Israel cries 'havoc' and lets slip the dogs of hate and lies
Above, photo and caption posted by hebrewnationonline.com to illustrate Gazans celebrating kidnap of Israeli youths, June 17, 2014.
Above, photo published under headline “Palestinian Celebrate Kidnapping of Israeli Teens in Gaza” in Breaking Israel News, June 16, but accurately captioned “Palestinians celebrate the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement in Rafah, December 31, 2012.” The photo was originally published by the photographers’ agency Demotix on December31, 2012; its significance being that the founding of Fatah was being celebrated in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
AND read here the murderous hatred on Facebook, Patrick Strickland,EI, 1; bombing Gaza, 2; preparing for Gaza attack, 3; Hamas/PNA conflict over security co-ordination, 4,5, 6;
Kill a Palestinian “every hour,” says new Israeli Facebook page
Patrick Strickland, Electronic Intifada
June 16, 2014
The Facebook page’s main profile picture and background image show Palestinians as targets through the crosshairs of a gun.
More than 16,000 Israelis have joined a Facebook page that calls for the murder of a Palestinian every hour until three missing Israeli settler teens are located. The page is titled “Until the boys are back, every hour we shoot a terrorist.”
The page was launched as the Israeli army continued violent raids, curfews and closures across the occupied West Bank and shot dead Ahmad Sabarin, a Palestinian youth.
According to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency:
The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on its website that within hours of its creation, a Facebook page calling for the hourly assassination of Palestinian “terrorists” had reached 10,000 likes.
The Facebook page called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take responsibility instead of holding [Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud] Abbas responsible” for the allged kidnapping of three Israeli teens, Maariv reported.
The three missing settlers are Naftali Frankel, Eyal Yifrah (both 16) and Gilad Shaer (19), who reportedly went missing while hitchhiking between Jewish-only settlements in the Hebron area of the southern occupied West Bank late Thursday evening. Since that time, Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, have rushed to blame both the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority and Hamas, who recently signed a reconciliation agreement to end a seven-year division.
Israeli officials claim that Palestinian political organization Hamas kidnapped the missing boys, but a Hamas spokesperson denied involvement and dismissed the accusation as “stupid.” Israel has yet to produce evidence supporting its claims, though it has arrested dozens of Hamas officials and activists including the speaker and several elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in ongoing raids across the West Bank.
Dozens of photos and comments by both the page administrator and commenters offer a glimpse into the radical and violent anti-Palestinian climate in Israel. The dehumanization of Palestinians, including children, is common among Israelis on social media, especially Facebook users in Israel.
Resonating with reality
One of the photographs posted by the administrator reads, “Return to Jewish war ethics: kill or be killed.” At the bottom, the photo adds: “Kill a terrorist every hour.”
Top: “Return to Jewish war ethics: kill or be killed.” Bottom: “Kill a terrorist every hour.”
At the time of writing, the post had received more than six thousand Facebook likes and had more than one hundred comments, most of them supportive.
One commenter, Hariel Ben Michael, called for Israel to destroy entire Palestinian communities “every hour” until the missing boys “are released.”
His comments resonate with reality. Since its destruction of more than five hundred Palestinian villages and towns during the 1948 Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Israel has continued to demolish Palestinian homes and raze entire communities, particularly in places like the Jordan Valley region of the West Bank.
In Hebrew: “A friend suggested this idea: each hour that passes and the boys (may god protect them) are not released, we destroy a neighborhood in Hebron, and after we’re done with Hebron, we move to Ramallah then to Gaza, etc.”
“Get cancer”
An English-language commenter, Jordan Lerer, says he hopes Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip “get cancer” and “die with agony.” The picture he comments on shows many Palestinians between crosshairs of a gun and says, “kidnapped? kidnap!” — ostensibly calling for the kidnapping of Palestinians.
An English-language commenter hopes Palestinians in Gaza “get cancer” at a time when the Israeli military bombards the besieged coastal strip.
Lerner also comments that he has “no mercy” regarding the Israeli military’s treatment of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military has already bombed several areas in the Gaza Strip since the three boys went missing.
Crackdown
On Saturday evening, seven-year-old Ali al-Awour died as a result of injuries sustained by an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night. According to statistics from Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-Palestine), 1,405 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel since 2000.
Relatives carry the body of Ali al-Awour during his funeral in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, 14 June 2014. Photo by Ashraf Amra / APA images
After the Israeli settlers went missing on Thursday night, Israel’s occupation forces intensified their crackdown across the West Bank and continued bombing the Gaza Strip.
In the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli military last night reportedly injured two children and their father when soldiers “bombed open the door of [their] house,” according to Ma’an News Agency. That raid came only a day after Israel “detained eighty Palestinians across the West Bank,” as noted by another Ma’an article.
Israel’s crackdown has focused on the southern part of the West Bank, mostly in and around Hebron. As of Sunday, Hebron residents were banned from leaving the West Bank, Maan reported.
A Palestinian kisses the face of Ahmad Sabarin, 20, who medics said was killed by the Israeli army in a raid on al-Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah, 16 June 2014. (Issam Rimawi / APA images)
Overnight on Sunday, the military also raided the Jalazone refugee camp near the central West Bank city of Ramallah and shot and killed 20-year-old Ahmad Sabarin.
Michael Ben Ari, a former member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, also called for the assassination of Palestinians while speaking to Hebrew-language media. Israel ought to “kill terrorists in public hangings,” Ben Ari said.
“Sit in the dark”
Another alarming Facebook page, created yesterday, is named “If our boys are sitting in the dark, Palestinians will also sit in the dark.”
With more than three thousand members, the page calls for Israel to cut off all electricity to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Due to Israel’s suffocating restrictions, both regions are dependent on Israel for electricity.
This photograph calls for Israel to cut off electricity and water to Palestinians and to further limit their ability to move freely.
One photograph posted on the page (above) called for Israel to inflict “collective punishment” on Palestinians by ending their electricity and water supplies and increasing restrictions on movement.
A petition was also launched on Sunday demanding that Israel cut off Palestinians’ access to electricity. As of Monday morning, it had already received more than one thousand signatures.
Due to Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza, approximately 1.7 million residents of the coastal enclave have suffered deteriorating conditions over the last few years as a result of the lack of gas and electricity.
Dehumanization
This is not the first time Israelis have used social media to call for violence against Palestinians, including children. As Israel’s political establishment grows even more rightwing, much of the general population has embraced the increasingly anti-Palestinian climate.
As Rania Khalek recently reported for The Electronic Intifada, a Facebook page supporting an Israeli soldier who was filmed pointing his gun at a Palestinian child’s face received more than 129,000 likes.
In February 2013, Ali Abunimah exposed an Israeli soldier’s violent pictures on the photo-sharing website Instragram. One of his pictures showed a Palestinian child as a target between the crosshairs of a rifle.
Since then, The Electronic Intifada has time and again brought to light the dehumanization of Palestinians and pervasive racism displayed by Israelis on social media outlets.
Israel launches airstrikes in Gaza, 6 injured
By Maan news
June 20, 2014
GAZA CITY — Israeli air forces launched a series of airstrikes on several targets across the Gaza Strip early Friday, leaving six Palestinians injured.
Local sources told Ma’an that air forces targeted a steel structure near an Islamic religious compound in al-Zaitoun neighborhood of Eastern Gaza City, starting a fire in the area.
Spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra said that six injuries were reported injured as a result of the raid, four of which were children.
Al-Qidra added that the six were taken to the hospital with “minor” wounds from shrapnel and glass fragments.
Airstrikes also targeted the “Al-Fajr” site belonging to the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, near al-Matahen area in the city of Deir al-Balah.
Local sources said no injuries were reported in that strike.
Israeli air forces launched another airstrike in an open area in eastern Rafah, no injuries were reported.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the strikes came in response to two rockets launched from Gaza late Thursday, one which hit an open area near Sderot and the other which was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system.
Israeli forces “targeted three concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza strip, a terror site in the central Gaza strip and a weapon storage facility in the southern Gaza Strip,” the statement said, confirming direct hits.
Anticipating Gaza Flare-Up, Iron Dome Deployed in Coastal Region
IDF prepares for Gaza escalation; confirms kidnapping conducted by Hamas terrorists in Judea and Samaria without orders from Gaza.
By Kobi Finkler, Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva
June 18, 2014
The IDF prepared to station Iron Dome anti-missile defense units in the coastal region of Ashdod and Tel Aviv on Wednesday, even as an explosive placed on the Gaza security barrier by terrorists was caught and detonated.
IDF forces neutralized the explosive early Wednesday afternoon, on the barrier in the southern part of Gaza. The bomb was detonated on the western side of the barrier, namely inside Gaza, by security forces in a controlled manner, causing no injuries or damage.
The incident highlights the security threat from the Hamas-enclave of Gaza, which has been the source of a constant stream of rocket fire since the three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped last Thursday.
A senior IDF source said Wedneday that the army now knows with a certainty that the kidnapping was conducted by Hamas terrorists known to the security system in Judea and Samaria, without the aid of Hamas in Gaza.
The source said that a kidnapping of such a large scale requires many collaborators, look-outs and funding sources. He added that while a clear order was not given by Hamas necessarily, Hamas leader Halad Mashaal’s call from Qatar to free the jailed terrorists from Israeli prisons set in motion planning for the kidnapping.
While the kidnappers operated from the Hevron mountains in Judea, south of Jerusalem and south of the spot in Gush Etzion where the teens were abducted, their comrades in Gaza are likely to cooperate by launching a missile barrage the source [said]. Therefore, he added that the IDF is preparing to deploy Iron Dome units in Ashdod, as well as the Gush Dan coastal region of Tel Aviv.
Lots of information, but still no location
Speaking about the re-arrest Wednesday morning of 51 terrorists freed in the Gilad Shalit trade, the source said “those of the 100 ‘heavy’ terrorists that had blood on their hands and were released to Judea and Samaria were among arrested last night by IDF forces.”
“They will be brought before a judging committee to check if they kept the conditions of the deal. All of them, being Hamas terrorists that were formerly imprisoned, will do everything to release their jailed compatriots,” said the senior source.
The source added that the IDF continues to work under the supposition that the three kidnapped teenagers are still alive, even though the specific location where they are being held captive remains unknown.
“We have lots of information, there’s a real effort made in investigations, and a military effort, and the military actions are meaningful even though we still have not achieved the information about the location of the kidnapped and the kidnappers,” added the source.
When asked why the Hamas terrorists behind the kidnapping still have not claimed credit for the attack, the source estimated that they are highly afraid of the large IDF operation, and likely will only take credit in “another week or month or more.”
As for the funding for the IDF operations searching intensively throughout Judea and Samaria, the source said the operation was part of the IDF budget and they would not be requesting additional funds from the Ministry of Finance.
Hamas: Expelling West Bank leadership would ‘open gates of hell’
Hamas says Palestinian Authority’s continuation of security coordination with Israel a crime which violates reconciliation understandings.
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz
June 19, 2014
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that if Israel realizes its threat of expelling Hamas heads from the West Bank to Gaza, Israel would be “opening the gates of hell.’
In a press conference held in Gaza, Abu Zuhri said Hamas is able to contend with Israel, adding that this would be made clear to Netanyahu in the coming days.
He also called the continuation of the security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel a crime and a severe violation of the Cairo agreement, which served as the basis for Palestinian reconciliation agreement.
The PA president’s positions, said Abu Zuhri, do not reflect the ones held by the Palestinian public – or even the ones held by Fatah prisoners and casualties.
“The Intifada is the greatest event in the history of the Palestinian people, and it renews itself every time there is an escalation in Israel’s aggression. Resistance through every channel is the legitimate right of the Palestinian people, to liberate the land, the holy places, and the prisoners.”
Abu Zuhri demanded the Palestinian unity government take responisibility, and protect Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, and called on Arab nations, Islamic nations, and the rest of the international community to “stop Israeli aggression.”
Abbas condemns ‘collective punishment’ policy
Meanwhile, Abbas’ office condemned in a statement what it deemed Israel’s policy of collective punishment in the West Bank and especially in the Hebron region, where it said Israel is imposing a siege on tens of thousands residents who have nothing to do with its security concerns,
The statement also condemned the arrests being made by Israel, including those of the prisoners released as part of the Shalit deal.
“The policy of collective punishment imposed by the Israeli government is a violation of the international law, and calls for intervention on behalf of the international community, not only in verbal condemnation, but by applying pressure on Israel, in every means possible, so it stops its illegitimate, inhumane policy. ”
Abbas’ office also condemned the drive to legalize the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners. “The Palestinians remain committed to the peace process and a just solution, but do not accept that this commitment be used as a cover for the continuation of Israel’s policy of repression and aggression towards the Palestinian people.
One week since kidnapping
The statements came exactly one week since three Israeli teens were kidnapped while hitchhiking in the West Bank. Israeli security forces have since rounded up 280 Palestinians as part of Operation Brother’s Keeper, a massive effort to return the teens.
More than 50 of those arrested were among the 1,027 prisoners freed by Israel in 2011 as part of an exchange deal to free Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Kidnapping Crisis Rocks Palestinian Unity Gov’t, as Fatah Officials Lash Out at Hamas
By Omri Ceren, The Tower
June 18, 2014
Officials from the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority (PA) — including President Mahmoud Abbas — have spent recent days openly lashing out against the rival Hamas faction as evidence continued to emerge – acknowledged by the Americans, by the Israelis, and by Fatah officials themselves – that the terror group was linked to last Thursday’s abduction of three Israeli teenagers traveling through the West Bank.
The crisis comes just a weeks after Abbas inked a unity pact with Hamas leaders under which they agreed to the formation of a consensus government that would have jurisdiction over both the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip and over Fatah-controlled portions of the West Bank. The subsequent formation of the new cabinet generated substantial controversy and cost Abbas and his international supporters significant political and diplomatic capital, but eventually Western governments – including the Obama administration – had decided to continue supporting Ramallah.
Washington had in particular worked closely with PA officials to avoid running afoul of U.S. laws restricting aid to governments that include Hamas.
Fatah figures are now said to be seething over what they consider to be something between recklessness and betrayal on the part of Hamas. Abbas publicly condemned the abductions on Monday. Veteran Arab affairs reporter Avi Issacharoff has since that condemnation published a series of articles quoting Abbas’s allies conveying open anger and promises of retribution. A Monday afternoon article contained accusations that ‘Hamas was trying to undermine the relative peace in the West Bank and foment unrest against both Israel and the Palestinian Authority’:
In off-the-record conversations, confidants of Abbas’s say that Hamas will pay a steep price for the kidnapping — beyond the massive Israeli operation to recover the abductees, Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel — in the form of punitive steps with which the PA plans to target Hamas in Gaza.
A story published by Issacharoff a few hours later confirmed Hamas’s involvement in the abductions and quoted a Fatah source insisting that Hamas had promised not to engage in violent operations as a condition for the unity pact. The same source emphasized that “if it becomes clear that Hamas is responsible for the kidnapping and breached the agreement, that would mark the crossing of a red line from our point of view, and we could not maintain the reconciliation status quo.”
A day later Issacharoff published an article seemingly confirming that Fatah had taken steps to roll back the reconciliation:
Following statements made Monday by a senior Palestinian official, who told The Times of Israel that if it was proved that Hamas was behind the kidnappings the PA would reevaluate the unity pact, the Palestinian government convened on Tuesday and decided that it would continue to refrain from paying the salaries of former Hamas government officials, some 40,000 in number.
The salaries issue was a focus of tension between Hamas and Fatah after the reconciliation agreement was signed, and banks in the Gaza Strip were closed for six days after the Hamas worker’s salaries were not transferred.
Additionally, Fatah has stopped holding deliberations and meetings of the committee that is to examine the integration of Hamas into PLO institutions, and has decided not to convene the Palestinian parliament, which was to occur in another three weeks’ time.
In bid for Palestinian street, Hamas gambles all
The Gaza-based group ended the unity pact with Abbas — and risked Israel’s wrath — when it kidnapped the three youths
By Avi Issacharoff, Times of Israel
June 16, 2014
The timing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s condemnation Monday morning of the kidnapping of three Israeli youths is no coincidence; nor is the timing of his telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Over the preceding 48 hours, it seems, something has shifted in the upper echelons of the PA and Abbas’s Fatah party. Essentially, Abbas has come to realize that the recently inked unity pact with Hamas ended at the moment of the abduction.
In off-the-record conversations, confidants of Abbas’s say that Hamas will pay a steep price for the kidnapping — beyond the massive Israeli operation to recover the abductees, Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel — in the form of punitive steps with which the PA plans to target Hamas in Gaza.
Since its announcement in April, analysts have been seeing the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement as a gamble, due to both Israel’s outright rejection of it and the US’s ambiguous stance (Washington has maintained that it will continue to work with the PA, although it still considers Hamas as a terror organization). And yet Abbas decided to proceed and check, for the umpteenth time since the Palestinian rift of 2007, whether reconciliation with Hamas was possible.
For him, it was practically personal – a matter of critical import.
It was on his watch that the Hamas government of Gaza splintered from that of Fatah, in the West Bank, and he hoped that before his presidential term ran out he would succeed in restoring Palestinian unity.
Yet, from the moment the agreement was finalized, some two weeks before the kidnapping on Thursday, Abbas’s security forces realized that Hamas was trying to undermine the relative peace in the West Bank and foment unrest against both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The prisoners’ hunger strike, in that regard, became a tool with which Hamas instigated protests, capitalizing on the public’s sentiment to boost its own standing as the protector of the inmates, while weakening Fatah.
Hence the relatively intensive action by PA security forces in the days leading up to the kidnapping against Hamas activists. Palestinian police arrested several Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists, while breaking up Hamas-organized protests “in solidarity with the hunger strikers.”
And then came the kidnapping.
History has shown that the immediate aftermath of such actions sees a surge in support for Hamas. Even in Hebron, where residents are being forced to contend with an IDF-imposed curfew that has denied them access to Israel and Jordan, the kidnapping is perceived as an act of valor. The question is whether the Palestinians in the city will continue to see the kidnappers as heroes if the curfew drags on for a month or more, taking a big bite out of their livelihood. Hebron is often described as the commercial capital of the West Bank, and an extended curfew could spell economic disaster for its residents.
Meanwhile, reactions to the kidnapping among Hamas’s leaders have been tentative and garbled. Alongside their statements praising the “operation,” officials have asserted that they have no information about the attack. Perhaps they’re telling the truth; most complex actions executed by Hamas are managed by the organization’s military wing, which doesn’t furnish its political echelon with any details. And yet, Hamas leaders are painfully aware that, whatever befalls the three Israeli youths, they could eventually pay for it with their own lives.
One must note that, so far, there’s nothing to indicate that the kidnappers are seeking to trade the teens for Palestinian prisoners. The kidnappers haven’t made approaches to anyone — in Israel, the PA or elsewhere – with the intention of negotiating for their release. Even Egypt, long considered the go-to negotiator between Israel and Hamas in such situations, hasn’t received any word. The passage of time only exacerbates fears for the fate of the kidnapped youths, and sharpens the prediction that Israel is hurtling toward a massive conflict with Gaza.
Journalists lament PA silence as Israel bans Gaza papers
By Ma’an news
June 14, 2014
GAZA CITY — Palestinian journalists on Thursday urged the newly-formed national unity government to respond to Israel’s decision to prohibit the printing and distribution of Gaza-based newspapers in the West Bank.
“Do we need an Israeli presidential decree to be able to print newspapers in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority?” editor-in-chief of al-Risalah newspaper wrote on Thursday in exasperation over the lack of PA response.
On May 28, Israeli soldiers raided the Ramallah offices of the PA-affiliated al-Ayyam newspaper, telling managers that Israel would not allow them to distribute the Hamas-affiliated Falastin, Al-Risalah, and Al-Istiqlal newspapers in the West Bank.
The Israeli raid undermined an inter-Palestinian deal that aimed to ensure freedom of press by facilitating the sale of Gaza newspapers in the West Bank and vice-versa.
Political analyst Wisam Afifa criticized the Palestinian national consensus government for its unwillingness to stand up to Israel’s attack on Palestinian free speech.
“We consider that by remaining silent, the government actually accepts the Israeli decision to ban the printing of Gaza newspapers,” he told Ma’an.
He highlighted that managers of the Gaza newspapers had contacted the Palestinian government spokesperson Eyhab Bseso over the issue, but nothing had been done.
“So far, there has been no comment on the prohibition, and we expect a serious and real response to these violations, especially from President Abbas,” added Afifa.
Similarly, the editor-in-chief of al-Istiqlal newspaper criticized the Palestinian Authority and the national consensus government for not taking any action against Israel’s decision to ban Gaza newspapers in the West Bank.
Tawfiq al-Sayyid Salim has said that he views the Israeli decision to ban Gaza newspapers as a humiliation to President Abbas himself, belittling his authority.
In December, the Foreign Press Association accused the Israeli army of “deliberately targeting” journalists after soldiers fired rubber bullets and threw stun grenades at photojournalists clearly identified as press.
The Tel Aviv-based group, which represents journalists of all foreign media, said troops had directly targeted a group of photographers covering clashes at the Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
A 2013 report by Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms counted 151 violations of Palestinian freedom of speech by Israeli authorities, including incidents of “physical assault, detention, arrest, prevention from coverage, travel bans, interrogation, threat, raiding, closing and blocking, trial, and confiscation of equipment.”
The report also mentioned 78 violations by Palestinian authorities, primarily in the Gaza Strip, though these numbers are believed to be improving particularly since the the agreement to form a national unity government was made at the end of April.