The Israeli army's daily humiliation of Palestinians

[GeneralTacticus]

I see your point, both sides might be victims in this, but isn't it just one more reason why we should all work to end the occupation?

Yes. And the first step towards doing that is to end the basic reason for the occupation - Palestinian terrorism.

So, siro, you are accepting partial responsibility for the suicide bombers now? Well, at least a step forward. Now if we can get it past the propaganda wall in your head that it doesn''t matter how much Hamas glorifies the death of a martyr, without this humiliation and lack of hope there only a very very few weakminded weirdos would fall for it...

Lack of education is another problem, AFAIK. If the only thing you've ever been taught or seen on the news etc. is that 'Israelis are subhuman and aggressors and it is holy to blow yourself up to kill them', then that is most likely what you will believe, at least until you see something that contradicts that and think for yourself. If you don't get that chance, then you will almost certainly believe that.

[The Mad Monk]

Move over, Pokemon...

I was torn whether to post this here or in a separate thread.

Here will do.

Young Palestinians wild for `martyr' necklaces
Pokémon cards passé as traders covet militant memorabilia
By Sandro Contenta
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Fourteen-year-old Saleh Attiti has replaced his once-precious Pokémon cards with a less innocent craze that has swept up children in this violence-torn camp.

On a plastic coffee table in his cinder-block home, Saleh proudly displays part of his growing collection of necklaces with pictures of "martyrs" of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

"I used to have plenty of Pokémons — my school bag was half full of them," Saleh said. "I threw them all away. They're not important now. The pictures of martyrs are important. They're our idols."

It's difficult to find a child in this teeming camp of 20,000 people who isn't wearing at least one necklace with a picture of a shahid, or "martyr" — mostly militant gunmen killed or suicide bombers blown up during the 20-month-old uprising.

The children use them the way they once used cards of Pokémon or sports heroes. They spend their meagre allowances to collect and trade them, constantly hunting for prized shahid pictures that excite like a vintage baseball card.

For Palestinian teachers, the craze in "martyr" necklaces is the latest example of children poised to become the next generation of fighters against Israeli occupation. Growing up in a culture of violence fuelled by both sides in the conflict, Palestinian children are adopting the uprising's militia fighters as role models.

"These children are convinced that martyrdom is a holy thing, something worthy of the ultimate respect," said Munir Jabal, head of a Balata teachers association. "They worship these pictures. I think it will lead them in the future to go out and do the same thing."

In Balata, a stronghold of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia, the most highly sought after necklaces have pictures of Mahmoud Attiti, Raed Karmi, and Yasser Badawi, militia leaders assassinated by the Israeli army during the conflict.

The most recent hot item is a pendant of Jihad Attiti, the 18-year-old who became the camp's first suicide bomber two weeks ago by blowing himself up and killing two Israelis — an 18-month-old baby and her grandmother — in a Tel Aviv suburb.

"It works like this," says 12-year-old Assam Kandil, who boasts of having 30 necklaces. "If I have an extra one of Mahmoud Attiti, I will trade one for Yasser Badawi."

Added Saleh, a nephew of bomber Attiti: "We love them and we want to be like them."

The trend first appeared last November. A shopkeeper in the adjacent city of Nablus, Assam Kanaza, was producing plaques of civilians and militants killed in the fighting when a family asked him to produce a plastic medallion of their son.

Kanaza, 29, said the work was noticed by other families who lost loved ones, and new orders came in until the medallions snowballed into a popular phenomenon. Kanaza said he's produced more than 5,000 of them, and another 6,000 plaques and key chains — all with the pictures of "martyrs."

The medallions are shipped to other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but the phenomenon is most evident in Balata and Nablus.

Kanaza's plastic medallions are the top end of the necklace craze and sell for 10 shekels a piece, about $3.30.

"Sometimes a child will say, `Don't you think that's too much,'" said Kanaza. "I say, `If you bring me half that much I will give it to you.' He comes back in a week with five shekels and he's very, very happy."

With Palestinian civilians or fighters killed on almost a daily basis, Kanaza's business is booming. Other merchants have jumped on the craze with a cheaper alternative to Kanaza's medallions. They mass-produce passport-size photos of the militants and slip them into transparent pendants. Those sell for just 65 cents.

At Balata, the craze is a by-product of a community that has seen some of the worst fighting in the uprising.

Since last February, the camp has been completely invaded three times by Israeli soldiers in search of militants and bomb-making workshops.

At the camps' school for boys, run by the United Nations' agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, bullet holes riddle the inside of some classrooms and parts of its façade.

The 1,700 students have missed half the school year because of Israeli-imposed curfews or invasions. Many of the students know a relative or friend killed in the uprising. Two of its students have been killed and six have brothers who died in the fighting.

It's the kind of environment that has forced teachers to grudgingly allow students to wear their "martyrs" necklaces in class. When a teacher recently insisted a student remove his necklace during gym class, the boy's father showed up the next day and "wanted to fight us," said the school's principal.

The principal, who asked not to be named, said teachers were forced into a similar compromise about posters commemorating fighters and suicide bombers, which used to fill classroom walls. The students agreed to take them down in exchange for posting them on classroom bulletin boards.

"We tried to convince the students that there's just not enough places to put up all the martyrs posters because it's a continuous phenomenon," he said. "The Israeli occupation thinks it can break this new generation by showing its power. They don't understand that the opposite is happening. They're breeding hatred."

Jabal said the children have lost all fear of Israeli soldiers and already go through dangerous lengths to imitate their militant models.

Recently, Jabal's 15 year-old son was shot in the leg by soldiers after setting fire to an unoccupied tank.

"I opened my son's closet and found it full of martyrs posters and necklaces. I said to him there's nothing wrong with being nationalistic and defending your rights, but you're just too young," Jabal said. "I said, `Ultimately, you'll be rewarded with your picture hanging from a necklace, and we will have lost a son.'"
Additional articles by Sandro Contenta

Link:

http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1022100131363&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News

Thanks to Drudge for the link.

[Zevico]

Israelis are not being convinced that Palestinians are crazy and evil via brainwashing, moron. Generally, Israelis are extremely suspicious of Palestinians, but don't hate them or don't think they're evil and crazy. And you can guess why they're extremely suspicious of them.

[aaglo]

Zevico-
Correction: what I meant was that the program gave that kind of generalized impression on Israelis and Palestines.

moron

[ZoboZeWarrior]

Originally posted by Ned
If anyone would like to try this, take ten people, divide them up into two groups, and call one group guards and the other group prisoners. Invent some tasks to be performed, some privileges for the prisoners that can be denied, and some form of punishment for misbehavior. You will quickly find that the average guard will become quite petty, arbitrary and abusive.

I think that Nazi did that with their prisoners.

[ZoboZeWarrior]

Check point are quite (ill) famous. Since it could explain why people attacks check-point but not why they attack nigh-clubs, or school-bus. Such acts are pure acts of mad hatred against Israelis citizens.

Since I'm not a Israeli gouvernment supporter. I considere such incident at check-point caused by personal abuse and not by official orders.

[CyberGnu]

Tacitus, you seem to have misunderstood the situation.

Israeli greed for land is causing the occupation. The occupation is causing terrorism. End occupation and you end terrorism.

[CyberGnu]

Question to the people who say 'these are just individual soldiers, not representative of Israel or the IDF'.

What are your views on Sharons incessant bleating about how Arafat is to blame for every single act of violence? If Sharon isn't responsible for the acts of his soliders, Arafat can certainly not be blamed for the acts of rival political groups...

[CyberGnu]

Zevico, of course the Israelis don't think palestinians are evil. The palestinians are just animals, and animals don't have a concept of good and evil.

[Solver]

That statement about Palestenian animals has now appeared in two threads.

As I said, Israel wouldn't end terror if they stopped the so-called occupation, which actually is just living on their territory. The aim of Hamas and Fatah is destroying the Hebrew nation, killing each single Hebrew there is. That's also the aim of bin Laden. Why do people fail to see the associatons here?

[Sava]

Solver is right.... I don't understand how anybody can be supportive of brutal terrorists.

AH.... lies lies lies

[Bereta_Eder]

Re: The Israeli army's daily humiliation of Palestinians

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
I saw a program last night about the situation in the West Bank.

One of the interesting aspects of the program was the evidence of the humiliation of Palestinian civilians by Israeli army soldiers.

The program interviewed several Israeli army reservists, some named with face to camera, and they talked about the ways their units harrass Palestinian civilians trying to go about their daily lives. They said some Israeli army units were notorious for thinking up new ways to abuse Palestinians every day.

Most of the harrassment happens at Israeli army checkpoints. Some of the things they do:

. When they are searching a car, they take the keys away and either throw them away or refuse to give them back, sometimes for hours at a time or not at all.

. They take ID cards and make the Palestinian wait at the checkpoint. Sometimes they don't give the papers back at all, which means the Pal might lose their job in Israel.

. They pick out young Palestinian men, the favorite is to pick out 3 for some reason, and make them do humiliating things like kick each other in the arse, spit on each other or sing Israeli army songs for the amusement of Israeli troops.

One mother of a suicide bomber said that the daily humiliation by Israeli soldiers was what pushed her son over the edge. He couldn't take it any more and blew himself up at the army check point where he had faced daily abuse like the above.

Imagine if you had to put up with that sh*t or watch your mother or father humiliated like that every day.

Exactly.

[Solver]

Thanks for support Sava.

Israel has official statements, official representatives, etc. Palestine has none, since it's not a country, it's an authority.

[Bereta_Eder]

this sort of treatment just adds fuel to the fire.

and yes Hamas and all others are all too happy to see this humiliation continue, it gives them more boys and girls for the "cause".

[Sava]

I agree with paiktis that it doesn't help any, but those psychopathic murderers would be commiting terracts regardless.