Witness - Part 3 and 4

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Witness- Part 1 and 2

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PCHR Condemns Israeli Attempts to Legitimize Crimes in Gaza and Sheild Perpetrators from Justice

On 22 April 2009, Israeli Military Authorities announced the conclusion of five internal investigations examining the conduct of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during the recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The investigations, supervised by IOF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, claimed that investigations found a very small number of incidents involving intelligence or operational errors, but that "throughout the fighting in the Gaza Strip" IOF "operated in accordance with international law".

Deputy IOF chief of staff, Major General Dan Harel, claimed that 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the offensive of which 295 were civilians, and 709 were combatants. 162 victims have not been classified.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly contest these figures and the results of the investigations, which constitute an attempt to legitimise crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, and to shield perpetrators from justice. PCHR's investigations indicate that 1,417 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, of which 1,181 (83%) were non-combatants. Civilian property in the Gaza Strip was also extensively targeted and destroyed: PCHR have found that, inter alia, approximately 20,000 homes and 1,500 factories and workshops were completely destroyed or damaged, and that 6,636 dunums of agricultural land were razed. Source



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Palestina - Video

This short video should help say alot about some of palestinian Issues with the Zionist policies.




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Palestinians in Hebron complain of racism - 24 Apr 09

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According to the Bible, Falestin was given to them by God.

Abraham stayed a long time there;

” And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.” Ge 21:34

David got protection there;

“But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing for me to do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me, and I will finally be safe.”" 1 Samuel 27:1

More righteous than Isaac;

“king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah his wife. So Abim’elech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, she is your wife; how then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” Abim’elech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” (Genesis 26:6-11)

Palestinians are the Judges of Israel;

“These were the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the hill country of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath. These people were left to test the Israelites – to see whether they would obey the commands the LORD had given to their ancestors through Moses.” Judges 3:3-4

“And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.” Jud 15:20

Israel Given to the Palestinians;

“And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.” 1Samuel 15:28, and (jos 13:1)

Israel Sold To Palestinians;

“And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites” Jos 10:7


Hope this helps people see that the bible itself as well, rejects their version of favor of God.

Equal to Israel;

“Do you Israelites think you are more important to me than the Ethiopians ?” asks the LORD. “I brought you out of Egypt, but have I not done as much for other nations, too? I brought the Philistines from Crete and led the Arameans out of Kir” Amos 9:7






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Tell Congress to help humanitarian workers get into Gaza and to suspend all transfers of weapons to Israel

20 days into the Gaza crisis and the humanitarian crisis there gets worse each day. 398 women and children are dead, another 4700 injured, 750,000 lack access to water and one million are without electricity. Each day that passes guarantees more innocent civilians will suffer. Tell Congress to act swiftly to help humanitarian workers get into Gaza and to suspend all transfers of weapons to Israel.

Tell Congress to help humanitarian workers get into Gaza and to suspend all transfers of weapons to Israel



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The reasons behind the assassination of Ahmad Yassine

Ahmad Yassine, the spiritual leader of Hamas, was assassinated by the direct order of Ariel Sharon and carried out by Apache helicopters. This should not be analyzed as only the assassination of one person.
The reasons behind the assassination of Ahmad Yassine
There is no doubt that the Zionist regime had specific reasons and purposes for carrying out the assassination of Shaykh Ahmad Yassine. Shaykh Ahmad was born in the village al-Jawar near Asqalan. This village, along with many other villages, was occupied by Jewish forces in 1948. At that time, Yassine moved with his family to Gaza. Yassine started his resistance after completing his studies at Al-Azhar University. He was arrested numerous times by the Zionist regime before he was finally assassinated. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in the year 1983 and was released two years afterwards. In 1989 he was arrested again and sentenced to 15 years in prison and was released in a prisoner swap in 1997. He lost his sight while resisting and at the time of his martyrdom his body was extremely fragile. Despite his fragile body he was considered the charismatic leader of Hamas. He was also loved by the rest of the Palestinian political parties. He held the second place of affection amongst the Palestinian people after Arafat. The Zionist regime wanted to strike Hamas, a group that takes responsibility for most of the martyrdom missions performed in Palestine, by murdering their founder, Shaykh Yassine.

Another reason behind the assassination was that the Zionist regime wanted to destroy the balance of the Palestinian political groups after the retreat from Gaza. In the opinion of the Zionist regime Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Jihad, and even the Quds Martyr Brigades – the military wing of Fatah – did not cooperate at all. This gap of strength must be filled. There was a gap of strength in the region because Egypt did not accept controlling it, the weakness of the PLO, and the inability of international organizations. Zionist sources announced that Yassine was assassinated at a time when the mentioned groups were on the verge of making an agreement over the control of Gaza. They then quoted members of Hamas. For example, they quoted Nasir Rayan, one of the top members of Hamas, as saying: “Hamas has a program for controlling Gaza after the retreat.” Sharon predicted that after the assassination of Yasin Palestinian groups, especially Hamas, would take severe revenge and then Sharon would be able to announce the insecurity of Gaza and the retreat would be cancelled. One of the points that must be observed is that this prediction did not actualize. In opposition to the prediction the assassination of Yassine did not create a third intifada.

Yassine was a father figure for all of the members of Hamas. He was the spiritual leader of Hamas. But, that does not mean that the Palestinians will not be able to find another leader like him.

At the end it must be said that the Zionist regime assassinated him by continuing their policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders. Shaykh Ahmad Yassine was 68 years old at the time of his martyrdom.



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Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against
Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(OPT) and Continue to Impose a Total Siege on the Gaza Strip

• IOF killed two activists of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and one civilian in the West Bank.

• 16 Palestinian civilians, including two children and two journalists, were
wounded by IOF gunfire in the West Bank.

• 9 of these civilians were wounded by IOF and Israeli settlers in Kherbat Safa area, north of Hebron.

• IOF conducted 26 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

• IOF arrested 52 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children, in the West Bank and 10 fishers in the Gaza Strip.

• IOF conducted a wide scale incursion into Kherbat Safa area, north of Hebron.

• IOF occupied 8 Palestinian houses, and reclassified them as military sites.

• IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

• IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 9 Palestinian civilians.

• IOF have continued measures aimed at the creating of a majority Jewish
demographic in East Jerusalem.

• IOF demolished two Palestinian houses in Jerusalem.

• A Palestinian house in the old town of Jerusalem was seized.

• IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

• IOF ordered the demolition of a number of houses in Hebron.

• Israeli settlers seized 4 shops in the old town of Hebron.

Story




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The apartheid analogy

The apartheid analogy

It is perhaps understandable that some advocates of Palestinian rights look at the "apartheid label," in its comparative sense, as a politically useful tool. The struggle of the South African people for justice and equality reached a certain sacred status in the 1980s and '90s when the anti-apartheid struggle reached its zenith. The reverence with which activists and non-activists alike look to the righteousness of the South African struggle, and the ignominy of the colonial apartheid regime, are well placed. Black South Africans fought against both Dutch and British colonization for centuries, endured countless hardships including imprisonment and death, and were labeled terrorists as the powers of the world stood by the racist apartheid regime. They remained steadfast in their struggle, raising the cost of maintaining the apartheid system until South African capital found it no longer profitable and white political elites found it impossible to maintain. The comparison is further enhanced due to the relationship between the respective Palestinian and South African liberation movements, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the African National Congress, as well as the unabashed alliance between Israel and the South African apartheid regime, which remained strong even at the height of the international boycott against South Africa.

A further impetus for confining the "apartheid label" to a comparison with South Africa is that the commonalities and similarities between the liberation struggles of South Africa and Palestine are quite stark. Both cases involved a process of settler-colonialism involving the forced displacement of the indigenous population from most of their ancestral lands and concentrating them in townships and reservations, dividing the colonized community into different groups with differing rights, strict mobility restrictions that suffocated the colonized, and the use of brutal military force to repress any actual or potential resistance against the racist colonial regime.

Both regimes have enjoyed the impunity that results from full US and European support. Accompanying these and countless other similarities are a host of uncanny details common to both cases: both regimes were formally established in the same year -- 1948 -- following decades of British rule; approximately 87 percent of the land was off limits to most of the colonized population without special permission, and so on. While we speak here in the past tense for South Africa, this still applies to present-day Palestine.

As the Israeli apartheid label has gained ground, some have adopted the approach of describing the differences between the two regimes, albeit for various purposes. In general, Israel has not legislated petty apartheid -- the segregation of spaces such as bathrooms and beaches -- as was the case in South Africa. However, Israeli laws form the basis of systematic racial discrimination against Palestinians. The 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel (approximately 20 percent of Israel's citizens) do indeed have the right to vote and run in Israeli elections while the Black community in South Africa, for the most part, did not. The South African version of apartheid's central tenet was to facilitate the exploitation of as many Black laborers as possible, whereas the Israeli version, although exploiting Palestinian workers, prioritizes the forced displacement of as many Palestinians as possible beyond the borders of the state with the aim of eradicating Palestinian presence within historic Palestine. South African visitors to Palestine have often commented on the fact that Israeli use of force is more brutal than that witnessed in the heyday of apartheid, thus leading several commentators to adopt the position that Israel's practices are worse than apartheid and that the apartheid label does not go far enough. Read more



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