Tag: palestine

American Citizen Fatally Shot by IDF Soldier During Pro-Palestine Protest in West Bank

US citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was fatally shot by IDF soldiers during a pro-Palestinian protest that took place near Nabulus in the northern West Bank on Friday.

According to AP News, protests started out as peaceful, but turned violent when activists began throwing stones at Israeli Defense Force soldiers, prompting them to fire live ammunition into the crowd.

One of the IDF bullets tragically struck Eygi in the head, killing her on site.

From AP News:

“The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an ‘instigator of violent activity’ in the area of the protest.

The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier military crackdowns on Palestinian protests. More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.”

Biden State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that the U.S. government was aware of the death in statements he made on Friday.

“We offer our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones,” he said. “We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more.”

The White House also responded to the reports stating it was “deeply disturbed” by the death while urging the IDF to open an investigation into the incident.

Another activist who was at the protest told reporters that there were “two separate shots of live ammunition,” that were fired by officers into the crowd.

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Warning of ‘Genocidal Violence’ on the West Bank

An independent U.N. expert warns that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions maintain support for Israel’s military, which stands accused of grave war crimes.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that “there is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”

“The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it,” said Albanese, who released a detailed report in May concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

Albanese’s statement came as the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week on Monday. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed during the series of military raids, according to Al Jazeera, including at least five children.

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From ‘Defense’ to Destruction: The Evolution of Zionist Aggression

The most significant recent escalation in the ongoing Zionist real estate project, enabled by apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian people, occurred on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza’s prison fence, carrying out a bloody incursion on Israeli military installations and border towns. Since, the Israel “Defense” Forces (IDF) have engaged in the offensive flattening of Gaza, destruction of its infrastructure, extensive land seizure and elimination, torture and expulsion of its Palestinian population.

Meanwhile, liberal Zionists have been whitewashing these events, regurgitating fantasies of a “two-state solution” and ignoring widespread use of the Hannibal Directive while scapegoating Netanyahu as a bug rather than a feature. Undeniably, Zionism remains a colonialist, white supremacist movement aimed at capitalist resource acquisition while appropriating Judaism.

Viewing this dynamic through a behavioral neuroscientific lens, which studies violence as an expression of defensive and offensive aggression, provides insight into the mechanisms of a deadly, escalating cycle of eliminatory force, its underlying motivations and associated propaganda. The genocidal imperial practices in Gaza constitute a blueprint for future aggressive actions in the Global South and for suppressing dissent within the imperial core. Thus, such an analysis may assist in identifying state criminality, fostering an improved process of truth and accountability en route to reconciliation, peace, and justice.

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History: The “Penal Colonies” of Palestine. “The Gaza Strip is the Realization of Israel’s Vision of ‘Separation’” Prof. Tanya Reinhart

With tremendous foresight of what is happening now, this article by the late Professor Tanya Reinart was first published by Global Research in 2002 under the title The Penal Colonies.

Our thoughts are with Tanya Reinart. Her legacy will live. 

The Netanyahu government is no longer contemplating “Separation” or “Apartheid”. There is no longer a “Two State Solution”.

The October 7, 2023 Declaration of War against Palestine consists in invading and annexing Gaza and the West Bank, while excluding Palestinians from their homeland. It’s a crime against humanity. 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research. June 22,2024, September 4, 2024

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Israel’s Vision of Separation

The Gaza strip is a perfect realization of the Israeli vision of “separation”. Surrounded with electric fences and army posts, completely sealed off from the outside world, Gaza has become a huge prison.

About one third of its land was confiscated for the 7,000 Israeli settlers living there (and their defense array), while over a million Palestinians are crowded in the remaining areas of the prison.

With no work or sources of income, about 80% of its residents depend, for their living, on UNRWA, or contributions from Arab states and charity organizations. Now Israel is considering the imprisonment there of families of suicide bombers from the West Bank (1). As a senior Israeli analyst stated, Gaza can now serve as “the penal colony” of Israel its “devils island, Alcatraz”. (Nahum Barnea, Yediot Aharonot June 21, 2002).

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‘Jenin Is Just the Beginning’: Israel Planning More Escalations in West Bank

Israel is planning more significant escalations in the West Bank, and the Israeli military now considers the occupied territory the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza, Israel Hayom reported on Tuesday.

Israeli security officials told the outlet that while the directive for the West Bank is in its initial stages and that changes on the ground will take time, a new series of operations across the territory are imminent.

Last week, Israel launched its largest attack on the West Bank since 2002, with raids focused on Jenin and Tulkarm in the north. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” a security official told Israel Hayom.

The Israeli assault on Jenin continued for the seventh day on Tuesday as the city remains under siege. According to the Jenin municipality, the Israeli military has destroyed 70% of the roads and infrastructure in the city, and about 80% of the water has been cut off to residents.

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Netanyahu Can’t Win, So He’s Trying to Pull the U.S. Into a Wider War

Israel cannot defeat Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, or Iran, so it is trying to pull the U.S. into an all-out war with Tehran out of desperation — similar to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts in Ukraine, Jeffery Sachs, the Columbia economist, said in an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano on Tuesday.

He noted that the U.S. has been an unconditional supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout the war, and the AIPAC-bought Congress even embarrassed itself by giving the war criminal over 50 standing ovation during his recent address.

Sachs noted that Washington is so committed to Israel, that the first message posted by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the illegal assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran was that the U.S. has an “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security.

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Israeli airstrike on humanitarian aid convoy leaves five dead

The Israeli military carried out airstrikes on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza on 29 August, killing five employees of the transport company working with the US-based aid group that organized it, The Guardian reported on 30 August.

The convoy was organized by the NGO Anera. It was carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah, a city on the Gaza–Egypt border.

Its route had been coordinated in advance with the Israeli military under a deconfliction process intended to prevent aid vehicles from being bombed.

Anera’s Palestine country director, Sandra Rasheed, told The Guardian, “This is a shocking incident. The convoy, which was coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed.”

“Tragically, several individuals, all employed by the transportation company we work with, were killed in the attack. They were in the first vehicle of the convoy,” Rasheed added.

The Israeli military confirmed the route had been coordinated but claimed its forces struck armed men seeking to hijack the convoy.

Just hours before the airstrike, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle clearly marked with UN insignia. Israeli forces fired 10 bullets into the windows of the vehicle as it approached an army checkpoint in the Wadi Gaza area.

Because the vehicle was armored with reinforced glass, none of the passengers were killed or injured.

Cindy McCain, the head of the WFP, called the shooting “totally unacceptable.”

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German envoy admits he spread lie about 7 October mass rapes

The German ambassador in Tel Aviv has admitted that he spread fabricated Israeli atrocity propaganda intended to give credence to Israel’s debunked claims of mass rapes by Palestinian fighters on 7 October 2023.

“I regret having believed – like so many others – that that suicide letter was real. It turns out it was a fake,” Ambassador Steffen Seibert posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “I find this an appalling act given that so many real lives were taken at the Nova festival, so many crimes committed, so many souls destroyed.”

Last week, Seibert shared a letter purporting to be from an Israeli who died by suicide because he was unable to live with the trauma he experienced at the Supernova rave on 7 October.

The fake letter was widely disseminated after it was shared by two notorious Israeli propagandists, Hen Mazzig, who translated it to English, and Aviva Klompas.

Mazzig had claimed that “After miraculously surviving the October 7 massacre, the young Israeli man decided to end his life after witnessing too many horrors, including the rape of a girl.”

“The overwhelming weight of everything he saw, heard and experienced, along with his inability to save the girl being assaulted nearby, made him feel incapable of continuing his life.”

Mazzig works for an Israeli propaganda outfit called the Tel Aviv Institute. Klompas, a former Israeli government speechwriter, is the CEO of another lobby group called Boundless Israel.

Both have been very active in pushing Israel’s debunked claims of mass rapes on 7 October.

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Harris Will Continue to Ignore U.S. Law and Arm Israel, If Elected

When President Joe Biden bowed out of his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, a wave of enthusiasm for a new face on the presidential ticket spread across the electorate. Boosted by memes and “Brat” tweets that portrayed Harris as a different kind of leader, many expressed hope that she would differ from Biden in her stance on supplying arms and diplomatic support to Israel for its war in Gaza.

When Harris chose progressive Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, who previously bent a listening ear to “Uncommitted” delegates who called for an arms embargo on Israel, cautious optimism grew, but questions remained.

But when Harris sat down for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday, her first since the start of her campaign, the vice president seemed to shut the door on the possibility of change. 

When asked whether Harris would “do anything differently” in her approach to ceasefire talks and withholding weapons shipments to Israel, Harris, with Walz by her side, doubled down on her “commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself.”

“And that’s not gonna change,” she said, after evoking scenes from the October 7 attacks in Israel. Harris added the caveat that how Israel defended itself mattered, saying, “Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.” She then called for the end of the war and that the U.S. has to “get a deal done.”

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How Blinken’s Disinformation Perpetuates the Suffering in Gaza

After a three-hour meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Anthony Blinken professed Israel’s acceptance of a supposed ceasefire proposal. However, less than 48 hours later, it became evident that this proclamation was likely part of a PR disinformation strategy designed to dress the wolf in sheep clothing.

The complicity between Joe Biden Administration and Netanyahu became more apparent when White House National Security (Israeli) Communications Advisor John Kirby responded to a question about the Administration’s stance on Netanyahu’s conditions on the ceasefire, particularly regarding Israel’s control of Gaza’s southern borders and military stationed inside Gaza. Kirby’s subtle reply implied U.S. acceptance of Netanyahu’s conditions, stating that the Israeli army could have security responsibilities on the border. He added the focus should be now on the release of Israeli (100) captives and “six weeks of calm”—only a respite before Israel resumes its horrific crimes against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Egypt and Israel were scheduled to discuss Netanyahu’s additional terms on the new American amended ceasefire plan. Following the conclusion of these meetings, Egypt reiterated its rejection of Netanyahu’s conditions to maintain an Israeli presence at Rafah and in the Philadelphia Corridor.

If Egypt and Israel do not agree on Netanyahu’s new conditions, why would Blinken expect the Palestinians to accept something Egypt wouldn’t allow? Is this part of an American-Israeli scheme to pressure the Palestinians into agreeing to terms that Egypt opposes? Could it be a tactic to use Palestinian acceptance as leverage against Egypt? Or, is Blinken, in effect, acting as a Zionist agent, colluding with Israel to maintain Israeli control over the Gaza-Egypt border, in violation of existing bilateral agreements?

In his distorted statement regarding the repackaging of Netanyahu’s conditions as a “bridged proposal,” Blinken went further by suggesting that the suffering of Gaza’s 2.3 million people is a consequence of the Resistance’s refusal to accept the new American/Israeli dictate, rather than being a result of Israel’s malevolence war. In other words, by refusing to surrender—one of Netanyahu’s key demands—the Palestinians are blamed for their own suffering.

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