Banksy�s Grim Tour of Gaza: Watch a Mini Documentary by the Shadowy Street Artist

The world�s most mysterious street artist released a 2-minute documentary online Wednesday that details the horrors of Gaza�allegedly shot by the man himself.

�Make this the year YOU discover a new destination.�

That welcoming tagline serves as the opening title card to a 2-minute documentary that the legendary U.K. street artist Banksy posted to his website Wednesday evening. But in typical Bansky fashion, what follows is a an eye-opening short film, Welcome to Gaza.

A man�presumably Banksy�is seen traveling by car and then climbing through what he calls �a network of illegal tunnels� before entering Gaza. The camera homes in on children playing in the rubble.

�The locals like it so much they never leave,� text says over the screen, �(because they�re not allowed to),� followed by shots of IDF soldiers.

The �tourism� video includes a statistic on Operation Protective Edge, a military operation launched by Israel in 2014 that it claims leveled 18,000 homes. Also included is footage of drone strikes�accompanied by American voices�locals voicing their disapproval at the state of things, and footage of the notoriously mysterious street artist stenciling several works on rock walls in Gaza. Banksy�s publicist Jo Brooks has confirmed that the video, as well as the four new graffiti works unveiled in Gaza, are all authentic.

�Gaza is often described as �the world�s largest open air prison� because no one is allowed to enter or leave. But that seems a bit unfair to prisons�they don�t have their electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day,� Banksy wrote on his website.

The video ends by focusing on a message graffiti�d in red letters on a wall:

�If we wash our hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless we side with the powerful�we don�t remain neutral.�

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Two Different Views On Israeli Settlement In East Jerusalem

Israel Destroys Palestinian House In Response To Attack

Mads Gilbert and Gaza (on Hamas and 'terrorists', Israel and apartheid)

Peace Propaganda And The Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004)

Promising Palestinian soccer star was among the conflict's dead

The photo on Facebook is dated May 27, 2014, exactly three months ago. Joseph �Sepp� Blatter, the president of FIFA, the international soccer federation, is warmly shaking the hand of a powerfully built young man in a Nike jersey. �Mr. World Soccer� told the young Palestinian player that he predicted he would have a professional future in the sport. A few weeks later, an Israel Defense Forces soldier fired one round of live ammunition at the promising athlete and killed him.

Friends of the dead man wrote a sarcastic letter to Blatter: �We thank you for the brilliant future you promised Mohammad � Here, this is the future you promised him.� The president of the Palestinian Football Federation, Jibril Rajoub, also fired off an official letter of protest to Blatter over the soccer player�s death.

But in Israel no one had ever heard his name; no one was aware he�d been killed, in the midst of the Gaza hostilities. Of course, a possible protest or show of solidarity by Israeli soccer officials in the wake of the killing of the Palestinian player was out of the question.

Thus ended the short life of the 19-year-old athlete Mohammad al-Qatari from the Al-Amari refugee camp, outside Ramallah. His life was truncated, his dream aborted. Qatari will not be a professional soccer player, like Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale, from Real Madrid, whom he revered and whose pictures he pasted on the wall next to his bed.

One M16 rifle bullet straight to the center of the chest, fired from about 70 meters during a protest demonstration against the war in Gaza, felled him.

His parents proudly show his training outfit. His official uniform, bearing the number 16, is being kept in the Al-Amari soccer club�s headquarters. The memorial poster shows him in the uniform, Kalashnikov in hand, Al-Aqsa Mosque in the background. His parents say it�s a computer collage done by his friends after his death, as is customary in the West Bank; they say he never held a weapon. At the moment of his death he might have been holding a stone, which he possibly intended to throw at the soldiers who were deployed at a distance, next to the gate of the settlement of Psagot.

Full article.

Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown - Gaza and the West Bank (HD)

Berlin Wall vs Apartheid wall

The searing hypocrisy of the West

Since the teens went missing from Gush Etzion, a Jewish-only colony in the West Bank, Israel has besieged the 4 million Palestinians who already live under its thumb, storming through towns, ransacking homes and civil institutions, conducting night raids on families, stealing property, kidnapping, injuring, and killing.

Warplanes were dispatched to bomb Gaza, again and repeatedly, destroying more homes and institutions and carrying out extrajudicial executions.

Thus far, over 570 Palestinians have been kidnapped and imprisoned, most notably Samer Issawi, the Palestinian who went on a 266-day hunger strike in protest of a previous arbitrary detention.

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed, including at least three children, a pregnant woman, and a mentally ill man. Hundreds have been injured, thousands terrorized.

Universities and social welfare organizations were ransacked, shut down, their computers and equipment destroyed or stolen, and both private and public documents confiscated from civil institutions.

This wonton thuggery is official state policy conducted by its military and does not include the violence to persons and properties perpetuated by paramilitary Israeli settlers, whose persistent attacks against Palestinian civilians have also escalated in the past weeks.

And now that the settlers are confirmed dead, Israel has vowed to exact revenge. Naftali Bennet, Economy Minister said, "There is no mercy for the murderers of children. This is the time for action, not words."

Although no Palestinian faction has claimed responsibility for the abduction, and most, including Hamas, deny any involvement, Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant that Hamas is responsible. The United Nations requested that Israel provide evidence to support their contention, but no evidence has been forthcoming, casting doubt on Israel�s claims, particularly in light of its public ire over the recent unification of Palestinian factions and President Obama�s acceptance of the new Palestinian unity.

In the West, headlines over pictures of the three Israeli settler teens referred to Israel's reign of terror over Palestine as a "manhunt" and "military sweep." Portraits of innocent young Israeli lives emerged from news outlets and the voices of their parents are featured in the fullness of their anguish. The US, EU, UK, UN, Canada and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the kidnapping and called for their immediate and unconditional release. Upon discovery of the bodies, there has been an outpouring of condemnation and condolences.

President Obama said, "As a father, I cannot imagine the indescribable pain that the parents of these teenage boys are experiencing. The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless act of terror against innocent youth."

Although hundreds of Palestinian children are kidnapped, brutalized or killed by Israel, including several in the past two weeks, there is rarely, if ever, such a reaction from the world.

Just prior to the disappearance of the Israeli settler teens, the murder of two Palestinian teens was caught on a local surveillance camera. Ample evidence, including the recovered bullets and a CNN camera filming an Israeli sharpshooter pulling the trigger at the precise moment one of the boys was shot indicated that they were killed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers.

There were no condemnations or calls for justice for these teens by world leaders or international institutions, no solidarity with their grieving parents, nor mention of the more than 250 Palestinian children, kidnapped from their beds or on their way to school, who continue to languish in Israeli jails without charge or trial, physically and psychologically tortured.

This is to say nothing of the barbaric siege of Gaza, or the decades of ongoing theft, evictions, assaults on education, confiscation of land, demolition of homes, color coded permit system, arbitrary imprisonment, restriction of movement, checkpoints, extrajudicial executions, torture, and denials at every turn squeezing Palestinians into isolated ghettos.

None of that seemingly matters.

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The leader of resistance to occupation from Algeria: Lala Fatima N'Soumeur

The leader of resistance to occupation from Algeria: Lala Fatima N'Soumeur
1830 - 1863
She was an intelligent child whose father took care to educate her in religious sciences and left her in charge of his Quranic memorization school after his death. Her reputation for knowledge spread quickly throughout the Algerian tribes.
At the time, Algeria was under French occupation, and one day the French army launched a military assault on her village.
Fatima bravely fought alongside her brother and sparked fear in the hearts of the French, so much so that they started telling tales of the Algerian �Joan of Arc�.
After the day her village was attacked, she became active in the resistance and was part of many military campaigns. she achieved one victory after another, until the French army had to offer her a truce which she accepted. However, the French army soon broke that truce and attacked her village and captured Fatima and seized her library (which was rumored to have contained around 150 books) 

Fatima was placed in a prison under heavy French guard and there she stayed for several years until she suddenly passed away.
Some say of a sudden illness and some say poisoned by the French because they couldn't break her spirit, but her memory remained in the hearts and minds of the Algerian people as a symbol of resistance and strength.

from Muslim women in history FB page

Hebron Under Siege

Twenty years ago, on 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American Jewish settler from Brooklyn, New York, walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Palestinian city of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.

It was during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

He opened fire, killing 29 Palestinian men and boys and injuring dozens more, before his victims overwhelmed him and beat him to death.

Killer praised as hero

Mohammed Abu al-Halawa, now 53, a survivor who was left paralyzed by Goldstein, told Ma�an News Agency this week, �I remember the massacre at every moment and am physically still affected by it � I�m still in a lot of pain and need regular medical treatment.�

�It pains me whenever I see settlers dancing next to the grave of the criminal who left me disabled.�

For years afterwards, the mass murderer�s grave became �a pilgrimage site� for admirers.

Even recently, Israeli settlers have celebrated Goldstein as a hero, teaching their children to revere him for his murderous act, especially during the Jewish festival of Purim.

Goldstein had lived in the settlement of Kiryat Arba and had been a member of the violent extremist Jewish Defense League, founded by Meir Kahane.

On 6 April 1994, Palestinians carried out the first ever suicide bombing targeting Israeli civilians, killing eight people in the northern town of Afula. Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bombing, said it was in retaliation for the Hebron massacre.

Punishing Palestinians

In the days immediately after the Hebron massacre, Israeli occupation forces took action not against the settlers but against Palestinians: Israeli forces killed and injured dozens more unarmed Palestinians protesting the massacre across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This set the pattern: instead of cracking down on the settlers, Israel escalated its persecution of Palestinians, especially in Hebron, gradually allowing the settlers to take over more of the city.

The Ibrahimi Mosque was forcibly partitioned with settlers being given most of the space � a precedent many Palestinians fear the Israeli occupation will one day try to repeat at Jerusalem�s al-Aqsa Mosque.

In 1997, settlers were rewarded even further for Goldstein�s massacre when the Palestinian Authority agreed to allow the occupation to partition Hebron itself into two zones: �H1� and �H2.�

H1 is nominally administered by the Palestinian Authority and is home to more than 120,000 Palestinians.

H2, under full Israeli military rule, includes Hebron�s historic Old City as well as the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Israeli occupation forces severely restrict the movement of more than 30,000 Palestinians in H2 while Israeli settlers move about freely under army protection.

Since then, settlers have aggressively seized Palestinian properties in the Old City, leaving much of the city center a ghost town.

A 2006 survey by the Israeli rights group B�Tselem found that at least 1,014 Palestinian homes in the Old City of Hebron had been vacated by their occupants and more than 1,800 businesses had shuttered due to the Israeli takeover.

This represented 42 percent of the housing units in the district and more than three-quarters of the businesses.

Hebron still under siege

In the beautifully shot 5-minute documentary above, Hebron Under Siege, Palestinian filmmaker Nizar Abu Zayyad visits some of the residents of old Hebron�s main thoroughfareShuhada Street, shut down by Israeli occupation forces since the massacre.

Zuleekha Mohtaseb�s tells us how the front door of her house, opening onto Shuhada Street, has been welded shut by order of the Israeli army

�We are barred from using the street in any way,� she says.

�To the right and to the left of us, we are surrounded by settlement outposts that harass us constantly.�

Settlers can go where they like and often throw things at Palestinians and curse them.

�You feel you are under house arrest, a prisoner in your own house,� Mohtaseb adds.

�By what right? What right grants him [the settler] freedom of movement and takes it away from me? Is it because I�m Palestinian and he�s Israeli? He is the one coming from the far end of the world and claiming ownership of the land. But I am the one born here.�

Bader Syoori, a businessowner, talks about the economic devastation caused by the closure of Shuhada Street

After the massacre, things changed totally, he explains. Israel closed the area to Palestinian vehicles before it became strictly off limits in 2002.

Samah Brewesh, 15, talked about the daily ordeal and harassment children like her face because of the settlers, while the settlers enjoy every advantage.

�Their children live in luxury, they have a place to play in. In my neighborhood, children have none.�

Abdul Halim Syoori, also a businessowner, says he wishes that things will return to how they once were, �that we live just like we used to in the old days. We work and earn a living for our children.�

Zuleekha Mohtaseb wants to use her front door. �We want the settlers gone,� she says.

Source

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians quadruple, says UN

Footage of the settlers surrounded by an angry crowd led the TV news in Israel that day, with commentators saying serious bloodshed was averted by Palestinians who shielded the settlers.

Seven Israelis were questioned and placed under house arrest, police said. Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon warned he would show zero tolerance, but Palestinians are sceptical.

So far there have been at least two cases of vandalism in apparent response to the Qusra incident. Today residents of a village in the area reported that the door of a mosque was set on fire and graffiti read �Blood for blood, Qusra.�

Settlers have damaged hundreds of trees in Qusra, killed 18 sheep, torched six cars and set fire to a mosque in dozens of attacks, said mayor Abdel Azim Wadi. The village has lost half its lands to settlements.

The mayor said Israeli soldiers either stand by during settler attacks or fire tear gas, rubber bullets and occasionally live rounds at Palestinians if the attacks escalate into stone-throwing clashes. A Qusra man was killed by army fire and dozens were wounded by settlers and soldiers, he said.

Palestinians say �price tag� is part of Israel�s policy of cementing control over the West Bank, the largest of three war-won areas the Palestinians want for a state. They note that Israel has been providing practical support for outposts even though they were set up without formal government permission.

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