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Israel targets West Bank orphanages
electronicintifada.net — Shopping malls. Schools. Medical centers. Charities, orphanages. Soup kitchens. Israeli military officials have identified Hamas's civilian infrastructure in the West Bank as a major source of the Islamic group's popularity, and have begun raiding and shutting down these institutions in cities like Hebron, Nablus and Qalqiliya.
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- MarkusGarvey, on 07/16/2008, -6/+20pull out of the West Bank/Gaza give the Palestinians back their rights, and Hamas will just become another political party...this will just feed the fire...
- wpi97, on 07/17/2008, -0/+5So, if Israel pulls out, will things go back to the way they were before 1967?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_att ...
By the way, I have news for you: Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. The result: daily rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli towns. Hamas will become another political party just like the Nazis become just another political party.
- wpi97, on 07/17/2008, -0/+5So, if Israel pulls out, will things go back to the way they were before 1967?
- Kizilbash, on 07/16/2008, -4/+13Of course this is a source of Hamas' popularity: there is no alternative structure.
- cointelproof, on 07/16/2008, -4/+15Shutting down any kind of hospital/medical center is a war crime in itself.
- lazerus9, on 07/16/2008, -5/+11...God must be so proud of his special creatures!
- MarkEarhart, on 07/17/2008, -3/+1The God they really serve is commonly depicted with a pitchfork and a pointed tail.
- Carthagefield, on 07/16/2008, -4/+8'[Palestinian] Children are paying the price of injustice' (selected extracts), by Seth Freedman for The Guardian
Whereas Israeli youths are treated as children in the eyes of the law until they turn 18, Palestinians are not accorded such humane treatment, and can be imprisoned from the tender age of just 12. Since September 2000 Israel has arrested and detained almost 6000 children, with 700 under-18s arrested in 2007 alone.
In February, [a 14 year old boy named] Muhammad was snatched by a four-man squad of Israeli special forces while playing with friends near the security wall, a mile away from his home. He was subjected to a vicious beating by the men, who punched him repeatedly and smashed him across the face with the butt of a gun in broad daylight. "No one said a word to me during [the attack]", recalled Muhammad, whose description of the assault bore marked similarities to Rodney King's ordeal. His crime? Allegedly throwing stones at the separation wall; something Muhammad strenuously denies.
Gerard Horton of DCI, an NGO which has taken up Muhammad's case, pointed to the IDF's flagrant violations of children's rights as yet another example of Israel thumbing its nose at international law. "These abuses have been well documented for many years, yet our pleas for intervention have fallen on deaf ears", he said. "The lack of will by the international community to uphold the rule of law when it comes to the Occupied Territories is deeply disturbing."
After his violent treatment at the hands of the troops, Muhammad was taken to a police station for interrogation, where he was duped into signing a confession. "A man showed me a piece of paper in Hebrew [a language Muhammad doesn't speak] and told me if I signed it I would be released, so I did", he said. "Immediately he told me that I had just signed a confession, and that I should now expect a prison sentence".
While Muhammad tried to put a brave face on what happened to him in the name of Israeli justice, his mother was more realistic about the prospects for her family, as well as her community at large. "The Israelis do all of this to put pressure on us, in order to show that the army controls the Palestinians, and also to try to force us to leave – but whatever they do to us, we will remain here", she said defiantly.
In the meantime, the silence of the outside world is deafening. With every passing week, and with every diplomatic door being opened for Israel, the authorities become more and more immune to the criticism on ground-level from the likes of DCI and their peers, and it is children such as Muhammad who pay the price.
Soldiers savagely beating a pre-pubescent youth would send shockwaves throughout any civilised country, but – when it comes to the occupied territories – such an attack is treated as just another day in the office.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/1 ... - Lynx55, on 07/17/2008, -2/+9Source is another arabic news souirce. As I have said repeatedly...I will digg these stories when the source is one that has no vested interest in either side. Sorry. I also don't digg Israeli sourced items that are continually pointing out that Palestinians are devils.
- bepart, on 07/17/2008, -5/+1Electronic intifada is an aggregator. The author is Peter Hirschberg (not an Arab name) and the primary source is apparently the IPS http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43188
- Seldon2639, on 07/17/2008, -2/+7Precisely. If this were a story from Reuters, AP, Agence France, even the New York Times, I'd digg it and give it credence. This is an Arabic news source which has a vested interest in displaying how terrible Israel is.
- MarkEarhart, on 07/17/2008, -5/+2To think these are the people we give billions to in foreign aid annually and who shape our foreign policy.
- wpi97, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4We also control the horizontal. And the vertical. There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We, the Jews, now control the transmission. We will make you watch Israeli movies from 1950's, until you develop an irresistible craving for falafel and hummus.
- Fangsinmybeard, on 07/17/2008, -4/+3Yeah, God's Chosen, chosen to end all humanity with their hubris, ignorance and outright belligerence.
- wpi97, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4Hold on, I have to go polish my retractable horns, and have a piece of matzah. The blood of Christian babies is mighty tasty!
- kojaa, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2and of course all those orphanes were orphaned by Israel.
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