IDF chief: Dahariya incident to be taught in commanders' training

IDF chief: Dahariya incident to be taught in commanders' training
Last update - 00:00 16/08/2007
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent


Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Tuesday decided that the lessons of the incident in Dahariya last month, in which IDF troops shot a Palestinian civilian without justification, would be taught in all IDF commanders' training courses.
Ashkenazi is still considering taking harsher measures against those involved in the affair.

After a summarizing briefing on the incident, the chief of staff said Tuesday that the rampage had exposed serious problems in the IDF's command norms as well as grave failures in the professional and operational aspects.

Ashkenazi said he views with grave severity the incident in which a platoon commander and his troops, who were conducting a routine patrol in the West Bank, kidnapped a Palestinian taxi driver at gunpoint, tied him up, and drove through Dahariya as if they were undercover.

During the drive, one of the soldiers shot a Palestinian man who aroused the commander's suspicion, wounding him moderately. The soldiers then left the town, leaving the man behind without attending to him, and never reported the incident to anyone.

When Palestinian reports of the incident reached the IDF, the soldiers gave a false account of the events.

The commander of the platoon has been indicted for his role in the incident.

How 700 settlers wrecked a town of 150,000 Palestinians

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com HEBRON, West Bank -- The barrier Israel is constructing in the largely rural West Bank is effectively separating Arab from Jew along much of its 456-mile length. But the broader project of disentangling the two peoples in the absence of a peace agreement is failing in urban areas such as Hebron, where the most radical elements of Islamic and Jewish nationalism are gaining strength. Within Hebron, the separation is enforced not only by Israeli barriers but also by military checkpoints and curfews intended to protect the roughly 700 Jewish settlers living within the city's most historic and religiously important areas. Securing the small Jewish minority has a potent impact on the lives of the city's 150,000 Arabs,

International observers here say the settlers regularly toss debris and dirty water into the Arab market below, now largely shuttered in a city where unemployment stands at 60 percent. Asked whether Arabs and Jews can share Hebron, Maraga, his hair and beard a gray fuzz, looked up at the chain-link canopy.

Hemmed in and harassed, the Palestinians are fleeing today. Nearly half the homes in and around the Israeli-controlled Old City of Hebron have been vacated, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem recently reported. The group also said that more than three-quarters of the Palestinian shops and restaurants in the casbah and adjacent commercial districts have been shuttered, many by military order.

Via Marx Sawicky.

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Ramzy Baroud: Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine

Ramzy Baroud: Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine

While Bush may be calling for peace conferences, the US policy of unequivocal bias towards Israel and attacking all that defend Arab and Palestinian rights is as firm as ever.

By Ramzy Baroud
Special to PalestineChronicle.com

The Hamas government crackdown on Mohamed Dahlan's corrupt security forces and affiliated gangs in the Gaza Strip in June appears to mark a turning point in the Bush administration's foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel. The supposed shift, however, is nothing but a continuation of Washington's efforts to stifle Palestinian democracy, to widen the chasm separating Hamas and Fatah, and to ensure the success of the Israeli project, which is focussed on colonising and annexing what remains of Palestinian land.

It's vital that we keep this seemingly obvious reality at the forefront of any political discussion dealing with the conflict: the occupied Palestinian territories represent a mere 22 per cent of historic Palestine. Currently, Israel is on a quest to reduce this even further by officially conquering the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Gaza is only relevant to this issue insofar as it represents a golden opportunity to divide Palestinians further, to confuse their national project and to present a grim picture of them as an unruly people who cannot be trusted as peace partners to the far more civilised and democratic Israelis.

By prolonging Gazan strife, thus the Palestinian split, Israel will acquire the time required to consolidate its colonial project, and to further rationalise its unilateral policies vis-à-vis matters that should, naturally, be negotiated with the Palestinians.

Moreover, one must not lose sight of the regional context. The Israeli lobby and its neo- conservative allies in the US administration and in the media are eager for a military showdown with Iran, which would weaken Syria's political standing in any future negotiation with Israel in regards to the occupied Golan Heights, and which would obliterate the military strength of Hizbullah, proven to be the toughest enemy Israel has ever faced in its decades-long conflict with the Arabs.

Thus, its was of paramount importance for Hamas's "rise" to be linked directly to its relations with Iran; such ties, although greatly exaggerated, are now readily used as a rationale to explain Bush's seemingly historic move from backing Israel from a discreet distance (so as not to appear too involved) to initiating an international peace conference aimed solely at isolating Hamas, which would further weaken the Iranian camp in the Middle East.

It also explains the abundant support offered by autocratic Arab regimes to Abbas, and Arab leaders' warnings about the rise of an Iranian menace. On the one hand, eliminating Hamas would send an unambiguous message to their own political Islamists; on the other, it's a message to Iran to back off from a conflict that has long been seen as exclusively Arab-Israeli. The irony is that to ensure the relevance of the Arab role in the conflict, some Arabs are making historic moves to normalise with Israel, and in return for nothing.

Similarly, to ensure its own relevance, Abbas's Fatah is actively coordinating with Israel to destroy its formidable opponent, which represents the great majority of Palestinians in the occupied territories and arguably abroad. For this, assistance is required: money to ensure the loyalty of his followers, weapons to oppress his opponents, political validation to legitimise himself as a world leader, and new laws to de-legitimise the legal, democratic process that produced the Hamas victory of January 2006. In a conflict that is known for its agonisingly slow movement, nothing short of a miracle can explain how Abbas received all of these perks at an astronomical speed.

The moment Abbas declared his arguably unconstitutional emergency government, the suffocating sanctions were lifted -- or more accurately, on the West Bank only. To ensure that no aid reaches anyone who defies his regime, Abbas's office revoked the licences of all NGOs operating in Palestine, making it necessary for them to submit new applications. Those loyal to Abbas are in. The rest are out.

Weapons and military training have also arrived in abundance. Palestinians who have been denied the right to defend themselves, and for decades described as "terrorist", are suddenly the recipients of many caches of weapons coming from all directions. Israel announced a clemency to Fatah militants; the freedom fighters turned gangsters will no longer defend their people against Israeli brutality, but will be used as a militant arm ready to take on Hamas when the time comes.

As for regional and international legitimacy, the Bush administration "decided" to change its policy to one of direct engagement, calling for an international Middle East peace conference. The conference will be about peace in name only, for it will not deal with any of the major grievances of the Palestinians that have fuelled the conflict for years, such as the problem of refugees, Jerusalem and the drawing of borders. Israel is of course willing to "concede" if these efforts will reframe the conflict as exclusively Palestinian, and as long as there is no objection to its illegal annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The reality is that there has been no change in American foreign policy regarding Palestine. The US, Israel and a few Arab regimes are pursuing the same old policy, which is merely being adjusted to fit the new political context.

While Abbas and his men might bask in the many bonuses they are receiving in exchange for their role in destroying the Palestinian national project, the future will prove that Israel's "goodwill gestures", the support of the Israeli lobby in Washington, and the latter's generosity will not last. Abbas could as easily find himself a prisoner in the basement of his own presidential compound, just like his predecessor, if he dares assert the legitimate rights of his people, by far the ultimate losers in this shameless battle.

-Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in numerous newspapers and journals worldwide, including the Washington Post, Al Ahram Weekly and Le Monde Diplomatique. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website: ramzybaroud.net

'Masterful prose - a scathing but heartfelt portrait.' Norman G. Finkelstein The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle By Ramzy Baroud

IDF Extra-Judicially Executes Palestinian After Arresting Him

clipped from www.pchrgaza.ps On Tuesday afternoon, 17 April 2007, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially executed a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (an armed wing of Fatah movement) near Jenin town in the northern West Bank. IOF shot him dead after having arrested him. Two IOF soldiers got out of the vehicle and intercepted a Palestinian car that was traveling in the area. The driver got out of the car with his hands up. The two soldiers moved towards him, and one of them kicked him to the abdomen. The driver fell on his back. The two soldiers then carried him and then left him hitting a tree at the roadside. When he fell onto the ground, one of the IOF soldiers moved towards him and shot him dead to the head and the abdomen from a zero range. The victim was later identified as Ashraf Mahmoud ‘Aaref Hanaisha, 24, from Qabatya village near Jenin. IOF claim that he was wanted.

Report: Jews behind campaign to boycott Israel

“What we are asking for is not violent. It is civil action against a military occupation.”

“It really isn’t good enough to attack the messenger as anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew rather than deal with the message that Israel’s conduct is unacceptable.”

clipped from www.ynetnews.com Jewish Chronicle investigation reveals Jewish, Israeli academics justify their activity as part of struggle for Palestinian rights, ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories Hagit Klaiman Published: 06.15.07, 14:04 / Israel News Many of the key players in the escalating British campaign to boycott Israel are Jewish or Israeli, the Jewish Chronicle revealed in an investigation published Thursday. According to the investigation, the Jewish academics justify their stance as part of the struggle for Palestinian rights and ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. The report stated that a high proportion of the academics were deeply involved in UCU, the University and College Union, which last month sparked an international outcry by voting to facilitate a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for the Boycotting of Israeli Goods, and Bricup, the British Committee for Universities of Palestine.

Prisoner loses eye. Medical help refused!

"Palestinian Prisoner loses eye during interrogation in Israeli detention camp"

Kidnapped...tortured...refused medical help...other eye...pay for release.

Red Cross?
Hippocratic oath ?

clipped from www.imemc.org During the interrogation the Israeli secret police tortured him heavily for a sustained period of time. After telling the authorities that he had an eye problem, the interrogators hit his damaged eye in attempt to force a confession from him The Israeli detention camp administration refused him medical help until his situation became critical, after which he was moved to a military hospital for treatment. In the hospital, doctors refused to give him the proper medical help and instead issued him only with pain killers. When he complained, the staff threatened that they would damage his other eye also. After a month of this, the former prisoner lost his left eye. Dabaya was released several days ago. Dabaya, 24, who spent 25 months in the Israeli detention camp known as Btaah Tikva, paid a fee of 2000 NIS in order to get out of detention camp. He was kidnapped by the Israeli army while he was going to the city of Jericho were he works as a security officer in the Palestinian Authority.

Israel conducts ‘human shield‘ probe

clipped from www.localnewsleader.com Military police are investigating a high-ranking West Bank commander on suspicion his troops used Palestinian civilians as human shields in violation of an Israeli Supreme Court order banning the practice, military officials said. investigators want to determine how much Golan knew, and whether he explicitly authorized the practice. Golan is commander of the army‘s West Bank division. the case was reported in several Israeli newspapers Wednesday. In a landmark 2005 decision, Israel ‘s Supreme Court banned the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields in general, and specifically outlawed taking Palestinian civilians on searches. Since the Supreme Court decision, Palestinians have accused the army of continuing the practice, but proof was elusive spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B‘Tselem, said the new reports that the investigation is targeting senior officers was an encouraging sign the army is taking the matter seriously. complaints have been denied or dismissed

"They shoot children, do they?" Arab children!

Her gesture in worrying about her mother, about not wanting to cause a beloved parent any grief was partly genuine, and partly an attempt to distract herself from the fact that she knew something terrible had just happened to her. Indeed a child’s sweetness knows no bounds, irrespective of where such a child can be found in the world.

As she lie in a bath of her own warm blood that increased with each passing second, while frantic adults attempt to effect that which they know is futile, all she can think is that her mother must be worried, and how she wishes she could be home with her now, if only for enough time to give her one final embrace, tell her of a daughter’s love, and to say goodbye.

Sweets, an indispensable part of any child’s life, even in places that have been torn apart by warfare for the last century

Mona grew up in a world of bullets and mortars, allowed the carelessness of her childhood to overpower her reason just enough to persuade her towards venturing f

clipped from crescentandcross.wordpress.com Independence Day “I have to get home to my mother, she will be so worried if I am not back soon.” 9 year-old Mona clutched at the gaping hole in her stomach, blood pouring out of her as if someone had turned on a faucet. There was something so terribly and indescribably out of place in her frail words, the colliding of two disparate worlds, that of a mother’s child, and that of a little girl facing down the ugliest of what life and humanity had to offer. The man who was kneeling at her side however knew better. He was a trained medical professional, and in a war zone known as Gaza of all places. He had seen this scenario a thousand times before, and a thousand times too many as far as he was concerned. This child would not be going home, at least not her earthly home, given the fact that she had just been shot in the stomach at close range by a soldier wielding a machine gun, the bullets from which produced exit wounds on her tiny body that were as large as golf balls.

To boycott or not - the new Israeli question

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Pressure for sanctions on Israeli goods is widening. Forty years after the Six-Day War, unions, academics and journalists are locked in furious debate about the tactic. at one of Israel's major road junctions, in a silent vigil, carrying a placard that says simply: 'Stop the occupation.' Those in her group - Women in Black - have been abused, sometimes violently, since they began their protests almost 20 years ago. In Britain's churches too it has become an increasingly important issue. A survey for the Catholic weekly The Tablet last year showed 70 per cent of respondents backed disinvestment. Church of England's General Synod debated removing investments from the US company Caterpillar, its bulldozers were used to level Palestinian houses. the Methodist conference in the UK will consider whether or not its £1bn funds can be invested in companies operating in the occupied territories. protest against the Israeli occupation in British society emerged in the run-up to the UCU conference

Naeim Giladi, another disillusioned critical Jew like Finkelstein

clipped from en.wikipedia.org Naeim Giladi was born in Iraq in 1929 to an Iraqi Jewish family and later lived in Israel and the United States. He is an Anti-Zionist, and author his originally self-published book Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews. He says he was assigned the task of procuring the signatures of the Palestinian inhabitants of al-Mejdil on a set of government forms that stated that they were willingly giving up their lands to go to Gaza, at the time under Egyptian occupation. He writes that he, "was disillusioned personally, disillusioned at the institutionalized racism, disillusioned at what I was beginning to learn about Zionism's cruelties. The principal interest Israel had in Jews from Islamic countries was as a supply of cheap labor, especially for the farm work that was beneath the urbanized Eastern European Jews. Ben Gurion needed the "Oriental" Jews to farm the thousands of acres of land left by Palestinians who were driven out by Israeli forces in 1948"

Jewish worshipers desecrate Palestinian cemetery

clipped from www.metimes.com Jewish worshippers desecrate Palestinian cemetery June 8, 2007 Jewish worshippers desecrated a Palestinian cemetery in the occupied West Bank where they were taken by the army to pray at a holy site, witnesses and military sources said Friday. Several hundred Israelis arrived in Kifel Hares village where the army imposed a curfew so that the worshippers could gather at the grave where they believe that Biblical figure Joshua is buried, Palestinian witnesses said. Mayor of the northern village, Ahmed Buzieh, said that Jewish worshippers shouted slogans such as "death to the Arabs" and scrawled insults on the walls before heading onto the cemetery where they desecrated nine tombs. An Israeli military source said that the religious Jews wrote death to Arabs on the graves and broke stone tombs. "The army is taking the matter with the utmost seriousness," the source said.