[new puritan]

More blackmail and bullying from Israel in a desperate attempt to avoid the mere possibility of being held to account.

Israel has announced it will withhold $127 million in monthly tax funds, about 70 percent of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) budget that it collects on the PA’s behalf.

It is considering a raft of other measures against the Palestinians.

Israel’s vindictive action came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application to join the International Criminal Court, following the rejection by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution aimed at ending the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2017.

Under the UN’s Rome Statute, the ICC has the power to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 2002, when the statute came into force. Neither the US or Israel have signed up to the ICC, as their record of wars of aggression and criminal actions would open them up for prosecution.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01 ... a-j06.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Red Arrow]

Ain't gonna play Tel Aviv...

Over 100 artists announce a cultural boycott of Israel

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/f ... s-tomorrow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bones McCoy]

BBC

Police have arrested a man after six people were wounded in a stabbing at the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem.
A police spokesperson identified the suspect as the same man who stabbed three people at the parade in 2005.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

He'd only been out for a few weeks, having served ten years.

[Samanfur]

‘They tried to kill me’: Nonviolent activist recounts brutal encounter with Israeli military

...

I was held from 2.p.m until midnight without charge and still with no access to medical care, all the while with pepper spray burning my eyes and the ties slicing my wrists. When they finally released me and my cousin Hamza, who was arrested for photo documenting the days events, they threw me out on to the street and told me that I had to call for an ambulance myself. Hamza called the ambulance as I was exhausted and unable to move with the pain. The ambulance arrived in around 20 minutes and took me to Ramallah hospital where they treated me and told me that I have two broken ribs broken in my chest, along with heavy bruising all over my body. They gave me medicine and I was told that they cannot do anything to treat the broken ribs.

It seems difficult to find a mainstream news report about this. I'm not surprised - just disappointed.

[new puritan]

This guy's considered a liberal in Israel, by the way.

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid voiced his opposition Saturday to the possibility that Israel would absorb any refugees from the civil war in Syria, and stressed that the Jewish state must not take any steps that may in the future legitimatize the implementation of a “right of return” for Palestinians.

“Israel, unfortunately, cannot afford to get into the matter of the refugee crisis, it is a European issue and there’s no reason for us to be part of it,” Lapid said during a cultural event in Beersheba, according to Haaretz.

“I will not open a back door to discussing the right of return for Palestinians,” he continued, adding that the Israeli left was keen to absorb refugees from Syria in order to set a precedent that could later be applied to Palestinians as well.

“There is a reason that all the leftist organizations support the refugee issue, because then they will say, ‘here you are allowing in people who are not Jews’,” the Yesh Atid leader said.

“Israel has made a great effort not to be involved in the events in Syria, so now we want to open a back door that will involve us in that war?” Lapid concluded.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-isra ... -refugees/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is despite the fact that Israel has persistently meddled in the Syrian war, repeatedly collaborating with al-Nusra among others.

[Samanfur]

Petition: Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London.

They can't do this due to diplomatic immunity, but I hope that they stop taking calls from Friends of Israel for long enough to talk about why people're asking for things like this.

[Samanfur]

Anti-semitism accusations in 5, 4, 3...

Spain ‘issues arrest warrant’ for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over 2010 Gaza flotilla attack

[...]

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nachshon told the Jerusalem Post: “We consider it to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it cancelled. We hope it will be over soon.”

[youngian]

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

[bluebellnutter]

[Kreuzberger]

I must say that that was my reaction when I thought of Bibi and this Teflon-coated tosser at the moment some poor minion broke the news.

[Samanfur]

Nothing to see here. Please move along:

Israel To Coordinate With Google, YouTube, To Censor Palestinian Videos Of Conflict

Israeli daily Maariv said Hotovely will be working with Google and YouTube officials in a joint mechanism that will be in charge of “monitoring and preventing” any publication of materials deemed by Tel Aviv to be “inflammatory.”

Hotovely announced in a Hebrew-only press release that she met with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Google’s Director of Public Policy, Jennifer Oztzistzki, at Google’s Silicon Valley Offices.

Hotovely said that she received a comprehensive review mechanism for companies to monitor the films that allegedly incite violence, claiming that the supposed ‘incitement videos’ drive young children to go out and stab: "The attacks daily in Israel are the result of youths and children incited by the education system and the social networks, this is a daily war of incitement."

She said that Google agreed to strengthen the bilateral relations with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and build a mechanism of “collaborative work” that would make both parties partners in monitoring the published materials and censoring them.

[Samanfur]

More stuff that we're being deluged with by the leftie, anti-Semitic press:

Israel denies visas to staff from 'hostile' Human Rights Watch

Israel is refusing to issue visas to the international staff of one of the most prominent international human rights NGOs - Human Rights Watch – accusing the group of an “extreme, hostile and anti-Israel agenda.”

The Israeli accusations against the organisation, which documents human rights abuses around the globe, follows a growth in official hostility to local human rights activists under the right wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Human Rights Watch condemned the move as “ominous turn” adding it “should worry anyone concerned about Israel’s commitment to basic democratic values.”

The new policy emerged after Israeli authorities turned down a visa for its new Israel and Palestine director, Omar Shakir who is a US citizen. The rejection had been advised by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a letter rejecting Shakir’s visa application – and seen by the Guardian - Israel accused the New York based group of “public activities and reports [and being] engaged in politics in the service of Palestinian propaganda, while falsely raising the banner of ‘human rights.’’

The group denied the claim pointing out it had written critical reports on human rights violations on both sides including the arbitrary detention of journalists and activists by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, an extrajudicial execution carried out by Hamas’s military wing, and on executions by Hamas authorities in Gaza.

[Samanfur]

Stay classy, Israel:

Tourists In Israel Can Now Pretend To Kill Terrorists For Only $115

I don’t like using RT as a source, but Haaretz backs it up.

[lord_kobel]

Israel Police Tells Court: Netanyahu Suspected of Bribery and Fraud