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Israeli troops kill four Palestinians as Gaza protest resumes


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Israeli troops kill four Palestinians as Gaza protest resumes

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

 

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A Palestinian demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli troops during a protest marking al-Quds Day, (Jerusalem Day), at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City June 8, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

 

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed four Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others on Friday with live fire and tear gas used against protesters at the Gaza border, medics said.

 

Israel said it was defending the frontier against crowds that threw stones and burned tyres in an attempt to cross. It said at one location at least two Palestinian militants fired guns at its forces and others had thrown grenades.

 

The protests tapered off around sunset when many demonstrators left border camps for the evening meal that breaks their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 

The Palestinians killed on Friday were three adult men and a 15-year-old boy, Gaza medics said. Of 620 people wounded, 120 were from live fire, they said.

 

Friday's deaths bring the total number of Palestinians killed at the Gaza border to 124 since protests there began on March 30, including 60 people killed in a single day last month.

 

Israel's deadly tactics in confronting the protests have drawn international condemnation.

 

Palestinians say the protests are a popular outpouring of rage against Israel by people demanding the right to return to homes their families fled or were driven from on Israel's founding 70 years ago.

 

Israel says the demonstrations are organised by the Islamist group Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip and denies Israel's right to exist. Israel says Hamas has intentionally provoked the violence, a charge Hamas denies.

 

The Palestinian United Nations envoy condemned the Friday killings and said that representatives of the Arab Group and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had asked the president of the U.N. General Assembly to resume an emergency session to discuss a resolution aimed at protecting Palestinian civilians.

 

The resolution, Ambassador Riyad Mansour said, would be similar to a Kuwaiti-drafted resolution that last week received enough support to pass a vote in the Security Council but was vetoed by the United States.

 

Mansour said the U.S. veto triggered the request and that Friday’s violence "adds to our argument and to the urgency of providing international protection" to Palestinian civilians.

 

PROTESTS WILL CONTINUE

 

Among those wounded on Friday were an Agence France-Presse photographer and a 23-year-old man who was on life support after a tear gas canister penetrated his face, medical officials said.

 

The Israeli army said that it had repelled around 10,000 Palestinians who converged on five points of the border.

 

Organisers in Gaza said that the protests will continue in the coming days and weeks. They had tagged this Friday's demonstrations as the “Friday of Jerusalem” to commemorate the 1967 war in which Israel captured East Jerusalem, with the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

 

The bloodiest day of the protests took place last month as the United States opened its embassy in Jerusalem after recognising the city as the Israeli capital. Palestinians also want the capital of a state there, and most countries say the city's status should be resolved in future peace talks.

 

"There is no such state called Israel that could have a capital called Jerusalem," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza. He said the demonstrations would continue until Palestinians achieve their demand for a right of return to ancestral lands.

 

"NARROW FACTIONAL INTERESTS"

 

Around 2 million people live in Gaza, most of them the stateless descendants of refugees from what is now Israel.

 

The territory has been controlled by Hamas for more than a decade, during which it has fought three wars against Israel. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the strip, citing security reasons, which has caused an economic crisis and collapse in living standards there over the past decade.

 

On Thursday Israel dropped leaflets in Gaza urging Palestinians not to take part in protests or try to breach the fence on Friday, "and not to allow Hamas to use you for its narrow factional interests, which Iran is inspiring".

 

At one location on Friday, at least two Palestinians fired guns at an army post and others threw grenades or used helium balloons and kites to fly flammable materials or explosive devices over the border, the army said.

 

There have been no Israeli casualties from the more than two months of confrontations but farmland on the Israeli side has been damaged by fire from the kites and balloons.

 

"We are not asking for the moon," said Amer Abu Khalaf, a 20-year-old business administration student who took part in Friday's protest. He said it aimed to "break the siege and have the world recognise our right to return".

 

Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, described Gaza protesters on Twitter as "hateful morons" and "Hamas Jugend", the latter a play on "Hitler Youth" in German.

 

Israel has long refused to admit Palestinian refugees, saying they belong in a future Palestinian state. Statehood talks have been frozen since 2014.

 

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-09
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3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Make that dozens of palestinians throwing grenades and firing guns, flying incendiary kites and helium balloons that wreaked havoc and burned down thousands of hectares of wheat fields and forest reserves for many days now,

The palestinian leadership has failed miserably to incite the population to do it's dirty job and paying for it with their lives, on top of seeing the mass of Israeli forces waiting for them on the other side has for now, put the gini back in the box,

the palestinians deserve better futur, much better, but as long as they are mostly controlled by barbarian Hamas and Islamic jihad  the future for the poor palestinian does not look promising...

 

There were no reports of "...dozens of Palestinians throwing grenades and firing guns...", lumping these with actions such as "flying incendiary kites" etc. is misleading.

 

On top of that, while Israel did manage to prevent a mass breaching of the fence by the Palestinians, it took a serious PR hit (thereby strengthening the Palestinian narrative), and as you yourself acknowledge, the aerial arson attacks are an issue. Don't know which genie you think was contained, exactly.

 

As for the role of the Palestinian leadership in this, yes - it does bear a large share of the responsibility.

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6 hours ago, farcanell said:

there can be no peace, when one side is committed to the destruction of the other, regardless of domestic or international repercussions.

 

 

I certainly agree.

Israel is determined to destroy the Palestinians, by keeping them in an open air prison which continually gets smaller as more and more of their land is stolen by Israeli settlers in defiance of international law, and then denying them the basics of life, keeping them in a hopeless existence.

 

Israel continues to commit war crimes on a daily basis.

Shooting medics is in defiance of international law.

Israel has been sanctioned by the UN almost more times than all other nations combined.

But Israel is a warlike rogue nation, not only against the Palestinians:

 

"Israel is carrying on in a lunatic fashion (2014) " (2 minute 18 second video):

 

 

Norman Finkelstein has devoted his life and his Doctorate degree on the Middle East and the Palestine Israel conflict.

 

farcanell - "maybe a resolution denouncing Hamas leadership would be in order as well.... and perhaps instituting international sanctions against the Hamas government should be considered, whilst they are at it."

 

Hamas is a red herring, a diversion for supporters of Israeli genocide.

If Hamas is indeed the issue, why wasn't a peaceful settlement reached pre-2006, when Hamas was elected?

Because Israel, as farcanell has pointed out, is committed to the destruction of the Gazans, as well as to several of their neighbors.

Israel is a racist apartheid nation.

 

Trying to get them to treat Palestinians as fellow human beings is as hopeless as trying to get southern USA whites to treat blacks as equals during the 1960's civil rights movement.

It took the force of the USA government to put a partial stop to the most blatant oppression.

 

 

Edited by JimmyJ
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25 minutes ago, farcanell said:

well done JimmyJ.... well done

 

you managed to completely change the context of my post, I’m impressed

 

That said, it is somewhat concerning to see an intelligent person supporting a terrorist organization, such as Hamas, 

It's very easy to label people as terrorists. I regard Hamas as freedom fighters.


Much more deserving of the label terrorists is the country they have been demonstrating against that for the last 6 weeks who every Friday regularly and disgustingly have managed to kill over 120 including children, clearly identifiable press and medics, and wounded 12,000 with one IDF soldier slightly bruised all with apparent impunity. Now that's what I call terrorism.

 

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6 minutes ago, dexterm said:

It's very easy to label people as terrorists. I regard Hamas as freedom fighters.


Much more deserving of the label terrorists is the country they have been demonstrating against that for the last 6 weeks who every Friday regularly and disgustingly have managed to kill over 120 including children, clearly identifiable press and medics, and wounded 12,000 with one IDF soldier slightly bruised all with apparent impunity. Now that's what I call terrorism.

 

 

What you regard Hamas as is irrelevant and meaningless. Pitted against your insignificant point of view are the positions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, EU, Japan, UK, US and others. Basically the same countries you often claim Israel ought to emulate.

 

About as consistent as can be expected from someone portraying himself as a great "humanist" and supporter of non-violence.

 

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@JimmyJ

 

 

Yet another one of your alternative facts, one-sided presentations.

 

There are no Israeli settlements within the Gaza Strip. And whether you like to acknowledge it or not, the blockade on the Gaza Strip is directly related to Hamas actions, agenda and policies. It is also maintained by Egypt - as much as some like to ignore that.

 

Israel being targeted by various UN bodies is nothing new. Perhaps more indicative of the organizations' drawbacks when it  comes to putting global concerns over politics. The same UN finds it hard to address much more severe crises - such as Syria, Sudan, and Myanmar, to name a few.

 

Hamas is a not a "red herring", nor a "diversion". Unless you wish to claim that a faction representing half or more of the Palestinian people is insignificant. A peaceful settlement wasn't reached prior to Hamas taking control of the Gaza Strip doesn't "prove" anything much, unless someone is trying really hard to muddy the waters. The same old either/or nonsense.

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1 hour ago, farcanell said:

well done JimmyJ.... well done

 

you managed to completely change the context of my post, I’m impressed

 

That said, it is somewhat concerning to see an intelligent person supporting a terrorist organization, such as Hamas, 

Hopefully you (and others justifying Israeli genocide here) were willing to invest 2 minutes and 18 seconds watching the video I linked to.

There are few people in the world  (I don't think any) as knowledgable and erudite on this situation as Finkelstein.

 

Finkelstein could have as easily called Israel a terrorist state as "a lunatic state".

 

Re: Hamas and terrorism - please invest a bit over 8 minutes in watching the following video.

Finkelstein cites International Law and sources such as Richard Goldstone.

 

(the first 40 seconds is in Danish, then it goes to English):

 

Finkelstein -  "Hamas is not expected to be held to a higher level of diplomacy than Gandhi". (2010)

 

 

 


"Hamas presents new charter accepting a Palestine based on 1967 borders"

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/01/hamas-new-charter-palestine-israel-1967-borders

 

Edited by JimmyJ
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@JimmyJ

 

There is no "genocide", other than in your mind. People tossing about such term simply demean and trivialize the concept, making it harder to apply where it actually fits.

 

I question either you being an expert on international law, or Finkelstein's view being accepted as anything but extreme.

 

Your claims regarding the new Hamas charter are misleading.

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3 hours ago, Morch said:

 

@JimmyJ

 

There is no "genocide", other than in your mind. People tossing about such term simply demean and trivialize the concept, making it harder to apply where it actually fits.

 

I question either you being an expert on international law, or Finkelstein's view being accepted as anything but extreme.

 

Your claims regarding the new Hamas charter are misleading.

Israel has for the last 70 years been trying to ethnically cleanse, historically and culturally erase, and undermine Palestinians' status as refugees to prevent their return in order to scatter Palestinians to a world wide diaspora.

 

As though Palestinians had never even existed and were the majority indigenous population in Palestine when Zionist colonists arrived.  Zionists even made it their phoney mantra "A land without people for a people without land."

 

I suggest you consult the UN definition of Genocide

".. any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily harm, or harm to mental health, to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

 

More than 120 killed including children, press and medics and 12,000 injured by Israel in their latest round of barbarities preventing people from returning to their homeland.

 

Of course, it's genocide.

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@dexterm

 

You can push  your nonsense all day long, we've been through all of your talking point many a time.

 

There is no "genocide". You and others usage of the terms demeans and trivializes it. Once can certainly relate to the Palestinian predicament without employing hyperbole. Considering one of your standing arguments is about the Palestinians being the majority, or time being on the Palestinians' side - doesn't seem like much of a "genocide" to me. But again, I'm not the one making bogus arguments, you are.

 

For the better part of them 70 years, the Palestinians chose a rejectionist stance, which left little room for any solutions. Twisting facts doesn't change reality.

 

The Palestinian refugee status can be debated. Other refugees are not afforded the right to "inherit" this status to following generations. Making this allowance with regard to the Palestinians, as well as Arab countries failing to address the issue of Palestinian refugees are two main factors in the situation being hard to solve.

 

I think you should give this a rest and go back to deflections denying Hamas involvement in the protests .

Edited by Morch
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17 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

@dexterm

 

You can push  your nonsense all day long, we've been through all of your talking point many a time.

 

There is no "genocide". You and others usage of the terms demeans and trivializes it. Once can certainly relate to the Palestinian predicament without employing hyperbole. Considering one of your standing arguments is about the Palestinians being the majority, or time being on the Palestinians' side - doesn't seem like much of a "genocide" to me. But again, I'm not the one making bogus arguments, you are.

 

For the better part of them 70 years, the Palestinians chose a rejectionist stance, which left little room for any solutions. Twisting facts doesn't change reality.

 

The Palestinian refugee status can be debated. Other refugees are not afforded the right to "inherit" this status to following generations. Making this allowance with regard to the Palestinians, as well as Arab countries failing to address the issue of Palestinian refugees are two main factors in the situation being hard to solve.

 

I think you should give this a rest and go back to deflections denying Hamas involvement in the protests .

I quoted part of the UN definition of genocide (the term you are so keen to dismiss above) and can give examples of all that Israel has perpetrated against Palestinians.

 

Naturally you would prefer to sweep Israel's genocidal crimes under the carpet by blaming the victims. Plus the usual obfuscation "can be debated" and spin.

 

Genocide according to the UN definition is exactly what is happening in the OP.  A people ethnically cleansed who are prevented from returning home to escape the ghetto that Israel blockades them in and killed for demonstrating against that. 

OP...

"We are not asking for the moon," said Amer Abu Khalaf, a 20-year-old business administration student who took part in Friday's protest. He said it aimed to "break the siege and have the world recognise our right to return".

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The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines "genocide" as inflicting on a group “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

A genocide need not be anywhere near completed—the destruction need not be “in whole”—for genocidal behavior to merit the label.

 

What matters is the motivation, not the body count.

 

Words have meaning, and by definition what Israel has done and is doing is genocide.

Edited by JimmyJ
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@dexterm

 

Nah, you co-opted something and quoted it without applying anything resembling proportion. I suggest that other than yourself and those holding similar extreme views, applying the term "genocide" to the casualty toll related to the protests is not a widely held position. Applying it to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a whole is pretty much similar - more something which you allege, and less an actual widely held position.

 

Naturally, anything that doesn't reek of of your extreme, one-sided views, or attempts to address the Palestinian side in the conflict is labeled "blaming the victims". Getting argument getting pretty worn by now.

 

That you announce something is "exactly" this or that, is a good bet that it is nothing of the sort. As usual, your "account" fails to acknowledge the reasons the blockade is in place, or that protests were not quite the peaceful picture that you try to paint.

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16 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

@dexterm

 

Nah, you co-opted something and quoted it without applying anything resembling proportion. I suggest that other than yourself and those holding similar extreme views, applying the term "genocide" to the casualty toll related to the protests is not a widely held position. Applying it to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a whole is pretty much similar - more something which you allege, and less an actual widely held position.

 

Naturally, anything that doesn't reek of of your extreme, one-sided views, or attempts to address the Palestinian side in the conflict is labeled "blaming the victims". Getting argument getting pretty worn by now.

 

That you announce something is "exactly" this or that, is a good bet that it is nothing of the sort. As usual, your "account" fails to acknowledge the reasons the blockade is in place, or that protests were not quite the peaceful picture that you try to paint.

Israeli genocide against Palestinians has been practised for the last 70 years and is  ongoing today. Israel would like Palestinians to disappear from their homeland. They use multiple ways to achieve that..killing them, dehumanizing them, and making their lives so miserable that they might leave, and they have been partly successful. There are 6 million Palestinians living in a global diaspora as well as the 6.5 million living within historic Palestine still.

 

Clearly you would like to deflect by discussing your own interpretation of genocide rather than the UN's.

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11 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

@JimmyJ

 

We're joined by our resident legal "expert".

 

According to your learned interpretation, it would seem that many (if not most) conflicts should be labeled "genocide". As far as I am aware this is not the case. Nor do posters yapping about "genocide" whenever the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is mentioned are up at arms when more obvious examples occur. A recent case being the decimation of a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, by Assad forces and loyalists. Granted, there's no "Israel" in it, so probably doesn't qualify.

 

If the motivation of Israel was to destroy the Palestinian people - they would have been gone by now. They aren't. They are not decimated.

 

Words have meaning, your mean less than nothing.

Off topic deflection. We are not discussing Syria. 

 

I suggest you visit http://www.palestineremembered.com/ for a full account of Israel's genocidal attempt to wipe Palestinians from the pages of history.

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@dexterm

 

Again, that you say something, doesn't make it so. So going on about "genocide" is all very well - as long as it's clear that's not a fact, but your opinion. That you announce the UN version to conform with your interpretation doesn't make it so - yet another one of your co-opting acts. Nothing new here.

 

For a country supposedly united by such nefarious intentions, Israel did rather poorly considering it's been at it 70 years. More Palestinians than ever, some of them (gasp!) Israeli citizens. Couldn't make up such nonsense arguments (only apparently, you can).

 

As per script, when you have nothing of substance to post on topic, you head for them nonsense lands, where facts are scarce.

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@dexterm

 

A "joke" would be an apt description of your "reasoning". What you quote is a bit of the UN position, and then you announce it applies to the OP, and to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a whole. The former is a partial fact (if one feels charitable), the latter - your personal, biased interpretation. Glad I could clear this for you, even though it was plainly obvious.

 

Deflect all you like, but if one would take your hyperbole seriously, it would seem Israel isn't either not invested in this supposed "genocide" effort, or not particularly good at it. For an effort lasting (according to your nonsense posts) 70 years - not particularly impressive, as such things go.

 

As for you obligatory straw-man argument - do cite where any such praise was rained on Israel in my posts? Yeah, though so.

 

What you label "excuses" is what other people call realism. That you do not like reality, facts or anything that doesn't fall in line with your extreme point of view is a matter of record. All of your routine talking points, which you seem to rehash on each and every topic, were addressed and dealt with numerous times. That you cannot offer any coherent reply, or refuse to address anything whatsoever reflecting negatively on the Palestinian side pretty much leaves you wallowing in the bile and vehemence which your posts are made of.

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