Amnesty International has issued a report accusing Hamas to a campaign of abduction, torture and wanton executions of Palestinians during last year’s conflict in the Gaza Strip. The report identifies roughly two dozen Palestinians who were shot and killed by Hamas and dozens of others who were arrested and tortured.
Victims of Hamas included political rivals of Hamas, including members of the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and those accused of cooperating with Israel. The spasm of violence started on August 22nd. One execution was even held outside of a mosque in front of children.
Another account involved Atta Najjar, an ex-Palestinian Authority policeman imprisoned since 2009 and killed by Hamas in August. He brother describes his gruesome end at the hands of Hamas militants: “His arms and legs were broken … his body was as if you’d put it in a bag and smashed it … His body was riddled with about 30 bullets . . . He had slaughter marks around his neck, marks of knives … And from behind the head – there was no brain. Empty … It was difficult for us to carry him … He was heavy, like when you put meat in a bag; no bones. His bones were smashed. They broke him in the prison.”
Some of the torture was carried out at a hospital, according to the Report.
Source: CNN
Po … I always feel a little chagrined when I cite “honor” for those who’ve given their all for others, whether in the staircases of the WTC or in war or by the firemen here who fight fires from the inside out…e.g., go inside the edifice to rescue and fight the fire at its source. Not a common practice everywhere. Here is isn’t unusual to see the firemen emerging from a burned hole in a roof, not descending through it. They almost always leave behind those who will forever feel the pain of loss. It never seems like enough. So “Amen” is all I can offer….as you have done. I agree.
Po … correct. I can never forget those police and firemen who went up the down staircases that day. May they RIP with the honor that they deserve.
Amen!
Po … thanks, and intellectually I think you are right. I tried to make her feel safe and her husband too. I had similar contacts with other neighbors, of much the same vein. Given it was at a time when we really didn’t know what was coming next, perhaps it was the best I could do. I admit I was a bit disconcerted by the flurry of emergency action & response messages that began pouring in from the Pentagon, and we were reacting immediately across the country, all heading for NYC….and ,many got there, by highway travel, in less than 24 hours. By noon the only ones left in the federal building were our Commanders, Agency heads, and their sundry office Chiefs, which I was one of back then. Some key people, all engineers, were sent on response, most were sent home…and I was among the first to do so. I had evidence of our actions and would soon enough be part of it. Yet it almost made me wonder if I, in conjunction with everyone still at work, could guarantee any safety to anyone.
It was that look of fear, that once you’ve seen it, even half a world away, it sticks with you and for me always creates some uncertainty. By 1:00 PM we all had left (as ordered by FBI, SS, and FPS), except the law enforcement types, by then all in ninja outfits with machine guns encircling the building. I remained in touch by cell phone and VPN and did my job from home for a day or so. My office always kept a television on for current news and we watched the 2nd strike, which removed all doubt about the input from the Pentagon. Oddly, all the machine guns in the world could not have stopped an airliner coming right down Michigan Avenue at 500 feet, from DTW, a clear shot to the federal building…which was the fear was all about in the office personnel (a look akin to trapped mice?)…we’d often pondered how easy it would be for that to happen….but never expected it until NYC on that dreadful day.
Within a few days federal police were arresting anyone near the building acting in what some saw as odd, like a couple of Polish tourists talking photographs of a monumental statue of of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a US Revolutionary War veteran from Poland…the man who designed the defenses at West Point and Saratoga. Knowing that history, which many do not to this day, they were innocuous, but because they also photographed the building near-by they were suspect to some. Strange days to be sure.
Ari, I do wish that most of us, especially our political leaders, had the insight to be as clearsighted as you were during and right after those events.
Those events were momentous in many ways, but especially in how pregnant they were with possibilities, possibilities for reflection, for inaction, for patience, and for taking the left turn that would have made us all individually as well as communally closer and better…
It allowed however for many great individuals to practice their unselfishness and goodwill, some of whom paid the ultimate price in that process.
Ari
Distress is one of the purest emotions to be found in nature. It is also not so much a self-directed emotion, rather, it is one that is directed outwards to the community, a signal to others that something is overwhelming the person.
All beings are wired to respond to distress with help and compassion, then understanding. Distress skips the various levels of culture and nurture and instead reaches directly to the wiring of nature.
To her distress, you responded, acknowledging it and comforting her…. that was the most natural, therefore the truest response you could offer.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/poll-shows-40-percent-of-jerusalem-arabs-prefer-israel-to-a-palestinian-sta
lol Po. I am sure it is because they love the PA/Hamas. They are not Israeli citizens like the other 1.6 million Israeli Arabs that were polled at that %18 popularity figure. These people even said that they would MOVE to Israel if the PA/Hamas take over. That differs from your theory that “it would be like asking Native Americans to move to the reservation.” These people would not have to go anywhere. What would they lose under PA rule? I wonder. It’s inexplicable i’m sure.
Commoner
No one likes either the PA or Hamas, they are just the representative of the people and they are so by force of things, not by choice.
The PA is a corrupt organization that acts as the proxy Israeli government in the West bank, and Hamas is the default and self-erected defender of the Palestinian people. It happens for every people everywhere, when the group calling for peace, non-violence and negotiation seems ineffective, the populace turns to the group that seems to push for forced change,even though such change may not be in the best interest of the population.
Also, hard to take your conclusion seriously considering the source:
“US: the pro-Sharon thinktank
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy influences the thinking of the United States government and has a near monopoly on the supply of ’expert’ witnesses to the media. After almost two decades of relative moderation, the institute is now drifting towards the Israeli right.”
http://mondediplo.com/2003/07/06beinin
Po … the part I’ve missed in my telling of the incident, which I presume you know, is that in a Muslim community women generally do not touch men who are not relatives of otherwise very close to them. To be hugged by a crying woman over my fence did surprise me, without any doubt. She was technically within the bounds of her beliefs, I imagine, since her husband was close by and seemed equally distressed and did not object to the personal closeness. The other surprise that day was my dog (Ikey boy) at the time, a dog who thought most people over 10 years of age (little kids were his sole affection among strangers) were a food group, …did nothing, no bark, no growl, nothing…as if he knew something I did not. He stood silently at my side.