rigorousintuition.ca

Posted: **Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:25 am**

Economic and financial siege imposed on the Palestinian Authority leading toward famine and intensified political instability Nablus - Amin Abu Wardeh 03:00 pm 06.04.06 A major leader in the Hamas party, Adnan Asfour, is expressing grave concern against the consequences of the economic and financial siege imposed imposed on the Palestinian people, which will cause the internal situation to explode. In a meeting by Prime Minister, he placed the blame for the current situation on the Palestinian Authority, and not the current government but the former. Asfour holds the old guard for being responsible for the communications with the international community, which either led to, or did not prevent, the current devastating financial situation in the community already living a delicate economic dance. The delegated Minister of Finance Omar Abdel Razik, says the Gulf States have promised to help with 80 million USD in aid, but that it is late in coming. From their side, according to an Israeli source, the Palestinians will have a very difficult time finding a bank to open a line of credit for the PA. Conversations on the subject are ongoing with the Arab Bank. Adnan Asfour said Thursday that the Palestinians are tentative in giving a lengthy chance to the new Hamas government in finishing the Palestinian problem. In an appeal to the Arab and Islamic worlds, Asfour is asking that they follow through on their promises of aid and not allow the Americans to control the situation of economic assistance for the Palestinian people. <a href="http://www.pnn.ps/english/archive2006/apr/week1/06...">www.pnn.ps/english/archiv...eek1/06...</a>

Posted: **Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:30 pm**

Too bad Hamas has started pointing the finger at the previous government instead of where it squarely belongs: on Israel and the UN for allowing this macabre farce to go on. Israel is withholding tens of millions of dollars in tax money extorted by the illegal occupation authorities from Palestinian civilians. Where's the international outcry? Where's the outrage? Israel is blocking exports of agricultural goods from the territories it occupies illegally, so that producers who have worked for years and invested what money they have, are forced to stand by helplessly as their goods rot away. Israel's network of exclusively Jewish roads and settlements have made it extremely difficult for Palestinians to move goods and people from one village or town to another, preventing people from going to work and carrying out the activities necessary to run an economy. The illegal Israeli occupation has not only demolished people's homes, but entire groves of olive trees and other agricultural fields, which comprise the livelihood of a huge number of Palestinians. Others are left standing, but their owners are not allowed to maintain them or reap their harvest. What with a brutal military occupation preventing people from doing anything that might help them to survive, it's no great surprise that famine is becoming a very real threat to Palestinians. Who were those people who said, "Never Again!", again? And what did they mean by that? Exactly? Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=alicethecurious>AlicetheCurious</A> at: 4/7/06 6:32 pm

Posted: **Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:08 pm**

It's too horrible for words -- The Israeli state has adopted the very worst attributes of their Nazi persecutors -- the victims have embraced that which they once despised. But America too has never acknowledged or renounced its more recent murderous, genocidal crimes.

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:20 am**

Maybe, just maybe, if the Palestinians weren't given to acts of indisciminate murder, the Israelis might be willing to allow them more freedom. What problems the Palestinians have are those that they've chosen for themselves. The Palestinian territories have been made into an open-air prison because the Palestinians have made themselves into the sort of people who belong in a prison. -Sepka the Space Weasel

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:47 am**

Sepka, I totally disagree with you on that. The Palestinians are dealing with unlawful and harsh military occupation and dispossession as best they can, and as any other group/nation would do under same circumstances. Forty years now, under Israeli military rule, these people have NO civil rights whatsoever, and many are living in refugee camps in impossible conditions. --- Having said that, I am not among those in Israel/USA who believe that ending the formal occupation is the solution. The "two state" solution is beginning to seem like a sham. Namely, creating bantustans that will worsen the actual conditions of their residents, while officially they will have "independence". Certainly the present situation is unbearable, though.

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:59 am**

If you're willing to grant that setting off bombs on school busses, in shopping centres, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc., is a reasonable response to a land dispute on the Palestinians' behalf, then how can you criticize the Israelis responding in a manner proportionately harsher? If one side is justified in blowing up a bus to express their unhappiness at somethng like not being allowed to make their homes where they wish, then surely the other side is justified in causing much greater suffering as a response to the bombing? -Sepka the Space Weasel

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:11 am**

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>The numbers are staggering; one in five Palestinian dead is a child. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says at least 408 Palestinian children have been killed since the beginning of the intifada in September 2000...The PCHR says they were victims of "indiscriminate shooting, excessive force, a shoot-to-kill policy and the deliberate targeting of children". And children continue to die, even after the ceasefire declared by Hamas and other groups at the end of June. On Friday, a soldier at a West Bank checkpoint shot dead a four-year-old boy, Ghassan Kabaha, and wounded his two young sisters after "accidentally" letting loose at a car with a burst of machinegun fire from his armoured vehicle. The rate of killing since the beginning of the ceasefire has dropped sharply, but almost every day the army has continued to fire heavy machineguns into Khan Yunis or Rafah. Among the latest victims of apparently indiscriminate shooting were three teenagers and an eight-year-old, Yousef Abu Jaza, hit in the knee when soldiers shot at a group of children playing football in Khan Yunis. The military says it is difficult to distinguish between youths and men who might be Palestinian fighters, but the statistics show that nearly a quarter of the children killed were under 12. Last year alone, 50 children under the age of eight were shot dead or blown up by the Israeli army in Gaza: eight, one of whom was two months old, were slaughtered when a one-tonne bomb was dropped on a block of flats to kill a lone Hamas leader, Sheikh Salah Mustafa Shehada. But Rahman, Huda and Haneen were not "collateral damage" in the assassination of Hamas "terrorists", or caught in crossfire. There was no combat when they were shot. There was nothing more than a single burst of fire, sometimes a single bullet, from an Israeli soldier's gun. It was the same when seven-year-old Ali Ghureiz was shot in the head on the street outside his house in Rafah. And when Haneen Abu Sitta, 12, was killed while walking home after school near the fence with a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza. And when Nada Madhi, also 12, was shot in the stomach and died as she leaned out of her bedroom window in Rafah to watch the funeral procession for another child killed earlier. The army offered a senior officer of its southern command to discuss the shooting of these six children over a period of just 10 weeks earlier this year. The military told me I could not name him, even though his identity is no secret to the Israeli public or his enemies; it was this officer who explained to the nation how an army bulldozer came to crush to death the young American peace activist, Rachel Corrie. "I want you to know we are not a bunch of crazies down here," he says. At his headquarters in the Gush Khatif Jewish settlement in Gaza, the commander rattles through the army's version of the shootings: either the military knew nothing of them, or the children had been caught in crossfire - a justification used so frequently, and so often disproved, that it is rarely believed. But three hours later, after poring over maps and military logs, timings and regulations, he concedes that his soldiers were responsible - even culpable - in several of the killings. The Israeli army's instinctive response is to muddy the waters when confronted with a controversial killing. At first, it questioned whether Huda was even shot. I described for the soldiers the scene in the classroom with blood rippling up the wall behind the child's desk. "I don't know how this happened," says the commander. "I take responsibility for this. It could have been one of ours. I think it probably was. ...B'Tselem said the internal report confirmed that the army has a policy of covering up its crimes. "The message that the judge advocate general's office transmits to soldiers is clear: soldiers who violate the 'Open Fire Regulations', even if their breach results in death, will not be investigated and will not be prosecuted."" <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1007051,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/g2/sto...51,00.html</a> <hr></blockquote> <blockquote>Quote:<hr> Barefoot boys, clutching kites made out of scraps of paper and ragged soccer balls, squat a few feet away under scrub trees. Men in flowing white or gray galabias - homespun robes - smoke cigarettes in the shade of slim eaves. Two emaciated donkeys, their ribs protruding, are tethered to wooden carts with rubber wheels. It is still. The camp waits, as if holding its breath. And then, out of the dry furnace air, a disembodied voice crackles over a loudspeaker. 'Come on, dogs,' the voice booms in Arabic. 'Where are all the dogs of Khan Younis? Come! Come!' I stand up. I walk outside the hut. The invective continues to spew: 'Son of a bitch!' 'Son of a Whore!…' The boys dart in small packs up the sloping dunes to the electric fence that separates the camp from the Jewish settlement. They lob rocks toward two armored jeeps parked on top of the dune and mounted with loudspeakers. Three ambulances line the road below the dunes in anticipation of what is to come. A percussion grenade explodes. The boys, most no more than ten or eleven years old, scatter, running clumsily across the heavy sand. They descend out of sight behind a sandbank in front of me. There are no sounds of gunfire. The soldiers shoot with silencers. The bullets from the M-16 rifles tumble end over end through the children's slight bodies. Later, in the hospital, I will see the destruction: the stomachs ripped out, the gaping holes in limbs and torsos. Yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon they kill an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wound four more, three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered - death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo - but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport. <a href="http://home.mindspring.com/~fontenelles/hedges/hedges1.htm">home.mindspring.com/~font...edges1.htm</a> <hr></blockquote> <blockquote>Quote:<hr> (From a letter to the editor of Haaretz Magazine: I read Gideon Levy's article about the death of Omar Matar ("The 144th Child," Haaretz Magazine, April 11) following my own personal familiarity with the events that are described in it. As someone who personally witnessed the incident at the Qalandiyah checkpoint, on Friday, March 28, I can say that it was a traumatic, terrible, unimaginable experience. My girlfriend and I arrived at the site as members of WATCH, a group of Israeli women who oppose the occupation and who observe the checkpoints every day in the area of Jerusalem and the West Bank. This was not the first time we have seen what has become routine at the checkpoints: Children throwing stones at the fence near the Qalandiyah neighborhood and burning tires. Within a few minutes, a group of about 10 soldiers advanced in the direction of the children and began shooting at them. Stunned by what we were seeing - soldiers armed with rifles, wearing helmets and flak jackets shooting at a small group of schoolchildren - we immediately called the Benjamin Brigade commander, who told us that the orders to the soldiers that we had seen were to shoot rubber bullets in the air. I told him that I could see with my own eyes that they were not shooting in the air, but that they were shooting right at the children and that it is known that rubber bullets (which are really steel bullets covered in rubber) can kill. Within a short time, an ambulance came to the neighborhood's main street and we learned that a boy, Omar Musa Matar, had been shot in the head. Our warnings to the army had fallen on deaf ears and failed to prevent Omar's death. This incident brings a number of difficult thoughts to mind - thoughts about the imperviousness, cruelty and total contempt for Palestinian lives, which is reflected in the fact that after years of intifada, the Israel Defense Forces and the police have not yet found ways to disperse civilian riots that comply with international law; about the soldiers armed with rifles facing off against little children with stones; about the horrific disparity between the orders given by senior commanders and the reality on the ground, in which each soldier acts as he sees fit in the full knowledge that he will not be tried for murder, abuse, robbery or any other trampling of the law and human rights. According to figures provided by B'Tselem [The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories], the number of incidents in which the Military Police launches an investigation following the killing of innocents by soldiers is minimal, the manner in which the investigations are conducted ludicrous and the number of the convictions negligible. Consequently, I will not be surprised if the murderer is not brought to justice in this case either. This is not a trigger-happy soldier, but rather a group of soldiers acting like a murderous gang, storming a group of children that do not represent a genuine danger. Adi Dagan Herzliya <a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-pmc200503.htm">www.countercurrents.org/pa-pmc200503.htm</a> <hr></blockquote> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Israeli soldiers shoot another ISM activist in the head Yebna, Rafah, Gaza, Occupied Palestine International Solidarity Movement ... Between 4:30 and 5:00 PM today Israeli snipers shot another ISM activist in the head. Tom Hundall from Manchester Britain is currently in critical condition in a helicopter on his way from Europa Hospital in Khan Younis to a hospital in Bir Sheva. He is 22 years old. According to Laura, the activists were being shot at while protecting some children from Israeli gunfire. Tom was in plain view of the sniper towers and was wearing a bright orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes. The nine ISM activists and many children were in the process of leaving the area. Sniper fire from the tower was hitting the wall close beside the children, who were afraid to move. Tom was attempting to bring them to safety when he was shot. There was no shooting or resistance coming from the Palestinian side at all. According to Laura, the plan had been to put up a tent where a tank parks itself every night in front of a Mosque. The soldiers in the tank shoot down the street, terrorizing people who come to pray. The group had discovered earlier that the tank was already in place and had begun firing into the air. The Palestinian organizers felt the plan had become unworkeable, and the action was abandoned. Laura and two Palestinians decided to go assess the situation. She soon realized that the tank had moved from where it had been. It was now possible to set up the tent. She spoke to Tom D by phone and they decided to meet at the roadblock. The Israeli snipers in the eastern tower began shooting in Laura’s path. When they arrived at the roadblock, the rest of the group was already there. The snipers began firing again: this time at the wall of the building next to the activists. As a result, the group began the process of leaving. Tom saw a little boy in an open space, clearly visible to the tower. Tom went to get him out of the way. He looked back and saw two more girls whom he also went to retrieve. As he went to get them, he was shot in the back of the head. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood. The ambulance arrived quickly, after about two minutes. For years the Israeli army has killed Palestinian civilians with impunity. Now they are targeting unarmed international peace activists and human rights workers. On March 16, Rachel Corrie was run over and killed by a bulldozer operator in Rafah while trying to prevent home demolitions. On April 5, in Jenin, Brian Avery was shot in the face by an APC in an unprovoked attack on a clearly unarmed group of internationals. Six months ago in Jenin, Caoimhe Butterly was shot in the leg and UN official Ian Hook was murdered. We ask the world community to stand up and demand that Israel honor international agreements protecting civilians, whether they are internationals or Palestinians, and hold Israel accountable for these crimes against humanity. And we demand an end to the illegal and brutal occupation that these murders defend. <a href="http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Palestine/041203_israeli_forces_shoot_british_act.htm">www.ccmep.org/2003_articl...sh_act.htm</a> <hr></blockquote> By the way, Tom Hundall never awoke from the coma. He died. <blockquote>Quote:<hr> (From a press conference marking the fourth anniversary of the Palestinian Intifada, September 27, 2004, by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Director of HDIP [Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute; for the background of Dr. Barghouti, see <a href="http://www.palestinemonitor.org/mustafa/mustafas_page.htm">www.palestinemonitor.org/...s_page.htm</a>] In the four years since Sharon’s famous visit to the Haram Al Sharif we have seen 4,342 Palestinians and Israelis killed. Of those 1,008 were Israeli and 3,334 Palestinian. 82% of Palestinians killed were civilians. Two to three Palestinians are killed by Israeli soldiers, police or settlers per day. Whilst this number may appear to be low, if this death rate were to be applied to the UK it would be equivalent to 35 being killed per day, and in the US this would be 157 per day. Since the start of the Intifada on the 28th of September 2000, 621 Palestinian children below the age of 17 have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces. Of this figure 411 were shot with live ammunition and 200 were shot in the head, face or neck. 331 were from the Gaza Strip. 10,000 Palestinian children have been injured. Dr Barghouthi insisted that there is absolutely no excuse to justify the killing of such a huge number of children. What is equally disturbing is the telling figures of injuries received to the head – Israeli forces were obviously shooting to kill. In fact the majority of Palestinians killed have suffered injuries to the head and upper body. 424 Palestinians have died in extra judicial executions (assassinations). 186 of those were bystanders or “unintended” victims, killed as they were near the victim. 39 bystanders were children 26 were women. With regards to extra judicial assassinations, in Gaza whilst 72 Palestinians died in targeted killings, a shocking 118 bystanders were additionally killed in these attacks. Palestinian Prisoners Israel continues to make use of an old emergency law that dates back to the British Mandate. This Law allows Israel to arrest and detain anyone for an unlimited time without charging them. There are currently 78 Palestinian children in administrative detention. There are also currently 100 Palestinian women and 377 children in Israeli prisons. 80% of the children are routinely tortured or harassed and 31% suffer from disease. Health 30% of Palestinian children suffer from chronic malnutrition. The number of pregnant women unable to receive any medical attention during their pregnancy is now five times higher than figures before September 2000. Economy More than one billion dollars worth of Palestinian infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli forces and more than 200 million dollars of this has been donor financed. Since the start of the Intifada the Palestinian GDP has decreased by 50% and agricultural losses have amounted to more than one million dollars. Education Israeli forces have shelled or broken into 298 Palestinian schools. 4 young children were shot in the head in UNRWA run schools in Gaza, in 2004 alone. Water & the Evolution of Apartheid Since September 2000, the price of water in the Palestinian Territories has increased from $2.5 per cubic meter to $7.5 per cubic meter. And only a shocking 70 litres per person per day is consumed in the West Bank for domestic, urban AND industrial use. 200 Palestinian communities have no access to a clean water supply. In the Gaza Strip we can no longer forecast a disaster because it has already begun. There is no water supply in Gaza that is fit for drinking. Every Israeli citizen consumes five times more water than the Palestinians. Illegal settlers living in the West Bank consume twenty times more water than the Palestinians living there. Movement Restrictions There are currently 703 movement restrictions in the West Bank alone. As an example of the effects on Palestinian everyday life that this has caused, whilst a journey from Ramallah to Hebron should take around one hour, it has taken up to twelve hours for many Palestinians. 86 Palestinians have already died because of movement restrictions, and this figure includes 30 children. Had these people been allowed to travel, they would have probably survived. In addition at least 55 women have been forced to give birth at checkpoints with 20 losing their children. The Wall The Wall is three times as long and twice as high as the Berlin Wall. In Qalqilia 40,000 residents are imprisoned within the Wall in what can only be described as a ghetto. As well as those imprisoned inside the wall the residents of surrounding villages now placed on the western (Israeli) side of the wall have been cut of entirely from schools, jobs, healthcare and family. Many in fact have lost all access to the outside world is controlled by 11 Israeli manned gates which are collectively only opened for a total of 55 minutes per day. Anyone who wishes to enter or leave Qalqilia must have special permission – even patients and medical services. Qalqilia residents claim that they can no longer see the sunset. Whilst there is talk about adjustments to the Wall’s route, there are in fact no changes other than mere cosmetic alterations. What we are witnessing is not just the building of the Wall it is the destruction of a two state solution. Disengagement in Gaza and the Road Map to Peace Sharon only accepted the Road Map as it was approved by the Israeli Cabinet and this was with 15 reservations, the first being a refusal to freeze any settlement building. At the same time whilst Sharon talks about removing settlements in the West Bank, he is referring to 4 that exist in the north of the West Bank, that exist on land that can not be enclaved by the Wall. The other existing settlements will of course remain because they exist on land that Israel plans to appropriate through the Wall and enclaves. Unfortunately, with regards to Sharon’s Gaza Plan most of the World’s media mistakenly continues to refer to it as a “withdrawal”. In fact Sharon never referred to a “withdrawal”, what he actually said was that they would redeploy from Gaza but the military would still enter at any time they deemed appropriate. In Rafah the Israeli forces are destroying on average 6 houses per day in order to clear a passage separating Gaza from Egypt, which will grant them full border control. So far 2200 homes have been demolished in this area alone. Periods of “Relative Calm? During this last year of the Intifada, there has been a serious rise in mass popular support for non-violent resistance. This is why suicide attacks against Israel have significantly depleted, not because of the Wall. However, this has certainly not encouraged Israeli forces to stop attacking Palestinians. Between March 15 and August 31, 2004, the International media talked of a period of “relative calm” purely because there were no suicide attacks against Israel. However, the following days of March saw 45 Palestinians dead with no Israeli casualties; April saw 56 Palestinians dead compared to 3 Israelis; and May saw 116 Palestinians dead (the majority during Israel’s “Operation Rainbow” in Rafah) compared to 19 Israelis. It must be noted that of the total Israelis killed, 18 were Soldiers, 10 were illegal settlers and only 3 were civilians. This means that during a period of practical cease fire on the part of the Palestinians Israel continued to kill civilians at a rate of 12:1. If Sharon was at all serious about wanting a peaceful solution, genuine advantage could have been taken during this period of quiet, instead he proceeded to kill more Palestinians than at any other time since the beginning of the Intifada other than the 2002 invasions. Palestinian Elections and future Democracy? Israeli forces have closed six election registration offices in Jerusalem as well as others across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dr Barghouthi stressed that this is totally unacceptable and if the Palestinians are to achieve reform through democratic process, then the International community must do more than condemn these recent actions, they must demand that Israel reopens the offices. Democracy he insisted is a precondition not only for reform but also for lasting peace, a peace based on justice. Dr Barghouthi concluded the press conference by declaring that unfortunately, he was almost 100% sure he would be greeting the same audience at a press conference to mark the fifth anniversary of the Intifada. As of yet, there has been no reason for the Palestinians to stop resisting – “either we live as slaves under an occupation or we continue to struggle for freedom”, and the latter he insisted is the path that will be taken. <a href="http://www.almubadara.org/new_web/articles/b27Sept2004PressConf.htm">www.almubadara.org/new_we...ssConf.htm</a> <hr></blockquote>

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:49 am**

Sepka, I won't get into it, but displacement, homelessness and lack of food, are in fact a form of killing. Starving people to death indiscriminately is tantamount to a bomb in the bus, wouldn't you say so ? -- I have had the "privilege" to endure economic oppression for the last 18 months here in Israel, as a form of political punishment. "killing me softly" is still killing...Poverty is as violent as a bomb, its only slower and invisible, which makes it the preferred method of state terror. BTW, the USA has become a lab for this kind of violence, with the rates of homelessness and racial poverty, prevention of medical care and social benefits, and imprisonment in high rates. Does it really matter if a child dies of a bomb or of lack of antibiotics or food ? --- das Kapital can kill. and Jewish proverb goes :"an indigent is as good as dead".

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:05 am**

They did the same to us. Starved a third of the population to death, then called it "The Famine". Sent the military in to protect the ships taking food OUT of the country. They LOVE to kill. Created Zionism to exploit new ways to murder. The perpetrators are ALWAYS the same: only the victims may vary. Get rid of the Windsors. Get rid of the British Crown. Get rid of the Treason Felony Act. Our anguished words have no effect on career killers. Get RID OF them. EVERY royal house in Europe carries the Devil's spawn, direct from Queen Victoria. How we get rid of them does not matter. So long as they never come back.

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:05 pm**

Sepka said: --quote-- If you're willing to grant that setting off bombs on school busses, in shopping centres, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc., is a reasonable response to a land dispute on the Palestinians' behalf, then how can you criticize the Israelis responding in a manner proportionately harsher? If one side is justified in blowing up a bus to express their unhappiness at somethng like not being allowed to make their homes where they wish, then surely the other side is justified in causing much greater suffering as a response to the bombing? -Sepka the Space Weasel --unquote-- After I read ALL of Alice's post meticulously explaining through typical examples the real nature of the horrific abuses, crimes, atrocities and inhumanity routinely inflicted on the Palestinian people through what can only be adequately described as Israeli's state-sanctioned terror (terrific job, BTW Alice <sigh>) and then rereading your comment I can only conclude that you know absolutely NOTHING about the current and ongoing tragedy of systematic mistreatment and killings. It boggles the mind that you could be so grossly uninformed and even worse, so disinterested in discovering or knowing the truth, that you would, that you COULD actually dismiss Palestinian issues as nothing but 'unhappiness' over not being able to build a home where they want -- You apparently feel facts have nothing to do with the 'Palestinian problem' -- that it was Palestinian truculance that provoked righteous Israeli reprisals and not, as it was, Palestinian growing resentments over patterns of Israeli colonialism, terrorism, land-theft and appropriation, injustices, economic disparity and exclusion, forced displacement, and exploitation, and that culminated in the '69 war with voluntary temporary evacuation of citizens that Israel prohibited re-entry to --and whose property and assets Israel confiscated -- that aroused the population to anger and displeasure, and whose treatment at Israeli hands continued to get worse. It's astonishing you know none of this, AND that you never even suspected as much and made an effort to get better informed. That capacity for questioning one's assumptions and critical thinking and learning which distinguishes most of the folks on this forum I had assumed was something you shared too. Your comment spoken by a slow third-grader would STILL be unexcusable. I think even the most arrogant self-righteous extremist-Israeli/Zionist wouldn't claim to believe such an absurd thing -- Before saying that, I'd think he'd prefer something like, "We treat them worse than animals because they ARE worse than animals). Starman ****** More thoughts and observations -- Why the Palestinians are so damn 'difficult'; The entire occupation is illegal under the Oslo Accords, the Geneva Conventions, multiple United Nations directives etc etc etc. The IDF are prohibited from enforcing curfew (which are called willy-nilly and often not adequately announced, in effect for days and weeks or longer, with no exceptions for elderly, sick, mothers in childbirth, medical emergencies, etc. -- in other words, conditions consituting cruelty if the Palestinians were animals) with anything stronger than Tear-Gas, but the Israeli's typically use deadly force, especially snipers shooting silenced weapons and dum-dums -- bullets designed to fragment causing horrific wounds. Another IDF innovation is fitting 22 cal. bullets to larger -caliber shells, with the effect that the bullet tumbles as it flies thru the air -- creating gruesome, life-threatening injuries even when only hitting legs or arms. Dum-dums, silenced-weapons and tumbling rounds are all specifically classified as illegal under Geneva rules of engagement. But like the US, Israel doesn't feel bound to respect International laws or agreements. <a href="http://www.bristolfoe.org.uk/wildfire/palestine/eva.and.baha.htm">www.bristolfoe.org.uk/wil...d.baha.htm</a> --quote-- Aftermath. The examining doctor at El Ethad Hospital in Nablus said the following about Baha's killing: "...shot under the axila passed through the left lung to right lung and heart. There was an accumulation of blood in thorax cavity. Died of Haemo-Thorax. X-Ray showed multiple fragments in chest. Main injuries in left lung and the heart." He said that the location of the shot in the upper torso and massive internal damage caused by the "dum-dum" bullet was consistent with an intentional kill. Dum-dums explode and fragment on impact, a bit like landmines, causing maximum multiple injuries. The Israeli army initially stated that Baha was carrying a bomb at the time of his assassination. This is not true. It does however prove that the shot was fired to kill, not to stun or frighten but to kill. The statement then changed to accuse Baha of carrying a Molotov cocktail. This was supposed to have exploded in his hand. Setting him on fire and killing him. 'It was his fault'. This is what the IDF said about the boy they shot in the head in Balata the night before. 17-years-old. He died when the ambulance carrying him was refused entry through a checkpoint to the hospital. A double killing. They said he killed himself, shot himself. This is a common statement released after the Army murders people here. All armies and police do it. Blame and demonise the victim. It's a pattern consistent with the murder of hundreds of people in police custody in the UK too. 'They were mad, they were drug addicts, uncontrollable, suicidal'. Here, it's because 'they're terrorists'. 328 children have been murdered by the Israeli army or armed settlers (the Israeli State's bought-off reserve force) since September 2000. (In 2 years) ***** <a href="http://www.ww4report.com/73.html">www.ww4report.com/73.html</a> --quote-- On Jan. 31, the New York Times reported the following account of a messy Israeli hit by a Border Police death squad dressed in mufti ("civvies") in the West Bank town of Tul Karm: "The Israeli Army said the raid in Tulkarm, conducted by the border police, was a mission to arrest two members of a militant group, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Mr. Arafat's Fatah party and has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Israelis. The army said that as the police entered the city, Palestinians threw stones and gasoline bombs at them. The police dispersed the crowds with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Palestinian officials said seven people had been wounded. The army said that after the police spotted the two wanted men and closed in on them, officers came under fire from gunmen nearby. The police returned fire and ordered the two men, who tried to escape, to halt, then fired warning shots, the army said. When the men did not stop, the army said, the police shot and killed both of them. Palestinian witnesses said that only one of the dead men belonged to the militant group and that the other was a bystander taking refuge in a candy shop." (NYT, Jan. 31) An International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist working in Tul Karm had the following observations on the incident: "You may have heard about the 'successful' Israeli operation that killed the head of the local branch of al-Aksa two weeks back. Israeli soldiers have since voiced their glee at killing 'the fucker' at checkpoints where ISMers have been. Several local witnesses told me that Special Forces simply sprayed the area with machine gun fire. According to hospital records, 18 bystanders sustained injuries from the shooting which makes me think they are probably right. In this 'successful' operation they also mistook a sweet seller they had shot in the stomach who was in full store uniform for a shot militant and chased him into his store and shot him twice in the head with dum-dums. They then proceeded to unload an additional clip into him just for good measure and then dragged the body into the street. He was known as a poor man of great integrity and the only one with an income in his family. He had been building a home with his meager savings for 5 years and was hoping to complete it shortly and get married. Perhaps this was all just a mistake on the Israeli soldiers parts. I would like the Israelis to tell that to the devastated family. Tell it to his brother who is 12 and now will be forced to seek employment and probably stop going to school." (ISM, Feb. 10) (David Bloom) [top] RANDOM DEATH FROM AN APC IN TUL KARM An ISM activist in Tul Karm describes the death of Muhamed, 21, a worker in a clothing store, on Feb. 8. The activist was watching as Israeli armored personnel carriers (APC) were returning to their base in Tul Karm after driving around to enforce curfew: "Just past us...I shuddered at three bursts of machine gun fire that came from the APC. I ran in the direction of the shooting and witnessed the vehicles rush off. Within seconds a man exited a shop and called in a shrill voice for an ambulance. I was one of the first to the scene and rushed into the clothing store. A young man lay on the floor of the shop. He looked like a ghoulish yellow puppet with an extra joint in his legs. Both his femur bones in his legs were snapped by two bullets and blood was visibly spurting from one of his legs into a growing pool that surrounded him on the shop floor. He was reaching with his hands into the air and in severe shock and excruciating pain, but conscious. All I could do was hold his hand... "The evidence at the scene is quite damning. The store had been closed with steel doors at the time of the incident. The heavy gun just shot right through the cement wall and the steel doors into the back of the store and the man. When contacted, the Israeli occupation forces spokesperson explained that shooting at random was illegal and therefore not done..." Muhamed died the next day, in a ambulance on the way to Nablus. The ambulance was delayed on its way three times by Israeli soldiers. (ISM, Feb. 10) (David Bloom) [top] ASSYMETRIC WARFARE IN TUL KARM: APCs vs. STONE-THROWERS The District Co-ordinating Offices (DCO), originally places where Israeli and Palestinian security forces coordinated under the Oslo accords, are now the bases of the Israeli army occupying Palestinian territory. In Tul Karm, the DCO is down the road from a cluster of schools, and Israeli armored vehicles often pass through. This area is often the scene of uneven battles between stone-throwing Palestinian youth and Israeli armored vehicles. Activists report hearing troops in Israeli vehicles exhorting the youth to come out over loudspeakers, in Arabic. One ISM activist in Tul Karm reports that on several occasions he heard Israeli troops in APCs broadcasting taunts at Palestinian boys, such as "Ta'al Sharmuta" ("come out, whores"). WW3 REPORT witnessed a Jan. 28 battle in which an Israeli soldier, sounding quite drunk, sang "Hatikva," the Israeli national anthem, over an APC's loudspeakers before firing rubber bullets at local youth. On Feb. 10, one ISM activist in Tul Karm described the death of a youth in the town at the hands of Israeli troops: "This was after a tear gas bout that literally covered the whole downtown core in a 30 foot high column of gas. It was the worst gassing I had ever underwent and I was 2 blocks away. I hate to think how children the elderly and the sick handled it in the actual area affected, the center of town and a highly populated area. The same morning R****** and I witnessed a 17-year-old boy who was pathetically throwing stones at an armored vehicle being shot between the eyes by border police with a kind of gold bullet that fragments upon impact. I could see the Israeli soldiers aiming from the vehicle next to us and actually said 'oh no, they are going to shoot one of these boys' to R****** right before they shot. The boys nose was destroyed and fragments entered his skull. We saw him at the al-Zakat Hospital in Tul Karm and apparently he is now in a hospital in Israel and will undergo neuro-surgery to try to remove the fragments from inside his skull. Another boy, 13, lost an eye and part of his face with a similar bullet... We were not far away when it happened; the two Israeli military vehicles had just passed us on the road before carrying out another tragic act." (ISM, Feb. 10) (David Bloom) ******* Shooting incident: Boy killled with dum-dum: www.thornwalker.com/ditch/wrightthird.htm --quote-- Besides the obligatory solemn excursion to Masada, the propaganda show included a trip to the West Bank and places now in the news as sites at which the Israeli army regularly shoots teenagers in the head. The inhabitants of Nablus and Bethlehem and other Arab towns were polite, but, except for the merchants, very stand-offish. By and large they pointedly ignored us. It was obvious to me at the time that there was some tension between them and our Israeli guides, all of whom carried Uzis or M-16s. Actually, however, the people living in Nablus and the other towns had it pretty good — at least compared to those living in the refugee camps. The camps were inhabited by the Arabs who had been forced out of their homes in what is now Israel proper during the 1948 war of conquest. The Israelis told us that the Arabs had left because the Arab countries had urged them to do so in radio broadcasts. (They never explained why the Arab countries would do that.) I learned the truth much later: it was the Israelis who urged the Arabs to leave their homes, telling them they could return when the conflict was over. When the time came to go back, the Israelis refused to let them in, and confiscated their land and houses. They wound up in squalid — and I do mean squalid — camps made up of shacks, because the Jordanians and Egyptians and Lebanese didn't know where to put them and didn't care. There they lived from hand to mouth, on what assistance international organizations could provide and whatever work they could get in Israel — insofar as they were allowed in. Squalor, however, was not the most striking feature of the camps. Through every one at least two huge, straight gashes had been literally bulldozed from one end of the camp to the other, each one the width of a two lane highway. Our guides told us the Israeli Army had done that after occupying the West Bank in 1967 to make it easier to patrol the camps. * Although it certainly wasn't meant to, that trip planted the seeds of my current anti-Zionist, or at least, anti-Israeli-state, attitude. Our Israeli guides tried to portray themselves as kind, tolerant, and progressive. But every now and then the mask slipped, and a glimmer of their contemptuous attitudes toward the Arabs could be seen. Nowadays, of course, that mask is becoming pretty tattered. Not too long ago the Israelis admitted that they had official death squads, after a failed assassination attempt in Jordan on a Palestinian politican. Here's an excerpt from a news story in Britain's Web news site "The Independent" on the current ongoing violence in the West Bank: An analysis of the injuries of the [Arab] dead by Palestinian doctors — working with American Physicians for Human Rights — has found that almost half of the dead were shot in the head or neck, several from the back, while the other half were shot in the chest or stomach. "This is a very clear indicator that the Israeli army is shooting to kill. They decide which of the demonstrators they want to kill and then they act as assassins," said Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, the president of the Union of Palestinian Medicial Relief Committees, which has been collecting data on the victims. It also found that nine out of 10 were killed by live ammunition — including "dum-dum" style exploding bullets, used by Israeli army marksmen. "Dum-dums," by the way, are illegal under the Geneva convention. They were invented by the British at the turn of the century, for use on the frontiers of their Empire against recalcitrant Afghan tribesmen who did not appreciate British attempts to rule them. To the chagrin of the Brits, the Afghans often refused to fall down and die like respectable Englishmen when shot by the standard Enfield .303 bullet. In response, the original dum-dums were made — at the British arsenal in India called, naturally, Dum Dum — by taking a bullet and cutting a deep "x" in its nose with a knife. That made the bullet split into fragments when it struck a human body, increasing the damage immensely. It's interesting to note that the original version of the Colt Model 1911 pistol — the famous Colt .45 Automatic — was developed by the U.S. Army for a similar purpose. After the U.S. liberation of the Philippines from the evil Spanish in 1898, many of the natives of the islands were unappreciative. They decided that they did not want Benevolent Assimilation (the actual term used) into the United States, any more than they had wanted to be a colony of Spain. Their attacks on American soldiers were terrifying and effective, because the Filipinos often kept coming after they had been shot at close range by the medium-caliber revolvers the soldiers were using. The .45 automatic addressed that problem by holding seven rounds (or eight with one in the chamber) instead of six, firing and reloading more quickly, and, especially, by throwing a much larger, heavier bullet. Despite that and other technological advantages, the Americans took heavy losses before they were able to persuade the Filipinos to do the right thing and give up their dream of independence. Even then, the fighting didn't end completely until 1914. ... The Israelis have the Palestinians surrounded with crushing firepower, and the Arabs' weapons are pitiful — rocks and a few rifles. They certainly have nothing as sophisticated as the most rudimentary anti-aircraft ability, as demonstrated by the arrogant impunity with which Israeli helicopters hover in the open at a few hundred feet while they fire rockets at apartment complexes, Arab-owned orchards, and other civilian targets. Nor could the Arabs hope to overwhelm even one Israeli West Bank settlement or garrison (they're usually the same thing, really). So the use of illegal exploding bullets, or live bullets at all, is not necessary for the most part. * To justify their atrocities, the Israelis and their American shills have revived the old song-and-dance they used for years: The Arabs want to "drive the Israelis into the sea." Besides, they are engaging in acts of "terrorism" by attacking well-armed soldiers with stones, and they have endangered the Jews, also well-armed, who live in illegal West Bank settlements. And it's all being orchestrated by that Arab version of Fu Manchu, the evil terrorist Yasser Arafat. Obviously, then, despite their total lack of any offensive capability, they must be shown no mercy. So a hundred or so get bumped off, and a few thousand wounded. They're only Arabs, after all. Leaving aside the possibility of any moral flaws in that policy, and any possible reasons the Arabs might have for their unreasonable attitudes, the truth behind the recent events was let slip by an Israeli official I heard on the National Bolshevik Radio show "Morning Edition." The Palestinians, he said, were engaging in a "guerrilla war of attrition" and a "war of independence." As I pointed out elsewhere on this site, that's the same thing our ungrateful terrorist ancestors perpetrated against their British benefactors — although, admittedly, they were better equipped for the job. They had guns. "Independence!" Nothing strikes more terror into the heart of the Establishment type, whether he's George the Third, Father Abe, or a New York City politician dealing with disgruntled Staten Islanders. And nothing provokes more vicious reprisals than people's attempts to obtain it. The British, at the time the highest expression of Western civilization, took care of the thousands of Indian soldiers who revolted against them in the great Indian Mutiny of 1857 by tying them over the muzzles of cannons and literally blowing them away. In the Philippines, American troops looted houses and shot dead Filipino prisoners of war and civilians. In a city called Malabon, they murdered every Filipino man, woman, and child. More recently, as the Soviet Empire was collapsing — surely one of the most salubrious events of the twentieth century — Bush the Elder remonstrated against what used to be called the "captive nations" for seeking their independence from the Russians! And now the Israelis assassinate Arabs. But the Israelis are learning what the Americans learned in the Philippines and Somalia, what the British learned in India, South Africa, and many other places, and what countless other regimes learned going back to ancient times. Forget Arafat and his supposed machinations. Sometimes, people just get fed up with being treated like animals, and then you've got a devil of a job beating them back into submission.

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:47 pm**

This really isnt rocket science. Israel is the axis of evils colonial mini me. I pity the Israelis as much as I pity any of the victims of Warmongering, fear, death and misery inflicted upon the human race as a whole, by those who consider themselves of Divine ancestry, or superior breeding, or whatever these strangely deluded people think that they are - You know the one - "The conspiracy that wasnt". This stuff all "just happened". Right ! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"> Meanwhile shame on all these so called 'superiors'. My sympathy to them too. But of course my heart goes out to the Palestinians in particular.

Posted: **Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:12 pm**

I'm amazed to see Palestinian genocide turned into a territorial squabble by sepka. Didn't expect that here and from someone who has posted many interesting things. As blindspots go I think that is the big one. I sincerely hope sepka sits down and considers that one.

rigorousintuition.ca

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The empires' Mini -me.

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