[News] Kill a Palestinian “every hour,” says new Israeli Facebook page
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Jun 16 11:30:56 EDT 2014
Kill a Palestinian “every hour,” says new Israeli Facebook page
Submitted by Patrick Strickland on Mon, 06/16/2014
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/kill-palestinian-every-hour-says-new-israeli-facebook-page*
More than 16,000 Israelis have joined a Facebook page
<https://www.facebook.com/lehaselmehabel> that calls for the murder of a
Palestinian every hour until three missing Israeli settler
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlers> teens are located.
The page <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/facebook> is titled “Until
the boys are back, every hour we shoot a terrorist.”
The page was launched as the Israeli army continued violent raids,
curfews and closures across the occupied West Bank and shot dead Ahmad
Sabarin <http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=705075>, a
Palestinian youth.
According to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=705004>:
The Israeli newspaper /Maariv/ reported on its website that within
hours of its creation, a Facebook page calling for the hourly
assassination of Palestinian “terrorists” had reached 10,000 likes.
The Facebook page called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to “take responsibility instead of holding [Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud] Abbas responsible” for the allged
kidnapping of three Israeli teens, /Maariv/ reported.
The three missing settlers are Naftali Frankel, Eyal Yifrah (both 16)
and Gilad Shaer (19), who reportedly went missing while hitchhiking
between Jewish-only settlements
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlements> in the Hebron
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/hebron> area of the southern
occupied West Bank late Thursday evening. Since that time, Israeli
political figures, including Netanyahu, have rushed to blame both the
Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority and Hamas, who recently signed a
reconciliation agreement to end a seven-year division.
Israeli officials claim that Palestinian political organization Hamas
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/hamas> kidnapped the missing boys,
but a Hamas spokesperson denied involvement and dismissed the accusation
as “stupid.” Israel has yet to produce evidence supporting its claims,
though it has arrested dozens of Hamas officials and activists including
the speaker and several elected members
<http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=705083> of the Palestinian
Legislative Council in ongoing raids across the West Bank.
Dozens of photos and comments by both the page administrator and
commenters offer a glimpse into the radical and violent anti-Palestinian
climate <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/racism> in Israel. The
dehumanization of Palestinians, including children, is common among
Israelis on social media
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/social-media>, especially Facebook
users in Israel <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israelis-facebook>.
Resonating with reality
One of the photographs posted by the adminsitrator reads, “Return to
Jewish war ethics: kill or be killed.” At the bottom, the photo adds:
“Kill a terrorist every hour.”
At the time of writing, the post had received more than six thousand
Facebook likes and had more than one hundred comments, most of them
supportive.
One commenter, Hariel Ben Michael, called for Israel to destroy entire
Palestinian communities “every hour” until the missing boys “are released.”
His comments resonate with reality. Since its destruction of more than
five hundred Palestinian villages and towns during the 1948 Nakba
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba>, the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine, Israel has continued to demolish Palestinian homes
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/home-demolitions> and raze entire
communities, particularly in places like the Jordan Valley
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan-valley> region of the West Bank.
“Get cancer”
An English-language commenter, Jordan Lerer
<https://www.facebook.com/yarden.lerer?fref=ufi>, says he hopes
Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-strip> “get cancer” and “die
with agony.” The picture he comments on shows many Palestinians between
crosshairs of a gun and says, “kidnapped? kidnap!” — ostensibly calling
for the kidnapping of Palestinians.
Lerner also comments that he has “no mercy” regarding the Israeli
military’s treatment of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military has already bombed several areas in the Gaza Strip
since the three boys went missing.
Crackdown
On Saturday evening, seven-year-old Ali al-Awour died
<http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/human-rights/7703-7-year-old-dies-in-gaza-3-days-after-being-injured-in-an-israeli-airstrike>
as a result of injuries sustained by an Israeli airstrike in the
northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night. According to statistics
<http://www.dci-palestine.org/content/child-fatalities> from Defence for
Children International - Palestine Section (DCI-Palestine)
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/defence-children-international-palestine-section>,
1,405 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel since 2000.
After the Israeli settlers went missing on Thursday night, Israel’s
occupation forces intensified their crackdown across the West Bank and
continued bombing the Gaza Strip.
In the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli military last
night reportedly injured two children and their father when soldiers
“bombed open the door of [their] house,” according
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=705045> to Ma’an News
Agency. That raid came only a day after Israel “detained eighty
Palestinians across the West Bank,” as noted by another
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=704903> Ma’an article.
Israel’s crackdown has focused on the southern part of the West Bank,
mostly in and around Hebron. As of Sunday, Hebron residents were banned
from leaving the West Bank, Maan reported
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=705027>.
Overnight on Sunday, the military also raided
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=705075> the Jalazone
refugee camp <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jalazoun-refugee-camp>
near the central West Bank city of Ramallah and shot and killed
20-year-old Ahmad Sabarin.
Michael Ben Ari <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/michael-ben-ari-0>,
a former member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, also called for the
assassination of Palestinians while speaking to
<http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=1062745> Hebrew-language
media. Israel ought to “kill terrorists in public hangings,” Ben Ari said.
“Sit in the dark”
Another alarming Facebook page, created yesterday, is named “If our boys
are sitting in the dark, Palestinians will also sit in the dark.”
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D7%90%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%95-%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9A-%D7%92%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%95-%D7%91%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9A/880777695269631>
With more than three thousand members, the page calls for Israel to cut
off all electricity to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Due to Israel’s
suffocating restrictions, both regions are dependent on Israel for
electricity.
One photograph posted on the page (above) called for Israel to inflict
“collective punishment” on Palestinians by ending their electricty and
water supplies and increasing restrictions on movement.
A petition
<http://www.atzuma.co.il/hashmaltoarabic?fb_action_ids=880925278588206&fb_action_types=og.comments&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582>
was also launched on Sunday demanding that Israel cut off Palestinians’
access to electricity
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/electricity-crisis-gaza>. As of
Monday morning, it had already received more than one thousand signatures.
Due to Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege>, approximately 1.7
million residents of the coastal enclave have suffered deteriorating
conditions
<http://pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9890:after-gaza-power-plant-forced-off-humanitarian-conditions-of-approximately-17-million-palestinians-in-the-gaza-strip-deteriorate&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>
over the last few years as a result of the lack of gas and electricity.
Dehumanization
This is not the first time Israelis have used social media to call for
violence against Palestinians, including children. As Israel’s political
establishment grows even more rightwing, much of the general population
has embraced the increasingly anti-Palestinian climate.
As Rania Khalek recently reported
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israeli-soldier-becomes-overnight-hero-pointing-loaded-gun-palestinian-youths>
for The Electronic Intifada, a Facebook page supporting an Israeli
soldier who was filmed pointing his gun at a Palestinian child’s face
received more than 129,000 likes.
In February 2013, Ali Abunimah exposed an Israeli soldier’s violent
pictures
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-soldier-posts-disturbing-instagram-photo-child-crosshairs-his-rifle>
on the photo-sharing website Instragram. One of his pictures showed a
Palestinian child as a target between the crosshairs of a rifle.
Since then, The Electronic Intifada has time and again brought to light
the dehumanization of Palestinians and pervasive racism displayed by
Israelis on social media outlets.
To read more about this, see The Electronic Intifada’s past coverage:
* Israel soldiers have depraved ‘fun’ making “Rachel Corrie pancakes
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-soldiers-have-depraved-fun-making-rachel-corrie-pancakes>”
* “Reprimanded” Israeli soldier still posting violent, racist
material on Instagram
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/reprimanded-israeli-soldier-still-posting-violent-racist-material-instagram>
* Stoned, naked, armed and dangerous: more disturbing images from an
Israeli soldier’s Instagram
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/stoned-naked-armed-and-dangerous-more-disturbing-images-israeli-soldiers>
* “Castrate them!” “Burn them!” “Bullet in the head!”: Facebook
Israelis react to photo of Palestinian kids
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/castrate-them-burn-them-bullet-head-facebook-israelis-react-photo-palestinian>
* “Oops… one less Arab”: even more disturbing Instragram images from
the Israeli army
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/oopsone-less-arab-even-more-disturbing-instagram-images-israeli-army>
/With thanks to Hanan Darawsha for her help with translation and research.
/
--
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