Returning to the ancestral void
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Israeli soldiers brutally attack Palestinians and ISM activists on bike ride
Palestinian and international cyclists were brutally attacked by the Israeli occupation forces on Saturday as they attempted to bike up Route 90, the main North-South highway running through the Jordan Valley. The cyclists were demonstrating against Israeli apartheid policies in the Jordan Valley, which limit Palestinian access to roadways as part of an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Bedouin communities of the Valley.
~In a related news:
Israeli officer suspended for striking foreign national
Of course, now that it was all video-taped and broadcast all over the place, they suspended him to feign innocence. -
Press Release from the Welcome to Palestine 2012 Campaign 
participants in the Welcome to Palestine 2012 Campaign arrested by Israeli police at airport (my edit: doesn’t look like Israeli police hmmm, but maybe)
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We did not have to show our 1500 visitors Israeli racism, arrogance, and human rights violations; the Israeli government showed them and also showed the whole world. Calling itself a democracy, this outlaw state denied the right of people from around the world to come visit us and see for themselves the reality of life under occupation.
We the Palestinian people are 11 million normal human beings, 7 million are refugees or displaced people simply because they are natives to a land that was wanted for a Jewish state. Five million of us are living in increasingly shrinking ghettos on a tiny fraction of our land. We remain here despite an illegal and brutal occupation that includes land confiscation, movement restrictions, home demolitions, illegal imprisonment of thousands (many now on hunger strike), and countless other inhuman conditions. We did not expect from this occupation that daily violates human rights to also allow us as prisoners under its boot to openly and honestly receive visitors. These visitors who wanted to come and see what reality is like here certainly were shocked at the Israeli behavior. And those who wanted to welcome our visitors and were brutally assaulted will remember how the same Israeli police let right wing fanatics sing and disrupt at the airport. The whole world is now seeing Israel for what it is: a police state that fulfills all the requirements of being an apartheid pariah state per the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973).
Countries that once supported Apartheid in South Africa had people who mobilized against it. Now people of conscience mobilize to challenge this apartheid that is now so explicitly expressed.
Those airlines and governments that acted as subcontractors for the Israeli apartheid regime are being challenged by their own people. In denying boarding to a passenger by Air France, the airline documented that she cannot board because she is neither Jewish or Israeli! (see in french http://wtp2france.palestinejn.org, English: http://palestinianspring.palestinejn.org)
In claiming in writing that we called for disruptions and for challenging “security” of Israel, the Israeli government was exposed as lying. In forcing a Swedish passenger (unrelated to our campaign) to sign that he was not going to meet with any “pro-Palestinian” individuals or groups, the Israeli government was shown to be racist. Imagine if a similar requirement was posted to visitors to any other country about visiting or meeting with “pro-black” individuals or organizations. In sending a letter to that claims activists should worry about Iran and Syria before worrying about this system of apartheid, the Israeli government showed the bankruptcy of its arguments. In denying us the right to visit, the Israeli government showed the world that it has a lot to hide.
For examples of participant profiles of those denied their right to visit us in Palestine, visit http://www.welcometopalestine.info/index.php/participant-profiles-uk-us
At the end of our press conference in Bethlehem, we passed out Easter colored eggs. We Palestinian Christian and Muslims are grateful to all who act on their conscience, Internationals, Israelis, and Palestinian volunteers. Thousands of us say loud and clear: we will not be silenced, we will continue to organize campaigns until we have freedom and until Israel complies with all relevant International and Humanitarian laws.
Contact email: media@palestinejn.org
Contact phone numbers in languages: Arabic, English. French, Spanish, Hebrew
0599255573 (A, E, F)
0568347074 (A, E, S)
0598939532 ((A, E)
0505633044 (A, E, H)
Welcome to Palestine 2012 Campaign websites
http://palestinianspring.palestinejn.org
http://welcometopalestine.info
http://bienvenidosapalestina.jimdo.com/
English: http://palestinianspring.palestinejn.org
Arabic: http://wtp2arabic.palestinejn.org
Spanish: http://wtp2spain.palestinejn.org
French: http://wtp2spain.palestinejn.org
Swedish: http://wtp2sweden.palestinejn.org
Norwegian: http://wtp2norway.palestinejn.org
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“My beloved, my beloved. All of my kids died, all of my kids died.”
A Palestinian man who lost his family during the Gaza Massacre by Israel clutches at strangers in the hospital, seeking comfort in their arms as he wails at the thought of his newly dead children. The shirt he is wearing carries the stains of their blood. (From Tears of Gaza).
(via syrianlady)
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Al Jazeera’s Cal Perry reports from Qalandiya on Land Day
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OK, so the footage can speak for itself. But I have a few things to debunk, as usual…
This report is wrought with inaccuracies. Cal Perry, do your research and talk to actual Palestinians if you are to maintain objectivity and accuracy in your reporting. First of all, East Jerusalem is outside the ‘green line’ and is part of the 1967-occupied West Bank. It was illegally annexed by Israel in 1981, together with the Syrian Golan Hts. Quit implying that t is a separate entity. Secondly, 5,500 (not 5,000) acres of Palestinian-owned land was confiscated from Palestinian Arab villages in the Galilee, NOT the West Bank. The Israeli authorities declared that land a closed military zone, and followed that by curfews on surrounding Palestinian villages. Thirdly, it wasn’t Arab leaders who called for demonstrations on Land day; rather, it is grassroots activists who created and organized the Global march to Jerusalem. You are not standing in “Israel proper”. You are standing on segregated and occupied WB land!
And the anchor asked about Marwan Barghouti, not Mustapha Barghouti! Please be more informed, unless you only want to skim the surface and only tell the viewers about the Israeli point of view.
Also, Israel does not use water cannons. It uses ‘skunk sewage water’ cannons, which leave one stinking for up to a week. They also use the so called LARD screamers, which emit sonic bursts that cause extreme discomfort/pain.
Edit: I mistakenly called it LARD. It is LRAD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device)
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Excerpt: Rare peek at nightly raids of West Bank village (Nabi Saleh) with English subs
[They are being ‘gentle’ because they are being filmed, otherwise, they would have destroyed everything, as usual.]
