Why does the ‘only democratic state in the Middle East’ (Israel) sends Defence Ministry Agents to Archives in order to brow-beat them into hiding historical documents?

For nearly 20 years Israeli Arabs lived under military rule – not because they were a Fifth Column but to prevent them returning to the land that had stolen been from them

Haganah terrorists expelling Palestinian refugees from Haifa

Israel is a state that has been built on myths – whether it is that ‘god’ gave the settlers the land of the Palestinians or the fiction that in 1948, the Palestinians miraculously ran away on the orders of the Arab states in order that a Jewish state could be created. As Ilan Pappe, Benny Morris and other historians have demonstrated, the Palestinians left because they were forced to do so.

I have previously covered the topic of the desperate efforts of the Israeli state to prevent the truth emerging. This has taken the form of reclassifying documents that have been released to historians, presumably on the assumption that they were not copied and therefore any one quoting from them can’t prove that what they said is true.

At the end of this article in Ha’aretz, Adam Raz quotes the cynical comments of Yehiel Horev, the former director of the Malmab, the secretive Defence Ministry unit which is dedicated to rewriting the history of the Israeli military’s deeds. In an interview he made his purposes crystal clear:

“When the state imposes confidentiality, the published work is weakened… If someone writes that the horse is black, if the horse isn’t outside the barn, you can’t prove that it’s really black.”

Of course all nations based their identity on myths such as the tales of King Arthur and his knights. Israel’s national myths are not just about ancient tales of kings but about recent events where the evidence is crystal clear.  Myths that are national lies with the sole purpose of legitimising the theft of land.

Before and after - the Palestinian Al Hambra cinema in 1937 and today a Church of Scientology centre

From 1949 to 1966 Israel’s Arab population was kept under military government. They could not leave their villages without permission. As is the case with everything in Israel the excuse was that the Arabs were a fifth column, a security threat.

We now know, as the article by Adam Raz explains, that this was never true and was not believed by the military establishment either. The purpose of military rule was in order to prevent Israel’s Arabs, who had often been displaced by the fighting from their villages, from returning to their land.

A law, the Absentee Property Law was passed in 1950 with the specific purpose of defining the property of persons who were expelled, fled or left the country after 29 November 1947 as well as their property (land, houses, bank accounts etc.), as “absentees”.

Property belonging to absentees was placed under the control of the Custodian for Absentees’ Property. The Absentees’ Property Law 1950 was the main legal instrument used by Israel to take possession of the land belonging to the internal and external Palestinian refugees.

Zionists loot a sofa from a Palestinian house (left) and today (right)

An Orwellian category Present-Absentees was created. You could be present in Israel, having not been expelled, and still be absent.  Even if you left your house in 1948 because of the fighting or you were forced out by the Haganah you were still counted as an Internally Displaced Person. Of course Israeli Jews who were forced to leave their homes faced no such prohibition.

It is estimated today that 1 in 4 Israeli Palestinians are Internally Displaced Persons. That lies at the root of inequality in Israel, an inequality emphasised by the Jewish Nation State Law that made ‘Jewish settlement’ into a national virtue.

Palestinians are not permitted to live in the homes they formerly lived in, even if they were in the same area, the property still exists, and they can show that they own it. [Tom Segev, 1949: The First Israelis, pp. 68-91].

However it was one thing to pass a racist law but it was another thing to implement that law. Israeli Palestinians desired nothing more than to return to where they were living but for Zionism, all wings of the Zionist movement including the ‘left’  Mapam, it was an article of faith that no Palestinian should ever return to their home even if they only moved a mile away for safety.

Thus it was that military rule was instituted over Israel’s Palestinian population.  By forbidding them to leave their villages without permission it made it that much easier to prevent unauthorised access to their previous homes. This was necessary because although Zionist settlers moved into their former villages this took time, not least because at that time there weren’t enough Zionist settlers.

Thus Israel was born in a fit of ethnic cleansing and today the job of Malmad and the Ministry of Defence is to keep documents of the time secret and hidden and to perpetuate the myth that the Palestinian refugees left of their own accord.

We should bear this in mind when Israel's racist Ambassador to London, Tzipi Hotoveli, states that the Nakba and the forcible expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 was an 'Arab lie'. It is a Zionist lie that there was no expulsion and the fact that that lie is written into Israeli law makes no difference whatsoever.

Tony Greenstein

Secret Israeli Document Reveals Plan to Keep Arabs Off Their Lands

A document unsealed after 60 years reveals the Israeli government’s secret intentions behind the imposition of a military government on the country’s Arab citizens in 1948: not to enhance security but to ensure Jewish control of the land

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Adam Raz

Jan 31, 2020 11:50 AM

Arabs awaiting a security check in Kfar Qasem, during the War of Independence.GPO

Israel’s defense establishment has for years endeavored to conceal historical documentation in various archives around the country, as was revealed in an article in Haaretz last July.

That article, which followed up on a study by the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, noted that for closed to 20 years, the staff at Malmab – the Defense Ministry’s secretive security department (the name is a Hebrew acronym for “director of security of the defense establishment”) – had been visiting public and private archives and forcing their directors to mothball documents relating to Israeli history, with special emphasis on the Arab-Israeli conflict. This was done without legal authority. The article sparked a furor, and dozens of researchers and historians urged the defense minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, to halt the clandestine illegal activity. Their appeal received no response.

When the state imposes confidentiality, the published work is weakened… If someone writes that the horse is black, if the horse isn’t outside the barn, you can’t prove that it’s really black.

What sort of documents did Malmab order the directors to hide away in their archives’ safes? The many and varied examples include: thick files kept by the military government under which Israel’s Arab citizens lived for 18 years; testimony about the looting and destruction of Arab villages during the Independence War; cabinet ministers’ comments on the Arab refugee situation, following that war; evidence of acts of expulsion and testimony about camps set up for captives; information about Israel’s nuclear project; documents relating to various foreign policy issues; and even a letter sent by the poet and Holocaust survivor Abba Kovner about his own anti-Arab sentiments.

It’s not clear whether Malmab has reduced its activity in the archives since the article was published. However, it can be said that during the past six months, files earlier ordered closed by Malmab have been reopened, adding to our knowledge of the history of the two peoples who share this land. Though none are earth-shattering in historical significance, these are important documents that shed light on significant aspects of various events.

One such document is a secret codicil to a report drawn up by the government-appointed Ratner Committee in early 1956. The document, restored from oblivion in a safe at the Yad Yaari Research and Documentation Center at Givat Haviva, is titled, “Security Settlement and the Land Question.”

The importance of the information included in the codicil can be seen within the context of the history of the military government imposed on Israel’s Arabs in 1948, just months after independence, and abolished only in 1966. There were about 156,000 Arabs in Israel at the war’s end. Following the armistice agreement with Jordan (April 1949) and the annexation of the Triangle – a concentration of Arab locales in central Israel – 27 villages, from Kafr Qasem in the south to Umm al-Fahm in the north, also fell under the jurisdiction of the military government.

Administratively, the latter was divided into three regions: north, center (Triangle) and Negev. Sixty percent of Israel’s Arab citizens lived in Galilee, 20 percent in the Triangle and the rest in the Negev and in various so-called mixed cities, such as Haifa and Acre. In practice, about 85 percent of all Arab citizens were under the rule of the military government, subject to night-time curfews and regulations requiring them to obtain a travel permit before leaving their area of residence.

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The military government was based on the Defense (Emergency) Regulations, promulgated in 1945 by British mandatory authorities, and invoked by Israel to facilitate supervision of the movement and settlement of its Arab citizens, and to prevent their return to the areas captured by Jewish forces in the Independence War. The Jewish public was told that the purpose of the military government was to deter hostile actions against the state by its Arab citizens. In practice, however, it only exacerbated the enmity between the two peoples.

The secret addendum. Described the military government as a tool in the struggle against Arab "trespassers.

The military government, an ugly episode in Israeli history, was the subject of severe criticism at the time, not least by certain members of the Jewish community. Various parties on both the left and the right – Ahdut Ha’avodah, Mapam, the Communist Party and Herut (precursor of Likud) – objected, each for its own reasons, to its imposition. One reason for the opposition was that, as early as the early 1950s, the Shin Bet security service had concluded that the country’s Arab citizens did not pose any sort of security risk.

Opinion was also divided in Mapai, the ruling party (precursor of Labor). The state committee that was headed by Prof. Yohanan Ratner, a retired general and architect, was the second body appointed to consider whether the military government was necessary. The first, convened by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, in 1949, had decided to leave the status quo in place. In February 1956, the three members of the Ratner Committee reached the unanimous conclusion that “the military government has been reduced as much as it can be, and there is no place for a further reduction.” That this was probably a foregone conclusion is attested to by a remark made in public by a member of that panel, Daniel Auster (mayor of Jerusalem until 1950): “Of 200,000 Arabs and other minorities now residing in Israel, we did not find one who is loyal to the state.”

Secret action

A few years later, in the early 1960s, when pressure mounted to abolish the military government, Ben-Gurion explained that it was still essential in order to prevent an insurrection by the country’s Arabs. The state’s existence depends on the presence of the military government, he maintained, although he did not mention the opposition to it of the security establishment. However, it gradually became clear that what truly interested the advocates of the government was not security but control over land. That had been facilitated by Article 125 of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations (1945), under which a military commander can issue an order to close “any area or place.”

In a closed meeting of the Mapai leadership, in 1962, Ben-Gurion stated that without article 125, “we would not have been able to do what we did” in the Negev and Galilee. “Northern Galilee is Judenrein [empty of Jews],” he warned. 

“We will find ourselves in that situation for many years if we do not prevent – by means of Article 125, by administrative force and military force – entry into forbidden areas. And in the eyes of the Arabs these forbidden areas are theirs. Because the land of Ayalon [Valley] is Arab land.”

Despite the inherent logic of this argument, few testimonies exist about the military government’s latent nationalist motivations. For one thing, there was a tacit understanding, rarely violated, that this was not a subject for public discussion. The secret appendix to the Ratner Committee’s report, found in the Yaari Archives and in the State Archives, and being published here for the first time, is highly illuminating about the true motives that guided the country’s leaders.

According to the panel, the army alone could not safeguard state lands: only Jewish settlement – “security settlement,” as it was called – could do that in the long run. It was thus essential to establish Jewish settlements in the three geographical zones overseen by the military government. Such a process, however, would be lengthy, the committee members agreed, and in the meantime Arab citizens uprooted in the war wanted to return to their homes – something that could not be prevented through legislation. In the view of the codicil’s framers, “The laxness [by the Arabs] in seizing these areas is due mainly to the fact these areas were closed by the military government or under its supervision.” They added that only “the vigilance of the military government’s representatives largely prevented more serious lawlessness in regard to land seizure.” In other words, it was that government that prevented the Arabs from returning to their lands.

The report’s authors also objected to a decision made by Pinhas Lavon, a senior Mapai figure who opposed the military government and who replaced Ben-Gurion as defence minister in early 1954 (but resigned a year later during the so-called Lavon affair, which involved a covert operation in Egypt that went wrong). Lavon cancelled the prior decision to divide Galilee into 46 separate, closed areas in which Arabs needed a permit to move from one to another. A division into three or four zones would be enough, to his mind, and would ease life for Arab citizens. The committee members were adamantly against this, arguing that it had led to excessively free movement by the Arabs, because of which “the takeover of the state’s lands increased.”

The Ratner Committee exceeded the official mandate it received upon its appointment in late 1955. Its secret codicil also includes detailed recommendations for amending property laws, particularly an Ottoman statute from 1858. The latter stipulated that anyone, Jew or Arab, who resided on land for 10 years consecutively was entitled to retain it permanently. Now, eight years after Israel’s founding, the committee was worried that within two years, much land would be lost and transferred to Arab citizens. Its recommendation, then, was to abolish the time frame in regard to remaining on these lands.

The text of the secret codicil shows unequivocally that a major task of the military government was to act as a means to control the state’s lands until their permanent status could be regularised and until, with state support, Jewish settlement could begin in formerly Arab areas. Hence, one of the committee’s conclusions: 

“Until the stabilisation of security settlement in the few reserve areas that can still be settled, it is essential to maintain the military government in these places and to strengthen its apparatus… so that the military government can ensure, directly and indirectly, that the lands are not lost to the state.”

The panel described the military government as a tool in the struggle against Arab “trespassers,” and added that without the military government, “many more areas are liable to be lost to the state.” In a reprimand to the state, the committee noted that the military government was suffering from “known laxness… as a result of the criticism being levelled at it.”

Published in part at the time (without the secret section), the Ratner Committee’s recommendations provoked considerable public and governmental criticism. Ben-Gurion, who received a copy of the report in February 1956, blocked discussion of it for months because of disagreements within the government. The Sinai War, which erupted in October 1956, meant that it stayed off the agenda for an even longer period. Ultimately, the report was never submitted to the government for approval, but nevertheless served as the basis for policy in the coming years. In 1958, another committee, headed by Justice Minister Pinhas Rosen, suggested far-reaching changes in the military government, effectively proposing its almost total abolition. Not surprisingly, the cabinet held lengthy discussions in 1959 about whether to publish the recommendations of the Rosen committee.

Why did the state continue to conceal a report that was written more than six decades ago? The explanation might lie in a cabinet session in July 1959, in which Education Minister Zalman Aranne stated that “among the conclusions are some that are political.” In other words, security had nothing to do with it. He added, “The thing must be done, but not revealed, such as Judaizing Galilee, for example.”

Perhaps it’s appropriate here to recall the words of Yehiel Horev, the former director of the Malmab, who admitted in an interview to Haaretz last July that the defense establishment is simply trying to hamper historians.

“When the state imposes confidentiality, the published work is weakened… If someone writes that the horse is black, if the horse isn’t outside the barn, you can’t prove that it’s really black.”

Adam Raz, a historian, is a researcher at the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research and author of the book “Kafr Qasem Massacre: A Political Biography,” published in both Hebrew and Arabic.

I Have Resigned From Palestine Solidarity Campaign Because It No Longer Opposes Zionism, the Founding Ideology and Movement that created the Israeli State

In Railroading a Constitution Through Its AGM in Less Than an Hour, PSC’s Ruling Clique Demonstrated Their Contempt for the Membership 

Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry, both right-wing Zionists are invited to speak on PSC platforms - who does that benefit?

The angry, scowling face of PSC Chair Kamal Hawwash, who was determined to brush aside all opposition

In my letter of resignation I outline the reasons why Palestine Solidarity Campaign is today an obstacle to Palestine solidarity work.

Instead of educating activists as to the nature of Zionism and the Zionist movement, PSC has abandoned all opposition to Zionism. PSC is depoliticising activists in the face of constant Zionist attacks. It also reduces the question of Palestine to a human rights issue.

Of course the oppression of the Palestinians involves grave human rights abuses but if Palestine is simply a human rights issue then it is only one of many such examples. Who can doubt that the treatment of the Rohinga in Myanamar at the hands of the Burmese army, which is engaged in actual genocide, is worse than that of the Palestinians?

Zionism has systematically exploited the Holocaust through its blanket attack on all opposition to its settler colonial project as ‘anti-Semitism’. Yet instead of pointing out that Zionism represents an acceptance of anti-Semitism’s belief that Jews are aliens in the countries where they live, PSC prefers to jettison anti-Zionism.

Just 200 people participated in the Zoom session and as the day wore on it was down to less than 150

What makes Palestine different is that Israel is the only apartheid state on the planet and the only active settler colonial state in existence. Defenders of White Supremacy in South Africa were fond of pointing to human rights abuses in neighbouring countries and contrasting those states with itself.

The response of anti-imperialists was that South Africa’s regime of racial supremacy was unique. The same is true of Israeli Apartheid. Just as the South African state supported the repressive Black states surrounding it, Israel also acts as a guarantor against revolution in its neighbours. That is what the Abraham Accords are about.

PSC avoids such ‘difficult’ questions as it panders to the lowest common denominator politically. A cursory look at PSC literature would have you believe that Israel is alone in the Middle East. There is barely a mention of Israel’s strategic role in the region.

The Zionists have deliberately conflated the terms ‘Jew’ and ‘Zionist’. Support for the Palestinians has become ‘anti-Semitism’. PSC’s response has been to abandon opposition to Zionism. A search of its Annual Plan contains no mention of the word ‘Zionism’.

Those opposed to the resolution needed to obtain 25% of the vote. In the end we obtained 24.16% - just 113 people, 1.5% of PSC's total membership, voted for the new constitution

PSC AGM and the New Constitution

All of this came to a head at PSC’s recent AGM on March 19^th where any debate about a new proposed constitution was rendered impossible. One of the drawbacks of Zoom is that it enables those who set up the meeting to tightly control the proceedings and through the use of the webinar facility to atomise those taking part.

The Chat facility, which enables participants to discuss issues with each other, was disabled. The control freaks in PSC’s ruling clique, most notably its Director Ben Jamal, were determined that members who attended the AGM were not able to have any horizontal contact or communications with each other.  This is no different to the behaviour of Starmer’s apparatchiks in the Labour Party.

The Executive proposed an entirely new Constitution. Its reason was that the existing constitution had become misaligned with the Articles of Association of PSC Ltd. No proof that this was a problem was ever produced. Since 2004 PSC has been both a limited company and a campaigning organisation, which legally was an unincorporated association.

Members were lied to.  They were told that they had to approve a new constitution, unamended, because it was a Special Resolution under the 2006 Companies Act which requires 15 days of any amendment to the Articles of Association (a company’s constitution).

However there was absolutely no reason why an Extraordinary General Meeting could not have been called in 4 or 6 weeks time and amendments submitted within that time frame. Debate however was the last thing that PSC’s ruling clique wanted.

Leadership loyalist Diane Langford speaking in the constitution debate

PSC’s New Constitution Represents A Shift of Power From the Membership to PSC’s Ruling Clique

Below are a few examples of the mindset behind the proposals.

Section 4 of the old constitution was headed ‘Membership’. The new constitution has a much enlarged and prescriptive Part III ‘Membership.’ Section 6 not only requires that you agree with PSC’s Aims and Objectives but that you ‘uphold the Values of the campaign’. There is a new section 5, ‘Values’ which is as vacuous as anything New Labour produced.  PSC’e Values are a substitute for having Principles. These values include defining ‘anti-Semitism’ as a form of racism as opposed to prejudice in the former constitution.

Clause 4.6 of the 2015 Constitution specified that someone expelled from the organisation had the right of appeal to the following AGM. No such provision now exists.  Such a person merely has the right under s.10.4 to appeal ‘in line with the Appeal Process referred to in the relevant Regulation.’ Except there are no regulations and if and when they are drawn up they do not need to be approved by the membership.

Dave Chappell of Exeter PSC speaking in the debate

Under s.9.1 members must ‘support and promote the Aims, Objectives and Values of the PSC’. Given that the values are subjective this hands absolute power to the Executive Officers. There was no such stipulation in the previous constitution and no explanation as to why this is needed now.

Members must now also (s.9.2) ‘abide by the Code of Conduct and Constitution’. The Executive drew up a Code of Conduct which was a mere 25 times as long as the previous code of conduct of 98 words. It is effectively a charter for a future witchhunt. It does not need to be approved by anyone other than the Executive. Again there was no such stipulation in the previous constitution nor has there been any explanation as to why such a provision needs to be introduced now.

Clause 5.3 of the old Constitution stipulated that ‘All branches should adopt a constitution, which must contain...’ and it listed 5 non-controversial requirements such as a requirement for officers to be members of PSC nationally and to hold an AGM.

The new s.13.6. stipulates that ‘All branches shall have a constitution, approved by the Executive Committee.’ The original idea was to go further and divide members of PSC branches into two. Those who are members of national PSC and those who weren’t. The latter would have been unable to vote in elections for local officers. It was withdrawn after an outcry but it betrays the mentality of those who drew up this constitution.

What is the reason for local constitutions to be approved by national PSC?  None was given. The new 13.7.2. says that ‘all branch members shall abide by the PSC’s Aims, Objectives, Values and Code of Conduct.’ This is entirely new and hands powers to a future Executive to conduct a political witchhunt.

It is not just the wording of the new constitution but the mentality behind it. There is a new section 7 ‘Rights of Members’ but apart from the right to attend the national AGM and Branch Forum, which already existed there are no additional rights.

The new section 9 ‘Responsibilities of members’ lays out that Members ‘must’ support and promote the Aims Objectives and Values of PSC. Note the word ‘must’.

But when it comes to the Executive then the language changes. Section 18.1 says that ‘The Executive Committee shall be accountable to the membership for various tasks.’  The word ‘must’ is replaced by ‘shall’. It is in this authoritarian spirit that the whole of this verbose constitution was drawn up.

Rob Ferguson of the SWP giving loyal support to PSC's ruling clique as they remove opposition to Zionism from the Constitution

You might expect members of the Socialist Workers Party, who are nominally anti-Zionist, to have opposed this constitution, especially its proposal to remove opposition to Zionism.  Not a bit of it.  Tom Hickey and Rob Ferguson gave fulsome support to the Executive’s proposed Constitution on the grounds that we should not bother discussion constitutions. We should all just get on with campaigning!

According to the SWP we don’t need to think about things like the political aims and goals of PSC, still less its internal democracy. Given that there is no internal democracy in the SWP, the result of which was the rape crisis scandal in 2013, they couldn’t see the need for anyone else to take democracy seriously.

As Hickey and Ferguson were speaking, their Scottish comrades in Stand Up to Racism were busy welcoming Glasgow Friends of Israel and the Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland onto their annual ‘anti-racism’ march complete with the Israeli flag. This meant that Muslim organisations were unable to participate in the march. This was of no concern to them. Fearful of being accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ the SWP allowed the Zionists to march with them. This was abject political cowardice and opportunism.

Louise Regan, Chair of the afternoon session and Iyas AlQasem, who chaired the committee that drew up the new constitution

The Quisling Palestinian Authority and Murder of Nizar Banat

PSC’s ruling clique also opposed a motion condemning the Quisling Palestine Authority which had murdered Palestinian resistance fighter Nizar Banat. His family personally contacted me to offer their support for the motion and sent a message, which I read out. PSC Executive were not prepared to condemn the PA, which is Israel’s military subcontractor in the West Bank.

When Donald Trump cut all funding to the Palestinians, including the PA, he made an exception as regards funding the Palestinian security forces at Israel’s special request.

The PA’s security forces work closely with the Israeli military and its secret police Shin Bet. They arrest and interrogate (i.e. torture) Palestinians when supplied with names by Shin Bet before handing the prisoners over to the Israelis. This however cut no ice with Ben Jamal, Kamal Hawwash or PSC Executive.

PSC Refuse to Say Anything About the Two State Solution

Today the main supporters of the two state solution are Zionist groups like Labour Friends of Israel. They support it because they know it will never happen but it’s a useful smokescreen and alibi for continued settlement. Unsurprisingly my motion opposing the two state solution was met with the Executive’s opposition.

The Palestine Action motion, which had been gutted by the Executive's amendment, was still opposed by a hardcore of 21 members who oppose any form of direct action, with 19 unable to decide  what they think.

Palestine Action

The best thing that has happened to the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain in the past 5 years was the creation of Palestine Action.  Through the use of direct action and community campaigns in like Oldham and Leicester Elbit actually closed their factory in Oldham because they could no longer protect it.

None of this stopped Ben Jamal waging an 18 months war of attrition against PA including the dissemination of bogus legal advice to PSC branches warning them off contributing to their funds.  He also made allegations of anti-Semitism. The details are in this paper.

Robyn Dasey of Brixton PSC speaking

PSC’s repeated boasts that it is building a mass movement that will mainstream Palestine is just that. A boast. ‘Mainstreaming’ is jargon for persuading the British Establishment to cut its ties with Israel.

The main achievement of PSC to date is to build itself into another NGO whose priority is maintaining itself. Its support for its own activists is secondary. When BDS first took off in Britain PSC opposed it. PSC today is a politically timid organisation bent on appeasing the British Establishment. That is why it has put on its platforms Zionists like Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry.

What is worse is that PSC is controlled politically by a secretive ex-Trotskyist organisation, Socialist Action which believes that China is a socialist society. It is Socialist Action’s iron grip on PSC’s leadership which is responsible for PSC failing to develop politically.

As someone who helped found PSC in 1982 I don’t take the step of resigning lightly but as long as PSC is tightly controlled by a few individuals it will never build the mass movement that it talks about.

PSC’s lack of any anti-imperialist or anti-Zionist politics means that it is helpless when faced with a concerted Zionist campaign such as that over ‘anti-Semitism’. 

In 1993 I resigned from PSC when it supported the Oslo Accords, rejoining in 2005. As I predicted at the time, the Oslo Accords, of which the Palestinian Authority is the bastard fruit, represented the greatest setback to the Palestinian struggle since the Nakba. I will continue to be a member of my local Brighton and Hove PSC.

Tony Greenstein

Israel is the Jewish State of Sadism, Torture and Child Abuse - this is Starmer’s ‘rumbustious democracy’

A Boy of 17 with autoimmune disease is detained without trial indefinitely – an 80 year old man is beaten, blindfolded and left to freeze to death

If only Amal Nakhleh had been born Jewish then instead of occupying a cold cell he would be in an Israeli hospital receiving treatment for autoimmune disease. As it is he has been classified by the Israeli military and Shin Bet as a threat to Israeli security and that has meant his being held under Administrative Detention, or in plain language imprisonment without trial.

Of course, as even Corbyn accepted, Israel has an independent judiciary.  So independent that they have a policy of never contradicting the army or police when it comes to ‘security’. So that the obvious injustice and absurdity of an ill 17 year old being a threat to the settler state’s ‘security’ is never challenged or questioned.

Internment without trial, as in Ireland, is always the last resort of the occupying colonial power, except in Israel’s case it is the first resort. It is true that the case against him was so thin that he was released by 2 Israeli military judges, in itself highly unusual in a ‘court’ system that convicts 99.7% of those who come before it.  But don’t worry, such was the threat that this sick boy posed to the mighty Israeli state that Israel’s Shin Bet, an internal security police and MI5 rolled into one (very much like the Nazi SD (Sicherheitsdienst) immediately locked him up anyway and literally threw away the key.

Amal Nakhleh. Credit: Photo reproduction: Alex Levac

Of course it’s not racist what has happened and if you say it is then you will be a prime candidate for expulsion from Sir Keith’s Labour Party. Because under the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism, calling Israel what it is, a racist state (or endeavour to use their quaint language), is ‘anti-Semitic.’ It really doesn’t matter whether or not it is true , the fact is that it is anti-Semitic!

However we won’t dwell any longer on Amal as he has been born into the wrong tribe and there really is nothing that can be done about that. One thing is certain. You cannot change your ‘race’ which is why Israel’s Conversion Authority refuses on principle to allow Palestinians to convert to Judaism.

This is much the same as in Nazi Germany where once a Jew always a Jew even if you converted to Christianity. Hence why that hybrid creature, the Jewish Christian was born.

Then there is Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad who was bound, beaten and tossed to the ground, much as if he was a farm animal. And here I ask you to sympathise, not with Omar, because he’s dead, but the soldiers whose treatment led to his death. 

You would have to have a heart of stone not to understand their plight. Normally when soldiers kill a Palestinian, there is a formal ‘investigation’ (if that’s the right word) and then the army announce that the soldiers were defending themselves.

So it was no surprise when a military report said that none of the troops involved “would be indicted, nor have they been suspended.”

The building in Jiljilya where Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad died. Credit: Alex Levac

It quoted military lawyers representing the soldiers as saying As’ad had been “lawfully detained during the operation in accordance with procedures” and “his death is not related to the conduct of the military force”

But then news got out that Omar also had dual American citizenship and that is when things began to go wrong, well not that wrong. The military had then to conduct a slightly more serious ‘investigation’ which found, under American pressure, that what happened was ‘serious and unfortunate’.

Indeed it was ‘a moral failure and a failure of judgment and severely harms human dignity” Indeed senior officers told Ha’aretz that the soldiers “didn't see a human being in front of them”. One might ask when did the Israeli military see Palestinians as human beings but I refrain from doing so for fear of being accused of ‘anti-Semitism’.

Strong words indeed. So strong and serious that one commander will be rebuked, and two subordinate company and platoon commanders will be immediately dismissed. Of course there is no question that they will be arrested and charged with murder or at the very least gross negligence manslaughter. After all Omar was, when all is said and done, a Palestinian and therefore a threat to ‘security’.

Omar is dead so there really is no point in crying over spilt milk (or blood). The soldiers concerned were all haredi, i.e. ultra orthodox and according to the Talmud, a non-Jewish life is not worth the same as a Jewish life.

Of course these ancient rules had long ago fallen out of use before the Israeli state came on the scene. And then they were resurrected in order to legitimise Israel’s colonial practices. Because you can’t argue with God can you?

You will, I hope, sympathise with the poor and unfortunate soldiers. How were they to know that a Palestinian they were killing had dual nationality? It was not as if he was carrying his passport. Anyway he didn’t look like an American. He wasn’t even White. Secondly he didn’t at any stage tell them he was an American. How were these soldiers to know that? All in all it is an unfortunate accident.

You can see, I hope the point I am making. In 99.99% of times no one would have said anything. Ayelet Shaked, the Interior Minister would have described them as the ‘salt of the earth’. Prime Minister Bennet would have railed anyone who dared criticise the ‘defensive bulwark’ that the IDF provides. This is really a tragedy of immense proportions.

Because of an accident of birth and circumstances, three Israelis face having their futures tarnished. Two have already been dismissed from the army, which is a disgrace in Israel (although they can expect to be readmitted when the fuss dies down). Some people, god forbid, not satisfied with this punishment are asking for their pound of flesh and for them to be brought before a court.

I am sure you will agree that in the circumstances these young men have already been punished enough for a mistake that was in no way their fault. And if anyone suggests otherwise then they too are anti-Semitic, as my good friend, that friend of Israeli child abuse, Louise Ellman will confirm.

Fortunately in Israel we have no problem with this incessant anti-Semitism that is taking over our lives because as Emily Thornberry once proclaimed Israel is a ‘beacon of light and democracy.’

Below are 2 articles describing the events above in more detail.

Tony Greenstein

For Over a Year, Israel Has Jailed a Palestinian Teen With a Rare Disease. There's No Trial in Sight

Ha’aretz 11.2.22.

Two Israeli military judges have ordered Amal Nakhleh's release, but the larger predatory system has insisted on keeping him jailed

Amal Nakhleh and his father Muammar, during better times.

Credit: Photo reproduction: Alex Levac

Gideon Levy, Alex Levac

Feb. 11, 2022

What do the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces have against a teenager in high school, whose father says he doesn’t know the difference between ideology and biology, who suffers from a rare autoimmune disease and who in 2020 underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his chest? Why do they imprison him repeatedly, without trial, without an indictment, without any consideration for his age or his health?

No one knows what the suspicions are against Amal Nakhleh, who was in the 11th grade at the time of his first and second arrests, whose father is the director general of a broadcasting company in Ramallah and whose mother is a gynecologist in the Jalazun refugee camp, near that same city. Not does anyone know how long the teenager will remain in prison – apparently for stone throwing. Two Israeli military judges have already ordered his release after examining the security information in his case, but the larger predatory system has insisted on keeping him jailed, and to that end, has issued an administrative detention order – incarceration without trial; arbitrary and unconstitutional – that is renewed every few months. That has happened several times so far, and the end is not necessarily looming on the horizon.

As if his disease and the operation he underwent weren’t enough, last week Nakhleh also fell ill with COVID-19 and was taken to the hospital in Ramle Prison. He can’t be vaccinated, because of his immunosuppressive disorder. He was returned to his cell earlier this week.

Amal will turn 18 next week. His current administrative detention is due to end in mid-May, though it might be extended again. His father, a Ramallah resident, is the head of the Wattan Media Network, which employs about 100 journalists. In the organization’s headquarters, high up in an office tower in the heart of the city, the staff was busy this week preparing a campaign supporting a one-state solution. In the past, the Israel Defense Forces raided the company’s offices and studios several times – most recently in 2012 – carrying off equipment that was never returned.

Muammar Nakhleh, 50, a journalist, lawyer and left-wing activist, has two children. Osama, now almost 19, was arrested for the first time at the age of 13 and spend two years of his life behind bars. Amal has now been incarcerated for a total of 14 months. Their parents are divorced, and the sons divide their time between their mother, Iman, in Jalazun, and their father, in Ramallah.

Amal was first arrested in November 2020, while he was on his way home from shopping in the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, north of Ramallah. He was held in custody for 40 days on suspicion of stone throwing, until military youth court judge Lt. Col. Sharon Keinan ordered his release on bail. The military prosecution appealed the decision, but meanwhile, on December, 10 another military court judge, Lt. Col. Yair Tirosh, dismissed the gravity of the classified evidence presented to him and also ordered Amal’s immediate release. On January 21, 2021, however, Amal was rearrested, with no explanation. A few days later, reserve military court judge Shimon Ashual approved the request – submitted by Col. Naama Rosen Grimberg, an intelligence officer in Central Command – to issue a six-month administrative detention order against Amal.

When Amal was 15, a benign tumor was discovered in his thymus gland, below the breastbone. A few months later, a Ramallah hospital recommended that he undergo surgery in Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem or in the city’s St. Joseph Hospital. His father was unable to obtain an entry permit to Israel for him, but Amal and his father succeeded in getting to the hospital by other means, and he underwent surgery there.

A few days after being released from the hospital Amal was arrested at the Atara checkpoint when leaving Rawabi. A few weeks after he was released, a Palestinian intelligence official called his father and told him to report to them urgently with his son. Muammar Nakhleh said he would produce his son the following day. Two hours later, Palestinian intelligence called again: “Where are you? Get here immediately. The Israelis are going to kidnap Amal.” Amal was then questioned by Palestinian investigators. He was asked about stone throwing at the Beit El settlement and about some of his Facebook posts, and was freed after an hour. That same night, Israeli troops arrested Amal at his mother’s home in Jalazun. Since January 21, 2021, he has been in prison.

Amal told his father that he was incarcerated because of his “biological thoughts.” Muammar says he meant his “ideological thoughts.” This week, in his Ramallah office, Muammar mentioned the confusion on his son’s part several times. “He is too childlike to be arrested for dangerous thoughts.”

Amal suffers from a rare autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis, which affects the connections between muscles and nerves, and can sometimes affect muscles used for breathing and also the limbs. The disease is connected to the tumor in the thymus gland for which Amal had surgery. It’s a chronic, incurable disease, and he requires medicative treatment and constant monitoring.

Muammar Nakhleh, Amal's father, in his office at the Wattan Media Network in Ramallah. "Amal is too childlike to be arrested for dangerous thoughts,” he says.Credit: Alex Levac

Dr. Bettina Birmans, a neurologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, examined Amal on June 14, 2021, in Ofer Prison, at the request of the family and the NGO Physicians for Human Rights. She reported that Amal complained of shortness of breath while walking, apparently due to his illness, and recommended an urgent CT scan, because, she wrote, “a considerable possibility exists that there is a malignant growth and precious time should not be wasted.” The scan was carried out on July 22, at Hadassah, and happily no evidence of tumor recurrence was found, as the radiologist, Prof. Dorit Shaham, wrote. According to Amal’s father, stressful situations are harmful to his son’s condition, and cause him to have trouble eating and breathing. His ocular muscles are also affected.

Joint List MKs Aida Touma-Sliman and Ofer Cassif tried to obtain Amal release, due to his condition, via Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and also attempted to ensure that he was receiving his medications. On September 22, 2021, Cassif sent a message to Gantz urging Amal’s release “in light of his medical condition and the danger to his health in conditions of incarceration.” To no avail. His parents worried that he’d contract the coronavirus since he is unvaccinated, and are concerned in general that the tumor will recur. When he indeed fell ill with the virus and was hospitalized in the Ramle Prison, MK Touma-Sliman inquired about his condition in the defense minister’s bureau, as Amal’s parents had no way to communicate with him; she was told he was in good condition. Amal, it bears noting, is still a minor, until next week.

There’s no way of knowing whether he will be released when his current, fourth term of administrative detention ends on May 18. Requests for his release by Palestinian and international human rights groups have also been rejected. “We are holding him for security reasons,” was the response they got. Every attempt to find out what security dangers justify such a lengthy, arbitrary detention, why this high-schooler is not being placed on trial if he is so dangerous, and what will become of these dangers when he is released one day – all these questions have gone unanswered. Indeed queries like those never get a response in cases of administrative detention, even when minors are involved.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week responded to Haaretz’s query on the subject as follows: “Amal Nakhleh was arrested by the security forces on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity. After information was collected about him which showed involvement in military activities, dealings with weapons and participation in public terror activities, an order for his administrative detention was issued that was extended from time to time in light of his danger to the region’s security. The present detention order is valid until May 2022. All the orders, including the present one, were examined and authorized by the military court.

“In the deliberations relating to the judicial review of administrative detention, the court examines all the pertinent data in the matter, including every medical document presented to it, and weighs medical and other circumstances within the framework of its decision. We cannot comment on the data here, for reasons of personal privacy, and because the deliberations are held in camera.”

 The Ofer Prison, where Anal Nakhleh is jailed. Credit: Meged Gozani

If the suspicions are indeed so grave, one must ask: Why has this young man not been put on trial?

Amal took his high-school matriculation exams in prison. He was supposed to enter university in the fall. At first, he wanted to study communications, but his father persuaded him to major in political science. “If you have something against him – tell us, tell his lawyer,” Muammar tells us. Iyad Hadad, a friend of the family and a field researcher for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, adds, “Especially given his age and his medical condition.”

Amal – “hope” in Arabic – was so named when he was born preematurely, in the sixth month of pregnancy. The physicians told his parents that he wouldn’t survive but asked his father to give him a name nonetheless, for the death certificate they would issue. Muammar didn’t hesitate for a second, and named him Amal. Muammar, by the way, is named for Muammar Gadhafi, the former president of Libya; his brothers, too, have the names of Arab leaders.

Amal played on the Palestine children’s soccer team, and before his arrest was set to travel to South Korea with the team. His dream was to get to Barcelona; his hero is Lionel Messi. “His model is not his father or his mother, it’s Messi,” his father says.

Muammar admits that he is not optimistic about his son’s release in May, because when deciding on the last extension the authorities did not specify that it would be the last one. Last week the father was supposed to visit his son in prison, but the visit was canceled in the wake of Amal’s hospitalization with the coronavirus. During the year in which the young man has been imprisoned, Muammar has been permitted to visit him only twice.

On Sunday this week, Muammar met another youth from the Jalazun refugee camp who was incarcerated with Amal and was released. The teenager told him that Amal speaks to God and asks why he disappoints him time after time.

We Will All Die. But Why Like That?'

Details still emerge weeks after Israeli troops violently arrested an 80-year-old Palestinian. Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad was bound, beaten and tossed to the ground. An autopsy found that the brutality he suffered resulted in a fatal heart attack, but arrests are yet to be made

Mamduh Abd A-Rachman, one of the other Palestinians brought to the site where Omar As’ad lost his life. “We’ll all die,” As’ad’s brother says. “But why like that?”Credit: Alex Levac

Gideon Levy, Alex Levac

Jan. 28, 2022

It was a few minutes after 3 A.M. Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad was driving from the home of a friend on the western side of his village to his house, on the eastern side. A few hours earlier he had dropped off his wife at home after they’d gone shopping together and had coffee with friends. At around 10 P.M. he went to visit a friend. Since returning from the United States, 11 years ago, As’ad had been spending a lot of time with childhood friends from the village. They sipped coffee, played cards and talked late into the night, each time at someone else’s house. The night of January 12 was no different. At 3 A.M. he drove home.

On the dark, empty road, he suddenly noticed a few Israel Defense Forces soldiers at the street corner where Ali’s Grocery is located, in the center of town. Jiljilya, located in the Ramallah District and one of the most affluent locales in the West Bank, is replete with palaces. Some of its residents immigrated to the United States years ago, where they prospered and then built themselves mansions back home. A drive around affords quite a spectacle: Houses of marble that look like they’re made of marzipan, each more luxurious than the next, most of them empty, awaiting their owners’ family visits in the summer, or waiting for them to retire.

Omar and his wife Mahani also wanted to grow old together in their village, after they left it for America in 1970. For the first 11 years they lived in Chicago, then they moved to Milwaukee, where they owned a few supermarkets. Mahani is 78, Omar was 80, and they were married for 58 years. They built their home in Jiljilya 15 years ago – a relatively modest residence compared to most of the other neighboring villas. They lived there alone: Their five daughters, two sons and their grandchildren remained in America. Everyone in the family, including the grandparents, has U.S. citizenship.

It was very cold, that Wednesday night. The soldiers ordered As’ad to stop. The previous night, too, IDF jeeps had invaded Jiljilya, which is typically one of the quietest locales in the West Bank. Maybe that’s why the fighters from the army’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda (“Judah’s Eternity”) Battalion 97 raided it: It’s easy to train, to mete out abuse for no reason, to demonstrate control and power, or just enjoy a break from the routine and the boredom there. This ludicrously named battalion has a rich record of acts of abuse against Palestinians. This time it was the turn of the inhabitants of Jiljilya.

The forces decided to detain without prior warning anyone who dared drive in the street that night. The soldiers claimed afterward, in testimony they gave to the army, that this was the order they had received – from whom it isn’t clear. According to residents, dozens of troops descended on the village that night; five to seven of them manned a makeshift checkpoint they’d erected in town.

An eyewitness, Rada Bakri, 63, who lives above the site where the soldiers positioned themselves, was awake and had read in the social networks that the army had invaded again. He peeked out of the window of his second-floor apartment – according to an account he later gave to Iyad Hadad, the Ramallah District field researcher for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem – and saw a few soldiers leap into the middle of the road and stop As’ad’s car. Shouts quickly erupted between them and the elderly man who wanted only to get home.

After about five minutes a soldier opened the door of the vehicle and forcibly removed the driver, according to Bakri. The soldiers shackled his hands with black plastic handcuffs, later found at the place where he died, blindfolded him and stuffed pieces of flannelette into his mouth.

About 120 meters separate the spot where As’ad was initially detained and the place where the soldiers force-marched or dragged him. That occurred along the dirt path that leads to the new mansion of Mohammed As’ad, a relative of Omar’s, who also returned, in his case recently, from the United States and is living in Ramallah until his luxurious two-story home will be ready – very soon now. Soldiers had wandered about near the empty structure the night before; on this night they would haul five Palestinians into its marble-floored courtyard.

It was very dark, and eyewitness Bakri still can’t say whether As’ad walked on his own or was dragged by force. As’ad was a heavyset man with a plodding walk, his family related early this week when we visited. They found one of his shoes in his car – meaning that if he was walking, it was with one foot exposed to the wet, cold earth. They added that the soldiers had subjected him to a body search: He was left without a coat, wearing only a shirt and sweater; they stripped off his red keffiyeh, which was found later in a corner of the courtyard.

As’ad would have passed through the stone gate into the courtyard of the imposing new house, with its red-tiled roof and stone pillars in front. There, the soldiers threw him onto the ground, face-down, like one would toss a sack, next to the bags of sand being use in the construction, which are still there. Hadad believes that As’ad died within a short time, perhaps soon after he was hurled to the ground. An 80-year-old man on a frigid night, frightened, humiliated, probably panicked. “Why didn’t they at least allow him to sit, bring him a chair?” mourners asked this week, in the family’s house.

The path down which Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad was dragged or force-marched by Israeli troops.Credit: Alex Levac

In the meantime, a van approached the soldiers’ checkpoint at the bottom of the road, carrying two Palestinian greengrocers who were on their way to the wholesale market in the town of Beita. It was about 3:30 A.M. Mamduh Abd A-Rachman, 52, from the nearby village of Arurah, was in the passenger’s seat. This week he accompanied us to the site where As’ad was taken that night – followed by him and his colleague – in order to reconstruct the elderly man’s last moments.

The soldiers stopped the van and ordered the driver to proceed to the mansion, where the two occupants were told to get out and hand over the keys and their ID cards. They were forced to sit in the courtyard; Abd A-Rachman showed us how he sat on his leg, because the marble was unbearably cold. The two newly snared captives were ordered to sit a few meters apart. They weren’t handcuffed, but a soldier trained his weapon on them. They were told to keep their eyes on the ground. They couldn’t see anything. On the way from the van, Abd A-Rachman said he tried to tell the soldiers that he was ill, but that of course was of no interest to them; they forced his head down and ordered him to shut up.

A large number of soldiers had meanwhile gathered in the courtyard, which had become a temporary detention facility. A few minutes later, two more Palestinians were brought in, also greengrocers on their way to Beita. They too were made to sit on the ground and keep their eyes down. The detainees were seated a few meters apart, apparently to prevent them from mounting an uprising. One of the soldiers now drove As’ad’s car, which had remained at the checkpoint, to the mansion.

And thus they sat, on the cold floor – four living detainees with eyes downcast and one who was most likely dead by that time. They were drowsy and freezing; Abd A-Rachman fell asleep. The four didn’t know that someone had been brought there before them. Abd A-Rachman recalled that at one point he felt that he was touching something, but never imagined it was a dead body, thinking it was one of the bags of sand scattered about. A short time later, two soldiers sat down near Abd A-Rachman. Afterward it would emerge that they had come to remove As’ad’s handcuffs: Apparently they realized he was dead and wanted to get out as fast as possible, while eliminating any evidence.

An autopsy performed this week by three Palestinian physicians, under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, revealed that As’ad, who had pre-existing health problems, died as a result of a heart attack. The examiners noted that he had received blows to the head and arms and that the blindfold he wore was so tight it caused bleeding. They determined that the reason for death was “a sudden cessation of myocardial activity due to psychological tension brought on by the external violence to which he had been exposed.” Another source added that the initial autopsy findings suggested that As’ad was “severely beaten” and suffered from “rough and violent treatment” – as evidenced by numerous bruises.

The area where Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad's body was found, in Jiljilya.Credit: Alex Levac

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit issued the usual statement this week: A Military Police investigation is now underway. A spokesperson for Military Defense, which is representing the soldiers, stated: “They [the soldiers] were engaged in operational activity with the aim of preventing terrorism. The Palestinian in question was detained lawfully during the activity in accordance with procedures, in light of his behavior, which endangered the soldiers and the force, and he was released at the conclusion of the activity in sound condition and with no need for medical intervention. The circumstances of his death are not related to the conduct of the military forces.”

While retreating from the courtyard, the soldiers aimed their rifles at the detainees. Abd A-Rachman says he got up to ensure that they were indeed gone, and then noticed something covered up next to him. He was aghast to discover it was a human body. As’ad’s face was covered with some sort of cloth, perhaps the coat he had been stripped of. Abd A-Rachman remembers that he shouted that there was a body, but the others replied that it was probably a sack of cement. “No, it’s a person!” he screamed.

A check of the man’s pulse and breathing revealed that he was lifeless. Within a few minutes the village doctor, who lives several dozen meters from the site, arrived and tried to resuscitate As’ad, but in vain. The group then carried him on a stretcher to the physician’s clinic and administered electric shocks, but to no avail. As’ad was dead. It was 4:09 A.M. The soldiers left the ID cards and car keys they had confiscated on the roof of As’ad’s car, it was later discovered.

In her home in Milwaukee, As’ad’s daughter, Hiba, 32, read on social media that someone from her parents’ village had died. She called the house immediately. Mahani, her mother, awoke in a fright. This week the widow told us tearfully that she was sure her daughter was calling because she had quarreled with her husband. But Hiba asked where her father was. The devastating answer came soon enough. Now Mahani is sitting in her living room in a traditional black dress and weeping. The family has already hired a caregiver for her, as she remains alone in the house.

Two days before As’ad’s death, his younger brother Amer, a 59-year-old gardener with an American accent who lives in Racine, Wisconsin, had arrived in Jiljilya. He hadn’t seen his brother since As’ad left the United States over a decade beforehand and now he had come to visit. Unlike him, As’ad’s children didn’t manage to get to the funeral; since they don’t have Palestinian ID cards, they had to request Israeli visas, which are extremely hard for Palestinians to get.

Since their return, Mahani and Omar had been unable to leave the village: Their old ID cards had been confiscated due to their prolonged absence; even if they had somehow traveled abroad with their U.S. passports, they would not have been allowed to return. Shortly before we arrived this week, the new ID cards they had waited for all these years arrived – but Omar was no longer alive. Amer had only managed to see him briefly before he died.

Mother and brother are sobbing now. “We will all die,” the brother says. “But why like that?”

U.S. Lawmakers Demand Probe Into 80-year-old Palestinian's Death After Israeli Detention

PA officials say Palestinian-American Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad, who previously lived in Wisconsin, had a heart attack after being bound and beaten by Israeli soldiers; the IDF says he had been released much earlier

Men stand next to a poster of Palestinian Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad, 80, in Jiljilya village in the West Bank, on Wednesday. Credit: MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/ REUTERS

Ben Samuels

Ha’aretz Jan. 15, 2022

U.S. lawmakers are demanding a thorough investigation into the death of an 80-year-old Palestinian-American resident of the West Bank after he was detained by Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian officials say Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad, who previously lived in Milwaukee, was pulled from his car by Israeli forces on his way home in the village of Jiljilya. They allege that the soldiers bound, blindfolded and beat As'ad, who then succumbed to a heart attack in the early morning Wednesday.

As'ad's body was found more than an hour later, according to vegetable seller Mamdouh Elaboud, who said he was himself detained for 20 minutes, then released.

The Israeli military confirmed he had been held by soldiers "after resisting a security inspection," but said he was then released and only later, in the morning, found dead near his village. Israel's military police have launched an investigation into the incident.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who represents As'ad's state of Wisconsin, called the incident a "horrible tragedy that demands a thorough investigation." She extended her condolences to his family, "including those in Wisconsin who are mourning this tragic loss and deserve answers." 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian-American serving in Congress, called the circumstances leading to As'ad's death “outrageous” and urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to investigate.

Rep. Ilhan Omar shared an Instagram Story regarding the incident, posting "Life taken under the cruelty of occupation. When will these victims get accountability?"

Rep. Betty McCollum, long one of Congress' more outspoken critics of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, called As'ad “another victim of this cruel occupation,” and Rep. Marie Newman, the first-term lawmaker who has quickly fashioned herself into a leading advocate for Palestinians, said she was “deeply disturbed” and echoed the State Department's support of an investigation into the death. 

Rep. Debbie Dingell joined the call for a full and thorough investigation, called the circumstances surrounding his death “gravely concerning.”

The lawmakers' demands come days after State Department spokesperson Ned Price confirmed the United States has been in touch with Israel about As'ad's death.

"We've been in touch with the government of Israel to seek clarification about this incident, [and] the Israeli Defense Forces have indicated there's an ongoing investigation into the matter. And we support a thorough investigation into the circumstances of this incident," Price said.