Feb 25, 2018

Israel Is a Brutal State Loved by Trump, as Teenage Girl Is Crushed by Fascists

Ahed Tamimi is being crushed by Israel for advocating
peace and human rights in this vicious prison state.
Many fascists are like child molesters, they have a way of recognizing each other.

Donald Trump's long embrace of Israel, and its ally Saudi Arabia, comes not in spite of human rights atrocities, but because the savagery attracts the lunatic in the White House.

A human being under siege by Israel, the now-17-year-old Ahed Tamimi, is a story difficult to ignore in our country moving in the same direction as this repulsive pit of human misery.

Some recent coverage follows.

From Haraatz:

Jewish-American comedian Sarah Silverman is at the center of a Twitter storm after tweeting in support of detained Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi over the weekend.

Silverman, of course, is no stranger to controversy, politics or Israel. She has long been active in progressive Democratic politics – campaigning for Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders – and throws comic barbs at the Trump administration.

If you are not aware of the Tamimi story, read Richard Falk's latest and consider signing the petition from Amnesty International. See also the coverage in Counterpunch and Alternet.
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From Richard Falk:

It is now known by virtually everyone who follows the Palestinian struggle that a 16-year-old girl, now 17, named Ahed Tamimi, confronted Israeli soldiers on her family’s land shortly after her cousin, Mohammed, was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, causing a coma. The video of her actions has gone viral, showing the world a courageous young woman engaging in nonviolent acts of resistance, and then a day later in the middle of the night being arrested in her home and then charged with a series of crimes; as is standard Israeli practice in the arrest of children, Ahen was hauled off to an Israeli prison facility out of reach of her family and then denied bail. ...

I think these polarized responses to the incident offer a defining metaphor for the current phase of Israel/Palestine relations. The metaphor is given a special vividness because Ahed Tamimi as a child epitomizes the mentality and tactics of an oppressive state. The prospect of Ahed’s case being heard by a military court that finds that more than 99% of defendants are guilty of the crimes of which they are accused. This is reminiscent of South African administration of criminal justice at the height of apartheid racism.

Beyond the legal fate of Ahed’s case is the unspeakable inhumanity of holding a civilian population captive generation after generation. Ahed Tamimi’s act and fate should matter greatly to all of us, and inspire increased commitment to solidarity with the Palestinian national struggle.  

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