22 May, 2016

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the far-right turn the government has signaled by choosing Avigdor Lieberman as Defense Minister. Activists say PM Benjamin Netanyahu is putting Israel on a path of war.

Demonstrators came together at HaBima Square in Tel Aviv, saying that by appointing Lieberman to head the military, Netanyahu had created the “most right wing government in the history of the State,” Israeli media reported.

“We think this government is a disaster for our country,” the Jerusalem Post quoted one of the organizers as shouting. “There is no future or vision.”

Protesters held up Peace Now signs and waved green left-wing Meretz party flags as they chanted slogans with Netanyahu’s nickname: “Bibi you failed, Bibi go home,” and “We don’t want more victims, Lieberman is a minister of war.”

Netanyahu chose to replace Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon with Lieberman, the controversial chair of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, rather than form a coalition with the center-left Zionist Union.

Ya’alon resigned from both the government and parliament on Friday, citing “a lack of faith” in Netanyahu, even as the PM reportedly tried to appease him by offering up the job of the foreign minister.

“I informed the PM that after his conduct and recent developments, and given the lack of faith in him, I am resigning from the government and parliament and taking a break from political life,” Ya’alon said.

The opposition was outraged by the appointment, stating that it would result in a policy “on the brink of madness.”

Tamar Zandberg, a member of the left-wing Meretz party, spoke at the rally, stressing the new level of extremism in the government ranks.

“This week we reached new heights of extremism and an even more right-wing government” she told the crowd. Zandberg also described Lieberman as “corrupt” and “racist.”

She urged the Israeli pubic to make a choice between the right and the left and make their voices heard. “This is a week of political deals but it is also a week of choice,” she added.

Lieberman is known for his controversial suggestions, such one advocating “cutting off heads” of Arab-Israelis not “loyal” to Israel.

https://www.rt.com/news/343979-israel-protest-lieberman-minister/

Steampipe wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 9:09pm:


Where did I say I supported Hamas?

What I post here is about how ordinary Palestinians are being treated, they are not all Hamas just as not all jews are  Zionists.

http://henrymakow.com/israelcreatedhamastoavoid.html

Steampipe wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 10:49pm:


Israel doesn't need incitement. They enjoy killing Palestinians.

Instead of investigating the Israel Defense Forces’ assault policies, the Military Police and State Prosecutor’s Office are focusing on a low-severity case of a soldier who provided testimony that raised suspicions of war crimes.

The court will hear a petition by the State Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday, looking to force the nonprofit Breaking the Silence to reveal the identity of a soldier who provided testimony that raised suspicions of war crimes. The prosecution’s demand is scandalous and wrong. Such action could lead to the end of collecting anonymous testimonies from soldiers regarding what happened during fighting, and could be a severe blow to the organization.

Soldiers’ testimonies are a significant tool in civil society for disclosing what happened on the ground during fighting. It is an important way to hear from soldiers about the reality of the situation, which is sometimes subject to attempts to whitewash or conceal, and is also a good mechanism for providing outside oversight – something any entity needs, no matter how professional or reliable.

For this tool to exist, those providing information must be granted immunity. Just as it is in the media, where journalists are protected, and the legal world, where attorney-client privilege prevails, people who give information to human rights groups must be afforded the same immunity.

The prosecution’s demand – allegedly made because of the need to determine whether a crime had been committed – will compromise the possibility of dealing with cases involving violations of the laws of war, because it will prevent such testimony in the future. The prosecution has enough tools to investigate the extensive information that was made public about harm to civilians during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014, and in other incidents, without compromising the immunity of the people providing the information.

The prosecution’s demand is part of a series of recent assaults on Breaking the Silence from various quarters, including the ousted defense minister calling them traitors (a term he later withdrew).

This case smacks of scapegoating. Instead of investigating the Israel Defense Forces’ assault policies, as reflected by the last Gaza war, the Military Police and State Prosecutor’s Office are focusing on a single case of low-level severity.

The State Prosecutor’s Office and the attorney general must investigate the IDF’s methods in Operation Protective Edge. To do so, there is no need to compromise the confidentiality of an individual who testified before Breaking the Silence. Rather, the policies of the army, dictated from above, should be investigated, along with the politicians who sit above the army.

The State Prosecutor’s Office should withdraw its unacceptable demand to force Breaking the Silence to reveal the identity of the individual. If it does not do so, Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court must reject the demand out of hand.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.720788



http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/pdf/ProtectiveEdge.pdf

May 26, 2016

Israeli warplanes have launched two airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in yet another act of aggression against the besieged coastal sliver. 

According to Palestinian media reports, the airstrikes hit an area west of Rafah and the Nuseirat refugee camp located in the southern and central Gaza Strip respectively.

No casualties have yet been reported in the Thursday morning attacks that followed alleged reports of a rocket fired at an open area in the western part of the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday night.

The Israeli military frequently bombs the Gaza Strip. The disproportionate force is always used in violation of international law, and civilians are often killed or injured.

In early July 2014, Israel waged a war on the Gaza Strip. The 50-day military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. Over 11,100 others – including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people – were also wounded in the war. Israel continues to carry out attacks on the Palestinian strip from time to time.

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, proper job, and adequate healthcare and education.

http://presstv.com/Detail/2016/05/26/467428/israel-gaza-airstrike-palestine

all those lazy palestinians should start a small business instead of being cry babies all day long.

then they can pay some tax and the palestinian authorities can buy themselves something better then rocks to throw at the israelis.

even those dumb north koreans arent as big a bunch of cry babies as the palestinians . they can do better then rocks .

Steampipe wrote on May 27^th, 2016 at 12:23pm:


Where is the proof that there had been rockets fired?  Or are we supposed to believe everything the zionists media tells us?

Report summary, May 2016

The military law enforcement system is supposed to handle complaints filed against soldiers for harm caused to Palestinians in the West Bank, including cases of violence and gunfire that resulted in injury or death. Such harm is endemic to the occupation, which has been in place for nearly fifty years.

The role of the military law enforcement system has been narrowly defined to begin with: it investigates only specific incidents in which soldiers are suspected to have acted in breach of the orders or directives they were given. The system does not investigate the orders themselves nor the responsibility of those who issue them or determine the policy. As such, the system is oriented toward low ranking soldiers only, while senior military and government officials, including the Military Advocate General (MAG), are absolved in advance of any responsibility. In this state of affairs, even if the system had fulfilled its tasks, its contribution to law enforcement would still remain limited. However, an examination of the operation of the military law enforcement system indicates that it makes no attempt to fulfill even this limited mandate.



Ever since B’Tselem was established more than 25 years ago, it has applied to the MAG Corps regarding hundreds of incidents in which Palestinians were harmed by soldiers, demanding the incidents be investigated. Some of B’Tselem’s applications led to the launching of criminal investigations. In many cases, B’Tselem assisted investigators in making arrangements for them to collect statements from Palestinian victims and eyewitnesses, and by obtaining medical records and other relevant documents. Once the investigations were concluded, B’Tselem followed up with the MAG Corps to get information as to the case outcome. In some cases, B’Tselem appealed the MAG Corps’ decision to close a case, and in a few instances, even petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) against a decision to close a case, or regarding unreasonable delays in the MAG Corps’ processing of a case.

Since the second intifada began in late 2000, B’Tselem has demanded an investigation in 739 cases in which soldiers killed, injured, or beat Palestinians,used them as human shields, or damaged Palestinian property.

An analysis of the responses B’Tselem received as to how the military law enforcement system handled these 739 cases shows that in a quarter (182) no investigation was ever launched, in nearly half (343), the investigation was closed with no further action, and only in very rare instances (25), were charges brought against the implicated soldiers. Another thirteen cases were referred for disciplinary action. A total of 132 cases are still at various processing stages, and the MAG Corps was unable to locate 44 others.

How does the military law enforcement system operate?

Over the course of more than 25 years of operation, we have gathered information from hundreds of complaints B’Tselem filed with the military law enforcement system. In addition to the vast amount of information collected with respect to the processing of these cases, over the years B’Tselem has requested and received scores of investigation files from the Military Police Investigations Unit (MPIU). B’Tselem staff members have also met with officials inside the military law enforcement system dozens of times over the years, and corresponded at length with the MAG Corps and other military officials. All this information has helped B’Tselem gain a great deal of experience and given it vast and detailed organizational knowledge regarding how the system works and the considerations that guide it. It is the sum of this knowledge that serves as the basis for pointing to the structural failures that underpin the military law enforcement system’s ability to process a sizeable caseload and yet close the vast majority of cases without any further action:

With MPIU investigations conducted negligently, investigators cannot get at the truth. Almost no effort is made during the investigation to collect external evidence, the system citing as an excuse difficulties of which it has been aware for years and which it has made no attempt to resolve. Instead of evidence, investigations rely almost exclusively on statements collected from soldiers and Palestinians. Nevertheless, the investigation files show that MPIU investigators are hard put to collect these statements, which are often obtained only months after the incident. At witness statement interviews, investigators function more like stenographers taking dictation than staff tasked with uncovering the truth. This is the case even when soldiers’ statements are found to contradict the accounts given by other soldiers or by the complainants.