Everyone who comes to our site already knows the shocking news from Palestine. On Friday, Israeli solders suppressing a demonstration against illegal settlements in an occupied West Bank village shot a child of 13 or 14 in the stomach, and Ali Abu Alia was rushed to a Ramallah hospital where he soon died. Photos of the boy tell this story better than anything I can add. Ali Abu Alia was obviously an innocent child, animated by justifiable protest against occupation that denies millions of people all rights. Your kids would do the same if an army and religious zealots were stealing your land.
Of course this killing follows Israel’s murder of the Iranian scientist a week before. It follows the military sniper killings of hundreds of ghettoized protesters at the Gaza fence in 2018. It follows the killings of more than 500 children by Israeli bombing during the 2014 Gaza onslaught. All approved by the U.S. government.
Though there is something singularly affecting about this killing, maybe because it was one boy. And I aim to show you those who were stirred to speak out, and those who are not.
The Institute for Middle East Understnding was forceful:
Ali Abu Alia was killed today by Israeli soldiers in his village of Mughayyir in the West Bank. He was only 13-years-old, a child robbed of his life by the brutal violence of the occupation.
Palestinian legislator Ayman Odeh (using computer translation):
A child was shot dead again by army fire – Ali Abu Aliyah, 12, who went out to demonstrate near his home in the village of [Almughair]. Another murder victim in a long line of brutal crimes in the Occupied Territories. stop the occupation.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib:
No child deserves to die like this.
Jewish Voice for Peace issued a beautiful statement.
End US military funding to the Israeli government now. End US military funding to the Israeli government now. End US military funding to the Israeli government now. End US military funding to the Israeli government now. End US military funding to the Israeli government now.
The Jewish youth organization IfNotNow does not support BDS, as JVP does. It tweeted Abu Alia’s foto and said merely, “Stop killing Palestinian children.”
Nickolay Mladenov of the U.N. tweeted outrage:
Appalled by the killing of a 15 year old #Palestinian boy, Ali Abu Alaya, near #Ramallah today. #Israel must swiftly and independtly investigate this shocking and unacceptable incident. Children enjoy special protection under international law and must be protected from violence.
The EU delegation for Palestinians also expressed outrage and said the Israeli army can investigate:
How many more Palestinian children will be subject to the excessive use of lethal force by the Israeli security forces?…This shocking incident must be swiftly and fully investigated by the Israeli authorities in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Ali Abunimah points out that the EU supplies lots of military support to Israel, citing a comment, “You wanted him dead.”
Middle East Eye published a statement by the great St. Paul congresswoman Betty McCollum calling the shooting a “grotesque state-sponsored killing.” McCollum demanded that Joe Biden’s team investigate the incident.
“Yesterday’s death of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the West Bank by an Israeli soldier who shot the child in the abdomen is a grotesque state-sponsored killing,” McCollum told MEE. ‘This senseless incident must be condemned as a direct result of Israel’s permanent military occupation of Palestine.
“I urge the incoming Biden administration to fully investigate and verify to the American people that no US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel provided material assistance enabling this taking of a child’s life.”
Biden’s team has of course had nothing to say, per my search.
The Washington Post ran the short AP account of the killing. The New York Times has yet to cover the matter.
American liberal Zionist organizations support military aid to Israel and resist calls to condition that aid. New Israel Fund has had nothing to say about the killing on twitter. Neither has Americans for Peace Now. J Street retweeted the Haaretz news article on the killing without comment. Dylan Williams of J Street retweeted Mladenov’s statement calling for an investigation of the appalling killing, but J Street has not issued its own statement. It did send out a newsletter today that says nothing about the murder. Ori Nir of Americans for Peace Now retweeted the EU’s statement calling for an investigation, but there is no statement from his organization. Americans for Peace Now has not touched on the killing on its own twitter feed.
Ori Nir was more outspoken in a Facebook post from New Yorker Doug Chandler.
The 13-year-old boy was unarmed and, according to evidence, didn’t risk the lives of any soldiers, says Ori Nir, the spokesman for Americans for Peace Now and a source I trust… “This [Ruger] weapon is deadly[, Nir said.] “And yet we continue to use it in situations where there is no life-threatening for soldiers.”
Today, AIPAC is touting Israel’s work to help babies left homeless by hurricanes in Honduras. “When disasters strike and people need healthcare and humanitarian support, our partner Israel is there. #ThisIsIsrael: 7,000 miles away from home, among the first to arrive and last to leave.”
And the JCC in Manhattan is bombarding my phone with ads for The Other Israel film festival. The main film they are pushing is some kind of drama involving Israeli soldiers. Please tell me what the “other Israel” is at a time like this?
I can only add that the politics of Palestine in our country will only change when Palestinians are regarded by mainstream voices as human beings deserving of rights. The blank spots in this account show that nobody who counts in D.C. really gives a —.
h/t Scott Roth, Adam Horowitz and James North.
“I can only add that the politics of Palestine in our country will only change when Palestinians are regarded by mainstream voices as human beings deserving of rights. The blank spots in this account show that nobody who counts in D.C. really gives a —.”
This is correct. As best I can tell, the same is true in British circles, which is why the Labour crisis is framed entirely in terms of antisemitism and nobody in the mainstream points out the blatantly obvious anti Palestinian racism of many of Corbyn’s critics. When Labour gave in and adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism with all of its examples, they were being racist. They gave in to a racist demand.
It’s the same here. People should be concerned about antisemitism and they are, but nobody in the mainstream is ever called out by name by other people in the mainstream for being racist against Palestinians. Starmer, for instance, seems to me to be a cowardly opportunistic racist. How is someone like Corbyn demonized when this guy isn’t challenged?
And when false accusations of antisemitism are made, many anti- Zionists respond in good faith, earnestly explaining that they oppose antisemitism too and it shouldn’t be tolerated, but anti Zionism is not antisemitism. All of this is fine and necessary, but there is one problem. Many of these accusations of antisemitism are racist as hell, and if the pro Palestinian side is constantly on defense and never gets to point this out, the dynamic will never change.
Another day, another not-Israeli is murdered in not-Israel by Israeli Occupation, Colonization and Oppression Forces goons.
This poor kid has been the target of Israeli viciousness, like so many others before him, and those who will be brutally killed after him. The fact that those who support Israel never, ever, criticize it for massacres, or killing of unarmed children, whatever the case. If this was an Israeli child, the outrage would have been loud, and the response from those silent now would be sharp and clear.
It seems the US media, and leaders, are mute when it comes to speaking out against Israel’s endless crimes, and the freedom of speech which we love to brag about, is non existent.
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“’And yet they profess that they want to be friends with Saudi Arabia,’ he said.
“The prince reiterated the kingdom’s official position that the solution lies in implementing the Arab Peace Initiative, a 2002 Saudi-sponsored deal that offers Israel full ties with all Arab states in return for Palestinian statehood on territory Israel captured in 1967.
“He added: ‘You cannot treat an open wound with palliatives and pain killers.’
“The confrontation & a later back-and-forth between Prince Turki & a confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the summit highlighted continued widespread opposition to Israel by many inside Saudi Arabia, despite some state-backed efforts to promote outreach with Jewish groups and supporters of Israel.”
Also:
Bahrain backtracks, says it won’t allow imports from West Bank settlements – Israel News – Haaretz.com
“Bahrain Backtracks, Says It Won’t Allow Imports From West Bank Settlements” Nov. 5/20
EXCERPT:
“Bahrain will not allow the import of Israeli goods produced in settlements in the West Bank, state news agency BNA reported, disavowing comments made by the Gulf state’s trade minister earlier this week.
“Bahrain’s Industry, Commerce & Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani had voiced openness to settlement imports, adding that Manama would make no distinction between products produced in Israel or in the West Bank & Golan Heights.
“‘The minister’s statement was misinterpreted & that the ministry is committed to the Bahraini government’s unwavering stance regarding adherence to the resolutions of the United Nations,…’
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Zionist “Israel” – ever faster & deeper into the abyss of fascism.
Meanwhile:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/6/saudi-prince-strongly-criticises-israel-at-bahrain-summit
“Saudi prince strongly criticizes Israel at Bahrain summit”
“Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud stressed the importance of resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with a two-state solution.”
Al Jazeera, Dec. 6/20
EXCERPTS:
“A prominent Saudi prince harshly criticized Israel at a Bahrain security summit that was remotely attended by Israel’s foreign minister, showing the challenges any further deals between Arab states & Israel face in the absence of an independent Palestinian state.
“The fiery remarks by Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud at the Manama Dialogue appeared to catch Israel’s foreign minister off guard, particularly as Israelis receive warm welcomes from officials in Bahrain & the United Arab Emirates following agreements to normalize ties.
“Left unresolved by those deals, however, is the decades-long conflict between Israel & the Palestinians. The Palestinians view those pacts as a stab in the back from their fellow Arabs & a betrayal of their cause.
“Prince Turki bin Faisal opened his remarks by contrasting what he described as Israel’s perception of being ‘peace-loving upholders of high moral principles’ versus what he described as a far-darker Palestinian reality of living under a ‘Western colonizing’ power.
“Israel has ‘incarcerated [Palestinians] in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations – young & old, women & men, who are rotting there without recourse to justice’, Prince Turki said.
“’They are demolishing homes as they wish & they assassinate whomever they want.’
“The prince also criticized Israel’s undeclared arsenal of nuclear weapons & the Israeli government’s ‘unleashing their political minions & their media outlets from other countries to denigrate & demonize Saudi Arabia.’
“In unusually blunt language, he accused Israel of depicting itself as a ‘small, existentially threatened country, surrounded by bloodthirsty killers who want to eradicate her from existence.’
(cont’d)