Hope2012

Israel & Palestine News Round-Up

Israel again refuses to join nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

UN finds Israel, Hamas probes on Operation Cast Lead ‘inadequate’

During War There Are No Civilians

“During War there are no civilians,” that’s what “Yossi,” an Israeli military (IDF) training unit leader simply stated during a round of questioning on day two of the Rachel Corrie trials, held in Haifa’s District Court earlier this week. “When you write a [protocol] manual, that manual is for war,” he added.

For the human rights activists and friends and family of Rachel Corrie sitting in the courtroom, this open admission of an Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians — Palestinian or foreign — created an audible gasp.

Israeli Shin Bet electrocuted child prisoners to extract confessions

Towards a World War III Scenario? The Role of Israel in Triggering an Attack on Iran

Report: Israel could hit Iran within a year

Israel could attack Iran within a year, even without a green light from Washington to do so, if it believes this is the only way to stop Tehran’s nuclear drive, the Atlantic magazine said in a story in its September 2010 issue.

The author of the article, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes that ‘a consensus emerged that there is a better than 50 per cent chance that Israel will launch a strike by next July.’

UN silence on Goldstone sends report to obscurity

Universal Jurisdiction to Hold Israel Accountable

The secrets in Israel’s archives: Evidence of ethnic cleansing kept under lock and key

One document in particular, Plan Dalet, demonstrated the army’s intention to expel the Palestinians from their homeland. Its existence explains the ethnic cleansing of more than 80 per cent of Palestinians in the war, followed by a military campaign to destroy hundreds of villages to ensure the refugees never returned.

Ethnic cleansing is the common theme of both these Israeli conquests. A deeper probe of the archives will almost certainly reveal in greater detail how and why these “cleansing” campaigns were carried out — which is precisely why Mr Netanyahu and others want the archives to remain locked.  But full disclosure of these myth-shattering documents may be the precondition for peace. Certainly, more of these revelations offer the best hope of shocking Israeli public opinion out of its self-righteous opposition to meaningful concessions, either to Syria or the Palestinians.

Israeli Intelligence Infiltrated Throughout Lebanese Government

BBC Documentary: Evidence Israels Nuclear Weapons (Banned Censored)

Israel Plans Mass Forced Removals of Bedouin

Cluster Crimes: Israel and Cluster Bombs

NEWS ON THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE

Palestinian loss of land 1946 – 2000

Israel Denies Gazans Access to Their Own Land and Waters

UN report: IDF barring Gazans’ access to farms, fishing zones

4320 Palestinian arrested in 2010 so far

Gaza Children Shelled With Flechette Bombs

The “Summer Camp Of Destruction:” Israeli High Schoolers Assist The Razing Of A Bedouin Town

Peace Now: 492 Israeli violations of the partial settlement freeze

What You Don’t Know About Gaza

Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

Making Gaza A ‘European Ghetto’

While most Israeli leaders are resistant to fully lifting the blockade of Gaza, Avigdor Lieberman, the right-wing foreign minister, is advocating that Israel abandon the Strip to international monitoring and economic rehabilitation.  The proposal, recently leaked to the Israeli press, does not amount to freeing Gaza but rather to placing it under European sea and land inspections and a reconstruction plan.

South Africa’s lessons for Gaza

What is apartheid? As defined by the 1973 United Nations convention, apartheid is a policy of racial or ethnic segregation founded on a set of discriminatory practices that favor a specific group in order to ensure its racial supremacy over another group (“International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid,” 30 November 1973).

THE NEXT ATTEMPTS TO BREAK THE SIEGE ON GAZA

Asian activists to try to break Gaza blockade

Bigger aid flotilla to run Gaza blockade in February

‘US Boat to Gaza’ to join efforts from Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Italy, Sweden, Malaysia & the Netherlands to form the Freedom Flotilla II in March 2011

Preparing for the Next Gaza Freedom Flotilla in Canada

50 set to join Gaza aid flotilla

UPDATES FROM THE MAY 31 FLOTILLA RAID

UN Experts: Israel Flotilla Raid Broke Int’l Law

Turks take Flotilla attack case to ICC

Summary of the UN Human Rights Council’s Fact-Finding Mission Report

Free Gaza has been the only organization to send nine voyages to Gaza, successfully entering the port five times in 2008. The 6-boat flotilla was violently stopped May 31, 2010 as we and our coalition partners were trying again to break Israel’s illegal siege. That action by Israel has caused several countries to step up and start collecting money to send boats…the UK, the US, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Norway, Ireland…are all planning on sending boats in the spring of 2011.

Attached below is a three-page summary of the UN Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission. Read it and pass it around. It is a vitally important document for us all. Thank you for your support and your donations.

Explosive Report on Gaza Flotilla Attack Places Israel and Flotilla Narrative side-by-side

The details of those killed on the Mavi Marmara

The following appears on pages 30 and 31 of the UN report into the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla:

Furkan Dogan, a nineteen-year old with dual Turkish and United States citizenship, was on the central area of the top deck filming with a small video camera when he was first hit with live fire. It appears that he was lying on the deck in a conscious, or semi-conscious, state for some time. In total Furkan received five bullet wounds, to the face, head, back thorax, left leg and foot. All of the entry wounds were on the back of his body, except for the face wound which entered to the right of his nose. According to forensic analysis, tattooing around the wound in his face indicates that the shot was delivered at point blank range. Furthermore, the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back. The other wounds were not the result of firing in contact, near contact or close range, but it is not otherwise possible to determine the exact firing range. The wounds to the leg and foot were
most likely received in a standing position.

Ibrahim Bilgen, a 60 year old Turkish citizen, from Siirt in Turkey, was on the top deck and was one of the first passengers to be shot. He received a bullet wound to the chest, the trajectory of which was from above and not at close range. He had a further two bullet wounds to the right side of the back and right buttock, both back to front. These wounds would not have caused instant death, but he would have bled to death within a short time without medical attention. Forensic evidence shows that he was shot in the side of the head with a soft baton round at such close proximity and that an entire bean bag and its wadding penetrated the skull and lodged in the brain. He had a further bruise on the right flank consistent with another beanbag wound. The wounds are consistent with the deceased initially being shot from soldiers on board the helicopter above and receiving a further wound to the head while lying on the ground, already wounded.

Fahri Yaldiz, a 42 year old Turkish citizen from Adiyaman, received five bullet wounds, one to the chest, one to the left leg and three to the right leg. The chest wound was caused by a bullet that entered near the left nipple and hit the heart and lungs before exiting from the shoulder. This injury would have caused rapid death.

According to the pathology report, Ali Heyder Bengi, a 38 year old Turkish citizen from Diyarbakir, received six bullet wounds (one in the chest, one in the abdomen, one in the right arm, one in the right thigh and two in the left hand). One bullet lodged in the chest area. None of the wounds would have been instantly fatal, but damage to the liver caused bleeding which would have been fatal if not stemmed. There are several witness accounts which suggest that Israeli soldiers shot the deceased in the back and chest at close range while he was lying on the deck as a consequence of initial bullet wounds.

Cevdet Kiliçlar, a 38 year old Turkish citizen from Istanbul, was on the Mavi Marmara, in his capacity as a photographer employed by IHH. At the moment he was shot he was standing on the bridge deck on the port side of the ship near to the door leading to the main stairwell and was attempting to photograph Israeli soldiers on the top deck. According to the pathology reports, he received a single bullet to his forehead between the eyes. The bullet followed a horizontal trajectory which crossed the middle of the brain from front to back. He would have died instantly.

41 year old Cengiz Akyüz from Hatay and 46 year old Cengiz Songür from Izmir, both Turkish citizens, were injured on the bridge deck in close succession by live fire from above. They had been sheltering and were shot as they attempted to move inside the door leading to the stairwell. Cengiz Akyüz received a shot to the head and it is probable that he died instantly.

The pathology report shows four wounds: to the neck, face, chest and thigh. Cengiz Songür received a single bullet to the upper central thorax below the neck, shot from a high angle, which lodged in the right thoracic cavity injuring the heart and aorta. Unsuccessful efforts were made by doctors inside the ship to resuscitate him through heart massage.

Çetin Topçuoglu, a 54 year old Turkish citizen from Adana had been involved in helping to bring injured passengers inside the ship to be treated. He was also shot close to the door on the bridge deck. He did not die instantly and his wife, who was also on board the ship, was with him when he died. He was shot by three bullets. One bullet entered from the top the soft tissues of the right side of the back of the head, exited from the neck and then re-entered into the thorax. Another bullet entered the left buttock and lodged in the right pelvis. The third entered the right groin and exited from the lower back. There are indications that the victim may have been in a crouching or bending position when this wound was sustained.

The location and circumstances of the shooting and death of Necdet Yildirim, a 31 year old Turkish citizen from Istanbul, remain unclear. He was shot twice in the thorax, once from the front and once from the back. The trajectory of both bullets was from top to bottom. He also received bruises consistent with plastic bullet impact

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