What Happened in Palestine Yesterday?
Israeli aggression, American/British betrayal… Nothing new!
Another act of aggression by the Israeli state, emboldened by western governments’ hostility to Hamas.
Al-Jazeera broadcasted footage of a brutal Israeli raid on a prison in the Palestinian town of Jericho; while BBC and western media focus on the reaction of the Palestinian street, as expected.
Israeli forces hit Jericho prison with tank shells and missiles fired from helicopters before smashing through its walls with armoured bulldozers. Three Palestinians already reported dead and there have been further casualties, but these don’t count. For the Israeli Occupation Forces, they are nothing more than dead dogs.
Sadaat has been held since 2001 under a deal brokered by the late Yasser Arafat. Under the deal, Sadaat was to be guarded by US and British forces. Those forces last morning abandoned their posts, citing “security concerns”, as the Israeli army approached.
This is not only a major act of aggression by the Israeli state, no doubt emboldened by western governments’ unremitting hostility to the newly elected Hamas administration in Palestine. It also represents an unforgivable betrayal by the American and British government, which has abandoned the prisoners to their fate.
I’m not surprised at all; I never expected these governments to have any moral or international commitments toward peace.
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11 Comments on “What Happened in Palestine Yesterday?”
How about some factual background?
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Read here, from Februrary 20th.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Palestine/194909
For his part, one of the PFLP leaders, Kayed Al-Ghool, told a press conference after the meeting that Hamas delegates affirmed their rejection of political detention and emphasized that the Movement would seek the release of PFLP secretary general Ahmed Saadat, also an elected MP, from his PA jail in Jericho.
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Now, who said they will break the deal?
It wasn’t really hard to find. I just searched Google news for hamas jericho.
Had you been the Israeli government, an a murderer of an Israeli minister would have been released, what would you have done?
Is this a justification?
Killing three Palestinians to get murderers of murderers.
Using the same theory, now Palestinians can go after Israeli prime minister for killing these three in prison yesterday. Can anyone blame them? You should not. But of course everyone (but Palestinians) will. You know why? Because the dead people are not Israelis, are not Jews, they are NOTHING but Arab.
Hope you got my point!
PS. Sa’adat is a political prisoner. He was not accused, and will never be accused under any laws that respect human rights. He is a political leader, and PFLP killing the Israeli minister that time was nothing but retaliation for the Killing of PFLP leader by Israel. Therefore, the murderer in first place was the Israeli Occupation Forces, not PFLP. Also, please keep in mind that by all written and unwritten laws, occupation resistance is legal, and in this case, Israel is the occupation, not the Palestinian.
Haitham,
I had CNN on all day yesterday (unfortunately OUR best source of television news). There was a live interview with an American proffesor who works in Janin I believe. He had just been released by Palestinian kidnappers. The reporter was very anxious to get a juicy story but what he got was something quite different. When asked how frightened he was the professor replied, “Well, yeah, it was somewhat frightening considering the situation, but the Palestinian people are hospitable by nature. They could have killed me but what purpose would that have served”. He went on to say that the West does not know the conditions under which the Palestinian people must live every day under the occupation, the roadblocks, the poverty and the IOF. He said the IOF drags Palestinians out of their homes on a daily basis, often beating or killing them. The reporter suggested that the professor was exagerating because he as a reporter had all the information and HE knew what was going on. The professor insisted and said he gets reports of the IOF violence from his students as well as the Arab news channels and that it is a crime that this is not reported in our media. The reporter deescalted the interview by then saying “Well we here in American know how frightening this (kidnapping) was for you and then closed the interview. I did not see it again on the news all day (mind you I was away from the tv but I play it rather loud so I can here it no matter what house chore I am doing.)I just wanted to let you know that it was a moment of absolute cheering by myself and my daughter as we heard him speak and a rare moment on our media here where the voice of the Palestinian people was heard through the eyes of an American professor who was willing to speak out.
Haitham.
Yes I know CNN is broadcast worldwide. But I’m wondering if anything was said about the interview or was it spoken about elsewhere? Thanks
Haitham,
because *the state of Palestine* is breaking international law every day not only with its illegal occupation of Israeli land but also with its continuing agression on poor Israeli cities (cities like Tel Aviv where the average family lives on $3 a day and unemployment rates are above 50%), and because since September 2000 *Palestinian Defence Forces* have killed more than 4000 Israeli’s including 710 children, demolished 4170 Israeli homes, confiscated thousands of acres of Israeli land, assassinated Israeli leaders and just less than two weeks ago their prime minister even threatened his Israeli counterpart to fear for his life if he doesn’t play nice, it is no wonder regardless of the illegality of Israel’s actions yesterday in Jericho that what the Israelis did doesn’t deserve all this much attention. [link]
Don’t blame the poor Israeli’s, please. It is obvious who you have to blame, it’s the Palestinians. So anti-Israeli, uh I mean anti-semitic, you guys are.
Robin,
I didn’t see that interview, but my wife did and she was surprised to hear what he said because she knows how biased is CNN. So the surprise was how did this pass from the censorship and from speaking some little truth about the Palestinians. I’m not surprised now that the interview was not aired again (and will never be) or reported by anyone. I guess you know why.
Hamzeh,
I don’t blame the poor Israeli’s either
Haitham,
It was one of those rare moments of live television lost to the cutting room floor later. It really was amazing though for the moment it lasted as a voice of truth. Maybe there will be more in the media’s rush to be the first at getting the scoop no matter what it is. Thanks for getting back to me.
Haitham,
The professor’s comment was reported in a few Western newspublication (such as SF Chronicle) and on news websites (FOX NEWS.com!?!?), but I did not see it on the television.
Robin,
A better place to get your news, even if in satire form, is the Daily Show and Colbert Report. It may be mocking but it gives a new view. Also, look up the http://www.independent.co.uk, and http://www.guardian.co.uk for a bit of diffrent perspective in english. Also the al-jazeera english web site is very well done.
As a Catholic who was born in Northern Ireland I feel the pain of the Palestinians, and the Israelis. It is a terrible situation that no one may wash there hands of. Both militant sides are fanning the flames and the silent majority who just want to live their lives are being turned to more extremes. I have seen it done in my homeland, and I see it happening here. It is a sad day, God bless those in the line of fire and enlighten the folks in charge the real enemy.
Thank You Sean,
One of the best things about this blog is all the new sources of information I am getting from the readers here. I have been adding them all to my favorites list as they are offered. My daughter is half Arab and she logs onto AlJazeera all the time. I’m adding that one too.
For everyone who has brought these to my attention, THANK YOU,
My 50th birthday present (my computer) is the tool to get all of this, so thanks to my husband too!
It seems to me that determining who is at fault for each and every prior action is a recipe for endless hostilities. Is there really anything to be gained via that type of discussion? At some point both sides need to decide and demonstrate they are more interested in the future than the past.
It doesn’t seem that *both* sides have reached that conclusion yet.