Video Exposes Brutality of Israeli Apartheid

A video shows Israeli police beating minor's head to the ground:

Palestinians condemn Jerusalem monastery vandalism by Jewish settlers

A handout picture released by the Franciscan monastery on October 2, 2012, shows anti-Christian graffiti denigrating Jesus, the central figure in Christianity, and adding the words “price tag” — a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli extremists, sprayed in Hebrew on the front entrance to Franciscan monastery just outside Jerusalem’s Old City, the church and Israeli police said in an apparent “price-tag” hate crime.

A Trappist monk walks between graffiti reading in Hebrew, “Jesus monkey” (L) and “mutual guarantee, Ramat Migron and Maoz Ester” (West Bank settlements), which was sprayed on the wall of the Christian Catholic Latrun monastery between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on September 4, 2012, after Jewish settlers set the monastery's door ablaze and vandalized its wall.

 

A monk stands next to graffiti sprayed on the wall of the Latrun Monastery's entrance near Jerusalem September 4, 2012.

Anti-Christian graffiti is sprayed on the entrance to a Franciscan monastery just outside Jerusalem's Old City.

A catholic priest looks at anti-Christian graffiti written in Hebrew at the Latrun Trappist Monastery where Israeli police say vandals overnight have spray-painted anti-Christian and pro-settler graffiti and set the monastery's door on fire, in Latrun, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Sept 4, 2012. Suspicion fell on Jewish settlers and their supporters who retaliate against anti-settlement measures, generally by attacking Palestinian property, but also by vandalizing Christian sites and Israeli military facilities. Earlier this week, the government ordered settlers out of two unauthorized enclaves in the West Bank. Some of the graffiti referred to unauthorized settler outposts and one read, "Jesus is a monkey." (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A catholic monk stands in a doorway of the Latrun Trappist Monastery where Israeli police say vandals overnight have spray-painted anti-Christian and pro-settler graffiti and set the monastery's door on fire, in Latrun, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Sept 4, 2012. Suspicion fell on Jewish settlers and their supporters who retaliate against anti-settlement measures, generally by attacking Palestinian property, but also by vandalizing Christian sites and Israeli military facilities. Earlier this week, the government ordered settlers out of two unauthorized enclaves in the West Bank. Some of the graffiti referred to unauthorized settler outposts and one read, "Jesus is a monkey." (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A catholic priest stands at a door to the Latrun Trappist Monastery where Israeli police say vandals overnight have spray-painted anti-Christian and pro-settler graffiti and set the monastery's door on fire, in Latrun, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Sept 4, 2012. Suspicion fell on Jewish settlers and their supporters who retaliate against anti-settlement measures, generally by attacking Palestinian property, but also by vandalizing Christian sites and Israeli military facilities. Earlier this week, the government ordered settlers out of two unauthorized enclaves in the West Bank. The Hebrew graffiti reads, "Jesus is a monkey." (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A catholic priest walks in the grounds of the Latrun Trappist Monastery where Israeli police say vandals overnight have spray-painted anti-Christian and pro-settler graffiti and set the monastery's door on fire, in Latrun, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Sept 4, 2012. Suspicion fell on Jewish settlers and their supporters who retaliate against anti-settlement measures, generally by attacking Palestinian property, but also by vandalizing Christian sites and Israeli military facilities. Earlier this week, the government ordered settlers out of two unauthorized enclaves in the West Bank. Some of the graffiti referred to unauthorized settler outposts and one read, "Jesus is a monkey." (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The PLO's top negotiator and the Palestinian Authority strongly condemned racist and pro-settler vandalism on a Jerusalem monastery.

"Price-tag" and "Jesus is a son of a bitch" were sprayed on the gate of the Monastery of Saint Francis, just outside of the Old City, Israeli police and media reported Tuesday.

"After 45 years of Israeli occupation, a culture of hatred and racism has become mainstream among Israelis," PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.

Erekat called on the international community to "assume its duties and hold Israel accountable for its ongoing occupation and violations of international law."

He added: "This culture of impunity that some countries have granted to Israel has allowed settlers to escalate their racist attacks against Palestinians without any legal accountability."

The Palestinian Authority cabinet also strongly condemned the attack.

A statement from the cabinet in Ramallah said the PA strongly condemned the "settler attack against Mount Zion Convent where racist anti-Christ graffiti were spray painted on its walls."

The cabinet said the Israeli government was "fully responsible for the consequences" of the vandalism as well as a "raid" on the al-Aqsa Mosque in which Palestinians were attacked.

The cabinet blasted the settler attack at a weekly meeting.

In early September, Jewish extremists torched the wooden door of a Jerusalem monastery and sprayed "Jesus is a monkey" and pro-settler graffiti on the walls.

In February, Jewish extremists wrote "Death to Christianity" on two Jerusalem churches. The graffiti also included profanity about Jesus, and the vandals slashed the tires of several cars parked in one of the church compounds.

"Price tag" attacks have targeted mosques, Palestinian homes and Israeli military installations in the occupied West Bank.

An ancient mosque in Jerusalem was torched on Dec. 13, and sprayed with the Star of David, "price tag," "Muhammad is a pig" and "A good Arab is a dead Arab" in Hebrew.

The term "price tag" is used by Jewish settlers to describe a policy to attack Palestinians and their property in retaliation for perceived anti-settler actions by the Israeli government.

Israeli Occupation Forces (PHOTOS)

Seriously Bibi, you thought such a diagram would convince us to bomb Iran?

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This is the modernism that Netanyahu is talking about.

Photos & Video: Daughters fight to save mother from Israeli Occupation Forces

This is how Israeli Occupation Forces treat Palestinian mothers and their children who try to defend their land and livelihoods.

Watch:

Israeli soldiers arrest Nariman Tamimi, as her daughters try to prevent the arrest. Tamimi was taken at the entrance to Nabi Saleh's water spring on August 24, 2012, during the weekly protest against the occupation held in the village. (Mondoweiss)

Belly-dancing soldier identified

Ma'an - BETHLEHEM – The latest Israeli soldier to be caught on tape humiliating a Palestinian detainee has appeared in other questionable photographs during army service, and he posted some of those images online.

The soldier, Avi Yakobov, was filmed belly-dancing beside 24-year-old Ihsan Dababisa in a YouTube video that went viral last Monday and sparked strong condemnation from Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

Yakobov has locked down his Facebook page, but not before some of his pictures were posted by bloggers and on Twitter. On 1 October, he posted a photograph, apparently as a joke on Purim, of himself leading a blindfolded detainee. A mashup of photos pasted around Yakobov and the detainee with the caption, "Thank you for a wonderful time -- Avi and Shuki," sprawled across the center in Hebrew.

The image does not appear to depict an actual arrest -- both men are smiling, and the prisoner is tagged as Yoni Cohen -- but it raises concerns about how Yakobov and his fellow soldiers viewed their unit's detainees.

Entries appear to match behavior described by Dababisa, who said she was put through "a journey of torture and humiliation" when she was detained by Yakobov's unit at the Atzion checkpoint in December 2007. Dababisa told Ma'an that soldiers played loud music and offered her wine.

Yakobov's page shows an unusual affinity for alcohol.

"I started working at Liquor Market, yes-yes, they've let the cat guard the cream!" he wrote in December. In August: "Alcohol poisonning is baddddddddd."

He describes sexual fantasies about Palestinian women.

On 9 September, the soldier mentioned that his "penis points at MILFs," meaning older women, the next day adding that "she's maybe a MILF in Beit Jala," a Palestinian town near Bethlehem.

Posts also touch on dance parties and politics.

On 31 May, the day a Gaza-bound aid flotilla came under fire by Israeli commandos leaving nine Turkish nationals dead, Yakobov wrote, "Destroy Turkey and all the Arabs from the world."

A friend responded, "I'm with you, bro', and with God's help I'll start it :)", to which Yakobov replied: "haha and you are capable of it, with no intervention from the evil eye." Four of his friends clicked the "like" button.

Yakobov's original video continues to make waves. 

The Palestinian Authority described it as a "disgusting illustration of the sick mentality of the occupier," and Israeli Prime Minister called the videotape "an embarrassment to Israel."

The video follows controversy sparked by the release of pictures by a former Israeli soldier showing her near blindfolded Palestinians. Israel's army called the photos an isolated incident, prompting Israeli rights groups to release dozens of similar pictures showing soldiers humiliating Palestinians and corpses of Palestinians.

Yakobov was first identified by Agence France-Presse and the Tikun Olam blog.

He did not respond to requests from Ma'an seeking comment.


Dena Shunra contributed translation for this report.