On Monday morning, Israeli armed forces attacked a delegation from leftist group Progressive International as it deployed to Qusra, Palestine.
As they attended the local olive harvest, delegates were bombarded with tear gas and stun grenades by both settler armed forces and the Israeli army that accompanied them.
Lead delegate and former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau said:
We are dealing with something as simple as harvesting olives. And even this has now been turned into an act of war by the illegal settlers and the army.
For decades, the Palestinian olive harvest has been targeted for violence by illegal Israeli settlers, who have burned entire olive groves to the ground, blocked Palestinians from accessing their land, cut off water access and attacked farmers. In 2023, at least 96,000 dunums of olive-cultivated lands across the Occupied West Bank were left unharvested due to this repression.
In the past year, as Israel commits genocide in the Gaza Strip, this brutality in the occupied West Bank has intensified, as a press release from the group explains:
Less than two weeks before our delegation arrived in Palestine, UN experts demanded Israel stop violent settler attacks on Palestinian farmers that threaten their olive harvest. “If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them,” wrote Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “their oil would become tears.”
In Qusra, our delegation witnessed exactly the kind of systematic violation of international law that they had travelled to Palestine to investigate. “In the West Bank it’s lawlessness,” said Mustafa Barghouti during a meeting with the delegation in Ramallah on Monday. “You have 700 checkpoints and the military can do whatever it likes to the people who pass through them. The settlers have been distributed over 100,000 weapons, and they work day and night to terrorize us: shoot, burn, kill, evict.” Yesterday, these weapons were turned on our delegation as they sought to document the crimes of apartheid.
Meanwhile, as our delegates visited the Balata Refugee camp, the Knesset voted to expel UNRWA from Israel. First hand, our delegates reported how the elimination of UNRWA will starve communities of food, medicine, and education – while Israel accelerates its war on the Palestinian people.
Today, the delegation continues, collecting evidence that will populate its dossier of findings on Israel’s systematic violation of international law. From site visits with local communities to high-level meetings with elected officials, the delegation aims to contribute to the Progressive International’s ongoing efforts to drive legal and diplomatic action toward a total embargo against Israel.
From Palestine, we want to express our gratitude to everyone who has so far supported the delegation with a donation toward its activities.
As it escalates it’s violence in the West Bank, Israel is conducting a campaign of extermination in northern Gaza. Read this and this for the latest updates.
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The Knesset voted to expel UNRWA from Israel on Monday. UNRWA provided the only aid pipeline into Gaza.
Why isn’t the British parliament holding an EMERGENCY SESSION to get aid (clean water, food, medicines, fuel, equipment) INTO GAZA TODAY?
This is an International Emergency, Sir Keir. Please treat it as such.
3 British aid workers already murdered by Israel armed forces.
No problem for British government though.
Tony, they were the “wrong type”, “fake British”. In the same way that Jewish that dare to criticise Israel are the wrong type and fake Jews too.
You’re not wrong Maria. At least three ‘Palestinian medics’ killed by the IDF in Gaza on one day in September, were British in that they had BMA memberships (sure that technically means they were working and were members of the doctors’ trade union as doctors in Britain, not that they were born there).
‘Wrong types of Jews/Palestinians/doctors’ aside, ‘wrong type of politicians’ are the foundational problem here.
Forensic!
There is (or was) discussion in Israel about some
of this. A couple of days after the 7th October attack by Hamas
there was a headline in the “Times of Israel” to the effect that
“Netanyahu has been propping up Hamas for years ..and now
it has blown up in his face”.
Well now it seems that Netanyahu has decided it is better for
him to rely on the support of the Kahanists*** in order to stay in
power.
*** A group eventually banned by the Israeli Government in
the 1990s as a terrorists organisation.
They’re like rabid dogs., attacking anything and everything that isn’t them.
And rabid dogs need exterminating.
What sick bastards these Israelis are !
Fortunately, no all of them. There are some Israelis that are against the invasion of Gaza and Lebanon. The problem is that Israel is censoring such reporting.
I believe over half a million Israeli Jews had left the country since the 6th October 2023 never to return. Taking into consideration that Israel before October 2023 have a population of less than 10 millions with over 20% Arabs and less than 75% Jews, it means that 7.5% of Israel’s Jewish citizens have left Israel, for good.
Were we to translate the figures to the UK and white Anglicans it would mean that nearly 5 millions white British would have left the UK for good.
On top of that, I don’t see any sensible family at this point migrating to Israel to bring up their children there.
Hence, Israel by continuing with these wars and committing genocide is planting the seeds of its own destruction.
Taking into consideration that Israel before October 2023 have a population of less than 10 millions with over 20% Arabs and less than 75% Jews, it means that 7.5% of Israel’s Jewish citizens have left Israel, for good.
A luxury the Palestinians have NOT been afforded. They are the proverbial fish in a barrel.
Not all Palestinians are hamas, but that doesn’t matter to most israeli jews.
According to them, ALL Palestinians are guilty. If there IS a jew/Arab war to come, then (remaining) jews in israel can have ZERO complaint if they’re shown the same courtesy.
Toffee, their is already a war and the war isn’t being waged from the Arab side on all the Jews but rather on Zionists Israelis.
I agree with you that the Zionists are showing not respect for the humanity of the Arabs. But, somehow I believe the Arabs are retaining their humanity despite Israel relentless provocations. An example to it is Hezbollah advising Israeli settlers to evacuate their settlements as they are being used by Israel’s arm forces, rather than launching misiles indiscriminately.
Israel is fucked a moral army full of child baby killers and rapists who at the moment are being beat by Hizbollah and still after 12 months can not beat Hamas, Zionist scum
CH4 news reporting that an israeli tv channel is reporting ceasefire agreement between israel & Lebanon.
…Something about US will oversee peacekeeping/withdrawal by ibf and replacement Lebanese armed forces…
Of course, israeli govt keeping schtum…