http://972mag.com/why-do-so-many-israelis-hate-breaking-the-silence/114763/

But let’s take a look at the accusations against Breaking the Silence one by one:

The first claim, which in my mind is the most important and most critical accusation to refute, is that Breaking the Silence is not credible. The organization’s critics come up with all sorts of reasons why the organization isn’t credible, but there is one rebuttal that is awfully difficult to refute: In the 11 years that Breaking the Silence has collected and published testimonies, there has not been one instance in which a serious error, or a fabrication, has been found in their published testimonies.

That is no insignificant point. That needs to be the heart of the debate. An organization that publishes hundrds of testimonies, which works with more than 1,000 soldiers, which has dealt with very complicated subject matter for 11 years — not a single fabricated published testimony has ever been found. No court of law in any land can boast of such a record. And that is despite a number of attempts to fool the organization by giving them false testimonies. Their researchers and fact-checkers seem to have a perfect record of catching fabrications before publication.

That astounding success is the result of the massive investment Breaking the Silence makes in every single testimony. As the organization’s director of research has written here in the past, every testimony that a soldier or former soldier gives is fact-checked, the background of the incident or testimony is verified along with the identity of the testifier him or herself (and that they are not an aspiring politician looking to make a name for himself), and then the entire testimony is corroborated with any available information — both from other soldiers’ testimonies and open source information. Some of the most hair-raising testimonies collected by Breaking the Silence were never published because the organization could not independently corroborate them. Just imagine if journalists who published attack pieces on the organization applied their strict verification standards to their own work and the malicious things that are said about it.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-officials-netanyahu-myopic-entitled-untrustworthy-disrespectful-of-obama/

A new profile of US Secretary of State John Kerry in The New Yorker casts light on the stormy relationship between the US and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have often clashed publicly over the Iran nuclear deal and the Palestinian conflict but who also routinely refer to each other as friends.

The piece, written by the magazine’s editor in chief, David Remnick, quotes “American officials” who describe Netanyahu as “myopic, entitled, untrustworthy, routinely disrespectful toward the president, and focused solely on short-term political tactics to keep his right-wing constituency in line.”

The piece goes on to describe the “sources of Kerry’s exasperation with Netanyahu.” Quoting State Department aides, it says these “range from the injustice of settlement building in the West Bank to the way he employs Yitzhak Molcho, his lawyer and confidant, to stifle even the most inconsequential negotiation.”

Remnick quotes Kerry as saying that, in 2010, Netanyahu balked at an opportunity to revive the peace process between Israel and Syria, despite assurances from President Bashar Assad that “he was ready to make a deal.”

http://m.jpost.com/#article=6017NTU2Rjg0OTYwODA5QjZGMTI4OUIzNzAyMEI0ODVGQ0Q=

WASHINGTON - A US government agency report has warned that Islamic State has the ability to create fake Syrian passports, a federal official confirmed on Friday.

A spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed the contents of a story by CNN on Friday about the report, but declined to provide a copy of the report.

The report says Islamic State has access to Syrian government passport printing machines and blank passports, raising the possibility the travel documents could be faked, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source.

The CNN source added that there was also concern that because the militant group had access to biographical and fingerprint data on Syrian citizens, there was also a possibility of identity theft.

http://972mag.com/challenging-israeli-impunity-in-the-icc/114659/

As the Israeli judiciary continues to side with the state and its security services, advocates and human rights lawyers must reevaluate the strategy of litigating Palestinian grievances in the occupier’s courts.


Palestinian human rights organizations submitted a classified communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor last month. The information contained will most likely involve the documented targeting of non-military facilities during the 2014 Gaza war. At least 28 schools were damaged or destroyed during the 2014 offensive, according to Human Rights Watch hospitals, medical staff, sewage and electricity plans, and other civil infrastructure were also allegedly targeted.

Such targeting of medical and civilian infrastructure is not limited to Gaza, however. Serious allegations have also been raised about the Israeli army’s conduct in the West Bank in recent months.

Since the start of October 2015, Israeli security forces committed 228 “violations against [Palestinian] medical staff,” according to Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, including 56 cases in which “ambulances were attacked” and 116 cases of assaults against medical staff. Numbers for November from the Palestinian Ministry of Health have not yet been released.

http://972mag.com/jews-cant-be-terrorists-jewish-home-mk-says/114655/

‘When you push an entire population up against the wall, when you demonize them and trample their rights, [the situation] will explode in the end,’ the Israeli parliamentarian writes with no sense of irony.

Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Israel’s ruling coalition, penned an oped on Wednesday arguing that Jews cannot be terrorists. The two labels are mutually exclusive, he argued.

“Terrorism is only violence carried out by our enemies in the framework of a war against us,” Smotrich wrote in settler news outlet Arutz 7, “us” referring to Jews. (Hebrew) “Anything else is a serious crime, a despicable crime, a nationalistic crime, but not terror.”

The context of Smotrich’s article is Israeli authorities’ draconian treatment of the suspects in the arson-murder of the Dawabshe family in Duma earlier this year, which senior politicians have called a “Jewish terrorist” attack. The suspects have been reportedly held in administrative detention, been prevented from meeting with their attorneys, and have subject to pressure in ways that likely violate their civil rights.

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/distortions-diversions-defamations

On November 27, 2015, a meeting was held in downtown Vancouver, Canada under the title “First Nations & Palestinians at the Frontline of Resistance” organized by the Seriously Free Speech Committee and supported by another 10 community groups (of which Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver was one). On the day of the meeting, the local Zionist apologist paper the Jewish Independent ran an editorial “Co-opting history”, full of the Israeli Hasbara 3 D’s – Distortions, Diversions and Defamations.

Their editorial stated: “The obvious intention is to equate the history of colonial settlement in North America, Canada in particular, with the actions of Israel toward Palestinians.”

Wrong. The editorial conveniently refuses to recognize the Zionist project as settler colonialism, and therefore will not acknowledge that the intention was to draw parallels between settler colonialism in North America and Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine, in addition to exposing “the actions of Israel toward Palestinians”.

The editorial went on to claim: “The concept is flawed at its core, of course, because, as the Palestinian narrative often does, it portrays the Jews as colonial occupiers of Arab land, while denying the legitimacy of ancient and modern claims to the Jewish homeland.”

http://www.haaretz.com/settlementdollars/.premium-1.690821

Israel's deputy defense minister and a key U.S. donor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have donated to efforts aimed at re-establishing Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount, a Haaretz investigation has revealed.

The flashpoint site has been at the heart of the violence in the region over the past few months, amid Palestinian claims that Israel is trying to change the status quo at the site, holy to Jews and Muslims.

Netanyahu insists that Israel is committed to the status quo and that claims to the contrary are part of a campaign of incitement. But a Haaretz investigation shows that Netanyahu's deputy defense minister, as well as one of his key donors in the United States have financially supported those who wish to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

The probe reveals for the first time that Deputy Defense Minister  Eli Ben-Dahan donated 50,000 shekels ($12,000) to the Temple Institute, an organization that promotes the construction of the Third Temple.  

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769247

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Malik Akram Shahin, 19, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in Bethlehem overnight Monday, was killed by an explosive bullet fired at his head, medical sources at the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital told Ma'an.

Medics said the explosive bullet smashed Shahin's skull, and exploded inside his head, with the bullet and skull fragments shattering into "hundreds of pieces."

The sources said the positioning of the shot, as well as the type of bullet used, clearly indicates that Israeli forces shot at Shahin with every intention to kill.

The use of explosive bullets, also called expanding bullets or "dum dum" bullets, is illegal under international law, and considered a crime of war under the 1899 Hague Declaration and the International Criminal Court's Rome Statute, among others.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769261

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli municipality officials on Wednesday removed a 12-foot sign depicting a Quranic verse in classic Arabic calligraphy that has been displayed in a Palestinian shopping center outside the Damascus gate in occupied East Jerusalem for more than 30 years, a local shop owner told Ma'an.

Mustafa Abu Zuhra said Israeli municipality workers used a crane to take down the large sign right outside his shop, which read “there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

According to Zuhra, the Israeli officials told locals that the sign was taken down because "it is a symbol of Islam and cannot be displayed."

Zuhra added that sign had stood outside his store for decades and has been properly licensed through the city.

http://972mag.com/trump-is-no-more-racist-than-mainstream-israeli-policy/114613/

Israeli politicians are joining the global pushback against Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim racism. But guess what other country bans Muslim immigration?
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Racism — and various forms of discrimination against Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians — is just as rampant here in Israel as it is inside the Trump camp, if not more so. Except in Israel, racism and ethno-religious discrimination is not only accepted rhetoric in the halls of power and the sidewalk cafes of Tel Aviv, it is also long-standing formal state policy.

Trump called to ban Muslims from entering the United States. In Israel, there is already a law banning Muslims from immigrating — the “Law of Return” which gives that right to Jews alone. Even those who were born here but fled, or whose families lived here for generations upon generations, are forbidden from returning.

The Anti-Defamation League on Monday called Trump’s plan to “bar people from entry to the United States based on their religion” is “deeply offensive and runs contrary to our nation’s deepest values.” Has the ADL ever spoken out against Israel’s Jewish-only immigration law and discriminatory border control policies?