tagged w/ Highr0ller
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Iran: The Propaganda Never Stops
By Timothy V. Gatto
http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto130309.htm
Even though Iran has not fought a war for conquest in over two hundred years, our government, our media, our politicians and our “ally” Israel continue to beat the war drums and cast Iran in the harshest light possible. We forget that Iran gave us permission to use their airspace to engage the Taliban and Al Quaeda and provided information as to the whereabouts of their leaders. This stopped when George Bush included them in his “axis of evil”.
13 March, 2009
Countercurrents.org
I never cease to be amazed at American news. I watch a few outlets, just to see if they ever mention anything about the rest of the planet. Except for earthquakes, floods, threats against the US and plane crashes, if we didn’t have maps and globes, we wouldn’t know that there is a world outside the U.S., Mexico and Canada (unless we are in a war somewhere). I realize I’m being a bit facetious when I write about how ignorant our news outlets have become, but the fact is that I’m much closer to the truth than not.
Sometimes I ask myself why our media doesn’t cover the events taking place in other countries. Most Americans don’t know that Iceland, a prosperous country a couple of years ago, went completely bankrupt. There were riots in the streets and this hardly made the mainstream media. There are other things that don’t make news in the media even though it affects us all. Call me a conspiracy believer, but I figure that the government would rather have Americans know little or nothing about the real world. This way, if we end up going to war with another nation, they can spin it just the way they want to.
You can always tell when our government wants something from another nation. The first clue is that we hear much more about the country on the news. It seems that suddenly, a nation that becomes a “place of interest” and gets a thorough look by the media. The history, the resources, the plight of the people and its global importance (especially to the United States) becomes paramount. Countries we turned a blind eye to, nations that were ignored while starvation and genocide were taking place, instantaneously become the center of attention the minute the first drop of oil is pumped out of a proven oil reserve.Iran: The Propaganda Never Stops
By Timothy V. Gatto... more
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ISRAELI ANTI APARTHEID WEEK OFF CAMPUS
It’s not only students throughout the world that are holding events to commemorate Israeli Anti Apartheid Week. Meetings are being held in many major cities…. off campus as well.
One such event was held in the Judson Memorial Church in New York last night. The hall was filled to capacity. The theme was ‘The Art of Resistance: Culture and the Boycott of Israel’.
Below are photos taken at the event, followed by a display of posters in support of the people of Gaza.ISRAELI ANTI APARTHEID WEEK OFF CAMPUS
It’s not only students throughout... more
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Iran: UPDATE - Targeting women’s rights activists - Alieh Eghdam Doust and Nafiseh Azad taken into custody
Front Line is concerned at recent reports that women's rights defender Alieh Eghdam Doust has been taken into custody to serve her sentence which was reduced on appeal, while Nafiseh Azad has also been taken into custody while her objection to the temporary arrest warrant against her is investigated. This has been followed by a violent raid on the home of Nafiseh Azad.
Statement by the Campaign for Equality
February 3, 2009: Security Officials from the Special Security Branch of the Office of the Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Courts stormed the home of imprisoned Campaign for Equality member and women’s rights activist, Nafiseh Azad and seized her personal property as well as the property of her housemates. During this search and seizure operation officials violently beat Elnaz Ansari, another member of the Campaign and Nafiseh’s housemate and beat and handcuffed Vahid Maleki (Nafiseh’s husband)
Alieh Eghdamdoust who had been sentenced to three years of mandatory prison as a result of her participation in the June 12, 2006 protest in Hafte Tir Square has been transferred under guard to the Office of Implementation of Sentences at the Revolutionary Courts. Alieh Eghdam Doust, a women’s rights defender, was arrested during the protest objecting to discriminatory laws against women in Hafte Tir Square in June 12 2006, and spent a week in prison. She was sentenced by the 15th security branch of the Revolutionary Courts to three years and four months mandatory prison sentence and 20 lashes.
The appeals courts upheld three years of the mandatory prison sentence, reducing her original sentence by four months and 20 lashes.Iran: UPDATE - Targeting women’s rights activists - Alieh Eghdam Doust and... more
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U.S. Army establishes suicide task force
Albuquerque Express
Friday 6th March, 2009
The U.S. Army has created a suicide prevention task force as part of its month-long “stand-down” to address suicides among soldiers, the service’s vice chief of staff said Friday.
Maj. Gen. Colleen McGuire, the Army’s director of senior leader development, has been selected to head up the task force, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli told military bloggers and online journalists at a Blogger’s Roundtable hosted by the Defense Media Activity.
“Suicide is a multi-dimensional problem and, as such, will take a multi-disciplinary approach to dealing with it,” Chiarelli said.
In keeping with the complexity of the problem, the task force will have members from a range of staff sections and functional areas. “My charter is to look across all disciplines so commanders can have a menu of tools and training programs and experts and know how to best deploy them,” McGuire said.U.S. Army establishes suicide task force
Albuquerque Express
Friday 6th March, 2009... more
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Weaponry used in Gaza war very effective says amputees doctor
Albuquerque Express
Friday 6th March, 2009
(Bilal Badwan - Gulf News)
The number and severity of injuries as a result of the Gaza War were unprecedented and unfamiliar to Gaza's doctors because of the dangerous weapons used.
Chief of Intensive Care at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, Dr Fawzi Al Nabulsiya, said: "Many of these cases we haven't observed before. The weaponry used is very effective, leading to amputation of limbs, especially the lower ones, (damage to the) spinal cord and cases of deep coma. The ICU here received 283 cases, equalling the total of cases we often receive in a period of six or seven months."
Suheir Zemo, a 47-year-old mother of seven, lost her right leg after an Israeli missile crashed into her home in the Tal Al Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City in mid-January, at the height of the attacks.
"I was in my bedroom when a rocket landed in the room. Suddenly my leg started bleeding severely. Then my husband risked his life and took me to hospital as ambulances were not allowed into the area," said Maher, as she sat in a wheelchair at the Al Wafa Rehabilitation Centre in Gaza.Weaponry used in Gaza war very effective says amputees doctor
Albuquerque Express... more
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Welcome to the Website of Ian R Crane
Exposing the Agenda of the New World Order
An ex-oilfield executive, Ian now lectures and writes on the geo-political webs that are being spun; with particular focus on US Hegemony and the NWO agenda for control of global resources. Since 2007 Ian has focused his efforts on raising public awareness of the pernicious attack on the global population in the name of corporate globalisation and harmonisation; with particular focus on the excesses of Codex Alimentarius. Ian is an independent researcher; he is completely self-funded. The views expressed in his talks and DVD's are based entirely upon his personal knowledge and research. Prior to his retirement from the corporate arena, Ian enjoyed a career of 25 years in telecommunications and international oilfield services, a career that provided the opportunity to live & work in the U.K., Continental Europe, the Middle East & Houston, Texas.
Forthcoming Talks by Ian R Crane on
Codex Alimentarius, the Credit Crunch & the New World Order
Tuesday 17th March 2009 - 7.30pm - The Bear Hotel, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan,
South WalesWelcome to the Website of Ian R Crane
Exposing the Agenda of the New World Order... more
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Reason for hope... we are making a difference
Shir Hever: Israelis Are Beginning to See the Power of BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] / Alternative Information Center (AIC)
In recent years, there has been a gradual growth in the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, calling to put economic pressure on Israel until it recognizes the rights of the occupied Palestinian people and puts an end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, starting on 27 December 2008, which lasted for nearly a month, has given this movement a powerful reason to redouble its efforts. Dozens of BDS campaigns have gained momentum and publicity; dozens of new ones were launched during or immediately after Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.
These campaigns range from calls to boycott goods from the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to calls to stop all economic contacts with Israel altogether. They include protests at sporting events, two countries cutting diplomatic ties with Israel (Bolivia and Venezuela), and many demonstrations around the world, attended by hundreds of thousands of protestors.
The growing protest against the atrocities committed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip have begun to change something in the Israeli political discourse, and the first indication of this can already be seen in the Israeli economic media.
Although the Israeli economic media doesn't concern itself with the moral dimension of the attacks on Gaza, the economic dimension of recent events have created a rising level of concern. In order to demonstrate this trend, here are summaries of four articles that appeared in the Israeli The Marker magazine for economic news:
1. On 2 February, Guy Grimland warned about a growing phenomenon of boycott of Israeli high-tech companies, and several Israeli companies received letters from European and U.S. companies explaining that they cannot invest in Israel for moral reasons.
2. In 3 February, Nehemia Strassler, one of Israel's most famous economic correspondents, attacked the Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Eli Yishai, for calling on the Israeli military to "destroy one hundred homes in Gaza for every rocket that falls in Israel." Strassler had nothing to say about the Palestinians living in these homes or about the loss of life, but he warned:
"[the minister] doesn't even understand how the operation in Gaza hurts the economy. The horror sights on television and the words of politicians in Europe and Turkey change the behavior of consumers, businessmen and potential investors. Many European consumers boycott Israeli products in practice. Intellectuals call for an economic war against us and to enforce an official and full consumer boycot....................................Reason for hope... we are making a difference
Shir Hever: Israelis Are... more
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Top U.N. Official Accuses U.S. of Inhuman Atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Fox News
"The aggressions against Iraq and Afghanistan and their occupations constitute atrocities that must be condemned and repudiated by all who believe in the rule of law in international relations," said U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
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A top U.N. official accused the United States of committing inhuman "atrocities" in Iraq and Afghanistan during a speech Wednesday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"The aggressions against Iraq and Afghanistan and their occupations constitute atrocities that must be condemned and repudiated by all who believe in the rule of law in international relations," said U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann.
• Click here to see the speech.
D'Escoto claimed that U.S. actions have directly led to more than a million Iraqi civilian deaths since 2003, a vastly inflated figure that does not correspond with the U.N.'s own estimates.
The U.N.'s health and medical agency, the World Health Organization, says 151,000 Iraqis have died since the 2003 invasion. IraqBodyCount.org puts the death toll between 90,000- 99,245.
D'Escoto's fiery speech came on the day the Obama administration decided to take up observer status on the Human Rights Council, which the Bush administration had boycotted because it was unable to crack down on despots and human rights abuses.
D'Escoto urged the Council to put the human rights situation in Iraq on its agenda, accusing the U.S. of war crimes and a series of human rights violations. "These must be addressed to bring an end to the scandalous present impunity," he said.
He also called on the U.S. to free five Cuban nationals being held in U.S. prisons. The group was convicted in a Miami court in 2001 on a range of charges including lying about their identities, trying to obtain U.S. military secrets and spying on Cuban exile groups.
D'Escoto, once the foreign minister for the Communist Sandinista government of Nicaragua, called the five "heroes" being held in "preposterous conditions."
D'Escoto said he was hopeful that the Obama administration would address his concerns and bring change to American policies concerning the imprisoned Cubans.
"The immediate ex-incarceration of the five Cuban heroes would help strengthen our confidence that the promised change is for real," he said.
==================================Top U.N. Official Accuses U.S. of Inhuman Atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Fox... more
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THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
yOU CAN ALL READ THIS BOOK ON HERE AND YOU CAN ALL USE IT TO DEBATE AGAINST THE ENORMOUS PROPAGANDA IN OUR MEDIA, AND ON CURRENT.COM
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THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
John J. Mearsheimer
Department of Political Science
University of Chicago
Stephen M. Walt
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
March 2006 RWP06‐011
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The two authors of this Working Paper are solely responsible for the views expressed in it. As academic institutions, Harvard University and the University of Chicago do not take positions on the scholarship of individual faculty, and this article should not be interpreted or portrayed as reflecting the official position of either institution.
An edited and reworked version of this paper was published in the
London Review of Books Vol. 28, No. 6 (March 23, 2006), and is available online at www.lrb.co.uk
THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
U.S. foreign policy shapes events in every corner of the globe. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East, a region of recurring instability and enormous strategic importance. Most recently, the Bush Administration's attempt to transform the region into a community of democracies has helped produce a resilient insurgency in Iraq, a sharp rise in world oil prices, and terrorist bombings in Madrid, London, and Amman. With so much at stake for so many, all countries need to understand the forces that drive U.S. Middle East policy.
The U.S. national interest should be the primary object of American foreign policy. For the past several decades, however, and especially since the Six Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.
This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the United States been willing to set aside its own security in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries is based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives. As we show below, however, neither of those explanations can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel.
Instead, the overall thrust of U.S. policy in the region is due almost entirely to U
continuedTHE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
yOU CAN ALL READ THIS BOOK ON HERE... more
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Israel's Death Squads: A Former Soldier Breaks His Silence
The target, Razeq, was in the passenger seat, closest to the APC. "I have no doubt I see him in the scope. I start shooting. Everyone starts shooting, and I lose control. I shoot for one or two seconds. I counted afterwards – shot 11 bullets in his head. I could have shot one shot and that's it. It was five seconds of firing.
"I look through the scope, see half of his head. I have no reason to shoot 11 bullets. I think maybe from the fear, maybe to cope with all the things that are happening, I just continue shooting."
As far as he can recall, the order to fire was not specific to the sharpshooters in the APC. He cannot know for certain if the troops in the truck thought wrongly that some of the fire was directed at them from the cars. But he says that after he stopped "the firing gets even worse. I think the people in the truck started to panic. They're firing and one of the cars starts driving and the commander says, 'Stop, stop, stop, stop!' It takes a few seconds to completely stop and what I see afterwards is that both cars are full of holes. The first car, too, which was there by coincidence."
Razeq and Dhuheir, the militants, were dead. So were Abu Laban and Al Leddawi. Miraculously, the driver of the taxi, Nahed Fuju, was unscathed. The sharpshooter can remember only one of the four bodies lying on the ground. "I was shocked by that body. It was like a sack. It was full of flies. And they asked who shot the first car [the Mercedes] and nobody answered. I think everybody was confused. It was clear that it had been a screw-up and nobody was admitting [it]." But the commander did not hold a formal debriefing until the unit returned to its main base.
"The commander came in and said, 'Congratulations. We got a phone call from the Prime Minister and from the Minister of Defence and the chief of staff. They all congratulated us. We succeeded perfectly in our mission. Thank you.' And from that point on, I understood that they were very happy." He says the only discussion was over the real risk there had been of soldiers' casualties from friendly fire in the shoot-out, in which at least one of the IDF's own vehicles was hit by ricocheting bullets, and at the end of which at least one soldier even got out of the 4x4 and fired at an inert body on the ground.
Saying his impression was "theyIsrael's Death Squads: A Former Soldier Breaks His Silence
The target,... more
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"Nothing is more damaging to US interests than the inability to have a proper debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
—Financial Times, Editorial, Saturday, April 01, 2006
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The Power of Israel in the United States
by James Petras
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"A provocative analysis of a serious problem that should be discussed and debated widely among the U.S. public, academics, and the policy establishment, this book succeeds in exposing in great detail the enormous power and influence of Israel and the Jewish Lobby in shaping U.S. policy toward the Middle East."
—Berch Berberoglu, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Reno
Author of TURMOIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
“Once again James Petras takes us on a fearless truth trip—with lucid style, tough factual blows, commanding research, and compelling analysis. This is an eye-opening, must-read book for every advocate of democracy and every opponent of imperialism.”
—Michael Parenti,
author of The Culture Struggle and Superpatriotism
“An outstanding analysis of the political machinery responsible for so much suffering in the Middle East: the social science equivalent of John Adam´s opera “Klinghoffer”. Brilliant and substantive”.
John Saxe-Fernandez,
Professor and Senior Researcher, Faculty of Political Science National Autonomous
University of Mexico and leading world authority on US foreign policy and the oil industry
”Jim Petras has been one of the few courageous individuals, in or outside of academia, to take a critical view of the pro-Israel lobby and its influence over US Middle East policy and to challenge the “conventional wisdom” on the part of the Left that Israel acts as a “cop on the beat” and is simply serving America’s imperial interests.”
Jeff Blankfort,
A leading Jewish authority, writer and critic in the US on the pro-Israel Lobby
“Jim Petras is one of the best informed political scientists of his generation, not given to avoiding difficult issues. Here he addresses one such, which he tackles in a characteristically challenging way.”
Tom Brass, Editor
The Journal of Peasant Studies
“Always meticulously researched and full of insight, in the final analysis Petras’ opinions are almost always vindicated by events. I believe that this will be the case here.”
—Cy Gonick,
Canadian Dimension magazine
“Jim Petras, a man with vast expertise assembled in Latin America, takes the Leftist anti-imperialist discourse one step further, beyond safe condemnation of American imperialism.He begins where Chomsky and Zunes stop. In this book, Petras turns to the Middle East, where he discovers, through the haze of anti-Muslim polemics, assassinations and tortures, the identity of the decisive factor: that of “Jewish power shaping US policy in the Middle East against the interest of Big Oil”.
Petras’ critique of “soft Left” with its fear to alienate wealthy and influential Jewish supporters is a breath of fresh air; this critique has to be internalised if the Left wills to regain its place in society.”
Israel Shamir, Jaffa
Leading Russian-Israeli intellectual, writer, translator and journalist"Nothing is more damaging to US interests than the inability to have a proper... more
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Prominent Jews accuse Royal Court play of demonising Israelis
A coalition of prominent British Jews has condemned the Royal Court Theatre for showing a play that is said to demonise Israelis.
In a letter published in today's Daily Telegraph, they claim the production of Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza reinforces "false stereotypes" by portraying Israeli parents as "inhuman triumphalists" who teach their children that "Arabs must be hated".
The leading figures from the Jewish community accuse the theatre in Sloane Square, west London, of being "unbalanced" by staging a play critical of Jews after its associate director, Ramin Gray, admitted recently that he would be reluctant to put on a work that attacked Islam.
They also accuse the playwright, Caryl Churchill, of writing a play that is "historically inaccurate" by depicting a one-sided view of the conflicts between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
More than 60 leading British Jews have put their names to the letter including Professor Geoffrey Alderman, the Michael Gross Professor of Modern History at the University of Buckingham; Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winning screenwriter; Lord Janner of Braunstone, the Labour peer; Maureen Lipman, the actress; Tracy-Ann Oberman, who starred in EastEnders; and several rabbis.
Their intervention comes after The Board of Deputies of British Jews called the play "horrifically anti-Israel", as the Telegraph disclosed last week, and the Jewish Chronicle claimed it was anti-Semitic.
The 10-minute play, which closes on Saturday, was written in response to the recent conflict in Gaza and purports to tell the history of Israel through a series of dialogues between Jewish adults about what they should tell their children. It ends with a collection for the charity Medical Aid For Palestinians.
The theatre admitted the play was critical of Israel but denied this meant that it was anti-Semitic.Prominent Jews accuse Royal Court play of demonising Israelis
A coalition of... more
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Kill! Kill! Kill!, Ex-Marine tells his story about US brutality in Iraq
Former staff sergeant Jimmy Massey explains why US faces bloody insurgency in Iraq.
PARIS - US military training has created troops so desensitised to violence that battleground brutality in Iraq is rampant -- and has helped fuel the bloody insurgency seen there today, a new book released Thursday in France by a former Marine says.
Jimmy Massey, a former staff sergeant, said that the daily attacks now doled out to US-led forces and Iraqi civilians are "because of the brutality that the Iraqi people saw at the start of the invasion."
In his book, " Kill! Kill! Kill!", he says he and other Marines in his unit killed dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians because of an exaggerated sense of threat, and that they often experienced sexual-type thrills doing so.
The book was being released first in France -- and in French -- because, he said, "I didn't find an American publisher."
The French journalist who helped him write the work, Natasha Saulnier, said she believed the US companies were reluctant to touch the book because its "controversial" nature threatened commercial interests and the US public's image of their fighting forces.
Massey, who left Iraq in May 2003 shortly after US President George W. Bush declared "mission accomplished", wrote the book after being discharged from the Marines with a diagnosed case of post-trauma stress syndrome.
CONTINUED BELOWKill! Kill! Kill!, Ex-Marine tells his story about US brutality in Iraq
Former... more
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US and Iran begin the diplomatic tango to peace
Tehran and Washington have a common interest in a Iraqi and Afghan stability, writes TONY KINSELLA .
THE DIPLOMATIC dance has begun, but since it has been over 30 years since the partners managed a public tango, they need to avoid treading on each others’ toes. A week ago, US President Barack Obama told a Washington press conference that his administration was “looking at areas where we can have constructive dialogue” with Iran. A day later Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded, telling crowds celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution: “Our nation is ready to hold talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere.”
Since President Obama travelled by train to his inauguration, he could do worse than bone up on the Trans-Iranian railway story before honing his Tehran pitch for its story remains central to the Iranian psyche. When the first Pahlavi Shah, Reza Khan, came to power in a British-facilitated military coup in 1921, he set out to modernise Iran. The Trans-Iranian railway was his premier project. London had long sought to prevent its construction, viewing it as a potential threat to the sacrosanct passage to India.
Construction of the 1,400 kilometre line lasted 12 years from 1927. It is a spectacular feat of engineering and it climbs 1,200 metres from the Persian Gulf to reach Tehran, before descending to the Caspian Sea.US and Iran begin the diplomatic tango to peace
Tehran and Washington have a... more
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Soldiers raped and killed Bedouin girl in the Negev
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Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 November 2003
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She was forced into a patrol vehicle with several soldiers, two carrying shovels, and they drove off into the dunes. When the girl realised what was about to happen she tried to run, but only made it a few paces before she was shot by a Sergeant Michael.
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For 54 years the fate of a young Bedouin girl who disappeared in the Negev desert was relegated to rumour and a single entry in the diary of David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister of the fledgling Israeli state.
"It was decided and carried out: they washed her, cut her hair, raped her and killed her," he wrote.
After that the case became one of the state's earliest secrets, and no more than hearsay passed between soldiers.
Now the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has used previously classified army documents to reveal the full story of what Mr Ben-Gurion called a "horrific atrocity".Soldiers raped and killed Bedouin girl in the Negev
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Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) works for the health of Palestinians (especially in conditions of occupation, displacement or exile) based on principles of self-determination and social justice
you can donate a small amount of money on link above.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
MAP has launched an Emergency Appeal for Gaza: we desperately need your help. Please give what you can. In this critical time, it is essential that our appeal is seen by as many people as possible. Please pass on our website to all that you can. If you would like to hold a fundraiser for MAP then please contact us.
PLEASE DONATE NOW
Online (click button at top right of this page)
Call: 0207 226 4114
£2,489 - Buys a power generator that can help power a Gazan hospital or clinic. £165 - Covers the cost of comprehensive psychological and social support to a child in Gaza suffering behavioural and psychological problems.£20- Buys a hygiene kit that is desperately needed by displaced Gazan families.Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) works for the health of Palestinians (especially in... more
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