Israeli police have been authorised to use lethal force as a first resort against Palestinians throwing stones, firebombs or fireworks, according to documents revealed by human rights group Adalah.

The latest open-fire regulations for Israeli police officers were approved and sent to officers in December, following two months of sporadic stabbing and vehicular attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces in Jerusalem, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

The regulations include authorisation for officers to use live ammunition against Palestinians, including minors, suspected of throwing stones or firebombs, or those who appear likely to be about to commit such an offence.

It also gives police officers authorisation to use lethal force as a first option in such cases.

Previously, lethal force had been reserved as a final option for police officers when confronting violent Palestinian protests, only to be used after non-lethal means.

The regulations were partially revealed by the Israeli police to Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, after the NGO successfully petitioned an Israeli court for access to the documents.

On Monday, the group released excerpts which state that under the new regulations, "an officer is permitted to open fire [with live ammunition] directly on an individual who clearly appears to be throwing or is about to throw a firebomb, or who is shooting or is about to shoot fireworks, in order to prevent endangerment", while the same response would be justified in a situation of "stone throwing using a slingshot".

'Unchecked' use of force

Mohammed Bassam Mahajna, the Adalah attorney who filed the petition, said that the regulations "allow officers to act in an unchecked and criminal manner", and permitted excessive use of force.

"The chances that actions such as stone throwing or shooting of fireworks would present a life-threatening danger are extremely slim and there is no doubt that it is possible to handle such situations using non-lethal means," he said in a statement.

"The new regulations contradict existing general guidelines according to which the use of a deadly weapon by officers is permitted only when there is substantiated fear of danger to the life of an officer or other individual, and only if there is no other means by which this danger may be prevented," he said.

The Israeli police spokesperson did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment before publication.

Since September 2015, a number of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and police while appearing to pose no immediate threat to life, in incidents that have made rights groups raise questions over officers' excessive use of lethal force. 

Israel's security cabinet initially approved the measures in September 2015 after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced a "war" on those who throw stones.

The move brought the Israeli police force's rules of engagement into line with the Israeli military operating in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli soldiers have faced criticism for the way they interpret the "threat to life" and their subsequent use of lethal force against Palestinians. In April, Israeli soldier Elor Azariya was charged with manslaughter after he shot to death a wounded Palestinian assailant in Hebron the previous month.

At least 214 Palestinians and 34 Israelis have been killed in a wave of violence that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since October.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/israel-lethal-force-stone-throwers-report-...

Jul 5, 2016

Benjamin Netanyahu is on a four-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa for the first visit of Israel’s prime minister to the continent in almost 30 years.

He arrived in Uganda on Monday on the first leg of a four-day trip which will also take him to Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

By visiting Africa, the Israeli premier wants to end decades of hostility and convince African countries to stop voting against Israel at the United Nations.

Netanyahu also seeks to cast off Israel’s pariah status in the African continent as he faces growing criticism from Western allies over the dim prospects for a resolution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the United Nations, Israel is a constant subject of rebuke over its settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank and other violations, including its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.

One of Netanyahu’s objectives is to convince African nations not to vote against Israel.

“In the UN there are many [resolutions] which target Israel and we want to change this with the help of the Africans,” Arye Oded, a former Israeli ambassador to Kenya and Uganda, told German broadcaster DW.

Rocky relations  

Israel’s relationship with African nations has historically been fraught because of support for the Palestinian cause from many countries on the continent.

The uneasy history of relations is evident in the fact that no Israeli leader has visited sub-Saharan Africa since Yitzhak Shamir in 1987.

Scores of African countries, including all the countries that Netanyahu is visiting, cut ties with Israel following the 1973 Israeli-Arab war only to restore them in the 1990s.

Israel’s ties with African countries were further frayed because of its historic support for the apartheid regime in South Africa.

At a recent conference on Africa-Israel ties, Israeli foreign ministry official Yoram Elron noted Tel Aviv’s need for support from African nations in international forums.

“Today relations with the African continent are high on our foreign policy agenda,” he told dozens of African dignitaries and diplomats.

Skepticism

However, African nations that have survived colonialism and more recently Western plans are skeptical.

Questioned about Israel’s ties to apartheid South Africa, Netanyahu said: “It stopped under my predecessors and I am glad it did.”

Pressed to state whether he had any regrets about the cooperation, he added: “Yeah, and I am glad it [ended].”

Military exports

Israeli exports to Africa totaled about $1 billion last year, about 2% of its total exports.

With insurgencies and Takfiri militancy growing across Africa, including Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab and Daesh-linked Boko Haram, Israeli leaders are looking to sell advanced military equipment to the continent, the New York Times wrote.

The move comes as Israeli exports to traditional markets in the EU and US have become volatile, Ohad Cohen, head of foreign trade at Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, told the Times.

“We are trying to diversify our exports through channeling efforts to markets that are growing more rapidly than [others],” he said. “Africa is one of them.”

Refugee evictions

Netanyahu is also expected to discuss the eviction of around 40,000 migrants and refugees from Sudan and Eritrea who entered Israel through Egypt.

According to the British daily Financial Times, Israel has reached an agreement with Uganda and Rwanda to resettle the refugees.

Last year, Israel ordered African migrants to choose between deportation and indefinite imprisonment. About 2,000 Africans are reportedly held in Israeli prisons.

http://presstv.com/Detail/2016/07/05/473707/Israel-Netanyahu-Africa-visit-Arab-U...

Jul 12, 2016

The United Nations (UN)’s cultural body has called on Israel to halt all its archaeological and restoration activities in the occupied Old City of al-Quds (Jerusalem).

UNESCO submitted a resolution to its World Heritage Committee to vote on next week, describing the Temple Mount as a “Muslim holy site of worship,” The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

Temple Mount, which has also been called al-Haram al-Sharif for centuries, refers to the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly condemned the resolution.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem). The Palestinians say the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the holy Muslim site.

In a separate development, activist NGO Peace Now said that, over the past four years, Israel had advanced plans to legalize 14 West Bank outposts and had approved 20 such communities.

Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip in 1967.

It later annexed the West Bank and East al-Quds in a move never recognized by the international community. Tel Aviv withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but has been keeping the territory under a crippling siege and regular deadly offensives.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/07/12/474804/UNESCO-Israel-Old-City-Netanyahu...

Quote:







It is a 'win, win' for everyone.

Honest!

Because they [the dead Pal's] and their families,      ....got exactly what they desired.

Israeli civilians are now safer.






Google;


Then, he/she and his/her family will be in raptures of pleasure and delight.

It is true!!!




"The Prophet said, "Nobody who dies and finds good from Allah (in the Hereafter) would wish to come back to this world even if he were given the whole world and whatever is in it, except the martyr who, on seeing the superiority of martyrdom, would like to come back to the world and get killed again (in Allah's Cause)." "
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #004.052.053


"The Prophet said, "By Him in Whose Hands my life is! Were it not for some men amongst the believers who dislike to be left behind me and whom I cannot provide with means of conveyance, I would certainly never remain behind any Sariya' (army-unit) setting out in Allah's Cause. By Him in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to be martyred in Allah's Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred and then get resurrected again and then get martyred."
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #004.052.054


"The Prophet said, "Nobody who enters Paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the earth, except a Mujahid who wishes to return to the world so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives (from Allah)." "
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #004.052.072





.




Quote:

- Osama bin Laden, November 2001




Quote:

Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah




Quote:





Quote:

Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah




Quote:

Yasser Arafat (Maariv, Oct. 4, 1996)




Quote:

Tunisian intellectual Al-Afif Al-Akhdar




Those "...we love death" quotes, above, were sourced here...
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2006/08/02/501/




Google;
jihad - "we love death"

Google;
muslims "we love death"





.





Those who die for Allah will receive a great reward, from Allah.

There is a great reward waiting for you.

Honest!!

Allah promises it !!!                       


"I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The example of a Mujahid [religious fighter] in Allah's Cause-- and Allah knows better who really strives in His Cause----is like a person who fasts and prays continuously. Allah guarantees that He will admit the Mujahid in His Cause into Paradise if he is killed, otherwise He will return him to his home safely with rewards and war booty." "
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #004.052.046

i.e. Muhammad is reported as saying that for a moslem, religious fighting, is the same as a religious devotion.
Jihad [religious fighting], is as if a muslim 'fasts and prays continuously'.
And that Allah guarantees that a Mujahid [religious fighter] will enter Paradise, if he is killed.


"A man came to the Prophet and asked, "A man fights for war booty; another fights for fame and a third fights for showing off; which of them fights in Allah's Cause?" The Prophet said, "He who fights that Allah's Word (i.e. Islam) should be superior, fights in Allah's Cause." "
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #004.052.065
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #004.052.080i


"Allah's Apostle was asked, "What is the best deed?" He replied, "To believe in Allah and His Apostle (Muhammad). The questioner then asked, "What is the next (in goodness)? He replied, "To participate in Jihad (religious fighting) in Allah's Cause." "
hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #001.002.026




Moslem;   Death is good.

So embrace it!

Jul 13, 2016

The Israeli army has nominated a new chief rabbi accused of implying that soldiers can rape women during war to boost morale.

Among Rabbi Colonel Eyal Karim’s other colorful suggestions are the execution of those wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers, and that women are sentimental and should not be part of the military force.

Responding to a 2002 question pertaining to the rape of enemy women, Karim (seen below) said, “War removes some of the prohibitions on sexual relations, and even though fraternizing with a gentile woman is a very serious matter, it was permitted during wartime.”

After about 10 years of outrage over his remarks, in 2012, Karim announced that rape is prohibited in every instance.

Opposition lawmakers and women’s rights groups have called for the rescinding of his Tuesday's nomination.    

"Even if he was dealing with a theoretical debate about rape during battle or [if he] opposes female service or song in the military, no, he cannot be the military rabbi," Opposition lawmaker Tzipi Livni was quoted by The Independent as saying on Wednesday.   

Zahava Galon, the head of the left-wing Meretz party, also called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene in the rabbi's appointment for the post in an army in which thousands of women are enlisted.

Not only has the Israeli military given no indication of reconsidering Karim’s nomination for the post, it has also issued a statement defending his remarks.

"Rabbi Karim has never written, said or even thought that an Israeli soldier is permitted to sexually assault a woman in war, and anyone who interprets his words otherwise is completely mistaken," read the statement.

Karim’s official appointment still requires the approval of the Israeli minister of military affairs, Avigdor Lieberman.

http://presstv.com/Detail/2016/07/13/475082/israeli-chief-rabbi-army-rape

Yadda wrote on Jul 14^th, 2016 at 8:56am:




It is a 'win, win' for everyone.

Honest!

Because they [the dead Pal's] and their families,      ....got exactly what they desired.

Israeli civilians are now safer.

[/quote]



“You are a Christian?” a foreign tourist inquires with marked disbelief of a Palestinian tour guide in Bethlehem. “When did you convert?”

This response by foreigners, Christian or not, is unfortunately not uncommon in Palestine. Even in Bethlehem, the origin to which many trace the very roots of their Christian faith, this disbelief goes hand-in-hand with tourists’ visits to the Church of the Nativity — visits that seem to carry with them some image of a time long past with only archaeological or religious sites remaining with little consideration for the “living stones” that have continuously borne witness to this tradition for two millennia.

Many Christians from the Global North have a hard time seeing and relating to Christianity in the Arab world as living, vibrant communities of faith with rich spiritual and theological traditions. This may be partly due to a lack of understanding about the shape of Christianity in other parts of the world, but may also be partly due to the often racist and ethnocentric notions of what a Christian should look like.

Christianity in the Arab world has had a long and lively history, including in Palestine, where one still finds today communities of faith that stretch back thousands of years to the very beginnings of the church, where Arabic is spoken in liturgies and sermons, and where the church has played an integral role in the development of society, whether in terms of providing leadership in very difficult times or in pioneering valuable social services like education.

Today, of the roughly 3.9 million Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, less than two percent are Christians. Of the 1.4 million Palestinians living inside Israel, meanwhile, roughly eight percent belong to Christian communities. Though small, these communities bear witness to two millennia of continuous Christian presence in the land called “holy” by much of the rest of the world.

Today in Palestine, Christianity is experiencing what many would consider a crisis. This is not due to the growth of so-called Islamic fundamentalism or the persecution of “believers” by their Muslim neighbors, misrepresentations that are unfortunately used to distract from the realities of occupation. Instead, the plight of the Palestinian Christian is very much connected to that of the Palestinian Muslim in that both, whether in the Occupied Territories or inside Israeli itself, are experiencing daily injustices at the hands of oppressive and discriminatory policies imposed on them by the Israeli government.

read the rest for yourself yadda

https://electronicintifada.net/content/christianity-palestine-misrepresentation-...

19 Jul, 2016

At least three people were wounded in clashes with the IDF as army troops bulldozed a Palestinian suspect’s house in West Bank. Angry locals reportedly threw Molotov cocktails and fired makeshift guns at the soldiers.

The demolition took place on Monday in the town of Qabatiya, AFP reported. IDF forces bulldozed the house of Bilal Abu Zeid who Israeli authorities believe is an accomplice of a group of Palestinians involved in a February attack that left one Israeli police officer dead and one injured. Zeid is currently being held in Israeli prison.



Heavy clashes erupted after a military convoy arrived in the area. Palestinians used improvised weapons and threw Molotov cocktails and at the soldiers who resorted to rubber bullets and live fire.

There are conflicting reports as to how many people were injured. While the Israeli army said that three Palestinians were shot, Palestinian officials said that as many as six people were injured either with live fire or rubber bullets.

Israeli authorities accuse Bilal Abu Zeid of assisting three Palestinians who took part in an attack outside the Old City's Damascus Gate on February 3. The Palestinians were killed at the scene and their homes were later demolished.

In a separate incident on Monday which occurred south of Bethlehem, in the southern part of West Bank, a Palestinian assailant was shot and arrested after he reportedly stabbed two IDF soldiers.

Israel frequently resorts to the demolition of accused Palestinian’s homes saying the measure is necessary as a deterrent to terror attacks. The practice is condemned by Palestinians and rights groups who believe it is unlawful.

“In the vast majority of cases, the person whose actions prompted the demolition was not even living in the house at the time of the demolition,” B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group said as quoted by WAFA news agency.

“Since this constitutes deliberate harm to innocents, it is clear that even if house demolition had the desired deterrent effect, it would, nevertheless, remain unlawful.”

Since last October at least 215 Palestinians and 34 Israelis lost their lives in enduring violence both in Israeli and the Palestinian territories. Many of them were killed in clashes and protests.

Israel has been under fire for its demolition campaign which the international community views as a major impediment to establishing peace in the area. Overall, this year’s rate of Palestinian home demolition in the West Bank is the highest on record since 2009, while, at the same time, the expansion of the internationally condemned Israeli settlements in the occupied territories continues to increase.

At the beginning of the month the UN Secretary General denounced Israel’s clearing of Palestinian homes and its intentions to establish “some 560 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim”.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that “punitive home demolitions are a form of collective punishment which are illegal under international law”.

“UNRWA condemns punitive demolitions and reminds Israel, the occupying power, that under international humanitarian law it has an obligation to protect the occupied people and provide services,” it added.

https://www.rt.com/news/352010-israel-palestinian-demolition-clashes/

Jul 21, 2016

Bulldozers escorted by Israeli troops have destroyed buildings near an industrial park north of al-Quds (Jerusalem), in the latest demolition of Palestinian property in the occupied territories.

Witnesses and local residents said Israeli troops began demolishing the buildings on Wednesday in the absence of their owners, leaving them without an opportunity to evacuate their belongings.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian home was razed in the Silwan neighborhood further south in East al-Quds.

Palestinian rights groups have documented a dramatic rise in demolitions, with more than 40 Palestinians left homeless in al-Quds last week alone.

Nearly 579 homes have been destroyed in the city over the last twelve years, leaving 2,218 Palestinians homeless, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.

The demolitions have raised alarm among diplomats and human rights groups over Tel Aviv's sustained violation of international law.

The demolished structures include houses and schools.

The Israeli razing of Palestinian homes along with its illegal settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories have dimmed hopes of any peace in the region.

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East al-Quds. The settlements are considered by the international community as illegal.

http://presstv.com/Detail/2016/07/21/476190/Israel-Palestinian-homes-alQuds