Since last week, when the first major crack in the edifice of Israeli lies have shown, the deluge of information about the brutalities in Gaza, this time coming from IOF soldiers themselves, has not stopped, but intensified; it is no longer possible for Israelis to continue denying that which the rest of the world has realised a long time ago – that the Gaza war, like that in Lebanon in 2006, has been a conglomeration of war crimes, brutality, extreme cruelty, and the terrifying banality of evil; that Israel as a society is doomed; that Zionism as a racist and colonial project belong in the dustbin of history; that this latest episode of bestiality is but a reminder of what Israel has become – a racialised, undemocratic, apartheid state, being increasingly nazified by its continued occupation of various Arab lands, by its increasing militarism, and by its undying complicity and commitment to the project of subjugating the Middle East, so eagerly undertaken by the old empire, Britain, and the new but bedraggled empire of the USA. Israel’s role as the guard dog of western imperialism in the region has transformed it into an inhuman, fascistic military colony, refusing to admit and face its historical and current vices. Blow I have collected the various revelation by IOF soldiers, and the continued Israeli denial of Palestinian realities and identity. There is not even the slightest sign of recognition of the grave nature of the crisis facing Zionism within the political and cultural elites of Israel, who continue to uncritically and unfailingly back the atrocities, as do the rest of the western nations, playing on behalf of Israel; a sepially disgusting example of this servility is the case of Canada’s denying entry to George Galloway, a well known British MP, leader of the Respect party, and a long term opponenet of UK involvement in the criminal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Israeli atrocities in Gaza:
Testimonies on IDF misconduct in Gaza keep rolling in: Ha’aretz
Further testimonies emerged this weekend of army units adopting lax rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead. The reports followed Thursday’s publication in Haaretz of soldiers’ accounts of ethical violations in the Gaza offensive. On Saturday, Channel 10 showed a documentary that included a security briefing by a company commander on the eve of the Gaza invasion.
“We’re going to war,” he told his soldiers. “We’re not doing routine security work or anything like that. I want aggressiveness – if there’s someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we’ll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we’ll take it down.”
“There will be no hesitation,” the commander continued. “If it’s us or them, it’ll be them. If someone approaches us unarmed, shoot in the air. If he keeps going, that man is dead. Nobody will deliberate – let the mistakes be over their lives, not ours.”
A number of officers told Haaretz this weekend that the testimonies did not surprise them, as “anyone with eyes in his head knows that these things happened during the fighting in Gaza.”
The soldiers who testified about misconduct “placed a very unpleasant mirror before us,” said one officer.
“The chief of staff is deflecting discussion now,” said another. “It’s much easier to find the rotten apples, but there are many much more basic and deeper questions. It’s not just an ethical issue, it’s also a question of professionalism. The soldiers’ accounts show there are professional difficulties in fighting in such complex territory – that we’re just not doing it all that well.”
IDF ceased long ago being ‘most moral army in the world’ : Ha’aretz
By Gideon Levy
What shock, what consternation. Haaretz revealed grave accounts by officers and soldiers describing the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman was quick to respond that the IDF had no prior or supporting information about the events in question, the defense minister was quick to respond that “the IDF is the most moral army in the world,” and the military advocate general said the IDF would investigate.
All these propagandistic and ridiculous responses are meant not only to deceive the public, but also to offer shameless lies. The IDF knew very well what its soldiers did in Gaza. It has long ceased to be the most moral army in the world. Far from it – it will not seriously investigate anything.
The testimonies from the graduates of the Oranim pre-military course were a bolt from the blue – accounts of soldiers butchering a woman and two of her children, shooting and killing an elderly Palestinian woman, how they felt when they murdered in cold blood, how they destroyed property and how there was not even fighting in this war that was not a war.
Read this excellent piece by Gideon Levy, making quite clear that the accounts now being published are not some isolated cases of perverted officers, but the logical results of a perverted poilitical, social and military system of occupation and subjugation, last more than four decades, and continuously dehumanising the Palestinian people, along lines which were used by other regimes to dehumanise Jews in Europe.
Har Adar banning movement of Palestinians: YNet
Official order forbids Arab laborers to walk around Jerusalem corridor community. Association for Civil Rights: This is racism. ‘I can’t understand what’s wrong with what we’re doing,’ says Har Adar’s security officer
Palestinian laborers are forbidden to walk around the community of Har Adar in the Jerusalem corridor. They are allowed to work, but cannot simply roam the area. This is the local council’s policy. Some 600 Palestinian workers arrived every morning at Har Adar, a community located beyond the Green Line which accommodates many military and security officials.
Canada can’t muzzle me: The Guardian CiF
To ban me from the country for my views on Afghanistan is absurd, hypocritical, and in vain
The Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney gazetted in the Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That’s the way the rightwing, last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. Kenney is quite a card. A quick trawl establishes he’s a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all, in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so-called People’s Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organisation. On one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Conrad Black. On another, for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
Canada bars ‘infandous’ Galloway: The Guardian
A furious George Galloway last night vowed to fight a ban on him entering Canada on the grounds of national security. The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had been due to speak at a number of events in the country but his anti-war stance was drawn to the attention of the government by a Jewish group. He will challenge the decision in court. A Canadian government spokesman said that the decision would not be overturned for a man regarded as an “infandous street-corner Cromwell”. The description of the Respect MP may have led him to his dictionary the definition of infandous is “too odious to be expressed or mentioned”. Galloway said the comparison to Cromwell was not so offensive as he was “the champion of parliamentary supremacy and the executor of supporters of autocratic and arbitrary power”. Galloway has been deemed “inadmissible” to Canada under section 34(1) of the country’s immigration act.
U.S. furious over Israel’s demolition of East Jerusalem homes: Ha’aretz
The dispute between the United States and Israel over the razing of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem is intensifying and will likely become the first clash between the Obama administration and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S. argues that the destruction of homes constitutes a violation of commitments made as part of the road map. Israel says this is a domestic issue of law enforcement and that the future status of Jerusalem is only to be discussed in the final status negotiations.
“Apart from a dispute this issue will lead to nothing,” a senior government official told Haaretz.
Israel troops admit Gaza abuses: BBC
class=”first”>An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers’ accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza.
One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home. Another speaker at the seminar described what he saw as the “cold blooded murder” of a Palestinian woman. The army has defended its conduct during the Gaza offensive but said it would investigate the testimonies. The Israeli army has said it will investigate the soldiers’ accounts. The testimonies were published by the military academy at Oranim College. Graduates of the academy, who had served in Gaza, were speaking to new recruits at a seminar.
IDF in Gaza: Killing civilians, vandalism, and lax rules of engagement: Ha’aretaz
During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.
The soldiers are graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon. Some of their statements made on Feb. 13 will appear Thursday and Friday in Haaretz. Dozens of graduates of the course who took part in the discussion fought in the Gaza operation.
The speakers included combat pilots and infantry soldiers. Their testimony runs counter to the Israel Defense Forces’ claims that Israeli troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation. The session’s transcript was published this week in the newsletter for the course’s graduates
IDF killed civilians in Gaza under loose rules of engagement: Ha’aretz
During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.
The soldiers are graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon. Some of their statements made on Feb. 13 will appear today and tomorrow in Haaretz. Dozens of graduates of the course who took part in the discussion fought in the Gaza operation.
This is the first installment of the series of articles and interviews, as well as many rebuttals, which started the ball of revelations rolling in Israel, on Thursday morning.
In a another piece on the same page, Boaz Okon says, when speaking of the ‘walking Ban’ in Har Adar:
“Yestreday, 21st of March, was the International Day Against Racial Discrimination. On this date in 1966, Students who demonstarted against apartheid in South Africa, were murdered. One of the clear signs of Apartheid is when one treats other human being as some resource or product, rather than as humans.”
“Well said! At least some are picking up the signs, but they are very isolated.