The Palestine thread

[seafoid]

No Palestinian state means apartheid.
How is that Jewish ?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1c5f1352-79d5-11e2-9015-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2MqB5G9G3

I recalled a conversation in 1991 with Professor Stanley Cohen, the eminent sociologist who died last month. We were discussing IDF human rights abuses, which Cohen worked tirelessly to expose. He turned to talk instead about his profound concern for young Israelis, specifically the brutalising effect that militarisation was having, and would have, on successive generations of young men and women. At the time his concerns seemed misdirected; on reflection what struck me was their prophetic accuracy.

[Mike Sheehy]

No Palestinian state means apartheid.
How is that Jewish ?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1c5f1352-79d5-11e2-9015-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2MqB5G9G3

I recalled a conversation in 1991 with Professor Stanley Cohen, the eminent sociologist who died last month. We were discussing IDF human rights abuses, which Cohen worked tirelessly to expose. He turned to talk instead about his profound concern for young Israelis, specifically the brutalising effect that militarisation was having, and would have, on successive generations of young men and women. At the time his concerns seemed misdirected; on reflection what struck me was their prophetic accuracy.

Your supposed concern for young Israelis rings hollow when you can't even bring yourself to condemn their murder.

[seafoid]

Why this week shows that Israel is on the wrong path 

-  the notion that Jewish life is more important than Palestinian life
-  the idea that the status quo is doable into infinity and that because they are Jews they can run apartheid with anyone who objects labeled as an anti-Semite
-  the cost to their own society of educating the people to run apartheid
-  the fact they can't escape the cycle of violence

[seafoid]

You couldn't make this stuff up

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.602334
"Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed Monday night that Israel's response to the murder of the three teenagers in the West Bank should include a wave of settlement construction and the establishment of a new settlement in memory of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, a senior Israeli official told Haaretz."

Israel really wants peace.

[give her dixie]

You couldn't make this stuff up

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.602334
"Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed Monday night that Israel's response to the murder of the three teenagers in the West Bank should include a wave of settlement construction and the establishment of a new settlement in memory of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, a senior Israeli official told Haaretz."

Israel really wants peace.

Of course they want piece..... The Piece of land called Palestine

[seafoid]

You couldn't make this stuff up

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.602334
"Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed Monday night that Israel's response to the murder of the three teenagers in the West Bank should include a wave of settlement construction and the establishment of a new settlement in memory of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, a senior Israeli official told Haaretz."

Israel really wants peace.

Of course they want piece..... The Piece of land called Palestine

Have since day 1.

David Ben-Gurion said that "The Arabs of the Land of Israel have only one function left to them – to run away."

[give her dixie]

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen in Jenin refugee camp

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a military operation in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank early Tuesday, locals and medics said.

Palestinian Red Crescent medics told Ma'an 16-year-old Yousef Abu Zagha was shot by Israeli fire in the chest during clashes with troops who raided the camp overnight.

Abu Zagha was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a public hospital in Jenin.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said that he was a "Hamas operative" about to hurl an explosive device at troops sent to arrest him.

"They opened fire and confirmed a hit," the spokeswoman said.

The killing came after Israeli forces found the bodies of three Israeli teenagers who had been missing in the West Bank for over two weeks.

Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians in the military operation that followed the disappearance of the teenagers from the Gush Etzion settlement on June 12.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=709032

[seafoid]

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen in Jenin refugee camp

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a military operation in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank early Tuesday, locals and medics said.

Palestinian Red Crescent medics told Ma'an 16-year-old Yousef Abu Zagha was shot by Israeli fire in the chest during clashes with troops who raided the camp overnight.

Abu Zagha was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a public hospital in Jenin.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said that he was a "Hamas operative" about to hurl an explosive device at troops sent to arrest him.

"They opened fire and confirmed a hit," the spokeswoman said.

The killing came after Israeli forces found the bodies of three Israeli teenagers who had been missing in the West Bank for over two weeks.

Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians in the military operation that followed the disappearance of the teenagers from the Gush Etzion settlement on June 12.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=709032

"It is time that the world stand in unity against those who advocate and execute, as well as justify, the murder of innocent young people who are brutally butchered in Israel or anywhere*," said Robert G. Sugarman, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in a statement.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri: "I spoke with the prime minister this morning, and told him the Shas movement will give the government all the necessary backing in order to hold the despicable murderers and those who sent them accountable. The State of Israel cannot ignore the cold-blooded murder of children*."

*Offer available to Jewish children only in Erez Israel. Please do not ask for sympathy as a refusal may offend.

[foxcommander]

You have to wonder why the story was the headline of the RTE news yesterday?
Sad that this happened but what has it got to do with Ireland?

[give her dixie]

Recording of teen's emergency call released. Audio of call placed by Gilad Shaar to police on night of kidnapping catches his plea, 'They kidnapped me,' followed by shouts and gunshots.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.602442/1.602442

[StGallsGAA]

No question which side has the better western sympathy PR campaign going....

[give her dixie]

No question which side has the better western sympathy PR campaign going....

Plus, having the BBC as your propaganda wing is a big help

[give her dixie]

The searing hypocrisy of the West

Susan Abulhawa

Since the teens went missing from Gush Etzion, a Jewish-only colony in the West Bank, Israel has besieged the 4 million Palestinians who already live under its thumb, storming through towns, ransacking homes and civil institutions, conducting night raids on families, stealing property, kidnapping, injuring, and killing. Warplanes were dispatched to bomb Gaza, again and repeatedly, destroying more homes and institutions and carrying out extrajudicial executions.

Thus far, over 570 Palestinians have been kidnapped and imprisoned, most notably a Samer Issawi, the Palestinian who went on a 266-day hunger strike in protest of a previous arbitrary detention. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed, including at least three children, a pregnant woman, and a mentally ill man. Hundreds have been injured, thousands terrorized. Universities and social welfare organizations were ransacked, shut down, their computers and equipment destroyed or stolen, and both private and public documents confiscated from civil institutions.

This wonton thuggery is official state policy conducted by its military and does not include the violence to persons and properties perpetuated by paramilitary Israeli settlers, whose persistent attacks against Palestinian civilians have also escalated in the past weeks. And now that the settlers are confirmed dead, Israel has vowed to exact revenge. Naftali Bennet, Economy Minister said, "There is no mercy for the murderers of children. This is the time for action, not words."

Although no Palestinian faction has claimed responsibility for the abduction, and most, including Hamas, deny any involvement, Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant that Hamas is responsible. The United Nations requested that Israel provide evidence to support their contention, but no evidence has been forthcoming, casting doubt on Israel's claims, particularly in light of its public ire over the recent unification of Palestinian factions and President Obama's acceptance of the new Palestinian unity.

In the West, headlines over pictures of the three Israeli settler teens referred to Israel's reign of terror over Palestine as a "manhunt" and "military sweep." Portraits of innocent young Israeli lives emerged from news outlets and the voices of their parents are featured in the fullness of their anguish. The US, EU, UK, UN, Canada and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the kidnapping and called for their immediate and unconditional release. Upon discovery of the bodies, there has been an outpouring of condemnation and condolences.

President Obama said, "As a father, I cannot imagine the indescribable pain that the parents of these teenage boys are experiencing. The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless act of terror against innocent youth."

Although hundreds of Palestinian children are kidnapped, brutalized or killed by Israel, including several in the past two weeks, there is rarely, if ever, such a reaction from the world.

Just prior to the disappearance of the Israeli settler teens, the murder of two Palestinian teens was caught on a local surveillance camera. Ample evidence, including the recovered bullets and a CNN camera filming an Israeli sharpshooter pulling the trigger at the precise moment one of the boys was shot indicated that they were killed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers. There were no condemnations or calls for justice for these teens by world leaders or international institutions, no solidarity with their grieving parents, nor mention of the more than 250 Palestinian children, kidnapped from their beds or on their way to school, who continue to languish in Israeli jails without charge or trial, physically and psychologically tortured. This is to say nothing of the barbaric siege of Gaza, or the decades of ongoing theft, evictions, assaults on education, confiscation of land, demolition of homes, color coded permit system, arbitrary imprisonment, restriction of movement, checkpoints, extrajudicial executions, torture, and denials at every turn squeezing Palestinians into isolated ghettos.

None of that seemingly matters.

It does not matter that no one knows who murdered the Israeli teens. It seems the entire country is calling for Palestinian blood, reminiscent of American southern lynching rallies that went after black men whenever a white person turned up dead. Nor does it matter that these Israeli teens were settlers living in illegal Jewish-only colonies that were built on land stolen by the state mostly from Palestinian owners from the village of el-Khader. A huge portion of the settlers there are Americans, mostly from New York, like one of the murdered teens, who exercise Jewish privilege to hold dual citizenship; to have an extra country no matter where they're from, one in their own homeland and one in ours, at the same time that the indigenous Palestinians fester in refugee camps, occupied ghettos, or boundless exile.

Palestinian children are assaulted or murdered every day and barely do their lives register in western press. While Palestinian mothers are frequently blamed when Israel kills their children, accused of sending them to die or neglecting to keep them at home away from Israeli snipers, no one questions Rachel Frankel, the mother of one of the murdered settlers. She is not asked to comment on the fact that one of the missing settlers is a soldier who likely participated in the oppression of his Palestinian neighbors. No one asks why she would move her family from the United States to live in a segregated, supremacist colony established on land confiscated from the native non-Jewish owners. Certainly no one dares accuse her of therefore putting her children in harms way.

No mother should have endure the murder of her child. No mother or father. That does not only apply to Jewish parents. The lives of our children are no less precious and their loss are no less shattering and spiritually unhinging. But there is a terrible disparity in the value of life here in the eyes of the state and the world, where Palestinian life is cheap and disposable, but Jewish life is sacrosanct.

This exceptionalism and supremacy of Jewish life is a fundamental underpinning of the state of Israel. It pervades their every law and protocol, and is matched only by their apparent contempt and disregard for Palestinian life. Whether through laws that favor Jews for employment and educational opportunities, or laws that allow the exclusion of non-Jews from buying or renting among Jews, or endless military orders that limit the movement, water consumption, food access, education, marriage possibilities, and economic independence, or these periodic upending of Palestinian civil society, life for non-Jews ultimately conforms to the religious edict issued by Dov Lior, Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba, saying "a thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail."

Israeli violence of the past few weeks is generally accepted and expected. And the terror we know they will unleash on our people will be, as it always is, cloaked in the legitimacy of uniforms and technological death machines. Israeli violence, no matter how vulgar, is inevitably couched as a heroic, ironic violence that western media frames as "response," as if Palestinian resistance itself were not a response to Israeli oppression. When the ICRC was asked to issue a similar call for the immediate and unconditional release of the hundreds of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails (which is also in contravention of international humanitarian law), the ICRC refused, indicating there's a difference between the isolated abduction of Israeli teens and the routine abduction, torture, isolation, and imprisonment of Palestinian children.

When our children throw rocks at heavily armed Israeli tanks and jeeps rolling through our streets, we are contemptible parents who should be bear responsibility for the murder of our children if they are shot by Israeli soldiers or settlers. When we refuse to capitulate completely, we are "not partners for peace," and deserve to have more land confiscated from us for the exclusive use of Jews. When we take up arms and fight back, kidnap a soldier, we are terrorists of the extreme kind who have no one to blame but ourselves as Israel subjects the entire Palestinian population to punitive collective punishment. When we engage in peaceful protests, we are rioters who deserve the live fire they send our way. When we debate, write, and boycott, we are anti-Semites who should be silenced, deported, marginalized, or prosecuted.

What should we do, then? Palestine is quite literally being wiped off the map by a state that openly upholds Jewish supremacy and Jewish privilege. Our people continue to be robbed of home and heritage, pushed to the margins of humanity, blamed for our own miserable fate. We are a traumatized, principally unarmed, native society being destroyed and erased by one of the most powerful militaries in the world.

Rachel Frankel went to the UN to plead for their support, saying "it is wrong to take children, innocent boys or girls, and use them as instruments of any struggle. It is cruel...I wish to ask: Doesn't every child have the right to come home safely from school?" Do those sentiments apply to Palestinian children, too? Here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here are video examples of the abduction of Palestinian children from their homes at night and on their way to and from school.

But none of that matters either. Does it? It matters that three Israeli Jews were killed. It doesn't matter who did it or what the circumstances were, the entire Palestinian population will be made to suffer, more than they already are.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-searing-hypocrisy-of-the-west/article6163918.ece

[give her dixie]

Body of Arab youth found in Jerusalem forest

The body of an Arab youth was found in the Jerusalem Forest near a gas station on Wednesday morning, Israeli media reported.

The cause of death is still unknown, but there are suspicions that the youth was kidnapped and murdered by a Jew.

Police are currently investigating the incident.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Body-of-Arab-youth-found-in-Jerusalem-forest-361229

[give her dixie]

Since the bodies of three missing Israeli youths were discovered in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Israeli politicians have whipped the public up with demands for "revenge."

The videos in this post show disturbing footage of significant crowds of young Israelis marching through the streets of Jerusalem on Tuesday evening chanting "Death to the Arabs" – "mavet la'aravim" in Hebrew.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/jerusalem-lynch-mobs-attack-palestinians-after-israeli-teens-funerals