At least 55 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,700 injured along the eastern borders of the Gaza Strip on May 14, as Israeli army snipers opened fire on "March of Return" protesters. Six of the slain Palestinians were minors under the age of 18, including one girl. The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 1,204 Palestinians were injured with live ammunition. The violence began after Palestinians gathered at the "return camps" established along the Strip's borders, rallying and setting fire to tires near the border fence. At Khan Younis, in the southern Strip, Israeli forces reportedly threw flammable material at the "return camps" in an attempt to scatter protesters. (Maan) The massacre along the Gaza borders came exactly as US and Israeli dignitaries inaugurated the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump among those officiating. Just outside the new embassy, Palestinian demonstrators were brutally attacked by Israeli security forces—eliciting cheers from Israelis who came out to support the embassy’s opening. The Israelis reportedly chanted "Burn them, shoot them, kill them!" (MEE)
The new eruption of violence had been anticipated for Nakba Day, which is May 15. It came a day early (simultaneous with the relocation of the embassy), but marked the greatest number of Palestinians killed in a single day since the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Amnesty International's Middle East director Philip Luther decried "another horrific example of the Israeli military using excessive force and live ammunition in a totally deplorable way. This is a violation of international standards, in some instances committing what appear to be wilful killings constituting war crimes." (AI)
With the serial massacres on the Gaza borders, Israel appears to be advancing toward a genocidal threshold. And the complicity and approval of the Trump White House could not be more overt.
Image: Maan
Hideous ironies of Jerusalem embassy spectacle
Fundamentalist Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress, who spoke at President Trump's private inaugural prayer service, delivered a prayer at the opening ceremony of the embassy inaugration in Jerusalem, while televangelist Rev. John C. Hagee, who founded Christians United for Israel, gave the closing benediction. (NYT)
Jeffress gained notoriety for his statements in recent years that Muslims, Mormon, Hindus and Jews are all going to Hell. Verbatim from a 2010 interview: "Judaism — you can’t be saved being a Jew. You know who said that, by the way? The three greatest Jews in the New Testament: Peter, Paul and Jesus Christ. They all said Judaism won't do it. It's faith in Jesus Christ." And from a 2008 sermon: "Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism—not only do they lead people away from the true God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in hell. Hell is going to be filled with good religious people who have rejected the truth of Christ." (NYT)
As we have noted, Hagee's book Jerusalem Countdown calls for speeding along worldly events to prepare for the End Times—and says the Holocaust was God's retribution on the Jews for rebelling against Him, as well as His way of driving them to re-establish the state of Israel, a prerequisite for Armageddon.
So the pro-Israel posture of these arch-reactionary religious obscurantists is not based on any love for the Jews. On the contrary, it is based on hatred for the Jews, and eagerness to see them destroyed in the purging fires of the Apocalypse.
Yet Bibi Netanyahu, who spun revisionist yarns portraying the Mufti of Jerusalem as the secret mastermind of the Holocaust, welcomes these Jew-hating preachers to offer their sick pro-Israel homilies at the embassy dedication…
Israel moving toward de jure apartheid
Israel is in the throes of political upheaval as the country’s ruling party seeks to pass legislation that could allow for Jewish-only communities, which critics have condemned as the end of a democratic state.The proposed legislation would allow the state to "authorize a community composed of people having the same faith and nationality to maintain the exclusive character of that community."
Said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in support of the law: "In the Israeli democracy, we will continue to protect the rights of both the individual and the group, this is guaranteed. But the majority have rights too, and the majority rules." (The Guardian)
Yair Netanyahu calls for Muslim-free Israel
Facebook has blocked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son Yair for 24 hours after he wrote a post criticizing the social media platform as "thought police" and sharing previously banned content. Yair Netanyahu blasted the website for removing an earlier post in which he called for "avenging the deaths" of two Israeli soldiers killed last week by Palestinian gunmen and calling for the expulsion of Palestinians. He shared a screenshot of the earlier post in violation of Facebook's rules. Facebook deleted a post by Netanyahu last week in which he said he would "prefer" if "All the Muslims leave the land of Israel." (AP)