Israeli police open fire on Jewish civilians

Updated with Jameel and Jameel's daughter.
(updates will be throughout the post. Pictures from the farm will be inserted soon).

Police opened fire on civilians at Gilad Farm. JPost reports that 15 civilians are wounded by police gunfire.

Jameel saw the Yassam troops gathering there this morning, closing off roads. Jameel's daughter is SMSing us with updates.

3 structures destroyed so far on this Jewish-owned private land owned by Moshe Zar.

Police shot Jewish civilians in the back with rubber bullets as they were running away, after police told them "you better start running".

Video of policeman pulling the trigger on a woman from a few feet away. Walla

75 year old woman and children among the injured.

Police shot civilians at point blank range, many in the back.

Pictures: KolYehudi

Moshe Zar's son Etai is among the wounded who was shot.

MK Michael Ben-Ari (Ichud Leumi) was attacked by policemen and knocked down.

The community is named in memory of Gilad Zar who was the security officer for the Shomron Regional Council and was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in that area.


In the past few weeks there have been a number of reports of police cocking their weapons and pointing them at Jewish civilians in the Shomron.

Visiting Israel?
Learn to Shoot at Caliber-3 with top Israeli Anti-Terror Experts!

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Disengagement Promises

In light of the rocket attacks against Israel today from the Gaza strip, and the phosphorus mortars fired at Israel [illegal according to the Geneva Convention], I thought it would be useful to remind us all what Israel's brilliant politicians promised us before the "Disengagement"



Note: Many of these politicians are still in the Knesset today doing irreparable damage to Israel.

Visiting Israel?

Learn to Shoot at Caliber-3

with top Israeli Anti-Terror Experts!

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Disengagement: Worst Human Rights Violation in Israel's History

Israel's government created a blue-ribbon investigatory panel in 2009, headed by retired supreme court justice, Eliahu Mazza, entitled "The State Commission of Inquiry into the Handling by the Authorized Authorities of the Evacuees from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria."

Today, they released their findings in a scathing, nearly 500 page report.

"Five years following the evacuation and a very grim picture emerges on the ground," the report concluded. "Most of the evacuees still reside in temporary trailer parks; the construction of most of the permanent residential buildings has yet to commence; the vast majority of the public buildings have yet to be built; the unemployment rate among the evacuees is double that of the general public; some of the evacuees' financial state is dire and there are those who are in need of welfare support; there are those who still hold legal battles opposite the State regarding the amount of compensation."

The committee has therefore reached the conclusion that "the rehabilitation of the evacuees is far from complete." (ynetnews)

The JPost reports:

The findings showed that the government had expected most evacuees to take compensation and was caught out when 85 percent of the evacuees elected to relocate as a community. However the inquiry found that the government was inadequately prepared to resettle whole communities, resulting in mishandling of the evacuees.

About 1700 families, from 21 different settlements, were evacuated from the Gush Katif settlements as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005.

The report went on to say that the settlers had subsequently "become refugees in their own country" and "faced major bureaucratic hurdles" in rebuilding their lives.

Five years after the evacuation, unemployment levels among the former settlers were found to be twice the national level, and many were still living in temporary accommodation. Public buildings have not been erected for their use, despite the fact that many evacuees have now moved to their final destinations.

The most telling comment of all came from Professor Yedidya Stern, who at a press conference organized by the comittee members themselves, said: "The Disengagement caused the greatest violation of Human Rights in the history of the State of Israel. We are speaking of approximately 9,000 people, and the violation was multi-dimensional, and deep. Those evacuated from their homes, are the "salt of the land" and the committee members are impressed that they are "true pioneers." (ynet, Hebrew)

On the first year anniversary of the Disengagement, publicist Yair Lapid refused to apologize to those evicted from their homes. He even had the gall to state that reason for the Disengagement was the pioneers, themselves. (ynet)

It did not happen despite of the settlers, but because of them.

It had nothing to do with the Palestinians, demography, the desire to make peace, the relative feebleness of the IDF, or any other explanation that was given. There was a totally different motivation behind the disengagement.

The Israelis merely felt that the settlers should be taught a lesson in humility and perhaps in democracy too. The Gaza Strip was not chosen by accident either.

It is a region devoid of any major religious importance, its Jewish inhabitants were more national-religious that ultra-Orthodox fanatics, and Israel can rid itself of it without causing a rift between the state and 250,000 of its residents.

And so, 5 years later, as they live as refugees in caravan shacks, after thousands of Qassam rockets from Gaza's Hamastan have killed and wounded dozens of Israelis, a year and a half after the Cast-Lead operation, 4 years since Gilad Shalit was kidnapped to Gaza, 2 weeks after the Flotilla as the world comes to pay homage to Hamas, and a few hours since the government's report on Israel's greatest Human Right's failure of all time, maybe its time for an arrogant Yair Lapid to apologize?

I'm not holding my breath.



One-Click Pro-Israel Activism!
It takes just 1 Click to help Israel!

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Shavua HaSefer: National book week, for people of the book

Just the other night, my wife said it would be a good idea to take the kids to the "Shavua HaSefer" nation-wide book week fair, at our nearest local city. Every minor city in Israel has offerings of books for all ages, and all topics, and I plan on taking my kids tomorrow.

I received the following on the same subject:

Former Gush Katif Resident Turns Shipping Container into Book Store

This week celebrates Hebrew Book Week, where many towns and cities in Israel host discounted book fairs and events celebrating new publications.

Ein Tzurim, a religious kibbutz that opened its doors to many families from Gush Katif, is also celebrating Hebrew Book Week …in a shipping container. Why a shipping container, you ask? Here's the story:

Many of the former residents from Gush Katif who now live in temporary caravillas in Ein Tzurim have large shipping containers sitting next to their homes. These containers hold their life's belongings that don't fit into the tiny caravillas. These belongings once decorated their spacious homes in Gush Katif.

Moshe and Etti Shalva, formerly of Neve Dekalim, decided to turn their shipping container into a business. With assistance from JobKatif, the Shalvas, parents of 12 (!), have re-opened Shalva's Book Store in their shipping container. They plan on launching a real store once again when they move into permanent housing in Israel's Lachish region.

For those of you in Israel, please come down to Ein Tzurim for Hebrew Book Week & support the Shalva Book Store. As you can imagine, the numbers are pretty limited just in the kibbutz alone, so a trip to Ein Tzurim will be values added this week when you make a purchase at the Shalva's book store. Anita Tucker has offered to show guests around the caravilla community & update you on their building plans. She can be contacted through www.netzerhazani. org.

To help JobKatif continue to assist more former business owners from Gush Katif, donate today at www.jobkatif.org ! Your donation will be matched by the Israeli government!

Disengagement Shipping Container Now a Book Store.

One-Click Pro-Israel Activism!
It takes just 1 Click to help Israel!

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Ariel Sharon's Dream

On Tuesday morning's 8-9 AM show on IDF radio with Niv Raskin, the personal secretary of 6 Israeli prime ministers was interviewed. She is now retired, and she served for 25 years as personal secretary for PMs Shamir, Rabin, Netanyahu, Peres, Barak, and Sharon.

She was asked all sorts of questions, but the most interesting one was; what was the most intimate story shared with you by one of the Prime Ministers.

Without missing a beat, she immediately answered, "Ariel Sharon's dream."

The interviewer asked for more details, and she stated as follows:

Two days before the Disengagement, Sharon had a dream.

He was next to a deep well, hanging over it by a rope.

Hanging over it, dangling.

And then the rope snapped.

And then he woke up.

"He was very disturbed by the dream, and it bothered him alot"

This was the first story that came to her mind.

hat-tip: AS, Yedidya Meiri, Niv Raskin

Visiting Israel?
Learn to Shoot at Caliber-3 with top Israeli Anti-Terror Experts!

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Enemy Within - Blaming "Greedy" Victims

Israel's in an uproar today over a Swedish newspaper's allegations blood libel that IDF soldiers are killing Palestinians to harvest their organs.

"Leading Swedish daily Aftonbladet claimed Tuesday that IDF soldiers killed Palestinians in order to trade in their organs, adding that this suspicion may lead to an international war crimes investigation against Israel. (ynetnews)"

You don't have to go to far away Ikealand to see the same sort of venomous libel...unfortunately we have the same, even in Israel.

Nehemia Shtrasler decides in Haaretz that the settlers from Gush Katif actually wanted the Disengagement, so that they could milk Israel dry from government compensation.

The offending passage reads:

The settlers in Gaza won big time. They had two goals: to extract huge amounts of compensation from the government and to keep the issue on the public agenda as an open wound, as a traumatic and costly experience in the extreme so that all politicians who might dream of a similar solution in the West Bank would tell themselves that it is impossible.

Later in the article Shtrasler libels further:

At this point we have spent NIS 8.1 billion on the evacuation, including NIS 4.9 billion in investment in infrastructure and direct compensation to families. It's a huge, unreasonable sum and it's not final. At the evacuation administration, they expect the final amount to grow to about NIS 10 billion! These are much larger amounts than the Sinai evacuees received, but the former Gaza residents continue to play the role of victims of injustice, demanding more and more so that the wound will never heal.

My friend Robert Klein notes:

It is such a patent lie that the victims of Disengagement "extracted huge amounts of compensation", that I hope representatives of the victims sue Haaretz & Shtrasler for libel. Poetically, I do hope they extract huge amounts of compensation from both libelers.

For those unaware or who've forgotten, the Gazan Jews didn't want *any* compensation; they wanted to stay in their homes and communities. They and the Right protested the entire concept of the illegal and immoral evictions. It was the likes of Haaretz and Shtrasler who supported Disengagement and the compensation made necessary by the plan.

Moreover, the compensation plan did not take into account the economic suffering that would be incurred, i.e. loss of livelihood, for the majority whose jobs were tied to their now-destroyed communities.

Worst of all, the government didn't pay, or paid so long after it was promised that when the money arrived, it didn't even cover the evictees' debts due to unemployment.

Shame on the libelers!

In addition to Sweden, Nehemia's is in good company. I found some more examples of those who blame victims as "greedy".

1. Those Greedy Holocaust survivors.

Gonzo: 04-26-2005, 12:47 AM

An Israeli government report that claims to be the first of its kind has set material damage to the Jewish people during the Holocaust at some $240 billion to $330 billion (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/20/news/holocaust.php)

They have blackmailed and are still raping the swiss banks...now with this report, one can see what lies ahead for the Jew mafia .

These greedy jew bastards wont be happy untill they own everything in this world.......The holocaust is a gift to the Zionists...It makes me wonder....If there were no "holocaust" where would the jews be today?...

what a scam !

Gonzo: 04-26-2005, 01:14 AM

there is no stopping them.......Only war can stop the jews and their constant extortion and exploitation.....

They bought up all of Germany in the 1920's for pennies on the dollar due to their ownership of the banks.......Hitler put a stop to the thievary.....and now the thieves are demanding back their ill gotten gains that doesnt even belong to them in the first place.

I just wish once i would hear ONE JEW on Pravda denounce what Zionism is doing in regards to this extortion. not once does a jew denounce the behavior of their leadership.

Thats why i say phuek off to you when someone says......"denounce Zionism and not jews"....This illusion they play is nothing more then good cop - bad cop .....

2. Gaddafi's son: Relatives of Lockerbie Victims 'greedy'

Saif Islam Gaddafi said the Lockerbie families had traded with "the blood of their sons and daughters" during negotiations over payouts for the deaths of loved ones.

His outburst infuriated relatives of those who died in Britain's worst terrorist attack.

Mr Gaddafi, who is seen by many as likely to succeed his father, also told the BBC that the Libyan government had only taken responsibility for the disaster in order to get international sanctions lifted.

"You have to ask the families of the victims," he said. "The negotiation with them, it was very terrible and very materialistic and was very greedy. They were asking for more money and more money and more money."

He added: "I think they were very greedy and I think they were trading with the blood of their sons and daughters."

3. Jail the 'greedy' scam victims, says Nigerian diplomat

THE Nigerian high commissioner says people who are ripped off by so-called Nigerian scams are just as guilty as the fraudsters and should be jailed.

Responding to a story in yesterday's Herald, which revealed Australians lose at least $36 million a year to the online scams, Sunday Olu Agbi said Australians had failed to heed repeated warnings not to deal with shady characters on the internet.

Kudos Nehemia. Why not freelance for the Swedish daily Aftonbladet as well?

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Lost Sandal - 1000 days have passed.

The Palm Beach Hotel at the Neve Dekalim beach,
days before it was bulldozed in 2005.

As the Jewish communities of Gush Katif commemorate 1000 days since their eviction and the destruction of their homes by Israel, the "Sela Disengagement Authority" issued the following statistics this past Sunday at a press conference in Ashkelon:

40.2 percent of the Gaza evacuees are still waiting for lots on which to build their new homes.

43% - 586 families - have received housing lots and can now [May 2008] start construction.

Ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government promised that the resettlement process would take up to two years, and promised on the SELA eviction website [though not anymore] and in paid advertisements that there was a "solution for each settler."

The blatant callousness of the Israeli government and of Disengagement supporters who do not spend every second of their days trying to help the solve the refugee problem they created is simply mind-numbing.

One thousand days have passed.

Helping children cope is a new book, "Eyal's Sandal," written by Ruth Etzion, previously from the Katif community of Morag and illustrated by Sarit Stern. A young boy, Eyal loses a sandal when playing on the sand dunes near his home in Gush Katif. His faithful sandals always waited as a pair for him while he played in the sand dunes, so it can't be far. However, the Disengagement dashes his hopes to find his lost sandal, as he and his family are removed from Gush Katif and his sandal.

The book poignantly describes the difficulties in living in Gush Katif prior to the Disengagement, the trials of a child trying to come to grips with a difficult future, "Abba, are the same soldiers who I love so much going to be the ones throwing us out of our home?"

Despite it all, the book ends optimistically. Even if your family didn't go through the Disengagement, this book is a must for every Jewish family to understand what their fellows Jews went through, and are going through today.

I translated the Hebrew from a page of the book -- the Hebrew rhymes and is extremely well written. My translation does not rhyme and is for those who can't read Hebrew at all...

הִתְחַלְתִּי לִשְׁמֹעַ כָּל מִינֵי דִּבּוּרִים לֹא טוֹבִים,
עַל תָּכְניִּוֹת לַהֲרֹס אֶת הַגּוּשׁ, וּלְפָרֵק אֶת כָּל הַיִּשּׁוּבִים.

I started to hear all sorts of bad things, programs to destroy Gush Katif, and dismantle all the towns.

בְּכָל יוֹם אַחֲרֵי הַלִּמּוּדִים הָיִינוּ מַגּיִעִים לְבֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת הַיָּשָׁן,
לַאֲמִירַת תְּהִלִּים וְלִתְפִלָּה (גַּם קִבַּלְנוּ מַמְתָּק קָטָן).

Every day after school we gathered at the old shul
to say tehillim and pray (we also received a candy)

לִי הָיְתָה תְּפִלָּה מְיֻחֶדֶת, רַק שֶׁלִּי, שֶׁהָיִיתִי מִתְפַּלֵּל עַל הַגּוּשׁ,
שֶׁנַּמְשִׁיךְ בּוֹ תָּמִיד לִחְיוֹת, שֶׁלֹּא יִהְיֶה גֵּרוּשׁ.

I had my own prayer, it was only mine, that I payed for Gush Katif that we would always live there, and that there would be no expulsion

הָיוּ הַפְגָּנוֹת וַאֲסֵפוֹת בָּהֶן אַבָּא וְאִמָּא הָיוּ עֲסוּקִים,
אֲבָל אֲנַחְנוּ, הַיְּלָדִים, הִמְשַׁכְנוּ כָּרָגִיל בְּכָל הַמִּשְׂחָקִים.

There were demonstrations and meetings which kept my parents busy, but we the children, continue as usual with our games

בְּדִיּוּק אָז גִּלִּינוּ דְּיוּנָה עֲנָקִית שֶׁל חוֹל לְיַד הַשַּׁעַר הָאֲחוֹרִי,
מֵאֲחוֹרֵי הַקָּרָאוָן שֶׁל הַתַּאיְלַנְדִּים שֶׁעוֹבְדִים עִם אַבָּא שֶׁל אוֹרִי.

It was then we discovered the giant sand dune next to the back gate, behind the Thai worker's caravan which worked with Ori's father.

מֵאָז מִדֵּי יוֹם הָיִינוּ גּוֹלְשִׁים וּמִתְגַּלְגְּלִים בָּהּ יְחֵפִים, מְאֻשָּׁרִים,
וּכְשֶׁסִּיַּמְנוּ לְשַׂחֵק, חִכּוּ לִי בַּצָּד, בְּנֶאֱמָנוּת, זוּג הַסַּנְדָּלִים הַשְּׁחוֹרִים.

From that day on we slid down it, rolled around on it barefoot and content
And when we would finish playing, always waiting faithfully for me, was my pair of black sandals.

This posting is not a paid advertisement.

Published by Beit-El for 39 NIS.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Dance of the Disengagement

This thought provoking dance by the Gush Katif Ulpana (girl's high school) has stirred up alot of emotion on the NRG website (Hebrew) where it appeared. (There's a 20 second commericial at the beginning)



Personally, I don't understand why pro-Disengagement supporters are in such a tizzy. The actual Disengagement was far more violent...and the victims are still refugees.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Q&A with Jameel; On Religious Zionism after the Disengagement

A Simple Jew (the blogger) asked me the following question:

"Following the Israeli government's expulsion of Jews from Gaza, one person concluded, "The idea that a secular government could possess sanctity and be embraced by the religious as the "a tchalta de-ge'ulah" [beginning of the redemption] went down like the Titanic." As a Jewish settler who lives in the "West Bank", how have you seen Religious Zionism evolve since the Disengagement?"

My reply is on his blog over here...


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Ashkelon: Only 5 minutes from Tehran!

YNET via Reuters

Fun loving Hamas future-peace-partners check out the bomb-detection X-RAY machine at the Rafah crossing Customs Hall.

Today, Israel allowed Fatah VIP terrorists from Gaza into the West Bank, and it looks like things are going to be even safer here than ever before.

But Wait! I've been saying this for years, and here it is again!

THE MONEY QUOTE, today in YNET:

“I’m afraid to say this out loud, they may execute me for it, but there are a lot of people, including myself, who think it would be better if Israel came back here. Things would be much better than they are now,” said Samara (alias), a graduate of the Islamic University living in the Gaza Strip.

What?

Arabs thinking that the situation was better before Olso?
Before the Disengagement?

Yet another reason to thank President-Elect Shimon Peres and R' Ovadia Yosef for our new Middle East.

Shavua Tov...

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Chomesh, First!

Hearing Yedidya Lerner's voice on IDF Radio today after the 12:00 PM news was the most uplifting and exhilarating message I could have asked for.

Not many people know Yedidya Lerner, but he used to live in Chomesh. In the days leading up to the destruction of Chomesh in the Disengagement, I lived on Yedidya's front lawn in a tent, along with 12 other tents. We had shifts to help out in the Lerner's home; washing dishes, cleaning the toilets and washing the floor) as dozens of people camped out on their front lawn.

I remember connecting my laptop to their phone line and gained meager dial-up access to read about the Disenagegment on other blogs...and how infuriated I was at the general apathy (to outright support) for the Disengagement. If anything caused me to start blogging; it was there and then.

Today, a year and half later, I heard Yedidya's voice on the radio. He had already made it back to Chomesh, to the ruins of his home on the hill. He said very clearly that he would not confront the IDF, and that he was hopeful for the long run that eventually, he would rebuild his home in Chomesh. He had already visited Chomesh this past Chanuka, and was back now. He said, "maybe we'll be removed from here tonight or tomorrow, but we will keep returning, and will rebuild."

As I type this, I keep getting SMS messages from my blog-friend Elchonon, who is updating me minute by minute of his progress.

Starting the "march" from the closest settlement to Chomesh, Shavei Shomron, he reports that hundreds and hundreds of people are marching towards Chomesh...families pushing strollers with babies...teenagers with backpacks and sleeping bags, old and young wearing orange streamers and shirts that say, "Chomesh First" (A take-off of the Failed Oslo Accord plan, "Jericho and Gaza First"), as they hope that this march will be the awakening to restart the settlement in Chomesh.

As Yedidya Lerner stated; we aren't fooling ourselves, and we may not make it this time...but we will keep coming back.

Perseverance is the key.


More details to be posted as they come in. Please Note: The IDF is securing the road to Chomesh from Shavei Shomron, and there is no confrontation between the marchers and IDF forces. Which is exactly how it should be.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael