tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67330652424328236262024-03-12T13:52:07.086+09:00Plight of the UnpeopleUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1883125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-81772610169461175692024-02-24T11:19:00.004+09:002024-02-24T11:19:54.592+09:00The Prophecies of Malcolm X: Zionism Is a New Kind of Colonialism<p>"They’re violent in Korea, they’re violent in Germany, they’re violent in the South Pacific, they’re violent in Cuba, they’re violent wherever they go. But when it comes time for you and me to protect ourselves against lynchings, they tell us to be nonviolent." - <b>Malcolm X</b></p><p><i><a href="https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/22/the-prophecies-of-malcolm-x-zionism-is-a-new-kind-of-colonialism/">https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/22/the-prophecies-of-malcolm-x-zionism-is-a-new-kind-of-colonialism/</a></i></p><p><i>Sam Husseini (<a href="https://twitter.com/samhusseini">https://twitter.com/samhusseini</a>)</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVDsKSaut6C003WccmsANTxDitvGNtdFkEre7lSA_YWL_hW5D45VZyRTyUZ0uTIdf-tFUh1gRkfhxhxJLpc-KKyoCQ-w-_FvUOFeWuWhqeRErAWfk2r9jhbFq_aWEU065XYEOpZQxJb5bjTbA7xyB2gmvvWdC5aSvp0vSBpu0gwFRal5y2XfXsdMpPz9A" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="647" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVDsKSaut6C003WccmsANTxDitvGNtdFkEre7lSA_YWL_hW5D45VZyRTyUZ0uTIdf-tFUh1gRkfhxhxJLpc-KKyoCQ-w-_FvUOFeWuWhqeRErAWfk2r9jhbFq_aWEU065XYEOpZQxJb5bjTbA7xyB2gmvvWdC5aSvp0vSBpu0gwFRal5y2XfXsdMpPz9A" width="309" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-61328747571059121082023-07-15T16:49:00.003+09:002023-07-15T16:49:25.654+09:00ICCから「スポーツウォッシュ」へ:ウェストの利己的な物語とは闘わなければならない<p><a href="https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/14/from-icc-to-sportswashing-wests-self-serving-narratives-must-be-combated/">ラムジー・バロウド著</a></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSM9JKiFANkOv9FAptssa9LiH3ST48BftjcaF5y4xQ4KwdBY4sxGDPh3UYgB2B-DRFPj6yPWnUQV6q5qHVuAHuv5CW29LuEHLavFkhQRorwP2md-UVhr3rE_g0ZXKo4mp6Ua62ST7GHSx000LVIKOWNMyx7xJin__ViKi-8NfuStozXHOCb8cTDJn9oHw" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSM9JKiFANkOv9FAptssa9LiH3ST48BftjcaF5y4xQ4KwdBY4sxGDPh3UYgB2B-DRFPj6yPWnUQV6q5qHVuAHuv5CW29LuEHLavFkhQRorwP2md-UVhr3rE_g0ZXKo4mp6Ua62ST7GHSx000LVIKOWNMyx7xJin__ViKi-8NfuStozXHOCb8cTDJn9oHw" width="320" /></a></div>3月、南アフリカ共産党(SACP)は、国際刑事裁判所(ICC)の「帝国主義的偏見」を非難した。<p></p><p><br /></p><p>ICCを「帝国主義国家に奉仕する超国家機関」と非難したのは、ハーグに本拠を置く裁判所が、ウクライナでの戦争犯罪容疑でロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領と別のロシア当局者に逮捕状を発行した2日後だった。</p><p><br /></p><p>プーチン大統領に対する訴訟の提起、議論、その後の具体的な行動の速さは、西側寄りの法廷の誠実さ、バランス、政治的議題について多くの疑問を引き起こした。</p><p><br /></p><p>パレスチナ人は、イスラエル戦争犯罪者とされる人々を子供用手袋で扱い続けているICCの偽善に即座に、そして正当に抗議したが、イラク人、アフガニスタン人、そしてほとんどがアフリカ人の活動家や知識人は、ICCの道徳的矛盾は非難すべきものであると感じた。</p><p><br /></p><p>設立以来21年間、「ICCは米国や欧州の大統領、首相、君主を国家元首として一度も逮捕状を発行したことも、起訴したことも無い」とアフリカ最古の共産党が抗議し、多くの人々の叫びに同調した。 アフリカがICCの捜査と逮捕状の大部分を受け取っていると長年指摘してきた組織、政治家、活動家たちだ。</p><p><br /></p><p>実際、2002 年の設立以来、ICC はアフリカに「執着」してきました。 2021年6月の時点で、「裁判所が起訴した44人全員がアフリカ人」であり、「現在行われている14件の捜査のうち10件がアフリカに関するものである」とクマル・バ氏はフォーリン・アフェアーズ誌に書いている。</p><p><br /></p><p>この議論はアフリカを全面的に擁護するものではありません。 アフリカ大陸では、実際にはグローバル・サウスの他の地域でも、多くの戦争犯罪が行われているとされており、その多くは新旧の内戦、政府による大規模な弾圧、暴力的な弾圧に関連している。</p><p><br /></p><p>しかし、数多くの、そして時にはそれ以上の陰惨な戦争犯罪や人道に対する罪が西側諸国政府と関係しているのに、なぜアフリカが例外とされなければならないのでしょうか? イラクとアフガニスタンでの西側戦争だけでも数十万人(一部の研究では数百万人を示唆する研究もある)が死亡し、そのほとんどが民間人である。 これらの戦争の結果は地域全体を不安定にし、大量虐殺などの他の犯罪を引き起こしました。</p><p><br /></p><p>これらはどれも本格的に法的に追及されていません。 アフガニスタンでの戦争犯罪疑惑を捜査しようとしただけで、トランプ政権は当時のICC首席検事ファトゥ・ベンソーダ氏やその他の裁判所関係者に制裁を課す大統領令を出した。 米国はICCの加盟国ではないが、法廷にいる西側同盟国は、アフガニスタン戦争の章が二度と開かれないことを保証している。</p><p><br /></p><p>アフリカ、中東、アジア、実際にはグローバル・サウス全体が激怒する権利があります。</p><p><br /></p><p>しかし、この偽善は戦争、政治、経済搾取だけに当てはまるわけではありません。 それはスポーツを含む国際関係のあらゆる側面に及びます。</p><p><br /></p><p>米国、英国、そして西側諸国の新聞やその他のメディアは、欧州のトップ選手が中東の裕福なクラブと契約を結んでいるという事実を懸念している。 彼らは、そのような有利な取引はスポーツの名の下ではなく、いわゆる「スポーツウォッシュ」の名の下に提供されていると主張している。</p><p><br /></p><p>英国のタブロイド紙「ミラー」の記者は、中東におけるこの「スポーツウォッシュ」を「ヒトラーの1936年ベルリンオリンピック」や「ロシアの2018年ワールドカップ」とまで比較した。</p><p><br /></p><p>2022年11月から12月にワールドカップが成功裡に開催される前、開催中、開催後のカタールに対する偽善的な攻撃を考えると、西側の作家たちは少しでも自覚を持っているのだろうかと疑問に思う人もいるだろう。</p><p><br /></p><p>貧弱な政治や人権の記録から目をそらすためにスポーツを利用することに本気で反対することはできないが、怒っている西側企業メディアの、そしてきっと高額な報酬をもらっているライターたちに、スポーツウォッシングは双方向に行われるということを思い出させることを強く主張しなければならない。 2012 年のロンドン夏季オリンピックは、おそらく最近の記憶の中で最大のスポーツウォッシュ行為でした。</p><p><br /></p><p>イラク戦争とアフガニスタン戦争におけるイギリスの役割は決して看過することができず、これらの戦争によってもたらされる惨状はイギリス社会の主流によっても十分に認識されています。 しかし、なぜ英国、米国、カナダ、その他すべての西側諸国政府が例外なくスポーツイベント、政治、戦争の間に分離を設けることが許されるのに、そのような分離は非西側諸国政府には禁止されているのでしょうか?</p><p><br /></p><p>親パレスチナ団体が国際サッカー連盟(FIFA)に対し、人種差別主義のイスラエルチーム、特に占領下のパレスチナにある不法ユダヤ人入植地に本拠を置くチームのFIFA主催スポーツイベントへの参加を禁止するよう求めたが、その要求は耳を貸さなかった。 FIFA理事会は2017年10月、FIFAは「政治問題に関して中立を保たなければならない」と述べた。</p><p><br /></p><p>「スポーツと政治は混ざらない」という建前が読まれながら正義を求める声がグローバル・サウスの国々や西側諸国の人種的少数派(アフリカ系アメリカ人など)から来た場合、問題の敵が反西側諸国であると認識されている場合、問題を混同しても道徳的ジレンマは生じないようだ。</p><p><br /></p><p>西側の二重基準は、今では無視したり言い訳するにはあまりにも明白になっているはずだ。 西洋の作家たちが、国際法、人権、民主主義、スポーツなどの名の下に、非西洋の敵に対して戦争を仕掛け続けているように、私たちもすべての人の平等の名の下に反撃をしなければなりません。</p><p><br /></p><p>私たちは今、新たな世界秩序の頂点に立っているので、可能な限り明確な言葉と行動でこの偽善に立ち向かう必要があります。 それは、私たち全員に適用される公平で公正なグローバルなパラダイムを開発するか、一部の人にのみ適用される選択的な西洋のパラダイムに従うことを拒否するかのどちらかです。</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-21267273427296631252023-07-15T12:51:00.000+09:002023-07-15T12:51:11.279+09:00マスクは外れている:なぜウクライナは決してNATO加盟国にならないのか<p><a href="https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/the-mask-is-off">ノーマン・フィンケルスタイン</a>著</p><p>2008年のブカレスト首脳会議で、ウクライナは最終的にNATOに加盟することが約束された。 2022年、ロシアの「特別軍事作戦」の前夜に、ウクライナはすでにNATOとの共同軍事演習に参加しており、NATOの兵器と訓練の大量受領国となっていた。 しかし、まだ会員資格は付与されていませんでした。 ウクライナ戦争は現在500日目を迎えており、国は荒廃し、戦闘部隊は数十万人の損失を被っている。 それでも、先週のビリニュスサミットでは、ウクライナはエリートクラブの待機リストに載った。 首脳会議のコミュニケでは、「NATO加盟を目指すウクライナの欧州大西洋側の願望」を促進するために「NATO-ウクライナ評議会」が設立されたと述べたが、実際の加盟はこれまで同様にとらえどころのないものだった。 ゼレンスキー大統領は、これは「ばかげている」と諌め、足を踏み鳴らして抗議し、首脳会談に出席しないと脅したが、「自分たちに食事を与えてくれる手を噛むのは賢明ではない」と釘を刺された。 そこで、ヴォーグ戦士は律儀に現れ、従順な少年であるケッペレを優しく撫でてもらいました。</p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/9a904c92-e86d-4d91-9105-f9b0c871afd3?j%3DeyJ1IjoiMXNhbGgwIn0.gIFBUeZPbtvAUahNJhsQbCAklDF3f6qGgY6mg04C5Wo&source=gmail&ust=1689458894963000&usg=AOvVaw2sr6vJoyanMnc4KgFGr2yj" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9a904c92-e86d-4d91-9105-f9b0c871afd3?j=eyJ1IjoiMXNhbGgwIn0.gIFBUeZPbtvAUahNJhsQbCAklDF3f6qGgY6mg04C5Wo" rel="" style="border: none; color: #1155cc; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; width: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="NATO chief says Putin victory will be 'tragedy for Ukraine but dangerous for us' | World News | Metro News" class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi8YotoFhXkUJIec7JvvXwZCre5A09eiVv_fBDzaNLbihOsUdkbQzJQx628z1Uvzad_fPPWceRaZ8otBlWkfGFuAhz5Nan5qS4_HTI-2n1ZWHcZ37PS17fZPgmYGB95dVBMFLrKymqPpvt7VgmJkZY9fPkl9qiP8Xnu1dz__cIgp0usaFiB1lPiaLpHJiRqtfGKQuJWdDMhR9fUv2YwVifIZCZkv3jR9nviJS56TyeyXrLwusn1-FNsUf9yOZWjXcKnXVD256i1tQugiMuWcc35Wjp1pkTfUPJzT1BdBL8Wy-x466IExdrNjVB35ZrMrnmCxVbLDDT4rp5JWlg-fqPFaHhNUgyQByzlggVVSRUGltM61PQ=s0-d-e1-ft,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41b8519a-a62b-48fb-a0fa-86f4764ace56_480x329.jpeg" style="border: none !important; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;" title="NATO chief says Putin victory will be 'tragedy for Ukraine but dangerous for us' | World News | Metro News" width="480" /></a><div><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p> 明らかな疑問は、なぜNATOはウクライナの加盟に繰り返し躊躇してきたのかということだ。 そして答えはすぐに得られました。 バイデン大統領は、もしウクライナがNATOに加盟すれば、NATO条約第5条に基づき、米国はロシアと戦争状態になることになり、それは良いことではない、と説明した。 この説明の奇妙さは指摘されなかった。 もしウクライナが残忍でいわれのないロシアの侵略の無実の犠牲者であるなら、今こそウクライナを認めてその4マス後ろに立つべき時ではないだろうか? 結局のところ、それが、困っている友人との連帯に求められるものなのです。 しかしバイデン氏は、それとは反対に、米軍戦闘部隊がウクライナを防衛するのは想定外であると自明のことと考えた。 恐ろしい真実は、NATOがウクライナの参加を計画したことは一度もなかったということだ。 それはただの策略でした。 その代わりに、ワシントンは理想的には、発砲せずにロシアを軍事的に無力化するために、ウクライナを徹底的に武装させることを望んでいた。 しかし米国は、自分たちが火遊びをしていることを確実に知っていた。 ジョン・ミアシャイマーとスティーヴン・コーエンが、ロシアが致命的な包囲網を黙認しないだろうと正しく予測できたとしたら、フォギー・ボトムが闇の中にいたのも無理はない。 むしろ、あるシミュレーションでは、ロシアは血を流すほどの戦争に挑発されるだろうが、NATO加盟のないウクライナは放っておかれ、米国の殺人産業が人殺しをする一方で戦い、死んでいくだろう。 言い換えれば、ウクライナは第5条がなければ役に立たないということだ。ウクライナに与えられた役割はNATOのために死ぬことであり、その逆ではない。 NATOの罠に陥ったのはロシアだけではなかった。 ウクライナもそうだった。 (とはいえ、ロシアは故意にこれに加わった。これ以上の選択肢はなかったのだ。)</p><p><br /></p><p>今では仮面が外れ、鈍感なヴォーグ・ウォリアーにも真実が浸透したようだ。 したがって、彼の(切り捨てられた)癇癪が起こります。 元B級コメディアンは、半分はチャーチル(CIAの台本を読んでいる)、半分はランボー(とんでもないオリーブグリーンの服を着ている)という世紀の役に抵抗できなかった。 彼は、『バナナ』や『スリーパー』からそのまま出てきた現実のウディ・アレンのキャラクターです。 ゼレンスキー大統領は、彼の頭をはるかに超えて――決まり文句を選んでください――車に乗せられ、バイオリンのように演奏された。 アメリカ政府がウクライナをNATO加盟の見通しで誘惑したのは、おそらくはロシアの侵略から守るためであったが、その本当の目的はロシアの侵略を誘発することであり、その場合、悲しいかな、NATOが無傷の勝利を収めるためにウクライナは壊滅的な被害を受けなければならないことになる。 おなじみですね? そうすべき。 1930年代、スターリンは西側諸国に対し、増大するナチスの脅威に対して集団安全保障協定でロシアと協力するよう懇願したが、第二次世界大戦中は他の連合国に対し、第二戦線を開くよう懇願した(1944年までは事実上ナチスの全軍が 軍隊は東部戦線で戦っていた)。 しかし、西側には独自の目的があった。ソ連とナチスが互いに血を流して死に至らしめれば、戦利品を持って立ち去ることができるというものだ。 歴史の皮肉な対称性において、当時ロシアがそうだったとすれば、ウクライナは今日、犠牲の子羊である。 それでも、大国政治のまったく皮肉な基準から見ても、ウクライナにおけるNATOの裏切りは息をのむほどだ。</p><p>米国はウクライナに対し、準備がひどく不十分だった反攻を開始するよう命令した。 発表された反攻作戦の開始時点で、私は「ロシア国内での最近の命知らずの無人機攻撃とダム破壊の背後にある考えられる動機は、決して起こらないであろう攻撃から注意をそらすことである」と推測した(「ウクライナ—絶望的な戦術」、6月) 2023 年 6 月 6 日)。 1か月後、それは決して起こりませんでした。 ウクライナ人たちは、人口の合計が私の高校よりも小さく、全長の合計が私の毎朝のジョギング距離よりも短いいくつかの村を占領しました。 私は何を根拠に私の推測をしたのでしょうか? 私は軍事問題について全く無知であることを恥ずかしがらずに告白します。 私の両親は戦争に関して完全にマイナスのバランスシートを与えました。 死と破壊は私の家では何の自慢にもなりませんでした。 (1970年代にイスラエル人の遠い親戚が私たちの玄関に現れ、自分はイスラエル国防軍に所属していると誇らしげに宣言したとき、母は「それで何?」と冷たく答えた。)しかし、私は非公式に「海のそばの小さなオデッサ」として知られるウクライナの近所に住んでいる。 」 (ブライトンビーチに隣接しています。)あの荒廃した土地から一歩離れたところにあります。 赤軍を組織し指導したレオン・トロツキーは、「あらゆる破壊機械にもかかわらず、戦争においては道徳的要素が決定的な重要性を保っている」とかつて書いた。 過去1年間、私の近所には兵役年齢のウクライナ人が押し寄せた。 戦争開始時に彼らの士気がどれほど高かったとしても、今のウクライナ人は、自分たちがワシントンの狂人たちを満足させるための大砲の餌として利用されていることに気づかないのだろうか? 誰よりも米統合参謀本部議長が「ウクライナ軍に自国を守るよう強く勧める」(ニューヨーク・タイムズ)というのは、明らかに何かがおかしい。 できる人は逃げてください。 それができない人は、軍が民間人に賃金を支払うのと同じように戦い続けてください。 しかし、強制されない限り、彼らはロシアの容赦ない砲撃に身を投じるつもりはない。 その一方で、「特別軍事作戦」の知恵を再考してロシア兵士たちの戦意が当初は遅れていたとしても、米国上院議員リンゼー・グラハム氏のような人たちは、不愉快な笑みを浮かべながら次のように宣言して、これらの疑念を解消した。 ロシア人は死につつある。 これは私たちがこれまで使った中で最高のお金です。」 したがって、反撃は予想通り失敗に終わりました。 1万1000語に及ぶ膨大なビリニュスのコミュニケには、反撃については一言も触れておらず、ほのめかしさえしていない。 (興味深いことに、コミュニケはまた、「カホフカダムの破壊は、ロシアが始めた戦争の残忍な結果を浮き彫りにしている」と慎重に遠回しに述べており、ダム爆発の責任を直接ロシアに押し付けているわけではない。)ニューヨーク・タイムズ紙は連日報じている。 ロシアの将校軍団が完全に混乱している日が続いた。 しかし、もしそうだとしたら、なぜウクライナの陽気な反撃がこれを利用できなかったのかということを考えずにはいられません。</p><p><br /></p><p>ウクライナの幻の反撃率がNATOコミュニケで言及されていないとしても、中国は最も強調して言及している。 ロシアが西側諸国に対して安全保障上の脅威を与えているということは常に疑わしい命題であった。 スターリンが世界革命の偉大な指導者として称賛されていたソビエト時代でさえ、トロツキーは(1940年に)実際には「スターリンはヨーロッパで最も保守的な政治家である」と洞察力に富んでいました。 今日まで早送りしますが、大きな変化はありません。 「プーチン政権下のロシアは極めて保守的な大国である」とクレムリンの最も洞察力に優れた観察者の一人は指摘する、「そしてその行動は現状維持を目的としている」(ウクライナ最前線のリチャード・サクワ) たとえそれを望んでいたとしても、ソ連時代もソ連崩壊後の時代も、不安定な基盤の上に構えたクレムリンは、政治地図を根本的に再編する立場にはなかった。 もしワシントンがロシアを軍事的に無力化しようとしたとすれば、それは帝政帝国を復活させようというプーチンの悪魔のような陰謀を阻止するためではなく、これからの決戦に備えて大チェス盤にすべての駒を配置するためだった。 ロシアが理事会から外されれば、米国政府は他の場所で自由に行動できるようになるだろう――あるいはそう望んでいた。 事態は異なった結果をもたらしました。まさに賭け金が高かったのです。 ビリニュスのコミュニケでは、「NATOの主要な目的であり最大の責任は、あらゆる方向からのあらゆる脅威に対して集団防衛を確保することである」と述べられている。 「軍事的脅威」とは書かれていないことに注意してください。 教えてください、それらの脅威は何であり、どの方向から来るのでしょうか? このコミュニケには疑いの余地はありません。</p><p><b>中華人民共和国が表明した野心と強圧的な政策は、私たちの利益、安全保障、価値観に挑戦しています。中国は主要な技術部門と産業部門、重要なインフラ、戦略的資材とサプライチェーンを支配しようとしています。 経済的レバレッジを利用して戦略的依存関係を築き、影響力を高めています。</b></p><p>言い換えれば、中国は、第二次世界大戦後、(ジュニアパートナーとしてのヨーロッパと連携して)ワシントンの世界的優位性を確保してきたのと同じ手法に頼って、世界の覇権者として米国に取って代わろうとしているのだ。 そして、くそー、それは不公平です! この「脅威」に対抗する計画は、最も不気味な内容となっています。</p><p><b>我々は同盟国として責任を持って協力し、欧州大西洋の安全保障に対して中国が提起する組織的課題に対処し、同盟国の防衛と安全を保証するNATOの永続的な能力を確保する。 ルールに基づく国際秩序を破壊しようとする両国の相互強化的な試みは、私たちの価値観や利益に反します。</b></p><p>NATOは具体的に、中国の「野心」に対して我々の「価値観と利益」をどのように守るつもりなのでしょうか?</p><p><b>我々は、核武装した同業者に対する高強度の複数領域の戦闘を含め、抑止と防衛に必要なあらゆる部隊、能力、計画、資源、資産、インフラを個別的かつ集団的に提供する。 したがって、我々は、危機や紛争の通常の、そして関係する同盟国にとっての核の側面をシミュレートする訓練と演習を強化し、すべての領域と紛争の全範囲にわたるNATOの抑止と防衛態勢の通常の要素と核の要素の間のより一貫性を促進する。 ... NATO は、核の側面を持つ危機において侵略を抑止し、エスカレーションのリスクを管理する準備ができており、それが可能です。 (強調を追加)</b></p><p>これは良い前兆ではありません。 しかし、ストレンジラブス博士のこの会議が核爆発の準備を整えているとしても、それが救いを超えているとは言えません。</p><p><b>私たちは、平和と安定のあらゆる側面に女性が全面的、平等かつ有意義に参加することが極めて重要であることを認識しており、ジェンダー平等を推進し、ジェンダーの視点を統合します。</b></p><p>女性はボタンを押すことができるでしょうか?</p><p>---------------</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><a href="https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/the-mask-is-off">THE MASK IS OFF: Why Ukraine Will NEVER Be a NATO Member</a></b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">by <a href="https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/the-mask-is-off">Norman Finkelstein</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">At the 2008 Bucharest summit, Ukraine was promised eventual membership in NATO. In 2022, on the eve of the Russian “special military operation,” Ukraine was already participating in joint military exercises with NATO, and was the massive recipient of NATO weapons and training. But it still wasn’t granted membership status. The Ukraine war is now in its 500<sup>th</sup> day, the country has been laid waste and its combat forces have suffered losses in the hundreds of thousands. Still, at the Vilnius summit this past week, Ukraine was put on the elite club’s waiting list. The summit communique noted that a “NATO-Ukraine Council” was established to facilitate “Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO,” but actually belonging was as elusive as ever. Remonstrating that this was “absurd,” President Zelensky stomped his feet in protest, threatening not to attend the summit, until he was nudged that it’s not wise to bite the hand that feeds you. So the Vogue Warrior dutifully showed up and got some gentle pats on his <em><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/a9b619ce-7674-4fb0-a6c6-65b5587eaa5b?j%3DeyJ1IjoiMXNhbGgwIn0.gIFBUeZPbtvAUahNJhsQbCAklDF3f6qGgY6mg04C5Wo&source=gmail&ust=1689458894963000&usg=AOvVaw3HVwIwkEIeRVUItZHrtC4a" href="https://substack.com/redirect/a9b619ce-7674-4fb0-a6c6-65b5587eaa5b?j=eyJ1IjoiMXNhbGgwIn0.gIFBUeZPbtvAUahNJhsQbCAklDF3f6qGgY6mg04C5Wo" rel="" style="color: #404040;" target="_blank">keppele</a></em> for being an obedient little boy. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 32px auto;"><figure style="margin: 0px auto; width: 550px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></td><td align="left" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/9a904c92-e86d-4d91-9105-f9b0c871afd3?j%3DeyJ1IjoiMXNhbGgwIn0.gIFBUeZPbtvAUahNJhsQbCAklDF3f6qGgY6mg04C5Wo&source=gmail&ust=1689458894963000&usg=AOvVaw2sr6vJoyanMnc4KgFGr2yj" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9a904c92-e86d-4d91-9105-f9b0c871afd3?j=eyJ1IjoiMXNhbGgwIn0.gIFBUeZPbtvAUahNJhsQbCAklDF3f6qGgY6mg04C5Wo" rel="" style="border: none; color: #1155cc; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; width: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="NATO chief says Putin victory will be 'tragedy for Ukraine but dangerous for us' | World News | Metro News" class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi8YotoFhXkUJIec7JvvXwZCre5A09eiVv_fBDzaNLbihOsUdkbQzJQx628z1Uvzad_fPPWceRaZ8otBlWkfGFuAhz5Nan5qS4_HTI-2n1ZWHcZ37PS17fZPgmYGB95dVBMFLrKymqPpvt7VgmJkZY9fPkl9qiP8Xnu1dz__cIgp0usaFiB1lPiaLpHJiRqtfGKQuJWdDMhR9fUv2YwVifIZCZkv3jR9nviJS56TyeyXrLwusn1-FNsUf9yOZWjXcKnXVD256i1tQugiMuWcc35Wjp1pkTfUPJzT1BdBL8Wy-x466IExdrNjVB35ZrMrnmCxVbLDDT4rp5JWlg-fqPFaHhNUgyQByzlggVVSRUGltM61PQ=s0-d-e1-ft,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41b8519a-a62b-48fb-a0fa-86f4764ace56_480x329.jpeg" style="border: none !important; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;" title="NATO chief says Putin victory will be 'tragedy for Ukraine but dangerous for us' | World News | Metro News" width="480" /></a></td><td style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table></figure></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">The obvious question is, Why has NATO repeatedly balked at Ukraine’s membership? And the answer was not long in coming. President Biden explained that if Ukraine joined NATO, then under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, the U.S. would be at war with Russia and that’s not a good thing. It went unremarked the oddity of this clarification. If Ukraine was the innocent victim of a brutal, unprovoked Russian aggression, wasn’t this precisely the moment to admit Ukraine and stand four-square behind it? That, after all, is what solidarity with a friend in need dictates. But Biden, on the contrary, took it as self-evident that coming to Ukraine’s defense with U.S. combat troops was off the table. The horrible truth is, NATO never slated Ukraine to join; that was just a goad and ploy. Instead, Washington ideally hoped to arm Ukraine to the teeth so as to neuter Russia militarily without firing a shot. But the US surely knew it was playing with fire. If John Mearsheimer and Stephen Cohen could correctly predict that Russia wouldn’t acquiesce in its deadly encirclement, it’s a stretch that Foggy Bottom was in the dark. Rather, in one simulation Russia would be provoked into a war so as to bleed it, but Ukraine—without NATO membership—would be left to its own devices, fighting and dying while the murder industries in the US made a killing. In other words, Ukraine is only useful without Article 5: its assigned role is to die for NATO, not vice versa. It was not only Russia that fell into NATO’s trap; so did Ukraine. (Albeit, Russia fell in wittingly; it had no better option.)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">The mask is now off and, it seems, the truth has sunk in even on the dim-witted Vogue Warrior. Hence his (truncated) tantrum. The ex B-grade comedian couldn’t resist the role of the century: half-Churchill (reading CIA-scripted pablum), half-Rambo (in his preposterous olive-green fatigues). He’s a real-life Woody Allen character straight out of <em>Bananas</em> or <em>Sleeper</em>. In way over his head, Zelensky was—choose your cliché—taken for a ride, played like a fiddle. Washington enticed Ukraine with the prospect of NATO membership supposedly to protect it from Russian aggression, whereas its real objective was to provoke a Russian aggression in which Ukraine would, alas, have to suffer devastation so that NATO could achieve an immaculate victory. Sound familiar? It should. In the 1930s Stalin pleaded with the Western powers to join with Russia in a collective security pact against the rising Nazi menace, while during World War II he pleaded with the other Allied powers to open up a second front (until 1944, virtually all the Nazi troops were fighting on the Eastern front). The West, however, had its own agenda: let the Soviets and Nazis bleed each other to death, and it could then walk away with the spoils. In an ironic historical symmetry, if Russia was then, Ukraine is today the sacrificial lamb. Still, even by the utterly cynical standards of Great Power politics, NATO’s perfidy in Ukraine is breathtaking.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">The US ordered Ukraine to launch a counter-offensive for which it was woefully ill-prepared. I speculated at the start of the announced counter-offensive that “The probable motive behind recent daredevil drone attacks inside Russia and the destruction of the dam is to divert attention from the offensive that will never be” (“Ukraine—Desperate Tactics,” June 6, 2023). A month later, it never was. Ukrainians captured a fistful of villages with a combined population smaller than my high school and a combined length shorter than my jogging distance each morning. On what did I base my speculation? I unabashedly confess to being wholly ignorant of military affairs. Bloodlust was never my cup of tea: my parents imparted a wholly negative balance-sheet on war; death and destruction conferred no bragging rights in my home. (When a distant Israeli relative showed up at our door in the 1970s proudly proclaiming he was in the IDF, my mother dryly replied, “So what?”) But I do live in a Ukrainian neighborhood informally known as “Little Odessa by the Sea.” (It abuts Brighton Beach.) It’s just one step removed from that ravaged land. “In spite of all the machines of destruction,” Leon Trotsky, who organized and led the Red Army, once wrote, “the moral factor retains decisive importance in war.” During the past year, my neighborhood has been flooded by Ukrainians of military age. However high their morale was at the start of the war, can Ukrainians now be unaware that they’re being used as cannon fodder to satiate the lunatics in Washington? Something’s clearly amiss when, of all people, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff must “exhort Ukrainian troops to defend their country” (<em>N.Y. Times</em>). Those who can, escape; those who can’t, fight on as army pay dwarfs civilian wages. But they’re not about to hurl themselves into merciless Russian artillery fire unless forced to. On the other side, if the fighting spirit of Russian soldiers initially lagged as they second-guessed the wisdom of the “special military operation,” the likes of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham put these doubts to rest as he declared with a coprophagous grin, “The Russians are dying. It’s the best money we’ve ever spent.” So the counter-offensive has, predictably, been a bust. The copious 11,000-word Vilnius communique makes not a single mention of or even allusion to the counteroffensive. (Interestingly, the communique also doesn’t directly pin blame on Russia for the dam explosion as it cautiously circumlocutes that “the destruction of the Kakhovka dam highlights the brutal consequences of the war started by Russia.”) The <em>N.Y. Times</em> reports day in and day out that Russia’s officer corps is in complete disarray. It never stops to reflect, however, that, were this the case, why hasn’t Ukraine’s ballyhooed counter-offensive capitalized on it? </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">If Ukraine’s phantom counter-offensive rates no mention in the NATO communique, China most emphatically does. It was always a dubious proposition that Russia posed any security threat to the Western powers. Even in the Soviet era, when Stalin was acclaimed the Great Leader of the World Revolution, Trotsky shrewdly observed (in 1940) that in fact “Stalin is the most conservative politician of Europe.” Fast forward to today, and not much has changed. “Russia under Putin is a profoundly conservative power,” one of the most astute observers of the Kremlin notes, “and its actions are designed to maintain the status quo” (Richard Sakwa, <em>Frontline Ukraine</em>). Even if it aspired to, neither in the Soviet nor post-Soviet era has the Kremlin, poised on a rickety platform, been in a position to radically reshuffle the political map. If Washington sought to militarily neutralize Russia, it was not to deter Putin’s demonic plot to restore the Tsarist Empire, but, instead, so as to position all its pieces on the Grand Chessboard in preparation for the decisive battle ahead. Once Russia was removed from the board, Washington would have a free hand elsewhere—or so it hoped; things turned out differently—where the stakes were high indeed. The Vilnius communique states that “NATO’s key purpose and greatest responsibility is to ensure our collective defense, against all threats, from all directions.” Notice it doesn’t say “<em>military</em> threats.” What, pray tell, might those threats be and from which direction? The communique leaves no room for doubt:</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><strong>The People’s Republic of China’s stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.... The PRC seeks to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains. It uses its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">In other words, China seeks to displace the U.S. as the global hegemon by recourse to the same methods that has ensured Washington’s global dominance (in tandem with Europe as a junior partner) since the end of World War II. And, dammit, that’s just not fair! The plans to counter this “threat” make for most ominous reading:</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><strong>We are working together responsibly, as Allies, to address the systemic challenges posed by the PRC to Euro-Atlantic security and ensure NATO’s enduring ability to guarantee the defense and security of Allies.... The deepening strategic partnership between the PRC and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests.</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">How exactly does NATO plan to uphold our “values and interests” against China’s “ambitions”? </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><strong>We will individually and collectively deliver the full range of forces, capabilities, plans, resources, assets and infrastructure needed for deterrence and defense, including for high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors. Accordingly, we will strengthen training and exercises that simulate conventional and, for Allies concerned, </strong><em><strong>a nuclear dimension of a crisis or conflict, facilitating greater coherence between conventional and nuclear components of NATO’s deterrence and defense posture across all domains and the entire spectrum of conflict.</strong></em><strong>... NATO is ready and able to deter aggression and manage escalation risks in a crisis that has a nuclear dimension. (emphasis added)</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">This does not bode well. But even as this conclave of Dr. Strangeloves gears up for nuclear conflagration, it cannot be said that it is beyond redemption: </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><strong>We recognize the critical importance of women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in all aspects of peace and stability </strong>... <strong>we will</strong> <strong>advance gender equality and integrate gender perspectives.</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Will a womyn get to press the button?</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-50957236371663426302023-04-13T15:53:00.002+09:002023-04-14T06:52:39.286+09:00Madness Abounds: Ukraine, Taiwan & Hiroo Onoda<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by <a href="https://twitter.com/LewStuhl" target="_blank">EJ Hibbing</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I got to thinking about Hiroo Onoda today. Onoda is not someone very well known these days and the fact that I think about him from time to time probably makes me somewhat unusual.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFpQv3iA283ue7eU8XfK5HKzgZE3Cz6W-9FWUZ9eu5jfGjOJeU5i2iAMn30lvacD1ljfIQRYNfE3jzJXmlq1PyEBT-ca9Rw_z2HSuWHfT01-vFvt4QNjS1ATn_RL-P_zHMO2dkDIOXiqSM8GShM4MYvzcM3wH24NZdfscEweNLVLtThbZjx4rRWmS/s455/Hiroo_Onoda_young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="373" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFpQv3iA283ue7eU8XfK5HKzgZE3Cz6W-9FWUZ9eu5jfGjOJeU5i2iAMn30lvacD1ljfIQRYNfE3jzJXmlq1PyEBT-ca9Rw_z2HSuWHfT01-vFvt4QNjS1ATn_RL-P_zHMO2dkDIOXiqSM8GShM4MYvzcM3wH24NZdfscEweNLVLtThbZjx4rRWmS/s320/Hiroo_Onoda_young.jpg" width="262" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Onoda was a Japanese soldier who fought in the Pacific War. Along with three other members of his unit, he remained in the jungles of Lubang Island in the Philippines refusing to believe the war had ended even after Japan had surrendered. When the four stragglers discovered leaflets left for them explaining that the war was over and they should turn themselves in, they concluded that it was a trick and they continued to hold out. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1949, one of the four left the group and eventually surrendered. In 1952, when letters from home and family photos were dropped to them, the three holdouts still would not believe the war was over and Japan had surrendered. After one of the remaining three was shot and killed in 1954, Onoda and the other soldier, Kinshichi Kozuka, remained in that Lubang jungle for two more decades. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kozuka was killed in 1972 and after his wartime commanding officer came to the Philippines to order him to surrender, Onoda finally gave up his sword and his rifle and returned to Japan. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many people, particularly in Japan, seem to be impressed by Onoda’s loyalty to his commanding officer, to his country and to his cause, whatever that may have been in his mind. I am less impressed. I think his behavior was ridiculous. I think the man was a fool. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How was it possible that Onoda and the others did not know the war had ended? Even isolated in the jungle as they were, surely they must have known it was over. Reading about their suspicions of the leaflets they found or how they did not even trust the letters from their families, it his hard not to think they were crazy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I do not think they were crazy. Delusional, perhaps, and certainly in severe denial, but not crazy. Onoda appears to have been stable and sane as he lived out the rest of his fairly normal life in Japan and Brazil. He remained a nationalist and he gave money to Yasukuni Shrine, which might have demonstrated poor judgement but not mental illness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How can a sane man spend twenty-nine years holding out in a jungle in the Philippines refusing to believe the war that was obviously over had ended and being unwilling to surrender and go home? I wish I had an answer to that question. If I did, my thoughts probably would not keep returning to the story of Hiroo Onoda. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While I feel confident saying Onoda was not crazy, following news about America’s foreign adventures leave me less sure about the sanity of members of the government and the mainstream media. Things that years of even months or weeks ago would have been considered mad are suddenly said regularly as if they are totally reasonable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Ukraine, we are told we must support the Kiev regime even though they are a corrupt government put in power by a US-sponsored coup, infested with Stepan Bandera worshipping neo-nazis that have been oppressing and even murdering ethnic Russians since 2014. Recently, laws have been passed banning the Russian language and the Russian Orthodox Church. Even praying in Russian has been proscribed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are also told that fearing the very real possibility that US provocation and escalation in Ukraine may lead to nuclear Armageddon is a sign of weakness. We are left with no recourse but to hope Russian president Vladimir Putin has the good sense and restraint not to retaliate with nuclear weapons even if America pushes his country to the brink.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Along with the Ukraine madness, we are being told that war with China is going to be necessary very soon. Australia, the Philippines and Japan are being prepared to fight. We can see the maps that show US military bases surrounding China. We can see America poking and prodding China every day. Yet, we are told we must be prepared to defend ourselves against “Chinese aggression” and people seem to believe this. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">America’s determination to go to war with China by provoking a conflict over Taiwan has become something of an accepted fact among mainstream news sources and certainly by most American politicians. Having failed economically, war is the only way American can compete with China.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are left with no recourse but to hope Chinese president Xi Jinping has the good sense and restraint not to retaliate with nuclear weapons even if America pushes his country to the brink.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How did this switch get turned on? How did people go from believing nuclear war is the most frightening and awful thing imaginable (and it is!) and must be avoided at all costs (it must!) to seeing it now as all but inevitable? Can this switch be turned off? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; text-indent: 21.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Americans may not be crazy, but like Hiroo Onoda in the jungles of Lubang Island they are in the grip of some overpowering propaganda and stifling groupthink that seem to be leading them toward a very, very ugly end. My greatest hope is that they do not take the rest of us down with them.</span><span style="font-family: 'MS 明朝'; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-12467449332930835342022-08-10T07:13:00.001+09:002022-08-10T07:13:06.292+09:00Gaza: The names and faces of the 16 Palestinian children killed in Israel's onslaught<p> </p><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 24px;">At least 45 Palestinians were killed and more than 360 wounded as Israeli air strikes rained down on the besieged Strip over three days</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><i><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-names-faces-children-killed-bombardment">Middle East Eye</a></i></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">These sixteen <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0076af; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Palestinian</a> children were looking forward to a summer filled with joy. They planned to play football, head to the beach and attend summer camp.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">But over the course of three horrific days, Israeli forces unleashed a wave of air strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, killing 45 people, including the 16 children, and wounding at least 360 others.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">"There is no safe space in the Gaza Strip for Palestinian children and their families and they increasingly bear the brunt of Israel’s repeated military offensives," Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability programme director at the NGO Defence for Children International - Palestine (DCIP), <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_airstrike_kills_5_year_old_palestinian_girl_in_gaza" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0076af; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">While a ceasefire came into effect on Sunday following an agreement brokered by <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/egypt" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0076af; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Egypt</a>, Palestinians have lamented the devastating bombing campaign as more details emerge of those who died.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">The Israeli army has claimed that some of the civilian casualties were killed by misfired rockets, without providing independently-verified evidence. The Palestinian health ministry says all of the people killed, including the 16 children, died as a result of Israeli air strikes.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Some families have been willing to share their stories, while others have been in a state of mourning and have asked for privacy.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Here are the names and faces of the children that died:</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum, aged five</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="49ae87e5-4151-419d-a683-2fa29ccb28d6" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Alaa%20%D9%90Abdullah%20Qaddoum%20%2C%205.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum, five, was killed on 5 August 2022 by an Israeli air strike in the Shujaiya neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum was among the first casualties on Friday following Israel's decision to launch air strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">She died on 5 August while she was playing with friends outside her home in the Shujaiya neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Her seven-year-old brother and father were wounded in the strike.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">"Alaa was an innocent five-year-old playing in the street with her brothers and cousins. What did she do to be killed?" her cousin, Abu Diab Qaddoum, told Middle East Eye.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Momen Muhammed Ahmed al-Nairab, aged five</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="84f0acff-ce8e-452c-af5d-047d1ae9c05b" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Momen%20Muhammed%20%D9%90Ahmed%20al-Nairab%20%20%2C%205.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Momen Muhammed ِAhmed al-Nairab, five, was killed on 6 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Momen Muhammed ِAhmed al-Nairab, five, was killed in a suspected Israeli air strike on Saturday on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">The camp is one of the most densely populated places on Earth and houses more than 114,000 people.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Hazem Muhammed Ali Salem, aged nine </h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="bb594081-fceb-4235-88c3-8cd25e113d94" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Hazem%20Muhammed%20Ali%20Salem%20%20%2C%209.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Hazem Muhammed Ali Salem, nine, was killed on 6 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>According to documentation collected by Defence for Children International, Hazem Muhammed Ali Salem, nine, was among the four children in the blast on the Jabalia refugee camp on Saturday.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Israel says it wasn't behind the raid, but Palestinian sources say it could not have come from anywhere else.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Ahmed Muhammed al-Nairab, aged 11 </h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b32f460a-edef-41f8-9936-d7e676c71019" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Ahmed%20Muhammed%20al-Nairab%20%2C%2011.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Ahmed Muhammed al-Nairab, 11, was killed on 6 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Ahmed Muhammed al-Nairab, 11, was among the four children killed on Saturday when suspected Israeli warplanes struck the Jabalia refugee camp.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Ahmed Walid Ahmed al-Farram, aged 16</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7749aede-7dde-41dc-bed1-a99b28807423" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Ahmed%20Walid%20Ahmed%20al-Farram%20%20%2C%2017_0.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Ahmed Walid Ahmed al-Farram, 16, was killed on 6 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Ahmed Walid Ahmed al-Farram, 16, was also killed on Saturday when suspected Israeli warplanes struck the Jabalia refugee camp.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), the camp <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip/jabalia-camp" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0076af; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">suffers</a> from high unemployment, regular electricity cuts and a contaminated water supply.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Muhammed Iyad Muhammed Hassouna, aged 14</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="dac06d2b-bcb9-4eb7-b8be-9dacb0367fce" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Muhammed%20Iyad%20Muhammed%20Hassouna%20%20%2C%2014.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Muhammed Iyad Muhammed Hassouna, 14, was killed on 6 August 2022 by an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Muhammed Iyad Muhammed Hassouna, 14, was killed when an Israeli air strike targeted his home in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Adeeb Ahmad, an eyewitness to the attack, told MEE that at least eight people were killed in the raid.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">"The house was hit without any prior notice," Ahmad said. "Homes are overcrowded here, housing seven to eight people each, and they are so close to each other, so when one house is hit several houses around it are impacted."</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Fatma Aaed Abdulfattah Ubaid, aged 15</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="703710d1-6cbc-494a-8605-bea5fbea2540" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Fatma%20Aaed%20Ubaid%20%20%2C%2013.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Fatma Aaed Abdulfattah Ubaid, 15, was killed on 7 August 2022 by an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Fatma Aaed Abdulfattah Ubaid, 15, was among nine children killed in the space of 30 minutes, shortly before the ceasefire was announced on Sunday. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Ubaid was killed in Beit Hanoun on Sunday in the northern Gaza Strip.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Ahmed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged nine </h3><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Muhammed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged 12</h3><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Dalia Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged 13</h3><figure class="media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="Ahmed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged nine Dalia Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged 13 Muhammed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged 12" class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="fc380ca3-be7b-4a18-81b5-36a705bfc71d" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="Ahmed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged nine Dalia Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged 13 Muhammed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, aged 12" height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Muhammed%2C%20Dalia%20Ahmed%20Yasser%20Nimr%20al-Nabahin%20%28MEE%29.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Siblings Muhammed (L), Ahmed (C) and Dalia (R) were killed on 7 August 2022 by an Israeli air strike on the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>An Israeli air strike on the Bureij refugee camp on Sunday killed Yasser al-Nabahin and his three children, Muhammed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, 13 (left); Ahmed Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, nine (centre); and their sister, Dalia Yasser Nimr al-Nabahin, 13 (right).</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Muhammed Salah Nijm, aged 16 </h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="596d2d5e-3b99-45ad-9440-fd7348f0630e" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Muhammed%20Salah%20Nijm%20%2C%2017.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Muhammed Salah Nijm, 16, was killed on 7 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Falluja cemetery in northern Gaza (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>A suspected Israeli air strike on the Falluja cemetery in northern Gaza on Sunday killed five boys as they sat near a grave.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Muhammed Salah Nijm, 16, was among those killed.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Hamed Haidar Hamed Nijm, aged 16</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="61999e8e-896f-476e-aa3d-6427ea8c7594" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Hamed%20Haidar%20Nijm%20%20%2C%2017.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Hamed Haidar Hamed Nijm, 16, was killed on 7 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Falluja cemetery in northern Gaza (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Hamed Haidar Hamed Nijm, 16, was among those killed in Sunday's raid on the graveyard. Eyewitness Mohammad Sami told MEE that four of the boys were cousins and the fifth was their friend.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">"They come to sit here every day," Sami said. "This is a safe area."</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm, aged four</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="981c5a5b-bc5b-463b-9808-601a1f08d558" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Jamil%20Nijm%20Nijm%20%20%2C%204.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm, four, was killed on 7 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Falluja cemetery in northern Gaza (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm was the youngest child to be killed during Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip. He was only four years old.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Jamil Ihab Nijm, aged 13</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4c56dcf5-3480-4017-8ca0-8a2b942512a7" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Jamil%20Ihab%20Nijm%20%20%2C%2014%20.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Jamil Ihab Nijm, 13, was killed on 7 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Falluja cemetery in northern Gaza (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Jamil Ihab Nijm, 13, was the fourth child from the Nijm family to be killed in Sunday's suspected air strike.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Nazmi Fayez Abdulhadi Abukarsh, aged 16 </h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5ab86c78-140a-47ce-aefd-1961409e8965" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Nazmi%20Fayez%20Abukarsh%20%2C%2016.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Nazmi Fayez Abdulhadi Abukarsh, 16, was killed on 7 August 2022 by a suspected Israeli air strike on the Falluja cemetery in northern Gaza (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span>Nazmi Fayez AbdulhadiAbukarsh, 16, a friend of the Nijm boys, was killed in the suspected air strike on the graveyard.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Hanin Walid Muhammed Abuqaida, aged 10</h3><figure class="align-center media-block" role="group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px auto 15px;"><div class="group-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table;"><div alt="." class="embedded-entity" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="8f32c54f-1734-4e52-88d0-c55f5e4d901b" data-langcode="en" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="." height="1080" loading="lazy" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/Hanin%20Walid%20Muhammed%20Abuqaida%2C%2010.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1920" /></div><figcaption style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 145, 145); box-sizing: border-box; caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-family: opensans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 19px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;">Hanin Walid Muhammed Abuqaida, 10, succumbed to wounds on 8 August 2022 sustained from a suspected Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza (Social media)</figcaption></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><span style="background: url("https://www.middleeasteye.net/core/assets/vendor/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png") rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; top: -15px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">Hanin Walid Muhammed Abuqaida, 10, was injured in an air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp on Sunday but succumbed to her wounds on Monday.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;">She was 10 years old.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">This article is available in French on <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/gaza-israel-enfants-palestiniens-tues-noms-visages" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0076af; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Middle East Eye French edition.</a></em></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-80096649724582746242022-08-10T07:10:00.004+09:002022-08-10T07:13:53.763+09:00Killing Children in ‘Self Defense’<p>by Craig Murray</p><p><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2022/08/09/killing-children-in-self-defense/">Consortiumnews.com</a></p><p><strong style="background-color: #edede3; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.6667px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;">Nobody can tell you how many children have been killed by drone strikes or “targeted” missiles and bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen or Libya, writes Craig Murray.</strong></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/3285380687_e18efb2f88_k-1536x1012.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="800" height="191" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/3285380687_e18efb2f88_k-1536x1012.jpg" width="290" /></a></div>The lives of the latest 15 Palestinian children to be murdered by Israel in Gaza, lives ripped from their small, terrified bodies with devastating violence, do not seem of much concern to the powerful in the West, or indeed anywhere. <p></p><p>The BBC repeated without question Israel’s claim that its latest launch of high explosive at the Gaza concentration camp was to prevent a terrorist attack on Israeli civilians ? of which prospective attack no evidence has been produced. No Western media has asked for any. Nor has it been explained why the attack would be stopped by Israel obliterating the alleged leader in Gaza of Islamic Jihad and many innocents who chanced to be in his vicinity. </p><p>The scenarios in which the assassination of a leader prevent an attack which is in train are Hollywood. </p><p>The brave Daniel Hale sits in solitary confinement (euphemistically called a “Communications Management Unit) for blowing the whistle on the U.S. drone assassination programme in Afghanistan.</p><p>Hale, a drone operative, revealed that 90 percent of people killed by the drone assassination programme in Afghanistan were not the designated target, but that by default everybody killed by a drone strike was labeled an enemy combatant unless positive proof to the contrary were provided (which of course no effort was made to collect).</p><p>The extra-judicial execution of “bad guys” with no legal process is not only carried out by Israel. The U.S. and U.K. do it all the time, across the conflicts created by their own neo-imperial adventures and lust for hydrocarbons. </p><p>Nobody can tell you how many children have been killed by drone strikes or “targeted” missiles and bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen or Libya. </p><p>The total across those countries is undoubtedly tens of thousands of dead children. We, however, are apparently the good guys. All those children have been killed in our “self-defence,” just as Israel killed those children in Gaza. I do hope that helps you sleep more soundly.</p><p><i>Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. His coverage is entirely dependent on reader support. Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.</i></p><p><i>This article is from CraigMurray.org.uk.</i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-45932126055593394282022-03-23T19:58:00.002+09:002022-03-23T19:58:33.997+09:00Vijay Prashad on the Condescension of the Western Powers<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V9137OWu5-k" width="320" youtube-src-id="V9137OWu5-k"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-37891813873467589302021-09-29T21:46:00.003+09:002021-09-29T21:46:42.000+09:00The Names You’ll Never Know<p><b>A civilian deaths memorial could zig zag across the U.S., suggests Nick Turse. It could keep extending westwards, in a way that would spur Americans’ interest in their nation’s history and conflicts abroad.</b></p>
<p>By Nick Turse<br />
<a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2021/09/28/the-names-youll-never-know/" target="_blank">Consortium News</a></p>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr9NbMMpYdnYSeIFY3uCAa4kK6bAeOUhS0pH9p6BH6Y65zP8U8qiZbsl6pbAbCagR71i_eCvJai-LauGRNxjRK5Kddth937ihu2b3K4vlzpUGR6xfxSiMkbEQXaypsQLCymw-xNr6sUiM/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1100" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr9NbMMpYdnYSeIFY3uCAa4kK6bAeOUhS0pH9p6BH6Y65zP8U8qiZbsl6pbAbCagR71i_eCvJai-LauGRNxjRK5Kddth937ihu2b3K4vlzpUGR6xfxSiMkbEQXaypsQLCymw-xNr6sUiM/" width="320" /></a></div>As a parting shot, on its way out of Afghanistan, the United States military launched a drone attack that the Pentagon called a “righteous strike.” The final missile fired during 20 years of occupation, that Aug. 29 airstrike averted an Islamic State car-bomb attack on the last American troops at Kabul’s airport. At least, that’s what the Pentagon told the world.<p></p>
<p>Within two weeks, a New York Times investigation would dismantle that official narrative. Seven days later, even the Pentagon admitted it. Instead of killing an ISIS suicide bomber, the United States had slaughtered 10 civilians: Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group; three of his children, Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 10; Ahmadi’s cousin Naser, 30; three children of Ahmadi’s brother Romal, Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6, and Hayat, 2; and two 3-year-old girls, Malika and Somaya. </p>
<p>The names of the dead from the Kabul strike are as important as they are rare. So many civilians have been obliterated, incinerated, or — as in the Aug. 29 attack — “shredded” in America’s forever wars.</p>
<p>Who in the United States remembers them? Who here ever knew of them in the first place? Twenty years after 9/11, with the Afghan War declared over, combat in Iraq set to conclude, and President Joe Biden announcing the end of “an era of major military operations to remake other countries,” who will give their deaths another thought?</p>
<p>Americans have been killing civilians since before there was a United States. At home and abroad, civilians — Pequots, African Americans, Cheyenne and Arapaho, Filipinos, Haitians, Japanese, Germans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, and Somalis, among others — have been shot, burned, and bombed to death. The slaughter at Sand Creek, the Bud Dajo massacre, the firebombing of Dresden, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the My Lai massacre — the United States has done what it can to sweep it all under the rug through denial, cover-ups, and the most effective means of all: forgetting.</p>
<p>There’s little hope of Americans ever truly coming to terms with the Pequot or Haitian or Vietnamese blood on their hands. But before the forever wars slip from the news and the dead slide into the memory hole that holds several centuries worth of corpses, it’s worth spending a few minutes thinking about Zemari Ahmadi, Benyamin, Hayat, Malika, Somaya, and all the civilians who were going about their lives until the U.S. military ended them.</p>
<p><b>Names Remembered and Names Forgotten</b></p>
<p>Over the last 20 years, the United States has conducted more than 93,300 air strikes — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen — that killed between 22,679 and 48,308 civilians, according to figures recently released by Airwars, a U.K.-based airstrike monitoring group. The total number of civilians who have died from direct violence in America’s wars since 9/11 tops out at 364,000 to 387,000, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project.</p>
<p>Who were those nearly 400,000 people?</p>
<p>There’s Malana. In 2019, at age 25, she had just given birth to a son, when her health began to deteriorate. Her relatives were driving her to a clinic in Afghanistan’s Khost Province when their vehicle was attacked by a U.S. drone, killing Malana and four others.</p>
<p>And Gul Mudin. He was wounded by a grenade and shot with a rifle, one of at least three civilians murdered by a U.S. Army “kill team” in Kandahar Province in 2010.</p>
<p>Then there was Gulalai, one of seven people, including three women — two of them pregnant — who were shot and killed in a Feb. 12, 2010, raid by Special Operations forces in Afghanistan’s Paktia Province.</p>
<p>And the four members of the Razzo family — Mayada, Tuqa, Mohannad, and Najib — killed in a Sept. 20, 2015, airstrike in Mosul, Iraq.</p>
<p>And there were the eight men, three women, and four children — Abdul Rashid as well as Abdul Rahman, Asadullah, Hayatullah, Mohamadullah, Osman, Tahira, Nadia, Khatima, Jundullah, Soheil, Amir, and two men, ages 25 and 36 respectively, named Abdul Waheed — who were killed in a Sept. 7, 2013, drone strike on Rashid’s red Toyota pickup in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Then there were 22-year-old Lul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter, Mariam Shilo Muse, who were killed in an April 1, 2018, airstrike in Somalia.</p>
<p>And between 2013 and 2020, in seven separate U.S. attacks in Yemen — six drone strikes and one raid — 36 members of the al Ameri and al Taisy families were slaughtered.</p>
<p>Those names we know. Or knew, if only barely and fleetingly. Then there are the countless anonymous victims like the three civilians in a blue Kia van killed by Marines in Iraq in 2003. “Two bodies were slumped over in the front seats; they were men in street clothes and had no weapons that I could see. In the back seat, a woman in a black chador had fallen to the floor; she was dead, too,” wrote Peter Maass in The New York Times Magazine in 2003. Years later, at The Intercept, he painted an even more vivid picture of the “blue van, with its tires shot out and its windows shattered by bullets, its interior stained with blood and smelling of death, with flies feasting on already-rotting flesh.”</p>
<p>Those three civilians in Iraq were all too typical of the many anonymous dead of this country’s forever wars — the man shot for carrying a flashlight in an “offensive” manner; the children killed by an “errant” rocket; the man slain by “warning shots”; the three women and one man “machine-gunned” to death; and the men, women and children reduced to “charred meat” in an American bombing.</p>
<p>Who were the 11 Afghans — four of them children — who died in a 2004 helicopter attack, or the “dozen or more” civilians killed in 2010 during a nighttime raid by U.S. troops in that same country? And what about those 30 pine-nut farm workers slaughtered a year later by a drone strike there? And what were the names of Mohanned Tadfi’s mother, brother, sister-in-law, and seven nieces and nephews killed in the U.S. bombing that flattened the city of Raqqa, Syria, in 2017?</p>
<p>Often, the U.S. military had no idea whom they were killing. It frequently carried out “signature strikes” that executed unknown people due to suspicious behavior. So often, Americans killed such individuals for little or no reason — like holding a weapon in places where, as in this country, firearms were ubiquitous — and then counted them as enemy dead.</p>
<p>An investigation by Connecting Vets found that during a 2019 air campaign in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, for example, the threshold for an attack “could be met by as little as a person using or even touching a radio” or if an Afghan carrying “commercially bought two-way radios stepped into a home, the entire building would sometimes be leveled by a drone strike.”</p>
<p>Targeted assassinations were equally imprecise. Secret documents obtained by The Intercept revealed that, during a five-month stretch of Operation Haymaker — a drone campaign in 2011 and 2013 aimed at al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders along the Afghan-Pakistan border — 200 people were killed in airstrikes conducted to assassinate 35 high-value targets. In other words, nearly nine out of 10 people slain in those “targeted” killings were not the intended targets. So, who were they?</p>
<p>Even if targeting was ordinarily more accurate than during Operation Haymaker, U.S. policy has consistently adhered to the dictum that “military-age males” killed in airstrikes should automatically be classified as combatants unless proven innocent. In addition to killing people for spurious reasons, the U.S. also opted for allies who would prove at least as bad as, if not worse than, those they were fighting. For two decades, such American-taxpayer-funded warlords and militiamen murdered, raped, or shook-down the very people the U.S. government was supposedly protecting. And, of course, no one knows the names of all those killed by such allies who were being advised, trained, armed and funded by the United States.</p>
<p>Who, for instance, were the two men tied to the rear fender of a Toyota pickup truck in southeastern Afghanistan in 2012 by members of an Afghan militia backed by U.S. Special Operations forces? They were, wrote reporter Anand Gopal, dragged “along six miles of rock-studded road” until they were dead. Then their “bodies were left decomposing for days, a warning to anyone who thought of disobeying Azizullah,” the U.S.-allied local commander.</p>
<p>Or what about the 12 boys gunned down by CIA-backed militiamen at a madrassa in the Afghan village of Omar Khail? Or the six boys similarly slain at a school in nearby Dadow Khail? Or any of the dead from 10 raids in 2018 and 2019 by that same militia, which summarily executed at least 51 civilians, including boys as young as eight years old, few of whom, wrote reporter Andrew Quilty, appeared “to have had any formal relationship with the Taliban”?</p>
<p>How many reporters’ notebooks are filled with the unpublished names of just such victims? Or counts of those killed? Or the stories of their deaths? And how many of those who were murdered never received even a mention in an article anywhere?</p>
<p>Last year, I wrote 4,500 words for The New York Times Magazine about the deteriorating situation in Burkina Faso. As I noted then, that nation was one of the largest recipients of American security aid in West Africa, even though the State Department admitted that U.S.-backed forces were implicated in a litany of human-rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings.</p>
<p>What never made it into the piece was any mention of three men who were executed in two separate attacks. On May 22, 2019, uniformed Burkinabe troops arrived in the village of Konga and took two brothers, aged 38 and 25, away in the middle of the night. The next day, a relative found them on the side of the road, bound and executed. Most of the family fled the area. “The Army came back a week later,” a relative told me. “My uncle was the only one in our family who stayed. He was shot in broad daylight.” Such deaths are ubiquitous but aren’t even factored into the 360,000-plus civilian deaths counted by the Costs of War project, which offers no estimate for those killed in America’s “smaller war zones.”</p>
<p><b>Build the Wall!</b></p>
<p>We live in a world filled with monuments celebrating lives and deaths, trailblazers and memorable events, heroes and villains. They run the gamut from civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and women’s rights pioneers to the chieftains of the American Confederacy and Belgium’s King Leopold.</p>
<p>In the United States, there’s no shortage of memorials and monuments commemorating America’s wars and fallen soldiers. One of the most poignant lists the names of the American military dead of the Vietnam War. Initially derided by hawkish veterans and conservatives as a “black gash of shame” and a “nihilistic slab,” it’s now one of the most celebrated monuments in Washington, D.C. More than 58,000 men and women are represented on the visually arresting black granite walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.</p>
<p>Vietnam itself has no shortage of monuments of its own. Many are Soviet-style memorials to those who died defeating the United States and reuniting their country. Others are seldom-seen, tiny memorials to massacres perpetrated by the Americans and their allies. No one knows how many similar cenotaphs exist in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other forever-war countries, but in 2017, journalist Emran Feroz found just such a memorial in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province — a remembrance of five civilians slain in drone strikes during 2013 and 2014.</p>
<p>There have been other attempts to memorialize the civilian dead of the forever wars from art installations to innovative visual protests to virtual commemorations.</p>
<p>In 2018, after then-President Trump signed a bill approving the construction of a Global War on Terrorism Memorial, Peter Maass proposed, even if only half-seriously, that the bullet-riddled blue Kia van he saw in Iraq should be placed on a pedestal on the National Mall. “If we start building monuments that focus our attention on the pitiless killing of civilians in our wars,” he wrote, “maybe we would have fewer wars to fight and less reason to build these monuments.”</p>
<p>A blue Kia on the National Mall would be a good starting point. But if we’re ever to grasp the meaning of the post-9/11 wars and all the conflicts that set the stage for them, however, we may need a wall as well — one that starts at the Kia and heads west. It would, of course, be immense. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial spans a total of 400 feet. The celebrated Vietnam War photographer Philip Jones Griffiths observed that a wall for the Vietnamese dead, counting combatants, of the American War would be nine miles long.</p>
<p>The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is arrayed in a unique chronological format, but the Civilian Deaths Memorial could begin with anyone. The last civilians killed by the United States as part of its 2001 to 2021 Afghan War – Zemari Ahmadi, Zamir, Faisal, Farzad, Naser, Arwin, Benyamin, Hayat, Malika, and Somaya – could lead it off. Then maybe Abdul Rashid and the 14 passengers from his red pick-up truck. Then Malana, Gul Mudin, Gul Rahim, Gulalai, Mayada, Tuqa, Mohannad, Najib, Lul Dahir Mohamed, and Mariam Shilo Muse. Then maybe Ngo Thi Sau, Cao Muoi, Cao Thi Thong, Tran Cong Chau Em, Nguyen Thi Nhi, Cao Thi Tu, Le Thi Chuyen, Dang Thi Doi, Ngo Thi Chiec, Tran Thi Song, Nguyen Thi Mot, Nguyen Thi Hai, Nguyen Thi Ba, Nguyen Thi Bon, Ho Thi Tho, Vo Thi Hoan, Pham Thi Sau, Dinh Van Xuan, Dinh Van Ba, Tran Cong Viet, Nguyen Thi Nham, Ngo Quang Duong, Duong Thi Hien, Pham Thi Kha, Huynh Van Binh, Huynh Thi Bay, Huynh Thi Ty, Le Van Van, Le Thi Trinh, Le Thi Duong, and Le Vo Danh and her unborn child, all slaughtered in the tiny South Vietnamese village of Phi Phu by U.S. troops (without any of the attention accorded to the My Lai massacre). They could be followed by the names of, or placeholders for, the remaining 2 million Vietnamese civilian dead and by countless Cambodians, Laotians, Afghans, Iraqis, Somalis and Yemenis.</p>
<p>The Civilian Wall could be built in a zig-zag fashion across the U.S. with the land in its way — homes and businesses, parks and roadways — seized by eminent domain, making Americans care about civilian deaths in ways that news articles never could.</p>
<p>When you lose your home to a slab of granite that reads “Pequot adult, Pequot adult, Pequot child…” 500 times, you may actually take notice. When you hear about renewed attacks in Iraq or drone strikes in Somalia or a Navy SEAL raid gone awry in Yemen and worry that the path of the wall might soon turn toward your town, you’re likely to pay far more attention to America’s conflicts abroad.</p>
<p>Obviously, a westward-traveling wall memorializing civilian carnage is a non-starter in this country, but the next time you hear some fleeting murmur about a family wiped out by a drone strike or read a passing news story about killings by a U.S.-backed militia, think about that imaginary wall and how, in a just world, it might be headed in your direction. In the meantime, perhaps the best we can hope for is Maass’s proposal for that blue Kia on the Mall. Perhaps it could be accompanied by the inscription found on a granite slab at the Heidefriedhof, a cemetery in Dresden, Germany, the site of a mass grave for civilians killed in a 1945 U.S. and British fire-bombing. It begins: “How many died? Who knows the number?”</p>
<p><i>Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch and a fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author most recently of Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan and of the bestselling Kill Anything That Moves.</i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-13171896329532726912021-01-14T09:12:00.004+09:002021-01-14T09:12:41.461+09:00Trump’s Latest Yemen Move Far Worse Than Capitol Riot<p><b>Caitlin Johnstone condemns the U.S. designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization and the scarce media coverage of the Saudi-led conflict’s deadly toll.</b></p><p>By Caitlin Johnstone</p><p></p><p><a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/12/fyi-trumps-latest-yemen-move-is-far-worse-than-the-capitol-riot/">CaitlinJohnstone.com</a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLlizUZjPAjlFfvZLuO_9i4q9gF2F7f2FxM8ir6Jd7-RT_xFObnkvNGfmdCyqPo2OOu3mHeRwDgriyM3PsuR-oOg5mhiM_vGogFlO_mJ07SIZuauJnP7Ip6QtbHvUU5y-ul__dbht5Oc/" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="720" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLlizUZjPAjlFfvZLuO_9i4q9gF2F7f2FxM8ir6Jd7-RT_xFObnkvNGfmdCyqPo2OOu3mHeRwDgriyM3PsuR-oOg5mhiM_vGogFlO_mJ07SIZuauJnP7Ip6QtbHvUU5y-ul__dbht5Oc/" width="320" /></a>While the Capitol riot is being hysterically compared to Pearl Harbor and Kristallnacht by the political/media class, the Trump administration has done something far, far worse that is receiving far, far less attention.</p><p></p><p>The U.S. State Department has officially announced its intention to designate Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group, as many had previously warned. Humanitarian organizations have been condemning the move as it will make it more difficult to provide aid to a population that is already being brutalized by the worst mass atrocity in the entire world, a Saudi-led atrocity which could not occur without the help of the western power alliance.</p><p>We are already seeing some effects of this designation.</p><p>Antiwar‘s Dave DeCamp reports the following:</p><p>“The terror designation will hamper the efforts of international charities that deliver food to Houthi-controlled areas, where 70 percent of Yemen’s population lives and malnutrition is the most widespread.</p><p>Aid agencies fear their work in north Yemen will now be criminalized since the Houthis are the authority they have to deal with and make transactions with. US terror designations open up sanctions on any individuals or entities that do business with those Washington brands as terrorists.</p><p>Pompeo said exemptions would be made for humanitarian goods. But any additional roadblocks for aid agencies will cause more suffering in Yemen since the situation is so dire. “Even with exemptions, the operation will be compromised,” said Janti Soeripto, the president of Save the Children, according to AP News.”</p><p>The United Nations conservatively estimates that some 233,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war between the Houthis and the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition, mostly from what it calls “indirect causes.” Those indirect causes would be disease and starvation resulting from what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls “the worst famine the world has seen for decades.”</p><p>When people hear the word “famine” they usually think of mass hunger caused by droughts or other naturally occurring phenomena, but in reality the starvation deaths we are seeing in Yemen (a huge percentage of which are children under the age of 5) are caused by something that is no more natural than the starvation deaths you’d see in a medieval siege. They are the result of the Saudi coalition’s use of blockades and its deliberate targeting of farms, fishing boats, marketplaces, food storage sites, and cholera treatment centers with airstrikes aimed at making the Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen so weak and miserable that they break.</p><p>In other words, the U.S. and its allies have been helping Saudi Arabia deliberately kill children and other civilians on mass scale in order to achieve a political goal. Which would of course be a perfect example of any standard definition of terrorism. The unfathomably savage and bloodthirsty U.S. empire designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization is the least funny joke that has ever been told.</p><p>This move is quantifiably far, far worse than anything Trump could possibly have done to incite the Capitol riot, as it will kill far, far more people, yet the mass media fixate on one news story while virtually ignoring the other. This is because the Capitol riot story feeds into partisan narratives and manufactures consent for authoritarian domestic terrorism laws, while the Yemen story highlights the depravity of U.S. imperialism. The plutocrat-owned media does not exist to give you a truthful representation of the world, it exists to keep the wheels of the empire rolling along.</p><p>There’s a weird taboo against saying some things are worse than other things, especially when it involves things the mass media tell us are of cataclysmic significance. People shriek “Why are you minimizing the Capitol raid??” and “Why are you comparing them! It’s not a pissing contest!” This is stupid. All things are not equal to all other things, and figuring out the ways in which news coverage is disproportionate and not reflective of reality is a very important part of making sense of the world.</p><p>So now Americans are being fed a steady diet of narratives about the threat Trump’s radicalized base poses to people of color, while ignoring the fact that Trump is currently implementing policies which facilitate the butchery of people of color. Only difference is the latter is hidden behind geographical remoteness, and is far more egregious.</p><p>It matters that the mass media do not cover news stories with an accurate degree of proportion. It matters that they keep the public’s gaze diverted from the horrors of empire while radically distorting their sense of reality. This isn’t some idle “contrarian take.” This matters.</p><p>In the last couple of centuries, we’ve progressed all the way from expecting our leaders to murder brown-skinned people while saying racist things to expecting our leaders to murder brown-skinned people while condemning racism. The murder hasn’t changed, and the racism hasn’t really changed either. All that’s changed is the norms of how it is put into practice.</p><p>This matters.</p><p><i>Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following her on Steemit, throwing some money into her tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of her sweet merchandise, buying her books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.</i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-82619388728813144262020-01-06T10:03:00.000+09:002020-01-06T10:03:27.418+09:00Israeli Justice… a Futile Chaseby Stanley L. Cohen<br />
<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/israeli-justice-a-futile-chase/" target="_blank">CounterPunch</a><br />
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<b>“Doctrine of Futility”</b><br />
Seventeen years ago, 23 year old <a href="https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/">Rachel Corrie</a>
(a Washington State volunteer with the International Solidarity
Movement) was crushed to death by an armored military bulldozer as she
stood on top of a mound of dirt trying to prevent the dozer from
destroying a civilian home in the Southern Gaza Strip village of Rafa.
Wearing a bright orange vest and shouting out at the bulldozer through a
megaphone, Corrie was murdered for the temerity of her unarmed act of
peaceful defiance. More than a dozen years later the Israeli Supreme
Court rejected her parents’ suit to hold Israel’s military accountable
for her death. In finding that an “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/17/israel-dangerous-ruling-rachel-corrie-case">explicit statutory provision</a> of the <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/state/pages/the%20state-%20legislature-%20the%20knesset.aspx">Knesset</a>
overrides the provisions of international law”, the Israeli High Court
sacrificed well more than a century of settled international
protections, including those memorialized under the laws of war and
human rights, to the endless Israeli talisman of “wartime activity.”<br />
More than a few historians can recall that very chant, raised and rejected at the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials">Nuremberg Tribunals</a>, which held Nazis accountable for targeted attacks on civilians throughout World War II.<br />
Less than two months after the murder of Corrie, 34 year old <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/may/07/guardianobituaries.middleeastthemedia">James Henry Dominic Miller</a>
(a Welsh cameraman, producer and director who had won five Emmy awards
for his work) was shot dead by an Israeli soldier, at night, while
filming a documentary in the Rafah refugee camp. Moments after he and
his crew left a Palestinian home bearing a white flag, two shots rang
out. After the first shot a crew member cried out, “…we are British
journalists.”. Soon, a second shot hit Miller, killing him instantly.
Initially, one spokesperson reported that after the IDF discovered a
tunnel at the house Miller had exited, he was shot in the back when
caught in the middle of a crossfire precipitated by an anti-tank missile
fired at Israeli troops. Another spokesperson said his death occurred
during “…an operation taking place at night, in which the [Israeli]
force was under fire and in which the force returned fire with light
weapons.”<br />
Later, both versions were retracted when it turned out that the round
that killed Miller had entered not through his back but the front of
his neck. Likewise, the tale of crossfire fell apart with witnesses
reporting no such exchange of gunfire and none having been heard on an
audio recording made contemporaneous to the incident.<br />
Some two years later, an Israeli military police investigation into
Miller’s killing was closed without returning any criminal charges
against the Israeli soldier suspected of firing the fatal shot … though
he was to be “disciplined” for violating the rules of engagement and for
altering his account of what had occurred.<br />
The following year, an inquest jury at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_Coroner's_Court">St Pancras Coroner’s Court</a>
in London returned a verdict finding that Miller had been “murdered”
and that the fatal shot matched rounds used by the IDF. Not long
thereafter, the UK Attorney General made a formal request to Israel for
it to prosecute the soldier responsible for firing the shot. That
request was ignored. To date, no such proceedings have been undertaken
by Israel …be it by an independent investigatory body, the military or
the office of the state prosecutor.<br />
In March of 2009, thirty-eight year old California native, <a href="https://palsolidarity.org/tag/tristan-anderson/">Tristan Anderson</a>,
was hit in the forehead by a high-velocity teargas canister fired
directly at him by an Israeli border policeman, some 60 metres away,
following a regular joint Palestinian -Jewish demonstration against the
Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank village of Ni’lin. When
struck, Anderson was simply talking with three or four other activists
in the center of the village some distance from the “shame wall” where
the demonstration had earlier occurred. In the months prior, four
Palestinians had been killed by soldiers during like demonstrations.<br />
Taken to a hospital with his head split open, Anderson underwent
three emergency brain operations which required the partial removal of
his frontal lobe. The surgery, which left him in a coma and in critical
condition, blinded his right eye and paralyzed half of his body. After
fifteen months of hospitalization, Anderson returned home where, a
decade later, he continues to require around the clock care because of
permanent cognitive impairment and physical disability.<br />
Several days after Anderson was crippled, Israeli police opened an
investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. Given the 400 plus
metre range of the canister, and their respective positions, there was
clear evidence of criminal intent on the part of the soldier who shot
Anderson. Despite this, the investigation was closed, some six months
later, without explanation or any public finding… and with no criminal
charges filed against any police or military personnel.<br />
When no criminal charges were filed against those involved, the
Andersons filed a civil law suit against Israel but waited years for the
case to proceed in an Israeli court. Years later, the case remains very
much in a state of judicial limbo with no determination as to it
merits. Not unusual at all, counsel for the Anderson’s has noted that
“…[t]he astonishing negligence of this investigation and of the
prosecutorial team that monitored its outcome is unacceptable, but it
epitomizes Israel’s culture of impunity. Tristan’s case is actually not
rare; it represents hundreds of other cases of Palestinian victims whose
investigations have also failed.”<br />
As she walked out of the courtroom after a judicial proceeding into the civil lawsuit regarding the shooting of her partner, <a href="https://imemc.org/article/71039/">Gabby Silverman</a>,
who is Jewish, was served with an order that she had to leave Israel
within the following 7 days because there was “insufficient proof that
there was a lawsuit going on, and insufficient proof that she is a Jew.”<br />
These three matters involving the murder or cripple of foreign
nationals by Israel are very much the rule and not the exception in a
state that sees dissent or disobedience as an open invitation for
retaliation. For the fortunate, it means but arrest or expulsion for the
less so …outright assassination.<br />
For those who survive politically rooted Israeli assault, or their
mourning heirs, the road to equity remains a dead end… one blocked by
walls of incompetence or indifference… smothered by systemic delay and
legislative fiat that convert black robes of justice to mere rubber
stamps of state. To be sure, Israel’s failure to promptly and thoroughly
investigate facts and circumstances, let alone to prosecute its agents…
military or otherwise… who commit crimes against foreign nationals or
to provide for an equitable and expeditious civil remedy for them or
their loved ones, is well-known, indeed, notorious throughout the world.<br />
For Palestinians, every step outside their home is to navigate a mine
field of uncertainty; every encounter with an Israeli soldier or police
officer a literal tempt to their life or liberty. The famed Israeli
human rights center, <a href="https://www.btselem.org/"><i>B’Tselem</i></a><i>,</i>
has archived a veritable cemetery of Palestinians victimized by
extra-judicial Israeli assassination. Most cry out for justice from
beyond the headstones that mark their name with little else but the
smile of their memory. Meanwhile, loved ones wait for the call of
justice… an echo, for almost all, never to be heard.<br />
<blockquote>
On July 13, 2011, twenty-one year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Ibrahim ‘Omar Muhammad Sarhan</a>
was shot dead at al-Far’ah Refugee Camp by soldiers who ordered him to
stop during an arrest operation. When he refused, he was killed. Though a
military investigation into his killing was opened, it was eventually
closed, with no one charged, on the grounds “…that the shooting
soldier’s conduct was not unreasonable given the overall circumstances
and his understanding of the situation at the time.”<br />
On February 23, 2012 twenty-five year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Tal’at ‘Abd a-Rahman Ziad Ramyeh</a>
was shot dead at the northeast corner to a-Ram, al-Quds District, after
throwing a firecracker at soldiers during a clash with demonstrators. A
military investigation into his death was closed “…on the grounds that
the gunfire that killed Ramyeh was carried out in accordance with open
fire regulations.”<br />
On March 27, 2012, twenty-seven year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Rashad Dhib Hassan Shawakhah</a>
was wounded, in the village of Rammun, when he and his two brothers
confronted two out-of-uniform soldiers who approached their home in the
middle of the night. Believing the men to be burglars, the brothers,
armed with a knife and a club, confronted the soldiers who, without
identifying themselves, shot the three of them. Uniformed soldiers
arriving at the scene shot Rashad, again, as he lay wounded on the
ground. He died six days later. Although a military investigation was
opened, more than seven years later no action has yet been taken.<br />
On January 15, 2013, sixteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Samir Ahmad Muhammad ‘Awad</a>
of Budrus, Ramallah District, was shot and killed by soldiers near the
Separation Barrier. After crossing the first barbed wire fence of the
barrier, Awad was shot in the back and in the head as he tried to flee
the soldiers’ ambush and return to Budrus. Although two soldiers were
indicted, several years later, for reckless and negligent use of a
firearm, the charges were eventually dismissed when prosecutors told the
court that because their evidence had “weakened” there was no longer
“…a reasonable prospect of conviction.”<br />
On January 23, 2013, twenty-one year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Lubna Munir Sa’id al-Hanash</a>
was shot and killed while walking on the grounds of Al-‘ Arrub College,
after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at an Israeli car traveling ahead
of the vehicle in which the soldier who fired and the second-in-command
of the Yehuda Brigade were passengers. The following year, an
investigation into the killing by the military was closed after a
finding that the “… shooting did not breach protocol and did not
constitute any type of criminal offense.”<br />
On December 7, 2013, fifteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Wajih Wajdi Wajih a-Ramahi</a>
was shot in the back and killed by soldiers, at the Jalazon Refugee
Camp, while standing in the vicinity of teenagers in the camp who were
throwing stones at the soldiers from approximately 200 meters away. Six
years later, the case remains under military “investigation.”<br />
On March 19, 2014, fourteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Yusef Sami Yusef a-Shawamreh</a>
of Deir al-‘Asal al-Foqa, Hebron District, was shot by soldiers after
he and two friends crossed a gap in the Separation Barrier to gather <i>gundelia</i>
[Arabic: ‘Akub], a thistle-like edible plant. Not long thereafter, a
military investigation of the shooting was closed with a finding of the
“…absence of a suspected breach of open fire regulations or criminal
conduct on the part of any military personnel.”<br />
On May 15, 2014, sixteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Muhammad Mahmoud ‘Odeh Salameh</a>
was shot in the back and killed in a protest near the village of
Bitunya, near the Ofer military base, that included stone-throwing. He
was not throwing stones when killed. Two years later, the military
closed an investigation into the killing after it claimed that no
evidence was found connecting a soldier to the shooting.<br />
On July 22, 2014, twenty-nine year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Mahmoud Saleh ‘Ali Hamamreh</a>
of Husan, Bethlehem District, was shot in the chest and killed by
soldiers when he stepped out of his grocery shop to observe clashes
underway in the village. While a military investigation was initiated
soon thereafter, four years later no decision has yet to be reached.<br />
On August 10, 2014, ten year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Khalil Muhammad Ahmad al-‘Anati</a>
of the al-Fawwar Refugee Camp was shot in the back by a soldier while
near other boys who were throwing stones at a military jeep in the Camp.
He died of his wounds in hospital. Several years later, a military
investigation into the child’s killing ended after “…the investigation
found that the troops had acted out of a sense of mortal danger, and
that no link between the gunfire and the death of the boy… could be
proven.”<br />
On July 23, 2015, fifty-three year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Fallah Hamdi Zamel Abu Maryah</a>
of Beit Ummar, Hebron District, was killed after soldiers entered his
home, to make an arrest, and shot and wounded his son. When Abu Mariyah
threw pottery at the soldiers from a second floor balcony of his home,
soldiers shot him three times in the chest. A military “investigation”
continues.<br />
On September 18, 2015, twenty-four year old Ahmad <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">‘Izat ‘Issa Khatatbeh</a>
of Beit Furik, Nablus District, who was congenitally deaf, was shot in
the back by soldiers near the Beit Furik Checkpoint. He died six days
later. To date, it appears no investigation into his killing has been
initiated.<br />
On September 22, 2015, eighteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Hadil Salah a-Din Sadeq al-Hashlamun</a>
of Hebron was shot and killed when hit multiple times in her legs and
upper body after refusing to stop on her way out of the Police (Shoter)
Checkpoint. As it turned out a concealed knife was recovered from her.
No criminal investigation into her killing was undertaken.<br />
On October 5, 2015, thirteen year old ‘<a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Abd a-Rahman Shadi Khalil ‘Obeidallah</a>
of the ‘Aydah Refugee Camp, Bethlehem District, was shot dead by
soldiers as he stood, with other teenagers, approximately 200 meters
away from a military post at Rachel’s Tomb where minor clashes were
underway between Palestinians and soldiers. Although a military
investigation into the child’s killing was initiated, no decisions have
been reached more than four years later.<br />
On November 6, 2015, seventy-two year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Tharwat Ibrahim Suliman a-Sha’rawi</a>
was shot dead by soldiers standing on a road after they “suspected” she
was trying to run some of them over. Even after the car passed,
soldiers continued firing at her. The military reported no investigation
was launched as a “…preliminary review of the incident did not indicate
suspicion of a criminal offense.”<br />
On November 13, 2015, twenty year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Lafy Yusef Mustafa ‘Awad</a>
of Budrus, Ramallah District, was critically injured when shot in the
back by soldiers after he broke free from their grasp and began to flee.
Driven to hospital in a civilian vehicle, which necessarily took longer
because of a military checkpoint, he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
No investigation was undertaken as the military stated “…a preliminary
review of the incident did not indicate suspicion of a criminal
offense.”<br />
On December 11, 2015, fifty-six year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">‘Issa Ibrahim Salameh al-Hrub</a>
of Deir Samit, Hebron District was shot and killed by Border Police and
soldiers who “suspected” he was trying to run them over. Six months
later, the military advised that no investigation would be launched into
the incident as a “…preliminary review of the incident did not indicate
suspicion of a criminal offense.”<br />
On December 18, 2015, thirty–four year old<a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup"> Nasha’t Jamal ‘Abd a-Razeq ‘Asfu</a>r
of Sinjil, Ramallah District, was shot and critically wounded, while
walking home, by soldiers more than a hundred meters away who opened
fire while other Palestinians threw stones at them. He died later that
day in hospital. While a military investigation was opened it was
apparently closed without any charges.<br />
On February 10, 2016, fifteen years old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">‘Omar Yusef Isma’il Madi</a>
of the al-‘Arrub Refugee Camp, Hebron District, was shot dead by a
soldier in a military tower, at the entrance to the camp, while stones
were being thrown at the tower. Though an investigation was launched,
more than three year later no conclusion has been reported.<br />
On May 4, 2016, twenty-three year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Arif Sharif ‘Abd al-Ghafar Jaradat</a>
of Sa’ir, Hebron District, (who had Down’s syndrome) was shot as he
approached soldiers as they were leaving his village. He died six weeks
later. Although a military investigation was closed because “…the
gunfire at the casualty did not deviate from open-fire regulations” an
appeal has been filed.<br />
On June 21, 2016, fifteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Mahmoud Raafat Mahmoud Mustafa Badran </a>of
Beit ‘Ur a-Tahta, Ramallah, was fatally shot… and four other young men
injured… by soldiers who fired on their car while they were driving
through a tunnel on their way home from a night at a swimming pool. An
investigation was closed by the military which concluded “…in light of
the circumstances of the incident, the miss-identification of the car
was an honest and reasonable error, and it was permissible for the
troops to initiate suspect apprehension procedure.”<br />
On October 20, 2016, fifteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Khaled Bahar Ahmad Bahar</a>
of Beit Ummar, Hebron District, was shot in the back and killed as he
ran into a grove fleeing soldiers. Although an investigation was
reportedly begun, more than three year later no action has ensued.<br />
On October 31, 2017, twenty-six year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Muhammad ‘Abdallah ‘Ali Musa</a>
of Deir Ballut, was shot dead by soldiers, while driving to Ramallah
with his sister, after soldiers had reportedly been alerted that a
suspicious vehicle was approaching. Ordering the car to stop, one of the
soldiers began to fire at the car, and continued even after it had
passed by, without any of its passengers having tried to harm anyone. It
was reported that Musa lay wounded on the ground for some 10 minutes
without receiving any medical care and was later seized by soldiers
while being treated by a Palestinian ambulance team. Two years after the
military opened an investigation, it was closed because the soldiers
had “…acted in accordance with open-fire regulations and because their
operational actions did not evince ethic deficiency.”<br />
On January 30, 2018, sixteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Layth Haitham Fathi Abu Na’im</a>
of al-Mughayir, Ramallah, was shot in the head and critically injured
by a rubber-coated metal bullet fired by a soldier from 20 meters away,
after returning to his village post clashes he had taken part in had
ended. A military investigation is pending.<br />
On December 4, 2018, twenty-two year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Muhammad Husam ‘Abd a-Latif Hbali</a>
of Tulkarm Refugee Camp, was shot in the head by soldiers from behind.
Intellectually disabled, when shot, he was moving away from soldiers
while carrying a stick. All was quiet at the time he was shot. A
military investigation has been on-going since.<br />
On December 14, 2018, eighteen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Mahmoud Yusef Mahmoud Nakhleh</a>
of al-Jalazun Refugee Camp Ramallah, was shot in the back by soldiers
from about 80 meters away while running near the entrance to the refugee
camp… after others had thrown stones at a military post at its
entrance. Soldiers dragged Nakhleh away by the arms and legs and denied
him medical treatment for about 15 minutes. He died soon thereafter. A
year ago, a military investigation was launched.<br />
On December 20, 2018, seventeen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Qassem Muhammad ‘Ali ‘Abasi</a>
of Ras al-‘Amud, East Jerusalem, was fatally shot in the back by
soldiers, who were stationed near a checkpoint, as the car in which he
and three of his relatives were passengers was driving away from the
checkpoint. A military investigation was opened.<br />
On March 20, 2019, twenty-two year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Ahmad Jamal Mahmoud Manasrah</a>
of Wadi Fukin, Bethlehem, was shot dead by a soldier who fired at him
from a military tower near a local checkpoint. At the time he was
killed, he was helping a family whose car had been shot at by soldiers
and had pulled over. An investigation is pending.<br />
On March 7, 2019, seventeen year old <a href="https://www.btselem.org/accountability/military_police_investigations_followup">Sajed ‘Abd al-Hakim Helmi Muzher</a>,
a volunteer medic, from the a-Duheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem
District, was shot in the stomach as he ran to evacuate a Palestinian
who had been shot in the leg when stones were being thrown at troops who
had entered the camp. He died later that day. A military investigation
is on-going.</blockquote>
These horrors are but a microcosm of a deadly, systemic tradition
that has raged unabated for generations in which thousands of largely
young Palestinians have been targeted, crippled and murdered without
penalty of consequence to Israel’s military or security structure…
essentially unmonitored and uncontrolled… indifferent to human rights
and international law. Yes, there <i>have</i> been those rare empty
exceptions in which a perverse judicial performance has made a mockery
of life and law with token punishment meted out for crimes that shock
the conscience of humanity.<br />
Thus, on January 1, 2013, twenty-one year old ‘Udai Muhammad Salameh
Darawish of a-Ramadin, Hebron District, was shot dead by soldiers near
the Meitar checkpoint as he fled them after he entered Israel, for work
purposes, without a permit. Following a military investigation and plea
bargain to negligent manslaughter, a soldier received a seven-month
suspended sentence and was demoted to sergeant.<br />
Two more recent judicial miscarriages remind us, once again, that law
in Israel remains but a gavel for Jews and a bludgeon for all others:<br />
On May 10<sup>th</sup> of this year, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/elor-azaria-killer-king-leading-life-luxury-israel">Elor Azaria</a>,
an Israeli medic who faced up to 20 years upon his conviction for
manslaughter, walked out of prison after serving but nine months of an
eighteen month sentence originally imposed on him by a military court.
It was subsequently reduced to fourteen months by the IDF chief of staff
and then again by the army’s prison parole board (and agreed to by
military prosecutors) for his cold-blooded execution of twenty-one year
old Abdul Fatah al-Sharif who lay injured and motionless on the ground
after stabbing, but not seriously injuring, an Israeli soldier in
Occupied Hebron. With calm, deliberate ease, Azaria was recorded as he
approached his victim, cocked his rifle and executed him with a single
shot to his head.<br />
Not long ago, an Israeli military court sentenced a soldier to one
month of the military’s equivalent of community service over the
execution of fifteen year old <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/30/mockery-justice-outrage-over-one-month-community-service-sentence-israeli-soldier">Othman Rami Halles</a>
who he shot dead during protests near the Israel fence east of the Gaza
Strip on July 13, 2018. The unnamed soldier was convicted for “…acting
without authorisation in a manner endangering to life and well-being.”<br />
These sentences pale in comparison to those routinely imposed upon
Palestinian children convicted of throwing stones. For example, sixteen
year old stone thrower <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-soldier-sentence-latest-elor-azaria-manslaughter-hebron-palestinian-shooting-wounded-attacker-a7593126.html">Saleh Ashraf Ishtayya</a> was sentenced to three years and three months in prison. Fourteen year-olds<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-soldier-sentence-latest-elor-azaria-manslaughter-hebron-palestinian-shooting-wounded-attacker-a7593126.html"> Muhammad Ahmad Jaber and Murad Raed Alqam</a> received three year sentences. Seventeen year old <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-soldier-sentence-latest-elor-azaria-manslaughter-hebron-palestinian-shooting-wounded-attacker-a7593126.html">Muhammad Na’el</a> and sixteen year old <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-soldier-sentence-latest-elor-azaria-manslaughter-hebron-palestinian-shooting-wounded-attacker-a7593126.html">Zaid Ayed al-Taweel</a>
each received two years and four months in prison for the same offense.
None of these children injured, let alone, took the life of an Israeli.<br />
Tragically, casualties have long been the anguished, up-close face of
the Occupation with an historical character that wields a deadly reach
unmatched and long ignored by the world. As very much a perverse rite of
passage, thousands of Palestinian civilians have paid the ultimate
price for little more than their presence… lost to multiple high-tech
military operations that have targeted residential communities and
schools, hospitals and core infrastructure. Many more have been wounded
or crippled by relentless Israeli attacks designed to leave survivors
not just overwhelmed and battered but with a sense of isolation and
futility. Nowhere has this brutal assault on fundamental human rights
and international law been more conspicuous than through the sniper
attacks on Gaza, over the past 18 months, that have slaughtered or
injured tens of thousands of demonstrators whose only weapons have been
the step of their march and the resound of their voice. And what of
international law?<br />
Volumes have been written on humanitarian law… the law of war and
human rights. No doubt they line the walls of judicial halls throughout
Israel… from its lowest military courtroom in the Occupied Territories
to the highest civilian chamber that claims to rule supreme as the
guardian of due process and equal protection for Israeli citizens and
those held captive by it. Yet, even a cursory glance by an untrained eye
leaves the imprint of a judicial system that is subservient to the
chant of state security and legislative fiat and slowed to a process of
delay that drags on and on for years leaving no one but Israeli Jews
comfortable in the notion that they will have their day in court and
with speed and fairness.<br />
Millions of Palestinians are held captive in the Occupied Territories
be it in the West Bank by security onslaught or military patrol or by
the heap of Concertina wire, sniper mounds and air force and naval watch
that keeps all of Gaza imprisoned every minute of every hour of every
day. For these foreign nationals… and they are foreign nationals… they
never see the inside of an Israeli civilian court or the due process it
infers. For these perpetual prisoners, the uniformed soldiers that carry
weapons become uniformed soldiers that investigate and prosecute cases
to uniformed soldiers that pass judgment adorned not by robes of
independence but by order of salute. As noted above in the archive of
causality, few if any Palestinians ever obtain due process and equal
protection of the law, let alone with independent and foreseeable
resolution, as investigations and cases linger on for years pushed,
predictably, to the back of the line as each new public outrage unfolds.
This is not justice but the “Doctrine of Futility” at its primordial
worst.<br />
<b>International Relief</b><br />
It is settled law that before seeking international relief, aggrieved
parties must first seek redress for harm, caused by a state, within its
own domestic legal system. Exhaustion of local remedies (ELR) is
intended to uphold state sovereignty by recognizing its own judicial
process as a presumptive vehicle for the independent, equitable and
expeditious resolution of claims against the state. ELR presumes a
state’s judicial and administrative systems provide for a credible and
apolitical avenue for injured foreign nationals to obtain their day in
court before moving-on for diplomatic protection or undertaking
international proceedings directly against the state. Yet, very much the
proverbial beauty locked in the eyes of the beholder, provisions like
equitable, independent and expeditious are routinely recast by
repressive regimes across the globe to mirror little more than partisan
safeguard of the state’s tyrannical needs and agenda.<br />
Nowhere is that more palpably evident or painfully clear than it is
in Israel where judicial remedies have long and repeatedly proven to be
little more than a convenient faith based tease… a non-existent march to
the beat of the overarching political gavel of the Knesset. For Israeli
Jews, “all rise” portends opportunity denied all others. For Israeli
Jews, lady justice cheats as she peeks out from behind her blindfold…
for all others, she is but a symbol without a sign.<br />
The ELR rule is a foundational mainstay of all global and regional
international human rights entities and covenants. For example, within
the UN, the<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx"> International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>
mandates that it’s Human Rights Committee “shall deal with a matter
referred to it only after it has ascertained that all available domestic
remedies have been invoked and exhausted in the matter, in conformity
with the generally recognized principles of international law.”<br />
Likewise, the <a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">European Convention on Human Rights</a>
provides that the European Court of Human Rights “may only deal with
the matter after all domestic remedies have been exhausted, according to
the generally recognized rules of international law.”<br />
The <a href="https://www.cidh.oas.org/basicos/english/basic3.american%20convention.htm">American Convention on Human Rights</a>
requires exhaustion of local remedies “in accordance with generally
recognized principles of international law” before the submission of
petitions or communications to the commission.<br />
The <a href="https://www.achpr.org/legalinstruments/detail?id=49">African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>
provides that the Commission “can only deal with a matter submitted to
it after making sure that all local remedies, if they exist, have been
exhausted, unless it is obvious to the Commission that the procedure of
achieving these remedies would be unduly prolonged.”<br />
This exemption is but one of several that find smooth fit within the
so-called “Doctrine of Futility.” Under this doctrine, while release
from the requirements of the ELR fluctuates from venue to venue,
by-in-large one need not chase domestic justice where none can be had.
Thus, in general, ELR may be bypassed:<br />
<blockquote>
a. If the domestic legislation of the state concerned
does not afford due process of law for the protection of the right or
rights that have allegedly been violated;<br />
b. If the party alleging violation of his rights has been denied
access to the remedies under domestic law or has been prevented from
exhausting them; or<br />
c. If there has been unwarranted delay in rendering a final judgment under these remedies.</blockquote>
Israel is a veritable primer, a law school’s teach, on when and where
all three damning exemptions merge to validate an apt and speedy march
to the nearest international forum in pursuit of justice and human
rights otherwise willfully denied foreign nationals in any courthouse or
military barrack that flies the banner of the Star of David.<br />
And just who are foreign nationals? In most jurisdictions they cut a
relatively narrow swath; typically but a handful of tourists, temporary
workers, or businesses and those incidentally injured by practices of
cross-border states. Yet, the numbers balloon to millions of foreign
nationals in occupied Palestine where all aspects of every Palestinian’s
life is impacted… if not controlled… daily by an occupation force and
judicial process of another state.<br />
Independent of the pervasive culture of military and security
violence and its companion lack of fairness and accountability, the
Israeli judicial system… both criminal and civil… presents a compelling
case study in a double standard delayed and disabled based solely upon
ones faith and national identity.<br />
<b>Child Prisoners</b><br />
Over the last two decades, more than 8,000 Palestinian children
(foreign nationals) have been arrested in the Occupied Territories and
prosecuted in an Israeli military system devoid of any meaningful due
process or equal protection for the most vulnerable and traumatized
among those that have known nothing but the bark of occupation their
entire lives. It is a military justice process notorious for the
systematic ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children.<br />
Several hours after their arrest, these children arrive at an
interrogation and detention center alone, tired, and frightened. All
interrogations, by their very nature, are inherently coercive no matter
the age or experience of its victim. None are more so than for an often
bruised and scared child forced to go through the process without the
benefit of counsel or the presence of parents who are never permitted to
participate.<br />
Israeli law provides that all military interrogations must be
undertaken in a prisoner’s native language and that any statement made
must be reduced to writing in that language. Despite this prohibition,
Palestinian detainees are typically coerced into signing statements,
through verbal abuse, threats, and physical violence, that is
memorialized by police in Hebrew… which most cannot understand. These
statements usually provide the main evidence against children in Israeli
military courts.<br />
<b>The Military Court Process</b><br />
The military “courts” themselves are held inside military bases and
closed to the public… and usually family members of the accused. Within
these courts, military orders supersede Israeli civilian and
international law.<br />
In military courts, all parties… the judge, prosecutor and
translators… are members of the Israeli armed forces. The judges are
military officers with minimal judicial training and, by-in- large,
served as military prosecutors before assuming the bench. The
prosecutors are Israeli soldiers, some not yet certified as attorneys by
the Israeli Bar. Under the rules of Occupation, all defendants in
military courts are Palestinian… as the jurisdiction of the Israeli
military court never extends to some eight hundred thousand Jewish
settlers living in the West Bank who are accorded the full panoply and
safeguard of Israeli civil law.<br />
Under military law, Palestinians can be held without charge, for the purpose of interrogation<b>, </b>for
a total period of 90 days during which they are denied the benefit of
counsel. Detention can be extended without limit and requires but an <i>ex parte</i>
request of military prosecutors. By comparison, a Jewish citizen
accused of a security offense, within the Occupied Territory, can be
held without indictment in the civil process for a period of up to 64
days during which time counsel is available at all times.<br />
Though Palestinian detainees are entitled to military trials which
must be completed within eighteen months of their arrest, their
detention can be extended indefinitely, by a military judge, in multiple
six-month increments. It is this limitless process which has left
thousands of Palestinian political detainees imprisoned for years on end
without the benefit of counsel, formal charges, or trial. The
comparable time limit for detainees in Israeli civilian courts is no
more than nine months.<br />
While criminal liability begins at age twelve for Palestinians and
Israelis alike, under the military system Palestinians can be tried as
adults at sixteen. For Israelis, prosecution as an adult in a civilian
court is eighteen. This two year difference, without physical
distinction of consequence, can mean a sentence disparity of many years
should a conviction ensue. In some cases, it can literally mean a
difference between a few years in prison versus decades upon conviction.<br />
Although the United Nations has repeatedly held that the military
justice system in the Occupied Territory violates international law, it
has done nothing to ensure equal protection and due process to hundreds
of thousands denied justice by virtue of being Palestinian and nothing
else. This continues to be true for Palestinian minors. According to
B’tselem “…at the end of October 2019, <a href="https://www.btselem.org/statistics/minors_in_custody">185 Palestinian minors</a> were held in Israeli prisons as security detainees and prisoners, including one under the age of 14.”<br />
<b>Neighborhood Cleansing</b><br />
With the onset of the Occupation in 1967, Israel initiated a wide
range of largely extrajudicial strategies in its incessant effort to
claim new municipal boundaries and to remake the age old Palestinian
character of east Jerusalem. What began with the seize of large swaths
of vacant land surrounding the Old City… for the construction of illegal
Jewish settlements… eventually gave rise to the de facto annexation of
East Jerusalem… universally condemned as a flaunt of international law.
However, never ones to allow legal standards to become barricade to
political needs, successive Israeli governments have accelerated the
Judaization of the historic capital of Palestine, typically using the
call of security as a pretext, while Israel’s judiciary has looked
away…largely indifferent to its responsibility to ensure that equal
justice be done.<br />
Recently, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-07-21/israel-prepares-to-demolish-homes-on-jerusalem-outskirts-stoking-palestinian-fears">Israel destroyed 10 mostly unfinished buildings</a>
containing some 70 apartments, in the Wadi Hummus neighborhood on the
edge of southeast Jerusalem, which were being built with permits issued
by the Palestinian Authority in an area under its recognized
jurisdiction. Displacing 17 Palestinians, including an older couple and
five children, from apartments that were finished, the demolitions also
left several hundred others, awaiting housing in the buildings, saddled
with ensuing economic loss. Though condemned by the United Nations, the
government nonetheless proceeded with the demolitions after Israel’s
High Court refused to intervene on the grounds that the project was
being built in a military-declared buffer zone near a “security” fence
that had gone up years before. That barrier, which is part of the system
of steel fences and concrete walls which runs throughout the West Bank
and around Jerusalem, was subsequently found to be illegal by the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2004/07/108912-international-court-justice-finds-israeli-barrier-palestinian-territory-illegal">International Court of Justice in 2004</a>. Like hundreds of other international declarations, Israel ignored the findings.<br />
The destruction of these residential buildings is by no means an
isolated or unpredictable phenomenon. In point of fact, another
one-hundred buildings completed, or under construction, under similar
circumstances in the same neighborhood, face the same risk.<br />
While the proffered basis for demolitions has changed to suit the
Israeli needs of the moment, they play an essential mainstay in its
intended policy of ethnic cleansing throughout east Jerusalem. This
modern-day pogrom finds its genesis in a cap that was placed on the
expansion of Palestinian neighborhoods in the days following the seizure
of east Jerusalem, thereby forcing many to build illegally according to
the laws of the Occupation. This artificial limit has been exacerbated
by systemic discrimination when it comes to the issue of building
permits in east Jerusalem. Though Palestinians make up more than 60% of
the population of the Old City according to the Israeli civil rights
group <a href="https://peacenow.org.il/en">Peace Now</a>, they have
received just 30% of the building permits issued by Israel dating back
to 1991. Given these circumstances, it has been estimated that more than
twenty-thousand housing units built in traditional Palestinian
neighborhoods dating back to 1967 fall into the category of illegal…
thus placing them at risk of demolition no matter what their condition,
how long they have stood or the numbers of their occupants.<br />
This danger has found new impetus since the United States moved its
Embassy to east Jerusalem, essentially declaring it to be the capital of
Israel. Emboldened by this act, and not now fearing either political or
economic reprisal by the United States (or meaningful intervention by
its own courts), Israel has recently accelerated its demolition policy
leading to the destruction of several hundred residential and commercial
structures… leaving hundreds of Palestinians homeless and dozens of
businesses in ruins.<br />
While precise figures are unknown, it is estimated that, over the
last fifteen years, more than one thousand- five hundred residential and
commercial units have been demolished by Israel leaving more than
three-thousand Palestinians homeless… including some one thousand- five
hundred minors.<br />
Of late, we have seen an increase in the number of demolitions
carried out by Palestinians, themselves. While some construe the
demolition of several dozen Palestinian structures by their own
residents as almost a willful, romanticized act of political defiance,
self-demolition has less to do with self-determination than it does the
unbearable cruelty and cost of the moment. The aching reality is that a
judicial system without justice has authorized the state to bill those
for the cost of the destruction of their own homes… lest they do so
themselves.<br />
<b>Collective Punishment</b><br />
While Israeli authorities have argued that punitive home demolitions
provide “…a severe message of deterrence to terrorists and their
accomplices”, such demolitions violate the Fourth Geneva Convention as
well as a host of Israel’s human rights obligations… in particular that
no-one should be punished for an act they did not commit. Under Israeli
law, those subject to punitive home demolitions are accorded an
opportunity to appeal a demolition order to a court. However, Israel’s
High Court has routinely refused to consider the absolute prohibition in
customary international law against collective punishment of civilians
in occupied territory when ruling on petitions against punitive home
demolitions in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem. As almost
settled law, the Court has held that demolitions can, in general, be
justified as “proportionate” when balanced against the need to deter
other Palestinians from carrying out future attacks. Moreover, as a
practical matter, rare are the opportunities for prospective victims to
obtain timely judicial relief thru applications for review of looming
military demolitions.<br />
Thus, according to <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/house-demolition-israeli-supreme-court-recent-developments">Article 119 of the Military Authority</a>,
the IDF commanders responsible for application of military measures in
the West Bank and East Jerusalem are empowered to confiscate and
demolish any property, if he determines that the inhabitant…and not
necessarily owner… of the property resorted to terrorist violence. That
power is not vested or required to go through judicial process but
rather is purely administrative. Thus there is no need for a court order
to authorize house demolitions and the evidence required to demolish a
home carries for the military a low threshold of internal administrative
proof …“…convincing in the eyes of a reasonable decision maker.”<br />
Though reprisal has long enjoyed a high degree of support among the
Israeli public, and thus politicians, there can be no reasoned debate
over whether house demolitions constitute a form of collective
punishment, and thus a war crime. Prohibited under basic principles of
human rights law and <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/380-600038">Articles 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949</a> and <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/195-200060">Article 50 of the 1907 Hague Regulations</a>,
demolitions also constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and
are selectively applied as against Palestinians and never Jews who
commit acts of terrorism.<br />
At their core, these demolitions, which also violate the prohibition on the destruction of private property set forth under <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf">Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention</a> and <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/195-200033?OpenDocument">Article 23(g) of the 1907 Hague Regulations</a>,
seek not to penalize a “terrorist” who is likely dead or in custody
charged with serious offenses and facing years, if not decades, in
prison, but rather, family members who reside in the home targeted for
military reprisal. Thus, innocent parents, husbands or wives, children
and siblings or other residents are left homeless as they are forced to
bear the consequences of the acts of loved ones, even in the absence of
any prior knowledge or nexus to them.<br />
Although Israel has periodically suspended home demolitions, in times
of heightened tension or militant resistance they have become very much
part of the military mainstream since the onset of the Occupation.
While the exact number of such demolitions is neither documented nor
certain, it is estimated that more than 2,000 Palestinian homes have
been destroyed pursuant to Article 119 since 1967. Though the Israeli
High Court requires the IDF commander to hold a hearing for the
residents of a property to be destroyed and permits a petition to the
court to stay the demolition, these “safeguards” have proven to be a
promise without purpose. While the court has stressed those demolitions
are harsh security measures that should be used only in “extreme
circumstances” not once has it overridden the authority of the IDF to
proceed accordingly.<br />
Lest there be any doubt that history can be but a harbinger of things
to come, some of those that run the bulldozer of today in Palestine are
progeny of those who picked through the rubble of homes and businesses
ransacked and destroyed as collective punishment for acts of terrorism.
Undoubtedly a pretext, in 1938, following the assassination of a German
Embassy attaché in Paris by a young Polish-German Jew, a campaign of
collective reprisal was unleashed against Jews in Germany. Known as <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/holocaust/kristallnacht"><i>Kristallnach</i>t,</a>
crowds set fire to synagogues, smashed shop windows, demolished
furniture and stocks of goods with the approval of the German
Government. Years later Nazis applied the principle of <i>Sippenhaft</i> (collective responsibility) to avenge the assassination of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich">Reinhard Heydrich</a> ,the architect of the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution">Final Solution</a> to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish">Jewish</a> question”, through mass executions and the destruction of two Czech villages… Lidice and Lezaky.<br />
With predictable promote, Prime Minister Netanyahu recently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-icc-palestinians-israel/netanyahu-accuses-icc-of-anti-semitism-in-pursuit-of-war-crimes-probe-idUSKBN1YQ0KC">indicted the ICC investigation</a>
of Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity as little more
than anti-Semitism. Putting aside Netanyahu’s readily transparent
canard, at its core, the ICC typically does not exercise its
jurisdiction pursuant to the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/documents/rs-eng.pdf">Rome Statute</a>
unless and until a state fails to provide a meaningful domestic remedy
for violations of international law. On this score, few can deny that no
such equitable and effective opportunity exists within Israel. As noted
by <a href="https://www.hrw.org/">Human Rights Watch</a>, “…the impetus
for the establishment of the ICC is the stark failure of national court
systems to hold the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity,
and war crimes accountable under law.”<br />
Be it by virtue of the blanket political control of the Knesset or
the deadly untamed reach of its security apparatus, Israel’s judiciary
stands as an emasculated reminder that foreign nationals, whether
occupied Palestinians or Westerners seen as enemies of the state, have
not, and cannot, obtain due process and equal protection of the law, let
alone in an independent and expeditious manner, through Israel’s
judicial process. Under these circumstances, the Doctrine of Futility
overshadows the need to exhaust local remedies to seek international
relief for domestic wrongs. The Doctrine does not provide for an easy
and settled pathway for foreign nationals to obtain justice outside the
confines of extant domestic procedure. Yet, at its core, this
international exemption finds its greatest potential and need when and
where, as here, a judicial system is built upon a double standard of
law… one for Palestinians, the other for Jews.<br />
<br />
<em><strong>Stanley L. Cohen</strong> is lawyer and activist in New York City.</em> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-91780275676373282042019-10-18T08:56:00.000+09:002019-10-18T08:56:20.838+09:00Settlers Use Crowbars to Beat Up Rabbi, 80, Who was Aiding Palestinian Olive Harvest <b>Octogenarian Israeli activist and four foreigners injured in northern West Bank when assailants arrived with crowbars, went on to burn hundreds of trees, Yesh Din says</b><br />
by Jacob Magid<br />
<a href="https://972mag.com/settlers-attack-olive-harvest-west-bank/143950/" target="_blank">Gush Shalom</a><br />
<br />An 80-year-old Israeli activist said he “feared for his life” on Wednesday when a group of masked settler youth armed with crowbars charged at him and a group of largely foreign volunteers assisting Palestinian farmers with the annual olive harvest in the northern West Bank.<br /><br />Rabbi Moshe Yehudai made the comments to Army Radio hours after he and fellow volunteers endured a brutal assault documented by rights groups at the scene.<br /><br />Of the five volunteers who were injured, four were visiting from the US, UK and other European countries, said a field worker for the Yesh Din NGO. Yehudai, an Israeli activist from Rabbis for Human Rights, was the fifth person targeted, suffering blows to the arm and head. He was evacuated to the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba with a broken arm.<br /><br />Rabbis for Human Rights recruits Israeli and foreign volunteers to accompany Palestinians, who say they face regular intimidation and violence while tending to crops located near settlements throughout the West Bank.<br /><br />On Wednesday morning, roughly ten volunteers were assisting Palestinian farmers from the villages of Burin and Haware when a group of over 30 masked settlers descended from Yitzhar, a settlement identified by the Israeli security establishment as a hotbed for extremism, according to a Yesh Din field worker.<br /><br />The Yesh Din field worker who spoke to The Times of Israel said that he arrived at the scene shortly after the assault began. After an IDF jeep was seen from a distance making its way to the field, the settler youth ignited a brushfire and retreated toward Yitzhar. At which point, the army vehicle turned around, the NGO staffer said.<br /><br />Firefighter planes were dispatched to the scene to put out the fire which burned down hundreds of olive trees, some decades old, according to Yesh Din.<br /><br />An IDF spokeswoman said she was looking into the incident, but was unable to provide any additional information.<br /><br />A Yesh Din volunteer with wounds sustained during an altercation with settlers int he West Bank on October 16, 2019. (Courtesy Yesh Din/Lexie Botzum)<br />The foreign volunteers filed a report at a nearby police station in the settlement of Ariel, but a spokeswoman for law enforcement could not provide any details on whether an investigation had been opened.<br /><br />A statement from Yitzhar settlement later Wednesday blamed the incident on “provocations caused by extreme-left activists,” who together with Palestinian approached the settlement, which the statement said created “a security hazard.”<br /><br />Speaking from the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance that tended to his injuries near the scene of the assault, Yehudai recalled assisting the Palestinian farmers with the other volunteers when the settlers charged at them.<br /><br />“Suddenly, the settlers came with their faces [covered]. They started running at us, they surrounded me, threw rocks at me, hit me with crowbars, giving me a head injury,” he said.<br /><br />“I told them I’m 80-years-old. Leave me alone,” he added, lamenting that the assailants refused to do so.<br /><br />The incident came as the annual olive harvest was just beginning. More than 100,000 Palestinian families rely to some extent on the income they generate from their olives and some 18 percent of Palestinian agricultural production comes from olives, according to statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.<br /><br />The harvest is a frequent site of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers that the Israel Defense Forces says it seeks to prevent.<br /><br />Palestinian media and rights groups have reported multiple cases of Israelis interfering with the annual harvest, attacking Palestinians, stealing olives and uprooting trees.<br /><br />In many places, farmers say they face intimidation and violence from nearby extremist settlers and call in help from both foreign and Israeli supporters, including Jewish rabbis, to protect them and their crops.<br /><br />Some of the incidents are seen as attempts at revenge following Palestinian attacks on Israelis, even if the farmers targeted were not involved.<br /><br />In other cases, rights groups say, there is little motivation other than just to destroy Palestinian property.<br /><br />Israeli settlers charge that their crops have also been damaged by Palestinians, including one incident in May 2018 when around 1,000 grapevines were destroyed.<br /><br /><b>Hate crime</b><br />Also Wednesday morning, residents of the central West Bank village of Deir Ammar woke up to find 10 vehicles vandalized and walls spray-painted with Hebrew slogans in the latest apparent hate crime targeting Palestinians over the Green Line.<br /><br />Phrases daubed on cars and walls included: “When our brothers are being murdered, it is our obligation to not forget” and “The nation of Israel lives,” according to a Yesh Din field worker who arrived at the scene and provided photos of the damages.<br /><br />Police said they were aware of the incident and were looking into the matter.<br /><br />Last week, law enforcement opened an investigation after Palestinians in the northern West Bank village of Qira woke up to find 13 vehicles vandalized and Hebrew-language hate messages graffitied on walls throughout the town.<br /><br />Among the phrases spray-painted in the town north of the Ariel settlement were “There is no room for enemies in Israel” and “When Jews are hurt, it is our obligation not to forget.”<br /><br />Footage from security cameras in Qira caught several masked individuals walking through the village and slashing tires of a tractor and other vehicles in their path.<br /><br />Abdullah Kamil, the Governor of the Salfit District in which Qira resides, told Haaretz that the Israeli government “bears responsibility for the crime and the repeated attacks by settlers.”<br /><br />Despite the dozens of hate crimes targeting Palestinians and their property over the past year, few perpetrators are ever arrested or charged, according to rights groups.<br /><br />The incidents, often referred to as price tag attacks, are usually limited to arson and graffiti, but have sometimes included physical assaults and even murder.<br /><br />In December, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report that showed a 69% increase in settler attacks on Palestinians in 2018 compared to 2017.<br /><br />==========================================================================<br /><br /><b>Settlers attack olive harvesters, Israeli volunteers in West Bank village</b><a href="https://972mag.com/settlers-attack-olive-harvest-west-bank/143950/" target="_blank">https://972mag.com/settlers-attack-olive-harvest-west-bank/143950/ </a><br />Masked settlers uproot olive trees, set groves ablaze, and beat several Israeli volunteers with stones and metal rods in the West Bank village of Burin.<br /><br />Masked men from the settlement of Yitzhar wielding metal rods and stones attacked volunteers from Rabbis for Human Rights, a human rights organization based in Israel, while they were picking olives alongside Palestinian farmers in the West Bank village of Burin on Wednesday. According to a spokesperson for the organization, settlers set fire to the olive groves, causing a blaze that spread rapidly and burned for hours.<br /><br />Rabbi Moshe Yehudai, a member of Rabbis for Human Rights’ board, was taken to Meir Medical Center after suffering severe wounds. He recounted the incident while lying on a gurney in an ambulance, as medics bandaged his head. One of the masked youths had hit him on the head with an iron rod, while another instructed him to leave. “I told them to leave me alone, that I am 80 years old and cannot run,” he said.<br /><br />Avi Dabush, the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said the incident highlighted the lawlessness in the West Bank, stressing that the volunteers would not be deterred from helping the Palestinian farmers as they harvest their olives. “For the last 17 years we have helped with the harvest, and we will continue to stand up against violent bullies,” he said, adding that this was the only way toward a peaceful joint future between Jews and Arabs living on the land.<br /><br />AFP reported that Israel sent fire extinguishing planes to extinguish the fire set by the settlers. Researchers for Israeli human rights group Yesh Din estimate that the blaze consumed hundreds of acres of farmland in Burin and Huwara, both villages in the Nablus area.<br /><br />The Rabbis for Human Rights spokesperson said that a group of settlers had threatened the farmers earlier in the week, threatening to beat them and vandalize their crops. The army has failed to protect the farmers from settler attacks, he noted. Israel’s occupation policies often prevent Palestinians from accessing their own lands, while violent settlers are allowed to roam freely.<br /><br />Earlier on Wednesday morning, residents of the village of Deir Ammar woke up to discover that unknown vandals, most likely settlers from nearby outposts, had slashed tires and spray-painted Hebrew slogans and Stars of David on their homes and on their cars.<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-84455698159739391992019-03-05T09:14:00.000+09:002019-03-05T09:14:47.323+09:00Victory for the Chagos Islandersby <a href="http://johnpilger.com/articles/victory-for-the-chagos-islanders" target="_blank">John Pilger</a><br />
<br />
<b>The International Court of Justice in The Hague has handed down a
momentous judgement that says Britain's colonial authority over the
Chagos Islands is no longer legal. John Pilger, whose 2004 film,
Stealing a Nation, alerted much of the world to the plight of the
islanders, tells their story here.</b><br />
<br />
<i>You can watch Stealing a Nation <b><a href="http://johnpilger.com/videos/stealing-a-nation" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></i><br />
<br />
There
are times when one tragedy tells us how a whole system works behind its
democratic façade and helps us understand how much of the world is run
for the benefit of the powerful and how governments often justify their
actions with lies.<br />
<br />
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
British Government of Harold Wilson expelled the entire population of
the Chagos Islands, a British crown colony in the Indian Ocean, to make
way for an American military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island.
In high secrecy, the Americans offered a discounted Polaris nuclear
submarine as payment for use of the islands.<br />
<br />
The truth of this
conspiracy did not emerge for another 20 years when secret official
files were unearthed at the Public Record Office, in London, by lawyers
acting for the former inhabitants of the coral archipelago. Historian
Mark Curtis described the enforced depopulation in Web of Deceit, his
2003 book about Britain's post-war foreign policy. The British media all
but ignored it; the Washington Post called it a 'mass kidnapping'.<br />
<br />
I
first heard of the plight of the Chagossians in 1982, during the
Falklands War. Britain had sent a fleet to the aid of 2,000 Falkland
Islanders at the other end of the world while another 2,000 British
citizens from islands in the Indian Ocean had been expelled by British
governments and hardly anyone knew.<br />
<br />
The difference was that
the Falkland Islanders were white and the Chagossians were black and,
crucially, the United States wanted the islands - especially Diego
Garcia - as a major military base from which to command the Indian
Ocean.<br />
<br />
The Chagos Islands were a natural paradise. The 1,500
islanders were self-sufficient with an abundance of natural produce, and
extreme weather was rare. There were thriving villages, a school, a
hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life - until a
secret 1961 Anglo-American survey of Diego Garcia led to the deportation
of the entire population.<br />
<br />
The expulsions began in 1965.
People were herded into the hold of a rusting ship, the women and
children forced to sleep on a cargo of bird fertiliser. They were dumped
in the Seychelles, where they were held in prison cells, then shipped
on to Mauritius, where they were taken to a derelict housing estate with
no water or electricity.<br />
<br />
Twenty-six families died here in brutal poverty, there were nine suicides; and girls were forced into prostitution to survive.<br />
<br />
I
interviewed many of them. One woman recalled how she and her husband
took their baby to Mauritius for medical treatment and were told they
could not return. The shock was so great that her husband suffered a
stroke and died. Others described how the British and Americans gassed
their dogs - beloved pets to the islanders - as an intimidation to pack
up and leave. Lizette Talate told me how her children had 'died of
sadness'. She herself has since died.<br />
<br />
The depopulation of the
archipelago was completed within 10 years and Diego Garcia became home
to one of the United States' biggest bases, with more than 2,000 troops,
two bomber runways, 30 warships, facilities for nuclear-armed
submarines and a satellite spy station. Iraq and Afghanistan were bombed
from the former paradise. Following 9/11, America's perceived enemies
were 'rendered' here and there is evidence they were tortured.<br />
<br />
All
the while, the Chagos remained a British possession and its people a
British responsibility. After demonstrating on the streets of Mauritius
in 1982, the exiled islanders were given the derisory compensation of
less than £3,000 each by the British government.<br />
<br />
When
declassified British Foreign Office files were discovered, the full
sordid story was laid bare. One file was headed, 'Maintaining the
Fiction' and instructed British officials to lie that the islanders were
itinerant workers, not a stable indigenous population. Secretly,
British officials recognised they were open to 'charges of dishonesty'
because they were planning to 'cook the books' - lie.<br />
<br />
In 2000,
the High Court in London ruled the expulsions illegal. In response, the
Labour government of Tony Blair invoked the Royal Prerogative, an
archaic power invested in the Queen's 'Privy Council' that allows the
government to bypass Parliament and the courts. In this way, the
government hoped, the islanders could be prevented from ever returning
home.<br />
<br />
The High Court again ruled that the Chagossians were
entitled to return and in 2008, the Foreign Office appealed to the
Supreme Court. Although based on no new evidence, the appeal was
successful.<br />
<br />
I was in Parliament - where the highest court then
sat in the House of Lords - on the day of the judgement. I have never
seen such shame-faced judges in what was clearly a political decision.<br />
<br />
In
2010, the British government sought to reinforce this by establishing a
marine nature reserve around the Chagos Islands. The ruse was exposed
by WikiLeaks, which published a US Embassy diplomatic cable from 2009
that read, 'Establishing a marine reserve might indeed, as the FCO's
[Colin] Roberts stated, be the most effective long-term way to prevent
any of the Chagos Islands' former inhabitants or descendants from
resettling.'<br />
<br />
Now the International Court of Justice has
decided that the British government of the day had no right in law to
separate the Chagos Islands from Mauritius when it granted Mauritius
independence. The Court, whose powers are advisory, has said Britain
must end its authority over the islands. By extension, that almost
certainly makes the US base illegal.<br />
<br />
Of course, the
indefatigable campaign of the Chagossians and their supporters will not
stop there: not until the first islander goes home.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-57425515852300589922018-07-31T21:59:00.000+09:002018-07-31T21:59:06.946+09:00The Homecomingby Alice Speri<br />
The Intercept<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>How Ahed Tamimi Became the Symbol of Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Oppression</b><br />
<br />
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NABI SALEH, WEST BANK — As if anyone needed reminding, even on the day of her release from prison, Israeli authorities seemed to want to show Ahed Tamimi, her family, and her many supporters that they control Palestinian lives.<br />
<br />
Ahed and her mother, Nariman, were supposed to be freed on Saturday after serving an eight-month sentence in an Israeli military prison, but because Saturday is not a work day in Israel, their release was postponed. On Sunday, their family was told that they would be freed at 7 a.m. at a military checkpoint in the northern West Bank, nearly an hour and a half drive from their village, Nabi Saleh. When relatives and friends arrived there, the military sent them, as well as dozens of members of the press, to a different checkpoint, nearly two hours in the opposite direction. When they reached there, Bassem Tamimi was told, again, that his daughter and wife would be released at the first checkpoint. As the convoy of cars turned around one more time, they received another call telling them to head back to the second checkpoint.<br />
<br />
“They were playing cat and mouse; they were trying to break everyone,” Manal Tamimi, Ahed’s aunt, told The Intercept. “They don’t need to give any justification. They just do what they want.”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/07/31/ahed-tamimi-released-palestine-child-prisoners/" target="_blank">More...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-16590430402017261812018-07-31T09:01:00.001+09:002018-07-31T09:01:38.857+09:00Ahed Tamimi: 'I am a freedom fighter. I will not be the victim'by Oliver Holmes and Sufian Taha<br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/30/ahed-tamimi-i-am-a-freedom-fighter-i-will-not-be-the-victim-palestinian-israel" target="_blank">The Guardian</a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Day after her release, teenage Palestinian activist says she hopes to become lawyer and lead cases against Israel</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
<a href="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0b68fa3bb9dda5150f390e337fb62182865cc856/0_19_4512_2708/master/4512.jpg?w=700&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1f8c535cf02d081dfd02247abbcb8ce8" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0b68fa3bb9dda5150f390e337fb62182865cc856/0_19_4512_2708/master/4512.jpg?w=700&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1f8c535cf02d081dfd02247abbcb8ce8" width="320" /></a>The teenage Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi has said she used her eight months in prison as an opportunity to study international law and hopes to one day lead cases against Israel in international courts.<br /><br />“God willing, I will manage to study law,” the 17-year-old from Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank told the Guardian a day after her . “I will present the violations against the Palestinians in criminal courts. And to try Israel for it and to be a big lawyer, and to return rights to my country.”<br /><br />Tamimi, who rose to global prominence as a child living under military occupation, said she and other Palestinians in her all-female prison unit would sit for hours and learn legal texts. “We managed to transform the jail into a school,” she said.<br /><br />To an outcry from rights groups, the teenager was arrested in December after on camera outside her home. The soldiers had been deployed at one of Nabi Saleh’s weekly protests, where residents have thrown stones at troops who have responded with teargas, arrests and, at times, live ammunition.<br /><br />She later accepted a deal in court to plead guilty to assault, incitement and two counts of obstructing soldiers.<br /><br />“The experience of being arrested was really hard. As much as I try, I cannot describe it,” Ahed said. But she added: “This experience added value to my life, maybe it made me more mature. More conscious.”<br /><br />Her trial was held behind closed doors. Concerns about her treatment in detention were raised after a video emerged in which a male Israeli interrogator threatened the then 16-year-old, commenting on her body and “eyes of an angel”.<br /><br />Ahed said her treatment was not unusual. “It was not the first, and it was not a coincidence. This is their style of interrogating,” she said.<br /><br />Her case has highlighted the arrest and detention of what local human rights groups say are more than 300 Palestinian minors.<br /><br />Ahed said her experience in jail helped with her ambitions to become an international lawyer. “For example, I was under interrogation. There were violations against me. International law says that this should not happen to me,” she said, adding that in another life she would have trained to be a professional footballer.<br /><br />Nabi Saleh is populated almost exclusively by members of her extended family and is a focus of the anti-occupation movement. Images or videos of Ahed throughout her childhood, often grappling with or staring down soldiers during village protests, have gone viral.<br /><br />After gaining worldwide attention, the Tamimi family say their daughter has been offered scholarships to study at a university abroad but that she is still deciding.<br /><br />The Palestinian government has launched , including for alleged war crimes and what it says is a system of governance that amounts to apartheid. Israel has vehemently denied the allegations.<br /><br />Ahed’s family home is filled with activists and Palestinian officials, who sit drinking coffee in small paper cups on plastic stools outside. Within hours of her release, the teenager met the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Two Italian artists were arrested for painting a mural of Ahed’s face of the Israel separation barriers that divides the Palestinian territories.<br /><br />Her international recognition infuriated the Israeli government, Ahed said. “They are afraid of the truth. If they were not wrong, they would not be afraid of the truth. The truth scares them. And I managed to deliver this truth to the world. And of course, they’re afraid how far I reached. They always fear the truth, they are the occupier, and we are under occupation.”<br /><br />Some in Israel believe the focus on and arrest of the teenager was a self-defeating move for the country, while others have praised the soldiers’ apparent restraint and have accuse Nabi Saleh residents of provocations.<br /><br />Ahed has no regrets about the day she hit the solider, a man she believed had earlier that day shot her 15-year-old cousin in the head with a rubber bullet during a clash.<br /><br />She was reunited with her cousin upon release and he was at her home on Monday, a large scar marking his face.<br /><br />But fame has also taken a toll on a girl who was seen as a local hero before she was in secondary school. “I feel proud that became a symbol for the Palestinian cause in order to deliver the message of Palestinian to the whole world. Of course, it is a heavy burden on me. It’s true; it’s a big responsibility. But I am totally confident that I am for of it.”<br /><br />For now, she hopes for a little rest and to decide her next steps, still enjoying the high of leaving prison. “At last, I saw the sky without a fence. I can walk on the street without handcuffs. I can see the stars, the moon. I haven’t seen them for a long time and now I am with my family.”<br /><br />Yet her 22-year-old brother, Wa’ed Tamimi, is in prison awaiting a sentence for his involvement in confrontations with soldiers. And the conflict is never far away. An Israeli military outpost and settlement can be seen from the garden where she speaks.<br /><br />“I’m not the victim of the occupation,” Ahed said. “The Jew or the settler child who carries a rifle at the age of 15, they are the victims of the occupation. For me, I am capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. But not him. His view is clouded. His heart is filled with hatred and scorn against the Palestinians. He is the victim, not me. I always say I am a freedom fighter. So I will not be the victim.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-66933786108185131482018-05-28T09:08:00.000+09:002018-05-28T09:08:01.515+09:00Teaching ‘Les Misérables’ in Prisonby Chris Hedges<br />
<a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/teaching-les-miserables-in-prison/" target="_blank">Truthdig</a><br />
<br />
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I spent the last four months teaching Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel “Les Miserables” at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. My students?like Hugo’s main character, Jean Valjean, who served 19 years in prison?struggle with shame, guilt, injustice, poverty and discrimination, and yearn for redemption and transformation. The novel gave them a lens to view their lives and a ruling system every bit as cruel as Hugo’s 19th-century France.<br /><br />“Les Miserables” was wildly successful when it was published, including among Civil War soldiers in the United States, although Hugo’s condemnation of slavery was censored from Confederate copies. It was American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs’ favorite book?he read it in French. The socialist British Prime Minister Lloyd George said “Les Miserables” taught him more about poverty and the human condition than anything else he had ever read and instilled in him a lifelong ambition “to alleviate the distress and the suffering of the poor.” Hugo’s novel, however, enraged the ruling elites. It was panned by French critics. Copies were burned in Spain. Pope Pius IX put it on the church’s list of banned books, along with “Madame Bovary” and all the novels of Stendhal and Honore de Balzac.<br /><br />“While through the working laws of customs there continues to exist a condition of social condemnation which artificially creates a human hell within civilization, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; while the three great problems of this century, the degradation of man in the proletariat, the subjugation of women through hunger, the atrophy of the child in darkness, continue unresolved; while in some regions social asphyxia remains, while ignorance and poverty persist on earth, books such as this cannot fail to be of value,” Hugo wrote in the preface.<br /><br />My students interpreted the novel through the peculiar reality of prison, something that would have pleased Hugo, who relentlessly chronicled the injustices meted out to the poor by ruling institutions and agents of the law. The heroes in his book are the outcasts, the demonized and the impoverished?les miserables?as well as the rebels, usually doomed, who rise up in their defense. The theme that runs through the novel can be summed up in Leo Tolstoy’s dictum: “The only certain happiness in life is to live for others.”<br /><br /><br />Jean Valjean, after 19 years in prison?five for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s hungry children and 14 more as punishment for attempts at escape?is released with no home, no occupation and little money. He tramps through the French countryside, ending up in the town of Digne. He is required to present to local authorities his yellow identity card, a document that brands him for life as an ex-convict. He is refused a room at several inns, despite having the money to pay for lodgings. Finally, after Valjean is found sleeping outside, Monseigneur Bienvenu, the local bishop, gives him a place to rest in his modest house. Valjean arises early and, leaving before the bishop wakes, steals the household silver?platters, forks, knives and spoons?the cleric’s last and only extravagance after having given away most of his possessions to the poor. The gendarmes spy Valjean on the road with his plunder. They haul him before Monseigneur Bienvenu. The bishop lies to the gendarmes, saying he gave the silver to Valjean. After the police leave, he turns to Valjean: “Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man. … Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to what is evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.”<br /><br />Valjean, shaken, nevertheless commits one final crime. He robs a boy of a coin, almost instinctively, but it was “an act of which he was no longer capable.” The theft plunges him into despair. He desperately searches for the boy to return the coin. He cannot find him. The boy has run away in terror. Valjean vows to become a different man.<br /><br />The decision by the bishop to lie on behalf of Valjean triggered an intense debate in my classroom.<br /><br />“Who would do this?” a student asked.<br /><br />“No one,” another student answered.<br /><br />Several students dismissed the scene as improbable.<br /><br />And then from the back of the room a student, speaking in emotional undertones, told this story.<br /><br />“I came back to my bunk one day,” he said. “There was a new Bible on it. Inside was a letter. It was from my victim’s sister. She wrote, ‘I forgive you. Now you must forgive yourself.’ I broke down. I could be more than a criminal. I could change. She made that possible.”<br /><br />My students will spend their lives condemned as felons. They, like Valjean, will never completely wash away the mark of Cain. Transformation, even when it occurs, will not free them from the criminal caste system. Transformation must be carried out not for what it will achieve, for often it will achieve nothing, or how it will be perceived, for most of the wider society will not perceive it. Transformation is about making peace with yourself. It is about obeying your conscience, which Hugo equates with the divine. It is about never living at the expense of another. Transformation is about rising above the hatred many feel, with justification, for a society that has betrayed them.<br /><br />“If you are persecuted for virtue, why be virtuous?” a student asked.<br /><br />“Those who have nothing need other people,” another student said. “We can’t survive alone. The more we sacrifice for those around us, the more we reduce our collective suffering; the more we recover our humanity, the more people reach out to us when we need help, and we all need help. Goodness is contagious.”<br /><br />And yet, as my students know, this internal battle is hard and fierce within a society that denies the poor dignity and respect.<br /><br />“Obscurely he perceived that the priest’s forgiveness was the most formidable assault he had ever sustained,” Hugo wrote of Valjean, “that if he resisted it his heart would be hardened once and for all, and that if he yielded he must renounce the hatred which the acts of man had implanted in him during so many years, and to which he clung. He saw dimly that this time he must either conquer or be conquered, and that the battle was not joined, a momentous and decisive battle between the evil in himself and the goodness in the other man.”<br /><br />Hugo was aware that there are some who cannot be redeemed. They are incapable of empathy or remorse. They are driven by greed and ambition. They take a perverse joy in inflicting suffering on others. They are capable only of deceit. These people must be kept at bay. In the novel they are represented by Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, “human creatures which, like crayfish, always retreat into shadow, going backwards rather than forwards through life, gaining in deformity with experience, going from bad to worse and sinking into even deeper darkness.”<br /><br />This cold reality, nevertheless, proved to be a painful one to digest in the classroom. Several students argued passionately that everyone, no matter how depraved, could ultimately be redeemed, and yet the reality of prison, my students conceded, amply illustrates that there are human predators to whom one can never show vulnerability or expect mercy. Fyodor Dostoyevsky described hell as the inability to love. These predators inhabit this hell. This internal hell, a barrenness of the soul, is exemplified in the police inspector Javert, who hounds Valjean throughout the novel. Hugo wrote, “The Austrian peasants believe that in every wolf-litter there is a dog-whelp which the mother kills, because otherwise when it grows larger it will devour the rest of her young. Endow this dog with a human face, and you have Javert.”<br /><br />Javert, born in a prison to a mother who was a fortune teller and a father who was a convict, came from the underclass he persecuted. The social backgrounds of corrections officers, police and prisoners were then, and are today, often the same; indeed it is not uncommon for prisoners and corrections officers to have familial ties. Javert embraced the rigid code of the law and absolute state authority, which absolved him from moral responsibility. “His duties were his religion,” Hugo wrote. Javert’s iron fealty to the letter of the law is juxtaposed with Valjean’s fealty to empathy and justice, which is repeatedly criminalized by those in power.<br /><br />There is a moment in the novel when a man named Champmathieu is hauled into court and accused of being Valjean, who has broken parole and is living under the assumed name of Monsieur Madeleine. Javert and three witnesses who were in prison with Valjean insist the man is Valjean. Valjean, under his pseudonym, has become the prosperous mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer. If he remains silent, allowing the innocent Champmathieu to go to prison in his place, he will throw the police off his trail permanently. During a night of anguished indecision, he burns his last personal effects from his life as a convict, but then sees the coin he stole from the boy when he left the bishop’s house?a coin that represents his last crime and his transformation. He goes to the courtroom. He announces to the stunned court that he is Valjean. He condemns himself, but recovers his name. He saves his soul.<br /><br />The importance of a name, and the idea that carrying out a moral act means you will be crucified by the ruling elites, intrigued my students, most of whom, like Valjean, are known by their prison numbers. Valjean, Hugo wrote, sacrificed “his personal security to his moral principles” and “had, it seems, concluded after the manner of saints and sages, that his first duty was not to himself.” Jean Valjean, through this act of self-sacrifice, emerged from the court “even more honored and secure than before.” He had, in Hugo’s words, taken up the cross. Hugo went on:<br /><br />Certainly his life had a purpose, but was it simply to hide himself, to outwit the police? Had everything he had done been for no better reason than this? Had he not had a greater purpose, the saving not of his life but of his soul, the resolve to become a good and honorable and upright man as the bishop required of him?had not that been his true and deepest intention? How he talked of closing the door on the past when, God help him, he would be reopening the door by committing an infamous act, not merely that of a thief but of the most odious of thieves. He would be robbing a man of his life, his peace, his place in the sun, morally murdering him by condemning him to the living death that is called a convict prison. But if, on the other hand, he saved the man by repairing the blunder, by proclaiming himself Jean Valjean the felon, this would be to achieve his own true resurrection and firmly close the door on the hell from which he sought to escape. To return to it in appearance would be to escape from it in reality. This was what he must do, and without it he would have accomplished nothing, his life would be wasted, his repentance meaningless, and there would be nothing left for him to say except, “Who cares?”<br /><br />Hugo added: “It was his most melancholy destiny that he could achieve sanctity in the eyes of God only by returning to degradation in the eyes of men.” He is filled with terror, yet proceeds. “Whichever way he looked,” Hugo wrote, “the course of duty glared at him as though the words were written in letters of fire?‘Stand up and say your name!’ ” He could “cling to his paradise and become a devil, or become a saint by going back to hell.”<br /><br />To save Champmathieu, Valjean gives up his freedom. In this singular act of justice and heroic self-sacrifice he exposes the bankruptcy and corruption of the courts, including the lie of authority. He elevates a convict, Jean Valjean, to a higher morality. He redeems his name and the names of all convicts. The price is catastrophic. But the price for moral acts is usually catastrophic. No one is rewarded for virtue. In my class this chapter triggered a discussion of Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative,” the idea that there are things we must do no matter what the consequences. The moral life, as Hugo pointed out, is not pragmatic or rational. It does not guarantee that we as distinct individuals survive. And yet, it permits us, by living for others, to become our best selves. It allows us a bittersweet happiness.<br /><br />Valjean finds his ultimate fulfillment in raising the orphan Cosette. Most of my students have children. They struggle in prison to hold on to their role as fathers. Their children are often the only way left for them to have influence on the outside. But, as in the novel, these children grow up and drift away.<br /><br />One of my students, serving a life sentence without parole and unable to be with his small daughter, structured his day as if she was in the cell with him. He woke her up in the morning. He cooked for her. He spoke to her. He read books to her. He wrote long letters. Every night he said goodnight to her as if she were in the next bunk. This ritual was not only about loss. It preserved his identity as something other than a prisoner. It allowed him to retain the title of father. It kept alive the virtues of nurturing, tenderness and love that prison can often crush. Hugo’s understanding of the titanic internal struggle to be human in an inhuman environment was intimately familiar to my 26 students.<br /><br />Valjean, at 80, is consumed by the isolation that grips many in prison, dying alone, condemned as one of les miserables with no friends or family. Cosette has married. He feels forgotten. In the final scene his beloved Cosette appears as he dies.<br /><br />We began each class with a student summarizing the main points in the week’s reading. On the day of the final class a student, Joel, rose to speak, holding two pages of notes.<br /><br />“I think about the final interaction between Valjean, Cosette and Marius [her husband],” he said. “I think about the strength in [Valjean] for all he had suffered, all he had sacrificed, all he had endured just for the beauty and simplicity of love. I think about those last moments between them, the thankfulness for the opportunity to love; the opportunity to not be alone in his last moments; the opportunity to live. I thank Hugo for the picture he painted for me here. … I think about the man who became my father and how much pain and suffering I have caused him. I think about the things he sacrificed for me. I think about all the challenges he took on for the sake of me. Yet despite it all I think about how much love I have had the opportunity to share with him, how much life he has given me. I pray that on his last day he may be able to rest his hand on my head, to feel a sense of accomplishment when it comes to his son, to be free of this world with a sense of happiness. That I too can one day say [quoting lines penciled onto Valjean’s gravestone]:<br /><br /><i>He sleeps. Although so much he was denied,</i><br /><i>He lived; and when his dear love left him, died.</i><br /><i>It happened of itself, in the calm way</i><br /><i>That in the evening the night-time follows day.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-79139376510583672362018-05-18T09:25:00.001+09:002018-05-18T09:25:58.799+09:00Stories of the Nakba: Exileby Amena ElAshkar, Ali Ibrahim and Nadine Osama <br />
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/stories-catastrophe-exile/24281" target="_blank">Electronic Intifada</a><br />
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Seventy years ago, Palestinians suffered the Nakba, or catastrophe, when most fled or were forced by Zionist militias to flee Palestine to make room for the creation of the state of Israel and ensure a Jewish majority. Some 750,000 ended up as refugees registered with the United Nations. Many others fended for themselves. They were never allowed to return to their lands or homes which were confiscated by the nascent state, and many of their villages were subsequently destroyed. <br />
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<b>Fatima Feisal, 78, Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp, Sidon, Lebanon. Originally from Tarshiha in the Galilee.</b><br />
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_1200w/public/2018-05/feisal.jpg?itok=WfTXJz_3&timestamp=1526548268" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_1200w/public/2018-05/feisal.jpg?itok=WfTXJz_3&timestamp=1526548268" width="320" /></a>I can close my eyes and remember every single detail about that village. The streets, the neighborhood. The fig and berry trees. Every single detail. It is like I can see it right before my eyes. My family lived off farming. We had more than 100 goats. The biggest one was my favorite. I used to ride him like a bike. I called him “my bike.”<br />
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Once I was taking food for the shepherd who worked for us. The settlers saw me and asked me why I was there. I told them I was delivering food for the shepherd who was with our goats close to one of the settlements. I showed them the food, but they did not believe me. They thought I was passing information and that he was a freedom fighter. They captured him and tortured him. They burned his entire body.<br />
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I was 9 when the planes bombed Tarshiha. It was the worst night of my life. People were hiding in the mayor’s house. He was from the Huwari family and had a big house. I saw how the house got bombed. I also saw how the villagers were trying to save people from under the rubble.<br />
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I was separated from my family and my brother, Ali, and had no choice but to go look for him. He was younger than me. It was like doomsday. People running and screaming. I went to the caves on the border of the village. They were packed with people hiding from the strikes. I started calling his name. He finally answered. I held his hand and started walking away from the village. We walked for two hours to another village called Sabalan where we were reunited with our family. Then we continued on to Lebanon.<br />
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I have one last wish. I am 78. It will be my last wish. There was a berry tree right in front of our house in Tarshiha. I want to go back there and eat one berry. One last berry.<br />
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<i>Reportage and photo by Amena ElAshkar</i><br />
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<b>Naaseh Khaled Hamoudeh, 70, Wihdat Camp, Amman. Originally from Deir Tarif near Ramla.</b><br />
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I was born in a village called Deir Tarif. My father owned camels he used to carry goods from place to place.<br />
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I was one or two months old when the Nakba happened. The villages in our area were getting attacked, one after the other, and the whole area was besieged and left with scarce food supplies. My parents went to get food from the nearest town and left me in the care of my brother and sister. My brother, at 15, was the oldest at the time. But our parents couldn’t come back because the road to our village was blocked and the Zionists were getting closer to our village.<br />
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The village mayor then gathered all the children in a big truck and drove us to a village called Shuqba. We stayed there for a while. Adults were taking care of children without parents. I was breastfed by different women with infants. We lost many on the way. My uncle and his newly engaged daughter were shot for no reason. There were corpses lying in the streets, and it was difficult to give them all a proper burial. Only the women and girls were being buried. My cousin’s corpse had to be retrieved at great risk at night.<br />
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Our parents found us after searching for days. We moved to different villages seeking food and shelter. We went to Qibya then to Kafr Thulth, then we moved to Deir Ammar.<br />
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My family went to Jordan afterwards and stayed near Wadi al-Seer in tents. Then we moved to the Wihdat camp around 1955. There were seven of us and we had to all sleep in one room. We couldn’t afford a metal roof so we covered our dwelling with a big cloth.<br />
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All my memories are from the camp. I consider it home but I will never give up my right of return. People at the camp live a hard life and suffer a lot but that also creates deep solidarity in our society. I try to be as active as I can in political and cultural activities in the camp. I joined the Arab nationalist movement in 1962 and later the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. I used to host secret political meetings at my house.<br />
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I miss those days, people were more dedicated and loyal to their cause.<br />
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My son Ali went to study in Beirut. When the Israeli invasion happened, I called him and I told him he had no choice but to fight and defend Beirut. I was always worried about him but I was also equally worried about all the fighters who were defending Beirut.<br />
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Return will happen one day. The poor and the rich, the homeless and people in mansions and all different people will be able to go back. The right of return is sacred. And if I don’t live to return, you will return, my son. And if you don’t return, your children will eventually return.<br />
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<i>Reportage by Ali Ibrahim, photo by Nadine Osama</i><br />
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<b>Widad Kawar, 87, Amman. Originally from Bethlehem.</b><br />
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I was born in Bethlehem, and I went to the Friends boarding school in Ramallah. I graduated a few weeks before the Nakba and was rushed home because of the escalating political situation. Some Jordanian students were escorted back to Jordan by the Jordanian army. I had to go to Jerusalem to get a taxi to Bethlehem.<br />
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After the Nakba, I went to study at the women’s college at the American University of Beirut. And when I came back, Bethlehem was a completely different place.<br />
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Bethlehem was unique in being both village and city, a place for tradition and modernity. It was a center for the many villages around it and the younger sister of Jerusalem. Women from the villages would come to our houses in Bethlehem to sell different products. I always enjoyed their wit and the liveliness with which they told stories of rural lives. The villagers also held weekly markets in the main towns on Saturdays. That’s where I originally started collecting small pieces of embroidery and later full dresses.<br />
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After the Nakba, Bethlehem was cut off from Jerusalem and many surrounding villages. Many villagers became refugees in Bethlehem, living in tiny spaces or in refugee camps. These people were accustomed to working lands they had cared for for centuries. They had different customs and traditions and different styles of embroidery that defined their identity. I started collecting these dresses along with the stories of the women behind them.<br />
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For me, Palestinian embroidery reflects identity, society and land. It reflects identity because every village in Palestine had their own style through which they proudly related to their heritage. It is a reflection of society, a kaleidoscope of diverse histories, threads, cultures and colors weaved together. The Palestinian dress tells of good old times when women were an active part of society, and in their own time would gather on breezy summer afternoons and work together on their dresses while trading expertise.<br />
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It also reflects the land because the symbols and colors were taken from the land. The cypress tree is a famous symbol that we often see in the designs of dresses. Most people used to plant cypresses around their land to mark borders and protect their crops from strong winds. The colors were usually derived from local plants, like sumac for red.<br />
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<i>Reportage by Ali Ibrahim, photo by Nadine Osama</i><br />
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<b>Khazna al-Sahli, 88, Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp, Beirut. Originally from Balad al-Sheikh near Haifa.</b><br />
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My village was so beautiful. I can still see the fields just like I can see you. We used to grow all kinds, eggplants, tomatoes, wheat. My father was a farmer, but my mother was from the city. She was from Haifa. I loved going with my father to Haifa to sell our produce. Once I could not find my slippers to go with him, so I went barefoot.<br />
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It all started when the mayor of the village came knocking at our house. He told us that the British gave everything to the Jews and now they’re coming to force us out. “You have to hide!” There had been no problems with the Jews of Neshar [a Zionist settlement] until then. The houses in the settlement looked nothing like ours. They lived in small, colored houses. The Jews sold their produce in our village and we sold ours in Neshar.<br />
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On the day we fled, the mayor came with three cars. He took us to Nazareth and from there we went to Syria, to Tel-Mnin. We stayed one whole month in a barn. Then we went to what later became known as the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.<br />
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<i>Reportage and photo by Amena ElAshkar</i><br />
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<b>Wael Abdo al-Sajdi, 88, Amman. Originally from Jerusalem.</b><br />
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My father was a civil engineer with the British Mandate authorities and would work at different locations across Palestine. The family is originally from Nablus but I was born in Jerusalem in 1930 where my father was positioned at the time. I consider Jerusalem my home. I studied and spent my childhood there. I still remember every street and I can lead you through any path or shortcut.<br />
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The Nakba started before 1948. I remember once my father was positioned in Nablus for a year. There was an attack from the freedom fighters on British troops and they had announced a curfew in the town. I was bored, so I went to the balcony. All the streets were empty except for an armored army vehicle with a big gun on top patrolling the area.<br />
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An old man, known to the entire city to be deaf, must have not heard the curfew announcement. The soldier pointed the gun at him and warned him but he kept on walking. I still remember him falling to the ground. He was clearly not a threat but the soldier didn’t hesitate to shoot him. Nobody could remove his body until the next day.<br />
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I really wanted to visit Jerusalem in 2000 when I turned 70. It was nearly impossible to get a permit to enter the city at that time but I was determined to get in, one way or the other. I put on a quintessential Western tourist outfit -- shorts, a hat, a light shirt -- and slung my video camera around my neck. I made a point to pay full price for a shared taxi for the driver to take me through the sideroads to Jerusalem. I told him I could get us inside the city without a problem.<br />
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Unfortunately, there was a checkpoint after all. The soldiers talked to the driver, and when they asked for my ID I only responded in Italian and sign language. They believed it and let us go. I would only talk in Italian to soldiers inside the city. I went to my old house, which is now a Turkish cultural center. I asked them if I could roam around, and they agreed when I told them I used to live there with my family. I also visited my old school and restaurants I used to eat in with my family. I walked around still-familiar streets and markets.<br />
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I cried at each place.<br />
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<i>Reportage by Ali Ibrahim, photo by Nadine Osama</i><br />
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Amena ElAshkar is a journalist and photographer based in Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut.<br />
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Ali Ibrahim is a journalist based in Amman.<br />
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Nadine Osama is a researcher and photographer in Amman.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-40321002950391900902018-05-14T15:35:00.000+09:002018-05-14T15:35:01.065+09:00Killing Gazaby Chris Hedges<br />
<a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/killing-gaza/" target="_blank">Truthdig</a><br />
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WASHINGTON, D.C.--Israel’s blockade of Gaza--where trapped Palestinians for the past seven weeks have held nonviolent protests along the border fence with Israel, resulting in more than 50 killed and 700 wounded by Israeli troops--is one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. Yet the horror that is Gaza, where 2 million people live under an Israeli siege without adequate food, housing, work, water and electricity, where the Israeli military routinely uses indiscriminate and disproportionate violence to wound and murder, and where almost no one can escape, is rarely documented. Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen’s powerful new film, “Killing Gaza,” offers an unflinching and moving portrait of a people largely abandoned by the outside world, struggling to endure.<br /><br />“Killing Gaza” will be released Tuesday, to coincide with what Palestinians call Nakba Day--“nakba” means catastrophe in Arabic--commemorating the 70th anniversary of the forced removal of some 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 by the Haganah, Jewish paramilitary forces, from their homes in modern-day Israel. The release of the documentary also coincides with the Trump administration’s opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.<br /><br /><b>● Starting Tuesday, May 15, “Killing Gaza” can be seen at <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/killinggaza" target="_blank">Vimeo On Demand</a>.</b><br />Because of Nakba Day and the anger over the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem, this week is expected to be one of the bloodiest of the seven-week-long protest that Palestinians call the “Great Return March.” “Killing Gaza” illustrates why Palestinians, with little left to lose, are rising up by the thousands and risking their lives to return to their ancestral homes--70 percent of those in Gaza are refugees or the descendants of refugees--and be treated like human beings.<br /><br /><br />Cohen and Blumenthal, who is the author of the book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,” one of the best accounts of modern Israel, began filming the documentary Aug. 15, 2014. Palestinian militias, armed with little more than light weapons, had just faced Israeli tanks, artillery, fighter jets, infantry units and missiles in a 51-day Israeli assault that left 2,314 Palestinians dead and 17,125 injured. Some 500,000 Palestinians were displaced and about 100,000 homes were destroyed. The 2014 assault, perhaps better described as a massacre, was one of eight massacres that Israel has carried out since 2004 against the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, over half of whom are children. Israel, which refers to these periodic military assaults as “mowing the lawn,” seeks to make existence in Gaza so difficult that mere survival consumes most of the average Palestinian’s time, resources and energy.<br /><br />The film begins in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, reduced to mounds of rubble by the Israelis. The wanton destruction of whole neighborhoods was, as documented by the film, accompanied by the shooting of unarmed civilians by Israeli snipers and other soldiers of that nation.<br /><br />“Much of the destruction took place in the course of a few hours on July 23,” Blumenthal, who narrates the film, says as destroyed buildings appear on the screen, block after block. “The invading Israeli forces found themselves under ferocious fire from local resistance forces, enduring unexpectedly high casualties. As the Israeli infantry fled in full retreat, they called in an artillery and air assault, killing at least 120 Palestinian civilians and obliterated thousands of homes.”<br /><br />The film includes a brief clip of young Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrating the assault on Gaza, a reminder that toxic racism and militarism infect Israeli society.<br /><br />“Die! Die! Bye!” laughing teenage girls shout at the celebration in Tel Aviv. “Bye, Palestine!”<br /><br />“Fucking Arabs! Fuck Muhammad!” a young man yells.<br /><br />“Gaza is a graveyard! Gaza is a graveyard! Ole, ole, ole, ole,” the crowd in Tel Aviv sings as it dances in jubilation. “There is no school tomorrow! There are no children left in Gaza!”<br /><br />Terrified Palestinian families huddled inside their homes during the relentless shelling. Those who tried to escape in the face of the advancing Israelis often were gunned down with their hands in the air, and the bodies were left to rot in the scorching heat for days.<br /><br />“I was inside when they started bulldozing my house,” Nasser Shamaly, a Shuja’iyya resident, says in the film. “They took down the wall and started shooting into the house. So I put my hands on my head and surrendered myself to the officer. This wasn’t just any soldier. He was the officer of the group! He didn’t say a word. He just shot me. I fell down and started crawling to get away from them.”<br /><br />Shamaly, who hid wounded in his house for four days, was fortunate. His 23-year-old cousin, Salem Shamaly, who led a group of volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement to dig bodies out of the ruins in Shuja’iyya, was not.<br /><br />“On the offensive’s 14th day, July 20th, 2014, four other activists and I went to the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, which Israel had bombed for days, to accompany rescue teams in the rubble during the two-hour cease-fire,” Joe Catron, one of the members of the International Solidarity Movement rescue team, says in the film. “A young Palestinian, whose name we later learned was Salem Shamaly, asked us to go with him to his house, where he hoped to find his family. It sounds ridiculous now, but at the time we thought the cease-fire would make it safe.”<br /><br />“As we crossed an alley with a clear line of sight to Israeli positions by the separation barrier, a gunshot from their direction struck the ground between us. We scattered into two groups, sheltered behind buildings on either side. After a pause, Salem stepped into the alley, hoping to lead his group to our side, but was struck by another bullet. He fell to the ground.”<br /><br />The film shows Shamaly wounded on the ground, barely able to move and crying out in pain.<br /><br />“As he lay on his back, two more rounds hit him,” Catron continued. “He stopped moving. The gunfire kept us from reaching him. The Israeli artillery began flying overhead and striking the buildings behind us. We were forced to retreat, leaving him. We only learned his name two days later, when his mother, father, sister and cousin recognized him in a video I had tweeted.”<br /><br />“We couldn’t retrieve his body for seven days,” Um Salem, the mother, says in the film. “His body was in the sun for seven days.”<br /><br />Waseem Shamaly, Salem’s brother, who appears to be about 8 years old, is shown with his eyes swollen from crying. “He would take care of us, like our father,” the boy says. “Even at night, he would get us whatever we wanted. He used to buy us everything. Whatever we wished for, he would buy it. There was nothing he wouldn’t buy for us. He used to take us to hang out. He’d take us out with him just to kill our boredom a little.”<br /><br />Waseem wipes his eyes.<br /><br />“Now he is gone,” he continues weakly. “There is nobody to take us out and buy us treats.”<br /><br />“This boy hasn’t been able to handle losing his brother,” says the father, Khalil Shamaly. “He couldn’t handle the news, seeing the way his brother died. He is in shock. It gets to the point where he goes lifeless. He collapses. When I pick him up he tells me his dying wishes. His dying wishes! As if he is leaving us. He is so young. But he gives us his dying wishes. If it weren’t for God’s mercy, I would have lost him too.”<br /><br />“Destroyed cities and shattered homes can be rebuilt if the resources are there,” Blumenthal says. “But what about the survivors? How can they heal the scars imposed on their psyches? The youth of Gaza has grown up through three wars, each more devastating than the last. At least 90 percent of adolescents in Gaza suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. With mental health services pushed to the brink, these unseen scars may never heal.”<br /><br />The film turns to the town of Khuza’a, a farming community with 20,000 people, which was systematically blown up by Israel after three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting with the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas government in Gaza. The film shows a video from inside an Israeli tank as soldiers wait for explosives to bring down buildings in the town, including the mosque. When the explosions occur, the Israeli soldiers cheer and shout, “Long live the state of Israel!”<br /><br />“We were shocked to see so many bodies in the streets,” Ahmed Awwad, a volunteer with the Palestinian Red Crescent, says in the film about Khuza’a. “Many were decomposing. We wanted to deal with it, but we didn’t know how. Once, when the Israelis let us in with our ambulance, we found about 10 corpses from different areas, scattered. As you approached a body, of course there is the odor, and there are worms. Hold it like this, and flesh comes off. Lift an arm and it pulls right off. We didn’t know what to do. There was nothing we could do. We had to stop. It would have been easier just to bury them. But we figured families would want the bodies. Bulldozers eventually loaded the bodies in trucks. We couldn’t pick up these bodies on our own. Most were executions, like an old lady at her front door. There was a young man, another man, and a little kid. The scenes, to be honest, were very ugly.”<br /><br />The Rjeila family, including 16-year-old Ghadeer, who was physically disabled, attempts to escape the shelling. As a brother frantically pushes Ghadeer in her wheelchair (the scene, like several others in the film, is reconstructed through animation), the Israelis open fire. The brother is wounded. Ghadeer is killed.<br /><br />The camera pans slowly through demolished houses containing blackened human remains. Walls and floors are smeared with blood.<br /><br />Ahmed Awwad, a Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer, describes what happened after he and other volunteers finally receive permission from Israeli forces to retrieve bodies from Khuza’a. They find a man tied to a tree and shot in both legs. One of the volunteers, Mohammed al-Abadla, gets out of a vehicle and approaches the tree. When he switches on his flashlight, which the Israelis had instructed him to do, he is shot in heart and killed.<br /><br />“For 51 days, Israel bombarded Gaza with the full might of its artillery,” Blumenthal says. “According to the Israeli military’s estimates, 23,410 artillery shells and 2.9 million bullets were fired into Gaza during the war.”<br /><br />That’s one and a half bullets for every man, woman and child in the Gaza Strip.<br /><br />There is footage of Israeli soldiers in an artillery unit writing messages, including “Happy Birthday to Me,” on shells being lobbed into Gaza. The soldiers laugh and eat sushi as they pound Palestinian neighborhoods with explosives.<br /><br />Rafah is a city in Gaza on the border of Egypt. The film makes it clear that Egypt, through its sealing of Gaza’s southern border, is complicit in the blockade. Rafah was one of the first cities targeted by the Israelis. When Israeli troops took over buildings, they also kidnapped Palestinians and used them as human shields there and elsewhere, forcing them to stand at windows as the soldiers fired from behind.<br /><br />“They blindfolded and handcuffed me and took me inside,” Mahmoud Abu Said says in the film. “They told me to come with them and put a M16 to my back. There were maybe six of them. They dropped their equipment and began searching. They started hitting me against the wall. And then sicced their dogs on me while I was handcuffed.”<br /><br />“They put me here,” he says, standing in front of a window, “and stood behind me. Israeli soldiers placed me here while they stood behind me shooting. They took me to that window and that window too. Then they hit me against the wall and pushed me down. They put a mattress here,” he says, showing holes punched through the wall at floor level, “and sat down to shoot through these holes.”<br /><br />“You see that car?” asks Suleiman Zghreibv, referring to a hunk of twisted metal that lies next to the ruins of his house. “He drove it,” he says of his 22-year-old son, who was executed by the Israelis. “This is the car we used to make our living. It wasn’t for personal use. It was a taxi. I can’t describe the suffering. What can I say? Words can’t express the pain. We have suffered and resisted for so long. We’ve been suffering our whole lives. We’ve suffered for the past 60 years because of Israel. War after war after war. Bombing after bombing after bombing. You build a house. They destroy it. You raise a child. They kill him. Whatever they do--the United States, Israel, the whole world, we’ll keep resisting until the last one of us dies.”<br /><br />Israel intentionally targeted power plants, schools, medical clinics, apartment complexes, whole villages. Robert Piper, the United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities, said in 2017 that Gaza had “a long time ago” passed the “unlivability threshold.” Youth unemployment is at 60 percent. Suicide is epidemic. Traditional social structures and mores are fracturing, with divorce rising from 2 percent to 40 percent and girls and women increasingly being prostituted, something once seen only rarely in Gaza. Seventy percent of the 2 million Gazans survive on humanitarian aid packages of sugar, rice, milk and cooking oil. The U.N. estimates that 97 percent of Gaza’s water is contaminated. Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s sewage treatment plant means raw sewage is pumped into the sea, contaminating the beach, one of the very few respites for a trapped population. The Israelis did not even spare Gaza’s little zoo, slaughtering some 45 animals in the 2014 assault.<br /><br />“I liked the monkeys best,” says a forlorn Ali Qasem, who worked at the zoo. “We laughed with them the most. We would laugh and play with them. They would take food right from your hand. They’d respond the most. There is a heavy feeling of sorrow. I used to spend 18 hours a day here. I was here all the time. I’d go home for five or six hours, then come back. I worked here as a volunteer. A few volunteers built this place little by little. We were excited to finish and invite visitors for free. To me, it was like humans were killed. It’s not OK because they were animals. It’s as if they were human beings, people we know. We used to bring them food from our homes.”<br /><br />The film shows Palestinians, who have received little reconstruction aid despite pledges by international donors, camping out amid the ruins of homes, gathered around small fires for heat and light. Moeen Abu Kheysi, 54, gives a tour of the smashed house he had spent his life constructing for his family. He stops when he comes upon his 3-month-old grandson, Wadie. His face lights up in delight.<br /><br />“Months passed and the cold rains of winter gave way to baking heat of spring,” Blumenthal says. “In Shuja’iyya, the Abu Kheysi family was still living in remnants of their home, but without their newest member. Born during the war, little Wadie did not make it through the harsh winter.”<br /><br />“He was born during the war and he died during the war, well after the war,” a female member of the family explains. “He lived in a room without a wall. We covered the wall with tin sheets. We moved, but then we got kicked out. We couldn’t make rent. [We] had to come back, cover the wall and live here. Then the baby froze to death. It was very cold.”<br /><br />“One day it suddenly became very cold,” Wadie’s mother says. “Wadie woke up at 9 in the morning. I started playing with him, gave him a bottle. Suddenly, he was shivering from the cold. I tried to warm him up but it wasn’t working.”<br /><br />She begins to weep.<br /><br />“There wasn’t even time to get to the hospital,” she says. “He stopped breathing before they left the house. His heart stopped beating instantly. His father started running in the street with him. He fainted when they yelled, “The baby is dead!” The baby’s uncle took over and carried him. He looked everywhere for a taxi but couldn’t find one. We couldn’t give him first aid ourselves. They finally found a car. They did all they could at the hospital, but he never woke up. He was dead. What can I say? We remember him all the time. I can’t get him off my mind. It’s as if I lost a piece of my heart. His sisters want to sleep in his cradle and wear his clothes. This one always asks to wear her brother’s clothes. We can’t forget him.”<br /><br />“Grandpa!” Wadie’s small sister cries out. “Mama is crying again.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-72481253513296990502018-05-12T09:23:00.001+09:002018-05-12T09:23:48.752+09:00The Heartbreaking Reason This Palestinian Joined the Gaza Border Protests by Gideon Levy<br />
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-the-heartbreaking-reason-this-palestinian-joined-the-gaza-protests-1.6054107" target="_blank">Haaretz</a><br />
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<b>A young father of two is hospitalized with serious injuries after being shot by Israeli soldiers during a Gaza border rally. In 2014, the IDF destroyed his home, and he was left with nothing. </b><br />
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The full scale of the harrowing despair of the Gaza Strip is embodied in a haggard young man in the surgical ward on the third floor of Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron. Two rounds fired by Israel Defense Forces snipers left him seriously wounded, internal organs blown apart, his right leg shattered. Only his mother is by his side in this narrow room, which is starkly empty apart from the old hospital bed he’s lying in, and a fake leather sofa that’s even older and more tattered. There’s no television set, no radio, no one comes to visit, there’s no place to move around, and he has no money to buy a cup of coffee in the cafeteria.<br /><br />The patient is Ibrahim al-Masri, one of the hundreds who have suffered serious wounds in the Gaza demonstrations of the past month, and one of the very few who has been allowed to undergo medical treatment in the West Bank. Indeed, he is the only Gaza resident hospitalized in Hebron.<br /><br />Alone, distraught, penniless, now also disabled -- Masri has no chance in life. The despair in Hebron isn’t any easier to bear, and he’s already waiting to return to Gaza, which is utterly indifferent to him. A visit to him is like a descent into hell.<br /><br />Twenty-three years old, he’s married to Faiza and the father of a 3-year-old daughter, Lama, and a son of 9 months, Sami. A young couple plus two in the Gaza Strip 2018, without a home and without a job, now also with a disabled husband and father. Rehab, his mother, is the only person whom Israel allowed to leave the cage of Gaza with him; now the two are imprisoned in this cramped room, where no one comes to visit or offer support.<br /><br />Masri says he hardly speaks with his children by phone: The little one is just a baby and he has nothing to say to the 3 year-old. “What will I tell her? That our life has been destroyed?” When she saw him in serious condition in the Indonesia Hospital in Sheikh Ziyad in Gaza, where he was taken originally, she was badly frightened, ran to her mother’s arms and cried until they left.<br /><br />ion has improved, he says now. According to his doctors, he will be able to return to Gaza in another week or so. Where will he undergo rehabilitation? No one knows. Masri has also been told that it will take time before he can walk and get around, in general. He would like to return to Gaza for a few days, because he and his mother have run out of money and he has no change of clothing, and in Hebron everything is expensive. But it’s very unlikely that Israel will allow him to return to the West Bank again after his release.<br /><br />They arrived here with 250 shekels ($70), which neighbors loaned them, and nothing remains. Masri is sorry now that he went to demonstrate. His mother says he did it in order to vent his anger. He corrects her: “What did it help? So many young people have become cripples, and no one cares.”<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-23108360664277239142018-04-18T09:42:00.000+09:002018-04-18T09:42:35.210+09:00Palestinian ex-prisoner: You sit there wishing you would dieby Zena Tahhan<br />
Aljazeera<br />
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<b>Haifa Abu Sbaih says she was psychologically tortured and mistreated as a prisoner in Israeli jails for 16 months.</b> <br />
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Hebron, occupied West Bank - Haifa Abu Sbeih was only 15 when she witnessed the immediate aftermath of a horrific massacre outside her family's home in the Old City of Hebron.<br />
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She recalls standing outside her home in 1994, searching for her older brother after she heard gunshots in the Ibrahimi Mosque nearby, where an American Israeli settler had opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians during dawn prayers, killing 29 and wounding more than 100.<br />
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"All the men poured into the streets, their clothes dripping with blood, crying and seeking refuge in our home," she tells Al Jazeera. While she stood outside calling for her sibling, Abu Sbeih says the army shot and killed a young man, Nour al-Muhtaseb, right before her eyes.<br />
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This incident, was for Abu Sbeih, a taste of what would become a lifetime of challenges as she lived in Hebron, the only Palestinian town with a Jewish-only settlement located in the heart of the city.<br />
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Due to the presence of some 800 Israeli settlers, Hebron is exceptionally militarised, with the Israeli army imposing severe restrictions on everyday life and the movement of 40,000 Palestinians living there.<br />
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Many Palestinians have resorted to building metal enclosures around their homes to avoid being targeted by settlers who regularly hurl abusive comments, throw stones and attack them.<br />
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For Abu Sbeih, a particularly testing experience of the occupation came in December 2015 when she was arrested by the Israeli army for plotting, along with three of her nephews, to shoot and kill an Israeli settler in Hebron. According to Abu Sbeih, the settler, Anat Cohen, had for years harassed Palestinians in Hebron with regular and targeted abuse.<br />
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<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/palestinian-prisoner-grave-180417072553933.html" target="_blank">MORE...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-43615753152087673792018-04-06T22:10:00.002+09:002018-04-06T22:10:21.200+09:00A Song is Born by Uri Avnery<br />
<a href="http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1523017627/" target="_blank">Gush Shalom</a><br />
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A FRIEND from overseas sent me the recording of a song. An Arab song, with a soft Arab melody, sung by an Arab girls' choir, accompanied by a flute.<br /><br />It goes like this:<br /><br /><i>Ahed / You are the promise and the glory / Standing as high as an olive tree / From the cradle to the present / Your honor will not be violated / Palestine has been planted in us / As a dock for every ship / We are the land and you are the water /<br /><br />You are covered with blond hair / You are as pure as Jerusalem / You taught our generation how the forgotten people should revolt / They thought the Palestinians are afraid of them because they are wearing armor and holding a weapon? / Palestine has been planted in us / As a dock for every ship / Our nation must be united and resist for the freedom of Palestine and the prisoners /<br /><br />Your blue eyes are a lighthouse / For a country that has every religion / You united the people far away and close / You ignited the spark in all our hearts / Your head is raised up high encouraging us / You ignited the light in our darkness /<br /><br />Despite the softness of your hands / Your hands have shaken the world / Your hands returned the slap to the occupier / And returned esteem to the nation / Palestine has been planted in us / As a dock for every ship / We are the land and you are the water.</i><br />IF I were an adherent of the occupation, this song would frighten me very much.<br /><br />Because the force of songs is much stronger than the force of weapons. A gun wears out, but a song lasts forever.<br /><br />In the early days of the Israeli army, there was a slogan hanging in our mess: "An army that is singing is an army of victory!"<br /><br />The present Palestinian generation has decided to lower its head and wait until the storm has passed. The coming Palestinian generation may act in a completely different way.<br /><br />On the eve of my 15th birthday, I joined an underground (or "terrorist") group that fought against the British colonial regime. Almost eighty years later I remember just about every song of that time, word for word. Songs like "We are unknown soldiers without uniforms…" and many more. Afterwards I wrote an anthem for my company.<br /><br />I am not a poet. Far from it. But I have written some songs in my time, including "Samson's Foxes", an anthem for my commando unit in the Israeli army. So I know the force of a song. Especially a song about the heroism of a 16 year old girl.<br /><br />THE MOMENT I saw the scene of Ahed al-Tamimi boxing the face of an Israeli army captain, I knew that something important had happened.<br /><br />The British politician Lord Acton famously wrote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I would add: "Occupying another people tends to make you stupid, and a long occupation makes you utterly stupid."<br /><br />In my youth, when I was already a member of the anti-British underground, I was working in the office of a British lawyer, many of whose clients were officials of the British administration. I often asked myself: "How can it be that such intelligent people can behave so stupidly?” They were nice people, who treated even a lowly clerk like me politely. But they had no alternative: the occupation compels the occupier to behave stupidly.<br /><br />It works like this: in order to uphold an occupation regime for any length of time, the occupier must believe in the superiority of his race and in the inferiority of his subjects, who are seen as primitive creatures. Otherwise, what gives him the right to subject another people? That is exactly what has happened to us now.<br /><br />THE MOMENT I saw the face-boxing scene on TV, I knew that something momentous had happened. The Palestinian people now have a national heroine. The Palestinian youth now has a model to emulate.<br /><br />The Israeli public has got used to the occupation. They believe that this is a normal situation, that the occupation can go on forever. But the occupation is not a natural situation, and some day it will come to an end.<br /><br />Ten thousand British ruled hundreds of millions of Indians, until a skinny man called Gandhi went to produce salt on the seashore, contrary to the law. The Indian youth arose, and British rule fell away like a leaf from a tree in autumn.<br /><br />The same stupidity took hold of all the occupation enforcers who dealt with Ahed al-Tamimi. Army officers. Prosecutors, military judges.<br /><br />If we were wise occupiers ? an oxymoron ? we would have sent Ahed home long ago. Expelled her by force from the prison. But we are still keeping her locked up. Her and her mother.<br /><br />True, some days ago the army realized its own stupidity. With the help of Ahed's devoted (Jewish) advocate, Gabi Lasky, a "compromise" was worked out. Several charges were dropped and Ahed was sentenced to "only" eight months in prison.<br /><br />She will be released in three more months. But that is too late: the picture of Ahed is already engraved in the mind of every Palestinian boy or girl. Ahed, the girl covered with blond hair, her blue eyes shining like a lighthouse. Ahed the saint. Ahed the savior.<br /><br />The Palestinian Jeanne d’Arc, the national symbol.<br /><br />THE STORY of Ahed al-Tamimi happened in the West Bank. But it resounded in the Gaza Strip, too.<br /><br />For most Israelis, the Gaza Strip is something else. It is not occupied territory. It does not concern us.<br /><br />But the situation of the Gaza Strip is even worse than straight occupation. The strip is completely surrounded. North and east is Israel, west is the sea, where the Israeli navy shoots at everything except for fishing boats close to the shore. The south belongs to Egypt, which behaves even worse than the Israelis and in close cooperation with them.<br /><br />The situation in the Gaza Strip is as close to hell as one can get. Food at subsistence level, electricity for two to four hours a day, the water is polluted. Work is extremely scarce. Only the most severely ill are let out.<br /><br />Why? It has to do with the demon that plagues the Israeli government: the demographic devil.<br /><br />In historical Palestine, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river, there now live about 13 million people, roughly half Jewish and half Arab, with a slight edge in favor of the Arabs. Numbers are uncertain, but roughly there are 3 million Arabs in the West Bank, 2 million in the Gaza Strip and 1.5 million Arab citizens in Israel. The Arab birthrate is higher than the Jewish average.<br /><br />These numbers disturb the sleep of many Israeli officials, especially politicians. They look for means to change the balance. They once had the illusion that if the situation in Gaza got unbearable, people from Gaza would emigrate. But it did not happen. Palestinians have become very tenacious.<br /><br />Then a new fashion came up: just ignore the bastards. Just imagine that the Gaza Strip has sunk into the sea, as one Israeli politician once prayed. No Strip. Two million Palestinian less.<br /><br />But the Strip is there. True, Gaza is ruled by the Islamic Hamas party, while the West Bank is ruled by Abu Mazen's PLO, and the enmity between the two is vicious. But that happened in almost all liberation movements in history. In our case, the underground split between the Haganah ("Defense"), which belonged to the official Zionist leadership, and the Irgun ("Organization", short for National Military Organization). Then the Irgun split, and the even more extreme LEHI ("Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", called the "Stern Gang" by the British) was born. They all hated each other.<br /><br />But among the people, there is no difference at all. They are all Palestinians. Ahed is the heroine of all of them. Perhaps her model played a role in what happened last week.<br /><br />For some time, the Gaza Strip was quiet. Some kind of modus vivendi had even come into being between the Hamas government and the Israeli one. The Israelis congratulated themselves on their cleverness. And then it happened.<br /><br />Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the population of Gaza stood up. Hamas organized them to assemble on Friday near the border fence, unarmed. A prolonged campaign of passive resistance was to start.<br /><br />When I was asked what would happen, I said that the Israeli army would shoot to kill. Simple: Israelis don't know how to deal with passive resistance. They shoot in order to turn it into violent resistance. With that they know how to deal. With more violence.<br /><br />AND THAT is exactly what happened last Friday, the first day of the campaign: snipers were posted along the line, with orders to shoot the "ringleaders" ? anyone who stood out. 18 unarmed demonstrators were killed, almost a thousand were shot and wounded.<br /><br />If anyone thought that the democratic world would stand up and condemn Israel, they were sadly wrong. Reactions were feeble, at most. What was revealed was the incredible hold the Israeli government and its Zionist organization has over the world’s political establishments and communication outlets. With few exceptions the atrocious news was not published at all, or as minor items.<br /><br />But this cannot go on for long. The Gaza protests will continue, especially on Fridays (the Muslim holy day), until May 15, the Naqba ("Catastrophe") Day, which commemorates the mass flight / expulsion of half the Palestinian people from their homes. Palestinian flags will fill screens around the globe.<br /><br />Ahed will still be in prison.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-68281993304215841692018-04-03T08:48:00.003+09:002018-04-03T08:48:59.995+09:0013-Year-Old “Leaves Hell” of Israeli Detentionby Jaclynn Ashly<br />
The Electronic Intifada<br />
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Abdel Raouf al-Balawi’s mother drapes a checkered scarf, or kuffiyeh, around her son’s small, slumped-over shoulders, while the 13-year-old anxiously recounts his experiences in Israeli detention.<br />
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Posters displaying the faces of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are lined up, one after the other, across the white walls of the family’s home in Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp.<br />
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“The food was horrible in prison,” Abdel Raouf said, looking up briefly, before averting his eyes back to the floor. “Everything the Israelis gave us was months expired.”<br />
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On Tuesday, 27 March, Abdel Raouf was released from Ofer detention center, an Israeli military facility located near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and was greeted by hundreds of cheering residents in his home camp celebrating his release.<br />
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Abdel Raouf was one of the youngest Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.<br />
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<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/13-year-old-leaves-hell-israeli-detention/23781" target="_blank">MORE...</a> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-10883889531046998282018-03-31T11:28:00.000+09:002018-03-31T11:28:14.733+09:00In Gaza, Israel turned Good Friday into bloody Fridayby Shahd Abusalama<br />
Electronic Intifada<br />
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My 15-year old cousin Muhammad Abu Loz just got injured by gunfire from Israeli occupation forces at the Great March of Return, east of Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.<br /><br />He was among thousands of Palestinians from all generations who have joined these marches in commemoration of Land Day, protesting against the longstanding Israeli colonial occupation and the denial of our inalienable political rights.<br /><br />Israel met them with 100 military snipers.<br /><br />My cousin survived, but my grandfather’s neighbor, Muhammad Kamal al-Najjar, 25, was shot dead. He is one of at least 12 people who had been killed by Friday evening.<br /><br />More than 700, including 130 children, had been injured.<br />
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<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/shahd-abusalama/gaza-israel-turned-good-friday-bloody-friday" target="_blank">MORE...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-26749784736473694442018-03-23T11:46:00.001+09:002018-03-23T11:47:12.671+09:00Israel sentences Ahed Tamimi to eight months in prisonby Tamara Nassar<br />
The Electronic Intifada<br />
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An Israeli military court has approved a plea deal which will see Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi serve an eight-month prison sentence on top of a fine of nearly $1,500.<br />
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Ahed, who turned 17 in January, was charged with assaulting soldiers and incitement after a video recorded by her mother Nariman circulated, showing Ahed and her cousin Nour slapping and shoving two heavily armed Israeli soldiers on 15 December.<br />
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Ahed was arrested in the middle of the night at her home in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on 19 December.<br />
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Nour and Nariman were also detained by the army following the videotaped incident and have been sentenced to time served -- 16 days in prison -- and eight months in prison, respectively, after accepting plea deals.<br />
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<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-sentences-ahed-tamimi-eight-months-prison" target="_blank">MORE...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-9479835365448751982018-03-23T11:37:00.001+09:002018-03-23T11:37:46.718+09:00How Many Millions of People Have Been Killed in America’s Post-9/11 Wars? – Part One: Iraqby Nicolas J.S. Davies<br />
Consortiumnews.com<br />
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<b>The numbers of casualties of U.S. wars since Sept. 11, 2001 have largely gone uncounted, but coming to terms with the true scale of the crimes committed remains an urgent moral, political and legal imperative.</b><br />
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How many people have been killed in America’s post-9/11 wars? I have been researching and writing about that question since soon after the U.S. launched these wars, which it has tried to justify as a response to terrorist crimes that killed 2,996 people in the U.S. on September 11th 2001.<br />
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But no crime, however horrific, can justify wars on countries and people who were not responsible for the crime committed, as former Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz patiently explained to NPR at the time.<br />
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“The Iraq Death Toll 15 Years After the U.S. Invasion” which I co-wrote with Medea Benjamin, estimates the death toll in Iraq as accurately and as honestly as we can in March 2018. Our estimate is that about 2.4 million people have probably been killed in Iraq as a result of the historic act of aggression committed by the U.S. and U.K. in 2003. In this report, I will explain in greater detail how we arrived at that estimate and provide some historical context. In Part 2 of this report, I will make a similar up-to-date estimate of how many people have been killed in America’s other post-9/11 wars.<br />
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<a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/03/22/how-many-millions-of-people-have-been-killed-in-americas-post-9-11-wars-part-one-iraq/" target="_blank">MORE...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6733065242432823626.post-34357666831547546812018-03-21T09:29:00.001+09:002018-03-21T09:29:33.488+09:00Taking Flightby Ryan Devereaux<br />
The Intercept<br />
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<b>An Iraqi Family Sought Asylum in the U.S., Thinking the Worst Was Over. Then Their American Nightmare Began.</b><br />
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NOTHING ABOUT THE Laredo Processing Center’s physical appearance immediately suggests it is run by a multimillion-dollar, for-profit prison corporation. Located just off the highway, about 5 miles from the Rio Grande, the drab one-story building, with its chain-link fencing and razor wire, is sandwiched between Ruben’s Paint and Body Shop and Martinez Wrecker Services.<br />
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If not for the sign outside, the immigrant detention center could easily be mistaken for a well-guarded junkyard. For the people locked inside, who sleep in open areas crammed with bodies -- if they are not being held in isolation -- days consist of head counts, the echoing voices of shouting guards, and a lot of waiting. If you’re lucky, you have the money to make short calls home and a loved one to pick up the phone.<br />
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For Safaa Al Shakarchi, this was life for more than a year. Along with his wife, Zinah, and their two small children -- 2-year-old Sidrah and 6-year-old Yousif -- Safaa crossed the bridge linking Reynosa, Mexico, to McAllen, Texas, on January 14, 2017. Nearly six months had passed since the family was expelled from their adopted home in the United Arab Emirates. Zinah and Safaa had been building a life in the Gulf nation since 2009, when a militia commander in Baghdad shot Zinah and murdered her colleague, prompting her to flee Iraq.<br />
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In the months that followed the expulsion, the family’s unwelcome odyssey brought them to six countries, through multiple times zones, and across numerous borders. They endured detention at the hands of Mexican authorities, including officials who beat Safaa as his children watched, and navigated some of the most treacherous cartel-controlled territory in the Western Hemisphere.<br />
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It was not the life they had planned, but the family was at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Passports in hand, the Shakarchis presented themselves before U.S. immigration officials in Texas. Invoking a right enshrined in both U.S. and international law, they applied for asylum. While his wife and children were eventually permitted to enter the country to begin the asylum process, Safaa was not. After a long and difficult experience, he ultimately found himself locked up in Laredo, accused of no crime, with deportation orders but no country willing to accept him.<br />
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<a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/18/safaa-al-shakarchi-asylum-detention-ice/" target="_blank">MORE...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0