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Citizens for Fair Legislation
For Immediate Release
August 3, 2005
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CFL ALERT: TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE TREATMENT AND ILLEGAL DETENTION OF CHILD PRISONERS IN PALESTINE AND IRAQ.
TALKING POINTS:
*Please take a moment to write to your representatives and ask them to speak out against the illegal detention of children in Iraq and Palestine. Reports on the abuse at Abu Ghraib indicate that the Pentagon has proof (photographs and video) that detained Iraqi children are being sodomized and raped by American soldiers. In Israel, Palestinian children are also being held indiscriminately and illegally in violation of international law and human rights law. Reports by Israeli human rights organizations indicate that like Iraqi children, Palestinian child detainees are regularly tortured and not allowed visits by either the Red Cross or their parents.
* In a report written last year called, ‘Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Children’ the authors interviewed a teenager who gave the following description of his treatment by the Israeli military: “Three more people in masks came into the room. They blindfolded me, put a hood over my head… they kicked and slapped me. They beat me with a plastic pipe and whatever they could get their hands on. I couldn’t see anything because I was blindfolded. I just felt the blows. That lasted ten to fifteen minutes… Later they stood me on a chair and told me to grab a pipe that was fixed to the wall. They removed the chair from under me and left me hanging in the air, with my handcuffed hands holding onto the pipe and the weight of my body, hanging in the air, drawing my hands downwards. They left the room.” – Ismail Sabatin, 17 years old. Palestinian children being held by the Israeli military range between the ages of 9-17 years old, many of these children are being held without charges, others have been held for months for merely throwing stones at Israeli tanks. Tell your representatives that because we give $12 billion dollars in American welfare to Israel a year that we have a moral obligation to demand that the Israelis end this despicable treatment of Palestinian children.
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*Treatment of Iraqi children under the U.S. occupation forces is no better. Last week the Pentagon blocked the release of pictures of Iraqi children being raped and sodomized by American soldiers as publication of those pictures would have been a public relations disaster of the U.S. In an expose done by the Sunday Herald late last year a child witness of the abuse at Abu Ghraib gave a statement to investigators saying that he witnessed the rape of a boy who was 15 years old: “The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then, when I heard the screaming I climbed the door � and I saw [the soldier's name is deleted] who was wearing a military uniform.” The witness then described in graphic details how he witnessed that soldier rape “the little kid”.
*The abuse of children by the United States and by the U.S.’s staunchest ally in the Middle East is unacceptable; it’s time that we held our government accountable for the blatant violations of human rights occurring in Iraq and Palestine. Tell your representatives that you feel that the illegal detention of Palestinian and Iraqi children is deplorable and that as your elected officials you expect them to speak out against the cruel treatment of children. Remind your elected officials that none of these actions in Iraq or Palestine could occur without the tacit approval of the U.S. government.
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Citizens for Fair Legislation is a grassroots organization committed
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![Why Americans are turning away from Israel and its U.S. lobby [video]](http://imgcdn.nrelate.com/image_cache/sabbah.biz_mt/ed6bf0e10e166ca9fdb535e23ecf4902_thumb_Screen-Shot-2013-03-02-at-11.17.15-AM.jpg "Why Americans are turning away from Israel and its U.S. lobby [video]")
Do you actually believe this stuff? These are lies. Yes, American and British troops have certainly committed some crimes. But there is no way they systematically rape little children. These are the lies and conspiracy theories that are repeated so much in the Arab world.
A few men at Abu Ghraib were abused by a group of American soldiers, and that’s it. But that one incident, which was very unfortunate and despicable, has cast a bad light on all US troops, who are not the same as the few barbarians at Abu Graib.
And they’re certainly not comparable to the henchman of Saddam Hussein who systematically tortured thousands of innocent Iraqis who were detained by Saddam for merely speaking a word against Saddam.
The same claims were said when news about Torture in Abu Gharib and Guantanamo were published. Then it was confirmed! So how come you are so sure that no little children were raped?
First of all, Citizens for Fair Legislation (CFL) is based in USA and publish all it’s alerts from there. You can check their website for more info: http://www.cflweb.org.
Second, what you call as lies are confirmed by so many NGO’s Human Rights Watch, reporters, etc… All what it takes from you is to google and read.
Third, what you call as lies are unfortunately true. However, since Freedom Land media do not report them, therefore, you call them as lies. So, denying it does not change the fact on it’s existence.
Anyway, I would be happy if there is no chides in prisons, however that’s not the case. To get you started, here is an internal link.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2004/11/25/freedom-now-campaign-to-free-palestinian-child-political-prisoners/
Please read it and follow the links in the post for more info. After reading, I would be happy to read report that confirms you claims.
Looking forward for your links/resources!
Being based in the US doesn’t make any of their propaganda true. Here in the US we have basically complete freedom, so you get groups that have a political bent and push forward all sorts of wild ideas. We’ve become used to it in the US, and we hardly believe these sources without complete corroboration.
As for your Human Rights Watch and others, yes, I didn’t say that abuse hadn’t occured in Abu Ghraib or other prisons, but is it systematic? Meaning, does it occur almost always in American military prisons? No, show me the evidence that says it does. You have to know that Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others have political agendas as well, just as much as President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld.
Just because these outlandish claims fit what you want to perceive about American soldiers, you automatically accept it as true?
Here in the US we’re also used to “innocent until proven guilty.” Generally, it works well, especially with the Muslim community in the US. Was there widespread detaining of Muslims in the US after 9/11? No, not certainly. Out of thousands and thousands, a few hundred were questioned, and a very small number were arrested. I’d venture to say that the number detained were in no way your “common American Muslim” who is a law-abiding and good American citizen. Yet automatically the news is distorted as America is throwing masses of Muslims into prison without any lawyers, or solid evidence that they should go to trial.
Yet you would believe American soldiers are raping little Iraqi girls based off of this one piece of propaganda, and then, like many, you publish it on your site and the lie just keeps growing without any comprehensive evidence to back it up. This is how conspiracy theories emerge. As Winston Churchill said, “A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its pants on.”
I understand the need to focus on the negative. It’s easier to live in a world where everyone else is to blame, and in a society where everyone would rather lie than admit they were wrong. But when so many people do it, it starts to have negative consequences. Just like war after war with the Zionists, the Arab leaders kept proclaiming how they were “beating back the Zionist forces” and had captured all sorts of land. What a complete farce. It’s easier to use these conspiracy theories than to face reality sometimes I guess. I just hope one day, we all begin to see the positives AND the negatives and assess both in an objective light.
Finally, I perceive that most American soldiers are decent people and not out to torture Iraqs. But I certainly will acknowledge that it has happen in isolated incidents. And when that does happen, I condemn it without excuses. There is no justification for such activity, and I accept that some of my fellow Americans would engage in such. And when they do, it is wrong and they should face the harshest punishment of the law and the rest of the world has a reason to demand justice.
Shukran wa allayhalik
May we continue to debate
Anon,
There’s one thing you must be sure of, this blog is not to provoke hatred nor wage an online war on certain people or races. Being a loyal reader to this blog I can assure you Sabbah is an eye-opener and reaches out for the world in order to spread the word and help show where injustice and its victims are in this world.
I’m Arab and I agree with you on the fact that many Arab countries and leaders who are still in authority are famous for their dictatorship and that many Arab prisons are using extremely terrible and violent ways of torturing during interrogation.
Whenever possible, we all try to spread the word and talk about that, and as you might already know, many Arabs have been killed/ detained just because they spoke up.
What I’m trying to say is, Sabbah isn’t writing this for the reason you thought he did: blame and hate and provoke people, he just wants to urge human rights organizations and country representatives to stop torture of prisoners, whether systematically or not is not the important thing because Sabbah didn’t stress that, he stressed the fact that children are being tortured and this should stop.
It’s such alerts that open the eyes of the crowds and make them ask for control and inspection.
While we’re having this debate –a friendly and fruitful one I hope- children are there in prisons. Forget about the reports you claim might be not reliable, what about the journalists reporting live from Iraq or Palestine? What about our friends in Palestine who tell us soldiers dragged their children to prison while they were playing football?
Please understand that we don’t speak until we know, we are in the region and we have relatives and friends, we have also European, American as well as Jewish sources who report injustice and fight it. Which brings me to the generalization you think is being applied here in this blog.
Every country and every society has its good and bad people, we are friends with the goods and we’re both careful and insecure around the bad.
Don’t think that being against Zionism means we’re against Judaism, many Jews and Israelis are against Zionism. Don’t think that being against injustice applied by certain groups of people –whether American or British- means that we hate the british people or the American people.
But it’s always the people of any country in the world that help create its reputation, and it’s the representatives of any country that help make a picture better.
Arabs in general and Muslims in specific are judged by the acts of few terrorists, MANY despise us for that, we don’t keep silent and we act and talk to clear the picture. Same goes for troops in Iraq and supporters of the Israeli government. We call for clarification of the picture and acts that support justice, that’s all…
Thanks, Eman!
I’m speechless. You said all what I could have said :-)
I am not accusing you of supporting bad people or things. I believe, like you, that injustice anywhere and no matter who practices this injustice, is wrong. It is always wrong. I have nothing against Muslims, I have studied in the Arab world and lived with Muslims. They are just like me except for religion, and even then there are similarities. Just like you do not hate Jews simply because they are Jewish, I do not hate Muslims because they follow Islam. But just like you can accuse some Jews of being radical, I can accuse some Muslims of being radicals–and they are terrorists. It is all the same yanni. I despise it when Muslims are viewed by the actions of terrorists and curse the terrorists for bringing that upon the Muslims. The terrorists are the biggest practicers of Islamiphobia.
I think, however, that we need to get away from believing whatever we read. Sometimes what we read fits what we want to be “what is true”, not because we want bad things to happen like Iraqi children being raped, but because it easily fits the lies we’ve been fed over and over, and easier for us to accept it rather than question it. That just creates a cycle where we continue to believe more and more lies.
Hey, dummy, how about some protesting against the killing of Israeli children by Palestinians–much more easily documented than the fantasies you post.
A Jewish terrorist has killed three Arabs and wounded many in Palestine. I cant wait for people to start calling for all Jews to condemn terror or for their leaders to issue calls for religious edicts to be given to condemn the terror.
EWF:
Civilians, all civilians. Not Palestinian civilians only, not Israeli civilians only. ALL.
Need I say more?
On the other hand, how about you protesting against:
Kill Three Palestinian Youth In Rafah
or killing the 13-year-old Iman al-Hams, etc….
Killing ANY Civilians is wrong, no matter if they are Jewish or Palestinian.
Yesterday a Zionist killed Arabs on a bus, and the Israeli state called it “TERRORISM” against Arabs and said it was wrong. It’s not often that you see the authorities in Palestine call a suicide bombing “terrorism”…no, that’s simply “resistance” which justifies it.
Why didn’t they call killing Iman and the Strawberry Field massacre and many many more, Terrorism?
Ohh… pardon me, they are NOT Israelis.
Not only that, they freed the soldiers, saying that they were doing there DUTY! Duty of killing Palestinians.
For god sake, this is dirty politics.
Iman, I still cannot get over that. May God rest her soul. That was an act of terror no different than a Hamas man blowing himself up on a bus.
What is your point with giving the example of Iman? I never said that the Israelis have never done horrible things that can be classified of terrorism.
At least this time they denounced it as terrorism is my point.
I’m just saying, you don’t find Palestinian leaders denouncing HAMAS suicide bombings as terrorism. You hear the same old garbage about “we condemn the acts of killing civilians everywhere BUT the West/Zionist/Bush/America (blah blah blah..excuses) did this or that, therefore we must assume that these acts of RESISTANCE are only “natural” blah blah blah blah.
Let’s remove the double standards from ALL sides.
Yes, and Israelis do not denounce the actions of their forces as terror. See how they come together? Was the killing of Iman denounced as the act of terror as it certainly was? Nope.
anon, who said Palestinian Prime Minster didn’t denounce some of Hamas bombing as terrorism? I’m afraid that’s the problem with the media sources you are following.
I heard him n’ number of times calling them terrorists, following his press and TV interviews in the Arabic media. But the western media (God knows controlled by whom), don’t let that show on their screens.
Just like Zawahiri yesterday’s clips. The western media only talked about what concern them. Threats to west and Israel, but no body talked about the threats to the Arab world…
Which Palestinian PM…Abbas? I think Abbas is moderate, he is trying hard, but look who he has to deal with..he has to worry about HAMAS taking control. My media sources say that he is a friend of those against terrorism, but does the Palestinian government speak with one voice?
And as for your argument that the US media is pro-Israel, that is not true. Everytime I turn on the TV they are against Israel. Maybe only Fox news is pro Israel, all the others are not. These are conspiracy theories. US media is VERY anti-war in Iraq except for Fox News.
anon: I wish that can be true. But it’s not…
Please read the following posts and refer to the other external links. I’m sure they will help you understand why I believe that the US media is pro-Israel:
More of ‘New York Times’ Distortion: http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2005/04/30/more-of-new-york-times-distortion/
The New York Times ignores international consensus — again!: http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2005/04/30/the-new-york-times-ignores-international-consensus-again/
The American (Zionist) Media and “Relative Calm”: http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2005/02/27/american-zionist-media-relative-calm/
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/index.asp
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/
Who condemns whom or what is really a side issue, a typical Zionist obfuscation so don’t get sucked in. Is the kid who killed the four Palestinians in Israel any different than a respected Israeli soldier who unloads a couple tons of bombs in a residential area in Gaza? Nine kids were killed in that government sanctioned venture. Gilad Atzmon, former Israeli and now fervently anti-Zionist, has written an excellent analysis of the bus shooting; please see http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com for his story. Bottom line is that Zionism is all about Jewish supremacy and Zionists have engaged in ethnic cleansing for fifty-seven plus years to make sure they are the majority on someone else’s land; the deliberate destruction of five hundred and fifty villages and then changing the names is genocide any way you look at it–so don’t be suckered into believing that there is parity between the two sides, that the Kahane kid with the gun equals Hamas; the boy is bad for Israeli hasbara, that’s all. Don’t bother with if the Arabs had accepted partition crap with me either. . . that usually comes up at about this time; do you think Ben Gurion could have had his “Jewish state” when the majority of the people in the land partitioned for Israel weren’t even Jews? And who in his right mind would agree to partioning the land to colonists when the colonists were getting the lion’s share of the land and even after agressive immigration were still the minority. Don’t even try to tell me that the US media is pro-Palestine; Zionists like to repeat stuff hoping they’ll convince people, like ignorant Americans that it is true. Don’t project onto me and say that I’m hate-filled either; if insisting on the implementation of UN resolutions and international law makes me hate filled then so be it. Most Americans think that Palestinians have colonized the territories so please don’t tell me what a good job the media is doing.