49 comments

1. Could be in danger and is in danger are two different animals. Tamimi quite safely assaulted an Israel soldier. As Israel maintains the most humane (within reason) armed force in the world, there was no physical retaliation. If she assaulted a soldier in any Islamic state or any other (what used to be known as 2nd and 3rd world) state, she might be dead… or worse.

   Regardless, criminals are criminals, even if they are a 16 year old girl who is used as a propaganda machine by her parents, and will be treated as such. Publicizing this incident as being worth intervention is ludicrous and typical Islamist propaganda.

   1. Jack, if you call Ahed a “criminal” because she slapped an occupation soldier, what would you call the occupation soldier who shot a young boy in the face? what would you call illegal Israeli settlers who are attacking aboriginal Palestinians in their villages?

      1. In any state on Earth it is a crime to assault a soldier. We, but especially you, have no clue as to what exactly happened that caused the soldier to shoot whoever you at referring.

         Whether or not the Settler is their illegally is a matter of international law. You know little of that also. Whether or not the Arab in a village is an aborigine is also unknown to you. Regardless, anyone attacking a person is likely engaged in criminal activity. That is why there are so many Arab Muslims in Israeli jails.

      2. @New Canadian

         Nebi Saleh is split between Area-B and Area-C. I’ll assume her house is in Area-B but I haven’t gotten clarity on this yet.

         what would you call the occupation soldier who shot a young boy in the face?

         Depends where he did it. If it was in Area-C then someone who never should have been tasked with law enforcement in the first place and yet one more example why military forces shouldn’t be engaging in law enforcement. If Area-B then who knows. But the most common term would be a solider dispatching an enemy militant interfering with a military operation occurring on occupied territory.

         what would you call illegal Israeli settlers who are attacking aboriginal Palestinians in their villages

         A fabrication using language of someone deeply confused about what various terms mean. I think what you meant is something like: “What would you call emigrants from Israel who have immigrated to Palestine and attack people who go back at least another century in their residency.” And the answer to that I would call them would be people involved in an ethnic conflict in the state of Palestine. Not something that should be of concern when discussing Israel anymore than ethnic conflict in Thailand is.

         Now if you want to start using language more reflective of reality rather than continuing to believe in Narnia, then the question would read something like, “what would you call Israelis living in the part of Israel governed by the Area-C military dictatorship who are attacking ethnic Palestinians”. And my answer would be people desperately in need of an end to the legal ambiguity caused by UN and previous USA policy so that proper civil courts can address the respective property claims and proper police can prosecute any Jews who engage in criminal activities.

      3. I commend you for taking the time to clarify the situation. Your patience amazes me.

   2. Here she is Attacking a soldier earlier that day. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42535685

   3. Jack there is nothing safe about the constant and threatening presence of heavily armed soldiers invading your home and your land. If Israel would just abide by international law there would be no need for military presence. It’s Israel’s and by extension the world’s indifference that has normalized this absurd reality. The settlements have been deemed illegal by international law so your dismissal of this fact is insane.

      1. The Rome statute was written specifically to charge Israel as the settlements are not illegal under international law previous to that. Both Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon condemned the International community for its bias against Israel. You cannot expect Israel to adhere to biased laws.

         Continued violence from the Islamic Arab communities living in the disputed territories, encouraged by their leaders, demands that the IDF be heavily armed.

         The world is not indifferent. The world is weary of a group that decapitates babies and blames “occupation.”

      2. @Tonya

         Correction. The settlements have been deemed illegal by the UN. International law completely contradicts the UN position that what is going on in Area-C is an occupation at all. International law is what your side in the debate dismisses.

   4. It’s bad enough we get daily lies out of Israel about all things Palestinian, but to have put up with that rhetoric from it’s apologist here in Canada is pathetic.

      It was the Israeli military and government who turned this young girl’s action into an international “propaganda machine” and now apparently not a few Israeli’s realize the foolishness of displaying a child as a war criminal about to be forced into a show trial.

      I do understand the soldier is expected to recover from the slap heard around the world. Maybe the young girl didn’t realize that all Israeli soldiers stationed on Palestinian lands are protected from all forms of punishment except a slap on the wrist regardless of circumstances.

   5. @Jack Frank Sigman

      You live in a hasbara induced fantasy world.

      “As Israel maintains the most humane (within reason) armed force in the world…”

      A brief look at Reality:

      Video: ‘Stone Cold Justice’ on Israel’s torture of Palestinian children

      “A film produced by a group of Australian journalists has sparked an international outcry against Israel after it explicitly detailed Tel Aviv’s use of torture against Palestinian children.

      “The film, titled ‘Stone Cold Justice’ documents how Palestinian children, who have been arrested and detained by Israeli forces, are subjected to physical abuse, torture and forced into false confessions and pushed into gathering intelligence on Palestinian activists. Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop has spoken out against Israeli’s use of torture stating that ‘I am deeply concerned by allegations of the mistreatment of Palestinian children,’ Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor has described the human rights abuses documented in the film as ‘intolerable.’ But rights groups have slammed this statement, saying that the Israelis are doing nothing to change Tel Aviv’s policy to torture Palestinian children.

      “Last year a report by the United Nations International Emergency Children’s Fund or UNICEF concluded that Palestinian children are often targeted in night arrests and raids of their homes, threatened with death and subjected to physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault. The film Stone Cold Justice has sparked an international outcry about Israel’s treatment of children in Israeli jails. However, rights groups have criticized Tel Aviv for not doing anything to create a policy that protects Palestinian children against arbitrary arrest and torture.”

      Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uDPeeD_RPk
      Precarious Childhood: Arrests of Jerusalemite Children
      This film addresses the process of arrest, interrogation, and the policy of house arrest and their effects on children. The film provides accounts of children who were arrested in order to highlight a larger policy of persecution and targeting of Palestinian children in Jerusalem.

      Eminent Jewish Israeli journalist Bradley Burston aptly sums up the horrors Israel inflicts on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem:
      “Occupation is Slavery”
      EXCERPT:
      “In the name of occupation, generation after generation of Palestinians have been treated as property. They can be moved at will, shackled at will, tortured at will, have their families separated at will. They can be denied the right to vote, to own property, to meet or speak to family and friends. They can be hounded or even shot dead by their masters, who claim their position by biblical right, and also use them to build and work on the plantations the toilers cannot themselves ever hope to own. The masters dehumanize them, call them by the names of beasts.” (Haaretz, Feb. 26/13)

      Re: The Gaza Strip
      Video: http://obliteratedfamilies.com/en/story/shuheibar/

   6. That is such a horrible way of thinking. We are all called to stand up for justice.

   7. Simple 2 facts: Israeli soldiers are occupying Palestinian land. Palestinians have the right to defend themselves. If interested to understand better the situation, read this:

      “Nabi Saleh Is Where I Lost My Zionism”

      http://lobelog.com/nabi-saleh-is-where-i-lost-my-zionism/

      and this:

      “Forget the ‘slippery slope’ — Israel already is an apartheid state”
      Neil Macdonald, CBC News

      It is shameful that there are still people who would justify apartheid practices by Israel and the assault on aboriginal Palestinian families and children.

2. PLEASE READ THIS!
   So well said by the veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz newspaper.
   jake.

   Opinion And if Ahed Tamimi Were Your Daughter?

   How is it that Israelis are totally indifferent to the plight of the blond girl behind bars who could easily be their child?

   Gideon Levy Dec 31, 2017 11:40 AM
   0comments Print Zen
   4489share on facebook Tweet send via email reddit stumbleupon

   Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli Prison Service personnel at Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 28. Ammar Awad/Reuters
   Opinion My daughter, these are tears of struggle
   Amira Hass In Nabi Saleh, the Palestinians aren’t legally blonde
   Opinion A girl’s chutzpah: Three reasons a Palestinian teenage girl is driving Israel insane
   For the past two weeks, she has burst into Israelis’ living rooms every few days through another perfunctory report on the extension of her arrest. Once again, we see the golden curls; once again, we see the Botticelli figure in the brown Shin Bet security service uniform and the handcuffs, looking more like a girl from Ramat Hasharon than a girl from Nabi Saleh.

   Yet even Ahed Tamimi’s “non-Arab” appearance hasn’t managed to touch any hearts here. The wall of dehumanization and demonization that has been built through vile campaigns of incitement, propaganda and brain-washing against the Palestinians has trumped even the blonde from Nabi Saleh.

   skip – fb

   >> “Although it’s Ahed’s first arrest, she’s no stranger to your prisons. My daughter has spent her whole life under the heavy shadow of the Israeli prison. I’m proud of her. She is a freedom fighter who will lead the resistance to Israeli rule” (Read Bassem Tamimi’s full letter) >>

   She could be your daughter, or your neighbor’s daughter, yet the abuse she suffers rouses no feelings of solidarity, compassion or basic humanity. After the outburst of anger over what she dared to do came the imperviousness. She’s a “terrorist.” She couldn’t have been our daughter; she’s a Palestinian.

   Nobody asks himself what would have happened if Tamimi had been his daughter. Wouldn’t you have been proud of her, like her father, who, in an op-ed that commands respect, voiced that pride. Wouldn’t you have wanted a daughter like that, who exchanged her nonexistent youth for a courageous struggle for liberty? Or would you have preferred a daughter who was a collaborator? Or simply empty-headed?

   And what would you have felt if soldiers from a foreign army had invaded your home at night, kidnapped your daughter from her bed before your very eyes, handcuffed and arrested her for a lengthy period, simply because she slapped the soldier who invaded her home, and slapped the occupation, which deserves far more than slaps?

   These questions don’t bother anyone. Tamimi is a Palestinian, that is to say, a terrorist, and therefore, she doesn’t deserve any feelings of sympathy. Nothing will crack the defensive shield that protects Israelis from feelings of guilt, or at least discomfort, over her outrageous arrest, over the discrimination by the justice system, which would never have paid any attention to her had she been a Jewish settler.

   Ahed Tamimi AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP
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   Even the independent hand of the judge, Maj. Haim Balilti, didn’t shake when he determined that the “danger” posed by Tamimi, an unarmed girl of 16, justifies her continued detention. The judge, too, is just a small cog in the machine, someone who does his job and returns to his own daughters and sons at night proud of his day’s contemptible work.

   Israel hides behind an iron curtain that it’s no longer possible to pierce. Nothing Israel does to the Palestinians is still capable of rousing any compassion. Not even the poster girl, Tamimi. Even if she were sentenced to life in prison for a slap, even if she were sentenced to death, her punishment would be greeted with either open joy or indifference. There is no place for any other human emotion toward any Palestinian.

   Organizations representing the disabled, which have waged an impressive battle for their own rights, didn’t utter a peep when an Israel Defense Forces sniper killed a disabled man, a double amputee, in a wheelchair in the Gaza Strip with a shot to the head. Women’s organizations, which fight forcefully and aggressively against all sexual harassment, have yet to rise up in wrath against the closure of the case of a Palestinian detainee who claimed she was raped by a Border Policeman. And Knesset members haven’t protested the shameful political arrest of their colleague, Khalida Jarrar, whose detention without trial was once again extended last week for another six months.

   If even Tamimi doesn’t manage to rouse feelings of solidarity, shock or guilt here, then the process of denial, concealment and repression – the occupation’s most important enterprise, after the settlements – is finally complete. Never has there been such horrifying apathy here, never have the self-deception and the lies prevailed here so completely and never have there been so few moral qualms here in the face of injustice. Never has incitement won out so completely.

   Israelis are no longer capable of identifying with a brave girl, even when she looks like their daughters, just because she’s Palestinian. There are no longer any Palestinians who can touch Israelis’ hearts. There is no injustice that can still rouse our conscience, which has been completely extinguished.

   Do not disturb; our hearts and minds are sealed shut in a terrifying way.

   Gideon Levy

   Haaretz Correspondent

   1. Thank you Mr Levy. You keep raising your voice; you may just open the hearts that you say are ‘sealed shut’

      1. No hearts open when all that is proposed is propaganda that is so hollow as to be laughable.

3. Sorry for duplications!

   Please, consider to respond and write to Ms. Freeland (cc. to Mr. Trudeau).

   R.

   >

   1. If I wrote, it would be to encourage Canada to support Israel’s right to arrest criminals.

      1. @Jack Frank Sigman

         And such “criminals” are PM Bibi Netanyahu and his cabinet, members of Israel’s government and armed forces, Jewish settlers in belligerently, illegally occupied Palestinian lands, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem along with those living in Syria’s Golan Heights, which is also illegally occupied by Israel. Nor should we forget that under international law (e.g., the Fourth Geneva Convention/Collective Punishment), Israel is still illegally occupying the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

         For the record:

         (A) In the summer of 1967, “[t]he legal counsel of the Foreign Ministry, Theodor Meron, was asked [by then Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol] whether international law allowed settlement in the newly conquered land. In a memo marked ‘Top Secret,’ Meron wrote unequivocally: ‘My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.’” (New York Times, 10 March 2006)

         (B) Security Council Resolution 446 (22 March 1979) “[Affirms] once more that the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 is applicable to the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem,
         “1. Determines that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;..”

         (C) Security Council Resolution 465 (1 March 1980) “determines that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity…”

         (D) Israel’s 1980 annexation of East Jerusalem was rejected by the UN Security Council in Resolution 476 (June 30, 1980): “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the Occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

         (E ) On 17 December 1981, the UNSC unanimously passed Resolution 497, which declared Israel’s 14 December 1981 annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights “null and void.”

         (F) In accordance with the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, ratified by Israel, and further underscoring the illegality of the settlements, Part 2, Article 8, section B, paragraph viii of the Rome Statute of the International Court (1998) defines “the transfer directly or indirectly by the Occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies ” as a War Crime, indictable by the International Criminal Court.

         (G) On 24 February 2004, the U.S. State Department reaffirmed its earlier position in a report entitled Israel and the Occupied Territories, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: “Israel occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights after the 1967 War…. The international community does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over any part of the occupied territories.”

         (H) In its 2004 ruling, the International Court of Justice unanimously ruled that “No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal.” The World Court denoted this principle a “corollary” of the U.N. Charter and as such “customary international law” and a “customary rule” binding on all member States of the United Nations.

         (I) US Secretary of State, John Kerry: “The US views all of the settlements as illegitimate.” (13 August 2013, Reuters Video)

         (J) British Foreign Secretary William Hague regarding Jewish settlements in the West Bank (5 April 2011): “This is not disputed territory. It is occupied Palestinian territory and ongoing settlement expansion is illegal under international law…”

         (K) UN Security Council Resolution 2334, December 23, 2016: “Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirming, inter alia, the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force,
         “Reaffirming the obligation of Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and recalling the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice,
         “Condemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions,….”
         “1. Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;
         “2. Reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard;
         “3. Underlines that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem,…

         Jack, I can assure you that there is no special provision in international law that enables Israel to violate it with impunity. Indeed, as a member of the UN, Israel is bound to comply with the UN Charter, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute.

         You really must get educated!!

      2. You forgot part of your letter. Here is the full text

         If I wrote, it would be to encourage Canada to support Israel’s right to arrest criminals outside of its borders. .

4. If I were to write, it would be for Canada to support Israel’s right to arrest criminals.

5. I strongly disagree with your disclaimer welcoming Zionist opinions in this forum. There is no place on earth for a racist, supremacist settler colonial ideology based on myth and lies akin to Naziism. Naziism was dismantled in post WWII Germany and it’s about time that Zionism was dismantled in Israel so that Palestinians can finally get equality, justice and liberation they so rightly deserve.

   1. This is why there will never be peace. This is why the IDF will always be heavily armed.

      1. Just like the Nazis.

   2. Hey Tanya, Thanks for your comment in which you object to allowing Zionists to express their opinions. I know that there are lots of people who believe in human rights for Palestinians who don’t agree with me on this point, but I think it is important.

      Here is the issue as I see it. Most Jews in Canada agree with the Zionist idea. I know many of them, and many are decent Canadians who in most respects are as concerned about human rights and equality as you and I. But the trauma of the holocaust, and their fear for what might happen to Jews in the future overrides their natural liberalism when it comes to Israel/Palestine.

      So I think we have to be open to having a serious discussion with serious Zionists.

      However, I do agree with you when it comes to Zionists who don’t want to really “discuss’ – who just want to “joust”. That is not a good expenditure of time.

      I am afraid that several of the people who comment on this page are of the second type. I fear that if they continue in the same vein, I will have to exclude them from commenting further as they are not really interested in discussion. PEL

      1. And you feeling about antisemites like Sam? Also about people like Tanya who compare Jews to Nazis, which most agree is antisemitic in nature. And why do you say that those who defend Zionism and Israel from double standard and borderline antisemitic attack are “jousting” while those supporting Islamist inspired terrorism and the like are merely “discussing?”

         I understand this is your bully pulpit and that you have the right to portray your propaganda supporting your side, but don’t you think defending a family trained propagandist like Tamimi is going a bit too far? Slapping a heavily armed soldier is not non-violent protest. It was done to provoke a violent response and publicity. It disarms your side of the “discussion.”

      2. Peter I’ve encountered too many Zionists of the second kind to be open the opinions of the so-called decent ones. Zionism in theory is fine, but in practice over the last 70 years and still to this day is one of the worst injustices committed against the Palestinians in modern history.

      3. I agree with you Peter; we are discussing a subject where, on both sides, emotions are high. I shall avoid ad hominem attacks in future and expect the opposing side to do the same.

   3. Thank you Tanya. As they say ‘no justice, no peace’

      1. body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}Some reason why you blasted these antisemitic comments to me, 2 years late with no ability to respond?

      2. Hey Jack, I was not trying to provoke you.
         I was cleaning up some old files from this WordPress account, and found a number of “comments” which I had never seen because they had been sent without my knowledge into a “trash” account. That included a number I didn’t personally agree with, but, because they were serious, i decided to put them back into the “approved” section

   4. Tanya, in 1991 the UN which you ostensibly rely on when it fits your agenda overwhelmingly voted to revoke a 1975 resolution that equated Zionism with racism.
      Zionism is the right of the Jewish people to live as a sovereign nation autonomously in their ancestral homeland. The Jewish population of the modern state of Israel before the turn of the last century far exceeded the Arab population. Jews maintained a strong presence there even after the destruction of the Temple and the diaspora. One cannot be settlers or colonisers of their own land.
      Comparing Jews and/or Israelis to Nazis is itself a form of antisemitism under multiple definitions including the EU’s. .

      Please see: https://www.adl.org/education/resources/fact-sheets/response-to-common-inaccuracy-israel-acts-like-nazis

      1. Mr. Halprin,

         Zionism is a movement for the development of a Jewish nation in what was called Palestine, not a right.

         One has to be careful with phrases such as “their own land.”. I do not own any of the land once occupied by my ancestors. A person only “owns” land that belonged to someone else if it was transferred to them by an owner. Land that has been abandoned willfully, e.g. by emigrants is usually considered up for grabs and a new owner is assigned. Israel extends this to land that was owned by people whom they do not allow to return. (Absentee’s Property).

         Given this policy, it seems inconsistent to refer to land now occupied by people who came from abroad, most of whom could not even name an ancestor who had owned that landl, as “their own land”.

6. This is what the Tamimi issue is all about:

   “The children are used to try to provoke Israeli Border Police and soldiers. If the provocation is successful, which it almost never is, they get a photo of an Israeli being brutal towards a child. In almost every case, though, there is no reaction from the soldiers, so the video and photos are spun as reflecting “brave” Palestinian children and the “weak” Israeli soldiers.”

   https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/12/ahed-tamimi-case-is-about-child-exploitation-by-anti-israel-activists/

   1. Another lie perpetrated by the Israeli propaganda machine. Again if Israel would just abide by international law and UN resolutions there would be no brutal military occupation, no illegal settlers to protect, no theft of land and resources reserved for a future Palestinian state. Instead the military presence is intended to intimidate, humiliate and inflict psychological trauma on Palestinians who just want to live in peace. Children must be children and allowed to walk to school or play without being harassed and shot at daily by heavily armed soldiers.

   2. Some look at a picture of an unarmed Ahed Tamimi expressing her anger and fear to a much larger, much stronger, and heavily armed soldier and see a provocateur. I see a helpless child unable to deal with the the fact that she is helpless, has no recourse against injustice, and can never be free.

7. How much death and destruction did the Middle East see in thousands of years; almost nil;

   Gotta love this gem.

8. The torturous history of the Jews in the West goes back centuries culminating in the holocaust where millions were killed. To those who survived, they offered no guarantees of safety and security but said, ok now pack your bags and go we’ve given you a homeland.
   It was without doubt one of the world’s worst cases of ethnic cleansing. So it really strains the human conscience that a people who suffered so much through history would then unleash a reign of terror on people in another part of the world; people who had zilch to do with crimes committed against them. Demonizing and dehumanizing the Palestinians is a convenient tool to then commit excesses against them. When you strip others of their humanity, then you can hear the familiar chants of “kill the Arabs” .

   1. There is no doubt that antisemites are the most ignorant fools in human history. Here is one such who has just stated the approximately 750,000 Arabs who fled portions of British Mandate Palestine with the loss of 6,000 people was worse than the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Europe wherein approximately 6 MILLION where murdered under German Nazi leadership.

      1. Jack Frank Sigman

         And if those six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis could some how have risen from their graves and witnessed the horrors perpetrated against Palestine’s indigenous Arab inhabitants by foreign Jews, I have no doubt they would have been the first to condemn Zionism and its spawn, Israel.

      2. The technical term for this sordid attempt to deflect is ‘whataboutism’. I should be more impressed by your contributions if you even once conceded that the zionist project by its very nature – ethnic cleansing Palestinians to create land for Jewish-only settlement – is contrary to professed western liberal values. Noone is fooled by your pathetic attempts to spin this ineluctable crime at the heart of your coldblooded ideology.

      3. It’s frankly ludicrous that someone feels the need to lash out in defence of the viciousness of the Apartheid regime in Israel by branding anyone who raises issues about that country’s treatment of it’s Arab minority an “anti-Semite”.

         The very narrow definition of the term “semite” to mean exclusively Jews rather than a language grouping including Hebrew, and most Arab languages, is a false construct intentionally popularized by Zionists when that Jewish political group was founded in the late 19th century.

         Rather sad when I read of my fellow Canadians using the term as a weapon to beat upon anyone who questions their take on a terrible international political crisis that has played out in headlines almost daily since my own birth in the late ’40s.

         Equally in sadness is the fact my own country which boasts of its determination to defend it’s own brand of democracy steeped in equality, would almost religiously look the other way when very pressing concerns are raised about Apartheid and other forms of collective punishment against Palestinians by Israel.

         I know from the emails that fill my inbox daily from Jewish groups across North America and beyond that a great many of them stand with the Palestinians and against the Israeli government as run by Netanyahu.

      4. Allan,
         Let’s not get caught up in the old, sorry, and deflecting argument of what anti-Semite means. A rose by any other name. For the purpose of this discussion, I’ll refer to people who make charges of apartheid as woefully ignorant or Jew haters.

         Here’s a piece from the NY Times that disabuses the allegation of apartheid wrt to Israel. And it has real credibility given that its written by someone who lived under the apartheid regime in South Africa and now lives in Israel. I expect that’s far more familiarity than someone like you who hews to ant-Israel bias dressed up in the rhetoric of human rights. Rather sad when I read of my fellow Canadians using the term as a weapon to beat upon the Jewish state.

         As for Jewish groups that support the Palestinians. Yes, Jews, most Jews support the right of the Palestinians to a state. That is not the same as denying Israel’s right to exist. And its quite unlike the majority of Arabs and Muslims who not only deny the legitimacy of Israel but also engage in Jew hatred.

         What say you of the apartheid practised throughout the Middle East? What say you of the PA’s assertion that when a Palestinian state is created it will be judenrein?

         http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24014/Default.aspx

      5. The very nature of the Zionist project was a Jewish state wherein Jews would be able to live as Jews without fear of violent bigotry. That the Arabs violently and murderously attacked the Jews on the cusp of this reality is likely the reason why, after four months of defensive action and shortly before the known coming war with the Arab states, the Jews decided to empty the immediate rear lines of Arabs.

         Was this a crime at the time or merely the unfortunate activity demanded in a war of defense? It does not matter.

   2. Sam,
      You should do some research on the Grand Mufti and Hitler. They were great friends. The Mufti claimed the Arabs and the Jews had the same enemies- the Jews. The plan was to exterminate them in both Europe and the Middle East. Not exactly “zilch.”
      As for ” familiar chants”- google “Kill the Jews”. Its an Arab and Muslim one.

   3. Sam

      Well and truly stated!!

9. Give your head a shake. The girl is 18 years old and a practised liar and fomenter.

   https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-the-truth-about-pallywoods-soldier-slapping-starlet/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Arab+Attackers+Force+Ultra-Orthodox+Jews+to+%E2%80%98Convert+to+Islam%E2%80%99%3B+The+Palestinians%E2%80%99+Blonde-Haired%2C+Blue-Eyed%2C+Soldier-Slapping+Starlet&utm_campaign=20180102_m143425015_Arab+Attackers+Force+Ultra-Orthodox+Jews+to+%E2%80%98Convert+to+Islam%E2%80%99%3B+The+Palestinians%E2%80%99+Blonde-Haired%2C+Blue-Eyed%2C+Soldier-Slapping+Starlet&utm_term=WATCH_3A+The+Truth+About+the+Palestinians_E2_80_99+Blonde-Haired_2C+Blue-Eyed_2C+Soldier-Slapping+St

10. Massive illegal and immoral human rights violations of Ahed Tammimi and the hundreds of other Palestinian children inprisont and indeed all Palestinian children under occupation or in exile by Israeli police and judicial authorities will only end when the occupation is terminated and replaced by two equal states, Israel and Palestine, managing their own security and goverenance and fully respecting minority rights, with their capitals in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem respectively, and with all children of every faith having equal access to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites under international UN administration. There would be masive advantages for Israeli children as well since they would be educated in a much more tolerant atmosphere of cooperation with their Palestinian counterparts and when older would not have to face having to enforce an occupation and human rights violations of Palestinians and their children (as demonstrated by draft resistors and the 68 israeli high school students who recently refused to serve) and not have to face universal international criticism and exclusion and the direct violence that is produced by the Palestinian resistance which is always termed by the Israelis as “terrorism” even when it is only a defiant slap of an Israeli soldier.. That a settlement of the Israel Palestine conflict along these lines would benefit both Israeli and Palestinian children should be a major impetus for its advocacy by countries like Canada if normal behaviour pevailed pertaining to choild welfare.

    George Jacoby

11. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.832783?utm_content=%2Fopinion%2F.premium-1.832783&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_campaign=newsletter-most-read

    “Ahed Tamimi, the Teenage Girl Who Refuses to Be Israel’s Compliant Palestinian”
    “While Donald Trump’s tweets blow up the last illusions of a two-state future that Israel rejected long ago, a 16 year-old has the courage the Palestinian leadership lacks: To declare that action, not negotiations, will bring us freedom.”
    By Diana Buttu . Jan 03, 2018 – Haaretz.

    EXCERPT:
    “Ahed Tamimi has been indicted. The teen, who was picked up in a night raid on her town more than three weeks ago, has been held in prison ever since.

    “The charges levied against her – incitement and slapping a heavily armed soldier – do not match the severity with which she has been treated: Shackled, isolated from her family and with politicians and journalists calling for her eternal detention, or, even worse, that she be
    “‘dealt with in the dark.’ ”

    “Based on Israel’s 99.2 percent conviction rate for Palestinian youth, Ahed will likely be convicted and will likely serve time in prison. But while her official charges are assault, Ahed’s real crime is more basic: Shaming Israel’s occupation and refusing to bow down to Israeli dictats.

    “Ahed has spent her entire life not only living under Israeli military rule, but under the guise of Oslo and the false promises of negotiations.

    “She has never seen a day without Israeli checkpoints blocking her movement, without Israeli settlers stealing her land and without seeing the army trample upon her village – often in the dead of night – to kill, maim and injure her loved ones.

    “But, alongside these daily acts of aggression, she has, in her short lifetime, had to endure talk of a ‘peace process’ and of ‘negotiations’ towards a ‘two-state solution’ – but never ‘freedom’”.

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