Israeli soldiers 'used child to check for booby-traps'

Two Israeli soldiers have been accused of using a nine-year-old Palestinian boy to check for booby-traps during last year's Gaza war.

The staff sergeants in the Givati infantry brigade have been charged with acting "in breach of military norms" by forcing the child at gunpoint to open bags they believed might be rigged with explosives.

The child, identified only as "Majd R", said he feared for his life.

"I thought they would kill me. I became very scared and wet my pants," he said in an affidavit to Geneva-based children's group, Defence for Children International.

"There were two bags in front of me. I grabbed the first one as he stood one and a half metres away. I opened the bag as he pointed his weapon directly at me. I emptied the bag on the floor. It contained money and papers. I looked at him and he was laughing."

One of the defendants, who have not been identified, said in an army radio interview he felt he and his comrade were being made scapegoats in the face of international criticism of Israel's offensive, in which about 1,400 Palestinians were killed, among them 400 children.

"They were looking for someone to blame in front of the entire world," the soldier said. "Sadly it was people who really didn't do anything."

The military said that it began its investigation of the incident in June. It said the probe was unrelated to a UN fact-finding mission which was visiting the Gaza Strip at the same time.

The UN mission, headed by South African former judge Richard Goldstone, later filed a report which concluded that both the Israeli military and Palestinian militants committed war crimes during the 22-day offensive launched on December 27, 2008.

Thirteen Israelis were killed during the war, which Israel launched in response to rocket and mortar attacks from the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7513282/Israeli-soldiers-used-child-to-check-for-booby-traps.html

Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Council on Monday that "Jerusalem is not a settlement." He continued that the historical connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel cannot be denied. He added that neither could the historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem. He insisted, "The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today." He said, "Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital." He told his applauding audience of 7500 that he was simply following the policies of all Israeli governments since the 1967 conquest of Jerusalem in the Six Day War.

Netanyahu mixed together Romantic-nationalist cliches with a series of historically false assertions. But even more important was everything he left out of the history, and his citation of his warped and inaccurate history instead of considering laws, rights or common human decency toward others not of his ethnic group.

So here are the reasons that Netanyahu is profoundly wrong, and East Jerusalem does not belong to him.

1. In international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory, as are the parts of the West Bank that Israel unilaterally annexed to its district of Jerusalem. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Hague Regulations of 1907 forbid occupying powers to alter the lifeways of civilians who are occupied, and forbid the settling of people from the occupiers' country in the occupied territory. Israel's expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, its usurpation of Palestinian property there, and its settling of Israelis on Palestinian land are all gross violations of international law. Israeli claims that they are not occupying Palestinians because the Palestinians have no state are cruel and tautological. Israeli claims that they are building on empty territory are laughable. My back yard is empty, but that does not give Netanyahu the right to put up an apartment complex on it.

2. Israeli governments have not in fact been united or consistent about what to do with East Jerusalem and the West Bank, contrary to what Netanyahu says. The Galili Plan for settlements in the West Bank was adopted only in 1973. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave undertakings as part of the Oslo Peace Process to withdraw from Palestinian territory and grant Palestinians a state, promises for which he was assassinated by the Israeli far right (elements of which are now supporting Netanyahu's government). As late as 2000, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak claims that he gave oral assurances that Palestinians could have almost all of the West Bank and could have some arrangement by which East Jerusalem could be its capital. Netanyahu tried to give the impression that far rightwing Likud policy on East Jerusalem and the West Bank has been shared by all previous Israeli governments, but this is simply not true.

3. Romantic nationalism imagines a "people" as eternal and as having an eternal connection with a specific piece of land. This way of thinking is fantastic and mythological. Peoples are formed and change and sometimes cease to be, though they might have descendants who abandoned that religion or ethnicity or language. Human beings have moved all around and are not directly tied to any territory in an exclusive way, since many groups have lived on most pieces of land. Jerusalem was not founded by Jews, i.e. adherents of the Jewish religion. It was founded between 3000 BCE and 2600 BCE by a West Semitic people or possibly the Canaanites, the common ancestors of Palestinians, Lebanese, many Syrians and Jordanians, and many Jews. But when it was founded Jews did not exist.

4. Jerusalem was founded in honor of the ancient god Shalem. It does not mean City of Peace but rather 'built-up place of Shalem."

5. The "Jewish people" were not building Jerusalem 3000 years ago, i.e. 1000 BCE. First of all, it is not clear when exactly Judaism as a religion centered on the worship of the one God took firm form. It appears to have been a late development since no evidence of worship of anything but ordinary Canaanite deities has been found in archeological sites through 1000 BCE. There was no invasion of geographical Palestine from Egypt by former slaves in the 1200s BCE. The pyramids had been built much earlier and had not used slave labor. The chronicle of the events of the reign of Ramses II on the wall in Luxor does not know about any major slave revolts or flights by same into the Sinai peninsula. Egyptian sources never heard of Moses or the 12 plagues & etc. Jews and Judaism emerged from a certain social class of Canaanites over a period of centuries inside Palestine.

6. Jerusalem not only was not being built by the likely then non-existent "Jewish people" in 1000 BCE, but Jerusalem probably was not even inhabited at that point in history. Jerusalem appears to have been abandoned between 1000 BCE and 900 BCE, the traditional dates for the united kingdom under David and Solomon. So Jerusalem was not 'the city of David,' since there was no city when he is said to have lived. No sign of magnificent palaces or great states has been found in the archeology of this period, and the Assyrian tablets, which recorded even minor events throughout the Middle East, such as the actions of Arab queens, don't know about any great kingdom of David and Solomon in geographical Palestine.

7. Since archeology does not show the existence of a Jewish kingdom or kingdoms in the so-called First Temple Period, it is not clear when exactly the Jewish people would have ruled Jerusalem except for the Hasmonean Kingdom. The Assyrians conquered Jerusalem in 722. The Babylonians took it in 597 and ruled it until they were themselves conquered in 539 BCE by the Achaemenids of ancient Iran, who ruled Jerusalem until Alexander the Great took the Levant in the 330s BCE. Alexander's descendants, the Ptolemies ruled Jerusalem until 198 when Alexander's other descendants, the Seleucids, took the city. With the Maccabean Revolt in 168 BCE, the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom did rule Jerusalem until 37 BCE, though Antigonus II Mattathias, the last Hasmonean, only took over Jerusalem with the help of the Parthian dynasty in 40 BCE. Herod ruled 37 BCE until the Romans conquered what they called Palestine in 6 CE (CE= 'Common Era' or what Christians call AD). The Romans and then the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium ruled Jerusalem from 6 CE until 614 CE when the Iranian Sasanian Empire Conquered it, ruling until 629 CE when the Byzantines took it back.

The Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 638 and ruled it until 1099 when the Crusaders conquered it. The Crusaders killed or expelled Jews and Muslims from the city. The Muslims under Saladin took it back in 1187 CE and allowed Jews to return, and Muslims ruled it until the end of World War I, or altogether for about 1192 years.

Adherents of Judaism did not found Jerusalem. It existed for perhaps 2700 years before anything we might recognize as Judaism arose. Jewish rule may have been no longer than 170 years or so, i.e., the kingdom of the Hasmoneans.

8. Therefore if historical building of Jerusalem and historical connection with Jerusalem establishes sovereignty over it as Netanyahu claims, here are the groups that have the greatest claim to the city:

A. The Muslims, who ruled it and built it over 1191 years.

B. The Egyptians, who ruled it as a vassal state for several hundred years in the second millennium BCE.

C. The Italians, who ruled it about 444 years until the fall of the Roman Empire in 450 CE.

D. The Iranians, who ruled it for 205 years under the Achaemenids, for three years under the Parthians (insofar as the last Hasmonean was actually their vassal), and for 15 years under the Sasanids.

E. The Greeks, who ruled it for over 160 years if we count the Ptolemys and Seleucids as Greek. If we count them as Egyptians and Syrians, that would increase the Egyptian claim and introduce a Syrian one.

F. The successor states to the Byzantines, which could be either Greece or Turkey, who ruled it 188 years, though if we consider the heir to be Greece and add in the time the Hellenistic Greek dynasties ruled it, that would give Greece nearly 350 years as ruler of Jerusalem.

G. There is an Iraqi claim to Jerusalem based on the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, as well as perhaps the rule of the Ayyubids (Saladin's dynasty), who were Kurds from Iraq.

9. Of course, Jews are historically connected to Jerusalem by the Temple, whenever that connection is dated to. But that link mostly was pursued when Jews were not in political control of the city, under Iranian, Greek and Roman rule. It cannot therefore be deployed to make a demand for political control of the whole city.

10. The Jews of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine did not for the most part leave after the failure of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans in 136 CE. They continued to live there and to farm in Palestine under Roman rule and then Byzantine. They gradually converted to Christianity. After 638 CE all but 10 percent gradually converted to Islam. The present-day Palestinians are the descendants of the ancient Jews and have every right to live where their ancestors have lived for centuries.

http://www.juancole.com/2010/03/top-ten-reasons-east-jerusalem-does-not.html

Mohamed Khodr – Letter to Rachel Corrie's family and Washington State legislators

By Mohamed Khodr • Mar 16th, 2010 at 9:14 • Category: Biography, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Zionism

Below is a letter I sent to the Corries but more importantly to executive and legislative members in Washington State where Rachel Corrie was a resident. It includes the Governor, Lt. Governor, Senators and Congressmen in D.C. and senators and members of the general assembly in Washington State as well as the media.

March 4, 2010

Mr. and Mrs. Corrie

Honorable Members of the Executive and Legislative Branch Washington State

"Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is

peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the

party that committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims."

-British Historian Arnold Toynbee

This coming March 16 will be the seventh anniversary of Israel's deliberate murder of a 23 year old young idealist college student from Olympia, Washington named Rachel Corrie. Her story and the shocking photos of her murder can be found in the links below.

For seven years Israel has denied and falsified the story of this American citizen's murder, albiet with the silence and usual paralysis of our government when the issue has to do with Israel.

Notice how Israel publicly rebuffed President Obama on freezing illegal settlements. It not only continued building illegal settlements by the hundreds in the West Bank and East Jerusalem but it continues to demolish Arab Christian and Muslims homes in East Jerusalem while the U.S. retracted its opposition and took the usual default position of silence and blaming the victims as it's done for over 60 years.

The blatant and open murder of an American citizen by Israel was met by utter callousness and silence by the White House, Congress, and the main stream media. The enormous and heart wrenching pain her parents have endured all these years have been suffered alone without any substantial support from our government whose main responsibility is the protection of its citizens. They've travelled across this country and abroad keeping the memory of their daughter's death alive while seeking any support for justice for their daughter. Rachel. Other peace activists have been similarily killed, maimed and injured by Israeli forces for their just work to protect the civilian Palestinian population and bring their plight to the world's attention.

An American ecumnenical group called the Christian Peacemaker Teams (http://www.cpt.org/) risk their lives daily as they escort Palestinian children to school thereby preventing their murder or injury by Israeli soldiers (See Guardian UK paper article: Israeli Officer: I was right to shoot 13 year old child, Radio exchange contradicts army version of Gaza killing, Nov. 24, 2004)

Compare our national silence on Rachel's murder to the uproar and outrage by our government and media that followed the murder of Daniel Pearl, WSJ journalist, in Pakistan. A movie was made about his murder while for the first time in modern history the State Department placed an advertisement for the movie, A Mighty Heart, on its official website. The website later took down the ad.

http://video.state.gov/?fr_story=76f8b258b7e94570724d6c80beb79413de5a76bb

(State Department Website with Daniel Pearl Movie–no longer exists)

PLUS, UNLIKE RACHEL'S DEATH SEE WHAT OUR CONGRESS DID.

Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act Subsequent to the U.S. House of Representatives passing the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act on June 10, 2009, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act to the Senate on October 1, 2009, where it is currently under consideration by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This legislation would direct the State Department to include information relating to freedom of the press worldwide in annual country reports on human rights practices. "The right to a free press is a right upon which we all rely. And every time a journalist is kept from doing his or her job, it is each of us whose right is being violated,"

said Dodd in a floor statement. "This legislation, in turn, will help to shed light on crimes where these brave journalists themselves are the victims."

What Now for Rachel's parents as they continue their painful struggle for justice for their murdered daughter?

Will you the elected officials of Washington State muster the courage and compassion to speak out for this young dead American peace activist who saw the wrongs of what our nation is doing in its blind and unquestionable support of Israel?

Or will her death be once again ignored and swept under the rug of political expediency, fear and political correctness? Is her life less worthy and valuable than Daniel Pearl's or the murder of any other American citizen abroad?

When will this idealistic young Washingtonian rest in peace knowing that her parents no longer struggle alone but have been joined by your spirit for truth and justice?

Many of you are parents and grandparents and can fully understand and sympathize with the tragic pain of having a young daughter killed by an American bulldozer in a nation that wouldn't exist without America's support and contiued benevolence.

I ask you in all that is holy and meaningful in your lives do not let Rachel's death go unanswered, do not let this young woman's death pass without justice. Her parents need your help and support as they take on one of the world's most powerful nations, politically and militarily, with unprecedented support in our Congress and media.

Washingtonians need to know you'll be there to help, support, and protect them against the evil dangers they face abroad whether in Israel or Pakistan.

May the memory of our dear Rachel always be an inspiration to Peace and Freedom loving peoples throughout the world.

With all due respect and hope, I remain

Mohamed Khodr M.D., M.P.H.

http://www.rachelcorrie.org/statements.htm
(Her Memorial Site)

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/03/17/15838231.php

Please view the photos of Rachel Corrie's stand in front of the bulldozer and after her murder. It clearly shows she was standing in direct site of the Caterpillar's driver. She was trying to prevent the house demolition of a Palestinian physician and his family's home, not the lie of Hamas tunnels.

http://rachelswords.org/2006/10/14/rachel-corrie-myths-and-facts/

(Rachel's heartwarming and moving words on Israel's occupation: See what Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other organizations say about her murder)

http://www.danielpearl.org/news_and_press/newsletter_09_Dec_vol6_ed2.html

Daniel Pearl's Website with Congressional Act included

http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/03/16/mohamed-khodr-letter-to-rachel-corries-family-and-washington-state-legislators/

Rachel Corrie 5th Grade Speech I'm here because I care

Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli Defense Force 7 years ago today. Rest in Peace Rachel, you are an inspiration to many.

TheParadigmShift

AMERICA IS OBLIVIOUS TO PALESTINIAN CHILD PRISONERS

With all the recent ‘fuss’ about illegal

settlement expansion….. WHAT ABOUT THE FOLLOWING?

Israel Police arrest children aged 12 to 15 in night raids in Silwan, East Jerusalem

In recent months there have been many cases in which minors aged 12-15 from Silwan, in East Jerusalem, were arrested in the middle of the night by police officers and Israel Security Agency agents accompanied by armed border policemen. The minors were taken out of their beds and brought to the police station in the Russian Compound, in West Jerusalem. Some of them were brought handcuffed, and none of the parents were allowed to accompany them. At the station, the minors were interrogated on suspicion of stone throwing. According to testimonies that some of them gave to B’Tselem, the interrogators beat and threatened them. The series of arrests was apparently carried out in light of the ongoing friction between residents of Silwan and the settlers in nearby Beit Yehonatan and security personnel guarding it, in which context Palestinian children in the neighborhood throw stones at the building. In his testimony to B’Tselem, Muhammad Dweik, 12, described his arrest in the middle of the night: “Around 4:30-5:00 in the morning, I woke up from the sound of knocking at the door. Shabak [ISA] agents asked my father for the ID card of Muhammad Dweik. My father told them that I don’t have an ID card. When I went over to them, I got the feeling they were surprised by how young I am, but they had an arrest warrant. My father asked them to let me stay at home and said he would bring me to the police station in the morning, but they refused. They tied my hands behind me and took me. The policemen put me into a Border Police jeep. A friend of mine was also inside it. A policeman who sat next to me kept kicking me in the leg all the way.” Lu’ai a-Rajabi, 14, told B’Tselem about his arrest and interrogation on 10 January 2010: “During the interrogation, when I denied that I had thrown stones at the settlers’ house, the interrogator punched me in the nose. I was sitting on a chair, my hands and legs cuffed, my nose bleeding, and the interrogator was standing in front of me. He drew a bicycle on the board hanging on the wall and told me to get on it. I said, “How can I do that?” He said, “Everyone knows how to ride a bike!” When I refused to do it, he hit me on my head and face with his hands. I remember that, at some point, two men came into the room and said to me, “Don’t you want to confess?” I said, “Confess to what?” Then, while I was sitting on the chair with my hands cuffed, the three interrogators began to beat and kick me all over my body, and to swear at me and Allah. [...] I asked to go to the bathroom and to get some food, but the interrogator refused. He told me to sign a paper written in Hebrew that says nobody beat me. I refused to sign. Then he began to slap me in the face.” The next day, a-Rajabi was brought before a Magistrates Court judge, who extended his detention to an entire week. Ahmad Siyam, 12, was also arrested on 10 January. In his testimony, he related how he waited for the interrogation to begin at the Russian Compound. “We got to the Russian Compound. They put me in a room and told me to sit on my knees facing the wall. Whenever I moved, a bald guy in civilian clothes hit me on the back of the neck with the palm of his hand. We were the only ones in the room. Around 5:00 in the morning, I asked to go to the bathroom, but he didn’t let me and told me to turn my head back to face the wall. I refused, and he pushed me to the wall. My nose hit the wall and began to bleed. I asked for paper to clean my nose, but he didn’t want to give me any. Then he told me to bow down to him on the floor and ask for him to forgive me, but I refused to do it. I told him I don’t bow to anyone but Allah. While this was going on, my legs began to hurt a lot. I was really frightened and started to shake. After that, the bald guy made himself a toasted cheese sandwich. He threw a piece of cheese at me, but missed. From time to time, he pressed my shoulders, which really hurt.” Mahmoud Gheith, 14, was arrested under similar circumstances in November 2009. He told B’Tselem that he was released from detention with a restraining order requiring him to stay away from his house for one month. “Since the arrest, I haven’t been able to sleep properly. I keep being afraid that they’ll arrest me again. After they released me, I was under house arrest at my uncle’s house in Beit Hanina. They ordered me to stay away from home for a whole month. On the ‘Eid al-Adha festival, they let me go home to Silwan for four days. My uncle had to drive me to school in Silwan. On days when he couldn’t take me, I didn’t go to school.” The authorities’ treatment of these minors completely contravenes the Youth Law, as amended in 2008 (Amendment No. 14). Under the Law, a minor who is suspected of committing a criminal offense is entitled to consult with a parent or another relative prior to being interrogated, and to have the parent or relative present at the interrogation. The Law also generally prohibits interrogating a minor at night and states that a minor should not be arrested if the objective can be achieved in a less harmful way. In the present case, some of the parents were willing to undertake to bring the minors in for interrogation in the morning, and there was no need for the night arrests. These actions by the authorities severely violated the human rights of the minors, all of whom are Israeli residents. There is no logic to conducting a military-style arrest operation in the middle of the night, with the aim of interrogating children suspected of throwing stones, and this course of action cannot be justified on any grounds. It is hard to believe that the security forces would have acted similarly against Jewish minors. B’Tselem sent urgent letters to the Jerusalem District Police Commander, Maj. Gen. Aharon Franco, and to the head of the Department of the Investigation of Police, Herzl Shviro, demanding that police, ISA, and Border Police operations to detain minors in Silwan cease. If any child from the neighborhood is suspected of having committed a criminal offense, he can be summoned for questioning in the presence of an adult on his behalf. Also, the questioning must be conducted by youth interrogators.

Source via Uruknet

Anti-Semitism – Zionist myth vs truth and reality

By Alan Hart

15 March 2010

Alan Hart views the myth and reality of anti-Semitism and argues that the myth, created and propagated by Israel and Zionism, is the single biggest potential threat to Jews the world over.

There are two definitions of anti-Semitism in its Jewish context. One was born in real history and represents a truth. The other is part and parcel of Zionist mythology and was invented for the purpose of blackmailing non-Jewish Europeans and North Americans into refraining from criticizing Israel or, to be more precise, staying silent when its leaders resort to state terrorism and demonstrate in many ways their absolute contempt for international law.

A tale of two anti-Semitisms

Anti-Semitism properly and honestly defined is prejudice against and loathing and even hatred of Jews, all Jews everywhere, just because they are Jews.

Anti-Semitism as defined by Zionism, the colonial, ethnic cleansing enterprise of some Jews, has come to mean almost all criticism of Israel’s policies and actions, in particular its oppression of the Palestinians, and, also, criticism on the basis of revelations from the documented truth of history which expose Zionism’s propaganda for the nonsense it is. Put another way, anti-Semitism as defined by supporters of Israel right or wrong is anything written or said by anybody that challenges and contradicts Zionism’s version of events. In effect Zionists say, “If you disagree with us, you’re anti-Semitic”.

As a blackmail card to silence criticism of Israel and prevent informed and honest debate about who must do what and why for justice and peace in the Middle East, Zionism’s false charge of anti-Semitism has worked wonderfully well to date. Why? In the long (and still present) shadow of the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust, a European crime for which, effectively, the Arabs were punished, there are few things Westerners in public life, politicians and media people especially, fear more than being accused of anti-Semitism.

Unable to refute the substance of documented and objective messages of challenge and criticism, Zionism’s policy always was, and still is, to shoot the messengers with false charges of anti-Semitism.

Zionism – myth and reality

For a complete understanding of what anti-Semitism is and is not, it’s necessary to know what Zionism is and is not.

Zionism claims to be the nationalist movement of the Jews, all Jews everywhere. If this were so, the assertion that anti-Zionism is almost by definition a manifestation of anti-Semitism might appear to have a degree of credibility. But this Zionist claim does not bear examination.

As I document in detail in my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, the truth is that from Zionism’s foundation in 1897 until the Nazi holocaust, its colonial enterprise was endorsed and supported by only a tiny minority of the world’s Jews and was opposed by many of them.

Also true is that from Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence in 1948 until the final countdown to the 1967 war, most Jews of the world had no great affinity with Israel. That changed when most Jews believed – because they were conditioned by Zionism and the mainstream Western media to believe – that poor little Israel was in danger of annihilation. In that light Israel’s stunning victory was a source of great pride for most Jews of the world.

Though most Jews didn’t and still don’t want to know it, the truth was different. The Arabs did not attack first and were not intending to attack. The 1967 war was one of Israeli aggression.

Today much of what supporters of Israel, right or wrong, claim to be anti-Semitism is actually anti-Israelism, which in my view is best described as anti-Zionism. And contrary to the assertions of Zionism’s spin doctors, anti-Zionism is not by definition anti-Semitism.

Short or long, any discussion of anti-Semitism should include the fact that Zionism needs it. The first to acknowledge this was none other than Theodore Herzl, Zionism’s founding father. In one of his diaries, not published until 1962, Herzl wrote the following:

Anti-Semitism is a propelling force which, like the wave of the future, will bring Jews into the promised land. Anti-Semitism has grown and continues to grow – and so do I.

He was right. Without the anti-Semitism unleashed by Adolf Hitler in his Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe, Zionism’s colonial enterprise would have been doomed to failure for lack of enough Jewish support.

Today Zionism needs anti-Semitism or what it can present as anti-Semitism to go on justifying its policies and actions.

Zionism – a catastrophe for Jews

Any discussion of anti-Semitism should also take note of the words of Yehoshafat Harkabi, Israel’s longest serving director of military intelligence. In his book Israel’s Fateful Hour, he wrote: “I believe it was a damaging error on Menachem Begin’s part to insinuate that criticism of Israel is a manifestation of anti-Semitism.” In the same book Harkabi gave this warning:

Israel is the criterion according to which all Jews will tend to be judged. Israel as a Jewish state is an example of the Jewish character, which finds free and concentrated expression within it. Anti-Semitism has deep and historical roots. Nevertheless, any flaw in Israeli conduct, which initially is cited as anti-Israelism, is likely to be transformed into empirical proof of the validity of anti-Semitism. It would be a tragic irony if the Jewish state, which was intended to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, was to become a factor in the rise of anti-Semitism. Israelis must be aware that the price of their misconduct is paid not only by them but also Jews throughout the world.

From the early 1980s when those words were written, Israel’s “misconduct” has been the prime cause in the rise of what Zionism presents as anti-Semitism but which is actually anti-Israelism/anti-Zionism. Today the biggest danger to the Jews of the world is, as Harkabi warned, that anti-Israelism/anti-Zionism will be transformed into anti-Semitism, with the consequence at some point of another great turning against Jews.

My own view is that such a catastrophe will happen unless the citizens of the mainly gentile Western world, among whom most Jews live, are made aware of the difference between Judaism and Zionism. As I have previously written and never tire of repeating, knowledge of this difference is the key to understanding two things.

One is why it is perfectly possible to be passionately anti-Zionist (opposed to Zionism’s still on-going colonial enterprise) without being in any way, shape or form anti-Semitic.

The other is why it is wrong to blame all Jews everywhere for the crimes of the hardest core Zionist few in Israel.

In my analysis, the day when citizens of the Western world understand those two things and what anti-Semitism is and is not, is the day that will mark the beginning of the end of Zionism’s freedom and ability to impose its will on the Palestinians, the whole of the Arab world and the governments of the major Western powers, and to remain above and beyond international law.

---

Alan Hart is author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews and former ITN and BBC “Panorama” correspondent. A specialist in the Middle East, he blogs at www.alanhart.net and tweets at www.twitter.com/alanauthor.

Bashing Islam is Freedom of Speech Criticizing Israel is a Hate Crime

"We sent thee not, O! Muhammad, save as a mercy to all the people. Say, O! Muhammad: "It has but been revealed unto me that your God is the One and Only God: will you, then, surrender yourselves unto Him?" (Qur'an: 21: 107-108)

There is only one "Absolute" form of Free Speech in the west, the freedom and right to bash Islam, stomp, shoot, and flush the Holy Qur'an down the toilet, and portray Islam's beloved Prophet Muhammad (p) in the most vile manner in all forms of "art".

Freedom of Speech is an ever changing and evolving right that depends on time, person, place, method of delivery, issue, and people involved. Since the time of Socrates who was prosecuted for corrupting young minds to today's blasphemous attacks on Islam, the Quran, and Islam's Prophet; freedom of speech has always been defined and determined by those in power.

Bashing Islam is not new. In fact it began during the Prophet's own lifetime by those who rejected his message in Arabia only to be followed by Christians, Jews, and followers of other faiths. Saint John of Damascus (7th – 8th C) while ironically working as an administrative officer for the Muslim ruler of Damascus wrote that the Prophet Muhammad (p) was a "false prophet…heretic…an Anti Christ." Such attacks continued throughout historical Christian Europe by men such as Martin Luther, Voltaire, Dante, to , right wing European parties, to the U.S. by such men as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey (who called Allah (God) Satan), and politicians. Bashing Islam has become a respectable political and money making cottage industry.

Thus it's not surprising that 9/11 opened the flood gates for a wider multitude of westerners who inflame and further incite hatred of Islam. Such vileness arises out of total ignorance of Islam and the historical innate fear of the "other". The West fears what it does not know. In Europe, especially, fear of an Islamized Europe has conveniently morphed into a political agenda against the immigration of the "other", mainly people of color who immigrate to Europe from formerly European colonized nations.

It is inexplicable to describe the West as civilized when such uncivil behavior toward those of a different faith or color permeates a significant portion of the population. If civilization is based on education then such people must be hailed as arrogant, racists, supremacists, and ignorant fools.
The Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks as part of an art exhibition entitled "Dog in Art" decided to follow in the footsteps of the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard (who drew cartoons depicting Muhammad as a terrorist) and drew a cartoon of the Prophet with the body of a dog. While the public rationale is freedom of speech, the underlying motive is pure racism. But freedom of speech in the west depends on who you offend. Offending Jews, discussing the Holocaust, criticizing Israel's brutality against the Palestinians is either attacked as "Anti-Semitic", or met with jail time while the western kosher media quashes such "free speech". God forbid such a cartoonist would draw a similar cartoon of Moses (p), a Jew with a swastika as a tail, or of the Crown Prince of Spain. (Spanish cartoonist fined for royal dishonour", UK Telegraph, Nov. 14, 2007)

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote of Freedom or Speech, "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

The European Union Human Rights reports on Racism and Xenophobia annually reports that racism against Muslims and people of color in Europe is an ever increasing problem. While the E.U. and Sweden have laws on "hate crimes", which I consider these foul cartoons to be, they seldom if ever prosecute the perpetrators of such hate crimes if the intended victim is Islam or Muslims. On the contrary such politicians and artists are applauded and welcomed in the U.S. (Salman Rushdie, "The Satanic Verses", in the White House), by Conservative Christians and Pro Israeli lobbies, think tanks, and the mainstream Pro Israel media as idols of free speech. Yet in Europe and the U.S. if the perceived crime is "Anti Semitic" governments are in the fore front to decry and prosecute such "hate crimes".

When Israel is portrayed in a negative light in the Arab media due to its murderous occupation of Palestinians and constant theft of their land both European and U.S. governments immediately and publicly condemn such actions as hateful and anti Semitic, but when Islam's Prophet is subjected to vile hate it is considered "freedom of speech". It is a fine line and slippery slope between what is considered free speech and blasphemy. Didn't the Nazis use hateful cartoons of Jews as part of their propaganda for the "final solution?

It is this double standard and hypocrisy by western governments that inflames the Muslim world against their policies and practices, especially with respect to Israel's invasions and genocide against Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. Criticizing Israel for its illegal occupation, inhumane siege of Gaza, massacring Gaza's children, demolishing thousands of homes, destroying hospitals, clinics, schools, churches and mosques, depriving the population of food, water and medicine, it's massive abuse of human rights and defiance of International laws, and much more is unacceptable, censored, hateful, and strongly defended by western governments and the media as "Israel's right to self defense", a right that its victims are denied.
Muslims are strictly forbidden from carrying out any violence or calling for death threats against the perpetrators of hate against the Prophet. The Holy Quran forbids such violence and directs Muslims to endure and be patient as the Holy Prophet endured during his lifetime.

"And, whenever they heard frivolous talk, having turned away from it and said: "Unto us shall be accounted Our deeds, and unto you, your deeds. Peace be upon you – [but] we do not seek out such as are ignorant [of the meaning of right and wrong]." (Quran: 28:55)

"Believers (Muslims), stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others toward you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that you do." (Qur'an 5:8)

The European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) condemned the death threats issued by Al Qaeda and other small extremist groups against Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist, and Ulf Johansson editor in chief of the paper that published his cartoon of the Prophet with a body of a dog. Such hate must be met with patience and a strong educational outreach program to tell the truth about Islam and its beloved Prophet Muhammad (p).

Perpetual racism, arrogance, and ignorance of Islam in the west are the combustible ingredients for assured mutual destruction of our planet. The lack of any sacredness in the west that belies the misguided application of free speech against the "other" rests on the premise that if I hold nothing sacred and I damn my own faith and religious figures then I have the right to damn yours and if you are civilized like me you will accept such racist rantings as free speech. That is the rational of fools who've surrendered their superficial intellect to misguided stupidity.

It's not enough that the west has annihilated, bombed, and committed holocausts across the globe against the "other"; now the "other" must endure the verbal and written bombs upon their faith, culture, and traditions.

What conceivable civilized aim can be achieved by denigrating a Prophet of 1.6 Billion Muslims? Why aren't Muslims retaliating with the same vile hate against Judeo-Christian religious founders such as Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them both, or the Torah and Gospel? Because Muslims believe and revere these two prophets and the original holy revelations they received.

The least that can be expected from "civilized" people who wish to criticize a faith is to have a working knowledge on the subject to confer some credibility for their critique. Such knowledge of Islam is sorely missing in the West, thus such critiques are frivolous and meaningless.
Both the Danish and Swedish cartoonists who drew the vile cartoons of the Prophet were unknown entities until they entered racist contests concocted by two small papers in a competition to defame and demonize a most exalted person. After the controversy these two men achieved the celebrity status that has eluded them for decades.

But what of this man, Muhammad (p), who for centuries became the object of racist depictions by people who knew nothing about him in Christian Europe and in the U.S. (Read: "Muhammad in Europe", by Minou Reeves)

The British Historian Michael H. Hart in his book: "The 100: Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History" chose Muhammad (p) as the most influential human being in history. He wrote:

"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential
persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he
was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the
religious and secular level."

The famous French writer, poet, and politician Alphonse le Lamartine (1790-1869) in his book, "Histoire De La Turque", wrote of Muhammad (p):

"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the
three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in
modern history with Muhammad"?

The renowned Professor of Comparative Religion Karen Armstrong wrote a book in 2006 entitled "Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time"

There are endless biographies, books, speeches and statements on Prophet Muhammad (p) by renowned authors around the world that exalt his person, his unshakeable spiritual beliefs, morality, ethics, compassion, mercy, and extraordinary leadership.

Sadly in America's educational system the study of cultures, world religions, history, and geography are sorely lacking. Such a vacuum can only lead to further misunderstanding and conflict between religions and peoples

"There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions."
–Hans Kung, Catholic Theologian

The foundation for a peaceful world is the knowledge that all humanity is equal in the eyes of God and in human laws and that human nature is the same throughout time, place, and geography. The secret is simple: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is he who is the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted with all things. (Qur'an: 49:13)

* Mohamed Khodr M.D., M.P.H. is a political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics.

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/03/14/bashing-islam-is-freedom-of-speech-criticizing-israel-is-a-hate-crime/

DAY ONE OF THE CORRIE FAMILY TRIAL

British activist saw Rachel Corrie die under Israeli bulldozer, court hears

Rory McCarthy in Haifa

Richard Purssell describes ’shocking event’ in Haifa court on first day of civil suit brought by Corrie family against Israel

Court begins hearing civil suit brought against Israeli government over death of US activist killed by Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza. A British witness told a court today about how he had watched an Israeli military bulldozer run over and kill the American activist Rachel Corrie while she was trying to stop Palestinians’ homes being demolished in Gaza.

Richard Purssell, who was also a volunteer activist in Rafah at the time, seven years ago, described the “shocking and dramatic event” in an Israeli court in Haifa on the first day of a civil suit brought by Corrie’s family against the Israeli state.

Twenty-three-year-old Corrie, from Olympia, Washington, in the US, went to Gaza for peace activism reasons at a time when there was intense conflict between the Israeli military and the Palestinians.

The Corrie family lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, said he would argue that her death was due either to gross negligence by the Israeli military or that it was intended. If the Israeli state were found responsible, the family would press for damages.

Purssell, a Briton, now working as a landscape gardener, said he volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to witness events in the occupied Palestinian territories for himself. In Rafah he had been hoping to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing Palestinian homes. The organisation was strictly non violent, he said. “Our role was to support Palestinian non-violent resistance.”

On the day of her death, 16 March 2003, Corrie was with seven other activists, including Purssell, in Rafah, close to the Israeli-guarded border with Egypt. They saw an Israeli military armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozer approaching the house of a Palestinian doctor.

Purssell described how the bulldozer approached at a fast walking pace, its blade down and gathering a pile of soil in its path. When the bulldozer was 20 metres from the house Corrie, who like the others was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket, climbed on to the soil in front of it and stood “looking into the cab of the bulldozer”.

“The bulldozer continued to move forward,” Purssell said. “Rachel turned to come back down the slope. The earth is still moving and as she nears the bottom of the pile something happened which causes her to fall forward. The bulldozer continued to move forward and Rachel disappeared from view under the moving earth.”

The bulldozer continued forward four metres as the activists began to run forward and shout at the driver.

“It passed the point where Rachel fell, it stopped and reversed back along the track it first made. Rachel was lying on the earth,” Purssell said. “She was still breathing.” Corrie was severely injured and died shortly afterwards.

The Israeli military says it bears no responsibility for Corrie’s death. A month after her death the military said an investigation had determined its troops were not to blame; the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and had not intentionally run her over. It accused Corrie and the ISM of behaviour that was “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous”.

Hussein will argue at the Haifa district court that witness evidence shows that the soldiers did see Corrie at the scene, with other activists well before the incident, and that they could have arrested her or removed her from the area before there was any risk of injury.

Before the hearing began, Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, said the family had been on a “seven-year search for justice in Rachel’s name”. He added: “I think when the truth comes out about Rachel the truth will not wound Israel, the truth is the start of making us heal.”

Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said the family was still waiting for the credible, transparent investigation Israel first promised regarding her daughter’s death. “I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her and I hope that she will be very proud of the effort we are making,” she said. She said the family had met the staff of US vice-president Joe Biden on Tuesday to talk about the case.

Three other witnesses, two more Britons and an American, who were all at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed will give evidence at the Israeli court. It is not clear if any Israeli military officials will speak.

The hearing is scheduled to run for at least two weeks.

Source (including video)

AIPAC of Raving Lunatics

by Keith Johnson

Without regard for the severe economic devastation and loss of life that a war with Iran would create, Israel’s agents in the United States continue to aggressively stoke the fires of anti-Iranian rhetoric and mobilize their minions on the floor of the House. The Brzezinski-Soros machine failed in their attempt to effect regime change in Iran by way of a “color revolution” in the summer of 2009. This has only emboldened the Israeli lobby to pursue more drastic measures. There is only one card left for them to play before provoking conflicts that will most certainly catapult the United States into direct military action against the Islamic state.

Tuesday, the American Israeli Political Action Committee gave their marching orders to their congressional War Hawks. The message was short, concise and clear. Here is the text of the letter AIPAC sent to members of Congress:

Dear Congressman XXXX,

We are writing to every member of Congress to express outrage at the U.S. government’s continuing relationship with dozens of companies doing business with Iran. These ongoing financial dealings undermine longstanding American efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, the federal government during the past decade has awarded $107 billion in contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that are doing business in Iran. More than two-thirds of these contracts have gone to companies involved in Iran’s energy industry despite American law to discourage such involvement.

The time has long since passed this policy to change. Unfortunately, as the Times points out, three successive American administrations have failed to enforce the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which mandates U.S. sanctions on firms investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector. While Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama may have discouraged some investment in Iran through their rhetoric, the United States has sent the American and international business community a contradictory message by failing to enforce the law.

Despite publicly acknowledged investments by several companies of hundreds of millions of dollars in Iran’s energy sector, the U.S. Government has inexplicably failed to make even one determination of an investment of $20 million during the course of the past decade. Yet, throughout this entire time, Iran has pursued a nuclear weapons capability, flouting its international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and presenting the international community with a growing, and now urgent, threat.

As Iran continues to reject U.S.-European engagement efforts and to defy U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring that it halt its illicit uranium enrichment efforts, the United States must take action now.

We call on Congress to:

1. Investigate why successive administrations have failed to implement the law by failing to determine what companies have invested in the Iranian energy sector;

2. Enact—without delay—the Iran sanctions legislation currently before Congress, which, inter alia, contains provisions barring federal contracts to companies which are investing in Iran’s energy sector or providing sensitive technology, and their parents or subsidiaries who are engaged in such activity;

3. Demand that the U.S. Government enforce existing sanctions law and impose crippling new sanctions on Iran.

In addition to these actions, we hope you will join with us in urging the administration to impose tough new multilateral sanctions with like-minded states without delay while continuing to pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N. Security Council.

Sincerely,

David Victor
President

Howard Kohr
Executive Director

These are pretty strong words coming from an organization which has stood in defiance of U.S. law that requires them to register as agents of a foreign power. It proves once again that the “A” in AIPAC really should be removed from their acronym. There is nothing “American” about them. This is the Israeli lobby, plain and simple. They represent Israel first and last. The United States is nothing more than a host to their endless parasitism. This letter should be an insult to anyone familiar with the State of Israel and it’s long history of refusing to comply with International laws and treaties. It reeks of hypocrisy. It’s an exercise in contempt. There is no country on the face of this earth with less justification to level these charges or make such demands.

First of all, Iran has no nuclear weapons capability. As recently as February 11, 2010, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a claim by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran had produced the first stock of 20 percent enriched uranium. Gibbs said, “The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.” The enriched uranium that Ahmadinejad was referring to was not for building a nuclear weapon but rather for medical isotopes used to treat cancer patients. And even if they did have the capability of enriching to 20 percent, it still falls far short of the nearly 98% that is required for building a weapon of mass destruction. As a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has a legal right to enrich uranium in the manner that they are claiming. On the other hand, Israel has refused to sign the NNPT and has no right to make demands of anyone pertaining to nuclear technology.

While the author of this letter points out that “the federal government has awarded $107 billion in contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that are doing business in Iran,” it fails to recognize that 14 of those companies have already pulled out and that 11 plan no future investment. Of the 49 remaining, only 3 are suspected of being in violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”. Those three companies are Daelim (South Korea), Dutch Royal Shell (Netherlands) and Total (France). Of the $174 million that Daelim received in contract money from the U.S., $111 million was used to build family housing towers for the U.S. Army. Dutch Royal Shell received $11.2 billion in contracts and that investment was instrumental in supplying a significant amount of gasoline to the U.S. military. Not one American company currently doing business and planning future investment in Iran is suspected of being in violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”.

The author demands that Congress enact current legislation that bars companies from investing in Iran’s energy sector. But this is in direct conflict with Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran is a signer of that treaty, and that obligates the United States to help them build power plants and other facilities for non-military purposes.

If anyone should be barred from receiving federal contracts or aid it is the State of Israel, who has refused to sign the NNPT and have illegally pursued a nuclear weapons program of their own. The 1976 Symington Amendment to the Foreign Appropriations Bill of 1961 forbids the United States from giving foreign aid to any nation that is developing nuclear technology outside the NNPT. Despite this, approximately 1/3 of the total foreign aid budget of the United States is annually sent to Israel even though they comprise less than .001 of the world’s population and has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes. Former Congressman James Traficant rightly pointed out recently that between the direct foreign aid grants to Israel, along with all of the other benefits including trade compacts, economic and military assistance, “Israel gets approximately $15 billion a year from the American taxpayers. That $15 billion is $30,000 for every man, woman and child in Israel.”

In his list of demands, the author urges Congress to “pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N. Security Council.” This is the height of hypocrisy. Neither the State of Israel nor its agents have any standing with the United Nations in this regard. Since its inception, the State of Israel has been in violation of more UN resolutions than any other nation on earth.

Who else but a raving lunatic would even dare to write such a letter in light of the insurmountable evidence that contradicts each and every line of their text? There is no other explanation; a lunatic wrote this letter. And if Congress acts in lock step to their demands, then it should be abundantly clear to all of us that the lunatics, have indeed, taken over the asylum.

http://revoltoftheplebs.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/aipac-of-raving-lunatics/

THE MISSING CHILDREN OF PALESTINE

Unlike the US, photos of missing children do not appear on milk cartons in Occupied Palestine…. their parents know where they are…. kidnapped by Israeli soldiers, or worse.

Amir, ten years old, abducted by Israeli soldiers from his bed
Nora Barrows-Friedman writing from Hebron, occupied West Bank,

Amir and his mother just hours before he was abducted by Israeli soldiers. (Nora Barrows-Friedman)

Amir al-Mohtaseb smiled tenderly when I asked him to tell me his favorite color. Sitting in his family’s living room last Thursday afternoon, 4 March, in the Old City of Hebron, the ten-year-old boy with freckles and long eyelashes softly replied, “green.” He then went on to describe in painful detail his arrest and detention — and the jailing of his 12-year-old brother Hasan by Israeli occupation soldiers on Sunday, 28 February.

Hours after our interview, at 2am, Israeli soldiers would break into the house, snatch Amir from his bed, threaten his parents with death by gunfire if they tried to protect him, and take him downstairs under the stairwell. They would beat him so badly that he would bleed internally into his abdomen, necessitating overnight hospitalization. In complete shock and distress, Amir would not open his mouth to speak for another day and a half.

In our interview that afternoon before the brutal assault, Amir said that on the 28th, he was playing in the street near the Ibrahimi Mosque, on his way with Hasan to see their aunt.

“Two of the soldiers stopped us and handcuffed us,” Amir said. “They brought us to two separate jeeps. They took me to the settlement and put me in a corner. I still had handcuffs on. They put a dog next to me. I said that I wanted to go home. They said no, and told me I would stay here forever. They refused to let me use the bathroom. They wouldn’t let me call my mother. They blindfolded me and I stayed there like that until my father was able to come and get me late at night.”

Amir’s detention inside the settlement lasted nearly ten hours. “The only thing that I thought about was how afraid I was, especially with the dog beside me. I wanted to run away and go back to my house,” he said.

Amir and Hasan’s mother, Mukarrem, told me that Amir immediately displayed signs of trauma when he returned home. “He was trying to tell me a joke, and trying to laugh. But it was not normal laughter. He was happy and terrified at the same time,” she said. “He wet himself at some point during the detention. He was extremely afraid.”

Amir revealed that he hadn’t been able to sleep in the nights following his detention, worried sick about his brother in jail and extremely afraid that the soldiers would come back (which, eventually, they did). Today, approximately 350 children are languishing inside Israeli prisons and detention camps, enduring interrogation, torture and indefinite sentences, sometimes without charge. The number fluctuates constantly, but thousands of Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 16 have moved through the Israeli military judicial system over the past decade since the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada. Israel designates 18 as the age of adulthood for its own citizens, but through a military order, and against international law, Israel mandates 16 as the age of adulthood for Palestinians. Additionally, Israel has special military orders (#1644 and #132) to be able to arrest and judge Palestinian children — termed “juvenile delinquents” — as young as 12 years old.

“This way, they have a ‘legal’ cover for what they are doing, even though this is against international laws,” said Abed Jamal, a researcher at Defence for Children International-Palestine Section’s (DCI-PS) Hebron office. “However, in Amir’s case, they broke even their own laws by arresting and detaining him as a ten-year-old boy. These laws are obviously changeable according to Israel’s whim. We have yet to see a prosecution for crimes such as these.”

I asked Amir and Hasan’s father, Fadel, to describe how one is able to parent effectively under this kind of constant siege.

“It’s not safe for the children to go outside because we’ve faced constant attacks by the settlers and the soldiers,” he explained. “This by itself is unimaginable for us. And now, we have one son in jail and another traumatized … they’re so young.”

On Sunday, 7 March, exactly a week after Hasan’s arrest and Amir’s detention, the family and members of the local media made an early-morning journey to Ofer prison where Hasan had been held since his initial arrest. After a lengthy process in which the Israeli military judge admitted that the boy was too young to stay in prison, Hasan was released on the condition that he would come back to the court to finish the trial at a later date. This trial followed the initial hearing last Wednesday at Ofer, where Maan News Agency reported that the judge insisted that Fadel pay the court 2,000 shekels ($530) for Hasan’s bail. According to Maan, Fadel then publicly asked the court, “What law allows a child to be tried in court and then asks his father to pay a fine? I will not pay the fine, and you have to release my child … This is the law of Israel’s occupation.”

Consumed by their sons’ situations, Mukarrem and Fadel say they are trying to do the best for their family under attack. “What can we do?” asked Fadel. “We lock the doors. We lock the windows. We have nothing with which to protect our family and our neighbors from the soldiers or the settlers. If a Palestinian kidnapped and beat and jailed an Israeli child, the whole world would be up in arms about it. It would be all over the media. But the Israelis, they come into our communities with jeeps and tanks and bulldozers, they take our children and throw them into prison, and no one cares.”

DCI-PS’s Jamal reiterates the point that international laws made to protect children under military occupation have been ignored by Israel since the occupation began in 1967. “Most of the time, we try to do our best to use the law, the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child as weapons against this brutality,” said Jamal. “All of these laws exist, but Israel uses their own military laws as excuses to defy international law. As Palestinians, we have to work together to create solidarity against this brutality. Through our work, we try to tell the international community what’s going on with Palestinian children to create a wide berth of support against this situation. We believe that the only way this will stop is through the support of the international community.”

Amir slowly began speaking again 36 hours after the beating by Israeli soldiers. Zahira Meshaal, a Bethlehem-based social worker specializing in the effects of trauma in children, said that Amir’s “elective mutism,” a symptom of extreme psychological shock caused by his beating and detention, is a common response, but that it is a good sign that he began talking again. “This is a reaction of fear on many levels. Amir’s house and his family are his only source of security,” said Meshaal. “This was taken away from him the moment the soldiers invaded his home. It’s easy to attend to the immediate trauma, but the long-term effects will undoubtedly be difficult to address. He’ll need a lot of mental health services from now on.”

Meshaal comments on the nature of this attack in the context of the unraveling situation inside Hebron. “We are talking about a place that is on the front lines of trauma,” she said. “This is an ongoing and growing injury to the entire community. Parents have to be a center of security for their children, but that’s being taken away from them. Especially in Hebron, the Israeli settlers and soldiers know this, and use this tactic to force people to leave the area. It’s a war of psychology. This is a deliberate act to make the children afraid and force people to leave so that their children can feel safer.”

At the end of our interview last Thursday, Amir sent a message to American children. “We are kids, just like you. We have the right to play, to move freely. I want to tell the world that there are so many kids inside the Israeli jails. We just want to have freedom of movement, the freedom to play.” Amir said that he wants to be a heart surgeon when he grows up. His mother and father told me that they hope Amir’s own heart — and theirs — heals from last week’s repetitive and cumulative trauma at the hands of the interminable Israeli occupation.

Nora Barrows-Friedman is the co-host and Senior Producer of Flashpoints, a daily investigative newsmagazine on Pacifica Radio. She is also a correspondent for Inter Press Service. She regularly reports from Palestine, where she also runs media workshops for youth in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Source

NEW YORKERS AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID

Commentary by Chippy Dee, Photos © by Bud Korotzer

“…the government of Israel practices a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies. It’s army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp.”

Shulamit Aloni, January, 2007

Former Education Minister under

Yitzhak Rabin *

“Article 7 of the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court lists apartheid as one of several ‘crimes against humanity.’ The crime of apartheid is defined as inhumane acts such as torture, imprisonment, or the persecution of an identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, or other grounds ‘committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.’ When the emphasis shifts to an identifiable national, ethnic or cultural group, as opposed to a racial group, Israeli policy in the West Bank clearly constitutes a form of apartheid with an effect on the Palestinian people much the same as apartheid had on the non-White population in South Africa.

Both have their genesis in the desire by the minority to control land occupied by the majority. To achieve this result, the Israelis have imposed a legal framework on the Palestinians in the West Bank that ensures perpetual economic, political, and social dominance.”

Ronald Bruce St. John, “Apartheid By Any

Other Name” Counterpunch, 2/2/07

The first week of March was observed worldwide as the 6th Israeli Apartheid Week. It is a key event at which time educational programs are presented in the universities which describe Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people and explains what is being done to stop these crimes and create a more just situation for the Palestinian people living within 1948 Israel, on the West Bank, and in Gaza. One of the major tools is the BDS campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions, which was used to end South Africa’s apartheid.

The campaign must be having considerable success because Israel’s influential Reut Institute in Tel Aviv (2/14/10) has called the movement an “existential threat” to Israel. It urged Israel to use it’s resources to “attack” and, if necessary, engage in “sabotage” (which Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines as a “destructive or obstructive action to hinder or hurt”) of this movement which they believe delegitimizes Israel. The strategy suggested by Reut is “aimed at frustrating, delaying, and distracting attention from the fundamental issue: that Israel – despite it’s claims to be a liberal and democratic state – is an ultranationalist ethnocracy that relies on the violent suppression of the most fundamental rights of millions of Palestinians, soon to be a demographic majority, to maintain the status quo.” (Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 16)

Against this background a meeting took place at New YorkUniversity on March 4th which was organized by NYU Students for Justice in Palestine. The subject was Indigenous Struggle: A Call for the Boycott of Israel. It linked the struggle of the Palestinian people with the indigenous people’s in the US and with the fight of the indigenous people of South Africa against apartheid.

The first speaker, Melissa Franklin, was part of a youth delegation to Palestine. She is a student at Haskell College, in Kansas, which was once one of the federally funded boarding schools that Native Americans were sent to. Their 3 person delegation to Palestine was housed with Palestinian families in refugee camps. They worked on some art and music projects with the youth there but mostly they shared stories of generations of oppression and occupation, and of intergenerational trauma and grief. One of the most emotional subjects of discussion for both groups was the right of return. For the Palestinians it was a matter of 60+ years but for the Native Americans it was 500 years.

The next speaker was Nada Khader who teaches the history of the Middle East and is the Director of WESPAC (Westchester People’s Action Coalition). She said that from the beginning Israel didn’t want Arab laborers – Arab people were never welcome there. Today Gaza is a giant ghetto comparable to the Warsaw Ghetto. The infrastructure was severely bombed, including the water treatment facilities. The people can’t trade because Israel controls what goes in and what comes out. So farmers and manufacturers cant sell their goods. Fishermen are shot at while in their boats. Arable land is being made toxic. There are open sewers. There is a deliberate shortage of food and medicine. Teenagers smuggle essentials through tunnels which sometimes collapse. People struggle with each other because of the scarcity and sometimes betray each other to survive. The attitude of the world can be summed up as, let Israel finish them off, it’s just a breeding ground for terrorists.

On the West Bank there is apartheid and land stealing. Palestinian people have a spiritual connection to their land and their olive trees, some being 1,000 years old. All is being taken from them. They have asked for UN Peacekeepers to protect them from the Israeli military and the settlers but Israel, of course, won’t allow it. Khader concluded that BDS was a humane response to a very inhumane system of violence.

The final speaker was Gilad Isaacs, a South African activist and graduate student at NYU. He said that Israel started out sounding benign, a land without people for a people without land but they knew that the area was inhabited by the Palestinians. The same thing happened in South Africa. Apartheid would create 2 groups living separately but equal. But separate is never equal. Israel is an apartheid state and the term is defined by international law. Is Israel a democracy? One cannot have a democratic Jewish state – it is an oxymoron. Israel is a theocracy, only democratic for the Jews. Israeli apartheid is worse than what existed in South Africa. The pass system was not as bad as the permit system on the West Bank with all the check points. In South Africa there was no wall, no troops in the townships, no armed settlers, and they weren’t bombed as Gaza was. The anti-apartheid movement worked, they had the moral high ground, what was right and what was wrong was very clear. It was non-violent and legitimate under international law. However, there are obstacles that have to be dealt with in Israel that did not exist in South Africa. Israel doesn’t want to use Palestinian labor whereas South Africa needed Black laborers who were united in strong unions. It was good for South African businesses to end apartheid – that isn’t an issue in Israel. South Africa was of no strategic value to the US, but Israel is. BDS can isolate Israel internationally, quarantineing apartheid. By amplifying public opinion public action can be created.

The presentation was followed by a Q & A period. As that was about to start an official of NYU came into the room, introduced himself, and said that he was going to remain there to see to it that all the university’s rules were followed. That seemed odd. Then the questions began. Some were honest, looking for answers, and others seemed to be trying to waste time challenging the speakers with nonsensical questions. For example, there are Arabs in the Knesset who are in the minority, and there are Republicans in congress who are a minority, does that mean that the US is an apartheid state? Or, since the original name of Israel is Judea, doesn’t that mean that the Jews are the indigenous people? Or, isn’t BDS really an anti-Israel violent movement? This went on for quite awhile. Many of the “wise guy” type questioners were reading their questions. And many were wearing tee-shirts that said “Buy Israel” on the front and ”The David Project” on the back. This was an organized plan of disruption.

Sadly, the good, well intentioned, and wise people sitting at the table in front of the room were not able to handle this barrage. They got caught up in the minutiae. They didn’t have the facts or figures at their fingertips and they were unable to bring the subject back to the very serious issues of dropping white phosphorous on children, bombing hospitals and schools, shooting grandmothers, stealing land, genocide, torture, and apartheid. Outside of a court of law, does it really matter if, while the definition of apartheid fits the West Bank perfectly, it doesn’t fit 1948 Israel proper as perfectly – despite the 20 laws that discriminate against Palestinians? Is spending considerable precious time on that really worthwhile? The genuine substance of the evening was lost.

In the future speakers will have to be better prepared factually and better prepared for the kind of serious challenges the organized opposition will present. Omar Bhargouti, Ali Abunimah, and Norman Finkelstein can’t be everywhere.

* The quote from Shulamit Aloni was in the article by Ronald Bruce St. John, “Apartheid By Any Other Name” in Counterpunch, 2/2/07

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And from HaAretz…..

U.S. Jewish activist: Why I am protesting the Friends of the IDF dinner

By Donna NevelWhy am I protesting the $1,000-a-plate Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dinner honoring Chief of the IDF Staff Gabi Ashkenazi at the Waldorf on March 9?

Like many American Jews, I grew up hearing that the IDF was the most moral army in the world. An honest look at the historical and current evidence, however – most recently documented in the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Israeli Invasion of Gaza (the Goldstone Report)- reveals a very different reality.

As a college student in the 1970s, I defined myself as a socialist Zionist and attended Israeli consulate-sponsored “hasbara” workshops.

The literal translation of hasbara is “explanation,” but specifically refers to Israel’s campaign to promote its public image. These sessions taught a simple strategy for “dealing with” Israel’s critics on college campuses.

Begin by speaking about Israel as having the most moral army in the world. Never address the content of your opponents’ allegations.

Reference the Holocaust repeatedly, emphasizing the need for a Jewish homeland with a strong army so that those who hate the Jews will “never again” prevail.

And be sure to question the integrity of Israel’s critics, insinuating that they are anti-Semitic (or, in some cases, self-hating Jews). Those of us in the room who supported a Palestinian state (and there were a few) recognized ourselves in their descriptions of who to watch out for.

I remained active on Palestine-Israel but left my identity as a Zionist far behind, recognizing the incompatibility of Zionism (and the reality of what it was) with my support for justice for the Palestinian people.

Recently I experienced deja vu when I saw the exact strategy I had been taught so many years ago being used by the Israeli government and the American Jewish establishment as part of a relentless hasbara campaign to denounce and discredit Justice Richard Goldstone and the Goldstone Report.

On this past International Holocaust Day, as part of this campaign, the Israeli government shamefully used this day to further its attack on Justice Goldstone and the report.

The attack has been particularly virulent, perhaps because this evidence-based report, whose lead author is internationally respected and known as a supporter of Israel, revealed the immorality of the IDF’s actions with powerful legal authority.

The IDF is not a “defense” force. It is an illegal occupying army that is brutalizing the Palestinian people. Why am I marching with 22 organizations to protest the Friends of the IDF dinner and the war criminal it is honoring? Quite simply: How could I not?

Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and long-time organizer for Israeli-Palestinian peace and justice, is a member of Jews Say No!, one of the organizations co-sponsoring the protest on March 9th.

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Also watch the following video….

For the Children

Arab Abu Ghazel, northern Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip:

we are roughly 1 km from the norther border, in an area which was doused by bombs during Israel’s winter 2008-2009 massacre of Gaza. the area, with the norther border near, the sea a few kilometres away, and the eastern border within earshot, is regularly inundated with the Israeli army shelling and shooting that others hear less frequently, padded by city walls or cafe music.

the children living here are among Gaza’s poorest, largely from bedouin families whose herding-based incomes have been been decimated by the absence of growth, fodder, for their flocks, by the bombings, by the siege.

the children are traumatized multiple times over, by Israel’s war games, by their poverty, by their geographical isolation.

GIVE and Local Initiative, two Gaza-based organizations, are visiting these 50 or so children, throwing a party today, alleviating their stress and boredom, if temporarily.

the groups bring loud-speakers for the music which will drown out Israeli gunfire from border towers and military jeeps, drown out the zananas’ whines or F-16s roars.

they bring kleenex and string and proceed to ingeniously craft a line of streamers to liven up the drab, largely treeless surroundings (bulldozed over the years), and balloons to add colour and festivity to the party.

they set up a simple cardboard frame decorated with universally-favoured childrens’ animation characters and call the children to form a circle, hold hands.

the music starts, the children squeal, and the animators get them dancing, reveling.

children are called to the cardboard frame, now a puppet house for the dancing rabbit; they sing, they are stars for a moment, they are special and they glow from it.

6 life-size costumed characters come out dancing, tails flinging, and the kids get to go crazy. they dance, some show off their beginnings of dabke steps, they hold one anothers’ shirt-tails and the costumed creatures actual tails, and dance in circles, song after song.

hours pass and we’ve all been transported away from the siege, the Israeli military threat. we’ve all become gleeful kids.

the children will remember this tomorrow and in the weeks to come.

the two organizations are off to another area in a few days time, to repeat the activities with more marginalized children longing for a childhood in the most impossible of circumstances.

many likewise impoverished children are working, gathering stones and sand, selling 1 shekel items on Gaza’s busy streets as the party ensues, as life under siege ensues.

abdullah is here today. it’s been over a year since i saw him the first and only other time, at another children’s event, this one in Jabaliya. he is a clown. Really. At that party he was among the most captivating animators.

today he tells me he’s upset. i think maybe he’s going to chide me for not visiting his organization, but instead i le arn that it’s about his wife.

he gestures to his foreheard, pointing at it with his hand like a gun. “She was killed in the war,” he says, referring to the massacre. “She was pregnant.”

he’s lost his will, for most everything. “i’m not able to work, i have no desire to do anything, really. But i came today because its a party for the children.”

then he tells me he wants to leave Gaza. but not because he’s had enough. he wants to study. “circus,” he says. There’re no opporunities here to develop beyond his basic tricks. but he yearns to become professional, and bring it home to teach others, to brighten children’s lives like they’ve done today.

my colleague and i both remark, on the way home, that no where else have we seen such devotion to and adoration of children, and we’ve been around the world.

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