December 16, 2023
'Palestinian civilians don’t stand a
chance.'
The three Israeli hostages who were
shot and killed Friday by Israeli forces were shirtless and one of them was
waving a white flag of surrender, a military official has said. Two hostages
were killed immediately; the third was wounded and yelling for help in Hebrew
before being shot again.
The three hostages were identified
as Yotam Haim, 28, Alon Shamriz, 26, and Samer Talalka, 25.
The IDF had identified a nearby
building marked with “SOS” and “Help! Three hostages” two days earlier but had
believed it might be a trap.
Reactions around the world Saturday
moring were incredulous.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive
Director of DAWN, tweeted "Thousands (yes thousands) of Palestinians have
described how Israel fires at unarmed people who pose no threat but only when
it happens to Israelis do people believe it. We wrote a report some years ago
*specifically* on the topic of Israel shooting at Gazans waving white
flags."
B'Tselem, the Israeli Information
Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, tweeted "It is
prohibited by International Humanitarian Law (and basic moral principles) to
shoot people who yielded and carry a white flag, regardless whether they’re
combatants or not, regardless of their nationality and religion."
Owen Jones, a columnist for The
Guardian, tweeted "Three obviously unarmed shirtless Israeli hostages
yelling in Hebrew waving a white flag were shot dead by Israeli troops.
Palestinian civilians don’t stand a chance."
Hundreds of relatives and supporters
of hostages still held by Palestinian militants demonstrated outside the
Israeli ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv Friday night.
Israeli soldiers ransack West Bank theatre, beat and detain
artists
December
115, 2023
The
Israeli military’s reign of terror directed against the Palestinian
population—including its leading cultural and intellectual figures—continues
unabated. The beating and shooting of journalists, the assassination of poets,
the murder of painters and writers in air strikes—this is one distinctive
feature of the hideous face of the Netanyahu-Biden genocide in Gaza,
accompanied as well by renewed brutality and murder in the occupied West Bank.
On
Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a raid against the
Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, destroying as much
of the theatre’s equipment as the IDF thugs could get their hands on and
arresting three of its leading artists.
According
to a statement by the theatre, on the morning of December 13, “the Israeli army
began attacking and ransacking the Freedom Theatre. They shot from inside the
theatre, destroying the offices and knocking down a wall.”
Zoe
Lafferty, the theatre’s associate director, described the attack to the Middle
East Eye as a form of “cultural genocide.” The IDF “took the new computer we
bought to run our shows from,” Lafferty said. “It wasn’t expensive but it is a
huge amount of money for the Freedom Theatre. We needed to use it for the next
eight years.”
The
theatre’s statement explained that the army “then went to the homes of
[artistic director] Ahmed Tobasi and [producer and manager] Mustafa Sheta,
blindfolded, handcuffed and took them away. That evening the army went to the
home of [recently graduated acting student] Jamal Abu Joas and severely beat
him and then took him.”
The
theatre added that “We can confirm that Tobasi has been released. He is
suffering from leg and back pain where the Israeli army beat him. We will
update his condition as soon as possible.”
The
Middle East Eye commented that before detaining him, “Israeli forces made
Tobasi take off his jacket and lie in the street in the rain.” They then broke
into his home, destroying “everything they could, even taking plants and
throwing them on the ground,” the theatre added.
Upon
his release, Tobasi said, “They treated us like animals. They are trying to
hurt us in any way they can, but it’s important we stay strong.” Sheta and Joas
remain in Israeli detention as of this writing.
Sheta’s
wife, Rasha Sheta, said that her husband had been handcuffed in front of their
children. “My children spent their night crying. We felt so scared without him
being around with us,” she said in a statement.
The
theatre pointed out that this week’s attacks “follow the murder of three
members of the Freedom Theatre in the last few weeks, including 17-year-old
theatre participant Yamen Jarrar, 26-year-old Jehad Naghniyeh and 30-year-old
Mohammed Matahen. In June 2023, 15-year-old Sadeel Naghnaghia and 17-year-old
Mahmoud Al-Sadi, theatre youth participants, were also murdered. Earlier, in
July, the Freedom Theatre was damaged due to bombing, during a three-day
invasion and [theatre technician] Adnan Torokman was detained for four days by
the Israeli army.”
Various
theatres and theatre artists have denounced the attack on the Freedom Theatre.
One
of the most prestigious theatres in Europe, the Royal Court in London, released
a statement reporting that it was “shocked to learn that Mustafa Sheta &
Jamal Abu Joas of @freedom_theatre have been arrested. We demand their
immediate release. Ahmed Tobasi was also arrested & has since been
released. He is suffering injury as a result of being detained.”
The
Royal Court, its statement went on, was “also horrified to read of the attack
on the theatre, destruction of offices and assaults on staff yesterday which
followed the murder of members of the Freedom Theatre including Yamen Jarrar,
Jehad Naghniyeh and Mohammed Matahen, and the arrest of hundreds of others in
Jenin. We demand their immediate release.” The London theatre added, “We stand
together with our colleagues—the writers, artists and students—for whom the
Freedom Theatre is their creative home. We stand against the killing and
silencing of artists and the destruction that cultural sites in Gaza and the
West Bank have suffered in this war.”
The
Tara Theatre in London, which champions South Asian voices and artists, made
clear that it “continues to stand in solidarity with our friends and colleagues
at Freedom Theatre who were arrested and detained by Israeli forces. … We are
also horrified at the attack on the theatre, the raid and destruction of their
offices and the brutal violence enacted on staff.”
More
than 100 Scottish playwrights and theatre writers, including Rona Munro,
Stephen Greenhorn, Liz Lochhead, Gregory Burke, Adura Onashile, Alan Bissett,
May Sumbwanyambe and Karine Polwart have signed an open letter condemning the
attack on the Freedom Theatre.
The
letter noted that the Jenin theatre company “performed in Glasgow, at the Tron
Theatre, with their show The Siege as recently as 2015. Ahmed Tobasi performed
the show And Here I Am at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 at the New Town Theatre,
and contributed to the multi-artist celebration of Arab work Chill Habibi at
Summerhall that same year. The Freedom Theatre are valued members of our
international community. The targeting of their theatre and their violent
detainment at the hands of the Israeli military is an affront to us all.”
The
Freedom Theatre, in its statement, made the point that for decades, Palestinian
artists “have been arbitrarily detained by Israel, sometimes for years, who
also target and destroy cultural buildings, a war crime under international
law. In the last few weeks in Gaza, an unprecedented number of writers, poets,
theatremakers and journalists have been killed, including Dr. Refaat Al’Areer,
who was deliberately targeted and murdered.”
Israeli regime
assassinates journalist in Gaza amid growing threat of region-wide war
December 15, 2023
The Biden administration dispatched
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to Tel Aviv Friday to underline
Washington’s unyielding support for the Israeli regime’s genocide against the
Palestinians. As Sullivan reiterated that US imperialism places no restrictions
on Israel’s onslaught and threatened a wider war against Hizbollah and Iran,
the Israeli regime continued its savage onslaught on Gaza’s defenceless
population.
The Zionist regime’s barbarism was
demonstrated once again Friday with the targeted killing of Al Jazeera
cameraman Samer Abudaqa. Abudaqa was fatally wounded in a drone strike on a
school in Kahn Younis. His colleague, Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh,
suffered light injuries. A third journalist, Ramy Budair of the New Press
Agency, also died in Khan Younis Friday. Earlier in the conflict, Dahdouh was
forced to mourn the loss of almost his entire family following a deliberate
Israeli air strike on his house.
“The Network holds Israel
accountable for systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and
their families,” stated Al Jazeera in an official statement condemning
Abudaqa’s killing. “In today’s bombing in Khan Younis, Israeli drones fired missiles
at a school where civilians sought refuge, resulting in indiscriminate
casualties. Following Samer’s injury, he was left to bleed to death for over 5
hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching
him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment.”
Denouncing Israel for “carnage and
crimes against humanity,” the statement called for the International Criminal
Court to pursue war crimes charges. The statement noted that over 90
journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.
Dahdouh later described how the
attack unfolded as the media team accompanied a civil defence unit seeking to
evacuate a family from their destroyed home. “We captured the devastating
destruction and reached places that had not been reached by any camera lens
since the Israeli ground operation started,” he recounted. While he managed to
escape to safety, Abudaqa remained stranded. An ambulance trying to rescue the
cameraman came under fire from Israeli soldiers.
Abudaqa’s killing prompted
international outrage. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists appealed
for “international authorities to independently investigate the attack and hold
those responsible to account.” The International Federation of Journalists and
Reporters Without Borders issued their own statements condemning the deliberate
attack.
Israel has a notorious record when
it comes to the targeted killing of journalists. In May 2022, IDF snipers shot
and killed respected journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The 51-year-old
Palestinian-American reporter was covering brutal Israeli raids in the West
Bank city of Jenin for Al Jazeera when she was assassinated.
On Friday, video emerged of Israeli
security forces beating photo journalist Mustafa Haruf in East Jerusalem.
The Zionist regime’s deliberate
targeting of journalists is inseparable from its explicit policy of genocide
against the Palestinians. The savage bombardment of Gaza has officially claimed
the lives of well over 18,000 people, with an additional 7,000 people reported
missing. Some 85 percent of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been
forced to flee their homes. Using bombs supplied by the United States, the IDF
has systematically targeted academics, engineers, artists, and other prominent
Palestinians. The targeted killing earlier this month of professor and poet
Refaat al-Ar’eer provoked a wave of outrage around the globe.
The strategy of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government is to ethnically cleanse the Gaza
Strip and force the remaining inhabitants into Egypt’s Sinai Desert. The
elimination of journalists on the ground is a critical component of this plan.
The fascistic members of Netanyahu’s government hope that they can conceal the
horrendous war crimes they are committing from the world.
Sullivan left no doubt during his
visit of US imperialism’s endorsement of Israel’s savagery. There are “no
disagreements” between the White House and Netanyahu’s government that the war
in Gaza will take “months,” he told a press conference.
Reiterating the blank cheque
extended by Washington to Israel throughout the onslaught, he added, “We’re not
here to tell anybody you must do X, you must do Y.” Sullivan added that in his
meetings with Israeli government officials, he “did not hear [them]…say things
that would lead me to feel I need to answer the hypothetical question of how
Washington will respond if the current phase drags on.” In other words, Israel
can continue using US-supplied weapons to indiscriminately slaughter men,
women, and children with impunity.
Underlining the impending danger of
an escalation into a region-wide conflict, Sullivan also took aim at Hizbollah
in Lebanon and the Hauthis in Yemen. Israeli citizens from areas near the
northern border with Lebanon “have to be able to return to their homes and have
to be able to do so with a true sense of security,” Sullivan said. This entails
“dealing with the threat that comes from the other side of the border.”
Although he asserted that for the time being, Washington feels “that threat can
be dealt with through diplomacy and does not require the launching of a new
war,” he added ominously that “deterrence” is needed to send a “clear message”
to Hizbollah.
Shortly after Sullivan’s remarks,
reports emerged of the Israeli Defence Forces dropping leaflets over southern
Lebanon threatening civilians who fail to “stop” Hizbollah from “infiltrating”
the area. The IDF is currently conducting “intensive war simulations” on the
Lebanese border for mandatory and reserve troops entitled “Valuable Time.”
Some of Sullivan’s most provocative
remarks were reserved for the Houthis in Yemen, who have fired missiles at
several ships in the Red Sea bound for Israel. The Houthis are a “threat to
freedom of navigation,” he declared, and Washington “is working with the
international community, with partners from the region and from all over the
world to deal with this threat.” “While the Houthis are pulling the trigger,”
he continued, “…they’re being handed the gun by Iran.”
Coming from one of the Biden
administration’s top representatives, these statements must be taken with the
utmost seriousness. US President Joe Biden has already deployed two aircraft
carrier battlegroups to the region and a nuclear-capable submarine.
Earlier this week, Central Command
chief Erik Kurilla paid unannounced visits to Iraq and Syria to discuss
“current regional and local security concerns” with Iraqi Prime minister
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and visit “multiple bases” in Syria, according to the
Pentagon. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke by phone Friday with his
British counterpart Grant Shapps to discuss the “significant international
problem” posed by the disruption to the Red Sea, a key trade route.
The largest presence of US military
hardware in the region for decades is aimed at setting the stage for a war
engulfing the entire Middle East. Iran is viewed by American imperialism as a
major regional obstacle to the consolidation of its hegemony. Washington’s goal is to open up the Middle
East front in what is increasingly developing as a third world war to secure
the lion’s share of the spoils in a new imperialist redivision of the world.
The task of halting the
imperialists’ war plans and stopping the genocide in Gaza falls to the working
class. The mobilization of workers in every country to prevent the supply and
manufacturing of all military equipment destined for Israel must be combined
with the struggles of the working class developing in all the major imperialist
powers against the ruling elite’s attempt to make working people pay for the
war through austerity and wage cuts. This fight necessitates the construction
of a global anti-war movement guided by a socialist and internationalist
perspective.
Jewish Demonstrators Block Bridges in 8 U.S. Cities to Demand
Ceasefire in Gaza
December
15, 2023
“We
have to keep being impossible to ignore,” one of the groups organizing the
events said.
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work?
On
Wednesday evening and into the night, hundreds of demonstrators in eight cities
across the U.S. shut down bridges and highways to pressure the Biden
administration and members of Congress into demanding a permanent ceasefire in
Israel’s genocidal siege of Gaza.
Jewish
organizers and their allies gathered in Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland,
Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago. The
coordinated protest effort was organized by leaders from Jewish Voice for
Peace, Jewish Fast For Gaza, IfNotNow and other groups to take place on the
eighth day of Hanukkah, a deeply symbolic decision.
The
groups documented protesters’ actions through several social media posts.
“Tonight
hundreds of Jews + allies shut down the biggest intersection in downtown Boston
for all of rush hour,” said a post on X from IfNotNow. “Until the U.S.
government follows the will of the people and calls for a ceasefire, we have to
keep being impossible to ignore. It’s life and death.”
“The
Twin Cities have joined the nation-wide call from U.S. Jews for a permanent
ceasefire and full Palestinian freedom!” Jewish Voice for Peace said on its
social media, publishing images of the protest on the Franklin Avenue Bridge in
Minneapolis.
The Twin Cities have joined the nation-wide
call from U.S. Jews for a permanent ceasefire and full Palestinian freedom!
@jvptwincities is shutting down the Franklin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis to
say: stop the genocide!
Activists
in Portland blocked traffic on the Burnside Bridge, using a giant menorah “to
rekindle their commitment to a liberated Palestine,” Jewish Voice for Peace
wrote in another post.
“On
the last day of Hanukkah, we are rising up to say: CEASEFIRE NOW, Palestinians
should be free,” Jewish Voice for Peace-Atlanta said, posting images of their
protest on the Jackson Street Bridge.
The
acts of civil disobedience led to multiple arrests. More than 30 were arrested
at the Spring Garden Street Bridge in Philadelphia, for example, where around
200 activists had gathered.
“This
is how we celebrate Hanukkah this year. This year means disrupting business as
usual,” Rabbi Alissa Wise, the lead organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire, said at
that event.
According
to a press release from Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, more than 300
demonstrators attended the protest at the Washington Street Bridge in that
city, blocking traffic at the downtown location. Thirteen people were arrested
for taking part in the protest meant to draw attention to Israel’s relentless
attacks on Gaza, which have killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians so far.
The
demonstration in Chicago, organized by a coalition including Jewish Fast for
Gaza, JVP Chicago and IfNotNow Chicago, was aimed at “rededicating” the last
night of Hanukkah to a ceasefire. Participants chanted and sang protest songs
throughout the night, showcasing their opposition to Biden and Congress’s
support for the genocide as the Israeli military kills thousands of
Palestinians each week using weapons provided by the U.S.
“Through
the spiritual language of song, we loudly and clearly say that Jewish values do
not support senseless killing,” said Eli Newell from IfNotNow. “We are here
today to sing and to say, ‘not in our name.'”
Rabbi
Brant Rosen, co-founder of Jewish Fast For Gaza, explained in a statement why
Jewish organizers in the U.S. chose the eighth night of Hanukkah to speak out
against the atrocities that have continued day and night in Gaza since October
7. Said Rosen:
According to the Hanukkah story, the Maccabees rededicated the Temple in
Jerusalem after it had been defiled. By gathering to light the menorah this
Hanukkah we are protesting the defiling of sacred Jewish tradition and Jewish
memory by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. In so doing, we are rededicating
ourselves to our solidarity with the Palestinian people — and all oppressed
people struggling to be free.
Before
their protest at the bridge, the Chicago protesters held a vigil at Daley
Plaza, rededicating a 31-foot menorah there “to the struggle against Israel’s
genocide, apartheid and occupation of Palestine,” the coalition’s press release
stated.
Chicago Jews call for a #CeaseFireNOW. On this final night of Hannukah,
we are gathered together to demand an end to the funding of violence against
Gaza. #NotInOurName #HanukkahForCeaseFire pic.twitter.com/sQWGaBLDs3
Demonstrators
also marched to the Boeing Building to demonstrate against that company’s
sending of military weapons to Israel. Participants projected the words
“Permanent Ceasefire Now” onto the side of the Boeing building.
“We
are specifically calling out Boeing for profiting off weapons that are — at
this very moment — being used by the Israeli military to kill and maim
Palestinians in Gaza,” Rosen told Truthout. “According to Amnesty
International, Boeing weapons have destroyed entire families. As Americans,
their blood is on our hands. As American Jews, our Hanukkah protest is a
collective call to action and conscience: ‘Not in our name!'”
Aaron
Niederman, an organizer with IfNotNow-Chicago, spoke to Truthout about his
experience during the demonstration in the Windy City.
“Today
was a day filled with mixed emotions. It’s the eighth night of Hanukkah and
typically a time that is spent with family celebrating, giving gifts and eating
fried foods. Instead, I joined a larger community of Jews demonstrating for a
ceasefire,” Niederman said.
Niederman
elaborated:
The program’s tone was a mix of somber mourning for the Palestinian and
Israeli lives lost, anger for the continued devastation in Gaza funded by the
US government, and some celebration as we joined together in song with children
and families present. We then took to the streets, marching to Boeing’s
offices. We chanted “Let Gaza live” and “Ceasefire now” as we proceeded along
the sidewalk. I felt nervous, anticipating the direct action to follow, but
comforted by familiar faces around me and knowledge of how much organizing
there was to put this all together.
“After
being involved in the planning of the action and seeing it come to fruition, I
felt proud of the execution and happy to rededicate the holiday to such a
worthy cause — advocacy for a lasting ceasefire, the end of U.S. support for
Israeli occupation and apartheid, and equality, justice, and a thriving future
for all Palestinians and Israelis,” he added.
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