Monday, May 30, 2011

Aid workers to join Gaza flotilla

More than 30 British aid workers will join a flotilla heading towards Gaza in June, it has been announced. 

Just over a year after a similar aid flotilla was raided by Israeli forces, leaving nine people dead on a Turkish boat, aid workers from around Europe will attempt to get through Israel's sea blockade. 

Activists plan to congregate on Tuesday in London to remember the aid workers killed and to raise the profile of the new mission. 

One of the event organisers, Ismail Patel, chairman of Friends of Al Aqsa, was on board the Mavi Marmara ship on which all nine aid workers died. 

He said: "It is important that we do not forget the nine martyrs who were killed by Israeli commandos while trying to take aid to Gaza which has been under Israeli siege for six years. 

"We must also draw attention to the desperate situation in Gaza, where basic food supplies are limited and reconstruction materials are banned. 

"Despite Israel's scare tactics there will be 600 people from 40 countries on board the Freedom Flotilla II who will be representing millions of people around the word in opposing Israel's imprisonment of 1.6 million Gazans." 

Eight Turks and one Turkish-American died in the raid last year and seven Israeli soldiers were wounded. Each side accused the other of starting the violence. 

Israeli military officials have confirmed that preparations are under way to stop any new flotilla while avoiding casualties, and that they would use different tactics this time. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/aid-workers-to-join-gaza-flotilla-2290953.html

A Bittersweet Journey to Jerusalem

May 30, 2011 17:37
 
It is 11 pm and I’m in my bed much earlier than I’m used to. I’m tossing and turning and forcing myself to stay under my blanket. Everything around me is very dark and quiet. The only thing I can hear is the sound of me moving in the bed continually. I want to get some sleep. I want the morning to come quickly. I want the clock tick fast so that its 7 am. But none of it is happening right now. Time seems to be crawling while my heart races with all the excitement I can imagine…

I close my eyes and all I can dream about is my visit to Jerusalem. I’m smelling its air. Having the view of its nature. Walking in its streets. Smiling at the people. But this all is adding more excitement and keeping me awake instead. Finally, I manage to get a few winks. I open my eyes and it is still 4:30 am. After all my futile attempts, I give in and wake up at 6.

JOURNEY BEGINS
It is a scene of chaos. Most people around me are chatting in order to kill their time. They’ve nothing else to do but to wait and wait until the border control people become active. I, on the other hand, put my headphones in the ears and listen to Fairoz. It is my attempt to live in my own world. To stay calm and peaceful amidst a storm of excitement and frenzy that engulfs my heart and mind. Though I’m sitting in the benches of Beit Hanoun border post (also called Erez border) all I can see in front of my eyes is the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Here in the hall are lots of people, many of them patients and traders.
“Everybody has an excuse to go to Jerusalem and waiting to get the permission to pass,” I said to myself while my eyes confusedly wandered: one on the people around me and the other on the fences. Yes, the ugly iron fences with barbed wires that surrounded us from all directions. They seemed to be laughing hysterically and mocking us. Is it really funny that all of us here are waiting for hours to have a pass to go to our capital, Jerusalem. It’s not fair at all. I feel the need to shout and tell everyone I need no excuse to go there. It is my eternal right!

beit hanoun waiting erez crossing
 I waited for hours to get the security clearance at the Erez Crossing, surrounded by large walls and concrete slabs. Photo - Shahd Abusalamah

Two hours have gone by and I’m still waiting. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait more. While I take a gander at people around me, an old woman sat next to me in her traditional Palestinian dress lined with red embroidery attracted my eyes. The wrinkles of her face seemed to bear many of the burdens of her life. I thought she must be in her late 70s but it turned out that she is just 66-years-old.

“Are you a refugee?” she asked while my eyes probed her face that lost many of its features in the trials of time. I smiled at her, nodding my head in affirmation. “I’m a refugee too,” she admitted. That was the start of a very interesting conversation about our lands, from which Palestinians were cleansed in 1948 and onwards. She was only three years old when her family was expelled from her native town of Acre. “I was the youngest of the family,” she explained while adding: “My parents and my older brother took turns carrying me. They had to put a cover on my face to protect me from the hot weather on that gloomy day.”

The remorse on her face wrenched my heart so I tried to make her laugh. “No wonder why we met here. We are here to return to our home! Here we come!” I said with a laughter. It wasn’t as funny as I thought. Her expressive face showed sorrow. “Oh, I hope so!” she sighed. And then she explained that she was accompanying her twin grand children who suffer from an illness. They sought a permit to admit them at Al-Maqased, a hospital in Occupied Jerusalem, and they managed to get it.

erez crossing barbed wire travellers
Erez crossing is one of the most horrible crossings into Israel that is manned by hundreds of Israeli soldiers equipped with sniffer dogs and latest military hardware. Hundreds of people have to wait for hours under extreme weather conditions to get into the Occupied Territories and Israel. Photo - Malashen/Virtual Tourist.com

I tried to change the topic, hoping to stop her from worrying about her kids for at least a few minutes. So I asked her if she knew where my original village, Beit Jerja, was located. While she was looking through the fence, trying to think where to point out, her son came rushing to tell her to get ready, as it was time for them to leave. She hugged me, wished me luck, and then left.

The graceful stateless lady left me in a restless state. I felt deprived but at the same time wanted to continue waiting to visit the destination of my dreams: JERUSALEM.
COMMITMENT

It’s like a commitment for every Palestinian, and especially every Gazan, that we have to make before leaving our borders for the Occupied Territories. It is a commitment to get insulted and humiliated and never say a word. Every single hour I had to wait at the border control passed like a year. The excitement I had didn’t make the situation any easier.
And if you’ve been wondering what takes me to Jerusalem, the occupied capital of our occupied homeland, I’m meant to attend a visa interview at the US embassy in the Holy City. I am sitting here with my friends and we all have been shortlisted for the leadership programme in USA. And while we chit chat about our trip, a Palestinian who works in the Beit Hanoun border control, approached us and asked to get ready to leave the place. No words can describe my feeling right now. “Oh, thank you, God. Finally, we are passing!” are the words that came out as a big scream. I am simply crazy, jumping out to express my indescribable happiness, forgetting about everybody around…

erez crossing corridor
In the Erez crossing corridor having a moment of joy after hours of frustrating wait. Photo - Shahd Abusalama

Now I was properly marching towards the checkpoint. I was taking big steps while breathing hardly. All I could think about was to get out from this place as fast as I could. I didn’t know what was waiting for me after the hours-long wait…

SORDID REALITY

As I passed through the first checkpoint, the alarm bell rang. I started to feel worried but one of my friends told me that it was because my bag contained a laptop. Seeing some Palestinian men working there helped me to relax. One of them told me not to worry as this was normal. He took the notebook from me and asked to pass through the machine again. I did, with my heart beating really fast. It was matching the pace of my steps it seemed…

After that we were led to enter lots of gates, one after another. My eyes waited anxiously to see the scanner lights go green. I then reached a point where I had to stand in an exact position. I tried my best to show that I had no fear. I saw the green lights and they allowed me to pass. I took a deep breath. Tried to calm myself down. But then I was so rushed! Unluckily, I heard some announcement in Hebrew being barked through the speakers which were spread everywhere. Then an old Palestinian man who was responsible to show the travellers where to go yelled loudly, calling me back.

“I don’t know what the problem is with you, my daughter,” he said with his eyebrows high, showing surprise and worry. “Come back to the same gate and do as I tell you to do,” he continued. I couldn’t hide my panic anymore. I did as I was told but the signs of worry on my face were obvious. “Smile or else the photo will be dark,” the Palestinian man joked to make me less worried. That was the instant break I needed to muster my confidence.

israeli checkpoint palestinians
Thousands of Palestinians pass through hundreds of Israeli checkpoints that are dotted across the Occupied Territories. Three of such checkpoints are located on the Gaza border with Israel. People are routinely subjected to inhumane treatment where Israeli soldiers inflict deep psychological wounds. Such incidents are never investigated by the Israeli authorities.

I wondered why everybody else was having fewer obstacles at passing through the gates than I’m having but I had no answer to my question. I thought that nothing could be worse than passing through these miserable security gates. I was mistaken again. The buzzers beeped again and they sent me to a special check point. I was ordered to go into an empty room with a glass window and an empty chair, a table, and a microphone behind it. The eeriness of that place freaked me out and I was about to cry…

But I tried to pull myself together. “Shahd, you’re a brave Palestinian. Stand up! Who do they think they’re? Rise and conquer,” said my mind to the heart. I realised that being weak would make them feel strong and they’ll be so happy seeing me fall. I made a quick decision. I had to face the enemy with courage. I kept standing and just waited.

The room was totally quiet and I had no idea what was going to happen next. Suddenly, while I looked around the place randomly, there appeared an Israeli female soldier sat in the chair. “You have to do exactly what I tell you,” she said brusquely. “Take off your trousers,” she continued with that severe, harsh voice. I looked at her with surprise, asking if she was serious. She repeated the same sentence, this time in a louder tone. I could not summon any reaction but the same shocked look. “It is an order!” she shouted, and continued, “You don’t have to worry as only you and I are here.” I kept my head high and I took them off, insisting on making my dream of reaching Jerusalem, a reality. She ordered me to turn myself around and then pull my t-shirt up. I put my stuff inside a box to be checked as she ordered. It seemed as if I was being checked by a sniffer dog or a bitch. A sadist one. There was nothing suspicious to be found. So then she let me put back the dress again.

You have no idea of how lowly my feeling was. Some people might say that I should not speak about this tormenting experience at all, but I must. The conscientious world should know how the Palestinians, including the women, are routinely humiliated. How badly our nation is treated, as if we are less than human beings. What is the point of doing this? Why did they choose me in particular? For absolutely no reason! They’re just sick in their minds. They wanted to enjoy inflicting psychological torment on somebody, and the lot fell upon me. I tried to gather my strength and confidence but this particular experience left a deep pain inside me…

israeli female soldier abusing detainees
Female soldiers, like their male counterparts, are also involved in routine detainee abuses. Once such scandal surfaced a few months ago when an Israeli servicewoman posted her pictures depicting abuse of Palestinian prisoners on the Internet. She is yet to be prosecuted and punished for her crime.

All my friends passed earlier than me. They were waiting for me on the other side. As I joined them again, I felt much better. I put behind the mortifying experience. I decided to live the moment and not to let anyone ruin my happiness of visiting our eternal capital city – Jerusalem. Finally, I reached the bus of the American embassy that was waiting for four hours to take us to Jerusalem.

DREAM COMING TRUE
I only needed to deeply breathe the fresh air of the lands on the other side of the Erez border to feel relaxed. It was such a special feeling that I never experienced before in my life. We all got into the bus which drove us to Jerusalem. I kept looking through the windows at the places around me. I was truly amazed. I saw fantastic natural beauty wherever I directed my eyes. My dark black eyes that were so hungry for such views. They wandered around wildly in order to catch every glimpse of the beauty: the hills, sandy and rocky mountains, green fields, huge trees, and colourful flowers. It started to become one of the journeys of life where you wish to stop the moment and never let it go…

On our way to Jerusalem from Erez border crossing, I pondered at the nature. I sang Fairoz’s song about the magical streets of the old Al-Quds. The feeling of happiness was enough to overcome the bitterness of every difficulty that I had passed through minutes ago. It is true that the enemy can inflict pain upon you but can they stop you from transforming that pain into pride and pleasure? I really doubt that. Not in my case at least…

The bus driver, who was originally from Jerusalem, noticed my painting book and asked me about it. “I am an artist and I always wanted to draw the Dome of Al-Aqsa mosque face to face one day. So I hope that this will be my chance to do so,” I said with innocent tone that surprised myself. “Do not be so dreamy. I have to drop you at the American embassy, and immediately after you all finish your visa interviews, I will take you back to the Erez border,” he replied in a flat tone. The reminder couldn’t have been more stark. Soon after I thought that everything was going to be fine, I was mistaken again…

It was not his fault. I don’t blame him as he is just following the orders issued by the embassy. I pity the situation though…living as a stranger in my very own homeland. Among my own people who were not allowed to treat me with love and care. The feeling of emptiness in a world full of material and comfort…

As soon as I got off the bus and stepped onto the ground, I started jumping and feeling happy that I was standing on the Holy Land. Shahd was alive again. She needs little things to be happy. She has learnt to live the moments in a place where days, months and years are just the same excruciating blocks of time. They never bring any joy or relief. But this moment is something very special. To step on the Holy Land and feel so liberated. As if I crossed the seven seas to get to this feeling of elation. I felt accomplished even though I faced a more challenges ahead. The air of Jerusalem raised my spirits to an unknown high. Like never before…

Everything went fine at the US embassy in Occupied Jerusalem. The visa interview was perfect and thankfully I got the visa. Maybe it was the overwhelming sense of accomplishment or fear of returning to the harsh realities of life, I did not want to go outside the embassy. I knew we will be bundled back and won’t be given a chance to see the sights and sounds of our eternal capital. And I was right. Eventually, we had to get onboard the bus to return to Gaza. But I did not walk out empty handed. I was lucky enough to take two beautiful red flowers with me. I lived that moment in an eternity…

The directives given to the bus driver were very strict. He was ordered to take us directly to Erez. However, the driver sympathised with us. After all, he was a Palestinian who could understand what it felt like for Gazans who are in Jerusalem for the first time in their lives. How impossible it is for us to leave our eternal abode without catching a glimpse of  the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. He explained the restrictions but promised to take us through a street which would allow us a glance of our magnificent heritage.

view of dome of the rock jerusalem
A view of the Dome of the Rock from the street we passed. This is the closest we were allowed to. Photo - Shahd Abusalama

My starved eyes waited to witness the priceless glimpse of one of the most prized buildings on earth. Every yard that the bus covered seemed never ending to me. The heart beat was pounding once again as if silencing the buzz and excitement around me. Finally the moment arrived. I saw the Dome of the Rock from far away just like it is seen in the photographs. Nevertheless, I managed to see such an amazing scene that is beyond any explanation. My eyes could not stop gazing. It was like magic. Like a walk in the heaven. All the energies in my body just were attracted towards the Holy Complexes. What I heard was true. It is a spiritual magnet for millions of people across the planet. I still couldn’t believe that I lived that experience too…

“I have to move. I am sorry,” the driver said with a broken voice. I turned my head towards the Dome until it disappeared into the distance, leaving behind a long silence filled with deprivation and pity. The visual pilgrimage came to an end. We could see it for hardly a few minutes but my capture was timeless. Seeing that view, and the fact that we could not go closer, and even that we couldn’t open the window and put our heads out, all this made me very emotional…

I went to an empty seat in the back of the bus and lay on it, closing my eyes and letting my soul fly over Jerusalem’s Golden Dome. With a mixture of feelings and emotions, I fell asleep while my spirit encircled the skies of the Holy City. I let myself have this mystical experience till we covered the approximately 80km distance and reached Erez. I went empty handed with a violated feeling. But I returned as a victor. A winner who won all her tests and stood upright. A dreamer who saw the reality but decided to live it like a dream. A dream that is too big to be stolen and too high to be brought down. A dream that defines the essence and aspirations of my nation, of my ideology which the world knows as PALESTINE…

Shahd Abusalama  is a 19-year old Palestinian artist who lives in Gaza with her family. Her artwork has been put on display on numerous occasions. Shahd takes deep interest in issues relating to Gazan society and works on several projects related to the welfare of orphans. She considers it her moral and national duty to tell the world about the sufferings of Palestinians under the brutal Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. She also maintains her own blog titled Palestine from My Eyes. Story by Shahd Abusalama; Edited & Published by Moign Khawaja.

http://outernationalist.net/?p=2416

Sunday, May 29, 2011

East Jerusalem: Israel detains an 8 years old Palestinian

Joseph Dana

The Israeli police are ramping up arrests and attacks against Palestinian children. Targeting of children is nothing new in West Bank villages like Nabi Saleh and Bil’in. This afternoon, Israeli police raided the house of 8 year-old Ali Siyam in the Occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

Police have been raiding house in Silwan in a bid to quell stone throwing by Palestinians against Israeli military and police. During today’s operation to take Ali Siyam, Israeli polices officers assaulted Siyam’s aunt and father, the only adults present in the house. Siyam’s aunt was shot in the leg with a rubber coated steel bullet as she attempted to protect the child. Locals say that his father was beaten and maced with pepper spray as police took the boy. Both were transferred to Hadassa Har Hatzofim hospital for treatment.

Siyam was taken to Jerusalem’s Russian Compound police station for questioning regarding alleged stone throwing. His lawyer, Israeli Adv. Lea Tsamel, was present at the compound when he arrived at the station. However, Israeli police did not give Tsamel access to the minor, refusing to allow her to be present during the questioning.  Tsamel disobeyed the police and attempted to enter the interrogation area. According to witnesses, Tsamel herself was detained in protest.   The child was released from custody at 20:00 local time after hours of questions.

Siyam’s arrest comes days after Israeli soldiers broke the arm of a 9-year-old Palestinian child in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Soldiers, in violation of Israeli army rules of conduct, fired a tear gas canister directly at the child from a range of ten meters. Another 14 year old child was injured from a tear gas canister before the demonstration was over.

http://972mag.com/israel-ramping-up-arrests-of-palestinian-children/

'Unification of Jerusalem is a foundation of nation of Israel'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells his cabinet that the government is obligated to build in Jerusalem, as it is 'the heart of the nation.'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his government's support for a united Jerusalem on Sunday, calling the unification of Jerusalem one of the "foundations of the nation of Israel."

Speaking at a special government meeting held at the David Citadel in Jerusalem, the prime minister said Israel had won congressional support during his most recent trip to Washington, where he presented the issue of Jerusalem's unification.

"The wide support for these principles is an inalienable asset for the state of Israel," Netanyahu said. "The world knows that the nation of Israel and our friends are loyal to Jerusalem and its legacy."

"The government is obligated to building Jerusalem, as [Jerusalem] is the heart of the nation," Netanyahu said.

The prime minster spoke to the U.S. Congress last week, where he said that Israel is willing to make painful concessions for peace, but Jerusalem will not be divided.
"Jerusalem must never again be divided," Netanyahu said to round of applause by the congressmen. "Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel."

The day after the prime minister's speech in Washington, the speaker of the Knesset and several other government ministers attended a dedication ceremony for the new Jewish settlement of Ma'aleh Zeitim, in East Jerusalem's Ras al-Amud neighborhood.

At the ceremony, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin condemned those that seek to "cut up" Jerusalem, as bringing "disaster" onto the city and its residents.

The comments come shortly after a weekend in which U.S. President Barack Obama called for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians based on borders from 1967, which Netanyahu rejects as "indefensible".

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/unification-of-jerusalem-is-a-foundation-of-nation-of-israel-1.364731

Ethnic Cleansing is the Foundation of the Nation of israel.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Jewish Settlers Severely Beat Elderly Palestinian Shepherd in Nablus

NABLUS, May 26, 2011 
(WAFA)- Ghassan Douglas, in charge of settlements file at the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, said Thursday that settlers severely beat an elderly Palestinian Shepherd, 67, in Madama, a village south of Nablus.
Douglas said that Hamad al-Kett  was beaten by 12 settlers from the settlement of Yizhar. He was transferred to a hospital in the city of Nablus where they described his condition as critical.
Medical  Sources told WAFA that al-Kett was injured deeply in his face and head, hairline fracture in his skull, bruises all over his body and he suffered from bleeding that caused him to lose consciousness.
Acting Chairman of Madama Village Council, Eyhab al-kett said that “Hamad Was herding his sheep in the southern region of the village, when he was attacked by settlers who tried to take the sheep from him. The old man tried to resist them, so they took advantage of the fact that he was alone and old and brutally assaulted him.”

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16257

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Troops Kidnap Seven Palestinians In Ramallah

May 26, 2011  by Saed Bannoura
Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Thursday at dawn seven Palestinians in the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli Army Radio reported on Thursday morning that the army invaded several villages and towns in the Ramallah district, and kidnapped what was described as “wanted” Palestinians.

The latest invasion and arrests are part of daily violations carried out by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian in the occupied territories.

Most of the arrests and invasions are carried out at dawn, an issue that causes panic among the residents, especially the children. 


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

#BDS: DePaul students vote by large margin to ban Sabra hummus

Students at DePaul University in Chicago voted by a large margin in a referendum asking if they support ending sales of Sabra brand hummus on their campus. Due to a technicality, however, the result will not be binding. A note received by The Electronic Intifada from campus activists with Students for Justice in Palestine at the university announced today the results of voting that took place earlier this week:
Results of the referendum: 1127 voted in favor; 332 voted against ; 8 extraneous write ins. To be valid a referendum must have a turnout of no less than 1500 students. Although we had an amazing win, the referendum is not valid as we were 33 votes short. But this isn’t over. SJP will make a statement about what’s next for the campaign.
The referendum question on the ballot was:
Sabra, which currently supplies hummus to the DePaul cafeteria, is co-owned by the Strauss Group. The Strauss group provides financial support and supplies to the Golani and Givati brigades of the Israeli military, which have been found by the United Nations to be violators of human rights. Are you in favor of replacing Sabra with an alternative brand of hummus?”
Earlier this month, students supporting the ban explained in a video and accompanying statement the rationale for their campaign:
Founded in 1986 as Sabra-Blue & White Foods, the company was sold to Israeli food manufacturer the Strauss Group in 2005, a corporation known for its explicit support for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), namely the elite Golani and Givati infantry brigades. Although the IDF itself has a long history of violating international law, the Golani and Givati Brigades, since 1948, have been notorious for their severe human rights abuses in Lebanon and Palestine. The brigades have recently attracted attention for their atrocious war crimes during Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza that killed over 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children, most of whom were unarmed civilians. The Strauss Group’s active support for the Golani and Givati brigades is an active endorsement of egregious violations of human rights. We call on all people of conscience to boycott Sabra and all other products manufactured by Israeli corporations that support the State of Israel’s policies of ethnic cleansing and occupation of the Palestinian people. It’s time to pressure Israel to comply with international law. Let’s boycott!
In a similar and widely-publicized referendum late last year, students at Princeton University defeated a referendum calling for an alternative to Sabra hummus in campus dining facilities by a vote of 1,014 to 699.

http://networkedblogs.com/ik8us

Israeli soldiers attack Palestinian boy in Bethlehem

West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli occupation forces attacked yesterday at night a mentally disabled boy in Al-Khader town in the south of Bethlehem.

Security sources said that Israeli soldiers invaded the town arresting the boy,14,  and severely beating him before being released. The boy was evacuated to a hospital in Bethlehem for medical treatment due to injures inflicted his body.

Today, Israeli forces arrested three Palestinian teens from Al-Uroob refugee camp in the north of Hebron after raiding and searching their homes.

According to Israeli radio, the teens were taken after throwing stones at settlers vehicles passing near Al-Khader town without  causalities reported.

http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/9260-israeli-soldiers-attack-palestinian-boy-in-bethlehem.html

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Protestor who disrupted Netanyahu in Congress attacked, hospitalized, arrested

Rae Abileah a CODEPINK activist who disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in the United States Congress this morning was physically attacked, hospitalized and then arrested from hospital according to reports.
According to CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin:
Rae Abileah is in the hospital, after having been assaulted and tackled to the ground by members of the audience in the House Gallery during Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Abileah, who is with the group CODEPINK: Women for Peace, interrupted Netanyahu with a banner that said “Occupying Land Is Indefensible” and shouting, “No more occupation, stop Israel war crimes, equal rights for Palestinians, occupation is indefensible.” She rose up to speak out just after the Prime Minister talked about the youth around the world rising up for more democracy. As this 28-year-old Jewish American woman spoke out for the human rights of Palestinians, other members of the audience—wearing badges from the conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee—brutally attacked her. The police then dragged her out of the Gallery and took her to the George Washington University Hospital, where she is being treating for neck and shoulder injuries.

I am in great pain, but this is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that Palestinians go through on a regular basis,” said Abileah from her hospital bed. “I have been to Gaza and the West Bank, I have seen Palestinians homes bombed and bulldozed, I have talked to mothers whose children have been killed during the invasion of Gaza, I have seen the Jewish-only roads leading to ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank. This kind of colonial occupation cannot continue. As a Jew and a U.S. citizen, I feel obligated to rise up and speak out against stop these crimes being committed in my name and with my tax dollars.”

Abileah stands in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli activists who are routinely jailed and beaten for speaking out for democracy.

These actions were part of a week of protests called Move Over AIPAC.
In a subsequent update on the Move Over AIPAC website, it was reported that Abileah was arrested from George Washington University hospital

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/protestor-who-disrupted-netanyahu-congress-attacked-hospitalized-arrested

Monday, May 23, 2011

Ahava plunders Palestinian natural resources

Posted on by Codepink and Coalition of Women for Peace
After years of strenuous denial, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli cosmetics firm with its main manufacturing plant in an illegal West Bank settlement, is proven by documentary evidence to be in violation of international law through its theft of Palestinian resources. This evidence was recently discovered by Who Profits, a research project of the Israeli Coalition for Peace, which documents corporate activity in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory

Prior to this finding representatives of Ahava repeatedly claimed that the company does not make use of natural resources from the West Bank: “the mud and materials used in Ahava cosmetics products are not excavated in an occupied area. The minerals are mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally”.

[1] The new findings prove that the company was given a license for excavating minerals in 2004 from the Israeli Civil Administration, which is the representative of the Israeli government in the occupied West Bank, and that the excavation site on the occupied shores of the Northern Dead Sea is currently active. By making use of mud that is excavated in the occupied area the company is violating international humanitarian law (the laws of occupation), which prohibits the plundering of natural resources from the occupied territory.

The company is still reeling from the public relations setback of an explosive new report [2] issued on May 5th by B’tselem, a leading Israeli human rights group, which calls Ahava out by name as an occupation profiteer. Ahava representatives have yet to respond to B’tselem’s report, and the company’s reputation is now further tarnished by this just discovered documentary proof of its violations of international law.

[1] http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=182493. See also: http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=5548

[2] Dispossession and Exploitation: Israel’s Policy in the Jordan Valley and Northern Dead Sea http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/201105_Dispossession_and_Exploitation.asp

Source

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Israel OK's over 1,500 new illegal settler units


Israel has once again defied international law by approving the construction of over 1,500 more illegal settlement units on occupied territories of Palestine, a report says.


Israel's Interior Ministry Planning Committee has given the final approval for construction of 620 settlement units in Pisgat Zeev in northeastern Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and another 900 in Har Homa in the south of the city.

The plan was approved on Thursday just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to leave for Washington, where he is to meet US President Barack Obama in the White House on Friday.

Israel occupied and annexed East Al-Quds (Jerusalem) with the rest of the West Bank in 1967 six-day war, but the measure was never recognized by the international community.

The United Nations has repeatedly declared Israel's settlement building on Palestinian lands as illegal under international law.

Israel aims to strengthen the presence of settlers in the occupied Palestinians territories with the goal to bring about a demographic change in the region to gain points when they resume negotiations in the future.

The Palestinians, however, want East Al-Quds as the capital of their future state, a move opposed by the Israelis.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180764.html

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Largest student union in Europe joins boycott of Israel


By James Haywood and Ashok Kumar - BDSMovement
 
The University of London Union (ULU) has voted 10-1 to institute and campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in support of Palestine.

The motion called for “thorough research into ULU investments and contracts” with companies guilty of “violating Palestinian human rights” as set out by the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC). Ashok Kumar, Senate member for LSE, speaking in favor of the motion, argued, “We have precedents for boycotting campaigns at ULU, especially with South Africa and the boycott campaign over Barclays bank, that supported the Apartheid regime. We are now responding to the Palestinian call for civil action in support of their fight against racism.”

The motion also called on other students’ unions to join in the campaign for Palestinian human rights. ULU is the largest students’ union in Europe with over 120,000 members from colleges across London. ULU senate consists of the presidents of the 20 students unions representing every University of London University. James Haywood, President-elect at Goldsmiths Students’ Union, stated, “We are delighted that this motion has passed, and with such a clear vote as well. We have seen throughout history that boycotts are a crucial nonviolent tactic in achieving freedom, and target institutions, not individuals.”

Sean Rillo Raczka, incoming ULU Vice President, “I’m delighted that ULU has passed this BDS policy on Israel. We stand in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people, and as Vice President next year I will ensure that the University of London Union does not give profit to those denying the human rights of the Palestinians.”

READ MORE

http://jnoubiyeh.com/2011/05/largest-student-union-in-europe-joins.html

Historian writes of 'pleasure' at murder of pro-Palestinian activist

Author of op-ed article in Jewish Chronicle tells me he 'rejoiced' at death of Vittorio Arrigoni

Vittorio Arrigoni
Vittorio Arrigoni, murdered in Gaza last month. Photograph: ISM/EPA
I was sent a link this week to a piece published in the Jewish Chronicle by historian Geoffrey Alderman, the opening sentence of which I found pretty shocking.
Under the headline This Was No Peace Activist, Alderman wrote:

"Few events - not even the execution of Osama bin Laden - have caused me greater pleasure in recent weeks than news of the death of the Italian so-called 'peace activist' Vittorio Arrigoni."

Arrigoni, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was murdered in Gaza last month after being abducted by Islamic extremists. He was strangled with a plastic cord. Hamas subsequently killed those responsible for Arrigoni's death.

His murder, wrote Alderman, "was immediately pounced upon by the western media as an affront to the civilised world". This is indeed the case; many newspapers - including the Guardian - ran stories and profiles describing Arrigoni's commitment to the Palestinian cause and the extremist stance of those who killed him.

But, wrote Alderman, "the truth is very different. Vittorio Arrigoni, a disciple of the International Solidarity Movement, had travelled to Gaza to assist in the breaking of the Israeli naval blockade. As a supporter of Hamas he was a consummate Jew-hater."
He said Arrigoni's Facebook page - in Italian - contained "explicit anti-Jewish imagery".
I asked Alderman - who has occasionally contributed to the Guardian - whether he regretted recording his "pleasure" at Arrigoni's death. "It's still my view," he told me on the phone from London. "He was a Jew-hater like Adolf Hitler. Yes, he deserved to die for being a Jew-hater. I rejoiced in the death of a Jew-hater. I have no regrets."
Jeff Halper, an Israeli activist and academic, who knew Arrigoni well, said Alderman's charges against him were "outrageous".

"Sometimes things are so outrageous there simply isn't a response. Vik [Arrigoni] was unique. He was political and he had strong opinions. But the idea that he would differentiate between someone Jewish and someone non-Jewish - there has never been a hint of that."

Stephen Pollard, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, told me he had no qualms about publishing the piece. "I have no problem at all with publishing it. I don't agree with [Alderman], it's not my view - it's his."

He rejected the description of Arrigoni as a "peace activist". "He was a member of the ISM, for God's sake. That's not peace activism, that's hard core Palestinian terror."
Neta Golan, an Israeli founder of the ISM, denied the organisation supported terror attacks or backed Hamas. "The ISM supports the avenue of non-violent and popular resistance," she told me. "It is a grassroots group, and we will work with anyone who wants to organise non-violent resistance. The ISM does not have a position on internal Palestinian politics."

She also rejected suggestions that Arrigoni was anti-Semitic. "It was so obvious he wasn't a racist. Absolutely he was not anti-Semitic."

I never met Arrigoni and I don't know what his views (if any) on Jews, as opposed to his views on Israel, were. Attempts to conflate opposition to Israeli policies with anti-Semitism are not new.

Now Alderman's rejoicing in the death of a pro-Palestinian activist seems to me a new and repugnant development.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/view-from-jerusalem-with-harriet-sherwood/2011/may/18/israel-palestinian-territories

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bloody Sunday as Israel murder 21, and injure over 200 people in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon

May 15, 2011

Today can only be described as Bloody Sunday following the deaths of 21 people, and over 200 injured by Israeli forces. 10 people are reported dead in Lebanon, 8 in Syria, 2 in Gaza, and 1 in the occupied West Bank.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marked the Nakba anniversary by marching to the borders with Israel in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. They were demanding their right of return to the homes and lands they were force to flee in 1948.

In Gaza, thousands of people marched to the Erez border crossing where they were met by a barrage of bullets and shells fired from tanks. A 17 year old was killed, and 60 were injured. Most of those injured were children, with wounds to their legs. Another man was killed later in the eastern area of Gaza. Currently, F16Å’s, Apache Helicopters and unmanned drones are roaming the skies above the besieged area.

In Lebanon, thousands marched to Maroun el Rass, the border with Israel. Demonstrators were fired upon by Israeli troops leaving 10 dead and 70 injured, according to local reports. Thousands protested for hours before dispersing peacefully.

In Syria, Palestinian refugees and Syrians crossed into the occupied Golan Heights, and like in Lebanon and Gaza, they too met a hail of bullets. Local reports say 8 people have been killed and 50 injured. The Syrian Foreign Ministry called Israel’s actions “criminal activity, and called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the killing.

In the occupied West Bank, demonstrators faced rubber bullets, live fire, and deadly tear gas as they commutated the Nakba. Unconfirmed reports say 1 man has been killed, and close to 100 people injured. Clashes lasted for hours as demonstrators continued to come under attack from Israeli troops.

Across the world, thousands of people have also been remembering the Nakba. In New York, Norman Finkelstein joined thousands of demonstrators, and in Cairo, thousands have been protesting outside the Egyptian embassy. In London, Dublin, Paris, Madrid, Belfast, Amman, Ankara, Istanbul, Gothenburg and many other cities worldwide, thousands have come out to show their support for the Palestinians right to return to their homes and land.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said We are determined to defend our borders and our sovereignty.

A spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, called Sunday’s murders a turning point in the Israeli-Arab conflict that proved the Palestinian people and Arabs were committed to ending Israeli occupation.

Hezbollah condemned the Israeli aggression on unarmed civilians in Maroun al-Ras and in the Golan, which constitutes a dangerous violation of human rights, and what happened today in Maroun al-Ras and in the Golan is an embodiment of the will of the Palestinian people who are committed to the right of return.h

Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in a televised interview said, their precious blood will not be wasted. It was spilt for the sake of our nation’s freedom.

Western leaders including Barak Obama, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, and others has remained silent on the murders.


:: Article nr. 77737 sent on 16-may-2011 05:39 ECT

www.uruknet.info?p=77737

Link: gazatvnews.com/2011/05/bloody-sunday-as-israel-murder-21-and-injure-over-200-peo
   ple-in-palestine-syria-and-lebanon/

Israeli Forces Kill Protesters

Video

Israeli troops opened fire on protesters along three hostile "borders" on Sunday, leaving as many as 16 people dead and dozens wounded in an unprecedented wave of violence marking the anniversary of the mass displacement of Palestinians surrounding Israel's establishment in 1948.

Hundreds of Palestinians moved across the Syrian border into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The "border" breach set off several hours of violent clashes in which at least four people were killed. At the Qalandiya checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank, Israeli troops rushed in to disperse protesters, leaving several wounded. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that he will vigorously defend his country's borders after the mass infiltration from Syria.


Posted May 15 2011

 


Dramatic footage of hundreds returning to Golan Heights

A dramatic video published by the website baladee.net shows the moment when hundreds of Palestinian refugees and Syrians break through the border fence from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (part of Syria occupied by Israel in 1967 and illegally annexed in 1981).

The video, which appears to be taken from the Israeli-occupied side shows a group of hundreds or perhaps thousands of marchers carrying Palestinian flags heading toward the boundary fence. Spectators on the Israeli-occupied side – apparently worried about the safety of the marchers – call on them to go back because of the danger of land mines.

However, undeterred the marchers continue, and break through the border fence as people on both sides call for the liberation of Palestine. As the marchers break through there scenes of joy, high emotion and embraces with those on the Israeli-occupied side. One man is heard to say, “This is how liberation is.




http://electronicintifada.net/node/9955

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Operation Phantasmagoria I: Israel’s New Shadow War On Palestine

Zionism is waging
a new war to deepen
its military domination
over the MENA region.
by Jonathan Azaziah

Prelude: This is the first of a 7-part series dealing with the recent oddities that have occurred throughout occupied Palestine and the Arab/Muslim world as a whole. These oddities are not rooted in randomness. They are carefully staged events that will have a catastrophic effect not only on Palestine itself, but the entire region. And so it begins...

As your everyday existence commences as it always does, you swear on all that you know that this existence is real. You swear that it feels real. Looks real. Tastes real. Smells real. You swear that everything that is embedded in your memory bank is rooted in fact and everything that unfolds around you on a political, financial and spiritual level is as exactly as you are told it is.

There is one simple discrepancy with what you have sworn upon; with your existence. It is not, in any sense of the word, classically or metaphorically, real. The appearance, the taste, the smell and the touch are all false. The facts are lies. And your reality is actually a well-structured fantasy centered around emotive occurrences based on reactionary paradigms, anomalous theories that leave gaping holes in the entirety of “oppressed versus oppressor” history and good, old-fashioned nonsensical tripe constantly bombarding your psyche through the Western cultural intelligence-killing apparatus known as mass media, specifically the television. Your existence is solely comprised of phantasmagoria.

A never-ending dream state, where imaginary images birthed from gross delusion flourish. The flourishing increases substantially as the delusions enter deeper realms of the perverse and the insane. The phantasmagoria that has engulfed you is the norm for a political climate where truths are burned, dissent is murdered and free-thinking is suppressed. And there is nothing more phantasmagoric than the global aura surrounding the usurping, supremacist, terrorist entity known as Israel, which claims to be the Middle East’s “only democracy,” a phrase that in and of itself is phantasmagoric.

To the majority of the world’s population, the Palestinian Nakba is a myth, as are all of the subsequent massacres that followed, the genocides in Lebanon (2006) and Gaza (2008-09) never happened, Zionist involvement in the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya is a baseless, conspiratorial amalgam of gobbledegook, the occupations of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria are justified, Israel’s false flag operations are nothing but anti-Semitic delusions and any questioning of the historical events taking place before, during or after World War II, the “Holocaust” in particular, is a hate crime and the questioner should be subject to imprisonment. Welcome to the world that you swore was a reality.

Due to the very essence that Israel has shrouded the globe with, it has mastered every degree of phantasmagoria and its utterly devastating manipulative capabilities. It is now engaging in what can be considered a psychological warfare adventure of mammoth proportions, “Operation Phantasmagoria,” in response to the shift in global opinion as of recent after multiple blood-drenched crimes committed by the Zionist entity with a lack of remorse coupled with the utmost arrogance.

War criminal Ehud Barak
called for a "new initiative"
to repair Israel's "tarnished"
global image.
Phantasmagoria’s Beginnings

Ehud Barak himself, Israel’s former prime minister, current defense minister, war criminal, mass murderer and key asset to the false flag attack on 9/11 has admitted that the Zionist entity needs a “daring and assertive political initiative” to free it from international isolation. This proposal was announced at the “Forum of 7,” a high-level meeting within the Israeli government between senior ministers and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting was held just two weeks after the murderous attack on the Freedom Flotilla that left 9 unarmed solidarity activists dead and over 50 others badly wounded. The initiative’s intent was to “prevent phenomena like the flotillas to the Gaza Strip and international investigations (1);” essentially, it is yet another “mask of Zion” that Israel will wear to hide its hideous face and criminal nature from the world.

What the Zionist Defense Minister means however, isn’t an end to Israel’s everyday affairs of international terrorism, country-to-country subversion and its obligatory oppression of the Palestinian people, but a change in approach. Reforms to the methodology that Zionism has operated with since the genocidal apartheid state of Israel was created in 1948 on the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians and the brutal colonization of Palestine. Better, more efficient ways of covering up its mayhem. Before continuing with this theme, some key facts need to be illuminated:
           
Solidarity Activist
Brian Avery:
shot in the face
by IOF.
Iain John Hook: shot by an IOF sniper in occupied Jenin in November 2002; IOF denied an ambulance entry into Jenin to take Hook to the hospital and treat his wounds, and Hook later died from the gunshots (2). Rachel Corrie: crushed to death by an IOF bulldozer in illegally besieged Gaza in March 2003 for trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being demolished by the aforesaid bulldozer (3). Brian Avery: shot in the face by IOF in occupied Jenin in April 2003 and permanently disfigured for trying to escort Palestinian medical personnel across the street (4). Thomas Hurndall: shot in the head by IOF in besieged Gaza in April 2003, just days after Avery was disfigured, for peacefully protesting against IOF’s tank raids in the Strip; Hurndall died of brain damage 9 months later (5).

13-year old
Iman al-Hams:
brutally murdered
by IOF.
Iman Darwish al-Hams: shot 17 times by IOF, including several bullets fired into her as her body lay on the ground bleeding to death, in Rafah, southern Gaza in October 2004 for absolutely no reason; Iman was 13 years old (6). Lebanon, summer 2006: over 1,300 Lebanese men, women and children slaughtered by the Zionist entity with cluster bombs, white phosphorus and depleted uranium under the guise of combating “terrorism (7).” Occupied Gaza, December 2008-January 2009: at least 1,440 Palestinian civilians, including 431 children and 114 women, slaughtered by the Zionist entity with white phosphorus, depleted uranium and other internationally banned chemical weapons under the guise of combating “terrorism (8).”

Tristan Anderson: shot in the head by IOF with a high-velocity tear gas canister at a peaceful protest in Ni’lin in March 2009; he sustained heavy brain damage from the attack and remains in critical condition to this day (9). Bassem Abu Rahmah: murdered by IOF at a peaceful protest in Bil’in in April 2009 with a projectile known as “the rocket (10).”  Jawaher Abu Rahmah: suffocated to death by Israeli tear gas after occupation soldiers fired upon another peaceful protest in occupied Bil’in in January 2010; Jawaher was the sister of Bassem (11).

Activist Emily
Henochowicz
lost her eye
after being shot
in the face by
Israeli forces.
Emily Henochowicz: shot in the face by IOF with a tear gas canister at a peaceful protest in the Qalandiya refugee camp in May 2010; she lost her left eye (12). The aforementioned Freedom Flotilla: 9 unarmed peace activists brutally gunned down by Zionist commandoes descending on the humanitarian ship from the sky as they made their way to illegally besieged Gaza to deliver food, medical supplies, construction materials and children’s toys, on the same day Emily was shot; the activists were shot at close range, in the back and in one instance, upwards of 30 times (13).

There are two common denominators with all of the martyrs named: A) they were peaceful and unarmed internationals or civilians; and B) the Zionist entity’s face can be seen laughing and smiling at each and every murder; the Zionist fingerprints can be seen all over each crime scene, immersed in innocent blood. Not even the world’s leading mass murder organization, the Israeli intelligence agency known as Mossad, an outfit known for its secrecy could spare itself from engaging in the gleeful “Wild West” style murder spree that Israel was engaging in. Just 2 weeks after the disgraceful murder of Jawaher Abu Rahmah, Mossad blatantly carried out the illegal assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai (14). Mabhouh was at the top of the Mossad’s hitlist (15).

The rivers of blood spilled by the usurping Zionist entity since the murder of UNRWA project manager Iain Hook in 2002, coupled with the major victories of the BDS movement in recent weeks over Zionist companies Ahava and Veolia (16), have exposed the hideousness of Zionism to the world like never before. It is for this reason, that Operation Phantasmagoria was initiated by the upper echelons of Zion’s leadership. And now, a return to the original point. Israel desires to continue spilling the blood of its enemies (those who long for peace, truth, equality and justice), but it wants to do so from the shadows, as it did prior to the newly adopted and arrogant openness. From the occupied West Bank, to occupied al-Quds, to besieged Gaza, to the very borders of the Arab World itself, a shadow war has begun.

The Fogel family:
Murdered on
March 11, 2011;
Israel is the
prime suspect.
Shadow War Phase I: The Itamar Killings

On March 11, 2011, the Israeli Fogel family was brutally murdered in the illegal Zionist settlement of Itamar. 3 of the 5 members of the family killed were children, ages 3 months, 3 years old and 11 years old. Almost immediately, the Zionist media sunk its teeth into the poisonous hasbara that the killings were a “Palestinian militant operation (17).”

As expected, there wasn’t a single drop of evidence to support such a despicable assertion, but nonetheless, the hasbara continued uninterrupted. Apart from the sheer lack of evidence, the idea that Palestinians entered Itamar and murdered children is ridiculous, laughable and frankly, a display of idiocy that supercedes all previously-set standards.

Itamar is built like a prison; heavily armored with 8-foot high electric fences and an additional two feet of razor wire on top, motion sensors that immediately detect any sort of movement which even gets near the settlement (that is isolated from Palestinian communities by hundreds of meters of “buffer land” that Palestinians can’t set foot on), a plethora of cameras from pillar to post, private Zionist security agents and of course, the quintessential Israeli military presence throughout. Not to mention, every settler in Itamar is armed to the teeth with occupation-provided weaponry (18). It is not only of the highest unlikelihood that Palestinians carried out this crime, it is impossible.

A closer look at the
illegal Zionist settlement
of Itamar.
Despite all logic and sanity pointing to something more malevolent behind the killing of the Fogel family, Zionism has never functioned in the framework of the logical or the sane. Instead, Israeli occupation forces, Aman and Shin Bet conducted an “investigation” for more than a month before apprehending two Palestinian teenagers from the nearby West Bank village of Awarta for murdering the illegal settlers and declaring the case closed after the teenagers issued confessions. There are two elephantine problems with this hasbara-bathed narrative: Firstly, the Palestinian teenagers were tortured into delivering the confessions by Shin Bet (19).

This is by no means something of newness; it is by no means aberrant. Shin Bet tortures innocents across occupied Palestine regularly. Israel’s internal security service has electrocuted Palestinian children to extract false confessions (20). It places urine-soaked sacks over the heads of detainees while blasting loud music right next to their ears for hours and days on end (21). Shin Bet also uses feces-soaked sacks, threats of sexual violence and has gone as far as using rape itself to abuse the innocents that it has unlawfully taken into custody (22). Shin Bet has created its own system of torture, and it has given this system a name: ‘Shabeh,’ a combination of torturous methods that induce massively high levels of mental stress and continuous, excruciating physical pain. Shabeh is banned under international law (23). Not that the Zionist entity and its inhumane wings of murder and torture have ever cared for international law before.

Secondly, one of the Palestinian teenagers, 19-year old Hakim al-Awwad, couldn’t have carried out the killings on the illegal settlement of Itamar because on the night in question, he was at his home in the occupied West Bank village of Awarta still recovering from a testicular surgery he went through in November 2010. Hakim can barely walk and has to use the bathroom every hour (24). One would think after 63 years of illegitimacy and propaganda perpetually spewed to cover up that illegitimacy, Israel would find new ways to lie, but it is still as pathetic as ever. Hakim al-Awwad, and 6 other members of his family, have had their lives destroyed forever by this unconscionably vicious lie.

The beautiful and ancient
Palestinian village of Awarta.
Only 10% of it remains.
Awarta: The Death Of A Palestinian Village

The arrest of Hakim and Amjad al-Awwad have nothing to do with solving the Itamar killings and everything to do with the ongoing expansionist project known as ‘Greater Israel.’ The arrest of these two young men and the subsequent torture that they endured at the hands of Shin Bet is the story that the Zionist media would feed to the world as it bulldozed and ethnically cleansed its way to another conquest of Palestinian land. The target of this conquest: Awarta. From the very moment that the events at Itamar unfolded in the international media, war criminal and butcher of Gaza Benjamin Netanyahu made it very clear that the Zionist entity would build 400-500 new settlement units in the memory of the Fogel family (25).

Also from the moment that the events at Itamar unfolded, Awarta was placed under siege by IOF. Immediate after the killings, the brutal Israeli occupiers designated Awarta a closed military zone and established a harsh curfew over the Palestinian residents. Nobody was allowed out and no supplies were allowed in, like a miniature Gaza. Detentions became habitual and settlers were allowed free reign to wreak havoc on the people, destroying property and confiscating dozens of dunums of land (26). Homes were barbarically searched by IOF, day in and day out, and the detentions escalated to kidnapings in the middle of the night (27).

6-year old Halaa
al-Awwad: An
Awarta resident
assaulted by Zionist
occupiers.
After a month of being under siege, it was clear that the Zionist entity’s intention was nothing less than the total destruction of Awarta (28). IOF increased its brutality by raiding farms, mosques, clinics, detaining the elderly, the oldest of which were 80-year old Palestinian women, and beating and arresting entire families (29). The youngest girl arrested was 14-year old Julia Mazen al-Awwad, who was kidnaped in the middle of the night, and the youngest Palestinian wounded was 6-year old Halaa al-Awwad, who was beaten and kicked by IOF soldiers after they raided her family’s home and kidnaped her older brothers (30). By the 33rd day of the siege, every resident of Awarta, a 4,000 acre village where 2,400 acres of it are lush, fertile and used for farming (hence why Zionism desires it so vehemently), had been illegally detained and IOF had taken their fingerprints, DNA samples or both. Women and children included (31).

As of this moment, multiple settlement outposts have been constructed in Awarta and the Zionist entity’s bulldozers have become a permanent fixture in the dismantled Palestinian village. As of this moment, 90% of ancient Awarta has been confiscated by Zionist extremists under the protection of Israeli “Defense” Forces (32). Right before the eyes of the hypocritical entity known as the “international community,” another Palestinian village has been decimated. As the 63rd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba approaches, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues; the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) itself, continues. The only difference between 1948 and 2011 is the pretext that the Zionist entity invoked to carry out its genocidal policies against the indigenous people of Palestine.

Forces from within
the Zionist entity,
whether IOF, Shin Bet,
Aman or Mossad,
are the most likely
culprits behind
the Itamar killings.
Itamar: Who Did It?

These revelations, which demolish the Zionist propaganda cloud that has hovered over the Itamar incident since March 11th, most certainly exonerate the Palestinians of Awarta from any wrongdoing. With the exoneration of Awarta’s Palestinians intact, the question remains: who carried out the killings? There are only two possible explanations, and each explanation exists in the realm of strong possibility.

There has already been a suspect detained, and this suspect serves as possible culprit number one. Israeli occupation forces detained a Thai man who lived in the illegal Itamar settlement and worked for the Fogel family. Udi Fogel, the family patriarch, refused to pay the Thai worker his salary of 10,000 shekels, and according to IOF, the Thai man who was in desperate need of the monies owed to him carried out the killings in revenge (33).

The illegal Itamar settlement was founded in 1984 by the Amana Settlement Movement, a wing of the racist, radical and militant Zionist organization known as Gush Emunim (34). Gush Emunim was founded by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the founder of “Religious Zionism.” Abraham Kook was a known Kabbalist and Talmudist, and is considered to be one of the most influential rabbis of the 20th century. He passed on the xenophobic traditions of the Talmud and Kabbalah to his son, who used them to organize Zionist militias throughout the occupied West Bank under the name of Gush Emunim to defend “the land given to them by God.”


Zvi Yehuda Kook:
the leader of Gush Emunim,
the Zionist 
organzation
that founded Itamar.
Because of the fundamentalism of Yehuda Kook, Talmudic teachings play a major role in what could be surmised to have taken place on the Itamar settlement. According to Talmudic Law, specifically in the books of Sanhedrin and Baba Kamma, it is explicit in its specification that, “Regarding a Jew stealing from goyim (non-Jews, cattle), the act is permitted,” and, “Jews may use lies to circumvent a gentile (35).” Stealing from non-Jews, according to the highest authorities of the rabbinate within occupied Palestine, is encouraged, especially when violence is employed with the act of robbing (36). Due to the extremist ideology in which Udi Fogel believed in, it is entirely plausible that he stole from this Thai man who worked for him, as he views this Thai man as nothing more than cattle, and in anger, the Thai man responded in anger with murder. Though this scenario is plausible, another still suspect remains: the Zionist entity’s forces.

Due to the access that IOF had to the settlement because of its heavy security presence inside and around the perimeter, as well as the benefits that the usurping Israeli regime has acquired since March 11th, mainly the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Awarta, which has supreme religious significance to the Talmudic fanatics which govern the occupation (37), the most likely suspect of all behind the Itamar killings is Israel. And for anyone who will reject this supposition as pure ‘anti-Semitic’ conspiratorial vitriol is ignoring the overwhelming historical evidence glaring at them in the face. Zionists have absolutely no problem with murdering innocent Jews to further their hegemonic agenda.

Israel’s Mossad sunk a ship called the ‘Egoz’ full of Moroccan Jewish children, murdering all on board and conducted a covert bombing campaign across the Jewish communities of Iraq during the early days of the Zionist entity’s bastardized creation, murdering hundreds, all for the sake of bringing the Arab Jews to occupied Palestine as slave labor (38). Zionist intelligence operatives and military units kidnaped Yemenite Jewish children and delivered them to the Ashkenazi elite within the ethnically cleansed areas of occupied Palestine so they could serve the wealthy Khazarians as servants. The Yemenite Jewish children who weren’t wanted by the elites were sold as commodities to Zionist adoption agencies in the United States, and those children who could not be sold for a Zionist profit were killed and buried in unmarked graves (39).

During the World War II era, the Zionists were frequent collaborators with the Nazis and signed the infamous Haavara Agreement to facilitate Ashkenazi immigration to historic Palestine (40). Unbeknownst to most supporters of the Zionist state and its multiple propaganda apparatuses, the Nazi regime was heavily funded by the devastatingly powerful Warburg family, the Zionist banking clan who had a large village in ethnically cleansed Palestine named after them (41). The Zionist leadership in New York and London ignored the calls of top European rabbinical official Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, who sought their help in rescuing Slovakian Jews from being deported to the Nazis’ work camps. Those Slovakian Jews would die of starvation (42). And most recently, Mossad, in collusion with Hindutvadi India’s RAW and the CIA, its most notorious allies, murdered a Zionist rabbi and his wife in Mumbai during its false flag operation on 26/11 (43).

Palestinian children
barbarously slaughtered
by the Zionist
regime during
Operation Cast Lead.
Conclusion

The Zionist entity cares not for innocent life; it cares not even for those who blindly support its tyranny, its genocides, its ethnic cleansing, its occupation and its regional ambitions. It cares only for the expansion of its “chosen” empire and it will eliminate anyone or anything standing in its way and spill the blood of any individual or group that will benefit its dreams of conquest.

The murder of the 3 Jewish children of the Fogel family is a terrible crime, no mistake can be made about it. But perspective is compulsory. The Fogel family were illegal extremist settlers. Their very existence was based on the dispossession of Palestinian land, the purging of a Palestinian family, the Zionist occupation of Palestine, all crimes against humanity. They did not belong on that land as the land does not belong to them. If the Thai worker did in fact murder this family, it is their own fault because of their extremist religious beliefs; their children are victims of their extremist religious beliefs. If they were murdered by IOF as an Israeli pretext to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Awarta, which is the more likely scenario, they are victims of their Zionist ideology as are their children. The children of course, are innocent. The parents are not.

And while the international community spoke out against the murder of the Fogel children, not one word was uttered, or is ever uttered, by this community of hypocrites, warmongers, mass murderers, criminals, stooges and puppets about the Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghan, Somali, Pakistani, Libyan, Bahraini and Yemeni children that are murdered every single day by the Zionist entity and its bloodthirsty American, British, French and Saudi proxies. Since the year 2000 alone, 1,463 Palestinian children have been mercilessly slaughtered by the Zionist entity (44).

At the very core of the Itamar false flag however, there is something far more sinister than the murder of this family and even more sinister than the military crackdown and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Awarta. The Itamar false flag was the first phase of an intelligence operation that is remapping the entire Middle East. Arabs beware. Solidarity activists beware. Zionism’s Operation Phantasmagoria is in full effect.

~ End Of Part I ~

Next: The ‘bus stop’ bombing in occupied al-Quds and fresh Zionist aggression in Gaza.

Sources:

(1) Barak: Israel Needs “Daring Initiative” To Thwart International Isolation by Barak Ravid, Haaretz

(2) Israel’s Killing Of British Citizen Iain Hook, UNRWA's Project Manager In Jenin by Caoimhe Butterly and Annie Higgins, The Electronic Intifada

(3) Photostory: Israeli Bulldozer Driver Murders American Peace Activist by Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada

(4) One Year After The Shooting Of Brian Avery by Lasse S., International Solidarity Movement/If Americans Knew

(5) British Peace Activist Was “Intentionally Killed” by Simon Atkinson, The Guardian

(6) Not Guilty. The Israeli Captain Who Emptied His Rifle Into A Palestinian Schoolgirl by Chris McGreal, The Guardian

(7)  Mystery Of Israel’s Secret Uranium Bomb by Robert Fisk, The Independent

(8) Israel To Limit Use Of White Phosphorus In Conflicts by Ed Payne, CNN; Depleted Uranium Found In Gaza Victims by Haitham Sabbah, Sabbah Report

(9) Ni’lin Demonstration In Solidarity With Tristan Anderson And Rachel Corrie 18.03.2011 by Occupied Palestine

(10) Remembering Bassem Abu Rahma, Murdered At Demonstration In Bil’in, Palestine, Last Week by Frank Barat, The Comment Factory

(11) Nonviolent Protester Killed After Being Asphyxiated By Tear Gas In Bil’in by Ane Irazabal, IMEMC News

(12) Blinding The Witnesses by Naomi Klein, The Huffington Post

(13) Flotilla Activists ‘Shot 30 Times’ by Al Jazeera English

(14) Mossad’s License To Kill by Gordon Thomas, The Telegraph

(15) Report: Al-Mabhouh Was At The Top Of Mossad’s Hit List by Ynet

(16) Another BDS Victory As Veolia Dumped From Possible Billion Pound Tender by Tania Kepler, Alternative Information Center; BDS Victory Against Ahava In UK by Anna Stevens, International Solidarity Movement

(17) Five Members Of Jewish Family Killed In Suspected Palestinian Militant Attack by Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian

(18) Itamar Killers Found? by Mohammad, KABOBfest

(19) Itamar Murder Suspects ‘Confessed Under Torture’ by Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post

(20) Israeli Shin Bet Electrocuted Child Prisoners To Extract Confessions by Middle East Monitor

(21) World: Middle East - Israeli ‘Torture’ Methods Illegal by BBC News

(22) The Israeli Torture Template: Rape, Feces And Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks by Wayne Madsen, Counter Punch

(23) Israel: Persecuting Ameer Makhoul by Jonathan Cook, Monthly Review

(24) Family Of Awarta Teen Deny Allegations by Ma’an News Agency

(25) US Raps Israel For Settlement Approval After Itamar Murders by Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post

(26) Violations Continue In Awarta by Palestine Monitor

(27) IOF Troops Raid Awarta, Round Up Dozens by The Palestinian Information Center

(28) Israel Moves To Destroy West Bank Town by Press TV

(29) Elderly Woman Arrested As Awarta Arrests Continue by The Palestinian Information Center

(30) 14-Year Old Girl Taken In The Latest Wave Of Awarta Arrests by International Solidarity Movement

(31) Israel Arrests Awarta Village by Jameil Dababat, Palestine News Network

(32) Settlers Set Up A New Settlement Post Near Awarta by The Palestinian Information Center

(33) ‘Itamar Killings Carried Out By Foreign Worker’ by Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post

(34) English: Settlements - Itamar by Amana Settlement Movement

(35) The Truth About The Talmud: Judaism’s Holiest Book by Michael Hoffman

(36) Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight Of Three Thousand Years by Israel Shahak

(37) About Our Towns: Itamar by The Shomron Liaison Office

(38) Ben-Gurion’s Scandals: How The Haganah And The Mossad Eliminated Jews by Naeim Giladi

(39) The Missing Yemenite Children by Doron A. Tal

(40) 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With The Nazis by Lenni Brenner

(41) The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey Of A Remarkable Jewish Family by Ron Chernow

(42) Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl by Siegmund Forst, Tzemach Dovid

(43) 26/11: Mossad Terrorizes Mumbai by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(44) Children Remembered by Remember These Children 
 
http://www.maskofzion.com/