Fmr IDF Soldier to US - Stand Up to #Israel War Crimes [RT crosspost - YouTube 12mins]

Fmr. IDF Soldier Calls on Americans to Stand Up to Israel War Crimes - Interview with Eran Efrati

 

breakingtheset  YouTube Channel

Published September 15, 2014

Abby Martin speaks with Eran Efrati, a former IDF soldier who 

recounts his experience being ostracized for attempting to 

expose crimes he witnessed as a soldier.


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Rare - Mandela on Palestine [YouTube - 12mins]

Rare Video [1990]: Mandela Speaking on Palestine; live-audience Town Hall in New York, with Ted Koppel 

 

YouTube channel:  BDS South Africa

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: http://ymlp.com/zKJiYw

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REFERENCES MADE 

BY NELSON MANDELA

PLO: The Palestine Liberation Organisation 

(PLO) was created in 1964 with the purpose of 

advancing the struggle for Palestinian self 

determination. The PLO is recognised as the 

"sole legitimate representative of the 

Palestinian people" by over 100 countries with 

which it holds diplomatic relations. Like South 

Africa's (now ruling ANC) the PLO was 

considered by the United States and Israel to be 

a terrorist organisation until 1991. In 1993 

Israel officially recognised the PLO as the 

representative of the Palestinian people.

YASSER ARAFAT: Late leader of the 

Palestinian people as well as chairman of the 

PLO.

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ABOUT THE VIDEO 


- 1990 Town Hall Meeting with Nelson 

Mandela on Palestine, Cuba and other issues

The above video is from a 1990 town hall 

meeting, held in New York City and chaired by 

Ted Koppel of ABC Networks. The meeting 

formed part Nelson Mandela's first visit to the 

USA immediately following his release from 

prison.

A significant part of the town hall meeting 

focused on Nelson Mandela's advocating (on 

behalf of the African National Congress and the 

larger South African liberation struggle) for 

sanctions to be applied against Apartheid South 

Africa, his and the ANC's support for the 

Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as 

well as his close friendship with Yasser Arafat 

(of Palestine) and Fidel Castro (of Cuba).

The town hall meeting took place in 1990, long 

before the world had embraced Nelson 

Mandela as a "giant of justice". However, even 

then, when it may have been unfashionable and 

unpopular to support the Palestinians against, 

what Mandela termed, Israeli "colonialism", 

Mandela stood firm and resolute on his 

principles and the policies of the ANC - 

Mandela was, after all, conveying the long-

standing positions held by the ANC and the 

larger South African liberation movement. 

Nelson Mandela supported the Palestinian 

struggle when it was unfashionable and 

unpopular, he was a true leader. Hamba Kahle 

Tata...

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FULL VERSION: http://youtu.be/q6eE9BIUfBg

Henry Siegman to Israel [2014]

- Stop killing Palestinians and end the Occupation - Democracy Now!


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Caller - does #Israel not have right to defend itself - Mike Malloy explodes [6mins]

The Mike Malloy Show - YouTube
August 12, 2014

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The latest book by Owen Jones:
'The Establishment: And how they get away with it'; [2014]

Images - #Israel airstrikes destroy commercial district of #Rafah #Gaza - August 22 2014

Via Twitter, Mahmoud Zaqout, reports that tens of shops have been completely destroyed.  Saberpal's photographs depict the aftermath of Israel's shelling of the commercial district of Rafah, Gaza, on August 22, 2014.

With Mr. Zaqout's permission I downloaded, cropped and posted Saberpal's extraordinary photographs.
                                                       
                                                          - Diane V. McLoughlin, August 23, 2014

Images:  Israeli airstrikes target commercial district of Rafah, Gaza Strip August 22, 2014. Photographer: Saberpal (Facebook) via @maymoud_zaqout

Play GAZONTO score big in #GazaUnderAttack [August 20 2014 - 4mins]

GAZONTO from Albino Squirrel Channel on Vimeo August 20, 2014

Response to Fatalist Gerald Caplan on Peace in #Israel - #Palestine - 21082014

by Diane McLoughlin, August 21, 2014

The best aspect of Gerry Caplan's analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict is his frank acknowledgement of the oppression and ethnic cleansing that Israel continues to perpetrate against the suffering Palestinian people. It is vitally important to share here that Israel's latest assault on Gaza is an act of genocide - not self-defense!

The worst aspect of Gerry Caplan's analysis is his sorrowful shrug that the situation in Israel-Palestine is intractable and that nothing can be done about it. While it may be a tough nut to crack, wherever there is oppression and injustice we should not back away from our moral and ethical duty to denounce it while encouraging healing and repair of relations between parties. It is a gentle irony that Mr. Caplan himself does not shy away from the ethical duty to speak, and it seems obvious that he cares.

So there is what-is on the one hand, while what-should-be stands separate and apart on the other. There is in an immense space in-between that is open to creative and determined and intelligent and dedicated and good people who set themselves to the challenge of changing the parameters of conflict. Such effort is not futile in the furtherance of justice, peace and global stability, even though you will almost certainly not know how your efforts assisted in tipping the scales.

Some of the ways to apply nonviolent pressure to help bring about peaceful change:

Boycott

As with South African Apartheid, ways to encourage Israeli political direction to change include boycotting Israeli goods, divesting from one's investment portfolios of Israeli companies, and to demand ones' own countries sever political ties with Israel - Boycott, Divest, Sanctions - BDS for short.

Examples:

- BDSmovement.net - lots of resources at this website.

- The 'Long live Palestine boycott Israel' buycott app' was begun in April. Once Israel launched its latest military assault on Gaza beginning in July, the numbers of new buycott users exploded. [over 390,000 users and counting.]

  The buycott campaign organizers explain that the boycott,

'will continue until Israel complies with the precepts of international law by

    1. Ending its occupation of Palestine and dismantling the Wall.

    2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel          to full equality.

   3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to               return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.'

Cut military and intelligence ties

Let it be known to your government that you believe it would be the right thing to do to cut all military cooperative ties with Israel - no more donations of bullets, bombs, software or intelligence.

Ban public and private donations that further injustice

Render it illegal for private individuals to donate funds to Israeli institutions that further the aims of stealing Palestinian land.

Ban private business from profiting from oppression

Render it illegal for any company to collude with Israel to extract Palestinian-owned natural resources. In the mix is the recent discovery  that Gaza owns a vast wealth of natural gas off-shore.

Ban citizens from enlisting in foreign militaries which enforce oppression

Render it illegal for citizens to serve in Israel's military.

Ban politicians from accepting gifts including trips

Render it illegal, if it isn't already, for politicians to accept Israel-funded trips. By all means, politicians ought to travel to Israel to witness what's going on. But only if the investigation includes fact-finding in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, meeting with Palestinian authorities, as well.

Conclusion

Mr. Caplan's argument is an important one, in that he may have helped to finally open political debate in Canada on Israel that for too long has been censored and suppressed.

Reponse to, 'No matter what leaders do, there won't be peace in the Middle East'; Gerald Caplan, African scholar, former NDP national director and regular panelist on CBC’s Power and Politics; The Globe and Mail; August 15, 2014.

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Latest statistics - #Israel assault on #Gaza - August 15 2014

Latest Statistics for Operation Protective Edge - Israel's assault on Gaza
August 15 2014; by Diane V. McLoughlin

Gaza: 459 children killed; 1,962 total fatalities; 226 have been identified as being from armed groups; 9,986 injured including 3,009 children;16,700 homes destroyed or severely damaged; 335,000 people in shelters or doubled-up in homes; 25 schools entirely destroyed or severely damaged [ochaopt.org - Occupied Palestinian Territory Gaza Emergency Situation Report, as of August 12 2014 pdf].

Report: United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): 'Humanitarian relief personnel, objects used for relief operations – including UNRWA schools in Gaza used as shelters – are protected under international law. 

'Whilst data on damage to UNRWA installations is according to preliminary information and subject to change based on further verification, particularly in those areas pending unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance, UNRWA estimates that at least 103 installations have been damaged since 8 July 2014, the majority being UNRWA schools. There is also recorded damage to health centers, sanitation and social services facilities, and the UNRWA compound in Gaza City. Some of UNRWA installations were damaged on multiple occasions.' [Gaza Situation Report No. 37 August 15 2014; UNRWA] .

Hospitals; ambulances; rescue workers:

Excerpt of first-person accounts of an incident by ambulance emergency rescue workers:

Background: Mohammad Al-Abadlah, 32, a paramedic who worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), was killed on 25 July in Qarara by Israeli army gunfire when he was attempting to rescue an injured man stranded in an area controlled by the Israeli military. Hassan Al-Attal, 40, a colleague of Mohammad Al-Abadlah who was with him at the time and witnessed the shooting, told Amnesty International:

“On 25 July, my colleague Mohammad Al-Abadlah and I were tasked with reaching an injured man in Qarara...At one point while driving in the ambulance we were blocked by live electric wires on the road. We informed the Red Cross that the road was blocked and we could not cross. They asked us to try to cross somehow, but we told them we couldn’t. They then called the Israelis and told them about the wires blocking the road and how we were unable to cross. They got back to us saying the army says to get out of the car and cross on foot with our flashlights. So, Mohammad said to me ‘Let’s go, they agreed that we can go walking and collect the case from them directly’.

“We got out, we crossed about 10-12 metres and suddenly we were being fired at directly. My colleague screamed and said ‘I’ve been shot’. The shooting continued everywhere, so I could not pull him away or else I too would have got shot and fallen beside him – so I ran and sat in the ambulance. I called the station and told them we had been fired at and Mohammad was injured. The head of the centre came with two ambulances to try and save our colleague. When the colleagues got out to try and take Mohammed, they too were fired at. The head of the centre asked the Red Cross to ask for shooting to stop while we evacuated Mohammad. We brought him but sadly he died...'. 

Corroborating testimony, by Mohammad Ghazi Al-Hessy, head of the PRCS’s centre in Khan Younis, who received the call to rescue Mohammad and attended to it with his other colleagues, includes this: 

“When we received this call from the Red Cross. They said it was Israel that had requested the evacuation of the injured person...'.

 [Evidence of medical workers and facilities being targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza; Amnesty International report, August 7 2014];

Farms and food production facilities: 'The recent fighting has resulted in substantial direct damage to Gaza's 17,000 hectares of croplands as well as much of its agricultural infrastructure, including greenhouses, irrigation systems, animal farms, fodder stocks and fishing boats.' [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; August 14 2014];

Water, electricity and sewage infrastructure - targeted. [Under fire in Gaza and not a drop to drink; Kristen Chick; Christian Science Monitor; July 24 2014.]

Israel: Three civilians, 67 soldiers killed; one gas station hit;  damage to a few homes.  

Diane V McLoughlin speaking at #Gaza protest - #Ottawa - Aug 09 2014 [3mins]

Youtube:  Diane V. McLoughlin

Ottawa, Canada August 09, 2014 

 Sharing a few words at the protest in Ottawa, against Israel's latest genocidal assault on Gaza, 'Operation Protective Edge' - editor, Diane V. McLoughlin, of mcloughlinpost.com

The Coin of #Israel - by Diane V. McLoughlin - August 3 2014

by Diane V. McLoughlin, August 3, 2014

Journalist Sima Kadmon, of ynetnews.com, approvingly reports of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to pull back the military operation in Gaza. [''Netanyahu's Brave Decision'; August 3, 2014]

Operation Protective Edge, is Israel's third bombing campaign of Gaza in the short space of five years. The others are Operation Cast Lead [2008]; and Operation Pillar of Cloud [2012].  

Gaza is a small, long, narrow strip of land that is walled in on three sides: The Mediterranean Sea, guarded by the Israeli navy; it borders Egypt on one short end; and Israel's high cement walls, armed guard towers and coil upon coil of barbed wire close off the rest - an impoverished, oppressed, walled ghetto. 

The 1.8 million men, women and children living in Gaza, are refugees from Israel who were forced from their homeland from places like Sderot, Israel, in 1948. The refugees in many instances retain the keys to the doors of their rightful homes.  And they have a right, morally as well as in law, to go home. Because they are of the 'wrong' ethnicity, Israel is doing everything in its power to prevent their return.  

During 'Operation Cast Lead', Israel and Hamas each accused the other of committing war crimes. Findings were detailed in the United Nations' document the, Goldstone Report, produced after six independent, esteemed judges were tasked with conducting a fact-finding mission to investigate - including, note allegations typically made by Israel of Hamas, that the Israeli military had used Palestinians as human shields.  Of Israel's well-oiled propaganda machine, volumes will no doubt be written.

Recall, too, that one of the six jurists, Richard Goldstone, felt the need to try to backpedal somewhat in his own opinion regarding who did what to whom in a Washington Post Op Ed, after the local South African Jewish community caused him to fear for the safety and well-being of his family.

 Netanyahu is willing, according to Ms. Kadmon, to accept going back to what Israeli politicians like to call, 'quiet for quiet'; Israel maintaining the siege of Gaza, the people of Gaza refraining from resisting the siege or any other funny business like tunneling in Kentucky Fried Chicken or trying to export flowers or other farm produce to foreign markets, or get university-bound scholarship students off to school. 

It is apropos to point out here that Palestinian political leaders are, as I write, in Cairo, Egypt, availing all parties of the opportunity to hammer out terms for a ceasefire along with the broad outlines of a peace agreement. Israel refused to attend.  

It is an instructive exercise comparing what it is that Israel chooses to do, what Israel chooses not to do, and Israel's expressions of intent. 

The hasbara (Israeli for propaganda) 'quiet for quiet' is genius in the psychology of deflecting concern.

It is not 'quiet' for the people of Gaza to be forced to continue under the crushing eight-year military blockade which has destroyed the local economy and has been compared as being worse than the Great Depression for the abject poverty and want. 

It is a farce to propose that Israel will construct for itself a secure quiet by continuing to oppress the Palestinians in Gaza; the occupied West Bank; East Jerusalem; Israel; or the Palestinian refugees scattered in other countries denied the right to come home - we can dispense with that canard. 

Pro-Israel people - and I have no doubt that they have big hearts and they are convinced that Israel is the underdog and that they are fighting Nazis, and that they are defending vulnerable Jewish lives - argue that Hamas is bent on Israel's destruction. 

But the truth of the matter is that Hamas was voted to power as a reaction to discrimination, racism, and violence directed toward the Palestinian people for 65 years. 

Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank have achieved nothing in their peaceful negotiations with Israel other than relentless efforts by settlers to take their land and drive them out.

Muslims do not hate Jews. Jews and Muslims have been neighbors living peacefully side by side with each other in Palestine for millennia before the events of 1948 when Zionist terrorists forced 750,000 Palestinians to run for their lives.  

The Likud is the current political party in power in Israel. The Likud Charter explicitly claims ownership of all Palestinian land.  Any discussion of who is responsible for what without forthright acknowledgement of this fly in the soup is not contributing to an honest discussion that might lead to constructive proposals. It will ultimately lead to a thin broth of no substance as far as any hope for peace is concerned.

Israel has, in this latest ethnic cleansing exercise in Gaza, bombed thousands of family homes; bombed six United Nations-run children's schools where newly homeless families were sheltered who were ordered to shelter in the UN schools by Israel after Israel bombed their homes. 

Israel has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians depopulating a vast swath of Gaza estimated in geographic area to be approximately 44% of the entire Gaza Strip. In short, Israel has been forcing families out in the elements while destroying absolutely everything. 

As of this writing, almost two million people have no drinking water due to Israel's deliberate targeting of the civilian infrastructure - a war crime. If humanitarian efforts are not able to respond with all haste, the scenario will elevate to status of crime against humanity. 

In times of conflict, governments are not always forthcoming with the full truth. Israel is no exception.    

That Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldier Hadar Goldin was ever kidnapped?  This particular fiction was used to provide diplomatic cover when breaking the first ceasefire agreement within just a few short hours of its implementation. 

While having freshly riled the citizenry over the missing soldier, Israel then continued massacreing people in Gaza. Hadar Goldin, via uncensored reports in the West, was more likely killed by his own under something called the Hannibal Directive, to prevent his capture by the enemy. 

*The New York Times has disclosed that they complied with an IDF military censor directive to get clearance on their reporting of the Goldin incident.

Israel admitted, only after bombing another hospital, more family homes, snipers picking-off civilians ordered to move, an emergency appeal sent out that the medical authorities were overrun and bodies littered the streets - that Hadar Goldin was not kidnapped, after all. 

It should be noted that soldiers are taken prisoner, they are not kidnapped, in conflict. This, too, is meant to mislead and arouse sympathy, inflame public opinion and suppress questions. 

Goldin, a British citizen, was a willing party to waging war on a captive civilian population, shooting at people who are entitled under international law to shoot back in self-defense.

*A direct quote from the New York Times:

'International journalists must agree in writing to the censorship system in order to work in Israel.'

Israel's violence against Gaza is wanton. It is a country at imminent risk of degenerating into a racist, moral morass. [1]

Rising to the top politically, are those who, like Israeli Knesset Deputy Speaker Moshe Feiglin, openly avow genocide of the Palestinian people because they want more land for Jews.

In the streets below, armed Jewish gangs roam the streets at night seeking Arab-Israeli citizens to beat to a pulp. A slightly-built sixteen year-old, named, Mohammad abu Khdeir, was recently kidnapped, beaten with a tire iron, had gasoline forced down his throat and they burned him alive. 

Supporters of this most recent atrocity in Gaza, with whole Palestinian neighborhoods being bombed out of existance, argue that Hamas kidnapped three Jewish teens and murdered them in the West Bank. First, they believe, wrongly, that this would ever justify such a massively violent response which is nonsense.  Second, with speed of light acceptance that everything Israel tells them is Gospel Truth, that Hamas had anything to do with it. After Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, the quiet admission that, no, it appears it was not Hamas, passes by largely unnoticed.

A month before the three Jewish teens' murders, two Palestinian youths were shot and murdered by the IDF in cold blood [2], reported by CNN at the time. [2a] But you, and certainly Israeli citizens, most likely did not hear about that, either.

In the search for the three missing Jewish teens, Israel's occupying army tore the Palestinian West Bank apart. Blowing in doors of family homes in the middle of the night with explosives, destroying the furniture, stealing family possessions, scaring people, roughing up people, arresting hundreds without charge including many in Palestinian political leadership; wounding some; killing others. 

It is in the vicinity of this juncture in the unfolding of events that the Hamas rockets from Gaza, rockets described as primitive and small began to sail over, after an extended period of calm in which, calm or no calm - there has been no difference in behavior from Israel - the constant is the crushing military blockade.

Evidence for the extent to which Israeli passions are inflamed - by the ruling right-wing, and in some cases by religious extremists - we might need look no further than at a clip of joyous young people who sing, on the top of their lungs as raucous youths might at a football championship, that there is no school in Gaza tomorrow, because there are no children left. 

There are many other examples from which to choose, however, for the black mood and amorality of the current time, none of which bears little resemblance to anything to do with self-defense. Israel is a run-away train with conductors soused on dogma, and conceit, spouting KKK-type crap about cleansing the land of inferiors for Jews. [3] 

On background, Israel deliberately transplanted 600,000 Zionist Jews on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank, in a deliberate effort to create demographic facts on the ground.  Stealing Palestinian land has dramatically escalated in recent years.  

Russian Jew Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's minister of Foreign Affairs, himself a squatter on Palestinian land, continues to espouse a 'population transfer'. [4]

Prime Minister Netahyahu was caught, surreptitiously, on-camera [2001] talking to settlers, wherein he boasts that he single-handedly scuttled the last formal round of peace talks, at Oslo.  

An inclusive society constructed on a foundation of justice, equality and civil rights is the way forward toward security and peace.  The Jews who suffered so, under Nazi Germany's version of hell on earth would have fought for such a golden reality; for such a clear morally true vision of sanity. 

Netanyahu's camp - pushing for quiet occupation, apartheid, racism, ethnic cleansing and even genocide - might win; maybe they will win. But it will be a sorry day for progress, human rights and world peace if the Israel coin lands on its head.

__________________

Statistics regarding destruction in Gaza from July 8, 2014 to August 3, 2014:  1,743 Palestinians killed [396 children; 230 women]; 9,100 injured [2,767 children; 1,814 women]; 10,080 houses targeted [1,556 totally destroyed; 8,424 partially]; 24 hospitals and medical clinics partially damaged; 167 schools targeted; 6 universities destroyed; 20 charities destroyed; 118 mosques shelled; total number of internally displaced [rendered homeless]: 450,000; 8 water pumping and sewage stations bombed - 700,000 people now without water. For a complete list, see, HERE and HERE

Statistics regarding Israel: 64 soldiers killed, 2 civilians and 1 non-citizen from Thailand killed; 1 serious, 21 moderately to lightly injured; one gas station hit; moderate damage to a few homes.

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Reading Room

[1] How Europe's Jews Lost Their Humanity in Gaza; Gilad Isaacs; August 1, 2014, +972 Magazine; [2] Letter from Ramallah; Ben Ehrenreich, The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 23, 2014;

[2a] Source: Israel suspends soldier after 2 Palestinians die in shooting; by Ivan Watson, Michael Schwartz and Kareem Khadder; CNN; May 29, 2014;

[3] Terrifying Tweets of pre-army Israeli teens (with images, tweets) by @davidsheen; July 10, 2014; 'Some of these calls for genocide were from young men, but a majority of them seemed to be authored by young women.'

[4] Plan to transfer Arab-Israelis to new Palestinian state seeks legal approval; Peter Beaumont; The Guardian; March 25, 2014;

Freedom for Palestine - #GazaNames Project [4mins]

                 83,500 views in just two days

Youtube channel: Jewish Voice for Peace

Published on Jul 28, 2014

Prominent Jews and Palestinians and others stand for Palestine in this heartbreaking video with Jonathan Demme, Gloria Steinem, Tony Kushner, Diana Buttu, Chuck D, Eve Ensler, Brian Eno, Roger Waters, Mira Nair, Wallace Shawn, Naomi Klein, Mira Nair, Raj Patel, Noura Erakat and many others. To learn more or take action, visit freedom4palestine.org. Project of JewishVoiceforPeace.org with assistance from IMEU.org (Institute of Middle East Understanding)