Comments since that post prove that Israeli apologists not only do not disapprove of atrocities committed by Israel, but also have a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
The videos I referenced speak for themselves. No one can deny that on December 4-5 2008 an angry mob of Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinians neighborhood, smashing windows, cisterns, satellite dishes, torching cars and houses.... Even the Israeli PM admitted it was a pogrom:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Olmert condemns settler 'pogrom'
Yet only one person was arrested, and that was only after Btselem posted a video of the guy shooting 3 unarmed Palestinian civilians. Then after the dust settled, the charges were dropped, because in general Israeli settlers can destroy Palestinian property, attack and kill Palestinians with impunity.
December 4-5 was not an isolated incident. Palestinians suffer similar acts of violence and property destruction daily. Its not just settlers who destroy Palestinian property. Its also the Jewish State of Israel.
The Abu Omar and Shawamreh families’ land is situated in the Occupied West Bank town of Anata, in what is known as “Area C”, meaning it is under complete Israeli military control. Palestinians are almost never granted building permits by the Israeli authorities, and therefore are forced to build or expand their homes “illegally”. This is the most common reason given by the Israeli authorities for house demolitions. However, as an occupying force, Israel doesn’t have the legal right to grant nor deny permits as it is not entitled under International Law to conduct civil planning.
the rate and the method of house demolitions show that this is more a policy of gradual ethnic cleansing than anything else, with clear political and strategic purposes. According to ICAHD, “House demolitions and forced evictions are among Israel’s most heinous practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).” Since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, approximately 26,000 homes have been demolished, and in 2011 alone, 622 Palestinian structures were razed to the ground by Israeli bulldozers.
No alternative housing or compensation is ever given to Palestinian families whose houses are demolished. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Occupying Powers are prohibited from destroying Palestinian property or employing collective punishment. Article 53 reads: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons…is prohibited.” Under this provision the practice of demolishing Palestinian houses is banned, as is the wholesale destruction of Palestinian infrastructure.
Palestinian home demolitions: the ethnic cleansing that dare not speak its name | Ceasefire Magazine
Jerusalem Ethnic Cleansing Tour
On visiting Jerusalem I took a tour with ICAHD. There are many locations in the area in which the ‘Judaification’ of Jerusalem can be observed, and on our short day trip we could see only a few. But it was more than enough to open my eyes to the sheer brutality of the process and the effect on its victims. Much of what we saw was only a stone’s throw from the plush tourist-friendly West Jerusalem, whose residents are predominantly either oblivious to, or complicit in, these terrible crimes carried out by their goverment.
Jerusalem Ethnic Cleansing Tour | Jews for Justice for Palestinians
The extent of the Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing is mostly unknown in Canada, because this injustice is not newsworthy here. The lopsidedness of the reporting proves that our MSM has an agenda to support Israel's continued injustice and oppression of these people. Ethnic cleansing is the root cause of this conflict. Its the reason why Palestinians are oppressed. Its the fundamental injustice they suffer which drives their resistance. Effectively Palestine has been wiped off the map. The conflict has moved on to reducing Palestinian living space. Every day, Palestinians loose a little more land and the people are squeezed into ever smaller walled in slivers of land surrounded by walls, razor wire and guard towers. They've lost access to communal pastures, sources water and arable land. Their economy has been decimated by Israeli controls which restrict both imports and exports. Millions of Palestinians are dependent on international food aid, which Israel restricts and at times blocks leading to food insecurity, malnutrition and disease.
I can give many examples of the daily injustice and oppression suffered by Palestinians, little of which is reported in our news.
Take this recent anti-Arab riot at a Jerusalem mall for example:
Haaretz
March 25, 2012
By Gideon Levy
Between France and the Malha mall
The fact that such a hate crime is barely even reported in Israel is much more serious than the blows at the mall. The police allow it to happen, hundreds of eyewitness turn aside. No one saw, no one heard, who cares?
The voice on the other end of the phone was clearly very upset. Its owner had rung late at night to talk about the "pogrom," as he called it, at Jerusalem's Malha shopping mall a few days before. As the former head of one of the state law enforcement agencies he was particularly outraged that the incident had attracted no media attention and that no arrests had been made.
On Friday the full, terrible truth of the incident came to light. Oz Rosenberg reported in this newspaper that last Monday night hundreds of Beitar Jerusalem soccer fans rampaged through the mall, chanted racist slogans, spat at female Arab workers and attacked dozens of male Arab workers with their fists, their feet and with sticks.
"They caught some of them and beat the hell out of them," Rosenberg quoted one shop owner as saying. "They hurled people into shops, and smashed them against shop windows."
Mall director Gideon Avrahami said he had never seen such a "disgraceful, shocking, racist incident." On Tuesday he took the praiseworthy step of calling a meeting with the shopping center's Arab employees and apologizing to them. "How could you see such a thing and do nothing?" one asked.
And indeed, no one did anything. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses, security cameras recorded everything, the police came - and no one was arrested, no one bothered to tell the media (with the exception of my informant, the former lawman ). The incident occurred some hours after the massacre at the Jewish school in Toulouse. Even though what happened in France was much more violent and terrible, there is a straight line between it and the rampage in Malha - both were racist hate crimes. Those who fail to raise their voice now over Malha will get Toulouse in Jerusalem. Sticks today, guns tomorrow....
Between France and the Malha mall - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
