Tag Archives: IDF

2021 Was Deadliest Year for Palestinians Since 2014: Israeli Human Rights Group

According to analysis, Israeli forces and settlers killed over 300 people in the occupied territories and left nearly 900 homeless.

By Jessica Corbett.  Published 1-4-2022 by Common Dreams

Israeli strikes have destroyed buildings and infrastructure in Gaza. Photo: UNOCHA/Samar Elouf

A Jerusalem-based human rights group on Tuesday released new statistics revealing that Israeli security forces and armed settlers‘ violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories escalated in 2021 to the highest levels in seven years.

Last year was the deadliest year for Palestinians living under occupation since 2014, when Israel launched Operation Protective Edge and killed thousands in the Gaza Strip, according to B’Tselem – the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Continue reading

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Judge Rejects Application of Israeli Law in Landmark Defamation Case Against Palestinian Activist

“What this judge brilliantly uncovered is that Israeli law is inherently inconsistent with American values.” — Attorney Haytham Faraj

By Alan Macleod,  Published 3-10-2021 by MintPress News

Pictured left is a photo of Rumshiskaya taken for an IDF promotional campaign, and right, a photo of Nafal

A Palestinian-American activist has vowed to continue fighting Apartheid after winning a court case brought against her in the U.S. by a former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier. Suhair Nafal was facing a defamation suit over a 2018 Facebook post condemning the murder that summer of Palestinian nurse Razan al-Najjar during the Great March of Return. The case was brought by Israeli-American Rebecca Rumshiskaya, who was seeking $6 million in damages after Nafal described her as “evil” for joining the Israeli military.

Bizarrely, Rumshiskaya was also attempting to convince the California court to try Nafal under Israeli law. The attempt backfired, however, as Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Griffin rejected the suit, even ordering Rumshiskaya to pay Nafal’s legal costs under anti-SLAPP laws, effectively deeming it an attempt to intimidate Nafal into silence. Continue reading

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With World’s Eyes on US Election, Israel Bulldozes West Bank Village in Biggest Single Demolition in 10 Years

The razing of Khirbet Humsa—which left dozens of people homeless—”can only be considered an act of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian population,” said one human rights group.

By Brett  Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-5-2020

Bulldozers destroying Khirbet Humsa. Photo: Ahmad/Twitter

Under cover of the U.S. presidential election, the Israeli military bulldozed an entire Bedouin community in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine on Tuesday, leaving scores of people—including more than 40 children—homeless during a cold, driving rainstorm.

Just hours before the cold front rolled through the West Bank, Israel Defense Forces troops razed the Bedouin hamlet of Khirbet Humsa, near Tubas in the Jordan Valley, forcing 74 people including 41 children—one just three months old—out into the approaching storm. Continue reading

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Israel Launches Week-Long Bombing Campaign in Gaza Amid Ongoing War Crimes Investigation

Israeli leaders have characterized the latest bombardment as retaliatory, citing “incendiary balloons” and “riots” as justification.

By Kathryn Shihadah   Published 8-18-2020 by MintPress News

Israeli bombing of Gaza on 8-12-2020. Photo: Sucheta/Twitter

Last Monday night Israeli fighter jets executed airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip for the ninth night in a row in an act that may be another on Israel’s long list of possible war crimes.

Israeli leaders characterized the actions as retaliatory, naming Gazan “incendiary balloons” and “riots” as justification. Continue reading

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Israel Defense Ministry Launches COVID-19 Voice Test for Americans

A company formed at the behest of the Israeli Ministry of Defense has begun collecting voice data from Americans to detect COVID-19 symptoms through technology with dubious diagnostic value, but highly profitable applications in law enforcement.

By Raul Diego  Published 7-2-2020 by MintPress News

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has launched a project to analyze people’s voices and breathing patterns using artificial intelligence (AI) in order to determine if they have COVID-19. The software allegedly listens for detectable “signs of distress,” ostensibly from the respiratory effects of the virus. A May 27 report in the Jerusalem Post stated that the research was already being conducted at several hospitals in Israel, where confirmed COVID-19 patients were asked to provide voice samples to be compared to those of a control group from the general population.

Results from the research were expected sometime in June. However, the study has now been expanded beyond Israel’s borders. Over one million voice recordings are currently being collected in the United States through a mobile app developed by Massachusetts-based Vocalis Health, under the auspices of the Israeli government. Continue reading

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Following Death Threats, Human Rights Defenders Demand Israeli Authorities Stand Up for Civil Society

“This is the result of the ongoing incitement campaign against aid and human rights organizations in Israel—with the encouragement and backing of politicians and public figures.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-31-2019

On Wednesday, death threats were found spray-painted outside the offices of Amnesty International in Tel Aviv and ASSAF, an organization which advocates for refugees and asylum seekers in Israel. (Photo: @AmnestyIsrael/Twitter)

Human rights defenders in Israel on Wednesday linked recent threats at three civil society organizations to the rhetoric and policies of the country’s government, which has worked to intimidate and suppress groups critical of its treatment of Palestinians and other marginalized people.

Staff members at Amnesty Israel in Tel Aviv and the Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel (ASSAF) on Wednesday found death threats written in spray paint on walls outside the organizations’ offices. A box containing death threats and a dead mouse was found around the same time at the Elifelet Children’s Activity Center, which cares for refugee children. Continue reading

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Trump’s “Deal of the Century” Will Use Sanctions, Military Threats to Force Palestinian Acceptance

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By Whitney Webb. Published 5-8-2019 by MintPress News

President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: White House

The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, owned by top Trump donor Sheldon Adelson, has published in Hebrew a leaked draft of the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The draft was given to the newspaper by an official from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which is currently headed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The plan, which has been drafted by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, is expected to be released this June after the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to Mondoweiss.

The draft plan published by Israel Hayom, while in keeping with many of the details that have been leaked to the press in past weeks and months, contains several new and troubling claims, including the Trump administration’s plan to force Palestinian leadership to accept the plan through threats of economic strangulation and military force. Continue reading

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Trump’s Rules of Engagement for Troops at US-Mexico Border Mirror Those Used By the IDF in Gaza

The intent behind Trump’s new rules of engagement and considerable militarization of the U.S. border appears to be greenlighting the U.S. military to function as an IDF-style military police force whenever the next “threat” emerges, whether it be “foreign invaders” or “internal enemies.”

By Whitney Webb. Published 11-2-2018 by MintPress News

Photo: US Army/flickr

Since President Donald Trump first directed the outrage of his supporters at a Central American migrant caravan making its way towards the United States a little over a week ago, his plan to deploy between 5,200 and 15,000 active-duty U.S. soldiers to the border has provoked mixed reactions within the United States. However, Trump’s more recent announcement that armed U.S. soldiers have been instructed to target any migrants who resort to throwing stones as though they were firing rifles has evoked an even wider range of reactions.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump detailed in a speech that “Anybody [in the caravan] throwing stones, rocks, like they did to Mexico and the Mexican military, Mexican police, where they badly hurt police and soldiers of Mexico, we will consider that a firearm.” He then elaborated that “we will consider it [stone throwing], the maximum that we can consider that…We’re not going to put up with that. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back….I told them to consider it a rifle.” Continue reading

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Continued Detention of Ahed Tamimi Denounced as Symptomatic of Israel’s Flouting of Int’l Law

“It is clear that detaining and prosecuting Palestinian children in Israeli military courts has little to do with justice,” says Brad Parker of Defense for Children International Palestine

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 1-17-2017

Demonstrators, including members of the Tamimi family, rallied on Dec. 22, 2017 in Manhattan’s Union Square to demand the release of Ahed Tamimi. (Photo: Joe Catron/flickr/cc)

Human rights experts sounded alarm on Wednesday after an Israeli military judge ruled that 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi—a child who has not been convicted of a crime—must remain in custody during her trial.

While the court ruled there was no “alternative to custody,” Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said, “There is nothing that can justify Ahed Tamimi’s continued detention.” Continue reading

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Israel Is Getting Ready for a Major War — and No One Is Talking About It

By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 9-12-2017 by The Anti-Media

IDF soldiers deployed during “Operation Protective Edge.” (Photo: IDF/flickr/public domain)

 

Last week, Israel began holding its largest military drill in 20 years, and it was specifically designed to simulate a war with Hezbollah.

From the Independent:

“The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has deployed thousands of air, sea and land personnel to the Lebanese border for its biggest military drill in almost two decades, a show of strength designed to intimate Hezbollah and Iran even as their power grows in neighbouring Syria.” Continue reading

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