The people in occupied territories are once again subjected to random raids, while members of their government are being locked up in prison.
Two Israelis and an American boy (16) are missing and believed to be kidnapped. They were hitch-hiking back home from their religious schools in occupied territories. They never came home and apparently one of the kids used his mobile to say he was being kidnapped.
How come the Israelis keep on repeating the Intolerable Acts, so called by the revolting colony of America when the Brits tried to collectively punish the people of Boston and Maryland for the revolt Tea Party of (initially) a small group?
From the American revolution and later attempts by the Germans during WW2 they should know that revenge against people in occupied areas as collective punishment just doesn't work.
In the long run all you achieve is that the larger group whose rights you violate, starts supporting the few men you were after.
Oh, and why doesn't the US state department remember its own history instead of supporting the Israelis in these collective punishments. The Boston Port Act can't be completely forgotten and otherwise the Nuremberg trials should act as a reminder.
At the moment a few hundred people are randomly arrested including seven members of government, the city of Hebron is closed off and citizens on the Westbank are subjected to violent search parties.
We are still far away from the atrocities seen during operation Cast Lead (resulting in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian deaths), which was a collective punishment for some isolated rockets landing on Israeli 'soil'.
Further escalation can and should be stopped. The possible kidnapping of three people is a crime and I hope these young people can be found, but please help stop another round of collective punishment.
If you remember WW2 stories or learned some history lessons at a US school use that knowledge and appeal to your government to restrain the Israeli government. Israel can't survive without political support from the West and now is the time to tell them. When another round of bombing Gaza starts it will be too late.
Don't abuse this kidnapping for political purposes. Don't use it as an opportunity to put pressure on the recent Hamas-Fatah agreement. Don't punish innocent civilians. Just find and if needed free the victims without further loss of life.
edit: link to Wiki for the original Intolerable Acts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts
#Israel #Gaza #Westbank #abduction #kidnapping #history #Politics
The three 'victims' will have been detained by the Israelis in order to supply a rationale to deprive the Palestinians of their own government.
It's high time the morally degraded state of Israel was recognised and abolished.
The U.S. can confine it's nuclear armament to the agreed limits of the non-proliferation treaty, instead of indulging Israel in order to exceed the limits by proxy.
Demand proof that these three have been 'kidnapped' by the Palestinians and Israel will be unable to supply it.
Yet these people will be held in prison without charge or trial as long as Israel wants to do so, and that stance will be endorsed by the U.S.
I'm not that cynical +David Crosswell There are still checks and balances within Israel so I'm sure this is not just a conspiracy.
But of course Netanyahu has his own agenda and will certainly use the kidnap to his advantage.
The Israeli government have done everything they can to discredit, disband, and demand the international community not recognise the Palestinian right to self-determination, without result. This is, for them, no more than natural progression.
I'm fairly well attuned to the situation there and the routine picking up of Palestinian children, without charge or reason, detained, questioned in a language they do not understand, then made to sign paperwork they cannot read in order to go home, is a reality. I have reports of many cases, including one of a 12 year old boy, picked up, hand-cuffed, blind-folded. made to lie on the floor of his cell while a Police dog ate it's meal of his chest and growled every time he moved.
Another school girl, 13 years of age, gets shot in the back on her way to school, then the Israeli soldier stands over the top of her, and with his semi-automatic weapon, empties the magazine into her to 'confirm the kill'.
Another Palestinian family are in their home when there's a knock on the door. The father answers the door to Israeli soldiers who tell him to pack and get out, his home is to be demolished. He and his wife and three children pack quickly, then get themselves out into the street in time for him to see his 10 and 12 year old daughters shot in front of his eyes. Weren't they fast enough?
U.S. and EU preferred 'cynicism' is the Palestinian reality +Max Huijgen and detention without arrest, charge, or trial is mere routine.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/starved-of-justice-palestinians-detained-without-trial-by-israel
Idiots.
Are you defending the kidnappers +Max Huijgen? Really?
+Max Huijgen you seem to be coming from a place of concern for both sides rather than hate. One of the few. Good on you.
+Joseph Pereira
Provide proof and catch the suspect. Not throw a wide net, grab as many innocent people as possible in the hopes you catch the pupotrators. Is it not kidnapping when a soldier kicks down your door and snatches your child in the middle of the night as he sleeps? This is what the apartheid soldiers have done and continue to do. I would not put it past the apartheid state to stage something like this… they consistently do worse.
Israel is our ally. we support them 100%. you mess with them, you are messing with us. you want like the end result of that.
+tommy northam I think it's past your bedtime, Tommy.
+Khaled Mohammad That's right.
Palestinian children are kidnapped all the time.
The world hears next to nothing, but this is international news.
It makes me wonder who's handling the publicity campaign.
Arrest of 5-year-old Palestinian child causes outrage around globe
+Yifat Cohen , the way I read it, +Max Huijgen is not at all defending or justifying the kidnappers and no such defense or justification is possible!
What I think he is saying, is that the scale and force of the response as he describes it is unreasonable, and will ultimately backfire by creating even more hatred, leading to more hatred and extremism.
This is a sad cycle that was seen not only in WWII as Max says, but also in the Vietnam war, the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, those in former Yugoslavia, etc., even the 'War on Terror' has done nothing to eradicate it.
Let me be clear: I completely support Israel, both as a sovereign state and its right to defend itself against any outward acts of aggression. But a kidnapping is a crime, to be punished to the extent of the law, but not a reason to block off cities, and arrest hundreds of people. To those affected by these measures, that must seem like terror as well.
Pray tell. . . Occupied territory? What occupied territory? It all belongs to Israel. Read the word given to Abraham Max. Get informed.
+Henry Archbold Well, the rest of us are.
Perhaps this is a case of Freudian Transference.
If Salah Al Din hadn't reintroduced Jews back into Jerusalem under his protection, there would have been no Jewish presence there at all.
Or are you one of those that believes that all of Palestine is Israel?
In which case, you are taking up space a human being could be occupying.
+Joseph Pereira 'My friend, your response shows that you have dehumanize all Jews'. – I can't see that in anything he has written. Where has he 'dehumanised all Jews'?
It would be more appropriate to say that you have twisted all reality.
+Joseph Pereira Yes, I have said many good things about a number of Israelis and other Jews, so I'm afraid your views are bigotted.
68% of Arab-Israelis prefer to live in Israel
Asked whether the respondents preferred Israel as a land or as a national entity, Samuha said that the results were mixed: "On one hand there is a connection with the land and on the other hand there is the acknowledgement of convenience, freedom and stability in the State of Israel.
I fail to understand what you feel would be a "proportionate" way to search for these 3 boys? – if authorities came to my house to search for them, I would welcome the opportunity to let them see they were not there, they should leave no stone unturned in their attempts to find them and there should be a willingness by all the locals arab or jew to let them search. I'm afraid that I suspect that unfortunately there are many who are pleased to frustrate the search
+Nana Argue Of course, given the other option which is living under the brutal occupation of Israel, they choose living inside Israel.
+Richard Steel A pillar of every western democracy is people's right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. If you like authorities to search your house whenever somebody goes missing in your neighborhood, you are an ideal citizen for an autocratic undemocratic government.
+Joseph Pereira
Not true I dehumanise occupation / apartheid soldiers and there supporters. There are lots of Jews who stand with my point of view and a lot more that are to intimidated by there bretherine to actually speak out.
Kids are taught at young age to love their neighbors. Here's proof From Israel with love
+Yifat Cohen What makes you think I don't care about the victims? Of course I do! My post is about the collective punishment of the innocent.
+Gary Roth it can be argued that the center of Israeli power is also thousands of miles away…
+Richard Steel imagine three Americans being kidnapped in Mexico. Should American security forces go door to door in Mexico to search houses and arrest hundreds at random?
+Henry Archbold Can you tell to who you're responding? If not I will delete this as topic spam. You have five minutes.
My pleasure +SALy MAZzy Unfortunately this post doesn't get the traction I hoped for.
I thought that the stark reminder of the American Revolution and WWII would work, but alas it didn't.
A post like this one is the writers equivalent of a pre-emptive strike. Raising awareness before collective punishment takes place.
If it doesn't get traction, it failed, but if current events would show that the warning wasn't needed this writer is still pleased 🙂
We'll wait and see how this ends.