IS YOUTUBE FINALLY PREPARED TO SHOW THE TRUTH?

An increase in the activities in Occupied East Jerusalem has apparently sparked enough interest throughout the world for YouTube to agree not to pull the videos off the Web. Could we be seeing an end to their zionist censorship? Let’s hope so…..

The (Sheikh Jarrah) revolution will be YouTubed

By ABE SELIG

Social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are playing an increasing role in growing participation of young Israelis in protest rallies.

Social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with a slew of blogs, are playing an increasing role in the growing participation of young Israelis in protest rallies in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, activists and journalists familiar with the situation there told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Activists and journalists both described a situation in which protesters were relying on the Internet to try and affect change on the ground and raise awareness of the arrests made during demonstrations in the neighborhood.

“It’s all Facebook, e-mails and Twitter,” said Didi Remez, a human rights activist, who has become noticeably involved in the Sheikh Jarrah protests as of late. Remez was arrested during a protest there last Friday.

Below is one example of a recent video not pulled from YouTube… (my comment)

Remez also said that distant audiences, like American Jews, who might be deprived of Sheikh Jarrah coverage due to the mainstream media’s lack of interest, were instead staying abreast of the situation via social networking sites.

“The American media is for some reason refusing to cover this,” he said. “Even though it’s becoming a major issue in Israel. And still, despite that, there’s a lot of awareness [of this issue] among Jewish Americans, the reason being that they are increasingly connected through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on.”

“They’re getting information on this without The New York Times,” Remez continued. “So, something that hasn’t been covered at all by the [American] mainstream media, is still getting coverage through new media, and I think that’s a statement about the decline of the mainstream media and maybe a larger comment on the shift away from it.”

Others echoed Remez’s comments, but added that another advantage of social media was its ability to counter police statements about Sheikh Jarrah they said the mainstream media often parroted.

“This is an issue that the media hasn’t really been covering, and when they have, they’ve mostly relied on police statements that portrayed the protesters as a handful of extreme leftists or anarchists, which is simply not true,” said Lisa Goldman, a Tel-Aviv based freelance journalist who has used Facebook, Twitter and blogs to follow the Sheikh Jarrah protests.

“What the social media outlets have been able to provide is a direct source of information that isn’t filtered through the mainstream media,” she said, adding that in this vein, the use of new media had been “absolutely crucial.”

Additionally, Goldman added, social media outlets had also served as a tool to awaken the mainstream Left to the goings-on in Sheikh Jarrah, including, but not limited to, the emerging issue of police behavior towards protesters there, which the Jerusalem Magistrate Court has even censured – ruling last week that the arrests of 17 protesters during a rally two weeks ago was illegal.

“The silent Israeli Left is finally waking up,” she said. “And it’s a result of the way some young people are using social media. It’s been very effective in raising awareness among the moderate Left, who are seeing that the police are suppressing free speech.”

Goldman also pointed to the participation in last Friday’s rally of Prof. Moshe Halbertal, who helped draft the IDF code of ethics and who has been active in disputing the United Nation’s Goldstone Report, as an example of figures who would certainly not be considered extreme, but who have joined the Sheikh Jarrah fray.

Hagai El-Ad, the director of the Association for Human Rights in Israel and one of the 17 protesters arrested two weeks ago, added that the use of new media to circumvent the mainstream media, which, he said, was often “reluctant to cover hard issues, or blatantly hostile,” was spreading rapidly.

“However, it’s not just new media [at play in Sheikh Jarrah],” he said. “I think there’s a need to [step back] from the tactics being used there, and zoom in on the core issue, which is the moral outrage of Jerusalemite families being thrown out of their homes and living in tents in the street. That’s the essential injustice here, and I think it’s a fuel of its own.”

Yet El-Ad did concede that the use of new media was a driving force behind the success of the Sheikh Jarrah protest organizers.

“They are a courageous group of young people, who are functioning without any real budget or resources,” he said. “But they are cleverly online, and they’ve been able to translate that into real movement on the ground – it’s not just a Facebook group that people add their names too.”

“Yes, the mobilization happens online,” El-Ad added, “but the end result is the most classic form of civil protest.”

Source

SOLDIERS LOOK ON AS SETTLERS CONTINUE TO TERRORIZE

Judeo-Nazi settlers rampage through West Bank, IOF looks on

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

Nazi-minded Jewish settlers continued to rampage throughout the West Bank, terrorizing unprotected Palestinian citizens and vandalizing their property. Settler leaders, mostly rabbis erudite in Jewish law or Halacha, had ruled that it was permissible to attack Palestinians and their property in order to protest token government decisions to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in some parts of the occupied territories. In the West Bank villages of Jourtel Shama’a and Um Salmouna near Bethlehem Jewish settlers carrying automatic rifles on Sunday cut off and then set on fire as many as 50 grown olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers. The farmers, including owners of the destroyed trees, charged that the Israeli occupation army did nothing to stop the settlers. “The settlers and the occupation army soldiers are the same. The settlers do their dirty work, and the soldiers look on, that is all” said one farmer. “Those who tell you that the settlers are committing their crimes in spite of the army are liars. There is a total tacit coordination between the two sides.” Religious settlers indoctrinated in Jewish supremacy believe that Palestine was given to them by God and are convinced that non-Jews have no right to live in the land unless they convert to Judaism or accept a drastically inferior status as water carriers and wood hewers in the service of Jews. The settlers, who act on religious edicts issued by settlement rabbis, routinely destroy Palestinian olive trees, especially in the vicinity of illegal colonies established on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law. The settlers hope that the elimination of Palestinian olive groves would force many Palestinians to relocate or even emigrate for good, which would enable the settlers to take over Palestinian land. Many Palestinian families rely on olive oil for their livelihood and economic survival. In the village of Aynabus in the northern West Bank , Jewish settlers on Sunday attacked and vandalized two Arab-owned stores and agricultural machinery. The settlers said they were protesting an earlier decision by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu to freeze the expansion of Jewish-only settlements for ten months. The decision doesn’t cover East Jerusalem nor the vast bulk of settlements and is widely viewed as a public relations maneuver aimed at placating the American administration. Indeed, less than 24 hours after the decision was taken, the Israeli occupation authorities decided to build dozens of settler units and “public buildings” in the West Bank. Some Israeli journalists and columnists have described the decision to freeze settlement expansion as a mere “show” that is being acted out in coordination between the settlers on the one side and the Israeli government and occupation army on the other. The Netanyahu government used the “important step” for Hasbara (propaganda) purposes, arguing that the proverbial ball was now in the Palestinian court and that the Palestinian Authority (PA) had no excuse not to return to the negotiating table. Similarly, Jewish settlers in the heart of al-Khalil hurled stones on Arab worshipers frequenting the Ibrahimi Mosque. Wakf official Zayd Jabari accused the Israeli occupation army of acting as “enabler and protector of Jewish terror against our people.” “The Israeli occupation army tells the world that it is maintaining a presence in this city in order to protect Jews and maintain law and order. But what the army is doing in reality is to enable the settlers to attack Palestinian civilians and sabotage their businesses and property. Another Arab citizen described the settlers as the “head of the snake” and the army as “its tail.” On Saturday, the Israeli occupation army allowed dozens of fanatical settlers to walk through the Jabari neighborhood in what local residents described as a provocative march. In 1994, a Jewish terrorist who had immigrated from the US murdered at least 29 Palestinian worshipers as they were praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque. The settlers openly demand the ethnic cleansing of all non-Jews from occupied Palestine . Observers in occupied Palestine contend Israeli government and army flaccidity have emboldened settlers, encouraging them to carry out more daring attacks on Palestinians. More to the point, the Israeli justice system’s soft-glove approach toward the settlers is also communicating a clear message, namely that the settlers could attack the Palestinians and destroy their property without having to worry about consequences. Palestinian sources have warned that continued attacks and acts of vandalism by Jewish settlers against Palestinian citizens and their property might draw violent reactions.

Source: Desert Peace

Tell the Mets: No to the Hebron Fund

The New York Mets are allowing the Hebron Fund, a Brooklyn-based non-profit supporting violent and racist Israeli settlers living in the West Bank City of Hebron, to hold a fundraiser at Citi Field on November 21st. These are the settlers whose unchecked violence against the Palestinian population has been described by Israeli newspaper Haaretz as a lynching and a pogrom.Tell the Mets to cancel the Hebron Fund dinner!

Source: Jewish Voice for Peace

NEW SEASON OF ‘RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT’ (ISRAELI VERSION)

UNBELIEVABLE but true. Israel’s own version of Ripley’s ‘Believe it or not’….. families forcibly removed from their homes that they lived in for generations, so illegal settlers can move in.

OH!!!!! I left out some important facts….. the evicted families are Palestinians and the settlers are Jewish. And all of the above by decision of the Supreme Court of Israel. BUT….. if you speak out against these injustices you get hauled off to jail….. while the illegal, criminal settlers get the full protection of the law.

Unbelievable? But True!

The following was prepared by Joseph Dana of Ibn Ezra….

Sheikh Jarrah – In Memoriam

Last night in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah there was a vigil, a memorial to the families’ homes from which they were evicted. First they were refugees and now they are homeless. After weeks of legal battles, sit-ins and press conferences, several hundreds gathered to acknowledge a critical defeat in the battle over the future of this land and the two peoples who want to live here in peace.

Yes, the Supreme Court ruled, yes, the Palestinians were evicted in accordance with the law and yes, the Jews who moved in there did so legally. But this is a matter of the future viability of a Palestinian state, and the true test, or more correctly, disclosure of Israel’s true intentions and integrity. Assuming the Jews who moved into these houses (and now pray on the rooftops looking down on the newly homeless families in the street), did in fact live there at some point, this only strengthens the argument that all Palestinian refugees are entitled to reclaim their lost homes all over Israel. Israel’s legal system has set this precedent. It has given legal credibility to the 7 million Palestinians who once lived somewhere in Israel and cannot return.

Israel could not be making it any clearer that its policy is to allow, encourage and facilitate Jewish settlement anywhere and everywhere it wishes, right in the middle of Palestinian communities, with the ultimate aim of clearing them out.

How can Israel, in its claim to represent the Jewish people, who have experienced the worst forms of discrimination, violence, ghettoization and homelessness, now inflict it on another people? And what exactly is it trying to achieve? Have we heard any Israeli politician actually articulate what the objective is here, other than showing off the country’s ability to kick people out and take over whatever place they want? What does Israel think it will gain from these reprehensible actions?

Source: Dessert Peace