Almost Killed by Israel, Tristan finally Goes Home

Tristan is Back!

source Berkeley-After more than a year in a Tel Aviv hospital, Bay Area activist and photo-journalist Tristan Anderson has returned home to California. Tristan was critically injured when he was shot in the head at close range with a metal high-velocity tear gas canister at the Israeli Separation Wall on March 13, 2009, while taking photos following a demonstration against the apartheid wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin. The shooting caused severe traumatic brain injury and blindness in his right eye. Tristan, 39 years old, has not yet regained the use of the left side of his body and faces a long period of cognitive and physical rehabilitation and remains in a wheelchair. However, in the last several months he has made significant strides forward, including regaining his ability to speak. He is currently staying at his family’s home in the Sierra foothills, and looking forward to reuniting with his extensive community in the Bay Area.

Tristan’s partner Gabrielle Silverman said, “After a very long period of hospitalization, Tristan is ready to finally re-enter the world. His injury has profoundly affected our community and changed our lives. In the winter of 2009, Tristan and I traveled to the Occupied Territories because we had an understanding of the role the U.S. government plays in the Israel/Palestine conflict and power dynamics there. We both support a free Palestine and a just peace and stability in the Middle East and see it as a defining struggle of our generation.

Just prior to the one-year mark of the shooting, Israel released its official report of the incident, calling it “an act of war”, with no concomitant liability, bringing no charges, and then closed the case. An appeal to reopen the investigation has been filed, since the report was inconsistent with the injuries Tristan sustained and with eyewitness testimony. In addition, his parents have brought a civil case against the Israeli military, in part to deal with the lifetime of medical expenses, lost wages and continuing care that Tristan will need as a result of the military action.

On May 31, 21-year-old New York art student Emily Henochowicz lost an eye in a similar act of aggression by Israeli military when she was shot in the face with a tear gas canister at a demonstration in the West Bank. She was protesting the Israeli commando raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla during which nine Flotilla human rights activists were killed.

Tristan Anderson has participated as a photo-journalist and as a dedicated activist in a variety of local and international campaigns over the years, including Latin American solidarity work, anti-war activism, involvement in forest campaigns including Headwaters Forest and the 2-year long Save the Oaks tree-sit campaign on UC Berkeley campus, as well as serving food to the homeless with Food Not Bombs for years, and riding with Critical Mass bicycle activists.

FLOTILLA SURVIVOR STORIES vs ISRAEL

Although we will never see the video footage filmed by the 36 journalists on board the massacred boat, the truth beings to finally come out, now that the surviving innocent civilians have been freed. There is a website collecting all their testimonies here

Not to be outdone, Israel, as usual, has assembled it's online flying monkey liars to smear the dead and the survivors, do they ever learn? Nah...............

ISRAEL SUFFERING WITHDRAWL SYMPTOMS

Like a heroin addict, Israel, unable to quench their need for murder, the ZOF crossed the border into Palestine and committed crimes against the citizens. Destroying land, farms, and shooting and killing civilians. And...........no world power gives a shit.

link In two separate attacks, Israeli tanks invaded on Monday areas close to the northern and southern Gaza Israeli borders.

The first invasion took place on Monday morning when tanks and bulldozers rolled into farm lands near Khan Younis town southern Gaza.

Witnesses said that tanks opened fire at resident homes while bulldozers damaged crops. No injuires were reported.

Later in the day another group of Israeli tanks and bulldozers invaded the Biet Hannon town in northern Gaza Strip.

Tanks fire shells at resident homes while bulldozers uprooted trees and damaged crops; witnesses reported damage but no injuries.

During a similar attack on Saturday Israeli shells killed three civilians at the town of Biet Hannon.

SSDD=Same Shit Different Day

IF ISRAEL HAD EXISTED~JESUS WOULD HAVE BEEN BORN ON A DONKEY'S BACK

What if……I was thinking last night, what if the illegal Zionist controlled situation that exists today across Palestine had existed when Jesus parents were travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Would they have made it to Bethlehem or would Jesus have been born on the back of a donkey whilst his parents were waiting for days on end at multiple illegal Israeli checkpoints.

link Most entrances and exits from the Bethlehem agglomeration to the rest of the West Bank are currently subject to Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks. The level of access varies based on Israeli security directives. Travel for Bethlehem's Palestinian residents from the West Bank into Israeli-annexed Jerusalem is regulated by a permit-system.[ (this within their own country of Palestine no less!)

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, approximately 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem. The 80 mile walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem today would be nearly impossible for Mary and Joseph, due to Israel checkpoints, roadblocks and refusal of passage to non-Zionists. And someone else wondered about this too, and has even tested the theory. And according to this recent re-enactment of the trip Joseph and Mary took, the answer is that Jesus most likely would have been born on the back of a Donkey at an Israeli checkpoint!

link Jesus' parents would get stuck in roadblock British TV channel claims Jesus' parents' historical trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have been rendered impossible today, due to IDF restrictions. Israel Foreign Ministry outraged (Surprise)

Had Jesus' parents Joseph and Mary tried to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem nowadays, they would find it to be a near impossible task due to the IDF roadblocks and the West Bank security fence, a BBC reporter claimed in a televised broadcast .

The news story, by BBC correspondent in Israel Matthew Price, reenacted Joseph and Mary's historical route from Nazareth to Bethlehem, by accompanying an Israeli-Arab Nazareth carpenter, who will be forced to skip his annual visit to Bethlehem on Christmas this year, due to the army's traffic restrictions and the exhausting effort entailed in crossing the IDF roadblocks.

Today, Nazareth and Bethlehem are two separate worlds, Price claimed in the broadcast, describing the 'reminders to the Israeli occupation' evident throughout the route archeologist say was taken by Jesus' parents in their trip.
As expected, the report spurred outrage in the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. (Again, surprise!) This is one of the most dreadful stories ever broadcasted by the BBC, Foreign Ministry sources said, adding that they plan to officially protest the report to the channel's heads. "The story is filled with Christian and religious elements, (OMG, to think a story about Jesus would contain "Christian and Religious elements, who'd have thunk it!)

But it gets much worse for Christians, our whole “Christmas” thing would be all askew, nothing would be the same, for instance:

Rector Phillips Brooks (1835-1903) of Philadelphia USA, wrote the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem in 1868, following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was inspired by the view of Bethlehem from the hills of Palestine especially at night time hence the lyrics of O Little Town of Bethlehem.

BUT, if the illegal state of Israel had existed then, the song would have been called “O Little Donkey At The Checkpoint” instead, and the ever popular “Away in A Manger” that would have been called “Away On a Donkey’s Back” if Israel had existed then. Example:

O little Donkey at the Checkpoint
How still we see thee stand
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The noisy tanks go by
Yet in thy grey fur shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met on thee tonight
Nah, it's just NOT the same is it, thankfully the "created state" of Israel did not exist then, otherwise it would ALL be different today.............

36 Hours Later~Rachel Corrie Delegation Inside

"The crossing only took about 36 hours," Craig Corrie, father of slain American activist Rachel Corrie said on entering the Gazan city of Rafah Wednesday afternoon, "that's only one hour per mile."

The delegation's efforts to reach the Strip where they planned to attend the Rachel Corrie Memorial Ramadan Soccer Tournament were stymied Tuesday as Mr and Mrs Corrie, who had contacted both Egyptian and American officials in the Middle East and Washington, attempted to negotiate the inscrutable Egyptian security apparatus. On Tuesday the group were told they would not be allowed into the area where the Corrie's daughter was run down by an armored Israeli bulldozer in 2003.

Craig Corrie's reaction, after "going through the layers of Egyptian bureaucracy" and gaining access to the Strip, was to note that what the delegation "managed to do with a bit of hassle should be a right for all those stranded in Gaza." Managing to get into Gaza as a foreign delegation "is not much of a struggle when you look at what the people around you are going through," he added.

Arriving late in the Strip the Corries and a small delegation of friends and colleagues only had time to drop off the soccer uniforms for the teams they were supposed to see play the day before. "I've been told one of the youth games has been postponed for us," Mr Corrie said, "so it looks like we will get to see at least one game."

The delegation will head to Gaza City where the Corries will reconnect with old friends, who they have made since becoming heavily involved in the Palestinian struggle.

Rachel Corrie was killed on March 2003 while acting as a human shield in front of the home of a Gazan family slated for demolition by Israeli forces. As she stood in front of the home alongside six other activists with the International Solidarity Movement she was fatally injured by the caterpillar tracks of the militarized bulldozer.

This is the family's fourth visit to Gaza. In 2003 and 2006 the family entered the area through Israel's Erez Crossing. In 2008 Israel denied the family entry into the country and the two joined the CODEPINK delegation and entered through Egyptian Rafah.

"As frustrating as the Egyptian bureaucracy was, it is really Israel that is primarily responsible for what is going on in Gaza and at the borders," Mr Corrie reflected, "and though Egypt could and should do more to help Gazans with the siege, it is the world which must make it possible for Gazans to live the lives they deserve." source

Israeli Army Trains on Al Aqsa Mosque Walls

Are the Zionists planning a future assault on Al Aqsa Mosque?

The Gazan Government is reporting today that the IDF are training to scale the walls of Al Aqsa. The report comes to the Government from witnesses at the Mosque and also from the Al Aqsa institution for Heritage organisation. The IDF trained for about an hour, using ladders to scale the walls from the South West side of the Mosque in the Al Maghreba district.

"Al Aqsa institution for Heritage" warned in an urgent statement that Zionist special forces perform a training to climb the walls of the Holy Al Aqsa masjid.

It said: "The training is a clear indication of the Zionist plans against the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque.

A witness told "Al Aqsa institution for Heritage" that by the evening of the day, they were surprised that about 20 of the Zionist special forces are setting up ladders on the walls of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the outside, more specifically, on the wall of the women mosque, one of the walls from the South West of Al-Aqsa.

They were conducting training for climbing on the wall from the outside, up and down from Al Maghreba district, and the training continued for about an hour ago. source

ISRAEL SHOOTS EGYPTIAN POLICEMAN

Israel has grown tired of target practice with Palestinians, and have now moved on to shooting Egyptians. Yet more proof that the IDF are allowed and encouraged to shoot people without confirming who they are:

Israeli soldiers shoot Egyptian policeman

JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot and wounded an Egyptian policeman Monday along the border between the two countries, the Israeli military said.

A routine patrol identified an armed figure at the border before dawn, and when the Israeli troops challenged the man he cocked his weapon, prompting the soldiers to open fire, the army said.

The soldiers realized it was an Egyptian policeman only after the shooting, the army said.

In Cairo, an Egyptian security official said the policeman had been hospitalized with a bullet wound in the chest. The official said the bullet came from the Israeli side of the border but that he did not know who had opened fire.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details of the incident to the media.

The Israeli military said a joint Israeli-Egyptian team would investigating the shooting.

The incident occurred near the Israeli port city of Eilat, in a border region that has been largely peaceful since Israel and Egypt signed a peace deal in 1979. SOURCE

Mass Murder Confirmed

IDF soldier says of Palestinians in Gaza:

"You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them."

Reality breaks through into Israel's alternate universe and is once again ignored.

Members of the most "moral" army in the world recently published reports covering how they were encouraged to murder Palestinians for the Mother Land Israel. Although I have no clue why reporters, or anyone else for that matter, bother to even ask any Israeli official for a response as it's always the same. Right on que Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak replied (Can you guess the answer folks?) "Criticism directed at the IDF by one organization or another is inappropriate and is directed at the wrong place."

No fair Barak the Whack, He fooled us by adding this: "and is directed at the wrong place" to the "standard" retort, gosh darn it! Well, in fairness he has a partial point, he is right that it is not just Israel responsible, it is the United States for supplying Israel with weapons of mass destruction which it then used not for defense but rather to collectively punish an entire population. But the blame does not stop there, no it doesn't. The policy of "look the other way" adopted by the majority of influential countries like Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others that has existed for years towards Israel, they are culpable as well for the Gaza Holocaust. Report from "Breaking The Silence" below, more after article:

Israeli soldiers who served in the invasion of Gaza in January were instructed to “shoot first, ask later,” a policy that led to killings of innocents, according to testimonies released by the organization Breaking the Silence on Wednesday.

The Israeli organization published the interviews with some 30 soldiers in a booklet and on its website.

"Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy," is how one soldier explained the instructions given soldiers before the ground invasion that began in the second week of the three week offensive.

“The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places,” said another.

"In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents."

Another soldier offered the following description on the briefings: “At briefings on places I entered, we were told that if we engage at close range, we should know that normally, at night the Arab is asleep in his bed and has no business outdoors at this time, so we should really be careful.”

(So Arabs are not into the "Night Life" what a racist statement. There are hundreds of legitimate reasons for an Arab to be outside after dark, how moronic. According to that "logic" if America was invaded and you ran out of milk after dark, then you dared to nip to your local 7-11 shop YOU ARE A TERRORIST. Suddenly the phrase "Got Milk" has a whole new meaning)MORE:

“We weren't told outright to shoot anything we saw moving but that was the implication,” the soldier testified, “I asked, ‘What if I see a girl outside?’ She has no business being outside. "So what do I do?" Check if she's armed – then shoot her.”

(Nah, no need to "check if she's armed" and here's proof)MORE:

Another soldier described carrying out the same policy, shooting an elderly woman for no other reason than that she was outside of her house in an area controlled by the army.

Some soldiers descriptions went even further, describing the dehumanization of the Palestinians: "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them."

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1,500 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli onslaught, the vast majority of them civilians. Israel maintains that only 1,166 and only 295 dead were civilians. Israel however counted policemen as combatants although they are classified as noncombatants under international law.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to the Breaking the Silence document on Wednesday saying, "Criticism directed at the IDF by one organization or another is inappropriate and is directed at the wrong place. The IDF is one of the most ethical armies in the world and acts in accordance with the highest moral code." source

What is contained in this report is bad enough, but here is much more: Israel's Policy To Kill Children HERE and HERE, then there is the INDOCTRINATION OF IDF SOLDIERS as well.

BREAKING REPORT~Israeli Tanks Enter Gaza

maan news agency is reporting only this so far:

Israeli military bulldozers cross the northern Gaza Strip border, raze agricultural land

I assume it's a developing story and will keep watch for updates to post here.

Gaza Death Toll Rises by One

In Gaza, Abdallah Na'im was yesterday released from his grave of rubble........Another soul uncovered, another person gone, another life extinguished.

Beginning in December and continuing into January, for 22 days Gaza had it's own 9-11 terrorist attack. In scenes reminiscent from September 11th in New York, yesterday in Gaza, another victim of the Zionist Terrorists was uncovered in the rubble. It has been eight months now, yet bodies continue to be uncovered in the 420,000 tons of rubble the Zionist terrorists left behind as a statement to the world that they are above the law.

The magnitude of death is incomprehensible, the numbers we quote so easily of Palestinian dead, they roll off our tongues and keyboards minus the gravity of what they represent. 6.6 people per day, for 22 days, today that number went up by one, and there will be more. Each one denied the most basic of human rights, the right to live and prosper in their own county, free from oppression and terrorist attacks from high flying drones or F-16s with DIME missiles or White Phosphorous. Today in addition to the 6.6 dead per day, let us also remember Abdallah Na'im and many others who will continue to be found lifeless among the 420,00 tons of rubble.

After six months… New martyr’s corpse under rubble

The corpse of a Palestinian was found on Saturday under the rubble of a house destroyed during the latest Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip last winter.

Palestinian medics identified the man as Abdallah Na'im, who was in his 20s.

Mu’wieyah Hasaneen, head of Emergency and Ambulance Services at the Health Ministry in Gaza, told Ma'an that "the decomposed body was found under the rubble of a destroyed house near the Wa'ed building," which itself stood near the Islamic University campus in Gaza City, but was destroyed by a Zionist aircraft.

He added that "the corpse was moved to the Dar Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City," noting that "the number of those who were killed during the Israeli war on Gaza amounts to 1,505," following the most recent discovery.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its partners on Friday began clearing around 420,000 tons of rubble caused by the assault, and reiterated the need for the Zionist entity to ease its blockade so building materials and other vital supplies can enter the area. source

Oh Look~Israel Pretends Justice

What do Iran's Government and Israel's Government have in common? Plenty, when it comes to how they treat protesters.

Here's a little thought for you. Notice how the world was so outraged at the Iranian governments response to protesters? Germany, Britain, America, France, Canada, all outraged. Compare that to the world reaction Israel gets when it does the very same thing to protesters, including American protesters like Rachel Corrie and Tristan Anderson.

Israel's highest court has ordered stronger charges against two military personnel over the shooting of a bound Palestinian in the West Bank last year.

The sergeant and his commanding officer were originally charged with improper conduct, which would have carried a maximum penalty of one year in prison.

The court called for charges reflecting the gravity of the offence, which was filmed by human rights activists.

(Translation: Oh Crap, we were caught red handed by the camera. "Oh Shite, we now have to punish them, or at the very least, pretend to punish them)

The victim was not seriously injured by the rubber-coated steel bullet.

(So, what about Tristan Anderson and Rachel Corrie then? What punishment will you mete out for her murder and his attempted murder which was also filmed?)

The video footage showed the soldier, acting on orders from his commander standing next to him, shooting Ashraf Abu Rahma in the foot at point-blank range.

(This only goes to show that it is a "Policy" of the ZOF to torture and kill Palestinians and even Americans like Rachel Corrie and Tristan Anderson for protesting. And people think Iran is insane? Pot Kettle Black)

The Supreme Court ordered the military to issue a new indictment with more severe charges that would "accurately reflect the circumstances and the actions taken".

"It is a cruel act that deserves a punishment which reflects this," the judges said in a statement.

"The moral gap between the nature of the act described in the indictment and the manner of evaluation in the indictment - as the offence of 'improper conduct' - is so deep that it cannot stand," they wrote.

The sergeant and his colonel had said they intended only to frighten Mr Abu Rahma, who had been protesting against construction of Israel's separation barrier near the West Bank village of Nilin.

Palestinians and human rights organisations have long complained about harsh treatment of civilians by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, and light sentences handed down to abusive soldiers. source

My bet is that he will get a slap on the wrist publicly, then magically disappear like Bernie Madoff's money.

Morning Comedy~Israeli Bar Bans Soldiers

An Anarchist bar in Tel Aviv has banned Israeli Solders from entering wearing their uniforms and carrying their weapons. And this has caused "Zionist Feathers" to be ruffled in a comedic fashion. UK pro-Zionist journalist Seth Friedman who writes for the Guardian has used his column to publish his public meltdown. Be sure to take the link at the end, to read the entire article and also take a gander at the comments section for some good laughs written by the British public who put him in his place quite nicely LOL.

It's one thing for a bar or club to employ a dress code for sartorial reasons, quite another to exclude law-abiding citizens simply because of their adherence to civic duty. In a country such as Israel, where national service is compulsory, to ban soldiers in uniform from entering a pub is to tread on shaky ground. Yet that is what the owners of the Rogatka bar in Tel Aviv have decided upon, tarring all IDF personnel with the same dismissive brush.

To declare anyone decked out in olive-green uniform as persona non grata is a step too far, regardless of the justifications offered by the anarchist collective running the bar. The response given by one of the proprietors, Adi Vinter, is that "We can't hold views against discrimination and oppression, while at the same time supporting the infrastructure that exploits human beings and other animals". The sentiment may be admirable, but to extrapolate it into a ban on uniformed soldiers makes little sense: first because – according to Vinter's own logic – she and her friends shouldn't be doing business inside Israel at all.

simply refusing to allow uniforms or weapons on the premises allows the owners and regulars to drink, and discuss politics, in an entirely homogenous and holier-than-thou atmosphere. According to Ha'aretz, "the founders ... hope it will bring together leftwing activists, environmentalists, and other fellow travellers, under the banner of cheap drinks and fair trade products". In order to protect their own interests and save themselves from having to encounter people who might hold differing opinions to theirs, they believe in a policy of denying entry on the most insincere grounds.

The Rogatka bar isn't a primary school; IDF employees aren't by definition fascists – so the owners shouldn't be assuming the mantle of Ed Balls and his advisers. While there would of course be grounds for kicking out anyone walking in with a swastika tattoo, a Kach fist t-shirt or a Hamas headscarf, to imply that every member of the IDF is a de facto racist is completely unacceptable.

In Jaffa, where tensions often run high between soldiers and locals, the Arab-owned restaurants still teem with uniformed IDF staff at all hours of the day, the proprietors recognising that not all soldiers are evil, and that they should therefore be judged on an individual basis. The owners of Rogatka could learn a great deal from such an approach, rather than loftily applying their illogical blanket ban to their own establishment.link

War Crimes~Hold Them Accountable

Firstly, I want to apologise for not putting up huge amounts of posts recently. I have been working on a few things I want to post here, it is taking time but they will be well worth it when I finally get everything done and posted here. Today I want to bring to peoples attention an Organisation created during the massacre in Gaza. Additionally I will post a slideshow of photos obtained from them in this post today.

This organisation is called “The Central Commission for Documentation and Pursuit of Israeli War Criminals” set up inside Gaza by the Government and their mission, in short, is to document, record, protect and investigate Israeli war crimes in Gaza in the hopes of bringing legal suits against the War Criminals. You can visit their site and sign up to their mailing list. People should support them; Israel needs to be held accountable for what they did. You can visit them here to read about their missions.

Now, they have several units within this organisation, one of which produces media. Things like videos, movies, etc. The videos are on CD’s; and I have been lucky enough to obtain one. However, as they are on CD, I have no way to get them online at this time, although I am working on that as well. Still, I have managed to extract many of the photos to publish here. They want people to see exactly what the Israeli War Criminals did.

The photos come under separate headings, children, UN Facilities, Schools, civilians, Government Buildings, hospital workers, hospitals, homes, homeless people and so on. There are close to 500 photos all together. I am going through them all now and today in this diary I will be posting about the children. Albeit some of the photos have already made it online, but many have not. So that’s my introductory, now my diary begins:

It’s hard looking at the massive amounts of photos, realising that you are not looking at some major production Hollywood disaster film. But instead, you are looking at everyday people, regular people, just like yourself, men, women and children, facing the same obstacles as you do in every day life. With one massive glaring exception, they are under constant occupation, living in an open air concentration camp, unable to run, or hide whenever their aggressors decide to inflict collective punishment onto the population.

Each one of these little people, these children, have been robbed of their life by Israeli war criminals. The types of soldiers who so proudly wore the IDF t-shits showing pregnant Muslim women with the heading “one shot, two kills” This explains in full reality, exactly how Arabs are viewed by Israeli terrorist death squad soldiers. They see no one as being innocent; they hate the entire race of people. It is this mindset that allows them to murder without feeling, without showing any humanity, without remorse, without conscience. This, the 4th largest army in the world with nuclear weapons, fighting against stones and home made rockets. What happened in Gaza was massive over kill to the highest degree, state sanctioned murder, collective punishment on an entire population at the hands of those whom should know better. Israel has learned no lesson from their holocaust. They have become what they once fought against and hated, they are now the 21st century Nazis.

Below is pictured one little girl whom I have picked out of the many photos. Many people will have seen one of the photos of her before, the one where only her small dusty head lies among the rubble of her home, the place she is meant to feel safe. I had always thought that only her small head was left as a stark reminder of her short life, and the crimes against humanity Israel committed in her neighbourhood. However, that photo is but one in three. In fact, she was buried up to her small head in rubble. She was eventually dug out of her very public grave, albeit her small body much to injured to have ever survived.

Covered in rubble up to her neck


After being dug out, now being carried to Ambulance


The last ride she will ever take, thanks to Israel


I thought to myself, who is she, what is her name, what was her favourite colour, her favourite food, her favourite toy. What was the sound of her laughter like? What did she dream of and what made her smile? These things we will never know, but we must all never forget, we must remember her and all the other close to 400 children massacred by Israel. Each one distinct, each one special, each one an individual, each one with the capacity to have changed the world, to have lived their dream, to have had an opportunity to leave their unique mark on this world. So with that thought, I would ask people to remember all the children below in the slideshow, victims of Israeli war criminals, each one. If you want to view the larger photos, click them to come to my flickr where they are much larger Post continues after slideshow below:



This is almost too much to comprehend for right thinking moral people of this world. As such, I am now going to walk out my front door and walk among the streets and fields, safe in the knowledge that I will not be bombed into the stone age outside my house. And whilst I am walking I will remember them, and I will pray for the day when those who are left alive in Gaza, can walk among their streets and fields, safe in the knowledge that they will not be bombed into the stone age either.

Shining Example of WHY the World HATES Israel

http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/
Another one shot, another one dead, another day under Israeli occupation.



Just for one minute, Imagine if, during the end of the Bush Administration, American police officers, or American Soldiers, came upon a large group of people protesting against the Iraq war. Easy to imagine, it happened hundreds of times. And what if a small handful of those protesters, let's say five or six out of 200, threw a stone at the Riot Squad. Then, what if the Police Officers just opened fire on the entire group of American civilians protesting, killing several of them. It happened once in American history, at Kent State during the Viet Nam war. But never again!

However, this is exactly what Israel does on a daily basis for a great number of years. They commit state sanctioned murder, they murder people who are only armed with tiny stones against tanks, armoured cars and military rifles. And, Israel wonders why people hate them? More below:

RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 5 (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man on Friday in a confrontation with stone-throwing protesters in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Medics said Aqel Srour, 35, was hit in the chest by a live bullet and another protester was wounded when soldiers fired at protesters in Nilin, a village near the city of Ramallah.

Srour died minutes later, Mohammed Shahwan, a doctor on the ambulance called to the scene, told Reuters.

An Israeli military spokesman said troops had opened fire when protesters threw stones at them in the village, but would not confirm whether the troops had used live ammunition. link

And I would like to take this opportunity to remind you, it is not just Palestinians they shoot, they shoot Americans as well. Pictured below is Tristan Anderson, before and after becoming acquainted with IDF forces.
Watch Tristan get shot by Israeli murderers:


Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, who has filed a formal demand for an official investigation, said that of some 120 criminal investigations brought against security force members since the beginning of the intifada, there had only been one conviction – against the Arab-Israeli soldier who shot British peace activist Tom Hurndall dead in Gaza.

Nobody was brought to trial in two other cases involving the deaths of foreign nationals. They were Rachel Corrie, who like Mr Hurndall was an International Solidarity Movement volunteer. The Israeli military has not accepted responsibility for her death. In the case of British film-maker James Miller, Israeli authorities made a substantial cash payment to his family this year, which came nearly six years after his death.

The Israeli military said that on the day Mr Anderson was shot, some 400 rioters, “some masked”, had thrown “a massive number of rocks” at their forces.

So, "rocks" and "masks" are considered deadly to soldiers of the 4th largest army in the world, with rifles and tanks. Makes prefect sense, only in Israel, where they murder for sport and never are held accountable for their crimes, even against Americans, Britians or any other country. They are immune, because they are poor little Israel.

Read what Tristan's parents have to say here.

Israeli Soldier Discovers Conscience...........Not!

May I have the envelope please? And the winner is...........

This is really unbelievable, to be honest. An IDF soldier steals a Palestinian's credit card during the genocide, when the soldier was in his home. This "moral soldier" then goes out and withdraws 1,600 in cash, in other words, he STEALS the Palestinian's money. And, suddenly now that this crime has been discovered, he wants to return it (4 months later mind you) Suddenly this soldier had realised that his moral compass has been lodged up his own arse all this time. Imagine that!! And NOW he wants us all to believe he has removed it from his arse, and his moral compass is now working just fine.
One word...................bollix.

So, after 4 months (and getting caught red handed) he is returning the money, and get this...........with a letter of apology. Wanna know why? Here's the real reason, the credit card record, that's why! Not because he's sorry,or that the Palestinian in question reported this crime, which he did when he found out his money was stolen. But what if it was not traceable, what if it had not been a credit card? What if he had stolen cash from the home (like many of them did) and the Palestinian reported it. Would we be seeing the same outcome? Nah... here's why, there is a traceable paper trail directly to his thieving wallet. And, he could be charged with fraud and theft, as he very well should be, along with war crimes like the rest of the Israeli army. Oh, and I notice there is nothing mentioned about paying back any interest for this 4 month Illegal loan!!

Elite IDF soldier returns money looted in Gaza war

An Israel Defense Forces soldier accused of looting a home in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli offensive earlier this year has returned the stolen money along with a letter of apology to the Palestinian owner.

The Givati Brigade soldier confessed to stealing a credit card from the man's home and withdrawing NIS 1,600 in cash from that account upon his return from Israel. A number of days later, the Palestinian lodged a complaint and the soldier was arrested.

The soldier on Tuesday returned the cash through his lawyer, along with NIS 20 shekels in interest and the apology letter. "By the power of attorney, I hereby offer you in writing [the soldier's] regret and apology," the soldier's lawyer wrote in addendum. "My client seeks to right the damage caused and return the money.

The Southern Command military court will debate on Wednesday an appeal to hold the soldier in custody until the end of proceedings.

The army's police investigative unit launched a probe into the allegations last month after receiving the Palestinians' complaint and arrested two soldiers over the matter. link

Israel's "Moral" Army At it AGAIN

Israel's "moral" army.....

C'mon, you know the one, the army that had t-shits printed with Palestinian children and pregnant women as targets "one shot, two kills", the one that dropped DIME missiles, and white phosphorous on civilians, the one that murdered over 400 children, the one that herded entire families into a corner of their house, under the "premise" of "safety" then shelled the home, killing everyone inside, the Moral Army that stole possession from Palestinian homes whilst the inhabited them like cockroaches during their illegal genocide, the one that smeared their excrement on the walls of Palestinian homes they occupied during the genocide, the army that bombed UN facilities and refugee camps, the army that targets children aged 12 and over as adults, THAT army we are talking about here.

Well, they are doing what they do best yet again. Calling themselves "moral" again, they today dropped leaflets and pamphlets telling Palestinians to get away from the wall, "or else" Here's the trouble, the Palestinain's homes are less the the distance they are referring to, Zionist asshats. Dont be fooled, this is yet another ploy to steal the land after people are forced to leave under the threat of bombs from this "moral" army.

Oh and one other wee detail, They injured a small child with one of their huge boxes of pamphlets telling people to "get out" The child was hit as the box was surgically dropped from an Israeli army chopper above. Another nice move from the most "moral" army in the world. Now, I have some swamp land to sell you.......

Bethlehem- Israel's air force used helicopters to drop fliers warning Palestinians to stay away from the Gaza border wall on Monday, residents.

"You have been warned. We urge residents of the Strip to keep a 300 meter distance from the fence," the fliers read.

Commenting on the message, a Gazan citizen told Ma’an, “Israel is seeking a new immigration of the Palestinians especially that the warning is not to passersby, but to residents living near the borderline. There are homes which are less than tens of meters away from the borderline, and there are agricultural lands close to the border fence.”

Twelve-year-old Muhammad Dughmush from the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City was injured by a box of fliers dropped by Israeli choppers. According to Muawiya Hassanein, director of Ambulance and Emergency Services at the Palestinian Health Ministry, the boy received first aid at the Jordanian hospital before he was transferred to Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, suffering bruises along his back.

The fliers were dropped over the homes of residents in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, Ynet said, as well near communities in the south and central regions near Khan Younis, Kerem Shalom and Rafah.

In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed that it dropped the leaflets, warning that it "will operate against all those who approach the fence, due to the threat that they pose to the civilians of the State of Israel." linky link

Yeah, I can see how those stones the Palestinians throw can really cause damage to Israeli asshat settlers. Novel thought: If the settler cockroaches moved to the country of Israel, and left Palestine, they'd not be under attack.

IDF Terrorists Raid West Bank Villages

Israeli troops raided the West Bank city of Jenin and several nearby villages on Wednesday night.

Palestinian security sources said that Israeli forces overran the villages of At-Tayba and Al-Araqa, west of Jenin, and searched the area amid gunfire. No arrests were reported.

The same sources added that Israeli forces raided the towns of Al-Harthiyah, Rummana, and Zabuba.

Witnesses contacted Ma’an’s correspondent in Jenin saying that the Israeli forces used stun grenades during the raids.source

Israel's "Moral" Army Forgets It's Morals~AGAIN

Well what is there to day, we've seen this before. Stealing bastard IDF soldiers steal Palestinian credit cards from homes the occupied during the holocaust they perpetrated on Gazans.

Two IDF soldiers arrested for robbing Palestinian in Gaza
Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were arrested for allegedly looting the home of a Palestinian in Gaza during the army's offensive against Hamas earlier this year.

The soldiers, who serve in the patrol battalion of the Givati infantry brigade, are suspected of stealing a credit card belonging to a Palestinian whose home they entered during the fighting.

The two soldiers are alleged to have used the card to purchase goods worth thousands of shekels.

The army's police investigative unit launched a probe into the allegations last month after receiving a complaint. A Palestinian residing in the northern Gaza Strip claimed his credit card was stolen during Operation Cast Lead. A short time later, his credit card statement revealed that a number of products were purchased in Israel.

As per the orders of a military judge, authorities have yet to release details of the investigation so as not to prejudice the outcome. The two soldiers have been ordered to remain in military jail for fear that they would try to tamper with evidence. A hearing in the matter is scheduled for Wednesday.

"Recently the Military Advocate General has received a small number of complaints from human rights organizations and private attorneys, including claims that private property belonging to Gaza Strip residents was taken during Operation Cast Lead," the IDF spokesperson's office said. "Given the credibility of the complaint military prosecutors ordered the military police to open an investigation during which testimony will be heard for purposes of examining the claims." source

AND GUESS WHAT? There's MORE on this subject HERE

Israeli Dictatorship Autocracy

Israel now arresting Pacifist member of NGO's against the Israeli draft. Is Israel becoming more of a military state dictatorship? Excellent op-ed in the Guardian today:

The arrest of members of a pacifist NGO is symptomatic of a country that is becoming militarised at an alarming pace

The first raids took place at about 7am on Sunday. Across the country, activists in a publicly registered, pacifist non-profit organisation were detained. Their computers were confiscated, and they were banned from contacting each other or trying to restore the data on their seized PCs. After a triumphalist press statement by the police, more activists were called in and interrogations are expected to widen further still.

In case you haven't guessed, the country where these events took place is Israel. The NGO in question is New Profile, a feminist organisation working against the IDF draft.

The targeting of New Profile, cynically timed to the eve of Israel's Memorial Day (on which most Israelis will have been remembering a loved one lost to conflict) is profoundly symbolic of the speed at which Israeli society is militarising yet further. New Profile claims that Israel is soaked in militarism; top-ranking retired generals run many private and governmental companies or serve in government, the education system and the army are joining forces to have one uniformed officer stationed in every high school in the country, and adverts and TV programmes feature much more uniformed characters than those of most ostensibly democratic nations.

And the pressure keeps piling up. For the first time, secular teenage girls objecting to the draft are being jailed. Religious teenagers, who until now had the easiest time avoiding draft through reasons of modesty and piety, are now being followed around by military police and private investigators, who photograph them kissing or wearing "immodest" clothing, and feed the racy pictures to the daily press.

The coercion, mounts up to a little-known but grisly statistic: the IDF, one of the most active armies in the industrialised world, loses more soldiers through suicide than in any other way, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to the IDF's own data, 205 soldiers died in Israeli military action or Palestinian attacks between 2000 and 2006, the anomaly of the second Lebanese war excluded. During the same period of time, 236 soldiers killed themselves. Human rights organisations suspect the latter number might be even higher. The most recent suicide in the IDF took place last Wednesday, and hardly got any coverage at all.

New Profile encourages critical thinking on the part of Israeli youths by exposing them to information about human rights abuses carried out by and within the IDF. Even more crucially, it provides free counselling to those wishing to become conscientious objectors, leave the army on grounds of mental health, or even to replace the draft by volunteering for national civic service.

For these sins, eight key activists have been detained for questioning, and the organisation's computers have been confiscated. On these are databases and correspondence containing personal information on thousands of Israeli young people, many of whom are politically active. The acquisition of this data by the police allows the state undreamt-of opportunities for political blackmail.

Such measures aren't confined to pesky NGOs. Take Jaffa actor and filmmaker Samieh Jabbarin, who demonstrated against a radical rightwing action in his home town in February. Jabbarin was put under house arrest, in his parents' town, away from his workplace and actual home. Yesterday his house arrest had clocked the 65th day – only to be extended by the court by five more months, until September 2009.

Neither is Jabbarin the only one to have been clearly signalled that rules for dissent are changing fast. Over 800 protesters, most of them Palestinian-Israelis, have been arrested during the war. Others, including a member of the Tel Aviv municipal council, have been summoned from their homes to several consecutive interrogations, both by police and the Shin Bet, which proceeded to threaten them with prosecution for abiding the enemy at a time of war. Arrested demonstrators found themselves facing an unprecedented threat of extended remands (traditionally, you are detained and released within 24 hours), based on suspicions of the "increased risk" they posed to public safety, on occasion supported by "secret evidence" the judges read but cannot disclose.

The more you zoom out, the bleaker the picture is. Over the past 18 months, many of the defences between civil liberties and state authorities have been methodically dismantled. A communications information amendment had been added to the Israeli criminal law in December 2007, allowing police and the general security service (Shin Bet) to acquire IP and cellphone serial numbers of just about anyone, bypassing the courts. A Biometric Database Act was launched last October, providing for an imprisonment to citizens who fail to supply their fingerprints once the data-gathering operation has begun. And perhaps the most important mechanism preserving Israel's creaky democracy, the supreme court, had been cowed by a sustained assault from the recently retired justice minister Dr Daniel Friedmann, who had been trying to increase government influence in the appointment of its judges and to bar the court from intervening in legislative matters. The latter is a crucial point, as Israel has no effective constitution to curb the whims and ambitions of gung-ho legislators. The change of government brought little relief, as a radically authoritarian and ethno-nationalist party (Yisrael Beiteinu) is now in control of the ministry of internal security, supervising the police.

Samieh Jabbarin had lost his freedom without having even been indicted. The New Profile activists could face up to 15 years imprisonment each for "inciting and abiding desertion at war" (legally, Israel is perpetually "at war"). And all this, of course, is peanuts compared to the suppression faced by activists in the West Bank , those who assist them, and by all who have the misfortune of living in the Gaza Strip.

The trouble with authoritarianism is that it doesn't always come at once; troops don't have to flood the streets, a grotesque dictator does not necessarily pop out in the middle of your evening news. These developments seem menacing when gathered in one article, but to most of us Israelis, especially those uninvolved politically, they are secondary news items at best, or else vaguely remembered as temporary and insignificant allowances made for our own safety. The same people who defend every Israeli folly by harping on about it being the only democracy in the Middle East, are tirelessly working to turn it into a caricature autocracy. Most depressingly, even the briefest of glances at comment threads on any Israeli news site suggests that through disinformation and fear-mongering, these efforts enjoy unwavering popular support. source

Another Day, Another Palestinian Shot

When, I say when, will the world,and America in particular because everyone else follows them, hold these murderers and maimers accountable? If you are an Israeli, you have a license to kill and a get out of jail free card, supplied by the USA for NOT forcing Israel to obey International law and UN resolutions. This Palestinian was on his OWN land, and Israel shot him twice! He is now in serious condition, just like Tristan Anderson, another innocent victim of the murdering scum.

Ramallah – Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian man in the shoulder during a raid on the West Bank village of Rantis, northwest of Ramallah, on Sunday afternoon.

Twenty-six-year-old Jamal Mustapha Hosheh was shot twice while he was on his land near the Israeli separation wall. He was taken to the Public Hospital in Ramallah, where medics labeled his condition serious. link