Palestinian footballer, Mahmoud Sarsak, released after 3 years in an Israel jail

[fitzroyalty]

They were making the same jokes about Bobby Sands in Ballymena in 1981, bigfella.
It's just ignorance. Would you joke about the Holocaust? Of course not.

Yep that's right..... Still point out where I mentioned bobby sands? and IMO comparing what happened to Sarsak to the holocaust doesn't do much for your argument or proving you have t he slightest bit of intelligence. Your link to Sands in tenuous. Keep trying 

Surely you'd know there'd be some sensitivity when it comes to jokes about hungersrikers on this board?

[theticklemister]

They were making the same jokes about Bobby Sands in Ballymena in 1981, bigfella.
It's just ignorance. Would you joke about the Holocaust? Of course not.

Yep that's right..... Still point out where I mentioned bobby sands? and IMO comparing what happened to Sarsak to the holocaust doesn't do much for your argument or proving you have t he slightest bit of intelligence. Your link to Sands in tenuous. Keep trying 

Surely you'd know there'd be some sensitivity when it comes to jokes about hungersrikers on this board?

Ah sure its a world away to people..................

[seafoid]

Since his release, Shalit has been a bit of a poster boy for Israel and they have been sending him to various high profile sporting events. The NBA finals last year is one such event where he ended up in the winners changing rooms afterwards!

Sarsak is totally correct in not attending, and becoming a pawn in a "normalisation" of the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians. Barcelona fell into the trap laid out for them by Israel by agreeing to have Shalit attend, and when they came under severe pressure from fans at home and worldwide they then invited Sarsak. To refuse the invitation for Shalit would have played straight into the Israeli's hands whereby they could scream "Anti Semitism".

Hamas were right in capturing Shalit, as under international law he was a POW. He was treated very well during his captivity, a point he made himself. The same can't be said for the thousands of Palestinians rotting away in Israeli prisons. On top of that, his father Noam said that if he were a Palestinian, he too would have captured an IDF soldier.

The reality is that the world at large has woken up to the horrible suffering the Palestinians have endured for over 60 years, however, the main problem is the support and green light to carry on with their genocide and ethnic cleansing by the US. $3 billion a year and a free trade agreement is a serious whack of change, plus full protection from sanctions by the UN for their crimes due to the veto by the US.

Perhaps when people complain about the few dollars spent on healthcare etc on the undocumented workers in the US, they would shout out about their tax dollars been spent on a rogue state who murder and steal land on a daily basis.

That antisemitism schtick is only going to work for a few years more. What Israel is doing to Gaza is micromanaging a catastrophe. Gaza is being made unlivable according to the UN.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19391809

Shalit was part of this system. He is a war criminal.

[give her dixie]

This video shows Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem smashing the head of a Palestinian boy on the ground during a violent arrest, after Israeli troops stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in eastern occupied Jerusalem on Friday. The 3rd most moral army in the world my arse....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywi-EcSnEl8

Israel to start stealing Palestinian oil next week:

http://www.alresalah.ps/en/index.php?act=post&id=1204

And below is a report of Israeli violations in Gaza and the West Bank where among other things, 13 Palestinians were murdered:


The Center for Information and Decision Support in the Ministry of Planning issued the monthly report, which tracks the most prominent Israeli violations and attacks against the Palestinian people over September, 2012.

The report pointed out that Israeli occupation forces kill 11 Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip, and wounded 9 others including a woman and 4 children during September in Israeli escalations against people of the besieged Gaza strip.

The report also mentioned that IOF killed two Palestinians and wounded more than 10 citizens in the occupied West Bank during sporadic clashes with Israeli forces before Israeli prison of "Ofer" in the west of Ramallah, and also in clashes that took place between the citizens and occupation forces in the city of Nablus.

Incursions and Arrests:

Regarding to incursions and arrests, the report pointed out that IOF  carried out nearly 6 incursions in the Gaza Strip, and has carried out  141 incursions and storming in the cities of the West Bank, which included  arrests of 285 Palestinians in September.

The report stated that the total number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails reached 4500 captives.

It explained that number of patient detainees is 1400 suffering of medical negligence, which led to worsen their health conditions worse.

The report talked about conditions of children prisoners the violations against them such as abuse and harassment, adding that 20% of prisoned Palestinian kids are existed in Hasharon prison, where they are exposed to a systematic harassment by Israeli prison's administration.

Settlers Attacks and buildings demolition the report pointed out that Israeli occupation forces confiscated 1060 dunums, and there are decisions to confiscate 775 other dunums, adding that settlements construction in the West Bank increased to have more than 400 settling units in occupied territories in the West Bank.

It clarified that about 10 buildings have been demolished beside 20 other buildings are threatened to be demolished. The total of demolished homes since the beginning of 2012 till September reaches 467 buildings.

Attacks in Jerusalem:

The report stated that Israeli occupation forces are planning to demolish nearly 3727 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, which includes 1500 Jerusalemite household. IOF confiscated 1800 acres of cemetery of '' the Gate of Mercy''

It mentioned also the IOF isolated Jerusalem from the northern and eastern sides through completing  construction of the last part of the Apartheid Wall in the area, explaining that it would entirely separate several neighborhoods of the city.

Moreover, what so -called 'local committee for planning and construction' of israeli occupation authorities  planned to build 940 more settling  units in the settlement of 'Gilo' south of occupied Jerusalem.

[stew]

Since his release, Shalit has been a bit of a poster boy for Israel and they have been sending him to various high profile sporting events. The NBA finals last year is one such event where he ended up in the winners changing rooms afterwards!

Sarsak is totally correct in not attending, and becoming a pawn in a "normalisation" of the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians. Barcelona fell into the trap laid out for them by Israel by agreeing to have Shalit attend, and when they came under severe pressure from fans at home and worldwide they then invited Sarsak. To refuse the invitation for Shalit would have played straight into the Israeli's hands whereby they could scream "Anti Semitism".

Hamas were right in capturing Shalit, as under international law he was a POW. He was treated very well during his captivity, a point he made himself. The same can't be said for the thousands of Palestinians rotting away in Israeli prisons. On top of that, his father Noam said that if he were a Palestinian, he too would have captured an IDF soldier.

The reality is that the world at large has woken up to the horrible suffering the Palestinians have endured for over 60 years, however, the main problem is the support and green light to carry on with their genocide and ethnic cleansing by the US. $3 billion a year and a free trade agreement is a serious whack of change, plus full protection from sanctions by the UN for their crimes due to the veto by the US.

Perhaps when people complain about the few dollars spent on healthcare etc on the undocumented workers in the US, they would shout out about their tax dollars been spent on a rogue state who murder and steal land on a daily basis.

That antisemitism schtick is only going to work for a few years more. What Israel is doing to Gaza is micromanaging a catastrophe. Gaza is being made unlivable according to the UN.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19391809

Shalit was part of this system. He is a war criminal.

The UN are useless bastards, cowardly bastards at that, they should be in Gaza with the world condemning Israel for what it is at, the US in particular is a disgrace for propping these hoors up, they should pull every penny until Israel stop destroying the lives of the Palestinian people.

[Mentalman]

Shalit was part of this system. He is a war criminal.

Sweet divine. I'm very well disposed to, and educated about, the Palestinian's situation, but hysteria like that just alienates those in the middle ground.

[seafoid]

Shalit was part of this system. He is a war criminal.

Sweet divine. I'm very well disposed to, and educated about, the Palestinian's situation, but hysteria like that just alienates those in the middle ground.

What they are doing to gaza is a crime against humanity. The truth will come out. Shalit should be a pariah.

[Mentalman]

What they are doing to gaza is a crime against humanity. The truth will come out.

No argument here. As for whether he should be a pariah, perhaps, but a war criminal?

War Crimes are those serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning international humanitarian law that have become accepted as criminal offences for which there is individual responsibility.

Took that from "International Law" by Shaw, it's only one definition obviously, but a standard one.

Sorry for dragging the thread off topic but we lose the moral argument and leave the legitimate issues open to dismissal when we start to sound as unreasonable as those whose actions we object to is all I'm saying.

[LeoMc]

A former high-ranking Israeli military man actually.

Hold on, let's be fair, he was a corporal when he was captured, he was promoted to sergeant in captivity, in no army in the world is that high ranking, irrespective of what people might think of the IDF.

His rank is actually irrelevant. The fact he was in the IDF is enough.

The IDF is a conscript army so being a part of it may not have been his choice.

[seafoid]

What they are doing to gaza is a crime against humanity. The truth will come out.

No argument here. As for whether he should be a pariah, perhaps, but a war criminal?

War Crimes are those serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning international humanitarian law that have become accepted as criminal offences for which there is individual responsibility.

Took that from "International Law" by Shaw, it's only one definition obviously, but a standard one.

Sorry for dragging the thread off topic but we lose the moral argument and leave the legitimate issues open to dismissal when we start to sound as unreasonable as those whose actions we object to is all I'm saying.

Fair enough but what Israel is doing to Gaza constitutes a war crime. Two Croatians were sentenced in December for terrorism, bombings and other activities which led to the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian minority population of Crotia, which was a war crime. Israel is rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Shalit shouldn't be feted anywhere. He is part of an evil system.

His ultimate superiors are war criminals.

[Mentalman]

Like I said I certainly wouldn't argue over the Gaza situation, it's systematic and, apart from everything else, counter productive. I see Shalit as a stooge, willing or otherwise, of the system, not unlike many unfortunate bastards in the UK at the moment that Wills and Harry Hewitt are taking advantage of who die the Afganistan - refusing to accept the lessons of history.

[Mentalman]

Why Spain's greatest football match, El Clasico, matters to Palestinians
By Jon Donnison BBC News, Gaza City

Barcelona Football Club arguably brings more joy to Palestinians than any other institution in the world.

That's certainly my impression after almost three years in Gaza and the West Bank.

Every time the Catalans take to the field you can guarantee you'll struggle to get a table in the bars of Ramallah and the shisha-infused coffee shops of Gaza City.

On match day tradesmen touting maroon and gold Barca jerseys set up shop at Qalandia, the traffic-infested Israeli military checkpoint that separates Ramallah from East Jerusalem.

I've lost track of the number of mini Messis I've seen dribbling their way around dusty backstreets.

And if Messi senior and co manage to pull off a win, as of course they nearly always do, the night air is filled with the sound of car horns as supporters crane out of their sunroofs and parade round the streets.

Of course, as the best team in the world in recent years, Barcelona FC has support across the globe.

Everyone loves a winner.

But Palestinians seem to have a particular affinity for the club.

"We can identify with the Catalans and their struggle against the great power of Madrid, like the way we struggle against Israel," one supporter in Ramallah told me with a slightly far-fetched simile.

I can't remember too many signs of military occupation the last time I was strolling down Las Ramblas.

Of course there are a good number of Real Madrid fans here too but they're definitely outnumbered.

You certainly don't meet too many people cheering for Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea, let alone my team Bolton Wanderers.

For Palestinians, Barca rules.

It was with some surprise then that I learned that there were calls for Palestinians to boycott Barcelona FC and in particular this weekend's showdown with Real Madrid, El Clasico.

If ever there was an institution that Palestinians might struggle to turn their backs on, I thought, it would be their beloved Barcelona.

But this is a classic example of how there are few things untouched by politics in this part of the world.

The controversy all started when Israeli government officials put in a request to Barcelona FC for a former Israeli soldier to be able to attend Sunday's game.

Not just any soldier, though.

Gilad Shalit is the young man who spent more than five years as a hostage in Gaza after being captured by Palestinian militants in 2006.

He was eventually freed last year after the Islamist movement Hamas, which governs in Gaza, agreed a prisoner swap with Israel in which more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were handed over in exchange.

Mr Shalit has kept a low profile since his release, with his parents asking for privacy to allow their son to re-adjust to life as a free man.

The 26-year-old is a keen football fan and is believed to support Real Madrid.

Israeli officials put in a request to Barcelona FC, asking whether Mr Shalit could attend the game at the Camp Nou stadium.

The club said yes.

But when the news hit the media, some Palestinian groups called for Barcelona to withdraw their invitation and threatened a boycott.

Hamas officials in Gaza were quoted as saying Barcelona games would no longer be broadcast on television in the Palestinian coastal territory, without adding how they would go about stopping this from happening in practice.

Barcelona FC realised they'd opened something of a can of worms.

Club officials quickly announced that it had also invited three Palestinian representatives to the game, including a Palestinian footballer who spent three years detained in an Israeli jail without ever being formally charged.

Mahmoud Sarsak, who has played for the Palestine national side, was eventually released in July this year after having been on hunger strike - taking only water and vitamins - for three months in protest at his detention.

Israel believes Sarsak is a member of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Sarsak is a popular figure for Palestinians and Barcelona had hoped that by inviting him to counterbalance Shalit the club might be able to put an end to the controversy.

Not so. Sarsak announced in Gaza that he would not be attending the match on principle.

"I refuse to sit in the same place with a killer who came on a military tank," the former prisoner said, referring to Shalit.

"I respect Barcelona's invitation, but I have to avoid angering the Palestinian people and their supporters as well as all those who supported me during my hunger strike."
Own goal

Sarsak added that he also respected those who believed he should attend the match in order to represent the suffering of Palestinians but said that after giving it a lot of thought he would boycott the game.

Hamas have been keen to trumpet Sarsak's decision, although I suspect they may have plenty of now closeted Barcelona supporters amongst their ranks.

It's worth noting that this row has also highlighted the ability of Hamas and their secular rivals Fatah, who are in power in parts of the West Bank, to disagree on just about anything.

The two other Palestinians offered tickets by Barcelona were Jibril Rajoub, a leading Fatah figure and head of the Palestinian Football Federation and also the Fatah dominated Palestinian Liberation Organisation's ambassador to Spain, Musa Amer Odeh.

When contacted by the BBC on Thursday, Mr Rajoub confirmed he and Ambassador Odeh would not be following Mahmoud Sarsak's example and would be attending the game.

Hamas are likely to try to make political hay.

It's hard not to feel, though, that Hamas and the Palestinian boycott movement have scored something of an own goal here, if you'll pardon the pun.

Most Barcelona fans I've spoken to here have appeared gobsmacked when I've suggested they might put political principles before El Clasico.

"Are you kidding me?" has been the most common reaction.

"I watch football and support Barcelona, because I see only sports, I don't see politics. I won't allow for Israel to deny us from this fun time," says Nasser Ziad, a 25-year-old Barca fan in Gaza.

"I was so sad and disappointed when they announced that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will attend the Clasico but, personally speaking, I wish Sarsak had accepted the invitation to the match," he said.

"I don't see it as a way of normalisation with Israel. It would have brought more attention to our cause."

Thirty-year-old Ahmed Shafik agreed: "We should turn this into an Israeli-Palestinian Clasico. Sarsak should have gone to Camp Nou and used his presence for the good of our cause."

I've not found any Barcelona fans in either Gaza or the West Bank who've said they won't be positioning themselves in front of a big screen tonight.

It seems unlikely that Hamas will manage to stop the game from being broadcast on satellite channels in Gaza.

But if it does the Islamist movement is not going to make itself very popular.

Most Palestinians probably don't remember Bill Shankly, the legendary former Liverpool manager.

But in the run-up to El Clasico, they would probably appreciate his most famous quote:

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19861023

[give her dixie]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/07/us-palestinians-israel-barcelona-idUSBRE8960GA20121007

Gazans stage soccer protest at Israeli Shalit's Barcelona visit

(Reuters) - Palestinians freed from Israeli jails held their own version of the Barcelona-Real Madrid soccer match on Sunday to protest at the presence of a former captive Israeli soldier at the actual fixture.

The five-a-side kick-about in Gaza comprised mostly of ex-prisoners protesting at Gilad Shalit's presence in Barcelona. He was abducted by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in 2006 and they held him for over five years.

Wearing the shirts of the two Spanish giant clubs, the Palestinians called on hosts Barcelona to deny Shalit access to Sunday night's match. They thought he had been invited by the club, although Barcelona has denied this.

"Soccer is a sport that carries the message of freedom and love but we are against it when an (Israeli) soldier is invited, because it equates between the victim and the aggressor," said Yasser Saleh, who spent 17 years in Israeli jails.

Shalit was held by his captors in solitary confinement in the Gaza Strip that is ruled by Islamist faction Hamas until his release last October. He was discharged earlier this year and has been seen at many Israeli sports events.

Barcelona said they had accepted Shalit's request to attend Sunday's clash between two of the world's most successful outfits. But when Palestinians thought the club had initiated the invitation, they vowed to protest.

To redress the balance, Barcelona invited Mahmoud Sarsak, a former Palestinian soccer player who was released from an Israeli jail in July where he was held for three years without charge, Palestinian sports supremo Jibril Rajoub, and another representative.

"The club did not invite Mr. Shalit to the game, but accepted a request to watch a match during his visit to Barcelona ... In the same manner ... the club has also accepted the Palestinian embassy's request to extend three invitations to three Palestinian delegates," the club said on its website.

"Barcelona has always wanted to promote peace and harmony in the Middle East."

Sarsak said he would not share the same stadium with Shalit. It was not immediately clear whether the other two attended.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have a huge following among Gaza's 1.6 million population.

In a small protest in front of the Spanish consulate in East Jerusalem, a group of some 30 demonstrators held up placards with the club's insignia daubed in red paint signifying blood, and at least one trampled on a Barcelona shirt.

[give her dixie]

As Shilat was watching the match, Israel just went about doing what it does best:

Two critically hurt in Israeli air strike on Gaza: medics
 
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories — Two Palestinians were in critical condition and eight others wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medics said, revising an earlier account of one dead.

The attack targeted a motorbike in the Brazil neighourhood of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources told AFP.

A medical source at Rafah hospital later said two Palestinians belonging to Salafist movements were in critical condition following the attack that wounded eight others, including five children.
Palestinian medical sources named the two Salafists as Talaat Halil Mohammed Dirbi, who lost both legs in the attack, and Abdullah Mohammed Hassan Maqawai.

The Israeli military confirmed the strike in a statement, saying its aircraft targeted jihadists Talaat Halil Mohammed Jarbi and Maqawai.

According to the army, Jarbi was long "involved in extensive terrorist activity, targeting Israeli civilian and security forces, including rocket firing, weapon manufacturing and other terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip."

He was a "senior operative" involved in planning and carrying out an attack along the border security fence on June 18 in which an Israeli civilian was killed, it said.

"He had also been planning a complex attack intended to take place along the Sinai border."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h5P0mMi7fNkDl1Csk8XZjwJVv4mg?docId=CNG.4e5f8b8802c1a5b6fb7ceeabc796f739.8c1

[give her dixie]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/2013422233120394510.html

Palestinian prisoner agrees to end fast

A Palestinian prisoner held by Israel has agreed to end an on-off hunger strike that lasted for more than eight months in exchange for an early release, Palestinian officials say.

The fast by Samer al-Issawi, from a suburb of Jerusalem, had stoked weeks of street protests and concerns by Israel that his death might lead to mass unrest.

Issawi on Monday agreed to a deal brokered by Israeli and Palestinian officials to serve eight months for allegedly violating bail conditions for an earlier release, after which he will be freed to his Jerusalem home, Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian prisoner organisation, told Reuters news agency.

Issawi's lawyer and sister conveyed the offer just before midnight to his bedside in Israel's Kaplan hospital, where he had been under Israeli guard and receiving intravenous vitamins but was refusing food.

Israel convicted Issawi of opening fire on an Israeli bus in 2002, but released him in 2011 along with more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit held hostage by the Hamas movement in Gaza.

Conspiracy charges

Issawi was re-arrested last July after Israel said he violated the terms of his release by crossing from his native East Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank, and ordered the 32-year-old to stay in jail until 2029 - his original sentence.

An Israeli official told Reuters last week that Issawi had crossed into the West Bank as part of "continued involvement in attempting to establish terror cells".

Monday's deal dispenses with conspiracy charges and will see Issawi serve eight months for leaving Jerusalem - a decision Palestinian officials say will likely be endorsed by an Israeli military court on Tuesday.

Both Palestinian and Israeli officials have visited Issawi frequently in recent weeks to reach a compromise and pre-empt the violence his death could provoke.

Israel holds about 4,800 Palestinians it accuses of committing or planning violence against it. Palestinian officials say 207 Palestinian security prisoners have died in Israeli jails since 1948.