Massacre at Gaza’s Borders: We Will Not Be Silent – End Israeli Impunity

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Massacre at Gaza’s Borders: We Will Not Be Silent – End Israeli Impunity

April 2, 2018 10:57

 

Agence Media Palestine (France)

On Land Day, March 30, thousands of peaceful, hopeful and unarmed Palestinian women, men and children gathered at the borders of Gaza for the Great March of Return. Initial reports indicate that at least 16 Palestinian

As soldiers, we too were told to open fire at protesters in Gaza

I was on the border with Gaza six years ago. The same marchers, the same protest. Even the orders to open fire at crowds of people remained the same.

By Shai Eluk

Israeli snipers seen on the border with Gaza during the Great March of Return, March 30, 2018. (IDF Spokesperson)

Israeli snipers seen on the border with Gaza during the Great March of Return, March 30, 2018. (IDF Spokesperson)

I was there six years ago. It was Friday, March 30, 2012. Land Day on the border with Gaza. Demonstrations began after Friday noon prayers. A group of snipers had set up its post the previous night, while the rest of the unit stood armed with riot dispersal weapons, closer to the fence. The order was clear: if a Palestinian crosses the “buffer zone” — 300 meters from the fence inside the Gaza Strip, one may shoot at the legs of the “main inciters.”

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This order, which never explained exactly how a soldier is meant to identify, isolate, and shoot a “main inciter” out of tens of thousands of demonstrators disturbed me then. It continued to disturb me this past weekend, after IDF snipers opened fire on Palestinian marchers at the Gaza border. “How can opening fire at a crowd of people be a legal order?” I asked my deputy company commander six years ago. I have yet to receive an answer.

What would have happened had these soldiers spent their entire service on the Gaza front? As soldiers who have had just finished our course, “Land Day” was the perfect opportunity for us to see some “action.” The same can likely be said about the soldiers who shot dead at least 16 protesters on Friday. Their commanders were most likely also excited.

I am certain that had we been called up to do the same thing year after year, something would have changed. After all, this situation — every year, at the same time, at the same place, with the high likelihood that a Palestinian, not an Israeli, would lose his life — makes sense only the first time around, especially in the eyes of a fresh-faced 18-year-old.

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But any soldier who would return to the Gaza border every year, who would see Palestinian after Palestinian fall to the ground, could figure out a better solution to the situation. Any soldier who would return to see the same marchers nearing that fence — which symbolizes, above all else, that death may not be such a bad alternative — understands that there must be an alternative.

One of my friends killed a demonstrator on the border with Gaza. I am part of a group that carries this death on its shoulders. The only difference between myself and my friend is chance. Had I been sent to the sniper course rather than the medics course, I would have been that shooter. The entire group lent its support to the operation, and the blood — despite the fact that we have all been released from the army — is still on our hands. I doubt if anyone but myself remembers.

Every year is a new one, and at the border with Gaza arrive new commanders and new soldiers — fresh blood and a leadership with short-term memory.

An injured Palestinian man being helped during the Great Return March in Gaza, east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. March 30, 2018. Palestinians tend to a boy injured during the Great Return March in Gaza, east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. March 30, 2018. (Mohammed Emad / Activestills.org)

Palestinians tend to a boy injured during the Great Return March in Gaza, east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. March 30, 2018. (Mohammed Emad / Activestills.org)

Soldiers have a privilege. Every three or six months they move to a different area. They see only a fraction of Gaza’s despair, but before they even have a chance to process or think about it, they move on to see the despair in Hebron, Ramallah, and Nablus.

The soldier knocks on the Abu Awad family’s door in the middle of the night only once. He fires at protesters on Land Day only once. He carries out arrests for a few months. After that he is replaced by another soldier. Then he is released.

The residents of Gaza and the West Bank are marking 50 years under occupation. But they will not be replaced, and no one is coming to release them or help shoulder the burden. For us soldiers, everything is temporary. For them, it is permanent.

Shai Eluk is a former soldier in the Nahal Brigade and an activist with Combatants for Peace. This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.

Egypt horizons..al Karnak Temple

نادية حرحش

Me the hate-to wake-up-early in the morning, finds herself piping up at 530 with all the curiosity inside me to see al Karnak temple. As if race by in time and space to catch up with this unbelievably rich history . Nice, beautiful, wow,gracious …all the words cannot serve the greatness of this making … this is deity . It cannot be human made .. you watch this and you understand why those were called gods . The word breathtaking is what can only describe the divine beauty of this civilization… how did they come here and how did they vanish … unbelievable …. unbelievable sarcasm of universe…

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This Week in Egypt: Week 13-2018 ( March 26-April 1)

Nervana

Top Headlines 

  • Egypt’s Sisi secures over 90% of vote in 2018 presidential elections with turnout over 40%: State TV projection
  • Presidential runner-up Moussa Mostafa Moussa said he felt proud of the result of the presidential election, after obtaining an estimated 3 % of the vote
  • High participation rates of ‘women and elderly men’ in presidential elections
  • Stability topped Egyptian voters’ concerns in 2018 presidential election
  • Egypt says 6 militants and 2 soldiers killed in Sinai

Egypt Election 2018 photo

Via AP

 Main Headlines

 Monday

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Egypt horizons ..Luxor’s Temple

Luxorious!

نادية حرحش

I have seen what I always called great by all means, when it comes to heritage , culture, archaeology around the world …I would say by far….when one stands in front of such history , one cannot but kneel down to the greatness of this making …. I think if humans today existed in that time , they were not more than locust of that time…. civilization has definitely went way backwards since then

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Videos show Israeli soldiers sniping unarmed protesters in Gaza

Attempts to retroactively portray Friday’s demonstrators as Hamas militants, stone-throwers, or human shields serves only one purpose: to quiet the Israeli conscience.

The Israeli army and Israel’s hasbara apparatus wasted no time blaming the 16 Palestinians killed by Israeli army snipers last Friday for their own deaths. Infographics were released within hours. Talking points distributed. Israel was defending its sovereign border, they said.

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Two videos published on the day of the carnage in Gaza, however, show a different story. They appear to show Israeli snipers positioned behind dirt mounds on the other side of the border fence shooting and killing unarmed protesters — carrying neither weapons nor rocks nor Molotov cocktails — who posed absolutely no threat to security forces — or anyone, for that matter.

The first video appears to show Israeli soldiers shooting 19-year-old Abdel Fattah Abdel Nabi in the back as he is running while holding a tire (tires are often burned by protesters across the world, including by Jewish Israelis, to provide smoke screens as protection from security forces).

A second video published the same day appears to show soldiers shooting a Palestinian demonstrator as he gets up following prayers. Like Abdel Nabi, the protester poses no threat to the soldiers.

The Israeli army accused Hamas of published edited or fabricated videos, but at least the top video exists from multiple angles and was witnessed by a number of people. The army also claimed that most of those killed were Hamas militants, but The Washington Post reported that there were no signs of affiliation with the Islamist group at Abdel Fattah Abdel Nabi’s funeral and that his family denied he was in any way connected to the group.

But if the above videos teach us anything, it is that Israel needed no pretext for shooting and killing those 16 protesters. In fact, Israeli generals told the cabinet ahead of time that there would be Palestinian casualties. Attempts to retroactively portray them as Hamas militants, stone-throwers, or human shields serves only one purpose: to quiet the Israeli conscience.

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