The Silence of Labour Friends of Israel and the Jewish Labour Movement Apologists for Israel is Deafening
On the 6th January 2016 the House of Commons held a debate on Child
Prisoners and Detainees: Occupied Palestinian Territories. During this debate there were
two Labour MPs who were determined to defend Israel’s army and its abuse of children – Ian Austin and
Louise Ellman.
‘As a psychologist, will the hon. Lady comment on the
likely impact on children of the Palestinian Authority’s glorification of
terrorists who have murdered Israelis, presenting them as role models? What is
the likely impact on children of Palestinian schools using textbooks that
glorify violence and of countless examples of hatred and anti-Semitism being promoted on children’s television
programmes on official Palestinian Authority TV in the west bank?’
Using standard Zionist propaganda points, Austin
argued that but for the Palestinian Authority’s ‘glorification of terrorists’ and the content of their school books,
Palestinians would just love the Occupation, the check points and the
confiscation of their land! It was only ‘incitement’
that stopped Palestinians falling in love with their occupiers, settlers included!
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| Ian Austin MP heckling Jeremy Corbyn in the debate on the Chilcott Report |
Given that the PA acts as the Palestinian arm of Israel’s security forces, such mind numbing stupidity is difficult to understand even from a member of Progress.
Austin merits a special page in the annals of infamy. During the debate on the Silcott Inquiry, when Jeremy Corbyn was introducing the debate, Austin repeatedly heckled him telling him to 'shut up' and 'sit down'. Clearly it was painful for him to listen to someone who had bee proven right over the Iraq War. I don't often agree with Owen Jones, but his comment that Austin was an 'astonishingly unpleasant person' just about sums it up. His deselection is long overdue.
Louise
Ellman made 3
contributions. She too blamed the Palestinians
for Israel’s use of torture, beatings, night-time arrests of children, the use
of blindfolds and of course painful plastic hand cuffs.
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| Louise Ellman, the Liverpool Riverside and Tel Aviv South MP |
When I accused Ellman of appearing to be act as the
MP for Tel Aviv South than Liverpool Riverside the Jewish Chronicle’s idiot
columnist, Marcus Dysch, accused me of racial abuse no less. I can’t recall such comments when we accused
Tory MPs such as John Carlisle and Julian Amery of being the MPs for Pretoria
in the days of South Africa apartheid. Mention Israel and your automatically accused of 'antisemitism' - unless of course you actually are an anti-Semite.
Joan
Ryan, the Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, has acted as the standard bearer
for the Israeli state and its military. Despite LFI's ‘support’
for a 2 States Solution, which is a smokescreen for denying the 5 million Palestinians under occupation any democratic, civil or
political rights, Ryan is a strong supporter of Israel’s military occupation, including
its settlements.
 |
| One wonders whether calling Ryan the MP for Jerusalem Central is also anti-Semitic given she's not Jewish? Ryan's main claim to fame is claiming the most expenses of any MP in 2006-7 and being the runner up the year before |
There has grown up in recent years a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement whose aim is to put pressure on Israel. Israel has screamed blue murder. It is ‘anti-Semitic’ etc. Yet historically BDS has been the weapon of the oppressed. From the Boycott of Captain Boycott in Ireland to the Boycott of Slave Grown Sugar in the West Indies, to the Jewish Boycott of Nazi Germany and the Boycott of South Africa, Boycott has been a weapon of the oppressed.
Ironically Israel is all in favour of Boycotts. It enforces a Boycott of Gaza through its military siege but that is one boycott that Ryan supports.
When
Martha Osamor came out in support
of the BDS Ryan immediately penned
an open letter with the usual Zionist talking points about ‘demonising the only
Jewish state in the world.’ As if not
having a religious state was some kind of sin.
I responded with my own open
letter which, for some reason, Ryan hasn’t responded to.
This
week the issue of Palestinian children
has come to the fore with the night time arrest of Ahed Tamimi, a 16 year old
girl who had been videod slapping an Israeli soldier in order to prevent him
entering her house, after her 14 year old cousin had been shot in the head.
 | ||
I explain why Dysch's suggestion that referring to Ellman as a Tel Aviv MP is no more racist than calling John Carlisle and Julian Amery the MPs for South African constituencies
|
She and indeed the rest of her family has now been arrested and the treatment of this brave 16 year old school girl has gone viral. See We Are All Ahed Tamimi. The
time has come to root out of the Labour Party those who offer their support to Israel’s
occupiers. We need to turn the witch hunt on the real witches, such as Ryan, Austin and Ellman.
The incidence of reported physical violence against child detainees has
risen since a 2013 UNICEF report on the matter. Other aspects of detention,
such as access to a lawyer, have improved
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| Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the USA and Knesset Member suggests that Ahed Tamimi 'dresses up in American clothes' - this racist can't handle the fact that Ahed comes across as a normal teenager in the abnormal situation of an occupation reacting as any kid would to armed soldiers |
About two thirds of the 70 Palestinian minors who testified about their
arrest and incarceration in 2017 reported that they were subjected to violence
and physical abuse by soldiers during their custody.
The kinds of violence reported were slaps, kicks, pinches, blows with
various objects, pushing and being forced to sit in painful positions,
according to the October report published by Military Court Watch, a group of
lawyers and social activists that monitors the treatment of children in Israeli
military detention.
The 70 minors, ages 12 to 17, are but a sample of the hundreds of
Palestinian minors arrested this year by the Israeli army. The final figures
for 2016 and this year haven’t been submitted yet.
According to Israel Prison Service figures, by June 2017, 318
Palestinian minors were classified as security detainees in Israeli prisons.
Since 2013, when the survey was first taken, the number of arrested minors who
reported physical abuse against them rose from 60 percent to 64 percent.
The 540 minors whose testimonies were taken from the beginning of 2013
to the end of November 2017 represent about 14 percent of all the minor
detainees during those five years.
In 2013, UNICEF published a report on Palestinian children arrested by
Israel, concluding that “the ill treatment of children who come in contact with
the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and
institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest to indictment
of the child, the conviction and issuing of the verdict.”
The report confirmed claims of Palestinian child protection
organizations that children in custody were systematically abused. Night
arrests, cuffing and blindfolding, failure to inform detainees of the right to
remain silent, denial of access to lawyers and parents prior to interrogation
were part of the routine, in addition to violent treatment of the children by
soldiers, the report found.
After the UNICEF report’s release, Israeli officials promised to improve
the situation. The Military Advocate General distributed a memorandum among
brigade and battalion commanders, reminding them of the proper arrest rules.
Among other things the memorandum stressed that using physical violence was prohibited.
The IDF reported to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel in 2014
that the memorandum says the commander of an arrest unit must make sure the
detainee is held in “reasonable conditions,” including a place protected from
intense heat or rain, provision of food and water and access to toilets, with a
prohibition on physical and verbal violence, as well as other forms of abuse.
Following the report’s release, a number of lawyers and activists set up
Military Court Watch to check whether the army was upholding the international
standards for the arrests of minors.
As the organization’s monthly reports have shown, some improvement has
taken place since then only in a few procedures – 21 percent of the minors
whose testimonies were taken in 2017 said they were allowed to consult with a
lawyer – compared to 0 percent in 2013 and 12 percent in 2016. In 2013 none of
the detainees received a summons prior to his arrest, compared to 10 percent
who received a summons in 2015 and 7 percent this year.
However, no improvement was made regarding the minors’ physical abuse.
The children reported slaps (51 percent ), kicks (19 percent), pinches (14
percent), being beaten with various objects (9 percent) pushing (6 percent) and
painful sitting positions (1 percent). The number of minors who reported verbal
violence on the soldiers’ part declined from 49 percent in 2013 to 41 percent
this year.
Most of the children, 61 percent, reported this year that the soldiers
and policemen threatened them, compared to 47 percent in 2013 and 38 percent in
2014; more than half, 56 percent, reported that they were made to sit down on
the jeep floor when they were driven from their home to interrogation, compared
to 78 percent last year. Almost all, 93 percent, reported that their hands were
cuffed and 79 percent reported that they were blindfolded. The large majority,
79 percent, reported that they were made to sign documents written only in
Hebrew – another procedure branded by human rights organizations as illegal.
Free the Tamimi Family
Tuesday morning at 3am, Israeli forces invaded my home and arrested my daughter. They dragged Ahed out of bed,
handcuffed her and put her in the back of their military jeep. She is
16-years-old.
The next morning, my wife went to the police station to be with our
daughter as she was interrogated. But Israel took her into custody as well. The following day, they arrested my 21-year-old niece Nour.
All of this started with last Friday when soldiers in my village shot 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi directly in the
face with a rubber coated steel bullet. Following surgery, Mohammad had
to be placed in amedically-induced coma.
Then the soldiers came to our home. Ahed and Nour slapped the soldiers in the
face and pushed them back, yelling that they could not enter our home.
The Israeli military is threatened by our
regular protests, by our refusal to live with occupation.
Ahed appeared in court yesterday. Her detention was extended because she
is refusing to talk. No
cooperation with the occupation! Nour and my wife, Nariman, appeared in
military court today. Their detention
was also extended until at least Monday. Ahed, Nariman and Nour arebeing held Hasharon prison. Ahed is
being held with Israeli prisoners and Nariman and Nour are being held with
Palestinian prisoners. Even though Ahed is not in the same section of the
prison as her mother and cousin, she is remaining strong and determined.
It is our responsibility to resist the soldiers who enter our village
and settlers who occupy our land and resources. For our family’s work, I have
been recognized by the European Union as a Human Rights Defender. At the age of 13, my daughter won the Handala
award for Courage in Turkey. Amnesty International, during one of
my imprisonments, declared me a prisoner of conscience. Each week, my wife
helps lead our anti-occupation demonstration. Now her resistance takes place
from the inside of an Israeli jail.
People and organizations around the world from Youth Against Settlements
in Palestine to Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK and others in the US are supporting
us. They are writing press releases, making phone calls and standing by our
side. Tomorrow at 12pm EST, (7pm
Palestine time) there will be a twitter storm with
the hashtag #FreeAhedTamimi. I thank everyone for their support and hope
my family will be free soon.
Towards freedom,
Bassem Tamimi,
Human Rights Defender
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