Settlers kill 2 Palestinian teens, soldiers attack funeral

Iraq Burin

An Israeli settler allegedly from the illegal Barkha settlement shot and killed 19-year-old Uday Qadous after they engaged in a verbal altercation, on 27 January in the northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus.

Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq investigated the shooting and stated that Uday and his cousin, Umar, were working in their fields when Uday went looking for some of their sheep that had gone missing ("Updates on the Killing of Udayy Qadoush by a Settler in Iraq Bourin," 1 February 2011).

"Shortly after, Umar became worried about his cousin and went to look for him in the fields," Al Haq stated. "He found Uday standing near an unpaved military road (connecting Barkha settlement and the local military base) and a settler was standing opposite him, about 10 meters away; the two were quarreling verbally."

"As they moved away, Umar could no longer see them but heard a bullet shot and saw the settler running away from the scene of the incident. The settler had a light-complexion, blonde hair and wearing a Kippa, carrying a black backpack and a pistol on the side of his waist," Al Haq reported.

The shooting was caught on Israeli military cameras, and was made public on YouTube (IDF Camera 28-Jan-2011: Israeli Settler Kill a Palestinian (Uday Qadous) in Iraq Burin). The brief video appears to show Uday fall to the ground suddenly as he is moving away from the settler.

Medical officials in the Rafadiya hospital in Nablus confirmed that Qadous was shot at point-blank range in the upper torso, with a bullet ripping through his lung, Ma'an news agency reported ("Autopsy on teen slain by settler completed," 28 January 2011).

Beit Ommar

The next day in the southern West Bank village of Beit Ommar, a large group of Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal Bat Ayn settlement descended on the outskirts of the village and opened fire. Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, aged 17, was shot in the head while standing in his family's vineyard.

Another 16-year-old boy from Beit Ommar was shot in the arm, but survived the attack.

Ikhlayl remained brain-dead in a hospital in Hebron before succumbing to his wounds early the next morning, according to Beit Ommar-based activism group Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP). PSP reported that at least 100 settlers took part in Friday's attack, which began when armed members of the group began firing at Palestinian homes in the Saffa area adjacent to Beit Ommar. At the same time, PSP added, other settlers opened fire in the Jodor neighborhood, where Ikhlayl was standing ("Beit Ommar youth killed by Israeli settlers," 28 January 2011).

Dozens of villagers from Beit Ommar and nearby Surif immediately came to the area "to defend their communities," PSP stated, adding that seven Israeli military jeeps arrived and "escorted the settlers back to Bay Ayn [settlement]."

Ikhlayl was recently a participant in a youth photography class sponsored by the village-based Center for Freedom and Justice, and had been active with PSP in educational projects and community service-oriented initiatives.

Bekah Wolf, co-founder of PSP, worked closely with Ikhlayl and stated in the press release that "Yousef was a kid who hoped for a better future for Palestine."

Wolf continued, "His life was ended prematurely by right-wing extremists. People around the world should be outraged by his shooting, and should work to bring his attackers to justice."

Approximately 10,000 people filled the streets of Beit Ommar as residents carried Ikhlayl's body and held Palestinian flags in his funeral on 29 January, PSP reported.

As the crowd marched closer to the Israeli sniper tower at the entrance to the village, on their way to the cemetery, Israeli soldiers attacked the funeral procession with sound grenades and tear gas canisters, while some residents threw stones at the fortified tower ("Funeral of Yousef Ikhlayl attacked by Israeli military, dozens injured," 29 January 2011).

Soon afterwards, Israeli military jeeps arrived and soldiers "began shooting live [ammunition] and rubber bullets," PSP added. "Most of the crowd dispersed at this point, carrying the injured people away. Several residents stayed and continued to confront the occupying army with stones."

Dozens were wounded in the attacks.

PSP reported that Israeli soldiers also fired on a Palestinian ambulance attempting to give medical relief to an injured person.

Days before Ikhlayl's killing, settlers from the same illegal settlement destroyed several hundred olive trees in Beit Ommar, PSP stated ("Settlers destroy more trees in Beit Ommar," 28 January 2011).

Earlier in the week, on 27 January, the Israeli military arrested two young boys from Beit Ommar. PSP reported that 11-year-old Hamza Ahmed Abu Hashem and 12-year-old Bilal Mahmood Awad were arrested while they played soccer near their homes ("Israeli forces arrest two Palestinian boys ages 11 and 12 in Beit Ommar," 27 January 2011).

"Bilal and Hamza were taken to the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur and then transferred to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron," PSP stated.

Hamza is the son of a community activist with the Beit Ommar-based National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, a group that organizes weekly unarmed demonstrations against the Israeli occupation and the encroaching settlements.

At press time, PSP said that Hamza was released but Bilal was still being held in Israeli detention.

Bekah Wolf told The Electronic Intifada that on 3 February, another two Palestinian youths were arrested by Israeli soldiers, who detained them at Karmei Tsur settlement. Both of the boys are 17 years-old, according to Wolf.

Family members of one of the youths were badly beaten, she reported, when the soldiers entered their house. PSP members were also assaulted by Israeli soldiers when they attempted to find out information about the two boys. Another 26-year-old man was arrested also on 3 February by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ommar, Wolf added.

Nabi Saleh

Israeli soldiers also arrested several Palestinian children in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh last week according to a report from The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). On Sunday, 23 January, Israeli forces arrested 14-year-old Islam al-Tamimi in a pre-dawn raid, IMEMC reported ("An-Nabi Saleh Popular Committee Leader Beaten, Two Children Arrested," 26 January 2011).

The report added that this was the second time in three weeks that Islam was arrested, and was interrogated for eight hours during his detention last week.

Islam was "denied access to legal counsel for the first five hours, during which he confessed to throwing stones during the weekly protest against the annexation wall," IMEMC reported, "and his parents were denied access to their son during the interrogation; their legal right." Islam's brother, 10-year-old Karim al-Tamini, was arrested on Tuesday, IMEMC reported, but was released after seven hours in custody.

On 26 January, the Israeli military arrested two 15-year-old boys along with Bassem Tamimi, leader of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Nabi Saleh, IMEMC stated.

Joseph Dana, independent journalist, contributor to The Electronic Intifada, and media coordinator for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, reported that Israeli forces applied torture techniques on Islam al-Tamimi during the interrogation ("Harsh interrogations of children escalate in Nabi Saleh," 31 January 2011).

Jordan Valley

Israeli soldiers beat and arrested a 19-year-old Palestinian farmer in the Hadidiya region of the northern Jordan Valley as he grazed his livestock, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Project (JVSP) reported on 2 February ("A young man beaten and kidnapped by soldiers in Hadidiya").

After being beaten by the soldiers, Ghazi Bsharat was taken to a nearby military detention center and released several hours later.

JVSP also reported that approximately 30 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiyot attacked Palestinians in Ein al Helwe, also in the northern Jordan Valley, on 29 January. A woman and her 11-year-old daughter were beaten and threatened with future violence in what residents say are attempts by settlers to force Palestinians to leave the area ("New settler aggression in Ein Il Hilwe," 29 January 2011).

Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center (SILWANIC) reported that Israeli forces set a Palestinian home on fire on Friday, 28 January, after they fired rounds of tear gas canisters inside the house, located in the Baten al-Hawa area of Silwan ("Palestinian home set ablaze under volleys of tear gas," 28 January 2011).

Following the destruction of the home, Israeli security services, including police, opened fire on Palestinian residents who protested the presence of the armed forces. SILWANIC reported that a 12-year-old boy was injured when a rubber bullet hit him in his face.

Later on, as protests intensified in the Baten al-Hawa area, SILWANIC reported that Israeli settlers "joined the violence" perpetrated by the Israeli armed forces, while Palestinian youth threw molotov cocktails at soldiers who had occupied the roof of a nearby home. Fire bombs were also hurled at the illegal Beit Yonatan settlement inside the neighborhood ("Youth aim Molotovs at soldiers on occupied roof," 28 January 2011).

Gaza Strip

Israeli snipers stationed along the Gaza boundary opened fire on a 21-year-old Palestinian man on 31 January, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported (""Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," 27 January - 2 February 2011).

Israeli soldiers inside sniper towers near Beit Lahiya town "fired at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from a site where the evacuated Israeli settlement of 'Elli Sinai' used to stand," PCHR reported.

"Mohammed Zakaria Halawa, 21, from Jabalya, was wounded by a bullet to the left leg, when he was nearly 150 meters away from the border," PCHR added. Rising poverty and the 4-year-long Israeli blockade in the occupied Gaza Strip has forced many Palestinian laborers to collect raw industrial material and rubble from areas near the "buffer zone," a 300-meter-long militarized area along the northern, eastern and maritime boundaries.

As The Electronic Intifada has reported, Israeli planes hit Gaza tunnels, no casualties," 2 February 2011).

Dhammash

Finally, in the village of Dhammash, near Tel Aviv, Israeli police arrested and severely beat members of the Shaaban family on 22 January, accusing them of "harboring illegal workers," according to a report by independent journalist Max Blumenthal ("'The days of '48 have come again.' 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, Israel creates a new refugee camp," 26 January 2011).

Police in the town of Lydd, "violently arrested Ali, Farida, and five members of [the Shaaban] family," Blumenthal reported, adding that their detention was unknown until the following Monday, two days later. A judge then extended their imprisonment until the following Thursday "on the grounds of secret evidence the Shaaban family's lawyer was not allowed to view -- a tactic familiar to Israel's military courts in the West Bank."

A mobile phone video posted on YouTube showed Israeli police beating members of the Shaaban family.

For more than a year, the Palestinian residents of Dhammash have been living under regular police harassment and constant threat of losing their homes in their village, which has been "unrecognized" by the State of Israel since 1948. Residents of Dhammash are Israeli citizens and pay taxes, but do not receive any services as the state refuses to acknowledge their presence.

The Electronic Intifada has reported on the situation for Palestinians inside Dhammash and the adjacent segregated city of Lydd, where recent demolitions of Palestinian homes have left entire families homeless.

Source : http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11780.shtml

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Palestine - The Holy Land or land of the Unholy ? Returning the land to the holy

The Palestinian issue has been ignored for too long and it seems there is never enough security for Israelies today. For some The existence( 0f Palestinians ) is a threat in itself. Not most Israelies are aware of this and their love for the state has sometimes over come their real grasp of the situation, where people have been dieing for over sixty years over an Ideology made by men in Europe. Selfish men ? maybe, only God knows. The Facts are the Palestinian people are not guilty of anything except of living with the Jews and Christians in mostly peace and harmony in communities as neighbors.

For over 1400 years already Freedom to be a christian or a Jew and obey your commands from your prophets. The common good of the body over came the minor differences and dealing with each other face to face in peace and well manners only made things grow stronger.

People knew each other, trusted each other, understood each other and A bond existed among them that they even fought side by side against the aggressors.

Yes it's very important to point out the truth and against every crusade there were Jews and Christians fighting against the European occupiers. Those times seem so much more holy to the land as what proves to be today.

The Europeans finally won after many crusades attempts with their own invented terror tactics. The worst part is that all these European invaders had in mind is the ideology that JERUSALEM was under threat with the Muslims and does not belong to them, complete negligence of the Christians living in the Muslim lands. They didn't even know christian communities existed in Muslim lands for thousand years plus. The war pushers didn't care to mention any truth but the Facts the ideology was pushed forward.

Palestine has been a target for a very long time already and after ww1 and ww2 the whole world was taking a new shape and Palestine was slowly becoming a Zionist state called Israel.

With the introduction of the Zionist ideology ( giving full ownership to any Jews mainly Zionist Jews, which completely denies any rights to the Palestinian people). What was known to being as the holy land, became a new ideology and became a state to a specific people only. The Zionist ideology has changed things and made people much less brotherly and communities built for generations after generations and even more, are being destroyed and replaced by a radical view and peace was lost.. Why all the hostility all of a sudden ?

The Israeli state is illegal from day one and Judaic ( scriptural ) abiding Jews will argue that for me.

Israel can end the conflict tomorrow, but to my understanding of the Zionist ideology it will never stop until all of greater Israel is created and the temple must be built over the Aqsa masjid/Mosque. According to Judaism only the Messiah will return the Jews to the promised land and zionist are many people with a Judaic teaching gone wrong. They are not the messiah, the Messiah is one person and Comes from The One God.

Some people want people to believe God is war and encourage such ideologies. Why do we have then prophets ? Why does a person even belief in God if the IDEOLOGY can be altered so freely ? Why don't Zionist change their ideology by achieving this strong bond in greater Israel simply by copying the way the MUSLIMS did it ? why are Zionist so possessive over a land they did not associate with for over a thousand years and more ?

God gives freedom to all humanity to think and do with whatever ideology they wish to believe. Send messengers with a path to the holy land ( eternal heavens ). The prophets sent to us all come with a peaceful and united way to follow and all good deeds have their rewards from the Almighty One ( Allah = Thee One God ). We cannot neglect the fact as well that all bad deeds will have their rewards as well.

What part a God abiding person would do or aim for ?

War happens for many reasons, mostly bad reasons but sometimes it can be for good reasons for example the war against Saddam and his nuclear arsenal . Amazing how people who push for wars have the most to get out of it and always the average joe is on the front lines for it. War oppression never a good thing for any believer for oppression is hated by Allah.

People who support oppression are not truly of God for God gives so much and we greatly under appreciate to begin with. Gifts wrapped in gifts wrapped in gifts. The most precious gift ( life ) has no value to others anymore. Ideologies take over the mind and some are evil ideologies disguised well enough to mix in the belief.

Humanity has a link in all of them easily explained here in the Quran

And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts): verily in that are Signs for those who reflect. [Noble Quran 30:21]

Human being can live in peace as one body, but with out oppression, wars and conflict. Treaties are established and must be honored. Corruption and traitors must be rooted out. The wealth must be returned to the people ( instead of private corporations which profit very handsomely from the people and the government itself ).

The Palestinian Issue can resolve many wars of today and to come and as long as certain agendas are seeked the process shall continue. It will be only a matter of time when the people will stop it ?

From the Israeli prospective; The finger pointing is never pointed at themselves. The Palestinians prospective is oppression for a very long time already.

Muslims and Jews lived in relative peace for over 1300 years, why is it when Zionism comes to the pictures ( they become enemies )?

And they talk about treaties, Why don't they look at the treaties by the Muslims and Jews/Christians who lived in the land and it's their right. No need for human rights foundations and none religious based ideologies. For example the new ideology of Islamic terrorism!! Terrorism is highly condemned in the Quran, specifically against innocence, women, elderly, children..

What do the scriptures teach us ?

The Quran

“God calls to the Home of Peace.”(The Quran, 10:25)

According to Islam, Paradise is the ideal human abode, and is thus called the ‘Home of Peace.’ It is also said that, the people of Paradise will wish peace to one another, indicating that the social culture of the people of Paradise will be based on peace.

The Quran, avers that, ‘reconciliation is best’ (4:128), and judging by the consequences, the way of peace is far better than that of confrontation. By the law of Nature, God has decreed that success will be met with only on a reconciliatory path, and not on a confrontational or a violent course of action.

Whenever the Prophet had an option between two courses of action, he always chose the easier (non-confrontational) one. (Bukhari)

This means that, violent activism should not be indulged in if peaceful activism is an option. For, peace is the easier course as compared to violence.

http://cpsglobal.org/content/peace-quran-0


Torah

Our English word “Law” does not have the same meaning as the Hebrew word “Torah.” Law implies a jail sentence or severe fine if broken. On the other hand, Torah is best understood as “guidelines and instructions” that were given to God’s people for guidance on how to live a godly life and is what identifies them with the Holy One of Israel. Kefa (Peter) states in 1 Peter 1:15, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.” [also see Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2, 20:7]

In regards to - ALIENS, FOREIGNERS, SOJOURNERS - GENTILES

we see that Gentiles (aliens, foreigners, sojourners, or strangers) who attach themselves to Israel were required to “do exactly” as “native-born Israelites…You and the alien shall be the same before the Lord: The same Laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.”

We see this throughout the Torah. In Leviticus 24:22 God states, “Ye shall have ONE manner of Law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country; for I am the Lord your God.” This is repeated in Exodus 12:49 and other places in Scripture.

http://treeoflifeknoxville.com/isthetorahforgentiles.htm

Bible

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
(Matthew 5:9)

The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.
(Psalm 29:11)

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
(Psalm 34:14)

It's time to return the land back to the holy. Who amongst us will recapture the true ideology of peace in the holy land ?

Peace is ever lasting and it's something we must be familiar with if we truly believe we are to go to the true holy land ( heaven ).

Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. 002.062

God is He besides Whom there is no god, the Sovereign, the Most Holy, the Source of Peace, the Bestower of Security, the Protector, the Mighty, the Subduer, the Exalted, Holy is God far above that which they associate with Him. He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner: His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him. He i s Mighty, the Wise. (59:23-25)

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Anti-Wall protest in West Bank/ Palestine

Hundreds of Palestinians and international activists have been protesting against the construction of Israel's separation wall in the West Bank.

The demonstration in the village of Bi'lin on Friday marked five years of opposition to the barrier, which cuts Palestinian villagers off from about two square kilometres of their land.

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports. [20 Feb 10]

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Holocaust Museum built by Arab Lawyer

As the sirens wail for Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Israeli diplomatic corps urges the world to remember and never permit such atrocities to happen again, one Arab lawyer takes history lessons about the Holocaust out to the Palestinian people. Khaled Kasab Mahameed faces opposition from Holocaust deniers, but still he persists with his quixotic mission: traveling to the West Bank to educate Palestinians about the Shoah, the final solution, the Holocaust.

Many Palestinians have never heard that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during Word War II — it doesn't rate a mention in their school history books. Others deny that the Holocaust ever happened. According to this blinkered reasoning, the Jews are fighting Palestinians over their homeland, and they cannot afford to have sympathy for their enemy. Mahameed sees this view as tragically misguided. He says:

The key to the Palestinians achieving their own goals is to understand the Holocaust, and the place it holds in the Israeli psyche and its obsession with security.

Mahameed passes around a death-camp photo of a Jewish inmate standing over a mass grave full of naked corpses. The room of Palestinians falls silent. "That man, that survivor, in the photograph came to Israel. Can you imagine the nightmares, the horrors that he brought with him? It's a suffering that nobody, even us Palestinians, can begin to comprehend," he says with quiet, lawyerly persistence. The photo moves around the room, again and again, in silence. Finally, a retired Palestinian general, Abdul Latah Solimia, once captive in an Israeli military prison in Lebanon says: "As a militant, I know the cost of war and hatred. For 60 years, we have tried to eliminate each other, and neither has won. We Israelis and Palestinians should share this land."

Mahameed's obsesison with teaching Arabs about the Holocaust occurred four years ago, when he took his two children to see the massive 20-foot high concrete wall that Israel has erected around parts of Jerusalem to keep out Palestinians. It is so high in places that it seems to sever half the blue sky. "I told my son to break off a piece of the wall as a souvenir. It was very difficult, and while he was trying, I asked myself, what would drive the Israelis to do such a thing to us, build such a monstrosity as this wall?" He gathered his son and daughter and drove them to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. "It was very moving. I couldn't breathe. Six million. It's like something off another planet," he recalls.

Touring the somber museum, it occurred to Mahameed that "we Palestinians are the victims of the terrible things that were inflicted on the Jews by the Holocaust." The images of the crimes perpetrated against the Jews of Europe also made him understand international support for Israel. "If an Israeli child dies from a Gaza rocket, the Israelis can take a photo of that child to America and them about 1.5 million Jewish children who died in the death camps, and Israelis will be given more money and weapons to use against us," he says. Most Israelis experience the same images of a Gaza rocket attack in the exterminationist frame of Auschwitz, not simply as a product of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over land.
Using photos donated by Yad Vashem and images from the Naqba — the "Catastrophe," which is how Palestinians refer to the events surrounding Israel's independence, which left thousands of Palestinians in exile and in refugee camps — the lawyer set up a one-room museum in his hometown of Nazareth, called the Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education. Every week, he travels to towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank trying to enlighten his fellow Palestinians. Says Mahameed, "Even with the militants, when I explain to them that Israel's brutal policies in the Palestinian territories stem from the Holocaust, they tell me 'You're bringing us an atomic bomb. We need to think about this.'"
Sometimes, his message is greeted with hostility — even in his own family. Mahameed has been ostracized by his brothers, who say that his obsession with the Holocaust is tantamount to sympathizing with Israel. False rumors that he is secretly on Israeli payroll dog him.
On the Israeli side, there is incomprehension, too. Yad Vashem staffers question his agenda." Replies Mahameed: "They don't want us Palestinians to have pity on them. They only want to show us how mighty they are."

Mahameed is an avid believer in Mahatma Gandhi's dictum that truth leads to non-violence, and he sees himself practicing a kind of ju-jitsu, using Israel's own moral superiority over the Holocaust as a way to shame the Israeli 'occupiers' in the West Bank into more humane treatment for the Palestinians. "If the Israelis believe that the Holocaust justifies this kind of brutal discrimination, then they're wrong."

He travels through army checkpoints showing his ID card and a photo from Auschwitz. At first he's met with suspicion. "I tell the soldiers that this could be a photo of their grandfather, and that I understand that they, as Jews, are unique victims. But the paradox is that we Palestinians have the Holocaust on our shoulders, too."

Source : israelity bites: Shoah and Tell - an Arab's Holocaust Museum



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