“No one but Jews can inhabit this land (of Gaza)”:
“Every baby in Gaza is an enemy”
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“Watchdog Submits Evidence of Israeli Executions of Gaza Civilians”
Common Dreams has published an article by investigative journalist, Brett Wilkins laying out the many accusations against Israeli soldiers charging them with mass executions of Palestinian civilians, men, women and children.
The article is titled,
Euro-Med Monitor documented nine separate cases in which Israeli troops executed Palestinians—including numerous women and children—during the ongoing invasion of Gaza.
A prominent European human rights group on Monday submitted a report to the International Criminal Court and United Nations special rapporteurs documenting “dozens of cases of field executions carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.”
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based nonprofit, requested the ICC and U.N. immediately investigate “the widespread killing operations carried out by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian civilians, especially the field executions and physical liquidations in the Gaza Strip.”
In addition to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, Euro-Med Monitor sent copies of its preliminary findings to Maurice Tydball Benz, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions; Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; and Navanethem Pillay, head of the Investigative Committee on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Nearly 10 days after the Israeli army began its ground attack in the Gaza Strip on October 27, the Israeli army carried out dozens of executions and direct physical liquidations against civilians as part of its all-out military campaign that started on October 7 in retaliation for the armed attack that Palestinian factions carried out in Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip,” Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement.
The group’s report lists nine separate instances in which it says Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Victims include multiple elderly couples shot and left to bleed to death after being forced from their homes in Gaza City last week; a mentally ill man shot in his home in the Jabalia refugee camp; six members of the al-Khaldi family shot dead during an Israeli raid on their home; and nine forcibly displaced civilians including women and children who were massacred while seeking shelter in the Shadia Abu Ghazala School near Jabalia on December 13.
“The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire,” one unidentified witness said of the school attack. “They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her,” including “newborn children.”
“The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families point-blank,” she added.
You can read the rest of the article here.
A Former Member of the Knesset Declares on National Television: They Must All Be Exterminated!
The video speaks for itself. This is a former member of the Israeli Knesset (Israel’s parliament).
I wish I could say that this man’s speech is an outlier. But I have now seen far too many video clips declaring the same message from average citizens and government officials alike to remain that naive.
Al Jazeera Interview of Palestinian Christian, Jonathan Kuttab: Why Do Evangelical Christians Support Israel?
Regular subscribers will recognize Jonathan Kuttab. I have recently posted several interviews featuring my friend.
Here is another where Mr. Kuttab, who was educated partly in America, discusses the errors of evangelical, Christian Zionism and its contributions to the violence in Gaza and the West Bank.
Former Israeli Sniper Explains Israel’s Rules of Engagement: Shoot Anything that Moves
A former Israeli sniper explains the circumstances in which soldiers are instructed to “shoot anything that moves.”
The recent shooting of three Jewish hostages — shirtless, waving a white flag and shouting in Hebrew — was anything but accidental or a mistake. It was the direct result of explicit rules of engagement in the Israeli army.
If Israel will flagrantly murder three of its own people in this way, just imagine how many Palestinian civilians have been gunned down under similar circumstances.
The murder of these three hostages illustrates the moral bankruptcy of Israel’s claims to having “the most moral army in the world.” Moral armies don’t teach 18 to 20 year olds to “shoot anything that moves,” no matter the circumstances.
Listen to the Christmas Message that Every American Christian Should Hear
The Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac is the pastor of the Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Christmas church. He is also a professor at Bethlehem Bible College.
This Christmas Eve, he delivered a power prophetic, gospel-inspired message directed at the western Christian church.
As the Gaza Strip is demolished, its people massacred, and ethnic cleansing continues unabated throughout the West Bank, far too many US evangelicals approve of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
As pastor Isaac says, “Silence is complicity.” Yes, too many remain silent, but even more damnable are the “Christian” voices raised in support of Israel’s war against Gaza because, some how or another, this slaughter is preparing the way for the return of Christ.
There are three things that I know with certainty about following Jesus. Walking with Christ never requires us to sanction, much less to embrace, ignorance, prejudice or bloodshed.
Those now approving of Israel’s genocide are committing all three of these inexcusable sins.
The following clip of Rev. Isaac’s message is 17 minutes long. Please take the time to listen to it in full. We all need to listen, lament, repent, and become activists for peace and justice in the name of Jesus Christ. We can begin by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza:
The following clip is a 12 minute interview with pastor Isaac broadcast by Democracy Now. Listen to him explain how the Palestinian people feel abandoned by the world, the Palestinian church abandoned by their western brothers and sisters. Remember — Gazan churches are being bombed; Gazan Christians are being murdered along with everyone else.
Have we no compassion for the Arabic-speaking family of God trambling in terror, huddled in the ruins of bombed out churches, desperately praying for God’s deliverance?
Bethlehem Pastor Proclaims a Prophetic Word to the Western Church
Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac is a professor at Bethlehem Bible College as well as the pastor at the bethlehem Lutheran Christmas church. Terry and I often worship at this church whenever we are in the West Bank.
Pastor Isaac understands that now is the time for a prophetic word addressed to the western church. He declares hard truths powerfully.
He is a Christian leader speaking to his fellow believers in the western Church — a Church that largely approves of Israel’s current campaign of destruction against his people. How can this be?
Our only proper response is repentance.
Bethlehem Churches Live Out the Biblical Tradition of Lament in War Time
I am privileged to count both the Rev. Drs. Mitri Raheb and Munther Isaac among my friends. You will meet them in this video from Democracy Now.
Together with the other Christian leaders of Bethlehem, they are speaking prophetically to the rest of the world as public celebrations have been cancelled in Bethlehem this Christmas.
Oh, they are not neglecting the wonder of Jesus’ birth. But they are grappling with the contexual realities of remembering Jesus’ birth while also suffering brutal Israeli attacks in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Thus, they haver turned to the Old Testament tradition of lament, that is crying out to God in protest against both worldly injustice and his apparent absence.
The western Christian church has become immune to the biblical concept of collective, corporate lament. Even when we try to construct a lament service, we don’t really know how to be comfortable with it.
In part, this awkwardness is due to American isolationism, ignorance, and lack of empathy for others.
We fail to identify with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ because many don’t realize that Palestinian Christians exist.
We ignore the news of literal genocide occurring in Gaza because we are generally disinterested in the rest of the world.
And when we go to visit Israel, we are more feverish about visiting Zionist synagogue services than we are about worshiping with Palestinian brothers and sisters.
The Palestinian church is showing us once again what biblical lament means as they endure a multitude of the cruelest war time injustices.
As Gaza is Flattened, Land Theft and Ethnic Cleansing Continues Apace in the West Bank
Never before has the Jewish settlement movement held as much power as they do today. Several of their leaders are members of the Israeli cabinet. They now call the shots in the West Bank, accelerating Jewish attacks against Palestinians, stealing their homes, destroying their crops and killing them with impunity.
The following video compilation offers a glimpse into this world of daily threats and violence:
Meet My Palestinian Family as They Gather Together Following the Attack on Their Homes
Our friend, Layla, is a journalist working for the online news magazine, Mondoweiss. She filmed some members of the Amira and Al Azzah families after the Israeli soldiers, who had physically attacked them all, had finally left with Munther laying in the back of their truck.
This is our extended family in the West Bank. I admire their fortitude and resilience. I wish I was with them right now.