalized political theater where only enemies of the Hezbollah are in positions of power.

4-  Naturalization into Lebanese citizenship of captive Sunni-Syrian refugees who are forbidden by the West to return to Syria, thus changing the voting demographic of Lebanon to favor Saudi-sponsored blocks (means Israeli-centric).   This plan even has the temerity to favor Syrian naturalization over Palestinian one, even though Palestinian refugees have been stuck in Lebanon since 1948.

5-  Allow Israel to annex gas field ‘Block 9’ that sits in the southern Lebanese maritime waters and is considered to be the richest field in the Lebanon waters.

6-  Allow Israel to annex the Lebanese Litani River that’s some 23.6 miles from the Israeli border.

7-  Through educational and cultural projects, unleashing insidious social-engineering programs such as ‘woke’, opioid and porn addiction, religious irreverence, cultural Marxism, and what I like to call the ‘gender bandito’ culture.  In other words, social-engineering programs that shred the very fabric of traditional Lebanese life and culture.  And sanity.

8-  The looting and destruction of Lebanon’s museums and ancient artifacts so as to wipe out the ancient identity of the Lebanon.

9-  Bantustaning and turning rural landscapes into militarized zones, and turning cities and towns into police states overseen by Israel-friendly UN or NATO forces.

10-  Normalization with Israel through forced trade with Tel Aviv – the only entity Lebanon would be allowed to trade with.

And last but not least:

11-  Empty Lebanon of its Christian population who are mainly concentrated in the Mount Lebanon area, but also scattered wide in villages and towns all over the Lebanon.

This is a project that analysts say has been handed to the current Lebanese Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi.  His consistent sectarian incitement is intended to promote a religious civil war that will find the majority of Lebanese Christians fleeing the Lebanon as political refugees to mainly Canada and France, where they already have immigration programs that are specifically preferential and lucrative to Lebanese Christian applicants.  Yes, France and Canada are partners with the US in the destruction of Lebanon.  In fact, all other Western nations and some Arab ones too are also conspirators and abettors  in this diabolical, mass-murderous plan.

The Patriarch’s other vital mission is to turn Maronite Aounist voters against President Aoun’s party – driving them to the arms of Saudi-sponsored Samir Gaegae, who is a Maronite himself too and an infamous friend of Israel – not forgetting here his close friendship with Dorothy the Destroyer.

Because Lebanon is the only Christian-Arab country, and Christian Lebanese are fundamental to Lebanese history, heritage and identity, removing them from the Lebanon facilitates the Jewish plan of turning Lebanon into a zombie without a national, rooted identity, all in preparation for future Judeofication of the Lebanon, as per the Yinon Plan.

Of course, Dorothy here is a mere soldier for Tel Aviv.  But still, all responsibility of Lebanon’s current destruction lays at her feet for her absolute devotion and willingness to participate and manage this grand and evil project for the Lebanon.  She is responsible for the current starvation and the misery of millions of Lebanese, Christian and Muslim alike,  because she is the most powerful mover and shaker in the Lebanon: moving and shaking it towards its mass grave.

Even though this ‘starvation plan’ has been well conceived and executed with the help of internal traitors, yet Hezbollah and its Lebanese allies continue to stand like firm walls in its path.  Hassan and his patriotism continue to outsmart Dorothy.  In fact, so much so that now Hezbollah has unexpectedly taken up the new mantle of ‘economic resistance’, as opposed to only a military one.  Only two weeks go, Dorothy’s breathless destruction literally forced the Hezbollah to actively enter the economic war against the Lebanon, after a year and a half of passivity.  They are economically-resisting now by defying the Caesar’s Act and all other members of Dorothy’s inner circle.  This defiance comes in the shape of organizing Iranian fuel ships to arrive to Lebanon as aid for the utterly desperate people of the Lebanon.

The first Iranian fuel ship is due to imminently arrive to Lebanese shores.  Many more Iranian ships are slated thereafter, carrying much needed life-saving medicine and food to the needy Lebanese.

Hassan has botched all nefarious plans and checkmated Dorothy with this move.  He has promised that any harm done to these Iranian aid ships will result in instant, open warfare against Israel.  The man always means what he says.  And he always delivers on his word.  The Israelis know this only too well.  They will be red-faced and watching through their north-pointing binoculars, a long stream of Iranian ships docking a mere hop away from Haifa port.  This was never part of their plan.  Their plan was to starve the Lebanon en mass so as to bring it to its knees and take from it what they want; as well as to get rid of Iran-friendly Hezbollah.  Instead, they’re ending up with a stronger Hezbollah bringing in Iranian aid ships that will feed the Lebanese people and provide them with desperately needed medicine and fuel.  Iranian ships that will be seen by most Lebanese as ‘savior ships’, while Hezbollah will be crowned as ‘savior of Lebanon’ for resisting and breaking the illegal, US economic siege on the Lebanon.

Begs the question here, therefore: will the Mossad continue to send Dorothy her boxes of Cuban cigars?

August 27, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli forces shoot, kill 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus

Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash, 15, was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid on Balata refugee camp near Nablus on August 24, 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Hashash family)
Defense For Children International | August 24, 2021

Ramallah – Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy today in the northern occupied West Bank.

Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces around 4 a.m. this morning as he stood on the roof of his home watching as Israeli forces conducted a raid in the Balata refugee camp located southeast of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to information collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. Imad sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus where he was pronounced dead.

“Israeli forces continue to kill Palestinian children with impunity,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Systemic impunity means Israeli forces can kill Palestinian children in their homes without fear of any consequences.”

Israeli forces raided Balata refugee camp to conduct search and arrest operations around 3 a.m., an eyewitness told DCIP. After being awakened by gunshots, Imad and his brother went to the roof of their home to observe the raid, according to information gathered by DCIP. Imad had taken out his cell phone and was attempting to photograph or film the raid, when he was shot in the head.

Imad’s brothers were initially unable to evacuate him from the home due to tear gas fired by Israeli forces, according to information gathered by DCIP. Imad was transported to Rafidia hospital in Nablus in a neighbor’s taxi, where he was pronounced dead.

Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash during an early morning raid on Balata refugee camp near Nablus on August 24, 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Hashash family)

Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash during a raid on Balata refugee camp near Nablus on August 24, 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Hashash family)

Imad is the 12th Palestinian child shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2021. Israeli forces shot Mohammad Mo’ayyad Bahjat Abu Sara on July 28, while he was a passenger in his father’s car. Israeli forces fired 13 bullets at the vehicle as it retreated from the area in which they were deployed.

Israeli forces shot Mohammad Munir Mohammad Tamimi, 17, in the back on July 24. Mohammad underwent surgery at Salfit governmental hospital but succumbed to his wounds later that evening.

In June, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teens from the occupied West Bank village of Beita located southeast of Nablus. Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Ahmad Bani-Shamsa in the head with live ammunition around 5:30 p.m. on June 16 in Beita, DCIP reported. Ahmad did not present any threat to Israeli forces at the time he was shot. On June 11, Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Mohammad Hamayel in the chest with live ammunition around 4:30 p.m. during a protest, DCIP reported.

Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.

August 24, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Leave a comment

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