Live Rounds & Rubber Bullets

We have always known the fabled ‘rubber bullet’ was not only (in its own right) a lethal round fired by the Israeli Army almost always at Arab Israelis or Palestinians in protest - but there have also regularly been reported incidents of live rounds being used to disperse crowds of Palestinians - both in Gaza and throughout the West Bank.

Another fatal ‘live round’ was used yesterday near the West Bank separation barrier town of Ni’lin as IDF troops fired into a crowd of protesters with a combination of rubber coated and live rounds. The result - over 15 injured, and one Palestinian boy shot dead through the head from an unmistakably LIVE round.

From Al Jazeera:

Hammad Hossam Mussa was hit by a bullet fired by Israeli soldiers in the village of Ni’lin on Tuesday, Salah Al Khawaja, a member of Ni’lin’s Committee Against the Wall, said. Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland in Jerusalem said that the Israeli military had not yet given a definitive account of the incident.

For more info on rubber bullets and their potentially lethal (and illegal) use, check out the following article from B’Tselem’s (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) Web site - with a section clipped below:

The permission to fire potentially lethal rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians to disperse “violent riots” or demonstrations has led to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. Viewing rubber-coated steel bullets as “less lethal” than live ammunition leads one to possess a light trigger-finger.

Obama in Sderot

We have a saying in the UK when someone blatantly takes advantage of a situation, performs an outlandishly hypocritical act, or acts without thought as to the broader impact of his/her actions. And that saying is ‘cheek’. I am less than pleased to report that the presumptive Democratic Nominee for President, Barack Obama has shown exceptional ‘cheek’ this week by traveling (by military helicopter mind you) alongside Tzipi Livni to the Gaza border town of Sderot to inspect the damage wrought by the Qassam rocket attacks.

So much about this bothers me, I’m really not sure where to begin. Let us first listen to his words:

I think that no country would accept missiles landing on the heads of its citizens.

I came to Sderot with a commitment to Israel’s security. Israel has the right to defend itself, and peace should not undermine its security.

…if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that.

I know he is looking for some votes - but the nerve to visit Sderot (with just a flying visit to Ramallah - where no such statements were made) and again speak out against the daily misery of border settlers who have chosen (!) to live in this location and who are not caged or bound - or worse - imprisoned by the military, shows a level of ‘cheek’ here-to-fore unimaginable.

Let us not forget that Obama was the one Presidential hopeful strong enough to speak out against the violence and misery perpetrated on the Palestinian people. Where is that leader now? Are we to assume he will return once elected?

A very dangerous game continues to unfold…can votes possibly be worth this?

The West & Iran (Palestine in the Middle)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown took his turn in the Knesset this week – and used the opportunity for a little saber rattling toward Iran and (cringingly) more of the ongoing ‘love in’ between Israel and the West.

As mentioned in recent posts, the West vs. Iran scenario plays itself out in a myriad of ways, but perhaps the most devastating is the ‘proxy’ cold war being waged in Israel itself – with the Palestinians being used as the global ‘punching gloves’. On one side we have Iran and Syria (whose indirect support for Hamas in Gaza is well documented).

In the other corner - the West (via Jordan) supporting the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. The two dominant factions of Palestinian authority are thus pitted against each other – both made weak by the chess match being played out beyond their borders. The similarities to 1980’s Afghanistan and 1960’s Vietnam could not be more clear. The West in a famished desire to engage another enemy has locked onto the perceived threat of Iran & Syria – and in so doing have cultivated discord between the Palestinians – a rift that serves the greater interst of war ‘by other means’.

The result: nothing but devastation for the Palestinians, their national identity and worse, their political unity. With Israel’s ongoing attempts to demean any authority the PA have in the West Bank (with still regular incursions, roadblocks and veritable martial law throughout most towns), the PA appears weak to the average Palestinian – further driving them to more radical religious causes taken up by the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Iran and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vain and dangerous attempt to perhaps resurrect the ghost of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser as ‘Protector of the Middle East’ has taken the bait – and with sentiments toward another military regime change unpopular among citizens of the US and Europe, the ‘proxy war’ continues.

The cycle is almost so predictable it is perverse. And ultimately it is a game with no winners.

Visit Palestine

I have alluded to a trip I took to the West Bank in April on this site several times in the past. What I am realizing is just how difficult it is for people to understand the realities of what is occurring in the Occupied Territories without actually visiting, meeting the people, and experiencing the occupation first-hand.

Many people are either too frightened by Western media reports or fearful of Palestinians in general to contemplate a visit to Palestine. Many people who do say they will go - often dismiss a visit with the comment “I’ll go when things settle down”. Time to wake up and realize things will never settle down without outsiders getting a view into life in the Occupied Territories. A struggle must be witnessed to truly be understood - and I cannot recommend a better way to learn about Palestine than to visit - go to the West Bank, Hebron, Jericho, and even Nablus. Take a digital camera, a video recorder, a sound recorder, a notebook and a pen.

http://www.vimeo.com/vimeo.com/920453

A discussion on the Occupation in Hebron with Abu Hassan of Alternative Tours

If you’re perplexed on the details - on how to get into the West Bank or how to plan a visit - I would like to recommend a tour guide who took excellent care of me and my fellow travelers in Hebron and throughout the West Bank. For more information, please visit Alternative Tours and experience Abu Hassan’s amazing tours. I guarantee you will return more enlightened, more intelligent, and more attuned to the way our world is working.

Bear witness. It is important.

More from Occupation 101

I have blogged about this in the past, but have recently come across more online clips of the fantastic film, Occupation 101, an urgent introduction to the Israel-Palestine conflict that many people need to see. The following clip is taken from the segment on Gaza - and the true reality on the ground:

For more information, and to find out how to see the film in its entirety, please visit Occupation 101 online.

10% of Palestinian Complaints Acted Upon

Today’s Jerusalem Post cites a study published on Tuesday by Yesh Din-Volunteers for Human Rights stating that on average, only 10% of complaints raised by Palestinians (primarily related to violent attacks and abuse from Israeli settlers) are acted upon by the government.

Not surprising news as settler violence seems to be increasing - especially in areas of the West Bank like Hebron. Also mentioned in the article is a tidy way of defending the lack of investigation into Palestinian abuse - voiced by Orit Struck, a spokeswoman for the Hebron Jewish community:

The true interpretation of the report is that Palestinians and left-wing activists file a large number of false claims.  It has been shown that even when the indictments do make it to court, there is often not enough evidence for convictions.

False claims? Perhaps Ms. Struck would like to read the latest findings from the Alternative Information Center and Human Rights Watch on the increasing incidents of settler violence and abuse against Palestinians in the West Bank.

No doubt she may find a few names she recognizes…

Racism on the Rise

No surprise given the fundamentally racist tenets of Israel’s Zionist founding, but for those left unconvinced, an independent civil rights group has recently released its findings that racist incidents against Arab in Israel has risen some 26% in the past year. According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel:

Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy. We are a society under supervision under a democratic regime whose institutions are being undermined and which confers a different status to residents in the center of the country and in the periphery.

A few other key takeaways from the study to keep in mind:

• The number of Jews expressing feelings of hatred toward Arabs has doubled.
• Only half the public believes that Jews and Arabs must have full equal rights.
• Among Jewish respondents, 55 percent support the idea that the state should encourage Arab emigration from Israel and 78 percent oppose the inclusion of Arab political parties in the government.

The report also goes on to detail the daily racial profiling and regular abuse that is the norm in Israeli institutions and society such as the ‘routine’ ridicule leveled on Arab families at Ben Gurion airport.

Arabic angrily scratched out in a urinal sign at Ben Gurion airport.

Having travelled through the airport on several occasions in the past year, the filthy treatment of Arabs by airport staff and security is truly unbelievable. During one ‘routine’ check through an Arab family’s baggage, I witnessed a security official ripping through and breaking fine china, chocolates and gifts (undoubtedly valuable to the owners) while a mother stood by and wept.

In any Western country in the world, this ongoing, methodical racism would not be tolerated. Worse, we are regualrly subjected to scenes of human rights violations in Zimbabwe, Tibet, and Indonesia and government officials are outraged - demanding sanctions, regime changes, and even invasions.

The rules need to apply universally - and one of the greatest abusers of human rights must be called to task.

Is an Ethnic State Democratic?

We have debated and - in many cases celebrated - the founding of a Jewish State as a safe haven and cultural and geographic center of the Jewish diaspora and people. Lost in these emotions and post-War sentiments is an understanding of what an ethnically-homogenized State involves - and how dreadfully undemocratic this concept is.

I encourage you to check out an excellent article on today’s Alternative Information Center dealing with the Right of Return of Palestinians to Israel. Quoting some recent comments by Omar Barghouti that I believe sum up the absolute danger of an ethnically singular “democratic” State:

In that perspective, one has to unequivocally reject the very idea (and existence) of a Jewish state, whatever will be its borders. For a Jewish state (in the demographic sense of the concept) necessarily implies the drive for exclusion and expulsion. Any ethnic (or confessional) state considers the non-dominant ethnicity as a threat, and aspires to its disappearance through more or less violent means.

As former Yugoslavia and Rwanda have tragically shown, ethnic states are always both the cause and the result of mass-expulsions and massacres, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1947-1949 is one among many examples of that historical phenomenon.

Anyone denying an ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestine took place on a mass scale following the founding of the State of Israel - and continues to this day in subtle but recognizable ways - needs to do two things: 1) Visit Palestine and see the ethnic cleansing taking place in a thousand ways and in a thousand places, 2) Read Dr. Ilan Pappe’s exceptional treatise, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

Israel cannot assert its position as a Democratic and Ethnic State - the two concepts are simply and ultimately gross contradictions.

Will Israel Attack Iran?

While most of the news focuses on the U.S. and specifically, the new President’s strategy toward Iran, few people realize that the most direct threat to Western-Iranian instability comes not for America, but from Israel - who has been planning an attack for years. Today’s Ha’aretz even mentions this disturbing source:

A top Pentagon official was quoted in the report as saying there is an “increasing likelihood” that Israel will carry out an attack, leaving Washington concerned that Iran would strike both the United States and Israel in retaliation.

For a good deal of background on Israel’s role in this mess, as well as the State’s completely belligerent policies toward Iran and subsequent lack of concern of the knock-on effects to the rest of the Western world, I recommend Jonathan Cook’s excellent essay Israel and the Clash if Civilisations. In this well written and persuasive piece, Cook points out that Israel’s only goal is to be the sole superpower of the Middle East - and any threat to that from ‘upstart’ nations like Iran must be countered cruelly and swiftly.

One of our favourite pundits breaking through the fog around Israel, Norman Finklestein, has some choice words on the escalating situation:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4799201585792360038

Stay tuned - and keep checking out the alternative media to keep on top of this…