Israel cracks down on Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza By SAM McNEIL November 24, 2024 https://apnews.com/article/israel-g...sent-protest-849cc9250534b5bae98cea89e6f4d35e UMM AL-FAHM, Israel (AP) — Israel’s yearlong crackdown against Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza is prompting many to self-censor out of fear of being jailed and further marginalized in society, while some still find ways to dissent — carefully. Ahmed Khalefa’s life turned upside down after he was charged with inciting terrorism for chanting in solidarity with Gaza at an anti-war protest in October 2023. Israel’s yearlong crackdown against Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza is prompting many to self-censor out of fear of being jailed and further marginalized in society, while some still find ways to dissent — carefully. (AP Video by Sam McNeil) The lawyer and city counselor from central Israel says he spent three difficult months in jail followed by six months detained in an apartment. It’s unclear when he’ll get a final verdict on his guilt or innocence. Until then, he’s forbidden from leaving his home from dusk to dawn. Khalefa is one of more than 400 Palestinian citizens of Israel who, since the start of the war in Gaza, have been investigated by police for “incitement to terrorism” or “incitement to violence,” according to Adalah, a legal rights group for minorities. More than half of those investigated were also criminally charged or detained, Adalah said. Palestinian citizens of Israel march against Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean “Israel made it clear they see us more as enemies than as citizens,” Khalefa said in an interview at a cafe in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm, Israel’s second-largest Palestinian city. Israel has roughly 2 million Palestinian citizens, whose families remained within the borders of what became Israel in 1948. Among them are Muslims and Christians, and they maintain family and cultural ties to Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967. Israel says its Palestinian citizens enjoy equal rights, including the right to vote, and they are well-represented in many professions. However, Palestinians are widely discriminated against in areas like housing and the job market. Israeli authorities have opened more incitement cases against Palestinian citizens during the war in Gaza than in the previous five years combined, Adalah’s records show. Israeli authorities have not said how many cases ended in convictions and imprisonment. The Justice Ministry said it did not have statistics on those convictions. Just being charged with incitement to terrorism or identifying with a terrorist group can land a suspect in detention until they’re sentenced, under the terms of a 2016 law. In addition to being charged as criminals, Palestinians citizens of Israel — who make up around 20% of the country’s population — have lost jobs, been suspended from schools and faced police interrogations posting online or demonstrating, activists and rights watchdogs say. It’s had a chilling effect. Ahmed Khalefa, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who is charged with incitement to terrorism for demonstrating against the war in Gaza, poses for a portrait at home in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) “Anyone who tries to speak out about the war will be imprisoned and harassed in his work and education,” said Oumaya Jabareen, whose son was jailed for eight months after an anti-war protest. “People here are all afraid, afraid to say no to this war.” Jabareen was among hundreds of Palestinians who filled the streets of Umm al-Fahm earlier this month carrying signs and chanting political slogans. It appeared to be the largest anti-war demonstration in Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. But turnout was low, and Palestinian flags and other national symbols were conspicuously absent. In the years before the war, some protests could draw tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israel. Authorities tolerated the recent protest march, keeping it under heavily armed supervision. Helicopters flew overhead as police with rifles and tear gas jogged alongside the crowd, which dispersed without incident after two hours. Khalefa said he chose not to attend. Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s far-right government moved quickly to invigorate a task force that has charged Palestinian citizens of Israel with “supporting terrorism” for posts online or protesting against the war. At around the same time, lawmakers amended a security bill to increase surveillance of online activity by Palestinians in Israel, said Nadim Nashif, director of the digital rights group 7amleh. These moves gave authorities more power to restrict freedom of expression and intensify their arrest campaigns, Nashif said. Border Police stand guard as Palestinian citizens of Israel march against Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) The task force is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hard-line national security minister who oversees the police. His office said the task force has monitored thousands of posts allegedly expressing support for terror organizations and that police arrested “hundreds of terror supporters,” including public opinion leaders, social media influencers, religious figures, teachers and others. “Freedom of speech is not the freedom to incite ... which harms public safety and our security,” his office said in a statement. But activists and rights groups say the government has expanded its definition of incitement much too far, targeting legitimate opinions that are at the core of freedom of expression. Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel protest Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip, in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Women hold Arabic placards that read, "Gaza children deserve life," left, and "stop shedding innocent blood," as Palestinian citizens of Israel march against Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip, in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Lawmaker Ahmad Tibi, fifth from left, joins Palestinian citizens of Israel in a march against Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Myssana Morany, a human rights attorney at Adalah, said Palestinian citizens have been charged for seemingly innocuous things like sending a meme of a captured Israeli tank in Gaza in a private WhatsApp group chat. Another person was charged for posting a collage of children’s photos, captioned in Arabic and English: “Where were the people calling for humanity when we were killed?” The feminist activist group Kayan said over 600 women called its hotline because of blowback in the workplace for speaking out against the war or just mentioning it unfavorably. Over the summer, around two dozen anti-war protesters in the port city of Haifa were only allowed to finish three chants before police forcefully scattered the gathering into the night. Yet Jewish Israelis demanding a hostage release deal protest regularly — and the largest drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of Tel Aviv. Khalefa, the city counselor, is not convinced the crackdown on speech will end, even if the war eventually does. He said Israeli prosecutors took issue with slogans that broadly praised resistance and urged Gaza to be strong, but which didn’t mention violence or any militant groups. For that, he said, the government is trying to disbar him, and he faces up to eight years in prison. “They wanted to show us the price of speaking out,” Khalefa said. Ahmed Khalefa, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who is charged with incitement to terrorism for demonstrating against the war in Gaza, is seen at home in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) ___ Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Illean in Umm al-Fahm, and Drew Callister in New York, contributed to this report.
Just Hamas killing more hostages. Of course, they will try to blame this on Israeli airstrikes but the victims are usually found executed with a bullet to the head at close range -- which is why they call Hamas terrorists. Hamas armed wing says Israeli woman captive killed in north Gaza Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said a woman captive had been killed in north Gaza, where the Israeli army was operating. https://www.newarab.com/news/hamas-armed-wing-says-israeli-woman-captive-killed-north-gaza
Yeah, none of what you say is what the link says, as usual, @gwb-trading distorts the facts. The link says nothing about Hamas killed the hostage. The link says nothing about a bullet to the head. @gwb-trading a true troll! Hamas's armed wing said on Saturday an Israeli woman taken captive during the October 2023 attack had been killed in northern Gaza, but Israel's military said it could not "confirm or refute" the claim. Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said contact had been restored with the woman's captors after a break of several weeks, and it was established that the captive had been killed in an area of north Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating. Abu Obeida's statement did not further identify the captive or say how or when she was killed. The Israeli army said in a statement it was examining the information after Hamas "released footage allegedly showing a captive who had been killed". It added: "At this stage, we cannot confirm or refute it. (Army) representatives are in contact with her family and are keeping them updated with all available information."
There is article after article available where Hamas is claiming an Israeli airstrike killed this hostage. Many times previously Hamas made this claim and the bodies of the hostages are found with bullets to the head at close range execution style. This is likely just another instance of this. Maybe you need to go read the news before you claim others are distorting the facts. The news here is very clear and has been widely reported across many outlets. Once again Hamas is claiming an Israeli airstrike has killed the hostage -- over and over again previously this has been proven to be false. In this case -- it is likely to be proven to be yet another Hamas lie as well. Hamas says female captive killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024...ive-killed-in-israeli-strike-in-northern-gaza IDF Investigating Hamas Claims That Israeli Hostage Killed in Airstrike in Gaza Army says there is no way to verify the image of a dead body released by Hamas at this stage. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...-in-gaza/00000193-5a60-d598-a5fb-fee413000000 Israel investigating after Hamas releases photos purportedly showing body of female hostage https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/24/middleeast/israel-hamas-says-hostage-dead-intl-latam/index.html Hamas says Israeli female hostage killed in north Gaza area hit by Israel https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...led-north-gaza-area-hit-by-israel-2024-11-23/
Theodor Meron is not currently an ICC judge. He stepped down in 2021. He currently is 94 years old. From the sidelines as an advisor for the prosecutor, Meron has advocated for the arrest of both Israeli and Hamas leaders -- but he is not a judge on the case. The chief prosecutor on the Israel/Hamas ICC case is Karim Khan.
The policy of the Trump administration is that ALL the Palestinians in the West Bank need to be removed. These West Bank Palestinians are quite right to fear more evictions. Just remember their fellow Muslims in the U.S. supported getting Trump into office. ‘They came and demolished everything’: Palestinians fear more evictions in the West Bank under Trump https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/25/middleeast/west-bank-evictions-trump-intl-cmd/index.html
America's evolution into fascism...... Special counsel Jack Smith to drop all felony federal charges against Trump By Chris Benson Nov. 25, 2024 Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Special counsel Jack Smith has now moved to drop all felony charges against President-elect Donald Trump in connection to his alleged role in seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which lead to the deadly Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, and a supposed mishandling of classified documents. "The government's position on the merits of the defendant's prosecution has not changed," the special counsel's office wrote Monday in its filing. "But the circumstances have." Recently, Smith indicated his intent to wrap up the two ongoing criminal cases against Trump and to then resign with his team before Inauguration Day on January 20. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung says Monday's decision by the special counsel ends the "unconstitutional federal cases" against Trump, characterizing it as a "major victory for the rule of law." Donald Trump to discharge all 15,000 transgender personnel from US military An act would "medically discharge" around 15,000 active personnel as unfit to serve, despite a recruitment crisis within the US's military forces, according to reports By Dale Fox US President-elect Donald Trump is planning to discharge all service transgender members of the US military when he returns to the White House, according to reports. The Times reported that Trump will implement an executive order on his first day in office that would “medically discharge” around 15,000 active service members as unfit to serve, while also banning future transgender enlistments. The proposed move comes at a time when the US military is facing significant recruitment challenges, with most branches falling short of their targets. Rachel Branaman, executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, argued that such a ban would “undermine the readiness of the military” and deepen its recruitment crisis. Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, has previously supported the measure. Hegseth, a former National Guard major and Fox News host, has criticised the military’s focus on diversity and inclusion.