Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Where did the settlers get their machine guns from? Where did the settlers learn that it is OK to hate Palestinians, that their presence in the OPT is justified even if it comes with the wholesale subjugation of a people? The settlers, the majority of them are trouble-makers who need to be removed from the Palestinian territories, asap.

A ring engaged in selling organs and black transplantology has been exposed in the Ukraine, according to law enforcement agencies. The group consisted of 12 Ukrainian surgeons, and was headed by an israeli citizen. Investigators said the group, which was in this business for 3 years, attracted people who are ready to sell their organs, from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan, and would perform the surgeries in Azerbaijan and Ecuador.

Here’s a news flash for Tel Aviv: it’s not a sign of respect when the bulk of humanity views you as psychopathic.

The concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are misplaced. The legitimacy of Israel is no longer threatened. It’s already lost. Long gone. Kaput.

In stable democratic states there are laws that protect historic sites against confiscation or destruction. Governments allocate funds from state budgets for their maintenance. However, in Israel such normal procedures do not apply when it comes to maintaining Islamic heritage sites. To the contrary, Muslim sanctities all over Palestine have suffered systematic destruction at the hands of the Israeli governments, and the Mamilla cemetery, where there are now only 5% of the tombs left^[1], is no exception.

“As part of my studies at Al Quds medical school in Abu Dis, for the last two years I’ve been doing on-the-job training at an East Jerusalem hospital. Being a Palestinian from the West Bank, I need a permit from the Israeli authorities to enter Jerusalem. I’ve never had any problems getting one before. This spring, however, a soldier at the check¬point confiscated my permit. I was told that I had to see the Israeli secret service, Shin Bet, if I wanted to get it back.

When I finally got an appoint¬ment a few weeks later, the Shin Bet officer told me: “If you help us, we will help you.” They asked me to inform them about my fellow students’ activities, in particular any travel abroad. In other words, I was asked to spy if I wanted to study. I refused and, as a result, I didn’t get my permit back.

Israel began constructing the wall in June 2002 following its invasion of cities in the West Bank, which it dubbed "Operation Defensive Shield." In retrospect, the invasion appears to have been a prelude to the construction of the wall and no one recognized the significance of the invasion's code name at the time. The immense scale of the 2002 invasion -- characterized by the destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure, mass arrests, assassinations and massacres -- ensured that the construction of the wall would commence with as little resistance as possible.

As the “peace talks” are about to get under way in Washington, Hamas has decided to remind us all of its vitality by executing four settlers. According to the New York Times article, Hamas claimed that the attack was “a natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its settlers” and demonstrates that the “armed Palestinian resistance is present in the West Bank despite the war to uproot it.”

In yet another revealing speech, this time delivered at a symposium at IDC University in Herzliya, Tony Blair has exposed himself for what he truly is; not a "peace envoy" by any stretch of the imagination but a shameless mouthpiece for the State of Israel. Just days before direct negotiations are due to take place in the Middle East, in which he is supposed to be taking a neutral stance representing the Quartet (UN, EU, Russia and the USA), Blair has taken it upon himself to set aside any pretence of impartiality and reaffirm his "passion" for Israel. He has taken on the role of Israel’s defence attorney to plead with the world to try to empathise with Israel and to understand Israel’s point of view when it commits atrocities, human rights abuses and breaches of international law. He acknowledged that Israel is often perceived as "arrogant, overbearing and aggressive" but instead of examining why that might be such a widespread perception he went on to defend Israel’s crimes. Not for one moment, however, did he stop to ask anyone to consider the Palestinians’ point of view.

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.

The soldier, who has only been identified as “Captain R”, was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago.