On 1 September, Israeli soldiers assaulted and silenced a 68-year-old farmer, Khairi Hanoun, for peacefully, even if noisily, protesting against the theft of his land by the Israeli Occupation. This knee-on-neck operation was caught on video and, while the BBC reported the Israeli Army claim that Hanoun had initiated the violence, saying the footage was “only partial, slanted, and does not reflect the rioting and violence toward the army forces that preceded the arrest”, other videos show that not to be the case. Hanoun is seen being pursued by Israeli soldiers, with one catching up with him and wrestling him to the ground. Israeli forces have already seized nearly 80 hectares of land belonging to the villages of Shufa and Ijbara in order to develop an industrial zone, in violation of international law. Israel is building roads to connect the zone with settlements, as well as preventing farmers from gaining access to their land. The villagers protest, in the hope that some notice might be taken to bring pressure upon Israel to cease its land-grabbing violations. While such legitimate protest is only natural, Israel and its news-media allies seek to dismiss it as ‘violent rioting’.
By the end of August, Israeli Gaza ceasefire violations had already totalled 920 for the year. Since then, up to and including 14 September, Israel has committed 32 more violations, compared with the entire Palestinian year’s total of 71. Between 27 August and 14 September, there were 192 raids by the Israeli Army, including home invasions, with eight destroyed (one partially) and three tent dwellings seized. Many Israeli Occupation acts of violence took place, with a racist arson attack by Israeli settlers and one resident being beaten up during an Israeli Army home invasion. On 7 September, the Israeli Occupation forced the owners of five business to destroy their livelihoods, and settlers uprooted and took away 45 olive trees. On 9 September, the Israeli Army destroyed 22 Palestinian olive trees and, on 12 September, settlers set fire to more olive trees. On 13 September, the Israeli Army took prisoner and interrogated an 80-year-old man and, on 14 September a 16-year-old youth was wounded during an Israeli Army home invasion.
Wilful and contemptuous inhumanity
Israel has moved a chemical plant, closed down by court orderbecause of its toxic emissions, from Netanya in Israel to across the Green Line, into Occupied Palestine. The privately-owned Geshuri Company‘s plant manufactures pesticides and fertilisers, and it was subject to the Israeli Court order, due to complaints from residents. In militarily-Occupied Palestine, where Palestinian lives matter little to Israel, the company can continue its poisonous activity, free from Israel’s strict domestic environmental laws. The land, specifically seized for the purpose, accommodates not one, but twelve Israeli chemical factories in an industrial zone, between Tulkarem and Israel, called Nitzanei Shalom. Emissions and chemical waste are ruining Palestinian agricultural land and polluting both the air and ground water. Locally, there is an increase in respiratory diseases, eye infections and cancer. The Geshuri factory operations are so toxic that, when the wind blows in the direction of Israel, the plant ceases operations. Dr Abed Darak of the Tulkarem Ministry of Health, has warned that the city has the highest cancer and leukaemia rate in the West Bank.
UN deplores Israeli aggravation of West Bank pandemic risk
A 10 September report from the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that: “The period from March to August 2020 saw the demolition or confiscation of 389 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, on average, 65 per month, the highest average destruction rate in four years.” OCHA’s Humanitarian Co-ordinator, Jamie McGoldrick said that: “Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Israeli authorities indicated that they would restrain their longstanding policy of demolishing inhabited Palestinian homes. Sadly, demolitions during the period March-August 2020 left 442 Palestinians homeless, further exposing many to risks associated with the pandemic. In August alone, 205 people were displaced, more than in any other single month since January 2017.”
Of course, it is not only homes in Palestine that are smashed. The barbaric Israeli Occupation destroys water supply, hygiene and sanitation facilities, as well as farm buildings and agriculture. Zionist contempt for world opinion has led it to destroy 50 structures provided by international donors as humanitarian aid.
The destruction of property on territory subjected to foreign, military occupation is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Today, such devastation inflicted during the COVID-19 pandemic is particularly menacing as it inevitably compounds the risks faced in the already highly vulnerable West Bank.
Julian Assange
In 2010, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported an assertion that Julian Assange had secretly agreed with Israel not to publish documents damaging to Israeli interests. An online publication, Al Haqiqa, even claimed that Assange had removed or destroyed documents related to Israel’s 2006 and 2008–2009 attacks on Gaza. Nothing could be further from the truth. For almost nine years, 2007–2015, WikiLeaks exposed the powerful influence Israel had over the US, releasing diplomatic cables and emails, mostly between the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and Washington, that are now part of the Public Library of US Diplomacy.
Now Assange faces a cruel travesty of justice in a US-sponsored extradition case at the Central Criminal Court in London. The one-sided battle in the British court is part of a wider war on the very principles of freedom of speech and democracy, in which the UK has given up its sovereignty to serve the US. The UN has twice found that the WikiLeaks publisher had been arbitrarily detained and, in a public statement, the UN OHCHR called on the Swedish and British authorities to end Mr Assange’s deprivation of liberty, respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement, and afford him the right to compensation. US citizen, Alfred de Zayas, appointed as the first Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order by the Human Rights Council, said in a press release “. . . international order depends on the consistent and uniform application of international law . . .” He emphasised the value of whistle-blowers, who he described as key human rights defenders against a growing culture of secrecy, closed-door deals, disinformation, lack of access to information and 1984-like surveillance of individuals.
Although Israel and its allies assert that the only path to peace is direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israel’s contempt for the PA is made clear in a cable sent from the Embassy in Tel Aviv on 3 November 2008. The cable reveals both Israel’s intention to keep Gaza in poverty and its military plans to attack urban areas. WikiLeaks also revealed Israel’s fear of International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations and possible proceedings regarding its 2008–2009 Gaza invasion.
The US tries to exercise its power and influence globally in efforts to further Israel’s interests. In 2011, it sent agents of its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to Iceland to engage in a subversive exercise aimed at Assange and WikiLeaks. Years later, in 2016 a former Icelandic Minister of the Interior, Ögmundur Jónasson, revealed how his suspicions were aroused regarding the FBI’s motives and purpose. The FBI told Iceland that they had advanced knowledge of impending attacks by ‘hackers’ to destroy the country’s software systems. But Jónasson was not convinced and, as he put it, was “well aware that a helping hand might easily become a manipulating hand!” With no permission for them to interfere and with no reason at all to target WikiLeaks, Jónasson told the FBI that they should immediately cease all activities in Iceland. In fact, the FBI were ordered out of Iceland. Just so that there could be no doubt, he made it very clear that “if I had to take sides with either WikiLeaks or the FBI or CIA, I would have no difficulty in choosing: I would be on the side of WikiLeaks.” To say the least, this was a great example of declared non-alignment and independence that deserves respect and emulation by all who value freedom of information and rules-based international relations.
The online journal Independent Australia also published an article dealing with the FBI attempt to infiltrate Iceland’s security that contains the following statement by Ögmundur Jónasson: “What is Australia doing? Isn’t Julian Assange an Australian citizen? However, I don’t see Australian authorities taking on the responsibility to protect their citizen. Australia shows, as far as I can see, the same indifference and hence complicity with the US as is the case in most other lands. And may I add where is the world press, the same press which gratefully published the material WikiLeaks provided them with? Why are they quiet? In the end, we are all responsible. We are seeing an individual and an organisation taken to court, with 18 charges which could lead to 175 years in prison. All this for carrying out investigative journalism.”
The final stage of the US/UK-collaborated extradition court hearing began on 7 September. When John Pilger asked Julian what his motive was for starting WikiLeaks, he replied: “Transparency and accountability are moral issues that must be the essence of public life and journalism.” For this effort, as the UN expert, Nils Melzer, has observed, the selfless public-serving journalist has been subjected to the most horrendous neglect, isolation and psychological torture. Now Julian Assange is no longer news and, having profited from his journalism, the Guardian has fallen silent. The mainstream news media and western-allied political leaders collectively betray Julian Assange and, by so doing, also threaten the right to free speech and respect for humanitarian international law.
WikiLeaks published news, comprising information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US diplomatic cables and Guantánamo Bay that revealed evidence of war crimes. The US can never forgive WikiLeaks for publishing a military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters on a street in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. What is seldom mentioned is the wounding of two children in the attack, a girl who suffered a stomach wound and glass in her eyes and a boy who received head injuries.
In a debate on Threats to Media Freedom and Journalists’ Security in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), unanimously called on member states to “oppose the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States”. The Assembly, noting that the detention and criminal prosecution of Julian Assange set a dangerous precedent for journalists, was also in accord with the recommendation of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, who has declared that Assange’s extradition to the United States must be barred and that he must be promptly released. The leader of the Italian Parliamentary Intergroup for monitoring the Assange case, Senator Gianni Marilotti, told the meeting that, “We should be surprised and in a certain way outraged by the cautious silence kept by some states not only on Julian Assange’s situation but also on the facts revealed by him through WikiLeaks’ work.
In 2003, George W. Bush described the then-Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, as Washington’s sheriff, gladly promoting him from his own declaration of being merely deputy sheriff to the US. The only change since then is that the subservience is spreading. The silence of our five-eyes partners and news media concerning Israel‘s war crimes, and the injustice being meted out to Julian Assange, is helping to undermine the very rules-based international law we claim to support. Where does New Zealand stand? Silence is a grim indicator.
Any response, Gaby?
I’ve found myself staring at the image above while pondering what I might write.
It speaks for itself and I can’t think of anything to add.
Except perhaps:
Paramilitary uniform. $ 450.00 US
Combat boots. $ 300.00 US
Paramilitary back pack $200.00 US
Flak Jacket $600.00 US
Combat Helmet $200.00 US
Zip Ties $15.00 US
Protective glasses $20.00 US
Machine Gun $ 2000.00
Ammunition per box of 50 $40.00 US
Coms equipment $280.00 US
Side arm ( not visible ) $650.00 US
Total military training package to skill-up a soldier to a level to be able to disable a 68 year old peasant farmer on his own land and that being, no doubt, the land of his father and his fathers father…
3 x years of paramilitary training plus food, clothing, wages, transportation etc @ $ 300,000. US PA.
Total cost estimate of one soldier kneeling on an old man in the dust of his own lands: $503,955.00 US
x how ever many soldiers + all of above + transport + food and training + recon + etc
Old farmer gets his face crushed into his own land.
+
U$A / Israeli Military industrial complex makes ‘good coin’.
= Our gubbimint ( Yep. Deliberate jonky-ism.) doesn’t seem to have the courage to give a fuck.
Israeli Ambassador to AO/NZ ? Fuck off! On a plane. Off you fuck. Provided you have the funds to cover the one way flight. You will appreciate the irony.
It appears the NZ Government or defence force has passed on its smear job and nit picking against Nicky Hager to the british Kangaroo court persecuting Assange on behalf of usa war criminals.
Part of the smear job and attempts to discredit Hager are mentioned in his own video from about the 5 minute mark ,,,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEdQQT4BF2o&list=LLbE5hpEbiUutWYXzuWg0_TA&index=2&t=0s
Nicky Hager was a witness in the Assange trial a day or so ago ,.,,,, from 1 minute mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FprDOiMl204 ….. and NOTHING about it in our media.
“Nicky Hager, a journalist, said the WikiLeaks founder was not the ‘difficult, awful person’ depicted in reports. ” https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/extradition-hearing-witness-questions-media-portrayal-of-julian-assange-39541972.html
Apart from all the lies they tell us ,,,, most of our propaganda is in the form of censorship.
Israels popularity goes down when the results of their bombs missiles and bullets against women and children are shown ,,,so it’s not shown.
And Nicky Hager is contradicting the smears and vilification of Assange ,, so we have a virtual NZ media blackout.
Possibly some utu from NZ media towards Hager as well,,, he did expose THEIR role in Dirty Politics ,,,
Our media is friends of Israel and enemies of Assange ,,,
Craig Murray gives a great blow by blow account of the farce that is the Assange trial. Turns out that the US govt does now believe that journalists can be prosecuted as they realise the complete falacy of their attempt to “other” Assange. It is plain in the defence arguments that Assange can only be thought of as a journalist and publisher.
You have to scroll through a number of posts to get to the start of the most recent hearings.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
I’m truly touched that ‘limited’ is awaiting with bated breath my response to Bravery’s latest litany. Of course, it’s always good to get the definitive and correct take on dubious rants like the above. As I’ve said elsewhere, Bravery’s discourses always put me in mind of expressions like Groundhog Day, stuck record, deja vu. With Israel’s star (of David) so ascendant in the current ME the word ‘redundant’ also comes to mind. However, I would sum up my overall response to anything Bravery posts in one word: YAWN. hope this helps, limited.
No gaby. We are not here to rant or to debate in good faith or whatever. We are here just to pull all the prejudices out of you.
I think you need to clean up your own patch. I’ve never encountered such blatant bigotry as one finds here. My sole prejudice is that I always defend the underdog..in this case, Israel.
You’re talking prejudice. You don’t want to see Palestinians have any rights to the land and it grates on you that we would make decisions based on justice and all you have is crazy land claims to try and diminish the standing of Palestinians. That’s what you’re about.
Well Gaby if that is your sole conscious prejudice then there is a lot you don’t know about yourself that is so obvious to others.
5 eyes has devolved into a game of follow the fascist ,,,,, we should gift our spot to Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWe2wEKHEfs
Have you heard of Auschwitz? This is from a highly respected soldier of 30 years experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsnQgWZ8BSI
That was over 75 years ago, you need to take a fair review of how the Palestinians are treated now instead of using past atrocities as an excuse to justify inhumane treatment of them now.
Gaby you accuse Leslie and others of “Groundhog Day, stuck record, deja vu.” which describes your pathetic repetitive soulless defense of the criminal exploits of Israel.
Unless of course you have trouble reading in which case you may have some sympathy for the Palestinian girl who had her eye shot out by a IDF soldier / terrorist while in her homeland.
Past atrocities?
How about the present ones at the hands of the IDF.
Gaby your utube is hardly independent expert commentary and hearsay at best.
Regarding WWII, if you want independent data on Auschwitz or any other wartime work camp, then the International Red Cross is your best source.
Records are available and data was taken at the time.
That is the stuff historians work with not hearsay constructed decades later.
Utube is used by many for all sorts of purposes.
Britain’s largest trade union, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has passed a motion identifying Israel as a state practicing apartheid and called for the continued support of the Palestinian people.
“TUC, which has nearly six million members, voted on Tuesday, in favor of a motion put forward by Unite the Union which opposes the current Israeli government’s plans to annex up to 30 percent of the West Bank.”
The motion identifies annexation as “another significant step in the creation of a system of apartheid” and has been welcomed by representatives of Palestinian civil society.
The motion came a week after a statement was released by over 20 charities, trade unions, religious groups, and civil society organizations urgently calling on public bodies to “uphold their ethical and legal responsibilities to ensure human rights and international law are respected” as a direct response to Israel’s illegal annexation plans.
“Congress stands united in its full opposition to the Israeli government’s declared intention to annex great swathes of the West Bank,” said the TUC motion describing the move as “illegal under international law” which “makes clear there is no intent on the part of the Israeli government to end the occupation and recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”
Such a move “will be another significant step in the creation of a system of apartheid”, said the TUC.
“For too long the international community has stood idly by as the Israeli state has been allowed to carry out its crimes and this cannot be tolerated or accepted any longer,” the motion went on to say. “Decisive action is now urgently needed in relation to Israel’s illegal actions against the Palestinians.”
UK Largest Union Passes Anti Apartheid Motion Against Israel
Empty, meaningless posturing that carries no weight….like all the anti-Israel hot air on this website.
Gaby, instead of the usual crap snide comments, how about presenting an evidence based dissertation on the reasons you consider justify the actions of the Zionist regime that are deemed contrary to international laws and treaties. Unlike you, the likes of Leslie Bravery have no difficulty presenting their well founded and presented arguments.
aom
Gaby can’t do that. It is well beyond him.
Thats great to hear Kheala. Always good to see that the treatment of Corbyn in the UK has had no effect on the solidarity being offered to Palestinians at the grassroots level.
Interesting how silent the MSM and NZ govt have been on this issue. I would have thought condemning the treatment of Assange what we could expect from a left wing Socialist govt but then we don’t have a left wing Socialist govt do we?
The same govt considering French Macron govt style “hate speech” laws which to me look a lot like a free speech silencing/censorship Trojan horse.
You are the first to Shadow ban anyone you disagree with, and now your outraged about lack of free speech?
When you sow the wind you reap the whirlwind,
https://electroverse.net/11-scientific-predictions-for-the-upcoming-grand-solar-minimum/
The election results will shock your arrogant ass i predict
Comments are closed.