Some Kossacks have suggested I turn some of my comments into a diary. And since here at dkos most of us realize how complicated the world is, and that solving problems will only come about if we see the full story, hopefully, this diary will put to bed the saying that "They hate us for our freedoms".
Follow below:
IDF, a history of excessive force and collective punishment:
Medical Group Examines Use of Force in Israel, Gaza and West Bank; Issues Conclusions on Death of `Issam Judeh
Physicians for Human Rights USA (PHR) finds that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has used live ammunition and rubber bullets excessively and inappropriately to control demonstrators, and that based on the high number of documented injuries to the head and thighs, Israeli soldiers appear to be shooting to inflict harm, rather than solely in self-defense.
PHR sent a medical team to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank from October 20-27, 2000 to investigate claims that Israel Defense Force (IDF) is using excessive force in the current conflict that has pitted Israeli troops and settlers against Palestinian demonstrators and combatants. (full report attached)
snip The team also collected information on attacks on ambulances, patients and health professionals.
http://www.phrusa.org/....
ISRAEL and the OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
In August, Israel facilitated access to hundreds of foreign journalists
to witness its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, even providing shuttle buses to the Jewish settlements that were being dismantled. Such cooperation with the press by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was rare the rest of the year. Journalists working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory faced dangerous and unpredictable conditions daily. While no journalists were killed there, the Israeli army and security services continued to commit abuses against journalists, including beatings, arrests, destruction of equipment, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Palestinian journalists bore the brunt of the attacks.
The most serious attack came on January 2, when Palestinian cameraman Majdi al-Arabid, on assignment for Israel's Channel 10 TV, was shot and seriously wounded near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Channel 10 reporter Shlomi Eldar, who witnessed the shooting, told CPJ that IDF troops were responsible. Eldar was standing with al-Arabid about 300 meters (1,000 feet) from a building that was surrounded by Israeli tanks and had three Israeli soldiers on its roof. Al-Arabid waved to the soldiers with his microphone to show them he was a journalist. The area was quiet. Minutes later, Eldar said, a shot rang out from the direction of the rooftop, and al-Arabid fell to the ground. He was hit in the stomach. The IDF said it was investigating the incident.
Fire from Israeli forces has killed several journalists and injured dozens during the years of intense conflict that followed the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000. In most cases the Israeli army failed to conduct either a thorough investigation or any investigation at all. On the night of May 2, 2003, an Israeli soldier fatally shot British cameraman James Miller in the town of Rafah. Miller was wearing a flak jacket but was shot in the neck. Witnesses said that he was wearing a helmet marked with the letters "TV," and that he held a white flag illuminated by a flashlight. The soldier, who was not named, was the commanding officer in Rafah.
In March 2005, the military prosecutor general decided against bringing criminal charges but told members of Miller's family that the officer, a lieutenant, would face disciplinary measures for violating the rules of engagement and for changing his account of the incident. An investigation by private British security company Chiron Resources Limited, commissioned by Miller's colleagues and family, found that IDF soldiers had "consciously and deliberately targeted" Miller and his crew.
Yet on April 14, 2005, the IDF said that it would not take disciplinary action against the officer. Brig. Gen. Guy Tzur, head of the army's southern command, acquitted the lieutenant of improper use of weapons after a disciplinary hearing, according to international news reports.
http://www.cpj.org/....
West Bank: TV Crews Hit By Rubber Bullets
NEW YORK - July 20 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that members of two Arab television crews were wounded by rubber bullets during an Israeli army operation in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday.
Wael Tanous, a satellite technician with the Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera, was hit in the left leg while standing near his uplink vehicle on a main road in Nablus around noon, Al-Jazeera reporter Guevara al-Budeiri told CPJ. She said Tanous, like all crew members, was wearing a vest labeled "TV."
Walid al-Omary, Jerusalem-based bureau chief of Al-Jazeera, told CPJ, "It was clear when they shot him that they knew he was press." Tanous was treated at a local hospital. Al-Budeiri said that before the shooting an Israeli army jeep had sped toward her and stopped only inches from her leg as she was preparing to broadcast live.
About 50 Israeli armored vehicles, including tanks and bulldozers, rolled into Nablus yesterday, and destroyed a Palestinian security compound and several other government buildings. Four Palestinians were killed in clashes with the army and 150 Palestinian policemen were detained for questioning, The Associated Press reported
http://www.commondreams.org/....
The sounds of freedom are the cries of bloodied children and women. Root Cause is the Gaza and West Bank Prison.
Some great comments by NYCee, they he/she does not mind:
The IDF, I came to see, certainly arent DIScouraged from using excessive and unjustifiable force, often lethal, against unarmed noncombatants, never mind combatants who are not a threat... I can only imagine. One need only see reports such as those you have posted to understand how much we are not told, due to our lopsided bias in favor of Israel. (The IDF's lethal response to the nonlethal attacks - stone throwing - over the Temple Mount stroll by Sharon was an eye-opener to me several years ago)
Or watch the Israeli made documentary Aftershock (It has run on Sundance Channel) to see what the IDF does that we do not ever hear about. In Aftershock, coming from the mouths of former IDF soldiers, and ONLY IDF soldiers, who have gathered together at one's house, one hears various accounts of the violence they perpetrated against helpless Palestinians as they did their tours in the West Bank.
http://electronicintifada.net/...
None of those present countered the stories with shock or refutation. It appears such incidents were well known and even accepted (certainly covered up, as your posts describe happens often) although some seemed to be exercising a sort of confessional voice. There was a bit of laughing, but maybe it was the nervous laugh of the guilty. Who never had to pay a price for their crimes. And knew what they had done was criminal. They had to undergo psychiatric treatment after their tours.
Because ..
They speak of wanton murder, of pulling out Palestinians XYZ and killing them. No reason for the homicides other than that they were Palestinian and they happened to be there. This was not a one time occurence, either. There were the severe beatings of randomly picked Palestinians. A bunch of soldiers going into a barber shop full of people and trashing it... and who knows what was done to those in it, as this story was kept rather vague. (Recalled somewhat like a college prank with a deep chill to it.). They spoke of pulling every possession of worth out of XYZ house and destroying those possessions, throwing them to the curb like trash. Toppling the cart of an old man, a peddler, to harass and frighten him (Another prank?). On and on.
A short film, but quite shocking in all it told. (The IDF censored the film. Oddly, they had commissioned it from a former soldier, hoping to get far different results!) They gave soldiers in the occupied territories greater time off after it came out, realizing how badly their green lit soldiers were behaving. Not good for the image, or the conscience, for those who are plagued by such things.
The fact that the IDF is green lit to commit such atrocities is indicative of the green light, the tone that has come down from the top, isnt it? When excess and disregard for Palestinian life is the view up there, why shoud it be different for those who take their orders? Is it any wonder our GREEN LIGHT to Israel is railed against, mentioned so often in criticism. Obviously it green lights those at the top who green light those below them and ... Imagine how rife the region is with these stories. Yet we will never hear a one of them on our nightly news.
And those were only the stories of FOUR soldiers. Imagine all the stories untold. Israeli leadership has long cultivated fear, loathing and intransigence of their "others," their "others" problem. This has overridden the need for serious diplomacy and good faith diplomacy. It has painted their nation into this corner of ugliness, as it has been increasingly unwilling to negotiate in good faith with the neighbors/occupied and make the necessary concessions to get to not only 2 (viable, contiguous) states, but to a state of peace. They have too often resorted to violence and bullying to preserve their image of strength (at any cost) and expand upon their territory, even in contravention of international law.
Look at where they have arrived.
Some movies and documentaries trying to identify the problems:
Munich:
http://www.imdb.com/...
Paradise Now:
http://www.imdb.com/...
Checkpoint:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/...
Arundhati:
http://video.google.com/...
The author and activist Arundhati Roy, gave a speech which has been put into a video documentary form that is incredibly powerful..September 11 is a date that stands out in 1922, 1991 and 2001... Watch the following and understand the significance of that date, and what has been happening throughout the world, but most powerfully in the Middle East. Nationalized racism in the name of Imperial dominance.
The following Winston Churchhill quote gives a clue as to what is happening around Israel even today:
" * I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
o Churchill to the Palestine Royal Commission (1937)
http://www.choicechanges.com/...
It has to start with respect, without it we will have continuous war. No Revolutions will work, no Treaties will last, and the Rule of Law is worthless.
The War Without End.