The Israeli government is in spin mode over yesterday’s events in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where hundreds of protesters calling for the right of return marched and were met with Israeli gunfire. If the repression inflicted on unarmed protesters three weeks ago during the Nakba protests are any guide, a heavy dose of skepticism and questioning of official Israeli claims is needed.
A number of people were reportedly killed yesterday in the Golan Heights, and scores were injured in unarmed demonstrations across the West Bank quashed by Israel. The demonstrators were marking the anniversary of the Naksa, or setback, in the 1967 war.
Israeli officials are busy pushing this story: the protesters in the Golan Heights yesterday were pawns used by the Syrian regime to deflect attention from Syria’s own internal uprising, and besides, Israeli troops didn’t kill the demonstrators. Instead, according to the Israeli Defense Forces, “Soldiers fired ‘with precision’ at the bottom half of the bodies of the protesters…an initial IDF inquiry into Sunday’s events found that up to ten Syrian protesters had been killed when Molotov cocktails which the protesters had been throwing set off an anti-tank minefield.”
Of course, one should take the Syrian regime’s claims lightly as well, but the Israeli claims shouldn’t be taken at face value, either. Max Blumenthal documents the Israeli spin here.
We also have the documented record of what Israel did on May 15, killing unarmed protesters demanding their right of return. A Human Rights Watch report I highlighted here shows that Israeli snipers–the very same ones we are supposed to believe fired “with precision” yesterday–killed unarmed protesters along the Lebanon-Israel border.
The wild stories Israel is pushing that Blumenthal reports on, and the history of the Israeli response to unarmed Palestinian resistance, should make this clear at the very least: the official Israeli story is one not to be trusted. Videos posted by Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada here and here also show the violence Israel meted out yesterday. In addition, as Abunimah put it, the Israeli Army’s chief of staff recently outlined a “new, more brutal doctrine against nonviolent protests.” But tell that to the U.S. media.
Alex Kane, a freelance journalist based in New York City, blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia at alexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
npr had a particularly repulsive report on the death of protesters this morning, sandwiching ‘condemnation’ of israel’s conduct between a story on syrian repression and an IAEA investigation of the syrian nuclear facilities bombed by israel. and, to be clear, these were not three separate stories, but segments within the same npr report.
It’s ironic that while Israel blames Syria for the protests all the Arab dictators are claiming that Israel is responsible for their own protests. All these regimes are relying on scapegoats to justify there repression.
With this specific case I will add, any soldier who deliberately targets unarmed civilians should be tried for War Crimes and hung (since Israel has the death penalty with regards to war crimes). Even the US Military, itself one of the most thuggish militaries in the world, recently moved forward with charges against the US soldiers that were part of the “Kill Team” which murdered unarmed civilians.
So how come when US troops fired on unarmed civilians in Afghanistan they get court martialled but Israel troops who fire on unarmed civilians are allowed to continue walking free? Of course this is by far not the first time the Israelis have shot unnarmed protesters (Flotilla being just one of the famous examples).
Well, the US is aping Israel the best it can, both in domestic surveillance to “protect us,” and in foreign policy, but it still has some minor cherished constitutional principles to slide around. We are trying hard to be a mirror of Israel in every way, but some darn Americans keep yelling at us that our goal is “unAmerican.” We need to punch up the fear button more. I mean, when you are the only nuke and real military power in the ME, that’s not the same as the only superpower in the world. Too many childish eyes are watching us.
shooting unarmed civilians is what cowards do…
“… a heavy dose of skepticism and questioning of official Israeli claims is needed.”
Never believing anything they say should be an established fact, by now.
*the Israeli claims shouldn’t be taken at face value*
And the Pope sh*ts in the woods.
Mondo should put together the available material on Israeli mendacity. Start with Cast Lead, then go onto the Flotilla, bring in Matilde Redmattn, add the Irish Times op-ed from last week. Someone, I think it was American, said there is no point listening to them , they always lie.
“The army accused the Syrian government of creating a deliberate provocation ”
link to haaretz.com
Israel is caught in a real bind here. The only appropriate Zionist response to any action related to the right of return is instant death, which has served Israel so well in the past.
Sadly the average goy watching this stuff of TV is more likely to think Sharpeville, especially when the dead Arabs are unarmed.
Yes, seafoid, for those who forgot, or never knew (from Wiki): The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal Province (now called Gauteng). After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 people. Some sources state that the crowd were peaceful.[1] Other sources state that the crowd had been hurling stones at the police, injuring several police officers, and that the shooting only started when the crowd started advancing toward the fence around the police station.[2]
But I think sadly the average goy watching this stuff of TV will never even think of Sharpeville, especially because the dead Arabs are Arabs, even if unarmed. Why, those Arabs want to take away baby Jesus, or, for the secular American audience, those Arabs never lose an opportunity to show they hate Western civilization. Why my eyes well up in tears, thinking of the poor Jewish Israeli kids asleep in their beds while terrorist Palestinian rockets fall down on their heads, same as my President’s innocent kids, Mr Obama.
“But I think sadly the average goy watching this stuff of TV will never even think of Sharpeville”
Who remembers Sharpeville?
Old gits like me.
A few history nerds and geeks.
And that’s about it.
Precisely, RoHa. Hitler relied on human nature (and the power of a lackey press & educational system) to aid memory loss & simple ignorance, when he asked his concerned consultants worried about his evilly planned risk-taking, “Who remembers the Armenians?”
Soldiers fired ‘with precision’ at the bottom half of the bodies of the protesters
It says rather a lot about Israel that they actually think telling the world that they “only” shot at the bottom half of unarmed protestors bodies is something praise worthy. Seriously even IF people believed them are they supposed to cheer at Israel’s restraint? If the US shot non violent protestors across the Mexican border would “we only shot ‘em from the waist down” even be floated in pow wows with the PR flunkies?
“It says rather a lot about Israel that they actually think telling the world that they ‘only’ shot at the bottom half of unarmed protestors bodies is something praise worthy.”
My thought exactly. How immoral and twisted must this Israeli “society” be if this is considered mitigation.
The continuing ziospins on EVERYTHING EVERYDAY is so ludicrous and tiresome that I only got this to say on the matter:
link to youtube.com
And it isn’t only people in the “West” being made dizzy. The Real News on Israeli left’s confusion about meaning of Zionism:
link to therealnews.com
Guardian (not exactly an Israeli hasbarah channel) today (06jun11)
link to guardian.co.uk :
“Up to 1,000 demonstrators arrived at the area in buses to mark “Nakba day”, the Palestinian name for the day Israel was formed in 1948.
One demonstrator who was wounded that day told the Guardian the Lebanese militia Hezbollah had given him $50 to turn up at the border and $900 to have his gunshot wounds treated by physicians. He said he had been planning to return to Maroun al-Ras yesterday until the rally was cancelled.”
The opening sentence in the excerpt you posted tells the reader that the author(s) is a shill.
The Nakbah commemorates the loss of land, the ethnic cleansing and the destruction of an entire culture at the hands of Zionist forces. That Palestinian libraries were destroyed and historical sites were razed — to this day — is testament to the large scale effort to disappear Palestinian culture, history and nation.
And that was discussed ad nauseum here on Mondoweiss on May 15th, with articles, sources and plenty of citations from Ha-Aretz and from Israeli historians — for those who don’t trust the goyim.
So the allegation about Hizbullah paying $50 is bunk. “One demonstrator” is as credible as “anonymous sources in the administration told me”.
So – “allegation about Hizbullah paying $50 is bunk. “One demonstrator” is as credible as “anonymous sources in the administration told me”.”
Will you apply the same logic when the quote will be from an Arab demonstrator complaining about Zionist brutality? Don’t worry, I will remember it and remind you next time.
The problem with the $50 story, besides the fact that it is anonymous and, therefore, could have been fictitious, is the fact that this person is not quoted. Rather, the reporter makes the statement, which we are left to interpret. We do not know (nor, thanks to the anonymous nature of the allegation, can we know) what circumstances existed regards to this person. As such, apologists for the Zionist scum who perpetrated this massacre will interpret this statement as supporting the notion that this protester only appeared because he was given $50. That is totally not supported by the story.
If there was a payment made, it very well could have been that the protester needed the money and made it known to friends that he could not attend because he needed to work a job in to earn money at that time, even though he wanted to participate. Then, someone (which the reporter attributes to Hezbollah, but who knows) gave him money so that he was not forced to work, but could participate in the demonstration against the evil Israeli scum.
All that we can know is that the reporter is claiming that someone told him that payment was made. We don’t know whether it was true, whether the payment was acually made, nor the circumstances surrounding it. So while the evil people want it to mean something sinister, that is merely a concoction of their diabolcal minds.
Yeah right: as if Palestinian refugees need someone to pay them fifty bucks to motivate them to risk their lives, march and shout out at the armed thieves, call out for their lands to be given back to them. Besides, I believe not a single Palestinian thinks that their life is worth so little – fifty effing bucks to collect an israeli bullet with your chest? Uh uh I DON’T THINK SO!
Besides, Hizbollah played a much smarter card regarding the planned protests at the Lebanese border – they ‘postponed’ them.
Held back, this card now has doubled in tactical value and they will use this card at a later more beneficial stage.
Israel is deeply sorry
link to youtube.com
Will you apply the same logic when the quote will be from an Arab demonstrator complaining about Zionist brutality? Don’t worry, I will remember it and remind you next time.
Can’t speak for anyone else here asherpat but I don’t need anyone to verify what I’ve seen with my own eyes. Anyone who has spent time in the West Bank is all too personally familiar with Zionist brutality.
Remember that all you like.
Yes, Djinn
Zionists may be brutal, but not very efficient, otherwise, they wud not have left so many people alive after they witness the “massacres” and “brutalities”, innit?
Come to think of it, Arabs are much more efficient at this, after all, the number of Arabs killed by other Arabs in the Palestinian territories surpasses those killed by Israel, and no one talks about it!
When in the West Bank, have you witnessed the so-called “honour killings”, the brutalization of gay people, torture and imprisonment of political opponents (usually called “collaborators”)? Or maybe you were in Gaza, where the situation is even better?