Tag Archives: Palestine

Palestinians Accuse Israel of War Crimes at International Criminal Court

Just days after the United Nations shut down Palestinian attempts to force the world to recognize them as a nation, the leadership of the Palestinian Authority are now attempting to attack Israel in an international court.

The Palestinians claim that Israel committed war crimes beginning on June 13, 2014, the day after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian affiliated terrorists.

The move comes after Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas signed the ICC’s founding treaty and filed a formal request for Palestine to be considered a member state.  It will take weeks for that process to be approved by the Court.

Palestine had been upgraded in a unanimous vote to “observer status” in December.  The previous times Palestine has come after Israel at the ICC the cases have been dismissed because Palestine had no authority over the areas where they alleged crimes had taken place.

A PLO official told Haarets News Agency that it was important to get Palestine in the ICC because then civilian groups could file lawsuit after lawsuit against Israel.

United Auto Workers Branch Joins Boycott of Israel

A local chapter of the United Auto Workers has announced they are joining the boycott of Israel in support of the Palestinians.

UAW Local 2865, the union that represents teaching assistants at the University of California, voted to join the boycott on December 4th.  The basis for their anti-Semitic decision was they claim Israel is launching “ongoing human rights violations” against Palestinians.

The margin of passage was 66% to 34%.

The ballot language passed by the group calls for the university and the UAW to “divest[ing] their investments, including pension funds, from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations as part of the Israeli oppression of Palestinian people.”

Officials admitted that only 2,168 of the 13,000 reported members of the chapter voted on the measure.

UN Security Council Rejects Palestinian Statehood Resolution

Palestinian leaders were shocked Tuesday when their resolution for Palestinian statehood was rejected by the U.N. Security Council by an 8-2 vote with 5 nations abstaining.

The measure needed 9 “yes” votes for the measure to pass.

The resolution would have created a 12 month timetable for negotiations for a final peace deal with Israel.  The measure would also require Israel to pull out of the West Bank within three years and declare that East Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state.

Palestinian leaders had told press sources before the vote they had the nine votes required to pass the measure and force the United States to use their veto as a permanent member to stop the action.  However, Nigeria and Rwanda, which the Palestinians expected to support them, abstained from the vote at the last minute.

Only the U.S. and Australia voted no on the measure.  The five nations that abstained from the vote (effectively helping stop passage) were the U.K., Lithuania, South Korea, Nigeria and Rwanda.

France, China, Russia, Argentina, Chad, Chile, Jordan and Luxembourg voted in favor.

Israeli officials were furious French officials who voted in favor of the measure despite claiming they had serious issues with the wording of the resolution.  France had tried to push forward what they termed a “more moderate resolution” that did not include the timetables and other demands on Israel made by the Palestinians and their supporters.

State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters that many countries agreed with the U.S. that the measure was “unconstructive and poorly timed.”

“We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reaching a peace agreement and for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, and those are more likely to curtail useful negotiations than to bring them to a successful conclusion,” Rathke said. “Further, we think that the resolution fails to account for Israel’s legitimate security needs.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ahead of the vote if the Security Council did not reject the resolution, “we will.”  He added that direct negotiations and not imposed conditions are the only way to reach a long lasting peace in the region.

“How to Kill a Jew” Video Goes Viral

If you were to check the top video on social media networks in Palestine, you would find the top video is step by step instructions to kill a Jew.

A group that calls themselves resisters of occupation in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem produced the video called “How To Stab A Jew”.  The report in the Jewish Press says that video shows two men in attire that was made popular by the late Yasser Arafat.

The “teacher” in the video then instructs the viewer on how to walk up to a Jew and stab them in the most efficient manner to kill them.

The video’s discovery comes after a wave of stabbing attacks against Jews in Israel by Palestinians.

This is not the first production by Palestinians aimed at encouraging or teaching Arabs how to murder Jews.  A video game was released in October called “The Liberation of Palestine” that encourages users to “liberate Palestine” through violence rather than diplomacy.

“The language of weapons is the most effective with the Israelis,” the game’s creator said.

Palestinians Plan UN Resolution For Statehood

Officials at the United Nations say Palestinian leaders are quietly putting together a draft resolution that would recognize statehood for Palestine.

Despite opposition from Israel and U.S. officials, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would be pushing forward with the resolution that calls for a peace deal with Israel within a year and an “end to occupation of Palestinian territories by 2017.”

“Today the Arab group will meet in New York, and we will submit the original draft resolution to the Security Council hoping to conclude the vote by tomorrow or the day after,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat told Reuters.

The crux of the resolution would be negotiations for the deal with Israel that would require the land captured by Israel in the 1967 war be returned to Palestine.

The proposal would also say that East Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state and calls for an end to Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“We will continue to rebuff vigorously attempts to force terms that would jeopardize our security,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinians Fire Rocket At Israel

A rocket struck Southern Israel on Friday according to officials with the Israel Defense Forces, the first strike by Palestinians on Israel using rockets since September.

The strike in the Eshkol region set off the air raid sirens but the rocket landed in an open field causing no damage or injuries.

The strike came as Palestinians attacked Israeli forces at a West Bank checkpoint near the village of Turmus Aya.  The IDF reported no injuries as a result of the attack.

The village where the assault from the Palestinians took place is where a Palestinian Cabinet minister collapsed and later died.  The Palestinians claimed an Israeli soldier hit him when an autopsy showed that he actually died from a heart attack.

In the midst of the Palestinian attacks, the IDF announced they were going to allow Christians in the West Bank to visit their relatives in the Gaza Strip.  They said it was a goodwill measure for Christians during their holy days.

Palestinian Official Dies In Clash With Israeli Forces

The already strained relationship between Israel and Palestine grew further apart after the death of a Palestinian official who clashed with Israel Defense Forces.

An Israeli pathologist is joining with a team from Jordan to conduct the autopsy of Ziad Abu Ein, who died while en route to a hospital Wednesday after being struck in the chest with what is believed to be a tear gas canister.

Abu Ein headed the PA government agency that campaigns against security barriers and settlements.  He fought with Israeli Defense Forces near Turmusaya in the northern West Bank.  Palestinians claimed he was hit by the rifle butt of a soldier but Israeli witnesses say that he was not hit by a soldier.

The IDF says that 200 rioters were attempting to enter a Palestinian settlement and were being led by Abu Ein.

Abu Ein was extradited from the U.S. to Israel in 1981 for his connection to a 1979 terrorist bombing.

Israeli Student Attacked In New York Synagogue

An Israeli rabbinical student is in critical condition at a New York hospital after a man yelling “kill the Jews” attacked him in a Brooklyn synagogue.

“Levi had his hands up, trying to block the individual with his arms,” Mendy Notik, 22, told the New York Daily News. “He was saying. ‘I will kill you.’ And after Levi, he went towards another young student and he said ‘I will kill the Jews!'”

Peters was approached by members of the NYPD who told him to put down his knife.  Initially, Peters put down the knife and before he picked it up again and charged toward officer Roberto Pagan.  Pagan shot Peters in the stomach.

Rosenblat, 22, was rushed to trauma unit at Kings County Hospital and initially reported in stable condition before it was revealed he was transferred to Bellevue Hospital where he was in critical condition with bleeding on the brain according to police sources.

NYPD officials were quick to dismiss the attack as an act of terrorism, saying that the attacker was only mentally ill.

“We are very, very confident it’s not a terrorist-related act at this stage,” Bratton said. “There’s no indication that the subject … had any affiliation with any terrorist organization.”

Evan Bernstein, New York director of the Anti Defamation League, told USA Headline News that anti-Semitism has been on the rise around the world.

“We have definitely seen a surge in global anti-Semitism really since Operation Protective Edge, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” Bernstein said.  “We’ve seen a dramatic uptick, especially in Europe, where instances over previous years is incredibly high.”

The NYPD announced they will have a greater security presence around synagogues with Hanukkah approaching next week.

Israeli Elections Called For March 17, 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for voters to give him a “clear mandate” as he announced elections will be held on March 17, 2015.

The announcement of the election comes a day after Netanyahu fired members of his governing coalition that had been opposing new settlements in areas that Palestinians want for their own nation.

The five-party coalition that has been ruling the country took power only last year.

“The coming election is about one question – who will lead the country in the face of the tremendous challenges facing Israel – security, economic, regional,” Netanyahu said in public remarks to Likud legislators.  “Whoever wants to give a clear mandate to lead the country to a prime minister from Likud needs to give many votes to Likud.  That is the main lesson of our experience from the past years. That is the challenge for this election campaign.”

Netanyahu will lead a now-minority government until the elections and swearing in of the new members of the Knesset.

Palestinian Terror Plot Foiled

Four Palestinians connected to the terrorist group Hamas have been arrested in connection with a plot to assassinate Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Israeli’s Shin Bet security agency reported the men had been working to obtain an RPG and had designs to fire it at the minister’s car outside his home in Nokdim in the West Bank.

The assassination plot is the latest action in a series of terror actions against Israelis conducted by Hamas and Palestinians.  Last week two Palestinian terrorists attacked Jews praying inside a synagogue, killing four and an officer that responded to the terrorist attack.

“We will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were met by reprehensible murderers,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the time.

Hamas would not state they knew about the planned assassination but did not condemn it.

“We have no information about this issue. However, we stress that leaders of the Occupation who are responsible for the killing of children and women and for defiling the sacred sites are legitimate targets for the resistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters.