The Palestine thread

[give her dixie]

Yet again, Israel violate the ceasefire and murder a young Palestinian man while he farmed his land. This is now the 52nd recorded ceasefire violation.

Farmer Killed By Israeli Fire In Beit Lahia

Palestinian medical sources reported that a Palestinian farmer died, on Monday evening, of serious injuries he suffered at noon after Israeli soldiers opened fire at him as he worked on his land in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The slain farmer has been identified as Mustafa Abu Jarad, 21. Medical sources said that Abu Jarad was shot by a live round in the head.

He was moved to Kamal Odwan hospital suffering a very serious injury, and died of his wounds on Monday evening despite all efforts to save his life.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers, stationed at a military tower in "Nativ Hasara" settlement across the border, fired several rounds of live ammunition at a number of Palestinian farmers hitting Abu Jarad in the head.

The army repeatedly opens fire at farmers trying to work, or even reach, their lands close to the border in the northern and eastern parts of the Gaza Strip; dozens of casualties have been reported.

Israel does not allow the Palestinians in Gaza to reach their lands near the border fence in Gaza under the pretext of "security considerations" as part of the so-called "buffer zone" Israel enforced on border areas with Gaza.

This issue is preventing hundreds of families from planting their lands near the border, farmers who managed to enter their lands are always subject to life-threatening conditions due to Israeli military fire.

[give her dixie]

And the brutal murder of Palestinians continue today as Israeli occupation forces kill a 16 year old boy in the West Bank.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/breaking-news-israel-killed-a-young-man-in-budrus-near-ramallah/

Israel killed a teenager in Budrus near Ramallah

Death of a minor others seriously wounded in clashes with Israeli army in Budrus near Ramallah. Initial live reports state the name of the martyr is the 16 year old Sameer Awad.

The 16 year old was shot multiple times: 3 times in the chest and once in the head by Israeli near his school, later succumbed to his injures in Ramallah hospital. Others are seriously injured. At this moment there are some conflicting reports about the number of bullets and the targeted bodyparts. Yet this is not even important. He died of his injuries. Below added a  video of the reanimation attempt of the boy.

With the killing of Sameer Awad, the occupation killed 5 Palestinians in the very first 15 days of this year. (Overview)

Yesterday, Israeli forces violated the truce agreement on Gaza for the 52nd time and shot an 21 year old farmer in the head. 21-year-old Mustafa Abu Jirad died as well

[seafoid]

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/obama-netanyahu-doesn-t-understand-israel-s-best-interests-driving-it-into-international-isolation.premium-1.494088

According to Goldberg, in the weeks after the Palestinian move at the United Nations, Obama has said in private conversations that "Israel does not know what its own best interests are." Moreover, in Obama's opinion with every announcement of new construction in the settlements, Netanyahu is leading his country towards near-total international isolation.
Goldberg writes that Obama believes that "if Israel, a small state in an inhospitable region, becomes more of a pariah – one that alienates even the affections of the U.S., its last steadfast friend – it won't survive. Iran poses a short-term threat to Israel's survival; Israel's own behavior poses a long-term one."

On the Palestinian issue, Goldberg notes, Obama believes Netanyahu is "a political coward, an essentially unchallenged leader who nevertheless is unwilling to lead or spend political capital to advance the cause of compromise."

Though Obama's nominee for secretary of state, John Kerry, wants to restart the peace process, Obama is less enthusiastic. According to Goldberg, Obama believes Netanyahu is so thoroughly a captive of the settler lobby and so uninterested in carrying out conciliatory gestures towards the Palestinians that any diplomatic move on the part of the U.S. president at this time would be unwise.

According to Goldberg, despite his frustration with Netanyahu, Obama does not intend to cut off military aid to Israel or to stop trying to frustrate Iran's nuclear ambitions. However, with respect to diplomatic aid from the United States – at the UN or in the face of European initiatives – Israel is liable to feel a significant change in the near future. At the next vote in the UN, writes Goldberg, Israel could well find itself even more isolated.

[give her dixie]

A silent Palestinian voice amid the din of the Israeli election

Gideon Levy

Samir Awad won't be voting in Tuesday's election, not only due to his age (16 ) or his Palestinian nationality. Samir Awad won't be voting on Tuesday because he was shot dead from close range last week by Israel Defense Forces soldiers: one bullet in his head, one in his back and one in his thigh. The soldiers who shot him will vote on Tuesday, because democracy is like that.

All of the neighbors from the hills opposite Awad's home will also vote, despite living beyond the sovereign borders of their country. Most of them will vote for those who wish to banish Samir's family, or continue to make their life hard. His bereaved father, Ahmed, cannot vote in this election despite living next to Israeli citizens, and working for years in Israel, building its houses and renovating its villas.

This is the elephant in the room. The monster at the door, who we try to ignore by saying, "If we won't look at it, it won't exist." This is the worst deception of this election, the sickest lie of Israeli Democracy, promoted by all voters and candidates.

In a true democracy, Samir's death would have become a campaign issue. Four innocent Palestinians were killed in the week leading up to the election. Nobody really cared, and one doubts if most Israelis were even aware of the deaths. Awad who? A singer or a soccer player?

It's very easy to imagine the mood if, in the week leading up to the election, four Israelis were to be killed in a similar fashion: their deaths would rock the political establishment. But the Palestinian deaths go by like dust, barely worth a mention. Even their very presence in the backyard of the only democracy in the Middle East is as light as the dust.

No one bothers to inquire any more how the Awad family is prevented from participating in an election that will deeply affect their lives, while their neighbors - in the settlements constructed on their lands - enjoy rights that they can only dream of. Or how their neighbors naturally participate in this election, the ones that preceded it and the ones yet to come. How on earth can Israel be considered a democracy? How can it not be called an apartheid state? Why is nobody even discussing the issue?

Samir was murdered in cold blood. There's no other way to describe his death. A high school student who wasn't endangering anyone. The soldiers who shot him in flight will never be brought to justice. I saw their faces last week in a video clip, filmed several minutes after they killed Samir (who was trying to climb the separation barrier that suffocates his village ). They were a group of tough Israelis in uniform. Soon they will complete their service and begin civilian life, taking pride in their military service. After all, they are considered to be those with 'values,' those who 'carry the weight of the burden' - an issue that actually is present in the debate surrounding the election.

One can suppose that none of them suffer from sleepless nights, haunted by the death of the boy and the sorrow of his family. Israelis in general lose no sleep due to horrendous actions carried out on their behalf. And why should they? There are those who see to it that they shouldn't be worried. Israel Radio reported that "the IDF prevented an effort to infiltrate Israel."

Samir was two or three years younger than his killers. He didn't have much of a future to look forward to, being one of a 17-strong family, supported by his father, who works in Israel. Even in the days of mourning Ahmed sports a "Hava & Adam, the Modi'in Ecological Farm" T-shirt. He still yearningly recalls how, in his broken Hebrew, he would lecture about Palestinian agriculture to Israeli students.

The murderers of his son can expect a different future: studies, entertainment, a career and voting rights. Only because they're Jewish, not Palestinian. Israelis can vote on Tuesday for whoever they wish. But whoever believes that the Awad family will continue to be denied their rights forever is living a lie, the most revolting lie of this election campaign. Samir is the silent voice of this election, the voice which should have shocked and rocked the campaign.

[seafoid]

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/israeli-news-broadcasters-don-t-cry.premium-1.494640

So it's a lost cause. There is no solution.

You are right: there is no solution. There is no solution because, even if there were Palestinian unity, Israeli society today is not ready to pay the price of peace. We are incapable of evacuating even one settler outpost, so how will we be capable of doing more?


Did the process you underwent, from being someone who photographed the "Welcome to Gaza" sign to being a friend, almost a member of the family there, make you despair or give you hope?

There was a period when I had hope.

And it ended?

Today I have no hope. That is the general feeling of the whole Israeli public, both on the right and the left.

You are in a state of despair.
Yes. Something bad is happening here: politically, in policy and especially in the realm of social welfare. Israeli society is turning into a dangerous place. Things are not going to be good.



But try for a minute to see it from their point of view, the feeling of people in Gaza, under siege and occupation, whose relatives and friends were killed.


I can understand that − the motivation. What's harder to understand is how deep the seed was planted, and when. I understood that there is no chance.

Right. I will tell you what "no chance" means. A few days after the end of Operation Pillar of Defense, I gave a talk at a Herzliya high school. The children, who said they came from good homes, told me we have to kill all the Arabs, including the Israeli Arabs, because where do they get off thinking they will get control of the country. Their ideal is to go into the army and kill as many Arabs as possible. That's one side of the picture, Israeli youth, the new generation, living in an atmosphere of demonizing the Palestinians − which is something the Israeli media are responsible for in no small measure. The other side of the picture is the young generation in Gaza, a child of five or nine. Let's say he is not wounded, but a four-ton bomb landed next to his house. Do you know that in Operation Pillar of Defense, not one pane of glass remained intact in the whole of Gaza? It's a tactic of creating sonic booms to frighten people without hurting them. A child who has a bomb like that land next to him can't hear anything for the next three days. What does he think about the Jews afterward? And where will we end up, if this is how Jewish youngsters think about Arabs?

Nowhere good.

We are on a nothing-to-lose track. Which is why I say there is no future. When I told the high school class that we have to look at them as human beings, one boy jumped up and said, "Who do you vote for? You're extreme left, no?" I replied, "It would surprise you to know who I vote for." But that's not the point. The point is that we in Israel have reached a situation in which if someone says we have to talk peace, he's considered extreme left.

[stew]

Does anyone know why are there 49 pages on this thread yet practically nothing is said about Tibet, Chechnya, the discrimination against black Africans in North Africa, the PKK/Turkey conflict,the ongoing conflict in Syria,  the continuing persecution of media and undermining of democracy in Russia, the discrimination against native peoples in Burma..etc, etc...the list is endless.

Why ? what is it about this particular conflict, one of many, that exercises certain people to such a frenzy ?

Because this is the Israel Palestine thread, start threads on those if you like. I am recently interested in Africa and would enjoy such a thread and the parallels with the Burma, Irish and Ethiopian famines, as Seafoid mentioned, are dramatic.

But I would expect people to discuss Israel and Palestine on this thread.

That is not an answer Muppet and you know it. You ask me why I dont start such a thread. The answer is simple. I dont presume to understand enough about about ancient conflicts to take a side.

To borrow a cheap tactic from Seafoid, surely you must understand that, given our history with the british media,  villifying one side in such a conflict is patently wrong.

I ask again, what is the unique characteristic about this particular conflict that leads to 49 pages of debate yet nothing on Tibet etc ?

Quit yer bitchin and start a thread on Tibet mike, stop fecking whinging and droning when the feckin answer is obvious to everybody but you..................... take a gander at the title of the thread, it should help bring you up to speed!

[give her dixie]

 Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman and injured another in the Hebron .

Witnesses told press that Israeli soldiers traveling in a civilian car opened fire at a group of people at the entrance to al-Arrub refugee camp south of Bethlehem.

Lubna Munir Hanash, 22, was shot in the head and died from her injuries, medics said.

Suad Yusuf Jaara was shot in the hand and transported to Ahli hospital in Hebron.

Witnesses also said that after the shooting Israeli soldiers prevented an ambulance from arriving at the scene for around 10 minutes.

Locals said there were no clashes in the area at the time.

[give her dixie]

A teenager shot by Israeli forces during clashes in Bethlehem last week died on Wednesday, the boy's family said.

Salih al-Amarin, 15, from Azza refugee camp, was shot in the head Friday during clashes in Bethlehem's nearby Aida camp, leaving him critically injured, a Ma'an reporter said.

Al-Amarin was taken to the Arab Society Hospital in Beit Jala, where medics said he was in a critical condition. He has been on life support since the incident.

An Israeli military spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment at the time.

Last Tuesday, 17-year-old Samir Ahmad Abdul-Rahim was the fourth Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces in less than a week.

He was shot four times by Israeli soldiers in Budrus, near Ramallah.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=558701

[seafoid]

It looks like Israeli jews are more interested in food on the table than in resettling Biblical Israel

[Ball DeBeaver]

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman and injured another in the Hebron .

Witnesses told press that Israeli soldiers traveling in a civilian car opened fire at a group of people at the entrance to al-Arrub refugee camp south of Bethlehem.

Lubna Munir Hanash, 22, was shot in the head and died from her injuries, medics said.

Suad Yusuf Jaara was shot in the hand and transported to Ahli hospital in Hebron.

Witnesses also said that after the shooting Israeli soldiers prevented an ambulance from arriving at the scene for around 10 minutes.

Locals said there were no clashes in the area at the time.

The soldiers were travelling in an army jeep which was attacked by petrol bombs. The soldiers fired on their attackers.

You are very economical with the truth, my propogandist friend.

[Ball DeBeaver]

PA Arab Woman Killed by IDF Gunfire at El Aroub?

Reports vary wildly over the fate of a rioting PA woman who hurled a firebomb at IDF soldiers. PA medics say she was killed.


AAFont Size
By Chana Ya'ar
First Publish: 1/23/2013, 4:04 PM

Reports varied wildly Wednesday afternoon over the fate of a 22-year-old Palestinian Authority woman who participated in a riot aimed at IDF soldiers in the PA Arab town of El Aroub.

The town, located in Judea south of Gush Etzion and Bethlehem along Highway 60, is a hotbed of terrorist activity. IDF soldiers are permanently stationed at the access road to the town, which is off limits to Israeli vehicles.

IDF sources said the woman hurled a firebomb (Molotov cocktail) at the soldiers, who opened fire in response to the attack. An IDF soldier was also hit with rocks during the riot. His condition is unknown. IDF sources added that the woman was being treated at the scene. Several reports said the woman was critically injured. 

No additional details have yet been made available from the IDF.

The PA's semi-official Ma'an news agency reported the incident entirely differently, claiming the woman had been shot to death in an unprovoked attack by Israeli soldiers.

"According to the sources, there were no confrontations or stone-throwing incidents in the area" at the time, Ma'an news reported in a blazing top story on its Arabic-language home page.

In Arabic, Ma'an reported that IDF soldiers fired at the woman, critically wounding her in the head. Lubna Munir Hanash died of her wounds shortly thereafter, according to the Bethlehem-based news agency.

Medics told Ma'an that the soldiers also shot two other PA Arabs, Suad Yusuf Ja'ara and Salah Abu Hashhash, wounding each in the hands. All were transported by ambulance to the Al-Ahli Hospital in nearby Hevron, according to the PA news outlet, which added that IDF officials "launched an investigation into the incident."

Israeli drivers, motorcyclists and passengers in cars and buses regularly face road terror attacks on the road that passes El Aroub, as do the soldiers who must staff the outpost at the site. Earlier this month, an IDF soldier was burned by firebombs hurled at his unit by PA Arabs in the town.

[Ball DeBeaver]

Get used to it.

[seafoid]

Get used to it.

that wall is a sign of how well integrated Zionism is in the region.

Reminds me of this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers

Fabulus castle but they could only hang onto it for 200 years.

The Crusaders were like the Zionists.

[Rossfan]

Israeli drivers, motorcyclists and passengers in cars and buses regularly face road terror attacks on the road that passes El Aroub, as do the soldiers who must staff the outpost at the site. Earlier this month, an IDF soldier was burned by firebombs hurled at his unit by PA Arabs in the town.

If they were at home in their own country nobody would be attacking the land grabbing impreialist bastards.

[Ball DeBeaver]

Do you think brits should be bricked every time they drive down an Irish road, or are you being an hypocritical p***k? After all, they should be "at home in their own country. "