Sunday, April 8, 2018

NO FREE PASS FOR THE PASSOVER MASSACRE


With the exception of MSNBC, the U.S. mainstream has put a block on any reports of what is happening in Palestine. As of today, Popular Resistance reports that as of the second week of Palestinian protest, Israeli forces have killed a total of 29 Palestinians, including the 21 during and after the March 30 protests, which wounded more than 1600 more. Eight Palestinians died on Friday, including one who died of earlier wounds.

Starting March 30, some 30 to 40 thousand peaceful Palestinians began their March for the Great Return, a planned demonstration that will continue to May 15, to commemorate the Nakba of 1948 when some 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes, and exiled either to Jordan or to the bantustans of Gaza and West Bank.



 


Israel treats Gaza as a combat zone, conflating civilians with terrorists, and framing its March 30 pre-planned use of live rounds and rubber bullets against peaceful demonstrators and deploying 100 snipers on the Israeli side of the fence separating Gaza from “Greater” Israel as “self-defense,” claiming unarmed Palestinians are a security risk. The IDF issued an official statement boasting of its responsibility for the massacre before it suddenly got taken down: “Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed.”


But, as this segment from Democracy Now shows, Gazans were peaceful throughout the march, despite the killing of more than 17 unarmed Palestinians with shots to the head and upper body, and over 2,000 wounded, including children, with deliberately disabilitating injuries to the knees and pelvis. At least two teenagers were shot, including a 19-year-old artist whose dream had been to draw the map of Palestinian lands before the expulsion of 1948 on the sand. In remembering him, his friends realized his dream for him.



Palestinian “reading” lock down


Raji Sourani, Gazan criminal layer, is quoted as saying:
“They want to push us…to give up, to be good victims. Never, ever we will give up. And we will continue the fight for our freedom, for our dignity, for our people, for our right to be free, to have an end for this criminal occupation, [now marking] its 50th anniversary. They want to steal tomorrow from us, but tomorrow is ours. We are on the right side of history.”



 


Why Be Concerned?

With a full plate of Republican-inspired domestic Nakbas of our own, why should we be concerned about what happens to Palestinians? Because the U.S. supports the Israeli military with more aid than it accords to any other nation, with $500 million this year, up $200 million from last year, and with a total $134.7 billion to date. The U.S. bankrolls this genocide. It’s happening on our citizen watch. And because when the Security Council recently called for a thorough investigation of this war crime, the U.S. used its veto to block the inquiry. That’s why.

There’s another reason which is less well known. Just as Nazi eugenics as practiced during the regime of the Third Reich were inspired by U.S. programs of forced sterilization (still on going by the way), the ethnic cleansing activities of the IDF are in large measure inspired by the U.S. “Indian” wars, that is, the war against First Nations (still on-going by the way) to clear the land for settlement and corporate pillage. And yet another reason: many U.S. municipal police forces have either travelled to Israel to pick up tips about crowd control or been trained on U.S. soil by Israeli IDF “advisors.” The war against Palestine has its eugenic component as well as Israel targets the capacity of Palestinian women to give birth. We could well ask which tail wags which dog?

At the same time, If Americans Knew has released a video showing how Israeli propaganda efforts based both in Israel, and in other countries, including the U.S. are highly organized by using false IPs to re-write both the Palestinian narrative, and whitewash the Zionist program.


Most Israelis vigorously back the policies of their own government, with the exception of many demonstrators insisting on pushing their country to observe human rights., And one Israeli NGO, B’Tselem, urged IDF soldiers to hold their fire: Their call reads:
“Soldier, the order to use lethal force against civilians who do not pose mortal danger is patently illegal. Using lethal force is only allowed when an actual, immediate threat to human life exists, and when there is no other option.



Eight Jewish Bostonians lock down

The responsibility for issuing these unlawful orders rests first and foremost with the policy makers, including the prime minister, defense minister, and the chief of staff. Yet obeying patently illegal orders is a criminal offense and you are duty-bound to refuse complying with them.”

And In Boston, eight Jews chained themselves to the Israeli consulate on the fourth day of Passover to protest the shooting of unarmed demonstrators.

Minimally, PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman ought to be prosecuted for war crimes. But, like the Sacramento officer who recently killed black victim, 22-year-old Stephon Clark with eight shots to the back while he talked on his cell phone in his grandma’s backyard will undoubtedly walk, world-class assassins tend to get off scot-free as well.
Please consider adding your name to the petitions listed below in our TAKE ACTION section. Thank you.




 

 









 




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United we Dream announces that Austin H.S. student Dennis Sarmiento will be released soon while his case is being decided.

City Council of San Antonio, after years of citizen activism, passes ordinance securing safeguards for activists’ right to free speech.

ACLU Foundation of NorCal wins suit against the California DMV for violating the motor vehicle voter registration laws. The ACLU is bring suit in the states of Ohio, Kansas, Michigan and Florida as well to insure citizens’ right to vote.

California court deals a blow to the state’s money bail system, finding current bail setting practices unconstitutional. Senate Bill 10 now before the legislature would insure that no one sits in jail for being poor.

The California values Act becomes law requiring that state and local resources not be diverted to fuel federal attempts to carry out mass deportations.

PEN announces the release of Ethiopian writer Eskinder Nega serving an 18-year sentence for criticizing his government.

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