Palestine

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blindpig
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Aug 13, 2022 3:06 pm

TO SUBMIT TO HEZBOLLAH
ISRAEL OPENS FIRE ON "PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD"
Elijah J Magnier

11 Aug 2022 , 8:05 pm .

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Israel is a society built on an army whose creed is war and struggle, not peace, and theft of Palestinian land, not coexistence (Photo: Anas Baba / AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid wanted to show that he could not bear the "Sword of Jerusalem" insult inflicted on his political opponent, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, last year. Lapid began his brief tenure by killing "Palestinian Islamic Jihad" (PIJ) field commanders and setting the stage for the upcoming Knesset elections.

Subsequently, he assessed as unproductive and detrimental to continue the battle he had initially unleashed for fear of the losses it might inflict on his party and the Israelis. Israel believes that it has achieved multiple objectives and that it will not hurt to make promises to regional and international mediators to stop the battle, especially since it does not respect its agreements and commitments.

Israel was not wrong in its assessment of challenging the PIJ on the battlefield to show that it is not afraid of war in preparation for offering concessions to Lebanese Hezbollah. However, the Israeli Prime Minister has neglected a critical angle: Israel - which considers itself the best and most powerful army in the Middle East, with extensive military and technological capabilities - has expressed fear of Hamas involvement. It would be fighting against a small organization that has not been able to paralyze after almost three days of fighting.

What were the gains and losses of Israel and "Palestinian Islamic Jihad"?

Israel's battle against the PIJ in Gaza caused 43 deaths, including 16 children, and 320 injuries. Israel managed to isolate the "Hamas" movement from the battle with the PIJ and its considerable military power to avoid an all-out war with more than one Palestinian group and kill top PIJ leaders. Hamas leaders were faced with the choice of open warfare if it intervened or a small battle that would not cost the Gaza Strip much, as occurred in 2021 during the eleven-day "Sword of Jerusalem" battle.

Israel is aware that Gaza has not recovered from the last war, that food and health security is at its lowest levels, that the infrastructure has been damaged and the houses destroyed have not been fully built until today ( only 50%) and that the level of unemployment has reached 65%.

Por lo tanto, Israel se considera tácticamente victorioso, terminando la batalla en solo unos días para evitar más pérdidas humanas o materiales. Si la guerra hubiera continuado más tiempo, la economía israelí habría sufrido mucho y millones de israelíes en la Franja de Gaza habrían pasado más días en sus refugios. La Franja de Gaza ha sido objeto de cientos de ataques con cohetes durante los últimos días. Los cohetes de la Yihad Islámica convirtieron la zona de un radio de 65 km en ciudades fantasma y obligaron a sus habitantes a huir. Israel dijo que no podía proteger los asentamientos y ordenó a la población que evacuara sus hogares.

Israel took the initiative to start the aggression. He assassinated PIJ leaders responsible for the military command in the north (Taysir al-Jaabari) and south (Khaled Mansour) of the Gaza Strip. Israel believed that the PIJ was unable to withstand a painful blow and might hesitate to respond militarily. However, after 55 hours of fighting, Israel showed signs of weakness and unpreparedness to endure a long battle and hastened to ask Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations for a truce.

Israel has exhausted the bank of targets with no more targets to hit on the first day of the battle, without destroying the PIJ's command and control center and making sure not to provoke Hamas or target targets other than the PIJ. It is well known that the policy of assassinations has never succeeded in paralyzing any resistance group. Therefore, it was in the Israeli prime minister's interest to end the battle and make promises to the Egyptian mediator, even though Tel Aviv is well known for not keeping its promises.

Egypt was already negotiating with Israel and the PIJ a few days before the battle began to lift the siege on Gaza and defuse tension following the kidnapping of PIJ leader Sheikh Ghassan al-Saadi in the Jenin countryside earlier this month. In the past week. During the negotiations, Israel misled Egypt by assassinating al-Jaabari, triggering retaliation by the PIJ.

Israel has little regard for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. He considers that it is made up of a set of Palestinian refugee camps that are easy to isolate and attack, killing the leaders of the Palestinian resistance to break their will and starving the population when necessary. For this reason, Tel Aviv looks down on the Gaza Strip, but is happy to coordinate with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, with which it maintains relatively stable relations.


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is firmly opposed to Palestinian armed resistance and cooperates with Israel on the security front, rejecting Palestinian unity with Gaza or the holding of new elections to remove him from the power he has held for 17 years. The Palestinian Authority has not regained an inch of its territory since the Madrid Summit or the Oslo Agreement. Instead, Israel is slowly gnawing away at more Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Israel's repeated and ongoing violations of human rights and international law would not have been possible without the unconditional support of the West and the repeated narrative by Western leaders that Tel Aviv "has the right to defend itself." Western countries provide unreserved material, military, and intelligence aid to Israel, allowing it to isolate millions of people inside the Gaza Strip and carve out land for unopposed illegal settlements.

This is what helps the rulers of Tel Aviv disregard the rights of the Palestinians and besiege them by land, air and sea. Israel closes the only two crossings to and from Gaza whenever the Israeli political leadership decides to do so. Tel Aviv resorts to mediation when it is in trouble and when it cannot achieve the quick victory that the Israeli leadership needs in its elections or to support its popularity at the cost of Palestinian lives.

With the latest battle, Israel drew some of the world's attention as the West was preoccupied with war with Russia and preparing for another battle with China. Israel's message could also be directed at the nuclear deal with Iran, considered inappropriate and contrary to Israel's interests.

Israel hopes to deliver a blow to Iran's ally, "Islamic Jihad" in Gaza, with a message to the West that it is possible to weaken Tehran without submitting to it for fear of its nuclear program. However, the battle strengthened the PIJ which faced Israel without Hamas and increased its popularity in Gaza. Iran hosted PIJ secretary general Ziad al-Nakhala days before the assassination of his Gaza field commander, Taysir al-Jaabari.

Finally, Israel's current leadership demonstrated to their voters that they do not hesitate to engage in battle when there is a national security benefit, even if al-Jaabari's assassination has changed the PIJ's capabilities very little. Therefore, accepting the agreement with Lebanon for fear of the threat of the powerful Hezbollah (equipped with 150,000 missiles and armed drones) does not mean the cowardice of the Israeli leadership. On the contrary, it would be an assessment of the situation that does not affect Israel's interests, especially if war is avoided and as long as any decision by the Israeli government does not appear to derive from the reluctance of its officials to confront Hezbollah.

As for Islamic Jihad, he stated that, despite its small size, it could launch 330 missiles a day (360 were launched daily during last year's confrontation by all Palestinian groups, including Hamas) and paralyze Israel for days. The PIJ hit the Israeli conscience to insinuate that it was not safe to stay in the occupied territory and that the geography it occupies under the name of Palestine is not a place to live.

PIJ missiles conveyed to Israelis that no place is safe, not even for the next generation. Israel's claim that it has restored deterrence after the "Sword of Jerusalem" battle confirmed its inability to protect settlers, even after 70 years of occupation. The PIJ managed to lift the siege and sanctions on Gaza and open its crossings, restoring the full flow of fuel.

The Palestinian resistance demonstrated that the Palestinian cause is not limited to Gaza, but has a national dimension. The PIJ called for the release of prisoner Khalil Al-Awadeh (from the West Bank), confirming the link that unites all Palestinian fronts. He also called on Israel to release Sheikh Ghassan al-Saadi, detained by the PIJ in the Palestinian countryside of Jenin while Egypt negotiated a truce between Israel and the PIJ.

Thus, Israel went looking for mediators to stop a military confrontation with a small faction. Israel's enemies and allies are watching and assessing the level Israel has reached in comparison to its enemies, who will dare to challenge it in the future. This confirms that Israel is a society built on an army whose creed is war and struggle, not peace, and theft of Palestinian land, not coexistence. The killing of civilians is allowed relentlessly because the international community is complicit and disregards it.

It's one of those battles that ends sooner or later with a ceasefire (but not a lasting peace) until it's time for the next battle. Israel's military performance indicates that a war with Hezbollah is unlikely, and an Israeli war in Iran is unthinkable. The fragility of the Israeli home front prevents Israel from facing any powerful enemy at any time in the future.

https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/i ... -palestina

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On hunger strike for 162 days, Khalil Awawdeh’s health deteriorates in Israeli prison

Israel has refused to release Awawdeh despite it being a central condition of the ceasefire agreement that ended the three-day-long Israeli aggression in the besieged Gaza strip last week, in which 47 Palestinians were killed

August 12, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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(Photo: via Al Mayadeen)

Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh was moved to a hospital on Thursday, August 11, due to deterioration in his health condition after being on hunger strike for 162 days, Samidoun: Palestinian Political Prisoners Solidarity network informed.

His family members claimed that he was admitted to the hospital after he suffered “a sudden and severe cognitive decline and is at risk of death at any moment,” a statement issued by Samidoun said.

Samidoun and other Palestinian organizations have launched a #FreeKhalil campaign globally. Protests in Awawdeh’s support have been organized in different parts of the world.


The Samidoun statement also included Awawdeh’s message to his family members in which he claimed that “I went on strike for freedom, and I have sacrificed a lot for the dearest and strongest need, freedom..my abstinence from food is not a rejection of life, but rather a rejection of chains.”


Awawdeh (40) was arrested in December by the Israeli forces who claimed that he is a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). He went on hunger strike to expose the illegality of his detention and demand his release.

As per the law of administrative detention in Israel, a detainee can be held in prison without charge or trial for a period which can be renewed indefinitely. The law has been used by Israelis to incarcerate thousands of Palestinians. The policy has faced criticism from the UN and other human rights groups as a central element of the apartheid system in the occupied territories.

Awawdeh is married and has four daughters. According to his lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, he has been denied family visits and any legal aid throughout his detention by the Israeli prison authorities, in complete violations of basic human rights.

According to Samidoun, out of a total of 4,650 Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons, around 650 are being held in illegal detention.

Awawdeh’s release was one of the main conditions of the ceasefire reached on Sunday between the PIJ and Israel through Egyptian mediation. The PIJ has claimed that Israel had agreed to release Awawdeh and Bassam al-Saadi in return for ending its rocket attacks inside Israel.

Israel had launched attacks on the besieged Gaza between Friday and Sunday last month, killing more than 47 Palestinians, including 16 children, and wounding hundreds others. The PIJ fired hundreds of rockets in retaliation inside Israeli borders.

According to a report in al-Mayadeen, Israel issued a high alert after transferring Awawdeh to prison on Thursday, fearing retaliation from the PIJ.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/12/ ... li-prison/

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UN Urges Israel Be Held Accountable for Killing Palestinian Children
ORINOCOTRIBUNE AUGUST 12, 2022

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Images of several Palestinian children killed during Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip between August 5 and 7, 2022. Photo: MEE.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, alarmed by the mass murder of Palestinian children by Israel in the latest escalation, urges accountability.

In a statement released this Thursday, August 11, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, has sounded the alarm due to the high number of dead or injured Palestinians, including numerous children, in the occupied Palestinian territories this year, in particular during the latest Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

Last week, 19 Palestinian children were killed, bringing to 37 the number of minors killed so far this year, according to figures from Bachelet’s office. 17 children lost their lives during hostilities in Gaza from August 5 to 7, and two others were killed on August 9 during Israeli incursions into the West Bank.

“Inflicting harm on any child during the course of a conflict is deeply disturbing; killing and maiming so many children this year is unacceptable,” Bachelet wrote in the statement.

The UN Human Rights Office has verified that 48 Palestinians were killed in Gaza last week, including 17 children.

In addition, 360 Palestinians were injured during the latest Israeli attacks, including 151 children and 19 elderly people, the UN disclosed.

In violation of international humanitarian law, according to the High Commissioner, several Israeli attacks hit prima facie properties that were clearly civilians, causing civilian casualties and damage to civilian properties. The High Commissioner demanded that Israel put an end to these attacks.

Bachelet condemned the widespread use of live ammunition by Israeli forces in their operations in the West Bank—including in eastern Al-Quds (Jerusalem)—which in 2022 has caused an alarming increase in Palestinian deaths, bring the total to at least 74 Palestinians, including 20 children, killed this year alone.

Likewise, she called for a prompt, independent, impartial, exhaustive, and transparent investigation of all incidents in which there were deaths or injuries.

She denounced that all this Israeli violence occurs while “an almost total lack of accountability persists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” for violations of international humanitarian law. “This climate of impunity, together with long-standing violations, drives the cycle of violence and the recurrence of violations,” she warned.

https://orinocotribune.com/un-urges-isr ... -children/

Hundreds of Jewish Extremists Raid Al-Aqsa Mosque as Israeli Aggression on Gaza Continues (Video)
ORINOCO TRIBUNE2 AUGUST 11, 2022

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Fer-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir storms Al-Aqsa Mosque. Photo: Ben-Gvir Twitter page.

Coinciding with the deadly Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Israeli Jewish settlers raided Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday. They were protected by a large number of Israeli police.

Palestinian sources say that up to 26 groups of Jewish extremists have raided Al-Aqsa so far, taking the number to 1,325 since Sunday morning.

The raid on Al-Aqsa followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to allow settlers into the holy Muslim shrines.

(Video at link.)

The extremists included Knesset members such as far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir.

As the raids continue, the Israeli police increased restrictions on Palestinian Muslim worshippers, preventing them from reaching what is considered the first Qibla and the third holiest Muslim shrine.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its deadly attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip. 32 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded as of Sunday morning. The number of the dead also includes 6 Palestinian children.

https://orinocotribune.com/hundreds-of- ... ues-video/

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An Israeli soldier on guard at a bus station near the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank on 14 October 2021 (AFP)

Palestinian workers forced off Israeli bus to make way for Jewish passengers
Originally published: Middle East Eye on August 9, 2022 by Middle East Eye Staff (more by Middle East Eye) | (Posted Aug 12, 2022)

Three Jewish passengers, one impersonating a transport ministry official, have forced dozens of Palestinians off a bus heading to the occupied West Bank, according to Haaretz.

The incident happened last Thursday, when about 50 Palestinians workers left the bus in the city of Bnei Brak, after the Jewish passengers demanded that the driver tell them to disembark.

Tnufa Transportation Solutions, the bus owner, operates routes between Tel Aviv and the West Bank settlement of Ariel, taking Palestinian workers with work permits from Israel back to the occupied West Bank.

After a few buses went by and didn’t stop–because bus 288 is reserved for Jews only–one that was empty of Jews stopped for us and we got on,” one of the Palestinian passengers told Haaretz.

Three Jews boarded in Bnei Brak and demanded that all the Arabs be taken off.

The driver made a call to his superiors and afterwards asked the Palestinians to alight.

The law prohibits transport operators from segregating Jews and Arabs using their services. The CEO of Tnufa Transportation Solutions denied the allegations.

“We have no separate routes for Palestinians or Jews… There are lines that go to the crossings [between Israel and the West Bank] and naturally Palestinians use them more, but if a Jew wants to get on, there’s no restriction,” he said.

At Haaretz’s request, the company conducted an inquiry and said that the driver “fell victim to a shameful manipulation of a passenger who impersonated an employee of the Transportation Ministry”, who claimed that these were the new instructions from the ministry for that specific route.

“The new driver said he argued with the imposter, but he told him that he could lose his job or receive a large fine if he did not follow the instructions immediately,” said the company in a statement.

It seems, that because of the pressure put on him, the driver gave in to the racist manipulation and was forced to leave the passengers at the bus stop. The driver did not report it to his employer.

The company filed a complaint with Israeli police, reaffirmed its commitment to providing an equal service to Palestinians and Jews, and apologised to the Palestinian passengers for the “unfortunate event”.

https://mronline.org/2022/08/12/palesti ... assengers/

The Zionists and the Nazis both learned at the knee of Amerika.

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ISRAELI FAR RIGHT LAWMAKER ITAMAR BEN GVIR TAKES PART IN A MARCH IN JERUSALEM, ON APRIL 20, 2022. POLICE PREVENTED HUNDREDS OF ULTRA-NATIONALIST ISRAELIS FROM MARCHING AROUND PREDOMINANTLY PALESTINIAN AREAS OF JERUSALEM’S OLD CITY. PHOTO BY JERIES BSSIER (C) APA IMAGES

Israel heads further right: 30-40 percent of young support fascistic Jewish party
By Philip Weiss (Posted Aug 12, 2022)

Originally published: Mondoweiss on August 10, 2022 (more by Mondoweiss) |

Israel’s unprovoked attack on Gaza last week that resulted in yet more childrens’ death and trauma, widely related on social media, is sure to further damage Israel’s reputation among Democrats. The last time Israel attacked Gaza, in May 2021, even traditional friends got wobbly, The New York Times put the faces of 60+ dead Palestinian children on the front page, and a subsequent poll revealed that 38 percent of American Jews under 40 believe Israel is an apartheid state.

Today more U.S. politicians are daring not to support Israel’s latest attack; and one young American Jewish group damned the attack as a political stunt by Israel’s prime minister Yair Lapid to stay in power, facing an election November 1.

But Israeli politics could not be more different. Jewish Israelis saw the attack as a great success. All Israel is “united” in support of the Gaza attack, says Israel advocate Daniel Gordis, who describes “ wall-to-wall agreement in Israel (except, as expected and even understandably, from the Arab parties).”

Even Merav Michaeli, the head of the left-centrist Jewish party, Labor, took a hawkish line on the Israeli attack, saying Israel was besieged by Palestinian terrorists. Michaeli is battling for Labor to keep its seven seats in parliament in the coming election; and she faces a strong headwind: Israeli Jewish society is very rightwing. The left is slowly evaporating over the “security” issue; and about 80 of the 120 seats in the parliament are solid rightwing.

The rightwing tilt of Israeli society was captured in a discussion last week between Ori Nir of Americans for Peace Now and former Haaretz Washington reporter Chemi Shalev. (Youtube link).

The two described all the “energy” that surrounds Itamar Ben-Gvir, the head of Otzma Yehudit, the Jewish Power party–a racist Kahanist faction that had been barred from the Knesset in previous decades. Ben-Gvir’s party is now part of the Religious Zionism bloc of seven seats in the parliament, and politically loyal to Netanyahu. Polls say it could almost d ouble in size in the next election.

Nir said he witnessed Religious Zionism’s popularity on a visit recently.

I have to tell you, during those three weeks, the only billboards and flyers that I’ve seen on the street in Jerusalem, were for the extremist Kahanist Party, the religious Zionism party. Now, this is Jerusalem granted, I know that Jerusalem doesn’t reflect the overall political sentiments in Israel. But still, it’s the largest city in Israel.

Shalev agreed that Religious Zionism is gaining among young people.

You’re right. The only place where you can see real energy is on the far right among young people. I don’t know how much that’s going to translate into but don’t forget, this is July. I mean, I know we have a long election campaign… I can tell you that the right is very confident. And the left is–and I say left with quotation marks–is, as usual, very afraid. And we can go on but sure.

Shalev said that a recent poll of young Israelis showed that Religious Zionism attracts 30 to 40 percent of the young’s support. “So they are going to do well.” But if Religious Zionism gets 10 seats and Netanyahu still can’t form a majority, Religious Zionism will “make a lot of trouble inside parliament” but that’s all.

Polling in July showed that the Religious Zionism party if headed by Ben-Gvir of Jewish Power would win as many as 13 seats, making it the third largest party in the Knesset behind Lapid’s centrist party and Netanyahu’s Likud. Ben-Gvir l ately led prayers at the Haram al-Sharif, a highly provocative act that has unleashed violence in the past.

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[Merav Michaeli] is not doing as well as people expected… Labor, as of now, is not yet in danger. But there, are circumstances in which it could very well be in danger.

Shalev then said that Labor and Meretz, the two left-leaning Zionist parties, which hold seven and six seats respectively, are concerned about not getting into the next parliament. If a party falls below 3.25 percent of the vote–or four seats–it gets no seats at all, and its votes are redistributed.
Meretz is likely to be led by a traditional leftist, Zehava Galon, and to field a traditional list of candidates, Shalev said.

And that means that it will hover around the threshold vote, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Labor and Meretz to run together.

Daniel Gordis pointed out the unity of rightwing and leftwing Zionists in support of the attack on Gaza.

Bezalel Smotrich, on the radical right, explicitly supported not just the troops, but even [Prime Minister] Yair Lapid, too, saying he had Lapid’s back and the PM should do whatever it takes. Zahava Gal’on, now running to head Meretz, the (often radical) left-most Jewish party, say, “What we need now is hope and security, not escalation,” which was obviously not a critique of the operation (and which may well have been directed at Hamas, which had not entered the fighting)?… Even Israelis on the left do not believe that military action against terrorists… to keep your children safe is illegitimate.

Of course we are not talking here about the Joint List of Palestinian parties, including Ayman Odeh, Ahmad Tibi, and Aida Touma-Sliman. They repeatedly slammed the attack and the “security” narrative. “The Israeli government commits war crimes against the Palestinian people to serve narrow political interests, and the Gazans are paying the price in blood,” Odeh wrote last week.

But the left Palestinian parties, comprising six seats, are marginalized from Israeli Zionist politics. No wonder Shalev says that the left believes the Palestinian vote will be lower this time than the last election.

https://mronline.org/2022/08/12/israel- ... her-right/..
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:37 pm

Israeli Army Shuts Down Prominent Palestinian Rights Groups
AUGUST 24, 2022

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Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh pays solidarity visit to a Palestinian rights group shut by Israel in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 18, 2022. Photo: Shadi Hatem/APA Images

Israeli occupation forces raided, sealed and imposed closure orders on the offices of several prominent Palestinian human rights, feminist and social services organizations in the West Bank early Thursday, August 18.

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Hours earlier, soldiers shot in the chest and killed Wasim Nasser Khalifa, 18.

The teen was fatally injured during confrontations that erupted when Jewish worshippers, escorted by the Israeli military, infiltrated the northern West Bank city of Nablus to pray at Joseph’s Tomb. Thirty Palestinians were injured, two of them severely, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

The Israeli military frequently raids Nablus late at night to allow settlers to access the archaeological site that is considered sacred by Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Israeli soldiers sometimes shoot at Palestinians during those raids, injuring them with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas. The army also imposes curfews and strict military closures on the city, disrupting people’s lives.

Israel raids prominent groups

Palestinians confronted Israeli soldiers that raided the offices of several human rights, feminist and social services organizations in the Ramallah area in the central West Bank early Thursday, August 18.


According to Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, the Israeli military entered the Ramallah area at 3 am and raided its offices as well as those of Addameer, the Bisan Center for Research & Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

Israel designated the six organizations “terrorist groups” late last year.

A seventh organization, the Union of Health Work Committees, was also reportedly raided on Thursday.

The designations have been denounced by UN experts and were rejected by nine European Union states that fund the targeted groups for lack of evidence substantiating Israel’s claims.

More than 20 members of US Congress have demanded that the Biden administration publicly reject the designations and pressure Israel to rescind the measures.

Instead, during his visit to Jerusalem last month, Biden pledged to shield Israel from accountability, including at the UN and International Criminal Court.


And instead of pressuring Israel to rescind the designations, the European Union’s 27 foreign ministers decided to resume meetings of the EU-Israel Association Council, a high-level forum.

And while nine EU members have rejected the Israeli allegations, the bloc’s headquarters in Brussels has pointedly refused to do so—despite Israel’s failure to back up its charges with evidence.

[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1560323178903339008[/youtube]

With no meaningful consequences imposed on Israel over the designations, and instead only rewards, Tel Aviv was seemingly emboldened to escalate its crackdown on the Palestinian groups.

Israeli forces “forcibly blasted through the locked security door of Al-Haq’s offices, bursting the door from its hinges and raiding the premises, setting off the alarms,” the rights group said on Thursday.


The military also broke the front door of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, located below Al-Haq’s offices, “leaving long shards of exposed broken glass, sponge-grenades, and several teargas canisters, rubber-coated and live bullets around the property.”

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem said that soldiers occupied its entire complex, including “the church sanctuary, parish hall, church offices, rectory and the Arab Episcopal Medical Center.”

The diocese, which condemned the “flagrant attack,” added that “the sound of gunshots, stun grenades and the smashing of doors caused terror among the families living inside the compound.”

Al-Haq said that the Israeli army raided each room in its offices and rummaged through files and trashed its premises.

The army “welded a new reinforced iron door to the outside of Al-Haq’s office,” preventing entry. Soldiers also posted a military order commanding the closure of the office “for the safety and security of the area.”


Defense for Children International-Palestine said that soldiers took “client files related to Palestinian child detainees” that it represents in Israeli military courts.

Security camera footage shows that they also removed other equipment, though because occupation forces welded the door shut, “it is unclear exactly what items were confiscated,” DCIP said.

Israeli forces raided the child rights group’s offices in July last year and seized files and equipment.


Bisan, a Palestinian research group, said that the Israeli military had sealed its doors and posted “a military order declaring the organization unlawful.”


The Union of Agricultural Work Committees posted security camera footage of Israeli soldiers confiscating materials from their office on Thursday morning:


Addameer, a prisoners rights group, posted photos of the closure orders posted by the military on its doors:


Sahar Francis, the director of Addameer, said that her organization and the other targeted groups “will continue in our work in supporting the Palestinian people and defending Palestinian rights in the international arena, especially in front of the International Criminal Court and in the UN.”

[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1560358491755257856[/youtube]

The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees noted that Thursday morning was “not the first time that the occupation forces stormed our office”:

“Clear attempt to repress”

Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, said that the raids and closures of the Palestinian groups is “another clear attempt to repress those documenting and pursuing accountability for rights violations.”

Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer representing some of the designated groups, said that the attacks on the Palestinian organizations was motivated out of “desire to frustrate the International Criminal Court investigations.”

Three of the groups raided on Thursday – Al-Haq, Addameer and Defense for Children International-Palestine—have provided evidence to The Hague’s investigation of war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Fatou Bensouda, the previous ICC chief prosecutor, authorized an investigation in Palestine during March last year. Her successor, Karim Khan, has so far not commented publicly on Israel’s persecution of Palestinian groups cooperating with the court.

Benny Gantz, the Israeli defense minister who imposed the “terror” designations, is a likely person of interest in the ICC’s probe over his role in Israel’s targeting of civilians during its bombing campaigns in Gaza.

Al-Haq warned on Thursday that there is risk of Israel seizing the targeted groups’ finances and assets, as well as the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of their staff members.

The group called for “concrete measures, such as trade restrictions and arms embargoes,” to hold Israel to account for its “systematic inhumane acts of apartheid, including the persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders.”

The Palestinian Authority foreign ministry condemned the raids and said that lack of international accountability has enabled Israel’s “continued war against [the] international human rights movement.”

Following Thursday’s raids, the European Union tweeted that it would “continue to stand by international law” and support organizations upholding “international law, human rights and democratic values.”

But the EU pointedly failed to condemn Israel’s actions or call for them to be rescinded. The foreign affairs spokesperson for the EU did not respond to a request for comment.

The EU’s tweet attracted skepticism and scorn from observers who pointed towards the EU’s “willful complicity” in Israel’s rights abuses.

Likewise, the US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Washington was “concerned” about the raids but did not condemn them.

“He said Israeli officials have pledged to provide further information, without detailing what has been received so far or what conclusions US officials have drawn from it,” the Associated Press reported.

During a press conference on Thursday, the targeted Palestinian organizations pledged to keep working, saying that “we don’t take our legitimacy from an Israeli military commander, but from our people and Palestinian law.”

(The Electronic Intifada) by Maureen Clare Murphy

https://orinocotribune.com/israeli-army ... ts-groups/

Palestinian Collective Struggle on the Rise Inside Occupation Prisons
AUGUST 24, 2022

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Palestinian prisoners holding a flag behind bars. File photo.

Palestinian prisoners announced that they will pursue steps of collective struggle inside occupation prisons beginning on Monday, 22 August. These collective struggle steps were suspended in March 2022 after an agreement was purportedly reached to improve conditions for Palestinian detainees whose rights are systematically violated by occupation forces, from denial of family visits to constant transfers from prison to prison every six months to aggressive raids and invasions.

Prisoners’ institutions announced that detainees in occupation prisons will refuse to leave their rooms for the daily routine security checks and will return their meals provided by the prison administration on 22 August and 24 August. These checks, which take place daily, require the prisoners to leave their rooms as the floors, windows and bathrooms are inspected while guards, accompanied by sniffer dogs and carrying weapons, knock on the doors and windows in a manner meant to provoke and irritate the prisoners. All of these repressive mechanisms were massively increased after six Palestinians liberated themselves from Gilboa prison in the Freedom Tunnel operation, exposing the failure of the “security” apparatus.

Rather than implement the measures they agreed to in March, the occupation prison administration has continued to implement these repressive practices, and the prisoners’ movement will escalate their protest actions if their demands ae not met. They are demanding an end to the constant transfer of prisoners every six months — especially for prisoners with lengthy sentences, including life sentences — and the use of administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Three Palestinian administrative detainees are on hunger strike against their detention; Khalil Awawdeh, on strike for 173 days, and Ahmad and Adel Musa, on strike for 16 days.

RELATED CONTENT: Elderly Palestinian Woman Dies of Deliberate Medical Negligence in Israeli Prison of Damon

In advance of the announced protest steps, repressive forces stormed one of the rooms in Hadarim prison on Sunday, 21 August, ransacking the rooms and disrupting the prisoners. The prisoners’ movement declared that such actions will not dissuade the detainees from defending themselves and each other. The prisoners’ movement has announced the collective commitment to launch an open hunger strike if these escalating steps of struggle are not met with the implementation of their demands.

This call follows the collective statement from administrative detainees calling for action to free Awawdeh and end administrative detention.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice and liberation in Palestine to prepare to act to support the prisoners in their collective struggle and resistance behind Zionist bars. The prisoners’ struggle is not only to improve the conditions of detention but for liberation, for all of the prisoners and for Palestine and its people, from the river to the sea.

Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the case of Khalil Awawdeh and the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:

Double-sided Flyer: Free Khalil Awawdeh https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/up ... ochure.pdf
Poster: Free Khalil Awawdeh (new) https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/up ... deh-EN.pdf
Poster/Sign: Free Khalil Awawdeh https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/up ... cument.pdf
Poster/Sign: End Administrative Detention https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/up ... 4-6-16.pdf
Poster/Sign: Free Hunger Strikers and All Prisoners https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/up ... 4-6-16.pdf
Poster/Sign – End Administrative Detention (with Palestinian Flag) https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/up ... 4-6-16.pdf

1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.

2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.

3. Support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people – This aggression was an extension of the siege on Gaza that has been imposed on the resisting and steadfast Strip for over 15 years. The Palestinian people need economic, political and all forms of support to help sustain their steadfastness. To contribute to Samidoun’s drive in support of children’s health care in Gaza, make a donation at https://samidoun.net/gaza

https://orinocotribune.com/palestinian- ... n-prisons/

******************

Why is Israel targeting Palestinian human rights groups?

Over the past week, Israel has continued and intensified attacks against Palestinian human rights organizations. Who are these organizations and why are they being targeted?

August 25, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch



Over the past week, Israel has continued and intensified attacks against Palestinian human rights organizations. The raids targeted Al Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center for Human Rights, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC) and the Union of Health Work Committees. Who are these organizations and why are they being targeted? We find out in this video.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/25/ ... ts-groups/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 30, 2022 2:45 pm

Israeli settlers and occupation forces again storm Al-Aqsa, attack Palestinian worshippers

On the occasion of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, Israeli occupation forces barricaded different parts of the occupied West Bank to allow easy access to settlers who performed worship at the site, prohibited by law

September 28, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch
Israel raids Al Aqsa

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(Photo: via Times of Gaza/Twitter)
On Tuesday, September 27, Israeli occupation forces stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem for the third consecutive day. The occupation forces attacked Palestinians worshipers inside the mosque compound and allowed settlers to perform rituals prohibited by law.

Several Palestinians were wounded and over a dozen arrested in the attacks carried out by the occupation forces. The Israeli forces erected barricades all across the old city to prevent Palestinians from reaching the compound. As per the Quds News Network, for the last three days, Israeli forces only allowed Palestinians above the age of 40 to visit the mosque.

Quds News Network reported that at least 504 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound on Monday and 446 stormed it on Tuesday.

On Monday, videos of Israeli forces pushing an elderly Palestinian on the stairs of the mosque compound went viral on social media. The elderly man, identified as Abu Bakr al-Shimy, was injured in the attack.
More disturbing footage of the Israeli force's attack on Palestinian Muslim worshippers inside Al Aqsa mosque. pic.twitter.com/KvXaYM2vKE
[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1574324513889812480[/youtube]
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) September 26, 2022

Several other videos show Israeli forces storming the mosque compound and forcing Palestinians to leave the premises.
Israeli occupation forces assault Palestinian girls, elderly and young men near Bab Hutta to force them to leave after they were prevented from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque. pic.twitter.com/5RKbxhG2a7
[youtube]https//twitter.com/i/status/1574325810814746625[/youtube]
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 26, 2022
In some videos, Israelis are seen provocatively dancing and praying inside the premises.
To harass the Palestinians who were prevented from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, lsraeli settlers perform provocative dances near the Chain Gate. It’s worthy of mentioning that about 300 settlers so far have broken into the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards under the protection of the IOF. pic.twitter.com/jgpQl8h14i
[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1574689355913912323[/youtube]
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) September 27, 2022
Long bid to change status quo
Israeli forces often storm the Al-Aqsa compound under the pretext of security. They have also provided cover to extremist Jewish groups who have been campaigning for the demolition of the mosque in order to rebuild in its place what they call the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism. According to a Times of Israel report, the number of Jews visiting the Al-Aqsa compound has increased manifold in recent years despite Palestinian objections.

The storming of the compound by extremist Jewish groups and Israeli security forces often leads to retaliation from the Palestinians, who consider Al-Aqsa a symbol of their resistance. A series of of similar attacks last year during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan had caused hundreds of Palestinian casualties. Over 400 Palestinians were also arrested during that period.

The latest round of attacks on Al-Aqsa coincide with the 22th anniversary of the second intifada against Israeli occupation, which began in 2000, following former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the compound.
Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the break-out of Al-Aqsa Intifada, an uprising against the Israeli occupation, where about 4500 Palesetinians were killed.
Image
]22 years have passed and Israeli forces & settlers haven't stopped storming Al-Aqsa Mosque.. pic.twitter.com/yTQ5biEIGg
[youtube]
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 28, 2022
Apart from Al-Aqsa, the Israeli occupation forces have also blocked Palestinian access to the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on the occasion of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. Israeli security forces allegedly prevented Palestinians from praying inside the mosque but allowed settlers to perform their rituals on the premises.

Palestinian resistance group Hamas issued a statement on Tuesday calling the attacks inside the Al-Aqsa compound “acts of provocation.” It warned that “unrelenting violations could lead to an uncontrollable explosion and unleash the wrath of all Muslim nations.”

Several West Asian countries, as well as the Arab League, issued statements condemning Israel’s failure to curb the attacks on Al-Aqsa, and demanded that Israel fulfill its commitment to maintain the status quo at the site.

Israel signed a deal with Jordan following its occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 to maintain the status quo at Al-Aqsa, which is claimed by both Jews and Muslims. According to the understanding, Israel maintains the outer security of the site while the management of the mosque compound is the responsibility of the Waqf. Jews are not allowed to pray inside the compound, but can visit the site as tourists.

[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1574324513889812480[/youtube]


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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Oct 08, 2022 1:41 pm

Israel Blocks Award To Renowned Rights Leader
OCTOBER 7, 2022

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Navanethem Pillay, chair of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, briefing reporters on June 14 on the commission’s first report. Photo: U.N./Jean Marc Ferré.

By Barbara Crossette – Oct 3, 2022

Publicly, the lobbying against Navi Pillay began with an article in the pro-Israeli German tabloid Bild, Barbara Crossette reports.

It was billed as a grand ceremony staged by the United Nations Association of Germany to award its biennial Otto Hahn Peace Medal to Navi Pillay, marking her decades of groundbreaking work in human rights and international criminal law, including through the United Nations.

The setting for the ceremony on Sept. 28 would be Berlin’s 19th-century Red City Hall, named for its brick façade. The hall, damaged in World War II, had been reconstructed and become a symbolic landmark in the German capital.

UNA-Germany expected a full house for the award presentation as positive responses to invitations poured in. The elected mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, was to preside.

None of this happened.

While an exact chronology of how an Israeli campaign contesting the award to Pillay was put into motion in Germany leaves some questions unanswered, the cause and effect is not disputed.

“Berlin mayor torpedoes event honoring head of UN probe into Israel” read the headline in the Times of Israel, an online newspaper published in English and other Western and Middle Eastern languages. It began operating in 2012.

Publicly, the Israel lobbying campaign began with an article in the pro-Israeli German tabloid Bild, which repeated longstanding Israeli allegations that Pillay, a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and South African judge, was pro-Palestinian — or, at least, that she was critical of Israeli policies and actions in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza as well as in East Jerusalem.

However, since 1975, Pillay has also been the advisory-council president of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, a German foundation promoting global criminal law. Her role indicates that not all Germans agree on her alleged record, as the UNA-Germany award would confirm.

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Franziska Giffey, mayor of Berlin, in 2019. (Olaf Kosinsky, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Wikimedia Commons)

The Bild report is primarily focused on Pillay’s most recent position as head of the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The commission was created by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

A current target of Israeli ire is directed at one of the panel member’s harsh remarks about Israel. In an interview in July with Mondoweiss, a journal of news and opinion on Palestine, Israel and the United States, the member, Miloon Kothari of India, a human-rights activist with expertise in housing and land rights, who has reported to the Human Rights Council on Israeli occupation of Palestine territory, said:

“I would go as far as to raise the question of why [Israel is] even a member of the United Nations . . . the Israeli government does not respect its own obligations as a UN member state [because] they, in fact, consistently, either directly or through the United States, try to undermine UN mechanisms.”

He referred to a “Jewish lobby” and unspecified nongovernmental organizations as overseers of pro-Israeli views.

Pillay, a distinguished South African jurist of Indian descent, is also accused by the Israelis, without evidence, of being part of the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement (BDS), a Palestinian initiative intended to undercut the Israeli economy.

When the 2017 BDS movement attracted attention in Germany, where it was denounced as anti-Semitic, some local governments tried to stop it with repressive or punitive ways. A Munich resident who was supported by defenders of free speech brought a case against the city council, which eventually reached a federal court despite early setbacks.

Early this year, on Jan. 20, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that German law “guarantees everyone the right to freely express and disseminate their opinion.” The Munich City Council, the court added, could not violate that right by denying permission for an event because it disagreed with the expressed views of the BDS campaign.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council is not — despite what the general public may think — an integral part of the U.N. organization or under the control of the secretary-general. It was created as an independent body in 2005-2006 to replace the discredited Human Right Commission. The council’s 47 member nations are nominated regionally by governments. Its presidency rotates around the U.N.’s designated geographic blocs.

The council appoints scores of monitors and panels on a range of rights-related topics. The commission of inquiry on Israel and occupied Palestine falls roughly into that system. It is the most-recent controversial action on Israel that has drawn often-bitter divisions among nations and regions.

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Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to Germany. (Wikimedia Commons)

Soon after the Bild report was published in September, barely a week before the scheduled award ceremony, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, called on Giffey, Berlin’s mayor — a politician from the Social Democratic Party — to call off the ceremony, which she did. She also barred UNA-Germany from using the Berlin City Hall for its ceremony.

Faced with this setback, which sent a shock through the association, according to some members, UNA-Germany had no choice but to hurriedly cancel the event and rescind invitations. What it will do next is still under discussion.

Jeffrey Laurenti, an American commentator on the U.N. and international affairs and an influential member of UNA-USA, in New Jersey, analyzed the predicament of UNA-Germany for PassBlue. “The German UNA must be credited with some daring in having proposed Pillay for this award, given her current role as chairman of a commission of inquiry that Israeli authorities are very anxious to discredit,” he wrote in an email. “For obvious reasons of 20th century history, Germany is one of the most philo-Israeli countries in Europe.”

“From The Times of Israel report,” Laurenti added, “one senses that Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador in Berlin (who served as permanent representative at the U.N. a decade ago), sees the cancellation of the award by Berlin’s mayor as evidence of Israel’s, and maybe specifically his, successful diplomacy.

The larger purpose, of course, is preemptively to discredit whatever the commission of inquiry may find. The publicly raised doubts about the propriety of Israel’s membership in the U.N. by one of Pillay’s commission members, Miloon Kothari, has already raised the political price in some Western capitals for heeding the commission’s eventual findings.”

https://orinocotribune.com/israel-block ... ts-leader/

Dozens of Jewish Settlers Attack Palestinian School in Occupied West Bank
OCTOBER 7, 2022

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Jewish settlers and Israeli forces often attack Palestinian students and prevent them from reaching their schools. Photo: via Days of Palestine.

Dozens of Jewish settlers attacked a Palestinian school in the town of Hawarah, south of Nablus on Tuesday, hours after another settler mob clashed with Palestinian inhabitants in the town’s streets, The New Arab reported.

“Around 8:20 in the morning, Israeli settlers broke into the schoolyard and attacked a teacher and two students,” Eyad Awad, the coordinator for the Palestinian education ministry in the southern Nablus region based in Hawarah, told The New Arab.


“Fortunately, the students were inside the classrooms as the first period started. The teacher in the schoolyard and the two students who defended themselves were lightly injured,” he added. The school day was called off and the children were sent home.

Late on Monday, settlers marched through the streets of Hawarah and clashed with local youths. Local sources told The New Arab that around 16 Palestinians were injured.

Image

The attacks in Hawarah came a day after the West Bank witnessed a rise in confrontations between Palestinian civilians and Israeli military forces.

https://orinocotribune.com/dozens-of-je ... west-bank/

And how is this different than the European 'settlement'(invasion) of the Western Hemisphere?

Not a dime's worth of difference. Which explains so much.

***********

Katie Halper Violated Media Taboo Against Israel Criticism
LUCA GOLDMANSOUR

After turning in the draft of an op-ed monologue critical of Israel, journalist Katie Halper was fired from her new post at the Hill TV’s political commentary show Rising (Daily Beast, 10/4/22). The monologue, known as a “Radar” on Rising, was called “Israel IS an Apartheid State.”
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In documenting Israel’s status as an apartheid state, Kate Halper crossed one of corporate media’s most policed red lines.
Halper (who has written for FAIR) used CNN’s Jake Tapper (9/21/22) and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt’s condemnation of applying the term “apartheid” to Israel, and their suggestion that Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib was antisemitic for saying support for Israel was incompatible with progressivism, as a jumping point to examine Israel’s ethnonationalist violence.

In her commentary, Halper laid out the case that has been made by major human rights organizations like Amnesty International (2/1/22) and Human Rights Watch (4/27/21), and the Israeli human rights group B’tselem (1/12/22), that Israel is in fact an apartheid state. Along with substantial documentation, Halper contributed a personal perspective as well:

I was born in New York City. My great-grandparents…were from Eastern Europe. I could move to Israel today, buy a house, get a job, travel around with no problem. So could Jake Tapper and Jonathan Greenblatt. But a Palestinian like Rashida Tlaib can’t even visit her family home in what is now Israel.

The monologue was going to be Halper’s first as a permanent co-host, after having been a contributor for three years. Rising frames itself as a forum where “anti-establishment” or “populist” views from both the left and the right can be freely exchanged and debated. Former co-host Ryan Grim, who personally delivered more than 150 monologues for Rising, noted there is “no approval process” for hosts’ commentaries (Intercept, 9/29/22). Despite this, executives at Hill TV and/or its new parent company Nexstar Media saw Halper’s criticism of Israel as a bridge too far.

First Halper’s superiors put the commentary under review. Then they told her that it would be nixed altogether, because of a brand-new policy barring opinion pieces on Israel, which even the producer was unaware of. Finally, they fired her (Daily Beast, 10/4/22).

‘A systematic effort’

Halper wasn’t the first journalist silenced for criticizing Israel, and she won’t be the last. In her response to the firing and in subsequent tweets, Halper pointed to several other recent examples:

*CNN’s firing of Marc Lamont Hill for calling for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” (FAIR.org, 12/11/18).
*The Guardian’s firing of Nathan J. Robinson for satirically claiming on Twitter that Congress cannot authorize new spending without a portion of it going to Israel (FAIR.org, 2/22/21).
*AP’s firing of Emily Wilder after she was targeted by a right-wing smear campaign for her pro-Palestinian activism as a college student (Democracy Now!, 5/25/21; FAIR.org, 5/22/21).
*Journalist Abby Martin being banned from the University of Georgia for refusing to sign a pledge that she would not participate in the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel (Mint Press, 2/10/20). (Numerous academics, like Angela Davis and Norman Finkelstein, have also faced retaliation for their critical views of Israel.)
Image
Photojournalist Hosam Salem (Twitter, 10/5/22) disclosed being banned by the New York Times for his pro-Palestinian views.
Just this week, New York Times freelance photojournalist Hosam Salem reported that the Times fired him after the “Israel lobby organization Honest Reporting, which exists to attack the Palestinian narrative in the West” (Mondoweiss, 10/5/22), accused him of antisemitism for voicing support for Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation forces. Salem discussed his firing on Twitter:

What is taking place is a systematic effort to distort the image of Palestinian journalists as being incapable of trustworthiness and integrity, simply because we cover the human rights violations that the Palestinian people undergo on a daily basis at hands of the Israeli army.

‘The best defense is a good offense’

The firing of journalists like Salem, Wilder and Hill wasn’t in response to their violating any clear policy of their respective outlets. Instead, well-funded pressure groups are able to get pro-Palestinian journalists fired, especially when they can appeal to pro-Israel sympathies in media management.

In Halper’s case, her firing may be connected to Nexstar Media‘s August 2021 purchase of The Hill, including its TV outlet. Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic (10/1/22) wrote of “signs of a possible tilt in The Hill’s editorial line on Israel”:

In late August, Nexstar filled the position of deputy managing editor of NewsNation, its cable channel, with Jake Novak, a journalist who spent the preceding year and a half as the media director of the Israeli consulate general in New York….

Six days before the announcement of his hiring, Novak led a presentation at Bar-Ilan University titled, “Defending Israel Against Media Bias—How to Fight News Media and Social Media Bias Against Israel: The Best Defense Is a Good Offense.” It was an update of a talk he had given in 2016 about defending Israel’s reputation, which the host described as “an absolute master class in public relations and diplomacy.”


As Marcetic noted, a pro-Israel bias in Nexstar should be of grave concern: Following its purchase of Tribune Media, it is now the largest local broadcast TV owner in the US.

Lethal censorship
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For journalists operating in Palestine, censorship takes on violent and deadly forms.
Getting fired is hardly the worst form of retribution experienced by journalists who expose Israeli crimes. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reports 479 violations and crimes against Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces and settlers in just the first half of 2022. These include two killings, 35 shootings, and numerous assaults and arrests. On Wednesday, two Palestinian journalists were shot by Israeli occupying forces while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank (Al Jazeera, 10/5/22). Over 50 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces since 2001, including Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was an American citizen (Vox, 5/13/22; FAIR.org, 5/20/22, 7/2/22).

Washington’s supply of weapons and aid to Israel is critical to Israel’s capacity to uphold apartheid (Al Jazeera, 6/4/21; Belfer Center, 2/7/17), so maintaining a positive opinion of Israel in the US public is of extreme importance to Israel. By censoring critical journalists like Katie Halper, US corporate media are thus playing a key role in supporting a system that has seen journalists killed, assaulted and detained in Israel/Palestine.

ACTION ALERT: You can send a message to the The Hill at https://thehill.com/contact/ or on Twitter: @HillTVLive. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your communication in the comments thread.

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Oct 20, 2022 2:45 pm

Image

Israel experiments on Palestinians with AI-powered gun at checkpoints
Originally published: MintPress News on October 5, 2022 by Jessica Buxbaum (more by MintPress News) | (Posted Oct 20, 2022)

The Israeli military installed an automatic weapon at a heavily-trafficked checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil in September. While it was initially reported that the weapon will fire a wide range of projectiles, the army now states the device is only capable of firing sponge-tipped bullets. Reiterating the remote-controlled gun will not use live fire, the IDF hopes this system will be used to test approved crowd dispersal methods. But critics assert the device is yet another example of Israel using Palestinians as guinea pigs so they can market their military technology as field-tested to governments around the world.

The weapon was placed at a military checkpoint on Al-Shuhada Street, a once vibrant center of Palestinian life in al-Khalil, but is now recognized as a symbol of Israel’s occupation. After Israeli-American settler Baruch Goldstein gunned down 29 worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994, Israel shut down the busy road and eventually declared it a closed military area where only residents can pass through. According to Issa Amro, an al-Khalil resident and founder of Palestinian activist group Youths Against Settlements, the area is home to 200 families and the checkpoint is used by around 300 families every day.

The army argues this weapon will be used for riot dispersal, given the checkpoint’s history of demonstrations. But Amro says this area is not a security threat. “There is no security need to install this automatic weapon there,” he told MintPress News. “There is no violence. The checkpoint is well-protected with many fences, doors, and gates.”

While the weapon will not shoot live fire, sponge-tipped bullets have proven to be fatal, with several cases of Palestinians being seriously injured (such as Palestinians losing their eyes after being hit by sponge rounds) or killed by these bullets. The Al-Shuhada Street checkpoint has also been the site of several killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

Amro, who passes through the checkpoint daily, is concerned about the accuracy and potential failure of this machine technology. “I’m afraid every time I pass [through this checkpoint] that this weapon is pointing at me, pointing at children, or women,” he said. “People are terrified.”

ISRAEL’S SMART SHOOTER WORKING WITH ARMIES AROUND THE WORLD

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Smart Shooter promotional material for the company’s booth at the #enforcetac exhibition in Germany

Palestinians argue the remote-controlled gun has a more sinister intention than the army is letting on. “Israeli security companies use Palestinians as training objects,” Amro said. “The Israeli army practices their new technology [on Palestinians] to check if it’s working or not, then they sell it to other countries.”

Smart Shooter is the company behind the newly-installed weapon. According to its website, the Israeli arms manufacturer uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to turn traditional firearms into smart weapons. The company’s slogan boasts “one shot, one hit”, indicating its target detection capabilities are so precise they’re able to hit moving objects with incredible accuracy.

Currently, Smart Shooter has several agreements with foreign militaries across the world and appears to be expanding its clientele. The firm holds contracts with the Israeli army, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Marine Corps, the Dutch Army, the Indian Navy, the German Army, and its technology was selected for a NATO Defense Against Terrorism Program of Work exercise in fighting small unmanned aerial vehicles in 2020. The Singaporean Army is also conducting trials of Smart Shooter weapons.

Smart Shooter has been showcasing its technology to new countries as well, including at conferences in the United Arab Emirates, Greece, England, France, Spain, Germany, and Poland. It also has upcoming exhibitions in Australia and the Czech Republic. Additionally, the firm is looking to hire a marketing director to lead business development in India and Central Asia, suggesting that it’s looking to expand its influence in Asia.

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Smart Shooter’s executive management is made up of Israeli weapons industry veterans.

Smart Shooter’s executive management is made up of Israeli weapons industry veterans. The company was founded by Michal Mor and Avshalom Ehrlich, who both previously worked at Israeli arms company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Rafael created Israel’s infamous Iron Dome air defense system and developed missile technology that has displaced and killed countless Palestinians. Smart Shooter’s vice president of business development, Abraham Mazor, and vice president of research and development, Sharone Aloni, worked at Elbit Systems and the Israeli Air Force before coming to Smart Shooter. Elbit Systems is a major supplier of drones to the Israeli military, works with the Israeli police, and is one of the main providers of the electronic detection fence system to the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. The company’s vice president and general manager of U.S. operations, Scott Thompson, worked at Israel Aerospace Industries. And Major General Nitsan Alon, who served in the Israeli army for more than 30 years, is also on the company’s board of directors.

PALESTINE AS A SURVEILLANCE TESTING LAB

Israel’s technological advancements have digitized its occupation of Palestine and turned the occupied territories into a testing ground for surveillance, spyware, and arms technologies.

This manifests in a variety of ways and often in collaboration with private companies. Social media behemoths work with the Israeli government to collect user data and censor Palestinian content. Digital monitoring is used at checkpoints and protests, but has been significantly enhanced with the use of facial recognition. The Jerusalem municipality installed around 1,000 cameras able to detect objects, with 10% of the cameras connected to servers that analyze data. Face-scanning cameras are used in al-Khalil to identify Palestinians without checking IDs. Israel’s facial recognition technology was revealed to be even more eerily dystopian with the news of Blue Wolf, a database collecting images of Palestinians’ faces through smartphone technology. Yet Blue Wolf is just one cog in the tech apartheid machine. The smartphone app stems from a larger project entitled Wolf Pack designed to profile every Palestinian in the West Bank with details including their family history, education, and security rating. And the Pegasus software, created by Israeli cybersecurity company NSO group, is another example of Israel piloting surveillance technology on Palestinians before deploying it around the world. In 2021, it was revealed devices belonging to six Palestinian human rights defenders were hacked using Pegasus. Today, at least 45 countries are known to have experienced Pegasus hacks.

With the Israeli military’s stamp of approval, the state’s weapons industry is better able to market its new products to other countries, specifically claiming they are “battle-tested.” For instance, skunk water, a sour-smelling liquid sprayed at protesters as a crowd dispersal technique, was first used in the West Bank village of Bilin, and Elbit’s Hermes-900 drone debuted during Israel’s war on Gaza in 2014. This tried and tested seal has paved the way for Israel to become the world’s eighth-largest arms exporter. And backed by a booming Tel Aviv tech sector, Israel’s weapons business is set to become even more lucrative–all at the cost of Palestinian lives.

https://mronline.org/2022/10/20/israel- ... eckpoints/

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UC Berkeley Law students for Justice in Palestine have faced countless threats and attacks from local, national and international Zionist advocacy groups. (UC Berkeley)

Israel lobby fabricates anti-Semitism crisis at Berkeley
Originally published: The Electronic Intifada on October 16, 2022 by Nora Barrows-Friedman (more by The Electronic Intifada) | (Posted Oct 20, 2022)

In a crisis manufactured by Israel lobby groups and right-wing media, law students at the University of California at Berkeley are being accused of anti-Jewish bigotry because of their public pledge not to host speakers who support Israeli apartheid.

The attacks on the students are being fueled by one of Israel’s top career lobbyists who is also a former Trump administration official.

But in a leaked confidential memo, a major Israel advocacy group has admitted that these anti-Semitism allegations are bogus, as Jewish law students are not facing any bigotry from supporters of Palestinian rights.

And instead of defending students’ free speech rights, the law school’s leadership has been pandering to the campaign of lies.

In August, UC Berkeley’s Law Students for Justice in Palestine drafted a bylaw “in support of Palestinian liberation,” the group stated.

“We sent the bylaw out to dozens of student organizations, among which nine student organizations decided through a democratic voting process to adopt the bylaw,” the group wrote.

“Apartheid is a crime against humanity and as student leaders at Berkeley Law we believe that we have an obligation to act,” the students affirmed.

In addition to not inviting speakers who support Zionism and Israeli apartheid, the bylaw calls for engagement with the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign for Palestinian rights.

It also urges that organizations publicly state their positions on anti-racism and anti-colonialism during their events.



Since the bylaw went public, Berkeley Law SJP has faced countless threats and attacks from local, national and international Zionist advocacy groups which have attempted to portray the students as calling for a ban on Jews.

The furor picked up steam when Kenneth Marcus, a former Trump administration official and longtime pro-Israel activist, alleged in an article in Jewish Journal that the students were bringing back “Jewish-free zones.”

“Anti-Zionism is flatly anti-Semitic,” Marcus asserted.

Marcus resigned in 2020 as Trump’s top civil rights enforcer at the Department of Education after it was revealed that he gave the Zionist Organization of America special treatment in reopening a complaint against Rutgers University.

Previously, as head of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights, an Israel lobby group, Marcus had pioneered the tactic where pro-Israel advocates file complaints to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The complaints typically claim that universities have failed to protect Jewish students by not cracking down on Palestine solidarity activism.

In 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Marcus to lead the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, putting him in a position to adjudicate the very complaints he had helped pro-Israel advocates craft.

After his resignation from the Department of Education, Marcus returned to the Brandeis Center.

The incendiary, bad-faith assertions against UC Berkeley law students are deliberately misleading, Dylan Saba, staff attorney at Palestine Legal, told The Electronic Intifada.

“This is the strategy of Kenneth Marcus,” he said.

“His main political objective is to get anti-Zionism codified as anti-Semitism, and he is looking to do that by stirring outrage around a false narrative that Jewish students are under attack on campuses by nefarious Palestine activists,” Saba added.

Leaked memo refutes claims
However, a leaked internal memo from the American Jewish Committee shows that the lobby group may be growing weary of Marcus’ reckless tactics.

AJC, one of dozens of pro-Israel groups that had initially supported Marcus’ claim of “Jewish-free zones,” has now acknowledged that it is bogus.

In a private memo leaked to Jewish Currents and published on Friday, Sara Coodin, AJC’s director of academic affairs, conceded that Marcus’ “central claim was inflammatory, resulting in a distorted picture of both this incident and the overall climate for Jewish students on campus.”

The memo is marked “confidential,” an indication that AJC has been happy to allow false allegations to continue circulating even when it knew them to be unfounded.

The lobby group also admits that it was “a strategic move” by Students for Justice in Palestine “to alter the existing charter of student groups’ bylaws,” and acknowledges that it was a “compelling and effective strategy, one that may well represent a blueprint for SJP’s future interventions on other campuses.”

A Jewish student at Berkeley, who was previously an AJC fellow, had “shared his informed opinion about this situation,” Coodin’s memo states.

According to the memo, the student had reported “that the passage of these bylaws caused a good amount of healthy debate amongst students when the news first broke a month ago but has since dissipated.”

“He stated that Jewish students’ experience on campus ‘hasn’t really changed’ because of this situation,” Coodin adds.

Doxxing students
But the attacks have only escalated.

One of the many Israel lobby groups maligning Berkeley Law SJP and other student groups is Accuracy in Media.

Adam Guillette, CEO of Accuracy in Media, was previously a vice-president of Project Veritas, a right-wing organization that has been a major player in undermining progressive organizations, Planned Parenthood clinics and teachers unions.

Last month a federal jury in a civil case found Project Veritas had violated wiretapping laws and committed fraud, although they portray themselves as citizen journalists.

This week, Guillette’s Accuracy in Media funded a mobile billboard to drive around downtown Berkeley, depicting a photo of a sieg-heiling Adolf Hitler with the words “All in favor of banning Jews, raise your right hand.”


One Twitter user suggested that Accuracy in Media put the photos of student leaders on the billboard “and wander around the city. Let them feel uncomfortable a bit.”

The Twitter user added that exposing their names might deter “prestigious firms” from hiring the students—an intimidation and revenge tactic used by blacklist sites such as Canary Mission.

“We’re considering that, in fact,” Guillette responded to the suggestions.


Israeli government propagandists
JewBelong, another group masquerading as a civil rights organization, also spent money on a billboard truck to drive around the Berkeley campus area.

It also suggested that student activism for Palestinian rights was somehow comparable to Hitler’s murder of millions of Jews—a breathtaking trivialization of the Nazi genocide.


JewBelong has a history of targeting Palestinian social media users, occasionally offering cash prizes to those who participate in such harassment.

The group’s co-founder Archie Gottesman, has been a board member of organizations such as the Israel on Campus Coalition and the liberal-Zionist faux-feminist group Zioness.

The Israel on Campus Coalition has worked secretly with the Israeli government to spy on and smear campus supporters of Palestinian rights.

Gottesman is a strange choice for an organization that purports to be concerned about genocide. “Gaza is full of monsters,” she tweeted in 2018. “Time to burn the whole place.”

She is currently on the board of Democratic Majority for Israel, a group that lobbies within the Democratic Party.

Yuval David, a JewBelong advisory board member, is affiliated with the Jewish National Fund and the far-right Israel lobby group StandWithUs, both groups that work against Palestinian rights.

David is joined on the advisory board by Hen Mazzig, a former Israeli soldier who according to an investigation by The Forward secretly worked with the Israeli government to promote its propaganda efforts on American campuses.

Israeli actor Noa Tishby, another advisory board member, is also a government propagandist, having earlier this year been named as the Israeli foreign ministry’s “special envoy to combat anti-Semitism and delegitimization” of Israel.

She appears to have been deployed to the Berkeley campus in that capacity to boost the Israel lobby smear campaign.


She was seen on Thursday mingling with members of campus pro-Israel group Tikvah: The Zionist Voice.

Members of Tikvah sued the university’s governing body in 2011, and even filed a Kenneth Marcus-style complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

The plaintiffs failed to produce any evidence to support their claims of anti-Semitism and the lawsuit and federal complaint were tossed out.

Celebrities promote lies
Meanwhile, celebrities and lawmakers outside Berkeley are also fueling the manufactured anti-Semitism claims against Berkeley students.

First-term member of Congress Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who has received huge donations from pro-Israel donors, falsely asserted that “most of the Jewish community” would be “banned” under the bylaw.

Torres was using an anti-Semitic talking point promoted by Israel lobby groups that Jews are monolithically supporters of Israel.


And a New York state lawmaker said he wants to strip UC Berkeley of its federal funding if elected to congress.

Actor and comedian Sarah Silverman also promoted the false “Jew-banning” claim, but was quickly corrected by Twitter users.


Last but not least, entertainment icon Barbra Streisand asserted that anti-Zionism can “bleed” into anti-Semitism.


Jewish students hit back
As in the past, UC Berkeley officials have sided with Israel lobby groups instead of protecting their students.

Law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky admonished the students for taking anti-racist positions in support of Palestinian rights.

In an email to student leaders, he asserted that the bylaw could be considered by some in the Jewish community to be anti-Semitic.

Berkeley Law SJP said that in response to the dean, anti-Zionist law students wrote a statement in support of the bylaw, rejecting the implication that Jewish safety is threatened by calls for Palestinian liberation.

Law school dean Chemerinsky, who said he supports Israel and opposes the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign for Palestinian rights, wrote in the The Daily Beast that there was no “Jew-free zone” on campus and that Israel supporters and Israeli officials are still welcome.

“Most importantly, no group has violated the Law School’s policy and excluded a speaker on account of being Jewish or holding particular views about Israel,” Chemerinsky wrote.

Such conduct, of course, would be subject to sanctions.

Excluding a speaker because of their religion—something no campus group has proposed or supported as Chemerinsky affirms—would clearly be discriminatory. But the idea that students could be punished for refusing to host someone “holding particular views about Israel” is alarming.

Berkeley, as a public university, is bound by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment: The government can neither forbid nor compel political speech.

That means precisely that student groups are free to invite or not invite speakers based on their views. A pro-Israel campus group cannot be compelled to invite a speaker critical of Israeli apartheid, and advocates of Palestinian rights cannot be required to host an apologist for the Israeli government’s crimes against Palestinians.

Chemerinsky’s blurring of the meaning of discrimination suggests further infringements of free speech rights to come.

Failure to protect students
Palestine Legal’s Dylan Saba told The Electronic Intifada that he was disappointed in the dean’s response.

“It reflects his own personal political commitments,” Saba said. “It’s very clearly getting in the way of his responsibility to protect his students, especially those who take political positions that may run contrary to established positions in the U.S. and at the law school.”

University administrators, Saba said, should be working “to the extent they can to protect their students who are being targeted and doxxed by very powerful people who disagree with their politics.”

Saba said that if university officials do take punitive measures against Berkeley law students, “which I don’t think they will, someone should sue them.”

Saba added that it is telling that no one in power seems to be that concerned that Hillel, the national Jewish campus organization, has adopted its own bylaws around support for Israel.

Hillel’s rules prevent its members from hosting or even co-hosting events with anti-Zionist speakers, or speakers—including presumably Jewish speakers—who support the BDS movement.

“Hillel pretends to be the center for Jewish life on campus and not a political organization,” Saba said.

Its rules clearly restrict the participation of the many Jewish students who support BDS or identify as anti-Zionist.

Hillel is “a Zionist organization that holds these commitments in their charter without backlash and furor from university administrators,” Saba noted.

And of course no Israel lobby groups have accused Hillel of setting up “Jewish-free zones.”

https://mronline.org/2022/10/20/israel- ... -berkeley/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Oct 29, 2022 2:57 pm

IOF Kill 6 Palestinians After Storming Nablus, Amid Mobilization Calls
OCTOBER 28, 2022

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As the number of martyrs increased, Palestinians call for general mobilization. Photo: Al Mayadeen.

The IOF brutally murder six Palestinians and wound dozens of others, some in critical condition, after waging a round of unprecedented aggression in recent years in Nablus.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that the number of martyrs shot dead by Israeli occupation forces during their storming of the city of Nablus has risen to 6, with 21 injuries reported.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian martyrs are: Wadih Al-Houh (31 years), Hamdi Sharaf (35 years), Ali Antar (26 years), Hamdi Qayyim (30 years), Mishaal Zahi Ahmed Baghdadi, and Qusai Al Tamimi.

Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that outrage prevails over the cities of the West Bank amid calls for public mobilization following the martyrdom of 6 Palestinians in Nablus and Nabi Saleh.

The Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Nablus, followed by heavy military reinforcements, while hysterically opening fire at citizens in the city.

Moreover, the Israeli occupation claimed in a statement that a joint force of the IOF, the Shin Bet, and the special police unit raided a hideout apartment inside the Old City of Nablus allegedly used as a laboratory for the manufacturing of explosive devices for high profile activists in the Areen Al-Aousoud (Lion’s Den) Palestinian resistance group.


In a statement, the IOF claimed that they blew up a manufacturing lab of improvised explosive devices while targeting a number of Palestinians during the operation. The statement indicated that dozens of Palestinians responded by setting rubber tires on fire and throwing stones at the occupation forces during their raid into the city of Nablus.


Earlier today, the director of Al Mayadeen office in occupied Palestine said Nablus has turned into a real war zone and the Israeli occupation forces used air missiles in the attack, adding that Palestinian security forces and resistance fighters engaged in an armed confrontation with the occupation forces. The director confirmed that the occupation forces withdrew from the city of Nablus, amid doubts that this could be a tactic to re-storm the area.

He stated that the occupation was planning large-scale aggression on Nablus, but the Palestinian security forces exposed it, explaining that the resistance fighters’ vigilance and coordination among themselves from various factions led to exposing the plan, which confused the occupation forces.

The director added that a Palestinian security services force deployed in front of hospitals in Nablus to protect the injured Palestinians, while dozens of citizens gathered in front of the hospital, chanting slogans in support of the Lion’s Den group.

In this context, Israeli media reported that the Palestinian security services thwarted a major operation in the center of Nablus, which Prime Minister Yair Lapid personally supervised.

Earlier today, the Israeli occupation forces unexpectedly stormed on Tuesday the West Bank city of Nablus in occupied Palestine, waging a round of unprecedented aggression in recent years.


(Al Mayadeen – English)

https://orinocotribune.com/iof-kill-6-p ... ion-calls/

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UN reports 118 Palestinians killed by Israel in West Bank

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The entity stressed that of the 118 Palestinians who have been killed, there are 26 children and five women. | Photo: Free Palestine
Published 28 October 2022

The UN has warned that this week there has been more violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations (UN) reported this Friday that some 118 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank territory, including East Jerusalem.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, "this week saw more violence in the occupied West Bank, raising fears of a possible resumption of unlawful targeted killings by Israeli security forces." .

The entity stressed that of the 118 Palestinians who have been killed, there are 26 children and five women. Three Palestinians, including a child, were killed by settlers or settlement guards, while another minor was killed by a settler or by Israeli security forces.


On the other hand, it also reported that "four members of the Israeli security forces and a settlement guard have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank."

“Any homicide that results from the use of firearms or that is committed against persons who do not represent an imminent threat to life can constitute an extrajudicial execution, a flagrant violation of the right to life, and intentional homicide, under the Fourth Geneva Convention, applicable throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” the UN recalled.

According to the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, "for more than 55 years, the Israeli military occupation has prevented the implementation of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, violating every component of this right and deliberately seeking to 'de-Palestinian' the occupied territories”.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/onu-pale ... -0022.html

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Nov 10, 2022 3:01 pm

Israeli nuclear arsenal condemned by world’s govts in overwhelming UN vote
Sameena RahmanNovember 9, 2022 172 3 minutes read
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In an overwhelming vote, the United Nations General Assembly declared last week that apartheid Israel must immediately cease operations of all its nuclear weapons, get rid of the ones that exist, and place all its nuclear sites under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

These stipulations against Israel were outlined in a resolution submitted by Egypt on behalf of the UN-member countries that are also a part of the Arab League, including the Palestinian Authority, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

The resolution was approved by 152 countries — 79% of UN member states — with five votes against, unsurprisingly the United States and Israel, and also Canada, Micronesia and Palau. Some 24 abstentions were composed of European Union members, NATO allies and India.

Resolution calling for an end to Israel’s illegal nuclear stockpile

The resolution, titled “The risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East,” highlighted the risks of unsafeguarded nuclear facilities in the Middle East and demanded that Israel follow the principles of universal adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, adopted in the region in 1995. Since then, Israel has been the only entity in the region that has repeatedly refused to sign the treaty and has spent the last few decades hypocritically denying the existence of its nuclear weapons.

A recent United Kingdom Parliamentary report states “that Israel possesses a nuclear weapons capability, outside of the framework of the NPT,” after specific details were revealed by whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu in 1988. Israel is believed to have at least 90 nuclear warheads, according to the report, and continues to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Israel, hiding behind its imperial backer, the United States, continues its stockpiling of nuclear weapons in an extensive threat to the geopolitical stability in the Middle East. Documents from the early 1960’s, revealed in 2014, show that Washington played a key role in building Israel’s nuclear arsenal in secret while publicly denying any knowledge and adopting a line of ambiguity on nuclear power and weapons. Numerous reports since then established that the United States knew of and supported Israel’s nuclear capabilities in gross violation of international law and while punishing countries like Iran and North Korea for having or developing defensive weapons.

U.S. and Israel’s hypocritically label Iran as a nuclear threat

In the last few decades, the United States and Israel consistently labeled Iran as a nuclear threat to peace and stability in the Middle East despite Israel itself invading all bordering countries. Of note, Iran has no nuclear weapons, and signed on to the NPT as well as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the United States pulled out of. Meanwhile, Israel remained in flagrant violation of international law.

Israel violated international law on numerous occasions by blatantly attacking Iran’s nuclear power plants used to generate energy, plunging the many areas of the country already suffocated by sanctions into darkness. In April last year, senior Israeli officials hinted at Mossad’s culpability for an attack on Iran’s key nuclear site Natanz, a heinous act of nuclear terrorism. Israel has also carried out the targeted assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadh and other Iranian scientists. Israel also admitted to attacking what it called “suspected” nuclear reactors in other neighboring countries, like Syria in Operation Outside the Box.

Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign ministry, said in a social media post, “The advanced nuclear military program of the apartheid regime of Israel and the regime’s continued reluctance to put its nuclear facilities under comprehensive safeguards and not to join the non-proliferation treaty is a serious threat to international security and the non-proliferation regime.”

Environmental fallout in Palestinian Occupied Territory

Israel’s criminal behavior is also significantly harming Palestinians in the West Bank. In 2021, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of storing lethal radioactive waste in the West Bank and sickening Palestinians living in the area. He also linked high cancer rates in Hebron to the nearby Israeli Negev nuclear reactor, Dimona. Palestine currently suffers from major climate issues due to Israel’s seven-decade long occupation and the fallout from Israel’s military proliferation.

U.S. corporate media silence

While the UN and the international community have repeatedly pointed to and labeled Israel as a major threat to geopolitical stability in the Middle East, there has been a critical lack of coverage by the western mainstream corporate media. It is clear that the fog of fear of the United States and Israel is lifting in the international community as governments are more empowered to label Israel for what it is: an apartheid state and a gross violator of human rights in Palestine and elsewhere. The recent vote is an important recognition that Israel is the major threat to peace and stability in the Middle East.

https://www.liberationnews.org/israeli- ... rationnews

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Chasing a Mirage: How Israel Arab Parties Validate Israeli Apartheid
NOVEMBER 8, 2022

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Yair Lapid (L), Naftali Bennett (C) and Mansour Abbas. Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

By Ramzy Baroud – Nov 2, 2022

Regardless of the outcome of the latest Israeli elections, Arab parties will not reap meaningful political benefits, even if they collectively achieve their highest representation ever. The reason is not about the parties themselves, but in Israel’s skewed political system which is predicated on racism and marginalization of non-Jews.

Israel was established on a problematic premise of being a homeland of all Jews, everywhere – not of Palestine’s own native inhabitants – and on a bloody foundation, that of the Nakba and the destruction of historic Palestine and the expulsion of its people.

Such beginnings were hardly conducive to the establishment of a real democracy, perfect or blemished. Not only did Israel’s discriminatory attitude persist throughout the years, it actually worsened, especially as the Palestinian Arab population rose disproportionally compared to the Jewish population between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The unfortunate reality is that some Arab parties have participated in Israeli elections since 1949, some independently and others under the ruling Mapei party umbrella. They did so despite Arab communities in Israel being ruled by a military government (1951-1966) and practically governed, until this day, by the unlawful ‘Defense (Emergency Regulations)’. This participation has constantly been touted by Israel and its supporters as proof of the state’s democratic nature.

This claim alone has served as the backbone of Israeli hasbara throughout the decades. Though often unwittingly, Arab political parties in Israel have provided the fodder for such propaganda, making it difficult for Palestinians to argue that the Israeli political system is fundamentally flawed and racist.

Palestinian citizens have always debated among themselves about the pros and cons of taking part in Israeli elections. Some understood that their participation validates the Zionist ideology and Israeli apartheid, while others argued that refraining from participating in the political process denies Palestinians the opportunity to change the system from within.

The latter argument has lost much of its merit, as Israel sank deeper into apartheid, while social, political and legal conditions for Palestinians worsened. The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) reports on dozens of discriminatory laws in Israel that exclusively target Arab communities. Additionally, in a report published in February, Amnesty International describes thoroughly how the “representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the decision making process … has been restricted and undermined by an array of Israeli laws and policies.”

This reality has existed for decades, long before July 19, 2018, when the Israeli parliament approved the so-called Jewish Nation-State Basic Law. The Law was the most glaring example of political and legal racism, which made Israel a full-fledged apartheid regime.

The Law was also the most articulate proclamation of Jewish supremacy over Palestinians in all aspects of life, including the right to self-determination.

Those who have argued that Arab participation in Israeli politics served a purpose in the past should have done more than collectively denounce the Nation-State law, by resigning en masse, effective immediately. They should have taken advantage of the international uproar to convert their struggle from a parliamentary to a popular grassroots one.

Alas, they have not. They continued to participate in Israeli elections, arguing that if they achieved greater representation in the Israeli Knesset, they should be able to challenge the tsunami of Israeli discriminatory laws.

This did not happen, even after the Joint List, which unified four Arab parties in the March 2020 elections, achieved its greatest turnout ever, becoming the Knesset’s third largest political bloc.

The supposed historic victory culminated to nil because all mainstream Jewish parties, regardless of their ideological backgrounds, refused to include Arab parties in their potential coalitions.

The enthusiasm that mobilized Arab voters behind the Joint List began to dwindle, and the List itself fragmented, thanks to Mansour Abbas, the head of the Arab party, Ra’am.

In the March 2021 elections, Abbas wanted to change the dynamics of Arab politics in Israel altogether. “We focus on the issues and problems of the Arab citizens of Israel within the Green Line,” Abbas told TIME magazine in June 2021, adding “we want to heal our own problems”, as if declaring a historic delink from the rest of the Palestinian struggle.

Abbas was wrong, as Israel perceives him, his followers, the Joint List and all Palestinians to be obstacles in its efforts to maintain the exclusivist ‘Jewish identity’ of the state. The Abbas experiment, however, became even more interesting, when Ra’am won 4 seats and joined a government coalition led by far-right, anti-Palestinian politician Naftali Bennet.

By the time the coalition collapsed in June, Abbas achieved little, aside from splitting the Arab vote and proving, again, that changing Israeli politics from within has always been a fantasy.

Even after all of this, Arab parties in Israel still insisted on participating in a political system that, despite its numerous contradictions, agreed on one thing: Palestinians are, and will always be, the enemy.

Even the violent events of May 2021, where Palestinians found themselves fighting on multiple fronts – against the Israeli army, police, intelligence services, armed settlers and even ordinary citizens – did not seem to change the Arab politicians’ mindset. Arab population centers in Umm Al-Fahm, Lydda and Jaffa, were attacked with the same racist mentality as Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah, illustrating that nearly 75 years of supposed integration between Jews and Arabs under Israel’s political system hardly changed the racist view towards Palestinians.

Instead of converting the energy of what Palestinians dubbed the ‘Unity Intifada’ to invest in Palestinian unity, Arab Israeli politicians returned to the Israeli Knesset, as if they still had hope in salvaging Israel’s inherently corrupt political system.

The self-delusion continues. On September 29, Israel’s Central Election Committee disqualified an Arab party, Balad, from running in the November elections. The decision was eventually overturned by the country’s Supreme Court, urging an Arab legal organization in Israel to describe the decision as ‘historic’. In essence, they suggested that Israel’s apartheid system still carries the hope of true democracy.

The future of Arab politics in Israel will remain grim if Arab politicians continue to pursue this failed tactic. Though Palestinian citizens of Israel are socio-economically privileged if compared to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, they enjoy nominal or no substantive political or legal rights. By remaining loyal participants in Israel’s democracy charade, these politicians continue to validate the Israeli establishment, thus harming, not only Palestinian communities in Israel but, in fact, Palestinians everywhere.

(Palestine Chronicle)

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Wed Nov 16, 2022 3:19 pm

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Nablus Siege Lifted After 3+ Weeks of Collective Punishment
By Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot and Mohamed Ahmed, Contributor November 10, 2022

Nablus, Occupied West Bank, Palestine – Israeli forces and settlers laid siege to over 420,000 Palestinians in the Nablus Governorate for several weeks in October effectively punishing the whole population as they sought the elimination of prominent armed militants from the ‘Lions’ Den,’ or “Areen al-Usud.”

Newly emerging among the backdrop of the deadliest year in a decade, the Lions’ Den is a non-factional paramilitary group of young resistance fighters who are taking up arms against what they deem an occupying force. With over 195 Palestinians killed this year, mostly during Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, young Palestinians are increasingly arming themselves and defending their neighborhoods from Israeli forces.

Israel claims their year of deadly raids, under the title of Operation Break the Wave, are reactions to attacks that killed 19 people in Israel between March and May 2022. Their stated aim is to arrest or assassinate the perpetrators of the attacks and other armed resistance fighters. Israel has been using collective punishment on families, friends, and whole governorates (county or state-like administrative divisions – there are 16 in Palestine) by demolishing or blowing up homes, controlling Palestinians’ movements and blockading cities.

At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in October, making it the deadliest month in one of the deadliest years in the occupied Palestinian territories by Israeli forces.

Many Palestinian paramilitary forces such as Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are typically allied with specific political factions. However, the Lions’ Den, formerly the Nablus Brigades, fight solely in the name of Palestine.

A vast majority of the paramilitary groups in Palestine are designated as terrorist organizations by Western governments. With the Lions’ Den being so new, they have not yet been labeled as such.

From a deadly raid into Nablus two weeks after the siege started, to protests against the siege in Ramallah and Gaza, to speaking with Palestinians stuck in traffic for hours at an Israeli enforced checkpoint near Nablus, the following video brings the perspective from the frontline.


What is the Lions’ Den?
The Lions’ Den is a newly formed paramilitary force of Palestinian militants in Nablus whose first official appearance as a group came in early September. Founded by Muhamad Azizi, 25, the Lions’ Den doesn’t belong to any particular party. This year they’ve evolved through different names and integrated new members who’ve left other paramilitary forces.

Since their inception, the group has galvanized the Palestinian population. Members have attacked Israeli soldiers at checkpoints and have regularly responded to Israeli incursions into Nablus with armed resistance. Throughout the year, the group claimed several attacks against Israeli soldiers and has been the target of numerous deadly Israeli raids dating back to February.

The group grew in prominence after famed leader “The Lion of Nablus,” Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, evaded several capture attempts. Al-Nabulsi, 18, had previously been affiliated with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of the Fatah party.

The young leader was the target of a deadly Israeli attack in February in which he evaded capture. He would later escape a large-scale Israeli military raid on Nablus in late July 2022 in which the founder of the Lions’ Den, Muhamad Azizi, 25, was killed along with another member.

During the July raid, armed clashes went on for nearly four hours after Israeli anti-terrorism and army units infiltrated Nablus’ Al-Yasmina neighborhood. Israeli forces surrounded Azizi’s home before attacking the building with missiles and explosives. Along with those killed, at least 12 others were wounded. Al-Nabulsi reportedly escaped the raid with several other fighters.


Just two weeks after the deadly July raid, Israel bombed Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip for three days straight. The series of assassinations and bombings dubbed Operation Breaking Dawn by Israel targeted the leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Armed Palestinian groups fired retaliatory rockets toward Israel and paramilitary leaders called the war a victory for Palestine as differing factions worked together.

On August 7, 2022, a ceasefire temporarily stopped the violent hostilities in Gaza, and the following day, Israeli forces conducted a destructive raid on Nablus using missiles and heavy weaponry. The target of the raid was a house where Ibrahim al-Nabulsi was reported to be at. After a lengthy firefight, the raid eventually killed al-Nabulsi and two others and injured over 40 additional people.

Al-Nabulsi had become somewhat of a legend in the streets. While the Israeli forces were on the hunt for him during the last year of his life, al-Nabulsi was reported to have been seen walking through Nablus regularly and treated as a celebrity by the residents.

Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of Nablus for the funeral of “The Lion of Nablus” following the announcement that he was pronounced dead in the hospital an hour after being removed from a bombed-out home.


In the weeks following al-Nabulsi’s death, on Sept. 2, members of the Lions’ Den addressed a crowd of thousands to publicly announce their charter and message of independent resistance. Nablus resident Basil al-Shantir told Mondoweiss, “The Lions’ Den is barely a few months old, but they have taken over the public consciousness in a way that is unprecedented.”

The violent Israeli attacks on the Lions’ Den continued and soon took the full form of collective punishment.


Armed Settlers & Israeli Forces Besiege Nablus
For almost the whole month of October, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank governorate of Nablus faced extreme restrictions on their movements and violence from Israeli forces and colonial settlers.

Starting on Oct. 4, the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, armed settlers escorted by Israeli forces closed off roads on the outskirts of Nablus to stop Palestinians from leaving the territory. Settlers and Israeli politicians took part in the blockading of roadways, effectively trapping Palestinians.

A week later, an Israeli soldier was fatally shot at a checkpoint near the Shavei Shomron settlement just west of Nablus by Lions’ Den members. There are around 250 Israeli colony settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem holding at least 600,000 Israeli settlers, often under full security by Israeli forces, who captured the West Bank in 1967. All of the settlements are considered illegal under international law.

In response to the killing, on Oct. 12 Israeli forces blocked nearly all of the entrances to Nablus and besieged the entire city.

Checkpoints for Days
As majestic mountains and hills paint the background on the road leading to the Beit Furik checkpoint east of Nablus, hundreds of Palestinian vehicles and thousands of civilians were crammed for hours each day as they awaited passage through new Israeli checkpoints.

Short trips turned into long affairs as Palestinians attempted to travel through the region. For a distance that does not exceed two kilometers, it would take up to 10 hours for a Palestinian citizen to cross due to blockading of the roadways by Israeli forces in October.

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Students, employees, merchants, and patients were brought together by suffering at the Beit Furik checkpoint. Since Oct. 11, this suffering became a daily reality for the Palestinians in Nablus as Israeli forces enacted their siege, deliberately closing the barrier completely and placing new concrete cubes in the roads in a move to further narrow the pathways.

About 425,000 Palestinians live in the city of Nablus and its outlying villages and camps. By closing the main and secondary checkpoints, Israeli forces effectively prevented citizens and their vehicles from leaving Nablus for the greater portion of October 2022.

The elderly and sick were not exempt from being subjected to the several-hour-long checkpoint. Medical patients, like those needing kidney dialysis, were relegated to waiting for hours in long lines and missing days of treatments.

We heard from several Palestinians at the Beit Furik checkpoint who were stuck in traffic during the siege of Nablus. They all expressed their frustration at the waste of time and collective punishment:
“Definitely, in the end this is a situation of occupation. With occupation, as you know, you ultimately can’t do anything about it. As you can see, it’s humiliating. You need 5-6 hours to get to Beit Furik. Imagine, from Nablus to Beit Furik, you need 5-6 hours. In the end, there is nothing one can say. ‘There is no power except by God’ (Islamic saying).”

“As you can see in front of you, a pointless checkpoint. There is no excuse. No excuse for anyone to block the road this way. What do they want? Nobody knows. Of course it affects us. All of our time is going to waste. It’s gotten to the point where you prefer to stay at home instead of spending your day at the checkpoint. What’s better?”

“I came here last Sunday, about 4-5 days ago. When I first arrived, I spent 5 hours until I got to the checkpoint. The situation is really appalling. It’s unbelievable what is happening. God help the people here. If this situation continues it’ll become a problem. Today the whole country is closed. There is a general strike in Nablus.”

“The struggle is still continuing. On the first day, we were held up for about 14 hours. Then another 10 hours.”
The towns of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, were the most affected by the closure of the checkpoint, which is the town’s only entrance, after the settlements besieged them from several sides.

In response to the blockade, Nablus’ students and merchants launched a campaign to raise awareness and call on other provinces to support them in whatever ways possible. Organized under the slogan, “Besiege the Siege,” activists worked to restore vitality to the city. After the campaign was launched, Palestinian institutions in the Nablus Governorate issued calls to confront the siege by all means until it was broken.

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The day after the checkpoints were set up, Israeli settlers along with Israeli soldiers attacked Palestinians in the town of Huwara, beating citizens and breaking the windows of shops and vehicles. A week later on Oct. 19 in Huwara, many of these same settlers attacked Israeli soldiers themselves when the soldiers attempted to prevent them from throwing rocks at Palestinian vehicles. In the third week in October, Haaretz reported there were at least 100 settler crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank in 10 days.

Meanwhile, about 60 miles south, another occupied Palestinian territory bore the brunt of Israeli besiegement. Israeli forces conducted a nearly 10-day-long manhunt through the Shuafat Refugee Camp in Jerusalem seeking Udai Tamimi, 22, who killed an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint on Oct. 11 before evading capture.

Tamimi was killed on Oct. 19 after opening fire on soldiers guarding the Israeli colony settlement of Maale Adumim. After the killing of Tamimi, the Lions’ Den called for protests and a large general strike was held across many cities in the West Bank.

General Strike & West Bank Protests Against the Siege Suppressed
A massive general strike was held on Oct. 20 condemning the killing of Udai Tamimi and the siege of Nablus, shutting down nearly all Palestinian institutions and businesses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with millions participating. Other forms of protest also occurred in the region, which were violently repressed by Israeli forces.

Media spokesman for Nablus Governorate and the Director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Ghassan Hamdan, told Unicorn Riot that Palestinians were protesting “due to the unjust siege on Nablus.” Hamdan said the protest condemns the “crimes committed by the Israeli occupation soldiers” and sends a message “that the Palestinians cannot be defeated” despite the collective punitive measures.

Dozens of Palestinian youths were injured by live fire and rubber-coated bullets and tear gassed by Israeli forces during the protests. Israeli settlers also attacked several Palestinian towns. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 150 people were injured by Israeli forces and settlers in the Nablus Governorate on Oct. 20.

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More Attacks on The Lions’ Den
A few days after the settlers’ attacks, the protest repression and the general strike, Israeli forces planted a bomb on a motorcycle in Nablus and killed Lions’ Den member Tamer al-Kilani. A video documented what Palestinians called an “assassination” on Oct. 23.

The Israeli military said al-Kilani was connected to attacks on Israeli soldiers, and although they haven’t specifically claimed responsibility, Lions’ Den social media accounts lay blame directly on Israeli forces.

Two days later, on Oct. 25, Israeli forces conducted another large-scale military raid on Nablus targeting the Lions’ Den. This time they killed five Palestinians and shot at least 22 during drawn-out firefights. Two of those killed were confirmed to have been unarmed barbers who’d just left work. The other three Palestinians killed were members of the Lions’ Den, including Wadee al-Hawah, 31, one of the most prominent leaders.

Al-Hawah and Mish’al Baghdadi were reportedly killed in a besieged home by Energa missiles fired by drones and Hamdi al-Qayyem was killed by a targeted Israeli missile striking his vehicle.

Over a dozen military vehicles with Israel’s Security Agency Shin Bet stormed several neighborhoods in the Old City with the support of a drone. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli snipers were deployed on the roofs of houses and buildings overlooking the city center and the Old City neighborhoods. Israeli forces were seen preventing ambulance crews from reaching and transporting many of the wounded during the deadly raid.

Statements made by Israel indicated that they targeted leaders of the Lions’ Den for their attacks and claimed they destroyed a laboratory used to manufacture explosives.

An eyewitness to the deadly raid, Muhammad Al-Atheer, said the fighting lasted four hours and a house was targeted with four shells and Energa missiles.
“They fired four shells after shooting. Special forces bombed the same house with Energa missiles. A long clash ensued between them and the Palestinian resistance. The fighting lasted for four hours straight.”
Eyewitness Muhammad Al-Atheer
Along with the five killed in Nablus, another Palestinian was killed in the village of Nabi Saleh. Following the raid, several Palestinian paramilitary groups announced the targeting of numerous Israeli checkpoints, leading to violent confrontations.

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Another General Strike & More Protests
After the Oct. 25 raid, another large general strike was carried out by Palestinians in Nablus along with further protests condemning the siege. These protests were met with repression by Israeli forces.

East of Gaza City in the Malaka camp, angry youths set rubber tires on fire. Hundreds flocked toward the barrier wall, expressing their contempt for the policies of collective punishment.

During a protest near the wall in Gaza, protester Youssef Dalloul said that they were standing in solidarity with Nablus and those who were killed. Dalloul said the youth “confirm the fire of the revolution” and that the occupied Palestinian territories were standing as one:
“The rebellious youths come out and burn these Kushuki tires, confirming that the fire of revolution and the fire of anger is in our chest, and we are now directing it to this Zionist occupiers.”
Surrendering of Lions’ Den Members & Lifting of the Siege
Two days after the deadly Oct. 25 raid that killed three of its members, four Lions’ Den members turned themselves in to the police forces of the Palestinian Authority. The group issued a statement on its Telegram channel saying that each fighter acts in their own faith. The four who surrendered did so at their own will and they hadn’t negotiated their surrender. The Palestinian Authority (PA) works with the Israeli government to handle security related matters and have partial civil control over sections of the West Bank. Created in 1994, the PA is controlled by the second largest political party in Palestine, Fatah, and has its own police force.

On Oct. 28, the Israeli army partially lifted the siege, removing two of the six newly created checkpoints at the entrances to the city. Finally on Nov. 3, after over three weeks of siege, Israeli forces lifted all movement restrictions on Palestinians in the Nablus Governorate and removed the checkpoints.

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https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/nablus-s ... unishment/

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Israel lashes out against US decision to investigate killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
For months, the US had declined to conduct any investigation into the killing of the Palestinian journalist and accepted the Israeli version calling it an accident. This is despite repeated appeals by Akleh’s family and human rights groups for an inquiry

November 16, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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Shireen Abu Akleh. (Photo: Al-Jazeera)

Israel declared that it will not cooperate with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s probe in the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The probe was announced on Monday, November 14, by the US Justice Department.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz called the US announcement of the investigation a “grave mistake” and asserted that Israel will not cooperate with the probe in any way. He claimed that his government stands with Israeli soldiers and any external investigation amounts to “interference in Israel’s internal affairs,” Times of Israel reported.

The US Justice Department announced on Monday that the FBI is launching an investigation into the killing of the senior Al-Jazeera journalist after refusing it for months after her killing in May.

Akleh’s family issued a formal statement welcoming the investigation and expressing hope that it “will be truly independent, credible and thorough and following the evidence where it leads, up and down the chain of command.”

Various organizations also welcomed the decision, with UN special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese calling it the “first step to reverse the abysmal record of impunity.”


Akleh (51), a US citizen, was killed by an Israeli sniper on May 11 when she along with other journalists was covering a raid by the Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. This is despite the journalists wearing full gear identifying themselves as press.

Israel initially denied its role in Akleh’s killing and instead tried to blame Palestinian armed groups for the same. It also offered a ‘joint investigation’. However, after various groups established that the Israeli claims were incorrect and the offer for a joint investigation was rejected as an attempt at whitewashing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officially accepted in September that Akleh was killed by “mistake” by a bullet “likely fired by an Israeli soldier.”

Various investigations conducted by human rights and media groups, as well as the Palestinian Authority, have established that Akleh was deliberately targeted and killed by an Israeli sniper.

The Joe Biden administration in the US had however denied calls by Akleh’s family and human rights groups for an investigation, claiming that there was no need. In a statement issued in July, the US had even endorsed the Israeli version of events leading to Akleh’s death.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/11/16/ ... abu-akleh/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 19, 2022 3:06 pm

Palestinian government condemns Israel's expansionist plan

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The authorities also rejected the expansion of the road network and the construction of new ones to connect the settlements with each other. | Photo: EFE (reference)
Posted 18 November 2022 (11 hours 0 minutes ago)

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry emphasized that these actions are intended to complete the settlement unilaterally.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the plan of the Israeli authorities on the expansion of settlements in occupied territory, including their legalization.

Through a statement published on Thursday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry repudiated "in the strongest terms what was reported by the Hebrew media about the agreement between (Benjamin) Netanyahu and the racist extremist member of the Knesset, Ben Jubeir, on the deepening and settlement expansion.

In addition, the entity also rejected the expansion of the road network and the construction of new ones to connect the settlements with each other, including random outposts.


The Palestinian Foreign Ministry emphasized that these actions harm the negotiation of issues on the final status of the territories and seek to complete the settlement unilaterally.

“Although this agreement will take place within 60 days of the formation of the new Israeli government, and some of its provisions have not yet completed their plans, it deepens settlements, leads to the confiscation of more Palestinian land, and legalizes random outposts. especially in the northern West Bank,” he stressed.

The diplomatic entity warned that this decision would generate catastrophic repercussions, not only in the conflict, but in the hope of reaching peace and negotiation.

"The Ministry calls on the international community and the United States administration to exert the necessary pressure and measures to ensure that this agreement and its provisions are not implemented," the statement concluded.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/palestin ... -0025.html

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Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir agree to legalize outposts. What does it mean for Palestinians?

Nearly 700,000 Israelis living in over 250 settlements and over 100 outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories. Both settlements and outposts are illegal under international law while Israel has until now termed outposts illegal

November 18, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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Itamar Ben Gvir and Benjamin Netanyahu. Photos: Xinhua

On Thursday, November 17, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to right-wing leader Itamar Ben Gvir’s proposal to carry out retrospective legalization of outposts in the occupied territories within 60 days of coming to power. Netanyahu’s Likud-led alliance won a decisive majority in the Israeli elections held on November 1 and he has been tasked by President Isaac Herzog with forming the next government. Ben Gvir is a key member of the coalition.

The decision was announced after a meeting between Netanyahu and Ben Gvir finalizing the formation of the government.

Outposts are smaller settlements mostly erected on Palestinian land in the occupied territories. They are usually built near existing settlements. There are over 700,000 Israelis living in over 250 settlements and over 100 outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPTs). Though both settlements and outposts are illegal according to the international law on occupied territories, Israeli laws recognize settlements but consider outposts illegal.

Netanyahu and Ben Gvir also announced the decision to amend a 2005 law to legalize the Homesh and Yeshiva outposts in the occupied West Bank. The Homesh outpost is located on highway 60 used by both Palestinians and settlers and its legalization may further restrict the movement of Palestinians. An existing settlement there was dismantled by the Israeli state according to a law passed in 2005 under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement plan.” It is now an Israeli military base.

While Israel officially considers outposts to be illegal, observers have pointed out that settlers there are provided full security and financial assistance by the Israeli government. The residents of the outposts have the same rights as any Israeli citizen.

The legalization of outposts will create further troubles for Palestinians, who are already facing obstacles with regard to their freedom of movement due to the apartheid walls, settlers-only roads, and numerous check points created to maintain the segregation between them and the illegal settlers.

Earlier this week, Benny Gantz, defense minister in the outgoing Yair Lapid government, announced the expansion of the apartheid wall in the OPTs by another 100 kilometers. The hundreds of kilometers-long wall was erected in 2001 in order to separate Palestinian residential areas and illegal settlements.

Due to the apartheid wall and other segregation measures, along with the existence of separate legal provisions for settlers and occupied Palestinians who live in the same area, international and Palestinian human rights groups have called Israel an apartheid regime.

Complete violation of UN resolution and international law
Despite the objections periodically raised by the UN and other countries, Israel has aggressively pursued the expansion of illegal settlements inside the OPTs. In 2016, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2334 which asks Israel to end the expansion of settlements, calling them a “flagrant violation of international law.”

However, Israel has continuously expanded illegal settlements. Netanyahu in 2019 announced a plan to annex a large part of the occupied West Bank where illegal settlements have been built. He failed to implement the plan at the time due to his election defeat and fierce Palestinian opposition.

The decision to legalize the outposts has long been supported by Ben Gvir and other extremists in Israel. Ben Gvir is himself a settler from Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank. He also shares an ideological affinity with Hilltop Youth, a terrorist settler group involved in several attacks and killings targeting Palestinians with the intention of expelling them from the OPTs and expanding the settlements.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) issued a formal statement opposing the move to legalize the outposts. It appealed to the world community to intervene to scrap the agreement. Presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the deal would “deepen the settlements and lead to the confiscation of more Palestinian land.” He also said that this will undermine “any possibility of achieving peace and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the basis of a two-state solution and in accordance with the UN resolution.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/11/18/ ... estinians/

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AYMAN ODEH, HEAD OF THE HADASH PARTY, VOTES DURING THE 2015 ISRAELI NATIONAL ELECTIONS. (PHOTO: MUAMMAR AWAD/APA IMAGES)

The Communist Party is the only force capable of challenging ultra-nationalism in Israeli society
Originally published: Mondoweiss on November 12, 2022 by Naim Mousa (more by Mondoweiss) | (Posted Nov 18, 2022)

The results of the latest Israeli elections may not have surprised anyone, at least in terms of the return of Netanyahu. However, it is consequential in two ways which will prove to be pivotal in the future development of Israel and its impact on the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination and equality. First, the rise, legitimization, and normalization of the far-right and its fascist components will forever change the political landscape of the country. Second, the complete and total collapse—no, extinction—of the so-called “Zionist Left” in Israel leaves the Communist Party (the core of the Hadash party) as the sole left-wing force in the country and presents it with a golden opportunity to lead the Israeli and Palestinian Left in their struggle against Kahanism and ultra-nationalism in Israel.

First, it is important to note that Zionism in general is right-wing. It is a colonialist ideology that emerged in Europe at the height of imperialism and is fundamentally an ideology that serves the interests of Western imperialism. The rise of the modern Israeli far-right (or more accurately the far, far-right), seen in the Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir becoming the third largest party in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), finds its roots in the late 1990s with Netanyahu’s first term as Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999. During this time, he implemented numerous neoliberal reforms, aimed at privatizing and liberalizing the country’s various economic sectors. After his short time in office as Prime Minister, he continued implementing his reforms as Finance Minister from 2003 to 2005. This trend of market liberalization, privatization, and restraining of labor movement and institutions continued well into his later terms as Prime Minister.

The economic liberalization of Israel under Netanyahu is the primary culprit to the rise in living costs in Israel, particularly when it comes to housing. As people’s cost of living begins to rise, they are faced with two alternatives: resisting the capitalist system that is subjugating them to these living standards or turning their anger towards marginalized communities or other “foreign enemies.” Thus, it is not surprising that Israel’s economic liberalization corresponds to a rise in incitement by Israeli politicians and the public against Palestinians and other minorities (such as the Ethiopian community). The penetration of Israeli finance capitalism into every aspect of economic and private life in Israel is transforming it into a hyper-individualist society, with the alienation of the working class reaching ever greater heights. Both Jewish and Palestinian citizens have been flung into free-for-all as they fight to survive in this economic reality, which eliminated many of the channels through which Jewish-Arab cooperation had been built over the years, particularly after the Oslo Accords which saw increased interaction between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel economically and socially.

This alienation is very susceptible to exploitation by right-wing parties, whose violent, racist, and unfiltered incitement against Palestinians was an easy distraction for people facing economic hardship. That is not to say that the rise of the far-right is disconnected from the entrenchment of the occupation, however. The continued occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people will inevitably lead to resistance by them, which allows the Israeli right-wing to further incite against them, all the while continuing to implement its neoliberal policies in the country that deepen inequality and push the working masses in Israel further under the subordination of capital.

The rise of the Jewish-supremacist Right in Israel, led by Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party, is not only dangerous for Palestinians, but also for Israelis. The Netanyahu-led right-wing in Israel will work rapidly and aggressively to deepen the occupation, incite against Palestinians, and forcibly evict Palestinians from East Jerusalem and all across the occupied West Bank. However, it will also allow and empower Israeli capitalism and finance capital to continue growing, becoming more centralized and concentrated in the hands of Israeli corporations. Israeli workers will only become more radicalized, as they are swarmed by the hate and violence spewed by the likes of Ben-Gvir, and many have rightly worried that Israel’s democratic institutions (at least within the 1967 borders) are under threat.

There are several important lessons from this election. It showed the entire world that the “Zionist Left” is all but extinguished from Israeli politics. The only party that can come even close to being considered part of the “Left” is Meretz, and just five months ago they voted in favor of extending the emergency order which grants Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank civil governance, while Palestinians in the same area are subject to military rule. And even still, Meretz failed to pass the electoral threshold. In addition, the supposedly “center-left” Israeli Labor party—the party of David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin; the party which founded the State of Israel—received less votes than both Arab lists that passed the electoral threshold. In other words, the Jewish Israeli public has all but abandoned their left-wing movements (what’s left of them at least).

We must also understand the role of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the most recent election, and the failure of the Joint List to build a broad, left-wing coalition.

The Joint List was initially made up of four of the Palestinian-majority political parties in Israel: Hadash, Balad, Ra’am, and Ta’al. When the Joint List was first established in 2015 at the initiative of Hadash, it provided immense hope and optimism for Palestinian citizens in creating a sizeable bloc in the Israeli Knesset to counter the Zionist parties, particularly the right-wing parties led by Netanyahu. This popularity culminated in 2020, when the Joint List secured an unprecedented 15 seats in the Knesset, retaining its position as the third largest party in the Knesset. This is mainly due to a significant rise in Arab voter turnout, but also due to Hadash securing votes from the Jewish community as many Jewish-Israeli voters searched for an alternative to the failing “Zionist Left.”

However, the Islamic Ra’am party split from the Joint List in 2021 and opted to join the governing Israeli coalition which launched a war on Gaza and brutally suppressed Palestinian citizens of Israel who marched against the bloodshed. In addition, Balad and Ta’al have yet to prove their capability to stand on their own in Israeli elections, and yet in the case of Balad, demanded leadership within the Joint List that was not commensurate with the votes it was bringing to the coalition. All these factors led to the end of the Joint List in these most recent elections.

However, despite the breakup of the Joint List and the continued incitement by the Israeli far-right, Arab voters surprised everyone as their turnout increased by about 10 percentage points compared to the previous elections, securing Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al 5 seats each. Hadash proved its capacity to mobilize Palestinian citizens yet again while Balad wasted a sizeable number of votes by not reaching the voting threshold when these votes could have contributed towards a stronger joint voice in the parliament.

Ra’am’s betrayal of the Palestinian movement by joining the incumbent governing coalition and Balad’s foolish political gamble will impact their legitimacy in the eyes of Palestinian citizens. In the aftermath of the election it is clear that Hadash is the only party in the Palestinian community capable of building a broad Palestinian coalition. The Communist Party of Israel (CPI), which forms the core of the Hadash list, has played a pivotal role in Israel in organizing and mobilizing Palestinian citizens of Israel and the broader left-wing movement in the country. The CPI has been and continues to be the sole joint Jewish-Arab party in Israel ever since its establishment in 1948. As such, it is the only party in Israel that is uniquely set up to reach out to both Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel in the struggle against the rise of ultra-nationalism in Israel.

Hadash and the Communist Party have a clear road ahead of them. The dismal collapse of the “Zionist Left” has created a vacuum within the left-wing movement in Israel that must be urgently filled by the Communist Party and Hadash. Their economic platform aims to eliminate neoliberalism in Israel, which resonates with the Jewish working class, and none of the other Arab parties—or even the Labor Party or Meretz—have a strong economic stance regarding the economic conditions of the working class in Israel, both Jewish and Palestinian. As the extreme Right continues to take hold of Israel, the Communist Party of Israel is the only force still standing ready to face it.

https://mronline.org/2022/11/18/the-com ... i-society/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 22, 2022 3:13 pm

Defying International Outcry, Israel Says Will not Cooperate With any External Probe Into Murder of Palestinian Journalist
NOVEMBER 20, 2022

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This file photo shows veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed earlier this year by Israeli forces' live fire while reporting a raid on the occupied West Banks city of Jenin. File photo.

Israel has once again defied all international calls for justice in the killing of veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, saying it will not cooperate with any external investigation into her murder.

The regime’s Minister for Military Affairs Benny Gantz made the remarks on Monday after the emergence of reports that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a probe into the reporter’s killing.

“The US Justice Ministry’s decision to investigate the unfortunate death of Shireen Abu Akleh is a serious mistake,” Gantz said in a statement.

Wearing press attire, 51-year-old Abu Akleh was murdered in cold blood while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on May 11. Later, her funeral was also attacked by the regime’s forces.

Following long denial, the Israeli military finally admitted in September that Abu Akleh might have “accidentally” been killed by Israeli fire directed “towards suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen.”

Palestinian officials and Abu Akleh’s family have said they believe she was killed deliberately by Israeli forces and have rejected Israeli statements that there were Palestinian fighters around where she was standing.

Israel belatedly admits Abu Akleh ‘accidentally’ killed by its forces, refuses to open criminal probe
Numerous witnesses and inquires into the incident have also disputed the Israel’s claim, saying there were no Palestinian fighters around when the murder took place.

The West Bank-headquartered Palestinian Authority (PA)’s President Mahmoud Abbas has slammed the Israeli version as an attempt by Tel Aviv to evade responsibility for her murder.

Speaking through a video posted on Twitter on November 11, Abu Akleh’s niece Lareen Abu Akleh said, “It has been six long months of my family and I advocating for accountability and justice.”

“We continue to pursue all possible avenues for accountability and we have hope that some day we would see justice for Shireen,” she added.

The PA has likewise affirmed that the Palestinian leadership would continue to follow up on the brutal killing with all relevant international bodies, especially the International Criminal Court, to protect the rights of the veteran journalist as well as other Palestinians.

https://orinocotribune.com/defying-inte ... ournalist/

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Palestine’s New Freedom Fighters
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 21, 2022
Asa Winstanley

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Resistance is the choice of the masses.

Palestinians in the West Bank are taking up their guns once again. A sea change is happening.

For about two decades, the Gaza Strip has been the headquarters of Palestine’s armed resistance to Israel. This resistance has only grown since 2005, when the interior of the Strip was liberated, with the evacuation of Israel’s settlers there under Palestinian fire.

Led by Hamas, Palestine’s Islamic resistance movement, the armed factions in Gaza have become increasingly sophisticated, developing their own rocket technology to the point where they are able to strike targets over practically the entire territory of occupied Palestine (present day Israel).

Although fenced in at Gaza’s boundaries (and thus still occupied by Israel) the Gaza Strip is governed internally by Hamas (which fairly won the last Palestinian Authority elections). The resistance’s rockets combined with a vast network of underground tunnels mean that Israel now finds effective ground invasions of Gaza impossible. It is reduced to pummelling civilian targets from the air.

Aided by the “Axis of Resistance” powers (Iran, Syria and Lebanon’s Hizballah), the resistance in Gaza has become a beacon of hope for all Palestinians. For the first time, in May last year, the Gaza-based resistance was able to successfully prevent Israeli ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. A massive show of support for the resistance all over Palestine led to a new spirt, a movement which is sometimes called “the Unity Intifada.”

And now the West Bank has taken inspiration from Gaza and resumed the armed struggle. This year, there has been a large increase in the number of military operations against Israeli forces in the West Bank.

New armed groups have emerged, and there has been a large upswing in the number of military operations against Israeli soldiers and settlers.

It started in September last year, with the escape of six Palestinian prisoners out of a high security Israeli prison in Gilboa.

Although all were re-captured, the success of the daring, six-month tunnel operation (added to the fact that they then spent a fortnight on the run) was a massive morale boost to the entire Palestinian people.

The escapees’ hometown of Jenin has subsequently been a hotbed of armed resistance to Israel’s colonial occupation.

The same goes for Nablus, a second city in the north of the occupied West Bank, where, since August, a new group has emerged called the Lions’ Den.

The Lions’ Den began simply as a group of youths with rifles defending the city from Israeli incursions. One of its founders was Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, murdered by Israel during a violent rampage in August, which also resulted in the deaths of two other Palestinians, including a child.

Martyred at the age of 18, al-Nabulsi has already become a legendary name among the Palestinian masses. “Protect the country after I am gone,” he famously urged in a voice note recorded shortly before his death, urging the people not to lay down their weapons.

While the six escapees represented the last generation of armed resistance (they included Zakaria Zubeidi, a renowned fighter during the second intifada of the early 2000s) there is now a new generation taking up arms, willing to lay down their lives for the people.

Another young legend was Udai Tamimi, a 22-year-old from the Shuafat refugee camp near Jerusalem. He escaped after carrying out a daring strike on an Israeli military checkpoint last month.

Armed with nothing more than a pistol, Tamimi single-handedly killed one solider and injured several others. Video of the operation shows him pulling up in a car, calmly walking up to a group of soldiers, opening fire at point blank range and escaping on foot.

Israel can kill revolutionaries, but it can’t kill the Palestinian revolution.

“I am Udai Tamimi, a wanted man from Shuafat refugee camp,” he wrote in a widely circulated hand-written message. “My operation against the Shuafat checkpoint is a drop in the raging sea of the struggle. I know that I will attain martyrdom sooner or later. I know that I will not liberate Palestine with my operation but I want to encourage hundreds of youth to pick up their guns after me.”

He evaded capture for 11 days and was even able to carry out a second attack, before being killed by a settler security guard. Video of the attack shows him battling to the end.

Tamimi’s celebrated Shuafat operation came immediately after a series of Israeli army invasions in the West Bank, which snuffed out the lives of four teenagers, including three children.

For exactly this reason, the new wave of armed resistance in the West Bank has overwhelming popular support. Massive demonstrations have come out to support the Lions’ Den in Nablus and all over Palestine — including even in the 1948-occupied territories (“Israel”).

The Israeli murder of four teenagers no doubt played a part in the motivation for Tamimi’s successfully military operation against the Shuafat checkpoint. But it is only one part of the wider picture of death and destruction caused every day by Israel’s colonial occupation of Palestine.

This year has been the deadliest year for Palestinians since the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs began counting in 2005. Last month on average, Israel killed one Palestinian per day. This is the everyday violence of the occupation which never makes “mainstream” media headlines — until Palestinians fight back.

Settler attacks have become more frequent and are taking on an increasingly pogrom-like character, openly aided and abetted by Israeli soldiers.

Roi Zweig, an Israel colonel, said it plainly earlier this year: “the army and the settlements are one and the same.” Liberal Zionist distinctions between “Israel” and “the occupation” have always been a lie. The first settlements in the West Bank were established by a “Labor” Zionist government, not by Likud, and were always intended to be military outposts.

Yet despite Israel’s depraved colonial brutality against civilians, the Palestinian resistance aims its guns at military targets — checkpoints, soldiers and settler security guards.

The right of occupied peoples to resist military occupation using armed self-defence is enshrined in international law.

The Lions’ Den is a new phenomenon in the Palestinian body politic. It is aligned to no one political faction, yet it includes fighters from all of them. One of its founders, Ammar al-Killani, was an activist with a Marxist-Leninist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But two of its fighters arrested by Israel’s collaborationist Palestinian Authority last month are supporters of Hamas.

The new spirit of unity is spreading.

As the Palestinian writer Ahmed Abu Artema explained recently, “The driving force of this surge in resistance is young people who did not take part in the first or second intifadas.”

The new generation of resistance fighters are too young to remember the horrors Israel inflicted with its military invasions to suppress the second intifada.

And yet, “they grew up experiencing oppression on a daily basis. They grew up amid the constant humiliations inflicted on Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints.”

Israel can kill revolutionaries, but it can’t kill the Palestinian revolution. Generation after generation rises up again and again against them. And this generation is putting the political divisions of the past behind them.

This is a point confirmed even by Israel’s defence minister Benny Gantz. “A new generation is growing up in the Palestinian Authority, which does not belong to any organisation,” he said recently, claiming that about two-thirds of the Palestinians who carried out armed actions in the last year were not alive during the second intifada.

The right of occupied peoples to resist military occupation using armed self-defence is enshrined in international law.

Armed resistance is the choice of the Palestinian people.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/ ... -fighters/

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Israel kills Palestinian youth during raid at Jenin refugee camp

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This year is already the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, with Israeli forces killing over 140 Palestinians. It is also the deadliest year for Palestinian children since 2015 with over 30 killed

November 22, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

On Monday, November 22, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian youth, Mahmoud al-Saadi (18), and wounded at least four others during a raid at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, al-Saadi was a student of secondary school. He was shot and killed by Israeli forces while he was on his way to school. In some reports, al-Saadi’s age has been recorded as 17 years.


Israeli occupation forces were conducting yet another raid in Jenin on Monday. Dozens of armed vehicles stormed the camp in the morning and surrounded a house full of children and other occupants. The Israeli forces fired at them with live bullets and missiles.

While Israeli forces claimed that al-Saadi was killed in crossfire, this was disputed by eyewitnesses who claimed that he was standing on the street when he was shot by Israeli forces in the stomach, Al-Jazeera reported.

Al-Saadi’s funeral procession was attended by thousands of Palestinians who also observed a day of strike in Jenin to mourn his killing.


Al-Saadi was the second Palestinian youth killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in the last two weeks. On November 14, Israeli forces shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian girl Fulla Rasmi Mallouh in Ramallah. Israeli forces also attacked and gravely injured another Palestinian child near Hebron on Monday.


The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued a formal statement condemning the “field execution” of al-Saadi, saying, “this heinous crime committed by the occupation forces is an integral part of the daily series of killings against our people with the cover and approval” of the Israeli government.

Deadliest year for West Bank since 2005
Jenin and other parts of the occupied West Bank have been the target of repeated Israeli raids since March, in which scores of Palestinians, including journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, have been killed. With the increased number of raids and Palestinian resistance against them, the occupied West Bank has recorded the highest number of killings this year since the UN started collecting annual data in 2005.

Israeli forces have killed at least 140 Palestinians, including 30 children, in the West Bank already this year, Middle East Eye reported. The total number of Palestinians killed throughout all occupied territories – West Bank, Gaza, and Eastern Jerusalem – this year has reached 203.

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According to the UN, nearly 9,000 Palestinians have been injured in Israeli aggression in the occupied West Bank alone.

On Monday, Israeli forces kidnapped three Palestinian children aged 13 and 14 from Nilin near Ramallah, Wafa news agency reported. According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, Israel has arrested over 20,000 children from the occupied territories since 2000. The number has crossed 50,000 since 1967.

According to the Defense of Children International-Palestine, one of the seven Palestinian human rights groups shut down by Israel earlier this year citing their ‘terrorist’ connections, Israel has killed 521 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank between 2000 and November 15 this year.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/11/22/ ... ugee-camp/

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UN: 2022 Deadliest Year for Palestinians in West Bank Since 2005
NOVEMBER 21, 2022

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The body of a young Palestinian lies on the ground near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on September 22, 2021. File photo by the Palestine Information Center.

The United Nations says 2022 has been the deadliest year for the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, based on fatality count the UN started in 2005.

That is according to the biweekly Protection of Civilians Report published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine.

In the most recent incidents of violence, Israeli forces shot dead at least 18 Palestinians and injured more than 200 across the West Bank since October 25.

Human rights groups say they have documented several cases of Israeli soldiers gunning down Palestinian protesters across the occupied territories.

In addition to the killings, Israeli regime troops restricted the movement of Palestinians in several locations and neighborhoods across the West Bank.

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The file photo shows Israeli forces demolishing a two-story Palestinian house in the West Bank town of Tira, June 12, 2022. (Wafa news agency)

Israeli authorities also demolished or confiscated 54 structures in East al-Quds and Area C of the West Bank, which constitutes about 61 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli military control.

Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the West Bank and East al-Quds, claiming the structures have been built without permits, which are virtually impossible to obtain. They also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the demolition costs.

Israel has already occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand new settler units in various areas in the West Bank. The olive harvest season was disrupted by at least more than 30 incidents of violence by Israeli settlers escorted by regime forces across the occupied territories.

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In this file picture, Palestinian olive farmers check damage to their olive trees that were cut down by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. (Via Twitter)

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has called on the international community to take on its responsibilities, and make serious steps toward stopping the Israeli regime’s crimes as well as settler violence, known as ‘price tag’ attacks, across the occupied territories.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

https://orinocotribune.com/un-2022-dead ... ince-2005/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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