'I Refused and He Hit Me'A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey
CounterPunch.org — December 22, 2005 By AMIRA HASS Fourteen-year-old Taher Ouda from Madma, a Palestinian village south of Nablus, was the subject of a story in Haaretz last week. Under [US] Israel Defense [sic] Forces orders, he was kept in arm and leg restraints and under around-the-clock guard by two [US Israel occupation] military policemen at the Schneider Children's Medical Center, following an operation on his leg. At the time, the IDF Spokesman said he was kept in the restraints since he was under de facto arrest. Bringing gas cooking canister to neighbour According to the version related by the [occupation] soldiers, Ouda had intended, together with other youths, to throw Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles. As the [occupation] soldiers were chasing the youths, Ouda tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at the soldiers, at which point he was shot and wounded in the leg. Ouda, who works with his father delivering cooking-gas canisters in the village, hotly denied the allegations: He was bringing a gas canister to a neighbor at the edge of the village and found himself in the middle of the gunfire. The incident occurred on the evening of Wednesday, November 30. He sustained a fracture in the femur, and a torn tendon. Ouda was operated upon that evening. A long steel rod was fixed by four screws along the length of his leg. It prevents him from bending his leg. Never told where he was or who was holding him On the morning of Sunday, December 4, four days after he was wounded and brought to the hospital, the military policemen had him discharged. A Schneider spokesman explains: "Upon completion of the hospital treatment, the youth was released, with instructions for continued treatment, but only after the medical staff ascertained through the IDF that he would be transferred to a facility where he would be able to receive suitable medical treatment." During the initial days of arrest, [US] Israel Police or ShinBet investigators routinely interrogate Palestinian detainees, in order to obtain confessions that would provide the basis for an indictment (or incriminate additional persons). But on Monday evening, December 5, Ouda was freed and sent home. Amid the hugs and kisses, the warm welcome and the numerous visitors, he talked about the "suitable medical treatment" he had received after his transfer from the hospital. He was never officially told where he was or who was holding him. Which may explain why he alternates between 'soldier' and 'policeman' in his account of what happened (although it was evidently a [US] Israel Prisons Service facility). Police and Shin Bet spokesmen told Haaretz that they had no connection to Ouda, and were not involved in any interrogation. |
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It turns out that the Military Police were responsible for him on Sunday, until he was handed over to the Prisons Service on Monday, December 5.
[ ] inserted into Haaretz article by TheWE.name
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'I Refused and He Hit Me'A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey
CounterPunch.org — December 22, 2005 By AMIRA HASS "After breakfast on Sunday," Ouda told Haaretz and MachsomWatch activists, "I watched a movie, and then the soldiers received a message. They took me out of the hospital. I asked what time it was, and they said it was 10 A.M. I was dressed only in the hospital robe and a coat. No underwear or pants. I tried to explain to the soldiers [they did not speak Arabic, and Ouda does not speak Hebrew - A.H.] that I wasn't dressed, and that I was cold, but they didn't care. I asked where we were going, and the soldier said he didn't know. All of this was by sign language. The soldiers pushed the wheelchair. My injured leg dragged along the floor, in front of the wheelchair. I stretched forward the injured leg, which cannot bend One of the soldiers attempted to arrange the leg (so that it would not drag along the floor), but couldn't. In the bag that was with me was underwear that had been sent from home, a cell phone my father gave me, some chocolate and a notebook that my father sent to the hospital, with a letter from my sister in it. In the notebook, I'd also begun to write a journal in the hospital. |
"They put me into an army car. There was no room to lay down, only seats. One soldier was sitting near the driver and another soldier sat in back. The car made a lot of stops. Each time, the driver would get out and then come back. My hands were tied the whole time. My legs were not bound.
We got to a big plaza, where I saw police cars and offices.
I also saw soldiers in handcuffs.
I asked what time it was, and they said it was 2:00.
I sat in the car for half an hour or so, and then they took me out.
One of the soldiers who was guarding me in the hospital, and who wore a skullcap, shook my hand and said good-bye.
He looked into my eyes and I saw he had tears in his eyes.
They led me into a van that was parked there.
They stood me up in it, on both legs, including the injured one.
They handcuffed my hand to an inside handle above the window.
I bent my healthy leg, and I stretched forward the injured one, which cannot bend.
My head and [upper] back were hunched over the whole time, because I am taller than the handle was.
I again refused, and he hit me
"Somebody appeared. I noticed two leaves on the shirt of the uniform. The door opened from the side and was left open. He was holding a folder, he pointed to it and said, `Sign.' I refused.
He slapped me across the face.
He didn't ask anything, he only insisted that I sign.
He would go away and come back every few minutes, each time demanding that I sign. I refused.
He slapped me and kicked me in my good leg and then left, and came back a short while later, and then demanded again that I sign.
I again refused, and he hit me.
He demanded three times and I refused three times
"It went on like this until the evening, at which time they took me out of the car. I guess that it was around 10 P.M. Throughout this whole time I didn't eat or drink, and they didn't let me go to the bathroom. They only hit me.
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In the evening they came and removed the leg restraints, but my hands remained cuffed.
They led me by foot to a jail that was there. Again they demanded that I sign 'so that you can get out,' and I refused.
They didn't read out to me what was written; it was in Hebrew.
They put me into a room that had two bunk beds. I asked to eat, and the soldier brought me some mysterious food, and I didn't eat. I asked to go to the bathroom. They let me go to the bathroom but they didn't help me, even though it was hard for me. They just yelled at me.
"I wanted to sleep, and I laid down on one of the beds.
The door opened, and a soldier ordered me to stand up.
Another soldier came, took off the handcuffs, but the cuffs were still around one of my hands, I don't remember which.
He was holding a briefcase, and demanded that I sign.
I refused.
He demanded three times and I refused three times, and then he stood me up, ordered me to put my hands at my sides and he spread my legs apart, by kicking at the good leg.
And I was wearing only the hospital robe and a coat.
He slapped me in the face a few times.
And then he put the cuffs back on my hands, and I went to sleep.
They brought me a big coat with a hood to cover myself up [apparently a sleeping bag - A.H.].
"On the morning (of Monday, December 5), the same soldier who had brought me the food the previous evening came into the cell.
This time he brought me water, a tomato and a few peppers. I ate.
Another soldier led me to the car that had brought me there from the hospital. I could tell because of the driver. I was handcuffed. In the car, they cuffed my legs, too.
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Before starting the car, they blindfolded me with a rag.
We drove for an hour and a half or two. I felt that we drove through a tunnel. At one point the driver switched off the engine and began speaking with someone outside. While we were driving, my [injured] leg was constantly being shoved around. Later on they removed the blindfold." |
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'I Refused and He Hit Me'A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey
CounterPunch.org — December 22, 2005 By AMIRA HASS Slaps and a punch in the stomach
"We got to a place that I guessed was a prison.
They took my bag from me.
They put me in a very narrow cell.
I couldn't stand up in it, I could only lie down, bent over. I couldn't stretch my legs.
Someone came and demanded that I sign.
I couldn't see who it was because I was lying down, with my head on my arms.
I was afraid that the leg would not heal, and I missed my mother.
I refused to sign, but they told me that it was only my signature to the fact that they had taken my cell phone.
After what I guess was about two hours, they removed me from this narrow cell.
I asked them to help me carry the bag, but they refused.
They sent me to an ordinary prison cell, all by myself.
I didn't cry, I was only shaking from the cold.
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On the way from the solitary confinement cell upstairs one of the detainees warned me about `birds' (asafir) — who try to get you to talk.
"Again a soldier came in, one I didn't recognize, and demanded that I sign, and again I refused.
I laid on the bed.
The soldier tied my hands above my head to the bed, and cuffed my feet to the bed.
He started to slap me around.
After 20 or 30 slaps, he punched me in the stomach.
I felt I wanted to throw up.
He punched me again, and this time I did throw up.
He released my legs and uncuffed my hands from the bed — but they remained cuffed to each other.
He threw me a little toilet paper so I could wipe up the vomit.
"They put someone, a Palestinian, in my room, who was bound hand and foot.
He asked me why I was arrested.
I told him that there was nothing against me, and that if I wasn't released that night, I would be released the next morning.
He told me that he'd killed a settler and was sentenced to 15 years, and he told me not to be afraid of him, that he wasn't a collaborator.
But I felt he was a collaborator.
I told him I wasn't afraid (to tell him what I'd done), it was only that I hadn't done anything, and I would be released, if not today then tomorrow.
He asked me how I was so sure of myself.
After a while, a soldier came and took him out.
"By now it was evening. I was awfully tired, and I went to sleep. Someone came in dressed like a doctor. I asked him what time it was and he said it was 6 P.M. He told me to arrange my things, because they were taking me to court.
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Then they removed the metal handcuffs and replaced them with plastic cuffs.
A prisoner who was there gave me sweatpants, a shirt and sandals, but only after an argument with the soldiers.
I'd been barefoot ever since they took me out of the hospital.
He also brought me a crutch.
From the other prisoners I heard that I was in Ramle.
But two minutes later they took the crutch away from me.
"They put me in a car, sat me behind the driver, and I stretched my injured leg forward.
A policemen sat down next to me, and to make room for himself he pushed my injured leg.
They tried to blindfold me with a garbage bag, but when it didn't work, they covered my head with the garbage bag.
My hands were cuffed very tightly.
Every so often the driver, who was a soldier, would turn around and slap me and demand that I lean my head down.
As he was turning around to slap me, I felt that he collided or brushed up against another car, apparently a truck.
After that, he still managed to get in a slap.
I think we were driving for about two hours.
I sweated a lot, and I nearly suffocated from the plastic bag over my head.
The leg was hurting me a lot, and so were my hips, which were bound by a belt.
I thought we were on the way to the court, and when they pulled me out of the police car I suddenly realized I was at the Hawara roadblock."
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IDF Spokesman denies
The IDF Spokesman's response: "On the afternoon of December 4, the detainee was about to be handed over to the Prisons Service. Since his transfer to the Prisons Service was delayed, a team of military policemen and the detainee made their way to the Military Police base in Tel Mond. Around 7 P.M., the Prisons Service made the decision not to process the detainee until the following morning. Accordingly, the detainee was held in a separate detention cell in the Military Police base.
"When he entered the lock-up, there was a need to carry out a procedure of deposition of property, and therefore an Arabic-speaking soldier explained to the detainee that he had to sign the document to confirm that his cell phone was deposited. The detainee refused to sign the deposit form. Until the time that he entered the detention cell, only the detainee's hands were bound. Once he entered the detention cell, the handcuffs were removed. The detainee's stay in the Military Police base was closely supervised by the base commander, an officer of the rank of major, who confirmed that his treatment was humane and according to regulations. We emphasize that the detainee was not beaten or handcuffed to a vehicle.
"On the morning of December 5, 2005, the detainee was transferred to the Prisons Service facility in Ramle by a team of military policemen. That evening, at around 7 P.M., a directive was issued by the Samaria district of the Israel Police, stating that the detainee should be immediately released.
"A team of three military policemen was entrusted with his transfer from the Prisons Service facility to the Hawara roadblock. The detainee was transferred from the Prisons Service with a plastic bag tied around his eyes. In the course of the journey no exceptional event took place, and the allegations of violence committed against him are groundless. The Military Police car did not have a collision with any other car. The trip lasted approximately one hour, at the end of which the detainee was transferred to a Civil Administration officer who was waiting there." Nevertheless, the IDF Spokesman informed Haaretz that these were the results of an initial inquiry, and that an investigation of the event continues.
The Prisons Service reported, "The detainee arrived at the central hospital of the Prisons Service on December 5, 2005 at 11:35 A.M., and his processing was approved by the chief medical officer of the Prisons Service (due to his being injured). The detainee was released that same day by the Prisons Service at 6:10 P.M. and was taken by the Military Police. The detainee spent these hours in a hospital room and was held separately, because he is a minor."
Maher Talhami, the attorney for Physicians for Human Rights who met twice with Ouda and took down an affidavit, says that on the basis of his own experience, the beating of minor Palestinian detainees in order to have them sign confessions is routine. This view is shared by attorney Khaled Quzmar, who represents minors in military tribunals for Defense for Children International.
What makes this case atypical, say the two lawyers, is that Ouda insisted on not signing, was released early, and was able to tell about his arrest only a few days after it occurred.
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Amira Hass writes for Ha'aretz. She is the author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza. |
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Wednesday, 13 September 2006
Palestinian children in Israeli prison
(Bethlehem) Najib Farag
The Palestinian Prisoner Society, legal and childhood rights institutions, and the international and local Red Cross, are pushing for the immediate release of Palestinian minors from Israeli prisons.
Children in Telmond Prison are in dire psychological and physical straights as reported by the Prisoner Society Wednesday.
Israeli forces arrested 11 year old Mohammad Abdullah Mousa Othman and 13 year old Rafiq Mohammad Al Eisha nearly three weeks ago.
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The western Ramallah’s Beit Ur At Tahta Village boys have been subject to severe beatings at the hands of Israeli soldiers.
Members of the intelligence in charge of interrogating the children have beaten and threatened both and forced them to sign statements.
Prisoner Society lawyer Adal Khalaila met with the boys on 11 September and described their situation as “tragic.”
Khalaila said, “The minors have been thrown in with their elders and have no knowledge of the rules of law, and are clearly too young to adapt to prison life.”
He described Othman as a “tall, skinny boy in prison contrary to all norms of international law.
It is also contrary to Israeli law which does not allow arresting Palestinians under 12 years old.”
The lawyer reported that Israeli soldiers arrested the 11 year old from the streets of his village on 25 August under the pretext that he had thrown stones at Israeli forces.
The boy was taken to a mountain high above the town and held there for seven to eight hours.
He was handcuffed and blindfolded the entire time.
One of the Israeli soldiers put his cigarette out in the boy’s hand.
Othman was then taken to a military installation for investigation in the Israeli settlement of Givat Ze’ev west of Ramallah in the West Bank.
He was interrogated into the morning hours of the second day.
Khalaila stated that due to the boy’s young age and lack of maturity or knowledge of how to handle the torturous investigations that most Palestinian males undergo at some point in their lives, he signed the investigators’ report without knowing the content.
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“He was under threat and intimidation, beatings and insults.”
None of the child’s family members have been allowed to visit him and it remains unknown when or if he will be released.
The Israeli military court has held three hearings for the boy since his arrest.
The second minor that the Palestinian Prisoner Society focused on in today’s report is 13 year old Rafiq Mohammad Al Aisha.
Israeli soldiers took him in the same manner as the 11 year old: from the streets of Beit Ur At Tahta Village, west of Ramallah, accusing him of throwing stones at Israeli forces.
Khalaila sat with Al Aisha as he reported what has happened to him.
Israeli soldiers and interrogators have repeatedly punched the 13 year old in the face and kicked him in the legs and backside.
The boy said that he was not throwing stones, denying the charge against him.
He was forced under threat to sign a statement of unknown content.
The Prisoner Society attorney reported that both children are experiencing difficulty speaking and expressing themselves, and in understanding what is being said to them.
Khalaila concluded reporting the sworn statements by saying that the boys are not pronouncing words clearly.
The Israeli authorities have arrested over 5,000 Palestinian minors since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.
Still in Israeli prisons are 350 Palestinians aged 11 through 17 years. Copyrights © Palestine News Network, 2003 - 2006 |
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Wednesday, 1 October, 2003 Despair of Palestinian children By Richard Miron
BBC correspondent in Jerusalem
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A group of girls sing in unison in a circle in the playground of the Samiha Khalil school in Ramallah.
In the glare of the bright summer sun, the older girls in their blue striped uniforms lead the younger children through the verses and the accompanying actions of arm waving and leg shaking.
The school classrooms are clean and freshly painted, and the corridors resound to the sounds of pupils at work and at play.
The children appear, at first glance, to be lively and happy.
But across the valley, just a few hundred metres away on a neighbouring hilltop, sit the red-roofed houses of the Jewish settlement of Psagot.
This area has been the focus of fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian gunmen with civilians caught in-between.
That violence has affected many young Palestinians.
"I once had a nightmare that the Israeli soldiers came to school and sentenced everyone to death — the next day I didn't want to come to school," says Samr Bargouti a bright-eyed 13-year-old girl.
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Everyday violence
Almost all the children at the school have direct experience of the troubles that erupted three years ago.
The evidence at the Samiha Khalil is not hard to find.
Two bullet holes have punctured the glass above the door
of the first-floor classroom, which the teachers say is the result of
shootings from the nearby Jewish settlement.
Violence is a regular feature of life for the children of Ramallah.
The crash of stones on Israeli army jeeps and the bang of rubber bullets are often heard in the centre of town.
Many families have had family members who have been arrested and detained by the Israeli forces.
Travel between the towns of the West Bank has become very difficult, dividing families and making normal life difficult.
Mental misery
Tahani Lubani a teacher at the Samiha Khalil school travels for two hours in each direction through army checkpoints in
order to reach her pupils.
But she says her difficulties are slight compared to the children she teaches.
"Maybe a student had a father brother imprisoned or killed — she's not in a good mental state — all of that
had an impact on concentration in the class not feeling well — feeling down and depressed," she says.
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Over 2,200 Palestinians have died and thousands more have been injured — among them numerous young people.
The Palestinian Authority has established a National Plan of Action (NPA) for youngsters affected by the conflict.
"'We are not talking about isolated incidents [of trauma]," says Dr Cairo Arafat, a psychologist and director of the NPA.
"We are talking about a way of life to some extent...
where children are constantly under the threat that something bad could
and will happen."
Dr Arafat fears for the psychological well-being of all Palestinian youth.
She has seen an increase in illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, and fears that unless there is some
political solution the problems will only worsen.
"The vast majority of children felt that it was quite unlikely the situation would get any better, and unless we build a new reality that's real children won't be able to change their perceptions."
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Hope in short supply
In the playground of the Samiha Khalil, seven-year-old Mohammed plays a boisterous game of football with his friends.
Despite his happy demeanour he has a bleak outlook for the future, enforced by personal experience.
Once his home was hit by gunfire from the nearby Jewish settlement, a bullet came right through the window near his bedroom, he says.
"I think about the situation and how people are dying because of the Jews," he says — and he is not sure how or when there
will be peace.
Hope is a rare commodity for Palestinians, and ongoing violence is breeding more despair among the young in this conflict
which has affected so many in the past three years.
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Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint
In the Twilight Zone
CounterPunch.org — December 19, 2005 By GIDEON LEVY Irja. The time has come for all of us to become familiar with this word. There is no checkpoint soldier who doesn't know it, there is no Palestinian who hasn't heard it. "Irja!" roars the soldier at the person whom he is preventing from crossing the checkpoint — i.e., go back, get out of here. "Irja" to the man carrying the injured child, who wants to bring him home. "Irja" to the construction engineer who wants to get to work. "Irja" to the mother carrying her baby on the way to visiting her parents. "Irja" to the old man who wants to visit his grandchildren. The theater of the absurd of the occupation is giving rise to a new scene, reminiscent of an older one. Last Thursday, Yosef Abu-A'adi, 29, stabbed and killed soldier Nir Kahana at the Qalandiyah checkpoint. The checkpoint was closed immediately, and for the past week, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been unable to cross it. |
Collective punishment
Qalandiyah, we should mention here, is a "mega-checkpoint" in the territories, not between the territories and Israel.
The cruel collective punishment that was ordered last week — there's no other way to describe it — condemns tens of thousands of innocent people, who are already in a bad way, to many more days of harassment.
Is the checkpoint closed?
Not really.
It can be crossed.
Not by walking a few hundred meters, as usual, but via a very costly and prolonged ride in a taxi — 50 kilometers and an hour and a half in each direction — to bypass the closed checkpoint, involving a trip almost all over the West Bank.
You drive north, in order to drive south for a few hundred meters, until you reach the other side of the checkpoint.
Is this not collective punishment?
Soon the new Qalandiyah crossing will be dedicated: a virtual checkpoint city with the suffocating separation wall alongside, impressively organized international lanes for passage with parking places for the disabled — the comfortable occupation.
Stones from the Golan Heights beautify the plazas, and there's a large sign that someone has planted here with great chutzpah, proclaiming "The hope of us all," with a picture of a red rose next to it.
The renovated checkpoint that cuts the occupied West Bank in half will be "the hope of us all."
What wretched hope!
In the mini-bus taxi in which we traveled this week, to experience the absurdity of driving dozens of kilometers in order to bypass the closed checkpoint, it says in Hebrew "Do not despair."
But this winter in Qalandiyah, which the Israel Defense [sic] Forces likes to call "a crossing," continues to be a very depressing one.
The mountains of garbage, the sand, the barbed wire and the concrete blocks that were placed here last Thursday prevent any possibility of crossing by car.
If there's a murder in Tel Aviv, is all of Tel Aviv placed under siege?
If there's a stabbing in Haifa, is all of Haifa imprisoned?
But here in the territories anything goes: a murder in Qalandiyah, and half the West Bank is under detention.
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The Palestinian press reports on this checkpoint every day on the front pages, but who in Israel has heard about it?
Who is even interested?
Entire leg encased in cast
A young man carrying his nephew, a child whose entire leg is encased in a cast, approaches the concrete blocks with the barbed wire strung between them.
The Border Policeman, out of great humanity, allows the injured child to return home; after all, Israel allows "humanitarian cases" to cross, as has been publicized.
However, the uncle, who is carrying him in his arms, is not a "humanitarian case."
The child cannot stand up.
The uncle puts him down like an object on the concrete block, before the unfeeling eyes of the policeman: "I'll take him only up to the car and I'll come back," pleads the uncle, but the Border Policeman is not affected by any of this: "Irja."
Scars
A line of cars that are forced to head back where they came from, traffic jams and loud honking of horns.
A young man sits in a white VW Polo, pointing to the scars on his face.
On the last holiday a soldier hit him there.
The man says that he tried to convince the soldier to allow the man's brother to join him for a holiday visit to their family — and the reply was blows with the rifle butt.
Everyone here bears the scars of the checkpoint.
A social worker from the Red Crescent in Ramallah, a volunteer who specializes in treating the emotionally scarred, tries in vain to show the Border Policeman his volunteer certificate from the humanitarian organization, as well as the newspaper clipping in which it says that "humanitarian cases" are allowed to cross.
"Irja." The emotionally scarred in Ramallah can wait.
An easing of the closure: Starting on Sunday, Israel allowed residents of East Jerusalem to cross at Qalandiyah, but not the residents of Ramallah or the West Bank, of course.
We cross on foot.
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I don't work for you
In the filthy tunnel at the crossing, a young man walks toward us, returning to where he came from, his face contorted in anger: "They're sons of bitches."
Issa had smoked a cigarette at the checkpoint, the soldier ordered him to put it out and then, when he tossed the cigarette butt into the garbage that is scattered all over the ground, the soldier ordered him to collect all the cigarette butts from the checkpoint.
"I don't work for you," said the young man — and gave up his right to cross.
"This whole business of the stabbing was not a simple matter," says Issa, a Jerusalemite. "It was probably a man who suffered a great deal at this checkpoint. It's not a small matter, for a man to stab a soldier."
"Are they letting people cross?" asks a passerby.
"They're letting people cross, but humiliating them," replies Issa.
A visit to Grandma and Grandpa
In a blue Golf sits a Jerusalem woman with a baby on her lap.
She has been standing at the eastern part of the crossing, where cars from Jerusalem are allowed to leave Ramallah along the bypass route.
She took the baby out of his carseat, after his crying could be heard far and wide.
Did not allow gym teacher or science teacher to cross
Already an hour at the checkpoint, and the end is not in sight. A visit to Grandma and Grandpa.
Three young children are returning from their private school to their homes in the Qalandiyah refugee camp.
Every day they cross here on the way to school and back; Israel allows them to pass through.
The sixth-graders see what is happening at the checkpoint, their hearts filled with love of Zion.
Subahi, Samer and Yasser got out of school early today.
The soldiers did not allow the gym teacher or the science teacher to cross.
Meanwhile, the woman with the baby is still waiting in the blue Golf.
The mother straps her baby into his seat; there are only two cars still ahead of her at the checkpoint, an hour and a half after her arrival.
Elderly Jedda Darwish has an American passport and a valid tourist visa for Israel.
He's allowed to walk around freely in Tel Aviv, but not to cross Qalandiyah, American or not.
"Irja."
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The entire West Bank is now becoming covered with phosphorescent yellow vests.
A new ruling that will come into effect in Israel shortly will require every driver to wear this glowing garment when he leaves his car at night on the road.
West Bank drivers, whose safety is especially important to Israel, have rushed to buy vests from the many peddlers on the sides of the roads: They know that they will be the first ones to get ticketed for violations.
At the Qalandiyah checkpoint they cost NIS 15 each.
Instructions for use: "This vest must be worn closed only, for the safety of the wearer. It should not be put in a clothes dryer. It should not be washed more than 15 times. It should not be used for the following purposes: protection from fire, chemical substances, cold, electricity or other dangers."
US Israel occupation crimes
It's 12:25 P.M. and our taxi finally gets moving.
Inside are some angry-looking people who are now being forced to pay NIS 15 each and to kill an hour and a quarter, not including the long wait until the taxi fills up — just to reach the other side of the Qalandiyah checkpoint.
On the right is the Qalandiyah refugee camp.
We are driving into Ramallah, passing by the homes of El Bireh, on our long trip.
The passengers are wrapped in silence.
What is there to say?
They absorb the humiliation of this stupid excursion, and keep quiet.
Feingold & Son assembled the seats of the shabby van.
A passport photo of the driver's son, a son of refugees from Qalandiyah, is hanging above his head, alongside the little green fir tree that once gave off a scent.
The driver's face is angry, too, although since the closing of the checkpoint he has more work.
The Best Eastern Hotel in Ramallah.
The city is trying to create an international impression.
To reach southern Ramallah we travel north. Very far north. Then east, and then again south.
The village of Sudra, the site of one of the crueler checkpoints in the West Bank, which has been removed.
And Abu Kash, a large percentage of whose inhabitants have emigrated to America.
In the window of one of the stores we pass, there is a display of exercise equipment.
To our left is the pleasant campus of Bir Zeit University; indeed we've already arrived in the town of Bir Zeit, where most of the population is Christian. Tour and enjoy.
The checkpoint at the exit from Bir Zeit is not manned today; there is increased easing of the closure.
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The Atara bridge.
On the right the road ascends to Nablus, on the left to the Jewish settlement of Halamish.
The road becomes hilly, we descend the valleys and climb the mountains on this roller coaster.
Jifna on the right.
It's already 1:15 P.M., so far we've been on the road for 40 minutes.
Jewish road ahead
As we head toward highway No. 60 the driver puts on his seat belt; there's a Jewish road ahead.
The conditions on the road improve immediately: They are well paved, with no bumps, wide shoulders and lighting.
It's 17 kilometers to the settlement of Beit El, five to Ofra.
The driver's seat belt refuses to close.
Ofra on the left, 28 kilometers to Jerusalem.
Finally we are headed south, the direction of our destination.
The settlements of Ma'aleh Mikhmash, Kokhav Hashahar on the left.
It's quiet today, and there are no surprise roadblocks.
"Careful, blind people on the road," warns a Jerusalem Municipality sign near the A-Ram checkpoint, which is exactly at the entrance of the Helen Keller school.
Why not just get rid of this ridiculous checkpoint?
After 48 kilometers and exactly an hour and a quarter, we have arrived at our destination: the Qalandiyah checkpoint, from which we started out, but on the other side.
The IDF spokesman: "The Qalandiyah crossing was closed because of the great security risk to the IDF soldiers who carry out the security checks there and the direct contact between the Palestinians and the soldiers, which last Thursday led to the stabbing attack in which an IDF soldier was killed by a terrorist.
"Since the new crossing at Qalandiyah, which promises better protection for the soldiers and better conditions for the Palestinian residents, is expected to be opened soon, the IDF Central Command has decided not to take any unnecessary risks, and to wait for the opening of the new crossing.
"It should be mentioned that in spite of the closing of the checkpoint, humanitarian cases and residents of East Jerusalem are being allowed to cross there."
A naive question: If it's dangerous for the soldiers, and if it's possible to cross — but only via the long and expensive route — why not just get rid of this ridiculous checkpoint?
Too late for that Gideon
Not to mention what a stupid, stupid question
— TheWE.name
Gideon Levy writes for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.
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The Killing of Mahmoud ShawaraDusty Trail to Death
CounterPunch.org — December 27, 2005 By GIDEON LEVY On Sunday morning of last week Mahmoud Shawara, a laborer, mounted his mule and set out from his home in the village of Nuaman to look for work in the neighboring village of Umm Touba. At about 9 A.M., he was arrested by a Border Police unit that detains workers who do not have an entry permit to Israel every morning. His skull and face were smashed The Border Police ordered Shawara to get into their jeep. He refused. He did not want to leave his mule unattended. At 9:30 his brother saw him for the last time, healthy and sound. At 4 P.M. a resident of Umm Touba named Mohammed Hamadan noticed a mule galloping toward the village and dragging something behind it. From a distance, Hamadan thought it might be scrap metal. As the mule came closer, Hamadan saw that it was dragging an injured, battered man. The mule, he says, was galloping down the slope and looked frightened. He stopped the animal and then discovered that the person being dragged across the ground was Mahmoud Shawara, from the neighboring village, whom he knew well. Shawara`s left hand was roped to the mule`s neck. He was unconscious and barely breathing. His skull and face were smashed on the left side and blood was pouring from him. He managed to utter a few broken, unclear words or parts of words and then stopped breathing. |
Hamadan untied Shawara, laid him on the ground and pressed on his chest to restart his breathing. He then summoned an ambulance from the clinic of the Meuhedet health maintenance organization in the village.
Shawara was taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, where he was admitted to the neurosurgical section of the intensive care unit. At the end of the week, during which he did not regain consciousness, Shawara died of his wounds.
He was 43, a laborer and the father of nine children, who went to look for work in the neighboring village.
Riding accident!
How was Shawara killed?
Did the Border Police abuse him physically and tie him to the animal and then spook it, bringing about his death from blows to his head from rocks as the animal lurched down the hill?
Was he beaten and then tied to the mule, which was then sent on its way?
Or is the Justice Ministry`s Police Investigations Department correct in claiming that this was a riding accident — Shawara tied himself to the mule, fell off it and was seriously injured.
People in Nuaman told us this week that the Border Police regularly tie people who are `illegally present` in Israel (shabahim) to their animals.
We will cite the testimony of another Palestinian worker who was tied to his donkey by Border Policemen a few weeks ago as he lay on the ground, face down, with his hands tied behind his back and a cinderblock on his back, placed there by the Border Police.
Lest it be demolished by Israel
Between Nuaman and Umm Touba, two peaceful villages above a spectacular valley, lies the dragging strip.
Close-up of the horror: the face of the dead man is smashed.
Shawara`s body lies on the floor in his house, covered by a Palestine flag and a sheet from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem (even though he died in Hadassah).
The house — an `illegal structure` — has no roof, lest it be demolished by Israel.
A blue canvas covers the home to protect against the elements.
Places Hamas flag over deceased, over the Palestinian flag and the Shaare Zedek sheet
It is afternoon, a few minutes before the funeral procession is to begin, on Sunday of this week.
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Someone places a Hamas flag on the deceased, over the Palestinian flag and the Shaare Zedek sheet.
The women of the family are crying inconsolably; the firstborn daughter, Kauther, 24, is about to faint.
Before the body is taken from the room, the face is — unusually — covered, in order to conceal the injuries.
The governor of Bethlehem, Salah Taamri, is standing outside with all the local dignitaries.
The funeral is restrained, difficult.
There is only one extremist outcry: `Ya, Jew, ya pig, we will stomp you underfoot.`
Way of the hill people
The villagers are convinced that Shawara was killed by the Border Police.
But when a Border Police jeep suddenly shows up in the middle of the funeral, for a quick, provocative look, the restraint is maintained.
This is the way of the hill people: they are sparing of speech and very apprehensive.
Nuaman lies on the open road to Jerusalem, between Bethlehem and the Israeli capital, east of the Har Homa neighborhood, in a place where the separation wall has not yet been completed.
The Border Police are here every day and people are afraid to talk.
On the way to look for work, as was his daily custom
Exactly a week earlier, Shawara set out from his home for the last time.
His brother, Daoud, left his home at about 7:30, on foot, making for Umm Touba, which lies within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, and where there is sometimes work to be had in construction or farming.
Daoud relates that after a short time, a Border Police jeep arrived and arrested him and the other laborers, six in all, who had set out from the village.
None of them had a permit to work in Israel.
Not long afterward Mahmoud arrived, too, riding his mule.
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He too was on the way to look for work, as was his daily custom.
The Border Police detained him, too.
They confiscated the orange ID cards of everyone in the group and ordered them to go to the police station in Talpiot, in the southern part of Jerusalem.
After some negotiation, Daoud says, the Border Police took them to the station in the jeep.
Mahmoud refused to get into the jeep, saying he could not leave the mule by itself in the open.
An argument broke out, but the Border Police did not use violence against Mahmoud, says his brother Daoud.
Daoud was taken away in the jeep and his brother remained behind with the mule and the Border Policemen who stayed with him.
After a brief interrogation and after signing an undertaking not to enter Umm Touba again, Daoud and the others were taken to the new Rachel checkpoint — at Rachel`s Tomb, by the entrance to Bethlehem — and sent on their way.
They are Bedouin, members of the Taamra tribe
Daoud never saw his brother alive again.
Arriving back in the village at about 12:30 P.M., he was unable to find Mahmoud.
It is a small village of 170 residents, one fatality until last week, stone houses on the edge of a spectacular valley in the east, the Har Homa settlement in the west.
They are Bedouin, members of the Taamra tribe.
Six and a half hours separate the time
At 4 P.M. Mohammed Hamadan saw the galloping mule, leaving behind a cloud of dust.
It was making its way along the trail that goes down to Umm Touba, which is flanked on both sides by piles of garbage.
We are now walking along the path from Nuaman to Umm Touba, a trail which the mule followed, at least in part.
It is a rocky trail. A few hundred meters separate the place where Shawara was arrested from the place where he was discovered tied to the mule.
Six and a half hours separate the time at which Shawara`s brother saw him alive and well and the time he was discovered tied to the mule.
No one knows what happened in those hours.
Hamadan is now looking for signs of blood on the trail followed by the mule, but the rain has apparently washed everything away.
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He saw no wounds on Mahmoud`s body, only on the shattered left side of his head.
He was tied to the mule by a rope of black cloth.
Here is where he stopped the mule, grabbing its reins, on the slope.
The workers in the adjacent warehouse for construction materials also saw the event.
The owner of the business, Ahmed Abu Their, was the one who called the ambulance.
He says that he saw Mahmoud tied to the mule but was afraid to approach.
The men, their faces grim, are sitting on the ridge and waiting for the ambulance to bring the body from Hadassah.
The women, in black, are sitting in the shadow of the dead man`s home and keening.
Young people fly Palestinian flags on the roofs of the houses and on the fence of the cemetery that lies below the village.
`Jerusalem`
The convoy is approaching from the valley, the Palestinian ambulance in front with red lights blinking.
An Israeli army jeep watches from afar, parked on the security road that was paved along the separation wall that is being built as the `Jerusalem envelope.`
No one in the village knows where the border lies here between `the territories` and `Jerusalem.`
When the wall is completed, it will all become clear.
In Nuaman only one resident has a Jerusalem ID card (blue); everyone else is `territories.`
Neighboring Umm Touba is `Jerusalem` but not all its residents have blue cards, either.
A man next to me wipes away a tear.
The body is taken from the ambulance into the house.
Inside the deceased`s face is uncovered, the face of a peasant, mustachioed and wounded — and is immediately covered.
Two similar cases
The village`s lawyer, Daoud Darawi, who works in the Palestine branch of Defense for Children International (DCI) in Ramallah, is demanding an international investigation of the circumstances of Shawara`s death.
`They did to him what the whites did to Indians in America,` he says.
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He tells about two similar cases.
In the nearby village of Dar Salah, Border Police in a jeep struck a donkey on which Walid Amiya was riding, knocking him to the ground.
He survived.
In nearby Wadi al-Humos, they tied Maamoun Abu Ali to his donkey and tried to send the animal on its way.
He too survived. (We will come back to him later.)
According to attorney Darawi, the Border Police have been in the area for about a month.
Since their arrival, cases of abuse of laborers looking for work in the neighboring village have increased.
"Come one day at 5 A.M. and you will see what goes on here every day with the Border Police," the lawyer says.
Mahmoud Shawara`s family filed a complaint with the Police Investigations Department (PID).
The Justice Ministry spokesman, Yaacov Galant, said this week on behalf of the PID:
"Our best investigations, which we conducted from the moment the complaint was received until last Friday afternoon, indicate that there is no connection between the activity of the Border Police and the injury and death of the individual.
Apparently he was warned about the mule, told not to ride it.
It was a wild mule.
Apparently he mounted it, rode it and also tied hims elf to it."
Has the investigation been thoroughly concluded?
Galant promised to check and get back to me.
A short time later:
"At the moment there is nothing new.
We have not gotten one testimony that would connect the Border Police [to the event].
We will be happy to receive other testimonies.
In the meantime, no one can point to a specific connection between the Border Policemen and the case."
Maamoun Abu Ali is a construction worker on a building that is going up in the Doha neighborhood in the southern section of Bethlehem.
We tracked him down on Tuesday of this week.
A smiling bachelor of 20, he still carries the scars of his encounter with the Border Police in the valley below Nuaman.
Abu Ali is from the neighboring village of Abadiya.
About two months ago, during Ramadan, he was riding his donkey on the way to nearby Wadi Humos to buy a chicken for the break-fast meal at Shahar`s butcher shop.
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It was slightly after midday.
Suddenly a Border Police jeep pulled up next to him.
"Where are you going?" Abu Ali was asked, and he replied, "To buy a chicken."
The Border Police checked the items the donkey was carrying and then examined Abu Ali`s papers.
A shabah.
Bingo.
With the animal`s reins they tied Abu Ali`s hands behind his back and made him lie on his stomach on the ground, face down.
The Border Police like to `punish` the shabahim they catch.
Abu Ali relates that they placed a cinderblock on his back and then whipped the donkey to make it walk.
Abu Ali`s donkey is old and stubborn, or maybe he only obeys his master — whatever the case, it refused to budge.
Abu Ali says he also pulled with his bound hands, so the donkey would not move.
It is not difficult to guess what would have happened if the donkey had panicked and started to gallop, with Abu Ali lying face down, hands tied behind his back to the animal.
Stood on Abu Ali`s back — struck him in the face with a ston
At one point one of the Border Policemen also stood on Abu Ali`s back, one foot on him and one foot on the cinderblock, to put pressure on him.
The abuse went on for about a quarter of an hour, Abu Ali says.
Finally the Israeli troops gave up trying to make the stubborn donkey move and ordered Abu Ali to get up.
They spoke Arabic.
Abu Ali says that one of them covered his eyes with his hands and another struck him once in the face with a stone.
He still has a scar on the right side, below his lip.
They threatened him, saying that `if he wandered around here again, he would be killed.`
They then sent him on his way.
Abu Ali did not file a complaint with the Police Investigations Department.
He wanted to complain to the Palestinian police and have them pass on the complaint, but was dissuaded from doing so by the policeman in his village, who told him, "People are getting killed here, so be thankful that you`re alive and healthy."
Tell the world
"Let us tell the world what they are doing to us, about the disgusting occupation we live under," the elderly Mohammed Abu Ranar Adum, one of the village headmen, says in his eulogy.
The funeral is about to disperse in silence.
In the shade of the olive trees, at the edge of the village, on the brink of the valley, stands the mule, tied to a tree.
A brown, strong animal.
When we approach to take its photograph, the mule shows signs of panic, turns its head aside and tries in vain to break loose.
Gideon Levy writes for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. |
How Israel sought to make this documentary illegal |
| It was made in 1997, except for Gaza settlers still in Gaza, could be written today. You’ll really like the scenes where Israelis speak of 'how to take care of the problem'. One American holds up a sign saying 'transfer all the Arabs to Oklahoma where there’s oil' Listen to settlers speak. Watch how uncomfortable they are with the camera facing them. 56 minutes long — so sit back or come back. See something that really does open your eyes to Palestine and the takeover now known as Israel. If you've never been there, observe this intensity and human cruelty. |
| 'People and the Land' (PDF file) by Tom Hayes — click here A 24 page article about how hard this film was to make. How Israel sought to make it illegal, doing all they could to prevent the film. |
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| US Veto 41 for Israel | November 11, 2006 — US vetoes adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel military operations in the Gaza Strip; vote: The United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia abstaining. 10-1 with four absentions, Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia |
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| US Veto 40 for Israel | July 13, 2006 — US vetoes UN Qatari-sponsored resolution in the UN Security Council condemning Israel military disproportionate force in the Gaza Strip; vote: 10-1 with four absentions, Britain, Peru, Denmark and Slovakia |
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| US Veto 39 for Israel | October 5, 2004 — US vetoes UN condemning Israel military incursion in Gaza, causing many civilian deaths and extensive damage to property; vote: 11 to 1, with 3 abstentions, Britain, Germany, Romania |
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| US Veto 38 for Israel | March 25, 2004 — US vetoes UN condemning Israel for killing Palestinian spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a missile attack in Gaza; vote: 11 to 1, with 3 abstentions, Britain, Germany, Romania |
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| US Veto 37 for Israel | October 14, 2003 — US vetoes UN raising concerns about Israel building of a securiy fence through the occupied West Bank; vote 10 to 1, with 4 abstentions, Britain, Germany, Bulgaria and Cameroon |
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| US Veto 36 for Israel | September 16, 2003 — US vetoes UN reaffirming the illegality of deportation of any Palestinian and expressed concern about the possible deportation of Yasser Arafat; vote: 11 to 1, with 3 abstentions, Britain, Germany and Bulgaria |
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| US Veto 35 for Israel | December 19, 2002 — US vetoes UN expressing deep concern over Israel killing of U.N. employees and Israel’s destruction of the U.N. World Food Program warehouse in Beit Lahiya and demanding that Israel refrain from the excessive and disproportionate use of force in the occupied territories; vote: 12 to 1, with 2 abstentions, Bulgaria and Cameroon |
UN President calls for sanctions against Israel
by Saed Bannoura — IMEMC News Thursday November 27, 2008
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann said that the international community should engage in a 'boycott, divestment and sanctions' campaign against Israel, similar to those enacted against South Africa two decades ago."
Israel has engaged in a military occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967, with an increase in military presence since the year 2000.
The people of Palestine continue to live under martial law, with no control of their land, sea or water.
In his remarks, d'Escoto said that Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away.
He said that the United Nations should not be afraid to use the term apartheid to describe what is happening in occupied Palestine.
Former US President Jimmy Carter came under fire for using the term 'apartheid' in reference to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
He was even prevented from speaking at the Democratic National Convention this year because of his position on the issue.
Inserted by TheWE.name
More than Fifteen million US dollars is given by US taxpayers each day for the use of Israel, which presently involves the imprisonment of the remaining segregated ' Bantustan — Apartheid ' parcels of land occupied by millions of Palestinian people.
Palestinians were forced from their homes 60 years ago from what is now called Israel into refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.
While attempts have been made by the Palestinians to create a better life for themselves, these refugee camps have been forced upon them to this day by American Taxpayer funding, and Anglo American, Europe backing and banking for Israel that has propped up the forced 'state' of Israel for more than fifty years.
Illuminati, New World Order elite have been at the forefront in protecting European and American settler people who stole the land and continue to steal the remaining few segments of land from the Palestinians, in essence taking away from the Palestinians piece by piece this land over these many years.
Funding by the US Taxpayer for the enslavement of the Palestinian people continues to increase, estimated now considerably more than the previous 4 billion US dollars per year.
© 2001-2008 IMEMC NEWS.
Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse reprint, and rebroadcast on the net and elsewhere. |
| US Veto 34 for Israel | December 14, 2001 — US vetoes UN condemning all acts of terror, the use of excessive force and destruction of properties and encouraged establishment of a monitoring apparatus; vote: 12-1, with 2 abstentions, Britain and Norway |
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| US Veto 33 for Israel | March 26, 2001 — US vetoes UN calling for the deployment of a U.N. observer force in the West Bank and Gaza; vote: 9 to 1, with 4 abstentions, Britain, France, Ireland and Norway |
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| Please take these images you see Please place them on your website Future generations need to know the monsters presently running our planet! |
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| US Veto 32 for Israel | March 21, 1997—Demanded Israel cease construction of the settlement Har Homa (called Jabal Abu Ghneim by the Palestinians) in East Jerusalem and cease all other settlement activity in the occupied territories; vote: 13 to 1, with one abstention |
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| US Veto 31 for Israel | March 7, 1997 — US vetoes UN calling on Israel to refrain from settlement activity and all other actions in the occupied territories; vote:14 to 1 |
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| US Veto 30 for Israel | May 17, 1995 — US vetoes UN declaring invalid Israel expropriation of land in East Jerusalem and in violation of Security Council resolutions and the Fourth Geneva convention; vote: 14 to 1 |
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| US Veto 29 for Israel | May 31, 1990 — US vetoes UN calling for a fact-finding mission on abuses against Palestinians in Israeli-occupied lands; vote: 14 to 1 |
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Yasser Arafat — Did Israel or the US kill him — Substitute Hamas for Arafat Former Palestine leader Yasser Arafat leaves his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, October 29, 2004 |
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Roots of evil in Jerusalem — Click here |
Did we bomb something! |
| The world seem kind of unreal to you, Ban Ki-moon! That's because you still think you understand! |
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| Please take these images you see Please place them on your website Future generations need to know the monsters presently running our planet! |
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Atrocities committed by Israel — graphic pictures What CNN nor the BBC ever shows you |
| US ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES Israel Caused Holocaust Palestine Lebanon US Israel massacres — desire to kill one and half million people They keep sucking off the teat of America and the banking systems of Europe |
Using war to take and swallow Palestine land The Israeli army arrived on our street at 2 am yesterday morning |
| ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES The horror of January 2009 Israel massacres — children bullets to the head I watched an Israeli soldier shoot dead my two little girls |
| US ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES February March 2008 US Israel massacres — desire to kill one and half million people The Story of Palestinians Childhoods |
| ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES January 19 - 21 Israel massacres — children bullets to the head Places flag on family home — East Gaza City |
| ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES January 14 - 18 2009 Israel massacres — desire to kill one and half million people They came up again with the Hamas-was-in-the-UN-school lie |
| ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES CONTINUE January 2nd week 2009 99% of US House joins 100% of US Senate in Supporting Israel with HRes34 The 42 vetoes of the US for Israel |
US Israel attack on Gaza City The Politics of Anti-Semitism 99 US Senators, 350 US House members attend AIPAC meeting |
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ISRAEL MASS WAR CRIMES CONTINUE January 2009 — Click here Israel killing — US paid army fires towards populations to cause death and injury The 42 vetoes of the US for Israel |
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For archive purposes, this article is being stored on TheWE.name website.The purpose is to advance understandings of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. |