looting<\/a> by your soldiers, it\u2019s not the first of its kind. is it? Come on. Think back. There have been an awful, awful lot of others. Forgotten? Let me help you. Get to a computer and type the words \u2018IDF looting\u2019 into google’s search engine. You may (or may not be surprised) when this search produces more than 64,000 results. Now before you go off the deep end, crying \u2018our enemies are telling lies about us.\u2019 Please, I beg you. Read just some of the results on the first page. It won\u2019t take you long. Okay why not spend the whole morning reading them? After all it\u2019s kind of your duty to know what\u2019s being done in your name isn\u2019t it? I mean, when military crimes are being committed with YOUR tax shekels, you have a right to know.<\/p>\nOne of the google results reveals that an Israel Defense Forces soldier confessed to stealing a credit card from a home in northern Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Remember that? The soldier in the Givati infantry unit’s reconnaissance battalion used it to withdraw NIS 1,600 in Israel. A small criminal act.<\/p>\n
Part of a much wider crime.<\/p>\n
A crime against humanity, that you\u2019ve been either ignoring. Or have been deliberately blinded to by your leaders.<\/p>\n
As I have already said though, you have access to the internet, you don\u2019t have to remain in the darkness. Unless of course you\u2019re comfortable there.<\/p>\n
The most recent looting by the IDF of civilian goods, made me think of the Al Samouni women, I met them last year, on the rubble of their homes in Al Zaytoun (I\u2019ve attached some photos for you to see). You may, vaguely recognize that name \u2018Al Samouni\u2019. Let me jog your memory. On Saturday, 3 January 2009, the Israeli incursion into Al Zaytoun neighbourhood began.<\/p>\n
The following day, on 4 January 2009, your forces bombed the same area.<\/p>\n
On Monday at 7:00 Am, 5 January 2009, again your forces bombed the very same area of Hay (neighborhood) Al Zaytoun. One of the missiles struck the third floor of Tallal Hilmi Al Samouni\u2019s home. Then came the soldiers shooting to kill.<\/p>\n
Overall, 26 members of the Al Samouni family were killed, including 10 children and 7 women. The Red Cross was only allowed entry three days later to evacuate the dead and injured, the majority of whom were so critical that they were taken to Belgium, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia for treatment.<\/p>\n
Allow me, if you don\u2019t mind to give you their names as you probably don\u2019t know them. As kind human beings, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll wish to pay them your respects, and perhaps pray for them.<\/p>\n
Names of children killed<\/p>\n
\u2022 Azza Salah Al Samouni, 3 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Waleed Rashad Al Samouni, 17 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ishaq Ibrahim Al Samouni, 14 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ismail Ibrahim Al Samouni, 16 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rifka Wael Al Samouni, 8 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fares Wael Al Samouni, 12 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Huda Nael Al Samouni, 17 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ahmad Atieh Al Samouni, 14 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mu\u2019tassim Mohammed Al Samouni, 6 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mohammed Hilmi Al Samouni, 5 years of age<\/p>\n
Names of Women Killed<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rahma Mohammed Al Samouni, 50 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Safa\u2019 Hilmi Al Samouni, 25 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Maha Mohammed Al Samouni, 22 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rabbab Azzat Al Samouni, 32 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Laila Nabih Al Samouni, 40 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rifqa Mohammed Al Samouni, 50 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hannan Khamis Al Samouni, 36 years of age<\/p>\n
Names of Men Killed<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tallal Hilmi Al Samouni, 55 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Attieh Hilmi Al Samouni, 25 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rashad Hilmi Al Samouni, 42 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tawfiq Rashad Al Samouni, 23 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mohammed Ibrahim, 26 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ziyad Izzat Al Samouni, 28 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nidal Ahmad Al Samouni, 30 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hamdi Maher Al Samouni, 23 years of age<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hamdi Mahmoud Al Samouni, 70 years of age<\/p>\n
Last March I was shown around the rubble of their community by the surviving women and children. I saw the racist grafitti left behind on the walls of the room where a teenage girl still had to sleep. Left for her by your \u2018Moral Army\u2019 no less. It said in places in Hebrew, in places English stuff like \u2018we\u2019ll be back\u2019 and there was a coarse cartoon of a house exploding with the words \u2018you are here\u2019 wittily added.<\/p>\n
A beautiful young woman, told me of how she was about to get married before the attack. Her family had saved several thousand dollars for her dowry (many people of one family saving for a very, very long time, as you can imagine). It had been hidden under a bed in a suitcase for the happy event. Her mother had a few ancient pieces of jewelery that had been passed down through the generations in gold as well. Well, you see, your soldiers bombed these people, then shot their children, then finally looted everything the survivors owned. I swear to you, look on google, look into your own hearts, you know, this happens.<\/p>\n
You know this is how your army deliberately treats Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Before you scream \u2018lies!\u2019 or \u2018anti Semite!\u2019 please, I beg you. Parent to parent. Human to human. in the name of the God of all faiths, take a breathe, suspend your disbelief a while longer, then read on. Because, oh Israel. What if, just suppose, I\u2019m not the anti Semite your wiki trained extremist supporters try to paint me as? And what if, just ten per cent of the 64,000 google entries for “IDF looting\u2019 are utterly true? What then? What does that make you complicit in? What will you do if just for a second the truth that the rest of the world sees about your leaders barbarism fills your mind and your hearts as it one day surely must?<\/p>\n
My words, as an outsider will no doubt seem harsh, even naive. This then, is from today’s Jerusalem Post:<\/p>\n
“According to information analyzed by the human rights organization Yesh Din, between September 2000 and the end of 2009, less than six percent of nearly 2,000 investigations opened against IDF soldiers suspected of crimes against Palestinians ended in indictments.<\/p>\n
During the same period, according to various estimates, thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed as a result of IDF activities. How many of these fatalities resulted in convictions? Four. Not four percent \u2013 just four.”<\/p>\n
It\u2019s becoming increasingly clear that your young men and women are being trained to behave like animals. These events, the looting, the photos posted online by Eden Abergil, they can\u2019t be explained away as \u2018one off\u2019\u2019s any longer.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s for you to ask yourselves what they mean.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m truly sorry if my words have offended you. I just wanted to talk with you directly for once.<\/p>\n
By the way there are an estimated 400 laptops, 600 mobile phones plus other personal cash and effects, which your military still has not returned to the passengers of the aid flotilla. You see, when then they set sail. For some reason, those good people, didn\u2019t think the IDF would steal from them.<\/p>\n
Yours in Hope<\/p>\n
Lauren Booth was one of 44 passengers on board the first voyage, August 23, two years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n___________________<\/em><\/p>\nJoin the BDS-Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions<\/em><\/span> <\/strong>campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation, the apartheid wall, and its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people: DON’T BUY<\/strong><\/span> products whose BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n7 2 9: BOYCOTT!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This morning I set out to write a piece about the looting of the aid Flotilla to Gaza, by your soldiers. As you may have read, an Israel Defense Forces officer, has been remanded by a military court, suspected of stealing laptop computers from passengers. Interestingly, Haretz newspaper, now refers to the fleet as an \u2018aid flotilla.\u2019 Which it was. Rather than the \u2018terror\u2019 fleet your leaders would have had you call it. But I digress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}