Israel designated six leading Palestinian human rights groups “terrorist organizations,” but refused to reveal any evidence to prove the accusation.

Israel has failed to provide any “evidence” that would justify a designation of such severe implications, and there is no reason to expect that any forthcoming information would be more convincing.

Mohammed El Halabi, United Nations Humanitarian Hero and head of the US-based World Vision (WV) office in Gaza, has been in prison since 2016 – until last week unconvicted. He was charged with funneling $50 million in donations away from the charity.

Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision, called the charge “profoundly incomprehensible,” given that “our total budget in Gaza for 10 years was only $22.5 million.”

El Halabi had been managing Gaza operations for less than two years before his arrest.

U.S. charities are funding Israeli settler organizations working to evict Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes.

In addition to embezzlement, he was also accused of redirecting thousands of tons of iron to Hamas – iron which World Vision had allegedly imported through the Kerem Shalom crossing for construction projects.

Once again, the organization explained that it neither uses the Kerem Shalom crossing nor imports iron into Gaza.

In fact, according to his attorney, El Halabi actively rejected WV requests to import items that could fall into Hamas’ hands. (The designation of Hamas as a “terror organization” is a matter of opinion.)

Mohammed El Halabi, World Vision's area development programme manager, 8 August 2016 — Mohammed El Halabi, World Vision’s area development program manager, 8 August 2016 (Mohammad Awed / APA)

Favoring a 3rd party “confession” over the defendant’s testimony

Israeli authorities allege that Mohammed El Halabi made a confession which, according to the Guardian, “was based on notes made by an investigator, who talked to another prisoner who heard it.”

The Times of Israel adds that El Halabi’s “confession was coerced by an informant who “faked and distorted key details.”

When El Halabi explained the circumstances of the “confession” and disavowed it, judges rejected his testimony as not credible.

The subsequent verdict was based heavily on the sham confession, which Justice Natan Zlotchover described as “detailed, coherent, with signs of truthfulness.”

The NGOs targeted by Israel include:

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), which promotes and protects the rights of Palestinian children under occupation;
Al-Haq, a human rights and international law organization that participates actively at the United Nations;
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, which provides legal aid to Palestinian political prisoners and collects data on abuses in Israeli prisons;
Bisan Centre for Research and Development, which provides programming for community development, youth, and ending violence against women;
The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), which promotes food security and the rights of Palestinian farmers;
The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, which provides programs to empower women and fight against gender discrimination.

This continued lack of evidence strongly indicates that the purpose of Israel’s designation is to eliminate the advocacy of Palestinian NGOs, and to severe their relationships with international donors.

Believing nonexistent “evidence” rather than trustworthy sources

Regarding World Vision’s argument that the alleged amount of the embezzled funds is outside the scope of reality, the Israeli justices claimed that the exact figures were irrelevant: “There is no need to make accurate calculations…Evidence for the transfer of significant sums suffices” – evidence that is “secret.”

In addition to regular audits by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Australian government, World Vision ordered a major law firm to conduct an investigation into the charges against El Halabi. The Washington Post recently reported,

A team of around a dozen lawyers, including several former assistant U.S. attorneys, reviewed nearly 300,000 emails and conducted over 180 interviews. Forensic auditors scoured nearly every financial transaction at World Vision from 2010 until 2016.

In July 2017, they submitted an over 400-page report of their findings to World Vision…the report found no evidence that El Halabi was affiliated with Hamas or had diverted any funds.

The Australian government, a major donor to World Vision, also conducted a special review and found no wrongdoing; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reached the same conclusion.

In spite of these consistently exemplary reports, the Israeli court remained unconvinced.

Israeli torture & other failures of due process

In violation of international law, Israel kept Mohammed El Halabi in prison for weeks before he was allowed access to an attorney, and before informing his family of his whereabouts. He reported that his Israeli interrogators beat him – the UN says his treatment “may amount to torture.”

When his attorney was brought in, his access to Israel’s supposed evidence was severely restricted.

As the judicial process dragged on for 6 years, El Halabi’s wife and 5 young children only rarely got to visit him in prison (read more about Administrative Detention here). He attended over 160 court sessions.

According to his attorney, the Israeli court system has refused to provide El Halabi with qualified translators, impairing his ability to respond effectively to questioning.

Representatives from the UN, World Vision, and other groups, concerned about the legitimacy of his trial, have tried to observe court proceedings or view trial documents, but were routinely blocked by Israel.

These refugees from Europe are illegal immigrants and terrorists in Palestine

Speaking to DAWN, Democracy for the Arab World Now (co-founded by the late Jamal Khashoggi), Mohammed El Halabi’s attorney revealed how uncooperative Israeli officials were about witnesses for the defense:

They said, “If you bring witnesses from Gaza, we will arrest them.” We said, okay, no problem.

The witnesses agreed to be arrested because they said the allegations are nonsense, so we brought them, they testified, and they contradicted every allegation in the charge sheet.

They couldn’t address the evidence because the state doesn’t have any evidence; they could only dispute the allegations in the charge sheet.

In an interview for Mondoweiss, El Halabi described the court evidence as “fabricated” by the collaborator, who is a convicted criminal and forgery specialist.

A number of human rights organizations have called for El Halabi’s release, citing Israel’s improper handling of the case. Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch stated,

It makes a mockery of due process and the most basic fair trial notions to hold someone for nearly six years in pretrial detention based largely on secret evidence.

A left-wing activist holds a placard outside an Israeli court during the trial of Palestinian Mohammed Halabi, the Gaza director of World Vision, a major US-based Christian NGO, in Beersheva on June 15, 2022. — An activist holds a placard outside an Israeli court during the trial of Palestinian Mohammed Halabi, the Gaza director of World Vision, a major US-based Christian NGO, in Beersheva on June 15, 2022. (AFP)

Israel claims to “care about Gaza’s children” while keeping WV funding on hold for 6 years

When Mohammed El Halabi was arrested in 2016, World Vision suspended its Gaza operations, halting the distribution of medical supplies, food aid, and psychosocial support for 40,000 children. The charity remains shuttered in Gaza today.

According to Save the Children, 4 out of 5 children in Gaza struggle with depression, grief, and fear.

In 2016, when El Halabi was arrested, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked,

Let that sink in. [Through El Halabi] Hamas stole critical support for Palestinian children so that they could kill our [Jewish] children. So I ask you – who cares more about Palestinians?”

The same Israel that “cares” about Palestinian children, has killed over 2,300 of them since 2000; Palestinians have killed 137 Israeli children in the same time period. Israel has kept Gaza under a brutal blockade for 15 years, bombed children’s hospitals and schools, prevented children with cancer from getting the help they needed, poisons their water, and more.

Israel claims to support the work of aid organizations like World Vision – but the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a direct result of Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Israel recently outlawed 6 excellent Palestinian human rights orgs, claiming they have ties to terrorism – a move that – like the El Halabi case – was baseless and drew swift condemnation from around the globe.

So many secrets

Much of the evidence on which Mohammed El Halabi was indicted is “classified”; much of the proceedings were closed.

When a colleague of El Halabi was called to testify, Israel denied him permission to cross the border from Gaza to appear in court.

Even the text of the verdict – 254 pages long – is classified.

Yumna Patel writes that this is a favorite strategy in Israel:

It’s a classic move in the Israeli toolbox: in the face of lack of any real evidence of a crime, Israel pulls out the “secret evidence” card.

Is a Palestinian politically active in their community, and could pose a potential ‘threat’ to the state? Imprison them under secret evidence.

Is a human rights advocate working to bring attention to Israel’s apartheid? Ban them from traveling under secret evidence.

Are Palestinian civil society organizations threatening to hold Israel accountable for its crimes at the International Criminal Court? Criminalize the organizations and outlaw their work under secret evidence.

Sentencing for El Halabi is expected in the next few weeks. World Vision supports his appeal against the ruling will and calls for “a fair and transparent appeal process based on the facts of the case.”

Israel’s justice system is broken

In the US or any other country with a developed legal system, courtroom practices such as those described above are illegal. “Due process” – the idea that legal matters must be resolved according to established rules, and that individuals must be treated fairly – is enshrined in the laws of many countries, including Israel.

Yet, Israel routinely defers in its dealings with Palestinians to so-called secret evidence, coerced confessions, and other highly problematic practices.

Israel is hyper-prosecutorial against Palestinians – trying “crimes” in its military court as minor as alleged stone-throwing, punishable with up to 20 years in prison; locking up Palestinians by the thousands each year; over-using administrative detention; employing “enhanced interrogation” methods (i.e. torture); coercing confessions and plea bargains, resulting in a 99.7% conviction rate.

On the other side of the coin, the Israeli justice system goes easy on Israelis – illegal Israeli settlers enjoy impunity when they attack Palestinians; Israeli soldiers who participate in gratuitous violence may get a slap on the wrist; there are many examples of Israelis’ freedom to deprive Palestinians of life, liberty, and property without consequences.

The US government has since the birth of Israel overlooked documented, fact-checked reports of Israel’s blatant misconduct, instead standing by Israel’s side – in essence, blessing its crimes.

In spite of Israel’s reputation for human rights abuses against Palestinians, its well-documented collaboration with authoritarian regimes (including arms sales and spyware), and even its attack on a US Navy ship – the United States government consistently calls Israel an ally.

A number of major human rights organizations have published detailed, documented reports characterizing Israel as an apartheid regime – the United States has condemned each report out of hand.

On over 50 occasions in the last half century, following egregious violations of international law by Israel, the UN Security Council has tried to pass resolutions censuring Israel – only to have the United States use its veto power to block them.

Mohammed El Halabi is just one of 800,000 Palestinians who have been arrested by Israel since 1967; at this moment, about 5,300 Palestinians are political prisoners of Israel or locked up in administrative detention. The United States government is aware of these practices, yet continues to subsidize Israel’s military to the tune of $10 million a day.

While US leaders, heavily influenced and represented by Israel partisans, choose to believe myths about Israel, it turns a blind eye to truths about Palestine – and is currently pressuring the International Criminal Court to drop its war crimes case against Israel.

Israeli criminality runs deep; so does US governmental complicity.

Who Really Owns the Land of Palestine?

January 8, 2022 by Genie

By Thomas Williamson

Zionism is atheistic, secular, political.

An article entitled “Who Owns the Land?” which appeared in the August 30, 2002 issue of the Sword of the Lord and in various associational papers, made this interesting statement: “Meanwhile, the Jewish National Fund began to collect money to purchase land in Palestine for Jewish settlement, eventually purchasing 92% of present-day Israel.”

This 92% figure is quite different from the generally accepted and documented figures which indicate that by the time of Israel’s independence in 1948, the Jews had purchased approximately 6% to 7% of modern-day Israel (pre-1967 boundaries).

I wrote twice to the author of “Who Owns the Land?” inviting him to straighten me out and provide documentation for his statement that Jews bought 92% of Israel. I received no reply.

Meanwhile, I checked out the official web site of the Jewish National Fund at www.unitedjerusalem.com, a Jewish, pro-Israel, pro-Zionist web site.

This web site states that the Jewish National Fund purchased 375,000 acres of the land prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Preparing to take over Palestine resources “The Balfour Declaration Signifies”

Based on a total of 7992 square miles in Israel (pre-1967 boundaries), this means that the Jews purchased a total of 7.33% of Palestine from its previous Arab owners, not 92%.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, THIS LAND IS MY LAND . . . Other authorities agree that the amount of land rightfully purchased from the Arabs by the Jews was about 6-7%.

The article “The Jewish National Fund Land Purchase Methods and Priorities, 1924-1939” by Kenneth W. Stein states that “by May 1948 Jews acquired approximately 2,000,000 of Palestine’s 26,000,000 dunams.”

This is approximately 7.69% of the land, not 92%.

Jack Bernstein in “The Life of an American Jew in Racist-Marxist Israel” says that “by 1920 Jews owned only 2% of Palestine.

By 1948 when Israel declared itself a state, these invading Jews had increased their land ownership; but IT WAS STILL LESS THAN 6%.”

The booklet “Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict” by Jews for Justice in the Middle East states that “in 1948, at the moment that Israel declared itself a state, it legally owned a little more than 6% of the land of Palestine.”

Robin Miller in “The Expulsion of the Palestinians 1947-1948, says, “Before 1948, Jews owned only 1.5 million of the 26 million dunams of land in Palestine . . .

After the eviction of the Palestinians, Israel controlled 20 million dunams, an increase from 6% to 77% of the total.

They simply stole an entire country.”
It appears that many Christians are being encouraged to support Israeli land claims over those of the Palestinians, based on this unsubstantiated figure of 92% of the land having been purchased by the Jews.

However, the Jewish National Fund’s own figures indicate that they claim to have purchased only 7.33% of the land by 1948.

Imperialist Crocodile says: “don’t be afraid, I will swallow you peacefully.

Any reader of this article who can document the 92% figure claimed in the article “Who Owns the Land?” is invited to write me at the above address, and submit documentation proving that the folks at the Jewish National Fund are mistaken when they say they purchased only 7.33% of the land.

. . . BUT MOSTLY, THIS LAND IS MY LAND.

Some will say that it doesn’t matter how much of the land of Palestine was purchased by the Jews, since God has given the land to the Jews and therefore they have a right to take it from the Arab owners without paying for it.

There is no Scriptural basis for this supposition. Abraham and David, though they were Jews, paid fair market value for the land they bought from Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23:16) and from Ornan the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:21-24, 1 Chronicles 21: 22-25).

Paul, when asked what advantage the Jews had, replied, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God,” Romans 3:2. Paul does not mention expropriation of other people’s land as an advantage of being Jewish; he says that the advantage that Jews have is that they were given God’s law, which includes the commandment “Thou shalt not steal.”

There is no Scriptural basis for encouraging Jews or Israelis to disobey that commandment that God gave them.

WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN.

Others will say that we are obligated to support modern Israel no matter what, based on Old Testament verses where God states His intention to bless the ancient theocratic state of Israel.

Even preachers who say the Old Testament is not for today, and who militantly oppose those who believe in the Ten Commandments and tithing, will still go to the Old Testament to cite verses where God promises His blessing on national Israel.

They cannot quote any New Testament commands for us to support national Israel, because no such teaching exists.

Can we properly interpret Old Testament statements of God’s intention to bless ancient Israel, to mean that God is commanding that we unconditionally support modern Israel?

The answer is no, unless we are willing to follow the same logic with those verses where God promises His blessing on the Arab nations.

In Isaiah 19:25 the prophet says, “Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people.”

Based on this verse, should we not be giving all-out, unconditional financial and military support to the Egyptian government and people, just like we are doing for Israel?

Where are the brigades of “Christian Egyptianists” to travel to Egypt, to plant trees there and help run off all those pesky non-Egyptian “land squatters?”

In Genesis 21:18 God promised to make of Ishmael a great nation.

Why are we not helping to fulfill that prophecy by supporting the Palestinians and all the other Arab nations that are descended from Ishmael?

Why this selective obedience to the Word of God, that causes us to support Israel but not Egypt or Palestine?

The answer, of course, is that our foreign policy in the 21st Century AD is not necessarily determined by expressions of God’s good will toward ancient nations that no longer exist in anything resembling their ancient form.

THEY FOUGHT THE LAW, AND THE LAW WON.

Modern Israel bears no resemblance to the ancient theocratic state of Israel, which was based on obedience to the Old Testament Law and expectation of the Messiah.

Modern Israel not only rejects the Messiah but also rejects Old Testament Law.

For instance, Israel rejects the command to not oppress non-Jews living in its territory, Exodus 12:49, 22:21, 23:9, Leviticus 19:33-34, 25:35, Deuteronomy 10:18-19, 23:7, 24:17, 27:19, and the law against cutting down fruit-bearing trees, Deuteronomy 20:19-20.

It is illogical to appeal to Old Testament Law in support of modern Israel and then turn around and say, “They don’t have to obey Old Testament Law.”

Modern Israel is known for its sex industry and brothels, for its gay pride parades in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and its government-funded abortions.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, there were 18,785 legal and 16,000 illegal abortions in Israel in 1999.

Israeli critics of abortion have estimated that 1,000,000 Jewish infants were aborted from 1948 to 1992 and have likened this to the Holocaust.

Christian Zionists who send money to Israel, and lobby for American governmental subsidies to Israel, are helping to pay for this mass slaughter of pre-born Jewish children.

As Christians, we ought not to harshly judge or condemn Israel for faults which are found equally in all the Gentile nations of the world.

Nor should we go to the opposite extreme of glorifying the Israeli government and people as being worthy of our uncritical and unconditional support.

Nothing has changed since 1957 when Noel Smith, a leader in the Baptist Bible Fellowship movement, wrote these words in the Baptist Bible Tribune: “Zionism rejects the God of Israel, the God of the Prophets, the God of the Land. Zionism does not base its claim to Palestine on the covenant God made with Abraham.

Zionism refuses to admit that the dispersion of the Jews was an act of God because of the sin of the Jews in rejecting their own Messiah.

Zionism has no consciousness of sin and therefore feels no need of a personal Messiah to atone for sin. Zionism is atheistic, secular, political.

“Zionism, rejecting the God who gave Israel the Land, rejecting the grace which was responsible for the gift, has no valid claims to Palestine – none more than the Arabs.”

It is one of the mysteries of life that some modern evangelical Christians devote so much time, money and effort in support of this anti-God movement called Zionism.

THE LORD GAVE, AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY.

God gave Palestine to the Jews in Old Testament times, but this did not abrogate the rights of non-Jews to own land in Israel, as we have seen from the examples of Ephron and Ornan. (See also Numbers 9:14 – one ordinance for both the stranger and the native-born Hebrew).

The divine title deed to Palestine no longer belongs to the Jews: it was conditional on their obedience to God (see Genesis 17:9-14, Exodus 19:5-6, Deuteronomy 7:12, Joshua 23:15-16, 1 Kings 9:6-9, 2 Chronicles 7:19-22, Ezekiel 33:24-27).

God finally used the Romans to expel the Jews from the land in 70 AD as a punishment for their crowning example of disobedience of the Law: the rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah (Matthew 21:33-43, 23:38).

Of course, any Jew in Israel today who has paid for his land has a right to that land.

As Christians, we should uphold that sacred property right for all Jews, and we should do the same for all Palestinians who have lawful title to their land.

We are not Communists – we do not believe in the confiscation, without payment, of anyone’s land.

Nor are we racists – we do not advocate that anyone be kicked off his land just because he is of the “wrong” ethnic group.

WHEN I CAN READ MY TITLE CLEAR.

Do you really want to know who owns any particular parcel of land in Israel?

Then do the same thing you would do in America – find out who has the title deed and who has paid for the land.

Forget all the silly debates about whose ancestors were there first, or which ethnic group is more in favor with the Almighty.

Isaiah prophesied of a time when Jews and Arabs would be regarded as equals in the sight of God.

“In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” Isaiah 19:25-26.

We are living in that day now. The New Testament tells us that there is no difference between the Jew and Gentile (Acts 15:9, Romans 10:12, Galatians 3:28).

The Jews no longer have any advantage by being literal children of Abraham (John 8:39).

The true Israel and the true children of Abraham are those who are born again Christians, Romans 2:28-29, Galatians 3:7.

The true Israel that we are to support is the Family of God or Israel of God (Galatians 6:15-16) composed of born-again Gentiles, Jews, Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Palestinians, Patagonians and Hottentots – not some nation of Christ-rejecting people in the Middle East.

The Bible teaches us that all men, Jews and Gentiles, are of one blood (Acts 17:26) and are equal before God.

That includes Jews and Palestinians. We need to seek justice for all Jewish and Arab property holders in the Middle East, and avoid giving the false impression that God has given any one ethnic group a license to rip off any other group.

War on Terror No Problem for Israeli Crime Bosses

January 8, 2022 by Genie

Major Organized Crime Families Have Been Moving Freely Between Israel and U.S.

Was Loophole Left Open on Purpose?

I have never heard of a watch list to impede their [“Israeli” ]access here.

And yet, the stories of innocent Americans caught up on no fly lists are legendary, as are their tales of trying to be removed…easy to get on but hard to get off.

by Jim W. Dean

“…application of INA 212(a)(3)(A)(ii) against Israeli OC [Organized Crime] is not specifically authorized per Foreign Affairs Manual 40.31 N5.3.

As such, Israelis who are known to work for or belong to OC families are not automatically ineligible for travel to the United States. “

I am not making this up folks.

You would think that with all the War on Terror lists, the overseas phone monitoring, emails, Intel sharing…the list goes on and on, that Israeli Organized Crime (OC) families could not travel freely between the U.S. and Israel, but think again.

The new Wikileaks US Embassy in Israel cable (released August 26th) gives you a peek into the gang who can’t shoot straight.

Or maybe someone has poor aim on purpose.

We are spending a fortune on Homeland Security and have given up all kinds of freedoms to ‘be safe’.

If you or I donate to the wrong charity that has a tangential tie to a listed terrorist group that we did not know about, we can find our selves in a felony prosecution with no premeditation.

Europeans have tens of thousands doing hard time for WWII historical dispute ‘thought crimes’.

Yet when it comes to known mobster family law enforcement the cops throws their hands up and claim ‘doo doo happens’

That Israel can’t shut down the known crime families in a country deemed the most secure on the planet can only mean that key organized crime people are moonlighting for powerful entities who want the doors left open.

The Israeli tourism minister murdered some years ago was thought to be implicated in their White Slavery trade

It is not a big secret in the trade that big international crime organizations are usually tripping all over themselves to do anything they can for certain Intel agencies for the wonderful get out of jail free card it can bring.

Small fry don’t get these of course. They are for the big boys only.

The Afghanistan drug money has our political system awash with the purchasing of protection money, and the high end crime bosses having the pick of the litter for retiring counter intelligence people looking to make more money than they ever dreamed.

And they can do some Intel work for the folks back home on the side.

We just had an example of this done American style with ex-Deputy Secretary of State David Welch, now with the huge Bechtel international contractor, advising indicted war crimes criminal Gaddafi and family on how to defeat NATO, including American service men and women in harm’s way.

The captured Gaddafi Intel documents reveal that Welch even suggested laundering what certainly seemed to be a request for negative Intel on the rebels by running it through Israeli Intel so it would sell better on the home front.

If you are wondering I think Welch and Bechtel were offering this assistance for some financial gain, the answer is yes.

And I don’t think Welch ever cried himself to sleep one night over it, nor is he now.

There are a lot of hard working cops ( as you will read below) chasing these crime family guys around but they never seem able to deliver the knockout blow.

The loophole noted up at the beginning is still open over two years after it was written.

There is a criminal statute, I think they call it ‘theft by conversion’…where someone takes money for a service and then does not provide it, like a home remodeling ‘advance for the materials’ scam.

Folks, besides all the back slapping these security people wear themselves out giving each other, major threats continue because the perps have a lot of political juice.

That is where all the mega criminal activity is now because the ‘safety’ record of virtually no one going to jail is carved in stone.

The scandal of the decades long massive Israeli espionage operations here is a glaring example.

I have never heard of a watch list to impede their access here.

And yet, the stories of innocent Americans caught up on no fly lists are legendary, as are their tales of trying to be removed…easy to get on but hard to get off.

I included the full cable. I wanted you to see that these embassy people are trying hard…and passing on the full story. But nothing has been done.

There are many, many security things where nothing has been done, and I pose to you that the same thread would be found in many of them.

They have political protection…all that they need.

For those of you thinking Mr. Jim is going overboard on this, save it for the next one.Israeli Shin Betcan and has tortured Palestinian kids as young as 12 years old, with Supreme Court approval, just to get them to spill the beans on who Uncle Ahmed has been visiting late in the evenings.

They could clean these gangs out in a year…if they wanted to.

Someone didn’t want to. But fortunately they are making some progress.

And just like with Gaddafi, when the Bush crowd came in, and Blair, they offered him protection…with a dress on it.

Do you think they did that for the goodness of their hearts, or did he give them some things that they really wanted?

And who paid for this largess? Forty thousand detained Libyans are still missing.

So who aided and abetted terrorism on a grand scale?

More on the long CIA history with Gaddafi will be coming out.

We have already reported here that he was a protege of Richard Helms last week.

How many of you knew part of Gaddafi’s holdings that we are supposed to be keeping in cold storage here is a 30% stake in daddy Bush’s Cargill Corp?

Was that same corp that supplied chemical weapons to Saddam to test out on the Kurds?

U. S. forces found some of the remnants buried in the Iraqi desert with the labels still on them. So again, who were the aiders and abettors of that terrorism?

It’s a nasty world folks.

View Original Post on WikiLeaks

WIKILEAKS

A Promised Land for Organized Crime?

Summary

1. (SBU) Organized crime (OC) has longstanding roots in Israel, but in recent years there has been a sharp increase in the reach and impact of OC networks.

In seeking a competitive advantage in such lucrative trades as narcotics and prostitution, Israeli crime groups have demonstrated their ability and willingness to engage in violent attacks on each other with little regard for innocent bystanders.

The Israeli National Police (INP) and the courts have engaged in a vigorous campaign against organized crime leaders, including the creation of a new specialized anti-OC unit, but they remain unable to cope with the full scope of the problem.

Organized crime in Israel now has global reach, with direct impact inside the United States.

Post is currently utilizing all available tools to deny Israeli OC figures access to the United States in order to prevent them from furthering their criminal activities on U.S. soil. End Summary.

Crime War Hits the Streets of Israel

2. (SBU) In November 2008, Israeli crime boss Yaakov Alperon was assassinated in broad daylight in a gruesome attack on the streets of Tel Aviv, only about a mile away from the Embassy.

According to several media accounts, a motor scooter pulled up alongside Alperon’s car and the rider attached a sophisticated explosive device with a remote detonator to the car door.

The bomb killed Alperon and his driver, and injured two innocent pedestrians.

The hit was the latest in a series of violent attacks and reprisals, and indicated a widening crime war in Israel.

3. In July 2008, a 31-year-old Israeli woman was killed by a stray bullet on the beach in Bat Yam in front of her husband and two children during a failed assassination attempt on noted crime figure Rami Amira.

In a feud between the Abutbul and Shirazi clans, crime boss Shalom “Charlie” Abutbul was shot by two gunmen in September 2008, an attack that also wounded three bystanders.

In December 2008, Charlie Abutbul’s son-in-law, Nati Ohayon, was gunned down in his car in Netanya.

Before the fatal bombing of his car, Alperon himself had survived at least three previous attempts on his life before his assassination, and was engaged in an ongoing feud with the rival Abergil clan (although there are numerous suspects in Alperon’s murder).

The day after Alperon’s death, two members of the Abergil syndicate were sentenced for conspiring to kill Alperon’s brother, Nissim, in May 2008.

4. (SBU) In response to rising concerns for public safety, former Prime Minister Olmert convened an emergency meeting of top law enforcement officials, cabinet members, and prosecutors in December ¶2008.

He promised to add 1,000 officers to the INP and to allocate approximately NIS 340 million (USD 81 million) to improve the INP’s technical capabilities.

In general, the rise in OC-related violence has led some public figures to call for emergency state powers to attack criminal organizations, and OC became a minor but important issue in the February 2009 Knesset elections.

Former Labor Party MK Ephraim Sneh publicly decried criminal extortion in his campaign ads, only to have his car torched in apparent retaliation outside his home in Herzliya.

Background

5. (SBU) Organized criminal activity is not a new phenomenon in Israel, and major crime families are well known to the Israeli public (the Alperons even featured in a recent reality television program).

Five or six crime families have traditionally dominated OC in Israel, although the names and makeup of these syndicates have fluctuated in recent years.

The Abergil, Abutbul, Alperon, and Rosenstein organizations are among the most well known, but recent arrests and assassinations have created a power vacuum at the top.

New names such as Mulner, Shirazi, Cohen and Domrani have moved quickly to fill the gap.

Other up-and-coming groups include the Harari, Ohana, and Kdoshim families.

There are also a number of rival families active in the underworld of Israel’s Arab sector.

6. (SBU) Traditional OC activities in Israel include illegal neighborhood casinos, prostitution rings, extortion, and loan sharking, with each family controlling a different geographic region.

The Alperon family, for instance, dominates the Sharon region, while the Abutbul operation is based in the coastal city of Netanya.

The focus is largely on easy money guaranteed by the limited use of violence.

Criminal involvement in the recycling business, for example, has been well covered in the press.

OC families collect bottles illegally from municipal recycling bins and restaurants, return them at the collection centers claiming twice the actual numbers, and pocket the change for millions in profits.

Not Your Grandfather’s Mob

7. (SBU) Despite their notoriety, OC figures have generally been viewed as a nuisance to be handled by local police.

Law enforcement resources were directed to more existential security threats from terrorists and enemy states.

In recent years, however, the rules of the game have changed.

According to Yaakov Lappin of the Jerusalem Post, the old school of Israel OC is giving way to a new, more violent, breed of crime.

Lappin told conoffs that the new style of crime features knowledge of hi-tech explosives acquired from service in the Israeli Defense Forces, and a willingness to use indiscriminate violence, at least against rival gang leaders.

New OC business also includes technology-related crimes, such as stock market and credit card fraud, and operates on a global scale.

8. (SBU) As the reach of Israeli OC has grown, so have the stakes.

Crime families are working further from home and exporting violence abroad.

Older gambling schemes have grown to include sprawling casino franchises in Eastern Europe.

The Abutbul family began its gambling business in Romania over a decade ago, and now owns the Europe-wide Casino Royale network.

In 2002, Israeli OC turf wars spilled into Europe when Yaakov Abergil and Felix Abutbul were killed two months apart.

Abutbul was gunned down in front of his casino in Prague in a show of force by the Abergils as they attempted to capture a portion of the European gambling market.

9. (SBU) Israeli OC now plays a significant role in the global drug trade, providing both a local consumer market and an important transit point to Europe and the United States.

In 2004, Zeev Rosenstein was arrested in Israel for possession of 700,000 ecstasy tablets in his New York apartment, destined for distribution in the U.S. market.

He was ultimately extradited to the United States in 2006, where he is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence.

Two other crime figures, Meir Abergil and Israel Ozifa, are also facing U.S. extradition charges on charges that include smuggling 100,000 ecstasy tablets into the United States.

10. (SBU) The prostitution business has also grown beyond the neighborhood brothel.

In March 2009, the INP arrested twelve suspects in what is believed to be the largest Israeli-led human trafficking network unearthed to date.

Ring leader Rami Saban and his associates were charged with smuggling thousands of women from the former Soviet Union and forcing them to work as prostitutes in Israel, Cyprus, Belgium, and Great Britain. Some women were flown to Egypt and smuggled across the Sinai border by Bedouins.

Law Enforcement Steps up the Pressure

11. (SBU) After years of perceived inaction, in 2008 the INP created a new unit called Lahav 433.

The elite unit operates under the direct command of the police commissioner, and is charged specifically with infiltrating and eliminating Israel’s major crime syndicates.

Lahav 433 also cooperates closely with district investigative units to combat smaller criminal organizations, many of which are aligned with the larger crime families.

12. (SBU) Following Alperon’s assassination, the INP initiated a series of raids that led to the arrests of a number of leading crime figures.

Among their targets were Aviv and Adam Abutbul, sons of crime-family head Charlie Abutbul, both charged with possession of illegal weapons.

(A third brother, Francois, is already facing murder charges for a nightclub killing in 2004.)

Police also arrested gangland figure Amir Mulner for weapons possession and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Mulner is known to be an explosives expert by army training, and is a suspect in Yaakov Alperon’s murder.

He is also believed to be managing affairs for Rosenstein while the latter serves his sentence in the United States.

13. (SBU) Yaakov Alperon’s brother Nissim was arrested with 18 others in December 2008, in what was reported to be a “mafia meeting” in a Tel Aviv-area caf.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the group may have been planning a revenge attack for his brother’s recent assassination.

Alperon’s son Dror, recently dismissed from his army service for disorderly behavior, also faces several counts of assault and was convicted on extortion charges.

Also in December, police in Netanya launched several raids on illegal gambling houses and the homes of suspected money launderers with ties to the crime families.

In Ashdod, brothers Roni and David Harari were arrested on charges of extortion.

Regional police stuck a blow against the Jerusalem Gang, and convicted its leader Itzik Bar Muha.

Skepticism Hovers Over GOI Efforts

14. (SBU) Journalist Yuval Goren of Ha’aretz told conoffs that “thousands of foot soldiers” remain active on the streets despite these aggressive anti-OC operations.

He noted that approximately 2,000 people attended Alperon’s very public funeral.

Goren expressed skepticism that recent arrests will bear fruit in the long term without a sustained commitment to enforcement.

He noted that many of the crime leaders remain active while in prison and their operations are not hampered significantly even when they are convicted and jailed.

15. (SBU) In December 2008, former Prime Minister Olmert himself admitted that efforts to combat OC have long been diluted among different agencies, and that INP technology lags far behind that allocated to security services for counterterrorism.

Given the recent change in government and the current economic crisis, there is public skepticism as to whether GOI promises to remedy the situation will be fulfilled.

In 2003, following a failed assassination attempt on Rosenstein, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made similar promises to commit manpower and resources to combating the problem.

16. (SBU) It is not entirely clear to what extent OC elements have penetrated the Israeli establishment and corrupted public officials.

The INP insists that such instances are rare, despite the occasional revelation of crooked police officers in the press.

Nevertheless, there have been several dramatic revelations in recent years that indicate a growing problem.

In 2004, former government minister Gonen Segev was arrested for trying to smuggle thousands of ecstasy pills into Israel, a case that produced considerable circumstantial evidence of his involvement in OC.

The election of Inbal Gavrieli to the Knesset in 2003 as a member of Likud raised concerns about OC influence in the party’s Central Committee.

Gavrieli is the daughter of a suspected crime boss, and she attempted to use her parliamentary immunity to block investigations into her father’s business.

(Gavrieli is no longer a member of the Knesset.)

Just last month, Israeli politicos and OC figures came together for the funeral of Likud party activist Shlomi Oz, who served time in prison in the 1990s for extortion on behalf of the Alperon family.

Among those in attendance was Omri Sharon, son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was himself convicted in 2006 on illegal fundraising charges unrelated to OC.

Courts Testing New Powers

17. (SBU) In 2003, the GOI passed anti-OC legislation that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment for heading a criminal organization and three years for working in such an organization.

The law defines such a body as a group of people working in an “organized, methodical and ongoing pattern to commit offenses that are defined by the laws of Israel as crimes.”

The law also allows for property forfeiture, both in the wake of conviction and in cases where it is proven to belong to a criminal organization.

18. (SBU) Until recently, said Lappin, judges and lawyers have been slow to make use of this authority, and are hampered by a lack of resources, insufficient understanding of the tools at their disposal, and reticence to mete out tough sentences.

A witness protection program for those who testify against OC is just now getting off the ground, and is not backed by any specific legislation.

Nevertheless, on March 16th, a Tel Aviv district court took the important step of sentencing 14 convicted criminals belonging to two mob organizations in Ramle and Jaffa to up to 27 years in prison.

19. (SBU) Increased efforts by Israeli authorities to combat OC have engendered retaliatory threats of violence.

Recent press reports indicate that as many as 10 Israeli judges are currently receiving 24-hour protection by the police against the threat of violence from members of crime organizations.

Israeli OC appears to be intent on intimidating judges personally, as a way of influencing the legal process.

Judges in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa have been assigned police protection, underscoring the depth of the problem.

Israeli Crime Reaches American Shores

20. (SBU) Israel’s multi-ethnic population provides a deep well of opportunity for Israeli OC to expand into new territory.

Most Israeli crime families trace their roots to North Africa or Eastern Europe, and many of their Israeli operatives hold foreign passports allowing them to move freely in European countries, most of which participate in the visa waiver program with the United States.

Approximately one million Russians moved to Israel following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and Russian citizens no longer require visas to enter Israel.

Many Russian oligarchs of Jewish origin and Jewish members of OC groups have received Israeli citizenship, or at least maintain residences in the country.

Little is known about the full extent of Russian criminal activity in Israel, but sources in the police estimate that Russian OC has laundered as much as USD 10 billion through Israeli holdings.

While most Israeli OC families are native-born and the stereotype that Russian immigrants tend to be mobsters is greatly overblown, indigenous OC groups routinely employ “muscle” from the former Soviet Union.

21. (SBU) The profit motive serves as a great unifier among Israel’s diverse demographic groups.

According to Goren, some Amsterdam-based Hasidic groups allegedly are implicated in international drug smuggling through links to Israeli OC.

Arab and Jewish Israeli criminals routinely cooperate and form alliances to expand control of lucrative drug, car theft and extortion rackets.

Even hostile and closed borders pose few obstacles to OC groups.

According to the INP, 43% of intercepted heroin in 2008 was smuggled from Lebanon, 37% from Jordan, and 12% from Egypt.

Israeli OC Operating Freely in United States

22. (SBU) Given the volume of travel and trade between the United States and Israel, it is not surprising that Israeli OC has also gained a foothold in America.

Over the last decade, media reports have detailed a number of high-profile cases involving Israeli OC, ranging from large-scale drug deals to murder.

The ongoing Central District of California grand jury investigation against the Abergil family, where a RICO conspiracy case was initiated in December 2007, best demonstrates the full extent of such criminal activity.

Investigators have linked Yitzhak Abergil and his entire network to crimes of “embezzlement, extortion, kidnapping, and money laundering.”

Yitzhak Abergil is currently under arrest in Israel and facing extradition for related charges linking him to the murder of Israeli drug dealer Samy Attias on U.S. soil.

23. (SBU) As part of an ongoing effort to track Israeli OC through media reports and police sources, Post so far has identified 16 families and 78 related individuals who are at the center of Israeli organized criminal activity.

The consular section has revoked several visas for those who have been convicted of crimes in Israel, but many OC figures have no prior criminal convictions and carry no visa ineligibilities.

As a result, many hold valid nonimmigrant visas to the United States and have traveled freely or attempted to travel for a variety of purposes.

24. (SBU) In March 2009, Post received information from law enforcement authorities that convicted criminal and member of the Abergil organization, Mordechai Yair Hasin, along with his pregnant wife and child, was intending to flee Israel for Los Angeles on valid tourist visas.

Hasin’s visa was revoked based on his conviction, as were his family’s visas after they were determined to be intending immigrants.

25. (SBU) As in the Hasin case, Post is using every available tool to limit OC travel to the United States, but such efforts are not always successful.

In June 2008, Post issued Adam Abitbul a valid tourist visa. Abitbul had no prior criminal convictions, and carried no visa ineligibilities.

Several months later, Post received information from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) that he had traveled to the United States to carry out a hit.

Abitbul returned to Israel prematurely for his father’s funeral, at which time Post revoked his visa.

(Post can only revoke the visas of Israeli citizens while in country.)

In a similar case, in October 2008 Post issued Moshe Bar Muha a tourist visa; he claimed to be traveling for medical treatment.

Post subsequently received information from the LAPD that Bar Muha is in fact the brother of Itzik Bar Muha of the Jerusalem Gang (see above) and a convicted criminal.

26. (SBU) As recently as March 2009, Zvika Ben Shabat, Yaacov Avitan, and Tzuri Rokah requested visas to attend a “security-related convention” in Las Vegas.

According to local media reports, all three had involvement with OC. Post asked the applicants to provide police reports for any criminal records in Israel, but without such evidence there is no immediate ineligibility for links to OC.

Luckily, all three have so far failed to return for continued adjudication of their applications.

Nevertheless, it is fair to assume that many known OC figures hold valid tourist visas to the United States and travel freely.

Comment: Israeli OC Slipping Through the Consular Cracks

27. (SBU) Given the growing reach and lethal methods of Israeli OC, blocking the travel of known OC figures to the United States is a matter of great concern to Post.

Through collaboration with Israeli and U.S. law enforcement authorities, Post has developed an extensive database and placed lookouts for OC figures and their foot soldiers.

Nevertheless, the above visa cases demonstrate the challenges that have arisen since the termination of the Visas Shark in September 2008.

Unlike OC groups from the former Soviet Union, Italy, China, and Central America, application of INA 212(a)(3)(A)(ii) against Israeli OC is not specifically authorized per Foreign Affairs Manual 40.31 N5.3.

As such, Israelis who are known to work for or belong to OC families are not automatically ineligible for travel to the United States.

CUNNINGHAM [Ambassador]

Terror Watch-Occupied Palestine

July 20, 2021 by Genie

Settler shoots Palestinian in Hebron, IDF drop a knife next to victim.
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Israeli statistics state that 3,500 ‘Israelis’ have been killed and 25,000 have been wounded as a result of Palestinian violence since Israel was founded in 1948.

Forms of terrorism have included hostage-taking, plane hijackings, stone-throwing, stabbing, shootings, and bombings.

According to Israeli Human Rights groups in Judea and Samaria [Palestine West Bank] , 500 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians from 2000 to 2012, in Israel, and another 254 Israeli civilians were killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

One of those human rights groups reported that the main argument used to justify violence against civilians is that “all means are legitimate in fighting for independence against a foreign occupation”.

They criticized this argument, saying it is completely baseless and contradicts the principle of international humanitarian law.

“According to this principle, civilians are to be protected from the consequences of warfare, and any attack must discriminate between civilians and military targets.

This principle is part of international customary law; as such, it applies to every state, organization, and person, even those who are not party to any relevant convention.”

Six things Hashem hates; Seven are an abomination to Him: A haughty bearing, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A mind that hatches evil plots, Feet quick to run to evil, A false witness testifying lies, And one who incites brothers to quarrel. Proverbs 6:16-19

PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE: 5,100,000 Palestinians have been killed since 1948

For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “bear witness”, “zero tolerance for lying” and “never again to anyone”, anyone including the Indigenous Palestinian victims of the racist Zionist Palestinian Genocide – 2 million dead since 1936, 0.1 million from violence, 1.9 million from war-, expulsion- and occupation-derived deprivation; 7 million refugees; 4.1 million Occupied Palestinians deprived of ALL the human rights listed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ; 6 million Palestinians forbidden to even live in the homeland continuously inhabited by their forbears to the very dawn of agrarian civilization; 0.9 million Palestinian children confined without charge or trial to what the Catholic Church and many others have described as Israel’s Gaza Concentration Camp for the asserted “crime” of being Indigenous Palestinians living in a tiny, remorselessly Zionist-bombed patch of Palestine.

The history of the Shin Bet’s use of torture, and what it says about Israel today

May 8, 2021 by Genie

Israel outlawed torture more than two decades ago, yet years later evidence of the state’s security services exerting rampant physical and psychological abuse continue to surface.

Human rights groups representing Palestinians who have filed more than one thousand suits alleging torture by the Shin Bet, also known as the Shabak or General Security Service, claim the practice is still endemic and continues in a system with little oversight.

How can torture be both banned and common practice? The answer lies in the organization’s longitudinal development, where secrecy has prevailed.

It is governed by policies that are classified and have never been examined by an independent or external body, shielding it from media and public scrutiny.

On 8 February 1949, the Shin Bet was officially formed but it was not until 1957 that the general public became aware of its creation.

Its inception fell upon a period where many “threats” were looming overhead for the newly formed state, in the wake of the 1948 war against five neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinian Nakba, the start of the Palestinian refugee crisis where 700,000 vacated their homeland and were either forcibly driven out or left due to fear.

Another 156,000 Palestinians remained within Israel – the new government took this as a potential threat.

Initially, the Shin Bet constricted its focus towards half a million Palestinians who had become Israeli citizens in the aftermath of the 1948 war.

Today, its mandate covers ensuring state security, dismantling terrorist groups, and counter-espionage.

In this turbulent context, the existence, operations, and tactics of the Shin Bet were kept in the shadows.

The organization became the embodiment of its motto – “The defender that shall not be seen.”

The early years

In 1948, Ezra Danin – head of the Haganah’s “Arab Section” – was in charge of “destroying Arab villages.” The Hagana, a Zionist paramilitary force, was the forerunner to the Shin Bet as the former’s forces were drawn from to create the latter after Israeli independence.

In his quest to maintain state control, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, sustained the British Mandate appointed The (Emergency) Defense Regulations, 1945.

These regulations gave Israel, like the British before them, an inordinate degree of powers relating to detention, intelligence, and other law-related matters.

In essence, a military government system was present in Israel following independence.

This added with the fact that Israel has been in a perpetual state of emergency since independence has legitimized many insidious actions against the Palestinian minority that includes a range of surveillance-based methods adopted by the Shin Bet and police.

The objective was to constrain the Palestinian refugees from re-entering Israel.

To achieve this, the Shin Bet, the army, and other agencies used intelligence received from their collaborators which allowed security agencies to drive the refugees back to their camps.

In the 1950s, the government of Mapai (The Workers Party) used the Shin Bet to coerce people into voting for the Mapai’s Arab satellite parties.

The Mapai used their satellites politically to keep their Arab allies contented and also to use their Arab puppets in the Knesset (parliament) for propaganda purposes.

Although the Shin Bet achieved its goals on various occasions, it was unregulated, during this period, by any law.

The Shin Bet was not only considered untouchable but for many years since its formation, remained a secret organization – hidden from the public’s eye.

Its clandestine behavior was and still is abetted by Israel’s Military Censor, which aims to restrict the media from revealing sensitive information.

In this period, the organization was only answerable to the prime minister; and the masses were not supposed to know the name of the organization’s head and the death of an agent remained unreported.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Shin Bet would also monitor if the Palestinians celebrated Independence Day with enthusiasm or distaste, and would take action accordingly.

In this same period, Palestinians had to get permission from the Regional Arab Committees of Arab Affairs to do rudimentary tasks such as receiving loans, obtaining jobs in the public sector, shifting their residence etcetera – this committee comprised of a Shin Bet officer, military governor, government representative, and a police officer.

The Shin Bet was also invasive in suppressing anti-Israel or anti-government insinuations.

The agency was active in the vetting of teachers and principals in the Palestinian school system.

Furthermore, the Shin Bet monitored teachers who were seen as being too nationalistic, and if these tendencies proliferated, the agency would intervene and threaten their dismissal.

The Shin Bet also used to monitor various aspects of education which included teachers speaking against security agencies; discourses that had anti-Semitic implications; and criticisms of the military government.

Concerning Palestinian politics in Israel, Israel and its agencies used to monitor local elections and education.

In local elections, the Jewish government supported the Palestinian clans who were loyal to them by allowing the heads of clans to run the local councils.

Furthermore, local authorities, which comprised elected Palestinians, were initiated to provide educated Palestinians with jobs and impede them from adopting undesirable political behaviors.

In fact, professor of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University, Ahmed Sa’di, contends that the plan was to include the Palestinians on the fringes of the economy so that their financial survival becomes more valued than their political or moral beliefs.

From 1958-1969 and beyond, the government used ploys such as incentivizing Palestinian youth to study abroad then making their return home challenging; implementing harsher laws; and reducing the Palestinian numbers in integral economic zones etcetera.

The government entrusted the Shin Bet and others to gather intelligence to execute said plans.

The military government that was in effect since 1948 was finally discontinued in 1966. In 1967, the Six-Day War erupted between Israel and Jordan, Syria and Egypt.

It changed the socio, political, and geographic landscape of the Middle East. Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

In 1976, Israel announced that they would be confiscating Palestinian land for settlement and security reasons – the tragedy that ensued would be remembered as Land Day.

This decision was met with massive protests by the Palestinians which caused the IDF and police to be deployed.

In the subsequent clashes between the Palestinians and the security forces, six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed and around 100 were injured.

Hillel Cohen, an Israeli scholar, mentions a specific instance leading up to the protests in his book on informants “Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 1948-1967.”

He states that Tareq ‘Abd al-Hayy, then the mayor of the Arab village of Tira in northern Israel, called the police on the Land Day protesters after he attempted to disband the marchers, but was thwarted by local shop owners.

Cohen called this “the swan song of his close relationship with the security forces.”

Following instances like this, the Shin Bet would either intimidate to incentivize working for them as informants, locally referred to as “collaborators.”

Possible benefits for informants include a government job or a permit to open a business.

This point is reinforced in the documentary, “Inside the Shin Bet,” by Hussein Abu Hussein, a lawyer, who highlights that due to the poverty-stricken conditions of the Palestinians.

He said they become perfect candidates for conscription and Avigdor Feldman, a human rights lawyer, claimed that Arab spies are present in all Palestinian towns.

In 1984, an event unfolded that had grave repercussions for the Shin Bet.

The Bus 300 affair shocked the Israeli public and demonized the Shin Bet in the mainstream’s eye.

A bus departing from Tel Aviv to the town of Ashkelon was hijacked by four Palestinians who demanded the freedom of 500 Palestinian inmates.

The military was involved and in the ensuing operation, two of the four Palestinians were killed, while the other two were captured alive and handed over to the Shin Bet.

A military spokesperson lied to the public however that all four perpetrators had been killed in the operation.

It was only later that Hadashot, an Israeli newspaper, published a photograph that showed one of the terrorists being taken alive by security agents.

Outraged by this, the public demanded an investigation into this issue. The Zorea Committee, and following it, the Blatman Committee, was appointed to find out the truth, but both failed.

It was not until two years later that high-ranking Shin Bet officials revealed agents had lied to the Committee and erroneously faulted a high-ranking IDF official for the murder of two terrorists.

The director of the Shin Bet at the time, Avraham Shalom, was heavily involved in the cover-up, as was later disclosed in 1986 when it was discovered that the pair were killed under interrogation.

In May 1986, details were made public regarding the involvement of Shalom in the murder of the two terrorists and his authorization to Shin Bet officials to lie under oath but despite this, the President shockingly pardoned him.

Commenting on this incident, Yossi Beilin, the former Israeli Justice Minister, remarked that the general public comprehended that the Shin Bet could be liars and killers.

The event brought the elusive agency and its approaches into the public eye for the first time.

The 1980s also witnessed the Nafsu Affair in which IDF officer, Izat Nafsu, confessed to his crimes of improper interrogation methods such as insulting, beating, sleep-depriving, shaking, etcetera.

The Nafsu Affair coupled with The Bus 300 affair forced the Israeli government’s hand and it moved towards the regulation of the Shin Bet.

Shin Bet and the legal framework, the 1980s to today
In 1987, the Landau Commission was established by the Knesset to deliberate on Shin Bet’s interrogation methods.

The Landau Commission concluded that: the Shin Bet did use violent interrogation techniques, which it must refrain from, but a “moderate level of physical pressure” could be applied in some cases.

Israeli forces, including soldiers disguised as Palestinians, violently arrest a Palestinian child in occupied Jerusalem on October 24, 2014.

Initially, the results were looked at in a positive light, although the Commission was and is still criticized for numerous reasons.

Firstly, the report has a secret annex, which contains rules for permitted interrogation techniques – this annex has never been made public.

Furthermore, Dr. Ishai Menuchin – Public Committee Against Torture in Israel – comments that this “moderate physical pressure” exemption was eventually subjected to all Palestinians.

The “moderate physical pressure” rule was too ambiguous and the Ben-Porat Report exposed that the Shin Bet frequently broke this rule.

Moreover, the allowance of “moderate physical pressure” in Shin Bet interrogations was the essence of the problem and made effective supervision useless.

In hindsight, the Landau Commission was counterproductive as the jargon of the regulations allowed the Shin Bet to manipulate it to its desired outcome.

In 1999, the Israeli High Court of Justice intervened and stated unequivocally that “physical pressure” is forbidden except in “ticking time bomb” scenarios.

In the documentary “The Gatekeepers,” six former Shin Bet directors – Avraham Shalom, Yuval Diskin, Avi Dichter, Yakkov Peri, Ami Avalon, and Carmi Gillon – were interviewed for the first time. In the film, Gillon explains the ticking time bomb justification: the scenario involves a possible terrorist attack and the person the agency is interrogating has information that can foil said attack.

This is the only exception to using “physical pressure” according to the court.

What was astonishing is that all of the former heads of the spy agency concluded that violence will beget more violence and that dialogue is the solution for long-term peace.

Even Shalom – the infamous director of the Shin Bet during the Bus 300 affair – claims that there is no substitute for “talking.”

Dichter says that peace must be built on a system of trust and cannot be obtained militarily while Gillon mentions that Israel would be remiss if they do not engage in peace talks.

If former Shin Bet directors believe that force is not the solution then there must be some credence to their thoughts.

In 2002, new legislation was finally approved by the Knesset which was the first law that centered on the intelligence community.

The legislation called the “Shin Bet Law,” took many years to finally approve.

After the law, the Shin Bet and other agencies were no longer shrouded in secrecy and under the aegis of this law, Shin Bet’s internal and external supervisions became regulated.

Yet tragically, the most controversial aspect of interrogation methods was surprisingly untouched by the law.

The Knesset was content with the ruling made by the Israeli High Court of Justice and that this was to remain the ruling on Shin Bet’s interrogation techniques.

The Shin Bet still works under the Prime Minister but its actions have become regulated than in the past – at least on paper.

The Knesset Foreign and Security Committee is the body that makes sure if the agency is functioning within the framework of the law.

B’Tselem reports that Palestinians who have undergone Shin Bet interrogations state that “they are held in inhuman conditions, including narrow, windowless cells…” – others “reported exposure to extremes of heat and cold, as well as sleep deprivation.”

Tal Steiner wrote in Haaretz the case of murder suspect Palestinian Samer Arbid who was hospitalized in September 2019 due to multiple broken ribs and kidney failure.

She states that he was tortured by the Shin Bet and when an investigation was conducted, it was, like hundreds before it, found that there was no wrongdoing by the agency.

She writes that “This sends a resounding message to every Shin Bet interrogator: It doesn’t matter what you do during the interrogation, how much violence you use against the interrogee or what the results are, the system will defend you.”

Since 2001 around 1,200 complaints of allegations of agents using violence during Shin Bet interrogations have been filed, yet there have been no indictments, according to the Israeli Committee Against Torture.

The group estimates that it takes around 39 months for each claim to be processed, which is done by an evaluation of statements from the complainant and the interrogator. The Shin Bet does not record or keep records of tactics used during interrogation.

The volume of complaints quadrupled between 2012 and 2015, according to information supplied by the Israeli government to its high court.

The influx came after the court allowed for allegations of torture to be perused in criminal proceedings.

Even so, a group of human rights organizations representing Palestinians in torture cases, logged over 850 torture complaints that were sent to the attorney general between 2001 and 2014, of which were not investigated.

Unfortunately, the Shin Bet did not heed the advice of these ex-heads, and human rights abuses continued.

Philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s eminent 1968 prediction of Israel’s occupation careening the country towards authoritarianism resonates today.

He prophesied, “A state ruling over a hostile population of 1 million foreigners will necessarily become a Shin Bet state.”

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CIA post 9/11 Torture for Profit

February 5, 2020 by Genie

Thailand is set to open Ramasun Camp Historical Museum – the ex-army base once home to a US CIA blacksite and secret torture prison

xcerpt from Torture Is the Central Issue in the Guantanamo TrialsJanuary 30, 2020

The CIA is hiding the names of those who ordered and carried out the torture of Guantanamo detainees. Even after years of legal battles, the United States is likely still using black sites and torture.

These were two psychologists who had worked for the US Air Force and had taken on as CI, as private contractors. And initially they went out to these CIA black sites to observe what was going on and make recommendations as the CIA wanted to step up the pressure on these detainees to cough up information.

But they ended up making these recommendations about how to set up interrogation based on US survival techniques as they train US pilots and other US members of armed forces to evade and resist interrogation when they’re captured.

And they wanted to bring these techniques that are used on US service members and make it the guidelines, the outline for what they called the enhanced interrogation techniques.

And so they ended up designing this program and then they were asked by the CIA to apply this program. So in effect, they became hired torturers although they were contractors and eventually set up a company, Mitchell Jessen and Associates that sold these services to the US government.

Marc Steiner: And made a lot of money. I think it was your article, I believe it was in your article and it could’ve been someone else’s I read so much this morning that they made almost $81 million over like a four or five year period or did I read that wrong?

Julian Borger: No, that’s what they were paid. But that was to provide a whole lot of security guards. They ended up providing all the security guards for the black sites and rendition. So it was all contracted out. So that wasn’t your profit.

That was what the total of government paid him. I think Mitchell was paid something around one and a half million and Justin’s slightly less.

Marc Steiner: A little more than you are making a year but there’s other people involved here. One we don’t know about called the preacher and the new sheriff, I guess a man named Charlie Wise who passed away some years back.

But they’re key to a lot of this in terms of that knowing who they are. This is kind of tip of the iceberg, the secrets that we may never know.

Julian Borger: That’s right. I think Mitchell has been pushing back over the past week that he was the face on the totality of the enhanced interrogation system, and he has been pointing out and there is a lot of evidence that was a big bureaucracy and infrastructure around the use of torture.

This was a sort of whole of government effort that the FBI was, it looks like more involved than they have made out in the past. And it went throughout the CIA and of course up to the top ranks of the Bush administration.

Israel’s Torture Industry

December 19, 2019 by Genie

Israel is a haven for criminals and a university for budding crooks.

2019

It is not only doctors in the Shin Bet and the Israel Prison Service that collaborate with torture. Doctors in emergency rooms across Israel write false medical opinions in accordance with the demands of the Shin Bet.

Take, for example, the case of Nader Qumsieh from the West Bank city of Beit Sahour. He was arrested in his home on May 4, 1993 and was brought to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva five days later. There a urologist diagnosed him a hemorrhage and a torn scrotum.

Qumsieh testified that he was beaten during his interrogation and kicked in his testicles.

Israel is the torture expert and teaches others how to torture around the world.

Ten days later, Qumsieh was brought before the same urologist for a medical examination, after the latter had received a phone call from the Israeli military.

The urologist wrote a retroactive letter (as if it had been written two days earlier), without actually conducting an additional examination of the patient, in which he said that “according to the patient, he fell down the stairs two days before he arrived in the emergency room.”

This time, the diagnosis was “superficial hematoma in the scrotal area, which corresponds to local bruises sustained between two and five days prior to the examination.” The urologist’s original letter, written after the first examination, disappeared from Qumsieh’s medical file.

History teaches us that doctors everywhere easily and effectively internalize the regime’s values, and many of them become loyal servants of the regime. That was the case in Nazi Germany, in the United States, and in various countries in Latin America.

The same goes for Israel. Qumsieh’s case, along with countless others, reflects the ethical, moral, and practical failure of the medical establishment in Israel vis-à-vis torture.

Palestinian boys dressed up as prisoners protest for the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, Gaza City, April 21, 2007. (Ahmad Khateib/Flash90)

Already back in the 18th century, jurists — rather than doctors — published legal opinions accompanied by proof that there is no connection between causing pain and getting to the truth. Thus, both torture and confessions exacted through pain were legally disqualified.

One can only assume that the heads of the Shin Bet, the army, and the police know this bit of history.

And yet, torture — which includes both mental and physical cruelty — continues to take place on a large scale. Why? Because the real goal of torture and humiliation is to break the spirit and body of the prisoner. To eliminate his or her personality.

The legal understanding for forbidding torture is based on the utilitarian idea that one cannot arrive at the truth through inflicting pain . But doctors are committed — first and foremost — to the idea that anything that causes physical or mental harm to a patient is prohibited.

The Shin Bet medical eligibility document allows for sleep prevention, it allows interrogators to expose prisoners to extreme temperatures, to beat them, to tie them for long hours in painful positions, to force them to stand for hours until the vessels in their feet burst, to cover their heads for prolonged periods of time, to sexually humiliate them, to break their spirits by severing their ties to family and lawyers, to keep them in isolation until they lose their sanity.

The Shin Bet’s medical eligibility form is not the same as the one used to check eligibility to join the air force or even to drive a car. This kind of “eligibility” leads the prisoner directly into the torture chamber — and the doctor knows this.

The doctor knows to what kind of systematic process of pain and humiliation he or she is lending their consent and approval. It is doctors who oversee the torture, examine the tortured prisoner, and write the medical opinion or the pathology report.

Israeli activists participate in an action protesting the use of torture, 2011. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The white robe passes through the torture chamber like a lurking shadow during interrogations. A doctor who cooperates with Israel’s torture industry is complicit in that very industry. If a prisoner dies during interrogation, the doctor is an accomplice to his or her murder.

Doctors, nurses, medics, and judges who know what is taking place and prefer to remain silent are all accomplices.

We must unconditionally oppose all forms of torture — without exceptions. We, citizens of a democratic state, must refuse to cooperate with the crime of torture, and all the more so when it comes to doctors.

We must also not hide behind the idea that torture is a symptom of the occupation while telling ourselves that the practice will disappear when the occupation ends. Torture is a worldview according to which human rights have no place or value.

It existed well before the occupation and it will continue to exist if we do not change that worldview.

Violent and cruel investigative practices do not benefit national security even if they are committed on its behalf. Torture causes a spiraling destruction of our very social fabric. Not only do those who carry out this terrible kind of “work” lose the values of morality, human dignity, and democracy, but also all those who remain silent, unwilling to know. In fact, all of us.

Healthy Men Don’t Torture Others

September 20, 2018 by Genie

The US orders other countries to “behave”, but who destroyed Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan & Yemen & backed coups against elected leaders from Iran to Congo to Honduras? Even our allies are starting to treat us as a rogue state – except the brutal Saudis & apartheid Israel.~ Jill Stein

A new report by Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer claims that Israeli officials “routinely” carry out the “practice of torture” at a key interrogation facility in occupied East Jerusalem.

The report, “I’ve Been There: A Study of Torture and Inhumane Treatment in Al-Moscobiyeh Interrogation Centre”, is based on the testimonies of 138 individuals held in the Russian Compound of Jerusalem gathered during the period 2015-2017.

Tortures and abuse in Abu Ghraib were exactly the same as those in the Israeli secret prisons

“For generations of Palestinians, the Russian Compound has represented the most severe interrogation facility in all of the occupied territory,” Addameer states.

“It has been the place of intentionally inflicted suffering for hundreds of prisoners. Its location in the heart of Jerusalem, next to the Old City, is something of a metaphor for the whole apparatus of the occupation. The domination is hidden in plain sight.”

According to the testimonies acquired by Addameer, eight forms of abuse were identified at the facility: positional torture such as “stress positions”; beatings during interrogation; isolation/solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and long interrogation, threats to family members, being subjected to sounds of torture, deliberate medical neglect, and screaming and cursing.

More than half of those surveyed reported being held in stress positions; one 18-year-old former prisoner was held in a stress position for eight hours a day, for 18 days. A third of prisoners reported being beaten, while a fifth of individuals were subjected to violent shaking.

Addameer noted that “children are no exception when it comes to mistreatment and intimidation”, with 47.8 per cent reporting “that they were beaten during their arrest”, 45.5 per cent experiencing positional torture during interrogation, and 40.9 per cent “threatened with the potentially injuring of their families if they did not cooperate”.

Read: Palestinian man dies after Israel forces beat him at his home

According to the rights group, “the primary conclusion that the above research and indicators provide is that mistreatment, and coercion, amounting to torture, are commonplace and systematic within the occupation’s interrogation systems”.

Addameer added that “as a result of torture’s status in international law, the international community has a distinct responsibility to take action to sanction the perpetrating entity”, urging “the international community to begin sanctioning the occupier for its crimes”.

Abu Ghraib Interrogator: Israelis Trained U.S. to Use “Palestinian Chair”

September 16, 2018 by Genie

Just the fact that the Palestinians in occupied Palestine have a torture chair in their name. The Israelis are really a special kind if evil.

The Jews did more than that: Abu Ghraib was their idea. They not only built it but gave it its code of conduct and trained the gentile Americans in all sort of torture techniques, not just the ‘Palestinian Chair’. Never forgive, never forget.

Army interrogators had learned to use this chair by Israeli interrogators, and the Israeli interrogators presumably called it the Palestinian chair because they were torturing Palestinians in it.

As a former interrogator in Iraq working as a military contractor for the private security firm CACI, Eric Fair was stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison and in Fallujah in 2004. While in Fallujah, he witnessed a torture device known as the Palestinian chair.

He writes in his new book, “Consequence: A Memoir,” that the chair was a way to immobilize prisoners in order to break them down both physically and mentally. He also wrote that the Israeli military taught them how to use the Palestinian chair during a joint training exercise.

“We pass by the interrogation room where Tyner has been working on Raad Hussein. We haven’t heard Tyner scream or throw anything today. The door to the room, a flimsy sheet of plywood, has blown open in the hot desert wind. Inside, Raad Hussein is bound to the Palestinian chair. His hands are tied to his ankles. The chair forces him to lean forward in a crouch, forcing all of his weight onto his thighs.

It’s as if he’s been trapped in the act of kneeling down to pray, his knees frozen just above the floor, his arms pinned below his legs. He is blindfolded. His head has collapsed into his chest. He wheezes and gasps for air. There is a pool of urine at his feet. He moans: too tired to cry, but in too much pain to remain silent.

“Henson comes out into the hallway and walks past the room. He covers the side of his face as he walks by and says, ‘I don’t even want to know.’

“I am silent. This is a sin. I know it as soon as I see it. There will be no atonement for it. In the coming years, I won’t have the audacity to seek it. Witnessing a man being tortured in the Palestinian chair requires the witness to either seek justice or cover his face. Like Henson in Fallujah, I’ll spend the rest of my life covering my face.”

Army interrogators had learned to use this chair by Israeli interrogators, and the Israeli interrogators presumably called it the Palestinian chair because they were torturing Palestinians in it.

The Palestinian chair was simply a confined space. It was a way, rather than putting someone in a box and confining them inside, was to essentially confine them with the chair. And it was designed, like all enhanced interrogation techniques, to simply break the will, to simply break them down physically in this case and then essentially break their will.

We tried the chair

It locks you into what is essentially a squat, a permanent squat, from which you can’t recover. We only lasted about a minute. And physically, we may—we certainly could have lasted longer, but it was the—it’s the overwhelming sense of fear that a horrific sort of pain is on its way. And because your hands are bound, you recognize that there’s no way to recover from it. So, certainly, the physical pain is excruciating, but the mental and sort of emotional strain of knowing that you can’t—there’s simply no way to recover from that is what amounted to torture.

Trump’s CIA Pick, ‘Bloody Gina’ Faces Possible Arrest Warrant in Germany over Torture

March 17, 2018 by Genie

The Senate report details a list of torture methods used on prisoners—waterboarding, sexual threats with broomsticks, medically unnecessary “rectal feeding.” In one case, a prisoner had his entire “lunch tray” of hummus, pasta and nuts puréed and administered by enema. Prisoners were threatened with buzzing power drills. Some captives were deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours, at times with their hands shackled above their heads. Haspel played a role in the 2005 destruction of two interrogation videotapes that depicted the torture of prisoners.

We decided to target her, in particular, last year, when she was employed as the deputy director, because as a deputy director, she is traveling a lot around the world. And therefore, we think it’s important that the justice—the judicial authorities in Germany, but also in other European countries, make—try to investigate her role in Thailand and elsewhere, and that they are prepared, if Gina Haspel travels to our countries, that they eventually arrest her. And we also will have to communicate now, as she’s director, to our foreign offices, not only in Germany, but also in other countries, to declare her persona non grata, so that she isn’t invited to our countries because she is a notorious torturer, and notorious torturers shouldn’t be allowed to travel freely through Europe.

She was one of the most prominent persons in the Senate torture report from December 2014. So, she was mainly acting undercover, but because of the revelations in 2014, we could connect her name with some of the other evidence we have. And so, therefore, it was clear that she played a prominent role in the CIA extraordinary rendition program, which is—yeah, it’s a torture program. It’s a kidnapping and torture terrorism suspects. And, I mean, we singled her out because of her prominent role in the new government, but we could also have named hundreds of other CIA employees, and we did so in other occasions. So, this is not the first complaint. We were active in Belgium, in France, in Spain, in Switzerland and in Germany before. We filed complaints against Donald Rumsfeld, against the lawyers, but also against George Tenet and other CIA people.

Global Intifada

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Tag Archives: torture

Israel’s labeling of Palestinian NGOs as ‘terrorists’ is unconscionable

Favoring a 3rd party “confession” over the defendant’s testimony

This continued lack of evidence strongly indicates that the purpose of Israel’s designation is to eliminate the advocacy of Palestinian NGOs, and to severe their relationships with international donors.

Believing nonexistent “evidence” rather than trustworthy sources

Israeli torture & other failures of due process

Israel claims to “care about Gaza’s children” while keeping WV funding on hold for 6 years

So many secrets

Israel’s justice system is broken

Who Really Owns the Land of Palestine?

War on Terror No Problem for Israeli Crime Bosses

Major Organized Crime Families Have Been Moving Freely Between Israel and U.S.

Was Loophole Left Open on Purpose?

by Jim W. Dean

WIKILEAKS

A Promised Land for Organized Crime?

Terror Watch-Occupied Palestine

PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE: 5,100,000 Palestinians have been killed since 1948

The history of the Shin Bet’s use of torture, and what it says about Israel today

CIA post 9/11 Torture for Profit

Israel’s Torture Industry

Israel is a haven for criminals and a university for budding crooks.

Healthy Men Don’t Torture Others

Abu Ghraib Interrogator: Israelis Trained U.S. to Use “Palestinian Chair”

Trump’s CIA Pick, ‘Bloody Gina’ Faces Possible Arrest Warrant in Germany over Torture

Favoring a 3rd party “confession” over the defendant’s testimony

This continued lack of evidence strongly indicates that the purpose of Israel’s designation is to eliminate the advocacy of Palestinian NGOs, and to severe their relationships with international donors.

Believing nonexistent “evidence” rather than trustworthy sources

Israeli torture & other failures of due process

Israel claims to “care about Gaza’s children” while keeping WV funding on hold for 6 years

So many secrets

Israel’s justice system is broken

US government believes Israeli fantasy, ignores facts

Major Organized Crime Families Have Been Moving Freely Between Israel and U.S.

Was Loophole Left Open on Purpose?

WIKILEAKS

A Promised Land for Organized Crime?

PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE: 5,100,000 Palestinians have been killed since 1948

Israel is a haven for criminals and a university for budding crooks.