Scottish Friends of Palestine                                   

Briefing Paper                                                                                        

August 2014

Israel’s incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto

                                                             Ilan Pappe The Electronic Intifada 13/07/2014

In Gaza, the implementation of the Zionist vision takes its most inhuman form.

In a September 2006 article for The Electronic Intifada, I defined the Israeli policy towards the Gaza Strip as an incremental genocide. Israel’s present assault on Gaza alas indicates that this policy continues unabated. The term is important since it appropriately locates Israel’s barbaric action — then and now — within a wider historical context. This context should be insisted upon, since the Israeli propaganda machine attempts again and again to narrate its policies as out of context and turns the pretext it found for every new wave of destruction into the main justification for another spree of indiscriminate slaughter in the killing fields of Palestine.

The context

The Zionist strategy of branding its brutal policies as an ad hoc response to this or that Palestinian action is as old as the Zionist presence in Palestine itself. It was used repeatedly as a justification for implementing the Zionist vision of a future Palestine that has in it very few, if any, native Palestinians. The means for achieving this goal changed with the years, but the formula has remained the same: whatever the Zionist vision of a Jewish State might be, it can only materialize without any significant number of Palestinians in it. And nowadays the vision is of an Israel stretching over almost the whole of historic Palestine where millions of Palestinians still live.

                The present genocidal wave has, like all the previous ones, also a more immediate background. It has been born out of an attempt to foil the Palestinian decision to form a unity government that even the United States could not object to. The collapse of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s desperate “peace” initiative legitimized the Palestinian appeal to international organizations to stop the occupation. At the same time, Palestinians gained wide international blessing for the cautious attempt represented by the unity government to strategize once again a coordinated policy among the various Palestinian groups and agendas.

            Ever since June 1967, Israel searched for a way to keep the territories it occupied that year without incorporating their indigenous Palestinian population into its rights-bearing citizenry. All the while it participated in a “peace process” charade to cover up or buy time for its unilateral colonization policies on the ground. With the decades, Israel differentiated between areas it wished to control directly and those it would manage indirectly, with the aim in the long run of downsizing the Palestinian population to a minimum with, among other means, ethnic cleansing and economic and geographic strangulation.

                The geopolitical location of the West Bank creates the impression in Israel, at least, that it is possible to achieve this without anticipating a third uprising or too much international condemnation. The Gaza Strip, due to its unique geopolitical location, did not lend itself that easily to such a strategy. Ever since 1994, and even more so when Ariel Sharon came to power as prime minister in the early 2000s, the strategy there was to ghettoize Gaza and somehow hope that the people there — 1.8 million as of today — would be dropped into eternal oblivion.

                But the Ghetto proved to be rebellious and unwilling to live under conditions of strangulation, isolation, starvation and economic collapse. So resending it to oblivion necessitates the continuation of genocidal policies.

The pretext

On 15 May, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian youths in the West Bank town of Beitunia, their cold-blooded slayings by a sniper’s bullet captured on video. Their names — Nadim Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir — were added to a long list of such killings in recent months and years. The killing of three Israeli teenagers, two of them minors, abducted in the occupied West Bank in June, was perhaps in reprisal for killings of Palestinian children. But for all the depredations of the oppressive occupation, it provided the pretext first and foremost for destroying the delicate unity in the West Bank but also for the implementation of the old dream of wiping out Hamas from Gaza so that the Ghetto could be quiet again. Since 1994, even before the rise of Hamas to power in the Gaza Strip, the very particular geopolitical location of the Strip made it clear that any collective punitive action, such as the one inflicted now, could only be an operation of massive killings and destruction. In other words, of a continued genocide.

                This recognition never inhibited the generals who give the orders to bomb the people from the air, the sea and the ground. Downsizing the number of Palestinians all over historic Palestine is still the Zionist vision. In Gaza, its implementation takes its most inhuman form. The particular timing of this wave is determined, as in the past, by additional considerations. The domestic social unrest of 2011 is still simmering and for a while there was a public demand to cut military expenditures and move money from the inflated “defense” budget to social services. The army branded this possibility as suicidal. There is nothing like a military operation to stifle any voices calling on the government to cut its military expenses.

                Typical hallmarks of the previous stages in this incremental genocide reappear in this wave as well. One can witness again consensual Israeli Jewish support for the massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, without one significant voice of dissent. In Tel Aviv, the few who dared to demonstrate against it were beaten by Jewish hooligans, while the police stood by and watched. Academia, as always, becomes part of the machinery. The prestigious private university, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya has established “a civilian headquarters” where students volunteer to serve as mouthpieces in the propaganda campaign abroad. The media is loyally recruited, showing no pictures of the human catastrophe Israel has wreaked and informing its public that this time, “the world understands us and is behind us.”

                That statement is valid to a point as the political elites in the West continue to provide the old immunity to the “Jewish state.” However, the media have not provided Israel with quite the level of legitimacy it was seeking for its criminal policies. Obvious exceptions included French media, especially France 24 and the BBC, that continue to shamefully parrot Israeli propaganda.This is not surprising, since pro-Israel lobby groups continue to work tirelessly to press Israel’s case in France and the rest of Europe as they do in the United States.

The way forward

Whether it is burning alive a Palestinian youth from Jerusalem, or the fatal shooting of two others, just for the fun of it in Beitunia, or slaying whole families in Gaza, these are all acts that can only be perpetrated if the victim is dehumanized. I will concede that all over the Middle East there are now horrific cases where dehumanization has reaped unimaginable horrors as it does in Gaza today. But there is one crucial difference between these cases and the Israeli brutality: the former are condemned as barbarous and inhuman worldwide, while those committed by Israel are still publicly licensed and approved by the president of the United States, the leaders of the EU and Israel’s other friends in the world.

                The only chance for a successful struggle against Zionism in Palestine is the one based on a human and civil rights agenda that does not differentiate between one violation and the other and yet identifies clearly the victim and the victimizers. Those who commit atrocities in the Arab world against oppressed minorities and helpless communities, as well as the Israelis who commit these crimes against the Palestinian people, should all be judged by the same moral and ethical standards. They are all war criminals, though in the case of Palestine they have been at work longer than anyone else. It does not really matter what the religious identity is of the people who commit the atrocities or in the name of which religion they purport to speak. Whether they call themselves jihadists, Judaists or Zionists, they should be treated in the same way.

                A world that would stop employing double standards in its dealings with Israel is a world that could be far more effective in its response to war crimes elsewhere in the world. Cessation of the incremental genocide in Gaza and the restitution of the basic human and civil rights of Palestinians wherever they are, including the right of return, is the only way to open a new vista for a productive international intervention in the Middle East as a whole.

The real agenda of Israel: More death, more destruction  Samah Sabawi New Matilda 18/07/14 What drives Israel’s war on Gaza? It is not the need to weaken Hamas nor to stop the rockets. Both goals were almost achieved back in April. On the 23rd of April, Hamas was in its worst strategic position ever ... With its back to the wall, Hamas had no option but to reach out to the Palestinian Authority (PA,) and agree to all conditions laid down by its president Mahmoud Abbas. And, just in case there are any doubts as to how much Hamas was ready to compromise, Abbas, in a meeting for the PLO’s central Council on April 26, confirmed a unity government would adhere to all agreements previously signed, would renounce terror, would recognise Israel and would continue the negotiations. The unity government was welcomed by the EU, Russia and the United Nations. The US was ready to accept it as long as it agreed to abide by the Quartet’s conditions, which seemed almost like a done deal. On the other hand, Israeli leaders who once criticised Abbas for not representing all the Palestinians, using his lack of control over Gaza as a pretext for questioning his ability to make a comprehensive peace, were not pleased. They accused Abbas of signing a deal with what they considered a terrorist organisation. Never mind that the new Palestinian cabinet was going to be largely made up of technocrats and headed by the same pre-agreement Prime Minister, reporting directly to Abbas and who wasted no time emphasising that this was his government, implementing his program ... Superficially at least, Israel’s reaction seemed to run counter to its own policy objectives.  However, it has been clear for some time that Israel’s true objective is to continue settlement expansion and land grab, while using endless negotiations as a delaying tactic to alleviate international pressure. Palestinian unity would have been a major obstacle in the face of such farce. So, when the three young Israeli settlers were kidnapped and killed on June 12th, the Israeli government carefully orchestrated a three-week public relations campaign insisting to the world that it was Hamas who kidnapped them, although no evidence of such a claim has ever been produced. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Palestinian politics can see how ridiculous such a claim is. For Hamas, who was desperate to see things work out in its unity deal with the PA, the timing could not have been worse.  Never shy about claiming responsibility for attacks on Israelis, Hamas vehemently denied it had anything to do with the kidnapping. Netanyahu persisted and the Israeli incitement against Hamas in particular, and Palestinians and Arabs in general, reached unprecedented levels. And now here we are. Israel has been pounding Gaza for days with hundreds of one tonne bombs, destroying lives, homes and infrastructure.

Https://newmatilda.com/2014/07/18/real-agendas-israel-more-death-more-destruction

Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 19:56:27

Dearest friends

The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent. The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24hrs shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!

Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!).

My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.

                Ashy grey faces - Oh NO! not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out - oh - the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes,cannulas - the leftovers from death - all taken away...to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to Shifa last 24 hrs. enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here - almost nothing: electricity, water, disposables, drugs, OR-tables, instruments, monitors - all rusted and  as if taken from museums of yesterdays hospitals.But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormous resolute.

                And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flows, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening! An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic 'Zennanis', the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made and paid in and by US.

                Mr. Obama - do you have a heart? I invite you - spend one night - just one night - with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.  I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.  Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.  But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another "dahyia" onslaught on Gaza. The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death.

 Please. Do what you can. This, THIS cannot continue.

Mads Gilbert MD PhD

Professor and Clinical Head

Clinic of Emergency Medicine

University Hospital of North Norway

N-9038 Tromsø, Norway

Mobile: +4790878740

Israel's real purpose in Gaza operation? To kill Arabs  Gideon Levy  Ha’aretz - 13.07.14

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.604653

The slogan of the Mafia has become official Israeli policy.

The Israel Defense Forces already has a “map of pain,” a diabolical invention that has replaced the no less diabolical “bank of targets,” and that map is spreading at a sickening pace. Watch Al Jazeera English, a balanced and professional television channel (unlike its Arabic sister station), and see the extent of its success. You won’t see it in Israel’s “open” broadcast studios, which as usual are only open to the Israeli victim, but on Al Jazeera you will see the whole truth, and perhaps you will even be shocked.The goal of Operation Protective Edge is to restore the calm; the means: killing civilians. The slogan of the Mafia has become official Israeli policy. Israel sincerely believes that if it kills hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, quiet will reign. It is pointless to destroy the weapons stores of Hamas, which has already proved capable of rearmament. Bringing down the Hamas government is an unrealistic (and illegitimate) goal, one that Israel does not want: It is aware that the alternative could be much worse. That leaves only one possible purpose for the military operation: death to Arabs, accompanied by the cheering of the masses.

                The bodies in Gaza are piling up, the desperate, constantly updated tabulation of mass killing that Israel boasts of, which already numbers dozens of civilians, including 24 children as of noon on Saturday; hundreds of people injured, in addition to horror and destruction. One school and one hospital have already been bombed. The aim is to strike homes, and no amount of justification can help: It’s a war crime, even if the IDF calls them “command-and-control centers” or “conference rooms.” Granted, there are strikes that are much more brutal than Israel’s, but in this war, which is nothing other than mutual attacks on civilians — the elephant against the fly — there aren’t even any refugees. In contrast to Syria and Iraq, in the Gaza Strip the inhabitants do not have the luxury of fleeing for their lives. In a cage, there’s nowhere to run.

                Since the first Lebanon war, more than 30 years ago, the killing of Arabs has become Israel’s primary strategic instrument. The IDF doesn’t wage war against armies, and its main target is civilian populations. Arabs are born only to kill and to be killed, as everyone knows. They have no other goal in life, and Israel kills them.

                One must, of course, be outraged by the modus operandi of Hamas: Not only does it aim its rockets at civilian population centers in Israel, not only does it position itself within population centers — it may not have an alternative, given the crowded conditions in the Strip — but it also leaves the Gazan civilian population vulnerable to Israel’s brutal attacks, without seeing to a single siren, shelter or protected space. That is criminal. But the barrages of the Israel Air Force are no less criminal, on account of both the result and the intent: There isn’t a single residential building in the Gaza Strip that is not home to dozens of women and children; the IDF cannot, therefore, claim that it does not mean to hurt innocent civilians. If the recent demolition of the home of a terrorist in the West Bank still stirred a weak protest, now dozens of homes are being destroyed, together with their occupants.

                Retired generals and commentators on active duty compete to make the most monstrous proposal: “If we kill their families, that will frighten them,” explained Maj.Gen. (res.) Oren Shachor, without batting an eyelid. “We must create a situation such that when they come out of their burrows, they won’t recognize Gaza,” others said. Shamelessly, without question — until the next Goldstone investigation.

                A war with no goal is among the most despicable of wars; the deliberate targeting of civilians is among the most atrocious of means. Terror now reigns in Israel as well, but it’s unlikely there is a single Israeli who can imagine what it’s like for Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants, whose already miserable lives are now totally horrific. The Gaza Strip is not a “hornet’s nest,” it is a province of human desperation. Hamas is not an army, far from it, despite all the fear tactics: If it really did build such a sophisticated network of tunnels there, as is claimed, then why doesn’t it build Tel Aviv’s light rail network, already?

                The 1,000-sortie and 1,000 tons of explosives marks have almost been reached, and Israel is waiting for the “victory picture” that has already been achieved: Death to Arabs.

Accompanying note: Whether Gideon Levy knows it or not, his analysis above fits perfectly well with the declared Israeli military policy of "disproportionate force," raised to the level of an operational doctrine since 2006. In the wake of the Israeli military failure in Lebanon in 2006, through workshops held at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and under its auspices, representatives of Israel's military, government and academic institutions developed the "Dahiya Doctrine," or the doctrine of "disproportionate force," as a more "effective" strategy to undermine irregular resistance through targeting the civilian infrastructure and "meting out punishment" on civilians until they pressure the resistance to stop resisting.

                Here's a valuable, well-researched 2009 study prepared by University of London SOAS scholars revealing the details of this doctrine and the criminal philosophy behind it:

http://pacbi.org/pics/file/SOAS-Palestine-Society-Paper-TAU-Military-Complicity-Feb-2009.pdf

Israeli strike kills family having coffee   Al-Monitor   13.07.14

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-gaza-strike-kills-hamad-family.html

In the early hours of July 9, Hafez Hamad, 37, was sitting in a small courtyard in front of his house in Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, along with his wife, Suha, 31, his mother, Fawzia, 70, his brothers Ibrahim, 35, and Mahdi, 41, and Mahdi's teenage daughter Dina. They were chatting and drinking coffee, escaping the power cut inside their home, when an unmanned Israeli aircraft fired a missile, killing them all. Al-Monitor spoke with Amir Hamad, the 11-year-old son of martyr Hafez. With a pale face after losing his father and mother, he said, "I was sitting beside my father and we were chatting when the plane bombed the location. I wasn't injured, but I saw everyone on the ground. I screamed out for my father, yet he didn't respond. I lifted up his hand, but it fell limp. At that time, I knew he had died. I picked up my little brother Nour and ran toward the house." ... Amir was suppressing his grief and tears, trying to appear strong. This 11-year-old will now have to carry the burden of looking after his younger siblings after Israel took his parents away. "We buried them a little while ago. We said goodbye to them. … I'll take care of my brothers and sister," he said ... The funeral was held on the afternoon of July 9. The coffins of Hafez and Mahdi were wrapped in the flags of the Islamic Jihad movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, of which they were nonviolent members ... Israel has committed a number of war crimes in the past by targeting entire families, most notably the bombing of the Samouni family in the 2008-2009 war, when dozens of civilians taking shelter in a house were killed. In the current aggression, families have again been targeted, including the Kawareh and Hamad families on July 8, the Hajj family at dawn on July 10 and the Ghannam family at dawn on July 11 ... Raji al-Surani, the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, told the local news agency Media24 that the presence of a military member among a family does not allow Israel to commit war crimes, for the other family members remain civilians protected in times of war, according to international humanitarian law.

'Wake up, my son!'  Ali Abunimah Electronic Intifada 12.07.14

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/wake-my-son-none-gazas-murdered-children-are-just-numbers

Sahir Salman Abu Namous was just four years old, soon to turn five. “Everyone who saw him loved him because he was always smiling,” his first cousin Diaa Mahmoud recalls in an email he sent me from Gaza. “One month before Sahir died, his father was sitting and talking to the boy’s aunt,” Mahmoud says. “He looks so clever,” Mahmoud remembers the boy’s proud father saying, “even more clever than his siblings.” Sahir was killed on Friday afternoon when an Israeli warplane bombed his family home in the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood in northern Gaza. “He was playing and smiling next to his mother when missile shrapnel divided his head,” Mahmoud writes. “His father took him to the hospital screaming ‘Wake up, my son! I bought toys for you, please wake up!’” The photo that Mahmoud sent of Sahir with little left of his head, cradled in the arms of his anguished father Salman Abu Namous, is too graphic to show here. But Mahmoud sent me some other photos of his cousin Sahir in happier times. “He was just a kid who wanted to play and be happy,” Mahmoud says, “he wasn’t just a number.”

When bombs receive applause  Nikolaj Krak  Kristeligt Dagblad 11.07.14

Http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/2014-07-11/when-bombs-receive-applause

On a hilltop a few kilometers from Gaza, Israelis sit with popcorn to follow the bombing of the area -- While most of the 25,000 inhabitants of the southern town of Sderot in the evening try to stay safe indoors from the rain of rockets from Gaza, you will meet a different image on a small hill on the outskirts of the city. This place changes the ghostly atmosphere into something resembling a party. "We are here to see Israel destroy Hamas," says Eli Chone, a 22-year-old American living in Israel. He is one of the more than 50 people gathered on the dark hill to see Israel bomb Gaza from close distance. The hill has been transformed into something that most closely resembles the front row of a reality war theatre. It offers a direct view of the densely populated Gaza Strip. People have dragged camping chairs and sofas to the top of the hill. Several sit with crackling bags of popcorn, while others smoke hookahs and talk cheerfully ... Suddenly the night sky lights into a powerful flash, while a high column of fire rises in Gaza. A few seconds later the earth is shaken by a dull roar. Now cheers break out on the hill, followed by solid applause.

Doctor in Gaza reports injuries indicating Israeli use of banned weapons Saed Bannoura                                                                                                              IMEMC  13.07.14   Http://www.imemc.org/article/68456

A Norwegian doctor working at Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, told reporters that some of the injuries that wounded and killed Palestinians have experienced are consistent with the use of banned weapons by Israeli forces. In the 2008-9 war on Gaza, Israel was found by the UN to have used white phosphorus on numerous occasions in civilian areas. White phosphorus is considered a ‘banned weapon’ in civilian areas, due to the severe burns it can cause. The doctor, Mads Gilbert, has been working in Gaza for years, including during the 2008-9 Israeli invasion ... Gaza’s undersecretary of health, Youssef Abu al-Resh, verified the concern that Israeli forces have begun to use banned DIME weapons against Palestinian civilians.

Abu al-Resh told a press conference, “Medical teams have found wounds on the bodies of those killed and injured that are caused by the banned DIME weapons.” ... DIME weapons (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) cause extreme heat and severe injuries. Some of the indications that these weapons have been used include severed limbs that have extreme heat at the point of the severing, without shrapnel present at the site. The weapon produces micro-shrapnel, which is not visible to the human eye. The weapon contains small particles of a chemically inert material such as tungsten. Several studies by the U.S. government have found DIME weapon exposure to cause cancer in lab animals.

Israel showed restraint in Gaza before attacking? You must be kidding  Amira Hass Ha’aretz 14.07.14   Http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.604844

Our media ingrains warped terminology that bolsters the effort to portray Israel as a victim. Here are a few examples --

 “Gaza is an independent state.” It is not. It and the West Bank are a single territorial unit composed of two parts. According to the international community’s decisions, a state shall be established in these two parts, which are still under Israeli occupation, as are the Palestinians who live there ... Meanwhile, Israel still controls the population registry for Gaza and the West Bank. Every Palestinian newborn in Gaza or the West Bank must be registered with the Israeli Interior Ministry (via the Coordination and Liaison Administration) to be able to obtain an ID card at age 16. The information typed into the cards is also in Hebrew. Have you ever heard of an independent state whose people must register in the “neighboring” (occupying and attacking) state -- otherwise they won’t have documents and won’t officially exist? ...

“Israel has shown restraint.” Where does one begin to calculate restraint? Why not start with the fishermen who have been shot at, wounded and sometimes killed by the Israeli navy, even though the 2012 understandings talked about expanding the fishing zone?  Why not with the farmers and metal scavengers near the separation barrier who have no other income and are shot at and sometimes wounded and killed by soldiers? Or the demolition of Palestinian houses supposedly for administrative reasons in the West Bank and Jerusalem?  Don’t we call this restraint because this is violence that the Israeli media arrogantly overlooks? And why don’t we hear about the Palestinian restraint after Nadim Nawara and Mohammed Abu Dhaher were killed by Israeli soldiers at the Ofer checkpoint? “Restraint” is another term that expunges contexts and bolsters the sense of victimhood of the world’s fourth-mightiest military power

 “Israel supplies water, electricity, food and medicine to Gaza.” It does not. It sells 120 megawatts of electricity at full price, at most a third of demand. The bill is deducted from the customs fees that Israel collects for goods passing through its ports destined for the occupied territories. Food and medicine that Palestinian traders buy at full price enter Gaza through the crossings under Israel’s control ...

“Israel only pinpoints legitimate targets.” The houses of junior and senior Hamas members are being bombed -- with and without children there -- and the army says these are legitimate targets? Is there a Jewish home in Israel that does not shelter a commander who has helped plan or wage an offensive? Or a soldier who hasn’t shot at or will shoot at a Palestinian? “Hamas uses the population as human shields.” If I’m not mistaken, the Defense Ministry is in the heart of Tel Aviv, as is the army’s main “war room.” And what about the military training base at Glilot, near the big mall? And the Shin Bet headquarters in Jerusalem, on the edge of a residential neighborhood?  And how far is our “sewing factory” in Dimona [nuclear weapons installation] from residential areas? Why is it all right for us and not for them? Just because they don’t have the phallic ability to bomb these places?

When My Son Screams   Mohammed Omer   15.07.14

                At just 3 months old, my son Omar cries, swaddled in his crib. It’s dark. The electricity and water are out. My wife frantically tries to comfort him, shield him and assure him as tears stream down her face. This night Omar’s lullaby is Israel’s rendition of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, with F-16s forming the ground-pounding percussion, Hellfire missiles leading the winds and drones representing the string section. All around us crashing bombs from Israeli gunships and ground-based mortars complete the symphony, their sound as distinct as the infamous Wagner tubas.

                But unlike a performance, this opera of death lasts days. Audience applause is replaced with the terrified cries of babies and children shrouded in smoke. Shrapnel zings off buildings and cars as another missile finds its mark, landing on another home. Six more are now dead. A doctor’s house next door was hit by three Israeli F-16 missiles. It’s hard to know what was the target. The doctor was killed, joining his mom and dad, killed in the previous war in 2008–09. The airstrikes are buzzing in my ears and Lina’s. Omar’s crying is continuing. Now the death toll is at 186, with 1,390 injured, the majority of them are civilians, as reported by the UN.

                There is no end in sight. Beyond the border we see tanks amassing, preparing for a ground assault. Above, the ever-present thwup-thwup of hovering Apache helicopters rock Omar’s cradle through vibration. Warning sirens pierce the night—another incoming missile from an Israeli warship. The border is not far. But we cannot leave. The Gaza Strip has been under siege since 2007. Unlike Israel, we do not have bomb shelters to hide in. The 1.8 million citizens of Gaza, over half of them children under the age of 18, are packed into an area the size of Manhattan, unable to leave. We must stay and pray, pray that we don’t get hit.

                I’ve been through this before. I grew up in Gaza. But this is my first time under fire as a parent and husband. It is a wholly different experience. I wish I could airlift my wife and son out of here. But this is my beloved ancestral home; what else can I do? The airstrikes are too loud and unending, it seems. In a moment of nervous quiet, Lina breastfeeds Omar and quietly prays.

                Crash! Boom! Another airstrike smashes into the ground outside our home. Lina darts out of the room, shielding Omar in her arms as she seeks safety on the other side. Omar screams, and screams and screams. It’s piercing, enveloping me in a horror only a parent can understand. I find it impossible to comfort him, holding his tiny hand as he lies in my wife’s arms. Lina is clasping Omar tight. We nervously jump from room to room scanning the skies for incoming missiles. Israel always claims they are precision. Precision? Then why are so many children, women and elderly injured, maimed or killed by them each time? Why is the hospital bombed? Why schools, bridges, water treatment facilities, greenhouses and other civilian targets? The statistics always tell a different story.

                Boom! A flash of white and another crash. The stress is debilitating, fostered by the constant of buzz of drones. It haunts us as we search for anywhere safe, but there is nowhere safe. We watch, waiting. Another volley of Hellfire missiles shakes the building. No rest. No sleep, but we are lucky we are still alive.

                I open and close the refrigerator door. The electricity is out, but it makes me feel normal. Lina tries to sleep, catches a few minutes and wakes up trembling. This is what it is like to be under attack in Gaza, and we don’t know for how long or when it will end.

                We talk, looking for distraction, wondering how the Israelis are doing on the other side of the segregation wall. They are free to come and go as they please without restrictions. Do they feel safe, with their warning sirens and bomb shelters to hide in? They don’t have to worry about warships pounding their homes, tanks smashing through their streets, bulldozers destroying their homes, jet fighters dropping bombs on their neighborhood or drones hunting them down. Israel has the fourth-most-powerful military in the world, with full army, navy and air force as well as their Iron Dome, which is quite effective against the homemade rockets lobbed from Gaza. We have no navy, no air force and no army. We have no checkpoints for security. We don’t even seem to have a right to exist or defend ourselves. That right, according to the United States, seems reserved for Israel and Israel alone.

                Pondering such, the hypocrisy elevates cognitive dissonance, the reality of this situation, to new heights. We’re a mere hour’s drive from most major cities in Israel, yet we live in a completely different world. Gaza is the Lodz, Krakow and Warsaw ghettos rolled into one. We cannot leave or enter without Israel’s permission. Israel tells us what we are allowed to eat, raids at will and often, decides which products we’re allowed to have, down to toilet paper, sugar and cinderblock. It arrests our children, fathers and mothers, and can hold them as long as it wants. Its snipers amuse themselves at the expense of our children. How can Israeli society not know what we are suffering or what they’re paying to have done to us? Didn’t their parents, grandparents, go through the same horror before coming to Palestine? Wasn’t Zionism created to prevent these horrors from occurring ever again… to any people?

Shakespeare said it well, with a slight modification: “Hath not an Arab eyes? Hath not an Arab hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a Jew is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”

Despite the desperation, Gaza is my home. Wherever I go, however long I have to wait at checkpoints, to leave or return, sitting under the hot sun or arguing with officials about the abuse of travelers and victims, I feel a deep joy and love when I pass through Rafah gates, for I am home.

                I have options, given my Dutch citizenship. As the bombs continue to fall, I ask myself if I should take my family to the Netherlands, where my son was born, press on with my PhD studies for Erasmus Rotterdam and Columbia University and try to forget the F-16s and nightmares Israel reserves for us.

                But I’m a journalist, and I owe it to my people and the Israeli people to get to the truth. I choose to stay in Palestine, my beloved home, with my wife, son, mother, father and siblings. I am not willing to let Israel or Zionism exterminate me.

                Since 1947 Israel has disrupted our lives. My family and I are the wrong race and wrong religion, so the state doesn’t want us here. This is my home and, steadfastly, I will still stay. It is my right as a human being and our right as Palestinians or Israelis, whether we’re Jewish, Christian or Muslim. Ultimately, we’re all human.

 Lowest deeds from loftiest heights  Gideon Levy Haaretz 15.07.14

                                They sit in the cockpit and push buttons and joysticks. It’s a war game.                                                         They determine life and death, from their lofty place in the sky they

                                see only black dots running around in panic, fleeing for their lives, but                                           also some who wave their hands in terrible fear from the roofs

Http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.605001

Israel’s 'heroic' pilots push buttons and joysticks, battling the weakest and most helpless of people -- They are the most articulate, polished, brilliant and educated of soldiers. They study at the best universities during the course of their military service, come from the best homes, the most highly regarded high schools. For years they are trained for their job, in electronics and avionics, strategy and tactics, and of course flying. They are the very finest of Israeli youth, destined for greatness. They really are the very best, ‘bro: They are the ones who become pilots, the best pilots, and they are now perpetrating the worst, the cruelest, the most despicable deeds.

                They sit in the cockpit and push buttons and joysticks. It’s a war game. They determine life and death, from their lofty place in the sky they see only black dots running around in panic, fleeing for their lives, but also some who wave their hands in terrible fear from the roofs. The black arrow points at the target, and already a mushroom of black smoke rises – poof, a slight tremor in the wing, as the saying goes; a “good” hit, and they’re already embarking on the next sortie.

                They have never seen an enemy plane coming toward them – the last aerial battle of the Israel Air Force took place before most of them were born. They never saw the whites of the eyes and the red blood of their victims from up close ... And they will forget what they did during their military service. Forget? They never really knew. From the F-16 you can’t see very much. They are not Border Policemen who chase children in the alleyways, beat and abuse them. They aren’t members of the Golani Brigade who invade homes in the middle of the night, in search and kidnap operations. Nor are they soldiers from the Kfir Brigade who stand at the checkpoints. Nor members of the undercover Duvdevan unit or the Duchifat battalion. Nor do they use foul language or humiliate others. Their language is clean.

                They are the pilots. His Majesty’s pilots, in the most moral army in the world.  As of this writing, they have already killed almost 200 people and wounded approximately 1,000, most of them civilians.

Sewage challenge for Gaza fishermen after Israeli offensive

GAZA CITY (AFP)  11 Aug -- After two hours waist-deep in the sea, Sameer al-Hissi says his paltry haul of tiny fish is not the only consequence he and Gaza's fishermen are suffering from Israel's offensive. Ashore, he lifts up his t-shirt to show red-brown blotches across his chest and stomach, the result, he says, of spending his mornings in a sea heavily tainted with smelly sewage since Israeli strikes knocked out the power station supplying electricity to treatment plants. Following the plants' closure, levels of raw sewage released into the sea are higher, meaning smaller catches and the risk of illness. "Sewage in the sea today is affecting people and the fish they eat," said the wiry 52-year-old, sat in the shade of an umbrella with the basket carrying the 14 tiny fish he caught. Before the conflict erupted on July 8 he fished from his boat in Gaza port, going up to three nautical miles out to sea in accordance with the limit imposed by the Israelis. Now he spends two hours every morning wading through the surf on the beach casting a small net to bring back food for his family. But he says that there are fewer and fewer fish to be caught off the beach because the raised level of untreated sewage is driving them further out to sea. "If their environment is dangerous, the fish leave," he said. "Like people." The waste is also making people ill, more seriously than himself, he said, talking of children who had become sick after swimming in the sea. The head of Gazan fishermen's syndicate agreed the problem had got worse since water treatment plants had stopped working. "Of course, we know the problem of pollution in the sea is worse than before the war," Nizar Ayish said. "Currently there is no treatment of the water because of the war."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=719945

And not forgetting the West  Bank . . . . . .

Israeli soldiers celebrate shooting an 18-year-old

HEBRON, Occupied Palestine (ISM) 12 Aug -- On August 9th in Hebron, Israeli soldiers celebrated shooting an 18-year-old Palestinian youth in the leg with live ammunition. The Canadian volunteer, Vern, who witnessed the soldier firing, stated, “After the soldiers left the roof, I went to confront them about why they had fired. One of them said to me that he was the one who fired and that he was proud of his actions. He then asked me to take his picture.” The hospital released a document to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) stating that the injury of the young man was a gunshot wound to the right calf, and that the injury required surgery under general anaesthetic. “This is not the first time protesters have been seriously injured or killed while not being a threat to the Israeli military. On Friday (8th August) in Hebron, 40-year-old Nader Mohammad Edrees was shot in the heart by an Israeli sniper. He died several hours later. This murder was caught on video, and it is clear that Nader was no threat whatsoever when he was killed, in clear contradiction of Israeli military policy and international law.” Stated Issa Amro, Human Rights Defender with Youth Against Settlements (YAS), based in Hebron ... Israeli Human Rights group B’tselem states that, “the army’s open-fire regulations clearly stipulate that live ammunition should not be used against stone-throwers, except in cases of immediate mortal danger.”

http://palsolidarity.org/2014/08/video-israeli-soldiers-celebrate-shooting-an-18-year-old/

Teen killed by an explosive dropped by the army near Tubas

IMEMC/Agencies 12 Aug by Saed Bannoura -- Palestinian medical sources reported, Monday, that a Palestinian teen has been killed, and his brother was wounded, by an explosive charge dropped by the army near the central West Bank city of Tubas. The sources said Mohammad Mo’tasem Abu Eshtayya, 17 years of age, was killed, and his brother Yousef was injured. They were herding their sheep in Palestinian grazing lands in the Northern Plains of the occupied West Bank.  Although the area where the explosion took place is used as a grazing area, and dozens of shepherds live there, it is frequently used by the Israeli army as a “training zone”, where the soldiers use live ammunition, explosives and shells. Dozens of casualties have been reported in similar incidents in the area, as well in other areas in the occupied West Bank, including the outskirts of Hebron and the Palestinian Plains of the West Bank, as the Israeli military conducts training in those areas in direct violation of International Law.

On Monday at night, Israeli sources said an explosive charge detonated near an Israeli military vehicle near the former Homesh Israeli settlement, southwest of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The army reported no injuries, and said it invaded the area, and initiated a search campaign.

Also on Monday at night, one Palestinian was shot and injured by Israeli army fire after the army invaded Tulkarem, in the northern part of the West Bank.

http://www.imemc.org/article/68821

Child injured by army fire near Bethlehem

IMEMC/Agencies 12 Aug -- Palestinian medical sources have reported that a child, 10 years of age, was shot in the face by a rubber-coated metal bullet, fired by Israeli soldiers invading Teqoua‘ [or Taqu‘] town, east of Bethlehem. Another Palestinian injured near Bethlehem. Head of the Teqoua’ Town Council, Taiseer Abu Mfarreh, stated that dozens of soldiers invaded the town through its western entrance, and fired rubber-coated metal bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades at local youth who threw stones at them. The wounded child suffered a moderate injury to her face, and was moved to a hospital in Bethlehem. Dozens of Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, and were moved to a local clinic.

In related news, a young Palestinian man suffered various cuts and bruises after falling from a high wall when a number of soldiers chased him as he was trying to enter Jerusalem where he works. Local sources said Mahmoud Mohammad Sbeih, 23, from al-Khader town near Bethlehem, was trying to enter Jerusalem from Z’ayyim nearby area, trying to head to a construction site where he works. He was moved to the al-Maqassed Hospital in Jerusalem.  Soldiers frequently ambush Palestinian workers in that area, as hundreds seek work, mainly in construction site in occupied Jerusalem, but Israel refuses to grant them work permits.

http://www.imemc.org/article/68828

Month of attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem increases tension, exposes racist policies

IMEMC 11 Aug by Chris Carlson -- Over the past month, during Israel's relentless and bloody aggressions on the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem area has become a crucible of violent confrontations between Palestinians and colonial Jewish settlers and police, with numerous reports of multiple raids and ensuing arrests continuing to surface throughout the West Bank region. Just following the Israeli Central Court's decision not to hold three youth who admittedly conspired in the brutal torture and burning of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khudeir, in early July, local media reported that the police found the body of another young Palestinian in Silwan, south of the Old City of Jerusalem. PNN sources say that the body had several visible stab wounds but that the Israeli police have declared that the motive behind the crime is not clear.

Meanwhile, Silwanic has reported that Israeli police took into custody 13-year-old Daoud Sawalha, Thursday night [7 Aug], while he was at the barber shop, in the neighborhood of Ein Al-Lozeh, under the pretext of carrying a knife...

The same day, Silwanic reported that three Israeli settlers attempted to run over a Jerusalemite woman named Ola Alayan, as she was going home to her Beit Safafa residence, south of Jerusalem. She was verbally assaulted by the settlers but was able to escape the area and safely reach the entrance of the village.

[Silwanic also reported that on Wednesday night 6 Aug one-year-old Retaj Raed Hantouli was injured with bruises in her leg after a settler threw stones at her while she was at her home in Silwan.  See Silwanic's Settler Assaults news category for more crimes]

On Thursday, July 31st, a young Palestinian man from Ras Alamoud was reported to have been assaulted by a group of Israeli settlers who attempted to kidnap him after tying him and dragging him to their car. When the group failed to drag him to their vehicle, they assaulted 21-year-old Ali Mohammed al-Abbasi with a large amount of pepper spray. Ali's father confirmed that a fellow co-worker took his son to the hospital, after ambulance and police failed to respond....

http://www.imemc.org/article/68819

Two indicted for assaulting Arab teen who befriended Jewish girl

Haaretz 12 Aug by Eli Ashkenazi -- A right-wing group calls the incident an example of the police 'automatically accusing the Jewish side.’  -- Two Jewish youths have been indicted on charges of assaulting an Arab teenager who had befriended a Jewish girl in the northern town of Safed. The defendants, from Jerusalem and the settlement of Betar Ilit, are accused of assaulting the 17-year-old Safed resident August 3 after seeing him in the company of a Jewish girl around his age. According to the indictment, the defendants saw the boy and girl sitting together at about 1 A.M. and called the girl a traitor and an enemy of the Jewish people. The defendants reeked of alcohol, the police said, adding that one of them punched the Arab youth in the head and back and threatened to hit him with a wine bottle. The defendants said the Arab teen was also violent. A lawyer for one of the them, Ran Shacham from the organization Honenu, said the Arab youth called the defendants names.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.610124

Mohammed Abu Khdeir's killer: 'They took three of ours, so let's take one of theirs'

Ynet 11 Aug by Aviel Magnezi -- Joseph Ben-David tells investigators how his plan to abduct and beat an Arab ended in the savage murder of a 16-year-old boy from Arab East Jerusalem -- ...Ynet on Monday obtained the transcripts of Ben-David's interrogation, published here for the first time ... Before setting fire to Abu Khdeir, who, according to the pathological report was burnt alive, Ben-David kicked him. According to his testimony: "I gave the boy three kicks to the legs, and saying as I did 'This is for Eyal, and this is for Naftali, and this is for Gil-Ad'." Ben-David continued: "I took a lighter, I set the boy alight." In reply to the question of whether they were planning to commit murder before they set out, Ben-David contradicted himself, claiming in parts of his testimony that he had only sought to beat someone and release him, and only after kidnapping Abu Khdeir did he decide to "finish him, kill him."  In another testimony, however, he admitted: "We planned to hurt him, that means kill ... torture him and kill him." When asked what he meant by "torture", he replied: "So the victim would know that he was going to die as a sacrifice for the murdered Jews". 'We are Jews, we have a heart'  The three got into the vehicle, fearing that it had been burned as it was parked next to Abu Khdeir. Ben-David added that: "The motive was not, God forbid, to burn ... we heard a noise and we were afraid he would get up - so we decided to kill, get rid of him ... When I say we cannot bear to see blood, it means we are not cruel like the sons of Ishmael." [Thank God Mohammed seems to have been unconscious before he was set on fire.]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4557714,00.html

Court clears way to demolish homes of Israeli teen trio's alleged killers

Haaretz 12 aug by Revital Hovel --  The High Court of Justice yesterday rejected three petitions against the army’s decision to raze thehomes of the suspected kidnapper-murderers of three Israeli teens. However, it delayed the demolitions until 1 P.M. on Thursday to give the families time to submit an engineer’s opinion on how the move will affect nearby houses. The three suspects are Amer Abu Aisheh, Marwan Qawasmeh and Hussam Qawasmeh. The first two, who allegedly perpetrated the June kidnapping and murder of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah, are still at large. Hussam Qawasmeh, who was captured last month, is suspected of helping to plan and finance the attack, bury the bodies and hide his two colleagues. Justices Yoram Danziger, Isaac Amit and Noam Sohlberg said they found no flaw in the army’s decision that would merit court intervention. They also rejected the claim that since the state doesn’t destroy the houses of Jewish terrorists, the decision is discriminatory ... The families also argued that the suspects’ guilt hasn’t yet been proven, and that demolishing their homes constituted collective punishment, which is illegal under international law. The state countered that the demolitions were necessary to deter other criminals, especially in light of “the significant deterioration of the security situation” in the West Bank. [Justice Danziger] also rejected the claim that the demolitions disproportionately harmed the innocent. The army, he noted, has already agreed that Marwan Qawasmeh’s apartment, located on the ground floor of a four-story building, will be sealed up rather than razed, while in Abu Aisheh’s case, only one second-floor apartment will be razed, so as not to harm other relatives living in the building.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.610068

IDF spokesperson expresses regret over killing of single Palestinian child

972mag 11 Aug by Haggai Matar -- You really have to give credit where credit is due. Even if it is to the IDF. Soldiers killed 12-year-old Muhammad al-Anati during clashes with local youth in the Hebron area on Sunday. According to reports, al-Anati was killed after being struck by a bullet in the back, and was not involved in the clashes. However, it seems that the IDF is willing to learn from past mistakes. This time, unlike recent similar events, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit immediately released a message [Hebrew] saying an inquiry had been launched and that the army expressed its regret over al-Anati’s death. One can hope that the inquiry will be a serious and effective one. For the sake of comparison, it is worth remembering that over the course of the 14 years that preceded Operation Protective Edge, the Israeli army killed 1,384 minors in the West Bank and Gaza. Among them was 13-year-old candy seller Mohammad Jihad Dudin, who was shot to death [20 June] by soldiers during riots he did not participate in. In May, two youths were shot dead while not posing any threat to soldiers during clashes in Betunia, one of them in the back. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit changed its official statement several times, and to this day has not shown remorse or found anyone responsible for the killing....

http://972mag.com/idf-spokesperson-expresses-regret-over-killing-of-palestinian-child/95320/

Israeli soldiers shot my teenage son

Electronic Intifada 12 Aug by Iyad Burnat -- In the past ten years of Friday demonstrations against the Israeli occupation in our West Bank village of Bil‘in, I have helped carry countless men and women to the ambulances, injured by Israeli rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters and live ammunition. But until 31 July, I never knew what this experience would feel like when the person I was carrying was one of my own children. During a demonstration that day, I heard a gunshot, and then the scream of my sixteen-year-old son Majd. A silence fell over me as I ran to him with many thoughts in my head. Where was he shot? Would he be okay? Why did the Israeli soldiers target him? He was just standing there as the demonstration was ending. Did the soldiers shoot my son because they know I am one of the organizers of these protests? It is in these moments of uncertainty that our greatest fears haunt us — moments that the people in Gaza have been experiencing on a daily basis. Over the past few weeks, there have been demonstrations throughout the occupied West Bank to protest Israel’s illegal actions and to show our support for our brothers and sisters in Gaza ... During these protests of solidarity, the Israelis have been particularly brutal in their responses and they have injured and killed many peaceful demonstrators ... Three weeks earlier when the bombings first started and everywhere on the news there were discussions about children being killed in Gaza, my eight-year-old daughter Mayar was having trouble sleeping. She would keep waking up and come to wherever I was so that I would hold her. She was afraid. Late one night, she started to ask me questions that no father ever wants to hear: “Why is Israel bombing Gaza? Why won’t they leave us alone? Why are they killing kids my age? Why won’t anyone stop them?”

Http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-soldiers-shot-my-teenage-son/13738

Hugh Humphries

Sec

Scottish Friends of Palestine

31 Tinto Road

Glasgow G43 2AL               0141 637 8046                                    info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org