PALESTINA/IZRAEL:
Life and Death - The Tank Man and Rachel Corrie (video)
The court decision in Israel, which exonerated the driver of a huge bulldozer in the death of activist Rachel Corrie, recalls a previous confrontation between man and machine - the 1989 stance of a Chinese citizen before a tank squadron moving toward Tiananmen Square. Chronologically and physically displaced, these two events have similar characteristics - one person preventing mayhem by standing firm before those who are prepared to cause violence against others - identical beginnings, different endings - one ending with a smile and relief; the other ending with declamation and grief.
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Disciplinary hearing for Border Police officer who kicked a nine year old boy (video)
Disciplinsko saslušanje za pograničnog policajca koji je nogom udario 9-godišnjeg dječaka (video) (26. kolovoz 2012.)
Odjel za istragu policijskog postupanja pri izraelskom ministarstvu pravosuđa obavijestio je izraelsku organizaciju za ljudska prava B'Tselem da je odlučio pokrenuti disciplinski postupak zbog „nezakonite uporabe sile“ protiv jednog pograničnog policajca koji je snimljen kako nogom udara 9-godišnjeg palestinskog dječaka. Odjel je odlučio da neće podizati kaznenu optužnicu protiv policajca. 29. lipnja 2012. jedan je volonter B'Tselema video kamerom snimio izraelskog pograničnog policajca kako kod Groba patrijarha u Hebronu nogom udara jednog palestinskog školarca, dok ga jedan drugi policajac sputava. B'Tselem je snimku objavio 2. srpnja 2012, a zatim su je preuzeli mnogi mediji, što je dovelo do službene reakcije i ovaj problem iznijelo pred oči javnosti. Svjedočanstva koje je prikupio B'Tselem otkrila su da je ovo bio drugi put u manje od mjesec dana da su pogranični policajci napali istog dječaka. Nakon objave snimke Odjel za istragu policijskog postupanja obavijestio je B'Tselem da je otvorena kriminalna istraga i da će osumnjičeni policajci biti odmah ispitani, a mediji su objavili da je zapovjednik pogranične policije naredio okupljanje specijalnog tima koji će istražiti incident. Odjel za istragu policijskog postupanja ispitao je i žrtvu policijskog nasilja i volontera koji je snimio incident u policijskoj postaji u Kiryat Arbi.
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Eitan Bronstein: The Nakba - an event that did not occur (although it had to occur)
In March 2004 a memorial event was held near the 'Cinema City' (Hertzeliya) for the Palestinian village of Ijlil which had existed at the site until 1948. Its inhabitants fled upon hearing of massacres committed against Palestinians by Zionist forces in the area. A detailed report about the village, its uprooting and the fate of its refugees, was published in the local paper 'Sharon Times' on the occasion of the memorial. One week later the same paper published a letter to the editor written by a reader who was outraged at the paper for "providing a stage (...) to some Arabs who claim to have once lived on the site of the recently constructed, magnificent Cinema City." An educator working in Natanya was surprised to hear from high school students that, "before the Jews there were the British in the country." These are two rather incidental examples for the denial of the Palestinian Nakba by Jews in Israel. While it would certainly be possible to find even stronger examples, there appears to be no need for proof of the argument that the Jewish public in Israel denies the occurrence of the Nakba. The Nakba denial is found in the geography and the history taught in schools, on the maps of the country and in the signs marking places on its surface. All of them ignore almost completely the event which made possible the establishment of the Jewish State as a state with a Jewish majority and a Palestinian minority, after the majority of the indigenous people of the country were evicted, their properties destroyed and/or confiscated for the benefit of the new state.
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From the children of Gaza: Samouni Street (video) (Arabic/English)
Tortured in broad daylight: Israel police repeatedly electrocute handcuffed Palestinian father - video
Mučenje usred bijela dana: izraelska policija snimljena kako električnim pištoljem napada već svladanog i vezanog Palestinca - video (24. kolovoz 2012.)
Na YouTube-u je objavljena snimka koja prikazuje izraelsku policiju kako uzastopno na očigled užasnutih ljudi bespomoćnog Palestinca napada elektrošokerom u jednom vodenom parku u Tel Avivu. Žrtva, 42-godišnji Talal Siad, previja se na zemlji u agoniji dok uniformirani izraelski policajci izravno u njega ispaljuju oružje koje nalikuje na elektrošoker. Niti u jednom trenutku na snimci Siad ne predstavlja opasnost ni za koga. Siad je napadnut jer se usprotivio grubom postupanju policije prema drugim Palestincima u parku. Incident se odigrao 21. kolovoza oko 10:30 sati prije podne kad su Siad i njegova obitelj, te nekoliko drugih obitelji iz četvrti al-Tur u istočnom okupiranom Jeruzalemu otišli u park kako bi proslavili Ramazanski bajram koji obilježava kraj ramazana. Siad je policiji prigovorio kad je vidio kako velik broj policajaca zlostavlja jednog palestinskog mladića prskajući ga paprenim sprejom i napadajući ga elektrošokovima iz blizine. Žene i djecu iz Jeruzalema prestravio je napad na Siada, kao i židovsku djecu i njihove obitelji koje su preklinjale policiju da prekine napad koji se odvijao pred očima djece. Siad je uvjeren da izraelskoj policiji život palestinskog stanovnika Jeruzalema ne znači ništa i da bi ga ubili da se incident nije odigrao naočigled sviju prisutnih u vodenom parku. 11. lipnja 2010. usred bijela dana ubijen je Ziad Jilani, masovnom pucnjavom izraelske okupacijske policije u istočnom okupiranom Jeruzalemu, kad se vraćao kući nakon molitve kako bi sa svojom ženom Amerikankom i 3 kćerima proveo dan na plaži. Prema pisanju izrealskog lista Haaretz „elektrošokeri bi trebali pomoći policajcima da svladaju sumnjivce dok im ne budu stavljene lisice na ruke, a nakon tog trenutka uporaba tog oružja je zabranjena. No snimke dokazuju da su policajci nastavili koristiti elektrošoker protiv Siada pred drugim kupačima čak i nakon što su mu ruke bile vezane i nakon što više nije mogao ugroziti niti jednog od njih“.
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Looting, Looting, and More Looting
After a while the Custodian himself began to distribute the confiscated property. To begin with, Shafrir later reported, goods, materials and equipment were turned over to the army, directly from the stores in the occupied towns. Merchandise which the army did not require was put up for sale. The sale was conducted by special departments instituted for the purpose, staffed, as much as war conditions allowed, by personnel trained in the principal branches of commerce. Other merchandise was sold through negotiation with merchants or industrialists, depending on the type of materials. "The army had the first choice of any goods and materials it might require," Shafrir said. "Next were the government offices, the war disabled, the Jewish Agency, the local authorities and public bodies, such as Hadassah." The army also needed most of the workshop equipment such as cabinet-making shops, locksmiths-works, turneries, iron-works, tin-works and the like. Industrial plants which could be operated on their existing sites were leased out by contract, "whenever possible," according to Shafrir. Plants which no one wanted to lease were sold to the highest bidder.
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British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine
164. Jewish agricultural colonisation during the past sixty years owes much to the pioneering of the late Baron Edmund de Rothschild whose activities date back to 1883. Since then some 450,000 dunums of land have been acquired either by him or the Association and they have established some forty settlements with a population of over 50,000. It is estimated that about £P.15 million were expended by Baron de Rothschild and the P.I.C.A. in agricultural colonisation. The basic idea of the Rothschild system was to create a class of farmers who, as owners of their farmsteads, would constitute a peasant class rooted and attached to the soil. ... 168. The Jewish National Fund was established in 1901 and by the end of 1918 had purchased some 16,000 dunums of land on which five settlements had been established. It was not until after the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that the Fund found the means of raising larger sums which enabled it thereafter to acquire considerable areas year by year. By 1944 these areas aggregated 750,000 dunums by purchase and 8,100 dunums by concessions or long term leases from the Palestine Government. 169. The object of the Jewish National Fund is to acquire land to be held in perpetuity as the inalienable property of the Jewish people and to lease it for agriculture and urban development. ... 170. The total area acquired by Jews by purchase is 1,556,700 dunums; concessions from the Palestiine Government amount to a further 174,600 dunums, making the total of 1,731,300 dunums given in table 4. This total area of Jewish land represents 6.6% of the total area of Palestine.
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Places
Baza podataka o palestinskim mjestima uništenim tijekom Nakbe 1948.
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The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: George Galloway Interviews Israeli Historian Ilan Pappe (audio)
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (11-17 Oct. 2012)
During the reporting period, 5 Palestinians were killed, 2 of whom were extra-judicially executed. Furthermore, 5 Palestinians were wounded, including 2 children, in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, 2 Palestinian civilians, including a child, sustained bruises, while dozens of Palestinians suffered from tear gas inhalation while participating in peaceful demonstrations against the annexation wall. In the Gaza Strip, IOF extra-judicially executed 2 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. On 13 October 2012, Israeli warplanes launched a missile on a motorcycle ridden by 2 Palestinians on Mas'oud Street in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, one of them was killed immediately, while the other died 3 hours later. A child who was in the vicinity of the attack was wounded and the windows of 2 houses in the area were broken. The glass door of a nearby pharmacy was also smashed. IOF acknowledged that they had carried out the attack; an Israeli military spokesperson was quoted as saying that 2 members of Global Jihad had been targeted. On the same day, an Israeli warplane launched a missile at an olive grove, east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. 17 olive trees were uprooted and the missile left a big hole in the ground. In addition, 5 houses were partially damaged. Mohammed Ahmed Ahmed Abdul Salam, 12, was sleeping in his home nearby, and sustained minor bruising on his right leg from flying rubble. On 14 October 2012, IOF carried out the willful killing of a member of Palestinian resistance, when Israeli warplanes attacked 2 men on their motorcycle in al-Fokhari area, southeast of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip. The second man was wounded in the attack. On the same day, IOF carried out the willful killing of two other members of Palestinian resistance, when Israeli warplanes targeted 3 men on farming lands in Wadi al-Salqa village, southeast of Deir al-Balah, the central Gaza Strip. Two men were killed and the third was wounded. Similar shelling incidents resulted in damage to a number of civilian objects.
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SAD:
IVAW and Afghans for Peace Lead Historic March on NATO: Veterans Hurl Global War on Terror Medals towards NATO Summit As Thousands Cheer (video)
