thanks for posting VP. you make some pretty compelling points with your posts.
Thanks, as do you! I have been wanting to write the same about your posts, but you beat me to it
thanks to you too. i have always had incredible timing lol..
i am not as up on the conflict as i was at one time, so it is always nice to get to read posts from people from all perspectives that know a lot more about it than i do.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
Viva, this is not some pissing match about who's suffered more, or who is entitled to claim victim status. I don't deny Palestinian suffering at all. All I'm saying is that you can make your criticisms without offensive comparisons to the Nazis. And yes, such comparisons are deeply, deeply offensive. Maybe you didn't know that before, but I'm telling you now. You are saying things that are truly, despicably offensive. Criticize all you want, but please stop with the Nazi stuff. I can't tell you what to think, but I can tell you that I find the way you are expressing yourself offensive and deeply hurtful, and I'm asking you to stop. And again, to be clear, I'm not asking that you stop criticizing. I'm just asking that you stop making rhetorical comparisons that are offensive. I would hope that you are a caring enough person to respect this request.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
I would especially recomment reading the lancet article.
Use of Ambulances by Palestinian Terrorists
• April 12, 2002: New York Times: “The Israeli police said today that they had found a belt with explosives in a Palestinian ambulance during a check at a roadblock inside the West Bank. The ambulance was headed toward Israel with the body of a Palestinian man, the police said, and they found the device alongside him. It was the second time in two weeks that Israel has reported finding explosives in an ambulance.”
• February 5, 2002: Haaretz: Wafa Idris, the Ramallah woman killed when a bomb she carried into downtown Jerusalem exploded last month, reached the capital by a Red Crescent ambulance... One Israeli was killed and more than 100 wounded in the bombing
• June 30, 2002: Associated Press: “In Ramallah, Israeli troops stopped two Palestinian ambulances and found 27 people packed inside - ten of them suspected of involvement in shooting or bombing attacks.”
• October 31, 2000: IDF: “Shots were fired at Psagot from inside the Red Crescent building in Ramallah. In another instance, shots were fired at Psagot from a Red Crescent ambulance as it traveled towards Psagot. In both cases, the IDF did not return fire.”
• April 25, 2002 Jerusalem Post: “Reserve soldiers apprehended a wanted terrorist who was hiding in an ambulance that was stopped during a routine check near Kalkilya.”
• January 30, 2002 The IDF reports it captured a terrorist on the wanted list at a roadblock at Har Bracha. “He was disguised as a doctor and attempted to pass through in a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance.”
• June 10, 2002 Haaretz: “In the Gaza Strip, soldiers arrested a wanted militant who was traveling in a Palestinian ambulance at the Gush Katif junction. The troops became suspicious after noticing that there were no medical personnel or injured persons in the vehicle.”
• March 4, 2002 IDF: “During the activity of IDF forces in the Jenin refugee camp, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance charged an IDF force. The force opened small arms fire at the ambulance, which exploded.”
• April 16, 2003 IDF Radio reported this afternoon that an Israeli Border Policeman was lightly wounded by a Palestinian terrorist who opened fire at a patrol of Border Police in Jenin. “The terrorist opened fire from within an ambulance as it passed near the patrol and then drove away.”
• October 30, 2003 The Jerusalem Times (Palestinian newspaper): In Nablus, troops stormed Rafidiyeh Hospital and arrested Jawad Ishtayeh, 27, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a splinter group with links to Fateh. The military said troops found the Ishatayeh, hiding in the hospital’s cellar and armed with a pistol. The army said the man was healthy, and Palestinian security sources said the man was not a patient.
• March 26, 2002: IDF: Soldiers at a mobile roadblock today captured a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance driver who was transporting an explosive belt of the type detonated by suicide bombers. The ambulance was stopped and searched between Nablus and Ramallah, and soldiers found the explosive belt under a stretcher upon which a Palestinian boy was lying. The boy’s family was with him in the ambulance. The ambulance driver, Islam Jibril, a resident of the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, told interrogators he received the belt from Muhammad Titti, a senior Tanzim activist close to Palestinian Authority West Bank security chief Marwan Barghouti [Marwan Bargouti is a relative of Mustafa Barghouti. Islam Jibril has also confessed to smuggling weapons on several occasions. On one ambulance run he transported a sack filled with rifles from Balata to Ramallah, where he delivered them to the chief administrator of Sheykh Zayed Hospital.]
• March 27, 2002: An intensive care ambulance carrying a wanted terrorist, an explosive belt and explosive devices was intercepted at an Israeli army checkpoint south of Ramallah. The explosive belt was found hidden underneath a stretcher on which a Palestinian sick child was lying. Also present during the incident were the sick child's relatives – a man, a woman and three children. The driver was Islam Jibril , a Fatah-Tanzim operative and wanted terrorist, who was employed as ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. During his interrogation, Jibril admitted having received the bombing devices from Mahmud al-Titi , with the assignment to deliver them to other Fatah- Tanzim operatives in Ramallah.
Abuse of ambulance and medical services by Palestinian terrorists has been in the news again recently, as the lives of an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) ambulance team were threatened as they were forced to comply with the demand to transport three Palestinian terrorists to a hospital.
Throughout the last few years, there have been many recorded instances of ambulances, which should be used for protecting the sick, being used as a means to transport terrorists or bombs into Israel . The terrorists exploit the ambulances' relative freedom of passage through Israeli army checkpoints, for the purpose of perpetrating terror activities against Israel . Under these circumstances, Israel must protect its citizens and carry out thorough searches of ambulances.
Examples of abuse of ambulances and medical services
On 25 May 2004 , Israeli police uncovered a network that smuggled Palestinian Authority officers into Israel in fake ambulances. 1 The officers included members of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 personal protection unit. The police arrested a resident of Azzariyeh, suspected of posing as an ambulance driver and infiltrating dozens of Palestinians disguised as sick patients into Israel . The ‘patients' were hooked up to medical devices inside the ambulances and presented soldiers or police officers with forged documents at Israeli checkpoints. Police said it is possible the ring has smuggled terrorists into Israel using the same method. 2
On 11 May 2004, during the Israeli army operation in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, armed Palestinian terrorists overtook an UNRWA ambulance, forcing the ambulance team - a driver and a paramedic - to drive a wounded gunman, as well as two others carrying weapons, to a hospital in Gaza City. UNRWA later issued a statement condemning the incident “in the strongest possible terms” and imploring all parties in Gaza to respect the neutrality of its ambulance service. A UN spokesman further reiterated that “while its [UNRWA's] ambulances do not make any distinction between the injured, whether they are injured fighters or non-combatants, at no time and under no circumstances should armed men enter any UNRWA vehicle.” 3
It was later reported that Reuters had filmed the incident by video, but the footage was only aired two weeks later on Israel 's Channel 10 television. 4 The pictures clearly show armed Palestinians boarding a UN-marked ambulance, with a UN flag displayed on it, and fleeing the scene. 5
Rashed Tarek al-Nimr, a Palestinian chemist working in Nablus and Bethlehem hospitals, was arrested in November 2003 for smuggling chemicals that he obtained from the hospitals to Hamas for the purpose of creating bombs. He told the Shin Bet that he used ambulances as a cover to transfer the chemicals, such as hydrogen peroxide to make TATP, which have been used several times by Hamas in suicide bombings. 6
On 8 May 2003 , Amer Nayef Amer Hilwan and his female companion, Zuhur Hamdan, were arrested on their way to perpetrate a suicide bombing attack in Petah Tikva. Under interrogation, Hilwan admitted that the two had passed through the IDF checkpoints using an ambulance, which was not checked by IDF soldiers. 7
Nidal Abd al-Fatah Abdallah Nazal, a Hamas operative from Qalqiliya who worked as an UNRWA ambulance driver, was arrested in August 2002 and admitted during questioning that he had used an UNWRA ambulance to transport arms to terrorists and to transmit messages to and from Hamas activists in different places. 8
In March 2002, an explosive belt was found in a Red Crescent ambulance at a checkpoint near Ramallah. The bomb, the same type generally used in suicide bombings, was hidden under a stretcher on which a sick child was lying. The driver, Islam Jibril, admitted that the belt was intended to be used for a suicide bombing and that this was not the first time that an ambulance had been used to transport explosives or terrorists. 9
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in reaction that it was “shocked and dismayed” at the incident and that it “condemns such abuse of an ambulance and of the Red Crescent emblem”. The ICRC called for Palestinian “respect of the ambulances' medical mission.” 10
On 27 January 2002 , Wafa Idris, a Red Crescent worker, blew herself up in the centre of Jerusalem , killing one man and injuring 140 others. An IDF investigation revealed that the attack was planned by other Red Crescent workers and it is believed that a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance transported the bomber into Israel . 11
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
As to genocide, I really just don't get what you are arguing. You wrote:
"The fact that the population is still growing despite the unrelenting oppression and dispossession of it, does not mean that there is not a slow and methodical genocide of it. Were ALL the jews killed in the Holocaust, did they stop having babies and did their families cease to grow?"
Thankfully not all the Jews were killed in the Holocaust. But the Jewish population didn't, as you seem to imply, grow during the Holocaust. It shrank by 6 million. Because they were systematically murdered. The aim of the Nazis was a world without Jews, and had they had the ability to do so I don't doubt that they would have killed every last Jew on earth.
The fact that the Palestinian population continues to grow does, in fact, indicate that there is no genocide taking place, since empirically it is exactly the opposite of what one would expect to see under conditions of genocide. I'm not arguing that the Palestinians aren't suffering under oppression, but to claim that a genocide is taking place is just flat out not objectively true.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
Viva, this is not some pissing match about who's suffered more, or who is entitled to claim victim status. I don't deny Palestinian suffering at all. All I'm saying is that you can make your criticisms without offensive comparisons to the Nazis. And yes, such comparisons are deeply, deeply offensive. Maybe you didn't know that before, but I'm telling you now. You are saying things that are truly, despicably offensive. Criticize all you want, but please stop with the Nazi stuff. I can't tell you what to think, but I can tell you that I find the way you are expressing yourself offensive and deeply hurtful, and I'm asking you to stop. And again, to be clear, I'm not asking that you stop criticizing. I'm just asking that you stop making rhetorical comparisons that are offensive. I would hope that you are a caring enough person to respect this request.
No I will not ever stop with the "Nazi stuff," I will not be the first and won't be the last to compare the current actions of israel to nazis. Why don't they stop with the Nazi actions? Your feelings are hurt? You are offended? You are requesting that I turn a blind eye to a murderous state's actions who are now beating the drum to commit more murder to spare your feelings. Feelings get hurt, but you know what's fucking worse than feelings getting hurt, is people fucking dying for the past 70 years and who will continue to die. You are missing the point in your pro israel zionist stance....you come at me with dumb examples, about the kkk and black people, what you are asking is like asking a black person not to call the kkk racist, there goes your example, i have yet to read your following posts, but I scanned through and I have yet to see a citation for all the claims you have listed, websites, books, authors?????
As to genocide, I really just don't get what you are arguing. You wrote:
"The fact that the population is still growing despite the unrelenting oppression and dispossession of it, does not mean that there is not a slow and methodical genocide of it. Were ALL the jews killed in the Holocaust, did they stop having babies and did their families cease to grow?"
Thankfully not all the Jews were killed in the Holocaust. But the Jewish population didn't, as you seem to imply, grow during the Holocaust. It shrank by 6 million. Because they were systematically murdered. The aim of the Nazis was a world without Jews, and had they had the ability to do so I don't doubt that they would have killed every last Jew on earth.
The fact that the Palestinian population continues to grow does, in fact, indicate that there is no genocide taking place, since empirically it is exactly the opposite of what one would expect to see under conditions of genocide. I'm not arguing that the Palestinians aren't suffering under oppression, but to claim that a genocide is taking place is just flat out not objectively true.
and worse than that... they were allowed to do it.
as heinous as i think their actions are, i see what the israeli govt is doing as a security issue. the formation of the state of israel meant the destruction of the life the palestinian people had known. and that is gonna cause some sort of reaction, as it rightly should. you cant move people from the homes and communities theyve known for as long as they can remember and expect them to go quietly. you cant tighten the screws on peoples freedoms and expect them to sit there and take it. personally i think israel fails in its security with its own actions. i think the israeli govt would be most happy if the palestinians were absorbed into the surrounding countries and leave the land left behind to be claimed as a part of the state of israel. unfortunately thats not gonna happen.. and why should it? but what i see being done to the palestinians is oppression but it is not genocide. the nazi comparison is pulled out becasue it is an emotive one and it is the most offensive comparison that can be levelled at the israeli govt. even ive said how can the israeli govt act the way it does after what had been done to the jews? how can an oppressed people turn around and oppress others. then i realise its like an abused child who grows up knowing nothing else. they know they shouldnt but its the only way they know how to deal. and no im not excusing the israeli govts actions just trying to be somewhat objective.
hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
israel is stealing palestinian land and occupying it. like it or not, the main objective of war, aside from the annihillation of the opposing army, is to gain and control territory. to take over the land of another country. if you look at it like that, the expansion of the settlements onto palestinian lands and seizure of that land is the EXACT same thing that hitler and the nazis did when they annexed austria.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
gimme, by that analogy any country that has gained territory through war is analogous to the nazis. such a comparison loses any sort of descriptive value. When people make comparisons to the nazis they aren't talking about gaining territory through war. the comparison is made to evoke the holocaust. since what is going on with the Palestinians (as horrible as it may be) is not truly analogous to the holocaust, I don't see the comparison as apt.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
israel is stealing palestinian land and occupying it. like it or not, the main objective of war, aside from the annihillation of the opposing army, is to gain and control territory. to take over the land of another country. if you look at it like that, the expansion of the settlements onto palestinian lands and seizure of that land is the EXACT same thing that hitler and the nazis did when they annexed austria.
well im not looking at it like that gimme because i dont see it that way. what army were the jews a part of in WW2? they werent exterminated so the nazis could gain land. they were exterminated because the nazis saw them as sub human. hitler annexing of austria was about uniting all ethnic germans into one big glorious country. so whether it was necessarily just a land grab as you suggest is open for discussion.
hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
israel is stealing palestinian land and occupying it. like it or not, the main objective of war, aside from the annihillation of the opposing army, is to gain and control territory. to take over the land of another country. if you look at it like that, the expansion of the settlements onto palestinian lands and seizure of that land is the EXACT same thing that hitler and the nazis did when they annexed austria.
well im not looking at it like that gimme because i dont see it that way. what army were the jews a part of in WW2? they werent exterminated so the nazis could gain land. they were exterminated because the nazis saw them as sub human. hitler annexing of austria was about uniting all ethnic germans into one big glorious country. so whether it was necessarily just a land grab as you suggest is open for discussion.
the annexation of austria was a land grab. had there been no hitler, there would have been no land grab.
but still, the goal of war is to gain territory and resources. you can see it as you wish to see it. but i see it like that. what is happening with settlement expansion? are they just "spreading out"" or are they stealing the land? it is pretty obvious that they are stealing land, building upon it, and expanding the state of israel and displacing palestinians. there is no regard to the palestinians that owned that land. same as what happened in austria. given their history just 70 years ago i would have thought that israel would have been better than that. i would have thought that they of all people would fight to guarantee that oppression and subjugation in that region would never happen again.
you make the argument that hitler was just uniting the ethnic germans into one country. but what happened to the gypsies, the jews, the homosexuals, the non aryans in this annexation? they were starved, they were evacuated and displaced. the same as what is happening in this conflict. if hitler was not trying to take land why did he expand the war to brittain? why did he expand it to africa? why did he attack russia? grabbing land was strategic and essential to his vision or world domination. plus he had to take land outside of germany so that he could carry out the final solution in as secreat of conditions that he could...
Post edited by gimmesometruth27 on
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
gimme, by that analogy any country that has gained territory through war is analogous to the nazis. such a comparison loses any sort of descriptive value. When people make comparisons to the nazis they aren't talking about gaining territory through war. the comparison is made to evoke the holocaust. since what is going on with the Palestinians (as horrible as it may be) is not truly analogous to the holocaust, I don't see the comparison as apt.
exactly. the nazi land grab is the same as any country that has ever attacked another and occupied it. this did not begin with the nazis. it has been going on since the dawn of civilization. frankly i do not care if it does not hold water with you. it is what it is. you can either recognize it as such, or just dismiss it and try to minimize it in your defense of your homeland. but if things go on as they are, palestinians are going to die. they are going to be starved, they are going to be displaced, they are going to continue to be blockaded. it might not be as fast or as systematic and industrialized as the holocaust, but these deaths will result and it will happen over time.
the holocaust was a result of the nazis wanting to rule the world. world war 2 was not the result of the holocaust. the holocaust was a result of the maniacal desire to rule the world AND cleanse europe of the jews. germany had to take land in austria and poland so that they can make the death camps there so that they were not not within the boundaries of germany. they had to go about their systematic murder in land outside of their boundaries.
security is a funny thing. americans are willing to give away their rights to make sure that there is security. the minute someone speaks out against these policies they are immediately dubbed a threat and are dealt with as such. the security measures the israelis take are very similar to those of the us, yet they are less even-handed. they are much more proactive in the security protocol that is offense in the name of defense. it is disgusting.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
...if hitler was not trying to take land why did he expand the war to brittain? ...
im pretty sure when a country identifies as your enemy in a war you tend to attack them to disable them. i imagine hitler was weary of britain given their history so why not bomb them into submisson.. that way youve got one less enemy to be concerned with. didnt quite work out that way but it was a good try anyway.
the extermination of the jews wasnt critical to hitlers land grab, as you call it. sure he wanted no jews in europe but the 2 things are separate issues as far as im concerned. and that is why the analogy between the nazis and the israeli govt is flawed. and thats aside from the fact that the israeli govt isnt trying to exterminate the palestinian people. but i do suspect theyd be happier if the palestinians were elsewhere.
i think comparisons between the nazis and the israeli govt are somewhat hysterical and borne of the justified outrage at the actions of the israeli govt. its an emotional issue and i just think itd be better for the discussion if cool heads could prevail.
hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
No I will not ever stop with the "Nazi stuff," I will not be the first and won't be the last to compare the current actions of israel to nazis. Why don't they stop with the Nazi actions? Your feelings are hurt? You are offended? You are requesting that I turn a blind eye to a murderous state's actions who are now beating the drum to commit more murder to spare your feelings. Feelings get hurt, but you know what's fucking worse than feelings getting hurt, is people fucking dying for the past 70 years and who will continue to die. You are missing the point in your pro israel zionist stance....you come at me with dumb examples, about the kkk and black people, what you are asking is like asking a black person not to call the kkk racist, there goes your example, i have yet to read your following posts, but I scanned through and I have yet to see a citation for all the claims you have listed, websites, books, authors?????
I'm not requesting that you turn a blind eye towards anything. I'm asking that if you want to criticize Jews that you do so without comparing us to the people that butchered our parents and grandparents in their millions. I'd think that for any reasonably empathetic person it would be plainly obvious why such a comparison is wildly offensive.
This isn't about my feelings getting hurt. I can deal with hurt feelings. This is about you. How you express yourself. How you treat the people you interact with. I'm asking you to conduct yourself in a way that is respectful of others. I'm not telling you not to express your opinions, I'm just asking you not to be a dick when you do so.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
JERUSALEM — A senior Israeli military officer's seemingly unprovoked assault against an unarmed pro-Palestinian activist drew sharp condemnations Monday, raising questions in Israel over whether the country's heavy-handed approach to nonviolent protesters was exaggerated and causing damage to Israel's image.
The assault, captured on video and featured in all major newspapers and TV broadcasts, follows Israel's high-profile interception at its main airport of dozens of international activists who had planned a solidarity mission with Palestinians in the West Bank. Adding to the sense that Israel may have gone too far, officials said Tuesday that nearly 500 people were erroneously blocked from visiting.
Israel has branded the activists "provocateurs" who posed a security threat to the country. Calling itself the Middle East's only democracy, it says the protesters have their priorities wrong and should instead focus on rampant human rights violations in neighboring Arab countries.
Israel feels it is unfairly singled out internationally and is obsessed about its international image. Leaders often complain about what they say are unfair efforts to "delegitimize" the country with boycotts, divestment calls and other campaigns. The country even has a ministry of public diplomacy that aims to promote the country's image overseas.
But critics say that Israel's policies, not its public relations efforts, are the problem, particularly when it comes to its actions in the occupied West Bank. Saturday's beating of the foreign activist, filmed by another demonstrator as soldiers blocked them from riding bicycles near the West Bank town of Jericho, gave new ammunition to its detractors.
"Any reasonable viewer who sees the clip asks himself how many such incidents take place where there is no documentation, and how the army responds when there is no conclusive and public proof of unjustified violence," wrote Ofer Shelah, a military columnist for the Yediot Ahronot daily.
In the video, Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner is seen smashing a Danish activist in the face with his M-16 rifle. Israel said the group of about 200 activists was attempting to block a main highway and had provoked the soldiers.
The officer, through his confidantes, claimed the activist had previously struck him with a stick, breaking two of his fingers, Israeli media reported. One newspaper ran a photo of him with a bandage on his hand.
The activist, a 20-year-old man from Denmark, said the event was "completely nonviolent." In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he required stitches to his lip from the blow. He refused to be identified, fearing retribution from Israeli authorities.
In Denmark, Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal said the Danish ambassador to Israel had asked authorities for a report on what had happened.
"The Israeli prime minister's comments have been very critical of the incident. I agree with him. We must all condemn the use of force, which apparently has been used against the demonstrators," he said.
The video appeared on all major evening newscasts Sunday and Monday, and the officer was immediately suspended while the incident was investigated.
The military chief, President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all condemned the officer's behavior. "Such conduct is not characteristic of the soldiers and commanders of the Israeli military, and has no place in the army or the state of Israel," Netanyahu said.
While stressing that the incident was isolated, Israeli officials acknowledged that the assault caused huge damage to Israel, which repeatedly claims its military to be the most moral in the world.
Israel has a long history of troubled relations with international activists. Several pro-Palestinian activists have been killed or maimed in clashes with the Israeli forces over the years.
In the worst instance, Israeli naval commandos clashed with activists on board a flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010, killing nine activists.
Over the weekend, Israel prevented hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from entering the country to participate in a solidarity mission drawing attention to Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank. Some were detained upon arrival at the airport, while others were prevented from boarding flights in their home countries.
While Israel declared victory, some commentators have questioned whether the action simply drew attention to the policies targeted by the protesters.
In another sign that the crackdown might have backfired, the Foreign Ministry said that about 470 of the 1,200 people who were barred from the country should not have been on the list. "We don't know why they were there," said spokesman Yigal Palmor.
Yuli Edelstein, Israel's minister for public diplomacy, rejected the notion that Israel was overreacting with the foreign activists and thus damaging its own image. He said the incident with Eisner highlighted the danger of letting activists roam freely.
"The moment these people are out of control, running around and creating trouble, their dream is to be hit by an officer and get it on camera. It shows that ignoring is not exactly a very good policy," he said.
But critics said the government's overzealous response was doing more harm than good.
Maariv columnist Shai Golden said Israel would be better off ignoring the "band of pampered eccentrics" instead of treating them like terrorists.
"Israel would have dismissed the matter with a shrug, the group of penny-ante anarchists would have turned around and left and our peace of mind would not have been disturbed," he said.
and then there is this....
the israeli government should have possibly held off on the sarcasm. it is inappropriate given what is happening in the west bank and israel's threats against iran...
Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli authorities stepped up security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport Sunday as hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists were due to arrive in the country in a "fly-in" campaign to protest Israel's policies in the West Bank.
Some activists were barred from entering the country for refusing to promise not to engage in disorderly conduct, but Israel did allow some other activists to enter, Israeli officials said.
By Sunday night, 60 activists had been refused entry at the airport, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Nine protesters were arrested for attempting to disrupt order at the airport, Rosenfeld said. He said there were 500 police officials there.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, a spokesman for the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign, said that more than 1,000 uniformed and plain clothes security officers were at the airport, in what he called a sign of "unprecedented Israeli hysteria and paranoia." Authorities "violently arrested" the nine activists, he said.
Activists who were sent home were being given a letter sarcastically thanking them for "choosing to make Israel the object of your humanitarian concerns."
The letter says protesters could have focused on "the Syrian regime's daily savagery against its own people," or the actions of Iran or Hamas, but instead "chose to protest against Israel, the Middle East's sole democracy," according to a copy posted on Twitter by Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We therefore suggest that you first solve the real problems of the region, and then come back and share with us your experience. Have a nice flight," the letter says.
Organizers of the "fly-in" event said some 1,500 to 2,000 activists mainly from Europe, the United States, and Canada would board civilian flights for Israel in order to make their way to various events in Bethlehem and other West Bank cities.
By Sunday night, only three activists who flew in had made it to Bethlehem from the Tel Aviv airport, they said. Another 20 had entered a few days before after crossing a land bridge between Jordan and Israel.
One of the activists who made it through said 27 other people who had flown with her from Lyon, France, had been detained. The woman, a French citizen named Tanya, declined to provide her last name because she said she feared repercussions from the authorities.
Activists told reporters Sunday that the event would be a success, no matter how many people participated.
"Our success is measured in terms of the media publicity the Welcome to Palestine campaign made in shedding light on the true fate of Israel's dictatorship and apartheid," organizer Abdel Fatah Abu Srour said.
Another organizer criticized Israel's letter.
"I tell Israel they are contradicting themselves about their so-called democracy when they are deporting and detaining people who are coming to visit Palestinians," said Amira Mussalam.
Activists said they were trying to draw attention to what they claim are prejudicial Israeli border policies that force many international visitors coming to Palestinian areas to lie about their destinations.
"We believe, like prisoners in prisons, we are entitled to receive visitors and Palestinians under Israeli occupation are also entitled to receive visitors," Qumsiyeh said. "So we are entitled to get international visitors to come and visit and show solidarity with us to learn about the situation, but Israel chooses to prevent these people from coming."
On Sunday, he said a number of activists had reached the West Bank, but did not say how many.
The activists who were denied entry on Sunday were from Portugal, Canada, Switzerland, France, Spain and Italy, said population and migration authority spokeswoman Sabin Hadad.
Last year, organizers staged a similar event and Israel authorities detained and deported dozens of activists who entered the country.
On Tuesday, Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch called activists "provocateurs" and told Israeli news portal Ynet that they would "be dealt with in a determined and quick way," adding that "If they arrive in Israel they will be identified, removed from the plane, their entry into Israel will be prevented and they will be moved to a detention facility until they are flown out of Israel."
To that end, Israeli officials have been in touch with airlines and provided them with lists of people who are forbidden from entering the country.
"Usually airlines don't allow these people to embark, because then they have to cover the expense of the return flight," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.
"What we did last year is we had a list of number of people who have been banned from entering the country in the past, and others who will be banned now because they have openly declared that they will come here to disturb public order in one way or another," Palmor said.
Palmor said arriving passengers who are denied an entrance visa have the right to appeal but could face three days in detention before their hearing.
On Sunday, one activist in the United Kingdom said she was in a group of 30 passengers who were blocked from boarding a flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv.
"Israel was able to stop us, British passport-holders, and Israel has the power to extend its apartheid to other countries and borders," activist Norma Turner said.
Qumsiyeh insists the event is entirely peaceful in nature and suggested that Israeli authorities were over-reacting.
"The Israeli internal security is paranoid and is turning the airport into a military camp. They want to arrest the activists and are calling us provocateurs and demonstrators as they always do" Qumsiyeh said. "The activists are coming peacefully and will visit the West Bank and help us build a community school and then they will go home with no problems, Israel is creating the problems and not us."
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
I came to the UK to talk about the plight of the Palestinians but ended up fighting deportation. This is what I wanted to say
Raed Salah
The Guardian, Thursday 19 April 2012
In June 2011 I came to Britain to begin a speaking tour to draw attention to the plight of my people, the Palestinian citizens of Israel. The tour was meant to last 10 days. Instead I had to stay for 10 months in order to resist an attempt by the home secretary, Theresa May, to deport me – itself the result of a smear campaign against me and what I represent. I fought not just for my own sake, but for all who are smeared because they support the Palestinian cause.
Since 1990 I have visited the UK several times to speak publicly. On this occasion I was arrested, imprisoned, and told I was to be deported to Israel because my presence in the UK was "not conducive to the public good". A judge later ruled that I had been illegally detained, but bail conditions continued to severely restrict my freedom, making it impossible for me to speak as I had intended.
After a 10-month legal battle, I have now been cleared on "all grounds" by a senior immigration tribunal judge, who ruled that May's decision to deport me was "entirely unnecessary" and that she had been "misled". The evidence she relied on (which included a poem of mine which had been doctored to make it appear anti-Jewish) was not, he concluded, a fair portrayal of my views. In reality, I reject any and every form of racism, including antisemitism.
I have no doubt that, despite this, Israel's cheerleaders in Britain will continue to smear my character. This is the price every Palestinian leader and campaigner is forced to pay.
My people – the Palestinians – are the longstanding victims of Israeli racism. Victims of racism, anywhere, should never condone or support the maltreatment of another people, as Israel does.
The suffering of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has been ignored for decades. But there is today a growing awareness of it, which partially explains this smear campaign against me. In December 2011, EU ambassadors in Israel raised serious concerns about Israeli discrimination, noting that "not only has the situation of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel not improved, but it has further deteriorated".
There are around 1.5 million Arabs in Israel. We make up 17% of the population, but we face a barrage of racist policies and discriminatory laws. We receive less than 5% of funds allocated by the government for development. Public spending on children in Arab municipalities is one-third lower than that of children in Jewish municipalities. The average hourly wage of Arab workers is about 70% of that of Jewish workers. Any Jew, from any country, is allowed under Israel's law of return to migrate to Israel; Palestinian refugees are not allowed to exercise their right of return. While a Jew can live anywhere in Israel, a Palestinian citizen cannot. Jews can marry whoever they wish and live with them in Israel, Palestinian citizens cannot.
In the criminal justice system, a 2011 study commissioned by Israel's courts administration and Israel bar association revealed that almost half of Arabs receive custodial sentences for certain crimes, compared to a third of Jews. While 63.5% of Arabs convicted of violent crimes were sentenced to prison, only 43.7% of similar Jewish offenders were.
Education is only one of several areas in which Palestinian citizens face discrimination in Israel. The Israeli government allocates less money per head for Arab children's education than it does for that of Jewish children. One devastating consequence is that the drop-out rate from schools is three times higher among Arabs than among Jews.
Nowhere is the injustice more striking than in the Negev. Living in poverty in "unrecognised" villages, the Arab Bedouin are ineligible for basic services such as water, electricity, and healthcare. The Negev village of al-Araqib has been demolished 35 times by the Israeli government; on every occasion it was rebuilt by its inhabitants.
Despite the Israeli policy of "transfer" – another term for ethnic cleansing – the Palestinians will not go away. The Israeli state can occupy our lands, demolish our homes, drill tunnels under the old city of Jerusalem – but we will not disappear. Instead, we now aspire to a directly elected leadership for Palestinians in Israel; one that would truly represent our interests. We seek only the legal rights guaranteed to us by international conventions and laws.
The Palestinian issue can only be resolved if Israel and its supporters in Britain abandon the dogmas of supremacy and truly adhere to the universal values of justice and fairness. Britain has a special responsibility in this, because it is uniquely responsible for our suffering: our national tragedy began with the Balfour Declaration.
While Britain enforced the first part of the declaration, which promised Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people, but ignored the part that states: "It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." If there is any lesson to be learned from this sordid affair, it is that there is nothing to gain from putting false words into my mouth, or casting me out of the mainstream of public discourse.
Danish protester: 'No one would care if a Palestinian was hit with a rifle'
Andreas Ias says his treatment by Israeli soldier is nothing compared to the systematic violence carried out on Palestinians
'...Ias – not his real name – is dismayed that in the aftermath of him being struck in the face with a soldier's rifle, so little attention has focused on what he describes as the routine aggression, harassment and displacement suffered by Palestinian villagers in the area.
"It has been framed in the media as the 'Danish incident', as though this is not how the IDF normally act," he said, swathed in a red keffiyeh in a Ramallah cafe. "But what happened to me is nothing compared to the systematic violence carried out on Palestinians. This is not a single incident, it's what we see every day...
While volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the West Bank over the past six weeks, Ias says he has witnessed "a process of ethnic cleansing that has been going on since the start of the occupation".
"I've seen people whose homes have been demolished in the middle of the night by dozens of soldiers, people who are left with nothing. I've seen Bedouin villages without running water or electricity next to Israeli settlements with total control over water resources. I've seen people denied their basic human rights and any hope for the future. You can't experience that without it changing you."
Additional footage shows Eisner assaulting 4 more activists
New video shows last week's confrontation between soldiers, activists started after anarchist hurt officer with his bicycle. Lt. Col. Shalom Einser later seen assaulting woman with his weapon, pulling another's hair
Elior Levy
04.20.12
Ynet
A video filmed by Palestinian TV shows Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner hurting a woman in her shoulder before striking the Danish activist with his M-16 rifle. He then attacked another protester and seconds later pulled the hair of another woman. The IDF officer was also seen hitting an activist in the back.
B'Tselem Executive Director Jessica Montell said that the footage refutes claims which suggest that the protesters had exercised violence before being attacked by the soldiers. She said that the event demonstrates Eisner's feeling of immunity noting that the law is rarely enforced in cases of IDF violence directed against Palestinians in the territories.
I would especially recomment reading the lancet article.
Use of Ambulances by Palestinian Terrorists
• April 12, 2002: New York Times: “The Israeli police said today that they had found a belt with explosives in a Palestinian ambulance during a check at a roadblock inside the West Bank. The ambulance was headed toward Israel with the body of a Palestinian man, the police said, and they found the device alongside him. It was the second time in two weeks that Israel has reported finding explosives in an ambulance.”
• February 5, 2002: Haaretz: Wafa Idris, the Ramallah woman killed when a bomb she carried into downtown Jerusalem exploded last month, reached the capital by a Red Crescent ambulance... One Israeli was killed and more than 100 wounded in the bombing
• June 30, 2002: Associated Press: “In Ramallah, Israeli troops stopped two Palestinian ambulances and found 27 people packed inside - ten of them suspected of involvement in shooting or bombing attacks.”
• October 31, 2000: IDF: “Shots were fired at Psagot from inside the Red Crescent building in Ramallah. In another instance, shots were fired at Psagot from a Red Crescent ambulance as it traveled towards Psagot. In both cases, the IDF did not return fire.”
• April 25, 2002 Jerusalem Post: “Reserve soldiers apprehended a wanted terrorist who was hiding in an ambulance that was stopped during a routine check near Kalkilya.”
• January 30, 2002 The IDF reports it captured a terrorist on the wanted list at a roadblock at Har Bracha. “He was disguised as a doctor and attempted to pass through in a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance.”
• June 10, 2002 Haaretz: “In the Gaza Strip, soldiers arrested a wanted militant who was traveling in a Palestinian ambulance at the Gush Katif junction. The troops became suspicious after noticing that there were no medical personnel or injured persons in the vehicle.”
• March 4, 2002 IDF: “During the activity of IDF forces in the Jenin refugee camp, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance charged an IDF force. The force opened small arms fire at the ambulance, which exploded.”
• April 16, 2003 IDF Radio reported this afternoon that an Israeli Border Policeman was lightly wounded by a Palestinian terrorist who opened fire at a patrol of Border Police in Jenin. “The terrorist opened fire from within an ambulance as it passed near the patrol and then drove away.”
• October 30, 2003 The Jerusalem Times (Palestinian newspaper): In Nablus, troops stormed Rafidiyeh Hospital and arrested Jawad Ishtayeh, 27, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a splinter group with links to Fateh. The military said troops found the Ishatayeh, hiding in the hospital’s cellar and armed with a pistol. The army said the man was healthy, and Palestinian security sources said the man was not a patient.
• March 26, 2002: IDF: Soldiers at a mobile roadblock today captured a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance driver who was transporting an explosive belt of the type detonated by suicide bombers. The ambulance was stopped and searched between Nablus and Ramallah, and soldiers found the explosive belt under a stretcher upon which a Palestinian boy was lying. The boy’s family was with him in the ambulance. The ambulance driver, Islam Jibril, a resident of the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, told interrogators he received the belt from Muhammad Titti, a senior Tanzim activist close to Palestinian Authority West Bank security chief Marwan Barghouti [Marwan Bargouti is a relative of Mustafa Barghouti. Islam Jibril has also confessed to smuggling weapons on several occasions. On one ambulance run he transported a sack filled with rifles from Balata to Ramallah, where he delivered them to the chief administrator of Sheykh Zayed Hospital.]
• March 27, 2002: An intensive care ambulance carrying a wanted terrorist, an explosive belt and explosive devices was intercepted at an Israeli army checkpoint south of Ramallah. The explosive belt was found hidden underneath a stretcher on which a Palestinian sick child was lying. Also present during the incident were the sick child's relatives – a man, a woman and three children. The driver was Islam Jibril , a Fatah-Tanzim operative and wanted terrorist, who was employed as ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. During his interrogation, Jibril admitted having received the bombing devices from Mahmud al-Titi , with the assignment to deliver them to other Fatah- Tanzim operatives in Ramallah.
Abuse of ambulance and medical services by Palestinian terrorists has been in the news again recently, as the lives of an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) ambulance team were threatened as they were forced to comply with the demand to transport three Palestinian terrorists to a hospital.
Throughout the last few years, there have been many recorded instances of ambulances, which should be used for protecting the sick, being used as a means to transport terrorists or bombs into Israel . The terrorists exploit the ambulances' relative freedom of passage through Israeli army checkpoints, for the purpose of perpetrating terror activities against Israel . Under these circumstances, Israel must protect its citizens and carry out thorough searches of ambulances.
Examples of abuse of ambulances and medical services
On 25 May 2004 , Israeli police uncovered a network that smuggled Palestinian Authority officers into Israel in fake ambulances. 1 The officers included members of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 personal protection unit. The police arrested a resident of Azzariyeh, suspected of posing as an ambulance driver and infiltrating dozens of Palestinians disguised as sick patients into Israel . The ‘patients' were hooked up to medical devices inside the ambulances and presented soldiers or police officers with forged documents at Israeli checkpoints. Police said it is possible the ring has smuggled terrorists into Israel using the same method. 2
On 11 May 2004, during the Israeli army operation in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, armed Palestinian terrorists overtook an UNRWA ambulance, forcing the ambulance team - a driver and a paramedic - to drive a wounded gunman, as well as two others carrying weapons, to a hospital in Gaza City. UNRWA later issued a statement condemning the incident “in the strongest possible terms” and imploring all parties in Gaza to respect the neutrality of its ambulance service. A UN spokesman further reiterated that “while its [UNRWA's] ambulances do not make any distinction between the injured, whether they are injured fighters or non-combatants, at no time and under no circumstances should armed men enter any UNRWA vehicle.” 3
It was later reported that Reuters had filmed the incident by video, but the footage was only aired two weeks later on Israel 's Channel 10 television. 4 The pictures clearly show armed Palestinians boarding a UN-marked ambulance, with a UN flag displayed on it, and fleeing the scene. 5
Rashed Tarek al-Nimr, a Palestinian chemist working in Nablus and Bethlehem hospitals, was arrested in November 2003 for smuggling chemicals that he obtained from the hospitals to Hamas for the purpose of creating bombs. He told the Shin Bet that he used ambulances as a cover to transfer the chemicals, such as hydrogen peroxide to make TATP, which have been used several times by Hamas in suicide bombings. 6
On 8 May 2003 , Amer Nayef Amer Hilwan and his female companion, Zuhur Hamdan, were arrested on their way to perpetrate a suicide bombing attack in Petah Tikva. Under interrogation, Hilwan admitted that the two had passed through the IDF checkpoints using an ambulance, which was not checked by IDF soldiers. 7
Nidal Abd al-Fatah Abdallah Nazal, a Hamas operative from Qalqiliya who worked as an UNRWA ambulance driver, was arrested in August 2002 and admitted during questioning that he had used an UNWRA ambulance to transport arms to terrorists and to transmit messages to and from Hamas activists in different places. 8
In March 2002, an explosive belt was found in a Red Crescent ambulance at a checkpoint near Ramallah. The bomb, the same type generally used in suicide bombings, was hidden under a stretcher on which a sick child was lying. The driver, Islam Jibril, admitted that the belt was intended to be used for a suicide bombing and that this was not the first time that an ambulance had been used to transport explosives or terrorists. 9
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in reaction that it was “shocked and dismayed” at the incident and that it “condemns such abuse of an ambulance and of the Red Crescent emblem”. The ICRC called for Palestinian “respect of the ambulances' medical mission.” 10
On 27 January 2002 , Wafa Idris, a Red Crescent worker, blew herself up in the centre of Jerusalem , killing one man and injuring 140 others. An IDF investigation revealed that the attack was planned by other Red Crescent workers and it is believed that a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance transported the bomber into Israel . 11
Funny that the source of practically every one of those claims is the IDF.
From some more reliable sources:
http://www.phr.org.il/uploaded/13.12.03Report.pdf Harm to Medical Personnel
The Delay, Abuse and Humiliation of Medical Personnel by the Israeli Security Forces
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights
December 2003
“…half of Gaza’s ambulances have already been destroyed…”
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (5 January):
“Israeli army firing on first response units in Gaza; Ambulances unable to reach injured persons nor evacuate them from the scene of attacks to Gaza hospitals. Several ambulances have sustained direct artillery or helicopter fire, medical personnel have been killed, others critically injured. There is no possibility for the rapid evacuation of patients; those whose lives could have been saved are left to bleed to death.”
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (5 January):
“The PRCS [Palestine Red Crescent Society] reported to PHR-Israel that they have no way of dispatching ambulances without prior coordination since ambulances that set out for evacuation duties at AlAtatra were fired at by apache helicopters. They appealed to PHR-Israel after attempts to coordinate passage via the ICRC have failed since yesterday. AlAwda hospital in Beit Lahiya also asked for our assistance since they must send out ambulances to AlAtatra and Tel Zaatar but cannot dispatch ambulances without being shot at. The hospital is urgently requesting coordination to enable evacuation…
According to our information, between 2 hours and 8-10 hours pass between a request by the ICRC for coordination until the Israeli authorities actually coordinate passage. In some cases teams waited for 24 hours for coordination”. [my emph.]
World Health Organization (5 January):
“- Two shells hit 15 metres from Al Awda hospital’s emergency room. A nurse sustained severe head injuries.
- Three mobile clinics were destroyed 5 January. All vehicles are now unusable.
- One paramedic was killed and two injured en route to evacuating a patient and their ambulance destroyed by munitions. This raises total of medical staff killed since 27 December t0 six and ambulances hit t0 three.
- All Gaza hospitals continue working on back-up generators for the third consecutive day. International Humanitarian Law requires all medical personnel and facilities be protected at all times, even during armed conflict. Attacks on them are grave violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws…
Hospitals warn that the generators are close to collapse and they have four more days of fuel, even with services limited t0 the mere essentials. At the Shifa hospital alone, collapse would have immediate consequences for 70 intensive care unit patients including 30 in the neonatal care. Twelve operating rooms would als0 be immediately affected, in addition t0 shutting down the oxygen extractors, refrigerators for blood units and machines for emergency laboratory services. Also, all hospitals would be without heating and lighting.”
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (4 January):
“IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] also continued to target ambulance teams who attempt to collect the injured. At approximately 10:20am today, an Israeli plane fired a missile at an ambulance in the west of Beit Lahia, destroying it and injuring the three of its crew. Two of them sustained critical wounds.”
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (5 January):
“[Today, Israeli forces] targeted medical facilities and ambulances. A Civil Defense team was hit as it tried to fight a fire following the bombardment of a clinic…
In yet another attack on an ambulance crew, an Israeli aircraft fired a guided missile at an ambulance in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. The three crewmen were killed as a result.”
Ma’an news (5 January):
“Israeli forces fired in the immediate vicinity of three hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Monday, witnesses and medical personnel told Ma’an.
The Al-Wafa Hospital eastern Gaza Strip received warning that they would be shelled, but the hosptial administration and staff refused to evacuate on account of the number of injured people being treated there. Some of the wounded have been injured so severely that they cannot be safely transferred.
At Ash-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes bombed the offices of the Health Committees, about 400 meters from Ash-Shifa hospital. Last week warplanes bombed the Ash-Shifa Mosque, which is part of the medical compound.
Israeli forces also shelled the parking lot of Al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
Spanish human rights worker at the hospital Alberto Arce reported, “Two consecutive shells just landed in the busy car park 15 meters from the entrance to the emergency room of the Al Awda hospital. The entrance of the emrgency rooml was damaged. At the time of the shelling Ambulances were bringing in the wounded that keep pouring in. Medical teams and facilities are being targeted. Nowhere is safe.” …
The international aid agency Oxfam has also reported that personnel working for its affiliates in Gaza have been killed, their ambulances coming under attack.”
Xinhua (4 January):
“Mo’aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, said that three more Palestinian paramedics were killed by Israeli airstrike on Sunday evening.
Hassanein said the three were rescuing the injured inside a house, which was damaged in southern Gaza City, where another airstrike took place, killing the paramedics.
Also on Sunday, another Palestinian paramedic was killed while Israeli warplane targeted an ambulance in west Gaza City.”
CBS news (5 January):
“[Norwegian doctor] Mads Gilbert came to Gaza last week to help out, he says, in a hospital [i.e. Al-Shifa hospital] that’s short of everything but misery.
“They have no spare parts, they have no monitors. They have not enough blood pressure machines, they don’t have enough trolleys. They lack everything. And on top of this you have this huge disaster…
“More people will die who could have been saved,” he said. “We have to be even harder to select who we can treat and we have to put aside people who could otherwise die. That is the gruesome fact of the situation and we are not talking about the 17th century, we are talking about 2009.”
Amnesty International (29 December):
“The health sector in Gaza lacks equipment, medicine and expertise at the best of times and has been further depleted due to the prolonged Israeli blockade. It is now completely overwhelmed and unable to cope with the large number of casualties”.
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (6 January):
“Since its premises were destroyed by Israeli bombs on 30 December the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) – a member of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) – has been unable to provide care to an ever increasing number of traumatised civilians. Another IRCT member centre in Gaza, the Jesoor Organization, is also unable to operate due to the security situation…
From the headquarters of the IRCT in Copenhagen, Denmark, Secretary-General Brita Sydhoff says: “I am absolutely appalled by Israel’s targeting of densely populated urban areas. Attacks on civilian areas by both sides are deplorable, but Israel’s attacks are grossly disproportionate and are disrupting vital health services.”
“I am extremely alarmed that our two member centres in Gaza, the GCMHP and the Jesoor Organization, are unable to operate during a time when their services are desperately needed” she adds and concludes:
“Israel’s reckless attacks and blockade are endangering the lives and health of the entire population of Gaza in blatant breach of international law and fundamental human rights. I urge the government of Israel to cease its offensive and immediately take all necessary measures to ensure the access of Gaza’s civilian population to vital health services and other fundamental humanitarian needs.”
UN OCHA (2 January):
“The health system is overwhelmed, having already been weakened by the 18- month blockade.”
Oxfam (4 January):
“A paramedic working for an Oxfam funded organisation was killed when an Israeli shell struck a civilian ambulance in Gaza today according to international agency Oxfam. The tragedy illustrates the deadly dangers faced by Palestinian civilians and aid worker said the agency.
Another paramedic lost his foot and a driver was injured in the same incident, which occurred when an ambulance belonging to Oxfam’s partner organisation, Union of Health Work Committees, was hit while trying to evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area, Oxfam said.”
Reuters (5 January):
“Bombs on Monday hit a hospital morgue where a family were mourning a paramedic killed in an airstrike on Sunday. Three people were killed and 17 wounded, medical workers said.
“We were sitting in the mourning tent when suddenly they bombed us, we ran to rush the casualties to hospitals but they bombed again,” Abdel-Dayem told Reuters.”
The Mirror(2 January):
“A children’s hospital was also damaged in yesterday’s blitz and a mosque and secondary school destroyed.”
John Ging, head of UNRWA (6 January):
“John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said he was “shocked” by “the brutality of the injuries” he had seen during a visit to the Shifa hospital in Gaza.
He said: “There are very real shortages of medicine. This hospital has not had electricity for four days. If the generators go down, those in intensive care will die. This is a horrific tragedy here, and it is getting worse by the moment.”
Your initial comments aside, your post doesn't actually respond to what you quoted from me. I gave examples of how Palistinians have misused ambulances and medical facilities, thereby making it much more difficult for Israel to effectively respect the neutrality of medical personnel. You didn't actually respond to that. You simply listed instances where Israel has been accused of not respecting the neutrality of medical personnel. I'm not denying that said neutrality is often not respected. I'm saying that a reason for why that is the case is because of Palestinian actions. I didn't see anything in your post that deals with that issue.
I'm also not sure why you so casually dismiss The New York Times, Haaretz, and The Associated Press, as unreliable sources, given that those are three of the most well-respected news organizations in the world.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
Evaluation of the Use of Force in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank Medical and Forensic Investigation
A Report by Physicians for Human Rights
November 3, 2000
ATTACKS ON AMBULANCES AND HEALTH PERSONNEL
Human rights groups have repeatedly reported violations of medical neutrality during the conflict. Medical neutrality is a normative construct that draws on international humanitarian law, human rights law, and medical ethics. Medical neutrality seeks to protect and limit the injury and death to civilians and combatants and provide standards for health professionals with respect to their rights and duties in war and peace.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), 33 ambulances were hit by gunfire and 17 were destroyed from 64 separate attacks. The PHR team studied two damaged ambulances in Gaza. One had received a direct hit to the front window and the other was struck at least five times on the left side by 50 caliber armor piercing ammunition that went completely through to the other side and damaged the stretcher inside the vehicle. It was also hit by a rubber bullet on the same side. According to the driver, the ambulance had sustained damage on the right side from a previous attack.
Colleagues at Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-Israel) have reported numerous instances in which the IDF have violated medical neutrality including: the blocking of the Augusta Victoria and the Makassed Hospitals in Jerusalem and preventing injured patients from receiving care. PHR-Israel has also reported shooting at medical personnel, some of whom were wearing vests clearly identifying them as medical personnel, while they were providing care to the injured. They also reported delays in medical treatment to detainees (two Israelis and one Palestinian) who were arrested during the current crisis.
Between October 1 and October 23, PHR-Israel reported that 17 Palestinian ambulances were "utterly destroyed" by the IDF. During the week from October 19 to October 23 alone, PHR-Israel reported that an additional 26 ambulances were damaged by gun fire.
PRCS personnel and vehicles have been attacked by Israeli settlers in Israeli controlled areas and Magen David Adom ambulances have been attacked by Palestinian civilians in areas under Israeli security controlled areas, according to Human Rights Watch.
In other instances of violations of medical neutrality, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC) has reported that 12 UPMRC medical personnel have been injured by Israeli forces while providing medical care.
The Israeli army claims that the ambulances are not being used properly, but the PHR team received no documentation of an ambulance being used for purposes other than transporting the wounded. When PHR interviewed IDF officials, they admitted that early in the conflict there had been incidents of violations of medical neutrality but that orders had been re-issued from headquarters to officers in the field to respect the neutrality of ambulances in the field and medical personnel.
The PHR team also personally interviewed a hospital van driver at Shifa Hospital who was taking five cancer patients to Israel for outpatient radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Despite the fact that all of the patients had valid permits to enter Israel, they were turned back at the Eretz checkpoint between Israel and Gaza, and refused entry into Israel.
Medical relief services were denied access to Jenin refugee camp for nearly 11 days, from 12 noon on 4 April until 15 April 2002. In addition the IDF shot at ambulances(10) or fired warning shots around them. Ambulance drivers were harassed or arrested.
Meanwhile the dead in Jenin refugee camp remained in the street or in houses for days. The wounded lay for hours untended or were treated at home. In several cases people are reported to have died in circumstances where lack of access medical care may have caused or hastened their death. Many testimonies show families desperately telephoning for help in vain and compelled to stay alone with dying or dead relatives. Many cases of Palestinians killed by the IDF show the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining medical care or an ambulance to remove the dead; three such cases – of 'Atiya Abu Irmaila, Nayef Qasem 'Abd al-Jaber and 'Amid 'Azmi Abu Hassan Fayed – are described below. In two cases investigated by Amnesty International the delay in obtaining medical treatment will have long term medical consequences for patients.
Medical personnel said that for the first 30 hours of the incursion, from early morning on 3 April until noon on 4 April 2002, ambulances were able to move. During this time ambulances brought five dead bodies and about 45 wounded to Jenin City Hospital.
Among the first Palestinians killed was a 27-year-old nurse, Fadwa Fathi Abdallah Jamal, wearing her uniform, shot by the IDF as she walked early in the morning of 3 April with her sister, also a nurse, to go to a medical centre in the refugee camp.
From 12 noon on 4 April 2002 the IDF imposed a medical blockade and prevented ambulances from entering the camp. Jenin City Hospital was surrounded by tanks and the building opposite the hospital was used as an IDF base. All those in the hospital at noon on 4 April were confined there: the visitors, the staff and the sick - about 300 people: 100 medical personnel, 105 patients, and their relatives. For some days they lived largely on
biscuits, chocolate and water. On 4 April the ICRC was prevented from delivering oxygen to the hospital, which was running out of supplies, but the deliveries were allowed the following day. The ICRC also delivered drugs, blood and food. By 5 April the hospital had received six dead bodies (increasing to seven when one wounded man died the next day in hospital), its morgue large enough for only one body. IDF authorization was sought to bury the bodies in the small patch of garden behind the hospital, and this was granted on 6 April.
On 6 April ambulances were still denied access to Jenin refugee camp. On 7 April ICRC landcruisers carrying supplies to the Jenin City Hospital were blocked; however supplies were transferred to local ambulances and taken to the hospital. On 8 April continuing negotiations between the ICRC, the DCO and the army appeared to have brought about an agreement. The PRCS tried to send three teams with the ICRC to the refugee camp to collect the wounded. The ambulances were lengthily checked and the ambulance drivers forced to lie on the ground. Around 5pm the IDF said that three people could be brought in; the hospital should examine them but not ask them questions. The wounded men were brought to hospital blindfolded. After examining them, Dr Abu Ghali, the hospital director said that all needed urgent hospital treatment. The IDF, however, allowed only
one patient to enter the hospital.
"This whole operation and the negotiations with the IDF and the ICRC took from 8am until 11pm and - at the end of the day - only one wounded man was admitted into the hospital" said Dr Abu Ghali.
Between 9 and 14 April there was a standoff, day after day, outside Jenin refugee camp, with up to five ICRC ambulances and doctors and about six PRCS ambulances waiting in vain to be allowed by the IDF to enter the camp to evacuate dead and wounded.
On the evening of 11 April an ICRC delegate and Dr Abu Ghali, the hospital director, were sitting in Dr Abu Ghalis office on the top floor of the hospital when two sniper bullets came through the window and hit the ceiling. They telephoned the IDF commander who reportedly apologized saying an IDF sniper had made a mistake.
On 14 April, three days after fighting had ended, Jenin refugee camp remained cut off from the outside world. It had been nine days since the last dead body had been brought out of the refugee camp. Only those wounded in the camp who could struggle out themselves were in hospital.
Meanwhile a number of petitions had been brought to the Israeli High Court of Justice.
On 8 April the court, commenting on a petition which challenged the Israeli army's "prevention of access to medical treatment for the sick and wounded in Jenin and Nablus; restriction of access of medical personnel and transport to the areas; and obstruction of the right to bury the dead in a respectful manner", had stated:
"Although it is not possible to address the specific incidents in the petition that on their face look harsh, we have to stress that our fighting forces are obliged to apply humanitarian rules which refer to treating the injured, in the hospitals and the bodies of the dead. Wrongful use of medical teams and of hospitals and ambulances obliges the IDF to act in order to prevent such activity; however, this by itself does not allow a sweeping violation of humanitarian rules. In fact, this is also the declared position of the State.
This attitude is not only required by international law, on which the petitioners are relying, but also by the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."(11)
On 14 April three petitions were heard by the High Court of Justice including a request that the ICRC and PRCS enter the camp to remove dead bodies. They had been brought by Knesset members Muhammad Barakeh and Ahmad Tibi, and by the human rights organizations Adalah and LAW. The representative of the Attorney General initially stated that the Israeli army could not permit humanitarian organizations to enter the area because some of the bodies might be booby-trapped with bombs; it then agreed to allow entry. The court dismissed the petitions but ordered that the ICRC be allowed to accompany and assist the Israeli army in locating bodies and that the PRCS also be permitted to join them.
After the High Court judgment, for the first time for 11 days, ICRC and PRCS ambulances were allowed into the camp. They left at 6.30am on 15 April but were delayed by the routine IDF searches. One team was told to remain with their IDF escort; apparently the army limited their access and they found no bodies. Dr Abu Ghali
accompanied the other ambulance and described the scene:
"I went in with my small video camera and I first saw one body. Then I saw a second body. The third body I saw was a woman of 59, lying two metres from a door, hit in the chest and head, her body was decomposed.
So the IDF said: 'That is all you have. In the centre of the camp you have no survivors'. I went on. In a room of a house I found a man of 85, alone, with no water, dehydrated. I said, 'I must go further to see.' The IDF said:
'This is the only region cleared by the Israeli army, if you go further we don't guarantee you.' I walked 35 metres into the region not cleared and found 10 bodies. Five were in one house; we could not collect them, the
ICRC told the IDF to bring them. I saw a lot of people looking from the windows and doors of their houses, afraid, I said 'I will bring you food.
Have you anything to eat?' They said, 'Nothing'. I asked to be allowed to bring food and medication for the survivors, the IDF said: 'You have two hours in the camp'."
During the two hours the IDF allowed them in the camp on 15 April Palestinian and international medical and humanitarian teams were able to distribute some food, water and milk into the camp. On 16 April the IDF allowed ICRC and UNRWA personnel to enter the camp; the ICRC reported, in its daily summary: "Part of the camp looks as if it had been hit by an earthquake ... Civilians in the camp are under shock and report urgent
need for medicine, water and food."
On 16 April Jenin City Hospital contained 15 bodies - with one more brought during the day. The High Court statement had ordered the ICRC and Israeli army to identify the bodies in accordance with the requirements of international humanitarian law. However, the entrance to the hospital was still blocked by an IDF checkpoint with tanks. Dr Abu Ghali asked the IDF to allow Professor Derrick Pounder, delegated by Amnesty
International, access to the hospital to perform autopsies, but an IDF doctor who was stationed at the checkpoint told Professor Pounder: "If you were a doctor treating people we would allow you in, but we are not interested in a forensic doctor".
On 16 April Professor Pounder telephoned Amnesty International's headquarters in London:
"There is no forensic expertise in Jenin and no one in the hospital with any forensic training. Under international humanitarian law there is a requirement to examine decomposed bodies in order to obtain evidence as to the cause of death. This is in order to elucidate the circumstances of death and also to help in identification of the body. The identification is necessary so that the family may know and bury the body and for documentation. The longer a body deteriorates the more the evidence deteriorates and the fewer hard facts there are in order to get the evidence."
But it was only on the following day, after the Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein agreed that Professor Pounder should be given access, that he was able to enter Jenin City Hospital where he carried out two autopsies and three examinations. Examinations were performed on three of the five bodies found in a single house and brought in that day by the IDF; they all appeared to be combatants. The findings of the
autopsies, according to Professor Pounder "gave rise to suspicion"; they were on bodies later identified as those of 'Ali Na'el Salim Muqasqas and Wadah Fathi Shalabi (see above).
Amnesty International delegates discussed the failure to allow access to medical aid in Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere on many occasions with members of the IDF. The Head of Plans and Policy Directorate, Major-General Giora Eiland, denied that ambulances had been prevented from entry to Jenin for more than two days, and this was only because the PRCS refused to allow their ambulances to be checked. He mentioned a number of incidents when ambulances were said to have been misused in order to carry healthy men, bodies to increase the number of alleged dead in the refugee camp, or a suicide belt.(12) He accepted there were difficulties in coordinating medical assistance with ICRC and UNRWA. "Some problems were caused by our mistakes, some difficulties were not necessary. But we gave Palestinians food, water and medication in Jenin, and even electricity. We tried to evacuate injured Palestinians."
Notwithstanding the remarks of Major-General Giora Eiland, the evidence of the blocking of medical and humanitarian aid to Jenin refugee camp for over 10 days is overwhelming.(13)
B’Tselem: Operation Defensive Shield March 29th-April 21st 2002.
Impeding Medical Treatment
Around 5:00 P.M. on April 4, 2002, an IDF helicopter fired a missile that struck the house of Jihad Hassan, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp. Hassan was on his way upstairs to his brother’s apartment to get a carton of baby formula for his infant son. He was wounded in the leg by the missile blast. His son, Muhammad, summoned an ambulance from the Red Crescent, which came to evacuate Hassan, but Israeli soldiers stopped it about 50 meters from the house and refused to let the medical team proceed to Hassan’s house. Hassan called a physician friend, who told him over the phone how to treat the wound. The next day, the soldiers broke into Hassan’s house. He asked them to let him to go to the hospital, but they refused. Before leaving, the soldiers cut the phone lines in his apartment and that of his brother. A week went by before Hassan was able to get to the hospital. An x-ray showed his leg was broken in four places. His house is 200 meters from the hospital.
The IDF almost completely blocked the movement of ambulances in the West Bank during Operation Defensive Shield. Wounded people who could not reach hospitals bled to death. Patients could not obtain medical treatment.
Hospitals had trouble functioning because they were shelled and the roads leading to them were blocked. Tanks damaged basic hospital infrastructure, such as water and electricity and soldiers fi red at ambulances that tried to evacuate the wounded.
During the operation, the IDF spokesperson claimed that the army was allowing ambulances to move freely and evacuate the wounded. He also maintained that the sick, especially chronically ill patients such as those requiring regular dialysis, were taken to hospitals throughout the Occupied Territories.
His claim is inaccurate. Dialysis patients who managed to get to a hospital did so only after great effort to coordinate their passage with the army. In some cases, the patients died before they were able to obtain the necessary approval.
Ensuring protection of the sick and wounded is a fundamental principle of international law. Medical personnel are entitled to protection while performing their duties. The IDF grossly violated this principle during Operation Defensive Shield.
Wounded people who were unable to reach hospitals bled to death.
Patients could not obtain medical treatment.
Soldiers fired at ambulances.
Water and electricity were cut off.
The special protections provided to the sick and wounded, and to medical personnel were violated.
On Friday, April 5, 2002, Tahani ‘Ali ‘Asad Fatouh, a pharmacist from Al Msakan Ash Sha’abiya in the Nablus District began having labor pains.
Her husband, Dr. Ghassan ‘Ali Nashat Sha’ar, called an ambulance to take his seven months pregnant wife to hospital. Due to the curfew imposed on the area, the ambulance could not reach the house and Dr. Sha’ar had to deliver the baby with the help of his neighbor, Dr. Sulfeh.
The delivery went smoothly. During the delivery, the ambulance crew tried to reach the couple’s home, as the newborn would have to be placed in an incubator. All attempts failed. Some 30 minutes after the birth, the baby’s health began to deteriorate. Dr. Sha’ar managed to resuscitate his son twice. On the third attempt, the baby died. Tahani Fatouh had become pregnant after four years of fertility treatments.
The hospital is only two kilometers away from the couple’s home.
Daily Briefing April 16, 2002
A soldier’s testimony:
There was an inspection point for ambulances at the exit from the Jenin hospital. The ambulances were only allowed to travel to the city, not to the refugee camp. We were told that this was because of the fighting in the camp.
If someone was injured in the middle of the camp, he would not be treated.
Palestinians in the camp were not allowed to move about and ambulances were not allowed to enter. IDF evacuation of the wounded only began about a week later. We were ordered to fire heavy machine guns at ambulances that ignored the inspection point. The orders came from the deputy battalion commander. The ambulances were generally taking dialysis patients and women in labor to the hospital. We had to check that there were no wanted persons in the ambulances. We would get everyone out of the ambulance.
We had to make sure that the dead were really dead and other unpleasant things like that. The inspection point was muddy and full of garbage. In one case, the deputy battalion commander yelled, “Everybody out,” and the driver had to carry an elderly man who couldn’t stand on his own and set him down in the mud.
On April 10, three Palestinians who had been wounded by gunfire came to us. The medic treated them, and hooked them up to IVs. The battalion doctor came and looked at them, and said, “There’s nothing for me to do,” and left. I don’t think he even checked their pulses. We checked with the brigade [officials] to figure out what to do with them. We called them repeatedly.
They said they were checking with the General Security Service to find out if they were wanted. We were not allowed to evacuate them to the hospital, not even in Israel. So we called a Palestinian doctor from the nearby hospital. He said that two of them had moderate wounds, and the other was severely injured and had to be operated on. The brigade rejected all our requests to evacuate him. We suggested walking with them to the Palestinian hospital. The brigade did not permit it. The wounded men sat there for about six or seven hours until we finally received approval to take them to the Salem checkpoint. I have no idea what happened to them after that.
During the meeting we had at the end of reserve duty, the battalion commander was asked about the story regarding the doctor. I couldn’t believe how he tried to whitewash it. He said that he wasn’t in the field and didn’t know what really happened. Soldiers told him that they knew exactly what happened. He did not give a serious reply.
Firing at Ambulances
Testimony of Saher Ahmad, aged 25, Ambulance driver for ‘Aliyah Hospital, Ramallah:
On Sunday [April 21], at around 10:00 A.M., I drove towards the Allenby Bridge with a woman who receives cancer treatments in Jordan. Before we left, we coordinated our trip with the Israeli Ministry of Health. The woman was sitting in the back of the ambulance. At around 10:40 A.M., we got to the Qalandiya checkpoint. I stopped the ambulance about two hundred meters from the checkpoint and waited for the soldiers to wave me on, as was the usual practice. After about a minute, three soldiers who were standing behind the concrete blocks near the checkpoint began firing at the ambulance. They gave us no prior warning.
Nothing had happened to warrant the gunfire. I was startled and didn’t know what to do. The shots were fired from automatic weapons. I don’t know how many bullets were fired at me, but they hit the windows and the engine of the ambulance.
I heard the glass shatter and the fragments flew in all directions. I eased my foot off the brake and at the same moment a shard of glass flew into my left eye. It didn’t bleed. I asked the patient how she was. She said that she had not been hit but was dazed and shaken. She added that a number of shards of glass had wounded her slightly.
And it goes on, and on. But Yosi expects us to believe the IDF instead - who have a long documented history of lying - even if the IDF's statements happen to be reported in the New York Times, Haaretz, and The Associated Press.
You can choose to believe (or incuriously dismiss out of hand) whatever you like. I've provided information. You'll make of it what you will. I just don't like it when you claim to be responding to me, but then never actually address the issues I've raised and instead just try to change the topic.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
You can choose to believe (or incuriously dismiss out of hand) whatever you like. I've provided information. You'll make of it what you will. I just don't like it when you claim to be responding to me, but then never actually address the issues I've raised and instead just try to change the topic.
I have addressed the issues you've raised. You've tried to claim that the IDF has been right in attacking ambulances and other medical staff, and practically every one of your sources supporting this claim is either directly or indirectly an IDF source.
I then posted ample evidence of the IDF systematically breaching the fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits any impediment of, or assault upon, medical personnel.
I haven't tried to claim that the IDF is right in attacking ambulances. That is your much simplified, black and white, "either people agree with me 100% that Israel is the national home of satan worshipping puppy murderers or they must be defending everything Israel does" version of what I said.
You are perfectly right that medical personnel are supposed to be neutral in conflict zones and therefore off-limits as military targets. My point is not that Israel is not targeting medical personnel, and not that they are justified in doing so as a categorical matter, but that the situation is made much more complicated then your presentation of it would suggest because the Palestinians themselves have tried to take advantage of this presumed neutrality to further violent aims. In a perfect world the neutrality of medical personnel would always be respected. But please, explain to me, what is the IDF supposed to do, given that they have to defend the lives of Israelis, when Palestinian terrorists are trying to use ambulances to smuggle suicide bombers into Israeli cities? If you have a simple answer to this unbelievably difficult ethical/strategic/tactical question I'd love to hear it.
If you google "Palestinian terror ambulances" the first hit is video footage from Reuters of Palestinian gunman carrying assault rifles piling into the back of a clearly marked UN ambulance after an attack on Israeli soldiers and using it as a get-away vehicle. I've pasted the link below.
But please, explain to me, what is the IDF supposed to do, given that they have to defend the lives of Israelis, when Palestinian terrorists are trying to use ambulances to smuggle suicide bombers into Israeli cities? If you have a simple answer to this unbelievably difficult ethical/strategic/tactical question I'd love to hear it.
I'll tell you what the IDF and other Israeli's are 'supposed to do' in order to defend the lives of the general population of Israel: they can end the occupation and stop terrorizing the Palestinians on a daily basis, and then making every conceivable excuse known to man in trying to excuse and justify it.
If you google "Palestinian terror ambulances" the first hit is video footage from Reuters of Palestinian gunman carrying assault rifles piling into the back of a clearly marked UN ambulance after an attack on Israeli soldiers and using it as a get-away vehicle. I've pasted the link below.
I'm not in the habit of Googling "Palestinian terror ambulances", but whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, I can see no attack on Israeli soldiers in this Youtube clip you've posted. All I can see are what appear to be Palestinians coming under fire from the top of the road, and running towards the camera, in the direction of the ambulance, before some of the men jump in the back for cover.
The context for what appears in the clip is from the associated media reports on the incident. Whether you choose to believe those reports is up to you, but there is no legitimate reason why a UN ambulance should be transporting armed men.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
Comments
Thanks, as do you! I have been wanting to write the same about your posts, but you beat me to it
i am not as up on the conflict as i was at one time, so it is always nice to get to read posts from people from all perspectives that know a lot more about it than i do.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/UNAmbulance.pdf
http://image.thelancet.com/extras/02art8008web.pdf
I would especially recomment reading the lancet article.
Use of Ambulances by Palestinian Terrorists
• April 12, 2002: New York Times: “The Israeli police said today that they had found a belt with explosives in a Palestinian ambulance during a check at a roadblock inside the West Bank. The ambulance was headed toward Israel with the body of a Palestinian man, the police said, and they found the device alongside him. It was the second time in two weeks that Israel has reported finding explosives in an ambulance.”
• February 5, 2002: Haaretz: Wafa Idris, the Ramallah woman killed when a bomb she carried into downtown Jerusalem exploded last month, reached the capital by a Red Crescent ambulance... One Israeli was killed and more than 100 wounded in the bombing
• June 30, 2002: Associated Press: “In Ramallah, Israeli troops stopped two Palestinian ambulances and found 27 people packed inside - ten of them suspected of involvement in shooting or bombing attacks.”
• October 31, 2000: IDF: “Shots were fired at Psagot from inside the Red Crescent building in Ramallah. In another instance, shots were fired at Psagot from a Red Crescent ambulance as it traveled towards Psagot. In both cases, the IDF did not return fire.”
• April 25, 2002 Jerusalem Post: “Reserve soldiers apprehended a wanted terrorist who was hiding in an ambulance that was stopped during a routine check near Kalkilya.”
• January 30, 2002 The IDF reports it captured a terrorist on the wanted list at a roadblock at Har Bracha. “He was disguised as a doctor and attempted to pass through in a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance.”
• June 10, 2002 Haaretz: “In the Gaza Strip, soldiers arrested a wanted militant who was traveling in a Palestinian ambulance at the Gush Katif junction. The troops became suspicious after noticing that there were no medical personnel or injured persons in the vehicle.”
• March 4, 2002 IDF: “During the activity of IDF forces in the Jenin refugee camp, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance charged an IDF force. The force opened small arms fire at the ambulance, which exploded.”
• April 16, 2003 IDF Radio reported this afternoon that an Israeli Border Policeman was lightly wounded by a Palestinian terrorist who opened fire at a patrol of Border Police in Jenin. “The terrorist opened fire from within an ambulance as it passed near the patrol and then drove away.”
• October 30, 2003 The Jerusalem Times (Palestinian newspaper): In Nablus, troops stormed Rafidiyeh Hospital and arrested Jawad Ishtayeh, 27, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a splinter group with links to Fateh. The military said troops found the Ishatayeh, hiding in the hospital’s cellar and armed with a pistol. The army said the man was healthy, and Palestinian security sources said the man was not a patient.
• March 26, 2002: IDF: Soldiers at a mobile roadblock today captured a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance driver who was transporting an explosive belt of the type detonated by suicide bombers. The ambulance was stopped and searched between Nablus and Ramallah, and soldiers found the explosive belt under a stretcher upon which a Palestinian boy was lying. The boy’s family was with him in the ambulance. The ambulance driver, Islam Jibril, a resident of the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, told interrogators he received the belt from Muhammad Titti, a senior Tanzim activist close to Palestinian Authority West Bank security chief Marwan Barghouti [Marwan Bargouti is a relative of Mustafa Barghouti. Islam Jibril has also confessed to smuggling weapons on several occasions. On one ambulance run he transported a sack filled with rifles from Balata to Ramallah, where he delivered them to the chief administrator of Sheykh Zayed Hospital.]
• March 27, 2002: An intensive care ambulance carrying a wanted terrorist, an explosive belt and explosive devices was intercepted at an Israeli army checkpoint south of Ramallah. The explosive belt was found hidden underneath a stretcher on which a Palestinian sick child was lying. Also present during the incident were the sick child's relatives – a man, a woman and three children. The driver was Islam Jibril , a Fatah-Tanzim operative and wanted terrorist, who was employed as ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent. During his interrogation, Jibril admitted having received the bombing devices from Mahmud al-Titi , with the assignment to deliver them to other Fatah- Tanzim operatives in Ramallah.
Abuse of ambulance and medical services by Palestinian terrorists has been in the news again recently, as the lives of an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) ambulance team were threatened as they were forced to comply with the demand to transport three Palestinian terrorists to a hospital.
Throughout the last few years, there have been many recorded instances of ambulances, which should be used for protecting the sick, being used as a means to transport terrorists or bombs into Israel . The terrorists exploit the ambulances' relative freedom of passage through Israeli army checkpoints, for the purpose of perpetrating terror activities against Israel . Under these circumstances, Israel must protect its citizens and carry out thorough searches of ambulances.
Examples of abuse of ambulances and medical services
On 25 May 2004 , Israeli police uncovered a network that smuggled Palestinian Authority officers into Israel in fake ambulances. 1 The officers included members of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 personal protection unit. The police arrested a resident of Azzariyeh, suspected of posing as an ambulance driver and infiltrating dozens of Palestinians disguised as sick patients into Israel . The ‘patients' were hooked up to medical devices inside the ambulances and presented soldiers or police officers with forged documents at Israeli checkpoints. Police said it is possible the ring has smuggled terrorists into Israel using the same method. 2
On 11 May 2004, during the Israeli army operation in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, armed Palestinian terrorists overtook an UNRWA ambulance, forcing the ambulance team - a driver and a paramedic - to drive a wounded gunman, as well as two others carrying weapons, to a hospital in Gaza City. UNRWA later issued a statement condemning the incident “in the strongest possible terms” and imploring all parties in Gaza to respect the neutrality of its ambulance service. A UN spokesman further reiterated that “while its [UNRWA's] ambulances do not make any distinction between the injured, whether they are injured fighters or non-combatants, at no time and under no circumstances should armed men enter any UNRWA vehicle.” 3
It was later reported that Reuters had filmed the incident by video, but the footage was only aired two weeks later on Israel 's Channel 10 television. 4 The pictures clearly show armed Palestinians boarding a UN-marked ambulance, with a UN flag displayed on it, and fleeing the scene. 5
Rashed Tarek al-Nimr, a Palestinian chemist working in Nablus and Bethlehem hospitals, was arrested in November 2003 for smuggling chemicals that he obtained from the hospitals to Hamas for the purpose of creating bombs. He told the Shin Bet that he used ambulances as a cover to transfer the chemicals, such as hydrogen peroxide to make TATP, which have been used several times by Hamas in suicide bombings. 6
On 8 May 2003 , Amer Nayef Amer Hilwan and his female companion, Zuhur Hamdan, were arrested on their way to perpetrate a suicide bombing attack in Petah Tikva. Under interrogation, Hilwan admitted that the two had passed through the IDF checkpoints using an ambulance, which was not checked by IDF soldiers. 7
Nidal Abd al-Fatah Abdallah Nazal, a Hamas operative from Qalqiliya who worked as an UNRWA ambulance driver, was arrested in August 2002 and admitted during questioning that he had used an UNWRA ambulance to transport arms to terrorists and to transmit messages to and from Hamas activists in different places. 8
In March 2002, an explosive belt was found in a Red Crescent ambulance at a checkpoint near Ramallah. The bomb, the same type generally used in suicide bombings, was hidden under a stretcher on which a sick child was lying. The driver, Islam Jibril, admitted that the belt was intended to be used for a suicide bombing and that this was not the first time that an ambulance had been used to transport explosives or terrorists. 9
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in reaction that it was “shocked and dismayed” at the incident and that it “condemns such abuse of an ambulance and of the Red Crescent emblem”. The ICRC called for Palestinian “respect of the ambulances' medical mission.” 10
On 27 January 2002 , Wafa Idris, a Red Crescent worker, blew herself up in the centre of Jerusalem , killing one man and injuring 140 others. An IDF investigation revealed that the attack was planned by other Red Crescent workers and it is believed that a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance transported the bomber into Israel . 11
"The fact that the population is still growing despite the unrelenting oppression and dispossession of it, does not mean that there is not a slow and methodical genocide of it. Were ALL the jews killed in the Holocaust, did they stop having babies and did their families cease to grow?"
Thankfully not all the Jews were killed in the Holocaust. But the Jewish population didn't, as you seem to imply, grow during the Holocaust. It shrank by 6 million. Because they were systematically murdered. The aim of the Nazis was a world without Jews, and had they had the ability to do so I don't doubt that they would have killed every last Jew on earth.
The fact that the Palestinian population continues to grow does, in fact, indicate that there is no genocide taking place, since empirically it is exactly the opposite of what one would expect to see under conditions of genocide. I'm not arguing that the Palestinians aren't suffering under oppression, but to claim that a genocide is taking place is just flat out not objectively true.
No I will not ever stop with the "Nazi stuff," I will not be the first and won't be the last to compare the current actions of israel to nazis. Why don't they stop with the Nazi actions? Your feelings are hurt? You are offended? You are requesting that I turn a blind eye to a murderous state's actions who are now beating the drum to commit more murder to spare your feelings. Feelings get hurt, but you know what's fucking worse than feelings getting hurt, is people fucking dying for the past 70 years and who will continue to die. You are missing the point in your pro israel zionist stance....you come at me with dumb examples, about the kkk and black people, what you are asking is like asking a black person not to call the kkk racist, there goes your example, i have yet to read your following posts, but I scanned through and I have yet to see a citation for all the claims you have listed, websites, books, authors?????
and worse than that... they were allowed to do it.
as heinous as i think their actions are, i see what the israeli govt is doing as a security issue. the formation of the state of israel meant the destruction of the life the palestinian people had known. and that is gonna cause some sort of reaction, as it rightly should. you cant move people from the homes and communities theyve known for as long as they can remember and expect them to go quietly. you cant tighten the screws on peoples freedoms and expect them to sit there and take it. personally i think israel fails in its security with its own actions. i think the israeli govt would be most happy if the palestinians were absorbed into the surrounding countries and leave the land left behind to be claimed as a part of the state of israel. unfortunately thats not gonna happen.. and why should it? but what i see being done to the palestinians is oppression but it is not genocide. the nazi comparison is pulled out becasue it is an emotive one and it is the most offensive comparison that can be levelled at the israeli govt. even ive said how can the israeli govt act the way it does after what had been done to the jews? how can an oppressed people turn around and oppress others. then i realise its like an abused child who grows up knowing nothing else. they know they shouldnt but its the only way they know how to deal. and no im not excusing the israeli govts actions just trying to be somewhat objective.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
well im not looking at it like that gimme because i dont see it that way. what army were the jews a part of in WW2? they werent exterminated so the nazis could gain land. they were exterminated because the nazis saw them as sub human. hitler annexing of austria was about uniting all ethnic germans into one big glorious country. so whether it was necessarily just a land grab as you suggest is open for discussion.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
but still, the goal of war is to gain territory and resources. you can see it as you wish to see it. but i see it like that. what is happening with settlement expansion? are they just "spreading out"" or are they stealing the land? it is pretty obvious that they are stealing land, building upon it, and expanding the state of israel and displacing palestinians. there is no regard to the palestinians that owned that land. same as what happened in austria. given their history just 70 years ago i would have thought that israel would have been better than that. i would have thought that they of all people would fight to guarantee that oppression and subjugation in that region would never happen again.
you make the argument that hitler was just uniting the ethnic germans into one country. but what happened to the gypsies, the jews, the homosexuals, the non aryans in this annexation? they were starved, they were evacuated and displaced. the same as what is happening in this conflict. if hitler was not trying to take land why did he expand the war to brittain? why did he expand it to africa? why did he attack russia? grabbing land was strategic and essential to his vision or world domination. plus he had to take land outside of germany so that he could carry out the final solution in as secreat of conditions that he could...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
the holocaust was a result of the nazis wanting to rule the world. world war 2 was not the result of the holocaust. the holocaust was a result of the maniacal desire to rule the world AND cleanse europe of the jews. germany had to take land in austria and poland so that they can make the death camps there so that they were not not within the boundaries of germany. they had to go about their systematic murder in land outside of their boundaries.
security is a funny thing. americans are willing to give away their rights to make sure that there is security. the minute someone speaks out against these policies they are immediately dubbed a threat and are dealt with as such. the security measures the israelis take are very similar to those of the us, yet they are less even-handed. they are much more proactive in the security protocol that is offense in the name of defense. it is disgusting.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
im pretty sure when a country identifies as your enemy in a war you tend to attack them to disable them. i imagine hitler was weary of britain given their history so why not bomb them into submisson.. that way youve got one less enemy to be concerned with. didnt quite work out that way but it was a good try anyway.
the extermination of the jews wasnt critical to hitlers land grab, as you call it. sure he wanted no jews in europe but the 2 things are separate issues as far as im concerned. and that is why the analogy between the nazis and the israeli govt is flawed. and thats aside from the fact that the israeli govt isnt trying to exterminate the palestinian people. but i do suspect theyd be happier if the palestinians were elsewhere.
i think comparisons between the nazis and the israeli govt are somewhat hysterical and borne of the justified outrage at the actions of the israeli govt. its an emotional issue and i just think itd be better for the discussion if cool heads could prevail.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
I'm not requesting that you turn a blind eye towards anything. I'm asking that if you want to criticize Jews that you do so without comparing us to the people that butchered our parents and grandparents in their millions. I'd think that for any reasonably empathetic person it would be plainly obvious why such a comparison is wildly offensive.
This isn't about my feelings getting hurt. I can deal with hurt feelings. This is about you. How you express yourself. How you treat the people you interact with. I'm asking you to conduct yourself in a way that is respectful of others. I'm not telling you not to express your opinions, I'm just asking you not to be a dick when you do so.
Shalom Eisner, Israeli Defense Force Officer, Hits Denmark Protester In Face With M16 Rifle, Is Suspended
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/1 ... 29042.html
JERUSALEM — A senior Israeli military officer's seemingly unprovoked assault against an unarmed pro-Palestinian activist drew sharp condemnations Monday, raising questions in Israel over whether the country's heavy-handed approach to nonviolent protesters was exaggerated and causing damage to Israel's image.
The assault, captured on video and featured in all major newspapers and TV broadcasts, follows Israel's high-profile interception at its main airport of dozens of international activists who had planned a solidarity mission with Palestinians in the West Bank. Adding to the sense that Israel may have gone too far, officials said Tuesday that nearly 500 people were erroneously blocked from visiting.
Israel has branded the activists "provocateurs" who posed a security threat to the country. Calling itself the Middle East's only democracy, it says the protesters have their priorities wrong and should instead focus on rampant human rights violations in neighboring Arab countries.
Israel feels it is unfairly singled out internationally and is obsessed about its international image. Leaders often complain about what they say are unfair efforts to "delegitimize" the country with boycotts, divestment calls and other campaigns. The country even has a ministry of public diplomacy that aims to promote the country's image overseas.
But critics say that Israel's policies, not its public relations efforts, are the problem, particularly when it comes to its actions in the occupied West Bank. Saturday's beating of the foreign activist, filmed by another demonstrator as soldiers blocked them from riding bicycles near the West Bank town of Jericho, gave new ammunition to its detractors.
"Any reasonable viewer who sees the clip asks himself how many such incidents take place where there is no documentation, and how the army responds when there is no conclusive and public proof of unjustified violence," wrote Ofer Shelah, a military columnist for the Yediot Ahronot daily.
In the video, Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner is seen smashing a Danish activist in the face with his M-16 rifle. Israel said the group of about 200 activists was attempting to block a main highway and had provoked the soldiers.
The officer, through his confidantes, claimed the activist had previously struck him with a stick, breaking two of his fingers, Israeli media reported. One newspaper ran a photo of him with a bandage on his hand.
The activist, a 20-year-old man from Denmark, said the event was "completely nonviolent." In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he required stitches to his lip from the blow. He refused to be identified, fearing retribution from Israeli authorities.
In Denmark, Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal said the Danish ambassador to Israel had asked authorities for a report on what had happened.
"The Israeli prime minister's comments have been very critical of the incident. I agree with him. We must all condemn the use of force, which apparently has been used against the demonstrators," he said.
The video appeared on all major evening newscasts Sunday and Monday, and the officer was immediately suspended while the incident was investigated.
The military chief, President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all condemned the officer's behavior. "Such conduct is not characteristic of the soldiers and commanders of the Israeli military, and has no place in the army or the state of Israel," Netanyahu said.
While stressing that the incident was isolated, Israeli officials acknowledged that the assault caused huge damage to Israel, which repeatedly claims its military to be the most moral in the world.
Israel has a long history of troubled relations with international activists. Several pro-Palestinian activists have been killed or maimed in clashes with the Israeli forces over the years.
In the worst instance, Israeli naval commandos clashed with activists on board a flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010, killing nine activists.
Over the weekend, Israel prevented hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from entering the country to participate in a solidarity mission drawing attention to Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank. Some were detained upon arrival at the airport, while others were prevented from boarding flights in their home countries.
While Israel declared victory, some commentators have questioned whether the action simply drew attention to the policies targeted by the protesters.
In another sign that the crackdown might have backfired, the Foreign Ministry said that about 470 of the 1,200 people who were barred from the country should not have been on the list. "We don't know why they were there," said spokesman Yigal Palmor.
Yuli Edelstein, Israel's minister for public diplomacy, rejected the notion that Israel was overreacting with the foreign activists and thus damaging its own image. He said the incident with Eisner highlighted the danger of letting activists roam freely.
"The moment these people are out of control, running around and creating trouble, their dream is to be hit by an officer and get it on camera. It shows that ignoring is not exactly a very good policy," he said.
But critics said the government's overzealous response was doing more harm than good.
Maariv columnist Shai Golden said Israel would be better off ignoring the "band of pampered eccentrics" instead of treating them like terrorists.
"Israel would have dismissed the matter with a shrug, the group of penny-ante anarchists would have turned around and left and our peace of mind would not have been disturbed," he said.
and then there is this....
the israeli government should have possibly held off on the sarcasm. it is inappropriate given what is happening in the west bank and israel's threats against iran...
Israel detains pro-Palestinian activists
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/15/world/mea ... index.html
Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli authorities stepped up security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport Sunday as hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists were due to arrive in the country in a "fly-in" campaign to protest Israel's policies in the West Bank.
Some activists were barred from entering the country for refusing to promise not to engage in disorderly conduct, but Israel did allow some other activists to enter, Israeli officials said.
By Sunday night, 60 activists had been refused entry at the airport, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Nine protesters were arrested for attempting to disrupt order at the airport, Rosenfeld said. He said there were 500 police officials there.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, a spokesman for the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign, said that more than 1,000 uniformed and plain clothes security officers were at the airport, in what he called a sign of "unprecedented Israeli hysteria and paranoia." Authorities "violently arrested" the nine activists, he said.
Activists who were sent home were being given a letter sarcastically thanking them for "choosing to make Israel the object of your humanitarian concerns."
The letter says protesters could have focused on "the Syrian regime's daily savagery against its own people," or the actions of Iran or Hamas, but instead "chose to protest against Israel, the Middle East's sole democracy," according to a copy posted on Twitter by Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We therefore suggest that you first solve the real problems of the region, and then come back and share with us your experience. Have a nice flight," the letter says.
Organizers of the "fly-in" event said some 1,500 to 2,000 activists mainly from Europe, the United States, and Canada would board civilian flights for Israel in order to make their way to various events in Bethlehem and other West Bank cities.
By Sunday night, only three activists who flew in had made it to Bethlehem from the Tel Aviv airport, they said. Another 20 had entered a few days before after crossing a land bridge between Jordan and Israel.
One of the activists who made it through said 27 other people who had flown with her from Lyon, France, had been detained. The woman, a French citizen named Tanya, declined to provide her last name because she said she feared repercussions from the authorities.
Activists told reporters Sunday that the event would be a success, no matter how many people participated.
"Our success is measured in terms of the media publicity the Welcome to Palestine campaign made in shedding light on the true fate of Israel's dictatorship and apartheid," organizer Abdel Fatah Abu Srour said.
Another organizer criticized Israel's letter.
"I tell Israel they are contradicting themselves about their so-called democracy when they are deporting and detaining people who are coming to visit Palestinians," said Amira Mussalam.
Activists said they were trying to draw attention to what they claim are prejudicial Israeli border policies that force many international visitors coming to Palestinian areas to lie about their destinations.
"We believe, like prisoners in prisons, we are entitled to receive visitors and Palestinians under Israeli occupation are also entitled to receive visitors," Qumsiyeh said. "So we are entitled to get international visitors to come and visit and show solidarity with us to learn about the situation, but Israel chooses to prevent these people from coming."
On Sunday, he said a number of activists had reached the West Bank, but did not say how many.
The activists who were denied entry on Sunday were from Portugal, Canada, Switzerland, France, Spain and Italy, said population and migration authority spokeswoman Sabin Hadad.
Last year, organizers staged a similar event and Israel authorities detained and deported dozens of activists who entered the country.
On Tuesday, Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch called activists "provocateurs" and told Israeli news portal Ynet that they would "be dealt with in a determined and quick way," adding that "If they arrive in Israel they will be identified, removed from the plane, their entry into Israel will be prevented and they will be moved to a detention facility until they are flown out of Israel."
To that end, Israeli officials have been in touch with airlines and provided them with lists of people who are forbidden from entering the country.
"Usually airlines don't allow these people to embark, because then they have to cover the expense of the return flight," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.
"What we did last year is we had a list of number of people who have been banned from entering the country in the past, and others who will be banned now because they have openly declared that they will come here to disturb public order in one way or another," Palmor said.
Palmor said arriving passengers who are denied an entrance visa have the right to appeal but could face three days in detention before their hearing.
On Sunday, one activist in the United Kingdom said she was in a group of 30 passengers who were blocked from boarding a flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv.
"Israel was able to stop us, British passport-holders, and Israel has the power to extend its apartheid to other countries and borders," activist Norma Turner said.
Qumsiyeh insists the event is entirely peaceful in nature and suggested that Israeli authorities were over-reacting.
"The Israeli internal security is paranoid and is turning the airport into a military camp. They want to arrest the activists and are calling us provocateurs and demonstrators as they always do" Qumsiyeh said. "The activists are coming peacefully and will visit the West Bank and help us build a community school and then they will go home with no problems, Israel is creating the problems and not us."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Britain's duty to the Palestinian people
I came to the UK to talk about the plight of the Palestinians but ended up fighting deportation. This is what I wanted to say
Raed Salah
The Guardian, Thursday 19 April 2012
In June 2011 I came to Britain to begin a speaking tour to draw attention to the plight of my people, the Palestinian citizens of Israel. The tour was meant to last 10 days. Instead I had to stay for 10 months in order to resist an attempt by the home secretary, Theresa May, to deport me – itself the result of a smear campaign against me and what I represent. I fought not just for my own sake, but for all who are smeared because they support the Palestinian cause.
Since 1990 I have visited the UK several times to speak publicly. On this occasion I was arrested, imprisoned, and told I was to be deported to Israel because my presence in the UK was "not conducive to the public good". A judge later ruled that I had been illegally detained, but bail conditions continued to severely restrict my freedom, making it impossible for me to speak as I had intended.
After a 10-month legal battle, I have now been cleared on "all grounds" by a senior immigration tribunal judge, who ruled that May's decision to deport me was "entirely unnecessary" and that she had been "misled". The evidence she relied on (which included a poem of mine which had been doctored to make it appear anti-Jewish) was not, he concluded, a fair portrayal of my views. In reality, I reject any and every form of racism, including antisemitism.
I have no doubt that, despite this, Israel's cheerleaders in Britain will continue to smear my character. This is the price every Palestinian leader and campaigner is forced to pay.
My people – the Palestinians – are the longstanding victims of Israeli racism. Victims of racism, anywhere, should never condone or support the maltreatment of another people, as Israel does.
The suffering of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has been ignored for decades. But there is today a growing awareness of it, which partially explains this smear campaign against me. In December 2011, EU ambassadors in Israel raised serious concerns about Israeli discrimination, noting that "not only has the situation of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel not improved, but it has further deteriorated".
There are around 1.5 million Arabs in Israel. We make up 17% of the population, but we face a barrage of racist policies and discriminatory laws. We receive less than 5% of funds allocated by the government for development. Public spending on children in Arab municipalities is one-third lower than that of children in Jewish municipalities. The average hourly wage of Arab workers is about 70% of that of Jewish workers. Any Jew, from any country, is allowed under Israel's law of return to migrate to Israel; Palestinian refugees are not allowed to exercise their right of return. While a Jew can live anywhere in Israel, a Palestinian citizen cannot. Jews can marry whoever they wish and live with them in Israel, Palestinian citizens cannot.
In the criminal justice system, a 2011 study commissioned by Israel's courts administration and Israel bar association revealed that almost half of Arabs receive custodial sentences for certain crimes, compared to a third of Jews. While 63.5% of Arabs convicted of violent crimes were sentenced to prison, only 43.7% of similar Jewish offenders were.
Education is only one of several areas in which Palestinian citizens face discrimination in Israel. The Israeli government allocates less money per head for Arab children's education than it does for that of Jewish children. One devastating consequence is that the drop-out rate from schools is three times higher among Arabs than among Jews.
Nowhere is the injustice more striking than in the Negev. Living in poverty in "unrecognised" villages, the Arab Bedouin are ineligible for basic services such as water, electricity, and healthcare. The Negev village of al-Araqib has been demolished 35 times by the Israeli government; on every occasion it was rebuilt by its inhabitants.
Despite the Israeli policy of "transfer" – another term for ethnic cleansing – the Palestinians will not go away. The Israeli state can occupy our lands, demolish our homes, drill tunnels under the old city of Jerusalem – but we will not disappear. Instead, we now aspire to a directly elected leadership for Palestinians in Israel; one that would truly represent our interests. We seek only the legal rights guaranteed to us by international conventions and laws.
The Palestinian issue can only be resolved if Israel and its supporters in Britain abandon the dogmas of supremacy and truly adhere to the universal values of justice and fairness. Britain has a special responsibility in this, because it is uniquely responsible for our suffering: our national tragedy began with the Balfour Declaration.
While Britain enforced the first part of the declaration, which promised Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people, but ignored the part that states: "It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." If there is any lesson to be learned from this sordid affair, it is that there is nothing to gain from putting false words into my mouth, or casting me out of the mainstream of public discourse.
Danish protester: 'No one would care if a Palestinian was hit with a rifle'
Andreas Ias says his treatment by Israeli soldier is nothing compared to the systematic violence carried out on Palestinians
'...Ias – not his real name – is dismayed that in the aftermath of him being struck in the face with a soldier's rifle, so little attention has focused on what he describes as the routine aggression, harassment and displacement suffered by Palestinian villagers in the area.
"It has been framed in the media as the 'Danish incident', as though this is not how the IDF normally act," he said, swathed in a red keffiyeh in a Ramallah cafe. "But what happened to me is nothing compared to the systematic violence carried out on Palestinians. This is not a single incident, it's what we see every day...
While volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the West Bank over the past six weeks, Ias says he has witnessed "a process of ethnic cleansing that has been going on since the start of the occupation".
"I've seen people whose homes have been demolished in the middle of the night by dozens of soldiers, people who are left with nothing. I've seen Bedouin villages without running water or electricity next to Israeli settlements with total control over water resources. I've seen people denied their basic human rights and any hope for the future. You can't experience that without it changing you."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 75,00.html
Additional footage shows Eisner assaulting 4 more activists
New video shows last week's confrontation between soldiers, activists started after anarchist hurt officer with his bicycle. Lt. Col. Shalom Einser later seen assaulting woman with his weapon, pulling another's hair
Elior Levy
04.20.12
Ynet
A video filmed by Palestinian TV shows Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner hurting a woman in her shoulder before striking the Danish activist with his M-16 rifle. He then attacked another protester and seconds later pulled the hair of another woman. The IDF officer was also seen hitting an activist in the back.
B'Tselem Executive Director Jessica Montell said that the footage refutes claims which suggest that the protesters had exercised violence before being attacked by the soldiers. She said that the event demonstrates Eisner's feeling of immunity noting that the law is rarely enforced in cases of IDF violence directed against Palestinians in the territories.
Funny that the source of practically every one of those claims is the IDF.
From some more reliable sources:
http://www.phr.org.il/uploaded/13.12.03Report.pdf
Harm to Medical Personnel
The Delay, Abuse and Humiliation of Medical Personnel by the Israeli Security Forces
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights
December 2003
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/kennet ... er-is-sad/
Hospitals, ambulances and medical workers
The Guardian (5 January):
“…half of Gaza’s ambulances have already been destroyed…”
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (5 January):
“Israeli army firing on first response units in Gaza; Ambulances unable to reach injured persons nor evacuate them from the scene of attacks to Gaza hospitals. Several ambulances have sustained direct artillery or helicopter fire, medical personnel have been killed, others critically injured. There is no possibility for the rapid evacuation of patients; those whose lives could have been saved are left to bleed to death.”
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (5 January):
“The PRCS [Palestine Red Crescent Society] reported to PHR-Israel that they have no way of dispatching ambulances without prior coordination since ambulances that set out for evacuation duties at AlAtatra were fired at by apache helicopters. They appealed to PHR-Israel after attempts to coordinate passage via the ICRC have failed since yesterday. AlAwda hospital in Beit Lahiya also asked for our assistance since they must send out ambulances to AlAtatra and Tel Zaatar but cannot dispatch ambulances without being shot at. The hospital is urgently requesting coordination to enable evacuation…
According to our information, between 2 hours and 8-10 hours pass between a request by the ICRC for coordination until the Israeli authorities actually coordinate passage. In some cases teams waited for 24 hours for coordination”. [my emph.]
World Health Organization (5 January):
“- Two shells hit 15 metres from Al Awda hospital’s emergency room. A nurse sustained severe head injuries.
- Three mobile clinics were destroyed 5 January. All vehicles are now unusable.
- One paramedic was killed and two injured en route to evacuating a patient and their ambulance destroyed by munitions. This raises total of medical staff killed since 27 December t0 six and ambulances hit t0 three.
- All Gaza hospitals continue working on back-up generators for the third consecutive day. International Humanitarian Law requires all medical personnel and facilities be protected at all times, even during armed conflict. Attacks on them are grave violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws…
Hospitals warn that the generators are close to collapse and they have four more days of fuel, even with services limited t0 the mere essentials. At the Shifa hospital alone, collapse would have immediate consequences for 70 intensive care unit patients including 30 in the neonatal care. Twelve operating rooms would als0 be immediately affected, in addition t0 shutting down the oxygen extractors, refrigerators for blood units and machines for emergency laboratory services. Also, all hospitals would be without heating and lighting.”
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (4 January):
“IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] also continued to target ambulance teams who attempt to collect the injured. At approximately 10:20am today, an Israeli plane fired a missile at an ambulance in the west of Beit Lahia, destroying it and injuring the three of its crew. Two of them sustained critical wounds.”
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (5 January):
“[Today, Israeli forces] targeted medical facilities and ambulances. A Civil Defense team was hit as it tried to fight a fire following the bombardment of a clinic…
In yet another attack on an ambulance crew, an Israeli aircraft fired a guided missile at an ambulance in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. The three crewmen were killed as a result.”
Ma’an news (5 January):
“Israeli forces fired in the immediate vicinity of three hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Monday, witnesses and medical personnel told Ma’an.
The Al-Wafa Hospital eastern Gaza Strip received warning that they would be shelled, but the hosptial administration and staff refused to evacuate on account of the number of injured people being treated there. Some of the wounded have been injured so severely that they cannot be safely transferred.
At Ash-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes bombed the offices of the Health Committees, about 400 meters from Ash-Shifa hospital. Last week warplanes bombed the Ash-Shifa Mosque, which is part of the medical compound.
Israeli forces also shelled the parking lot of Al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
Spanish human rights worker at the hospital Alberto Arce reported, “Two consecutive shells just landed in the busy car park 15 meters from the entrance to the emergency room of the Al Awda hospital. The entrance of the emrgency rooml was damaged. At the time of the shelling Ambulances were bringing in the wounded that keep pouring in. Medical teams and facilities are being targeted. Nowhere is safe.” …
The international aid agency Oxfam has also reported that personnel working for its affiliates in Gaza have been killed, their ambulances coming under attack.”
Xinhua (4 January):
“Mo’aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, said that three more Palestinian paramedics were killed by Israeli airstrike on Sunday evening.
Hassanein said the three were rescuing the injured inside a house, which was damaged in southern Gaza City, where another airstrike took place, killing the paramedics.
Also on Sunday, another Palestinian paramedic was killed while Israeli warplane targeted an ambulance in west Gaza City.”
CBS news (5 January):
“[Norwegian doctor] Mads Gilbert came to Gaza last week to help out, he says, in a hospital [i.e. Al-Shifa hospital] that’s short of everything but misery.
“They have no spare parts, they have no monitors. They have not enough blood pressure machines, they don’t have enough trolleys. They lack everything. And on top of this you have this huge disaster…
“More people will die who could have been saved,” he said. “We have to be even harder to select who we can treat and we have to put aside people who could otherwise die. That is the gruesome fact of the situation and we are not talking about the 17th century, we are talking about 2009.”
Amnesty International (29 December):
“The health sector in Gaza lacks equipment, medicine and expertise at the best of times and has been further depleted due to the prolonged Israeli blockade. It is now completely overwhelmed and unable to cope with the large number of casualties”.
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (6 January):
“Since its premises were destroyed by Israeli bombs on 30 December the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) – a member of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) – has been unable to provide care to an ever increasing number of traumatised civilians. Another IRCT member centre in Gaza, the Jesoor Organization, is also unable to operate due to the security situation…
From the headquarters of the IRCT in Copenhagen, Denmark, Secretary-General Brita Sydhoff says: “I am absolutely appalled by Israel’s targeting of densely populated urban areas. Attacks on civilian areas by both sides are deplorable, but Israel’s attacks are grossly disproportionate and are disrupting vital health services.”
“I am extremely alarmed that our two member centres in Gaza, the GCMHP and the Jesoor Organization, are unable to operate during a time when their services are desperately needed” she adds and concludes:
“Israel’s reckless attacks and blockade are endangering the lives and health of the entire population of Gaza in blatant breach of international law and fundamental human rights. I urge the government of Israel to cease its offensive and immediately take all necessary measures to ensure the access of Gaza’s civilian population to vital health services and other fundamental humanitarian needs.”
UN OCHA (2 January):
“The health system is overwhelmed, having already been weakened by the 18- month blockade.”
Oxfam (4 January):
“A paramedic working for an Oxfam funded organisation was killed when an Israeli shell struck a civilian ambulance in Gaza today according to international agency Oxfam. The tragedy illustrates the deadly dangers faced by Palestinian civilians and aid worker said the agency.
Another paramedic lost his foot and a driver was injured in the same incident, which occurred when an ambulance belonging to Oxfam’s partner organisation, Union of Health Work Committees, was hit while trying to evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area, Oxfam said.”
Reuters (5 January):
“Bombs on Monday hit a hospital morgue where a family were mourning a paramedic killed in an airstrike on Sunday. Three people were killed and 17 wounded, medical workers said.
“We were sitting in the mourning tent when suddenly they bombed us, we ran to rush the casualties to hospitals but they bombed again,” Abdel-Dayem told Reuters.”
The Mirror(2 January):
“A children’s hospital was also damaged in yesterday’s blitz and a mosque and secondary school destroyed.”
John Ging, head of UNRWA (6 January):
“John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said he was “shocked” by “the brutality of the injuries” he had seen during a visit to the Shifa hospital in Gaza.
He said: “There are very real shortages of medicine. This hospital has not had electricity for four days. If the generators go down, those in intensive care will die. This is a horrific tragedy here, and it is getting worse by the moment.”
I'm also not sure why you so casually dismiss The New York Times, Haaretz, and The Associated Press, as unreliable sources, given that those are three of the most well-respected news organizations in the world.
A Report by Physicians for Human Rights
November 3, 2000
ATTACKS ON AMBULANCES AND HEALTH PERSONNEL
Human rights groups have repeatedly reported violations of medical neutrality during the conflict. Medical neutrality is a normative construct that draws on international humanitarian law, human rights law, and medical ethics. Medical neutrality seeks to protect and limit the injury and death to civilians and combatants and provide standards for health professionals with respect to their rights and duties in war and peace.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), 33 ambulances were hit by gunfire and 17 were destroyed from 64 separate attacks. The PHR team studied two damaged ambulances in Gaza. One had received a direct hit to the front window and the other was struck at least five times on the left side by 50 caliber armor piercing ammunition that went completely through to the other side and damaged the stretcher inside the vehicle. It was also hit by a rubber bullet on the same side. According to the driver, the ambulance had sustained damage on the right side from a previous attack.
Colleagues at Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-Israel) have reported numerous instances in which the IDF have violated medical neutrality including: the blocking of the Augusta Victoria and the Makassed Hospitals in Jerusalem and preventing injured patients from receiving care. PHR-Israel has also reported shooting at medical personnel, some of whom were wearing vests clearly identifying them as medical personnel, while they were providing care to the injured. They also reported delays in medical treatment to detainees (two Israelis and one Palestinian) who were arrested during the current crisis.
Between October 1 and October 23, PHR-Israel reported that 17 Palestinian ambulances were "utterly destroyed" by the IDF. During the week from October 19 to October 23 alone, PHR-Israel reported that an additional 26 ambulances were damaged by gun fire.
PRCS personnel and vehicles have been attacked by Israeli settlers in Israeli controlled areas and Magen David Adom ambulances have been attacked by Palestinian civilians in areas under Israeli security controlled areas, according to Human Rights Watch.
In other instances of violations of medical neutrality, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC) has reported that 12 UPMRC medical personnel have been injured by Israeli forces while providing medical care.
The Israeli army claims that the ambulances are not being used properly, but the PHR team received no documentation of an ambulance being used for purposes other than transporting the wounded. When PHR interviewed IDF officials, they admitted that early in the conflict there had been incidents of violations of medical neutrality but that orders had been re-issued from headquarters to officers in the field to respect the neutrality of ambulances in the field and medical personnel.
The PHR team also personally interviewed a hospital van driver at Shifa Hospital who was taking five cancer patients to Israel for outpatient radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Despite the fact that all of the patients had valid permits to enter Israel, they were turned back at the Eretz checkpoint between Israel and Gaza, and refused entry into Israel.
Blocking medical and humanitarian relief
Medical relief services were denied access to Jenin refugee camp for nearly 11 days, from 12 noon on 4 April until 15 April 2002. In addition the IDF shot at ambulances(10) or fired warning shots around them. Ambulance drivers were harassed or arrested.
Meanwhile the dead in Jenin refugee camp remained in the street or in houses for days. The wounded lay for hours untended or were treated at home. In several cases people are reported to have died in circumstances where lack of access medical care may have caused or hastened their death. Many testimonies show families desperately telephoning for help in vain and compelled to stay alone with dying or dead relatives. Many cases of Palestinians killed by the IDF show the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining medical care or an ambulance to remove the dead; three such cases – of 'Atiya Abu Irmaila, Nayef Qasem 'Abd al-Jaber and 'Amid 'Azmi Abu Hassan Fayed – are described below. In two cases investigated by Amnesty International the delay in obtaining medical treatment will have long term medical consequences for patients.
Medical personnel said that for the first 30 hours of the incursion, from early morning on 3 April until noon on 4 April 2002, ambulances were able to move. During this time ambulances brought five dead bodies and about 45 wounded to Jenin City Hospital.
Among the first Palestinians killed was a 27-year-old nurse, Fadwa Fathi Abdallah Jamal, wearing her uniform, shot by the IDF as she walked early in the morning of 3 April with her sister, also a nurse, to go to a medical centre in the refugee camp.
From 12 noon on 4 April 2002 the IDF imposed a medical blockade and prevented ambulances from entering the camp. Jenin City Hospital was surrounded by tanks and the building opposite the hospital was used as an IDF base. All those in the hospital at noon on 4 April were confined there: the visitors, the staff and the sick - about 300 people: 100 medical personnel, 105 patients, and their relatives. For some days they lived largely on
biscuits, chocolate and water. On 4 April the ICRC was prevented from delivering oxygen to the hospital, which was running out of supplies, but the deliveries were allowed the following day. The ICRC also delivered drugs, blood and food. By 5 April the hospital had received six dead bodies (increasing to seven when one wounded man died the next day in hospital), its morgue large enough for only one body. IDF authorization was sought to bury the bodies in the small patch of garden behind the hospital, and this was granted on 6 April.
On 6 April ambulances were still denied access to Jenin refugee camp. On 7 April ICRC landcruisers carrying supplies to the Jenin City Hospital were blocked; however supplies were transferred to local ambulances and taken to the hospital. On 8 April continuing negotiations between the ICRC, the DCO and the army appeared to have brought about an agreement. The PRCS tried to send three teams with the ICRC to the refugee camp to collect the wounded. The ambulances were lengthily checked and the ambulance drivers forced to lie on the ground. Around 5pm the IDF said that three people could be brought in; the hospital should examine them but not ask them questions. The wounded men were brought to hospital blindfolded. After examining them, Dr Abu Ghali, the hospital director said that all needed urgent hospital treatment. The IDF, however, allowed only
one patient to enter the hospital.
"This whole operation and the negotiations with the IDF and the ICRC took from 8am until 11pm and - at the end of the day - only one wounded man was admitted into the hospital" said Dr Abu Ghali.
Between 9 and 14 April there was a standoff, day after day, outside Jenin refugee camp, with up to five ICRC ambulances and doctors and about six PRCS ambulances waiting in vain to be allowed by the IDF to enter the camp to evacuate dead and wounded.
On the evening of 11 April an ICRC delegate and Dr Abu Ghali, the hospital director, were sitting in Dr Abu Ghalis office on the top floor of the hospital when two sniper bullets came through the window and hit the ceiling. They telephoned the IDF commander who reportedly apologized saying an IDF sniper had made a mistake.
On 14 April, three days after fighting had ended, Jenin refugee camp remained cut off from the outside world. It had been nine days since the last dead body had been brought out of the refugee camp. Only those wounded in the camp who could struggle out themselves were in hospital.
Meanwhile a number of petitions had been brought to the Israeli High Court of Justice.
On 8 April the court, commenting on a petition which challenged the Israeli army's "prevention of access to medical treatment for the sick and wounded in Jenin and Nablus; restriction of access of medical personnel and transport to the areas; and obstruction of the right to bury the dead in a respectful manner", had stated:
"Although it is not possible to address the specific incidents in the petition that on their face look harsh, we have to stress that our fighting forces are obliged to apply humanitarian rules which refer to treating the injured, in the hospitals and the bodies of the dead. Wrongful use of medical teams and of hospitals and ambulances obliges the IDF to act in order to prevent such activity; however, this by itself does not allow a sweeping violation of humanitarian rules. In fact, this is also the declared position of the State.
This attitude is not only required by international law, on which the petitioners are relying, but also by the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."(11)
On 14 April three petitions were heard by the High Court of Justice including a request that the ICRC and PRCS enter the camp to remove dead bodies. They had been brought by Knesset members Muhammad Barakeh and Ahmad Tibi, and by the human rights organizations Adalah and LAW. The representative of the Attorney General initially stated that the Israeli army could not permit humanitarian organizations to enter the area because some of the bodies might be booby-trapped with bombs; it then agreed to allow entry. The court dismissed the petitions but ordered that the ICRC be allowed to accompany and assist the Israeli army in locating bodies and that the PRCS also be permitted to join them.
After the High Court judgment, for the first time for 11 days, ICRC and PRCS ambulances were allowed into the camp. They left at 6.30am on 15 April but were delayed by the routine IDF searches. One team was told to remain with their IDF escort; apparently the army limited their access and they found no bodies. Dr Abu Ghali
accompanied the other ambulance and described the scene:
"I went in with my small video camera and I first saw one body. Then I saw a second body. The third body I saw was a woman of 59, lying two metres from a door, hit in the chest and head, her body was decomposed.
So the IDF said: 'That is all you have. In the centre of the camp you have no survivors'. I went on. In a room of a house I found a man of 85, alone, with no water, dehydrated. I said, 'I must go further to see.' The IDF said:
'This is the only region cleared by the Israeli army, if you go further we don't guarantee you.' I walked 35 metres into the region not cleared and found 10 bodies. Five were in one house; we could not collect them, the
ICRC told the IDF to bring them. I saw a lot of people looking from the windows and doors of their houses, afraid, I said 'I will bring you food.
Have you anything to eat?' They said, 'Nothing'. I asked to be allowed to bring food and medication for the survivors, the IDF said: 'You have two hours in the camp'."
During the two hours the IDF allowed them in the camp on 15 April Palestinian and international medical and humanitarian teams were able to distribute some food, water and milk into the camp. On 16 April the IDF allowed ICRC and UNRWA personnel to enter the camp; the ICRC reported, in its daily summary: "Part of the camp looks as if it had been hit by an earthquake ... Civilians in the camp are under shock and report urgent
need for medicine, water and food."
On 16 April Jenin City Hospital contained 15 bodies - with one more brought during the day. The High Court statement had ordered the ICRC and Israeli army to identify the bodies in accordance with the requirements of international humanitarian law. However, the entrance to the hospital was still blocked by an IDF checkpoint with tanks. Dr Abu Ghali asked the IDF to allow Professor Derrick Pounder, delegated by Amnesty
International, access to the hospital to perform autopsies, but an IDF doctor who was stationed at the checkpoint told Professor Pounder: "If you were a doctor treating people we would allow you in, but we are not interested in a forensic doctor".
On 16 April Professor Pounder telephoned Amnesty International's headquarters in London:
"There is no forensic expertise in Jenin and no one in the hospital with any forensic training. Under international humanitarian law there is a requirement to examine decomposed bodies in order to obtain evidence as to the cause of death. This is in order to elucidate the circumstances of death and also to help in identification of the body. The identification is necessary so that the family may know and bury the body and for documentation. The longer a body deteriorates the more the evidence deteriorates and the fewer hard facts there are in order to get the evidence."
But it was only on the following day, after the Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein agreed that Professor Pounder should be given access, that he was able to enter Jenin City Hospital where he carried out two autopsies and three examinations. Examinations were performed on three of the five bodies found in a single house and brought in that day by the IDF; they all appeared to be combatants. The findings of the
autopsies, according to Professor Pounder "gave rise to suspicion"; they were on bodies later identified as those of 'Ali Na'el Salim Muqasqas and Wadah Fathi Shalabi (see above).
Amnesty International delegates discussed the failure to allow access to medical aid in Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere on many occasions with members of the IDF. The Head of Plans and Policy Directorate, Major-General Giora Eiland, denied that ambulances had been prevented from entry to Jenin for more than two days, and this was only because the PRCS refused to allow their ambulances to be checked. He mentioned a number of incidents when ambulances were said to have been misused in order to carry healthy men, bodies to increase the number of alleged dead in the refugee camp, or a suicide belt.(12) He accepted there were difficulties in coordinating medical assistance with ICRC and UNRWA. "Some problems were caused by our mistakes, some difficulties were not necessary. But we gave Palestinians food, water and medication in Jenin, and even electricity. We tried to evacuate injured Palestinians."
Notwithstanding the remarks of Major-General Giora Eiland, the evidence of the blocking of medical and humanitarian aid to Jenin refugee camp for over 10 days is overwhelming.(13)
Impeding Medical Treatment
Around 5:00 P.M. on April 4, 2002, an IDF helicopter fired a missile that struck the house of Jihad Hassan, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp. Hassan was on his way upstairs to his brother’s apartment to get a carton of baby formula for his infant son. He was wounded in the leg by the missile blast. His son, Muhammad, summoned an ambulance from the Red Crescent, which came to evacuate Hassan, but Israeli soldiers stopped it about 50 meters from the house and refused to let the medical team proceed to Hassan’s house. Hassan called a physician friend, who told him over the phone how to treat the wound. The next day, the soldiers broke into Hassan’s house. He asked them to let him to go to the hospital, but they refused. Before leaving, the soldiers cut the phone lines in his apartment and that of his brother. A week went by before Hassan was able to get to the hospital. An x-ray showed his leg was broken in four places. His house is 200 meters from the hospital.
The IDF almost completely blocked the movement of ambulances in the West Bank during Operation Defensive Shield. Wounded people who could not reach hospitals bled to death. Patients could not obtain medical treatment.
Hospitals had trouble functioning because they were shelled and the roads leading to them were blocked. Tanks damaged basic hospital infrastructure, such as water and electricity and soldiers fi red at ambulances that tried to evacuate the wounded.
During the operation, the IDF spokesperson claimed that the army was allowing ambulances to move freely and evacuate the wounded. He also maintained that the sick, especially chronically ill patients such as those requiring regular dialysis, were taken to hospitals throughout the Occupied Territories.
His claim is inaccurate. Dialysis patients who managed to get to a hospital did so only after great effort to coordinate their passage with the army. In some cases, the patients died before they were able to obtain the necessary approval.
Ensuring protection of the sick and wounded is a fundamental principle of international law. Medical personnel are entitled to protection while performing their duties. The IDF grossly violated this principle during Operation Defensive Shield.
Wounded people who were unable to reach hospitals bled to death.
Patients could not obtain medical treatment.
Soldiers fired at ambulances.
Water and electricity were cut off.
The special protections provided to the sick and wounded, and to medical personnel were violated.
On Friday, April 5, 2002, Tahani ‘Ali ‘Asad Fatouh, a pharmacist from Al Msakan Ash Sha’abiya in the Nablus District began having labor pains.
Her husband, Dr. Ghassan ‘Ali Nashat Sha’ar, called an ambulance to take his seven months pregnant wife to hospital. Due to the curfew imposed on the area, the ambulance could not reach the house and Dr. Sha’ar had to deliver the baby with the help of his neighbor, Dr. Sulfeh.
The delivery went smoothly. During the delivery, the ambulance crew tried to reach the couple’s home, as the newborn would have to be placed in an incubator. All attempts failed. Some 30 minutes after the birth, the baby’s health began to deteriorate. Dr. Sha’ar managed to resuscitate his son twice. On the third attempt, the baby died. Tahani Fatouh had become pregnant after four years of fertility treatments.
The hospital is only two kilometers away from the couple’s home.
Daily Briefing April 16, 2002
A soldier’s testimony:
There was an inspection point for ambulances at the exit from the Jenin hospital. The ambulances were only allowed to travel to the city, not to the refugee camp. We were told that this was because of the fighting in the camp.
If someone was injured in the middle of the camp, he would not be treated.
Palestinians in the camp were not allowed to move about and ambulances were not allowed to enter. IDF evacuation of the wounded only began about a week later. We were ordered to fire heavy machine guns at ambulances that ignored the inspection point. The orders came from the deputy battalion commander. The ambulances were generally taking dialysis patients and women in labor to the hospital. We had to check that there were no wanted persons in the ambulances. We would get everyone out of the ambulance.
We had to make sure that the dead were really dead and other unpleasant things like that. The inspection point was muddy and full of garbage. In one case, the deputy battalion commander yelled, “Everybody out,” and the driver had to carry an elderly man who couldn’t stand on his own and set him down in the mud.
On April 10, three Palestinians who had been wounded by gunfire came to us. The medic treated them, and hooked them up to IVs. The battalion doctor came and looked at them, and said, “There’s nothing for me to do,” and left. I don’t think he even checked their pulses. We checked with the brigade [officials] to figure out what to do with them. We called them repeatedly.
They said they were checking with the General Security Service to find out if they were wanted. We were not allowed to evacuate them to the hospital, not even in Israel. So we called a Palestinian doctor from the nearby hospital. He said that two of them had moderate wounds, and the other was severely injured and had to be operated on. The brigade rejected all our requests to evacuate him. We suggested walking with them to the Palestinian hospital. The brigade did not permit it. The wounded men sat there for about six or seven hours until we finally received approval to take them to the Salem checkpoint. I have no idea what happened to them after that.
During the meeting we had at the end of reserve duty, the battalion commander was asked about the story regarding the doctor. I couldn’t believe how he tried to whitewash it. He said that he wasn’t in the field and didn’t know what really happened. Soldiers told him that they knew exactly what happened. He did not give a serious reply.
Firing at Ambulances
Testimony of Saher Ahmad, aged 25, Ambulance driver for ‘Aliyah Hospital, Ramallah:
On Sunday [April 21], at around 10:00 A.M., I drove towards the Allenby Bridge with a woman who receives cancer treatments in Jordan. Before we left, we coordinated our trip with the Israeli Ministry of Health. The woman was sitting in the back of the ambulance. At around 10:40 A.M., we got to the Qalandiya checkpoint. I stopped the ambulance about two hundred meters from the checkpoint and waited for the soldiers to wave me on, as was the usual practice. After about a minute, three soldiers who were standing behind the concrete blocks near the checkpoint began firing at the ambulance. They gave us no prior warning.
Nothing had happened to warrant the gunfire. I was startled and didn’t know what to do. The shots were fired from automatic weapons. I don’t know how many bullets were fired at me, but they hit the windows and the engine of the ambulance.
I heard the glass shatter and the fragments flew in all directions. I eased my foot off the brake and at the same moment a shard of glass flew into my left eye. It didn’t bleed. I asked the patient how she was. She said that she had not been hit but was dazed and shaken. She added that a number of shards of glass had wounded her slightly.
I have addressed the issues you've raised. You've tried to claim that the IDF has been right in attacking ambulances and other medical staff, and practically every one of your sources supporting this claim is either directly or indirectly an IDF source.
I then posted ample evidence of the IDF systematically breaching the fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits any impediment of, or assault upon, medical personnel.
So how did I change the topic?
You are perfectly right that medical personnel are supposed to be neutral in conflict zones and therefore off-limits as military targets. My point is not that Israel is not targeting medical personnel, and not that they are justified in doing so as a categorical matter, but that the situation is made much more complicated then your presentation of it would suggest because the Palestinians themselves have tried to take advantage of this presumed neutrality to further violent aims. In a perfect world the neutrality of medical personnel would always be respected. But please, explain to me, what is the IDF supposed to do, given that they have to defend the lives of Israelis, when Palestinian terrorists are trying to use ambulances to smuggle suicide bombers into Israeli cities? If you have a simple answer to this unbelievably difficult ethical/strategic/tactical question I'd love to hear it.
If you google "Palestinian terror ambulances" the first hit is video footage from Reuters of Palestinian gunman carrying assault rifles piling into the back of a clearly marked UN ambulance after an attack on Israeli soldiers and using it as a get-away vehicle. I've pasted the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRmYYSp0-B8
I'll tell you what the IDF and other Israeli's are 'supposed to do' in order to defend the lives of the general population of Israel: they can end the occupation and stop terrorizing the Palestinians on a daily basis, and then making every conceivable excuse known to man in trying to excuse and justify it.
I'm not in the habit of Googling "Palestinian terror ambulances", but whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, I can see no attack on Israeli soldiers in this Youtube clip you've posted. All I can see are what appear to be Palestinians coming under fire from the top of the road, and running towards the camera, in the direction of the ambulance, before some of the men jump in the back for cover.