Monday, January 04, 2016
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Leaders Promise a New Year of Violence and Death
Instead of wishing Palestinians a happy and prosperous New Year, both Fatah and Hamas are asking their people to prepare for increased violence and "resistance," including suicide bombings, against Israelis.PMW: PA TV: Europe created Israel to "get rid of" the corrupt, scheming Jews
Fatah's armed wing used the occasion to issue yet another threat: "We will continue in the path of the martyrs until the liberation of all of Palestine."
Masked Palestinians in Bethlehem attacked several restaurants and halls where New Year's Eve parties were supposed to take place. The assailants, eyewitnesses reported, were affiliated with Abbas's Fatah faction, not Hamas.
Hamas banned Gazans from celebrating New Year's Eve, saying such parties are "in violation of Islamic teachings." Hamas does not want young Palestinians enjoying their time in restaurants and cafes. Instead, Hamas wants them to join its forces, armed and dressed in military fatigues, preparing for jihad against Israel.
As part of this month's 51th anniversary celebrations of the Fatah movement, PA TV rebroadcast a documentary on the history of Fatah. The film entitled "Fatah: Revolution until Victory," includes a section showing a fundamental aspect of Palestinian Authority Antisemitism. The film was previously broadcast on PA TV in 2013 and 2014.
The Fatah film opens with classic demonization of Jews:
"[Europe] suffered a tragedy by providing refuge for the Jews... Faced with the Jews' schemes, Europe could not bear their character traits, monopolies, corruption, and their control and climbing up positions in government." [PA TV, Dec. 31, 201]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that a basic component of PA historical revision is to deny there was any Jewish history in the Land of Israel. To explain why millions of Jews would immigrate to the Israel without a historical connection the PA claims that Zionism was not a Jewish idea but rather a European idea. And it was created by Europeans, not to return Jews to their homeland, but to get rid of the scheming and corrupt Jews who, according to PA ideology, caused Europe so much suffering.
The film explains that England, France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Spain and Italy, all expelled Jews because they suffered from the Jews' presence. Finally, when the Balfour Declaration facilitated the establishment of "a national homeland" for the Jews, Europe supported it because it "saw it as an ideal solution to get rid of them."
PMW: Antisemitic hate speech on PA TV
Mahmoud Abbas' official Palestinian Authority TV continues to disseminate Antisemitic hate speech. Recently, PA TV broadcast a young girl reciting a story which taught that treachery is an inherent part of the nature of the Jews. The girl recited that Jews and Arabs used to be friends but that "the foreigners came to expel us." She then added that this was not surprising because "treachery has been their nature from the days of Moses until today":
“This home was our father’s home, and the foreigners came to expel us. Long ago we were dear friends. Yona [the Jew] helped Fatima [the Arab] with the laundry and Fatima boiled milk for her, and lit the fire for her on the Sabbath. It does not surprise us [that they expelled us]. Treachery has been their nature from the days of Moses until today. May Allah turn back every oppressor’s scheme. Say Amen with me.” [Official PA TV, Dec. 24, 2015]
Palestinian Media Watch has reported frequently on PA sponsored Antisemitism even coming right from top of PA leadership. Abbas’ advisor taught in a sermon, televised on PA TV, that Jews represent "evil", and that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is "Allah's project vs. Satan's project."
Hezbollah bombs army vehicles on northern border, none hurt
An improvised explosive device detonated near an Israeli army bulldozer and another vehicle near the border with Lebanon Monday afternoon, the military said.Anticipating Hezbollah action, Israel shells Lebanon border
No soldiers were hurt in the attack, according to initial reports, which came amid sky-high tensions with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah over the alleged Israeli assassination of a top operative, a known terrorist, last month.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the Monday attack, which it said was carried out by a cell named for Samir Kuntar, killed in an airstrike in Damascus on December 20.
The group claimed it destroyed an IDF Hummer and injured those inside.
However, the army said no one was injured and the vehicles targeted heavy machinery.
The Israel Defense Forces shelled the Lebanese border for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday, aiming to deter an attack by Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.JCPA: How to Block the Ongoing Palestinian Terror Wave
The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has repeatedly vowed revenge for the assassination of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar two weeks ago, which has been attributed to Israel.
Anticipating such a response, the army has been firing artillery rounds at the border fence. The army reportedly expected the terror group to take advantage of the stormy weather and the poor visibility to launch a strike.
On Sunday, Nasrallah reiterated the group’s threats of revenge, saying the retaliation will “certainly come.” His comments echoed those he made the week before, in which he warned that retaliation for Kuntar’s assassination was “inevitable.”
The Palestinian terror wave is not letting up, and fighting it more effectively requires a close examination of its roots and its objectives. While not baseless, the explanation that it is a spontaneous outbreak stemming from continued Israeli control of the territories, building in the settlements, the horrendous Jewish terror attack in Duma, economic hardship, or the lack of a political horizon, does not suffice.Israelis Murdered in Tel Aviv Shooting Laid to Rest; ‘We Ask Forgiveness for Not Being Able to Save You,’ Friend Eulogizes
If any or all that were true, then the Palestinians could have accepted far-reaching offers to establish a Palestinian state, or, at least, to return to the negotiating table; alternatively, the terror wave would already have erupted much earlier than it did.
In reality, the Palestinian leadership with Mahmoud Abbas at the helm, which rejects negotiations and now admits that it spurned the offers of statehood, stands unequivocally behind the ongoing stabbing and car-ramming attacks, which have been added to the stone-throwing and hurling of firebombs which characterized the problematic security situation until October 2015. With the support of a large majority of the Palestinian population, this leadership encourages the continued attacks and does not hide its satisfaction with them. On December 27 in Al-Ayyam, senior publicist Hamada Farawne lavished praised on the terror wave, calling it a further stage of the unending struggle of all the Palestinians – including the Israeli Arabs – against Zionism, which will culminate in the Palestinians’ return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel and the regaining of their property. After the January 1, 2016, attack on a Tel Aviv pub in Tel Aviv, Fatah – headed by Abbas – tweeted, “Settler (sic) killed, 4 injured on Dizengoff St. in Tel Aviv.”
Hundreds of mourners attended the funerals on Sunday of the two young men murdered in Friday’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, Israeli news site nrg reported.'The bullet that pierced your heart shattered ours for eternity'
Alon Bakal, 26, and Shimon Ruimi, 30, were buried together, but separately, each in his home town during the wintry afternoon hours, as family members, friends, government representatives and even strangers wept in shock and disbelief at the latest murders of innocent Israelis in the surge in Palestinian – and in this case Israeli-Arab – terrorism that began in September.
Bakal, who was buried in Carmiel, had served in the elite Golani Brigade and was on the verge of completing his degree is law and business administration, before being gunned down in the pub where worked. He was soon to begin an internship with the prestigious law firm of Dov Weisglass – adviser to prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.
Shimon Ruime survived the battlefields of Gaza and Lebanon but was killed in Friday's Tel Aviv shooting spree while celebrating a friend’s birthday.Manhunt for Tel Aviv shooter enters 4th day
“You went through Gaza. You went through wars, but did not survive the bullet of unending hate. The bullet that pierced your pure heart — filled with love and happiness — shattered our hearts for eternity,“ said his aunt Mor Peretz as she eulogized him on Sunday in the small cemetery in his home city of Ofakim.
Thousands of mourners stood around her as she clutched a hand-held microphone and spoke on behalf of the family about the young man nicknamed Shimi, who was fatally shot outside of the Simta Pub just one month before he turned 31.
The pub's manager Alon Bakal, 26, was also killed in that attack and eight others were injured.
“Instead of celebrating your birthday, we are burying you in the ground,” said Peretz. She wore a brown coat against the cold. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail.
The Tel Aviv police force and the Shin Bet security agency have admitted they have exhausted all leads in pursuing the shooter who killed two Israelis and wounded seven others at a central Tel Aviv bar on Friday, and are waiting for the assailant to slip up in the hope of nabbing him.Viral image of Arab Israelis celebrating TA attack is a fake
On Saturday, a mobile phone belonging to suspected shooter Nashat Milhem was found in the northern Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv. But police officials said the discovery did not provide clues to his whereabouts.
"We still don't have any idea where he is. He could be in Tel Aviv or he could be anywhere else in the country," a senior police official told Channel 2 on Monday. The official added that police are heavily deployed to minimize the amount of time it will take to close in on him when useful information does come in.
A widely shared photo on Facebook, purportedly showing Arabs in northern Israel celebrating Friday’s shooting attack in Tel Aviv, was found to be a two-year-old image from Lebanon.Man tries to stab cops in Jerusalem, shot after chase
The post, originally published by a Netanya resident, shows an image of an Arab man handing out candy to smiling passersby. Its caption reads: “Wadi Ara — pictures from the town of Arara. This is what they don’t show in the news….”
However, a number of people pointed out Sunday that the picture had not been taken in Arara at the weekend, but rather was an image from January 2014 — during celebrations in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila over the death of former prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Prior to being discredited, the post and picture were spread by a large number of groups and individuals.
A man attempted to stab police in Jerusalem Monday, who then chased and shot him.Stabbing attack thwarted at Tapuach Junction
Two people were taken to a hospital after suffering very light injuries and shock respectively.
Police said the man attempted to stab police on Haim Bar-Lev Street in the capital and ran away after being unsuccessful.
The attacker was a 17-year-old resident of East Jerusalem and holds an Israeli ID card, police said.
A Palestinian arrived on Monday afternoon at the Tapuach junction in Samaria, and roused the suspicion of the Border Police soldiers who were stationed at the location.Israel begins sealing homes of Palestinian terrorists in east Jerusalem
The soldiers told him to stop. In spite of their orders he continued to approach the position of some of the soldiers. They responded by performing the proper procedure for apprehending a suspect.
Once they succeeded in halting the Palestinian, the performed a bodily search, in which they found a knife on his person.
It is assumed that he intended to attack the security personnel present.
The Palestinian is an inhabitant of Jenin, and has been taken in for questioning.
Israeli security forces in east Jerusalem began to pour concrete into the homes of two Palestinians who committed terrorist attacks on the same day this past autumn.Nablus terrorist gets Nasrallah-themed funeral
As a punitive measure aimed at deterring future instances, Israeli authorities destroy the homes of Palestinians who commit acts of violence motivated by nationalism. In this case, the security forces are sealing off the home by filling it with concrete in order to maintain the integrity of the structure of other apartments in the vicinity.
Border Police oversaw the operation aimed at the home of Baha'a Aliyan, the Palestinian from Jabel Mukaber who shot and killed a Jewish man, Richard Lakin, on a public bus in the nearby neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv. Haim Haviv, 78, and Alon Govberg, 51, were also killed in the attack. Several other passengers were seriously wounded.
The other assailant, Ala'a Abu Jamal, drove his vehicle into a group of several people waiting at a bus stop in the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Geula. He then exited his car with a meat cleaver and began attacking the wounded and others with the implement.
A terrorist killed while attempting to stab an Israeli civilian near Nablus in November was buried Sunday in a West Bank funeral featuring a large banner of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.IDF: 2015 marks lowest number of casualties in a decade
A self-professed fan of the Lebanon-based terror organization, 16-year-old Ashraqat Taha Qatanany was thwarted mid-attack on November 22 when former Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika rammed his car into her and she was subsequently shot by security forces.
Qatanany’s body had been held by Israel since she carried out the attack and was only returned several days ago for burial in her hometown.
Footage of the funeral, broadcast Sunday on Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV, showed mourners marching with a large banner featuring Qatanany and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah photoshopped beside each other. At the top of the banner is written in Arabic: “Mr. Hassan Nasrallah is present in us.”
The number of Israeli soldiers who died during their service in 2015 was the lowest in a decade, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.The Saudis couldn't care less about us
According to IDF Personnel Directorate data, a total of 36 soldiers died in 2015. Six were killed in the line of duty, seven in road accidents and two in other accidents. Six died of terminal illnesses, and 15 other deaths were considered "suspected suicides."
In 2014, 70 soldiers were killed in the line of duty, 67 of them during Operation Protective Edge waged in the Gaza Strip over the summer. Thirteen soldiers were killed in road accidents, and 15 soldiers committed suicide.
In 2013, 40 soldiers died: five in the line of duty, two in Israeli Air Force activities, 10 in road accidents while on leave, and the remainder of illnesses.
The new year began with major turbulence in the Persian Gulf as Iran-Saudi Arabia tensions, and the overall Sunni-Shiite divide, escalated from threatening rhetoric to concrete action.Muslims Riot Over Death of One Muslim Cleric, But Silent Over Genocide of Christians in Their Midst
The Sunni-dominated Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, executed 47 people in a single day, including prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr (it is unclear exactly when the executions took place). This provoked outrage among the Shiite masses in Iran, who took to the streets and firebombed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. There was also rioting near the kingdom's consulate in the holy city of Mashhad. On a political level, the Iranian regime promised it would retaliate in kind for the execution.
The Persian Gulf is not just about oil (the price of which, by the way, has been in freefall); it is one big powder keg that may very well set the region ablaze. And it once again debunks the notion that everything in this region can be linked to Israel, "the occupation," or the Palestinian "tragedy."
In July of 2015, Eliza Griswold of the New York Times, wrote a comprehensive piece entitled “Is This The End Of Christianity In The Middle East?”Iran blames America, Britain and 'Zionists' for Nimr execution
She wrote of ISIS militants in towns they had captured, marking certain houses with the Arabic letter “N” in red spray paint. It looks kind of like a one eyed smiley face, but looks are deceiving. The letter, pronounced as “noon,” is the first letter of the word Nasrani, or “one who believes in Jesus of Nazareth.” It was a marking of death to many, as was the “Juden” label or yellow Star of David stitched on clothing some eighty years ago.
Yet, on January 2, 2016, an epic war of words broke out between leaders of nations. Violent protests, riots, Molotov Cocktails, threats, and now fire at the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The Arab world has come undone over the death of one Muslim Cleric. No life, or any unjust death, is insignificant, and the details of Arab Spring proponent Sheikh Nimr’s life and the accusations against him are, and will be debated around the world, yet the scale of silence, neglect, indifference, and hypocrisy regarding the death of many others in their midst, once again, is staggering.
Iran has found the guilty parties in Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr: The United States, Israel and Britain.Hezbollah's Nasrallah says Saudi execution of Shi'ite cleric 'can not be taken lightly'
This bizarre comment was made on Sunday by Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of the Basij militia of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Naqdi declared that Sunni and Shiite Muslims alike will avenge Nimr’s blood and in particular take revenge against the main factors responsible for his death: the UK, the U.S. and the Zionist entity.
Speaking at a conference in Iran, Naqdi blasted the Saudi regime and said that it has done nothing besides kill Muslims and carry out massacres.
He also attacked human rights organizations which publish messages on behalf of killers, terrorists, and drug smugglers, but in this case they remain silent.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite cleric was a “message of blood,” and Riyadh sought to create sectarian strife across the world.Saudi Arabia gives Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave
The execution on Saturday of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the Saudi government, drew Shi'ite anger across the region, with protesters in regional rival Iran storming the Saudi Embassy and leaders condemning the move.
"We are today faced by an appalling event, a huge event that Al Saud took lightly ... but this is an event that cannot be taken lightly," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on the Lebanese Shi'ite group's Al Manar television.
"Al Saud wants Sunni-Shi'ite strife. They are the ones who ignited it before, and are doing so in every part of the world."
Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday it was cutting diplomatic ties with Iran, over attacks on its embassy facilities in Iran by people protesting the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, The Wall Street Journal reports.Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Iran as row over cleric's death escalates
The kingdom has requested that all members of Iran’s diplomatic mission leave Saudi Arabia within 48 hours, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh.
“The Iranian regime has a long record of violating foreign diplomatic missions,” he said, adding that the Iranian government hadn’t responded to requests to protect its embassy.
Women and children in Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions had been evacuated on a flight Sunday night, he added.
There was no immediate response from Iranian officials, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.Bahrain, Sudan, UAE limit ties with Iran over Saudi embassy attack
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its security.
Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family.
Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain and Sudan joined Saudi Arabia in cutting ties with Iran on Monday amid escalating tensions between Tehran and the Sunni states triggered by the execution of a Shiite cleric in the Gulf kingdom over the weekend.French Ambassador Rationalizes Iranian Belligerency
The United Arab Emirates also said it recalled its ambassador from Iran on Monday and downgraded diplomatic relations with Tehran over its “interference” in the affairs of Gulf and Arab countries.
The UAE decided to lower “diplomatic representation to the level of charge d’affaires and reduce the number of Iranian diplomats in the country,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, quoted by the official WAM news agency.
The move came after Saudi Arabia severed links with the Islamic Republic on Sunday.
Saturday the French ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud downplayed the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic facilities in Iran. Following the execution of controversial Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Iranian mobs surely backed by the clerical regime set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the kingdom's consulate in Iran's second-largest city, Mashad. In response to the destruction of diplomatic missions, the chief of France's diplomatic mission in Washington wrote that "Iran was obliged to react. Burning an embassy is spectacular but not war."Elliott Abrams: Iran Sacks Another Embassy
Araud articulated his bizarrely obtuse thesis during a Twitter exchange with Omri Ceren, the managing director for press at the Israel Project. Ceren responded by citing an opinion from the International Court of Justice holding that, "there is 'no more fundamental prerequisite' for interstate relations than protecting embassies." Violating diplomatic immunity, Ceren continued, is the "single most corrosive thing you can do. More corrosive than war because war is governed by rules."
Today the Isamic Republic of Iran decided to sack another embassy building in Tehran, that of Saudi Arabia.An American Ally of Necessity
According to the AP, “Protesters in Iran, angered by the execution by Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric, broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof….” Later, the invasion and sacking were denounced by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
But who’s kidding whom? In November, 2011 the target was the British Embassy. Al Jazeera reported that “Dozens of young Iranian men have entered buildings inside the British embassy as well as a diplomatic compound in Tehran, throwing rocks, petrol bombs and burning documents looted from the offices.”
And of course the first instance was the 1979 assault on the United States embassy compound and the seizure of hostages.
In the lawless jungle that is the international system, nations seldom have the luxury of choosing good over evil. Usually, it is a matter of choosing a lesser evil over a greater evil. So it was in World War II, when we allied with Stalin to stop Hitler, and so it is today in the case of Saudi Arabia versus Iran. The two countries are in a contest for power and influence across the Middle East. Both are human-rights violators, but we should make no mistake that Iran is far worse from the American perspective: not only morally but also strategically.PreOccupiedTerritory: Saudi Arabia Prints Muhammad Toons To Make Embassy Torching Worth It (satire)
That is worth keeping that in mind as you watch the drama unfold over the Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric who was harshly critical of the Saudi royal family. He was not, insofar as can be judged from the information publicly available, an advocate of violence or a participant in terrorism. Thus, his execution along with 47 others was a travesty of justice and a gross human rights violation.
But that does not make it right for Iran to allow a mob to firebomb and ransack the Saudi embassy in Tehran. This is a violation of the most basic norms between nations, which hold that embassies are sovereign territory of another state and cannot be entered without permission. Yet ever since its 1979 revolution, which included, of course, the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the seizure of diplomats as hostages, the Iranian regime has made a practice of systematically violating diplomatic immunity and other rules of the international system. Only a few years later, in 1983, Iranian-sponsored terrorists car-bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people: One of numerous Iranian crimes against America for which the “revolutionary” regime in Tehran has neither apologized nor made any amends.
While calling down “divine vengeance” on Saudi Arabia, the Iranian regime is hardly in a strong position to protest Riyadh’s human rights violations. In late October, UN investigator found that Iran’s use of capital punishment was growing at an exponential rate and would top 1,000 people executed in 2015. Amnesty International, which reported that nearly 700 people had been executed in the first six months of the year, said: “The Iranian authorities should be ashamed of executing hundreds of people with complete disregard for the basic safeguards of due process.”
Saudi Arabian King Salman ordered several government-run newspapers and broadcast media to publish a series of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad today, saying that the move would at least make the torching of the country’s diplomatic facilities in Iran over the weekend OK in some measure.Shin Bet: Suspected Jewish terrorists belong to radical group
Iranian mobs stormed and trashed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the consulate in Meshed, on Saturday after the kingdom executed a staunchly pro-Iran Shia preacher accused of inciting terrorism. The Islamic Republic described the acts as committed spontaneously by an incensed mob, but that explanation has failed to convince anyone outside Iran; Saudi Arabia insists the destruction was planned and orchestrated by the Ayatollahs’ regime, and have severed diplomatic ties. However, to get some sense of balance out of the affair, the Saudi government has now arranged for controversial cartoons featuring Muhammad to run in today’s printed and online media, in keeping with the storming and torching of embassies.
The cartoons were published by a Danish newspaper in 2005, leading to a firestorm of protests and criticism in Islamic countries over the violation of taboos regarding the prophet and his depiction. The protests led to mobs storming and damaging Danish and other embassies around the Middle East. Saudi authorities reasoned that while the current political climate and tensions with Iran over the latter’s attempt to assert regional supremacy and develop nuclear weapons, the kingdom could at least use the opportunity to publish the cartoons.
The radical group to which the two suspects in the Duma arson belong espouses an ideology that seeks to "overthrow the government, as it hinders the goal of rebuilding the temple, thus preventing true redemption," the Shin Bet security agency revealed Sunday.Duma ‘revenge’ attack was not in our name, mother of murdered Israeli says
According to the agency, the suspects are not only members of the "hilltop youth," an extremist group that carries out "price-tag" acts against Palestinians, but also members of the "Givonim," a hard-line faction with views even more radical than those of the hilltop youth.
The Shin Bet believes the group numbers several dozen men ages 15 to 24, most of whom were expelled from the education system and none of whom has served in the military. They are believed to reside in illegal outposts across Judea and Samaria.
The group's ideology was revealed, in what one defense official called "chilling detail," in documents seized in the suspects' homes.
After the suspected perpetrator of the Duma terror attack allegedly told investigators it was revenge for the murder of an Israeli in July 2015, Malachy Rosenfeld’s mother on Sunday lashed out saying any such connection was “a slap in the face” of her son’s memory and “goes against everything we believe in.”Palestinians plan to turn Dawabsha home into a museum
Rosenfeld, 25, was gunned down on July 1 in the West Bank while returning home from a basketball game, just a month before a firebomb attack on the home of the Dawabsha family in the West Bank village of Duma led to the immediate death of toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha. Parents Riham and Saad succumbed to their wounds in the hospital within weeks of the attack. Five-year-old Ahmed, Ali’s brother, remains hospitalized in Israel and faces a long rehabilitation.
Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, was charged Sunday with murder, and an unnamed minor was charged as an accomplice, for carrying out the attack on the Dawabsha home.
According to investigators, Ben-Uliel said he did it to avenge the killing of Rosenfeld by a Palestinian terrorist. His parents said he was innocent, and his wife said he had been tortured and that the entire case was “lies.”
The West Bank home of a Palestinian family set alight in a deadly July 2015 attack by an alleged Jewish terrorist is to be turned into a museum, the brother of one of the victims said Sunday.Hamas releases new footage of Shalit, barbecuing in captivity
Amiram Ben-Uliel allegedly killed three members of the Dawabsha family — parents Saad and Riham, and 18-month old baby Ali Saad — when he hurled firebombs through the window in a pre-dawn attack while the family was sleeping. The only surviving member of the family, 5-year-old Ahmed, was seriously injured.
Ben-Uliel was charged with murder on Sunday; his wife and parents said he was innocent.
In an interview with the NRG news website, Saad’s brother Nasser said that the house would be turned into a museum to “perpetuate the crimes of the occupation.”
The Palestinian terror group Hamas on Sunday released previously unseen footage of Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier held in five-year captivity in Gaza from 2006 to 2011. The footage shows Shalit smiling as he tends to a barbecue, apparently surrounded by his guards.Shalit family blasts 'distorted' Hamas video
The video also shows Shalit preparing coffee with his captors and talking on the phone.
In a statement, the Shalit family said his “godless captors, who held Gilad hostage, stop at nothing to present a skewed picture that in no way reflects the five and a half years he spent doing his best to survive in captivity, solitude and daily fear.”
This is the third such publication by the terror group in recent days. Last Wednesday, Hamas released an image of the soldier with one of his guards, Abd al-Rahman al-Mubashar, who, the group said, had died recently. The photo, which appears to be a screenshot of a video screened hours later, shows Shalit standing next to al-Mubashar.
The video — aired later on Hamas TV — again shows a smiling Shalit with some of his guards.
The family of Gilad Shalit issued a statement on Sunday night, hours after Hamas published a video showing the kidnapped soldier participating in a barbecue with his captors in Gaza.Hevron brothers indicted for smuggling rocket propellent to Gaza
"The miscreants who were the captors of the soldier Gilad Shalit are using all means to present a distorted picture," the Shalit family said.
The family added that the video "does not reflect in any way five and a half years of captivity, loneliness and a daily fear in the struggle for survival."
The footage of Shalit roasting a chicken came four days after Hamas posted a photograph of Shalit smiling behind one of his captors, Hamas terrorist Abed a-Rahman al-Mubasar.
The shirt Shalit is wearing in both the video and the photograph is the same as the one he wore when he returned to Israel, leading to assessments that all the events may have in fact occurred on the day of his release, or at the least on the same day.
Two Arab brothers from Hevron were indicted Monday morning in the Be’er Sheva District Court. They were charged with transferring materials that could be used to build rockets to Gaza without a permit.Egypt Arrests Facebook Admins Charged with Ties to Muslim Brotherhood
The materials are multi-purpose and are subject to strict supervision. The brothers are likewise charged with knowing that the banned materials may have been used by a terror organization to attack Israel.
The two brothers worked at a family business in Hevron by the name of Al-Tza’adak which provided building materials and paint to the area around Hevron. Two months ago the brothers were approached by a businessman from Gaza who ordered a variety of different materials, among them were paint thinner, filler, and polyester resin, which are all materials that require a special permit to enter the strip.The brothers applied to the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) offices for a permit allowing them to transfer thinner and filler, but left out the polyester resin.
As the fifth anniversary of the social media-driven Arab Spring uprisings approaches, Egyptian authorities have arrested three influential Facebook administrators, accusing them of belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.Hezbollah, regime troops kill civilians fleeing besieged town: monitor
On Saturday Egypt’s Interior Ministry charged two men and one woman, all in their late 20s, with membership in the Muslim Brotherhood and using social media to incite against state institutions. Combined, the three individuals administer 23 Facebook pages.
January 25, 2011 marked the beginning of a massive popular uprising in Egypt that led to the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the dissolution of the ruling National Democratic Party. In the latter days of the Mubarak regime, Egypt imposed a countrywide internet blackout meant to impair communication between protesters, but by then it was too late.
The January 25 revolution was sparked by social media, notably Facebook and Twitter. In 2010, a 29-year-old Google marketing executive named Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page that he called “We Are All Khaled Said,” inspired by an online photo of the bloodied face of a young man who had been beaten to death by Egyptian police.
Just two minutes after Ghonim launched his Facebook page, 300 people had joined it, and after three months the number had grown to more than 250,000.
On December 30, Egyptian authorities shut down a Facebook-sponsored program that had been offering free basic Internet services to over three million Egyptians.
In a statement, Facebook said it hoped to “resolve this situation soon” so the program, which it had launched in partnership with Etisalat Egypt in the late fall, could be restored.
“We’re disappointed that Free Basics will no longer be available in Egypt,” it said. “More than 1 million people who were previously unconnected had been using the Internet because of these efforts.”
Hezbollah and Syrian army troops have reportedly killed civilians attempting to flee a Sunni-populated town near the Lebanese border that has been besieged by pro-regime forces since the summer.
“Three civilians, including a pregnant woman and her daughter, were martyred and four other female citizens were injured when regime forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah opened fire on them in the outskirts of Madaya,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday morning.
The monitoring NGO said that a total of five people have died in Madaya the past 24 hours.
“This brought the number of martyrs [killed] in the town since it was surrounded by regime forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to at least 23 as a result of IED explosions, sniper fire or poor health [coupled with] lacking sustenance and necessary medical treatment,” the SOHR added.
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