Palestine Today 11072011
IMEMC Audio Dept | 07.11.2011 16:45 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Palestine
Flotilla passengers have accused Israel of unnecessary violence and endangerment of human life during their raid.
Twenty-one passengers of the two aid ships remain in Israeli prisons; three days after Israeli forces intercepted the ships in international waters. The passengers were unlawfully arrested, and the ships were confiscated, along with all the humanitarian aid.
Passengers say they were: hit, pushed, choked and hosed down by the Israeli forces that stormed the ship. They also claim that the Israeli navy forced the two aid ships to crash into each other by pressuring each vessel towards one another in a collision course. These are the first international aid flotillas dispatched since the incident of the Freedom Flotilla in 2010, when nine Turkish activists were killed.
In retaliation for the seizing of the vessels, hackers shut down Israeli Military and Intelligence websites.
The group of “Hacktivists” styling itself with the name “Anonymous”, managed to infiltrate sensitive Israeli websites that belong to the Israeli Army and security services, and was able to shut them down temporarily. Spokesperson for Netanyahu, Ofir Gendelman, claimed that the Websites went offline due to a malfunction in the servers.
The group posted a Youtube video a few days ago stating that it will retaliate against the Israeli government for intercepting the ships. Anonymous previously targeted websites of several corporations, including Credit Card Company’s which refused to transfer donations made to Wikileaks.
Israeli sources reported Sunday that a settler was injured when a Palestinian hurled a Molotov cocktail at a car driving on a settler road near Qalqilia, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Following the attack, the army combed the area searching for the assailant; no arrests were reported at this time.
In related news, Israeli sources revealed that the police in Jerusalem arrested a Palestinian youth allegedly involved in stabbing of a Jewish teenager in Ramot, in occupied Jerusalem, which took place three weeks ago.
Abdul-Rahman Zayed went to the Ramot neighborhood carrying a knife with the intention to carry out an attack. He approached a group of Israeli youth and stabbed a 17-year-old twice, in the stomach and back.
The sources claimed that Zayed, a student of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, admitted to the charges filed against him, with Israel initially imposing a gag order on the arrest.
Israeli Member of the Knesset (MK), Otniel Schneller, of the Kadima opposition party, filed a complaint against Arab Knesset Member, Hanin Zoaby, for travelling to South Africa to testify in a court without Israel’s permission.
Zoaby went to South Africa after she was asked to testify in front to the Russell Tribunal, which is looking into cases of discrimination as practiced by Israel against the Palestinian-Israeli’s living as Israeli citizens.
Schneller claimed that Zoaby, of the Balad Party, is acting against the state of Israel and “Must be punished for her actions.”
Zoaby has been under continuous political attacks by Israeli parliamentarians for her stances against the Israeli occupation and Israel’s illegal siege of the Gaza Strip, and numerous MK’s are attempting to prevent her from running in future elections to the Knesset.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Monday November 7th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by George Rishmawi and me William Gibson.
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