Israel News-Haaretz.com

Les États-Unis condamnent l’appel « répugnant et dégoûtant » de Smotrich à l’anéantissement de Huwara

Le porte-parole du département d’État américain demande à Benyamin Netanyahou de désavouer « l’incitation à la violence » à l’encontre des Palestiniens formulée par son ministre
Par MEE – WASHINGTON D.C., États-Unis - Jeudi 2 mars 2023
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/etats-unis-israel-palestine-condamnent-smotrich-aneantissement-huwara

Les États-Unis ont condamné mercredi les propos tenus par le ministre israélien des Finances qui a appelé à anéantir le village palestinien de Huwara, les qualifiant de « répugnants », « irresponsables » et « dégoûtants ».

Le porte-parole du département d’État américain, Ned Price, a appelé le Premier ministre israélien Benyamin Netanyahou et d’autres hauts responsables à désavouer « publiquement et clairement » les propos de Bezalel Smotrich.

« Je veux être très clair à ce sujet. Ces commentaires étaient irresponsables. Ils étaient répugnants. Ils étaient dégoûtants », a déclaré Price devant la presse mercredi.

« Et tout comme nous condamnons l’incitation palestinienne à la violence, nous condamnons ces propos provocateurs qui constituent également une incitation à la violence. » (...)

#Huwara

Les États-Unis mécontents d’une résolution de l’ONU en préparation

(Nations unies) Les États-Unis et Israël ont exprimé leur mécontentement jeudi face à un projet de résolution du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU qui réclame l’arrêt « immédiat des activités de colonisation » d’Israël dans les territoires palestiniens.

Mis à jour le 16 février | Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS, Agence France-Presse
▻https://www.lapresse.ca/international/moyen-orient/2023-02-16/condamnation-des-colonies-israeliennes/les-etats-unis-mecontents-d-une-resolution-de-l-onu-en-preparation.php

Le projet de texte vu par l’AFP, que les Émirats arabes unis ont fait circuler avant une réunion lundi du Conseil sur le conflit israélo-palestinien, « réaffirme que l’établissement par Israël de colonies dans les territoires palestiniens occupés depuis 1967, y compris Jérusalem-Est, n’a pas de validité légale et représente une violation du droit international ».

Il « condamne toutes les tentatives d’annexion, y compris les décisions et mesures d’Israël concernant les colonies » et « appelle à leur retrait immédiat ». Et réclame qu’Israël cesse « immédiatement et complètement ses activités de colonisation dans les territoires occupés, y compris Jérusalem-Est ».

Dimanche, le cabinet de sécurité israélien avait annoncé qu’il allait légaliser neuf colonies en Cisjordanie occupée, après une série d’attaques à Jérusalem-Est, dont une qui a fait trois morts vendredi.

Une décision dénoncée par Paris, Londres, Berlin, Rome, mais aussi par Washington.

Les États-Unis sont « profondément consternés » par la décision d’Israël de légaliser ces neuf colonies et de construire de nouveaux logements dans les colonies existantes, a déclaré jeudi la porte-parole de Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre.

« Les États-Unis s’opposent fermement à ces mesures unilatérales, qui exacerbent les tensions et nuisent à la confiance entre les parties », a-t-elle estimé.

Mais dans le même temps, le département d’État a été clair sur le fait que les États-Unis, qui ont un droit de veto au Conseil, ne soutiennent pas cette résolution.

« Notre position est que l’introduction de la résolution est peu utile au regard du soutien nécessaire aux négociations sur la solution des deux États, tout comme nous pensons que les informations venant d’Israël [sur les neuf colonies] étaient peu utiles », a déclaré son porte-parole Vedant Patel.
« Colonies illégales »

Il n’a toutefois pas indiqué si les États-Unis étaient prêts à utiliser leur veto. « Je ne vais pas spéculer ou faire des hypothèses sur le processus », a-t-il noté.

Le Conseil de sécurité doit se réunir lundi pour discuter du conflit israélo-palestinien, mais il n’est pas certain à ce stade que le texte soit présenté au vote à cette occasion, selon des diplomates.

Le ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères a de son côté fustigé le projet de résolution.

« C’est une nouvelle tentative cynique des Palestiniens de se tourner vers les instances internationales, au lieu de s’occuper de la vague de terreur et des incitations de la part de l’Autorité palestinienne », a-t-il indiqué dans une déclaration à l’AFP.

Les Israéliens avaient dénoncé le vote en décembre par l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU d’une résolution demandant l’avis de la Cour internationale de justice sur l’occupation israélienne de territoires palestiniens, prenant des mesures de représailles contre l’Autorité palestinienne.

Dans une lettre envoyée mercredi au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU, l’ambassadeur israélien à l’ONU Gilad Erdan appelait « la communauté internationale à condamner les dernières attaques terroristes contre des civils israéliens dans les termes les plus forts et sans équivoque », accusant l’Autorité palestinienne d’« applaudir » et de « soutenir » ces « crimes odieux ».

En décembre 2016, pour la première fois depuis 1979, le Conseil de sécurité avait demandé à Israël de cesser la colonisation dans les territoires palestiniens, dans une résolution permise par la décision des États-Unis de ne pas utiliser leur droit de veto.

Les États-Unis s’étaient abstenus lors de ce vote à quelques semaines de la passation de pouvoir entre Barack Obama et Donald Trump, alors qu’ils avaient toujours soutenu Israël jusqu’alors sur ce dossier sensible.

Le secrétaire général de l’ONU Antonio Guterres est lui « profondément préoccupé » par l’annonce israélienne de dimanche, avait indiqué son porte-parole Stéphane Dujarric lundi, répétant que « toutes les colonies sont illégales au regard du droit international et un obstacle important à la paix ».

Oui mais quels territoires palestiniens ? Ceux de 1967 ? Ça serait dur, mais juste.

Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Near Ramallah
Jan 15, 2023
▻https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-a-palestinian-near-ramallah-13

On Sunday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man at the western entrance of Silwad town, east of Ramallah, in the central West Bank.

Eyewitnesses said the soldiers installed a sudden military roadblock at the entrance of the town before stopping and searching cars.

They added that the soldiers forced a driver, Ahmad Hasan Abdul-Jalil Kahala, 45, out of his car and started assaulting him after a verbal argument ensued.

The eyewitnesses stated that one of the soldiers assaulting the Palestinian shot him from point-blank range.

Palestinian medics rushed to the scene, but the soldiers stopped them, obstructed their efforts to provide him with life-saving first aid, and eventually allowed them to take him away.

The medics rushed Ahmad to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, but he succumbed to his serious wounds.

“Ahmad had no vital signs when we reached him,” Aahed Smerat, one of the medics at the scene, said, “His son called for help, but when we arrived there, the soldiers stopped us and told us the man was under arrest, and later allowed us to take him away.”

The slain man’s sister, Ehman Kahala, said her brother and his son, Qussai, 18, were heading to work at a construction site when the soldiers stopped them at a military roadblock.

“They were assaulting my brother before an argument, and a brief scuffle broke out, and then they [the soldiers] just executed him….” She added.

His sister added that the slain man is a married father of five; two boys and three girls, and one of his daughters will graduate from high school this year. (...)

Palestinian Shot Dead Near Ramallah After Attempted Weapons Theft, IDF Says
Jan 15, 2023 | Hagar Shezaf et Jack Khoury | Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-15/ty-article/.premium/israeli-military-palestinian-shot-dead-near-ramallah-after-attempted-stabbing/00000185-b44e-de56-a5b5-f4fee33f0000

(...) Israel military source says soldiers opened fire on the man after he attempted to snatch one of their weapons
The IDF’s initial report stated that Ahmed Kahla arrived at a military post near the town of Silwad by car and began throwing stones. After which he approached the soldiers at the post with a drawn knife.

The army later changed its version of events now claiming that the soldiers called for him to stop and used tear gas when he refused their order. After refusing to exit his vehicle, the army said that a confrontation ensued, and that he tried to steal a weapon from a soldier and was then shot.

Ziad, Ahmed’s brother, strongly rejected the IDF’s claim that Ahmed intended to harm the soldiers arguing that he was shot for no reason. According to Ziad, Ahmed worked as an electrical contractor and left the town of Ramon towards the village of Jobar where he stopped to help a car stuck near the side of the road.

“For some reason, an argument with soldiers began there,” Ziad said. “One of them threw a stun grenade at him, or something else that exploded next to him, and then an argument began between him and the soldiers that also included pushing, and the soldiers shot him to death,” Ziad added.

Ziad also said that Ahmed was a father of four, and went to work on Sunday with his 17-year-old son. Despite the army’s claim of an attempt to harm the soldiers, Ziad said Ahmed’s son was released from detention the same day. “Whoever goes to carry out an attack, doesn’t do it with their son,” Ziad said. “If we are not believed, it is a fact his son was released soon after. It is easy to accuse a Palestinian of being a terrorist and then shoot him in cold blood.” (...)

Israeli Troops Killed a Palestinian. The IDF Claimed He Tried to Grab a Gun, but Showed No Proof
Gideon Levy and Alex Levac - Jan 21, 2023 - Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twilight-zone/2023-01-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/idf-troops-killed-a-palestinian-army-claimed-he-tried-to-grab-a-gun-but-showed-no-proof/00000185-d122-d3a8-a3cf-d732ba6a0000

https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/00000185-d12a-da66-a1bf-f9ba48fd0001/f1/5c/6f39ae4e470a8130e41ac7081b93/38716.jpg

Driving to work with his son, Ahmed Kahla was stopped at an army checkpoint, where he was shot dead. The army claimed he tried to grab a soldier’s weapon. His son insists that he was slain for no reason.

The following report appeared this past Monday in Yedioth Ahronoth: “IDF fighters yesterday morning shot to death a Palestinian armed with a knife who tried to snatch a weapon from one of the members of the force… The terrorist, who was shot to death… , [was a] resident of the village of Rammun.”

Yet another terrorist attack scuttled by the intrepid “fighters of the checkpoints.”

The IDF, which first reported that the man threw stones at the soldiers and approached them with a knife, hurried to revise its own groundless account, dropping allegations of stone throwing and possession of a knife at the scene, and presented a new version: about an attempt to grab a weapon. For that, no evidence is needed, not a knife and not a stone, and it certainly justifies shooting to kill.

The fact that the man, a construction worker from a tranquil and affluent village in the West Bank, whom IDF soldiers killed with two shots to the neck, was on his way to work, as every morning, with his eldest son; and that, according to eyewitnesses, he was in the front of the line of cars at a checkpoint when the troops deployed there brought the traffic to a complete standstill, at a time of the morning when everyone is in a hurry to get to work – none of that prevented the immediate effort to justify a needless and ostensibly criminal killing, a few meters from the man’s son.

A photograph of the body on the road, clothes full of blood that also trickled down the slope, a plastic tube stuffed into the mouth and neck, which was bandaged in a desperate and hopeless attempt to staunch the bleeding, is shocking. Equally shocking is the testimony of the family, not least that of the teenage son who accompanied his father on the drive to his death, and insists that he did nothing wrong. Indeed, his account sounds far more credible than that of the army and its mouthpiece.

We visited Rammun on Monday, the day after Ahmed Kahla was killed, and then buried in the village’s soil. Rammun is a relatively small, well-to-do community in the Ramallah Governate – a neighbor of the even more affluent Christian village of Taibeh – with a population of 3,500 and dozens of empty mansions. Some 10,000 Rammun natives live in the United States, about 4,000 in California, 3,000 in Michigan and the rest scattered across the country.

The settlement of Rimonim is on the other side of the road. We are told that during the past few days, Nahi, one of the settlers whom villagers know well, has been preventing their herds of sheep from grazing on their land there. He claims the land belongs to him and chases them off. The patriarch of the extended Kahla family, Abu Hani, who died at a ripe old age three years ago, served as Rimonim’s maintenance man for some 20 years. He was also the last resident of Rammun to work in the settlement.

The women of Rammun have streamed into the home of the bereaved family; the car the deceased had driven is now parked out in front. For their part, the village’s men have gathered in a diwan, near the local mosque. Everyone is in mourning in this special room, when we arrive. Those paying their condolences are offered the usual dates and bitter coffee. Affixed to the walls of the diwan are lists of names of villagers who have been killed since the start of the occupation and the date on which they fell. Until this past week, they numbered eight residents, the first of them in 1967 and the last in 2014. Kahla’s name has yet to be added; for now his photo is hanging on the wall.

Kahla, who was 45, was married to Zahaya, 43. They have four children: two sons – Qusay, 18, and Hassan, 7 – and two daughters, Doha, 17, and Jena, 13. Kahla’s younger brother, Zeid, a taxi driver on the Ramallah-Silwad line, looks stunned. Almost in a whisper he and others present relate what the family knows about the incident from eyewitnesses and mainly from Qusay, who was the one with his father when he was killed, and who has holed himself up at home in a state of shock, refusing to talk to anyone.

Ahmed and Qusay left home around 7:30 A.M. on Sunday, January 15, on the way to where they were working in the village of Deir Sudan, not far from the new Palestinian city of Rawabi. Qusay graduated high school last year and is thinking about getting a degree in computer studies. Until the start of the next academic year, he had been helping his father at work. Ahmed drove his Hyundai SUV, his son sat by his side.

Under the bridge between Silwad and Yabrud, north of Rammun, they spotted a surprise IDF checkpoint. It was shortly after 8 A.M. Qusay later told the family that his father was forced to stop and a long line of vehicles began to form behind them: The soldiers had blocked all traffic on the road, in both directions. It seemed to be a show of control, morning abuse of the sort soldiers sometimes perpetrate. There are incidents where Palestinian drivers see the troops playing around with their cellphones while people waiting in endless lines of cars seethe with anger. On that morning, too, drivers were angered and some of them started to honk and honk, the only expression of protest that’s tolerated around here. No one dared get out of their car. Qusay recalled that they couldn’t see the end of the line in either direction.

Suddenly a soldier threw a stun grenade at their car. Qusay said his father started to shout at the soldiers. In response, three of them approached the car, two on Qusay’s side, the other on the driver’s side. One of them pepper-sprayed Qusay, temporarily blinding him. The soldiers pulled him roughly out of the SUV, his eyes shut and burning, dragged him a few meters and threw him on the roadside.

His distraught father got out of the vehicle, shouting all the while. The soldiers made Qusay, who still could not see anything, lie on his stomach; they ordered him to cross his hands behind his back but did not cuff him. Suddenly he heard shots. Moments later he heard the wail of a siren – an ambulance – and shouting, apparently from other drivers in the line.

According to what eyewitnesses told the family, Ahmed leaped out the car, fearful for his son’s safety after seeing him pepper-sprayed and hauled off. At this point, a soldier approached the father and shot him twice in the neck. He collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely. The soldiers quickly got into their jeep and sped off, kill-and-run. A Palestinian ambulance that had been summoned by drivers arrived and tended to Ahmed. Resuscitation attempts were useless; he had probably died instantly.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week stated in response to a query from Haaretz: “An IDF force spotted a suspicious vehicle near the village of Silwad in the territory of the Binyamin brigade. The suspects refused to stop for a security check as required, the force responded with demonstration dispersal means, and a violent confrontation erupted at the site. During the confrontation the suspect tried to grab the weapon of one of the fighters. The force responded with fire aimed at the suspect and a hit was discerned. The incident is being investigated.”

Ahmed was taken to the government hospital in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead. Qusay was driven in a private car to the clinic in nearby Silwad, where efforts were made to calm him down. He didn’t yet know what had happened to his father, but insisted on going to the hospital in Ramallah to see him, and was taken there.

Zeid, Ahmed’s brother, who was in Ramallah at the time, saw a message in his taxi driver’s WhatsApp group not long after the shooting to the effect that soldiers had shot someone under the bridge near Silwad. Immediately afterward, the horrific image of Ahmed appeared in the social media. Zeid rushed to the hospital, as did Ahmed’s wife and their children, even little Hassan.

Qusay, then, took refuge in his home. “What do you expect?” his relatives in the diwan asked. For his part, Zeid noted that Ahmed’s dream was to see his children go to university, and he worked from morning til night to make that possible. “I don’t want them to come home like me in the evening, with dirty clothes from work,” Ahmed often said.

Three of the deceased’s brothers and a nephew flew in from the United States early this week to take part in the mourning rituals. The conversation in the diwan was joined by Ahmed’s older brother, Hani, who lives in Rammun. He’s 65 and deaf. Wearing a keffiyeh and a cloak, he expressed his feelings by means of agitated sign language. His brother translated: “Why did they kill him? Are they crazy? He wanted to talk to them, not to attack them. Why did they kill him?”

Hani relates that whenever he sees soldiers he raises his hands in the air, to be on the safe side.

U.S. Joins Int’l Chorus of Criticism of Ben-Gvir’s ’Unacceptable’ Temple Mount Visit
Jonathan Lis et Jack Khoury | 3 janv. 2023 - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-03/ty-article/.premium/chorus-of-intl-condemnations-stream-in-following-ben-gvirs-heated-temple-mount-visit/00000185-76e0-de47-afdf-f6f1ad790000

https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/00000185-76f7-d93c-a3e5-ffff2ac20001/79/88/33f3775d4f39893e11fe251cbadd/ben-gvir-2.jpeg?precrop=1600,930,x0,y0&height=630&width=1200

A string of international condemnations quickly followed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound on Tuesday morning, which marked his first visit to the contested Jerusalem holy site since he assumed office last week.

Ben-Gvir’s visit came after statements he made on wanting to change the longstanding religious status quo on the Temple Mount to allow Jews to pray there. On the eve of the election, he stated that he would demand that Netanyahu introduce “equal rights for Jews” on the mountain.

He made his request to ascent the mount on Monday leading to threats from Hamas that this would lead to an explosion. According to the Israeli police, the visit was conducted in coordination with the Israeli political echelons.

The spokesperson of the U.S. embassy to Israel said that “Ambassador Nides has been very clear in conversations with the Israeli government on the issue of preserving the status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites. Actions that prevent that are unacceptable.”

The French Embassy in Israel also issued a statement warning against “any action aimed at questioning the status quo of the holy sites.”

The Arab world too was up in arms about the visit.

Jordan, which is the custodian of the holy site, condemned the visit in the “severest” terms, saying that Ben-Gvir’s “storming” of the compound not only violates the status quo at the site, but also requires “international intervention.”

The United Arab Emirates issued a statement condemning the visit which called the visit an “attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.” Netanyahu recently stated that he was invited by the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, to visit the country.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, described Ben-Gvir’s visit as a “break-in” under the auspices of Israeli forces.

Saudi Arabia also condemned the ’provocative actions’ of a senior Israeli official who ’attacked’ the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex," its foreign ministry said in a statement.

The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which represents 57 Muslim countries “strongly condemned the incursion by the extremist Israeli minister Ben-Gvir into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound with the protection of the Israeli Defense Forces against Muslims.”

Spokesperson to Mahmoud Abbas, Nabill Abu Rudeineh, called the visit “a provocative step against the Palestinian people.” He called on the American administration to take responsibility and force Israel to stop the escalation and aggression at the Al-Aqsa Mosque before it is too late.

According to Rudeineh, "the Al-Aqsa invasions turned from being settler break-ins to Israeli government invasions.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said the “crime of the fascist Zionist Ben-Gvir in breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque is a continuation of the Zionist occupation’s aggression against our sanctity and our Arab identity.”

“The Palestinian people will continue to defend the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and to fight to cleanse it from the impurities of the occupation, and this battle will not stop until the final victory of our nation in expelling the occupier from all our lands,” he added.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesperson Tariq Selmi also told Al Jazeera that “the resistance is fully prepared and vigilant. It is conducting a continuous assessment of everything that is going on, with its hand is on the trigger of action. The bullets of our fighters in Jenin and Nablus will inevitably reach Jerusalem."

▻https://justpaste.it/b067g

“Le seul problème avec les nazis, c’est que j’étais du côté des perdants” chamanel dorfman, qui devrait devenir chef de cabinet d’itamar ben Gvir, selon le journal « haaretz »

‘The Most Antisemitic Police in the World’: Ben-Gvir’s Soon-to-be Chief of Staff’s Years-long Feud With Police - Israel Election 2022 - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2022-11-27/ty-article/.premium/worlds-most-antisemitic-force-ben-gvirs-chief-of-staffs-years-long-feud-with-police/00000184-b916-dfe8-a1df-f996f2170000

Haaretz quoted Dorfman, then 17, at a protest against African asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv as saying: “The only problem with the Nazis is that I was on the losing side,”

Netanyahu Told Jordan Peterson Arabs Expelled Jews From the Land of Israel – Historians Say He Is Distorting Facts
Ofer Aderet | Dec 23, 2022
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-12-23/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-claimed-arabs-expelled-jews-from-the-land-of-israel-historians-say-he-is-wrong/00000185-3f01-d723-a3d5-7f29f5f90000

In 2015 Netanyahu corrected himself after falsely claiming Hitler decided to exterminate the Jews only after he met with the former mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini during World War II

Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month in an interview with Jordan Peterson in Canada that the Arabs dispossessed and kicked out the Jews from the Land of Israel after they conquered the area in the seventh century C.E.

A number of historians Haaretz spoke with denied these claims and said Netanyahu’s claims are ’amusing’, and they misrepresent and distort history.

In an interview on Peterson’s podcast conducted two weeks ago, Netanyahu spoke about his version of the history of the Jews in the Land of Israel.

“For the first two millennia of their 3,500-year history, the Jewish people have lived in the Land of Israel, fought off conquerors, sometimes were conquered but stayed on their land,” said Netanyahu. “The loss of our land actually occurred when the Arab conquest took place in the seventh century.”

The Arabs did something that no other conqueror had done – “they actually started taking land from Jewish farmers. They brought in military colonists that took over the land and gradually over the next two centuries the Jews became a minority in our land. So it is under the Arab conquerors the Jews lost their homeland,” said Netanyahu. “The Arabs were the colonialists and the Jews were the dispossessed natives,” he added.

Throughout the interview, Netanyahu repeated the narrative that the Arabs expelled the Jews from their historic homeland, and used a number of different words to describe it, including: expelled, dispossessed, kicked out, and threw out.

Historian Dr. Milka Levy-Rubin of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, who specializes in the early Islamic period in Israel, said Netanyahu’s statements are “a mistaken and distorted picture” of history. Prof. Yehoshua Frenkel of the department of Middle Eastern history at the university of Haifa said: “His words are amusing, like a time capsule from before World War I that was forgotten on the shelf.”

Netanyahu made a number of mistakes during the interview: First, he ignored that the Jews had been exiled and suffered from foreign invasions a number of times throughout history before the Islamic conquest. “As for earlier periods, of course during the First Temple period the 10 tribes were exiled from the land, and let us not forget the Babylonian exile, too,” said Levy-Rubin.

“As for the Second Temple period and the Bar Kokhba revolt – the Romans ‘only’ destroyed the temple, burnt down Jerusalem and emptied the entire land of Judea of its Jewish residents. Moreover – they imposed a sweeping ban on Jews entering Jerusalem, a ban that was left standing until the end of the Byzantine period,” added Levy-Rubin.

She also completely rejected Netanyahu’s claims about the Islamic conquest of the land of Israel: “I am not familiar with any sources showing the exiling of Jews or others from the land during the Arab conquest or of any testimonies of such an expulsion. There is no archaeological evidence that points to destruction or devastation, [in fact] the opposite.”

Frenkel reinforced what Levy-Rubin said and explained that the victory of the Arab tribes over the Byzantines and the growth of Islam did not cause devastation. Not a single archaeological site has signs of destruction and burning, but in fact many testimonies from Eilat to the Golan Heights show continuity, he said.

“At the time, the Muslim interest was to continue and conquer and levy taxes from the local residents. At the first stage of the conquest the Muslim conquerors already preferred generous capitulation and surrender offers over fighting,” added Levy-Rubin.

Not only did the Arabs not expel the Jewish residents, but Frenkel says “the Muslims are the ones who allowed the Jews to return and live in Jerusalem, and the Jews were even [allowed to participate] in the building of the Dome of the Rock, and it seems that in the could also participate in the ritual and service there in the early stages, and they had great influence on the Muslims during the period of the conquest and for decades afterward,” said Frenkel.

Because of the agreements with the occupiers, the residents could remain in place and continue to run their lives as they had until then, “including their religious rituals – without any limitations”, said Levy-Rubin. At the same time, these agreements allowed those who wanted to leave to do so along with their property. Only in later periods, from the eighth century and on, were various regulations enforced gradually, which restricted the lives of the non-Muslim population in the public sphere.

Netanyahu also said the Arabs kept the land barren and empty, a “wasteland,” and built just a single new city – Ramle. Levy-Rubin said this claim is distorted too.

The Umayyad Caliphate (from 661 to 750 C.E.) invested a lot in the land of Israel. “First and foremost in Jerusalem – we all know the mosques on the Temple Mount, but also in a lot more places they invested in development, including in Tiberias, the Hebron Hills region, the Negev, and of the course the coastal strip where the Muslims encouraged settlement.”

Netanyahu quoted famous travelers to the Holy Land during the podcast, none less than Mark Twain, who described the land as “a vast wasteland” and “barren” before the Jews returned.

“The fact that the land [of Israel] in general was settled sparsely does not prove anything. There was a continuity of Muslim settlement since the conquest,” said Levy-Rubin. In the interview, Netanyahu attacked the Palestinians for distorting and misrepresenting history, and said it’s quite amazing that none of the facts he put forward in his books “has ever been challenged… I make an effort to be very rigorous about the facts,” he said.

Frenkel added that Netanyahu lectures without getting into or spending too much time on complex facts, but reality is much more complex and not one-dimensional.

In 2015, Netanyahu also distorted other periods of Jewish history, when he said Hitler decided to exterminate the Jews only after he met with the former mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini during World War II. After drawing criticism, Netanyahu corrected himself.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu said former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt said “over my dead body” when he was asked why he would not bomb Auschwitz during the Holocaust. In this case too, historians said he was distorting reality and proposing an alternative reality.

C’était l’époque où la « #communauté_internationale » approuvait l’envoi d’armes par l’Iran à des milices libanaises d’extrême-droite criminelles et sanguinaires

Le document décrit l’implication militaire d’Israël dans les affaires du Liban depuis les années 1950 jusqu’aux préparatifs de la Première Guerre du Liban au début des années 1980. La connexion a été créée en 1958, à la demande du président libanais de l’époque, Camille Chamoun, qui craignait de perdre le pouvoir, en coordination avec le régime du Shah en Iran, qui envoyait des armes au Liban par avion.

Declassified Mossad document reveals military collaboration with Lebanese Christian militias
▻https://thecradle.co/Article/news/15473

https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Sabra-Shatila.jpg

►https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-09-08/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israels-most-planned-war-historical-mossad-file-details-lebanon-policy/00000183-1dce-d11f-a1e3-5fde579b0000

Ouémélézantisémitedegocheparlonzencarfaudrépasevoilélaface.

@unagi: message effacé et bloqué. Et tu vas te faire foutre.

Jalal
@JalalAK_jojo
12:21 AM · 30 mai 2022
▻https://twitter.com/JalalAK_jojo/status/1531037973902508032

A pogrom took place in Sheikh Jarrah this evening, it lasted for hours. When Israeli forces intervened, they secured the perimeter to the aid of raiding settlers.
they used bullets, gas & water cannon against🇵🇸, while a State-Sponsored Pogrom took place uninterrupted inside SJ.
Same in the Old City of Jerusalem, where another pogrom took place, conducted in coordination between 🇮🇱 police & flag-waving 🇮🇱marchers.

All the videos I see from the Old City are settlers insulting & assaulting Palestinians INSIDE THEIR HOMES.

Police was aiding & abetting.
Last but not least, all journalists inside old city were harassed, some attacked & had objects thrown at them. I’ve seen plenty of evidence &got told by journo friends who had a press pass.

The videos again show 🇮🇱police aid & abet by allowing the violence to go uninterrupted.
This looks and feels like a literal State-Sponsored pogrom, because the Israeli state is now waging a propaganda campaign glorifying the #FlagMarch and showing clips of the dancing outside, while no one is showing the horrors Palestinians witnessed by fascists at their doorsteps.
In the following thread, I’ll share a few videos I collated, but none of the footage below is mine.

Starting with this: joint attack by 🇮🇱marchers & 🇮🇱police against Palestinian home in the Old City (...)

Georges Malbrunot
@Malbrunot
8:33 PM · 29 mai 2022
▻https://twitter.com/Malbrunot/status/1530980592548036610

De jeunes israéliens ultranationalistes défient des Palestiniens à Jérusalem-est en se glorifiant de la mort de la journaliste Shirin abou Aqleh, tuée par l’armée israélienne selon une enquête de CNN.

▻https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1530980546146451457/pu/vid/320x584/V_9_-Z3h9890JekP.mp4?tag=12

Nationalist Flag March Returns to Jerusalem in All Its Ugliness
Nir Hasson - May. 29, 2022 11:38 PM - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-05-29/ty-article/nationalist-flag-march-returns-to-jerusalem-in-all-its-ugliness/00000181-1159-d3ed-a7a3-375fa3a50000

https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/00000181-115d-dc40-ad9b-197fa81d0001/ed/10/f45b1b6d4438bc682bd19215ea62/93423.jpg?precrop=2200,1279,x0,y189&height=698&width=1200

After a few relatively quiet years, then a year in which the parade was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and a year in which it was rerouted due to security tensions, the Flag March returned to Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate and Muslim Quarter, in all its ugliness.

In the years before 2020, under pressure from the High Court of Justice, the media and police, organizers of the march tried hard to minimize the violently racist chants of participants, and it seemed to work. Marchers who started singing “Death to the Arabs” and “May your village burn” were silenced by organizers and threatened with arrest by police. The marches continued in relative quiet, with some Palestinian stores along the route even remaining open.

This year, everything was reversed. From the morning hours, hundreds of marchers and celebrants started filling the streets of the Old City. At Moghrabi Gate, Temple Mount organizations racked up the highest number of Jews coming to the Mount in one day since 1967, with 2,600 arriving at the compound. Some of them bowed, some raised flags.

In nearby alleys, dozens of groups of Jewish youths chanted, cursed and blocked access to Palestinians. Police officers started to remove Palestinians from the streets and merchants understood what was about to happen and closed their shops. Some groups found alleys with no policemen and entered private yards, cursing and confronting Arab residents. But this was only the beginning.

“שועפט עולה האש”
“יהודי זה נשמה, ערבי זה בן זונה”
“מוות לערבים”
“מוחמד מת”
“שיישרף לכם הכפר”
מפגן גזענות של היציע המזרחי ותומכיהם בשער שכם. pic.twitter.com/DpyLZCmWzB
— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) May 29, 2022
▻https://twitter.com/JoshBreiner/status/1530928525569572864

At noon, other groups of Jews started streaming into the Old City, and the tide grew until the march began. Thousands of people passed through Damascus Gate, with the most popular song on their lips being a religious song that was sung at the ill-famed wedding of hate, following the lethal arson attack in Duma, ending with Biblical words taken out of context, calling for blinding Palestinians, “may their name be accursed,” the last words uttered in a scream. This song has replaced a song extolling Jerusalem, which used to be sung on this march in earlier years.

The more extremist groups went through the gate with ecstatic enthusiasm, singing “Death to the Arabs” and “May your village burn,” “Mohammed is dead,” “Shoafat is burning” and more. Other less extreme groups, singing less inflammatory songs, couldn’t walk by without banging on the tin doors of the shuttered stores. One can only imagine what this sounded like to the hundreds of Palestinian families who were locked in their homes for hours.

At times it seemed the police had lost control. In one case, an elderly Palestinian woman raised her arms in response to the cursing and was met with pepper spray and kicks by the celebrants. When she was evacuated on a stretcher, water bottles were thrown at it. The Palestinians responded by throwing chairs and other objects. The Jews used tear gas. In another case, a Palestinian journalist was attacked, and in a third instance, a marcher pulled a gun and threatened Palestinians in the plaza outside Damascus Gate.

Clashes erupted in adjacent streets, with some injuries reported after both sides threw stones. Towards the end of the march, dozens of Jews attacked Palestinian houses and vehicles in Sheikh Jarrah. Palestinians responded by throwing stones. One Jew was injured.

The answer to the question of why did the march return to its earlier format this year can be found in two places. The first is the extremist campaign by Bibi-ists, which has been sweeping over the right wing in the course of the last year. Among Israeli flags there were three other flags at the march – Likud flags, flags with Benjamin Netanyahu’s face, and flags of the Lehava Jewish supremacist organization.

It seems that the hatred toward anything perceived as Arab, leftist or linked to the media has percolated for many months in the minds of the marchers, finding a vent as soon as they crossed Damascus Gate or encountered Palestinian passersby.

The second explanation is what happened to the march last year. The fact that after 30 years the march did not go through the gate and the Muslim Quarter was perceived as a debacle that must be amended, by holding a larger, more extremist march this year.

Here and there were people trying to silence the racist cries and calm things down, but this was usually met with disdain, if not vilification. One such person was Yaki Saada from the religious village Givat Washington, who argued with dozens of youths in an effort to stop the racist chants. “It drives me crazy,” he said. “I come here every year, it’s important for me to celebrate but not to provoke people. These are small children with no shepherd, it’s not Judaism,” he says. But voices such as his were drowned out by the banging of doors and racist chants.

In the days preceding Jerusalem Day, a war of flags broke out in Jerusalem. It began with the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, which included the flying of Palestinian flags on the Temple Mount and in Palestinian neighborhoods. Jews responded with thousands of flags during the march, but also with huge flags hung on the old municipality and on the Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem.

The Old City walls were illuminated with Israeli flags as well. It seemed Israelis were winning this war. But then Palestinian activists managed to fly a drone carrying the Palestinian flag above the celebrants at Damascus Gate. This was no simple feat, requiring the evasion of police monitoring. Police managed to bring it down using technological methods, but it still amounted to a small Palestinian victory.

At the end of the day, at the time of this writing, Jerusalem Day ended in a relatively calm manner. It may be too early to say a blessing, since past experience shows that thugs will roam the streets of Jerusalem at night, looking for Palestinian victims.

In Sheikh Jarrah, stone throwing was intensifying. Hamas, as expected, did not launch a new round of hostilities and police managed to control most of the incidents without serious injuries. The marchers will return home and we’ll move on to the next story. It’s Shavuot soon, with people going to the Temple Mount amid more tension.

But what are the real implications of such a march? What imprint will it leave in the minds of thousands of youths who were fired up with racist and ultra-nationalist hatred? What imprint will it leave on Palestinian residents? At 8:30 P.M., outside Damascus Gate, the ground covered with plastic bottles, stickers and broken flag poles, with the last celebrants walking by, the future looked grim.

Middle East Eye Fr
@MiddleEastEyeFr
▻https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEyeFr/status/1531177668347052033

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FT_V9bkWAAIxZvK.jpg

📸 : Un drapeau palestinien accroché à un drone civil survole Jérusalem le 29 mai 2022, lors de la « marche des drapeaux » israélienne pour marquer la « Journée de Jérusalem » (AFP)

▻https://twitter.com/i/status/1531529601163436032

►https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1530914871017099264/pu/vid/640x352/OVZATJBySnRDR9DS.mp4?tag=12

▻https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1531396350071521280/pu/vid/1280x720/aUmtOFXzLSZZ5vN_.mp4?tag=12

Jérusalem : des Palestiniens agressés par des ultra-nationalistes israéliens lors de la Marche des drapeaux
MEE - Par Lubna Masarwa, Huthifa Fayyad Published date : Lundi 30 mai 2022
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/jerusalem-palestine-israel-violences-marche-drapeaux-ultra-nationalis

Des Palestiniens ont été frappés et aspergés de gaz poivré par des Israéliens qui scandaient « Mohammed est mort ! » lors de cette marche de l’extrême droite dans le quartier musulman de la vieille ville (...)