Palestine: Zionist troops murder three in Qalandiya refugee camp, including UN employee

Not in the mass disinformation media again. 

On August 26, colonial troops attacked the Qalandiya refugee camp, near Jerusalem, in full force, shooting live fire of illegal ammunition (dum-dum bullets, illegal since more than a century ago!) against the inhabitants who could barely hurl stones in self-defense. 

Three people were killed: Jihad Aslan (20), Younis Jahjouh (22) and Rubeen Abdulrahman Zayid (34, URWA worker). Other 18 people were injured, including five minors, 12 of them required surgery. 

The pretext for the aggression was a search for Yousef al-Khatib, who had been released from prison by the very same colonial authorities just weeks ago. They arrested a relative of al-Khatib by error, beating him badly while zip-cuffed and blindfolded. 

Al-Khatib was eventually arrested and they drove his relative back to the camp to identify him. I could barely recognize him. They had broken his nose and knocked out his teeth, and his hand was broken, he explained later. 

Al-Khatib is currently arrested without charges at the Ofer military prison.

The Zionist forces claimed that they were shot at but this is rejected by the witnesses. Yehya Mteir, relative of one of the deadly victims, said:

There was only one tear gas canister fired at the beginning and one at the end, but other than that, it was all live ammunition and dumdum bullets.

There were so many people in the streets because everyone was on the way to work; usually they come in while we’re asleep. The only means of fighting we had were rocks. We had no guns or Molotov cocktails, none of us.

Even such a tendentious organization as Human Right Watch admits this version of events:

All of the people we interviewed strongly denied that Palestinians shot [live ammunition], or said that they were not aware of it,” Bill Van Esveld, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Electronic Intifada. “If the Israeli military has evidence of this, they should make it public.”

UNRWA in turn explained what happened to their worker A. Zayid:

“We have nine independent eyewitness accounts which all confirm that he was unarmed, he was not involved in violence, not engaged in throwing stones, and yet he was shot with a bullet through the chest, no questions,” UNRWA spokesperson Gunness told The Electronic Intifada.

Similar reports exist regarding other victims: absolutely gratuitous murdering.

Source and more details: Electronic Intifada.

Syria announces that it will retaliate, if bombed, by flattening Israel in three hours

Damascus has become outspoken about what may happen if Obama actually does what he says (what is intrinsically unlikely) about bombing Syria. 

They have announced that they would launch a thousand missiles against "occupied Palestine" (they mean Israel in essence) in just three hours. 

That would be just the beginning because Syria has some 200,000 missiles. 

They also warned that making war to Syria would end up backfiring because the retaliation would reach the Western capitals themselves. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es], citing HispanTV. 

While they said nothing about other targets, the US military base of Incirlik in SE Turkey looks like a candidate target as well. I am not sure if Syrian missiles can reach other targets like the very ships of the 6th Fleet or the US bases in the Persian Gulf without being knocked down in the meantime, what is certain is that Iranian forces can, and can also close the Strait of Hormuz in a matter of hours without the USA being able to do anything about it.

It is unclear if the US aggression would spillover to the Gulf or even to Russia, which has sent ships to the area in an unmistakable signal of warning. If so it could well escalate to nuclear holocaust in no time. 

Sincerely, I think that Obama will let Congress veto him on this matter, exactly as Cameron did in London. They have tested the waters and it's quite clear that they are too deep and unsavory. Al Qaeda will have to look for some other place to mess with.

Palestinians defy ethnic cleansing with Galilee camp

From Electronic Intifada:

“This return is permanent” — refugees’ grandchildren defy Israel with Galilee camp

Patrick O. Strickland

22 August 2013

Iqrit village was depopulated and destroyed in 1951 but its youth vow to return.
(Ahmad Al-Bazz / ActiveStills)

Young people with family connections to Iqrit, an ethnically-cleansed village in the Galilee, assembled recently for a week-long “camp of return.”

According to organizers, more than 200 participants between eight and eighteen years old registered and attended the camp in Iqrit, which was destroyed by Israel’s military in 1951.

The village’s vibrant green hills — situated in the northern Galilee region of present-day Israel and hugging the boundary with Lebanon — are dotted with campers’ tents and the decaying rubble of demolished homes.

The “Camp of Return” has been held annually since 1996. For many years, its participants left Iqrit after only a week. Activists have, however, now decided to complement the annual camp with a constant presence in the village.

The camp was “a major success this year,” Nizar Ashkar, a 25-year-old Palestinian activist splitting his time between Jaffa and Iqrit, told The Electronic Intifada.

Over the past few years, campaigners have decided to take increasingly direct action towards realizing the right of return for Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians who were forced from their land and historic communities in present-day Israel.

In August 2012, approximately two dozen internally displaced youth from Iqrit, deciding Israel will never deliver justice on its own, took matters into their own hands and returned to their ancestral village.

According to Ashkar, “It was the first camp after the youth from the village decided to implement the right of return. It was a special camp in many ways, and so many people have learned about Iqrit in just a year.”

The camp was not limited to Iqrit’s refugees and their descendants: Palestinians from across present-day Israel, Jewish Israelis, and a handful of West Bank Palestinians who were able to obtain permits came to visit the camp throughout the week.

... continue reading at EI.

Palestine: prisoners in hunger strike quit even vitamins

From Uruknet (signed by humanitarian association Adameer):

Hunger Strikes Update: Hunger strikes escalate as prisoners stop taking supplementary vitamins and boycott the Prison Clinic.

  August 3, 2013 Ramallah - Despite the mounting pressure on the hunger strikers and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) attempts to isolate them, Addameer lawyers were able to gain access to two of the twelve prisoners who have reported that all of the hunger strikers detained in Ramleh clinic have stopped taking vitamin supplements and are threatening to boycott water if their demands are not met. They are currently also refusing medical examinations.

This most recent development is in light of the harsh conditions they are subjected to in the prison clinic, including denial of medical treatment, lack of humane treatment and isolation in dirty cells.

It should be emphasized that Addameer and other human rights organizations are consistently being denied access to the hunger striking prisoners, both from denied applications and by indirect means, such as transferring the prisoner to another location on the date of an approved visit. This week, Addameer had five approved visits to hunger strikers but was ultimately only allowed access to Ayman Tbeisheh and Husam Matar. The other prisoners were transferred without notice on the day of Addameer’s visit, thereby denying them their right to legal counsel and further isolating them from the outside world.

Ayman Tbeisheh, who has been on hunger strike for 70 days in protest of his administrative detention, is currently being held in desolate conditions in Ramleh clinic in a ward for infectious diseases. For over five weeks, he has been isolated in a soundproof 2x2 windowless cell with a mattress on the floor. According to Ayman, fellow hunger strikers Adel Hreibat, Mohammad Tbeisheh, Mohammad Rimawi, Husam Matar and Abdul Majeed Khdeirat were also held in similar conditions before their recent transfer. Ayman also confirmed that three of the Jordanian prisoners are held in another ward of the prison clinic, which houses prisoners with mental disorders.

The prisoners are subjected to increased pressure and threats by the IPS to end their hunger strikes. They have reported that they are continuously transferred to different cells, subjected to night inspections, not allowed clothing, sheets, family visits and any contact with others except for a one hour recreation period in the yard. Those who are on hunger strike in protest of administrative detention have been promised verbally that they will not receive a renewal order, but the IPS refuses to document the agreement in writing.

Husam Matar, who has been on hunger strike for 61 days was held briefly with Mohammad Rimawi before his transfer to an unknown location last week. Husam reported that Mohammad’s health is critical and his life is in danger. He is currently taking medicine for a lung infection and fungal infection resulting from his hunger strike as well as suffering from mineral deficiency.

Husam is also being held in appalling conditions; he is in a small, dirty cell filled with sewage water. The conditions are so filthy that he is unable to pray during the holy month of Ramadan. Husam suffers from previous medical issues such as neurological problems, and bone issues, and currently suffers from facial hair loss, bodily pains and dehydration as a result of his hunger strike.

The hunger strikers also confirmed to Addameer that Adel Hreibat is in critical condition, his pancreas and liver are failing and he has a lack of basic minerals in his blood, decreased heart rate, blood sugar and blood pressure. Addameer was denied visitation rights for Adel despite his dangerous and

life-threatening health condition.

Addameer again calls for immediate intervention from the international community including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union, to pressure Israel in the strongest manner possible to save the lives of all twelve hunger strikes.

Apartheid and genocide against Naqab Bedouins

That Israel is nothing but an Apartheid and Genocidal colonial regime in Palestine is well known, at least to me. But the Zionist hasbara (propaganda) machinery is powerful and well organized and they work hard to hide the facts and spread lies and convenient half-truths. For all these reasons it is important to now and then relearn the hard truths of the Zionist regime. 

In this case it is the so-called Prawler Plan, which intends to remove Bedouins (with status of Israeli citizens, for the record) from their lands and install them in urban slums in order to expand the Jewish control of the Naqab (Negev), which is about 1/3 of Palestine by extension (and therefore more than half what they usually call Israel: the Southern District of this entity has 14,000 km² while the internationally recognized Israel has just 20,000 km²). 

The spearhead of this and other genocidal racist colonization projects is the Jewish National Fund, a Zio-Nazi pseudo-charity dedicated to eradicate Palestinian Natives and plant trees or install Jewish settlements. For a time the JNF was part of the State of Israel, what handicapped its racist genocidal intent, not allowing in theory for racist discrimination. However the JNF is since 2007 again a private entity and therefore allowed under the Apartheid Israeli legislation, which clearly privileges Jews over Natives, to discriminate on grounds of ethnicity or faith. 

The following report by The Real News is a must-watch in order to understand what is going on:

Source: The Real News (via EI).

UN: Israel tortures children

... and abuses them in many other ways, including systematically using children as human shields, arresting them arbitrarily, etc.

Video by The Real News:

Palestine: military repression at Qaddom escalating

Among the continuous popular multiethnic resistance to the Apartheid Regime in Palestine (Israel) that goes on every week and every day in many different points of the country and for which you can get weekly information, for example at Ilan Against the Wall, but hardly at all in mainstream media, which clearly censor it, it must be emphasized this week the military repression increase in Qaddom. First person report:

Friday confrontations in Qaddom is escalating in recent weeks in a way that is beyond any previous "norm". Rampant military invasion of the village before the demonstration and during it as if possessed. It is the second week of army thugs occupation the village early morning entering long before the demonstration starts and makes havocs. Shoots in all directions into the houses, the mosque and the village center. Then returns to its camps or like today just lurk near by waiting to the demonstration to start just after the service.

In today demo marched more than two hundred fifty Palestinians, five Israelis and a similar number of international supporters. Even before we reached it the entrance from Khaja was already blocked with barricades set by the Shabab as precaution from of attack by the army from this direction as it did a few weeks ago (after its morning "visit" in the village.

The army entered the village and fired from two centers in the front of the village but much deeper than the position of the blocked road and the left side of the hill. They shot a plenty of a strengthed quantity gas - so terrible that a few people suffocated from gas inhalation.

During the demonstration, they arrested two Palestinian television media man. Suddenly, in the middle of the demonstration they began shooting a massive barrage of "rubber bullets" (do not forget these are really steel bullets coated with rubber).

From this "toy" of theirs four Palestinians were wounded: one injured in his finger nearly completely severed it - he was rushed to the hospital to save the finger; another was injured in his arm and stomach; another was wounded in the chest; and another "only" in the leg.

Then the army entered again the center of the village and covered it with a cloud of gas - literally nowhere to escape. It was so intense and without any restraint.

So much so that even though I'm a Jewish female they invited me to find refuge in the mosque...

→ video.


Also Bedouin homes demolitions continue in Al Akrib. Notice that Bedouins are legally "Israeli citizens" but that does not matter at all for the Apartheid Regime.

At Bil'in the regular anti-wall protest was this week more quiet than past ones, as apparently the soldiers were not in the lazy mood, it seems, permitting the protesters even to march through the "no man's land" only shooting some gas canisters when they reached the wall gate itself.

In the Jerusalem checkpoint of Beit Jala, a group of people demanded to be allowed to cross in order to pray in Al Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites of Islam. Soldiers blocked them and a prayer was held at the site of the checkpoint.

In Tel Aviv there were road blockades against privatizations and export of natural gas. A scratching action was held also against the Minister of the Treasury and bankster Ben Dov.

However the low level of interethnic solidarity showed up at Yafa, where a protest against Jewish gentrification of the largely Native city failed to get any support of the so-called J14 movement (a pathetic Judeocentric copycat youth movement). These however did hold a protest in Jerusalem against gas privatization.

Other protests were reported at Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Odai Qaddomi, Sheikh Jarrah, Toura, etc.

Source and more details at Ilan Against the Wall.

Saudi Arabia asks Israel to attack Syria

The Machiavellic leader of all Islamist Fascist groups, the Theocratic Dictator of Saudi Arabia, has asked formally, albeit secretly, to the Genocide and Apartheid Regime in Palestine (Israel) to attack Syria, according to Al Manar (reflected by Webguerrillero[es]). 

In the secret diplomatic note the Saudi Theocrats would have asked Israel to keep sending weapons to the Islamist Fascist terrorist groups in Syria, where they seem to be losing the war by moments. Almost simultaneously, a conference of Islamist Theocracies, so-called "Friends of Syria", met in Qatar (whose "illustrated" dictator owns Al Jazeera), where they issued a communication emphasizing the urgency of sending weapons to the Islamist terrorist in Syria, while babbling about the need of a "political solution".

UK planned the Syrian war years ago, admitted Roland Dumas

Former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roland Dumas (pictured), has revealed that the government of the United Kingdom, lead by David 'Babyface' Cameron. 

In declarations to LCP TV channel (widely quoted through World media thereafter), Dumas declared that:

I was in England, for an unrelated reason, two years before the violence in Syria began. I met with high British officials who confessed that they were preparing something in Syria.

This was in Great Britain, not the United States. Great Britain was preparing a rebel invasion of Syria. They even asked me, even if I was not anymore Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to take part in it.

He also implied that the violence in the West Asian country was related to the anti-Zionist stand of the government of Damascus. In this regard, he also declared that Israel had admitted that they would try to destroy every single government in the region that does not collaborate with the Apartheid Regime.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Palestine: Bedouin genocide by Zionist Regime increases

The Bedouin village of Atir-Umm al-Hieran, not far from Bir al Saba (Beersheva), has been destroyed again by the Zionist Regime, the Apartheid and Genocide Colonial Regime in Palestine. However this time it has been more brutal than ever before: all olive trees uprooted, every single home demolished, even the rubble, including all the belongings of the Palestinian Natives was taken away...

Oh, they are "Israeli citizens" on paper. But does it matter? Not at all. The Zionist Regime does not recognize their villages nor land claims, does not provide water nor electricity to them and regularly demolishes their homes. Still 30% of the population of the Negev, they are being forcibly relocated to small crowded urban settlements, totally unrelated with their traditional way of life, in a genocidal design known as Prawler Plan, condemned by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, as well as by Amnesty International, and not even formally approved by the Apartheid legal bodies yet (should be voted on May 27th). 

However the Native Palestinians seem determined to remain in their lands no matter what. According to Abu Ras:

“People are insisting on staying in their lands. They can demolish their houses, but they will stay on the land.”

Source: Electronic Intifada.

Nakba infograph

Very informative: at Electronic Intifada.