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![]() Rise people, rise: call for zero tolerance of Israeli crimes
Rich Wiles views Israel’s murder of peace activists aboard the Gaza-bound international aid flotilla against the background of a long history of Israeli crimes against the Palestinians. He reminds us that, even as the world was mourning the murder of the peace activists, Israeli soldiers and settlers continued to murder Palestinians.
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Monday, June 7,2010 13:21 | ||||||||||||
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Through the recent murderous events in international waters Israel has once again shown its true colours and its total disregard for humanity. What happened to the dedicated human rights activists about the flotilla in the early hours of 31 May was yet another example of Israel’s barbarity against innocent human beings, yet by the following afternoon it could not even be called “the latest” attack. As people around the world took to the streets to call for an end to Israel’s impunity, people in Palestine continued to resist all the way from the southern Palestinian town of Rafah in Gaza, north and across the Palestinian towns of 1948 Palestine, and yet further around the West Bank. At Kalandia checkpoint near Ramallah, Palestinians gathered to demonstrate against the massacre at sea. The Israeli occupation forces’ response was violent as is the norm, and this led to more bloodshed. A 21-year-old American photographer was shot in the eye by what is thought to have been a high-velocity tear-gas canister. Emily Henochowicz was immediately rushed to hospital; she now has only one eye. On 1 June, three Palestinians were killed in Gaza, including a 65-year-old woman who was shot in the legs in the area of the Kerem Shalom crossing. In the following days, Zionist settlers, who are supported by the Israeli government in their colonization of Palestinian land through financial incentives and ideology (let us not forget that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is himself a settler living in a West Bank colony near Bethlehem), have continued their violent campaigns against Palestine and its people. In the northern West Bank, settlers from the Yitzhar colony torched around 100 dunums of Palestinian almond and olive groves on 2 June. On the same day, in al-Khalil (Hebron in English), a Palestinian was killed by settlers in a car crash. The morning of 3 June brought yet more Palestinian blood; this time is was the blood of two schoolboys. As children from al-Aroub refugee camp crossed a road on their way to class a car stopped and an armed settler stepped out of the vehicle. According to witnesses, the settler then proceeded to open fire on the schoolboys. This incident happened in full view of the permanently manned Israeli occupation forces’ watchtowers that dominate the entrance to al-Aroub camp. Two boys were shot; one was hit in the thigh, whilst the second boy is still in critical condition after being shot through his stomach. Doctors are as yet still unsure if this boy will survive. Following the shooting the settler got back in his car and drove away. People around the world are expressing their anger at the massacre carried out against the flotilla, and rightly so, but nobody should lose sight of the wider context. The activists aboard those ships were demonstrating their support for justice, and their refusal to remain silent. The exact details of injuries and deaths is still unclear, but what is abundantly clear is that they died in defence of Palestine. As those people died, so other innocent people are continuing to die much as they have done for over 62 years under the black clouds of Zionism. Source: Redress Information & Analysis (http://www.redress.cc). Material published on Redress may be republished with full attribution to Redress Information & Analysis (http://www.redress.cc) |
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tags: Israeli Crimes / IOF / IOA / Flotilla / Gaza Siege / Anti-Siege / Occupied lands / International Waters / Massacre / Palestinian People
Posted in Palestine |
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