Oh, what bureaucratic officious and oleaginous prose is marshaled in the cause of child imprisonment: the press attache for the Embassy of Israel in London delegitimization by writing to The Lancet to protest an editorial that calls for certain basic protections for Palestinian minors imprisoned and often tortured for the alleged crime of throwing stones. Or a “boulder,” as Amir Ofek puts it at one point. The Lancet:
I was surprised to read the Editorial on Palestinian minors in Israeli prisons (March 16, p 876), in which there was no room given for any comment from the Israeli side. As a result, it turned out to be completely one-sided and unbalanced. Checking the facts with the Israeli authorities might have clarified that the UNICEF report in question is already being reviewed in Israel, and many changes had been put in place even before its release.My surprise was even greater at seeing that hurling rocks was dismissed as a minor offence in the Editorial—in this sense the timing is exceedingly cruel, seeing that at present 2-year-old Adele Bitton is fighting for her life in intensive care after rocks were hurled at the car in which she was travelling by five Palestinian minors. The reality is that a boulder, even when thrown by a young teenager, is a potentially deadly weapon.As a result of fighting Palestinian terror for decades, Israel has developed methods and facilities designed with adult perpetrators in mind. However, an atrocious new reality has arisen whereby Palestinian minors are frequently used to carry out attacks. For example, in January, 2012, Hamas assembled a team of three assassins whose mission was to slaughter a Jewish family in their home, while asleep. The mission was foiled by Israel’s intelligence system, and the perpetrators were detained for questioning. But Israel’s skills were not ready to cope with one important element—the accused were children, aged between 12 and 14 years.Israel has pledged to take all necessary measures to adjust its counter-terror practices accordingly. UNICEF has welcomed improvements made over the years, both in detention and in legal proceedings….Establishing juvenile tribunals with special safeguards for minors is just part of an evolving system. But it cannot happen overnight. The recent surge in the involvement of Palestinian minors in acts of terror is a result of continuing incitement in their schoolbooks and television programmes. Instead of looking up to superheroes or sports stars, they are encouraged to revere “martyrs” in explosive jackets.Israel works hard at fulfilling its commitments to improve the conditions of Palestinian minors caught carrying out terror attacks, and understands the importance of establishing better protocols for dealing with them. But the best method of improving these children’s lives would be to stop carrying out attacks on others. For that to happen, Palestinians must stop feeding their own children a relentless diet of hate and violence. Palestinian children are being denied their childhood, while attempting to deny Israel’s children their safety, security, and all too often their lives.
Here’s a past gem from Ofek.
Maybe he should go to Hebron and see what settler children do to Palestinians…under the protection of the military..Adjusting to terrorists indeed..
RE: “Israeli emboff pens Dickensian letter to Lancet justifying harsh treatment of children throwing stones” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: Israel’s penchant for making a mockery of international standards of human rights (e.g. supporting the cause of due-process-free child imprisonment) is yet another reason I fear that Revisionist Zionism and Likudnik Israel (specifically by virtue of their inordinate sway over the U.S.) might very well be an “existential threat” to the values of The Enlightenment! ! !
“Down, down, down we [the U.S.] go into the deep, dark abyss; hand in hand with Israel.”
● OTHER EXAMPLES OF ISRAEL’S VALUES TRUMPING (OVERRIDING) THE VALUES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT HERE IN THE U.S.
• “How We Became Israel”, By Andrew J. Bacevich, The American Conservative, 9/10/12
LINK – http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-we-became-israel/
• “America Adopts the Israel Paradigm”, by Philip Ghiraldi, Antiwar.com, 7/05/12
LINK – http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/07/04/america-adopts-the-israel-paradigm/
• “Report: Israeli model underlies militarization of U.S. police”, By Muriel Kane, Raw Story, 12/04/11
LINK – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/04/report-israeli-model-underlies-militarization-of-u-s-police/
• From Occupation to “Occupy”: The Israelification of American Domestic Security, By Max Blumenthal, Al-akhbar, 12/02/11
LINK – http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/2178 OR http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29892.htm
• “The Second Battle of Gaza: Israel’s Undermining Of International Law”, by Jeff Halper, mrzine.monthlyreview.org, 02/26/10
LINK – http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/halper260210.html
• “The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics”, by David Theo Goldberg & Saree Makdisi, Tikkun Magazine, September/October 2009
LINK – http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/sept_oct_09_goldberg_makdisi
• “Brooklyn College’s academic freedom increasingly threatened over Israel event”, by Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk, 2/02/13
LINK – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/02/brooklyn-college-bds-alan-dershowitz
• “Peter ‘Powder Keg’ Beinart is disinvited from gig at Atlanta Jewish book festival”, by Annie Robbins, Mondoweiss, 11/05/12
LINK – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/11/peter-powder-keg-beinart-is-disinvited-from-gig-at-atlanta-jewish-book-festival.html
• ‘Israelis are helping write US laws, fund US campaigns, craft US war policy’, by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, 6/30/12
LINK – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/06/israelis-are-helping-write-us-laws-fund-us-campaigns-craft-us-war-policy.html
• “David Yerushalmi, Islam-Hating White Supremacist Inspires Anti-Sharia Bills Sweeping Tea Party Nation”, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 3/02/11
LINK – http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/03/02/david-yerushalmi-islam-hating-white-supremacist/
• “Boston airport security program rife with racial profiling has Israeli links”, by Alex Kane, Mondoweiss, 8/14/12
LINK – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/08/boston-airport-security-program-rife-with-racial-profiling-has-israeli-links.html
• “Obama’s kill list policy compels US support for Israeli attacks on Gaza”, By Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk, 11/15/12
LINK – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/15/israel-gaza-obama-assassinations
P.S. AND HERE’S ANOTHER THREAT TO THE VALUES OF “THE ENLIGHTENMENT” (THIS TIME IN AFRICA):
“US Religious Right Propelling Homophobia in African Countries”, by Common Dreams, 7/24/12
LINK – http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/24-7
” 2-year-old Adele Bitton is fighting for her life in intensive care after rocks were hurled at the car in which she was travelling by five Palestinian minors”
The rocks were hurled at a truck. Adele Bitton’s mother, illegally in “territories occupied”, collided with a suddenly stopped truck. Why the truck stopped suddenly, is irrelevant to traveling too close for safety or inattentive drivers smashing into it.
That Israel encourages its citizens to be in “territories occupied” where they might well become collateral and then uses Adele’s misfortune to vilify the Palestinians, shows only how low the Jewish State has sunk
RE: “Palestinians must stop feeding their own children a relentless diet of hate . . .” ~ Amir Ofek, Israeli emboff
MY COMMENT: This appears to be yet another instance of ‘psychological projection’ on the part of the Israelis!
SEE: “Academic claims Israeli school textbooks contain bias” ~ By Harriet Sherwood, guardian.co.uk, 8/07/11
Nurit Peled-Elhanan of Hebrew University says textbooks depict Palestinians as “terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers”
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/07/israeli-school-racism-claim
• VIDEO of interview with Peled-Elhanan (08:48) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t91McXHxiXY
P.S. ALSO SEE: Is Change possible in Israel? (VIDEO, 07:49) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIj0l6C5VqE
Prof. Haim Bresheeth tries to answer this question – why can some Israelis change, and support the Palestinian cause, but change seems elusive in Israel? Should we wait and hope for such change?
If one follows — and believes — Hasbara, stones are WMDs. They can stop tanks, they can bring down F-16s/35s, etc. and they can terrorize an entire army. In fact, the stones thrown by Palestinians at the settlers who want to kill them and steal their lands clearly bear the “Made in Iran” label which, of course, means that ISreal is justified in attacking Iran.