Stephen Lendman

Israel continues attacking defenseless Palestinians with weapons of war, short of tanks, artillery and F-16s, maybe coming, daily deaths reported, scores of others injured and arrested day after day with no letup, some seriously hurt.

On November 4, Maan News said Hamas and Islamic Jihad warned of “new methods of resistance” if Israeli brutal force continues.

Representatives from both groups said they’ll join the Intifada if Israeli occupation troops keep assassinating Palestinians. Islamic Jihad leader Khalid al-Batsh said “Al-Quds Brigades and al-Qassam Brigades won’t accept it that only one side bleeds. (Israeli) crimes won’t…stop the Intifada. (They’ll) pay a heavy toll for executions…conduct(ed) in the field.”

He urged PA officials to stop collaborating with Israel “once and for all.” Side with resistance against occupation.

Hamas official Ismail Radwan urged Palestinians to count on resistance to “deter the occupation.” Both officials called efforts to compromise with Israel farcical, a waste of time.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces raided another Palestinian medical facility. Baladna medical center director Mahmoud al-Shami said they came with a court order to examine patients’ files, wanting information on ones injured during street clashes. Al-Shami was ordered to appear for interrogation, a brutal procedure amounting to torture.

On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers attacked East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood youths and children. The community is isolated, held hostage. It’s an open-air prison, no one let in or out without proper identification and intrusive searches.

Access to workplaces and schools are blocked. Protesters were attacked with live fire, potentially lethal rubber/plastic coated steel bullets, and tear gas.

Palestinians call East Jerusalem a city governed by fear. Soldiers and police are everywhere. So are radicalized settlers, intimidating Arab residents freely.

Neighborhoods are sealed off by concrete blocks, walls in some places. Some neighborhoods are preemptively attacked. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents are collectively punished.

In 1967, East Jerusalem’s population was exclusively Arab. Now it’s around 37% - ethnically cleansed by systematic Judaization, heading for removing Palestinians entirely from the city and access to its holy sites.

Residents remaining are considered state enemies, outsiders to be replaced by Jews. A police commander said “(o)ur job here is to defend Jewish residents.”

An entire Arab population lives in fear of being brutalized, arrested, tortured, injured or killed. Racial profiling is rife. Even Jews looking like Arabs aren’t safe.

A Haifa resident was stabbed and seriously injured by a fellow Jew. Israeli soldiers murdered an Eritrean asylum seeker at a Beersheba bus station.

The Al-Zaytouna Center for Studies & Consultations said long-persecuted people “overc(ame) the state of paralysis of” their leaders.

How far things go from here aren’t clear. Youths resisting are mostly “educated and mature…(They) made their decisions with awareness and calculation,” said the Center.

Their ranks are “socially broad-based,” their commitment real. They want occupation ended and their holy sites protected. They reject collaborating/corrupt PA officials.

They want Abbas replaced. They’re the most important factors in determining how things will turn out. Resistance shows commitment, intending to continue struggling for freedom.

If it persists like the Second Intifada, thousands of Palestinians may did before any chance for resolution - impossible without ending occupation once and for all.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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