If you want to be notified the next time we publish something, sign up for FREE email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
This is an update to Kawther Salam's story about the Palestinian Orphanage in Hebron.
At 1.00 in the morning on the 30th of April, the Israeli Army raids orphanage in Hebron, home to 110 girls, seizing all equipment from community sewing workshop.
The Hebron Orphanage for girls is run by the Charitable Islamic Society,(I.C.S) and houses 110 children.
Witnesses said that approximately 40 Israeli soldiers raided the sewing workshop, which is located on the first floor of a girls' orphanage operated by the Islamic Society, at 1am on Wednesday. In the course of a two hour raid, the Israeli troops ransacked the workshop after breaking down its main gates and doors.
Israeli soldiers confiscated all the sewing machines, furniture, and clothes which were to be given to orphans.
International human rights workers with the organization Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) said: "soldiers looted the workshop of all its sewing and processing machines, office equipment, rolls of cloth, finished clothing and supplies." Members of CPT documented the raid, and the contents of the workshop being loaded into two forty foot tucks. (Source)
Thanks to Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), they created a blog (http://www.hebronorphans.blogspot.com) where you can find updateds on the story.
Following are some pictures from different sources as well a video that document this terrorist crime by the Israeli Occupation Forces:
Video also available at:
YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/6p9cso
DailyMotion: http://tinyurl.com/64gn6h
Seth Freedman, a member of the CPT wrote:
Supporters of the Israeli authorities love to blame the country's poor reputation as being a result of woeful PR, believing that all that is required to redress the balance is a slick hasbara campaign. However, given the harsh reality of the occupation, to suggest that a superficial gloss job would do the trick is to totally miss the wood for the trees.
I found as much on Sunday, when I went to Hebron as a guest of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), who are desperate to highlight the plight of a Palestinian orphanage threatened with closure by the IDF. For nearly a month, the scores of children have been living with a sword of Damocles over their heads, after the army issued an eviction order, claiming that the Islamic Charitable Society (ICS) – which runs the orphanage – is a front for Hamas.
According to an army spokesman, ICS "masquerades as a charity organisation in order to cover its activities of increasing support of the Hamas terror network", and as such any property connected to the charity must be seized in order to maintain the "general order … and security of the area". To that end, the IDF ordered several facilities on the site to be evacuated, setting April 28 as the final deadline before they would begin the closure.
Despite a legal challenge in the Israeli high court, "our chances of stopping the eviction are nil", said Rasheed Rasheed, who teaches English at the ICS boys' orphanage up the road. Since the case is terror-related in the eyes of the IDF, the army lawyers aren't required to let the defence see their classified "evidence". Thus there is no way for the ICS legal team to defend themselves against the charges.
He noted that this was the first time an entire organisation had been targeted in such a way by the IDF: "It's a new trend – they used to arrest individuals; now they're taking on the institutions themselves," he said, surmising that "maybe it's their way of trying to break the bones of Hamas".
As we toured the orphanage, we were mobbed by dozens of bright-eyed students, all eager to greet their visitors and beaming as they ran excitedly round the playground. They are all local children, who either lost their parents or, due to financial crises, can't live at home, and the ICS has stepped into the breach to rebuild their lives and offer them a better future by way of education and employment.
To support the orphanage's vital work in the community, the ICS runs several small businesses to raise funds, such as a bakery, sewing workshop and a warehouse where goods from foreign donors are stored. I was taken to see the results of the army's heavy-handed treatment of these facilities, and the results weren't pretty, to say the least.
The bakery looked as though it had been on the receiving end of a D9 – huge chunks missing from the masonry, debris everywhere, and the coup de grace being the torched skeleton of the industrial-sized oven, which the soldiers poured petrol over and set alight in order to totally destroy the bakery's ability to function. Similar treatment was meted out to the warehouse, where around $300,000 worth of donations were commandeered and confiscated by the army, who smashed up the storeroom's interior and left it utterly ruined.
Next up was the sewing workshop, which was still in operation when I visited it, with several local women hunched over their machines turning out intricately-embroidered dresses. The army had warned that the workshop would suffer the same fate as the bakery and warehouse and ordered that every piece of equipment and fabric be left in place so that it could be sequestered by their troops when they decided to pounce. [UPDATE - two days after our visit, the army came in the dead of night and made good its threat, confiscating everything within the workshop's four walls, despite the staff's plaintive appeals]
Ghassan Mohammed, one of the orphanage's supervisors, told me in desperate tones that "the organisation [ICS] has no connection whatsoever with Hamas", and that the army clearly knew that, "otherwise they'd have brought the world's media to see the evidence they'd uncovered". As far as Mary Anne, one of the CPT team, was concerned, the IDF's motivation was simply "sociocide – they want to chip away at the Palestinian infrastructure in order to take over the whole area".
She said that any time the Palestinians find a way to stand on their own two feet – such as supporting the weaker elements of their society, such as the orphans, or educating their children and building up their economy – the Israeli authorities sought to find a way to crush their efforts. "This area is meant to be under Palestinian control according to the Oslo Accords," she said, "but the Israelis are still here; still asserting their authority."
Rasheed agreed: "Most of us have got over what happened in 1948," he remarked, "and we are ready for a state based on the 1967 borders. The question is, do the Israelis even want to give us that? I don't think so."
Just as he is resigned to justice not being done by the Israeli courts, similarly he has little hope in the Israeli government standing by its promises to give the Palestinians independence.
And his scepticism is now being recreated among the next generation, namely the orphans whose lives are being turned upside down by the army's actions. "Our kids are terrified when the soldiers come," said Rasheed, "and all they ask is 'why?'." One 13-year-old student in the boys' orphanage told us: "This is my home – if they come to shut us down, I won't leave." His predicament, as well as his youthful defiance, should serve as a warning to the Israeli authorities as to what really causes animosity towards Israel from the Palestinian population.
As I wrote in Occupation Breeds Terror, punitive measures such as the orphanage eviction will never win the hearts and minds of the Palestinians, and will only serve to strengthen the extremists, who will point to such actions as proof that the Israelis couldn't care less about the wellbeing of the Palestinian people. Similarly, when Israel's supporters think it's all about PR, they should look behind the headlines and see whether the source of all the smoke is actually the ever-smouldering fire in the West Bank and Gaza.
Until they do, the Israeli authorities will continue to get away with their sadistic treatment, and the pressure will be ratcheted up another notch on the Palestinian street. Which will only bring more death, more misery, and more retaliation on both sides – leaving the likes of CPT to wonder how they can ever achieve their goal of bringing peace to a region that so desperately cries out for it.
Silence is complicity… Act Now!
{ 29 } Comments
60 years of terror and occupation is what Israel is celebrating.
I don't think that the occupied Palestinians are celebrating.
Some in the Bush regime seek to overturn the Constitution & deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen
September 11th was a false-flag attack & the biggest lie ever told!!! (Hijacked airliners flying all around the eastern U.S. for hours without any military response??? WTC-7 was 350 feet from the towers, was not hit by a plane, yet it imploded in a controlled demolition at 5:20 pm??? The Gov't still refuses to release clear video of whatever happened at the Pentagon to this day, six years later??? etc.)
The Bush cabal used 9/11 as the pretext to brazenly subvert our U.S. Constitution, launch illegal invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, (Iran?), & grant themselves dictatorial powers here in the U.S.A! They have committed high treason & must be impeached & imprisoned while we still have the Bill of Rights!
I implore all good people to watch "9/11 Ripple Effect" free on the web for proof that 9/11 was an inside job! Also Google terms like 911 truth & visit http://www.911truth.org & other patriotic sites!
Learn the facts for yourself!
Wake-up now! We must defend the Constitution, our nation, & our freedoms!
(The government/corporate-controlled media will not investigate nor go against the Bush war machine!)
It is ironic that they behave like Nazis.
Happy 60th ass flow.
What's wrong with these fucking jews?
With every passing day more and more people turn against Israel's policies. until one day there will be no one left that support them.
even the Jewish people turn against them in the west.
More and more we see the hatred in their hearts.These are not the principles of humanity they are the principles of gog and magog
To expand on what Allowed To Happen said. WTC7 was detonated long before the towers fell, Barry Jennings told a detailed story on what he dealt with as he tried to perform his emergency duties for our government, and they were not there. The lobby blew up and the stairway he was in collapsed from under him, as the towers still stood next door. Just try a little search for his name and join the people seeking justice for those crimes.
To kim, the more I'm learning about WW2, the more it appears we've been lied to for our entire lives. What was the German people to do when the global jewish leadership was calling for strict boycotts on all German goods since 1932. If you were a German, like the Americans with the Japanese people, wouldn't you also round up at least to keep an eye on them, and shut down their businesses within your own borders? Yes todays israelis are behaving as the German nazis, but was the German nazi really what we were told? I know what we are seeing and hearing from Palestine is not the entire story of the horror people must live through, just look at Gaza today with the israeli prevention of all things people need and dying from the lack of. Imagine if the German nazi shut the prison gates closed all locked up tight and walked away leaving those inside to starve to death. The Germans didn't, but the israelis are, TODAY.
Although some of the Israelis may indifferently pick over what they have stolen – as they don't need any of it, but giving the appearance of merely looting gives cover for what they would have preferred doing, which would have been driving the bulldozer thru the place in the first instance with the girls still in it – as saves having, over time, to watermelon explode their heads with 5.56mm sniper bullets.
As the PR damage of driving the bulldozer thru a industrious and soul building orphanage with the orphans still inside would be too revealing of the satanic nature of the Israeli psyche, the job of soul destruction is done in two stages;
1/ Empty the orphanage of the reason for the orphans to be there, under the pretext of eliminating incipient hotbeds of future terrorism – or some such nonsense form of words.
2/ A deserted orphanage after a few months is just another dilapidated eye sore which can then be bulldozed without PR damage, as hardly anyone in the West will have noticed by then.
And of the orphans ? The IOF haven't forgotten. Over time, one by one, in the reticule of the IOF sniper's scope complete with inbuilt video relay – for later enjoyment back at barracks. After all, they have to somehow make up their quota of 1,000 Pali kids over the next 8yrs.
Where do I sign up to stop these bastards?
I'm not aware of a petition to sign, but best one can do is calling Israel embassy in his country and file a complain, as well send a letter to his/her representatives in the parliament and ask them to take action against Israel.
It is ironic that they behave like Nazis.
MeatwadGetsIt,
You are belittling Sabbah's site by publishing revisionist history. Your statements concerning WW II are false and idiotic. Sabbah is trying to show the truth of the occupation through facts, not paranoid rantings of an anti-semit.
Thank you.
Lisa sounds like a Zionist troll. Do NOT be fooled by these blood diseased satanic parasites or their psyop agents. Bovine excrement cannot be polished.
To accuse anyone of anti-semitism nonsense because they are disgusted with Zionists is like accusing someone of being anti-German because they are disgusted with Nazis.
Zionists=Nazis
I am an American and what I've learned of Israel and their influence over our foreign policy has made me more angry than I've ever been in my life. Without going into theological debates, I have no animosity toward Jews. However, I have absolutely no respect or appreciation for Israel and particularly its government. Like I have absolutely no respect for the federal government in the USA. I wish our representatives in congress would grow some balls and defy the tragedies that are perpetuated in the middle east, rather than fanning the fire.
I ask, when did Israel's policies become America's? I suppose when they bought our media outlets. Israeli forces are as considerably a terrorist group as any I've learned about since 9/11.
I would like to see all military support for Israel eliminated. Israel should be embargoed until they stop colonizing. They want to be in that land. They should learn to take care of themselves. Why do they rely so heavily on the States? What happened to their god?
Some comments didn't pass the moderation for simple reason…
I respect all religions, including Judaism. Therefore, name calling and dirty words against Jews are NOT welcome. In fact I consider this type of comments as part of the Zionist propaganda which aim to show us (Arab of all religions) as if we hate Jews, which is not true.
On the other hand, please feel free to call ZIONIST all what you like. In fact I don't think there is a word that can describe these terrorist.
It is just another ahrranging action in the line of many before, designed to stir up hatred where once people lived together and even schooled their children across the divbide.
Zionists and jews are a completely different people in my opinion. Zionists, in the 1940's already, had the plan to represent Hitlers values of a new Europe in the middle east. They as much as the Nazi's call themselves the choosen one's and hence set themselves above the world community, endlessly ignored UN resolutions are manifest to this.
It is an outrage that Israel can threaten defenseless people with impunity, like self appointed gods they are lording it over occupied territories.
East jerusalem is Paletsinian territory and the settl;ements are being opposed by the world community, so why is the US/UK cabal still supporting such widespread human rights violations?
The Zionists are controlling and harrassing and incarcerating the Palestinians, like it had been done to them some 60 years ago.
Inhumanities and the rule of the Leviathan seems to be the only ghouls to haunt us in the 21st century.
The conflict has to be resolved, Syria cannot carry on feeding 1.5 million refugees from Iraq, the whole region is a powderkeg ready to blow.
Mark my words, if they attack Iran we could have WW3 on our hands, such would be the outrage and counter actions.
Israel should be shown the door of the UN for their latest attack on innocent children.
ingo
The Palestinians are really getting a raw deal, they're generalized as being militants from people who've never actually talked to them or given them a chance to speak for themselves.
Israel is going too far, I agree that they deserve to have land for themselves – but they've long since got that land. Now they're just out for blood and conquest. The situation has become an Apartheid, only the UN and the rest of the world is turning a blind eye to these atrocities. I think it's time for an International embargo on Israel, until it ramps down the violence and campaigns.
"Israel is going too far, I agree that they deserve to have land for themselves – but they’ve long since got that land. Now they’re just out for blood and conquest."
I ask, why is it imperative for us to understand that Jews must have a land of their own at the expense of another people? How do you think the Zionists got this land, a fairy gave it to them? If you are in Israel look around you, there are hundreds of Arab villages which were cleansed by the Zionist movement in order to create a majority Jewish state. Their sewing machines, homes, clothing and possessions were left behind when they were driven out by terror. This will never work for one very reason, NO ONE would be willing to be driven for their own homes for the "safety" of another when their "safety" should be wherever they are which is true for every human being, INCLUDING Palestinians. This action of creating a Jewish state at the expense of another just creates another wrong! It can be achieved only by force, which is precisely how it was done and precisely how it maintains itself as an embattled state-furthering their claim to victimhood. Jews need to be safe in the countries where they are from, Europe, the US and elsewhere, not be told it is ok to steal from another so they can be safe which will NEVER happen for very real reasons. How many Americans would go for this if their own country was taken over? I don't think very many. Yet we as a nation give billions to this misadventure rather than calling it for what it is, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people who have not been allowed for 60 years to return to THEIR homes which have been taken over by FOREIGNERS!
Calling for an end to the occupation in the West Bank and the lifting of the siege of Gaza is a BEGINNING. This incident may have recently happened, but this has been going on ever since the inception of Zionism itself. The time has come for the one state solution and the right of return to be implemented so that this land is TRULY a democracy, so that the rights of Palestinians (Christian and Muslims) and Jews are equal in this land which is holy to all three faiths.
May God bless these children and find them safety.
Thank you for your brilliant post Robin. Well said.
When did the Palestinians ever impose a "Holocaust" against Jews? Is it logical that legitimate descendants of such an atrocity would be insensitive enough and criminally insane enough to inflict a worse Holocaust atrocity against a culture that had nothing to do with it?
Who is occupying whom in the Mid East? Who has more nuclear weapons than anyone else in that turbulent part of the world? Who is violating whose human rights with racist apartheid tactics? What is the only "nation" (besides India) that has refused to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty? Who is sending our children to die in illegal proxy wars of aggression for corporate greed, invasions, theft, occupations, mass murder of women, children and who likes to make accusations of "anti-semitism" when such wretched moral turpitude is criticized?
Zionists have contaminated the US News media with so much sleazy adolescent Tabloid Trash (Faux News Nutwork/Clear Channel) that obsolete sheeple cannot even find the Mid East on a map. They have also contaminated the US Federal government, State Department, Department of Defense, Pentagon, Banking systems, as a matter of fact, virtually anywhere there is ugliness (including the state sponsored terrorism of 9/11), Bush crime family, etc., you will find their tentacles.
apparition,
No, I am not a Zionist troll. In fact, I have become educated about the Palestinian situation, through Sabbah's blog, and find the behavior of Israel to be morally disgraceful.
MeatwadGetsIt was spouting cheap propaganda about Jewish boycotts of Germany, and condoning the rounding up of Jews. He/she was not critizicing Zionism. Please read that post again.
Lisa Says: May 12th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
"MeatwadGetsIt,
You are belittling Sabbah’s site by publishing revisionist history. Your statements concerning WW II are false and idiotic. Sabbah is trying to show the truth of the occupation through facts, not paranoid rantings of an anti-semit."
Well if I did say something inaccurate you would have listed it now wouldn't you. Typical blind acceptance of what organized criminals have told you does not make you a genius. What was in error Lisa?
If the German nazis had locked the prison gates closed and walked away to let the inmates starve,,, THIS IS what israel is doing toward Gaza TODAY!!!
So Lisa, point out the errors or be known as the propaganda parrot you are. By the way, what, why are, how do western Asians and eastern Euorpeans living in israel calling themselves semites get away with this huge lie?? Those invaders are the real "anti-semites", trying to genocide out of isreal, victimizing those AKA Palestinians.
The German prison camps were more likely just the detantion/holding centers for the deportation of the jew to the "promised lands", afterall, the nazi was just as much into zion as the jew is. They were not the atheist, so many are trying to rewrite history over. An atheist would not have his troups give an oath with reference to a god involved, now would an atheist really do that. I see you are dumb-founded.
There was indeed a boycott of Germany declared on 24 March 1933 in the London Daily Express, `Judea Declares War on Germany` was the banner headline.
And there never was a formal lifting of it, as certainly it lasted `til war's end, 8 May 1945, but the occupation of Germany continues to this very day, and one manifestation of it is that the authors of that 24 March 1933 declaration still hold the German judiciary by the throat as we see Ernst Zundel and Germar Rudolf doing 5 yrs jail time there for publishing factual material which is at variance with the Holocaust state religion.
I should add, Germany symbolically declared a counter boycott of Jews for one day only, 1 April 1933.
These Israelis are no longer worthy to be called "Jews". They are a disgrace. They are criminals. They should be tried as war criminals and given the maximum penalty under the Law.
They cannot continue to hurt people this way, and pretend that they have any "religious" right to anything. They don't even deserve human respect, as they don't give any.
I spit in their general direction. If I ever see any Israeli in the US, I tell them what a piece of human waste that they are. I don't care anymore what anybody says, they have gone too far.
It's time to cut all US aid to Israel.
End this travesty.
EEEW!
Can you imagine the fecal matter hitting the rotating device if the lemmings in the U.S. of Assholes and the U.K. ever collectively pull their heads from their asses and become the 81st nation to vomite Zionist Jews from their midst??!!
WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER but aimed AT them instead of at their former lackeys.
Anti semite? nope……Anti Zionist / Israel? YUP!
No doubt yonoz, foopirata, hadees and company will come along any minute now and tell us they were sawing that table in half in order to find hidden weapons caches and secret tunnels through which food and fuel – errr…I mean "bombs" – are smuggled.
thanks for posting this Haitham.
it was shocking how they attacked the Orphanages , it was shown on Most Arabic channels (not US im sure )
the Israelis smashed most sewing machines ,that were used to sew clothes for the orphans . they took all the computers, they took chairs , cameras , most the material rolls they found . Anything they could not carry they broke it , the offices were totally devastated i could not believe it . I wish those images were shown on So called neutral honest Channels like CNN and BBC for the rest of the world know Israel true face . Shame their friends at the top hide their abuse , and continue polishing their image as the constant victim .
Shame for Israeli Army looting a place where children who have become orphanage they are making livelihood at a place are made culprits.
Really Shameful
{ 7 } Trackbacks
Video and Photos: Israeli Army Raid and Loot Hebron Orphanage home to 110 girls: This is an update to Kawt.. http://tinyurl.com/5pbwbk
[...] Click here for Video & Pictures [...]
[...] Video and Photos: Israeli Army Raid and Loot Hebron Orphanage home to 110 girls [...]
[...] Video & Photos: Israeli Army Raid and Loot Hebron Orphanage sabbah.biz — This is an update to Kawther Salam’s story about the Palestinian Orphanage in Hebron. At 1.00 in the morning on the 30th of April, the Israeli Army raids orphanage in Hebron, home to 110 girls, seizing all equipment from community sewing workshop. [...]
[...] Published: http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/05/11/video-photos-israeli-loot-girls-orphanage/ Tagged as: child, children, hebron, orphange, Orphans, Palestine, Palestinian, Zionism, [...]
[...] read more | digg story [...]
[...] read more | digg story [...]