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Hermit
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Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« on: 2008-02-28 00:05:47 » |
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UN expert: Palestinian terror 'inevitable' result of occupation
[ Hermit: This should be seen in context of Ha'Aretz "the conflict in the past month killed 45 Palestinians and injured 139 others while one Israeli was killed and 27 injured during the same period." or kill and injury ratios of 45:1 and 139:27 (5:1) - while the Palestine is being held under a state of totally illegal siege in a way which makes the Nazi German occupation of Europe - or the Apartheid government of South Africa - look not just civilized but caring. ]
Source: Associated Press
Authors: Not Credited
Dated: 2008-02-26
A report commissioned by the United Nations suggests that Palestinian terrorism is the inevitable consequence of Israeli occupation and laws that resemble South African apartheid - a claim Israel rejected Tuesday as enflaming hatred between Jews and Palestinians.
The report by John Dugard, independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the UN Human Rights Council, will be presented next month, but it has been posted on the body's Web site.
In it, Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s, says "common sense ... dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by Al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation."
"While Palestinian terrorist acts are to be deplored, they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation," writes Dugard, whose 25-page report accuses the Israel of acts and policies consistent with all three.
He cited checkpoints and roadblocks restricting Palestinian movement to house demolitions and what he terms the Judaization of Jerusalem.
"As long as there is occupation, there will be terrorism," he argues.
"Acts of terror against military occupation must be seen in historical context," Dugard says. "This is why every effort should be made to bring the occupation to a speedy end. Until this is done, peace cannot be expected, and violence will continue."
Israel's UN ambassador in Geneva slammed Dugard's analysis.
"The common link between Al-Qaida and the Palestinian terrorists is that both intentionally target civilians with the mere purpose to kill," Itzhak Levanon said. "The fact that Professor Dugard is ignoring this essential fact, demonstrates his inability to use objectivity in his assessment."
"Professor Dugard will better serve the cause of peace by ceasing to enflame the hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, who have embarked on serious talks to solve this contentious situation."
Dugard was appointed in 2001 as an unpaid expert by the now-defunct UN Human Rights Commission to investigate only violations by the Israeli side, prompting Israel and the U.S. to dismiss his reports as one-sided. Israel refused to allow him to conduct a UN-mandated fact-finding mission on its Gaza offensive in 2006.
The report will be presented next month at the 47-nation rights council's first regular session of the year. The new body has been widely criticized - even by its founder, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - for spending most of its time criticizing one government, Israel's, over alleged abuses.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #1 on: 2008-02-28 00:13:15 » |
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Jimmy Carter: Israel's 'apartheid' policies worse than South Africa's
[ Hermit : An historic note, it has been said before. And this was long before the genocide in the Palestine moved into the latest "open air prison/target zone" policy adopted by Israel. ]
Source: [url=]Haaretz Service[/url]
Authors: Not Credited
Dated: 2006-11-12
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said in remarks broadcast Monday that Israeli policy in the West Bank represented instances of apartheid worse even that those that once held sway in South Africa.
Carter's comments were broadcast on Israel Radio, which played a tape of an interview with the ex-president, but did not specify to whom Carter was speaking. But has made similar remarks in recent interviews, such as one to CBC television.
"When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa."
Carter said his new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" was meant to spark U.S. discussion of Israeli policies. "The hope is that my book will at least stimulate a debate, which has not existed in this country. There's never been any debate on this issue, of any significance."
The book has sparked strong criticism from Jewish figures in the United States. Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, has said that some comments from the former president border on anti-Semitism.
"When you think about the charge that he has made that the Jewish people control the means of communication, it is odious," Foxman was quoted as saying last week. "If the Jews controlled the media, how come he is traveling around the country speaking about this book on talk shows?"
Carter has rejected the criticism of the book and its use of the word apartheid.
"I feel completely at ease," said Carter, about his commitment to the book, which accuses Israel of oppressing Palestinians. "I am not running for office. And I have Secret Service protection."
"The greatest commitment in my life has been trying to bring peace to Israel," Carter told the Atlanta Press Club last week.
"Israel will never have peace until they agree to withdraw [from the territories].
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #2 on: 2008-02-28 00:20:46 » |
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UN rights council slams Israel's 'grave violations' in Gaza Strip
Source: Reuters
Authors: Not Credited
Dated: 2008-01-24
The United Nations Human Rights Council said Thursday it deplored the "grave violations" being committed by Israel in Gaza, and demanded that the week-long siege of the Strip be lifted.
The 47-member council adopted a resolution presented by Arab and Muslim states by a vote of 30 states in favor and one against with 15 abstentions. One delegation was absent.
Delegations from the United States and Israel, which both have observer status at the Council, boycotted the two-day session, diplomats said.
The U.S. and Israel termed the discussion one-sided, due to the fact that it completely ignored the ongoing Qassam rocket barrages fired indiscriminately by Gaza militants at Israeli civilian communities.
Israel's envoy Itzhak Levanon dismissed the criticism as the latest in a "long history of vitriolic attacks" on his country.
"The main challenge Israel faces is to defend itself from terrorist organisations that use populated areas for cover in order to launch rockets and mortars into Israel," he said in a statement. Israel did "everything possible" to spare civilians.
Most of those abstaining from the vote were Western states, including France, Germany and Britain. UN Security Council members China and Russia supported the resolution, and Canada was the lone vote against it.
It was the third time that the Geneva forum, set up in June 2006, rebuked Israel at a special emergency session called to address conditions in the Palestinian territories.
Mohammed Abu-Koash, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told the talks at a special emergency session called to address conditions in the Palestinian territories, that Israel's siege and raids in Gaza constituted "war crimes".
"We hope the resolution will trigger international pressure and action to lift the Israeli siege and restore supplies of food, fuel and medicine, open border crossings and end repeated Israeli military attacks throughout the occupied Palestinian territory," he said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, in a speech on Wednesday, denounced Israel's "disproportionate use of force and targeted killings" as well as Palestinian militants' firing of rockets into Israel.
Arbour, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, told the forum that international law forbids collective punishment and said Israel should lift all restrictions on aid intended for Gaza.
"All parties concerned should put an end to the vicious spiral of violence before it becomes unstoppable," she warned.
Syria's ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, speaking on behalf of Arab states and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), accused Israel of turning Gaza into a "huge prison."
"The real aim of Israel from these aggressions and crimes is to deliberately abort all Arab and international efforts to invigorate the peace process," he charged.
Egypt's envoy Sameh Shoukry, speaking for African countries, urged Arbour's office to conduct more regular visits to the Palestinian territories and report more extensively "on all violations emanating from the Israeli occupation".
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #3 on: 2008-02-28 00:33:30 » |
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Israeli, Palestinian envoys trade blame at the UN over Gaza
Source: Ha'Aretz
Authors: Shlomo Shamir[Haaretz Correspondent], Barak Ravid [Haaretz Correspondent], and News Agencies
Dated: 2008-01-22
Israeli and Palestinian envoys traded accusations of blame in the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday for the recent wave of violence in Gaza, which threatens to torpedo a fragile Middle East peace process.
Israel said it shut all Gaza border crossings last week in response to Palestinian rocket attacks. On Tuesday, Israel resumed fuel shipments to Gaza's main power plant after it shut down on Sunday, plunging much of the coastal territory into darkness.
Riyad Mansour, the permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations, told a hastily scheduled session of the Security Council the situation was "absolutely untenable."
"The Israeli policy of brinkmanship is creating a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, heightening fears and tensions, inciting, provoking and fueling the vicious and dreaded cycle of violence," he said.
Israeli envoy Gilad Cohen rejected Mansour's accusation that Israel had provoked the violence and was acting in violation of international law.
"It is the duty of all states to ensure the right to life and safety of its people, especially from vicious acts of violence and terrorism," Cohen told the council. But, he said, Israel would "ensure the humanitarian welfare" of Gaza.
The session was called after the United States thwarted a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel over the closure of the Gaza Strip.
The council instead was to issue a Presidential Statement on the matter.
According to a draft of the statement obtained by Haaretz, the Security Council will express "its deep concern about the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory."
"The Security Council also expresses concern in particular about the steep deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, due to the continued closure of all of the Gaza Strip border crossings and the recent decision by the Israeli government to reduce fuel supplies, to cut off electric power, and to prevent the delivery of food and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip," the draft says.
"The Security Council calls upon Israel to abide by its obligations under international law including humanitarian and human rights law and immediately cease all its illegal measures and practices against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip," continued the draft statement.
At the session Tuesday evening, UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, said the violence in Gaza had abated, but he warned council members that the humanitarian situation remained fragile for the territory's 1.5 million people, most of whom rely on foreign aid.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the rocket attacks against Israel had to stop and urged Israel to do everything in its power to avoid killing civilians. He made it clear that Washington held Hamas responsible for the situation in Gaza.
"If Hamas cared more about the well-being and future of Gazans than it did about its own political agenda it would put an end to the ongoing rocket attacks," he said.
British Ambassador John Sawers said Britain understood Israel's need to defend itself against the attacks but urged Jerusalem to reopen the border crossings.
"It's not acceptable that Israel should respond to these attacks by taking action that is designed to cause suffering to the civilian population of Gaza," Sawers said.
Libyan Ambassador Giadallah Ettalhi said Israel was trying to exterminate the Palestinian population in Gaza and urged the council to act.
"It must adopt urgent measures to protect the civilian population in Gaza, protect them from attempts at genocide by the occupation authority," he said.
Israel was deeply concerned by an effort by Arab states to win UN Security Council condemnation of the sanctions imposed by Jerusalem on the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Aaron Abramovich had instructed Israel's delegation at the UN headquarters in New York to oppose any Security Council on Gaza, while "emphasizing the damage and suffering caused by the incessant firing of Qassam rockets." [ Hermit: Meanwhile Israel kills 45 Palestinians for each Israeli killed, and wounds at least 5 for 1 in their ongoing siege. ]
"A situation in which the Security Council debates the plight of the residents of Gaza, while completely ignoring the situation of Israelis living under the constant threat of Qassam rockets, is totally unacceptable," Abramovich said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she had spoken to the Israeli officials and urged them to avert a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
"Nobody wants innocent Gazans to suffer and so we have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold there," Rice told reporters traveling with her to Berlin for a meeting on Iran.
Rice said ultimately Hamas was to blame for the situation in Gaza. She said the Israelis were dealing with an "intolerable" situation, with the firing of rockets and the anxiety and terror that came with that. [ Hermit: Meanwhile we see that the violence - including the fireworks displays are an attempted reaction to the ongoing brutality of Israeli apartheid, colonization, occupation and genocide in Palestine. ]
She said there needed to be creative solutions to the problem and referred to the suggestion to allow the Palestinian Authority to play a greater role at the crossings.
Jake Walles, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, said the United States backed the idea, which was floated by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, to help ease local hardship.
"Fayyad came up with this idea. We think it's a good concept," Walles told Reuters. "I know he's talked with the Israelis about it, we've had discussions with them as well. At this point what's needed is a more detailed discussion between Fayyad and the Israelis to try to come up with a concrete plan on how this will work."
Ahmadinejad calls Mubarak for first time over Gaza situation [ Hermit : Funny how everything being done in the Middle East is increasiong Iran's influence and reach. But that is blowback for you. ]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telephoned his Egyptian counterpart for the first time and discussed the situation in the Gaza strip in the latest sign of warming ties between the two long time Middle East rivals, the official Iranian News Agency reported Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak discussed the crisis in Gaza and called for the lifting of the siege on Gaza and the dispatch of fuel and medicine to the Palestinians, the Egyptian state news agency confirmed.
This was the first time Iranian president had ever spoken by phone to his Egyptian counterpart and the call comes as Iran has been pushing for improving ties between the two countries which were severed in 1979.
Tehran cut diplomatic ties after Cairo signed a peace agreement with Israel and provided asylum for the deposed Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Egypt has always maintained that normal ties with Iran would come only after Iran stopped meddling in internal affairs of Arab countries.
Iran's support for Iraqi Shiites, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian radical Hamas group has further deteriorated relations, resulting in very limited diplomatic contacts between the two countries.
Early this month, however, top level Iranian envoy Ali Larijani came to Cairo and met with Egyptian officials. His trip followed an exchange of visits by the countries' deputy foreign ministers in September and October.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly offered to restore ties, something Egypt says it is considering, while noting that full diplomatic relations could only be restored if Iran takes down a large mural of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's assassin, Khaled el-Islambouli, and change the name of a street honoring him.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Blunderov
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #4 on: 2008-03-04 02:07:46 » |
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[Blunderov] The Gaza Ghetto.
Toynbee remarked (IMS) that societies which throw off an oppressor inevitably adopt the methods of the oppressor themselves.
One might have thought that the Warsaw Ghetto (with everything that it represented) would have provided a shining exception to this rule - given the deafening levels of propaganda designed around it which have emanated from the Zionists without abate for last 60 years. The existence of Israel itself is largely predicated upon the necessity to prevent the very horror that it now practices.
Now that's what I call hypocrisy! In it's own twisted way it is quite magnificent really; all and any other hypocrisies that have or will ever occur will have to measure themselves against this impossibly high standard. It is hard to believe that it will ever be exceeded.
(All that remains to complete the picture is functioning gas chambers like the ones they have in America.)
The master director Roman Polanski made the film "The Pianist" about the Warsaw Ghetto. It should be compulsory viewing. In Israel.
The Pianist
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/03/warsaw-ghetto-and-gaza-disturbing.html
Monday, March 3, 2008
Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza: Disturbing Parallels
Click Here To Help Stop Military Aid to Israel: jewishvoiceforpeace.org
A Genocidal War On Gaza
Gaza – in the streets
UNRWA: Gaza violence 'horrific'
Seven protestors injured in Bil'in village near Ramallah
Gaza hospitals on verge of collapse
Sunday 2 March 2008 (24 Safar 1429)
Steve Hutcheson, Arab News
I saw a photo last week of a father holding his 6-month-old baby son. The father’s face was devoid of expression; the child in his arms was dead. The boy’s name was Mohammed Al-Borai; he along with several others had been killed in a blast fired indiscriminately by an Israeli cannon into the densely populated areas of Gaza.
There were more photos, one of a group of young boys holding flowers standing around the battered and bloodstained body of the baby boy. That struck me as the most poignant. I had been having a discussion about the cause of suicide bombers among Palestinians and it will be this image more than any other that will concern me more than most. In their minds the young dead boy will have more impact on their future than anything any one might tell them.
It was then that I started to contemplate perhaps more fully the plight of the Palestinians today and the parallels in the history of the Jews that led to their mass exodus from their own countries to immigrate to the land that was at the time known as Palestine.
The Warsaw Ghetto during the Jewish Holocaust holds special significance to the European Jews. It was a place of oppression and the pathway to the ultimate death of thousands of their population that has become symbolic with their struggle for recognition. Yet what they are failing to acknowledge as their descendants press forward with their own brand of Jewish and Zionist idealism is the parallel set of conditions that they are now imposing on the Arab people of Palestine.
The Nazis rounded up the Jews of Poland and quartered them in a small area of Warsaw, building a barricade around the perimeter to prevent them leaving. So too have the Israelis through conflict and force pushed many of the Arab inhabitants out of Israel into an enclave that now has a population density of 4,200 people per sq. km which is 14 times that of the surrounding area of Israel which has 360 people per sq. km.
The Nazis deprived the ghetto inhabitants of food and essential supplies. So too has the Israeli government stopped the flow of goods to the 1.4 million inhabitants of Gaza by limiting the convoys of supplies to a mere trickle.
The Nazis reduced the average calorie intake of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto to 241 calories per day. So too have the Israelis reduced the calorie intake of the Palestinians in Gaza. According to a UN report, it is presently at 61 percent of the average daily requirements.
The Nazis restricted public utilities such as water and electricity. So too has the Israeli government.
The Nazis restricted the inhabitants from adequate health care. Israelis restrict the health care in Gaza by limiting the medical supplies in or the treatment of cases that need to be done outside.
The Jewish inhabitants through the ZZB and the ZOB resisted the oppression by the Nazis albeit too late and their rebellion was brutally crushed without concern for who was in the way. So too have the Palestinians of Gaza through their own resistance organizations, in particular Hamas, rebelled against their oppressors and so too do the Israelis use all means available to crush the rebellion without concern for who is in the way or who they maim or kill in doing so.
The Nazis destroyed the structure of the ghetto leveling it to the ground in a broad quest to rout the resistance to their oppression. Israelis indiscriminately level buildings and the infrastructure in Gaza in a quest to rout out the resistance to their oppression. The Nazis assigned the Jewish people to a lesser status of all their inhabitants depriving them of their rights as citizens and even as humans. Israel assigns the refugees held in Gaza less status than is given to the Jews worldwide and deprives the Palestinians of their rights to return to their former lands.
The Nazis applied whatever was at their means to break the will of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto. Israelis do the same thing; they use whatever is at their means to break the will of the Palestinians.
The Nazis killed the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto indiscriminately. Don’t the Israelis kill indiscriminately the inhabitants in forcing their control over Gaza?
The Jews of Israel and elsewhere are quite right to protest at the inhumanity of the Nazis in their treatment of them and oblige the world not to allow the same situation to happen again. The Palestinians protest at the inhumanity of the Israeli treatment, yet in a bizarre twist of events, the world still allows the oppression to happen and continue.
It was after the Jews in the ghetto had been largely killed or transported that the world stood up and felt guilty in not acting sooner.
With the picture of Mohammed Al-Borai in my mind I question when the world will stand up and say: Enough is enough, there is not going to be a repeat of the Warsaw Ghetto and particularly when its perpetrators are those who suffered the most by its conduct.
There is a basic conflict of inhumanity occurring to the Palestinian people of Gaza that the world is deliberately ignoring. An inhumanity that was inflicted by the Nazis on the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto is now more than ever closely paralleling that which they are inflicting on the people of Gaza. They learned a hard lesson but it was not a lesson learned well. They have been given the power to practice humanity but have decided instead that they will treat the concerns of the Palestinians in the same inhumane way the Nazis treated them.
A future monument will no doubt contain photos of Mohammed Al-Borai in the arms of his father and the world will decry the injustice.
— Steve Hutcheson has worked in crisis recovery in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Indonesia for the past several years and is now based in Thailand. He can be contacted at: steve50@mail.com
Posted by CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS mparent7777 Marc Parent CCNWON at 2:36 PM
Labels: ACTION/ACTIVISM, Gaza, Israel, nazis, Palestinians, UN, videos
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #5 on: 2008-03-04 19:31:26 » |
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'Restraint' is deceitful, and 'forbearance' is vain
Source: Ha'Aretz
Authors: Gideon Levy
Dated: 2008-03-02
Even yesterday evening, after the IDF already had killed about 50 Palestinians, at least half of them unarmed, and including quite a number of women and children, Jerusalem continued to claim, "At present there will be no major ground operation." It's incredible: The IDF penetrates the heart of a crowded refugee camp, kills in a terrifyingly wholesale manner, with horrible bloodshed, and Israel continues to disseminate the lie of restraint. Two days earlier Israel killed more Palestinians than have been killed by all the Qassams over the past seven years. Among the dead were four children and an infant. The next day Israel killed another five boys. And who is the victim? Israel. And who is cruel? The Palestinians.
This victimhood is not new, nor is our self-deception. The current lie: 'restraint.' Israel is demonstrating 'restraint' in the face of the Qassams; this assertion continues to spur the commentators and security experts to urge it to embark on the anticipated 'major operation.' But this operation began long ago. It reached its peak yesterday.
Our desperate attempt to have our cake and eat it, too, to claim that there is no 'major operation' at a time when the IDF is killing dozens every day, is nothing new. It has existed since the days of the 'enlightened occupation' and 'purity of arms,' through 'the major operation that has yet to begin' - all of them impossible desires. A senior minister who was asked last week about the siege on Gaza replied: 'Occupation of Gaza is less moral.' In this way, we have once again established ourselves a relative and distorted values system, with no absolute morality, only a double standard. Behind every action of ours in Gaza, even the terrible one this weekend, hides an option that is even worse. The fact that we are not yet carrying it out helps us to present ourselves in a positive light, to boast how moral we are.
During the past two years, we have killed almost 900 Gaza residents. About half of them were people who did not take part in the fighting. That is how restraint looks. At a time when we are counting the Qassams and their victims, in Gaza they are counting the dead. Presenting things as though we have not yet entered Gaza or "beaten the hell out of Gaza" is meant to deceive. Yes, more can be done.
Imagine if the Palestinians were to kill dozens of Israelis, including women and children, in one week, as the IDF did. What an international outcry we would raise, and justifiably. Only in our own eyes can we still adhere to our restrained, forbearing image. All the talk about the 'major operation' is designed to achieve only one goal: to show it is possible to be even more violent and cruel.
That is an extremely pathetic consolation. The siege, the assassinations and the raid this weekend are terrifying enough. The claim that as opposed to them, we do not intend to kill children and citizens, is also overused and deceptive. The gun sights of Israeli weaponry are sophisticated. If the Palestinians had Apache helicopters and sophisticated drones like ours, we can assume that they would choose more strategic targets than the yard of a hospital in Ashkelon or a parking lot in Sderot. The Qassam is the weapon of the poor and helpless.
In the South, a war of attrition is taking place between the strong and the weak. It will not be stopped by military means. It is therefore surprising and depressing to see the uniform chorus of the residents of the Western Negev, city dwellers and kibbutzniks, the direct victims, in favor of the IDF's pointless fighting. How is it that in the entire South, not a single different voice can be heard, calling for a change in direction? How is it that no group of Sderot residents, yes, they of all people, is shouting in protest? Demonstrating in the city squares, not in favor of more of the same, but in favor of a different, much more promising approach? After all, they are the ones who are paying the heavy price, and they should be the first to see what the residents of the center of the country cannot see.?
The residents of Sderot, and now Ashkelon as well, have to look and see beyond the fence that is meant to protect them, and is imprisoning their neighbors. To understand that as long as things are so bad there, things will be bitter for them as well. That as long as we don't talk to them, nothing will change. They, who know that every assassination is followed by the 'Color Red' Qassam alert, fear and anxiety, who know that dozens of assassinations have not improved their lives at all, that the present raid will not help either, should be the pioneers who bring about the change we need.?
A large operation is now at its height. It has not helped at all so far; it will never help. Neither will the siege, the assassinations, the raids or the bombings. Perhaps the good will originate from the South, and someone there will call for something else?
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Fox
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #6 on: 2008-03-05 19:40:20 » |
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If Bush likes the Jews so much, then he can give them Texas. Israel is the bully of the region, constantly violating the sovereignty of its neighbours without anyone rising as much as a pointed finger at them. That is to be expected though, when you've always had Uncle Sam covering your arse, saving you from indulging in anything, like attempting to develop a reasonable relationship with the other nations in the region.
But what seems more disturbing here is that the US gives billions of dollars to Israel in 'aid' when one of their cities is the other Diamond Cutting capitol of the world. This war nobody talks about. Iit disturbed me more than the rioting in the Caribbean's that almost nobody was willing to talk about, which is why I rely a lot more on the BBC for impartial world news these days.
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I've never expected a miracle. I will get things done myself. - Gatsu
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #7 on: 2008-03-06 14:08:37 » |
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Gaza: Humanitarian situation worst since 1967
[ Hermit : Bearing in mind that 1967 was the year that Israel launched a bloody 'preemptive' (aka Illegal) war against its neighbors. A war whose illegality the US recognized at the time, and supported a UN Security Council demand for Israel to yield the territory it occupied by force. As Israel has done hundreds of times before and after, it ignored these security council demands. Strangely Israel has not yet been subjected to sanctions for this still outstanding infraction, nor for its military nuclear, chemical and biological programs, nor even for its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. ]
Source: Amnesty International (UK)
Authors: Not Credited
Dated: 2008-03-06
Refer Also: Full Report (PDF)
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is worse now than it's been at any time since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, according to a new report published today (6 March) by a coalition of leading humanitarian and human rights organisations. The weekend's upsurge in violence and human misery underlines the urgency of this report.
In their new joint report, the coalition - comprising Amnesty International, CARE International UK, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Médecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save The Children UK and Trócaire - warns that Israel's blockade of Gaza is a collective punishment of the entire Gazan civilian population of 1.5 million. The report concludes that the Israeli government's policy of blockade is unacceptable, illegal and fails to deliver security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Geoffrey Dennis, Chief Executive of CARE International UK said:
'The recent escalation in violence, both from rocket attacks and military strikes, will make life even more unbearable in Gaza. Unemployment has soared and 80% of people in Gaza are now dependent on food aid compared to 63% in 2006. Water and sewage infrastructure is on the point of total collapse. Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster and any hopes for peace in the region will be dashed.'
According to the report, the blockade of Gaza has dramatically worsened levels of poverty and unemployment and has led to deterioration in education and health services. Over 1.1 million people are now dependent on food aid and of 110,000 workers previously employed in the private sector, 75,000 workers have now lost their jobs.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:
'Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens, but as the occupying power in Gaza it also has a legal duty to ensure that Gazans have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care. Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible. The current situation is man-made and must be reversed.'
The coalition's 16 page report, 'The Gaza Strip: A humanitarian implosion', urges the UK government and EU to press for a new strategy for Gaza. In particular, the report calls on the UK government to:- Exert greater pressure on the Israeli government to open the crossings into Gaza and stop fuel and electricity cuts in order to stem the worsening humanitarian crisis.
- Help facilitate a process of Palestinian reconciliation that can lead to a credible and effective peace process with Israel.
- Abandon the failed policy of non-engagement and begin negotiations with all Palestinian parties, including Hamas.
The report calls on the Israeli Government and Palestinian armed groups to immediately cease all attacks against civilians. All unlawful attacks must stop: the Government of Israel should put an immediate end to disproportionate attacks in Gaza and Palestinian armed groups should immediately stop indiscriminate rocket attacks into southern Israel.
Christian Aid's Director, Daleep Mukarji, said:
'The UK government should acknowledge that a new strategy is needed for Gaza. The current policy does not secure vital security for Israeli citizens, and even if it did the blockade policy would still be unacceptable and illegal. Humanitarian aid can help stave off total collapse but it will not provide a long-term solution. Gaza cannot become a partner for peace unless Israel, Fatah and the Quartet engage with Hamas and give the people of Gaza a future.'
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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letheomaniac
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #8 on: 2008-03-11 07:31:07 » |
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Quote:Israel's UN ambassador in Geneva slammed Dugard's analysis.
"The common link between Al-Qaida and the Palestinian terrorists is that both intentionally target civilians with the mere purpose to kill," Itzhak Levanon said. "The fact that Professor Dugard is ignoring this essential fact, demonstrates his inability to use objectivity in his assessment."
"Professor Dugard will better serve the cause of peace by ceasing to enflame the hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, who have embarked on serious talks to solve this contentious situation." |
[letheomaniac] I find it interesting that the Israelis deny pursuing Apartheid-style policies on the one hand and then use the other hand to construct the Berlin Wall v2.0. 'Apartheid' literally means 'separation' - is a huge wall separating the occupied territories from Israel not evidence of Apartheid? I also find it rather amusing that they dismiss the opinion of a South African who, by the simple fact of his origin, could be regarded as an expert on Apartheid, having in all likelihood lived under that system himself. I agree with Hermit - the situation in Palestine is much worse than Apartheid because to my knowledge the Apartheid government didn't conduct bombing raids against the black citizens of South Africa, nor did it transform parts of the country into concentration camps. Down with the Zionist war-pigs!
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #9 on: 2008-03-11 21:44:52 » |
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Like the Israelis and the Americans, South Africa knew exactly what missiles, and bombs would do to soft targets. I would suggest that one of the fundamental differences between Apartheid South Africa and the Israelis and Americans of today lies only in that knowing before deployment precisely what the result would be, the South Africans never used them like that - and that this same knowledge is also precisely why the Americans and Israelis do use them like that.
For another difference, In apartheid South Africa there was a senior South African officer who was tasked to secure egress from some black dormitory suburbs in the event of general rioting. He interpreted his responsibility to mean pouring concrete mortar bases in order to set up fixed mortar batteries to deliver barrages over the houses. When this was learned in Pretoria, the officer in question was arrested and confined in an asylum as a State President's patient on the same day. The mortar bases were placed behind a camera free perimeter line and bulldozed, also on the same day, to ensure that the story could not be confirmed, even had it leaked. I suspect that in Iraq, an equivalent activity would get the officer a commendation for initiative and nobody would ever report it even if they were used, while in Israel they would explain that the pin point targeting capability would serve to protect "innocent civilians", even after adopting a standard policy of testing mortar batteries with live rounds on alternative Tuesdays to be sure that if anyone ever set off a rocket that the mortars would be ready to respond*.
The more I see of the rest of the world, the more I recognize that all those years fighting apartheid were wasted. Vorster and Botha's governments were positively beneficent in comparison to what the USA and Israel are perpetrating today. Very depressing.
Kind Regards
Hermit
* From a highly readable and insightful story by Uri Averny - an Israeli who understands the predominant mindset there:
I was reminded this week of the old tale about a Jewish mother taking leave of her son, who has been called up to serve in the czar's army against the Turks.
"Don't exert yourself too much," she admonishes him, "Kill a Turk and rest. Kill another Turk and rest again…"
"But mother," he exclaims, "what if the Turk kills me?"
"Kills you?" she cries out. "Why? What have you done to him?"
This is not a joke (and this is not a week for jokes). It is a lesson in psychology. I was reminded of it when I read Ehud Olmert's statement that more than anything else he was furious about the outburst of joy in Gaza after the attack in Jerusalem, in which eight yeshiva students were killed.
Before that, last weekend, the Israeli army killed 120 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them civilians, among them dozens of children. That was not "kill a Turk and rest." That was "kill a hundred Turks and rest." But Olmert does not understand.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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letheomaniac
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #10 on: 2008-03-14 06:06:18 » |
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[letheomaniac] Thanks for the link Hermit, it was indeed illuminating.  Sadly, the genocide continues unabated in Palestine, regardless of how the general Israeli public may feel about it, although i can now appreciate that the Israelis have the same problem with their government that most of the rest of us in so-called democratic countries have, namely that those in power do what the hell they please without any regard for what the people who 'elected' them may think. Democracy, the greatest con ever pulled...
Thousands of Palestinian orphans protest Israeli army looting of their food
By News Bulletin
Mar 13, 2008, 10:44
Thousands of Palestinian orphans on Tuesday took to the streets in this southern West Bank town to protest recent raids by the Israeli occupation army of their orphanages and boarding schools.
Hundreds of Israeli troops, backed up by armored carriers, raided the Islamic Charitable Society in downtown Hebron earlier this week , vandalizing property and looting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of food materials, clothes, shoes and furniture donated by local and foreign donors for the benefit of the orphans.
The charitable society, the largest in Palestine, runs two orphanages and several boarding schools, which cater for as many as 7000 children who have lost either or both parents.
"Israel is treating us the way Nazi Germany treated the Jews,’ read one of the placards carried by the protesters. "Israel represents the Nazis of our time," read another sign. A third placard read "We shall triumph."
Demonstrators marched nearly one kilometer through the Ein Sara street, one of the Hebron’s main thoroughfares, as Palestinian police escorted them.
One of the protesters, Ahmed Natshe, accused Israel of wanting to "annihilate Muslims"
"Israel seeks to justify these criminal onslaughts on Palestinian orphans by citing alleged links with Hamas. However, Israel has utterly failed to present any credible evidence to corroborate these baseless allegations. Israel is acting as judge and plaintiff and policeman combined."
Natshe said he was sure "a thousand per cent" that the charitable society has "totally and absolutely" no connections with Hamas or any other Palestinian political party.
"They are not stupid. They knew from the very beginning that connections with Hamas would get them in trouble. Hence, they meticulously made sure that no such connections existed."
Asked why the charity wouldn’t challenge the Israeli army in court, Natshe said "are you serious? It is pointless to appeal to a Zionist court if one is not Jewish."
"Non-Jews cannot receive justice at a Zionist court. Besides, the entire Israeli justice system is subservient to the Israeli military establishment, which means that Palestinians are guilty even if proven innocent."
On 6 March, Israeli army troops stormed buildings containing food and clothes inventories, looting large amounts of frozen food, dairy products, clothes and shoes as well as refrigerators and kitchen appliances, local officials and eyewitnesses said.
The looted material were to be used to feed and cloth the orphans.
Ahmed Farrah, a charity official, denied vehemently Israeli insinuations that the charity was run by Hamas.
"We are a charitable society. We have nothing to do with politics. We have been functioning since 1964, before the Israeli occupation, and the Israeli army and intelligence services investigated us numerous times and they never found any evidence suggesting any illegal activities.
"So, the real reason for this hateful campaign is that they want to torment us and weaken the Palestinian society. I think it is an expression of hatred toward Islam and Muslims. Israel today spearheads an ugly war against our religion."
Last month, the Israeli army stormed and took over several buildings and businesses and other premises owned by the Islamic Charitable Society in the Hebron region.
The army confiscated property, including an orphanage, two schools, a supermarket and several multi-story buildings as well as four buses.
The army brought in huge trucks for moving the looted materials, including computers, cabinets, chairs, kitchen appliances and teaching aids to a nearby army base.
One female student taking part in the demonstration on Tuesday, who speaks English fluently, accused the state of Israel of "conducting itself in a barbarian manner."
"Who but barbarians would storm orphanages and steal donated food for the orphans? This is a question I put to Jews who have conscience and morality."
Hejazi al Jabari, a civic leader in Hebron, told protesters he hoped that "your ordeal will be resolved very soon."
"We are making contacts with government and organizations inside and outside Palestine. We hope to be able to exert sufficient pressure on the Israeli government to cancel these barbaric measures."
Al-Jabari described Israeli charges that the charitable society was linked to the Hamas organizations as "sheer lies from A to Z."
"We challenge the Israeli government to produce an iota of evidence proving their charges."
One local writer and poet accused the Palestinian Authority of Ramallah of "conniving and coordinating with Israel to close the orphanages and boarding schools."
"I have no doubt that (PA interior minister) Abdul Razzak al Yahya is behind all of this," said the man who asked for anonymity.
"They are acting like quislings for Israel. Otherwise why are they silent while 7000 orphans are being dumped onto the streets?"
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #11 on: 2008-04-09 11:55:56 » |
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Rabbi Eliyahu: Life of one yeshiva boy worth more than 1,000 Arabs
Mass Jerusalem service marks one-month anniversary of deadly attack on Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary. 'We do not seek vengeance, we seek retaliation,' says yeshiva head says
[ Hermit : Note particularly the use of adjectives. It is illuminating. When Israel attacks Palestinians it is "retribution" - when Palestinians retaliate it is "murderous." Hallmarks of cognitive dissonance.]
Source: Israel News
Authors: Kobi Nahshoni
Dated: 2008-04-03
Some 1,000 people attended a memorial service at the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary Thursday, marking the one-month anniversary of the murderous attack which claimed the lives of eight young men.
Also attending the service were many prominent rabbis of the Religious Zionist Movement, who were not shy about expressing their rage against the government's policy.
Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, head of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, chose to explain the attack by saying that "the Torah and the land of Israel are acquired only through agony."
Former Sephardi chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu called on the government to decree that for every life lost in the attack another yeshiva and township will be formed.
"Even when we seek revenge, it is important to make one thing clear – the life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs.
"The Talmud states that if gentiles rob Israel of silver they will pay it back in gold, and all that is taken will be paid back in folds, but in cases like these there is nothing to pay back, since as I said – the life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs," added Rabbi Eliyahu.
Ramat Gan's chief rabbi, Yaacov Ariel, chose to deliver a more moderate message: "We do not seek vengeance, we seek retaliation. The terrorist's house should have been demolished immediately, regardless of the law. It should have been done because it was a matter of life and death – the deterrence could help save future lives."
"We are against killing innocent people or harming children," he added, "but once terrorists hide behind children, we have to strike back. The blood of those living in Sderot is worth just as much as the blood of those the terrorists hide behind."
Mercaz Harav will be holding a vigil in memory of those killed in the attack all through Thursday night.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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letheomaniac
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #12 on: 2008-04-14 04:07:04 » |
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[letheomaniac] These balls-out Zionist invaders are so shameless that it is a wonder their statements didn't read something a little more like this...
<snip>Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, head of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, chose to explain the attack by saying that "the Torah and the land of Israel are acquired only through [inflicting] agony [on the rightful owners of the aforementioned land]."<snip>
<snip>The terrorist's house should have been demolished immediately [so that we can begin the contruction of yet another illegal settlement on Palestinian land], regardless of the law [to which we usually give lip service and nothing more].<snip>
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Hermit
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #13 on: 2008-04-14 04:45:09 » |
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Palestinians versus Tibetans - a double standard
[ Hermit : Some Israelis get it. Possibly more than some Americans, ]
Source: Ha'Aretz
Authors: Gideon Levy
Dated: 2008-04-14
Israelis have no moral right to fight the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The president of the Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People, the psychologist Nahi Alon, who was involved in the murder of two Palestinians in Gaza in 1967 - as was revealed in Haaretz Magazine last weekend - chose to make his private "atonement" by fighting to free Tibet, of all places. He is not alone among Israelis calling to stop the occupation - but not ours. No small number of other good Israelis have recently joined the wave of global protest that broke out over the Olympics, set to take place in Beijing this summer. It is easy; it engenders no controversy - who would not be in favor of liberating Tibet? But that is not the fight that Israeli human rights supporters should be waging.
To fight for Tibet, Israel needs no courage, because there is no price to pay. On the contrary, this is part of a fashionable global trend, almost as much as the fight against global warming or the poaching of sea lions.
These fights are just, and must be undertaken. But in Israel they are deluxe fights, which are unthinkable. When one comes to the fight with hands that are collectively, and sometimes individually, so unclean, it is impossible to protest a Chinese occupation.
Citizens of a country that maintains a military subjugation in its backyard that is no less cruel than that of the Chinese, and by some parameters even more so, and against which there is practically no more protest here, have no justification in denouncing another occupation. Citizens of a country that is entirely tainted by the occupation - a national, ongoing project that involves all sectors of the population to some extent, directly or indirectly - cannot wash their hands and fight another occupation, when a half-hour from their homes, horrors no less terrible are taking place for which they have much greater responsibility.
The world has fallen in love with Tibet. How easy it is to do so. The picturesque figure of the Dalai Lama and the non-violent struggle he leads with his scarlet-robed monks is truly captivating. Indeed, the world has smothered the leader with awards and recognition, from the Nobel Peace Prize to an honorary doctorate at Ben-Gurion University.
The Palestinians are not as nice as the Tibetans in the eyes of the world. But the Palestinian people deserve exactly the same rights as the occupied Tibetan people, even if their leaders are less enchanting, they have no scarlet robes and their fight is more violent. There is absolutely no connection between rights and the means of protest, and from that perspective, there is no difference between a Tibetan and a Palestinian - they both deserve the exact same freedom.
Moreover, in the first years of the Israeli occupation, most Palestinians accepted it submissively, with practically no violence. What did they get as a result? Nothing. The world and Israel cloaked themselves in apathy and callousness. Only when planes started being hijacked in the 1970s did the world begin to notice that a Palestinian problem even existed. In contrast, the Tibetan struggle also was tainted with violence in the past, and it is reasonable to assume that violence will increase if the Tibetans do not attain their goal.
[/b]There is also no point in asking which occupation is crueler, the Chinese or the Israeli. The competition is harsh and bitter. The Chinese killed and imprisoned more Tibetans, in Lhasa there is less freedom of expression than in Nablus, but in general, the extent of Israeli repression in the territories is much greater today than Chinese repression in Tibet.[/b] [ Hermit : And the unspeakable actions of the US in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Russia in Chechnya puts the US and Russia in similar though not quite as invidious positions.]
[/b]TNowhere in the world today is there a region more besieged and confined than Gaza. And what is the result? The world calls to boycott the occupier in the case of China, while absurdly, with regard to the Palestinians, the world is boycotting the occupied entity, or at least its elected leadership, and not the occupier. This, it seems, has no parallel in history.[/b]
Internationally speaking, the situation of the Palestinians is ostensibly better, since while all governments recognize Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, no government in the world recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Palestinian territories. Practically speaking, this does not help the Palestinians much: Contemporary bon ton is to support the struggle for Tibet, only Tibet. The Palestinians have not even one Richard Gere to serve as a mouthpiece. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is boycotting the Olympic games but paid an official visit to Israel, where she spoke not one word about the shameful conditions in Gaza under Israeli occupation. Is there any other way to describe this, except a double standard?
In a more just world, no occupation would exist - neither the Chinese nor the Israeli. But until that time, the Israelis have to look inward at their own home and protest what is being done there in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry, before they present themselves with colorful signs outside the Chinese Embassy.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Re:Worse than Apartheid (Much).
« Reply #14 on: 2008-04-18 22:06:10 » |
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Our reign of terror, by the Israeli army
In shocking testimonies that reveal abductions, beatings and torture, Israeli soldiers confess the horror they have visited on Hebron
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/our-reign-of-terror-by-the-israeli-army-811769.html
Authors: Donald Macintyre
Dated: 2008-04-19
Datelined: Jerusalem
The dark-haired 22-year-old in black T-shirt, blue jeans and red Crocs is understandably hesitant as he sits at a picnic table in the incongruous setting of a beauty spot somewhere in Israel. We know his name and if we used it he would face a criminal investigation and a probable prison sentence.
The birds are singing as he describes in detail some of what he did and saw others do as an enlisted soldier in Hebron. And they are certainly criminal: the incidents in which Palestinian vehicles are stopped for no good reason, the windows smashed and the occupants beaten up for talking back – for saying, for example, they are on the way to hospital; the theft of tobacco from a Palestinian shopkeeper who is then beaten "to a pulp" when he complains; the throwing of stun grenades through the windows of mosques as people prayed. And worse.
The young man left the army only at the end of last year, and his decision to speak is part of a concerted effort to expose the moral price paid by young Israeli conscripts in what is probably the most problematic posting there is in the occupied territories. Not least because Hebron is the only Palestinian city whose centre is directly controlled by the military, 24/7, to protect the notably hardline Jewish settlers there. He says firmly that he now regrets what repeatedly took place during his tour of duty.
But his frequent, if nervous, grins and giggles occasionally show just a hint of the bravado he might have displayed if boasting of his exploits to his mates in a bar. Repeatedly he turns to the older former soldier who has persuaded him to speak to us, and says as if seeking reassurance: "You know how it is in Hebron."
The older ex-soldier is Yehuda Shaul, who does indeed "know how it is in Hebron", having served in the city in a combat unit at the peak of the intifada, and is a founder of Shovrim Shtika, or Breaking the Silence, which will publish tomorrow the disturbing testimonies of 39 Israelis – including this young man – who served in the army in Hebron between 2005 and 2007. They cover a range of experiences, from anger and powerlessness in the face of often violent abuse of Arabs by hardline Jewish settlers, through petty harassment by soldiers, to soldiers beating up Palestinian residents without provocation, looting homes and shops, and opening fire on unarmed demonstrators.
The maltreatment of civilians under occupation is common to many armies in the world – including Britain's, from Northern Ireland to Iraq.
But, paradoxically, few if any countries apart from Israel have an NGO like Breaking the Silence, which seeks – through the experiences of the soldiers themselves – as its website puts it "to force Israeli society to address the reality which it created" in the occupied territories.
The Israeli public was given an unflattering glimpse of military life in Hebron this year when a young lieutenant in the Kfir Brigade called Yaakov Gigi was given a 15-month jail sentence for taking five soldiers with him to hijack a Palestinian taxi, conduct what the Israeli media called a "rampage" in which one of the soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian civilian who just happened to be in the wrong place, and then tried to lie his way out of it.
In a confessional interview with the Israeli Channel Two investigative programme Uvda, Gigi, who had previously been in many ways a model soldier, talked of "losing the human condition" in Hebron. Asked what he meant, he replied: "To lose the human condition is to become an animal."
The Israeli military did not prosecute the soldier who had fired on the Palestinian, as opposed to Gigi. But the military insists "that the events that occurred within the Kfir Brigade are highly unusual".
But as the 22-year-old soldier, also in the Kfir Brigade, confirms in his testimony to Breaking the Silence, it seems that the event may not have been exceptional. Certainly, our interview tells us, he was "many times" in groups that commandeered taxis, seated the driver in the back, and told him to direct them to places "where they hate the Jews" in order to "make a balagan" – Hebrew for "big mess".
Then there is the inter- clan Palestinian fight: "We were told to go over there and find out what was happening. Our [platoon] commander was a bit screwed in the head. So anyway, we would locate houses, and he'd tell us: 'OK, anyone you see armed with stones or whatever, I don't care what – shoot.' Everyone would think it's the clan fight..." Did the company commander know? "No one knew. Platoon's private initiative, these actions."
Did you hit them? "Sure, not just them. Anyone who came close ... Particularly legs and arms. Some people also sustained abdominal hits ... I think at some point they realised it was soldiers, but they were not sure. Because they could not believe soldiers would do this, you know." [ Hermit : Note that these maimings and deaths become "Palestinian-on-Palestinian" violence in the reports of the Jerusalem Post and the words of "anti-Palestinians" (the true anti-semites?) like our neoclown and other racists. ]
Or using a 10-year-old child to locate and punish a 15-year-old stone-thrower: "So we got hold of just some Palestinian kid nearby, we knew that he knew who it had been. Let's say we beat him a little, to put it mildly, until he told us. You know, the way it goes when your mind's already screwed up, and you have no more patience for Hebron and Arabs and Jews there.
"The kid was really scared, realising we were on to him. We had a commander with us who was a bit of a fanatic. We gave the boy over to this commander, and he really beat the shit out of him ... He showed him all kinds of holes in the ground along the way, asking him: 'Is it here you want to die? Or here?' The kid goes, 'No, no!'
"Anyway, the kid was stood up, and couldn't stay standing on his own two feet. He was already crying ... And the commander continues, 'Don't pretend' and kicks him some more. And then [name withheld], who always had a hard time with such things, went in, caught the squad commander and said, 'Don't touch him any more, that's it.' The commander goes, 'You've become a leftie, what?' And he answers, 'No, I just don't want to see such things.'
"We were right next to this, but did nothing. We were indifferent, you know. OK. Only after the fact you start thinking. Not right away. We were doing such things every day ... It had become a habit...
"And the parents saw it. The commander ordered [the mother], 'Don't get any closer.' He cocked his weapon, already had a bullet inside. She was frightened. He put his weapon literally inside the kid's mouth. 'Anyone gets close, I kill him. Don't bug me. I kill. I have no mercy.' So the father ... got hold of the mother and said, 'Calm down, let them be, so they'll leave him alone.'"
Not every soldier serving in Hebron becomes an "animal". Iftach Arbel, 23, from an upper-middle class, left-of-centre home in Herzylia, served in Hebron as a commander just before the withdrawal from Gaza, when he thinks the army wanted to show it could be tough with settlers, too. And many of the testimonies, including Mr Arbel's, describe how the settlers educate children as young as four to throw stones at Palestinians, attack their homes and even steal their possessions. To Mr Arbel, the Hebron settlers are "pure evil" and the only solution is "to remove the settlers".
He believes it would be possible even within these constraints to treat Palestinians better. He adds: "We did night activity. Choose a house at random, on the aerial photo, so as to practise combat routine and all, which is instructive for the soldiers, I mean, I'm all for it. But then at midnight you wake someone up and turn his whole house upside down with everyone sleeping on the mattresses and all."
But Mr Arbel says that most soldiers are some way between his own extreme and that of the most violent. From just two of his fellow testifiers, you can see what he means.
As one said: "We did all kinds of experiments to see who could do the best split in Abu Snena. We would put [Palestinians] against the wall, make like we were checking them, and ask them to spread their legs. Spread, spread, spread, it was a game to see who could do it best. Or we would check who can hold his breath for longest.
"Choke them. One guy would come, make like he was checking them, and suddenly start yelling like they said something and choke them ... Block their airways; you have to press the adams apple. It's not pleasant. Look at the watch as you're doing it, until he passes out. The one who takes longest to faint wins."
And theft as well as violence. "There's this car accessory shop there. Every time, soldiers would take a tape-disc player, other stuff. This guy, if you go ask him, will tell you plenty of things that soldiers did to him.
"A whole scroll-full ... They would raid his shop regularly. 'Listen, if you tell on us, we'll confiscate your whole store, we'll break everything.' You know, he was afraid to tell. He was already making deals, 'Listen guys, you're damaging me financially.' I personally never took a thing, but I'm telling you, people used to take speakers from him, whole sound systems.
"He'd go, 'Please, give me 500 shekels, I'm losing money here.' 'Listen, if you go on – we'll pick up your whole shop.' 'OK, OK, take it, but listen, don't take more than 10 systems a month.' Something like this.
"'I'm already going bankrupt.' He was so miserable. Guys in our unit used to sell these things back home, make deals with people. People are so stupid."
The military said that Israeli Defence Forces soldiers operate according to "a strict set of moral guidelines" and that their expected adherence to them only "increases wherever and whenever IDF soldiers come in contact with civilians". It added that "if evidence supporting the allegations is uncovered, steps are taken to hold those involved to the level of highest judicial severity". It also said: "The Military Advocate General has issued a number of indictments against soldiers due to allegations of criminal behaviour ... Soldiers found guilty were punished severely by the Military Court, in proportion to the committed offence." It had not by last night quantified such indictments.
In its introduction to the testimonies, Breaking the Silence says: "The soldiers' determination to fulfil their mission yields tragic results: the proper-normative becomes despicable, the inconceivable becomes routine ... [The] testimonies are to illustrate the manner in which they are swept into the brutal reality reigning on the ground, a reality whereby the lives of many thousands of Palestinian families are at the questionable mercy of youths. Hebron turns a focused, flagrant lens at the reality to which Israel's young representatives are constantly sent."
A force for justice
Breaking the Silence was formed four years ago by a group of ex-soldiers, most of whom had served in Israel Defence Forces combat units in Hebron. Many of the soldiers do reserve duty in the military each year. It has collected some 500 testimonies from former soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza. Its first public exposure was with an exhibition of photographs by soldiers serving in Hebron and the organisation also runs regular tours of Hebron for Israeli students and diplomats. It receives funding from groups as diverse as the Jewish philanthropic Moriah Fund, the New Israel Fund, the British embassy in Tel Aviv and the EU.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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