Skip to main content

At last! US State Dept. calls it for it is. Terrorism!

For so long now the West, and principally the US, has pussy-footed around declaring what is unquestionably Israeli terror meted out to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as "incidents" or words to that effect.  It has invariably been described as "unfortunate" action by Israel or those bigoted, and bordering on mad, zealous settlers in the West Bank.

At last!    The US State Department has stated that a bombing of a mosque in the West Bank - not for the first time it is to be noted - was an act of terrorism.

"For the first time, the U.S. State Department has cited violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank under the heading "terrorist incidents" in its annual Country Report on Terrorism.

 The 2011 U.S. Country Report - which profiles terrorist activities around the world - cites seven "2011 terrorist incidents" in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Along with rocket attacks from Gaza, the report identifies three "price tag" incidents - a term which has come to describe, among other things, attacks against Palestinian property in revenge for violence against settlers. The report cites the 2011 vandalism of the Muslim Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, an arson attack on a Jerusalem mosque in December, and another arson attack on a mosque in the village of Burqa in December.

The report also states that 10 mosques in the West Bank and Jerusalem were vandalized or set on fire in 2011, and that these attacks were believed by Israeli authorities to have been "perpetrated by settlers, up from six such incidents in 2010 and one in 2009."

The report, released July 31, states that GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi has referred to attacks against Palestinians and Palestinian property as terror."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland