Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, November 24, 2006

Protocols revealed to be true!

Hat tip to Bagelblogger for this video by Rav Shmuel that confirms all of the worst fears of the gentiles.

How could I resist posting this?

Grandma got blown up by her bomb belt

(To the obvious tune....)

Grandma got blown up by her bomb belt
While her grandkids stayed at home and played
She tried to get much closer to the soldiers
But they threw her a tiny stun grenade

She woke up today in Jebaliya
Took her farewell picture with her gun

To liberals she's just another victim
And exactly as militant as a nun

Grandma got blown up by her bomb belt
As she tried to commit genocide
She really hoped she'd be more successful
But happily, only Grandma has died

64 years old was fatal Fatma
Daughter Fatheya somehow 52
Do the math and you'll get some answers
But easier for her to blame the Jews

Grandma got blown up by her bomb belt
As she tried to kill a dozen Jews
You might think that she became a martyr
But now all of the PalArabs lose

Of course Hamas is very proud of Grandma
They said this was meant to be a surprise
The IDF will now make all Pal lives worse
but the liberal media will always sympathize.

Grandma got blown up by her bomb belt
Muslims think this way to heaven leads
But Grandma didn't think quite through her bargain
As she gets screwed by all last year's Shaheeds

PalArab police make an arrest!

In an astonishing development, the members of the Palestinian Arab Police managed to actually arrest someone who committed a murder!

Unlike the many, many PalArabs who died violent deaths over the past several months, who all seem to have been killed by the famous "unknown gunmen," this 13-year old child was killed last Monday by a 15-year old who knifed him to death.

I guess it is a little easier to find the trail of a 15-year old, but hey, this is progress!

What is interesting is that I did not see any mention of this murder in Tulkarem in any of the PalArabic media (nor in the PalArab English media), nor in the unreliable PCHR lists, before today. My death count has not been increasing much lately but this is because no deaths are even being reported (I find it hard to believe that no one was even injured in the orgy of bullets that accompanied the funerals of the 19 victims of the errant Israeli shell.)

It seems that Palarabs killing other PalArabs is now so commonplace, that even the local media doesn't bother to report it. Israelis flying planes over Gaza get mentioned constantly (and even a West Bank "settler" traffic accident that injured two Jewish kids!) but Arab on Arab violence only gets press when it is unusual - like when the PA police actually arrest someone, or if more than three get killed at a time, or if the intended victim is a particularly high-ranking terrorist.

So my death count since late June now stands at only 159, although it is undoubtedly much higher in reality.

UPDATE: 160, as a soccer player was shot and killed by his brother.

UPDATE 2: 161.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 21:00 on Saturday, 25 November 2006, medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared that ‘Ali Saleh Sarsour, 19, from the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah, died from a wound he had sustained on Wednesday evening, 22 November 2006. Sarsour was hit by a live bullet to the head from an unknown source, when he was near his house in Deir al-Balah.

Israeli Arabs upset over Jews - in the Negev

If you think that it is only the Arabs in other countries that are trying as hard as they can to stop Jews from living anywhere in the Middle East, think again.

I stumbled onto an Arabic site of Negev Arabs which seems very similar to other Arabic sites, although the news is of course Negev-focused. Here is an article where they had a symposium on how to fight Israel's desire to "Judaize" the Negev. The translation is tortuous, but here are some highlights:

The call for the adoption of a strategy to counter the Israeli plots to judaize the Negev

· call researchers to develop practical solutions to the issues of the Negev and not only put problems

· warning of the role of funds and associations working in the Negev to serve their own purposes

· Call to consolidate the prestige of religion in the soul, and rooted in the ground, and not silence before the ruling

Sheikh Ali Abu-century official Islamic Movement in the Negev, said in a speech to a call by the President of the portrayal. He said that the institutionalization of this call to include researchers from the Negev and in the interior in order to educate parents in the Negev on the hinterland of civilization.

He said Sheikh Ali Abu century that the Judaization of the Negev was the dream of Israeli institution since its founding, it wanted to seize the Arab community in the Negev from the rest of the people at home. The isolated from the cultural affiliation of the Palestinian people. was the Islamic awakening in the 1970s, which fell in the blood of the people of the Negev and stopped this dream.

His, The company tried on the ground in the Negev from their rightful owners, through most of unjust laws that came to the plundering of the land using Bazana security and the military.
He said that the Negev in a race with the institution and their crews, and if he wins the Judaization of the Negev will lose the Arab and Islamic world to the Negev area between Egypt and Gaza in the south in the west, Jordan in the east and north of the Levant.

Pieceing this together we see that there is a clear Islamist movement for Israeli Arabs in the Negev, and that at least these people consider themselves more a part of the Arab world than as Israelis.

It appears that they are reacting to Sharon's call last year to pour $3.6 billion into the Negev over 10 years. They see it as a threat because more Jews would move there.

Which means that the Arab world is already looking past any full Israeli withdrawal to the 1948 armistice lines and readying themselves for the next battle - to try to annex the Negev (and the Galilee) to Arab Palestine.

The Negev newspaper, Akhbarna, looks like it is worth watching to see the fifth column in action.

"Peace activists" for terrorism

Very little can show the moral corruption of "peace activists" than this picture:

Father Peter Dougherty, 65, and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck, 55, both Michigan-based peace activists, sit on the roof top of the house of Mohammed Weil Baroud, leader of the Popular Resistance Committees that Israel targeted for destruction, in Beit Layiha, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006. They are the first foreigners to join a week-long standoff between Palestinian 'human shields' and the Israeli air force. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

See the smiling "peace activists" in front of posters of people with submachine guns and other known terrorists.

See them happily talking with people who want to see the terror groups continue to kill Jews with impunity.

Sister Mary Ellen told Ynet, “We are here to find out the truth and to be with the family and these people, who are trying to prevent the demolition of a home where an entire family lives.”

The Sister continued, “We are against any type of violence, whether from the Palestinian side or the Israeli side, but we are here to be with a family that may have their house bombed and demolished because of the claim that one or two members are involved in violence.”

See how they claim to be even-handed yet they will never visit Sderot and sit in solidarity with the families there under constant threat from rockets.

See how they say that the idea that the head of a terror group, with dozens of documented attacks against civilians, is involved in violence is only a "claim."

See how AP calls these people, who are knowingly and happily promoting a terror agenda, "peace activists."

Iranian obsessions with Zionism

Iran's state-run press always has lots of vitriol towards Israel, of course, but it is fascinating to see how they manage to throw the word "Zionism" into every single article that criticizes anything happening anywhere in the world.

These examples are all from only the past few hours:

209 MPs condemn sacrilege to Islamic sanctities in Azerbaijan
The Zionist mercenaries infiltrated into Azeri press to promote anti-Islam movements such as publishing an offensive article in in Azeri press against the Islamic ideology and the great prophet.

Speaker Criticizes Canada for Following US
"To distinguish the nature of the said resolution, it suffices to remember the ignorant behavior and inaction of the Untied States, Canada and other western countries in the face of the daily crimes committed by the Zionist regime."

French statement on Lebanon inconsistent with realities, Hosseini
"The Lebanese nation are mature enough to distinguish true way for national sovereignty without any trans-regional interference, and do not accept to endanger their political fate, independence, sovereignty and national unity in favor of the Zionist regime's interests," he noted.

Supreme Leader: Haj, an occasion to reinforce Muslim solidarity
Elaborating on 'disavowal of infidels', the Supreme Leader said that the enemies regard Islam as the major obstacle hindering them from dominating the Islamic nations and plundering their wealth.

"They go ahead with their arrogant and Zionist methodology in dealing with Muslims. So, the Haj pilgrimage is an opportunity for the Muslims to display their objection to them. It is an occasion for the Muslims to do so," the Supreme Leader said.

Iran denounces repeated human rights violation in Canada, US
She specifically condemned the Zionist regime's continuing disregard of basic human rights recognized by peoples all over the world as shown in its air assault this month on Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip which claimed 19 Palestinian lives.

Even though the Iranian regime is obviously very dangerous, this single-minded obsession has got to come at the expense of taking care of their own people. As the expression goes, "all politics is local," and you can be sure that the Iranian people are not happy with a government that ignores their needs while it screams about Zionist crimes all day.

What the PalArab "intelligentsia" is saying in Arabic

This is well-trod ground but it is worth repeating, because most of Israel's "friends" are so convinced that all the Palestinian Arabs want are "the territories," or that the only people who are talking about the destruction of Israel are the Islamist crazies but not the secular, intellectual Palestinian Arab mainstream.

This is from an op-ed in Falasteen by a Dr. Issam Shawar. The main part of the article is talking about how the Qassam rockets are demoralizing the Zionists (showing that every article in the Hebrew press that complains about the situation is interpreted as a victory for the PalArabs,) but the final paragraph says (autotranslated):

In the end, the Beni Zion should be aware that the cessation of rockets and stop the resistance is not only a truce with the Palestinian People, truce allows for the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders on 67 areas without recognizing the legitimacy of occupation of any inch of Palestinian land. then they can enjoy a quiet and time to Mlfathm and corruption. For us live in freedom and dignity and peace, to build a nation and a quarter of other things.

As usual the translation is a little muddied but what is very clear is that even the "moderate" PalArabs only look at any state in the territories as a temporary stop on the way to the destruction of all of Israel.

A token Saudi gesture - a little too late

WAFA reports (in Arabic only) that Saudi Arabia is building 300 apartments in Rafah for Palestinian Arabs :

Saudi National Commission for Relief (of) Palestinian people today (said) it is building 300 housing units in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The Palestinian families affected, and under an agreement signed with the United Nations Development Program (Undp) for the construction of 600 housing units in Palestine, in order to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people due to Israeli aggression.

Later on we see the cost:

The Saudi National Commission for Relief Palestinian people. on the basis of the agreement signed with the United Nations Development Program to convert the first installment, which represents 30% of the total value of the project and amount (3.286.216) dollar.

Each unit is over 1000 square feet, so the Saudis can house hundreds of families at about $30,000 each.

This is all very nice.

Now, can someone explain why no Arab countries considered it necessary to build permanent housing for their beloved brethren in 1949, or 1956, or 1967?

Can someone explain why, with their billions of petrodollars, Saudi Arabia is now building only 300 units now?

Can someone explain why the second anniversary of Yasir Arafat's death is being celebrated when he stole billions of dollars, which at this rate could have built tens of thousands of permanent homes for his people?

Can someone explain why Suha Arafat was staying in a hotel in Paris at the rate of $16,000 a night, when for each two nights she could have built a new house?

Can someone explain why the Saudis are saying that they are now helping the Palestinian Arabs in the face of Israeli aggression - and why they didn't think they needed housing help before this?

Can someone explain why of the millions that are being smuggled into Gaza in suitcases, none of it is going to build houses - and most of it is going towards weapons?

Now, let's turn around the assumptions. Let's assume that instead of helping Palestinian Arabs, the other Muslim nations are more interested in destroying Israel. Part of that is accomplished by deliberately keeping Palestinian Arabs in dire straits so that they don't get too comfortable or too happy, so they wouldn't accept any compromises for peace. A small part is accomplished by paying token amounts to a very small number of the PalArabs, claiming that it was being done because of "Israeli aggression" even though their being homeless has nothing to do with any Israeli actions unless they are terrorists themselves. (Or perhaps these houses are truly meant for the terrorists who se homes were blown up in Israeli airstrikes or work accidents, and this way the Saudis can reward Palestinian Arabs who try to kill Jews.)

Does it all add up, now?

17-year old PalArabs play with toy guns

In another breathless report aimed at showing how evil Israelis are, the "International Middle East Media Center" reports:

17-year-old Rakan al-Nusairat was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers Monday evening near Jericho checkpoint. According to eyewitnesses, the boy had a plastic gun in his hand when he was shot.

IMEMC is of course not giving all the details:

An IDF reservist force has shot and killed a 17 year-old Palestinian Monday at a checkpoint north of Jericho after he drew a pistol at the soldiers. A preliminary investigation of the incident revealed that the gun was a toy gun made out of metal.

An IDF investigation revealed that the youth arrived at the checkpoint in a vehicle, walked towards the checkpoint and spoke to the local commander, telling him he wants to travel to the village of Udga. He then turned around and drew the pistol at the soldiers. One of the soldiers shot at him and killed him on the spot. The IDF is reporting that the toy pistol is identical in its shape to a real pistol.

Even if the IMEMC account is accurate, how many 17-year olds do you know that still play with toy guns? How many of those would specifically show one off at a military checkpoint?

This was a obviously a case of "suicide by cop" where someone does something specifically to get shot and killed. Whether the young man was depressed (Islam prohibits suicide, and being killed by Israelis means "martyrdom" and paradise,) or whether he was conned into his actions by a more cynical terror leader who wants to maximize PalArab "child" casualties, we'll never know. But what is clear is that the IDF acted properly and that the terrorist apologists will use this case as a means of demonizing Israel - and one can be sure they will never mention the entire context.

Islamic definition of "co-existence"

Al-Hayat has a self-congratulatory article on a conference celebrating the co-existence of three major religions in Nablus.

Which religions would those be, you might ask?

Why, Islam, Christianity and Samaritanism, of course!

Islamic figures and Christian and Samaritan confirm that the Nablus model of coexistence between religions

Here's one example of that co-existence from the autotranslated article:

The conference started with a recitation of verses from the holy Koran and then stand and read the beginning for the souls of the martyrs. He welcomed Majid Katana Director of the Office of the Information Ministry in Nablus, which guided the work of the Conference. attendees pointed to the importance of holding this conference in such circumstances that need to be a coming together of all the sons of the Palestinian people in their various sects and political affiliations.

Somehow, this conference of tolerance does not seem to have included any readings from the New Testament or the Samaritan Bible.

It also doesn't seem to extend to the Palestinian Jews, who lived in the ancient Biblical city of Shechem which is what Nablus used to be called. More evidence of this "co-existence" can be seen from when the tolerant Muslim Palestinian Arabs sacked the Jewish shrine of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus in October, 2000.

Let's look a little deeper at this model of cooperation and tolerance in Nablus.

Just last September, four churches in Nablus were attacked and firebombed, and Muslims shot bullets into at least one of them, in the wake of the Pope comments. The initial reaction from Melkite Father Youssef Saadeh, the parish priest, was that "Christians were no longer safe and would not be able to live in Nablus if the situation continued."

Supreme dhimmi Saadeh quickly backtracked two days later, though:

However, in a Sept. 18 telephone interview, Father Saadeh made light of the situation, saying things were quiet, although it was impossible to know what would happen.

Father Saadeh skirted a question about fear that the attacks had instilled in the Christian community and instead pointed out that Muslim religious leaders and municipal leaders had visited Christian churches to signify solidarity.

"Now we want to be strong and quiet," said Father Saadeh. "We don't know how it will be in the future, but like all people Muslims and Christians hope (the problems) are finished here."

It is also notable that the Christian population in Nablus has decreased from 10,000 when it was under Israeli control to less than a thousand today. (Hilariously, the article linked to here blames Israeli checkpoints for this mass flight of Christians. Somehow, the Christians must be the only ones affected.)

So the idea of Muslim tolerance for other religions is becoming clearer: as long at the Muslims are the overwhelming majority, and as long as members of the other religions behave like proper dhimmis and don't complain about being sirebombed and shot at, and as long as you overlook the second-class status of other religions and the unwelcoming environment that forces their members to flee, and as long as the other religion isn't Judaism (or an infidel religion like Hinduism), then Islam is quite tolerant and willing to co-exist.

Amazing article from a Tunisian philosopher (MEMRI)

A Tunisian philosopher, Mezri Haddad, wrote an article last January on his blog that trashes Islamism today and talks about the need for reform. Here's most of what MEMRI quoted:

"The young Iranian president's deliberately outrageous, mortifying, and extremist [statements] aiming at Holocaust denial have provoked stupor and indignation everywhere in the world, with the quite symptomatic exception of the Islamic countries... This deafening silence cannot be explained solely by the fear of suffering from terrorist attacks, as in the heyday of Khomeinist obscurantism. It is also explained by the necessity of getting along with Arab public opinion, which, after years of galvanization by the most reactionary forms of nationalist casuistry and Islamist dogmatism, has found in antisemitism the perfect catalyst for all its narcissistic wounds and social, economic, and political frustrations.

"It must be admitted that some Koranic verses, intentionally isolated from their historical context, have contributed even more to the anchoring of antisemitic stereotypes in Arab-Muslim mentalities. Incidentally, one could say the same about the New Testament, certain passages of which served, in the distant past and the not-so-distant past, to give a theological patina to the most abominable of anti-Jewish persecutions. The Church had to carry out its own 'aggiornamento'... in order to deprive Christian extremists of any evangelical legitimacy.

"All this is to say that the petrifaction of Arab-Muslim mentalities is not at all irremediable - provided that Islamic thinkers show intellectual audacity. Since they cannot purge the Koran of its potentially antisemitic dross, they must closely examine this corpus with hermeneutical reasoning...

"If the West's indignation [at Ahmadinejad's statements] is perfectly understandable and justified, their stupor shows, on the other hand, a certain credulity in their very conception of the Iranian regime. Those who were surprised by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's heinous stigmatizations are the very same people who - distinguishing between the regime and the people who comprise it, and swallowing the fable that there are 'moderate' Islamists and 'extremist' Islamists - have long believed in the normalization of the Islamic Republic [of Iran] and in its ineluctable democratization. As Jesus said [John 20:29], 'Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed'...

"It is true that this rehabilitation of the fundamentalist Iranian regime was possible only following the irruption, on September 11, 2001, of a new, mutant form of the most extreme kind of Islamism: Al-Qaeda and its macabre cortege of candidates for martyrdom... Bin Laden's triumph, his true miracle, consists in not only having given a civilized appearance to hideous theocracies, but also in having given a human, or even humanist, face to neo-fascist movements who aspire to power: Hamas in Palestine... Hizbullah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and their alter egos everywhere in the Arab world...

"Like amnesiacs, no one wanted anymore to remember on what ideological substratum this Shiite theocracy rested... What was forgotten was that Islamism - this theocratic, fundamentally totalitarian, and clearly antisemitic ideology -... is doctrinally inalterable. ...

"It is because people for so long believed in the illusion of an Islamism one can live with... that they had recourse to every possible and imaginable ratiocination in order to make sense of the Iranian president's fundamentally antisemitic diatribes. In this anatomy of anathema, every analytical tool was employed... [but] one has to go back to the original purity of the Khomeini's doctrine in order to understand the congenital antisemitism of the current Iranian president...

"On August 30, 1979, Khomeini declared at Qom: 'Those who demand democracy want to drag the country into corruption and ruin. They are worse than the Jews. They should be hanged. They are not men...' In his pamphlet 'Political, Philosophical, Social, and Religious Principles,' he reproduced all of the stereotypes propounded by Islamist rhetoric...: 'The Jews, may God lay them low, have manipulated the editions of the Koran... These Jews and their supporters have a project to destroy Islam and to establish a Jewish world government.' Whence this categorical imperative: 'Israel, this cancerous tumor, must disappear, and the Jews must be damned and fought until the end of time.'

"But in the meantime, Ayatollah Khomeini could beg Israel for arms and military assistance in order to resist the Iraqi invasion. We can thus easily guess from whom Rafsanjani, Khatami, and the other emblematic figures of 'enlightened Islamism' derived their cynical pragmatism!

"Therefore one should stop viewing the Iranian regime with naive eyes, as some people perpetuate the myth of an opposition between 'reformists' and 'conservatives,' which, while it expresses a real - but utilitarian -political nuance, does not, however, imply a doctrinal antagonism. One cannot reform a theocracy; one must throw it back into the wastebasket of history, from which it never should have cropped up [in the first place].

"In Iran, and in general in the Muslim world, the line of demarcation does not pass between 'moderate' Islamists and 'extremist' Islamists, but rather between theocrats and democrats, between fundamentalists and secularists, between those who have reduced the Koran to a case of nauseating antisemitism and those who, having seized the spirit and put the letter in perspective, know that Jews, like Christians, are Muslims' brothers in monotheism and in humanity, and that the Muslims' God is much more tolerant than the Islamists' divinity..."

When a "neocon" says things like this, he is labeled a bigot by the enlightened Left. What do these oh-so-nuanced people say when the criticism comes from within?

Perhaps that Haddad is a self-hating Muslim?

Like, crazy, man

From September 22, 1967:

Geneva contradicts itself and defends terror

Looking more closely at what the Geneva Conventions have to say about human shields, we can see the specific source that deals with it, in Protocol I, Article 51, Sections 7 and 8 - two sections that contradict each other.

7. The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations.

8. Any violation of these prohibitions shall not release the Parties to the conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian population and civilians, including the obligation to take the precautionary measures provided for in Article 57.

Which means that by illegally putting human shields in place, the violators effectively do "render certain points or areas immune from military operations."

So once again we see how international law can itself turn into a weapon that international law is ill-equipped to combat. Not only that, but it is clear that the international community will only hold Israel to its obligations under Geneva, and not the PA.

As far as whether civilians who voluntarily enter the field of battle lose their protected status or their status as civilians, it seems not. Unless they put on uniforms or take weapons with them it appears that they remain legally civilians. This confers a huge advantage to a combatant that ignores Geneva, as the PA regularly does. The chances that the UN will penalize the PA, or that the World Court will try Hamas for violations of international law, are remote.

I would argue that this is a textbook case where the law is not on the side of morality. Geneva hamstrings any parties that abide by it and aids those who willfully ignore it. In this case, it is accomplishing the polar opposite of its purpose. And the biased position of the international community ensures the immoral outcome of this imbalance.

An Elder D'var Torah

A number of years ago, I was on a business trip and I had to spend Shabbat Toldot in Overland Park, KS with a very nice family. During the Shabbos table conversation someone asked:

"How could Yitzchak have been so stupid as to like Eisav better than Yaakov?"

The question bothered me and I spent the rest of Shabbos thinking about it. (By the time I came up with one, of course, no one was around to listen.) So here it is:

Even though Yitzchak is spoken about the least of all the Avot, we do know enough about him to glean parts of his personality. Clearly the defining event of his life was the Akeidah, a profoundly spiritual experience. We also know that he spent time meditating outdoors, as when he first saw Rivka he was praying outside. He also was a very accomplished farmer, with G-d granting him unimaginable yields on his crops.

Looking at these examples, it appears that Yitzchak associated spirituality with the outdoors.

Now, look at the initial description of Eisav - Eisav is described as being "a man of the fields," an Ish Sadeh.

A Sadeh is the specific word that described Yitzchak's place of prayer, as well as the place that his father went to considerable trouble to purchase a burial ground for Sarah (the "s'dei Ephron." )

In other words, when given a choice of a son who spends his time outdoors and one who is seemingly a "bookworm" staying in tents, Yitzchak would tend to assume that the "man of the field" is a more likely spiritual heir than Yaakov. Especially since Eisav is the first born.

In other words, Yitzchak could not even imagine a person who could spend time outside and not be a spiritual person. To him, the field was where G-d primarily manifested Himself and it was obvious tht anyone who spent time with nature would see things the same way!

Further proof to this can be seen when Yitzchak is speaking to Yaakov who is pretending to be Eisav:
וַיֹּאמֶר, רְאֵה רֵיחַ בְּנִי, כְּרֵיחַ שָׂדֶה, אֲשֶׁר בֵּרְכוֹ השם
"See, the smell of my son is like the smell of the field that G-d has blessed."

To Yitzchak, the concept of "field" and "G-d" were intertwined. And to a man like this, it seemed clear that Eisav, the man of the field, was the chosen heir.

Perhaps only when he was faced with the juxtaposition of experiencing Yaakov speaking of G-d while smelling of the fields, immediately followed by Eisav's entrance without the reference to G-d, did he realize that his assumption that men of the field had to be spiritual was incorrect. With this realization he reiterated the blessing for Yaakov, later on to add to Yaakov another blessing of "bechira", of being the chosen son to carry on in the ways of Avraham.

What's the big deal about some explosives?

The PalArabic Al-Ayyam has an article complaining about Israel closing a checkpoint for a few hours. Here's how it describes it (autotranslated):

the occupation forces closed Beit Iba checkpoint place at the western entrance to Nablus. The Hawara checkpoint primarily at the southern entrance of the city, yesterday, they have prevented the entry and exit of citizens for more than three hours. so detained thousands of citizens, staff and students, the pretext was found in possession of explosive materials on one of the young men as he was leaving the city through Hawara checkpoint.

What a stupid pretext to close a checkpoint! In PalArab culture, carrying explosives is no more serious than carrying cigarettes; those Zionist occupiers are just looking for an excuse to humiliate us again!