Israel's Latest crime is hideous, and it is a shame for the international community to remain silent

PCHR Condemns Israeli Attack on Gaza Freedom Flotilla

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the crime perpetrated by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) earlier this morning, 31 May 2010, when Israeli Naval Forces attacked the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in international waters as it was sailing towards the Gaza Strip. IOF used excessive and lethal force in its attack on the ships, which left dozens of international civilian solidarity activists who were on board dead or injured.

Today's crime is hideous, and it is a shame for the international community to remain silent while IOF commits systematic war crimes against civilians.

PCHR believes that Israel would not continue to commit crimes and attacks against civilians, including the crime committed today against the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" and those international solidarity activists aboard, if the international community did not remain silent, thereby failing to fulfill its obligations and duties to enforce international law and provide protection for civilians.

Today's attack is characteristic of a long series of war crimes and grave violations carried out by IOF against civilians, including the latest Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip, in addition to the imposition of collective punishment measures against civilians through the ongoing siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Unfortunately and regrettably, the world has remained motionless and there has been no intervention to stop such crimes or prosecute the perpetrators.

Rather, attempts have been ongoing to foil the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict (i.e. the Goldstone Report), which provided for the first time practical mechanisms to prosecute Israeli war crimes; such attempts seek to undermine justice and preclude the prosecution of Israeli war criminals, thereby offering them impunity.

Members of the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, are required to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians and immediately intervene to stop crimes perpetrated against civilians.

The ongoing silence of the international community is effectively an open invitation for IOF to continue to challenge international law, to act as a state above the law, and to continue to commit crimes against civilians.

It is time now to put an end to offering impunity to those who commit crimes of the nature outlined above. The impunity with which these criminals operate results from a policy held by the influential member states of the United Nations of favoring political interests and considerations at the expense of international law and civilians, and it comes with the heavy price of sacrificing human rights, international law, and the rule of law.

Today's crime reconfirms the duplicity of Israel's claims regarding the end of its military control of the Gaza Strip, and further proves that the Gaza Strip will remain an occupied territory so long as the Israeli military control of the air, sea and land is ongoing.

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Israeli troops brutally attack cameraman filming raid

Israeli forces fire a gas canister at Bil'in villagers.

Israeli soldiers brutally attack a number of peace activists, who were documenting an overnight raid on a Palestinian house in the West Bank town of Bil'in.

The incident happened in the early hours of Thursday as 25 Israeli soldiers, with their faces painted black, were raiding the house of Mohammad Abu Rahma -- a member of the village's Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements.

A number of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists were present at the scene with one of them filming the raid, which saw the Israeli soldiers breaking into the house, beating Rahma and dragging him out all the way to the separation wall where they dumped him into one of the vehicles that were waiting for them.

During the course of the raid, the Israeli soldiers attacked the ISM members, brutally beat two of the peace activists and broke their camera. One of those battered was cameraman Haitham Khatib who lives in the village, International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) reported.

Israeli soldiers conduct overnight raids on Palestinian houses in the West Bank on a routine basis. Five days ago they had taken Rahma's 14-year-old son Nashmi Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Rahma.

For the past five years, Bil'in residents have been continuously protesting against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands under the excuse of constructing the separation wall, also known as the Apartheid Wall.

In another incident, the Israeli military kidnapped four Palestinian civilians in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on Thursday morning.

Local sources reported that troops stormed a number of homes in the city and took the four men by force.

The military announced that the men were taken to military detention camps for questioning and that all four were on the army's Wanted List.

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Is This The Start for Israeli police to beat down Christians in Jerusalem

Jerusalem Christian beaten by the Israeli Police in preparation for the Pope's visit

Israeli police on Tuesday evening, severely beaten Samer Andrea Karkar, a Palestinian Christian living in the Old City on the Latin Patriarchate street where he owns an Italian Restaurant and supermarket, the same street, which will host His Holiness on his visit to the Patriarchate in occupied Jerusalem.Prior to the expected visit the Israeli police prevented residents from entering the street due to repairs and maintenance. When Samer tried to persuade the Israeli force to allow his sister and her children to enter to pass through to their home in the same street since the children were asleep, the soldiers ordered him to leave and one policeman told him that he did not want to see him in any street, and then beaten him severely and threw him on the ground where other soldiers took their part too and then they took him to the police station despite the fact that his store was still open and un-manned.

The lawyer Assad Mazzawi who witnessed the incident, immediately went to the police headquarters, but was not allowed in. After the investigation Samer was released and he went to Hadassah Hospital for the necessary medical check up.

Jerusalem Christians question the feasibility of the Pope's visit, who is the highest religious authority among the Christian world. At the most difficult times in which Christians lives are subject to religious persecution and the daily chapter of racist policies from the authorities of the occupation which is targeting their residency in the city and was also experienced lately during Saturday Holy Fire celebrations where they were prevented from exercising their religious rights in the most sacred days, and subjected to beatings and ill-treatment.

The residents showed deep dissatisfaction of the attitudes of their religious leaders who are being idle towards attacks against Christians, which is resulting in keeping a very small Christian community of several thousand in the city due to emigration.

It should be noted that the Israeli police informed local residents and shopkeepers

that these areas within the city will be closed to residents and visitors and all the shops

to close their doors during the visit for reasons of "security" and for the residents to remain in their homes.

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Egyptian media: Israel bombed Iranian arms ship allegedly headed for Gaza

According to a report in the Egyptian newspaper El-Aosboa on Sunday, a recent attack on an Iranian ship off the coast of Sudan was carried out by the Israeli navy, with possible U.S. involvement.

Iranian ship detained by Cyprian authorities in February (file photo)

After January's Israeli invasion of Gaza, there have been several incidents of Israeli attacks on what they claimed were arms shipments from Iran bound for Gaza. No Palestinian group has ever claimed a connection with Iran, and the homemade shells fired by Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza are mainly made of homemade materials, lacking any sophistication that would imply Iranian involvement.

In January, an aerial bombardment of a convoy of trucks in Sudan was claimed to be an Israeli airforce attack on an Iranian arms shipment, but neither side confirmed this claim.

In February, the government of Cyprus detained a ship that they claimed was headed for Gaza with anti-tank and anti-mortar weapons.

Neither the U.S. Nor Israel have issued any statement regarding Sunday's attack. However, Israeli politicians in the new administration have stepped up rhetoric against Iran, at the same time that the new administration in Washinton has called for direct talks.

Whether or not Iran has been trying to get weapons into Gaza is a matter of much speculation among political analysts in the region. What is clear on the ground, however, is that if Iran has smuggled weapons to Gaza, the Palestinian resistance has not used them, as the sporadic homemade shelling that they engage in continues to use the crude, homemade weaponry that lacks any aiming capability or consistency.

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Settlers assault pregnant woman with sticks and stones,

Roqaya al-Hazalin, 23

I am eight months’ pregnant. On Friday, 10 April, I took my sheep to graze in an area southwest of our village, not far from the cattle farm of the Ma’on settlement. I was with other women from the village, among them Amneh Sallem ‘Eid al-Hazalin and Khadrah Suliman al-Hazalin, and a group of children under the age of 15, among them Tareq Sallem ‘Eid al-Hazalin, 13, Musa Suliman al-Hazalin, 12, and ‘Omar Suliman al-Hazalin, 10.

Around 8:00 A.M., we arrived to land owned by farmers from Yatta. We grazed the sheep and gathered plants we use for food. We were more than five hundred meters from the Ma'on settlement. We didn’t go close to the settlement. Around 9:00 A.M., we saw four settlers coming toward us from the settlement. Two of them went down into the wadi [valley] and headed to another group of shepherds, and two of them, who were masked, approached us.

The two who came toward us appeared to be young. They were holding sticks and had pistols on their hips. Amneh was standing close to me, and Khadrah was relatively far from us. When the settlers got to about thirty meters from us, they shouted at us in Hebrew. Their appearance frightened us, and we began to run away. The settlers chased us, and continued to shout at us as we ran.

Being pregnant, I couldn’t run fast. After about one hundred meters, the settlers caught me. One of them hit me in my right arm and left leg with his stick. The other settler threw a stone at me, which hit me in the left leg. Then one of them pushed me, and I fell onto some thorns. My arm and leg hurt a lot. When I fell, the two settlers left me and ran toward the farmers and other shepherds. I remained there, crying. I was in terrible pain.

After a few minutes, Amneh and Khadrah ran over to me and helped me get up. They lifted me up with the help of the children and laid me on the donkey that we had brought with us, and returned me to the village. I was in such great pain that I thought my arm has been broken. I was still crying when we reached the village. An Israeli ambulance came and the medical team gave me first-aid. Then the Israeli police and two army jeeps of the Civil Administration arrived. I told them what happened. Around 11:00 A.M., a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance came and took me to ‘Aliyah Government Hospital, in Hebron.

At the hospital, they examined me and X-rayed me. They found that my arm was not broken. I was very lucky, and the fetus was not harmed. I remained in the hospital for two or three hours, and then went home. My arm swelled up and I am still in pain, a week after the incident.
A Palestinian policeman at the hospital took my complaint. I did not go to the Israeli police because I don’t feel well enough, and because I need somebody to accompany me to Kiryat Arba to do that.

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Jewish settler terrorists rampage at Arab village, casualties reported

From Khalid Amayreh in al-Khalil

Religious Jewish terrorists on Wednesday attacked a small Arab village north of al-Khalil (Hebron), shooting randomly on civilians and vandalizing homes and businesses.Eyewitnesses said as many as a hundred settler terrorists descended on the small village of Safa, 10 kilometers northwest of al-Khalil, with the purpose of carrying out a pogrom against local inhabitants.

The terrorists were escorted by several Israeli army soldiers who reportedly made no effort to stop the terrorists who were shouting “death to the Arabs.”

The Palestinians, fearing for their lives, hurled stones at the rampaging settlers to prevent them from setting fire to Palestinian property, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire at the Palestinians.

At least 28 people were reportedly wounded with live ammunition, including a boy who was shot in the chest.

Medical sources said Thaer Nasser Adi, 17, was in serious but stable condition at the Ahli hospital in al-Khalil.

The mayor of the nearby town of Beit Ummar, Nasri Sabarna, described the settler rampage as “an unprovoked criminal act against innocent and peaceable people.”

Sabarna said the settlers wanted to terrorize the Palestinian villagers in order to take over their land and property.

He accused the right-wing Israeli government of giving Jewish terrorists a green light to attack Palestinians and vandalize their property.

“The present government is a government of settlers, by the settlers, for the settlers. I believe there is a full coordination between the settlers and the army.”

Muhammed, a local villager, called the settlers “savages and Nazis.”

“These people go to their religious Talmudic schools in the morning, and in the afternoon they come here to attack us, terrorize our women and children and sabotage our property. What kind of religion are they following?”

Muhammed called on the international community to provide protection against “these barbarians who want to kill us and expel us from our land.”

He lashed out at the Israeli army for its “connivance and collusion” with the settlers, saying that the army and the settlers were “two sides of the same coin.”

Al-Khalil governor Hussein al Araj, who arrived at the village soon after the disturbances, accused the Israeli army of failing to protect Palestinians from the settlers.

“I believe the settlers wouldn’t dare attack the village without at least a tacit approval from the Israeli army.”

Al-Araj held the Israeli army fully responsible for this “pogrom,” saying that Palestinians in the occupied territories needed international protection.

He added that settler attacks and terror would continue as long as “these criminal squatters remain here.”

The small settlement outpost, known as Beit Ayn, is home to extremist settlers who are indoctrinated in Jewish supremacy.

A few years ago, some of the settlers from Beit Ayn were caught implanting a large explosive charge at a Palestinian school near Jerusalem.

The explosion would have killed and injured dozens of Palestinian children.

Last week, a settler was killed, ostensibly in retaliation for the murder of Palestinians by settler terrorists.

Normally, the Israeli justice system deals extremely lightly with settlers who murder Palestinians.

During the al-Aqsa intifada, the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish terrorists killed thousands of Palestinians, the vast majority of whom innocent civilians, to suppress Palestinian aspirations for freedom from decades of the Nazi-like Israeli military occupation.

According to an Israeli human rights organization, only a handful of cases of murder were investigated.

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American citizen critically injured after being shot in the head by Israeli forces in Ni’lin

International Solidarity Movement

Tristan Anderson March 13, 2009 Updated Press Release follows

For Immediate Release

13th Friday 2009, Ni’lin Village: An American citizen has been critically injured in the village of Ni’lin after Israeli forces shot him in the head with a tear-gas canister.

Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, has been taken to Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious and has been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister. He is currently being operated on.

Tristan was shot by the new tear-gas canisters that can be shot up to 500m. I ran over as I saw someone had been shot, while the Israeli forces continued to fire tear-gas at us. When an ambulance came, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance through the checkpoint just outside the village. After 5 minutes of arguing with the soldiers, the ambulance passed.
– Teah Lunqvist (Sweden) - International Solidarity Movement

The Israeli army began using to use a high velocity tear gas canister in December 2008. The black canister, labeled in Hebrew as "40mm bullet special/long range," can shoot over 400 meters. The gas canister does not make a noise when fired or emit a smoke tail. A combination of the canister’s high velocity and silence is extremely dangerous and has caused numerous injuries, including a Palestinian male whose leg was broken in January 2009.

Please Contact:
Adam Taylor (English), ISM Media Office +972 8503948
Sasha Solanas (English), ISM Media Office - +972 549032981
Woody Berch (English), at Tel Hashomer hospital +972 548053082

Tristan Anderson

Tristan Anderson was shot as Israeli forces attacked a demonstration against the construction of the annexation wall through the village of Ni’lin’s land. Another resident from Ni’lin was shot in the leg with live ammunition.

Four Ni’lin residents have been killed during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land.

Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29th July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital.

Residents in the village of Ni’lin have been demonstrating against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. Ni’lin will lose approximately 2500 dunums of agricultural land when the construction of the Wall is completed. Ni’lin was 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, currently is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after the construction of the Wall.

Updates:
Orly Levi, a spokeswoman at the Tel Hashomer hospital, tells Ha’aretz:

He’s in critical condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator and undergoing imaging tests," She described Anderson’s condition as life-threatening.

Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack told Ynet:

… the firing incident took place inside the village and not next to the fence. There were clashes in the earlier hours, but he wasn’t part of them. He didn’t throw stones and wasn’t standing next to the stone throwers.

There was really no reason to fire at them. The Dutch girl standing next to him was not hurt. It only injured him, like a bullet.

Media Links:

• Friend says activist’s life is ’somewhat at risk’ in Israel – KPIX
• Ex-Cal tree-sitter hurt in West Bank protest - San Fransisco Chronicle
• American Injured in Clash at Israeli Barrier – New York Times
• U.S. citizen critically hurt at West Bank protest – Ha’aretz
• US national badly hurt in anti-fence protest – Ynet
• American hurt in West Bank barrier demo – AFP
• American badly hurt in clash with Israeli military – AP
• US demonstrator critically injured at West Bank protest – Jerusalem Post
• US activist critically injured by Israeli troops during protest in Ni’lin village – IMEMC

Updated on March 14, 2009

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Eight Wounded in Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza

Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported Thursday night that eight Palestinians were wounded in two separate Israeli airstrikes that targeted the northern and eastern parts of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Moawiya Hassanen, head of the Emergency Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, reported that three residents were moved to Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, suffering moderate injuries.

The three were wounded after the Israeli air force shelled Al Tuffah area, east of Gaza city.

Also, five more Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted Jabalia, in the Zamo area, northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Hassanen said that the five residents suffered mild-to-moderate wounds, and are currently receiving treatment in Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoun hospitals.

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The most moral army in the world kills a terrorist!!!

الجيش الأكثر امسانية في العالم يقتل ارهابياً!!!ً

Israel finally killed # 1 HAMAS leader in GAZA!!!What a great country & a strong ARMY???

Please forward to all…in order to know who dare to???

واخيرا ينجح الاحتلال الاسرائيلي بقتل مطلق الصواريخ في غزة




أنشرها لكل من تعرف دعها تصل الى اقاصي الارض لكي يعرفوا معنا الارهاب الحقيقي .

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Kawther Salam - Jewish Terrorist attacks Church of the Holy Sepulcher

By Kawther Salam

In the night of Wednesday, October 29, an extremist orthodox Jew - chosen by God, invaded the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the old city of Jerusalem. The Jewish terrorist tried to harm three monks who were worshiping God in the church. The monks saw the terrorist Jew and escaped from his attack, but then the terrorist left the Church and went on to vandalize several Palestinian shops nearby the Church. He broke many wooden crosses before the Palestinians shop owners called the Israeli Police.

The Palestinian eyewitnesses said that personnel from the Israeli border Police present near the Church saw the terrorist when he entered the Church and also when he vandalized the Palestinian shops nearby, but they did nothing to stop his criminal actions.

The Israeli police, who arrived to protect the extremist Jew, forced the Palestinian shop owners who gathered after the terrorist attack of the Jew to leave the area. The police used force against the Palestinians, because, according to them, their presence would create confrontation with the orthodox
Jews.

The extremist Jewish attack against the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was not the first one and it will not be the last one. On October 23, 2007, Jewish orthodox terrorists burnt the Baptist Church on Narkis Street in a wealthy Jerusalem neighborhood. The Jewish terrorists set the fire in the building; the floor was severely burnt and many chairs were destroyed, but luckily no one was in the building at the time. This neighborhood belonged to Palestinians before 1967 and was stolen wholesale by the Jewish terrorist and criminal invaders from USA, Europe and elsewhere.

Several years ago, a fire bomb was thrown by Jewish terrorists into the bookstore of the Baptist Church. In 1982, the same Church was burned down by a group of Jewish terrorists who called themselves “Nationalist group of Jews”. The Church was rehabilitated after this terror action.

On 5 March 2006, an orthodox Jewish man and two extremist Jewish women attacked the Church of Nazareth in the north of Israel. They threw firecrackers inside the Church.

The pitiable and deluded Jewish terrorists believe that Christians and Muslims should not have a presence in Jerusalem, because supposedly God gave it only to them. Jerusalem should be open to the adherents of the three Abrahamic religions with the only proviso that Jerusalem should be off-limits to the extremists of these three religions. And the occupying Jews have shown their inability to assume responsibility for Jerusalem, a heritage which belongs to all humanity.

Since it is the Jews who are the only ones who resort to terrorism and all sort of criminality to assert their supposed “chooseness” and “right” to Jerusalem, it is entirely possible that God never gave or even promised them anything at all, and that it is only a matter of time before they are forced by this same God who abandoned them, to leave not only Jerusalem, but all my country, for good.

Kawther Salam is a Palestinian journalist. She had a career of over 20 years working for various newspapers and TV stations in Palestine. She forced to live in the Exile in Vienna since 2002.

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Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinian at Huwwara checkpoint

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Late Monday evening, Israeli forces shot and wounded a 20-year old Palestinian man who attempted to cross the Huwwara checkpoint, which is one of the largest checkpoints maintained by the Israeli army in the West Bank. Israeli forces controlling the checkpoint had kept it closed for two hours straight in the midst of rush hour, with hundreds of Palestinians pressed up to the Wall, hoping to get home past the checkpoint.

Palestinians waiting at Huwwara checkpoint

According to local sources, Adham Shihadeh, 20, began walking through the crossing, and did not stop when Israeli soldiers shouted at him. The soldiers then began firing live rounds at the young man, injuring him in the foot. He was taken by car to Rafidia government hospital in Nablus, where medical personnel described his injuries as 'light to medium'.

Shihadeh had apparently become frustrated with the daily hours-long wait at the checkpoint, which is located deep in the middle of Palestinian territory, far from the Israeli state. In addition, on Monday afternoon, Israeli authorities arbitrarily closed the checkpoint for no apparent reason.

The arbitrary closures of checkpoints is a common occurrence as well – not just at the Huwwara checkpoint, but at all of the 700 Israeli checkpoints that cut up the Palestinian territory known as the 'West Bank' into hundreds of separated enclaves under complete Israeli military control.

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5,389 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers over 8 years of intifadah

Ramallah – Ma’an – In the eight years since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifadah Israel has destroyed Palestine’s infrastructure and killed 5,389 Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Marking eight years since the start of the second intifadah local Palestinian organizations Al-Haq for Legal and Human Rights, and the Health Action Committee held a press conference in Ramallah.

During the press conference the organizations outlined all that had been “achieved” since the second “popular uprising” in Palestine.

Of those killed by Israeli forces, they said, 194 were women and 995 children. During the same time 135 Palestinian patients died at one of the 630 military checkpoints throughout the areas.

The group said 32,270 Palestinians were injured over the last eight years, and 3,530 of those injured have suffered permanent handicaps, and at least 220 Palestinians have died waiting for treatment abroad.

General Director of the Health Action committee Shatha Au’da said that Israel had destroyed entire infrastructures in Palestinian lands, from road networks, to health, government and security on account of occupation and siege policies. Palestinian lands and lives have been cut up by road-blocks, concrete walls, settlements and discriminatory policies.

Settlements have expanded 30% since the Annapolis conference alone, and since 2000 7,934 Palestinian homes have been demolished. Israelis have collected 66million Shekels in fines from Palestinians living in East Jerusalem since 2006, and in that city alone 27 homes are currently threatened with demolition.

There have been 450 kilometers of separation fence build across the land, and 45% of West Bank lands are not accessible to Palestinians.

According to Sha’wan Jabareen, general director of Al-Haq, the Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley area have become completely isolated from the rest of the Palestinian areas.

Jabareen accused the international community of failure in pressuring Israel to halt settlement construction, as well as all other crimes against the Palestinian people, and he expressed concern over the recent Europe-Israel partnership agreement.

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Survivor of 67' Israeli Attack on USS Liberty Speaks about Family

WHY SHOULD MY FAMILY STILL LOVE ME?

I write this testimony not just about me but about my shipmates as well, what they have told me about themselves.

I look in the mirror and I am them.

How did we get here together with our lives so intertwined when we all went our different ways, not to see each other for as much as 20 years or more and yet we are the same? I have walked in your shoes, brothers.

I was a 20-year old sailor, loving life, enjoying seeing the world. I had great shipmates, family and friends. I was just an all around red-blooded American young man. At 2:00 on June 8, 1967 my life changed forever.

My ship, the USS LIBERTY, was deliberately and savagely attacked by our so called ally, Israel, in an attack that lasted about as long as the attack on Pearl Harbor. In this sneak attack our attackers knew exactly who they were attacking. They have admitted as much on film for all to see. The Israelis attacked their American friends anyway, murdering 34 brave, young sailors and marines and wounding 174 others. In this vicious attack they used rockets, canons, napalm, 50 caliber armor piercing bullets, and torpedoes against our helpless ship. Our ship was in international waters doing what our government had ordered us to do. We were no threat to anyone, especially Israel.

Our government recalled the lifesaving rescue aircraft sent to our aid from the USS SARATOGA on orders from the chain of command from Admiral John McCain to Robert McNamara to LBJ himself. We were left out there on our own to have the Israelis do to us as they wished and they did. They shot at our life rafts to insure no survivors would be allowed, no one was to be left alive, which is in itself a war crime.

In this 2 hour attack the Government of Israel used jet aircraft, torpedo boats, and troop bearing helicopters against our ship. The helicopters left the scene just as they were getting ready to board our ship and finish us off. They left because of an incorrect message that help was on the way. What Israel left behind was a ship in distress with over 800 rocket and canon holes in her, thousands of armor piercing bullets in her skin, fire burning us up from the napalm and a 40 by 40 foot torpedo hole in her starboard side. We did not see any help from our government for about 18 hours after the attack, when help was only 15 to 20 minutes away. A disgraceful testament to the United States Government in their complicity with Israel to let them murder us all and blame it on Egypt. We put a monkey wrench into their plans. We didn’t sink as planned and we could identify our murderers.

Several days after the attack Admiral Isaac Kidd came aboard our ship to get testimony from the surviving crew. He got his testimony and we told him how barbaric our Israeli friends were to us. His stern and repulsive answer to us was to shut up and never repeat a word of this act of treason or the cover up of such by our government and the murdering Israelis.

Admiral Kidd’s order came from none other than Admiral John McCain, Jr., Senator McCain’s father. The orders were if any of us spoke a word about this attack to anyone, including our families, we would go to prison for the rest of our lives or worse and, of course, we all knew worse meant - death!

We were treated this way by our own government when we had served our country with dignity, honor, and courage. The LIBERTY crew is one of the most highly decorated crews in naval history. Our ship is second to none in battle damage.

The crew was disposed and we all went our own ways. When I got discharged off the LIBERTY on Dec 12, 1967, my tour of duty was up. I wasn’t that same 20 year old young man with the rest of his life ahead of him anymore. I felt like I was 50 years old and with no future ahead of me. I was married at the time and had a baby on the way, living day by day with the LIBERTY monster on my back. I didn’t feel sorry for myself, but I didn’t feel good about myself, either. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I went to the VA and told them my problems the best way I could. I was turned away as a ‘malcontent’. They didn’t believe what I told them concerning what had happened to me. They said I was making this story up. They had never heard about the USS LIBERTY and said Israel would never do such a thing. Once again, my government let me down.

I went deeper and deeper into the bottle. I was drunk most of the time. I was mean to my family, not just my wife, but my whole family–parents, brothers, sisters, everyone. Everything I could do destructive to myself, I did. Always chasing other women, fighting with who ever wanted a piece of me. I thought I was bullet proof. No one wanted to be around me, especially my now ex-wife, after 13 years of hell. The destructive life style stayed with me for about 20 years after the attack, still not knowing how to get out of the hell hole I had dug myself into. Then, I read an article by Master Chief Stan White, a shipmate aboard the LIBERTY, that was in the Rocky Mountain News. I almost fell over! I thought no one would dare speak about the LIBERTY. I knew I hadn’t because of the fear of God the government had put in my soul. I then found out that a few survivors got together and were talking about the injustice that had befallen us. I was relieved to be reunited with my mates and found out through another shipmate, Ron Kukal, that his life was also just like mine and he said to go back to the VA. They will help you, now. I was very reluctant to do so but I did and found a new door had opened for me. I found out I was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

How could our government betray their service men and allow Israel to get by with murder then, as they are doing to this day, by protecting them? The only explanation that makes sense is that one is just as guilty as the other. It’s disgusting and un-American.

I have been re-married now for 25 years. My wife never knew anything about the LIBERTY when I married her, but, she knows now, BOY, does she know about the LIBERTY. It has been extremely hard for her to live with me, just as it has been for all LIBERTY wives and families. We bring our nightmares upon them on a daily basis. The LIBERTY cover-up has destroyed so many good, loving, caring people. It’s heart breaking. Why do our families still love us? I don’t know but they do and they now understand how important that this piece of history be set straight in the history books, where we are nowhere to be found, not the lies Israel and our government would have you believe. We are very lucky to be alive and loved by our families.

Phillip F. Tourney, survivor

USS LIBERTY

Three time president of LIBERTY Vets. Assoc.

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Two injured in Israeli attacks on Palestinian fishermen in Gaza

See related Video Here


Bethlehem – Ma'an – Two Gazan fishermen were injured when Israeli naval vessels fired on Palestinian fishing boats on Monday.

Palestinian medical sources told Ma’an that 32-year-old Husam Sultan was hit in the head with shrapnel. His wounds were described as serious. Ninteen-year-old Muhammad Sultan was lacerated by shrapnel in various places on his body.

The Israeli navy opened fire at the fishermen off the Gaza shore near the former site of the Israeli settlement Dugeit, west of the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.

This Israeli attack is an apparent violation of the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip which went into effect on 19 June. The violation came on the first day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Another Israeli naval assault was reported earlier in the day in the day by international human rights activists accompanying Palestinian fishermen.
The Free Gaza movement reported live bullets fired near Gaza City, where five internationals were accompanying fishing boats during daily work in Gaza territorial waters. The group said the boats were "several miles offshore" when Israeli ships opened fire.


Activists from the Free Gaza boats who have remained in the Strip joined Gazan fishermen Monday morning as they launched their boats in order to monitor Israeli Naval aggressions.

There have been repeated reports of warning shots, arrests and boat shadowing by the Israeli navy patrolling Gazan waters.

Israel enforces a "Fishing Limit" that is 6 nautical miles (11.1 km) from the Gaza shore. The international waters boundary and the 1996 Oslo accords boundary both state that Gaza waters extend 20 nautical miles from the Gaza coast, and the 2002 Bertini agreement (signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority) has the boundary lying 12 nautical miles or 22.2 km from the Gaza coast. The current "Fishing Limit" has been imposed by the Israeli navy since October 2006.

The Israeli navy began limiting traffic going in or coming out if the Gaza Strip starting in the mid-1990s when the Oslo accords were signed. All traffic was halted since 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.

The Free Gaza activists will be joined by others from the International Solidarity movement in Gaza, who will record and document all instances of Israeli naval aggression and harassment.

The activists announced Monday that they would be present on any fishing boat at any time along the entire Gaza coast from Monday morning onwards. They said that they hoped the presence of internationals would deter further Israeli aggression.

The fishing industry employs some 3,000 individuals, who rely on traveling deep enough into the Mediterranean to catch sardine as they migrate from the Nile delta northwards every spring.

The Free Gaza movement has focused its efforts this year on exposing and halting what they call the illegal Israeli control of Gazan coastal waters. Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, and claims not to be an occupying force in the area, the movement attests that Gazans should have control over their own ports.

The movement successfully landed two boats in the closed Gaza port on Saturday 23 August. Israeli army and government officials had initially planned on preventing the ships from landing, but made a last minute decision to allow them to pass. The government later called the event a "one-time" deal, and promised it would not allow other ships through into Gaza.

When all but 9 of the Free Gaza activists left the Gaza port for Cyprus in Thursday 28 August, they brought with them seven Palestinians, who for the first time in years did not have to ask Israeli or Egyptian permission to leave the Strip. The Palestinian government in Gaza stamped the passports and travel documents of those leaving, who arrived in Cyprus the following day by ship.

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PCHR condemns Israeli verdict on death of Reuters photographer

Shortly after the verdict to releive the tank crew which killed Reuters photojournalist Fadil Shana'a on 16 April 2008, was delivered by an Israeli military court, the Palestine Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned the decision.

The center issued a public statement saying that the ruling opened the door for press to be the lawful targets of Israeli fire.

In a letter to Reuters from Israeli Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit, the Israeli decision was spelled out for the news agency.

“The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod," stated Mendelbilt. He continued saying that they could not "positively identify it as [either] an anti-tank missile, a mortar or a television camera.” Mendelblit also wrote that “In light of the reasonable conclusion reached by the tank crew and its superiors that the characters were hostile, and were carrying an object most likely to be a weapon, the decision to fire at the target… was sound…”

PCHR findings, however, "strongly refute" those of Mendelbilt. In fact, the organization says that what they found out "proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Israeli Forces willfully killed journalist Shana’a and the three other civilians who died alongside him."

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, Fadel Shana’a and his colleague, Wafa Abu Mezyed, a Reuters soundman, arrived at Juhor al-Din area at 17:00, an hour after an Israeli missile attack in the village had killed 9 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. The two men were wearing bullet proof vests emblazoned with the word “PRESS.”

Television footage showed the jeep, with large signs reading "Press" and "TV" with a gaping hole blown in the driver's side.

The group stated that they felt the "decision indicates that journalists can be fired on by troops simply based on an apparent suspicion concerning the filming equipment they may be carrying."

No legal action will be taken against the soldiers from the tank crew.

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Soldiers terrorize seven families in nighttime home raid

At 1:30 a.m. on 10 July 2008, Israeli soldiers pulled up by a seven-apartment building in the Hawuz district of Hebron where members of the Amro, Abu Khalaf, Husseini and Butran families live. Through a loudspeaker, soldiers called out the names of men inside and ordered them to come out. The building's owner, Samir Mohammad Amro, recognized the commander, who told him, "We need to look for weapons and we will turn this house upside down." Soldiers then threw five sound bombs into the building, causing general panic among the seven families—including twenty-six children—and ransacked the apartments, saying they were looking for weapons. They flipped couches and chairs over and slashed the cushions with knives (but not in such a way that the gashes would have revealed hidden weapons.) After pulling framed verses from the Quran off the walls in all of the apartments, soldiers stepped on them, smashing the glass. The soldiers also brought dogs and produced a machine that dug through the sewers.

The military forced all the men in the building to stand outside and demanded they strip to their underwear, refusing to allow family members to bring blankets to cover the men. One man from the building told CPTers that the soldier pointing his rifle at him kept dropping off to sleep and he was afraid the soldier would accidentally pull the trigger. Soldiers beat one man, Ashraf Abu Khalef—who was already suffering from neck problems—into unconsciousness. When they left at 4:30 a.m., they took Abu Khalef into custody on a stretcher. Soldiers also stole Euros, Shekels and Jordanian Dinar from the families in an amount totaling about $1,000, as well as most of the families' cellphones and computers.

One family member was visiting from Germany with her children. The mother told CPTers Tarek Abuata, Kathleen Kern and visitor John Mark Stratford that her fifteen and sixteen-year-old daughters had said, "We've only seen this in the movies." One boy repeatedly soiled himself out of fear.

Despite the fact that almost no one among the families had slept that night, they served coffee, tea and juice to the CPTers, Stratford and an Italian woman who came to document the invasion. The assembled people generally agreed they were still in shock—and that that was why they could behave calmly and crack jokes. Some of the discussion turned to places Palestinians could go in the world where they would not have to live with terrors such as midnight home invasions. "Find countries we can live in and we will go," one man said, but then he added, "If we go to the moon, Israeli soldiers will follow us with their guns.


Photos of the wreckage are available at
http://cpt.org/gallery/08-07-10-Home-invasion-in-Hawuz

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15 Palestinians Wounded in an Israeli Attack on a Peaceful Demonstration

by Laila Ewaiwi

At least 15 Palestinian civilians were wounded when Israeli troops attacked a peaceful protest organized by the villagers of Na'aleen near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday afternoon

Medical sources said that the injuries sustained by the demonstrators ranged between light to moderate. The local Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements organized Tuesday's demonstration in protest of Israel's decision to build the Wall on the villagers' lands. The demonstration which included Israeli and international peace activists set off from the center of the village towards the site where the Israeli bulldozers operate to build the illegal Israeli Wall. The Israeli troops attacked the unarmed and peaceful demonstration using tear gas, rubber –coated – steel bullets to injure at least 15 of the demonstrators. Local sources added that several homes in the village sustained damage when soldiers followed the protesters into the village and opened fire.

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