Tuesday, March 29, 2016

THE FROZEN BOY

Ahmad Manasrah is imprisoned by Israel, which has just rushed through a new law to sentence Palestinian children as adults at age 14 to treat children like him even more harshly than before.

HASSAN MANASRAH

But his 15 year old cousin Hassan Manasrah, who was shot, stripped and left to die in public on the same day in the same incident is often forgotten.

Israel has forced his family to accept that in exchange of handing over his body he will be buried at night, in the presence of only a limited number of people so that his funeral can't become a public event against the occupation.

But his family refuses to accept his body in the current condition: Frozen, like bodies of estimated 15 other Palestinians killed during the uprising, in some cases down to -80 degrees Celsius.

Elder Ahmad Manasrah, Hassan's uncle said: “How can you bury him and carry out the funeral procedures when he’s a block of ice?”

The temperature - even at "best" -35 degrees Celsius - used by Israel to freeze bodies of killed Palstinians is far too low just to preserve a body; thawing from even -35 degrees takes up to two whole days and Israel demands and Muslim religious observance requires quick burial - if a family wants to strictly follow it.

This means that an autopsy by Palestinian pathologists is often out of the question and achieving this lies behind the treatment of the bodies.

BASEEM SALAH

In one previous case a body of a killed Baseem Salah(38), killed on November 29 and handed over on December 31 was returned with his legs projecting at 45 degrees upwards from his body to a height of one meter.

Getting his body in a coffin or decently burying it without one was an impossibility until the remains eventually thawed and the limbs flexed. Autopsy was also postponed.

THE FROZEN BOYS

Ahmad Manasrah, now 14, faces up to 20 years in prison at the hands of the Israeli occupation. Hassan, forever 15, lies frozen in an Israeli freezer. Both of them, in their different fates, are boys whose lives were frozen by the occupier Israel.

SOURCES:

Body of Martyr Manasra is “frozen” and the family refuses to receive it…32 people participate in the funeral of Martyr Iskafi

Coroner: Israel's conditional release of bodies prevents autopsies

Martyr’s funeral postponed till his corpse defrosts
http://english.pnn.ps/2015/12/30/martyrs-funeral-postponed-till-his-corpse-defrosts/

Monday, March 28, 2016

As new evidence of the murder of Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif(21) has been revealed, Israel's political elite is - as expected - turning from nominal condemnation (made for foreign audiences) to efforts to secure the soft treatment of his killer, in the belief that foreign interest towards the murder has already waned. At the same time the racism of Israeli majority population is revealed in its views towards the murder and the extent of self-entitlement
of the illegal Israeli settlers.

ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLERS CAMPAIGN ON BEHALF OF THE KILLER

Turning first to the last case, illegal Israeli settlers have been protesting against the arrest of the killer Elor Arzarya and demanding that he would be freed and "honoured" for committing the murder.

They have also filed 'a complaint' with Israeli police against the Palestinian Imad Abu Shamsiya who captured the murder on video, claiming that he would have worked together with the two killed youths.

A conspiracy theory the like of which are produced after each time an Israeli war crime or human rights violation gets wider publicity. These are intended to take attention from the crime itself by making those who oppose it to fight the conspiracy theory instead of keeping attention in the crime.

Abu Shamsiya has also gotten death threats from illegal Israeli settlers, who have also harassed him outside his home, which they already burned in 2015 as "revenge" for him reporting a knife attack on youths by illegal Israeli settlers in Tel Rumeida. He was also threatened by Israeli occupation soldiers during an interrogation after the murder.

The protests and demands by the illegal settlers show both the extent of the illegal Israeli settler movement's belief in its own influence not only on politicians but on military and judicial authorities in Israel as well and their feeling of self-entitlement in how they believe they are 'justified' to wield this influence, grasping for themselves the kind of power which, in the self-proclaimed 'Only democracy in the Middle East', theoretically belongs only to elected officials.

ISRAEL'S MORAL APARTHEID

Elected officials, who are now, as the brief interest from the world is assumed to have gone, gathering in support of the killer in a manner which would be very revealing if we would not have witnessed this many times before.

Government ministers like Naftali Bennett are claiming that the killer should never have been charged, that "Israel is in a war" and that this somehow 'justifies' murdering wounded people.

Prime Minister Netanyahu on his part implies that to accuse this one killer is to accuse Israel's army as a whole and that to 'protect' the army - to draw the conclusion Netanyahu strongly hints at - the killer then must be given clemency.

So that all would not be guilty, this one individual must be found not guilty is Netanyahu's position, which, if widely accepted, would stop all war crime and human rights violations charges everywhere.

These claims come from the same politicians that often deny the very existence of the occupation and use the memory of Holocaust
and its Jewish victims to protect Israel from criticism. They claim to represent past victims while they enable and commit today's war crimes.

For them, Israel is in a war, but doesn't occupy and "the context" of the murder must be taken into account, says Netanyahu. In effect, they claim that because Israel faces some resistance from those it
occupies, it should be taken granted that all rules of war should be allowed to be broken.

The Israeli Jewish majority agrees; according to a poll only 5 % of adult Israeli Jews consider the killing 'a murder', 42 % say the murder was 'responsible' action, 57 % believe that the killer should not have been arrested and 68 % that the murder should not
have been condemned by any political or military figures.

In the emotionally laden political landscape of Israel politicians can both cry the murder of Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators and then support similar crimes against Palestinians, as ethnic-religious and nationalist fervour obscures and is used to obscure the similarity of the crimes.

Any internal or external attempt to show this is attacked by "How dare you compare Israel to Nazis!" style 'righteously' indignant and very deliberate attacks to protect the hypocritical status quo, where same people can shed tears for Holocaust victims and offer pizza - as illegal Israeli settlers in Hebron do - to any soldier who kills a Palestinian no matter the circumstances.

In Israel, all public understanding of morality is hinged on ethnic-religious nationalism. If some act is wrong when done on Jews it doesn't mean that its also wrong when done by Jews on Palestinians - but comparing these acts on each
other most certainly is wrong.

This kind of schizoprenic morality is no accident, but has been carefully cultivated by the state and its representatives and the only rightful term for it is Apartheid, more precisely moral Apartheid.

COLLECTIVE STEPS TO MURDER

New video evidence shows that before he was shot to death by the Elor Arzarya, an Israel's occupation forces' medic, Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif was kicked in head by an illegal Israeli settler with no one intervening.

We can call this as the first step to his murder - a lesser act of violence against a person who can't defend himself without intervention is the usual step in mob violence towards a single individual, making further acts of violence 'easier' by others.

We now know, thanks to admittance by Israel's occupation forces themselves, that al-Sharif was checked for explosives yet was left
without medical aid even after that. Representatives of Israel's Red Star of David had tried to claim this as an excuse not to treat him.

The claim of the killer 'fearing' that al-Sharif would 'have had a bomb' has also been used by media to defend the murder, even when no suicide bombing has been made against the occupation since 2008. Far-fetched claim, which has now proven wrong -
although given practically no visibility by those who entertained the 'bomb' excuse.

The second step to murder was that al-Sharif was not given aid even after this 'checking for explosives'. The third step was that the Israeli ambulance operating illegally left carrying only the supposedly 'lightly injured' occupation soldier (and almost ran
over al-Sharif).

Whether the killer was given actual command by his superiors, direct encouragement to kill from fellow occupation soldiers beyond the one he got from an illegal Israeli settler (illegal settlers were mingling with the occupation soldiers like there would have been no difference between them and the soldiers) is beside the point; we claim that because of these earlier steps there was a de facto agreement between those present that al-Sharif would die and that he wasn't really killed just by a single occupation soldier,
but in effect by mob violence.

All those present were participants in his murder.

Second new video shows that the killer shook hands with a prominent illegal Israeli settler leader Baruch Marzel after
al-Sharif's body was taken away. Another piece of new evidence - briefly mentioned above - records an illegal Israeli settler saying to the shooter before the murder: “He is not dead… shoot him in the head.”

More naive persons might use this fact to raise questions about the extent illegal Israeli settlers' control the actions of the occupation forces; more seasoned observers of the occupation know that
the settlers' have wide control but only because Israel's regular occupation forces have themselves relinquished this
control to their unofficial militia counterparts and partners in occupation.

NO LINE BETWEEN THE TWO ARMS OF THE OCCUPATION

Illegal Israeli settlers are an armed militia acting as one arm of the military occupation and questioning where the line between regular occupation forces in uniform and their paramilitary partners without uniform goes is both pointless and misleading; it makes no difference to Palestinians living each day of their lives under the occupation and oppression of the hybrid entity of Israel's full occupation forces which the regular Israeli armed forces and Israel's illegal settlers are combined.

VIOLENCE SANCTIONED BY ISRAEL AT LARGE

The mob violence that cost the live of Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif is mob violence sanctioned not only by those present at his murder, but the Israeli state, politicians, military and public at large.

His killing was not just an individual exception, but one among many; there have been hundreds of al-Sharifs through the decades of occupation.

The rare cases of occupation soldiers or illegal settlers being sentenced have led neither to soul-searching, change of policy
or wide-scale questioning of the occupation.

The violence committed by Israel's occupation soldiers and illegal Israeli settlers have the backing of the Israeli political and military elite and the public - not only through attitudes reflected in
polls like the one mentioned above, but the occupation itself and the violence it leads to has been sanctioned in each Israeli Knesset election after it began.

WHAT NOW?

As pretensions of outrage towards the killing turn into a national movement in Israel to save the killer Elor Azarya from any
consequences from the murder he committed, Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif's body is still in hands of Israeli occupation waiting autopsy (Israel refusing to allow Palestinian pathologist to take part, only observe it), his brother has been arrested by Israel and PLO has asked (in vain, we expect) United Nations to study his and other extrajudicial executions by Israel.

What we can be certain of is that Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif's fate will be shared by many other Palestinians if the outside world doesn't stop handling Israel with silk gloves like Israel itself handles those who kill under its flag, whether they wear its uniforms or not.

By supporting BDS movement and its call to boycott Israel and companies that support its illegal colonies and occupation you can wield a positive influence each day by simply choosing what to buy.

SOURCES:

Hebron settlers file complaint against Palestinian who filmed execution
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/hebron-settlers-file-complaint-against-palestinian-who-filmed-execution/

"He’s Not Dead, Shoot Him In The Head": Quote from Israeli Medic
http://www.imemc.org/article/75384

Israeli forces raid home of Palestinian killed by Israeli soldier, detain 2
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770866

Israeli soldier filmed killing wounded Palestinian finds support among Israeli politicians
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/israeli-soldier-filmed-killing-wounded-palestinian-finds-support-among-israeli-politicians/

Israeli soldier filmed executing wounded Palestinian man
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/israeli-soldier-filmed-executing-wounded-palestinian-man/

Israel still holding body of Palestinian slain in filmed Hebron shooting
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770861

Jewish settlers threaten life of Palestinian who shot video of execution
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/jewish-settlers-threaten-life-of-palestinian-who-shot-video-of-execution/

Netanyahu defends Israeli military after soldier caught on tape executing Palestinian: ‘Any challenge to the morality of the IDF is outrageous’
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/netanyahu-defends-israeli-military-after-soldier-caught-on-tape-executing-palestinian-any-challenge-to-the-morality-of-the-idf-is-outrageous/

Netanyahu calls criticisms of Israeli army 'outrageous' in wake of Hebron killing
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770868

Netanyahu’s hypocritical condemnation of videotaped Hebron execution
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/netanyahus-hypocritical-condemnation-videotaped-hebron-execution

Palestinians seek UN investigation after Hebron 'execution'
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770883

Videographer who filmed execution of Palestinian receives death threats from Israeli settlers
http://www.imemc.org/article/75383

Video: Meet the brave shoemaker who filmed Israeli soldier executing a Palestinian
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/video-meet-the-brave-shoemaker-who-filmed-israeli-soldier-executing-a-palestinian/

Video: Soldier Who Executed The Wounded Palestinian In Hebron Seen Shaking Hands With Marzel
http://www.imemc.org/article/75387
DANDARA, THE SOUND OF SILWAN
Dandara ('Action', 'Let's Act') is a rap group, consisting at different times of seven to eight Palestinian youths, from Silwan in Palestine's occupied East Jerusalem. Growing up in occupied East Jerusalem has meant a difficult childhood to members of Dandara.
Tayma, then 13, commented in 2013: "We had a childhood just like everyone else, but it wasn't a normal childhood. Everywhere we turn, the settlers are around us ... They came to our land, stole our land, and are saying that it's theirs."
A creeping ethnic cleansing by Israel in Silwan, which has 50 000 Palestinian inhabitants, is driving Palestinians from their homes; recently Israeli court - illegally under international law - handed over houses to illegally settlers based on the fact that Yemenite Jews had been living at their site until a riot in 1880s. Hundreds of illegal Israeli settlers have been moved to Silwan in single events during the last few years.
Just on Wednesday Israeli occupation approved the building of a new five stories high building to serve illegal Israeli settlers, tourists and politically motivated archaeologists connected to Israel's 'City of David' project, in which science enslaved to nationalist-religious myth making is used to thinly hide ethnic cleansing.
At the same time tens of thousands of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens are not allowed to return to their home villages ethnically cleansed in 1947-1948 nor is the state of Israel willing to hand back other 'absent owner' Palestinian property it has controlled for almost seventy years.
An incubator for Dandara has been the Madaa ('Horizon') Silwan Creative Center, founded in 2007, and their guide to the world of Arabic and Palestinian Rap has been Tamer Dafar from the Rap group DAM. Madaa works in difficult circumstances to provide educational and recreational activities mainly to children, teens and women.
Dandara was already operating in 2012 and last summer the group visited and performed in France. They have produced one CD of their music, which draws both from contemporary Arabic Rap and Palestinian culture, often from the works of major Palestinian authors and groups.
VIDEOS:
Dandara - Games in the Hood دندرة - ألعاب بالحارة
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNluc2-LPnI



De Silwan à Sainté - Dandara Feat Rapsa, L'Étran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKNH4o0hgf0


SEE ALSO:
Madaa Silwan Creative Center on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MadaaSilwan?fref=ts
Madaa Silwan Creative Center's web page:
http://www.madaasilwan.org/

SOURCES:
Breaking news: Ratifying the settlement project “Kedem” in Silwan
http://www.silwanic.net/index.php/article/news/76227


Dandara : Résister en Palestine occupée avec le RAP
http://henrylucienmerle.over-blog.com/…/dandara-resister-en…

LE CENTRE DE MADAA SILWAN ET SA GÉNÉRATION DE JEUNES ARTISTES PALESTINIENS
http://erapinfo.free.fr/spip.php?article153