U.S. government: Stop arming Israel The Israeli military has used a wide variety of conventional weapons such as guns, bullets, missiles, drones, jet fighters, artillery, tanks, armoured vehicles and naval vessels to commit serious human rights abuses in Gaza. It is time for the U.S. government to urgently suspend arms transfers to Israel and to push for a UN arms embargo on all parties to the conflict. Sign the petition now.
Send this message to Secretary of State, John Kerry Dear Secretary John Kerry,
I am writing to express my outrage and concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza and Israel. I call on the U.S. government to urgently suspend arms transfers to Israel and help ensure that a UN arms embargo is imposed on all parties to the conflict.
Hundreds of Palestinians been killed so far and thousands have been injured by Israeli forces, as part of its military Operation “Protective Edge” in Gaza, which began on 8 July. The UN estimates that 78 per cent of those killed in Gaza have been civilians and that 21 per cent of them have been children. More than 3,000 homes in Gaza have been completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by Israeli attacks, leaving tens of thousands of Gazan residents homeless.
Palestinian armed groups have launched volleys of indiscriminate rockets into Israel. Three civilians have been killed in Israel, with other civilians injured. Israeli homes and other civilian property has also been damaged. And 35 Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting.
Throughout the conflict, the Israeli military have deployed or used a wide variety of conventional arms including missiles, large calibre artillery systems, military drones including for weapon systems and also surveillance, jet fighters, tanks, armoured vehicles, naval vessels and small arms and light weapons (SALW) with corresponding ammunition. Palestinian armed groups have used or deployed rocket launchers, rockets and SALW with corresponding ammunition.
Amnesty International is calling for a UN-imposed comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups. As the U.S. is Israel’s largest exporter of military, security and policing equipment, Amnesty International is calling on the U.S. government to stop sending arms to Israel that are being used to commit atrocities.
I therefore urge you to:
Immediately stop the transfer of all U.S. arms to Israel until there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment or technology will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. This includes ending the supply of all weapons, munitions, police equipment and devices, as well as training and techniques to Israel; Help ensure that a comprehensive UN Security Council arms embargo is imposed on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups until effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that weapons, munitions, and other military equipment and technology will not be used to commit or facilitate serious violations international human rights or humanitarian law. US policy prohibits the provision of weapons where there is a credible expectation that they may be used in grave human rights violations. The U.S. government must act in accordance with its own laws and policies concerning weapons transfers.
Video: “Shuja’iyah: Land of the Brave” reveals a crisis of humanity Submitted by Benjamin Doherty on Sat, 07/26/2014
This short video by Palestinian filmmaker Hadeel Assali displaces the horrifying images of the 19-20 July Shujaiya massacre with sweeter ones she collected during a 2013 visit with her family in Gaza. Most of the video footage comes from Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
About her video, Assali told me that after she was sent this recorded plea for help from the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, she created this short film “to show what ‘humanity’ means when we say ‘crimes against humanity.’”
Two Palestinians reportedly assaulted by Jewish mob in Jerusalem Two hospitalized in serious condition in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Police launch investigation. By Nir Hasson | Jul. 26, 2014
Two Palestinian youths were reportedly assaulted by a Jewish mob in Jerusalem on Friday evening.
The two were seriously wounded, and were hospitalized in the Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in Jerusalem.
The two, Amir Shwiki and Samer Mahfouz, both 20-year-old and from Beit Khanina, were walking to a Light Rail station after the Ramadan dinner to look for Shwiki's worker ID when they were attacked.
"A man came from the direction of Neve Ya'akov (a Jerusalem neighborhood)," Mahfouz told Haaretz. "He said give me a cigarette. I told him I don't have any, and he heard I'm Arab and went away, coming back with his friends, maybe 12 people. They had sticks and iron bars and they hit us over the head," he said.
According to a description given to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel by the victims, the attackers, armed with iron bars and baseball bats, beat the two until they lost consciousness. According to the victims, police officers that arrived at the scene did not call an ambulance, and they were instead evacuated by passersby to receive medical treatment at a Beit Khanina clinic. They were later rushed to Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in serious condition.
The attack is the latest in a series of attacks and harassments of Palestinians in Jerusalem in recent weeks, the most serious of which was the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teen from Shoafat.
Jerusalem police said an investigation has been launched. "Yesterday a woman called and said she noticed two minorities and several Jews in the area and heard shouts and understood there was an attack," the police statement said. "A police cruiser arrived and called an ambulance, but the family refused to wait for the ambulance and evacuated them independently."
Israel's attack on Gaza is revenge for the Palestinians' refusal to accept occupation
Say what you will about Hamas' rocket fire, at least they managed to scratch the surface of Israel's faith in the normalcy of its domination of another people.
By Amira Hass 23.07.14
There is method in madness, and the Israeli insanity, which refuses to grasp the extent of its revenge in Gaza, has very good reasons for being the way it is. The entire nation is the army, the army is the nation, and both are represented by a Jewish-democratic government and a loyal press, and the four of them work together to stave off the great betrayal: the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize the normalcy of the situation.
The Palestinians are disobedient. They refuse to adapt. This is after we thought it was working for us, with VIP treatment for a few of them and an opportunity for swollen bank accounts for some, and with enormous donations from the United States and Europe that nurture the pockets of imaginary Palestinian rule.
The insistent, steadfast demonstrations in West Bank villages have not even scratched the surface of the Israeli faith in the normalcy of our domination of another people. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement did manage to confuse our ego a bit, but it is still not enough to make Israelis want to get the message. The Palestinian reconciliation government seemed to move us another step forward; it had the potential to embark on the path of rejecting the show of normalcy dictated by Israel, but too many forces within Fatah and Hamas did not support it.
Then it was the turn of Hamas’ rockets to disturb the occupier’s rest. Say what you will about it, but they succeeded in doing what the demonstrations, the boycott of Tapuzina orange drink and the concert cancellations did not.
Nation, army, government and press: You have eyes and ears, yet you will not see and you will not hear. You still hope that the Palestinian blood we have already shed and have yet to shed will win a long-term lull, which will bring us back to occupation as usual. You refuse to use your competence to stop in time, before an even bigger disaster takes place — just as you refused the time before, and the time before that.
And boy, are you competent when you want to be. The armed Hamas operatives who emerged from the tunnel shaft on Kibbutz Nir Am on Monday were dressed as Israeli soldiers. Haaretz’s Amos Harel writes that in the first moments, the field commanders were not sure whether they were soldiers or terrorists. “Finally, thanks to an aerial photograph taken by a drone, they were found to be Hamas operatives,” writes Harel. “They were carrying Kalashnikov rifles, which the Israeli army does not use.”
So the photographs taken by the drone can be very precise when its operators wish. It can discern whether there are children on the seashore or on the roof — children who, even for the legal acrobats in the Justice Ministry and the army, are not a justifiable target for our bombs. The drone can also discern that a rescue team has arrived to pull out wounded people, that families are fleeing their homes. All this can be shown in a close-up photograph taken by a drone, at high enough resolution that the operators of the bombs and the shells have no reason to press the “kill” button on their keyboards. But for some reason, the eye of the drone that can tell the difference between various makes of rifles cannot tell that this figure over here is a child, and that is a mother or a grandmother. Instead, all are given a death sentence.
The Israeliness of the moment is like that drone. It chooses to see blearily. It clings closely to the good, comfortable life of a master nation, unwilling to allow its subjects to interfere with it. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon translated that into political language when he said, “We will not agree to recognize the reconciliation government, but other arrangements such as controlling crossing points is something we can accept. [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas will control the crossing points, but he will not control the Gaza Strip itself.”
That is the routine we are cultivating. Gaza and the West Bank are cut off. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, but under conditions that we dictate, just as Fatah and the PA “rule” in their pockets in the West Bank, in accordance with our conditions. If the Palestinians need to be tamed at times, we will tame them with blood and with more blood. And peace be upon Israel.
Amnesty International: U.S. government: Stop arming Israel
Dear Secretary John Kerry,
I am writing to express my outrage and concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza and Israel. I call on the U.S. government to urgently suspend arms transfers to Israel and help ensure that a UN arms embargo is imposed on all parties to the conflict.
....Amnesty International is calling for a UN-imposed comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups. As the U.S. is Israel’s largest exporter of military, security and policing equipment, Amnesty International is calling on the U.S. government to stop sending arms to Israel that are being used to commit atrocities.
I therefore urge you to:
Immediately stop the transfer of all U.S. arms to Israel until there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment or technology will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. This includes ending the supply of all weapons, munitions, police equipment and devices, as well as training and techniques to Israel; Help ensure that a comprehensive UN Security Council arms embargo is imposed on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups until effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that weapons, munitions, and other military equipment and technology will not be used to commit or facilitate serious violations international human rights or humanitarian law.
US policy prohibits the provision of weapons where there is a credible expectation that they may be used in grave human rights violations. The U.S. government must act in accordance with its own laws and policies concerning weapons transfers.
i only need to know this... side a: precision artillery, the best money (USD) can buy side b: rudimentary rockets CIVILIAN SCOREBOARD side a - 1,000 side b - 2
Hamas is offering Israel a 10-year truce if it accepts 10 conditions. The Jerusalem Post reports, based on an Israeli Channel 2 newscast.
1. Withdrawal of Israeli tanks from the Gaza border. 2. Freeing all the prisoners that were arrested after the killing of the three youths. 3. Lifting the siege and opening the border crossings to commerce and people. 4. Establishing an international seaport and airport which would be under U.N. supervision. 5. Increasing the permitted fishing zone to 10 kilometers. 6. Internationalizing the Rafah Crossing and placing it under the supervision of the U.N. and some Arab nations. 7. International forces on the borders. 8. Easing conditions for permits to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque. 9. Prohibition on Israeli interference in the reconciliation agreement. 10. Reestablishing an industrial zone and improvements in further economic development in the Gaza Strip.
Comments
Video: “Shuja’iyah: Land of the Brave” reveals a crisis of humanity
Submitted by Benjamin Doherty on Sat, 07/26/2014
This short video by Palestinian filmmaker Hadeel Assali displaces the horrifying images of the 19-20 July Shujaiya massacre with sweeter ones she collected during a 2013 visit with her family in Gaza. Most of the video footage comes from Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
About her video, Assali told me that after she was sent this recorded plea for help from the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, she created this short film “to show what ‘humanity’ means when we say ‘crimes against humanity.’”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.607312
Two Palestinians reportedly assaulted by Jewish mob in Jerusalem
Two hospitalized in serious condition in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Police launch investigation.
By Nir Hasson | Jul. 26, 2014
Two Palestinian youths were reportedly assaulted by a Jewish mob in Jerusalem on Friday evening.
The two were seriously wounded, and were hospitalized in the Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in Jerusalem.
The two, Amir Shwiki and Samer Mahfouz, both 20-year-old and from Beit Khanina, were walking to a Light Rail station after the Ramadan dinner to look for Shwiki's worker ID when they were attacked.
"A man came from the direction of Neve Ya'akov (a Jerusalem neighborhood)," Mahfouz told Haaretz. "He said give me a cigarette. I told him I don't have any, and he heard I'm Arab and went away, coming back with his friends, maybe 12 people. They had sticks and iron bars and they hit us over the head," he said.
According to a description given to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel by the victims, the attackers, armed with iron bars and baseball bats, beat the two until they lost consciousness. According to the victims, police officers that arrived at the scene did not call an ambulance, and they were instead evacuated by passersby to receive medical treatment at a Beit Khanina clinic. They were later rushed to Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in serious condition.
The attack is the latest in a series of attacks and harassments of Palestinians in Jerusalem in recent weeks, the most serious of which was the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teen from Shoafat.
Jerusalem police said an investigation has been launched. "Yesterday a woman called and said she noticed two minorities and several Jews in the area and heard shouts and understood there was an attack," the police statement said. "A police cruiser arrived and called an ambulance, but the family refused to wait for the ambulance and evacuated them independently."
Israel's attack on Gaza is revenge for the Palestinians' refusal to accept occupation
Say what you will about Hamas' rocket fire, at least they managed to scratch the surface of Israel's faith in the normalcy of its domination of another people.
By Amira Hass
23.07.14
There is method in madness, and the Israeli insanity, which refuses to grasp the extent of its revenge in Gaza, has very good reasons for being the way it is. The entire nation is the army, the army is the nation, and both are represented by a Jewish-democratic government and a loyal press, and the four of them work together to stave off the great betrayal: the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize the normalcy of the situation.
The Palestinians are disobedient. They refuse to adapt. This is after we thought it was working for us, with VIP treatment for a few of them and an opportunity for swollen bank accounts for some, and with enormous donations from the United States and Europe that nurture the pockets of imaginary Palestinian rule.
The insistent, steadfast demonstrations in West Bank villages have not even scratched the surface of the Israeli faith in the normalcy of our domination of another people. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement did manage to confuse our ego a bit, but it is still not enough to make Israelis want to get the message. The Palestinian reconciliation government seemed to move us another step forward; it had the potential to embark on the path of rejecting the show of normalcy dictated by Israel, but too many forces within Fatah and Hamas did not support it.
Then it was the turn of Hamas’ rockets to disturb the occupier’s rest. Say what you will about it, but they succeeded in doing what the demonstrations, the boycott of Tapuzina orange drink and the concert cancellations did not.
Nation, army, government and press: You have eyes and ears, yet you will not see and you will not hear. You still hope that the Palestinian blood we have already shed and have yet to shed will win a long-term lull, which will bring us back to occupation as usual. You refuse to use your competence to stop in time, before an even bigger disaster takes place — just as you refused the time before, and the time before that.
And boy, are you competent when you want to be. The armed Hamas operatives who emerged from the tunnel shaft on Kibbutz Nir Am on Monday were dressed as Israeli soldiers. Haaretz’s Amos Harel writes that in the first moments, the field commanders were not sure whether they were soldiers or terrorists. “Finally, thanks to an aerial photograph taken by a drone, they were found to be Hamas operatives,” writes Harel. “They were carrying Kalashnikov rifles, which the Israeli army does not use.”
So the photographs taken by the drone can be very precise when its operators wish. It can discern whether there are children on the seashore or on the roof — children who, even for the legal acrobats in the Justice Ministry and the army, are not a justifiable target for our bombs. The drone can also discern that a rescue team has arrived to pull out wounded people, that families are fleeing their homes. All this can be shown in a close-up photograph taken by a drone, at high enough resolution that the operators of the bombs and the shells have no reason to press the “kill” button on their keyboards. But for some reason, the eye of the drone that can tell the difference between various makes of rifles cannot tell that this figure over here is a child, and that is a mother or a grandmother. Instead, all are given a death sentence.
The Israeliness of the moment is like that drone. It chooses to see blearily. It clings closely to the good, comfortable life of a master nation, unwilling to allow its subjects to interfere with it. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon translated that into political language when he said, “We will not agree to recognize the reconciliation government, but other arrangements such as controlling crossing points is something we can accept. [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas will control the crossing points, but he will not control the Gaza Strip itself.”
That is the routine we are cultivating. Gaza and the West Bank are cut off. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, but under conditions that we dictate, just as Fatah and the PA “rule” in their pockets in the West Bank, in accordance with our conditions. If the Palestinians need to be tamed at times, we will tame them with blood and with more blood. And peace be upon Israel.
https://campaigns.amnesty.org/actions/us-stop-arming-israel
Amnesty International: U.S. government: Stop arming Israel
Dear Secretary John Kerry,
I am writing to express my outrage and concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza and Israel. I call on the U.S. government to urgently suspend arms transfers to Israel and help ensure that a UN arms embargo is imposed on all parties to the conflict.
....Amnesty International is calling for a UN-imposed comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups. As the U.S. is Israel’s largest exporter of military, security and policing equipment, Amnesty International is calling on the U.S. government to stop sending arms to Israel that are being used to commit atrocities.
I therefore urge you to:
Immediately stop the transfer of all U.S. arms to Israel until there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment or technology will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. This includes ending the supply of all weapons, munitions, police equipment and devices, as well as training and techniques to Israel;
Help ensure that a comprehensive UN Security Council arms embargo is imposed on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups until effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that weapons, munitions, and other military equipment and technology will not be used to commit or facilitate serious violations international human rights or humanitarian law.
US policy prohibits the provision of weapons where there is a credible expectation that they may be used in grave human rights violations. The U.S. government must act in accordance with its own laws and policies concerning weapons transfers.
side a: precision artillery, the best money (USD) can buy
side b: rudimentary rockets
CIVILIAN SCOREBOARD
side a - 1,000
side b - 2
1. Withdrawal of Israeli tanks from the Gaza border.
2. Freeing all the prisoners that were arrested after the killing of the three youths.
3. Lifting the siege and opening the border crossings to commerce and people.
4. Establishing an international seaport and airport which would be under U.N. supervision.
5. Increasing the permitted fishing zone to 10 kilometers.
6. Internationalizing the Rafah Crossing and placing it under the supervision of the U.N. and some Arab nations.
7. International forces on the borders.
8. Easing conditions for permits to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque.
9. Prohibition on Israeli interference in the reconciliation agreement.
10. Reestablishing an industrial zone and improvements in further economic development in the Gaza Strip.
Are these demands unreasonable or extreme ?