The occupation spares nothing: land, trees, homes, children and donkeys. See the first news item below, then ask: What if it were Palestinians harassing Israeli children on their way to school? Then it would be a leading CNN story and the Bush would rush to the White House Rose Garden to denounce the act. The double standard is sickening and racist to the bone!!
PHOTO CAPTION: IDF soldiers escorting Palestinian schoolchildren
from Um Tuba past a settlement this month. (Dan Keinan)Masked perpetrators harass Palestinians, steal donkey
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o mThree masked individuals crept into a Palestinian village near the southern Hebron Hills on Saturday morning, threw stones at residents and stole a donkey, residents of the village of Um Tuba said.
Police arrived at the scene and requested that the owner of the stolen donkey file a complaint at the Kiryat Arba police station.
Over the past few months, settlers from Moan have repeatedly harassed Um Tuba children on their way to and from school. The children are forced to pass on Maon property to get to school in the village of Al-Tawani, south of the settlement.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers or police have had to provide escorts to protect the children from the settlers.
About a month ago, dozens of settlers ambushed a military vehicle escorting the children. They threw stones and bottles, and one settler set his dog on the children.
Four of the children and two soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Then the next article on the children that are losing their innocence, let alone lives, under this brutal occupation. I provide the link to the full article, which is brief, but read the excerpt I list below. Read it and think about what this will do to an entire generation!!
The war on children
John Pilger
Monday 19th June 2006Dr Khalid Dahlan, a psychiatrist who heads a children's community health project, told me, "The statistic I personally find unbearable is that 99.4 per cent of the children we studied suffer trauma . . . 99.2 per cent had their homes bombarded; 97.5 per cent were exposed to tear gas; 96.6 per cent witnessed shooting; a third saw family members or neighbours injured or killed."
Full article:
Lastly, if you need the situation depicted in numbers, I list the link to the last UN Humanitarian report.
OCHA May 2006 Humanitarian Monitor
http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/UN_HumanitarianMonitor_May06.pdf
[Hat tip: Sam Bahour]
{ 18 } Comments
Is there no level that the IOF will stoop to?
Let's kill a few future terrorists to protect our stolen land!
It's OK because Bush will protect us.
I am ready to vomit at this political B.S.
We are right and you are wrong because the media in the US supports us.
The world is still in denial because the Israelis is using the holocaust as their crutch.
Their crutch is killing innocent people that have no say or freedom.
Their occupation is just a way of controlling their future takeover of innocent peoples homes and lands.
AND THE US SUPPORTS THIS?
Why doesn't anyone else hold Bush accountable?
Because the Zionists are the biggest lobbyists in the US!
A follow up,
The world is still in fear of Zionist retaliation after the fiasco of WWII.
For years after WWII everyone was afraid of saying anything bad about the Zionists.
Because that would label them as ant-semitic.
Everyone was feeling guilty about what happened to the Jews.
The war is over, but the Zionists still fight as if it is not!
If you complain you are anti-semitic!
They are now just as the NAZI's were.
We control you and you do as you are told!
We can do anything we wan't because the US lets us.
When will the US realise that there are other people on this earth others than Christians and Jews?
When pigs fly.
When The Children Cry ~~midi playing~~
Little child dry your crying eyes
How can I explain the fear you feel inside
Cause you were born into this evil world
Where man is killing man and no one knows just why
What we have become just look what we have done
All that we destroyed you must build again
When the children cry let them know we tried
Cause when the children sing then the new world begins
Little child you must show the way to a better day
For all the young cause you were born for all the world to see
That we all can live with love and peace
No more presidents and all the wars will end
One united world under God
Author unknown
Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.
With God on Our Side, Bob Dylan
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
When WWII ended my father who was an engineer in Denmark was sent to Germany to help them rebuild their country because the war was over.
The Danish company paid his wages to help the Germans.
Now I see the Zionists acting like the NAZI's
I am pissed off.
Robin,
FYI: The author of the song you posted is 80's hair band White Lion. It was their required socially conscious song. :-)
Philip,
please don't say anything on this blog.
every thing you say is detrimental to this blog.
if you use religion i will be very pissed off.
i am tired of your dialogue supporting your religion.
we all accept each other and your dialogue shows prejudism
Getting back on track, 80s hair bands and their bad lyrics aside:
http://fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node.php?id=1122
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/camp/freedom/display.cfm?docid=243&categoryid=14
Raymond,
When no words of ones's own can express the sorrow one feels, sometimes poetry says it best (I found the "lyrics" on a Christian inspirational site, no name attached)
Let me try to explain the bewilderment I felt as a Westerner at a very young age when I visited Shatilla and lived in Beirut during the civil war. I had come there having never been outside the US. I was open for "everything" so to speak but I was not READY for it. Beirut was great before the fighting broke out. It was after the fighting broke out that I visited Shatilla on several occasions. I know we are not talking about Shatilla here but hang with me a moment.
I was completely unprepared for the conditions in which these refugees lived. It was SO uneasy for me to go there with my sister-in-law who was doing her degree in women's health. How can these people live like this I thought to myself? WHY are these people living like this was MUCH more worrisome. I was so UTTERLY naive. Well I thought, if they're refugees, when do they get to go home? Surely there is some kind of plan in place to take care of this HORRENDOUS situation. Yes, indeed, I WAS naive.
Now here this topic of children is being discussed. I would invite any person who has not seen with their own eyes in what conditions these children are living to go and live there for a while. Most of us here are typing away from the comfort of their own home. Our own children if we have any are safe and have food on the table. No one can even come close to fathoming what these children grow up amongst. Is this what any parent would want for their own child? We can all say, no, of course not. But this has gone on for so long it is now the NORM rather than the anomoly. There are not just pockets where you wouldn't want your child playing in the street, this is EVERYWHERE. These children are growing up in a place where we would not want to live as adults much less as children. But here is where it goes from our own attempt to understand the situation to judgement. We (US) actually blame the parents for this situation they are in. It is the PARENT"S responsibility to make sure their children are safe. Well all I can say is this is such a grievous misjudgement in this case. How the heck can the parents of these children make life safe for their children? They cannot, there is no safety to be found under the occupation. And simply put, if you grow up in an unsafe environment both physically and emotionally you are robbed of what God meant to be your innocent childhood.
For all the fathers out there reading here, getting readdy to barbecue later on, but most of all, the fathers whose only wish is to keep their children safe from harm wherever you may be, Happy Father's day and God bless you.
Robin,
Thanks for your account of Shatilla. The refugee camps inside of Palestine are horrendous. I can't imagine what Shatilla looked like, how people lived. Comparable, maybe. I can only be the witness of my own eyes.
I just can't believe someone would go to all that trouble to steal a donkey and harrass people. How petty and disgusting. And how dare they attack helpless children? What kind of BS is that? Wow, setting a dog on a little boy or girl, whoever did that must feel so tough and strong now. It makes me want to cry.
An interesting compilation of information on the suffering of children in Palestine. It is so sad … let us all pray for change and do what we can.
I guess you all missed the story about the Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on an Israeli (girls') school bus. Three girls were shot, and two others were treated at a nearby hospital. You can read about it here or here.
Also, remember those victims of the Gaza beach blast? Yeah, it seems that the Palestinians were behind that one as well. You can read about it here or here.
You people need to open your eyes. The Palestinians are victims of their own actions.
Again, Sabbah, I must compliment you on your outrageous bias. Lucky for you, you have found a flock of sheep who know no different.
Sincerely,
Dr Politico
A Zionist blog, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post are entirely unbiased? Sure.
BTW – I do not condone the attack on the school bus. Why an Israeli school bus is driving through the occupied West Bank should be questioned, as well.
"Maj.-Gen. Meir Klifi, head of the IDF inquiry commission that cleared the IDF of responsibility for the blast, met with Marc Garlasco, a military expert from HRW who had claimed that the blast was caused by an IDF artillery shell. Garlasco agreed the explosion was most likely caused by unexploded Israeli ordnance left lying on the beach, a possibility also raised by the IDF."
This is the last paragraph from the Jerusalem Post article linked previously by Dr. Politico. If he had cared to read the last sentence of the article, it still points to Israeli ordnance as the cause of the explosion.
How, exactly, does this show the Palestinians are behind the Gaza beach blast? Are the Israelis lending or selling their ordnance to the Palestinians that they may blow themselves up? Not at all.
We can occupy a settlement and control them.
What ever happened to freedom. Not in Palestien.
Zionists are in control!
As I am watching and reading the news from Gaza, I am praying my deepest prayers to protect the Palestinian people. Israel is massing their troops while deciding what to do about the kidnapped soldier. Tensions have not been this high in a long time. Palestinian lives, on a large scale, are being threatened by Israel. May God intervene in this catastophic time and protect the children, men and women of all ages who have suffered so many years under the occupation. May a diplomatic non-violent solution be achieved in this dangerous situation.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/14903793.htm
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3267454,00.html
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Olmert_says_army_ready_for_major_Gaza_operation.html?siteSect=143&sid=6843841&cKey=1151320970000
{ 4 } Trackbacks
The war on Palestinian children On June 17th, 2006, from Sabbah's Blog
What if it were Palestinians harassing Israeli children on their way to school? Then it would be a leading CNN story and the Bush would rush to the White House Rose Garden to denounce the act. The double standard is sickening and racist to the bone!!Read the rest
but is still finding it: ??difficult to really talk about anything in light of the ongoing tragedies back home?Gaza is on the brink of implosion, and I?m not sure how much more it can take.? In other news,Palestinian children continue to be harassed on their way to school. ?What if it were Palestinians harassing Israeli children on their way to school??, asks Haitham Sabbah. Elsewhere, President Abbas has apparently been
but is still finding it: ??difficult to really talk about anything in light of the ongoing tragedies back home?Gaza is on the brink of implosion, and I?m not sure how much more it can take.? In other news,Palestinian children continue to be harassed on their way to school. ?What if it were Palestinians harassing Israeli children on their way to school??, asks Haitham Sabbah. Elsewhere, President Abbas has apparently been