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‘And No One Wants to Know’: Israeli Soldiers on the Occupation

David Shulman – The New York Review of Books – The information was meticulously checked and re-checked for accuracy; there is no mistaking the ring of truth in the reports, which reveal consistent patterns, and thus have a powerful cumulative force. To read them is to see the profound moral corruption of the occupation in all its starkness. They show us ordinary, decent young soldiers, caught up in an impossible situation, sometimes trying desperately to make sense of that situation, but mostly following their orders without question. In a number of cases, those interviewed have clearly been psychologically and spiritually scarred by their participation in horrific events of which they had little understanding at the time.

Dozens Of Palestinians Injured in East Jerusalem Clashes

Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – The sources stated that 13 residents, including 4 pregnant women, were wounded in Shu`fat and were moved to a local medical center. Most of the injuries resulted from inhaling gas fired by the army, and rubber-coated bullets.

`Good hit. Alpha.`

Amira Hass – Haaretz – T. asks his audience: “Who knows who Salah Shehadeh is? Salah Shehadeh is the Hamas chief of staff. In 2002 there`s Sheikh Yassin, he`s the spiritual leader, and there`s Salah Shehadeh, the military commander. [The base commander] told me it was Salah Shehadeh, and I said, Great. I have no idea who or what you`re talking about. We made a good hit, `alpha` in air force jargon, and that`s it, we went to bed. The next day, actually the same day, we`re told that the strike killed Salah, his wife, his daughter, his son and others … That`s the subject. And I fired …

I get a closeup picture of the health care system and women’s lives in Palestine

Alice Rothchild – Mondoweiss – The incredible fragmentation of care between PMRS, the Ministry of Health, UNRWA (for refugees), and the private sector is staggering. Pregnant patients may get free care at an UNRWA clinic, but stop in at PMRS for a prenatal ultrasound. Labs are done at a variety of locations (with variations in quality) so communication and follow up are problematic. Some of the private care that patients reported is best described as creative and unrelated to general medical practice, but clearly lucrative. –

Hebron Reflexion : They left their mark everywhere

Paulette Schroeder – CPTnet – One week after they had arrested her sons, the military came for the mother. She remained in prison for 26 days. When asked how the soldiers treated her, she said they “used words that no woman should hear.” At one point, they ordered her to strip, then checked her private areas, using a detector on some places of her naked body. She said that if the soldiers did this to a woman in prison, what must her sons be experiencing.

Israel`s Labor party not to be mourned 

Jonathan Cook – The Electronic Intifada – But peace failed to materialize, and the settlements` continuing expansion steadily eroded the Palestinians` belief in Israel`s good faith. Labor`s last shot at peace-making was the Camp David summit of 2000. When Barak, as prime minister, failed to reach a final-status agreement with the Palestinians, claiming there was “no partner,” he killed off Israel`s fickle peace camp and made his party politically irrelevant again.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reports on ongoing seige of Gaza and anti-democratic onslaught on Israeli Rights Community

Hadas Ziv – Physicians for Human Rights – Dr. Sara Roy of Harvard University, comments: “The greatest and most damaging aspect of Israeli policy has been the transformation of Palestinians in Gaza especially, from a people entitled to, and capable of, national self-determination and developmental change into a group of aid-dependent paupers worthy only of the humanitarian minimum.”

Symbolism isn`t Everything…But it is Something 

Joharah Baker – MIFTAH – As for symbols such as the Palestinian flag waving over the PLO mission in Washington DC, I can say this. While most people take the sight of their national flags for granted, we Palestinians have never had this luxury. That is why it is an accomplishment – however symbolic – to see it flying in the US capital even if this has not changed the status quo of the Palestinians vis-א-vis its relationship with the US. If nothing else, it is a reminder that, “yes, we are still here and we are not going anywhere.”

Al Araqib Residents Expelled To Make Way for Trees

Hithabrut-Tarrabut – Press release – On Sunday, January 16th, 2011, the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) accompanied by a heavy police presence destroyed the Bedouin village of Al Araqib for the 9th time since its total destruction in July 2010. During the village`s destruction the police forces used large amounts of violent force, including sponge bullets (a police method of crowd dispersal) which injured eleven of the residents, one of them in his eye.

Israeli Settler Right Bullies Rabbi Ascherman, Protesting at His Home

Richard Silverstein – Tikun Olam – This is the same type of hooliganism the Israeli right has used over the years against the activist community. They did the same to Naomi Hazan after Im Tirzu decorated her image with a rhino horn and ridiculed her as a supporter of Hamas and Israeli traitor. And of course, the height of such incitement was in the lead up to Yizhak Rabin’s assassination when the Israeli right massed in downtown Jerusalem baying for the prime minister’s blood. Many will remember the leading politician who, like a Roman emperor at the Coliseum, gave Rabin a thumbs down from a downtown Jerusalem balcony that night: Bibi Netanyahu.

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections