Haaretz’s office building
From Haaretz.
Het alleged that he was present at an interrogation in which Captain George inserted a baton up a suspect’s rectum. After Het spoke with Rish, Het was apparently questioned under caution by the Israel Police, meaning the police were considering criminal charges against Het. …Het said Captain George played a role in every interrogation. “He would just come in, burst into the room, grab the suspect, shake him, get him onto the floor, punch him in the chest, yell and threaten,” Het said. Het added that George would enter with a baton, hit the suspect and threaten to insert it into his rectum if he “continued to lie or not talk.” … Het also recounted an interrogation in which George allegedly stripped a suspect naked and forced him to drink tea or coffee from an ashtray full of cigarette ashes and then forced shaving cream or toothpaste into the suspect’s mouth.
VIDEO: ‘Skunk spray’ used on protesters
Israeli soldiers have broken up a demonstration by hundreds of villagers and peace protesters outside the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, a week after a protester died at a similar event.
2 Palestinians arrested in Nabi Saleh still in jail for resisting occupation
In a blatant demonstration of the discriminatory policies used by the Israeli authorities when it comes to deal with protesters; out of the 21 persons who were arrested during the demonstration in Nabi Saleh on 16.12.2011, all the Israeli and internationals were released while two Palestinians are still in custody and are accused with ludicrous charges such as assaulting Israeli settler or throwing stones. This is so outrageous when you see how much the Israeli army kept assaulting the unarmed protesters yesterday, showering them with tear gas canisters and sound bombs directly at heads levels. In response the protesters just kept walking, chanting and shouting slogans, waving Palestinian flags and posters with the portraits of Mustafa Tamimi; killed the week before. Stones were thrown towards the “invaders” after they attack the crowd which was marching towards the entrance of the village.
Israeli Regime and Settler Violence
Palestinian man killed in IOF shelling of refugee camp
A Palestinian man was killed at a late hour on Friday night as a result of IOF shelling on the Buraij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
Hamas holds Israeli gov’t responsible for spate of mosque attacks
Hamas Movement held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the consequences of its support for the Jewish settlers’ attacks on mosques.
Settler Terror: Aberration or National Vanguard?, Richard Silverstein
The level of settler violence, always high, has reached a fever pitch of late. Usually the attacks go by the common name “price tag,” which alludes to a form of payback against the government for dismantling illegal settlements. Though lately, the attacks seem to have taken on a life of their own and need no spark to ignite them: three mosques have been burned, two in the past week; a West Bank IDF outpost was trashed and asenior officer injured with a brick thrown through his car window; settlers occupied an abandoned monastery on the Jordanian border to warn King Abdullah not to interfere in matters concerning the Temple Mount; death threats and vandalism against Peace Now leaders.
Human rights group appeal for saving the lives of 450 patients in Gaza
PCHR appealed on Thursday to the PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, to intervene to save the lives of 450 kidney patients in the Gaza Strip as their lives are endangered due to the lack of Dialysis filers.
Het alleged that he was present at an interrogation in which Captain George inserted a baton up a suspect’s rectum. After Het spoke with Rish, Het was apparently questioned under caution by the Israel Police, meaning the police were considering criminal charges against Het. …Het said Captain George played a role in every interrogation. “He would just come in, burst into the room, grab the suspect, shake him, get him onto the floor, punch him in the chest, yell and threaten,” Het said. Het added that George would enter with a baton, hit the suspect and threaten to insert it into his rectum if he “continued to lie or not talk.” … Het also recounted an interrogation in which George allegedly stripped a suspect naked and forced him to drink tea or coffee from an ashtray full of cigarette ashes and then forced shaving cream or toothpaste into the suspect’s mouth.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/new-details-emerge-on-idf-interrogation-methods-of-prisoners-1.402019?localLinksEnabled=false
Families of political prisoners: 76 political arrests since Abbas-Mishaal meeting
The committee representing families of political prisoners revealed a list of 76 names of Palestinians who have been detained by the PA security forces since the Abbas-Mishaal meeting.
IOF troops on Friday afternoon arrested Zeid Fatiha (15 years) and Muhammad al-Karaki (15 years) in the Silwan suburb to the south of the Aqsa Mosque. The two were taken to an unknown destination.
IOF troops at dawn Saturday arrested Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, sheikh Khader Adnan (36 years) after raiding his home in the village of Arrabah to the south of Jenin.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s71tJmfSjQTC9Yomww1L%2b1CuHKHV4fbSmdVEX66yTdAsxblAGS4L%2fz%2b2S8QqzPrwfYEzLAX1SlGw9tWsNPU4X6RZBIVY3MQahsKp1sY7LY%2bIQ%3d
Special forces raid Eishel prison and assault Palestinian captives
Sources from inside the Eishel prison informed the Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners that special forces raided section 10 of the prison on Wednesday and searched room 8.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445407
Activists hold third annual conference on Boycott of Israel in Hebron
The Palestinian branch of an international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel held its third annual conference in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, with several hundred Palestinian and international activists gathering for the event.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62688
US Campaign coalition member group Minnesota Break the Bonds (MN BBC) today distributed the media release below about its lawsuit to get the state to divest from Israel Bonds. First, here’s a TV news clip from November 29, when WCCO Channel 4 News in Minneapolis interviewed activists with MN BBC on the day their lawsuit was announced. The original article can be viewed here.
BDS: National Lawyers Guild supports Minnesota lawsuit to divest from Israel Bonds
“On behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, we write in support of the lawsuit filed on November 29, 2011, against the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) which seeks a judgment directing the SBI to divest from Israel Bonds. The complaint against the SBI makes pointed reference to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which both the United States and Israel are parties. Article 49 specifically prohibits an occupying power from transferring (settling) parts of its own civilian population into territory it occupies. Article 49’s anti-colonization provisions are jus cogens, which means that they are mandatory norms of international law. Jus cogens violations are not political questions.”
November 4, 2011 (Vienna) – Vigil of Women in Black held a vigil yesterday for two hours, dedicated to the Protest against the Wall and in support of the recognition of the State of Palestine. There was enormous interest from passers-by and the reaction of many people, actually many tourists, on the street was positive towards solidarity with Palestine, evidence that things are changing regarding public opinion!
Information about the Wall Released in Greek for Week Against the Apartheid Wall
Find in the link below an updated leaflet about the Apartheid Wall, in Greek, released and distributed on the occasion of the Week Against the Apartheid Wall 2011.
Occupy Olympia launches Rachel Corrie Community Center
The encampment known as Occupy Olympia has been situated in Heritage Park in downtown for Olympia, Washigton, for two months. Yesterday morning, activists at the encampment received the following eviction notice…
Hundreds of Arabs urge State to respect freedom of religion, rally across Israel against torching of mosques, proposed ban on Muslim calls for prayer.
Conditional U.S. Aid To P.A To Continue Next Year
The U.S. Congress proposed to continue the American financial support to the Palestinian Authority (P.A) next year as long as it refrains from filing any other membership applications to United Nations agencies.
Abbas: Hamas agreed to renounce terror
Palestinian leader says Hamas’ Mashaal agreed to endorse peaceful resistance, willing to accept state based on 1967 borders.
Dr. Hasan Abu Hashish said that Hamas and Fatah will discuss details of the reconciliation agreement during their meeting in Cairo slated for Sunday.
‘Palestinians won’t stop pressing for UN seat’
During visit to Iceland, Palestinian foreign minister says PA to pursue bid for statehood ‘until we win’.
Icelandic Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson talks about his country recognising Palestine and Iceland’s economic recovery.
Swedish professor links Israel to Norway massacre
Ola Tunander suggests Israel behind bloody terror attacks committed by Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik in July, stirring up controversy in Oslo.
White House: We are returning to a pre-1990 military stance in the Gulf
Panetta, in Turkey, Urges Improving Ties With Israel
Turkey has raised its profile in the region, particularly in efforts to isolate Syria, but remains at odds with Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.
Obama, pushing back at Republicans, vows support for Israel (Reuters)
Reuters – President Barack Obama assured Jewish voters on Friday he remains committed to Israel’s security and a two-state solution with the Palestinians as he defended himself against attacks on his policy from Republican presidential challengers.
In a speech given to the Conference of Reform Jews in the US on Friday, President Barack Obama assured the audience that his administration was doing more than any previous administration in US history to serve the cause of Israel, and that US support for the Jewish state is ‘unshakeable’.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/gadfly/obama-campaigns-rabbi-who-doesnt-want-too-many-arabs-israel?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29
Ron Paul: Bachmann ‘hates Muslims’
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) appeared on The Tonight Show Friday evening to express how his fellow presidential candidate and House colleague Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) doesn’t have warm feelings for followers of Islam. “She hates Muslims,” Paul said about Bachmann. “She wants to go get ‘em.” WATCH: Video from NBC, which was broadcast on December 16, 2011.
Palestinian textbooks debate reaches US campaign
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Do Palestinian school textbooks “teach terrorism,” as Newt Gingrich claimed in a recent debate among U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls? His example — that Palestinians “have text books that say, ‘If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?'” — is not in any of the texts, researchers say. As for Gingrich’s broader claim, the textbooks don’t directly encourage anti-Israeli violence, but they also don’t really teach peace, studies say.
Adelson Plans to Give $20 Million to Palestine-Denier, Gingrich, Richard Silverstein
Alleged U.S. Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning is scheduled to make his first court appearance today after being held for more more than a year and a half by the U.S. military. Manning is suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks in the biggest leak of classified U.S. documents in history. We’re joined by perhaps the nation’s most famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, and go to Ft. Meade, Maryland, for a brief update on a rally in support of Manning outside the base where he’ll appear. Noting that the WikiLeaks revelations helped spark the Arab Spring and in turn the Occupy Wall Street movement, Ellsberg offers this qualified praise, if Manning indeed committed the leak of which he stands accused: “The Time magazine cover gives protester, an anonymous protester, as ‘Person of the Year,’ but it is possible to put a face and a name to that picture of ‘Person of the Year.’ And the American face I would put on that is Private Bradley Manning.”
President Barack Obama is set to sign legislation that would codify “indefinite detention without trial into US law and expand the military’s role in holding terrorism suspects.” And as a wave of predictable settler violence, this time against the Israeli army, engulfs Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced measures that would expand the use of Israeli military detention without charge and military trials. The events give new meaning to the phrase “shared values” when explaining the US and Israel relationship.
AP – Witnesses say opposition supporters in Bahrain have clashed with police for a third straight day along a main highway west of the capital.
Bahraini police fire tear gas at protesters: witnesses (Reuters)
Reuters – Bahraini police fired tear gas and clashed with Shi’ite Muslim protesters on Friday, a day after a man was run over and killed as he fled security forces chasing protesters near Manama, the opposition and a rights group said on Friday.
Zainab al-Khawaja handcuffed and dragged, as security forces clash with protesters attempting to disrupt highway.
From Angry Arab chief correspondent on Bahrain: “This heading by human rights watch is misleading. The statement is by Nigel Rodley (who along with phillip kirsh more sympathetic to the opposition) and not all the commissioners. If this is their understanding, why didn’t they say this clearly in the report and saved us all the trouble? Why didn’t they directly recommend the release of all prisoners? The fact that this is his understanding doesn’t matter now since its not in the report. Now compare Rodley’s statements to that of King worshipping Bassiouni (don’t bother to read the entire article – just scroll to the bottom). Also the commissioner Badriya AlAwadhi (who wrote an article defending the saudi invasion) was interviewed on TV last week. I did not bother to watch the interview and I have no idea what channel interviewed her but she apparently placed all the blame on the protestors (also ignoring whats in the report).”
A picture of a female Egyptian protester who was stripped from her black abaya and allegedly abused by army men has met with angry tweets criticizing the country’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Saturday.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/12/18/183123.html
CAIRO — Troops pulled women across the pavement by their hair, knocking off their Muslim headscarves. Young activists were kicked in the head until they lay motionless in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Unfazed by TV cameras catching every move, Egypt’s military took a dramatically heavier hand Saturday to crush protests against its rule in nearly 48 hours of continuous fighting in Egypt’s capital that has left more than 300 injured and nine dead, many of them shot to death.
Egypt clashes continue for second day
At least nine people have been killed in Egypt and more than 350 injured in the past two days of clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo. Soldiers have cleared Tahrir Square of protesters. And footage showed troops beating demonstrators and burning their tents. Protesters are calling for the country’s military rulers to step down. But the military blamed the protesters for the violence, and the country’s prime minister denied that excessive force was used. Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo.
Egypt’s army steps up campaign against protesters
At least nine people have been killed in Egypt and more than 350 injured in the past two days of clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo. Soldiers have cleared Tahrir Square of protesters. And footage showed troops beating demonstrators and burning their tents. Al Jazeera has filmed exclusive video of what appears to be a member of the military shooting into a crowd of fleeing protesters. Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo.
Army prevents demonstrators from reaching defence ministry to protest the death of medical student and colleague Alaa Abdel-Hady. Around 2000 university students marched from Ayn Shams University to commemorate the death of their fellow student Alaa Abd El-Hady who was killed during the military attack on the Occupy Cabinet protest on Friday. Abd El-Hady, a fifth-year medical student at the Cairo-based university, was amongst the several people killed during a military attack on a Cabinet sit-in on Friday.
Tensions between demonstrators and the military escalate as martyrs’ funerals march from different areas of Cairo while Tahrir is again evacuated by force; politicians condemn SCAF. Clashes that have been ongoing since Friday ended with a violent military police attack on Tahrir Square Saturday morning. At least nine have been confirmed killed and more than 344 reported injured in the past two days. A building belonging to the Ministry of Transport that caught fire during the clashes continued to burn as military police launched a fierce attack on Tahrir Square. Tents in the iconic square’s central island and near the Mugamaa state complex were burnt down and demonstrators were severely beaten.
Officials: Downed US drone was on CIA mission
Top US officials confirmed to CNN that RQ-170 Sentinel drone that crashed in Iran was performing nuclear site surveillance.
An arrest warrant has been issued against the Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi late Saturday for being the mastermind behind the recent bombing targeting the parliament, spokesman of Baghdad police operations said.
Hezbollah prisoner held by Iraq faces minor charge (AP)
AP – A Lebanese Hezbollah commander allegedly responsible for killing four U.S. soldiers in Iraq will be prosecuted for a lesser charge of illegal entry with a forged passport, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq: “In Terms of Destroying Iraq, It’s ‘Mission Accomplished'”
The U.S. military may be leaving Iraq, but the U.S. government is not. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and thousands of private contractors will fill the role of the departing U.S. troops. We begin our coverage of the U.S. withdrawal with Sami Rasouli, the founder and director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, who joins us from the city of Najaf. Invoking George W. Bush’s infamous declaration after the fall of Baghdad, Rasouli says, “In terms of destroying Iraq, it’s really ‘mission accomplished.'”
The Costs of War: Tens of Thousands Dead, Billions Spent, and a Country Torn Apart
Over the past nine years, the U.S. invasion and occupation has left a bloody toll on Iraqi civilians and foreign troops. Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops died, and another 32,000 were wounded. An accurate toll of Iraqis killed may never be known. Iraq Body Count says at least 104,000 Iraqi civilians have died, while some studies put have put the death toll at over one million. We speak to Catherine Lutz, Brown University professor and co-director of the “Costs of War” research project at the Watson Institute for International Studies. “The costs have really been staggering,” Lutz says. “We know that Congress appropriated $800 billion over the years for the Iraq War. But the true costs, of course, go much farther than that, starting with the people of Iraq, who have lost lives in the hundreds of thousands.”
ICC prosecutor: Concerns over Gaddafi’s death
Moreno-Ocampo seeks answers over former Libyan leader’s death, saying circumstances “create suspicions of war crimes”.
Six men facing amputation of their right hands and left feet for “highway robbery” must have their sentences commuted by the King, Amnesty International said today. The sentence of “cross amputation” is currently before the Supreme Court for approval and could take place in the coming days if also ratified by the King. “ ‘Cross amputation’ is a strikingly cruel form of punishment that amounts to torture and should have no place in a criminal justice system,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa interim Director.
At least 17 people are believed to have been killed as protests are held against League’s perceived foot dragging.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112171770581686.html
Shocking headline in the New York Times’ story by Helene Cooper on Obama’s speech to the Reform Jews yesterday: “In Obama Speech on Israel, No Mention of Palestinians”
www.TheHeadlines.org
Captain George, who has never been questioned, now works as Arab affairs adviser to the head of the Jerusalem district police.
horrific
Reporter squarely lays blame for violence at Nabi Saleh on Israel in the second link to bbc.
Captain george should be gelded with a rusty knife.
This made me think of Abner Louima – google the name if you have not heard of him