- 5 aug 2010
Israeli settlers set fire to trees in east of Hebron
Army escorts 300 settlers into Nablus
Flocks of Settlers attack Palestinians in Burin
7 aug 2010
Israeli settlers attack peace activists
29 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 8 aug 2010
Egypt arrested suspected terror squad prior to Eilat rocket attack
Egypt investigating possible connection to rocket volley as al-Sharq al-Awsat says 3 men arrested with materials to construct bombs, improvised explosive devices.
Egyptian security forces arrested a suspected terror squad in the Sinai five days before last week's rocket attack on Eilat and Aqaba, the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Sunday, adding that it was not clear if there was a connection between the two incidents.
A Jordanian citizen was killed and five others wounded last week when a volley of Grad-type Katyusha rockets fired from Sinai at Eilat overshot the Israeli city and struck hotels at the Jordanian city of Aqaba.
One rocket hit fields north of Eilat and another is believed to have landed in the sea.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but both Israel and Egyptian sources have pointed their fingers at Gaza Strip rulers Hamas.
According to Sunday's report, Egypt's Sinai security forces apprehended three men in a vehicle, with equipment and material that could be used to assemble bombs and improvised explosive devices in their possessions.
While Egyptian sources indicated that there had been a connection between the arrested squad and last week's attack, no evidence of such a link has yet been found.
The al-Sharq al-Awsat report added that news of the arrest had initially been held by Egyptian authorities in an attempt to maintain the summer tourism season, and to prevent injury against the tourist sites in the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Friday, Palestinian security officials claimed the commander of Hamas' military wing in Rafah, Raed al-Atar, was responsible for ordering the firing of Grad-type Katyusha rockets at Eilat and Aqaba.
That report came as the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported yesterday that Egypt had declared a state of emergency in the Sinai Peninsula as part of a manhunt for the militants who fired the rockets.
Hamas had steered clear from carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets from the territory of a third country, and it certainly has not targeted Jordan. But Hamas members have been arrested on their way to attack Israeli targets in Egypt.
In Jordan many Hamas operatives have been arrested, along with weapons that apparently were part of a plan to strike Jordanian targets or Israeli targets in Amman.
A day after the rocket attacks the Jordanians said they knew who was behind the operation, until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday that the attacks were carried out by Hamas.
If Hamas is indeed guilty, the incident may worsen relations between the Palestinian Islamist group and Egypt and Jordan.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces has stepped up its preparedness along the border with Egypt, amid concerns that militants planned to carry out further attacks from Egypt.
The Egyptians have also stepped up activity on their side of the border with increased patrols by troops in armored personnel carriers.
29 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 8 aug 2010
IDF fires at Lebanese fishing boat
Army confirms warning shots fired in direction of boat that sailed in restricted area; no injuries
The Lebanese army said Saturday night that the IDF fired towards its territorial waters in the early morning hours. The Israeli army confirmed that forces opened fire on a Lebanese fishing boat that was sailing in a restricted area and did not respond when it was ordered to return to Lebanese territory.
There were no reports of injury in the incident.
In a statement, the Lebanese army said, "As part of the continued violations of Resolution 1701, a hostile Israeli warship dared to open fire at 4 am."
According to the statement, the Israeli vessel "fired a number of bullets towards Lebanon's territorial waters."
The IDF said forces fired warning shots when the boat did not return to the "permitted area."
The incident occurred just four days after heavy exchanges of fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border left a senior IDF officer and three Lebanese dead.
IDF confirms firing at a Lebanon fishing boat
Statement comes less than a week after an IDF officer was killed in the most serious cross border incident since Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah.
An Israel Navy vassal opened fire at a Lebanese fishing boat over the weekend, Army Radio reported on Sunday, adding that none of the crew had been hurt.
The clarification came after the Lebanese army reported that an Israeli ship had fired at a boat in the early hours of Saturday morning.
In its Sunday statement, the IDF spokesman's office reported that no damage was caused to the fishing boat, and that all of its crew members escaped unharmed.
The incident comes as the second firing incident on the otherwise quiet Israel-Lebanon border in the last week, after one Israeli officer was killed last week during clashes between Israel and the Lebanese army.
45-year-old Lt. Col. Dov Harari, from Netanya, was a reserves battalion commander in the engineering corps.
Another Israeli officer sustained severe wounds and has been admitted to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. He is in stable condition.
Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border Tuesday in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, and Lebanon said at least three of its soldiers and a journalist were killed in shelling.
The violence apparently erupted over a move by Israeli soldiers to trim some hedges along the border, a sign of the level of tensions at the frontier where Israel fought a war in 2006 with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said at the time that his Islamist militia would not stand aside if Israel attacked the Lebanese Army in the future.
"I say honestly, that in any place where the Lebanese Army will be assaulted and there's a presence for the resistance, and it is capable, the resistance will not stand silent, or quiet or restrained," Nasrallah told tens of thousands of supporters via video link. He was speaking to mark the fourth anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, just hours after the cross-border skirmish yesterday.
Nasrallah said his group was in touch with the Lebanese Army and was at the ready if they needed to be called in.
29 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 8 aug 2010
Bus damaged by rocks near Nablus
PNI leader attacked by settlers
29 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 10 aug 2010
Israel launches war game amid tension
Israel has launched a large-scale war game in the Golan Heights.
Israel has launched a large-scale war game on its border with Lebanon and Syria amid rising tension in the region over allegations of Mossad's involvement in the murder of Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri.
The military drills, which have kicked off on Tuesday, involve large tanks, armored infantry and artillery, Israeli website DEBKAfile reported on Monday.
The war games come a day after Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah presented evidence proving that Israel masterminded the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Nasrallah also accused Israel of plotting to murder all of Lebanon's political and military leaders.
The Hezbollah leader said an Israeli operative, Ahmad Hussein Nasrallah, "gave false information to former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri," seeking to frighten the late Lebanese premier as part of a larger plot to drive Syria out of Lebanon.
He went on to say that the assassination was aimed at sparking a sectarian and religious war in Lebanon, adding that a likely failure of the United Nations tribunal to consider the new evidence will prove that the investigation has been politically biased.
Israel waged wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 and on both occasions was met with stern resistance from the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah.
In Israel's 33-day war against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 about 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, were killed and Tel Aviv suffered a crushing defeat and was forced to leave the region without achieving any of its objectives
29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 10 aug 2010
Report: Israeli settlers insult prophet Muhammad
29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 11 aug 2010
'Barak wanted to avenge border incident, attack Lebanon'
Lebanese building after border clash
Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reports Sarkozy, Clinton pressured Israel to withdraw its plan to launch large-scale military operation in response to death of Ltc. Dov Harari killed in border skirmish
France dissuaded Israel from opening a large-scale military operation against Lebanon in response to the border incident which killed Ltc. Dov Harari, the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Wednesday.
French sources told the paper that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had informed French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that "Israel intends on opening a large-scale military operation to educate the Lebanese Army and avenge the death of the senior Israeli officer."
This allegedly led to high-rank contacts involving French President Nicolas Sarkozy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as Egyptian, Jordanian and other Arab state officials.
According to the report, the pressure managed to defuse tensions and prevent another northern campaign.
The French sources reported that the pressure's results were evident in Barak's statements when he said that "Israel didn't plan the incident, nor did the Lebanese Army." They added that the fact that Hezbollah did not interfere in the violence "pushed Lebanon away from a new war which would have been started as a result of one side or another's misconception."
According to the report, Israel knew it wasn't in its interest to fight the LAF since it's the only element able to "solve the issue of south Lebanon and enforce the country's rule in the area."
French officials believe they succeeded in opening a clean slate after the incident and that the current peaceful state will last. Nevertheless, the report noted that Israel had asked Paris to stop supplying the LAF with weapons since they were directed against Israeli forces and may reach Hezbollah.
It was further claimed that France rejected the appeal due to its commitments under a defense pact signed with Beirut. A delay had been detected in the arming of Lebanese fighter jets with air-to-surface French missiles, it was noted.
French officials said in response that the delay was caused by the fact that "Lebanon suffers from a funding issue" as well as internal Lebanese conflicts.
Israel mulls tougher stance on LAF
The Israeli army says it is reconsidering its rules of engagement with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) following the deadly clashes of August 3.
The Israeli army is "reconsidering its attitude toward the Lebanese army," and the guidelines for opening fire along the Lebanese border are being reexamined, The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli military officials as saying.
The decision comes a week after the border clashes between Israeli and Lebanese forces which broke out when an Israeli army unit attempted to uproot trees on the Lebanese side of the border.
The border breach prompted the Lebanese border guards to open fire. Israeli forces targeted a Lebanese military post using artillery and a helicopter gunship.
The fire exchange killed three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist and also left a senior Israeli officer dead.
Israel. A soldier's word
Nighttime raids, pointed guns, arrests often accompanied by beatings, kicks, curses and painful and extended handcuffing. The ordinary behavior of Israeli children in uniform.
Children in the West Bank throw stones at army vehicles and Israeli cars, mainly those belonging to settlers. That is the undeniable truth. Throwing stones is the classic way of telling the occupier, who is armed from head to toe, that he has forced himself on the occupied. Sometimes it's part of a sweeping resistance movement, sometimes it's a ceremonial remnant of such a movement, not devoid of braggadocio and adolescent boredom, while also a reminder to adults not to adapt.
The armed occupier bellows that this is violence, an offense just a step away from firearms. The violence of the occupier is the norm that no one questions, so much so that it becomes invisible. Only the response to that norm is presented and perceived as criminal, and the occupying nation wallows pleasurably in its eternal victimhood to justify its violent actions.
The army, especially the military justice system, has abundant means to deter young people from taking part in those ceremonies to ward off adjustment. Nighttime raids, pointed guns, arrests often accompanied by beatings, kicks, curses and painful and extended handcuffing. The ordinary behavior of Israeli children in uniform, completely normative. From the frightening conditions of such arrests, Palestinian children are taken straight to interrogation. This, too, involves intimidation, threats and sometimes a blow, sometimes temptation: Admit that you threw stones and we'll let you go. Because detention until the end of legal proceedings might be longer than the sentence itself, sometimes it's preferable to admit to something you did not do.
Eight 16-year-old students at the El-Arub agricultural school refused to be part of the statistic of confessions under pressure in the so-called military justice system. Three soldiers who arrested them in October 2008 testified to the police that their detainees had thrown stones on Route 60, and the soldiers caught them on the road after chasing them. The indictments were tailored to the soldiers' account of events.
But the truth was that the teens were pulled out of their classrooms by soldiers who drove into the school compound. The police did not bother to question the principal and his teachers, the prosecution did not append corroborating evidence to the "stone-throwing incident" (such as documentation of the incident by the police or an army war room ). And still, the military judge extended the remand of the eight teens until the end of the proceedings. A soldier's word against the word of a Palestinian boy.
The appeals judge was somewhat discomfitted by the vague testimony the soldiers gave the police and ordered the boys released on very high bail. The military prosecution tried, as usual, to get the defense attorney (from the Ad-Damir human rights group ), to sign a plea bargain (you confess, we'll ask for a suspended sentence and a fine ), to save everyone's time, especially the court's. The boys were adamant in their refusal. The three soldiers, therefore, had to testify in court after they were warned to tell the truth, and they were very unconvincing.
On July 12, after almost two years of "wasting the court's time," the prosecution asked that the indictments be dropped. According to the IDF Spokesman's Office, "there was no determination by a court of law that the soldiers lied in their testimony," which is true, and that "in agreeing to drop the indictment there is no implication regarding the credibility of the soldiers' testimony." Sure.
Indeed, the soldiers acted the way many had acted before them. What they did is not devoid of the adolescent braggadocio that their society accepts affectionately and leniently. In particular, they are obeying unwritten orders to deter potential activists against the occupation. Blows, twisting the truth and intimidation are all part of the system they did not invent.
IDF is an army obsessed with its image
IDF leaders are once again revealing a lack of sophistication, dismissiveness toward the enemy and obsession with image and spin, which so often have resulted in inquiries and humiliation.
The people who brought us Cast Lead, the Goldstone report and the flotilla raid are back with a new scandal: appointing a chief of staff. The leaders of the Israel Defense Forces once again reveal a lack of sophistication, dismissiveness toward the enemy and obsession with image and spin, which so often have resulted in inquiries and humiliation.
Hamas supporters in Turkey were able to pierce Israel's blockade on Gaza and lead the country into an international incident and internal committee of inquiry, and in the same way responsibility for the timing of the army chief's selection has been transferred from the defense minister to Yoav Segalovich, head of the police investigations unit.
I have no idea who wrote the document reportedly laying out a strategy for securing the post of IDF chief for GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant. Nor do I know whether the logo of publicist Eyal Arad's firm that appeared on it is real or fake, or who leaked the document to journalist Amnon Abramovich. Answers to those questions will be found by Segalovich and his team. But someone did write the document, someone well-versed in political and media campaigns and the personal relationships between figures at the top of the military and political echelons.
An amateur forger could not have been produced such a work, which offers tremendous intelligence value to enemies of Israel like Iran or Hezbollah. Eli Cohen and Ashraf Marwan, Mossad agents in Syria and Egypt respectively, put their lives in danger to bring Israel similar information on the internal squabbles and war plans its enemy armies. The Galant document gives Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah insight into the IDF's power struggles, predictions on promotions and transfers within the top brass and estimates of the possible target date for a potential Israeli military operation in Iran or Lebanon.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is not mentioned in the document. Perhaps he indeed stood behind it, or perhaps his opponents would like us to think so, casting Barak as a liar. The defense minister, however, has emerged as the hero of this story. The basic assumption of the document's drafter was that Barak had decided to appoint Galant chief of staff, and that the selection process was merely a show. The PR campaign was meant to rally public support to make it easier for Barak to get the appointment past Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who seems to doubt Galant's abilities.
The document presents the political alliance between Barak and Netanyahu as a pact between thieves, one based on threats and intimidation and not, as they have often told us, on their shared memories of their glory days in the Sayeret Matkal commando unit.
It presents the prime minister as an anxious politico fearful for the coalition's integrity and worried about a future confrontation with Gabi Ashkenazi, the popular current chief of staff who upon leaving the army will likely jump head first into politics. Barak is often described as a master of intrigue, the kind of person willing to sacrifice Israel's diplomatic interests (freezing settlement growth, for one ) to advance his own candidates for key army positions.
According to the Galant document, Netanyahu is seeking to maintain "stability" within the army leadership until the summer of next year. It says that in exchange for his agreeing to make Galant chief of staff, the prime minister was offered a deferral of the selection process. There is more than a hint here that something big may happen at in the intervening period. A strike from Iran? Bold diplomatic moves in the territories? Both?
The document presents journalists as naifs willing to "buy" any prank or official statement released by consultants and PR men, whether praise for Galant or scorn for Ashkenazi and his deputy, Benny Gantz. The spin doctors call such reporters "trucks," as any kind of merchandise can be unloaded onto them. The document portrays senior officers as ruthless careerists with a flair for petty bribery and a host of promises in exchange for supporting the defense minister's man.
The Galant document was released close to the Turkel Committee's testimony stage, in which Netanyahu and Barak both described haphazard methods of reaching decisions, shirking responsibility and an addiction to image and press. That, apparently, is what the IDF issues. It's a shame the same seriousness of purpose, meticulousness and consideration of alternate scenario weren't shown in preparing to stop the Turkish flotilla as they were in the wrangling to appoint a chief of staff.
29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 13 aug 2010
PA: Israeli forces shoot Palestinian man
QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces shot at and arrested a Palestinian man east of Qalqilya on Thursday morning, Palestinian security forces reported.
Witnesses said Israeli police ordered Imad Dawla, 22, to stop his car and began firing live ammunition at the vehicle when he failed to stop.
Dawla was injured, and arrested by police, while two passengers in the car escaped, the onlookers added.
An Israeli army spokeswoman referred inquiries to police.
A police spokesman said he was not familiar with such an incident.
29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 15 aug 2010
Gaza doctor writes book of hope despite death of three daughters
(2:49) Gaza doctor's tragedy caught on Israeli TV - 17 Jan 09 1 x viewed
Izzeldin Abuelaish's moving book charts harsh realities of life in Gaza and details harrowing family tragedy that may have halted Israeli offensive.
On a cool but sunny December day in Gaza, Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish took his eight children to the beach for the simple pleasures of paddling in the Mediterranean and playing in the sand.
Two months earlier, the children's mother had died from acute leukaemia, and Abuelaish was comforted to see his older daughters laughing and chatting as they wrote their names in the damp grains close to the water's edge: Bessan, Maya, Aya. "It was as close to heaven and as far from hell as I could get that day," he later wrote.
But within five weeks the Abuelaishs were to suffer a second tragedy: those three girls, aged 13, 15 and 21, were killed, and another daughter, Noor, 17, seriously injured, when an Israeli shell was fired at the family home during the brief but bloody war in Gaza in 2008-9. One of Abuelaish's nieces also died; a fifth girl, another niece, suffered terrible injuries.
Many in his situation would have descended into a dark, lonely pit of grief and bitterness. But Abuelaish not only rebuilt a life for himself and his surviving five children, he has written a moving and powerful book about his experiences with a central message of hope and reconciliation.
I Shall Not Hate published in Canada in April, and out in Britain in January has had an extraordinary impact. Sitting in the home of his extended family in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Abuelaish back on a month-long visit from Canada where he now lives and works reads out emails on his BlackBerry from strangers expressing their sympathy, gratitude and support.
A woman tries to console Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish at Tel Hashomer hospital, in Tel Aviv, after Israel shelling killed three of his daughters.
The book has been translated in 13 languages, from Finnish to Turkish but most importantly copies will soon be available in Hebrew or Arabic. A book tour in the US is scheduled for January; proceeds from sales and appearances will go to Daughters for Life, the charitable foundation Abuelaish set up.
He explains his choice of title. "I'm against any violence. Violence and the military approach proved its failings decades ago and that will never, ever change. No one evaluates; we just continue blindly.
"As Palestinians and Israelis we have failed to change course. We just continue with the same approach which aggravates, escalates and widens the gap of hatred and bloodshed. It's easy to destroy life but very difficult to build it."
Would it not be understandable to feel hate after what has happened to him? "There is a difference between anger and hate. Anger is acute but transient; hate is a poison, a fire which burns you from the inside. We need to be angry, but direct it in a positive way."
Abuelaish, an obstetrician and gynaecologist specialising in infertility, spent years working in Israeli hospitals where, he says, patients were surprised to find a Palestinian doctor delivering Jewish babies. After his wife, Nadia, died in September 2008 he went back to work following encouragement from his elder daughters, returning to his family in Gaza at weekends.
He was at home when the onslaught on Gaza began on 27 December that year. There was a "symphony of weapons, shelling" around the extended family's home in northern Gaza, where much of the action was concentrated. Everyone's nerves and emotions were constantly on edge, he says.
Throughout the conflict, Abuelaish was in regular contact by phone with Israeli friends, including journalists. His accounts, in fluent Hebrew, of what was happening inside Gaza closed at the time to foreign journalists were broadcast in Israel and beyond.
On 16 January 2009, at 4.30pm, a shell struck the house. He ran to the room that had been hit. "I saw my girls drowning in a pool of blood," he says, tears in his eyes. "I saw their body parts, a decapitated head, brains on the ceiling." A second shell followed.
Desperate for medical assistance, he called his friend Shlomi Eldar, a presenter on Channel 10 in Israel. His cries for help in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic were broadcast live. Within an hour, with the help of his Israeli friends, Abuelaish's injured daughter and niece were evacuated from Gaza.
At the time, he could only think of the catastrophe that had befallen his family. Later he realised the impact of that live phone call. "It opened the eyes of the Israeli public. The secret about the war in Gaza was disclosed," he says.
The then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, watched the broadcast. "I read that he said: 'Who can see Izzeldin and not cry?'" says Abuelaish. "Two days later he announced the ceasefire. I hope that at least the blood of my daughters was not in vain, that it saved others."
The doctor was already considering a job offer in Toronto and within six months he had begun a new life as a professor in global health at the city's university. Back home for the summer holidays, Abuelaish says Gaza is "getting worse and worse".
"People are frustrated and hopeless. Wellbeing is not just dependent on having food. We are hungry for freedom, a brighter future, a secure life, for feeling our humanity."
But, he says, Gazans must not simply blame others, but take responsibility themselves. "Everything is possible in life, even peace. The only thing that is impossible is to bring my wife and daughters back. You have to keep moving. Tragedy does not define my life, but these tragedies have made me move faster."
Abuelaish's book and the foundation are his monument to his dead daughters. "I swore to God that one day I will meet my daughters and tell them their blood was not wasted," he says.
The foundation is dedicated to promoting health and education among girls and women in the Middle East. "My life is in debt to my mother, my wife, my daughters," he says. "All change starts first with the mother. If we want to change, we must start with women."
Abuelaish thinks back to the day on the beach, a picture from which graces the cover of his book. "Two weeks before the war came, [the girls] wrote their names in the sand. Where are their names now? Written in stone on their tombs. But I tell you one day their names will be written in metal and stone at schools and medical institutions dedicated to their memory. Words are stronger than bullets. We have to offer a message of hope to those who believe in hate and revenge."
http://bit.ly/baBZ1N 29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 15 aug 2010
The chief of staff threatens
Using snipers against civilians must be restricted to extreme situations in which the soldiers' lives are threatened.
Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi was praised this week, and justly so, for his testimony to the Turkel Committee, mostly because he did not divert responsibility for the failure of the Gaza flotilla affair. Nonetheless, it's impossible to ignore one troubling part of the chief of staff's statements: Ashkenazi said that for him the main lesson from the operational aspect is that if the Israel Defense Forces confronts a similar scenario in the future, it will have to use snipers, which he says would prevent harm to soldiers.
This is very serious and shows that the chief of staff and the IDF have not learned a single lesson from the flotilla affair and Operation Cast Lead.
The implication of the chief of staff's words is that the IDF will not hesitate to hit civilians from a distance, using snipers firing live rounds. It's not hard to imagine what would have happened if the naval commandos had conducted themselves this way during the takeover of the Mavi Marvara, when the lives of the soldiers were not threatened.
This was precisely the doctrine of Cast Lead: minimum military casualties at nearly any cost - sometimes harming civilians and ignoring the laws of war. For this Israel continues to pay a heavy international price, and now it turns out that the chief of staff is threatening to continue this doctrine.
In the future, similar flotillas must be handled precisely the opposite way. First, we should ask whether there is a need, and especially wisdom, behind a forceful takeover, if we know that the passengers on the ships are not carrying weapons destined for the Gaza Strip.
But even if a forceful takeover is decided on, the IDF will have to find ways to ensure minimum casualties among both the soldiers and passengers. Israel got in trouble in the flotilla affair precisely because the IDF killed nine passengers. If they hadn't been killed, the affair would not have taken its toll on Israel internationally.
It's not only about Israel's image in the media, but also about the ethical profile of the state and its army. Using snipers against civilians must be restricted to extreme situations in which the soldiers' lives are threatened. The takeover of a ship whose passengers do not have firearms can and should be carried out differently.
29 oct 2012, 11:28 , Respect -
Maria 29 oct 2012, 11:29 , Respect -
Maria 16 aug 2010
Witnesses: Settlers beat 10-year-old Palestinian girl