Germany joins Israel in dock for genocide… Western imperialism’s perverse evolution

April 12, 2024

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Germany and the United States along with other Western powers are continuing deep-seated historical crimes by way of their proxy war against Russia.

The repeating of history might seem tragic, even farcical. One may wonder how such apparent madness can be repeated. But the explanation is straightforward when it is understood that the motive force is the same.

The charge against Germany at the International Court of Justice this week of aiding genocide in Gaza is truly shameful. Germany was brought to court by Nicaragua for facilitating Israel’s genocide in Gaza in breach of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

That convention was created in the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s mass murder of six million Jews during World War Two. Only 79 years after the end of that war, the German state is again in the dock for complicity in an ongoing genocide in Gaza committed by a self-declared Jewish state of Israel.

It seems a shocking and deplorable twist in history. Within living memory, Germany stands accused again of abominable crimes against humanity.

What is even more disgraceful, the German authorities are denying that Israel is committing genocide and that Germany is nobly defending Israel’s security out of a special obligation owing to its heinous World War Two holocaust.

Germany’s supposed rationale for supporting Israel is an astounding perversion of history.

The case against Germany this week is incontestable as was the earlier case brought against Israel by South Africa in January before the same United Nations court at The Hague. A definitive ruling by the court on both cases is pending.

Nevertheless, already world public opinion is in concurrence with numerous international legal and human rights experts that Israel’s military siege of the Gaza Strip amounts to genocide and incorporates multiple violations of international law. Ergo, Germany’s culpability.

Over the past six months, Israel’s wanton destruction of the Palestinian territory has resulted in over 33,000 deaths, including more than 14,000 children and 10,000 women among the victims. The actual death toll is probably more than 46,000 given that 13,000 people are missing under rubble or buried in unmarked graves. It is feared that there will be up to 100,000 dead in the coming months as famine and disease intensify.

Germany is the second biggest supplier of weapons to Israel after the United States. Germany accounts for nearly one-third of all Israeli arms imports.

Israel’s murderous, indiscriminate siege of Gaza involving a deliberate policy of mass starvation of more than two million people would not be happening if it were not for crucial military support from the United States and Germany.

But just as important as the killing machines and ammunition is the unwavering political support provided by Germany, the United States, and all of their Western allies. Unbelievably, Berlin, Washington, London, Paris, and other Western capitals continue to assert that Israel is not committing genocide. Like U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeats the cynical and mendacious mantra about Israel’s right to self-defense.

What is going on in Gaza is a bloodbath enabled by Western imperialist powers. The U.S. and all its Western allies are accomplices in egregious war crimes. Live on television every day, and yet the contemptible Western media assiduously sanitize and mitigate the horror. In any sane world, the Western governments and their corporate-controlled “news media” should be irredeemably condemned for their complicity.

However, Germany’s culpability takes on a profoundly disturbing and disgraceful significance, as does the Zionist regime’s. In the name of millions of victims of Nazi Germany, the genocide in Gaza is being perpetrated with a truculence and self-righteousness that is despicable beyond words. It is utterly diabolical that the historic mass murder of Jews by Germany is now being repeated on others by a state that claims to be Jewish – and enabled by Germany. You could hardly make this obscenity up.

It should be understood too that the horror being perpetrated in Gaza is but one element in a toxic eruption of imperialist crimes currently underway across the globe.

In Ukraine, the Western imperialists in the NATO axis are waging a proxy war against Russia utilizing a corrupt NeoNazi regime headed up by a nominally Jewish puppet president who is up to his eyes in money laundering, fraud, and swindling. Germany is the second biggest supplier of weapons to the Ukrainian regime after the United States.

Eight decades ago, Nazi Germany deployed Ukrainian fascists to exterminate Jews and Slavs with a death toll of up to 30 million Soviet citizens. The contemporary Ukrainian regime glorifies these Nazi collaborators. The United States deployed the same Ukrainian fascists after the Second World War to wage covert war against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Thus, Germany and the United States along with other Western powers are continuing deep-seated historical crimes by way of their proxy war against Russia.

The same imperialist rogue states are enabling Israeli aggression against Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Israel’s deadly bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus earlier this month was a particularly brazen violation of international law. The barbarity of the Israeli fascist regime is fully enabled and incentivized by its Western patrons. The bitter irony is Washington and Berlin remonstrating with Iran to exercise “maximum restraint” while Israel openly attacks its sovereignty and assassinates its citizens.

Meanwhile, the United States, Australia and Britain are cajoling Japan to join their military alliance to provoke China. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was feted in Washington this week where he signed bellicose new military measures aimed at China and Russia. Kishida linked Ukraine with Asia, claiming that if Russia were to win the war in Ukraine, then China would take over East Asia. The Japanese minion gets its half right. The regions are indeed linked, not by alleged Russian and Chinese misconduct, but by the U.S.-led imperialism that Japan is cravenly serving.

Western imperialism and fascism have come full circle in a staggeringly short span of history. Nearly 80 years after Japan was defeated in the Pacific War in which it was responsible for up to 20 million deaths in China, Tokyo is at the forefront of new plans to wage a potential nuclear war on China. The perversion of Japan joining with the United States in this venture after the latter dropped two atomic bombs on its people in 1945 is yet another sickening twist in history.

The monstrous crimes of Nazi Germany and fascist Japan are today rehabilitated because the same forces serve the imperialist geopolitical interests of today.

The twists and contradictions of history are, however, crystallized in one historical force. All the crimes, barbarity, bloodshed and danger of catastrophic world war are the cause of imperialist powers – chief among them the United States and its insatiable quest for hegemonic domination.

Historic failure and systemic collapse of Western capitalism is the motive engine driving the world to war again, as it was in previous periods of the modern age. Colonialist genocide, World War One, World War Two, and now the abyss of World War Three.

Germany in the dock for genocide with Israel is not as incongruous as it might seem. Because imperialism and fascism are on the rampage again across the world. Both Germany and Israel are gang members in the crime syndicate, each with their specific justifying myths and alibis.

Russia and China are arguably the two nations that suffered the most in history from fascism. It is entirely consistent – if not lamentable – that Russia and China today are once again confronted by the same forces.

Germany is once again on the wrong side of history. And so too are the United States and all its Western vassals. Eternal shame on them.

100 Days of Ongoing Genocide in Gaza Amid the International Community’s Failure to Protect Palestinians

January 14, 2024

100 Days of Ongoing Genocide in Gaza Amid the International Community’s Failure to Protect Palestinians

Today, 14 January 2024, Israel’s genocidal military campaign against Gaza enters its hundredth day. Over this period, Al Mezan, Al-Haq, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have monitored and exposed the plethora of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts constituting genocide committed by the Israeli authorities and military across the occupied Palestinian territory, with its epicenter in Gaza. A hundred days later, the international community still falls short of fulfilling its duty to protect the Palestinian people.

The Israeli military is killing an average of 250 Palestinians per day in Gaza, a higher daily death rate than any other twenty-first-century armed conflict. In 100 days, Israeli attacks have killed one out of every 100 Palestinians in Gaza and injured—often with life-altering wounds—at least two Palestinians in every 100. As we write, thousands of Palestinians remain buried under rubble, whether dead or alive, some enduring this situation for days or even weeks. Hundreds of bodies are in a state of decay, deprived of the right to a dignified burial, as Israel continues to deny medical and rescue teams access to areas where its troops and soldiers are deployed.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, between 7 October 2023 and 12 January 2024, Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza killed 23,843 Palestinians and wounded 60,317 more. According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, among those killed are approximately 10,400 children, 7,100 women, 337 medical personnel, 45 civil defense personnel, and 117 journalists. Our teams on the ground emphasize that the actual number of fatalities is considerably higher than the figure announced by the Ministry of Health, as a substantial number of individuals remain trapped under the rubble.

This chilling death and injury toll occurs amidst a deliberately imposed humanitarian crisis by the Israeli authorities upon the 2.3 million Palestinian residents of Gaza. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, with many experiencing displacement on multiple occasions, notwithstanding that there is not a single place in Gaza that can be called safe. Israel employs starvation as a method of warfare: 2.3 million residents of Gaza, including our staff, face significant daily challenges in accessing food and water. Reports of deaths from hunger, particularly among children, newborns and infants, are beginning to surface. The situation is particularly catastrophic in northern Gaza, where the presence of Israeli soldiers and troops on the ground has made the delivery of humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians who are still located there virtually impossible.

Due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, every facet of life there has faced utter destruction. The local healthcare system has crumbled as Israel has declared an “unrelenting war” on the health system in Gaza, rendering it incapable of delivering essential care to the injured, sick individuals, and everyday patients. Educational pursuits have been severely disrupted, with Israeli attacks causing complete destruction to 95 schools and universities, and partial damage to 295 others, as reported by the Government Media Office in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes destroyed 145 mosques, while another 243 were partially damaged. Three churches have been destroyed by Israeli attacks, along with numerous archaeological and historical sites, as well as significant cultural landmarks, contributing to the erasure of Palestinian history and life throughout Gaza.

Simultaneously with the genocide in Gaza, Israel escalated attacks against Palestinians all across historic Palestine. In the occupied West Bank, between 7 October 2023 and 12 January 2024, the Israeli military and settlers killed 336 Palestinians, including 84 children. Over the same period of time, Israel started a campaign of mass arrest: since 7 October, at least 5875 Palestinians have been detained, as further punitive measures have been imposed on them and the existing 5,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including administrative detainees. Palestinians in Israeli custody and detention are subjected to torture, ill-treatment, inhumane or degrading treatment, and enforced disappearances. The Israel Prison Service announced the ‘death’ of at least seven Palestinian detainees and prisoners. Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship have also experienced various forms of persecution, including arbitrary arrests, threats of citizenship revocation, and a severe crackdown on freedom of speech.

Al Mezan, Al-Haq, and PCHR reiterate that the Palestinian people in Gaza are facing an ongoing genocide. Israel’s actions in Gaza—encompassing killings, causing severe bodily or mental harm, deliberately imposing conditions of life aimed at physical destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group—constitute genocidal acts under the 1948 Genocide Convention. These acts are committed with the intent to destroy, either wholly or in part, the Palestinian population in Gaza. This intent is substantiated by statements from official Israeli sources and individuals expressing the clear intention to carry out such destruction.

The recent address from the Israeli Prime Minister, delivered last night, underscores the lack of any inclination on Israel’s part to cease its genocidal military campaign in Gaza. The remarks made during this speech also underline Israel’s refusal to implement a ceasefire in Gaza, in violation of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.27 adopted on 10 December 2023, highlighting the urgency for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to promptly issue provisional measures.

To this end, we urge the ICJ to swiftly issue provisional measures instructing Israel to cease military operations, refrain from genocidal acts in Gaza, and facilitate the entry of aid and fact-finding teams for accountability purposes, as requested by South Africa. We additionally call on all State Parties to the Genocide Convention to express their endorsements and formally support the legal proceedings initiated by South Africa at the ICJ.

We reiterate our plea to the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Ms. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, to officially acknowledge and publicly affirm that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip amount to genocide. Additionally, we urge her to condemn the genocidal rhetoric emanating from Israeli officials and emphasize the inherent dangers that such rhetoric poses to the international community.

Under international law, States must not recognize illegal situations as legitimate and must refrain from assisting in maintaining the illegal situation. States must also impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel and stop the provision and transit of military equipment that may foreseeably be used in the commission of international crimes.

Responsibility at the State level should be accompanied by individual criminal accountability. We strongly reiterate our calls on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to promptly issue arrest warrants for Israeli political, security and military officials—especially governmental officials and high-ranking military personel—believed to be responsible for perpetrating, ordering, planning, and instigating international crimes, including genocide, committed over the past 100 days as well as since 13 June 2014.

Israel’s international crimes against the Palestinian people must cease immediately and permanently. To this end, the international community must not only hold Israel and the Israeli authorities accountable, but address the root causes by dismantling Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, and ensuring that all discriminatory and inhumane laws, policies and practices against the Palestinian people are abolished once and for all. The international community must also urge Israel, the Occupying Power, to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory, lift the closure and blockade of Gaza, and enable the Palestinian people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, including their right to return.

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«فيتنام القرن الـ 21»: غزة تسرّع الانحدار الأميركي

وليد شرارة

الجمعة 29 كانون الأول 2023

لقد سقط «النظام الليبرالي الدولي»، وهو الاسم الحركي لمنظومة الهيمنة الغربية، في غزة. لم يكُن سرّاً أن هذه المنظومة تعاني منذ أكثر من عقد، من أزمة مستعصية نتيجة تراجع قدرتها على السيطرة العسكرية بفعل الهزائم التي مُنيت بها في العراق وأفغانستان – ومن الممكن إضافة لبنان وغزة هنا -، وانحسار نفوذها الاقتصادي والسياسي مع صعود دور المنافسين غير الغربيين الكبار، كالصين وروسيا والهند، والمتوسّطين، كبقية دول «بريكس». غير أن مشاركة «الغرب الجماعي» في حرب الإبادة الصهيونية ضد الشعب الفلسطيني في غزة، وجّهت ضربة قاضية على الأرجح لمحاولات تجديد صدقية سردية «النظام الليبرالي الدولي» عن نفسه، ومزاعم «التفوق الأخلاقي» للديموقراطيات على ما عداها من الأنظمة السياسية. سعت إدارة جو بايدن إلى تجديد تلك الصدقية المترنحة نتيجة لسياسات إدارة دونالد ترامب، وما سبقها من حروب أميركية تلازمت مع ممارسات إجرامية بحق شعوب بأكملها، أضحت السجون – المسالخ في أبو غريب وغوانتانامو رموزاً لها، لكنها لن تتمكن من ذلك بعد محرقة غزة. فمشاهد جثث الأبرياء المتكدسة أو المتحلّلة أو المبعثرة إلى أشلاء، في شوارع القطاع وأزقته، وفي مستشفياته ومدارسه، وصيرورته أكواماً من الركام، ستحفر عميقاً في وجدان أغلبية وازنة من شعوب العالم، بما فيها الشعوب الغربية، وتكشف الوجه الحقيقي لـ«تحالف الديموقراطيات» العتيد.نحن في الواقع أمام منعطف فكري – سياسي حاسم، بالنسبة إلى نظرة قطاعات معتبرة من تلك الشعوب للولايات المتحدة وأتباعها، لا يقلّ أهمية عن ذلك الذي مثّلته حرب فيتنام في ستينيات القرن الماضي وسبعينياته. فقد أوضحت هذه الأخيرة، آنذاك، الطبيعة الإمبريالية العاتية لـ«الديموقراطية الأعرق»، ما أسهم في تشكل حركة معارضة شعبية عالمية وازنة لسياساتها، أدّت دوراً في تغيّر ميزان القوى الإجمالي لغير مصلحتها، وبقية القصة معروفة للجميع. صحيح أن «جثث الجنود العائدة بالأكياس» وفقاً للتعبير المستخدم حينها، كانت عاملاً أساسياً في انقلاب موقف الرأي العام الأميركي حيال الحرب، غير أن الصحيح أيضاً هو أن جلاء زيف المبررات الرسمية لواشنطن لخوضها دفاعاً عن «الديموقراطية وحقوق الإنسان في مواجهة الشيوعية ومشروعها الشمولي»، بسبب هول الجرائم التي ارتكبها جيشها ضدّ الشعب الفيتنامي، كان بدوره عاملاً مؤثراً في اتساع المعارضة وتجذّرها.

إسرائيل هي التي ترتكب الجرائم اليوم في غزة، لكنها تقوم بذلك بشراكة كاملة مع حليفها الأميركي أولاً، الذي لا يزال يرفض الدعوة إلى وقف إطلاق النار، ويمدّها بالسلاح والعتاد ويحشد الأساطيل ذوداً عنها. هو مدرك بكل تأكيد للتبعات الكارثية لمثل هذه السياسة على صورته ونفوذه على الصعيد الدولي والداخلي الأميركي، ما يفسّر محاولاته التمايز عن ممارسات حليفه الإسرائيلي من خلال حضّه على «احترام القانون الدولي الإنساني»، أو اقتراحه هدناً إنسانية، أو حمله على الانتقال إلى مرحلة جديدة من الحرب، تتخلّلها عمليات خاصة موجّهة ضد تنظيمات المقاومة حصراً. وهي محاولات لن تجدي نفعاً، لأن مسؤولية واشنطن عمّا وقع حتى الآن لا تخفى على أحد. الأسوأ بالنسبة إليها، هو أن تداعي صدقيّة سرديتها يأتي في سياق تحتاج فيه إلى أوسع إجماع داخلي أميركي وغربي حول استراتيجية المواجهة المحتدمة التي تعتمدها ضدّ روسيا والصين.

ربما ستجِد آراء وزير الخارجية الروسي، سيرغي لافروف، أحد أبرز الدعاة منذ سنوات طويلة لضرورة إقامة نظام دولي متعدد الأقطاب، آذاناً صاغية في أنحاء المعمورة، بما فيه في داخل الغرب، في الظروف الراهنة أكثر بكثير من ذي قبل. فقد حذّر لافروف، في مقابلة مع وكالة «تاس»، من أنه «ليس بإمكان أحد في العالم أن يكون متأكداً من الإفلات سالماً من المكائد الغربية في عام 2024. العواصف مستمرة في العالم، وأحد الأسباب هو أن الدوائر الحاكمة في الغرب تثير أزمات على بعد آلاف الكيلومترات من حدودها من أجل حلّ قضاياها على حساب الشعوب الأخرى». جهدت إدارة بايدن منذ اندلاع الحرب الأوكرانية، وهي حرب تشنّها بالوكالة على روسيا، لتوحيد المعسكر الغربي وإنتاج إجماع داخلي في بلدانه ضدّها باعتبارها عدواً ليس للأوكرانيين وحدهم، بل لكل القيم الإنسانية والسياسية المشتركة بين الديموقراطيات. المعركة في عرفها لم تكن جيوسياسية فقط، بل فكرية – عقائدية، ما يسهل إسباغ الطابع الوجودي عليها. وباسم هذا الطابع الوجودي، جرى تبرير ضخ عشرات مليارات الدولارات بصيغة مساعدات عسكرية واقتصادية ومالية لنظام كييف ضد «العدوان الروسي الغاشم»، وإقناع الشعوب الأوروبية باحتمال التداعيات الناجمة عن الحرب، وفي مقدّمتها التضخم المتزايد.

يأتي التورط الغربي في حرب الإبادة الإسرائيلية ضدّ أهل غزة لينسف تلك المبررات «القيمية/ الأخلاقية» من أساسها. قد يستخف البعض بهذا الأمر لكنهم مخطئون. فتبدُّد هذه المبررات، معطوفاً على الفشل الذريع في الميدان للهجوم المضاد الأوكراني، الذي حظي بتطبيل إعلامي – سياسي غربي باعتباره كفيلاً بدحر القوات الروسية، سيفضي بالضرورة إلى مراجعة الحكومات الغربية لحساباتها، وتخفيض سقف توقّعاتها بالنسبة إلى مستقبل النزاع الدائر هناك. سيكون من الأصعب على الحكومات المشار إليها المضيّ في حرب باهظة الكلفة، ومن دون «إنجازات ميدانية»، وفاقدة للمسوّغات بنظر شعوبها، ما يعزّز فرص البحث عن حلول سياسية تأخذ في الاعتبار المطالب الروسية.

المواجهة الاستراتيجية مع الصين، لكونها المنافس الاستراتيجي الأكبر للولايات المتحدة، ستبقى أولوية بالنسبة إلى الإدارة الأميركية الحالية وإلى أيّ إدارة قادمة. لكن المنافسة في ميادين التجارة والاقتصاد والتكنولوجيا لا تعني اتّباع سياسة الاستفزاز المتعمّد والمستمر، وصولاً إلى التدحرج نحو حافة الحرب. مايكل كلير، الخبير في الشؤون الاستراتيجية العسكرية والطاقة، رأى في مقاله الأخير على موقع «توم ديسباتش»، أن قمة سان فرنسيسكو بين الرئيسين الصيني والأميركي مثّلت «خطوة صغيرة إلى الوراء بعيداً عن حافة الهاوية». يشير كلير إلى أن الهدف من القمة بالنسبة إلى الرئيسين كان وقف الانزلاق نحو صدام كارثي والاتفاق على إدارة الخلافات «بطريقة مسؤولة»، غير أن القضايا الخلافية الأبرز، أي تايوان والجزر المتنازع عليها بين الصين وبعض دول جوارها لم تحظَ بالاهتمام الكافي خلالها. ستجرى الانتخابات الرئاسية في تايوان في 13 كانون الثاني 2024، وإذا ما انتصر مرشح «الحزب الديموقراطي التقدمي» الحاكم راهناً، وذو التوجهات الانفصالية، فإن هذا التطور سيعني مضاعفة التوتر مع بكين، وضغوطاً متعاظمة من الجمهوريين ومن الصقور الديموقراطيين على إدارة بايدن لزيادة تسليح الجزيرة والوقوف إلى جانبها في حال تدخّل الصين لمنع الانفصال. وأغلب الظن، فإنّ خيار الدخول في صدام مع الصين سيلاقي معارضة قوية من قطاعات شبابية كبيرة في الولايات المتحدة، في داخل الحزب «الديموقراطي» وفي خارجه، لم تعد مقتنعة بـ«التفوّق الأخلاقي» لحكومة بلادها على منافسيها الخارجيين نظراً إلى تورطها في حرب الإبادة ضد غزة. مستقبل إدارة بايدن لن يكون واعداً، وثمن دماء شهداء غزة سيكون باهظاً بالنسبة إليها وإلى طموحاتها في منطقتنا، وفي نواحي العالم الأخرى.

من ملف : إسرائيل تنقسم حول «اليوم التالي»

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Why Does the West Support the Genocide of Gaza?

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Source

And when will its political and media leaders be tried, condemned, and executed?

Kevin Barrett

Even Israeli experts call it “a textbook case of genocide.” Those are the exact words of Raz Siegal, an Israeli historian and professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University. On October 16, Siegal told Democracy Now:

We have to understand that the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 1948 requires that we see special intent for genocide to happen. And to quote the convention, intent to destroy a group is defined as racial, ethnic, religious or national as such that is collectively, not just individuals. And this intent, as we just heard, is on full display by Israeli politicians and army officers since October 7th. We heard Israel’s president. It’s well-known what Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 9th declaring a complete siege on Gaza, cutting off water, food, fuel, stating that “We’re fighting human animals,” and we will react “accordingly.” He also said that “We will eliminate everything.” We know that Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, for example, acknowledged wanton destruction and said explicitly, “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.” So we’re seeing the special intent on full display.

And it isn’t just Israelis who are guilty. Leaders of Western countries have given the Gaza Holocaust their full backing. On Saturday, October 7, even as Israeli tanks, rockets, and helicopter gunships were mass-murdering hundreds of Israeli civilian prisoners alongside dozens of their Hamas captors, US President Joe Biden condemned as “unconscionable” the “appalling terrorist attacks” and encouraged what would become genocidal Israeli “retaliation.”

In reality, the Israelis, not Hamas, were the terrorists of October 7. The only mass slaughters of civilians that day were carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces. Hamas’s brave soldiers were under strict orders to attack Israeli military targets and try to capture military hostages, with the taking of civilian hostages being a secondary option or last resort. There were no Hamas orders to kill unarmed civilians, and surviving Israeli hostages speak of the kindness and generosity of their Hamas captors.

Zionist-owned Western media immediately began broadcasting outrageous lies deliberately designed to incite genocide. (Every media person responsible for those lies must some day be tried, convicted and executed.)

Zionist genocide propagandists raved deliriously about Hamas supposedly beheading 40 babies, baking babies in ovens, gouging eyes, mutilating breasts, cutting open naked women, raping women, mutilating dead bodies, spreading cyanide, and on and on. All lies. When Joe Biden endorsed the beheaded babies canard, claiming that he had seen the bodies, he sealed his fate as a self-incriminated genocide inciter who will be executed in the unlikely event that he lives long enough to face trial.

What really happened on October 7 was reasonably clear even then, and has since become undeniable. Hamas scored what Scott Ritter has called “the most successful military raid of this century:”

Hamas effectively neutralized Israel’s vaunted intelligence services, blinding them to the possibility of an attack of this scope and scale…(then) Hamas defeated those Israeli soldiers stationed along the barrier wall in a stand-up fight. Two battalions of the Golani Brigade were routed, as were elements of other vaunted IDF units.

Hamas struck the Headquarters of the Gaza Division, the local intelligence hub, and other major command and control facilities with brutal precision, turning what should have been a five-minute response time into many hours—more than enough time for Hamas to carry out one of its primary objectives—the taking of hostages. This they did with extreme proficiency, returning to Gaza with more than 230 Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Hamas fighters killed about 600 Israeli soldiers during the first 24 hours, a total that “included many of Israel’s most elite officers, including dozens of colonels and majors.” After Hamas repeatedly defeated the Israeli military in stand-up fights, and captured hundreds of Israeli prisoners, the Zionists panicked and invoked the Hannibal Directive, according to which heavy weaponry is used to eliminate both hostage takers and hostages. According to an Israeli Air Force officer who participated in the mass murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians along with their Hamas captors, top-level Zionist commanders ordered “mass Hannibal.” In other words, they deliberately ordered the mass slaughter of their own civilians by the hundreds in order to prevent them from becoming hostages and adding to Israel’s political problems. Had they not done so, Hamas would have returned to Gaza with as many as 700 prisoners, rather than the 250 that they actually got.

Israel then used photos of the carnage that they themselves had inflicted—using helicopter gunships, tanks, and rockets—and blamed it on Hamas. Even a cursory look at the photos of the devastated kibbutz buildings, the blown-up buildings at the music festival, and the vast array of shredded automobiles makes it clear that most of the damage was done not by Hamas’s small arms fire, but by Israel’s heavy weaponry. Yet the shameless Zionists, mass-murderers of their own people, had the chutzpah to blame the courageous and ethical soldiers of Hamas for their own crimes!

The West Sparks the Genocide

By October 8 I could see, as could anyone else with eyes, that the images out of Israel showed that the Israelis, not Hamas, were responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths. The Biden Administration, and its CIA daily briefer, must have known the same thing, with even greater certainty and in greater detail. Yet instead of using its knowledge of the truth to restrain Israel’s murderous impulse towards Biblical-scale vengeance, Joe Biden went on television and bloviated about supposedly seeing 40 Israeli babies beheaded by Hamas.

Everything the almost-entirely-Jewish Biden Administration did was calculated to encourage Israel to launch a genocide. And every other Western leader went along, actively or passively, with the genocide plan.

Once the exterminationist carpet-bombing of Gaza was underway, and thousands of women and children murdered, did those Western leaders reverse course and demand that Israel stop? Of course not.

Anthony Blinken, who flew to Tel Aviv first, in the midst of the carpet-bombing, let slip that his pre-eminent loyalty was to the genocidal entity, announcing that he flew to Tel Aviv “not only as the United States Secretary of State but also as a Jew.” (Remove the words only and also from that sentence to understand its real meaning.)

Joe Biden flew to Tel Aviv to put his stamp of approval on the genocide. So did UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who described Hamas as “the new Nazis” according to Netanyahu. Second-tier Western powers like Austria and Czechoslovakia also sent their leaders to kiss Netanyahu’s reeking rump and endorse the Gaza Holocaust.

Why has the West’s entire leadership class been falling all over itself competing to see who can move to the head of the line of genocidal war criminals? Can’t they see that the global majority is appalled by the wholesale Zionist atrocities and sides with Palestine? Don’t they realize that the West is hastening its own demise, and ensuring the rise of a non-Western-led world order, by undermining its pretense of concern for international law and human rights?

Several possible reasons for the West’s unanimously-pro-genocide position have been proposed. Some say the West is incorrigibly racist and just doesn’t care about the deaths of brown people, especially Muslims. They add that the West’s undisputed hegemon, the USA, was founded on Old Testament style genocide, and that the formerly Protestant and now Jewish Bible-thumpers of Washington DC share Netanyahu’s vengeful lust for Biblical extermination of “Amalek” (meaning the designated racial enemies of the Jews and/or Americans).

Another potential explanation invokes realpolitik. The US imperial center increasingly dominates the West (the Ukraine war destruction of Nordstream emasculated Europe) but is losing ground elsewhere. Hamas’s crushing defeat of Israel on October 7 struck a powerful blow not only against Zionism, but against the whole Anglo-Zionist Empire. The Biden “minyan” (Jewish-Zionist cabinet) panicked and scrambled to endorse Israeli genocide, not out of sober calculation, but for the same reason that a rabid rat, when cornered, mindlessly lashes out. These people know that the days of the US empire, and the Zionist entity, are numbered, and it drives them crazy. They see that every day the rising countries, led by China, Russia, and Iran, become stronger, and the US and its European vassals grow weaker. Terrified, they realize that if war is to come, the sooner the better, because every day the West’s chances of winning recede. And then, even more terrified, they grasp that it is already too late. So they take out their frustration on the women and children of Gaza.

Another realpolitik-based explanation involves the possibility that US leaders, or at least the most extreme neocon faction, would welcome an all-out war with Iran and the Axis of Resistance—a war which every additional day of genocide brings closer. Even though such a war risks a civilization-imploding World War III, and would at minimum result in tens or hundreds of thousands of Israeli and American casualties, it might at least offer a distraction from looming US defeat in Ukraine. Additionally, a massive war in West Asia would reduce the region to chaos and set back China’s Belt-and-Road plan by a decade or two, thereby prolonging the US imperial illusion by maintaining it on life support for another few years. (China builds, the US destroys, so maximizing destruction prolongs the US imperial agony.)

But in the end, the best explanation for Western leaders’ pro-genocide position involves the role of the media. Allan Thompson’s (ed.) The Media and the Rwanda Genocide shows that more than half a million Rwandans were butchered in 1994, most hacked to death with machetes, primarily due to media incitement. By dominating the formation of public opinion, the Rwandan media, especially radio, created a pro-genocide bubble that took on a life of its own. Specifically, by spreading outrageous lies that dehumanized the target group, both broadcast and print media deliberately orchestrated the mass murder of as many as 700,000 people.

This is exactly what mainstream Western media have done in their incitement of the Gaza genocide. The aforementioned lies about beheaded and roasted babies, gouged eyeballs and broken pelvises, and other gory inventions from the fecund sado-masochistic Zionist imagination were deliberately deployed to provoke real mass murders and maimings of Palestinians.

By enthusiastically participating in the Gaza genocide, the West, starting with its media and political elites, has completely discredited itself in the eyes of the world. The era of Western hegemony is coming to an end. The majority of the Earth’s population can now see that anything, absolutely anything, would be better than allowing these genocidal monsters to continue to dominate this planet.

The war criminals have sealed their own so-called civilization’s fate, and condemned their own souls to eternal hellfire. I hope to live long enough, insha’allah, to see them all, every last one of them, dragged to Beijing or Moscow or Tehran and tried for their crimes against humanity and led to the gallows.

TEAM B AND THE JERUSALEM CONFERENCE: HOW ISRAEL HELPED CRAFT MODERN-DAY “TERRORISM”

NOVEMBER 17TH, 2023

Source

Kit Klarenberg

Since Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza began, Zionist officials, pundits, journalists, and their Western opposite numbers have endlessly invoked the sinister specter of “terrorism” to justify the industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians. It is because of “terrorism,” twice-failed U.S. Presidential candidate and unconvicted war criminal Hillary Clinton representatively wrote for The Atlantic on November 14 that “Hamas must be permanently erased.” Destroyed hospitals and schools and civilians killed en masse are reasonable “collateral damage.” Such is the unparalleled evil of “terrorists.”

Yet, the relentless stream of heart-rending clips documenting the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) Holocaust deluging social media feeds the world over, and the ever-ratcheting child death toll has compelled countless citizens to ask, “If Hamas are terrorists, then what are Zionists?” It is surely no coincidence YouTube recently yanked the official video of a groundbreaking track by renowned rapper and MintPress News contributor Lowkey, “Terrorist?” posing this precise question.

“Terrorist?” was released in 2011, at the height of the U.S. Empire’s “War on Terror.” Then, the purported global threat of “terrorism” was exploited throughout the West to savage civil liberties at home and wage relentless illegal military “interventions” abroad. Mainstream usage of the term precipitously plummeted thereafter. It is only now regaining popular currency due to the Gaza genocide.

This is no accident. As we shall see, Israel – and specifically its veteran leader, Benjamin Netanyahu – was fundamental to concocting the mainstream conception of “terrorism,” explicitly to delegitimize anti-imperial struggles while validating Western state violence directed at oppressed peoples across the Global South. The impact of this informational assault can be felt in every corner of the world today – not least Gaza.

In fact, one might reasonably conclude the specific foundations of Nakba 2.0, which is unfolding in grisly real-time right now, were laid decades ago as a result of the connivances of Netanyahu, the international Zionist lobby, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. What follows is the little-known history of how “terrorism” came to be. A majority of the world’s population – the Palestinian people in particular – live with the mephitic consequences every day.

IT BEGINS…

Our story starts in 1976, at the peak of détente between the U.S. and Soviet Union. After two-and-a-half decades of bitter enmity, the two superpowers resolved to peaceful coexistence at the start of the decade. They collaborated to systematically dismantle the structures and doctrines that defined the immediate post-World War II era, such as Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.).

In May of that year, the CIA produced its annual National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a comprehensive report combining data from various intelligence agencies intended to be a basis for crafting foreign policy. In keeping with the past five years, it concluded the Soviets were in severe economic decline, favored diplomacy over conflict, and desperately sought an end to the Cold War. Such findings lay behind Washington’s push for détente and Moscow’s eager acceptance of major disarmament and arms control treaties.

However, newly-appointed CIA director George H. W. Bush categorically rejected these conclusions. He sought a second opinion and constructed an independent intelligence cell to review the NIE. Known as Team B, it was composed of hardcore Cold Warriors, defense-industry-funded hawks, and rabid anti-Communists. Among them were several individuals who would become leading figures in the neoconservative movement, such as Paul Wolfowitz. Also present were the infamous CIA and Pentagon dark arts specialists who had been professionally ostracized due to détente.

Team B duly reviewed the NIE and rubbished each and every one of the Agency’s findings. Rather than dilapidated, impoverished and teetering on total collapse, the Soviet Union was, in fact, more deadly and dangerous than ever, having constructed a vast array of “first strike” capabilities right under the CIA’s collective nose. To reach these bombshell conclusions, Team B relied on a confounding hodgepodge of peculiar logical fallacy, paranoid theorizing, crazed conspiratorial conjecture, unsupported value judgments, and amateurish circular reasoning.

George HW Bush CIA
Then-CIA director George H.W. Bush looks over a map of Beirut, Lebanon, with President Gerald Ford. Photo | CIA Archives

For example, Team B repeatedly assessed that a lack of evidence Moscow possessed weapons systems, military technology, or surveillance capabilities comparable or superior to Washington’s own was inverse proof the Soviets, in fact, did. They were so sophisticated and innovative, Team B concluded, that they couldn’t be detected or even comprehended by the West. Team B’s analysis was confirmed to be a total fantasy when the USSR collapsed. Yet, its methods informed all subsequent NIEs throughout the Cold War and likely endure today.

On June 27 of that year, mere weeks after Team B was set to work on reigniting the Cold War, Air France Flight 139, en route to Paris from Tel Aviv, was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Redirected to a Ugandan airport, the plane was greeted on the runway by Idi Amin’s military, who ushered the passengers – the majority of whom were Jewish or Israeli – into the terminal, watched over by scores of soldiers, intended to prevent their escape or rescue.

The hijackers relayed a demand to the government of Israel. Unless a ransom of $5 million was paid to them and 53 Palestinian prisoners were released from jail, the hostages would be executed. In response, 100 elite IOF commandos launched an audacious action to free the hostages. Their mission – known as the Entebbe Raid – was a stunning success. All but four hostages were rescued alive, and the IOF lost just one commander – Yonatan (Jonathan) Netanyahu, the older brother of Israel’s sitting Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘PROPAGANDA TO DEHUMANIZE’

For years, by that point, Israeli officials had been attempting to popularize the term “terrorism” to explain the motivations and actions of Palestinian freedom fighters. That way, their righteous fury at repression could be reframed as a destructive ideology of violence for violence’s sake without rationale and Zionist colonial tyranny as warranted self-defense. This effort became turbocharged in September 1972, when the kidnapping of 11 Israeli athletes at that year’s Olympics in Munich by Palestinian militants ended with all hostages murdered.

This particularly public bloodshed centered world attention on Israel and left Western citizens wondering what could’ve possibly inspired such actions. Zionists had hitherto managed to largely conceal their systematic, state-enforced repression and displacement of Palestinians from the outside world. Journalists were kept well away from the scenes of major crimes. At the same time, Amnesty International’s Israeli branch was secretly financed and directed by Tel Aviv’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to whitewash facts on the ground.

For the Netanyahu family, the Entebbe raid was a tragedy – but also an ideal opportunity to validate and internationalize the concept of “terrorism,” as espoused by Zionists. In 1979, Benjamin Netanyahu founded the Jonathan Institute in honor of his slain brother. Its purpose, he said, was:

To focus public attention on the grave threat that international terrorism poses to all democratic societies, to study the real nature of today’s terrorism, and to propose measures for combating and defeating the international terror movements.”

In July that year, the Institute convened the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism (JCIT) in Jerusalem’s Hilton Hotel. It gathered together a 700-strong mob of Israeli government officials, U.S. lawmakers, intelligence operatives from across the ‘Five Eyes’ global spying network, and Western foreign policy apparatchiks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many representatives of Team B were in attendance. For four days and seven separate sessions, speaker after speaker painted a disturbing picture of the worldwide phenomenon of “terrorism.”

They unanimously declared that all “terrorists” constituted a single, organized political movement that was being secretly financed, armed, trained, and directed by the Soviet Union. This devilish nexus, it was claimed, posed a mortal threat to Western democracy, freedom, and security, requiring a coordinated response. Eerily, as academic Diana Ralph later observed, the JCIT’s collective prescription for tackling this purported menace was precisely what transpired just over two decades later during the “War on Terror”.

[This included] pre-emptive attacks on states that are alleged to support ‘terrorists’; an elaborate intelligence system apparatus; slashed civil liberties, particularly for Palestinians targeted as potential terrorists, including detention without charge, and torture; and propaganda to dehumanize ‘terrorists’ in the eyes of the public.”

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin addressed the JCIT’s opening session. He set the tone by claiming Western state violence was ultimately “a fight for freedom or liberation” and, therefore, fundamentally opposed to “terrorism.” He concluded his remarks by imploring the assembled throng to go forth and promote the conference’s message once it was over. And they did.

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin addressed the JCIT’s opening session. He set the tone by claiming Western state violence was ultimately “a fight for freedom or liberation” and, therefore, fundamentally opposed to “terrorism.” He concluded his remarks by imploring the assembled throng to go forth and promote the conference’s message once it was over. And they did.

‘THE TERROR NETWORK’

Among the JCIT attendees was American author and journalist Claire Sterling, who cut her teeth as a reporter decades earlier at the Overseas News Agency, an MI6 propaganda operation seeking to boost U.S. public support for entering World War II. Following the conference, she frequently amplified the claims of JCIT speakers in articles for prominent newspapers, leading to an epic March 1981 front-page exposé in The New York Times, “Terrorism: Tracing The International Network.”

A book published later that year, “The Terror Network,” expanded significantly on Sterling’s oeuvre and firmly cemented the notion of Moscow as a grand spider sat in the middle of a vast, globe-spanning web of deadly political violence in the Western public mind. It caused a sensation upon release, receiving rave reviews from major news outlets, being translated into 22 languages, and becoming a bestseller in several countries.

Claire Sterling The Terror Network

Most significantly of all, “The Terror Network” had a particularly potent impact on newly-inaugurated President Ronald Reagan and his CIA chief William Casey. Committed anti-Communists, they entered office desperately seeking a pretext for brutally crushing left-wing, nationalist opposition to U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Sterling’s work provided ample ammunition for achieving that bloodsoaked objective and was key to the White House decisively shattering détente, a process begun by Team B five years earlier.

Consequently, “The Terror Network” was circulated among U.S. lawmakers and heavily promoted overseas on the Reagan administration’s dime. Casey furthermore tasked his Agency with verifying its thesis. They quickly assessed Sterling’s work to be irredeemable garbage, ironically enough, as it was heavily influenced by CIA black propaganda. Enraged, Casey demanded the evaluation be revised. An updated appraisal was less scathing but nonetheless stressed the book was “uneven and the reliability of its sources varies widely,” while “significant portions” were “incorrect.”

Still dissatisfied, Casey asked a CIA “senior review panel” charged with scrutinizing Langley’s formal estimates to write their own report on the subject. They concluded the Soviets did offer limited financial, material and practical assistance to a handful of anti-imperial Global South liberation movements, some of which were labeled “terrorists” by Western powers. But there was “insufficient evidence” of Muscovite culpability for the entire global phenomenon of “terrorism,” let alone funding and directing such entities as dedicated policy.

Undeterred, when Casey personally delivered the report to Reagan, he allegedly said of its findings, “Of course, Mr. President, you and I know better.” So it was CIA-backed death squads that ran roughshod across Washington’s “backyard” throughout the 1980s in the name of neutralizing Soviet influence in the region. Their actions were heavily informed by the Agency’s guerrilla warfare manual, which encouraged assassinations of government officials and civilian leaders and deadly attacks on “soft targets” such as schools and hospitals. “Terrorism,” in other words.

‘WE ARE ALL PALESTINIANS’

Another example of Reagan’s “terrorism” was sponsoring Afghanistan’s Mujahideen resistance fighters in their battle with – ironically enough – the Soviet Red Army. This policy endured after the “Evil Empire” was vanquished. The same militants were transported to Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s to aid and abet the painful, forced death of Yugoslavia.

When these covert actions produced “blowback” in the form of the 9/11 attacks, several individuals who attended the JCIT, and their acolytes, were elevated to the Bush administration due to their supposed “terrorism” expertise. Meanwhile, with public and state-level fears of “terrorism” ramping up significantly the world over, many Western countries turned to Israel for advice and guidance on how to tackle the issue. As Nentyahu commented in 2008:

We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon and the American struggle in Iraq.”

Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu shows reporters a copy of a Syrian passport allegedly found on a Palestinian fighter that washed ashore in Gaza, 1991. Jerome Delay | AP

It is not for nothing that graphic videos showcasing IOF “surgical strikes” on Palestinians, their homes, schools, and hospitals are proudly displayed at international arms fairs, and private demonstrations of invasive surveillance tools such as Pegasus routinely wow repressive foreign security and intelligence agencies behind-closed-doors.

On top of a significant financial benefit, there is a diplomatic dividend, too. Israel secures an invaluable censure-stifling goodwill from customers, therefore permitting the Zionist project of permanently purging Palestine of its indigenous inhabitants to persist untrammeled. We see a palpable demonstration of this currently. While the streets of almost every major Western city have regularly teemed with pro-Palestine fervor ever since the latest attack on Gaza began, the protesters’ elected representatives are at best silent, at worst, actively complicit.

Impassioned chants of “We are all Palestinians!” have been a frequent fixture at these events. This rallying call is highly apposite, for in addition to expressing sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people, it is urgently incumbent upon us all to reflect that the very same techniques and technologies of control and oppression to which they have been so cruelly subjected daily for decades are now firmly trained on us as well, as a result of Israel’s invention of “terrorism.” As such, it is no exaggeration to say Palestinians are canaries in the coalmine of humanity.

Israel Bombs Syria Killing 4 Soldiers, its 2nd Aggression in 6 Days

ARABI SOURI

The ‘Jewish’ Israel bombed several posts in central and coastal Syria in the early hours of the morning today, Saturday, November 19, a Syrian military spokesperson said in a statement carried by the Syrian news agency SANA.

In its report, strangely not the website’s main headline, SANA quoted the Syrian military spokesperson:

“At about six thirty in the morning, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from over the Mediterranean Sea from the direction of Baniyas, targeting some points in the central and coastal region, and our air defenses intercepted the incoming missiles of aggression and shot down most of them.”

The Israeli aggression killed four soldiers and injured one more in addition to causing material damage, the military spokesperson’s statement concluded.

This is the second Israeli aggression against Syria in the past 6 days, the previous aggression killed and injured Syrian army soldiers.

The Israeli (Read: NATO and the collective West through Israel) aggressions are blatant violations of International Law, the UN Charter, and the May 31st, 1974 ‘Separation of Forces Agreement between Israel and Syria,’ dozens of useless UN peacekeepers (UNDOF) were deployed since on the Golan to observe the agreement whose role is just to count the Israeli aggressions and report it to the UNSC which in turn calls for peace in useless statements.

The role of Russia remains very strange in the continuous Israeli aggressions, the Russian military has an agreement with Israel on non-confliction over Syria’s skies, and holds back weapons Syria purchased over a decade ago under request from the Israelis despite the fact that some of those dated weapons like the S300 are very much available in NATO countries including NATO’s launchpad post against Russia, Ukraine.

Moreover, Russia offered its more advanced S400 to countries hostile to it like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and actually sold it to other countries in its opponent camp like Turkey, all of which are parts of the US-led war of terror and attrition against the Syrian people.

The least that Russia can do in light of the repeated Israeli aggressions is not some empty words of condemnation by its foreign ministry, but rather withdraw itself from the weird agreement of coordination with Israel over Syria, which itself is against international law that Russia is saying it wants to preserve, draw down its diplomatic ties with the ‘Jewish’ state, or pressure the Israelis with fewer revenues through trade and tourism if the Israelis continue their breach of the UN Security Council resolutions which Russia is one of 5 permanent members of.

The same, above, goes for China, another permanent member of the UNSC that has very large economic and military ties with Israel.

That is if Russia does not want to sell its advanced weapons to Syria and actually allow the Syrian people to defend themselves with the weapons it delivered earlier.

The ‘Jewish’ state of Israel that commits crimes against the real Semites, the people of the Levant around the clock including on Sabbaths, needs wars to continue its illegal occupation of land, peace will force its criminal leaders to look after the Jews expelled from Europe and from Russia and shipped into Palestine to serve the overall Zionist dream of building the antiChrist’s kingdom.

Jews against Israel and Zionism
Israel is an anti-Jewish Zionist entity

Will Syria be able to restrain itself before retaliating militarily against Israel and its regional sponsors and causing mutual destruction to all parties, not only to Syria alone, is no longer a question, it’s a matter of when the retaliation strikes will start, Syria has nothing further to lose, unlike all its foes who contributed to its destruction.

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Children are Entitled to the Truth: Teaching Young People about Palestine in Canadian Schools and Beyond

November 1, 2022

Despite history of human rights abuses, the Israeli are training American cops. (Photo: File)
– Paul Salvatori is a Toronto-based journalist, community worker and artist. Much of his work on Palestine involves public education, such as through his recently created interview series, “Palestine in Perspective” (The Dark Room Podcast), where he speaks with writers, scholars and activists. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.

By Paul Salvatori

I was at a Toronto mall Saturday. I help coordinate a weekly talent show there.

After one of the talented singers, a girl about 10 years old, performed the MC asked her to stay on stage to share some words about herself.

“What do you like to do when you’re not singing?” he asked.

“Eat pizza and school,” she replied.

“Oh, tell us what you like about school?”

“I get to learn. I know a lot of things,” she said confidently. “I know about science, stuff like chemistry and biology, math, I’m learning about geography too. Places outside Canada.”

When she said that I thought about Palestine. And was hit with sadness too. I went for a walk.

I questioned the sadness. Yes, I reflected, Palestine brings to mind the suffering of innocent people. That always makes me sad.

Still, I felt there was something else underlying the feeling. I figured it out after the showcase.

The sadness stems from knowing that the girl is but one of many young people, as we saw during the Javier Davila scandal at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), who are part of a larger educational system in Canada that prevents students from learning about what’s actually happening in Palestine. In fact, it’s a system, as a recent Independent Jewish Voices Canada report confirms, that bullies educators into not teaching that all.

Children have a right to learn about world injustices at school. That obviously includes the longstanding Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, thereby denying them a safe and dignified life. Where the right is denied children cannot explore–in the classroom, for example–ways of ending this.

Questions that might be explored to that end include: how can the international community play a role in dismantling the regime of Israeli apartheid, set up to keep Israelis “superior” and Palestinians “inferior”? What legal and other mechanisms must be in place to ensure that Israel is held accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people–presently and historically?

Why are those who occupy important roles in democratic governments, such as Irwin Cotler (Canadian Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism), permitted to endorse and spread Nakba denialism with impunity? How can young Canadians—as people of conscience—be better allies to the Palestinian people, including children who deserve yet don’t have the same educational opportunities as their Canadian counterparts?

Surely some segment of intelligent and caring children will eventually go on to become pro-Palestinian activists. Perhaps the girl singer too. But by not improving the Canadian educational system such that it is not hostile to the truth about Palestinian oppression we are doing them a great disservice. We leave them to figure out, on their own, a world that is rife with racist Israel ideologues—and dishonest ones at that—intent on destroying the Palestinian people and their allies (either physically as in the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh, or metaphorically where the voices of pro-Palestinian dissent are killed or intimidated into silence).

We owe young people more and that means preparing them within the educational system to challenge this. Conservatives will object: “Leave politics out of school. There’s no place for activism in the classroom anyway.” But as the great political theorist and leftist activist, Henry Giroux, once told me during a podcast, nothing is apolitical.

What the objection really is about is reproducing the status quo—the educational system does not prepare students to fight for social justice, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and others. Quite often that’s because conservatives would rather students undergo a rigid and even morally impoverished education: preparation to succeed in the job market, such as acquiring and developing “skill sets” to perform well at impersonal work. If that’s what an “education” is about then, frankly, it sucks.

It’s important that students have at least the opportunity to become anti-colonial activists at school. Granted that’s no easy task where conservatives determine school curricula. This only means we must push harder. Anti-colonial efforts should be something in which all are engaged—for the betterment of humanity. By the same token how to engage in such efforts need to become a priority in schools. What values do schools have if they are not helping students learn to think critically and act in constructive ways to dismantle regimes like Israel, which keep fellow persons subjugated?

Ultimately we are not here for ourselves but for one another. We are reminded of that by the pain of having, by choice or otherwise, separated ourselves from the task of living and building community together. School curricula should reflect that and pave the way for young people to join Palestinian and other solidarity efforts, which aim to obliterate needle divisions between people—on the basis of race, class, gender, etc.

That’s the future all children deserve.

“Israel”, the United States and the internationally accepted genocide

17 May 2022

Source: Al Mayadeen English

Atilio A. Boron 

How long will Washington’s double discourse last?

“Israel”, the United States and the internationally accepted genocide

Israeli government troops assassinated Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, one of the leading figures of Al Jazeera TV network. Yet, Washington and the Western media and governments remain silent in complicity against this unspeakable crime, not only for the murder itself but also for the vicious attack on freedom of the press. Can you imagine how these governments and their dependent press would have reacted if this crime had been committed against a Venezuelan-American journalist in Venezuela? This news would have been the cover of all the newspapers in the West and the subject of all the radio and television programs, denouncing the brutality of the Maduro “regime”. But, since the crime was committed by the Israelis, what prevails is silence and concealment of the information. Again, the damn double standard of the empire!

Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot dead while covering an Israeli army incursion into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian colleague of the murdered journalist, Ali Samudi, was also attacked by Zionist bullets and was shot in the back, fortunately not causing fatal injuries. The “Israel” Defense Force confirmed that it carried out an operation Wednesday morning in the Jenin refugee camp, but denied that they have shot at journalists present at the scene. However, Israeli army sources assured that there was an exchange of fire on the ground and Defense Minister Benny Gantz himself told the foreign press at night that the army “was not sure how the journalist died. Maybe it was a Palestinian who shot her, the shot could also have come from our side, we are investigating,” Gantz said. Nevertheless, one of the photographers from the French news agency AFP said that Israeli forces were firing in the area and that he saw the body of the Al Jazeera reporter on the ground. In addition, he said that there were no armed Palestinians in the area.

Al Jazeera called on the international community to hold “Israel” responsible for the “intentional” death of the journalist. “In a flagrant murder that violates international laws and norms, the Israeli occupation forces cold-bloodedly murdered the Al Jazeera correspondent in the Palestinian territories,” the channel said. Qatari Foreign Minister Lolwah Al Khater said on Twitter that the correspondent was shot “in the face” and called the act “Israeli state terrorism.” For its part, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the autonomous Palestinian government based in the West Bank, described the journalist’s death as an “execution” and as part of the Israeli effort to hide the “truth” of its occupation of the West Bank. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that these protests will find an echo in the Western press, completely controlled by US imperialism and its European lackeys.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid assured that his country wanted to join an “investigation into the sad death of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh” and stressed that “journalists must be protected in conflict zones”, for which “Tel Aviv” has “the responsibility to get to the truth.” The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called for the facts to be investigated by “both parties” in a transparent manner. In a completely hollow speech the diplomatic stressed that the “absolute priority” of the United States is “the protection of American citizens and journalists”, something blatantly false. Beautiful words, devoid of any substance because the United States and Western countries have been endorsing the genocidal policies of the state of “Israel” since 1948, and there is nothing to suggest that this policy will be changed in the near future, especially in the context of the Ukrainian war.

For its part, Amnesty International (AI) pointed out that the “increase in unlawful killings” in recent times is one more example of the need to put an end to “Israeli apartheid against the Palestinians.” In an unusually harsh public statement, the organization denounced what could be “extrajudicial executions” against Palestinians. It also said that “the murder” of the journalist “is a bloody reminder of the deadly system in which “Israel” locks up Palestinians. “Israel” is killing Palestinians left and right with impunity. How many more must die before the international community acts to hold “Israel” accountable?” questioned AI’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Saleh Higazi. This statement is in line with a recent declaration by Noam Chomsky, who accused the Israeli government of practicing genocidal policies in Gaza, the largest open-air prison in the world according to his words. The sad culmination of this policy followed by the neo-Nazi government of “Israel” was the scandalous repression that occurred during the funeral of Abu Akleh, which offends the most basic canons of human rights. However, despite these brutal transgressions and “Israel”‘s escalation of repression in recent weeks -in which at least 31 people were killed- the American government continues to monolithically support the slaughterers of the Palestinian people.

How long will Washington’s double discourse last? How is it that Biden, who claims to be recognized as a champion of human rights, supports a regime like the Israeli one that, since its foundation, has systematically violated the human, social and economic rights of the Palestinians stealing their land, destroying their houses and condemning them to a trickle-down genocide?

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

بلا لفّ ودوران: هاتوا هاتين وتجرّأوا على السلاح؟

السبت 8 يناير 2022

 ناصر قنديل

يتلاقى عدد من القوى السياسية والقيادات داخل لبنان وخارجه على مقاربة سلاح المقاومة بعناوين مباشرة أو مواربة، وقحة وخجولة، حيث يتلاقى من يتحدث عن احتلال إيراني، مع من يتحدث عن الحياد، مع من يتحدث عن السلاح كسبب مشكلة ويقول بربط النزاع حوله، ومن يقول انه يرفض الدعوة لنزع السلاح منعاً لحرب أهلية، أو من يقول انّ حزب الله قوة شعبية وسياسية وإنّ السلاح قضية إقليمية تفوق طاقة الدولة، فكلّ هؤلاء يقولون إما بأنّ مشكلة لبنان هي بسلاح المقاومة، ويضعون في هذا السياق الغضب الغربي والعربي من هذا السلاح، ويفلسفونه بتسميات ربط لبنان بمحور تقوده إيران ومصادرة قرار السلم الحرب وما الى هنالك من مسمّيات، أو يقولون إن لهم ملاحظات على بقاء سلاح المقاومة ويشاركون المعترضين عليه في الكثير مما يقولون، لكنهم لا يرون مصلحة بتحويله الى قضية مواجهة تهدّد السلم الأهلي، أو يعتقدون بأنّ حسم أمره فوق طاقة الدولة اللبنانية والقوى السياسية اللبنانية، وكلّ ضغط عليها لتحمّل هذا العبء يعني مغامرة ومخاطرة وخيمة العواقب.

لأننا دعونا الآخرين الى التحدث بلا لف ولا دوران، سنقول بلا لف ولا دوران إنّ سلاح المقاومة لن يؤثر في مصيره كلّ هذا التلاعب والعبث السياسي، فهو يملك تغطية شعبية كافية لحمايته، ويملك قدرة عملياتية كافية لمنع استهدافه عسكرياً خارجياً وداخلياً، ولذلك لا يهدف هذا النقاش لإقناع الآخرين بتغيير مواقفهم، خشية ان يؤدي تعنتهم بها الى التاثير سلباً على سلاح المقاومة وتعريضه للخطر، بل يهدف الى كشف النتائج الفعلية لدعواتهم، وتحدّيهم في ميدان الحجة بالحجة أن يثبتوا منطلقاً وطنياً لمزاعمهم، ممن يظهرون عداءهم للسلاح أو الذين يختبئون وراء عدم واقعية طرح مصير السلاح حرصاً على السلم الأهلي، بما يعني تسليماً بالتموضع على ضفة اعتبار السلاح عبئاً على لبنان واللبنانيين.

ليس مطروحاً العودة للوراء رغم أحقيتها، لجهة مطالبة الجميع بالعرفان بالجميل للمقاومة وسلاحها في ما أنجزت في معركتي تحرير أراض لبنانية من الاحتلال “الإسرائيلي” وأراض أخرى من الإرهاب، وصدّ مخاطر كليهما، والعرفان بالجميل ليس واجباً أخلاقياً فقط، بل هو التزام بضبط الخطاب وفق مقتضياته، وشعور بالخجل لتفوّق مواطنية أهل المقاومة على سواهم، وبعقدة النقص والذنب تجاه الذين سبقوا سواهم في التضحية لأجل الوطن، وتفوّقاً بوطنيتهم ومواطنتهم، وإذا تسامحنا بهذا الطلب المحق، وتسامحنا معه بطلب محق آخر، وهو أنّ أراضي محتلة لا تزال تحت الاحتلال في مزارع شبعا، ولا يجب أن يستهين أحد بفرضية استردادها دون امتلاك القوة، وأنّ الإرهاب الذي تلقى ضربات بنيوية لا يبدو غائباً عن المشهد مع استعادة حيويته في الكثير من الساحات، لكن منعاً للسجال حول قضايا إشكالية وطلباً لوضوح المواقف سنكتفي بطلبين إثنين من كلّ الذين يلتقون بالحديث عن السلاح كعبء على لبنان واللبنانيين، سواء دعوا لحسم أمره سريعاً او ربطوا النزاع تحت عنوان الحرص على السلم الأهلي، وقالوا بجعله موضوعاً للحوار تحت شعار استراتيجية وطنية للدفاع، لا يبدو أنها تهدف لما يقوله اسمها بل باتت اسماً مموّهاً لطرح مصير سلاح المقاومة.

الطلب الأول هو أن يجيب طرفا الاعتراض، الوقحون والخجولون، على سؤال يتصل بمصلحة اقتصادية ومالية لبنانية حيوية، طالما انّ الكلّ صار عقله في جيبه ويحدثنا عن المصالح، واسترضاء الدول التي تملك مالاً ولو على حساب الكرامة الوطنية، والسؤال هو هل أنتم تؤمنون بأنّ لدى لبنان ثروات من النفط والغاز تشكل اليوم ركيزة رئيسية في أيّ خطة نهوض وإنقاذ، بصفتها مصدراً لعائدات بمليارات الدولارات، التي لن تبلغها كلّ المساهمات والقروض الموعودة من التسوّل والاستجداء والخضوع، واذا كان الجواب نعم وهو كذلك، فتتمة السؤال هي هل تعتقدون أنّ “إسرائيل تتربّص يهذه الثروة، وأنّ الدول الغربية الفاعلة، سواء التي تتقدّم كوسيط في المفاوضات كأميركا أو التي تملك شركات تدير التنقيب كفرنسا، منحازة بالأصل الى جانب “إسرائيل” وتدير موقفها على جدول الأعمال “الإسرائيلي”، واذا كان الجواب نعم وهو كذلك، تصير نهاية السؤال هل لدى لبنان ما يجبر “إسرائيل” على التفاوض بدل سرقة الثروات اللبنانية بقوة الأمر الواقع، وما يجبر أميركا وفرنسا على التوسط والبحث عن حلول ترضي لبنان، غير قوة المقاومة وقدرتها على تهديد أمن “اسرائيل” ومنصاتها للتنقيب عن النفط والغاز وخطوط نقله، واذا كان الجواب نعم وهو كذلك، هل من مصلحة وطنية تبرّر التشارك بإضعاف هذه القوة ولو بكلمة، وهل يصبّ كلّ سوء يُقال بحق هذا السلاح من لبناني مسؤول او غير مسؤول في مصلحة تعزيز موقف “إسرائيل” التفاوضي، وإضعاف موقف لبنان، وإذا كان الجواب هو نعم وهو كذلك، ننتظر تفسيركم وبدائلكم يا عباقرة؟

الطلب الثاني هو ان يجيب طرفا الاعتراض العلني والمستتر، على سؤال يتصل بمستقبل قضية اللاجئين الفلسطينيين في لبنان، طالما انّ الكلّ يؤكد صبح ومساء على خطر التوطين والتمسك برفضه ولو من منطلقات عنصرية في عقول البعض، وأول السؤال هو هل لدى أحد من شك بأنّ الرؤية “الإسرائيلية” ومن ورائها كلّ الغرب وكثير من الحكومات العربية لإنهاء القضية الفلسطينية أو حلها، يقوم على توطين اللاجئين الفلسطينيين في أماكن إقامتهم ومنها لبنان، وأنّ زمن التطبيع العربي “الإسرائيلي” أسقط التضامن العربي حول ما عُرف بالمباردة العربية للسلام التي نصّت على عودة اللاجئين بناء على طلب لبنان ممثلاً بالرئيس إميل لحود، ما جعل التوطين مشروعاً داهماً، وإذا كان الجواب نعم وهو كذلك، يصير الجزء الثاني من السؤال هل تشكل المقاومة في لبنان وسلاحها عقبة رئيسية أمام تقدم الرؤية “الإسرائيلية” لحلّ القضية الفلسطينية أو إنهائها، ومن ضمنها التوطين، واذا كان الجواب نعم وهو كذلك، تصير تتمة السؤال، هل يملك لبنان مصدر قوة يفرض على العالم أن يأخذ رفضه للتوطين بعين الإعتبار غير قوة المقاومة وسلاحها، واذا كان الجواب نعم وهو كذلك تصير نهاية السؤال، ألا يقع كلّ إضعاف للمقاومة وسلاحها ولو بكلمة، تعزيزاً للأمل “الإسرائيلي” ومن مع “إسرائيلمقالا” من الغرب والعرب، بوجود فرصة بديلة للأخذ بمطلب لبنان بعودة اللاجئين بدلاً من توطينهم، وهو الاستثمار على الداخل اللبناني لإضعاف المقاومة والطعن بسلاحها، ولأنّ الجواب هو نعم، تصير الخلاصة ألا تخجلون من وطنيتكم وأنتم تلعبون لعبة رخيصة بحسابات رخيصة وتصيبون وطنكم في الصميم، فما هو شعوركم بأنّ “الإسرائيلي” يصفق لكم ويبتسم عندما يسمعكم، وقحين وخجولين، أو هاتوا بدائلكم يا عباقرة؟

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Israel, the Big Lie

Israeli leaders cannot fool everyone anymore with their stupid, mindless, pathetic, and impressively incoherent statement that they are just defending themselves.

By Jonas E. Alexis -May 29, 2021

…introduction by Jonas E. Alexis, VT Editor

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, nails it: Israel has been perpetuating one categorical lie after another, and Israeli leaders don’t care whether they will be found to be hoaxers, fraudsters, and pathological liars.

The sad thing is that the US continues to send the regime at least $3 billion every single year. But as we have suggested in the previous article, people are waking up. Israeli leaders cannot fool everyone anymore with their stupid, mindless, pathetic, and impressively incoherent statement that they are just defending themselves. And once a person stands against their ideology, that person must ipso facto be an anti-Semite!

Anyway, two thumps up for Chris Hedges here.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is AFP-Palestinian-child-detention-320x195.jpg

Israel, the Big Lie

By Chris Hedges

Nearly all the words and phrases used by the Democrats, Republicans and the talking heads on the media to describe the unrest inside Israel and the heaviest Israeli assault against the Palestinians since the 2014 attacks on Gaza, which lasted 51 days and killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, including 551 children, are a lie.

Israel, by employing its military machine against an occupied population that does not have mechanized units, an air force, navy, missiles, heavy artillery and command-and-control, not to mention a U.S. commitment to provide a $38 billion defense aid package for Israel over the next decade, is not exercising “the right to defend itself.” It is carrying out mass murder. It is a war crime.

Israel has made it clear it is ready to destroy and kill as wantonly now as it was in 2014. Israel’s defense minister Benny Gantz, who was the chief of staff during the murderous assault on Gaza in 2014, has vowed that if Hamas “does not stop the violence, the strike of 2021 will be harder and more painful than that of 2014.”

The current attacks have already targeted several residential high rises including buildings that housed over a dozen local and international press agencies, government buildings, roads, public facilities, agricultural lands, two schools and a mosque.

I spent seven years in the Middle East as a correspondent, four of them as The New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief. I am an Arabic speaker. I lived for weeks at a time in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison where over two million Palestinians exist on the edge of starvation, struggle to find clean water and endure constant Israeli terror.

I have been in Gaza when it was pounded with Israeli artillery and air strikes. I have watched mothers and fathers, wailing in grief, cradling the bloodied bodies of their sons and daughters.

I know the crimes of the occupation—the food shortages caused by the Israeli blockade, the stifling overcrowding, the contaminated water, the lack of health services, the near constant electrical outages due to the Israeli targeting of power plants, the crippling poverty, the endemic unemployment, the fear and the despair. I have witnessed the carnage.

I also have listened from Gaza to the lies emanating from Jerusalem and Washington. Israel’s indiscriminate use of modern, industrial weapons to kill thousands of innocents, wound thousands more and make tens of thousands of families homeless is not a war: It is state-sponsored terror.

And, while I oppose the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinians into Israel, as I oppose suicide bombings, seeing them also as war crimes, I am acutely aware of a huge disparity between the industrial violence carried out by Israel against innocent Palestinians and the minimal acts of violence capable of being waged by groups such as Hamas.

The false equivalency between Israeli and Palestinian violence was echoed during the war I covered in Bosnia.  Those of us in the besieged city of Sarajevo were pounded daily with hundreds of heavy shells and rockets from the surrounding Serbs. We were targeted by sniper fire. The city suffered a few dozen dead and wounded each day.

The government forces inside the city fired back with light mortars and small arms fire. Supporters of the Serbs seized on any casualties caused by Bosnian government forces to play the same dirty game, although well over 90 percent of the killings in Bosnia were the fault of the Serbs, as is also true regarding Israel.

The second and perhaps most important parallel is that the Serbs, like the Israelis, were the principal violators of international law. Israel is in breach of more than 30 U.N. Security Council resolutions.

It is in breach of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that defines collective punishment of a civilian population as a war crime. It is in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention for settling over half a million Jewish Israelis on occupied Palestinian land and for the ethnic cleansing of at least 750,000 Palestinians when the Israeli state was founded and another 300,000 after Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were occupied following the 1967 war.

Its annexation of East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights violates international law, as does its building of a security barrier in the West Bank that annexes Palestinian land into Israel. It is in violation of U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 that states that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.”

This is the truth.  Any other starting point for the discussion of what is taking place between Israel and the Palestinians is a lie.

Israel’s once vibrant peace movement and political left, which condemned and protested against the Israeli occupation when I lived in Jerusalem, is moribund. The right-wing Netanyahu government, despite its rhetoric about fighting terrorism, has built an alliance with the repressive regime in Saudi Arabia, which also views Iran as an enemy.

Saudi Arabia, a country that  produced 15 of the 19 hijackers in the September 11 attacks, is reputed to be the most prolific sponsor of international Islamist terrorism, allegedly supporting Salafist jihadism, the basis of al-Qaeda, and groups such as the Afghanistan TalibanLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Al-Nusra Front.

Saudi Arabia and Israel worked closely together to back the 2013 military coup in Egypt, led by General Adbul Fattah el Sisi. Sisi overthrew a democratically elected government. He has imprisoned tens of thousands of government critics, including journalists and human rights defenders, on politically motivated charges.

The Sisi regime collaborates with Israel by keeping its common border with Gaza closed to Palestinians, trapping them in the Gaza strip, one of the most densely populated places on earth. Israel’s cynicism and hypocrisy, especially when it wraps itself in the mantle of protecting democracy and fighting terrorism, is of epic proportions.

Those who are not Jewish in Israel are either second class citizens or live under brutal military occupation. Israel is not, and never has been, the exclusive homeland of the Jewish people.  From the 7th century until 1948, when Jewish colonial settlers used violence and ethnic cleansing to create the state of Israel, Palestine was overwhelmingly Muslim. It was never empty land.

The Jews in Palestine were traditionally a tiny minority. The United States is not an honest broker for peace but has funded, enabled and defended Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.  Israel is not defending the rule of law.  Israel is not a democracy.  It is an apartheid state.

That the lie of Israel continues to be embraced by the ruling elites–there is no daylight between statements in defense of Israeli war crimes by Nancy Pelosi and Ted Cruz–and used as a foundation for any discussion of Israel is a testament to the corrupting power of money, in this case that of the Israel lobby, and the bankruptcy of a political system of legalized bribery that has surrendered its autonomy and its principles to its major donors.

It is also a stunning example of how colonial settler projects, and this is true in the United States, always carry out cultural genocide so they can exist in a suspended state of myth and historical amnesia to legitimize themselves.

The Israel lobby has shamelessly used its immense political clout to demand that Americans take de facto loyalty oaths to Israel. The passage by 35 state legislatures of Israel lobby-backed legislation requiring their workers and contractors, under threat of dismissal, to sign a pro-Israel oath and promise not to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a mockery of our Constitutional right of free speech.

Israel has lobbied the U.S. State Department to redefine anti-Semitism under a three-point test known as the Three Ds: the making of statements that “demonize” Israel; statements that apply “double standards” for Israel; statements that “delegitimize” the state of Israel.

This definition of anti-Semitism is being pushed by the Israel lobby in state legislatures and on college campuses. The Israel lobby spies in the United States, often at the direction of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, on those who speak up for the rights of Palestinians.

It wages public smear campaigns and blacklists defenders of Palestinian rights–including the Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein; U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories, Richard Falk, also Jewish; and university students, many of them Jewish, in organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine.

The Israel lobby has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to manipulate U.S. elections, far beyond anything alleged to have been carried out by Russia, China or any other country.  The heavy-handed interference by Israel in the American political system, which includes operatives and donors bundling together hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in every U.S. congressional district to bankroll compliant candidates, is documented in the Al-Jazeera four-part series “The Lobby.”

Israel managed to block “The Lobby” from being broadcast. In the film, a pirated copy that is available on the website Electronic Intifada, the leaders of the Israel lobby are repeatedly captured on a reporter’s hidden camera explaining how they, backed by the intelligence services within Israel, attack and silence American critics and use massive cash donations to buy politicians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured the unconstitutional invitation by then-House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress in 2015 to denounce President Barack Obama’s Iranian nuclear agreement.  Netanyahu’s open defiance of Obama and alliance with the Republican Party, however, did not stop Obama in 2014 from authorizing a 10-year $38 billion military aid package to Israel, a sad commentary on how captive American politics is to Israeli interests.

The investment by Israel and its backers is worth it, especially when you consider that the U.S. has also spent over $ 6 trillion during the last 20 years fighting futile wars that Israel and its lobby pushed for in the Middle East.

These wars are the greatest strategic debacle in American history, accelerating the decline of the American empire, bankrupting the nation at a time of economic stagnation and mounting poverty, and turning huge parts of the globe against us. They serve Israel’s interests, not ours.

The longer the mendacious Israeli narrative is embraced, the more empowered become the racists, bigots, conspiracy theorists and far-right hate groups inside and outside Israel.  This steady shift to the far right in Israel has fostered an alliance between Israel and the Christian right, many of whom are anti-Semites.

The more Israel and the Israel lobby level the charge of anti-Semitism against those who speak up for Palestinian rights, as they did against British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, the more they embolden the real anti-Semites.

Racism, including anti-Semitism, is dangerous.  It is not only bad for the Jews.  It is bad for everyone.  It empowers the dark forces of ethnic and religious hatred on the extremes.  Netanyahu’s racist government has built alliances with far-right leaders in Hungary, India, and Brazil, and was closely allied with Donald Trump.

Racists and ethnic chauvinists, as I saw in the wars in the former Yugoslavia, feed off of each other.  They divide societies into polarized, antagonistic camps that only speak in the language of violence.  The radical jihadists need Israel to justify their violence, just as Israel needs the radical jihadists to justify its violence.  These extremists are ideological twins.

This polarization fosters a fearful, militarized society.  It permits the ruling elites in Israel, as in the United States, to dismantle civil liberties in the name of national security.  Israel runs training programs for militarized police, including from the United States.  It is a global player in the multibillion-dollar drone industry, competing against China and the United States.

It oversees hundreds of cybersurveillance startups whose espionage innovations, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, have been utilized abroad “to locate and detain human rights activists, persecute members of the LGBT community, silence citizens critical of their governments, and even fabricate cases of blasphemy against Islam in Muslim countries that don’t maintain formal relations with Israel.”

Israel, like the United States, has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. One million Israelis, many of them among the most enlightened and educated, have left the country. Its most courageous human rights campaigners, intellectuals and journalists—Israeli and Palestinian—endure constant government surveillance, arbitrary arrests and vicious government-run smear campaigns.

Mobs and vigilantes, including thugs from right-wing youth groups such as Im Tirtzu, physically assault dissidents, Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and African immigrants in the slums of Tel Aviv. These Jewish extremists have targeted Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, demanding their expulsion.

They are supported by an array of anti-Arab groups including the Otzma Yehudit Party, the ideological descendant of the outlawed Kach party, the Lehava movement, which calls for all Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories to be expelled to surrounding Arab states, and La Familia, far-right soccer hooligans. Lehava in Hebrew means “flame” and is the acronym for “Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land.”

Mobs of these Jewish fanatics parade through Palestinian neighborhoods, including in occupied East Jerusalem, protected by Israeli police, shouting to the Palestinians who live there “Death to the Arabs,” which is also a popular chant at Israeli soccer matches.

Israel has pushed through a series of discriminatory laws against non-Jews that echo the racist Nuremberg Laws that disenfranchised Jews in Nazi Germany. The Communities Acceptance Law, for example, permits “small, exclusively Jewish towns planted across Israel’s Galilee region to formally reject applicants for residency on the grounds of ‘suitability to the community’s fundamental outlook.”

Israel’s educational system, starting in primary school, uses the Holocaust to portray Jews as eternal victims.  This victimhood is an indoctrination machine used to justify racism, Islamophobia, religious chauvinism and the deification of the Israeli military.

There are many parallels between the deformities that grip Israel and the deformities that grip the United States.  The two countries are moving at warp speed towards a 21rst century fascism, cloaked in religious language, which will revoke what remains of our civil liberties and snuff out our anemic democracies.

The failure of the United States to stand up for the rule of law, to demand that the Palestinians, powerless and friendless, even in the Arab world, be granted basic human rights mirrors the abandonment of the vulnerable within our own society.

We are headed, I fear, down the road Israel is heading down.  It will be devastating for the Palestinians.  It will be devastating for us. And all resistance, as the Palestinians courageously show us, will only come from the street.

BIOGRAPHY

Jonas E. Alexis

Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, history of Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the new book Zionism vs. the West: How Talmudic Ideology is Undermining Western Culture. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled, Kevin MacDonald’s Abject Failure: A Philosophical and Moral Critique of Evolutionary Psychology, Sociobiology, and White Identity. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.

Logoswars1@gmail.com

UN: “Israeli” Aggression Leaves 52,000 Displaced in Gaza

19/5/2021

UN: “Israeli” Aggression Leaves 52,000 Displaced in Gaza 

By Staff, Agencies 

The United Nations [UN]’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA] confirmed that the “Israeli” entity’s ongoing aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip has left more than 52,000 Palestinians displaced and nearly 450 buildings destroyed or badly damaged in the coastal enclave.

Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency in Geneva, told reporters on Tuesday that “Israeli” strikes had forced more than 52,000 Palestinians to abandon their homes in Gaza, with 47,000 of the displaced people seeking shelter in 58 UN-run schools in the besieged area.

He further stated that “132 buildings had been destroyed and 316 had been severely damaged, including six hospitals and nine primary healthcare centers as well as a desalination plant, affecting access to drinking water for about 250,000 people.”

The OCHA spokesman underlined that the UN agency and its humanitarian partners were trying to provide food and other assistance to displaced families in Gaza, while calling on the “Israeli” entity to open a border crossing for humanitarian supplies to the besieged coastal enclave.

The World Health Organization has already raised the alarm about a severe shortage of medical supplies, a risk of water-borne diseases, and the spread of COVID-19 among the displaced people in the Gaza Strip.

Moreover, Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday that “Israeli” forces had displayed a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians by targeting residential buildings in air raids, which it said might amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The London-based organization also called on the International Criminal Court [ICC] to urgently investigate the “Israeli” attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, a human rights group pointed to the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip as the ongoing ‘Israeli’ aggression reached its eighth day, warning that basic service sectors might collapse if the attacks continued.

“The intense bombings carried out by ‘Israeli’ forces have caused the destruction of hundreds of homes and service facilities and greatly affected electricity, water and sanitation services in many areas of Gaza,” the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement. “This threatens the city and its citizens with serious health and environmental repercussions.”

The rights group warned that stopping power plants and disrupting supply lines would exacerbate the current crisis, and would have a serious impact on the basic services in the Gaza Strip.

The statement went on to say that, “Many of Gaza’s neighborhoods have been suffering interruptions to their water supply for days, especially since the bombings destroyed many water and sewage lines.”

The monitor stressed that “Israel’s” unabated bombing had caused almost “complete disruption of life and production” in the coastal enclave and seriously affected vulnerable groups who depend on daily paid jobs.

“The ‘Israeli’ military attack on Gaza must immediately end since it violates international humanitarian law,” the statement said.

Over the past week, the Tel Aviv regime has been launching large-scale airstrikes across Gaza, razing homes and civilian infrastructure to the ground. “Israeli” artillery and tanks have also been targeting the blockaded coastal enclave.

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Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestine ( 6 – 10 May 2021)

Serious Escalation in Gaza Strip: 26 Palestinians Killed, including 9 Children and Woman and her Child with Disability, and 75 Others Injured, including 22 Children and 7 Women

Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestine

IOF military escalation on Gaza Strip: 21 Palestinians killed, including 9 children; 68 wounded, including 22 children and 7 women

  • 969 Palestinians wounded in IOF attacks on Palestinians in East Jerusalem and worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque, including 17 journalists, 9 in critical conditions and 3 lost their eyes
  • IOF excessive use of force in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem: 14 Palestinians wounded, including a girl
  • Six IOF shootings reported at agricultural areas (east) and three others on fishing boats in the Gaza sea
  • In 122 IOF incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem: 115 civilians arrested, including 2 children
  • Construction vehicle confiscated in Hebron and an agricultural caravan in Nablus
  • Settler-attacks: attacks on civilians and their vehicles, lands set on fire in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem
  • Israeli occupation authorities close Beit Hanoun and Karm Abu Salem crossings and the Gaza Sea
  • IOF established 39 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank and arrested 6 Palestinian civilians on said checkpoints

Summary   

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued to commit crimes and multi-layered violations against Palestinian civilians and their properties, including raids into Palestinian cities that are characterized with excessive use of force. This week, the occupation continued its attacks in East Jerusalem, violating the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Mosque and conducted large oppressive campaigns across the city, with the participation of Israeli settlers. These attacks rendered hundreds of injuries amongst Palestinian civilians. As the situation escalated in the occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza armed groups launched missiles at Israeli settlements and towns and the Israeli occupation responded with multiple airstrikes across the Gaza Strip announcing the launch of a military operation, “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” against the territory. The Israeli occupation’s attacks on the Gaza Strip continue as of writing this report, causing extensive casualties. Additionally, the Israeli occupation authorities closed both Beit Hanoun and Karm Abu Salem crossings, as well as the Gaza Sea under its systemic policy of collective punishment.

IOF also continued its raids, arrests, and attacks on civilians that are mostly conducted after midnight and in the early morning hours, purposefully terrorizing protected civilians. This week also IOF confiscated Palestinians’ properties and agricultural equipment, and safeguarded settlers’ attacks on Palestinians.

Note: The 19th edition of PCHR’s Weekly Report of Israeli Violations in the oPt is issued early this week for the Eid al-Fitr Holidays. We wish you all peace and prosperity on the occasion of this holy Eid.

IOF shooting and violation of right to bodily integrity:

In the Gaza Strip, 21 Palestinians, including 9 children -1 of them died along with his father, were killed and 68 others sustained wounds, including 22 children and 7 women after wide-scale Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. Also, one Palestinian civilian was wounded, and 6 IOF shootings were reported on agricultural lands eastern Gaza, and 3 shootings at fishing boats, western Gaza.

In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, 983 Palestinians sustained wounds in IOF excessive use of force against civilians.  Among the wounded, 969, including 17 journalists, and 9 in critical condition, sustained their wounds in Israeli attacks on civilians and worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque and in East Jerusalem. Fourteen others sustained wounds due to IOF excessive use of force and dozens suffocated due to tear gas inhalation, and others were wounded in various IOF assaults across the West Bank.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians: 

IOF carried out 122 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids of civilian houses and shootings, enticing fear among civilians, and attacking many of them. During this week’s incursions, 115 Palestinians were arrested, including 2 children. Of the 115 arrestees, 63 were taken during the clashes and IOF attacks on Palestinian civilians and worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque, Bab al-Amoud, and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Demolitions:

PCHR fieldworkers documented two violations: excavator confiscated in Kherbet Khelet al-Dabe’a, east of Yatta, south of Hebron and an agricultural caravan in Nablus.

Settler-attacks: PCHR fieldworkers reported and documented 7 attacks:

Ramallah: assault on a vehicle and agricultural fields set on fire

Nablus: assault on a vehicle and Palestinian civilians, and agricultural fields were set on fire

Hebron: assault on a civilian and a shepherd with stones

East Jerusalem: along with the wide-scale attacks in the City, settlers assaulted civilians in Issaweya

Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

On Monday, 10 May 2021, the Israeli authorities closed Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing one after complete closure of the sea within the collective punishment policy against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

According to PCHR’s follow-up, the Israeli authorities declared Monday morning the closure of Beit Hanoun crossing, and only humanitarian cases are allowed, which was confirmed by PCHR.  IOF also declared on Monday, 09 May 2021, withdrawing the decision of allowing the businessmen to travel via the crossing after the Palestinian Civil Affairs Ministry announced on Thursday afternoon, 06 May 2021, that the Israeli authorities informed them of allowing again their travel via the crossing after they have been denied since the outbreak of coronavirus in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday evening, the Israeli authorities closed Karm Abu Salem Crossing, the sole commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip, until further notice.

These decisions are part of the comprehensive closure and illegal and inhuman collective punishment policy imposed by IOF on the Gaza Strip, and shall carry negative implication on the already restricted number of groups who are allowed travel via Beit Hanoun crossing.

The Gaza Strip still suffers the worst closure in the history of the Israeli occupation of the oPt as it has entered the 14th consecutive year, without any improvement to the movement of persons and goods, humanitarian conditions and bearing catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life. The United Nations confirmed that the Gaza conditions are worsening, with deteriorating health, power, and water services. The UN emphasized that the Gaza Strip requires immense efforts in the housing and education sectors and to create job opportunities.

Meanwhile, IOF continued to divide the West Bank into separate cantons with key roads blocked by the Israeli occupation since the Second Intifada and with temporary and permanent checkpoints, where civilian movement is restricted, and they are subject to arrest.

Shooting and other Violations of the Right to Life and Bodily Integrity

IOF Attacks in occupied East Jerusalem:

On Thursday, 06 May 2021, 22 Palestinians were wounded; 6 of them with rubber bullets when IOF suppressed a peaceful protest organized to sand in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah’s residents, whose houses are threatened to be evicted in favor of Israeli settlers. IOF also arrested 15 Palestinians, taking them to a police station. According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 19:30, dozens of Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and Arabs holding Israeli ID cards organized breakfast (Iftar) for Sheikh Jarrah’s residents whose houses are under the threat of eviction. While the Palestinians were eating their Iftar, an Israeli settler living in al-Ghawi’s house, which was seized, assaulted the Palestinians and pepper-sprayed them. As a result, the Palestinians threw chairs and water bottles at the settlers and damaged their tent, which was established in front of al-Ghawi family’s house, which was seized by Israeli settlers in 2009, to receive a member of the Knesset, Itamar Bin Ghafir, who moved his office to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in front of houses that are under the threat of eviction to support the settlers and provoke Palestinians present in the neighborhood. After that, a fighting erupted between the settlers, guarded by IOF, Sheikh Jarrah’s residents and other Palestinians who stand in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah, during which, they threw chairs at each other and settlers along with IOF fired live bullets to disperse the peaceful protestors.

At approximately 20:30, despite the closure of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood’s entrances and ban on vehicles’ entry into the neighborhood by IOF, Palestinians who stand in solidarity with the neighborhood residents continued to flock to the streets. When hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the center of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and chanted slogans, IOF assaulted them, heavily sprayed skunk water at them, beat them up, pushed and dragged them on the ground, and chased them around the neighborhood streets in an attempt to vacate the area. IOF also fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at the Palestinians. As a result, 22 Palestinians were wounded; 6 with rubber bullets, 3 sustained teargas canisters shrapnel wounds, 4 sustained bruises throughout their bodies, 8 suffocated due to teargas inhalation, and others were pepper-sprayed in the face. The clashes continued until dawn, during which settlers indiscriminately fired live bullets after an Israeli vehicle was set ablaze. IOF also raided al-Kurd and Diyab houses, beat up the residents, and pepper-sprayed them.

Additionally, 15 Palestinians were arrested and beaten. PCHR keeps the names of the arrestees. It should be noted that al-Ja’ouni, al-Kurd, al-Qsem, and Iskafi families headed to the Israeli Supreme Court, which set a new session on Monday, 10 May, to consider a petition submitted by the mentioned families on eviction orders. It is worth noting that 28 Palestinian families comprised of 87 persons, including women and children, are threatened to be expelled from their houses in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood; 4 families on 10 May 2021 and 3 other families will face a similar fate on 01 August 2021.

On Friday, 205 Palestinians, including 5 journalists, were wounded; 2 were deemed serious and 3 others lost their eyes during mass suppression by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) against tens of thousands of Palestinian worshipers in al-Aqsa Mosque and its yards, in Bab al-‘Amoud area and in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. IOF raided al-Aqsa Mosque, violated its sanctity, deprived Palestinian worshipers of performing prayers, assaulted dozens of them, dragged them on the ground, and arrested 17 of them.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), on Friday, 07 May 2021, while tens of thousands of Palestinian worshipers were heading to al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the last Friday prayer in Ramadan, thousands of Israeli soldiers flocked into occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, stationed on its streets and at al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates, established dozens of military checkpoints, and closed the city entrances. Before Maghrib prayer, IOF tightened their measures around al-Aqsa Mosque; closed al-Wad Road, which leads to al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates from the western side (the gate: Bab al-Majlis, Bab al Hadid, Bab al Qattanin and Bab al Silsilah); denied worshipers’ access to the mosque, fired sound bombs at them; pointed their guns at them to scare them and force them to leave. As a result, the worshipers tried to find alternative roads to enter the mosque from its northern gates, causing a traffic jam in the Old City. Before ‘Isha and Tarawih prayers, verbal altercation erupted between one of the worshipers and Israeli police officers stationed at Bab al Silsilah. After that, IOF suddenly raided al-Aqsa Mosque via Bab al Silsilah and fired heavy sound bombs and rubber bullets at the worshipers present in the mosque’s western yards, which caused clashes continued between IOF and worshipers in the mosque’s yards for 4 hours. During the clashes, IOF cut the wires of Bab al Magharibah Minaret, cut off the electricity in al-Aqsa Mosque’s facilities, topped and raided al- Qibli Mosque, fired sound bombs at the worshipers, detained them inside the mosque, and closed its doors with iron chains. In Bab al-Rahma Mosque, IOF fired sound bombs and rubber bullets at the worshipers while performing prayers. They also fired sound bombs at the Dome of the Rock gates, which designated for women entry. Additionally, IOF stormed and targeted al-Aqsa Mosque’s clinic, fired sound bombs inside it, damaged its contents, assaulted medical crews and injuries present there. After that, IOF used excessive force to evacuate and disperse tens of thousands of worshipers from al-Aqsa Mosque, its facilities, and yards, and indiscriminately fired heavy rubber bullets and sound bombs at them. As a result, dozens of worshipers were shot with rubber bullets in their upper limbs, including 5 journalists who were wounded while covering incidents in al-Aqsa Mosque.

The wounded journalists were identified as Fayiz Abu Irmilah, ‘Atta ‘Ewisat, ‘Abed al-‘Afou Bassam, Mohammed Abu Suninah, and Mohammed Samreen. Journalist ‘Ewisat said to PCHR’s fieldworker that a police officer fired 3 rubber bullets at him from a distance of 0.5 meter and damaged his cellphone. He added that despite all bullets fired at him, he remained standing. After that, seven police officers approached him and beat him up throughout his body, so he fell to the ground.

When the worshippers were forcefully removed from al-Aqsa Mosque to the Old City’s neighborhoods and its surrounding, clashes broke out between dozens of Palestinian young men and IOF in Bab Huta, Bab al-‘Amoud and al-Saherah neighborhoods.  IOF closed the two gates with iron barriers and denied citizens’ access via which.  During the clashes, IOF arrested many young men and wounded others. 

Meanwhile in al-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, IOF and settlers’ attacks continued against its residents and those in solidarity for the second consecutive week.  Since Friday early morning, IOF heavily deployed in the neighborhood, closed its entrances, and prevented persons in solidarity from reaching the houses under the threat of eviction.  In a serious development, IOF allowed more than 200 armed settlers to enter the neighborhood.  Following the Friday Prayer, tens of Palestinians and internationals gathered in solidarity at the neighborhood’s entrance, chanted national slogans condemning the occupation. Those in solidarity stayed at al-Sheikh entrances until al-Maghreb Prayer, away from the neighborhood’s families, who organized an Iftar in front of their houses, amid heavy deployment of IOF which prevented the persons standing in solidarity from joining the families and had their Iftars on pavements.  After they finished, they chanted national slogans condemning settlers’ attacks.  IOF immediately beat them, pumped wastewater at them and fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at them.  As a result, many injuries and arrests were reported.

Due to IOF’s wide-scale suppression in Jerusalem, 205 Palestinians were injured in al-Aqsa Mosque, al-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and Bab al-‘Amoud; 88 injuries were referred to Jerusalem’s hospitals, 20 were referred to the field hospitals and the rest were treated on the spot as stated by PRCS.

PRCS said that most injuries were with rubber bullets in the chest and face.  As a result, 3 persons lost their eyes and were transported to ST John Eye hospital in al-Sheikh Jarrah, Makassed Hospital and Hadassah Medical Center.  The medical staff at al-Makassed Hospital in At-Tur neighborhood, east of Jerusalem’s Old City, said that they treated 83 injuries with rubber bullets: 3 were in the eye, including one lost his eye, 2 were serious injuries in the head, 2 were jaw fractures and the rest were minor injuries. 

In addition to their attacks on the medical staff who were on duty, IOF prevented 2 PRCS ambulance crews from Bethlehem and Ramallah from providing help in aid and treatment due to the increasing number of injuries.  The crews arrived at Qalendia and Tunnel checkpoints to enter Jerusalem, but they were denied, in violation of the international humanitarian law principles, which emphasizes respect for the PRCS badge and protection and facilitation of their medical duties.

During the intense attacks on citizens and worshippers and pulling down some of them, IOF arrested 17 citizens in al-Aqsa Mosque, Bab al-‘Amoud and al-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and took them to the police station in the occupied city.

On Saturday, 90 Palestinians were wounded, and 16 others were arrested when IOF violently suppressed dozens of Palestinian young men in the Old City and in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 16:00, thousands of Israeli soldiers flocked to occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, stationed on its streets and at its gates, closed main streets leading to the Old City, established dozens of military checkpoints on the main streets leading to Jerusalem, and prevented dozens of buses carrying thousands of Palestinian worshipers holding Israeli IDs from entering the city. As a result, the worshipers were forced to walk several kilometers in order to reach Jerusalemite people’s vehicles, which will drive them to al-Aqsa Mosque. Also, IOF stationed in al-Tur neighborhood, east of the Old City, prevented trucks holding Iftar meals prepared by the Islamic Endowment Department (Awqaf) for Palestinians from reaching the mosque. Before Maghrib prayer, thousands of Palestinian worshipers flocked to al-Aqsa Mosque via Bab al Asbat, Bab al-Malik Faisal and Bab al Hittah. Suddenly, IOF fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at the worshipers and severely beat and dragged Naser Ghaith and their two sons Laith and Mohammed. IOF arrested Laith (27) and took them to the hospital as he sustained wounds and bruises throughout his body. When the worshipers ate their Iftar meal, they gathered in al-Qibli Mosque’s yard and chanted national and religious slogans. Following al-Tarawih prayer, thousands of worshipers got out of al-Aqsa Mosque via Bab al-‘Amoud, Bab al-Sahera and Bab al-Asbat. During which, IOF assaulted them, fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at them, and pumped skunk water on the area and around the Old City. As a result, violent clashes erupted and continued for next day dawn. During these clashes, 90 Palestinians, including 6 children, were wounded; 90 of them received treatment at al-Maqased Hospital, according to the PRCS’s crew. Also, a paramedic was wounded, and a woman was directly shot with a rubber bullet in her face. According to PRCS, most of injuries were with rubber bullets, sound bombs and beating.

In Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, IOF and settlers’ attacks continued against the neighborhood’s residents and other persons who stand in solidarity with them. The neighborhood’s residents along with dozens of Palestinians who stand in solidarity with them organized a breakfast (Iftar) in front of their houses, which are under the threat of eviction. Following the Iftar, the Palestinian organized a sit-in, chanted national slogans, and performed al-Tarawih prayer. During which, IOF beat them up, pumped skunk water at them and fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at them. Also, IOF severely beat Nour Hammad and Maryam al-‘Afifi and dragged them on the ground before arresting them. Additionally, 4 other Palestinians, from Umm al-Fahm city, were arrested.

It should be noted that during clashes erupted near the Old City and in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, IOF arrested 16 Palestinians, beat them up, dragged them on the ground, and took them to police stations. PCHR holds record of the names of the arrestees.

Following Fajr prayer, on Sunday, 09 May 2021, thousands of Palestinian worshipers, who were performing al-I’tikaf (a period of staying in a mosque for a certain number of days to perform prayers) got out of al-Aqsa Mosque raising Palestinian flags. In the meantime, IOF raided al-Aqsa Mosque via Bab al Hittah and Bab al Magharibah. Also, Israeli snipers topped the mosque’s roofs from the western side and fired heavy rubber bullets and sound bombs at the worshipers while getting out of the mosque. After that, violent clashes erupted between the worshipers and IOF near Bab al Hittah and Bab al Asbat from the northern side and near Bab al Silsilah and Bab al Magharibah from the western side. During which, IOF fired heavy rubber bullets at the Palestinians. As a result, 21 Palestinians were wounded; 8 received treatment at the hospital while the rest on the spot, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). IOF also closed Bab al Asbat and prevented anyone from entering or exiting, which hindered medical crew’s work, who were providing first aid for worshipers injured inside the mosque.

At approximately 18:00 on Sunday, 09 May 2021, IOF closed Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and prevented anyone from entering it. Also, Palestinians who stand in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah residents were denied access to the neighborhood, while hundreds of armed settlers were allowed to enter the neighborhood, establish a tent, open loudspeakers and dance to provoke Palestinians. Following al-Maghrib prayer, hundreds of Palestinians gathered on the neighborhood’s main street, chanted slogans and sang. IOF immediately suppressed them, fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at them, and pumped skunk water at them. Also, police on horseback chased the Palestinians. As a result, clashes erupted and continued for several hours. During which, Israeli settlers, guarded by IOF, opened fire at the Palestinians and threw stones at them.

It should be noted that other clashes erupted between Palestinian young men and IOF in al-Tur and Shuafat neighborhoods and in Silwan village against the ongoing IOF’s attacks in al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

PRCS crews stated that they treated 19 Palestinians during clashes erupted with IOF in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and Bab al-‘Amoud area; 5 of them were taken to the hospital for treatment. Also, the PRCS crew said that a paramedic was shot with a rubber bullet during clashes in al-Tur neighborhood, and an ambulance was shot with rubber bullet and hit with sound bombs in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

At approximately 22:30, Palestinian worshipers performed Isha and Tarawih prayers and got out of al-Aqsa Mosque. During which, IOF fired rubber bullets and sound bombs in Bab al-‘Amoud area in the center of occupied East Jerusalem, to vacate the area. They also chased and beat dozens of Palestinian young men and shops’ owners. As a result, several young men were wounded, and 3 others were arrested. Also, the shops owners said that their shops and goods sustained damage due to pumping skunk water at their shops.

On Monday, 10 May 2021, IOF violated al-Aqsa Mosque and its facilities, suppressed, and assaulted Palestinian worshipers and fired sound bombs and rubber bullets inside the Mosque and in its yards. As a result, 305 Palestinians, including 8 journalists, were wounded- 7 were deemed in critical condition. This serious escalation came only a few hours before a planned demonstration by thousands of Israeli settlers in Bab al-‘Amoud area and near al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), following Fajr prayer, on Monday, 10 May 2021, thousands of Palestinian worshipers gathered in al-Aqsa Mosque’s yards and facilities in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, to counter Israeli settlers, who called for a packed demonstration to commemorate the anniversary of Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, according to the Hebrew calendar. At approximately 08:19, Chief of Israel Police ordered a large force to raid al-Aqsa Mosque in an attempt to facilitate the entry of Israeli settlers, who were gathering in Bab al Magharibah, into the Mosque. Afterwards, IOF moved into al-Aqsa Mosque’s yards and its facilities via Bab al Magharibah and Bab al Silsilah amid heavy firing of rubber bullets, teargas canisters and sound bombs for 4 consecutive hours.

During that time, Israeli snipers topped al-Aqsa Mosque’s western roofs, in addition to al-Qibli Mosque’s roof, and then raided the Mosque, assaulted Palestinian worshipers, and fired rubber bullets, teargas canisters and sound bombs at them. As a result, dozens of Palestinians, old and young, men and women, who were detained inside the Mosque sustained wounds. Also, IOF prevented medical and paramedics crew from providing first aid for the wounded. Moreover, IOF assaulted and severely beat worshipers present in the Old, El-Marwani, Bab al-Rahma and Dome of the Rock Mosques, fired stun grenades and rubber bullets at them and surrounded them inside these mosques. Additionally, IOF raided the Islamic Endowment (Awqaf) offices and expelled its employees, in addition to the fire station office, and welded the medical clinic doors shut to impede the provision of treatment for the wounded civilians.

All of the al-Aqsa Mosque Gates, particularly Bab Huta, Bab al Asbat and Bab al Silsilah, witnessed violent clashes after Israeli forces were reinforced with backups as the clashes at al-Aqsa Mosque intensified. At Bab al Asbat, IOF assaulted paramedics while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s crews were transporting the injured, wounding several of them with rubber bullets and banned others entry into the Mosque to transport the wounded to the ambulances and hospitals. In the midst of the violent clashes inside the Mosque, an armed Israeli settler ran-over Palestinian civilians with his vehicle on the outskirts of Bab al Asbat, injuring several ones; then stepped out of the vehicle and started shooting at them while protected by an Israeli police officer who kept away angered Palestinian youth.

During the Israeli violent escalation, which al-Aqsa Mosque has not witnessed for more than 20 years, 8 journalists were wounded while covering the incidents at the mosque; most with rubber bullets, and were identified as: Maisaa’ Abu Ghazaleh, Mohammed Abu Sneineh, Lewaa’ Rmeileh, Mohammed Jaradat, Eithar Abu Gharbiyeh, Fatmah al-Bakri, Rami al-Khatib, and Osayd ‘Amarneh.

At approximately 16:00, despite the Israeli authorities’ decision to move the planned demonstration by thousands of Israeli settlers from Bab al-‘Amoud area, Salah al-Deen and al-Wad Streets and al-Islami neighborhood to Bab al-Khalil area, IOF assaulted and severely beat dozens of Palestinians gathered in Bab al-‘Amoud area, fired heavy stun grenades at them and arrested 4 of them.

In al-Aqsa Mosque, following Isha prayer, clashes renewed in the mosque’s yards and in its facilities, as a large number of Israeli soldiers raided the mosque amid firing rubber bullets and stun grenades. As a result, al-Marwani and al-Qibli Mosques sustained material damage and dozens of Palestinian worshipers detained inside the mosques sustained wounds, noting that medical crew were prevented from providing first aid to the wounded civilians.

Moreover, the Dome of the Rock Mosque witnessed violent clashes after Palestinian young men set an Israeli police station ablaze. The clashes continued for several hours, during which, dozens of Palestinians, including 4 journalists, were wounded. The journalists were identified as: Turkish journalist Turgut Alp Boyzar, Baraa Shaludi, Muhammad Sharif, and Ayman Qawarik. It should be noted that IOF closed all al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates, hindered paramedics’ entry to the Mosque and wounded them with rubber bullets.

In Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, hundreds of Israeli soldiers flocked to the neighborhood to secure and protect Israeli settlers. Following al-Maghrib prayer, IOF prevented Palestinians who stand in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood from entering it and participating in the sit-in. The Palestinians gathered and protested at the neighborhood’s entrance. Before chanting slogans, IOF suppressed them, pumped skunk water at them, beat young and old, men and women, and fired stun grenades at them.

Ras al-Amud, al-Tur, Silwan, al-Ram, and al-Thawri neighborhoods witnessed violent clashes. During which, IOF pumped skunk water and fired rubber bullets and sound bombs to disperse the protestors who gathered in support of Jerusalem and against IOF’s attacks in al-Aqsa Mosque.

Also, Kalandia military checkpoint witnessed violent clashes erupted between hundreds of Palestinians and IOF, who fired live and rubber bullets and teargas canisters at the protestors, according to PRCS crew.

The PRCS crew said that the IOF’s attacks in al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, resulted in the injury of 612 Palestinians; 7 were deemed in critical condition. The PRCS added that more than 411 injuries were referred to al-Makassed and Augusta Victoria “al-Mutale’a” hospitals in at-Tur neighborhood, Saint Joseph Hospital in al-Sheikh Jarrah and PRCS’s field hospital in al-Sowannah neighborhood. PRCS added that a number of paramedics were wounded with rubber bullets while rescuing those injured at al-Aqsa Mosque. IOF also broke the windshield of an ambulance in Bab al-‘Amoud area after targeting it with stun grenades.

IOF Military Escalation on the Gaza Strip

21 Palestinians killed, including 9 children; 68 wounded, including 22 children and 7 women

Since yesterday evening, 10 May 2021, the Gaza Strip has witnessed a major military escalation that resulted in the killing of 26 Palestinians, including 9 children; one of them was killed with his father while another was with a disability and was killed along with his mother, and the injury of 75 others, including 22 children and 7 women, during wide ranging Israeli airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip.  The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) declared that a wide-range military operation has begun in the Gaza Strip and has been given an official name: “Operation Guardian of the Walls” after rockets were fired, as claimed by the Palestinian armed groups in response to the Israeli violence in Jerusalem that escalated in the last 2 days when al-Aqsa Mosque was raided and hundreds of worshipers were injured.  The Israeli threats warn of a growing number of casualties among civilians and further destruction in the civilian objects.  While this report was in preparation, many Palestinians have fallen casualties to IOF attacks in Gaza; details will be included in next week’s report.

At approximately 18:10 on Monday, 10 May 2021, an Israeli drone fired a missile at an agricultural land located in al-Kashif Mount in Jabalia refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip. As a result, Saber Ibrahim Mahmoud Suliman (38) and his son Mohammed (15), from Jabalia, were killed while they were present in the agricultural land. Both were taken to the Indonesian Hospital, where medical sources stated that they sustained shrapnel wounds throughout their bodies.

Around the same time, an Israeli drone targeted with one missile Mohammed ‘Abdullah Zidan (26) when he was in the center of al-Salah neighborhood in al-Bourah area in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.  As a result, he was immediately killed and taken to Beit Hanoun Governmental Hospital.

Around the same time, a missile fell on a gathering of civilians next to al-Basha Farm in al-Thahrah area at the end of al-Masriyeen Street, east of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.  As a result, eight were killed, including 6 children, and 18 were injured, including a woman and 10 children.  Those killed were identified as Ibrahim Yousif ‘Atallah al-Masri (11); his brother Merwan (6); Ahmed Mohammed ‘Atallah al-Masri (20); his sister Rahaf (10); Yazan Sultan al-Masri (2 years old); Hussein Munir Hussein Hamad (11); Mohammed ‘Ali Mohammed Nasir (24); and Ibrahim ‘Abdullah Mohammed Hasanein (16).  Moreover, 3 houses sustained partial damage from the southern side of the scene.

According to the field investigations and the scene inspection, the scene is around 800 meters away from the western side of the border fence with Israel.  Al-Masri Family works in collecting straws in the outskirts of al-Basha Farm next to their houses.  Children were playing at the time near their families who were collecting the straw while other members of Hamad Nasir and Hasanein families were present at the same time.

At approximately 21:30, an Israeli missile fell near al-Rahman Mosque in Zaytun neighborhood in Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip. As a result, Ibrahim Ahmed Khamis al-Shenbari (20), from Zaytun neighborhood, was killed and 13 others, including 4 women and 2 children, were wounded. All of them were taken to Beit Hanoun Hospital, where their injuries were classified between moderate and minor. Also, the mosque and nearby houses sustained partial damage.

At approximately 21:35, Israeli drone fired a missile at a plot of land in eastern Buraij refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip. As a result, the land sustained material damage and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 22:15, Israeli drones fired a missile at a group of Palestinians in al-Manara neighborhood, south of Khan Yunis. As a result, 3 of them were injured and taken to Naser Hospital, where the injury of one of them namely Saleem Mohammed Saleem al-Farra (37), from Khan Yunis, was classified serious. Al-Farra was pronounced dead later.

At approximately 22:50, Israeli warplanes fired a missile at a plot of land in al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis. As a result, the land sustained material damage and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 23:40, Israeli warplanes fired 4 missiles near a quarantine center in Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah. As a result, the center sustained material damage and no casualties were reported.

Other IOF violations of the right to life in the oPt

At approximately 06:30 on Thursday, 06 May 2021, Israeli gunboats stationed off al-Waha Shore, northwest of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within 3 nautical miles and opened heavy fire around them, causing fear among the fishermen and forcing them to flee. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 21:00, Israeli infantry units moved into Al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, and deployed between residential houses. Meanwhile, a group of Palestinian young men gathered on the main street near an UNRWA distribution center and threw stones at IOF, who responded with sound bombs and teargas canisters. As a result, many stone-throwers suffocated due to teargas inhalation. The clashes continued until 23:00 and IOF withdrew later; no arrests were reported.

At approximately 12:00 on Friday, 07 May 2021, following the murder of two civilians and the injury of another one in shooting incident occurred at Salem military checkpoint, which separates Jenin and Green Line, IOF closed the checkpoint and prevented press crew and ambulances from approaching the checkpoint. When journalists attempted to approach the checkpoint to cover the incident, IOF beat them up. The journalists were identified as:

‘Ali Sadeq Saleem Samoudi, a reporter at al-Quds Newspaper.

‘Alaa Tawfiq Badarnah, cameraman in the European News Agency.

Raneen Sawaftah, photographer at Reuters News Agency.

Sakher Rawatba, photographer at Palestine T.V.

Also, IOF assaulted a number of PRCS paramedics and chased them until they left the area.

Journalist ‘Ali Sadeq Saleem al-Samoudi said to PCHR’s researcher that: “Following the murder of two civilians and the injury of another one at Salem military checkpoint, IOF closed the sole checkpoint, which leads to the camp, and prevented journalists and PRCS paramedics from entering the camp. When we attempted to approach, IOF threatened to open fire at us. Despite our commitment to the soldiers’ orders, they assaulted, chased and cursed us and fired sound bombs and teargas canisters at us. As a result, journalist Raneen Sawaftah suffocated due to teargas inhalation. They also beat the two journalists Sakher Rawatba and ‘Alaa Tawfiq Badarnah. Additionally, IOF beat me up with their gun butts and violently beat my colleague ‘Alaa Badarnah while he was inside his vehicle.  IOF attacked ambulances and paramedics and forced all to leave and vacate the area, or they will be arrested.”

At approximately 13:30, a peaceful protest took off in front of Beit Dajan village council, northeast of Nablus, at the call of the villagers and with the participation of the National Action Factions in Nablus, towards lands under the threat of confiscation, east of the village. The protestors raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation and settlers. When the protestors arrived at the area, they found a large number of Israeli soldiers awaiting them. IOF immediately suppressed the protest and fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the protestors. As a result, a 50-year-old man was shot with a live bullet in his right foot. Also, many protestors suffocated due to teargas inhalation and received treatment on the spot.

At approximately 12:50 on Saturday, 08 May 2021, IOF stationed along the Gaza’s border fence with Israel, east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, fired live bullets and teargas canisters at Palestinian young men gathered along the fence. The IOF’s sporadic shooting continued for several hours; no casualties were reported.  At approximately 21:30, the protest renewed, during which, IOF fired rubber and live bullets and teargas canisters that reached the outskirts of Khuzaʽa village. As a result, dozens of Palestinians suffocated due to teargas inhalation.

At approximately 16:30, IOF stationed along the Gaza’s border fence with Israel, fired heavy live bullets and teargas canisters at about 50 Palestinian young men gathered in eastern Bureij refugee camp along the border fence. The young men set fire to tires and fired incendiary balloons in response to IOF’s attacks in Jerusalem. At approximately 20:30, the young men gathered again, during which, IOF fired heavy teargas canisters at them. As a result, many of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation; 6 of them were taken to al-Aqsa Hospital for treatment.

At approximately 21:30 on Saturday, a number of Palestinian young men gathered near Huwara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, and organized a protest to stand in solidarity with Jerusalemite people. Clashes erupted in the area, during which, IOF fired rubber bullets, sound bombs and teargas canisters at the protestors. As a result, many of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation and received a treatment on the spot.

Around the same time, a similar protest was organized to stand in solidarity with Jerusalem. The protest developed into clashes erupted at the entrance to Beita village, southeast of Nablus. During which, IOF fired rubber bullets, sound bombs and teargas canisters at the protestors. As a result, many of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation and received a treatment on the spot.

Around the same time, violent clashes erupted at al-Jalma military checkpoint, north of Jenin, after organizing a protest to stand in solidarity with Jerusalem. During which, IOF fired rubber bullets, sound bombs and teargas canisters at the protestors. As a result, many of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation and received a treatment on the spot.

At approximately 02:30 on Sunday, 09 May 2021, Israeli gunboats stationed off al-Waha Shore, northwest of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within 3 nautical miles and opened heavy fire around them, causing fear among the fishermen and forcing them to flee. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 14:20 on Sunday, 09 May 2021m IOF stationed along the Gaza’s border fence with Israel, east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, fired live bullets and teargas canisters at Palestinian young men gathered along the fence. As a result, a 24-year-old male was shot with a live bullet in his right thigh and taken to Naser Hospital for treatment. The protest continued for several hours, during which, IOF fired live bullets and teargas canisters at the protestors.  As a result, dozens of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation.

At approximately 20:30, at least 80 Palestinian young men gathered in eastern Buraij refugee camp to stand in solidarity with Jerusalemite people. The protestors set fire to tires, fired incendiary balloons and threw stones at IOF stationed along the border fence. The soldiers responded with live bullets and teargas canisters; no casualties were reported.

At approximately 21:30, Israeli gunboats stationed off al-Waha Shore, northwest of Beit Lahia, and off al-Sudaniyia Shore, west of Jabalia camp, north of the Gaza Strip, chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within varying nautical miles, opened heavy fire around them and fired flare bombs in the sky. Israeli naval forces ordered all the fishermen to leave the sea in implementation of the Israeli authorities’ decision. The fishermen were forced to leave; and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 08:05 on Monday, 10 May 2021, a rocket fell on Saleh Dardona St in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, while packed with civilians. As a result, 7 Palestinians lost their lives, including a child, and 34 others sustained wounds including 10 children and 2 women. Five of the wounded were classified in critical condition at first, and one of them – a child- was later pronounced dead. Those killed were identified as Nabil No’man Mohammed Dardonah (23); ‘Issmat ‘Abdullah al-Zain (49); Rae’d ‘Abed Zaki Abu Wardah (28); Zakaria Ziad Mohammed ‘Aloush (18); Mousa Khamis Mousa Jneid (18); Bashir Mohammed Mohammed ‘Aloush (55); and Mustafa Mohammed Mahmoud ‘Obeid (17). At approximately 23:00, the Indonesian Hospital pronounced Baraa al-Gharably (14) dead after succumbing to his wounds. PCHR continues to investigate this incident.

At approximately 21:00, dozens of Palestinian young men gathered in Muthalath Kharsa area, south of Dura, southwest of Hebron. The protestors closed the main street with rocks, set fire to tires and threw stones at a military watchtower established on the street. IOF arrived at the area and fired stun grenades and teargas canisters at the stone-throwers, residential houses and shops. As a result, many Palestinians suffocated due to teargas inhalation. The clashes continued until 02:00 dawn; no arrests were reported.

At approximately 22:00, hundreds of Palestinians, from Hebron, organized a peaceful protest against IOF’s attacks in Jerusalem. The protest took off in Dura city and headed towards Bab al-Zawiyia area, where a military watchtower was established on the closed Shuhada Street. The protestors chanted slogans and raised Palestinian flags. When they arrived at the checkpoint, dozens of Israeli soldiers suppressed them and fired stun grenades and teargas canisters at them. As a result, many protestors suffocated due to teargas inhalation. The protestors also set fire to tires and threw stones at IOF, who chased them between shops and on Wad al-Tuffah street and fired live and rubber bullets at them. As a result, 13 protestors were wounded: 5 with live bullets and 8 with rubber bullets. The clashes continued until 02:00 dawn, and all shops were closed.

Around the same time, dozens of Palestinians, from Beit Ummar village, organized a peaceful protest against IOF’s attacks in Jerusalem. The protest took off in front of the city’s mosque and headed towards the village’s entrance, where a military watchtower was established. When the protestors arrived at the area, IOF deployed and fired stun grenades, teargas canisters and rubber bullets at them. As a result, many of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation.

Incursions and arrests

Thursday, 06 May 2021:

At approximately 01:15, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Silwad, northeast of Ramallah. They deployed in several neighborhoods in the city, raided and searched several houses, mosques and even houses under instruction, and held field investigations to find the perpetrator of Za’tara operation on 02 May 2021. Meanwhile, they arrested Montaser al-Shalaby al-Sahlawi (46), from Turmus Ayya, who was charged of conducting the shooting attack at Za’tara military checkpoint, and Zeyad Abdul Jalil Hamed (57).

At approximately 04:00, IOF moved into Jannatah village, east of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Ahmed Naser Asakra’s (22) house and arrested him.

At approximately 06:20, IOF moved into Tubas. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Khalil Majdi al-Masri (24) and Munir Ibrahim Fuqha (23). IOF took them to unknown destination.

At approximately 10:00, IOF moved into Isawiya, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohammed Khaled Khalil’s (22) house and arrested him.

At approximately 17:00, IOF arrested the guard of the Aqsa Mosque, Bader al-Rajabi, while working near al-Sisila Gate “Chain Gate”, in the western side of the Aqsa Mosque in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City.

At approximately 18:00, IOF arrested Shadi Nidal Abu Subaih (11), while present in front of his house in al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. At approximately 21:30, IOF moved into al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Khaled Fawwaz Ali Salah’s (29) house and arrested him.

IOF carried out an incursion in Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm. No arrests were reported.

Friday, 07 May 2021:

At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into Aida refugee camp, north of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Khalil Mustafa Kan’an’s (22) house, severely beaten him and his family, and arrested him.

At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah. They raided and searched Montaser al-Shalaby al-Sahlawi’s (44) house, who was arrested yesterday, and charged of conducting the shooting attack at Za’tara military checkpoint on 02 May 2021. IOF took the measurements of his house as a preliminary step for demolition, under the pretext of collective punishment against those who carrying attacks.

At approximately 02:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into al-‘Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Habib Aziz Issa’s (28) house and arrested him.

At approximately 03:15, IOF arrested Jehad Mehraj Shehada (22) and Mohammed Ahmed Sudani (18), from Tulkarm refugee camp, while passing through Za’tara military checkpoint, south of Nablus. IOF took them to unknown destinations.

At approximately 23:00, IOF stationed at Qalandiya military checkpoint, north of the occupied East Jerusalem, arrested Sayyaf Mohammed Abdo (28) and Saji Farah Ataya (36), from Kafr Ni’ma, west of Ramallah, while attempting to enter the Aqsa Mosque.

IOF carried out (8) incursions in Bir al-Basha, Jalamah, Jalbun, Deir Ghazaleh, and Beit Qad, northeast of Jenin; Beita, southeast of Nablus; Beddya, west of Salfit; Bani Na’im and al-Kum in Hebron. No arrests were reported.

Saturday, 08 May 2021:

At approximately 01:30, IOF stationed at a military checkpoint established at the southern entrance of Jericho, arrested Abdullah Montaser al-Hinnawi (20) and Mahmoud Khaled Musleh (20), from Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, southwest of Jericho. IOF took them to unknown destinations.

In morning hours, IOF raided and searched several houses in various neighborhoods in the occupied East Jerusalem and arrested (23) civilians and took them to several investigation centers in the occupied city. PCHR keeps the names of the arrestees.

Amjad Abu Asab, head of the family committee of Jerusalem prisoners, said that all the arrestees were arrested in cases belonging to the Aqsa Mosque. He added that the arresting campaign coincided with “al-Qadr Night”, and the so called “Jerusalem Day”, to empty Jerusalem from its civilians and open the way for settlers to enter it.

Sunday, 05 May 2021:

At approximately 05:00, IOF (3) civilians from al-Izariya, east of the occupied East Jerusalem, while present near Bab Huta, one of the Aqsa Mosque’s gates. The arrestees are: Khaled Yaser Abu Zeyad, Bashar Bader, and Hamza Taqesh.

At approximately 11:30, IOF moved into Shu’afat neighborhood, north of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Nasr al-Dein Subhi Abu Khudair (59), one of the Palestinian National Movement leaders, and arrested him.

It should be noted that Abu Khudair is a former prisoner who spent up to 26 years in the Israeli prisons, and he was released two months ago after three months of the administrative arrest.

At approximately 13:00, IOF moved into Beit Hanina village, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Tareq al-Joulani’s (21) house and arrested him.

At approximately 17:00, IOF stationed at Qalandiya military checkpoint, west of the Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank, arrested Hamza Ahmed Yamen (31), from Tal village, while returning from the Aqsa Mosque. IOF took him to an unknown destination.

At approximately 19:00, IOF moved into Sur Baher village, south of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohammed Dandis’s (20) house and arrested him.

IOF carried out (4) incursions in Yatta, Kharas, Fawwar refugee camp, and Shwiaka, north of Tulkarm. No arrests were reported.

Monday, 10 May 2021:

At approximately 01:00, IOF and a crane moved into Aqraba, northeast of Nablus. They raided and searched the prisoner Raddad Fawzi Bani Minnah’s house and confiscated his vehicle. Raddad was arrested since 04 May 2021, while searching for Montaser al-Shalaby, the perpetrator of Za’tara operation on 02 May 2021.

At approximately 02:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Tarqumiyah, northwest of Hebron. They raided and searched (3) houses and arrested (3) civilians; including a girl and took them to unknown destinations. The arrestees are: Saqer Khalil Qutniya (28), Awwad Abdul Rahman Ja’afra (20), and Mais Tha’er al-Mraqtan (21).

At approximately 04:30, IOF moved into Jenin refugee camp, west of Jenin. They raided and searched two houses belonging to Suhaib Ragheb al-Sa’di (27), and his cousin, Ayman Ghassan Ragheb al-Sa’di (22), and took them to unknown destinations.

IOF carried out (4) incursions in al-‘Aroub refugee camp, Beit Ula, Halhul, and Deir Samit in Hebron. No arrests were reported.

III. Settlement Expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem

Demolition and Confiscation of Civilian Property

At approximately 11:00 On Sunday, 09 May 2021, IOF backed by military vehicles and accompanied with an Israeli Civil Administration vehicle moved into Kherbet Khelet al-Dabe’a, east of Yatta, south of Hebron.  They deployed in the area, and the Civil Administration officer confiscated an excavator belonging to Jihad Mohammed Harb while he was digging a water wall.  The confiscation was under the pretext of working Area C.

At approximately 10:00 on Monday, 10 May 2021, IOF accompanied with a crane moved into the monuments area in Sebastia, northwest of Nablus.  IOF confiscated a 25-sqm agricultural caravan belonging to ‘Abdel ‘Aziz Rayes ‘Abdel ‘Aziz al-Nabulsi from Nablus under the pretext of its presence in Area C.

Settler attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property

At approximately 18:45 on Thursday, 06 May 2021, settlers from “Kawkab al-Sabah settlement  established on al-Mughayyir village land, west of Ramallah, threw stones at a car belonging to Yazeed Mustafa Hussein Zaid al-Deen from Majdal Bani Fadel, southeast of Nablus, and broke its windshield before he could run away from them to his village.

At approximately 10:30, settlers from “Yitzahar” settlement established on the southeastern lands in Nablus threw stones at a car belonging to Belal Mohammed Sa’id Qat from Madma village and broke the windshield.  He managed to run away to his village.

At approximately 18:00 on Friday, 07 May 2021, 2 settlers from “Avigayil” settlement outpost established on Palestinian lands confiscated from eastern Yatta, south of Hebron, threw stones at Mahmoud Hussein Hamamdah (49), from al-Mafqarah village, when he was in the lands near the outpost taking his sheep to the water well there.  As a result, he sustained bruises and a rupture in his right arm, forcing him to leave and go to a medical center, where he received treatment.

At approximately 17:00 on Saturday, 08 May 2021, 2 settlers from “Havat Ma’oun” settlement outpost established on Palestinian lands in eastern Yatta, south of Hebron, threw stones using slingshots at a shepherd who was in the pastoral lands adjacent to the outpost.  After 20 minutes, the 2 settlers ran away while a number of soldiers accompanied with a group of settlers arrived at the area.  Residents of at-Tuwani village arrived as well and clashes and stone-throwing broke out with the settlers while the soldiers fired randomly teargas canisters at the village residents and nearby houses.  As a result, winter grain plantings were burnt belonging to Meghnem al-Harini, and a girl was hit with a teargas canister in her shoulder while she was in her house. During this, one of the settlers opened fire in the air, and IOF did not intervene to stop the settlers’ attacks but even provided them protection and participated in the suppression of the Palestinians.  The villagers withdrew at 19:00 while backups of Israeli Border Guard Police officers arrived and stayed until 21:00.

At approximately 16:00 on Sunday, 09 May 2021, a group of settlers from “Adei Ad” settlement, northeast of Ramallah, moved into al-Saher area, east of al-Mughayer village, northeast of Ramallah.  The settlers set on fire the agricultural fields planted with wheat crops on an area of 40 dunums belonging to Fadel Ibrahim Hamed al-Na’asan.  After what they did, the settlers went back to the settlement and after hours the villagers could extinguish the fire.

At approximately 17:00, dozens of settlers gathered near the Hebrew University established on the lands near al-‘Issawiya village, northeast of East Jerusalem and threw stones at the Palestinians there.  Clashes broke out in the area for 2 hours, and IOF intervened to provide full protection for the settlers.  IOF fired rubber-coated bullets, teargas canisters and sound bombs at the Palestinians and arrested 2 of them, who have not been identified yet, taking them to an unknown destination.

At approximately 13:00 on Monday, 10 May 2021, with IOF’s backup, settlers from “Price Tag” group coming from “Yitzahar” settlement established on the southeastern lands of Nablus, attacked the eastern outskirts of Urif village   and threw stones at a high school for boys in al-Safafir area.  They damaged the solar panels on the school roof before a number of civilians could confront them and threw stones, forcing them to go back to their settlement.  When they were on their way to the settlement, the settlers damaged 15 olive seedlings behind the school in al-Marah area belonging to Nidal Mohammed Kamel Sabbah, from Urif village.

Around the same time, another group of settlers attacked Palestinian lands in Burin village to the east of the settlement and set fire in Khashabah area and Khelet ‘Amer.  The fire caught tens of dunums before the villagers and Civil Defense could extinguish the fire.

  1. Closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement of persons and goods:

Closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement of persons and goods:

The Gaza Strip:

On Monday, 10 May 2021, the Israeli authorities closed Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing one after complete closure of the sea within the collective punishment policy against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

According to PCHR’s follow-up, the Israeli authorities declared Monday morning the closure of Beit Hanoun crossing, and only humanitarian cases are allowed, which was confirmed by PCHR.  IOF also declared on Monday, 09 May 2021, withdrawing the decision of allowing the businessmen to travel via the crossing after the Palestinian Civil Affairs Ministry announced on Thursday afternoon, 06 May 2021, that the Israeli authorities informed them of allowing again their travel via the crossing after they have been denied since the outbreak of coronavirus in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday evening, the Israeli authorities closed Karm Abu Salem Crossing, the sole commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip, until further notice.  The Coordination Committee for the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip stated that the Israeli authorities declared the closure of the crossing starting from Tuesday until further notice and banning the entry of goods, food supplies and Gaza Strip’s needs.

On Sunday, 09 May 2021, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), MG Ghassan Alian, announced closure of the allowed fishing area in the Gaza Strip starting from the moment of the announcement until further notice. Afterwards, the Israeli gunboats started chasing the Palestinian fishing boats and ordering them to leave the Sea.

The decision to close the Gaza Sea and ban fishermen from fishing and sailing has affected the livelihoods of 4,160 fishermen and 700 workers in professions associated with the fishing sector; the main providers for their families (a total of 27,700 persons) are threatened with further deterioration. Even before this decision, Gazan fishermen already suffered and were unable to fish and sail freely in the allowed fishing area due to the recurrent Israeli attacks at sea and the ban on the entry of equipment and necessary supplies for fishermen. Consequently, hundreds of fishermen are effectively unable to provide for their families’ basic needs, such as food, medicine, clothing, and education.

These decisions are part of the comprehensive closure and illegal and inhuman collective punishment policy imposed by IOF on the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Strip still suffers the worst closure in the history of the Israeli occupation of the oPt as it has entered the 14th consecutive year, without any improvement to the movement of persons and goods, humanitarian conditions and bearing catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life.

The West Bank:

In addition to 108 permanent checkpoints and closed roads, this week witnessed the establishment of 43 temporary checkpoints that restrict the movement of goods and individuals, where IOF searched Palestinians’ vehicles, checked their IDs and arrested 6 of them. IOF tightened its restrictions on the movement at the checkpoints and closed some of them for hours.

Jerusalem:

On Sunday evening, 09 May 2021, IOF closed Sheikh al-Jarrah neighborhood and denied entry into it except for the residents.

On Saturday evening, 08 May 2021, IOF closed Beit Iksa checkpoint and denied movement from and into the village.

On Saturday evening, 08 May 2021, IOF closed al-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and denied entry into it except for the residents.

Bethlehem:

On Thursday, 06 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpints at the entrance to al-Khader and Beit Fajjar villages and at al-Nashash intersection, south of the City.

On Friday, 07 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the entrance to Beit Fajjr village and at Fureidis village intersection, east of Bethlehem.

On Saturday, 08 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the western entrance to Tekoa village and western entrance to Beit Fajjar village, south of Bethlehem.

On Sunday, 09 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to Husan and Nahalin villages and at the western entrance to Beit Fajjar village.

Nablus:

On Thursday, 06 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints near Deir Sharaf village intersection (on the Nablus-Jenin main road), “Shavei Shomron” settlement intersection (on the Nablus-Tulkarm main street), west of Nablus, and at Bita intersection, southeast of Nablus.

Jericho:

On Thursday, 06 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the Dead Sea intersection.

On Friday, 07 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at southern entrance to Jericho.

On Saturday, 08 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Jericho.

Hebron:

On Thursday, 06 May 2021, IOF established 5 checkpoints at the entrances to Beit Awwa village, Sa’ir village, al-‘Arroub refugee camp, al-Shyoukh village and northern Yatta.

On Friday, 07 May 2021, IOF established 4 checkpoints at the entrances to Idhna, al-Samou’a, southern Hebron and Beit Ummar village.

On Saturday, 08 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the western entrance to Hebron, southern entrance to Halhul and the entrance to Beit Kahel village.

On Monday, 10 May 2021, IOF established 6 checkpoints at entrances to al-‘Arroub and al-Fawwar refugee camps, eastern Duraa, al-Thaheriya village, Bani Na’im village and northern Hebron.

Qalqilya:

On Sunday, 09 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the northern entrance to ‘Azoun village, east of Qalqilya.

Salfit:

On Saturday, 08 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the entrances to Salfit and Kafr al-Deek village, west of Salfit.

The mask of “liberal democracy” falls with a bang

May 17, 2021

The mask of “liberal democracy” falls with a bang

By Pepe Escobar for The Saker Blog and thereafter widely distributed

Nakba, May 15, 2021. Future historians will mark the day when Western “liberal democracy” issued a graphic proclamation: We bomb media offices and destroy “freedom of the press” in an open air concentration camp while we forbid peaceful demonstrations under a state of siege in the heart of Europe.

And if you revolt, we cancel you.

6 members of the same family assassinated at this bombing in Beit Lahia

Gaza meets Paris. The bombing of the al-Jalaa tower – an eminently residential building which also housed the bureaus of al-Jazeera and AP, among others – by “the only democracy in the Middle East” is directly connected to the verboten order carried out by Macron’s Ministry of Interior.

For all practical purposes Paris endorsed the occupying power’s provocations in East Jerusalem; the invasion of al-Aqsa mosque – complete with tear gas and stun grenades; racist Zionist gangs harassing and crying “death to Arabs”; armed settlers aggressing Palestinian families threatened with expulsion from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan; a campaign of carpet bombing whose lethal victims – on average – are 30% children.

Paris crowds were not intimidated. From Barbes to Republique, they marched in the streets – their rallying cry being Israel assassin, Macron complice. They instinctively understodood that Le Petit Roi – a puny Rothschild employee – had just firebombed the historical legacy of the nation that coined the Déclaration Universelle des Droits de L’Homme.

The mask of “liberal democracy” kept falling again and again in a loop – with imperial Big Tech dutifully canceling the voices of Palestinians and defenders of Palestine en masse, in tandem with a diplomatic kabuki that could fool only the already brain-dead.

On May 16, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired a United States Security Council (UNSC) debate via video link that had been stalled by Washington, non-stop, throughout the week. China presides the UNSC throughout May.

The UNSC could not even agree on a mere joint statement. Once again because the UNSC was blocked by the – cowardly – Empire of Chaos.

It was up to Hua Liming, former Chinese ambassador to Iran, to break it all down in a single sentence:

“The US doesn’t want to give the credit of mediating the Palestine-Israel conflict to China, especially when China is the president of the UNSC.”

The usual imperial procedure is to “talk”, “offer you can’t refuse” Mafia-style, to both sides under the table – as the combo behind Crash Test Dummy, an avowed Zionist, had already admitted on an appalling White House tweet “reaffirming” its “strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself”.

Liming emphasized, correctly, “this is the key reason why any solution or ceasefire between Israel and Gaza or other forces in the region would be temporary.”

The whole Global South is incessantly bombarded by the imperial “human rights” rhetoric – from convicted crook Navalny to fake reports on Xinjiang. Yet when there is a real human rights catastrophe unleashed by the settler colonialist ally’s carpet bombing, Liming pointed out how “the hypocrisy and double standards of the US have been exposed again”.

One phone call can stop it

Amos Yadlin is the former IDF Military Intelligence Directorate chief, and also former Israeli military attaché to the US.

In a meeting with South African Zionists, he admitted the obvious: the Zionist carnage against Gaza can be stopped by Crash Test Dummy – who happens to be, what else, a Zionist puppet.

Yadlin claimed that the Crash Test Dummy administration, rather the combo behind it, was getting “impatient” and he would be “not surprised if this will all stop in 48 hours.” And once again he had to reinforce the obvious: “When the Egyptians ask Israel to stop, Israel doesn’t want to stop. But if the Americans will ask Israel to stop, Israel will have to listen.”

The Empire practices trademark doublespeak when referring to the “international community” – which in theory gathers at the UN. The concomitant 24/7 propaganda barrage applies only to the motley crew of partners in crime, minions, lackeys, poodles and vassals, imperially ignoring and/or pissing on the heads of over 80% of the planet. Confronted with the reality of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and others, “rules-based international order” does not even qualify as a joke for retards.

So next time you see some sub-zoology specimen deploying the “Israel has the right to defend itself” Maximum Stupidity argument, the only possible response is to unleash facts as missiles.

Every sentient being with a conscience knows Palestine faces a racist settler colonialism project boasting an armed-to-the-hilt-military and several nuclear bombs, specialized in practicing state terrorism.

Gaza though is a particularly horrifying case. Population: nearly 2 million people. One of the top densely populated areas on the planet. A de facto open air concentration camp where no less than 50% are children, one in ten stunted to a great extent because of food shortages provoked by the Israeli blockade. The official Israeli military plan is to allow just enough food in so the whole population barely survives. 50% of the population depends on food aid.

No less than 70% of families are refugees, who were ethnically cleansed from what is now southern Israel: there are roughly 1.46 million refugees out of a population of 1.9 million.

Gaza has 8 refugee camps – some being bombed as we speak. Never forget that Israel ruled Gaza directly from 1967 to 2005 and did less than zero to better their appalling conditions.

There are only 22 health centers, 16 social services offices and 11 food distribution centers, serving roughly 1 million people. No airport or port: both destroyed by Israel. The unemployment rate is 50% – the highest on the whole planet. Clean water is available to only 5% of the population.

But then there’s the Resistance. Elijah Magnier has shown how they have already pierced Israel’s pre-fabricated aura of invulnerability and “prestige” – and there’s only one way to go, as the speed, accuracy, range and potency of rockets and missiles can only improve.

In parallel, in a wise strategic move, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have made it very clear they prefer that Hezbollah does not get itself directly involved – for now, thus allowing the whole Global South to be focused on the carnage perpetrated against Gaza.

“A landscape of iron and desolation”

Sociologie de Jerusalem, by Sylvaine Bulle, is a short but quite illuminating book showing how the battle for East Jerusalem is as imperative for the future of Palestine as the tragedy in Gaza.

Bulle focuses on the “internal racism” in Israel directly linked to the hegemony of extreme-right Zionist “elites”. A key consequence has been the “peripherization” and marginalization of East Jerusalem, thrown into a situation of “forced dependence” of Westernized West Jerusalem.

Bulle shows how East Jerusalem only exists as “a landscape of iron and desolation”, through a juxtaposition of ultra-dense and totally abandoned zones. Palestinians who live in these areas are not regarded or respected as citizens.

Beit Lahia – the horrifying detail

It got much worse after 2004 and the construction of The Wall – which prevented the daily mobility of Palestinians living in the occupied territories and the Palestinians in Jerusalem. That was an extra fracture, with parts of East Jerusalem isolated on the other side of the wall and a lot of people now living in a real no man’s land. Very few across the “liberal democratic” West have any idea how does that feel in practice.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem don’t have Israeli nationality. Most have Jordanian passports. Yet now even Palestinians with Israeli nationality are rebelling – in most cases in very poor towns in the center of the country. Young generations simply have no reason to believe they belong in Israel.

As for Israeli secular leftists, they have been “neutralized” and carry no political power, as they were incapable of integrating the working masses, which in turn were completely captured by hardcore religious extremists.

Bulle’s conclusion, expressed with way too much diplomacy (this is France, after all), is inevitable: the state of Israel is more and more Jewish and less and less democratic, a de facto Zionist regime. She believes it might be possible to rebuild the link between Jewish national identity and democracy, including the rights of Palestinian minorities.

Sorry, but that’s not gonna happen, as the current tragedy, which started in East Jerusalem, graphically shows.

The Via Dolorosa continues – as we all watch in horror. Just imagine the inter-galactic Western levels of hysteria if Russia or China were bombing, firing shells and missiles and killing children in residential areas. No wonder the Empire of Chaos – and Lies, posing as a “liberal democracy” while enabling the murderous Zionist project, is firmly flirting with the dustbin of History.


Pepe Escobar’s new book is Raging Twenties. Follow him on VKTelegram and Instagram.

2010: Canada’s Secret Trial, ‘Who is Ernst Zundel?’

By VT Editors -May 1, 2021

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

March 19, 2010

VIOLATING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE NAME OF HUMAN RIGHTS

First they came for the holocaust denialists and I did not speak out as I was not a holocaust denialist….

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

In Europe and Canada, saying that any commonly held belief taught in Israel about the holocaust may be incorrect can land you in prison for up to 20 years.  If you say only 5,999,999 Jews died, you go to prison.  If you say they were shot, not gassed, you go to prison.  In a world where the only part of the nightly news that can be believed is the sports scores, Americans are infamous for lying about the weather as are Italians, Ernst Zundel was sent from Canada to serve 5 years in prison in Germany for doubting the official version of the holocaust.

WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE?

Many Germans would like to find a version of history where they don’t seem barbarous.  Should that be a crime?  Palestinian who suffered hundreds of thousands dead at the hands of Israel say it is done because Jews use the holocaust as an excuse for murder.  Iran just loves starting trouble.  They are like that.  Is asking questions about history a crime?  Are there really well financed attempts to prove that the holocaust didn’t happen for the reasons Israel says, “So it can happen again?”  Is sending people to jail in violation of common sense and honor worth defending any idea?  Didn’t we end up doing things like this in the Middle Ages when the Catholic Church went on a several century murder rampage?

WHAT DOES ANYONE KNOW?When in Germany, I look across the street.  A synagogue was there.  Now the leader of the church choir lives there.  He took me thru the 500 year old building.  There is a small plaque on the sidewalk.  No Jews remain.  Now they visit on vacation, buy wine, eat cake at the outdoor cafes and never see the sign for the missing synagogue.  At the end of the street there used to be a Nazi Party headquarters.  In 1944, an American plane, maybe a B-26, came down the river.  No more building.  Nothing else was hit.  This guy was some pilot!

IS IT WORTH IT?

Saying large numbers of Jews and many other people weren’t enslaved and murdered by the Nazis is offense and wrong.  It is also stupid.  Stupid and criminal are not the same thing.  Saying it is OK to do something wrong to someone else, let’s say, the Palestinian, because the Germans were bad is wrong too.  We all learn this as kids.

We can’t fix what happened.  I expect everyone to learn, to prepare and if wise, arm themselves to the teeth until mankind proves themselves less toxic.  This is common sense.

HYPOCRITICAL CANADA

If Canada loves the Jews so much, Hitler would have sent them all to Canada, a country nearly empty, long before the killing started.  Hitler asked, Canada and so many other countries refused.  Ask any Jew, they know the list.  Jailing Ernst Zundel is so much easier than living with the truth.

Too little, too late.

The issue here is secret trials with secret witnesses and secret charges.  Canadians love bashing the United States for our Bush era fling with fascist tyranny but easily forget their own.  When remembering offenses, perhaps one could remember the offense against Ernst Zundel, done in the name of liberalism and political correctness.  Anyone who would send Ernst Zundel away would, if pushed, start transporting Jews “east.”

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.

What was said about Ernst Zundel, Canadians used to say about the Jews until it became “illegal.”

The Jewish Takeover of Canada: The Case of Arthur Topham

By Lasha Darkmoon –

October 10, 2014

Has Canada been taken over by Jews? It would seem so, if the relentless persecution
of Canadian patriot and freedom fighter Arthur Topham 
is anything to go on.

. . . by Lasha DarkmoonIT’S TOO LATE TO CRY — IT’S ALREADY HAPPENED

Canadian patriot and freedom fighter Arthur Topham is to be hauled before the Canadian courts next year on trumped-up charges. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Arthur is an innocent man. His trial date has now been set. He will appear in court on 26 October, 2015, and his trial will last for two weeks until 6 November.

If found guilty, this man who has said and done nothing that you and I have not said or done a thousand times, will be torn from the embrace of his wife, his family and his friends and be thrown into prison. It will be a major miscarriage of justice if this should occur.

The forthcoming trial of Arthur Topham (pictured) is therefore much more than the trial of one man. Canadian justice will itself be on trial.

arthur topham

What is Arthur’s alleged crime? Arthur’s only crime is that he is a political dissident who has chosen to exercise his democratic right to free speech. He has spoken out eloquently about the war crimes of the state of Israel and published books on his website which are regarded as offensive to many Jews. To criticize this privileged ethnic group in Canada or to question its cherished assumptions, is, it seems, strictly taboo. This is classified as “hate speech”.

At no time has Arthur advocated breaking the law. He has never incited anyone to violence. He has merely utilized his pen to express his political views in a rational and civilized way as any political dissident anywhere in the world would do.

If Arthur had been an American or British citizen, he would not be facing a possible prison sentence right now, and this is because whatever Arthur has said or done is not regarded as a crime in the United States or Britain.If Arthur is to be condemned in a Canadian court for “hate speech”, it will only be because Canada has now fallen under the dominant influence of a powerful ethnic group who have somehow managed to turn Canada into an Israelified police state.

Yesterday I received an email from an old friend of mine. His name is Felix Dean. He is a retired Canadian professional who dearly loves his country, just as Arthur Topham does. Unlike Arthur however, Felix can no longer bear to live in Canada. He feels that Canada has rapidly morphed into a police state under the malign influence of organized Jewry. So Felix now resides in self-imposed exile within “the civilized confines of Europe,” to quote his own words.

This is what Felix has to say about his Canadian compatriot Arthur Topham:

“To the best of my understanding, Arthur Topham’s cardinal sin is not what he said, but the fact that he PUBLISHED it. There is an individual by name of Richard Warman, the rabid Zionist attack dog whose only reason for living is to destroy truth tellers like Arthur. Warman is actually of German ancestry, not a Jew as far as I know, but he is a classical cult zombie, someone so thoroughly brainwashed and programmed for bloodshed that I cannot but regard him as little better than a Manchurian candidate of the worst sort.”

richard warman

Strong words, friend Felix. It distresses me to know that Canadian justice is now apparently relying on the evidence of Manchurian candidates. Has it really come to this?

It would appear that this man Richard Warman (pictured), an ardent Zionist with a reputation for being a “serial complainant”, has a personal grudge against Arthur Topham and would like to see him go to prison.

Though non-Jewish himself and with no official position, Warman is constantly to be seen filing complaints against critics of Big Jewry. It was he who tried to get David Icke into trouble recently, accusing Icke of unspecified “hate crimes”. Apparently mentioning “Jews” in the same breath as “lizards” is deeply disturbing to Mr Warman and could indirectly lead to a second Holocaust.

Needless to say, Warman is relatively small fry: a pest and a nuisance rather than a serious threat to champions of free speech. Arthur’s main adversary is a powerful Canadian Jew, Harry Abrams, British Columbia representative of B’nai B’rith Canada. It was he who in 2007 registered a section 13 complaint against Arthur as follows:

“This concerns a complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission seeking relief for discriminatory publication under prohibited grounds caught by Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The premise of this complaint is a contention that Arthur Topham of Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada, and his internet publication known as Radicalpress.com contrive to promote ongoing hatred affecting persons identifiable as Jews and/or as citizens of Israel.”

Cut out the legal jargon and it boils down to this: Arthur is a criminal because he has given offense to the Jews.

In 2012, Harry Abrams filed a second complaint against Arthur with the British Columbia “Hate Crimes” unit, alleging that:

“Roy Arthur TOPHAM, between the 28th day of April, 2011 and the 4th day of May, 2012, inclusive, at or near Quesnel, in the Province of British Columbia, did by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, people of the Jewish religion or ethnic origin, contrary to Section 319(2) of the Criminal Code.”

Impressive legal jargon reducible to the age-old whine: “This man is saying bad things about Jews and must be stopped!”

This is the charge Arthur is now fighting, and this is the question the Canadian courts must decide: is it permissible to contradict a Jew in any way, thereby hurting his feelings, and will you be sent to prison if he complains about you?

An instrument of oppression and a serious threat to free speech in Canada
An instrument of oppression
and a serious threat to free speech in Canada

A few more quotes from the email of my Canadian friend Felix will help to fill in the picture:

“Arthur had a brave and noble defender in his lawyer, Douglas Christie, who originally defended Ernst Zundel and other political dissidents. Christie unfortunately succumbed to liver cancer a few years ago, a true hero in every sense of the word.

Consider that all these guys are real Canadians, whose ancestors were the original pioneers and frontiersmen of our beloved country. These great Canadians earned combat medals, they fought and died in wars on behalf of Canada, and then what happens? These troublesome Jews show up and proceed to grind all our Canadian patriots to dust and ashes, as if they owned the world and all the surrounding planets.

No part of Canadian history holds any value for these alien interlopers. They respect none of our traditions. It is thoroughly disgusting.

You and I have said things that are hundreds of times more offensive to “the Jews” than Arthur Topham has, and yet no one is threatening to throw us in prison! So why do they pick on Arthur? It’s because Arthur has made a name for himself (through Christie) in the mainstream press. Ordinary Canadians know all about him and therefore he must be made a very public example of — his head must be paraded through the streets on a spike!

Arthur most certainly needs defending. In fact, I believe his wife is Jewish. Not that this will help him in any way.”

I was deeply moved by this eloquent email from my friend Felix, himself a Canadian citizen, as I say, who has chosen to leave Canada and live abroad because of the takeover of his country by an increasingly obnoxious, in-your-face Jewish minority. This natural aversion to being bossed around by pesky Jews naturally means that Felix is now regarded as an “anti-Semite” — a term which, according to B’nai B’rith Canada, can now be applied to four million Canadians.

It is amazing to think that even a man with a Jewish wife such as Arthur Topham should be regarded as a dangerous anti-Semite by B’nai B’rith Canada. Consider this sobering fact: not a SINGLE Canadian citizen has been named as a victim of Arthur Topham’s political activities. Who has complained to the police about Arthur Topham? Only TWO individuals out of 36 million Canadians: one a non-Jewish serial complainant, Richard Warman, already mentioned above, and the other a powerful Jew representing B’nai B’rith Canada, Harry Abrams. It is Harry Abrams who is currently leading the witch hunt against Arthur Topham.

The glib assumption that B’nai B’rith Canada, spear-headed in the British Columbia region by Jewish commissar Harry Abrams, represents Jewish interests in Canada and speaks for all Canadian Jews, is an assumption that cannot be granted. There is one Jew who certainly does not feel that B’nai B’rith Canada speaks for all Jews, and that is Arthur Topham’s Jewish wife.

I venture to say that Arthur’s Jewish wife is only one among thousands of Jews in Canada who are utterly appalled by the flagrant war crimes committed by the Jewish state in Gaza only quite recently. These Jews do not feel that B’nai B’rith Canada, with its undeviating loyalty to Israel, represents their interests in any way.


For the record, Arthur Topham’s Jewish wife is totally aware of Arthur’s political activities and is behind her husband 100 percent of the way in whatever he has said or done. Raised in a secular household of Russian Jews, Topham’s wife has no time for Zionism. She is a practicing spiritual healer, with clairvoyant abilities, who uses traditional medicines in her healing ministry. Ever since she was a child, I am told, “she has followed the Red path of the Native American Indians and never could relate to her Jewish background.”

Naturally, Arthur’s Jewish wife does not, unlike B’nai B’rith Canada, regard it as a crime that Arthur should have published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on his site.

That B’nai B’rith Canada should actually go to the absurd length of suggesting that Arthur Topham should be sent to prison for, among other things, publishing the Protocols on his website—a book that anyone can buy anywhere—is a sure sign of desperation as well as malevolent overkill.

Apart from the Protocols, there are other books Arthur has published on his website which, according to B’nai B’rith Canada, he should not have published and which mark him out as a dangerous criminal who is a threat to Canada’s 375,000 Jews. These are books widely available not only on the internet but in major libraries and specialist bookshops, e.g., Eustace Mullins’ The Biological Jew and Elizabeth Dilling’s The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today.

Elizabeth Dilling’s book, incidentally, happens to be a meticulously researched exposé of the Babylonian Talmud, revealing in quotation after shocking quotation the bizarre mindset of Talmudic Jewry. Here are a few examples of what will be found in the Jews’ holiest book:

(1) “When a Jew murders a gentile, there will be no death penalty. What a Jew steals from a gentile he may keep.

(2) “A Gentile girl who is three years old may be [sexually] violated.”

(3) “If a Jew is tempted to do evil, he should go to a city where he is not known and do the evil there.”

(4) “Jesus is in hell, being boiled in hot excrement.”

B’nai B’rith Canada is naturally incensed that the official Jewish hatred of non-Jews should be so openly revealed. They would prefer to see their hatred of the non-Jewish majority kept carefully under wraps. It follows that this highly repressive Jewish organization would not only like to see Dilling’s book banned, but they would also like to see Arthur Topham given a stiff prison sentence for daring to draw attention to the book on his website.

The unbelievable chutzpah of B’nai B’rith Canada was perhaps even more flagrantly on display when they raised objections to Arthur Topham’s republication on his site of Theodore N. Kaufman’s hate-filled 1941 book Germany Must Perish! Written by a mentally deranged American Jew, this disreputable book called for the TOTAL EXTERMINATION OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE BY FORCIBLE STERILIZATION OF EVERY SINGLE GERMAN MALE!

In order to highlight the enormity of what this psychotic Jew was actually suggesting, Arthur employed the ingenious device of republishing the book on his website with a few significant alterations. First, he changed the title to Israel Must Perish! Then he substituted the word “Israel” for “Germany”, “Jew for “German”, and “Netanyahu” for “Hitler”. This at once transformed Kaufman’s hateful book into a Swiftian satire.

The point Arthur Topham was making was unmistakable. If it is permissible to call for the mass extermination of the GERMAN people by enforced sterilization of every single GERMAN MALE, then it was equally permissible to call for the extermination of the JEWISH people by the enforced sterilization of every single JEWISH male. The logic was impeccable.

Such perfect logic, however, was displeasing to B’nai B’rith Canada, Driven to desperation, this Jewish organization then resorted to dirty tricks. First it alleged, falsely, that Arthur had actually published a real, hard copy book called Israel Must Perish! He had done no such thing.

Secondly and even more egregiously, it made out that Arthur was himself advocating the genocide of the “whole Jewish population.” He was doing no such thing. It was Detective Constable Terry Wilson of British Columbia Hate Crimes Unit who told Arthur in person that B’nai B’rith Canada was attempting to make this defamatory and unprovable allegation.

Kaufman’s “hate-filled screed titled German Must Perish! [Arthur reveals on his website] “was promoted by the most prestigious mass media publications in the USA when it appeared in 1941 prior to America’s entry into the conflict. Magazines like Time and newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post lauded the idea of absolutely destroying the German nation and the German race as a whole, referring to this grotesquely contemptible concept as a “SENSATIONAL IDEA!”

5

The implacable Jewish hatred for the German people, oozing from every line of this nauseating book and easily demonstrated by its hysterical call for the mass “castration” of every single German male in the world by sterilization, was, you will regret to learn, not confined to one or two crazy Jews in Brooklyn. It was official government policy in an America already to a large extent dominated by its Jews.

In September 1944, the savagely vindictive Morgenthau Plan for Germany was unveiled. The evil brainchild of two Jews in the American administration, Harry Dexter White and Henry Morgenthau, this malevolent plan for postwar Germany amounted to little more than the mass castration of the German people—humiliation and punishment ad infinitum.

As the German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels put it, “Hate and revenge of truly old-testament character are clear in these plans dreamed up by the American Jew Morgenthau. Industrialized Germany should be literally turned into a huge potato field.” This comment has naturally been dismissed as contemptible nonsense by the court historians and their Jewish mentors, given that Goebbels said it. Therefore to quote it as an indictment of Morgenthau is—you guessed it—”anti-Semitic”.

However, US Secretary of War Harry Stimson is not so easy to dismiss. Stimson’s final assessment of the Morgenthau Plan was that “it is Semitism gone wild for vengeance.” Morgenthau, he added, “was so biased by his Semitic grievances that he really is a very dangerous advisor to the President.” In his diary he wrote tersely: “Objective of punishment is prevention but not vengeance. Reason why Jew is disqualified.” (See here)

Needless to say, Stimson has himself been dismissed as an anti-Semite for saying this. De Judaiis nil nisi bonum.

Both Roosevelt and Churchill were to put their initials to the revengeful Morgenthau Plan. Helpless puppets of the powerful Jews who jerked their strings, it seems that neither world leader had much choice in the matter. Both lived to to regret their actions. Roosevelt later said “he had no idea how he could have initialled this.” Churchill was to parrot his words, “I had not time to examine the Morgenthau Plan in detail. I am sorry I put my initials to it.” (See here)

In his 1956 book The Controversy of Zion, Douglas Reed was to refer to the Morgenthau Plan as “The Talmudic Vengeance.” (Title of Chapter 42). An apt description, which perhaps helps to explain why Douglas Reed is another writer whose works organized Jewry would like to see banned, along with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Elizabeth Dilling’s exposé of the Talmud, The Jewish Religion.

Conclusion

To summarize: Arthur Topham has said nothing that you or I have not said repeatedly, day in and day out. If Arthur is guilty of “hate speech”, then we are all guilty of hate speech. If Arthur is to be consigned to a Canadian prison for his views, then we all deserve to join him there and be allocated adjoining cells.

If Arthur is guilty of speaking out against the state of Israel, especially after its recent war crimes in Gaza, then we are ALL guilty—for there is not one of us who has not cried out in revulsion against the wanton mass murder and maiming of Palestinians, most of them women and children, whose only crime is that they happen to own the land the Jews covet.

Let this be noted: Canada, now almost completely under the Jewish yoke, would like to criminalize EVERY SINGLE CRITICISM OF THE JEWISH STATE. Merely to give offense to a Jew, to hurt his feelings by disagreeing with him, will soon earn you a stiff fine or a prison sentence. Here is what B’nai B’rith Canada would like to see incorporated into Canadian law:

“We must repeat again and again these basic facts — TO BE ‘anti-Israel’ IS TO BE ANTI-SEMITIC. TO BOYCOTT ISRAEL, ISRAELI PROFESSORS and ISRAELI business, these are not political acts, these are acts of hate, acts of anti-Semitism! Anti-Israel hysteria is anti-Semitic hysteria. They are one and the same.”

The above statement was made in 2009 by Yuli Edelstein, Israeli Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, The capital letters are his. (See “Criminalizing Criticism of Israel in Canada”)

Dare to express pity for this little girl and demand the punishment of the Israeli soldier guilty of doing this to her
and you will soon face criminal proceedings in Canada

Here is the picture of an Israeli woman, an atrocity tourist who claims that the sight of Palestinian children being killed gives her exquisite pleasure, almost bringing her an orgasm:

Dare to criticize this sexually perverted Jewess
and you will soon be accused of “anti-Semitism” by B’nai Brith Canada and sent to prison

Can Canadian justice sink any lower? Do Canadian citizens really want to live in a totalitarian police state run by Jews? I don’t think so. Canadian justice must not be used as an instrument of oppression by a rabid and out-of-control Jewish minority.

B’nai B’rith Canada clearly does not represent the interests of most Canadian Jews, as it mendaciously claims. I know many Jews in Canada who totally reject being represented by this hate-filled organization. One such Jew is Arthur Topham’s beloved wife. If B’nai B’rith Canada has its way, her husband will be thrown into prison on trumped-up charges.

The witch hunt against Arthur Topham by B’nai B’rith Canada must stop.

If you are concerned for Arthur Topham
and would like to see him treated fairly
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION

ABOUT VT EDITORS

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VT Editors is a General Posting account managed by Jim W. Dean and Gordon Duff. All content herein is owned and copyrighted by Jim W. Dean and Gordon Duff

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Palestine – Anniversary of the Death of a Child – 30 September 2000

Palestine – Anniversary of the Death of a Child – 30 September 2000

October 04, 2020

By Peter Koenig for the Saker Blog

Palestine under siege for 72 years. A UK-prompted UN decision in 1947 allowed David Ben-Gurion, then the head of the Jewish Agency, to proclaim on May 14, 1948, the establishment of the State of Israel.

Mandatory Palestine in 1946

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, a UN proposal, recommended a partition of “Mandatory Palestine” at the end of the British Mandate. “Mandatory Palestine” (picture to the left depicting Mandatory Palestine in 1946 – source: Wikipedia) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920–1948 in the region of Palestine, under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as Resolution 181 (II).

This fastidious date and controversial decision in 1948 brought about misery for generations of people – Palestinians – on their own land, inflicted by a tiny country implanted on Palestine – but supported by a super-power to the point that this tiny country, called Israel, has itself become a super-power – on the verge of expanding herself not only over Palestinian territory, but over the entire Middle-East.

It shall not happen.

This tiny country, ruled by a minority of power-greedy Zionists, linked to a worldwide Zionist-dominated network over the western financial system, and hellbent to rule the world – as the Chosen People, has violated countless UN Resolutions calling for a halt of her deadly aggression on the Palestinian people. And not only on Palestine, but to stop her interference all over the Middle-East, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran – to mention just a few. To no avail.

The tragic and murderous photo series depicts the 20th Anniversary of just one indescribable crime. But it is also symbolic for Israeli-perpetrated atrocities that have been slaughtering Palestinians for the last 72 years – indiscriminately, children, women, men – and no end is in sight, because the west looks on and tolerates. It tolerates one outrageous brutality after another.

Tolerance with financial gain.

Weapons sales to Israel flourish – and trade with Israel is unaffected – as the Jewish people, victims of the Holocaust – that, indeed, shall never be forgotten! – are being used by their Zionist masters to continue instilling guilt on Europe, the world. It’s a strategy that works wonders. The victims cum guilt have become an alibi for today’s Israel getting literally away not just with murder, but with an ongoing genocide.

As things stand today, Israel is about to take over and absorb the Palestinian West Bank without serious opposition from its western NATO allies, the very hypocritical west that is officially propagating peace talks after peace talks – no end. Indeed, no end. Because Peace is not wanted. The United States of America wants full domination of the Middle-East. Its one of the planet’s most energy rich areas, but also one of the most strategic gateways between Eurasia and Africa. So, the symbiotic relationship of the tail wagging the dog, between Israel and the US of A will go on.

Should that take-over by Israel of the Westbank happen, then the entire once “Mandatory Palestine” would become Israel. This may be the “geopolitical” strategy, but are the people at large – all over the globe – aware of this diabolical plan?

When the legendary “Crack” – “There is a Crack in Everything, that’s how the Light Gets In” (“Anthem”, Leonard Cohen, London 2008 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRYjtvIYK0&feature=emb_rel_pause) – will open our minds to the reality of what we humans are doing to ourselves, to humanity – to our fellow sentient beings – we may finally act and choose Justice over Greed, Love over Hate and Peace over War.


Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals such as Global Research; ICH; New Eastern Outlook (NEO) and more. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.

Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

What I saw in the West Bank

PALESTINE, SYRIA, WHITE HELMETS AND BANA AL-ABED – TAREQ HADDAD SPEAKS TO EVA BARTLETT

Eva Bartlett

CONTACT INFO: evakbartlett2017@gmail.com

An independent writer and rights activist with extensive experience in Syria and in the Gaza Strip, where she lived a cumulative three years (from late 2008 to early 2013). 

Very pleased to have been a guest on the program “Conversations”, hosted by courageous and principled journalist Tareq Haddad.

He writes:

“Former Newsweek journalist Tareq Haddad speaks to Eva Bartlett, an award-winning independent journalist and activist. They discuss Eva’s early history, including her early days in Gaza and the West Bank, and how she transitioned into journalism in addition to addressing the large backlash and smears she faced.”

Please consider supporting his podcast:https://www.patreon.com/tareqhaddad

https://www.paypal.me/tareqhaddad

Also, support his share of the podcast on Twitter.

CONVERSATION-RELATED LINKS:

A Personal Reply to the Fact-Challenged Smears of Terrorist-Whitewashing Channel 4, Snopes and La Presse

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Stealing Palestinian Land in Susiya [August 2007 post from Susiya, occupied Palestine]

Susiya Grandfather Under Attack by Illegal Colonists [September 2007]

Introducing Susiya: a beautiful landscape marred by illegal colonists [September 2007]

Further Susiya posts

Nablus After the Israeli Military Invasion [July 2007]

Breaking Fast Under “Curfew” (Lockdown) [October 2007]

Collective Punishment in Balata and Nablus [November 2007]

Azzoun: village under israeli assault and lockdown [December 2007]

My 2007 posts from occupied Palestine

Personal Reflections from occupied Palestine

Overview of what I witnessed in the West Bank, occupied Palestine

Free Gaza Movement [which sent 5 boat trips to Gaza in 2008]

November 2008 boat to Gaza: how I got to Gaza

*GAZA MASSACRE (2008/9):

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December 2008 posts (scroll down)

January 2009 posts (scroll though)

February 2009 follow-up posts

videos

Israel’s widespread use of White Phosphorous:

White phosphorous mutilated and murdered family members [photos and video]

“next time it will hurt more”: Israeli threat against surviving family members of White Phosphorous attack [follow-up on the family I met in Shifa hospital]-the attacked Wafa rehabilitation hospital

Long-burning fires: White Phosphorous on Sheikh RajleenDocumenting Israel’s use of White Phosphorous and widespread destruction

some of the Israeli war crimes:

widespread attacks on Gaza leave nearly 300 dead, hundreds seriously injured (start of the war on Gaza)

Israeli army kills Palestinian medic with dart bombIsraeli Sniper Targets Uniformed Medics: what I witnessed in Gaza

Another funeral bombedShifa ICU: a glimpse of hospital critical injuriesinjured, denied access: Israeli soldiers shoot woman in stomach and keep elderly hostages

While eating chips and chocolate, Israeli soldiers assassinate 2 and 7 year old“They killed me three times”: Palestinian father on Israeli army murder of family members including infant girl

All we’ve got left of him: parents speak of their Israeli-drone-struck youthBurning al Quds: one of Gaza’s remaining functional hospitals bombed in Israel’s war on Gaza

Updates from runs with medics; grief of husband of drone-struck womanIsrael bombed the news building I was in

Israel’s ceasefire violations:

It’s a ceasefire…just not on the beach, not in your home: Israeli soldier shoots 7 year old boy in head;

Continued Israeli shelling, F-16s and drones after the ceasefire

*GAZA MASSACRE 2012:

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Gaza under israeli bombs: day 6 since Nov 14

Killing before the Calm: Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Civilians Escalated before Cease-fire

Zionist drones and warplanes pollute Gaza’s skies immediately after 9 pm “cease-fire” [VIDEO]

Israeli Soldiers Fail to Cease Firing on Palestinian FarmersThe Flattening of Gaza [with photos]

The Civilian Toll of Israel’s BombsAfter the Zionist bombing stopped (again)

*OTHER GAZA LINKS:

Observations from Occupied Palestine: Gaza [many links within this article]-213 Palestinians murdered by Israeli soldiers during Great March of Return, with 36,134 injured (including being shot in the eye) since the demonstrations began on 30 March 2018, according to OCHA as of January 23, 2020.
UN predictions fall short: Gaza uninhabitable todayDirty Tricks: Israeli Soldiers Shoot Deaf Palestinian Farmer, 4th Farmer Shot in 3 weeks

*SYRIA RELATED LINKS:

-on the Guardian White-washing the White Helmets: How the Mainstream Media Whitewashed Al-Qaeda and the White Helmets in Syria

*on (some of) the BBC lies/war propaganda on Syria:Fabrication in BBC Panorama ‘Saving Syria’s Children’

From my “Absurdities of Syrian war propaganda“:

“In April 2014, after an elementary school was mortared by terrorists east of Damascus, killing one child, the BBC later reported, “the government is also accused of launching them into neighborhoods under its control.” On a recent social media post, I noted this deceitful journalism, and the BBC could have easily learned about the trajectory of mortars and from where the mortar in question could only have come: the “moderates” east of Damascus.”

*Other examples of Western media lies on Syria:

US to grant $35 million to promote its fake news bubble in Syria & control local media

‘They know that we know they are liars, they keep lying’: West’s war propaganda on Ghouta crescendos

Faked concern: Haley & corporate media bleating about Idlib civilians, ignore terrorists’ presence

Organ theft, staged attacks: UN panel details White Helmets’ criminal activities, media yawns

Voices from Syria’s Rukban Refugee Camp Belie Corporate Media Reporting

MintPress Meets The Father Of Iconic Aleppo Boy, Who Says Media Lied About His Son

–From my “Exploitation of children in propaganda war against Syria continues“:

“In November 2014, a clip dubbed ‘Syrian hero boy’ went viral, viewed over 5 million times already by mid-November. The clip showed what appeared to be a little boy saving his sister from sniper gunfire, and was assumed to have been in Syria.
The Telegraph’s Josie Ensor didn’t wait for any sort of verification of the video which she cited as having been uploaded on November 10, the next day writing“…it is thought the incident took place in Yabroud – a town near the Lebanese border which was the last stronghold of the moderate Free Syrian Army. Experts tell the paper they have no reason to doubt its authenticity. The UN has previously accused the Syrian regime of ‘crimes against humanity’ – including the use of snipers against small children.”

On November 14, the BBC brought on ‘Middle East specialist’ Amira Galal to give her expert opinion on the clip. She asserted“We can definitely say that it is Syria, and we can definitely say that it’s probably on the regime frontlines. We see in the footage that there is a barrel, it’s painted on it the Syrian army flag.”

Once again, the so-called ‘experts’ got it wrong. The barrel which Galal referred to had a poor imitation of the flag of Syria painted on it, the flag’s color sequence out of order. The clip she was so certain had been filmed in government areas of Syria was actually produced in Malta by Norwegian filmmakers.”–Guardian, Atlantic contributor acts as a Syrian terrorist mouthpiece on Twitter, and if you don’t like it you’re a Russian stooge

*on Syrian elections 2014:

what I saw/heard at Syrian embassy in Beirut: Syrians Flock to Vote in LebanonSelection of articles on the elections (and terrorist attacks)-From my: “US-Backed Terrorism in Syria: A First-Hand Account of the Use of Mortars Against Civilians“:

“…in the three-month period of April, May and June 2014, terrorist-insurgents fired 994 mortars on Damascus and environs, 426 of which were fired in June (see list of locations hit and number of mortars below). On June 3, Election Day in Syria, the terrorist-insurgents fired 151 shells on Damascus, killing 5 and maiming 33 Syrians…”-A week after the elections, Syrians celebrating outcome in Homs*My 2014 reports from Homs & Maaloula:-from my “Liberated Homs Residents Challenge Notion of “Revolution””

“…Abu Nabeel explained that the insurgents mined the area before leaving. “They left booby-trapped explosives in the houses, all over, even behind paintings on the wall.”

In the courtyard of the Jesuit church sat a lone plastic chair adorned with flowers and a photo of Father Frans van der Lugt, the Jesuit priest assassinated on April 7, 2014.

Nazim Kanawati, who knew and respected the Jesuit, arrived moments after the 75-year-old priest had been shot in the back of the head.” We were surrounded and under siege. This was the only place we could go to. Everyone loved it here,” he said.

“Father Frans was a peace-maker and played an important role in arranging the evacuation of civilians from the Old City during the siege. He was trusted by both sides, and didn’t distinguish between Christians and Muslims. He was concerned with humanity.”

…Although he chose to stay in the Old City, Father Frans was critical of the insurgents. In January 2012, he had written: “From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. Very often the violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.”

“People in Homs were already armed and prepared before the protests began,” said Kanawati. “If they hadn’t been planning for the protests from the beginning, the people wouldn’t have had the quantity of arms that they had.”

…No one expected the priest himself to be killed, Kanawati attested. “Someone who was probably in his twenties came here, his face covered, came and ordered Father Frans to go with him. Father Frans refused. So the man told him to sit on this chair, and shot him in the head.”Abu Nabeel added another piece of information regarding van der Lugt’s murder.

“Three or four days before Father Frans was killed, the Syrian army had targeted a vehicle filled with explosives, which the insurgents were planning to send into the city. Many of the insurgent leaders killed were less extreme that the foreign insurgents, and had been protecting the church. After their deaths, the other insurgents went to the church and demanded Father Frans hand over the valuables residents in the area had left with him for safe-keeping. He refused, so they killed him.”

Mohammed, a Syrian from the Qussoor district of Homs, is now one of the reported 6.5 million internally-displaced Syrians.

“I’m a refugee in Latakia now. I work in Homs, two days a week, and then return to Latakia to stay at my friend’s home. I left my house at the very end of 2011, before the area was taken over by al-Nusra and al-Farooq brigades.”

He spoke of the sectarian nature of the insurgents and protests from the very beginning in 2011.

“I was renting a home in a different neighbourhood of Homs, while renovating my own house. Just beyond my balcony there were protests that did not call for ‘freedom’ or even overthrowing the ‘regime’.They chanted sectarian mottos, they said they would fill al-Zahara – an Alawi neighbourhood – with blood. And also al-Nezha – where there are many Alawis and Christians.”

“My aunt lives in another neighbourhood nearby. She’s Allawi and her husband is Sunni. Because she is Allawi, the ‘rebels’ wanted to kill her two sons. I chose Bashar al-Assad, so they said, ‘we will kill you, because you chose him.’”

The windows and door handle to the home of Aymen and Zeinat al-Akhras were missing, but the house itself was intact. Zeinat, a pharmacist, and Aymen, a chemical engineer, survived the presence of the armed men and the resulting siege on the Old City.

Every space in their small sitting was filled with the books and boxes fleeing family and neighbours, entrusted to the Akhras siblings who chose to weather the storm.

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…“I dropped to 34 kilos. Aymen told me to weigh myself. I got on the scale and said, ‘What’s 34 kilos?’. A ten-year-old weighs more than that! And Aymen was 43 kilos. For a man, 43 kilos,” she said laughing.

…“Thirty-eight times they came to steal our food. The first couple of times, they knocked on the door, after that they just entered with guns. The last things they took were our dried peas, our cracked wheat, our olives, finally our za’atar (wild thyme). We started to eat grass and whatever greens we could find in February, 2014, and that’s all we had till Homs was liberated,” Zeinat said.“The last time they came all we had were some spices. I was putting the spices on the grass and weeds that we were eating at that point, to give them some flavour. They even took the spices. They didn’t leave us anything…”–Devastation…and Inspiration: Recalling Liberated Ma’loula[2016 article: Overcoming Savagery and Treachery, Maaloula’s Heroic Defenders Fight for the Future ][2018 article: Damascus Trade Fair and Festival of the Cross Mark the Return of Peace to Much of Syria ]-Regarding Zahra’a (Homs) terrorist attacks: Where is the West’s compassion & condemnation following terror attacks in Middle East?On hospitals being bombed in Syria, and those not

*On Douma/Ghouta Chemical Hoax, and Reality of Life Under Terrorist Rule:

No attack, no victims, no chem weapons: Douma witnesses speak at OPCW briefing at The Hague (VIDEO)

Real ‘obscene masquerade’: How BBC depicted staged hospital scenes as proof of Douma chemical attack

Syrian civilians from ground zero expose chemical hoaxTorture, starvation, executions: Eastern Ghouta civilians talk of life under terrorist rule

Lies, Newsweek and Control of the Media Narrative: First-Hand Account, by Tareq Haddad

‘Brazen disinformation’: Syria narrative managers defend Douma chemical weapon hoax as OPCW comes under attack

Worst lie since fake claim sparked Iraq war? OPCW report behind Syria bombings was altered, whistleblower tells UNSC

Twitter thread on OPCW revelationsUN On Khan Sheikhoun – Victims Hospitalized BEFORE Claimed Incident Happened

All Points Alert: Israel Is the Killer State at Large

By Jeremy Salt

Source

Alaa Wahdan Abd al Rahman Yassir Shtewi 71016

The most important news coming out of occupied Palestine in the past week was not the blow delivered to Benyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu or Gantz, it will be business as usual, now that the elections are over:  more attacks on Gaza, possibly a large-scale war on Gaza, possibly a war on Lebanon, or Iran, who would know, as Israel always has a profusion of targets.

No, the most important news was not the elections but the killing of a Palestinian woman on the west bank, only a few days after a 10-year-old boy, Abd al Rahman Yassir Shtewi, had been shot in the head by a soldier near the northern West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum during a demonstration over the closure of an access road.  He was taken to hospital in critical condition.

The woman, Alaa Wahdan, was shot with an assault rifle as she walked towards a checkpoint near the Qalandiya refugee camp, built for refugees after the massacres and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Lydda and Ramle in 1948.

She was walking on the road, having missed the pedestrian lane allotted to the Palestinians. That was the crime for which she had to die.  She was told to stop.  According to the five heavily armed men who blocked her way, she pulled out a knife, a small yellow-handled thing photographed lying on the road.   Alaa was five to seven meters away and the knife could have been knocked away with the butt of a gun but one of the armed men shot her instead, the bullet apparently severing an artery in her leg.

Alaa fell to the road and was left there unattended for half an hour, bleeding to death. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was prevented from attending to her.  The soldiers watched her drag herself along the roadside on her front, the blood pouring out of her body, leaving a long, wide red stain behind her.  Not one of them made any attempt to comfort her or staunch the wound.  They watched her bleed to death.  They let her die, in line with unstated state policy.

Who Alaa was precisely, a mother, a sister, a daughter or an aunt, was of no interest to the occupiers.  She was a down-page story in the media, not even worthy of being given a name, no more than the African ‘terrorists’ of the 1940s or 50s were worthy of being given a name by the British or French occupiers of their land who tortured and murdered them.   In the words of Mickey Rosenfeld, the police gauleiter of occupied Jerusalem, she was no more than a “female terrorist” who was “injured moderately.” If this is so, Mr. Rosenfeld, why did she die?

In the background, while Alaa crawled along the road, her lifeblood draining away, the spivs, the thieves and the war criminals quarreled over who should be next to take over the occupation of Palestine. The choice was between Netanyahu and Gantz, the outcome of the elections so close that the ‘kingmaker’ will be Avigdor Lieberman, the Moldovan immigrant who arrived in Palestine when he was 20 and lives with his wife and children on Palestinian land in the settlement of Nokdim.

Like Menahim Begin in the 1970s, Lieberman was once regarded as a thug and fanatic who would never make it into the mainstream of Zionist politics but as the mainstream has shifted further right year by year it finally reached him.  He once advocated the bombing of the Aswan dam as a means of shutting up the Egyptians.  He thinks the ‘Arab’ members of the Zionist ‘parliament’ are the allies of terrorists.   He wants Muslim and Christian Palestinians to be required to swear an oath of loyalty to a state which has declared itself to be a Jewish, which has practically stripped them bare of all they possess and which plans to keep going until nothing is left.

His philosophy can be summed up in his own words: “Whoever is against us there’s nothing to do …. We have to lift up an axe and remove his head … otherwise we won’t be here.” The option of handing back part of what has been stolen as a means of making peace is not even within his realm of thinking.

As for Netanyahu, his campaigning was nakedly racist.  He warned against an ‘Arab’ party ending up in government and his Likud party stationed cameras outside polling booths to intimidate Palestinians and prevent them from voting.  It didn’t work. They turned out in higher numbers than ever.  It is the measure of this individual’s vile nature that he wanted to attack Gaza either to win or postpone the elections, riding to eventual victory over the bodies of more dead Palestinian men, women and children.  Gantz got in his way, but only for the same electoral reason, because he also is a killer of Palestinians, and currently the subject of prosecution in the Netherlands for the bombing of an apartment building in Gaza in 2014 which killed six members of the same family.

As the Palestinians well know, it makes no difference which of the parties is in power because their policies – more war, more killing, more settlements, with annexation now only a few steps away – are all the same.

The pathology of the Zionists puts them beyond reason.  They do not connect up with any laws or values except their own, and trying to reason with them on the basis of international law and universal values is a waste of time, pebbles thrown against the side of a tank.

In 2013 Mehdi Hassan interviewed Dani Dayon as the centerpiece of an Oxford Union debate. Until recently Dayon was the head of the Yesha settler council.  Sitting in the front row, Ghada Karmi, born in Al Quds to a family that owns land on the West Bank taken over by foreign settlers like Dayon, had to endure the lies and delusions that flowed from this man’s mouth.  Cutting through the arrogance and his smiling, self-assured attempts to deceive the audience, she told him what he actually was in her eyes and the eyes of the world –  a common thief.

There is no mystery about what has ‘happened’ in Palestine.  There is no ‘conflict of rights,’ ‘contested narratives’ or ‘disputed’ ownership. These are all propaganda phrases designed to conceal the indisputable reality.  From the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, Palestine has been stolen by people whose moral right to stay there can only be conferred on them by the people whose land they have stolen.  Had they ever accepted this principle, had they ever apologized for their crimes, had they agreed to share instead of wanting to take the lot, using all the brutal means at their disposal, this moral right could have been secured but they forfeited this possibility long ago, preferring endless war to the possibility of peace. There is no ‘two-state’ solution in sight.  Add it to the list of myths still being purveyed.  There is no solution in sight at all, at least not one based on rational discussion and the application of international law.

There is no statute of limitations here. The land was stolen and will remain stolen no matter how long the Zionists hold it.  There is no ‘land of Israel’.  There is no ‘Temple Mount’ and no ‘tomb of the patriarchs’ in Hebron.  These are all deceptions sitting atop a mountain of lies intended to bury the truth.  There is Palestine, there is the Haram al-Sharif, the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, where the settler state pogrom against the Palestinians continues without pause, and countless other sites on the map, all of them occupied and renamed.  Not a drop of water in the sea or a speck of sand on the beach belongs to the Zionists.  It has all been stolen.

As soon as the elections were over, ‘kingmaker’ Lieberman, leading the party of Russian ‘immigrants’ to an illegally occupied land, started stitching together a ‘national unity’ government. As excited or as preoccupied with the process as the Zionist population of Palestine might be, there is no prospect of change for the Palestinians except change for the worse.

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*(Benjamin “Benny” Gantz overseeing Operation Full Disclosure on March 5, 2014, Credit: Israel Defense Forces/ flickr

Gantz is as much a warmonger as Netanyahu or Lieberman and as the Palestinians will continue to resist occupation of their land where and when they can, as is their natural right and their right under international law, more large-scale violence is only a matter of time. In their arrogance the Zionists are ignoring all the warning signs, the cries of ‘Death to Israel’ from the Houthis, the tens of thousands of missiles in Hizbullah’s armory and the determination of Iran to defend itself and its allies.  The Zionists can kick the Palestinians around, but not these powerful enemies, who have behind them the support for Palestine of Muslims everywhere, not to speak of the numerous defenders of Palestine and Palestinian rights in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and many other countries.

The Zionists came to the Middle East as a ‘rampart’ of ‘western civilization’ and that is where they have remained, on the ramparts, behind the palisades, the fences and the wall, fencing others out and fencing themselves in.   They wanted to be in the Middle East but not of the Middle East. It was beneath them. They hijacked those aspects of its culture that suited them but looked down with contempt on the rest and they still do.

In any case, western domination was the accurate phrase, not western civilization.  The ‘west’ has never been civilized, not in the Middle East or in any other lands against which it went to war and occupied. Rather, it has been utterly barbaric, as the word is generally understood, and Zionism has been part of that barbarism.

Not wanting to be part of the Middle East except on its own unacceptable terms, Zionism has to rely on powerful outside backers, a role currently filled by one of them, the United States.  However, will it always be there to give the Zionist state the support it demands, will it always be capable of giving it the support it demands, will it ultimately be willing to put its own life on the line for a small state far away that is held in contempt by much of the world, not for bad reasons but for perfectly understandable ones, and one that is held in contempt as well by an increasing number of Americans?

Only arrogance could be the reason for the willingness of the Zionists to stake their future on such uncertainties, when for a small price, except in their own greedy eyes, they could have secured their place in the Middle East long ago. There is one other reason for their confidence, though, and that is their possession of nuclear weapons.  At the worst, backs finally against the wall, they can take everyone down with them.

Take a serial killer out of the psychiatric ward, hand him a machine-gun and wait to see what happens.  That is the prospect ahead of the Middle East as long as the Zionist state remains a killer at large.

Israeli Deadly Force Against Palestinian Civilians

Global Research, July 29, 2019

For over half a century, Occupied Palestine has been and remains a deadly undeclared free fire war zone.

Time and again, Israeli forces gun down Palestinians engaged in peaceful demonstrations threatening no one.

Gazans under more than 12 years of politically motivated/suffocating blockade endured and continue enduring the worst of it.

Since establishment of the Jewish state on stolen Palestinian land in May 1948, the world community took no actions with teeth to hold its criminal class accountable for a regime of brutal state terror against defenseless Palestinians.

Since West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem occupation began in June 1967, Israel held the entire Palestinian population hostage to what the late Edward Said called its “refined viciousness.”

The Occupied Territories are virtual free-fire zones. Israel considers peacefully demonstrating Palestinians “terrorists,” killing, maiming, or otherwise harming them considered “self-defense” — defying international humanitarian laws.

In Gaza and throughout the Territories, Israel commits Nuremberg-level crimes repeatedly, yet remains immune from accountability — because of US support and world community indifference Palestinian suffering.

In its 2018 annual report, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) highlighted Israel’s “policy of willful killing (of peaceful) Great March of Return” demonstrators.

What’s been going on weekly since March 30, 2018 was and continues to be “one of the most violent and bloodiest violations (of international law) committed by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian civilians” since occupation began over half a century earlier.

The weekly onslaught was only exceeded by three premeditated Israeli wars of aggression during the December 2008 to summer 2014 period — another virtually certain ahead, at a time and invented reason of Israel’s choosing, based on Big Lies and deception like all wars.

PCHR stressed that Gazan protests have been “fully peaceful and included various folklore activities and political speeches,” adding:

“(S)ometimes (small numbers of) young men approached the border fence to throw stones and molotov cocktails and used slingshots against the Israeli soldiers fortified in watchtowers in military vehicles and behind sand berms on the other side of the border fence.”

Some “young men also attempted to break through the border fence or pull parts of it in addition to firing incendiary balloons at the borders.”

“However, all those acts did not pose any imminent threat to the life of Israeli soldiers as none of them were harmed during the reporting period.”

Since legitimate weekly protests began 16 months ago, continuing weekly, Israeli forces waged virtual undeclared war on its participants — including against young children, paramedics aiding the wounded, and journalists reporting on events.

Israeli forces have used live fire, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound grenades, even drones — against unarmed peaceful demonstrators threatening no one.

Since March 30, 2018, well over 300 Gazan men, women, and children were lethally shot, many thousands of others wounded, hundreds maimed for life. “(D)ozens had their upper or lower limbs amputated,” said PCHR, adding:

“Even before the outbreak of the Great March of Return and the following months, the statements and procedures issued by the Israeli political and military leaders provided the Israeli forces a climate of impunity to open fire at civilians and encourage them to commit crimes of willful killings.”

“Those statements described the Great Return March as ‘violent’ and “terrorist’ protests and that Hamas Movement is behind those protests.”

Then-Israeli war minister (2018) Avigdor Lieberman said

“Israeli soldiers did what was necessary (sic). I think all our soldiers deserve a medal (sic).”

Like its predecessors, the Netanyahu regime enforces collective punishment throughout the Occupied Territories, Palestinians brutalized, their fundamental rights denied.

Separately, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ Children in Armed Conflict report report to Security Council members highlighted, but way understated, the extent of Saudi war crimes against children in Yemen and Israeli ones in the Territories.

Saying it verified 1,689 child casualties in Yemen last year, including 576 deaths, another 1,113 seriously wounded flew in the face of an earlier UNICEF report.

It said at least one Yemeni child under age-five dies every 10 minutes from starvation alone.

Annualized that’s 52,560 deaths – plus countless numbers of older children and adults perishing from starvation, untreated diseases, and overall deprivation, along with deaths from Saudi/UAE terror-bombing.

Since Bush/Cheney launched war against the Yemeni people in October 2001, escalated by Obama, greatly exceeded by Trump, civilian deaths in the country likely number in the hundreds of thousands, carnage continuing daily, the death and injury toll mounting.

The secretary general’s report blamed Israel for killing 56 Palestinian children, wounding another 2,674 — but failed to include the Jewish state on its annual blacklist “of shame” for crimes against children and other civilians.

Like most of his predecessors, Guterres failed to observe UN Charter principles he’s sworn to uphold – notably preserving and protecting human rights, supporting world peace and stability, denouncing wars of aggression, and respecting fundamental international laws.

He one-sidedly supports Western and Israeli interests, doing nothing to help long-suffering Palestinians, notably beleaguered Gazans.

Time and again, his response to premeditated US-led Western and Israeli high crimes against peace called for all sides “to refrain from any act that could lead to further casualties and in particular any measures that could place civilians in harm’s way” — consistently and repeatedly ignoring reality.

Civilians in all US-led war theaters and Occupied Palestinians are subjected to merciless mistreatment.

Since taking office in January 2017, Guterres failed to condemn Western and Israeli high crimes, failed to demand long-ignored accountability, failed to support victims of their naked aggression.

His earlier calls to reengage in the (no-peace) peace process ignored US/Israeli opposition to peace and stability in the Territories and active war theaters.

In April 2018, while Israeli soldiers were lethally shooting and wounding defenseless Gazans during their weekly peaceful protest, Guterres tweeted his “best wishes to all those celebrating Passover around the world. Chag Same’ach (joyous festival)!”

The US, its imperial partners, and Israel use deadly force against children and other defenseless civilians without condemnation of accountability from the world community.

Nor has the UN secretary general used his bully pulpit to condemn their repeated high crimes against peace — siding with Western/Israeli oppressors against the oppressed, instead of the other way around.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image is from Occupy Palestine TV

U.S. Rejectionist Policy Toward Palestinian Participation, Rights

Global Research, June 25, 2019

Upon hearing the news that Palestinian diplomat Dr. Hanan Ashrawihad been denied entry to the United States on a speaking engagement, my husband wrote an e-mail to Indiana Senator Mike Braun titled, ‘Tell State Dept & Trump to give Ashrawi a visa now!’

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His letter was brief and to the point:

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Dear Senator Braun:

The State Department under President Trump is denying widely respected Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi a visa to visit the U.S.

Ashrawi has visited the U.S. frequently ever since she studied for her PhD here several decades ago. She has met with every Secretary of State since George Schultz and every President since President George Bush Senior.

Ashrawi has been critical of the Trump administration.

US law does not authorize the refusal of visas based solely on political statements or views. A State Department spokesman says: ‘Visas may be denied only on grounds set out in US law.’

Tell Trump to stop denying her a visa!

Sincerely,

J. Merriman

It took Senator Braun over a month to respond. His e-mail reads, in part:

“In May of 2019, Hanan Ashrawi claimed she was denied a visa to the United States. Visas cannot be denied based on political statements but may be denied only on grounds established by U.S. law.” (Bolded text mine)

We understood his response to mean that Dr. Hanan Ashrawi was lying about the reasons for the U.S. denying her a visa, and that means she must be in violation of some U.S. law.

Here is a news item that includes what Dr. Hanan Ashrawi herself has to say about the matter:

The US denies PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi a visa. She says this represents the overall denigration of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Watch the full discussion:

Senator Braun’s allusion to “grounds established by U.S. law” made me wonder about relevant laws. I asked my niece, a human rights attorney practicing in Chicago, who sent me the following information:

The State Department says,

“If denied a visa, in most cases the applicant is notified of the section of law which applies.” Since Dr. Ashrawi was apparently not provided a reason, we are forced to speculate.

My own speculation goes along the following lines:  Could it be the State Department has labeled Dr. Ashrawi a “terrorist supporter” based on the Immigration and Nationality Act, which states:

(IV) is a representative (as defined in clause (v)) of — (bb) a political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity;

That can’t possibly be true — despite the New York based Zionist journal The Algemeiner’s blaring in a headline that ‘MESA Demands US Welcome Palestinian Terror Apologist Hanan Ashrawi.’

Dr Ashrawi, founder of the Independent Commission for Human Rights and the recipient of numerous awards from all over the world, including the distinguished French decoration, “d’Officier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur”, is not politically affiliated with the Palestinian group the U.S. has labeled terrorist (Hamas), and the Trump administration has yet to declare the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terror groups.

Another, more likely, reason for exclusion according to the Immigration and Nationality Act is:

© Foreign policy. — (i) In general. — An alien whose entry or proposed activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is inadmissible.

But how can Dr Ashrawi represent “serious adverse policy consequences” to U.S. foreign policy? Well, only if you understand the United States’ role in brokering a peace between Israel and the Palestinians to be so skewed in Israel’s favor, that it is reasonable for the State Department to prevent a well-spoken Palestinian representative from entering the United States and presenting the Palestinian cause to the American public.

And that is, indeed, the case. The U.S. has always been a “dishonest broker” when it came to its role in Israel/Palestine, as Naseer H. Aruri amply demonstrates in his 2003 book of that title.

Aruri writes:

Consequently, they have prolonged the occupation and obstructed the opportunity for peace with justice — the only peace that can promise an enduring coexistence between [Palestinian] Arabs and [Israeli] Jews, and the only peace capable of transforming the political landscape of the Middle East from a perpetual battleground to a terrain of dignity, reciprocity, mutuality, freedom, and self-determination.

What’s more, the Immigration and Nationality Act cites other provisions for exclusion from the United States that, in fact, apply to the Israeli government, and by extension, to its diplomatic corps, rather than to the Palestinian Authority or the PLO — and by extension to Dr. Ashrawi:

(E) PARTICIPANTS IN NAZI PERSECUTION, GENOCIDE, OR THE COMMISSION OF ANY ACT OF TORTURE OR EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING

(iii) COMMISSION OF ACTS OF TORTURE OR EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS- Any alien who, outside the United States, has committed, ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the commission of —
(I) any act of torture, as defined in section 2340 of title 18, United States Code; or
(II) under color of law of any foreign nation, any extrajudicial killing, as defined in section 3(a) of the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (28 U.S.C. 1350 note), is inadmissible.

Genocide, acts of torture against Palestinian children as well as adults, and extrajudicial killings have all been documented against Israel. And yet, an Israeli prime minister is invited to address a joint meeting of Congress.

The outrageous attack on Palestinian freedom of expression that the United States has exercised in this case is only the latest assault on Palestinian rights carried out by the U.S. government — as well as by other similarly-minded governments — for example, in Germany, as Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network , an international network of organizers and activists working to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom, documents:

The repression of Palestinian rights advocacy in Germany continued last night, Saturday, 22 June, as Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat was banned by the Berlin authorities from delivering a speech on the so-called “deal of the century” spearheaded by Donald Trump and the Arab and Palestinian response. He was also banned from engaging in all political activities and events in Germany until 31 July, whether directly (in-person) or “indirectly” (over video.) This outrageous attack on freedom of expression is only the latest assault on Palestinian rights carried out by the German government.

The U.S. Department of State ought to be working closely with Palestinian leaders, legislators, activists, writers and scholars in order to fashion its foreign policy on Israel/Palestine. Instead, it is forcing “normalization” on Arab states without Palestine, something that will never, ever lead to justice and peace. The denial of a visa to Dr. Hanan Ashrawi simply highlights the outright U.S. rejectionist policy toward Palestinian participation and Palestinian rights.

By shutting down the much-needed debate on Zionist history and the nature of the Zionist state, the U.S. government and its allies continue to impose a Western imperial project on the Middle East.

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Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. She is an activist, researcher and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank. She is a frequent contributor to Global Research.