Torture, Israeli-Style

Report accuses Shin Bet, police of severely torturing Palestinian suspects
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent

A harsh report released Wednesday by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel accuses the Shin Bet and police of instances of severe torture of Palestinian security suspects.

The report contains the testimonies of nine Palestinians who were arrested by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin between 2004 and 2005, including one that charged police investigators with committing severe sexual abuse.

According to A., during questioning a police investigator held his legs in the air, and inserted an object into his rectum.

"While the investigator inserted the 'object' into my rectum and removed it, he pulled my genitalia, as if he wanted to rip it out," said A. "He told me that he wanted to cut it off and throw it to the dog - this lasted at least 10 minutes. The whole time I yelled out in pain."

According to A., the investigator told him "I promised you I was about to give it to you from behind, to screw you."

The report states that an examination of A. by an Abu Kabir Forensics Institute doctor revealed signs of sexual abuse on his body.

A different prisoner, Louay Ashkar, said he sat during questioning on a chair with a bent backrest, with both hands tied behind the chair and each leg tied to chair leg.

"The investigator would push my chest backward until my head reached the floor, and then grabbed my bound hands and pull me to him," said Ashkar. "I lost consciousness because of the pain, especially in my back."

According to the report, Ashkar's legs are paralyzed due to the damage his spinal chord suffered.

Another prisoner, Mohammed Barjieh, said investigators shook him during questioning. "The investigator grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me for maybe ten minutes," he said. "I felt as if heat waves were spreading throughout my head, and I felt a strong pain in my neck."

"Later, he returned me to the backward-leaning position," continued Barjieh. "I did not last long, and then I stood up, and again received a blow to the gut, and fell down again - for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Then they picked me up and shook me again."

One of the complaints alleges forceful use of iron shackles. "The would close the shackles and push on them until the iron cuts into the flesh and you felt as if your hand is being cut off," said Amin Shakirat.

He also charged his own screams were taped and played back as a means of psychological pressure.

Interrogators used what appeared to be the "good cop, bad cop" method, by letting the director of the facility in with tea-biscuits and cola during a break.

Yamen said he was innocent, but after four or five days of interrogation he broke down and confessed, after which he led Israeli soldiers to an alleged weapons cache in Qalqiliya, which to the troops' anger was found empty.

Assasination, Israeli Style

Israelis carry out West Bank ‘execution’

By Harvey Morris in Ramallah

Published: May 30 2007 20:32 | Last updated: May 30 2007 20:32

An Israeli undercover squad shot dead an off-duty Palestinian security man at point-blank range during a daylight raid on Ramallah in what Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian information minister present at the scene, on Wednesday described as an extrajudicial execution.

Uniformed soldiers then fired into the body of Mohamed Abdul-Halim, 24, and kicked him to make sure he was dead, according to witnesses who have given statements to a local human rights organisation.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military, which did not circulate its customary written statement on the incident, said in answer to questions that the Israeli squad “identified an armed man who was posing a threat to the force and fired at him”. The spokeswoman would not say whether the dead man was a specific Israeli target.

Lieutenant Halim belonged to Force-17, an official security unit loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah president. A spokesman for the presidency said he was on leave at the time.

The witnesses said Lt. Halim was in civilian clothes, wore a holstered service weapon and was carrying an AK-47 as he left the Nazareth restaurant in the West Bank city’s main shopping street at around 5.45pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Samer Burnat, a taxi driver, said his vehicle was forced to a halt by a white van with Palestinian plates. “The rear doors burst open. There were uniformed Israeli soldiers in the back. They shouted at the man to stop but instantly opened fire as he turned away from them. They hit him once in the back of the head and once in the neck.”

He insisted Lt. Halim made no attempt to use his weapons and had his back to the Israelis when they opened fire.

Lt. Halim’s body displayed two bullet wounds to the back of the head and others to his back and rear left leg. Doctors determined he had been shot 24 times. Mr Burnat has signed an affidavit with the al-Haq human rights organisation whose Ramallah offices overlook the scene of the shooting.

The Logic of the Occupier

And just what is this "restraint" Peretz speaks of?

Sderot residents not afraid, Peretz says

Defense Minister dismisses 'fear-mongers' who exaggerate Sderot plight, says offensive in Gaza not intended
Hanan Greenberg

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Wednesday that he does not intend to launch an offensive in Gaza, but is prepared to do so if he has no choice. "Sadly, the option of going into Gaza is always available, because it's always there," he said at a conference at Tel Aviv University.

"Sderot has become a civilian outpost on the Israeli front lines," Peretz said, praising the leaders of Gaza vicinity communities. He also dismissed rumors of hysteria in the region.

"I want to send a message to all fear-mongers who spoke up recently. No one should dare present a false, exaggerated picture of miserable residents. This is wrong and serves our enemies," he said.

Peretz told of a recent meeting he had with a soldier from the Golani infantry unit, who asked the defense minister to allow him and his friends to go in and fight in Gaza.

"I told him that I was proud of his desire to sacrifice himself for the state, but explained that my responsibility is not only to the citizens of the Sderot area, but also to his mother.

"I want to be sure, I told the soldier, that before he receives an order to enter (Gaza), we did everything we could," to ensure his safety, he said.

According to Peretz, it seems sometimes that the desire to launch a massive operation in Gaza is nothing more than a knee-jerk response. "We need to take things in the right proportions…The IDF is operating in Gaza on a daily basis and is hurting terror capabilities.

"Restraint is a form of strength," he said.

"The State of Israel can afford to show restraint and operate when it wants and how it wants, and there's no reason that Hamas should dictate what we should do and when. The IDF's operations are the correct ones, in the correct degree. They are powerful and well thought out."

Gideon Levy on the Israeli 'Strong Man'

It's better to be orphans
By Gideon Levy

Once again we are being hit by a wave of desire for "a strong man." From every direction, from the left and right, voices that miss former prime minister Ariel Sharon are being heard, like voices of longing for a father who has departed. "If Sharon were here the war in Lebanon would have ended differently," and "Sharon would have put an end to the Qassams a long time ago."

Let it be said at once: Being orphaned in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's shadow is better than the fatherliness of the mythical leader. Hamas should be profoundly grateful to Sharon, thanks to whom it now controls Gaza. Hezbollah, too, would be ungrateful if it did not thank the man who led to its firm footing in Lebanon, and here in Israel Sderot owes that man for the Qassams that are landing on its head. Those who now miss Sharon are longing for the brute force and bullying that led us to the brink. Israel is nostalgic for its most dangerous leader, for the person who caused it more damage than anyone else.

During his six years as prime minister Sharon wiped out the last chance for the existence of a Palestinian partner. Sharon's Israel waged war on the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and instead of a secular movement that believes in compromises we received a fanatical Islamic leadership, just as the first Lebanon war gave rise to Hezbollah. Whom do we have to thank for this? Sharon.

If, heaven forbid, Sharon were now in a position of leadership, the IDF would already have invaded Gaza, just as it invaded Jenin and Nablus and sowed killing and destruction there. The firing of the Qassams might have ceased for a while, just as has happened with the terror attacks from the West Bank. But on the ruins, reinforced by poverty and despair, a new form of violent resistance would have arisen. Sharon, a real man, would also have totally destroyed the last remnants of the Palestinian unity government, and even then no one would have asked what would come in its stead. It isn't that we aren't acting like bullies now as well, kidnapping an education minister in the middle of the night and bombing money changers. But Olmert has refrained from going all the way in Sharon's path. How pleasant it is, relatively and temporarily, to be orphans in his lap.

US and Israel, Together Against Peace

US Ranks As One Of World's Least Peaceful Nations

LA Times | May 31, 2007 08:22 AM

The United States is among the least peaceful nations in the world, ranking 96th between Yemen and Iran, according to an index of 121 countries.

According to the Global Peace Index, created by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Norway is the most peaceful nation and Iraq is the least, just after Russia, Israel and Sudan.

Check this out

The UK envoy tries to smmoth things over after the British lecturers' union decided to back an academic boycott of Israel;

Phillips went on to say that Israel must understand that it will draw criticism as long as the occupation continues.

" Israel is a country with high moral values and has to deal with the dilemma of occupation. This is not an easy situation," he said. "There are things that we in Britain do not agree with, but we discuss this with Israel and that is the proper way to do things, through dialogue and not through boycott."

ok, so Israel is a country of "high moral values," but it has to deal with the "dilemma" of Occupation- maybe they should have said the "white/jewish Israeli man's burden" of occupation. As if the 40 year old occupation is something that Israel is forced to maintain by Necessity itself, a reasoning that allows the country to retain it's standing as a nation of "high moral values" while suasing death and destruction in occupied Palestine.

The sheer idiocy is enough to make my head hurt, seriously!

Different Occupation, Same US Policy

from Clayton Swisher, who wrote an excellent book on the Camp David Myth,

Outside View: Elliot Abrams' Maghreb plot
By CLAYTON E. SWISHER
UPI Outside View Commentator
WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- As the debris from bombings by the newly formed al-Qaida in Maghreb offshoot in the heart of the Algerian capital still smolders, another attack is looming in the diplomatic front.

Elliot Abrams, the deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy, is again sowing the seeds of conflict in the Middle East. This time it's in the disputed Western Sahara, under Moroccan control following the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1975.

After being marginalized from the Arab-Israeli arena, now under the almost exclusive domain of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her State Department, Abrams is pulling free the grenade pin that may shortly cause North Africa to explode.

He is on the verge of achieving a major U.S. policy shift that would have Washington backing Morocco's unilateral imposition of its so-called Western Sahara Initiative, or autonomy plan upon the indigenous Sahrawi people of Western Sahara.

Thus Spoke the Fascist Israeli

and we should not be surpiseed in the least;

'Israel's strategic affairs minister called for cutting power supplies to the Gaza Strip.

Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday he was preparing a proposal for the Olmert government to declare Gaza, from which cross-border rocket salvoes have surged this month, an independent and hostile political entity. That, he said, would empower Israel to suspend electricity to the Palestinian Authority.

"This absurd situation, in which the Rotenberg power station supplies electricity to the foundries in Gaza that manufacture Kassam rockets which are then fired at us, has got to stop," Lieberman told Army Radio. '

South Africa Leads the Way

but the question is, who in the USA will start singing about not playing in the Israeli Sun City?

South Africa's largest trade union seeks to boycott Israel
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent

South Africa's largest trade union federation will launch a campaign against "the Israeli occupation of Arab lands" this week, demanding that Pretoria impose a boycott on all Israeli goods and break diplomatic relations. South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, who is Jewish, told Haaretz that he actively supported the initiative - which contradicts the policy of his own cabinet.

The president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Willy Madisha, announced the launching of the campaign last week in Johannesburg, calling on the government to cease all diplomatic relations with Israel after its attacks on Palestinian leaders.

"The best way to have Israel comply with United Nations resolutions is to pressure it by a diplomatic boycott such as the one imposed on apartheid South Africa," Madisha said. Cosatu belongs to a recently-formed coalition of organizations operating under the banner "End The Occupation."

Kasrils' anti-Israeli organization Not In My Name belongs to the coalition working toward an embargo on Israel. This runs contrary to South Africa's official stance, and to President Thabo Mbeki's decision to strengthen trade ties with Israel. Mbeki, who heads the ANC ruling party, even appeared as a guest at Israel's Independence Day celebrations in Durban last month.

Kasrils, a member of the ANC, told Haaretz that his support for severing all ties with Israel was not in opposition to his cabinet's policy. "Cosatu is an ANC ally in the coalition against the Israeli occupation. Most elements of this coalition call for boycotting Israel, although the ANC does not," he said.

"We respect their right to encourage people to boycott Israeli goods. As a South African consumer I personally will not purchase Israeli goods until Israel changes its present policy regarding the Palestinians."

notice the editorializing on Not in Our Name, which is by definition "anti-Israeli organization," even in the 'liberal' Haaretz.

Israelis love 'their' hummus

wow

Land of hummus and pita

Ask any Israeli to point out one thing that embodies 'Israeliness'. Chances are nine out 10 will say 'hummus'. What is it about that pale chickpea paste that is eaten everywhere, anytime, that evokes passionate discussions and fan clubs and embodies Israel? Ynet presents the (almost) complete guide to hummus

Saree Makdisi in the nation

worth a gander

For a Secular Democratic State

Saree Makdisi

This month marks the fortieth anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Four decades of control established and maintained by force of arms--in defiance of international law, countless UN Security Council resolutions and, most recently, the 2004 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in The Hague--have enabled Israel to impose its will on the occupied territories and, in effect, to remake them in its own image.

The result is a continuous political space now encompassing all of historic Palestine, albeit a space as sharply divided as the colonial world ("a world cut in two") famously described by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth. Indeed, Fanon's 1961 classic still enables an analysis of Israel and the occupied territories as fresh, insightful and relevant in 2007 as the readings of Cape Town or Algiers that it made available when it was first published.

Now this is the paragraph to quote

but heck, read the whole thing

Has the time not come to determine precisely and fairly where the chain of events starts, in order to be able to accordingly determine who retaliates for what? Should one not start with the occupation? Are 40 years of continued, severe, harsh, oppressive and humiliating occupation not aggression? Who gave Israel the right to occupy the Palestinians and rule their lives for that long, in full contravention of international law and the simplest principles of human rights? Who gave Israel the right to leave Gaza but lay siege to it, controlling every movement of people and goods to and from, and to seek European help to participate in controlling the siege? When the starved Palestinians dug tunnels to break their isolation, they were condemned and punished worldwide. Who gave the Israelis the right to impose total financial and political boycott as an act of punishment for all Palestinians for practising their democratic right and electing a government which Israel did not like, and the whole world went along with this additional injustice, tightening the boycott indefinitely?

EI should be read daily

here is a portion of an EI article about Qassams & their media perception

The Palestinian rockets may indeed be futile when compared to the superior Israeli military capabilities, but they still cause harm and panic, as stones did before. They are also likely to become more advanced and lethal, otherwise why should the Israeli retaliation be that intense and violent. The life of even one victim of 200 rocket attacks, on the other hand, should be valuable too, although continuing violence and wholesale murder in as many war theatres in the region has got us accustomed to undermining the meaning and the value of human life.

But this also misses the point essentially: if the Palestinians should stop firing because their rockets lack precision and effectiveness, would they be justified using them if, or when, they managed to overcome the shortcomings? And is it, therefore, the flawless efficiency of Israeli weapons that justifies the continuation of their use against Palestinian civilians? Is that a new standard of legality and justice?

The emphasis on the Palestinian rockets as the only cause of violence is wrong and misleading, and it can particularly mislead when it is so often repeated by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. When Abbas was elected to office in January 2005, he managed to secure the agreement of all the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to a total truce. Israel never recognised that Palestinian unilateral decision to halt violence. Referring to it as an arrangement amongst the Palestinians, Israel continued its own provocations in the various forms of daily arrests, assassinations, house demolition and incursions, on top of the siege and the occupation. The collapse of that truce, which Hamas continued to strictly observe after it was elected to office, was not because of the Palestinian rockets, it was actually the direct result of the continued Israeli daily aggression.

When a recent truce was arranged for Gaza, this time between both Palestinians and Israelis, Israeli attacks continued in the West Bank, as if the West Bank were a different planet, and as if the Palestinians there were a different species. The few very hesitant and faint attempts to convince Israel that it was bizarre to expect any sense from an arrangement whereby violence would be halted against one Palestinian while it would be continued against the other have all failed. Israel never wanted to commit itself to any truce. It insists on its absolute right to pursue "terrorist" enemies under all circumstances, and it decides who is terrorist and who is not.

Only less than two weeks ago, the Palestinians offered to cease all acts of violence against Israel, including of course rocket attacks, if the latter agreed to reciprocate. This was rejected instantly, too.

Current efforts towards ending the Israeli-Palestinian violence in Gaza should indeed continue and intensify. The situation in Gaza is disastrous and is fast moving towards total breakdown and chaos. Egypt, and probably others, is playing an important role towards that end. Abbas, oblivious of his position as the leader, is using his good offices trying to mediate rather than decide. The problem though remains conceptual and deeply entrenched in the approach to the entire issue, an approach which is wrong and evasive. It ignores two primary factors. One is that the violence has been caused and perpetuated by Israeli actions and attacks, not by the Palestinian rockets. The other is that the Palestinians have always been ready to halt any and all violence if the Israelis agreed to do the same, and Israel never accepted such an offer.

To Begin With

I've been posting on Daily Kos for some time now, so it's about time I branch out on my own, so here we are. Also, there are my posts from my last trip to Palestine over one year ago, for your reading pleasure.

Right now, let's see, I think I am going to just do this Angry Arab style and post things that catch my attention, of course with a longer piece thrown in there for good measure. First, check out Angry White Kid's latest post on the situation in Lebanon, as well as the latest article by Amira Hass,

Holding on tight to the frequencies
By Amira Hass

The air is one escape route from the roadblocks and the separation regime that Israel imposes on the Palestinians. But Israel catches up with them even in the air. Israel does not allocate cellular frequencies to the Palestinians that answer their modern technological, economic, social and personal needs. More precisely, Israel refuses to coordinate with the Palestinians so they can use the cellcom frequencies they should have according to the International Telecommunications Union.

The geopolitical reality of the multiplied "borders" between the Palestinian enclaves, on the one hand, and area C (of full Israeli control) and the settlements - which comprise 60 percent of the West Bank - requires maximum coordination between Israel and the PA. As long as Israel does not agree to coordinate the distribution and use of frequencies, it will be impossible to install proper equipment in C areas. That is the reason that even the development of landline infrastructure is limited. No private company will risk installing equipment in C areas lest the Civil Administration's supervisors and the Israel Defense Forces bulldozers pounce on it and destroy it.

Although the Israeli Communications Ministry denies any connection with this matter, the non-allocation of frequencies to Palestinians serves the Israeli companies that compete with Jawwal on terms favorable to them. (They do not pay taxes to the PA, although the cellular phones are being used in the Palestinian territories.)

The non-allocation of frequencies is another front in the economic war Israel is waging against the Palestinians. It means a direct loss of income, of jobs, and the blocking of the desire to develop economic niches, which by making use of the air, could overcome the earthen roadblocks and apartheid roads.