What to say, these days, it is just becoming uglier and uglier. Just a bit back, Gideon Levy had this to say;
A Nobel Prize laureate sits in Israeli detention, a few days after Israel hijacked another Gaza-bound aid boat, whose passengers included a Jewish Holocaust survivor, an Israeli father who lost a child to terror, and an air force pilot-turned-conscientious objector. It hijacked the boat to prevent them from reaching their destination and reminding the world of the blockade. This is the portrait of Israel today.
And the horrors keep coming...
words fail in the face of such such racism and humiliation, courtesy of the "most moral army in the world" of course...
The Palestinian woman who was filmed, handcuffed and blindfolded as an Israeli soldier danced around her said Thursday that the video only showed the beginning of "a journey of torture and humiliation."
"They began beating me with rifle butts and legs. One of the soldiers hit my head against the metal of the military jeep until I fainted. Then I found myself in front of a female doctor wearing military uniform. After examining me they moved me to the interrogation center where my journey of torture and humiliation started.
"Soon after I came in they began insulting and cursing using words I do not want to say. One of the interrogators was pulling me from my hair. I was handcuffed the whole time. The interrogation lasted until 11 at night, then they transferred me to Hasharon prison where they accused me of trying to stab someone, and of affiliation with the Islamic Jihad. Lawyers from the prisoners' society defended me and I was sentenced to 22 months in prison. I was released on 6 September 2009."
And now up, the settlers. Here's a video that Juan Cole posted today via Al Jazeera, showing a settler in Silwan involved in a hit and run incident;
Here's more information on the incident and the people involved;
A well-known leader of an Israeli settlement in Jerusalem, who generally works to get rid of Palestinians by expanding his settlement onto Palestinian land, took his actions a step - or a step on the accelerator - further this morning. Gruesome photos emerged of the Israeli settler leader driving over Palestinian boys demonstrating in Silwan. The images, to the right, courtesy of AFP, show the boys being run over and flung into the air. We rarely get images of these types of settler attacks, but because of the heavy media presence in East Jerusalem covering the weekly protests against de-Arabization, these shots were captured. While images from other attacks like this one aren't as readily available, you can imagine just how horrifying they can be. Here is the tough to watch video...
Juan Cole cites their report, which shows that "there have been on average 2 vehicular attacks per month on Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian West Bank during the past year and a half."
I remember once on Shuhada street in Hebron, where Palestinians are not allowed to drive cars, but of course, settlers can. They would barrel down the streets so fast, almost taunting Palestinians walking carefully by the sides of the street. Now that I think about it, they quite often would literally taunt us; I remember one religious settler as he looked at me, while I was standing with a Palestinian boy, as he started saying 'Allahu Akbar," in the most mocking and offensive tone possible. And there were many more of course. One day I was in a different neighborhood in Hebron, and school was letting out, so the streets were filled with Palestinian children, but who came barreling around the corner? The same settler van that regularly bombed its way down Shuhada street, an this time he was driving even more reckelessly; seriously, I was surprised he didn't run over about 10 kids that day.
Our fellow Kossack simone daud has written a must read diary on the soon to become law 'loyalty oath' of Israel, so I won't belabor that develpoment; that said, let's hear a bit about it;
Loyalty oath proves Israel is racist, say Israeli Arab leaders
"The racism in Israel has set itself as a precedent in the international arena," Zahalka said, adding that no other country in the world would demand its citizens to declare ideological loyalty.
"The word democratic should be erased from the proposal because it is impossible to call this state democratic in such an anti-democratic proposal. The correct definition is a Jewish state, and not a democratic one," he said.
"The addition to the Citizenship Law is entirely racist and transparent, and will clearly find the majority needed with the help of Lieberman and [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak," he said. "The book of laws in Israel has long turned into a guidebook for the most discriminatory and racist regime in the world and in history."
And my friend Abdullah is still in jail, like many others, for non-violently opposing this madness;
Jewish Voice for Peace
Seized in the night. Tortured. Held without trial, then tried in a military court where you have no rights; convicted on the coerced confessions of minors, you are facing a sentence of years in prison. All for organizing peaceful protests against the theft of your land and asserting your democratic rights.
Most of us who believe in human rights and democracy can never imagine being treated in such a way. Yet that is exactly what befell Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a democracy advocate from Bil’in in the Occupied West Bank. His town is known around the world for the determination of its residents – joined by Israelis and internationals in solidarity – to protest weekly against the theft of their land by Israeli authorities.
I know that Israel's military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel's leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment.
Bil'in has become the graveyard of Israeli real estate empires. One after another, these companies are approaching bankruptcy as the costs of building on stolen Palestinian land are driven higher than the profits.
Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons or army, but we do not need them. The justness of our cause earns us your support. No army, no prison and no wall can stop us.
Yours,
Abdallah Abu Rahmah
From the Ofer Military Detention Camp
now tell me people, which side are you on? And this doesn't mean you need to choose between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, etc; the choice is between truth and lies, between violence and peace, between a just world and one dominated by power and terror.
I know what side I stand on; and I stand there with all of the above, Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis, atheists and believers, Arabs, and many, many more...
************UPDATE**************
More info here
AFP Identifies Palestinian Abuse Victim in YouTube Video, Twitter Does the Rest
Now, we need to identify the abusive soldier. Anyone serving in Gush Etzion in December, 2007 who may know this guy is invited to communicate with me. Let’s not give the IDF an excuse to sweep this monstrousness under the carpet. We all know that the IDF is the Most Moral Army in the World. The nation’s defense minister told us so, ferchrissakes. So let’s see what the most moral army in the world does with this mini-mess.
**Eagle-eyed reader, Dena Shunra, has unmasked our proud IDF abuser via Twitter. He is Avi Yakobov. An Israeli reader tells me this is likely a name of Bukharan origin (Lev Leviev is also a former Bukharan Jew).