{"id":53200,"date":"2021-09-20T16:01:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=53200"},"modified":"2021-09-20T16:02:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T16:02:14","slug":"ex-israeli-pilot-our-army-is-a-terrorist-organisation-run-by-war-criminals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/ex-israeli-pilot-our-army-is-a-terrorist-organisation-run-by-war-criminals\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Israeli pilot: \u2018Our army is a terrorist organisation run by war criminals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Israeli Air Force pilot, Yonatan Shapira, has described the Israeli government and army as \u201cterrorist organisations<\/em>\u201d run by \u201cwar criminals<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain Shapira who had resigned from the Israeli army in 2003 at the height of the Palestinian Second Intifada explained in an exclusive interview with Anadolu News Agency<\/em> why he realized after joining the army that he was \u201cpart of a terrorist organisation<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yonatan Shapira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI realised during the Second Intifada what the Israeli Air Force and Israeli military are doing are war crimes, terrorising a population of millions of palestinians. When I realised that, I decided to not just leave but to organise other pilots that will publicly refuse to take part in these crimes,<\/em>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child in Israel, you are being brought up in very strong Zionist militaristic education. You don\u2019t know almost anything about Palestine, you don\u2019t know about the 1948 Nakba, you don\u2019t know about ongoing oppression<\/em>,\u201d Shapira said.<\/p>\n

Ever since leaving the Israeli army, Shapira has launched a campaign that encouraged other military members to disobey orders to attack Palestinians. The campaign has led 27 other army pilots to be discharged from their posts in the Israeli Air Force since 2003.<\/p>\n

Recently, Israeli warplanes have waged hundreds of airstrikes against the Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 188 Palestinians including 55 children and 33 women and wounding 1,230 people.<\/p>\n

***
\nIsraeli mob chants for genocide in Jerusalem<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Death to the Jews\u2019 would have caused an international scandal, yet Israel\u2019s incitement \u201cDeath to the Arabs\u201d gets a free pass<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of Israeli Jewish nationalists marched through Jerusalem chanting racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians on June 15. This was part of an annual \u201cMarch of the Flags<\/em>\u201d by far-right Israeli Jews to celebrate Israel\u2019s occupation and colonization of East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Like in previous years, the mob waving Israeli flags spewed racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians and denigrated the Prophet Muhammad. The march was originally planned for 10 May, Israel\u2019s so-called Jerusalem Day, but was canceled due to the strength of protests by Palestinians which forced Israel into a humiliating retreat. Rescheduled, it was kept to a highly restricted route. While the fanatical mob danced and chanted at Jerusalem\u2019s iconic Damascus Gate, the route approved by police did not allow them to enter the narrow alleys of the Old City\u2019s Muslim Quarter as they have in previous years. Nonetheless a few dozen did enter the Old City.<\/p>\n

Palestinians hailed the severe restrictions imposed by Israel as victory for the deterrence they established when resistance factions in Gaza fired rockets towards Jerusalem last month. The rocket fire was intended to defend the city\u2019s Palestinian population against escalating Israeli attacks and ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brave positions and decisions of the Palestinian resistance forced the Israeli occupation to modify the path of the route away from al-Aqsa mosque, modify the civil air routes and beef up the deployment of the Iron Dome<\/em>,\u201d Hamas said in response to the march.<\/p>\n

Genocidal chants<\/strong><\/p>\n

Videos shot by journalists documented the genocidal slogans that the mob \u2013 many apparently teenagers and children \u2013 chanted. On the daz of the march, as Israelis have on many previous occasions, the mob chanted \u201cmavet la aravim<\/em>\u201d \u2013 \u201cDeath to the Arabs<\/em>.\u201d Participants also chanted \u201cShuafat is burning<\/em>\u201d \u2013 a reference to a Palestinian neighborhood \u2013 and \u201cMay your village burn<\/em>.\u201d Expressing their religious, as well as their ethnic hatred, participants frequently chanted \u201cMuhammad is dead<\/em>,\u201d to denigrate the prophet of Islam and the faith of Muslims. They were also heard singing a genocidal song documented in previous Jerusalem Day marches. Some in the mob shouted filthy expletives at journalists, including Suleiman Masudeh, a reporter for Israel\u2019s state broadcaster Kann<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Masudeh documented the participants shouting homophobic slogans at journalists, and telling them to \u201cGo work for the Arabs.<\/em>\u201d He said the crowd was particularly vile towards Arab journalists. When Palestinians tried to raise their own flag, they were attacked by Israeli forces and their flags confiscated.<\/p>\n

Participation of politicians<\/strong><\/p>\n

Israeli police deployed around 2,000 officers to protect and guard the racist mob. Israel\u2019s new government supported holding the march and several prominent Israeli politicians joined it. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extreme-right Israeli lawmaker, was warmly greeted by the mob as he arrived. Israeli media recently circulated 1995 footage of Ben-Gvir dressed up for the Jewish holiday of Purim as Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish settler from Brooklyn who shot to death 29 Palestinian men and boys as they prayed during Ramadan the year before. Oren Hazan, a Likud Party lawmaker who once released a campaign ad depicting himself killing a Palestinian lawmaker, was seen at the march.<\/p>\n

PR damage control<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scenes of the racist mob circulated rapidly on social media, embarrassing Israel and its lobby. Avi Mayer, the global communications chief for major Israel lobby group the American Jewish Committee, pursued to limit the damage by acknowledging the \u201cdespicable hate<\/em>\u201d on display. This is a notable modification of tune for Mayer, whom The Electronic Intifada previously documented personally attending and whitewashing at least one \u201cDeath to the Arabs<\/em>\u201d rally.<\/p>\n

Yair Lapid, Israel\u2019s alternate prime minister and foreign minister, said the march \u201chad to be approved<\/em>\u201d and applauded the \u201cexcellent<\/em>\u201d management of the event. Lapid then attempted to whitewash Israel by lamenting \u201cthat there are extremist elements for whom the Israeli flag represents hatred and racism<\/em>\u201d \u2013 as if racism and violence against Palestinians are not foundational to Zionism, Israel\u2019s state ideology.<\/p>\n

Israel bombs Gaza again<\/strong><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s 11-day bombing campaign in Gaza in May came amid similar provocations by Israeli forces and settlers in Jerusalem. While Israeli police approved that march, they rerouted it so that the mob would not enter the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem\u2019s Old City.<\/p>\n

Hamas, the political and resistance organization running the interior of the Gaza Strip, had warned that renewed attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem could endanger the fragile ceasefire. Its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, urged Palestinians in Jerusalem to confront the march and defend the city. Following confirmation that the march would take place, Palestinians in Gaza burned tires near the boundary fence with Israel and launched incendiary balloons in protest.<\/p>\n

Israel bombed what it said were several Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip that day, late at night, presenting its renewed attacks on the besieged enclave as a response to the incendiary balloons. As Palestinians attempted to clean the Damascus Gate area after the march, Israeli forces attacked them and confiscated their brooms. Israeli media reported that more than a dozen Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces. The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported almost 90 Palestinian injuries, more than half of them in and around Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yogaesoteric
\nSeptember 20, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A former Israeli Air Force pilot, Yonatan Shapira, has described the Israeli government and army as \u201cterrorist organisations\u201d run by \u201cwar criminals.\u201d Captain Shapira who had resigned from the Israeli army in 2003 at the height of the Palestinian Second Intifada explained in an exclusive interview with Anadolu News Agency why he realized after joining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-censored-news-military-5127-en-censored-sensational-news-3480-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53206,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53200\/revisions\/53206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}