Billy
30th September 2014, 10:47
First, I changed the title to "Israel's controllers" because i am sure we are all aware here on Avalon, that this is who is responsible for the atrocities against the citizens of Palestine. NOT the people of Israel, NOT all Jewish people. Who are being used as pawns by their controllers and religious leaders. If a citizen of Israel dares to speak up against the atrocities of their leaders. They are hounded, beaten, will lose their jobs and silenced. Let us support those brave Islaeli's who say, Enough is enough. NOT in my name.
I am clarifying that not all are being tarred with the same brush. I ask ALL Avalonian's to do the same.
http://www.alternet.org/world/israel-put-trial-war-crimes
September 26, 2014
On September 25, in Brussels, Belgium, the Russell Tribunal gathered to examine allegations of war crimes and genocidal intent by the Israeli military against residents of the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge. I was among those invited to provide testimony before a jury that included Michael Mansfield, John Dugard, Roger Waters, Ken Loach, Vandana Shiva, Richard Falk, Ahdaf Soueif, and Ronnie Kasrils. The following day, I presented testimony in the European Parliament alongside Israeli journalist David Sheen and Mohammed Omer, a journalist from the Gaza Strip. (Two other invitees from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Committee on Human Rights director Raji Sourani and filmmaker Ashraf Mashharawi, were prevented from leaving the besieged coastal enclave by the Egyptian regime.) Here are the prepared remarks I delivered on September 25 before the Russell Tribunal:
I arrived in the Gaza Strip at the onset of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire on August 14. With the cessation of violence, I was able to gain unfettered access to residents who had borne the brunt of the Israeli ground invasion in the hardest hit border areas, places like Khuza’a, Shujaiya, Beit Hanoun, Rafah, and the villages surrounding Beit Lahiya. I recorded testimonies from scores of residents of these areas, documenting war crimes committed by the Israeli armed forces. The atrocities formed an undeniable pattern, suggesting that the crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge were the product of stated military policies, or at least rules of engagement that enabled massacres, summary executions, wholesale residential destruction, the use of civilians as human shields, and abductions. I will describe these atrocities in as much detail as possible and allow the members of the jury to judge for themselves.
In the rubble of destroyed homes surrounding a dusty open field lined with destroyed homes in Shujaiya, my colleague Dan Cohen and I found a laminated map of the area left behind by invading soldiers in an ammunition box. This is the first time it has been publicly displayed. I have analyzed it with help from Eran Efrati, an Israeli combat veteran who testified earlier today on his interviews with participants in the massacre in Shujaiya. The map was produced by an Israeli company but as you can see in the upper-left-hand corner, it is dated according to American, not Israeli, standards — “7/17/14,” rather than “17/7/14.” To me this raises questions about assistance Israel received from America’s National Security Agency, especially given recent revelations about the longstanding relationship between the NSA and the Israeli military.
An Israeli military map recovered in Shujaiya reveals a possible red "revenge line"
Photo Credit:
Max Blumenthal
Click to enlarge.
The map you are looking at offers an indication that not only were individual soldiers able to devise their own “invisible” red lines, there was an explicit policy to transform areas of central Shujaiya into free-fire zones where civilians could be killed simply for being present.
In orange, in the upper center of the map, the phrase, “Tzir-Hasuf,” or “We cleared it out,” appears. All homes along this road were destroyed. In fact, most of the homes in the entire area displayed on the map were razed to the ground.
In the upper-right-hand corner of the map, inscribed in red Hebrew letters, you can see the phrase, “Hardufim.” This is code invoked over army radios to indicate soldiers killed in combat. According to Efrati, the phrase was used during Operation Cast Lead to delineate areas where Palestinian civilians could be killed. It appears this line was drawn in Shujaiya after the Golani Brigade lost 13 soldiers during clashes on the evening of the 19th — when “Hardufim” was heard blaring across Israeli army radios — before they occupied homes in Shujaiya the following morning, when the now notorious videotaped execution of 22-year-old Salem Shamaly occurred.
The labeling indicates that the “revenge line” Efrati has described today does indeed exist. My colleague, Mohammed Abeballah, filmed Shamaly’s execution and took me to the location where it occurred. To the best of my knowledge, the killing occurred in the area to the north of the “Hardufim” line.
At the eastern edge of the central area marked in orange Hebrew letters as “Soccer Field,” I met Mohammed Fathi Al Areer. His home was a virtual cave furnished with a single sofa. In Al Areer's backyard, four of his brothers were executed. One of them, Hassan Al Areer, was mentally disabled and had little idea he was about to be killed. Mohammed Al Areer said he found bullet casings next to the heads of his family members when he discovered their decomposing bodies.
Just next door was the Shamaly family, one of the hardest hit in Shujaiya. Hesham Naser Shamaly, 25, described to me what happened when five members of his family decided to stay in their home to guard the thousands of dollars of clothing stocks they planned to sell through their family business. When soldiers approached the home with weapons drawn, Shamaly said his father emerged from the home with his hands up and attempted to address them in Hebrew. “He couldn’t even finish the sentence before they shot him,” Shamaly told me. (His father survived.)
In Khuza’a just east of Khan Younis, multiple witnesses described soldiers gathering locals in the center of town as they occupied the area on July 23, then asking if anyone spoke Hebrew. When a 54-year-old man stepped forward to answer in the affirmative, they shot him in the heart.
When I interviewed the Abu Said family in the southern city of Rafah, I found more evidence of the wanton targeting of Palestinian civilians who spoke Hebrew. Nineteen-year-old Mahmoud Abu Said told me when Israeli soldiers arrived at his family’s home on the city’s eastern outskirts, they immediately inquired if anyone spoke Hebrew. When his father, Abdul Hadi Abu Said, answered in the affirmative, they shot him in the chest (he miraculously survived).
In Khuza’a, just east of Khan Younis, where the most grisly massacres of the war occurred, numerous witnesses told me about a similar incident in which Israeli soldiers gathered male residents in the center of town and asked if anyone spoke Hebrew. I was told by these multiple witnesses that when a middle-aged man stepped forward and answered that he did, he was shot in the chest and killed. These atrocities form a chilling pattern.
Back in Shujaiyah, I met members of the Shamaly family, the relatives of Salem, the 22-year-old man executed on camera. Four of his family were shot dead execution style, according to their neighbors, the Al Areers. Meanwhile, in Rafah, the soldiers who occupied the Abu Said family’s home shot two young men who had attempted to flee under the intensifying Israeli shelling, Saleh Israibi and Ala Abu Shabab, sniping them down from across the street. According to Saleh Israibi’s father, Suleiman, his 22-year-old son was shot to death while attempting to rescue Abu Shabab, whom he found bleeding in the street.
Saleh’s father, Suleiman, remarked to me, “When I build a house, the Israelis bomb it. When I try to make a living, they destroy my business. When I try to have a child, they kill him.”
In Khuza’a, locals described to me witnessing hundreds of casualties as Israeli soldiers attacked those fleeing the town during the six day siege. Among them was Adir Rujeila, a 16-year-old epileptic girl blown out of her wheelchair by a tank shell as she fell behind her family fleeing on the road leading out of town. Hani Najjar of Khuza’a escaped only to find six corpses in his home — five in his bathroom and one in his kitchen — when he returned home. They had been handcuffed, had their throats slit with the knives he used to slaughter his chickens, riddled with bullets, then set alight. The bathroom was covered in dried blood and pieces of flesh when I visited. According to journalist Jesse Rosenfeld, at least some of the men were fighters associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The execution of combatants while held captive and defenseless is no less a war crime than if they were civilians.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also here.
Russel Tribunal finds evidence of incitement to genocide, Crimes against humanity in Gaza.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/incitement-genocide-humanity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tribunal Videos are now being uploaded on to Utube. I counted 12 this morning. The following will take you to all videos.
xWQm8MO_dRI
SDNFdjwolaI
Peace.
I am clarifying that not all are being tarred with the same brush. I ask ALL Avalonian's to do the same.
http://www.alternet.org/world/israel-put-trial-war-crimes
September 26, 2014
On September 25, in Brussels, Belgium, the Russell Tribunal gathered to examine allegations of war crimes and genocidal intent by the Israeli military against residents of the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge. I was among those invited to provide testimony before a jury that included Michael Mansfield, John Dugard, Roger Waters, Ken Loach, Vandana Shiva, Richard Falk, Ahdaf Soueif, and Ronnie Kasrils. The following day, I presented testimony in the European Parliament alongside Israeli journalist David Sheen and Mohammed Omer, a journalist from the Gaza Strip. (Two other invitees from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Committee on Human Rights director Raji Sourani and filmmaker Ashraf Mashharawi, were prevented from leaving the besieged coastal enclave by the Egyptian regime.) Here are the prepared remarks I delivered on September 25 before the Russell Tribunal:
I arrived in the Gaza Strip at the onset of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire on August 14. With the cessation of violence, I was able to gain unfettered access to residents who had borne the brunt of the Israeli ground invasion in the hardest hit border areas, places like Khuza’a, Shujaiya, Beit Hanoun, Rafah, and the villages surrounding Beit Lahiya. I recorded testimonies from scores of residents of these areas, documenting war crimes committed by the Israeli armed forces. The atrocities formed an undeniable pattern, suggesting that the crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge were the product of stated military policies, or at least rules of engagement that enabled massacres, summary executions, wholesale residential destruction, the use of civilians as human shields, and abductions. I will describe these atrocities in as much detail as possible and allow the members of the jury to judge for themselves.
In the rubble of destroyed homes surrounding a dusty open field lined with destroyed homes in Shujaiya, my colleague Dan Cohen and I found a laminated map of the area left behind by invading soldiers in an ammunition box. This is the first time it has been publicly displayed. I have analyzed it with help from Eran Efrati, an Israeli combat veteran who testified earlier today on his interviews with participants in the massacre in Shujaiya. The map was produced by an Israeli company but as you can see in the upper-left-hand corner, it is dated according to American, not Israeli, standards — “7/17/14,” rather than “17/7/14.” To me this raises questions about assistance Israel received from America’s National Security Agency, especially given recent revelations about the longstanding relationship between the NSA and the Israeli military.
An Israeli military map recovered in Shujaiya reveals a possible red "revenge line"
Photo Credit:
Max Blumenthal
Click to enlarge.
The map you are looking at offers an indication that not only were individual soldiers able to devise their own “invisible” red lines, there was an explicit policy to transform areas of central Shujaiya into free-fire zones where civilians could be killed simply for being present.
In orange, in the upper center of the map, the phrase, “Tzir-Hasuf,” or “We cleared it out,” appears. All homes along this road were destroyed. In fact, most of the homes in the entire area displayed on the map were razed to the ground.
In the upper-right-hand corner of the map, inscribed in red Hebrew letters, you can see the phrase, “Hardufim.” This is code invoked over army radios to indicate soldiers killed in combat. According to Efrati, the phrase was used during Operation Cast Lead to delineate areas where Palestinian civilians could be killed. It appears this line was drawn in Shujaiya after the Golani Brigade lost 13 soldiers during clashes on the evening of the 19th — when “Hardufim” was heard blaring across Israeli army radios — before they occupied homes in Shujaiya the following morning, when the now notorious videotaped execution of 22-year-old Salem Shamaly occurred.
The labeling indicates that the “revenge line” Efrati has described today does indeed exist. My colleague, Mohammed Abeballah, filmed Shamaly’s execution and took me to the location where it occurred. To the best of my knowledge, the killing occurred in the area to the north of the “Hardufim” line.
At the eastern edge of the central area marked in orange Hebrew letters as “Soccer Field,” I met Mohammed Fathi Al Areer. His home was a virtual cave furnished with a single sofa. In Al Areer's backyard, four of his brothers were executed. One of them, Hassan Al Areer, was mentally disabled and had little idea he was about to be killed. Mohammed Al Areer said he found bullet casings next to the heads of his family members when he discovered their decomposing bodies.
Just next door was the Shamaly family, one of the hardest hit in Shujaiya. Hesham Naser Shamaly, 25, described to me what happened when five members of his family decided to stay in their home to guard the thousands of dollars of clothing stocks they planned to sell through their family business. When soldiers approached the home with weapons drawn, Shamaly said his father emerged from the home with his hands up and attempted to address them in Hebrew. “He couldn’t even finish the sentence before they shot him,” Shamaly told me. (His father survived.)
In Khuza’a just east of Khan Younis, multiple witnesses described soldiers gathering locals in the center of town as they occupied the area on July 23, then asking if anyone spoke Hebrew. When a 54-year-old man stepped forward to answer in the affirmative, they shot him in the heart.
When I interviewed the Abu Said family in the southern city of Rafah, I found more evidence of the wanton targeting of Palestinian civilians who spoke Hebrew. Nineteen-year-old Mahmoud Abu Said told me when Israeli soldiers arrived at his family’s home on the city’s eastern outskirts, they immediately inquired if anyone spoke Hebrew. When his father, Abdul Hadi Abu Said, answered in the affirmative, they shot him in the chest (he miraculously survived).
In Khuza’a, just east of Khan Younis, where the most grisly massacres of the war occurred, numerous witnesses told me about a similar incident in which Israeli soldiers gathered male residents in the center of town and asked if anyone spoke Hebrew. I was told by these multiple witnesses that when a middle-aged man stepped forward and answered that he did, he was shot in the chest and killed. These atrocities form a chilling pattern.
Back in Shujaiyah, I met members of the Shamaly family, the relatives of Salem, the 22-year-old man executed on camera. Four of his family were shot dead execution style, according to their neighbors, the Al Areers. Meanwhile, in Rafah, the soldiers who occupied the Abu Said family’s home shot two young men who had attempted to flee under the intensifying Israeli shelling, Saleh Israibi and Ala Abu Shabab, sniping them down from across the street. According to Saleh Israibi’s father, Suleiman, his 22-year-old son was shot to death while attempting to rescue Abu Shabab, whom he found bleeding in the street.
Saleh’s father, Suleiman, remarked to me, “When I build a house, the Israelis bomb it. When I try to make a living, they destroy my business. When I try to have a child, they kill him.”
In Khuza’a, locals described to me witnessing hundreds of casualties as Israeli soldiers attacked those fleeing the town during the six day siege. Among them was Adir Rujeila, a 16-year-old epileptic girl blown out of her wheelchair by a tank shell as she fell behind her family fleeing on the road leading out of town. Hani Najjar of Khuza’a escaped only to find six corpses in his home — five in his bathroom and one in his kitchen — when he returned home. They had been handcuffed, had their throats slit with the knives he used to slaughter his chickens, riddled with bullets, then set alight. The bathroom was covered in dried blood and pieces of flesh when I visited. According to journalist Jesse Rosenfeld, at least some of the men were fighters associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The execution of combatants while held captive and defenseless is no less a war crime than if they were civilians.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also here.
Russel Tribunal finds evidence of incitement to genocide, Crimes against humanity in Gaza.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/incitement-genocide-humanity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tribunal Videos are now being uploaded on to Utube. I counted 12 this morning. The following will take you to all videos.
xWQm8MO_dRI
SDNFdjwolaI
Peace.