Marian Houk has a disturbing report at UN-Truth. The beginning of her post:
There were several Israeli media reports published yesterday (in English) and today (in Hebrew) that the IDF has, in recent weeks, laid new minefields in the Golan — as part of the military preparations against continuing demonstrations at the “border”.
According to these reports, new minefields were laid in the weeks between the May 15 Nakba Day demonstrations [marking the expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians in the fighting that surrounded the creation of the State of Israel in 1948] and the June 5 demonstrations held on Sunday [to mark the 1967 war and the start of the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan].
On May 15, Israeli officials were surprised by an infiltration of Palestinians and their supporters who managed to cross the lines and enter the Golan town of Majdal Shams. One of these infiltrators even managed to get as far as Yaffa, the birthplace and home town of his parents, where he went for a meal, looked around, and then turned himself in to Israeli police.
The Syrian Golan Heights was occupied by Israel in the June 1967 war — and annexed by Israel in 1980, a move that UN members said was “null and void”.
The well-informed Defense Correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, Yaakov Katz, wrote in an article published last night [06/06/2011 22:01] that “In general, the army was pleased with the way it handled the protests on Sunday … In the weeks before, the IDF prepared extensively, laying down new minefields, digging trenches and installing new barbed-wire fences … At least eight of the dead, IDF sources said on Monday, were killed by mines that exploded after the protesters threw Molotov cocktails in fields near the border, causing their premature detonation”. This was posted here.
Laying new minefields in the Golan raises serious questions — including whether proper notification was made, particularly to the Syrian authorities (also to the UN, which has peacekeeping missions there).
It also raises questions about whether such military measures — normally intended to address grave dangers and prevent invasions — are also intended as the Israeli response to protest demonstrations and civilian infiltration.
Everyone? Please please please bookmark this article and toss it at Witty and the other Zionists whenever they talk about Hamas violence and Israeli innocence.
Minefields – what a brilliant idea to stop undesirable civilians – why have most gated communities not yet incorporated that around their perimeter fences I will never know!
Although I guess dealing with smell in hot weather might need some further technical R&D.
Now is probably a good time to invest in Israeli land mines, security, and crowd control companies, as they are likely to have a surge in orders.
the mines were laid in 1967
Please re-read the post. We are talking about NEW mines laid down in the last few weeks complementing OLD mines, laid in 1967.
Yes, well, where are the videos of the protesters throwing molotov cocktails and mines exploding? This event was filmed extensively with videos all over the internets.
The IDF are notorious liars. I’d like to hear the testimony of eyewitnesses, of which they were plenty. What sort of injuries did the people receive? Did they go to hospitals? I guess the news agencies can’t be bothered with that sort of work.
Yes, exactly. If these allegations were true, we would have video of it. Since the IOF are liars above all, until uneqivocal video proof is established (which means none of the editing like with the flotilla murders, which would have made Eisensteinian blush), it must be assumed that the Israelis are lying.
From Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe:
It was the torture of elementary-school students in Deraa that gave momentum to the current Syrian uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime. The children, some as young as 10, were picked up by security agents for scrawling antigovernment graffiti on a school wall. When they were released days later, there were cigarette burn marks on their bodies, and the fingernails had been pulled from their hands. Word of the torture spread, outraging Syrians and helping fuel further protest. The government’s response has been a deadly crackdown with appalling new levels of cruelty.
“The stories we hear now are unimaginable in their brutality,” a former Syrian intelligence officer who has turned against the regime told The Wall Street Journal recently. “It is not only to deter protesters. They enjoy hurting people for the sake of it.” One such victim, a shopkeeper from Homs, was seized after leaving an antigovernment protest. As described by the Journal, the man was slashed with a scalpel on his back, then stitched up without anesthetic and beaten on the wounds. He was “kept naked and blindfolded in a room packed with detainees and excrement,” where he listened to his cousin being burned with a poker, and was told to “kneel in prayer” before a portrait of Assad.
Is this the “peace loving” Syria of which you speak?
I am not disturbed by the mines, but hope they can easily be removed when the time comes. An army attempts to control a well-delineated border, YES A BORDER, the border of occupied territory. Mines are fine here (if they are fine anywhere, that is).
I AM disturbed by a 43-year “occupation” where the land is not relinquished despite peace efforts by Syria and, instead (and quite early) is “annexed” (an illegal operation).
Syria has made no attempt whatsoever to establish peace with Israel. Your saying so conflicts with the reality of the situation. Assad and his father are and were tyrants of the first degree; murderers of their own people and power-loving dictators. Neither had or has any motivation to make peace with Israel because it would interfere with their absolute control over their country.
“Syria has made no attempt whatsoever to establish peace with Israel. ”
That is an absolue lie. Syria has made many such attempts, but the Zionists, being the theiving bastards they are, insist on monopolizing the water resources of the Sea of Galillee, which the Syrians won’t abide.
Name one time that either either Assad made any overture for peace with Israel that was meaningful. Name just one and tell those who read this blog what the offer consisted of (besides a lot of blather.)
“Name one time that either either Assad made any overture for peace with Israel that was meaningful.”
In 1999-2000, Assad agreed to peace with Israel in connection with a return of the Golan, on the 1967 lines, but Israel refused, apparently because it coveted the water resources of the Sea of Galillee more than it valued peace. See here.
>> Syria has made no attempt whatsoever to establish peace with Israel. Your saying so conflicts with the reality of the situation.
From what I see on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website, pabelmont has a better grasp of reality than you do.
Meaningless drivel by Syria. Israel accepted the principals listed, but did Syria? Hmmm?
>> Meaningless drivel by Syria.
Yeah, it really sucks when an Israeli government website puts lie to your assertions.
The Israeli government site outlined a general plan for negotiations with Syria. That plan, in all its common sense formality, was accepted by Israel. Was it accepted by Syria?
Doubt it.
>> The Israeli government site outlined a general plan for negotiations with Syria.
And Syria offers peace proposals to Israel
Your initial claim – that “Syria has made no attempt whatsoever to establish peace with Israel” – is either an error or an outright lie.
Keep up the good work! :-)
The proposal(s) from Syria are basically for Israel to return the Golan, and return to the 1967 lines (so Syria can reassemble its army on Israel’s border and threaten its existance, again?) Ain’t gonna happen. This is NOT a peace initiative, this is suicide for Israel.
>> The proposal(s) from Syria … [a]in’t gonna happen.
In other words, your original assertion was an outright lie. Thanks for clearing that up.
Everyone’s a victim – Richard Witty, mutual humanist and liberal.
Damn! Why didn’t Bull Connor think of mines at one end of the bridge!
Screw German shepherds and fire hoses! Y’all REALLY know how to deal with protesters!
Exactly. How twisted the Zionists are when Bull Connor looks progressive by comparison!
Most of the world has moved to outlaw land mines. If true, this could blow up in Israel’s face.
Israel is one of the few countries that has not ratified the Land Mine Convention. The U.S. is another.
I wonder if these mines were supplied by the U.S.
So, if the Israeli claim that the demonstrators set off a mine with a Molotov cocktail is true, would the mine have been one of the old ones, or one of the new ones?
Why assume there was even a Molotov cocktail? Occam’s razor. If Israeli troops were injured laying down mines… well… remember what somebody else up the thread said about these things blowing up in your face when you use them?
East Germany actually constructed minefields on its border with West Germany to deter dissidents from leaving. Of course this is not Israel’s border. Anyway, there may be a legal argument against it, although I am not holding my breath for the U.S. or Europe to protest. It seems to me placing mines against non-violent protesters in occupied areas should be illegal.
the us of land mines need to be outlawed internationally… the fact israel and the usa haven’t signed on to ratify the land mine convention tells everyone except a zionist, or a neo con something… these same folks are indeed crazy….