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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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29 October 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
Palestinian President Mahmoud
Assas' duplicitous treachery exposes him as an enemy,
not ally, of his people. An earlier article on him
quoted Jeffrey Blankfort calling him a "double agent
(serving) his Israeli and US masters in plain sight."
In June 2003, Edward Said called him "Israel's
sheriff," saying he's "colorless, moderately corrupt,
and without any clear ideas of his own, except that he
wants to please the white man," his Washington and
bosses. Access the article through the following
link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/09/fatah-collaborationist-israeli-ally.html
Israeli Terror
Throughout the Territories
Daily throughout Gaza, the West
Bank, and East Jerusalem, Palestinians face Israeli
(and complicit PA) terror, the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights (PCHR) documenting it, clear crimes
against humanity ongoing for decades.
In its October 7 - 13 report, it
headlined "Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue
Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and
Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),"
saying:
-- two West Bank Palestinian
resistance activists killed, nine others wounded;
-- two Palestinian activists
murdered "in a wide-scale military operation" against
a Hebron neighborhood, including shelling residential
homes lawlessly; in addition, dozens of Palestinians
harassed, three apartments destroyed, four homes
damaged, a store demolished, two others damaged, a car
destroyed, and 12 Palestinians arrested;
-- a Silwan village Palestinian
child wounded "when IOF fired at children"
demonstrating peacefully against the detention of four
others;
-- several nonviolent West Bank
demonstrations against settlement and Separation Wall
construction targeted, wounding one child and
affecting dozens of civilians and human rights
activists from tear gas inhalation or "sustained
bruises;" in addition, three Palestinians and four
human rights workers arrested;
-- four Gazans, including two
children, wounded in a failed assassination attempt;
-- Israeli gunboats fired on
Palestinian fisherman in two separate incidents;
-- 27 West Bank incursions
(lawless by any standard) resulted in 33 Palestinian
civilian arrests, including nine children and an old
man - guilty only of being Palestinians on land Israel
wants to steal; and
-- Gaza remains lawlessly
besieged and isolated, causing a calamitous
humanitarian crisis little helped by recent modest
easing.
In addition, for over 40 months,
Israel has denied visitation rights to families of
over 700 Gazan detainees, hardening their
incarceration for them and their loved ones.
In the West Bank, complicit PA
forces aid Israeli lawlessness, serving as an
occupation enforcer. For weeks, its security forces
have suppressed public dissent, dispersed peaceful
protests, and arrested hundreds of West Bank Hamas and
Islamic Jihad supporters, including public figures,
subjecting them to torture and other abuse, ill
treatment, and humiliation. Others were publicly
beaten, including civil leaders, academics, doctors,
other professionals, and ordinary people struggling
for their rights.
PCHR condemned what it calls PA
"campaigns of arbitrary arrests," in violation of
international and Palestinian law. Besides hundreds
made earlier, dozens more were carried out and many
others have been summoned. For many, it means arrest
on sight.
Information gotten from
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Hamas-affiliated
members shows at least 230 Hebron residents detained,
130 by the Preventive Security Service (PSS), the
others by the General Intelligence Service (GIS).
In Bethlehem, PSS detained 25
Palestinians, GIS 15 others. In Nablus, 77 more in
Jnaid Prison. In Ramallah and al-Bireh, 45. Detainees
include "released prisoners from Israeli jails and
relatives of PLC members." In addition, dozens of
Palestinians were arrested just days after being
released. In detention, most were denied family visits
and access to legal counsel.
Worse still are reports of
torture and abusive treatment, released detainees
saying they were "held under inappropriate, and even
severe and inhuman, detention conditions," those with
chronic illnesses or injuries most affected. In
addition, many were tortured and subjected to other
forms of abuse, at least several requiring
hospitalization.
One released detainee said he "hear(d)
voices of detainees crying in pain as a result of
being beaten and tortured." During interrogation, he
was forced to listen to get him to cooperate. He also
saw prisoners beaten and subjected to prolonged shabeh,
the painful position abuse with hands and legs bound
tightly to a small chair, compounded by sleep
deprivation.
Detainee families said arrests
and homes searched were carried out provocatively, in
at least one case with no one there, but on return, a
father and four sons were arrested. Others in their
family are also being held.
A released detainee said he and
many others were taken to a Taffouh village police
station and held under inhuman conditions. In
addition, dozens of Islamic Jihad members and
supporters were summoned, forced to supply detailed
information, then sign an oath "not to violate the
Palestinian law, not to oppose the PNA's public
policy, and not to engage in any activity of Islamic
Jihad." Others were summarily arrested, detained and
tortured.
Outraged, on October 6, Hamas
responded, saying it will retaliate if arrests and
abuse continue. At a Gaza news conference, spokesman
Abu Ubaida said:
"We say today that our silence
will not last long. If (PA security forces) pursue
their aggression, we will end the silence" and
respond.
Hamas was angered that one of its
members, Alaa Abu Dhiyab, was sentenced to 20 years in
prison, and that PA forces arrested hundreds of its
supporters, and keep seizing more. Its leaders also
oppose direct peace talks, saying holding them
abandons "the national rights of the Palestinian
people" because Israel demands unconditional
capitulation, not justice, equity, real peace, and a
viable Palestinian state. In addition, they accuse
Abbas of selling out, serving Israel, not his own
people.
Earlier on September 29, Islamic
Jihad leader Khader Adnan Mousa was detained, his
wife, Randa, saying a GIS force raided his workplace
in Qabatya village near Jenin and arrested him. On
October 2, she learned that he was accused of joining
illegal militias, and he went on hunger strike after
arrest. He was also subjected to shabeh, other abuse,
and had his eyeglasses taken.
On October 3, the Al Dameer
Association for Human Rights called for his immediate
release, saying his arrest and others were arbitrary
and political. It asked the PA to "take real and
effective measures in order to stop such illegal acts
and completely end political arrests" and
persecution.
"Al Dameer stresses that arrests
are regulated by the Palestinian law and fall under
the jurisdiction of the law enforcement officers,
including the civil police, who are directly
supervised by the Attorney General."
By law, arrests of Hamas and
Islamic Jihad members and supporters, including Mousa,
are illegal acts, constituting political persecution.
On October 5, PCHR joined in, calling for "the
immediate release of all (PA) political detainees,
including Mousa, expressing "condemnation" for them
all.
According to Hamas, 1,008 party
members were arrested in September alone. On October
14, a party spokesman said:
"It's clear that the arrest
campaign being waged by the Palestinian Authority did
not exclude anyone and did take into consideration the
circumstances and titles of the people being arrested,
whether they were former detainees from Israeli jails,
university professors, teachers, or members of city
councils and other categories."
Arab League
Summit Smoke without Fire
At the October Arab League summit
in Sirte, Libya, Hamas and other Palestinian factions
urged further supportive action, including opposition
to direct peace talks with Israel, knowing their
futility. However, according to Hamas spokesman Fawzi
Barhoum, not enough was done "to support the
Palestinian position in confronting the occupation.
The Arabs must adopt a unified strategy that backs the
armed Palestinian resistance and backs the
Palestinians' steadfastness of their land."
Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail
Haneya, added more, saying, "Israeli aggressions,
blockade, and the Judaization of Jerusalem require
clear and crucial decisions." PFLP representatives
said decisions so far taken are "not enough and (go)
on in a vicious circle. The Arabs' weak position would
encourage Israel to keep carrying out practices
against our people and lands." Islamic Jihad leader,
Khaled al-Batch, made similar comments, saying Arab
states abandoned the Palestinian cause.
Concluding their meeting on
October 12, the Extraordinary Arab Summit made four
policy decisions for joint Arab actions, none focusing
on Palestine, showing the above comments are
accurate.
Vilifying Arabs
for Their Faith and Ethnicity
Haaretz writer Gideon Levy's
October 15 article reflects a larger issue. Titled
"Time to stick it again to the Arabs," he said:
"Underneath everything is hatred
- hatred and contempt for Arabs....This is what is
behind the right wing's nationalist laws and its
so-called (no-peace) 'peace.' " It reflects "dark and
dangerous instincts," throughout Israel's leadership
and Knesset members. "(A)ll of them are Arab haters,
whether openly or not." Most never "met an Arab, but
they know everything about them. Not one of them has
even begun to think of Arabs as being equal to Jews,"
let alone as human beings deserving basic rights and
freedoms.
Repressive force only is their
language - no agenda, no vision, only
"pathological....amoral" violence begetting more,
reflecting hard line revisionist leader Ze'ev
Jabotinsky's belief that peaceful coexistence was
unattainable, so Jews had to build "an iron wall of
(superior) Jewish military force."
Since Ben-Gurion, Israeli leaders
espoused it, choosing violence over conciliation;
confrontation, not diplomacy; collective punishment,
not coexistence; and racial hatred over core Judaic
dogma - Talmudic/Torah teachings much different from
radical Zionism, what many Jews call heresy for being
racist and advocating separation, military power, and
brute force. Also for claiming Jewish supremacy,
specialness, and uniqueness, while being extremist,
undemocratic, and hateful, ideas harmful to Jews and
non-Jews alike.
Levy understands, concluding his
article saying "The damage the right wing is
inflicting upon us will linger for many years after it
leaves office." Overall, longstanding hatred is too
deeply rooted. What passes for Israeli leadership
leads nowhere, and "the garbage it is spreading in the
meantime is piling up higher and higher." Sooner or
later it'll topple, perhaps taking Israel and its PA
allies with it.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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