The exchange supposedly took place the morning after the Storming of the Bastille in Paris in 1789. King Louis XVI asked the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, “Is it a revolt?” to which the duke replied: “No sire, it’s not a revolt; it’s a revolution.”
The doomed king appears naïve and stupid in this exchange – unaware of what was happening around him. The same surely cannot be the case in the Israeli media’s depiction of the uprising in Jenin as ‘terrorism’. According to today’s press release from Gush Shalom (the Israeli Peace Bloc), this isn’t terrorism. It’s a revolution.
Gush Shalom statement July 3, 2023
This is not an “anti-terror operation”, it is an attempt to suppress an uprising – but the Palestinians of Jenin are determined to be a free people in their country. All the might and power of the IDF will not be enough to remove from their hearts the desire for freedom.
Since this morning, the Israel media is full of endless talk about an “anti-terror operation”. But this is not at all the correct term to describe the invasion and bombing of the Jenin Refugee Camp by the State of Israel and its army. The correct and accurate term is that this is an attempt to suppress an uprising.
The residents of Jenin, more than in all other Palestinian cities, are fed up with the oppressive Israeli occupation rule that has lasted for fifty-six years already, and are determined to rebel and become a free people in their own country. All the might and power of the IDF, the strongest army in the Middle East, will not be enough to uproot from the hearts of the young people of Jenin the natural and self-evident desire for freedom and liberty.
Suffice it to mention that twenty years ago, during the celebrated “Defensive Wall Operation”, the seed of the army went on a rampage in the Jenin refugee camp, killing many of its inhabitants and loosing the bulldozers to and destroy a large part of the refugee camp – yet by now the destroyed houses that were destroyed were rebuilt and a new generation of Jenin residents returned to the struggle. And so it will continue until a peace-loving government is established in Israel that would dare to take the only necessary and unavoidable decision – to end the occupation, withdraw the army and allow the Palestinians to establish their own independent state alongside the State of Israel.
The organizers of the mass protests against the government’s so-called “Judicial reform” should be condemned for continuing to ignore the elephant in the middle of the room, the elephant of the occupation. Even on this day, they hold militant protest actions solely against legislative initiatives designed to harm Israeli democracy and enfeeble the Supreme Court of the State of Israel – without paying any attention to the fact that in Jenin, on which Israeli rule is being imposed by brutal military force, there is not even an iota of democracy.
To the credit of the protest organizers, it should be noted that they do not heed “patriotic” calls by right wingers and do not hesitate to persist with today’s mass demonstrations and the blocking of the seaport of Haifa and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. They did in no way stop their uncompromising struggle against the government of Israel, even when this government sent “our soldiers” to fight in Jenin. Anyway, among the protesters the suspicion is growing that the timing of this “operation” in Jenin was deliberately chosen for exactly the same day that the major protest actions were planned throughout Israel. Given the nature of the current Israeli government and the people who set its tone, there are real grounds for such suspicions.
Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson +972-(0)54-2340749
Filed under israel and palestine articles, israel and palestine conflict by on Jul 5th, 2023. Comment. 
It’s the 75th anniversary of Al-Nakba this year, and things never appear to have been worse for the Palestinian people.
The On-Going Palestinian Nakba
By Jafar M Ramini
May 15th, is the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe). And counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation, with Jews, often of dual nationality, from around the world, continues more aggressively than ever. So does the building of illegal settlements to house those interlopers. They too are still going on apace with no end in sight.
Add to that toxic mix, the total indifference of western leaders and the conniving and betrayal of some Arab leaders, not to mention the shameful capitulation and collaboration of the Palestinian Authority and the picture is complete.
Try as I may to look for the infamous light at the end of the long, dark tunnel, I can’t find even the tiniest glimmer.
And I haven’t even got around to mentioning the Israeli prisons which are full of Palestinian men, women and children, tortured and held in disgusting conditions without charge or legal recourse. As if all of this was not enough to emphasise the cruelty and inhumanity of the occupation of our land, the longest in history, the Israeli Occupation Forces continue to raid, unhindered, cities, towns and villages all over Palestine. And what does the ‘free, democratic world’ do about it? This is but a small example of what they do.
The President of the European Commission, Madame Ursula Von der Leyen lauded Israel’s democracy and its ties to Europe.
“Today, we celebrate 75 years of vibrant democracy in the heart of the Middle East,” the German politician said. “We also celebrate 75 years of friendship between Israel and Europe,” pointing out that; “We have more in common than geography would suggest: our shared culture, our values and hundreds of thousands of dual European-Israeli citizens have created a deep connection between us.”
Really, Mme Von der Leyen? Shared values? Is the European Union proud to share with the Israeli Government the concentration camps and the ghettos Israel created for us Palestinians, in our own land? Is Israel’s ‘Administrative Detention policy’ which allows the imprisonment of Palestinians, men, women and children, indefinitely, without charge or legal representation, or even family visits, one that Europe might embrace? Is this what you might call a shared value?
read the rest of this article here
Filed under Israel and Palestine, israel and palestine articles by on May 24th, 2023. Comment.
source: Mehr News (www.mehrnews.com…), licensed under a Creative Commons
So often I have heard people say, “if only the Palestinians would use non-violence as their form of protest, the world would listen.” Khader Adnan, a Palestinian baker, died due to his hunger strike – the same form of non-violent resistance used by Gandhi. Is anyone listening?
An excerpt from:
Khader Adnan, who yearned to live free, dies in Israeli prison
by Tamara Nassar
Palestinian writer Yousef Aljamal recalled speaking to Adnan by phone in 2021 while co-editing with Norma Hashim the book, A Shared Struggle—Stories of Palestinian & Irish Republican Hunger Strikers.
“I remember his voice was very weak and he was barely able to talk due to his illness and the damage his vocal cords suffered from past hunger strikes,” Aljamal wrote in a tribute to Adnan.
But if Israel broke and finally destroyed Adnan physically, it did not do so spiritually.
“Our freedom is the most precious thing we have,” Adnan explained in an essay published in the book.
“Being locked in a dark dungeon, where Israeli soldiers beat my chained body was deeply humiliating and oppressing,” Adnan said. “Their punches and their weapons have left permanent scars on my body. Their barbarism itself stood before me, literally.”
“Freedom beckoned me from the moment I was first imprisoned, it haunted me. My quest for liberty also drove me to bolster the morale of my friends and brothers.”
By waging his hunger strikes, Adnan said he was determined “to teach the occupiers a lesson in dignity and defiance.”
He also recalled how his captors moved his “weak, faint and emaciated body from one prison to another.”
“Their hatred, oppression and brutality still live with me,” he said. “They pretend to act humanely in front of the rest of the world, but they don’t.”
Adnan never lost sight of what motivated him: his devotion to his people, his land and his family.
“During my struggle I occupied my mind by recalling the sun on the distant green lands. I missed most of all the feel of grains of sand, the scent of the almond and lemon trees,” he said.
“I demanded to go home, to my family, to my daughters, who had spent long periods of their childhoods without me since I was jailed.”
read this article in full here.
Filed under Israel and Palestine, israel and palestine conflict by on May 9th, 2023. Comment.
Nablus 2022
An increase in violence across the West Bank appears as the natural outcome of the far-right policies of the new Israeli government. More settlements are being approved, unrest builds, and the US continues to block all censure of the Israeli government by the UN.
Even so, it isn’t clear how much longer the Netanyahu government will be able to act like this with impunity. The recent reproachment between Iran and Saudi Arabia signals a dramatic shift in the balance of power in the region. It is not a shift that bodes well for the state of Israel, though it may also drive extremists to want to accelerate the process of annexing Palestinian land and the subjugating its people.
The following article, published in Countercurrent.org…, details a terrible example of the larger crisis:
Israel kills 11 in daytime raid on Nablus
By Maureen Clare Murphy
Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, including a boy and at least two men over the age of 60, during a daytime raid in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday.
More than 100 others were injured, several of them critically, the vast majority by live ammunition, suggesting a further loosening of Israel’s already permissive open fire regulations.
Israeli forces stormed Nablus’ bustling downtown in the mid-morning and besieged a home in which three Palestinian resistance activists were killed, according to media reports.
A military correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 news said that occupation forces applied the “pressure cooker” procedure, a form of extrajudicial execution.
Under that procedure, occupation forces fire progressively more powerful weapons at the targeted building in an effort to force those inside to surrender. If they refuse to do so, the occupation forces demolish the building, killing all those inside.
Video shows smoke rising from the besieged home in Nablus on Wednesday after it was hit by anti-tank missiles:
Israel released body cam footage recorded during the raid, showing its forces targeting and blowing up the home:
Israeli media reported that the military aimed to arrest three Palestinians “involved in the planning of shooting attacks” in the future and the shooting death of a soldier near a settlement last October.
The three reportedly targeted men – Muhammad Abdalghani Abdalfattah, 23, Walid Dakhil, 26 and Hussam Isleem, 24 – were killed, along with Adnan Saba Baara, 72, Muhammad Khalid Anbusi, 25, Tamer Nimer Minawi, 33, Musab Munir Muhammad Uweis, 26, Abdelaziz Ashqar, 65, Muhammad Farid Muhammad Haj Ahmad, 16 and Yasir Jamil Abdalwahab Qanir, 23.
Palestinian media outlets reported late Wednesday that an older man died from his injuries after inhaling tear gas during the raid.
Read the rest of this article here.
Filed under israel and palestine articles by on Apr 26th, 2023. Comment.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
While the Western church celebrated Good Friday, it was a bitter Friday indeed for the Palestinians of East Jerusalem. It was the third Friday of Ramadan, and Muslim worshippers went to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque but were prevented entry, and a number were beaten by Israeli Police. Street vendors and shopkeepers were also attacked by Police.
At the same time, Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, leaked a recording in which he said, “There’s nothing we can do. They murder. It’s in their nature. That’s the mentality of the Arabs.” Given the history of racial persecution and religious oppression experienced by the Jewish people, it is hard to believe that any representative of the State or Israel could speak like this.
The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People released the following statement on Wednesday, 05 April 2023
BUREAU CONDEMS ISRAEL FORCES INTRUSION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIAN WORSHIPERS IN HOLY SITES IN JERUSALEM
Following is a statement by the General Assembly Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, issued today:
The Bureau of the United Nations General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People condemns the raid by Israeli Forces inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound/Al-Haram Al-Sharif on 4 April 2023, which resulted in hundreds of Palestinian worshippers beaten, injured and detained while also causing damage to the building of the al-Qibli mosque. This violence is particularly egregious during a time of heightened religious sensitivity with the observance of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter.
Israel’s illegal policies and practices have continued to entrench its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory it has occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, with the Gaza Strip additionally severely isolated under a nearly 16-year blockade. Since the start of 2023, Israel has increased its military operations inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, resulting in the killing of at least 95 Palestinians, including 17 children. The Bureau calls for accountability for all of these violations.
The Bureau reiterates its calls for respect of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Israel must comply with its international legal obligations, including in accordance with UN resolutions. The Bureau also reiterates its calls for respect of the historical status quo of the Holy Sites, respect for the sanctity of all places of worship, and for a halt of provocations by Israeli forces and incitement by extremist Israeli settlers in and around them. Furthermore, the Bureau calls for respect the freedom of all worshippers to access the religious sites in accordance with established parameters.
Finally, the Bureau calls on leaders to exert influence and ensure de-escalation and calm during religious festivities. The Bureau believes that a just and lasting peace will only be achieved with the end of Israel’s occupation, the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the Palestine refugees and the achievement of the two-State solution according to international law and past agreements resulting in the independence of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Filed under israel and palestine articles by on Apr 11th, 2023. Comment.
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