Mohammad Othman, a prominent Palestinian activist involved with War on Want partner, Stop the Wall, has been detained without charge by Israeli authorities. His detention is illegal – and he now faces the risk of torture. We need to take action to free him now.

Write to the UK Foreign Secretary urging the British government to put pressure on Israel to release Mohammad immediately.

http://www.waronwant.org/Freemohammadothman

Mohammad has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to the defence of Palestinian human rights. Since his arrest by Israeli authorities on 22 September Mohammad has been subjected to six military hearings. Yet he still has not been charged with any crime, leading his lawyers to believe he is being targeted by Israel solely because of work in defence of human rights.

During his time in detention, Mohammad has been held mostly in solitary confinement and subjected to lengthy interrogation sessions, threats and sleep deprivation. He is currently being refused access to his lawyers and last week was secretly moved to a new detention centre, where his lawyers fear he could now be tortured.

War on Want is campaigning for Mohammad's urgent release. Please take this e-action now. With your help, we can free Mohammad Othman.

http://www.waronwant.org/Freemohammadothman

Thank you,

Yasmin Khan

Senior Campaigns Officer

Palestine@waronwant.org

visit: http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/

Firstly, the delay of the Goldstone Report has led to a heated controversy in the Palestinian arena, since the two rivals, Fateh and Hamas, spared no effort to gain semi-victory of the elections by inciting their supporters on their own information: nothing has been achieved for both factions since they tried to put the cart before the horse and using the double-standard methods in maintaining factional interests.

This rigorous controversy is not as random as some of the people may say, but the burning desire to gain interests is what is at stake here – not one of the political parties has read the report carefully, but they tried to use the regional interest as a card to achieve their goals and objectives and to convince the people they are in favor or against the report for an implicit end.

The delay of the report has put even deeper roots in the political breakdown and made the reach for reconciliation closer to fantasy and craziness in the eyes of the Palestinian monitors and even for the people in the general public.

Secondly, the call for the presidential and parliamentary elections in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, issued by the President, Mahmoud Abbas on 23 October 2009, has led to an additional splintering of the already political and strategic divide among "the factions to reconcile", where the first agreement signed in Mecca had no tangible actions on the ground after 4 months of holding it, the impending signing of the Egyptian document was projected to carry the same dilemma due to the lack of looking up the hidden, creative ways of achieving the reconciliation.

The same strategic flaws of the "Mecca agreement" were scheduled to be repeat those of the "Egyptian document" for the following reasons: the control of the donors' countries on Palestinian decision-making; lack of confidence; the factions' fear of destroying the movements' image before their supporters; two different security and even theoretical visions of reaching reconciliation; and some partial reasons like: Hamas' fear of the shuttling visits of the Egyptian intelligence, Omar Solieman, to the USA in an unscheduled time—these factors led them to delay and then run away from the reconciliation consequences.

What comes first, the reconciliation or the elections?

Out of the accelerating events in the Palestinian community, no one can speculate on the status quo or the future, but the core result for all spoiling efforts of the two factions' dialogue will be the collapse of the Palestinian political system, deepening the geopolitical divide; enhancing the role of the police policy; delay of the reconstruction process until further notice, and giving more justifications to the international community that there is no hope in dealing with the Palestinian divided people and then returning to the first square.

Lastly, the need to reconcile is not so easy in the Palestinian community because the world has the ability to change, but the Palestinian has just been allowed to listen to the mastermind. The international community can help Palestinians reach the reconciliation via respecting their own think tanks’ recommendations, and then they will find the best upheaval change on the Palestinians, their neighbors and at the international levels. 

Ayman Nijim is a strategic researcher working in Pal Think for Strategic Studies, Gaza-based think tank.

You can contact him via: ayman_trans@hotmail.com

Ayman A. Nijim

Interpreter and strategic researcher

Email': Ayman_trans@hotmail.com , for Arab Journalists.

think_do.thank@hotmail.com , for Foreign Journalists.

ayman_trans@yahoo.com .  

Website: http://aymannijim.wordpress.com/

By Dr. Alan Sabrosky *

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Resolution based on the Goldstone Report is a damning condemnation of Israel. The original meaning of being "caught red-handed" was literally being "caught bloody-handed," with the victim's blood on one's own hands. In Gaza, Israel has been caught red-handed in that literal sense, and for the first time in its history, is approaching the dock in the international court of opinion and, hopefully, of justice as well.

This case could be a watershed event. For Israel and its US Government (USG) puppet-patron, the moment of truth in the UN is rapidly approaching. So let us look at the key elements of the HRC special session that sent this resolution to the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Voting Patterns

Voting patterns on the HRC are important, as they provide insights into what might happen later on the Security Council (UNSC) and in the General Assembly:

1. Of the permanent members of the Security Council, Russia and China supported the resolution, Britain and France did not vote (the equivalent of hiding under the table!), only the US opposed it;

2. France and Norway did not vote for or against the resolution, but they did support the conclusions of the Goldstone Report;

3. Both major Sub-Saharan African states (Nigeria and South Africa) voted for it;

4. Two of the Asian "Big Three" (India and China) voted for it, the third (Japan) just abstained;

5. Two of the usual US supporters in SW and SE Asia (Pakistan and the Philippines) voted for it; and

6. Three of the four largest Latin American states (Argentina, Brazil, Chile) voted for it, the fourth (Mexico) abstained.

What makes this significant — since the US lobbied hard first to keep the Goldstone Report from even reaching the HRC, and then for others to vote against the HRC resolution — is that many states who voted for it, or abstained, would normally have been in the US corner. This is NOT a good sign for the US and Israel of how the General Assembly will go, and perhaps even the Security Council, which could easily have a majority of 10 or 11 supporting the resolution (in whatever form it reaches the them), with France and Britain either abstaining or not voting. Very bad for the US, for even though its veto would kill any punishment of Israel there, there would be enough votes to ask the General Assembly officially to invoke the "Uniting for Peace Resolution."

And several powerful states would not be at all unhappy to see the US discomfited here. Russia would take great pleasure from being on the winning side of a General Assembly vote that turned a US-inspired weapon against its own creator. China would see it as an opportunity to reaffirm its own growing prestige, as would India, which in addition has long been a strong and active supporter of UN peacekeeping operations. Countries like Brazil and Nigeria have little reason to support the US and none to support Israel, while even Japan could easily surprise the US — and take satisfaction from doing so.

Reservations About the Resolution

US criticism of the HRC resolution should be disregarded, as Washington only parrots Israel's wishes here. So can the odd criticism that the initial report lacked an Israeli perspective, simply because Israel refused to cooperate with Goldstone — not surprisingly, since the report made it clear that nothing Israel might have added would have exonerated it in any way.

But other reservations need to be addressed. One is that the resolution did not mention Hamas. I agree it might have been better to have included Goldstone's condemnation of Hamas offenses as well, but it is legitimate as it stands for five reasons: (1) Israel committed the great majority of the violations; (2) Israel had an overwhelming preponderance of military power; (3) Palestinians suffered almost all of the death and destruction; (4) Israel has a long, sordid history of ignoring UN commissions and resolutions, and of attacking UN facilities and killing UN staff, as when the clearly marked UNRWA facility in Gaza was bombed; and (5) the HRC focus is properly on the actions of the oppressor (Israel) and not on those of the oppressed (the Palestinians).

Another is that it did not accord Israel the right of self-defense. But Israel's claim to self-defense in its savaging of Gaza is specious, because Israel — like all occupiers and oppressors — has no inherent right of self-defense against its victims. Who, for instance, would have accepted Nazi Germany's assertion that its brutal reprisals against the Czechs for their assassination of a Nazi commander named Reinhard Heydrich was an exercise in self-defense? No one, and no one should accept Israel's claim, either.

A third is that holding Israel accountable for its actions will somehow endanger the Middle East peace process. But there is no peace process, simply meaningless discussions to the dead end (for Palestinians and the rest of the region) of Israeli hegemony, and under Netanyahu or any electable government in Israel, there is not and cannot be one. There will be an enforced peace imposed from outside of the Middle East, over the objections and obstruction of Israel, or there will be none at all.

Prospects

Netanyahu's assertion that he will prolong the diplomatic battle over the Goldstone Report and the subsequent HRC resolution is akin to a lawyer for a serial murderer trying to delay the trial in the hope that the witnesses will die of boredom or old age. It is also predictable. Since promises, excuses and offers of aid no longer suffice, it is inevitable that bluster, threats and blackmail will come to the forefront.

But Netanyahu knows that AIPAC has too much money for anyone else to outspend it within America, and the US (if it uses it) has too much muscle to be ignored by many of the smaller UN members. Give the US six months to lobby for votes, and this whole thing could fail. If that happens, a unique opportunity will be lost.

So rather than attempt to evade the certain US veto on the Security Council and its intransigence throughout this process, confront it head on as soon as possible in the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes. Explore all ways of invoking the "Uniting for Peace Resolution" (UNGA 377A) — this is the instrument of choice, and its time is now.

Done properly, this could be the start of a real diplomatic revolution on the path to an enforced peace in Palestine and an end to Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. But if those countries supporting justice for Palestine do not act now, while attention is focused and the momentum is building, it will all have been for nothing. They will have no one to blame for their failure except themselves.

*Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan) is a ten-year US Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the US Army War College. He can be contacted at docbrosk@comcast.net

Human Rights Watch

(Geneva) – The decision at the UN Human Rights Council to defer a vote on the Goldstone Gaza report until March 2010 obliges the United States and other governments blocking action at the council to press Israel and Hamas to commence credible investigations, Human Rights Watch said today. The fact-finding mission found evidence of violations of the laws of war during the Gaza conflict that should trigger credible investigations of the conduct of both sides.

Given its responsibility for forcing a deferral of the vote and its criticism of the mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone, the United States bears a special responsibility to ensure that Israel commences investigations that are credible, impartial and meet international standards (see the Human Rights Watch fact sheet, “Why no justice for Gaza?”).

“The United States won Israel a reprieve on the Goldstone report, so now it must ensure that Israel genuinely investigates allegations of abuse,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “If this doesn’t happen by March, then the US should endorse the Goldstone report’s call for international mechanisms of accountability.”

The US government called the Goldstone report “deeply flawed,” although it said it took the allegations seriously. Speaking to the Human Rights Council on September 29, 2009, US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner said the United States was “confident that Israel, as a democracy with a well-established commitment to the rule of law, has the institutions and ability to carry out robust investigations into these allegations.”

To date, however, Israel’s record of conducting investigations into the conduct of its military forces has been extremely poor. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem documented 773 cases where Israeli forces killed civilians not involved in hostilities during the December-January conflict in Gaza, but found that Israel has to date convicted only one soldier of a crime – for stealing a credit card. Human Rights Watch has also repeatedly criticized Hamas for failing to undertake serious investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

European Union member states, which failed to express support for a resolution that would have endorsed the Goldstone report in full, should also demand that Israel undertake serious investigations, Human Rights Watch said.

“The failure of the US and European states to endorse the Goldstone report sent a terrible message that serious laws-of-war violations by allied states would be tolerated,” Whitson said.

The 575-page report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concluded that both Israel and Hamas were responsible for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. The report recommended that the Israeli government and Hamas authorities conduct independent, impartial investigations within six months. Should the UN Security Council find that they failed to do so, the report urged that it to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that endorsing the Goldstone report would deal a “fatal blow to the peace process.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rejection of the Goldstone report because it would derail the peace process sadly impugns the importance of justice in reaching peace,” said Whitson. “Persistent impunity, not justice, is the greater threat to peace.”

Addameer, Al Haq, Al Mezan, Badil, Civic Coalition for Jerusalem, DCI- Palestine. NSAN Centre, Independent Commission for Human Rights, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Ramallah Centre for Human Rights Studies, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, wrote a statement:

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied, Decision of Palestinian Leadership and International Pressure an Insult to the Victims

Yesterday, 2 October 2009, the Palestinian leadership, under heavy international pressure lead by the United States, deferred the draft proposal at the Human Rights Council endorsing all the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report). This deferral denies the Palestinian peoples’ right to an effective judicial remedy and the equal protection of the law. It represents the triumph of politics over human rights. It is an insult to all victims and a rejection of their rights.

The crimes documented in the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission represent the most serious violations of international law; Justice Goldstone concluded that there was evidence to indicate that crimes against humanity may have been committed in the Gaza Strip. Violations of international law continue to this day, inter alia, through the continuing Israeli-imposed illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. The findings of the Mission confirmed earlier investigations conducted by independent Palestinian, Israeli and international organizations.
The injustice that has now been brought upon Palestinians has been brought upon everyone on this globe. International human rights and humanitarian law are not subject to discrimination, they are not dependent on nationality, religion, or political affiliation. International human rights and humanitarian law apply universally to all human beings.

The rule of law is intended to protect individuals, to guarantee their fundamental rights. Yet, if the rule of law is to be respected it must be enforced. World history, and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land has shown us that as long as impunity persists, the law will continue to be violated; innocent civilians will continue to suffer the horrific consequences.

Justice delayed is justice denied. All victims have a legitimate right to an effective judicial remedy, and the equal protection of the law. These rights are universal: they are not subject to political considerations. In the nine months since Operation Cast Lead, no effective judicial investigations have been conducted into the conflict. Impunity prevails. In such situations, international law demands recourse to international judicial mechanisms. Victims’ rights must be upheld. Those responsible must be held to account.

The belief that accountability and the rule of law can be brushed aside in the pursuit of peace is misguided. History has taught us time and time again, that sustainable peace can only be built on human rights, on justice, and the rule of law. For many years in Palestine international law, and the rule of law, has been sacrificed in the name of politics, and cast aside in favour of the peace process. This approach has been tried, and it has failed: the occupation has been solidified, illegal settlements have continued to expand, the right to self determination has been denied; innocent civilians suffer the horrific consequences. It is now time to pursue justice, and a peace built on a foundation of human rights, dignity, and the rule of law. In Justice Goldstone’s words, there is no peace without justice.

As human rights organizations we strongly condemn the Palestinian leaderships’ decision to defer the proposal endorsing all the recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission, and the pressure exerted by certain members of the international community. Such pressure is in conflict with States' international obligations, and is an insult to the Palestinian people.

As human rights organizations concerned with rights and justice, we declare that we will double our efforts to seek justice for the victims of the violations of human rights and international law without delay.

Since the end of criminal Israeli operation "Cast Lead" in Gaza Strip last January, more than five cases of birth have been registered which show babies who have a deformed and not fully formed heart. These births came as an effect of the use of internationally banned weapons of phosphor and uranium by the Israeli occupation in the middle of populated areas.

According to Palestinian medical sources, the health effects on Palestinians who were targeted in Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008 – 2009 still manifest day by day, especially those caused by the internationally banned phosphorous shells and dozens of types of weapons used by Israel and which laboratory tests showed were carrying toxins with delayed lethal effects, which may appear in the future in the form of malignant and dangerous diseases.

The Palestinian woman Umm Abdullah Al-Nakhale from the district of Al-Jabal near Mount Rais, a region that had heavy Israeli shelling and phosphorous bombs, gave birth to a baby with an incomplete heart in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Um Abdullah is a mother of four children – she was in the early days of pregnancy during the massacre. The doctors told her that the baby suffers from non-completion of the growth of the heart, where there is not a left ventricle, and that the blood is not pumped through his body, and that due to this problem her baby may die at any moment. It is impossible to give such cases like her baby any kind of medical treatment in Gaza.

Umm Abdullah said that the doctors told her that the main reason for the condition of her child is related to her inhaling toxic gases during the Israeli war. The woman stated that during her pregnancy she did not inhale any toxic materials, but that the materials which she inhaled during the Israeli raids left her with shortness of breath. Umm Abdullah appealed to the human rights organizations to undertake more effort to expose the Israeli war crimes in Gaza. She called the health organizations of the world to assume their responsibility and to help her give the necessary treatment to her child.

Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, director General of Ambulances and Emergencies in the Gaza hospitals, said that "some cases where birth defects, such as incomplete hearts and malformations of the brain have started appearing due to Israel's use of internationally banned weapons during their war against the civilians". He confirmed 5 registered cases of babies born after the Israeli invasion of Operation Cast Lead. 

Hassanein added that the researchers and doctors attribute this to Israel's use of materials and toxic gases such as phosphorus and “DIME” weapons in some areas in Gaza, such as the central region, Al-Zahra area, the Eastern District of Al-Zayton, Ezzbet Abed Rabbo, and Wadi Gaza.

He said: “experts and international researchers from France and Italy took samples to be tested in European laboratories, and make sure that the occupation used internationally prohibited substances, but until now they have refused to give us the results”.

In this context it is suspicious at the very least, if not outright connivance with Israel, that the zionist Goldstone would not investigate the repeated claims of use of Uranium ammunitions against the civilians in Gaza. A geiger counter costs about US$ 400 (see here) and it should be no problem to take some samples of dust from places where impacts of suspected Uranium ammunition is suspected.

I suspect that birth defects and other horrors will have to start showing up in considerable numbers in all localities around Gaza, from Tel Aviv to the north until, into Jordan eastwards, and possibly throughout the Sinai, before somebody has an interest in this crime. By their omission, Goldstone and his jewish friends in their investigate-and-whitewash show have shown with whom they are in bed.

Link to the main article is here.

Budapest – According to German news Agency “dpa”, the deputy leader of the largest Jewish organization in Hungary has announced his resignation after being arrested because of the theft of wallet at a gas station. The incident was confirmed on Thursday.

Budapest (dpa) – The deputy leader of the largest Jewish organization in Hungary, Istvan Krausz, resigned from his post after he was caught red-handed stealing a wallet, the was confirmed on Thursday.

The court of the town of Pecs issued a sentence against Istvan Krausz, suspended for one year, after he was found guilty of stealing a wallet containing about US$ 2500 at a gas station.

The security cameras was filmed Krausz while stealing the wallet left by another customer on the table while he was bringing other things from the store in the same station.

The Police identified Krausz on the basis of his licence plate number, and he eventually turned himself in. He was sentenced to one year's probation.

The head of the Jewish Communities Federation of Hungary, Peter Feldmajer, told the German Press Agency (dpa) that Krausz  actions "can not be understood" and were "absolutely incomprehensible, a moment of madness."

My Comment

The issue called my attention because this is usual behavior of the Israeli Jews, as experienced by all Palestinians. It is worth mentioning that many incidents of theft were registered against the Jews working in the Israeli army at the so-called military checkpoints which are spread in and around the Palestinian cities and towns in the occupied territories in the West Bank. The IDF soldiers all the time steal the money from the Palestinians' wallets during the “inspections” which they conduct.

Many incidents of theft of money, gold and other property of the Palestinians have been recorded in the occupied territories and in the Gaza Strip, most them happened during so-called IDF “operations”, during which the soldiers break into Palestinian houses under the pretext of security inspections, detentions and looking for wanted people. In general, all the houses which are searched by the IDF soldiers and where nothing was stolen, are left vandalized and in ruins, with the furniture so broken that it can only be thrown by the Palestinians into the garbage.

Many Palestinians from the Gaza Strip reported that their homes had been looted and stolen of everything valuable during the so-called “Operation Cast Lead”. The IDF soldiers were stealing private credit cards which belong to the Palestinians families and they have used for example to buy chocolate and sweets during the war crimes and horror against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. One case has become known, in which the thief was forced to return the stolen money to its owner.

On May, 13 2009, Hanan Greenberg wrote in YnetNews: "The IDF Southern Command's military court remanded the arrest of a Givati Brigade soldier Wednesday for looting during Israel's recent military operation in Gaza.

The soldier is suspected of stealing a credit card from a Palestinian home together with another soldier. He later proceeded to use it in order to purchase merchandise worth NIS 1,600 ($388). Their arrest was first reported by Ynet.

The accused soldier pled guilty to the charges against him during questioning, and the military prosecution intends to indict him in the coming days. His arrest is currently remanded until Monday.

Hotels and chicken Thieves

The incidents of theft by Israeli soldiers in hotels have also increased abroad: IDF soldiers are known worldwide to be fond of stealing bathrobes, pictures, and anything else that is not bolted down from the hotels where they live.

One of the stories which I witnessed was in 2004 in Patagonia. A group of IDF soldiers ("backpackers") arrived in the village where I was during an afternoon, among them some officers. At the entrance of the village they spread out to all the streets of this small place of about 500 inhabitants. The officers placed their tent outside the hostel where I was, the soldiers tented out of the village. During the night, the Israelis had party and grilled chicken for the whole group.

On the next day, the owner of the hostel complained that 18 chicken had disappeared, "stolen by a two-legged fox" as he put it. The owner of the chickens was very sad, the Israelis not really.

The felonious Adam Malul commented on what Gadi Shamni, saying: “the GOC Gadi Shamni is trying to pretty up the picture; in fact he knows what's happening on the ground, but he chooses to stay in his ivory tower and keep his face clean. I am not ashamed of smacking the Palestinian; it was what I had to do. My commanders on the ground, my company commander, battalion commander and brigade commander backed me up, and I did what I was taught by my superiors”. He added: "in the territories. There are those that get dirty every day to defend the State's security".

On 29 July 2009, the Israeli military war criminal Central Command Chief Major General Gadi Shamni issued Military Order 1644 related to so-called “juveniles”. The order is a violation of the Fourth Geneva and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel itself had signed. The order is furthermore a grave crime against humanity, as it implements the stance often expressed by representatives of the “state of Israel”, according to which Palestinians have no human rights, what implies that we are not humans.

Shamni concludes his criminal military order by referring to paragraphs which clearly show bad faith, and the bad intentions of Shamni towards the Palestinian children detainees, as it is clearly intended by the Central Command GOC to circumvent the international laws and treaties related to children, and to “legalize” current criminal practices of Israel. See the English translation of the military order 1644 as PDF See the Arabic translation of the military order 1644 as PDF.

• Instructions of this order do not apply to cases in which the list of charges were made prior to the entry of this order into force. He means the 342 children who are currently incarcerated.
• The order enters into force sixty days from the date of issuance, and expires one year later. This means during this time, the troops of Shamni will catch some hundreds of Palestinian children among the peace protesters who throw stones at the Apartheid wall, and that they will be “found guilty” by military judges acting under Order 1644/2009 amendment number (109) issued by Shamni. It does not mean that less children are shot, murdered, tortured, abused or incarcerated – it just means that now these crimes are legalized.

Has anyone heard of any country in the world where children are tortured and incarcerated because of throwing stones at the concrete walls of the concentration camp where they live?

Has anyone heard that a state establish a military court to submit oppressed children to “trials”, because these children dared to express their anger over the violation of their rights by throwing stones at the concrete walls of the concentration camp in which they live?

Has anyone heard about any state which claims that the establishment of a military court was in response to the terms of international conventions on children rights?

Since when do the rights of children call for the establishment of military courts to more effectively prosecute them?

Since when have concrete walls needed armies and military courts to defend them?

This farce and the sanctimonious resolutions and crimes against humanity are taking place only in the zionist “state” called Israel. If this happened in any other country in the world, then the so-called, self-nominated democratic governments would issued a formal and explicit condemnation against that country. But rarely, if ever, do these countries issue such condemnations against Israel, which is governed by war criminals and psychopath military leaders.

Dozens of journalists from Israeli newspapers reported about this military order issued by the IDF Central Command GOC, the war criminal Gadi Shamni, as an achievement. If these wannabe-journalists had read the order issued by the Shamni, resolution 1644 on the establishment of a military court for “juveniles”, actually for Palestinian children, they would understand that the military order of Shamni is not only a crime against children, but against humanity, and against the present of Israel.

People acting as judges in these so-called military court for juveniles would be war criminals themselves. These “judges” of military courts are responsible for incarcerating thousands of Palestinian children during the past 42 years.

Currently there are 342 children incarcerated by these psychopaths among criminals, drugs dealers, sexual perverts, and these children are all subject to continuous sessions of torture to force them to become collaborators with the IDF military intelligence.

Shamni himself is directly responsible for the murders of 975 children by snipers over the past years and the currently incarcerated 342 Palestinian children in his jails. Before that, while Shamni was a colonel and the military commander of Hebron in the years between 1995 – 1997, he himself was involved in terrorizing, sniping and incarcerating many Palestinian children as well as adults, looting Palestinian agricultural lands, vandalizing Palestinian property lands and opening road for the jewish squatters.

Major General Gadi Shamni, the current IDF Central Command GOC, was the military occupation commander in my homeland, the city of Hebron. I know him in person. I know that he participated in and committed crimes against humanity and crimes of war against the civilian populations of Hebron, which all together amount to ethnic cleansing and genocide.

One of the most horrible military operations which Gadi Shamni lead in Hebron was with the “mistaravim” (“those who look like Arabs”), IDF paramilitary death squads, after the Hebron redeployment in 1997. These units wear civilian clothes and they hide their weapons under their long shirts. These units are manned with Druze soldiers who look like Palestinians, so that normal people going about their business are not aware of their presence. In one operation which I witnessed, which took place at the end of July 1997, Shamni sent these death squad units into the middle of Al-Shalala street in the (in name) Palestinian controlled area. It was later said that the undercover soldiers who took part in this incident were from the Duvdevan unit. The mission of these death squads was to catch and kill some children, young boys from the area under the purported control of the Palestinian Authority, and that is what they did.

Shamni himself was leading the mission. He was in the middle of the separation area in Al-Shalala Street, near the Al-Ja’abari pharmacy. His plan was to let his troops stationed on the rooftop of the Al-Said building in the same street throw an Israeli flag in the middle of the Palestinians going about their personal business, just for provocation. His death squads were ready to shoot, murder and arrest anyone. When the youths in the area started stepping on and burning the flag, the “mistaravim” started arresting these children and shooting in the middle of crowded street. A boy of age 9 in the crowd was killed next to me, and I was nearly shot. I witnessed several people in the crowd, some with bullet wounds, being dragged on the ground like sacks by the death squads to where Gadi had set up his command post. I remember being very scared and angry.

I went to the area where Colonel Gadi Shamni was standing and smiling of happiness after this incident. I told him in an angry voice that what he had done to catch some children aged under 15 years was a disgusting bloody game. Gadi did not pay attention to my words, he just continued smiling and expressing his “victories” of having snatched some  children, of shooting and the terrorizing innocent people in the street.

In the words of the lawyer of the Defence of Children International “DCI” human rights organization, Khalid Quzmar:

DCI-Palestine is of the view that children should not be tried in military courts with minimal fair trial guarantees and has a number of particular concerns regarding Military Order 1644 and the treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military legal system. DCI-Palestine’s concerns include the following:

Palestinian children are still being interrogated in the absence of a lawyer or family member. The overwhelming majority of these children report being mistreated and forced into providing confessions during interrogation. These interrogations are still not being video recorded, as recommended by the UN Committee Against Torture in May 2009.

Children as young as 12 can still be tried in the military courts, and are treated as adults as soon as they turn 16. This is in contrast to the Israeli domestic legal system that fixes the age of majority at 18, in accordance with generally accepted comparable principles of juvenile justice.

Military Order 1644 provides for the appointment of ‘juvenile judges’ by the Military Court of Appeal. These ‘juvenile judges’ are themselves, military court judges who ‘must be prepared to be competent for the post’. No further information is provided to shed light on how it is anticipated these military court judges are suitably qualified to adjudicate cases involving 12 year old children.

Military Order 1644 exempts all hearings to determine whether a child should be kept in pre-trial detention until the end of the legal proceedings from the requirement of having to be heard before a ‘juvenile judge’.

Much of the language used in Military Order 1644 is discretionary in nature, not mandatory. For example, the ‘juvenile military court’ must convene in separate rooms ‘as much as possible’ and children must not be brought to the court, or detained with adults, ‘as much as possible.’

It must be recalled that over 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted in Israeli military courts each year and the most common charge is throwing stones, including throwing stones at the Wall. The changes proposed by Military Order 1644 appear to lack substance.

As a minimum safeguard, DCI-Palestine continues to call upon the Israeli authorities to:

Ensure that no child is interrogated in the absence of a lawyer of their choice or family member;

Ensure that all interrogations of children are video recorded;

Ensure that all evidence suspected of being obtained through ill-treatment or torture be rejected by the military courts;

Ensure that all credible allegations of ill-treatment and torture be thoroughly and impartially investigated and those found responsible for such abuse be brought to justice.

Barakeh explained that the new ruling of the government against the Nakba was a clear sign of collapse of the Israeli State. He added “we have said that we are Palestinian citizens and our roots belong to our homeland, and not to the establishment of the rule of the zionist Jews ruling in Israel”.

Barakeh announced that on Thursday, October 1 2009, a general strike and a protest against the racist policies of the government of Israel will take place.

He said that the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Israel took a decision yesterday, Wednesday, September 2 2009, during their meeting held in Nazareth, to hold a general strike on the first of next month.

In the meeting, held in Nazareth, it was decided that the strike will take place on the same day that the events of October 2000, which left 13 Palestinian-Arabs (Israeli citizens) dead, are commemorated.

The one-day strike will include all sectors in Arab towns. This is a serious move, since it has been a few years since the last general strike in the Arab sector. The last time a general strike was called in the Arab sector was in the year 2005, in protest of the decision to close the cases against police officers suspected of firing gunshots during the events of October 2000.

Barakeh said: two days ago the committee’s Follow-up Committee on Education threatened to declare a rebellion if the singing of the Israeli national anthem and encouragement to serve in national service were imposed in Arab schools.

He explained the decision: “This strike will be a protest call against the racist wave that has been sweeping this country on all levels. On the level of the government and its ministries’ conduct, the denial of the Arabs’ rights – at least in anything to do with October 2000 and the murder in Shfa-amr (Shfaram), where the victims are being brought to court instead of hunting down the perpetrator to see who assisted him”.

“Because of the demolition of houses in Wadi Ara without providing any alternatives to the home-owners, and the serious state the local authorities are in. In the Arab education system, we are not talking about computers, but about school benches.”

According to the leading Communist Party of Israel member, “There are 9,000 classrooms missing, and at the rate of construction of the Education Ministry, it will take another 51 years to close this gap. The racist atmosphere has become a favorite arena for frustrated politicians.

“Anyone seeking fame finds it in racist whims against Arabs – the ministers of infrastructure, education, transportations, whoever. Whether it’s an idea to change traffic signs by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, or the spreading of Zionist education and rewarding schools for military and national service recruitments rates by the education minister”. MK Barakeh said that Gideon Sa’ar “must understand that he is the education minister, not the defense minister. This is an irrelevant condition to be placed by an education minister”.

He added, “We decided on this move early and we will work until the day of the strike in every city and village and form public commissions to get the broad public on board.

MK Barakeh warned the government, he said: “I would like to warn the government and its extensions not to aggravate its attitude towards the Arab public, but to internalize the message we wish to convey  that we seek life and equality. Threats against the Arab public from the government and the opposition will be futile and will not help. I hope that a large part of the democratic Jewish public is attentive to our demands and concerns.”

SOURCE: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/09/03/palestinian-arabs-wave-of-racism-in-israel

Cindy's Lonely Vigil in Obamaland

WRITTEN By JOHN V. WALSH August 28, 2009 "Counterpunch" — Cindy Sheehan will be at Martha's Vineyard beginning August 25 a short way from Obama's vacation paradise of the celebrity elite but very far from the Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq where the body bags and cemeteries fill up each day as Obama's wars rage on. She will remain there from August 25 through August 29 and has issued a call for all peace activists to join her there. For those of us close by in the New England states and in New York City, there would seem to be a special obligation to get to Martha's Vineyard as soon as we can.

A funny thing has happened on Cindy Sheehan's long road from Crawford, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard. Many of those who claim to lead the peace movement and who so volubly praised her actions in Crawford, TX, are not to be seen. Nor heard. The silence in fact is deafening, or as Cindy put it in an email to this writer, "crashingly deafening." Where are the email appeals to join Cindy from The Nation or from AFSC or Peace Action or "Progressive" Democrats of America (PDA) or even Code Pink? Or United for Peace and Justice. (No wonder UFPJ is essentially closing shop, bereft of most of their contributions and shriveling up following the thinly veiled protest behind the "retirement" of Leslie Cagan.) And what about MoveOn although it was long ago thoroughly discredited as principled opponents of war or principled in any way shape or form except slavish loyalty to the "other" War Party. And of course sundry "socialist" organizations are also missing in action since their particular dogma will not be front and center. These worthies and many others have vanished into the fog of Obama's wars.

Just to be sure, this writer contacted several of the "leaders" of the "official" peace movement in the Boston area – AFSC, Peace Action, Green Party of MA (aka Green Rainbow Party) and some others. Not so much as the courtesy of a reply resulted from this effort – although the GRP at least posted a notice of the action. (It is entirely possible that some of these organizations might mention Cindy's action late enough and quickly enough so as to cover their derrieres while ensuring that Obama will not be embarrassed by protesting crowds.) We here in the vicinity of Beantown are but a hop, skip and cheap ferry ride from Martha's Vineyard. Same for NYC. So we have a special obligation to respond to Cindy's call.

However, not everyone has failed to publicize the event. The Libertarians at Antiwar.com are on the job, and its editor in chief Justin Raimondo wrote a superb column Monday on the hypocritical treatment of Sheehan by the "liberal" establishment. (1) As Raimondo pointed out, Rush Limbaugh captured the hypocrisy of the liberal left in his commentary, thus:

"Now that she's headed to Martha's Vineyard, the State-Controlled Media, Charlie Gibson, State-Controlled Anchor, ABC: `Enough already.' Cindy, leave it alone, get out, we're not interested, we're not going to cover you going to Martha's Vineyard because our guy is president now and you're just a hassle. You're just a problem. To these people, they never had any true, genuine emotional interest in her. She was just a pawn. She was just a woman to be used and then thrown overboard once they're through with her and they're through with her. They don't want any part of Cindy Sheehan protesting against any war when Obama happens to be president."

Limbaugh has their number, just as they have his. Sometimes it is quite amazing how well each of the war parties can spot the other's hypocrisy. But Cindy Sheehan is no one's dupe; she is a very smart and very determined woman who no doubt is giving a lot of White House operatives some very sleepless nights out there on the Vineyard. Good for her.

Obama is an enormous gift to the Empire. Just as he has silenced most of the single-payer movement, an effort characterized by its superb scholarship exceeded only by its timidity, Obama has shut down the antiwar movement, completely in thrall as it is to the Democrat Party and Identity Politics. Why exactly the peace movement has caved to Obama is not entirely clear. Like the single-payer movement, it is wracked by spinelessness, brimming with reverence for authority and a near insatiable appetite to be "part of the crowd." Those taken in by Obama's arguments that the increasingly bloody and brutal AfPak war is actually a "war of necessity," should read Steven Walt's easy demolition of that "argument." (2) Basically Obama's logic is the same as Bush's moronic rationale that "We are fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them over here." There is a potential for "safe havens for terrorists," as the Obamalogues and neocons like to call them, all over the world; and no one can possibly believe the US can invade them all. However, the ones which Israel detests or which allow control of oil pipelines or permit encirclement of China and Russia will see US troops sooner or later.

The bottom line is that everyone in New England and NYC who is a genuine antiwarrior should join the imaginative effort of Cindy Sheehan in Obamaland this week and weekend. We owe it to the many who will otherwise perish at the hands of the war parties of Bush and Obama.

1.See: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/08/23/war-coverage-and-the-obama-cult/
Or go to Antiwar.com and make a contribution while you are there. It's almost as good as CounterPunch.com.
2.See:http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/08/18/the_safe_haven_myth
John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar@gmail.com He welcomes comments, and he looks forward to seeing crowds of CounterPunchers at Martha's Vineyard this week and weekend.

===

War Coverage and the Obama Cult
Why we aren't getting the real story
by Justin Raimondo
August 24, 2009
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/08/23/war-coverage-and-the-obama-cult/

There was a time when Cindy Sheehan couldn't go anywhere without having a microphone and a TV camera stuck in front of her. As she camped out in front of George W. Bush's Crawford ranch, mourning the death of her son Casey in Iraq and calling attention to an unjust, unnecessary, and unwinnable war, the media created in her a symbolic figure whose public agony epitomized a growing backlash against the militarism and unmitigated arrogance of the Bush administration. It was a powerful image: a lone woman standing up to the most powerful man on earth in memory of her fallen son.

Touting "an exclusive interview with Cindy Sheehan" on Good Morning America, four years ago ABC anchorman Charles Gibson intoned: "Standing her ground. She lost her son in Iraq, she opposes the war, now she's camped out at President Bush's ranch and says she won't leave until he meets with her."

The level of coverage only increased in the coming days and weeks. As Cindy continued her vigil, Gibson enthused:

"All across the country protests against the war in Iraq, inspired by the mother standing her ground at President Bush's ranch."

Flashing across their television screens, viewers saw the headline "MOM ON A MISSION: IS ANTIWAR MOVEMENT GROWING?" as Gibson averred:

"This morning a war of words. All across the country protests against the war in Iraq, inspired by the mother standing her ground at President Bush's ranch. But is anyone in the White House feeling the heat?"

That was then. This is now: in an interview [.mp3] with Chicago's WLS radio on Aug. 18, Gibson was asked whether his network planned to cover Sheehan's plans to travel to Martha's Vineyard, where she is protesting the escalation of the war in Afghanistan while President Obama is vacationing there. Gibson's answer:

"Enough already."

It is one thing to decide war protests aren't newsworthy, that they're just the irrelevant emanations of a fringe element radically out of step with the 99 percent of the country that's marching happily off to war. That, however, is very far from being the case.
Back in 2005, Cindy represented a minority that was on its way to becoming a majority. Today, she starts off her renewed vigil with over half of the American people agreeing with her that the Afghan war isn't worth it.

Yet Gibson's announced news blackout is being observed well nigh universally: aside from Rush Limbaugh, only the generally conservative Boston Herald, the Martha's Vineyard Gazette, a daytime MSNBC news show, and a few blogs bothered noticing Sheehan's determination to be "an equal opportunity vacation disruption," as the Herald writer put it. The bitterness of conservatives over the obvious double standard is expressed by Limbaugh in terms of the usual partisan rhetoric:

"When she's out there revving up people against George W. Bush, it's, let's cover her 24/7, let's make sure we have our cameras out there outside Bush's ranch when she's there, whatever she's saying, whatever she's doing, if she goes down and meets with Hugo Chavez, our cameras will be there. They could not get enough of her. Now that she's headed to Martha's Vineyard, the State-Controlled Media, Charlie Gibson, State-Controlled Anchor, ABC: `Enough already.'

Cindy, leave it alone, get out, we're not interested, we're not going to cover you going to Martha's Vineyard because our guy is president now and you're just a hassle. You're just a problem. To these people, they never had any true, genuine emotional interest in her. She was just a pawn. She was just a woman to be used and then thrown overboard once they're through with her and they're through with her. They don't want any part of Cindy Sheehan protesting against any war when Obama happens to be president."

While Cindy is nobody's pawn – as she is proving by her actions – the general point Limbaugh is making seems all too true. So why isn't he cheering?

After all, what did this pro-war blowhard have to say about Cindy back when Gibson was breathlessly broadcasting her every utterance? Well, he basically said she was a traitor and a fraud, comparing her to Bill Burkett, who provided CBS with phony "evidence" purporting to show Bush's failure to show up for National Guard training. "Her story," he said, "is nothing more than forged documents." Sheehan's crusade, he claimed, was all part of a "coordinated" plan by the "far Left," which he seemed to equate with the Democratic Party.

In the beginning of this year, when a caller asked "where are all the … Cindy Sheehans, the Code Pink Tuscaderos [sic] of the Democratic Party" now that Obama is in the White House, Limbaugh replied:

"Well, frankly, that doesn't bother me. I had enough of Cindy Sheehan to last me a lifetime. She was always a nonfactor anyway. I mean, Cindy Sheehan, this is a poor woman who's lost her mind, and then that fact was used by the Drive-By Media to further drive her crazy into making everybody and her think that she was relevant, only because she was willing to accept enough money from a California PR film to build and occupy a little shack across the road from Bush's house down in Crawford, Texas."

Aside from the fact that he has no idea whether or not she has the same media handlers – the True Majority group, founded by Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, hired Fenton Communications to handle Cindy's media relations and thanked her when she (prematurely) announced her "retirement" from peace activism – one has to wonder what Rush is complaining about. Gibson is doing just what the bombastic radio commentator always wanted him to do: ignoring Cindy's antiwar protest.

Can't we all just get along? On the higher levels of the commentariat, the "Left" and the "Right" are slow-dancing in perfect harmony whenever Obama plays a martial tune. Now that the Obamaite think-tanks, such as the Center for a New American Security and the Center for American Progress, are holding joint conferences with Rush's neocon buddies – Bill Kristol and his Foreign Policy Initiative – hailing Obama's Afghan "surge" and proffering advice on how best to go about it, Rush ought to relax. He and Keith Olbermann can now march together, arm in arm, into the glorious war-torn future, united in steadfastly ignoring the Cindy Sheehans of this world.

We, of course, are not ignoring her passionate protest, including in our news section – but, then again, we don't fit into the Left/Right dichotomy that the "mainstream" media is stuck in and has a financial interest in promoting. With Keith Olbermann capturing the self-described "left-wing" pro-Obama demographic, and Limbaugh/Hannity/O'Reilly going after the anti-Obama crowd, they're divvying up the demographic pie, with Fox News settling for the older crowd, and MSNBC going for the younger and more "hip" set.
Here at Antiwar.com it isn't about demographics or Obama, and it certainly isn't about the two major parties, both of which now accept the central premise of America's wars: that the U.S. has both the right and means to police the world.

In rejecting that onerous principle, we stand outside the bipartisan "consensus" and the whole ersatz Left/Right division of American opinion – whose proponents exhibit a curious unity when it comes to the vital question of foreign policy.

As much as Limbaugh and his right-wing brothers and sisters railed against the "liberal" media for undermining the war effort, they never really questioned the factual basis of the administration's case for invading Iraq: that Saddam Hussein possessed "weapons of mass destruction," that he was on the verge of attacking his neighbors, and that he had proven links to the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Instead, they reported these claims uncritically – even as they were being debunked right here on this Web site.

The lesson of all this is simple: the "mainstream" media simply can't be trusted. That's why newspapers are losing circulation at a rapid clip, and television news is fading in importance. It's not the Internet that's killing off the sainted mandarins of the "mainstream" – it's their role as transmission belts for official propaganda, whether it be from the government or the partisan opposition. They're shills, and everybody knows it.

That's why Antiwar.com is more important than ever – and isn't it ironic that we're clinging to life by a very thin thread, just at the moment when we're needed the most?

Oh, well, life is like that, you know. I never expected it to be easy. Yet even I have to admit that this fundraising campaign is beginning to scare me: we're way behind where we were at this point last time around, to say nothing of last year. The number of contributors is equivalent, and even shows signs of increasing, but the amounts are smaller by as much as half. We all are facing some hard economic times. It just means we'll have to extend our fundraising campaign by as much as a week – hopefully not more. But we'll do what we have to do to stay afloat.

If you haven't given, or even if you have, I want to extend this appeal to all my readers, even the ones who don't agree with some (or much) of what I have to say in this space. You may love Obama or you may bitterly oppose him: whatever. You need to realize, however, that this isn't about him. It's about maintaining a skeptical approach to the foreign policy currently being conducted by those geniuses in Washington, who think they know all there is to know to bring order to a disorderly world.

It's about maintaining a wonderfully complete source of hard news, as well as an outlet for dissenting opinions – often colorfully expressed – in an age of ideological conformity and bland "pragmatism."

It's about maintaining the tradition of independent journalism in a world where "journalists" are bought and sold like the ladies of Amsterdam's red-light district and events are viewed through a partisan prism.

source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23379.htm

hat tip: Karin

Back then, the Israeli military censorship in “Beit Agron”, the so-called Government Press “GPO”, currently headed by Danial Seaman, censored my report about the night of terror experienced by doctors, nurses, patients and guests during the IDF incursion to their rooms, putting their lives at big risk.

• Why did the military censorship ban my report from being published in Al-Quds newspaper in Jerusalem, where I worked as a journalist and investigator? Was it not true, or did they just not like what they read?
• Has the military censorship thought even for a while that I would keep my right to publish my report about the unwarranted IDF crime in the Augusta Victoria Hospital, even 15 years later, and that censoring is not the right way to deal with journalists?
• A copy of my report, which was censored back then, can be seen in the scan of the article, which is stamped in Hebrew by the military censor as “publication not allowed”.

After 42 years of living under the Israeli military laws,  under the unjust laws of the British mandate which ended in 1948 but still used illegally by the Israeli occupation in the occupied West Bank until today, the Palestinian publications (newspapers, magazines, publishing houses and advertising, … etc.) must present all material to Israeli military censorship 24 hours before publishing. The IDF censor is the only one who approves or disapproves the publication of an article.

Here is the report which the IDF military censorship banned from publishing back in 1994. I watched the IDF storming the hospital with my own eyes, and I was threatened with death twice by the IDF and the special forces during this crime.

An hour and half of Terror in Al-Motala Hospital.
Storming the Surgery and Maternity.
Cases of Hysteria Hit the Children as Consequence.

Jerusalem: On Saturday, July, 2 1994, I was in company of my nephew “Mahmoud”, a child of 18 months, in the Augusta Victoria hospital in Jerusalem, also known as “al-Motala” hospital. The father and mother of the child were denied entry to Jerusalem by the Israeli military, so I went with him to the hospital. I heard at 17:10 that the doors of the hospital were knocked down loudly and loudly, then I heard glass falling, scattered on the ground.

Immediately I left my nephew and rushed to the surgical ward of the hospital to find out what was happening there. I saw a group of Israeli Special Forces death squads and another group of Israeli Special Forces in uniform, numbering more than fifteen troops running around in the hospital and breaking the glass doors of the operation room with their boots. The soldiers were fixing their fingers on triggers and pointing their rifles at doctors and nurses. I saw the soldiers coming out of the operating room and entering the next doctor’s room after also breaking the door.
Dr. Alaa Ashour was in a pause room wearing pyjamas. The soldiers (IDF) asked him to prostrate himself on the ground, and one of them stepped on him with his jackboots. I saw this and immediately ran to the pediatric section to carry Mahmoud away. I told the doctor in the section what was happening elsewhere in the hospital. Before I could finish my sentence, the soldiers had entered the children’s section. I spoke English with the soldiers; I told them that they were entering the children’s ward, a place which has a special sanctity, and that they should take this into account. It is not necessary to terrify children and break the glass doors before their eyes.

The soldiers were very angry. They shouted at me in Hebrew “Shaket”, what means “shut up”, they pointed their guns toward my head and chest, and they ran around everywhere in the section, turning over the beds, throwing sheets on the floor, knocking on the doors and breaking the glass, just as if they were in a fierce battle with an enemy.

I continued repeating, “please be quiet, you are in the children’s ward”. Suddenly, one of the Special Forces who was wearing a white shirt and black trousers pointed his pistol to my head accusing me that I had cursed his father. I told him, “no, I just asked you to remain calm in this section”.

I saw how a soldier pulled a nurse by her hand and pushed her firmly back, then another soldier broke the door of the intensive care unit, and all the soldiers rushed into the room. Women started shouting and insulting the soldiers. They got out of the rooms with children with the glucose needles still hanging from their arms. The children were all crying and trembling in fear. The children continued crying even after the soldiers had left the ward.

Breaking into the Maternity Ward

The soldiers broke the door leading to the maternity unit located at end of the children’s section. They entered the department of women and ordered all the men to lie on the ground and then trampled over their heads with their boots. Among those men who were prostrated on the ground, with the military boots over his head, was a professor from Jericho.

I was shocked when I saw one of the soldiers kidnapping a newly-born infant, aged one and a half hours. He was carried by his grandmother when the soldier threw him on the ground, and then pushed the old grandmother violently and closed the door of the room.

Another soldier was molesting another woman who had given birth only hours before, he asked her many questions in English until she fell in coma. I thought that she had died, and then I ran out to the first floor. I saw over 50 IDF soldiers deployed in the hospital. I called the emergency, I also called Dr. Anis Al-Qaq, a member of the Supreme Health Council, and I asked him to inform the security information office about the horror going on in the hospital.

At the entrance to the main gate of the hospital I saw about twenty soldiers standing with the director of the hospital, Gordon David Rosenthal, after they had closed the gate. I asked them what was going on in the hospital. I told the soldiers and the director of the hospital that I was a journalist and that I had seen everything they had done in the hospital. I asked them about a clarification.

An IDF officer told me to keep silent. I said I couldn’t do that, I asked if this was the new Israeli peace which the Israeli government brought us with their Palestinian partners of the PA. The soldiers looked angry but no one said one word. I got out to the street and saw that the hospital was surrounded by an uncounted number of soldiers.

The people told me that the soldiers invaded the hospital looking for the body of a Palestinian. Others said that the Islamic Jihad had spread fliers in the hospital in which they declared their responsibility for a suicide bombing on the past 30 July 1994 near Gaza, and they took the body.

The soldiers left without finding the INVENTED BODY and after they destroyed everything their hands reached in the Hospital.

Mr. Gordon David Rosenthal, the hospital director who I interviewed after the IDF left the hospital, strongly condemned the IDF invasion and said that he would make a statement in which he would describe everything that had happened in the hospital, and that he would follow legal steps because the IDF did not clarify why they were in the hospital.

On the other hand, the President of the Lutheran Union, R. David Johnson arrived at the hospital after the IDF soldiers left. We toured the hospital wards together and listened to the testimony of doctors, nurses and patients. He described what happened in the hospital as a clear crime, and he said that he would follow legal steps against the criminal invaders.

SOURCE: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/08/26/night-of-israeli-horror-in-jerusalem-hospital

I looked through the archive of my journalistic work in Palestine. I found enough to remind the criminal Israeli liars around Ehud Barak that they better quiet down with their hysteric denials, because there are enough cases involving the IDF of organ harvesting, of body snatching, of murdering people, of disappeared bodies, of hushed funerals in the dark of night documented both in Palestinian and Israeli media and in court proceedings, to make them look very bad should they continue with their obnoxious charade.

After the signing the Oslo agreement, the improper behavior of the criminal IDF, stealing bodies and kidnapping injured Palestinians from emergency wards for the purpose of butchering them and cutting their organs at Abu Kabir did not end. In 1995, Avishai Raviv from the Israeli Secret Service GSS (Shin-Bet, Shabak) who helped to establish the terrorist jewish, zionist and fascist youth organization “Eyal” for hunting the Palestinians in the occupied territories. He went to the village of Halhoul near Hebron together with IDF, to hunt (not to search or arrest him, BUT To HUNT) a peace activists from Fatah, Salman Hussein Al-Zamaareh.

The murder of Mr. Al-Zamaareh was cooked up in the kitchen of the Shin-Bet and at the IDF Central Command, a branch of the so called Defense Ministry of Israel.

Shin-Bet agent Avishai Raviv, dressed in civil clothes, murdered Mr. Al-Zamaareh, aged 21, after he identified him among other Palestinians who were protesting against the uprooting of agricultural lands belonging to their town Halhoul and the construction of  the new road 60 for the interests of the criminal colonists in the middle of the houses and the fields of the Palestinians village.

The deliberate murder of Mr. Salman Hussein Al-Zamaareh happened during the so called “peace” time. Huge anger broke out in Halhoul. The Zionist Fascist Youth organization “Eyal” released a statement signed by Avishai Raviv, in which they declared their responsibility for the murder of Al-Zamaareh.

The family of Al-Zamaareh buried him in a grave in the cemetery of the village. A few hours after the burial, the IDF criminals went to the cemetery and opened three graves until they found his body, because they were not sure where he had been buried.

The army of God's chosen people behaved properly: they stole his body and brought it to the Abu Kabir forensic butchery without the knowledge of his family???

Mr. Mohammad Mishal, the major of Halhoul, described the IDF behavior as criminal, he said that the Israeli occupation soldiers infiltrated into the Halhoul cemetery in the dark, that they had opened three graves until they found the body of Mr. Al-Zamaareh.

Neither Avishai Raviv nor anybody else from the “Eyal” terror movement went to jail, as his murder and the theft of his body, the desecration of 3 graves had been “just for fun”. The fact that he was with the GSS was revealed after the murder of Rabin, as he had apparently been involved in the planning of that crime.

The body of Mr. Al-Zamaareh was returned to his family stuffed with cotton.

As always I have some questions:

• Was that a proper behavior or a criminal one?
• Was this a Semitic behavior, or the behavior of a criminal gang?
• Was this a wise behavior, or the behavior of sick minds, of psychopaths?
• Is publicizing these crimes of Israel anti-Semitism?

What should I write about such crimes, and how should I describe the opening of three graves, kidnapping a body and butchering at the Abu Kabir forensic centre without the knowledge of his family?

• Do Israelis think that the people are so naïve that they believe that the bodies of murdered people are stolen and cut up for innocent reasons?
• Why Israel should not wake up and stop its crimes instead of justifying them?
• Anti-Semitism is a song to help hide the institutional criminality of Israel. Why shouldn’t they wake up and look at their own crimes?

The Israeli military occupation started in the early 1970s to capture and keep the bodies of the Palestinians who they murdered. Since the early seventies, thousands of Palestinians have been buried in secret and number graves of the Israeli military. Since the early seventies, thousands of Palestinian victims of the occupation were “autopsied”, and many of their bodies kept in military numbered graves. Most members of the resistance who were killed were taken for “autopsy”, and also those who were wounded were abducted from the hospital by the Israelis. This practice became somewhat less widespread only when the PA came to power, meaning that people murdered in areas controlled by the PA were not “autopsied” any more, but this would still happen to people murdered or wounded in areas controlled by the Israelis.

The Israeli military leadership, the Central Command and the so-called “defense” Ministry cannot hide these well- and widely-known facts: the Israeli military murders people all the time, and most if not all of the murdered are taken for “autopsy”, many of them are buried in Israeli military cemeteries in numbered and secret graves. These facts cannot be hidden by the fancy statements issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, by the deranged terrorist and war criminal Ehud Barak and the corrupt extremist Benjamin Netanyahu.

In many cases, the so-called “civil administration”, military commanders and officers were returning to their families the bodies of Palestinians who they had murdered after the middle of the night, and after a few days “detention” of the bodies. The military officers would call the families of the victim after the middle of the night (usually at 1-3 in the morning), demanding that a few relatives, “not more than 10”, wait on the street for burying the body.

The first condition of the military “civil” administration was that the burial should take place immediately after receiving the body, in the dark of the night, for “security reasons”, the second condition of the Israelis was that women should not participate in the secret funeral, also for “security reasons” (actually they wanted to avoid that the screams of grieving mothers, sisters, daughters of the victim would be heard, so alerting the neighbourhood to the crime). The Israeli officers always used “security reasons” to justify and cover up their criminal activities!

On each such occasion returning the body of one of their murdered victims, the “civil” military administration officers would follow the funeral procession, driving their armored grey cars and waiting until the end of the burial. A number of other military vehicles filled with soldiers would surround the funeral, watching the burial of their victims, always ready to shoot the small number of participants in the funeral. Of course, the officers would always insistently make it clear to the family that they were doing them a great favor in returning the body of their beloved one and allowing them to bury it.

Empty Bodies, Stuffed With Cotton

What is the reason to bury somebody in middle of the night, with a company of IDF soldiers and the Israeli military “civil” administration officers surrounding the procession? If the burial is normal, and the organs of the victims were not stolen, then why should they be buried in the dark of the night? The families of the victims all knew that they were receiving empty bodies, filled with cotton, to be buried in the middle of the night.

One fact for Ehud Barak: near the end of the first Intifada, after the start of the so-called Oslo peace negotiations, the brother-in-law of one of my paternal uncles was murdered by the Israelis at the Qalandia checkpoint, he was returned to his family stuffed with cotton some days after the incident. My uncles relative, Monzer Naji Rashid Abdullah, was a small transportation entrepreneur; he was not involved in political activities of any kind. He was murdered on 14 April 1991, two days before Eid Al-Adha, a festivity comparable to Christmas. As a result of his to date unpunished murder by Israelis manning the checkpoint, his wife and children were reduced to dependency on charities.

The deranged war criminal Ehud Barak and his corrupt “state” should better stop denying what the Swedish writer Donald Boström published in Aftonbladet. I personally was witness of the Israeli soldiers and military vehicles kidnapping the bodies of dead Palestinians from the emergency rooms of hospitals, in some other cases I saw the soldiers following the Palestinians to the cemetery, to steal the body from the family before the burial. This vile practice became so widespread that many people started carrying the bodies of the murdered to be buried at home, in the garden, under the house or under trees, instead of waiting for the ambulance to take them to the hospital.

The Israelis always murder or gravely injure some people at demonstrations, and first the Israeli soldiers themselves would take the bodies, then they would besiege the hospitals where the bodies were taken by Palestinian ambulances – finally people present at demonstrations started taking the murdered and injured directly to their families. Everybody in Palestine knows that the Israeli soldiers besiege the hospitals in order to kidnap the bodies. The most disgusting thing I witnessed was when the criminal soldiers of Barak and Netanyahu were following Palestinian funeral processions to the cemetery to kidnap the bodies.

The issue of stealing the Palestinian organs is known to everybody in Palestine. I reported several times about this crime. In many cases my reports were rejected by the criminal military censorship of the occupation, these reports are until this moment stored at the military censorship office in “Bet Agron” in occupied Jerusalem.

I know that the criminal “state of Israel” was harvesting the organs of Palestinians who were kidnapped by the Israeli military from the emergency rooms of the Palestinian hospitals in Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, and everywhere in the West Bank and Gaza, and transferred to the Israeli hospital (or rather, butchery) of Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv. The families of the victims know the criminal israeli officers of the so-called “civil administration” who were covering this crime. Everybody knew Captain Eyal, Col. Fuad Hahul, Col. Amnon Cohen (now head of the “infrastructure department” of the “civil” administration  in occupied Palestine), Rafi Geoli, “Alex”, and many other officers whose name I don’t know, but who were always present.

Everybody knew the higher commanders, above them brigadier general (res.) Gadi Zohar, (former head of the civil administration, and IDF intelligence officer for 30 years), brigadier general (res.) David Shafi (former head of the civil administration), Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni (former IDF brigade in Hebron and the current head of the central command), Col. Baruch Goldstein (formerly with the IDF “civil” administration in Hebron and currently with the municipality of Jerusalem), Lt.Col. Baruch Nagar (former head of the civil administration and the current head of the water administration for the West Bank and Gaza), Col. Yigal Sharon, (former brigade of Hebron and the current, Coffee Salesman), Brigadier General (res.) Dov Sedaka, (former head of the civil administration and the current head of the zionist Chairman of the steering committee), Maj.Gen. Matan Vilnai, Brigadier General Noam Tivon, Col. Yehuda Fuchs, Lt. Col. Udi ben Muha, the military commander of Hebron, and others. And everybody knew that these people were involved in the harvesting of organs of their victims.

Captain Eyal, Col. Fuad Halhal, Col. Amnon Cohen, Rafi Geoli and many of those mentioned above and many others were the ones calling the families of the murdered Palestinians, in the middle of the night to inform them about the bodies of their loved ones. These criminals were telling the Palestinian families that they “had worked hard to make it possible to release the bodies of their relatives from the military headquarter” – implying that it was a favor, and that the military commanders Shamni, Goldstein, Nagar, … had ordered that the bodies should be buried in the dark and that “not more than ten persons” were allowed to be present at the funeral.

Often the relatives of the murdered people were screaming and shouting, as they had received an empty body stuffed with cotton. These criminal officers and their soldiers forced them to shut up.

All this criminal activity is not only a clear violation of the human rights, a horrendous crime against humanity, but a disrespect of the sanctity of life which can only be explained with mental deficiencies of the perpetrators.

If Israel did not steal the ORGANS of the murdered Palestinians, and if Israel did not want to cover up their inhuman crimes, and if Israel respects the Geneva conventions and other humanitarian  laws, in peace and in war, then Israel would not kidnap and transfer to the Abu Kabir “hospital” in Tel Aviv hundreds, perhaps thousands of Palestinians bodies of people who were murdered during PEACE demonstrations in the cities of the West Bank.

If it is not true that Israelis are harvesting the organs of murdered Palestinians, then why were they transferring the bodies of their victims to be butchered at Abu Kabir? The reasons of the death were known. The victims all received bullets in the head, or in the chest by Israeli snipers.

After all the whining and screeching of the Israelis after the Swedish newspaper article, the fact stands that hundreds, perhaps thousands of bodies and even people known to have been alive were transferred to the Abu Kabir autopsy center and returned to their families stuffed with cotton. Hundreds of victims who were buried in the dark by their families, and hundreds or thousands more bodies which Israel keeps in their numbered graves.

During the first Intifada and during the so called peace time I personally witnessed how the Israeli military were kidnapping Palestinian bodies and gravely injured people from the emergency room of Princess Alia hospital in Hebron. Some years later I also witnessed how the Israeli army kidnapped the bodies of the Palestinian dead from the then new Al-Ahli hospital: All the area would be declared military zone, the hospital surrounded and invaded by troops, nobody was allowed to move inside the building. All these kidnapped bodies of Palestinians, and also people known to have been living, were killed before taken to Abu Kabir for “autopsy”.

Taking in consideration these facts, everything I know, and until Israel comes clean on who are the members of the organ harvesting mafia, the only conclusion is that:

• All the Israeli officers and civil personnel of the so-called civil administration who served in the West Bank since the early seventies were involved at least covering up the harvesting of organs from Palestinians, at the very least conniving, but  probably taking part in the racket for money.
• All the Israeli doctors and other personnel who worked in Abu Kabir since the early seventies were involved in harvesting and selling organs from Palestinians.
• All the IDF snipers and other soldiers who shot Palestinian (and foreigners) at peace demonstrations are and were involved with the mafia which harvests and sells the organs of murdered Palestinians, at least some of the involved in the crimes are given money.
• The IDF central command and most if not all officers in the chain of command until the field fully know what is going on, and they connive with the harvesting of organs from Palestinians they murder, they offer planning and logistics for the commission of the crimes, and make the families of the victims shut up. All the Israeli State and the whole Israeli Nation who accept the continued military occupation are involved in crimes against humanity.
• Most if not all the Israeli medical establishment knows what is going on, and they keep silence because they either get money, or they are rewarded in other ways for conniving in these crimes. This is confirmed because of repeated complaints of doctors from other countries because Israel is one of the few jurisdictions which does not forbid commerce with human organs and body parts.
• The Israeli health ministry is fully informed of what goes on. This would be corroborated by reports that organ traffickers captured in Brazil and South Africa in 2003 stated as much as that they had been given “business contacts” by “people from the Israeli government”, and that the Israeli government financed organ transplants.

I think that the Israeli government and all those suspected of being involved have some hard questions to answer, rather than complaining about a well written report in a Swedish newspaper which speaks about only one case among thousands:

• Where are the bodies of the two brothers Imad and Adel Awad Allah from Al-Bireh in the district of Ramallah, who were murdered on 10 September 1998 on the farm of Akram Maswadeh near Hebron?
• Where are the bodies of Hani Ahmad Kharboush and Adel Mohammad Hadaideh who were murdered on 6 June 2003 in “Ateel”, a town north of Tulkarem in the West Bank?
• Where is the body of Sarhan Borhan who was murdered on 4 October 2003 in the Tulkarem refugee camp?
• Where is the body of Hasan Isa Abbas who was murdered on 9 October 1994, in Jerusalem?
• Where is the body of Hisham Hamad who was murdered in Gaza on 11 November 1993?
• Where is the body of Salah Jad Allah Salem who was murdered on 14 October 1994?
• Where are the bodies of the two Japanese citizens who were murdered in 1972?
• Can Israel prove that the organs of these people, and those of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of Palestinians which are buried in numbered graves of the Israeli military, were not stolen?
• Why does Israel bury the victims of their occupation in secret, numbered graves, if their organs were not stolen?

I know the answer of the criminal sophists of Israel in advance: they will say that all these people buried their numbered graves were “terrorists or unknown”. But I say that these are LIES and the usual propaganda which Israel uses to cover their crimes. Many people who were buried in these graves were not “terrorists” but legitimate resistance, many of them were peace demonstrators, and none of them were unknown. The only thing unknown or silenced until now is that the israelis are murderers, thieves of organs, a criminal occupational state which commits to all kind of crimes against humanity for fun and profit.

Dr. Yehuda Hiss Butchered Three Teenagers From Gaza

Another issue about which the Israelis have some explaining to do is the story of three teenagers from Gaza. On the evening of Sunday 30 December 2001 the Israeli military occupation fired several artillery shells towards these three north of Beit Lahiya in Gaza. They were Ahmed Mohammed Banat, 15 years, Mohammed Abd El-Rahman Al- Madhoun, 16 years and Mohamed Ahmed Lebed, 17 years.

After murdering them with flechette shells, a military vehicle drove over one of them, and their bodies were delivered to Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv, for “autopsy”, without the consent of their families, and without the issuance of a warrant to conduct an autopsy according to the law. The chief pathologist at Abu Kabir (the so-called “Israeli forensic institute”) Dr. Yehuda Hiss, said that they received the children without knowing their names, they had all been found killed by nails which the tank shell contained (flechettes).

Hiss broke the law Israeli when he accepted the bodies of the children without knowing who are were and without the knowledge of their families, but that is of no concern. The bodies the three were given to the PA stuffed with cotton several days after their murder.

The director of the Jerusalem Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Salim Khalleh, stated that their organization has been able to document 270 cases of Palestinian bodies “reserved” in hands of the Israeli occupation, which are buried in numbered graves in secret military cemeteries, or in numbered compartments of cooling facilities. Among these cases, 24 are of Palestinian citizens of the city of Tulkarem. On 8 April 2009 the families of these persons whose bodies are still in the power of the israelis held a demonstration in Tulkarem. The demonstrators presented a petition to the director of Red Cross, in which they demanded that the international organizations make pressure on Israel to release the bodies of their sons.

What follows are some of the names of Palestinians published by the Jerusalem Center for Democracy and Human Rights and whose bodies still in the hands of Israel, among other hundreds. The question is, where are these bodies? Are they in the refrigerated facilities, or were they buried in numbered graves after their organs were harvested? Why are they not returned to their families if not because Israeli crimes must be covered up?

• Abdel-Fattah Mohamed Badir – murdered near Jericho on 15-7-1975.
• Murad Mohammed Abu Assal – murdered on 30-1-2002.
• Sarhan Burhan Sarhan – murdered during the invasion of the Tulkarem refugee camp on 4-10-2003.
• Saif Allah Bashir Badran – murdered near the illegal Mawr colony on 1-1-2003.
• Adel Mohamed Hadaydeh – murdered in “Atteel”, a town north of Tulkarem on 16-6 -2003.
• Tarek Samir Sfaqeh – murdered in the illegal Hermesh colony on 30-10-2002 .
• Faiz Mohammed Awad – murdered in Lebanon on 17-8-1967.
• Ramzi Fakhri Ardah – murdered on 3-4 – 2004 in the illegal Avnei Hefetz colony.
• Khalid Ahmed Abul-Ezz – murdered on 30-10-2002 in Zeita near the Apartheid wall.
• Khaled Subhi Sandjak – murdered in the illegal colony of Sha’ar Ephraim.
• Muaiad Mahmoud Salah Al-Din – blew himself up on 8-11-2001.
• Abed El-Basset Mohamed Odeh – blew himself up on 27-3-2002.
• Ahmed Sami Gawi - murdered in Netanya on 12-7-2005.
• Mohammad Jamel Faraj.
• Ahmed Ibrahim Abed Allah – murdered in Jerusalem June 1967.
• Iyad Naeem Radad – murdered on 15-7-1979 in Al-Zawieh near Salfit.
• Rami Mohammed Idris – murdered in Netanya on 31-3-2002.
• Mahmoud Ahmed Marmash – blew himself up on 18-5-2001.
• Mufed Mohammad Asrawi – murdered at Baqa Al-Garbiah on 21-2-2002.
• Muhammad Ali Abu Zeneh – murdered in the Jordan Valley on 12-5-1969.
• Lutfi Amin Abu Saada – blew himself up in Netanya on 25-12-2006.
• Omani Ahmad Kryosh – murdered in “Atteel” town near Tulkarem on 5-6-2003.
• Mashhour Aruri - murdered on 18 May 1976 together with other three persons from Lebanon.
• The bodies of 88 Palestinian from Gaza who are known to be in the hand of Israel (no names given).
• Abed Allah Kallab and his friends Mohamed Abed El-Qader Abu Al-Zulof and Mohamed Hanafi – all from the Rafah refugee camp, disappeared on 7 March 1988.
• Fadi Ahmed Al-Amoudi age 22 years from Beit Hanoun – murdered on 17 April 2004 at the Erez military checkpoint

Abed Al-Naser Ferwana, Director of the Department of Statistics, at the Ministry of Prisoners in the Palestinian National Authority, a former prisoner and researcher about Palestinian prisoners of Israel, a competent speaker for prisoners affairs, said that the number of Palestinian prisoners who were murdered after their arrest and detention in the Israeli jails sharply increased during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. They are in sum the double of the number of people who the Israelis murdered in a quarter of century since they occupied the West Bank and Gaza. The bodies of these murdered prisoners are also kept in the secret Israeli cemeteries, in a few cases the dead are released two weeks after the Israelis murder them. This is a new proof that the Israelis harvest their organs according to Ferawneh.

The deranged criminal Ehud Barak, the people from the Israeli Central Command, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the others involved in these subhuman crimes should stop threatening Swedish journalist Donald Boström with criminal complaints, as they are the first persons who should be investigated not only for these monstrosities, but also for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The time of silencing journalists and curtailing freedom of speech is over.

The public opinion of the world is loath the criminality of Israel and the repetitive and stupid screeching of “anti-semitism” whenever one of their crimes is uncovered. Constant and inappropriate invocation of the holocaust is boring to the point where nobody cares anymore, and it does not help anymore to cover up their crimes. The criminal sophists of Israel would better clarify were all these bodies are buried, and were their organs are.

If the Israelis go forward and cause troubles for Donald Boström in court, I will volunteer to testify in his favor about these disgusting crimes of the Israelis, and I appeal to all Palestinians who have such a case in their family, to also offer to testify in favor of Mr. Boström should this become necessary.

SOURCE: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/08/23/the-body-snatchers-of-israel#

Mohammad Khatib, along with over twenty other Palestinians from Bil’in, has been arbitrarily arrested during a recent night-time raid carried out by the Israeli army. The agricultural village of Bil’in has gained international attention for its weekly protests against the Israeli apartheid wall. Bil’in has become a symbol for the Palestinian popular resistance to Israel’s ongoing military occupation.

Mohammad Khatib has now joined an estimated 8,000 Palestinian prisoners currently being detained by Israeli authorities. According to a recent report from Amnesty International, many Palestinian prisoners “face medical negligence, routine beatings, position torture and strip searches by Israeli prison authorities.” The Palestinian prisoner population includes over 400 children and over 100 women detainees.

Today, increasing numbers of Palestinian children, including youth from Bil’in village, are being arrested and detained by Israeli forces. According to the Palestinian section of Defense for Children International, “each year, hundreds of Palestinian children are arrested, interrogated, abused and imprisoned by the Israeli military authorities. In some cases, the abuse amounts to torture.”

Israel is targeting Palestinian community activists from Bil’in in an attempt to silence a popular resistance movement that is gaining international attention and inspiring other Palestinian communities in the West Bank to take-up similar popular protest strategies. Throughout the past year, several other Palestinian villages have also initiated weekly protests against Israel’s apartheid wall.

In June 2009, Mohammed Khatib traveled to Canada for the preliminary hearings of a historic lawsuit launched by Bil’in village against two Quebec-based companies, Green Park International and Green Mount International. Both companies are building illegal Israeli-only settlements on Bil’in’s lands.

At present, Mohammed Khatib, a father to two sons and two daughters, remains in Israeli custody despite the fact that no charges have been brought against Khatib.

Monday’s night-time raid is just one in a series of many carried out by Israeli forces in Bil’in since June 2009. These military raids coincided with the commencement of legal proceedings against Green Park International and Green Mount International in Canada.

We calling on Montrealers to participate in a demonstration this Friday to express solidarity with Mohammad Khatib, Bil’in village and the Palestinian movement against Israeli apartheid and occupation.

for more information visit:
www.bilin-village.org

FRIDAY AUGUST 14th 12h00
Indigo Bookstore
corner of St. Catherine & McGill college
(metro McGill)
Montreal, Canada
Source: http://www.tadamon.ca/post/4391

Adam, our baby, is less than two months, he’s exactly 54 days old today as he went to visit his detained uncle for the first time.

The "israeli" jail is some 40km away from our home, and the journey to it takes some 30-40 minutes in a normal country. In a normal country everything is normal but in a racist regime like in "israel", everything is hell for the "less human" native Palestinians. In a normal country the trip takes 30-40 minutes, but in a racist regime it takes more than 12 hours.

Today, my wife got up in down and prepared herself to go and meet her dad and sister in Jenin city before they go to the busses of the International Red-Cross to take them to the "israeli" jail. She went and took our baby and they all got in the busses and seemingly everything was OK.

The busses drove 20 minutes to reach the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall to get into the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, ie inside the racist "israeli" regime.

When they got there, the busses were stopped and the "israeli" soldiers, or intelligence agents got into the busses scrutinizing every human and every aspect inside there, they intend to turn the visitor’s journey into hell and they always succeed.

The soldier, interrogator, security agent or who the hell he was kept searching until her reached my wife. He looked at her angrily asking of our baby: "Who’s this?"
-"It’s my baby." Replied my wife.
-"And what is he doing here?"
-"He’s my baby." Replied my wife amazed at his question.
-"You are violating the rules, he is not allowed to go in." said the soldier decisively.
-"What? He’s just a baby." Shouted my wife unbelieving what is going on.
-"He’s not allowed and you are violating the law. Next time you got to be punished."
-"What?" still unbelieving what is going on.
-"He is not a first degree relative, and not allowed to visit accordingly." Replied the soldier angrily.

And for those who don’t know the "israeli" "law", their racist law anyway, only the first degree relatives are allowed to visit the prisoner, ie his mom, dad, sisters and brothers…. And Adam, our 54 days old baby is not allowed simply because he’s just a nephew and not first degree relative…. The hell with the racist "israeli" regime’s "law"!!!

For my wife’s luck, who didn’t see her brother in jail for seven months, she had her old father with her, some 70+ years old man. Her father suggested a solution that he would return and take the baby back to his grandma until she comes back from the visit, that finally it’s been a long time she didn’t see her brother in the jail.

Yes, it was like this today, a crazy racist country called "israel" prevented our 54 days old baby from visiting his uncle, that their "law" decided it is forbidden for a nephew to see his uncle even if he was less than two months old. But my little Adam was happy to spend a joyful day with his grandma until his mom came late in the evening frustrated and exhausted of a journey that lasted more than 12 hours!!

This is the racist "Israel" that Adam must know and fight against. I will teach him to fight for his freedom and I wouldn’t mind if he loose his life for a dignified life!!! The hell with the "israeli" law, the hell with all the racist regimes.

Sami, the Bedouin.
Aug. 6th 09.
source: Uruknet http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m56774&hd=&size=1&l=e

This ominous orientation is being constantly promoted by a number of manifestly racist cabinet ministers and Knesset members who declare openly that their aim is to make everyone in Israel “submit to the Jewish nature of the state.”

The brash racism is now permeating through the entire apparatus of the Jewish state, from the police, to the justice system, to the army, to the educational system and, of course, the media.

Last week, Israeli courts showed off their racist credentials when two Israeli settlers, a murderer and a would-be murderer were acquitted of murdering a Palestinian and seriously wounding two others.

In the first case, a West Jerusalem judge acquitted a Jewish settler named Ze’ev Braude who had shot and seriously injured two unarmed Palestinians in al-Khalil (Hebron) several months ago.

The settler was caught on video shooting at the two Palestinians who were pleading to Israeli troops to stop rampaging settlers from attacking their homes and families. The settlers were vandalizing Arab property and trying to set homes on fire in protest against the evacuation by the army of Jewish squatters who had seized an Arab building a few years earlier.

Braude’s lawyer reportedly asked for “classified information” which he said  would help clear his client of any wrongdoing.  However, instead of meeting the lawyer’s request, the attorney-general decided to drop all charges against Braude.  Thus the would-be killer, who had shot and seriously injured two innocent Palestinians,  was effectively declared innocent.

In the second case, a Jewish farmer by the name of Shai Dromi was acquitted of manslaughter by a Bir al Saba’a (Beer Shiva) court despite damning evidence indicting him.

In 2007, Dromi shot and killed a Bedouin “infiltrator,” claiming that he was trying to steal his livestock.

Racist system

One doesn’t have to be a great expert on Israel to be able to describe the Israeli justice system as inherently racist, being based on religious-ethno centricism.

Indeed, had the victims been Jewish, there is not the slightest doubt that the perpetrators would have been given harsh prison sentences, without a chance for parole for decades.

However, in a state that murders innocent children at will “for self-defense” and lies as often as it breathes, this type of justice ought to be viewed as being within the normal order of things.

Indeed, Israel itself, one might argue perfectly rightly, is a crime against humanity, having been created on the ruins of another people, the Palestinians.

Hence, it is only “natural” and “normal” that Israeli courts would deal with utmost flaccidity and utter leniency with Jewish perpetrators of crimes as long as the victim is not a member of the “holy tribe.”

This tradition goes back to the establishment of Israel more than 62 years when a given Jewish murderer of a Palestinian was fined a dime on the ground that the life of a non-Jew wasn’t worth more than a dime.

A few years ago, an Israeli soldier who was serving in southern Gaza murdered a Palestinian school child, Iman al Hums, as she was going to school.

The soldier, dubbed Captain R.  shot and seriously wounded the young girl,  and as he saw her agonize and wallow in pain, he walked toward her, empting an entire magazine of bullets into her tender body to make sure that she was dead and didn’t pose a threat to his life.

The practice is still widely practiced in the Israeli army and is known as “verifying the kill.”

The reaction of the Israeli justice system to this event was very telling, indeed.

For instead of prosecuting and punishing the murderer, the Israeli army actually awarded him thousands of dollars in damages he claimed he deserved because his reputation was tarnished by the media.

Westerners, especially North Americans, who have been consuming Zionist lies for decades may be prompted to think that the above-mentioned cases are an aberration and in no way represent Israel’s general behaviors.

However, the truth, which Israel and her supporters strive to hide from the eyes of the world, is that the Israeli justice system is inherently and profoundly racist, to put it mildly, especially when non-Jews, particularly Palestinians, are involved.

In recent years, hundreds of settler judges and others affiliated with extremist terrorist Jewish groups, such as the Kahana group, Gush Emunim and Chabad infiltrated the Israeli justice system.

These people are indoctrinated in the Nazi-like ideology that Jews are genetically and humanly superior than non-Jews and that Jewish lives are worth more than non-Jewish lives.

Hence, when a Jew and a non-Jew appear in court, the Jewish judge feels obliged to take all these considerations into account and refrain, as much as possible, from  passing stiff punishments against Jewish defendants.

This is often done by meticulously searching for or even concocting  extenuating circumstances, or by finding a procedural loophole, that would make the judge seriously reduce the proscribed punishment for the Jewish defendant or acquit him of any wrongdoing.

Israel claims to be a western country, a democracy and a state where the rule of law is upheld.

Well, this trinity of lies should be obvious for anyone who has had the opportunity to know Israel first-hand.

But, there is always a certain level of “veracity” in these claims. In Israel, the rule of law is indeed upheld just as the rule of law was also upheld in Nazi Germany.

But the question remains, what laws are exactly being upheld?

A new Iran shines in the faces of those marching peaceably with their little daughters on their shoulders, and with their grandparents marching with wheelchairs (see amateur footage on BBC Persian).  To attribute this monumental nonviolent popular movement to western instigation is to dishonor those millions who showed up on the streets for 2 weeks– despite the threat of government-backed "Basiji" hooligans beating them mercilessly, despite the threat of being expelled from their jobs and universities, despite having their homes attacked at night by the Basiji, despite their family members being kidnapped by the various security personnel.  

The 2009 coup d'état, against over 40 million Iranian voters, was an inside job.  

The day after the election results were announced I talked to a friend in Iran who told me “if they [Ahmadinezhad camp] won fair and square, why aren’t they celebrating on the streets?”  The streets of Isfahan (and all other big cities in Iran) were desolate after the announcement. 

People were dumbfounded.

The very next day, people organized and took to the streets again, carrying their children on their shoulders and pushing wheelchairs for the elderly.  

Iranians know what a foreign coup d'état looks like, and feels like.  

One of the most humiliating instances in our history was the 1953 CIA coup d'état that removed the democratically elected government of Dr. Mosadegh from office and installed the Shah. For the next 25 years, the Shah, with his Israeli-trained "SAVAK" torturers, murdered and tortured the nation into silence.  Iranians still remember “the hired help”, the U.S. and Israeli collaborators who got paid only pennies to roam the streets of Tehran (and other large cities); the vigilantes who swung metal chains in the air; metal chains that had bashed many young skulls and ripped through soft tissue of people’s stomach.   No, Iranians have not forgotten the Shah's "Shaboon-Bi-Mokh" (brainless Shaboon) and his other brutal gangs.  

That was a revolution ago, many political fights back, and long before many large and small civil victories. 

Iranians of 2009 expect more from life and demand more of their government.  After all, the most significant popular revolution of this century succeeded in Iran.  We survived a brutal U.S.-instigated, U.S.-fueled war, between Iran and Iraq, for 8 years.  Over a million died, throughout the 1980's.  Every Iranian knows that, were it not for the 8 year long U.S. imposed and fueled war with Iraq, a million Iranian and Iraqi youth would have been spared.  Every Iranian knows that, were it not for the 8-year U.S. imposed and fueled war with Iraq, democratic forces in Iran would have survived.  Every Iranian knows that the new bullies, of the new regime, were strengthened by that war (this is admitted by current leaders of the regime itself). 

Every Iranian knows that democracy was the real casualty of war inflicted on them by the U.S. And Iranians know, in their bones, that what has already happened to Iraq and Afghanistan could easily have happened to them. 

Real democracy (the people's ability to install social mechanisms to protect freedom of speech, freedom of writing, freedom of gathering, etc.) is now the only path that Iranians will accept, if we are to protect ourselves against further U.S. and Israeli wars.  Knowing this in our bones, Iranians poured onto the streets in the millions, to cry for freedom.

May all people of the Middle East hear our call and answer with similar nonviolent rallies.  Resistance to occupation, resistance to invasion; resistance to undemocratic regimes, is our only hope for a safe Middle East where our children can grow to become painters and poets and mathematicians.

Remember your Iranian sisters and brothers who overcame their fear of bullets and tanks by chanting “don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are all together”; and remember the revolution's 1979 chants, which also echoed in Iran after the 2009 elections– “Bullets, tanks, and machine-guns will not work any more”.

Nothing but solidarity, between Iran and its neighbors, will protect us from U.S. and Israeli drones, and from uranium bombs. May all the people of the region hear Iran’s call and answer with comparable nonviolent rallies, especially in the occupied nations.  

Iran is calling you: “don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are all together”. 
–

Dr. Savabieasfahani, a native of Iran, is an environmental toxicologist based in Ann Arbor MI.  Her new book is “Pollution and reproductive damage: pollution induced cell-death and reproductive damage in fish and mammals” published by DVM publishers (Germany).  She has published on effects of plasticizers and pesticides on female reproductive cycle.  Pollution caused by wars and invasions in the Middle East has turned her attention to the effects of war pollutants on public health, in areas now experiencing environmental crisis.

The release of the report came just days after an article was published in The Independent newspaper reporting the testimonies of two Israeli soldiers which detail the deliberate abuse of Palestinian children. One soldier is reported as saying that in an incident that occurred in a Palestinian village in March, he saw a lot of soldiers 'just knee (Palestinians) because it's boring, because you stand there for 10 hours, you're not doing anything, so they beat people up.'

The report published contains the testimonies of 33 children, one as young as 10 years old, who bear witness to the abuse they received at the hands of soldiers from the moment of arrest through to an often violent interrogation.

Most of these children were arrested from villages near the Wall and illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. There is evidence that many children are painfully shackled for hours on end, kicked, beaten and threatened, some with death, until they provide confessions, some written in Hebrew, a language they do not speak or understand.

Following are some excerpts from this chill-shocking report. It is a must-read report and worth saving for your reference in the future. It can be downloaded from here and here (both PDF format):

Executive summary

The Israeli military court system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has operated for over 42 years almost devoid of international scrutiny. Each year an average of 9,000 Palestinians are prosecuted in two Israeli military courts operating in the West Bank, including 700 children.

From the moment of arrest, Palestinian children encounter ill-treatment and in some cases torture, at the hands of Israeli soldiers, policemen and interrogators. Children are commonly arrested from the family home in the hours before dawn by heavily armed soldiers. The child is painfully bound, blindfolded and bundled into the back of a military vehicle without any indication as to why or where the child is being taken. [...] Most children confess and some are forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not comprehend. These interrogations are not video recorded as is required under Israeli domestic law.

Children as young as 12 years are prosecuted in the Israeli military courts and are treated as adults as soon as they turn 16 [...] In 91% of all cases involving Palestinian children, bail was denied. [...] With no faith in the system and the potential for harsh sentences, approximately 95% of cases end in the child pleading guilty, whether the ofence was committed or not. [...] Many children receive no family visits whilst in prison and limited education [...]

Some examples of torture

What amounts to torture or ill-treatment will depend on the circumstances of each individual case. However, it is useful to list some of the types of circumstances that have been held to amount to torture and ill-treatment by the Committee as a general guidance:

- Restraining in very painful conditions;
- Hooding under special conditions;
- Playing loud music for prolonged periods of time;
- Threats, including death threats;
- Violent shaking;
- Kicking, punching and beating with implements;
- Using cold air to chill;
- Excessive use of force by law enforcement personnel and the military;
- Incommunicado detention (detention without access to a lawyer, doctor or the ability to communicate with family members);
- Solitary confnement;
- Sensorial deprivation and almost total prohibition of communication;
- Poor conditions of detention, including failure to provide food, water, heating in winter, proper washing facilities, overcrowding, lack of amenities, poor hygiene facilities, limited clothing and medical care.

The above list is by no means exhaustive and in every case, the particular vulnerability of the victim, such as his or her young age or medical condition should be taken into consideration.

Case Study No. 15

Name: Islam M.
Date of arrest: 31 December 2008
Age at arrest: 12
Accusation: Throwing stones

On 31 December 2008, 12-year-old Islam from a village near the West Bank city of Nablus, was out hunting birds in an olive grove when he and his friends were arrested by Israeli soldiers and accused of throwing stones. The olive grove was located about 500 metres from an Israeli settler bypass road.

At around 4:00pm we decided to go home. We collected the nets. Our houses are about one kilometre away. After walking 20 metres we heard a gun shot from the bypass road. We began walking faster towards our houses in the opposite direction to the bypass road. When we reached the edge of the village, we were surprised to see Israeli soldiers, about 10 to 20 metres behind us, with their guns pointed at us. They were shouting at us to stop in Hebrew. We stopped where we were. [...] One of them approached me and grabbed my hand. Another soldier grabbed Hasan's hand. They then tied our hands together with the same plastic cord. They tied my right hand to Hasan's left hand. The soldiers then pushed us and forced us to walk towards our house. The soldiers did not tell me why they were arresting me [...] When we reached the jeep, the soldiers blindfolded me and Hasan with a piece of cloth that the soldiers had. They pushed me inside the jeep. I fell on the ground. I was seated on the floor of the jeep. I lifted the blindfold using my untied left hand and looked around. I saw six soldiers inside the jeep, sitting on seats. Hasan and I were seated between their legs.

Twelve-year-old Islam was arrested by Israeli soldiers while out hunting birds. He was transferred to an Israeli military base for interrogation. Ten minutes later a soldier asked me [...] whether I threw stones at the soldiers. Three minutes later a captain called Hasan, wearing a military uniform, came to us … He took me to a pine tree and made me sit on the ground. 'Have you seen kids throwing stones at the soldiers?' he asked. 'Yes,' I answered. 'Do you know them?' He asked. 'No,' I said. He threatened to pour hot water on my face. 'I don't know who threw stones,' I said. Five minutes later he took me to a place full of thorny bushes. He ordered me to sit in the bushes. I refused. He pushed me and I fell in the bushes. That really hurt me. They placed me inside a jeep [...] Captain Hasan approached me and asked me to confess to throwing stones. I refused. 'We'll put you in jail, patriotic boy' he said. [...] A policeman in blue uniform came and took me to interrogation. I was still tied and blindfolded, but managed to see things from beneath the blindfold. In the interrogation room, there was one policeman with a solider sitting next to him. 'You threw stones. You were photographed while throwing stones' the policeman said. I denied it [...] I asked the soldiers for food. They brought me an apple, one half rotten. I ate the good half and gave the rotten half back to the soldier [...] They seated me on a chair for about five hours without asking me anything.

A policeman in blue uniform came and took me to an office. He allowed me to watch a DVD that had children throwing stones at soldiers. 'See yourself throwing stones?' He said. I did not see myself because I had not thrown stones. He then took me out of the room. I was kept alone, tied and blindfolded, sitting on the ground for three hours. (2 February 2009)

Islam was charged with throwing stones and fned NIS 1,000 (US$ 250) by a military court after entering into a plea bargain. He spent three days in detention in Ofer.

Case Study No. 22

Name: Afaf B.
Date of arrest: 5 February 2008
Age at arrest: 16
Accusation: Contact with a wanted person and the intention to carry out a suicide bombing

On 5 February 2008, Afaf and her father voluntarily went to the Israeli intelligence headquarters at Ras al-Amoud, Jerusalem, after being ordered to attend. Afaf was immediately taken for interrogation where she was accused of having contact with a wanted person and intending to carry out a suicide bombing. Afaf's father was not permitted to remain with her during interrogation. Afaf was then interrogated for 59 consecutive days and then sentenced to 16 months imprisonment inside Israel.

The interrogator began asking me general questions about myself and how I was doing. I asked him to stop asking such questions and get straight to the reason why they brought me here. He said that I had committed some security ofences [...] he then asked me about a young man called Murad … I agreed that I had never seen Murad but I used to talk to him on the phone [...] The interrogator did not charge me directly with any wrongdoing, and he did not accuse me of a specifc accusation. He only said that I had committed some security ofences without giving any further details [...] An hour later, the interrogator came back to the room and told me I was under arrest and that they would transfer me to Al Mascobiyya Interrogation and Detention Centre in Jerusalem. [...]

Two interrogators named Arsan and David were already in the room. They had a typed paper written in Hebrew. They told me that this paper was sent via fax from the same interrogator who interrogated me earlier in Ras al-Amoud, and that I had confessed to doing many things. I told them that what was in the paper was a lie and that I did not confess to anything and no specifc accusation was made against me. They said that the paper says that I knew a young man named Murad and I knew that he was wanted by the intelligence … This interrogation lasted until midnight. [...] In the morning of 6 February 2008, they came and took me to Jerusalem's Magistrate's Court. My hands and feet were tied. A lawyer hired by the State was waiting for me, but none of my family was there [...] In the court, the prosecution asked for my detention to be extended for 10 days, relying on a secret file submitted to the judge. My lawyer objected and asked for my immediate release. However, the judge decided to extend my detention [...]

Israeli Military Court

My interrogation lasted for several hours for 59 consecutive days. In one of the interrogation rounds, a tall interrogator told me that I should confess that I had asked Murad to help me carry out a suicide bombing. I denied that of course, and he slapped me so hard that I fell over to the ground and my mouth began bleeding.

On the seventh day of my arrest [...] the interrogator told me that Murad had been arrested, and he had interrogated him. He added that Murad confessed that I asked him to help me to carry out a suicide bombing. [...] After 10 days of interrogation [...] I came back from the court and I was put in a room inside the Centre with another detainee named Nisreen Z. She was detained on a theft case. On the same day I had a stomach ache. Nisreen handed me a white pill, which turned out later to be a narcotic pill. I fainted for some time. When I woke up, Nisreen told me that I had said many things and confessed to many things and that it was recorded. I was then removed from the room and taken to the interrogation room. The tall interrogator asked me to confess to everything but I refused [...] the interrogator played the recording. I heard myself speaking with Nisreen who was asking me many questions about Murad and carrying out a suicide bombing, and I would answer her 'yes' without giving further details [...] I did not sign any confession papers. (23 December 2008)

Afaf was charged with contact with a wanted person and the intention to carry out a suicide bombing. She was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment by a military court after entering into a plea bargain. She is currently detained in Telmond Prison inside Israel. Afaf was released on 7 May 2009.

Case Study No. 33

Name: Ezzat H.
Date of arrest: 11 June 2008
Age at arrest: 10
Accusation: None

On 11 June 2008, Israeli soldiers stormed Ezzat's family's shop in a village near the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, situated near the Wall. The soldiers said that they were looking for a hand gun.

At around 10:30am, I was sitting in my father's shop selling animal feed and eggs. I was wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans. My brother Makkawi (7) and sister Lara (8) were sitting with me [...] I was surprised by the arrival of two Israeli soldiers to the shop. One of them had dark skin, wearing khaki jeans and a black T-shirt with a blue vest on top. The other one was in green clothes. Both of them were wearing helmets and carrying black weapons. The soldier with the black T-shirt was carrying a pistol around his chest in addition to the assault rife.

They suddenly walked into the shop. Once they entered the shop, the soldier with the black T-shirt began shouting at me, telling me: 'your father has sent us to you and we want the pistol your father has.' I became terrifed and said: 'my father has nothing. He doesn't own such things.' He slapped me hard across my right cheek and he slapped my brother on the face too. He then asked my siblings to get out of the shop. He asked me all over again and I told him we had nothing. He asked me to get out the pistol from the animal feed sacks. I answered him we had no pistol. He slapped me again and this time it was on my left cheek. [...]

A group of locals gathered around the store and some of them tried to enter and help me, but the soldier standing by the door prevented them from doing so. When the other soldier did not find anything, he asked me again to tell him where the pistol was. When I answered him back saying: 'we don't have anything' he punched me hard in my stomach and I fell over onto the empty egg boxes. I was crying and screaming because I could not stand the pain and I was terrified too.

The soldier with the black T-shirt made fun of me and imitated my crying. He spoke very fluent Arabic. He kept me inside the shop for 15 minutes. He then grabbed me by my T-shirt and dragged me out of the shop. I asked him to let me close the shop but he said leave it open so that it would be robbed. Some of my friends who were at the scene closed the shop.

When he dragged me out of the shop, he ordered me to walk in the street in front of him. He and the other soldier, who was pointing his weapon at me, walked behind me, and some people gathered around. While walking, the soldier in the black T-shirt would slap me hard on my neck now and then … I was slapped three to four times on my nape while walking towards the house. When we reached the house, 100 meters away, I saw many soldiers around the house and a number of dark green military vehicles. The word 'Police' was written on an olive coloured jeep. When I entered the house [...] the soldier with the black T-shirt made me stand in the yard and asked me to get the pistol out of the flower basin. When I was about to answer him and say we had no pistol, he slapped me so hard that I fell down on my face in the fower basin. [...]

My father was standing by the door of the guest room, where my family was held. The soldier slapped me on my nape in front of my father and I fell to the ground. He slapped me again on my nape and I fell to the ground after I stood up. All of this was in front of my father. He then lifted me in the air after he grabbed my T-shirt. He told my father that he was going to take me to prison [...] He threatened to arrest my older sister who was 19 years old [...] he then pushed me into the guest room where my mother and siblings were held. My mother was crying. When she saw me crying, she asked me why and I told her that I had been hit. She asked them to leave me alone and hit her instead. They told her that they would take me to prison. [...] The soldier with the black T-shirt took me to the bedroom and slapped me at the door. He then brought my older sister to search and interrogate her while forcing me to stand by the kitchen door. They then moved me to another bedroom.

Torturing Ezzat H

While passing me, the soldier with the black T-shirt slapped me so hard on my face that I fell on the ground. He asked me to stay there in the room. He would go for five minutes and then come back to slap me on the face, and punch me several times in my stomach. I would shout and burst into tears. He would imitate me and make fun of me. He continued coming to the room around six times where he would hit me and slap me. [...] I spent about one hour in the room all alone with the soldiers. During this hour, the soldier with the black T-shirt ordered me to stand on one foot and lift my hands up in the air with my back against the wall. This lasted for about half an hour. I was exhausted but I did not dare to put my foot on the ground because he ordered me not to. [...] The soldier with the black T-shirt [...] then brought my older sister and asked me whether I cared about her or not. I said: 'yes I do.' He then asked me to tell him where the pistol was and he would not tell my father. I said we did not have a pistol, so he took my sister out, and then came back and hit me all over my body. He left the room and after a while he came back and ofered me 10 Shekels if I would tell him where the pistol was. I told him I did not care about money. He really became so angry that he took of his helmet and hit me with it from two metres away. He asked me to bring him the helmet and when I did, he threw it again at me, but this time he missed. He again asked me to bring him the helmet but this time he did not hit me with it. Instead, he left the room for five minutes and came back and slapped me on the face and stomach without asking me anything. Once again he left the room and was gone for a while, and I was all alone in the room. He then came back and asked me about the pistol and I answered that we did not have any pistol. He slapped me twice on my face and pushed me back. He then left the room for a while and came back to repeat it all over again. [...]

Afterwards, a soldier wearing black sunglasses came into the room where I was held and pointed his rife at me. The rife barrel was a few centimeters away from my face. I was so terrified that I started to shiver. He made fun of me and said: 'shivering? Tell me where the pistol is before I shoot you.' I replied by saying that we had nothing. He lowered his rife and took out the bullets [...] (21 June 2008)

After initially wishing to file a complaint against the soldiers involved, Ezzat's father changed his mind for fear of retaliation.

Since DCI-Palestine last published a report on Palestinian child detainees (April 2008), the practice of ill-treatment and torture has continued unabated. During the course of the reporting period DCI-Palestine continued to receive numerous testimonies from Palestinian children speaking of their ill-treatment and torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers, policemen and security operatives. This abuse occurs from the moment of arrest, and continues during transfer, interrogation and detention. The ill-treatment documented by DCI-Palestine appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalised, suggesting complicity at all levels of the political and military chain of command. This abusive system operates with the knowledge and assistance of some doctors, and is overseen by a military court system that ignores basic principles of juvenile justice and fair trial rights, whilst willfully turning a blind eye to the presentation in court of one coerced confession after another. This system imposed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory operates beyond international legal norms and within a general culture of impunity.DCI-Palestine continues in its eforts to bring this situation to the attention of the international community which is itself bound by a number of legal obligations to ensure that these violations are fully investigated, and where appropriate, prosecuted and that such conduct is not rewarded.

Without some measure of accountability, it is unlikely that the situation endured by Palestinian children described in the pages above, will improve.

* Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-Palestine) is a national section of the international non-governmental child rights organisation and movement, Defence for Children International (DCI), established in 1979, with consultative status with ECOSOC. DCI-Palestine was established in 1992, and is dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as well as other international, regional and local standards. As part of its ongoing work to uphold the rights of Palestinian children, DCI-Palestine provides free legal assistance, collects evidence, researches and drafts reports and conducts general advocacy targeting various duty bearers.