March 2019, Week 3
St. Patrick’s Day is on the 17th. This week’s photo is a young Irish freedom fighter, or terrorist depending on which side you were on, from back in the days of “The Troubles.’
Friday
03.15.2019 In video: Siren sound as missiles from Gaza target Israel Maan News. Article–taken from Israeli media–reports Iron Dome shot down several missiles launched from Gaza while other missiles landed in a field. No injuries or damage in Israel.
compare this headline above with Haaretz version:
03.15.2019 Israel strikes 100 targets in Gaza overnight in response to rockets fired at Tel Aviv Haaretz by Yaniv Kubovich et al. Unlike yesterday’s Israeli news that Israel’s Iron Dome shot down at least four rockets of a salvo fired from Gaza Strip, this story says just two rockets were fired, that they landed in a field, and that the Iron Dome was activated but there’s no mention of it shooting any missiles down.
Arab groups in Gaza have denied responsibility and there’s also a strange claim from Israeli intelligence that the two Gaza missiles were launched by accident. Anyway, Israel used the excuse to launch an aerial terror attack on Gaza as Israeli politician vied with each other to sound the toughest on how extensive the military response should be.
03.15.2019 4 Palestinians injured in 100 Israeli Airstrikes Maan News. Israel’s attack on a hundred sites in Gaza last night injured a husband and wife and two others, none of them identified. All Palestinian factions have denied responsibility for any missiles fired from Gaza. The Gaza Ministry of Interior and Security said necessary measures will be taken against those responsible.
03.15.2019 Gantz calls for Israel to ‘act aggressively’ after Gaza missiles Maan News. Israeli politician on the campaign trail calls for blood. Not to be outdone, his opponent Netanyahu’s regime attacked the world’s most crowded bit of real estate with 100 airstrikes.
03.15.2019 Israel orders demolition of 3 Palestinian homes in Qalansuwa, Maan News. Occupation’s military government rejected appeals made by 3 homeowners to save their houses.
03.15.2019 Gaza postpones 51st Great March of Return protest Maan News. Due to increasing Israeli violence as the elections approach the National Committee for Braking the Siege took the unprecedented step of postponing the protest in order to save Palestinian lives.
03.15.2019 Palestinian injured as Israeli forces suppress Kafr Qaddum protest Maan News. Jewish occupation troops shot Palestinians with rubber coated steel bullets, gas, and concussion grenades again today.
03.15.2019 U.S. bars entry to International Criminal Court investigators AP by Matthew Lee. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States of America will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court staff who want to look into American war crimes and crimes against humanity—additionally, the U.S. may also ban ICC members who want to investigate…guess which country? Israel.
03.15.2019 In Cold Blood//Israeli who commanded massacre of dozens of Arab captives in 1948 dies at 93 Haaretz by Ofer Aderet. In 1948, when Zionist Jews were ethnically cleansing Palestine, a 22-year-old lieutenant named Shuel Lahis, whose family had immigrated from Poland, was leading a detachment that took Hula village. There had been no resistance from the Arabs. The Zionists put all the men and older boys into a house, where Lahis machine gunned them all to death, then had the house blown up on top of the bodies.
Lahis’ battalion commander, Dov Yirmiya, arrived, learned the prisoners were massacred, and reported the crime. Lahis was convicted, sentenced to 7 years. The sentence was reduced to one year, then he was pardoned by Israeli President Weizman. Lahis, after all, had been ordered to “clean the area of Arabs.” Lahis became a lawyer, enjoyed life, and eventually became head of the Jewish Agency for Israel—the largest Jewish non-profit in the world. His former battalion commander Yirmiya tried unsuccessfully to prevent that nomination.
[Back story of the massacre*, on December 30, 1947 about 100 Arab day-laborers had gathered outside the Haifa oil refinery hoping to get some work. Jewish terrorists from the Zionist terror organization Irgun threw grenades into the crowd of workers killing six and wounding 42. The Arabs responded by attacking Jews in the refinery killing 39 and injuring 49. Lahis would later claim as his defense that he massacred the Arabs in retaliation for Arabs killing Jews at the refinery.
The Jewish terror group Haganah—which became the Israeli Defense Force—attacked two nearby Arab villages, Balad al-Shaykh and Hawassa—at night, dressed as Arabs, killing dozens of innocent people including women and children who had been sleeping in their beds. Dead numbered between 21 and 70. The village was ethnically cleansed. Surviving women and children were driven away and the place was taken over by Jewish colonists. *from Wikipedia and other sources
Saturday
03.16.2019 Several suffer tear-gas suffocation in weekly Bilin protest Maan News. Occupation troops shoot gas and concussion grenades at unarmed protesters again. [We really need a different descriptor than ‘tear’ gas. It’s not gas to make people cry. It’s gas to make people suffocate.]
03.16.2019 Israeli forces detain 2 Palestinians form Jerusalem Maan News. Two more Palestinians arrested and hauled off for interrogation as they were leaving Al Aqsa Mosque.
03.16.2019 Gazans protest demanding better living conditions Maan News. Residents of besieged Gaza hold demonstrations against their harsh lives and call on Hamas to fix things. Hamas broke up some of the demonstrations by force with security details beating people with batons and making arrests.
03.16.2019 Cardoza-Moore hand delivers petitions to Washington requesting Ilhan Omar’s removal Jerusalem Post by Zachary Kayser. Evangelical Israel tool Laurie Cardoza-Moore back in the news as she tries to have Representative Ilhan Omar removed from office. She claims to have brought tens of thousands of signatures to Washington on petitions calling for Ms. Omar to be canned.
03.16.2019 ‘Endless trip to hell’: Israel jails hundreds of Palestinian boys a year. These are their testimonials Haaretz by Netta Ahituv. On any given year Israel arrests between 800 and 1,000 Palestinian children, mostly boys. Some of them as young as ten years old. Most are arrested in ‘night and fog’ raids, where occupation troops break down the family’s door in the middle of the night to maximize trauma to the family. Jewish troops assault the family, take their child, and leave them with a form in Hebrew and Arabic, but often with the particulars filled out in Hebrew which the family can’t read. Asked by Haaretz by the army attacks homes in the dead of night instead of calling the family in the daytime and telling them to bring the kid to the police station, the Israeli spokesman made the incredible rationale that the reason was, “…due to the desire to preserve an orderly fabric of life.”
Article notes that some of the children are so young, handcuffs and prison uniforms don’t fit them. Israel binds those little kids with plastic handcuffs (zip ties?) and gives them clothes left behind at the prison by other Palestinian children.
Arrested children are handcuffed and blindfolded. Their captors speak in Hebrew, except shouts and curses in Arabic, and hit and kick them. Before interrogation they’re taken place to place to increase fear and disorientation. Often the occupiers don’t feed the kids or let them go to the bathroom, so they soil themselves. Kids are commonly strip searched and made to stand naked for various lengths of time. Winter or summer.
One occupation trooper testified that his company had fun on Hanukah by terrifying two boys that he estimated were between 12 and 16. As they lit the first Hanukah candle the Israelis banged pans and shouted curses in Arabic at the boys.
Interrogators threaten that the kids will never leave the prison, or they’ll kill their mothers, or take away their father’s work papers and the family will starve. The occupiers try to make them sign a confession in Hebrew that the kids can’t read.
Data show that children living near Jewish colonies are most likely to be targeted. Lawyer Gerald Horton, from British-Palestinian Military Court Watch, says Israel knows some of the kids they arrest/detention/imprisonment are innocent but “each generation must feel the strong arm of the IDF.”
The article includes testimonies from several young survivors who were kidnapped by this system. One of them was ten years old when Israel took him away. Along with being tormented, sometimes tortured, the kids are often held for months without seeing their parents. They get behind in school, miss exams, and are compromised in college applications. Kids who won’t confess to things they didn’t do are imprisoned longer, interrogated again and again, until they confess. Then Israel charges their impoverished parents $500 or $1,000 to get them back.
Sunday
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Remember how, back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, millions of Irish-Americans supported the bloody Irish Catholic resistance in Northern Ireland against English occupation and Protestant domination of the society?
Today’s Ireland has great sympathy and support for Palestinians and the Emerald Isle is voting on a bill that may become Europe’s first country to support BDS. Israel is panicking at this and American government officials who’ve take large amounts of money from the Israel lobby are threatening to crush the Irish economy if they pass the bill. And now, today’s headlines:
03.17.2019 One Israeli killed, 2 critically injured in attack at Ariel junction Maan News. Story unfolding but apparently, one Palestinian with a knife went after multiple Israeli occupation troops and colonists, with machine guns, took down several of them, and escaped. Apparently, after dispatching the first trooper with a knife, the Palestinian took his firearm and shot two others then fled the scene.
[This is a dramatic humiliation for the Israelis, especially Netanyahu right before the election, because his campaign has boasted so much that he keeps Israelis safe. Expect massive collective punishment: night and fog raids, mass arrests, demolitions, village closures, etc. in the West Bank.]
03.17.2019 Israeli settlers attack Palestinian vehicles in Hebron Maan News. Jewish thugs throw rocks at cars while occupation troops watch and do nothing.
03.17.2019 Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers, shepherds in Gaza Maan News. From the safety of military towers Jewish siege troops shot at farmers and shepherds to drive them from their fields. No injuries reported.
03.17.2019 Israeli forces detain 4 Palestinians in West Bank raids Maan News. Night and fog raids.
03.17.2019 Hamas raids Gaza homes, arrests dozens of activists. Maan News. Attacks mainly directed against rival Fatah members following two days of protests against deplorable living conditions in Gaza.
03.17.2019 UN Mladenov condemns treatment of Gaza protesters by Hamas Maan News. U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nicolay Mladenov strongly condemned Hamas tactics in suppressing Gaza protests that included “the brutal beating of journalists and staff Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR)
03.17.2019 Palestinian, Jordanian FM reject Israeli decision to close Eab al-Rahma Maan News. Israelis closed the ‘Gate of Mercy’ at the Al Aqsa mosque. Under agreements signed by Israel, Jordan, not the Jewish state, has jurisdiction over the mosque.
03.17.2019 Israel’s top court bans Kahanist leader from election run, okays Arab slates, far-left candidate Haaretz by Yoam Berger. Two weeks ago Israel Central Elections Committee approved fanatic Zionist candidate to run for the elections and at the same time banned the Arab Joint Slate and a far-left candidate. Now the Israeli Supreme Court has reversed both those actions in a power struggle of who is really in charge. More to follow.
03.17.2019 For every Palestinian rocket, Israel commits thousands of crimes: Listen to Amira Haas Haaretz. 27.49 minute interview with the great Israeli journalist and humanitarian Amira Haas. Among other things, she talks about the lack of freedom of movement between Gaza and the West Bank, which the Israelis guaranteed the Palestinians would have during the Oslo Accords in 1993. When the interviewer mentions conditions are better in Ramallah than in Gaza, Haas observes drily that Ramallah is a 5-star prison. On the whole she says Israel is responsible for the terrible quality of life Palestinians endure.
Monday
03.18.2019 Palestinian attacker kills Israeli soldier and rabbi in West Bank The Guardian by Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem (unlike American media, the Guardian will often state that their reporter lives in Israel). Israeli politicians are jostling each other to capitalize on yesterday’s killing of two Israelis. Emerging facts are a Palestinian killed a 19-year-old Israeli occupation trooper with a knife, took his weapon, shot another soldier, then shot at Jewish colonists, one of whom, a rabbi and a father of 12, has died. Unlike most articles, this one mentions that the rabbi was armed and fired multiple shots at the attacker. Which of them fired first is unclear but the Palestinian killed the rabbi and escaped.
Also unlike most articles in the western press, this one points out that Palestinians killed 14 Israelis in 2018 while Israelis killed 295 Palestinians, and shot thousands more, mostly along the Gaza border, in 2018. [update: the Palestinian suspect is 19-year-old Omar Abu Lelia.]
03.18.2019 Netanyahu to build 840 settlement units in response to Ariel attack Maan News. Netanyahu doing damage control for on the campaign trail.
03.18.2019 Injuries reported as Israeli forces raid Salfit area towns Maan News. Jewish occupation troops step up violent night and fog raids following yesterday’s attack on occupation troops and colonists that left Israelis two dead. In last night’s raids the Israelis shot a Palestinian in the face with a gas bomb and shot two others with rubber coated steel bullets.
03.18.2018 Israeli forces demolish water well in southern Hebron Maan News. Jewish occupation troops with machine guns and a bulldozer destroyed a small village’s water supply in Hebron district today.
03.18.2019 In video-Israel demolishes 2 Palestinian-owned buildings, wall Maan News. Jewish occupation troops with machine guns and several bulldozers demolish multiple structures in the Bethlehem area.
03.18.2019 Israeli forces detain Palestinian girl for alleged knife possession Maan News. Occupation troops claim the girl attempted a stabbing attack. She’s in prison being interrogated.
03.18.2019 His face turned blue, then he died Electronic Intifada by Sarah Algherbawi. Personal stories of three Palestinians shot down by Israeli snipers along the Gaza border. All were unarmed. A 13-year-old, Hasan Shalabi, worked after school on second shift in a bakery until midnight to help his family. He made $3 a shift. 17-year-old Hamza Ishtaiwa, was 200 meters from the segregation fence when they killed him. 16-year-old Hasan Nofal was also hundreds of meters from the fence when Israel targeted him with a gas bomb. He’s the only one of the three who survived and he vows to return to the protests as soon as his fractured skull allows.
03.18.2019 Israeli bulldozers raze Palestinian lands in eastern Gaza. Maan News. Siege troops destroy more of what used to be farm lands on the Gaza side of the segregation fence.
03.18.2019 Israeli Justice Minister sprays herself with ‘Fascism’ perfume in provocative campaign ad Haaretz by Allsion Kaplan-Sommer. In a campaign move that’s wacky even by Israeli standards, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has a commercial out in which she does, “sultry poses” while spraying herself with perfume labeled ‘Fascism.’ [You may recall that during the 2014 Gaza Massacre when Israel killed hundreds of Palestinian women, Shaked tweeted that Palestinian mothers should be killed so they couldn’t produce little snakes]. She is currently accused of promoting fascism in her position as Justice Minister by trying to decrease power of the courts while increasing power for the ruling party.
At the end of her commercial, Shaked “Smells like democracy.”
03.18.2019 Asked to strip by security guard, Palestinian artist refuses to fly to Israel Haaretz. The female artist, Nasreen Bakr was headed to Haifa from Berlin for an exhibition but decided it wasn’t worth the humiliation of a strip search.
03.18.2019 Ex official: Netanyahu approved sale of German submarines to Egypt Middle East Monitor. Former Israeli Defense Minister Amos Gilad told police investigating Netanyahu’s corruption case—called case 3000—that Netanyahu approved sale of advanced German submarines to Egypt when the German government asked Netanyahu if that was okay. Gilad stressed that he was against that deal because the submarines would be a danger to Israel.
The corruption cases against Netanyahu are roughly as follows:
Case 1000: Netanyahu and wife took over $300,000 in gifts from businessmen.
Case 2000: Netanyahu tried to buy more favorable news coverage.
Case 3000: The submarine scandal.
Case 4000: Netanyahu associate suspected of providing confidential information to Israeli telecommunications.
03.18.2019 U.N. created “confidential file” of alleged Israeli war criminals for ICC Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazorff. U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Gaza border protests includes a list of Israelis who the Commission believes are responsible for killing peaceful protesters, also calls for sanctions and arms embargo against Israel.
Tuesday
03.19.2019 4 Palestinians shot, injured in Gaza night protests. Maan News. Jewish siege troops fired live ammunition from protected emplacements on the Israeli side, into crowds of unarmed, unprotected protesters on the Gaza side. Four Palestinians injured.
03.19.2019 Gantz rules out ‘political discourse’ with Arab parties over ‘anti-Israel rhetoric Maan News. Netanyahu’s main rival in the upcoming election, Benny Gantz, dismissed Israeli Arab politicians as ‘irrelevant.’ Predicted his party would will the election.
03.19.2019 Pro-Israel donor pulls out of AIPAC conference after attacking Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib. Haaretz/JTA. Israeli billionaire Adam Milstein cast aspersions against our two Muslim congresswomen, claiming they ‘clash with American values.’ He also tweeted, that “the Muslim Brotherhood is now part of Congress’ and other trash. Then, when called out for it, Millstein played the victim, claiming his tweets were mischaracterized. The upshot is, due to fallout, he’s not going to AIPAC conference as planned. [Two things: 1) If you think about it, what Millstein said about the congresswomen was far more inflammatory than everything they have said put together, and, 2) Millstein was named in the documentary The Lobby-USA, as the funding source of a secretive Zionist smear campaign calling itself Canary Mission, operating against college students and others who support BDS.]
03.19.2019 Israel demolishes school building in Shufat Maan News. In Jerusalem, Israeli occupation snipers deployed to rooftops and flew a drone overhead, as they demolished a kindergarten/elementary school being built for 400 students. The facility was on land owned by United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNWRA). Now the kids have nowhere to go.
3.19.2019 Israel to impose 4-day closure on West Bank, Gaza Maan News. As part of the Jewish holiday of Purim, the Israelis are closing down the occupied territories even more than usual.
03.19.2019 Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, vandalize property near Salfit Maan News. Jewish colonists attacked the small village of Kifel Hares last night, smashing windows in houses and cars.
03.19. Jewish lawmaker shoots dead Arab colleague in campaign video, complaint filed Haaretz by Jack Khoury. Another Israeli politician on the campaign trail. Parliament member Oren Hazen, has made a campaign video in which he pretends to shoot and kill another member of the parliament who is Arab.
03.19.2019 NWC official: ‘only solution for Gaza crisis is for Hamas to step down.’ Maan News. Living conditions are so desperate in Gaza that people have turned out enmasse to protest Hama’s inability to break Israel’s siege. The National Work Committee is calling for Hamas to step down.
03.19.2019 AI: ‘Hamas brutal crackdown against protesters must end’ Maan News. Amnesty International statement calls out Hamas for beatings, arrests, torture of protesters demonstrating against terrible living conditions in Gaza.
03.19.2019 BDS launches 15th annual Israeli Apartheid Week worldwide Maan News. Article notes that Netanyahu helped make the case that Israel is an apartheid state last week when he tweeted, “Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation State Law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and only it.”
Wednesday
03.20.2019 Israeli forces shoot, kill attack suspect near Ramallah Maan News. Heavily armed occupation force gunned down 19-year-old Omar Abu Lelia, the suspect in Tuesday’s attack that killed two Israelis, and wounded another. Article says the Israelis gave him a chance to come out of the house he was hiding in. When he didn’t they opened fire on the house and killed him. There’s a video of the attack with the article.
03.20.2019 2 Palestinians killed as Israeli settlers raid Joseph’s Tomb Maan News. Jewish occupation troops gunned down two more young Palestinians during clashes incited by an estimated thousand colonists, escorted by occupation troops, barged into Joseph’s Tomb. The tomb is one of the flash-points of confrontation in the area. Israel says someone threw an explosive device so they shot 20-year-old Zaid Nuri and 21-year-old Raed Hamdan to death.
03.20.2019 Israeli forces detain Al-Aqsa guard, journalist, woman in Jerusalem Maan News. More Israeli provocations at the mosque.
03.20.2019 Israeli forces suppress student march in Al-Bireh Maan News. Birzeit University student council held march to protest Israel killing three Palestinians today. Israel gassed the students and shot 14 of them with rubber coated steel bullets.
03.20.2019 Israeli forces detain 11 in West Bank raids Maan News. Night and fog raids, again last night.
03.20.2019 Israeli navy detains 2 fishermen in northern Gaza Maan News. Siege troops arrested two more fishermen bringing the total to nine for this month.
03.20.2019 13 Palestinians injured along eastern, northern Gaza borders Maan News. Jewish snipers shot two people with live ammunition, gassed others including eleven who were evacuated to hospital with trouble breathing.
03.20.2019 Israeli forces demolish Palestinian homes in South Hebron Hills Maan News. More Palestinians in two different villages without a place to live today. Article includes photos of Israelis smashing little homes, furniture, and possessions.
Thursday—Spring Equinox
03.21.2019 Israel bans Mother’s Day ceremony in East Jerusalem Maan News. In Palestine they celebrate Mother’s Day on March 21st. The Jerusalem Girl’s Association put together a luncheon at the French Culture Center (Institut Francais) to honor their mothers. Just before the event was to start, Jewish occupation troops with machine guns raided the place and threw out the women and girls. They acted under orders of Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. There is a great photo of the occupation troops, including a female, in front of the Center’s door with their machine guns and they look absolutely humiliated. Their faces and body language say, “We are such assholes.” They know it. And, they know they’re being photographed. Shame.
03.21.2019 Israeli settler runs over Palestinian worker in Hebron Maan News. Another hit and run attack in the occupied territories. No arrests.
03.21.2019 Palestinian youth killed by Israeli forces near Bethlehem Maan News. Jewish occupation troops shot 22-year-old Ahmad Munasra with live ammunition in his chest, shoulder, and hand. The young man died at the hospital. At this point no attempts at justification have been forthcoming from Israel. Palestinians in Bethlehem have called for a strike of businesses, busses, and schools to protest the killing.
03.21.2019 Israeli settlers puncture 17 Palestinian vehicles near Bethlehem Maan News. Colonists attacked a Palestinian at 2:30 in the morning puncturing tires and spraying racist graffiti including the Star of David, on Palestinian vehicles. No arrests made by occupation authorities.
3.21.2019 Palestinians strike against Israeli demolitions in Rahat Maan News. This community, which is inside Israel, observed a general strike to protest on-going demolitions of Arab homes. Article points out that while 20% of Israel’s population is Arab, less than 5% of new housing is built in Palestinian towns and villages.
03.21.2019 WHO: More than 97% of Gaza’s water does not meet quality standards Maan News. Gaza aquifer is now 19meters (62 feet) below sea level. That means it being contaminated by salt water intrusions from the ocean. It’s also contaminated by sewage because the Israelis have repeatedly bombed the sewage treatment plant and won’t allow repair supplies in. [The aquifer is so low because Israel won’t allow water from the occupied West Bank into Gaza, instead it diverts West Bank water to Jewish colonies. In addition, Israel has punched wells all along Gaza’s border to intercept ground water that used to flow to Gaza and replenish the aquifer.]
03.21.2019 Israeli warplanes target Palestinian protesters in Gaza Maan News. Last night the Jewish state fired a missile near protesters on the Gaza side of the segregation fence. Israeli authorities claim the Palestinians launched toy balloons carrying burning rags at them. No injuries reported on either side.
3.21.2019 Trump suggests U.S. will formally recognize Israeli control over Golan Heights Reuters/Huffpost by Steve Holland. Trump’s tweet just before Israeli elections is a boost for Netanyahu, who thanked him.
03.21.2019 Women who worked with billionaire philanthropist Michael Steinhardt say he asked for sex ProPublica and New York Times by Hannah Dreyfus and Sharon Ottermar. Jewish women of good reputation and credentials, including Sheila Katz, Vice President of Hillel, Deborah Mohile Goldberg who worked for Birthright Israel, and five others, have charged that their organizations sent them to Steinhardt to ask him for donations and that Steinhardt propositioned them for sex. The women say his behavior was on-going and well known. Steinhardt, who is nearly 80, says his remarks were in jest and has denied some of the charges through his lawyers.
