IOF admit to opening fire on protesters in southern Syria
Al Mayadeen | December 21, 2024
The Israeli occupation forces acknowledged their use of live ammunition against protesters in southern Syria, claiming the action targeted what they described as a “threat.”
According to an IOF statement, one protester sustained a gunshot wound to the leg in the village of Maaria.
The incident unfolded during a demonstration against the Israeli military presence and its encroachment on agricultural lands in the area.
Syrians protest Israeli occupation of base in Yarmouk Basin
Residents of the multiple towns in the Yarmouk Basin, in the western Daraa countryside, in southern Syria, protested on Friday the presence of Israeli occupation forces in the area.
Locals demanded the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the area, specifically the al-Jazeera barracks. Demonstrators demanded an immediate halt to Israeli incursions into Syrian territory, calling on the international community to intensify efforts and exert pressure on the Israeli entity to ensure compliance with international laws and sovereignty.
It is worth noting that the IOF recently occupied two villages in the Yarmouk Basin region of Daraa province in southern Syria. These actions are part of what appears to be an ongoing expansion of Israeli-occupied territories in Syria, particularly since the emergence of new regime forces in the country.
Elders protest Israeli occupation of Quneitra
Sources had previously told Al Mayadeen that Israeli forces were raiding, detaining residents, and arbitrarily searching homes in southern Quneitra and the western Daraa countryside. These actions have become a cause of widespread panic among civilians without a clear response from the current Syrian regime.
Moreover, elders of clans residing in the buffer zone east of the Golan Heights in the Quneitra District issued a statement demanding Israeli occupation forces withdraw beyond the buffer zone.
Razing areas, constructing roads
Sources also revealed that Israeli occupation forces are advancing toward the Al-Shahar Forest and the Al-Khashab Nature Reserve in northern Quneitra, while other forces are advancing into the nearby towns of Taranja and Ufaniya.
Moreover, occupation forces are razing agricultural lands and nature reserves to construct roads connecting Quneitra to Mount Hermon.
Additionally, a group of 30 Israeli soldiers, supported by bulldozers and armored vehicles, advanced into a military point west of al-Rafid town in the southern Quneitra countryside. These forces bulldozed structures and uprooted trees, destroying military fortifications in the area before withdrawing.
So far, the Israeli entity has occupied around 500 km² of Syrian territory, demolishing and razing Syrian military bases and other assets on the slopes of Mount Hermon, Quneitra, and Daraa.
Additionally, Israeli forces have expanded their incursion into southern Syria, advancing eastward from the town of Sayda, reaching three significant water bodies in the area, including Sheikh Hussein, Sahm al-Golan Dam, and al-Bakar al-Gharbi.
China urges US to shut Guantanamo prison, end ‘occupation’ of Cuba
Lin Jian, spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, attends a press conference on March 18, 2024 in Beijing, China. [VCG/VCG via Getty Images]
MEMO | December 20, 2024
Read also: Guantanamo’s cruelty is medieval. It’s a horror story. And it’s true.
Israel to deploy remotely operated machine guns against Palestinians in occupied West Bank
The Cradle | December 15, 2024
The Israeli army is preparing to deploy automated, remotely monitored machine guns to protect illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio reported on 15 December.
The automated weapons, developed by Rafael Combat Systems, will be installed on watch towers around dozens of settlements and near their entrances. They will be controlled remotely from command centers “to prevent armed attacks and infiltration operations.”
The same system was installed on the Gaza border in 2008 and operated by spotters in bases. However, it failed to prevent fighters from the Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, from approaching and breaching the barrier fence to attack settlements and Israeli military bases on 7 October 2023.
During Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Qassam Brigades fighters reportedly used attack drones to disable the automated weapons during the first hours of the operation.
The army will first deploy the weapons in locations it defines as ‘high-risk,’ and expand their deployment over time to include additional locations.
According to the report, the 636th Reconnaissance Unit of the Army’s West Bank Division will operate the systems.
Israeli soldiers and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza last year.
The Israeli army and settlers have killed 812 Palestinians and injured 6,500 in the West Bank since that time.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has provided over 120,000 firearms to Jewish settlers in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza War.
“Over 120,000 weapons were distributed to eligible citizens, while tens of thousands more received conditional approvals,” Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party, said on his X account in October.
“We intend to continue arming Israel. That’s what we did, and that’s what we’ll continue to do!”
Ben Gvir and fellow Jewish supremacist politician and minister have announced their desire to use the Jewish settlers to expel the indigenous Palestinian population from the occupied West Bank and annex it to Israel.
After Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency in November, Ben Gvir, himself a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement, declared that “this is the time for sovereignty” over the West Bank.
On 9 December, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syra, Bezalel Smotrich called for increased Jewish settlement and establishing “facts on the ground” to ensure a Palestinian state would never be established.
Australian falsely charged with selling arms to North Korea wants compensation from Canberra
By Jenniffer Seewald | RT | December 7, 2024
A South Korea-born Australian became a worldwide sensation overnight when he was arrested for allegedly attempting to broker several deals with North Korea, a breach of UN sanctions. What made the coverage fly off the shelves was that 59-year-old Chan Han Choi was then charged with having assisted the North Korean weapons of mass destruction program. It was 2017 and the first time anyone was ever prosecuted under Australia’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, adopted in 1995. Though the WMD charges against Choi were later dropped, he spent three years in prison and filed for compensation from the Australian government, alleging human rights violations and other illegal actions that he says were committed by the authorities while he was in custody. The violations he reported include torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect.
During the hearing, Chan Han Choi did not deny having connections to Pyongyang, explaining that he ran a business back when it was legal to sell North Korean products. He also claims that he was acting on behalf of Moon Jae-in, the then-South Korean presidential candidate (who would later become president) as he truly held Seoul’s genuine interests to heart. He insists he was thrown under a bus by South Korean intelligence services after he helped establish a secret communication channel between the candidate and North Korea, to help Moon win the race.
“Through an acquaintance living in Australia, I was connected to a member of Moon Jae-in’s presidential campaign in April 2017. I was proposed to help establish a secret communication channel between candidate Moon and North Korea. Moon’s proposal seemed aimed at protecting the nation’s genuine interests without foreign interference… However, after Moon Jae-in was elected president, he feared the potential fallout if it became known that someone with North Korean ties was involved in his campaign. To avoid impeachment risks, he made me a scapegoat,” Choi asserted during a video call, a sense of sadness and hurt in his voice at what happened.
He was arrested in Canberra in December 2017, several months after Moon Jae-in won the election and at the request of the South Korean government. According to Choi, the Australian Federal Police initially questioned the legitimacy of South Korea’s supposed request, but followed through with their inquiries to help conceal the truth.
“At the time of my arrest, South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) agents and consulate officials accompanied the Australian police, attempting to silence me to protect Moon. This political maneuver involved the NIS, the Blue House [presidential residence], and sitting lawmakers.” Choi explains, adding that after his arrest Australia “sent experts to the US for consultations” which led him to believe this was all “orchestrated as a collaborative effort among South Korea, Australia, and a major power.”
However, this wasn’t the first time Choi crossed paths with Seoul’s spy agency; he recalls the NIS attempting to recruit him back in 2010, offering money to work as a spy. He declined the offer but, ever since, has been monitored by the NIS as a person of interest. In 2017, he said his arrest had been used by the South Korean government for, among other things, “propaganda purposes.”
“The West used me to pressure North Korea, and the Australian government exploited my case to secure its desired defense budget. However, I was falsely accused of trading missiles and weapons of mass destruction, and the Australian government detained me for three years without evidence. Spending just one night in an Australian prison turned me into a global sensation,” Choi also recalled, shrugging.
An interesting aspect of the whole affair is that none of the business deals with North Korea were finalized, including a 2008 coal and pig-iron deal that, according to Chan Han Choi, involved a company affiliated with the NIS.
“In 2008, I was introduced by a sitting member of the National Assembly to a business that brokered the purchase of North Korean coal and pig iron through Dasan Network, a front company of the National Intelligence Service. The South Korean buyer’s ship arrived at Nampo Port in North Korea, but the goods were not shipped for political reasons, and we agreed to resume business whenever the opportunity arose,” he said, adding that the South Korean intelligence service used this occurrence to disguise it as a criminal case later in 2022.
Claiming to be a supporter of intra-Korean dialogue, Choi insists that Seoul’s operations against anyone who has ties to its northern neighbor demonstrates its “amateurish … political maneuvers during times of crisis” and that, while the “South Korean government’s understanding of North Korea is insufficient” it is also misleading its citizens, leaving them unaware of certain realities. He also pointed out that the consistent pressure exerted by Washington on South Korea and its regional allies to threaten North Korea is aimed at maintaining “tensions on the Korean Peninsula to uphold US hegemony” next door to China and to expand NATO’s reach in South East Asia.
“I cannot understand NATO-related activities in South Korea. With no security ties between South Korea, the European Union, or NATO, I see this as a US attempt to create a Southeast Asian NATO, using South Korean forces as proxies… Here’s something to ponder: Can Washington abandon its own security to defend Seoul? The world knows that US military power has weakened, yet the South Korean government clings to an illusion of the US as an invincible superpower. I wonder if the US intervened during the Tongyeong Island shelling incident,” he said, referring to a 2010 event when North Korean forces fired artillery shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island, hitting both military and civilian targets. Pyongyang then stated that it had fired in response to South Korean artillery firing into its territorial waters. Today, Choi urged, “South Korea must thoroughly analyze all Washington-led issues and act in line with its own national interests. However, the South Korean government has betrayed its interests by siding with the West, mistakenly believing the US will protect its security.”
After what he has gone through, Chan Han Choi, now 66, is seeking justice and to expose the duplicity and human rights violations of the Australian government. So far, Canberra has failed to respond to his letter and he believes that it is because responding to it would make the Australian authorities officially admit wrongdoing. But he has the determination to further bring the case to the US courts, as well as filing a complaint with the UN.
Read the full interview with Chan Han Choi here.
Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody within a week of imprisonment
MEMO | December 5, 2024
Palestinian prisoner, Mohammad Walid Hussein Ali, has died while in Israeli custody, announced the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission and the Prisoners Society.
In a joint statement, the two organisations identified 45-year-old Ali as a resident of the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
He had previously spent approximately 20 years in Israeli prisons and detention centres before being re-arrested last week and taken to the Jalamah interrogation centre in northern Israel.
Yesterday he was transferred to Rambam Hospital in Israel where he was pronounced dead.
According to Anadolu Agency, the details surrounding Ali’s death remain unclear; however, his passing after just a week of detention and interrogation raises concerns that torture may have played a role.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission and the Prisoners Society emphasised that Ali was in good health before his detention, with no prior chronic medical conditions. He was married and expecting his second child at the time of his death.
Ali’s death brings the reported number of Palestinian deaths in Israeli prisons and detention facilities to 48 since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza last October.
It comes a month after two Palestinian prisoners, Sameeh Eleiwi from Nablus and Anwar Esleem from Gaza, also died in Israeli custody, just six days after being moved by Israeli occupation soldiers from the Ramleh Prison clinic to Assaf Harofeh Hospital.
The statement further noted that these figures exclude unconfirmed deaths, particularly of detainees from Gaza, which Israel has not disclosed.
The organisations warned of deteriorating conditions in Israeli detention centres following accounts of torture, overcrowding and lack of medical care, which have led to the deaths of thousands Palestinian detainees over the years.
The voice of family members of detainees in Israeli jails
International Solidarity Movement | December 1, 2024
On Monday 25 November, about eighty women, mothers, sisters and wives, gathered in Nablus, in the West Bank, to demonstrate in solidarity with the nearly 100 women detained in Israeli jails, along with around 12,000 men, to demand their release and an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Their family members have been in Israeli jails for months or years, yet nothing has been heard from them since 7 October last year.
“We want to live in a free country! Out with the occupation forces! They burn Gaza with phosphorus bombs, and tomorrow it’s our turn,” they chanted in one of the city’s main squares while clutching pictures of their loved ones imprisoned.
And again: “We will not tire; they are the occupiers and the criminals. They kill the children of Palestine, men and women rise up against this.”
“My son has been in prison for two and a half years,” says Hanan, holding a photo of a smiling young man in his 30s. She has not heard from him for more than a year. “The situation in prison is very bad now,” she says. “We don’t know anything anymore because we have no chance to communicate with them in any way. No institution, red cross or human rights association, no lawyer can reach them to tell us how they are. We are very worried about our sons.” She adds: “I hope my voice will reach the whole world, and that someone will help us.”
There are many, too many stories. Their families brave the risks of arrest and detention to take to the streets, sometimes weekly, to demand the release of their loved ones and demand news.
“My son Samir has been in prison for eight months in administrative detention,” says another woman, a photo of the young man in her arms. “Every time his detention period ends, they renew it for him. The Israeli administration refuses permission to the lawyer and anyone else to visit him. We only hear from him when someone is released from the same prison.
“My son is sick, and he has no treatment. They don’t give him medicine. They don’t send people for treatment.”
Also in Tulkarem, where every Tuesday dozens of people gather outside the headquarters of the International Red Cross in the hope that their voices will be heard outside the country. A band of young boys with drums and musical instruments set the rhythm for the chants, while family members and representatives of local human rights associations pass the microphone around. “With soul and blood, we will defend our prisoners! Raise your voice for those who have sacrificed their freedom,” they shout together.
“Conditions in prisons since October 7 are completely different. The number of prisoners has more than doubled,” says Ibrahim Nemer, one of the representatives of the Palestinian Prisoners Club of Tulkarem. “There are more than 12,00 political prisoners in jails now.”
According to Addameer, leading Palestinian human rights organisation on prisoners rights, before Oct. 7 there were 5,000 political prisoners. The number of administrative detentions has also increased tremendously. There are almost 3,400 people in administrative detention, whereas before it was 1,200.
Administrative detention means that a suspect is arrested and held in jail potentially indefinitely, without being told the reasons for the arrest and without the Israeli authorities being required to present evidence against him. Thus, with no possibility of defence.
“There are no longer humane living conditions in the prisons. Everything that the prisoners’ movement had conquered has been taken away,” Ibrahim continues. “TV, books, and there are no more visits for relatives. They don’t give enough food or water … Most of the prisoners have lost dozens of pounds.”
Prisoners are forced to keep the same clothes for weeks, and despite the cold they are not given the necessary blankets. Even shampoo and soap are not provided.
“It’s torture. There is no other way to describe it.”
Ibrahim describes horrific conditions in Israeli jails over the last year. “Most of the prisoners have scabies. They used to go outside two hours a day, now no outside hours are allowed in most prisons. Obviously, this is contrary to human rights.”
A further problem is their legal status. The West Bank has been occupied by the Israeli army since 1967. This would make its detainees prisoners of war, or political prisoners. “Instead, Israel does not recognize this status, but considers them common prisoners, delinquents. If it considered them political prisoners, or prisoners of war, it would have to treat them differently in accordance with international law,” explains Ibrahim.
“The military is always invading the cells where they are detained with dogs, beating them. Many prisoners have been killed in prison, the number has increased a lot since October 7, many have died because of torture and the absence of medical care. The conditions are not conducive to life … so that prisoners are just thinking about how to survive …”
According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, at least forty prisoners have died in Israeli custody since Oct. 7. But it could be many more. At least 25 bodies have not yet been returned to their families.
“We are back to the prison-system of hundreds of years ago. We know that many people internationally are with us, but that is not enough. Because all governments are supporting Israel with weapons, money, and even soldiers. We need to put more pressure on governments to stop aid and support for Israel and free all political prisoners who are being held,” continues Ibrahim.
He has two sons in prison, and a brother. One son with a one-year sentence; one with a three-year sentence. And the brother with a 21-year prison sentence.
“We are like everyone, yani, like all Palestinian families … but the difficult conditions the prisoners are suffering make families worry about the very lives of their loved ones in prison. The problem is not only that they are detained and the time they have to wait for them to be released, but today every day we fear for their lives.”
Brits will have to die defending Israel in war with Iran, says UK envoy to Tel-Aviv
MEMO | November 21, 2024
‘Tortured and left to die’: New details emerge about Israel’s murder of prominent Gaza surgeon
The Cradle | November 16, 2024
A Sky News investigation published on 16 November has revealed new details surrounding Israel’s torture and murder of the famous Palestinian surgeon from Gaza, Adnan al-Bursh, in the Ofer Prison in the occupied Palestinian West Bank last May.
A fellow Palestinian prisoner at Ofer told the British news channel that Israeli guards severely tortured Dr Bursh and then left him to die alone, naked from the waist down, in the prison yard.
The prisoner, who previously knew the doctor in Gaza, provided the new details in a deposition to lawyers from HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization.
“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body,” the prisoner’s deposition states.
“The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead).”
Dr Bursh was widely regarded as one of the best-qualified and well-known surgeons in Gaza.
When Israel’s war on Gaza began in October of last year, Dr Bursh worked at Al-Shifa Hospital as the head of orthopedic surgery. He worked around the clock, performing surgeries on Palestinians injured by Israel’s horrific bombing campaign.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1856940110308143197
When Israeli troops laid siege to Al-Shifa in November, the staff was forced to flee.
Bursh fled by foot to the Indonesian Hospital in Bait Lahia to continue serving wounded patients.
He documented his experiences on video, including when Israel shelled the hospital, killing 12 people.
He was then forced to leave the Indonesia Hospital as well and moved to the Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza’s north, where he was abducted by Israeli forces.
After the soldiers surrounded the hospital, “They told [Dr Bursh] that if all men do not come down… they will destroy the Awda Hospital with all the women and children in it,” a fellow doctor at Al-Awda, Mohammad Obeid, told Sky News.
After Dr Bursh left the hospital, Israeli soldiers “called his name out” and then “roughly” took him away, Obeid stated.
Dr Bursh was then taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev Desert.
The facility became notorious this summer after prison guards, doctors, and former inmates gave testimony of prisoners being tortured and raped there.
Dr Khalid Hamouda, a former inmate at Sde Teiman, told Sky News that of the 100 prisoners in the section of the camp where he was held, at least a quarter were healthcare workers.
Dr Bursh was beaten severely at Sde Teiman.
“He thought he may have broken ribs,” Dr Hamouda said. “He was unable to even go to the toilet alone.”
The doctor was then transferred to Ofer Prison in the Israeli prison system but was never charged with any crime or terrorism.
Since 7 October 2023, at least 43 prisoners have died in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
Is Israel Using Soccer to Export Its Racist Political Model to Europe?
By Mike Whitney • Unz Review • November 15, 2024
For the second time in 8 days, hundreds of Israeli soccer hooligans attacked unidentified fans at a football match in Paris, France. A number of videos circulating on social media show swarms of young men—mostly dressed in black with masks and stocking caps or draped in Israeli flags—pummeling an unknown Frenchman who was beaten to the ground. The extent of his injuries remains unknown.
The skirmishes took place at Thursday’s UEFA Nations League soccer game between France and Israel at the Stade de France which drew the smallest crowd in history due to the threat of hooligan violence. But although the streets of Paris were heavily patrolled by thousands of police and security guards to protect the visiting Israelis, fans of the home team received no such security. When the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans began raining-down blows on their unnamed victims, the police were nowhere to be found.
Some of the videos show terrified fans fleeing an area in the stands that was overrun by a hostile Maccabi mob sprinting across the upper deck while thousands of fans “Booed” loudly from below. The scene seemed more reminiscent of the political street fights that took place in Weimar Germany in the early 1930s than a football match in 2024. The ensuing mayhem was described by analyst Arnaud Bertrand on his Twitter site:
… There was a football match between Israel and France yesterday and this happened at the beginning of the match: a horde of Israeli supporters openly lynched some French supporters in the stands. Macron himself was in attendance at the match to show his commitment to “fighting antisemitism” after Amsterdam…
He made no public comment that I know of on these French supporters getting lynched in front of his eyes. And the police made no reported arrests. Had the reverse been the case, had this been some Israeli supporters getting lynched by a horde of French supporters, you can absolutely bet 100% that he (and all the French media) would have made a huge deal out of it. You cannot overstate the absurdism of it: because we’ve so gaslighted ourselves around “antisemitism” and so distorted the meaning of it, Western countries would literally rather let our their own citizens get lynched on their own soil – in front of the president’s eyes (!) – than face accusations being “antisemitic” in their own definition of the term. @RnaudBertrand (video)
Bertrand is using the term “lynching” in the legal sense as it relates to the “Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act” in 2022… meaning “that the actions of the Israeli supporters would most certainly be considered lynching under US law because they conspired as a mob to cause serious bodily harm based on bias regarding “the actual or perceived religion or national origin” of the person(s) – matching exactly 18 USC §249(a)(5)’s definition requiring conspiracy & serious injury in hate-motivated attacks. @RnaudBertrand
Arnaud is correct in pointing out that President Macron attended the match. Not surprisingly, Macron was joined in his luxury box by two former presidents, the current prime minister and a large portion of France’s political establishment, all of whom stand foursquare behind the violent Zionist thuggery they witnessed in the stands. (Note—Joshua Zarka, Israeli ambassador to Paris, was also at the game, while Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, was in France to supervise the security of Israeli players and fans.)
This is from an article at inews.uk:
Fights broke out at a sparsely attended France–Israel match at the Stade de France in Paris on Thursday night, despite a heavy security presence inside and outside the stadium. Footage on social media showed clashes between home and away fans in the stands, with one clip appearing to show men wearing Israel flags punching and kicking a man on the ground before stewards intervened.
Tensions ran high even before the match with a heavy security operation around the stadium, with 4,000 police and 1,600 civilian security personnel deployed as French authorities sought to avoid a repeat of the violent scenes around a Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam last week. Police lines extended more than a kilometer from the stadium with barricades along the streets and helicopters buzzing overhead… Just 13,000 tickets had been sold the day before the game – reportedly the lowest attendance for any home fixture in the history of the French national team…
Israel fans sang songs in support of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and “free the hostages,” in references to captives held by Hamas in Gaza. Some wore masks and IDF shirts.
Despite Israeli government advice, some Israeli dual nationals were in Paris with Betar, an international right-wing Zionist group. Betar’s social media channels posted an image of members in the French capital holding baseball bats before the game. Fights break out at France-Israel match in Paris despite heavy security, inews.co.uk
Let’s recap:
- No expense was spared to provide security for the Maccabi hooligans, but French fans were beaten in the stands without anyone lifting a finger.
- A mere 13,000 people attended a stadium that holds 80,000, but the match was given the go-ahead regardless.
- The Maccabi mob sang military songs and bellowed racist slogans, but no government official has had the courage to order an inquiry. Note: According to the Middle East Eye, Israeli fans chanted “Free the hostages” and “Hamas, Hamas, we’re fucking you”.)
Readers should take a minute and carefully examine the photo at the top of this article. What do you see?
Do you see a gathering of typical soccer fans dressed in team colors and jerseys waving banners and singing team songs, or do you see a uniformly dressed and deeply threatening throng of black-clad troopers with stocking caps and masks who could—just as easily be conducting a military operation as attending a match of their favorite football team?
Who wears a black mask and a stocking cap to a soccer match? Who chants “Hamas, Hamas, we’re fucking you” at a soccer match?
Was this really a spontaneous get together of pumped-up Maccabi fans expressing their support for their team or a clandestine infiltration of the EU overseen by Israeli intelligence agents on secret assignment?
And be sure to take special note of the author’s last observation:
Despite Israeli government advice, some Israeli dual nationals were in Paris with Betar, an international right-wing Zionist group. Betar’s social media channels posted an image of members in the French capital holding baseball bats before the game.
Betar? The far-right youth movement founded by Vladimir Jabotinsky that fought against the British in Mandatory Palestine and was closely affiliated with the Zionist terrorist organization, the Irgun?
Here’s more from an article at the Middle East Eye:
At the demonstration in Paris, Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer who was deported from Jerusalem by Israel in 2022 after spending many years in prison and is now a member of Urgence Palestine, also accused the French president of sending a political message of support for Israel by attending the match.
“This match and the participation of Macron, Hollande and Sarkozy is part of France’s complicity in the ongoing genocide. It is a diplomatic green light given to the Israeli occupier for all its actions in Palestine and Lebanon and for it to continue its massacres in Palestine and in Lebanon,” he told MEE.
“Today, the low turn-out at the stadium shows that the public opinion in France is in favour of the Palestinian cause, and that the people support the people. It shows that the voice of the Palestinian people has been heard, and that a boycott needs to be implemented.” France-Israel match marked by scuffles, booing and a record-low attendance, Middle East Eye
Summary and Analysis
So, now we’ve seen two significant and politically destabilizing events in less than 10 days both of which took place in European capitals. And in both cases, the violence and racist chants were initiated by Israeli hooligans engaged in actions aimed at intimidating the public. Is there a rational explanation for this sudden uptick in social unrest attributable to Maccabi sports fans?
Of course, it could be just a coincidence linked to the behavior of overzealous sports fans who need to practice more self-restraint. That is one possibility. We cannot exclude another possibility, however, that the violence we have seen in Paris and Amsterdam is not a one-off or merely a case of exuberant young men “letting off a little steam.” We must at least consider the possibility that Israeli powerbrokers have launched this operation—using their assets in the IDF and Mossad—to advance their own strategic agenda consistent with their expansionist Zionist plan.
What we’ve seen is that the incitements on the ground have been coordinated with journalists in the legacy media and with political leaders across the West who have fabricated a narrative of growing antisemitism when, in fact, that storyline is easily debunked by the hundreds of first-person eyewitness accounts and the numerous videos on social media that prove that the sole responsibility for the violence in both cities lies entirely with the Israeli soccer thugs.
But why would political leaders and the media want to create the impression that antisemitism is on the rise? That is the question we must ask ourselves, because that is the narrative we are expected to believe.
IMHO, Israeli leaders understand that the claim of antisemitism is a powerful coercive tool that can be used to pressure parliamentarians to modify the law in ways that benefit one group over the others. Thus, as fears of a new wave of antisemitism intensify, the demand for changes to the law increase. Eventually—as in the case of Israel—equal protection is no longer equal protection. One category of people is placed above the law, while the others are crushed beneath the wheel of “second class citizenship.” This erosion of equal protection—that is attributable to the creation of “special” laws for special people—is the fast-track to apartheid, which is the end of a justice system that treats all people equally and with dignity.
Israel is frequently called an apartheid state because one group of people is treated differently (under the law) than the other. If my theory is correct, then Israeli policymakers are trying to affect those same changes in Europe, which means, they are exporting their racist political model to the continent.
Readers may want to skim the article below and decide for themselves whether this theory has any merit:
Calling for a boycott against Israel is forbidden now – and other measures against anti-Semitism, CNE
The German Bundestag took the clearest decision. Last week, the parliament accepted a resolution from both the government and the Christian Democratic opposition to protect Jewish life in the country. The title of the resolution was “Never again is now”, according to reports from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
According to the text, hatred against Jews and Israel is higher than “decades” since the terror attacks on October 7th 2023. The resolution also explicitly mentions that migrants especially add to this problem…. Concrete measures of the resolution are that no state money can go to organizations that… call for a boycott against Israel. Also, schools will be supported in educating about the Holocaust….
Norway
This Monday, the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre presented an action plan with 22 measures against hatred against Jews. He invited representatives of the Jewish community to a meeting to discuss the matter. “We would love we did not need an action plan”, the Prime Minister said. “But we know that it is necessary.”
The Holocaust Centre in Norway has reported that anti-Semitism is growing after many years of decrease. “It is not just one budget post that resolves this”, Støre said. “This is about something difficult as attitudes.”…
Netherlands
Also , the Dutch government has been invited to take action against anti-Semitism. On Wednesday, there was a lengthy urgency debate in the Lower House about the incidents in Amsterdam last Friday.
The debate was dominated by Geert Wilders –who is leading the largest party– who presented immigration by Muslims as the basic problem of anti-Semitism.
The Dutch society was shocked by the pogrom-style hunt of Israeli football supporters. Hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were asked for their passports, beaten and chased. Opposition leader Frans Timmermans expected concrete measures from the government. He advocated for appointing more detectives to track down anti-Semitic offenders and then imposing harsher penalties….
European Parliament
Also, in the European Parliament in Brussels, parties held an urgency debate about anti-Semitism later on Wednesday. The debate was requested by the Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen from the Reformed SGP party after the shocking events in Amsterdam. The title of the debate is the “deplorable escalation of violence around the football match in the Netherlands and unacceptable attacks on Israeli football fans.”
“Europe is increasingly in the grip of extremist violence and Jew-hatred”, Ruissen said in a written statement. “This must stop as soon as possible.”
Already in October, the EU ministers of Foreign Affairs adopted a declaration that condemned “all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, hatred and discrimination.” Also, in this statement, action in schools was asked to keep the Holocaust in the “collective memory”. Calling for a boycott against Israel is now forbidden, CNE
Everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. There should be no legal carveouts for special people.
Israel has issued 9,500 administrative detention orders since 7 October 2023
MEMO | October 31, 2024
Two Palestinian institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs said on Wednesday that Israel has increased its issue of administrative detention orders, with nearly 9,500 issued since 7 October last year.
“The huge increase in the number of administrative detainees is mainly linked to the arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, with more than 11,500 arrests in all groups,” said the Palestinian Authority’s Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Prisoners’ Club civil society group in a joint statement seen by Anadolu.
“The occupation intelligence agency has recently escalated the number of transfers to administrative detention of detainees whose sentences have ended, as well as the number of administrative detention orders issued against prisoners who were released on bail and specific conditions, or without conditions.”
Administrative detention sees prisoners being held with neither charge nor trial for up to six months, renewable indefinitely.
Monitoring of administrative detainees’ has proven that the occupation regime’s military courts have formed and continue to form an essential structure for solidifying its crimes, including the crime of administrative detention, said the Palestinian institutions.
According to the latest data that they supplied, there are currently 3,398 administrative detainees among the 10,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 30 women and more than 90 children, one of whom is just 14 years old. “The number of administrative detainees in the occupation prisons is 33 per cent of the total number of prisoners and detainees.”
It is worth noting that the prisoner data is related only to those from the occupied West Bank. The Israeli regime does not disclose information related to prisoners in Gaza.
Lights out for the city on the hill
By Stephen Karganovic | Strategic Culture Foundation | October 20, 2024
Throughout the decades of the Cold War, whilst the blocs were competing, two major attractions worked powerfully to the advantage of the West. Firstly, the comfort and prosperity that it was able to provide to its citizens, which its Eastern rivals could hardly match. The second feature that in the eyes of the world gave the West a huge competitive edge was the comparatively better performance of its institutions with regard to individual liberties.
The twin advantages of prosperity and the impression that the West valued freedom successfully neutralised much of the theoretical critique of the capitalist social and economic model. In particular, the West’s ostensible commitment to personal liberties acted as a powerful magnet. As a political weapon it served its purpose effectively. It is indisputable that so long as scrupulous adherence to the rule of law and respect for individual rights were seen as the distinguishing characteristic of Western societies they were widely perceived as a desirable alternative to the competing systems, which often disregarded strict legality and did little to diminish arbitrariness.
This is the state of affairs that prevailed until roughly the 1990s, when the Western bloc finally reached the pinnacle of its global might and was widely perceived as triumphant over its adversaries. But ever since the social gains which had made the lives of common people relatively comfortable and safe, and society cohesive across class lines, are being dismantled throughout the Western world. The sense of legal security that for decades citizens of Western countries unquestionably enjoyed proved equally evanescent. The phenomena of lawless abuse and vulnerability to the powers that be, normal elsewhere but long extirpated from the practice of Western societies and largely faded from the memory of their citizens, have reappeared with a vengeance. On both the domestic and international levels, the “rule of law” rapidly morphed into its unrecognisable caricature. That metamorphosis ultimately became jokingly known as the “rules based order.”
With scant internal opposition or even much public awareness, the core countries of the collective West became infected with the contagion of arbitrariness in the interpretation of inherent human rights and application of legal principles erected to protect them. The transformation, which in historical terms took place with lightning speed, was spearheaded by a ruthless and duplicitous political cabal and was implemented with the connivance of a judiciary which was utterly corrupt and shamefully impotent.
The breakdown of legality is generally a precursor of worse things to come, which almost invariably takes the form of increasingly egregious abuse of power. The point can be illustrated with disturbing but by no means isolated examples of the emerging state of affairs in the countries of the collective West that used to be envied for their freedom. Readers will recall the famous line, “they hate us for our freedom.” The utterance in 2001 of that false assertion whilst doing nothing to advance the cause of freedom did introduce an orgy of destruction and mass slaughter.
The most striking representation of the breakdown of the legal order can be cited today is the illegal kidnapping and incarceration by the German judicial system of German-American lawyer Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, under fabricated embezzlement charges. There are many solid reasons for deep state cabal’s virulent hatred of Dr. Fuellmich. He was the spoiler who in 2020 had the temerity to found the Covid pandemic research committee, just as the social control experiment was gaining momentum. The committee’s outstanding work in uncovering the sordid motives and homicidal objectives of the orchestrators of the bogus medical emergency was a major blow to them, especially because it was delivered successfully under conditions of nearly total informational blockade. Dr. Fuellmich’s ultimate, and perhaps overambitious and naively conceived goal of a medical Nurenberg to bring the culprits to justice was never achieved but the very thought of it must have caused nightmares to those he intended to be prosecuted.
“This agenda has been long planned,” Dr. Fuellmich summarised his Committee’s findings. “It’s ultimately unsuccessful precursor was the swine flu some 12 years ago, and it is cooked up by a group of super-rich psychopathic and sociopathic people who hate and fear people at the same time, have no empathy, and are driven by the desire to gain full control over all of us, the people of the world.”
The time came for the psychopaths to seek their sweet revenge, and the operation was not exceedingly difficult because they happen to control the mechanisms of power. Eleven months ago Dr. Fuellmich was imprisoned in Germany on the false allegation of a colleague who had been infiltrated into the Covid Committee that he misused the organisation’s assets for personal benefit. A charge that under German law is a misdemeanour and for which there is no precedent of lengthy pre-trial imprisonment resulted in incarceration that has now lasted for over 400 days under Abu Ghraib conditions, except that it is in Germany and not in Iraq. For a shocking portrayal of those detention conditions, see here. And see here for the disgraceful procedural deficiencies of the trial itself, which is currently in progress, stained by practices incompatible with the image of Rechtsstaat, that Germany along with the collective West regimes associated with it are misleadingly cultivating.
The lawless persecution of Dr. Fuellmich for the “offence” of performing a remarkable public service by uncovering and documenting the fraudulent nature and sinister background of the Covid “pandemic” is, however, but the tip of the iceberg in the collapse of the rule of law in the societies that portray themselves as its champions. Additional examples illustrate the breakdown and flesh out the picture of the legal disarray which undercuts the elementary freedoms of citizens and renders them defenceless before the demands of unaccountable Power.
In Ireland, the entire Burke family of Christian believers who refuse to bend their knee to the dictates of gender ideology is being targeted for vindictive persecution. One of the sons, Enoch, who is a school teacher, has so far spent over 400 days in solitary confinement, like Dr. Fuellmich in Germany. His “offence” is that in formerly Christian and Catholic Ireland he refuses to use the pronoun preferred by one of his students who claims other than his biological gender, because Burke holds that acquiescence to the gender identity charade would be a violation of his religious principles. Enoch Burke is being punished for refusing to debase himself as a professional educator and as a free human being by falsely confessing under the duress of his persecutors that 2 + 2 = 5. Nothing short of such a recantation of his conscientiously held beliefs would satisfy his country’s legal and educational overseers, who have gone berserk. He therefore remains in an Irish prison, despite being assured of instant release if only he manifested submission to their lunatic demand. For an insight into the broad official scope of that lunacy, see here.
Enoch’s brother Simeon, who has completed his law studies with honours, is being excluded from admission to the Irish Bar for reasons that have not yet been revealed with full clarity but which appear to also be related to his firmly held religious world-view, identical to his brother’s, which in contemporary Ireland apparently disqualifies one from working in a professional setting. For good measure, Enoch and Simeon’s father, Enoch Burke Sr., has been punished for objecting to LGBT symbols on Irish postal vehicles. For his temerity, taxpayer Burke was informed that henceforth he may come to the local post office to pick up his mail, but that it will no longer be delivered to him.
As in the Fuellmich case, the collective and exemplary punishment meted out to the Burke family is being kept out of the public eye as much as possible. Political and even religious figures refuse to take a stand or comment on it, and the controlled media studiously avoid discussing the subject.
Not to round off this complex picture of civilizational decline but merely to supplement it with another unsettling detail, the institution of thought crime portrayed in George Orwell’s novel, once considered no more than literary fiction, appears now to be enshrined in British law. For the present it appears to be a pilot programme, perhaps a precursor of even more frightening things to come. It operates as a prohibition of prayer within a designated exclusion perimeter around abortion “clinics” in Great Britain. The incriminating prayer would presumably be for the souls of children that departed this world due to the medical attention that they received in those establishments. The private performance of such unauthorised religious offices is now prohibited as it may cause “harassment and distress” to the employees of the “clinics” and their clients. And ominously, according to the Home Office, “anyone found guilty of breaking the law will face an unlimited fine.” One wonders if the European Court of Human Rights would have anything to say about such open-ended punishment schemes. Was anything of the sort ever before recorded in the annals of civilised jurisprudence?
Interaction between the thought police, who of course are merely “following orders,” and citizens suspected of mentally violating the “law” may be watched here by all who cherish their liberty and human integrity.
Wretched British jurisprudence (sceptics should also see here) now boasts its first successful prosecution of a thought crime violator. British Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was recently found guilty of silently praying for his aborted son inside an abortion “clinic” buffer zone, was sentenced conditionally to two years in prison, and fined £9000 in costs for His Majesty’s court’s expense and trouble in prosecuting him. The courts still are not imposing “unlimited fines,” as the Home Office recommends, but for a retired person who must support a family arguably even that is a considerable sum.
Smith-Connor, be it noted, is far from the only victim of abortion-related thought crime harassment in the United Kingdom.
And also for the record, the theme here is not one’s personal position on Covid, transgenderism, or abortion. The central issue in every one of the cited instances, and others of a similar nature too numerous to mention, is the evident crumbling in the collective West of the legal order. That now makes it possible to impose on peaceful citizens draconian punishments wholly disproportionate to the alleged conduct they are being accused of. To what limits will the severity of punishment extend, or is it potentially as “unlimited” as the threat of monetary assessment the British Home Office is prepared to impose on those undertaking to silently pray in public for unborn babies?
The famed “City on the Hill” that many had been tricked into believing was illuminating mankind from on high is now forlorn and largely deserted. Its lights are getting progressively dimmer, life in it increasingly intolerable. Its deceived inhabitants and ardent admirers are dispersing in every direction. Word is out that a new City of great luminosity and magnetic attraction is being erected elsewhere, and that its architects will soon meet, in Kazan.
A New Israeli Incursion into Jenin
By Diana Khwaelid | International Solidarity Movement | October 15, 2024
A new wave of destruction has hit Jenin, as the infrastructure of the city and the camp was once again ravaged, and two Palestinians were killed during an Israeli operation that lasted 8 continuous hours.
On Monday morning, October 14th, Israeli occupying forces stormed the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Palestinians discovered the presence of Israeli special forces inside the Jenin camp.
Just a few hours after the start of the day and normal life in Jenin, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city and camp in broad daylight. Palestinians hurriedly closed their shops, and soon, the city and camp became ghost towns, as seen in previous Israeli military incursions.
Israeli forces surrounded a Palestinian house in the Al-Aloub neighborhood inside the camp while also positioning themselves in more than five other neighborhoods.
New Destruction
Using a bulldozer, Israeli forces caused further damage to the watermelon roundabout, one of the main intersections in Jenin, connecting the city to the camp. The roundabout had been destroyed in a previous attack.
A secondary road leading to Jenin State Hospital was also destroyed, and a three-story house, besieged at the start of the incursion, was bombed. Other areas and neighborhoods in Jenin also suffered extensive damage.
Scenes of destruction are familiar to Palestinians, particularly in Jenin and the camp, which endured significant destruction during a previous military operation that lasted ten days.
Incursion and Arrests
As Israeli forces continued to storm Jenin and the camp, they also invaded the nearby village of Jaba, arresting at least nine Palestinians.
“The city of Jenin and the camp also witnessed the arrests of other young people” stated Palestinian news sources.
Obstruction of Medical Staff
Eyewitnesses from the Red Crescent medical team reported that Israeli forces obstructed their movements and work, both in Jenin and within the camp, during the incursion. An ambulance was prevented from reaching an injured Palestinian person from the town of Qabatiya, who later died after being left to bleed for hours.
A Palestinian paramedic, on duty during the incursion, was arrested, detained for hours, and then later released.
The martyr from Qabatiya, identified as Mahmoud Abu al-Rub, was a former prisoner who had been released five months ago, after spending four years in Israeli prison. He was killed by multiple gunshots from Israeli forces in the Al-Sibat neighborhood of Jenin.
Medical sources reported that 17-year-old student Rayan Ibrahim al-Sayed was also killed after being wounded by Israeli forces during the incursion. Another young man, Salah Jabarin, succumbed to wounds sustained about a month ago, joining his father, who had been martyred on the same day Salah was injured.
Jenin’s mosques mourned the three martyrs, and funeral ceremonies were held for each of them. Friends and family bade their final farewells in deep grief and sorrow.
According to the Shirin Abu Akleh Observatory, the number of Palestinian martyrs this year has risen to 20,316. Since October 7, the number of martyrs in the West Bank has reached 724. In Jenin alone, 198 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza and the near-daily military operations in the West Bank.
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The Case for Dismantling the Rules-Based International Order
By Professor Glenn Diesen | December 23, 2024
The so-called “rules-based international order” aims to facilitate a hegemonic world, which entails displacing international law. While international law is based on equal sovereignty for all states, the rules-based international order upholds hegemony on the principle of sovereign inequality.
The rules-based international order is commonly presented as international law plus international human rights law, which appears benign and progressive. However, this entails introducing contradictory principles and rules. The consequence is a system devoid of uniform rules, in which “might makes right”. International human rights law introduces a set of rules to elevate the rights of the individual, yet human-centric security often contradicts state-centric security as the foundation of international law.
The US as the hegemonic state can then choose between human-centric security and state-centric security, while adversaries must abide strictly by state-centric security due to their alleged lack of liberal democratic credentials. For example, state-centric security as the foundation of international law insists on the territorial integrity of states, while human-centric security allows for secession under the principle of self-determination. The US will thus insist on territorial integrity in allied countries such as Ukraine, Georgia or Spain, while supporting self-determination within adversarial states such as Serbia, China, Russia and Syria. The US can interfere in the domestic affairs of adversaries to promote liberal democratic values, yet the US adversaries do not have the right to interfere in the domestic affairs of the US. To facilitate a hegemonic international order, there cannot be equal sovereignty for all states. … continue
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