The Myanmar government doesn’t deny its involvement in the slaughter of Rohingya Muslims, so it is accepting responsibility and cocking a snoot at Muslims. But why Bangladesh government should act like Myanmar .

As an Islamic country, the Bangladeshi government must bring to book the criminals behind such outrageous act. It’s high time they should refrain from blaming this atrocity on ‘international conspiracy. Instead of being seen in contempt and complicity Bangladesh government should track down the scoundrels behind the attack and set an example of living in peaceful co existence.

How long such action and reaction of minority persecution will go on in South Asia ? Each of us in fact is a minority in one sense or other, if we just try scratching our identities.

The best example to site could be that of Babu Bajragi, the man who orchestrated the orgy of communal violence against Muslims in Ahmedabad. He is found to be complaining that while serving life imprisonment in jail, he finds himself as a minority surrounded by the Muslims inmates as a majority.

In fact if reports are to be believed on one occasion Bajragi was even thrashed inside the prison. What more ironical story could be better than this, when we compare the demon of a person letting loose the trail of blood and mayhem against the minority Muslim during the post Godhra riots. At that time he always thought he belongs to majority community and can get away doing whatever crime against the minority.

Anyway coming back to the point, such senseless act of persecuting the minorities is going on for long in South Asia . There seem to be no remedy in sight, no one knows, when such mindless retributions is going to stop and each group would live in peace and harmony.

It is high time some concrete plan of action has to be made to address this issue. I have always been arguing that the religious, the ethnic, the linguistic minorities in south Asia can only be safe, under the umbrella of South Asian Federation.

If there are any takers of this idea let us take it forward and make South Asia a better place to live.

AUTHOR: Mujtaba Syed
URL: http://mujtabas-musings.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: syedalimujtaba [at] yahoo.com

Congo rebel M23 Colonel Sultani Makenga

East African countries have been urged to utilize their regional body in order to curb a wave of intra-conflicts and terrorism which are detrimental to economic development, peace and stability.

The call was made in a telephonic conference at the US Embassy on Monday this week by Ambassador Johnnie Carson who is the US, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs.

Carson who has a vast experience in the diplomatic circle and African affairs said that Kenya and the Democratic Republic are in dire need of assistance from their neighboring countries in order to resolve ongoing problems in these countries.

He pinpointed the East African Community to be an important body in resolving problems in the DRC which is facing severe internal strife and M23 while Kenya is troubled by the spillover effect of its neighbouring country of Somalia.

“By lacking a strong central command for two decades now Somalia is prone to have the problems that it is facing now, by lacking a national security people are likely to miss basic services like water, food and even micro credits hence the turmoil,” he said.

With a span of 37 years of diplomatic career a good number of those having been spent in Africa, he said that without peace in Kenya or the DRC business activities will not go smoothly in other neighbouring countries.

He however was positive that there are good signs that the Somali question will be resolved due to the fact that for the past 18 months there are positive signs that this country is progressing towards harmony with a minor exception of few events of peace disruption.

“I praise the recent developments where by concerted efforts of various players led by the Kenya Defence Forces alongside Amisom have taken control of Al Shabaab stronghold and headquarters of Kismayu in Somalia,” he commented.

Apart from Kenya and the DRC Carson also discussed the turmoil in Mali, Sudan and Southern Sudan and said that all these problems demand an immediate intervention by regional bodies like the EAC, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in West Africa.

Ambassador Carson said that the dramatic improvement of peace in Somalia has been a product of a joint effort by the AU, IGAD, EAC, under the auspice of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), all meant to sweep away the Al-Shabaab militants.

He stood by the UN position which condemns Rwanda for having been involved in the creation, arm and support of the M23 rebels, a view strongly backed by Congo’s government. Rwanda has been denying any involvement instead it blames Congo for the upsurge in violence.

Responding to various questions from Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa, the seasoned diplomat denied that the US has any vested interests in Africa including allegations that it wants to register military presence through its involvement in the conflicts.

“The US does not intend to settle in Africa that is why even the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM) is headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany,” he concluded.

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com

According to bdnews24, on 30th September 2012, seven Buddhist Viharas, around 30 houses and shops were torched in the attacks that started at 11:30pm and lasted until around 4am on 1st of October. More than a hundred houses and shops were also reportedly attacked, vandalized and looted.

My sources inside Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) shared sensational inside story and background of the per-planned attack on the Buddhists in Cox’s Bazaar’s Ramu Upazila.

The whole attack was engineered by special unit of Indian Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) in coordination with DGFI.

A special team of monitoring the social media in the DGFI and R&AW were closely monitoring the social media to monitor the ongoing protest on anti Islam film in different parts of Bangladesh on social media.

The government was facing challenge to tackle the protest on anti Islam movie in different parts of the country
The social media monitor team within the intelligence agency noticed that different people were tagged different photos related anti Islam movie and defaming Holy Quran , Uttam Barua was tagged in the photo from a Facebook ID called ‘Insult Allah’.

The special units of R&AW consult with concern people in prime minister’s office ask to run special operation named “Operation Tango”.

The main aim of operation tango was to spread the violence in hill district, specifically on the Buddhist and Hindu minorities.

Selected officials were called immediately from different detachments of DGFI that includes Coxs’ Bazar, Khagrachari, Rangamati, Bandarban and Chittagong.

They were briefed, how to implement the operation tango. They special team of army commando were send to vandalized a village of Buddhists in Cox’s Bazaar’s Ramu Upazila early on 30th September 2012.

Cox’s Bazaar district’s Superintendent of Police Selim Mohammed Jahangir was informed earlier by the tango team to remain silent while tango team run the operation and police were on high alert that tango team can successfully end the operation.

Special units of R&AW informed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier that operation tango will help to get the sympathy of minorities.

They also briefed that minorities are your vote bank, before election this attack will benefit you in all ways
They also briefed BNP had embraced the government over Rohingya Muslims issue and it’s a proper time to use the situation while the opposition is protesting over anti islam movie.

The tango team had suggested spreading attacks on minorities in different minority populated areas all over the country and that will continue one after another.

A team of media professionals were briefed earlier to run continuous news propaganda naming the violence as an effort to Islamize the hill area and the opposition parties specifically BNP is behind the communal attack.

While the ruling government is playing dirty game on the life of minorities with the Indian intelligence R&AW , minorities are paying a high cost.

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

Al Haq’s memorandum provides a solid legal framework for advocating Palestinian rights, based on the recommendations of the 2004 International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the wall Israel built on Palestinian land, and the internationally accepted 2001 general rules on legal obligations of states when international law is violated. International legal scholars have endorsed the memorandum including Professor John Dugard.

The report also gives legal backing to governments wishing to sanction Israel, stating that ‘it is lawful for any injured party, including any affected State, to take “countermeasures”’.

The document is in particular relevant for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement because it explicitly strengthens the legal basis for activism against Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. The document presents useful examples of public and corporate complicity. The following summary of the legal paper focuses on information which is particularly relevant for the BDS movement.

Israeli settlement development is a state enterprise

Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory violate Article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that “the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Israeli governments, the Israeli military, the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization (WZO) played a crucial role in the strategic and operational planning at the early stages. More recently, settlement expansion has been driven by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, the Ministry of Defense – including the Minister’s Assistant on Settlement Affairs – the Israeli military and its “Civil Administration” in the occupied territories, regional and local authorities, and the Settlement Division of the WZO, writes a 2005 official government report. These bodies have mapped Palestinian land allocated for confiscation, identified suitable locations for settlements, supported their construction, and facilitated populating them with Jewish Israeli settlers. Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are therefore the outcome of a state enterprise and not merely the work of the settlers.

Moreover, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) and the courts, in particular the Israeli High Court, have passed over the years legislation and jurisprudence to “justify” the settlement enterprise.

Complicity of institutions and companies

Several public and private actors receive contracts or subsidies for their services to Israel’s settlement enterprise such as postal authorities, academic institutions, the Israeli labor union (Histadrut) and Israel’s national water company Mekorot, which plays a key role in the discriminatory water supply to Israeli settlements and Palestinian communities in the occupied territories.

Other players in the settlement enterprise are Israeli security, trade and export companies, such as Elbit, Agrexco and Mehadrin. Businesses and associations provide essential services for the maintenance and development of the settlements in the area of construction, transport, supply, and services in health, education, culture and sports.

Moreover, private Israeli security companies such as G4S Israel perform tasks in the occupied territories that were traditionally executed by the Israeli security forces. G4S provides equipment and services for the incarceration of Palestinians or the operation of checkpoints and the police headquarters in occupied Jerusalem.

IT companies like Hewlett-Packard subsidiary EDS Israel provide and maintain surveillance and other security-related technology for the Israeli army and settlements.

Israeli banks provide the financial infrastructure and services for all settlement activity including foreign companies.

States must ensure Israel’s respect for international law

During the 45-years settlement enterprise, Israel has realized dramatic changes of the status and demographic composition of the occupied territories. It violated the Fourth Geneva Convention and human rights treaties, as well as customary international law prohibitions on colonialism, racial discrimination and apartheid.

All 194 states who ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention are responsible to ensure Israel’s respect of the provisions of the Convention.

Under the International Convention against Torture, the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, states have the obligation to ensure that persons responsible for serious breaches amounting to international crimes are brought to justice.

In addition, all states have the legal obligation to cooperate to bring Israel’s international crimes to an end. They should also not recognize the illegal situation created by Israel in its settlement enterprise, nor render aid or assistance in maintaining that situation. Therefore, all states have to ensure that its organs, public and private entities, and persons whose activities are attributable to the state under international law, do not violate these obligations. This includes state-funded or otherwise-supported aid agencies and businesses performing certain official functions in the settlement enterprise.

Complicity of states in Israel’s international crimes in relation to settlements

Many states are complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise by rendering unlawful aid or assistance via state organs, entities and individuals whose activities are attributable to the state. Grave examples are military aid or cooperation with Israel’s oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Official aid or support for the construction and development of Israel’s wall, checkpoints, terminals, prisons and detention centers are other examples.

The same counts for aid or support the so-called joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zones in the occupied territories, which benefit Israeli business, undermine Palestinian development and exploit Palestinian labor. States are also complicit by allowing direct, often tax-exempt, support of the illegal settlements by Jewish and Christian Zionist organizations registered in their country.

A grave act of complicity is the international protection the United States provide to Israel. Through diplomatic pressure on other states, in the full knowledge of the circumstances, it obstructs efforts of states – within and outside the United Nations – to counteract Israel’s serious breaches.

Furthermore, states who cooperate with or support settlement activities of Israeli state-organs or public and private entities violate the legal obligation not to provide aid or assistance in maintaining the unlawful situation. This happens in numerous cases of official cooperation in the area of trade and research, including the EU. State support to activities or projects of (transnational) business companies who contribute to Israel’s unlawful settlement enterprise in the occupied territories. Such aid or assistance amounts to recognition of the illegal situation created by Israel in the occupied territories.

The 2010 OECD decision to accept Israel as a member, with its settlements in the occupied territories but without the occupied Palestinian population, is mentioned as another grave example of complicity.

Complicity of donor governments and state funded aid agencies

Donor governments and state-funded aid agencies render aid or assistance to Israel’s settlement enterprise when they construct Palestinian infrastructure, in particular roads, which indirectly contributes to the maintenance of Israel’s regime of segregation and apartheid in the occupied territories and the expansion and entrenchment of Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories. The same counts for the procurement of materials or goods for humanitarian and development aid from Israeli suppliers implicated in violations linked to the settlement enterprise.

In addition, states or state-funded aid agencies provide recognition of the settlement enterprise when they abide by Israel’s illegal permit regime in the occupied territories, or when state representatives conduct relations with Israeli organs or entities endorsing the illegal settlement enterprise.

Moreover, donor governments and state-funded agencies provide recognition when they fail to hold Israel accountable for its serious breaches in public statements or UN resolutions, or tolerate destruction or damage of aid-infrastructure or aid-equipment by the Israeli army without military necessity, or by private settlers.

States can lawfully impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel

The serious breaches linked to Israel’s settlement enterprise in the occupied territories legally affect all states. Therefore, states are entitled to act individually or collectively on behalf of the Palestinian victims. They can lawfully take countermeasures such as reprisals or sanctions, because Israel has failed to comply with its obligation of cessation of the illegal settlement enterprise and reparation for Palestinian victims.

To bring down Israel’s settlement enterprise states can, for example, lawfully adopt measures to prohibit import of Israeli goods or export to Israel, suspend cooperation agreements with Israel, impose other forms of embargoes on trade and cooperation; freeze funds and assets of the Israeli state, entities and persons responsible for the serious breaches; bar Israeli banks from international financial transfers (SWIFT); and suspend agreements on landing rights of airplanes or impose flight bans.

However, states have failed to adopt appropriate countermeasures to end Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. That is why the BDS movement campaigns against governments, local authorities, companies or other actors who are involved in Israel’s breaches of international law against the Palestinians in the occupied territories. The BDS movement can build on the legal arguments presented in Al Haq’s paper to strengthen its strategy and actions.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

Hyundai equipment used in demolition of three homes in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, 24 November. Screenshot from video by Haitham Katib.

On 24 November 2011, Israeli occupation forces destroyed three homes in the eastern occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, leaving twenty people, including six children, homeless. A  video on the action by Haitham Khatib — a still from which is above — shows that Hyundai equipment was in the demolition as Israeli soldiers stood guard.The use of Hyundai equipment in the demolition of  Palestinian property is mentioned as an example in a new report on the Republic of Korea (South Korea’s) in Israel’s occupation, colonialism and apartheid. The publication detailing South Korea’s military, economic, academic and cultural ties with Israel was released last week by the Seoul-based Palestine Peace Solidarity @ Seoul(PPS).PPS calls on the South Korean government to enforce an immediate ban on all products or services related to the settlements, apartheid wall or occupation; to cease government trade, research or investment promotion activities with Israel; and to immediately freeze pending agreements, especially those related to trade, investment or military matters. In addition, PPS calls on the South Korean business and academic community to halt immediately any dealings with companies and institutions related to the settlements, apartheid wall or occupation.

In a 7 September press release, Palestine Peace Solidarity @ Seoul writes that the ties between South Korea and Israel have contributed to Israel’s impunity and lack of accountability:

“Treating Israel as a normal state, as opposed to one that oppresses and denies the right to self-determination of Palestinians, sends the signal that its appalling human rights record can be tolerated. Israel must be treated for what it is, a pariah state,” said YaPing an organizer with PPS.

Among the examples cited in the report are Korea Aerospace Industries’ business ties with Elbit Systems, an Israeli company widely denounced for its role in the construction of the apartheid wall in the West Bank, declared illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice; and the supply of bulldozers to the Israeli military by Hyundai Heavy Industries that are used in the demolition of Palestinian homes, an act that constitutes a war crime under the IV Geneva Convention. Daesung Industrial Corporation, Korea’s leading energy company, imports and distributes Ahava cosmetics to the Korean market. Ahava is an Israeli settlement company that was recently accused of pillaging natural resources of the West Bank in a report by Palestinian human rights group al-Haq.

Korea’s government is currently in negotiations with Israel for a Free Trade Agreement, although a deal seems frozen for now. “Koreans will continue to oppose the free trade agreement with Israel to avoid being complicit with human rights abuses and violations of international law,” added YaPing. “Koreans have a strong sense of solidarity with Palestinians and oppose their continued oppression.” The report found that Korea’s ties with Israel violates Korea’s own constitution and norms of international law.

Among the recommendations of the report, the Korean government and business community are urged to freeze immediately all ties with Israel, particularly those that directly aid and abet violations of international law related to Israel’s settlement enterprise and the Wall.

Korean activists plan to use the research to build strategic campaigns as part of the growing Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Download the full report.

First published at Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

Gaza Strip 2005

Weapons are smuggled into Gaza with relative ease by arms merchants who live in the Sinai Peninsula, an Israeli police source said last week.

While Sinai had been relatively quiet during the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his downfall last year basically spelled trouble for Israelis living close to that border especially with the new Islamist government taking over the military, said the police source.

The Israeli National Police has warned that the scope of weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip by terrorist organizations is expanding. This troubling information increases the fear of many in Israel that the current uprisings and unrest in Egypt and Syria increase the likelihood that groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, who now rule Eqypt, as well as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah will increase the volatility within the Gaza Strip.

Due to the recent change in government, Egypt exerts little authority over the Sinai Peninsula, which allows smugglers to operate without any interference, the police source stated.

According to the an Israeli Security Agency report, weapons smuggling to Gaza by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations has increased since Operation Cast Lead more than two years ago, as those groups have sought “quality” weapons to improve their capabilities to strike the Israeli home front and fight against IDF troops in a future conflict.

The ISA report notes that Iran stands behind the armament effort as that country seeks to increase its influence amongst Palestinians and Palestinian terrorist groups.

The central smuggling route to Gaza is based on the transfer of weapons from Iran to Sudan, from where the weapons are moved into Egypt before being smuggled into Gaza. Because Egypt’s government remains in a state of flux, weapons smugglers are finding it easier to move contraband from Egypt into the Palestinian territories.

According to the ISA, hundreds of rockets (mostly with ranges of 20-40 kilometers), about 1,000 mortar shells, dozens of individual anti-tank missiles and tons of explosives and explosives-making materials have been smuggled via this route.

In the Sinai Peninsula, a smuggling network exists that is comprised mainly of Bedouins whose main source of income is from smuggling and kidnapping-for-ransom, the report stated.

According to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officials, smugglers in the Sinai Peninsula are operating with little interference since the change of government in Egypt is still uncertain.

AUTHOR: Jim Kouri
URL: http://www.renewamerica.com/
E-MAIL: COPmagazine [at] aol.com

Mali begins Touareg dialogue. Image by Flickr user Magharebia (CC BY 2.0).

A solution to the Mali crisis seems to be vanishing as time goes by. It has been five months now that the country has been divided into two parts: the South is ruled by a fragile [fr] government while the North, which includes the historic cities of Timbuktu and Gao, is the theater of the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb‘s (AQIM) expansion in the Sahel.

North Mali indirectly in the hands of AQIM

In April 2012, after the cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal had fallen, the Tuareg rebellion group National Movement for Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) unilaterally proclaimed the secession of the northern part of the country.

Currently, the region is under the influence of four [fr] different groups: the MNLA, Ansar Dine, which defines itself as Salafist, the Movement for the Unity of Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), and AQIM.

However, a report [fr] by AFP, suggests that it is actually AQIM that coordinates and funds the three other organisations; this suspicion is reinforced by the alleged presence in Mali of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a founding member of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC), which became the AQIM.

In March 2012, israeldefense.com wrote about Belmokhtar’s visits to Libya, and already reported fears of a possible AQIM expansion in the Southern Sahara:

According to Mali’s security sources, the leader of al-Qaeda’s North African branch, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has been in Libya for several weeks with the goal of procuring arms. (…) Malian security sources claim that Belmokhtar’s activities in Libya confirm the premise that AQIM intends to extend its sphere of influence and that “terrorists will do anything to create a sweeping network in the Sahel and the Sahara.”

Political and diplomatic deadlock

It appears that AQIM is consolidating its grip on Northern Mali.  On August 9, Koaci.com reported that members of the Mujao cut the hand [fr] off of an alleged thief in the city of Ansogo. This followed the July 30 stoning of an unwed couple in the region of Kidal.

To date, regional response  to the crisis have been muted. While West African leaders appointed Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina Faso, as a mediator [fr] in this crisis after the March 22 Mali coup, the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) has yet to send military forces to restore the territorial unity of Mali.

And while Afrik.com [fr] reports that the de facto Malian government and ECOWAS have reached an agreement aimed at resolving the crisis, military intervention remains the preferred option of many netizens. Thierno A. Diallo from neighboring Guinea writes on his blog [fr]:

Ce qui se passe au Mali est grave. Notre pays, frontalier au sud et pas tellement éloigné de cette zone de non-droit a tout à perdre d’une victoire des fanatiques à nos portes. Le landernau politique guinéen, la tête dans le guidon des interminables législatives voulues par Alpha Condé, risque d’avoir un réveil en sursaut très douloureux. La zone la plus proche géographiquement et donc  la plus menacée étant la Haute-Guinée.

This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.

First published at Global Voices.

AUTHOR: Julie Owono
URL: http://bantupolitics.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: info [at] www.NL-Aid.org

In 2007, Israeli soldiers arrested 13-year-old Majid Jaradat for throwing stones during a demonstration in Sair village, near Hebron. Majed spoke about the violence of his arrest and detention in a  video produced by Israeli rights organization B’tselem.

But this was no isolated case. Many more such incidents are reported in a new publication from the Israeli veterans’ organization Breaking The Silence with shocking admissions from Israeli soldiers about the maltreatment of Palestinian children under Israeli occupation. The disturbing violations of children’s rights by soldiers took place in the occupied Palestinian territories between 2005-2011.

My previous post Choose a kid at random, “aim at his body”: Israeli soldiers confess their violence, addressed the abuse of Palestinian children as human shields, the use of handcuffs for torture, and the lethal use of rubber bullets. This second post summarizes more examples of the abuse of children by Israeli forces from the Breaking The Silence report, many of which — including admissions of indiscriminate shooting and wilful shooting to kill children who pose no danger — amount to war crimes.

Abuse during arrest and detention

Beating a crying child with a Motorola

After a stone-throwing incident, soldiers were ordered to stop a 15-year-old child. “His name was Daoud. We stopped our vehicle, ran out, he was in total shock. We took him to Gross Post, to the Jewish side, and he began to cry, scream, he was just streaming sweat and tears. We had nothing to do with him, suddenly you end up with a crying kid. A second ago he was throwing roof tiles at the army post, and you’re dying to beat him to a pulp, and you’re alerted out there in that heat. You want to kill him but he’s crying. We didn’t know what to do, so we put him under watch.

Once someone who was with him went wild, did something to him and left. At some point when I was with him I tried to calm him down because he was tied, blindfolded, and crying, tears and sweat streaming out all over. I began to shake him, then the deputy company commander tried. He grabbed him and began to shake him: ‘Shut up, shut up, enough, cut it out!’ Then we took him to the police station at Givat Ha’avot and he continued to cry because the policemen didn’t take him in for interrogation. He was so annoying, this was insane. In all that mess, while he was crawling on the floor, the communications man took out his Motorola, his two-way radio and boom! – banged him on the head” (Hebron 2010).

Soldiers throwing stones at captive children

A soldier saw the abuse of detainees “so many times.” She remembers one of the first times she came to the commander’s office and “saw some five detainees, incredibly scary, and a few soldiers…” It was scary, because the detainees were children, around 14-15 years old. “Combatants came at those kids, threw stones at them, swore at them. And the kids sat as helpless as a human being can be, their hands shackled in those tight plastic bands that don’t let them move, blindfolded, total helplessness” (Nablus 2005-2006).

Indifferent

A child was arrested: “While we took him out of the jeep I remember hearing him shitting his pants… I also remember some other time when someone pissed in his pants. I just became so indifferent to it, I couldn’t care less. He shat in his pants, I heard him do it, I witnessed his embarrassment. I also smelled it. But I didn’t care” (Hebron 2010).

Violent “game”

A soldier confessed he detained adolescents, “You shackle them, blindfold them, put them at the army post’s sentry booth and then take them back.. Once we arrested someone and while driving, in the APC [Armored Personnel Carrier], someone played ‘kazabubu shlaflaf’ with him. When I say, ‘kazabubu,’ you have to say your name, and when I say, ‘shlaflaf,’ you must say your family name. So he began to play the game with him without explaining the rules. He said: ‘Kazabubu,’ and hit him on the head. Not too tough, but it was simply humiliating. Less painful than humiliating. He would hit him and some would yell the answer at him, what he was supposed to say: ‘Say your name!’ and the like: ‘What’s your name!?’ Shouts like that. Such a game can take about seven minutes…” (Nablus 2009).

Shooting

“Okay to shoot to kill. Regardless of their age”

We were instructed to take down anyone visibly armed in a riot or anyone with a Molotov cocktail even if it hasn’t been thrown yet. We should fire in his direction. If someone heats things up you can shoot either very close to him or to his legs or something like that. There is no one who tells you who is heating things up. All those fanatics see all the Palestinians there as heating things up.

Once we were with six guys inside an armored jeep in a real serious riot. The guy next to me fired at the ground to make the crowd run away, and then he goes: “Oops!” I look and see a kid bleeding on the ground and the crowd indeed was gone. He shot from inside the vehicle. He also said to us, like: “Don’t tell.” When Molotov cocktails are thrown at us we have the okay to shoot to kill. Regardless of their age (Nablus 2005-2006).

An ambush for kids

Once in a while one of our vehicles would be hit by Molotov cocktails on Mount Eval, in Nablus. After a few such incidents we laid an ambush. If a kid was about to throw a Molotov cocktail, you’re allowed to shoot him. “Shoot to kill?”, asks the interviewer. “Absolutely, that’s procedure, replies the soldier. “The moment you even see the lighter spark.” He explains that the soldiers try to provoke the kids by driving a jeep up and down.

The jeep goes by and suddenly they see a group of kids coming, “I think they were holding some bag.” A soldier aims his M-24 [marksmen’s rifle] at one of the kids. He asks the officer if it’s okay to release the safety catch. The officer tells him it’s fine. “[S]uddenly – boom! – the marksman’s rifle let off a shot. We see the kids scatter in all directions, running like hell, and we have no idea what happened because we know he was aiming and we don’t know whether the kid was hit or not.”

Interviewer: You said they were holding a bag. Did they aim at the one holding the bag?
Soldier: That’s a spot that Molotov cocktails are often thrown from.
Interviewer: But a Molotov cocktail is a bottle, not a bag.
Soldier: But you always have to assume that that’s what’s in the bag. You get it?
Interviewer: What ages were these kids?
Soldier: Little – 13, 14, 15.

(Nablus 2009)

“Free game”

Molotov cocktails were regularly thrown from Jilazoun refugee camp in the direction of Beit El settlement. None of them ever really reach Beit El. “It was always kids throwing, and for a while we would lay ambushes there, and once in a while a Molotov cocktail would be hurled at one of our forces, and they’d be chased. One of my friends was sitting at Beit El in a sort-of marksman’s post, and a kid came out and threw a Molotov cocktail, and he shot him. The moment they light up the bottle, they’re free game.

Interviewer: Did the kid mean to throw it at the force?
Soldier: No, he was the furthest away, he wasn’t endangering my friend who shot him with his marksman’s rifle.
Interviewer: And he killed him?
Soldier: Yes.
Interviewer: How old was the kid?
Soldier: Young, 16 years old. (Ramallah 2008)

“ We had lots of X’s [Note: Marked on the side of a soldier’s rifle, indicating the number of people he’s killed] at that time. The battalion loved it. There was an ambush around there where a kid coming up with a Molotov cocktail had his leg blown off. They laid ambush exactly at that spot. Kids came, the soldiers were there, the kids lit a bottle, and they were shot in the leg (Ramallah 2008).

No shame to capture violations on camera

A soldier tells about  two other soldiers who there were excited by their first action in Hebron in which a Palestinian boy was detained for throwing stones. The boy denied he had done so. The two excitted soldiers “had their pictures taken with him.” In response to the question if the boy objected, the soldier said, “No, he was blindfolded, he didn’t know” (Hebron 2007-2008).

During a training, a driver showed me pictures of two kids they had caught, shackled, and kicked. “He showed me the video he took on his cell phone. Sitting shackled, and some soldier walks by and – pow – kicks them in the back or something (Jalame, Jenin 2008).

There was this saying: “We have a detainee.” [The soldier talks about child detainees]. Soldiers wanted to have their picture taken. Usually they were not allowed to do so, but sometimes they did. It was done, but it wasn’t actually permitted. As though it didn’t happen, but everyone did it. People would video tape themselves, they made clips. “Say ‘Advanced Company’ is the bomb, come on, say it!” Finally, some action (Gaza Strip 2008).

First published at Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

This video, shot by the Research Journalism Initiative, shows Israeli soldiers using Palestinian children as human shields in Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the occupied West Bank in 2007. 

Two more such incidents – in Tulkarm and Hebron – are reported in a new publication from the Israeli veterans’ organization Breaking The Silence with disturbing testimonies from Israeli soldiers about the maltreatment of Palestinian children under Israeli occupation.

Children are exposed to a harsh daily reality of constant friction with occupation forces, arrests, violence, intimidation and harassment. They are wounded or killed because soldiers ignore them at the scene of events, or by targeting them directly, sometimes at random. The disturbing actions the soldiers describe — some undoubtedly amounting to war crimes —  took place in the occupied Palestinian territories between 2005-2011. This post is the first of two which summarize shocking examples of the abuse of children by Israeli forces.

Using children as human shields

Two soldiers testified how children were used as human shields. In Tulkarm in 2005, the “neighbor procedure” was used in an arrest mission.

Usually a resident of the neighboring house is summoned and required to enter the wanted person’s home and call all its inhabitants to come outside. “We got all the people out. No one was the wanted person. We feared he was still there, inside. So at first neighbors were used, then some kid. Bilal, I even recall his name. I remember because I got very angry over this. And they kept sending him into that house to check that no one was inside, open all the doors, turn on all the lights, open all the windows.”

“So there’s a school there. We’d often provoke riots there. We’d be on patrol, walking in the village, bored, so we’d trash shops, find a detonator, beat someone to a pulp, you know how it is,” said a soldier relating incidents in Hebron in 2006-2007. “Search, mess it all up. Say we’d want a riot? We’d go up to the windows of a mosque, smash the panes, throw in a stun grenade, make a big boom, then we’d get a riot,” he continued.

Once, “We fired a lot of rubber ammo. A lot. Every time we’d catch Arab kids, hold them like this, with stones, like retards. You know, so that the others would throw stones at them, not at us.” When asked if the children were turned in human shields, the soldier replied “Yes.” The kids cannot run away, he explains, because they will be badly beaten. “You catch him, push the gun against his body, he can’t make a move, he’s totally petrified.”

Use of handcuffs for torture

In 2009, the Israeli army’s Kfir Brigade was ordered to take over a school in the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank and turn it in into a detention facility. Anyone between 17 and 50 years had to be arrested to collect information for the Shabak (Israel Security Agency), however, even 14-year-old children were brought in.

People arrived blindfolded and shackled. “There are soldiers who know what the point of the [plastic] handcuff is, and then there are others, who think that it is meant as a device to stop blood flow from the wrist to the fingertips. [T]hey think it should be on so tight that no blood can get through.”

Many people were very tightly shackled “and they were begging to be released just a bit. Eventually, after they cried and complained, the company commander ordered them released, and after a while [about seven hours] they even had their hands in front instead of behind their backs. It takes time for hands to turn blue. Not everyone had blue hands, but many people already turned numb.”

The operation lasted from morning until noon the next day. Detainees had to stay the whole time blindfolded and shackled in the sun. When they asked to go to the bathroom, they were beaten to pulp and cursed at for no reason by the soldiers who took them there. A 15-year-old child was taken the bathroom “to piss and a soldier slapped him, took him down to the ground while he was shackled and blindfolded. Just like that, because he is an Arab.”

“Choose someone, aim at his body.”

A soldier who served during 2006-2007 in Nablus explains that when children hit you with stones, you don’t get out of the jeep. “You shoot through the loophole.” Asked “Do you choose some kid at random?” a soldier replied “Yes. Choose someone, aim at his body.”

“I remember one time we put a kid down. We didn’t kill him but someone hit the kid in the chest and he fell and probably lost consciousness, or at least, it was pretty close. About 10 meters.”

The soldier stated that his brigade was not instructed in how to use rubber ammunition. “There are rules. They tell you to shoot four. There’s this cluster of rubber bullets, pieces with four parts, packed in a kind of nylon. You can break it in two, so it’s stronger and flies further. As soon as it’s four it’s less strong and flies less far. We’d usually break it in half. [W]e figured it out ourselves. It’s something that’s common knowledge in the army.”

Interviewer: “As soon as this pack of rubber bullets is broken in half, it becomes lethal.

Soldier: “Really? Well, that’s what we did.”

Interviewer: “We did, too. As soon as the ‘tampons’ are separated, they’re lethal. The nylon must not be removed.”

Soldier: “Not removed?!”

Interviewer: “No.”

Soldier: “We barely fired a whole cluster, I mean four. It’s like you want to save ammo, too.”

Violence against Palestinian children

The booklet presents numerous examples of shocking violence against children.

• “At first you point your gun at some five-year-old kid, and feel bad afterward, saying it’s not right. Then you get to a point where… you get so nervous and sick of going into a village and getting stones thrown at you. But it’s obvious, you’re inside the village, you’ve just passed the school house, naturally the kids will throw stones at you. Once my driver got out, and without blinking, just grabbed some kid and beat him to a pulp. And that kid was just sitting in the street and looked like some other kid, or wore another kid’s shirt, or perhaps he was that kid but that’s not the point” (Nablus in 2005).
• “We’d go on two night patrols in the designated area. I was driving and suddenly I see some Arab boy, about 18 years old, with his face mangled, really bad. He had a black eye, his lip was torn, in really bad shape. So I stop, offer him water, and he points at my jeep and say the license plate number was 06543, so he goes: “No, 0666 hit me.” I don’t understand what he wants from me and then the other jeep arrives. The sergeant in it says: “See how I handled him?” (Bethlehem 2006-2007).
• “Kids would throw stones at us, we’d catch some kid who happened to be there and beat him to a pulp. Even if he didn’t throw stones. He would know who did. ‘Who is it? Who is it?’ Finally he’d tell us who did it.” The soldiers gives an example of the heavy beating of 10-year-old child which is suspected of throwing stones. “That commander had no mercy. Really. Anyway the kid could no longer stand on his feet and was already crying. He couldn’t take it anymore. He cried. The commander shouted: ‘Stand up!’ Tried to make him stand but he couldn’t. He really couldn’t. From so much beating he just couldn’t stand up. The commander goes: ‘Don’t put on a show,’ and kicks him some more.” In response to the question “If I were a Palestinian, what would I get beaten up for?”, a soldier replies “It was enough for you to give us a look that we didn’t like, straight in the eye, and you’d be hit on the spot. We got to such a state and were so sick of being there, you know what I mean” (Hebron 2006-2007).
• “There was another instance of a 14-year old, an illegal alien. He was detained, kept on the side, so he stood there and hummed to himself. This annoyed one of the guys. He went up to him and said: ‘Something amusing you?’ The kid said: ‘Yes, gotta keep my spirits up.’ ‘Spirits up, eh?’ and the soldier slapped his face” (Tulkarm 2008).
• A commander who wanted to to detain a child, “tore him away from his dad’s leg and we put the kid in the jeep. I did nothing at that point. At the end of the day, something has to make these kids stop throwing stones on the road because they can kill. That specific kid who actually lay there on the ground, begging for his life, was actually nine years old. I think of our kids, nine years old, and a kid handling this kind of situation, I mean, a kid has to beg for his life? A loaded gun is pointed at him and he has to plead for mercy? This is something that scars him for life” (Qalqiliya 2007).
• Following a riot at Qalandiya, there was an ambush put up in an abandoned house in Ramallah. “Soldiers got out with army clubs and beat people to a pulp. Finally the children who remained on the ground were arrested. The order was to run, make people fall to the ground. There was a 10-12 man team, 4 soldiers lighting up the area. People were made to fall to the ground, and then the soldiers with the clubs [a 30 centimeters long wooden club] would go over to them and beat them. A slow runner was beaten, that was the rule. We were told not to use it on people’s heads. I don’t remember where we were told to hit, but as soon as a person on the ground is beaten with such a club, it’s difficult to be particular” (Ramallah 2006-2007).

My next post will contain examples related to arrests and detention of Palestinian children, the order to shoot in case of suspicion of Molotov cocktails, and the practice of documenting abuse.

First published at Electronic Intifada.
AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

Israeli forces were caught on camera when they blocked Palestinian roads in the south Hebron hills area of the occupied West Bank using Caterpillar armored bulldozers.

Caterpillar is the subject of an international divestment campaign because its equipment has been routinely used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes and other illegal activities.

Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist, was crushed to death in Gaza on 16 March 2003 by an armored Caterpillar D9-3 bulldozer as she sought to protect a Palestinian family home from destruction.

The videographer wrote to me that most of the video was filmed on 21 June on Road 317 near Bani Naim and Zif. The last part was filmed on 21 August near Shaab al-Butum. 

The video shows Israeli occupation forces using bulldozer to move large stones to block lanes coming from the Palestinian villages onto the main highway, effectively isolating them. The Caterpillar logo is visible on the bulldozers.

An Israeli court recently rejected an appeal against a military order to demolish eight Palestinian villages in the south Hebron hills so that the Israeli army could seize their land as a firing range. Such military use of Palestinian land has historically been a prelude to settlement.

Caterpillar logo on armored bulldozer (Detail from video)

Systematic blocking of movement and access
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory reported last year in a fact sheet on movement and access in the West Bank:

• 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstruct Palestinian movement in the West Bank, compared to 503 in July 2010.
• So far in 2011, an additional 495 ad-hoc ‘flying’ checkpoints obstructed movement around the West Bank each month (on average), compared to 351 in the past two years.
• 200,000 people from 70 villages are forced to use detours between two to five times longer than the direct route to their closest city due to movement restrictions.
• 122 closure obstacles shut off the Old City of Hebron from the rest of the city.

Israeli roadblocks in the occupied Palestinian territory are an obstacle for Palestinians to enjoy their basic rights, for example the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence, the right to an adequate standard of living, adequate housing and access to education and healthcare.

The role of Caterpillar machines in Israel’s violations of the basic rights of the Palestinians is yet another reason for socially responsible investors to divest from the company.

First published at The Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org