Daily Israeli State Terror in Occupied Palestine

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Ahead of more Palestinian protests after Friday prayers, Israeli soldiers and police attacked Palestinian resisters with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, and toxic tear gas, beating others with weapons for the occasion. 

Scores were injured, maybe hundreds into the evening and overnight.

Israeli forces escalated state terror begun two weeks ago, following Trump's outrageous Jerusalem declaration, conspiring with Netanyahu to announce it.

Responding to Trump's threat to cut off US aid to nations rejecting his Jerusalem declaration, PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashwari blasted what she called "blackmail and extortion," adding:

He "should know that there are things that are not for sale or subject to blackmail, particularly issues of principle, legality and morality. Extortion is the most effective way for the US to isolate itself even further and to weaken its influence and standing globally."

"We will not be deterred or intimidated. The overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly members will honor their own legal and political obligations on Palestine."

Unknown numbers of weak-kneed ones may abstain from today's vote, failing to do the right thing.

Whatever the final result, General Assembly members will overwhelmingly reject Trump's declaration, handing him a political black eye.

According to the Addameer prisoner support group, Israel lawlessly arrested and detained around 500 Palestinians in the first seven days following Trump's Jerusalem declaration.

State terror continues daily, including many more arrests and injuries throughout the Territories.

Last week, during the Assembly of State Parties at UN headquarters in New York, four Palestinian human rights groups requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate Israeli high crimes during its summer 2014 naked aggression on Gaza - as required under Article 17 of the Rome Statute, creating the court.

Groups submitting the request include the Al Dameer Association for Human Rights, Al Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Following the 2014 aggression, hundreds of complaints were futilely submitted to Israel's Military Advocate General.

Nearly all were ignored. The few investigations conducted were delayed, then whitewashed, the customary way Israel operates - further burnishing its rogue state credentials by daily violence against Palestinians, criminal acts gone unpunished.

Naked aggression is the highest of high crimes. Collective punishment is banned under Fourth Geneva's Article 33 and Article 50 of the Hague Regulations.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child mandates "(n)o child…be deprived of his or her liberty…"

Israel treats young children as ruthlessly as adults, women as brutally as men.

On Thursday, the ruling South African ANC moved to downgrade its embassy in Israel to liaison status.

Maybe other nations will make similar moves, further isolating Israel.

Trump's outrageous actions made America more of a pariah state than already.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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