News

Israeli forces shoot unarmed protesters from across Gaza security fence, killing at least 15

By 33
Israeli forces, prepared to shoot Palestinian protesters in Gaza on March 30, 2018.

We are closely following the horrifying news from Gaza this morning. The Israeli government said it would meet Gaza protesters with live fire across the border fence and duly massed snipers on the border; and it has followed through today, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to early reports. Sadly the number keeps climbing: as of 4 PM EST, Haaretz was reporting that 15 Palestinians had been killed.

The outrage on the left is reminiscent of the Mavi Marmara onslaught in 2010, when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish aid ship trying to reach Gaza and killed nine of the aid volunteers. Even Israel supporters are already making this comparison— to an event that brought global condemnation/diplomatic embarrassment to Israel.

The Associated Press reports 1000 Palestinians injured by tear gas inhalation and from being struck by live rounds or rubber-coated bullets. The Times of Israel reports “scattered” protests on the West Bank.

The first to be killed was a Palestinian farmer, said to be working his fields.

The human rights group B’Tselem issued an unequivocal statement of condemnation of Israeli “crime”s:

Shooting at unarmed demonstrators is illegal and any command allowing such an action is manifestly illegal. Yesterday, B’Tselem warned against relating to demonstration areas as combat zones and against shooting live fire at demonstrators. Armed soldiers and unarmed demonstrators are not “at war.” The illegal open fire regulations and the compliance with them are the reason for the number of dead and injured today in the Gaza Strip.

The protests were organized as “The Great March of Return,” a nonviolent gathering of Palestinian refugees who demand the right to return to their families’ homes inside Israel. Nearly 2 million Gazans are virtually imprisoned in the 140-square-mile strip, under blockade since 2007, after Hamas assumed political control of the area. The blockade extends to a 1000-foot “buffer zone” on the Gaza side of a fence from which Israel bars activity.

Many observers are noting the caged condition of the Palestinians. Nora Barrows Friedman of EI:

The “totally democratic” “start-up nation” once again using caged Palestinians as laboratory subjects, killing and injuring them solely because they are demanding their right to leave this concentration camp and go home

Ali Abunimah:

Yeah it’s totally normal to cage people in a sealed ghetto after ethnically cleansing them for not being Jewish and then to shoot them if they demonstrate for their right to go home. Nothing to see just a normal “democracy.”

Dimi Reider of 972:

10 demonstrators peacefully marching out of bondage already shot dead, from behind the safety of the Gaza border fence. Passover indeed.

Jewish Voice for Peace has issued a statement, saying it is “horrified” by the deadly response to a peace march, and also citing the Passover angle:

Tonight, as Jews across the world gather at the Passover seder to remember our own story as a people questing for a homeland, we honor and recognize the yearning for homeland propelling today’s Land Day protests.

The Israeli military has yet again unleashed disproportionate violence against demonstrating Palestinians, the latest in a long series of deadly responses to popular protests by Palestinians.

Max Blumenthal:

Back in 2011, Thomas Friedman promised that an unarmed Palestinian mass march would “stimulate a real peace debate within Israel.” Today, the happened and Israeli snipers have shot 13 marchers so far.

Noura Erakat:

Israeli forces HAD to shoot into a non-violent march of 20K protestors in order to have the usual pretext of violence. Journos should be asking critical questions why they used lethal force in the first place? This is about settler anxiety not self defense.

Scott Roth:

Israel knows it can get away with murder, literally. It knows that because it is never held to account for its crimes. For that reason many are morally culpable for what is happening today.

In stark contrast to The New York Times, the Washington Post just published an article on the killings that is a model of what mainstream reporting should be. The second sentence says that the Israeli army used live ammunition, killing at least ten people. The Post describes the Israelis as attacking the demonstrators. The writers Loveday Morris and Hazem Balousha use the word “riots” and burning tires and rock-throwing in quotation marks, thus treating the Israeli military authorities as highly-interested informants. There’s no talk about “clashes”; the article is clear about who caused the violence. They actually quote a young Gazan, something the Times failed to do.

Media critics are assailing periodicals for describing today’s action as “clashes.” “Can you pls stop referring to soldiers shooting at unarmed civilians as ‘clashes’. You’re perpetuating the idea that this is a two-sided conflict as opposed to a powerful militarised state occupying & oppressing civilians.” Nima Shirazi: “Only one side fired ALL the bullets, ALL the mortar shells, ALL the tear gas. Only one side has ALL the tanks, ALL the bombers, ALL the drones.”

The Israeli army is seeking to stem international condemnation by characterizing the protests as “riots” and “terror.”

J Street the liberal Zionist organization has had nothing to say about the killings. Americans for Peace Now issued a statement on the shootings offering both sides of the issue, IDF and protesters.

US negotiator Jason Greenblatt is firmly taking Israel’s side. He said: “Hamas is encouraging a hostile march on the Israel-Gaza border,” he tweeted. “Hamas should focus on desperately needed improvements to the lives of Palestinians in Gaza instead of inciting violence against Israel that only increases hardship & undermines chances for peace.”

Related Posts

33 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

The situation in Gaza has been getting more desperate recently. Attempts to reconcile Fatah and Hamas failed, when it became apparent that Hamas had no intention of submitting to the military rule of Gaza by Fatah.

Of course the primary factors of the overcrowded nature of Gaza and the refugee nature of some 3/4 of their population should be restated. It should also be stated that Gaza shares a border with Egypt and that border is to the Sinai Peninsula which is a no man’s land of violence from the Egyptian state’s point of view. Israel controls the seas beyond 3 miles of Gaza’s beaches and it controls the only nonEgyptian land exit from the territory.

Israel occupied Gaza from 1967 until 2005, with a civilian settler population. it removed its settlers and its soldiers in 2005, but is considered to be the occupying army. It has established an area within Gaza that it considers to be a type of war zone/no man’s land, and that is a valid symbol of the relationship. (Israel has also fought very destructive onslaughts against Gaza a few time since the 2005 withdrawal. These onslaughts were explained as resulting from rocket fire from Gaza towards Israel.) Plus the fact that Egypt is friendly with Israel these days and inimical to the Muslim Brotherhood, the philosophical comrades of Hamas.

In recent months, or years, the electricity in Gaza has been limited. This is primarily the result of a decision by Abbas. For months Israel’s military has been reporting that things are reaching a breaking point in Gaza. The poverty and desperation has grown and grown.

Granted that Hamas wishes to change the status quo and the people of Gaza are in pain. But the dynamics of Fatah and Egypt should be included to give a little bit of a more complete picture.

I am timid to assert precisely what Israel should do. I defer to Gershon Baskin, who knows something about Gaza and Hamas. After I’ve read what he’s said, I will get back to you with a more complete opinion.

The statements: that the people of Gaza should return to normalcy and not participate in provocations, is particularly galling, because normalcy in general in Gaza has been abnormal and in recent months we have been hearing of increasing desperation. When you pressure a political party in a way that pressures their population and it results in provocations, it seems to me that purely mechanically from a machine/energy point of view, that your cause has led to this effect.

0
0
View Replies (1)

You can bet Maddow, Hayes…MSNBC, NBC, ABC etc etc will be silent on Israel’s shooting into unarmed crowds of Palestinians…silence

Hopefully folks will me sharing Mondoweiss pieces and other outlets reporting on these Israeli war crimes

0
0

RE: “The Israeli military has yet again unleashed disproportionate violence against demonstrating Palestinians, the latest in a long series of deadly responses to popular protests by Palestinians.” ~ Jewish Voice for Peace

SEE: “Netanyahu: Stupid Like a Fox?”, By Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, 06/13/11

(excerpt)..Last week, there was a repeat performance. The Palestinians all around Israel have declared June 5 “Naksa” Day, to commemorate the “Setback” of 1967, when Israel spectacularly defeated the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, reinforced by elements from the Iraqi and Saudi armies.
This time, the Israeli army was prepared. The fence was reinforced and an anti-tank ditch dug in front of it. When the demonstrators tried to reach the fence—again near Majdal Shams—they were shot by sharpshooters. Some 22 were killed, and many dozens were wounded. The Palestinians report that people trying to rescue the wounded and retrieve the dead were also shot and killed.
No doubt this was a deliberate tactic decided upon in advance by the army command after the Naqba Day fiasco and approved by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. As was said quite openly, the Palestinians had to be taught a lesson they would not forget, so as to drive any idea of an unarmed mass action out of their minds.
It is frighteningly reminiscent of events 10 years ago. After the first Intifada, in which stone-throwing youngsters and children won a moral victory that led to the Oslo agreement, our army conducted exercises in anticipation of a second Intifada. This broke out after the political disaster of Camp David, and the army was ready.
The new Intifada started with mass demonstrations of unarmed Palestinians. They were met by specially trained sharpshooters. Next to each sharpshooter stood an officer who pointed out the individuals who were to be shot because they looked like ringleaders: “The guy in the red shirt… Now the boy with the blue trousers…”
The unarmed uprising broke down and was replaced by suicide bombers, roadside bombs, and other “terrorist” acts. With those our army was on familiar ground.
I suspect very much that we are witnessing much the same thing once more. Again, specially trained sharpshooters are at work, directed by officers…

SOURCE – http://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2011/06/12/netanyahu-stupid-like-a-fox/

0
0
View Replies (2)

RE: “The Israeli military has yet again unleashed disproportionate violence” against demonstrating Palestinians, the latest in a long series of deadly responses to popular protests by Palestinians.” ~ Jewish Voice for Peace

FOR THE ULTIMATE IN ISRAELI ‘DISPROPORTIONATE VIOLENCE’, SEE THIS FROM FROM WIKIPEDIA [Samson Option, as of 5/25/12]:

(EXCERPTS) The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well.[1] . . .
. . . Some have written about the “Samson Option” as a retaliation strategy. In 2002, the Los Angeles Times published an opinion piece by Louisiana State University professor David Perlmutter which has been seen as justifying a Samson Option approach.[19] He wrote:

“Israel has been building nuclear weapons for 30 years. The Jews understand what passive and powerless acceptance of doom has meant for them in the past, and they have ensured against it. Masada was not an example to follow—it hurt the Romans not a whit, but Samson in Gaza? What would serve the Jew-hating world better in repayment for thousands of years of massacres but a Nuclear Winter. . .[20]

. . . In 2003, Martin van Creveld [professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem – J.L.D.] thought that the Al-Aqsa Intifada then in progress threatened Israel’s existence.[21] Van Creveld was quoted in David Hirst’s “The Gun and the Olive Branch” (2003) as saying:

“We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. . . Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.”[22]

Ron Rosenbaum writes in his 2012 book How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III that in the “aftermath of a second Holocaust” Israel’s surviving Dophin-class nuclear missile submarines would retaliate not only against Israel’s attackers, but “bring down the pillars of the world (attack Moscow and European capitals for instance)” as well as the “holy places of Islam.” He writes that “abandonment of proportionality is the essence” of the Samson Option.[23] . . .

SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option

0
0
View Replies (5)

RE:“Israel knows it can get away with murder, literally. It knows that because it is never held to account for its crimes.” ~ Scott Roth

■ GRAPHIC

0
0
View Replies (1)