Suspend EU-Israel treaty, urge dozens of MEPs

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini

A group of 63, cross-party MEPs have urged EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The Agreement is the main treaty between the EU and Israel that has facilitated trade since 2000, and allows Israel to participate in a wide range of EU initiatives.

The MEPs' letter notes how "Amnesty International and Palestinian organisations have documented that Israel deliberately targeted civilians and committed other war crimes during its recent onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza."

"These are serious violations of international law and international humanitarian law that cannot be tolerated", they add.

The MEPs "call on the Commission to consider the suspension of Association Agreement with Israel unless Israel takes substantial and immediate steps to bring its conduct in line with international law", and point out how

the EU's lack of substantial action with regards to Israel appears out of step with the speed at which it has implemented restrictive measures on Russia with regards to the Ukraine crisis in recent months, as well as the restrictive measures implemented against more than 30 other countries.

In September 2014, Palestinian civil society organisations made a similar plea for suspension to the then- foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and a similar appeal was also made in November, by more than 300 human rights groups, trade unions and political parties from across Europe.

Source : https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/16594-suspend-eu-israel-treaty-urge-dozens-of-meps

Video : How Israeli Police arrest Palestinians. Very disturbing.

Australian MP exposes Israeli propaganda in Australia about Palestine : David Shoebridge

David Shoebridge

1. Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council

UN accuses Israel of razing homes of 77 Palestinians

© AFP | A bulldozer hired by the Jerusalem municipality destroys a Palestinian house in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Shuafat, on January 21, 2015

JERUSALEM (AFP) -The United Nations has accused Israel of illegally demolishing the homes of 77 Palestinians, mostly children, this week in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

"In the past three days, 77 Palestinians, over half of them children, have been made homeless," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement issued Friday evening.

"Some of the demolished structures were provided by the international community to support vulnerable families.

"Demolitions that result in forced evictions and displacement run counter to Israel's obligations under international law and create unnecessary suffering and tension. They must stop immediately," said OCHA.

The demolitions took place in east Jerusalem and the districts of Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron, it added.

OCHA said that during 2014 Israel carried out a record number of demolitions in east Jerusalem and a zone of the West Bank under full Israeli control known as Area C.

"In 2014, according to OCHA figures, the Israeli authorities destroyed 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and east Jerusalem, displacing 1,177 people -- the highest level of displacement in the West Bank since OCHA began systematically monitoring the issue in 2008."

It did not specify how many of the structures were homes or animal shelters or other outbuildings.

Israel says such demolitions are carried out because the structures have been built without the required construction permits. Palestinians and rights groups say such authorisation is routinely denied, forcing unlicensed building.

"The planning policies applied by Israel in Area C and east Jerusalem discriminate against Palestinians, making it extremely difficult for them to obtain building permits," said OCHA.

"As a result, many Palestinians build without permits to meet their housing needs and risk having their structures demolished.

"Palestinians must have the opportunity to participate in a fair and equitable planning system that ensures their needs are met," it said.

Source : France 24 International News 24/7

14-year-old Palestinian girl Malaak al-Khatib sentenced to 2 months in Israeli prison

On 21 January, 14-year-old Palestinian girl Malaak al-Khatib was sentenced to 2 months in Israeli prison. Malaak has been imprisoned since 31 December 2014, and her detention repeatedly extended during that time, on accusations of “throwing stones” at Israeli occupation soldiers at the settler bypass road closed to Palestinians near her school. Her detention has been extended 3 times since her original arrest. She is one of around 500-700 Palestinian children are detained and arrested by the Israeli occupation forces each year. If children are charged at all, it is usually with “throwing stones.”

Source : Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network ( http://samidoun.ca/ ) 

Related : http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/2015/01/israel-continues-to-keep-14-year-old.html

Israel government 'tortures' children by keeping them in cages, human rights group says

An Israeli human rights organisation has accused the government of torturing children after it emerged some were kept in outdoor cages during winter.It said the incident in Ramla was just one example of a broad range of abuses being suffered.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published a report which claimed children suspected of minor crimes were subjected to “public caging”, threats and acts of sexual violence and military trials without representation. It came as the government’s Public Petitions Committee held a hearing to discuss the issue, which the PCATI said must be addressed with a change to the law.

The country’s Public Defender’s Office (PDO) recently released details of one particularly shocking visit by its lawyers to a detention facility.

“During our visit, held during a fierce storm that hit the state, attorneys met detainees who described to them a shocking picture: in the middle of the night dozens of detainees were transferred to the external iron cages built outside the IPS transition facility in Ramla,” the PDO wrote on its website.

“It turns out that this procedure, under which prisoners waited outside in cages, lasted for several months, and was verified by other officials.”

Although the practice of keeping children caged was reported to have lasted for months, there is no suggestion that the individuals were so detained for that period. 

According to the Jerusalem Post, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni called for the practice of keeping children in cages to be stopped as soon as she learned of it, and the prison service issued a statement saying the situation had been improved following the “criticism”.

The PCATI said this was not enough, and called for the country’s relatively high threshold for what can be classed “acts of abuse” to be lowered in the case of children.

Their report argued: “Torture is a means of attacking an individual’s fundamental modes of psychological and social functioning” as described in the Istanbul Protocol. Furthermore, “torture can impact a child directly or indirectly. The impact can be due to the child’s having been tortured or detained, the torture of parents or close family members or witnessing torture and violence.”

Yesterday the Knesset committee said Israeli law as it currently exists was being violated by the manner of arrest and detention conditions of Palestinian children, the Post reported.

The committee also took issue with the fact that the government appeared not to keep records of the frequency or scope of disputed practices like midnight arrests.

The PCATI quoted figures from the campaign group Defence for Children International's Palestine section, saying: “The majority of Palestinian child detainees are charged with throwing stones, and 74 per cent experience physical violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation.”

It said Israel was the only country to systematically prosecute children in its military courts, and added that “no Israeli children come into contact with the military court system”.

Source : The Independent

Related : http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/2015/01/israel-sexually-abusing-child-prisoners.html

Eighteen Palestinians Kidnapped In Nablus And Hebron

 

Wednesday January 21, 2015 10:44 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies 

Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, several Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank district of Nablus, and the southern West Bank district of Hebron, and kidnapped 18 Palestinians. Many residents injured near Jenin.

The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported that dozens of military vehicles invaded the Balata and ‘Askar Al-Jadeed refugee camps, in Nablus, and kidnapped twelve Palestinians. 

WAFA said the soldiers ransacked dozens of homes in the two refugee camps while searching them, interrogated families, and detonated the main door of one of the raided homes, belonging to former political prisoner, Bashir Hashash. 

It added that some of the invaded homes belong to Palestinian security and police officers. 

The kidnapped in Balata have been identified as Ayman Kharma, Mohammad Tirawi, Mohammad Saqer, Shaher an-Najma, Mahmoud Abu ‘Ayyash, Mohammad Ali Hashash, and ‘Ammar Mit’eb, Abdul-SalamAbu Rezeq. 

In ‘Askar, the soldiers kidnapped Kamal Abu Seryya, Hasan al-Ashqar, Sameh Abu Keshek, and Mojahed Mashayekh. 

In addition, soldiers invaded Doura and Beit Ummar town, and the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, in Hebron, and kidnapped six Palestinians after breaking into their homes and violently searching them. 

Local sources in Doura said the soldiers invaded the at-Tabaqa area, and kidnapped five Palestinians identified as Abdullah Harbeyyat, 15, Mahmoud Hakam Harbeyyat, 17, Mos’ab Mahmoud Etbeish, 18, Dia’ Mohammad Hantash, 19, and Taleb Mohammad Faqqousa, 40 years of age. 

The Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ummar said the soldiers also kidnapped Qssam Ahmad Abu Hashem, 21, after searching and ransacking his home. 

His father is a political prisoner, currently held by Israel under arbitrary Administrative Detention orders, without charges or trial. 

In addition, soldiers kidnapped a Palestinian journalist, identified as ‘Ala at-Teety, who works for the al-Aqsa Satellite TV station and news agency. 

On Tuesday at night, several Israeli military vehicles invaded Deir Abu Da’if village, east of Jenin, and clashed with dozens of local youths. 

Medical sources said many Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation. 

Eyewitnesses said the clashes took place after the soldiers invaded many homes, and interrogated family members, while ransacking their properties.

Source : http://www.imemc.org/article/70314

German official: Israeli reaction to ICC probe 'counterproductive'

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

Top German human rights officials described the Israeli reaction to the ICC investigation into possible Israeli war crimes in Palestinian territories "counterproductive".

In an interview with IPG Journal published yesterday, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid Christoph Strässer said: "Israel's reaction was counterproductive."

"Israel has launched its own investigations and should in my view cooperate with the ICC." He noted that the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip is "worse than we watch on mass media," saying he visited the region and saw facts with his bare eyes.

Strässer added: "As far as the effort to suspend funding for the court goes, I can only warn against adopting this proposal." He noted that the ICC was established to reveal the reality of such incidents.

The Prosecutor of The Hague-based ICC, Fatou Bensouda announced that she has opened a preliminary investigation into the "situation in Palestine" after the Palestinian government lodged claims of war crimes against Israel.

Source : https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/16486-german-official-israeli-reaction-to-icc-probe-counterproductive

Japan pledges $100m to rebuild Gaza

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during this press conference in Ramallah yesterday

During a visit to the region, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged $100 million for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

In a joint press conference with the Palestinians Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Abe announced the Japanese pledge to help reconstruct the Gaza Strip, which was destroyed during a 51-day Israeli war last summer.

The Israeli war left more than 2,260 Palestinians dead and around 11,000 others wounded. It also caused the partial or complete destruction of more than 100,000 houses.

Abe said: "We are concerned about the deteriorating situation between the two sides since the last year. I exchanged views with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas and found they are real friends."

Abbas thanked Japan for its role in enhancing peace opportunities in the Middle East. "Palestinians will never forget Japan's support for Palestine, which started when it aided Palestinian refugees and continued after the Oslo Accords," he said.

The Palestinian president said he had updated the Japanese premier on the latest political developments and the plan by Arab foreign ministers to garner political support for a new UN draft resolution calling for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

In addition, Abbas reiterated that there is no choice but to resolve the conflict through peaceful means and negotiations based on the Arab Peace Initiative and the UN resolutions.

"We tell our neighbours [Israelis] that our hands are extended for peace and they have to choose between peace or settlement expansion," he said. "Peace cannot be achieved by collective punishment, apartheid measures or the detention of thousands of Palestinians."

Abe said that he hoped Palestine and Israel would be able to live in peace and that his country would continue to support peace based on a two-state solution.

Where is the HUMANITY ? Where are the human rights?

Where is the humanity from this?? Where are the human rights? Where are the hearts of "humans" ?!!!! This is a young man Hamza Mohammad Al Matrouk 22 years old got killed by the "Israeli" occupation forces by shooting him and let him bleeding and begging them till death. And the soldiers are mocking him!!! Where is the world from rejecting such ugly action!! Or "Israel" is above the LAW!!!! This video must be shared worldwide to let the world see this oppression and such violence the Palestinians have to face everyday. 

Israeli troops force old Palestinian women to leave home

.

Israeli troops have evicted two elderly Palestinian women from their home and sealed off their property in the occupied West Bank.

According to locals, Israeli forces raided the home of Zuheira Oweida Dandis, 80, and Amal Dandis, 52, in al-Khalil (Hebron) on Monday, forcing them to leave.

Israeli forces claimed that the move was for security reasons, without giving further information.

On Sunday, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians and injured at least 22 more during clashes in the town of Rahat in the Negev desert.

The violence broke out during a funeral for Sami al-Ja’ar, a young Palestinian Bedouin who was shot dead by Israeli forces near a junction between the cities of Bethlehem and al-Khalil on January 14.

Israeli forces attacked the mourners, firing toxic teargas at them.

Over the recent months the Israeli regime has intensified crackdown on Palestinians.

A large number of Palestinians, including minors, have recently been arrested. More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly incarcerated in 17 Israeli prisons and detention camps.

Among the Palestinian prisoners are 18 women, 250 children, 1,500 ailing individuals, mostly in a critical condition, and 540 Palestinians held without any trial under the so-called administrative detention.

SRK/NT/AS

Source : PressTV

With New Zealand at the UNSC, Palestine could get a new lifeline

By Amanda Fisher | Special to Al Arabiya News
Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Jim McLay at the U.N. General Assembly. (Reuters)

New Zealand would seem an unlikely hope for the Palestinian people, but it has opened its third term on the U.N. Security Council – its first in 21 years – with strong words.

“New Zealand believes that failure of this U.N. Security Council to bring leadership to the [Israel-Palestine] issue, at this time, amounts to an abdication of its responsibilities,” the country’s U.N. Ambassador Jim McLay said on Jan. 15.

“Arguments that this Council doesn’t have a role, or that it can’t add value, can no longer be justified, particularly as other ways to find a solution haven’t succeeded.”

Experts tell Al Arabiya News that McLay’s remarks reflect New Zealand’s intention to be instrumental in the peace process and drive renewed efforts at a two-state solution.

In the final days of last year, the Security Council rejected a proposal by Jordan that would have fast-tracked a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem by 2017.

However, the Palestinians fell one vote short of the necessary nine, which would have triggered a U.S. veto.

The United States and Australia rejected the proposal, while the UK, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea and Rwanda abstained.

Regardless, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas almost immediately insisted the resolution still had life because of a new term of 10 non-permanent Security Council members.

“We didn’t fail. The U.N. Security Council failed us. We’ll go again to the Security Council. Why not?” he said shortly after the failed vote.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said he had “received assurances from the new members…that they would support the Palestinian demand to end the occupation,” U.S. Jewish news website Algemeiner Journal reported.

Reasons for hope

Why would New Zealand, to quote its parlance, give a ‘crikey dick’ about Palestinian self-determination?

There are several reasons, says Wellington’s Victoria University strategic studies professor Robert Ayson.

New Zealand likes to mark its identity through at-times politically unconventional stances. It was the first country to give women the vote in 1893, and has maintained a nuclear-free policy since 1984. New Zealand withstood political pressure and did not send troops to invade Iraq in 2003.

“Countries don’t take New Zealand lightly. We may not have a very big economy or defense force, but we carry a certain amount of moral authority,” said Ayson.

The country also has a proud history of activism, with violent anti-apartheid protests during a South African rugby tour in 1981, and anti-nuclear fervor in 1985 after two French spies bombed a Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbour, killing a photographer.

The Palestinian issue is less about the will of the public, and more about New Zealand announcing its reemergence on the world stage, Ayson says.

“I don’t think it’s because there’s a massive groundswell. Israel-Palestine isn’t a big public issue. This is an issue New Zealand can [take up] without too many costs.”

Read more : http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/01/21/With-New-Zealand-at-the-UNSC-Palestine-could-get-a-new-lifeline-.html

Israel continues to keep a 14-year-old Palestinian girl under arrest

Israeli authorities have continued to keep under arrest a 14-year old Palestinian girl from the village of Betin, in the district of Ramallah, for the 19th consecutive day.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Club (PPC) said in a statement released on Sunday that the Israeli authorities had arrested Malak Al-Khatib near her school on 31 December, 2014 under the pretext that she threw stones and was in possession of a knife.

The occupation's Military Court in Ofer has held a hearing for Al-Khatib on 11 January, but no decision has been made regarding her. She is currently being detained in the Hasharon prison.

Al-Khatib is a student in the eighth grade at the School of Betin.

Prof Stephen Hawking 'boycotts'major Israel Conference

Read more :
http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2013/may/13/stephen-hawking-boycott-israel-science

Palestine could ‘lose’ millions in annual U.S. aid

Lindsey Graham said Palestinians may face the aid cut if they file a lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court. (AP)

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan | Reuters Occupied Jerusalem

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

The Palestinians could lose annual U.S. aid if they file a lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court which they joined this month over American and Israeli protests, a senior U.S. Republican senator said on Monday.

Lindsey Graham, part of a seven-member delegation of senators visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said existing U.S. legislation "would cut off aid to the Palestinians if they filed a complaint" against Israel.

At a news conference in Jerusalem, Graham called the Palestinian step "a bastardizing of the role of the ICC. I find it incredibly offensive."

"We will push back strongly to register our displeasure. It is already part of our law that would require us to stop funding if they actually bring a case," said Graham, of South Carolina.

U.S. President Barack Obama's Democratic administration has said it does not believe Palestine is a sovereign state and therefore does not qualify to be part of the ICC, but has not explicitly threatened to withhold aid.

Any cut in U.S. funds could make it hard for the Palestinian self-rule authority in the West Bank and Gaza to survive. The U.S. supplies more than $400 million annually to the Palestinian Authority. Israel has frozen a monthly transfer of some $120 million in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians will formally become a member of the ICC on April 1, after applying earlier this month.

With jurisdiction dating back to June 13, 2014, the court's prosecutor could investigate the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014, during which more than 2,100 Palestinians, 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas applied to the court after losing a vote at the U.N. Security Council seeking a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from land it captured in a 1967 war and where Palestinians seek to establish a state.

Israel and the United States deplore Palestinian moves at the U.N. as unilateral steps that undermine diplomacy, which has made little progress in years and collapsed most recently in April.

Graham urged the Palestinians to re-evaluate ICC membership, saying he supported their aspirations for statehood but opposed joining the court as a "provocative step" against Israel.

Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, charged that a U.S.-led campaign against Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq was moving too slowly, arguing that aerial attacks had to be backed up by "more boots on the ground." He did not say which country should provide the troops.

 

Last Update: Tuesday, 20 January 2015 KSA 07:42 - GMT 04:42

Israel lobbies foreign powers to cut ICC funding

(Reuters) - Israel is lobbying member-states of the International Criminal Court to cut funding for the tribunal in response to its launch of an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, the country's foreign minister said on Sunday.

The ICC did not immediately respond to the news, but experts thought it unlikely that the lobbying effort was likely to persuade the countries that contribute most to the court to reduce their funding.

Israel, which like the United States does not belong to the ICC, hopes to dent funding for the court that is drawn from the 122 member-states in accordance with the size of their economies, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and inGermany simply to stop funding it," he told Israel Radio. Officials told Reuters the lobbying effort would also target Japan, whose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting Israel.

"This body represents no one. It is a political body," Lieberman said, adding that he would raise the matter with visiting Canadian counterpart John Baird on Sunday.

A loss of funding would exacerbate the court's already serious financing problems. Last week, Reuters reported that the unexpected arrival of an indicted defector from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda would put prosecutors under severe financial strain.

The overwhelming bulk of the court's funding comes from the advanced economies of Europe and North Asia. Japan is the largest contributor, giving 20.4 million euros in 2014, followed by Germany which gave 13.5 million.

France, Britain and Italy are also major contributors to the ICC's budget, which will rise 7 percent to 141 million euros in 2015. Canada contributed 5.6 million.

But even countries that were traditionally close to Israel were unlikely to renege on their treaty commitments to fund the ICC, said Kevin Jon Heller, professor of law at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

"Germany is probably the least likely country in the world to go against the ICC no matter how supportive of Israel it has traditionally been," he added. "It was one of the very leading states in the creation of the ICC."

ICC prosecutors said on Friday they would examine "in full independence and impartiality" crimes that may have occurred in the Palestinian territories since June 13 last year.

Spanish Foreign Minister arrives in Gaza

EXCLUSIVE IMAGES

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo arrived Tuesday in the Gaza Strip through Erez crossing with Israel on a few hours' visit to the embattled enclave, a Palestinian official said.

Garcia-Margallo "aims to get acquainted with the impact of the recent Israeli offensive in the coastal enclave and hold talks with chief of UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA Pierre Krahenbuhl," Maher Abu Sabha, head of the Palestinian border authority, told The Anadolu Agency.

The top diplomat arrived in Ramallah on Monday, where he met with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

The visit comes as part of a regional tour for the Spanish minister to get familiar with the "status quo" in the Middle East, a statement by the Spanish Foreign Ministry said earlier.

In November, the Spanish parliament called for recognizing Palestine as a state.

MEMO Photographer: Mohammad Asad

Source : https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16311-spanish-fm-arrives-in-gaza

JEWISH SETTLERS STORMED SECONDARY SCHOOL IN OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Approximately ten Israeli settlers stormed Wednesday a secondary school in Tur neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem and fired tear gas and sound bombs into it under Israeli police protection.

Head of the follow-up committee in Tur neighborhood Mufid Abu Ghannam confirmed that ten Jewish settlers stormed the school Wednesday afternoon while the students were leaving their classes.

The students panicked at the attack and started shouting and screaming, forcing the settlers and soldiers to withdraw from the school amid heavy fire of tear gas bombs.

Israeli forces, in their turn, fired heavy volleys of live bullets into the air to scare the students, he added.

Beit Orot settlers have twice tried to break into the school on previous days; however the local residents confronted them and forced them to withdraw, Abu Ghannam pointed out. 

Meanwhile, Israeli forces stormed under heavy tear gas bombs the nearby girls' elementary school under the pretext of looking for a wanted person.

Source : http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=69650

Israel sexually abusing child prisoners frequently in closed prisons

Israel campaigns to block UN human rights findings on Gaza onslaught

Horror in Gaza

Press TV 14 Jan — Israel has launched a campaign to block a UN inquiry into Tel Aviv’s human rights violations during its 50-day bloody war on the blockaded Gaza Strip last summer. Israel is directing its diplomats to ensure that a majority of 47 countries on the UN Commission of Inquiry on Gaza do not support an investigation into the latest Israeli offensive against the Palestinian land, the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday. The campaign aims to get “as many countries as possible – with the hope that at least 24 will not approve the committee’s findings – to either vote against, abstain or not show up [for the vote],” the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs told the representatives abroad in a cable. Part of the campaign against the UN commission is to discredit its head, Canadian lawyer William Schabas, who has accused Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression against Palestinians. The UN body is due to present its findings on the Gaza war to the UN Human Rights Council in March. A vote on the findings will be held a few days after the report is submitted.

 See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/campaigns-findings-onslaught#sthash.YmlNda4u.7fVUzbFS.dpuf

The death of Tom Hurndall

The International Solidarity Movement today remember Tom Hurndall, ISM volunteer who 12 years ago on 11th April 2003 was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.

The Israeli army were invading the city of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip when Tom and other ISM volunteers saw a group of children in a street where snipers were firing. Witnesses say that bullets were shot around the children, who were paralysed by fear and unable to move – Tom pulled one child to safety, but as he was returning for a second, he was shot in the head by a sniper.

He went into a coma and died nine months later on 13th January 2004. He was 22 years old. Today, on the day he was shot, we pay tribute to Tom’s bravery. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. We continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as we think Tom would have wished.

“What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done.” – Tom Hurndall.

Source : International Solidarity Movement

             

SHAMELESS !

Source : Ireland - Palestine Solidarity Campaign 

www.ipsc.ie

I Am Not Charlie Hebdo

 

With all the never ending rants of how Islam doesn't allow free speech, and the West simply being built upon it, things have gotten ugly - fast. With absolute hatred bubbling, the state of things have become immensely worrying.

I'm simply going to be honest here and say that I'm not one who appreciates the comparison of one brutality and murder with another, but in this case, I think it has become a necessity.

In the year 2014 alone, 17 journalists, ones whom have actually done their jobs as it entails (that needs to be said simply because in a time like today, one has a better chance of finding flying unicorns, than finding a respectable and true journalist), had been murdered in Gaza.

SEVENTEEN.

How many people have heard of them? How many people even knew they were brutally killed? Does one journalist suddenly become less worthy than the other, simply as how the lives of Palestinians has seemingly become worthless when compared to their neighbors?

...Just because?

What about THEIR right to freedom of speech? Their families' rights? Their children's? If we want to argue, and stand for something, don't stand for one.

Stand for all.

1. Hamid Abdullah Shehab - "Media 24"company.

2. Najla Mahmoud Haj - Media Activist.

3 Khalid Hamad - The "Kontnao" Media Production company.

4. Ziad Abdul Rahman Abu Hin - al-Ketab satellite channel.

5. Ezzat Duheir - Prisoners Radio.

6. Bahauddin Gharib - Palestine TV.

7 Ahed Zaqqout - Veteran Sports Journalist.

8 Ryan Rami - Palestinian Media Network.

9 Sameh Al-Arian - Al-Aqsa TV.

10 Mohammed Daher - Editor in al-Resala paper.

11. Abdullah Vhjan - Sports Journalist.

12 Khaled Hamada Mqat - Journalist, Director of Saja News website.

13. Shadi Hamdi Ayyad - Freelance Journalist

14 Mohammed Nur al-Din al-Dairi - Photojournalist, Palestinian Network.

15. Ali Abu Afesh - Doha Center for Media.

16 (Italian Journalist) Simone Camille - Photographer, Associated Press.

17. Abdullah Fadel Murtaja.

See those names?

They are the 17 journalists that were killed.

Stripped off their rights to report,

To speak,

To breathe.

I've made no mention of faiths, nor have I listed them down in this post, because simply, it's something that doesn't matter.

People of all backgrounds and all faiths, are being murdered for what they do. By devils who believe that their acts, are for, and by the sake of their religions.

The only difference, is that one gets away with it, and the other doesn't.

So as we mourn over the 12 lives of the Charlie Hebdo Attack, let us mourn for these 17 journalists too.

What happened in Paris had been an act of absolute barbarity, one to be condemned to the highest degree. Just as how it should be, for every other brutality.

May peace and justice come to them, and all those they have left behind.

I am not Charlie Hebdo, I am Humanity.

Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/fila-magnus/charlie-hebdo_b_6440050.html

Related : http://stateofblood.blogspot.com/2014/08/these-17-journalists-were-killed-by.html

This photo shows a journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza on July 30, 2014.

Italian Journalist, killed in Gaza