We received a note from "the Jilani family" responding to Adam's post yesterday on the killing of Ziad Jilani, a 41-year-old tradesman and father, on Friday night:
I am writing to you on behalf of my nieces, the daughters of Ziad Jilani, who was killed by Israeli police/military yesterday June 11th in Jerusalem. Until the witnesses are polled and the correct information is gathered, I hope that more people question what happened and that Ziad did not die in vain. I do not have the truth at this time either, as there is mass speculation as to what truly occurred, but when the photos and videos of what truly happened do come to the surface, it will turn the AP report that has been reprinted globally – without knowing the facts – into gossip and speculation. .
For the memory of my brother-in-law, I will say this: he was not trying to injure anyone with his vehicle. He was going to pray; one of the rights that we hold so dear as an American but yet seem to have turned a blind eye to the rights that the under-45 male, Islamic community in Jerusalem have now lost. He was a great father of my three beautiful and loving nieces and an amazing husband to my sister, Moira Reynolds-Jilani – an American born in the island of Barbados who has lived in Israel since 1993. He was college-educated, a humanitarian to all who he knew, and a person who prayed for a better world for his children. He was looking forward to taking his girls to dinner Friday night – instead he was buried.
In the second it took the soldier to shoot the last bullets – in the back and face of an unarmed man – he forever altered the life of my sister and her daughters. Let the blood on his hands never wash away and may God have mercy on his soul and all that participated and did nothing while my brother in law lay bleeding and saw the gun put to his face and the last trigger pulled.
What world is this? More importantly I challenge everyone who reads this to say ‘NO MORE’.
How heart-breaking. It makes you seethe that cretins would do this.
There are no words. I feel for those 3 girls. I hope there’s justice, if not Israeli justice than karmic justice for the psychos who committed this crime.
sending a prayer for love and strength. may the death of this loving father and husband and brother not be in vain. my heart goes out to your whole family. we will not forget and may your struggle be ours, each one of ours until freedom and justice prevail in palestine.
The Israeli narrative fits neither the man nor the circumstances. It won’t be the first time the Israeli establishment fabricated the truth and I regret to say, it won’t be the last.
It’s times like these that I wish there were something I could do, something immediate, something that could stop the pain and suffering of others at once.
But, I can only take comfort in the fact that my cumulative efforts, be they activism, work, writing, donations, or protests will slowly, and over time ensure an end to the brutal military occupation, to the injustices committed by Israel and bring about a glimpse of hope for Palestinians. I don’t know what else to do.
Rest in peace, Ziad.
As Avi wrote, The Israeli narrative fits neither the man nor the circumstances. I saw the Israeli white security blimp was hovering over Wadi Joz just as this happened (though I was not aware of the tragedy until several hours later) – it must have significant monitoring and surveillance material to assist in any serious investigation…
Just about every day zionists/israelis commit these crimes in Palestine. I have grown so goddamned disgusted with these monsters that saying I do not recognise them as human or that I think of them as nazis would be a gross understatement.
What the people of Palestine go through because of this disgusting israeli freakshow rivals the Warsaw Ghetto.
No more.
Sad.
Looking forward to see how you guys try to spin the latest terrorist attack.
link to haaretz.com
A statement issued by the Imad Mughaniyeh group said it fired toward the patrol car near the Al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron, killing one officer and injuring three others, in response to Israel’s deadly raid on Gaza-bound aid fleet, killing nine passengers on board two weeks ago.
link to maannews.net
More repercussions from the flotilla massacre.
Why not talk of Krygystan or Uzbekistan on here. This is what a real ethnic cleansing looks like. The Palestinians are treated like kings compared to this. But no outrage, no protest.
link to cnn.com
It’s a shame that you think that way. Any ethnic cleansing is wrong no matter what religion or race you are. The jewish nation went through a lot of brutality and heartache and it is a shame to see that they would do the same to others. At the same time this is mainly against one policeman butcher who killed my brother in cold blood. We want to know who that policeman is and bring him to justice. My best friends are jews and they would never hurt anybody like that in cold blood.
This is like hophmi’s argument that Palestinians should be thankful Israel didn’t nuke the Flotilla (since it could).
Ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing no matter how you spin it, yonira/3e/sockpuppet.
Israel does not have the PR to withstand the ramifications of a 1948′-style Nakba in 2010. It can do so slowly overtime though. And that’s what is happening.
It’s a strategy. Still evil, but more efficient than whatever diversion you happen to cite.
[expletive edited] you ignore the murder of a Palestinian civilian and family man, who wanted to just go about his day until a bunch of your fellow [...] shot him down.
“The Palestinians are treated like kings compared to this.”
Oh, indeed. Excuse me, I’m just going out to leave a bag of flaming dog turds on my Jewish neighbour’s porch. Sure, it’s not a nice thing to do, but when you think of what I could have done, she should count herself lucky.
There is one small comfort I take in this…
A few years ago I felt so alone and voiceless in my repulsion and disgust with Israeli psychopathy…
Now I take a deep breathe of relief…more and more people seem to be taking note and saying NO MORE!
It’s clear from this incident and the assassinations on the Marmara that Isreali cops as well as the IDF have clear orders to “confirm the kill.” Which is to say, murder.
If anyone thinks that the newly announced and supposedly “impartial” Israeli government investigation is going to be actually impartial, you should read this article written by David Trimble, one of those “outsiders” chosen by the Israeli government to participate. In the following article he writes very disparagingly about Hamas.
He also seems to have connections to the UK group Conservative Friends of Israel before which he has spoken in the past.
What a sham this is turning out to be!
link to guardian.co.uk
It will be totally an indictment of Turkey as a terrorist state.
Tory historian Andrew Roberts was in a debate on RT television last week. He was totally pro-Israeli. He said it was right for Israel alone in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons, because only Israel needs them to defend itself.
Thank you for trying to make this public. I am Ziad’s sister and we will not rest before the truth comes out. We have been a peaceful loving family and the unthinkable happened to us. Go ask all the witnesses how this brutal killing happened. Several videos were confiscated but we have a lot of evidence from others that sneeked their cameras out of the crime seen. May Aallah have mercy on my brother’s sole and protect his three beutiful girls and give his wife the strength and petience to fight back.
@Menachem. Why not talk of Krygystan or Uzbekistan on here.
Simple: we in North America are not arming and enabling the killers in either of those countries. Our governments are arming and enabling, and covering for, the killers working for the Israeli state. We have a responsibility to deal with the problems we help create and perpetuate, if we are ever to have any credibility in address human rights issues anywhere else.