Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
As decision-makers and most voters in America and Britain enjoy comfortable lives, the Times and Yemen’s al-Masirah TV report that Saudi warplanes near Yemen’s rebel-held capital struck and killed several people on Wednesday, according to medical officials. These included a group of ten women attending the funeral in Arhab, 25 miles from Sanaa, according to a spokesman for the Houthi rebel group.
Locals saidthe women were returning on foot from the wedding when they were targeted. Several other women, who were riding in a car, escaped the attacks. “The aggressor committed a hideous crime by targeting ordinary women who were returning from a wedding,” said the father of two of the slain women. The deaths are the latest from more than two years of Saudi Arabia’s devastating military campaign against Yemen. More than 12,000, including many women and children, have been killed in Saudi airstrikes while millions remain displaced, living with shortages of fuel, food and water and the threat of cholera.
The European Parliament takes a stand – but will the Commission heed it?
During a debate in the European Parliament, Green MEP Molly Scott Cato challenged Conservative MEP Geoffrey van Orden over his views on arms sales [see video], asking him whether he would vote to end ‘arms sales to Saudi Arabia that are being used to kill Yemeni children.’
The European Parliament then voted in favour of a Green report, challenging the Commission to introduce an embargo on arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The report also calls for a new process to sanction EU countries which do not comply with EU rules on arms exports . . . a major embarrassment to the UK government which has supported billions of pounds worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Featured image is from the Drone Warfare.
The original source of this article is Drone Warfare
أطلق “أنصار الله” صاروخا باليستيا على العاصمة السعودية الرياض، اليوم الثلاثاء، واستطاعت السعودية إسقاطه في الجو دون وقوعإصابات.
ووفقا لما أعلن عنه “أنصار الله” فإن الصاروخ من طراز “بركان — 2″، يقول موقع “ديفينس باكستان” إن مدى الصاروخ يصل إلى 1400 كم.
وتكشف خرائط الأقمار الصناعية لموقع “غوغل” أن المسافة بين العاصمة اليمنية صنعاء والعاصمة السعودية الرياض تتجاوز 1000 كم، بينما تصل المسافة بين الحدود اليمنية السعودية ومدينة الرياض إلى نحو 800 كم تقريبا.
صواريخ أنصار الله
منذ اندلاع الحرب في اليمن عام 2015 أطلق “أنصار الله” العديد من الصواريخ الباليستية على السعودية، وفقا لموقع “جانز” الأمريكي، الذي أوضح أن الرياض أكدت أنه تم إطلاق أكثر من 34 صاروخا باليستيا عليها من الأراضي اليمنية.
ويقول الموقع: “رغم تأكيدات السعودية أن أنظمة “باتريوت” المضادة للصواريخ الباليستية أضعفت تأثير تلك الهجمات إلى أقصى حد، إلا أن “أنصار الله” مازالوا يزعمون أنها وسيلتهم للرد على الهجمات الجوية التي تنفذها طائرات “التحالف العربي” في اليمن، ويعتبرونها مؤشرا لاستمراريتهم وتحديهم للرياض.
ولفت الموقع إلى أن مدن مكة وجدة والطائف والرياض تقع في نطاق يمكن استهدافه بصواريخ يصل مداها إلى 800 كم إذا تم إطلاقها من محافظة صعدة اليمنية التي يحتمل أن تنطلق منها صواريخ “أنصار الله”.
ترسانة الجيش اليمني
قبل اندلاع الصراع الأخير كان الجيش اليمني يمتلك ترسانة صواريخ باليستية تضم صواريخ “سكود — بي”، وتشير التقارير إلى أنه كان يمتلك 6 منصات (P117s) تستخدم في إطلاق صواريخ سكود و10 منصات إطلاق أخرى، وتم رصدها خارج صنعاء قبل عام 2015 عن طريق صور الأقمار الصناعية.
وتابع الموقع: “لكن عدد الصواريخ الباليستية التي كانت توجد في ترسانة الجيش اليمني مازالت غير معروفة”، مشيرا إلى أن اليمن كان يحصل على سكود من الاتحاد السوفييتي ومن كوريا الشمالية، خاصة صواريخ “سكود بي إس”.
ولفت الموقع إلى أنه عام 2002 اعترضت سفن إسبانية سفينة كانت تحمل 15 صاروخا سكود كانت متجهة إلى اليمن وتم السماح لها لاحقا بإتمام الرحلة بعدما تعهدت اليمن بأن تكون تلك الشحنة آخر صفقة صواريخ من كوريا الشمالية، لكن من المحتمل أن تكون شحنات أخرى قد وصلت إليها تضم صواريخ “سكود سي”، وفقا لموقع “جانز” المتخصص في متابعة أخبار الدفاع والتسلح.
تدمير أسلحة اليمن
رغم حديث السعودية عن تدمير أسلحة اليمن عام 2015، وفقا للموقع، فإن بعض العلامات بدأت تظهر أنه ربما يكون هناك رواية أخرى، مشيرة إلى إعلان السعودية في يونيو 2015 أنها اعترضت صاروخ سكود تم إطلاقه على السعودية.
صواريخ “بركان”
في 2 سبتمبر/ أيلول عام 2016 كشف “أنصار الله” عن نسخة جديدة من صواريخ “سكود” أطلقوا عليها “بركان — 1” قطره 88 سم وطوله 12.5 متر أي أطول من صواريخ “سكود بي” بـ1.5 مترا، ويحمل رأسا حربيا يصل وزنه إلى 500 كغم، وكان أول هجوم بهذا الصاروخ على مطار الملك خالد في أكتوبر/ تشرين الأول عام 2016 الذي يبلغ مسافة 525 كم من الحدود اليمنية، وقالت السعودية أنه تم اعتراض الصاروخ، وفقا للموقع.
وفي ذات الشهر أطلق “أنصار الله” صاروخا آخرا على مطار الملك عبد العزيز الذي يبعد عن الحدود اليمنية 630 كم، لكن السعودية لم تؤكد وصول الصاروخ إلى هذا المدى.
استهداف الرياض
في فبراير الماضي أطلق “أنصار الله” صاروخا جديدا “بركان — 2” زعموا أنه يستهدف قاعدة عسكرية على مسافة 40 كم جنوب غرب الرياض، التي تقع على مسافة أكثر من 800 كم من محافظة صعدة.
زعم “أنصار الله” أن صاروخ “بركان — 2” تم تطويره برأس حربية أخف وزنا ونظام توجيه أكثر دقة ليكون قادر على الوصول إلى أهدافه، وفقا للموقع.
اعتراض الصاروخ
تعد عملية اعتراض صاروخ باليستي من أكثر العمليات العسكرية صعوبة وتعقيدا، لأنها تكون أشبه بإصابة طلقة بندقية بطلقة من بندقية أخرى.
ووفقا لموقع “راند” الأمريكي فإن اعتراض صاروخ باليستي يبدأ برصد قاعدة إطلاقه على الأرض ثم تحديد مساره في الجو لتحديد النقطة التي يفترض أن يلتقي فيها بالصاروخ الآخر الذي سيقوم بتدميره.
ورغم نجاح أنظمة اعتراض الصواريخ المتقدمة في اعتراض الكثير من الصواريخ إلا أن الخطأ الواحد يعني أن الصاروخ الباليستي سيصل إلى هدفه.
الباتريوت السعودية
تستخدم السعودية منظومة صواريخ “باتريوت” المضادة للصواريخ الباليستية، وتعتمد نظرية عملها على نظام تتبع الصواريخ عقب إطلاقها.
ويعتمد نظام عملها على تحديد مسار الصاروخ الباليستي في مرحلته النهائية ثم تحويل البيانات إلى مركز الاشتباك الذي يقوم بتصحيح بيانات الصاروخ القادم في وقت قياسي قبل أن يتم إطلاق الصاروخ الاعتراضي، وفقا لموقع”أرمي تكنولوجي”.
ويصل مدى صواريخ باتريوت الاعتراضية إلى 70 كم، ويمكن أن تشتبك مع أهدافها على ارتفاع 24 كم، ويتم إطلاق الصاروخ خلال فترة تتراوح بين 9 ثوان و3.5 دقيقة.
كيف تعمل الصواريخ الباليستية
تستخدم الصواريخ الباليستية محركات دفع صاروخي تعمل بالوقود السائل أو الوقود الصلب، وتكون تلك المحركات مسؤولة عن إطلاق الصاروخ قاعدته الأرضية وإيصاله إلى مسار شبه دائري يصل إلى أقصى ارتفاع في الجو قبل أن يعود الهبوط بسرعة عالية في اتجاه الهدف اعتمادا على نظرية “السقوط الحر”، وفقا لموقع “أرمز كنترول”.
ويعتمد مدى الصاروخ على مهمته وقوة المحركات التي يستخدمها ووزن الصاروخ وقت الإطلاق.
تطوير الصواريخ
عندما ترغب الجيوش في زيادة مدى صواريخها تضع في اعتبارها تخفيف حمولة الرأس الحربي للصاروخ وزيادة قوة محركاته عن طريق تقنية المراحل المتعددة.
ويتم وضع أكثر من محرك صاروخي داخل الصاروخ، يكون كل منها مسؤولا عن مرحلة، ويعرف الصاروخ في هذه الحالة بأنه صاروخ متعدد المراحل.
وتكون المرحلة الأولى مسؤولة عن إخراج الصاروخ من نطاق الجاذبية الأرضية ثم تنفصل ليبدأ المحرك التالي استكمال مسار الصاروخ حتى يصل إلى اقصى ارتفاع.
أنواع الصواريخ الباليستية
يوجد 4 أنواع من الصواريخ الباليستية، وفقا لموقع “أرمز كنترول”:
1- صواريخ قصيرة المدى لا يتجاوز مداها 1000 كم.
2- صواريخ متوسطة المدى، بين 1000 إلى 1300 كم.
3- صواريخ متوسطة المدى، يتراوح مداها بين 3 آلاف إلى 5 آلاف كم.
BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:00 P.M.) – The jihadist-held Beit Jinn pocket in the western countryside of Damascus is on the verge of falling to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) after several weeks of fighting.
Led by their elite 42nd Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division, the Syrian Arab Army scored another big advance inside the Beit Jinn pocket this week after capturing the Hanakir area from the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham.
According to a military source in Damascus, the capture of the Hanakir area has forced the jihadist rebels to once again agree to negotiate with the Syrian Army regarding the possible surrender of this region.
The source added that the battle for the Beit Jinn pocket could be over by the end of the weekend if the negotiations are successful tomorrow morning.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Friday hit back at Bahraini Foreign Minister on Friday, stressing that Palestine will remain the issue number one of the Islamic world.
Earlier on Thursday, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa referred to Palestine and Al-Quds issue as a “side issue”.
“It’s not helpful to pick a fight with the USA over side issues while we together fight the clear and present danger of the Theo-Fascist Islamic Republic,” Bin Ahmed posted on his Twitter account.
Responding to the Bahraini FM, Qassemi said: “It’s regrettable that an Arab and Islamic country describes an old ulcer on the body of the Islamic world as a side issue and be unable to recognize the simplest global issues in such an unwise manner and put under hammer credibility of its country and nation with such baseless and cheap remarks.”
Despite plots and complicated machinations and creation of crises and fabricated threats on behalf of the US-Zionism axis, Palestine will continue to remain the first issue of the Islamic World, as it is part Muslims’ body and nobody can distract Islamic nations’ attention from the significant issue, the Iranian diplomat said.
In a collective act of defiance toward Washington, the United Nations General Assembly voted 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, for a resolution to demand that the United States rescind its Dec. 6 declaration to recognize Al-Quds as the capital of the Zionist entity.
Following is the talk I delivered in Babylon, Berlin on 14.12.2017. Together with Ken Jebsen, Evelyn Echt Galinski and the organisers (Marxist outlet NRhZ) I have been subject to an insane defamation campaign. Despite being banned by the venue’s owner Mr. T. Grossman, I delivered my message and as you could hear, the room was ecstatic. Mr Grossman, on the other hand, was shamelessly booed off stage. Truth is clearly way more poplular than censorship.
UPDATE: I just added the video recording of my Berlin statement. You can hear for yourself how excited the audience are by the idea of openness, tolerance and their past being subject to revision. We are talking here about humanity and the human conditions. It goes beyond politics and ideological battles.
A Statement Delivered By Gilad Atzmon at Babylon Theatre Berlin (14.12.2017)
In the last few days, in advance of the NRhZ’s humanitarian award ceremony, like Ken (FM) Jebsen and others, I have been subject to an insane defamation campaign. None of it was substantiated. It was comprised of fabricated quotes: I was called a ‘holocaust denier’ and a ‘holocaust relativist.’ Yet, not a single genuine reference was made to my writings or talks. In my work I criticise reducing the holocaust into a crude religion, an intolerant dogma. In my writing I protest against all history laws (Nakba laws, Armenian Genocide laws, Holocaust laws etc.) History for me, is the attempt to narrate the past as we are moving along. As such, it must be sustained as a dynamic discourse, subject to constant change and revision, even if this change happens to be slightly uncomfortable. For me, history is an ethical message –Only when we revise the past may we be able to, once again, rethink our future and destiny.
In recent days some of the German press referred to me as an ‘anti-semite.’ Am I? Have I ever criticized anyone including Jews as a ‘people’, as a ‘race,’ as a ‘biology,’ or as an ‘ethnicity’? Never. My work is anti racist. I have dedicated my entire adult life to fighting racism through my music, my writing and my performances. I am opposed to all forms of biologically-oriented politics: White, Black, Gender as well as Jewish. I am searching instead for that which brings humans together. In my writing and talks I make a clear distinction between the Jews (the people) whom I never criticize, Judaism (the religion) which I rarely deal with and Jewishness (the ideology, politics and culture). In my work I focus on the last- – the ideology , the politics and the culture, assuming that we all agree these (ideology, politics and culture) must be open to criticism.
But if you want to talk about holocaust denial, I will tell you something about denial. To deny intellectuals, authors and artists the right to express their views in the open is where fascism starts. What I saw in Germany in the last few days suggests to me that some segments within your society really learned nothing from the history of your country. To deny the holocaust is to deny its meaning, to turn your eyes away when you see evil, to let your heart become cold when you yourself participate in evil or celebrate hatred. To deny the holocaust is to fail to address your own inability to tolerate others and otherness. It is beyond painful for me to witness Germany being led blindly into the same trap just seven decades after the liberation of Auschwitz.
But I would like to add one more line on Palestine. Some Germans claim to be tormented by their past, by the atrocities of the 3rd Reich. If this is indeed the case, let me please remind you of a simple but embarrassing fact – the Palestinians are the last victims of Hitler.
It was the extent of the Shoah that brought support to Zionism and led to the formation of the Jewish State in Palestine. But it is the innocent Palestinians who, for the last seven decades, have been paying the price for crimes committed by Europeans.
If you feel guilty about Hitler, stand for Palestine and the Palestinians!
In den letzten Tagen, im Vorfeld der Karls-Preisverleihung der NRhZ, wurden Ken Jebsen, Andere und ich selbst das Ziel einer aberwitzigen Verleumdungskampagne. Nichts davon wurde begründet. Es folgten erfundene Zitate – ich wurde als „Holocaustleugner“ und „Holocaustrelativierer“ bezeichnet. Und nicht eine einzige wahre Referenz zu meinen Schriften oder Reden wurde herangezogen.
In meinen Arbeiten kritisiere ich, dass der Holocaust auf eine plumpe Religion, ein intolerantes Dogma reduziert wird. In meinen Schriften protestiere ich gegen alle Gesetze, die Geschichte betreffen (Nakba-Gesetze, Gesetze über den armenischen Genozid, Holocaust-Gesetze usw.)
Geschichte ist für mich der Versuch, die Vergangenheit zu erzählen während wir voranschreiten. Geschichte muss als dynamischer Diskurs ausgehalten werden, der konstanter Veränderung und Neubetrachtung unterliegt, auch wenn solche Veränderung leichtes Unwohlsein hervorruft. Für mich ist Geschichte eine ethische Botschaft. Nur wenn wir die Geschichte prüfen, können wir unsere Zukunft, unser Schicksal neu überdenken.
In den vergangenen Tagen haben mich manche deutsche Presseorgane als „Antisemiten“ bezeichnet. Bin ich das?
Habe ich jemals irgendjemand, Juden eingeschlossen, kritisiert als „Volk“, als „Rasse“, als „Biologie“, als „Ethnizität“? Niemals!
Meine Arbeit ist antirassistisch. Durch meine Musik, meine Texte und Aufführungen habe ich mein ganzes erwachsenes Leben dem Kampf gegen Rassismus gewidmet. Ich bin gegen alle Formen der biologisch orientierten Politik: „Weiße Politik“, „Schwarze Politik“, geschlechterspezifische Politik, jüdische Politik. Ich suche stattdessen nach dem, was Menschen zusammen führt.
In meinen Schriften und Reden unterscheide ich klar zwischen den Juden (das Volk), welches ich nie kritisiere, dem Judaismus (die Religion), mit dem ich mich selten befasse, und dem „Jüdischsein“ (die Ideologie, Politik und Kultur). In meiner Arbeit konzentriere ich mich auf das Letztere – die Ideologie, die Politik und die Kultur – und gehe davon aus, dass wir uns alle einig darin sind, dass diese kritisiert werden dürfen.
Wenn Sie von Holocaustleugnung sprechen wollen, teile ich Ihnen auch etwas über Leugnung/Verweigerung mit. Intellektuellen, Autoren und Künstlern das Recht abzusprechen, in der Öffentlichkeit ihre Meinung zu äußern, ist der Moment in dem Faschismus beginnt.
Was ich in Deutschland in den letzten Tagen beobachtete, führt bei mir zu dem Schluss, dass manche Teile Ihrer Gesellschaft wirklich nichts aus der deutschen Geschichte gelernt haben. Den Holocaust leugnen heißt, seine Bedeutung zu leugnen, die Augen abzuwenden, wenn man Böses sieht, das Herz erkalten zu lassen, wenn man sich an Bösem beteiligt oder den Hass zelebriert. Den Holocaust leugnen heißt, die eigene Unfähigkeit auszublenden, Andere und Anderssein zu tolerieren.
Es ist mehr als schmerzhaft für mich, Zeuge davon zu werden, wie Deutschland nur sieben Jahrzehnte nach der Befreiung von Auschwitz blind in dieselbe Falle tappt
Ich möchte noch einen Satz über Palästina hinzufügen: Manche Deutsche behaupten, dass sie von ihrer Vergangenheit, den Gräueltaten des 3. Reiches, gequält werden. Wenn dies wirklich der Fall ist, dann darf ich Sie an eine einfache, bedrückende Tatsache erinnern – die Palästinenser sind die letzten Opfer Hitlers.
Es war das Ausmaß der Shoah, das zur Unterstützung des Zionismus und so zur Gründung des jüdischen Staates in Palästina führte. Aber es sind die unschuldigen Palästinenser, die in den letzten 7 Jahrzehnten den Preis für die durch Europäer begangenen Verbrechen bezahlen.
Wenn Ihr Euch wegen Hitler schuldig fühlt, dann steht ein für Palästina und die Palästinenser!
[ Ed. note – Below is a compilation of articles that have been posted in the last 24 hours or so on the arrest of Ahed Tamimi along now with other members of her family.
Ahed was arrested in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning after slapping an Israeli soldier in the face. The slap heard round the world took place as soldiers were attempting to enter the Tamimi family home and shortly after Ahed’s 15-year-old cousin had been shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet. According to one of the reports below, from The Intercept, the cousin is now in a “medically-induced coma” following surgery in which doctors “removed the bullet from the boy’s skull.”
Naftali Bennett, Israeli minister of education, reportedly has called for Ahed to be imprisoned for life.
The articles below include news reports as well as commentaries. ]
***
Fight Like a Girl, Fight Like Ahed Tamimi
By Romy Haber
The Palestinian theater holds many stories, including the gruesome fairy tale of Ahed Tamimi, the teenager who is not afraid of slapping IDF soldiers to protect her freedom and family. She may have to pay the price.
A child will often prefer to play and stay away from politics, and parents, most of the time, want their kids to be safe. But it’s not the case in the Tamimi family. Ahed, the Palestinian lioness chose to be a political activist, to spend her time fighting for her rights and country, she was only 9 years old when she started getting involved in protests, and now she is an icon of the demonstrations held in Nabi Saleh.
“We cannot teach our children silence; they must fight for their freedom.” Said Bilal Tamimi, her uncle.
Ahed Tamimi is not the only courageous Palestinian to fight and protest, her fame began in 2012 when a video of her ,yelling at soldiers twice her size when they arrested her older brother ,went viral. It led to her winning the “Handala Courage Award”. And the curly haired teenager kept on fighting to resist occupation until she became a dangerous threat to Israel.
How a Palestinian Girl from an Occupied Village Emasculated the Israeli Army
By Yossi Gurvitz
Ahed Tamimi exposed the brittleness of the IDFs’ supporters’ masculinity – and the true purpose of hasbara
Last Friday, as part of the ongoing operations of the Israeli military dictatorship in support of the settlers, an IDF gunman fired a rubber-coated bullet into the head of Muhammad Tamimi, aged 15, in the Palestinian village of Nabi Salah. The village has been holding a years-long struggle against the attempt of settlers, backed by the gunmen of the IDF, to overtake a water spring, and as a result it suffers an unusually oppressive regime.
The Israeli media did not pay any attention to an Israeli jackboot firing a bullet at the head of 15 years old. As everyone knows, daily events are not news. Nothing to report.
What happened afterwards, however, was extensively covered. Two gunmen appeared in the courtyard of the Tamimi family house (the Israeli media generally omitted the last detail). There they found themselves faced with a stubborn Palestinian girl, ‘Ahed Tamimi. Tamimi has a long record of fearlessly opposing the jackboots. The Israeli media likes to call these incidents “provocations”: As in the old American South, the provocation is not the general white persecution, but the very presence of a downtrodden person who dares to publicly oppose his persecutors. This is considered as acting “out of bounds.”
The established order is that the gunmen may shoot Tamimi’s relative in the head, and then invade her house. But facing the gunmen – that’s the provocation, as far most Israelis are concerned.
The video of Tamimi slapping IDF gunmen was taken on Friday, reached the Israeli media on Monday, and caused the supporters of the IDF to let out a long and mournful scream. The army’s pride was lying on the road, and a Palestinian girl threw it there. Thousands of Israeli man-children were screaming for vengeance. They said, repeatedly, that the proper function of a Palestinian girl in the presence of an Israeli gunman is to piss herself; their pride was mortally wounded when it turned out differently and an unarmed girl managed to drive away an Israeli gunman with yells and a few slaps – as you would deal with anyone invading your home.
There was a pronounced element of gender role reversal here – I frankly don’t think a Palestinian boy could walk away from such an incident without taking a bullet – and the man-children spent much of their sexual rage on the soldiers themselves: they were repeatedly called “gays” or “trannys”. Which, incidentally, gives you a good glimpse into the psyche of the army-loving men-children.
The first official line of the IDF was that the gunmen acted properly, but the howls about the wounding of the military pride penetrated this shell. A few hours after the video was made public, the IDF proudly showed it was the manliest of them all: Large forces of police and army raided, at four AM, the Tamimi house and detained ‘Ahed. The gunmen took care to document the arrest on video, and quickly released it to the Israeli media with an official logo. The latter published it quickly and prominently. The great IDF recaptured its honor from the hands of a Palestinian girl. Go, go, go!
A Tale of Two Girls: Ahed Tamimi and Bana al-Abed Highlight Media Bias
By RT
Comparing western media coverage of two Middle Eastern girls – one from the occupied West Bank and one from eastern Aleppo – reveals the media is beholden to the imperatives of US foreign policy.
On Monday night, Israeli forces arrested Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old girl Palestinian girl. She now sits in a military prison awaiting judgement. But if you’re watching US mainstream media, you wouldn’t know it. That’s because the coverage of Tamimi – or lack thereof – is in stark contrast to the case of Bana al-Abed, an eight-year-old Syrian girl who became an almost overnight media sensation in October 2016.
Ahed Tamimi is from the hamlet of Nabi Saleh, one of a handful of West Bank villages which stages weekly demonstrations against Israel’s 50-year occupation. Every Friday, dozens of villagers are joined by international solidarity activists as they attempt to march towards the spring that Israeli forces confiscated for a neighboring settlement. They are invariably stopped by heavily armed Israeli soldiers who employ a variety of tactics to suppress the marchers, injuring and occasionally killing them. Israeli soldiers frequently target the village with collective punishment measures.
Ahed is the daughter of prominent anti-occupation activists Bassem and Nariman Tamimi. Her father, Bassem, was calleda prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in 2012, when Israeli forces imprisoned him for non-violent activism. In 2012, a widely-seen photo of then 12-year-old Ahed confronting an Israeli soldier earned her recognition from then-Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A Tamimi image went viral again in 2015, after they were photographed and kicking and biting an Israeli soldier who was choking Ahed’s 11-year-old brother Mohammed. In 2016, the State Department denied Ahed a visa to visit the US as part of her “No Child Behind Bars/Living Resistance” speaking tour.
During last Friday’s demonstrations, Israeli soldiers shot Mohammed, 14, in the head with a rubber coated bullet. He is now in a medically induced coma. A video filmed Sunday that circulated across Israeli media showing Ahed and her cousin Nour, 20, confronting and pushing Israeli soldiers who were blocking the steps to their family home. The video was widely circulated across Israeli media as commentators praised the soldiers as an example restraint for not attacking the girls on the spot.
Instead, Israeli forces stormed the Tamimi home early the next morning under the cover of darkness, arresting Ahed. Her mother, Nariman, was arrested the following day, and her cousin Nour was arrested overnight. Bassem Tamimi was summoned for questioning Wednesday when we went to the Ofer military court to see Ahed, though he has not been formally arrested.
Israeli education minister Naftali Bennett, a leader of the far-right Jewish Home party [Bayit Yehudit], called for Tamimi and her cousin Nour to “finish their lives in prison.” In contrast, Bennett said Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who was filmed executing a wounded Palestinian, should be freed from his 18-month jail sentence.
Despite the high profile nature of Ahed’s arrest, US media has taken a de-facto vow of silence – in glaring contrast to US media’s fixation with Bana al-Abed.
As fighting in Aleppo between Syrian government forces and jihadist groups intensified in September 2016, a Twitter account of seven-year-old al-Abed appeared, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers almost overnight. The account claimed to be tweeting from the neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo under control of al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, though it was unclear how that was possible as internet access was largely unavailable. Twitter had even verified the account, in violation of its own rules which prohibit verification for minors.
Media personalities like CNN anchor Jake Tapper promoted al-Abed’s account, urging his millions of Twitter followers to “Follow @AlabedBana.” (Tapper again called for his followers to follow al-Abed in April 2017 in a tweet since deleted.)
With help from her mother Fatemah, she tweeted calls for no-fly zones and US military escalation to overthrow the Assad government, and even a third world war. In contrast to her tweets which demonstrated near fluency, al-Abed’s spoken language was broken – an indication that she had little to no grasp of the English language.
Israel Tackles Existential Threat Posed by 16-Year-Old Palestinian Girl
By Robert Mackey
On Wednesday an Israeli military court extended the detention of Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year-old girl who has become the face of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank for many who follow the weekly protests in her village through social media.
The girl was arrested in an overnight raid of her family’s home in the village of Nabi Saleh early Monday.
The arrest, and images of the less-than-daring raid released by the Israeli police to broadcasters, appeared to be an effort to placate far-right Israelis who were angered by video recorded last Friday, as the Palestinian teenager and a female cousin forced two heavily armed Israeli soldiers from her front yard, slapping and kicking them.
The outrage was stoked by Israelis, who claimed that the confrontation with the soldiers had been staged to generate sympathy and made no mention of the fact that the incident took place after an Israeli soldier shot Ahed’s 15-year-old cousin in the head with a rubber-coated metal bullet during a demonstration against the ongoing military occupation. The girl’s father, Bassem, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that his daughter, who will be 17 in January, was angry because her cousin Mohammed had been shot, and it was unclear at the time if he would survive. (Over the weekend, doctors removed the bullet from the boy’s skull and he was placed in a medically induced coma.)
Video of the incident had been widely shared over the weekend on social networks by Israelis who variously expressed pride in the “quiet restraint” shown by the soldiers and outrage that they appeared to have been bullied by a girl.
As Palestinian activists noted, however, that reading of the incident ignores the fact that the soldiers were on the family’s property, in an area that has been under military occupation for more than half a century.
As the Haaretz correspondent Anshel Pfeffer observed following the girl’s arrest, “What no one could explain was why, if indeed there was a valid reason to apprehend her, was she not taken into custody on Friday? Unless, that is, the real charge against her is having made Israeli soldiers look impotent on camera.”
Ahed, Nariman and Nour Tamimi are in high spirits and are sending greetings to supporters around the world from their cells in HaSharon prison where Israel is detaining them.
Ahed, 16, her mother Nariman and her 21-year-old cousin Nour were arrested in recent days by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
This followed violence on Friday when occupation forces shot Muhammad Fadel Tamimi, a 14-year-old member of the extended family, in the head leaving him gravely injured.
The Tamimi women then ordered the occupation soldiers off the family property and tried to remove them physically.
A video of heavily armed Israeli soldiers being forcefully confronted by Palestinian civilians defending their village was widely shown in Israeli media and prompted a campaign of threats and revenge by Israeli leaders against the Tamimi family.
The Israeli army published a video to brag about its night raid to seize Ahed Tamimi from her home, prompting outrage and expressions of solidarity with the teenager and her family from all over the world.
On Thursday, Nariman and Nour were taken before Israel’s Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank. Just as the court did with Ahed in a hearing the day before, their detention was extended at least until Monday.
Bassem Tamimi, Ahed’s father, posted on Facebook following Thursday’s hearing that all three are being held in HaSharon prison – Nariman and Nour in one cell and Ahed in another.
According to Bassem, they are being held in the section of the prison for Israeli criminals instead of the section where Palestinian women are usually detained.
Ahed, Nariman and Nour are in high spirits and “sending their love and respect for you, our partners in our struggle for freedom and justice,” Bassem Tamimi wrote.
December 20, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – It is not easy to write anything new about President Trump’s 6 December 2017 announcement that he – and supposedly the U.S. as a nation – was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. After all, plenty of very smart and attentive people have already commented on this decision. I particularly like those who pointed out that Trump’s move replicated that of Arthur Balfour. As Balfour had assumed in 1917 that he could promise Palestine to the Zionists, so Trump seems to have assumed he could legitimize Jerusalem as Israeli territory. The connection seems to support the philosopher George Santayana’s observation that those who know no history are bound to repeat it.
As was the case with Balfour, neither Trump nor the U.S. Congress (whose edict the president has so eagerly carried out) has any legal authority to proceed in this fashion. In the case of Trump and the Congress, what should get in their way is international law – which, when represented in signed treaties, is incorporated into U.S. law. The Geneva Conventions are such a case. Part of these conventions (again, now made U.S. law) makes it illegal to conquer territory and then absorb it by moving your own citizens in while ethnically cleansing the original population. One can also cite the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court declaring apartheid policies a crime against humanity. This is not U.S. law but reflects international consensus. Israel is in violation of aspects of the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute, as well as a host of United Nations resolutions.
Trump, along with the Republicans and Democrats in Congress, seems to be ignorant, or perhaps just callously unconcerned about international law – even when it has become their law! Nowhere is it referenced in Trump’s announcement. It is doubtful that he and those in Congress give it any thought at all. It is this shameless stupidity that concerns me. For, to the extent that we ignore international law, the world returns to the conditions that led to World Wars I and II, and of course, to the Holocaust.
Part II – “Open Eyes and Fresh Thinking”
Trump: “When I came into office I promised to look at the world’s challenges with open eyes and very fresh thinking.”
Comment: This state of mind cannot be completely achieved because we all are shaped by culture and personal past experiences. However, it can be approximated if one is (a) conscious of one’s biases and assumptions and (b) knows enough relevant history to recognize what is indeed relatively “fresh” and original. I think it is safe to say that President Trump is nowhere near this level of consciousness. Rather than clear-headed and original, he behaves erratically and is very much in the grips of cultural prejudices and personal biases.
President Trump, though a particularly outrageous example of this impaired condition, is not the only American leader to mistake his own ignorance for clear-sightedness (George W. Bush comes to mind). It is perhaps because it is so difficult to really see the world’s problems “with open eyes and fresh thinking” that wiser men and women than Mr. Trump have laid down international laws designed to prevent nation-states from taking actions that have, beyond doubt, proven to be disastrous.
Part III – “Alternative Facts”
Trump: The announcement on Jerusalem “marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocating the U.S. embassy there will “advance the cause of peace.” We know this to be so because putting off this step for the past 20 years has not advanced that cause.
Comment: Trump’s reasoning here is, well, unreasonable, and historically mistaken. Previous presidents did not delay moving the U.S. embassy because they thought not doing so would help bring about Palestinian-Israeli peace. First, they promised to make this move for domestic political reasons during election campaigns – a nod to the Zionist lobby’s funding potential. Afterward, they held back because to actually take this step would only make things in the Middle East worse, and not only for the Palestinians and the Israelis. The United States has other Muslim rulers in the region who are its “allies.” Trump’s predecessors, or at least their advisors, knew that the men who ruled Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the like had populations with significant numbers of people who would be quite agitated over just the move Trump has now undertaken. The U.S. leaders feared, not without reason, that ceding Jerusalem to the Israelis would destabilize those allies and boost the threat of terrorism.
No doubt aided by an abiding ignorance, President Trump has replaced the facts which held back the hand of his predecessors with “alternative facts.” For instance, he has replaced the facts that make up the history of Jerusalem as related to both Islam and Christianity, and the millennia-old emotions that go along with it, with the reality of an illegal fifty-year occupation of the entire city by Israel. Having rendered truth in this fashion, the president concludes that his decision must be in the interest of both the U.S. and peace because it is “nothing more or less than the recognition of reality.”
How simple is President Trump’s world! Simple as only the ignorant can see it. No wonder Secretary of State Tillerson (who is not without his own short-sightedness) called President Trump a “moron.”
Part IV – Don’t Misunderstand Me
Much of the rest of the president’s speech was an attempt to assure the world that what he had just declared was not as “fresh” and new as he at first claimed.
Trump: “I want to make one point very clear …. The United States remains deeply committed to helping to facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides.” We are “not taking a position on any final status issues.”
Comment: It is at this point that you have to ask just what world the president is living in. Actually, the answer is not that hard to come by. It is a personal world that is singularly egocentric. As such it has no real relevance to U.S. national interests and certainly not to Palestinian-Israeli conflict resolution. Its only reference point is Trump’s own, largely unrestrained, self-serving urges and needs.
According to reports coming from inside the White House, Trump was interested in the alleged prestige of being the president who actually went through with the promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. “While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today I am delivering.”
He sought out those who would encourage his goal – those who are hardly any more knowledgable then he – his Christian Fundamentalist Vice President Mike Pence, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is a family friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is also reported to have been encouraged to take this step by the Senate minority leader Charles Shumer, a man whose only foreign policy interest is in supporting Israel. Trump ignored the advice of his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and Secretary of Defence, James Mattis, both of whom thought the move ill-advised. So now we have the Zionists and Christian fundamentalists standing behind Trump, patting him on the back. The rest of the world stands in front of him, aghast. Typical of the self-serving type he is, Trump only cares about the blandishments pushing him in the direction he wants to go.
That direction is decidedly backwards. Back in the direction of no rules, no international law, not even any binding treaties to bother with. Just free rein for the whims of the leader.
Part V – Power and the Will
One gets the sense that Trump feels he can simply create a new reality by the exercise of his will. I want to emphasize the word “feels” here because I do not think the president reasons out these actions. He experiences a feeling that suggests to him a way he can change things. He does not weigh this feeling against history or contemporary reality. For example, take his description of the eventual new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem as “a magnificent tribute to peace.”
This equating of what one feels or wills with what will actually be is a sign of a delusional personality – someone who can’t tell the difference between his own opinion and hard facts. To have such a person in a position of power is dangerous indeed. We know this from experience. The only things that may keep such impulsive people in check are rules – rules that are at once humane and based on historical lessons learned, and rules that are enforced.
Such rules exist. They were introduced in the form of a growing body of international law as nations confronted the consequences of modern warfare and brutality. Unfortunately, today these rules are rarely enforced – and never done so when it comes to superpowers and their close allies.
So Donald Trump, with his alleged “open eyes” and “fresh thinking,” pays no attention to the rules. Announcing his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he leads us all backwards toward disaster.
Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history from West Chester University in West Chester PA. His academic research focused on the history of American foreign relations with the Middle East. He taught courses in Middle East history, the history of science and modern European intellectual history.
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