- 26 sept 2010
Israeli tank fire kills Palestinian
Relatives of a Palestinian mourn his death caused by Israeli fire.
A Palestinian man has dies of his injuries sustained during an Israeli attack which took place near a village in the northern Gaza Strip, a report says.
Mohammed Salem al-'Amarin, 21The military wing of the Islamic resistance movement of Hamas, al-Qassam brigades, reported the death of the victim named Mahmud al-Ahmarine on Saturday, according to AFP
Israeli tanks had opened fire on the 21-year-old and two of his fellow Gazans near the village of Juhr al-Dik located in east of the Gaza City earlier in the month.
Tel Aviv orders regular deadly forays into Gaza under a pretext of surveillance. This is while the coastal sliver is still far from recovering from the Israeli war at the turn of 2009 which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.
Gaza's 1.5 million residents have also been living under three years of an all-out Israeli siege, which has deprived them of food, fuel and other basic life necessities.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/143957.html
28 apr 2012, 22:57 , Respect -
Maria 27 sept 2010
Arabs rally: October Riots wound still bleeding
Ten years after 2000 riots left 13 Israeli Arabs dead, parents demand international community launch official probe into events.
Some 250 people rallied in central Tel Aviv Monday, calling for an international investigation into the events of the 2000 October Riots which left 13 Israeli Arabs dead.
The protestors held up signs calling for an international commission of inquiry into the riots and waving Palestinian flags.
Abd Abu Saleh, whose son Walid was killed on the second day of the riots, told Ynet he will not cease his protest until those responsible for his son's death answer for their actions.
"It's been 10 years and the wound is still bleeding. It hurts just as bad as it did the first day, the first hour. It's painful to think that for 10 years, the identity of those who killed my son and 12 others is known, but no one will take responsibility," he said.
Saleh said he will seek action by the International Court: "No one was tried for this. I will prosecute those responsible inThe Hague. I will not give up. The State has proven it cannot investigate this on its own, so we need an international inquest."
The father of Alaa Nassar, who was also killed on the second day of the riots, also protested the fact that the Or Commission, tasked with investigating the events, decided not to file charges against any of the police officers involved.
"We do not hate the State of Israel, nor do we hate Jews. We hate the Israel Police, which discriminates against Arab citizens. A policeman would never use live rounds against Israeli demonstrators. But they are all trigger-happy when it comes to Arabs.
"Our blood is no different than that of this country's Jewish citizens. Having our children's killers prosecuted won't bring them back and it won't ease the pain, but it will give us some peace of mind," he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3961002,00.html 28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 27 sept 2010
7,400 killed in decade of Mideast violence: report
More than 7,400 people have been killed by Israeli-Palestinian violence since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising 10 years ago this month, an Israeli rights group said Monday.
The vast majority of the 7,454 killed were Palestinians, who accounted for 6,371, or about 85 percent, of the total, the B'Tselem human rights group said in a statement. Of the Palestinian dead, 1,317 were minors.
The Palestinian toll includes at least 2,996 people who were not taking part in hostilities when they were killed and 2,193 who were, the group said.
The remainder include 694 people who may or may not have been fighters, in addition to 240 who were assassinated and 248 police employed by the Hamas-run government who were killed during the 2008-2009 Gaza war.
Palestinians killed 1,083 Israelis during the same period, including 741 civilians, of whom 124 were minors. The other 342 were members of security forces.
Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, an event widely seen as sparking the second intifada, or uprising.
The next four years saw scores of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli cities and large-scale military incursions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The violence began to fade after a 2005 summit between Sharon, then prime minister, and Mahmud Abbas, who succeeded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in late 2004. The meeting was widely seen as signalling the end of the uprising.
The other major round of bloodletting in the last decade was the 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
http://yhoo.it/baA7rV 28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 27 sept 2010
12 Palestinians killed since the outset of direct peace talks
GAZA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authorities are responsible for the deaths of 12 Palestinians since direct peace talks kicked off between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in early September, the Quds Press reported.
The Gaza Strip saw the majority of killings of Palestinians during the talks. Eight Palestinians were killed there against three others who were killed in Jerusalem and one in the West Bank.
Khaled al-Khatib, 35,
Saleem al-Hattab, 20,
of the Gaza Strip were killed early Sunday morning, Sept. 5, after Israeli night raids targeting a tunnel on Gaza's border with Egypt.
An Israeli tank bombed an orchard in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip on Sunday Sept. 12, killing three Palestinians, including
Ibrahim Abu Asad, 92, and his grandson
Hassam, 17,
along with another man in his twenties.
On Sept. 14, the day the second round of peace talks began in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, an Israeli policeman in Tel Aviv shot and killed
22-year-old Hazem Abu al-Dab'at
of Jerusalem while he was handcuffed.
Wajdi al-Qadi, 23,
of Rafah city, Gaza Strip was killed Setp.15 after an Israeli warplane shelling of a tunnel on the Egyptian-Palestinian border that destroyed the tunnel and killed Qadi who was a worker inside it.
In the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, Israeli soldiers assassinated
Iyad Shilbaya, 38,
a leader in the Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, after shooting him while he was sleeping in his bed on Sept. 17.
In occupied Jerusalem, an Israeli guard in the Silwan town shot and killed on Wednesday, Sept. 22
Samer Sarhan, 32,
and injured a number of others sparking violent protests throughout the holy city.
On Friday Sept. 24, a Palestinian fisherman
Mohammed Bakr, 22,
from Gaza was shot down by the Israeli navy in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya.
A one-and-a-half-year-old infant Mohammed Abu Sarah
died the same day in the Isawiya district of Jerusalem after inhaling tear gas Israeli soldiers fired at Palestinians during protests.
An element from Hamas's armed wing
Mahmoud al-Ammarein, 22,
died on Sunday Sept. 26 from injuries he sustained less than two weeks back in an Israeli bombing against east Gaza Strip.
http://bit.ly/9M5tx8 28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 28 sept 2010
B'tselem: 6 Palestinians killed for every Israeli
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- The Israeli B'tselem human rights organization published a report comparing the Palestinian and Israeli death counts since the second intifada erupted on Sept. 29, 2000.
The report shows that Israeli occupation forces killed 6,731 Palestinians, 3,171 of them under the age of 18.
According to the report, more than 6 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli death, as the Israeli death count since the second intifada was 1,083.
The death count of Palestinians who were not involved in operations or clashes with the Israeli military reached 2,996, while 2,193 died in clashes with Israeli soldiers. The organization was unable to determine exactly how 694 Palestinians died.
248 elements from the Palestinian police force in Gaza and 240 resistance fighters were killed in Israel's last war against the Gaza Strip.
Despite the large number of Palestinian casualties, right-wing Israeli Knesset members are calling for more Palestinian deaths.
MK Michael Ben-Ari from the far-right National Union Party said: From the Shalit affair, we realized one soldier is equal to thousands of dead terrorists so killing 6,000 of the enemy and their supporters is a small and insufficient amount in a war against a violent enemy.
He added that to eradicate terrorism 500 and not 6 Palestinians should be killed against every Israeli.
http://bit.ly/98yIwa
28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 28 sept 2010
Israeli Airstrike Kills Three In Central Gaza
Alaa Abu Zubaydah
According to local eyewitnesses, three young men were killed, Monday, in an Israeli airstrike on al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
An Israeli military spokesperson claimed that the three men, Ala Abu Zneda, Awni Abdul Hadi, and Muhammad Eid, were members of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, but no confirmation of this was made by the group.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad has, in the past, carried out suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians, but ceased such attacks after the Hamas party was elected in Palestine in 2006. Even during Israel’s deadly invasion of the Gaza Strip last January, in which over 1,400 Palestinian civilians were killed in a three-week period, over 300 of whom were children, no suicide bombing attacks were made against Israel, and homemade shells fired from Gaza blindly across the border with Israel killed 5 Israeli civilians.
In addition to the bomb which killed the three young men, another missile was fired by the Israeli airforce at a home in al-Bureij refugee camp, but no casualties were reported from that airstrike.
The Israeli military’s statement on the attack said the airforce "targeted and identified a number of militants preparing to fire rockets from the central Gaza Strip into Israel", and held Hamas responsible for any attacks against Israel coming from the Gaza Strip.
The air raids and bombings are a nearly daily occurrence in the Gaza Strip, leading psychologists to report that nearly 90% of Gazan children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and live in terror that they will be killed by a bomb.
According to medics, the three men killed Monday were taken to the al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were confirmed dead.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59488
(Ala Abu Zneda, Awni Abdul Hadi, and Muhammad Eid) 28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 28 sept 2010
'Awni Rafiq 'Abdul Hadi, 19Alaa Abu Zubaydah, 25Mohammed Khaled 'Eid, 23
'Awani Rafiq Muhammad 'Abd al-Hadi 18
'Alaa Muhammad Salem Abu Zabeidah 24
Muhammad Khaled Hussein 'Eid 26
28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 29 sept 2010
'Israel seeks to fragment ME nations'
According to an American author and analyst, Israel plans to split the Middle Eastern countries up into their ethnic and religious groups in order to create an imperial power.
"Israel is the creation of the US Empire. The Zionist movement constitutes the shock troops for Imperialism in the region to fragment every country into its ethnic and religious components," Ralph Schoenman, the author of Hidden History of Zionism, told Press TV on Tuesday.
Based on the documents from the early history of Zionism, Israel plans to create "cantons based on ethnicity in the entire [Middle East] region. That means fragmenting each country in its turn," he said.
Israel is, therefore, analyzing each country of the region "quite specifically and the timetable advances into how this [disintegration of the country] is to be done. This is the basic overall design of the Zionist state and of its imperialist masters who finance it and arm it to the teeth," he added.
Commenting on the US-sponsored Israel-Palestine talks, Schoenman went on to say that "We cannot have 'peace' talks with that kind of regime which is committed to eliminate the sovereignty and independence in the entire region."
The analyst compared Israel with the apartheid regime of South Africa, calling for "a popular movement to remove such a regime. Just like the apartheid regime of South Africa was removed."
"The future belongs to the movement of the people who want to live together in a democratic fashion with equal rights for all, not to a regime like this which belongs to that kind of history," Schoenman concluded.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/144520.html 28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 2 oct 2010
Majid Ahmad Khalef Zaboun
Report: Missing Jordanian killed by Israeli forces
LONDON (Ma'an) -- Jordanian authorities informed the family of missing man that their relative was killed during a mission against Israel, while the man's mother insists he remains in captivity there, the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi said Saturday.
Majid Ahmad Khalef Zaboun - missing since 1991 - was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, the report said, quoting his father, who lives in Qafqafa south of Irbid in northern Jordan, who said he received a letter from the office of the Jordanian chief of staff informing him of the news.
The letter, Abu Majid said, detailed the burial place of his son, located in the Jordan Valley near the Prince Muhammad Bridge, which formerly linked Jordan and the West Bank.
Zaboun's mother refuted the news, telling the paper that she had received several letters from the International Red Cross in 1999, in addition to private letters, which said her son was detained in Israel's Ashkelon prison, while more recent reports said he had been moved to the Negev prison in southern Israel.
Zaboun's parents said they had been asking Jordanian governments to investigate their son's disappearance since 1999. The report said he was allegedly detained by Israeli authorities in 1991 when he attempted to carry out an operation against Israeli forces. Three others who were involved in carrying out the attack were confirmed dead after an Israeli airstrike.
Head of the Jordanian national prisoners committee Maysara Mallas told the newspaper that the committee received information that Zaboun was killed during a mission against Israel, and that he was buried in the Palestinian territories.
He said the information did not give final proof about Zaboun's whereabouts, and called on the Jordanian government to carry out DNA tests to confirm he was buried in the West Bank so his body could be returned to Jordan for burial, the newspaper said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=320017 28 apr 2012, 22:59 , Respect -
Maria 3 oct 2010
'Iz a-Din Saleh 'Abd al-Karim Kawazbah 35
Israeli policeman kills Palestinian worker
A Palestinian worker has been shot dead by an Israeli policeman in northern East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as he was allegedly trying to cross a fence.
The Israeli police said the 37-year-old Palestinian and 15 other workers were trying to jump the fence near French Hill, Haaretz reported on Sunday.
The border policeman caught up with one of the fleeing Palestinians and killed him, according to the report.
The policeman claimed that his gun misfired and caused the death.
The incident came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas have held three rounds of talks since September 2.
The negotiations ended with no progress after Tel Aviv failed to extend its partial moratorium on settlement activities.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/144963.html
Palestinian killed in clash with Border Guard
A-Din Qawezba, 38, caught trying to infiltrate Israel near village of Issawiya, north of Jerusalem. Police claim he resisted Border Guard officer who apprehended him and was shot to death while trying to snatch officer's weapon.
A 38-year-old Palestinian was killed Sunday in a clash with a Border Guard officer who seized him in the midst of an attempt to infiltrate in to Israel near the village of Issawiya, located north of Jerusalem.
The police claim that A-Din Qawezba, a married father of six from the village of Saeer, which is just outside Hebron, was shot to death after he tried to grab the Border Guard's weapon. The incident will be investigated by the police's internal investigation unit.
At around 4 am, a joint Border Guard and police patrol noticed a group of about 15 laborers who had infiltrated Israel near Issawiya. The police pursued them. A Border Guard officer managed to apprehend one of them, but the man resisted.
The police claim that the laborer tried to gain control over the officer's weapon, and, as a result, was fatally wounded by a single bullet. A Magen David Adom ambulance crew pronounced him dead.
About three weeks ago, a Palestinian car thief was shot to death in north Tel Aviv. The police officer who shot him claimed during the investigation of the incident that an errant bullet was accidentally fired from his weapon while the main was handcuffed to be taken in along with three other suspects.
An initial investigation of the incident revealed that the suspects managed to steal two vehicles belonging to Nava Schiller, a senior official in Tel Aviv District Prosecutor's Office. Besides the deceased, two of the car thieves were arrested, and a fourth managed to get away.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3963071,00.html
Officer: Shooting death of Palestinian infiltrator accidental
Izz al-Din Qawezba, 38, killed during confrontation with Border Guard force while trying to cross into Israel illegally; officer tells investigators gun misfired, or trigger pulled accidentally. Cousin: He was killed in cold blood.
A Border Guard officer who killed a 38-year-old Palestinian infiltrator near Jerusalem on Sunday reenacted the incident and told detectives from the police's internal investigation unit that the shooting was inadvertent.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, the officer told police the bullet which killed 38-year-old Izz al-Din Qawezba, a married father of six from the Hebron area, may have been discharged accidentally while the two struggled. He also raised the possibility that his pistol's trigger may have been pulled by mistake.
The incident occurred in the early morning hours near the village of Issawiya, located north of the capital, when a Border Guard force apprehended a group of 15 laborers attempting to infiltrate Israel. Qawezba tried to flee the scene, but one of the officers chased him down. During the ensuing struggle, witnesses said, Qawezba was shot to death while trying to snatch the officer's pistol.
Qawezba's family, Sunday
The B'Tselem human rights organization said an autopsy performed at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute indicated that Qawezba was shot at close range and died immediately.
Qawezba's cousin, who also tried to infiltrate Israel, told Ynet, "We approached the fence near Issawiya with the intention of entering Jerusalem. Suddenly, Border Guard officers in a Toyota began chasing us from the Israeli side of the fence and dozens of laborers ran away."
The cousin said he witnessed the Border Guard officer shoot Qawezba. "He was hot in cold blood while trying to hide from the (officer), who shot him from point blank range. (Qawezba) wasn't even trying to defend himself," the cousin said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3963426,00.html
Officer who killed Palestinian infiltrator released to house arrest
The Border Guard officer who was involved in a shooting incident in which Palestinian infiltrator Izz al-Din Qawezba was killed was released to house arrest for five days.
The officer claims he never fired his weapon, and that a bullet was accidentally discharged while he struggled with the infiltrator. An investigation continues.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3963533,00.html 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 4 oct 2010
Shehada Hasan 28
IOF soldiers shoot and kill another Palestinian worker
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- A Palestinian worker from Al-Khalil was shot and killed on Monday at the hands of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in the second such incident in the past 24 hours.
Eyewitnesses said that IOF troops chased Shehada Hasan while on his way to work south of Al-Khalil and fired at him leading to his instant death.
Hasan is the second worker to be killed at the hands of the occupation soldiers in less than 24 hours. Israeli border policemen killed Ezzeddin Al-Kawazbe on Sunday near the separation wall while attempting to enter occupied Jerusalem to work.
http://bit.ly/bsrESk
PA says Jerusalem shooting 'too familiar'
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority condemned Monday the "cold blooded killing" of a Palestinian worker in East Jerusalem.
Israeli border guards fatally shot Izzedine Kawazbeh, from Hebron, as he attempted to enter the occupied city for work on Sunday morning.
In a statement issued by the government media center, the PA said that the shooting of the 38-year-old on Palestinian land was "a travesty that has become too familiar, expected, and accepted within Israel and the international community."
The PA said Israeli forces were patrolling land which had been illegally confiscated and annexed to Israel in violation of international law. Further, the PA noted that the International Court of Justice ruled that the separation wall, built on Palestinian land, was illegal.
Kawazbeh was a father of five seeking work to support his family, and had crossed land belonging to his people which was now controlled by Israeli soldiers, the PA said, adding that he sought work with Israeli construction companies who were not penalized for hiring "illegal" workers.
The PA called on local and international rights groups to contest the killing of Palestinians who were exercising their economic and civil rights.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=320823 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 4 oct 2010
Shahda Muhammad Hussein Karja, 55
Worker dies of heart attack during army chase
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian worker died of a heart attack on Monday after being chased by Israeli forces as he tried to enter Jerusalem from Hebron, medics told Ma'an.
A source with the Palestine Red Crescent Society said
Shahda Muhammad Hussein Karja, 55,
from Halhul, likely sustained a stress-induced heart attack during the chase. The source also said Karja had inhaled tear gas deployed by forces during the pursuit.
Witnesses told Ma'an that a group of workers were trying to illegal enter Israel for work from the Arab Ramadeen area in Hebron.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army confirmed the death but said the deceased "wasn't being chased; he was running towards Israel and in the meantime suffered a heart attack and died."
The representative also said no riot dispersal means were used and that Karja was spotted trying to climb the separation barrier.
The death comes a day after an Israeli border guard officer shot and killed a Palestinian worker in East Jerusalem as he attempted to enter the occupied city for work.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=320663 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2010
'And then the night came down'
Families of Palestinian-Israelis killed at the start of the second intifada are still fighting for justice a decade on.
It has been 10 years since the October 2000 events that saw 13 unarmed Palestinians killed by Israeli police. Last Friday, more than 6,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel gathered in the Galilee village of Kfar Kana. Waving Palestinian flags and gripping pictures of their dead sons they marched through the town to commemorate the bloodshed.
The protestors also called for justice.
In 2003, an inquiry lead by Israeli High Court Justice Theodore Or, known as the Or Commission, criticised the actions of the police. But an internal police investigation - which critics say was superficial, at best - yielded no charges. And a decade later, there have been no prosecutions.
Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is a local NGO that continues to represent the bereaved families and is pushing for the investigation to be reopened. Reflecting on the October 2000 events, Hassan Jabareen, Adalah's founder and director, says: "The state treated us like we are an enemy in battle."
Before October 2000, Palestinian citizens of Israel associated such killings primarily with the Occupied Territories. But the deaths and the lack of a serious investigation made Palestinians inside the Green Line feel as vulnerable as those in Gaza and the West Bank.
The events, Jabareen explains, "gave us the impression that, for the state, it's moving from a territorial conflict to an ethnic conflict".
Feelings of frustration and alienation were apparent at Friday's march. Amongst the demonstrators was Siwar Aslih. Her brother, Aseel, was 17 when he was killed by Israeli police in October 2000. He was lying face down on the ground when he was shot at close range, in the back of the neck, with live ammunition.
Siwar was just 14 when it happened. She came of age in the aftermath of her brother's death, during the second intifada. Now working towards a master's degree in group therapy and counseling, she sat down with Al Jazeera for an exclusive interview.
Al Jazeera: What do you remember about the demonstrations in 2000?
Siwar Aslih: What was shocking for everyone and made them get angry and go out and protest was Sharon's entrance to al-Aqsa [Mosque in Jerusalem] and the killing of Muhammad al-Durrah, the young child [in the Gaza Strip]. It started in Jerusalem and the [Occupied Palestinian Territories] then [Palestinians] inside the Green Line started protesting, too.
What I remember from October 2, when Aseel died ... my parents wanted to go out for a walk in [our] village [Arraba] and they asked me whether I would like to come with them. I looked outside and I saw how the street looked - it was a mess, the stones thrown on the street. It was frightening for me to see it like this and I told my parents I don't want to go with them.
After my parents left, I was with Aseel at home. I woke him up that day because his classmates from high school came to visit and I sat in [his] room.
Three Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed on October 1, the day before your brother died. How did you feel about those deaths?
People started getting killed on September 29, 2000, but not here, not in Israel. It was upsetting to hear about the Palestinians who were killed in the demonstrations in [the Occupied Palestinian Territories], but we were used to hearing news about people getting killed in [the Occupied Palestinian Territories]. We're not used to the fact that people here get killed. It was frightening ... I felt like there is a war [within Israel].
But if I think about right now ... there is a Nakba; there is Land Day; there are many other events. This is not the first time Israel shoots the Palestinian people. Where there is an occupation, there are no rules and [the Israelis] can break the rules whenever they want to. We have to be ready and we have to expect anything. I think anybody can get killed at any time.
When your brother left to go to the protest, were you worried about him?
I did not know he was going to the protest .... I knew that he was active, but the protest thing was not the kind of thing he did. He was such a peaceful, quiet guy. He was happy. He was non-violent. Aseel did activities like participating in dialogues [between Jews and Palestinians] and going to the Seeds of Peace camp.
And then people [from the village] started coming during the day to our home. The first people who came asked me about Aseel. They told me he went to the protest and they heard that he was injured ... and for me it was strange ... Aseel never went to protests.
The house was full of strangers and then the night came down and I didn't know what was happening ... I [overheard] that he died from my neighbour and her daughter.
I think I refused to believe that he died. It's not a thing I could imagine because Aseel was such an innocent and peaceful guy .... What I thought was: 'Who the hell would want to shoot Aseel?' [He] would never get into such a situation .... This was impossible.
I think it was nine or 10 o'clock ... some women started crying and people were shouting. And I remember this guy was standing right here - [points to the corner of the living room] - and he said out loud, "Aseel is a martyr".
[Sighs].
For me - it's the end. It really happened. Aseel really died.
And I remember I started crying. It's like they say that when someone is about to die, they see a script of his life. I think that's what I saw, a script with scenes from our life together. And the last image I saw of Aseel, when I heard the news, was of him smiling and of him wearing his favourite t-shirt. The green one.
The Seeds of Peace t-shirt?
Yeah.
I remember his voice message back then. It was so funny. I think I have it on my computer. It starts like, "'Allo, 'allo, 'allo". And you think that Aseel is really answering. And he's like, "I don't hear you, raise your voice."
I listened to it after he died and it was so hard for me to hear his voice, to hear him alive.
Many Palestinians refer to the October 2000 events as a turning point. Was it like that for you? Did your brother's death change your feelings about Israel and the Jewish community?
I have a problem with Zionism. I don't have a problem with Jews.
And did you feel differently before Aseel died?
We have been raised to love our homeland and be patriots for all our lives. Palestine - this is not new. My dad was a political prisoner for five years in the 1970s and he and my mum were active all their lives.
So this was not a moment that changed things for you?
No, no. But for me, it was like they broke all the boundaries. They took everything, even hope.
I don't believe there is a chance for peace here. It's not that I don't want it - I want it - but I don't believe that it' s possible, not in the current situation ... because of the government and the people [who] support the government and that's the problem.
Ten years have passed and no one has been prosecuted.
This is the legal system of Israel, okay? If Israel committed these crimes, she won't accuse, because she sent those soldiers to kill. This is an apartheid regime for me.
Are you angry?
I'm full of anger and I'm not ashamed of that. I have every right to be angry. I have been angry all my life. As a Palestinian, I have to be. I have to be angry about what happened in 1948, and I have to be angry about what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank and the refugee camps. I am also angry at the international [community] - how come you are all civilized and you talk about human rights and no one cares what is happening here?
But I also have anger towards my own people because I expect more of them, I want more.
What do you want?
I want them to care more. I don't want them to be afraid to go to protests and to bring their child with them. I don't want them to be afraid to face Israel. I think this is a battle we need to go through. You need to fight for your rights and you need to fight for your freedom. No one is going to do that for you. And I know it might cost us a lot, but it cost my brother's life. And there - this is what it takes. We need to lose something.
And I don't want to remember Aseel and the other martyrs only once a year .... We need to bring everything into awareness, into the kids' awareness, and into the schools and the homes. This has to stay in our minds all the time.
http://bit.ly/9tfxEh 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2010
Moatez Abu Nada, 30 days old
Month old infant dies in Gaza due to siege
GAZA, (PIC)-- Moatez Abu Nada, who is only 30 days old, died in a Gaza hospital on Tuesday due to inability to travel abroad for treatment of a heart problem, the health ministry said.
It added that doctors could not save the life of Moatez who needed a critical heart operation that could not be made in Gaza due to unavailability of necessary medical equipment.
The ministry said that the number of victims of the Israeli siege on Gaza thus rose to 377.
It called on the world to stand alongside the patients in Gaza and to end its "horrible silence" and demand an immediate end to the siege and closure of crossings especially before sick people.
The infant was born with heart problems and his travel abroad was delayed for two weeks as a result of the closure of the Erez crossing by the Israeli occupation forces, which led to complications in his condition and later his death.
http://bit.ly/dBnmCx 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 8 oct 2010
Danger on Gaza's border
(2:01) Palestinians caught in border trouble 1 x viewed
Many Palestinians especially children living near Gaza-Israel border feel targeted by the Israeli border patrol.
For the people of Gaza, living and working close to Israel's border can be life-threatening.
According to the UN, since the end of Israel's attack on Gaza in January 2009, 25 civilians have been killed and another 146 injured for being too close to the border.
Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reports from the town of Juhor Ad Dik, right along the Israeli border.
http://bit.ly/bJKMQb