Gaza war crimes report

Gaza war crimes report and what's been in the news the past two months...


So a run down on news in Palestine. There's always too much to digest, but when the world notices and makes a report of Israel's war crimes I feel it's always a positive.


👉First, a new film. 1949: Creation and Catastrophe
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/02/last-eyewitnesses-nakba/


👉February 2019 - any time war crimes are officially pointed out, I am here for it. There will be no adverse effects for the criminals, but at least it is being recorded - this time.
UN Investigators Call For Arrests Over Gaza War Crimes

UN says Israel's killings at Gaza protests may amount to war crimes


👉Two ads in the Israel elections that seem to say the quiet part loud and incite violence:

First ad -- 
 https://t.co/s8Y4Oziw75

And the shooting one -- with video 😥😤
Jewish Lawmaker Shoots Dead Arab Colleague in Campaign Video; Complaint Filed
👉March 2019 - continued terrorizing of peaceful protesters
Palestinian shot, injured as Israeli army attacks peaceful Kufr Qaddoum protests


👉Israel's need for self-defense just doesn't hold up.
'Endless Trip to Hell': Israel Jails Hundreds of Palestinian Boys a Year. These Are Their Testimonies
"A report a year earlier from British legal experts concluded that the conditions the Palestinian children are subjected to amount to torture, and just five months ago the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe deplored Israel’s policy of arresting underage children, declaring, “An end must be put to all forms of physical or psychological abuse of children during arrest, transit and waiting periods, and during interrogations.”"


👉Susan Abulhawa's social media feed brought this one to my attention. Maybe it's as a result of the Ilhan Omar issue where she called out the US bias and AIPAC lobby group's stranglehold on American politics and was wrongly derided as being anti-Semitic.

Israel’s Stranglehold on American Politics
"The Israel lobby’s buying off of nearly every senior politician in the United States, facilitated by our system of legalized bribery, is not an anti-Semitic trope."


👉Saying the quiet parts loud. Israel isn't a state for all its citizens - only for Jews. We all knew that. Now we can fight apartheid and get rights for all equally?  Right?

Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is ‘not a state of all its citizens’


👉Somewhat related to the previous link, the US Trump administration recognized Israeli soverignty over the land they stole in Syria although they have no authority to do so.
Trump says US will recognize Israel's sovereignty over Golan Heights

And of course some in the apartheid state would like to make the apartheid official and have the US declare the West Bank the property of Israel, also contravening international law.
Israel MK calls for Trump to recognise Israel’s annexation of West Bank


👉Daily acts of violence and injustice against Palestinians
Two Palestinian Families Forced by Israeli Authority to Demolish Their Homes

Can US senators outlaw support for BDS movement?

5 Myths About Israel Boycotts That Every Theater Lover Should Consider

http://forward.com/scribe/377463/5-myths-about-israel-boycotts-that-every-theater-lover-should-consider/


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U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-criminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/


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The First Amendment Protects the Right to Boycott Israel
https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/first-amendment-protects-right-boycott-israel



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This guy says don't worry about that outlawing BDS thing because who knows what they're really about anyway?


Indeed, the BDS movement is highly disingenuous about this very ambiguity, refusing to define exactly what it is for and what it’s against. Is the BDS movement against Israel’s occupation, or against Israel’s existence? Is it for two states, or one state? By refusing to clarify its aims, refusing to condemn terrorism, and refusing to silence the anti-Semites within its ranks, the BDS movement has left itself open to the right-wing charge that its anti-Zionism is merely repackaged anti-Semitism.


Pay No Mind To The Fake Ruckus About a Phony Israel Anti-Boycott Law

http://www.thedailybeast.com/pay-no-mind-to-the-fake-ruckus-about-a-phony-israel-anti-boycott-law

Occu-mation: Closed Zone and A Land in Fragments

This is something I've linked to before, but couldn't find it, then found it again. Anyway, it's educational and entertaining.

 

"Closed Zone": 90 animated seconds on the closure of Gaza  

http://www.closedzone.com  

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AFSC 

Israel-Palestine: A Land in Fragments

2-minute video 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewF7AXn3dg

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New book- 'suicide terrorism due to occupation'. Go figure. And Israel's child abuse.

Wow. Accounts of Israel electrocuting children and threatening them with rape. Some people can't fathom why people would commit a suicide bombing. I'd submit that it could start there. I mean, when you're brutalized (beaten, threatened with rape, family's home vandalized, etc) by a foreign military power from the age of 12 for waving or throwing stones or walking down the "wrong road," one could easily get a sense that there will be no hope and no justice. Ever. Doe this treatment automatically get better when they turn 18? No, it's worse. Since they're adults, Israel can get away with some degree of mistreatment. They get away with it for the kids, so one can only imagine what happens to adults.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/israel-shooting-and-electric-shocking.html


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And on a related note, here is a guy who now has evidence for the theory I bought into ("It's The Occupation, Stupid" as the saying goes) rather than the "Muslims want to kill us all" explanation for terrorism.

Understanding Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It
NPR, Talk of the Nation, October 11, 2010
http://news.wvpubcast.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=130492404

murder in Israel, scholarships revoked, Rachel Ray the terrorist, links

Pipe bombs or cell phone- Can you tell the difference? Israeli soldiers can’t.

http://www.mahsanmilim.com/fahmi_aldardukE.htm

This story makes you wonder how many more like this incident occur that we don’t hear about…

This boy was on a cell phone with a headset at a checkpoint and was shot several times. Israel officially maintains that the boy was a suicide bomber armed with pipe bombs with wires visible. The headlines in Israel for this were that an attack was “thwarted”. Other Israeli reports indicated the incident was an “accident”.

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Israel and the US punish the type of people they claim they want running a new Palestinian state.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/world/middleeast/30gaza.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The New York Times
May 30, 2008
U.S. Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Gaza
By ETHAN BRONNER

Irresponsible moves like this contradict our peace rhetoric. Israel’s interests seem to trump our own in a variety of ways. This is merely one example. Why are we making moderate hardworking Palestinians pay for the crimes of extremists?? Perhaps this is why we don’t hear the voices of moderates (or so the neocons say); they are drowned out by the media recording our and Israel’s tunnel vision that’s focused only on extremists. We refuse to question Israel’s policies, even when they are in opposition to our interests or just plain absurd. Israel tells these students to change their government and then we’ll let you travel, trade, and eat. This is like telling a man stuck in a deep well to climb out and then we’ll give you a rope. Absurd, but why change? It’s been policy for so long…


Let the responsible parties know that you insist that the Fulbright scholarships be reinstated, and that Israel be pressed to allow the awardees to travel:

Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board Chair
Ms. Shirley Moore Green 202.453.8189 greenm@state.gov

Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs
Political Affairs Office
Matthew Rosenstock (202) 647-1481 rosentstockms@state.gov

Deputy Secretary of State for Visa Services
Stephen A. "Tony" Edson (202) 647-9584 tonye@state.gov

My letter:
Dear Ms Green,

I was outraged and extremely disappointed to hear that you are revoking the scholarships earned by 7 deserving Palestinian students.

The US claims to support a two state solution, academic freedom, and moderate Arabs. This refusal to help these Palestinians get to the US to study flies in the face of all these noble goals. Support for Israel is popular in the US, but we really need to re-examine our unconditional support, especially when it interferes with our national interests. It is in our best interest to get these moderate, educated Palestinians to the US to study so that they can help build a Palestinian state, learn about our democratic system, and so we can encourage moderate political discourse in the region.

What's more, Israeli officials claimed to be surprised to find that these students received scholarships and couldn't get to the US and were having the earned scholarships revoked. It just feels like we didn't even try to persue any dialogue with Israel on this issue of students leaving Gaza. Even if it is your policy to leave the travel arrangements up to students alone, this is a special case that warrants intervention as it is well known that Gaza is under lock down and conditions in Palestinian areas are difficult in every aspect of life to say the least.

Please make an effort to get these 7 students to the US and to give future students freedom of movement.


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Rachel Ray’s a Terrorist!

This shouldn’t even be an issue. Rachel Ray wore a paisley scarf for a Dunkin Donuts ad. Far right or neocon bloggers complained that it looked like a keffiyeh and henceis a symbol of terrorism. At first DD just stated the facts, that the scarf has no meaning and is paisley and was chosen by a stylist, then they pulled the ad under pressure of a right wing boycott. A) It wasn’t a keffiyeh and B) the Palestinian scarf isn’t a symbol of terrorism (all Arabs aren’t terrorists).

And I thought Ann Coulter was an idiot…
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/28/the-keffiyeh-kerfuffle/

This guy has it right. He points out that she wrote a book supporting internment, so that should discredit her as far as rational thought goes.
http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2008/06/keffiyeh-pseudo-controversy-blogger.html

The head of marketing at Dunkin Donuts is Frances Allen; her e-mail address is frances.allen@dunkinbrands.com

The Dunkin Donuts Customer Care service line: (800) 859-5339. Be patient calling this number, it takes some time to get through.

You can e-mail your concerns to customerservice@dunkinbrands.com or send a letter to:

Dunkin' Donuts Public Relations Department
130 Royall Street
Canton, MA 02021
Tel: 781.737.5200

My letter:
Dear Ms Allen,

I was encouraged to hear you dispel the rumor that Rachel Ray was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh.

Then, I was amazed and miffed that you would cave to the extreme far right fearmongers in this country who want us to believe that all Arabs are terrorists. I thought we had come farther in our understanding of Arab culture, but that is apparently not the case. This is aside from the fact that Ray was not actually wearing a hijab, headdress, Arab scarf, etc at all.

I am extremely disappointed because I love Dunkin Donuts (until now), but I regret that you have made a political decision to side with fearmongers and promote fear of Arabs and Islamophobia and so me and anyone that I and many organizations contact will not be buying anything Dunkin Donuts. You could have stuck to your guns (scarf was paisley) and stayed above the fray (remain apolitical), but you didn't.


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Archbishop Tutu meets devastated Gaza family
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/archbishop-tutu-meets-devastated-gaza-family-835867.html

Jimmy Carter for the first time exposes Israel as having 150 nuclear weapons
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/987703.html

Body of 15 year old Palestinian boy found mutilated in Israeli settlement
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m43179&hd=&size=1&l=e

Israeli occupation forces continue the economic genocide
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/05/27/eighteen-years-of-work-destroyed-in-less-than-four-hours/

Palestinian Suffering Dampens Israel Celebration by Bessy Reyna
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-reyna0516.artmay16,0,3405837.column

Sixty Years of Dispossession, Humiliation, and Oppression in the Middle East by Susan Abulhawa
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/05/14/02348.html

Dancing on graves – Israel celebrates 60 years
http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=1

Two-state solution. Consider it.

The Myth of International Consensus

By KATHLEEN CHRISTISON

http://www.counterpunch.org/christison01242008.html