Out of Control Israel Must Be Reined in by the Nations of the World: BDS
There is only one way by which the leaders of Israel will change and that is when they are forced to change; only when they have no other recourse and have no other options.
By Michael Payne
[T]he world is experiencing deja vu as nations watch Israel’s ongoing oppression and suppression of the people of Palestine that is, once again, taking a very tenuous situation and escalating it into a bloodbath. It does not take much for the Israeli government to erupt and unleash its massive power on people who now have become little more than sitting ducks in a shooting gallery.
Israel today is following in the footsteps of South Africa when that nation’s government was pursuing its system of apartheid that involved the segregation and suppression of its black population. The world had watched the cruel and very often violent actions by this government with great trepidation and revulsion and had great empathy for the oppressed. Then, after South Africa resisted all efforts to end that apartheid, the world responded with powerful boycotts and sanctions.
That boycott movement began in the 1970’s and ended in 1994; individuals, organizations, national governments, and the United Nations initiated sanctions and embargoes that involved military supplies, raw materials, together with cultural and sports restrictions against the government of South Africa. Both exports to and imports from that nation were severely restricted.
Israel continues its relentless building of new settlements in Palestinian territories, erecting fences and walls, penning up its people in smaller and smaller areas like animals, hardly allowing them room to breathe; cruel and absolutely unconscionable. Israel has carried out a land, sea and air blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007, preventing all sorts of essential goods from entering. But, though its leaders continue to be heavily criticized by nations and leaders around the world, including weak, meaningless admonitions by the U.S. government, they have made it clear that they have no intention of backing off this highly aggressive agenda.
To see how the situation in Israel has evolved over decades, since that nation was created as a state in 1948, go to this link which shows how dramatically the territories controlled by Israel and Palestine have changed in size from 1946 to 2000. Look at the areas in brown, Palestinian territory, versus the white, that of Israel, and see how, over this period of time, the Palestinian portion has been so drastically reduced. Pictures are worth a thousand words and these maps illustrate perfectly how Israel has taken control of nearly the entire country.
When we think of all the cruelty that is involved with this suffocating system there is one act that stands out as one of the most egregious. That act involved Israeli commandos boarding ships of the Gaza bound Freedom Flotilla in 2010. In that confrontation eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish American were killed and many others were wounded. This was an illegal act committed in international waters but Israel was never properly taken to task for these vile acts and its government continues to deny that it did anything wrong.
Take your pick in describing the Israel of today; it’s a rogue state, an apartheid state or a pariah state or, according to many close observers, it’s all three rolled into one.
I can understand the paranoia that seems to be embedded in the psyche of the state of Israel based on the horrendous atrocities that were perpetrated against its people in the past. The Holocaust is an event in history that must never be forgotten. But the one lesson that this part of history should teach us all is that seeking vengeance for those kinds of inhuman atrocities by using an ongoing agenda of extreme oppression and suppression of others is not the answer.
Many of those who strongly support Israel in this ongoing struggle point out that the Palestinians, in particular Hamas, are just as guilty of creating this situation because they also initiate violence and destruction. And to some degree they are exactly right. But we need to understand just what’s going on here. When people are under constant, intense, relentless pressure and tightly controlled, when they are deprived of many of the essentials of life, when they feel completely hopeless and have nowhere to turn for relief, what do we think they are going to do? At some point some of them will erupt in total frustration and vent their anger by violence of their own.
There is only one way by which the leaders of Israel will change and that is when they are forced to change; only when they have no other recourse and have no other options. Its government can continue to resist change but eventually it will have no other choice but to reverse its policies and greatly temper its aggressiveness; for if it doesn’t then it’s only a matter of time until the increasing level of boycotts, divestments and sanctions by a multitude of countries will begin to adversely affect its exports and imports, its economy, its GDP and the quality of life of its citizens.
Only the collective power generated by the nations of the world will put an end to this deplorable situation. There is no need for any of these nations to use any form of military force; that has no place here. But the force they need to use is their direct involvement in the BDS movement; they must exercise the force generated by world boycotts, divestment of their interests in Israel, and the application of very strong sanctions against the Israeli government.
This movement continues to gather momentum; so far in 2014 both the U.S. Presbyterian General Assembly and the United Methodist’s Pension board have divested themselves of monetary interests in Israel. That’s great progress but many more organizations, religious or otherwise in this country and around the world, must join in this process and send a clear message to the Israeli leaders that if they continue on this totally misguided path they will, in the eyes of the world, become a pariah state, one that will become more and more isolated.
Slowly but surely monumental pressure from this movement will take its toll on Israel’s government, and its leaders will be made to understand that they can no longer pursue this contemptible agenda against the Palestinians. It will be painful for the people of Israel but, in the longer term, it could be the best thing to happen to that country in order to some day return it to being a respected member of the international community.
And as this BDS movement continues to recruit additional member nations, it will become apparent that the United States government, which has been and continues to be the staunch defender and apologist for the Israeli government, no matter what cruel acts it commits against the people of Palestine, will have no say in how other nations bring Israel under control.
If this current extremely volatile situation with these attacks on Gaza continues to intensify it is entirely possible that Hezbollah in Lebanon, at some point, might enter the fray and use its formidable military power against Israel; if that comes to pass we may well see the Middle East erupt in a massive regional war. Hezbollah is now so powerful that Israel’s top military commander, General Benny Gantz, has stated “that Hezbollah is now more powerful than most of the world’s armies.”
Hezbollah is the Lebanese Shiite paramilitary and political organization that battled and held Israel to a standstill in 2006; it is far more powerful now than it was then, with an extensive arsenal of sophisticated missiles and other weaponry that poses a tremendous danger to Israel should it be used to launch attacks in support of the besieged Palestinians.
South Africa would, to this day, be the same apartheid state that it was decades ago had not the nations of the world, collectively and individually, engaged in a massive world boycott which eventually brought the government of South Africa to its knees so that it had no other choice but that to submit to these nations’ demands. There is no question that this current BDS movement and strategy will eventually work against Israel; it worked in South Africa and it will work in the case of Israel.
But in the meantime, because of this increasing turmoil that could get out of control, the United Nations should immediately convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and have its members come up with specific recommendations for bringing this situation under control. One way to do this is by having its most powerful, influential nations collectively demand that Israel immediately stop the carnage. One way or another the UN and these same nations better do something and do it soon or they may see the Middle East erupt in flames should Hezbollah decide to launch attacks on Israel.
There is no “peace process.” There is peace… and the absence of peace— The gnawing hunger for it, The desperation of the vanquished. Does the peace dove fly with a shattered wing? The shattered wing is the wing of war. War is a sieve capturing humanity. Blood seeps out of the mouths of the sieve. How does one speak to a four-year-old child Of processes, politics, quid pro quos? No mother dresses the wounds of the child. Her mother’s eyes stare in wonder forever. And we wonder: Do laws since time immemorial, All proclamations, all declarations Matter in the eyes of a hurt, dying child? Have men proven their manhood again in her eyes? Fearing not following. Platitudes murder For the sake of murdering—for fools In high places and fools following. No one dare speak the Truth of the soul. The tax-paying herd takes succor in soccer. My team, my tribe, my country, myself—nothing Else matters, no one else counts, unseeing The eyes of a child looking in wonder: What did she do to bring on such anger? What did her mother do, staring forever? Why is her father so still in the rubble? War crimes and genocide, honor, dishonor. Where to begin, where does it end? All the entanglements—hatred and loving. How does one speak to a four-year-old child Of processes, politics, quid pro quos? With all the lexicons, all the professors— No one has learned the language of children. ∞ ABOUT THE AUTHOR BARRY GREY, wsws.org There is a close connection between the violence being carried out by the Israeli government against the defenseless population in Gaza and the emergence of fascistic elements within Israel capable of such bestial crimes. These events are symptomatic of an immense social and political crisis within Israel itself. The unending and escalating repression of the Palestinian people requires the mobilization of the most reactionary forces. Israeli society is immensely polarized. Broad sections of Israeli society oppose the brutality against the Palestinians as morally unjustifiable and politically bankrupt, but they find no representation in Israel’s reactionary political establishment. Every year, thousands of Israelis vote with their feet and leave the country. The ongoing bombardment of Gaza is the latest chapter in a 66-year history of violence against the Palestinian people. Israel was established through the seizure of Palestinian land and the expulsion of its people. While many Jewish people came to Israel to escape the horrific crimes committed against them in fascist Europe during World War II, the tragic outcome of the Zionist project is a state that commits crimes against the Palestinian people recalling many of the methods employed by the Nazis. Nearly a half-century has passed since the Six Day War of June 1967, in which Israel seized control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, Syria’s Golan Heights and other Arab territories. The Zionist regime has been defined by the unending cycle of war, occupation and repression unleashed by this war. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. Israel has made permanent the refugee status of millions of Palestinians and subjected generations of people to poverty and repression. This history has had terrible consequences for the people of the region, both Jewish and Arab. Israeli leaders boast of being the only “democratic” country in the Middle East. This is a lie. It is a country based on the repression of millions of Palestinians enforced by militarized checkpoints and walls running through the Occupied Territories, and the domination of public life by a handful of multi-billionaire oligarchs and their operatives. Israel is one of the most unequal societies in the world. Between 1995 and 2011, labor’s share of national income fell more sharply there than in the US. Over the past two decades, Israeli wages have plummeted. The country has 18 billionaires, substantially more per capita (in a population of 7.9 million) than in the US. While poverty has grown, the richest 500 Israelis have tripled their wealth over the past 12 years. The ruling elite seeks to deflect the immense internal tensions of Israeli society outwards, into repression and war against the Arab masses. In the summer of 2011, a few months after the outbreak of revolution in Egypt, popular anger over poverty, inequality and cuts to education, housing and health care exploded in mass demonstrations in Israel mobilizing hundreds of thousands of protesters. The following year, the government launched a new war on Gaza, an eight-day air assault that killed over 100 Palestinians. What future do the policies of the Israeli ruling class offer? Only new and still more brutal wars, in which increasingly violent attempts to break the resistance of the Arab masses would hurl Israel along a path with truly genocidal implications. The consequences would be devastating for Jewish and Arab people alike. The working class must prevent such an outcome. The only way forward for the Jewish working class is a break with Zionist nationalism. The social aspirations of Israeli workers and youth can find no expression within the various right-wing parties of the Zionist establishment. Nor can they be taken forward through the largely defunct “peace” movements and parties that remain tied to the Zionist and nationalist framework. The Palestinian workers and oppressed masses are victims of horrific oppression. But they too are victims of a bankrupt political perspective. When the Palestinian movement arose 47 years ago, the Arab bourgeoisie claimed to represent a unified national movement opposed to imperialism. The ensuing decades have thoroughly exposed such claims as lies. The Palestinians have been repeatedly betrayed by the various Arab bourgeois governments, all of which are tied to imperialism, and by their own bourgeois leaders in the different factions of the Palestine Liberation Movement and its rival Islamist organizations. The failure of the nationalist perspective is demonstrated once again by the isolation of the Palestinian masses in Gaza. The Hamas-led government in Gaza looks for support to Arab bourgeois regimes that are de facto allies in Israel’s suppression of the Palestinians. The current US client regime in Egypt, headed by the coup leader General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, has closed the border with Gaza, leaving the Palestinians trapped under a hail of Israeli bombs. At the same time, the nationalist perspective that underlies the so-called “two state” policy—a Zionist state alongside a demilitarized and internally disconnected Palestinian mini-state—has proven itself to be bankrupt. Under conditions where the entire Middle East is erupting and threatening to descend into region-wide war as a result of the incendiary and disastrous policies of US imperialism, the working class and oppressed urgently require a new political perspective. The real allies of the Palestinian workers and oppressed are the workers of the world, including the United States and Israel. In every part of the world, workers are facing a massive attack on their living standards and democratic rights, alongside the growth of social inequality. They are deeply opposed to the militarism and warmongering of the major powers—whether in Europe against Russia, in Asia against China, or in the Middle East against Syria and Iran—which threatens to unleash a new, nuclear world war. The only progressive solution to the crisis is one based on the united class struggle of all workers in the region against imperialism, Zionism and the Arab bourgeoisie, based on the fight for socialism. In the place of Zionist and capitalist Israel, a workers’ state must be established uniting all peoples on a democratic and egalitarian basis, as part of the fight for the United Socialist States of the Middle East. The future depends on the building of new political parties, sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, to fight for the program of socialist internationalism, the unity of the Arab and Jewish working class, and a common struggle against capitalism and imperialism. Barry Grey is a senior member of the wsws,org information collective. [N]ot only does this long and terrible list underscores the ugliness of Israeli policy against the Palestinian people—and Arabs in general—, carried with virtual impunity in terms of international repercussions given American and Western European support, but the perfidy of many Arab Gulf autocrats, including those in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Jordan, who choose to stand silent while they carry business as usual with the foreigners who have massacred their fellow Arabs for generations. Notice that we condemn the Zionist state of Israel, not the Jewish people per se, many of whom valiantly resist the racist, rightwing policies embraced by Israel. The Nobel Prize of Literature Jose Saramago compares the suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation as the same suffering of the jews in the Nazi boot camps. “The repression from Israel is the worst form of Apartheid. Nobody has the faintest idea of what is going on here, even the best informed people. Everything is in pieces, the land is destroyed and nothing else may be planted. All this smells like a boot camp, like Auschwitz. The israeli have turned into NAZI JEWS” , he declared after a visit to Palestina in March, 2002. He is correct. Let us see why: They are reported in the news for a week or two and then swept into the sea of oblivion. Those who attempt to revive the true history of Israel are charged of being anti-Semitic. So with the hope to keep those memories in mind we present this shameful history of Israel that seems to have found that the role of Goliath is more interesting than that of David. Zionist terror attacks before any ‘State of Israel’ existed During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British Mandate of Palestinethe militant Zionist group the Irgun carried out sixty attacks against Arabs and British soldiers.[1] Irgun was described as a terrorist organization byThe New York Times,[2][3] the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry,[4] prominent world figures such asWinston Churchill[5] and Jewish figures such as Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, and many others.[6] The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes it as “an underground organization.”[7] The New York Times at the time cited sources in an investigative piece which linked the Haganah paramilitary group to the Irgun terrorist attacks such as the King David Hotel Bombing.[8] Irgun launched a series of attacks which lasted until the beginning of World War II. All told, Irgun attacks against Arab targets resulted in at least 250 Arab deaths during this period. Following is a list of attacks resulting in death attributed to Irgun that took place during the 1930s. The Irgun conducted at least 60 operations altogether during this period.[9][10][11] (Source of overview: Wikipedia) The following list of massacres is by no means exclusive, but they reflect the nature of the Zionist occupation of Palestine and Lebanon and show that massacres and expulsions were not aberrations that happen in any war, but organized atrocities with only one aim, that is to have a Zionist state which is ‘goyim rein’. The King David Hotel explosion of July 22, 1946 (Palestine), which resulted in the deaths of 92 Britons, Arabs and Jews, and in the wounding of 58, was not just an act of “Jewish extremists,” but a premeditated massacre conducted by the Irgun in agreement with the highest Jewish political authorities in Palestine– the Jewish Agency and its head David-Ben-Gurion. That so many innocent civilian lives were lost in the King David massacre is a normal part of the pattern of the history of Zionist outrages: A criminal act is committed, allegedly by an isolated group, but actually under the direct authorization of the highest Zionist authorities, whether of the Jewish Agency The following is a statement made in the House of Commons by then British Prime Minister Clement Attlee: Ninety-two persons lost their lives in that stealthy attack,45 were injured, among whom there were many high officials, junior officers and office personnel, both men and women. The King David Hotel was used as an office housing the Secretariat of the Palestine Government and British Army Headquarters. The attack was made on 22 July at about 12 o’clock noon when offices are usually in full swing. The attackers, disguised as milkmen, carried the explosives in milk containers, placed them in the basement of the Hotel and ran away. The Chief Secretary for the Government of Palestine, Sir John Shaw, declared in a broadcast: “As head of the Secretariat, the majority of the dead and wounded were my own staff, many of whom I have known personally for eleven years. They are more than official colleagues. British, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Armenians; senior officers, police, my orderly, my chauffeur, messengers, guards, men and women– young and old– they were my friends. “No man could wish to be served by a more industrious, loyal and honest group of ordinary decent people. Their only crime was their devoted, unselfish and impartial service to Palestine and its people. For this they have been rewarded by cold-blooded mass murder.” Although members of the Irgun Z’vai Leumi took responsibility for this crime, yet they also made it public later that they obtained the consent and approval of the Haganah Command, and it follows, that of the Jewish Agency. The King David Hotel massacre shocked the conscience of the civilizedworld. On July 23, Anthony Eden, leader of the British opposition Conservative The Prime Minister responded: “…It appears that, after exploding a small bomb in the street, presumably as a diversionary measure– this did virtually no damage– a lorry drove up to the tradesmen’s entrance of the King David Hotel and the occupants, after holding up the staff at pistol point, entered the kitchen premises carrying a number of milk cans. At some stage of the proceedings, they shot and seriously wounded a British soldier who attempted to interfere with them. All available information so far is to the effect that they were Jews. Somewhere in the basement of the hotel they planted bombs which went off shortly afterwards. They appear to have made good their escape. “Every effort is being made to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this outrage. The work of rescue in the debris, which was immediately organized, still continues. The next-of-kin of casualties are being notified by telegram as soon as accurate information is available. The House will wish to express their MORE ABOUT THE KING DAVID MASSACRE January 30-31, 1947(Palestine) : This massacre took place following an argument which broke out between Palestinian workers and Zionists in the Haifa Petroleum Refinery, leading to the deaths of a number of Palestinians and wounding and killing approximately sixty Zionists. A large number of the Palestinian Arab workers were living in Baldat al-Shaikh and Hawasa, located in the southeast of Haifa. Consequently, the Zionists planned to take revenge on behalf of fellow Zionists who had been killed in the refinery by attacking Baldat al-Shaikh and Hawasa. 1 2 They focused their attack on the outskirts of Baldat al-Shaikh and Hawasa. Taking the outlying homes by surprise as their inhabitants slept, they pelted 3 The terrorist attack led to the deaths of approximately sixty citizens inside their homes, most of them women, elderly and children. 4 The attack lasted for an hour, after which the Zionists withdrew at 2:00 a.m., having attacked a large number of noncombatant homes. 5 According to a report written by the leader of the terrorist operation, “the attacking units slipped into the town and began working on the houses. And due to 6 13 December 1947 (Palestine) : men of the Arab village of Yehiday (near Petah Tekva, the first Zionist settlement to be established) met at the local coffee house when they saw a British Army patrol enter the village, they were reassured espeically that Jewish terrorists had murdered 12 Palestinians the previous day. The four cars stopped in front of the cafe house and out stepped men dressed in khaki uniforms and steel helmets. However, it soon became apparent that they had not come to protect the villagers. With machine guns they sprayed bullets into the crowd gathered in the coffee house. Some of the invaders placed bombs next to Arab homes while other disguised terrorists tossed grenades at civilians. For a while it seemed as if the villagers would be annihilated but soon a real British patrol arrived to foil the well organized killing raid. The death toll of 7 Arab civilans could have been much higher. Earlier the same day 6 Arabs were killed and 23 wounded when home made bombs were tossed at a crowd of Arabs standing near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. In Jaffa another bomb killed six more Arabs and injured 40. 18 December 1947 (Palestine) : Two carloads of Haganah terrorists drove through the village of Khisas (on the Lebanese Syrian border) firing machine guns and throwing grenades. 10 Arab civilians were killed in the raid. Al-Khisas had been selected for a Haganah operation that was cancelled. Leaflets distributed in the village urged the population not to engage in combat: On the night of 18–19 December 1947, the Palmach conducted a raid on al-Khisas with orders calling for “hitting adult [or the adult] males” and “killing adult [or the adult] males in the palace of the Emir Faur”, which was thought to hide a man responsible for shooting a resident of Kibbutz Ma’ayan Baruch in revenge for the shooting of an Arab a few days earlier. They blew up Faur’s house and a neighboring house, killing many occupants including women and children.According to Ben-Gurion, the raid was unauthorised. Local Jewish leaders and Arab affairs experts had tried to prevent the raid, but had been overridden by Yigal Allon. Afterwards the Political Department of the Jewish Agency criticized the attack and Yosef Sapir of the Defence Committee called for the punishment of those responsible, but no action was taken.Following the raid a large part of the residents left their homes. The number of dead has been recorded as 10 (5 men, 1 woman and 4 children); however, the report from the Palmach commander recorded 12 dead (7 men, 1 woman and 4 children). David Ben-Gurion issued a denial that the raid had been authorised and issued a public apology, but it was later included by him in a list of successful operations. The Yishuv held a meeting on the 1–2 January to discuss the policy of reprisal operations, the outcome of which was a formulation of guidelines by the Jewish High Command for the conduct and execution of retaliatory raids. The first wave of villagers left the al-Khisas on 11 May 1948. Others left on 25 May 1948. Another 55 villagers remained in their homes and maintained good relations with the Jewish settlements in the area, but were eventually evicted.During the night of 5–6 June 1949, the villagers were forced into trucks and transported to the village of ‘Akbara, south of Safad. Those expelled remained at ‘Akbara for 18 years until agreeing to resettlement in Wadi Hamam. On September 26, 1948, Kibbutz HaGoshrim was established on the village lands of al-Khisas. The kibbutz opened a hotel in the manor house of Emir Faour. 19 December 1947(Palestine) : 5 Arab children were murdered when Jewish terrorists blew up the house of the village Mukhtar. Back to top 5/7/1948(Palestine): The Jewish Agency escalated their terror campaign against Palestinian Arabs. A description of the massacre of the Semiramis Hotel from the United Nations Documents follows, as well as the Palestinian Police report on the crime sent to the Colonial Office in London: January 5, 1948. Haganah terrorists made a most barbarous attack at one o’clock in the early morning of Monday…at the Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, killing innocent people and wounding many. The Jewish Agency terrorist forces blasted the entrance to the hotel by a small bomb and then placed bombs in the basement of the building. As a result of the explosion the whole building collapsed with its residents. As the terrorists withdrew, they started shooting at the houses in the neighborhood. Those killed were: Subhi El-Taher, Moslem; Mary Masoud, Christian; Georgette Khoury, Christian; Abbas Awadin, Moslem; Nazira Lorenzo, Christian; Mary Lorenzo, Christian; Mohammed Saleh Ahmed, Moslem; Ashur Abed El Razik Juma, Moslem; Ismail Abed El Aziz, Moslem; Ambeer Lorenzo, Christian; Raof Lorenzo, Christian; Abu Suwan Christian family, seven members, husband, wife, and five children. Besides those killed, 16 more were wounded, among them women and children. The following is a text of a cable by the High Commissioner for Palestine to the Colonial Office about the massacre: Jerusalem. 0117 hours, Urban. At approximately 0117 hours, a grenade was thrown into the Semiramis Hotel, Katamon Quarter, causing superficial damage but no casualties. During the ensuing confusion, a charge was placed in the building and it exploded about one minute later, completely demolishing half the hotel. Witnesses have stated that the perpetrators arrived by way of the Upper Katamon Road in two taxis. Four persons are reported to have alighted from the first taxi, and one person, who apparently covered the main party, from the second. All were wearing European clothes… 9/4/1948 (Palestine): The forces of the Zionist gangs Tsel, Irgun and Hagana, fitted out with the Zionist terrorist strategy of killing civilians in order to achieve their aspirations, began stealing into the village on the night of April 9, 1948. Their purpose was to uproot the Palestinian people from their land by coming upon the inhabitants of the villageunawares, destroying their homes and burning them down on top of those inside,thereby making clear to the entire world to what depths of barbarism Zionist hadsunk. The attack began as the children were asleep in their mothers’ and fathers’arms. In the words of Menachim Begin as he described events, “the Arabs foughttenaciously in defense of their homes, their women and their children.” The orders they had received were for them to destroy every house. Behindthe explosives there marched the Stern and Irgun terrorists, who killed whoever theyfound alive. The explosions continued in the same barbaric fashion until theafternoon of April 10, 1948.7 Then they gathered together the civilians who were stillalive, stood them up beside the walls and in corners, then fired on them. About twenty-five men were brought out of the houses, loaded onto a truck and led on a“victory tour” in the neighborhood of Judah Mahayina and Zakhroun Yousif. At theend of the tour, the men were brought to a stone quarry located between Tahawwu’atShawul and Dair Yasin, where they were shot in cold blood. Then the Etsel and Layhi“fighters” brought the women and the children who had managed to survive up to atruck and took them to the Mendelbaum Gate. Finally, a Hagana unit came and duga mass grave in which it buried 250 Arab corpses, most of them women, children and the elderly. A woman who survived the massacre by the name of Halima Id describes whathappened to her sister. She says, “I saw a soldier grabbing my sister, Salihaal-Halabi, who was nine months pregnant. He pointed a machine gun at her neck,then emptied its contents into her body. Then he turned into a butcher, and grabbeda knife and ripped open her stomach to take out the slaughtered child with his iniquitous Nazi knife.”10 In another location in the village, Hanna Khalil, a girl at thetime, saw a man unsheathing a large knife and ripping open the body her neighborJamila Habash from head to toe. Then he murdered their neighbor Fathi in the sameway at the entranceway to thehouse.11 A 40-year-old woman named Safiyadescribes how she was come upon by a man who suddenly opened up his trousers and pounced on her. “I began screaming and wailing. But the women around me were all meeting the same fate. After that they tore off our clothes so that they could fondle our breasts and our bodies with gestures too horrible to describe.”12 Some of the soldiers cut off women’s ears in order to get at a few small earrings.13 Once news of the massacre had gotten out, a delegation from the Red Cross tried tovisit the village. However, they weren’t allowed to visit the site until a day after the time they had requested. Meanwhile the Zionists tried to cover up the evidence of their crime. They gathered up as much as they could of the victims’ dismembered corpses, threw them in the village well, then closed it up. And they tried to change the landmarks in the area so that the Red Cross representative wouldn’t be able to find his way there. However, he did find his way to the well, where he found 150 maimed corpses belonging to women, children and the elderly. And in addition to the bodies which were found in the well, scores of others had been buried in mass graves while still others remained strewn over street corners and in the ruins of houses. Afterwards, the head of the terrorist Hagana gang which had taken part in burying thePalestinian civilians wrote saying that his group had not undertaken a military operation against armed men, the reason being that they wanted to plant fear in the Arabs’ hearts. This was the reason they chose a peaceable, unarmed village, since in this way they could spread terror among the Arabs and force them to flee. MORE ABOUT THE DEIR YASSIN MASSACRE 13-14 April 1948(Palestine) : a contingent of Lehi and Irgon entered this village (near Tiberias) entered the village on the night of 13 April dressed as Arab fighters. Upon their entrance to the village the people went out to greet them, the terrorists met them with fire, killing every single one of them. Only 40 people survived. All the houses of the village were raised to the ground. Ahmed translated as we interviewed his mother today about this horrific period. She is normally an amazingly cheerful person, and greets me with energetic smiles and lots of happy welcomes (“Ahlan wa sahlan!”) whenever I enter the room. But as she described 1948, her expression changed to the one you see in this photo, and stayed that way. Ahmed, for his part, is one of the most positive, hard-working, cheerful and sweet people I have met. He is now the city director of Ramallah, the acting capitol of the West Bank. I would never have guessed that such a person spent two and a half years in an Israeli prison as a young adult, never accused of any crime except “being active.” But that’s another story… I taped the interview and will edit it and share it sometime publicly. In short, Ahmed’s mother is from a village called Abu Shusha, which was attacked by the Haganah on, I think May 14th 1948, just before Israel announced itself as a country. The Haganah was the Zionist colonists “army” that later became the Israeli army. She described how the Haganah tried to enter the village three times but was repelled by armed resistance from the village. Finally, the village was occupied. Seventy two men were killed in a massacre, including three of her brothers, who were dragged through the streets. The village was cleared of all men, and those who were not killed fled or escaped. For a time, it was only women and children there, living under the Haganah’s control. Then, the Haganah gathered everyone together and told to leave – they were to go to the next village on foot. As the villagers left, the Haganah fired shots in the air to frighten them and make sure that they understood they could not return. When they arrived in the next village, it was already empty… the residents had fled fearing a massacre like what happened in Abu Shusha. They continued up into the hills toward Ramallah, sleeping under the trees. Finally, her family arrived in Ramallah, where the Jordanians were in control. The family started their lives over, having lost three sons and one wounded. Since then, they have endured another 39 years of Israeli military occupation after the West Bank was conquered. Today, she lives in a nice house with her son, who is Ramallah’s city director (Ramallah was given some very limited autonomy in the mid-90s, but continues to be raided and occupied by Israel). But in spite of her relatively comfortable situation, especially compared to the refugees who still live in camps, she wants to return to her land. She says in conclusion, ” I don’t want this big house. I want to live in my home, where it’s green and there are trees. This is my wish for my children and grandchildren.” Ahmed told me that his mother often cries when watching the news about Lebanon. I asked her what she thought of the situation, and she said that seeing the refugees reminded her of 1948, and she felt so sorry for them. Abu Shusha is one of about 400 Palestinian villages destroyed to make way for Israel in 1948 (Palestinians Muslims and Christians were a 2/3rds majority before the war). Just as most cities in the United States are built over the ruins of a Native American settlements (which were permanent, not nomadic, by the way), most Israeli cities are built over Palestinian villages. Many of the former residents are still living in refugee camps to which they fled on foot. Many of them still have the keys to their homes and deeds to their land: they thought they would be back in days, but it’s been almost 60 years. (Source) . May 15, 1948 (Palestine): “From testimonies and information I got from Jewish and Arab witnesses and from soldiers who were there, at least 200 people from the village of Tantura were killed by Israeli troops… “From the numbers, this is definitely one of the biggest massacres,” Teddy Katz an Israeli historian said Tantura, near Haifa in northern Palestine, had 1,500 residents at the time. It was later demolished to make way for a parking lot for a nearby beach and the Nahsholim kibbutz, or cooperative farm. Fawzi Tanji, now 73 and a refugee at a camp in the West Bank, is from Tantura he said: I was 21 years old then.They took a group of 10 men,lined them up against the cemetery wall and killed them.Then they brought another group, killed them, threw away the bodies and so on, Tanji said. I was waiting for my turn to die in cold blood as I saw the men drop in front of me. Katz said other Palestinians were killed inside their homes and in other parts of the village. At one point, he said, soldiers shot at anything that moved. 21 May 1948(Palestine): after a number of failed attempts to occupy this village, the Zionists mobilized a large contingent and surrounded the village. The people of Beit Daras decided that women and children should leave. As women and children left the village they were met by the Zionist army who massacred them despite the fact that they could see they were women and children fleeing the fighting. 11 July 1948 (Palestine): after the Israeli 89th Commando Battalion lead by Moshe Dayan occupied Lydda, the Israelis told Arabs through loudspeakers that if they went into a certain mosque they would be safe. In retaliation for a hand grenade attack after the surrender that killed several Israeli soldiers, 80-100 Palestinians were massacred in the mosque, their bodies lay decomposing for 10 days in the mid-summer heat. The mosque still stands abandoned today. This massacre spread fear and panic among the Arab population of Lydda and Ramle, who were then ordered to march out of these towns after they were stripped of all personal belonging by Israeli soldiers. Yetzak Rabin, Brigade Commander then says: – There was no way of avoiding the use of force and warning shots in order to make the inhabitants march ten to fifteen miles to the point where they met up with the legion-. Most of the 60,000 inhabitants of Lyda and Ramble came to refugee camps near Ramallah, around 350 lost their lives on the way through dehydration and son stroke. Many survived by drinking their own urine. The conditions in the refugee camps were to claim more lives. On October 29 Palestine): the Israeli army brutally massacred about 100 women and children, precipitating a massive flight of people from that village on the western side of the Hebron mountains. Mr. Walid Khalidi, author of All That Remains, says that the Palestinian inhabitants at Dawayma faced one of the larger Israel massacres, though today it is among the least well-known. The following are excerpts of a description of the massacre published in the Israeli daily ‘Al ha Mishmar, quoted in All That Remains: The children they killed by breaking their heads with sticks. There was not a house without dead…one commander ordered a sapper to put two old women in a certain house…and to blow up the house with them. The sapper refused…the commander then ordered his men to put in the old women and the evil deed was done. One soldier boasted that he had raped a woman and then shot her… A former mukhtar (head of a village) of Dawayma interviewed in 1984 by the Israeli daily Hadashot, also quoted by Mr. Khalidi, offered another description: The people fled, and everyone they saw in the houses, they shot and killed. They also killed people in the streets. They came and blew up my house, in the presence of eye-witnesses…the moment that the tanks came and opened fire, I left the village immediately. At about half-past ten, two tanks passed the Darawish Mosque. About 75 old people were there, who had come early for Friday prayers. They gathered in the mosque to pray. They were all killed. About 35 families had been hiding in caves outside Dawayma, according to themukhtar, and when the Israeli forces discovered them they were told to come out, line up, and begin walking. “And as they started to walk, they were shot by machine guns from two sides…we sent people there that night, who collected the bodies, put them into a cistern, and buried them,” the mukhtar told the Israeli daily. 26/10/1948 (Lebanon) :Houla is located in southern Lebanon, only a few kilometers from the Israeli border. When Arab volunteers gathered to liberate Palestine from “Israeli” occupation, they established their headquarters in Houla, on hills overlooking Palestine. The force was successful in fending off major attacks on Lebanese villages, but the fighters suddenly withdrew on October 26, 1948.” “Jewish militants attacked the town to avenge the residents’ support of Arab resistance forces. On October 31, Jewish militants dressed in traditional Arab attire entered the border village. Residents gathered to cheer the men, thinking Arab volunteer fighters had returned. They were wrong. The militants rounded up 85 people and detained them in a number of houses, firing live ammunition at the civilians and killing all but three. That was not enough. Jewish militants blew up the houses with dead corpses inside. They confiscated property and livestock. The three who survived the massacre, of whom one is still alive, and other town residents fled to Beirut. Following the armistice agreement between Lebanon and “Israel” in 1949, village residents returned to find their houses in rubbles and their farms burnt. Houla remains under Israeli occupation today, and has suffered the brunt of “Israeli” animosity towards Lebanon. Only 1,200 out of 12,000 people remain in the village. The Houla massacre was one of a series of massacres committed by “Israel” against Lebanese civilians. 7 Febraury 1951(Palestine): Israeli soldiers corssed the armistice line to this village (5Km from Jerusalem) and blew up the houses of the Mukhtar and his neighbors. 10 were killed (2 elderly men,raeli soldiers corssed the armistice line to this village (5Km from Jerusalem) and blew up the houses of the Mukhtar and his neighbors. 10 were killed (2 elderly men, 3 woemen and 5 children) and 8 were wounded. 14-15/10/1953 (Palestine): On the night of October 14-15, 1953 , this village was the object of a brutal “Israeli” attack which was carried out by units from the regular army as part of a pre-meditated plan and in which a variety of weapon types were used. On theevening of October 14, an Israeli military force estimated at about 600 soldiers The attack began with concentrated, indiscriminate artilleryfire on the homes in the village. This continued until the main force reached theoutskirts of the village. Meanwhile, other forces headed for nearby Arab towns suchas Shuqba, Badrus and Na’lin in order to distract them and prevent any aid fromreaching the people in Qibya. They also planted mines on various roads so as toisolate the village completely. As units of the Israeli infantry were attacking the villageresidents, units of military engineers were placing explosives around some of thehouses in the village and blowing them up with everyone in them under the protection of the infantrymen, who fired on everyone who tried to flee. These acts of brutalitycontinued until 4:00 a.m., October 15, 1953, at which time the enemy forceswithdrew to the bases from which they hadbegun.16 There was a particular sight thememory of which remained in the minds of all who saw it: an Arab woman sitting on apile of debris and casting a forlorn look into the sky. From beneath the rubble onecould see small legs and hands which were the remains of her six children, while thebullet-maimed body of her husband lay in the road beforeher.17This vicious terrorist attack resulted in the destruction of 56 houses, the villagemosque, the village school and the water tank which supplied it with water. Moreover,67 citizens lost their lives, both men and women, with many otherswounded.18Terrorist Ariel Sharon, the commander of the “101″ unit which undertook the terroristaggression, stated that his leaders’ orders had been clear with regard to how theresidents of the village were to be dealt with. He says, “The orders were utterly clear:Qibya was to be an example to everyone.”19 Back to top On October 29, 1956 (Palestine): the day on which Israel launched its assault on Egypt , units of Israel Frontier guards started at 4:00 PM what they called a tour of the Triangle Villages. They told the Mukhtars (Aldermen) of those villages that the curfew from that day onwards was to start from 5:00 PM instead of the usual 6:00 PM, and that the inhabitants are requested to stay home. The Mukhtar (Alderman) protested that there were about 400 villagers working outside the village and there was not enough time to inform them of the new times. An officer assured him that they will be taken care of. Meanwhile, the officers positioned themselves at the village entrance. At about 4.55 PM, unaware of the ambush awaiting them, the innocent farmers started flocking in after a hard day of work. The Israeli soldiers started stepping out of their military trucks and ordered the villagers to line up. Then the officer in charge screamed “REAP THEM,” and the soldiers More and testimonies of survivors of the Kafr Qasim Massacre 3/11/1956 (Palestine): Another massacre is committed on November 3, 1956 when the Israelis occupy the town of Khan Yunis and the adjacent refugee camp. The Israelis claim that there was resistance, but the refugees state that all resistance had ceased when the Israelis arrived and that all of the victims were unarmed civilians. Corpses lie everywhere and because of the curfew no one could go out to bury them. (An UNRWA investigation later found that the Israelis at Khan Yunis and therefugee camp had murdered 275 civilians that day ). After the Israelis withdrew from Gaza under American pressure, a mass grave was unearthed at Khan Yunis in March 1957. The grave contained the bodies 5/4/1956 (Palestine): On the evening of Thursday, April 5, 1956, Zionist occupation forces fired 20-mm mortar artillery on the city of Gaza. The shelling was concentrated against the city center, which was teaming with civilians going about their day-to-dayaffairs.29 Most of the shelling was directed against Mukhtar Street, Palestine Square and nearby streets, as well as the Shuja’iyya district.30 As a result of this terrorist massacre carried out by gangs belonging to the Zionist Army against the Palestinian people, 56 people were killed and 103 were injured, the victims including men, women and children. Some of the wounded died subsequently, bringing the death toll to 60, 13 November 1966(Palestine): Israeli forces raided this village, destroyed 125 houses, the village clinic and school as well as 15 houses in a neighbouring village. 18 people were killed and 54 wounded. 1975 (Lebanon) :The 1sraelis perpetrated this massacre starting with a booby-trapped bomb. Then Israeli’s detained three brothers, and killed them. They threw Their bodies on the road. 9 cicvlians were killed, 23 were wounded. 15/10/1975(Lebanon): An Israeli tank deliberately ran over a car carrying 16 16/10/1976(Lebanon): After a two- month siege and hours of shelling, the occupation forces stormed the village and turned it into a bloodbath. 20 perosn were mrtyred. Back to top 21/10/1976(Lebanon):The crowded market was the target of a sudden barrage of Israeli bombs, slaughtering a lot of people. 23 were killed, 30 were wonded. Back to top 17/3/1978 (Lebanon): During the invasion of 1978, the Israeli warplanes destroyed the 17/3/1978 (Lebanon): At Adloun on march 17, two cars carrying 8 passengers came under Israeli fire while they were on their way to Beirut. One passenger only escaped death. Back to top 4/4/1981 (Lebanon) :One of Saida’s residential areas was targeted by the Israeli artillery which resulted in killing of many civilians and damaging to many buildings.20 persons were kiled, 30 were wounded. 17/7/1981 (Lebanon):A horrible massacre took place when Israeli warplanes raided a crowded residential area using the most developed weapons killing and wounding many citizens. 150 perosn were killed, 600 were wounded. 17/7/1981 (Lebanon)Israeli warplanes staged several raids on many parts of Beirut, Ouzai, Ramlet Al baida, fakhani, chatila and the area of the Arab University, killing many citizens. 150 person were killed, 600 were wounded A number of events led to the decision of an extremist terrorist group of the Lebanese kata’ib forces and forces belonging to the Zionist Army to carry out massacres against the Palestinians. From the beginning of the Zionist invasion of Lebanon, the Zionists and their agents were working toward being able to extirpate the Palestinian presence in Lebanon. This may be seen from a number of massacres of which the world heard only little, carried out by Israeli forces and militias under their command in the Palestinian camps in south Lebanon (al-Rushaidiya, ‘Ayn al-Hilu, al-Miya Miya, and others).32 This massacre was thus the outcome of a long mathematical calculation. It was carried out by groups ofLebanese forces under the leadership of Ilyas Haqiba, head of the kata’ib intelligence apparatus and with the approval of the Zionist Minister of Defense, Ariel Sharon and the Commander of the Northern District, General Amir Dawri. High-level Israeli officers had been planning for some time to enable the Lebanese forces to go into the Palestinian camps once West Beirut had been surrounded. 33 Two days before the massacre began – on the evening of September 14 – planning and coordination meetings were held between terrorist Sharon and his companion, Eitan. Plans were laid to have the kata’ib forces storm the camps, and at dawn, September 15, Israel stormed West Beirut and cordoned off the camps. A high-level meeting was held on Thursday morning, September 16, 1982 in which Israel was represented by General Amir Dawri, Supreme Commander of the Northern Forces. The process of storming the camps began before sunset on Thursday, September 16,and continued for approximately 36 hours. The Israeli Army surrounded the camps, providing the murderers with all the support, aid and facilities necessary for them to carry out their appalling crime. They supplied them with bulldozers and with the necessary pictures and maps. In addition, they set off incandescent bombs in the air in order to turn night into day so that none of the Palestinians would be able to escape death’s grip. And those who did flee – women, children and the elderly – were brought back inside the camps by Israeli soldiers to face their destiny. At noon on Friday, the second day of the terrorist massacre, and with the approval of the Israeli Army, the kata’ib forces began receiving more ammunition, while the forces which had been in the camps were replaced by other, “fresh” forces. On Saturday morning, September 18, 1982, the massacre had reached its peak, and thousands of Sabra and Shatila camp residents had been annihilated. Information about the massacre began to leak out after a number of children and women fled to the Gaza Hospital in the Shatila camp, where they told doctors what was happening. News of the massacre also began to reach some foreign journalists on Friday morning, September 17. But the hands and feet of the victims protruded from the debris.” Hasan Salama (57 years old), whose 80-year-old brother was killed in the massacre, says, “They came from the mountains in thirty huge trucks. At first they started killing people with knives so that they wouldn’t make any noise. Then on Friday there were snipers in the Shatila camp killing anybody who crossed the street. On Friday afternoon, armed men began going into the houses and firing on men, women and children. Then they started blowing up the houses and turning them into piles of Author Amnoun Kabliyouk [p. 10] writes in his book about the tragedy of a young Palestinian girl who, like the rest of the children in the camp, faced this horrific massacre. Thirteen years old, she was the only survivor out of her entire family (her father, her mother, her grandfather and all her brothers and sisters were killed). She related to a Lebanese officer, saying, “We stayed in the shelter until really late on Thursday night, but then I decided to leave with my girl friend because we couldn’t breathe anymore. Then all of a sudden we saw people raising white flags and handkerchiefs and coming toward the kata’ib saying, ‘We’re for peace and harmony.’ The women were screaming, moaning and begging [for mercy]. As for me, I ran back to our house and got into the bathtub. I saw them leading our neighbors away and shooting them. I tried to stand up at the window to look outside, but one of the kata’ib fighters saw me and shot at me. So I went back to the bathtub and stayed there for five hours. When I came out, they grabbed me and threw me down with everybody else. One of them asked me if I was Palestinian, and I said yes. My nine-month-old nephew was beside me, and he was crying and screaming so much that one of the men got angry, so he shot him. I burst into tears and told him that this baby had been all the family I had left. That made him all the more angry, and he took the baby and tore him in two.”41 MORE ABOUT THE SABRA SHATILA MASSACRE 27/3/1984(Lebanon): The occupation forcers’ tanks and helicopters fired at a crowded people killing many civilians. 7 perosns were martyred, 10 were wounded. Back to top 19/9/1984 (Lebanon): The occupation forces stormed the town with tanks, and military 23/3/1985 (Lebanon): The massacre took place at Al- Husseinieh building where people took shelter from the shelling of the Israeli soldiers who stormed the town with a huge number of military vehicles.7 persons were martyred. Back to top 5/3/1985(Lebanon): The occupation forces planted an explosive device in the Husseinieh building of the town .It was detonated during the distribution of aid to the citizens who lost their lives. 15 perosns were killed. Back to top 11/3/1985(Lebanon): Following heavy shelling the occupation forces stormed the town with about 100 vehicles and perpetrated a butchery, killing children, women and the elderly. 22 civlians were slaughtred. Back to top 21/3/1985(Lebanon): After attacking the village with 140 army vehicles, the occupation forces ordered the inhabitants to gather at the school of the village. They then destroyed it over their heads. 20 incoent person were martyred. Back to top 30/3/1985(Lebanon): A huge enemy force attacked the town and put it under siege, .When some people tried to escape the siege, the enemy soldiers fired at them, killing and wounding a lot of them. 5 perosn were killed, 5 were wounded. Back to top 20 May 1990, an Israeli soldier lined up Palestinian labors and murdered seven of them with a sub-machine gun. 13 Palesinians were killed by Israeli forces in subsequent demonstrations at the massacre. The ‘Black Sunday’ of Palestine: Oyoun Qarra Massacre, 20.05.1990 Source: A Voice from Palestine Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif carried their small lunch bags with a few bread loaves, a tomato and a sardine can, and said goodbye to their families in the early hours of Sunday 20.05.1990. It was very early in the morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet, and the refugee camps were engulfed in total darkness. The usually busy and noisy narrow roads and alleys were empty and quiet. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were refugees, their families expelled from their original homes and villages by Zionist terror gangs during the Nakba. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were made refugees by the Zionists colonists who ethnically cleansed entire Palestinian villages, demolished them and erased them off their invented Zionist map. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif came originally from villages that once prospered and thrived. They had beautiful homes with flowers on the window sills, and had fertile lands which were green all year around. They once tended vast olive and apple fields, orange groves and vineyards. The indigenous people of Palestine, the owners of the land, were forced to live exiled in their own country, were forced to live in over-crowded rooms while Zionist colonizers thrive and live in stolen Palestinian homes, on stolen Palestinian land. And as the Nakba continues, as the catastrophe of the Palestinian people continues, the suffering of the Palestinians knows no end and the injustice done to them and their families is limitless. An Israeli occupation soldier, Ami Popper, from nearby Rishon Lezion Zionist colony approached the workers and asked them for their IDs. After making sure all the workers were Palestinians, Popper lined them up, asked them to kneel down in 3 lines, and using his M16 sub-machine gun, he opened fire, killing 7 of them and injuring others. Zionists passed by the scene of the crime in their cars, saw the Palestinian labourers, young and old, lying on the ground, drowning in pools of blood, their lunch bags scattered around them, and drove on. Zionists passed by the scene of the crime in their cars, heard the Palestinian labourers moan in pain, heard them cry out for help, and drove on. When the Israeli ambulances and occupation police finally arrived to the scene of the massacre, 7 Palestinians were already dead, and instead of providing help to the severely injured, the Israeli police started beating the Palestinians workers who had survived the death machine. And as with all massacres committed by Zionists, the Israeli government rushed to declare Popper deranged. But when it was proven that he wasn’t, he was theatrically ‘tried’ and ‘charged’ with murder in 7 cases. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were Palestinian labourers from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. Like every Palestinian labourer, they woke up every morning to a new day, full of new hopes and new strength to face and defy the occupation, the oppression, the siege, the closure and the Zionist terror. Like every Palestinian labourer, they woke up every morning, went to work because they wanted their children to have food on the table, a roof over their heads, an education and a future that is free of occupation and oppression, a future free of Zionism. And on the morning of 20.05.1990, they woke up early to go to work and buy toys, colouring books and food for their families. But on that day, on ‘Back Sunday’, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif did not reach work. The martyrs of Oyoun Qarra massacre are: On “Black Sunday”, after news of the massacre spread, protests and confrontations erupted all over occupied Palestine. At least another 6 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces: PS: The photos are from newspapers clippings on the massacre which I collected and kept at the time. 08.10.1990: Zionists commit a massacre at Al-Aqsa Mosque, killing at least 17 Palestinians and injuring over 900: Since 1967, the “Temple Mount Faithful” fanatic Jewish group continuously attacked Al-Aqsa with the protection and the support of the IOF. Such attacks often ended with Palestinians being killed, wounded or arrested. The worst of these terror attacks is the Al Aqsa massacre. Several days before the massacre this fanatic group informed the media of its intentions to march to Al-Aqsa, on the occasion of a religious festival known as the “Throne Festival”, and place the foundation stone of the so-called “Third Temple”. They called on all Jews to join in this march and their leader and founder Gershon Solomon announced that the “the Arab-Islamic occupation of the temple area must come to an end, and the Jews must renew their profound ties to the sacred area.”[1]Calls were made to the Palestinians to come and protect Al-Aqsa. On Monday 08.10.1990, some 200,000 fanatic Zionist Jews marched to Al-Aqsa. The Israeli army assisted the fanatics as usual and eased their mission by placing military checkpoints along the entrances to the city, so as to prevent the Palestinians from getting in and protecting the Al-Aqsa. Nevertheless, thousands of Palestinians had already gathered inside Al-Aqsa since the night before and early morning. It was when the Palestinians tried preventing the fanatic group from placing the so-called ”foundation stone” for their so-called temple, that the massacre began. IOF soldiers and the fanatic settlers starting shooting randomly at the unarmed Palestinians, not distinguishing between young and old, men and women, and using machine guns and gas bombs. Israeli helicopters participated in the massacre from the air. The massacre lasted 35 minutes, from 10:00 to 10:35, in which at least 17 Palestinians (some sources mention 18, others 23) were killed and some 900 injured, most of the wounds being in the head and in the heart. And as if that wasn’t enough, the IOF then started beaten the people with their clubs and rifles. Eyewitnesses later reported that even those who lie wounded on the ground or in ambulances were shot at. “Nurse Fatima Abu Khadir said that “We went into the mosque precincts in an ambulance. I saw a large number of injured who had fallen on the ground. Then I saw lots of soldiers, hundreds of soldiers. They were about 30 meters from the ambulance and kneeling on one knee the way snipers do, and their weapons were aimed inside the ambulance. After that I couldn’t see anything.” News agencies described the blessed precincts of al-Aqsa Mosque saying that blood had covered “the entire two hundred meters between the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque. Blood was flowing everywhere, all over the wide steps, and had stained the white tile the length of the broad courtyard, as well as the doors of both mosques. The walls of the two mosques had long, crimson lines etched onto hem by bleeding hands, and blood had stained the white uniforms of the woman first-aid workers. Everyone – the wounded and the more fortunate, first-aid workers, journalists, and Israeli soldiers – all of them looked as though they were swimming in blood. Physician Muhammad Abu ‘Ayila relates what happened to him and to a wounded man to whom he had been trying to administer first aid, and how the Zionists’ glee at the sight of Palestinian blood spilled in the precincts of the holy mosque had blinded their eyes so much that they couldn’t distinguish between a young child and an old man, between a man and a woman, between a wounded man and one seeking to treat him. He says, “I got out of the ambulance carrying a first-aid kit. I was wearing a white uniform. The soldiers saw me and knew I was a doctor. But when I got to the wounded person nearest me and bent down to treat him, I got three bullets in my back in the region of the kidney. At that very moment, the wounded man near me died. But he could have been saved if I hadn’t been hit.” (source:http://www.almoltaqa.ps/english/showthread.php?t=3808) The Zionist government, in its usual way to trick the international community, announced the formation of an investigation committee. Such committees which are always comprised of Mossad and IOF personnel, have the duty of clearing Israel’s responsibility and placing the blame on the Palestinians. So it was no surprise this time too that the victims were blamed for being killed and that the murderers were announced to be not guilty. The committee announced that, “The report confirms clearly that the responsibility and fault for escalating [the conflict] lies on the side of the thousands of Muslim extremists, who were attacking the holy place of the Jews.”[2] Footnotes: Complete article: Zionist Attacks on Al-Haram Al-Qudsi Ash-Sharif see also: Our Living Dead “On Monday, October 8 1990, 17 people were killed and over three hundred wounded at the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. This is only the second part, about 14 minutes into the event. Presented at the UN Security Council to a full Chamber- UNSC Resolutions 672 / 673 passed without veto. The Al Aqsa Martyrs and their wounds. Source: http://ikbis.com/AlAqsaMassacre81090/shots (also pics/videos) February 25, 1994 (Palestine): As for the first chapter, it had begun at the hour for the final evening prayer on Thursday, at which time Jewish settlers and soldiers prevented Muslim worshippers from entering the sacred masque to perform the evening prayer under the pretext that this was the day of their “Boleme” feast. Terrorist settlers gathered in the outer courtyards of the mosque and began setting off fireworks in the direction of the worshippers. Some time after this, the occupation forces allowed them to go inside the mosque itself in groups. At 10:00 p.m. the Muslim worshippers were asked to leave the mosque, and Zionist occupation soldiers began beating many of them as they left. Hatim Qufaysha, a witness of the Zionist crime, says, “ At 5:20 a.m. today everyone was standing up [in the mosque]. As I took off my shoes, I saw an old man wearing military clothes who was running along carrying a huge weapon loaded with ammunition. I was surprised to see him come into the mosque during the prayer. He opened fire, and I ran away and asked the soldier who guards the area to intervene. But all he did was beat me up, then I left the mosque area. Muhammad Sari, one of the worshippers present at the time of the massacre, states, “People are used to attending the dawn prayer on Fridays in large numbers.” He estimated the number of worshippers present that morning at about 500. Then he added, “the muezzin announced the beginning of the prayer, so we knelt and made the first prostration. Then all of a sudden we heard the sound of heavy gun fire coming from behind us. When I turned around in the direction of the sound, I saw a soldier in full uniform. He had put ear pieces in his ears, and he was holding a rapid-firing machine gun and firing in the direction of the worshippers.” Sari was wounded in both legs when he tried to stand up. A number of young men were able to get over to where the attacker was and to protect others in the mosque with their bodies. And within moments Goldstein had been brought to the ground by the young men. But due to the heavy gun fire, the mosque had turned into something on the order of a slaughterhouse, filled with pools of blood. Muhammad Sulayman Abu Salih, a custodian at the Abrahamic mosque, describes the terrifying sight inside the mosque saying, “The terrorist was trying to kill as many people as possible. The corpses were scattered all over, spattering the floor of the mosque with blood. Worshippers who had been prostrate tried to flee in terror, and some of them fell on the floor.” Then he adds, “I shouted at the top of my lungs to the soldiers to come and stop him, but all they did was run away. The armed man reloaded his rifle at least once and killed at least sevenpeople at one time, the contents of their skulls scattering all over the floor. He kept on shooting for ten minutes, and the army didn’t step in until the massacre was over.” Sheikh Ibrahim Abdeen, the imam of the mosque, says that the bullets were comingfrom several places, that it was a true blood bath. The Israeli soldiers’ reaction was Nor did this terrorist massacre stop with the killing of Goldstein. When the shooting stopped, the soldiers came pouring into the mosque. According to witnesses of the massacre, the soldiers, together with a number of Jewish settlers, opened fire on those who had gathered around Goldstein, and not one of them survived. And thus occurred the second massacre. Then outside the mosque, the soldiers opened fire on theambulance which had arrived at the mosque to treat the wounded; thus occurred thethird massacre, which itself did not stop there, since the soldiers pursued the wounded and those seeking to treat them as far as the doors of the hospitals, where they proceeded to kill even more. Other forces pursued their victims’ funeral processions as far as the cemetery gates, where they killed still more. Hence, this One Friday Morning in Occupied Palestine – The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 25.02.1994 – It was very early in the morning when I told my mother about the dream I had the night before. I was in the sitting room of my grandparents’ house in Dheisheh refugee camp and my mother’s uncle, who had died a few months earlier, came and we had a small chat and then he asked me if I would like to go away with him. I said yes and put on my slippers and followed him. At the entrance of the house, I stumbled and lost one of my slippers. I knelt down to put in on and as I stood up, my mother’s uncle had gone and left me alone. My mother, who was this uncle’s favourite niece, looked for a minute worried but said in a calm voice that it’s good I didn’t follow him. She explained that many believe when someone follows the dead in a dream it means that person will die soon. But we didn’t talk further about it, for it was only a dream. I got ready for the university, cursing the fact that I had such an early lecture on a Friday when almost everyone else was still sleeping, and before leaving my mother told me to be careful and to take care. I got to the Jerusalem central bus station and sat in the Hebron bus. The bus was half full with students, workers and other passengers who sat waiting for it to get filled and move. From my seat I watched life go by in the central station: some people were getting into buses to go to school or work, other buses had just arrived and their passengers were leaving, some were buying a newspaper, others buying Ka’ek and Falafel and others were standing in a corner waiting for their buses to come. It wasn’t as filled as other week days, but it was busy with life: another usual day in the Jerusalem bus station. And it seemed this was going to be another usual morning in occupied Palestine, i.e. as far as “usual” goes in occupied Palestine. As I sat and waited, busy with my thoughts, there was a sudden commotion and murmur in the bus. At first, I thought it’s probably some of the passengers complaining about the bus taking so long to get on the move, but as I looked around me, I saw everyone looking out of the windows. I had been so immersed in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed the commotion in the station although I had been watching the people. Outside the bus, people were walking quickly, some were running, others were waving with their hands, talking loud, but it was difficult to understand what they were talking about. The bus driver, who had been standing near the bus, came in and said in a calm voice that there had just been another massacre, this time in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. For a few minutes there was complete silence in the bus. I suppose most of us were thinking: till when? Will there ever be justice for us in this damned world? Then some started asking about what details he had, which wasn’t much, and when the bus driver turned on the radio, we all went quiet. Not much was said about the massacre, it was after all the Israeli radio, but it was confirmed: people have been “killed” in the Ibrahimi mosque, massacred or butchered being the right word. More people got on the bus and everyone was talking about the massacre. There was anger, much anger, there was bewilderment, there was sadness, and there was defiance. I didn’t know the people on the bus, but in that moment we were all one: We were all Palestinians, it was our shared pain and our shared destiny. As the bus made its way to Bethlehem, throughout this seemingly extremely long trip, we saw Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances from Jerusalem and Ramallah rushing towards Hebron, the scream of their sirens breaking the silence of the morning and shaking everyone it passed. It was becoming clear to everyone that this was going to be another “Palestinian day”; where Palestinian blood would be shed by the Zionist entity. We didn’t know all the details yet. All what was known to us by the time was that a Zionist colonist had killed several Palestinian worshippers in the Ibrahimi mosque, and if you think that is macabre enough, let me tell you that this was only the beginning of what happened on that Friday morning in occupied Palestine. When the bus finally reached Bethlehem, I got off at my usual stop and walked up the road to the university. It was still early but I could see many people gathered everywhere. The main Jerusalem-Hebron road was filled with people. At the university, everyone was talking about the massacre and friends and fellow students were gathered at the main entrance. Anger and pain were drawn on the faces. There were calls to go to the Al-Hussein hospital, which was just down the road, and donate blood. It seemed as if everyone in Bethlehem and the area, including ambulances from everywhere, was heading towards the hospital. A group of us were going down the road as well, when someone came running and said that the Israeli soldiers were everywhere; blocking the main road and surrounding the hospital. From where we stood, we could see what was going on down on the main road and around the hospital. The soldiers were shooting in all directions and at everyone. It was like a warzone. Some soldiers were trying to stop the ambulances and the private cars transporting the wounded from reaching the hospital, others were shooting randomly at people in the street and around the hospital, snipers were on roof of houses and were shooting to kill. It was obvious that they intended for this to be a wide-scale massacre. And standing there at the top of the road, you could see it all. There was no time to think of one self, of one’s safety, we were all one; from Hebron to Jerusalem, from Nablus to Gaza, from Bethlehem to Jenin, from Nazareth to Rafah. It was our blood that had been spilt that morning in the Ibrahimi, it was our brothers, our fathers, our friends who were butchered by the Zionists that morning. And standing there, you could see that red flash of the bullets when shot, for now they were shooting in our direction as well. In return, stones started flowing at the occupier, at the soldiers who had come to kill people who were donating blood, people who were mourning. It was a real battle, and the whole area turned into a battle field. And when the soldiers saw that they with their sophisticated weapons were losing against students armed with tiny stones and with the love of Palestine and freedom, they came with their jeeps up the roads towards us. Some made it in time into the campus before the main door was closed, others ran towards the alleys of the old city of Bethlehem trying to escape the Israeli soldiers who came chasing. I don’t know how long the chase lasted, you lose feel of time in such situations. And as fully-armed Zionist occupation soldiers chased unarmed Palestinian students, Palestinian homes everywhere opened their doors to embrace these students and protect them. I said it at the time, and I want to take the chance to say it again today: Thank You! During the chase, a curfew was imposed on the city, but we didn’t hear the soldiers announcing it and only knew about it while in the safety of Palestinian homes. The Israeli army knew that many would not have heard the calls for a curfew, and thus shooting more Palestinians would have been justified with the “breaking the curfew” excuse. That morning in February, Palestine embraced 29 of its children to its bosom and was to embrace yet more by the end of the day. It was a Friday in the month of Ramadan, so hundreds of Palestinians had gone to the Ibrahimi mosque for the dawn prayer. At around 5 am, and as the worshippers were kneeling in prayer, Zionist colonist Baruch Goldstein, a leader of the fanatic terror movement Kach, who was hiding behind one of the pillar, started shooting randomly at the worshippers. He was also armoured with a number of hand grenades which he threw amongst the dying and the wounded. The shooting lasted 10 minutes during which 29 worshippers were massacred, including many children, and over 300 were wounded, leaving some handicapped for life. Goldstein would have gone on with his butchering were it not for a group of young men who were finally able to subdue him. During this time, and despite the sounds of shooting coming from the mosque, the IOF soldiers stationed outside did not intervene to stop the massacre, instead they locked up the doors of the mosque and prevented worshippers from escaping. Palestinians who had heard the shooting and came running towards the mosque testify that the Israeli soldiers knew what was going on inside it but did nothing to stop it. On the contrary, when Hebron residents tried to enter the mosque yard to help the wounded inside, the soldiers started shooting at them. Only when the shooting inside the mosque stopped did the IOF soldiers, together with more Zionist colonists, enter the mosque, and this only to “finish” Goldstein’s job, for the first thing they did was shoot dead the group of men who had subdued the terrorist. In the meantime, the soldiers surrounding the mosque continued shooting at everyone who came closer to the site, including the ambulances that had rushed to the area. Nidal Maraka, 15 years old, testified that: “When I heard the gun shots, I was scared and I fell on the floor. I looked around and saw my brother, Kifah (11), bleeding. He suffered multiple wounds to the head and neck. I went to tell my father but found him bleeding too from his wounds. Then my little brother Jihad (9) came to me and told me that he was scared and wanted to hide near the Imam [all the way in the front.] I encouraged him to do that…. As I was leaving the [main hall] near the shelves where people put their shoes, I saw my classmate, Jabr Abu Hadeed. Jabr [11 years old] was holding his waist…. I saw him as he was collapsing on the floor. There was nothing that I could do for him. A man and I tried to save Jabr and to take him outside. But as we arrived at the main gate, a soldier hit the man with the butt of the gun on the back. The man fell on the ground. I tried to help Jabr but the soldier hit me too on my back…. I tried to escape from Ein el Hamra gate but found it closed. When I returned to look for another exist I saw a settler [description…] filling a magazine of a gun… After I managed to escape out, I met with my brother Jihad who told me that my father left the area…. Later I knew that my brother died…. On the next day, I learned that my schoolmate, Jabr was dead too.”[1] The massacre didn’t finish there. The Zionists were still thirsty for Palestinian blood and contrary to the later claims of the Zionist government that it “felt sorry” for the massacre, the Israeli army was obviously given orders to reply harshly to any acts of protest. And so it was; the soldiers followed the wounded right to the hospitals in Hebron and Bethlehem in a hunt for those worshippers who had survived. It seems they didn’t want any witnesses, any one left alive to contradict the lie the Zionist government was preparing as an “explanation” for the massacre. They wanted everyone who saw what had happened inside the mosque dead. “According to a taxi driver, Ashraf Mitzab, who transported some of the wounded, Palestinians were wounded by both the settler and soldiers. “People tried to run away but soldiers came into the mosque and used tear gas at the entrance and also opened fire at people. It was impossible to tell who was shot by the settler and who by the soldiers. It all happened at the same time. “The army forbade anyone to come or leave. My car was shot at as I was leaving the area. Also an Israeli guard at the Dabboyya building at the centre of Hebron shot at us. When I left, helicopters were spraying gas over the whole city. My car and ambulance which was travelling behind me were stopped at the checkpoint Beit Ummar.”[2] In Hebron, the Israeli army surrounded Al-Ahli hospital and occupied the roofs of the houses around it. People had gathered from all over the city and the surroundings to inquire about family members and friends, many came to donate blood, others wanted to assist in any way possible. Pharmacies of the city collected whatever medicines and bandages and oxygen canisters they had and brought them to the hospital. Israeli helicopters were hovering over the area and tear gas was fired at the crowds gathering in front of the hospital. . The Israeli army called for reinforcement to fight the army of wounded and was shooting extensively as if in a battlefield. And it wasn’t only the wounded worshippers brought to the hospital on stretchers who were the target of the Zionist snipers, but also the medics who were trying to save peoples’ lives and those who had come to donate blood. One example is ‘Arafat Al-Bayid, father of 3, who was killed at the entrance to Al-Ahli hospital after he had donated blood. Witnesses and medics reported that the Israeli army prevented medics from reaching the wounded and prevented the wounded from reaching the hospital which caused some to bleed to death and others were shot while transporting the wounded. Most of the injuries were caused by high velocity bullets. The director of Al-Ahli hospital, Mahmoud At-Tamimi, recalled: “After treating the dead and the wounded and extracting the bullets, we found different types of bullets. Some bullets were shot from Uzi machine gun and other bullets including the dumdum were shot from other types of guns. There were also other wounds resulted from splinters which confirmed the testimonies of people that hand grenades were used … According to [forensic] medicine, 1 in 15 people get killed in cases similar to this one. But in this massacre the ratio was 1 to 6. This significantly higher ratio indicates that the people were barraged with too much gun fire and there was delay in our attempt to rescue them due to the blockades … Ambulances that came from the adjacent villages of Halhol and Beit Ummar to assist were also delayed by the Israeli army blockades … The army provoked residents who came to donate blood or assist… A young man who just donated blood left the hospital and he was returned to it shortly after the Israeli soldiers shot him dead. They brought him back without the upper part of his skull… Four of the people who donated blood were later killed by the soldiers in the vicinity of the hospital.”[3] Because there were so many wounded, they had to be transferred to at least 6 hospitals in the area, including Al-Hussein, Al-Maqasid and Ramallah hospitals. But the Zionist forces followed them even there, as was the case with Al-Hussein hospital in Beit Jala. More Palestinians were killed by the IOF during the rush burial of some martyrs. ‘Atiyah Mohammad As-Salaymeh, father of 5, was killed while burying one of the martyrs. He was shot by a Zionist sniper and fell right over the body of the martyr he was burying. Both martyrs were buried in the same grave. The massacre went on and more Palestinians fell with every passing hour. The soldiers used their live ammunition to the fullest against the protesters who took to the streets in the hundreds to protest the massacre. The result was that by the end of that Friday the terrorist Goldstein, together with his fellow terrorist colonists and the terrorist IOF soldiers had killed over 60 Palestinians and wounded hundreds. That day, and in the usual Zionist way of “explaining” Zionist terror acts, the terrorist Goldstein was declared “mentally deranged” and thus following the Zionist tradition of covering up murderers, terrorists and war criminals by declaring them “unstable”, such as with the Australian-Zionist terrorist Denis Rohan who on 21.08.1969 set parts of Al-Aqsa mosque on fire in an attempt to burn it down, or the American-Zionist IOF terrorist Alan Goodman who during an attempt to blow up Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock on 11.04.1982 killed at least 3 Palestinians in the Holy Sanctuary, and many other “all-of-a-sudden-declared-deranged” terrorists. The Israeli government’s official “story” of “such regrettable incidents” being the act of a “mentally deranged” individual is a futile effort to hide the obvious: that this and all other massacres committed against the Palestinian people are nothing but state terror funded and carried out by the Zionist entity. Facts on the ground and testimonies of those who survived the massacres at the mosque, at the hospitals and in the streets relate another story: 1 According to several reports, the terrorist Benjamin Goldstein, an American doctor from Brooklyn, was known as a racist and Arab-hater since an early age. He changed his name to Baruch and in 1982 joined the fanatic terror group Kach of Maier Kahana. In 1983 he came to occupied Palestine and lived in the illegal colony Kiryat Arba’, home to some of the most fanatic Zionist colonists. Goldstein, who was later labelled “mentally deranged”, served in the Israeli terror army and was wearing an Israeli military uniform when he committed the massacre. On that morning in February, Goldstein, well-known to everyone including the IOF as being fanatic, made his way towards the Ibrahimi mosque heavily armed with automatic machine guns, several bullet magazines and hand grenades. He passed at least two IOF army checkpoints on the way to the Ibrahimi and was allowed to enter a mosque filled with unarmed worshippers. Eyewitness Muhammad Sari recalled that “the muezzin announced the beginning of the prayer, so we knelt and made the first prostration. Then all of a sudden we heard the sound of heavy gun fire coming from behind us. When I turned around in the direction of the sound, I saw a soldier in full uniform. He had put ear pieces in his ears, and he was holding a rapid-firing machine gun and firing in the direction of the worshippers.”[4]Another witness, S.A., 18 years, said: “I stood with my friends and brother and then we started praying and the shooting started. I looked to my right and to my left and saw everyone bleeding and when I looked around me (I saw) my best friend was dead and his eyes and mouth were open. I looked before me and saw my other friend bleeding heavily from the head … I tried escaping from this hell and tried to help one of the wounded but he was dead as well.”[5] Farhan Hussein Al-Ja’bari, 7 years old, recalled how he and his brother Sari were scared and started crying when they saw the dead and bleeding worshippers. And when they searched for their father, they found him dead with his head riddled with bullets.[6] 2 Eyewitnesses testified that the Israeli soldiers present inside the mosque assisted Goldstein in committing the massacre. The doors of the main prayer hall were locked from the outside, which was never the case before during prayer and the section between the prayer hall and the administrative section (where the telephone is) was also closed off, which meant that the worshippers had no access to the telephone to call for medics. Also, witnesses testified that Goldstein was standing behind the last row of worshippers in the prayer hall, which means he was standing between the soldiers and the worshippers, thus the Israeli soldiers would have had no difficulty at all in subduing him if they wanted, which they never did. Mohammad Abu Al-Halawah who was shot during the massacre leaving him crippled, recalled that when the shooting started, several worshippers ran towards the main door to find it locked up despite the fact that this door is never locked up during prayer, and when the worshippers locked up inside the mosque started shouting out for help, the Palestinians outside were prevented by the IOF from coming to their rescue.[7] One witness, Sharif Barakat Zahdeh, 27 years old, recalls that “he and his brother (martyr Sufian Zahdeh, 21 yrs old), who was killed in the massacre, arrived late to the mosque and had to sit in the last row of worshipers. He heard two persons speaking behind him in Hebrew saying, “This is their end. …. We later knelt in our prayer, I heard showers of gunfire. I looked next to me and I found my brother dead from bullets in his head. When the shots stopped, I saw people beating a soldier (Goldstein in his uniform). I saw a little 12 year-old child wounded and I tried to spare his life. I tried to carry the boy to the outside but an Israeli soldier stopped me and forced me to return to the inside. I tried another way out in the meantime I saw 4-5 settlers with civilian uniforms in a small room. I managed to escape with the boy to the outside but he died. Only in the hospital, I realized that I, too, was wounded in the chest area.”[8] 3 Eyewitnesses who heard the shooting and came running to the mosque to help the worshippers locked up inside and being butchered reported that the sound of shooting inside the mosque reached those outside, nonetheless the Israeli soldiers refused to let anyone in to help and ignored the calls of help and demands to open the door coming from inside the mosque. Instead, the Israeli soldiers stationed outside the mosque threw tear gas grenades at the people and ambulances approaching the mosque and shot at them killing at least 3 Palestinians. Hatim Quffeisheh recalled: “At 5:20 a.m. today everyone was standing up [in the mosque]. As I took off my shoes, I saw an old man wearing military clothes who was running along carrying a huge weapon loaded with ammunition. I was surprised to see him come into the mosque during the prayer. He opened fire, and I ran away and asked the soldier who guards the area to intervene. But all he did was beat me up, then I left the mosque area.”[9] Muhammad Sulayman Abu Salih described the massacre: “The terrorist was trying to kill as many people as possible. The corpses were scattered all over, spattering the floor of the mosque with blood. Worshippers who had been prostrate tried to flee in terror, and some of them fell on the floor…. I shouted at the top of my lungs to the soldiers to come and stop him, but all they did was run away. The armed man reloaded his rifle at least once and killed at least seven people at one time, the contents of their skulls scattering all over the floor. He kept on shooting for ten minutes, and the army didn’t step in until the massacre was over.”[10] The Imam of the Ibrahimi mosque, Sheikh Ibrahim Abdeen, recalled that “the bullets were coming from several places, that it was a true blood bath. The Israeli soldiers’ reaction was very slow; they actually delayed the arrival of the ambulances.”[11] 4 Eyewitnesses who were inside the mosque reported that after Goldstein was subdued and the shooting stopped, Israeli soldiers and Zionist colonists entered the mosque and started shooting at those inside, killing all the men who were surrounding Goldstein. Nadir Al-Ja’bari, 20 years old, recalled how bullets were showering at the worshippers from three sources in the mosque and how four worshippers tried to escape the mosque but the Israeli soldiers shot at them. When he finally escaped, Al-Ja’bari saw the soldiers outside shooting at everyone; including the wounded and the medics.[12]Juwayyed Hasan Al-Ja’bari, 31 years old, recalls: “A few seconds after we started the prayers, I heard the sound of a big explosion which was followed by showers of gun shots. I was in the first row and was not [physically] injured from the incident. There were more than 200 worshippers in the mosque at that time…. I could not see the criminal because he was hiding behind a beam… One of the young people approached the soldiers yelling (God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest) and a soldier aimed at him and shot him in the chest…. Minutes later hundreds of people arrived in the mosque to help the wounded but the soldiers refused to let them in and shot at them.”[13] 5 some eyewitnesses report of at least three Zionist terrorist, including Goldstein, committing the initial massacre at the Ibrahimi mosque, in addition to the Israeli soldiers who assisted first by locking up the doors during the massacre, then shooting at those still alive after Goldstein was dead. Also, other fanatic Zionists from Kiryat Arba were allowed into the mosque to finish the job of Goldstein and others were outside shooting at approaching Palestinians. Talal Abu Sneineh, who was shot in both shoulders, testified: “I saw a settler hiding behind one of the pillars in the mosque’ as he fired on the worshippers with his rifle. Another [Jewish] settler stood beside him loading a second rifle so that it would be ready to go to work next.”[14] Harbi Abu Sbeih, 26 years old, testified that: “As we started the prayer, I heard screaming in Hebrew saying ‘This is their end.’ After that I heard showers of machine gun shots…. People were falling on the floor because of their wounds or because they were killed. The fact that some people suffered wounds from dumdum bullets while others were wounded from regular bullets made me believe that there were more than one assailant. And it was no coincident that the electricity was partially shot off on the mosque that night.”[15] One important fact, that is rarely mentioned, is that according to several eyewitness reports a wide-scale massacre was planned in several Hebron mosques by Zionist colonists and with the assistance of the Israeli army. Actually, it all started the night before, when the Israeli soldiers and colonists present at the mosque prevented Palestinians worshippers from entering it for the night prayer. Then the worshippers were allowed in, to be asked again to leave and some were even beaten by the soldiers so they leave the mosque. It seems the original plan was to attack several mosques simultaneously, but because it was Ramadan and most worshippers preferred to pray in the Ibrahimi, the plan was not fully pursued. Mohammad Ibrahim Gheith, 18 years old, was the very first victim of that terrorist plan. He had gone to the Khaled Bin El-Walid mosque to pray there that morning and was shot by a Zionist colonist in the chest. And while Mohammad was being operated in hospital, the victims of the Ibrahimi massacre started arriving. “Mohammad said that the settler who shot at him did not have facial hair, i.e. he was not Goldstein. This affirmed the conclusion of the Palestinians that more than one person committed the massacre and that the plan was originally to attack several mosques in the city. But the small number of Arabs in that mosque did not appeal to the settlers or justified an attack.”[16] As previously mentioned, that morning and contrary to every other day, only 3 to 4 Israeli soldiers were present at the mosque, which many Palestinian worshippers found strange. It can be concluded that at first there were fewer soldiers present to give Goldstein and his fellow terrorists the chance to enter the mosque and commit their massacre, but as the massacre began some 20 to 30 soldiers arrived, accompanied by more colonists, and started shooting at those trying to leave the mosque and those coming to the rescue. Karem Al-Joulani, 20 years old, recalled: “That night we went to the mosque as usual. The soldiers in the night before delayed our prayers for two hours claiming that the settlers were not done from their praying. In the dawns of Friday we normally saw 20-25 soldiers securing the gates of the mosque…. They usually strictly searched us. But this Friday [of the massacre] was different as there were only three soldiers on the gate and they did not search us…. I joined the prayers and managed to get a position in the middle rows…. But as soon as we started praying I heard shots fired at the people and saw people running away from all directions…. I lost consciousness as I suffered a wound to the thigh.”[17] Muhannad Mohammad Abu Aishah, 16 years old, related that: “As we started praying we heard some people talking in Hebrew. I did not know what it was. But moments after the prayer started I heard gun shots. I looked around and saw settlers and soldiers escaping from [the main hall.] At that point I heard the shooting stopped… The soldiers participated in the shooting. I saw them, in my own eyes, shooting at people including the wounded near the gate of the mosque…. The job of the soldiers was always protecting settlers.”[18] The Israeli occupation army and the fanatic colonists of Kiryat Arba’ were direct partners in the “act of a deranged individual” as the Israeli government termed this full-scale massacre. They participated in the massacring of Palestinian civilians that day. The Zionist entity claimed it “condemned” the “attack”, “regretted” it and that it was “shocked” at what happened, when in fact it finances and encourages such fanatics, builds illegal colonies for them on stolen Palestinian land, arms them and gives them green light to kill Palestinians. But if it really “regretted” and “condemned” such acts of terror, which it doesn’t, why didn’t it confiscate the arms of fanatic colonists? Why didn’t it keep its army away from Hebron and from Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps? They knew there would be popular rage, why didn’t they order their army to stay away? Simple: because this is an entity built on terror and feeds on terror, because they didn’t “regret” the massacre and because the plan had always been, and still is, to kill as many Palestinians as possible. Goldstein was a well-known fanatic, nevertheless the Zionist government that claims it “regretted the attack” allowed him to give religious advice to Israeli prisoners. He was also allowed to give speeches which mainly concentrated on the “demographic threat to the Zionist entity” and that the transfer of the Palestinians, even by force, is the only solution to this threat. In a theatrical move directed mainly at the western “audience”, the Israeli government banned “Kach”, but in reality members of this terrorist movement are very much active with the full support of the Zionist entity. One example is the terrorist Baruch Marzel who was head of the secretariat of Kach and later became the leader of the terrorist “Jewish National Front” which is responsible for many terrorist attacks on Palestinians in occupied Palestine. This “outlawed” terrorist movement “celebrates” every year the butchering of Palestinians and this under the eyes and ears and with the support and approval of the Israeli government. In fact, what the Zionist government did in the aftermath of the massacre only shows how much this entity wants “peace”, for after such a horrific massacre of innocent worshippers in a house of God, it was the victims who were blamed for their murder and it was the families of the victims, i.e. the Palestinian population of Hebron, who were punished and are still being punished for the terrorist act of Zionist colonist. And as if the massacre and the daily Zionist terror were not enough, Palestinian Hebronites were punished with extended curfews, mass arrests and a siege. Then, the Zionist entity played the usual charade of setting an “investigation committee”, the Shamgar Committee”, which was comprised mostly of Zionists. Thus, it was no surprise at all when the committee announced the results of its “investigations” in which it blamed the victims for the massacre and punished them. The Ibrahimi mosque was closed in the face of Palestinians worshippers for months, and when it was finally reopened it was divided between the Palestinians and the fanatic Zionists who got the control over the larger part of the mosque and Judaized it. And since then, the number of Palestinian worshippers allowed into the mosque is determined by the IOF; they decide who enters, how many and when, while fanatic Zionists can enter and leave the mosque as they wish and when they wish. On Jewish holidays, the Ibrahimi is closed to Muslims and the Zionists have the right to use the whole mosque. Jamil Is-Skafi, who was shot during the massacre in the knee, thigh and pelvis, recalled: we were praying on Friday in the Ibrahimi mosque, and I was praying in the row before last, and suddenly I heard intensive gunshots followed by three explosions which probably were hand grenades, and followed again by intensive shooting inside the mosque. Many were martyred and many injured. … I found myself in a car. I looked at the back of the cabin and saw three martyrs. I didn’t recognize them because they were in pieces. … When the shooting started I felt I was living in a foreign film, and we the worshippers were in a battlefield and everyone was shooting at us without mercy. So I asked God for martyrdom and my friend Nimir Mujahid got it. … I expected that the colonists will be kicked out of the heart of Hebron after the massacre, but instead the “Shamgar” Committee gave them the mosque and the city, and so the mosque and Hebron were divided, as if nothing had happened or as if we were the one who committed the massacre.”[19] And the Zionist terrorist who committed the massacre got a memorial. And the government that allegedly “condemned” the killing gave its approval for a funeral for the killer, keeping in mind that Palestinians had been killed by the IOF while burying their martyrs. And a Zionist terrorist got a hero’s funeral attended by many Zionist personalities and thousands of Zionist colonists. During the funeral, calls from Zionist colonists were made for similar massacres and the posters of the killer decorated the walls of west Jerusalem neighbourhoods. At the eulogy of Goldstein, speakers referred to the fact that throughout his career, Goldstein refused to treat any wounded Arab or non-Jew. “Rabbi Yisrael Ariel Goldstein described Goldstein as a person who is having a higher status than the saints. He described him as a “Royal Martyr” who was “Listening to the cry of the stolen Land [complaining] from the Ishmaelites [Arabs] every day. And he did [something] to alleviate that cry.” The Rabbi summarized his statement by saying that “It is not peace agreements which recover lands, it is blood that recovers lands.” Another speaker in the eulogy said that “The People of Israel were sick and Goldstein gave us the medication.”[20] This killer is still considered a hero and even a holy man by the fanatic Zionist colonists occupying Palestine and his death is being commemorated yearly. This week, in a further step to Judaize the Ibrahimi mosque, the Israeli government decided to annex it – together with the Bilal Ibn Rabah mosque – and add both to its list of so-called “Israeli Heritage Sites”. Zionist colonists, aka terrorists, continue to live in the heart of Hebron in usurped Palestinian homes, on usurped Palestinian land. They continue their attacks on Hebron and its indigenous population, and are given the full control over the old city and its surroundings, including the Ibrahimi mosque. Complete areas, neighbourhoods and streets are off limit to the Palestinians, and the homes of Palestinians in these areas stand empty waiting for their owners to return. And despite the terrorism of the Zionist entity and its army and colonists against the people of Hebron in an effort to ethnically cleanse the city, the Hebronites will remain steadfast in their city, and those who were kicked out of their homes will return one day because the homes, the streets, the neighbourhoods and the alleys of Hebron have one owner: the Palestinian people. That day, it was dark when I reached home. My parents were following the news of the massacre and the protests all over occupied Palestine on TV. We didn’t talk much, I told them in a few words about my day and except for the usual: are you alright? Yes, I am fine, nothing much was said. But I could see that they were relieved that I was fine. They saw that I was very tired and asked if I wanted something to eat, I hadn’t eaten a thing the whole day, but I was too tired and said I just wanted to go and sleep. As I went to bed, I could hear the news on TV talking about the massacre. I was very tired, but the last thought on my mind before drowning in sleep was: We will have justice. The world has heard about the massacre, about how the Zionists treat us, and has heard our message of protest against the occupation and the oppression. We will get justice. Today, 16 years after the massacre, Palestine is still occupied by Zionist terrorists, Palestinians in Hebron and in all occupied Palestine are still the target of Zionist terrorism, and Zionists still spread terror throughout occupied Palestine and beyond. And 16 years later, we are still protesting the Israeli occupation and oppression, we are still steadfast in our land, we are still waiting for justice. Lest We Forget: The Martyrs of 25.02.1994 Some of the Zionist war criminals responsible for the massacres of 25.02.1994 include: Sources Footnotes: 28 March 1994, A Jewish undercover police opened fire on Palestinian activists brutally killing 6 and injuring 49. Some of the wounded activists were taken out of their cars and shot in their heads to death.Back to top 15/4/1994(Lebanon): After blockading the town, armed men entered and ordered the people to gather at the town’s square, where they were assaulted. Then, they took the men and women to the detention camp. Later on they stormed, the district of the town, and killed whomever they saw. 2 perosns were lkilled, 6 were wounded. 17 July 1994, Palestinian sources reported that the occupation forces had committed Sunday morning a disgusting massacre against Palestinian workers at Eretz checkpoint. Eyewitnesses and Israeli sources reported that 11 Palestinians have been shot dead and 200 injured. Israeli sources also reported that 21 Israeli soldiers including 1 settler were injured. Two soldiers were shot by bullets, one died. As reported by Palestinian and Israeli sources, the scene was described as a war zone which lasted for 6 hours. Four Israeli tanks and helicopters were brought by the occupation forces, while a number of settlers were taking part in firing at Palestinians. Protests had spread all over the Occupied Territories. In Gaza, Palestinians raised black flags and called for revenge. In Ramallah, shops closed while several clashes were reported. Several clashes were reported at Hebron University yesterday, and today two Palestinians were shot in Hebron. 5/8/1994(Lebanon): 21/03/1994(Lebanon): 2/04/1996 (Lebanon): On 13 April 1996, at about 1:30 P.M., an IDF helicopter fired rockets at a vehicle carrying thirteen civilians fleeing the village of al-Mansuri, killing two women and four young girls. The vehicle was a Volvo station wagon with a blue flooding light, a red crescent painted on the hood and the word “ambulance” written in Arabic. Reporters at the scene filmed the incident. The film footage shows, and testimony of UN soldiers who arrived immediately after the car was hit corroborate, that there were no weapons or any other type of military equipment in the car, only some food and clothes. Amnesty’s investigation revealed that none of the passengers were connected to Hizbullah. 18 April 1996, Eleven persons were killed and ten injured in an IDF air attack on a house in Nabatiyya al-Faqwah, some three kilometers north of Nabatiyya, in South Lebanon. Eight of those killed were from one family: a mother and her seven children, including a four-day-old baby. Around 6:30 a.m., IDF helicopters fired rockets at three buildings in the village, demolishing one totally and severely damaging the other two. Lebanese families were living in the buildings. The IDF Spokesperson claimed that the helicopters fired at the building in which the eleven were killed because Hizbullah was hiding there after firing the mortars. Investigations conducted by Amnesty and HRW did not confirm this contention The IDF’s statement ignored the fact that the IDF fired at two other buildings during the same attack. 18 April 1996, The “ethnic cleansing” operations carried out by the Zionist terrorist army have March 10 1998 :Israeli Occupied West Bank, March 10–Israeli soldiers opened fire with automatic 22/12/1998 (Lebanon): 24/6/1999 (Lebanon) In an interview with the “kolhaer” magazine, five Israeli soldiers said that the artillery commander had said to his soldiers “We are skilled marksmen. Anyhow, there are millions of Arabs… It’s their problem. Whether Arabs become one more or less is just the same…We have accomplished our duty. 29/12/1999 (Lebanon): Gaza massacres (27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009) More than 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were killed during 22 days of Israeli shelling from sea, air and land. Palestinians in Gaza had nowhere to flee from Israel’s onslaught as the border has been closed for two years, with disastrous consequences for the 1.5 million in habitants of Gaza — the majority of them children and refugees. On 27 December, Israel began its bombardment on Gaza and then on 3 January began its ground offensive. Israel claims that it was targeting Hamas armed fighters and infrastructure, ostensibly in response to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. However, field investigations by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezanshow that United Nations-administered schools, mosques, universities, emergency medical crews, private homes and other civilian objects have all been in Israel’s sights. Among those killed on the first day of bombing, when more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on the tiny coastal enclave, included police officers who were attending a graduation ceremony, school children heading home after a day of study, and other Gazans killed without warning as they were conducting their normal business. Entire families have been wiped out during the air strikes and shelling, including that ofHamas leader Nizar Rayyan who was extrajudicially executed along with his family in their home in a Gaza refugee camp. More than 40 were killed on 6 January when Israeli forces shelled the United Nations-administered Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp, where families who had been displaced by the bombing were seeking shelter. The UN has demanded an independent investigation and its spokespersons assert that GPS coordinates of all UN locations were given to Israel to prevent such an atrocity. Israel recanted its claim that resistance fighters released fire on Israeli soldiers from the school, which has been categorically denied by UN officials. The International Committee of the Red Cross protested Israeli forces preventing them from evacuating casualties. Some victims died because Gaza’s hospitals — already chronically short of medicines and supplies due to the Israeli siege — were unable to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. Medical workers faced grave danger as they responded to the sites of Israeli strikes; according to the World Health Organization, as of 8 January, 21 medical workers had been killed and more than 30 injured since 27 December. The bloody operation in Gaza came after the expiration of a six-month-long ceasefire between Israel and resistance groups in Gaza, including Hamas. Israel had broken the ceasefire on 4 November, when it extrajudicially executed six Palestinians in Gaza whom it said was digging tunnels to Israel. During the five previous months of the ceasefire, Hamas had refrained from firing rockets and prevented other groups from doing so. However, Israel failed to ease the nearly two-year-long embargo on the Gaza Strip that has crippled economic life and brought the area to the brink of a humanitarian crisis — one of Israel’s obligations under the ceasefire. Instead, in Israel, where the fate of the Gaza Strip has become part of politicking as the country geared up for an election, leaders blamed Hamas for the carnage and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cynically appealed, “to the people of Gaza, you are not our enemy.” While the other three members of the so-called International Quartet for Middle East Peace criticized what they called Israel’s “excessive” use of force, the US refrained from doing so. White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe stated from Texas, where President George W. Bush was presently vacationing: “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop.” The ongoing assault on Gaza is the largest Israeli military operation in the territory occupied during the 1967 War. Although Israel unilaterally withdrew its illegal settler population from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it remained the occupying power as it controlled the borders, sea and airspace, as well as the population registry, and regularly carried out sonic booms over the area, terrorizing the population. Israeli forces have also frequently carried out extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists in Gaza, killing scores of bystanders as well. Gaza hospitals were unable to cope with the situation as Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip for a year and a half has prevented the importing of medical supplies and equipment. As the morgues filled to capacity, corpses lined the hallways of Gaza hospitals. Hospitals were forced to turn away many of the injured due to the lack of space and supplies. The massive air strikes came after a food crisis broke out in Gaza, as Israel’s banning of imports into the Strip have depleted stocks of flour and cooking gas, causing some bakeries — the few still in operation — to resort to baking bread made out of animal feed. On 18 December, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) was forced to stop its food aid delivery to 750,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip. Though it briefly resumed services in January 2009 after a “humanitarian corridor” was established, and a daily three-hour ceasefire was declared, the United Nations announced it was ceasing all services after Israeli forces targeted and killed a UN aid worker and wounded others on 8 January. Israel’s measures of collective punishment on the Gaza Strip are resulting in “the breakdown of an entire society,” according to economist Sara Roy, who asks in a commentary published recently by The London Review of Books, “How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel?” The devastating attack on Gaza was described as “willful killing” by leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, and therefore constitute “a war crime.” The organizations stated: “Both the time and location of these attacks also indicate a malicious intent to inflict as many casualties as possible with many of the police stations located in civilian population centers and the time of the attacks coinciding with the end of the school day resulting in the deaths of numerous children.” The assault was met with loud calls for a boycott of Israel, including a boycott appeal from by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, which stated on the day of the massacres: “Israel seems intent to mark the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it has established itself — perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 1948, the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed from their homes and land, partly through massacres like Deir Yassin; today, the Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are refugees, do not even have the choice to seek refuge elsewhere. Incarcerated behind ghetto walls and brought to the brink of starvation by the siege, they are easy targets for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing.” And while government leaders and US president-elect Barack Obama remained resoundingly silent over the ongoing massacres in Gaza (with the exception of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, which removed Israel’s ambassador from the country), millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to express their solidarity with Palestinians under siege. Analysts say that Arab regimes seen as being in collusion or supporting the siege and massacres, such as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, will not be unscathed by the popular anger towards these policies. Mavi Marmara Massacre | May 31, 2010 The Freedom Flotilla I who were savagly massacred in International Waters by Israeli Occupation Forces and sacrificied their lives while on a peaceful mission to Gaza. Killed trying to support and show solidarity for their brothers and sisters in Gaza and Palestine. Many were wounded, 9 we’re killed of which 1 US citizen. The names of the shuhada: Nakba Day | May 15, 2011 On this day, teh zionist entity cause over 20 deaths mainly unarmed civilians: refugees keeping non-violent protests and try to walk home. Israel encountered the worldwide peaceful memorial of Nakba Day in Israel and Palestine with disproportional violence and caused casualties on 3 borders. Over 400 were injured. Ongoing 2011 Mainly Gaza is submitted to bombin and shelling on regular basis. But also in the west bank a lot of non violent, unarmed civilans and children are killed by attacks by Israeli military or colonists, or just for no reason at all. These cases are rarely covered in media but for an overview of the death of 2011 go to the memorial page: iRemember… The Martyrs | 2011 | الشهداء Besides this the restrictions on movement, the racist permit policies or any other reason IOA uses to restrict movement of Palestinians, causes immediately endagering of Palestinians’ lives. Due to denial of medical aid, assistance or prohibit them to travel to hospitals for necessary treatment, many die. As well as due to electrictity cuts in Gaza, many patients dependant of electricity for dialysis, breathing etc die. This is a silent genocide and it is going on every day. Below a report of the Israeli Solidarity and Human Rights organisation B’TSelem which have done investigation into these cases, the report cover the deaths from the year 2000 until 2011 Palestinian deaths following infringement of right to medical treatment in the OPT, 2000 -2011| Btselem MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights (AFP) — Israeli troops opened fire on Sunday as protesters from Syria stormed a ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights, with Damascus saying 23 demonstrators were killed. Hundreds of protesters rushed the ceasefire line, cutting through barbed wire as they tried to enter the Golan Heights in a repeat of demonstrations last month when thousands massed along Israel’s north. Updating an earlier toll, Syrian state media reported that 23 people were killed, including a woman and child, and 350 were wounded. The Israeli military said it was aware of 12 casualties. The Israeli military also said that one person was wounded when at least one landmine exploded on Syria’s side of the border. More: Another Israeli Massacre to add to the list: 23 dead as Israel opens fire on Golan These are just some of the massacres committed against the Palestinians and Lebanese by the Zionists. If the raids on southern Lebanon old and new were to be taken into account the true magnitude of Zionist crimes against humanity could start to emerge. If one were to go into the gruesome details of the atrocities committed in 1948 the -mopping up operations -, the deliberate humiliation and massacres of Arabs and the desecration of the holy places of both Muslim and Christian as well as the looting of these holy places and personal property by the Israeli army and settlers; one might just start to appreciate what Zionism is all about. “Destroy all of the land; beat down their pillars and break their statues and waste all of their high places, cleansing the land and dwelling in it, for I have given it to you for a possession” Numbers 33:52,53 “And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city both men and women, young and old and ox and sheep and ass with the edge of the sword.” Joshua 6:21 1. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Part I, op. cit., p. 413, paraphrased. . by Robert Fisk, independent.co.uk [O]K, so by this afternoon, the exchange rate of death in two days was 40-0 in favour of Israel. But now for the Gaza story you won’t be hearing from anyone else in the next few hours. It’s about land. The Israelis of Sederot are coming under rocket fire from the Palestinians of Gaza and now the Palestinians are getting their comeuppance. Sure. But wait, how come all those Palestinians – all 1.5 million – are crammed into Gaza in the first place? Well, their families once lived, didn’t they, in what is now called Israel? And got chucked out – or fled for their lives – when the Israeli state was created. And – a drawing in of breath is now perhaps required – the people who lived in Sederot in early 1948 were not Israelis, but Palestinian Arabs. Their village was called Huj. Nor were they enemies of Israel. Two years earlier, these same Arabs had actually hidden Jewish Haganah fighters from the British Army. But when the Israeli army turned up at Huj on 31 May 1948, they expelled all the Arab villagers – to the Gaza Strip! Refugees, they became. David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister) called it an “unjust and unjustified action”. Too bad. The Palestinians of Huj were never allowed back. And today, well over 6,000 descendants of the Palestinians from Huj – now Sederot – live in the squalor of Gaza, among the “terrorists” Israel is claiming to destroy and who are shooting at what was Huj. Interesting story. And same again for Israel’s right to self-defence. We heard it again today. What if the people of London were being rocketed like the people of Israel? Wouldn’t they strike back? Well yes, but we Brits don’t have more than a million former inhabitants of the UK cooped up in refugee camps over a few square miles around Hastings. The last time this specious argument was used was in 2008, when Israel invaded Gaza and killed at least 1,100 Palestinians (exchange rate: 1,100 to 13). What if Dublin was under rocket attack, the Israeli ambassador asked then? But the UK town of Crossmaglen in Northern Ireland was under rocket attack from the Irish Republic in the 1970s – yet the RAF didn’t bomb Dublin in retaliation, killing Irish women and children. In Canada in 2008, Israel’s supporters were making the same fraudulent point. What if the people of Vancouver or Toronto or Montreal were being rocket-attacked from the suburbs of their own cities? How would they feel? But the Canadians haven’t pushed the original inhabitants of Canadian territory into refugee camps. And now let’s cross to the West Bank. First of all, Benjamin Netanyahu said he couldn’t talk to Palestinian “President” Mahmoud Abbas because he didn’t also represent Hamas. Then when Abbas formed a unity government, Netanyahu said he couldn’t talk to Abbas because he had unified himself with the “terrorist” Hamas. Now he says he can only talk to him if he breaks with Hamas – even though he won’t then represent Hamas. Meanwhile, that great leftist Israeli philosopher Uri Avnery – 90 years old and still, thankfully, going strong – has picked up on his country’s latest obsession: the danger that Isis will storm west from its Iraqi/Syrian “caliphate” and arrive on the east bank of the Jordan river. “And Netanyahu said,” according to Avnery, “if they are not stopped by the permanent Israeli garrison there (on the Jordan river), they will appear at the gates of Tel Aviv.” The truth, of course, is that the Israeli air force would have crushed Isis the moment it dared to cross the Jordanian border from Iraq or Syria. The importance of this, however, is that if Israel keeps its army on the Jordan (to protect Israel from Isis), a future “Palestine” state will have no borders and will be an enclave within Israel, surrounded on all sides by Israeli-held territory. “Much like the South African Bantustans,” says Avnery. In other words, no “viable” state of Palestine will ever exist. After all, aren’t Isis just the same as Hamas? Of course not, that’s not what we heard from Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s spokesman. No, what he told Al Jazeera was that Hamas was “an extremist terrorist organisation not very different from Isis in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Boko Haram…” Tosh. Hezbollah is a Shia militia now fighting to the death inside Syria against the Sunni Muslims of Isis. And Boko Haram – thousands of kilometres from Israel – is not a threat to Tel Aviv. But you get the point. The Palestinians of Gaza – and please forget, forever, the 6,000 Palestinians whose families come from the land of Sederot – are allied to the tens of thousands of Islamists threatening Maliki of Baghdad, Assad of Damascus or President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja. Even more to the point, if Isis is heading towards the edge of the West Bank, why is the Israeli government still building colonies there – illegally, and on Arab land – for Israeli civilians? This is not just about the foul murder of three Israelis in the occupied West Bank or the foul murder of a Palestinian in occupied East Jerusalem. Nor about the arrest of many Hamas militants and politicians in the West Bank. Nor about rockets. As usual, it’s about land. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. He has been Middle East correspondent of The Independent for more than twenty years, primarily based in Beirut
THE “PEACE PROCESS” DIES AGAIN
The toxic crisis of Israeli society
A nation consecrated to a dead-end ideology.
[A]s the death toll from the Israeli bombing of Gaza soared above 100, it was reported that the ultranationalist Israeli Jews who kidnapped 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir in East Jerusalem last week murdered him by pouring gasoline down this throat and setting him on fire.
Israel’s long history of carrying out massacres & genocide against Palestinians
Israeli Massacres on Palestinians
Posted on July 11, 2014 by michaellee2009Israeli Crimes: Details and numbers of the Zionist terrorism activities
Although the image that Israel distributes about herself is that of an oppressed nation, it is with heavy hearts that we present these crimes that stand for themselves for the brutality of the Israeli Army and the heartlessness of its soldiers who seem to have a thirst for blood. It is for the hope that the world may see a clearer picture that we present these painful facts. It is interesting to notice that today’s media does not dwell on these crimes as they do on the Holocaust.List of Irgun attacks 1937-1948
Date
Casualties
References
1937, March
2 Arabs killed on Bat-Yam beach.
[12]
1937, Nov 14
10 Arabs killed by Irgun units launching attacks around Jerusalem, (“Black Sunday”)
[13][14]
1938, April 12
2 Arabs and 2 British policemen were killed by a bomb in a train in Haifa.
[14]
1938, April 17
1 Arab was killed by a bomb detonated in a cafe in Haifa
[14]
1938, May 17
1 Arab policeman was killed in an attack on a bus in the Jerusalem–Hebron road.
[14]
1938, May 24
3 Arabs were shot and killed in Haifa.
[14]
1938, June 23
2 Arabs were killed near Tel-Aviv.
[14]
1938, June 26
7 Arabs were killed by a bomb in Jaffa.
[14]
1938, June 27
1 Arab was killed in the yard of a hospital in Haifa.
[14]
1938, June
Unspecified number of Arabs killed by a bomb that was thrown into a crowded Arab market place in Jerusalem.
[15]
1938, July 5
7 Arabs were killed in several shooting attacks in Tel-Aviv.
[14]
1938, July 5
3 Arabs were killed by a bomb detonated in a bus in Jerusalem.
[14]
1938, July 5
1 Arab was killed in another attack in Jerusalem.
[14]
1938, July 6
18 Arabs and 5 Jews were killed by two simultaneous bombs in the Arab melon market in Haifa. More than 60 people were wounded.
[14][16][17]
1938, July 8
4 Arabs were killed by a bomb in Jerusalem.
[14]
1938, July 16
10 Arabs were killed by a bomb at a marketplace in Jerusalem.
[14]
1938, July 25
43 Arabs were killed by a bomb at a marketplace in Haifa.
[14][18]
1938, Aug 26
24 Arabs were killed by a bomb at a marketplace in Jaffa.
[14]
1939, Febr 27
33 Arabs were killed in multiple attacks, incl. 24 by bomb in Arab market in Suk Quarter of Haifa and 4 by bomb in Arab vegetable market in Jerusalem.
[19]
1939, May 29
5 Arabs were killed by a mine detonated at the Rex cinema in Jerusalem.
[14]
1939, May 29
5 Arabs were shot and killed during a raid on the village ofBiyar ‘Adas.
[14]
1939, June 2
5 Arabs were killed by a bomb at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem.
[14][20]
1939, June 12
1 British bomb expert trying to defuse the bombs killed, during a post office in Jerusalem was bombing
[14]
1939, June 16
6 Arabs were killed in several attacks in Jerusalem.
[14]
1939, June 19
20 Arabs were killed by explosives mounted on a donkey at a marketplace in Haifa.
[14][21]
1939, June 29
13 Arabs were killed in several shooting attacks around Jaffa during a one-hour period.
[14][22]
1939, June 30
1 Arab was killed at a marketplace in Jerusalem.
[14]
1939, June 30
2 Arabs were shot and killed in Lifta.
[14]
1939, July 3
1 Arab was killed by a bomb at a marketplace in Haifa.
[14][23]
1939, July 4
2 Arabs were killed in two attacks in Jerusalem.
[14]
1939, July 20
1 Arab was killed at a train station in Jaffa.
[14]
1939, July 20
6 Arabs were killed in several attacks in Tel-Aviv.
[14]
1939, July 20
3 Arabs were killed in Rehovot.
[14]
1939, Aug27
2 British officers were killed by a mine in Jerusalem.
[14]
1944, Sep 27
Unknown number of casualties, around 150 Irgun members attacked four British police stations
[24]
1944, Sep29
1 Senior British police officer of the Criminal Intelligence Department assassinated in Jerusalem.
[24]
1945, Nov 1
5 locomotives destroyed in Lydda station. Two staff, one soldier and one policeman killed.
[25]
1945, Dec 27
3 British policemen and 4 Basuto soldiers killed during the bombing of British CID headquarters in Jerusalem; 1 British soldier killed during attack of British army camp in north Tel Aviv
[26][27]
1946, Febr 22
Destroyed 14 aeroplanes at 5 RAF stations.
[28]
1946, July 22
91 people were killed at King David Hotel Bombing mostly civilians, staff of the hotel or Secretariat,
41 Palestinian Arabs, 15-28 British citizens, 17 Palestinian Jews, 2 Armenians, 1 Russian, 1 Greek and 1 Egyptian.[29][30][31]
1946, Oct 30
2 British guards killed during Gunfire and explosion at Jerusalem Railway Station.
[32]
1946, Oct 31
Bombing of the British Embassy in Rome. Nearly half the building was destroyed and 3 people were injured.
[33]
1947, Jan 12
4 killed in bombing of British headquarters.
[34]
1947, Mar 1
17 British officers killed, during raid and explosion.
[35]
1947, Mar 12
1 British soldier killed during the attack on Schneller Camp.
[35]
1947, July 19
4 locations within Haifa are attacked, killing a British constable and injuring 12.
[36]
1947, July 29
2 kidnapped British sergeants hanged.
[37]
1947, Sep26
4 British policemen killed in Irgun bank robbery.
[34]
1947, Sept 29
13 killed, 53 wounded in attack on British police station.
[34]
1947, Dec 11
13 killed in attack on Tireh, near Haifa
[38]
1947, Dec 12
20 killed, 5 wounded by barrel bomb at Damascus Gate.
[39]
1947, Dec 13
6 killed, 25 wounded by bombs outside Alhambra Cinema.
[40]
1947, Dec 13
5 killed, 47 wounded by two bombs at Damascus Gate.
[40]
1947, Dec 13
7 killed, 10 seriously injured in attack on Yehudiya.
[40]
1947, Dec 16
10 killed by bomb at Noga Cinema in Jaffa.
[41]
1947, Dec 29
14 Arabs killed by bomb in Jerusalem.
[34][42]
1947, Dec30
6 Arabs killed and, 42 injured by grenades at Haifa refinery, precipitating the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre, which lead to the Balad al-Shaykh massacre.
[43]
1948, Jan 1
2 Arabs killed and 9 injured by shooting attack on cafe in Jaffa.
[44]
1948, Jan 5
14 Arabs killed and 19 injured by truck bomb outside the 3-storey ‘Serrani’, Jaffa’s built Ottoman Town Hall
[45]
1948, Jan 7
20 Arabs killed by bomb at Jaffa Gate.
[46][47]
1948, Feb 10
7 Arabs killed near Ras el Ain after selling cows in Tel Aviv
[48]
1948, Feb 18
12 Arabs killed and 43 wounded at a marketplace inRamla
[49]
1948, Mar 1
20 Britons killed and 30 wounded in the Bevingrad Officers Club bombing
[50]
1948, Apr 9
107-120 Palestinians killed and massacred (the estimate generally accepted by scholars, instead the first announced number of 254) during and after the battle at the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, by 132 Irgunand 60 Lehi fighters.
[51][52][53][54][55]
1948, Apr 6
7 British soldiers, including Commanding Officer, killed during an arms raid on Pardes Hanna Army camp.
[56]
THE ONGOING GENOCIDE ON PALESTINE | AN OVERVIEW
The King David Massacre:
According to Yitshaq Ben-Ami, a Palestinian Jew who spent 30 years in exile after the establishment of Israel investigating the crimes of the “ruthless clique heading the internal Zionist movement,”
The Irgun had conceived a plan for the King David attack early in 1946, but the green light was given only on July first. According to Dr. Sneh, the operation was personally approved by Ben-Gurion, from his self-exile in Europe. Sadeh, the operations officer of the Haganah, and Giddy Paglin, the head of the Irgun operation under Menachem Begin agreed that thirty-five minutes advance notice would give the British time enough to evacuate the wing, without enabling them to disarm the explosion.
The Jewish Agency’s motive was to destroy all evidence the British had gathered proving that the terrorist crime waves in Palestine were not merely the actions of “fringe” groups such as the Irgun and Stern Gang, but were committed in collusion with the Haganah and Palmach groups and under the direction of the highest political body of the Zionist establishment itself, namely the Jewish Agency.
during the Palestine Mandate or of the Government of Israel thereafter.
On July 22, 1946, one of the most dastardly and cowardly crimes in recorded history took place. We refer to the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
Party, posed a question in the House of Commons to Prime Minister Atlee of the Labor Party, asking “the Prime Minister whether he has any statement to make on the bomb outrage at the British Headquarters in Jerusalem.”
profound sympathy with the relatives of the killed and with those injured in this dastardly outrage.”
The Massacre at Baldat al-Shaikh:
On the night of January 30-31, 1947, a mixed force composed of the First Battalion of Palmakh and the Carmelie brigade (estimated at approximately 150 to 200
Zionist terrorists) launched a raid against the two towns under the leadership of Hayim Afinu’am.]
them with hand grenades, then went inside, firing their machine guns.
the fact that gunfire was directed inside the rooms, it was not possible to avoid injuring women and children.”
YEHIDA MASSACRE:
Al Khisas Massacre:
QAZAZA MASSACRE:
The SEMIRAMIS HOTEL MASSACRE:
They decided to perpetrate a wholesale massacre by bombing the Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, in order to drive out the Palestinians from Jerusalem. The massacre of the Semiramis Hotel on January 5, 1948, was the direct responsibility of Jewish Agency leader David Ben-Gurion and Haganah leaders Moshe Sneh and Yisrael Galili. If this massacre had taken place in World War II, they would have been sentenced to death for their criminal responsibility along with the terrorists who placed the explosives.
The Massacre at Deir Yasin:
The fighting proceeded from house to house, and whenever the Jews occupied a house, they would blow it up, then direct a call to the inhabitants to flee or face death. Believing the threat, the people left in terror in hopes of saving their children and women. But what should the Stern and Irgun gangs do but rush to mow down whoever fell within range of their weapons. Then, in a picture of barbarism the likes of which humanity has rarely witnessed except on the part of the most depraved, the terrorists began throwing bombs inside the houses in order to bring them down on whoever was inside.
NASER AL-DIN MASSACRE:
ABU SHUSHA MASSACRE
Abu Shusha 1948, a living memory
This photo is of Ahmed, who’s family hosted me in Ramallah, and his mother, a survivor of the 1948 ethnic cleansing that created Israel.
THE TANTURA MASSACRE:
BEIT DARAS MASSACRE:
THE DAHMASH MOSQUE MASSACRE:
DAWAYMA MASSACRE:
HOULA MASSACRE:
Salha Massacre:
1948 (Lebanon) : After forcing the population together in the mosque of the village, the occupation forces ordered then to face the wall, then started shooting them from behind until the mosque was turned into bloodbath, 105 person were mrytyred.
SHARAFAT MASSACRE:
The Massacre at Qibya:
moved toward the village. Upon arrival, it surrounded it and cordoned it off from all ofthe other Arab villages.
KAFR QASEM MASSACRE:
riddled the bodies of the Palestinian villagers with bullets in cold blood. With the massacre practically over, the soldiers moved around finishing off whoever still had a pulse in him. The government of Israel took great pains to hide the truth, but after the investigation was concluded, Ben Gurion, the Israeli Prime Minister, announced that some people in the Triangle had been injured by thefrontier guards. The press also was part of the conspiracy to cover up the incident. The Hebrew press wrote about a “mistake?” and a “misfortune” , when it mentioned the victims, and it was difficult to tell whom it meant.
More absurd than the trial of accomplices was their light sentences. The court found Major Meilinki and Lt. Daham guilty of killing 43 people and sentenced the former to 17 years and the latter to 15 years. What was remarkable about the Israeli official attitude was that various authorities competed to lighten the killer’s sentences. Finally, the committee for the release of prisoners ordered the remission of a third of the prison sentence of all those who were convicted. In September 1960, Daham was appointed in the municipality of the city of Ramle as officer for the Arab Affairs.
Khan Yunis Massacre:
Many homes in Khan Yunis are raided at random.
of forty Arabs who had been shot in the back of the head after their hands
had been tied.(“IMPERIAL ISRAEL”, Michael Palumbo; London; Bloomsbury Publishing; 1990 pp. 30 – 32, citing UN General Assembly: Official Record, 11th session supplement, nop.)
The Massacre in Gaza City:
including 27 women, 29 men and 4 children.31
AL-SAMMOU’ MASSACRE:
Aitharoun Massacre:
Kawnin Massacre:
people, and none of them escaped death. Back to top
Hanin Massacre :
Bint Jbeil Massacre :
Abbasieh Massacre :
mosque of the town on the heads of the women, children and the elderly who used the holy place as a shelter from the heavy Israeli shelling.80 perosn were martyred. Back to top
Adloun Massacre :
Saida Massacre :
Fakhani Massacre :
Beirut Massacre :
The Massacre at the Sabra and Shatila Camps:
The job of carrying out the operation was assigned to Eli Haqiba, a major security official in the Lebanese forces. The meeting was also attended by Fadi Afram, Commander of the Lebanese Forces.34
One of the journalists who went into the camps after the massacre reports what he saw, saying, “The corpses of the Palestinians had been thrown among the rubble that remained of the Shatila camp. It was impossible to know exactly how many victims there were, but there had to be more than 1,000 dead. Some of the men who had been executed had been lined up in front of a wall, and bulldozers had beenused in an attempt to bury the bodies and cover up the aftermath of the massacre.
rubble.”40
And they killed them right then and there.
The massacre continued until noon on Saturday, September 18, leaving between 3,000 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians dead, most of them women, children and elderly people.
Jibsheet Massacre :
Sohmor Massacre :
vehicles and ordered the inhabitants to congregate at the town’s mosque where they fired at them. 13 martyrs, 12 wounded. Back to top
Seer Al Garbiah Massacre :
Maaraka Massacres:
Zrariah Massacre :
Homeen Al-Tahta Massacre :
Jibaa Massacre :
Yohmor Massacre :
13/4/1985 (Lebanon): At one O’clock in the morning, an Israeli armored force entered the town using civilian cars and opened fire at the houses which resulted in the killing of 10 people, among them a family of six people. Back to top
Tiri massacre :
17/8/1986 (Lebanon): Merciless crimes against civilians increased in the town with the occupation forces cutting the hands and ears from the head. 4 perosns were killed, 79 were crippled and wounded. Back to top
Al-Naher Al-Bared Massacre (Palestinian camp):
11/12/1986(Lebanon): The Israeli warplanes raided this Palestinian refugee camp killing many of the refugees. 20 person were killed , 22 were wounded.
Ain Al-Hilweh Massacre (Palestinian Camp) :
5/9/1987 (Lebanon): The enemy jet fighters launched two raids killing 31 and wounding 41 others. The refugees were hit by a thin raid while they were evacuating
casualties, 34 more being killed.
Oyoun Qara Massacre:
Oyoun Qarra massacre, 6:30 am on 20.05.1990 (Newspaper photo)
Some of the victims of Oyoun Qarra massacre (Newspaper photo)
Ami Popper
Palestinian worker crying after the massacre (l).
Israeli police checking clothes of the victims (r).
(Newspaper photos)
The martyrs of Oyoun Qarra massacre (Newspaper photos)
Siddiqine Massacre:
25/7/1990(Lebanon): The Israeli warplanes bombed a house, among the 3 killed a four years old child. Back to top
Al-Aqsa Mosque Massacre:
Footnotes:
[1] http://www.palestinehistory.com/issues/massacre/mass06.htm
[2] (source: http://www.almoltaqa.ps/english/showthread.php?t=3808)
One sees Palestinians running for their lives, ambulances shot at and tear gassed, medical staff seeking safety behind the mosque, one nurse was shot and wounded (not seen in this video).
One hears the Waqf Al Aqsa Mosque officials pleading with the Israeli Police and Border Police to STOP shooting and killing and telling the children to STOP throwing stones and return to the mosque amidst intense Israeli automatic gunfire for 29 minutes. The Waqf Al Aqsa officials were falsely arrested for incitement and released from Israeli detention based on the evidence found in this video.
Of the 17 killed that day,16 were shot multiple times from the torso up. 11 of the 17 in the head or neck. Ages ranged between 15 and 63.
Ribhi Hasan Rajabi,(61) Shot: 3x back / 1x chest
Izz Eddine Hamideh Yassini,(15) Shot: 6x head/torso/legs
Fayez Abu Sneineh,(18) Shot: 1x neck-head
Majdi Abu Sbeih,(17) Shot: 2x torso – abdomen
Ayman Ali Shami,(18) Shot: neck /back
Majdi Abu Sneineh,(17) Shot: 5x chest
Burhan Rahman Kashour,(19) Shot: shattered head
Jadu Rajeh Zadeh,(24) Shot: 2x chest/head
Ibrahim Ghurab,(31) Shot: 2x chest
Ibrahim Farhat Idkeidek,(16)Shot: 6x neck/side/legs
Maryam Makhtoub,(52) Shot: massive head injury
Mohammed Abu Sneineh,(30)Shot:3xhead/neck/arm
Nimer Dweik,(25) Shot: 4xeye/chest/abd/hand
Adnan Shteitwi Jinadi,(28) Shot:3x abdomen
Musa Abdel Sweiti,(27) Shot: 2xhead/side
Fawzi Ismail Sheikh,(63) Shot: 1x head
AbdelKarim Za Atreh,(40) Shot:unknown
From (PHRIC ; The Massacre of Palestinians at Haram Al Sharif – Special Investigative Report ( October 31 1990 )”
The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre
While worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron were kneeling andprostrating before God, turning their faces toward the sacred house of God in the Friday dawn prayer on February 25, 1994, showers of treacherous Zionist bullets began raining down on them from all directions, felling more than 350 peaceable worshippers, some of whom were killed, and others wounded. And thus began the second chapter of this terrorist massacre at the hands of terrorist settler Baroukh Goldstein and his helpers.
Eye witnesses who survived the massacre say, “We heard the sound of a muffledexplosion. It was followed by the whiz of bullets passing over the heads of the worshippers.” Talal Abu Sunayna, who was shot in both shoulders, adds, “I saw a settler hiding behind one of the pillars in the mosque’ as he fired on the worshippers with his rifle. Another [Jewish] settler stood beside him loading a second rifle so that it would be ready to go to work next.”
very slow; they actually delayed the arrival of the ambulances.
heinous massacre carried out against worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque led to more than 24 deaths and injured hundreds of others.
http://poppiesofpalestine.wordpress.com/about/ibrahimi-mosque-massacre-25-02-1994
1 Ra’id Abdel-Muttalib Hasan An-Natsheh (20 yrs old)
2 ‘Ala’ Badir Abdel-Halim Taha Abu Sneneh (17 yrs old)
3 Marwan Mutlaq Hamid Abu Nijmeh (32 yrs old), father of 6
4 Thiab Abdel-Latif Hirbawi Al-Karaki (24 yrs old)
5 Khalid Khalawi Abu Hussein Abu Sneineh (58 yrs old), father of 8
6 Nuriddin Ibrahim Abdel-Muhtasib (22 yrs old)
7 Mohammad Kifah Abdel-‘Iz Zakariya Maraqa (11 yrs old)
8 Mahmoud Sadiq Mohammad Abu Za’nouneh (49 yrs old), father of 4
9 Sabir Mousa Husni Katbeh Bdeir (37 yrs old), father of 4
10 Nimir Mohammad Nimir Mujahid (34 yrs old), father of 4
11 Kamal Jamal Abdel-Ghani Quffeshah (13 yrs old)
12 ‘Arafat Mousa Yousif Burqan (28 yrs old), father of 4
13 Raji-Izzen Abdel-Khaliq Gheith (47 yrs old)
14 Walid Zuheir Mahfouth Abu Hamdiyyeh (13 yrs old)
15 Sufian Barakat ‘Ouf Zahdeh (21 yrs old)
16 Jamil ‘Ayid Abdel-Fattah An-Natsheh (48 yrs old), supporter of 13
17 Abdel-Haq Ibrahim Abdel-Haq Al-Ja’bari (55), supporter of 13
18 Salman ‘Awwad ‘Ilyan Al-Ja’bari (37 yrs old), father of 10
19 Tariq ‘Adnan Mahmoud ‘Ashour Abu Sneineh (14 yrs old)
20 Abdel-Rahim Abdel-Rahman Salameh (48 yrs old), supporter of 13
21 Jabir ‘Arif Abu Hadid Abu Sneineh (11 yrs old)
22 Hatim Khadir Nimir Al-Fakhouri (26 yrs old), father of 2
23 Salim Idris Falah Idris (27 yrs old), father of 2
24 Rami ‘Arafat Ali Ar-Rajabi (11 yrs old)
25 Khalid Mohammad Hamzah Abdel-Rahman Al-Karaki (18 yrs old)
26 Wa’il Salah Ya’coub Al-Muhtasib (28 yrs old), father of 3
27 Zidan Hamoudeh Abdel-Majid Hamid (26 yrs old), father of 4
28 Ahmad Abdallah Mohammad Taha Abu Sneineh (25 yrs old)
29 Talal Mohammad Daoud Mahmoud Dandies (26 yrs old), his wife was pregnant
30 ‘Atiyah Mohammad ‘Atiyah As-Salaymeh (33 yrs old), father of 5
31 Ismail Faiz Ismail Quffesheh (28 yrs old), father of 1 and his wife was pregnant
32 Nadir Salam Salih Zahdeh (19 yrs old)
33 Ayman Ayyoub Mohammad Al-Qawasmi (21 yrs old)
34 ‘Arafat Mahmoud Ahmad Al-Bayid (28 yrs old), father of 3
35 Abdel Rahim Abu Sneineh
36 Akram Kafisheh
37 Akram Joulani
38 Amjad Abdallah Sandal
39 Ayed Abu Hadid
40 Diab Muhtasab
41 Fawaz Zughair
42 Hamad Abu Nijmeh
43 Iyad Karaki
44 Khairi Aref Abu Hadid
45 Kifah Abdul Mu’az Marakeh
46 Marwan Abu Shareh
47 Raji Arafat Rajabi
48 Tariq Abdeen
49 Yasser Diab Kafisheh
50 Yazen Abdul Mu’ti Marakah
51 Yusef Hroub
52 Zeidan Jabber
53 Zein Gheith
54 Ziad Kafisheh
55 Mohammed Yusef Ghayatheh, shot by a Zionist colonist near Beit Jala hospital, Bethlehem
57 Mohammad Danaf (20 yrs old), from Sheikh Radwan, Gaza, shot dead by the IOF
58 Fadl Kernawi (16 yrs old), from Bureij RC, Gaza, shot dead by the IOF
59 Mohammad Yusef Abed Abdu (20 yrs old), from Bureij RC, Gaza, shot dead by the IOF
Baruch Goldstein: Zionist colonist, member of the terrorist Kach movement, reserve captain in the Israeli army.
Colonel Ronin Rafif: IOF, military commander at the Ibrahimi mosque.
Ben Benjamin: IOF, in charge of security at the main entrance to the mosque.
Kobi Ben Yousif: IOF, in charge of security at the eastern entrance of the mosque, participated in the shooting
Fev Dori: IOF, Guard at the eastern entrance to the mosque, participated in the shooting
Major Dob Satelmann: IOF, military commander of the Ibrahimi mosque area
Colonel Ma’el Klegi: IOF, military commander of the Hebron area at the time
Ehud Barak: IOF chief of staff at the time.
Yitzhak Rabin: Israeli prime minister at the time.
http://www.palestinehistory.com/issues/massacre/mass07.htm
http://www.paldf.net/forum/showthread.php?t=115099
stray-pen.maktoobblog.com
http://www.jerusalemites.org/crimes/crimes_against_islam/32.htm
resistance.jeeran.com/massacres/hebron
http://www.voicesofpalestine.org
http://www.aqsaa.com/
http://www.greenleft.org.au/1994/133/10283
http://www.al-bushra.org/palestine/hebron.htm
http://www.palissue.com
http://www.palestine-info.com
http://www.aljazeeratalk.net/forum
[1] http://resistance.jeeran.com/massacres/hebron
[2] http://www.greenleft.org.au/1994/133/10283
[3] http://resistance.jeeran.com/massacres/hebron
[4] http://www.voicesofpalestine.org
[5] http://www.paldf.net/forum/
[6] http://www.palissue.com
[7] http://www.palestine-info.com
[8] http://www.jerusalemites.org/crimes/crimes_against_islam/32.htm
[9] http://www.voicesofpalestine.org
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] http://www.aqsaa.com/
[13] http://resistance.jeeran.com/massacres/hebron
[14] http://www.aqsaa.com/
[15] http://resistance.jeeran.com/massacres/hebron
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] http://www.aljazeeratalk.net/forum
[20] http://resistance.jeeran.com/massacres/hebron
THE JABALIA MASSACRE:
Aramta Massacre:
ERETZ CHECKPOINT MASSACRE:
Deir Al-Zahrani Massacre:
The Israeli warplanes fired a “vacuum” missile at a two- story building,in Deir Al-Zahranee which was destroyed over the heads of the inhabitants. 8 people were killed , 17 wee injured.
Nabatiyeh (school bus) Massacre:
The Israeli warplanes targeted school bus ful of puiples 4 childs were killed,10(child) Injured.
The Sohmor Second Massacre :
The Israeli artillery targeted a civilian car carrying eight passengers, killing all of them .
Mnsuriah Massacre:
Nabatyaih Massacre:
Qana Massacre :
encompassed not only Palestinian civilians, but Lebanese civilians in south Lebanon
as well.
In an attempt to break the power of the Lebanese Hizbollah organization, Zionist
forces undertook a military operation against south Lebanon. This operation was
likewise based upon the Zionist mentality, supportive as it is of blood-letting and
terrorism and based upon the belief that “exercising pressure against Lebanese
citizens . . . will lead in practical terms to comprehensive, overall pressure on account
of which the Hizbollah organization will be obliged to adhere to a ceasefire.”59 Given
this reasoning, the Zionist forces bombed the shelter which was providing refuge to
approximately five hundred Lebanese, most of whom were children, elderly and
women who had been forced out of their homes by Israeli raids on their villages, and
who had been unable to get to Beirut. This bombing led to the deaths of 109
Lebanese civilians and seriously wounded 116 others. During the attack, Israeli
forces used between 5 and 6 advanced bombs designed to explode above their
target in order to cause the largest possible number of casualties. Moreover,
international investigations confirmed that the Israeli forces had deliberately targeted
the shelter.60
Ali, one of those wounded in the attack, says, “I fled in the morning with two friends
and went for refuge to the emergency forces in Qana. I had my wife and my four
children with me. They led us into a shelter where there were about fifty people. Then
suddenly the sound of bombing rang out. A first shell, then a second fell near the
shelter, and as we were trying to get out, another shell hit the shelter directly. I don’t
know what happened to my wife and children.”61 Fadi Jabir weeps as he talks about
things he saw after the Israeli bombs fell on those who had left their homes to come
to the base for the UN Fayjiya peace-keeping forces. He says, “I heard people
shouting ‘Allahu akbar!’, and a woman fell down unconscious. I reached out to get an
idea what had happened to her, and her brain fell into my hand.”62 As for Sa’d Allah
Balhas, who was wounded by a piece of shrapnel in the Zionist massacre, he says,
“In one second I lost everything: my children, 14 of my grandchildren, and my wife. I
don’t want to live anymore. Tell the doctors to let me die.”63
Trqumia Massacr:
weapons on a van full of unarmed Palestinian workers, killing Adnan Abu Zneid, 34, and two other Palestinians. Two more laborers were wounded as the group returned from helping to construct a building near Tel Aviv. Eyewitnesses described the Israeli gunfire as “indiscriminate.”
Israeli Army Maj. Uzi Dayan said that the soldiers acted “according to regulations” in opening fire on the van with automatic weapons at a checkpoint outside Hebron.
Ali Abu Zneid, 37, a cousin of the deceased, was in the van and fell uninjured under the others’ bodies. He said that the Jewish soldiers, “shot to kill.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai described the killings as an “accident”
Janta Massacre :
Israeli warplanes waited for the children to come home from the field to embrace their mother when they carried out this savage attack. Mother and her 6 children
24 Of June 1999 Massacres
Martyrs: 8
Injures: 84
Target: Under
Building in
Beirut
The whole issue is not about more than a group of “Arabosheem” (a racist term hostile to Arabs used by the Israelis). We should have launched more shells to kill more Arabs.
Western Bekaa villages Massacre:
The Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on he children who were celebrating the “eid” festival, killing eight children and wounding 11 others.
Gaza Cast Lead Massacre
The Mavi Marmara Massacre
Shaheed Ibrahim Bilgen – Shaheed Ali HaydarBengi – Shaheed Cevdet Kiliçlar – Shaheed Çetin Topçuoglu – Shaheed Necdet Yildirim – Shaheed Fahri Yaldiz – Shaheed Cengiz Songür – Shaheed Cengiz Akyüz – Shaheed Furkan Dogan
Nakba Day Massacre
The Ongoing Silent or Silenced Genocide
The June 5, 2011 Naksa Day Massacre | Golan Heights
IT IS WRITTEN IN TORAH:
References:
2. Ghazi al-Sa’di, Massacres and Practices, 1936-1983, Amman, Dar al-Jalil
lil-Nashr wal-Dirasat [The Galilee House for Publication and Research] , June
1985, p. 43.
3. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 413.
4. al-Sa’di, op. cit., p. 43.
5. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 414.
6. al-Sa’di, op. cit., p. 43.
7. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Part II, op. cit., p. 434.
8. Dr. Hamdan Badr, The Role of the Hagana Organization in the
Establishment of Israel, Amman: Dar al-Jalil lil-Nashr wal-Dirasat, 1985, p.
303.
9. Ibid.
10. Arafat Hijazi, Dair Yasin: The Roots and Dimensions of the Crime in Zionist
Thought, p. 63.
11. Roget Delurme [sp?], trans. by Nakhla Kallas, I Accuse, no place of
publication: Dar al-Jurmuq lil-Tiba’a wal-Nashr [The Jurmuq House for Printing
and Publication], no date, pp. 52-53.
12. Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, O’ Jerusalem, 1972, p. 275.
13. Hijazi, op. cit., p. 63.
14. al-Sa’di, op. cit., p. 60.
15. Salih al-Shar’, op. cit., p. 201.
16. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Part III, p. 502.
17. Jawad al-Hamad, The Palestinian People: Victim of Zionist Massacres
and Terrorism, Markaz Dirasat al-Sharq al-Awsat [Center for Middle East
Studies], 1995, p.24.
18. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Part III, op. cit., pp. 502-503.
19. The Memoirs of Ariel Sharon, trans. by Antoine Abir, Beirut, Maktabat
Bisan, 1991, p. 110.
20. Emile Habiby, Kufr Qasim: the Political Massacre, Haifa: Manshourat
Arabask [Arabask Publications], 1976, p. 82.
21. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Part III, op. cit., p. 653.
22. Habiby, op. cit., p. 17.
23. al-Sa’di, op. cit., pp. 85-86.
24. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Part III. op. cit., p. 653.
25. Habiby, op. cit., p. 37.
26. al-Hamd, op. cit., p. 29.
27. al-Sa’di, op. cit., p. 87.
28. Among the Most Important Terrorists, Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Dirasat
al-Filistiniya [The Foundation for Palestinian Studies], 1973, pp. 37-38.
29. Husayn Abu al-Naml, The Gaza Strip, 1948-1967: Economic, Political,
Social and Military Developments, Beirut: Center for Research, PLO, 1979, p.
121.
30. Ghazi al-Sourani, The Gaza Strip, 1948-1993, Beirut: Dar al-Mubtada’,
1993, p. 27.
31. Abu al-Naml, op. cit., p. 121.
32. Abd al-Hafiz Muhammad, The Massacre: Beirut, Sabra and Shatila, the
Invasion of Lebanon, Amman, the Akhbar al-Usbu’ [Weekly News] newspaper,
1982, p. 111.
33. The Qatar News Agency, The Invasion, the Massacre: Crime of the
Twentieth Century, no date of publication, 1982, p. . . . [?].
34. al-Hamad, op. cit., p. 36.
35. Amnoun Kabliyouk [sp?], trans. by the Arab Translation Center, Sabra and
Shatila: The Investigation of a Massacre, Paris: Manshourat al-Maktab al-Arabi
[Arab Office Publications], 1983, p. 34.
36. Muhammad, op. cit., p. 89.
37. al-Sa’di, A Document of Crime and Condemnation, Amman: Dar al-Jalil
lil-Nashr, 1983, p. 262.
38. Kabliyouk, op. cit., p. 79.
39. The Qatar News Agency, op. cit., p. 134.
40. Muhammad, op. cit., pp. 119-120.
41. Kabliyouk, op. cit., pp. 51-52.
42. al-Hamad, op. cit., p. 38.
43. Sahifat al-Muslimun al-Sa’udiya (the Saudi newspaper, The Muslims),
March 5, 1993.
44. al-Hamad, op. cit., p. 55.
45. Nawaf al-Zaru, Jerusalem: Between Zionist Judaization Plans and the
Palestinian Struggle and Resistance, Amman: Dar al-Khawaja lil-Nashr
wal-Tawzi’ [Khawaja House for Publication and Distribution], 1991, p. 115.
46. The Jordanian newspaper, Al-Dustour, October 9, 1990.
47. al-Zaru, op. cit., p. 129.
48. Al-Dustour, op. cit.
49. al-Zaru, op. cit., p. 129.
50. Ibid., p. 128.
51. Al-Muslimun newspaper, op. cit.
52. The Jordanian newspaper, Al-Ra’y [Opinion], February 26, 1994.
53. Usama Mustafa, “Goldstein: Settler, Soldier, or the Forbidden Fruit of
Peace?” the Filastin al-Muslima [Muslim Palestine] magazine (London), April
1994, p. 9.
54. Al-Ra’y, op. cit.
55. Mustafa, op. cit., p. 9.
56. Al-Dustour, op. cit., Feb. 26, 1994.
57. The Jordanian newspaper, Al-Aswaq [Markets], February 27, 1994.
58. Mustafa, op. cit., p. 9.
59. A team of analysts, “The Israeli Campaign Against the Hamas Movement
and the Hizbollah Organization: Programs, Goals, Outcomes and Implications”,
the periodical Qadaya Sharq Awsatiya [Middle East Issues], No. 2, Amman,
Markaz Dirasat al-Sharq al-Awsat [Center for Middle East Studies], pp. 84-85.
60. Ibid., p. 84.
61. Filastin al-Muslima (London), May 1996 issue, p. 9.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.
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